The Genesis of SYNERGICITY
By Richard Eyre

Editor's note: Today's column continues a series on the Third Alternative of "Synergicity." Over the next few weeks, this column will continue to outline and explain the third alternative of "SYNERGICITY," and how the concept can replace the loneliness and isolation of "Independence."

Richard (and Meridian Publishers) are now in the process of deciding to publish The Three Deceivers as a book. We would appreciate your input on this (and your comments and thoughts on the column so far). Simply click Richard@Meridianmagazine.com and let us hear from you right now.

The W + P = S Formula

I love equations. They are little laws that have to work! If you add 5 and 7 and then take away 3, you will always get 9. Equations are predictable and dependable.

Today, I want to give you a equation for Synergicity. It will seem like a simple formula at first, but simple ones are the best! And as I explain it, I hope you will want it!

And then I hope you will get it! And then I hope you will do it!

The equation is: W + P = S

Synergicity, of course, is the S. What do you think the W and the P are?

Many would guess work and plan. After all, that seems to be the formula for most everything in this world. Work for it. Work hard; work smart. Strive and strive, and work and work until you get it. And plan, of course — strategize and figure out how to make your dreams come true.

The problem is that the equation of work and plan does not work for Synergicity, no matter how well you plan or how hard you work. One reason the equation doesn't add up is that Synergicity as we have defined it, (click on the recent articles in the archives, to the right, if you need a review of the definition of Synergicity) is a gift of attitude and of Spirit, not something we earn or deserve.

Watch and Pray Equals Synergicity

The true formula or equation is the one Christ himself gave is this — "watch and pray."

It is by learning to truly watch — to see things as they really are, to notice the spiritual as well as the physical and mental, to become ever more aware, and to notice with ever greater perspective — that we begin to see God's timing (and His will). We start to appreciate the connections between all things, and to see coincidences not as matters of chance but as manifestations of God's hand and opportunities for fulfilling mortalities purposes.

And it is by truly praying — really communicating with God — that we can interpret all we see according to His vision, and draw down the powers of heaven that enable us to fit into the puzzle in the way He has foreordained..

Let's think for a minute about what a marvelous equation this is, and what a different way of operating from the normal way of the world. Then we will go deeper into some fascinating examples of watching and some remarkable illustrations of prayer.

If we contrast the accepted way of doing things in the world (work and plan) with the more spiritual formula of the Spirit (watch and pray), there are so many profound differences. Work and plan (not saying there is anything wrong with either, by the way) is the equation of the world, and what it leads to (if not coupled with the Spirit) is not the Alternative of Synergicity, but the Deceiver of Independence. Working and planning are depending on yourself and using your own power of mind and personality to make things happen. It is a good thing, but it is a very limited thing. Watching and praying (which can often lead us to re-channeled working and planning) is a spiritual equation that uses synergy with others and synchronicity with God to bring ourselves and others to where God wants us to be.

The W + P = S formula can be elaborated in an interesting entomological way. W and P can also (consistent with the true meaning of the equation) mean:

It is all about awareness and perspective — through our senses, but more importantly through our Spirit. Nudges and impressions and guidance and inspiration become as important as eyes and ears, and the needs of others become as important as our own. God's will becomes the goal, and His "everythingness" and our "nothingness" guide our thinking at every unexpected turn. We plan and try to think ahead, but we are willing and watchful, at every juncture, to change course and to do well whatever He puts before us.

Watch

I have an aunt, May Swenson, who was one of America's greatest and most honored 20th century poets. As a boy, I remember "watching" experiences with her. "Look at that tree" she would say to me, "and tell me what you see." I would see bark and limbs and leaves.

She would say "Look harder, look closer and tell me what you see." Then she would tell me of the patterns she saw in the bark, the shapes and forms in the canopy, the way the wind had shaped the growth, how the leaves spun clockwise, why the moss was on the north side of the trunk, where squirrels might have put nuts, which ways the branches seemed to be reaching, and dozens of other things that I had not seen because I was not watching close enough.

There is so much to see, especially when we watch with spiritual eyes as well, and even more especially when we find the empathy and charity to see what other people see, and appreciate their perspective.

The more we notice, the more we become like God, who sees all.

We can train our physical eyes to see more (as my aunt tried to train me), and can develop each of the five senses to take in more, to notice more, and to thus make us more aware and give ourselves more perspective.

Taking a solitary walk one day through a neighborhood Southampton, in Southern England, while serving there as mission president, I came upon a blind man with his dog. He was selling baskets on a street corner. I struck up a conversation and found him to be both delightful and insightful (and funny! When I asked him if he made all the baskets himself, he said, "Well, except for the dog baskets — my dog make those.")

As we talked, he must have perceived some hint of pity in my voice, because he said, suddenly, "Hey, don't feel so bad for me. You have one sense that is better than mine, but I have four senses that are better than yours. I can hear more, smell more, taste more, and feel more than you can!" He then began to demonstrate by telling me things he could hear right then that I could not hear, and things he could smell right then that I could not smell. "I've developed my other senses to make up for the eyesight I've lost," he said, "and the best sense of all is what you feel."

I invited him to come to church sometime, and then headed back for meetings I had in London.

I didn't have another trip to Southampton again for a couple of months, and as I was preparing to go, my zone leader from down there called and asked me to bring along my "whites." (Occasionally missionaries asked me to baptize someone as I traveled around the mission, and there was a baptism for several souls that was scheduled before our zone conference).

When I got to the chapel and went into the dressing room to change for the baptism, there was George. He recognized my step before I looked up and saw him, and said, "Hi, President Eyre, will you do me the honor of baptizing me?" Overwhelmed, I asked him to tell me his story of the past two months. It was a simple story. He took me up on the invitation to visit church, and he said that, when he walked in, he felt the Spirit immediately and knew this must be God's Church.

"Remember," he said, "I told you that four of my senses were better than yours, and that the most important one is feeling."

So, "watching" does not just mean with your eyes. Learn to watch (and be aware) with all of your senses, and remember what George learned — that it is not with our physical senses that we do our most important watching. It is with our spiritual eyes and ears, our spiritual senses, through which we can hear the will of God, and feel his promptings and nudges and inspiration.

On a personal note (and this may sound a little strange), I have become so enamored with becoming a better "watcher" — a better "see-er" — that I have decided that maybe my own name is a reminder of what I want to be. You see, Eyre is pronounced "eye-er".

Pray

As a missionary in New York City in the mid 60's, I was a guide at the Church’s pavilion at the World's Fair, and was supervised by Elder Bernard Brockbank of the Seventy who lived in the same building. One evening, about bedtime, there came a knock at our door, and there was Elder Brockbank, who said, "My wife is away, and I wondered if I could join you Elders for evening prayer."

He asked me to pray, so I did, trying to be extra thorough and to cover everything that a missionary should in his prayer. After a few minutes, as I was earnestly praying with my head bowed and eyes clamped shut, I began to hear the unmistakable sound of a pencil writing rapidly on paper.

At first I thought it must be my greenie companion, tired of my long prayer, starting his nightly letter to his girlfriend. But when I finished and opened my eyes, I was chagrined to see that it was Elder Brockbank, and that he had covered a whole page of a yellow legal pad with writing. I didn't dare ask him what he had written, of course, but in my immature mind, I imagined that he was evaluating my prayer — a B on content perhaps, and a C on articulation.

Elder Brockbank got up, went to the door to leave, and then turned back with a twinkle in his eye. He said "You are probably wondering what I was writing, Elders. I'm getting a little older you know, and my memory is not perfect, so I find that I have to take notes on what the Lord says to me."

Prayer to him was real — as real as any conversation — and, as anyone would do in conversation with a very important and very wise being, he was taking notes.

When we pray, do we ask for insight, for perspective, for awareness, for the Lord's will? Do we express our thoughts and plans and ask for feedback, for guidance, for clarity? And do we listen and wait for answers, for promptings, for perception? Do we take notes on it so that we can remember it, implement it, learn from it, do it?

It has been said that, "More things in this world are wrought by prayer than we can imagine." Prayer is both a way to gain insight and direction and a way to actually bring things to pass. Alma brought his son Alma back not by his own effort, or even by doing what the Lord inspired him to do. He brought him back by bringing to bear the power of prayer that changed Alma Jr.'s soul. Orson Hyde, when assigned by the Prophet to be in charge of and the liaison for the Holy Land, did not even visit Israel for years. Other brethren inquired of him as to what he was doing to fulfill his assignment, and he said, simply, “I am praying.”

Prayer brings things to pass, and it opens the channels whereby we see what God wants us to see, and whereby we learn to watch with spiritual eyes, and whereby we discover, all around us, the Synergicity that allows us to maximize our lives and the lives of others.

Putting Watching and Praying Together

The beauty of the W + P = S formula is that not only do watching and praying lead to Synergicity, but they also help and enhance each other. In other words, as they move us closer and deeper into Synergicity, W also leads to better P, and P leads to better W.

Those who become truly watchful begin to notice all kinds of things to focus their prayers on. They see needs, they see opportunities, they see situations accurately and know what help is needed and thus what to pray for. And of course, the more we see, the more we have to be thankful for and to honor God for.

The prayers of a true "watcher" are expansive, and filled with insight and empathy. They tend to search for and focus on and often to match God's will, and they become seeking mechanisms for being able to see and notice more of what He wants us to perceive.

By the same token, those who pray hard — who exercise prayer, and who wrestle with the Lord in prayer (those who, as Joseph Smith advocated, "work by the power of mental effort — or by faith") — become much better watchers. This is because their spiritual eyes are opened and they begin to see more, to feel more, to be aware of more, and thus to be more useful to the Lord and more capable of finding and fulfilling their own foreordinations.

Moreover, the equation works. The enhanced watching, and the enhanced praying do lead to ever greater Synergicity — a state of mind and spirit that acknowledges (indeed, celebrates) one's complete dependency on God and complete interdependency with others and develops synergy on all levels. An attitude and approach that seeks God’s will and looks for His hand in all things, particularly in the timing and interconnectedness and synchronicity of events.

Next Week

Throughout this column (over the nearly a year that it has run each Friday), we have criticized, denigrated, and pointed up the flaws of life-attitudes that revolve around Control, Ownership and Independence ("COI"). We have insisted that the pursuit of (and often obsession with) these "Three Deceivers" is what sucks the quality and joy and faith out of our lives. And we have argued for their replacement with the Three Alternatives of Serendipity, Stewardship, and Synergicity.

Well, it may be a shock to some regular readers, but next week, we are going to suggest that COI actually have a positive use in life. We will explain that the economic and physical notions of Control, Ownership and Independence can be a useful phase that children and adolescents go through that trains them for the higher and much more adult spiritual paradigms of Serendipity, Stewardship, and Synergicity.

See you here next weekend. Thanks for reading. And thanks for any comments you might like to send to me at Richard@meridianmagazine.com.