Worldwork in Action
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Worldwork in Action
On this page find examples of Worldwork in Action including
Organizational Work: the Open Forum
…the Open Forum is to a corporation or city as innerwork is to an individual.
What is a Group? Groups of people are composed of individuals. Yet beyond these individual people, a group is a field: that is, a feeling and an atmosphere that includes people, organizations, history, and the environment.
To understand yourself you need to explore your inner experiences.
Likewise, if multi-leveled organizations want to know themselves, they need to explore open forums to understand their various parts. Open Forums in my definition are structured, person-to-person, or cyber-space, democratic meetings, in which everyone feels represented. Furthermore, they are facilitated in a deeply democratic manner, which means the deepest feelings and dreams can also be expressed. In other words, the Open Forum is to a corporation or city as innerwork is to an individual…an organization’s self-discovery process depends on openness to the diversity of its individual members, and the diversity of their inner and outer worlds.
Arnold Mindell, The Deep Democracy of Open Forums, p.3
Conflict and Open Forum Experience Around the World
In this video, Amy and Arny speak about their worldwork and open forum work, at their invited presentation in Yachats, Oregon, USA, August 2013. They define “deep democracy”, showing it to be democracy’s next step. Thanks to the Yachats Academy of Arts and Sciences for the invitation.
Open Forum on Race Issues reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, 1992
Thanks to the late Ms. Wilma Jean Tucker for having created an open forum on race issues in Oakland, California in 1992. Because of her, we were able to process some of the public’s feelings, both the hurt and heartfulness connected to racial issues in the United States, some time before the “Rodney King Trial.” Mr King had been unfairly beaten by police, and this was revealed in a widely publicized video, sent by TV around the world. A few days before the trial, the public atmosphere in Oakland California was highly charged just as other largely African American cities were around the US. Oakland was one of the few places that did not break out into riots after that trial.
We hope that the large open forum gathering and people’s ability to express and deeply relate to one another, may have contributed to the possible outer lack of riots. Our hope is that learning to process large open public forums on difficult, historical topics, may contribute to a better world for everyone. See below the San Francisco Chronicle article by Mr Don Lattin who reported on that forum (because the newspaper article was difficult to scan, the text is reproduced from the original.
Download the article (297kb)
Worldwork With The United Kingdom’s Council of Psychotherapy
Arlene and Jean Claude Audergon, UK Processworkers, used Worldwork techniques to bring out the background processes and future possibilities of the United Kingdom’s Council of Psychotherapy. This is the largest such organization in the UK representing a vast and diverse number of counselors, psychologists and practitioners.
The Council vice president, Tom Warnecke describes that event in the Council’s journal, The Psychotherapist, No. 41, Spring, 2009. See Warnecke, T. (2009). Opportunities and Challenges: Impressions from the Transforming Times Forum (November 2008). The Psychotherapist, (41), 36.
World Work and International Corporations
Patricia Bastani, a Change Leadership & Management Division member of the University of Stellenbosch Business School’s (USB-ED) in Cape Town, South Africa wrote a profile draft (assisted by Keith R. Schlesinger) a few years back about Processwork and organisational education.
They wrote:
“One of CLM’s (Change and Leadership Management’s) foundational methodologies is “Process Work,” a mode of facilitated conflict resolution and change dynamics developed over the past two decades by Arnold and Amy Mindell. USB-ED and Dr. Mindell’s Process Work Institute in the USA are currently negotiating to establish the Arnold Mindell Process Work Institute in South Africa, as part of the consultancy’s strategy to develop strategic partnerships and associations with institutions worldwide.
A key premise of Process Work is that, “Most organisational and world leaders … have little training in understanding people or helping groups to change”. (All quotes by Mindell are from The Deep Democracy of Open Forums [2002]). Habits, traditions, and even some so-called best practises “unwittingly marginalize ‘irregular’ people, feelings and emotions while supporting the communication style of one culture over others. … [N]onmajority feelings … [are] simply ruled ‘out of order’”. The most capable people often create the most serious obstacles to progress. “[T]yrannical leaders still flourish everywhere, and most go unseen in every corner of even the ‘nicest’ organisations. … Any one of us can unwittingly hurt others simply by being unaware of the powers we have and how we use them. If we are not careful, the very attempt to ‘raise consciousness’ can simply recycle the very abusive behaviour we hope to correct”.
The path to effective organisational change lies in the Deep Democracy of Open Forums. Process Work transcends the limits of procedural governance and bureaucracy. “The Open Forum shows how to stop abuse taking place in a given moment on a person-to-person level”. CLM supports and extends the benefits of Open Forums with a variety of state-of-the-art learning and consulting interventions, including Governance Assessment”.
Bridge-Building Between People Of Differing Religious Ideologies
An unedited Interview With Amy and Arny Mindell, by Linda Ceriello braveboldnow@yahoo.com 12/26/2007
We appreciate Ms Linda Ceriello for her interest in bridging gaps between people of different belief systems. This interview refers to a large open city forum in Portland, Oregon several years ago. That forum was created by the Process Work Institute of Portland. Amy and Arny were co-facilitators. The theme was about the relationship between the Oregon Citizens alliance, (a conservative Christian political activist organization) and Lesbian and Gay Rights. Her interview with A+A was excerpted from a longer interview.
Download “World Work and Religion ” (78kb)
Living Between The Sea And The Sky: the Haida People
A Reflection On The Workshop Held October 23 & 24, 1999 With Arny And Amy Mindell, Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands).
A heartwarming and hopeful community-worldwork report created by the Haida Community, under the direction of Patty Daniels from the Gowgaia Institute at Haida Gwaii, (the Queen Charlotte Islands off the west coast of Canada). We are so very thankful to all the Haida people for what we learned and experienced there.
Download the article, Living between the sea and the sky.
Our Thoughts On Central World Challenges And What You Can Do
Arny and Amy, 2003
1. Mind and Body
Experience shows neglecting a part of yourself makes it appear as an inner problem, outer anxiety or body symptom.
What you can do:
I. Use awareness, accept your diversity of images and dreams
II. Encourage medicine and psychology to cross their boundaries and come together to match your inner experience.
2. World Problems
If you or your group marginalizes a person or feeling, that person or feeling becomes a problem later on, or a group which attacks yours.
What you can do:
I. Consider how you are the other.
II. Encourage democratic theory and practice to deepen by using awareness methods.
3. World Problem: Transform Groups into Democracies.
Very few of us are democratic enough to give equal representation to all our inner and outer parts.
What you can do.
I. Use awareness, notice your feelings, and become more deeply democratic.
II. Practice awareness of the “other” in groups
III. Realize, you can’t make a group democratic, but you can discover that with awareness, all people are deeply democratic. It’s our basic nature. (see Arny’s “Deep Democracy of Open Forums” for methods.)
4. World Ghosts: Weapons of Mass Destruction
When terrorists and others “harboring” weapons of mass destruction become invisible, they become ghost roles; that is nonlocal stuff in the air.
What this means and what you can do:
I. Ask yourself why you sometimes want to wipe out the human race.
II. Notice “weapons of mass destruction” in groups when people are ready to “kill” one another.
III. Consider SARS disease as a ghost role, a nonlocal weapon of mass destruction. Become a shaman and play that role (and make it meaningful) to ameliorate its consequences.
Gaia by Amy.
Process oriented ecology is the study of and contact with system mind theory and practice, derived in part from spiritual traditions and in part from modern cosmology and quantum theory.
Earth based psychology is about everyone’s basic ability to feel and follow their connection to the earth.
We have been researching the connection between the experiences and feelings people seem to have always had about the living quality of the earth, (e.g. “dreamtime” nature), and the behavior and symptoms of our physical bodies. What’s the connection? How exactly did we get disconnected from the earth? Winter 2006
See especially, Arny’s books Earth based Psychology and Dance of the Ancient One.
Ecology, Science, Psychology And Art
Process oriented ecology was the focus of our 2012 research and training, and the subject of Arny’s 2013 book Dance of the Ancient One.
Around the world, people are awakening to disturbing changes in the environment due in part to the industrial revolution and continuing abuse of the earth’s resources.
While the issue of environmental abuse is not new, ecological research dealing with changes at the surface of our planet is a new, trans-disciplinary study. According to our research and communication with centers for ecological studies in the United States, it seems there is at present no clear model for planetary processes that include human psychology, conflict resolution, economic analysis, reduction of war machinery, etc.
We all need to support research in this important area by at least by asking, “what is the nature and future of our earth.” Your pondering and sharing this almost unanswerable question with others is a valuable contribution to our planet.
Our Planetary Future and 'Universe Work'
We are thinking about individual, relationship, team and world work, as well as about “universe work.” What is and will happen to our little planet in the next several hundred years and in the eventual future. We are pondering the danger of global warming, the influence of human action, and volcanoes on global warming. We are pondering genetic manipulation getting into the hands of warring cultures. It is going to be easier in the future not only to produce medicine but genetically organized diseases.
On the consensus reality level, reducing conflict, controlling overpopulation, reducing environmental destruction can help if we learn how to get along with one another. Once again; we need more research and practice in how to deal with conflict.
Eco-Poetry by Louis Alemayehu
We were touched by the way in which the environmental activist, poet and writer Louis Alemayehu describes the earth in his~The Holy Land is All the Earth~. Download his poem here: the-holy land is all the Earth Louis.Alemayehu@gmail.com
Earthwalker
Amy’s Earthwalker vision symbolizes for us, everyone’s basic ability to follow the earth. Earthwalker offers the everyday mind new possibilities. The gnome is suggesting a tip about innerwork.
His tip is:
Relax. Meditate and feel the earth around you. Then ask the earth to show you which direction it wants you to walk in today. This answer might seem irrational to your everyday mind. Keep your doubts in mind, but let your body and the earth move you in the direction the earth implies. Move in that direction until you know sense your own earthwalker-ability and what it suggests for your path today.
It seems likely that our Aboriginal friends and ancestors, the world over use and used the Earth as one of their main guides in life.
See Arny’s Earth Based Psychology for more.
Dreaming and the Earth’s Fields
Perhaps all animals have a compass, that is a “sixth” sense about how to be “in tune” with the earth.
Recent studies of aerial photographs taken of animals on the earth indicate that cows, elk, deer and possibly all animals sense the earth’s magnetic field, and know how to align themselves with the north/south direction. According to professor John Phillips, a sensory biologist from Virginia Tech University, in the US, this magnetic ability might be “virtually ubiquitous in the animal kingdom”. That is, this ability is everywhere. He adds “We need to think about some really fundamental things that this sensory ability provides in animals.” (See below for the full BBC article.)
For us, this sixth sense is important information. Arny’s most recent book, “Earth Based Psychology” centers on people’s ability to associate feelings and dream experiences with directions, and use them to interpret dreams, and find their “way” through inner life and outer relationship situations. E.B.P. was derived from a combination of Richard Feynman’s theories about how particles move, and Australian Aboriginal and shamanistic Native American abilities to know when and where to move, at a given moment.
In brief, dreaming means among other things, following the earth’s magnetic field.
Download “Animal Directional Sensitivity”
Cosmic Mysteries Think Tank
We are interested in Richard Leviton’s research on the relationship between the earth’s physical energies, spiritual associations and their connection to astronomy and astrology. See http://www.blueroomconsortium.com/ for more. Download article
Mindell, Amy. (2007). Worldwork and the Politics of Dreaming, or Why Dreaming is crucial for World Process.
In this article, Amy Mindell comes out of the closet with her politics of dreaming. Written for the intellectual and also for the artistic mind, focused as well on the general public, Amy clearly makes her point.
The world is run without awareness or consciousness of the deepest, most creative parts of our souls. That is, Dreaming is an organic and necessary element of all world process. Dreaming changes group atmosphere, deepens interactions and creates sustainable change.
From protest music to Mardi Gras, from healing rituals to theater, all over the world and throughout time people have turned to special transformative and artistic modalities for greater understanding and inspiration. In this article I show how dreaming in community process can help navigate more fully community tensions, bring about more sustainable resolutions, and contribute to healing the historical split between these two diverse yet central approaches to community life.
Download “World Work and the Politics of Dreaming” (2.6MB)
Mindell, Amy. (2008). Bringing Deep Democracy To Life: An Awareness Paradigm For Deepening Political Dialogue, Personal Relationships, And Community Interactions. Psychotherapy And Politics International, 6(3), 212–225.
Download an updated version of the article Bringing Deep Democracy to Life
Amy writes: “Democracy in its traditional form is exercised in part through voting, majority rule, laws protecting minority viewpoints, and the freedom to listen to all voices. However, democracy is rarely something that we consciously manifest in daily life — whether during political debates, community meetings, personal relationships, or in our internal lives. In this article I describe a few communication methods that make it possible to bring an even deeper form of democracy to life in our moment-to-moment interactions. This new form of democracy, based on basic awareness principles and methods, can be used by leaders, group and community facilitators, and anyone who wants to become a ”participant-facilitator.” … I show that without awareness of our moment-to-moment overt yet subtle, dreamlike signals, democracy is a dream that has not quite happened. With greater awareness political debate as well as community and personal dialogue can transform into more co-creative and deeply democratic interactions. I also speak about a new kind of leader who can be ordinary and one-sided as well as bring awareness and openness to the various people and levels of any interaction."
Say, B. (2014, May). State Of The World And Worldwork: Interview With Amy And Arny Mindell In Warsaw, Poland.
Mindell, Arny And Amy (2009, June) Basic Teamwork And Worldwork Concepts.
Includes new terms relating to process oriented ecology and quantum entanglement.
Mindell, Amy. (1993). Commentary: Revolution And Worldwork. Journal Of Process Oriented Psychology, Spring/Summer, Vol. 5, No. 1
“As the world is filled more and more with ethnic conflicts, poverty, and attempts at discovering forms of sustainable government, there is an urgency in finding new methods to deal with our human struggles. These world events awaken all of us to the important role we have, big or small, in shaping the destiny of our world and our relationships to one another…”
Download the article, Revolution and Worldwork.
Tucker, J. G. (1992). The Leader As Martial Artist: An Introduction To Deep Democracy. Whole Earth Review, (77 (Winter)), 21.
The late Wilma Jean Tucker reviews Arny’s “Leader as Martial Artist” in Whole Earth Magazine and shares her plea for a new, more holistic model of the world and understandings of conflict.
Download Wilma Jean Tucker’s Review in Whole Earth Magazine
Mindell, A., & Mindell, A. (2003). Short recipe for resolving conflict crises. Psychotherapy and Politics International, 1(1), 64–68.
In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the US in 9/11, Amy and Arny describe a process for working with the roles of terrorist and victim on inner and outer levels.
Kennedy, D. (2002). From Individual to World Work: An Interview with Amy and Arny Mindell. The Group Circle, (February/March).
In this interview, the Mindells speak about the spontaneous group process that took place on 9-11-01 about “9/11”. Amy and Arny consulted with AGPA and were opening keynote speakers at their 58th Annual conference.
Contact The Group Circle for access to the article.