Out of the Helix

The essays in this book are all about social or cultural transformation. They suggest a different way of looking at some aspect of our lives, an alternative agriculture or economic system, a different way of viewing the world or our relationships with each other. Each is a separate essay, written at a different time over a period of about five years. However, they have a similar format and share common themes. There are patterns throughout the essays that link them together and suggest a wider commonality from an underpinning worldview. There are repeating themes of a dynamic pulse of divergence and convergence, of differentiation and continuity, of systems within systems that have fuzzy boundaries and a meta-stabilty through inter-linkage. The symbolism used is of open spirals rather than closed circles or straight lines, of pulsating flows where there are both identifiable objects and the inter-activity of events. The aims are about creative participation and enhancement, where there is acceptance, responsibility and respect. Life is seen as involving complex dynamic balancing that arises from inter-dependence and feedback, but with pulse exchanges and sudden transitions. This book is about our potential. It is not about life as we live it now, or have lived it, but how we might live. It looks at our world as it is, to see a different world. It is about us living more vibrantly and creatively, by accepting the dynamic and interconnected nature of life on our planet, and living in more complex communities and with more complex relationships with our environment and the wider world. It is about a way of life that we have the potential to develop but have not achieved. A social and cultural transformation that changes the 'state' or arrangements of our communal lives, a transforming shift to a higher level of complexity, a more densely connected and intensely patterned life.