Entrainment - Power in Prayer and Meditation

An emerging theme in this blog is identifying key drivers of value by recognizing 3 necessary characteristics. Value Drivers of lasting consequence can be recognized because they are always Repetitive, Powerful, and Gentle (RPG). Certainly prayer and meditation are candidates. They are Repetitive and Gentle; but what about Powerful? A part of their Power may lie within an effect scientists have called entrainment.

Entrainment is the stuff of scientific legend. That legend goes back to 1666. The noted Dutch physicist, Christiaan Huygens, had to adjust the clock in his study each day because it ran about a minute slower than the one in his living room. Both were governed by swinging pendulums. One day he moved them side-by-side. With no other adjustments, the clocks began to keep synchronized time. Any discrepancies disappeared. This observation lead Huygens to the discovery or labeling of entrainment, which is the tendency for adjacent oscillating systems to synchronize.

Where ever there are cycles (Repetitions) there is the potential for the effects of entrainment. The clocks are an example of entrainment in a mechanical system. A striking example in natural systems is the synchronization of menstrual cycles among women who live or work together.

Entrainment is a Powerful effect. Can that power be accessed by prayer and mediation? For one oscillator to affect another, the entrainment has to operate through some medium. Call it the universe, God, or the Zero Point Field, we all must be connected for this scientific effect to occur.

Now consider the processes of prayer and mediation to be bringing yourself side-by-side with God. As you repeat these processes entrainment begins it's subtle work which ultimately results in the changes we call answered prayer. Was the change in the universe, or was it inside of us? Entrainment leads us to the possibility it could be either or both.

Jesus instructed the we should ask to receive (Matt 7:7). His half-brother James later wrote that we can ask but not receive because of our motives (James 4:2). Apparently asking works, but only when a level of entrainment with God has synchronized our motives.

Active Investors have very busy schedules. Repetitive prayer and mediation takes away available time; but if ignored, what will our lives synchronize toward?

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Intention and the Cooperative Universe

A new discipline has emerged this century, the study of Intention. It's often discussed as the Attraction Principle which asserts we attract into our lives those things we dwell on. Examples include if our thoughts are about physical ailments, or poor finances, or an unsatisfactory performance, we will attract poor health, lack of funds, and below standard performances. Alternatively if we genuinely intend good health, abundant finances, and superior performance, these will be what is attracted to us. By itself, the Attraction Principle might be just a sophisticated form of self-delusion; however, in literature such as The Field by Lynne McTaggart evidence is being assembled from advances in quantum physics that provide a scientific basis for its validity.

There is a strange outcome to the Heisenberg Uncertainty measurement problem that results in energy remaining after temperatures reach absolute zero. I was taught absolute zero meant no atomic motion and therefore no energy and scientists of the last century "normalized" their calculations by simply subtracting this away as "background noise". This may have been an over-simplification. When some physicists keep this energy, now called the Zero Point Field (ZPF), in their equations, it appears the discrepancies between classic and quantum physics are resolved. After further study, it appears the ZPF may be a source of abundant, ever-present energy our advancing civilization will surely require. One estimate is that the ZPF energy in one cubic meter of "empty" space would be sufficient to boil all the oceans on our planet. For Stargate Atlantis fans, this is the energy source behind their Zero Point Modules (ZPMs).

This ever-present field appears to be influenced by everything within it and in turns is an influence on everything in the universe. Scientists are now trying to study how one or more individual's Intentions can be "transmitted" through the ZPF. In many of these studies, the universe responds to the changes in the ZPF and appears to cooperate with the Intention.

The science of Intention does not fit well with mainstream paradigms and is currently relegated to the fringes of the scientific community. Yet the research continues and evidence that the universe cooperates with deeply held Intentions continues to accumulate. The research itself has been attractive to physicists, theologians, philosophers, healers, the military, and many others. It ought to be of interest to the Active Investor as well.

The forces around us shape our destinies, yet from this research we learn that we also shape those very forces. Since we see Intention also has all the characteristics of a force to build lasting value, it's repetitive, powerful, and gentle. The Active Investor should be a student in learning to harnessing its potential.

Photo Credit: EraPhernalia Vintage

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Critical Point Analysis

Clockworks have long been metaphors for systems in general. They illustrate energy transformation, cyclical behaviors, information encoding, and much more. One aspect of systems they clearly illustrate is the existence of a critical point.

Imagine the power involved in controlling the heavy hands of a large tower clock. The drive gears must exert crushing force to keep the hands at exactly the correct position. A critical point analysis of the clockworks would be an effort to find a point in the system where the movement of those hands could be stopped with only the pressure from a single finger. In this example, it's the flywheel. Stop the flywheel and everything else halts. That's a critical point and it's the spot of greatest advantage to any planned system intervention.

Business is an incredibly complex system with hundreds of gears (relationships) that mesh together to make it work. The idea that a critical point may exist in a business is difficult to prove; but since the clockwork metaphor seems to be working, it's worth exploring. If there was a critical point in a business, how could we identify it? What would it look like?

Within the clockworks the parts with the greatest mass and largest energy requirements, the hands, are also also the slowest moving. Our critical point, the flywheel, has little mass but is in continual motion. The critical points exhibit speed and repetition but not a lot of substance.

These characteristics are what make ideas critical points. Once an idea starts to spread, the heavy hands of execution begin to move. Internet and advertising consultants tell us extended repetition of a message (the idea) is far more powerful than a single large presentation. A business works because the people involved believe in it.

Critical points have the same characteristics we've already found in the powerful creative forces of nature. They are Gentle, Powerful, and Repetitive. When we find a critical point and dedicate ourselves to it, like an Archimedes who has finally found his place to stand, we can move our world.

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Properties of Value - Powerful, Gentle, and Repetitive

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The forces that create commercial value in a business have the same properties as those that create natural wonders. We find them to be Powerful, Gentle, and Repetitive. Erosion from the Colorado river is is neither loud nor threatening, yet it created the Grand Canyon.

There is no doubt that Bonnie and Clyde created cash flow with their business; however, it was cash flow without any Value for others. Contrast that to to their contemporary, Henry Ford. He neither invented the automobile nor forced the public to buy them. His genius was understanding how industrial-age forces could make them affordable. Year-by-year, model-by-model, plant-by-plant he built an organization that produced at lower and lower unit cost. It was powerful, gentle, and repetitive. Today this organization may become the last solvent US automotive manufacturer.

This is the kind of Value every Active Investor seeks in their business or profession. It starts with a sense of something that is Powerful. The Value to others (which translates as the real value of ownership) is directly related to where this sense of Power is located. Personal power produces cash, but not lasting (or salable) Value. Process or Organizational power produces both. Real power that addresses real needs doesn't require Force to permeate a market. It can be Gentle, as long as it's Repetitive.

Consider the activity of closing a sale. Is your product or service Powerful, that is does it use a proven process that will surely address a prospect's core need? If it does, getting to a close is a matter of communicating that value. This may take some repetition. It's not forceful; but its probably going to take several "messages". Here are the properties of value forming a powerful, gentle, repetitive closing process. Every really valuable business process will be similar in nature.

Our job, as Active Investors, is to be continually aligning with these powerful, gentle, and repetitive forces as they apply to our situation. The degree of our ultimate success is based on it.

Forces around us

In a Lewin Force Field Diagram, like this one, an organization is pictured to be at a certain level because that is where the Driving and Restraining forces acting on it come into balance. This diagraming technique helped the US Government during World War II to more effectively mobilize the civilian population in supporting the war effort.

 As an analytical tool it often gives an insight into understanding our current situation. We are often guilty in making the fundamental attribute error where we believe things are a certain way because of the personalities of the people involved. While success in anything requires personal dedication and effort, when that is coupled with positive circumstances, things happen.

American is a land of opportunity for every individual. That makes us quick to make our circumstances about the individuals rather than the forces involved. Look at how we become more obsessed during elections with politicians personal characteristics rather than their understanding of the nation's problems.

Leigh Hilton, a Texas attorney specializing in asset protection, brought this national disposition to light recently when she told me she asked clients to think about what they wanted to happen "if" they should die. They had too much trouble thinking of what to tell her if she asked them to think about "when" they die. Our Egos just have enormous difficulty imagining life not centered on us personally.

An advantage of being in corporate America is that our responsibilities are generally on things we don't personally own. In those circumstances it's much easier to be process oriented and systematic. Our thinking frequently changes when we choose to own our own business. 

More than most, Active Investors need to get over their American Ego dominance. We need to understand and believe in the dynamics of the vast forces around us. Try a Lewin diagram next time you're about to assign blame to yourself (or anyone else) for what is happening. Forces can be family, health, the market, competition, industry, legal, the economy, spiritual or from any number of sources that constantly affect us.  Are there any that are being ignored?