Eight Dynamics (LRH)
The Eight Dynamics
The First Dynamic is SELF (urge to survive as body-ego).
The Second Dynamic is CREATIVITY (urge to survive through sex).
The Third Dynamic is GROUP SURVIVAL (urge to survive as team).
The Fourth Dynamic is SPECIES (urge to survive as humanity).
The Fifth Dynamic is LIFE FORMS (urge to survive as biological process).
The Sixth Dynamic is the PHYSICAL UNIVERSE (urge to survive as matter-energy).
The Seventh Dynamic is the SPIRITUAL DYNAMIC (urge to survive as generic consciousness).
The Eighth Dynamic is the urge toward existence as INFINITY (source and ground of the multiverse)
Who is the subject?
We can rewrite these with an eye to the nature of subjectivity in each dynamic:
- “I”—The “I” is private and inside the body yet unified, perduring, and aware. It senses, feels pleasure/pain, recognizes, infers, and has certain behavior tendencies.
- “My biological form”—The “I” sees the body as a possession that determines the “I.” I am allergic to oranges; my son is also allergic. I have a big nose; he has a big nose. Also, my DNA makes me care for my children. I see something, not of my spirit, but of my body in my child’s body. My self is partly biological form, and this is shared across individuals. You body can share some of its phenotype (and genotype) with its half-selves, its “children.”
- “We”—The “I” sometimes prioritizes the goals of the team over its own goals. A solider is self-consciously subjugating his will to the will of a coordinated team striving. He derails his bodily preferences and becomes a cell in an organism whose goals are more important than his own. Here the “I” is spread-out among in-group members. Our will vs their will. The greater the threat, the more intimate the team-consciousness. Every part cares most for the whole, and “I” is happily a means for the “we.”
- “Everybody” (humanity)—The “I” here speaks not for the individual for for the species. This is Marx’s species being. An individual body is has interest from being an individual, but also interest stemming from the kind that it instantiates. The “I” here actually has a plural extension. The agent that speaks, here, pretends to be the universal: “We humans are …” The voice arises from the shared form, not the matter. “All triangles!” says the triangle.
- “Everybody” (life)—The “I” here speaks for all bodies of the same entropic type. I love people, but if they’re not accessible I am happy to commune with a fly. I can easily identify with, and will root for, an amoeba in its search for food. We can even identify with the inner feeling of need or lack that drives the
other mind of plants in their striving to face the sun
with an inner feeling of need or lack that we can relate to. If I’m on Mars and my only companion is a plant, you better believe that I’ll refer to us as us, and I’ll most certainly talk to it). Here, the self is life generally.
- “Everything”—The “I” here speaks for the kind of stuff it is made of. Here, the self is the matter of the home universe, as opposed to other kinds of matter.
- “Atman”—Here the “I” identifies with all consciousness generally.
- “Brahman”—Here the “I” identifies with all existence generally, with Nature, or God.
Holon hierarchy
1D sub-dynamics
Whole organism [1D]
Bio-similarity group [2D]
Self, children, parents, and sex partners.
Social group [3D]
Examples: friend group, work team, whole business, neighborhood, social class, team, army, fan group, nation, language speakers, religious cult, etc.