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Condolence From: ?
Condolence: Norman Hirst's work as a scientist and creator of the Autognomics Institute has stimulated many minds and hearts. I speak for myself when I call him a Teacher and a healer. I had the wonderful experience of using the Autognomics Institute's findings as a personal tool to understand myself and help others do the same, as a teacher teaching adults and children and as a community organizer working in inner cities with vulnerable communities and local government. Working with Skye and Norman together is an unforgettable healing experience. I don't think there is anyone in the world that can apply Norman's work like his wife Skye. I look forward to the future of Autognomics and the awakening of spirit it inspires in human beings.
Thursday October 18, 2012
Condolence From: Priscilla Wallace
Condolence: NORM by Priscilla Wallace

Norm was more like family to me than a friend or a colleague.

Maybe that’s because he seemed to share a close, somewhat brotherly connection with my spiritual father, Gene.

Maybe it’s because he was one of the few people who “saw” me. But then, I think he saw anyone he chose to see. You couldn’t hide from Norm, but somehow that was ok. I knew that with Norm I was safe, even when I was exposed. He instinctively knew my boundaries and never over-stepped them.

But even more than “seeing” me, he believed in me. And there’s no greater gift that he could have given. He cared. He cared deeply and genuinely. And he let you know that he was there for you – no strings attached. A rarity in this world.

Just as he saw and intensely cared for those fortunate enough to be in his life’s circle, he saw life, energy and the order, and disorder, of it all. He focused his love, time and his brilliant mind on what mattered. He seemed oblivious to the frivolous.

I don’t remember ever having to agonize over small talk with Norm. Our conversations were deep and expansive at the same time. I think that’s one of the things I shall miss most. Like my Papa Gene before him, he challenged my thinking but never, ever in a critical or competitive way. The exchange of ideas almost always brought on the exhilaration of discovery, as if we were sitting in a sand box saying, “Look what I found.”

In fact, I feel that rush now as I write this. So I’m comforted to know that he’s not really gone…just shifted from this plane. And rather than focusing on mourning the loss of his being here, I feel the challenge to continue the exchange of thought with him in a new way.

It’s often said, but rarely so true: Norm did leave this world a better place. His seeds have been planted and his work will continue.

I’m also comforted to know that if Norman is embracing and not trying to change where he is, we all have something to look forward to.
Tuesday October 16, 2012
Condolence From: Barb Colombo
Condolence: Dear dear Skye!
It is hard to imagine a Skye without a Norm.
His wise ways and insistent curiosity was a true inspiration to all of us who knew him.
Somehow this praying mantis, a most amazing creature, makes me think of him. I took this last month on the 7th in my garden.
It has been far too long since I have seen you both, but my memories are warm and loving and will forever remain clear in my heart.
My deepest sympathy for this very sad departure and the loss it will create in your life.
You are an amazing woman.
Here for you...
Love Barb
Tuesday October 16, 2012
Condolence From: David & Vera
Condolence: Skye,
We were so sorry to get your e-mail and want to express our condolences and great empathy...Norm was a most wonderful and multi-talented human being, as are you, and he will be sorely missed. I am sorry I could paste or type in the link you sent below; that is, I tried, and the message came up "the web page cannot be found." If there is anything else you could send us, we would love to have it!
Please know our thoughts & prayers are with you!
May Norm's spirit soar!
Love,
David & Vera
Tuesday October 16, 2012
Condolence From: Jim Keith
Condolence: Skye: Norm loved life and value so. We first met by accident the very day I arrived for my first year at MIT's Baker house September 1953 almost 60 years ago! He had recently emerged from the Pacific Theater of the War. He later was to steer me into Robert S Hartman's axiology courses at MIT, where we shared so many good times, extending to later contacts in Mexico, culminating with Hartman's untimely death when Hilda and I went to his afternoon funeral as the red sun set there in Cuernavaca on 20 September 1973. -So many megaevents seem to pass in September - Hartman always thought so highly of Norman as founder of programmed Axiology, a carrier of the flame. Then there was our glorious coming together when you all drove all the way down to meet with us at the Cliff House at our 50th 1957 MIT Class reunion in 2007. Then those last too few memorable phone conversations and emails over the next 5 years.

I am struck somehow again by the refrains of Tennyson, "For now I see the true old times are dead, when every morning brought a noble chance, and every chance brought out a noble knight. But now the whole Round Table is dissolved which was an image of the mighty world, . . . . And the days darken round me, and the years . . . . ."

Skye, our allotted time together seems now far too thin. I somehow cannot imagine a world without Norm and just hope against hope you will able to carry on with that wonderful mission of the Autognomics Institute. Just the other day I took some first steps in trying to set up a Website patterned on yours to get some gravity science and lifetime firsts out before it is also too late for me.

Please do let me know any and all arrangements, details, mentions. Love to both of you from me and Hilda forever. Jim 9/7/2012 Jim Keith
Tuesday October 16, 2012
Condolence From: Jon Ray Hamann
Condolence: MY NORMAN
(and my discovery of a “Golden Pond”)

It was, as I recall now, sometime in 1979 that I and my partner, Leslie D. Edmiston, were introduced by a young colleague of ours to a person he insisted we must meet. “He is a most extraordinary thinker, he asserted, with a vision for explicating the Whole”, an effort akin to my own. OK we replied! “I don’t mean whenever, he retorted – I mean put aside whatever you are attending to and go NOW”. And so we did.

At the time we resided in the FINGER Lakes region of Central New York, but we phoned a “Norm Hirst” and arranged to travel to Connecticut to meet. And the rest is the proverbial history of the ongoing creation of a radical future, a Golden Pond of fundamental inquiry into the nature of LIFE ITSELF. One can explore his work directly through Skye’s elegant website (www.autognomics.org) or from links derived therefrom. Hence, without much reference to specific content, I want to leave a snippet of expression about the exceptional nature of one Life Itself -- My Norman. One particular attribute of his character set a tone for his inquiry – specifically he had no shyness when critiquing the authoritative status quo in philosophical-formal-scientific knowledge. With this recognition alone he became for me, My Norman.

Generally, his research was directed at setting forth the foundations for a formal system of the natural law of value for Life Itself to be known as AutoGnomics, the theory of self-knowing autonomous systems. To begin, however, he reasoned that the assumptions which have dominated research in understanding Life Itself are fundamentally misleading and inadequate to the task. Since these assumptions were a consequence of an old metaphysics, he argued, this metaphysics must now be replaced by new logico-metaphysical foundations. And to do this he concluded we must at least temporarily reject nearly all of contemporary academic life research as being beside the point. So he began by clearing away the debris in the foundations of human knowledge as a prelude to his construction of a “World View as an AutoGnomic WHOLE”.

With this World View in Mind, he not only identified certain critical foundations on which to rest this research and to evolve and apply numerous aspects thereof, but he also began to live as though he were an experiential incarnation of this newly conceived form of Life Itself. This experiment, his gift to humanity, remains a Virtual model for others to adapt for their own.

For me, although he has left his carnate self, My Norman continues indefinitely as My Partner in continuing to build a “World as an AutoGnomic WHOLE”.


Jon Ray – September 6, 2012

Tuesday October 16, 2012
Condolence From: Doug Germann
Condolence: Skye--

I am so sorry to hear that Norm died.

What wonderful years you must have had together!

I remember sitting with him at OSonOS by the sea a few years ago, with him prodding my imagination to fly!

:- Doug. Germann
Tuesday October 16, 2012
Condolence From: Christine Sanchez
Condolence: Dear Skye,

Thank you for sharing this beautiful tribute to Norm. I can invoke the spirit of our time together at your home in Camden during OSonOS by the Sea and send you a virtual hug.

Tomorrow, I will be opening the space for business owners in the construction industry who are gathered in San Diego for their CISCA Leadership Symposium. I will dedicate the opening to Norm and tell the story of his love of inquiry into the nature of life itself and the organizing principles of living systems.

Blessings to you, Norm and your family,
Christine

Christine Whitney Sanchez
Tuesday October 16, 2012
Condolence From: Lisa Heft
Condolence: Ms. Skye -
Thank you so much for sharing with us of Norm's passing.
I have fond memories of exploring thoughts with you both at the OSonOS by the Sea and of visiting you both at your home for dinner and conversation - and in such a lovely environment.
Please know that my thoughts are with you as you navigate through love and life and grief and loss and memories and discoveries.
Take very good care of yourself, as I know you are.
A big hug,
Lisa Heft
Tuesday October 16, 2012
Condolence From: Winnie Easton Jones
Condolence: Dearest Skye,

You are snuggled right into my heart space as is dear Norman.
The influence you both have had in building community is strong,
continuing, and unconditional~

We love you both...(That's angelic Howard and Me!)
To have been so profoundly joined as you two are, (for it
continues as long as we live our own lives) is so very rare
and nourishing, that you shine on all of us who bask in the
light of your love and commitment to making this precious
energy, LOVE!....the power that connects us all!!!

Much love,
Winnie
Tuesday October 16, 2012
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