Ch. 7 Strange Loops & the Infinite Regress (3/16-3/22)

[Hannah]

1. Have one member of the study group find a small rock that fits easily into the human hand. At the weekly meeting, pass the rock around. Allow each person to hold and examine the rock and attempt to say "all" about it.

Continue this exercise until everybody realizes that we never can say "all" about even a simple rock, or until everybody becomes embroiled in a debate between those who think eventually, in a few million years perhaps, we can say "all" and those who think we can never
say "all."

2. Have those who think we can eventually say "all" about the rock set out to investigate the geological history of the region where the rock comes from and report the following week on "all" the history of the forces that produced the region that produced that particular rock. Have everybody else try asking questions to find important areas of information left out of this attempt to say "all."

3. Attempt the same exercise with the room in which the group meets. Have everybody take turns attempting to tell "all" about the room. Then have somebody prepare a report for next week on "all" about how the house came to have its distinct design and location and that room within it.

4. Have each person sit silently and write a description of the house in which the group meets. Take about five minutes. Read the descriptions aloud, noting on a blackboard or large pad:

(a) how many things appear on some lists and not on others.

(b) how many things do not appear on any lists but can quickly come to light with further investigation.

5. Have every person close her or his eyes and listen to the sounds in the room and the sounds coming in from outside. Let one person with a watch time this exercise to last two minutes, then compare reports. Note how each nervous system has heard different sounds.

6. Let the group attempt to say "all" about the city where they meet.

7. Let the group attempt to say "all" about the economic history of the city.

8. Let the group attempt to say "all" about the geological, ecological and economic history of the region in which the city exists.

9. Let the group again pass the rock around, silently. Let every person look at it in the manner of Zen meditation — without forming words in their heads. (Those without experience in meditation will find this very difficult, but try it anyway.)

10. Note especially the points at which any members of the group begin to resist the exercises — e.g., complain "This is silly," "I know this already," "This is some kind of put-on," etc. Note any symptoms of irritability. Pass no judgments on one another when such reactions appear. Discuss the factors that make these exercises appear "boring" (uninteresting) or "threatening" (too interesting) to some kinds of people.

11. In another book, I suggested the new word sombunall meaning "some but not all." In the week after doing the above exercises, let each member of the study group try to remember to ask, each time the word "all" occurs, "Can we safely say 'all' here? Do we know enough? Would sombunall perhaps fit the facts more closely?"