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Figure 6.19.
Beer meditating. (Photo: Hans-Ludwig Blohm.
©
Hans-Ludwig Blohm,
Canada.)
want to explore some of the resonances and connections between Beer's tan-
trism and his cybernetics.
Tantrism is a hard concept to pin down. In his topic
Stafford Beer: A Per-
sonal Memoir
, David Whittaker notes that “the word 'tantra' comes from the
Sanskrit root tan meaning 'to extend, to expand.' It is a highly ritualistic phi-
losophy of psycho-physical exercises, with a strong emphasis on visualization,
including concentration on the yogic art of mandalas and yantras. The aim is
a transmutation of consciousness where the 'boundary' or sense of separation
of the self from the universe at large dissolves” (Whittaker 2003, 13).
58
And we
can begin to bring this description down to earth by noting that meditation
was a key spiritual practice for Beer.
Here, then, we can make contact with the discussion from earlier chap-
ters—of meditation as a technology of the nonmodern self, aimed at exploring
regions of the self as an exceedingly complex system and achieving “altered
states of consciousness” (Beer 1989b, 41).
59
Like the residents in the Archway
communities, but in a different register, Beer integrated this technology into
his life. Beyond that we can note that, as Whittaker's definition of tantrism
suggests, Beer's style of meditation involved visual images. He both medi-
tated upon images—mandalas, otherwise known as yantras (fig. 6.20)—and
