3 Circles of Harmonic Vibrancy

This is part 7 in a 7-part post.

At this point in the conversation, having looked at the five primary relationships people experience in the harmonic vibrancy of the group, it starts to seem like a bit much.  Five relationships experienced at three different levels.  I take this feeling of fullness as an opportunity to summarize what people have described so far.  When people experience greater harmonic vibrancy, which is what they want, all relationships are taken care of, and through those relationships they accomplish more.  Conversely, when people experience less vibrancy, which they do not want, it is hard to pay attention to relationships, and everyone does what they can alone, accomplishing much less.

What I have seen, when I share this summary, is that someone will speak up, saying that this sounds like a set of principles – guiding principles.  Starting from abundance, all relationships work together to generate a higher vibrancy.  Starting from scarcity, the lack of relationship generates a lower vibrancy.  The figure below shows this.  The inner circle describes the experience of the lack of relationship in all five relationships.  Likewise, the middle circle describes the experience of medium vibrancy in all relationships, and the outer circle describes the experience of high vibrancy in all five relationships.

 

The questions now begin to focus the conversation, finding that the experience is that of the inner circle, or the middle circle, or the outer circle.  My curiosity about this question as a researcher over the last eighteen years has taken me to teachers who have taught me why it is difficult to see these agreements.  From decision theory, I saw that the judgments people make are full of assumptions of values that others and I have and of how things work.  From systems theory, I saw that the relationships among the actors and the decisions they make generate dynamics that determine system-wide behaviors that are different than what the individuals want or see.  From integral theory, I saw the importance of including the different lenses or perspectives on agreements and transcending them to a higher, more integral perspective.

Interweaving these lessons learned helped me see the harmonic in the stories.  When I asked, some say this experience of the harmonic is like ice cream.  One person is describing the experience of taste – it is all about the sweetness, while another is describing texture – it is all about being both smooth and crunchy, yet another is describing temperature – it is all about being cold, while another describes appearance – it is all about the colors of the cream, cone, and sprinkles.  While each is partially correct, they all describe a critical dimension, bringing in an important voice, and none is complete on its own.  Ice cream is about the perfect combination of taste, texture, temperature, and appearance.  Nobody wants just sweet, just smooth and crunchy, just cold, or just colorful.  Others liken it to music, where the richest songs that move us most have rich harmonies, where each voice contributes to the harmonic, yet no voice alone sings it.

Now comes the realization of the agreements driving the experience of scarcity or abundance in any group.  People are choosing to experience lower vibrancy most of the time.  That’s the inner circle of scarcity.  Why would they do that?  Maybe because they are not aware that it was an agreement they were making.  Could they make different agreements?  It is easy to see how they can make different agreements, sometimes.  But it seems hard to figure out what this means for different groups.  It gets pretty complicated.  Or does it?  In Tom Robbins’ saga of the many facets of the beet, Jitterbug Perfume, Dr. Dannyboy summarizes what he has learned, “The universe does not have laws.  It has habits.  And habits can be broken.”[1]

My request to you

I invite you to share here your own experiences of these relationships to the harmonic vibrancy you experience.

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[1] See (Robbins, 1990, p. 312).

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