Peter Merry's Blog

What’s really going on beneath the surface of Polanksi’s rise in British politics?

Something unusual is happening in UK politics. In a time when many voters feel disillusioned, cynical, or simply tired, Zack Polanski has overseen one of the fastest surges in party membership and visibility the Green Party of England and Wales has ever seen. Party membership has overtaken the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, and they were recently polling as the most popular party for the under 50s.

This hasn’t happened by accident. In 2018 I wrote this post calling on progressive politicians to do exactly what we are seeing Zack Polanksi do now. It predicted the rise of the populist right if progressive politicians didn’t fill that vacuum. And it isn’t just about policies. To understand why Polanski’s leadership is landing so strongly, we need to look below the level of party platforms and headlines — at how people actually make meaning, form identity, and respond to leadership under pressure.

Beyond Policies to Meaning

When societies come under stress — rising inequality, cost-of-living pressure, climate anxiety, loss of trust — people don’t just ask: “What policy do I prefer?”. They ask deeper questions:

Who is on my side?Do you see my struggle?Is this system still fair?Can anyone actually change things?

Most mainstream politics today speaks almost entirely to rational policy arguments or institutional competence. But large parts of the population are no longer living primarily in that mental space. Polanski intuitively understands this — and speaks to people where they actually are.

Why His Message Feels Different

Polanski doesn’t just talk about climate targets or economic tweaks. He consistently frames politics around:

Lived experience (“people are struggling now”)Moral clarity (“this isn’t fair”)Clear responsibility (“some benefit while many pay the price”)Collective agency (“this can change if we act together”)

That combination activates emotion, identity, and hope — not just logic.

The Hidden Pattern: Speaking Across Multiple Human Needs

Without using academic language, and with a down-to-earth personality style, Polanski’s leadership resonates across several deep human layers at once:

1. Belonging and Dignity

Many people feel invisible or dismissed by politics. His language restores dignity:

You are not stupid.Your anger makes sense.You are not alone.

This reconnects people who feel culturally or economically sidelined.

2. Energy and Courage

Polanski isn’t cautious or technocratic. He names problems boldly and points to power structures clearly. That energises people who are tired of vague reassurance and endless “complexity” talk.

3. Fairness and Justice

His framing consistently returns to fairness:

Who pays?Who benefits?Why are basic needs still insecure?

This resonates deeply with people who still believe rules should mean something — even if they no longer trust the system enforcing them.

4. Vision Beyond the Status Quo

Crucially, he doesn’t just criticise — he points toward a different future:

Public wellbeing over private extractionClimate action linked to everyday affordabilityCollective solutions, not individual blame

That opens a sense of possibility, which has been largely absent from UK politics.

Why This Works Now

Timing matters. The UK is in a moment of systemic stress:

Institutions are seen as distant or failingEconomic growth hasn’t translated into securityCultural divisions are deepeningTraditional politics feels hollow

In these conditions, leadership that only speaks in careful, managerial language feels disconnected — even when well-intentioned. Polanski’s approach works because it:

Meets people emotionally without manipulating themNames conflict without glorifying chaosOffers direction without pretending there are easy answers

That’s rare.

The Risk — and the Opportunity

This kind of leadership isn’t without risks.

If bold rhetoric isn’t matched by credible delivery, trust can evaporate just as fast as it forms.
If anger isn’t channelled constructively, it can turn polarising.
If vision isn’t grounded, it can feel performative.

But when supported properly — with strong policy work, participatory processes, and real-world pilots — this style of leadership can rebuild democracy. That’s the real opportunity Polanski’s success points to.

A Wider Lesson for British Politics

Whether or not one agrees with the Green Party, Polanski’s rise reveals something important:

People aren’t disengaged because they don’t care.
They’re disengaged because politics stopped speaking to their full human reality.

Leadership that reconnects identity, fairness, agency, and future doesn’t just win attention — it restores participation. That’s the deeper reason Zack Polanski has become a political force so quickly.

The Framework Behind This Analysis — Spiral Dynamics

The analysis above draws on a well-established body of research known as Spiral Dynamics. You don’t need to agree with it — or even adopt it — for it to be useful. Think of it as a map of how human priorities and worldviews tend to evolve under different life conditions.

What Is Spiral Dynamics?

Spiral Dynamics is a psychological and cultural framework developed from the work of psychologist Clare W. Graves, later expanded by researchers and practitioners such as Dr Don Beck working in leadership, politics, and social change.

Its central insight is simple but powerful:

Human beings don’t all see the world in the same way — and those differences follow recognizable patterns.

Rather than assuming everyone responds to the same arguments, Spiral Dynamics recognises that people prioritise different things depending on their life experience, security, and stress levels.

The Value Layers

Spiral Dynamics describes a series of value systems — not as “types of people,” but as ways of making sense of the world. The value systems evolve in us, each building on the previous one. Most individuals and societies express several of these at once.

Here’s a simplified overview:

Belonging & Identity

This layer centres on:

CommunityTraditionShared story“People like us”

It asks: “Where do I belong?”

Power & Protest

This layer emerges strongly when people feel unheard or blocked.
It brings:

AngerEnergyBoundary-breakingA challenge to authority

It asks: “Who is stopping us — and why?”

Order & Stability

People focused here care about:

Fair rulesInstitutionsResponsibilitySocial order

They ask: “What holds society together?”

Success & Progress

This layer prioritises:

AchievementInnovationEconomic growthEfficiency

It asks: “How do we improve and compete?”

Equality & Inclusion

Here the focus is on:

Social justiceDiversityCareEthics

The question becomes: “Who is being excluded or harmed?”

There are later, more integrative layers as well — focused on systems thinking and long-term coherence — but the ones above are most visible in today’s politics. The Yellow “Integral” value system is the one that honours the best of each of the above value systems and integrates them for the good of the whole. That seems to be where Polanski is operating from.

The Relevance to Politics Today

Most political systems assume that rational arguments and policy details are enough. Spiral Dynamics shows why this often fails. When people are stressed, insecure, or disconnected, they don’t primarily respond to spreadsheets or institutional logic. They respond to earlier value systems:

Whether they feel seenWhether the system feels fairWhether anyone has the courage to name what’s wrongWhether a future feels possible

If political messaging only speaks to one value layer, it leaves others feeling ignored — which creates backlash, disengagement, or polarisation.

Applying This to Zack Polanski’s Rise

Polanski’s success makes sense through this lens because he doesn’t speak to just one layer. He:

Offers a sense of shared purpose (belonging and agency – Purple in Spiral Dynamics)Acknowledges anger and frustration (protest energy – Red in Spiral Dynamics)Frames politics in terms of fairness and justice (ethical concern – Blue in Spiral Dynamics)Challenges concentrated power (freedom for the individual – Orange in Soiral Dynamics)Connects climate action to justice for all in everyday life (practical relevance – Green in Spiral Dynamics)

He is speaking to the psychological reality people are living in, and people recognise that.

Spiral Dynamics in Practice

In a time of rapid change and uncertainty, understanding how meaning itself is shifting becomes just as important as understanding policy. That’s why this framework is increasingly used in leadership, governance, and conflict work — and why it helps illuminate what’s happening in UK politics right now. The map is never the landscape, but it can help us find our way in often confusing times.

Peter Merry worked closely with Dr Don Beck and is one of the world’s most experience practitioners of Spiral Dynamics. For more about Spiral Dynamics, see https://www.valuematch.net/spiral-dynamics/.

After many years of diving deep into consciousness, through experience, leadership and technology, I’m now ready to start sharing again. I’m opening a new yearlong programme based on Leading from the Field for people who want to work more consciously with the subtle dynamics that shape teams, organisations and our lives. Over 12 months, we’ll explore one principle a month, go out and practice applying it then share our experiences and insights. Just 12 people, for depth and connection. Time to apply all these lovely concepts!

In the midst of all the craziness in the world around us, there is a way of being that is full of joy, grace and magic that is actually highly effective as well. When we learn to deepen our presence, then our awareness of our interconnectedness crystallises and we find ourselves working with the natural intelligence of life. It’s effortless and full of wonder. We end up achieving more than we could ever have imagined, but in ways that we could not have thought up or planned ourselves. It’s a world of intuition, synchronicity and flow. I call it Leading from the Field.
In 2026 I am offering a 12 month journey for 12 people to dive into, practise and embody the 12 principles of Leading from the Field together. See below for more info.

Apply hereLeadng_from_the_Field_ProgDownload

This is a talk I gave at the FIAP university in Sao Paolo, Brazil, on the kind of leadership needed during this period of non-linear change, with high complexity and speed of change. What’s breaking down? What is emerging? And what are the implications? Great questions from the audience in-person and online. You can feel the change in the air…

This was a fun one! Dr. Peter Merry discusses data-driven consciousness research with devices like the Wyrd Light that responds to focused attention, and the Wyrdoscope for deep analysis of exceptional human abilities.

Old Patterns

A couple of days ago I had an exchange with someone close to me that echoed a pattern we had experienced many times before, but that we hadn’t been through for a while. I do something not that smart, she says something judgemental that I experience as humiliating, I get resentful, she keeps up the humiliation theme, my anger explodes, she drops into victim mode and demands an apology, I refuse and we hit stalemate. The field of our relationship is polluted and we lose our connection.

This morning she brought it up as something we needed to talk about, bless her. So we worked it through, each acknowledged our roles in the situation and apologised (which took a bit of work on both sides for us to get to with real authenticity).

She had been saying for a couple of days that she wanted to go to the Red Line protest in Amsterdam against the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians in Gaza. Now I’ve been to many a protest in my time, but I just felt this inner resistance to going to this one. I found it hard to verbalise. I mumbled something about increasing the polarisation and that it was more complex than all these NGOs were making out. But although I could feel the reason there, I couldn’t put it into words.

Staying Home to Go Within

This morning she decided to go to Amsterdam and I decided to stay home and work on whatever that pattern was that had got under my skin and wormed its way into our relational space again. In these situations, where I know I have something I need to transform, I turn to Jeru Kabbal’s Quantum Light Breath practice – specifically the Transforming Attitudes 45 minute process.

At the start of the process, Jeru invites us to name the pattern we want to transform and imagine it written on a sticker and stuck somewhere on our body, and then to forget it. What formed in my mind was “anger at being humiliated”. I parked it on my gut and moved on to the breathing practice.

As with many of these kind of practices, it starts with deepening the breath, into the stomach and up into the chest, and release – bringing in as much oxygen as you can. My body always starts twitching in this process which I take as releasing something. At a certain point he invites us to speed up the breathing and increase the intensity. Then he asks us to recall the attitude we had written on the sticker.

Meeting the Roots of Anger

“Anger at being humiliated”. My body spasms and throws itself around accompanied by the intense breathing. Jeru invites us to recall any moments from our past or emotions associated with the attitude. I get flashes of my father’s anger and impatience when I did something incompetently, the moment a family member laughed as she pushed me down an embankment when out on a walk with the family after she’d had a sherry or two at lunch, the bullies at school. I could feel my anger as my body continued to purge itself.

At some point my body settled down and my mind cleared, and Jeru invited us to imagine the sticker with the attitude written on it shrinking and then falling away from our body. As I saw that happen, deep uncontrollable sobbing took over my body and flowed through me. I sobbed for the pain I had caused others as a result of that pattern and then I saw in a flash how this pattern was playing out in the conflicts of our world.

Seeing the Pattern in the World

The Israelis – who see themselves as the chosen people – were humiliated in the concentration camps of the second world war. The Palestinians were humiliated when their holy land was taken away from them and given to others – and have continued to be humiliated by this great military power on their doorstep and the provocations of the settlers. The Israelis are humiliated on October 7th 2023 when their promise of high security protection is found desperately wanting as their innocent children, women and men are slaughtered and kidnapped right under their noses. And now the Palestinians are getting humiliated again, as their land, once more, is taken from them. And it all feeds anger. Anger at being humiliated.

The Grace of Forgiveness

Once the sobbing for the suffering had settled, Jeru then invited us to see the higher self we are, and take in the love and energy that life is constantly beaming at us. I felt forgiveness, which set off a second round of deep sobbing and release, but with a different quality. It was almost the disbelief at the grace and compassion of a Universe, of a God, of whatever you want to call It, that can love us so unconditionally that when we acknowledge our role in the creation of suffering and truly commit to doing what we can to transform ourselves, we are forgiven.

The Holographic Work

This was what I had been sensing. As within, so without. As above, so below. The patterns in us are the patterns in the world. The patterns in the world are the patterns in us. This was such a beautiful example of it, handed to me on a plate. One of us goes out into the world to show our solidarity with the suffering caused by these patterns, and the other stays at home to work on the transformation of the pattern in himself. These actions are both examples of the work that is needed – inner and outer. We need both.

It also reminded me of what we are discovering in the consciousness research with the Wyrd technologies. We are starting to see patterns in the data that aren’t just a reflection of the quantity of the anomaly, the size of the pattern in the field of consciousness, but seem to be pointing to qualia in the data – signatures of certain rituals and emotions. It is very early days and we have a research project pending, but our intuition is telling us very strongly that this is what we are going find.

Our inner states imprint patterns in the field of consciousness around us, and we expect to be able to demonstrate that soon with the Wyrd consciousness technologies. Given the non-local, fractal, holographic nature of consciousness (see Dan Brown’s latest book!), this means that the patterns we put into the field show up everywhere else – and that all the patterns in the field are accessible to everyone everyone. Our own resonance brings us into patterns of a similar resonance in the field. Through our inner states, as well as every choice we make to act a certain way in the world, we co-create not just our own reality, but the whole of reality around us.

Now I know why I wasn’t meant to go to the protest in Amsterdam. We each need to find our path to make our contribution to the world, our own practice. Inner work, outer work, ideally a combination of both. But whatever you choose, and do choose something, know that it will echo out in the field that coheres into the manifest world around us. That is both a huge responsibility and a huge relief, knowing that we can choose, and the choices that we make count. Time to get to work!

If anyone would like to try the Jeru Kabbal practice I mentioned above, you can download it here (.m4a format, zipped). (I have tried to track him down or an organisation related to him, to ask permission to share or offer a contribution, but have failed so far. I can’t find it to buy or stream anywhere. If anyone does come across something, please do let me know.)

Original article at https://gowyrd.org/wyrd-dan-brown/.

Every so often, a cultural moment arrives that signals a shift in how society thinks about mind, matter, and meaning. Dan Brown’s new novel, The Secret of Secrets, is one of those moments.

Brown has always woven real-world research, artifacts, and organizations into his fiction — but this time, he opens with a striking statement:

“All artwork, artifacts, symbols, and documents in this novel are real. All experiments, technologies, and scientific results are true to life. All organizations in this novel exist.”

In other words, this isn’t just storytelling. It’s a mirror of what’s already happening in science, technology, and culture.

Consciousness goes mainstream

The heart of The Secret of Secrets is consciousness. Not the narrow definition of the brain producing awareness as a side effect of neurons firing, but a far larger picture:

Nonlocal consciousness: “Consciousness is everywhere. Consciousness permeates the universe. Consciousness is, in fact, one of the fundamental building blocks of our world.”The brain as a receiver: “In the nonlocal model, your brain does not create consciousness, but rather your brain experiences what already exists.”Filtering and inhibition: “Our brains filter most of what’s available so we don’t become overwhelmed. But in death, psychedelics, or sudden moments of clarity, those filters fall away — and we see more of reality.”

These are the very ideas Wyrd has been advancing through its research tools: measuring coherence, tuning resonance, and studying what happens when filters open.

The anomalies that won’t go away

For centuries, experiences like telepathy, precognition, out-of-body states, and sudden genius have been pushed to the margins under the label “paranormal.” But as Brown’s characters point out:

“These phenomena are inexplicable, but they are real. They are true anomalies… and they so fundamentally undermine the current model of consciousness that we now find ourselves at a crossroads of human understanding.”“The question is not if these phenomena are real. Science has proven they are. The question is why so many of us remain blind to them.”

At Wyrd, we take this exact position. Anomalies are signals pointing to a deeper model of reality. Our Wyrdoscopes and Wyrd Lights are designed to capture these signals with rigour and transparency.

Superposition, retrocausality and time out of joint

The novel also introduces readers to some of the more mind-bending implications of quantum science:

Superposition: particles (and perhaps minds) exist in multiple potential states at once, only crystallizing when observed.Retrocausality: “Today’s experiences are the result of tomorrow’s decisions.” Experiments suggest the future may influence the past in ways our classical models can’t explain.

This matches the kind of anomalous temporal correlations we see in consciousness research — what Wyrd frames through the Model of Pragmatic Information (MPI) as entanglement stabilised across time.

The illusion of separation

Perhaps the most powerful theme in Brown’s novel is the dismantling of the illusion that we are isolated, disconnected individuals:

“Our conscious minds delude us and trick us into seeing disconnectedness where there is only unity.”“Future generations will see that our perception of being alone in the world was once humankind’s greatest shared delusion.”

Wyrd’s mission is to show, with data and experience, that this is not just poetry but science: coherence is real, measurable, and can be cultivated.

Death, psychedelics, and the full spectrum of consciousness

Another striking thread is what happens when the brain’s filters collapse. Brown’s characters point to research showing how near-death experiences and psychedelics allow people to access a vastly expanded bandwidth of reality:

“As he died, his GABA levels dropped precipitously. In his final moments, all of his brain filters were gone. The entire death experience was flowing in — with nothing blocked out.”“Expanded consciousness, universal connection, unbounded love, spiritual awakening, creative genius. They all seemed out of reach — the products of rare minds or states — until now.”

This dovetails directly with Wyrd’s exploration of coherence states that mirror what mystics, near-death experiencers, and psychonauts have described — only now with measurement, transparency, and reproducibility.

From secrecy to open science

The novel doesn’t shy away from the history of government programs like Stargate, which tested remote viewing and psychic perception under military secrecy.

“At some point… skepticism itself becomes irrational.”“Stargate never failed. It simply evolved into something far greater.”

For Wyrd, the lesson is clear: secrecy damages trust. The future of consciousness research must be transparent, participatory, and oriented toward collective benefit rather than control. That is exactly the ethos driving our open, ethical, and peer-reviewed approach.

A cultural wave

When a global bestselling author devotes his latest novel to these ideas, it signals more than entertainment. It signals that the cultural imagination is ready for them. That millions of readers will be introduced to nonlocal mind, coherence, retrocausality, and unity not as fringe speculation, but as living questions.

For Wyrd, this is a massive cultural tailwind. We are no longer working in the shadows of “paranormal” or “pseudoscience.” We are standing in the middle of a cultural shift that Brown’s book has just amplified worldwide.

Why this matters

We are living through the dawn of a consciousness civilisation. And now, even popular fiction is catching up with what researchers, explorers, and pioneers have known for decades.

At Wyrd, we are building the tools to measure, model, and work with this expanded reality — so that humanity can learn to live coherently within it.

Curious about how this looks outside the pages of a novel? Explore how Wyrd is turning the very questions Dan Brown raises into real experiments, data, and technologies at gowyrd.org. Join us at Science and Consciousness to see for yourself the equipment and research he refers to!

An extensive keynote that Peter gave at the International Network for the Study of Spirituality event in 2025.

What if our homes, devices, and communities could interact with the field of consciousness itself? In this talk, Peter Merry introduces the emerging world of Consciousness Technology—from lights and wearables that respond to collective states, to games and research tools that explore synchronicity and intention.

Drawing on the history of consciousness research, including the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab, and new innovations like the Wyrdoscope and Wyrd Light, this presentation explores how we can design technologies, cultures, and practices that align with natural intelligence and deepen human coherence.

Peter frames these developments in the context of today’s global polycrisis, showing how shifting consciousness may unlock deeper insights and more graceful solutions than linear, rational approaches allow. He highlights the role of coherence, presence, and symbolic meaning in stabilizing entanglement effects, drawing on the Model of Pragmatic Information.

The talk closes by envisioning a future civilisation “between stories,” where the sacred and the subtle are re-integrated into daily life—and where the Future is Wyrd.

This was a podcast that I was invited to with Valeriya Hjertenaes. She has a particular interest in the role of diversity so we went deeper into that topic.

Here is a podcast I was invited to be on with David Lorimer. We explored key moments in my life and the impact that they had.

Click here to listen