This is part of a series of blogs reflecting on the program of Integral Europe Conference 2023, whose theme was Planetary Awakening 2.0. This blog introduces a Keynote from the conference – curated in an Action Research Format – summarizing What the speaker said, So What could we take as the meaning? and Now What are options for action.
What did Vivian Dittmar say about Awakening to Unity in a Fragmented World?
Vivian Dittmar (VD) asked: How can we shift the state of world?
The “Awakening” fairy tale has not played out.
Instead we have/had painful development with many tipping points.
Humanity is not waking up fast enough to avoid catastrophe.
How can we avoid …find somehow some way? Are we making big mistake?
Planetary Awakening 1.0 has not worked …maybe because we need crisis to change?
Vivian stands naked without models or slides (for this presentation).
She stands because we don’t know …
She asks us: “Take a moment to say “I don’t know” ….pause
Acknowledge a place within that is a source of wisdom …face self/the world from within.
Awaken from a feminine perspective? Because feminine POV missing in action (MIA) even here …what does it matter if most speakers are men?
Science Magazine 2010 (MIT) explored collective intelligence (CI) …reserachers asked, what is CI in a team?
Teams with higher CI did not have individual IQ correlation.
Sympathy had no correlation.
What is/was the elephant in the room?
Decisive factor was number women on each team.
Ideal team with greatest CI was 80% women.
Women brought the ability to empathise – that is what increased CI.
CI went down when individuals tried to present themselves.
It turns out that women spend much time with people who can’t talk yet …i.e. babies …Women learn to read faces.
We can’t figure out (our greatest challenges) individually …CI needs all of us.
Men have opportunity to catch up (to women’s capacity to read faces and greater CI). Men are raising babies (like Living Cities.Earth cofounders Lev Gordon and Pieter Wackers).
A researcher (Vivian?) visited a Masai tribe …When asked, a man said men’s and women’s roles were separated in the tribe. Men spent their time with cows and beautifying bodies. Women do less relevant tasks like building houses and raising children (!).
White privileged people are in the same trap.
They delegate the raising of children to a nanny …that pains VD… she considers it a huge mistake.
VD was born in Germany. At age 4 she went to Asia …moved to Balinese culture…but she was white and this was not her culture…so she returned to Europe and then USA..
VD notices her disidentification with culture …
This has led to her rejection of culture authority.
Many traditions have influenced her.
VD went on a radical quest for truth …not via traditional education. (And it seems rare to not take studies and same cultural path as most others in culture.)
She reminds us that we cannot figure out crisis – We are all frontier researchers through indigenous, multi-theory, AQAL … but now we must go beyond that.
VD invites audience to a quiet place within … where quiet simple knowing has no words.
Quiet wisdom has strength … find a force of Peace in you, the voice of evolution and LOVE.
As you contact this place find a gesture that expresses it … perhaps we can access (this place of peace and wisdom) by realizing we don’t know.
So many voices are marginalised in the world.
Green development [often uses] cultural appropriation …listen to their voices [and your own voice].
So what could this mean?
Vivian’s stories of a multi-cultural hybrid life reveal that one of the ways to become “integral” is to travel and have multiple experiences with different people and cultures.
Ironically experiencing this kind of fragmentation can open the doors to discover the unity of all.
Without notes and models one has the opportunity to share stories, observations, curiosities and invite others to do so as well.
One can notice who is marginalized and break open those boundaries/barriers that separate us.
Listening the quiet voice within can reveal wisdom, love and peace.
Now what can we do?
Here are 3 possible actions/responses we can take to defragment our world:
- Be quiet, go within and listen to the inner voice. (Consider that you may be listening to the voice of Gaia’s Reflective Organ.)
- Be curious about others who are different than you – present in all the 4 Voices of the city – invite their stories.
- Try reading faces without talking – maybe as a dyad, triad practice where you “read” silently and then check what you have noticed with the other person(s).
Here are the blog links in this series inspired by Integral Europe Conference 2023:
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