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Re: The Chaos Factor

Jan 26, 1995 07:08 PM
by Murray Stentiford, Scientific Software and Systems Ltd


Responding to Jerry S:

Two things first:

1 I seem to recall coming in to THEOS-L near the end of a
discussion on Chaos theory.

2 I am not well versed in formal Chaos theory, so I may not
understand the terms Synchronicity and Causality in exactly the
ways established in Pauli & Jung's work.

HOWEVER, UNDAUNTED ...

> Causality works in the outward physical plane while synchronicity
> (acausality) works within the psyche and both interrelate
> together in our lives.

I don't see synchronicity necessarily as acausality.  It may
_seem_ so, when we can't see any causes, but I believe that
synchronicity is often a result of collective karma and maybe
karma from previous lives, to adapt your words.  And sometimes it
is _without_ a big, far-back cause of our making.

> Karma is a causal principle acting through Order.  The Chaos
> Factor is an acausal principle acting through Chaos.  What I call
> the Chaos Factor is then the polar complement of Karma.

The way I conceive of Karma, is as CONNECTION, outward through
space, back and forward through time, at all levels of
materiality and consciousness, yet also transcending the
dimensions of space and time.  Nothing is outside the web of
connectedness in the ongoing dance of interaction.

I see Chaos, then, as resulting from disordering processes
_within_ the web of connectedness, so that the Chaos Factor is
not a polar complement of Karma, but is subsumed within it, just
as is Order.

> There is another way of looking at all of this: When your tire
> blows out and you can't find any karmic reason for it (i.e., why
> *my* tire and not someone else's?) look to the Chaos Factor -
> maybe a result of your collective karma and maybe a result of
> karma from previous lives, who knows?

I get your drift, but the idea of karma expressing itself through
the Chaos Factor (which is what I think you mean here) seems to
conflict with what you said earlier on about the Chaos Factor
being acausal, and a polar complement of karma.

I feel that the Fate=Order and Accident=Chaos connections you
portray have more to them than meets the eye.  I don't think
there's a perfect match across those = signs, but I'm certainly
excited about the emergence of the initial relationships between
these four concepts.

For one thing, I still see a spectrum connecting Accident and
Fate, due to differences of the strength or extensivenesss of
causal factors within the web of karma, but feel that Order and
Chaos are discrete and opposite concepts.

Murray Stentiford

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