At the heart of the universe is a steady, insistent beat: the sound of cycles in sync. It pervades nature at every scale from the nucleus to the cosmos…thousands of fireflies congregate in the mangroves and flash in unison, without any leader or cue from the environment. Trillions of electrons march in lockstep in a superconductor, enabling electricity to flow…In the solar system, gravitational synchrony can eject huge boulders out of the asteroid belt and towards Earth…Even our bodies are symphonies of rhythm, kept alive by the relentless, coordinated firing of thousands of pacemaker cells in our hearts. In every case, these feats of synchrony occur spontaneously, almost as if nature had an eerie yearning for order. (1)
Synchrony is a spontaneous tendency towards united order and it is the most pervasive drive in all of nature. As a phenomenon, it occurs right across the board – from inanimate objects to complex organisms like human beings.
We wring our hands in despair when we see the difficulties around us in the world, positive that we can never learn to work – or even live – together in unity.
And yet metronomes, starlings, pacemaker cells and schools of fish can spontaneously work together with ease.
Why?
If this is a natural condition, then why do we, sophisticated as we are, have such huge difficulty accessing it?
If we increased our powers of empathy and extended our understanding of love would that increase the ‘harmony’ between us?
Are we somehow getting in our own way?
And if so, how exactly are we doing this?
This is an amazing – and totally beautiful – video. Enjoy.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSNrKS-sCE0&w=560&h=315]
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(1) Steven Strogatz, Sync.
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Reblogged this on The Living Room and commented:
The sound of cycles in sync…lovely post from Trish at creating reciprocity…
This is sooooo interesting. Thank you for sharing this. A great video.
Wow…this was interesting.
Perhaps increasing our empathy would increase our interest in staying alive, as the increase in feeling would alert us to the nature of our vulnerability and our need for others. Perhaps this would make us more likely to send signals out to those closest to us in our swarm????? Just extemporaneous thoughts here….
Maybe our consciousness intrudes on us in some way….Maybe we have been for so long taught the ways of the world through the eyes of our preditors. Perhaps those from the swarm need to be made aware their position? From just what I gleened watching this video, it seems preditors are less informed by syncronicity. The swarms are comprised of the more vulnerable animals, as the man said, the birds and the fishes.
We get in our own way by refusing to see ourselves as we really are. How can you make true connections, operate in synchrony with others, if you present a false face to yourself and others. No real being, no real connections. Those starling, each and every one of them, are just each who they are, who they were created to be–no faking, no lying, no pretense!
Drums Circles! We need to sit around a beat on drums together . . . and then we will finally be in synch. 😉