It is important to revisit the core idea of systems theory. Recall the idea that a system is “a set of units with relationships among them.”. We know that the units influence each other over time. This is true whether we are talking about a pond ecology, a computerised business system, your body or a distant galaxy. What we experience in our world is, as discussed earlier, influenced by a vast number of factors. And whereas we might agree that we are observing the same system (by giving it a name) and whereas we might also agree on what units comprise the system, our consciousness cannot allow us to simulate or see how the system works over time. Only time can tell.
There is a great weight of evidence that suggests that the observer is more intimately engaged with the observed than one would believe. In fact, observer and observed influence each other and the world around them in subtle and often profound ways.
We know that there are systems within systems within systems. We are part of larger systems (the economic system, global trade) and smaller systems are certainly parts of us (the bacteria and parasites that live in your body). Everything, however insignificant, effects and is affected by everything else. Everything is interconnected. We are the fingers of evolution. We are the strands and silk that make the web of life.
Perhaps the most useful and empowering insights from systems theory suggest to us that:
There is no reality, merely opinion.
You cannot really know what is going on but you can make models which must then remain open to testing and new information
You cannot appreciate how the elements of a system interact with each over time. Only time can tell. And your vision for the system (the way you see it will be) can become the most vital way of guiding the system to its desired destination
Your ‘vision’ of the system or how you experience it is unique to you. Only you will ever see it your way. Getting others to ‘see’ the same vision as you and changing their memories is where your power lies.
Mind and body and brain are aspects of the same system as are a myriad other systems that comprise your body. Any change or learning, in order to be most effective, has to engage a number of different systems simultaneously.
Everything is connected. There are systems within systems within systems. Everything influences and is influenced by everything else.