Wow, Carman, your discussion of sudden and radical transformation throws open some doors that would be interesting to follow!
Yes you draw an apt and fruitful comparison between transformation per se and spiritual transformation. In addition to the Christian concept and experience of metanoia that you discuss, this kind of spiritually transformative experience is found in other religious contexts and outside of them, as well, suggesting that it is a universal human experience. Some examples are: the themes of birth-death-rebirth or descent and emergence in the Mysteries, shamanic experiences of dismemberment and reconfiguration as a “new person”; Eastern enlightenment experiences, and also the sponatneous “cosmic consciousness” described by Burke. Also, there are rites of passage in many cultures that lead to new roles and ways of being in the world. No doubt I am omitting many other important examples.
This kind of reordering or “re-membering” is sometimes understood to be literally healing, and also reflects an improved and more “appropriate” (for the lack of a better word in the moment) relationship the context or larger whole. This process or whole “event” is compellingly interesting in itself.
From what I understand, these kinds of radical transformation are not always “sticky” in that it can be easy to revert to former ways of thinking and being. However, as much as we are drawn back into comfortable, habitual ways of thinking and being, one cannot entirely “unring” the bell. And, thus we create a vision or carve out a space for a new way of being, and we can begin to create new habits in that space. I’m reminded of the famous face/vase illusion. After seeing the new perspective, we can still revert to our original perspective; however, having seen it’s complement, we can more easily find it again.
http://www.uic.edu/com/eye/LearningAboutVision/EyeSite/OpticalIllustions/FaceVase.shtml
Would you agree?
Psychic Prisons
Hi Lisa,
With predictable perspicacity you observe that we cannot “un-ring the bell” –we may be “drawn back into comfortable, habitual ways of thinking and being.” Your comments afford a splendid segue into the Organization as Psychic Prison metaphor.
Morgan says, “all theories of organization and management are based on implicit images or metaphors that lead us to see, understand, and manage in distinctive yet partial ways,” (p.4) One such metaphor is the psychic prison–Plato’s Cave.
Plato’s Cave
In many respects, Plato’s allegory reminds me of a movie theatre. The following site reproduces the extended metaphor:
http://www.fdl.uwc.edu/faculty/rrigteri/Allegory.htm
I notice that the cave allegory contains some of the following elements:
• Cave people are chained so that they cannot move
• They can see only the cave wall in front of them
• The fire behind them throws shadows of people and objects onto the wall
• The cave dwellers equate the shadows with reality
• The shadow reality of the cave is the only reality they know
• One of the cave dwellers leaves the cave, experiences another world, and returns to the cave to explain the new perspective
• The cave dwellers resist and ridicule the revelation.
To echo your observation, “favored ways of thinking can be so strong that even the disruption is often transformed into a view consistent with the reality of the cave” (Morgan, p.219).
Perhaps we could integrate the allegory into our experience of organizations Lisa?
Reference
Morgan, Gareth (1997). Images of Organization. Sage Publications.
P.S. While writing this entry KUWY played Ravel’s Minuet Antique. During the piece I became like Icarus hovering between heaven and the sea. Rapturous! Thank you for creating this Lyceum Lisa– a wonderful ‘place’ of refreshment and renewal.
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