[OSList] Skye Open Space(ing) and Improvisation

Sun Jun 28 09:51:30 PDT 2015

you're describing what i believe is the most important thing that happens
and gets learned in open space, skye.  this is what it's really all about,
what we're really teaching in the world anywhere we introduce this
approach, this balancing of two apparently opposing truths or senses or
realities.

the law of two feet invites in directly.  it says pay attention to learning
and contributing, taking in and giving back.  to do this requires
self-awareness, am i bored? am i learning?  am i contributing?  and also an
awareness of what's happening in the room, on the wall, in this group and
that.  over time, it's natural to notice that what i'm thinking i should do
isn't always what body has energy or desire to do.

as a facilitator, i find the whole experience is amped up again.  i find
that my own felt body sensations mirror what is happening in front of me in
the room and what i can't see in the group.  i manage by pulsing attention
between inside and outside, myself and the groupSelf.  sometimes it's clear
that the groupSelf is some slice of the communitySelf or some larger
worldSelf.

a somatics teacher (who was early trained as an actor, i think very
similarly to your story) introduced this to me once as "mutuality," the
practice of letting the (an) other be as real to me as i am to myself.  the
practice is find the sensations that tell me that i am.  notice that others
are having similar streams of sensations.  and then to pulse back and forth
between those realities until they can be held together, both as true,
simultaneously without collapsing, subordinating or negating either of
them.  together and distinct. this is how i hold my experience and a
group's experience while facilitating open space.

the result of the somatics exercise, which can be done as simply as sitting
back to back or face to face, noticing self and then noticeing other, then
pulsing awareness back and forth until the pulse resolves to hum, like you
say, and then, the hum dissolves into a space, out of which arises
naturally and automatically, the wish for both of us to be happy, the wish
for both of us to be free of suffering, to be what this teacher called
"free from yank" sometimes translated as equanimity, and to experience joy.
 these are what some buddhist folks call the four immeasurables.  through
these very simple practices, these things can be discovered easily and
immediately.  any two poles of experience, sensation, realities will work.
 any two beings, myself and the group, myself and a tree, myself and a cock
roach, myself and my partner, or client.  it works even if the group or the
cock roach don't know what's happening.  i still get the experience, the
space, the immeasurables.

i think this pulsation between alternative sensastions, flows, realities is
what the law of two feet invites in the sneakiest of ways.  you can also
see this at work in harrison's writings, where he frequently sets out two
opposing views with equal clarity and importance.  see it two when we talk
about space invaders and choosing our actions so as to maintain choice for
participants.  maintaining participant choice means they can or must
address two or more possible realities, balancing and holding them in their
own minds/hearts, sensing into different futures, which keeps the space
open in themselves rather than allowing the space invader to close the
space by forcing an action or reaction.

some years ago we asked here what was the very most important bit of ost,
and i think i remember that the law of two feet was the general consensus.
 i think the pulsation and mutuality practice it invites is a big part of
that shared sense.  then all the other (outer) pulsations built into the
standard ost process, like between plenary and breakouts, just serve to
reinforce the inner practice.

--

Michael Herman
Michael Herman Associates
http://MichaelHerman.com
http://OpenSpaceWorld.org

On Sun, Jun 28, 2015 at 8:45 AM, Skye Hirst via OSList <
oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:

>
>
> Paul Levy's and others conversation about Self and self-organizing and
> improvisation helped me recall something from an acting method I studied
> years ago.
>
>
> The method tried to teach us to work “off the moment” to be present to the
> moment and not want to control it, predict it, name it, or repeat it . It
> was the challenge of this acting method.  I feel this may have relevance
> to SELF-organizing and self-organizing.
>
>
> Oscillation, between poles of contrasting “felt senses” creates a
> vibration, and if allowed, a hum.  To know solitude, is to know also know
> connection.  To know light we need darkness.  To know ourselves, we learn
> of others and to know ourselves we can know others.  And in that regard,
> to know ourselves small “s,” we can know the larger more inclusive “S” and
> whenever possible, to feel the larger “Self” we feel our “self” included.
>
>
> The ole song comes to mine; “To know him/her is to love him/her/us.”
>
>
> In this acting discipline, we practiced paying attention to the now, to
> the “felt sense” within, to sense what wants attention, what impulses are
> obvious as they arise within.  Sometimes the impulse came from the other,
> something obvious that stood out, grabbed our attention as a beginning for
> our interaction, for an action, or reaction.  To sustain such focus for
> any length of time was exceptionally challenging.  It meant working off
> each moment.  From such a process was the foundation of “improvisation.”
> But it was more than creating novelty. It was the awakening process of
> authentic behaviors within an actor or actors.  When these authentic
> moments occurred, the audience was stirred, compelled to enter into the
> dynamic.  As an audience, we recognized a moment that would never be
> again, a once in a lifetime event was occurring.  And we were included;
> we belonged as humans in that process. The audience/humans recognized the
> connection, the belonging to a universal connection of being alive. Such
> moments lifted us all, including the actors.
>
>
> I believe Open Space(ing) offers this opportunity for authenticity, for
> oscillation between contrasting poles, an inclusion, an allowing that often
> opens us to what is always available, but doesn’t always occur and yet when
> it does, we are drawn into it, we feel included beyond “your opinion and my
> opinion. And yet our different opinions are included for consideration as a
> source of improvisation/organization, for greater/deeper Self/self knowing.
> In this dance of life, new possibilities arise that may never have
> occurred without it, and may never occur again just so.
>
>
> To work “off the moment” to be present to the moment and not want to
> control it, predict it, name it, or repeat it was the challenge of this
> acting method.  I feel this may have relevance to SELF-organizing and
> self-organizing.  Maybe the word “(S) (s) elfing” applies and allows for
> the oscillations of living process and the *hum.*   Thanks all.
>
>
> --
> *Skye Hirst, PhD*
> President - The Autognomics Institute
> *Conversations in Radical Self-Knowing*
> www.autognomics.org
> @autognomics
>
> New Phone Number:
> 207-593-8074
>
>
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