What many of us in the integral world feel is next is a mutual enlightenment, a getting together and creating something that is new. -Jeff Salzman
It’s actually exciting to feel that kind of shifting and changing occurring and we’re not trying to make it happen, it is happening. -Patricia Albere
I had a fascinating conversation with my integral sister and teacher, Patricia Albere, founder of The Evolutionary Collective, a group of practitioners who are consciously working on creating a deep connectedness amongst themselves. The group meets for a few days several times a year to work with Patricia and her co-teacher Jeff Carreira.
They have had great success in creating what Patricia refers to as “mutuality” which is a marker of integral development in the lower left quadrant of Ken Wilber’s AQAL model, the quadrant that represents the mutual understandings between members of a group and how they consciously and unconsciously create the cultural soup that we cook in together. Using Integral jargon, it is the interior of the collective.
In this dialog Patricia and I talk about how interpersonal enlightenment works, starting as transient state experiences that come and go, but eventually creating a more stable stage experience which represents true development. As Patricia says “It moves you to another floor in the building.” Patricia shares some the insights and technologies that guide her work in this most important dimension of human evolution. Join us here, and also consider joining us in Denver this New Year’s at the What Next Conference. Patricia will be leading a workshop on the topic of mutuality.
Listen to an excerpt below. The full audio is premium content on integrallife.com.
Podcast: Download
Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS
Thank you for this inspired and inspiring conversation. I found myself resonating with so much that you said that after it ended I found insights blooming and connecting, a shower of living sparks igniting and connecting, pulling into clarity what a few minutes before had only been a dim musing. Your words helped me see more.
My husband and I have been experiencing a profound shared consciousness with each other and in relation to others who may be less aware of the connection. What appears to be happening is that connecting to each other is no longer dependent on aligning our personalities with each other, we don’t need to synchronize moods, shared interests or opinions. Instead we each remain continuously in conscious awareness of the oneness, the ground of being, the profound field of love and joy that all of reality is embedded in. We are always automatically connected at the level of being. This has profound practical implications. Suddenly this person I’ve “known” for 37 years appears fresh every day, always different, always embedded in the context of the current. All the familiar flavor of his uniqueness is there but with a quality of fluidness and ease that makes all the elements I used to find frustrating and rigid now flowing in delightful and creative patterns that evoke nothing but gratitude and delight in the pleasure of his company.
My own personality is evolving into a surprising tool for connecting and communicating information. Happiness, sadness, anger or peacefulness flow in response to the moment, a trustworthy and often ruthlessly aware barometer. I am often surprised at what spontaneously springs out. Abandoning the project of self perfection and living in the perfect as the not perfect being that I am, it’s easy to allow everyone else to be as they are. Everyone is connected to the oneness and if I abandon trying to “connect” through the resonance of personality and am present to the oneness, I can feel only love. Even if we only manage to share a smile or even a frown, we are connected. It becomes possible to hear what the person is saying, even if the person is speaking from an unfamiliar perspective, I can intuitively resonate.
My response may support, challenge or question but it is more fully informed and appropriate than when I used to evaluate a situation and plug in my favorite theory. Now I am always the student and the shared oneness is always the teacher, I may perceive the “teaching” flowing to me or through me, but it has the quality of a gift either way.
There is certainly a beauty in the relationship with my partner who is able to share my perception more completely than in any of my other relationships but the same process is always operating with everyone everywhere. The creative thrust of the evolutionary imperative is awesome. My path is probably different in every detail from either of yours, yet I bow to the beauty and power that leads us all forward, and in gratitude that you were able to so beautifully share your wisdom as a living transmission.
What joy to read your response and your living experience of what begins to be possible in this “higher order of human relatedness”… The last 3 days were spent with the Evolutionary Collective – a committed group of people from around the world that have discovered how to how that together – with Jeff Carreira and I leading, holding, profoundly immersed in, it together with them. Every time we meet we are going beyond where we were before into dimensions that we couldn’t imagine and are having such an intense impact on our lives. People’s lives are being catalyzed and moved so quickly and with an ease that doesn’t make sense but it real none the less. We can only be grateful and hungry for more of what the leading edge of consciousness is showing us. Love to you and blessings in the continued unfoldment in your life. Patricia