Sunday, March 29, 2009

Collective Consciousness Conversation- A Few Days On...

One pattern is emerging in the Collective Consciousness Community.  When a voice strikes a chord in the heart of the collective, it is met soon after by at least three other voices---usually beginning with one of our fellow travelers who has been with us in spirit--and at least one other that offers a complement or counterpoint to the offering.  

Here is the post that began the most recent wave that continues to ripple around the world.  It represents a voice from our Constructive Action colleagues by way of Matthieu Daum.   It may be inviting us to notice how the brightness of our bliss comes with shadows that paradoxically reveal that which we continue to conceal in ego....What do you think--or as Laura reminds us, What do you feel?

Love, Zachary

-------------------------------------

Hi everyone,

I’ve been reading with attention the post-event messages, the photos, etc… I’ve generally been sensing a positive, energy-filled, mind-blown mood, which is different to my experience during the workshop, leaving it, and going back to Paris.

I want to share with you that it has been quite difficult for me for a few days after the event, and the mood of death that was clearly at the centre of our group’s work (the “constructive actions” group), stayed with me for a few days after. I felt depressed, I felt possessed with feelings I could not shake off, and generally felt like I was struggling against a force even more stubborn than me!!

I felt needy of actions, solutions, and found no answers from my experience in Leiden (that will teach me leaving before the end…). I felt I was shaken, and I felt I couldn’t shake myself back together again…

 

Last Monday the penny dropped, to use a vivid English expression: going through my mind all the time was the question: what happened in Leiden that I am not wanting to accept? What I am trying so hard to resist? And as I was linking these questions to the theme of death, I had an illumination:

I think that the collective connecting, the collective consciousness, the collective Being that I experienced in Leiden has called me to accept the death of my ego. I realised on Monday that whilst I have been so angry with Descartes’ “I think therefore I am” for many years, I have in that time been fooling myself with an “I act therefore I am”. But I am discovering, with strange awe, that it is much more complex than that.

For a start, perhaps it is not so much “I am”, but “Something, through me, Is”; I am the vessel through which something greater is expressing itself; just as you are, each of you, present in Leiden or not, on this email list or not, a manifestation of something whole, something One, expressing itself through us, interacting with itself through our interactions, creating through our creations…

Perhaps Leiden enabled me to experience Death and Resurrection: because as soon as I accepted, last Monday, to stop fighting and giving in to accepting the death of my ego, I felt filled with a strange and unquestionable energy.  Something greater exist, unquestionably, the question that emerges for me is: how do I want to enable it to come forth, to exist in the world? How do I want to shape its presence, its manifestation?

It also appeared clearly to me that our connections, the fact that we are all a manifestation of that Oneness, means that even my worst enemy, even those who are doing what feels to me like awful things in this world, are an expression of the same Being as me, are akin to me…

I trust that if there are anyone around me who can connect to what I am trying to express without thinking that I am a complete lunatic, you are those people, but even though I am not sure that what I am saying makes sense, even for me…

In any case it has propelled me into a really different experience of being, it is quite awesome; mysterious, strange, not really scary but certainly unknown…

Would love to hear more from others,

Lots of love,

 

Matthieu

 

Leadership Challenges of Constructive Action

Hello dancers, fellow co-creators and beacons of hope

Our work is indeed continuing and I am mindful of the phrase that 'the experience is the outcome'

Attached is my reaction about trying to face the leadership challenges of constructive action in the world - just taking my own 'baby steps' - trying to make my own difference. Liefs C:-) xxx


Dear Matthieu, Aliki, John, Karen and Zachary and all who are forming the Connective Collective

Since Friday - your wave of emails have been living with and through me. Thankyou for such sacred sharing and powerful learnings.

Your Constructive Action group challenged us to go out into the world and see how it spoke to us. .this is what I have been living with this week - trying to ground my experience in some sort of reality - yet with a knowing that things are now different and maybe having access to a whole set of languages or frequencies that as yet I don't fully understand.

Being out of Wales is good for me - enabling me to see a from a different perspective and feeling more appreciated and powerful when I return, able to make things happen. I have noticed this week that things are in flow - feels like all my dreams are coming true - especially those relating to realising the potential of young people here. This resonates so much for me with what Aliki said - I am a woman of 43 - no children - and yet I wish to make my mark in the world - what might be 'MY WAY' of doing that - the concept of co-creation and constructive action maybe?

This also has so much association for me to what Karen was alluding to about 'heriting' and I have also noticed that a key theme of my 'success' this week has been about when I have had conversations with people about that which they have to 'let go of' - the death and resurrection - in order to create a space for the creative and new generation to be seeded and shoot out - maybe a space for the new energy to emerge. Maybe I have also been braver, courage and the lion king has featured strongly! So the universe has been signalling. .or maybe it has always been signalling - i am just beginning to listen and learn! DOH!

At the same time - I have felt a deep call from within - trying to understand my own unique story and what it might mean. On Thurs I bought Annie Lennox's new album called Collection. .I felt very sad listening to the song WHY - it has connections to me for a very painful time in my life when I got divorced from the man of my dreams, my heart was broken and all hope lost - and yet with hindsight - it was the best thing ever for me and for him - learning the practice of forgiveness - a new phoenix opportunity? The song links also to my deep experience of sadness and yet amazing spirit and joy in the townships of South Africa - I cry as I write and yet I feel the hope too .this is interwoven intimately with my previous student experiences in life and the awakening of my social conscience.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=wkch479CyLU

Zach - we had an intense and intimate exchange on Fri (no change there then!!!!!) - prompted by your sharing of your wonderful video construction - seasons of love - from our collective time together. Watching it filled me with something that I am still working with and don't know what to make of yet - our web and its vibrational energy - lead me to sharing a book by Diana Cooper called 'The Web of Light' - links with Egypt and the Sphinx (Recall what happened on Thur night in Leiden!) Another association then to the concept of a Pyramidal Structure and what opportunities that offers as a creative vortex. .. .

This weekend - more of my own story has been unfolding. .my role within my family - and what my so called 'dis - ability' enables in terms of interconnection - and interdependence. My sister and her husband have been staying with me and we have 'spring cleaned and cleared' my space - and enjoyed each other's company, loved and laughed. It links too for me to something to do with where I am placed in the family and my intergenerational role - the role of 'auntie' being a very precious one. Thankyou.

And so - The Card I pulled from the Crystal pack in Leiden was healing and gratitude. Whilst we were facing west - I prayed for my own healing, for our healing and that of the world. I trust from hearing you that we have begun - a rebirth is indeed on its way - our work as a connective collective is being born and continues. .

As I move into this next week i gift to myself and you all two presents, knowing that we each have all that we need already to do what is required. . .we just need to appreciate and nurture it within ourselves and others. .

Linked directly to John Bazalgette's intervention and a reference to Deepak Chopra:

'You have a talent that is unique in its expression, so unique that there is no one else alive on this planet that has that talent, or that expression of that talent. This means that there's one thing that you can do and one way of doing it, that is better than anyone else on this entire planet'

So go shake that 'booty' of yours!

And the second is about how i intend to experiment with hope and being a potential beacon of light in the world this week

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QDzcaXFt33I

love
Christine Davies

Social Entrepreneur, Organisation Consultant and Coach

'The magic of creativity kicks into play when you begin to take action'

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Collective Consciousness Conversation-Seasons of Love


I did this video to celebrate our event and to mark all of our beginnings in this emerging and ongoing co-creation.  I trust it may continue to inspire us to take constructive action through our love for another, our love for our fellow beings, and our love for the planet.

Love,
Zachary

Tolle - A New Earth

Extract from Eckhart Tolle’s book ‘A New Earth’, pages 126/7

Provided by Nick Doherty

"As a new consciousness emerges, some people will feel called upon to form groups that reflect the enlightened consciousness. These groups will not be collective egos. The individuals who make up these groups will have no need to define their identity through them. They no longer look to any form to define who they are. Even if the members that make up those groups are not totally free of ego yet, there will be enough awareness in them to recognize the ego in themselves or in others as soon as it appears. However, constant alertness is required since the ego will try to take over and reassert itself in any way it can. Dissolving the human ego by bringing it into the light of awareness – this will be one of the main purposes of these groups, whether they be enlightened businesses, charitable organizations, schools, or communities of people living together. Enlightened collectives will fulfil an important function in the arising of the new consciousness. Just as egoic collectives pull you into unconsciousness and suffering, the enlightened collective can be a vortex for consciousness that will accelerate the planetary shift.”

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

new light and new darkness

Having been deeply touched by emails and actions from CCC-participants, i have been feeling full and empty at the same time, still and turbulent. Christine mentioned that the new light we are starting to touch may also attract a new darkness. This morning as I sat in the café, I thought:

The new light attracts a new darkness
It invites us to explore new ways of holding that darkness, seeing that darkness
Sourced from the light
It suggests perhaps that our old ways of knowing have not become useless, or toxic poison only
That maybe taken in smaller doses, and in a different way, they can contribute to being with the new light and the new darkness
A little like acupuncture, or homeopathy

Like the unicorn, not born out of fear
Fierce yet good, selfless yet solitary
May guide us in finding ways to bound the toxicity of the new darkness
And see this new dark and light
As ends of one spectrum too

The spiritual traditions of our regions, may have planted in our bones
A capacity to find stillness and vibrations at the same time
Not artificial stillness, or a zen that is only ethereal
But grounded capacity to face new realities inside ourselves
New light and new darkness
And what gets born from the marriage between the two

With love, Anjet

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Creation Of Community

Thankyou for the loving messages and evidences of constructive actions that are beginning to emerge - a gift for our collective connective is offered.

A Community of the Spirit

There is a community of the spirit.
Join it, and feel the delight
Of walking in the noisy street,
and being the noise.

Drink all your passion,
And be a disgrace.

Close both eyes
To see with the other eye.

Open your hands,
If you want to be held.

Sit down in this circle.

Quit acting like a wolf, and feel
The shepherd’s love filling you.

At night, your beloved wanders.
Don’t accept consolations.

Close your mouth against food,
Taste the lover’s mouth in yours.

You moan, ‘She left me.’ ‘He left me.’
Twenty more will come.

Be emptying of worrying.
Think of who created thought!

Why do you stay imprison
When the door is so wide open?

Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.
Live in silence.

Flow down and down in always
Widening rings of being.


RUMI

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Start of our homework


Still full of all you people, doing the best thing to do at this moment: working in the garden.
But working with my hands in the ground.. I was thinking we brought the conciseness through the channel in our hearts but there are still things to do to make it a bigger success. First we have to consume it in our belly, than plant it in our sexuality in a way to give it the energy to plant and grow in the world. In all cultures the last part is ritualized because they understood it is the only way to bring things in our reality.. Let me know if you feel the same way. I can think of a ritual you can do at home, and finish this in this way.

Peter de Haan
A Co-creative and Connective Collective

As the planet warms and financial markets meltdown, as ethnic upheaval intensifies and globalization minimizes the distance between us, and as dire poverty continues in the shadows of burgeoning wealth, we are at a critical moment in history. This global economic crisis may indeed be an opportunity to ‘seize the day’ and offer us a ‘compass’ to determine a new ‘global village’ meaning and enable a way of being to emerge.

What hope do we have for the future of our planet – for our children and the next generations? What is our responsibility for leading in the world that we are creating and how can we sustain it?

Our challenging leadership task is to begin to learn how we can explore as yet perhaps hidden potential and work with that which is already indigenously known so that we can live and work more effectively, collectively and responsibly to find a different way – one that invites us to consider who we may become; what we can contribute and how we can become co-creators of our whole world.

Being part of this co-creative space may mean being a bridge to a tomorrow that is beginning to dawn. Together . . . we can seek and discover how our unique purpose and passion draws us to understand the world anew. We may wonder and pioneer into new territories and potentially determine a collaborative pathway towards a sustainable leadership model which cares about the stewardship of our collective future. The challenges involved maybe of learning to lead and live in a converging world?

A Collective Consciousness Conversation is a choice of love and freedom.

What if there is a critical mass of divergent voices who speak in a similar language about what is emerging? Our aim for a CCC is to provide a space whereby the commonalities may be found and a new language for our collective experience can begin to be discovered.

We offer a beginning for recognising and exploring our shared responsibility for how we co-create ourselves, each other, and the worlds in which we live.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=B0SHh_zF4eo

http://youtube.com/watch?v=DQHVirsLqIE


A Collective Conscious(ness) Conversation is a co-created space designed to give each of us the freedom to share and deepen the loving connection, individually and collectively, needed to access and embrace more fully this opportune moment.

An opportunity for us to take step away from a love that is about consummation and consumption towards another that is about connection and constructive action in the world. . .

A love where we can enable the light to shine in and through all of us: a ‘translucent revolution’ (Cosmos – A co-creators guide to the whole world by Ervin Laszlo and Jude Currivan)
The Calling to Action

What about this new space?

In this new space, what if we discovered something beyond – where we can touch, embrace, hold and make meaning of our senses and different forms of knowing. One where we can cradle each other as we grow in our capacity to give and receive? Dare we explore this dimension within ourselves and others?

We believe the Ancient Wisdoms are once more becoming accessible. As we grow in consciousness about this presence, our collective responsibility for reflective action is emerging.

The threat of this emergence increases the tensions between fear and love. As this process of movement takes pace, there exists an apparent rapid rise in polarization. We sit in the form of strong currents of resistance and powerful expressions of fundamentalism. We are being called and challenged to act now.

‘God calls on us to be his partners to work for a new kind of society where people count; where people matter more than things, more than possessions; where human life is not just respected but positively revered; where people will be secure and not suffer from the fear of hunger, from ignorance, from disease, where there will be more gentleness, more caring, more sharing, more compassion, more laughter; where there is peace and not war.’
(Archbishop Desmond Tutu – ‘God Has a Dream’)

CCC -The Inquiry Questions

What world can we create and what kind of leadership will enable that?

. . . we are operating from key questions about:
  • Do we share a sense that we are in an evolutionary moment that is allowing us access to a different 'frequency' and experience of a different realm of consciousness?
  • Are we becoming aware of the co-existence of multiple realities yet live with the seeming paradox that there is a coherent expression of the same 'one'?
  • Do we see our thinking moving from an illusory view of ourselves and the elements of our worlds as fixed objects and more like waves of energy and potential that are in constant interaction?
  • Are we facing a sense that what we experience in this new light extends beyond our capacity to cope with it and so we need to discover new ways of being with it?

Saturday, March 21, 2009

http://picasaweb.google.nl/CollConsConv/ see the first pictures, upload yours, see e-mail peter or ask for it info@sjamaan.nl

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

unfolding ...

how east and south and west and north are present in everything we do

how we are learning a whole new language

how we are witnessing the unfolding of what already is

how joy gives way to sorrow

how connections give way to collective

and that which we would call resistance is its own expression of essence

what is the invitation in the vortex?

Associations in the midst of co-creations

maybe seeking the purpose is the purpose, not finding it

expressing the boundlessness

the process is the experience

what does it mean to us, if this fails - what if this succeeds - and what if this cannot fail, it is what it needs to be right now

what does it mean to be really truely present to the experience as the outcome, and to allow the outcome to find its own location in time and space

water - crystals - the wisdom of water - power - healing - turbulence

the ego and the ego-less

is fever a sign of something wanting to be extruded, or something that requires attention, a tension

can trees and stones be our companions?

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Words of Wisdom from Our Counsel

We asked Gouranga Chattopadhyay to be our counsel for the Collective Consciousness Conversation.  A veteran of decades of experience working with groups and an inveterate yoga practitioner, Gouranga helped us to remember in our preparation that there is much to be said for humility and patience as we approach an opportunity to be in touch with the nature of our collective being... connected as one with a boundless Cosmos.

He offered the following poem for our consideration:
The painfully thin singer, just a cut above a walking skeleton,
Bent forward by the weight of the harmonium slung from the neck
Sang in Santiniketan Express on that August afternoon

 

He sang in his thin melodious voice,
“Come home. all ye who dwell in foreign lands.”
I was touched to the core as I listened
Wondering where my home really was
And if ever I shall return there
To the welcome song of a stranger
Who was also me in some way.
                                                                   Dn. Santiniketan Express: August 1, 2000.
 

Intention and Proximate Preparation

Dear Friends:

One of our fellow travelers, Terri Monroe wrote a letter to the staff of a conference she directed in January at the University of San Diego, Awakening the Soul:  Evoking Collective Wisdom to Energize Groups and Organizations.  Terri helps us think about “proximate preparation” for our experience.  What follows are excerpts from her offering edited for our Collective Consciousness Conversation and perhaps other contexts where the intentional communal embrace of a different level of knowing is invited.

Peace,

Zachary 

 

We are now only a few days away from the opening our experience.  Because of my respect for the power of the forces that seem to be triggered by the groups that come together to do this kind of work, I am writing to invite us to join in entering a more intentional and conscious process of “proximate preparation.”

Increasingly I have come to view these kinds of events in terms of a field of collective consciousness that holds our individual minds in a kind of communal embrace. The idea of an underlying wholeness that connects individual consciousness is its own holding environment and key to open systems theory familiar to many of us.

This brings me to the “hypothesis” that the learning field we co-create begins to form well before the formal opening of our collective experience Again, this is hardly a new “idea” as we often regard events that transpire during the preparation process as important sources of data influencing what is occurring in the here-and-now experience.[1]

A new “hypothesis” that I have been working with lately flows from this thinking. If we assume that such a field does indeed exist, perhaps it is something we can work with directly –not just indirectly as if it were a mere inert byproduct of a series of individual engagements in group setting. If the “field” for this event and others like it is already forming, and we are already working on some level with the assumption that our thinking and behavior is already setting things into motion, and is a critical factor in what unfolds, doesn’t it make sense to be more intentional about the way we might influence it?

If you are in any way familiar with the new ideas about consciousness that are emerging today, or attribute truth to ideas of wholeness, oneness, connectivity, resonance, and emergence, then attempting to engage the field intentionally seems like a natural next step in the quest for a more conscious pedagogy that will help close the gap between what we desire and what we manifest.

Our most important collective responsibility may have to do with clarifying intention and projecting it outwardly as clearly and powerfully as we know how. So long as each of us does not assume that I am doing this by myself, but that we are somehow entering into relationship with existing powers and beings that want this effort to succeed – both spiritual guides and the souls of fellow participants become aligned to strengthen our collective intention.

The experience we are entering is sacred work. At this point, I am pretty clear that the core of my own intention is to create and nourish an environment (energetic field) that fosters the process of cutting through that which keeps us small and separate.  In doing so I seek to awaken both in myself and others the Consciousness that encompasses and permeates all existence. It involves a desire to heal (in myself and others) patterns and habits that no longer serve us (in particular I am thinking about obstacles connected with dualistic thinking –them vs. us, right or wrong, black or white) – in order to awaken the Soul.[2]  As we project our intentions we may well be guided to choices that serve our collective highest good.

I know that this may sound a bit “out there” to some, but I am not asking you to adopt it as your own. What I am asking us to do is to take some time before we arrive to reconnect with the deeper commitments and ideals that drew us to this kind of experience in the first place, and then to clarify and focus our intention for the days to come.

Second, I am asking us to make a genuine effort to bring our fellow participants to mind and hold them in awareness. Sometimes, I find that just reading the names out loud before such an event begins may help us feel more connected to those with whom we will share this profound experience.

For those of you open to the idea of past lives, it may be helpful to consider the likelihood that we have had dealings with at least some of our fellow participants in previous lifetimes. It is also safe to assume, life being what it is, that some of those encounters went well, while others probably didn’t, so residue left over in the unconscious from previous contact could be activated during our experience – so it might be helpful for each of us to spend some time considering our understanding of what is involved in the process of forgiving and being forgiven. In any event, I each of us may want to experiment with some kind of ritual (e.g. reading the names, lighting a candle –whatever “fits” and feels right) that expresses a commitment to work fully with our fellow participants to the best of our ability.

We may not be accustomed fully to think of consciousness as a “real” or significant force in the world. All I can say at this point is that the longer I do this kind of work that allows me to observe the dance of consciousness that takes place in groups, and the more I explore the depths of my own interior life, the more I am convinced of the potency of consciousness and its influence on all we do and all that happens to us. But, I also respect the fact that each of us has to come to our own conclusions and make choices based on our own best lights at the time, and we will have plenty of time later this week and beyond to continue our conversation and exploration.

Be assured that as we work at ‘holding” each other in mind and consciousness the field holding us strengthens and makes itself known.

 

Safe travels and blessings.

Terri Monroe



[1] The deeper issue here, I think, has to do with the degree to which we actually believe in some of the things we do and experience in conferences.  Do we enjoy “playing” with these notions during conferences, but then “put them on the shelf” until the next conference, because deep down we really don’t trust that they are real?

[2] I am using the word soul here to mean the Real or Authentic Self -- a consciousness that is larger than our egoic selves (or personalities). I realize, however, that you may have different understandings or associations. Initially I was a bit hesitant to use the word soul in the conference title because it now crops up frequently in the leadership literature (e.g. Chappell, The Soul of Business; Bolam & Deal, Leading With Soul), and is used with different meanings. Therefore, it is possible that soul could become a big projection screen, upon which both staff and members may envision many different things. Nonetheless. I do hope that staff members, at least, will refrain from throwing the term around in easy slogan-like ways.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Inspiration for Collective Consciousness Conversation

As Collective Consciousness often also has a physical manifestation, i have been trying my skills at movie making today - and created a video that, for me, connects to the source of my inspiration for our work together.

And on source, in the newspaper yesterday, i found this poem, by Vimalaji, who passed away yesterday.

'The timelessness of silence,
the egolessness of love and compassion
are the roots of our life.
Living on the mental level,
drifting with the wind,
the breeze, we are uprooted.
But in the magnificent of silence,
in the communion with divinity,
we are back at the roots of life,
at the source of life.
Being at the source of life is being free.'

Love, Anjet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHYjn7_z_Ho

Friday, March 6, 2009

the global field and the leiden neighbours

Dear dancers, conversationists,

Thank you for making more visible the emergence of the field between us. I felt held by it yesterday as Ankie and I were meeting with our neighbour, the manager of the homeless shelter with who we share our building. It feels like our neighbours have lots to teach us, about not knowing, about being in in between space, about the mystery of choice, about seeking and not finding ... we have started to see how we can connect with these very near neighbours in an act of co-creation during our event while feeling the presence of the global field that has become more visible today.

I am grateful for this emergence as it helps us prepare the physical space of our work in the service of our joint intentions.

Warmly, Anjet

experiencing consciousness

Here's the two links Joao Pedro posted to us all

It is the living experience of an american researcher concerning her "AVC" (Accident vasculo Cérébrale in french). It shows the experience of connectivness with the all. I related it with the March work in Amsterdam.

Who we are - Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C93lRoqWuGg&feature=related
Who we are - Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFNQzmvgdNg&feature=related

invitation to the dance

Collective Consciousness Conversation

Dancing with a co-creative and connective collective - What world can we create and what kind of leadership will enable that?

We are passionate about what type of leadership we can nurture for the future and we thank you for your enthusiasm, agreement and commitment to join us in co-creating a connective collective. We are delighted to enclose an outline design for our time together as well as some helpful logistical details.

Our challenging leadership task is to begin to learn how we can explore as yet perhaps hidden potential and work with that which is already indigenously known so that we can live and work more effectively, collectively and responsibly to find a different way – one that invites us to consider who we may become; what we can contribute and how we can become co-creators of our whole world.

We see this event as an opportunity for us to take a step away from a love that is about consummation and consumption towards another that is about connection and constructive action in the world.

Our invitation was extended with the belief that there is a critical mass of divergent voices who speak in a similar language about what is emerging. Our aim is to provide space where the commonalities maybe found and a new language for our collective experience can begin to be discovered, a space for collective inquiry into the rhythm of leadership waiting to emerge, a space to dance.


‘Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music’
(Angela Monet page 135, Tuning the Diamonds – Electromagnetism and Spiritual Evolution by Susan Joy Rennison)
Welcome to the dance

Experiencing Consciousness

Experiencing Consciousness start 18 march 2009