I have not written this article with the intention of answering questions but if it raises a few for the reader then it will have served its purpose. I want to look at Chaos and how it effects our lives, is anything we can do about it or is it a necessary part of our lives. In Collins English Dictionary there are three definitions of Chaos:
The first definition of Chaos suggests ideas of confusion; being overwhelmed; out of control; craziness, uncertainty, not knowing. These words can represent quite frightening concepts. The second too gives a sense of 'out of control', that at some point the universe became ordered and we recognise that for us it can sometimes feel that the chaos is still there.
The connection to the abyss is also an interesting idea in this context. This is a very deep or unfathomable gorge or chasm, or anything that appears to be endless or immeasurably deep, such as time, despair, or shame. And, hell or the infernal regions conceived of as a bottomless pit.
Depression, despair, shame, rejection, all those terrible feeling with which we hurt ourselves become our own hell, down there in that abyss and caught up in chaos. But how do we find the way out? Is there a way out of chaos? If you picture a very turbulent river and then imagine what it would be like to try to resist the flow of the river you will experience more and more chaos as the water buffets you. However, if you now imagine what happens if you become one with the water and flow with the water, then all of a sudden a new order comes out of the chaos. There seems to be a lot of energy connected to chaos one way or another either from the chaos itself or from trying to resist it. Becoming one with the flow requires less energy and we use the energy of the chaos for ourselves.
We try to explain events through causality i.e. - that this is caused by that. Because our thoughts tend to be linear they limit us by that nature. When we use our thinking to find explanations what we find is chaos when the thoughts or 'map' do not explain what happened or the 'territory'. We invent more 'maps' in the form of religions, psychologies and philosophies but the map can never explain the 'territory' and the resulting dissonance creates unease and confusion. We use our energy to resist the 'not-knowing', the chaos, but the fact is that we really don't know the WHY.
If you imagine yourself as a glass jar and feel the space inside the jar that is you and a space outside the jar which is not-you. The boundary is the jar. Now imagine what happens if you break the jar, the boundary, and the spaces run together and there is no longer a space inside which is you and a space outside which is not-you. What does that me/not-me feel like? Do you cease to be? There is for all of us the empty space and the fear of disappearance and annihilation.
Once we have designated a 'me' and a 'not-me' space the 'me' inside fears the loss of the boundary and we resist the fear of losing ourselves. This disappearance is often associated with the idea of death. What we call death is the emptiness and what we call life is the condensed emptiness. To be free of this fear it would be necessary to be willing to disappear. For example a wooden chair will someday disintegrate, be thrown away or even burned and disappear. The energy, which is released, will reappear in a different time as a different form. Modem physics suggests that we appear and disappear all the time. Einstein said 'Everything is condensed from emptiness and form is condensed emptiness'.
This 'pulsation' is natural and in it there is a freedom from the illusion that we can hold ourselves and the rest of the world in one place. However, this realisation can turn into a fear of disappearance or annihilation because you, which just appeared, are afraid that you will disappear and not re-appear. We attempt to stop the process and freeze ourselves and to freeze time to make it appear linear. To stop the process of change. We use a lot of energy to 'keep order'; "stay on top of things'; make ourselves 'secure'. Time is a great illusion - when we experience an emotion, thought or state of mind we feel that it will last forever. Logically
we know it will pass but while we are in the experience we feel that it will never end. This is the illusion and because of this we resist uncomfortable feelings. To not resist the appearance or disappearance of any state, as none are permanent is allowing the flow of chaos. The nothing appears and disappears randomly and is ordered in emptiness, the order in the chaos.
If you close your eyes and think about something you don't like and feel the 'not liking' then change it to think about something you do like and feel the 'liking' you will notice that when you think about one the other 'disappears'. When an uncomfortable feeling occurs we think it will last forever. Understanding that form becomes emptiness and emptiness becomes form shifts your relationship to the experience.
Modem physics also says that time is curved - it is not a line but infinite circles all turning in on themselves. When we step out of time we can begin to watch our mind in relation to it. We can see that it is curved. What happen in one part of time, will affect what happens at another. Try this for yourself. Close your eyes and consider something from the Past. Now consider something from the Present. Now move on the consider something that is in the Future. Notice as you do this that you are outside of time, watching the past, the present and the future, notice how this feels as you feel the experience of 'no-time'. You can watch the past, present and future as they appear before you.
In psychotherapy we in the present, work on the past and as a result change our present time experience of the past and how we might be in the future. This means that we can change our past in the present and hence change our future. Using the process of the ever changing universe to our advantage. 'All things and the universe as a whole are in constant ceaseless.flux; nothing is, only change is real, all is a continuous passing away.' [Heraclitus]
As I write this article I am not the same person who started it, I have changed during the process. Change must occur because change is life. This concept is expressed in TA as Physis i.e. 'the force which eternally strives to make things grow and make growing things more perfect"
Berne describes it as 'the force which drives people to grow, progress and do better'. (Games People Play) and included it in his Script Matrix diagram (1992) calling it the Aspiration Arrow. Petruska Clarkson in her article on Physis in TA (TAJ V.22/4 Oct92) says that 'there must be the capability and proclivity for change in that which changes'. That Physis can be seen as 'the healing factor in illness, as well as the energetic motive for evolution and creativity in the individual and collective psyche.'
In chaos we see that it is the natural order of things to change as they appear and disappear. And that 'not-knowing and going with the flow can often be the answer to the question WHY Early philosophers such as Heraclitus saw Physis as God and defined God as a 'constantly evolving process'. In 'Principles of Group Treatment' Berne quoted Agnew as saying:
'We treat them, but it is God who cures them'
Petruska Clarkson says: - 'That by acknowledging Physis as representing some of the transpersonal, inexpressible, and graceful aspects of the mysterious process of healing ... It is hoped that in this way, technique, theory, and cleverness will necessarily become secondary to the therapist's humility, which provides the proper ambience for client's 'self-discovery of physis within themselves' 'The task of psychotherapists and educators is to allow people to re-experience this life force within themselves in order to facilitate healing and self-realisation.'
The challenge for us all is to explore the disappearance/appearance and note our connectedness to the whole. Imagine a glass jar full of sand. If you heat the sand it becomes glass; if you break the glass and grind it up it becomes sand - which is the reality? The form that is the glass or the formless sand? I don't know and to allow the 'not knowing' permits me to accept that things are as they are and evolving as they should.
If we are willing 'not to know' without being Judgmental or making evaluations we free ourselves to see the order in the chaos. To do this we have to be ready to accept the 'not knowing' and to experience it.