About Metaprocess

Last updated 09-05-09

Jerry: “It’s impossible!”
Kramer: “Is it? Or is it so possible that your head is spinning like a top?!”
Jerry: “It can’t be.”
Kramer: “Can’t it? Or is your entire world just crashing down all around you?!”
Jerry: “Alright, that’s enough.”
Kramer: “Yaaaaaaahhh!!!”

What is Metaprocess?

1.  From the free online dictionary:

Meta: A prefix meaning one level of description higher. If X is some concept then meta-X is data about, or processes operating on, X.

Process: a systematic series of actions directed to some end: to devise a process for homogenizing milk.

Put the two together, and “metaprocess” equates to thinking about thinking… examining the higher level processes that go into living the best life. To the degree that process is “a systematic series of actions directed to some end,” the chief end of metaprocess is maximizing one’s personal conception of what it means to live the best life.

2. Metaprocess is cognitive technology.

Courtesy of billions of years of evolution, the human brain is the single most powerful piece of technology in the entire universe (or at least in man’s particular corner of it). This ties in to the unique human capacity for leverage — the ability to combine observation, experimentation, and creative thinking in such a manner as to radically influence one’s surrounding environment (or inner environment for that matter). Check out Michio Kaku’s Physics of Extraterrestrial Civilizations to get a sense of the mind’s latent potential via cumulative knowledge gains. The achievements Kaku describes, if we ever reach anything like them, will be chalked up to the mind.

Unfortunately, most of us are like the hapless star of the 1980s TV series The Greatest American Hero.  Just as Ralph had no clue what the red alien space suit could truly do,  most of us are clueless in terms of what  a properly oriented and integrated mind can achieve — whether one’s goals could be classified as spiritual, material, or something else entirely. A stunningly powerful (and dangerous) piece of technology like the human brain should come with a powerful and comprehensive instruction manual, but it doesn’t.  So most of us stumble along in the dark…

In this sense, Metaprocess is an evolving instruction manual. It is “cognitive technology” in the sense that it enables greater levels of mastery and awareness and control in regard to the most powerful technology we have — the human mind.

3.  Metaprocess is a conceptual framework.

“Conceptual framework” is used here in regard to “connecting all aspects of inquiry.” That is to say, Metaprocess is a fully functional way of perceiving reality and looking at the world.

There are still kinks to be worked out, of course, but that’s no biggie because Metaprocess is an evolving conceptual framework. It continues to grow in depth and nuance and clarity over time. That’s a big reason for starting this blog, in fact… over time, thought contributions from fellow travelers, and the beneficial act of describing and fleshing out the building blocks of Metaprocess for a broad audience, will spur and cultivate the further evolution of the framework itself.

Holy crap, that sounds crazy. Who came up with this?

Jack Sparrow did — or rather, his mild-mannered alter ego did — over a period of years. Metaprocess has been a “work in progress” for a good while now. The blog itself has come along at a useful stage — a point at which the further evolution of Metaprocess can potentially be spurred by open discussion, description and dialogue.

Is Metaprocess entirely new?

No, actually quite the opposite. The fundamental building blocks of Metaprocess are actually hundreds to thousands of years old.  Much of this stuff is old as the hills.

It would be fair to say, however, that the particular combination of building blocks — the way they are presented as a conceptual framework aimed towards deeply pragamatic ends — has a certain “newness” to it. Jack does a whole lot of reading and thinking and he hasn’t come across anything quite like Metaprocess anywhere. The pieces have mostly been sitting around in the open, like Poe’s purloined letter, but not quite combined in this particular way.

Are there diagrams and an instruction manual?

Heh. Actually yeah, there are a couple diagrams. Nothing too complicated though. As for an instruction manual, you’re kind of reading it. Or the early stages of it anyway. Another intended purpose of the Metaprocess blog is to gather up Jack’s far flung notes and sketches and digital recordings — hundreds of pages worth accumulated over the past few years — and codify them into something clear and comprehensive.

The beating heart of Metaprocess is something Jack calls “The Atomic Compass.” You’ll be hearing (or rather reading) more about that in due time.

Could Metaprocess change my life?

Umm… dunno, maybe? It’s certainly possible. But then, a chocolate milk shake could change your life too, if you happened to drink it at the right place and time. As Albert Camus once wrote, “All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning. Great works are often born on a street corner or in a restaurant’s revolving door.”

Metaprocess is, indeed, some pretty powerful stuff in Jack’s humble opinion. But it isn’t a religion or a dogma or an answer to life’s deepest questions or anything like that. Again, it’s more a piece of flexible cognitive technology… a way to get more out of life by gaining mastery over self — and leveraging the latent power of  self — in some very specific, very pragmatic ways.

If your interest is piqued, stick around (or make a habit of dropping in from time to time). If not, no worries. It’s all good…