THE PARADIGM IS FALLING!!!

By David D. Wronski

As you’ve probably heard, we’re having a paradigm shift. As if that wasn’t enough what with talk of a polar shift and the news reading like the world’s going you-know-where in a hand basket. In any event, I am hopeful. Exceedingly so, in fact.

I have a new paradigm for you. [That reminds me of Moses. He goes up the mountain and the Lord appears and says, “Moses, I have commandments for you.” Moses asks, “And how much are they?” “They’re free.” So Moses says, “So, give me ten”.]

Really, I have a paradigm for you. How much, you ask? How’s about 20 cents? (Get It? Paradigm, par-a-digm…pair of dimes.) Any New Ager worth his/her salt has probably dropped the term at least twice before lunchtime on any given day. Usually connected to the word “shift”. Even at Starbucks you'll likely hear statements like, “He’s so old paradigm”. “Don’t let the paradigm shift leave you without two dimes to rub together.” “Buddy, can you spare a para….?”

So now that I’m through with the chuckles, just what is this new paradigm, anyway? As far as paradigms go, however, it seems we get only one at a time. And it’s not a commandment, like with Moses; it’s the lens through which you see the world. According to one definition a paradigm is a model or pattern that an individual or group uses in trying to understand something . . . a general agreement of belief of how the world works. It is just a concept. But, the acid test is whether it is a useful concept. When one wears out, we get another. The universe is kind, however, you don't ever find yourself without a paradigm. One goes because another, better, is discovered.

Near as I can tell the current, modern paradigm all of us were born into historically can be summed up as “US AND THEM”, the splitting of the understanding of the world into observer and the observed. Or, as we read in the news,” them evil-doers over there.” This split way of thinking, observer and observed, comes from Rene Descartes, 1596-1650. He’s the guy who also came up with “I think, therefore I am.” (And you know how whack that is.) So with all the thinking in the modern paradigm world, we’ve come up with a lot of stuff. Were it not for the paradigm shift, we’d continue our one sided scientific/technological spree and load up the world with so much stuff that it might just stop spinning under all the weight. Paradigm shift or shiftless, you choose. Not to mention all the fuss made everywhere about "those people!" next door.

The trouble with the old way of seeing the world is that recently we’ve come to realize that you cain’t ever take the observer out of what is being observed. As my young daughters used to say, “When you’re pointing a finger at someone else, three more are pointing back at you.” Or, as they used to say in their most sassy way, “Whatever you say goes back to you!” So if you want to do something about what you see around you, take a look at what’s in you that is like what’s around you. Now don’t confuse the messenger with the message, but Mr. Michael Jackson said it best, “Take a look at the man in the mirror.”

Chilton Pierce, an expert on child development said, [I paraphrase] “If you want your children to be the way you want them to be, you be the way you want them to be.” And wasn’t it the Dalai Lama who said that there is no world peace without inner peace. And since I’m on a quoting roll, the words scrawled on the bathroom wall in my army barracks so long ago: “Fighting for peace, is like f…ing for virginity.”

If you see that the so-called modern paradigm isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, or that there’s got to be a better way, then you may be ready for the paradigm shift. So the new thinking would be stated as this: “WE”. What I’m talking about here is “WE” as in “all God’s chillen”. And there’s more. It’s all of us as an integral part of the community, the ecology, the world, the universe; not separate from it or each other. This ain’t some pixie dust, sentimentalism. Who said, “Nobody ever had a problem out of an experience of unity”? Read the Tao of Physics and other books by Fritjof Capra for a full discussion of this immensely interesting topic.

And, you may wonder, how does this relate to my favorite topic, my life career interest, Dr. Ida P. Rolf Structural Integration? My work has to do with integrating (not separating) the individual human being’s energy field into the energy field of the earth. For a glimpse at the upper reaches of what is possible here, imagine a line anchored to the center of the earth and extending out to cosmic infinity. Now imagine living centered yourself on that line. Deep ecology; can you dig it? Or, for the Zen brethren: 10 happy toes in front of two dancing feet.

Contemplate: If land animals evolved to immerge from the medium of the sea, imagine what might be next for humans who “swim” in the gravitational field of the earth?

Can you feel the paradigm shifting? Steady Freddie!

There's a train a-comin', get on board...