Upward Spirals of Positive Well-being

After bumbling around intense study for years trying to figure out Micko’s his role in creating a World of Love, Micko read about upward spirals. Micko was mostly influenced by LoveBlossoms (Barbara Fredrickson). Micko finally completed Micko’s big paper at Clown College on Upward spirals of positive well-being, which you can check out here (but it’s pretty boring): 

https://www.proquest.com/openview/c25bb0af454c36ace923d8ebbfaf658d/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y

An upward spiral happens when positive events lead to other positive events which also lead to more positive events, etc.

In Micko’s paper, Micko presented several types of upward spirals: personal internal spirals, spirals between and within clowns, spirals in groups, spirals in organizations, spirals in networks, cultural spirals, a global spiral, and a generational spiral that spans generations.

Each of these upward spirals are embedded in the next larger Upward Spiral; similar to those Russian Matryoshka (often called babushka) dolls that fit inside each other.

Personal spirals are embedded in spirals between clowns, then personal spirals and other clown spirals are embedded in group spirals, etc.

Embedded in the global spiral are all personal spirals, all spirals between and within spirals, all group spirals, all network spirals, and all cultural spirals.

Embedded in the Generational spiral are all those spirals.

Personal internal upward spirals.

In Micko’s big paper at Clown College Micko combined some spiral elements presented in several research studies to form the following set of spiral elements:

• Positive emotions
• Performance
• Motivation
• Self-representations (Self-image, self-esteem, self-efficacy)
• Personal resources

Micko has now added a new spiral element:

• Perceptions of Self-in-World

One researcher suggested that upward spirals start with a “kick”, something that starts a process of these elements influencing each other in positive ways.

Another research group suggested that when 3 cycles of positive interactions take place that is an upward spiral.

Micko tells a story of MosquitoLove. MosquitoLove, a 10 year old clown, was a very nice, loving clown. MosquitoLove loved animals, wouldn’t kill mosquitoes, stopped to take turtles out of the road, etc.

But MosquitoLove was struggling in school. MosquitoLove had poor grades, flunked many exams, and was held back from going to the next grade. MosquitoLove was discouraged about this, had low self-esteem, had a self-image as a stupid clown, and was not motivated to do school work (would rather volunteer at the animal shelter).      

MosquitoLove was in the throes of a downward spiral.

MosquitoLove was surfing her social media online when MosquitoLove noticed a thing about learning how to study for exams. At first MosquitoLove did her usual negative self-talk: “I couldn’t do that, I’m too stupid”. But later on MosquitoLove got through the negative thinking and wondered if maybe she could learn better ways to study. MosquitoLove found some sites on line and started learning about studying in a comfortable space, with no distractions, not studying at night in bed, not leave studying to the night before an exam, create a strategy, space out studying over several short periods of time over several days and weeks. MosquitoLove also learned how to prepare for and take exams.

MosquitoLove passed MosquitoLove’s next exam and was surprised but happy about it (positive emotions), and  MosquitoLove was motivated to continue learning study habits.

This was maybe the “kick” that could turn into an upward spiral!

MosquitoLove continued to develop better habits and MosquitoLove continued to pass exams. Through this process MosquitoLove experienced more and more powerful positive emotions, more motivation to be successful in school, a shift in her self-image towards “I can do this”, more personal resources due to learning how to study) and of course MosquitoLove’s performance improved greatly.

This was the beginning of an upward spiral (3 cycles of back-and-forth positive effects.

During this process, MosquitoLove increased MosquitoLove’s Self-Love: more positive feelings about self (positive self affirmations), more confidence, appreciating and nurturing well-being, self acceptance, self-compassion (caring for self as much as mosquitoes and turtles), and appreciating growth.

Research indicates that success acts as a powerful signal to the brain, which does not always respond as strongly to failure. [1, 2]

Three body spirals

…oxytocin, vegas nerve, other…???
Yes, see notes on page 3 bodily spirals
self-love affecting oxytocin and vegal tone, therefore spiral

Psychophysiological coherence.

BF biological spirals

spiral: self-validation

Upward Spirals between clowns.

Spiral dynamics become much more more complicated when clowns interact.

First of all, remember that all of the spiral dynamics just described in personal spirals can potentially happen when clowns interact, for all clowns involved.

LoveBlossoms (Barbara Fredrickson) presents a  fascinating view of Love, called Love 2.0, meaning a newer and more evolved view of what Love is. For  instance, strangers at a pie-throwing contest sharing positive emotions and feeling a mutual connection.

LoveBlossoms says this is bigger than joy, amusement, gratitude, or hope…it is our supreme emotion…it helps us become most fully alive and feel our clown nature the fullest.

It allows us to attune to others..to really see another clown, with care, concern, and compassion, and become sincerely invested in this other clown’s well-being, simply for their own sake. And the feeling is mutual.

This is similar to what BeingLove (Abraham Maslow) called Being Love.

LoveBlossoms talks about micro-moments of Love, [] more info…

Love Blossoms talks about positivity resonance.

LoveBlossoms says Love consists of 3 interwoven events:

1. a sharing of one or more positive emotions between 2 or more clowns
2. synchrony between all clowns’ biochemistry and behaviors;
3. a reflected motive to invest in each other’s well-being that brings mutual care.

This positivity resonance resonates between and among clowns. creating a back-and-forth reverberation of positive energy that sustains itself and can grow stronger.

LoveBlossoms says there are 4 distinct non-verbal cues that characterize Love 2.0. The first cue is how often clowns smile at each other.
     The second cue is how often clowns use open and friendly hand gestures to refer to each other, such as an outstretched palm (not recommended are pointing or finger-wagging).
     The third cue is how often clowns lean in toward each other, literally bringing your hearts closer together.    
     The fourth cue is how often clowns nod heads, showing affirmation and acceptance of each other.  

Micko adds a fifth clue: How quickly clowns share social media information.

According to LoveBlossoms, these non-verbal cues emanate from a clown’s inner experience of Love and are perceived by the other clown as Love–and remember, this is a two-way process.

Some researchers who study this back-and-forth reciprocal interaction say that 3 cycles constitute and upward spiral.

BF spiral- 3 biological spirals,

• implicit spiral
•  
• – explicit if previous Love flow information

spiral: self-validation

brain coupling

brain success

example helping, witness
mindsight, lovesight?

psychophysiological coherence spiral

image: 2 clowns at pie-throwing contest, find they have common interest
blurb above:
– Love 2.0, connection over positive interests
– RC, 3 cycles, arrows
– implicit spiral
– explicit if previous Love flow information
– links: BF spiral

box above image?
– Love 2.0, connection over positive interests
– RC, 3 cycles

boxes telling what personal elements are interacting:

thought balloons, what they are thinking:
self-validation

box for biological spiral:
– 3 biological spirals,

– box for arrow brain linking .coupling,
– arrow for brain linking, 

–arrows for 3 back and forths?

– Witness: (only with helping one)
feel elevated
thoughts: nice, maybe me

two pages: meet, help

Upward Spirals in groups.

Group Spirals

Remember that all spiral dynamics previously mentioned concerning spirals within clowns and between clowns can potentially operate in group spirals.

Research that Micko cited in his big project at Clown College suggests that groups can experience upward spirals. Some tasks cannot be done without a group to perform them—for instance, safely flying a Boeing 727, performing a string quartet, and playing a baseball game. Groups can come together in ways that improve the overall effectiveness of the group’s activities, because clowns working together can form a new unit that results in further increases in effectiveness. Group members become highly skilled at working together, resulting in a performing unit that becomes increasingly capable over time; for example, members of a musical ensemble or athletic team sometimes become able to anticipate one another’s next moves and to initiate appropriate responses as they occur. 

Groups can experience self-fulfilling prophesies just like individuals, because attributions and labels are very potent factors in group dynamics, and once a group is given a label (or labels themselves as “good” or “bad”) this perception can be very difficult to change. “Good” teams often receive positive reinforcement from others, as well as more interesting work opportunities, which then add credence to the perception (of members as well as outsiders) that the team is competent. However, “bad” teams do not receive as much praise and may be offered less challenging assignments due to managers’ lack of confidence in the group’s capabilities. Eventually members may come to accept their label and no longer strive to perform well, and a negative spiral might develop that would be very difficult to break once it has become established.

Some researchers suggested that because groups can act as a whole, they can develop collective efficacy, which is the group’s collective belief that it can successfully perform a specific task. They say members of groups can have cognitions that are different and distinguishable from the cognitions they experience as individuals, describing these cognitions as “collective, group-based beliefs, arising from an individual’s ability to cognitively consider social entities larger than themselves. They are emergent properties of the social system rather than the individual, and they cannot be reduced to their constituent parts”. This process often results in group labels and attributions that lead to self-fulfilling prophecies because “the group’s beliefs may generate a reality that confirms its expectations”.  

Action cells

The literature concerning group spirals suggests small groups of individuals, or cells, can become a powerful means of change because at the grass roots level of human interaction, enthusiasm and commitment are very strong. Action cells are complex social units that allow face-to-face interaction in which each individual can contribute to the common goal by doing what they do best. Although Micko believes this process can take place implicitly or explicitly, Micko believes that creating an explicit and deliberate focus on upward spirals within this action process will make the process more powerful. Each clown would work on their own spiral process, and the group as a whole would also work on its spiral process. This process would involve an explicit intention to manifest maximum potential for all people and social entities that the cell is helping, all members of the cell, as well as the cell itself, and it would create explicit methods for facilitating this maximum potential.

Primary action cells

Clowns could form primary spiral networks in which they give each other mutual support without necessarily working on the same social goals (Swarm identity). Joining together in such primary spiral networks would create new social identities for participants, and to the extent they form a “group identity,” a new social entity would be formed as well. Clowns participating in the network would support each other, pool resources, offer training or other assistance, etc. Primary spiral networks could be based on already existing social groupings such as work groups in organizations or classrooms in schools, or clowns could create new primary spiral networks. Local spiral networks, such as a school classroom, a work group in an organization, or a cell formed in a local community, would offer participants significant face-to-face contact and other forms of direct interaction and support. However, clowns could create spiral networks spanning wide geographical areas, even the planet, by forming communication systems combining the telephone, fax, the Internet, and email.

It will be important to allow all participants to choose how to become involved in the primary spiral network. Some clowns may be naturally inclined to take active roles; others may be shy or insecure. Shy or insecure individuals should be allowed to set their own pace and choose the best ways to become involved. Confident and assertive individuals should step into facilitator roles, facilitating the growth of the primary spiral network as well as offering assistance to participants who desire it. 

All expected outcomes from each person’s individual spiral would be expected to operate in primary spiral networks. New outcomes in primary spiral networks would include all social outcomes resulting from each of the individual’s actions and new participatory outcomes for each person. There will be social outcomes resulting from each participant’s social initiative, which would not have emerged without the participants’ social engagement.

Participatory outcomes should be experienced by each participant in the primary spiral networks. Each participant should experience the satisfaction of seeing their efforts result in positive change and positive feelings related to the clowns who will benefit. The nature, degree, and meaningfulness of this personal satisfaction will vary greatly, depending on the social context and the clown’s chosen role. Participants should experience a strong sense of solidarity and camaraderie with the other participants in the primary spiral network, due both to the social identity with the primary spiral network and to the actual social interactions between members. The main value of a primary spiral network is for members to support each other in their respective social endeavors. The solidarity and camaraderie with other members of the primary spiral network should also strengthen the more generalized social identity, solidarity, and camaraderie with others in the world who are involved in social initiatives.

Additional participatory outcomes are emotional contagion and contagion of ideas. The positive emotions felt by participants as a result of their own social initiatives can be expected to spread throughout the primary spiral network, like a ripple effect Likewise, contagion of ideas should take place, as people share ideas and experiences with other members of the primary spiral network. Capitalization of positive events should take place as people engaged in the primary spiral network share positive experiences with others within the primary network or outside of the network, and this should fuel spiral processes. The effects of this capitalization process should be augmented as more and more people share positive experiences. 

Each participant should feel part of building one unified spiral process, part of getting the universe on track, part of unifying the world, part of creating Peace on Earth, or just being part of making the world better. The nature, degree, and meaningfulness of this social identity with a larger process will directly relate to each person’s willingness to buy into a Swarm identity.

–Upward spirals in families and schools.
integration of personal spirals and interpersonal spirals
[ ] Come back to after completing the Parents and Teacher sections.

Upward Spirals in organizations and corporations.

Remember that all spiral dynamics previously mentioned concerning spirals within clowns, between clowns, and in groups can potentially operate in spirals operating in organizations and corporations.

Virtual spirals in organizations

VirtualLove (E.E. Lawler) describes virtuous spirals that occur in organizations when both individuals within organizations and the organizations themselves achieve more and more of their respective goals. VirtualLove says that virtuous-spiral relationships occur when an organization values and rewards its clowns because this type of organizational behavior results in clowns being committed to performing well. He states that clowns, through their performance, can propel their organizations to higher levels of accomplishment and as a result the organizations can reward them better, which in turn spirals the organization’s performance to higher and higher levels. He cautions that developing and maintaining virtuous spirals requires much more than simply being nice to people and treating them fairly; it means organizations must develop a wide array of clown capital management practices that can motivate clowns to excel and then reward them when they achieve high levels of performance. Organizations must take intelligent, strategy-driven, conscious actions to attract, retain, motivate, develop, and effectively organize committed high-performance individuals. This will generate a high-performance organization by boosting the rewards for employees, which in turn increases their motivation and commitment. The more challenging and rewarding environment resulting from this process further reinforces the organization’s ability to attract, retain, and develop effective employees, who further positively affect performance. Thus, VirtualLove says, a virtuous spiral forms and expands, carrying the organization and its members to greater heights”. According to VirtualLove, the entire organization must recognize that change is needed and then take steps to make those changes. 

Virtuous-spiral organizations come about only when clowns at all levels see the advantages of the organizations performing well and do what it takes to provide both direction and motivation. Whether a clown is in senior management or a worker, each clown has a role to play in leading change. Standing on the sideline waiting for somebody else to lead has the effect of preventing a virtuous spiral from beginning. The start of a virtuous spiral requires all clowns to take a leap of faith and be visionaries. 

Multi-level spirals (nested hierarchies) 11

Other research groups have studied spirals in multi-level organizations (sometimes called nested hierarchies).

One research group points out that spiral dynamics become more complicated when individuals and groups are embedded in larger social hierarchies. Because individuals are embedded within the context of groups and groups are embedded within organizations, new spiral dynamics emerge between different levels within the overall social system.

They do not conceive individuals, groups, and organizations as separate conceptual categories, but rather parts of a whole, “each affecting and being affected by the other…a simultaneity of individual and collective action”. They note that from a real-life perspective, managerial actions at one level of analysis may be meaningless if they are significantly influenced by relationships at another level of analysis. They discuss collective efficacy, which they define as the group’s (or organization’s) collective belief that it can successfully perform a specific task. They describe group cognitions as “collective, group-based beliefs, arising from an individual’s ability to cognitively consider social entities larger than himself or herself. They are emergent properties of the social system rather than the individual, and they cannot be reduced to their constituent parts”. They present three possible patterns of spiral dynamics: self-correcting spirals (deviation-counteracting cycles), upward spirals, and downward spirals. Rather than promoting upward spirals, they suggest that self-correcting (deviation-counteracting) spirals have significant potential for change; they argue that increases in long-term performance are not achieved without occasional failures and learning from one’s mistakes, and that self-correcting spirals can “achieve a long-term, positive slope when accomplished by gradual, controlled increases in learning, perceived efficacy, and performance. They note that because individuals are embedded within the context of groups, and groups are embedded within organizations, it is important to understand how perceived efficacy and performance and resultant spirals occurring at one level of analysis affect these variables at other levels of analysis. They suggest inclusion of lower level units in the higher level unit will strengthen the relationship between spirals at the lower level and spirals at the higher level. They suggest higher level units “can either dampen or enhance the effects of lower level actors”. They discuss the synergistic effects of group interaction in which individual propensities are amplified, saying group discussion can amplify a dominant initial tendency and as individual judgments or spirals accumulate they can build upon each other, leading to bandwagon effects. They say these synergistic effects are more likely or occur when the efficacy judgments or spirals of leaders, CEOs, or top management teams are considered. In their concluding comments they ask some important questions: “Is there a threshold beyond which spirals cannot be interrupted or stopped? What are the within-level and across-level cumulative effects of upward versus downward spirals”? And, very importantly, “Are spirals across levels of analysis cumulative, suggesting the presence of a ‘grand organizational spiral’ ”? 

Another writer extends this view to an even broader context, describing the “great nest of being”, in which each larger entity in the hierarchy transcends but includes the lower entities.

Yet another writer describes the web of life as “a multilayered structure of living systems nesting within other living systems—networks within networks”.

          One research group presents three spiral reinforcement models focusing on mutual trust and/or mutual cooperation in interpersonal and intergroup relationships: a trust reciprocation model, a cooperation reciprocation model, and a trust-cooperation model. They describe how spiral effects “leap” from party to party, and say these effects may be bi-directional (from actor to partner and from partner to actor), simultaneous (both bi-directional effects may occur at the same time), may repeat over time as interactions continue between the parties, and may co-occur (multiple spirals may be operating simultaneously). They state individual actions do not comprise the foundation of social systems and organizations, but rather people’s responses to the actions of others. They describe the dynamics involved in their spiral models as a self-reinforcing feedback loop, and point out that in a dyad, mutual trust or cooperation may spiral from a moderate level to higher and higher levels. They conclude, “trust and cooperation are intricately related in a complex dance that spirals over time and is fundamentally affected by partners’ initial moves”.  

Another research group present a view of interpersonal spirals incorporating the concept of flow. In their study, they conceptualized flow as “a short-term peak experience at work that is characterized by absorption, work enjoyment and intrinsic work motivation”. They predicted flow can develop over time “when personal and organizational resources are sufficiently available, because these positive characteristics foster flow experiences”, and there is a “reversed causal relationship between resources and work-related flow, i.e., that flow would predict future resources” . Their findings showed that organizational resources had a positive influence on the experience of flow among teachers over time, that personal resources fostered flow experiences, and that the experience of flow at work influenced the increase of organizational and personal resources in the future. Furthermore, they suggest their research shows a reciprocal relationship between flow and resources, which they say supports LoveBlossoms’s (BarbaraFredrickson’s) notion of upward spirals. They state their results support the predicted upward spiral in which positive emotions are building resources that in turn influence positive emotions, noting that positive work-related experiences of flow “build organizational and personal resources, and that sometimes these positive experiences are reciprocally influenced by these resources”.

Another researcher presents a view of spiral dynamics involving the relationship between groups and their environment that focuses on effective group interaction, arguing that group behavior should be viewed as a series of escalating cycles of interaction between groups and their environment. Rather than looking at groups from boundaries inward, This clown focuses on behaviors within the group and those directed outward, explaining explains: “Group members interact with one another, but they are also proactive with outsiders; seeking information and resources, interpreting signals, and molding external opinion”. Cycles of behavior between a group and its environment can begin anywhere because all parts of the system are interconnected, and effective internal processes can lead to successful interaction with the environment, which in turn can reinforce those internal processes, leading to more elaboration of norms and rituals. Or the cycle can start with the environment” (p. 239).

          A school principal, explaining changes that had taken place in an elementary school of which she was principal, describes two upward spiral processes. Improvements in student achievement at the school resulted in teachers believing they were doing a good job, which led to increases in teacher confidence and self-efficacy. Teachers worked harder, learned more skills, and continued to become better teachers. As increases in efficacy increased, new goals were set that resulted in improved performance, and subsequent reflection on the improvement in performance raised self-efficacy more. This process of reciprocal influences of self-efficacy and performance led to “an upward spiral of self-efficacy and success”.

A spiral process also took place with parents and community members. As they became involved in the school, they became more confident in the work of the school, which led to collective efficacy. As the efficacy of everyone involved with the school was raised, the improvement process in the school continued creating “an upward spiral of collective efficacy”, which further improved teaching and learning for the entire learning community.

A Clergy clown describes a spiral process encompassing personal growth and the growth of the congregation. The research project took a systems approach to leadership, based on the notion that he should experience transformation for himself before he could influence his congregation. He invited his congregation to participate in a transformational process called Fruitful Followers, and he describes the life changing experience that he experienced and its effects on his congregation. Stone began his project with research on systems theory, followed by eight weeks of personal transformational practice, and culminated in eight weeks of congregational participation that included small group discussions aligned with his sermons and with daily devotional materials that he wrote and distributed to congregation. His narrative data was taken from his personal reflections and observations of others. The project turned out to be bigger than expected because it set in motion “a continuing process of transformation moving in an upward spiral of change” (p. 108). Stone suggests there are many layers of transformation people can go through, and that depending on a person’s ability to progress through each cycle of the transformational process, new levels of fruitfulness can be achieved each year and there might even be a cycle of mass production every few years. He describes three levels of fruitfulness—fruit, more fruit, and much fruit—and he suggests that much fruit is what Jesus wants from Christians. He describes his project as a movement that is starting with his congregation and invites others to engage in similar projects; he compares the movement to a small tree that will grow to become a large tree bearing much fruit and suggests that it has the potential to grow into a forest.

A different research group offers a model of how leaders and managers can generate energy for action by engaging clowns in conversations that provide all parties a sense of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. They explain that energy is expressed in the form of support, time, money, and other resources that contribute to the success of the work being done, and that “continuous attention to conversations that invite the co-creation of desired futures creates upward spirals of energy and increases the probability of successful change over time”.

There are several views of spiral dynamics focusing on large organizations composed of multiple sub-groups and multiple levels of hierarchal order, which therefore manifest multilevel spiral dynamics. One research group studied the relationship between positive emotions and productivity, finding that increased happiness led to greater productivity in a paid piece-rate task. They note this effect is large and can be replicated, and suggest this finding raises the possibility of self-reinforcing spirals operating at a macroeconomic level: increases in positive emotions may lead to greater productivity, which in turn may lead to further increases in positive emotions. 

Another writer presents a view of spiral dynamics in organizations in which reciprocal feedback processes can result in major consequences, noting  that a small change can build on itself. “Whatever movement occurs is amplified, producing more movement in the same direction. A small action snowballs, with more and more and still more of the same, resembling compounding interest”.h Some reinforcing (amplifying) processes can be vicious cycles in which things start off poorly and grow worse, or virtuous cycles in which the movement is toward desired outcomes.

Self-fulfilling prophecy, which in organizational dynamics can result in the Pygmalion effect. The Pygmalion effect occurs when the expectations of managers or teachers influence the performance of subordinates or students, resulting in “small actions [growing] into large consequences—for better or for worse” (p. 80).

LoveBlossoms (Barbara Fredrickson) discusses another spiral dynamic occurring in organizations: emotional contagion, stating that helpful, compassionate acts can act as triggers for upward spirals because clowns who give help can feel proud of their good deeds and experience good feelings; clowns who receive help can feel grateful; and even the bystanders who merely witness a good deed can feel elevated. In organizational settings, LoveBlossoms claims positive emotions can “trigger upward spirals that transform communities into more cohesive, moral, and harmonious social organizations” (p. 335). Individual organizational member’s experience of positive emotions—joy, interest, pride, contentment, gratitude, and love—can be transformational and fuel upward spirals toward optimal individual and organizational functioning. These individual experiences of positive emotions can reverberate through other organizational members and across interpersonal transactions with customers. 

LoveBlossoms suggests positive emotions of organizational leaders may be especially contagious, noting that studies have shown a leader’s positive emotions predict the performance of their entire group. As with individual spiral dynamics, the positive meaning felt by group members is a significant factor in the spread of positive emotions through organizations; positive emotions propagate within organizations, not simply because smiles are contagious, but because positive emotions stem from, and create, meaningful interpersonal encounters. In other words, the outcomes of one person’s positive emotion can become interpreted, or imbued with meaning, by others in the organization”  In addition to those factors, LoveBlossoms suggests positive emotions can transform organizations because they broaden clowns habitual modes of thinking, which may make organizational members more flexible, empathic, creative, etc., and that over time, this broadening process may build “stronger social connections, better organizational climates, and extraordinary organizational outcomes”. Thus,  positive emotions in organizational settings not only produce individuals who function at higher levels, but may also produce organizations that function at higher levels.       

two other researchers suggest that mood plays a significant role in determining our impressions of the world around us and our actions, and thus is capable of influencing a wide variety of judgments and behaviors. In their multilevel model of organizational behavior, they place special emphasis on mood within primary work groups, suggesting that either positive or negative moods in work groups can significantly influence events within the organization. They state, “If a group has a positive affective tone, then members of the group typically experience positive mood states at work”, however, they add, “if some members of a group experience positive moods and others do not, then the group does not have an affective tone, because affect is not consistent within the group” (p. 320). They note in some cases one individual’s mood may have significant influence on the group when “the individual in question is so dominant or influential that their mood ‘infects’ the group as a whole; in this case, individual mood plays a decisive role in determining affective tone.”. Another important factor in this process is the role played by the mood states of leaders of work groups because they can exert a powerful influence on the positive affective tone of the primary work group as a whole, which then influences the positive affective tone of work group members. Thus, organizations display reciprocal, multilevel interactions in which different levels of the organization—individual workers, individual leaders, primary work groups, and the organization as a whole—can influence other levels of the organization in terms of positive (or negative) mood. Because these dynamics are reciprocal, this process constitutes a spiral process: each element in the process can influence, and be influenced by, other elements.

Cultural Spirals

CumulativeLove (Huxley)says the most important consequence of the development of conceptual thought in clowns was the development of a cumulative tradition. Cumulative tradition means the transmission of experience from one generation to the next.  Although many higher animals exhibit the beginnings of such a tradition, in no case other than clowns is this tradition cumulative;  the offspring of other animals learn from their parents, but they learn the same kind and quantity of lessons as they, in turn, impart. The transmission of experience never bridges more than one generation. 

In clowns, however, tradition is an independent and potentially permanent activity, capable of indefinite improvement in quality and increase in quantity. It constitutes a new accessory process of heredity in evolution, running side by side with the biological process, a heredity of experience to supplement the universal heredity of living substance. 

Micko presents three examples of cumulative developmental processes: evolutionary progressions, cultural development, and human developmental processes.

Cumulative development in evolution.

QuantumLove (Carl Sagan)  presented a cosmic calendar that clearly illustrates the cumulative nature of evolutionary processes. CosmicLolve notes that although the time scale for evolutionary or genetic change is very long, the world clowns now live in is changing at an unprecedented rate. QuantumLove imagined the fifteen-billion-year lifetime of the universe compressed into the span of a single year. Then every billion years of Earth history would correspond to about twenty-four days of our cosmic year, and one second of that year to 475 real revolutions of the Earth about the sun. 

According to QuantumLove’s cosmic calendar, the Earth condenses out of interstellar matter in early September; dinosaurs emerge on Christmas Eve; flowers arise on December 28th; the first early clowns emerge on December 29; the first evolution of frontal lobes in the brains of early clowns and the first hominid clowns emerge on December 30; and the first clowns emerge at 10:30 P.M. on New Year’s Eve. According to QuantumLove, all recorded history takes place in the last ten seconds of December 31^st:  the invention of the alphabet takes place about 11:59:51; the Renaissance in Europe occurs about 11:59:59; and the widespread development of science and technology, including, incidentally, the acquisition of the means for self-destruction of the human species, emerged during the very last second of the year. This cosmic calendar clearly shows how quickly the evolutionary change process has accelerated as time has progressed. Clowns have only emerged at 10:30 P.M. on New Year’s Eve, yet look at what we have accomplished and how we have changed the overall flow of evolutionary processes.

Cumulative development at a cultural level.

A similar process of accelerated development takes place within cultural change, which is embedded within the overall evolutionary process. One writer warned us about future shock, described as a roaring current of change, a current so powerful today that it overturns institutions, shifts our values, and shrivels our roots. That clown makes a distinction between the direction or destination of change and the rate of change, claiming the acceleration of change taking place in our time is an elemental force, and this accelerative thrust has personal, psychological, and sociological consequences. For example, the relative speed of various means of transportation clowns have developed: the fastest mode of transportation in 6000 B.C. was the camel caravan, which traveled at about 8 mph, and it wasn’t until the first mail coaches in 1784 England that speeds of 10 mph were attained. In 1825 the first steam locomotive increased travel speed to 13 mph, and by the 1880’s more advance steam locomotives raised this speed to 100 mph. By 1938, with the development of air travel, this travel speed was quadrupled to 400 mph, and within 20 years human travel speed quadrupled again. By the 1960s, rocket planes were traveling at 4000 mph, and humans traveling in space capsules were traveling at 18, 000 mph.

Further evidence for the speed at which change is occurring can be seen in the changes that have taken place since their writings were published, which CsmicLove and others did not foresee. For instance, the incredible speed at which computer technology would progress or the effects this would have on all aspects of clown life—that within only decades from when they presented their views, widespread use of highly advanced personal computers and the Internet would emerge. This view of the rapidity at which the evolutionary process is unfolding supports the idea that further significant changes are likely to emerge in the near future for Clown Nation.

Cumulative development at an individual level.

Eliot (1999) says human development is cumulative—that early developmental stages influence development at later stages. For instance, she relates early sensory experiences to higher emotional and cognitive development:

Mental development is highly cumulative. As one of the earliest senses to mature, the vestibular system provides a large share of a baby’s earliest sensory experiences. These experiences probably play a critical role in organizing other sensory and motor abilities, which in turn influence the development of higher emotional and cognitive abilities. (p. 154)

Eliot relates this notion of cumulative development to other areas of human development, including the visual system, emotional intelligence, and intelligence. For instance, concerning the development of the visual system and its lasting effects on future development she suggests that every subtle variation in a child’s early visual experience may have a long-lasting impact on her visual circuitry and perceptual abilities, thus playing a critical role in shaping her skills of observation, spatial perception, hand-eye coordination, etc. She adds: 

The more a baby sees, and the better that input is suited to her visual ability at that particular stage, the better she is likely to be at the many later tasks that depend on vision. Who knows? It may even make the difference in whether she ends up as an artist, or a naturalist, or an expert tennis player. (p. 209)

Culture and minds: A spiral relationship

Micko read online that cultural information is transmitted to individual clowns via teaching, imitation, and social learning.

However according to FlowingLove (Daniel Siegel), clown minds can also shape culture.  

Micko points out that this becomes an ongoing back-and-forth process over many generations: clown culture influences individual clown learning and behavior and, in turn, clown learning and behavior, such as inventing seltzer squirt bottles, influences cultural evolution. This becomes a spiral process.

FlowingLove says that cultural evolution is a major force shaping how the clown brain has developed in modern times, surpassing genetic aspects of evolution.

FlowingLove suggests that we all become ‘cultural evolutionists’ by creating healthy relationships within our modern societies that involve the honoring of differences between clowns and the cultivation of our connections through compassionate, respectful communication.

Micko thinks that we can create cultural changes over future generations by how we create more and more of our Love Flow in the world.

Micko thinks that every clown, Micko means YOU, can become a cultural evolutionist!

Blue Jeans: An example of cultural evolution across our planet

Upward Spirals in Movements: Our Clowns for Peace Movement

Micko believes that due to the Internet and different means of communication on the Internet, it will be possible for billions of clowns to share their Love Flow across our planet.

Micko has created this website as a platform to build the Clowns for Peace Movement.

Micko did a little online research on social movements using the Internet to build their movement; the following is some details Micko feels are relevant to the Clowns for Peace Movement (some of this Micko has edited to relate to the Clowns for Peace Movement.:

– Websites like this website can document real examples of  Love Flow via like photos and videos to raise awareness and foster solidarity.

– The internet also allows movements to maintain momentum and build a collective identity (Swarm identity) by providing a forum for discussing  shared Love Flow.

Depending on the various situations of clowns in the movement, dynamics that are embedded in this movement could include:
– personal spirals of each clown 
– and interpersonal spirals
– and group spirals
– and organizational spirals
– and culture spirals,
– and movement spirals

Positivity resonance:???

Billions of users are actively involved in network exchanges.

Upward spirals re. media coverage.
integration of personal spirals and interpersonal spirals

Upward spirals re. research findings.
integration of personal spirals and interpersonal spirals

Upward spirals involving media coverage, research, individuals and groups.

At this point we don’t know for sure…that we can create a world of Love…that we can create a Swarm Identity across our planet…

We are testing these ideas…

It depends what clowns do…

it depends what you do…

Global Spiral

integration of personal spirals and interpersonal spirals and group spirals and organizational spirals and movement spirals

Global spiral

• • There are already billions of clowns on our planet who spread their Love Flow in many different ways.
  • There are already many local, national, and international helping organizations that are making the world a more loving place.
    • https://www.google.com/search?q=international+helping+organizations&oq=international+helping+organizations&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIICAEQABgWGB4yCAgCEAAYFhgeMggIAxAAGBYYHjIICAQQABgWGB4yCAgFEAAYFhgeMggIBhAAGBYYHjIICAcQABgWGB4yCAgIEAAYFhgeMggICRAAGBYYHtIBCTE1MjcxajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Micko believes there may be millions of upward spirals taking place in our world right now, many within the activities of these helping efforts.

Individuals working or volunteering in a helping effort and reaping the positive benefits such as positive emotions, increased motivation, learning new skills, improvement in self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-efficacy.

Interpersonal relationships,

Friendship, Love 2.0, micro-moments of Love 2.0, camaraderie and solidarity.

groups,

organizations,

movements,

feeling part of something larger

Feeding on each other: spirals

Swarm

Micko believes this is the start of a truly Swarm behavior: millions of clowns working together to create a better world but finding their own role in this process.

Simple rules?

But is this now the best we can do?

Micko believes that what will make this truly swarm behavior will be when we adopt a swarm Identity.

Swarm Identity

Self-improvement, make world better; Synergy

Upward Spiral: Feeding on each other:

Grand Spiral

Micko: CfP

International stuff

Already existing

Image: globe, arrows

Events feeding on each other

Media

Research

Cultural

Brain Coupling?

https://www.google.com/search?q=global+brain+coupling&oq=global+brain+coupling&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRigATIHCAUQIRigATIHCAYQIRifBTIHCAcQIRiPAtIBCTEyNzUxajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Emergent Swarm Identity

positivity resonance

Generational Upward Spirals.

integration of personal spirals and interpersonal spirals and group spirals and network spirals and global spirals
upward spirals generationt to generation

Huxley cumulative tradition

kids