Group conceptual map
Herewith the composite conceptual map of participants’ views, put together at our session on 4 August 2003.Tools of inquiry
Check-in rounds (before, after or not at all); humour; car talk.
Posture, gesture, facial expression, movement – with or without pieces of fabric.
Sound: toning, other vocal sounds, percussion; pitch, rhythm; occasional declarations.
Crescendo/diminuendo cycles; erotic energy; women and men.
Relative position; some spatial interaction; some eye contact.
Silent hand-holding for a period before we close, sometimes preceded or followed by verbal reportage.
Imitation, building on what others do; aware engagement with and response to what others do.
Underlying internal adjustments of consciousness, aligning energies, locating and dissolving blocks.
Trust; the web of interpersonal connections.
The location at the top of the hill, with its cosmic connections; Barbara and John settling here.Method of inquiry
A spontaneous nonverbal charismatic-expressive idiosyncratic-togetherness inquiry; a co-operative Dionysian spiritual action inquiry.Purpose of inquiry
Communion-attunement-resonance-alignment with: one’s inner self, each other, Presence/ Shekinah/Tao, powers and presences in complementary realities; and with the human race, nature/biosphere/earth, solar system, galactic consciousness, extraterrestrials….
Worship, praise, high prayer, dynamic meditation.
Theurgy: our encounter with the divine changes the nature of the divine.Outcomes of inquiry
Personal: attunement-alignment-harmonization-communion; bliss, better person/softer, satisfaction, fulfilment, peace, nourishment, groundedness.
Human-angelic: feeding angels, being pollinated by angels.
Social: charismatic transmission to those we live, work, socialize and play with.
Practical: the skills in effecting all the above.
Wide-ranging: unknown possible effects on the immediate locality (the thingummy of the whatsit), the human race, the biosphere, the noosphere, the solar system, the galaxy, extraterrestrials, other realms.Validity procedures
Critical subjectivity, i.e. discriminating discernment and adjusting alignment. We do this well.
Managing distress, i.e. dealing with the inquiry distorting effects of unprocessed distress and lurking interpersonal tension. Big unresolved issues emerged here: Do we do just enough or far too little of this? What is our appropriate balance between overt catharsis/overt interpersonal processing on the one hand, and the subtle and silent transmutation of distress/tension through our charismatic practices (the inner alchemy that turns base metal into gold)?
Basic polarities of our dynamic
Our inquiry is spanned between the poles of the Dionysian emergence of our process and the Apollonian preplanning of it. Over the years it has moved to and fro between the poles, always involving some degree of each. The other basic polarity of our inquiry is the group process that goes on within our meetings, and the life process that goes in our daily existence between them. Over the years we have moved to and fro between combining our group process with planning and reporting on our life process, and just doing our group process without the life process planning and reporting (the assumption here is that the life process is then emergent) . So a simple grid lays bare our dynamic. The four spaces within the grid all interact :
| Emergent | Preplanned | |
| Group process | ||
| Life process |
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