TIME How we screwed up our relationship with the universe and how to get it back, Part 21 nature By Dr Eric Zabiegalski and Per Brogaard Berggren

“Who has not felt the urge to throw a loaf of bread and a pound of tea in an old sack and jump over the back fence?” – John Muir

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The words of John Muir, the father of national parks in the US still ring true, and that’s just what my son and I did. Once more, we felt the “urge” of Muir’s advice and jumped over the fence and into the wild. ?For the last three weeks we hiked 180 miles of the Appalachian Trail (AT) in the Eastern part of United States, crossing 18 mountain ranges and encountering some of the most challenging, and beautiful terrain I’ve ever experienced. This time beginning at the northern terminus of the AT (Mt Katahdin pictured above) and hiking south. We started our hike (day one) by climbing a mountain, to say that it didn’t change us would be an untruth, we returned different people.

This article is the coalescing of two different series of articles. One of them is the meridian (high point) of writing partner Per Berggren and my ongoing discussion regarding the universe and humanities tumultuous relationship with it.? And “yes,” Per and I are convinced this perilous split is mankind’s doing. The other, is a resuming of a series of articles begun two years ago about my son Anthony and my hiking adventure on the AT and the (life) business lessons we learned along the way in the article series Business lessons from the AT.? It’s our intention to eventually complete the entire 2200-mile trail, one section at a time. ?So as one series begins to wind down for Per and me, one resumes. Let’s get some (mental) heavy lifting of physics in context of ordinary life done as we also talk about life on the trail, in a literal wilderness sense and on the trails we create in our minds. Enjoy and as always, your feedback and personal thoughts are welcome here. ??

Together or separate

In our first “universe” article Per and I discussed how mankind has been sold a bill of goods regarding the true nature of time and what it should mean to us, misdirecting us to pay attention to the accounting of seconds, minutes, and hours as reality and what should matter instead of each other or the somatic feel of life.? What we quickly discovered however (our hypothesis) was that the two were inseparable. The ticking mechanical clockwork of a seemingly random impersonal universe and our uniquely embodied experience of life combined with the nagging feeling of the existence of a higher and collective consciousness are both at play. And who created this deception? We did (self-deception). Perhaps one definition of humanity is that there will always be a part of us that tries to maintain a separation between things.? Favoring one thing for another we create chimera in an imaginary struggle to the death between “us and nature,” “us and the universe,” “us and energy,” “us and…. ourselves?”

?What’s going on? ?It’s complicated but fundamentally it comes back to the same questions that puzzled scientists like Neils Bohr, Albert Einstein, Heisenberg, and David Bohm best explained in the now famous double slit experiment. Are particles made of physical material atoms, energetic waves, or both? And why does the simple act of observing them seem to change their very nature? And when, if ever, should we take on the world view of one (atoms in a physical material world), vs the other (waves and energy)?? ?What else factors big into this question? ?The struggle between the hemispheres of the brain as characterized by psychiatrist Dr. Iain McGilchrist is discussed throughout our series. watch HERE.

“I feel that I’m on the edge of something.” These were the last words in a phone call to his wife before physicist David Bohm’s death.? I believe humankind is on the cusp of a major shift in human consciousness.? Whether you care to notice or acknowledge these feelings and thoughts or do anything about them in the process of your present and future realities is up to you.? As the (modified) adage goes, Per and I can “lead you to water, but cannot make you drink.” ?With that said Per and I invite you to Join the camp of the skeptically willing believers once more and at the least choose to consider the unknown for a moment. Which leads us to our next point, the choices you decide to make in your own life.

Life, your trail, hiked your way

There are a lot of rules on the trail of life. Breaking some of them may get you hurt, talked about, arrested, or even killed.? While others could get you lauded and celebrated in future stories as the stuff of legend, the Appalachian trail’s no different??On the trail, to use an expression from aviation, “some rules are written in blood.”?What that means is that someone got killed or seriously injured, prompting a rule.?Regardless of which universe you find yourself in, (the wilderness or the workplace) the trick in life is to know which rules are written in blood and which ones were meant to be bent or broken, maybe by you.? What’s our opinion? The world needs less rules and more inquisitive, informed, and caring people who don’t need them (rules) and are willing to help those less informed who still do. On the AT, there’s a variation on an old saying: “in life, that which does not kill you makes you stronger, except for bears, bears will kill you!” ?What does that mean to us in the concrete wilderness of our everyday lives? It means that if there’s no Grizzly bear charging you at the water-cooler you may not have to follow the checklist or run like hell. Read about rules on the trail HERE. What will you do differently on the (work) trail the next day you’re in the office?

Bricoleurs, Polymaths, Iconoclasts, Divergent thinkers, and You

Interestingly, even before my hike began, I was sitting In Regan National airport in Washington DC in the United States waiting for a flight to Bangor Maine to meet Anthony, and I was watching a podcast interview recommended by friends and fellow thought explorers, Ed Brenegar and Mark McKeon. Both Mark and Ed are businesspeople and scholarly practitioners (consultants) like me, and we frequently share experiences and theories, asking each other questions as friends often do. The interview they suggested was with Eric Weinstein and it was interesting for several reasons.? But in it Weinstein said something of particular interest, something which was personal and helpful on the trail of life. What did Weinstein say? I can’t remember if these were his exact words or mine from personal association, but the idea went like this, learn to “MacGyver” stuff in life. What does that mean? “Find cheat codes for things” he said, “a secret panel,” “another way in,” whatever you need to connect.? Pay people for cheat codes, compensate them if you have to, ask for mentorship, it’s flattering to people, and remember, he said, “no is often the beginning of yes.”? Why was Weinstein giving this advice?? A self-professed neurodivergent, he said the standardized education system failed him, he got lost, and subsequently suffered damage as an adult.? Why is this personal and how does this translate to our discussion?? a couple of ways. It’s personal because like Ed, and perhaps Mark also (we haven’t discussed it) I came to the conclusion late in life that I am also neurodivergent, a polymath, and probably have suffered from adult ADHD throughout my life.? That’s not all bad news however. While at times trying to self-manage, fit in, be accepted, and understood has been a frustrating struggle, at others it has been an amazing gift, and realizing it has been freeing and empowering.? In previous articles I have discussed people who are “bricoleurs” and those who practice “bricolage” (also iconoclasts, divergent (and neuro-divergent) thinkers, and polymaths).? The differences and definitions between them and adults with ADHD are nuanced but related, you can research them and also read more about them HERE. ?So what is bricolage? The ability to combine disparate and far-reaching ideas and things in new and novel ways to create something completely new is the definition of bricolage and the person who does it a bricoleur.? Think about the 1980’s American television show MacGyver in which fictional character Angus MacGyver played by actor Richard Dean Anderson works for a clandestine government organization covering as a think tank in which genius MacGyver uses his polymathic skills and “bricolage” to get out of locked rooms using only a piece of chewing gum , a string and a paperclip or solve crimes by pulling random pieces of information together in novel ways.?

What’s my advice for other polymaths, neurodivergents, or bricoleurs? Find interesting things to anchor on with each experience. Do it momentarily, periodically, and as frequently as needed, make it fun and use your creativity (a natural polymath gift).? Then mentally link these experiences and events together in a fashion like crossing steppingstones in a creek and then learn to cross that stream in your thinking in one continuous seamless motion without thinking about it.? This is how physicist David Bohm came to his breakthrough conclusions regarding consciousness, matter (space), and time while (hesitantly) problem solving the unfamiliar challenge of crossing a fast-moving stream without getting wet as a young boy in Wilkes Barre Pennsylvania.? In an epiphany he realized tacitly then, explicitly later, crossing the reality of the stream could only be mastered by doing it in one continual motion, considering each individual stone as one and crossing without stopping. ?Later he used this experience to understand and explain how different hemispheres and regions of the brain process reality.? Want to know more about Polymaths and related subjects? Start with friends Angela Cotelessa Meyers, Aksinya Samoylova, or Barbara Kleeb in these EddyNetwork podcast episodes. Also check out the inspiring story of Mariah Edgington. Here’s a final message to fellow neuro-divergents and the polymaths in all of us. The world, and the universe need you and your skills and perspectives now more than ever, this is your (our) time to help heal the world and make the transition to a new consciousness. Polymaths might very well be the couples’ counselors of the 21st century that fix our indifferent relationship with a benevolent universe and a loving world.

Living, changes you

It’s called a De nova mutation and is a genetic alteration that occurs for the first time in a person and is not inherited from your parents. Also known as new genetic mutations, they usually occur in the sperm or egg of parents but can also occur due to environmental factors. Did you know that the human body changes out all of its cells every six years. But while de nova mutation is often discussed in regard to offspring, can it occur to us within a generation? Can we change ourselves in the course of our lives based on things like choices, behavior, thoughts, and environment?? How did this encounter with the trail change me going forward? I lost 19 pounds, and I look at food differently now, more as fuel and energy than comfort or pastime. But it also changed me mentally, and thoughts (albeit subtle) are muscle movement actions in the brain. Will these changes, in perspective and behavior create changes in the form of De Nova mutation? I don’t know enough to say. But I feel different inside. The point is this, what we do either changes us or perpetuates our sameness, or maybe both.

Chaos, order, dis-order and space-time

Burnt umber leaves salted black rocks while water shining like liquid cellophane hurriedly made its way across, around, and over the rocks.? Sometimes rushing, sometimes pooling, and sometimes swirling to make geometric shapes of spirals, peaks, dips, and currents. ?One morning on the trail, upon waking at a campsite alongside a beautiful stream I made my ritual cup of coffee (one of my non-negotiable civilities) and ventured upstream to a place I had scouted the evening before to park myself on a rock at the streams edge.? I did it partly to soothe my aching taped feet in the icy inviting waters and partly because I was drawn there to have a private moment with nature. As I settled in, my mind was restless and a little anxious.? The scene before me took a few minutes to adjust to, in some ways it felt chaotic, messy, disorderly, alien, even a little distressing. Physicist David Bohm speaking on the subject of creativity and order said about the subjects of chaos, order, and disorder that what we perceive as “disorder” is often upsetting to us and that even something like watching waves crashing on a beach could be overwhelming for the mind. ?In some people with pathology (damage) in the right hemisphere of their brain, causing them to rely solely on the left hemisphere to navigate the world, there could even be a strong urge to clean up the untidy (chaotic) wilderness, detesting what they consider its “dirtiness” and avoiding nature altogether. ?Interestingly, Bohm says that what we perceive as chaos and disorder in nature actually has patterns that are imperceivable to the mind because they are infinitely complex orders (containing sub-orders) and are determinate, we just don’t understand it.? In other words “chaos” is a kind of order. ?Because human thought relies on order as a process to operate (the first human acts of order were the separation of things into like groups), it’s difficult to order and make sense of a thing whose pattern we can’t reconcile or have no stored information for, so we call it chaos.? As I sat with the continually moving, (predictable and unpredictable) changing scene of the stream a few thoughts came to mind. A few months from now this same late summer scene may be different, chaotic and complex but in a completely new way. Painted in monochrome black and white with snow, ice, and water on obsidian rocks, fall colors, bare trees. ?And I wondered as I sat there if the stream and the trees and the rocks were also aware of me, considering me in some strange way. The stream, the forest, nature, was not mine to organize though it allowed and provided a comfortable place that morning for me to sit and enjoy my tin of coffee taking part in its show. I was both a tourist here and its wayward son come home.

Is there a tear in reality which we occasionally get a glimpse of but otherwise fail to recognize? John Wheeler thought so.? In an essay by Amanda Gefter, contributing writer for Quanta magazine, she says Physicist John Wheeler was obsessed with understanding the origins of space-time and Einsteins General Relativity.? Relativity had taken a back seat to new discoveries like quantum mechanics in the 1950’s and these two theories clashed; they didn’t fit together.? But Wheeler wasn’t done wondering. The idea that matter and energy warp space and that this warping becomes gravity was his interest.? “What if matter, physical matter, atoms, are really just space-time?” What would that mean? To me, it would explain a few things, part of “us” and life, is made of atoms and physical matter. Gravity is a type of “energy,” acting on energy, on itself Wheeler said. He imagined waves of energy folding into themselves into compact spheres which would look like elementary particles (atoms), sound like someone you know? The universe he concluded, behind space-time, was made of information (a consciousness of sorts) and was a participatory universe, not just one that changed when we observed it, but also as we participated with it. Wheeler was looking for pregeometry, something behind the math and a way to unify quantum mechanics and relativity and he coined the terms wormholes, black holes, and quantum foam for the scientific community. ?

Are we any different than the swirls, eddies, and geometric shapes that form and present themselves in the stream for a moment, only to disperse and form again somewhere else? In the world of energy Wheeler imagined there was a kind of unification of relativity and quantum mechanics with us standing at the intersection, both a collection point of energy like a dust cloud of atoms that forms and the witness and participator of the strange specific rules of each which seem to irreconcilably clash.? Perhaps we are the reconciliation, the connection.

Perspective and reality

We met Weatherman on the trail on one of our last days hiking.? We had been through some rough terrain over the last three weeks hiking south from Mount Katahdin and were currently enjoying an easy trail with a gentle slope for once as we approached the last mountain range of the hike, the Bigelow mountains.? Weatherman (his trail name) was hiking north, and we stopped to chat and exchange trail information.? Weatherman was hiking alone, from Altoona Pennsylvania, and told us he was 75 years old; he looked fit. He wasn’t the first person in their 70’s we had met on the trail and while cheerful he seemed a little haggard and concerned, he wanted to know about the trail ahead and what to expect.? My son told him the next 6 miles or so were smooth, a few streams to ford, some rocks and roots, nothing too technical.? As I looked at Anthony I thought about the trail after that. Parts of it were rough, relentless, demoralizing, hiking one mountain peak you thought was last just to find another higher one in front of you. “Should I tell him that,” I thought, “would it help?”? He then asked, “tell me about Katahdin, what’s the mountain like?”? A mental knee-jerk came over my brain, “Katahdin’s no mountain!” I wanted to shout, “it’s a five-thousand-foot pile of boulders lashed together with tree roots.” I didn’t say anything. Instead, I said something encouraging and supportive like, “it’s no big deal, piece of cake,” something like that.? He then looked at both of us and said he was grateful for the encouraging report, “yesterday was the worst day I’ve ever had on the trail,” he said, “the Bigelow’s are tough.” “In eight hours of hiking yesterday I covered four miles, that’s all I could manage.”? We left Weatherman in good spirits to savor his well-earned walk.? As we hiked away, I asked my son if he heard what he had said about the Bigelow’s, “don’t worry about it dad” was Anthony’s response.? “you’re not him, you’re younger and you don’t know what kind of shape you’re in by comparison, everyone is different.” Anthony was right. I don’t know what caused me to modify my response to Weatherman that day, making it more neutral, softer, less judgmental and opiniated, but I’m glad I did.? Perhaps I had gotten discouraged by another hiker and their lack of empathy, maybe I picked up on cues from my son, but my response and support of another person was better that encounter, I was focused on Weatherman and helping him with what he needed. The response that first sprung into my head would have likely discouraged the hiker we met and more importantly it might not have been true for them and their experiences. The thought that Katahdin was a difficult climb was relative, subjective, and a perspective that would be uniquely his. His mountain awaits.?

Next time

What’s next? Per and I will be back next month for at least one more article about the universe and our strained relationship with it (and making it better).? There are still more exciting things to talk about and past articles to review, as well as more experiences and observations from the trail. What are some takeaways from today? Take Muir’s advice, get out into nature and away from the artificial manufactured world we’ve created as much as possible, this is a direct link with the universe.? Consider that life is lived separately and together, consider and embrace both ways of living. Wherever you are, make your own trail and hike it your way (with someone else who wants to do the same). Find shortcuts, put things together in different ways, think in the bigger picture as well as in detail, practice bricolage and then share it with others. Finally, consider that every thought you think, decision you make, and action you take, changes you. You’re not the same person you were when you began reading this article minutes ago.

Dr Zabiegalski and Per Brogaard Berggren are available to talk to your organization or venue about ambidexterity research or speak informatively and eloquently about organizational culture, leadership, strategy, learning, complexity, IT, business neuroscience, creativity, mindfulness, talent management, personal success, emotional intelligence, Action Learning, and storytelling. Contact Eric, or Per on LinkedIn about a talk, keynote presentation, or workshop today!