Circle work intuitive technology

CIRCLE WORK: INTUITIVE TECHNOLOGY

By Selah Martha

Copyright Š 2007 by Selah Martha Illustrations by Ada Mayer All rights reserved.

CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................vi ABSTRACT................................................................................................................. vii INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................1 THE INTUITIVE TECHNOLOGY OF THE CIRCLE ....................................................3 The Circle is a Technology .........................................................................................3 The Sphere ...................................................................................................................5 The Torus...................................................................................................................12 The Column ...............................................................................................................15 The Helix ...................................................................................................................22 The Scalar Wave ........................................................................................................26 THE BODY IN THE CIRCLE ......................................................................................30 The Sphere .................................................................................................................31 The Torus...................................................................................................................33 The Column ...............................................................................................................34 The Helix ...................................................................................................................36 The Scalar Wave ........................................................................................................40 THE BODY OF THE CIRCLE .....................................................................................43 Dilations ....................................................................................................................46 Rhythm .....................................................................................................................52 Time ..........................................................................................................................60 Between.....................................................................................................................62 Crystalline Circuitry ................................................................................................68 LEADER’S GUIDE ......................................................................................................77 BECOMING A LEADER..............................................................................................80 Calling.......................................................................................................................80 Training ....................................................................................................................81 Identify Your Purpose..............................................................................................82 Know Yourself........................................................................................................83 Know Your Style ....................................................................................................84 Know your Limits ...................................................................................................84 Know how to be curious..........................................................................................84 Know Your Business...............................................................................................85 Transparency of leadership......................................................................................86 Self-Care.................................................................................................................87 Checklist of Tools ...................................................................................................87 iii

YOUR TEAM ...............................................................................................................89 Team cohesion ..........................................................................................................89 Check-in meetings...................................................................................................90 Staff Agreements or Contracts.................................................................................91 Staff-Participant Boundaries....................................................................................91 To the Assistants.......................................................................................................92 Moving in the Middle Ground.................................................................................93 Psychic Range Riding .............................................................................................94 Oracle .....................................................................................................................94 Fielding complaints.................................................................................................95 ELEMENTS OF THE CIRCLE.....................................................................................97 Attention ...................................................................................................................97 Getting Attention Out..............................................................................................99 Free attention ........................................................................................................100 Playing with attention ...........................................................................................101 Second attention....................................................................................................102 Presence ..................................................................................................................102 Love.........................................................................................................................103 Principles ................................................................................................................104 Rhythm ...................................................................................................................105 Using Music..........................................................................................................106 Time ........................................................................................................................107 Managing Time Structure......................................................................................109 Time as a Fluid Medium .......................................................................................110 Embodiment ...........................................................................................................111 Touch....................................................................................................................114 Desire ...................................................................................................................115 BUILDING THE CIRCLE ..........................................................................................118 The Perimeter.........................................................................................................118 Opening remarks...................................................................................................118 Introductions .........................................................................................................119 Prayers or invocations ...........................................................................................119 Confidentiality ......................................................................................................121 Boundaries ............................................................................................................122 Share your Information and State your Expectations .............................................123 Logistics of the facility, bathrooms, supply tables, etc. ..........................................124 The Sphere..............................................................................................................125 In the Body ...........................................................................................................125 In The Circle Body................................................................................................126 The Torus ...............................................................................................................130 Structures..............................................................................................................132 iv

Take Time to Set Up the Structure ........................................................................132 Witnessing ............................................................................................................133 Between...................................................................................................................134 Creating Structures in Response to the Group Process ........................................135 Truth Telegrams....................................................................................................135 Queen of Destiny and Queen of Control................................................................137 Kaleidoscope.........................................................................................................138 THE CENTER (COLUMN) ........................................................................................140 Physically Marking the Center ..............................................................................140 Streaming..............................................................................................................141 Pulsing ..................................................................................................................142 Working in Concentric Layers around the Center ..................................................142 Using the Center for Personal Work .....................................................................144 Intention................................................................................................................146 Using the Center for Group Intention ....................................................................148 State Changes .........................................................................................................149 Emotional coherence of the group body ................................................................151 The Flock of Birds Phenomenon ...........................................................................152 Loss or Contraction of Energy...............................................................................152 Challenges in Group Process .................................................................................153 People Being Late .................................................................................................154 Expression of Strong Emotion...............................................................................155 Dissociation ..........................................................................................................158 Regression ............................................................................................................159 In or Out?..............................................................................................................160 The person who needs a bridge into the circle .......................................................161 The person who needs a bridge out of the circle ....................................................163 COMPLETION ...........................................................................................................165 Divestment............................................................................................................165 Closing Remarks...................................................................................................167 Clean Up of Space.................................................................................................167 Staff Debriefing ....................................................................................................167 WORKS CITED..........................................................................................................168

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My gratitude to: My first circle teachers at The Institute for Transformational Movement: Joyce Izumi, Thom Negri, Raoul Beacom, Betsy Beckman; My Body Electric circle teachers: my sweetheart and husband Collin Brown, erotic pioneers K Ruby, Isa Magdalena, and Chester Mainard; My sister temple artists and scientists: Alex Jade, Elfi Shaw, Helen Finch, Betty Martin and Chris Ingenito. My brother temple travelers Gary Dillon, William McMeniman, Michael Cohen, Gabriel Clark (who encouraged me to write this) and John Perez. Everyone who has ever made a circle with me. My academic mentor and friend Shakira Khan, for trusting me, and my program director Mei Mei Evans, for holding space for a new academia. My parents Jack and Martha Roderick for constant support. My sister Libby Roderick for more than I can say, Lauren Bruce for unconditional love, both of them for a home away from home. My beautiful daughters Ada Mayer and Molly Brown, for being yourselves. I love you forever.

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ABSTRACT

When we form a purposeful circle of people, we are intentionally constructing a spherical device which gives us access to a vast matrix; this matrix is an eternal living fluid field of energy which contains information from all existence. We can, using what I call circle technology, bring resource from this matrix to any aspect of our individual or collective lives which needs attention. The circle body is a holographic energy field similar to those found in our individual bodies and is an intuitive – already known – technology. The collective circle body generates an attentional state which can be used to enhance intelligence, access social understanding, and develop a multidimensional consciousness as an evolutionary response.

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INTRODUCTION The circle as a symbol is found in the artistic, spiritual and social practices of all human cultures in all times. Likewise, the physical experience of sitting, standing, and moving in circles has and does occur wherever humans gather, and this has been true throughout history. Why is this true? What happens when humans arrange themselves in a circle? Is there some magic that occurs, and, if so, how does it arise? What is the effect of the circle on the participants’ bodies, on their relationships with each other, and on their creative expression in the world? These questions have intrigued me as I have learned in circles as a participant and a leader for 20 years.

This manuscript is fashioned from my research and theory as I begin to answer these questions. To my eyes, there is an inherent technology to the circle itself, which resonates equally whether the circle be that of the earth, the group, or of a person’s body surrounded by their energy field. It is clear to me that the structure and function of this form of technology can be apprehended intuitively – therefore making it accessible to anyone – and that it can be intentionally orchestrated to produce profound results.

In Part I, I present theoretical understandings from a variety of perspectives that elucidate the technology of the circle: what it is, how it creates access to increased energy and intelligence, and how groups can harness its power for their purpose. Part II is the practical application of this theory in the form of a “Leader’s Guide” for those who use the circle format in their work. My purpose is to contribute to a deeper and more precise understanding of what circle work can mean to people, and perhaps to bridge a little of the distance between the realms of magic and my Western, science-based culture.

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3 THE INTUITIVE TECHNOLOGY OF THE CIRCLE

The Circle is a Technology Imagine a sphere of light which you hold in your hand. The sphere is filled with moving vectors of multi-colored light which cross its interior at every angle. The surface of the sphere is alive, a flexible membrane formed by liquid light. As you peer more closely into the sphere, you can see shapes within: a circle of points around the equator of the sphere; these points form the outer rim of a donut shape, which extends into the sphere and wraps around a central column; the column, which contains a moving double helix of light, ends top and bottom in trumpet openings, from which light fountains back into the sphere.

Now imagine this sphere expands to the size of a large room, and you can step into it. You are standing in the perimeter circle of points, each of which is another person.

Countless vectors of light shoot from your entire body to those of the others in the circle, each vector having a different intensity and hue. From inside you can see that the donut (mathematically known as a torus) is actually composed of countless figure eights which start from each person’s body and flow up and into the center, then down and up along the torus wall on the other side, like skateboarders who keep rolling in eternal lemniscate loops. (The lemniscate is what most people think of as the infinity sign, only threedimensional).

4 The central column stands like a great transparent tree, its spreading roots and branches equally visible, above and below. Inside the column you can see a double helix, the light in one spiral running up, while the light in the matching spiral runs down with equal velocity. These two spirals never touch, but balance each other in such a way that the empty space between them is potent with energy. You are inside a hologram, which is both generating from within you and already existent without you.

Fig. 1. The sphere environment.

In this environment, the air seems quite clear, and your vision seems finer, your hearing gently deepened. You feel relaxed and alert at the same time. When something is said in the group, you all understand it instantaneously, and you chuckle with your companions in the circle at how delightful it is to “be of one mind� (Narby 1998). You are in what I call your organic state.

5 The organic state is one in which we are deeply embodied and therefore aware of not only our own breath and fluids but also the fluid breathing of the earth and all her creatures, of the sky and weather and of all the realms which interpenetrate our human existence, whether we are in direct contact with them or not. This organic human state is rooted and fully extended at the same time, above and below the surface of the earth, like a spherical plant emanating out from the center of our bodies. It encompasses growth and development throughout our existence, and is therefore an evolution from our original state, which is still embedded in the whole. I believe that when the circle is fully activated, this organic state – all organs awake - is what comes to life in each body, like capillaries filling with moisture after a drought.

The Sphere I will be using the term circle throughout this book, but when I use that word to indicate a circle of people, I also mean the sphere of energy which they create.

Technically a circle is by definition flat: the set of points in a plane that are equidistant from a given point (Weisstein 2003). It is frequently used, however, to verbally and graphically represent a three dimensional, movement-filled experience of matter, space and time. The very common phrase “circle of life” includes the heavens, the stars, the spherical earth with all her living creatures, and the cycles of time. Another common phrase “As above, so below” may refer not just to a religious edict, but to actual directions out from the center of the body. If everything you see when you look up

6 (including your peripheral vision) is mirrored below you, then you are at the center of a sphere.

The pentacle symbol in the Wiccan tradition, a simple circle containing a star, represents many dimensions simultaneously: the human body, arms and legs extended, the unity of humanity and spirit, the charted path of the planet Venus in the heavens, and the cosmic egg (Ravenwolf 2003 9). This one flat line drawing symbolizes movement on and interaction between, every level of our existence. It also represents a particular tradition’s practice for circumscribing sacred space in order to comprehend and navigate the world.

I like the six-pointed Star of David, as a full diagram of the forces moving in a human body: an equal force moving up and down at the very center of the body, as well as along the extension lines of the four limbs. This also includes the pelvic floor, along with the extremities of the limbs and head, as an interactive portal in the body where energy flows in and out (Lowen 1980).

7 Fig. 2. The Star of David superimposed on Da Vinci’s Vitruvian man.

The very center is the procreative center of the body.

In sacred geometry, a study of the form beneath our being, the Star of David in its three-dimensional form is a star tetrahedron, two pyramids which interpenetrate and balance each other, creating a common center.

Fig. 3. The star tetrahedron (Wikipedia 2007).

If you draw lines connecting all points of the 3-D star, you get an octahedron, and if you spin this enclosed star tetrahedron on three axes – horizontal, vertical and saggital – you have a perfect sphere. (Melchezidek 1998 149-50) For later, file away the fact that the geometric center of the Star of David is a hexagon.

A Navajo sand painting, a flat diagram, is in fact a space, “a place where the gods come and go”, and delineates a ritual chamber where the Singer moves about, linking through touch the body parts of the supplicant, the Singer and the Holy Ones, in order to rebalance the patient’s sphere and effect healing (Anderson 2006). In Hindu cosmology, the yantra drawing of the two interlocking triangles represents the union of Siva and

8 Sakti, female and male universal forces, centered in the Anahata, or heart center; it is frequently used to denote the sacred enclosure of divinities, or thought forms, and is inseparable from them (Khanna 2003 21-28, 120).

Mandalas, circular geometric diagrams which show up in meditative and ritual practices world-wide, are another graphic use of the circle in which what appears to be a flat, closed model of circuitry is actually a moving, interactive spherical wholeness. The model of a mandala, in fact, and its above-mentioned cohort the yantra, perfectly expresses the combination of elements which I believe are at play in a circle of people.

Mandala/yantra patterns express the state of interrelated existence which I have called our organic state, a connection to all realms of existence which is deeply anchored and experienced in the body, and these patterns emerge from a primal source which generates similar archetypal forms in all human cultures (Khanna 2003 23-4). In other words, the patterns are not manufactured from the intellect and imposed on present time; they are patterns of reality which continually reveal themselves and are perceived through the senses again and again through time.

It is movement in space which brings the two-dimensional circle into a new dimension: as soon as it spins on any axis, the circle becomes a sphere (Lundy 1998 4).

Just as the circle of people generates a sphere of energy, a body in movement (or even in potential movement) is the center of a living sphere. Rudolf Laban, who founded movement schools throughout Europe and in America, diagramed geometrically a sphere of movement, the three-dimensional space which surrounds an upright, moving body. He drew this as a cube, with 26 space-direction lines radiating from a central, 27th point of

9 orientation (Thornton 1971 48). Irmgaard Bartenieff, a student of Laban who founded her own school in New York, called this a kinesphere, a spherical energy membrane delineated by all the points that our body could reach if we stood at a central point and extended our extremities along 13 axes in space. Her diagram is of an icosahedron, with 20 triangular faces and 12 vertices (Bartenieff 1980 33). This shape is commonly known as the geodesic dome, but imagine that dome fully built as a living sphere, covered with a luminous membrane, and filled with constantly changing energy. Human being!!

Let’s say you have a group of people standing in a circle. Each person is in their own kinesphere, or personal energy bubble, and all these individual bubbles touch and in some cases intersect those of the persons on either side of them. The circle is like a necklace of pearls which hum with a variety of energies, colors and sounds. How does this necklace of life generate an encompassing sphere for the whole group?

There are two perspectives you can take in answer to this question, both simultaneously true. The first perspective refers back to the word Intuitive in my title, because it comes from the point of view that the circle is something we simply know, something of which we have an immediate experience even though we may not be able to explain why. This perspective is that the sphere is a shape which exists at every level of matter, from the planet earth to the human body to electrons to quantum space to essence realms. When people form a circle, for whatever purpose, they are merely stepping into a blueprint of inter-dimensional access which has existed for all time (Sheldrake 1995 13).

Lone Wolf, an Odawa Indian from the Great Lakes region, describes the individual’s place in a pre-existing sphere of existence.

10 I see myself standing here in the center, and immediately encircling me is my family. Surrounding them are all our family members. Out from them are those who share my clan dodem. In a wider circle are all Odawa. Encircling them are all Indian peoples, then all people. Around them are all the ancestors. Out from them are all the animals and plants. Then come A-ki (Earth),Mishomis (sun), and Nokomis (Moon). The next largest circle are the great powers, or manidos. It’s everyone’s job to keep these relationships held together, across all the circles, and from their own place as center. When all are connected, that’s what we mean when we say, Mino gwayako pima’adizi, “he lives a good and honest life” (Pflug, Melissa A. 2000 122).

Activating the circle’s sphere through attention to its technology merely dials in access to multidimensional streams of information which are always present, but which we are usually too distracted to use. Journalist Lynne McTaggart, in The Field, describes how physicists Hal Puthoff and Russell Targ investigated for the CIA the phenomenon of “remote viewing”, the ability of some people to simply see or know information from “out of nowhere”. In their research findings, the scientists concluded that information was traveling at some low-frequency channel, and that remote viewers were accessing information stored in a vast energy field known as the Zero Point Field. Puthoff felt that people could sharpen their ability to interact with this limitless database of information.

With practice, people could enlarge their brain’s receiving mechanisms to gain access to information stored in the Zero Point Field. This giant cryptogram, continually encoded with every atom in the universe, held all the information of the world – every sight and sound and smell. When remote viewers were ‘seeing’ a particular scene, their minds weren’t actually somehow transported to the scene.

What they were seeing was the information that their traveler had encoded in quantum fluctuation. They were picking up information contained in The Field. In a sense, The Field allowed us to hold the whole of the universe inside us. Those good at remote viewing weren’t seeing anything invisible to the rest of us. All they were doing was dampening down the other distractions (McTaggart 2002 159).

11 A second perspective, which will influence the instructions given by a circle leader more directly, is that, through the intentional direction of the energy waves at our command (those of our own bodies and minds), we can concentrate energy in a way which constructs very specific wave forms. We can build an electromagnetic environment in the same way that we can – with the proper tools, materials and skills build a dance hall, and let its shelter and inspiration surround us as we move within it.

Once established in the structured container of the circle, the wave forms assist our brains in achieving enhanced awareness and the conscious intentionality to find the attunement that Hal Puthoff dreamed about.

Nikola Tesla, a brilliant physicist and inventor of the late 1800’s, understood that working with the patterns and templates of nature and the earth’s electromagnetic field would generate an unlimited supply of free energy for mankind, energy which could be put to a myriad of uses. His devices worked with basic principles of di-polar feedback loops, working in relation to a central columnar form, to generate a dynamic charge which would spread out in concentric waves into the earth’s ionosphere - a sphere encompassing the earth- and return, creating infinite repeating wave forms which humans could harness with antennae (Papic 2002, Tesla 2000 79 ). Our human circle work also generates a central stationary wave form which moves out in concentric circles, forming a sphere which interacts with other dimensions, or “atmospheres” surrounding that of our common, consensual reality. The enhanced energy inside this environment affects our bodies, brains, and overall mind in such a way that we have more energy and can

12 experience an enhanced intelligence, and can more easily access information as to how to navigate our daily challenges.

There is a matrix which is a living fluid field of energy containing information from all existence; when we activate a circle, we are intentionally constructing a spherical device which gives us access to this vast matrix. We can, using what I am calling circle technology, bring resource from this matrix to any aspect of our individual or collective lives which needs attention.

The Torus The basic shape of the environment, as I have said, is a circle of points girdling a sphere containing a torus (donut) in which stands a column. Let me address the torus shape, because it creates the column, which then outpours into the sustaining sphere.

Given the perimeter circle of people, a center point is automatically defined, and relational energy can move between center and rim. If you traced a single line which moved from one person into the center, over the other side of the torus, back to the center, and home to the person, it would form a lemniscate figure eight shape in its journey. A lemniscate, which many people know as a moebius strip, is a threedimensional curve form which flows in a figure eight, with a twist in the middle. If you cross-section a torus (donut), you will get a lemniscate.

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Fig. 4. A torus is made up of lemniscates (Weisstein 2003).

Many lines moving from each person to the center and returning will form intricate symmetrical patterns, as when a pendulum traces its journey in the sand. The mandala formed by the moving pendulum is a good representation of what the torus part of our circle technology would look like if viewed from above.

Fig. 5. The figure eight of the pendulum (Coppin 2005).

Each participant, by their repetition of attention, movement and sound in particular beat patterns, is relating to the center and creating an energetic feedback loop.

The intention and momentum of each body is given to the center and the center returns

14 energy to each. My experience is that attention and energy, when directed into and out of the center of the circle with rhythmic regularity, form a substance which flows from each individual in a moebius loop shape, the infinite figure eight. This substance has been identified as prana in the Hindu yogic system, as chi in Chinese philosophy and science, and is referred to by scientist and healer Barbara Brennan as bio-plasmic streamers, a particularly palpable description (DiCarlo,Russell E. 1996). As this constant flow of energy pulses in and out of the center, the lines of its flow could be charted as a torus shape formed by lemniscate loops.

I have considered that the pulses of energy from the people in the circle are more vector-like, shooting straight into the center and directly countering each other. In this case, the flow of the energy would travel from each person to the bounce-back of the center, then would fling up or down and back to its sender, creating a series of loops between the rim and the center. This tube of loops would create the torus. But in an experiential sense, you cannot stand in a circle and send energy to the center without being aware of and inclusive of others across from you. I think attentional energy must naturally flow into the center, over to the other side of the circle, and back in a fluid figure eight, many of which, like a three-dimensional pendulum, construct a torus.

Nikola Tesla, who fathered countless modern inventions including wireless technology, was motivated by hope that he might discover a way to generate endless free energy for mankind. One of his inventions was a Dynamo Electric Machine, the blueprints for which look like the pendulum diagram mentioned above

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Fig. 6. Tesla’s Dynamo Electric Machine (Tesla 1993 Ch.2, Fig.7).

He placed coils of conductive material in a circle around a central generator. The feedback loop, or current from generator to coil back to generator, emitted an alternating current of high frequency. What Tesla was most interested in was the energy field which resulted around the structure (1993 42). He saw his inventions as part of a vast sphere of energy waves surrounding the earth called the Schumann Resonance, and strove to interact with this enormous spherical energy field via his devices (Tesla 2000 79).

The Column

In 1999, I described the center as a column containing a double helix which eventually filled the circle with an energy like manta rays spiraling in a column of ocean, energy which people could use to clear their beings of distress and to access timeless potential (Martha 1999). I now think of it as an architecture of circuitry which lines up all

16 the centers: the center of the circle, or collective body with the center of the individual body, with the atomic center, thereby intensifying our natural potential to access universal information and create cellular transformation.

The columnar form in the center of the circle appears throughout world traditions.

Native American powwows start with the consecration of the land and the building of a circular central arbor, with a central fire, from which the drummers will generate the “heartbeat of the earth” for the entire dance ritual (Pflug, Melissa A. 2000 135-37). The purpose of the powwow is to regenerate the sphere of existence shared by all human and non-human dimensions. The universal energy can then flow freely into the central arbor and back out through the sphere to purify and transform individuals for their continued life on earth. The closing intention of the powwow radiates out in a spherical prayer: mitakuye oyasin, “For all the below me and above me and around me things” (Kidwell, Noley and Tinker 2001 50-51).

The Axis Mundi, or world center which connects heaven and earth, exists in many cultures and is represented at times by intertwined serpents around a shaft, and by depictions of the Tree of Life, a great tree which is the uniter of worlds (Wikipedia 2006).

The Tree of Life, its sturdy trunk topped by spreading branches mirrored by spreading roots at its feet, gives direct access to knowledge of other dimensions of existence, and provides guidance and rejuvenation to the human realm. There is often an entrance into, or emergence point out of the trunk of the tree, a portal into the vital central column of Life itself.

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Fig. 7. Yggdrasil, the Norse Tree of Life

Fig. 8. Celtic Tree of Life.

Anthropologist and ethnopharmacologist Jeremy Narby describes the culturewide Tree of Life as a shamanistic technology for accessing information which is used to heal people and navigate the world. For him, the metaphors of the spiraling double serpents and the tree of heaven, which describe a columnar pathway between the worlds, point to human DNA and its infinite capacity for creativity and transformation (Narby 1998 92-102).

The Raising of the Djed was an ancient Egyptian practice whereby a circle of movement and sound was used at the winter solstice to raise a central pillar of energy which aligned with the Pole Star. By aligning their own bodies, they could raise the spinal column of the god Osiris , and create a columnar link between Earth’s North pole and the Pole Star, thereby creating geophysical stability at a moment when the world was in flux (Timms 1994). Arising from the depths of the underworld, alchemized by the

18 erotic energy of Isis’s will and desire flowing into the ritual container, the Djed embodied an eternal wellspring of new life even in apparent death (HG 2002).

In Sacred Dance the central column is referred to as the vertical cylinder at the heart of the etheric temple created by the dancers in their paths of rhythmic movement (Watts 2006 136-141). The cylinder contains intertwined serpents on a path of resolution into the divine (Lorimer 2002 96-101). The Center is simply a chalice, a container in which energy, built up through repetitive movement, eventually overflows into the group.

The quality of the energy depends on the intention of the leader and the dancers: it can be for ill or for good (Watts 2006 140-141).

Physicist F. David Peat also describes a system of navigation into the world of powers and energies used in the far northern part of North America, Siberia and other parts of the Arctic Circle. Called the Shaking Tent, the ritual is only performed by skilled healers in urgent circumstances, for healing or to find lost souls. The small tent is wellanchored to the ground, but once the healer is within and begins the journey, the tent is often seen to spin rapidly – though still anchored - while many different voices and sounds emanate. It is said by those who sit in a circle outside the tent, that the tent becomes an energetic column of energy extending from the center of the earth into the sky, enabling the operator to utilize the universal energies to travel in pursuit of their healing goals (Peat 2002 295-6).

Another term coined to describe this transit tube between planes of reality comes from theoretical physics: the wormhole. A worm sitting atop an apple could inch its way around on the surface to get from end to end, or it could bore straight through the core to

19 the exit at the bottom. Physics has posited that wormholes exist not only between universes but also between space-time locations within our known universe; these tunnels could allow rapid transit between points which to our ordinary perceptions are separated, points such as moments in the past or future, or knowledge bases stored in areas of the universal “computer mind� different than the ones we use for everyday work (Lucien 1997).

But imagine again this sphere, containing a torus in the center of which is a column of energy. Earth herself (a sphere with a toroidal electromagnetic field), when hit by solar winds, becomes temporarily supercharged until a plasma fountain erupts at each pole, sending the extra energy back into the earth’s atmosphere (Carlowitz 1998).

If you looked down into the column from either end to see the fluid dynamics of the energy fountain from within, you would likely see unfolding flowers made from layer upon layer of hexagons, welling up and out from the center. This has to do with oscillation, or vibration, as the primary physical reality. Vibration has been categorized by frequency, and amplitude. Changing vibrational frequency on the string of a violin by fingering, for example, will result in different notes. Changing frequency in the light spectrum will result in different colors. Changing amplitude will result in different volume or brightness levels. Hans Jenny, the creator of Cymatics, a visually stunning process by which sound frequencies can be seen to take form in liquids, revealed a fluid yet uniform progression of shapes which predictably resulted from increasing the amplitude (loudness) of a tone. (Jenny 2001). Hexagons (among many other shapes) form as part of the progression of shapes which flow in constant kaleidoscopic motion in

20 response to the intensification of vibration. They form as the result of continuous dynamic flow of oscillation between the edge of the container and the center. The cover of Dr. Jenny’s book, Cymatics, features a radiant sunlike pattern composed of overlapping hexagons, which he calls a standing wave, formed by sound vibrations in water.

Fig. 9. Three overlapping hexagons formed by sound (Jenny 2001 121).

One expert on sound currents says the image is created by the sound-syllable Om (Van Dyke 2001 101). The Om sound is a seed mantra in Hindu cosmology, representing “the fundamental thought-form of all-pervading reality”, equated with the creative point in the center of the circle (Khanna 2003 37).

Although many shapes form as a result of vibration, I favor the hexagon as the likely shape to be fountaining most consistently inside the column of the circle. In

21 geometry, the pattern of shapes proceeds from a circle to two overlapping, to six circles around a central seventh circle, a shape called the Genesis pattern.

Fig. 10. Genesis pattern (Melchezidek 1998 153).

This shape is also seen in the Rose at the center of the Chartres Cathedral labyrinth (Artress 1995 59). Egyptologist Lucy Lamie considered it the key to the Egyptian tri-level system of consciousness (Melchezidek 1998 231). It is also known as the Star of David, at the center of which is a hexagon.

Hexagons also form geometrically as a function of two opposite, intertwined spirals inside a circle, a shape which I believe is occurring within the column and is described below. The electromagnetic field of the earth creates two spirals moving in opposite directions. This is why crystals which grow in the Northern hemisphere display a spiral structure to the right or clockwise, while those in the Southern hemisphere spiral to the left, or counterclockwise (Bowman 2003 9).When plotted on a polar graph – a 2D chart of the sphere of the earth, centered on the polar center, two opposite Golden Mean spirals point to two opposing triangles, with a hexagon in the center, a shape which in 3D

22 movement would be continuously generated by the infinitely moving double helix (see next section). This diagram is also said to be a top view of your energy field, which extends about 27 feet from your center out in every direction.

Fig. 11. Two spirals form a hexagon (Melchezidek 1998 223, 290).

The Helix Helix is the Greek word for spiral, and in mathematics refers to the curve in three dimensions (as on a cylinder or screw thread) while a spiral is a line drawn around a fixed point on a flat plane (Ward 2006 18). While the spiral expands ever outward with each whorl, the helix maintains the same diameter, and thereby concentrates the lateral energy of the spiral into a columnar form. I will use the word helix to describe the rotating energy inside the column, because it is the fact that these two wave forms keep each other in check which creates a field of energy (discussed below as a scalar wave) which expands into other dimensions. I will say spiral when I mean a conical, expanding form.

23 The column contains a double helix, with one course of energy which winds upwards while the other winds downwards, creating its own wave form of two opposite forces in complete equilibrium. The limitless power of this wave is due to the balance between the two forces, the energy generated by their paired dance. The full force of up must be met by the full force of down in order to find the generative source. I emphasize this paired directional reality, because in the Western culture there is still a huge bias to imagine that an upward direction in the body represents a higher, and therefore better consciousness. This is a dangerous assumption in that it pulls us prematurely up and out of our bodies and into an exhausting search for solutions in the realms of ideas disengaged from our earthly density. Sustainable trans-formation occurs through the interrelationship of our deep physicality with non-material forms. Perhaps at some point we will genuinely evolve out of our physical existence, but if that is what is called for, I do not think it will be by going up and out, but by going “through� matter, by becoming the universal essence within our cellular reality.

Spiral energy lines into and out of the earth have been charted by geomancers, dowsers and more recently by engineers with electronic equipment at sacred sites worldwide, locations which have drawn people from ancient times to access source energy for inspiration and renewal (Ward 2006 70-86). Through time, pagan circles and churches have come and gone on the sites. At these places where geophysical anomalies of extremely high and extremely low vibrations occur, people report that divine energy has a direct route down into matter, and those in physical form have a more direct channel to larger forces, whatever they may call them. In other words, the force of each spiral is

24 strong, moving from the center of the earth out into the cosmos, and from the cosmos into the earth, and this gives humans a sense of connection to other dimensions of existence.

The experience of the double helix which brings vital force to our consciousness is represented in countless world traditions as two intertwined serpents, or “divine twins” who create life through transformation (Narby 1998 62). These are also seen to represent a helical ladder, or braided rope, the symbol of the shamanic profession, by which, in the words of Mircea Eliade, “the Gods descend to earth and men go up to the sky” (Eliade 1964). Eliade says that this double helix ladder of the shaman is the earliest version of the axis mundi, found in creation myths as the tree of life (Narby 1998 63). The caduceus, two serpents intertwined on a rod, are today a symbol of the Western medical profession.

In Hindu Tantric metaphysics, creation begins with two inextricable elements, Sakti and Siva. Sakti is the potential power of the universe, represented by the circle, and Siva is the germinal creative force, self-awareness, represented by the point in the center of the circle. At first, this primordial consciousness – existing as a relationship of forces is akin to the Zero Point Field, in that it contains undifferentiated, infinite information about every aspect of existence. As the dynamic tension of contraction and expansion between Siva and Sakti begins to move, it generates life out in a dual helix form, a fractal pattern which draws inward and unfolds outward in a constant rhythm of relationship (Khanna 2003 70-75).

During one circle workshop (my experimental laboratory) in which we focused on building up the circle energy to stimulate the pineal gland and access visionary states, we unexpectedly generated the double helix form during a long structure which was designed

25 to build the energy in the center. People sat in facing pairs around the center, like spokes in a wheel. Each pair concentrated a loop of energy for 25 minutes. At regular intervals, one pair rotated into the center to utilize the energized space for personal meditation or healing purposes. Their vacated seats were always filled by a pair of assistants, so the continuity of the circumference of the circle was maintained. This created a torus composed of concentrated loops of energy. We were pulsing energy into and out of the center at regular intervals. At one point, as the energy built to a higher intensity, I spontaneously began running at high speed around the perimeter of the circle (this is not my usual mode of movement these days – I felt swept up in an energy current that called for articulation), and asked my colleague Helen to do the same in the opposite direction.

Intuitively, I wanted to fulfill this shape which emerged from the circle. I believe we were moving the double helix energy which was being generated by the torus of the group (Martha 2006).

A similar corkscrew magnetic field is referred to in plasma physics. Plasma is an ionized substance which is estimated by some to comprise 99% of the universe (Bhattacharjee and Gurnett 2005). The Madison Symmetric Torus device, a huge metal donut, first establishes a loop current called poloidal current which forms a magnetic field in the shape of a torus, which we did by sitting in pairs and creating loops of energy, a circular tube. The MST then shoots a stream of current – called toroidal current - along the tube of the torus, in order to create a corkscrew pattern of magnetic field lines within the plasma (University of Wisconsin 2006). Helen and I ran in this stream, describing the double helix field which was occurring.

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The Scalar Wave The confluence of waves meeting in the center creates a central wave form called the scalar wave – taking place at the invisible center of the columnar form in the donut hole. Scalar waves are by definition fifth-dimensional waves, beyond our threedimensional conception of time and space, so there is no good way to diagram them. A major distinction to keep in mind is that wave forms which we are accustomed to thinking of in this three-dimensional world are called Hertzian waves, and they are latitudinal or horizontal waves which move in one direction with varying amplitudes and frequencies. They are diagrammed as a single line form. A scalar wave is a longitudinal, or standing wave which can only be drawn as a dynamic relationship to another wave form, looks on paper very much like a double helix, and emanates its field in every direction at once, more like a concentric flow. It is beyond the confines of space and time, and in fact “oscillates time” (Bearden 2001).

Fig. 12.

A scalar wave form (Bearden 2001).

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Fig. 13. The scalar electromagnetic field (Bearden 2001).

Scalar waves occur constantly in nature, whenever a force meets its equal and opposite force. Dr. Valerie Hunt, a physicist at the University of California Los Angeles, writes about her laboratory’s investigation into scalar waves, first articulated scientifically by Nikola Tesla in the late 1800’s.

The literature states that the scalar wave is created when two common electromagnetic waves come together from two different converging vectors or angles; where the energy vectors meet the equal frequencies cancel each other leaving a standing or stationary energy. The space the scalar occupies is not a vacuum but alive with checked and balanced energies. The literature describes that it can be created by electromagnetic generators or naturally when similar frequency waves in the environment meet from two different vectors (Hunt 2000).

Hunt believes that when human thought and intent connects with the scalar energy at the nucleus level, any change or resetting of the physical body - and theoretically of the physical plane - is possible (Hunt 2000). In a simple example, scalar waves can be created when electrical wires are wrapped around a mobius coil frame (the lemniscate figure eight). The current flows in opposite directions, generating opposing

28 electromagnetic fields which cancel each other to create a scalar wave (Linsteadt and Boekemeyer 2003).

Tom Beardon is a physicist and engineer who believes that scalar energy resides in the nucleus of the atom, and that it is a repository for information (Patten and Hutchison 1991 4). Beardon describes a latticework inside the scalar wave, called the Whittaker structure, which contains all information in the universe in the form of quantum potential (Patten and Hutchison 1991 6). He feels, like Puthoff with the Zero Point Field, that we can evolve our awareness to the point where we can intentionally access and organize the potential in the Whittaker structure to our advantage in all areas of human development: healing, education, and genetic change (Patten and Hutchison 1991 6-7). With our awareness and practice of physical presence and conscious intention in the circle, we can deliberately place our bodies in resonance with the potential of this atomic latticework.

Let’s say you walk through a doorway just as your friend comes through from the other side. You both stop just before impact, and for a moment the space between you resonates with the impact you almost made. You both laugh or exclaim, discharging how much energy you just felt, and go on your way more alert from the wake-up of the encounter, perhaps contemplating all the possible outcomes the moment could have had.

Anyone who witnessed this near-collision would have felt its energy as well. I believe that scalar waves, which occur throughout nature, are like this: two waves, of water, of wind, of energy, of attention, bounce off each other in a way which kicks up a standing wave, one which hums with potential. We are just at the beginning of understanding how

29 much energy is contained in that space between the two of you in the doorway, and how we could learn to use that energy source.

A large scalar wave is generated at the center of the circle, by wave forms meeting there and neutralizing the momentum and direction of the other. The more exact science of these processes I must leave to physicists, but here is my understanding of what goes on.

The torus is formed by the continuous lemniscate loops of attention and energy which are being generated by the people in the circle. Once formed, the inner slope of the torus begins to generate its own wave form which radiates out into the center.

Simultaneously, the opposite, interior slope of the torus is sending out a wave form which directly mirrors its counterpart, and the two wave forms interfere, or check each other, creating a standing wave, a charged “empty� space.

THE BODY IN THE CIRCLE How is the body affected by being inside this environment? The first effect is profoundly physical – the body’s recognition that it is IN an environment, a container composed of the basic elements of human consciousness: awareness, in a body, in relationship to others in the same container. In the container of the earth and her atmosphere, we experience a constant flow of stimuli from every direction: the sky, the temperature, the creatures, the sounds, the insect world, and it affects our physiology. In the container of human civilization, we are stimulated by people and all our tools – our language, customs, and our technology – and it impacts our physiology. The container of the purposeful circle environment is built out of energy elements (of attention and physical movement and relationship) which emanate from the body, and in shapes which resonate with those of the body: sphere, torus, column, double helix, and scalar field.

Because these same shapes resonate within the circle and our bodies, being inside the 30

31 circle technology we are nested in a familiar hologram of energy fields. Cellular recognition is instantaneous, like a puzzle piece settling into place.

The Sphere As previously mentioned, Laban and Bartenieff described the kinesphere which surrounds each person’s body with potential movement (1980 33). This energy sphere surrounding the body appears in world traditions and spiritual paintings throughout history, with two well-known examples being the dancing Shiva in Hindu mythology, and Leonardo DaVinci’s Vitruvian man. Some traditions describe this surrounding energy phenomenon as an aura, and its shape is what is called an elliptical sphere, or egg (Brennan 1987 41). Within the body, spheres of energy called chakras in the Hindu yogic system are identified at the seven major centers where the nerve ganglia emanate from the spine (Judith 1999 11).

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Fig. 14. The spherical chakras, with the intertwined serpents, and the energy field of the body (Heartwood 2006).

We all begin as a dance of spheres; the perfectly spherical ovum (present in all life forms) takes in the sperm, which loses its tail to form a sphere; the two spherical pronuclei merge to form the zygote which becomes our body (Melchizedek 1998 18788). An even deeper principle of matter is that an atom exists in the spherical dance of electrons around their corresponding protons clustered in the nucleic center (Becker and Selden 1985 79-80). Recently, I saw a quantum image of an electron which looks exactly like a circle of people forming the outermost of several concentric circles around a central point.

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Fig. 15. Quantum image of an electron (Horgan October 2006 62).

The Torus Since 1991, the HeartMath Research Center has demonstrated through repeated studies that the electromagnetic field of the heart - the most powerful rhythmic field produced by the body – is a fat donut, a torus which extends 5-15 feet around the body (McCraty, Atkinson and Tomasino 2001 20, Oschman, James L. 2000 ix).

Fig. 16. Cardioelectromagnetic field (McCraty, Atkinson and Tomasino 2001 20).

34 Their studies point to this cardioelectromagnetic field as a transmitter of information which can be intentionally focused to create healthful communication between the organ systems of the body and between people (McCraty, Atkinson and Tomasino 2003 1-17). The toroidal field, generated by the heart, centers around the body axis and expands to encompass the whole body because of the helical flow of heart electricity through the vascular system and other tissues. With about 50,000 miles of blood vessels in the body, this system propagates the helical field to all of the tissues (Oschman, James L. 2000 77).

Russian scientists have plotted the topography of the electromagnetic fields emanating from the glands in the brain, and the shape is an egg-sphere containing a donut, in the center of which is a column with trumpet-shaped ends; they connect this column to the Einstein-Rosen Bridge in physics, which is a wormhole in space-time, a portal which makes it possible to perceive simultaneously existing dimensions (Leading Edge International Research Group 1997).

The Column The column of energy central to the body appears in countless systems of thought about how physical energy is organized (Judith 1999 14). In all cases a dynamic energy flow through the column is an essential ingredient. In the Hindu chakra system, the seven major chakra spheres line up along a column called the sushumna, which is the central integrating channel, or “superhighway� for transporting information between the body

35 and all other dimensions of existence (Judith 1999 17). What is called the kundalini energy, or the activated double helix (represented as intertwined serpents) moves up and down inside this column, generating vital force.

Fig. 16. Sushumna, chakra spheres, and intertwined serpents. Many texts show the serpents meeting at the third eye, or pineal gland.

Cabalistic tradition describes a Middle Pillar, with five major spheres which are located according to harmonic patterns of the etheric body – ether being identified with the Hindu yogic prana and the qi of Eastern medicine and martial arts - where it most potently resides in the physical (Greer 1997 158-62). The energies within the Pillar are corresponding spirals: the Invoking Whirl, which moves downwards to ground in the physical body and the earth, and the Expanding Whirl, which moves up and radiates out into the entire aura (Greer 1997 167).

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Fig. 17. The spheres of the Middle Pillar (Greer 1997 161).

In the very formation of our first cells, the spherical, fertilized ovum, develops a di-polar charge (movement to top and bottom poles in the sphere) along which a tube is formed down the center. In a fetus, and in our adult bodies, this tube extends from the fontanel, or soft spot on the crown of the head, to the perineum at the base of the torso, and in a newborn will pulse equally at both ends in a bidirectional flow of breath and heartbeat (Melchizedek 1998 188-91).

The Helix A most obvious double helix in the body is our DNA. The DNA molecule forms in the salt water of the cell – all cells contain salt water – into a ladder made up of two

37 ribbons with rungs of nucleobase pairs. Your genetic text is written on both ribbons, one the inverse of the other. The ribbons contain enzymatic technology to transcribe, repair and duplicate genetic text according to precision protocol. If your DNA were a continuous strand, it would stretch for approximately 125 billion miles – enough to wrap around the earth 5 million times (Narby 1998 88). One biologist says that DNA contains “over a hundred trillion times as much information by volume as our most sophisticated information storage devices” (Wills 1991 103). Wills also describes DNA as intertwined, duplicate serpents (1991 37).

The Desana tribe of the Colombian Amazon saw the corpus callosum of the brain as occupied by two serpents spiraling rhythmically from side to side, and individual awareness and integration is achieved by surrendering to their vital force together, rather than holding them in opposition. “Near the head of the serpent (the one which faces the front of the head) is a hexagonal rock crystal, just outside the brain; it is there where a particle of solar energy resides and irradiates the brain.” (Narby 1998 56-7).

In the Hindu practice, Sakti, the female vital energy winds her way up like a serpent from the base of the spine, opening each spherical chakra on the way, in order to gain mystical union with Siva, the male vital energy which descends in an answering spiral through the crown of the head. The upward current of liberation entwines eternally with the downward current of manifestation, to create the phenomenal and spiritual worlds (Judith 1999 30-36). This philosophy and practice can be used to achieve states of physical coherence with the vibrational worlds along a continuum. Meditation on these forms can produce beneficial changes in the nervous and hormonal systems, which

38 regulate all body processes and have a huge influence on mood and thoughts (Judith 1999 118). The physical practice of tantra, or sexual meditation in partnership, can also be directed to access states of vision and communion with spiritual realms.

In Taoist erotic practices, one is taught to activate one’s own Chi (Qi) through cultivating an energy loop in the body called the Microscosmic Orbit. Through this energy process, involving precise physical practices at different organ energy centers of the body, each lover generates a spiraling Qi energy which entwines with that of their partner in order to enhance life force for both (Chia 1986 261-263). In other words, precise attention to the inherent flow of energy in the body amplifies existing spirals, which then create energizing electromagnetic fields. In Taoist practice, it is possible by these means to enter the “visionary knowledgeable continuum”, from which one would return transformed (Picknett and Prince 1997 260).

In Egypt, the Alchemies of Horus, taught in the Temple of Isis, trained initiates in a process of ascending the seven seals (analogous to the seven chakras) by means of the Djed, which was the ritual to raise the spine of Osiris back to life and form a column to align the earth with the heavens. The two practitioners raise entwined serpents within their own bodies, opening the seven seals, and stimulating the pineal gland at the center of the head to create a blue fire called the Uraeus.

The Uraeus is often a blue fire that extends up the spine both laterally and horizontally and into the brain, and it undulates with the changes in energy within these pathways. The activation of the Uraeus increases the brain’s potential for intelligence, creativity, and, most importantly – receptivity, for the task of the initiate is to change the quality of one’s being so that the attunement to the Ba or Celestial Soul is clear and unobstructed (Kenyon and Sion 2006 32-37). (italics are mine)

39 It is said that by sending their serpents through each other’s bodies during sexual intercourse, the partners can create a potent magnetic field, centered on the womb, which generates limitless life force for the expansion of the consciousness to multi-dimensional realms – in their language, strengthening the Ka, or Soul Body. By the male, electrical element nesting within the magnetic, female field created at orgasm, the potency of both beings is enriched (Kenyon and Sion 2006 56-7).

Scholars of the Gnostic Gospels and early Christianity acknowledge that Mary Magdalene was trained in the techniques of Isis, and was the spiritual equal and essential consort of Jesus (Picknett and Prince 1997 257-61, Kenyon and Sion 2006 33-39). Some say that the Song of Songs is actually a liturgy to the sacred marriage, or tantric ritual, uniting the two (Picknett and Prince 1997 258). It is possible that the union of these two energies is what created the being (Christ resurrected) who could both return to the God source through death and yet remain visible to those on earth, a being who was truly multi-dimensional. There are also suggestions in the early texts that the ultimate spiritual development was that of the androgyne, meaning one who fully realized equal male and female energies within oneself (Leloup 2002 102-04). In alchemical tradition, the symbol for the ultimate process, the Great Work, is the hermaphrodite - Hermes and Aphrodite blended in one person (Picknett and Prince 1997 114). In all of these examples, the magnitude of energy which results from a balanced union of opposite or inverse forces is life-giving and evolutionary.

I believe that the immersion in fields generated by the double helix energy in the circle can give the same benefit to all participants that these partner-based sexual practices give: a more complete activation of the life force within each body, with

40 enhanced intelligence and creativity, and access to multidimensional streams of knowledge which can advance us on practical as well as spiritual levels.

The Scalar Wave

Innovative scientist Dr.Valerie Hunt, in her book Mind Mastery Meditations, describes how to create a scalar wave large enough to encompass your body. This exercise is so valuable as a physical experience of the scalar wave form, that I include it verbatim from Dr. Hunt. You can take a short break from reading and do it right now.

Don’t worry about the chakra part if it doesn’t seem resonant to you.

This exercise can be learned best by sitting. After acquiring the skill it can be repeated while standing and lying. ...Prepare your field by breathing through and spinning the chakras.

Visualize your entire body as a container where you will draw in electromagnetic energy with each inhalation, bringing it into the center of the body. Do not move it out or up or down, just in.

Start by breathing energy in through the front of your body, head to toe. Then focus your attention upon breathing energy through the back of your body, also head to toe, into the center so it meets the “front energy” and folds upon itself, going nowhere.

Next breathe through both sides of your body simultaneously, right & left, from head to toes. Let the energy again meet the same opposing energy building up and enfolding into a scalar standing field in the center of the body.

Now concentrate upon the top of your head and the bottom of our feet to breathe in energy until it meets in the middle of the body to enfold upon itself.

The center of your body is now filled with a powerful quiet pool of energy . Now is when the pool of energy expands outwards, through all your cells towards the body surface, like a balloon inflating. Allow this to continue until the center scalar energy has dissipated outward loosening tight muscles and connective tissue, and expanding the space between the cells.

41 Begin the process all over again but this time breathe from all directions into the center of the body simultaneously...When your scalar field is full you will start to experience its spontaneous even expansion towards the body surfaces. You focus your attention upon allowing this slow spreading apart of all cells giving them ‘breathing room’. The body area will seem larger and more resilient. (Dr. Valerie Hunt 1997 54).

Another good example of scalar waves in the body comes from the field of Acoustic Brainwave Entrainment, a term first introduced by Dr. Gerald Oster in 1973 (Thompson 1988). This is the study of the beneficial effects of sound waves on our brains. Neurophysicist F. Holmes Atwater says that when two sounds enter the head through the two ears, the wave action creates a standing wave (scalar) in each hemisphere of the brain. According to Atwater, it is the standing wave which entrains the brain by “establishing equivalent electromagnetic environments and maximizing interhemispheric neural communication” (Thompson 1988). When the brain is in a balanced state, many forms of intelligence are enhanced: people become more relaxed and physically capable, comprehension levels go up, memory becomes easier, and access to altered states is often possible (Center for Neuracoustic Research 1988). In addition to acoustic stimuli, other means of producing dual wave forms through the senses - side-to-side eye movement, touch to two sides of the body, even spinning - have been shown to activate information processing physiology in a way which allows bound attention to become free and available (Shapiro 1995 30, Flint 1994 7).

Scalar waves abound in the body, and are intrinsically connected to the infinity figure eight, or moebius loop. In the mitochondria, where energy is produced in the body,

42 the DNA forms a supercoil, which is a series of moebius loops. Each loop generates a scalar wave, due to the motion of its opposing electromagnetic fields. Most cells contain thousands of these moebius supercoils, all generating scalar waves (Linsteadt and Boekemeyer 2003). Blood circulating in the body forms a moebius coil, with the center of the figure eight being the heart, where venous blood passes through the right atrium, overlapping aortic blood moving through the left atrium. Just behind the heart, the lungs with their extensive capillary network store the neutral field energy of the scalar waves, becoming a battery for the energetic communication system that connects all cells (Linsteadt and Boekemeyer 2003).

THE BODY OF THE CIRCLE So a group of people have come together, with vibrating shapes, or electromagnetic fields in their bodies which are fractal units of a larger, identical, living hologram – the circle. Through proximity, and through following a protocol of activation, the larger body of the circle is brought to immediate life and assumes its own fields and its own resonant influence on the people within it. The body of the circle is a distinct energetic entity, which is much like an individual, with its own character, qualities, and quirks. On a metaphysical level, my experience is that each circle body has a distinct soul who calls us forth into a dance of learning and healing together. We humans give this circle soul a temporary corporality with which to partake of the world, and the circle soul brings its huge universal powers for us to use as a temporary resource for our personal inquiries.

The protocol of activation can be called ritual or curriculum, but a sequential building of elements is present in all rituals and teaching modalities, in order to develop

43

44 the full body of the circle. The important structural endpoint is that each individual has become fully present and is contributing to the energetic formation of the group body.

Barbara Ann Brennan uses an exercise which she calls the Group Hara Line. This requires that each person in the circle first align their own vertical line of energy which is called the Hara Line and consists of three major centers: a vortex above the head (the ID point where individuation from God begins); a sphere of diffuse light in the chest called the soul seat; and a small sphere of vibration 2 ½ inches below the navel, called the tan tien, which energetically connects with the molten core of the earth (Brennan 1993 289).

As people do this simultaneously in a circle of meditation, the Group Hara Line forms organically in the center of the circle, and it has the same energetic shape as does an individual hara line. Brennan says that the Group Hara Line represents the group purpose, and that any group aligned in this way will succeed without conflict (1993 300-01).

Fig. 18. Brennan’s Group Hara Line. Notice that the Group Line in the center has

45 its own ID point, soul seat, and tan tien grounding into the earth.

My ideas about the necessary basic elements for activating the body of the circle are detailed in the Leader’s Guide portion of this book. The basic sequence flows from a simple perimeter circle through activating vertical, horizontal, and saggital planes, and rhythmic entrainment of the body centers in both the individual bodies and the circle body. When fully activated, the circle body is a complex, vital body made up of all the basic geometries and circuitry found in our own individual bodies; it is, after all, a larger hologram of which we are fractal parts of the whole.

46 Fig. 19 & 20. The basic energy shapes are the same for the body and the circle body.

My experience is that the circle goes through stages of activation, which I call dilations, as it grows into a fully-formed energy body with its own strength and ability to affect all dimensions it interpenetrates.

Dilations

When a circle dilates, it literally expands, sometimes by a small amount, sometimes in a widening rush of release. I like dilation as a metaphor because it is so physical, and because it is necessary to the birthing process, which on an energetic level is exactly what the circle is going through; it is a body which is opening to allow an entirely new awareness to come through in a way which is organic and elemental, responsive to our midwifery but beyond our control. Dilations can be felt as a sudden clarity and space in the room, as if the walls just moved out a few inches, leaving a sense of spaciousness, like the moment of stepping from the woods into a clearing after a long hike.

A dilation is the result of a state change; energy vibrates at an increasingly higher or lower frequency until, suddenly, matter changes state and takes on different qualities and characteristics. State change is a property of matter; water can change its physical properties in relation to cold or heat; it can become snow crystals, solid ice, or it can boil and steam. In terms of a collective body, state changes appear to occur through an

47 instantaneous signal prompted by signals from the environment created in the container of the circle. Fritjof Capra, a theoretical physicist, points to a common pattern of organization in all living systems. He talks about networks as the fundamental selforganizing mechanism for all organisms, and networks nesting within networks of increasing complexity.

The first, and most obvious property of any network is its non-linearity – it goes in all directions. Thus the relationships in a network pattern are non-linear relationships. In particular, an influence, or message, may travel along a cyclical path, which may become a feedback loop. The concept of feedback is intimately connected with the network pattern (Capra 1996 82).

Capra gives a simple example of a self-organizing system in the image of a human community with an active network of communication. If one member of a community makes a mistake or commits an infraction, the grapevine will carry the news of that mistake and the results will get back to the offender along a feedback loop. The consequences of the mistake will ripple through the whole community via the movement of communication along feedback loops, and the whole group body will evolve accordingly, in what is called self-organizing. Capra talks about the need for a selforganizing system to have a constant stream of energy through it in order to create new forms, rather than being a finite structure with a completely static energy field. In physics terms this is called an open system operating far from equilibrium, and results in the spontaneous emergence of new structures and new forms of behavior (Capra 1996 85). In the circle, as dilations occur, new levels of consciousness are born, accompanied by new behaviors as the nascent awareness grows in strength.

48 Emergence theory is a field which demonstrates how the whole is smarter than the one, and how intentional behaviors emerge from the apparent chaos of living systems in an orderly manner. Steven Johnson, in Emergence, gives a memorable example of this in the case of a slime mold – an amoeba-like organism with no centralized brain - which mastered a maze to find the most efficient route to food (Johnson 2001 15-17). The slime mold could go suddenly from a collection of distinctly individual cells to a single body moving together, in order to reach the goal. At first scientists searched for the “leader” cells, the ones who gave orders to the others in order to organize their effort, but no leaders were found.

Two scientists in 1969 - Evelyn Fox Keller, a Harvard PhD in physics, and Lee Segel, an applied mathematician - published their findings that the slime mold cells were individually reading the signals in the environment, responding to the signals by emitting a chemical called cyclic AMP, and as the group reached a certain level of cyclic AMP, aggregation, or group behavior occurred. This theory, which was a breakthrough in the systems theory field, indicated that the smaller system’s ability to generate aggregate behavior for its own purposes was dependent upon signals from its global environment, and that the information which activated the aggregation came through the whole system at one time, like light penetrating a glass globe. In a group of humans in a circle, I believe that when the entire group reaches a certain vibrational frequency, a dilation occurs, and just as the slime mold became aggregate and mobile at a certain chemical frequency, the circle body dilates its awareness level to become a collective organism capable of new levels of problem-solving.

49 In our present case as humans, the signals from our environment appear to be in the form of accelerating levels of energy and complex information, which demand a response. Rather than collectively falling asleep in front of the TV, we need to get together to find our way through the maze, just like the slime mold does. We can use the circle to develop the power of successful aggregate responses to changing social and environmental conditions.

State change due to sound vibration is magnificently demonstrated in the images recorded by Hans Jenny, a Swiss scientist and researcher in Cymatics. Dr. Jenny (19041972) developed the Cymascope, or tonoscope, and this device enabled him to record over decades the forms produced in matter by different sounds. The device is essentially a plate surface covered with lycopodium(club moss) powder, sand or liquid (Jenny 2001 63-8). When sound vibration makes contact with the plate, the substance begins to move, and the universal shapes - circle, triangle, square, pentagram, figure eights – emerge like shifting forms according to the frequency of the sound. Intricate symmetrical mandalas show up, many types of circles, each rotating on its own axis, all breathtakingly beautiful.

Jenny emphasizes the sequences, or periodicity of the state changes, as expressions of universal patterns, and he marks that the shift from one state to another is always abrupt.

What we really see in these abruptly appearing patterns are qualities. And certainly the proposition that Nature makes no leaps (natura non facit saltus) does not hold true here; on the contrary here Nature does make quantum leaps in an expressive way: quantitative augmentation is accompanied by a corresponding gradation – corresponding discontinuities in which something qualitative appears, Natura facit saltus! The process in which quantity and quality are manifested here is also characteristic of another aspect of these harmonic vibrations: it demonstrates the periodic style according to which systems are built up in Nature (Jenny 2001 21921).

50 Jenny understood that his study, through sound, of the “morphology of vibration” applied to vibration levels of every kind; that he was ultimately illuminating what he called the “objective play of Nature” , the methodical sequence of shapes – with accompanying qualities - which formed in response to the application of sound (2001 214). In a circle of people you will find specific stages of group cohesion which take place, with different energetic qualities and creative possibilities at each stage. Educational psychologist Bruce Tuckman coined terms for these stages in 1965 which have more or less remained workable for the field of group organization since then: Groups initially concern themselves with orientation accomplished primarily through testing. Such testing serves to identify the boundaries of both interpersonal and task behaviors. Coincident with testing in the interpersonal realm is the establishment of dependency relationships with leaders, other group members, or pre-existing standards. It may be said that orientation, testing and dependence constitute the group process of forming.

The second point in the sequence is characterized by conflict and polarization around interpersonal issues, with concomitant emotional responding in the task sphere. These behaviors serve as resistance to group influence and task requirements and may be labeled as storming.

Resistance is overcome in the third stage in which in-group feeling and cohesiveness develop, new standards evolve, and new roles are adopted. In the task realm, intimate, personal opinions are expressed. Thus, we have the stage of norming.

Finally, the group attains the fourth and final stage in which interpersonal structure becomes the tool of task activities. Roles become flexible and functional, and group energy is channeled into the task. Structural issues have been resolved, and structure can now become supportive of task performance. This stage can be labeled as performing (Tuckman 1965 384-99).

In 1977, Tuckman reviewed 22 group studies with colleague Mary Ann Jensen, and they added a fifth stage:

51 Adjourning involves dissolution. It entails the termination of roles, the completion of tasks and reduction of dependency (Forsyth 1990: 77). Some commentators have described this stage as 'mourning' given the loss that is sometimes felt by former participants. The process can be stressful - particularly where the dissolution is unplanned (ibid.: 88) (Smith 2005).

I have seen this final stage described as transforming, which has an appealing ring to it, but I think adjourning more accurately honors the care that should be taken with what I call completion of the circle. I like Tuckman’s simple description of the stages of group development, partly because the titles are easy to remember and can be reassuring to a leader when puzzling behaviors are occurring in the group. It also fits with an even simpler three-stage ritual model - beginning, middle and end - in that most of the “work” gets done in the middle of the group’s evolution. A leader can plan on the initial formative stages moving into a creative middle, with integration and ending stages. If the container holds the energy, and if the vibration is steadily applied, then developmental stages of the group body will occur.

What this points to is the reliability of the circle to generate expanding levels of consciousness through state changes; the container of the circle is like the plate surface in Jenny’s tonoscope; the intention, movement and sound of the participants increases the rhythmic oscillations of the circle; state changes in the collective energy field will occur according to the morphology of vibration; these state changes produce dilations in group awareness leading to the birth of a next iteration of consciousness.

The experiential effect is that of letting go into a larger body which moves and breathes around our individual body. When a person can, for a while, let go of their

52 separate identity, with all its strategies and defenses, and breathe and move in a larger, trustworthy body, all kinds of core realignments become possible. While we may never achieve a perfect endless state of undisturbed continuum, a strong circle has integrity and vitality which can support the surrender of the vigilance of the “I”. The primary way in which a circle of people generate the shared field which I call the circle body, is through rhythm.

Rhythm Rhythm pulses at every level of our existence. The Schumann Cavity, first described by Nikola Tesla in 1899, is an electrical energy phenomenon which surrounds the earth between ground level and 80 kilometers up. A frequency pulse of 8 Hertz resonates in a constant way within this cavity (Tesla 2000 78). There is a periodicity, or rhythm, to the motion of the planets and the action of the tides. Certainly we know that there are rhythms to the seasons, the cycle of day and night, the nesting and migration patterns of the animals. Every culture has rhythms of work and rest, the calendar marking ordinary and non-ordinary days of secular and religious activities.

Our bodies have rhythms, too, of hunger and thirst, of waking and sleeping, of high moods and low. Our heart has a rhythm of 60 beats per minute at rest (Flatischler 2002 94). The brain has a “rhythm section” in the thalamus, which alternates between a period of oscillation for 1.5-28 seconds followed by silent, or “free-run” period of 5-25 seconds (Oschman, James 2000 96). These heart and brain currents propagate to every

53 cell in the body through the circulatory and nervous systems. Chilean neuroscientist Humberto Maturana saw the nervous system as a “circular organization” basic to all living systems: Living systems…[are] organized in a closed causal circular process that allows for evolutionary change in the way the circularity is maintained, but not for the loss of the circularity itself (Capra 1996 95-99).

The thalamic rhythms pulse throughout this circle of the nervous system; cardiac rhythm makes waves of electromagnetic, sound and blood pressure activity which are “felt” by every cell in the body (McCraty 2003 1). In those systems, as well as in every molecule in the body, water has been shown to be a semiconductor of electrical current, which flows in frequency and amplitude, experienced by us as unconscious rhythmic pulsation (Oschman, James 2000 59-62, 95). Felt or not, rhythmic pulses are filling our bodies at every moment of our lives, and in a group these pulses talk to each other at every level.

People’s rhythms come together in so many ways, and they form entrainment patterns. Entrainment is simply when two waves, or rhythms, become so closely aligned that they are moving in the same rhythm, a phase-lock. Moving in rhythm, by singing, or drumming or dancing, is our most obvious way to create an entrainment pattern, and humans have always moved together in rhythm. One practical reason for entrainment is simple; more and better work can get done by a group which is unified in its purpose and actions.

William H. McNeill, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Chicago, coins the term “muscular bonding” for the emotional and social bond which forms in all

54 groups of people who move in rhythm together. He identifies group rhythmic movement as a strategy for survival among humans through all time, and addresses its use for numerous purposes: skill transmission (when hunters dance their exploits in order to prepare for the next); social cohesion – and hence community viability - in the tribe or village; efficiency of repetitive or massive work tasks (like building the Pyramids); access to spiritual information through trance; and the promotion of military esprit de corps (spirit of the body) (McNeill, William H. 1995).

He surmises about the brain state created by keeping together in time: It has occurred to me that rhythmic input from muscles and voice, after gradually suffusing through the entire nervous system, may provoke echoes of the fetal condition when a major and perhaps principal external stimulus to the developing brain was the mother’s heartbeat. If so, one might suppose that adults when dancing or merely marching together might arouse something like the state of consciousness they left behind in infancy, when psychologists seem to agree that no distinction is made between self and surroundings (McNeill, William H. 1995 7).

It may be that when we are immersed in a collective, rhythmic body and not expending energy to maintain separation, our brains are most receptive to whatever intention, data, or learning occurs in our surroundings. McNeill is pointing to a human technology of keeping together in time which has been essential to our survival, and is therefore built into our genetic structure.

In MacNeill’s womb hypothesis, he is suggesting that collective rhythmic movement creates a containment experience and a rhythmic environment which can be felt by the entire body, en environment in which we can immerse and let go. In fish and in birds, the group movement of schooling or flocking reduces the burden of sensory processing and induces a restful waking state which gives increased energy to the bodies

55 of the participants (Kavanau 1998 269-79).

Dr. Brent Logan, creator of the BabyPlus Prenatal Education System, asserts that a mother’s heartbeat (generally 60 beats per minute when resting) is a sonic stimulus which “serves as an indigenous governor for the rate at which the infant’s beginning brain waves fluctuate” (Logan 1995). His work is built on the idea that the baby’s brain waves and consequent tissue development follow the rhythm of the mother’s heartbeat.

Logan has tested a program of audio stimulation for the baby by means of a belt on the mother’s abdomen. The program starts with a recording of the repetitive heartbeat of the mother at rest, and is played for a one hour sessions twice a day. Over a period of weeks, the audio tapes gradually increase the rhythm and complexity of the heartbeat sound. His theory is that “the fetal brain will be induced to accelerate the rate at which it compares and contrasts data, thus building memory banks for greater facility.” The babies who experience this stimulation – 25,000 mothers and babies using this since 1989 - are showing accelerated rates of brain development accompanied by greater relaxation states (Logan 1995).

Another use of sound vibration to enhance intelligence is through Acoustic Brainwave Entrainment. In 1973, Dr. Gerald Oster identified binaural beats in the brain – beats which are created when tones of different frequencies are presented separately to each ear. As the brain puts together the two tones that it hears, the brain hemispheres match frequencies, and become available for symmetrical processing. Binaural beat technology can be used with precision to change brain waves, to literally flex the capacity of the brain to reorganize itself for increased learning capacities as well as better mental and emotional health.

56 The research suggests that different frequencies affect the production of neurotransmitters specific to different brain centers, producing new neural pathways and thereby increasing learning ability, creativity, mental clarity and intelligence. Alpha and theta waves, both of them slower than our ordinary waking beta wave state, seem especially critical to supporting the true capacity of the human intelligence (Thompson 1988, Hunt 1996 159). Theta waves are essential to a process called Long Term Potentiation (LTP), which the brain must go through in order to store incoming information as memory (Thompson 1988).

The alpha brain wave rhythm is essential to a learning technique called Suggestology (the eponymous school and book are by Bulgarian psychiatrist Dr. Georgi Lozanov), in wide use in Bulgaria, the Soviet Union and France, which was reporting phenomenal results in learning new languages – up to 1000 new words a day, with excellent long-term recall (Ostrander and Schroeder 1979 15). Dr. Lozanov was in effect working backwards from his studies of people who possessed supernormal psychic abilities, yogis with supermemory, and instant calculators (people who can do complicated computations in a flash.)

Instruments showed that at the moment these people performed astonishing mental feats, their bodies were in a state of rest, their brain waves were at a relaxed alpha rhythm (7-14 cycles per second). They did not strain, will, or coerce the mind to function. It happened effortlessly. It actually seemed to happen because physical and mental effort weren’t involved (Ostrander and Schroeder 1979 63).

57 Most of us, when we do cognitive work which requires concentration, are in a beta wave state (13-40 cycles per second), with a certain degree of effort and tension in our bodies.

Lozanov would say that this effort impairs rather than improves our capacity to learn.

The essence of Superlearning is the synchronization of patterns: heartbeat, breath, external rhythm of the music or metronome, and the delivery timing of the new information. Baroque music, which was composed on the ratios articulated by the Greek mathematician Pythagoras (500 B.C.) – since these were perceived to bring about a sacred resonance most beneficial to the human body/mind – has a rhythm of 60 beats per minute, and has been found to be the best rhythm to create superlearning states (Ostrander and Schroeder 1979 84) .

Sentimentality aside, the mother’s heartbeat is the major rhythm upon which all human tissue was formed, cell by cell, so it is one we all intuitively know how to use to support our own vitality. When we come together in a circle, the heart rhythm in each of our chests begins to entrain with those nearby, and it can affect the brain waves in a positive way. The HeartMath research demonstrates that people within five feet of each other can entrain heart rhythms and can intentionally change those rhythms to influence the level of alpha rhythms in the brain of the other (McCraty 2003 4).

It is said that all human rhythmic structures are built on the heartbeat as the primary, fetal, rhythm. A beat then divides into two, three, or four intervals, just as a cell divides in order to generate new life (Flatischler 2002 92). It is the division of the beat into smaller increments which increases the frequency of the sound. In a superb form of rhythm and sound work called Ta Ke Ti Na (the syllables have no meaning), taught by

58 Reinhard and Cornelia Flatischler, people move in a circle to a central drumbeat, and slowly build up layers of rhythm as their feet step, their hands clap, gesture or shake a rattle, and their voices speak syllables on beat or backbeat. The leader calls out slight changes in step, hands, or voice, as well as shifts in beat emphasis, so that the currents of sound and rhythm are constantly changing. In this moving circle, a multidimensional attention is developed, as the movers’ bodies engage in polyrhythmic layers of sensation, and the movers’ minds follow multiple layers of attention (Flatischler 2002 94).

The multidimensional attention which emerges might be likened to states of meditation, where any effort to pay attention has been released, and as a result, the availability of awareness expands. I experience this – in both meditation and Ta Ke Ti Na - as an extra-clear intelligence, in which my mind is relaxed and spacious. All incoming information has equal valence; all is of interest, and my speed of comprehension and recall is swift to instantaneous. This brain state is well-described by Dr. Lester Fehmi of the Princeton Biofeedback Research Institute in speaking about hemispheric synchronization as “the maximum efficiency of information transport through the whole brain.” He says, Instead of feeling separate and narrow-focused, you tend to feel more into it – that is, unified with the experience, you are the experience – and the scope of your awareness is widened a great deal, so that you’re including many more experiences at the same time. There’s a whole-brain sensory integration going on, and it’s as if you become less self-conscious and you function more intuitively (Fehmi and Fritz 1980).

59 Rhythmic entrainment of the group creates a rhythmic environment which in turn affects the sensory-motoric system to support a more spacious, capable state of awareness where multidimensional intelligence is inherent. Rhythm established by the group oscillation, at the subtle or gross levels – establishes an entrained, collective rhythmic environment and produces a more unified state of collective intelligence.

And rhythmic entrainment leading to dilations in the group awareness does not depend on structured rhythmic exercises, but on the organic entrainment of existing rhythms in the body. Dr. William Condon, of the Boston University School of Medicine, elucidated the fact that people in conversation will unconsciously entrain their body movements to each other and to the voice of the speaker. Condon states that this form of entrainment …appears to be a universal characteristic of human communication, and perhaps characterizes much of animal behavior in general. Communication is thus like a dance, with everyone engaged in intricate and shared movements across many dimensions, yet all strangely oblivious that they are doing so. Even total strangers will display this synchronization… (Judith 1999 251).

At the group level, entrainment can arise from moving expressively and making sound together, without a directed rhythmic structure. In the 1960’s, Dr. Price Cobbs, a black psychiatrist, and George Leonard, a white founder of Esalen Institute, conducted interracial encounter groups, where black and white participants had very different speech rhythms. People were encouraged to speak out their fears and resentments. After an initial period of painful, slow group energy, the rhythms would eventually pick up until everyone was shouting and stamping their feet, reaching a fever pitch until some of the shouts and curses began to turn into laughter. They describe:

60 Then a strange thing happens: the entire group suddenly stops, then begins again, then stops, then begins again more quietly – all in perfect rhythm. After this the encounter resumes with a new tone of tenderness and ease. It’s as if the pendulums of understanding are swinging together, the heart cells beating as one (Judith 1999 252).

Time The ability to include many more experiences at the same time is also a change in the individual’s perception of time itself, and this shift in perception must be cultivated and allowed to resonate in the space of the circle. We are all accustomed – entrained, if you will, by our educational system - to arrive at a meeting or gathering expecting to receive information. Education, as a socially organized entity, is set up to insert selected types of information, which the culture has deemed important to function and survival, into the students. How this is done goes to educational philosophy, but it still boils down to a prescribed list of topics or skills being inculcated into a group of students in a certain amount of time. Therefore, whether the curricular goals can be met in the expected time frame becomes a reference point driving educators and educational institutions. A students’ experience of time pressure can put them into a hyper-function state or can cause their circuits to jam entirely. Time pressure can activate the visceral fight-or-flight response, which has a direct effect on which part of our brain is available to attend (Dennison and Dennison 1989 19-20, Hannaford 1995 160-176).

61 So, in the circle, how much time do we actually have? Again, this is a complex question, the answer to which is very different in different cultures. What we know is that the sense of time and the brain’s processing speed can both be changed through the influence of rhythmic frequencies applied to the body. Studies show that people in a slowed-down brain state, or who perceive that they have more time than that shown on the clock, can dramatically accelerate their learning performance (Ostrander and Schroeder 1979 69,314). More learning can be accomplished in much less clock time if the sense of time is spacious via the rhythmic environment.

Flatischler credits the interval between rhythmic beats as the location of endless time.

The message that lives in the interval says, ‘you have time and space.’ I find it particularly helpful to remember this at stressful moments. Conventional time is only a construct of our mind, sometimes a force which makes our daily life seem rushed. When you enter the intervals of a pulsation deeper and deeper they lead you to timelessness, they guide you to a simultaneity of deep silence and pulsating movement (Flatischler 2002 30).

This experience of the timeless now is sought after in many meditative practices, which often involve a similar route through physical practice as that we are following in the circle: create a grounded container in which creative energy is free flowing, and focus intention in order to access the full field of resource (which some might call the Divine).

The difference is that we are weaving our individual abilities to attend and intend, into a larger body with which to access timelessness, with, in my opinion, larger results for the individual and for the entire field.

62 Between

Resonant with the experience of timelessness, the space Between is a doorway into the fluid matrix of infinite potential; in fact, it is perhaps the most powerful element at play in the circle. This Between is potent because it is created by relationship and therefore always moving and vibratory. It can be felt in the silence between drum beats, the pause while speaking, the moment of possibility when two people arrive face to face, the spaces between bodies. Our mind tends to focus on action, and we tend to think of “what is really happening” as a narrative string of actions (He did this, and then I said that, and then we went there…). But the Between spaces resonate with a deeper, quieter potential which is a fractal of the vast energy created at the very heart of the circle, and as a leader you want to notice and cultivate this Between element in order to strengthen the vitality of your circle.

The simplest way to visualize the Between is through the most generative shape in geometry, the Vesica Pisces. The Vesica is the almond-shaped space which occurs when two circles overlap. It also symbolizes the “joining of heaven and earth (the Hieros Gamos, or sacred marriage of opposites), the Hermetic doctrine of "As Above, So Below" and is the major symbol for the cosmic temples of this age in the west, the Gothic cathedrals (Shirts 2003).

Robert Lawlor, a mathematician specializing in Sacred Geometry, views the Vesica from a metaphysical viewpoint in the following diagram, where it expresses as the realm of the human, to live between changing and unchanging principles, balancing complementary poles of consciousness.

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Fig. 21. Lawlor 2003 32).

Lawlor also makes a multi-dimensional connection mathematically, in describing the activity of the square root of 3 in the construction of the Vesica and eventually the hexagon as a basic form.

Thus the square root of 3 is linked to the formative process, and this connection is further clarified when one observes the relationship of the Vesica and the square root of 3 to the hexagon, which is the symmetry of order for the measure of the earth, the measure of time (through the 360 degree of the Great Circle of the heavens), and also the basic formation of mineral crystals, especially of the carbon bonding patterns which allow for the formation of all organic substances (Lawlor 2003 33).

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Fig. 22.The hexagon is the result of Lawlor’s geometric proof of the Square root of 3 proportion in the Vesica Pisces

This vesica shape is seen world-wide, as an indication of sacred space, a liminal portal of transformation (Moore 2002). In Christian icons the mandorla (derived from almond-shaped) encircles the sacred figure with protection and power (Jensen 2005). And the contemporary Icthus symbol, the stylized Christian fish, was used by early Christians as a secret symbol to be scratched on walls, the first person scraping a circle, and the second an overlapping one (Moore 2002).

It is no accident that the shape of the vesica is also a vulva, a portal of life, a place where new forms emerge into our world. Sheela-na-gig is a figure who appears on churches throughout England and Ireland, displaying her yoni (vulva) as a source of life and a place of protection (Harding 2007). In the Hindu pantheon, the goddess Lajja Gowri displays her yoni as the tap root of spiritual fertility which blossoms like a lotus of enlightenment in place of her head (Kamat 2006). One of my personal favorites is the goddess Baubo, who came to Demeter, the Greek Earth Mother when she was in her

65 darkest despair about her daughter Persephone’s banishment to Hades. Baubo danced for Demeter, and showed her yoni; this caused Demeter to laugh out loud, and the possibility of new life began in that moment. This “flashing” dance of regeneration shows up with Baubo dancing for a grieving Isis in Egypt (when she believed Osiris to be dead and dismembered) and among the shamanistic Melissae, the female Bee Masters, it is a gesture to dispel unbalanced energies to prepare a ritual area (Schwarz 2007, Buxton 2004 167).

Whether expressed mathematically, religiously, or mythically, the vesica shape indicates the boundless energetic potential in the Between spaces. In the circle, we are each moving in a sphere of energy, our own kinesphere. As we interact with others, this Between space, where the spheres overlap to varying degrees, is constantly being activated; the vesica portal is constantly being formed, inviting creation, generating energy.

As this Between space activates with potential, we have access to greater realms of information. This is because all information is stored between particles, in wave forms which are in constant motion. Lynn McTaggart, author of The Field, describes how waves encode information: One of the most important aspect of waves is that they are encoders and carriers of information. When two waves are in phase, and overlap each other – technically called ‘interference’ – the combined amplitude of the waves is greater than each individual amplitude. The signal gets stronger. This amounts to an imprinting or exchange of information, called ‘constructive interference’. If one is peaking when the other is troughing, they tend to cancel each other out – a process called ‘destructive interference’. Once they’ve collided, each wave contains information, in the form of energy coding, about the other, including all the other information it contains. Interference patterns amount to a constant accumulation of information, and waves have a virtually infinite capacity for storage (McTaggart 2002 26).

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Information is transmitted between people, between states, always in movement, in relationship. In our emotional lives, it is often as someone leaves or dies that we suddenly speak truths which could not come to the surface prior to the imminent state change. My yoga teacher Nirvaire Singh used to say that it was good for a baby, when her neck was strong enough, to be tossed from one parent to the other, back and forth. He said that it was in the air that the baby experienced her true nature (as well as much chuckling). It is through her suspension in space between parents that the baby “knows” her true nature.

When I interviewed computer programmer Eric McRae, he explained the sequences of electronic impulses coded as 1’s and 0’s, which would transmit information almost instantaneously across the globe. “But where is the information”, I asked “Where is it physically existing?” He shrugged and replied “It’s between the 1’s and 0’s.” In my mind, this means it is the moving state change from a 1 to a 0 which carries the particle of information.

Jeff Thompson, in his article on The Scientific Research Behind Acoustic Brainwave Entrainment, notes that, “At the brain wave pattern at the juncture between alpha and theta rhythms, often called “the crossover point” by neuroscientists, subjects have experienced some remarkable changes. Houston therapist William Beckwith has reported that in his clients the experience of this crossover point is often accompanied by “the seemingly miraculous resolutions of complex psychological problems.” (Thompson 1988).

Drum circle facilitator Arthur Hull addresses the circuitry of the circle: if we want

67 to achieve a goal, small or large, circuitry must be laid down as we master, through repetition, the connections between body and brain required by the task (Hull 1998 87).

The task of eating food with a utensil becomes automatic because the circuitry has been forged by eating again and again. Hull generates exercises for activating peripheral vision, hearing and feeling in a circle of moving people. Participants move from their place on the rim of the circle into the center and back out to a spot elsewhere on the circle, in smooth figure eight patterns. Hull instructs movers to look for the spaces between to move into, in order to create unbroken flow. He talks about an energetic locale in the circle when all three periphery senses of vision, hearing and feeling come together: “When they are operating simultaneously in an ongoing circle, it is like standing inside the calm center of a whistling hurricane, where time has stopped, and you have all the time, information and knowledge you need to do the right thing.� (Hull 1998 56-66).

Reinhard Flatischler, in his Rhythm of Life workshop, referred to the universal matrix which we access through rhythmic movement and sound, and mentioned that the way into the matrix was between the 3-beat rhythm and the 4-beat rhythms which we were creating. In his writing, he calls this simultaneity; when our attention is truly engaged with two or more rhythms at the same time, we are in fact simultaneously occupying two or more different worlds at the same time, and this space between our streams of attention is in fact the portal to the matrix of multidimensional reality (Flatischler 2002 76). According to Master Nobuo Shioya, a revered Japanese physician who is 103 years old and in excellent health, intention is the force which makes healing and accomplishments real in the three-dimensional world, by gathering ghost particles

68 which exist on the border between the third and fourth dimensions (Emoto 2004 143).

And finally, in The Gospel of Mary, the nous, which exists between soul and psyche, is a way of perceiving, a faculty of mind between subjective and objective reality, which permits sight/perception of the divine realms. The nous is an inner element which one already possesses but must discover, an ability to directly address infinite wisdom and love. “There where is the nous, lies the treasure.” (Leloup 2002 115-125).

Crystalline Circuitry

Throughout the research and writing of this project, the hexagon shape kept intruding on my awareness. I decided I had to heed my own advice about second attention, and observe the glimmering shape at the periphery of what I thought I was doing.

I had a dream about the hexagon of the honeycomb, so I studied bees, and found that they intuitively build their near-perfect hexagonal cells according to the electromagnetic field of the earth, which if you diagram it geometrically on two axes, is hexagonal. (For that matter, they also do a figure-eight “waggle” dance to deliver specific information about the location of nectar.) I read a wonderful book called “The Shamanic Way of the Bee” in which the door to the final initiation dance is created in a ritual in which the male and female participants first establish entrainment through rhythms of a full-body lemniscate movement, which leads into the whirling together of the male and female energies in a wild double helix (Buxton 2004 118-126). During the final initiation,

69 which the author undergoes alone, a single snowflake (a perfect hexagon) falls into the fire before the initiate truly goes into the realms beyond this physical plane (Buxton 2004 174).

A beautiful body of work by Masaru Emoto, in which for decades he photographed water in its crystalline form (hexagons) as it responded to different forms of music and communication, points to water’s extreme conductive sensitivity to thoughts and intention. Emoto frequently experimented with circles of people concentrating a single thought into the water sample. In 1999, Master Shioya and Dr. Emoto participated in a gathering of 350 people who were invited to chant prayers for peace to Lake Biwa, Japan’s largest lake, which was annually beset with putrid algae. The algae did not reappear (Emoto 2004 145).

Emoto surmises that the mass of 350 people praying out loud with a unified intention created 2,000 kHz of ultrasound (an inaudible vibration coming off the audible sound); 1,100 kHz of ultrasound has been shown to create tiny air bubbles in water and decompose dioxin and other deadly toxins. He applies the mass, or number of people praying with intention, to Einstein’s theory of relativity, the well-known E=MC2, but conjectures that C could stand for consciousness as another expression of the speed of light; this would mean that the number of people bringing a focused consciousness to a task could create an exponential amount of energy for the accomplishment of that task (Emoto 2004 144-147). A more precise application of the saying “Strength in Numbers”!

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Fig. 23. Lake Biwa water before the prayer.

Fig. 24. Lake Biwa water after the prayer (Emoto 2002)

The hexagon in the center of the Star of David (and, I believe, moving inside the column at the center of the circle), also brought me into contact with the Merkaba, which I earlier described as the star tetrahedron, the three-dimensional version of the Star of David. In several traditions, the Merkaba is a vehicle, a chariot or a form of transport

71 between dimensions (Melchezidek 1998 5,Wikipedia 2007, Ezekiel1:4-26 1987 1037-9).

In the Biblical description of Ezekiel’s vision, the four living creatures which emerge from a flash of light have a very fractal, lattice-like quality; they each have four faces and two sets of wings, which are joined together with great regularity and which move as a piece. Ezekiel also says the vehicle was made of beryl and of sapphire, which are both crystals shaped on four axes (Simpson 1997 38-9).

The “work” of this arrangement appears as wheels inside wheels, which reach a great height, and which move with the quadrant of creatures. The four-shape is an activated portal, and the wheels could be a spiral or columnar form, which, moving away from Ezekiel, appears to reach great heights. Each of these wheels has four eyes upon it.

In a vision state, I have seen what I call the Avenue of Eyes, an expansive boulevard of light and eyes leading to a tiered structure covered in more light and eyes. My personal experience is simply that of consciousness awakening within me by connecting to other dimensions of existence.

In more recent work called The Flower of Life teachings by Drunvalo Melchezidek, the Merkaba is described as “…an interdimensional vehicle (Mer-Ka-Vah means chariot in Hebrew) that will help us return to our original higher state of consciousness” (Melchezidek 1998 5). The Merkaba is an energy field which can be created in the body by a precise Egyptian system of setting star tetrahedrons spinning to create a double helix. One thing I appreciate about this body of work is that it acknowledges that we cannot apply a mental understanding of the Merkaba “machine” without the heartfelt comprehension of unconditional love. In other words, the essential “fuel” for the vehicle is the light which emanates from our open hearts. This is a

72 metaphysical fact which you can see demonstrated in circles and groups everywhere. An entire ritual or curriculum can take place, but if the heart of understanding and compassion is not ignited, the center of the circle will not fully form, and people will leave with a hollow or isolated feeling. On the other hand, a heart-ignited circle can hold strong through all kinds of errors and wobbles; this is because the heart-opening causes the torus to be vibrant, which causes the center to fully activate, with all the resulting benefits of change energy and access to multidimensional reality.

The hexagon also led me to a very simple model for how the body of the circle functions to distill vibratory energy from the infinitely potential to the humanly useful levels. This model is something which grows from the earth, has a lattice-like molecular structure with spiral chains, and is a circuitry for the transmission of electrical and vibratory energy: the quartz crystal, a hexagonal form if viewed from above (Bowman 2003 9, Simpson 1997 32-42). What I like about this model is that the crystal does not produce energy, but temporarily contains and amplifies a universal energy which exists everywhere. It does this by positive silicon ions and negative oxygen ions moving along its lattice circuitry (Simpson 1997 42). James Oschman, a foremost scientist in the field of Energy Medicine, describes the organization of the body’s connective tissue, cytoskeletal and nuclear molecules as a living matrix with a crystalline structure. His point is that optimum health and performance arise as emergent properties of the living matrix, only when all elements of it are connected, just as the conductive properties of a crystal emerge as a function of the whole, and, I would say, just as the beneficial energy effects of the circle arise from the interconnectedness of all present: A crystal cannot be described in terms of its constituent atoms alone. A crystal can contain within it a variety of entities (such as electrons, protons, phonons,

73 plasmons, holes, excitons, solitons, polarons, and conformons) that arise as emergent or collective properties of the crystal system. When the crystal is broken into its constituents, these peculiar particles and entities disappear, or at least their properties are drastically altered. Moreover, the important, even vital, collective properties cannot be predicted from study of the system’s components, taken one by one (Oschman, James L. 2000 89).

The Quakers say a meeting for worship is “gathered” when a collective arrival at a certain quality of presence is reached. No one can predict or cause this “gathered” presence to infuse the group, but when it happens, you know it. A deep quiet peace blooms inside without effort. No one person can get “there” by themselves. I have noticed, and heard others remark, about how the special intelligence of the circle, so palpable when we are gathered, can’t be touched in the same way out of the circle; you remember that you were in something powerful, without being able to recall exactly what it was. Circled, we experience a living matrix which can only be perceived when we come together; there is a level of information flow, a conductivity between people and between dimensions of reality, which is a direct product of the collective body.

Oschman paraphrases the means of crystal conductivity as described by Professor Albert Szent-Gyorgy in 1941, In crystals, a great number of atoms or molecules are packed closely together in a lattice arrangement. The bonding electrons that hold the crystal together, which are called valency electrons, are actually mobile. They are not fixed in place, they do not belong to any particular atom, molecule, or bond, but instead they belong to the whole system. Hence a great number of atoms or molecules can join together to form an energetic continuum. Energy, in the form of excited electrons, can move about within the crystal lattice (Oschman, James L. 2000 59).

This energetic continuum property of the crystal lattice has been used throughout time to transmit information: between bodies in the case of hands-on healers using crystals; between dimensions in the case of shamanic traditions, where crystals have been

74 used for thousands of years; and more recently between points on the globe and beyond in the form of crystal circuitry in computer technology (Simpson 1997, Bowman 2003, Narby 1998 57, Matthews 1992 109-11, Harner 1990 108-12). Oschman himself has experimented with circles of people in which they entrain breath and heart rhythms and establish a circular energy flow through the hands before letting the current act on an individual, with healing results. His idea is that “the essence that nourishes the living matrix, and that is lacking in those places of disorder or pain, is information….Once supplied in the pure form that can only come from another organism, the information directs the repair systems of the body to repair themselves.” (Oschman, James L. 2000 245-7).

In the circle body there are infinite streams of information which are flowing like currents in the sea: intuitive, quantum, archetypal, electromagnetic, erotic, intellectual, emotional, and spirit realm streams, to name just a few. We select what we are looking for. Native Americans believe that contact with the spirit world, for instance, gives you the necessary information about how to conduct yourself in the world and interact with your environment and with your fellow human beings; that stream of information (the spirit world) is therefore critical in that culture to defining your choices and actions (Kidwell, Noley and Tinker 2001 15-16).

But it is not only the selection of information which informs the quality of life, but also the means by which the information is selected or obtained. The circle body, like the crystal, activates a living matrix of circuitry which taps into the quantum lattice inside the scalar wave at the center of the circle; in this level of access, we can directly “know” constellations of information which transcend time and space; and in doing so we

75 intrinsically share, or feed back this knowledge with the circle. This is a different kind of knowing than the competitive acquisition of proprietary information. Also, these experiences of “knowing” are not just temporary, “altered-state” experiences. The transcendent function of the brain, activated in what are called hybrid states of consciousness - between conscious and unconscious, between neurological and psychological, between rational and irrational – has been shown to have life-long effects, in new neural pathways, newly found energy, and creative solutions from the whole brain (Ross 1986).

And this selection of information is not just a one-way extraction of energy for our own ends, as is the current practice of managing energy resources from our globe. By using the energetics of the circle to immerse, or participate in the fluid field of the universe, we certainly benefit, but we do so by taking our place in a vast interconnectedness, rather than by insisting on manipulating matter through analytical means alone, an immature method which cuts us off from unlimited streams of information and inspiration. At least one evolutionary biologist, Darwin Sloan Wilson, feels that the intelligence of the collective body can be developed to promote a harmonious consciousness necessary to our survival (Angier 2007 17).

In closing, I’ll return to physicist Hal Puthoff’s vision of The Field: Hal… realized that this represented nothing less than a unifying concept of the universe, which showed that everything was in some sort of connection and balance with the rest of the cosmos. The universe’s very currency might be learned information, as imprinted upon this fluid, mutable field of information. The Field demonstrated that the real currency of the universe – the very reason for its stability – is an exchange of energy. If we were all connected through The Field, then it just might be possible to tap into this vast reservoir of energy information and extract information from it. With such vast energy to be harnessed, virtually anything was possible – that is, if human beings had some sort of quantum structure allowing

76 them access to it. But there was the stumbling block. That would require that our bodies operated according to the laws of the quantum world (McTaggart 2002 36).

Through aligning ourselves in brain and body, in space and in time, with the universal shape of the circle, we have activated a structure which is tuned to many dimensions: sensory, vibratory, electromagnetic, cosmic, but also subatomic. From a quantum physics perspective, we are merely apprehending information which is already there, picking it up like a television channel.

What this means to us is that, as information is transmitted to the group from an external source such as the environment, we can receive the information through the entire group, and our collective ability to integrate the information will serve each individual. The holographic recording of information by the whole group means that more information is available to everyone, because we intercepted the information with a wider “net� than any one of us could create. At more advanced levels, this circle technology can be used to intentionally access specific channels of information which are stored in the Zero Point Field; the collective intelligence and capacities to comprehend with between perception can be applied in realms of education, healing and the evolution of consciousness.

If we do honor the value of multidimensional attention, what we need is a device which receives and transmits many streams of information simultaneously. We need a device which, like a wireless computer, has immediate access to unlimited streams of information that we can call upon or direct at will. We already have the device, and it is our collective body. We are the technology for change.

LEADER’S GUIDE

A circle leader is like a symphony conductor; the conductor appears to be merely standing in front of the musicians and waving a little wand, but in fact it is the conductor who knows, feels, and invites every note of the symphony into sound at the precise moment it is needed to create a collective experience beyond the written music or any one of the instruments. The conductor’s technical skill as a musician, a translator, and an engineer is perceptible only by the way the audience, and the symphony members, feel during and after the piece – moved beyond explanation, and more connected to the depth of life than when they came in. And the conductor needs the musicians to give their best, and the audience to attend and receive the work.

This book contains a description of the elements I feel are essential to creating a strong circle with a positive outcome for everyone involved. Your purpose, and your context, will determine the language that you use and the exact nature of the structures

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78 which you apply within the circle work. If your purpose is one of delivering information, then your language will be that of didactic, cognitive transmission of material. If your purpose is developmental, walking people through a series of experiences, then your structures will be designed to let people feel their way through problems and principles.

If your purpose is spiritual – seeking information or contact with spiritual sources- then you will follow the protocols and rituals which suit your tradition and practice.

Whichever context and language you work in, the elements of circle dynamics share a common framework, and the issues of circle management are similar. I have been part of circles which were led well and circles which were led poorly. There is a huge difference between the two, both in the quality of the individual experience and in the texture, or resonance, of the group awareness which results from the gathering. A wellled circle helps each participant achieve personal goals for the event, while at the same time it illuminates a rich, shared reality which connects people deeply to our common life. It is in and from this deeper reality that real change can be seeded. The potency of this shared reality, the quality of the circle body itself, is a natural force that can be cultivated.

The circle is a tool that makes people smarter, more fully intelligent. It is a technology that can be used in a wide variety of applications to create a chamber of attention in which peoples’ bodies relax and their minds come into an open learning state.

In this state of attention it is natural to access multi-dimensional streams of information, in the way that computers access the potential information streams of the internet. Multidimensional is a term which refers to the simultaneous existence of layers of reality, all of which contain information which humans need at different times in their lives.

79 This is a guide for those who are called to lead circles. Leadership is a complex calling; besides conductor, you are trail guide, minister, therapist, and choreographer, and it is a calling which requires self-confrontation and self-care. The circle is an alchemical fire of sorts, and it can exert tremendous pressure on you as it draws out impurities and distills essence. I have found that if I understand and “play� the circle technology like the instrument that it is, I can conserve my own energy and health and run an even better circle experience for others than if I overwork my psychic and emotional bodies.

The circle is a technology, on one level a literal device with structure and circuitry; in order to effectively use this technology, the leaders (or operators of the technology) need to be trained in how to harness and direct the power of the collective body. This role requires delicacy and precision, and the capacity to attend to myriad aspects of the workings within the circle. I will discuss collective and interpersonal dynamics which affect the integrity of the circle and the concentration and quality of energy which can be attained by the group.

My heart is with you who are called to lead – and learn in - the circle. The more skilled leadership we can create, the more often circles can experience rotating leadership, a true circle form. You are following an instinct that is grounded in our cells, and you are invoking an ancient form of humans breathing in concert with the earth, and into all the realms with which we interdepend for our lives.

BECOMING A LEADER

Calling

Something is drawing you to the circle. First, you have probably felt the need to be part of circles, and over time, as you have felt how the circle works, you have developed a hunger to try your hand at leading. This is akin to the calling to play a musical instrument, a blend of your own visceral need to be inside the music, and your intense curiosity to see what you can do if you get really good at playing the thing. You know it will take a lot of practice, and you’ll need some good teachers, but you have to do it. In fact, the music metaphor is perfect when it comes to the art of circle leadership.

When you listen to a song, you are affected in two major ways. You listen to the words, and the story they are telling, and you respond with your mind and heart. You also experience the encompassing feeling of the music, and this “feeling” lingers in your

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81 humming, or your toe which taps whenever you recall the song, or the complex associations which light up when the song plays again. A circle is like a song in this way.

People are focusing their minds on the content and at the same time their bodies are experiencing the container as an environment, a music in which they are immersed.

The shape and rhythm of how this container moves, breathe, expands is going to make them feel secure, energized, leaden or disconnected. Your expertise as a composer and director of the music behind the words will be an underlying influence on everything the group experiences. You are using your skill to create an environment in which each person has enough security to relax and unfold, and enough activation to be surprised by themselves in a constructive way.

Training Get training in the attentional state necessary to run a circle. You must be able to hold multi-directional and multi-dimensional attention as well as keep track of logistics and time in an organized, efficient way. This requires focused, sustained, disciplined attention, and training over time develops this ability. Do not underestimate the personal and professional preparation required for leading a circle. It is skill, not magic, which brings forth a circle that is strong enough for real magic to occur.

Do your own emotional processing work. Work with people who honor healing as a multi-dimensional process, who can hold space for deep body expression as well as intellectual and spiritual principles. The places where you have emotional blindness, through denial or unexpressed feelings, WILL come up in circle leadership, so you should know your own emotional constellations well – know when to grieve, how to

82 rage, where your lacuna, or gaps in awareness are, and where your vulnerabilities lie. It’s much more real for a leader to say “Wow, that’s a challenging area for me, but here’s how I handle it right now”, than to bluff out an answer or regurgitate a precept.

Honesty really is the best policy, and you need to have spent time in your own interior explorations for people to be able to follow you into the realms you claim expertise in. This applies in any subject, whether it seems emotional or not. People are following your music as well as your words, and they will recognize the emotional honesty of your own journey with the material. This is what will create trust in your leadership, on an equally important level with your cognitive mastery of the curriculum.

The leader’s body is like a seed or a tuning fork in the center of concentric waves of possibility nested within the circle. The degree to which the leader can resonate in the various chambers of process that go on in a circle and in an individual, will set a tone of potential capacity for group process.

You will also need consultation and additional training as the work of leadership opens up new aspects in your being. This a budget item in time and dollars which you should plan on. Do not rely on the circles you lead to handle your process needs; you are in a professional capacity when you lead, and you need personal support for your private life and internal work.

Identify Your Purpose Personally –

Why are you in the work or the event? What do you need from it?

As Leader –

Why are you in the role of leader right now?

83 What strengths and weaknesses are you working out?

For the Group – What is your heartfelt intention for the group’s experience?

What do you want your circle to do? What is your destination?

How do you want people to feel when they come to the end of the work?

What information do you want them to have?

What process do you want to put in motion within them?

Know Yourself Your biases/ your world views (influenced by class, race, gender, sexual orientation, life experience) Beliefs about the way it is – thought forms Wounds, confusions and vulnerabilities How you express emotion/control emotion What kind of support you need Strengths and kindnesses – ways in which you can afford to be generous Your skills – your professional reference base/systems of thought Judgments What is “good” or “bad” in you Which parts you despise, judge BE CURIOUS and respectful about it ALL Find it all equally interesting – equi-valent (valence meaning charge)

84 Know Your Style How will material /didactic principles get presented – example: do you like making set presentations followed by discussion or is a question and answer better for you? Or do you elucidate principles as you lead exercises?

What presentation tools do you enjoy using?

Do you prefer an intimate style or one with a little more distance? Any style can be very effective if it is genuinely yours.

Know Your Mechanics How will structures physically work?

Where will people put their bodies in the space?

Chairs, mats, set-up of entire space, bathrooms, etc..

Music, slides, any presentation materials, plug-ins, tech procedures Know your Limits Activities or behaviors you cannot tolerate in your groups Areas of expertise and areas of ignorance Signals within you that you have reached a limit and need a break or additional support Know how to be curious.

Curiosity is the great antidote to shame and fear. Be curious about the many

85 creative ways that each person has devised to deal with life, even if these include antisocial or less than cooperative strategies. Curiosity will always produce more elegant solutions between people than rigid authority.

Know Your Business Find out how others handle all the elements necessary in organizing and leading groups. If you are promoting, enrolling and leading your own circles, find a way to delegate!! Promotion is one set of tasks which should take place well in advance of the event, and which you need to make decisions about. You can pay a service or arrange work trade for flyer distribution. Let your ad reps work for you at any publication.

Articles and websites are a great way to self-promote.

Enrollment is time-consuming, and requires a lot of personal interaction. This can be enjoyable, but it can be draining, especially since those phone calls can be flying right up until the event begins. I recommend hiring a coordinator to handle your enrollment and logistics for the event. Coordinators are usually doing this work for love of you or of the curriculum, but it’s also important to write a simple contract giving them a flat fee or percentage of the gross or net proceeds for specific work rendered. This expresses your shared interest in the financial success of the event as well as your personal success. If you do not create financially viable events or an endowment of your work, you will eventually run out of steam. Ideally, you want someone coordinating your event who has experienced both you as a leader, and the curriculum you are teaching, at least a few times, and can answer enrollment questions from personal knowledge. It is best to arrive at the event fresh and ready to teach.

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Transparency of leadership The most powerful leadership is a real presence with the truth. The greatest gift you can give people is to be curious and loving about the mysterious process of being together, and they can follow that lead. This means that you must practice compassion for yourself as a fallible person as you lead.

When you do hit a place that’s confusing you can simply say so. You can ask everyone to breathe, or give focus; you may need a moment to clarify or consult with your staff. I speak directly in front of the group with my co-facilitator; I don’t feel diminished to reveal that we, too, are in a process and can help each other through. You want those moments to be very light and free, with gravity but without burden. It’s better to acknowledge when there is a glitch rather than to pretend it’s not happening, if what you want is a space of clarity as a guiding principle.

Another great response to problems is to simply wonder out loud about them. You can remark upon challenging phenomena to the whole group. Ask people to step back from seeking solutions and simply hold the problem together in curiosity and possibility.

This takes the strain off the leader to come up with an answer, when the answer may not actually be there yet. It also models a type of receptive, spherical power which is an antidote to the power model which says decisive action (no matter how inane) is good leadership.

87 Self-Care Leadership Training/Consultation Preparation of Curriculum and Tools Team alignment Sleep and Nutrition Nurturing Clearing space/Debriefing your experience/Notes to Self Rest and Integration after an event

Checklist of Tools -Time piece with highly visible face (the digital clocks which double as timers which you can preset to intervals are nice – but make sure they have a vibrate capacity and not just an alarm or beep) -Thick-soled slippers or indoor shoes if it is a shoes-off space (this will save your back if you are standing a lot) -Travel mug with a screw-tight lid for tea and/or water bottle -Supplements if you need them between meals or at specific times.

-Small notebook with pen for notes to self -Chime of some kind to get the group’s attention or to start and end rituals. I recommend the sweet but penetrating meditation chimes.

88 -Written curriculum – repertoire of possible exercises (at least two ways to go at each juncture, and many small exercises for changing mood or state) -Shoulder bag to carry everything to and from the meeting space -Music if needed (check the facility for sound system to meet your needs) -Prior knowledge of the space (size, heat, bathrooms, floor covering, chairs or backjacks, electrical outlets, lighting) -Didactic tools (white board, flip chart, models or art work, copies for all, videos, A-V equipment.

YOUR TEAM Team cohesion The commitment and skill of your assistants will make an enormous difference to the energetic clarity and grace of the event, and especially to your own expenditure of energy – you really need to have a good team! You can have criteria for those who assist you, just spell it out up front and those who are ready to work with you will show up. If possible, meet ahead of time as a group to review purpose, curriculum, and tasks. If you can prepare a curriculum outline (including what they need to do to prepare for each structure) or assistant contracts and guidelines ahead of time, ask them to review these before your first meeting. Use e-mail to connect ahead of time. If you have an event coordinator, which is wonderful, they may do much of this prep work ahead of your arrival, so be in contact with them about weaving yourself into the team. Find out what has been addressed with the team, and who is responsible for what. Respect the leadership of the coordinator while being clear about accountability. In most cases, they

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90 are accountable for all the event production and logistics, as well as for organizational tasks during the event. You are accountable for the content and facilitation once the circle begins.

Your job as a leader is to be as clear as possible about the types of support you need from your team, and what your expectations of them will be. Appreciate them whenever possible. Let them know about your style of communication. Warn them in advance if your tendency is to be abrupt or curt when you are under stress. Remind them that all of your attention is likely to be focused on managing the circle and there may not be attention or even acknowledgement coming their way, but that does not mean you do not notice their good work or need their support.

Check-in meetings It’s crucial to build in check-in meetings during the event with the whole staff, before, during and after the day’s exercises. Staff should be advised ahead of time, for instance, if you want them to plan on having meals together. Start the day with a staff meeting, and end with a debriefing meeting. During the day, staff can come together before any meal break to make your next action plan together, and see if anyone needs additional support. This keeps the core circle in close contact and allows information about the group to be known by all; it also permits the release of emotional tension if a staff member is having a challenging time. The staff energy flows out along the web of the whole group, so take good care of all staff!

91 Staff Agreements or Contracts Be clear up front about job descriptions, time commitments, financial or other benefits in exchange for work. You may want the equivalent of a non-compete clause in your agreement; be clear about whether or not your staff may take your work out and teach it themselves. People are assisting for many reasons, some of which have do to with their own professional development. It’s kindest all around to discuss and clarify these agreements ahead of time.

Staff-Participant Boundaries It is a good idea to establish specific boundaries between staff and participants, in order to keep the working space clear and conserve the staff’s energy for supporting the whole group. The basis of the understanding is that the integrity and power of the circle – created by all, but directed by the staff - is paramount for the benefit of everyone participating. Staff members need to stay clear of personal entanglements in order to best serve the forward progress of the group.

This might include anything from announcing that staff are only available at specific times, to stating the degree of emotional contact participants can expect from the staff. For instance, in circles where I work with erotic energy, I developed with my colleagues what we called the 60-day boundary. Staff members agreed to refrain from any erotic contact/development of erotic relationships with participants during the event or for 60 days following the event. The purpose of this boundary was to give people a way to work with their own attractions and projections in the transpersonal work of the

92 circle, to use the extra energy for their own transformation. It was an invitation to bring their sexual energy into their heart centers by respectfully observing a boundary out of kindness and sensitivity, giving integration time after the circle before making decisions in a social context.

The boundary worked in favor of participants in that they had space to do their own work without being distracted or intruded upon, and it worked to protect the vulnerability of the staff, who needed to know that a person’s attraction to them was about them, and not about their position of authority. Per human nature, we had differing levels of adherence to this 60-day boundary, and it was amazing to see how invariably the breaking of the boundary (or perhaps the breaking of the agreement itself) either leaked energy from the circle work or caused difficult reverberations in people’s lives later on.

To the Assistants Your job is to support the leader, the team, and the group, in that order. Each leader will have their own way of navigating all the currents of energy which are flowing in any particular group. They will have a sense of direction and order which may or may not match yours.

There will be moments when you feel that: -the group is not going well -a situation is getting out of hand -something could be done better -an error was made

93 -a cue was missed -an instruction wasn’t given the way it should have been -the group will never make it through the curriculum -you are not getting what you need -the leader is crazy, or at least wholly inadequate to the job All of this has to be surrendered. Your question cannot be whether the leader is right or wrong (they are both). It must be “How can I help this particular individual to make their best decisions as to what needs to happen next in this group?”

Your responsibility is to say to leader, either verbally or in other ways, “I am here to support you in your best thinking, and to learn from you, including your mistakes. I am here to take great curiosity in the creativity of the whole process. I am here to serve you and the group”.

Moving in the Middle Ground As an assistant, you make an agreement that when your own process comes up in a very compelling way, you will move it in the middle ground. Moving in the middle ground means that you touch into the power of your internal experience without allowing it to sweep you away, in the way that you might, were you not charged with holding the container. You allow yourself double streams of attention, first to your agreement to serve the group and simultaneously to the fact that in your humanity you are being moved by the power of the work into your own learning realm. You can have a fluid attention which stays on task and also acknowledges the process which is moving within you,

94 allowing the double streams to intertwine and move together. Share where and when you can with your team members to create support for your process, but do not put an expectation on the leader that they will be able to tend you personally while they are tending the group.

Psychic Range Riding A very important function that the assistants perform is what my colleague Rae Larson calls psychic range riding. This is just what it sounds like. Assistants psychically and intuitively move in the group and around the perimeter of the group, and notice if one person has, at some level, started to wander off or get lost. Often, a person’s material will make them feel different or alone, or incapable of connection, or invisible. If a straggler is heading off, sometimes all it takes is a kind word or genuine inquiry from a staff member to correct their course and invite them back in. If, in your psychic range riding, you see someone getting lost in a serious rift, it’s important to report that to the team during a check-in, or directly to the leader.

Oracle Along with your range riding reports on how individuals are faring, you may be asked to act as an oracle for reading the circle body (thanks here to Isa Magdalena for the practice of the oracle). This is a great way for leaders to use the team, to gain more clarity as to what state the group is in at any given time. The oracular question the leader is asking is not “What should I do?” but, “What are people perceiving/experiencing right now in the group? Where are the energy blocks or leaks? What is not moving? Are there

95 shapes arising which are dissociative, or oppositional?”( I say shapes because often these things are happening in several people, or even sometimes in particular places in the room). The answers of the oracle are not interpretive, they are a direct report of experience; the leader will synthesize all the information.

This exercise is a way to expand awareness and possibility from within the center circle; a leader’s singular perspective can expand out to numerous points of view from a trusted network. Often, the expanded perspective will cause enough fluidity that the leader will simply know what to do next. As an assistant, it’s your job to use this intuitive technology in a simple manner; contribute your true perspective and let the mix solve any problems, rather than rush in with what you think needs to happen.

Fielding complaints If you are fielding complaints by the participants, do not collude in the complaining nature. Listen respectfully to the complaint. Acknowledge that it is important feedback and that you can transmit it to the team. (Notice I said team, not leader.) Don’t promise solutions, because you don’t yet know what, if any, the solution will be. Listen closely and ask questions. Sometimes, people’s complaints are requests for attention rather than requests for solutions. Or, they simply need strategic support for solving their own dilemma.

A staff member who rushes in with solutions can be a distraction from what is actually happening in their process of transformation. Transformation is challenging, and we all look for ways out of the pressure or feelings of confusion and agitation. A person

96 may – without realizing it - try to get the staff to do the transformation for them by making the leader, staff or situation into the problem which they can complain about. (“I cannot make this huge leap in understanding or grieve this loss because the temperature in the room is all wrong. If the staff would make the temperature work, then I could do what I came here for.”)

Use the aikido loop (Page 91), from heart to heart. Take in their complaint, their struggle, with your compassionate heart, and roll it right through the loop in a graceful way that steps into trust for the unfolding process and respect for their ability to show up for themselves and learn.

Ground your own anxiety, especially if things seem choppy or strained in the group. If your own anxious thoughts are cropping up and you are in doubt as to the ability of the leader, this is a prime time for you to get on the wagon with a complaining participant about how the leader is failing you both. This is the worst thing you can do; it feeds the fire of separation for that participant; and it pulls you out of service, out of your team and into the participant pool in the circle. Keep it simple. With compassion and respect, say you’ll communicate their feedback to the whole team without promising solutions.

ELEMENTS OF THE CIRCLE Attention

Attention is the main malleable substance which you, as a leader, are shaping. In many ways, working with collective attention is like directing molten light into a holographic map. People will direct their cognitive attention to whatever images and instructions you set out for them. They will do their best to follow your markers.

Eventually, once enough people become aligned and confident about the map which you have set out, once the exercises have created a relaxed entrainment of the group attention, this gathered group intelligence will carry you all into an enjoyable state of creativity and awareness. Your job as leader will be to steadily continue to direct the group attention to the markers on the path, even as the exhilaration and opening of creativity engenders a higher level of chaos!

In order to set out clear markers, you need to know your trail and your destination

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98 – your map. This means the shape and linear sequence of the ritual or curriculum, but it also means being able to monitor the state and flow of attention in the group.

You must be able to open your own attention to many simultaneous levels. First, attention has to be on the body of the circle, and the container’s integrity. For this to remain primary, the team needs to be in integrity; if the circle is feeling off to you, look first to your team. Secondly, your attention is on the quality of energy which is moving (or not) inside the container. This will inform you as to what states of energy are occurring and where you want to take the group energetically; from this assessment you can make your decisions as to what structures would serve the movement of the group.

And, third, your attention is on any – and many - individual processes and how these individual processes are flowing with that of the group body.

Your job as leader is to focus group attention, using your personality, voice, and ideas, to direct each person’s attention to their own work and to the life of the circle.

The Aikido loop There is a very simple energy shape which you can use at every level of the circle which I call the aikido loop, and it is the moebius coil, an infinitely moving figure eight of energy. Aikido is a beautiful martial art which teaches principles of using awareness to direct the flow of incoming energy from others. In circle leadership you are constantly fielding direct energy focused on you, some of it supportive attention, some of it projections as to who you are, and some of it in the form of requests for help or counsel.

As a leader or staff member you can use this aikido loop to support yourself in

99 letting the often intense processes in the group flow easily through and past you, minimizing wear and tear on your body and psyche. When conversing with an individual, as their energy comes toward you, let it come, even into your body, but let it flow around a loop and back out to move them in some direction where you prefer them to go. You can allow the loop to flow through your heart center and gather compassion on its way back out, in order to genuinely give a clear, firm response to whatever is before you. This is similar to the Tonglen meditation in the Buddhist tradition, in that you do not resist an incoming force, but you breathe it in, and on the exhale breathe out the healing response that makes immediate, compassionate sense1 .

When you are literally in the center of the circle, speaking or instructing from there, remember that you are at the convergence point of as many figure eight loops as there are combinations of people in the circle, so you literally hold all those filaments in your hand. Be thoughtful and gracious about the privilege of “playing� this instrument.

Have fun!

In a discussion format, where you are leading from the front of a group, the loops will all be there, and, in the case of a question-answer format, when people are throwing many ideas or questions at you, things can begin to move faster, the quality of the concentrated attention can become more pressurized for you. It is your job and your right to decide when to slow things down; pause, ask everyone to pause and breathe with you, or use any other tool you may have to moderate the intensity of the group attention.

Getting Attention Out This term comes out of the Re-evaluation Co-Counseling community, which has

100 done powerful and intricate work with the whole realm of human attention. It’s important to remember whenever you have internal processes going on in the group, that people may be touching on material which may be sensitive or immobilizing in some way.

Sometimes very “small” occurrences can bring up strong feelings for people. The purpose of the exercise is to remind people first of their beauty and success as a person, in order to establish this as an ever-present resource as challenging work proceeds.

This exercise could be used in the Inside-Outside structure, where people are sharing in pairs. One rule of thumb is to always ask the questions themselves in pairs. If you are trying to get at something that is bothering people in the group, don’t go right for it. First, go to a question that is easy to answer and brings attention to a pleasurable aspect. For instance, “What is something, small or large, which you genuinely like about yourself (your body, your job, your life)?”. Emphasize that it can be a small thing; make the question light and easy to answer. People succeed when they put their attention on something they enjoy. Only after you have people’s “attention out” do you ask a question that might be more challenging to answer, ie. “What would you most like to change about your body, your job, your life?”

Free attention Once the container is activated and the energy gets moving, the multidimensional reality is apparent in that people find themselves and others opening and expressing more freely and in unexpected ways. People start letting go into the ever-changing reality that they encounter in that environment. If the container is set properly then it – the container - can be felt and counted on. People let go of clinging with their attention to the outer rim

101 of structured reality and let go into their own internal experience of what I call the fluid core. The fluid core exists at the center of our individual beings, at the center of the circle body, and at the center of the energetic universe, in what physicists call the zero point field. The quality of attention available here is relaxed, expanded and free to see a wider reality, inclusive of more possibilities than were previously known. In this state the group will often regain the state of playing with attention.

Playing with attention While I do not glamorize the past, I do feel there is a skill set concerning shared attention which may have gotten trampled in our current screen-driven culture. Without screens and the industries which accompany them (and maybe radio before that), people clearly understood that, if there was to be any entertainment or communication, then it would be coming from themselves or other people. This involved looking deeply at other human beings, and using music, stories, conversation, dance, flirtation, teasing, recitation to draw forth their attention and shape it in order to move emotions, delight the senses and relieve personal and community tensions and woes. People also had no mediating communication tools, and their communications were direct and sensual, pleasant or not.

Attention meant connection to others, with all the risks and benefits of that connection. I have noticed that after a group has done several dilations of embodied, powerful work together, they begin to play with attention together; moments of mini-entertainment arise joyfully; jokes, wrestling, stories, costumes, bring happiness and a sense of feeding each other.

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Second attention I like to say that what’s really going on is so much more interesting than what you think is going on. What our logical brains attach to is following the logical progression of the curriculum, which is important. What is simultaneously happening is a multi-layered weaving of energies at every level of awareness to create the larger “mind” of the circle.

This circle mind can follow infinite information streams, a high powered hook-up. We do not yet know how to use it with any real precision. Second attention can be cultivated, by noticing glimpses of the “irrational”, the little thought or image which flickers past off to the periphery, glimmers which we routinely ignore in favor of “what’s really going on”.

As a leader, these glimmers will often provide the key to inspiration for next steps in your work, in a similar way to dreams.

Second attention responds well to strong witnessing. If your power to ground and witness is strong, you can allow a truth or expression which is strange to you to emerge and pass through – for instance, how completely afraid or angry or despairing someone is, or how “crazy” they may seem – and in that way broaden the invitation for truth to enter the space. If you also stay clear in your intention that whatever enters the space be for the benefit of everyone in it, then revelations will pertain to what people need to help them on their way.

Presence Presence is a nothing that is everything. It can be reached through letting go and allowing, rather than by trying to be present. It is an attentive receptivity, a sober

103 inebriation. I find that most people come into presence when they are invited into their whole body; when people truly feel and breathe into their pelvic floor, a natural grounding and widening of their field occurs, and when they feel enveloped and full, they become present. As a leader, this requires that you have found how to create presence and fullness within your own being, and from there you can invite presence in others. Foster trust and deep embodiment, and people will awaken to presence.

One teaching direction is to walk people through exercises where they are listening to one another. You can demonstrate what presence is not, for instance, by showing what a distracted listener looks like: eyes flicking around or glazing over, thoughts elsewhere; or conversely, showing someone who is over-attentive and invasive with their gaze or their effort to look like a good listener. Presence is like witnessing, a relaxed enjoyment of the process of listening and being.

Love People need to feel respected and well-treated to truly enter into being present, into bringing themselves whole-heartedly into the work of the circle. You invite the presence of love into the circle by inviting people to notice the loveable aspects of themselves and by bringing attention to the pleasure of treating each other well. This does not need to be rushed or forced; I have been in circles where there was an over-bright expectation that we all instantly “loved� each other, and it caused me to feel alienated, because I did not feel connected in those moments. Had I been able to slowly unfold into appreciation and genuine contact with the others, I would have come into an authentic

104 place of love for my fellows, not because I was told to do so, but because that is who I am.

As a leader, you set a loving tone by being in contact with your own love and enjoyment of life and the exploration before you. This can be quiet and serious, or playful and expressive, depending on your mood; if you are in your own loving nature, people will know that, whatever your style. Let everyone find their own way into loving presence by recognizing them as loving beings. You can also ask that the presence of love be felt by everyone in the group, either as a silent prayer or aloud with the group; it is a mysterious process that opens people to love, and you don’t have to pretend to have the formula; ask everyone to help with this.

Principles Establish early on, through experiential exercises, the main principles which you feel are necessary to create a good working space. Principles are like scaffolding, but in action. You walk people through a practical way to embody the principle in relation to each other. If you have a principle of attention to the center, you say so, and lead an exercise in which people give their attention to the center, so they can feel it. If you have a principle of witnessing, you have people witness each other in pairs. I find that the Inside-Outside circle structure is a great place to make sure I have touched on all the main principles. In my case I make sure to address Grounding, Breath, Spine, Boundaries, Witnessing, Kindness, Listening to the Body, Care of the Circle.

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Rhythm Rhythm, or periodicity, is happening at every level of the circle. You have structural rhythms of beginning, middle and end; morning, afternoon and evening; units of work in terms of hours or minutes. You have body rhythms of people’s functional needs, and you have the organic tendency of a group to synchronize their heart, breath and brain rhythms to differing degrees. You then have the influence of any music or presentation you are giving. And, very importantly if you are using your voice to lead, you have the cadence and sound of your own voice, and which terms you use with what frequency. You also have the rhythm of call-and-response: what pattern is established between leader presentation and group sharing, in groups or in discussion format? All of these create rhythms, and the combined rhythms of the circle will affect the tone and clarity of the energy.

An obvious way to invite a group rhythm is through music or movement, song or dance. Use these at the level that you feel enjoyment in them. Leading song or dance should be done from comfort and enthusiasm in your own body. If you need simpler voice/movement exercises, go to voice/ movement events to learn from others. But breath can also be used to synchronize the rhythms of a group, or simple walking. Even conversation or talking shares will lead to rhythmic entrainment among people, simply because this is what humans do.

Don’t force others to follow your idea of rhythm; tune into the group and offer exercises which seem to fit the tone or which lead to the transition that you want to make.

106 For instance, in my teaching of all age groups, if my movement is synchronized to the movement of the students, then their ability to take in my instruction is direct and clear, whereas if I am out-of-synch with their movement or outside of their rhythm pattern, the students have trouble taking in my words. The students can “hear” easily when I have synchronized with their pulse pattern and type of movement.

Using Music I have noticed over many years of playing music for people to move to and have embodiment experiences in, that the rhythm and mass of the music is more important than the words themselves (unless of course your curriculum is studying specific musical lyrics!). Words, however gorgeous they are, require people to listen with a cognitive aspect of their mind, a language function. Words which fill one person with ecstasy may cause another to feel alienated. Use lyrics with awareness of the whole group. Pure rhythm and what I am calling mass – enough sound body, usually created by a blend of different instruments or audio lines , to hold and enfold the body in a full, firm sound which can carry the body in a tactile way – are more conducive to deeply letting go and dropping into an organic state. This is the basis for chanting repetitive phrases, both verbal and musical – to let the cognitive mind let go and the person to simply “be” inside their experience.

Specifically, I have observed this carrying effect (or lack thereof) on people’s bodies for many years. For women in particular, or perhaps I should say for entering the yin, or feminine energy, the beat should be strong and consistent, without sharp edges, gradually

107 increasing in frequency and intensity if an acceleration of energy is desired. A preponderance of women’s voices leads to the female, interior space. Sudden changes can be distracting or even shocking to the internal attention. Men, or the creation of a yang, male energy environment seem to require more volume, faster, harder beats and a little more crashing around in terms of sudden changes.

Choose music with as much beauty as you can find. Beauty is a sense of everything coming together in a way that creates ecstatic union, an understanding of deeper relationships, and this will serve the cohesion and work of the circle. This quote about beauty in music from Robert Jourdain, also describes the transcendent operation of the circle: Many people say that it is beauty alone that draws them to music. But great music brings us even more. By providing the brain with an artificial environment, and forcing it through that environment in controlled ways, music imparts the means of experiencing relations far deeper than we encounter in our everyday lives. When music is written with genius, every event is carefully selected to build the substructure for exceptionally deep relations. No resource is wasted, no distractions are allowed. In this perfect world, our brains are able to piece together larger understandings than they can in the workaday external world, perceiving allencompassing relations that go much deeper than those we find in everyday experience. Thus, however briefly, we attain a greater grasp of the world (or at least a small part of it), as if rising from the ground to look down upon the confining maze of ordinary existence‌.We respond not just to the beauty of the sustained deep relations that are revealed, but also to the fact of our perceiving them. As our brains are thrown into overdrive, we feel our very existence expand and realize that we can be more than we normally are, and that the world is more than it seems.

That is cause enough for ecstasy2.

Time I use the term organic time as differentiated from clock time. The term organic

108 refers to an organism which has developed at a rate which suits its cellular nature, in concert with all the elements of nature in which it grows. Organic time for humans is intrinsic to the body; one must be able to feel one’s passage through the moments and hours, and trust the growth of ideas and expressions to emerge from beneath our awareness into the daylight of the mind in a sturdy way.

In our organic state, time is cyclical instead of linear, because inside the sphere of awareness we are inclusive of a complex system of life, and forward movement includes a world of moving parts. We arrive at a place only when the whole organism arrives, all the parts of our awareness gathered in one place. So, while we can definitely aim for a point of arrival, we cannot force every living aspect of our beings to line up exactly on that point with precision.

Clock time – Gregorian time – was imposed in order to put organic time into a predictable structure, no matter what was unfolding in the natural world or in the body of man. So, by its nature, clock time calls attention to limitation. This can be a useful tool, just like the framing of a house; clock time is a structure which delineates boundaries and contains experience. But because it has been used to hurry and intimidate us so routinely, bodies intuitively cringe if time is perceived as dominant, and people’s attention can become confused and agitated with feelings of being rushed. Your tone when steering a group through clock time structure must be graceful, and acknowledge the interplay between the adherence to time agreements and the impulse to let go into timeless experience or process. Go for a feeling of all the time in the world, while choosing to take the next step because it is interesting.

109 Managing Time Structure Make friends with time structure when you lead groups. First, the group needs to trust you to run the time structure according to the stated agreements. If you are in a situation – for instance, a tribal environment where the agreement is that time will follow the body or emotional process of the people, it is still important to state when transitions will be made: when people finish speaking, when their bodies are exhausted, when they need to eat, when the sun comes up. If this is a consensus process, how do the members indicate that it is complete? If the leader is not clear about the structure (even if the structure is to be unstructured or body-structured) then the judgment calls become subjective and subject to endless discussion or criticism. There does have to be a deciding line somewhere, or the group can lose energy and simply fade away from its original purpose.

More commonly in Western culture, you have a set amount of clock time. You’ve stated that the event schedule is 6-9 pm Friday evening, 9-6 Saturday and Sunday. People have set aside that time and made their plans accordingly. If you fail to keep time agreements, the group trust and attention may fracture. Sometimes people depart, physically or energetically. It is equally important to impress upon participants their responsibility to keep time agreements around start times or returns from meals or breaks.

If you wait 10-15 minutes for everyone to get in the door, and then 10 minutes for everyone to get settled, you’ve lost half an hour out of a three- hour session.

110 Structured time can be your friend in the circle of individual shares. Some folks are in the habit of rambling, or describing, rather than communicating their essential experience, especially if it involves fears or conflicts. Clock time provides containment, an impetus to get to the point. The simplest structure is to have speaking shares be two minutes long, with a definite rattle or shaker signaling that time is up. This also puts a structure of equality in place so that people don’t need to fight for space and can proceed with the content of their communication.

Time as a Fluid Medium Time is an interesting element in the circle because it contracts and expands depending on the contraction and expansion of the group body. As the circle sets up, the scalar wave in the center exerts more influence, and time becomes more fluid. The benefit of this is that people will be able to clear the past more efficiently, and they will be able to access information from other times and places.

The challenge to you as a leader is that it can become increasingly difficult to keep track of clock time. I have frequently had moments where, try as I might, I cannot comprehend the scratchings on the clock face; we have departed the realm where clock time has meaning. However, as a leader I have agreed to be the bridge between timeless realms and the ordinary clock time world. So I write down on paper, as any substantial ritual or structure begins, the start time and, from that, the exact clock times when I need to give a signal or instruction (halfway through - 10:45, ten minutes to go - 11:05, ending – 11:15). As I go through the structure I can follow the larger energy that’s moving and shifting and evolving and I can look back at the paper, match it to the clock, and do what

111 I said I’d do.

Conversely there will be situations where time seems to drag and “nothing is happening”. The tendency is to want to get busy and make something happen. But it is more interesting to me to name this energy phenomenon (“nothing happening”, which a lot of people have anxiety about) to the group and bring breath and attention – attendance- to it. There is a lot going on in the “nothing”.

It may also signal a contraction or rest after a big movement in the group body.

Contractions – closing after opening – are normal and necessary, and having a few exercises in your repertoire which celebrate and explore contraction will serve you well.

Also, see State Changes, Page __.

Embodiment “It isn’t the action of higher forces, but rather a descent into the body, into cellular awareness, where the real changes will take place in matter, making an entirely new creation. – The Mother, Aurobindo Ashram, India

Given that my whole career has been about embodiment, this should be a long section, but great books have been written on this subject, some in my bibliography. For the purpose of this circle book, I will say that, in order to have a vital circle, you must regularly and joyfully invite the full physical presence of each person’s body as a starting place for wisdom. However you think about the whole cosmic creation, it is through our bodies that we intersect and comprehend what we can of the greater mysteries which

112 surround and interpenetrate our daily world, and it is the true care of our bodies which shapes our earthly existence.

Unfortunately, due to the relentless body shame perpetrated by our culture, people can be very disconnected from their bodies, and this shared dilemma should be treated directly and with compassion. Most people are very vulnerable as to how their bodies are seen and judged (even, and maybe especially the ones who “look good”). Focus mainly on re-membering physicality: grounding, breath and spine, sensations, bones, muscles, fluid joints – the internal, felt experience, not the external looks. In an exercise on seeing each other, for instance, the emphasis is not on what you can see, which activates the critical eye, but on how you are seeing: the depth of relaxation and openness in the body of the beholder. Only with a grounded, soft body can you truly see and appreciate others as they are. I have an exercise which I call “soft eyes”, which leads to the relaxation of the backs of the eyeballs and all the muscles which flow from that surface down into the ground. Soft eyes can see more than eyes which are “looking hard”.

Use movement and body-awareness exercises as much as possible; conduct these exercises with a purpose of self-awareness, of increasing the practice of listening to the body as a source of revelation. Any time spent in deepening embodiment will contribute to the overall intelligence of the group. Real embodiment takes time, so build in time in your curriculum for the language of the body to unfold. And weave in constant reminders of embodiment, to help people keep the process alive continuously. I tell my groups in advance that they will hear me remind them to breathe throughout the course, and I do so freely, especially anytime there is a hesitation or blank space in the group energy.

113 Ongoing training in embodiment and movement techniques will give you new ideas for your repertoire.

Just as you will activate horizontal, vertical and saggital energy in the sphere of the circle body, you want to regularly invite embodied awareness on each of these planes in each person. Help people re-member their whole body, their relation of their body to the earth as their primary relationship throughout life; help them re-member that the reason to practice grounding, breath and the wave motion of the spine is to contact the fluid core of their being, the constant wave motion that carries them at all times.

Bring in some attention to the base of the torso, whether you call it the root of the body or the pelvic floor; depending on the context and language you are working in, you can mention the genitals as a well of creativity and vulnerability. I suggest that the genitals be included for the reason that they are so strenuously and unnaturally avoided in our cultural dialogue, and our bodies feel that active omission, and a deep core tension results. Obviously, if this is too uncomfortable for you or for the group, let it go, but find a way to include every part of the body that you can.

Large, fast, highly structured or extended moves will engage the large muscle groups, and produce a yang, forceful energy. Slow, small, subtle moves with a random fluid quality will engage the smaller muscle networks closer in to the spine and the pelvic root, and will access the yin or spacious channels. Low amplitude energy fields have been recorded with light continuous movement in the arms while holding steady in the legs and torso, and sharp, strong amplitude fields result from war dances with strong, muscular activity3. Some people will feel far more comfortable in one mode than the

114 other, so when you lead people into a particular field of energy, be prepared to help those who experience resistance. Make transitions gradual, emphasize the diversity of ways, and encourage each person to do the exercise in their own way. If people run into difficulties, assure them that their experience is normal (if necessary, expand your own definition of normal). If you have specific suggestions that might make it easier for them, make those suggestions, but don’t rush to correct or help then “get it right”, as this will only feed anxiety and therefore resistance (tension) patterns.

Touch Touch is always occurring on a continuum; seeing and hearing, speaking to each other – these are all forms of touch. We can touch one another with our presence, if we simply become aware of it. Physical touch is an arena in which I feel that our culture needs a complete reeducation. People are starving for consistent, affectionate, safe touch, and we are not teaching a useful skill set around managing all the nuances and nurturant potential, as well as the risks of physical touch. We are losing our skills of choice, tolerance and navigation simply because we are not habituated to the land of touch. For many it has become unfamiliar and charged, full of unusual meaning, potential danger and unrealistic fulfillment, instead of a steady deepening into contact, with communication and choices at every instance.

This is a big subject, with a huge variety of associations for everyone. In leading any kind of touch exercises, the following guidelines apply: -Be direct that you are teaching a touch exercise.

- Instruct that people are always at choice to do or not do the process.

115 -Build in “No�. Demonstrate or Lead it in an exercise.

-Less is More. People can learn huge amounts from very simple touch coupled with awareness of all its effects on their bodies.

- Be Kind. We are all learning about how to touch well.

Desire Desire as an organizing force is how we all got here in the first place. The expression of longing for life through sex brought our bodies into being, so desire’s physicalization is a primary vibration in our cellular template. If we deny or refuse to exercise our experience of desire, we are refusing to fully understand our wiring as human beings.

If people could work more freely with their desires, they would develop a nuanced repertoire of sensation and choice within their own bodies as well as the ability to recognize desire in its pure undifferentiated form; like stem cells, which can become any tissue, desire is a core substance which can grow into any number of forms, depending on how it is grounded and directed into expression. Getting to know your desires without judgment, and finding safe ways to enact feedback loops where you feel, express and fulfill, or at least gain familiarity with your desires, will make you more adept at choosing which desires to act upon. It will also give the signal to your being to go ahead and have desire, to play with it, to master the skills of riding desire and enjoying its presence, rather than cancelling your sensations due to fear that desire will consume you or damage you. Its untethered expression can damage you, but only when a lack of skills

116 causes a failure to make integrated choices when desire (which is simply an increased charge in the body) is present. You want your system to handle large surges of charge of any kind of emotion or desire by allowing the surge to flow gracefully through a grounded net or web of circuitry.

Problems come when the charge surges through and you only have a few circuits available to handle the current. Those circuits congest, or overload, and then certain organ or tissue systems or energy centers, driven by too much charge, compel you to act or to inhibit, and your ability to decide on fully humane action becomes limited. If you are circulating energy in all systems, then you can maintain more self-awareness and hence more choice when a large surge comes through.

Desire anchors the intention, makes it personal and specific to the present time of your life, brings it into the now, into the cellular level of the appetite for this world and how you want to participate in it.

Bringing consciousness to the cellular level is what opens the portal to universal information. The universal fields can gain access to the cellular fields and they can feed each other, strengthen each other. Maureen St.Germain, a teacher of the Flower of Life work, when asked the purpose of the whole interrelationship between humans and other beings, thought for a moment, and said “To expand the database�1. My image is of an enormous plant, consciousness growing in the soil of experience. The plant needs to have molecules of experience fed to it through the tiny root hairs which are each individual’s

1

Saint Germain, personal comment to author, 2006.

117 myriad life experiences, sensate life. This enormous input of experience is feeding the plant, which takes in the nutrients as well as the light of the cosmos for its photosynthesis process. It then pushes out a few more root hairs, seeking more experience. We need the plant to keep feeding our growth and pushing us further. The plant needs us for every miniscule nutrient which fills it with a way to evolve.

118 BUILDING THE CIRCLE The Perimeter As you physically gather the circle into your beginning position, sitting or standing, be aware that you are setting the template for the container. Choose your position in the circle intentionally; put yourself wherever in the room you feel most grounded and can move most easily with any tools. This may be near your chair, music table or presentation materials. Decide ahead of time what proximity you want to your co-facilitator if you have one, and to your staff. For instance, I generally like to be near my “stuff”, with my co-facilitator next to me (so that we present as a unit and can easily confer), and the assistants positioned evenly through the circle to create a framework of grounding. There may be times when you decide to stand in different places in the circle to get a feel for what is happening there.

Notice if you have a “sided-ness” to your awareness. For example, my peripheral vision appears to be best on my left side, so I will see and be aware of the left half of the circle easily, while the right half can seem more vague to me; I consciously turn my head and open my vision to the people on my right more often in order to compensate.

Opening remarks In the first minutes, you are really just talking to gather in the group attention.

Everyone’s thoughts are still swirling and adjusting to the many factors in the room. This is a good time to give any historical background, anecdotal remarks about getting to the event, acknowledgements of other people’s support and influence. It is also great to identify what you are doing – talking as the energy is gathering – because it helps people

119 become aware of something going on below their minds, and it lets them off the hook from trying to pay close, detailed attention to what is being said. Noticing the space or the land is a way to emphasize attention to the present. Save necessary logistical communications for later, when people can hear you.

Introductions Simple introductions help people bring themselves into present time in a new group, so make the introductions easy and brief. Give specific instructions about what you are asking them to say. For example, their name, where they are from and one third thing. (Keep it to three, to avoid confusion). We often ask for people’s parents’ names, to acknowledge ancestors. If you want a little sillier energy, ask people to say their favorite flavor of ice cream. Be specific about brevity if you want the shares to be brief, using a chime if necessary to signal the stated amount of time (1 or 2 minutes) but stay light.

Often on initial introductions people will be very brief, but if someone is going over time, be cheerfully firm about the time limits; it is best to be clear from the beginning that you are on the job of managing the circle well. People need to feel that they can trust you and relax into the learning they came to do.

Prayers or invocations This can be a long or short element, depending on your tradition, and in some traditions this element would come first. I do the opening remarks and introductions first because I want to emphasize each person bringing themselves into presence as essential to the organic formation of the circle body. The importance of invoking, or giving voice

120 to, specific assistance for the group, wherever that comes from, is that it grounds the group in a shared context and begins to build the container. It also can hearten a group to connect with a sense of support from surrounding energies. This can be visualized as a sphere of allies who enfold this particular circle of people. All can contribute by imagining or speaking aloud their allies, qualities, and blessings as a gift to the work of the circle. I have everyone speak simultaneously, to embody our equality in creating the circle (as opposed to a powerful leader saying prayers for the whole); I like the feeling of the circle body arising from all of us at once. It also takes less time than everyone taking a turn!

The four shape, whether as a cross, a square, the four directions, or the four guardians, is so prevalent in nearly every tradition I have seen, that it seems an essential shape to invoke in the foundation of the group4. The circle is protected and stabilized by the square. The four directions are symbolized by a cross shape, an axis which aligns the center of the circle with the electromagnetic field of the earth, and with the Pole Star in the heavens, thereby calling on the energy available there5. I think of this cross as a threedimensional one: vertical, horizontal, and saggital planes with a common center, the three primary axes of a sphere. In the simplest, body-based form this could look like reaching down to the earth, up to the sky, and out to all beings in and around the circle.

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Fig. 25. Reaching into the planes of the body.

Confidentiality An agreement to confidentiality is particularly important in order to surrender the egotistical framework and immerse in the non-ordinary potential of the circle energy. The idea that one’s expressions exist in the present only and won’t be recorded or judged by others in ordinary social terms relieves us of the critical eye that hinders real eureka moments.

I explain confidentiality as two-fold; confidentiality outside and inside the circle.

Outside confidentiality means that you simply do not speak about any person or work other than your own to anyone once you leave the circle and return to your everyday life.

No details of any kind. As a facilitator, I make the exception that I give express permission for people to share anything I have said as a leader that may help them integrate, understand or share their experience with others. Whether you permit that is up to you.

Inside confidentiality means that during break or meal times people must ask permission of another to even refer to work which that person did inside the circle. If someone has let themself surrender to a non-ordinary space and has discovered a new aspect of themselves, or surprised themselves with the intensity of their feelings, they may need privacy or time to integrate, and it can be invasive to have another person suddenly remark on a very internal experience.

122 I like to remind people of the energetic benefit which they receive by leaving other people’s business alone. I have found that the devoted practice of confidentiality over time conserves resources for personal transformation; I keep my energy in the circle and in my own body, where it can feed my core process of vitality and renewal.

Boundaries People have a huge range of experiences and interpretations of this word.

Successful boundaries are living, in-the-moment communications which arise from an internal authority. What is most important is to name principles of respect and communication between people as an expectation in the group. There may be specific behaviors which you can suggest or request that people refrain from, (eg. partaking of alcohol or drugs during a workshop), but be aware that if you make something a hard and fast rule, then you need to be prepared to follow through with consequences if the rule is broken. Establish guidelines for personal boundaries, respectful practices to insure that each person has a way to communicate about levels of contact which work for them.

When you move into experiential structures, include some practice exercises for saying No and Yes in different ways, so that people have been through the process together and it is alive in the circle.

There may be boundaries in the space, areas where people may not go. Or there may be boundaries to the work in progress. For instance, I tell people early on that their emotional expression is absolutely welcome in the space, and there are boundaries: No damage to others or to the space (this includes hurling intense expressions at other people – they must pick out pillows or points on the wall for this); and, if sound levels begin to

123 dominate the space, I may ask someone to scream into a pillow, for instance, or go outside with an assistant and pound the earth.

Share your Information and State your Expectations Give people the planned schedule, including when meals and breaks will occur.

Be clear as to attendance expectations – do you want people present for every part of the schedule - are there optional structures or time periods? Give your reasons for why their attendance is important for the whole event. In ritual or deep process circles, for instance, the presence or absence of each individual can be acutely felt and must be acknowledged as having weight and impact on the group.

Future pace and give options for those moments when a person may feel they have to leave the circle. Let them know this is a normal part of the process, and that if that feeling presses on them, they have choices; for example, they can request support from staff or others, they can utilize a centering space if you have one, to take a break yet still be part of the circle. If you build in the solo centering and support option as part of the circle process, it will create more fluidity around your requests for full presence. This centering space is simply a pad with cozy pillows along one wall of the room (I recommend a wall rather than a corner for open flow of energy). It can be used solely for centering time, as a separate way to still be part of the circle and the work in the room. Be clear that it is not a space for socializing, and that it should be preserved as a sanctuary.

Let people know that staff will provide contact and support for anyone who needs it in the centering space; participants should not get pulled out of the circle if a friend is in distress.

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Logistics of the facility, bathrooms, supply tables, etc.

This is best done in smaller bits, at the beginning of each day or section, according to what people need to know for that evening, or morning or afternoon. Too many logistics all at once, and no one will remember what was said. You will need to plan time at regular intervals to state and restate logistical matters.

125 The Sphere

Establish the Axes: Vertical, Horizontal, Saggital. Three dimensions must be established in the body and in the circle before any other dimensions can be experienced.

In the Body

Fig. 26. The sphere will be as large as the axes you establish.

To establish the vertical axis in the body, use exercises which move energy into the earth or from the earth into the body, and also between the sky and the body. Invite a full vertical flow of energy through the body, either upward or down. One of the simplest ways to do this is to work in a sequence of grounding, breath, and spine. Wave motion which extends from the feet through the spine and into expansion and awareness of the lungs will set up a wave motion in the cerebrospinal fluid which will help people to become present and attentive6.

126 Horizontality is about opening the arms, reaching out to be in relationship with others. At first, I suggest working without touching others, so that people can feel their own reaching out as a full process in their own body before it becomes about physical contact with others. Guide people to source this extension in their core body, so that the reaching out begins deep in their torso, from approximately two inches below their navel (the qi center, and the power center in Pilates) and flows through all core muscles as it moves out along their arms. You can experiment with reaching out from the heart, or from the back plane, or from the soles of the feet.

The Saggital, or front-to-back dimension is best called in by people feeling the front plane and back plane of their body, through touch or movement. Especially remind people of their back planes, as culturally we are trained to be frontally-fixated. A very simple way to invite the back plane and at the same time create easy connection is to have people stand back-to-back and breathe and relax, supporting each other, or “backing each other up� in relaxing and grounding.

The Saggital plane (at least in the Western culture) relates to the past behind us and the future ahead, so you can invite people to connect to these time dimensions through their front-back bodies. In all of these planes, emphasize full flow through all channels or circuits in the body.

In The Circle Body

The size and strength of the circle sphere is determined by the length and

127 completeness of each axis line. For example, in protein formation, there is an eightpointed star, each point of which denotes one essential amino acid. If one of the amino acids - one point on the star - is incomplete, then the rest of the star points will extend only to the same degree as the incomplete one, and the protein cannot fully form.

Fig. 27. The missing extension of the Lysine causes the whole protein to be smaller (Lappe 1991 175).

128 Fig. 28. This circle body will grow larger if you strengthen its vertical axis.

The vertical axis (V) in the circle body is first established by bringing direct attention to the line from the center of the earth to high above our vision, up to the stars.

You can talk about this polar alignment in any way which suits your tradition, but it is important to physically express it, through moving the eyes or in greater body movement, so that the individuals are physically resonating with the vertical center of the circle. As the central column builds up over time, you will find ways to bring attention to it repeatedly.

Literally reaching out the arms and touching others in the circle, by holding hands, touching fingers, dancing together, will establish horizontality (H), and any sharing exercise in duos or small groups will build this horizontal flow. Start this type of contact gently and move between internal(vertical) and relational (horizontal) exercises to give people a chance to feel grounded (vertical), while making contact (horizontal) with others. You can increase the depth of sharing as long as grounding has been established.

Dances, or any kind of group movement, are very efficient and satisfying means of establishing all planes. Make sure they contain movements which address the center.

In the circle, you can bring attention to the saggital (S) plane by describing the vector line which extends from the center of the circle out through each person and into the world(s) behind them. They also bring into the circle everything “behind� them, their past, their support, their unseen selves. Imagine a giant wheel, or web, which extends from the center, out through each person into the world beyond, and then flows back into the center. Or simply step into the center, and back out, as a group.

If you promote too much contact (H) without grounding (V), you will get a

129 container which has no grounding strength, and you will lose some people’s genuine presence. They may go for quite some time, cooperating in the exercises, but the feeling will get hollow and forced and eventually someone will leave or act out. I have been in circles where we were expected to make intimate contact almost immediately with people we had just met, and the circle, though we attempted to follow instructions, never actually gathered into one body, because we were not given a chance to take grounded steps into contact.

Also, you need to balance H and V with the Saggital, by bringing attention regularly to the center and back to the perimeter, the pulse in and out. This is most simply done by naming the circle as a body with a center, a body which needs attention. Have people notice whether they are standing in an actual geometric circle where they can see everyone equally, and adjust if they cannot. Have people speak or direct attention to the center as a living phenomenon. Without the saggital web, the process will take place on the perimeter, and the energy “food� generated by the work that goes on will not be shared by the whole circle, and therefore will not be fully realized.

The Torus Subtly, the torus is automatically activating as people stand in awareness of each other in the opening circle. During any opening remarks, introductions and invocations, the lines of attention are going out across the circle in their natural lemniscate loops.

People are noticing each other, and are beginning to resonate with charge in relation to each other. To really get a clear torus going, you can be direct about this, asking people to take note of their line of contact with each other individual in the circle. You want the heart rhythm of the circle, the electromagnetic field of the heart of the circle to be strong, and to do this you need everyone’s heart to link up, to amplify the individual cardioelectrical fields into one for the body of the circle. Some of this is happening automatically, but it is wise to call it in directly for the benefit of the circle body and to be clear about each person’s importance to the endeavor.

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131 It is not necessary – and it is counterproductive - to force sentiment (how loving and connected we all should feel) as a way of getting to the heart energy. Simply ask everyone to imagine what they need in the way of allies, blessings, qualities in order to feel present and safe in the circle, and then ask everyone to simultaneously speak those qualities, allies or blessings that they can bring as a gift to the health of the circle. When people recall feelings and images of being loved, they will activate authentic heart energy. If everyone speaks simultaneously, then they have both the privacy of a wave of group sound and the sense of being heard by human ears; they direct this connectedness to the center of the circle. This creates a strong torus energy for the body of the circle and can of course be repeated easily at any point; the invitations you make are formed to help people remember themselves as loved and appreciated.

The continued strength of the torus depends on people getting to interact with each other. With every new exercise mix people up into new combinations, so that they get a chance to connect with everyone, otherwise people will fall into comfort ruts of associating only with those they are familiar with. Circle strength and vibrancy depends on connections in every possible combination, so that when people are all standing in the big circle, there will be energized filaments holding the whole web in place. Then when the energy is directed toward the center of the circle, it can run clean.

This does not mean that everyone has to feel “good” about every other individual, only that some knowledge, respect and good will be established, even if the personal charge seems “negative”. Say this, in order to let them know it’s valid and useful to let

132 energy be present that may have an uncomfortable or “negative” charge. It can all be converted to clean energy if we let it flow.

Structures Structures (exercises) are created to give people an experience. Each structure is its own little environment within the larger environment of the circle. Ideally, structures are created from your own experience in your own body: how would you learn this principle or material with ease? This self-inquiry should inform the design of your structures. You may draw from other leader’s structures which you have experienced, adding adaptations which would make it easier for you to be in the exercise, or you may invent something completely new from a need within yourself. I always attribute ideas and structures which I get from others; attribution brings in the honor I feel toward other teachers, and creates a circle of peer support around me which helps me relax away from trying to feel smarter than I am!

Pay attention if you get a vague feeling that something is missing in the work or in the circle. If you keep getting this feeling, what do you need to create to respond to that call? How do you express the process of inquiry which you are in, in the form of a structure which others can follow?

Take Time to Set Up the Structure A clear set-up will save time and prevent confusion/distraction during the

133 structure itself. In every structure that you lead (in other words, for any segment that you are giving directions about), know the following: Purpose Principles Transition points Literal instructions for what they should do in the exercise Possible difficulties people may face/solutions Time frame Ending Witnessing I learned about witnessing at The Institute for Transformational Movement in Seattle in 1989, and it has been an essential element of my private practice and of every group I have led since then. Witnessing is the capacity to see the truth in others without judgment, and it is a skill that needs constant practice. It is a skill you can call on any time you are directing people to be present to one another, as it is so easy to interfere with another’s full expression because of our own discomfort. For instance, for some people, to see another person in their erotic energy equals an invitation to get physically involved, when it may be nothing of the kind. For some, it is so difficult to simply be present to the full expression of sorrow, that they cannot help but rush in to fix it, i.e. stop it. The sorrowing person may have finally been ready to lay down their sorrow and let it flow out of their bodies, and the “helpful” behavior may have stolen a golden opportunity for release.

134 To convey witnessing in an embodied way, I suggest imagining that you are a huge tree in an ancient forest. You have been growing there, rooted in the earth, for over 600 years. At some point, a human comes into the clearing at your feet and throws themselves on the ground, raging, crying, laughing, dancing. You are with them, you feel the sound vibrations of their expression, you witness and even feel tree-empathy for their emotion, and you remain alive to your whole ancient forest life at the same time. When they are done, they leave, and you remain in your clearing, which returns to its forest self.

You are fully alive and resonant with them without getting pulled into their experience.

Between We are each moving in a sphere of energy, our own kinesphere. As we interact with others, this Between space, where the spheres overlap to varying degrees, is constantly being activated; the vesica portal is constantly being formed, inviting creation, generating energy.7 We have a choice as to what purpose we direct this energy.

On a personal level, we get a sense of another person just by being near them. We are receiving information – undoubtedly far more than we can be aware of – about who this person is and how we react to them. This is rightly called “chemistry”, because it is in fact an interaction of charged particles, which in their relatedness impart information from body to body, being to being. We have the tendency to constantly interpret this in personal ways, but at one level it is pure energy, and is available as an energizing force for the circle. If people can learn to notice the charge between them – positive or negative - as pure energy, and contribute it willingly to the purpose of strengthening the circle, then the collective environment of the sphere is enriched, and more free energy is

135 available for intentional use.

As a leader, you are responsible for bringing attention to all the phases of this technology. The phases I suggest are: -

Acknowledge Relationship as an ever-present energy source. It is often unconsciously assumed, and therefore ignored.

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Perceive the Chemistry. Let thoughts and images run without speaking. Notice the “positive” or “negative” charge you feel with an individual.

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Feel the Energetics. Simply feel the energy charge running in your body.

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Give Energy to the Center. Let the circle purify the charge.

Creating Structures in Response to the Group Process

Truth Telegrams This was invented on the spot because we had a man in the group who could not align with the respectful attitude of the work; he was sexually hitting on the women and making them very uncomfortable. Several women came to us – the leaders and staff - to report this person’s unacceptable behavior. We had to address the problem, but we wanted the communication to be as true and direct as possible, not mediated through us as “authority” figures. We also couldn’t be clear as to exactly what he was doing, since he wasn’t doing it to us. We knew we had many strong women who could speak clearly and effectively. So we made the Truth Telegram structure; an inside circle of the men,

136 with the women in the outside circle (so women wouldn’t feel hemmed in and less powerful in their speaking). Each person would get 20 seconds with the person standing before them, to say what truth they needed them to know– NOW – 20 seconds for the telegram to travel the other direction, and then they would each move one to the left, into a new pair, and the truth telegram would shoot back and forth, 20 seconds each way. We set this up clearly ahead of time, so everyone understood the format, and we told people they had to say their truth without explanation or equivocation; there would be no time for embellishment. We kept strict time, signaling the 20 second switches and the move to the left in no-nonsense, urgent way. The whole group structure was complete in 20 minutes, including set-up. In this process, the problem man heard from five or six women, rapid-fire, that his behavior was unacceptable (actually, that is my assumption, I did not hear what they said!). Whatever they said got his attention in a way that our “authority” intervention would not have done. He stopped the offensive behavior and took in the feedback. He reported several weeks after the workshop that he felt” he got caned by the women” and that it changed him in a positive way. He was treating his wife of many years with new respect and kindness, and he was handing down more humane decisions from the bench where he served as a federal judge. This was one of the most interesting moments in my years of teaching, and I thank him for showing up to learn. I was grateful that using the circle structure could take us all out of our ideas of right and wrong and into a compassionate solution.

137 Queen of Destiny and Queen of Control Each time it would come time to choose partners for a long, intimate structure, I noticed that a very rigid field of energy would arise, containing a schoolyard level of fierce anxiety and competition for power. (Some people express this quietly, through resentful compliance or confused immobility, but it is no less intense a field) First, it is important to acknowledge that it’s a vulnerable place, this choosing of people, and we all have associations with being chosen or being patently unchosen.

A few remarks which I have found helpful in setup of the choosing structure: the course of choosing often does not run the way we think it will; when I have put great effort into “getting things set up right� I have often been disappointed in the results, while many of my most powerful healing experiences have been with people I was sure I could not work with. I invite everyone to let go of their mind and breathe into their bodies and their intention for their work. If there are couples who have prearranged their placement I put them at the very front, to take them and their partners out of the pool of choices.

I first put attention on the last place in line, which I call the Queen of Destiny position. I start here because once this position is filled, then the tension will ease a bit since it becomes known who will go last. The Queen of Destiny is a powerful position because she or he is letting go of control of choice. She is accepting whatever chance brings her to work with. In this way she is exerting her faith and confidence in herself that she can make a meaningful experience out of any raw material which comes her way.

I name all this and honor the power of the position. There is at least one and often more

138 people who want that position. Shifting the attention to the pleasures of letting go is a nice way to start the exercise.

Then I go affectionately to the first position in line, the Queen of Control. I say there are many times when we need to have maximum choice in our lives, and that the Control Queen gets to have her need met, with all respect and love. I do remind them that the Queen of Control, being first to choose, can be harder than one thinks, as the choice is entirely up to you. Once the first in line is settled, I then ask the others to arrange themselves in the middle positions.

Kaleidoscope This structure was also created to respond to the anxiety people feel about choosing others for their personal rituals. This is their big chance to do a ritual for which they have hope and fear, and they want to choose the right people. But the mind gets very active about what is “right�. Some people need others to look a certain way, have certain skills, or not be certain ways. Sometimes people become fixed on making sure someone is not in their group, due to their aversion to that person for whatever reason. There is an anxiety for some that they may miss the boat or fail to get what they need if they don’t get it right. This choosing process can bring up very intensified energy, filled with anxiety and mental stratagems and a kind of brutality of will that comes from fear.

The kaleidoscope structure was designed to bring some of that to the surface before any actual choosing took place, for a ritual which would require that people work in four-

139 person groups. For the kaleidoscope, we asked people to arrange themselves in four concentric circles, called A,B,C, and D, with spokes of four persons each.

The rhythm we established was that, at the chime, everyone would breathe, and the AB side of each spoke folded out to meet the CD side face to face. We then guided this foursome for several minutes to breathe and look at each other and let their imagination consider all the possibilities of what could emerge to work with in this group. Breathe, chime, AB spoke folds back in to the four concentric circles. Circle B rotates left, circle D rotates right. Again, chime, breathe, AB side of spoke folds out to meet CD face to face, etc. After each rotation of the concentric circles, a new combination of ABCD will result. Each person, with their anxieties and fantasies about their ritual, can contemplate all the possibilities introduced by the new combinations. Hopefully, they begin to realize that there are many opportunities which interest them, more than if they solely follow their mind’s picture of what they want.

As we went through many combinations in this way, the energy of the room settled and became grounded and more open-hearted, as people began to realize that they could work well with any combination in the room. As the energy really settled in and breath became easier, we (leaders) agreed with each other on the moment when the groups fell into place, and announced that these were the ritual groups. Everyone seemed satisfied, not because they got their perfect group or avoided their “worst� people, but because they became relaxed and curious about a broader range of possibilities.

THE CENTER (COLUMN) Physically Marking the Center It is helpful to designate the center in some visible way, but you want this central circle to be mobile and flexible if you need room to move and work in the center. In other words, an elaborate altar at the center of the circle can work if you either want to use it for focusing consecration or themes, or if all the personal work will take place on or around the altar. Just remember that you are committing to a fixed or mobile energy at the center of the group. Because my groups work with ritual and expressive embodiment, I prefer simple and literal demarcations of the center: fabric, stones, a string or scattering of flower petals arranged in a circle. It is helpful to have a piece of fabric with a goodsized circle shape on it stretched overhead on the ceiling to mark the top of the column which forms the center.

My favorite method of marking the center so far was created when each member of the circle walked the land as a beginning ritual, and brought a stone into the meeting

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141 space. We then placed the stones into a circle below the ceiling circle. Throughout the retreat, sitting, standing, dancing, we directed attention and energy to the circle of stones.

If we broke into smaller groups for certain rituals or exercises, we set up the small groups with orientation to the center described by the stones, so that Streaming or Pulsing (see below)from the whole group could be called at any point by the leader. When we did a vigorous Sufi dance around the stones, to my vision the central column became undulating and thick, like the body of a serpent, one segment of which I could see penetrating this earth plane, while its head and tail were moving above and below my awareness.

As the work progressed, we could widen out the circle of stones to allow room for people to go in and do their work during certain rituals. Like an inhalation and exhalation, we could bring the stones back in when the ritual was complete. During our last round of work, we dilated the center by moving the stones out into a huge circle encompassing us all for the duration of a long ritual composed of stanzas of personal work. Our completion ritual at the end of the week then included each person returning a stone to the land.

Streaming The most practical exercise for building the center once you have established it, is to simply send energy in and out of the center. Establish this practice early on in the group. Have people practice streaming their energy into the center for a few seconds. Just the instruction is enough; let people find their own way of aligning with the idea of streaming. Remind them that they can stream energy from any position or state of mind.

142 Practice streaming energy out of the circle and ask people to notice the difference in how that feels compared with streaming in.

I use Streaming In to strengthen the center of the circle body, and Streaming Out if people need a boost for their personal work – this strengthens the perimeter of the circle body. You can also experiment with Streaming Out as a way to interpenetrate other dimensions with the pulse of the circle. Once you have introduced this practice, use it with a regular rhythm, so that it becomes an easy second nature practice for the group.

Then you need only call “Stream In” or “Stream Out” when you want to direct strengthening energy to the body of the circle.

Pulsing This is like a concentrated version of Stream In and Stream Out together, a quick Pulse to the center. This command, as with Stream In and Stream Out, can be given by someone who is working in the center who wants a surge of energy to boost their process.

It can also be called by the leader if this is an agreement. The leader can follow their instinct and observational powers as to when more energy or more group attention should be focused into or out of the center work.

Working in Concentric Layers around the Center As a leader, you can invite group attention to different levels of work depending on how directly you concentrate energy into the center. In a business meeting with agenda items and task delegation, the center functions like a group intellect, and is formed by mindful attention to a unified purpose, along with clear inclusion of all

143 members. Simple focusing techniques such as a moment of silence, a breath together, a dedication or statement of purpose for the meeting, will re-mind people of the group conscience and their relation to it.

In groups where the stated purpose is one of personal healing or learning more about interior processes, the center functions like the heart of the group body, a unifying point of attention and support. I don’t give a lot of direct attention to the center, but I name the well-spring of its energy as a resource for all. I focus on engaging people in the content of the material, being responsible in their treatment of each other, and on tending the perimeter integrity of the circle; the work tends to become deeply personal and interpersonal, with an abundance of emotional experiences and expression. The general tone of these groups has been one of moving in a heart space – sometimes cozy, sometimes requiring great courage - and opening to kindness and celebration of one another. Participants report back stories of powerful personal transformations on the emotional, psychic and sometimes chemical levels.2 If I want a group to tap into the full multidimensional reality for visionary purposes – which I currently define as accessing information from spirit or non-human realms, I have methodically focused the group’s attention on concentrating energy at the center, and understanding the center as a portal to other realms. In these groups, emotional expression seems to be embedded in a transpersonal field; deep emotion and 2

One woman, who had struggled with health problems related to low testosterone, reported that her tested levels of testosterone went up to desirable levels after the workshop and stayed there. Two chronic pain sufferers, one with rheumatoid arthritis and one with fibromyalgia, reported marked relief of pain and increased mobility during and after the workshops. These relief effects wore off in the two weeks following the events.

144 personal expression take place, but blend more softly into the rarefied energy that begins to permeate the circle.

In these center-focused groups, it is palpable to many of us that the energy of the entire group not only accelerates but clarifies, like the clearer air at altitude. People hear buzzing sounds and report visions which elucidate aspects of their lives. Some feel the energy of the circle vehicle intensify and accelerate beyond the physical space we occupy, as we continue to stream energy in and out of the center. The center becomes a space of heightened energy which people use for concentrated meditation, expression, or vision states. The enjoyment of each other during breaks and afterwards is quiet and profound, with spontaneous dance and storytelling and goofiness filling the space with joy. For months after these circles people have reported that they feel clearer and lighter, closer to their sense of themselves and to their vision in the world.

Using the Center for Personal Work Once the circle is activated and the center is strong, it can de dedicated and used for express purposes (pun intended – the center is now a concentrated wave energy which accelerates process of whatever kind you focus inside it). People can meditate in the center, move there, or can enact rituals or scenes alone or with others which allow them to discover new personal circuitry to solve old problems. I suggest that structure be held meticulously by the facilitators, in order to permit no distractions of the group attention from holding a clean center for those who are working there. Follow the rhythm and repetition of sounding the chimes to begin, clearly mark the beginning and end of each ritual with chimes and a changing of the guardians, and end as you began. Keep all

145 agreements stated in the beginning of the structure.

Clock time can be spelled out in advance; whether it is to be equal divisions or organic time, what the entire structure time will be, when breaks will occur. It’s important for the staff to hold time as abundant at the same time as you let people feel the urgency of now as the time to do what they most need to do. An interesting thing about giving everyone in the circle 7 minutes, for example, is how many different ways seven minutes can feel, and just how much distance can be traveled during that time.

Working in the center requires the container to be sturdy and yet flexible, a living web. In support of its sturdiness, I suggest that the following structures be used: -Four guardians: people who stand in four stabilizing positions and assume the role of witness -One facilitator always in charge of the structure staying on the perimeter (other may go in) -Time agreements stated at the beginning and kept clearly by facilitator or timekeeper -Beginning and Ending: use the same markers (chimes, prayers, drum) -Completion and Divestment The whole format of opening up space in a circle for individuals to do their own healing work is a book in itself. Our bodies all contain such a vast array of experiences and we need release and transformation in so many areas. As a leader, you need to remain humble as to just how much you know or understand, and at the same time be willing to utilize every skill you do have to support people in their healing.

For instance, if you have not had trauma in your life – first, thank your lucky stars

146 - and second, learn whatever you can about how trauma is experienced and healed by those who’ve been there. It is a whole realm with very specific nuances and markers.

Most importantly you must respect the person’s creative decisions which they have made in order to manage trauma’s effects, and their abilities to both release their trauma and also keep it contained if they choose, even if this looks like denial or tension holding.

Never assume you know what they need, or that they just need to let go of their resistance (this one is insulting, simplistic, and can cause a lot of pain).

Stay grounded and curious and in kind companionship with them as they decide where to go next. Ask what they need or what would feel like support. You are not there as their therapist, you are there to help them use the support of the circle to move themselves forward. If you are in fact a skilled therapist, you may contribute specific support according to your expertise, but I would stay primarily in the frame of reference of the circle body as the resource, rather than in the one-on-one modality of the therapy session.

Intention When I think of intention, I think of a little sailboat on the ocean. We each have our little boat on a huge ocean of possibility. We have a map in our head or hands, and a sense of direction and destination. Intention is the course we set in order to traverse the ocean to get to our destination. We will trim the sails and tack left and right many times in order to keep to our course, our intention. Each person will have their own way of setting intention and interpreting information, so your job is to call attention to the process and let them exercise the muscle.

147 You do this by articulating the principle of intention and by creating structures in which people warm up and exercise their intention process all along the way. The simplest way to do this is to simply suggest that people form an intention at the beginning of each structure, and that they observe how information coalesces around their intention in both small and large exercises. Bring focus to the action and interaction of their intention with the whole fluid field. When a person sets an intention, they magnetize electromagnetic fields which wrap around them, and they may receive information in many different forms. We have been trained to automatically reject or simply fail to recognize many streams of information, so as leader you must name and honor a multiplicity of ways of knowing.

Information streams nest inside each other like Russian dolls or a telescoping reality along a continuum, and the observer or the intention point is where particular streams of information coalesce for human apprehension and use. Another metaphor is that of the inention dropping like a plumb line into the fluid medium of the scalar field, and information magnetizing along the line in a spiral formation. When someone sets an intention, they may, like the little sailor on the big ocean, see many different sights in their travels along that course; they may see archetypal images, glimpse occluded memories, get extremely practical data, tap into a hidden wellspring of emotion, or simply “know” something they didn’t before. All information streams are valid and are organizing along their intention; coach them to let it all flow in and sort it out later.

Relate intention to specific places in the body. For instance, if someone’s intention is to have more joy in their life, ask what part of their body is asking or reaching out for new information about joy. The complete intention is always connected to the

148 body, so that as the information from the field spirals in, the body can personally filter and integrate the information which it needs in the present moment. Your lungs will select a different spiral of information than your back, or your knee or your kidneys. The alchemy of transformation begins at the cellular level, as the accelerated flow of new information becomes available.

Intention is the major principle to stay aware of in working in the center. The group’s intention has been developed and refined as the circle body and the central column have been built. The transformation which takes place in the center is happening in the individual, and also in the body of the whole group; a sequence of work will emerge like a plant over a period of time in a circle body; pieces of work in the center will follow and expand upon those which have gone before. It is often like being inside an unfolding story at the heart of the group, where each person’s chapter leads improbably yet clearly on to the next. By the end of the center work, you may feel satisfied, knowing everything got “said”. Or you may have an unfinished feeling. If you do feel unfinished, you can either take this desire for satisfaction openly into the next round of work, or you can honor the agitating mystery of the unfinished as an invisible seed which will unfold later, and declare the work complete.

Using the Center for Group Intention When we are working with an organized center, we are both receiving, letting the necessary information collect within us, and we are transmitting. Physics Researcher Valerie Hunt says that the scalar wave is a carrier of information, and suggests that the entire group focus an intention to place into the scalar wave to send it to a destination

149 person or purpose3. This is similar to a prayer group focusing on one recipient for their prayers, with the twist being focusing attention on a space which has been pre-energized at the physical center of the group (in many ways like a space-time altar on which to place prayer objects).

I feel that in the act of building the circle and making the center available to individuals for personal illumination, we are sending out group intentions inherent in our action: interdependence on each other, support for transformation, a willingness to communicate with larger energies than our own, and faith in our bodies as evolving and wise.

I have used images like webs radiating out from our circle, asking people to send their intentions out along the filaments, into their lives and the world at large. A favorite form of mine is what I think of as the pulse prayer. After we settle into a sitting mediation for a few minutes to find the still center of our beings, I ask people to feel the blessings they have received in the circle. On the first (of three) pulses, I ask them to physically pulse the blessings out to all their loved ones and friends. On the second, we pulse/stretch the blessing state to a larger circle which includes people they do not know or even like.

And on the third pulse, we push it out there even bigger, to anyone at all who might need some extra energy or blessing.

State Changes

3

Val Hunt, e-mail message to author, August 4, 2006.

150 State changes depend on feedback loops. At a recent birthday party, I asked my friends to make remarks which would give me perspective on myself at 50. These women were there for me, not for a formal circle process, and about half had experience with circles. We sat in a loose circle, and in no particular order, people spoke to me. I received their speaking and made some small remarks which connected with what they had said.

At first some people were hesitant to share, but as people went around, the energy of the group opened up, people shared more, and, despite my saying we could move on to cake, a second round emerged. The sharing in this round was about noticing the circle itself, and the life force and enjoyment that we were all experiencing from the circle of women’s wisdom.

My point is, the circle awareness activated organically, out of the basic elements of a shared intention (to give me birthday feedback), and a center (me) with which to weave the feedback loop process. At some point in the process, a state change occurred, and the energy hummed and fattened as a result, until it was palpable to everyone as its own force, separate from me as its focal point. We probably could have gone several more rounds, with ever-deepening shares, until we were complete, but in this case my desire for cake intervened.

State changes depend on energy build up. Energy vibrates at an increasingly higher frequency (faster, not better) until, suddenly, matter changes state and takes on different qualities and characteristics. The body of the circle is a palpable body composed of energy, and you as a leader are always attending this body. There are times to relieve tension in the group, in order for it to ground and soften, and there are times to allow the tension and charge to build – usually by insisting on the maintenance of boundaries – so

151 that the state of the energy becomes taut and accelerated. Personal breakthroughs can occur for people in any phase of the circle body energy, so watch your own judgments about what kind of energy is necessary for transformation. Think thick, wide, fat, meandering, as well as high, fast and intense.

Emotional coherence of the group body The main ingredient for coherence is for everyone to feel included. This requires you as a leader, with help from your staff, to genuinely connect to each person in the group or to make sure they are feeling connected to others. This may be done literally, or energetically. I suggest that you frequently acknowledge aloud the variety and depth of experiences which are taking place in the circle at every moment; some of which are easy and fun, and many of which are uncomfortable or downright difficult.

Because the Western culture either hides or dramatizes the “dark� feelings and thoughts, we need to constantly antidote that misunderstanding, and normalize the fact that much of life can be strange. It is normal to feel emotions of anger, sadness and fear, as well as those of happiness or trust. It is normal to carry residual shame if you have been subject to it from others. It is normal to go in and out of contact with yourself (to differing degrees) and with others and to need boundaries and help in that process. The range of experience and expression of these elements of human experience is enormous.

We can all do our best to witness and include each other, even if we do not understand or share the other’s reality.

152 The Flock of Birds Phenomenon If you are getting a flurry of questions, or a sudden press of requests, or a global sense of confusion in the group, then something else may be going on. I call it the “flock of birds” phenomenon; when a group gets anxious about moving into the next exercise or phase of energy, there is often a wave of nervous behaviors that rise up like a flock of birds lifting off a tidal plain. It’s not exactly flying – they’d rather settle back down to earth – but something has them agitated and fluttering. Do whatever you can as a leader to redirect energy to grounding and breathing, reasserting people’s inner authority and sense of direction. Do so within yourself especially, as you want to stay grounded and not get pulled up with the agitation. Listen for what is really needed: time to share, emotional release, movement, more information, encouragement to go for it.

Loss or Contraction of Energy If the group energy has a flat quality, you may begin to feel hollow, distant, or vague, and the odds are good that others are feeling this too. Check the obvious causes first: are you talking too much, or is there too much verbiage going on? Has the group been sitting too long and needs to move? Is a time or curricular agreement not being met?

If you make these necessary corrections, and the energy is still flat, you might need a game or exercise which activates relational connection. This can be very simple, turning to the person on one side of you and answering a couple of questions “What did you have for lunch? What did you like about it?”, or it can be followed by a deeper inquiry, such as “What is feeling flat inside you right now?”, or “What about this situation is putting you to sleep?” (This last might engender a little laughter, but also some perked-up attention,

153 because it acknowledges that something flattening is going on and we don’t have to ignore that.)

If the energy is still flat or congested, then you may have one or more individuals who are for some reason withholding their energy and causing a stop-flow in the circle.

See Challenges in Group Process, below.

Challenges in Group Process

Always honor that the group is giving you the gift of their mind as a feedback system. If people are not understanding something, pay attention, identify this, and try another way to give the direction or solicit questions/comments in order to ascertain what is in the way. Stay alive to the dialogue which is always occurring between you and the group body – it is interesting and awakening and will make you a better leader/teacher if you relish the learning process that you are in, and include the group in your moments (some of them) of taking their feedback and making responses to that. It honors the listening process and the dance that you are in with them.

Questions Questions always arise as you are working; use the moment to teach, elucidate a principle and suggest action steps. If a question is arising in the group, then it is likely that more than one person is holding it. Answer as clearly as possible. Respond with something people can use. Questions often boil down to what should I do when ____?

154 Give specific things that people can do when situations arise for them. Or give the general reassurance that they are on track and they do not need to change anything, just breathe into it. Honor all processes, help them to practice honoring every moment and feeling with a breath, releasing their thoughts and judgments.

If, after these responses, the questioner is still not satisfied, you may need to draw a line, because this kind of dynamic can begin to involve group energy and agitate the whole group. This can be done by honoring the need for more, without making yourself available in that moment. One possible reply is: “That is such an important piece you are bringing up, thank you, and in the interests of time we cannot address that at this moment. It sounds like you could use some additional support. Is there someone who can talk to ____ after this meeting?” (Get that person’s agreement, and check in with them later) Or “Can you check in with one of the assistants during the break?”

Objections are nothing more than questions. What is the person really asking/seeking? Is this question or concern resonating throughout the group?

People Being Late The important vision to keep before people when doing circle work is the shared responsibility for the care of the circle body, since it is the circle body which actually moves forward to accomplish the work. Each person has an impact on the health and well-being of the circle and whether we can progress together, and it is this which makes timeliness and participation so essential. In other words, clock time (with all the issues people have about relating to the clock) is not the point at all; in keeping their time agreements, people honor everyone else in the circle, and our shared desire to have a

155 great, productive time together.

I have found it best, if people are creating a problem by being late, to express my genuine wish and welcome that they be part of the circle, and at the same time my responsibility to support the circle by insisting on timeliness. In the case of two people who were repeatedly very late, I once had to go so far as to say that the circle would close to their participation at a certain time, and I was prepared to lock the doors and be done with it. I explained that any more waiting for them would damage the cohesion and depth of the circle. The people in question came on time, and we all cheered, because we wanted them there.

Expression of Strong Emotion The only reason this can seem a challenge is because culturally we have all been intensively trained away from letting it happen. The most important factor when strong emotional expression comes up in a group is the comfort level of the leader and staff with strong emotion. The entire group will be taking their cue from your bodies as to whether there is a grounded way to feel and express strong emotion. This does not mean that you allow one person’s emotional expression to dominate the group; it means that you are friendly and respectful in your own body with a full range of emotions, and you can respond to and guide others when their emotions are intense.

This is where you will want to have done your own depth work around emotional issues. If you have not grieved a loss, felt enraged at an injustice, needed someone beyond reason, or known toxic shame, then when someone in the group is swept with that emotion, the your body will be closed and the unconscious answer will be “No” to that

156 person’s state. The “No” will be felt by the whole group as well as by the individual, and two basic choices will automatically fall into place: remove authentic, “out-of-control” emotional expressions from the menu of possibility, or have the emotional expression by breaking through the leader’s resistance or sense of order. The first choice will cause a shut-down of energy in either the person or the group, and the second choice can result in disruption of the group so that the e-motion can move.

If you are familiar with the emotion which is coming up, you can resonate with it and respond compassionately to the person expressing it. From this resonant place, you can offer choices for support and expression which work for the whole group. For instance, if it is clear that the person must express their emotion immediately, then your choices as a leader are: 1. give the person the support of a staff member to witness them in another space while the group continues its curriculum; 2. take time right then and there, having the group serve as witnesses; or, 3. create a structure on-the-spot for the whole group to move and make sound, which will enfold the expression of the individual and release group tension. You will have to make the choice swiftly, depending on many factors, so at this type of moment you want to feel flexible and agile of mind, and this can only be done if you know your own emotional humanity.

Another unconscious communication which you can make about strong emotion is that which results from being over-focused on its cathartic release. In a circle this might look like an inordinate amount of time or staff attention paid to people who are making big expressions of sorrow or anger or fear. If you notice you are making a lot of effort to get people to express in big ways, you may be attached to cathartic release. By doing this, you will declare that big expressions of emotion have more value than other

157 experiences in the circle. While catharsis can often move things forward, so can many other energetic experiences in the circle, so attend to the full range The best route is one of trusting the body, and trusting the circle. The body knows when and how to release held feelings; all that’s needed is a space which can hold the person while they surrender to expression. In a circle, all the facets of who we are as humans are present and natural: one is crying, one is blissful, one is in quiet reflection, one is very frightened; it is all happening simultaneously and none of it needs to be controlled, though guidance is appropriate. I identify parameters for the big expression of emotion at the beginning of the circle, such as no damage to any person or to the space, and that if the sound level begins to dominate the space I may ask someone to scream into a pillow. Since this has been said early on, everyone is aligned if I take action on these things in an extreme moment.

Our big circle body can contain and support anything that needs to happen, and it can all find its course to satisfying resolution without disrespect or damage to anyone in the circle.

This is a huge contradiction to most people’s rigid patterns to “get a grip” on deep emotion or states of disorganized surrender. The culture teaches us to keep it positive, keep it under control, and these are very deeply ingrained rules which create patterns of breath and muscle tension. People can get very anxious, but also liberated when those rules are being broken. If you set up a chance for group movement, you might get a circle filled with all kinds of expression, a huge wave coming through the collective body, and you get to stay centered and reasonably comfortable as the wave form swells and breaks (which it will).

158 Conversely, when the no-expression rule is broken, some people will grip all the harder and become extremely anxious, because it may have been truly dangerous at some point for them when big movement or sound was occurring. They may look around the room a lot, or become hyper-vigilant, hypercritical, or very tense in their body. Speak to those people either individually or by reminding the group that their job is to breathe and ground, this is a natural wave washing through, there is nothing they need to do, and it’s okay to feel afraid and breathe through it. Send assistants to be near them if they need support and remind them to ask for support either by making eye contact with another person or by getting themselves into a grounded or safer position in their body. Repeat the instruction to breathe deeply as a way to stay present in intensity.

Dissociation Dissociation is an amazing, creative process. Anyone who has dissociated (gone out of or adjacent to their body) has done so out of desire for life. I’d like to reframe the idea that dissociation is a bad thing; remember that in shamanic and religious traditions “out of body” experiences are courted as a high state of awareness which brings gifts. In a situation where fear or injury has caused someone to involuntarily dissociate, remember that in doing so they are not only going away from the hurt, but they are also going towards a workable place in their being where they can keep themselves alive and be part of this world. The human being’s intricate and brilliant strategies for creating a workable reality deserve our complete respect, even if it looks “crazy” to us.

The main impact of a person dissociating in group work is that they are profoundly alone. Because we were so desperately alone in the moments which caused us

159 to dissociate, the place is encoded with isolation. If you can, have a team member be with them, someone who feels safe and alive and curious, and who respects the dissociated person’s ability to make choices as to how to create support and rejoin the group (or not).

Often the whole chemistry of isolation changes when a kind presence illuminates the possibility of return to integration and engagement. The person knows the way back; they may just need reminders that it is now safe to come back.

If the person is not able to find their way back, you will have to make choices based on how much resource you can devote to their process. You might have a staff person work with them in the centering space or outside the circle, but this should be time-limited in most cases; it is not good for the attention of the circle to have staff or participants “out” for too long. In extreme cases you might have to call for their support people to pick them up. Explain everything clearly to the person; they deserve your full respect, and you get to have whatever boundaries are necessary to serve the circle.

Regression Regression is a delicate instance, because you actually have a young person in the room in addition to the adult who signed up for your course. If working with inner children is one of the stated purposes and processes of your course, then you will have structures in place for the welcoming of that regressed aspect. If that is not the agreement of the circle, then you need to help the person make some choices. Be respectful about this young person but also clarify the boundaries of this particular space, which may be an adults-only space. It may not be appropriate – in the case of erotic work, for instance –

160 for a young person aspect to remain in the room.

You can address the participant about their young aspect, and tell them that they need to find another care space for the young one. Sometimes a detailed visualization of a nurturing caregiver and environment will suffice to give the young one somewhere to go psychically while the adult continues with their work in the circle. If the person is fully regressed and not responding to adult communication, then you must designate a staff member to help the person to a separate location where they can be tended while they reintegrate. If in a reasonable period of time there is no reintegration occurring, it is best to call their contacts and have someone pick them up, because the process they have gone into is beyond the scope of your support resources. All of this should be communicated to the regressed person, whether they appear to hear you or not. Most people can make very lucid decisions about how to manage their regression, even as they are immersed in it.

In or Out? At times people will separate out and get into the conversation of staying or leaving: are they in or are they out? This is a place to be attentive and precise as a leader, because you want to honor the person’s learning about this dynamic and what it means to them, while not allowing their in/out exploration to dominate or leak energy from the group. When you are developing group coherence, which you must have in place before the group can change state as a body, one individual’s ambivalence about being in the group can stop progress for the whole group. Waiting, being intimidated, worrying about the individual – all of these can draw so much attention that a state change cannot take place. It is the responsibility of the staff to efficiently help the ambivalent person by

161 offering support and clarifying choices; at the same time, the in/out wobble cannot go on for too long without damage to the work.

When this dynamic has begun, find out as much as possible from the person about their perspective. Check in with staff to get a reading from others about what is happening and what the person might really need. Look into your hearts to recognize yourselves in this person, in order to act in compassion, even when a difficult pattern is in play. Have the staff member with the most empathy and kind feeling about the situation offer help, and see if it is enough of a link to reconnect the person into the group.

Another strategy is to share your perspective with a person in difficulty. Share in general the patterns that you see or the types of choices that people can make when they find themselves in this participant’s situation. Share your experience over the years as to what seems to have worked for people, such as sitting in the centering space, talking to a staff member, writing down their experience, etc. You can set up pieces of time for them to experiment with options, and a check- in time. Break overwhelming moments into smaller time frames with specific things to do in order to clarify what is going on.

There are basic signs you can look for when participants bring up this exploration, which will help you to choose your own actions.

The person who needs a bridge into the circle -Has fears and doubts coming up about whether they can trust the process or “do” what’s required. Is separating because they don’t know how to include themselves.

162 -Displays some concern about how their behavior is impacting the group – they are aware of the circle as well as of themselves.

-Needs more information about their choices to create support (who they can get help from, ways they can participate, even in the centering space), and when they get this information, they take new action in order to stay connected, even if their feelings are strong.

163 The person who needs a bridge out of the circle -Has intractable judgments or criticisms about staff or participants. Is separating because others cannot be trusted/are not safe enough.

-displays no awareness of how they impact the group. Wants the group to change to include them.

-Rejects all choices for creating support, and will not generate ideas for how to connect.

Their attention is solely on the danger, and not on their own feelings. This person needs help to choose out, because for some reason the bridge back in has closed for them. This is not a failure on anyone’s part; it simply means they’ve gone as far as they can for now.

As a leader you must deal with your own disappointment and your issues about being a bad guy, and clarify for the person that, as they have currently configured things, the group is not working for them. You can acknowledge limitations while holding the boundaries that the group will not adapt to the demands of one individual. You may have to declare a moment in time when the person needs to leave, and have your staff help them do so. The remaining choice for the person may be whether to say goodbye to the group before they go, and you offer that choice only if you feel they can be respectful in using it.

Don’t overextend your staff, or knock yourself out trying to accommodate someone. If you find your team in an overextended position, it probably indicates the hopelessness the person is dealing with underneath their insatiable demands – no matter how hard people try to reach them, they are cut off. However, you can recognize underlying issues without being able to handle them in the circle, and it is up to you to tell the truth if this you cannot go forward with someone in a situation.

164 Irving Yalom, in his book on group psychotherapy, (and this applies during the enrollment process as well), says that if for some reason you as a leader find you can’t work with an individual, you don’t have to understand or explain why8. You get to say no to the person being in your group, simply because it will impair your function if you try to field their issues or energy dynamics. You have a responsibility to the group to do your job, and keep your space clear so that can happen. I have said “this dynamic is more than I can personally handle, and I’m sorry if my limitations hurt you, but this is the truth and I am responsible for being able to do my job.”

COMPLETION Divestment

Divestment is taking off the garments of projection and expectation with which you have clothed yourself and others, in order that everyone goes free into the next reality. I use this at the end of any substantial ritual where people have worked intimately with one another, and at the end of the whole event. The simplest exercise is to face each other in pairs or face the center as a group and “whoosh” away – with a swift downward sweeping of your hands over your body - any ideas/hopes/expectations you may have generated about another during the work.

Sometimes people do not want to divest their hopes or expectations for another person if they feel that they want to build something with them beyond the event. It is a risk to let go, and it is exciting to release each other into a clear space of truth and a larger possibility than that which we cling to.

165

166 Additionally, the purpose of divestment is to leave the circle field clean and ready for its next use by others. If we leave time projections or images of ourselves and others in the field of the circle, these seed resonances could develop form later on, or cause problems for other users, just as litter would. People have set their intentions and attracted resonant fields to themselves which are already active; these they keep. But it is important to leave the temenos - the sanctuary- of the circle clean, just like we would leave a community room clean when our meeting is done.

This is also a potent way to encourage people to be in their own authority. If a person has found someone they are very attracted to, for instance, and it is time to divest, they must let go of the ties they are weaving around that person as a completion to the circle in which they have met. The two people set each other free to become whoever they need to be after the circle is done. If, after the circle, the desire to know that person is still active, then the usual social protocol must be followed, which will test and clarify whether their attraction has any life outside the body of the circle. The circle is left clean, and the relationship must stand or fall on its own, as any real relationship must eventually do.

Sometimes you discover that the service the other person did you inside the circle was to illuminate an occluded desire; you have the responsibility to go into your life and deal with your own desire; they are not there to fulfill it, only to awaken it. Sometimes relationships formed inside the circle carry over into the social context, sometimes they do not. In either case, divestment allows you to honor the work you have done to that moment, and bow to your future purpose together, without knowing what it may be.

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Closing Remarks

Acknowledgements/ Gifts Self-care recommendations Reminders of confidentiality Contact parameters for participants with each other and with staff Opportunities for other work Logistics of departure End it clearly Clean Up of Space Plan time and have staff schedule themselves for this – it may take a couple of hours, and you need to find time for a staff debriefing. Leave the space better than you found it, respecting all the landlord protocols. Be grateful for a good working space – it is a rare gift!

Staff Debriefing People have worked hard, and it is easy to let this final step slip, but it is very important in order to complete the event and acknowledge the great work you have done together. This may morph into a shared meal, or, in the ideal, another group of people come in to feed and pamper the core staff, after all the debriefing is done!

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Personal debriefing – where everyone got stuck, attached/emotions High points, celebration Laughing at selves, the whole situation Assessments of the success of different structures/ ideas for improvement Materials inventory/ corrections for next time Acknowledgements and gifts Divestment and Goodbye

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END NOTES 1 Pema Chodron, “Going Against the Grain,” in When Things Fall Apart (Boston & London: Shambala, 1997), 93-7.

2 Robert Jourdain, Music, the Brain and Ecstasy (New York: Avon Books, 1997), 331.

3 Valerie Hunt, Infinite Mind (Malibu, California: Malibu Publishing, 1996), 135.

4 John Matthews, The Celtic Shaman (Rockport, Massachusetts: Element Inc., 1992), 37.

5 Searles O'Dubhain, “The Four Treasures Arrangement,” 1997, Mid- Atlantic Geomancy, http://www.geomancy.org/ezines/ezine_7.

6 Anodea Judith, Wheels of Life (St. Paul, MN.: Llewellyn Publications, 1999), 118.

7 Drunvalo Melchezidek, The Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life (Flagstaff, Arizona: Light Technology Publishing, 1998), 151.

8 Irvin Yalom, The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy (New York: Basic Books, 1995), 107.

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1

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2

Robert Jourdain, Music, the Brain and Ecstasy (New York: Avon Books, 1997), 331.

177

3

Valerie Hunt, Infinite Mind (Malibu, California: Malibu Publishing, 1996), 135.

4

John Matthews, The Celtic Shaman (Rockport, Massachusetts: Element Inc., 1992), 37.

5

Searles O'Dubhain, “The Four Treasures Arrangement,” 1997, Mid- Atlantic Geomancy, http://www.geomancy.org/ezines/ezine_7.

6

Anodea Judith, Wheels of Life (St. Paul, MN.: Llewellyn Publications, 1999), 118.

7

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8

107.

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