Dan Siegel is one of the most fascinating minds in neurobiology and psychology today. In this talk (below), he makes the case for mWe – me and we – as a new way to talk about our world.
What blew my mind, and made complete sense to me as a therapist and a meditator is the ‘Plane of Possibility’ (beginning at 21:32 in the video below- but if you don’t see the whole thing you’re missing out).
The Plane of Possibilities describes energy as “the movement from possibility to actuality through a series of probabilities” and, according to quantum physicists, is where all possibilities arise. In that plane, ‘plateaus of possibility’ make up the ‘me’, the sense and idea that I am a separate ‘me’. Atop those plateaus are the peaks – our individual experiences, a thought, and emotion, a memory.
So why is this interesting? He’s making the point that through mindfulness or any other method that brings us back to the here-and-now, we become aware of this field: “The issue is that when you drop into presence, you’re dropping into the plane” and this liberates you from the conditioned thinking of your habits, culture, past experiences – basically of your reactivity.
Dan Siegel is referring to the way quantum physicists describe energy, and he’s correlating it to our interconnectedness as beings. This ‘Plane of Possibilites’ also reminds me of the way Thich Nhat Hanh describes the Mind as a field, “Understanding our Mind”:
Mind is a field
in which every kind of seed is sown.
This mind-field can also be called
“all the seeds”
He goes on to say
Seeds (bija) give phenomena the ability to perpetuate themselves. If you plant a seed in springtime, by autumn a plant will mature and bear flowers. From those flowers, new seeds will fall to the earth, where they will be stored until they sprout and produce new flowers. Our mind is a a field in which every kind of seed is sown — seeds of compassion, joy, hope, seeds of sorrow, fear and difficulties. Every day our thoughts, words, and deeds plant nee seeds in the field of our consciousness, and what these seeds generate becomes the substance of our life.” Therefore, if we plant certain thoughts and inclinations in our mind, and then reinforce them, we are raising the probability that they will become the peaks and plateaus of our life experience – and the more we repeat, the more they emerge.
This is only the first of 50 Verses on the Nature of Consciousness. The more I sit in this vastness that is the mind – and I am always only a beginner – the more I see how we truly are made of the same ‘stuff’, of space and of infinite possibility… and the more committed I feel to keep myself awake to this, and to share as much of my enthusiasm as I can!
