Story Field Conference 2007 (very long)

Sun Oct 14 18:42:50 PDT 2007

Hi all,

I promised to provide a description of the Story Field Conference. Here's the blow-by-blow version.  Conference reports are on a wiki, linked from the conference web site: www.storyfieldconference.net.

Note: I removed names in some places and substituted descriptions (e.g., young, white man, person of color).  The different roles seemed an important part of the story, hence the labels.

Enjoy,

Peggy

P.S.  Apologies for the length.  To paraphrase the immortal words of Mark Twain, had I more time, this message would be shorter!

*******************

THE STORY FIELD CONFERENCE, 2007

On August 26-31, 2007, eighty-three people passionate about the role of story in shaping collective world view - writers, artists, musicians, meta-story tellers and others - convened at Shambhala Mountain Center in Red Feather, Colorado to consider these questions: 

What is the new story that is already calling us?  

What emerging narrative is so powerful that it draws us to hope, care, and engage?

How can our stories actually shift society into greater aliveness and wisdom?

Background

>From the beginning, four threads wove together to shape this conference:

·          A clear intention to more deeply understand and work with our cultural "story field";

·          A diverse mix of people to explore the questions posed; 

·          Attention to diverse forms of presence (head, heart, body and spirit); and

·          Emergent process to invite the greatest possible opportunity for novelty and breakthrough.

As envisioned, the conference unfolded in wildly unexpected, challenging, and, for most, very productive ways.

Conference intention: Why come together?

The explicit focus of this conference was the culture's "story field" -- the meta-narrative -- that shapes our individual perceptions and behaviors and as well as the systems (political, educations, economic, cultural, etc.) in which we live. All around us are signs that an impulse is arising within the story field to grow in its capacity to be spirit-full, life-serving, and sustainable.  We posed the following questions in the invitation:

What is the new story that is already calling us?  

What emerging narrative is so powerful that it draws us to hope, care, and engage?

How can our stories actually shift society into greater aliveness and wisdom?

Our intention was to address these questions at a number of levels:

1. THEORY: deepening our awareness and understanding of story fields and their dynamics - and the power of Story, in general.

2. WHAT EXISTS: deepening our awareness of how the existing story field shapes our culture and mass consciousness.

3. WHAT WE WANT:  exploring life-serving narratives and how we might help them shift the story field we all live in, including emerging technologies, innovations, collaborations, ancient ways and knowings, and other possibilities and resources.

4. ACTUALIZING IT: initiating efforts to spread more life-serving stories and help people actually live into a more life-enhancing story field on the ground, making it real in the world, so it becomes not just a told story or a believed story but a rich fabric of mutually reinforcing lived stories, with more and more people living it.

Participant Mix: Who needs to be in the conversation?

>From the beginning, we nurtured heartful, purposeful connections among people working with meta-story to attract respected, well-networked people from the ecology of the story field: novelists, movie makers, artists, composers, performers, musicians, journalists, historians, futurists, city planners, online game designers, and storytellers of a dozen stripes.  As catalytic agents, we wished to ensure diversity in age, race, and experience - because a rich stew disturbs and enriches, and if held well, can deepen and transform.

In practice, we attracted great functional diversity (see below), 17% people of color, including a handful of indigenous people, 20% people under 30, and 56% women.  

The different sub-cultures added immensely to the conference experience, making visible the mix of co-existing story fields which are always operating.  Grief, anger, joy, shame, fear, played out as untold stories of the tensions between male/female, western/indigenous, and white/non-white played out.  The celebration of youth/elder was also present, as was the quietly accepted normalcy of gay/straight.

Attention to Different Forms of Presence: How did we ensure space for head, heart, body and spirit?

Nourishing the Mind

Created online a wealth of materials on story and story fields, a place to share our work and to be in conversation prior to the gathering.  

Hosted stories from three tellers of new meta-narratives - Michael Dowd, Anodea Judith, and David Korten

Made space for all participants to offer the inquiries they wish to pursue.

Nourishing the Heart

Made space for the expression of joy, sorrow, grief, shame, anger, passion to be expressed and witnessed, so that what needed to be released was and the sense of community grew powerfully.

Invited music, movement, art, and poetry - and made meaning through them.

Nourishing the Body

Gathered at Shambhala Mountain Center, a sacred place, where the land itself nourishes and teaches, thus playing a role in shaping the experience. 

Sought a space where there would be opportunity for exercise, bodywork, yoga, rest, and the satisfaction of diverse nutritional needs. 

Nourishing the Spirit

Grounded our work in sacred ceremony, that connected us to the invisible and honored the non-human energies in which we exist.

Invited people to listen to their own inner wisdom and the deeper intelligences of the world rather than an external human authority as they move their time together.

Welcomed and acknowledged the animals, dreams, and natural phenomena that appeared to be called forth into our midst by what we were doing.

Process:  What did we do to use our time together most productively?

We created a space that allowed the unknown to surface and bring its gifts through a process that boldly invited the emergent to come forth, trusting the wisdom of the group to take it where it most needed to go.   We made visible an ethic of hearing, seeing, and loving each other as a framework for how we could best relate to each other.  We called forth participants' dreams and aspirations of the people present early; ask them what would "blow their mind" and what they need to bring that into being.  We invited people to take responsibility for what they love as an act of service.  We ensured the means for music, movement, art, words, access to nature and to the sacred were available.  In other words, we shaped an environment that allowed individuals and the collective to be receptive and active, being and doing, through many modes of expression.

This choice opened an important inquiry about the dynamic tension between "structured process where everyone knows what's going on, and everyone agrees to the ground rules" and a space open to the mystery of what wants to emerge in the moment.  This is an inquiry that will undoubtedly inform subsequent Story Field Conferences.

The Flow of the Conference

The conference design passed through many stages.  The initial commitment to emergent practices was made by the initiating hosts - Peggy Holman and Tom Atlee.  Several months prior to the gathering, a two-day meeting among Peggy, Tom, Mark Jones, Candi Foon, and Anne Stadler further clarified the shape of the gathering.  In practice, the specific conference inquiries, process questions, and actions taken emerged as the gathering unfolded.

Details are available at http://storyfieldteam.pbwiki.com/Session+Notes 

Sunday, August 26

Intention:  The birth of a village: connect with oneself, others, the whole AND the purpose of conference, 

Welcome

Peggy Holman briefly welcomed people to the gathering.  During dinner, a question was placed on the tables for those who wished to explore it:

Share the story of what inspired your life's work and how it has called you to the conference.

After dinner, someone from Shambhala Mountain Center provided an orientation to the space.

Who's here?

Peggy invited participants to discover who was present through the "Wind Blows", a process that invites people to call out a quality (e.g., people who live in Colorado) and those who identify with it walk across the room.

Naming dreams

John Abbe began a naming in which people also spoke a wish stated as if it has occurred (e.g., I'm John Abbe and I can fly.)  The wishes ranged from changing-the-world to making-it-through-the-day.

People went to bed to sleep on two questions:

What's one thing that could happen here that would blow your mind? 

                What do you need to have your mind blow during our time here together??

Monday, August 27

Intention:  Connect to the sacred, through connection to the land and one's ancestors

A sacred welcome to the land

Meeting outside the stupa, a large, inspirationally constructed Tibetan Buddhist shrine and a 20-minute walk from our meeting space, indigenous rituallist, Laurelyn, Baker told the story of the pipe she carries and invited people to welcome their ancestors in silence as each person held a staff.  Many attributed the capacity to be present to the strong emotional expressions particularly of anger and grief, which shaped the depth and breadth of the community that formed, to the power of this two hour ritual.  (Many participants returned to the stupa during the conference to experience its powerfully sacred impact.)

Hearing, Seeing, Loving Plus.

Mark Jones and Gabriel Shirley invited a sharing around the opening questions when people returned.  Mark introduced HSLing (hizzeling) - hearing, seeing, and loving -- as a practice for our time together and beyond.  He then invited four people to form a fishbowl in the center of our community circle.  They each spoke to the two questions from the previous night:

What's one thing that could happen here that would blow your mind? 

                What do you need to create that experience?

After each person spoke, other three offered appreciative comments that embodied their hearing, seeing and loving the speaker.  After the fishbowl provided the model, all of us gathered in groups of four to share our responses to the questions.

The space was opened with these questions:

What else could we be and do together that can make a profound difference in the unfolding story of our world?

Exploring:

  a.. What brings stories to life?
  b.. How do our current stories shape us?
  c.. What life-serving narratives do we sense emerging?
  d.. How might the stories we wish to live come alive everywhere?

Following lunch, the space was opened for offerings from the group.

The evening circle was hosted by Anne Stadler and  Candi Foon, in which a talking stone was passed and everyone was invited to speak.  

A powerful moment occurred when a participant expressed his pain at not being chosen to do one of the 15-minute talks that were being scheduled for Tuesday.  Thirty people later around the circle, Peggy responded to the participant's question of why his request to share early was ignored.  She acknowledged what happened as an abuse of power based on something he triggered in her and apologized.  In the aftermath, many saw this as a healing of an archetypical act - pain expressed for unseen power acting arbitrarily, Peggy taking responsibility and apologizing on behalf of bosses' abusive acts everywhere.

After dinner, David Korten presented his meta-story -- "The Great Turning."

Tuesday, August 28

The morning opened with four "Story Field" Talks - 15 minute briefs from participants

                Chris Jordan - Running the Numbers

                George Johnson - Video Vision Stories (now Tell-A-Vision)

                Larry Victor - Perception

                Kaye Williams - Her play: The Game

Following the talks, the space was opened for offerings from the group.  (Conference session notes are posted at: http://storyfieldteam.pbwiki.com/Session+Notes.)

Mid-afternoon, Michael Dowd presented a second meta-story -- "The Great Story" - in a well-attended break out session.

People gathered at the end of the afternoon for a reflection circle and dinner.  The idea, compliments of Nancy Glock-Gruneich, was to "speak when spoken through".

Following dinner, Anodea Judith presented the final meta-story offered: "Awakening the Global Heart".

The next collective evocative moment occurred as her presentation ended, when a young, white male participant, vibrating with anger, expresses the voice of many white men - her story includes him/white men only as a destructive force.  Spurred on by the remarkable dynamo in our midst, Vanessa German, Anodea and this young man began a public exploration of what had occurred.  While brief, it opened the door for a more in-depth conversation the following day that was witnessed by some participants.  (Aside: to see a sample of Vanessa's amazing poetry, visit: <http://storyfieldteam.pbwiki.com/Aeron%20Miller>)

Wednesday, August 29

Following the intensity of Tuesday evening, many awoke with a "download" to share.  Anne Stadler and Peggy Holman hosted the space that morning.

Gabriel Shirley let go of attempting to sort through the many offerings for Story Field Talks, offering instead to host this as a break-out session.

It began with a reading, offered by a participant, of an Australian Aboriginal creation story (http://storyfieldteam.pbwiki.com/The+Secret+of+Dreaming). 

The circle was established as a place to express what had come through.  There was much acting out of deep responses, including a scene in silence with tears from one woman and movement from another reflecting her experience of the tears, which sent some from the room.  A variety of expressions of grief followed, with an undercurrent of people moving out of the space into the hallway.  This reached its climax when a woman of color expressed grief over the theft of indigenous stories.  An indigenous holy man entered the circle (on her behalf) and shared some of his traditional Hawai'ian stories.  After about 10 minutes, he was interrupted, respectfully, by a white man, who expressed the archytypical "let's get on with it" energy that has been the undercurrent from those moving in and out of the hallway.  He.was roundly set upon by the group in the room.  The holy man was asked to finish his song and did so, never entering the circle again.  After a short discussion of process, Peggy asked permission to invite offerings into the space.  She received it and the space was finally opened for sessions.

There was very spotty attendance at the afternoon reflection circle.  There is a dance that evening for those who choose to participate.

Thursday, August 30

The morning circle was well attended, much different sense of the day.  The space was opened for offerings.

During the evening circle, Tom Atlee spoke of the need for addressing the systemic causes of breakdown, not just address the breakdowns themselves; that as resources dwindle, the more they are spent dealing with the aftermath of decay, the less they are available for transformational work at the headwaters.  As he spoke his heart, making visible his own situation with Karen, his partner's cancer, a hummingbird appeared in our midst.  (A video of Tom's eight-minute talk can be found on the same page with Vanessa's videos <http://storyfieldteam.pbwiki.com/Aeron%20Miller>.)

Dinner was a banquet, beautifully hosted by Rebecca Strong, followed by a talent show.

Note: During the evening debrief among the conference hosts, a white male participant took us to task for Wednesday morning.  We acknowledged that we had violated the norm we had established for the conference structure and next time would ask permission - give people a sense of choice.  He kept on, wanting the emotional outpouring to be scheduled.  Peggy blew up and made it clear that mystery was part of the essential nature of the work.  She said her perception was that he wanted everything to be predictable and while the participant and everyone else protested that this wasn't what he was saying, when asked what he meant, he couldn't name it.  (I, Peggy, still believe he wants everything predictable.)  An important insight from Gabriel Shirley:  For some, what took place on Wednesday was voices of individuals.  For others, it was the voice of the collective being expressed through individuals. 

Friday, August 31

Closing Ritual

The closing was a sacred ritual, that began with a multi-ethnic circle formed to smoke the pipe.  Tom and Peggy turned responsibility for next year's conference over to a group, gifting Vanessa German with a "fluttering heart" bell and Adin Rogovin with a dreambox on behalf of the hosts.  We offered a mantra with the turnover:

We are calling into being our collective soul so that our many-storied world can find its way.

The staff passed around the circle and commitments were spoken silently and aloud.

At the end, Peggy pulled Lion Kimbro into the multi-ethnic circle, adding the voice of the white man.  Lion spoke a commitment to carrying the Story Field onto the Internet.

Reflections

Following a break for good byes to those who had planes to catch, people gathered in triads to reflect on the conference using an appreciative interview guide.  We shared some of the insights in the whole circle.  We closed with a song from the group and stepped out into the world to seed what we had learned, knowing that we were there for each other.

________________________________
Peggy Holman
The Open Circle Company
15347 SE 49th Place
Bellevue, WA  98006
(425) 746-6274 

www.opencirclecompany.com

For the new edition of The Change Handbook, go to: 
www.bkconnection.com/ChangeHandbook 

"An angel told me that the only way to step into the fire and not get burnt, is to become 
the fire".
  -- Drew Dellinger

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