Weekly SPARK - Experiment 118
Looking for the leader is seeking someone else to blame.
SPARK EXPERIMENT
Specific Practical Application of Radical Knowledge
Sunday, 2025
SPARK- Experiment 118
Looking for the leader is seeking someone else to blame.
(Matrix Code SPARK118.00)
NOTES: It isn’t adult behavior to try to give your own authority away. This is a childhood survival strategy adopted long ago in different circumstances intended to disempower yourself so you are not a target of aggressions, jealousy, or projections. Standing in your own authority is legendary, even if it is only the authority for your own perceptions (think of the child who sees a naked king in Hans Christian Andersen’s tale The Emperor’s New Clothes). Taking authority for the full consequences of your moment to moment actions and decisions, for missed opportunities, for all the things you aren’t doing but could possibly be doing if you could only see them, this is intense. Like my teacher once said while cutting vegetables with a freshly sharpened knife, “It feels almost like being awake.”
EXPERIMENTS:
SPARK118.01 This experiment has two parts. The first part is observing your present behavior. Since you can’t do things differently until you become painfully aware of how you are doing them presently, the first part of this experiment is to keep track of exactly when, where, how, why, and to whom or what you habitually give your authority away.
Ruthlessly observe and write into your Beep! Book the subtle ways you defer your own authority. Here are some examples:
Pretending to not know what is really going on. Acting oblivious.
Setting up decoys for consequences, so someone else gets the blame instead of you.
Subtly lowering your status so that you become less visible than others.
Subtly raising the status of others so they become more visible than you.
Staying silent, pretending that you don’t know what needs to be said.
Hesitating, pretending that you don’t know what needs doing.
Withholding clear, useful feedback instead of telling someone who needs to hear it.
Scanning spaces to find the responsible one so you can hide behind them.
Scanning situations to find the rules and laws to conform to so that you cannot be questioned about your behavior because you are following the rules.
Plotting revenge against an authority rather than arranging to meet them for peer coaching.
Thinking up good reasons to justify why you make each decision so you can defend yourself just in case someone asks.
Watch the entire week without flinching in discomfort about what you notice. This means your self-observation should be neutral, totally absent from your inner commentary, criticisms, comparisons or judgments. Just observe your behavior and see how you have been doing it.
Do not try to do anything differently. It is too soon. As soon as you catch yourself doing it the “wrong way” keep doing it the “wrong way” for as long as you can as if you didn’t notice that you were noticing it, and keep noticing. Find out what is your payoff? What is your strategy?
SPARK118.02 After a week or so, add part two. Part two is this: millimeter by millimeter, start taking your authority back. This is accomplished through a long series of micro-experiments. It does not work well to assume radical authority all at once – this can cause you to live in a fantasy world. Assuming you can jump into full authority would be like thinking you can build a house on a foundation of sand. It takes many small behavior changes to weave together a resilient foundation upon which your own personal authority can solidly develop. Please invent your personally precise experiments. To get you started, here are some ideas:
Speak in statements rather than in questions. By raising your voice at the end of a sentence you make it into a question thereby removing your authority. By bringing your voice down at the end, a sentence becomes a statement. This little change can make an immense difference.
Establish and hold eye contact with local authorities instead of quickly looking away. Avoid being adaptive. Instead be collegial, collaborative.
Refrain from laughing at the little jokes people make that insult others, or the jokes which you don’t find to be funny.
Stop pretending that you understand when you don’t.
Avoid behaving as if you agree with what is going on when you don’t.
Make a very small promise each day and then, no matter what, keep your word.
In certain spaces ask relevant questions even if you are aware that the answers to your questions lie beyond the thought limits of that space. Then bring the group into that other space to find the answers.
Practice calling meetings together, for example, a weekly study group or Possibility Team. The one who speaks first at a meeting is the convener, claiming authority for calling the meeting. Be the convener. Say, “Good evening ladies and gentlemen…”
Notice where you stand in groups. For example, when giving a presentation or answering a question, notice that you find a safe place to stand with regards to all the authorities in the space. If you move out of that space by even ten centimeters, you suddenly feel no longer safe. Move out of your safe space and stay there.
There are so many ways to stand in your own authority. Modern culture has trained you to give your authority away so as to be a better consumer and follower. However, the universe waits impatiently for you to get in action as yourself so that it can provide the coincidental resources you need to deliver your unique destiny. You can’t be yourself until you stand in your own leadership.
SPARK - Experiment 118 is available in other languages!
If you want SPARK in your own language, join the SPARK Translator Team by contacting Clinton Callahan at clinton(at)nextculture.org.
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