Spheres of Personal Uniqueness

Uniqueness has a Concentric Structure

The self that requires strength and has to be controlled is uniquely my own: it is me. So it is my existential responsibility. The 6 Dyads are mantras for self-control that can provide me with strength to handle this responsibility.

On close inspection, the Dyads reveal that «my unique self» manifests as 6 Spheres of Personal Uniqueness organized concentrically, progressively encompassing each other.
Where did this framework come from?

The present THEE inquiry led to the identification of these 6 Spheres. It was a surprise, being neither planned nor expected. Nothing like this has ever occurred before in a Structural Hierarchy. It is, however, similar to the way that the Monads were illuminated by discoveries in relation to Purposes. So I suspect that this 6 Level structure comes from somewhere in THEE not yet investigated, perhaps in the Framework of Experience-PH4 or possibly Willingness-PH7.

The Framework of Personal Spheres is as follows:

■ Sphere #1: Daily Activities
■ Sphere #2: Reference Points
■ Sphere #3: Social Happenings
■ Sphere #4: Social Relationships
■ Sphere #5: Personal Intentionality
■ Sphere #6: The Cosmos

There is evidence that these Spheres define uniqueness in that they are the standard information demanded by government bureaucracies worldwide when they want to identify who is completing a form (e.g. entering a country, applying for a permit).
Details

Name		Over-arching Identifier
Bodily Features e.g. Sex, Fingerprints, Facial structure, Iris &c.	↔	The Cosmos: Sphere #6
Reason for Applying?	↔	Personal Intentionality: Sphere #5
Date & Place of Birth?	↔	Social Happenings: Sphere #3
Occupation?	↔	Daily Activities: Sphere #1
Religion? Ethnic Group?	↔	Reference Points: Sphere #2
Next of Kin? Parent? Contact Person? Referee?	↔	Social Relationships: Sphere #4

The 6 Spheres of Your Operations

A summary matrix of the findings is at the bottom of this Topic.

Sphere #1 of Daily Activities : Intrapersonal

You perform a myriad of activities in a variety of endeavours. However, your occupation is dominant in this Sphere, and preferably an outlet for your creativity. If you do what you love (G"2¹), then you will feel strong, and be able to do the myriad of other things that life demands of you on a daily basis.
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The Sphere of our daily activities is what we most immediately identify with and where we most easily accept responsibility. After all, we exist to do. Endeavours of all sorts are required as part of life. At the root, there are our activities to survive from day to day, but living involves much more. As well as caring for our physical health (bathing, eating &c.), there is caring for our emotional, intellectual and spiritual health.

Amongst all these activities, there is our occupation. It is the way we make a living and it usually plays the largest part in the Sphere. Although every activity is work and can be a vehicle for creativity, the occupation is our chief preoccupation and uses up much of the time given over to activity.

Sphere #2 of Reference Points : Intrapersonal

You can get some control over unavoidable social indoctrination and group pressures by being ready to question beliefs, whether religious, scientific or popular. In any case, you must orient yourself in a complex and confusing world as best you can. A philosophy of life can provide you with overarching guidance. To be strong in any particular arena or specific situation, it is necessary to reach the truth (G"2²), That truth is what provides you with a point or frame of reference.
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The intrapersonal Sphere that surrounds our daily activities contains the frames of reference and fixed reference points that we use in handling our personal and social life. Any particular reference is only useful insofar as it is held to be true or experienced as true. Questioning is the essential process here, and it will lead to the formation of beliefs or convictions. When it is said that each person has their own truth, this is the Sphere being considered.

Tolerance for beliefs. This analysis strongly supports freedom of belief and views many attacks on beliefs as misguided. Attempts to eradicate «faulty beliefs» (e.g. astrology) without providing a convincing alternative reference frame helps no-one and ignores what counts: how a person lives.

You need a myriad of reference points. Each point or frame has a variable coverage and relevance. Some beliefs become permanent, while others are highly focused and transient. Some may only apply in your family, some may apply to all social interactions. There is also usually one major life-orienting framework best called a philosophy of life. It has historically been provided by religion, or by philosophy, but it seems that science currently works like this for some people, despite its limited focus.
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Conventional scientific principles offer a frame of reference that works well for manipulating many things in the physical world. Current scientific views are truths in this sense, even if they may get replaced. However, science has failed to offer a frame of reference for psychosocial life e.g. politics or management. So there is great variation in beliefs. with many egocentrically generated despite being socially inefficient or even dysfunctional.

Sphere #3 of Social Happenings : Interpersonal

How an event impacts on you is based on how you understand it. Mostly events are constructed as narratives (or stories). The most significant events form history. An amorphous story or a lack of historical perspective may leave you vulnerable. To be strong in relation to any event, it is necessary to give an account (G"2³) of it that helps you, and others who are also affected.
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The first interpersonal Sphere contains what happens around us and to us. There are numerous events, physical and social. However, not all events count, only those events which enter or lie within your specific psychosocial world and that you seek to understand. The most important events are strung together as history.

While many events in your immediate proximity or affecting your community, network and endeavours are unavoidable parts of this Sphere for you, more distant happenings may often be kept at bay. If you do not keep yourself informed, many events will not affect your values, how you feel or what you do.

Responsibility & Autonomy:Systems thinking says that "you are responsible for what happens to you". This does not mean you are responsible for a natural disaster, but you have some choice in how to prepare for it or handle it.

Sphere #4 of Social Relationships : Interpersonal

Everyone manages their relationships, whether superficial, friendly or intimate. Amongst all relationships, the family is dominant. Handling feelings in relationships is dependent on empathy, and is commonly difficult. To be strong within any relationship, it is necessary to be of service (G"2⁴) to the other and meet needs, small and large. If you only think about serving yourself, you will weaken your relationships and that weakens you.
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The higher interpersonal Sphere of Social Relationships governs social happenings in a similar way that reference points govern activity. This Sphere is filled with feelings: emotions that flow from identification which occurs spontaneously with anyone and everyone that you engage with. Feelings give meaning to everything so far considered.

Custom, as well as empathy, controls feelings and relations, often to an excessive extent. The degree of sensitivity and empathy will affect the depth of feeling that exists within a relationship. That in turn affects how relationships are handled. Of all your relationships, the most intimate and dominant are usually familial.

Sphere #5 of Personal Intentionality : Transpersonal

We experience intentionality as ours to create. But once created, purposes become commitments and their quality is determined by the goodness that is applied. The most significant purposes in our life are expressed as a Primal Quest that shapes other commitments. To be strong within the Sphere of Intentionality, you must stay the course (G"2⁵) and refuse to abandon a goal without sound, relevant and impersonal reasons.
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The lower transpersonal Sphere of Intentionality contains the specification and affirmation of values and purposes of all sorts. These entail responsibility (or in what sense do you hold them?), and generate personal commitments. We engage with these because we judge them good and are ready to use them as guides in lower Spheres: for handling relationships, for understanding happenings, for developing beliefs as well as for activities.

Intentionality includes purposes large and small, and values grand and trivial. Many purposes are transient, some endure for months or years, and others provide life-long direction. There is a system of purposes that dominates you and gives meaning to your life. This «purpose of life» is referred to in THEE as your Primal Quest. It is not clear how much control you have over choice of a Primal Quest. Perhaps it chooses you.

Sphere #6 of The Cosmos : Transpersonal

The highest Sphere of uniquensss, The Cosmos, is filled with the mysteries inherent in every moment. It includes our embodiment as well as our surrounding physical realities. It also includes experiences, like dreams and images, that enter us and may not make any particular sense. The only way to engage with mysteries is via the imagination. To be strong within the cosmic sphere, you must accept reality (G"2⁶).
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The final and totally encompassing transpersonal Sphere contains everything with which you can and do interact, whether or not you know about it. I refer to this as The Cosmos. It comprehends the totality of your existence, known and unknown, material and intangible. Being a totality, it is far too complex to comprehend, so its contents are mysteries. The biggest mystery of them all is the natural world, including our human nature.

The mysteries of the Cosmos have simultaneously intrigued and plagued mankind. Whether it is the origins of the universe, the presence of good and evil, the forthcoming weather, or the seemingly random nature of accident, illness and death, some mysteries will engage your attention. Imagination is our means for engagement.

We have to function, despite our inability to grasp most of what is going on. In personal life, that means going with the flow, accepting people and situations as they are, before any attempt at change.
Science and Mysteries

Science emerged as a method for penetrating cosmic mysteries piecemeal. True science starts with the imagination using wonder, and proceeds to apply reason and method. Conventional science, much as it has achieved, has still a long way to go to penetrate the mysteries of the physical universe e.g. only 4% of its matter-energy has been accounted for. THEE is a scientific penetration, still in its infancy, of the mysteries of psychosocial reality.

Comparison Matrix

Note that the Sphere of the Self is a system and all systems are defined by their Content and Context. The Engagement Method refers to how your awareness deals with both content and context.

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• Finding strength leads to pain that must be overcome.

Originally posted: 13-Apr-2013