I'm already back home but I want ot complete my notes about my experiences in the conference.
It felt really good to have this little home-group. We arranged to have the opportunity to gather every morning and evening 'in circle'. Although most of us only knew two or three other before, we were pretty much one group and felt at home. Especially after the first day, which was very full of information, it was a big relief for me to sit in circle and in silence for a while. After silence we shared what was present. This sharing of what had touched us deepened our sense of community.
Of course I’m not able to give a report of the whole conference as I can only be in one place. Sometimes there were 10 tot 15 possible workshops and presentations we could choose from. Add to that the numerous conversations at breakfast, in the breaks, during lunch and so on … That’s why I will invite our little group to write their experiences and reflections too (and I will post them here).
The workshop I attended on the morning of the third day stated also the importance of being ‘in circle’. Francesca Mason-Boring, a Shoshone, gave as title to her workshop: The International Collective Indigenous: Constellations as Ceremony. A Fundamental Human Technology on Collective Wisdom. She named the circle, smudging an the pow-wow (a ceremonial gathering) as ‘indigenous, universal technologies’. They have proven their value over many, many centuries and we find them in tribes spread all over the world. Many of us were deeply touched by ht hand-shaking or the greeting one-by-one. Somebody asked: “What if would start a conference in this way?” And what if next time we would prepare in advance – like it was or is done by native tribes – by asking help for opening up and cleaning ourselves to be able to give to the community? Surely the collective intelligence and wisdom would enhance a lot!
I also want to share something from the workshop “Hitler in us.” by Bertold Ulsamer. He spoke in a very casual way, but what he said and the questions he asked us to answer were very profound. One of the first questions was: “Which qualities or characteristics do I link with Hitler? Name 3 of them.” I came up with: strong will; blocked heart energy and using the power of archetypes. Can you imagine my surprise when he asked later on “Where did I experience these three qualities in my every day life?” that in a flash I saw that it are exactly the qualities my friends used to give me negative feedback on!
Ulsamer asked if it is/was one leader who seduced us? And why could it happen? He answered it by saying that capitalism doesn’t provide a sense or place of belonging; and that it doesn’t give us the inner power to act. So we are happy to follow a leader and in that way we belong to a group. It re-assured in me the importance of circle, networks, communities and the power of inner leadership.
In the last afternoon I attended the lecture of Hunter Beaumont, one of the early students of Bert Hellinger. His basic question is: If the one who I think I am, is not who I am, then who am I and what else can be possible? And then: And what if the world is not what we thought it to be? He invited to forgo the temptation of answering the question and to stay in the open inquiry. When the soul gets interested in an open question she becomes light, transparent, and the world in which she is living becomes open as well. This quality of openness has to do with the sacred, the divine. “Where two or more of you gather in my name there will I be also”. So we need each other, the collective to do it!
I would like to end my report by the writing of Albrecht and Brigitta Mahr, the organizers of this conference. “Collective Wisdom and its dark sibling, the potential for collective stupidity and destruction, are belonging to us, to the same human family. Against this backdrop it is our heartfelt wish for this conference that together we discover entirely new possibilities to nourish and to strengthen the roots of our collective wisdom. The big world problems are collective problems and it seems to us that currently we are challenged by evolution to unfold collective intelligence together and to use it for the best – at this conference and wherever in the world we may be right now.”