David A. Thomas
I actually started working on The Music of Systems when I was three years old. That was when I first became aware that it seemed like my friend Chris (also 3 years old) seemed to “know” things that we did not know in my family. The child of highly intelligent parents, I always did well in school. Chris, on the other hand, was a “B” and “C” student, mostly. But when Chris and I would play together, Chris always had a knack for seeing the simple, obvious solution, whereas with all my intelligence, I would tend to see mostly complicated, marginally workable solutions. Even at a very early age, I made it a lifetime quest to discover what it was that Chris “knew” and integrate it into my life as part of my expression.
Another thing that led me on this journey is that for whatever reason, I have always had a gift for seeing both sides of just about any issue. In my youth, this took the form of being somewhat “wishy-washy,” tending to agree with whoever was present, without having a clear sense of my own Truth. Someone would present their point of view, and I could see that it made sense, and I would agree with them. Maybe a couple of days later, I would be around someone else who had a contrasting point of view on the same issue. I could also see the validity of their argument, and would agree with them, as well.
It troubled me to see myself flip-flopping in this way. As it turned out however, my weakness became my strength. I spent a great deal of energy considering the implications of various points of view – looking deeply into them, looking for patterns, causes, correlations, organizing principles, or anything at all to help me to make sense out of of this confusion. What are the limits of the Scientific Paradigm? What other valid sources of Truth might be available? What is the relationship between Science and Spirituality? And even more fundamentally, what are we all doing here? And why do we tend to see things so much differently from one-another? And what is going on that we are making such a mess out of this beautiful planet that gives us everything, including life itself?
After a couple of decades of considering all this, some unifying principles began to emerge. Now I know that the reason Chris “knew” things that I did not is that he was connected to his body, whereas I was operating mostly from my mind. Another way of putting it is that Chris had “common sense” to a greater degree than I had. I also understand that a great deal of what does not work about our relationship to our planet and ourselves comes from our worship of our left-brained science as the ultimate source of Truth, to the exclusion of the wisdom of our bodies, intuition, and the natural systems of our planet. So in a sense, our Western science-based culture needs to learn “common sense” in much the same way that I did, as a child, growing up. The Music of Systems provides helpful information about how to do that very thing.
I have also learned that we spend a lot of our energy in the quest for more and more knowledge, with precious little consideration of how we might gain greater wisdom. I have learned that by organizing our culture around corporate profits, we have created a powerful force that destroys our planet and separates us from our awareness of who we truly are. I have learned that people tend to get locked into paradigms and refuse to take in new information. I have learned that well-meaning people can create systems for a good purpose, and end up with a bad result, due to unintended consequences. And I have learned a great deal about the human cost of the ever-increasing complexity of the artificial world we have created for ourselves.
Hopefully, this will give you a sense of my purpose here as I present this information.
Professionally, I am a former Bell Labs engineer with a Masters Degree in Computer Science from the University of Southern California. I also have a Masters Degree in Spiritual Science from Peace Theological Seminary. (I have been somewhat of a “personal growth junkie” for the last 30 years or so.) I am the founder and CEO of Star Energetics LLC, and a co-inventor of the Perkl-Light Energy Spa (www.perkl-light.com), which generates energy similar to your life-force, using light. (A really cool technology for working with your body’s energy fields to bring greater balance and well-being.)
In my role as CEO of Star Energetics LLC, I have had an opportunity to put many of these “Music of Systems” principles to the test. And guess what? They actually work! I consistently find them very helpful in creating the systems necessary to produce and market an electronic device that is fundamentally spiritual in nature. And that, as it turns out, is the missing ingredient in our relationship with our systems and technology. They all need to be spiritual in nature. The Music of Systems explains how we can do this.
So, that is a bit about me and my journey. I hope you enjoy my blog!