Spirituality, complexity, and career counseling.

The issues of change and connection are explored through concepts of complexity theory and spirituality. Complexity concepts of open exchange, networks, phase transitions, fitness peaks, and attractors are interwoven with spiritual concepts of change, balance, energy, community, calling, harmony, and unity. Applications to career counseling are provided.

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I begin this article with two stories. The first is a classic legend adapted from the Buddhist tradition (Hanh, 1996). A traveler comes to a raging river filled with debris. There is only one way to get across, and that is to build a raft. So the traveler puts aside the small bag of clothes and begins to build the raft. Building the raft is not easy. It requires gathering and joining branches and reeds. At last, the traveler's raft is complete, and, picking up the bundle, the traveler crosses the river. The question is: What will the traveler do with the raft, a raft that was difficult and time-consuming to build, a raft that was sturdy and true in crossing the river? Letting go of the raft--whether that raft stands for material possessions or beliefs--is essential to continuing success on the journey. Holding on to a raft while crossing dry land is carrying an unnecessary, even dangerous, burden.

The second story is contemporary and real. It was told to me by a colleague as we sat, in a break between classes, in the small cafeteria in my university building. My colleague described his son, a young man between jobs, who was moving back in with him. After bringing in his clothes and other needed items, the son carried in an uncovered carton. In the carton, my colleague saw a small track trophy, two books, four baseball caps, and assorted cheap remnants of parties past. The son, looking down at his own box, asked: "Why am I carrying this with me?"

These two stories are emblematic of the issues in career counseling from the student's point of view. The first issue is: What change am I now encountering? The crossing of the river, the transition to high school, the move from high school to college or work are all part of the issue of change. The second issue is: While I am in this change, how can I feel connected? The raft and the box of souvenirs are ways of feeling connected. Yet, even as my colleague's son implied, the value of what is being held is often unclear.

It is not surprising that people want to hold on to souvenirs and beliefs that are no longer useful. Change means separation, separation from a school, separation from a job, separation from a place one has lived in for some time. Separation and connection are therefore two sides of the same coin. They are complementary as the symbols of the yin and the yang are complementary spiritual symbols and as the particle and the wave are complementary states of being in quantum mechanics. To form a mental picture of complementarity, picture a circle. Now imagine cutting out the shape of the yin. The challenge: can you cut out the yin without creating the yang?

In the swirling dynamics of life, it is easy to think that the only constant is change. School counselors witness the multitude of changes as students move from childhood through puberty, as they develop a growing understanding of themselves, and as they make academic, personal, and interpersonal choices. While it is true that change is one constant, there is another as well. That constant is the inextricable interconnectedness of all living things. Perhaps the most important knowledge that the counselor can impart is how to accept and utilize change and how to understand and rely upon the connectedness of life.

In a study of corporate America, Mitroff and Denton (1999) found virtually unanimous agreement on the definition of spirituality among executives, managers, and workers at all levels in a variety of industries. In essence the definition of spirituality had two components: first that spirituality includes a sense of connection to something beyond the individual, and second that spirituality is a search for meaning, purpose, and integration in life. The themes of change and connection--and their relationship to each other--are thus at the heart of spirituality. At the same time, these very same themes emerge as core concepts in contemporary studies in the physical and biological sciences, studies that have been based on a set of understandings that goes under the headings of chaos theory, complexity theory, or nonlinear dynamics. In this article, the term complexity theory is used to summarize this body of thought. Complexity theory does not have a clear historical beginning. The term has been used by mathematicians, world-wide, for a long time as a theory of classifying problems based on how difficult they are to solve. Contemporary applications of complexity theory have their roots both in the complexity of mathematics and in chaos theory, which, in turn, has grown out of the work of many mathematicians and scientists in a variety of disciplines. Lorenz, a meteorologist, who coined the term the butterfly effect is one. Mandelbrodt, who discovered and developed the idea of fractals, is another. Prigogine who examined dissipative systems such as the body, and understood how systems operate when they are far from equilibrium, is a third. The Santa Fe Institute has promoted the study of complexity not only as a mathematical theory or science but also in a broad, multidisciplinary context (V. Dimitrov, personal communication, December 6, 2003; Dimitrov, 2001; MacGill, n.d.).

It is appropriate that this article on spirituality and career counseling incorporates complexity theory since a number of respected scientists have drawn connections between complexity theory thinking and spirituality. Goerner (1994) wrote in speaking of complexity theory: "The new understanding denies dualism, the separation of human- and mind-based dimensions from physical dimensions. We are not a mystery apart from the world but part of the mystery of the world.... Science--or belief in here-and-now facts--and spirituality--our sense of more-to-it-than-this--map [sic] to one physically real world" (p. 154).

The purpose of this article, then, is to provide a theoretical basis for spirituality and career counseling and to derive implications for practice from that theory. The theoretical basis includes links among complexity theory, spirituality, and career counseling. To do this, some basic principles of complexity theory and their relationship to career development are presented. This is followed by a set of ideas related to spirituality and work developed by Bloch and Richmond (1998). The last section of the article presents the applications to career counseling. A summary and conclusion complete the picture.

COMPLEXITY THEORY

In the late 20th century many supposedly immutable truths were thrown into question not by those who simply questioned the truths, but by those who had gone beyond doubting the individual beliefs to doubting the very system of thought in which the beliefs were constructed. This happened in areas of inquiry as varied as literary criticism, educational curriculum revision, census taking, and historiography. The theory of relativity and subsequent discoveries in physics overturned the previous truth of Newtonian or classic physics as certainly as Copernicus and Galileo overthrew the belief system of the ancients. In the physical sciences, understanding of the smallest systems--quantum mechanics--and of the largest systems--chaos and complexity theories--has changed dramatically.

Complexity theory explains actions and reactions in systems that seem at first glance to operate in random ways. The most common example of complexity theory is the weather. The weather looked at over a long period of time has recurring patterns, yet prediction of today's weather is rarely precise and sometimes completely wrong. The explanation is presented in the familiar example: A butterfly fluttering its wings in the Amazon will produce the weather in Toronto. There is no straight line of cause and effect between the distant butterfly and the local weather. If one were to plot the series of events between the two, the resulting equation would yield a complex pattern. Understanding of complexity theory reinforces the concept of a complex, interconnected universe (Prigogine & Stengers, 1996/1997). As Bronowski (1978) wrote in his introduction to a series of lectures to the scientific community; "I believe that the world is totally connected: that is to say that there are no events anywhere in the universe which are not tied to every other event in the universe" (p. 58).

Nevertheless, there is an experience of disorder, a seeming disorder. This disorder that appears random, actually has an underlying order. This order operates in systems as different as evolution, economies, individual cells, and individual lives. But the order is non-deterministic, non-linear; that is, the order does not allow for predictions. Living in the non-deterministic world of complexity can be confusing to people. People yearn for certainty. They want their lives to be the same as the lives of others, at least of others whose lives seem successful. Yet underneath seeming success is the same tension between order and disorder, between change and constancy, that marks one's own life. Complexity theory provides a way to understand the tension and not only to deal with it, but also to utilize it. Six principles of complexity theory are outlined below (see Appendix for reading list), each with an application to career development. An application of all the theory to the practice of career counseling is presented later in the article.

1. Open Exchange

Living beings are open. They maintain themselves through the continuous flow and interchange of components or energy. There is an ongoing interplay of the internal and external.

Open exchange in career development. First, to state the obvious, a career requires a living human body in which it functions in continuing exchange with all the organs and functions of that body. This includes all the physiological, psychological, and spiritual dimensions of any individual. In addition, a career cannot take place for the individual alone. By its very nature, career requires participation of give and take in the outside world, that is in labor markets. These relationships are complex and dynamic but nevertheless hark back to the foundational work of Frank Parsons (1909). The counselor can easily see the effects of open exchange of energy in the differences between the performance of the student who receives adequate nutrition and the one who does not as well as the difference in the performance between the student who is nurtured and the one who is not.

2. Networks

In these exchanges, living beings are part of networks. Any being is part of many networks which can be depicted not only as concentric circles but also as ever-widening links to nodes beyond itself. At the same time, a particular entity may have networks operating within it.

Networks in career development. The relation ships among the physical, psychological, neural, and spiritual aspects of the individual are neither unitary nor linear but exist in interweaving networks. So too a career is an entity within the system of the individual, but it is also part of the surrounding networks of education, occupations, industries, particular employers, cultures, and the needs of the community and the local and global economies--to mention just a few. These are ongoing relationships which operate, affect and are affected by the entity of each career. As high school students make subject choices, they enlarge or restrict the employability networks open to them in the future.

3. Phase Transitions

Living beings are dynamic. In the constant exchange of forms, components, and energy they move between order and chaos. These phase transitions are comparable to the movement of water among its three phases: liquid, solid or ice, and gas or steam. Phase transitions are the opportunity for creativity and the emergence of new forms.

Phase transitions in career development. From a state of being fixed in school or work, a person is thrown into change, from order to chaos. These career changes occur because of any combination of the relational networks busily and openly in exchange with the entity of career. In this model, graduation, being fired, ambition, illness, the influence of significant others, and virtually any event are all potential sources of phase transitions. Phase transitions are familiar to school counselors because some of them are established by school systems such as the movement from elementary to middle school or from high school to work or further education. However, it is important to recognize that phase transitions will continue to occur throughout people's lives. Some will be sought--such as job promotions--and others--such as job loss--will be thrust upon them.

4. Fitness Peaks

During phase transitions, living beings seek fitness peaks, that is, the state that will yield the greatest chance of survival. Kauffman (1995) in At Home in the Universe wrote:

      I suspect that the fate of all complex adapting
   entities in the biosphere--from single cells
   to economies--is to evolve to a natural state
   between order and chaos, a grand compromise
   between structure and surprise.... The
   edge-of-chaos then also arises as a potential
   general law. In scaling the top of the fitness
   peaks, adapting populations that are too
   methodical and timid in their explorations are
   likely to get stuck in the foothills, thinking
   they have reached as high as they can go; but
   a search that is too wide ranging is also likely
   to fail. (p. 15)

Fitness peaks in career development. During phase transitions, career is characterized by the search for the best that each individual can imagine for herself or himself. However, like all entities, the career search for fitness peaks may be limited by excessive timidity or excessive risk taking as well as the networked relationships and exchanges taking place at the time and all the time. The search for fitness peaks in the phase transition can be compared to the lighting of a match. Strike a match. Too little force results in failure. The match does not light. However, too much force also results in failure: the match breaks. So too, students need to learn how much risk is appropriate to achieve the best result. Perhaps the best example is in college selection. In many high schools, students are encouraged to apply to colleges and universities that are just within reach of their grades, activities, and test scores. They may also be encouraged to try for an institution that is a "long shot," but they are always encouraged to include at least one "safe" school in their set of applications.

5. Nonlinear Dynamics

Phase transitions are best explained by nonlinear dynamics. In linear dynamics, there is an expectation that changes of equal sizes will produce equal effects. Complex beings, however, behave in nonlinear ways. Because the transitions between order and chaos are drawing upon multiple causes from multiple network relationships, the dynamics are fuzzy.

Nonlinear dynamics in career development. Each person's career development pattern makes sense in terms of that entire person's work life, the specific dynamics of the environment in which the career occurs, and the internal dynamics of that person. So too, people experience parts of their careers which seem to form patterns for them, but these patterns are either not explicable or are only partially explained in terms of the patterns of other careers. The career development of each student is a series of choices that have internal harmonics or resonances for that individual and can only be understood in terms of that individual.

6. Attractors, Bagels, and Emergence

As the being moves through its transition, it may retain its life by repeating similar but not identical patterns, held in place by torus attractors. The oxymoron non-recurring patterns describes entities in this state. Patterns formed by torus attractors are often described as doughnuts, or bagels, as round and round the same circle the events go, never exactly repeating themselves, but never leaving the circumscribed area. However, as the being moves through its transition, it may retain life through the creation of new forms, a quality, known as emergence. Strange attractors yield entity shapes that are neither linear nor contained. When they are plotted mathematically, the patterns will each form unique figures or fractals.

Attractors in career development. Some careers appear to be formed by torus attractors, that is the patterns are clearly repeated with slight differences in each repetition, even with already experienced negative results. Individuals whose careers are formed by torus attractors may feel comfortable at times, but the awfulness of the repeated pattern is the illusion of change followed by the recognition of being stuck. The predilection for torus attractors may be seen even in early adolescence, for example, in the cases of students who continue to set up patterns of failure despite early promise of success. Strange attractors allow careers to take new shapes and emerge in forms quite varied from those seen before. Life has surprises; unexpected opportunities arise. Even in careers in which an individual has stayed in one occupation and industry emergence is present to the extent that the individual continues to learn, therefore to emerge. This apprehension of emergence creates a sense of satisfaction, of flow, even of joy.

A THEORY OF SPIRITUALITY AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT

All living beings and systems exist only as part of nested inseparability or connectedness. In other words, there are no living entities without interdependence. Spirituality is the experience of this unity. A career can only exist as part of nested inseparability or connectedness. In other words, there are no careers without interdependence. Spirituality in work is the experience of this unity.

This unity has been expressed by many religions and by secular poets. For example, in Judaism, the central prayer "Hear O Israel, the eternal God, the God is One." This has been interpreted to mean that God is the oneness, the unity of all. In the early Middle Ages, Jewish mystics and scholars meditated on the last word, the Hebrew word for One. As another example, in Christianity there is the mystery of the three in one--the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the Bhagavad-Gita (c.500-200 BC/1986), Lord Krishna, the omnipotent lord, speaks to the seeker, Arjuna, revealing his presence as the unifying force in everything. Just one verse conveys this:

   "I am the taste in water, Arjuna,
   the light in the moon and sun,
   OM resonant in all sacred lore,
   the sound in space, valor in men" (p. 72).

As an example from a non-religious source, there is Yeats' (1928/1962) poem "Among School Children." The poem concludes with two images of unity:

   "O Chestnut tree, great rooted blossomer,
   Are you the leaf, the blossom, or the bole?
   O body swayed to music, O brightening
      glance,
   How can we know the dancer from the
      dance?" (p. 478).

And Garrison (2000), a contemporary poet, wrote about unity and harmony after seeing two birds on a telephone wire:

   "Sometimes the smallest thing
   brings harmony in
   through the eye.
   Or was it that I
   on that particular day
   had harmony to bring
   to what I saw?" (p. 46).

The sense of unity can come from religious experience, art, nature, or reflection. However, the experience of the unity is difficult to retain. It is transitory, ephemeral. Like the moment of enlightenment during meditation, it is here--then gone. To counter this loss, Bloch and Richmond (1998) developed seven connectors between spirituality and work, each one designed to keep the focus on connection from different aspects of career development. The seven connectors are as follows:

* Change: Being open to change in yourself and the world around you

* Balance: Achieving balance among the activities of your life such as work, leisure, learning, and family relationships; being able to leave behind that which is no longer useful and to retain core values and useful skills

* Energy: Feeling that you always have enough energy to do what you want to do

* Community: Working as a member of a team or community of workers and understanding you are part of communities of companionship; communities of culture; and the cosmic community

* Calling: Believing that you are called to the work you do by your particular mix of talents, interests, and values

* Harmony: Working in a setting that harmonizes with your talents, interests, and values; working in a setting that permits the experience of flow, a "state of mind when consciousness is harmoniously ordered and they want to pursue whatever they are doing for its own sake" (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990, p. 6)

* Unity: Believing that the work you do has a purpose beyond earning money and in some way serves others

Seeing work as spiritual enables each person to consider his or her contribution to the world and to the ongoing creation of the universe. This view gives value to each career and may save one from self-centeredness. Finally, seeing one's career as spiritual avoids the moral dilemma of" separating life from work. It adds both an ethical dimension and a dimension of love.

Applications to Career Counseling

To put this all together, it is helpful to return to the stories that began this article. Career counseling provides help to those on the continuing journey of their lives. The journeys include expected and unanticipated changes with their concomitant uncertainties and anxieties. The journeys separate students from their accustomed places of being and their routine ways of doing. Understanding underlying connections can help students retain a sense of balance during the journey. Herein lies the challenge for school counselors: At the same time as counselors are working with students on the journeys of the moment, they must prepare them for the journeys of their lives. Career counseling is spiritual counseling in two ways: (1) career counseling helps students see the underlying order in the otherwise random-seeming universe; and (2) counselors bring to their students their own sense of the wholeness of the person. This sense of wholeness means not only keeping in mind the individual who is a child or an adolescent before them now, but also envisioning the adult-to-be, an adult for whose future they, the counselors, also hold some responsibility.

In working with individuals, counselors understand that the opportunity for creativity occurs at the transition points. Everything depends on (a) recognizing phase transitions, (b) recognizing attractors of the past, and (c) seeking fitness peaks. Counselors listen to the stories to help individuals find the links and nodes of their networks. They use storytelling to help children and youths identify' who they are and where they fit in the larger picture. Students respond to paper and crayons or markers or other means of expression through playful activities. Mosca (1995) suggested that narrative and play are the most effective methods for helping students seek happiness. He defined happiness as "the potential to be totally consonant with what is as it unfolds" (p. 181). Many suggestions for ways to begin story telling and for using visual as well as verbal techniques are presented in SoulWork: Finding the Work You Love; Loving the Work You Have (Bloch & Richmond, 1998). SoulWork also includes techniques for students to use in their own self-exploration. The techniques, provided in workbook style, include both logical and intuitive activities such as meditation, visualization, and journaling. Additional strategies for eliciting clients' stories may be found in Hansen (1996), Savickas (1997), and Cochran (1997).

Classic career development theories and related instruments and methodologies of structure and processes explain parts of the whole but are not additive. The place to begin in practice is with the whole. One can usually move to the parts from the whole, but beginning with the parts cannot get to the whole picture. Narrative approaches are certainly not new to career development. As Savickas (1997) wrote, "The empirical tradition of rational career counseling does not encompass complex human qualities such as spirit, consciousness, and purpose. Science examines parts; personal stories explain the whole" (p. 9).

The theoretical principles outlined in this article have specific applications in addition to the general ideas above. The applications are grouped into four linked themes: (a) applications of phase transitions and change; (b) applications of open exchange, networks and community; (c) applications of attractors and calling; and (d) applications of fitness peaks and harmony.

Phase Transitions and Change

The first link is to the concept of phase transitions. In the physical sciences, some phase transitions can be predicted. For example, in ordinary circumstances H2O will move between a liquid and a solid at 320 Fahrenheit. Similarly, some phase transitions in a career path are predictable. A graduating senior will leave the school and move into work, further education, or a combination of the two. A retiring person will have more time for leisure pursuits. Other career phase transitions are unpredictable. However, phase transitions--that is, the moments between order and chaos--are the most fruitful times for creative change. That is why the acceptance of change as a condition of life is a spiritual connector. Therefore, the responsibility of the career counselor is to provide the student with knowledge of the sources of career information and tools for interpreting and understanding these resources in light of self-understanding.

Knowing that change is inevitable but uncomfortable, counselors can use their understanding of the concepts of complexity theory to help reduce student discomfort. For example, as students move toward new situations, counselors can use conversational approaches or interactive group sessions to facilitate the students' recognition of the skills and talents they have already developed. These can then be identified as recognizable transferable skills. A growing self-awareness of skills--skills that have been used and that can be used in new ways in the future--can reduce the discomfort of chaos. In addition, the fear of change may be accompanied by a sense of being overwhelmed. The sense of being overwhelmed, in turn, may come from an inaccurate notion that any change requires overturning all that one has known and done. Helping students understand the power of small changes and helping them identify those they might attempt also reduces the fear of change.

Open Exchange, Networks, and Community

The second link is to the concepts of open exchange and networked relationships. Too often students see themselves as isolated. They may feel isolated because they are willingly leaving a familiar situation or because they perceive they have been thrust out of one. There is rarely a sense of the impact and potential of the full array of connections to the labor market and the general economic world. The concept of networked interpersonal relationships is encapsulated in the spiritual connector of "community." The role of the counselor in this regard is to open the world and its connections through career information. Opening the connections in the world means enabling children and youths to look at career information in its broadest sense--from specific job descriptions to an understanding of the role of economics in the relative growth of different occupational opportunities. Opening the connections means helping youth understand the swirling dynamics of the world. Furthermore, making changes can be uplifting or dispiriting. For those who are dispirited, a lack of immediate success may bring about a sense of unconquerable failure. An understanding of the dynamics can help students see that, while they have the power to move in chosen directions, the results that are sought will not always be immediate or lasting.

Attractors and Calling

The third conceptual link is to calling and attractors. Attractors can be salutary or deleterious even though the word calling suggests a positive force. Those attractors that lead individuals toward growth and emergence help keep careers alive. Torus attractors, which keep students spinning around the same circles, create a sense of being stuck. Career interests, career anchors, social and socio-economic constraints, habits of mind, and other internal and external factors are examples of possible attractors. An unwillingness to stay with discomfort of change can itself be an attractor that pulls students into precipitous, frequently unsatisfying, decisions. It is the responsibility of the counselor to listen to the stories that help individuals find the links and nodes of their networks and to identify the attractors that have operated in their careers. It is also important to introduce the student to the wealth of career information available. Many career information resources allow for personal exploration as well as exploration of occupational and educational opportunities. Counselors can use career information to help students create new career scenarios, narratives that can challenge or support the attractors of the past and potential attractors of the future.

Counselors can help students who want to rush off to the edge of chaos to see where, in the past, the rushing itself has been a torus attractor and led to non-satisfying outcomes. Students can be encouraged to allow time for what Gelatt (1989) has termed "positive uncertainty." Counselors can work with students as they explore how their individual careers are kept alive--by torus attractors, strange attractors, or a mix of the two.

Counselors have found it valuable to identify how their own patterns and dynamics influence their work. In the press of school counseling responsibilities and tasks, counselors may feel pressured to complete the work of planning with students before the students themselves are ready to reach conclusions. These bureaucratic pressures may act as torus attractors in counselors' work lives. In some instances, counselors can free themselves of some of the burden by encouraging students to take more responsibility for exploring career information. Counselors are encouraged to assess how freely students can access career information resources both in print and on line in their particular schools.

Fitness Peaks and Harmony

The fourth link is to the concept of fitness peaks or the spiritual connector of harmony. The most familiar use of career information brings us back to the work of Frank Parsons (1909) in which, through true reasoning, individuals make choices based on the knowledge of self and the knowledge of occupations. While this synthesis of self and search is still at the heart of career counseling (Bloch, 1989), the concept of fitness peaks suggests that career information is not neutral in the eyes of students. Career information is sorted and presented in ways which the authors or publishers believe is most helpful. However, not all information is equal or equally useful to each student. The responsibility of the counselor is to help the youth identify the issues--interests, skills, and values--that are of greatest importance to that individual and then to identify the career information resources that will provide that information. Through the combination of self-analysis that goes beyond career interests and skills and action based on the analysis of career information, students can move toward settings in which they are most likely to flourish, settings in which they can experience harmony.

In working with individuals on their career journeys, their journeys to fitness peaks, it is important to recognize and deal with the issue of risk. In a book about the explorations of Captain Cook, Horwitz (2002) wrote:

      Explorers live or die by first impressions. Is
   the approaching inlet a shelter or a shoal-strewn
   trap? The figures beckoning from the
   beach--are they friends or foes? Act too cautiously,
   and you will discover nothing. Too
   recklessly, and you may end dashed against
   rocks, or, like Magellan, lying on the sand with
   a spear through your gut. (p. 248)

While this last image may sound too melodramatic for an article on career counseling, counselors might consider how often one sees students who sabotage themselves, who do not recognize friend from foe, or who are too afraid to reach for the goals that are not easily achieved.

Counselors can encourage students to examine the narratives of their experience to find examples of behavior that was either too rash or reluctant. Of course, in doing so, the counselor will recognize the appropriateness of the judgment based on the developmental stage of the student. As high school students look beyond graduation, realistic, unbiased information about occupational requirements can help them picture not only their goals but how to achieve them.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

Change and connection are two inextricable dynamics of life. As career counselors, we can understand these forces using both complexity theory and an understanding of spirituality. Once we have grasped the complementary nature of change and connection, we can help ourselves and our students move forward with less fear for themselves and more compassion for others. In the web of life we see that each individual's career is both effect and cause. We have the opportunity to see not only how the world has affected our students but also how our students, and their work, affect the world. The most essential connection that we can actualize as humans is our connection to one another. The importance of this connection has been expressed by leaders of many faiths (e.g., the Dalai Lama, Matthew Fox, and Martin Buber).

      A human being is a part of the whole that
   we call the universe, a part limited in time and
   space. He [sic] experiences himself, his
   thoughts and feelings, as something separated
   from the rest--a kind of optical illusion of his
   consciousness. This illusion is a prison for us,
   restricting us to our personal desires and to
   affection for only the few people nearest us.
   Our task must be to embrace all living beings
   and all of nature. (Einstein as quoted in
   Mitchell, 1991, pp. 189-190)

Once we recognize the interdependence, loving one another and acting out of the love is the only ethical stance we can take. As school counselors who seek to act spiritually and to enhance the spirituality of children and youth, we can model behavior and encourage school policies that enhance an ethic of caring and connection.

APPENDIX

Readings

I have immersed myself in the study of complexity theory for some time, and I am responsible for the distillation of the theory into the six principles elucidated in this article. In addition to specific works cited in the reference list, the readings on complexity, science that I have found most useful are the following:

Ainslie, P. (1995). Chaos, psychology, and spirituality. In R. Robertson & A. Combs (Eds.), Chaos theory in psychology and the life sciences (pp. 309-317). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Banks, J. (2000). Sensitive dependence. Retrieved December 20, 2003, from http://johnbanks.maths.latrobe.edu.au/chaos/animated/Sensitive.

Barabasi, A. L. (2002). Linked: The new science of networks. Cambridge, MA: Perseus.

Capra, F. (2002). The hidden connections: Integrating the biological, cognitive, and social dimensions of life into a science of sustainability. New York: Doubleday.

Gentry, T. (1995). Fractal geometry and human understanding. In F. D. Abraham & A. R. Gilgen (Eds.), Chaos theory in psychology (pp. 145-155). Westport, CT: Praeger.

Mandelbrot, B. B. (1982). The fractal geometry of nature. San Francisco: Freeman.

Maturana, H., & Varela, F. J. (1980). Autopoesis and cognition: The realization of the living. Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel. (Vol. 42 in Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, R. S. Cohen & M. W. Wartofsky Eds.). (Originally published in Chile in 1972 under the title De Maquinas y Seres Vivos)

Maturana, H., & Varela, F. J. (1987). The tree of knowledge: The biological roots of human understanding. Boston: Shambala.

Prigogine, I., & Stengers, I. (1984). Order out of chaos: Man's new dialogue with nature. New York: Bantam.

Stewart, I. (1989). Does God play dice: Mathematics of chaos. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.

Taylor, M. C. (2001). The moment of complexity: Emerging network culture. Chicago: University of Chicago.

Waldrop, M. M. (1992). Complexity: The emerging science at the edge of order and chaos. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Young, T. R. (1995). Chaos theory and social dynamics: Foundations of postmodern social science. In R. Robertson & A. Combs (Eds.), Chaos theory in psychology and the life sciences (pp. 217-233). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

References

Bhagavad-Gita. (1986). (B. S. Miller, Trans). New York: Bantam. (Original work c. 500-200 BC.

Bloch, D. P. (1989). From career information to career knowledge: Self, search and synthesis. Journal of Career Development, 16, 119-128.

Bloch, D. P., & Richmond, L. J. (1998). SoulWork: Finding the work you love, laving the work you have. Palo Alto, CA: Davies-Black.

Bronowski, J. (1978). The origins of knowledge and imagination. New Haven: Yale University.

Cochran, L. (1997). Career counseling: A narrative approach. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: Simon & Schuster.

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Deborah P. Bloch, Ph.D., is a professor, Organization and Leadership Department, School of Education, University of San Francisco, CA. E-mail: [e-mail]