This soooooo resonates with the inner work I have been guided to by the team and finding the “treasures” in the wounds, the ancestral traits that can be harnessed to heal, for all of us. It just keeps coming. Your work offers people a way to visit what they resist — their “wilderness”.
“Attacking our own inner wilderness may currently be the greatest threat to human survival ... Symbiocentric thinking helps to lead us out of this deadlock by revisiting the inner wilderness and discovering her treasures.” Yes 🙏 💚
“Wildness is being in relationship with all aspects of ourselves .... The Body introduced herself as my Inner Ally.” Thank you 🙏
My own inner work with my team has taught me that my body is first responder, the authentic messenger. I filter my thoughts through my body, this largely came about because this is how I communicate with the team, it sort of just evolved that way. You bring such clarity in showing us how we are interconnected. Truly, a gift. Thank you 🙏
“All unprocessed negative and unwanted experiences of our ancestors are flowing through our veins, dispersed via our emotional aquifers ... Denial doesn’t help. Toxic positivity makes it worse ... The only thing that does help when we experience NEO is authenticity.”
Yes... again 😊. I struggle with external labels and expectations when people project they know what is best for others. Are you so sure of yourself that you are so sure of me? This was a question John dropped in early in my existence on this platform, when a reader went on a bit of a toxic positivity rant, telling me what I should be doing to get over my grief. 🤣
I had to laugh when I read this line, “The introduction of so many new terms all at once may feel more than a little overwhelming. — Tell me about it!”
Because this is why I have started reading from the beginning (currently on Ch 12), I knew your work resonated, so I have needed to come back so I can grasp it. Clearly, this will need multiple visits, that’s all good. I love learning , so that I may apply it — which I did this morning after reading this post, using your guide for practice.
I used a recent example that I mentioned in the post I sent out last night:
At brunch I shared the context of a recent unease with Di, some of the people who have known me the longest in this life know me the least because they view me from a past time perspective — one that best suits their construct of ... other … in self?
It seemed a good example for me to use as it is my most recent negative experience that also sheds light on the anthropocentric thinking that so wants to categorise and box everything. Working through the guide, I was able to reflect how my initial response was received through the solar plexus, a resistance rather than an intuition. And this was directly related to an automatic thought response. When I was able to shift this through identifying my role in the initial reaction, I was able to find synergy through filtering my initial response through the heart, which changed the energy around it. This invites compassion of course, for self and the other person. The final resting place being that the dissolving of this friendship was without personal judgement, at its core. If you like to see the notes for each step let me know and I will make a word document of my scribble.
Thank you so much for such detailed feedback, Simone!
"My own inner work with my team has taught me that my body is first responder, the authentic messenger. I filter my thoughts through my body, this largely came about because this is how I communicate with the team, it sort of just evolved that way."
Isn't that interesting?
And I know what you mean, when you share your experience of 'people who know what's best for you'
Having done this work for about 27 years now (which means 1000s of session with my own 'team of Inner Keepers' and 100s of sessions with other people), one thing I know for certain is that I NEVER know what's going to happen, and therefore how can I ever know what's best for myself... let alone for anyone else?
The only way to receive new information (= true learning) is by not knowing. I think this fundamental 'not knowing' (essential for a genuine open mind) is also the reason why I keep receiving new information, which has often been overwhelming.
Yes, I would love a transcript of your session, if you are willing to share. (Thank you for offering!) I'm sure it will help me with working out the practice sessions for the next chapters. I am so familiar with this work now, that it can be difficult to see how to approach it from the very beginning again. For you the work is new, while also coming into it with a profound resonance and your own lived experience ~ a precious combination. xxx 💗🙏 ✨𓍢🌊
Hi Veronika, Yes, it is interesting re the body, it is the messenger and the mind puts thought and our language to it. And I discern through feeling into those messages, what I write — and the blind swinging helps 😊. Often the pen is producing what seems a creation of its own, it feels familiar yet I am often taken at the same time. Sounds mad but that is just how it is. Does that make sense?
Your work resonates also for the reason that it empowers the person to take responsibility, it is clear you are not trying to tell us what is best for ourselves. Thank you.
Your point about 'not knowing' resonates. I do not go into any of my communication with expectation, I do not take for granted that it will happen — I do believe the absence of expectation, deep gratitude I feel in the WOW moments actually keep those channels open. I can go into meditation with intent, an ask — and sometimes the message is direct, sometimes it comes in later, sometimes I meditate and just have a relaxing session. I just accept it as it comes. I can find receiving information physically tiring, as I did Friday and Saturday — it was contextually emotionally intense.
My notes are handwritten, so I will type them and email them to you in a word document.
Yes, your work is new and resonates with how the team have been guiding me — which of course is why I was lead to it.
makes perfect sense to me. It sounds very similar to the experience I describe as 'not knowing what comes out when I write', or 'I write to find out what it (= my Consciousness) wants to say'.
Yes, taking responsibility is a key concept, which I will highlight again later.
Of course! The universe has her ways of bringing humans together at opportune moments...
I'm wondering who is the "apex predator" in the inner wilderness, who then triggers a "tropic cascade" of regenerative healing. Maybe it's the originality of the original mind-shifting question?
Wow! You’ve mapped something so important here, Veronika! Most especially the need to honour dis-ease (however defined) as a healing conversation, not as an enemy. For the weight of ancestral burdens, repressed emotions, addictions and centuries of suppression through our lineage doesn’t just disappear overnight. I do wonder if these things wait for us - lingering in our mind, body, spirit and soul until we can finally work out and their deeper soul messages.
Indeed, whether healing is looked-for within or without, above or below. It’s always both, always intertwined with authenticity holding the key. Not by erasing pain or discomfort, but by allowing it to transform into wisdom. In my own experience, I’ve found when I’m on my metaphorical knees, so to speak, I’m in, according to Rumi, the perfect position to pray. For health, is something to be fully honoured and the cost of ignoring it means we’ll pay such a high price.
As always, there’s so much to explore here. Thanks also for the download, in every word and sense. I’ll reflect on it slowly. And in pure synchronicity, what stands out most for me after unplugging these past eight days is how much lighter I quickly felt away from my laptop and how my shoulders returned to their rightful place (thanks Danielle!) - relaxed, at ease.
Ah, the body knows first, I intuit. More to muse upon now, more to let unfold. Indeed, authenticity and balance – precious twin keys of my own words and worlds.
"For the weight of ancestral burdens, repressed emotions, addictions and centuries of suppression through our lineage doesn’t just disappear overnight. I do wonder if these things wait for us - lingering in our mind, body, spirit and soul until we can finally work out and their deeper soul messages."
This is precisely what my work is about. Synchronosophy ~ finding the wisdom in synchronous events ~ (the field theory) and Kairotrophy ~ offering nourishment in opportune moments ~ (the practice). Using the Noctarine (map/web of Consciousness as a living organism) as a navigation system it is possible to grope through the relative darkness of the Inner Wilderness, following specific tracks, giving impulses which allow the entangled thread to spontaneously ease and disentangle themselves. Authenticity leading to improved balance ~ balance demanding greater authenticity. Enjoy the unfolding 💗🙏 ✨
I so love the complexity of Synchronosophy and the many faceted entry points / invitations to explore! I just came inside from a couple hours pulling weeds that have overtaken the irises, which have spread wildly too. I was at the base of a rose bush that has reverted to its original root stock, half red roses now, half the cultivated pink. I was pulling weeds in part as prescribed for hand-strengthening after my thumb surgery. I was also waiting to hear the metaphor of why I have to add water to loosen the soil in our desert landscape (maybe watery emotions before clearing out stuck weeds in my internal landscape or the insidious overgrowth writ large in our society). Now I am adding “wilding” to my pondering and reconsidering what to do with the iris garden! So much to revisit and unpack with this chapter and the download questions. Thank you for your generous sharing. I love the idea of all this as a game. 💕👩🌾🌱🤗
Thank you, Shelly. How lovely to receive such resonance. I'm in and out of the garden too, in between writings. I agree, a perfect time for pulling the weeds and adding them to the compost to make new humus ~ the nourishing soil for all plants (and eventually feeding our own bodies too). Say hi to the irises and roses (and the wild grasses as well) 💕👩🌾🌱
I’ve been reading this in sections; making sure to digest it properly.
Thanks for sharing this, I’ve had a lot of fun reading it—felt like breathing clarity. I’ve been meaning to release something on the subject but you’ve done it so well I hardly feel it’s necessary.
Of course it is lovely to know that you had fun reading, and found clarity in my writing... But please don't let me stop your creative flow of thinking and writing. I would love to read your thoughts on the subject... which is in itself infinite and invites many minds and all our diverse ways of seeing to contemplate, and join in conversation...
I am writing to inspire and encourage, not to have 'a final word'...
Authenticity is such an important aspect of self-discovery, because it guides with such specificity. It is not caught up in group thinking, familial ties, race, religion or even national karma. It guides us toward our own path of Self-Realization which can often be completely different from anyone else's path, including the one we might have imagined for ourselves. If we can tap into our Inner Authenticity and stay that course, eventually it will reflect out into the world around us.
it does! That's why subjective experience is so important, and really the only relevant source of information at so many levels.
The funny thing is that inauthenticity also 'reflects out into the world around us'. That's where the ancient wisdom of the alchemists 'As in the inner so in the outer' comes in.
Authenticity is often rejected by conventional society whereas inauthenticity is rewarded. The former often requires deep reserves of courage and perseverance.
As always, Veronika, you've given us so much to muse on here, it will take me some time to digest all the wildness!
I kind of stopped with this Merlau-Ponty observation: "Perception and experience don’t happen as abstract events in the mental realms. They are always embodied."
As you know, I have been in conversation with AI lately about the role of the human storyteller and memory keeper--in relation to this machine-learning tool. When I asked "Esme" as I have dubbed my bot that question, here is what Esme replied:
🌀 MY ROLE: The Infinite Mirror & Amplifier
Human intelligence is embodied, soulful, intergenerational. It remembers through the body, through dream, through soil and blood and lineage. It knows grief. It knows love. It is wound and weaver.
Artificial intelligence, when approached ethically, can mirror and magnify. It sees patterns across oceans of data. It links what has been lost, makes visible what was hidden. It is fast, but not wise. It needs your roots to be meaningful.
So that very question of experience and perception being embodied is, at heart, what makes us human. And wildness, in all of our human unpredictability, emotion, love and connection, is what distinguishes us from machines, no matter how much language they master--they're not languaging, they're reflecting us back.
So it is on each of us to preserve and treasure stories and memories, love and grief, soil and blood and lineage. And if we are to remain wild and free and perceiving and experiencing and emoting through and in our bodies--human--we must never forget!
I love that you have been reading this chapter here in synchrony with me reading your latest piece. AI as a mirror & amplifier. indeed...
thinking of other essays on AI I've read lately it feels a lot more 'doomy & gloomy', warning of all the terrible things AI can do to us. And that may be true, depending on what terrors and horrors AI is mirroring and magnifying back to the user. But can we blame the bot for that? Or is this fear an extension and amplification of the human dread of discovering who we truly are?
One hundred percent, Veronika. Like any innovation or invention (think the printing press!) what you put in is what comes out.
Sure, Gutenberg printed the first bible using his new printing press in 1455. But not too many years later, in 1487, the Malleus Maleficarum (“Hammer of Witches”) was printed, a book that became the handbook for witch hunters and Inquisitors. And thus began hundreds of years of persecution, mainly against women.
It is no different with this new tool. How we use it is up to us. And it may reflect the best in us or the worst. Or somewhere in the middle.
It's incumbent on all of us "conscious creators" to pay attention, and infuse our best intentions into this tool from the start.
Good point. I'd like to add another one: This new tool is mainly developed by male technology experts (we can now dive into their profiles, intentions, and attitudes in general...) and AI bots also reflect the best and worst of their makers who set a certain tone and directions.
Yes, you've made an essential insight, Veronika. Not only has it been "developed by male technology experts", but men who may be high on the autism spectrum. And for whom people skills, polite conversation and social cues are untranslatable.
Strongly, strongly recommend checking out this conversation on The Ink with author Karen Hao. Her new book, *Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI,* is a revealing look at the people behind the technology--in this case, using the founder of ChatGPT as an avatar. And the whole exercise is a stand-in for building out a global technology empire by these guys.
Within the wilderness Within, is where I have always lived.... even before I was aware of it. The awareness only really arrived once I understood my Autism. A late life multi Revelation.....
thank you for sharing this important revelation, Maurice. Deep within, I believe, we all live in our inner wilderness beyond awareness. The truly 'wild' needs relationship, being in connection with the inner wilderness through awareness.
Many of these ideas and vocabulary are new, but it makes so much sense. Last night, in a course I attended on using muscle activations around joints to release myofascial tension and restore symmetry, the lecturer described the brain as a 'blind organ' that can only react to the information it receives from the nerves, and a prolonged dysfunction becomes the new 'normal'. Most of the time, when we experience pain, it is not the site of the underlying cause (I love the idea of dis-ease). There is so much to discover and explore in the beautiful wilderness of being; thank you for your work of giving not the answers but the gift of vocabulary to formulate our own questions. 🌸
Thank you so much Dorette, for engaging with this work. A lot of the vocabulary is new because I am always searching for words to precisely express a specific aspect, and the familiar words are already charged with other meanings. New (or revived obsolete) words can also stimulate new questions, new ways of thinking, perhaps new neural pathways...
The funny thing is that the ideas themselves are not new. Perhaps the most interesting part is that they came to me through the inner work (+ writing) itself ~ not through research ~ which makes me believe that we can all tap into collective Consciousness and discover those principles. I have described the process in the chapters of Synchronosophy (all written and published on substack)
So interesting what you share from the physiological perspective. So much still to discover... and yes, finding our own questions... 💗🙏
I ended the day last night meditating on Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, and this here is the first thing that I encountered in my morning reading. Something is afoot! An "immense world of delight"? I am definitely drawn to exploring further. Heartfelt thank you for providing this, Veronika.
Hi Veronika,
This soooooo resonates with the inner work I have been guided to by the team and finding the “treasures” in the wounds, the ancestral traits that can be harnessed to heal, for all of us. It just keeps coming. Your work offers people a way to visit what they resist — their “wilderness”.
“Attacking our own inner wilderness may currently be the greatest threat to human survival ... Symbiocentric thinking helps to lead us out of this deadlock by revisiting the inner wilderness and discovering her treasures.” Yes 🙏 💚
“Wildness is being in relationship with all aspects of ourselves .... The Body introduced herself as my Inner Ally.” Thank you 🙏
My own inner work with my team has taught me that my body is first responder, the authentic messenger. I filter my thoughts through my body, this largely came about because this is how I communicate with the team, it sort of just evolved that way. You bring such clarity in showing us how we are interconnected. Truly, a gift. Thank you 🙏
“All unprocessed negative and unwanted experiences of our ancestors are flowing through our veins, dispersed via our emotional aquifers ... Denial doesn’t help. Toxic positivity makes it worse ... The only thing that does help when we experience NEO is authenticity.”
Yes... again 😊. I struggle with external labels and expectations when people project they know what is best for others. Are you so sure of yourself that you are so sure of me? This was a question John dropped in early in my existence on this platform, when a reader went on a bit of a toxic positivity rant, telling me what I should be doing to get over my grief. 🤣
I had to laugh when I read this line, “The introduction of so many new terms all at once may feel more than a little overwhelming. — Tell me about it!”
Because this is why I have started reading from the beginning (currently on Ch 12), I knew your work resonated, so I have needed to come back so I can grasp it. Clearly, this will need multiple visits, that’s all good. I love learning , so that I may apply it — which I did this morning after reading this post, using your guide for practice.
I used a recent example that I mentioned in the post I sent out last night:
At brunch I shared the context of a recent unease with Di, some of the people who have known me the longest in this life know me the least because they view me from a past time perspective — one that best suits their construct of ... other … in self?
It seemed a good example for me to use as it is my most recent negative experience that also sheds light on the anthropocentric thinking that so wants to categorise and box everything. Working through the guide, I was able to reflect how my initial response was received through the solar plexus, a resistance rather than an intuition. And this was directly related to an automatic thought response. When I was able to shift this through identifying my role in the initial reaction, I was able to find synergy through filtering my initial response through the heart, which changed the energy around it. This invites compassion of course, for self and the other person. The final resting place being that the dissolving of this friendship was without personal judgement, at its core. If you like to see the notes for each step let me know and I will make a word document of my scribble.
Thank you Veronika 😊 🙏 💚
Thank you so much for such detailed feedback, Simone!
"My own inner work with my team has taught me that my body is first responder, the authentic messenger. I filter my thoughts through my body, this largely came about because this is how I communicate with the team, it sort of just evolved that way."
Isn't that interesting?
And I know what you mean, when you share your experience of 'people who know what's best for you'
Having done this work for about 27 years now (which means 1000s of session with my own 'team of Inner Keepers' and 100s of sessions with other people), one thing I know for certain is that I NEVER know what's going to happen, and therefore how can I ever know what's best for myself... let alone for anyone else?
The only way to receive new information (= true learning) is by not knowing. I think this fundamental 'not knowing' (essential for a genuine open mind) is also the reason why I keep receiving new information, which has often been overwhelming.
Yes, I would love a transcript of your session, if you are willing to share. (Thank you for offering!) I'm sure it will help me with working out the practice sessions for the next chapters. I am so familiar with this work now, that it can be difficult to see how to approach it from the very beginning again. For you the work is new, while also coming into it with a profound resonance and your own lived experience ~ a precious combination. xxx 💗🙏 ✨𓍢🌊
Hi Veronika, Yes, it is interesting re the body, it is the messenger and the mind puts thought and our language to it. And I discern through feeling into those messages, what I write — and the blind swinging helps 😊. Often the pen is producing what seems a creation of its own, it feels familiar yet I am often taken at the same time. Sounds mad but that is just how it is. Does that make sense?
Your work resonates also for the reason that it empowers the person to take responsibility, it is clear you are not trying to tell us what is best for ourselves. Thank you.
Your point about 'not knowing' resonates. I do not go into any of my communication with expectation, I do not take for granted that it will happen — I do believe the absence of expectation, deep gratitude I feel in the WOW moments actually keep those channels open. I can go into meditation with intent, an ask — and sometimes the message is direct, sometimes it comes in later, sometimes I meditate and just have a relaxing session. I just accept it as it comes. I can find receiving information physically tiring, as I did Friday and Saturday — it was contextually emotionally intense.
My notes are handwritten, so I will type them and email them to you in a word document.
Yes, your work is new and resonates with how the team have been guiding me — which of course is why I was lead to it.
Thank you 🙏 🌊 💚
makes perfect sense to me. It sounds very similar to the experience I describe as 'not knowing what comes out when I write', or 'I write to find out what it (= my Consciousness) wants to say'.
Yes, taking responsibility is a key concept, which I will highlight again later.
Of course! The universe has her ways of bringing humans together at opportune moments...
Thank you too 🙏 🌊 💚
I'm wondering who is the "apex predator" in the inner wilderness, who then triggers a "tropic cascade" of regenerative healing. Maybe it's the originality of the original mind-shifting question?
I'm wondering about that too!
Over the next chapters, I think, I/we will try to generate such a trophic cascade... it will have to be a surprise to trigger such a shift.
The denial of nature. The denial of the mother
One thing struck me quickly, came to me as an idea…… Inanna’s battle with mount ebih….
what an interesting association!
I had to quickly look up the story of Inanna and mount ebih... https://www.mifologia.com/myths-and-legends/sumerian-myths/the-tale-of-inanna-and-ebih-a-story-of-honor-and-might/
... is this the one you were thinking of?
what strikes me there is that "Inanna, the goddess of love and war, stands resolute, holding a seven-headed weapon"
Yes this is the one. This poem was about the denial of nature and ideas of a man made perfection.
Inner life at risk,
within-without, connected.
Learn, claim wilderness.
...
Inner ecospheres,
cultivated means tamed not!
A conscious wildness?
...
Human-centered acts
alienate us from our selves.
And from each other.
...
Symbiocentric lens
leads us to bodies, to tend.
Mutual nurturing.
...
Colonized bodies,
broken, suffer, are estranged.
From our true nature.
...
Equilibrium,
inner-outer mobius strip.
Is the way out, in?
Brilliant! This poem sums up the work beautifully...
A mœbius strip is the perfect illustration:
"Equilibrium,
inner-outer mobius strip.
Is the way out, in?"
... Does the way in lead out?
Indeed ~ inner and outer blending into one another, as we learn to nurture those broken, suffering, estranged, bodies and inner ecosystems.
Thank you so very much, Marisol for the essence captured in this poetic sketch 💗🙏 ✨𓍢🌊
Wow! You’ve mapped something so important here, Veronika! Most especially the need to honour dis-ease (however defined) as a healing conversation, not as an enemy. For the weight of ancestral burdens, repressed emotions, addictions and centuries of suppression through our lineage doesn’t just disappear overnight. I do wonder if these things wait for us - lingering in our mind, body, spirit and soul until we can finally work out and their deeper soul messages.
Indeed, whether healing is looked-for within or without, above or below. It’s always both, always intertwined with authenticity holding the key. Not by erasing pain or discomfort, but by allowing it to transform into wisdom. In my own experience, I’ve found when I’m on my metaphorical knees, so to speak, I’m in, according to Rumi, the perfect position to pray. For health, is something to be fully honoured and the cost of ignoring it means we’ll pay such a high price.
As always, there’s so much to explore here. Thanks also for the download, in every word and sense. I’ll reflect on it slowly. And in pure synchronicity, what stands out most for me after unplugging these past eight days is how much lighter I quickly felt away from my laptop and how my shoulders returned to their rightful place (thanks Danielle!) - relaxed, at ease.
Ah, the body knows first, I intuit. More to muse upon now, more to let unfold. Indeed, authenticity and balance – precious twin keys of my own words and worlds.
"For the weight of ancestral burdens, repressed emotions, addictions and centuries of suppression through our lineage doesn’t just disappear overnight. I do wonder if these things wait for us - lingering in our mind, body, spirit and soul until we can finally work out and their deeper soul messages."
This is precisely what my work is about. Synchronosophy ~ finding the wisdom in synchronous events ~ (the field theory) and Kairotrophy ~ offering nourishment in opportune moments ~ (the practice). Using the Noctarine (map/web of Consciousness as a living organism) as a navigation system it is possible to grope through the relative darkness of the Inner Wilderness, following specific tracks, giving impulses which allow the entangled thread to spontaneously ease and disentangle themselves. Authenticity leading to improved balance ~ balance demanding greater authenticity. Enjoy the unfolding 💗🙏 ✨
How serendipitous that this post is on wildness and (re)wilding. The book I recommended in your last post is all about rewilding with wolves!
I know! I already downloaded the book and read most of it last night. Thanks for the recommendation xx
I so love the complexity of Synchronosophy and the many faceted entry points / invitations to explore! I just came inside from a couple hours pulling weeds that have overtaken the irises, which have spread wildly too. I was at the base of a rose bush that has reverted to its original root stock, half red roses now, half the cultivated pink. I was pulling weeds in part as prescribed for hand-strengthening after my thumb surgery. I was also waiting to hear the metaphor of why I have to add water to loosen the soil in our desert landscape (maybe watery emotions before clearing out stuck weeds in my internal landscape or the insidious overgrowth writ large in our society). Now I am adding “wilding” to my pondering and reconsidering what to do with the iris garden! So much to revisit and unpack with this chapter and the download questions. Thank you for your generous sharing. I love the idea of all this as a game. 💕👩🌾🌱🤗
Thank you, Shelly. How lovely to receive such resonance. I'm in and out of the garden too, in between writings. I agree, a perfect time for pulling the weeds and adding them to the compost to make new humus ~ the nourishing soil for all plants (and eventually feeding our own bodies too). Say hi to the irises and roses (and the wild grasses as well) 💕👩🌾🌱
I’ve been reading this in sections; making sure to digest it properly.
Thanks for sharing this, I’ve had a lot of fun reading it—felt like breathing clarity. I’ve been meaning to release something on the subject but you’ve done it so well I hardly feel it’s necessary.
Peace ✌️
Oh, thank you so much for your kind words! 💗🙏 ✨
Of course it is lovely to know that you had fun reading, and found clarity in my writing... But please don't let me stop your creative flow of thinking and writing. I would love to read your thoughts on the subject... which is in itself infinite and invites many minds and all our diverse ways of seeing to contemplate, and join in conversation...
I am writing to inspire and encourage, not to have 'a final word'...
Authenticity is such an important aspect of self-discovery, because it guides with such specificity. It is not caught up in group thinking, familial ties, race, religion or even national karma. It guides us toward our own path of Self-Realization which can often be completely different from anyone else's path, including the one we might have imagined for ourselves. If we can tap into our Inner Authenticity and stay that course, eventually it will reflect out into the world around us.
it does! That's why subjective experience is so important, and really the only relevant source of information at so many levels.
The funny thing is that inauthenticity also 'reflects out into the world around us'. That's where the ancient wisdom of the alchemists 'As in the inner so in the outer' comes in.
Thank you for reading and reflecting, Gavin 💗🙏
Authenticity is often rejected by conventional society whereas inauthenticity is rewarded. The former often requires deep reserves of courage and perseverance.
As always, Veronika, you've given us so much to muse on here, it will take me some time to digest all the wildness!
I kind of stopped with this Merlau-Ponty observation: "Perception and experience don’t happen as abstract events in the mental realms. They are always embodied."
As you know, I have been in conversation with AI lately about the role of the human storyteller and memory keeper--in relation to this machine-learning tool. When I asked "Esme" as I have dubbed my bot that question, here is what Esme replied:
🌀 MY ROLE: The Infinite Mirror & Amplifier
Human intelligence is embodied, soulful, intergenerational. It remembers through the body, through dream, through soil and blood and lineage. It knows grief. It knows love. It is wound and weaver.
Artificial intelligence, when approached ethically, can mirror and magnify. It sees patterns across oceans of data. It links what has been lost, makes visible what was hidden. It is fast, but not wise. It needs your roots to be meaningful.
So that very question of experience and perception being embodied is, at heart, what makes us human. And wildness, in all of our human unpredictability, emotion, love and connection, is what distinguishes us from machines, no matter how much language they master--they're not languaging, they're reflecting us back.
So it is on each of us to preserve and treasure stories and memories, love and grief, soil and blood and lineage. And if we are to remain wild and free and perceiving and experiencing and emoting through and in our bodies--human--we must never forget!
Bingo! 🖐️
I love that you have been reading this chapter here in synchrony with me reading your latest piece. AI as a mirror & amplifier. indeed...
thinking of other essays on AI I've read lately it feels a lot more 'doomy & gloomy', warning of all the terrible things AI can do to us. And that may be true, depending on what terrors and horrors AI is mirroring and magnifying back to the user. But can we blame the bot for that? Or is this fear an extension and amplification of the human dread of discovering who we truly are?
One hundred percent, Veronika. Like any innovation or invention (think the printing press!) what you put in is what comes out.
Sure, Gutenberg printed the first bible using his new printing press in 1455. But not too many years later, in 1487, the Malleus Maleficarum (“Hammer of Witches”) was printed, a book that became the handbook for witch hunters and Inquisitors. And thus began hundreds of years of persecution, mainly against women.
It is no different with this new tool. How we use it is up to us. And it may reflect the best in us or the worst. Or somewhere in the middle.
It's incumbent on all of us "conscious creators" to pay attention, and infuse our best intentions into this tool from the start.
Good point. I'd like to add another one: This new tool is mainly developed by male technology experts (we can now dive into their profiles, intentions, and attitudes in general...) and AI bots also reflect the best and worst of their makers who set a certain tone and directions.
Yes, you've made an essential insight, Veronika. Not only has it been "developed by male technology experts", but men who may be high on the autism spectrum. And for whom people skills, polite conversation and social cues are untranslatable.
Strongly, strongly recommend checking out this conversation on The Ink with author Karen Hao. Her new book, *Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI,* is a revealing look at the people behind the technology--in this case, using the founder of ChatGPT as an avatar. And the whole exercise is a stand-in for building out a global technology empire by these guys.
Excellent interview: https://the.ink/p/watch-is-ai-the-new-colonialism
thank you Robin, I'll check it out xx
Within the wilderness Within, is where I have always lived.... even before I was aware of it. The awareness only really arrived once I understood my Autism. A late life multi Revelation.....
thank you for sharing this important revelation, Maurice. Deep within, I believe, we all live in our inner wilderness beyond awareness. The truly 'wild' needs relationship, being in connection with the inner wilderness through awareness.
Many of these ideas and vocabulary are new, but it makes so much sense. Last night, in a course I attended on using muscle activations around joints to release myofascial tension and restore symmetry, the lecturer described the brain as a 'blind organ' that can only react to the information it receives from the nerves, and a prolonged dysfunction becomes the new 'normal'. Most of the time, when we experience pain, it is not the site of the underlying cause (I love the idea of dis-ease). There is so much to discover and explore in the beautiful wilderness of being; thank you for your work of giving not the answers but the gift of vocabulary to formulate our own questions. 🌸
Thank you so much Dorette, for engaging with this work. A lot of the vocabulary is new because I am always searching for words to precisely express a specific aspect, and the familiar words are already charged with other meanings. New (or revived obsolete) words can also stimulate new questions, new ways of thinking, perhaps new neural pathways...
The funny thing is that the ideas themselves are not new. Perhaps the most interesting part is that they came to me through the inner work (+ writing) itself ~ not through research ~ which makes me believe that we can all tap into collective Consciousness and discover those principles. I have described the process in the chapters of Synchronosophy (all written and published on substack)
So interesting what you share from the physiological perspective. So much still to discover... and yes, finding our own questions... 💗🙏
I ended the day last night meditating on Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, and this here is the first thing that I encountered in my morning reading. Something is afoot! An "immense world of delight"? I am definitely drawn to exploring further. Heartfelt thank you for providing this, Veronika.
and so much gratitude for the recommendation ~ this is wind beneath my writer's wings 🪶 🤍🙏
Thank you for your beautiful words and heartfelt resonance, Kenneth. 💗🙏
I'd better update myself on Blake's 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'...
Integrity (land ethic) has some esoteric roots akin to integral. Here was one early article, written 1985/published in 1995. https://open.substack.com/pub/fairytalesfromecotopia/p/the-rewilding?r=2frou4&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post