KING – (See: Archetype, Adult)
LABORATORY – You may notice that over the years you have developed an appetite for a certain energetic food that occurs when possibility is created and applied. A Laboratory is the circumstance in which you intentionally manufacture that food for yourself and for other people to feast on. For example, your primary relationship can become a Laboratory where you are each deeply fed and nurtured through doing intimacy Edgework experiments with one another. A gameworld such as a club meeting, a business, a training or a team can also be a Laboratory if you use it for doing experiments. The gameworld for learning Possibility Management is called a Possibility Laboratory. (See: Edgework, Experiment, Gameworld, Possibility Management)
LABYRINTH – The Great Labyrinth of Spaces. (See: Navigating Space)
LINEAR – Linearity is the quality of being direct, straightforward, predictable and reasonable. Once regarded as the most efficient and effective method for solving problems, nowadays Linear solutions are frequently not efficient or effective enough. For any given problem there is usually one Linear solution, but often many nonlinear solutions that turn out to be far more useful. Extraordinary human relationship as well as Archetypal Relationship both require that you have access to an unlimited resource of nonlinear possibilities. (See: Creating Possibility, Nonlinear)
LIQUID STATE – For a Box to shift from one solid shape into another solid shape, it must at least for a short while pass through a Liquid State. During the Liquid State, rigid structures become fluid in relationship to each other, and reordering can take place. For more information on this you can search Wikipedia.com on the Internet for the theory of “Dissipative Structures” that won Ilya Prigogine the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1977. Ordinarily, while your Box expands, you are more interested in the newly expanded position than you are in the frighteningly groundless Liquid State. Nonetheless, as you continue to expand the Box you may notice that each new Box shape becomes less and less rigid, and that the distance between one solid position and the next becomes greater and greater. Over time you may become more comfortable during fluidic expansion than in defending a rigid but known position. You may even come to recognize that the Liquid State is the true nature of reality, and that human beings are designed to fly. (See: Box, Expand the Box, Morphogenetic Field)
LISTENING AS A SPACE – (See: Possibility Listening)
LOVE – Possibility Management distinguishes three kinds of love. 1) Ordinary human love where “I love you” means, “I need you, I own you, I want to control you.” Ordinary love comes and goes, so people in ordinary love are victims in a scarcity of love looking for someone to love them. 2) Extraordinary human love where “I love you” means, “I am responsible for love, I source love, if I am there love is there,” with responsible Adult dignity and respect. 3) Archetypal Love where Love is a sourceless radiant Principle, the most abundant thing in the universe, and “I love you” means, “the Principle of Archetypal Love is happening.” In the great Labyrinth of Spaces, the Space of Archetypal Love Happening is also known as “the Heart of the Labyrinth.” (See: Labyrinth, Low Drama, Navigating Space, Principle, Radical Responsibility, Relationship)
LOW DRAMA – Low Drama is any action that is consciously or unconsciously intended to avoid responsibility. Low Drama is an energetic exchange between human beings that serves Shadow Principles. There are two direct ways to detect if you are enacting Low Drama. The first is if you are playing the role of victim, persecutor or rescuer. The second is if you exhibit Low Drama behavior: blame, resentment, justification, complaining, being right, or making wrong. It can be startling to distinguish that Low Drama is certainly exciting, but that, no matter how right you think you are, Low Drama is not life; it is only Low Drama. No matter how good your reasons are or how strongly you resent the other person, the only thing that happens in Low Drama is that you get older. Nothing changes. To actually change something involves taking responsibility. Low Drama is not an accident. The fact that Low Drama is not an accident means that Low Drama can be avoided. The purpose of doing Low Drama is to feed Gremlin. Notice the pattern of a hungry Gremlin finding another hungry Gremlin to start a good fight. A Gremlin feeding-frenzy follows. When the Gremlins are satiated, they go to sleep and you wonder what the fight was all about? Low Drama is never a step on the way toward responsibility. Low Drama cannot be transformed into high drama. Attention placed on Low Drama is Low Drama. The only way out of Low Drama is taking responsibility. With practice you can develop the ability to avoid entering Low Drama for any reason. Low Drama is the main characteristic of ordinary human relationship. (The Map of Low Drama is modeled after the original “Drama Triangle” developed in 1965 by Dr. Stephen Karpman. Dr. Karpman was a student of Dr. Eric Berne, the founder of Transactional Analysis. It was Dr. Karpman who named the three positions of Low Drama: victim, persecutor and rescuer. I renamed Dr. Karpman’s Drama Triangle as “Low Drama” to more easily reveal its relatedness to “high drama” on the Map of Possibility. In one of his original designs for the Drama Triangle, Dr. Karpman had included a fourth position that he called “trickster,” identical to what I call “Gremlin.”) (See: Gremlin, Low Drama Detector, High Drama, Irresponsibility, Map of Possibility, Practice)
LOW DRAMA DETECTOR – An excellent way to avoid being hooked into low drama is to build for yourself a Low Drama Detector. The Detector is a metaphorical red-flashing light mounted on your right shoulder as a reminding factor to warn you about incoming low drama. The Low Drama Detector senses low dramas from a distance of 100 yards, and instantly flashes its red light and emits a sharp, persistent, warning beep. The Detector displays which of the three roles is being played out, victim, persecutor or rescuer, and which of the three roles you are being invited to play. To avoid low drama, do not resist low drama – this is like trying to resist thinking of a pink elephant. Clarity about low drama is key. Identify low drama as low drama, not bad or wrong, but guaranteed to create only certain predictable results. To avoid low drama, create high drama. In other words, as soon as your Low Drama Detector sounds off, change your course and go somewhere else. It takes practice to go toward low drama and not enter the low drama. (See: Low Drama, Hooked, Reminding Factor, Unhookable)
MAGICIAN – (See: Creator)
MAKER – (See: Doer)
MAKING TIME – The possibility of Making Time is a consequence of taking radical responsibility in the domain of time. To discover how to Make Time, do the following experiment. Responsibly answer the following question: “Where did you get the time to read this sentence?” After you understand about Making Time you can then figure out how to move faster than the speed of time. (See: Creator, Radical Responsibility)
MAP – (See: Thought-Map)
MAP OF POSSIBILITY – This is the central thought-map of Possibility Management (See: the List of Thought-Maps). The Map of Possibility starts with a single vertical line which acknowledges that whatever happens is completely neutral. The Map of Possibility is based on the observation that human beings do not leave things neutral, but instead are creating in every moment. You create by making stories about what happens, by interpreting the evidence that you perceive and giving it meaning. The world is rich in evidence, so there is evidence to support any story you want to create. Every story you make has a purpose. Either you are conscious of your purpose or you are not. The dichotomy between unconscious and conscious purpose creates two general types of games: irresponsible games or responsible games. Which game you are playing is always discernable by the results you create. Irresponsible games serve Shadow Principles. Responsible games serve Bright Principles. The King or Queen of the Shadow World is the Gremlin who sources low drama. The King or Queen of the Bright World, for lack of a better term, is the Possibility Manager who sources high drama. (See: Archetype, Gameworld, High Drama, Low Drama, Principle, Result, Story, Thought-Map, True Purpose, Unconscious Purpose)
MARSHMALLOW ZONE – The Marshmallow Zone is the all-too-real super-s
afe and familiar, hermetically sealed set of behavior patterns located far away from the edges of your Box. A person living in the Marshmallow Zone uses standard human intelligence thoughtware, and can typically only create ordinary human relationship. For “settler” type Boxes, the Marshmallow Zone is “Home Sweet Home.” For “pioneer” type Boxes, the Marshmallow Zone is “death warmed over.” Voyaging out of the Marshmallow Zone is an experiment guaranteed to bring up fear of the unknown regardless of your Box’s orientation. Fear only stops you if your story about the experience of fear is that “fear is bad” or “fear is dangerous.” To continue exploring new territory it helps to rewire your story so that “fear is fear.”(See: Box, Feelings, Edgework, Story, Thoughtware, Experiment, Is-Glue)
MATRIX – (Not to be confused with the matrix concept from the popular films of the same title.) Matrix is similar to the trellis upon which a climbing rose is supported. Without the trellis, the rose plant grows feebly along the ground. With a trellis, the rose grows strong and radiant. Matrix is the energetic structure upon which consciousness or “being” can grow. Matrix cannot be rushed or grown instantly. Matrix grows at its own speed limit and as a result of certain efforts and influences. Matrix can be built through exposing yourself to certain beneficial stresses (such as living in a foreign culture, doing responsible Edgework experiments, or trying to understand this book), certain radiations (such as being in the company of saints, empowered temples, objective art, or sacred artifacts), certain substances (such as early morning sunshine, or a true alchemical elixir like Tonic Gold™), certain efforts to stay awake (such as by paying attention to your attention and staying aware of what you are aware of), and your efforts to practice (such as avoiding low drama, or flossing your teeth every night before you go to bed no matter how late it is or how tired you are). No one can build Matrix for you. If you do not do what it takes to build your Matrix, your Matrix grows geologically; that is, at the natural speed of continental drift. Matrix can be functionally compared to soil. There are more than enough seeds. What is needed is good soil. As soon as the soil is prepared, the seeds grow. As soon as Matrix is built, consciousness grows. As soon as the Box expands, new possibility is available. (See: Edgework, Practice, Radical Responsibility, Tonic Gold™)
MEETING TECHNOLOGY – The way we come together and have meetings determines the kinds of results we can create as a group. Western civilization meeting format unconsciously defaults to the form established by parliamentary procedure as described in the book Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry M. Robert, published in 1907. Other meeting formats are possible and, in fact, are needed for producing more diverse, flexible and intelligent results. Particularly effective are circular or open meeting technologies that allow for more chaos during the meeting. Parliamentary procedure establishes a linear hierarchy of rules for managing the competitive territorial question of “Who has power now?” Nonlinear meeting formats rely on the generative and self-organization properties of groups to liberate immense reserves of imaginative intellectual capital and group intelligence. Convening diversity rather than controlling power may be a more useful approach for responding to the challenges of today’s rapidly evolving conditions. Examples of new meeting formats include Open Space Technology, World Café, and the Art of Hosting conversations that matter. Possibility Management’s New Meeting Technologies include: Possibility Team, The Problem Is the Solution, Big Mad and The Genius Process. Rather than the political concern of “Who has the power?” these new meeting formats effectively address the questions “What is possible right now?” and “How to be the space through which the principles of this organization can do their work in the world?” (See: Holding Space, Nonlinear, Possibility Management, Principles)
MEME – The word “meme” was invented in 1976 by Richard Dawkins, a British biologist. A Meme is a fundamental instruction for the design of your mind, just like a gene is a fundamental instruction for the design of your body. Memes can be classified into various categories, such as assumptions, attitudes, beliefs, conclusions, definitions, excuses, expectations, interpretations, justifications, meanings, opinions, perspectives, preferences, prejudices, reasons, stories, values, visions, and so on. Simple Memes equate to the names of things, for example, the Meme “feeling” is the name of something that carries emotional energy. Once a mind is infected with a Meme, the Meme frames up the mind’s perceptions. Then, something like music is sensed by the quality of feeling it delivers. Complex Memes are constructed out of simple Memes pasted together with is-glue, such as “feeling is dangerous” or “feeling is fun.” The idea of a “Meme” is itself a Meme. A functional set of Memes is your thoughtware. The Box is made of thoughtware and thought-maps. (See: Box, Is-Glue, Memetics, Thought-Map, Thoughtware)
MEMETIC VIRUS – Memetic Viruses are a compact set of memes usually stored in written form that are so clear, so useful, and so interesting that their new thinking patterns automatically replace and upgrade your current thoughtware. This book is full of Memetic Viruses. If you want an additional source of Memetic Viruses get a hold of the book Wild Thinking (Abenteuer Denken in German) by Clinton Callahan. (See: Meme, Thoughtware)
MEMETICS – Memetics is the study of memes and Memetic engineering. Memetic engineering is the field of skills, tools and processes for redesigning or reinventing the Box. Boxes are constructed out of memes. A Box’s Memetic structure determines its functionality – in other words, function follows form. If you reinvent your Box, you reinvent your world and what is possible for you. This is how Memetics is related to the management of possibility. By reinventing the form of the Box, even slightly, through Memetic engineering, vast new possibilities can be opened. (See: Box Mechanics, Experiment, Liquid State, Possibility, Possibility Trainer, Thoughtware)
META-CONVERSATION – A Meta-Conversation is a “conversation about the conversation.” The way to create the possibility of possibility is to have a conversation about the conversation. Then, instead of remaining stuck in the limits of the present conversation, you go nonlinear into a perspective with different limits – limits that are more useful for accomplishing the job at hand. A Meta-Conversation changes the context so that your conversation can have a different content. This has the same effect as putting away the chessboard and getting out the cookbook – you get to play together in a completely different kind of gameworld. (See: Context, Gameworld, Navigating Space, Nonlinear)
MIND – Mind is the center of your intellectual body and is shaped by your Box. You have been trained in Western civilization to identify yourself as your Mind. Western science operates under the assumption that the universe can be systematized and explained so that Mind can understand it. In extraordinary human relationship and Archetypal Relationship, the Mind is far too slow, too impoverished, and too linear for what you need to accomplish. To source relationship through ongoing acts of nonlinear creation, you require greater resources than Mind offers. With a balanced mix of all four bodies (intellectual body plus physical body plus emotional body plus energetic body), you access vast resources of energy and information, even if your Mind cannot figure out how you do it. (See: Box, Four Bodies, Identification, Imagination, Verbal Reality)
MINDSET – (See: Box)
MINIMIZE NOW – A man asks a woman to marry him and she says, “Not now!” A year later he asks her again. She says, irritated, “I already told you, not now!” The woman lives in a very big Now. You can create a Now so big that it includes decisions made in a far distant past, or expectations that project into a far distant future. From the perspective of a Minimized Now, “far distant” means anything longer than three seconds. Boxes defend themselves by creating big Nows to keep everything in the future the same as it was in the past. Extraordinary relationship is an ongoing act of nonlinear creation. Going nonlinear requires you to move orthogonally through the gaps between moments. Time is quantized into experiential moments. Between each moment is a gap. These gaps are invisible if your Now is too big. A big Now smears over
the gaps and makes reality appear to be one continuous scene, just like with motion pictures and television – where there is no action, only the illusion of action. When your Now is small enough, you can slip sideways through gaps between moments into previously unseen and completely unexpected possibilities. While experimenting with Minimizing your Now make sure that your Minimized Now is spacious and is not founded in a scarcity of time. In Now there is no time. (See: Adult, Gap, Making Time, Now, Orthogonal)
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