Processes for Transforming Action
Adapted from writings from the 1960s onwards.
Updated Feb, 2015.
This page will have further
hyper-linking woven into it during Feb, 2015
This extends the Paper Transforming Action.
One person’s observation:
Show me
where in human history attempts to
change a current system for the better by alternative type people on the
margins have ever worked. The dominant system collapses them every time!
Another’s comment:
It’s one thing to talk
of transforming society, how do we actually do it, especially when folk
attempting to do this are targeted for harassment or worse?
Dr Jim Cairns (1914-2003) Australia’s Deputy Prime
Minister in the Whitlam Government picks up the above themes in writing of our
times in his book Human Growth – Its Source...and
Potential (1984, p. 156-157):
What has come through
so far in survival and progress is nothing less than the release of energy,
life force, consciousness – but of only a few. What has to come now for survival and progress is the release of energy, life force, consciousness and intelligence of
the people as a whole, or as many as will be necessary to make a change.
It is happening all
over the world. That it will is inevitable (our italics).
When the Anthropologist Margaret Mead visited Dr
Neville Yeomans residential therapeutic community Fraser House (Cultural Keyline, P. 268 in the early 1960s it
was the presence of this form of release of human
energy or life force the Dr
Cairns was writing about among the 180 people shoulder-to-shoulder in Big Group
that entranced her. Margaret Mead, who was co-founded of the World Federation
of Mental Health, ably led Big Group when she attended Fraser House in the
early 1960s. Fraser House psychologist Warwick Bruen who led Big Group many
times described Big Group human energy as addictive
– ‘It was very tough; very emotionally demanding – though at the same time
extremely compelling’. The German language has the term ‘stimmung’ for this life energy accompanying and affecting group mood (refer appendix). Wilhelm
Reich used the term ‘orgone’. Dr Jim
Cairns brought Wilhelm Reich’s daughter Eva Reich to the Conference festival
ConFest that Jim Cairns commenced with Dr Neville Yeoman’s support in 1976. Eva
discussed her father’s work and orgone energy at ConFest. The following links
give glimpses of this release of energy,
life force, consciousness now happening all over the world.
o The Fastest Growing New Social Movement
on the Planet
o Evolving Criteria as Benchmarks for
Wellbeing Action
Action on
the margins has evolved a large body of processes that are being used wisely at
appropriate times, places and contexts.
Hardly reported in the Worlds mainstream media, a myriad of energies are
coalescing with potential for evolving into a new system of social systems on
Earth. What is emerging is similar to the millions of mushrooms (fruiting
bodies of a gigantic fungal
mycelium) that had popped up overnight for a bus load of tourists to see in
driving past the rolling green hills in Northern Tasmania in the early 1960s.
White edible mushrooms for six kilometres on each side of the road for 20
kilometres. They were thick with over 200 mushrooms beginning to open up over
every square metre (approx 4.8 million mushrooms!).
Similarly,
myriads of small and not so small moments and happenings among people are
popping up all around the world. These happenings are hardly noticed by people
immersed in the dominant system. Action may happen in front of people who have
no sense of its significance or potency. Actions are not step-by-step (linear).
Typically, they involve a few self starters. Others may join in and things
happen in natural organic ways, typically mirroring nature. Actions are
typically guided by context rather than by preplanning. Consciousness raising
of human potential and growth is happening socially.
Humanity is changing how they relate
with themselves and each other.
To
understand these actions and happenings, one entry point for understanding may
be via a few sub-themes; some are mentioned below. Some or all of these themes
may be happening simultaneously. Teasing these threads out of the social
weaving may help understanding concerning what is happening around the
Earth, apparently in every country (refer Blessed Unrest).
Simultaneous Non-Linear
Threads:
1.
Playfully releasing life-force
energy, stimmung and orgone energy
2.
Relating well with Self and Others
3.
Locating Natural Nurturers (people naturally good
at nurturing others)
4.
Enabling Enablers – (Supporting Others to be More
Able)
5.
New Paradigm Consciousness Raising
6.
Face-to-Face Social Networking
7.
Enabling Group Processes
8.
Enabling Self-Help and Mutual-Help Processes
9.
Evolving & Enabling
Celebratory Gatherings
10.
Catalysing Self-organising Systems
11.
Supporting Inter-group & Inter-network
Collaborating & Relational Mediating
12.
Inter-cultural Mutual Help Networking
13.
From Local Area Mutual-Help to Weaving New Social
Fabric
14.
Weaving Local Areas’ New Social Fabric into
Regional Social Fabric
15.
Inter-linking and Inter-Weaving each of the Above
On playfulness
King James the First of England
could write words in 1617 in his Declaration
of Sport to the effect:
I’ve ridden throughout this fair Kingdom and have seen that my people are weary
and sad of heart for the want of play.
Berger and Luckmann in their 1966 book The
Social Construction Of Reality write of three co-existing processes:
a)
Together, humans construct society
b)
Simultaneously, the varying socially constructed realities fold back, as it were, to construct
humans of varying types, and
c)
These social systems are humanly experienced as objective realities.
Being constructed, it follows that both humans and their varying
societies may be reconstructed,
perhaps better said as, may be
transformed or re-constituted (as ‘construction’
is a metaphor hinting at rigidity and permanence).
Over decades, processes have been evolved that
support personal, communal and societal transforming action. These have been
passed on in networks and changed or adapted in other contexts.
The following provides hints of processes-in-action
that work.
SIMULTANEOUS NON-LINEAR
ACTIONING THEMES:
1. Playing with Releasing Life Force Energy, Stimmung
and Orgone Energy
o Themes conducive to
coherence (refer Cultural Keyline
in Groups page 477) – On ‘theme’, refer Coming
to One’s Senses – By the Way, Page.345.
o Metaprocesses awareness
(a metaprocess is a
process for engaging with processes)
o Intention,
Awareness and Observer Effects
o Stimmung - Attuning Group Processes
o Tuning into Context –
refer ‘By the Way – Context’, page
346.
o Letting Context Be the
Guide
2.
Relating Well with Self and Others
o
Awareness
o
Awareness of Awareness
o Gaining & Maintaining Good Contact with Others - Rapport Building
o Attending & Awareness (creative use
of external and internal focus) – Refer Appendix: On Being There
[Da-sein] and Being Away [Weg-sein].
Also refer Uptime and
Coming to One’s Senses - Appendix Five, page 140: Increasing
Awareness of External and Internal Focus
o
Attending to:
§ Context:
·
Content
·
meaning
§ Process
§ Metaprocess (processes
relating to process)
§ Task
§ Functional Roles in
Context (Refer Cultural Keyline – Page 240 in On the side of Constructive Striving
o Embodying
Experiential Learning
o Accurate Cues Reading
o
Listening
and Remembering (Recall of Verbal
and Non-Verbal)
o Gathering Information, Monitoring and Precision Questioning
o Talking Skills (Map and Territory)
o Using Language (Metamodel)
o Non Verbal Communicating
o Assessing the Other’s Internal States, Strategic and Sorting
Patterns and External Relationships
o Negotiating and Mediating Meaning; Relational Mediating
o Ways Of Engaging Well in Group Contexts
o Evolving and Using Liminal States in Group
Contexts
o Living well with:
o Our Selves
o Our Bodies:
o Awareness of Awareness
o Our moving:
o Awareness Through Movement
o Moving Well – Refer Walking
and Free Energy
o Moving for Increased Flexibility – refer Flexibility and Habit
o Regaining Balance, Poise and Fluidity – Refer Transforming the Whole of It
o Increasing Gracefully Movement
o Moving to Become Deeply Relaxed
o Moving for Preparing to Go to Sleep
o Moving to Release Tension and Emotional Pain – Refer Coming to One’s Senses – By the Way –
Appendix Six, Page 554
o Moving to Let Go of Painful Experience
o Moving to Let Go of Anger
o Moving and Our Senses
o Our emotions
o Our memories
o Others
o Our Futures
o Stress
o Risk:
o Risk sharing
o Minimising the consequences of risk
o Minimising stress in our lives
o Ecology and Social Ecology
o Having Arousal Flexibility (from very Relaxed to Fully Alert
Depending on Context)
o Sleeping Well and Waking Refreshed
o Relational Mediating and Resolving Disputes
o Conversationally Transforming to Wellness refer Appendix Ten, Page 562
o Mutual-Help Action for Wellbeing
3. Locating Natural Nurturers (People Naturally Good
at Nurturing Others)
4. Enabling Enablers – (Supporting Others to be More
Able)
o Mapping Community Capacity (Local Experience, Local Knowing,
Wisdom, Psycho-Social Resources, Healing Ways, and Resilience)
a.
Identifying
Natural Nurturers and Evolving Healer Networks
b.
Place-Making,
Context-Marking and Framing
c.
Social
Networking
d.
Self Help
f.
Mutual-Help
Processes – Refer Government and
Facilitating Grassroots Action
o Ways Supporting Healthy Communities to be More Able (Enabling):
a.
Evolving
Meeting Places, Spaces,
Localities, Enabling
Environments and Celebratory Gatherings
b.
Resilience in
Its Many Forms
c.
Relational
Mediation (Also Refer Experiences on Relational Mediation)
d.
Finding and
Tapping into People who are Self-Starters with Free Energy
e.
Rapport
Building
f.
Back to the
Basics on Awareness of Awareness
1.
Listening
2.
Attending
3.
Staying
Present
4.
Reporting what has been heard
o Experiencing Ways Supporting Healthy Communities to be More Able
(Enabling):
a.
Gathering
Information, Monitoring and Precision Questioning – the Metamodel.
b.
Accurate
Cue Reading.
c.
Assessing
Internal States, Strategic and Sorting Patterns and External Relationships.
d.
Establishing
Well-Formed Outcomes
e.
Socially
Ecological Ethics and Values
f.
Establishing
and Maintaining Values Guided Good Moods In Groups
g.
Processes for Event Enablers –
Small and Large Group Process Skills Including Stimmung
5. New Paradigm Consciousness Raising
Connecting the
Disconnected – refer Whole-Brain and
Whole Body-Brain Interconnecting in Appendix 12, page 574 in the E-Book Coming to One’s Senses – By the Way
6. Face-to-Face Social Networking
7. Enabling Group Processes
8. Enabling Self-Help and Mutual-Help Processes
9. Evolving & Enabling Celebratory Gatherings
Celebratory Gatherings are a seminal way to
enrich transforming action and to evolve and extend networks of networks:
ConFest and the Next 250
Years
10. Catalysing Self-organising Systems
Active Self Organising
Processes
11. Supporting Inter-group & Inter-network
Collaborating
Evolving a Dispersed Urban Wellbeing
Community
For Audio Program of the Above Link
Refer Program 12 at Audio
Streaming
5. Inter-cultural Mutual Help Networking
a.
Locating networks
b.
Evolving networks
c.
Linking networks
d.
Enabling networking
e.
Mapping networks
f.
Integrating networks
Tapping in Community Psycho
Somatic (Mind-Body) Resources
Interfacing Alternative and Complementary Well-being Ways for Local Wellness
6. From Local Area Mutual-Help to Weaving New Social
Fabric
Weaving New Social Fabric After Disasters – Refer
14 papers in Section N in Laceweb
Community Ways for Healing the World
7. Weaving Local Areas New Social Fabric into Regional
Social Fabric
Un-Inma Atherton
Tablelands Inma Project
Declaration of Governance and Law
8. Inter-linking Each of the Above
The Fastest Growing New
Social Movement on the Planet
Appendix
Adapted from http://faculty.georgetown.edu/blattnew/heid/gbm17.htm
A well-disposed person brings spirit [Stimmung
– the mood that attunes] to a group. In this case does he produce
in himself a psychic experience in order then to transfer it to the others,
like the way infectious germs wander from one organism to others? Indeed, we do
say that his spirit [Stimmung]
is infectious. Or another person is in a dampened and depressed group; no one
is outgoing. What do we learn from this? Moods are not epiphenomena;
rather, they are the sort of thing that attunes [bestimmt] being-with-one-another in advance.
It seems as if, so to speak, a mood is in
each case already there, like an atmosphere,
in which we are steeped and by which we are thoroughly attuned. It not only
seems as if this were so, it is so.
In light of all this, it is necessary
to dispense with the psychology of
feelings and experiences and consciousness.
It is necessary to see and to say what happens here. It is apparent that
moods are not things that are only occurrent, but rather they themselves are fundamental manners and ways of being, indeed
of being-there, and this always immediately includes being-with-one-another.
They are ways of being-there [Da-sein] and thereby also of being away [Weg-seins]. A mood is a way, not merely a form or a mode, but
rather a manner, like a melody, which
does not float above the so-called actual being occurrent of a person, but
rather sets the key of this being,
that is, it attunes and determines the
manner of his being.
On Being there [Da-sein] and Being Away
[Weg-sein]
‘Weg-sein’
is used to describe the way in which a person can ‘not be there’ while
participating in a discussion or listening to someone else. "How often do
we find that we were 'not there' ['nicht
da'] during a discussion in a group; how often do we find that we
were absent [abwesend] without thereby having
fallen asleep" He notes later (p. 98) that one must be there, that is,
exist as Da-sein, to ‘not be there’ in the sense of Weg-sein.
In English we have an expression for this that perfectly ties in with
Heidegger’s metaphors: ‘being tuned out.’
Also refer Attuning page 343-344.
FURTHER READING
Resonant Links:
o Declaration of Governance and Law
o
Government and Facilitating Grassroots Action
o Recognising and Evolving Local-lateral Links Between Various Support
Processes
o The Fastest
Growing New Social Movement on the Planet