Students who want to do research relating to what one could loosely refer to as the “new research paradigm” encounter problems with finding promoters and a disciplinary and even interdisciplinary “home”. Amongst others, this type of research includes issues spanning arts and science, religion and science, consciousness, mind / matter, the role and impact of consciousness on social change, metaphysical issues and the apparent “miraculous”.
The distinction between the web and field perspectives of the biomatrix (i.e. the web of all natural, psycho-social and technological systems) as proposed by Biomatrix Systems Theory can be useful in contextualising this type of research.
More specifically, the web perspective describes the manifested reality of social, natural and technological systems and their organisation in time and space (i.e. the observable physical reality of systems which is the study of the various disciplines of the social and natural sciences).
The new paradigm research is associated with the field perspective. It is derived from more recent research in physics (e.g. quantum mechanics) and biology (morphic fields, holographic brain / mind functioning) as well as consciousness research. This research suggests that the field has different organising principles (e.g. it is universally accessible, is non local and not time bound). This field represents the conceptual (or potential) reality of systems and in-forms (i.e. puts form into) the systems in physical reality. Some research is also related to the interaction between the web and the field (e.g. the role of learning, the issue of the critical mass in paradigm shifts and the clockwise versus counter-clockwise flow of change in systems as proposed by Biomatrix Systems Theory).
