The five Synergies are rooted in the five Elements, or five broad categories outlining our basic, psychological needs (power, connection, worth, adventure, and love). The Synergies emerge naturally when we approach these needs with the goals and vantage points of the Guides.
Empowerment
Also: Harmony, Peace
Rooted in the need for power or control, empowerment is the emergent experience of power when we recognize our interdependence
Unity
Also: Solidarity, Fellowship, Oneness
Rooted in the need for connection and belonging, unity is the felt sense that emerges when we recognize that all conscious beings are fundamentally similar and “in the same boat”
Honor
Also: Integrity, Being
Rooted in the need for worth, honor is the emergent experience of one’s value when the competition for importance is replaced by the heartfelt desire to be beneficial to existence. Adding to this heartfelt desire is a recognition of one’s intrinsic worth and the precious value of being.
The negative counterpart of worth is worthlessness. From within the worldview of the Ploys, worth and worthlessness define two endpoints of a continuum, and one must fall somewhere along this continuum.
While following the Ploys, any endeavor to experience one’s intrinsic worth necessarily involves a dismissal or rejection of the opinions of others. One logical consequence of this dismissal is, at times, a dismissal of the social needs of others.
From within the worldview of the Guides, however, it is possible to embrace the social needs of others and express one’s value at the same time. The result is a devotion to honor and integrity that transcends the two-dimensional continuum of worth and worthlessness.
Meaning
Rooted in the need for novelty, adventure, and purpose, meaning is the sense of adventure that emerges when we perceive the wholeness of all experience
Love
Rooted in the need to be loved, the synergy of love is characterized by a felt equivalence between giving and receiving love