Clearly, it is an ideal example of synergy in synergetics: the pumping is the outer energy factor, and the laser paradigm describes, how the action of this factor, i.e. the meeting of outer and inner energy, syn-ergeia, in a certain atomic system driven far from equilibrium leads to qualitative changes such as the emergence of new structures and establishment of self-organizing dynamics (“a very pronounced coherence”). The next example is provided by a large class of dynamical systems generating so called dissipative structures. This term introduced by Ilya Prigogine is an obvious oxymoron. By definition, dissipation means the loss of energy in a system, the increase of its entropy and decrease of its structuring; but Prigogine’s notion connects dissipation with the generation of new structures: “Under strongly non-equilibrium conditions the transition from thermal chaos and disorder to order can take place. New dynamical states can emerge due to the interaction of a given system with the surrounding milieu. These new structures we have called dissipative structures since we wanted to stress the constructive role of dissipative processes in their formation”[11]. With respect to the former structure of the system, dissipative structures are not simply new, but more ordered and differentiated, and their formation demonstrates the emergence of a new type of dynamics: they are structures of self-organization, and one of their principal properties is, according to Prigogine, a very strong coherence in the behavior of all the constituents of the system. Of course, in each case the self-organization dynamics emerges due to the “interaction with the surrounding milieu”, i.e. the meeting of inner and outer energy. Like the laser radiation for Haken, Prigogine also has a model example, on which he often demonstrates the main properties of dissipative structures. It is the Bénard (or Rayleigh-Bénard) convection, the phenomenon of coherent motion of big (macroscopic) molecular ensembles in a liquid with the vertical temperature gradient: when the gradient takes a certain maximal value, convection starts and the molecules are grouping into regular dynamical patterns called the Bénard cells, which represent a simple directly observable example of self-organizing dynamics induced by the flow of outer energy (the heating-up of the liquid). There are great many kinds of systems with dissipative structures, and many different types of self-organization processes are realized by these structures.
What matters for us is that in all of them we catch the same key properties, structural and dynamic ones, that can be summed up into a definite dynamical paradigm. This “paradigm of dissipative self-organization” is essentially the same as the “laser paradigm” by Haken; and we conclude that synergy is, indeed, present in synergetics as a certain dynamical paradigm, which can be called the “synergetic paradigm of synergy” and can be summarized briefly as follows: in a system driven far from its usual equilibrium regimes the flow of outer energy can cause the emergence of new self-organizing dynamics that generates more coherent and differentiated dynamical structures and brings about the radical restructuring of the system.
This paradigm can be found not in all, but in most of basic phenomena and processes studied in synergetics.
4. Relations of the domains. Open problems and prospects
Evidently, the “synergetic paradigm of synergy” can easily be related to the Greek word, but it has a priori no connection with the Byzantine theological concept and its anthropological development. The conceptual elaboration of this paradigm must produce a different concept and constitute a separate and independent line in the study of synergy. However, a posteriori we discover many links between this line and the theological-anthropological mainstream. First of all, in all its domains synergy keeps the same core, the basic structure of two energies, “inner” and “outer”, that come from different sources and have their meeting and contact characterized by coherence between them and leading to cardinal changes in the “inner” field. In the domain of theology, this structure is represented by the Divine and human energies, and their contact opens the way to the theosis, the actual ontological transcension of the human being. In the domain of anthropology, the meeting of the two energies is interpreted as the anthropological unlocking and the basic structure has a series of representations corresponding to different paradigms of human constitution; in this domain, the contact of the two energies opens the way to the formation of structures of human personality and identity. As distinct from these domains, in the domain of synergetics the dynamical mechanism of the action of outer energy is concretized as the mechanism of self-organization generating definite dynamical structures. It means that the “synergetic paradigm of synergy” is more technical and less general than both the theological and anthropological paradigms, which do not prescribe the exact mechanism of the interaction of energies of different nature (especially in such case as ontological transcension).
However, in order to understand the relations between the different domains of synergy comprehensively, we must also take into account that one can find numerous examples of the “synergetic paradigm of synergy” in anthropology. Presenting synergy as an anthropological paradigm, we did not describe the practices implementing this paradigm in detail. Now, if we consider these practices in a more detailed way, we discover in many cases synergetic mechanisms at work. Let us come back to the hesychast practice at its higher steps when synergy is achieved. In our brief description of these steps in Section 1, we have already noticed their resemblance to processes of self-organization. Now we shall characterize this resemblance more precisely. In the presence of synergy, all the process of hesychast self-transformation acquires another type of dynamics. Of course, in all its parts it is always the stepwise ascent to the theosis by the hesychast Ladder; but now the ascent becomes spontaneous to a considerable extent, and the steps are energetic configurations of a new type: they represent specific dynamic forms emerging from each other in a strictly ordered succession and they cannot be produced separately from spiritual practice, in usual regimes and practices of empiric existence. I describe briefly the principal of them. The first one is the structure “mind plus heart” obtained by means of the procedure of “bringing the mind down into the heart” and representing a certain inseparable conjugation of intellectual and emotional energies that can be established and maintained due to synergy only. As hesychasts discovered, such conjugation provides “the helm for navigating the ship of the soul”: now the ascetic can rearrange his consciousness forming up the centre called “mind-bishop” that “sets up the laws for every activity of the soul and every limb of the body” (st. Gregory Palamas). Evidently, such united controlling centre makes all man’s energetic configurations incomparably more ordered and coherent. This structure serves as a dynamical basis for all the next steps. For the most part, they are related to new forms of prayer, in which the action of outer energy becomes more and more explicit. The main hesychast term for them is “pure prayer”. In such prayer “the mind is illuminated by heavenly light” (the Light of Tabor, i.e. Divine energy) and “pours forth the prayer effortlessly as if out of some inexhaustible source”, and this prayer “can be expressed neither by sounds of a human voice nor by movements of lips nor by any combinations of words”[12] . There are obvious elements of the synergetic paradigm in this energetic configuration: the human being is driven far from its equilibrium states (it is so for all the steps of spiritual practice); the configuration is formed-up due to outer energy (“heavenly light”); and it represents a dynamical form of a new type corresponding to spontaneous dynamics with new mechanisms of mental activity. In the further steps such elements are multiplied and enhanced. One of the highest steps that can be called the “step of the open book” is described as follows: “The highest prayer of those who are perfect is some ascension of mind that approaches God, and God sees all the arrangement of heart open like a book filled up with writing and expressing its will in wordless images”[13] . In this configuration man’s consciousness or, to be more precise, the structure “mind plus heart” is transformed into the “state of an open book” which means that it is all, up to the smallest parts, open to such contact and meeting with outer energy (God’s sight, i.e. Divine energy) that does not need gradual temporal development, but is instantaneous and complete; in other words, the meeting turns into the union. In terms of theological synergy, it means that the practice advances here from synergy to theosis; in anthropological terms, the configuration in question represents a maximally articulated noetic structure; while in terms of synergetics, it means that this configuration represents a maximally ordered and differentiated dynamical structure. Finally, if we look at all the series of the higher steps we notice more of synergetic patterns.
11
I.Prigogine, I.Stengers. Order out of chaos. Man’s new dialogue with nature. Moscow, 1986. P.54. (The back- translation of the Russian translation of the original published in 1984.)
13
St. Nilus of Ancyra. To Magna, the deaconissa of Ancyra. On inacquisitiveness. // Dobrotolyubie. Vol.2. Sergiev Posad, 1992. P.229. (The text is here attributed to st. Nilus of Sinai, as many texts by st. Nilus of Ancyra were till recent time.)