The Rainbow Lens helps us see (and “measure”) today’s realities and visualize a dramatically more generative future. Read this post for a detailed description of this lens and its uses. Though this description is organization-centric, you will find it relevant to a broader regional context.
The Rainbow Lens Zones matrix is divided into two sections to emphasize the nature and the size of the evolutionary leap from our current mechanistic, materialistic, separatist worldview to a living-systems worldview. For our social systems the leap from the Yellow Zone to the Green/Blue Zones is like the leap from vacuum tubes to transistors. You can’t get to transistors by improving on vacuum tubes.
Social systems living in the Yellow, Orange and Red Zones tend to have fear-based cultures. Fear may be subtle in the Yellow Zone, but it’s still very present.
Social systems living in the Green and Blue Zones have cultures that are more based on caring about and contribution to wholeness.
What a fascinating website! Count me in!
I work and play with word energy. Anybody else playing in that sandbox? If so, I’d love to connect.
Janet,
I’m intrigued with your focus on word sculptures. I don’t know of others who are explicitly focused on that art form.
I’m curious. Would you be willing to enliven word sculpting for me (and other GRIPs) using this web site content as illustrative material?
Where do you see signs of effective word sculpting?
Where might you demonstrate to efficacy of word sculpting by reshaping our language?
With appreciation and my blessings,
bill
Oh, my gosh, Bill! Where to begin?
Let’s start with a theory that words structure sensory data. We use words to structure sensory data so we can communicate with one another and give meaning and purpose to our lives. The problem is that we all structure the sensory data differently. As a result, we often fight over whose words are right and whose words are wrong.
Some corollaries of the theory that words structure sensory data are:
1. There are no right or wrong words. There are only many different word perspectives on “what is.”
2. The perspective emerges from individual need or intention or purpose. Most of these are unconscious.
3. Words are art, not Truth.
4. Words have meaning only within the context of particular experiences. Two people who experience the same sensory data may structure and word-label the sensory data differently depending on their differing needs and intentions. These needs and intentions are often unconscious and unaligned. A good analogy is looking at an optical illusion. One person sees an old hag. Another sees a young woman.
5. Words can be used to point to an “Energetic State of Being,” which can never be accurately captured or labeled or limited using words. Why? Because words by their nature divide (high/low, right/wrong.knowledge/ignorance). The “Energetic State of Being” unifies. It’s like trying to use a screwdriver to hammer a nail. The tool is inappropriate to the job, but up to now, it’s one of the few tools we’ve had to work with.
6. The words of every religion that has ever been created are art forms and tools pointing to this “Energetic State of Being” which some have called “God,” “Brahma,” “Allah,” “NoThing,” “Essence,” “Higher Power,” “Universal Intelligence,” “Universal Energy,” etc.
7. Quantum physics is also pointing toward this underlying “Energetic Field”, which appears to emerge differently depending on the intentions of the person perceiving and the way the experiment is structured. See the wave/particle debate.
Religious stories, metaphors, and tools that support this theory:
1. The Christian/Judaic Genesis story of eating of the Tree of Knowledge and being expelled from the Garden of Eden.
2. The Chirstian/Judaic story of the Tower of Babel.
3. The Hindu words about “Piercing the Veil of Illusion.”
4. Zen Buddhist koans.
5. Sanscrit mantras which use the energy of toning, devoid of meaning.
Emotional Challenges that Words and Lack of Awareness Can Create
1. If someone calls us “stupid” or “bad,” and we absorb that “negative” energy into our being, believe it, and accept it as true, our true creative potential becomes blocked. If we perceive that label as saying much more about the speaker’s self-righteousness, fear, and personal control issues than about us, we can detach from the emotional charge the words might otherwise have and hear them simply as information about the energetic state of the speaker. Then we can choose either to remain in that “negative force field” or move away.
2. Fear and terror are debilitating. Both block creative potential. One way to release them is to notice where your mind is. It will probably be either in the future or on what others may think, say or do. Once you notice that, you can make a conscious choice to bring your mind back to the present moment. It is almost always a very safe place. Then ask yourself, “What is my next step? What action can I take, right here, right now, to move my life in the direction I want it to go?”
3. Rage is also blocked creative energy. If our intentions are not aligned with the intentions of those with whom we are working, our desired end result won’t manifest. If a property owner’s intention is to build a beautiful home and the builder’s intention is to make money with as little expense and effort as possible, neither the beautiful home nor the money will manifest. Instead, owner and builder will be locked in a deadly, angry conflict. The antidote is either to bring the unconscious intentions into awareness so that they can be aligned or to refocus and move in a new direction with different partners.
4. Guilt is another form of blocked creative energy. It emanates from actions that serve one person at the expense of others. The antidote again is bringing intentions into awareness, then using self-forgivenesss, other-forgiveness, and “right action” to move forward.
4. Guilt is another form of blocked creative energy
Ways to Shift out of the Word Challenge:
1. Bring all our different word perspectives into awareness so that together, we can share our thoughts from our hearts and souls and listen deeply to the thoughts of others in non-violence, mutual respect and co-creativity. The ultimate goal is to co-create clarity and understanding so that together we can align our intentions into resonance and harmony to co-create a peaceful, powerful, prosperous planet. Once intentions are aligned, the shift emerges instantaneously and dissonance and conflict simultaneously instantaneously dissolve. This experience is what some religions have labeled “transformation,” “salvation,” “Samadhi,” “awareness.”
2. If our mutual intentions are to align and co-create within a peaceful, respectful, accountable community, there are some word sculptures that work better than others:
a. First person singular language
b. Questions
c. Stories
d. Metaphors
e. Paradox
f. Poetry
g. Allegory
There are so many possible threads to this “creative word/word sculpture” discussion. I think that’s more than enough for now – probably far more than anyone has the time or interest to read and absorb.
For those who do want more detail, please go to wordsculptures.com, janetsmithwarfield.com, janetsmithwarfield.com/two-perspectives, wordsculpturespublishing.com, and WordSculptress on YouTube. There is also more detail in my Amazon Best-Selling Book “Shift: Change Your Words, Change Your World.”
Much love,
Janet