Greetings, List: I'm afraid I don't see the dichotomy you see, Birgitt. Why self-organizing OR Spirit? Why not self-organizing AND Spirit?
I just came back from a run in the woods. We probably agree that a forest is a self-organizing system. But it still has rules - lots of them. An oak tree cannot grow from a hemlock seed. But given those rules, and conditions, the forest self-organizes. And Spirit expresses itself. The same is true with the Internet. I think of it as a self-organizing system. No one is really in control. Yet there are conditions, and protocols, that frame the parameters that give rise to the seemingly endless diversity on the net. One could argue that true jazz improvisation is self-organizing. It is free in form, but still it operates within rules, and within conventions. And Spirit certainly appears. Without those few forms, it would just be noise. Spirit is present even in hierarchical, controlling organizations and highly orchestrated events. Maybe just not so much of it. In Open Space we strip away as many barriers to Spirit as we can. Thus more Spirit shines through. Having said that, though, I also believe that without some conditions, some form, some context, what would come through would look a lot more like true mayhem than the order we find in chaos. [perhaps this is only a limiting belief?] I call the conditions we set in Open Space the "right number of right rules." They are like the elegant conditions set by Nature: the minimum necessary to permit abundant life and Spirit to manifest in its many rich and diverse forms. Open Space is self-organization, AND Open Space is Spirit made manifest. Regards, Jay Jay W. Vogt Peoplesworth 166 Hubbard Street Concord, MA 01742-2448 USA (978) 371-3134 - Voice (978) 287-5431 - Fax [email protected] - Email
