Rediscovering The Authority of the Heart
Posted by otryba | Filed under Uncategorized
All of the crises that loom large on the front pages of the daily paper and the crises that tear our families apart, have driven our cancer rates from 1 out of 4 people in the U.S. getting cancer when I started out in health care twenty years ago to 1 out of 2 today, the environmental crisis, the monetary crisis, political crises, etc. can be broken down to one thing:
A Crisis of False Authority
If you’re like many people, the word “authority” probably makes you cringe. What does “authority” mean to you? What is your experience of authority? What is the nature of “authority” in your culture and society? Generally, in the Western world, “authority” has a connotation of threat. We speak of “the authorities,” often associated with people who have weapons strapped to their sides. We can look at the “authority” of the law, or political systems. These decisions, whether agreed to by a majority of the electorate, or promoted by a majority of the legislators, are also implemented by force upon those in disagreement.
We can also look at people who are “authoritative,” generally meaning that they have earned expertise, often within professional associations, acknowledged by their peers. Often times the decisions of these “authoritative experts” are then implemented, legislated or otherwise forced on people who are deemed “inexpert” and thus are divested of their right to make decisions on their own. Protocols such as childhood vaccination, education, fluoridation of water, taxation, regulation, etc. are all predicated on the fact that somebody’s supposed expertise supersedes other people’s rights and they have armed people to make sure that it stays that way, even when the results aren’t that great.
When we begin to examine this so-called “authority” we begin to see that a lot of our problems are generated by the so-called “solutions” of this model of authority. We discover our political leaders to be corrupt and elect new leaders with supposedly opposite views, only to see things continue in the same direction we objected to. We experience a crisis of authority.
In my travels amongst indigenous people I lived among people who had a very different notion of authority. In many indigenous languages, the word that we translate as “chief” actually means “one who speaks to the heart,” or “one who speaks beautifully,” or “one who speaks to me,” or simply “the speaker.” But what has been pointed out repeatedly is that chiefs have no authority OVER others. In the measure that they speak TO the authority that resides in the heart-mind of a person, to that measure they are a chief. In the Iroquois Confederacy of Six Nations, for example, chiefs could be deposed simply by someone whom they spoke for saying “he does not speak for me.” And many societies in the Americas functioned this way, built large, complex civilizations with larger cities than in the rest of the world, massive alterations to the landscape that actually increased species rather than diminished them, sophisticated mathematics, architecture, astrology, agriculture and cosmology.
When I point this out to people in the West, they often point out that this is anarchy, or the absence of rulers, and then proceed to equate this with disorder. But the truth is that it is panarchy, where the experience of individuals within a culture comes from a premise of connectedness. This is not some utopian heaven, just a departure point that’s far more conducive to the proposal of enjoying life together. Many of these societies operated with Speakers, not rulers and at levels of harmonic, spontaneous order that is largely inconceivable to us. We have no experience of human relationships this way. We have no experience of authority, of positive KNOWING from anywhere except the hundred of opinions voicing themselves in our minds at one time. We are not raised to act with authority from the place of connection, only to obey an external authority which, if we rebel, we then replace with an internal authority that still treats our being as the object of its will.
When we examine this word “authority,” we discover that it is related to authenticity and to authorship with roots in the Latin auctor, which is “one who causes to grow.” This is the nature of True Authority: it fosters growth, it supports life. It respects the Authorship of every Individual in connection with the totality of Living.
The nature of false authority is “one who can force obedience.”
But to discover True Authority is not simply a philosophical position. It implies a functioning Brain-Heart-Mind. The heart, as countless sages have pointed out throughout the millennia, is the organ of KNOWING; of positive, connective KNOWING, the verb, the experience. In contrast to the brain which, in the part devoted to cognition, serves as a sort of hard drive populated by the thoughts we are exposed to and then reconfigure, the heart is an organ which knows positively, in the Present, while also opening in connection to an experience that it is not confining to an expected outcome. To put it another way, the heart is willing to know connectively while having the courage to not-know.
Now science is finally catching up with the already-known. The field of neuro-cardiology is studying the link between the brain and the heart. This field is being revolutionized by reports from heart transplant patients that they are experiencing memories, cravings, likes & dislikes from their donors’ lives. We now know that the heart is the organ of intelligence that, when properly connected, modulates the brain intelligence on multiple levels: electrically, electromagnetically, sensing the hormonal levels in the bloodstream, etc.
What keeps us from knowing True Authority is what keeps us from Knowing from our Hearts. What shuts us out of our hearts is our conditioned refusal to FEEL everything that arises in our experience. We are conditioned by parents who fear our emotions and our needs and then we internalize this fear. The nature of this fear is not an idea, it is actually a neural loop. It’s a pathway in our nervous system that signals alarm each time we feel something that has the felt sense that our parents reacted to with anger, violence, withdrawal or other behaviors that DISCONNECTED us from them.
At a very early age we learn to NOT listen to our hearts due to this disconnection.
We CAN, however reawaken this heart-centered intelligence, which is a felt-intelligence, by embracing the totality of the felt-experience we are having.
Let me know what questions arise for you and what this article reflects back in your experience.
Tags: Authority, Authorship, Brain-Heart-Mind, Crisis, Heart Authority, Heart Intelligence, Heart-Mind, Indigenous Wisdom, Neurocardiology, Panarchy
8 Responses to “Rediscovering The Authority of the Heart”
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October 10th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Brilliant Olivier,
Well you got me going on this topic …. i feel an energy moving through cells informing mind to slow down and put thoughts into a reasonable order. Heart beating faster with the act of authorship. Here goes.
I’ll first start off by defining my experience of authority - where the power lay. Whether it be “Father knows best” or “obey the Lord” or “do as you are told” or “we know what’s best for you” or “I know you better than you know yourself” or “children should be seen and not heard” and a thousand more messages given voice daily through many mediums, as a child growing up in America i felt as if Life were a boot camp to be endured until you were an “adult”.
I watched and listened and carefully studied adults when i very young …. anyone older fascinated me. I felt that they held some secret they felt i wasn’t mature enough to understand and i wanted to know it as soon as possible … wanted to prove to them that i WAS mature enough to handle this secret. I learned how to do a lot of things by watching, imitating and paying attention yet i don’t recall any one every asking me how i felt or was feeling about anything. If i absorbed these unspoken feelings through a neural loop, well i guess i’m just acting out those feelings without giving them a voice. When I discovered around the age of 22 that these “adults” didn’t have a secret and didn’t have a clue AND were looking to me for answers (parents divorce and the blame game began) … well life became a scramble to help them. What’s laughable is that i “thought” that i could! Heart knew it would do anything to serve/love/help them. Where “i” went in all this was in search of answers …. not looking for my own truth as much as “minding” their business.
If you asked me now “what are you feeling?” …. well, to tell you the truth, i become confused. You want a weather report from my body? Heart beating? check. Feet cold, hands warm, face passive, mind focused, fingers on keyboard, kidneys functioning, bladder full … the report could go on. I recall my body was shaking when loud disagreements of any kind were going on around me … even if not directed at me.
I honestly don’t know if i’m disconnected from my heart, or not. What signal or feedback loop would i be looking for? I have noticed that i place a more of an emphasis on verbal communication, i.e. coming up with the right thing to say, rather than anything physical, such as reaching out and touching someone to support them when they’re upset. Do that same with my self (of course?) give myself a pep talk or a “talking to”. This feels like a disconnect. I’m practicing placing my hand on my heart when I say “I” feel …. and this helps, yet more often than not, i will start to get choked up and cry when i do that.
Back to the topic at hand …. the authority of the heart. I feel heartened knowing that there are other cultures fostering a way of life that embraces more of the feeling aspects of Life, and until/unless i choose to go join them and begin anew journey, i’m left to cope and learn and love from right here, right now. I’m at peace with that …. until/unless I’m not! I’m the One who is being called to supply whatever is missing in my creation/story/authorship.
I’m soothed in the knowing that i am my own author-ity - that i allow others to impact me. I know in my heart that the heart has to be trained to believe anything less than the love that’s present and all-encompassing. I believe in self response-ability and am enjoying IT all.
I am soothed in the knowing that there are “others” such as your self, Olivier that dare to share, dare to question, dare to live consciously, willing to assume full responsibility for their experience. My heart is open and full of gratitude and I am totally open to any thoughts you choose to share.
Pat
October 11th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Dear Pat,
Thanks for another brilliant comment which made me reflect on this dynamic of wanting to “save” our parents and how common a stance that is in our culture. It’s like no one breaks through to adulthood in the culture and, as children mature, they realize that their parents haven’t been born into another womb/dimension of adulthood - they’re just more experienced at trying to get childhood needs fulfilled, largely unsuccessfully. So we try to save our parents’ manufactured selves just as we developed a manufactured self in order to spare them the stress of our full human development. And our attempts are generally unsuccessful and largely unwelcome. The heart-to-heart is an unused modality.
So even, as you say, when we go to “other cultures fostering a way of life that embraces more of the feeling aspects of Life,” even then we still feel shut out. The path is In And Through, as you say, to “learn and love from right here, right now.” YES! As you put it so brilliantly: “I’m the One who is being called to supply whatever is missing in my creation/story/authorship.”
The question remains: “How does one awaken to the full, embodied Presence of our simply Being?”
Thank you!
October 12th, 2009 at 5:51 am
I’m simply reminded of the experience of what it’s like to be a child… especially in America. I find it amazing that I can slap or punch you, a grown adult, and immediately be charged with assault; however, parents are allowed to physically assault children 1/5 their size and it’s considered “good parenting”… and, those parents who refuse to initiate this kind of behavior are often criticized as “soft” or as not “disciplining” their children.
As a parent, I don’t see myself as the “ruler” of my child’s life. It’s HIS life… and I think seeking “rule” over a child is a way of seeking control from someone who is mostly out of control in their life. I see myself more as a guide… to help, support, and nurture my child… but, ultimately, leave the decisions up to them.
I think the way we “discipline” our child is the #1 cause of pretty much all the major issues we have in this country. We are raising adults who suffer from chronic post-traumatic stress disorder… which leads to a number of other problems, such as: social anxiety disorders, psychosomatic illnesses, alcoholism, drug abuse, and so on. Having suffered from PTSD myself, after returning from war, I know that it can be a psychological starting point for allowing a number of other illnesses to take hold…
And, most parents are putting their children through this kind of traumatic stressing for 10, 15, 18 years!!
October 12th, 2009 at 10:17 am
Panarchy- did you coin that useful word, O?
“we then replace with an internal authority that still treats our being as the object of its will.” You’ve come to ground with this statement. You often point out when I respond from inside this trap, as does Nut!
This place of “internal authority” that divides our Being and Consciousness into conflicted factions is the place that so much spiritual and self-help teaching lands in, and sometimes actively feeds on. Which is why we never get it “right”, and something is always missing.
I can sit quietly and acknowledge my heart’s, womb’s and mind’s knowing, the authority of my heart, as you say. The challenge is to be that whole in relationship to another. My summer has been filled with reminders that my relations with no expectations are rife with expectations. It’s like my garden. The shovel clangs on the ledge with the first thrust.
Recognizing how miserable that makes me is a great thing. Being with the IZness of those thoughts and feelings is the only recourse. The ledge softens and dissolves with simple awareness and acceptance. Chuckling helps too.
Then comes which an interaction in which I invite someone to relate with me in a heart space of authenticity and self-commitment. My intention is to speak my desires from my heart, and hold a space open for that person to show up in her heart. So, what if she does! What if I am face to face with a person who will show up authentically from the heart (whatever that looks like for her now) because I invited her to.
Talk about nakedness. Terror! Only because I am unused to relating from pure self-authority, and recognizing it in others. I am grateful to have this reminder of being in heart/womb authority as I consciously work with others in relationship.
They get to show up as they are, and they don’t have to do or be what I think I want. I get to show up as I am, true to my own authority, and don’t have to do or be what they want. Above all, I don’t have to caretake this process, and most certainly I don’t have to caretake the other person and her process.
Deep Freedom Now? Yup.
October 12th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Yes, John, brilliant, we ARE largely emerging out of a PTSD culture with its roots in the devastation of indigenous European cultures and imposition of a specific form of Christianity several thousand years ago. Once we begin to appreciate experientially that we are not “things” or any other form of mental objects, but rather energy in motion, we begin to appreciate that the imprinting from generation to generation is an energetic in-forming that is largely inescapable to people who are trying to do some “thing” do their imaginary “thing” that they call “self,” i.e. self-improvement. The imprinted patterns are not cognitive, although they do have cognitive, physical, emotional expressions. Most modalities of so-called ‘transformation’ out there never examine the embodied premise out of which they are operating.
Our whole relationship to life up to now has been premised on assault; not just external assault but internal assault. The guidepost for this is “can you take your children into your work environment?” “Do you spend your days in activities into which your children would be welcome or not?” For most of us the answer to this is clearly “No!” Your military activities or my prior medical activities largely occur in ways and contexts that are actually a threat to emerging human life rather than a welcome to it.
October 12th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Carla, i love how you put this. Beautiful. The challenge that we face in relationship of self to other is the same challenge that occurs in our relationship to “self,” i.e. the manufactured fiction of self. Where is this self? Yes, obviously, we emerge from Being equipped with sensory equipment centralizing “our” impression of “our” experience. But what are we experiencing? Are we separate from this experience? In other words, is there a “self” that is not this experience? Once we begin to penetrate the felt-experience, beyond the personalized fiction of “my thoughts” and “my feelings,” we begin to apprehend profoundly the self/other dichotomy as a linguistic trick that does not have an experiential corollary:
the only thing experienced IS experience experiencing itself.
Humor is active at the essence of this and we don’t have to manage the unfolding of this experience.
October 12th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
O!
So that’s why the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Tutu, and Grandfather Joseph Rael laugh so much.
October 13th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Yes, of course. I think that the more of the Big Picture we see, the funnier and more delightful it gets - and then we embrace our adventure from that place of delight.