Heroes Not Zombies

From the very beginning I put this phrase at the top of my blog – becoming not being. It seems a very simple concept, and I think it really is. It shifts our attention from entities to events, from objects in themselves to subjects in the process of change.

I’ve been in the habit of recalling this phrase for many years now and it’s at the basis of my understanding of every human being as never fully knowable. That keeps me curious and, I hope, humble. It means I can never say I know all there is to know about anyone or anything.

I recalled this phrase yesterday when I read this –

The idea that will change the game of knowledge is the realization that it is more important to understand events, objects, and processes in their relationship with each other than in their singular structure.

MIHALY CSIKSZENTMIHALY

It comes from an interview with the great psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihaly, whose concept of “flow” grabbed me and became an integral part of my way of looking at life.

That call to wake up and see the world as living, changing inter-related phenomena and events rather than as discrete, entirely separate objects reminded me of two other thinkers and writers.

The world of quantum mechanics is not a world of objects: it is a world of events. The world is not a collection of things it is a collection of events. The difference between things and events is that things persist in time events have a limited duration. A stone is a prototypical thing: we can ask ourselves where it will be tomorrow. The world is made up of networks of kisses not stones.

Carlo Rovelli

The physicist, Carlo Rovelli, captures this idea beautifully when he asks us to realise that reality is events, not objects, “kisses not stones”

The other is the psychiatrist and philosopher Iain McGilchrist whose exploration of the differences between the right and left brain continue to enlighten me. He says the right brain seeks “the particular”.

Individuals, as befits individuals, will fail to conform to an overall pattern

Iain McGilchrist

To know a particular person, the more you consider their connections, the better you might know and understand them. The right hemisphere has a tendency to explore connections. Iain McGilchrist says it is interested in the ‘betweenness’ rather than in the separate ‘things’.

Identity from a right hemisphere perspective emerges from this exploration of connections and difference.

Becoming not being – try it out for yourself see what the world looks like through this lens.