Dr Les Spencer
Email:
lspencre@gmail.com
A precursor to this paper - The Renaissance and
Enrichment of the FolkCommons
Posted 3 July 2019; updated 24 July 2019
The following brief and succinct monograph will be further detailed
in the coming weeks. It has emerged from conversations with Dr Andrew Cramb
during July, 2019 relating to the paper, The
Renaissance and Enrichment of the FolkCommons - A Resource for Common Folk
(Spencer, 2019b). That paper introduces the folkCommons and a sub-aspect of
this commons termed the psyCommons alongside the psychopathicCommons. Quoting
from the Renaissance paper, and to expand on the psychological aspects Postle
writes on the richness of everyday social relations:
The psyCommons is a name for the universe of rapport – of
relationship between people – through which we common folk navigate daily life.
It describes the beliefs, the preconceptions, and especially the learning from
life experience that we all bring to bear on our own particular corner of the
human condition. To name these commonsense capacities ‘the psyCommons’ is to
honour the multitudinous occasions of insight, affect, and defect that we
common folk bring to daily life: in parenting and growing up, caring for the
aged, the disabled, and the demented; persisting with the love that brings
flourishing and success, supporting neighbours visited by calamity, joining
friends and family in celebrations of life thresholds (Postle, 2000).
The folkCommons embraces many
sub-domain commons - aspects experienced in common by common folk such as
experiencing the physical body, the personal, the interpersonal, the
relational, the psychological, the emotional, the familial, the communal, the
social, the societal, the cultural, the intercultural, and the environmental.
These various ‘commons’ are a rich resource of ‘ordinary wisdom’ and also, more
controversially, ‘shared power’ among the common folk. Other examples of the
commons are the air we breathe, the radio spectrum, the oceans and the land we
occupy – all these are commons, or ‘common pool resources’. As value, they are
the common wealth of the common man; they belong to us and we belong to them.
The psyCommons (psychological and emotional wisdom held in common) is one of
these commons
This monograph draws upon collective prolonged
action research since the 1950s focusing on the folkCommons and
psychopathology. This action research into relating well has involved thousands
of people - individually, in small and large groups as well as large
collectives. The research is based upon the pervasive interwoven, integrated,
enfolded inter-connectedness of every aspect of being a human being. The latest
understandings in complexity and quantum physics (Bohm, 1980) are woven into
the action research. People have been experiencing relating well or unwell with
all aspects of self and other(s) – the biological in every aspect, including
brain plasticity, gene modulating, and epigenesis, the psychological, the
emotional, the sensory, the communal and the social and natural life worlds,
including the interplay of integration (habit) and flexibility.
The findings about biopsychosocial dynamics are summarised
below:
o Typically, folk have little conscious connexion with the
contents of the folkCommons and all of the sub commons of the folkCommons. Even
when folk are experiencing and acting upon the richness of the folkCommons they
typically do not notice that that is what’s happening and what they or others
are doing.
o Contexts where the application of the folkCommons is
encourage at conscious and unconscious levels may see increase in the frequency
and application of the folkCommons.
o The folkCommons includes and transcends the psychCommons.
o The bodyCommons includes and transcends the headCommons.
o The folkCommons relates to wellness. There is alongside the
folkCommons, the psychopathicCommons that relates to biopsychosocial illness.
o The psychopathicCommons in action is a defence mechanism of
highly intellectual dissociated articulation as a protection device. The
psychopathicCommons is still used as a defence when they feel threatened. Their
bodies instantly respond with habituated freezing, fleeing or being violent as
a function of their integrated autonomic habituated tuning and the context.
o Members of the psychopathicCommons are disconnected in many
ways and this reinforces their state position (Spencer 2017, p.574-598).
o The notions ‘Implicate order’ and ‘explicate order’ are David
Bohm’s concepts for exploring
and discussing ‘being’ in quantum theory. They
may be used to explore two different frameworks for comprehending the same
phenomenon or aspect of reality. Bohm's in
his book Wholeness and the Implicate Order uses these notions to describe
how phenomena may appear in differing contexts. Implicate order is perceived as
a more fundamental or deeper order of reality. In contrast, the explicate order
includes abstractions. Bohm wrote:
In the enfolded [or implicate] order, space and time are no longer the
dominant factors determining the relationships of dependence or independence of
different elements. Rather, an entirely different sort of basic connection of
elements is possible, from which our ordinary notions of space and time, along with
those of separately existent material particles, are abstracted as forms
derived from the deeper order. These ordinary notions in fact appear in what is
called the "explicate" or "unfolded" order, which is a
special and distinguished form contained within the general totality of all the
implicate orders (Bohm, 1980 p. xv).
The folkCommons is of
implicate order and implicit centric. The Latin root of implicit
(implicāre) means ‘to involve or entangle’. The psychopathicCommons is of
explicate order and explicit centric. ‘Explicit’ means precisely and clearly expressed or readily
observable; leaving nothing to implication.
o As the folkCommons has been eroded and enclosed by societal
forces, the psychopathicCommons by those same societal forces has become more
dominant, and yet less visible.
o When biopsychosocial illness from the psychopathicCommons
becomes the normal (as it has done), for wellness, hope lies in the mobilising
of the abnormality that defies biopsychosocial
illness and accesses the folkCommons to
generate wellness. This rarely happens, though folkCommons supported instances of peers with peers may raise
consciousness of the abnormality in action that
defies biopsychosocial illness and
accesses the folkCommons to generate wellness – refer Fraser House later in
this monograph.
o What is needed by those who are bio-psycho-socially ill is
embodied awaking. This may be achieved by something that interrupts habituated
body states such that their moving-thinking-feeling loses its integration and
becomes amenable to transforming (Spencer, 2013b p. 562 – 567).
o People connecting with the psychopathicCommons are extremely
intelligent. It is typically dissociated intelligence; intelligence they have,
though do not and cannot access. Their intelligence is developed in a state of
frozen terror which they do not often feel. Not only does this intelligence
work automatically as an attack defence mechanism to protect the
psychopathicCommons from ‘others’, it also works against their ability to
ground themselves and ground their bodies.
o The psychopathicCommons is in a state of perpetual war on
terror. Hence top power people from within the psychopathic commons were able
to easy have the psychopathic and disconnected masses go along with the War on Terror
Declaration in the States. The folkCommons awakens with realising terror’s
nature. Folk bodies hold practical wisdom though it is totally unavailable to
them. Until their war on terror ceases, they will continue to maintain terror
within and disconnected shutdown of their body in defence and/or attack while
using their intelligence to control others as a way of feeling safe from
attack. Once the members of the psychopathicCommons can awaken and release the
frozen embodied preoccupation with terror, they can have, realise, access, and
utilise their pre-existing potential for pure intelligence without the terror.
o
Disembodied moving has no connecting with
bodymind. Particular movement’s link to particular emotion is not realised.
Emergent moving has its own mind. With awakening, what is released is blocked
energy. Power is when the product of Energy and intelligence manifests a higher
order outcome. Pain
is when the product of energy and intelligence manifests a lower order outcome.
o Often the key variable
to whether Pain or Power is the outcome is not so much the input of energy but
rather the resourcing of organising intelligence.
o The psychCommons serves
to focus (entrain) attention. Modern neuro-psychology demonstrates how cortical
self reflection (mindfullness) can interrupt habituated sub-cortical resourcing
and engage higher order outcomes by entraining to intelligences generated at
more primal and thus implicate order. Pain can therefore be seen as phenomenon
mobilised by the folkCommons that serves the psychCommons to entrain from a
less resourceful state to a more resourceful state. Once bridged, the elements
that can be explicated that serve the bridging become available to the domain
of the psychCommons.
o
Repeated experience with
thousands of people is that given the possibilities opened by awaking, people’s
bodies know what to do in release and let go. Often intense strange movement
ensues towards release, re-organising and re-integrating – wholly different
mode of embodied being.. In these states, their
embodied intelligence can be used for the good of their exceptionally rapid
human insight and development.
A
significant example of the Commons action research was Dr Neville Yeomans’
Fraser House Therapeutic Community that commenced in North Ryde NSW, Australian
in 1959 (Spencer, 2013a; Spencer, 2013b; Spencer, 2017; Spencer 2019a; Spencer,
2019b). The Fraser house peculiar social wellness environment (milieu)
bracketed off from everyday life set up a commons where ever micro aspect was
woven together towards the awakening, discovering, recognising and applying the
practical wisdom in the group and the renaissance and enriching of the
folkCommons. Fraser House residents were eighty folk of the
psychopathic-Commons who were invited to attend. The residents were out of
mental hospital back wards where all treatment had
failed (the mad) and out of prisons where they would not be allowed parole (the
bad). A condition of becoming a resident of Fraser House was attending ten Big
Groups (and the following Small Group) along with their family and friend
network as outpatients.
A
framing expectation and understanding within Fraser House was summed up by the
slogans, ‘no madness or badness here’, ‘bring it up in Big Group’, and ‘get on
with your change work’. Fraser House Big Group with 180 attendees was held
twice a day Monday to Friday. Fraser House
processes ensured that Big Group was FolkCommons concentrate - the Big
Group leader focused all participants awareness on occurrences of folkCommons
practical wisdom in action within group interaction - which was sensed as ‘role
specific functional in context’ (Spencer, 2013a, p. 240-244). Typically, it was
the residence and outpatients that began to first notice bits of behaviour that
‘worked’. Processes that worked were repeated and became policy and the output
was enriching the Fraser House psychCommons. This in turn was enriching the
utility of the Fraser House folkCommons. Fraser House Ex-residents networking
networks continued to enrich the psychCommons and folkCommons in everyday life.
As
detailed in paper ‘The
Renaissance and Enrichment of the FolkCommons - A Resource for Common Folk’
(Spencer, 2019b) there are major forces enclosing and shutting down the
folkCommons while enlarging the psychopathicCommons. This paper has provided
glimpses of processes to reverse the above, that is to enrich and expand the
FolkCommons and reduce the psychopathicCommons in a world where forces are
lining up to ensure this does not happen. Natural forces linked to the prevalent
presence of free energy in nature are available and are being used in enriching
the folkCommons. That much of the forgoing is never noticed is being used as an
advantage.
References
Bohm, D., 1980), Wholeness and the Implicate Order.
London: Routledge,
Spencer, L., 2013a. Whither Goeth the World of Human Futures - A Biography on the Life Work of Dr Neville Yeomans. Internet source accessed 1 July 2019. http://www.laceweb.org.au/bio.pdf
Spencer, L., 2013b. Coming to Ones Senses – By the Way. Internet source accessed 1 July 2019. http://www.laceweb.org.au/btw.pdf
Spencer, L., 2017. Nurturing Community for Wellness. Internet source accessed 1 July 2019.. http://www.laceweb.org.au/resp.pdf
Spencer, L., 2019a. Therapeutic Communities and
New Social Movements in Latin America, SE Asia, Oceania, and Australasia. International Journal of Therapeutic
Communities Vol. 40, Issue 2.
Spencer, L., 2019b. The Renaissance and Enrichment of the FolkCommons - A Resource for Common Folk. Internet source accessed 1 July 2019. http://www.laceweb.org.au/shg.htm