{"id":14616,"date":"2022-08-12T22:47:48","date_gmt":"2022-08-12T22:47:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/actionresearchplus.com\/?p=14616"},"modified":"2022-08-12T22:53:31","modified_gmt":"2022-08-12T22:53:31","slug":"tasting-collective-intelligence-or-no-more-vogon-poetry-torture-thank-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/actionresearchplus.com\/tasting-collective-intelligence-or-no-more-vogon-poetry-torture-thank-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Tasting collective intelligence. Or no more Vogon Poetry Torture thank you!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Do you ever feel tortured by people talking at<\/em> you.\u00a0 Not talking with<\/em> you, but at<\/em> you.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \"\"Maybe you listen and then you just pretend to listen.\u00a0 Or you practice being fake-nice simply because you’re unclear how to stop the torture.\u00a0 Perhaps you doubt the possibility of an authentic conversation, or simply don’t know how to turn toward that possibility.<\/p>\n

Conversation comes from Latin con + versare, <\/em>i.e., to turn together.\u00a0 We wonder \u00a0how are to escape conversational torture?<\/p>\n

Serge Prengel refers to it as \u201cVogon poetry torture,\u201d in honor of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cOn no account draw a Vogon to read poetry at you\u201d advises\u00a0Douglas Adams Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe. \u201cVogon poetry is of course, the third worst in the universe.\u00a0The second worst is that of the Azgoths of Kria.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Those of us who are professors may cringe. Have we performed too much \u201cVogon poetry torture\u201d at<\/em> our students?! Mansplainers ought to cringe too.\u00a0 (Not all of whom are men.)\u00a0 As advanced a species as we are (newsflash, we\u2019ve managed to leave trash on Mars, yay!), we are so far from mastering conversational processes in support of our collective intelligence. It’s 2022 and yet we (often?!) torture one another. Worse, we can\u2019t figure out how to stop it even when we know better. Some of us care about knowledge and see collaborative knowledge creation as an asset…we really ought to try harder! A taste of collective intelligence awaits as a possibility.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A search for collective intelligence prompted Quantum physicist David Bohm to invent Bohmian Dialogue<\/a>. He was inspired in conversation with Sri Aurobindo to beyond writing equations. With enough collective intelligence we might not trash Planet Earth! For the same reason, we practice at AR+ with relational meditation. In Serge’s terms, we practice so we suffer less Vogon poetry. And, if we’re lucky, we get to experience more D\u014dgen.<\/p>\n

D\u014dgen was a 13th Century Japanese philosopher & Zen master. Imagine a combination of brilliant conceptual smarts with wisdom enough to enact, not just write about it. Heidegger-Dalai Lama combo perhaps? D\u014dgen founded a Zen community that thrives to this day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

D\u014dgen\u2019s famous advice<\/strong>: \u201cTo study life is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self and to be enlightened by the 10,000 things.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

D\u014dgen’s whole endeavor was to drop dogmatic thinking and instead encounter life’s surprising beauty. He taught a type of meditation quite the opposite of inflicting – or suffering – Vogon poetry torture.<\/p>\n

The phrase \u201c10,000 things\u201d is a Japanese way of referring to life, that is to the many components of life at any moment.\u00a0 It\u2019s what William James referred to as the great \u201cbooming, buzzing, confusion\u2026\u201d This \u201cconfusion\u201d we now understand is also the basis of experiential learning. But we can\u2019t learn if we don\u2019t make space for first noticing and inviting what may be unfamiliar. We might even become aware of a new word, a bird’s chirp, warm breeze \u2026 you get it. We might pay attention to the one we’re with. We might become interested in what’s possible between us.<\/p>\n

Collective Mind: Practice of Relational Meditation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Serge and I look forward to our weekly sessions of relational meditation<\/a> in large part because the simple \u201ctrick\u201d in this coLAB is to reduce the quantity of words we\u2019d normally use by some 50-90%. With this newly acquired \u201cemptiness\u201d arrives shared silence and space for creativity. This is helped a lot by the short set of agreements we call\u00a0 “protainer learning enablers<\/a>.\u201d We open all our relational meditation coLAB spaces, ritually, with a brief reminder to be aware that we\u2019re in a confidential space in which we honor silence.<\/p>\n

After shared silence Hilary asked Serge \u201cwhat is our inquiry?\u201d\u00a0 This was a bit of a slip of the tongue as the format calls for \u201cwhat is your inquiry.\u201d Serge replied:<\/p>\n

\u201cA hummingbird has just appeared as an image in my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hilary<\/strong> piggybacked \u201cHummingbirds here look exotic yet are native where I live. They mix beauty with aggression.\u201d<\/p>\n

Serge<\/strong> \u201cHummingbird reaches a still point midair. They bring Spaciousness.\u201d<\/p>\n

The surprising arrival of Hummingbird opened a door to what really wanted to be shared. So different from suffering Vogon Poetry torture! Our inquiry became a conversare, <\/em>turn-taking dance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then out of the blue Serge continued, in reference to the painting of the Annunciation by Simone Martini in the 14th century.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIn the painting The Annunciation there\u2019s a small bird, like a Hummingbird, whispering to Mary the Mother-to-be. What’s really going on?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We look. We see there is a line of text faintly visible between the faces, the Ave Maria of the Archangel, saluting Mary, giving her the news that she\u2019s been selected to be the Mother of Jesus. And in the space between, is hummingbird. The traditional Ave Maria means I salute thee, Mary. These are the words of the Archangel.<\/p>\n

Serge says:<\/strong> Look at the body language. He is serene, yes, what else would you expect from an Archangel. But also leaning forward, confident that in the rightness of what he says, he is bestowing an honor on a teenage Mary.<\/p>\n

We look again at Mary. We look at the folds in her garments and in her body. She\u2019s twisting away from the Archangel and his message.<\/p>\n

Serge wonders<\/strong> If you\u2019re the Archangel, is this a view from the point of view of a man convinced of the unerring wisdom of God? Do you see her twisting away as a mark of humility. How becoming of her to wonder whether she is worthy of such a great honor!<\/p>\n

If you think of Mary as a very young woman who is being asked to step into a role that is beyond human, it feels like she may be shuddering. Me? Why me?! It’s not so much a sense of shyness or humility. But the realization that she\u2019s being pushed into a role she didn\u2019t choose and perhaps can\u2019t refuse. She\u2019s been drafted into a role where she loses her right to an ordinary life. She\u2019s being turned, from an embodied human being, into a spirit, a Goddess.<\/p>\n

Hilary asks of Serge:<\/strong> Why does this resonate with you? You’re not of Catholic descent, right? And by the way Mary is not really a Divine Goddess. There’s such a tortured explanation to do with virginity.\u00a0 Women’s bodies, beware!<\/p>\n

Serge reflects<\/strong>: It has to do with my empathy for women, as well as all the oppressed groups which society silences through a cultural context that doesn\u2019t acknowledge their perspectives, and dehumanizes them. It also resonates with the internalized pressure I have often felt to perform and achieve goals at the cost of overriding my felt sense of what was right for me. Mary\u2019s twisting body is my body and mind sadly asking \u201cwhat about me?\u201d as I push us to pursue my visions of what I need to do at the expense of feeling in harmony with my limitations.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

Can we safely say Vogon torture is bad.\u00a0 And that we vow to give it up! Can we also acknowledge that it hard to circumvent it.\u00a0 This topic is worthy of more blogposts. But the basic idea is that we practice far from talking endlessly at one another (Vogon poetry torture). We practice a little more in the style of Dogen. We practice in attuning to the person before us. We practice in becoming interested, rather than being concerned with being interesting. It requires pausing. And in our practice we also repeat what the other person is saying so we can slow things down and see if we want to piggyback. In so doing, we co-discover a surprise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And outside this slow conversation practice we fall more easily into noticing the \u201cin between spaces\u201d of our life. We feel and begin to trust that relational spaces nourish the personal and call us not to deeper encounter with life, its politics, its problems and its possibilities. And we do so together.<\/p>\n

Feel invited to this practice together<\/a> with us too! Maybe we each get a sticker like this one \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you ever feel tortured by people talking at you.\u00a0 Not talking with you, but at you.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Maybe you listen and then you just pretend to listen.\u00a0 Or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[574,702,384,429],"yoast_head":"\nTasting collective intelligence. Or no more Vogon Poetry Torture thank you! - AR + Action Research Plus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discovering authentic conversation together is key to collective intelligence. 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