My kids got me a Twitter account. Quite frankly, I haven’t really known what to do with it… until now. Beginning today, and continuing for the next year I will be waging the Revision Our World (ROW) campaign five days a week. You can follow it at Patrick O’Neill, 59 Berkeley. That’s the Twitter address. I’m pretty sure.

The ROW campaign is designed to raise questions that stimulate Visionmakers everywhere to envision a world that is more meaningful, compassionate and positive. We can do this. Many of us are already active in creating breakthroughs at home, at work, and in the community.

Row has already begun. Take an oar and together, lets row towards a renaissance in the state of our world.

© Patrick O’Neill 2009. All rights reserved.

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“There is no such thing as chance;

And what to us seems merest accident

Springs from the deepest source of destiny.”

–Friedrich von Schiller

 

This is the sixth in a series of posts on Insight, the ability to expand seeing to catch a glimpse of the invisible.

Synchronicity is commonly defined as “the simultaneous occurrence of casually unrelated events and the belief that the simultaneity has meaning beyond mere coincidence.” C.G. Jung asserted that synchronicity is made possible through the collective unconscious, in which all mankind is linked.

Visionmakers understand synchronicity as the surfacing of Destiny’s plan to conscious awareness through the medium of surprise. We are surprised to find ourselves in precisely the right place, at the right time, with the right events unfolding.

A poignant example of this occurred several years ago, when Angeles Arrien and I were teaching a course in Minnesota. Two participants in the program, previously strangers, were in a small group discussion where they discovered they had something quite remarkable in common. One woman was the mother of an adopted child. The other woman had put a child up for adoption when she was just a teenager. They were the mothers of the same child.

Visionmakers remain alert to synchronous events.  They announce that a larger system of Destiny is unfolding and that individual paths are converging for heightened learning and to serve a greater purpose. Synchronicity is seen as a direct intervention of Destiny for the purpose of transformation.

The world is more mysterious than we can fathom or depict. There are greater forces at work in our lives than the ego. Insight can be gathered in multiple ways if we are awake to the assistance that is always available to those who seek it.

© Patrick O’Neill 2008. All rights reserved.

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This past week, I was teaching the principles and practices of effective collaboration at the Boeing Company. It was a great class. The second day of the program happened to fall on Veterans Day, or as it is called in Canada, Remembrance Day. At 11:00 AM, our program adjourned for observances.

One of the course participants, Dave, is a retired Air Force officer, a 26-year service veteran. He led the observance by providing some background on Veterans Day, its history and its importance.  He talked about those that had inspired him, family members that had served in foreign campaigns and then he invited others to share their memories and acknowledgements. Most of the class participants shared about their gratitude to someone in their family or community who had served their country.

It was a deeply touching, co-created ceremony.

As I was listening to people share about their memories and experiences, it brought to mind a conversation with Percy, a man I met in South Africa. He was a Sangoma, a healer of the Xhosa tribe.

Percy was a participant in a workshop on reconciliation that I was honored to attend. At one point, he rose to address the other people in the group.  We had been discussing the issues of honor and respect. Percy talked about the decline of honor and respect in his culture. That the ancestors were no longer acknowledged and honored was the root cause of sickness in society, he said.

That got me thinking. We have so few rituals of remembrance of the ancestors in our culture. Perhaps we think of loved ones lost at holidays or anniversaries. But other than Veterans Day, Remembrance Day, when do we pay tribute to the ones that have gone before us, the ones with so much to teach?

Percy is right. Our society is currently challenged by the very conditions that our ancestors can most teach us about: the ways of honor, respect, personal responsibility, flexibility, discipline, foregiveness and compassion.

Every day should be Remembrance Day, an opportunity to remember our ancestors…and ask for their continued support.

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The fifth portal of Insight is Atmosphere.

In Visionmaking, atmosphere is seen as the resonant field created by emotion, both expressed and unexpressed. It is the surrounding or pervading mood, environment or influence, the emotional tone, the character of a place.

Many of us are familiar with the experience of warmth and security when we enter a family home; high tension on entering a place of conflict or turmoil; peace and serenity in nature or in a place of worship. These are all experiences of atmosphere.

Atmosphere has four expressions: affect, mood, attitude and ambiance.

Affect is personal atmosphere.  It is our personal emotional state. As such, Visionmakers pay close attention to affect to ensure that it is contained, meaning that his or her feelings do not impair discernment or the ability to take action.

Mood is the atmosphere that surrounds another individual. Mood provides important clues about the emotional state, needs and potential actions of others. We track each other’s moods daily to gather social clues about how to best interact. 

Attitude is the atmosphere of groups of people. It is the collective decision, conscious or unconscious, expressed or unexpressed, that a group has formed about their experience. When the decision is positive, the attitude of a group is filled with high spirits. When the attitude is negative, the atmosphere is lethargic, conflicted and struggling.

Ambiance is the spirit of place.  It includes both the residual emotions that have remained as an emotional history or record and the indigenous energy of the place itself. The Greeks called this genus loci.

Visionmakers pay close attention to Atmosphere and its four expressions. They recognize the importance of tracking emotions, expressed and unexpressed, and the resonant field that they create.

Emotions leave a mark on people, places and things. And strong feeling emit a scent.  Like a connoisseur, a Visionmaker develops a good nose. Insight can be gathered from these signs.

© Patrick O’Neill 2008. All rights reserved.

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The human heart always believes

in the power of Chance.

How else could it survive

in this thin oxygen

of modern times?

From the forthcoming book A Hundred Chances: Short Meditations on Opportunity, Risk and Probability, by Patrick O’Neill

© Patrick O’Neill 2008. All rights reserved.

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