Table of Contents
for
The Paradigm Conspiracy
Introduction
Recovery: The Art of Paradigm Shifts 1
The global crisis of addictions • The paradigm conspiracy • Making the shift: by death or by recovery? • What recovery is and isn’t • Not blame but accountability • Personal recovery as a personal paradigm shift • Not stopping with personal paradigm shifts • Time for “normal science” or “extraordinary science”? • Cashing in a paradigm/systems perspective • The personal paradigm shift goes public • Paradigm anatomy 101 • The threefold rhythm of shifting paradigms • Four by three equals ancient steps of transformation
Chapter 1
Pain and the Power of Shifting Assumptions 43
Going for the gold • Confronting pain-making assumptions • Shifting assumptions • Claiming our power • Normal science: justifying misery • Extraordinary science: “learning the truth” • The price of not confronting pain-makers • From the control assumption to insatiability • Struggling with the control assumption • Shifting assumptions: the Fool’s leap • Flexing our assumption-shifting powers • Paradigm shifts rippling out
Chapter 2
Power in Whole-Minded Shifts 79
May the force be with us • Real incentives to shift • Assumptions that block paradigm shifts • The insanity of half a brain • Thinking addiction • Opening ourselves and our systems to wholeness-change
Chapter 3
Power in Context 105
Contexts are change-shapers • Caught between ourselves and our systems • Contexts we’ve been raised to assume • Control-paradigm rules • Bad-news contexts day-to-day • “Accepting the truth” of wholeness as our context • Sketching whole-based contexts • Breaking the jug with “more”
Chapter 4
Self-Knowledge: Knowing our Paradigm-Filters 139
How do we form paradigms? • Through the hall of mirrors to where we are • Self-knowledge: a force for transformation • Inner observation • Observing our paradigm-filters • Evaluating our filters • Evolving our paradigm-filters
Chapter 5
Self-Disclosure: Breaking through Paradigm-Defenses 165
From paradigm-filters to paradigm-covers • Acceptable cloaking devices • System covers • Silenced by taboos • “Defensive routines” • Trapped in our own defenses • “Self-disclosure” cuts through defensive routines • “Hearing the truth”
Chapter 6
Self-Acceptance: Building Systems onWho we Are 189
How can we “make it so” and be creative? • Levels of change-strategies • The first prong: dialoguing with paradigms and systems • Social order: by brute force or “Soul-force”? • The second prong: dialoguing with our souls • Shame-blasted • Harnessing emotions with shame • Personal and system defects of character • Connecting with our souls transforms systems
Chapter 7
Dialoguing our Way to Social Order 217
The art of dialogue • Examples of dialogue • Dialogue and control systems: not exactly soul-mates • Closed systems • Closed-system models don’t work for human societies • Dialoguing our way to social balance and harmony
Chapter 8
Dialoguing with Our Connectedness 249
Awakening to connectedness • Connectivity from a Buddhist perspective • Space, time, and connectedness • Everyday connectedness • Isolated and alone • Ego-separateness and mental health • Responding to connectedness: two options • The closed-system response • Boundaries to the rescue—and beyond • An open response: embracing connectedness • Open to restructuring • Dialoguing with connections
Chapter 9
Connected Action 279
The super-connectedness of actions • Our soul-need to connect • Big-picture connectedness as the context of actions • Knot-tying actions • Acting from our souls • Soul-actors • Not being fooled by “bigness” • Leverage for change
Chapter 10
Conspiring ongoing Paradigm-Evolution 303
Having a paradigm and evolving too • Paedomorphosis, neoteny, and the inner child • Cycling and recycling through • A meta-paradigm
Chapter 11
Walking or Sleepwalking, Philosophy or Trance? 321
“I’m awake” • “Walking the truth” vs. sleepwalking • Philosophy or trance • The anatomy of a trance • Trance as a tool of oppression • Trances of dehumanization • Coming out of trance to walk our truth
Chapter 12
Changing the Consciousness-Grid 345
What’s our purpose within the big picture? • Consciousness is here to stay • Nonlocal consciousness-fields interacting • Ideas along the spectrum of consciousness • Big change—really big • The three faces of change • Where we come in
Index (extensive) 367