Natalia has been enjoying slowly reading John Vervaeke’s new book Awakening From The Meaning Crisis: Part One: Origins. In this book, Vervaeke weaves together philosophy, history, psychology and cognitive science into a historical perspective on the origins of our modern worldview - how we have come to make sense of ourselves and reality in the west, and how this has shaped our particular relationship to ideas of meaning, development, and purpose. He follows philosophers and scientists through the ages to map the development of belief systems from before the axial age through to present day, exploring how we have created a belief in human exceptionalism, progress, and a longing for meaning and self-actualization.

Natalia is appreciating this particular perspective on how the current global “meta-crisis” intersects with a personal and societal “meaning crisis”, in which so many are longing for something that feels more real and meaningful and understandable, but instead are overcome with nihilism, despair, anxiety, hopelessness and isolation. You can listen to a wonderful interview with Vervaeke about themes in this latest book and upcoming work on the Know Thyself Podcast or watch Vervaeke’s many videos on this subject on Vervaeke’s youtube channel.

Tom had an hour-long conversation with Scott Spann and watched a few of his videos and is very impressed with his work. A quick outline of his method:  Scott interviews “360 degree” stakeholders and works with them individually to create system maps of what they see and understand about the situation they’re stuck in with the other stakeholders. Then he convenes the whole system in a conversation to understand each other’s maps and to co-create a bigger system map that embraces the full “topology” of their collective understanding of their shared situation.  He then reflects on that complexity, sensing into what wants to happen and what the key leverage points are, distilling it into a new systemic clarity - a “simplicity on the other side of complexity” - which he then shares with the whole group as his “hallucination” of what the whole sees, inviting them to edit to reflect their fuller understanding of what they should do next together. Tom views this as a sophisticated means to “appreciate, evoke and engage the wisdom and resourcefulness of the whole on behalf of the whole” and is impressed