The Emotional I Ching is derived from analysis of how the human brain processes information and so derives meaning. This process involves the assessment of some situation (be it person or place or event) through use of self-referencing a dichotomy - in the I Ching context this is the dichotomy of yang/yin; in the context of emotions this is the fight/flight dichotomy.
Due to current work in neuroscience we are able to identify a constant methodology in assessing situations where local context labels the assessment but beneath that difference is sameness in the form of what the neurology does universally in dealing with information. Thus the neurology uses the ONE method, as associated categories of meaning, in ALL situations where it is LOCAL context that contributes unique labels that serve to differentiate one situation from another, one context from another. Given this fact, we can take the context of yang/yin and the context of fight/flight and combine them in a way where patterns from fight/flight are of the same form (isomorphic) to patterns from yang/yin; thus an emotional assessment of a situation can elicit an I Ching assessment in the form of a hexagram (six-line symbol) - see first example in the Examples section.
The hexagram form of representation gives us access to logic operators on binary values (yin becomes '0', yang becomes '1') that allow us to manipulate the hexagram representations to extract finer details of a situation and so cover its full spectrum, from its beginning to preferred ending, and all expressions in between. What this does is bring out the I Ching, and by implication emotions, as a form of language where we find that the logic operators allow us to use the I Ching representations as analogies and so make the I Ching self-describing (autological) and in doing so bring out emotion as also autological.
The supplied questions have been carefully derived to reflect the manner in which the human brain deals with the new/complex in that it will take a dichotomy and self-reference it to derive a set (dimension) of categories usable to represent/communicate a situation.
The particular elements of each dichotomy associated with the questions can be replaced by other elements but only in the same hierarchic format where we move from general to particular, the generality of fact/values through the temporal aspects of was/is/will-be etc to the particular state of one's personal actions, being proactive (instigating) or reactive (responding). Thus the brain oscillations are repetitions across an asymmetric dichotomy (aspects/whole) and that will elicit a general category and it is LOCAL context that grounds that category through application of specialist labels to give us meaning that 'fits' the situation. As such, if we go deep enough in our categorisations, each specialist perspective can generate its own language in the form of analogies used to describe 'all there is', but these labels will always point to the ONE set of categories derived from the neurology in ITS focus on information processing.
The I Ching hexagrams are derived from self-referencing the yang/yin dichotomy six times; we can extend this (and do when we focus on change, down to 12 levels of self-referencing and so 4096 categories or 'dodecagrams' - 12-line symbols that can be compressed into 6-line symbols with four values per line rather than two values per line) but to easily grasp the language nature of the I Ching we stick to 6 lines (2^6 distinctions = 64 categories):
"...The hypothesis, which we shall call the "2^6 rule", is, then, that irrespective of race, culture, or evolutionary level, culturally institutionalized folk taxonomies will not contain more than 2^6 entities and consequently will not require more than six orthogonally related binary dimensions for the definitions of all of the terms. ...In the area of cultural semantics, we are suggesting that a somewhat similar principle applies...the evolution of cultural complexity is limited, in so far as folk taxonomies are concerned, by the two-to-the-sixth-power rule. ...What is limited is the complexity of the taxonomies which are components of the various cultural sub-systems" (Wallace 1961)
Wallace,A.F.C.,(1961) "On Being Just Complicated Enough" Proc. of N.A.S. 47 (1961): 458-464
When you use the Emotional I Ching you will derive one of the 64 hexagrams as representing the current situation and also, if there are 'moving lines', derive a second hexagram covering responses to, and so movement away from, the current situation. As such this second hexagram can represent actions-to-date in response to the original stimulus of the situation where such actions are shifting the focus of the situation. Note that all we are doing here is repeatedly using a dichotomy to assess a situation but from a general to particular perspective and so extracting finer and finer details of the situation. From a musical perspective this is akin to forming a key but in the form of a chord, each note being a particular frequency and all notes summed to form the full sound we hear that sets the context for expression. In the I Ching the notes are the yin/yang lines and the general to particular format is of each line being a frequency of 1/2^n (n=line position number) and so half of the previous line's frequency. These notes/waves then sum into the general quality we associate with a hexagram and so our ability to 'feel' a hexagram (this brings out the tie-in to music through our tie-in of the I Ching with emotions and THEIR tie-in with music)
Thus we have the I Ching with a close analogy to another language - music. With the 64 hexagrams each like keys (fundamental harmonic) and so they come with 'rules' about expression of notes (the 64 hexagrams as secondary harmonics). Thus the meaning of a hexagram expressed in its own context is a literal form but when expressed in a different context will be distorted due to the rules of the 'key' of that context and so we move into a figurative form. For example, the nature of hexagram 27 is about infrastructure and covers being careful of what you fill that infrastructure with - and so a sense of quality control. If I express this infrastructure state in any other context I have to apply a filtering process to conform to the 'key' of that context. Thus the characteristics of hexagram 27 expressed in a context represented by hexagram 01 are manifest in a form analogous to the generic categories of hexagram 28 - with its focus on excess and so the infrastructure of hexagram 01 is described by analogy to the generic charactistics of hexagram 28.
In other words, since the 64 hexagrams form a closed set and so can represent 'all there is' so a hexagram derived from the questions represents a WHOLE situation, a context and so 'key' for interpretation. From that we can use all of the other hexagrams as sources of analogy in describing the ASPECTS of that whole. For example, if I get hexagram 01 (all yang) as describing the situation I can extract a hexagram identifying, by analogy, the 'mud' or 'clay' from which hexagram 01 has been molded. For hexagram 01 that 'mud' is represented by the generic properties of hexagram 28 where it covers 'excess, too much yang'. I can also extract the beginnings of a hexagram-01 situation ( a focus on persuading/seducing another/others - hexagram 44) and so on. Furthermore, once I have a hexagram representing some aspect of another hexagram, I can zoom-in to consider that aspect-representing hexagram's details using the SAME methodology as used on the whole-representing hexagram, in other words I can get aspects of an aspect of the whole. What maintains difference is the unique context to which all of this is applied - as described by the hexagram representing the WHOLE.
Thus, using traditional numberings, if I get hexagram 01 describing a situation, I can get hexagram 01's 'mud' representation as hexagram 28. I can then zoom-in on hexagram 28 to get ITS 'beginning' representation (hexagram 43) and so on 'ad infinitum' of need be but always tied to a thread of context, lose the thread and all meaning is lost. This dynamic is a fundamental of language and shows how the infinite regress of self-referencing comes with a brake in the form of a language developing orthogonal to the direction of the regress.
In the hexagram details that appear in the Emotional I Ching, by moving down the page one will come across the analogies covering the aspects of the current hexagram under consideration where each hexagram describes ITS expression through the hexagram under consideration through analogy to some other hexagram. This brings out the fact that in self-referencing systems 'all is connected' and, with enough depth in derivation of categories, we can get any self-referenced system to describe itself through analogies to aspects of itself.
scenario:
Two family members are in a hospice looking after another near-death family member. There are two cars available and so allow for the two to take breaks etc.
A storm occurs and a tree drops on one of the cars destroying it. Due to license class and age limits on insurance issues only ONE person can drive the other car.
Within a couple of days the owner of the damaged care complains of feeling irritable and uncomfortable but unable to describe/give reasons why.
They take the EIC and so answer the vague questions on how they feel and as a result get hexagram 47.
Hexagram 47 deals in general with issues of forced enclosure (both positive and negative) and in this case brings out the emotions ’pushing’ for getting out of the place as they feel ’penned in’ whilst consciousness has been suppressing such explicit thoughts since such thoughts were considered to be ’inappropriate at this time’ where the social focus was in being there for the dying family-member.
The hexagram 47 result was met with sheepish acknowledgement in that consciousness immediately recognised what it had been trying to suppress.
Once this came out into the open so it was quickly resolved through re-configuration of the overall dynamics that gave that person some freedom.
Here we see the difference in the parallel interactions of our emotions looking out for No1 and our socialled-trained consciousness suppressing expression to a level where the incongruency is manifest only in a conscious sense of feeing irritable/uncomfortable and no more.
It is the generality/simplicity of the questions that allow us to ’talk’ to the unconscious through use of images - i.e. I Ching hexagrams - in that the questions work as coat-hangers for emotional expressions then translatable into yin/yang patterns and so a hexagram.
With the derivation of the hexagram then comes access to lots of other information compressed into that hexagram form (page down the hexagram page to the line meaning section where we see the use of all 64 hexagrams to describe the full spectrum of each hexagram - this a feature of self-referencing)
Since the I Ching can represent 'all there is' - be it real or imagined - so it can cover such as the 'completion' of a situation in that each category has within it a description of its 'beginning' and 'ending'. We can call this completion '63-ness' in that completion is represented by hexagram 63. Of note here is that in the battle of contexts, if one is in a situation that one needs to 'nip in the bud' it is possible to do so by introducing a context representing the 63-ness of the situation - this is a bit like a Nash Equilibrium in game theory where, basically, everyone moves on since the situation has 'dried up' of benefits.
The questions method also applies to people in the form of deriving a representation of their general personas and so their parts list (spectrum). Thus if I answer the questions in the context of "does this individual, in general., prefer facts to values", "does this individual prefer what was/is/will-be OR what could-have-been/is-not'/could be", "is this person, in general, more proactive or reactive?", I will get a hexagram that represents them (just repeat the selections for the other three questions, OR refine such by differentiating one's personal being (first three questions) and one's social being (last three questions)).
Given the derived hexagram so all of the aspectual data listed for the hexagram now applies to the individual and so we have a 'parts list' covering the generic nature of the individual within which is then operating the unique nature of their consciousness as a sort of 'randomiser' to the determinism mapped into persona types.
For general theory see the appendix in the EIC Book or the on-line version of that appendix : the IDM summary.
For particular focus on the EIC related material see the first parts of the EIC book (review pages etc on site - click the Lulu button at top of page)
Copyright © 2008-2009 C. J. Lofting