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'3-D' View of History: Significant Details, Sense of Storyline, and Healthy Spirit of Study ('Detalye, Daloy at Diwa');

 Critique of memorization-oriented and fragmented presentations in current teaching of history.

Constructive and liberative view of time continuum and collective journey

Holistic Collective conscious- ness on Holistic collective experience

Concept and challenge of consensus-building and synergy-building for a collective sense of mission as humankind and as a nation; and on this basis, the consolidation of synergies in nationhood and in humanity.

  1. Total Human Development and Harmony Through Synergism

  2. Holistic Health Care and Medicine

  3. Deep Ecology and Harmony with Nature 

  4. Sense of History and Sense of Mission

  5. Civics and Democratic Governance

  6. Culture as Community Creativity

  7. Light-Seeking and Light-Sharing Education

  8. Gender Sensitivity, Equality & Harmony

  9. Reconstructive/Restor-ative Justice

10. Associative Economics, Social Capital and Sustainable Development

11. Synergetic Leadership and Organizations

12. Appropriate/Adaptive Technology

13. Mutual Enrichment of Families and Friendships

14. Human Dignity and Human Harmony: Human Rights and Peace

15. Aesthetics Without Boundaries: 'Art from the Heart'   

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The Butterfly Effect': How Social

Change May Actually Happen*

By Nicanor Perlas

Nicky Perlas is lead organizer of the annual Karangalan Festival, head of the Center for Alternative Development Initiatives (CADI) and propagator of the “Three-Folding” approach to social analysis and transformational action.

This was first published in the Philippine Panorama magazine’s issue of February 5, 2006, and reprinted in full in the fifth issue of LightShare Digest.

INCREASING scientific revolutions characterize the landscape of the post-Newtonian world of the 21st century. Concepts of space, time, causality, evolution and other foundational categories of the modern materialistic world are collapsing, undermined by the findings of a new and more spiritual science that is emerging in dozens of fields. These new scientific discoveries necessitate a reorientation on how we envision changing our societies, on how we reshape a new world.

Consider the world of butterflies. Norie Huddle, in her book, describes in a layperson’s poetic language how the ‘worm’ transforms itself into a butterfly.

“The caterpillar’s new cells (after it has built its cocoon) are called “imaginal cells.” They resonate at a different frequency. They are so different from the caterpillar cells that the immune system of the caterpillar thinks these imaginal cells are enemies… and gobbles them up. But these new imaginal cells continue to appear, more and more of them do! Pretty soon, the caterpillar’s immune system cannot destroy them fast enough. More and more of the imaginal cells survive.

“And then an amazing thing happens! The little tiny imaginal cells start to clump together into friendly little groups. They all resonate together at the same frequency, passing information from one to another. Then, after a while, another amazing thing happens! The clumps of imaginal cells start to cluster together! … a long string of clumping and clustering imaginal cells, all resonating at the same frequency, all passing information from one to another there inside the chrysalis.

“… Then at some point, the entire long string of imaginal cells suddenly realizes all together that it is something different from the caterpillar. Something wonderful! … and in that realization is the shout of the birth of the butterfly!

“Each butterfly cell can take on a different job. There is something for everyone to do, and everyone is important. And each cell begins to do just that very thing it is most drawn to do. And every other cell encourages it to do just that. A great way to organize a butterfly! And a great way to organize a butterfly movement!”

This metamorphosis of the caterpillar or ‘worm’ into a butterfly is a powerful metaphor for societal transformation.

The people who awaken to new possibilities are like the imaginal cells of their own society. The process of societal transformation starts with the emergence of these individuals who carry in their innovation an aspect of the image of the future of their society.

These innovative individuals, these bearers of the future become the “deviants” of their own society. They are not recognized as the bringers of good. Rather, they are attacked as disturbers of the present, destroyers of the self-defeating habits of the old society (the caterpillar) which has been superficially framed as the “good life.” In extreme cases, they can be killed. Kennedy, King, Gandhi, Rizal, Bonifacio, Javier, Aquino and others were killed because they were too dangerous to the system. The auto-immune response of the old society tries to get rid of these visionaries.

However, these violent reactions do not stop the emergence of more “imaginal” individuals in society. Soon they join up together to form the various movements striving for a better society – the environment movement, the sustainable agriculture movement, the youth movement, the women’s movement, the indigenous people’s movement, the urban poor movement, the global democracy movement, and so on.

However, this stage is not enough. The different movements which now embody the different possibilities of the future have to learn to come together and reinforce each other’s identities and contributions. Societal transformation will only come when the different identities learn to create synergy among and between each other, for these synergies are often the shape of the future society wanting to come into manifestation.

There is also another aspect to this. You will note that, externally, in the early stages, you will not see the caterpillar transforming into a butterfly. Rather, you will see that the ‘worm’ has digested itself into a kind of liquid. The stage of biological “chaos” has set in. This chaos, however, is not our modern concept of chaos, which we equate with disorder. This “chaoes” is the Greek chaos, where the potential for a new order lies hidden, waiting to express itself. Out of this chaos, the butterfly emerges.

So, too, in society at large. We see chaos all around. We can respond in two ways. We can complain and disempower ourselves with a sense of hopelessness. Or we can see this as an external symptom that the old order is collapsing to be replaced by a level of complexity and order.

One of the most powerful ways to harness the opportunity of chaos is to identify the imaginal individuals in society who carry with them different aspects of the future. Often these individuals are achieving excellent and inspiring work under the most challenging of circumstances. We need to have the eye of the spirit to see the hidden connection, the invisible pattern which links all these different initiatives together and find a way for each imaginal individual to see the whole.

Here we note something important. Modern materialistic science is at a loss to explain the orderly, coherent, and artistically inspiring metamorphosis of caterpillars into butterflies. They cannot fathom how a new level of organization and emergence can come out of a bundle of genetic programs, some of which become redundant in the organizational form of the butterfly. A higher form of intelligence, a formative field, is clearly at work in this process.

In nature, the marvelous process of metamorphosis works in a seamless manner, automatically. In the human world, this does not happen. Human intelligence has to actively envision, participate and will the process of societal transformation from the ‘caterpillar stage’ to the “butterfly stage’ of society.

There are a number of ways of doing this. One of the easiest and most encouraging is to identify the patterns of inspiring ideas and innovations that characterize societies in transitions. This “positive mapping” gives a glimpse, a roadmap, for those who would transform society, of how the genius and positive life energy of that society is moving and flowing. This perception of the invisible pattern and reality of the future society would allow the imaginal individuals and movements to strategically align their resources and talents for the greater good of that society. They align with what is living and metamorphosing in that society, not with what is already in the process of dying away. There is another aspect of the butterfly that moves us from the realm of metaphor to the realm of science. There is the so-called “butterfly effect” of the new science of complexity. We often hear that the flap of a butterfly’s wings can influence weather patterns around the world. Small changes, if properly situated, can cascade and have large-scale effects.

In 1969, Margaret Mead said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” She never imagined that barely a decade later, her historic analysis would receive empirical support from the na-tural studies in the form of the new science of Complexity.

Societal transformation in the 21st century will have to be based on the challenges and possibilities of the 21st century. Societal movements that seek to achieve societal change based on the outmoded ideas of the 19th century materialistic science are doomed to contribute more harm to society than good. Social movements that are innovations, contemporary and intelligent in the ways of the 21st century knowledge, will stand a better chance of addressing the large-scale and long-term spiritual and social challenges that are facing humanity today and in the decades to come.

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