Since Then...

In April 1994, Lynnclaire was surprised to find the end of a two-year meditative stint coming to a close. After spending twenty-four months at Nechung Dorje Drayang Ling, a small Tibetan Buddhist monastery nestled on the side of Mauna Loa in Wood Valley, Hawaii, a part of her wanted to believe that this was an existence that would last forever. The idea of re-entering the world loomed large, and was profoundly intimidating.

It was here, in this isolated rainforest above the Pacific Ocean, hidden behind acres of sugar cane, that the first clear guidance relative to Mereon was given by an extraordinary visitor to the temple. In what turned out to be Lynnclaire’s final days in the valley, she met Nechung Kuten, then and now the Nechung Oracle, advisor to Tibetan heads of state as well as to His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. In the days prior to the Dalai Lama’s arrival, Lynnclaire spent a remarkable amount of time with Nechung Kuten, during which he asked for and received all but one piece of the artwork (which had been previously promised) related to the Pattern. During their talks, Nechung Kuten said it was time to take the Pattern out into the world, that it was a gift revealed for all humanity. His instructions were explicit –on that very day– it was time for her to exit the reclusive life. The day before the Dalai Lama arrived, Nechung Kuten literally told her to pack her bags, and prepare to move back to the mainland. His instructions to her were clear: to write the story, and take what was then known as the Pattern to the scientific community.

Those who know her best still laugh and marvel that she actually did what someone told her!

In 1995, an agreement was signed with a literary agent; and later that year Prof. Louis H. Kauffman, a highly esteemed mathematician and knot theorist, became the first member of Mereon’s international scientific team. Lou was the first to recognize that the Mereon Knot, both the right hand and left hand expressions, is a previously unknown expression of the trefoil knot, this, the simplest form of connection. Years of searching through textbooks and ancient illuminated manuscripts have failed to reveal prior knowledge of Mereon’s unique expression of the trefoil knot.

In 1996, a book contract was signed, and The Pattern was published in the spring of 1997, thereby fulfilling Netchung Kuten’s first directive to tell the story. That year a number of Lou’s colleagues began to take interest in the project, many engaging in informal but deep dialogues that continued to unfold. Diane Slaviero built the first 3D model of the 120 Polyhedron from drinking straws; Bil Becker, professor of Industrial Design at University of Illinois rendered the 2D models showing how the geometry folded up into 3D; and Heinz Von Foerester, sitting in his living room with Lou and Lynnclaire, his wife Mai serving tea,  saw the 120 and the 144 Polyhedron, and sighed, “The Ma and the Pa reunited again...”. Heinz mused aloud, “How I wish Einstein, Bucky Fuller, Piaget, Carl Jung were here as well to wonder and think with us.” How affirming it was that these were actually individuals that Heinz knew, and that he believed they would have savored what he interpreted as new insight into the workings of the universe.

As the scientific team began to grow, others of like mind and heart began finding their way to the Mereon work. In March of 1998, Dennis, Kauffman and others co-founded the Sequoia Symposium, first formal transdisciplinary dialogue held to investigate the Pattern now known as Mereon.  The meeting was attended by fifty top scientists, philosophers, artists and musicians from around the world, and masterfully facilitated by Jim Channon.

Multiple formal Sequoia dialogues were held between 1998 and 2003. During this period, Robert W. Gray’s geometric modeling provided proofs which demonstrated the geometric accuracy of the Knot. In the last decade Bob has modeled hundreds if not thousands of images, both dynamic and static, showing how Mereon unites the fundamental, geometric building blocks of nature. Gray’s very active involvement continues to this day, and for those who desire to understand the dynamics of Mereon, his website is a 'must', filled with visually inspiring animations and simple explanations.

In the Autumn of 2000, Lynnclaire moved to Copenhagen, Denmark where she lived with Jytte and Peter McNair. At this time, the discoveries relative to Mereon were growing exponentially.  In 2011, Jytte and Peter took early retirement to dedicate their research competences and capacity to the work on Mereon. Peter retired from a series of positions as a manager within the Danish healthcare system, where he was a catalyst for change for more than twenty years. He has personally experienced the value as well as the challenges of implementing the Mereon model for organizational development. Jytte is an internationally recognized Informatician, and brings an expertise in evaluation and methodology to the team. After more than a decade of working with the model, this was invaluable relative to designing and implementing applications for organizations.

In early 2003, a deeper comprehension of the entire system emerged, suggesting a new way to understand life and living systems. Suddenly, it was becoming clear that the original, nonlinear knowing of this process might well be far beyond what some called intuition. A powerful social application template, qualitative, quantitative and sequentially processing driven, was designed and developed using Mereon’s form and logic. Here, it is simply called the Application. This tool created a simple means for using the Mereon model in everyday life, helping both individuals and groups thoughtfully and rationally, both consider and implement complex change. The Application brought into clear relief how individuals must deal with themselves before dealing with others in any given situation. Theory was leading to demonstrably valuable practice.

An opportunity to implement, and thereby demonstrate the Application soon presented itself.  Dennis was asked to offer a two-week course on Personal Growth for thirty+ participants at a re-education center in Denmark, structuring the course according to the Application. Only after agreeing to facilitate this process, did she learn that only three participants would be there by choice, the remainder present because warrants had been issued demanding their attendance. Yikes! The positive effects were immediate and indeed, remarkable. Skeptics called it ‘miraculous’. Facilitators, participants and witnesses realized that if what they observed was lasting, the positive impact such relearning could have on social systems was beyond profound. A demonstrably valuable practice was now in place.

In October 2003, the process embedded within the Application was used in a three-day Personal Growth course for business people in Bern, Switzerland. Entitled “”ReVisioning my LifeCourse”.

In 2004, this course was rearticulated as a three-day course for educators, Educators as LifeLongLearners. Shortly thereafter, BeLonging, a unique application was designed for learners. This project enabled learners to learn to self-organize and lead through attending to the social dimension of their classroom, allowing teachers to do what they were at school to do, teach. The first education project began in 2004 in Mirano [Venice], Italy, and continues to this day. It has also been introduced to schools in Germany, Switzerland and the United States.

2005 saw the process rearticulated again, this time implemented as an HR tool for business, HR in this instance focusing on Human Relationships. To date, trials using the Mereon model have been implemented in organizations in Denmark, the United States, and Canada.

In 2007, astrobiologist Nick Woolf encountered a Mereon Team member at a NASA conference which focused on the Future of Intelligence; Nick immediately became a player. Three months later, he hosted a two-day conference at UA Tucson focusing on the Mereon process. In 2009, the Mereon Team published its first scientific, peer-reviewed article, Framework Linking Non-Living and Living Systems. This paper, exploring the scope of the Mereon work, was published in Foundations of Science (Issue 14, 217-238, 2009: http://www.vub.ac.be/FOS/).  This article outlined the fundamental processes beneath Mereon’s structural logic, and showed why and how this process can be applied to diverse systems both as a diagnostic tool, and also as a decision making process by identifying common process denominators matching the eight found in Mereon.

2010 was a significant year for the Mereon work:

1. This website was developed, the first online site dedicated to this work by the team actually doing the work.

1. Nick Woolf authored the second scientific paper, "Living and non-living dissipative systems" using the Mereon process and principles as a foundation for mapping the formation of  life and a living system, beginning with the Big Bang. Nick has presented this work to standing room audiences at Carnegie Institute, NASA, and the SETI Institute. To see this presention, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dtswy9GMyM
   
   
2. The draft of the newest paper, Mereon: the Geometric and Topological Foundations of a Dynamic Model Linking Nature, Natural and Normalized Systems is now available on this website.
   
   

In July of 2011, the team was approached for a scientific/academic book based on this work, the proposal currently in progress. Simultaneously, Dennis is working on a book that outlines the step-by-step process for using this knowledge in your every-day life.

This, the Mereon Story simply paints the a child-like picture of how the work has come to be what it is today. What has been achieved is similar to the time for Commencement, after university studies have been successfully completed.  While the studies of the geometry, dynamics and implications of Mereon, as well as what they have to say about Life itself, will continue, perhaps the larger part of this Story begins now, with  the  extended development and implementation of social and scientific applications based upon what has been learned from the Mereon studies.

No one, not the Mereon team or any one person created or developed Mereon.  Rather,  we have simply availed ourselves of the opportunity to disprove or demonstrate the veracity of the information that has been revealed. The implications and its applications are beginning to emerge. Just as lines of longitude existed long before they were recognized and understood, the information encapsulated in  the Mereon  model has perhaps been awaiting rediscovery.  Just as the use of the knowledge of longitude has improved and saved lives since it became available for application in every day life, so too can Mereon.

Perhaps the greatest opportunity is to now begin to come together and begin to apply what we now know is possible using the new understanding Mereon has presented us with...

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