Conscious conferencing

It is useful to distinguish between (a) the awareness individuals may have of the group of other individuals with whom they interact, namely, "group consciousness" and (b) an awareness by a group as a whole of itself and its activities, namely a "conscious group". The first is necessary to enable individuals to respond appropriately to each other within a group. The second arises when the individuals are collectively and simultaneously aware of the pattern of those interactions between the group members. A sign of the emergence of a conscious group -from the point of view of anyone involved- is that each is moved to act in the right way at the right time, although there does not appear to be any central coordinating agent or any explicit design. The actions of the whole are very much greater than can be comprehended from the individual actions. How each awareness interpenetrates the others is not yet clear. The "eyes" do not understand how they are related to the "feet" or the "hands", and the right and left "feet" do not understand how their movements harmonize through their opposition to each other (a yin-yang cycle) to move the body forward. A similar situation arises early in the growth of a child.[Advantages]

The prime characteristic of conscious group is its awareness of itself and its place and rhythm in the scheme of things. Within itself it mirrors an awareness of how its environment is organized. Each action on the environment is paralleled by an equivalent displacement of energies within itself. There is a "magical sympathy" between the outer and the inner worlds. It is through this inner/outer attunement that the group is able to increase considerably the amount and range of energies that it can handle and focus in order to transform itself and its environment as it evolves into a greater identity.

When learning to ride a bicycle, a person has to deliberately correct excessive responses in order to maintain balance -until such correctional moves are made instinctively in a conscious group, excessive responses resulting in energy disequilibrium are also smoothly corrected by an integrated response within the group- whereas this would normally only be achieved through a series of sporadic procedures, characterized by a heated mix of rational and irrational argument and expression, leading to changes of an almost spastic quality.

[Disadvantages]

The insecurity and high risk factor involved in such conferencing -which are of course essential elements- represent a high threshold for conference organisers and coordinating committees to overcome before they would be prepared to try a process of this kind.