Seeing Evolutionary Forces at Work

The Evolutionary Waltz

So let's pretend we are in a cinema. The lights go out and on the screen we see a glass container filled with water. Floating on top, layers of different colored paint. The narrator of the film says: "And now we run an electrical current through the whole at a stable frequency".

Chaos on the screen. Water and different colored paint mill around in the container. Then out of the chaos we see, as in a kaleidoscope, a pattern emerge. Dots and patches of color offset one another so that each particle of paint is shown off to perfect advantage. The pattern remains stable.

The narrator says, "And now we change the frequency and so the electrical field in the container changes again." Once more chaos. Then another, quite different pattern appears and becomes stable. This process is repeated again and again. With every change of frequency, a different pattern emerges. Every time we discern the same three steps:

1. An energy change;
2. Chaos; and
3. A new stable pattern, which emerges out of the chaos, in which each particle of paint is shown to perfect advantage.

The narrator concludes: "I call this the Evolutionary Waltz.

The All-Win Relationship, a Point of Rest in the Dance

Let us look more closely at these three steps.

First the energy changes. Second each particle of paint is thrown into confusion. And then, propelled from within, each particle finds its own place into a whole different set of relationships with all other particles in the container. Some blotches of red go to one part of the pattern, others to quite different parts. Each particle of paint knows its new place in the emerging pattern. It is a movement determined from within the individual particle. Not imposed from the outside.

As this second step stabilizes, we notice that each particle has found its way into a constellation of relationships which allow it to shine in individual splendor, and at the same time it brings out the inherent beauty in each other particle of paint. Each of these new associations of all the particles of paint can be called all-win relationships. An all-win relationship is one in which each part benefits from its association with all others. All win relationships are for(they benefit) all and are against (harm) none.

In the third and final step the pattern completes itself. Each particle comes into its own and through its very existence allows all others to come into their own. The final pattern is dynamic because it is brought forth by the promptings from deep in each particle. It is also stable because it is based on the self interest of all the parts. Finally this governing pattern allows the whole to be much greater than the sum of the parts. And it tends to remain stable until new influences from outside once again change the energy.

Patterns that have evolved according to these three steps from the beginning of time have often been stable for millennia. Examples are: the solar systems and galaxies; atoms and molecules; and the cell. The cell has remained the building block of life from when it first emerged, even though it is constantly combining with other cells to form the most extravagant bacterial, plant and animal types, it remains a basic building block of life.

We encounter the evolutionary waltz at every leap creation makes, starting with the big bang, followed by the formation of mass into regular solar systems and galaxies, then as we move from mass to life and every time a new species is born; and now as the human species is attempting to become one harmonious whole.

At Which Phase is Humanity in its Evolutionary Waltz?

Human beings have been dancing this evolutionary waltz as they moved from tribes to cities to nations. With each new form of community, there was a change of atmosphere as the expansion took place, followed by chaos as new forms of living together were worked out. Such communities remained stable to the degree they emerged out of the innermost desires of its citizens and served all citizens. In other words, the more, they were based on all-win relationships.

Now, nations are forming into a global community. The forces of globalization are at work. We find ourselves in the chaos/confusion phase with the final governing pattern seeking to emerge. Our challenge: to discover a way of living together as one humanity in which each person can come into her or his own and where each of us can be nurtured by the relationships we are in. In other words, we are being challenged to apply the all-win principle. If we work with the all-win principle at this crucial point in our evolution, where the human species is becoming a global community, we are working in sync with the forces of evolution and Mother Nature herself.

The All-Win Principle and our Daily Lives

This movement toward a unity by which all that is wins exists only because individual people, like you and I, follow our hearts, our innermost urges, and each in our own way allow our full passion for life to speak. When we follow our hearts, we feel happy, creative and are in touch with our whole potential. In other words we are functioning from our point of greatest personal power.

As we feel centered in our own greatest strength, we feel alive and grateful and want others to experience the same sense of joy. This prompts us to create relationships based on the all-win principle, each of us, of course, implementing it in our own personal surroundings. As parent, for instance, we have a deep affect on the lives of each family member. Here our challenge is to discover ways in which each can follow her or his own life's path without stunting others in the process. Others seek to implement the all-win principle as teachers, lawyers, gardeners. Each one of us can do it in our own field. Since the all-win principle sets out to allow all to follow their own hearts, we find ourselves surrounded by people who are grateful for our support and who often, in return, want to support us in following our innermost yearnings. All-win relationships are self-perpetuating.

The Emerging Governing Pattern

Because throughout the ages, people have followed their hearts, humanity has become inter-linked in myriad ways through a dance of letters, telephone calls, emails, and networks within which cars, boats and planes flit around, weaving a cocoon of communication threads.

This has changed the energy on our Planet. Each of us experiences this by the greater intensity with which activities take place and our growing numbers of connections.

In this dance, larger and larger constellations of people have formed, until in 1865 with the birth of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), governments created the first global organization. This was followed in 1885 by the World Postal Union. These both became part of the United Nations (UN) after its birth in 1945. Now the UN helps to coordinate and regulate all issues that transcend national borders. The UN helps to make it possible for people to work or be educated in foreign countries, to combat epidemics, to salvage cultural sites which are of value to the whole of humanity and to gather global statistics. The UN deals with all issues that go beyond national borders and are therefore beyond the capacity of any one government to deal with.

The United Nations is emerging as a governing pattern, the most comprehensive one that exists. It is a response to the connections we forge. At the same time, it makes it possible for new connections to form at a dizzying rate. The United Nations has very little power in an outer sense: no army, a whole batch of agreements and laws, but very few means to enforce them. Its central organ, the General Assembly makes around 85% of its decision by consensus. This is in essence an all-win form of decision making. The United Nations like any evolutionary governing pattern exists by virtue of all-win relationships. It will reach its full potential when each person follows her or his heart and empowers others to do the same.

The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The United Nations has many tools which we can use. In 1948, for instance, it adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which lists the rights and freedoms which make it possible to develop our full personality while encouraging others to do the same. The 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights applies to every child, woman and man on Earth. It is moreover incorporated into most countries' legal machineries. There, unfortunately, our human rights are too often ignored, because many do not know these fundamental rights and freedoms exist, and those that do, ignore them. It would be very hard for those who want to suppress or discount others to do so be it politically, economically or through social status, if each of us were used to standing up for our rights.

Applying the All-Win Principle to our own Lives

When we discover the force that makes our hearts sing, creativity is unleashed that we never suspected existed and with this we come into our greatest strength. I first discovered this inner capacity when, at 23, my first husband died and life as I knew it came to an end. For a couple of days I lived in a highly sensitive state in which I saw how everything and everyone was interconnected by energy streams which affected their every movement. Later I discovered that this Zero Point field has been discovered by Professor Hal Putoff. Usually invisible, it has become a concept which modern science is increasingly working with. When I discovered it experientially, it became clear that observing the level of my own physical/mental and spiritual energy was a way of discovering how to develop my fullest potential.

This is how it works for me

Where possible, I allow myself to follow my innermost urges by, for instance, eating a certain food, reading an article or a book that catches my eye, cultivating a new friendship, or just doing something that feels good. As I allow myself to follow hunches, sensings, gut feelings, I notice that some actions increase my energy. They make me feel as if I am plugging into some Universal energy field. Yet other actions deaden me. There is no outer rule I can apply. Sometimes even eating a pound of dark chocolate with nuts and raisons, or spending an evening just zapping in front of the television might actually make me feel more energized, even though these actions more often than not have the opposite effect. As I develop the art of following my heart, I notice that I am led into situations and relationships which are deeply nourishing. All-win relationships have a way of spreading from one person to another. My own life is embedded in a network of all-win relationships, which spans the globe.

I am convinced that as this process proceeds and more and more of us find one another in all-win relationships that finally the governing pattern that is trying to emerge from within us all and is expressing itself in the activities in the United Nations will come to rest in its point of greatest stability.

Our Challenge as Human Beings

Unlike other animals, human beings have the ability to ignore their innermost urges and so the all-win phase and governing pattern is having difficulty in uniting human beings. There is a danger that instead of breaking through, the all-win governing pattern will break down and that humanity as we know it will cease to exist.

Examples of All-Win Relationships

All-win relationships exist wherever we look. From the cells in the body where each cell is able to function because it is nurtured by all others, as well as the body as a whole. There are ecosystems where plants and animals provide habitat, food and the means for one another to thrive and procreate in dynamic yet stable relationships, and these are embraced by the systems of nature where wind, sun, soil, water and air allow systems within systems to nourish and embrace one another.

Beside natural systems there are also ones which have been created by human beings: systems of roads, air and waterways, educational, economic, political, cultural and social systems. All these are effective to the degree they are based on all-win principles.

Businesses which in order to survive have overemphasized the bottom line are now contending with absenteism, burn-out, and cut throat competition. They are realizing that unless human beings are given the possibility to express the fullness of who they are, the business will be eroded from the inside as well as swallowed up by more powerful mammoths. Powerful organizations which have breached the all-win principle are increasingly running into difficulties.

Many organizations, be they businesses, local and national governments, as well as the United Nations itself are now looking to their employees or constituents to provide a creative life force. They use tools such as Open Space meetings where everyone, from cleaners to directors, from clients to providers are invited to work at fashioning the business in ways that would work better for them.

In the United Nations, Secretary General Koffi Annan has developed a Gobal Compact whereby businesses undertake to obey and enforce 9 international agreements. In so doing, they tend to diffuse the wrath of anti-globalizationists and win the goodwill of customers.

Some schools include their students in policy decisions. Others teach young students peaceful conflict resolution. In Berkeley in a couple of Montessori schools, for instance, children as young as 6 years old are given the tools to resolve their own conflicts in all-win ways. When a conflict erupts the students concerned are invited to sit on the peace carpet outside of the room, after each choosing a fellow student as support. Together the little group will solve the conflict among themselves. In the meantime the teacher and the rest of the class are free to continue the lesson. The conflicting parties are welcomed back once they have resolved the issues. And so students, teacher and school benefit and so does society, because along with reading and writing students learn the skills of all-win relationship, the tools to build a dynamic, stable human community.

Forming Stable All-win Relationships

There is much talk about win/win relationships and "doing as thou wouldst be done by". These are each important first steps. The Evolutionary Waltz and the three steps of the All-Win Principle show that we are working with a larger process, which comes to rest once the individual parts (people) have evolved all-win relationships with everyone in a specific situation and an over all governing pattern has emerged. So when working with the concept of all win, it is important to see that all steps are honored.

Tools at our Disposal

Religious, Cultural and Spiritual Disciplines

The all-win relationship is an art that can be learned like writing or singing. Once a simple vocabulary (say the word, all-win) is common place and the simple three step process is understood, then a vast range of resources become available to us.

The Evolutionary Waltz and the three steps of the all-win principle can be seen as the grammar of durable relationships, while the wealth of different approaches, theories, disciplines and tools, developed by religions, cultures and spiritual organizations can be seen as the languages which help us scale the heights and plumb the depths of relationships, which work. If the wealth of existing theories and approaches could be understood in terms of this grammar, they would be come more easily accessible and people would find it easier to assess them and then make a choice.

Life would be more harmonious if every child learned the art of all-win relating along with reading, writing and arithmetic at school.

Summary of Tools

- First and foremost: our own inner knowing which in many cases we must learn to respect;
- Our ability to determine what gives and what deadens energy;
- The outline above as to how the process works: the Evolutionary Waltz and the three steps of the all-win relationship itself;
- Our ability to nurture the emerging unity which seeks to bring us together through the all-win aspects of the United Nations.
- There are myriad people and organizations, which are dedicated to one or all aspects of this process. Working with others who are exploring an all-win way of life provides us with nourishment, strength, insight and support.
- Learning to discriminate between which of these learning situations is best suited for our person and fully honors the process as a whole is a part of learning the art of all-win relationship. And finally,
- The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The All-Win Network

The All-Win Network promotes the all-win concept. It consists of people and organizations who are dedicated to fostering the all-win principle in human relations. At present it is collecting examples of all-win relationships, all-win problem solving tools and all-win solutions to common problems as a resource for anyone who can use them. They are also collecting a listing of organizations, approaches to education, examples of curriculum and names of organizations which are dedicated to the all-win principle so that others can benefit from what they have to offer.

The All-Win Network offers lectures and workshops on the all-win principle and is beginning to develop a network of think tanks. These think tanks consist of people who wish to gain mastery of the all-win principle for their own personal lives and work and in some cases also to help Governmental representatives at the United Nations become more familiar with the uses and advantages of the all-win approach. At UN conferences, representatives of the All-Win Network work for a part with governments directly and for a part at a distance via think tanks connecting to the UN via email. You are welcome to join this action.

This all-win network can be reached via its web site, www.allwinnetwork.org. Or via its Secretariat, Zweerslaan 31, NL 3723 HN Bilthoven, the Netherlands. Tel/Fax +31 (0)30 228 6173.

A Deep Need for All

Abraham Maslow an influential psychologist designed a hierarchy of needs. At the top of the pyramid was the need for "individuation", which we could describe as a need for personal development by following our own hearts. At humanity's present phase of evolution, we notice a new need has emerged: the need to help the whole of humanity to transform itself into a global community based on the all-win principle. Once this is achieved people's desire to follow their hearts and live in all-win relationships will become more common place.

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