<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Hi Harold and Brendan and all,<div><br></div><div>Joining this thread late, or just at the right time :-)! - I am a little slow on email these days since my circle of one has become a circle of three, with our 8 month year old son wriggling round it all day. Yes, Harold, you remembered the session in Berlin well and Brendan's description of how he opens space for himself is wonderful, as is that quote of John O'Donohue's. My own process has also been influenced by a body of work known as 'Voice Dialogue,' developed by Hal and Sidra Stone, which is precisely about the many selves we carry inside our self, and developing the ability to hold space for all of them. </div><div><br></div><div>Hope to see some of you soon in a circle in London,</div><div>Love</div><div>Matilda and Riddley and Phelim and the cuddly toys xxx</div><div><br></div><div><br><div><div>On 12 Sep 2012, at 14:43, Brendan McKeague wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Well Gijs...what a lovely memory you're triggering from the Presidio..and Matilda's creativity in Berlin<div><br></div><div>Here is a the context, best expressed for me by John O'Donohue in his inspirational book, Anam Cara...Spiritual Wisdom from the Celtic World</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; "><br></span></div><blockquote class="webkit-indent-blockquote" style="margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">"Individuality
is never simple or one dimensional.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; "><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">Often it seems as if there is a crowd within the individual heart … At
the deepest level of the human heart, there is no simple, singular self.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; "><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">Deep within there is a gallery of
different selves.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; "><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">Each one of
these figures expresses a different part of your nature.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; "><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">Sometimes they will come into
contradiction and conflict with each other.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; "><span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">If you only meet these contradictions on the surface level,
this can start an inner feud that could haunt you all the days of your
life.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; "><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">Frequently, you see people
who are sorely divided.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; "><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">They are
in a permanent war zone and have never managed to go deeper to the hearth of
kinship where the two forces are not enemies, but reveal themselves to be
different sides of one belonging.</span></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">We
cannot embody in action the multiplicity of selves we encounter in our most
inward meditations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But without a
knowledge of these numberless selves our existence is severely diminished and
our access to mystery is blocked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>We are talking here of the imagination and its riches; too often we
degrade imagination to a problem-solving technique.<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span></span></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">We
need to develop a new sense of the wonderful complexity of the self.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We need thought models or patterns
which are fair and appropriate to that complexity.<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>When people discover their own complexity, they become
afraid and with the hammers of second-hand thoughts they beat this rich
internal landscape into a monoscape.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>They make themselves conform.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>They agree to fit in; they cease to be vivid presences, even to
themselves." (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">pp146-48)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p></div></blockquote><div>This notion got me to thinking - how would it be to facilitate an Open Space meeting for my 'inner village', or 'inner family'...or 'inner tribe'....</div><div>A colleague of mine had introduced me to the Jungian 'thought model' of 'Active Imagination' where we can create a space for conversation with these inner-village people by intentionally engaging our imagination. These characters often appear in dreams and I had been setting time aside to have a yarn with each of them in response to the purpose behind their appearance in my subconscious world. I would sit quietly with journal and write out the conversation as it unfolded...a kind of imaginary dialogue with 'part of me' that needed to be given voice in my conscious, ego-controlled presence. This was very useful for me in surfacing and addressing some 'shadow issues' with a trusted companion (spiritual guide, therapist...). </div><div><br></div><div>I then wondered what it would feel like if I invited whoever wished to come along to an Inner VIllage Open Space meeting - and guess what, it was very similar to an outer-world meeting...issue an invitation around a theme that's significant for me at the time, see who shows up, post topics, host conversations, converge and plan actions....with me (ego state) the sponsor/facilitator recording the proceedings and getting more in touch with the deeper recesses of my 'truth'....and I must confess that some quite shady characters often show up - an old/familiar acquaintance, a shy stranger, a domineering autocrat, a frightened child, a passionate activist....all the right 'people' of course!</div><div><br></div><div>So, maybe its the leprechauns in me...regardless, I love it - even tho some of these meetings can be very draining and last for a couple of hours...its a rich experience.</div><div><br></div><div>Cheers</div><div>Brendan </div><div>(and his village)</div><div><br></div><div><br><div><div>On 12/09/2012, at 4:50 PM, Gijs Mega wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><div><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); font-size: medium; ">In san francisco wosonos I joined a session of my friend Brendan from Perth with a similar topic. The exact name I forgot. Opening space for all the voices in the head: most of us have worries, guilt, ego, but also roles we have such as parent, income earner, friend....</div><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); font-size: medium; ">It was the facilitator's role to give space to all voices and to park space invaders.</div><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); font-size: medium; ">After the meditative session, he would write down the notes as good as possible and those he would discuss with some sort of personal coach on a regular basis. As I recall sessions were on average around an hour, maybe two.</div><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); font-size: medium; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); font-size: medium; ">It was very interesting to hear and I would love to hear it again or more.</div><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); font-size: medium; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); font-size: medium; ">Best wishes</div><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); font-size: medium; ">Gijs </div><br><div><br></div>Send from iPad<div><br></div></div><div><br>On Sep 12, 2012, at 7:09 AM, Harold Shinsato <<a href="mailto:harold@shinsato.com">harold@shinsato.com</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Matilda Leyser held a delightful
session "A Circle of One - Opening Space On Your Own" at 1:30 pm
Thursday May 13 in Berlin at the 2010 World Open Space on Open
Space. It was an innovative and very useful session, where Matilda
demonstrated how she uses Open Space Technology on her own to help
her resolve issues and especially creative scenarios for play
writing using different spaces in a room or a few rooms using
stuffed animals to represent different aspects of her own psyche
or persona. I wish I had written up notes for the event, or
someone had, but there's no evidence of the session other than my
photo of the schedule wall (which is how I know when it
happened!).<br>
<br>
What I remember, and I hope she or someone else corrects me if my
memory is faulty, is that she would begin with the regular opening
with a circle of herself and the stuffed animals or other objects,
then write out the different topic sessions - and then have
different representatives move to the different spaces and she
would move around between them using the law of two feet, and move
the representatives as well. She used it in shorter sessions, a
couple hours, and also all day long. Though I think mostly half a
day sessions.<br>
<br>
Anyone else remember this session and any other highlights of the
ideas that were covered? Anyone else know of any other experiments
like Matilda's?<br>
<br>
Cheers!<br>
Harold<br>
<br>
On 9/11/12 10:08 AM, Elisabeth Teppper wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:580037389-1347379755-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-465080851-@b12.c3.bise6.blackberry" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">I believe the hardest of Spaces to Open are with ourselves! So a One person OS is also valid!!
Love
Elisabeth
Venezuela
Elisabeth Tepper Kofod - Facilitadora de Procesos de Transformación
</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Harold Shinsato<br>
<a href="mailto:harold@shinsato.com"></a><a href="mailto:harold@shinsato.com">harold@shinsato.com</a><br>
<a href="http://shinsato.com/"></a><a href="http://shinsato.com/">http://shinsato.com</a><br>
twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/hajush">@hajush</a></div>
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