Terri O'Fallon Issaquah, Washington, USA email

What is an underlying question that gives form to your work or interest in this field?

How can we form spiritual “field” connections as a global community?

What is your personal experience of collective wisdom in groups?

My first experience of collective wisdom in a group was growing up in my nine member family, living on a farm in central Montana with no running water, TV, telephone or modern amenities. The family communion with each other and nature was a backdrop for all of the collective wisdom that ensued.

The second profound experience with collective Wisdom was my many years of working on two reserves with Native American people as an educator and administrator. Here I was invited to explore the wisdom of being a collective with nature/”the people”, in an inclusive way.

This background served me well when I began a PhD program and co-invented a process with Greg Kramer called "Insight Dialogue”, a speaking meditation practice for use with groups. Our dissertation featured this practice as we grew the practice both face-to-face and online.

My tenure with the California Institute for Integral Studies involves me with facilitating Learning Communities where this practice evolved further over a period of 6 years, maturing the processes to dip deeply into the collective wisdom of Learning Communities as they self organize, collaborate and make new knowledge together.

Concurrently I have been involved with the Lorian association, a spiritual collective which is also exploring the spiritual dimensions of “fields” in collectives. The work I have been doing with the evoking of collective wisdom in groups has deepened as a result.

What is it about the work in this field that excites you and connects you to your own deepest self?

“World as Lover, World as Self”

This is the title of a wonderful book by Johanna Macey. I have always resonated with those words; and my call has been to deeply experience the wisdom of global connections as part of my incarnated, particular self. I am aware of the collective wisdom that can be generated in face-to-face groups and one of my edges is to widen this collective wisdom capacity to encompass the globe in a palpable way.

I hold the internet as a spiritual medium in my everyday travels there. I have experienced the “Integral Field” in online, dialogic, meditative encounters with people all over the world. Through this global neuronal network, I sense that global community connections hold a possibility to bring profound changes to our understanding of collective wisdom.

Creating evolving contexts in wise ways is a critical capacity. Developing nurturing, global contexts that are stimulating, novel, aware, self reflective and safe may grow global neurons just as local contexts, carefully designed, can do this for individuals. As our cellular, mental, spiritual consciousness grows and connects with others, so may that of our world.

This beloved planet is Me. How can I nurture Myself individually and “world”istically. It’s very personal indeed.

Please provide a brief storyline or snapshot of what brought you to this work.

Romping through the meadow on our isolated Montana family farm, I encountered my playmate, Horsen-tao on a daily basis; it was just that no-one else could see it. I was three or four years old at the time. This is my first memory of being deeply engaged with the essences of the world.

I was always interested in spiritual areas, and as a girl I always felt close to the heart of the “Universe” and its creatures. My work involved the support of those less fortunate than I. In my late 20’s I developed a non profit corporation which developed services for the deinstitutionalized developmentally disabled people of Montana. I was always so amazed how complete communication could happen wordlessly with these wonderful people; it was often the only communication available.

Later I became a School administrator on an Indian Reservation where I was invited into the indigenous life of the beautiful people there. The palpable collective wisdom I encountered was a great teacher.

My work with Insight Dialogue and online learning communities began when I was doing my PhD work. My dissertation partner, Greg Kramer and I developed a group speaking meditation practice which has evolved in several different ways, both online and face-to-face.

Concurrently, I was involved in my own personal spiritual practice. Several transformative experiences occurred as life’s disorienting dilemmas gifted me with a profound “letting go”. My awareness began to bring me to my present interest in aware, global wisdom-communities.

How would you like to be available to others in this field?

I am interested in connecting with people who are involved in global wisdom communities, especially online communities. I also am involved weekly in a face-to-face collective wisdom group here in my community and would love to connect with others who have similar practices or interests so that we can share and perhaps work together. I can be contacted by email.