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Nature, the artist

Posted in books, creativity, from the dark room, from the living room, from the reading room, life, personal growth, philosophy, photography, science on October 23, 2015| 1 Comment »

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I only recently stumbled across the work of Michel Conche, the French philosopher.

He says this about Nature – that Nature is like an artist. Nature is a poet, continuously improvising and creating.

I like that.

In one of his works where he writes about the Tao Te Ching, he says

The Tao Te Ching allows the artist and the philosopher to live according to Nature, to place their confidence in the flow of things, to be led by inspiration, unlike the man of action who attempts to master Nature and the course of things through calculation.

The reference to “the flow of things” particularly resonates with me. As does living a life “led by inspiration”. But the phrase “unlike the man of action who attempts to master Nature and the course of things through calculation” really struck me. It immediately made me think of the definition of the scientific method which I saw a student on the train learning years ago – “Observation, Description, Explanation, Prediction, Control”. And it reminded me of the left hemisphere approach to the world which is described so clearly in Iain McGilchrist’s “The Emperor and His Emissary” – how we use that half of our cerebral cortex to analyse, measure, categorise and “grasp” things.

Conche uses this language of the “man of action” vs the “artist”, not to suggest that artists don’t “do” anything, but reflecting the thinking of the Tao Te Ching and concepts such as “wu wei”

Because he is about to create, he finds himself on the margins of society and fixed forms. If he consents to a paid profession, it is only to earn what is necessary for life and work. Literally, the artist “works without acting” (wei wu wei: Chinese for “non-action”), because, contrary to the entrepreneur who sets an objective for himself and then uses means to obtain it, the artist cannot know in advance what the work will be. He advances step by step, innovating where necessary, incapable of rationalizing his steps.

We’ve lost touch with so much of that “artistic” way, haven’t we? With our emphasis on outcomes, goals and targets.

The man of action is the opposite of the artist, because he wants to know in advance all things concerning his actions, in order to move forward in complete safety. He wants, as much as possible, to avoid risk, which is precisely what the artist cannot avoid. To master Nature and the course of things by calculation is the dream of the man of action; nothing pleases him more than the progress of science and technology. The artist places his confidence in the flow of things, allowing himself to be led by inspiration.

Ha! There’s that thing about fear again! As Elizabeth Gilbert said in her “Big Magic” –

…when I refer to “creative living”….I’m talking about a life that is driven more strongly by curiosity than by fear.

So if we understand Nature as an artist, “led by inspiration”, “driven more strongly by curiosity than by fear”, “continuously improvising”, placing “confidence in the flow of things” – how does that feel?

Doesn’t it feel very different from the view of Nature as a mechanism, measurable, and controllable?

I like this idea of Nature as an artist – becoming not being!

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Living differently

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, from the reading room, life, personal growth, philosophy, photography on October 22, 2015| 1 Comment »

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It’s almost the 100th anniversary of the birth of Roland Barthes and I’m seeing more and more articles about him here in France. Here’s one quote which struck me the other day –

Vitality in old age does not lie in proving that one can continue to carry on doing what one has always done but precisely in making a break – a rupture, a commencement, a vita nova.

More and more of us are living longer and longer. So how are you going to spend your extra years if you get them? Working at the same job for longer? For many that might be a necessity. For a few years anyway, but for another twenty or more?

It’s almost a year since I stopped clinical practice, sold my house and moved to France.

I was born and raised in Scotland and worked there as a doctor for just under forty years. There’s no doubt I feel deeply connected to all of that past. But I’d had a long term plan to live part of my life differently.

So here I am learning a second language and living in a different culture. That’s what I planned and I do think that broadens and deepens my experience of life. I also wanted to live in a different climate but I hadn’t foreseen just how much I’d enjoy being barefoot in a garden every day for weeks on end. Nor how great a pleasure it is to be able to eat most of your meals outside.

The house where I’m living is south facing and surrounded by vineyards as far as I can see. I think it’s that seamless connection between the garden and the open countryside which makes me feel closer to Nature than ever before. I used to look out from my flat in Scotland to the mountains in the distance. It was a beautiful view. But in hindsight it seems that Nature was at a distance there, and now I’m actually living in it.

Picking vegetables which grow in the garden, preparing and eating them is an unexpected delight. There’s a daily covered market nearby too selling local, fresh and seasonal produce. I’d forgotten the pleasure of eating according to the season, but there is something wonderful about eating the first strawberries and figs, then waiting till they come around again next year.

I’m reading more than I’ve ever done. I’ve got more time to think and reflect, and I’ve several writing projects on the go. I’m taking lots of photographs and I’ve begun to reconnect with my piano and my guitar. This feels like a creative time of life.

Who knows what this next year will bring? All I can say is I’m glad I took Roland Barthes’ advice – even though I didn’t know I was doing that at the time!

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Creative living

Posted in books, creativity, from the dark room, from the living room, from the reading room, health, life, narrative, personal growth, philosophy, photography on October 15, 2015| 5 Comments »

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Elizabeth Gilbert’s book, “Big Magic”, is about “creative living”. What is that?

…when I refer to “creative living”….I’m talking about a life that is driven more strongly by curiosity than by fear.

Well, I think that really is a key – we are so driven by fear, and fear is used as such a tool to control whole populations these days. To be driven by curiosity rather than fear strikes me as likely to completely alter our view of the world.

Take health care for example. So much health care is generated by fear – fear of dying, fear of getting cancer, fear of getting this disease, or that disease. It creates a whole ethos and it’s sure not a positive one. What if we underpinned our healthcare with curiosity instead? What if we consciously sought out experiences which were nourishing, nurturing, stimulating, life enhancing? Would that lead to healthier lives instead of lives of avoidance?

I do believe a creative life is a richer life. Here’s what Elizabeth Gilbert says –

A creative life is an amplified life. It’s a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life, and a hell of a lot more interesting life.

That reminded me of a book I read a long time ago – Robert Solomon’s “Joy of Philosophy” – where he juxtaposes a “thin” life with a “passionate” one. His use of the metaphors of thin vs thick throughout that book struck me as original and clear. Who wants a “thin life”?

Elizabeth goes on to explain in a little more depth what she means by “creative living” –

The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them. The hunt to uncover those jewels – that’s creative living.

Ooh, I love that. What a lovely metaphor! We really do all have unique and wonderful treasures buried within us. In fact, I don’t think it is possible to fully mine the depths of any individual human being, but what jewels lie there waiting to be discovered when we take the time to explore!

The courage to go on that hunt in the first place – that’s what separates a mundane existence from a more enchanted one.

Yep, it might take courage, but what else are you going to do with all that fear that is thrown at you in this world?

And who wants a “mundane existence”?

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As above so below

Posted in books, from the dark room, from the living room, from the reading room, life, perception, personal growth, philosophy, photography, science on October 3, 2015| 3 Comments »

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Have you ever come across a little book entitled “Li: Dynamic Form in Nature” by David Wade?

It’s tiny, but it’s a total treat.

He takes and old Chinese philosophical concept “li” and translates it in a particular way which throws an amazing light on what we see around us.

Simply put, he describes li as the invisible forces, or energies which produce the different shapes and forms of the natural world – you know the kind of things – the branching forms of a tree or root system, the wave forms in water and sand, the feathery patterns of clouds and, ah, well, feathers!

I love encountering these kinds of echoes and symmetries, especially when we can see a similar form in two or more completely different contexts – like the sky I look up at, then the feather I find on the grass at my feet.

 

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Joy

Posted in books, from the dark room, from the living room, from the reading room, life, personal growth, philosophy, photography, psychology on September 28, 2015| Leave a Comment »

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When our destiny is attained Nature alerts us by a clear sign. And that sign is joy. I mean joy, not pleasure. Pleasure is only a contrivance devised by nature to preserve life, and does not indicate the thrust and direction of life. But joy always announces that life has succeeded, gained ground, conquered. All great joy has a triumphant note…….wherever there is joy, there is creation; the richer the creation, the deeper the joy (L’Énergie spirituelle, Bergson. 1919)
Joy.
What a great way to know we’re on course.
I like the way Henri Bergson teases out the differences between pleasure and joy. He says that joy includes pleasure but not all pleasure brings us joy.
There’s something heart-filling and truly life enhancing about the emotion of joy.
Psychologists talk about the six basic emotions – fear, sadness, anger, disgust, surprise and JOY. Doesn’t joy really stand out in that group? All the others carry some negative quality about them. Sure they are probably there to protect us and to help us survive but what about flourishing? What about creative growth and development? Do we achieve those things through fear, sadness, anger, surprise or disgust? Not so much….
But do we achieve them by honing our choices to be in tune with joy? We sure do.
As Bergson says “wherever there is joy, there is creation; the richer the creation, the deeper the joy.
This focus on joy reminds me of Csikszentmihalyi’s work on “flow” – great video here. He researched what he referred to as peak experiences. You know those times where you are in the zone, where you lose track of time and where you feel at one with the universe. He showed that we experience flow most commonly while we are in the process of achieving something we’ve strived for. Like climbing a mountain, just as we get to the top and we see over that last shoulder and the land stretches out before us as far as we can see.
It also reminds me of Seligman’s work on positive psychology, and some of the happiness research. It does seem that we’ve paid most attention to what is negative or problematic and maybe we need to redress the balance somewhat and consider the positive emotions we experience.
Another thing it makes me think about is Joseph Campbell’s advice to “follow your bliss“.
Finally, it also makes me think about the Heartmath technique where the deliberate re-creation of joy is one of the fundamental steps in that method.
So, there’s something to explore this week – when do you experience joy? And how can you do more to have more joy in your life?

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Energy

Posted in books, from the consulting room, from the dark room, from the living room, from the reading room, health, life, personal growth, philosophy, photography, psychology on September 27, 2015| Leave a Comment »

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William James wrote –

Practically everyone knows in his own person the difference between the days when the tide of this energy is high in him and those when it is low, though no one knows exactly what reality the term energy covers when used here, or what its tides, tensions and levels are in themselves . . . To have its level raised is the most important thing that can happen to a man, yet in all my reading I know of no single page or paragraph of a scientific psychology book in which it receives mention. (The Energies of Men, 1907)

What is this energy he is talking about? I’ve often wondered about that. When I gave talks to young medics I would often start by saying “Let’s make a scale for energy. Let’s say 0 is the lowest energy you can imagine experiencing, and 10 is the greatest. Where would you put yourself on that scale right now?” Then I’d go round the room getting everyone to say what level of energy they were experiencing. Everybody answered. Everybody instantly offered a number on the scale. Then I’d ask “How did you do that?” “What did you check to arrive at the number you gave?” Nobody knew.

Dan Seigel and his group who developed “Interpersonal Neurobiology” (IPNB) came up with this definition of “mind” (see if you can find other definitions of “mind”) –

A embodied, interpersonal process of regulation of energy and information flow

Pretty useful, isn’t it? But what is the “energy” which is being regulated?

Having read the IPNB definition it struck me that as complex adaptive systems, living organisms are constantly exchanging energy, molecules and information with their environments.

But again, just what is this “energy”?

What do you think? (And where are you right now on the energy scale of 0 to 10?)

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Karma and connections

Posted in books, from the dark room, from the living room, from the reading room, life, philosophy, photography, science on September 26, 2015| 2 Comments »

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Many scientists now take a similar view, seeing reality as a vast force field in which every part influences every other part, with unpredictable consequences.
Long  before physicists split the atom only to discover there wasn’t anything solid inside, Bergson wrote –
So matter resolves itself into countless vibrations, all linked together in uninterrupted continuity, all influencing each other, and travelling in every direction like shivers through an immense body. (Matière et mémoire) 
Michael Foley points out that one of the most important consequences of seeing how connected everything is –
If organisms are mutually dependent then it is wiser to cooperate than to dominate, and if life requires constant adaptation then nimble ingenuity is more effective than brute strength. (Life Lessons from Bergson)
For a long time the capitalist lesson drawn from Darwin’s insight into evolution was that competition, “survival of the fittest”, was the driving force behind the evolution of Life on Earth. Richard Dawkins even claimed in his “Selfish Gene” that self-interest (and hence, selfishness) lies at the root of all evolution.
However, many other authors are now highlighting the importance of co-operation, collaboration and the evolutionary advantages of togetherness. (See Howard Bloom’s Global Brain, Thomas Berry’s The Great Work,  Lynne McTaggart’s The Bond, and Barabasi’s Linked just for starters!)
As Michael Foley notes, the reality of intense, complex connectedness, is not just that everything influences other things, it’s that, due to the two way nature of many of the connections, the initiator of an action or event, often ends up being changed by it.
If everything is connected to everything else then every action propagates its effects for ever, and if feedback loops are the method of propagation then every action also modifies the character of the actor.
So, karma turns out to be real after all?!
Who was it who said we reap what we sow?

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The thrill of creation

Posted in books, creativity, from the dark room, from the living room, from the reading room, life, personal growth, philosophy, photography on September 25, 2015| Leave a Comment »

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Is there anything more thrilling than witnessing or participating in creativity?

Whether it’s watching day by day as a seed grows into a full blossoming flower, or seeing a child acquire new skills through play and experimentation, acts of creation surround us.

We are a process of creation.

Every day we wake up changed, with new cells, new thoughts, new visions, new hopes and ideas.

Bergson wrote –

The more we study the nature of time, the more we shall comprehend that duration means invention, the creation of forms, the continual elaboration of the absolutely new. (L’Évolution créatrice, 1907)  
This way of thinking puts creativity at the heart of all Life. Creativity is just something which artists have. It’s how we live.
As Michael Foley writes –
This idea, that Life is its own creator and that creativity is not a late aesthetic refinement but the very principle of existence, was Bergson’s most radical and inspiring insight.
To see the universe as a creative process, stretching from the earliest formation of stars, through the appearance of galaxies and nebulae, to the creation of Earth and the emergence of life……isn’t it breathtaking?
Stuart A. Kauffman, sounding exactly like Bergson:
‘In the new scientific worldview I’m describing, we live in an emergent universe of ceaseless creativity in which life, agency, meaning, consciousness and ethics . . . have emerged. Our entire historical development as a species . . . has been self-consistent, co-constructing, evolving, emergent, and unpredictable. Our histories, inventions, ideas, and actions are also parts of the creative universe.’
Creativity is not just about art as practised by gifted, or professional, artists.
It’s our every day reality.
We, every one of us, is engaged in a continuous process of co-creation of our universe. A universe that grows, evolves and develops.
What makes creation thrilling?
Awareness.
The conscious awareness of it. Try it for yourself today.
See if you can notice the unfolding creation of the new.
Or perform a creative act. Make something. Express yourself.
Or notice how what you are doing involves creativity, as you make something new, bring something new into this universe.
See what that feels like.

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Constant creation

Posted in books, from the consulting room, from the dark room, from the living room, from the reading room, health, life, personal growth, philosophy, photography, science on September 24, 2015| Leave a Comment »

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Michael Foley, in his Life Lessons from Bergson, gives an excellent, concise description of the complex adaptive system model (even though he doesn’t actually use that term)

There is also the intellectual problem that, in a complex organism, the whole is never merely the sum of the parts and the parts are never entirely independent of the whole.
It’s amazing how often doctors forget this.
A whole person can never be understood from even the most comprehensive set of measurements from a laboratory and an imaging centre (where X-Rays and scans are carried out).
The whole person has to be encountered as the unique individual that they are.
As Mary Midgely, the philosopher, put it –
One cannot claim to know somebody merely because one has collected a pile of printed information about them
In complex systems, simple arithmetic doesn’t work, not least because the bonds between parts are so often integral parts of feedback loops, so a small change in one part can induce much greater change in another, and together the changes within the whole organism are way beyond what can be understood from analyses of single parts.
Also, there isn’t a single organ within us which acts by itself. In fact, there isn’t a single cell which acts in isolation. At all levels, from the molecular within the cell, to the whole person within a physical, social and cultural environment, nothing is “entirely independent of the whole”
An organism is a hectic, almost frenetic, process, operating far from equilibrium in a ceaseless metabolism that seeks out and draws in nutrients, converts them to energy, expels waste, and uses the energy to reproduce, and to regulate and renew its parts, so that its make-up is constantly changing though its structure is relatively stable.
We have such a sense of solidity, don’t we? We have such a clear sense of a unified identity which exists throughout the whole of a life. But our physical make up is really not so solid. As a living organism we are dynamic, always in motion, always processing energy, molecules and information from the environment and within us. We make ourselves anew every single day, our cells in a constant process of creation and destruction. I found that idea quite startling and exciting when I first encountered it. It means that life is a process of constant change and unceasing creation.
But there’s something else in that paragraph which I first read when studying the concept of complex adaptive systems – “operating far from equilibrium” – when I first studied biology I was taught about “homeostasis” – the processes which maintain the inner environment of the body is a state of equilibrium. I learned about many feedback mechanisms which sought to maintain a number of balances – blood pressure, muscle tension, the levels of various salts in the blood and so on. So learning that complex adaptive systems function “far from equilibrium” was a bit surprising. But then that’s how we change. That’s how we grow. It’s only by operating at the edge of the balance that we meet what is termed “bifurcation points” and undergo “phase changes” and “emergence”. I didn’t learn about those phenomena when I first studies biology or Medicine, but they are fundamental characteristics of all living organisms.
Shifting from a focus on checks and balances, to living complexity, can move us from seeing homeostasis as an end in itself, to seeing that it is only one element in the over all process of creativity and development.
As long as we live, we are never finished with these creative, developmental processes. As Michael Foley says –
there are no independent, isolated, finished organisms.

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Memory

Posted in books, from the dark room, from the living room, from the reading room, life, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology on September 23, 2015| 2 Comments »

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There are many theories about memory, and as far as I can see, nobody has really got it figured out yet. Probably one of our most common models is a filing cabinet. We have the idea that everything that happens and everything we ever learn is stored away in some drawer inside our brain. When we want to remember it, we just need to go to the right drawer and take it out.

The trouble is, we haven’t been able to find anything remotely like this filing cabinet in the brain. At the neurological level there seem to be many regions of the brain involved in the processes of memory, not just the hippocampus, although that does seem to be very important.

Rupert Sheldrake, in his Science Delusion, proposed an interestingly different model – one of resonance. Briefly, he suggests that memory is stored outside the person and in the universe, so recalling something is more like tuning in to a radio station. Once you hit the right wavelength you have access to the memory.

Henri Bergson had a different theory –

His intriguing theory was that all memory is like the muscle memory that enables the body to recall how to ride a bicycle or to swim. These muscle memories are not stored as representations and, similarly, the mind does not store recollections but in perceiving a situation instantly brings into play the appropriate previous mental responses, just like the body discovering itself on a bike or in the sea. So memory does not wait patiently in some dusty archive but is constantly and urgently pressing forward into perception, to the extent that the characteristic movement of memory is not from present into past but from past into present

In some ways, this is close to the neurological teaching of “what fires together wires together”. Memory, in other words, isn’t like a photographic image, a book, or a film archive. It’s a constantly active process of engaging with the world. It’s not about a file waiting to be found with the help of the right card index. It’s more like the way we learn to use our bodies – to walk, ride a bike or swim. When we do those actions we don’t have to go back into our brain stores and find the manuals!

The memory functions involved in these skills are embodied.

This is a surprisingly holistic model to develop years before we began to uncover the ways in which all of our mental processes are embodied.

One of the enticing aspects of this theory is that all that we have ever done, experienced or learned, is actually ever present, ever “urgently pressing forward into perception” in ways which deeply influence what we perceive, and also, what we do, now.

Of course, I bet some of you are thinking “memory is constantly and urgently pressing forward into perception”? So, why can’t I remember somebody’s name when I think about them? Why do I come back from the shop without some of the things I went to buy?

I don’t think a dynamic, active model of memory means that we have 100% recall. In fact, clearly, that isn’t the case for any of us, and however memory works, it sure doesn’t include the ability to remember every experience and piece of knowledge we have ever encountered. That’s probably for a very good reason.

I suspect it would be impossible to get through life if we didn’t manage to forget, as well as being able to remember……but then, that’s probably the subject of another post!

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