Just imagine
In times of turmoil, "imaginal cells" can be activated to co-create positive alternatives. If now is the time for transformation, can we imagine and create a quantum society? I'm willing to bet on it!
Wistful thinking
Wistful. It’s my new word. I don’t think I’ve ever used it before, but it certainly captures my present mood. It means having or showing a feeling of vague or regretful longing.
As you know from these newsletters, I’ve been drenched by a squall of emotions these past two months as I/we try to grasp what is going on in the U.S. and its implications for the planet. It’s hard to even keep track of the ways that social and environmental institutions are being dismantled and destroyed. But they are being tracked.
I’m left reminiscing about a less-than-ideal past while yearning for a not-yet-here future. Despite all the practices and insights from wisdom traditions, ‘the now’ is challenging me.
I feel reflectively sad and achingly bad. Not to mention exceedingly mad. I’m beginning to sound like a children’s book!
I am, in fact, reminded of a beloved children’s book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. It’s the story of a caterpillar’s metamorphosis into a butterfly. To give you the adult rendition of the story: a minority of us have ravenously consumed too many resources and we are still hungry. Meanwhile we have put everyone at risk of both environmental catastrophes and being eaten by cruel and greedy predators. As with the very hungry caterpillar, our way out is through transformations in form, structure, and meaning-making. We need to change.
‘It’s time to pupate,’ I think to myself, wistfully.
Imagine
I was recently describing this pupa stage of the metamorphosis to a friend, because it truly feels like the end of the world as we know it. My friend reminded me that it is precisely in times of ‘meltdown’ that we need to draw on our imaginal cells. Imaginal cells?
These are cells or discs that are critical to the caterpillar’s transformation process, as explained in this Scientific American article by Ferris Jabr:
First, the caterpillar digests itself, releasing enzymes to dissolve all of its tissues. If you were to cut open a cocoon or chrysalis at just the right time, caterpillar soup would ooze out. But the contents of the pupa are not entirely an amorphous mess. Certain highly organized groups of cells known as imaginal discs survive the digestive process. . . . Once a caterpillar has disintegrated all of its tissues except for the imaginal discs, those discs use the protein-rich soup all around them to fuel the rapid cell division required to form the wings, antennae, legs, eyes, genitals and all the other features of an adult butterfly or moth.
Indigestion
Wow. Imagine the world collectively digesting itself as the current U.S. regime recklessly dissolves the structures and relationships that — imperfect as some of them were — have nonetheless helped us to live and work together for a more just and sustainable world.
We can now either collectively cry as the caterpillar juice oozes out, or we can use this soup to activate our imaginal discs. I’ll choose the latter, simply because the alternative is unethical and unthinkable. As Dave Pendle writes in an inspiring essay on Imaginal Cells, Metamorphosis and Emergence:
“without consciously developing these imaginative capacities, individual human cells are in more danger of acting out the role of the immune system, in the flux of this chrysalis-like evolutionary moment.”
Pendle invites us to be the immune cells and “catalyse our collective human imagination to restore the earth, regenerate our living systems and move forward into a radically fairer, ecologically balanced and refreshingly sane future.” Invitation accepted.
Quantum Society
Yet how do we contribute to a radically sane future while things are falling apart? One possibility is to imagine and co-create a quantum society. We do not need to start from scratch. Many brilliant minds have been imagining alternatives, often way ahead of their times. For example, back in 1994 Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall presented a compelling vision for how we might live together as both individuals and collectives. In The Quantum Society, they introduced a quantum model of community, a vision for building a community of communities, and a quantum covenant. Such a “quantum society,” they wrote, must be:
‘Holistic’
Plural
Responsive
‘Bottom up’ or emergent
‘Green’
Spiritual
Beyond the individual/collective dichotomy
Their vision was grounded in an understanding of philosophy and human psychology, including the recognition that “When an individual’s, or a group’s shared worldview is threatened by too much chaos, the physical pressure to consolidate is enormous. The result, in consciousness, is a temptation to rigid fundamentalism of one sort or another.” This temptation is increasingly visible today, and in fact has contributed to the crises that we are now facing.
Attitudes
Co-creating a quantum society in these chaotic times involves changes in form, structure, and meaning-making. In other words, across the practical, political, and personal spheres of transformation. Yet to create a quantum society, Zohar and Marshall emphasized the importance of a transformation in personal attitudes. Attitude, they suggest, “is the equivalent of measurement in a quantum system. It influences how a wave of potential collapses into a particular reality. The attitudes that we adopt in any situation partially determine how that situation will unfold.”
Our attitudes are shaped by beliefs, which according to the QBist interpretation of quantum physics are like placing bets on our future. This means that we have to be consciously aware of our beliefs, assumptions, interests, and habits of thought. This isn’t easy, yet it is aligned with the power to transcend paradigms, which is Donella Meadow’s highest leverage point for systems change:
“That is to keep oneself unattached in the arena of paradigms, to stay flexible, to realize that NO paradigm is ‘true,’ that every one, including the one that sweetly shapes your own worldview, is a tremendously limited understanding of an immense and amazing universe that is far beyond human comprehension.”
Can I/we stay flexible and unattached when so much is at stake? Can I/we draw on our imaginal cells and co-create an equitable and thriving world? A quantum society?
What now?
I have more questions than answers right now. But I do know this. If quantum social change is about our individual and shared attitudes, we need to support ourselves and each other in the process of transformation.
We need to help each other in being change, designing change, and leading change. We can collectively gather our courage to show up differently and do things differently, based on values that apply to all of us — to the whole. We can be fractals of positive change in times of disruption and chaos.
Transformation is an ongoing process that involves ongoing practice; I need to be continuously aware of my attitude and to constantly remind myself of what is important for myself and everyone — oneness, integrity, equity, and courage. This is something I’ve learned through participation and co-facilitation of a Transformational Leadership for Sustainability program with Dr. Monica Sharma, author of Radical Transformational Leadership: Strategic Action for Change Agents. (As an aside, we are running the 9-day program in Oslo this fall, and all imaginal cells are invited to join!)
To be effective imaginal cells, we also need to take care of ourselves. Many of “burning souls” are at a risk of burning out right now. This is why I am organizing a two-day workshop (May 21-22) together with Dr. Daniel Siegel. It will focus on Wholeness in a Fragmented World: Cultivating Connection, Coherence, and Resilience. The workshop integrates interpersonal neurobiology, personality patterns, and quantum social change so that we can work effectively as entangled and “intraconnected” fractals of change.
In short, we have the knowledge, tools and practices needed to activate our imaginal cells. Going back to Ferris Jabr’s explanation of metamorphosis, it is important to remember that even when it feels like we are in midst of an amorphous mess—the caterpillar soup—millions of imaginal discs are being activated to contribute to a just and sustainable world.
Maybe I am both wistful and wishful, but I believe that a quantum society is both possible and emerging. In fact, I’m betting on it.
As I embed my values in thought, feeling, and action, my inner transformations can resonate (…) with similar transformations in others. More potent still, my own thoughts, feelings and actions can evoke those transformations in others.
Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall, The Quantum Society
"The attitudes that we adopt in any situation partially determine how that situation will unfold" -- this echoes one of my key takeaways from your book: that our very conception of social change shapes what we believe is possible, and therefore what we’re able to bring about. There’s something quietly radical about this, a renewed sense of agency even in the face of overwhelming crisis!
Love this—especially with attitude playing a role like measurement! Although the reactionary forces in the US have been trying to drag us back into the past for a while, I feel like today there is a groundswell of people talking about new ways to move forward, even as we struggle to stay grounded individually. The mass demonstrations feel catalytic—so much energy! They give our fire souls a chance to set the rest of us alight.
I wish we had a chrysalis to nurture the early stages of our evolution and protect our imaginal cells. For now, both gathering in person with fellow travelers and communing in virtual spaces like this one seem to be helping create a sense of shared purpose and interconnection. I hope we are setting the stage to incubate the critical new structures and attitudes we’ll need to support our re-formation and our eventual re-emergence from this chaos.