A few days ago I taught a workshop on Concensus Process in Amsterdam. In the time leading up to and preparing for the workshop, I gave a great deal of thought to the subject of concensus. This is something I started to write before the workshop, and have since edited some. I'd love to know if this makes sense and/or is useful to anyone.
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Concensus is the thing that, as a species, we are working towards.

Humans, in fact all life, is in a constant conversation. Each does what they do, showing who they are (whether we mean to or not) and attending to others, listening and perceiving. In that way we are all participating in this great conversation.

Concensus is the organic state an entity, or group of entities, reach when all voices have been heard and have grokked that they have been heard, and all people have listened and grokked their listening. When we are honest about ourselves and what is inside us, and when that is received by another or others, and it is really received without judgment, something shifts inside the one sharing and inside the receiver. More space is created to receive what others share. In this way, concensus is a process of nourishment being shared outwards in an ever-expanding spiral.

Concensus requires full participation. We must each speak our part,and we must each listen to all the other parts we can. To be fully present, to fully present all of who and what one is to another, is an act of choice. Te be present and to fully receive what another shares, putting aside one’s personal reactions, judgments, agendas, is an act of love. It requires the willingness to see the other for who they are, and to simply accept...not like, or disllike, or come from subjectivity or self interest.

Once all parts have been heard, and we have each listened to the best of our ability to all we can hear, then something will happen. Perhaps the world will change.

In a group of people when this happens, one can feel it. Something manifests. It isn’t agreement, or shared values, or anything so mundane as that. It’s a state of organic beingness that one feels in moments of grace or enlightenment. In a group it is exponentially greater. To really feel part of something, even something that briefly vibrates with this state of grace, is ecstatic. That’s why many people become hooked on “high” group experiences.

If each life form is actually the universe experiencing itself from yet another perspective, then the great conversation is the universe communicating with itself from all perspectives. The microcosm of this is the individual who works to “know themself in all their parts” whether metaphorically in a spiritual context or literally by learning to know how things work in the universe. But this microcosm, personified in Cartesian philosophy, in Feri practice, in the study of physics and anatomy and language, and on and on, this microcosm is a reflection of the macro, the universe engaged in this process of becoming, becoming aware, becoming aware of self, becoming aware of other, and ultimately becoming aware that self and other are one and are separate. This paradox lies at the heart of our conflicted nature. It is this paradox, seeing that which one holds abhorrent embodied in another person, while yet seeing that person as a legitimate person with the right to exist, that confounds us.

In this context, the process of concensus between individuals, including but not limited to individuals from polarized groups, is of critical value to the whole field of life. The more people do this work, the better. All concensus work makes a difference to the whole organic field of concensus as a social psychological/spiritual phenomenon since every additional node of concensus work is an indication that more of the whole group is participating.

A quick entry here to say that the workshops in Amsterdam this weekend were really wonderful. They were fun, deep, people took risks and did real personal work on making themselves more available to participate in groups, political or otherwise, with a greater sense of how to be effective. The weather cooperated more than once with sunshine. The space we were in is a beautiful kindergarden with a wild forest garden in the middle of the city. All in all, very positive.

Wednesday 27 June 2007, 11:11

This new thing on the blog where people can make comments, I like it. I'm glad to have set this up. It's wonderful to see what people have to say and to hear from loved ones with such loving and interesting messages.

This flu, which I have learned is going around, has seriously kicked my ass for a week now, and I am starting to feel it lifting. Whew! Periodically I do get these high fever sweat-it-out sicknesses, and this one has been a real winner. I will be so glad when I can focus more on other things.

In that vein, it's sunny out and I think I will go to the store in a while...that'll be nice.

So much has happened since I started this blog, since I came to Europe in February even. I considered writing a post about my reactions to the news etc., as I used to do quite often, but it doesn't feel right. Somehow, I want to honor and acknowledge the changes I've experienced by doing something different.

This weekend I am fortunate to have three interesting events to be part of. The first is a meeting with a group who wants to start a ritual circle, and has asked if I would be willing to sit with them while we discuss how to do that. The second event is a day-long workshop in Concensus, and the thirds is another day-long workshop, this one Magical Activism. I was wondering if this flu was going to knock me out of attending, but the flu is winding down. Yay!

Concensus is, in my mind anyway, a much misunderstood word. To me, concensus is an organic process of transformation, much like fire. Fire isn't a thing, it's a process of transforming matter from one state into others. Concensus does the same thing with people by making space for each person in the group to be heard and seen, to be grokked really, without any foregone conclusions as to where this will lead. By making space for everyone, what eventually emerges is a recognizable organic sense of the values, directions, and actions of the group. Sounds simple, and it can be. It can also be time consuming and slow, which some personalities respond to with more patience than others. In other words, concensus process tends to bring out one's learning edges.

Magical Activism is a really fun set of exercises for a group to assist them in clarifying values and discussing value differences, envisioning viable and desireable futures, and fostering creative approaches to being a person actively engaged in creating solutions. This workshop is one of those "the more the merrier" events and I'm really glad that a bunch of folks are coming.

After the workshops I'll have a brief visit on Monday with a friend from Canada, then head off for a weeklong housesit where I can hopefully sit in the sun, be quiet, get my strength back some more, and do somemore brainstorming.

Rereading the comments from Shakti and deborah oak in the context of what I just wrote is interesting. This great discussion that we're all part of is an ongoing concensus meeting. It's happening globally. We're all participating in it all the time.

Monday 25 June 2007, 18:54

I am hoping this post makes clear my appreciation to the really wonderfully generous kind people I stayed with and near in Germany who helped me during a difficult time. I don't know how I would have made it without them.

I also want to be very clear that my personal experience of physical pain, whether it's simply mechanical or psychic or both or neither, is not about my interpersonal experiences in Germany. It is not about the beauty of the countryside. When I refer to the painful part of my experiences and interpret that, I am not blaming or holding responsible anyone I met, stayed with, hung out with.

I also am clear that I did have a very intense experience which I am still processing physically, emotionally, and psychically. I would not be true to myself if I said that Germany does not and has not cast a shadow in my life. It has. That is not anyone's job, nor does it lie within anyone's ability, to heal or reconcile. I am not looking for or expecting that from anyone. That is my work to do, hopefully with support, and I experience that support from many people including, and sometimes especially, friends who are German.

I made a comment a few entries ago:

"One thing I am learning, which I can articulate at this point is that, despite my lifelong pursuit to see humanity as one, right now I see that we are made up of different groups, with real differences, some of them possibly irreconcilable. I have always rejected this view as an impediment to peace, but now I am thinking...it’s true. There are real differences. What that means for the possibility of peace, I do not know."

I know so many people who are committed to peace, and I understand that for me to make a public statement like that is uncomfortable for some folks. I am learning. I am questioning. I ask uncomfortable questions. I always have and it's gotten me into trouble more times than I can count. I, too, am committed to peace, and I have questions about how it does and does not exist, how we do/can and do not/cannot manifest it. I do not know the answers, but I see what I see and it makes me wonder, so I ask.

More than anything I want my presence in the world to be one that spreads love. Sometimes I am really good at this. Sometimes, not so good. At free camp in 2006 we worked with the 3 faces of betrayal; betraying others, being betrayed by others, betraying ourselves. We worked with the reality that we each experience all three, and despite that we need to love each other and ourselves in order for there to be peace. I continue to work with this lesson.