Self-Organization is What Consciousness (Spirit) Does

[Harrison Owen]

At 03:20 PM 12/27/2001 -0800, Jeff Aitken wrote:
>Harrison's post reminds me about four questions offered by Wheatley and
>Kellner-Rogers, authors of A Simpler Way [www.berkana.org]. They offer four
>questions for group reflection after a meeting or crucial event which are
>intended to support self-organizing the way that Life does it:
>Think these can be helpful after OST? Seems like another level of the work,
>beyond action planning.

Right on! And another verse to the same song (in my song book) is The
Medicine Wheel -- which I find to be a simple, elegant way of enabling the
reflective process. It is clear to me that having a great meeting,
converging all the issues, and generating an action plan is all very nice,
but not sufficient -- without some reflection (albeit brief) on Who is the
"we" that has done all this, and what are we becoming?????


>[PS: I do not expect that one let go of the benefits of an identity in
>order to embrace the benefits of a new & larger one. I enjoy this body and
>personality and cultural heritage, thank you very much. Let's not become
>hairless gray cerebral space aliens; long live Star Trek!]

Nor are we required to -- in my experience. This is not an either/or but a
both/and. I find my personal identity and power increases to the extent
that I am consciously a part of a greater community. The "bigger" the
community, the bigger the me. Martin Buber all over again. I become an "I"
only in relationship with a "Thou" (read an other or community). But that
relationship must be of a particular sort -- respect. And, I don't think
that is the end of the journey, nor does the journey necessarily ends in
our becoming a "hairless gray cerebral space alien." There could come a
time when, what we experience as a transitory peak experience of being in
the flow (in the zone), becomes a continuing reality. I have seen groups in
Open Space (as also in the open space of our lives) achieve and sustain
such a condition for some small periods of time. And they weren't all
esoteric weirdos -- a jazz group, a basket ball team, even a bunch of AT&T
folks. Sitting on the "outside" i can only describe the experience as
incandescent. Those involved spoke of effortless flight. Pretty neat.

Harrison


Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, MD 20854 USA
phone 301-365-2093
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website www.mindspring.com/~owenhh

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