The transcript below is the summary of the introductory section on Embodied Network Dynamics offered by Nodus Labs / Special Agency as an online course or a 2-hour long workshop session.
Polysingularity is a practice of soma~cognitive / body~mind reconfiguration.
The main intention of the practice is to explore altered states of consciousness by way of perceptual modulation through mediated experiences.
In other words, shifting through body~mind states using the natural means immediately available.
Apart from the obvious fact that with this approach one never gets bored, there are many more aspects to the practice.
Aspect #1: Increasing Adaptability through Shifting Perception
The ability to constantly shift perspectives opens up new possibilities and – as a bonus – stimulates sense of humour. One can adjust to the constantly changing environment or look at a situation from a different point of view. It has been demonstrated (Kitano 2004, Wagner et al 2007) that adaptability is a crucial element for evolutionary development and robustness of living systems.
A well-known experiment on selective attention demonstrates the importance of shifting perspective for maintaining awareness of details:
Polysingular attention is the one that is focused on many different parts (poly~singular – zooming in) while keeping in~tention on the overall structure (zooming out). Understanding the meaning of this very sentence while having an overview of this text. Bridging the islands of meaning together into a coherent unity while maintaining the diversity that each of them brings.
Aspect #2: Enhancing Awareness through Cognitive Reconfiguration
Normally consciousness operates on the cause-effect basis. Something arises and is followed by something else, a chain of events emerges, words form into sentences, a narrative is created with a specific beginning and a specific end.
Polysingularity is the practice of meditative awareness. Instead of focusing on the causal links between the events, polysingularity is concerned with their co-occurrences. Over time, those co-occurrences form into patterns, which can be represented as constellations or networks of meaning. It is the presence or absence of those patterns as well as their features which are of concern to polysingularity practice.
This methodology is implemented in InfraNodus text network analysis software, which is used for psychotherapeutic practices, research, as well as dynamic analysis of rhetorics as demonstrated in the example below:
Aspect #3: Physical Elasticity and Integrity
Polysingularity brings more variability into body rhythms and helps inter~relate them to maintain integrity and increase elasticity on the physical level.
Body practices utilized in polysingularity emphasize the importance of several concurrent rhythms that manifest themselves through breathing, movement, heartbeat, neuronal oscillations and various other biodynamic frequencies.
The ability to be aware of those rhythms and to de/synchronize them is the key to physical integrity and flexibility even at moments that may be stressful and challenging to the body.
Polysingularity methodology is based on integrating continuity, redirection, dissipation and variable rhythmical patterns in everyday life as well as in physical practices.
Aspect #4: Evolutionary Robustness through Variability
Variability is natural to any dynamic process. When it is disturbed various pathologies emerge (Katerndahl et al 2007, Kelso 2012, Goldberger et al 2002).
Polysingularity introduces variability on behavioral, physical, cognitive and social levels to ensure the uninterrupted flow of 1/f chaotic dynamics in multiple frequency bands and spectrums.
Aspect #5: Social Diversification
Social diversification has been shown to be beneficial both for innovation and for maintaining a stable evolutionary process (Burt 2004, Nishikawa et al 2003).
Therefore, to practice polysingularity on the social level is to facilitate the kind of social dynamics that brings different distinct communities together and helps them inter~act from their unique standpoints.
On the other hand, individuals can practice social polysingularity through recreating their social networks in the way of belonging to several distinct communities at once, bridging the gaps between them, giving priority to the one that is chosen for the particular moment of time/space duration.
References
Burt, R. S. (2004). Structural Holes and Good Ideas. American Journal of Sociology, 110(2), 349–399.
Goldberger, A., Amaral, L., Hausdorff, J., Ivanov, P., Peng, C-K., Stanley, E (2002) Fractal dynamics in physiology: Alterations with disease and ageing
PNAS 2002, volume 99 (supplement 1).
Katerndahl, D., Ferrer, R., Best, R., & Wang, C.-P. (2007). Dynamic patterns in mood among newly diagnosed patients with major depressive episode or panic disorder and normal controls. Primary Care Companion to the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 9(3), 183–7.
Kelso, J. a S. (2012). Multistability and metastability: understanding dynamic coordination in the brain. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 367(1591), 906–18. doi:10.1098/rstb.2011.0351
Kitano, H. (2004). Biological robustness. Nature Reviews. Genetics, 5(11), 826–37. doi:10.1038/nrg1471
Nishikawa, T., Motter, A. E., Lai, Y., & Hoppensteadt, F. C. (2003). Heterogeneity in oscillator networks: Are smaller worlds easier to synchronize?, 014101(2003), 1–5.
Wagner, G. P., Pavlicev, M., & Cheverud, J. M. (2007). The road to modularity. Nature Reviews. Genetics, 8(12), 921–31.