What is an underlying question that gives form
to your work or interest in this field?
How do we realize our species social potential and transform
our cultural patterns to promote sustainability and greater alignment
with the larger processes of evolution?
What is your personal experience of collective
wisdom in groups?
I first discovered the healing power of collective wisdom
while working with Vietnam vets. By sharing stories and reflecting together
we were able to transform terrible war experiences, rendering them tolerable
and opening up pathways for re-entry into the world.
Later on, doing men’s work in groups, I found out
how collective wisdom shed light upon the larger processes of culture
that sought to shape our sense of manhood, thereby limiting the freedom
of our self-expression, impeding the discovery of our own wholeness
and denying us access to the deeper mysteries associated with gender.
During a 17-year inquiry into the psychological and existential
conditions that generate the experience of community (and collective
consciousness) I explored every modality of community-building I could
find. This included the work of Scott Peck, David Bohm, Arnold Mindell,
Patrick de Mare, Joanna Macy and a variety of indigenous elders. These
inquiries led me to recognize the role that collective consciousness
plays in organizing social reality.
Facilitating on-going learning communities then
led to a more nuanced realization of the “hidden diversity,”
(an eco-system of mindsets) that comprises this collective consciousness,
as well as defining a community’s potential for attaining access
to collective wisdom.
What is it about the work in this field that excites
you and connects you to your own deepest self?
I came to my current interest in human social systems
from a background in ecology. I loved living and working in nature.
I found inspiration in the elegance and obvious intelligence that permeates
the natural systems in which we are all embedded.
Today, I am fascinated by the way the revolution in the
life sciences is also transforming the way we now perceive and make
sense of our social systems. As new insights about the resilience and
collaborative creativity of living systems emerge they offer us new
hope into our own prospects as a species that is so favorably endowed
by nature.
As I explore with others the important challenges
that confront us, I am delighted by the fact that my naturalist sensibilities,
and reverence for the Mystery that animates life, serves so well. There
is a special joy that arises in me when I experience directly the isomorphic
resonance between the beauty and functionality of our planetary eco-systems
and the evolving realization of our specie’s social potential.
Please provide a brief storyline or snapshot of
what brought you to this work.
I came to my fascination with community out of a sense
of dread. I have sustained this fascination out of a sense of hope and
wonder.
As a young man I worked as an ecological biologist. In
this capacity I became aware that how we treat nature is an extension
of how we treat each other. This realization focused my attention upon
the sources of human alienation (my own included). My journey as a community-builder
started when I realized that community provided an antidote to the isolation
and fragmentation of modern life.
Along the way my heart has been populated by those
who have introduced me to the heights and depths of the soul of human
community. I have experienced a variety of community-building methods
and learned how these methods alone are insufficient to insure the opening
that awakens community life and quickens collective wisdom. We are,
it seems, a brilliant and ambivalent species. To fulfill our social
potential (and insure our species very survival) we must overcome our
fears and learn to sustain a passion for life on its terms. My experience
has shown me that life is an exacting miracle that we need each other
to fully embrace.
How would you like to be available to others in
this field?
I am interested in working with anyone employing social
spiritual practices which unleash the unrealized social potential our
species embodies.
Toward that end I am interested in developing a group
learning laboratory where we can do some disciplined inquiry into group
methodologies that generate extraordinary awareness and collective capabilities.
I would welcome support for such an endeavor and gladly lend my passion
to those making efforts toward developing an integral perspective on
group work.
Finally, I am also intrigued by the role groups (and
community) have to play as incubators for human consciousness. I believe
we are on the cusp of developing a set of integral group practices that
can facilitate a much-needed cultural transition through a transformation
of consciousness. I am therefore eager to interact with folks who are
interested in incorporating a developmental perspective into group work.
I am also keenly interested in large group dynamics
where cultural dynamics become most evident.
