Resonant Maneuvers as Fire: An Aspect of Cultivating Collective Power as the Mandala

Coherence in Bodies, Energies, and Minds

This article presumes familiarity with the foundation of the series, Resonant Maneuvers: Introduction

A Brief Re-Orientation to Resonant Maneuvers

We are exploring here five aspects of fluid power in small teams, via considering this matter by placing the tradition of American Maneuver Warfare in resonance with Himalayan frameworks of interiority.

The five elements:

Feeling-contact-participation (Fingerspitzengefühl): (1) intuitive situational awareness that (2) arises from open awareness and (3) active participation.

Regime-change-flow (Schwerpunkt): (1) energetic concentration that (2) provides sufficient activation energy to (3) change the situation into a new world.

Trust-context-cohesion (Einheit): (1) human trust and (2) sufficient overlapping orientation to (3) allow high-bandwidth dynamic communication.

Actionable-waveguide-vision (Auftragstaktik): (1) a clear vision of the future to live into (2) constrained only by the possibility of a path there (3) held individually and collectively.

Tempo-fluidity-spaciousness (Behendigkeit) (1) ability to break out of currently effective patterns (2) before they lose traction with reality.

There is also all that which is not of these aspects in whatever way…

Distortion-obscuration-friction (Reibung): The collective inverse of all the prior elements; the unpredictable drag of reality.

Aspects of Coherence

This article centers on Trust-context-cohesion (Einheit), as this is a good vantage point to survey the impact of Einheit on the other aspects. Einheit serves as synecdoche here, pointing to all aspects of cohesion (synecdoche is the rhetorical trope of a part standing in for whole, as in “the crown will not tolerate dissent”, crown standing in for the personage of the king).

Cohesion is key for power in two respects:

1. Cohesion combines individual’s power together into a single force, increasing the total power wielded

2. Cohesion allows power to act fluidly. A fluid is distinguished from a gas by having cohesion-without-rigidity. Cohesion-without-rigidity allows force to dynamically flow where it is most effective

Kohärenzeinheit: A Coherence Unity

The word Kohärenzeinheit (koh-HAIR-en-INE-hite) is a compound word of Kohärenz (Coherence) and Einheit (Unity), or, literally, a coherence unity. It refers here to a small team that has deep coherence in many aspects: coherence as minds, coherence as energies, and coherence as bodies.

To be a kohärenzeinheit is more than being a group, which can occur with little coherence. It is more than being a team, which can have effectiveness via coherence as minds, without coherence in energies or bodies. And, as we will see below, there are scaling limits for a kohärenzeinheit: it can rarely get above fifty or so individuals.

Let’s explore the three aspects of coherence:

Ähnliche Vorstellung: Coherence as Minds

Ähnliche Vorstellung’s (EH-lee-shuh FOR-shtel-loong) direct translation is “similar conception”

Coherence as minds comes from

1. individuals entering into a common framework of conceptuality: key concepts, terminology, and how these are structured. This happens organically as a factor of quantity of conversation: in the course of discussions, recurring patterns occur where a complex-to-define-in-the-affordances-of-the--current-language phenomenon is referenced multiple times. This experiential recurrence is the signpost for language coinage. A good default is term pairs, a couple of words, the minimum number of words to escape the strong gravity of prior associations with a single word.

2. an acknowledged common intent from within such a framework. This could be also called common purpose. As with common language, only the back-and-forth of conversation can generate an understanding of how each individuals’ initial purposes invariably differ, a generate an organic drift toward common ground.

This is the sort of coherence scales without limit, though it frays with extreme scale. It is seen when an entrepreneurial start-up grows enormous yet still retains some of the orientation that it had when it was small. The momentum of a group of founders’ Ähnliche Vorstellung (coherence as minds) can even be seen at the scale of countries or regional cultures, persisting with remnants of their founders’ orientation after hundreds of years.

Einheit: Coherence as Energies

Einheit’s (EYN-hite) direct translation is “unity”

Coherence of energy comes from

1. Unity of will (commitment): each individual’s heartfelt commitment to the group. This is not the same as having a common purpose and intent in mind. Rather, it refers to the strength of commitment to the intent.

2. Mutual reliability (trust): the felt-sense of each individual that other members of the group are also committed to the group and can effectively act on that commitment. This grows over time by individuals demonstrating reliability in following through on their word. Here, trust is used in a more transactional sense; in the next section we will see what might be called, to differentiate, heart-trust.

These can only be long-term effective when arising organically and authentically. Attempts to directly increase commitment and trust within a group invariably end up diminishing them; they create a simulacrum of commitment and trust which allows actual commitment and trust to drain away until, in a sudden collapse, the group is revealed to be without these qualities.

This quality scales inversely to the number of members of a group, as personal faith in the trust and commitment of other individuals is built one interaction at a time, and the more individuals there are, the more possible combinations of one-to-one interactions are present.

Einfühlung: Coherence as Bodies

Einfühlung’s (EYN-fyoo-loong) direct translation is “feeling into”

Coherence as bodies comes from

1. a felt-sense of alignment in rhythm and emotional tone. This arises largely from being-in-the-room with each other, from activities outside the purview of the group, and from deep interpersonal interaction as human beings, not as roles.

2. a felt-sense of alignment in fundamental energies, often manifest as a common aesthetic. This form of coherence can also partially be facilitated by aesthetics, as people have multiple attractor states for aesthetics, so it is possible to start with an aesthetic and then allow it to evolve.

Both of these tend to coalesce of their own accord when bodies interact non-transactionally together, such as the simple pleasurable walk in the forest or chat with coffee.

This aspect most limits the scaling of kohärenzeinheit: there appears to be something like “total amount of in-depth intimacy” as a cognitive limit for the general person: you have an intimate partner, close friends, acquaintances, people you recognize. It is impossible to invest as much time in a hundred people as we do in our intimate partner. Even one hour a day with a person only scales up to at most sixteen people with that level of intimacy! So, we find that the scaling limit of a kohärenzeinheit is, at best, fifty, and often much smaller.

Stimmigkeit: Congruent Shared Meaning

Stimmigkeit’s (SHTIM-ih-kite) direct translation is “in-tune-ness”

Stimmigkeit refers to the gestalt cohesion arising from Ähnliche Vorstellung (coherence as minds), Einheit (coherence as energies), and Einfühlung (coherence as bodies)

Meaning is an actual pattern of engagement. When there is congruent shared meaning, each individual’s actual patterns of engagement are in coherence across body, energy, and mind.

The Relationship to other Maneuver aspects

Einheit sits at the center of Resonant Maneuvers:

• Feeling-contact-participation (Fingerspitzengefühl)

• Regime-change-flow (Schwerpunkt)

• Trust-context-cohesion (Einheit)

• Actionable-waveguide-vision (Auftragstaktik)

• Tempo-fluidity-spaciousness (Behendigkeit)

How does it interact with the other aspects?

Auftragstaktik: Top-Down Governing Constraints

Auftragstaktik, Actionable-waveguide-vision, acts as a top-down governing constraint of the formation of cohesion. It serves as the guiding purpose for the fluid shape of the Kohärenzeinheit, the coherence unity.

Fingerspitzengefühl: Bottom-Up Enabling Constraints

Fingerspitzengefühl, Feeling-contact-participation, acts as a bottom-up governing constraint of the formation of cohesion. It is actuality-contact, that which makes sure the evolution of cohesion does not become a purely self-reflective one, disconnected from actuality.

Schwerpunkt: Coalescing, Dispersing, re-Coalescing

Schwerpunkt, Regime-change-flow, requires coalescing forces into a heavy point of power, and then re-coalescing forces into a new heavy point of power. Coherence is the aspects that allows compact coalescence, and also for re-coalescence as the Auftragstaktik, Actionable-waveguide-vision, undergoes continual evolution.

Behendigkeit: Discovery of Space

Behendigkeit, Tempo-fluidity-spaciousness, is often limited by how much variance in personality, tastes, view, and disagreeableness a kohärenzeinheit can support. When there is high variance within Stimmigkeit, congruent shared meaning, then the variance is metabolizable by the group, and can serve to evolve in priorly unexpected directions for greater impact.

Seeing with Stimmigkeit

What are some ways to delicately or strongly pluck the threads of interaction to create Kohärenzeinheit (a Coherence Unity)?

For signs, look for Stimmigkeit (Congruent Shared Meaning) as manifest in:

Ähnliche Vorstellung: Coherence as Minds via conceptuality and intent

Einheit: Coherence as Energies via commitment and trust

Einfühlung: Coherence as Bodies via emotion-tone and aesthetics

The play of interacting with these aspects forming Stimmigkeit (Congruent Shared Meaning) yields Kohärenzeinheit (a Coherence Unity) which can wield effective fluid power.