rhythmical discharges from subcortial structures

Three different words for three different kinds of gibberish, a simple path to primordial pasts, perhaps a link to the divine:

lalation: "ga ga goo goo gaa ga"

(babytalk)

embolalia: "um...uh...um....errr..."

(meaningless syllables)

glossolalia: "ehbu ondu wan akka rar"

(speaking in tongues, and similar phenomenon)

"And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. / And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. / And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. / And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."
-- Holy Bible, King James, The Acts of the Apostles, 2:1-4

"It is, then, this pattern of essential ingredients, the strong cognitive imperative of religious belief in a cohesive group, the induction procedures of prayer and ritual, the narrowing of consciousness into a trance state, and the archaic authorization in the divine spirit and in the charismatic leader, which denotes this phenomenon as another instance of the general bicameral paradigm and therefore a vestige of the bicameral [pre-speaking] mind."
-- Julian Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, 1976. 

The Nine Roles for Management Teams

British administrative researcher and management theorist Meredith Belbin described nine archetypes for the roles played by members of project teams. Belbin's 1981 book, Management Teams, describes this model in depth, and later publications revised it.
A good management team generally contains at least one person for each role; however, there are particular tasks for which other combinations work better.  Incidentally, Belbin denies that these roles can be cross referenced directly to Jungian or enneagram personality types.

• Plant: A creative, imaginative, unorthodox team-member who solves difficult problems. They sometimes situate themselves far from the other team members, and return to present their 'brilliant' idea.
• Resource Investigator: The networker. Whatever the team needs, the Resource Investigator is likely to have someone in their address book who can either provide it or know someone else who can provide it.
• Chairman or Co-ordinator: Ensures that all members of the team are able to contribute to discussions and decisions of the team. Their concern is for fairness and equity among team members.
• Shaper: Loves a challenge and thrives on pressure. This member possesses the drive and courage required to overcome obstacles.
• Monitor-Evaluator: A sober, strategic and discerning member, who tries to see all options and judge accurately. Contributes a measured and dispassionate analysis and, through objectivity, stops the team committing itself to a misguided task.
• Team Worker: Ensures that interpersonal relationships within the team are maintained. Sensitive to atmospheres and may be the first to approach another team member who feels slighted, excluded or otherwise attacked but has not expressed their discomfort.
• Company Worker or Implementer: A practical thinker who can create systems and processes that will produce what the team wants.
• Completer Finisher: The detail person, possessing a good eye for spotting flaws and gaps and for knowing exactly where the team is in relation to its schedule.
• Specialist: In 1988, Belbin appended a ninth team role, the "Specialist", a person who brings 'specialist' knowledge to the team.

Diggers Ranters Consociates

Representative writings from three intentional, nearly-autonomous, common-creed communities of the 17th Century.

DIGGER
The Diggers were perhaps first and foremost a social justice movement in that their membership was comprised of landless common folk determined to work and farm common lands in the English countryside, claiming this was their God-given right, and their only escape from the oppression of serfdom, against strident opposition.  The made-for-BBC film, Winstanley, is a fantastic depiction.

from The True Leveller's Standard Advanced... (April 20, 1649). [aka the First Digger Manifesto]

The Work we are going about is this, To dig up Georges-Hill and the waste Ground thereabouts, and to Sow Corn, and to eat our bread together by the sweat of our brows. And the First Reason is this, That we may work in righteousness, and lay the Foundation of making the Earth a Common Treasury for All, both Rich and Poor, That every one that is born in the land, may be fed by the Earth his Mother that brought him forth, according to the Reason that rules in the Creation.

RANTER
The Ranters were an anarchistic tribe of English radicals who held fast to the apparently heretical belief that God resides in all things and all creatures and that the laws of humanity are superseded by a self-actualizing understanding of the cosmos.  They were never able to stay in one place for too long.  Today we might think of their philosophy as bordering on moral nihilism.

from A Fiery Flying Roll:
A Word from the Lord to all the great ones of the Earth, whom this may concern:
being the last warning piece at the dreadful Day of Judgement,
for now the Lord is come to
 1. informe 
2. advise and warne 
3. charge 
4. judge and sentence
the Great Ones. By Abiezer Coppe, London 1650.

I saw various streams of light (in the night) which appeared to the outward eye, and immediately I saw three hearts (or three appearances) in the form of hearts, of exceeding brightness; and immediately an innumerable company of hearts, filling each corner of the room where I was. And methoughts there was variety and distinction, as if there had been several hearts, and yet most strangely unexpressably complicated or folded up in unity. I clearly saw distinction, diversity, variety, and as clearly saw all swallowed up into unity. And it hath been my song many times since, within and without, unity, universality, universality, unity, Eternal Majesty, etc. And at this vision, a most strong, glorious voice uttered these words: The spirits of just men made perfect. The spirits, etc. with whom I had as absolute, clear, full communion, and in a twofold more familiar way, than ever I had outwardly with my dearest friends and nearest relations.

CONSOCIATE

Thomas Morton's scandalous erection of a Maypole in the settlement of Merry-Mount (Mount Wollaston, what is now Quincy, Massachusetts) is described in William Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation and formed the basis for Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1836 short story, The May-Pole of Merry-Mount. Morton and his colony were clearly inspired by the nature and the natives of the New World, and temporarily maintained an autonomous pagan utopia.  Here is Morton's account of the revels at Merry-Mount.

from Revels in New Canaan, by Thomas Morton (1637)
The Inhabitants of Pasonagessit (having translated the name of their habitation from that ancient Savage name to Ma-reMount [MerryMount]; and being resolved to have the new name confirmed for a memorial to after ages) did devise amongst themselves to have it performed in a solemne manner with Revels, and merriment after the old English custome: prepared to sett up a Maypole upon the festivall day of Philip and Jacob ; and therefore brewed a barrell of excellent beer, and provided a case of bottles to be spent, with other good cheer, for all comers of that day. And because they would have it in a complete forme, they had prepared a song fitting to the time and present occasion. And upon Mayday they brought the Maypole to the place appointed, with drums, guns, pistols, and other fitting instruments, for that purpose ; and there erected it with the help of Savages, that came thether of purpose to see the manner of our Revels. A goodly pine tree of 80 foot long, was reared up, with a pair of buckshorns nailed one, somewhat neare unto the top of it : where it stood as a faire sea marke for directions; how to finde out the way to mine Hoste of Ma-reMount.

Literature encoded in DNA

The J. Craig Venter Institute this year managed to build a complete genome sequence--artificial DNA-- and install it into a bacterial cell. The strand took over operations of its host cell and began reproducing. Many have claimed that this event might be remembered as a major step toward artificial life.

There is something sinister about the entire enterprise, to me at least, but there is one aspect of the story that reminds us that even the mad scientist bent on playing God harbors a latent artist within.  The Venter team apparently encrypted several literary passages and coded them into otherwise unused portions of the DNA sequence.  This is actually something of a trend nowadays amongst that small group of actual artists (harboring latent scientists within) for whom genes are a primary medium.  See, for example, artists Joe Davis and Eduardo Kac.


The quotations encoded onto the bacteria's DNA:

“See things not as they are, but as they might be.” -- Robert Oppenheimer

“What I cannot build, I cannot understand.”  -- Richard Feynman

“To live, to err, to fall, to triumph, and to recreate life out of life.” -- James Joyce


I would like to learn that the Venter Institute folks have given up their Frankensteinian hubris and have instead chosen to devote their time to a hunt for encoded poetry in the unused portions of existing creatures.  Could there be alien Kabbalah the strands of my own cells?

Facial hair and high office

We've conducted a thorough survey, and, of the forty-three men who have served as President of the United States, only five wore beards. That's less that 12 percent. Abraham Lincoln was the first, and the other four were all amongst the seven office holders that consecutively followed him. Another three U.S. Presidents wore moustaches, all during those three decades that followed Lincoln.

Only two Presidents dared alternative hair styles, both during the early 19th Century. Martin Van Buren wore amazingly huge mutton chops, and James Polk wore a mullet.

of ego and body

The ego is ultimately derived from bodily sensations, chiefly those springing from the surface of the body. --Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, 1936.

People's bodies were my biggest technical problem from the start. --Allan Kaprow, A happening conversation with AK DATA 16/17, 1975.

Ancient Chinese Animal Taxonomy

Ancient Chinese science is abundant with five-point taxonomies, based upon an evaluation of and categorization based upon inherent essence, or Qi. In each case, disparate phenomenon are grouped together and considered interrelated because of their similar Qi-based traits, with certain qualities corresponding portably across systems. Zou Yan, a scholar from the 3rd Century BCE, is sometimes attributed with the first catalog of this kind.

Here is the classification of animals, with their correlations to the elements, seasons, compass directions, and colors.

SCALEY (fish and reptiles) • Wood • Spring • East • Green/Blue

FEATHERED (birds) • Fire • Summer • South • Red

NAKED (humans) • Earth • Late Summer • Center • Yellow

HAIRY (mammals) • Metal • Autumn • West • White

ARMORED (terrapin) • Water • Winter • North • Black

Eustatic Excursions and Hyposometric Illusion

Sea level in not a place; it is an ideal that assumes still seas, unmoved by tides, enwrapping a perfectly spherical planet, damping the shores of immobile continents. Neither are the seas' distribution uniform nor our globe near regular. The ocean, you'll see on certain days, makes no distinction between itself and the atmosphere; the horizon is a haze; there is no surface. Our scrutiny is foiled.

Eustasy is the mean average of ocean levels, abstracted from local conditions, and today is measured by satellite networks and figured out by computerized algorithm. It's constantly changing. Most obvious is the 24 hour 54 minute tidal cycle brought on by the ocean's relationship to the gravitational force of the moon, but also affected by the sun and other heavenly bodies nearby.

The freezing and thawing of water globally shrinks and swells the ocean by several hundred meters over the epochs. But long term eustasy becomes indiscernable when considering hard-to-trace variations caused by the epierogenic--or bobbing--motion of the continental plates. Likewise, the shoreline travels up and down as the lands move, grow, and collapse. The density, and thus surface, of the ocean changes with tidal influences as well as long term changes in oceanic temperature and large-scale atmospheric and seismic pressures enacted from above and below. The accumulation rate of sentiment at the bottom of the sea varies from minute to minute; the deep seaman's bob gets buried rather quickly.

Again, if we want to believe anything, we must have faith in an unchanging, singular center, in infinitesimal point, a true center of the Earth, from which to pull our virtual tape measures, and read the height of the seas. Is there a gravitational balancing point in the heart of this mass? If so, could this spot be anything if not miraculous?

Nine Taxonomical Universals

Each human culture develops its own set of categories and classifications for the natural world. Linnaeus classified the raccoon, for instance, as a bear, placing it in the genus Ursus. The raccoon was later moved to its own genus, Procyon, which means "dog-like" though many people think of them as rodents, more closely associated with a badger, opossom or weasel. Before European contact, some groups of Native Americans understood the raccoon to be a cousin of Man.

It is appropriate, here, to distinguish between folk taxonomies and scientific taxonomy inasmuch as our current scientific classifications are the result of broad consensus amongst current practitioners of the art of naming (not without controversy, of course). But what is interesting is that, independent of this formal body of knowledge, we automatically and naturally make associations and categorize things around us.

We all agree, scientist and non-scientist, that a raccoon is a mammal. Everyone on Earth, it turns out, makes the mammalian distinction, just as we all agree that if it has fins and swims in the sea, it's a fish (in most cases).

Cecil Brown, a linguistic anthropologist at Northern Illinois University, and expert in lexical acculturation, language universals, and the comparative study of Mayan languages, has researched folk taxonomies in 188 languages, and concluded that there are nine universal classifications for living things.

Fish

Birds

Snakes

Mammals

Wugs (aka worms and insects)

Trees

Vines

Herbs

Bushes

Carol Yoon recently published a fascinating account of the history of taxonomy titled, Naming Nature: The Clash Between Science and Instinct, (W.W. Norton & Co., 2009).

Leary's Eight Circuits of Consciousness

Timothy Leary theorized eight functionally distinct circuits in the nervous and neurological system. I interpret them through Robert Anton Wilson from a site sent by Magoo.

Not surprisingly, Leary was quite specific regarding which drugs (and, to be fair, other mind-altering activities) one can take to achieve consciousness of these separate "mind-circuits." Safe bet he was under the influence when he cooked up this taxonomy.

Compare this scheme with Howard Gardner's Theory of Eight Intelligences.

BIO-SURVIVAL

Basic Fear and Desire, as well as Object recognition.

Opiates give one a taste of this circuit.

EMOTIONAL

Territorialism, Aggression, Submission, and Cooperation.

Alcohol stimulates brain #2.

DEXTERITY-SYMBOLISM

Tool-making, Conceptual Thought, and Logic.

Caffeine, of course!

CULTURE

Cross-generational Transmission of Tribal and Cultural Norms.

Hormones, especially pubescent hormones, develop this brain.

NEUROSOMATIC

All-encompassing Sensory Space, Mystical experience.

Cannabis is the gateway to this circuit, as well as yoga.

NEUROELECTRIC

Meta-awareness, Trans-species Communication, preparation for meeting other Intelligent Lifeforms in the Cosmos.

Peyote, LSD, and Aleister Crowley (who is now aptly classified as a drug) will help the user communicate with aliens.

NEUROGENETIC

Collective Subconscious, preparation for Immortality.

LSD and magic mushrooms raise the neurogenetic consciousness.

NEUROATOMIC

Out-of-body Consciousness.

Ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic (--not Calamine!), lifts a user out of their body.

Leary also charted eight particular interpersonal behaviors and personalities, which might relate to the second circuit of the mind.

Thirteen Virtues of Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin kept a notebook of charts throughout his life in which he recorded his daily transgressions of thirteen virtues. His discipline included the choice of one virtue each week, upon which to focus his energies during his daily business. The record shows that he had trouble when it came to Silence and Order. We know he failed Chastity later in life; and a reputation accompanied by gout would indicate he frequently backslid on Temperance. Of course, his Industry is legendary.

Temperance:
eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation

Silence:
speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation

Order:
let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time

Resolution:
resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve

Frugality:
make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing

Industry:
lose no time; be always employ'd in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions

Sincerity:

use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly

Justice:

wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty

Moderation:

avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve

Cleanliness:

tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation

Tranquility:

be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable

Chastity:

rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation

Humility:

imitate Jesus and Socrates