Transpersonal Connections Independent of Time and Space
Book Review & Personal Reflection
(this article was first published in the systemic constellations journal “The Knowing Field”)
by Max Dauskardt
When on page 23 and reading: “….space-and-time-independent transpersonal connections…” I was thrilled. Instantly, systemic and family constellations came to mind, giving me a buzz of anticipation that this was leading to a fundamental deepening of knowledge about the processes involved with constellations.
The book I am reading proposes by its subtitle to describe “an integral theory of everything.” What a fabulous claim to make! The urge to find out how Ervin Laszlo would deliver the goodies was irresistible, but tempered by a customary dose of scepticism considering the grandiosity of such a promise.
Ervin Laszlo was known to me as the founder of the Club of Budapest; however until early this year I had not had the opportunity to delve more deeply into his thinking. As I began reading my scepticism waned rapidly. Laszlo’s language requires full attention yet comes across as plausible, enticing the reader to follow his line of thinking. Bit by bit he builds the case for an informed way of looking at the phenomenon that is our universe.
In his own words he “tackled” the fundamental questions concerning the world through science – a quest he started from a non-scientific background when in his late 20s. At the tender age of 5 he had shown exceptional talent playing the piano and at the age of 9 he was accompanied publicly by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra and went on to pursue a successful career as a pianist. It is more than 50 years ago now since he began pursuing his quest in earnest. He studied and taught science at various universities, obtaining a PhD at the Sorbonne.
So why am I writing here about a book that does not even once mention systemic/family constellations as we know them? I am not proposing this to be a simple book review; it is more my personal reflection on the relevance of the subject matter for constellation work, a review of my personal journey towards understanding and clarity regarding this theme.
On studying Laszlo’s treatise, the phenomenon of representative perception for example, which we are constantly dealing with during constellation work, ceases to be seen as difficult to explain, in my view. The ‘Knowing Field’ has become embedded in a framework of scientifically grounded plausibility.
Ervin Laszlo has done all the ‘spadework’ towards providing a solid foundation for the notion that everything is connected with everything. He takes the reader on a journey through the history of science, dealing with the elemental stages and their protagonists, providing a conceptualisation of the term paradigm shift.
Let me attempt to condense and clarify my understanding:
Science is the process that comes up with theories related to and arising from the development of a methodology for observing the natural world. Newton, for one, was limited to the technology of his time in observing nature, yet was still able to explain the falling of the apple by postulating a universal law that applied to every organism in nature: the paradigm shifting notion of the G-Field, with gravity being the propelling force of that field.
A further major development came about as a result of the observation of both electric and magnetic forces, which culminated in the establishment of the EM-Field, resulting in another paradigm shift. Each paradigm shift is a step from the basic to the more refined understanding of the natural world, extending in both macroscopic and microscopic directions. Einstein simplified the cornerstones of scientific investigation by reducing them to energy and matter. This triggered a monumental scientific re-orientation early last century, in particular, relating to the discovery of ever-decreasing particles of matter in quantum physics. It was this that engendered the development of the next paradigm shift and continues to propel it forward to this day.
The speed of light is no longer the uncontested fastest possible velocity in the universe1. What happens at the quantum level cannot be fully explained by any scientific theory developed to date. Or as Laszlo writes, there are
“puzzles that crop up and accumulate in the course of scientific investigations; anomalies that the current paradigm cannot clarify.” (p. 14).
Entanglement
One such puzzle is the physical phenomenon of entanglement. To help explain the term, Laszlo evokes the image of particles at quantum level forming an endless sea – the quantum vacuum:
“The remarkable fact emerging from this sea of quantum mystery is that particles, and the atoms constituted by particles, are not individual beasts. They are sociable entities, and under certain conditions they are so thoroughly ‘entangled’ with each other that they are not just here or there, but in all measured places at the same time.”
“Their non-locality respects neither time nor space: it exists whether the distance that separates the particles and the atoms is measured in millimetres or in light-years, and whether the time that separates them consists of seconds or of millions of years.” (p. 29)
‘Entanglement’ of course is a term with a specific meaning in our constellation world. Bert Hellinger gives numerous descriptions of how entanglement is to be understood in the context of constellations2. (p. 2). For us human ‘social beings’ the conditions for our entanglements with one another are the family and ancestral dynamics we are involved in, which I believe, makes this entanglement a special kind of universal phenomenon.
We understand by now that particles are connected beyond time and space, forming atoms, which are forming molecules, which are forming cells, which are forming organisms and so on. Do these connections happen just randomly – as convinced Darwinists would have us believe? Laszlo is adamant in expressing the utter improbability of randomness as the driving principle in the evolution of nature. Many scientists have worked on the probability of our world being the way it is. He quotes one computation resulting in that probability to be just 1 in 1010-123 – an incredibly slim chance. (p. 145). The assumption is that there is ‘method in the madness’, as the expression goes. The question still remains though: what is it that makes particles behave the way they do, jumping out of the sea of energy to become matter and reversing back to the energetic state?
In-formation
The answer to that question is provided by adding one component to the concept of there being ‘only’ energy and matter. This component is information, not information as we understand it, like a piece of knowledge but, as first proposed by the physicist David Bohm, appropriately hyphenated: ‘In-formation’:
“the active, physically effective variety that ‘forms’ the recipient, whether it is a quantum, a galaxy or a human being.” (p. 61)
On a cosmic scale, where we are not limited to one universe, but have myriads of universes contained within the Meta-verse; where universes like ours come and go, Laszlo proposes that each universe is in-formed during its emergence by the preceding one as in turn it will in-form its successor. (p. 85).
On a human scale we observe the workings of in-formation during a typical moment of a constellation: the representative, not knowing anything about the people they are representing – in other words not possessing any information about that person, displays or feels some form of behaviour or emotion. Something in this representative is formed; he is literally in-formed. Remember how in awe we are when hearing the client utter in amazement: “He’s behaving just like my long dead grandfather.”
Collectively we as constellators have witnessed the effect of in-formation countless times, but we have struggled to understand this occurrence ourselves, not to mention the difficulties in explaining it to the world at large. How does information travel and subsequently become in-formation?
Progressing further on this scientifically grounded journey of discovery, I found it helpful to allow myself to become immersed in the above-mentioned infinite energy sea called quantum vacuum, as if zooming into it. With images in mind that come from electron microscopes or computer generated ones that take me ever deeper into the microscopic domain, I find it is possible to enter a meditative state from which to sense the vacuum – a state not unlike the one I experience when facilitating constellations.
Quantum Plenum
The empty space, so essential in Bert’s teaching, comes to mind3. Interestingly though, Laszlo suggests that we are actually not dealing with a vacuum, which is an empty space but rather with a space that is completely filled. From empty to full – the quantum vacuum becomes the quantum plenum. (p. 66).
The inconceivably refined level of quanta requires an adequate term. Plenum is appropriate, as it denotes the one important aspect: containing All. When considering the findings of astronomy, cosmology and quantum physics, it used to seem to me as if the edges of the macrocosm and the microcosm were moving further and further apart – separate entities stretching in opposite directions.
But the concept of the all-encompassing quantum plenum offers me another perspective and a possible solution for this riddle: There is only one infinity – the infinity of the quantum plenum. At a quantum level the microcosm and the macrocosm are one and the same.
Let’s look again at the phenomenon of particles being mysteriously present simultaneously in two places. This was first suspected after it was discovered that light has the dual characteristic of being both a wave and a corpuscular unit – the photon. The photon has become the particle of choice as the subject of innumerable scientific investigations ever since.
Laszlo sums up the findings and concludes that the emerging view of science seems to be: ‘the wave aspect of the particle is the fundamental aspect.” (p. 140) meaning a particle is ‘non-local’ – potentially everywhere simultaneously. To me the accepted fact that one particle is simultaneously present in different locations promotes the conclusion suggested above, that particles really are waves.
We associate waves first of all with water. We have observed a pebble dropped into a calm pond creating waves which expand in all directions. Waves created by a second pebble dropped interfere with the first, thus forming a combination wave. This third wave is in-formed with the energies of the parent waves. Another important fact is, waves can cancel each other out or magnify one another by way of interference. In our water-filled pond the expansion of waves is limited by the boundary of the pond. However, the quantum plenum pond is filled with waves that are unlimited in terms of time and space as that pond has no edge.
What underlies this limitlessness is the wave’s quality of coherence. The basic meaning of coherence is the regularity of the ups and downs of a wave, of its phase. At the quantum level coherence is more complex. I came to understand coherence in this context as meaning ‘harmonic stability’.
The Akashic Field
Once a quantum wave is created, being coherent, it continues forever in harmony with all other waves, carrying the in-formation imprinted on to it to all other waves it ever encounters, able to endlessly co-create new waves in the ‘limitless pond’ that is the quantum plenum. The plenum is thus a field, hosting the mysterious interplay of mass, energy and in-formation.
In the course of his pursuits, Laszlo firstly named this field the QVI (quantum/vacuum interaction) field, then the Psi-field, and currently he refers to it as the Akashic or A-field.
He points out that what’s contained in this field is not restricted to the physical realm but can equally apply to the emerging discipline of systematic consciousness research: “through this universal field all things are constantly and enduringly connected.” (p. 168)
The ‘Akashic records’4 is a term known to me for half a lifetime. I have always felt an affinity with a concept that proposes: everything that ever happened and was ever thought of, is recorded in an invisible realm, like an immaterial archive.
If we consider the globe-spanning archival function performed by the internet these days, the ancient idea of the Akashic records ceases to seem so far-fetched, if indeed it ever was.
Right from the beginning of my involvement with constellation work I sensed that the unfolding of a constellation was drawing on the Akashic records. Laszlo’s book ‘Science and the Akashic Field’ has substantially confirmed this view.
It is remarkable, but not surprising to note the development of both the constellation work that came to us through Bert Hellinger and Ervin Laszlo’s quest for an Integral Theory of Everything happened simultaneously. In constellation work the presence of a force field was sensed by all and later so aptly named by Albrecht Mahr, as The Knowing Field.
The Knowing Field and the A-Field are to my mind, without doubt one and the same, the former only being referred to in the specific context of constellation work.
With all of the above in mind let’s look once more at the phenomenon of representative perception: the energetic essence of the long dead grandfather from above is floating permanently wave-like in the akashic or knowing field. The instant his name or his person is mentioned during a constellation a wave/particle is generated which is coherent with grandfather’s permanent wave. The transpersonal connection to grandfather is established beyond time and space.
His representative in the here and now is human and thus endowed with the ability to resonate. He is touched by grandfather’s in-forming energy that is coherently present and in-forms the typical traits of this grandfather in him.
The constellation does not end here, however. During the course of some constellations, the representative for the grandfather may change from a rather harsh and unlovable, to a warm and benign person, emitting the corresponding different energy. Is this energy only generated for the duration of the constellation, to dissolve immediately afterwards?
With Laszlo’s treatise in mind we can safely assume, I believe, this new energy is in-forming a new grandfather-wave which too will be eternally and coherently present. Whether the meeting of the old and the new grandfather waves results, by way of interference, in the cancellation of some or in the magnifying of other grandfather traits, is a possibility worth considering. It would not mean history is re-written; it would simply add to the complexity of all there is.
This article is not an attempt to present conclusions as the absolute truth. Laszlo himself addresses the question, whether the mystery surrounding the behaviour of particles/ waves is resolved, with a definite: “Not by any means” (p. 141).
I suspect it required the inwardly centred mind of the professional concert pianist, used to being immersed in a kind of meditative state for hours each day, combined with the intellectual prowess and stamina to sift through libraries of scientific publications, to come up with an integral theory of everything – a theory which, for me, fosters a deeply felt understanding of the phenomena we encounter in constellation work. However, it is not at all restricted to that.
Goethe had his Faust famously yearning to recognise
“was die Welt im Innersten zusammen haelt” (5)
This universal longing has moved closer to being satisfied. I am hopeful that immersion in the A-field is leading us towards answering the question so poignantly posed by Goethe: what is holding the world intact at its innermost core?
Max Dauskardt
Acknowledgement
In gratitude to my wife Alemka, for the surprise gift of Ervin Laszlo’s book and for her feedback during the final stages of the above article.
Notes:
1. http://www.smh.com.au/technology/ sci-tech/particles-found-to-break-speed- of- light-challenging-laws-of-physics-20110923-1kntb.html
2. Hellinger, Bert(2002) Introduction to Family Constellations – Lecture and Demonstration in Taipei on October 11, 2001 from http://www.bert-hellinger. com print-out 16July 2011.
3. Hellinger, Bert (2002) The Phenomenological Approach in Psychotherapy using Family Constellations as an Example. From http://www.bert-hellinger.com print-out 16 July 2011.
4. http://www.answers.com/akashic+ records?initiator=IE7:SearchBox
von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Faust. Eine Tragödie. (Erster Teil). http://www.e-text.org/text/Goethe%20-%20Faust.pdf
Akasha – Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds
A movie. Great viewing on the “one vibrating field at the root of all religions”.
to view click here
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