Breakdown >>> Disruptive Thinking >>> Breakthrough

BREAKDOWN > DISRUPTIVE THINKING > BREAKTHROUGH
by Basia Alexander and Jim Conroy, The Tree Whisperer

Problems.  Hate ‘em.  Gotta love ‘em. Why?  They are the breakdowns that bring opportunity. And that’s how this tree-healing work started.  

Jim’s Example: Perhaps you read the previous post called My Original Ah-Ha Moment!  I talked about the problem I saw in the botanical sciences and in the agricultural chemicals industry that I worked in for over 30 years.  That problem was the fact that despite all of our research and data, we couldn’t HEAL the inner functionality of stressed plants and trees.  

What do Basia and I mean by that?  Plant physiology—well researched by science—is composed of interacting feedback loops.  In other words, plants have inner processes that are complex and mutually interdependent.  A plant system such as circulation of fluids involves countless minute interactions of biochemistry and more.  Inner operations have to be exquisitely timed to work in concert in order to produce growth. All sorts of related operations inside of the plant contribute to the larger functioning of the whole.  

Basia explains with an image: This is a super-simplified diagram of what the feedback loops are supposed to look like inside of a tree or plant.  There are lots of related things happening, all together, each in the right sequence.  

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Jim continues: However, when a plant or tree is stressed from some factor, its inner functionality breaks down.  The factor could be normal weather, climate extremes, pollution, human interferences, chemical use, poor original planting, or so many other things.  Notice that I DON’T say insects or disease organisms.  Why?  Because stress weakens a plant.  The weak plant then attracts the insect or disease, which can then make the plant’s stress worse.  The insect or disease usually doesn’t come first.  

Basia explains it with an image: So, the feedback loops break apart, break down.  It’s possible but hard for a weakened tree or plant to re-establish that inner functionality.  In other words, given perfect conditions, the feedback loops can be restored.  That happens either rarely or it takes a lot of time.  The tree or plant might not have enough inner resources remaining to survive until it can restore those feedback loops.

Jim continues: That’s what happened for the soybeans that I talked about in that previous post.  When I visited the grower’s fields, the soybeans had turned yellow from the high stress of a cold and wet snap.  They weren’t green or growing.  There was nothing the grower or we company-people could do but wait.  We didn’t have products or some kind of answer to help those little soybeans get their inner physiology — systems and all aspects of functionality— operating again quickly and efficiently.  It would take time and perfect conditions.  

At least that was the prevailing attitude given what people thought was possible.  

Basia continues: So there’s the real problem: what we think is possible.  

It was a “breakdown” in Jim's soybean story because (from the plant’s point of view) the plants are stuck in a non-growth situation and (from the human point of view) the time lost will probably cost the grower money in reduced yields.  In other words, something isn’t working in the way plants are meant to grow—their inner functionality is broken down.  And something isn’t working for the grower — his/her expectations for a profitable crop have broken down.  

But more than that, the problem is seen within the rigid lines of what people think is possible.  For example:  “It’s not possible for stressed plants to have their inner functionality boosted because we don’t have a product we can put on them that will do that.”

In this FRAMEWORK OF THOUGHT image, there are black “lines of force” shown with triangular “beliefs” that have to stay within the lines.  The rigid lines prevent new ideas from coming in.  This oversimplified diagram shows how people’s frameworks of thought, their beliefs about what is possible, constrain them and prevent innovation.  

Jim interrupts: Then, along comes a question: What if there were a way to boost the inner feedback loops and processes inside of a plant that didn’t involve some kind of product?  and instead used something else?  That was MY question—a quest really—during my ag-chem career.  

Basia continues: Jim's question itself is disruptive thinking.  The question challenges the prevailing beliefs that people can control Nature, dominate Nature, and have all the answers.

Disruptive thinking?  It can be as simple as entertaining an open-mindedness to something else that might be possible.  Instead of “I can’t” or “That’ll never work” or “It’s not possible” there are moments of allowing something new in.  

Jim describes:  As I said in the previous post, when I attended the talk by the founder of a human energy-medicine healing system called Bodytalk, I let something new in.  I saw a parallel between what he was saying is possible through his consciousness-based system for healing people and what I was looking for. I was looking to help stressed plants regain their connection and flow of inner processes quickly and efficiently.  In other words, to HEAL plants.  

Here’s the hard part that comes up against the old rigid framework of thought.  

There would be NO PRODUCTS that could do this. It could not be a new way to control Nature or dominate those plants. It was not a new way to make humans superior to Nature.  

My disruptive thinking was this:  a direct, personal, and, yes, humble, communication and interaction with the plants through bioenergy and through consciousness could and would help the plants internally heal and regain health more quickly than they might with just perfect weather conditions.  (And that might help the grower to have a more profitable crop.)  I saw a possibility of a way to collaborate in partnership with Nature.  

When I started thinking that thought, building my skills, and going out to actually collaborate with crops, plants, and trees, most people thought I was crazy.  

And then I started teaching others how to do it and how it works.  Bottom line:  engaging with trees and plants via consciousness by using an outlined system to heal plants and trees DOES work.  Slowly but surely, more people opened their minds to that disruptive thinking.  

Basia’s image: In this FRAMEWORK OF THOUGHT diagram, the “lines” are dotted and wavy—not rigid.  The disruptive thinking is shaking up the old ideas and beliefs about what’s possible and what’s not possible.  

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Basia continues: So the disruptive thinking leads to “the new” and especially to the unexpected.  Here’s a way to look at breakthrough: You think you know what a chair is.  And there can be all kinds of designs for chairs that look different and work differently.  That’s just something “new.”  

But what if there were something that included “chair” that arose and was totally unexpected?  I can’t even imagine it.  You can’t even imagine it.  Until it arises!  That’s breakthrough.  It’s outside of the currently accepted reality.  It’s beyond ‘new’ because it is greater than anything that came before.  It’s an emergent whole greater than the sum of parts, not just the sum of parts.

Basia’s image:  So a new way of thinking emerges… and it looks flexible (no rigid lines).  Ideas or beliefs are scattered around, some interacting with each other, others moving freely. There is creativity and innovation possible here in the third FRAMEWORK OF THOUGHT diagram.  

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Jim explains his breakthrough thinking:  With my plant, tree, and ecosystem HEALING systems, I have embraced my PhD and my science background.  Botany.  Physiology.  It’s all important to my healing work and I use it every day.  What has evolved is that I don’t operate inside of that old framework of thought anymore.  I don’t try to control plants, dominate them, or be superior to Nature.  

I operate with disruptive thinking:

• The attitude I bring is that of honoring the life forms of Nature as living, conscious, sentient Beings.  
• The beliefs that I bring to the table are about the real and tangible healing that is possible from interacting via consciousness with trees, plants and whole ecosystems.  
• The practices I bring are consistent with the ancient and indigenous practices of communicating and collaborating with Nature.  
• I operate in a new framework of thought Basia and I call “partnership with Nature.”  

And the soybeans?  Well, not only the soybeans, but also every kind of stressed crop and tree, sick forest and ecosystem—I’ve worked with them all in partnership and collaboration, have healed them all with my methods.

And they’ve regained inner health without products, quickly and efficiently.  

They are “healed”, not “managed” or controlled.

Jim concludes: I’ve been able to use and then go beyond the information in textbooks about how tree and plant internal functionality operates. They tell me their secrets.  And I'll be telling some of those secrets to you in my blog.

I believe it’s because I’ve opened myself to the out-of-the-box idea that plants’ internal functionality can be restored with energy-medicine and consciousness.  I can—and with a little training, anyone can—HEAL the inner functionality of stressed plants and trees.

Both: That’s the breakthrough!

Basia’s Image: It translates this way into a chart about conventional tree care and the “new thinking” leading edge tree care of Dr. Jim's: