Example of An experiment to test out the story from the video
Serena:
I made a video which captures a dream I am having or being part of, which revolves around the question: Climate change, a chance for human beings to consciously evolve by developing the capacity to be selfish? And Below is an experiment one can try, preferably with a group so you can check results with each other.
The HD Version on facebook:
My Dream: Humanities consciously evolve by being selfish
The Background of the video/experiment
Dec 2007- July 2008
In my first year of law school at the University of Hong Kong, I attended UN climate conference UNFCCC COP13 in Bali (short video: Bali UN Delegation 2007); co-founded an NGO called Hong Kong Climate Change Coalition (Now renamed as Climate Chance). Since then, co-organised the first ever Asian Youth Climate Summi t2008 gathering people from all over the world. This process made me reflect on a lot of inconsistencies of my aspiration (sustainability) and the actions/thoughts in relation to the conference organisation/process/outcome, and personal energy/aspiration (unsustainable). I wanted to give up, when i was invited to embark on an Antarctica Expedition (for young students and professionals from all the world famous universities to discuss solutions to climate change) organised by 2041 and sponsored by BP (oil company).
see Videos:
1- Bali UN Delegation 2007 3: 47
2- Asian Youth Climate Summit2008 4:32
3- 350 International Day of Climate Action Promotional Video 2009 4:04
4- 350 HK Rally2009 2:23
5- Macau Branch Networking 2009 : 2:25
5- Inspire Antarctica Expedition for Climate Change 2009 3:58
In April 2009
During the Expedition, the facilitator called Roger Burton convinced the sponsor, BP and the expedition organiser 2041, to replace the standard leadership training program with this: 1- no set agenda, unless the whole group (more than 70 participants from all over the world agrees to); 2- no specific outcome; 3- we listen to how we listen. The result is a tremendous sense of discomfort, because there was no structure and we had to organise ourselves, and our own fragmentation became a macrocosm of the fragmentations we see in the world. I saw all these, and decided to corporate with Roger.
June - July 2009
Roger flew over to Hong Kong (entirely offering his service for free) from US and talked with a few of us from the NGO I was part of for a whole day. He did a few experiments with us and we continued on exchanging the results through skype conference calls. (there were 4 meeting sessions - see minutes of the meeting)
In March - April 2009
I decided to quit the law school because i found everyone hypocritical. But just before I was leaving HK for good, I was invited to do a climate workshop with AIESEC people, and I had a trial of what Roger designed for us in Antarctica (see above), i felt a strange kind of energy emerged from the group and cancelled the flight.
In July 2010
I met Roger and SOL China (founded by Peter Senge), participated in a very heated conversation which, my mere observance gave me a tremendous sense of liberation and bliss. (see minute 7 & 8)
In Aug 2010
A series events happened, my heart broke open, and suddenly i felt so grateful and connected to everything. Then I got so sick i had to have 10 layers of clothes in order to withstand air conditioning. A kind Chinese Doctor listened to my pulse without touching me treated me, and in 3 days i recovered. There has been such blissfulness in my experience of life; such peace and joy. And then, events like this kept on happening like waves, and with each time, the heart broke opener, and more connected, more joy. Drastic behaviour change in relationships, increased consistency between my personal consumption habits/change models and my desired commitment, traffic of thoughts reduced.
The whole experience to me is like recovering from an illness - just before i got recovered, it got so worse, i felt like running away (quitting law school), my attention was so much fixed on the problems and fixing other people and the world. But then, that led to facing the wound buried deep down in my heart, and everything i couldn’t accept, upon acceptance, my attention was getting more and more free and as my thoughts reduced, more creativity flows into my body.
Now I am interested in working with anyone who wish to test these things out by forming a group which can meet up regularly. (skype or in person)
Below is one of the examples. See the “meeting with roger” posts for the origional minutes i took in the collective dialogue in the group experiments we did. (esp minute 3,4,5,6)
- The Methodology
· Identify a problem
· Ask oneself what would be possible if the problem is solved (keep on asking that until one reaches a state where the quality of the experience can be felt with the body: i.e. die a happy old women)
· For the whole week, follow the three rules
1) Try your best to realize the possibilities (upon solving of the problem)
2) Do nothing which will cause it to be solved.
3) Pay attention to the possibilities as much as possible.
- What this experiment may do:
· Reveal the habitual way wewould go about causing something – the way one would seek to manipulate environment and people to match your idea of how it should be.
· One possible observation is that when we live in the condition of the problem with someone else and we have an idea they should change, we are essentially treating them as a kind of object and we seek to manipulate them to match our picture – it is uncomfortable and had emotional content.
- Theoretical basis:
· To pay attention to the possibility is to utilize the final cause according to the paradigm drawn by Aristotle. The theory is that overtime; our understanding of causality has eroded. The experiment is to try to explore alternative way of making changes, which may be more sustainable both during the process and for the outcome.
——————————————————————————————-
Causality – Aristotle
- Material Case
o If you pick mud or ice, you get different statute
o most people understand it as constraint
- Efficient Case
o Human activity and needs- most people think it is the whole of the causality– Cause & Effect- If X, then Y, if I do this, something will happen – use hand or chisel – you get different statute
- Formal Case
o Ideation – to form something for the vision you have of it. If you imagine a statute of bunny or anger, and you keep the granite and using chizzle, but you change the form (the idea) and that may cause a different statute.
o Modern world understand it a bit – a vision session – but we have it so we figure out what to do, and the vision only lasts till we figure out what we going to do
o The fact that it is causal is hard for people to understand
o There is a collective quality to it
- Final Case
o “That for the sake of which” – it means what something is in service of
o is that statute in service of money or freedom?
o None of it has specific form, but if you put your attention on it, it may create a different statute. If you change the final cause and you end up with a different statute (despite using same chizzle, granite and form of bunny)
more? download the folder containing minutes of 8 group meetings/experiments with meeting with Roger
http://www.mediafire.com/?kqed476gii924
— Serena
