Lately, I have thought about the role of outside-in influences in the Salaam Matrix, and whether the major force of influence in the Matrix are the two zones that represent the Collective–the zones being the 3rd (Socioeconomic) and the 4th (Ecological-Political) zones.

\For long, I believed that those were the derivative zones. You see, Zone 1 (Spiritual) and Zone 2 (Personal-Familial) have long been my areas of interest as potential origins of influence, as I looked at society through the inner (or as some call it, “Feminine”) lens, or what is in fact the Spiritual lens.

Taking the inside-out approach, society and its ways are formed through what happens in the belief systems of persons, and in the families that these persons form, because these are the two zones where the basic unit of society, PERSON, is most centered, powerful and operational. I have long lived a way of life and held an outlook that deeply centers the PERSON as the holder of the point-of-view in this world; this outlook is correct when you are, in fact, looking at the world through the eyes of a mystic, a contemplative, and an observer (regardless of what your faith system or worldview is).

My very recent forays into dabbling in the affairs of the world through my opinions and advice on social media after years of taking a primarily contemplative path, and the deep unrest in the global affairs, have made me shake out my contemplative stupor and look at the impact of the Collective Zones.

I need to reckon that though the flow in the Matrix is such that Spiritual Zone is the first, and the model culminates in the largest form of the collective organization of humans, in the Ecological-Political Zone, it can in fact be true that the political influences and the socioeconomic conditions can dictate the lives of people, and the form, capacity and output of the society.

The more I think of this, the more I realize that there is no inherent direction of influence in the Matrix, the direction is in perspective (outside-in vs. inside-out), and, in the moment of analysis, in asking where does the leverage lie in that instance?

Which means to say that there is a perennial bidirectional relationship between the Outer and the Inner in the Salaam Matrix. Additionally, where does a problem or opportunity lie at a certain time or situation shifts from zone to zone and is an ongoing matter of investigation. No one zone is the fixed origin of Change, when we are looking at the society as a collective. It is never fixedly determined, which is why we need the model to read the world afresh, each time and for each use case.

It is still my assertion though that nothing really changes sustainably or register in the consciousness and nervous systems of the people until the change is logged, if not initiated, in the Spiritual Zone.

Your belief can change your life, or your life will change your belief. Either way, it is the belief that needs to reset and retabulate and upgrade for “change” to have effectively taken place. This remains the KEY zone of the Matrix.

RH