In late April, 2006, eighteen (18) colleagues of the Collective
Wisdom Initiative came together from the USA, Belgium, and Switzerland
to learn about and support a ground
breaking summit in Wurzburg, Germany titled (just by coincidence)
Collective Wisdom: New Perspectives for Resolution in Small and
Large Group Conflicts in Families, Social Groups and in Politics.
Those of us who came viewed ourselves as hosts and hostesses to
the larger gathering rather than as solely conference participants.
On each of the three days of the event, we met in circle morning
and late afternoon, first in silence and then for a sharing of
insights from our respective personal experience. We came together
in support of the conference organizers, Dr. Albrecht Mahr and
Brigitta Mahr, and the success of the conference as a whole.
We are tremendously grateful that Dr. Albrecht Mahr has agreed
to share his opening
speech, What is Collective Wisdom?, which was given to convene
the summit. CWI had the speech translated into English (it appears
here also in the original
German) and it marvelously sets the stage for the presentations
that would follow. Sobering and uplifting, the international gathering
was a profound experience for those who attended. Grounded in
complex and critical world problems, the event gave hope that
reconciliation and forgiveness is possible even for those touched
by tragedy and human evil. Mark your calendar for the next conference,
the 4th International Congress on Collective Wisdom, scheduled
for May 9-11, 2008, in Wurzburg, Germany.
At
the heart of Centered On the Edge is an intricately woven
braid of three strands of writing. One strand of this braid is
a series of eight pattern
stories written by Alan Briskin. Each story is an excerpt
from one of the interviews, followed by commentary from Alan highlighting
some of the insights and paradoxes the stories reveal. We call
these "pattern stories" because the themes, organizational
elements, and group dynamics evident in each story appeared repeatedly
throughout the interviews.
After reading 90 Self-Portraits of practitioners in the field,
Carol Frenier was
inspired to try her hand at synthesizing how people experience
collective wisdom. This is very much a work in progress, and she
welcomes your comments and feedback. What words or phrases do
or do not resonate? What alternative words or phrases come to
mind?
Jon
Kirwan, a United States Air Force sergeant, was assigned to military
duty in the Philippines from 1988 to 1991. In 1991, He helped
evacuate active duty military members and their dependents from
Clark Air Force Base due to the impending volcanic eruption of
Mount Pinatubo. After the eruption, he helped protect abandoned
areas from lootings. Jon’s story of collective resonance
among the men in his unit began with the opposite, extreme dissonance.
These men’s journey to the bonds of friendship that sustained
them through the worst of times and changed their lives forever
is chronicled in this interview with Renee
Levi as part of her doctoral dissertation on collective resonance.Voices
of Collective Resonance.
Collective
resonance can be helpful in our final, inevitable, transition…death.
Four years ago Cathy Prins learned that her friend Mary Kaye had
been diagnosed with stage three breast cancer. Mary Kaye invited
Cathy, a muscular therapist and energy healer, to help her facilitate
a “conscious dying process” that would involve and,
hopefully, help to heal her large Irish Catholic family. In this
interview with Renee Levi,
part of Renee’s doctoral dissertation research, Cathy generously
shares the four year process with its teachings, its inspiration,
and, ultimately, its peace.
In
February 2000, Police Sergeant Ginger Charles from Arvada, Colorado
had an extraordinary personal experience of collective resonance in
the course of responding to a volatile situation. Ginger has graciously
agreed to share her experience with us as she described it in an interview
with Renee Levi. (The interview
was a part of Renee's doctoral dissertation research on collective resonance.)
After Renee engaged Ginger in a short visualization to call up the experience,
the above conversation took place.
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