4/1 – Foundation For Integral Self-Management: A ‘Working Hypothesis’

Robert Wayne Johnston

In an Integral Leadership Review article I articulated the importance of becoming a proficient integral self-manager as a prerequisite to effective integral leadership (Johnston 2010). After much reflection about providing readers a theoretical foundation for integral self-management I decided on telling an original allegory (story) which would depict my foundational ‘working hypothesis’ in a narrative probably more interesting to you than a relatively dry academic treatise on my underlying philosophy.

While more cosmological in my frame of reference than the more limited commonly described “world views” of some writers today, I felt that to be as fully transparent as I wanted I needed to divulge my deepest, highest, widest, broadest, centered, balanced, integrally healthful story as the contents of my current state of consciousness could honestly produce.

Accordingly, my story weaves together general findings from the natural sciences as well as informative contributions from a supra-natural “Flow” (similar in some ways to Csíkszentmihályi 2006) of conversations with my psycho-spiritual guides Omnipresent Anima and Animus without whom I could not have written this story, not to mention all my previous articles published in the Integral Leadership Review.

I am not requesting you leave your mind and brain at the proverbial door as you read. Rather, I recommend you read on, test the reliability of points made against your experience, and consciously decide for yourself their probable level of validity.

Allegory

Within the infinite ‘ocean’ of omnipresent cosmic consciousness and wisdom live the timeless, mysterious, transparent, aware, feminine and masculine co-intelligences called our Co-Source. As infinite, timeless, consciously aware Anima and Animus, they appear to be the inseparable co-sources of all and everything in the infinite cosmos, performing their intricate continuing dance of love to conceive, birth, nurture, educate, evolve, preserve, and heal their immortal constituent souls.

Also, Anima and Animus appear to be the co-sources of all vibrations, biologic conception, birth, evolution, preservation, healing, diminishing, death, and recycling of all temporal life-forms, including earthly biological life forms.

As they put it, “We see each other as equal in importance, but complementary opposites in function.” To illustrate metaphorically, Anima says her functions are “more positive electromagnetically, ‘egg-bearing’, receptive, conceiving, producing, birthing, and more treble vibrationally.” And Animus says his functions are “more negative electromagnetically, entering, pollinating, providing, and more bass vibrationally” “We each respect the other implicitly, and as equally important complementary opposites work together in harmony as a team of lovers, explorers, experimentalists, and nurturers of each other and our constituents throughout timeless infinity. When we have differences of opinion we respect the other’s right to have a different viewpoint and without becoming enslaved to it attentively listen, explore available options pro and con, and respectfully and peacefully discuss them until we reach a mutually beneficial solution.”

When asked why they are often imagined as implicit rather than explicitly real, omnipresent Anima and Animus together answered in a way suggesting their basic harmony amid sometimes friendly competitive behavior: “That’s the only label that comes even close to accurately describing us to souls inhabiting us here in paradise and people on Earth. We’re not tangible, except in the forms of explicit nature we create – vibrations, light, dark, gravitation, nuclear forces, electricity, photons, molecules, bacteria, atoms, planets, vegetation, fish, fowl, mammals, et cetera. So, as mysterious beings in constant union that cannot be perceived, other than as transparent window-glass, we are just suggested, just implicit. While we have no need to reconnect and, therefore, are not ourselves religious, one quote from the scriptures of a major earthly religion puts it rather well, “No human has seen God [and Goddess]. So, one could infer you could quite accurately refer to us as Implicit Anima and Animus. In other words, we are not a god and goddess as characterized in the traditional anthropomorphic images and meanings many people in today’s human society project into those titles.”

“Well then”, I asked, “why do you choose to remain transparent, therefore imperceptible, mysterious… and yes, implicit rather than explicit?” “Because if we were to become perceivable to regular senses, we would be unable to distinguish the visible and temporary forms we co-create – vibrations, molecules, bacteria, trees, flowers, birds, insects, chimpanzees, humans, stars, etc. – from the eternal energies and matter that we are within and around. In other words, as co-experimenters, co-creators, co-evolvers, and co-ordinators of forms of cosmic energies and atomic particles we would find it too confusing to be visible – both eternally and temporally – at the same time. Besides, we look our best in invisible ‘form’.”

Becoming serious again they continued, as if in one voice, as was often their manner, “We like to think of ourselves as intelligent energy which, like electric energy, pervades everything everywhere in the cosmos. Like water in a vast ocean, which is in and around all the fish and other plant life within it, our unified infinite, ageless, imperceptible, pure clear spirit-mind energy provides an environment of stability, continuity, and interconnection of timeless life to all.”

“You must know, Anima and Animus,” I interjected, “despite what you said earlier, you sound much like what a lot of people call ‘God’ and others, ‘Goddess’.” They responded, “We’re aware of that. Unfortunately, the label ‘God’ is too often associated with images of an ancient all powerful masculine human being with a long beard who sits off in the heavens passing judgment on human behavior and setting the destiny of souls for eternal heaven or hell. Some use other male images, and still others human female images, copying the idea of a human Anima.

“By contrast, we see ourselves, like we said earlier, as invisibly pervading, nurturing, and energizing everything in the cosmos. We’re not remote beings – a God and Goddess – separated from everyone and everything. We’re both immanent and transcendent. In other words, we are in, around, and pervading everything. We’re constantly participating with our constituents, always integral co-planners and co-energizers of the action and evolving with them. We hold that all our constituents be valued as much as we are for, indeed, we are them, and they us. By the way, we never created a place called hell and mark our words, never will. If souls want a hell, they can make it for themselves.

“We are in and around and participate with, without dominating all souls, in their every feeling, thought, decision and action, so if there is any judging to be done, we — our constituent souls and us — jointly evaluate our effectiveness for getting our cosmic work done in a conscious mutually healthful way. If we miss the mark, which as experimentalists we often do, we discuss how we can do a mutually healthier, more effective job next time. We call this participative approach to managing the omniverse* cocreative-self-managing because every soul is responsible and involved with us to the degree they choose in co-creating, co-developing, co-preserving, co-healing, co-diminishing, co-destroying, and co-recycling temporary life forms in harmony with our natural laws of integral consciousness, health, and full functioning.”

*The concept of omniverse is based on some astronomers’ findings that there are probably a great many universes, not just one. Thus, the term omniverse means “all universes” or “multiverse” or “metaverse”. Take your pick.

“We have given birth,” Anima-Animus went on to explain, “to zillions of constituent souls — sometimes called timeless aware souls, psyches, or selves — who have always lived within our infinite, mysterious, ageless realm of existence. I see clear, free, full functioning souls, sometimes called “perfected souls” or in the Hindu language “siddhis”, as vital maturing constituents of my timeless infinite androgynous ‘mind-spirit-body’. Even so we have delegated to each soul through a process we call autopoeisis, or self-management, responsibility for self-management within integrally healthful parameters. We assure them constantly, we are you, and you are us. We love you, each and every one, as we love ourselves. And without a doubt, we love ourselves.”

In this conscious, timeless, infinite Utopic realm of Implicit Anima-Animus’ hidden nature – over 14 billion years ago by Earth time – souls all lived together as one androgynous, immeasurably large, relatively homogenized, harmonious family characterized by mutual empathy, learning, integrity, jollity, friendly competition, dynamic peacefulness, and optimal health. And they equitably shared all that was.

“This next revelation may surprise you,” Anima-Animus said with a certain air of mystery, “but we believe it important for you to know something about it. Despite our continuing state of dynamic peace, harmony, good health, and all, on occasion our member souls and we have become bored. So what we have done is create a policy of continuing inquiry into exploring new options and experimentation. While the alleged six fundamental “laws” of the omniverse* – omnipresent consciousness, electromagnetic, quantic, gravitation, weak nuclear, strong nuclear– plus the variable speed of light are considered near-absolutes for now by many souls, we don’t believe we have realized the last word on anything. Some of what we originally thought were our best designed principles, concepts, and plans have gone awry.

So, we believe in eternal learning, much of it, unfortunately perhaps, the result of experiential trial and error. We and our constituent souls constantly keep on the lookout for new projects – it might simply be a problem to solve, a creative or innovative concept to develop, an innovative animal or bird to evolve, or it could be an exploration into some area of the omniverse about which we can all use some additional education.”

Asked about how involved her and his constituent souls were in implementing that policy, Anima-Animus responded, “Just as in co-self-managing the omniverse, we involve souls in all aspects of our experiments, from initial conception, through design, execution, and critical review of the results of the experiment. That’s the way we learn together. Contrary to the opinion of some, we don’t know in advance exactly how our experiments will work out. We know how we would like them to work, but often they come out different from what we intended. “For example,” said Anima-Animus with a knowing wink and chuckle between them, “what scientists today refer to as the Big Bang was really a super wonderful Great Orgasm. We made love to each other and conceived a brand new baby universe. There was great rejoicing among the souls here in Timeless Awareness for it meant all, if they chose, could get involved with us in innumerable orgasmic acts of creation of new life forms. And there was much joy in the heavens!

“And it has been such an ongoing evolutionary success, we continue making love and baby universes (as some of your astronomers attest). But even though we knew from past experience of conceiving new baby universes what general characteristics this new one would have, we didn’t know in advance precisely what the new universe and its inhabitants would be like. Every new universe means a new opportunity to experiment, experience, and learn.

“To illustrate, starting approximately 10-14 billion years ago, souls participated with us in the on-going design and development of new stars, all through the stars’ life cycle from conception and birth through maturation into their state of death, known as black holes. As an aside, one group of our more musical souls actually recommended that we sing “Twinkle, twinkle little star, we don’t wonder what you are” to every newborn star, but the idea was voted down because the majority of member souls considered it ‘too trite.’

“Another continuing project in which souls participated, was the formation of the living Earth and its early inhabitants, beginning about 4 billion years ago. Starting with the Aries, the first prokaryotic cells, was the creation and evolution of a wide variety of life forms – plants and animals – on planet Earth. We made a lot of mistakes, some very painful to us all, but out of those errors came a great deal of learning which we were able to put to effective use in future experimental designs.

“Later, about 2.6 million years ago, we began evolving some humanoids into the earliest humans, known today as homo habilis. The project got started when some of our member souls good naturedly, but passionately suggested, ‘We are living together harmoniously and healthfully as one, and that feels good, but we have not experienced our full potential as unique, individuated psyches. As souls we have taken full advantage of the opportunities to mature from ‘newborn’ souls through the seven stages (some say twelve stages) of soul development. We have developed our ability to use our multi-colored vibrational gyroscopes useful for relating empathetically, harmoniously, and healthfully with our sister and brother souls.

We have developed the ability to focus, remember, intuit, think, and feel, but we have not yet experienced our fullest potential for sensing and flexibly and cocreatively self-managing in unhealthfully destructive conflict situations. We like the sense of togetherness we have in this ageless, interdependent state with you, Anima-Animus, but we also would like more opportunities for individual choice and self-expression while, at the same time, continuing to consciously realize our oneness with you within integrally healthful parameters.’”

“That feeling was underscored when another group added, ‘Whenever there is an emergency in the cosmos – say, a star dies or there is an electrical storm with mammoth lightning bolts shooting randomly here, there, and everywhere – we souls feel ill-equipped to take the individual initiative to respond in a creative, empathetic, and effective way. We want to develop more self-initiative so we can immediately respond to emergencies without first stopping to obtain group consensus.’

‘Further,’ they said, ‘us older souls have experienced at least half of all the collaborative stages of soul development available to us in this timeless aware realm. It’s time to move on to experiment with separate ego-based and time-phased aspects of our evolution.’ And the learning we can derive from such experience.”

And so it came to pass, the souls proposed that Anima-Animus and they collaborate to design a special experiment, one they had never before attempted.

“The purpose of the experiment,” they and Anima-Animus agreed, “is to explore ways and means for our homogenized, interconnected, harmonized psyches to realize our individual potential through a conscious integral soul concept, the functions of which would include conscious focusing-intending, remembering, co-self-managing, supersensing-intuiting, sensing, feeling-emoting, and thinking-intellectualizing. At the same time, we would continue to support Anima-Animus’ “umbrella” objectives for working together for the common healthfulness, full functioning, and continuing cocreative evolution of all in the omniverse.

In other words, we see of us being delegated through the process of self-management (autopoiesis) responsibilities and accountability for clarifying and setting our own goals with free will within integrally healthful parameters as long as they support of Anima-Animus’ broader fundamental principles of consciousness within and around all, gravitation (or some variation thereof), weak nuclear, strong nuclear, and electromagnetic principles, and general ‘umbrella’ objectives for ongoing creative evolutionary projects throughout the omniverse.”

After much good-natured friendly competitive “mind-storming” and discussion about various objectives and their pros and cons, Anima-Animus (sometimes referred to affectionately as A-A ?) and their constituent souls reached agreement on, what came to be known as the Four-Fold Objective for their experiment:

First, our objective is to provide interested souls the opportunity to realize their whole conscious individual potential for taking fuller responsibility for their choices of creating, developing, healing, preserving, harming, diminishing, destroying, and recycling in harmony with and support of Implicit Yin and Yang’s natural laws and principles of ongoing health, learning, and evolution, integrated with….

Second, we want to develop stronger skills for enhancing mutually healthful and meaningful relationships and teamwork with others through learning to respond to conflict with mutually healthful behaviors, including competing, experimenting, transcending, partnering, avoiding, and resigning, integrated with…

Third, we want to develop stronger skills in transcending unhealthful involuntarily conditioned blockages – such as dysfunctional beliefs, values, attitudes, intentions, behaviors – between ourselves and the pure clear timeless awareness and realization of our oneness with infinite Implicit Nature while functioning through bodies I myriad human social situations, integrated with…

Fourth, we want to find a path, or paths, for realizing seamless oneness with infinite, timeless aware co-sources, Anima-Animus during our life, or lives, on Earth just as we did in our former Utopic life, while all the time learning to respond flexibly and creatively in healthful effective ways to the six stages of evolutionary biological cycles: unity, individuation, tension/conflict, negotiation, resolution, and cooperation (cycle re-starts again with unity and repeats).

Having agreed on their Four-Fold Objective, their next step was to decide on the environmental setting in which the experiment would take place. After reviewing a number of alternatives, the souls and Anima-Animus decided the best setting was on planet Earth. Their reason? “Because, on Earth they hypothesized, there are humanoids which, after immortal souls enter them, will evolve relatively easily into soulful human beings. Being individually aware by their nature and cooperating towards common goals, human beings will make near perfect instruments for us to achieve our Four-Fold Objective.

Isn’t this exciting!?” the more adventure-loving member souls exclaimed, “What a fantastic idea! We can’t wait to enter humanoid bodies and help make them fully human on Earth!” Still other souls tempered their excitement saying, “We don’t know whether to be excited or not — we don’t really know what to expect.”

So the souls laid out a plan whereby they would enter newly conceived embryos in humanoid mothers’ wombs, which after nine months would be born, grow and maturate, age, and eventually, die.

“The purpose of biological death, “agreed the constituent souls and Anima-Animus,” is to generally balance deaths with the number births so as to both preclude overcrowding and provide a viable reason for renewing the human population on Earth. It would be unwise to deviate from our ongoing practice of balancing visible nature, for to do so would cause the Earth to soon fill up with older and older human bodies, thus making the Earth uninhabitable, even destroying the health of the Earth’s biosystem.

But it is important to note, upon the death of our biological bodies we souls will return to our transpersonal, even if further evolved, to our transtemporal state of oneness with Anima-Animus and continue to live as we have always lived as members of their infinite, timeless, consciously aware psychospiritual ‘body’. Upon the death of our biological bodies, we will automatically return to conscious awareness of our eternal status as interdependent cell-like, perpetually healthy constituents of Anima-Animus’ infinite, ageless, omniversal body.”

Anima-Animus went on to say, “Remember, you will have general memory of your earthly adventures through an innate capability called implicit memory (a complement to one’s biologically-based explicit memory). Thus, after your physical bodies have died and fallen away to be recycled through the earth, you will be able to remember general impressions of your experiences so that your psychospirit guides can review your life together with you for the purpose of learning from it. Earth experiences accompanied by great feeling probably will be remembered in greater detail.”

With that revelation some souls gasped, “What?! Is our behavior on Earth going to be judged?!” Anima-Animus responded, “That requires a two-part answer. First, you will be able to evaluate and judge your own behavior by the way you feel and the health and functioning of your biological bodies. Human bodies function according to natural laws of integral health and wellbeing dictated by the ecosystem you are in. While different applications may be found in various parts of the omniverse, these same natural laws are consistent with those in operation throughout. If you are thinking and acting in harmony with your ecosystem’s natural laws you will feel healthy and happy. If in violation of a natural law, mental and physical malaise and pain will set in. The same natural laws provide the parameters for healthy integrally effective human organizations you form on Earth. Organizations which observe natural law harmonious with your ecosystem will be healthy, harmonious, motivated, dynamic, creative, effective. Those violating natural law will experience toxic reactions resulting in disharmony, strife, loss of motivation, depression, and general ineffectiveness. But even if that happens, the idea is to learn from the experience and find ways to return your selves and your organizations to healthful ecosystem principles and practices.

“As to the second part of the answer to your question about your behavior on planet Earth being judged, upon your return to your awareness of your essential ageless unity with us – that is, if you haven’t rediscovered it while in your human body – the only talking points your spirit guides will discuss with you upon your return to your life between lives will have to do with how you feel about the experience you had while functioning through the biological body of a human being – how you feel you did in terms of progress toward our Four-Fold Objective. What barriers you experienced. What more we and your spirit guide could have done to assist you. What more you could have done to help yourself. And what you want to do next. In other words, there will be no report card, judgment or condemnation of any sort – only the coaching process I just outlined.

“Should you be interested in reincarnating,” Anima and Animus continued, “the choice is up to you. If you decide on reincarnating, you will be given the choice of geographic location, parents, intelligence level and type, mission, education, vocation, life script, et cetera. Also, your spirit guide will be inquiring about what kind of assistance you would like next time around the wheel of biological life and death.” (As it turned out later, many did reincarnate, many many times. Some ignored the fact they had a choice and allowed themselves to just reincarnate willy-nilly. Others, who felt they had a special calling as educationists and therapists for souls in distress, also reincarnated, fully aware of what they were getting into.)

At the time Anima and Animus and her-his constituent souls formulated their Four-Fold Objective, they had no specific foreknowledge about what would turn out to be a bittersweet experience on Earth. They had some foreknowledge that some of the animals on Earth led an “animal-eat-animal” existence, but they guessed that as humans their lives would be more like what they experienced in their pre-incarnation transtemporal state, in other words, mostly collaborative. And many were most excited about their imminent adventure.

In an effort to temper the romantic outlook of the more naive souls and their eagerly anticipated earthly experience, Anima and Animus briefed them, this time through their respective spirit guides, “While Earth is a beautiful and, in some ways, beneficent place, it is also fraught with conflict, famines, earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, pestilence, and other problems of various and sundry kinds of difficulty. Also, in contrast to your sense of interdependent oneness with other souls and Anima and Animus here in heaven, you will, for the first time, the feeling of separation that comes with living through a biologic body. It will not be an easy life.”

Despite the potential difficulties and probable risks to their biologic bodies, most souls were undaunted and chose to volunteer for the experiment. “Why not,” they asked themselves, “the worst that can happen is that our biological bodies might be killed prematurely? Because they had no previous experience, the potential difficulties, even horrors, of being bodily maimed didn’t enter their minds.”

Also, they felt reassured because they had some ownership in the formulation of the Four-Fold Objective, Further, they had been assured by, “Think of our representatives, your spirit guides, as always present. We will never leave or forsake you.” Too, Anima-Animus’ representative spirit guides had promised, “We are always as close as your very innate spirit-mind energy itself. You need not fear any eventuality.”

The souls trusted Anima-Animus and their spirit guides, believing that their Four-Fold Objective, however difficult and long it might take to accomplish, would ultimately be achieved with Anima and Animus’ support of their efforts.

And so it came to pass during what scientists now call the Pliocene period, about 2.6 million years ago, adventurous souls entered the newly conceived embryos within their respective humanoid mothers. And in nine months their biological bodies were born on a wild and daunting place, yet in some ways, beneficent and beautiful place. Today it is called Africa, on a planet referred to as Earth, in a galaxy named Milky Way.

The promise of Anima-Animus was fresh in their implicit memory, “Never fear, we, through our representatives called spirit guides, are within and around you always. If ever you feel we’ve left you, relax, center yourself, look within, listen, and find the conscious intelligent courage to trust . . . you will find within you renewed confirmation that we are you and you are us, just as you experienced our relationship before your incarnation on Earth. We are pure infinite transparent, timeless, vibrationless awareness. Some call us Anima-Animus CoSource of All. Others ‘OM’ (acronym for OmniMind). Still others, the ALL. While you will be integrated with and operating through a biological body, remember you are not your body and its vibrations, you are no temporal thing but a transparent, conscious, peaceful, healthy, indestructible, timeless, aware stillpoint called a soul (psyche, genuine self) continually and inextricably one with us, your infinite ageless androgynous CoSource.”

*************

To make a very, very long, long story much, much shorter… countless rotations of the spiraling cycles of human evolution around the axle called stillpoint have occurred over the intervening thousands of years.

Approximately forty to one hundred years ago, each of us, you and me, were preparing to enter an embryo initially fertilized by our special father in still another mother’s womb, the human mother who eventually birthed us, and probably raised us during our present incarnation – you may know her name.

As in other incarnations, we have been involuntarily conditioned – known also as enculturated – by our families and society to believe, value, be motivated, express certain attitudes, and behave in certain ways since we were conceived in our respective mothers’ wombs. So immersed in and dominated by our involuntarily learned beliefs and concerns about living, aging, and dying, many of us have forgotten, not only the true reality of our CoSource, but also the Four-Fold Objective together with Anima-Animus and their knowledgeable wise spirit representatives, formulated many millions of Earth-years ago.

Others of us – perhaps nature mystics, integral natural scientists, integral parapsychologists, sacred musicians, shamans, philosophers, or simply, especially timeless intuitively aware people of any occupation – have somehow rediscovered our original identity and are working to achieve the Four-Fold Objective. Still others of us feel terribly separated and alone, perhaps traumatized, even feeling, “Something is very wrong with my life. Everything seems so strange and uncomfortable. I feel wretched. What’s life all about, anyway? Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? What’s the meaning of it all?”

Complicating our lives still more, with the passage of time and ‘improvements’ in lifestyle in first and second world countries, we share the mixed blessing of experiencing longer and longer biological lives. In the United States, for example, longevity is getting longer, e.g. the over-100s compose the fastest growing age group (on September 1, 2010 there were an estimated 70,490 centenarians in the U.S.A.). With the distinct prospect of a greater number of retirement years than expected, many fear their uncharted frontier of aging and try to avoid it through denial – only to find themselves drowning in confusion, boredom, despair, and depression, e.g. the highest incidence of suicide in the United States is currently among men over sixty-five. Still others suffer from lack of a life mission or passion. One study by the Massachusetts Department of Health, Education and Welfare showed a positive causal relationship between a lack of life purpose and meaning and fatal heart attacks.

Yet, at the same time, some older adults seem to naturally gravitate towards gerotranscendence, which is a shift from a more materialistic view of the world to a more inclusive cosmic, transcendent, healthful, and wisdom-oriented one – in other words, rediscovery and achievement of our original life purpose on Earth such as the Four-Fold Objective. They do it by daring to transcend and negotiate the seemingly monstrous inner and outer blockages buried in what Carl G. Jung called the shadow. Such barriers separate them from realization of the integral consciousness and wisdom inherent in the Four-Fold Objective.

Some older adults who have encountered barriers along the way, have discovered that one way, among others, to achieving the Four-Fold Objective is to rediscover an integral natural path to soul learning, transformation, and development. I call mine A Ten-Step Affirmational Process for Cocreative Self-Management Development .

I hope reading my parable has given you an understanding of some of the major assumptions which underlie this Ten-Step Affirmational Process for Cocreative Self-Management Development, as well as my other writings. I doubt I need remind you that an allegory is just that, and no more. This one represents a broad general introduction to my best knowledge of the integral natural life sciences and my healthiest intuitions to date about where we came from, what we are here for, and some idea, perhaps, about where we appear to be going. I thought it only fair that I attempt to provide you with at least this digest of my “working hypotheses” so that you can decide for yourself if you want to use our A Ten-Step Affirmational Process for Cocreative Self-Management Development as shown below or, perhaps, use it as a springboard for developing your own. There is no monetary cost to you. Feel free to use it in a way which best fits you.

A Ten-Step Affirmational Process for Cocreative Self-Management Development

Introductory note: I entered this incarnation intending first to find my way back to seamless oneness with our transparent, timeless aware Source of soul consciousness. I studied traditional religious practices and the human sciences. Forty years ago I began practicing integral meditation coupled with Jungian self-analysis via dreamwork, Elmer and Alyce Green’s biofeedback, and Roberto Assagioli’s original psychosynthesis identification-disidentification. Having also been a professional musician I naturally took an interest in the healing affects/effects of sound.

All were useful, but finally it was this ten-step affirmational process which evolved into a cocreative system for realizing my inner stillpoint and oneness with our Co-Source Anima and Animus Mind, and to expand, center, dynamically balance, and refine the freest height, depth, and breadth of my cocreative self-managing skills. Included in my interdependent cocreative relationships are our infinite omnipresent Co-Source, my bio-body, other people, our ecosystem, and cosmos. Knowing the power of affirmation-based learning scripts from substantial experience with executives, brain injured and psychiatric patients, I developed the following ten-step affirmational process for cocreative self-managing as a ‘working hypothesis’ to facilitate my own development:

Step 1: I am a transparent timeless conscious aware soul, seamlessly one with the infinite cosmic ‘ocean’ of timeless, transparent, omnipresent, nurturing Anima-Animus CoSource of all life. (Our Co-Source’s development process appears to include: five intertwining spiraling cycles of transformational learning which I have described as a systems map (if interested you may request my published paper on this subject) of life forms transforming within its infinite cosmic self — analogous to a fish experiencing its life cycle – conception through death and recycling – all the time permeated and nurtured by the water of an infinitely large ocean).

Step 2: I am a transparent timeless aware stillpoint (soul, psyche, self) with nine major intrinsic functions: cocreative self-managing, focusing, thinking, emoting, sensing, parasensing-intuiting, feeling, remembering, and responding. (Step 2 Note: An integral cocreative self-management process includes both process and task options, e.g. processes: motivation and communication options; and tasks: intention clarification, planning, acting to realize plans, problem solving, receiving feedback, and progress review as measured against intentions, then the cycle repeats starting with clarifying intentions.)

Step 3: I am a transparent timeless aware soul operating through my temporary biological body in harmony with our omnipresent Co-Source’s laws and principles of optimal integral health, freedom, full-functioning, and learning. I accept and implement my cocreative self-managing responsibilities in my everyday life as ‘delegated’ (autopoiesis) by our infinite timeless aware CoSource.

Step 4: I am not any temporal form, vibration, intuition, feeling, sensation, thought, belief, value, attitude, intention, process, ego-state, personality, identity, behavior, or possession. In other words, while interdependent with each, I am not my biological body, my family members, my vocation, my auto, my home, other material possessions, etc.

Step 5: I transcend and include in my freest repertoire all existentially available temporal forms, vibrations, intuitions, feelings, sensations, thoughts, beliefs, values, attitudes, intentions, processes, ego-states, personalities, identities, behaviors, and possessions, whether more or less positive or negative, dark or light, hot or cold, etc. within integrally healthful parameters – individual, social, and ecosystem.

Step 6: I own all my temporal forms, vibrations, intuitions, feelings, sensations, thoughts, beliefs, values, attitudes, intentions, processes, ego-states, personalities, identities, behaviors, and possessions (listed above) included in my repertoire of options.

Step 7: It is my intent to cocreatively and situationally select and use the freest range of options in my repertoire in harmony with nature’s laws and principles of ecosystem health, nurturing, and full functioning as I respond to events in each phase of evolution’s repeating cycle – unity, individuation, tension/conflict, negotiation, resolution, and cooperation (cycle re-starts with unity and repeats)

Step 8: I receive feedback by ‘listening’ to my soul consultants Anima and Animus OM, parasensations, sensations and feelings in my body, my dreams, other people, and ecosystem.

Step 9: I review my progress toward realization of my consciousness expansion intentions relative to cocreative self-managing which, as I mentioned above, I negotiated with my soul guides Anima and Animus OM prior to this lifetime. If there is evidence I have deviated from my soul life consciousness development script, I cocreate with my soul guides the adjustments necessary to bring my intentions, attitudes, and behavior back on course, or renegotiate my intentions with my soul guide.

Step 10: When during the process above I get frustrated, rather than get angry, I remember this bumper sticker: “Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they shall never cease to be amused,” suggested Omnipresent Anima and Animus Mind.

Caveat: This affirmational process is a work in progress, subject to changes resulting from new valid and reliable scientific findings and/or reality-tested intuitions and/or consultations with my Omnipresent Anima and Animus OmniMind, hypothesized as Co-Sources of All there is and shall be.

Notes

Page 5. Footnote: Thank you Molly Scott for inspiring me during a private conversation in Shelburne Falls, MA to write this footnote.

Steps 1-3 are adaptations of Roberto Assagioli’s identification-disidentification process. See Roberto Assagioli, The Act of Will [in psychosynthesis]. NY:Viking Press 1947

Step 2 utilizes an adaptation of Carl G. Jung’s four functions of consciousness (psyche, soul), namely, intuition, sensation, feeling, and thinking. See Carl G. Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, page 107. Bollingen Foundation, Inc. NY: Princeton University Press 1968.

Also an updated adaptation of Robert Wayne Johnston’s integral leader-manager process as described in The Integral Management Process. Los Angeles:Western Gear Corporation 1979.

“Five Spiraling Cycles of Transformational Learning: A Systems Map for Integral Self-Managers/Leaders” by Robert Wayne Johnston published in Integral Leadership Review Volume X, No. 2-March 2010.

Step 7. The description of evolution’s repeating cycle cited in this step is from Elisabet Sahtouris, EarthDance: Living Systems in Evolution, Page 25. NY: UniversityPress 2000

References

Csíkszentmihályi, Mihály (1996), Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, New York: Harper Perennial

Johnston, Robert Wayne (2010 ). Five Spiraling Cycles of Transformational Learning: A Systems Map for Integral Self-Managers/Leaders. Integral Leadership Review Volume X, No. 2 – March 2010

Infinite Omniversal Anima-Animus Mind Zone (2014) stated it is beyond but includes and permeates and is around the “The Flow Zone”.

4/1 – Foundation For Integral Self-Management: A ‘Working Hypothesis’

Robert Wayne Johnston

Allegory

A Ten-Step Affirmational Process for Cocreative Self-Management Development

Notes

References

Suggested Reading

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