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The discovery of one Circle Being

Submitted by Martin Ludvigsen on March 28, 2006 - 14:12.
In the process of inquiry at Moving the Edge we came at one point to the tentative realisation that in the question is (part of) the answer. As in any scientific practice the hypothesis encompasses all we know about what we want to discover, including – maybe – what we know only through experience in the bodily or other levels of cognition and existence.

Therefore when the question or intention arose that we wanted to discover what it was that evolved in the middle of our group - what it is that can evolve in the middle of any group if the conditions are right, we turned the question around and looked at it as answer, and in this unfolding and deepening of the question we found a tentative definition of the “circle being”, the  “magic in the middle”, the “field of collective intelligence” or which ever words constitutes meaning to the participants.

Qualities of the field of collective intelligence:

1 – the first has to do with the experience of joy, hightened attention and sharpness that the explorer or participant has when being in the field. This is important since this is also why we tend to long for situations of collective intelligence.

2 – the second quality that characterises a field of collective intelligence, or maybe rather the activities taking place when this occurs, is creation. The creative aspect of a field of collective intelligence and collective action might be the very reason we engage in the field instead of solving problems on our own. From somewhere within the heart of the participants or the logic mind we see that we can create much more and from a much wider perspective when we lean forward and engage the collective openly, interested and intentionally.

3 – thirdly is the joy of the being itself. This is maybe a little harder to grasp than the individual joy of participating, but if a merely individualised worldview is disregarded for a moment it makes sense to speak of the joy and exhilaration of the field – that in the engaging of the shared there is something that is beyond the one and the other person, something between these persons to which it makes sense that we can ascribe experiences of joy and exhilaration.

4 – the last of the qualities emerging in this conversation has to do with being and becoming. This state of being something larger than yourself and becoming unknowingly more intelligent by simply engaging or leaning forward into the collective, is collective intelligence. Is it in us or is it in the field between us? Such questions only make sense if we try to stop the field and understand it with our individualised logics of mind. While we stand still like this, the collective will move forward because the last quality of the field of collective intelligence we can describe, is that it is not static. It is a dynamic and continuously unfolding occurrence.

These four discoveries of the field of collective intelligence are not the full spectrum. There are potentially hundreds of qualities that can be named and discovered. And several perspectives from which these can have meaning, making thousands of interpretations possible. However, this could be a step towards a better understanding, even though we know now also that “understanding sucks”.

Martin Ludvigsen

The Presence of the Circle Being

Submitted by baba on July 4, 2009 - 10:52.
Locating Your Collective Identity in the Great Field

Otto: What is the distinction you mentioned between the first, second, third fields?

Circle: I'll describe the fields briefly. Rub your hands together a little bit. Put your hand and arm out as far as you can, palm facing toward your chest. We're feeling for different qualities of atmosphere, like a graduation of thickness or shifting sensation in your hand. Move your hand slowly toward your body and notice if you feel any edges or different energetic rings as you come in.

I'm going to describe my experience. There's one ring that sits out about as far as I can reach. And then there's a middle range between 10 and 18 inches from my chest, and then I hit something that feels of denser, inside that ring. I feel three rings. Does anybody feel anything different as you try this?

Circle: Yeah. My experience is such a gradual shift that I don't feel an edge.

Circle: Do you feel a change as you come in through?

Circle: Yes, but not an edge.

Circle: What I've come to know is that, during my meditation, I actually project my locus of identity into the third field, which is what I am referring to as the outer sphere in the around us-where life's rhythms, and innate design are intact. The inner rings are characterized more by our personality and ancestral stories.

Otto: The outer one?

Circle: Yes. It's why, when people sit in certain meditation postures, their hands often rest on their knees in contact with the third field.

I just relax my being, my body, into the clear third field. The third field holds the universal pulsation and pattern of life, or Great Field. So meditation can locate us more in the Great Field. I'm interested in intending together to locate our individual and, thus, our collective identity in the Great Field.

Circle: I like that. That's a great experiment; let's go for it.

[bell]

[10 minutes of silence followed, then each spoke of his or her experience. The atmosphere in the room softened and slowed down.]

Circle: I had an experience of being like a satellite dish. Then I realized that my attention, in a way, is always like a satellite dish. What am I turning my attention toward? What am I opening up to? When my awareness is raised, I can open up to other frequencies or possibilities, information, and understanding that I have not known were accessible.

I felt like I could have gone on for much longer this morning; we could have had 40 minutes of silence.

Circle: What I noticed was a gentle pulsation. The field had quality to it. I felt myself relaxing my own heart rhythm and breath. These functions were relaxing into that larger field, letting a slower wave inform my presence. I was feeling the field holding me ... breathing me, actually. And interestingly enough, one thing that came to my mind was "What's going on at the WTO? "

Circle: In Cancun.

Circle: Yes. The alliance between the poor nations and the swell of protest that's been happening there. It wasn't that I was trying to think about it, more like I was feeling the larger current moving through everything. Aware of some pervasive undercurrent, I felt connected to the bigger story.

As that situation in Mexico came to mind, it felt significant to me, from a place of witnessing, not judging or rooting for the underdogs. I noticed that there's a lot going on right now that seems affected by a deeper force pushing through. Events feel shaken up.

In a way, I was resting in a deeper trust that life was having its way with the whole world. That's what I feel like this morning. I also feel, in a more immediate sense, the rightness of our being together in a more aware and open way. This particular combination of people just sitting here feels really precious.

Circle: That's interesting. I felt urged to call Serena and bless her into the field [she was absent due to illness]. And then Zimbabwe came into my awareness. I was supposed to go there this fall to support some bold people in life-affirming communities. But Harare was too dangerous to visit. So I had to bless these courageous people. The State Department had said, "Do you want to put your whole board at risk by being there this time?" So now I blessed them all again.



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