One Mind

Shortly after quoting David Bohm on the need to develop a higher collective intelligence, in my blog entry related to Andrew Cohen’s ‘Intersubjective Enlightenment’, I've discovered another gem from Bohm. It became yet another source of my inspiration to create a new Learning Expedition, a form of collaborative action research, It would target the conditions of reaching and sustaining higher levels of collective intelligence and wisdom, over time.

In this entry, I share with you both the Bohm quote and the very first articulation of the action research’s general frame, with great curiosity of what you think of both.

I suggest that after reading the quote, below, stop for a moment to contemplate what you will have read.

"At present, people create barriers between each other by their fragmentary thought. Each one operates separately. When these barriers have dissolved, then there arises one mind, where they are all one unit, but each person also retains his or her own individual awareness. That one mind will still exist even when they separate, and when they come together, it will be as if they hadn't separated. It's actually a single intelligence that works with people who are moving in relationship with one another. . . . If you had a number of people who really pulled together and worked together in this way, it would be remarkable."

(That comes from David Bohm, quoted in Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership, by Joseph Jaworski who also published a seminal column on “Tapping into the collective intelligence” in International Herald Tribune that I blogged here.)

The fundamental question of the Learning Expedition that I envision is: How can the practice of occasioning together ‘one mind’ states, become a stable social practice that can be accessed by less and less effort?

I use the term “action research”—in relation to the Learning Expedition—in the sense of“inquiry into realities that are co-created by the mode of enquiry itself”. (Source: Integral Futures, by Richard A. Slaughter). A Learning Expedition should be designed so that its inquiry into the formation of a ‘one mind’ habit can contribute to that formation.

Here’s the very first, bird’s-eye view articulation of our Learning Expedition’s general concept:

The action research will be: