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The Original Peace Room concept

The Synergy Center is based upon a simple framework of twelve sectors of human society and their design as an integrated whole. The array of sectors used was developed by a core group of members of the Santa Barbara, CA Conscious Evolution community. Over the course of many meetings, this group reviewed similar eight- and twelve-sector frameworks as well as the various departments of the U.S. federal agency system, and arrived at a consensus on the twelve sectors used in this site.

More about the 12-Around-1 Organizing Framework

SECTORS

Art & Culture
Creative expression, sports, ethnicity and the diversity of human societies.

Environment & Infrastructure
Natural ecosystems, human habitats, and the innate interplay of these core aspects of human-earth existence.

Healing & Wellness
From the leading edge of Western medicine to the ancient wisdom of indigenous healing practices, contributing to the fulfillment of a healthy, balanced mind-body-spirit relationship.

Relationships & Empowerment
Families, couples, children and youth, counseling and coaching for healthy communication and clear direction and opportunities in one's life.

Energy, Food, & Water
Attending to the basic life-support needs of humanity and the resources of the Earth.

Economics & Business
Trade, commerce, and the exchange of goods and services within and among cultures and as a global community.

Science & Technology
Understanding the workings of nature and applying this knowledge in developing innovations that improve the life-conditions of humanity.

Communications & Media
The Internet, television, radio, books, magazines, satellites, PDAs, etc: how (and what) we communicate across town and around the world.

Governance & Law
Policies and legal structures that guide the pursuit of humanity's quest towards equitable social evolution.

Social Justice & Security
Human rights, peacekeeping, appropriate defense, emergency relief: bringing balance and safety to society.

Learning & Education
From pre-school to graduate school, and beyond to life-long learning.

Spirituality & Religion
The many facets of our metaphysical and divine experience as humans in a living cosmos.

Whole System Design
Also included is the center category called Whole System Design. This is where the synthesis of all sectors comes into an integral, comprehensive wholeness. It is included as the "one" in the center since the purpose of the Synergy Center is to engender social synergy by maximizing the interrelatedness of all of the parts into a new level of whole system design. Organizations and individuals that are working within an integral viewpoint can post their projects and services in this category.

Our vision of the Synergy Center is for it to become a robust, complex-adaptive organizing framework with multiple levels of sub-directories within each of the twelve basic categories.

The 12-Around-1 Framework

In the mid-twentieth century, R. Buckminster Fuller developed the system of geometric thinking called Synergetics (see http://www.bfi.org for more about this). Key to this system is the observation that the geometry that is inherent in natural design is based upon a hexagonal, 60 degree angle construct, more so than upon the 90 degree angle rectilinear geometry taught in most western-culture schools. When taken into the 3-dimensional realm, synergetic geometry manifests in a simple 12-around-1 arrangement, as illustrated in the image below, with 12 equal sized spheres "closest packed" around on central sphere. This arrangement, interchangeably called the "vector equilibrium" and "cube-octahedron", is the basis for many of the organizing principles that exist in physics, chemistry, biology, etc.

In the Synergy Center we are using the 12-around-1 framework both functionally and with the understanding that such a constellation of entities (in this case, sectors of society) offers an innate natural foundation upon which to build a "whole system (of society) whose sum is greater than and unpredictable from the sum of the parts when taken separately," the definition of synergy.

Other familiar 12-around-1 systems include the 12-tone music scale, the astronomical zodiac and their astrological relationships with the planets.

The image to the right is what we call the Mandala of Synergy. It shows the beauty inherent in a comprehensively connected system of twelve interrelated parts that comprise a unified whole. Notice how the "one" in the center arises naturally when the twelve parts each connect with the others.

For further inquiries about the Sectors and the 12-Around-1 framework, please write to SynergyCenter@evolve.org.