- “I need to take a sacred pause, as if I were a sun-warmed rock in the center of a rushing river.” Dawna Markova. Thanks Glen Lauder.
- What today might be called “field,” or “the power of the whole,” 19th century sociologist Emile Durkheim called, “collective effervescence.”
- I’ve redone my website and blog. Thanks to Robi Gareau at CentreSpoke. Several resources there if you want to look. https://www.tennesonwoolf.com
- A great 4 min video on systems. From when wolves were introduced to Yellowstone. Thanks Jerry Nagel. http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/how-wolves-change-rivers/#.UwVvmvkr-_o.facebook …
- BALLE offers some really good annual conferences on localism. This year it is June 11-13 in CA. https://bealocalist.org/2014-conference
- BALLE has some really impressive resources on localism. Check them. https://bealocalist.org/resources-spreading-solutions …
- I’m really enjoying Steven Johnson’s book, Where Good Ideas Come From. Connects innovation in nature to innovation in human systems.
- From Steven Johnson’s Good Ideas… When nature finds itself in need of new ideas, it strives to connect, not protect.
- Love this from Steven Johnson: The history of life can be told as the story of a gradual but relentless probing of the adjacent possible.
Collective Effervescence
French 19th century sociologist Emile Durkheim coined this phrase, “collective effervescence,” to describe the positive impact a group or group identity could have on a person’s overall individual health. Today, many might reference this as “field,” or “the power of the whole,” whether it comes from a good meeting together or a shared rock concert. A colleague and friend, Christy Lee Engel, has explored something similar in our conversations, recalling her learnings with Dr. Bill Mitchell and their work as naturopathic physicians, “humanity itself is a modality of natural medicine.” Whether an energetic quality shared by people in the same geography or event, or a result from years of tradition, I quite like this phrase, collective effervescence.
The February 2014 edition of National Geographic includes an article, Karma of the Crowd, describing the Indian Hindu festival at Kumbh Mela that attracts millions of people. This article reminds me of conversations with Christy.
Their findings would have made Durkheim effervesce. Those who stayed in their villages self-reported no real change over the period of the study. The kalpwasis, on the other hand, reported a 10 percent improvement in their health, including less pain and breathlessness, less anxiety, and higher energy levels—an effect comparable to that of some powerful drugs. Antidepressants, for instance, have been estimated to reduce the public health burden of depression in some populations by about 10 percent. But as Reicher points out, antidepressants treat only depression, whereas the crowd “drug” seemed to have a positive influence on all aspects of the kalpwasis’ health. What’s more, the good effects last long afterward—certainly for weeks, possibly for months.
Why should belonging to a crowd improve your health? The psychologists think the cornerstone of the effect is shared identity. “You think in terms of ‘we’ rather than ‘I,’” explains Nick Hopkins, a colleague of Reicher’s from the University of Dundee in the U.K., and that in turn alters your relationship to other people:
“What happens is a fundamental shift
from seeing people as other
to seeing them as intimate.”
Support is given and received, competition turns to cooperation, and people are able to realize their goals in a way they wouldn’t be able to alone. That elicits positive emotions that make them not only more resilient to hardship but also healthier.
Belonging to a crowd—at least the right sort of crowd—might thus benefit the individual in the same ways more personal social connections do. We know that stress-resilience mechanisms can be activated by social interaction, with positive effects on the immune and cardiovascular systems. Very socially connected people tend to have lower levels of molecules associated with inflammation circulating in their blood, for example. They are less likely to die of heart disease and some cancers, and there’s some evidence that they are less vulnerable to age-related cognitive decline. They respond better to vaccinations. Their wounds may even heal faster.
Reicher makes a critical distinction between a physical and a psychological crowd. A physical crowd—commuters jostling on a subway, for instance—lacks a shared identity. Although being very socially connected isn’t the same as being physically surrounded by other people, it has a lot in common with belonging to a psychological crowd—sharing a group identity. And it isn’t just bodily systems that are altered by the shift from “I” to “we.”
A Changing World View
I love these words from Peggy Holman. She has a gift of identifying the core threads.
A Changing World View
What is it like when your peer’s assumptions about how the world works seem fine to them, yet your own path turns up nothing but contradictions? Such is the fate of those who are poised to re-invent the world. The prevailing wisdom just doesn’t fit your data. And the implications…they could change everything.
The cultural narrative when this story begins is often called “Newtonian” or “classical science”. This body of knowledge dates from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. “They pictured a world in which every event was determined by initial conditions that were, at least in principle, determinable with precision. It was a world in which chance played no part, in which all the pieces came together like cogs in a cosmic machine (Prigogine & Stengers, 1984, p. xiii).” It was the perfect metaphor for the rising Industrial Age. And it still influences the dominant approaches to leadership, strategic planning and “change management” (the name itself a misnomer through the lens of complexity) today.
As Wheatley characterizes it: “we have broken things into parts and fragments for so long and have believed that was the best way to understand them, that we are unequipped to see a different order that is there, moving the whole. (Wheatley M. J., 1992)“ (p. 41) British physicist David Bohm captures this dilemma when he says, ‘The notion that all these fragments are separately existent is an illusion and cannot do other than lead to conflict and confusion’. (Wheatley M. J., 1992, p. 24)”
Early in the nineteenth century, a few scientists were running into that confusion. Contradictions defied explanation. For example, thermodynamics indicated that if the universe was a machine, it was running down. Yet Darwin’s followers found that biological systems were actually running up, becoming more organized. The complex whole exhibited properties that could not be readily explained by understanding the parts (Prigogine & Stengers, 1984).
Changing the Way We Approach Meetings
Erin Gilmore is former pastor at Holladay United Church of Christ. She is now with a congregation in Colorado. Over the last four years (it feels like longer given the quality of friendship) we have done a lot together. Hosted Art of Hosting trainings. Explored strategy and future with her UCC Council. Met with another UCC friend for curry dinners.
Recently Erin wrote these words below, her reflections on what the Art of Hosting has done for her from a perspective as a faith community leader. Erin has a quiet stillness in her. A depth that becomes is very clear in her words. I post Erin’s words here, with her permission, because what she has spoken applies well beyond the context of working with faith communities. I know many people in many organizations that yearn for this clarity.
Thank you Erin.
Art of Hosting has changed the way I approach meetings – whether its a large, all-church, annual meeting, a small group meeting, or a board meeting. Even the invitation to the meeting is different. It’s common to hear in church, “we have too many meetings!” or “people don’t want to go to more meetings!” That’s true – if the meetings are disconnected, not engaging, and don’t seem to accomplish much. But if we are honest – “”meetings” that is, people coming together for a common purpose, is central to church. We aren’t going to get rid of meetings. But we can change how we meet. And that is a big part of what Art of Hosting has given me. We don’t meet to just get through an agenda, to check off the list of items as quickly as possible. We meet to connect to one another, to the Spirit. We meet to listen for the wisdom that is present in each of us. We meet to learn from one another. We meet to discover what is at the heart of our ministry. We meet to empower one another. We meet to build energy, to gain momentum, to pay attention to what truly matters in what we are doing together. Art of Hosting has given me not only specific tools and practices to change the way we meet, it has given me greater awareness and ability to speak of the gigantic shifts taking place in our world today and language that helps us move in this time of awakening and emergence. Art of Hosting has given me new hope for the church and for the role we can play and are called to play in the midst of this great turning.
Art of Hosting has changed the way we do our annual meeting as a conference. The first year we built our conference annual meeting using Art of Hosting practices people left saying it was the best annual meeting they had been to in a long time. When asked why they said that the loved having the opportunity to connect on a deeper level and to be in meaningful conversation about issues and concerns that they were passionate about. They felt their voices were heard and they felt empowered to continue working on the things that mattered to them. They didn’t come and just listen to other people talk, they were invited to share their voice. There was more on the table than just budgets and nominations. There were questions about the future of the church, and our purpose as the Body of Christ. In the two years since that initial meeting, we have had more churches and more members from churches want to attend the annual meeting because they know its something that is worth their time and that will feed their soul. It gives “church meeting” a whole new face.
