Time in the Cosmos
The Diane Theory works toward the natural sciences
from observations of the phenomenon of unconscious response,
as described in the 12 Phases™ system.
Time, for example …
is a cosmological system based on the turns of the Earth around the Sun
and of the moon around the Earth,
translated into clocks and calendars.
We measure time in 12s:
- 12 months in a year
- two 12-hour periods in a 24-hour day
- 60 minutes to an hour (5x12)
Keeping time in 12s is intuitive,
so the pace of human development
can also be measured in 12s;
therefore, the 12 Phases of Personal Growth™.
A year at a glance is January to December.
As the moon makes a tighter revolution around the Earth,
the 12 Phases™ system is carried on,
dividing a month into two complete series of 12 days and a partial completion of six or seven more days,
February being the fluid exception.
As I stick to this idea, that the human experience can be measured by the 12 Phases™,
I find an interesting correlation with the different lengths of days in the months.
Growth, in general, doesn't happen in abrupt change, and an incomplete series creates a flow into the next month.
We can watch a leaf in a house plant unfold,
changing in silent gradual motions from a
tender nub to its finished form.
The fact that the months do not end in a multiple of 12
actually reflects this gradual overlapping of change, even in our lives,
not quite finished with one before the next begins.
The unfolding of time in history - whether yours or world events,
is lived in the moment
and observed as a whole in timelines.
This practice of hindsight gives an observer 20/20 vision.
What happened on Monday, April 8, 2024
There was a total solar eclipse on that day.
I didn't know there was a craze in full swing that day ...
Days like that, I miss a lot because I'd rather be writing.
I went for a quick walk around a neighborhood park and I passed a man sitting on a bench.
"Want to see the eclipse," he asked and handed me the special glasses.
"There's an eclipse?" I said, clueless.
Only then did I remember that a friend had mentioned she was going with a group to Dallas for the eclipse.
... Raised no excitement in me at the time ...
I've seen a couple of partial eclipses before,
not unlike what I saw that day, thanks to the man on the bench.
I checked with my sister ...
"Did you know there's an eclipse today?"
She said, "Yeah, I'm watching it on TV."
... Again, I didn't think much of it, thinking I can catch the YouTube video later...
A couple of days later it popped up when I opened Hulu.
At first, I skimmed through, just looking for shots of the actual eclipse. But this is a two-and-a-half-hour program, as ABC chased the eclipse chasers from Dallas to Maine.
As it went on, something else 'eclipsed' the eclipse -
the emotion of togetherness people were expressing, sometimes with tears - feeling one in humanity.
Eventually, even the announcers became speechless with awe, joining the audience.
Now I was sorry I missed it.
In the Big Picture of Time, the timing of the eclipse feels meaningful.
The U.S. was of particular geographic focus in this cosmic event, and
an opportunity to restore a global community spirit we lost in the pandemic.
Experienced and novice eclipse chasers, NASA, and the international space station became players in the show, with millions watching the broadcast.
Maybe all the people who moved bodies by heart and mind, unknowingly ignited
new hope in the future simply by stepping into the adventure.
The anticipation preceding the event of the eclipse generated the power of 50 Super Bowls*.
The path of the eclipse would be an arc drifting over thirteen states in two-and-a-half hours' time.
I imagine that a transformation occurred in each person as they found themselves in the presence of so many others - the electricity of camaraderie.
If you watch the recording of that day, you may find yourself moved, as I was by the genuine quality of inexpressible awe as darkness in daytime came over the crowds.
Words were a distraction; the camera could look at the people or the eclipse, not both at the same time.
Later, it seemed to me that this event was as impactful a phenomenon as silent cities during the pandemic lockdown, when…
Wild animals walked the streets.
Skies were clear of pollution for the first time in decades.
Beyond all imagination, Nature rebounded over the paved jungle.
Looking through the lens of the 12 Phases™ growth pattern, I became intrigued ...
2024 is the fifth year of the pandemic - the fifth phase means harmony restored.
Phase one was 2020; phase 2 was a tentative recovery; phase 3, a shifting of position around the impact; phase 4, reestablishing autonomy.
Phase 5 attaches the impact and subsequent reorganization to what was normal before, restoring familiar harmony.
It would be even more intriguing to check in with some of the eclipse chasers
to see where they were in their life cycle on that day.
Each would have a different story about the impact of the day, from subtle to life-changing.
Talk about life-changing ...
Everyone on this planet was stunned by the pandemic in 2020.
There is a description in the novel Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout that comes close to expressing the pandemic experience,
a man’s reflection on the devastation of his whole dairy farm by fire:
“…on the night of the fire—in the midst of his galloping fear—he understood that all that mattered in this world were his wife and his children,
and he thought that people lived their whole lives not knowing this as sharply and constantly as he did…”
More of us know that now…
A seed of good is often encased in crisis, the promise of new growth.
We try to be prepared for anything we can foresee.
But the worst we can imagine rarely happens as we imagine it; what happens instead is what we never expected.
Phase one is a fumbling, as it were, in the dark of the unknown -
a "spidey sense" that leads the way.
In neurological terms, your organism begins its fight to get back to homeostasis - the good life.
Allostasis is the term for the way the body expertly moves back to homeostasis by supplying the right combination of resources in a timely coordination to heal body and soul.
In the freedom of the lockdown isolation, we discovered ourselves -
what we could do without, what we were capable of, and maybe some of our shortcomings.
Messy … but we found new routines for living, what worked for “just me,” all told.
The reality of death touched everyone in the world.
We didn't reset priorities as a group.
We had to sort it, individually, until we recovered autonomy.
The sky fell ... and we survived - hopefully with newly acquired strength.
The future is always unknown
The 12 Phases™ is a predictor only in the sense that growth is a stable, reliable, natural process.
Future events and how we respond can not be predicted,
but if you know that life is a process which ensures that you survive with autonomy,
you can cultivate an attitude of readiness and lean toward the good.
The fascinating science of worldlines
Thanks to Einstein, our understanding of time is now more true to Nature.
Before his theories of relativity, an object was identified in the three physical dimensions: length, width, and height.
Now we know that time is a fourth dimension, inseparable from the physical object.
Special relativity is the additional concept of individual perspective -
that time is a matter of a person's experience in time ...
and that experience is unique, as time moves in space with the object.
You and I are "objects" in space.
Theoretical physicist Fay Dowker demonstrated this concept when presenting to the department of philosophy at the University of Geneva.
"Everything that happens, happens in spacetime," she says.
She shows a "block of spacetime" with a line for different objects in spacetime:
a planet, a star... a person.
One line represents her life, she says:
The beginning point represents her birth; the end point, her inevitable death.
The shifting directions along the line illustrate movement - life events,
plotted along the worldline: the line of her - or any object's - world of existence.
"I can only report what it feels like," she says.
When I discovered this video, and heard Professor Dowker's explanations, I was beyond incredulous …
Science has a description for the way I "plot" a person's life events on a timeline.
The difference is, the worldline I draw also sits on the "grid" of the 12 Phases™.
Singular perspective, singular experience, singular time measurement, singular identity.
Since time can only be measured by the history of events in the life of an object,
i propose that the meaning of your history is further illustrated
by the serendipitous exchange among the various forces: you, life, time, and Nature.
The 12 Phases™ system is a tool to observe the interactions that produce a life unique.
So, picture this ...
Two timelines superimposed.
One is the natural chronology of your life events.
The second is a timeline of when the events occurred in the unfolding progress of your personal growth.
You may think there's nothing special about your life,
or you may even take time to reflect on how you've grown as a person,
but imagine seeing evidence of continuous positive movement
rising in the wake of years doing your best to adjust to change.
This is the theory: the nature of human life experience
can be seen in a natural phenomenon:
the rhythmic, sequential, bio-psychological
pattern of development in the human organism.
Antonio Damasio's authority in neurology validates the sequence.
Theoretical physics validates the value in studying individual experience.
In this blog, I will go even further to build a basis for focusing on what I call “autonomous motivation” -
how volition is a result of inborn disposition and ability.
_____
Referenced in this blog:
“Eclipse Across America” is ABC's live coverage on Monday, April 8, 2024.
*The U.S.'s largest mass travel event in 2024, according to Michael Zeiler, expert solar eclipse cartographer at GreatAmericanEclipse.com, who likened it to "50 simultaneous Super Bowls across the nation.
NASA overview of the path of the solar eclipse.
Total solar eclipse 2024 highlights: Live coverage, videos and more.
Sir David Attenborough's "The Year Earth Changed" explores nature's rebound amid COVID lockdowns.
Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
Fay Dowker: Past, Present, and Future: The Science of Time
Antonio Damasio on Chasing Consciousness: “The Neuroscience of Feeling and Knowing.”
For you:
"Restoring Good: 12 Phases™ of the 2020 Pandemic" a year-by-year projection of the post-pandemic years based on the 12 Phases™ by Elizabeth Diane.