Worldwork and Deep Democracy

Worldwork is a revolutionary and transformative method of working with group and community processes to create sustainable change. This approach can address issues in both small and large groups and has been applied to such realms as community building, organizational development, diversity awareness in schools and universities, police training, and severe conflict situations.

The practice and philosophy of Worldwork combines aspects of many disciplines, including physics, psychology, spiritual traditions, and art. It is a cross-disciplinary approach that, as its founder Arnold Mindell states, helps to connect “transpersonal experiences with mundane reality, spiritual service and political activity, Eastern selflessness and Western rationalism, dreamwork and bodywork.”

Tiefe Demokratie

Central to Worldwork is the philosophy and methodology of Tiefe Demokratie, an awareness framework that differentiates between the multiple ways we experience reality. It acknowledges that all levels, layers, and aspects of “reality” are necessary for wholeness. While democracy envisions sharing power and the political empowerment of the people, it does not always succeed in reducing violent conflict. This is because it emphasizes power-sharing but often overlooks the crucial elements of relationship and communication, which extend beyond power dynamics. The next step beyond power involves developing more sustainable communities and enhancing our ability to work and relate with one another.

Deep Democracy recognizes that every group, community, and nation experiences a consensually agreed-upon form of reality or C.R.—a set of assumptions, beliefs, and perceptions that the majority views as real (e.g., issues of rank, power, facts, and history). Another experiential layer of reality is more dreamlike, a dimension ordinarily unseen yet lying behind the known consensual reality. This dreaming level includes the complexity of deep feelings, dreams, visions, and values hidden within more overt forms of communication. Traditional group facilitation tends to focus only on consensual reality—that which the group identifies and consents to as real—thus missing other important aspects of communication.

Methodology

The method of Deep Democracy invites a trained facilitator to use their awareness to notice, value, and follow all participants of a given group in consensus reality, as well as their more dreamlike and sentient expressions and feelings. In this way, Deep Democracy brings attention to participants’ issues and conflicts and strengthens their awareness by facilitating the flow between the various layers of reality that arise in communication. The wisdom of the group emerges only when all dimensions of reality are recognized and acknowledged.

EIN MEHRSTUFIGES BEWUSSTSEINSMODELL FÜR GLOBALES HANDELN

Worldwork, wie alle Prozessarbeit, operates on the principle that the interactions of individuals, relationships, and groups inherently possess their own wisdom. This wisdom is most fully revealed when facilitators or teams are trained to use their awareness to follow and unfold the unique process of each person, group, or community. Even in the most intractable conflicts, a profound depth of meaning and wisdom lies hidden within what might otherwise appear to be intolerable events.

Every group, community, or nation possesses a “Consensus Reality”—a shared worldview that defines what is considered real and to which most people assent. Alongside this, a “Dreaming Reality” permeates group life, though it often lacks general agreement. This dreaming realm encompasses background feelings, hopes, visions, dreams, body signals, roles, and spirits that pervade and strongly influence a group’s atmosphere but are rarely consciously acknowledged. Furthermore, an “Essential Transpersonal Reality” involves subtle, non-dualistic experiences where individuals sense a common ground and polarities become less relevant.

Worldwork views these realities as crucial aspects of individual and communal experiences that flow into one another throughout any community process. In fact, these realities are not distinctly separate but are deeply embedded within each other. No single reality is sufficient to address group tension and social change; all are necessary. By using awareness to follow the flow of change and interaction as it moves through consensual discussions and the dreaming and sentient backgrounds of community life, issues deepen, and potentially new and sustainable resolutions can emerge. In this way, Worldwork helps bridge the historical divide between these seemingly disparate worlds.

BEWUSSTSEIN AUF DER METAEBENE

In addition to generally recognized group facilitation skills, Worldwork awareness requires access to another level of awareness: the Prozessdenken. This can be thought of as a force-field-like power of interconnectedness, analogous to magnetism or gravity, that organizes experience and gives rise to everything within it—an organizing intelligence. As Arnold Mindell, the originator of Worldwork, explains: “I don’t believe we need more powerful leaders. What this planet needs are team creators: individuals with a soft skill—access to the Process Mind—who can help all of us work together by relating more deeply to one another and to all parts of the system. Imagine co-creating teams not just from your circle of friends, but with individuals, groups, and nations that don’t like either you or each other! We need people who are as attached to the earth’s core as they are to people, animals, and plants—people who can work with relationships at all levels.”

Usually, facilitation focuses on solutions and social system change. However, sustainable relationships are equally, or perhaps more, important. To achieve such relationships, some of us need to learn how to facilitate and be elders who can feel more deeply into the various sides and roles within themselves and in external group processes. Such elders can transform conflict into fluid and creative relationships where people understand and work together.

DIE ROLLE DER ÄLTESTENSCHAFT

The news is full of polarities defined by our present consensus reality, which depends on culture, people, and country. Thus, external opponents may be one country against another, or one people against another. What is not so obvious is that a few individuals can always empathize with all sides. Also less obvious is that present-day conflicts are based, to some extent, on unaddressed, undiscussed historical issues that people prefer to forget rather than process. This is understandable—everyone wants to avoid pain—but we need more than mere avoidance.

The “state” of the world is a frozen picture, supposedly based on a group’s perception of “good” or “bad” guys, so to speak. However, when individuals or groups begin to process these issues internally, they often realize they are not merely frozen in their positions but quietly feel a connection to the other side.

FLIESSPHASEN

In Worldwork, group processes evolve in phases. Recognizing these phases as expressions of the shifting and changing field deepens understanding of the group’s current state and helps clarify which interventions might be most useful. When a facilitator realizes this, they can sometimes switch roles, become more fluid, and help create a more aware community. This fluidity allows for solutions and relationships beyond any single resolution. For more on phases of process, see Arnold Mindell’s book, Konflikt: Phasen, Foren und Lösungen: Für unsere Träume und Körper, Organisationen, Regierungen und den Planeten.