CIRCLE WORK: INTUITIVE TECHNOLOGY

By Selah Martha
Copyright 2007 by Selah Martha

Illustrations by Ada Mayer

All rights reserved.

 CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................vi

ABSTRACT................................................................................................................. vii

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................1

THE INTUITIVE TECHNOLOGY OF THE CIRCLE ....................................................3

The Circle is a Technology .........................................................................................3
The Sphere ...................................................................................................................5
The Torus...................................................................................................................12
The Column ...............................................................................................................15
The Helix ...................................................................................................................22
The Scalar Wave ........................................................................................................26

THE BODY IN THE CIRCLE ......................................................................................30

The Sphere .................................................................................................................31
The Torus...................................................................................................................33
The Column ...............................................................................................................34
The Helix ...................................................................................................................36
The Scalar Wave ........................................................................................................40

THE BODY OF THE CIRCLE .....................................................................................43

Dilations ....................................................................................................................46
Rhythm .....................................................................................................................52
Time ..........................................................................................................................60
Between.....................................................................................................................62
Crystalline Circuitry ................................................................................................68

LEADERS GUIDE ......................................................................................................77

BECOMING A LEADER..............................................................................................80
Calling.......................................................................................................................80
Training ....................................................................................................................81
Identify Your Purpose..............................................................................................82
Know Yourself........................................................................................................83
Know Your Style ....................................................................................................84
Know your Limits ...................................................................................................84
Know how to be curious..........................................................................................84
Know Your Business...............................................................................................85
Transparency of leadership......................................................................................86
Self-Care.................................................................................................................87
Checklist of Tools ...................................................................................................87

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YOUR TEAM ...............................................................................................................89
Team cohesion ..........................................................................................................89
Check-in meetings...................................................................................................90
Staff Agreements or Contracts.................................................................................91
Staff-Participant Boundaries....................................................................................91
To the Assistants.......................................................................................................92
Moving in the Middle Ground.................................................................................93
Psychic Range Riding .............................................................................................94
Oracle .....................................................................................................................94
Fielding complaints.................................................................................................95

ELEMENTS OF THE CIRCLE.....................................................................................97

Attention ...................................................................................................................97
Getting Attention Out..............................................................................................99
Free attention ........................................................................................................100
Playing with attention ...........................................................................................101
Second attention....................................................................................................102
Presence ..................................................................................................................102
Love.........................................................................................................................103
Principles ................................................................................................................104
Rhythm ...................................................................................................................105
Using Music..........................................................................................................106
Time ........................................................................................................................107
Managing Time Structure......................................................................................109
Time as a Fluid Medium .......................................................................................110
Embodiment ...........................................................................................................111
Touch....................................................................................................................114
Desire ...................................................................................................................115

BUILDING THE CIRCLE ..........................................................................................118

The Perimeter.........................................................................................................118
Opening remarks...................................................................................................118
Introductions .........................................................................................................119
Prayers or invocations ...........................................................................................119
Confidentiality ......................................................................................................121
Boundaries ............................................................................................................122
Share your Information and State your Expectations .............................................123
Logistics of the facility, bathrooms, supply tables, etc. ..........................................124
The Sphere..............................................................................................................125
In the Body ...........................................................................................................125
In The Circle Body................................................................................................126
The Torus ...............................................................................................................130
Structures..............................................................................................................132

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 Take Time to Set Up the Structure ........................................................................132
Witnessing ............................................................................................................133
Between...................................................................................................................134
Creating Structures in Response to the Group Process ........................................135
Truth Telegrams....................................................................................................135
Queen of Destiny and Queen of Control................................................................137
Kaleidoscope.........................................................................................................138

THE CENTER (COLUMN) ........................................................................................140

Physically Marking the Center ..............................................................................140
Streaming..............................................................................................................141
Pulsing ..................................................................................................................142
Working in Concentric Layers around the Center ..................................................142
Using the Center for Personal Work .....................................................................144
Intention................................................................................................................146
Using the Center for Group Intention ....................................................................148
State Changes .........................................................................................................149
Emotional coherence of the group body ................................................................151
The Flock of Birds Phenomenon ...........................................................................152
Loss or Contraction of Energy...............................................................................152
Challenges in Group Process .................................................................................153
People Being Late .................................................................................................154
Expression of Strong Emotion...............................................................................155
Dissociation ..........................................................................................................158
Regression ............................................................................................................159
In or Out?..............................................................................................................160
The person who needs a bridge into the circle .......................................................161
The person who needs a bridge out of the circle ....................................................163

COMPLETION ...........................................................................................................165
Divestment............................................................................................................165
Closing Remarks...................................................................................................167
Clean Up of Space.................................................................................................167
Staff Debriefing ....................................................................................................167

WORKS CITED..........................................................................................................168

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My gratitude to: My first circle teachers at The Institute for Transformational Movement:

Joyce Izumi, Thom Negri, Raoul Beacom, Betsy Beckman; My Body Electric circle

teachers: my sweetheart and husband Collin Brown, erotic pioneers K Ruby, Isa

Magdalena, and Chester Mainard; My sister temple artists and scientists: Alex Jade, Elfi

Shaw, Helen Finch, Betty Martin and Chris Ingenito. My brother temple travelers Gary

Dillon, William McMeniman, Michael Cohen, Gabriel Clark (who encouraged me to

write this) and John Perez. Everyone who has ever made a circle with me. My academic

mentor and friend Shakira Khan, for trusting me, and my program director Mei Mei

Evans, for holding space for a new academia. My parents Jack and Martha Roderick for

constant support. My sister Libby Roderick for more than I can say, Lauren Bruce for

unconditional love, both of them for a home away from home. My beautiful daughters

Ada Mayer and Molly Brown, for being yourselves. I love you forever.

vi
 ABSTRACT

When we form a purposeful circle of people, we are intentionally constructing a spherical

device which gives us access to a vast matrix; this matrix is an eternal living fluid field of

energy which contains information from all existence. We can, using what I call circle

technology, bring resource from this matrix to any aspect of our individual or collective

lives which needs attention. The circle body is a holographic energy field similar to those

found in our individual bodies and is an intuitive already known technology. The

collective circle body generates an attentional state which can be used to enhance

intelligence, access social understanding, and develop a multidimensional consciousness

as an evolutionary response.

vii
 INTRODUCTION

The circle as a symbol is found in the artistic, spiritual and social practices of all

human cultures in all times. Likewise, the physical experience of sitting, standing, and

moving in circles has and does occur wherever humans gather, and this has been true

throughout history. Why is this true? What happens when humans arrange themselves in

a circle? Is there some magic that occurs, and, if so, how does it arise? What is the effect

of the circle on the participants bodies, on their relationships with each other, and on

their creative expression in the world? These questions have intrigued me as I have

learned in circles as a participant and a leader for 20 years.

This manuscript is fashioned from my research and theory as I begin to answer

these questions. To my eyes, there is an inherent technology to the circle itself, which

resonates equally whether the circle be that of the earth, the group, or of a persons body

surrounded by their energy field. It is clear to me that the structure and function of this

form of technology can be apprehended intuitively therefore making it accessible to

anyone and that it can be intentionally orchestrated to produce profound results.

In Part I, I present theoretical understandings from a variety of perspectives that

elucidate the technology of the circle: what it is, how it creates access to increased energy

and intelligence, and how groups can harness its power for their purpose. Part II is the

practical application of this theory in the form of a Leaders Guide for those who use

the circle format in their work. My purpose is to contribute to a deeper and more precise

understanding of what circle work can mean to people, and perhaps to bridge a little of

the distance between the realms of magic and my Western, science-based culture.

1
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THE INTUITIVE TECHNOLOGY OF THE CIRCLE

The Circle is a Technology

Imagine a sphere of light which you hold in your hand. The sphere is filled with

moving vectors of multi-colored light which cross its interior at every angle. The surface

of the sphere is alive, a flexible membrane formed by liquid light. As you peer more

closely into the sphere, you can see shapes within: a circle of points around the equator of

the sphere; these points form the outer rim of a donut shape, which extends into the

sphere and wraps around a central column; the column, which contains a moving double

helix of light, ends top and bottom in trumpet openings, from which light fountains back

into the sphere.

Now imagine this sphere expands to the size of a large room, and you can step

into it. You are standing in the perimeter circle of points, each of which is another person.

Countless vectors of light shoot from your entire body to those of the others in the circle,

each vector having a different intensity and hue. From inside you can see that the donut

(mathematically known as a torus) is actually composed of countless figure eights which

start from each persons body and flow up and into the center, then down and up along

the torus wall on the other side, like skateboarders who keep rolling in eternal lemniscate

loops. (The lemniscate is what most people think of as the infinity sign, only three-

dimensional).
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The central column stands like a great transparent tree, its spreading roots and

branches equally visible, above and below. Inside the column you can see a double helix,

the light in one spiral running up, while the light in the matching spiral runs down with

equal velocity. These two spirals never touch, but balance each other in such a way that

the empty space between them is potent with energy. You are inside a hologram, which is

both generating from within you and already existent without you.

Fig. 1. The sphere environment.

In this environment, the air seems quite clear, and your vision seems finer, your

hearing gently deepened. You feel relaxed and alert at the same time. When something is

said in the group, you all understand it instantaneously, and you chuckle with your

companions in the circle at how delightful it is to be of one mind (Narby 1998). You

are in what I call your organic state.

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The organic state is one in which we are deeply embodied and therefore aware of

not only our own breath and fluids but also the fluid breathing of the earth and all her

creatures, of the sky and weather and of all the realms which interpenetrate our human

existence, whether we are in direct contact with them or not. This organic human state is

rooted and fully extended at the same time, above and below the surface of the earth, like

a spherical plant emanating out from the center of our bodies. It encompasses growth and

development throughout our existence, and is therefore an evolution from our original

state, which is still embedded in the whole. I believe that when the circle is fully

activated, this organic state all organs awake - is what comes to life in each body, like

capillaries filling with moisture after a drought.

The Sphere

I will be using the term circle throughout this book, but when I use that word to

indicate a circle of people, I also mean the sphere of energy which they create.

Technically a circle is by definition flat: the set of points in a plane that are equidistant

from a given point (Weisstein 2003). It is frequently used, however, to verbally and

graphically represent a three dimensional, movement-filled experience of matter, space

and time. The very common phrase circle of life includes the heavens, the stars, the

spherical earth with all her living creatures, and the cycles of time. Another common

phrase As above, so below may refer not just to a religious edict, but to actual

directions out from the center of the body. If everything you see when you look up
 6
(including your peripheral vision) is mirrored below you, then you are at the center of a

sphere.

The pentacle symbol in the Wiccan tradition, a simple circle containing a star,

represents many dimensions simultaneously: the human body, arms and legs extended,

the unity of humanity and spirit, the charted path of the planet Venus in the heavens, and

the cosmic egg (Ravenwolf 2003 9). This one flat line drawing symbolizes movement on

and interaction between, every level of our existence. It also represents a particular

traditions practice for circumscribing sacred space in order to comprehend and navigate

the world.

I like the six-pointed Star of David, as a full diagram of the forces moving in a

human body: an equal force moving up and down at the very center of the body, as well

as along the extension lines of the four limbs. This also includes the pelvic floor, along

with the extremities of the limbs and head, as an interactive portal in the body where

energy flows in and out (Lowen 1980).

 7
Fig. 2. The Star of David superimposed on Da Vincis Vitruvian man.
The very center is the procreative center of the body.

In sacred geometry, a study of the form beneath our being, the Star of David in its

three-dimensional form is a star tetrahedron, two pyramids which interpenetrate and

balance each other, creating a common center.

Fig. 3. The star tetrahedron (Wikipedia 2007).

If you draw lines connecting all points of the 3-D star, you get an octahedron, and

if you spin this enclosed star tetrahedron on three axes horizontal, vertical and saggital

you have a perfect sphere. (Melchezidek 1998 149-50) For later, file away the fact that

the geometric center of the Star of David is a hexagon.

A Navajo sand painting, a flat diagram, is in fact a space, a place where the gods

come and go, and delineates a ritual chamber where the Singer moves about, linking

through touch the body parts of the supplicant, the Singer and the Holy Ones, in order to

rebalance the patients sphere and effect healing (Anderson 2006). In Hindu cosmology,

the yantra drawing of the two interlocking triangles represents the union of Siva and
 8
Sakti, female and male universal forces, centered in the Anahata, or heart center; it is

frequently used to denote the sacred enclosure of divinities, or thought forms, and is

inseparable from them (Khanna 2003 21-28, 120).

Mandalas, circular geometric diagrams which show up in meditative and ritual

practices world-wide, are another graphic use of the circle in which what appears to be a

flat, closed model of circuitry is actually a moving, interactive spherical wholeness. The

model of a mandala, in fact, and its above-mentioned cohort the yantra, perfectly

expresses the combination of elements which I believe are at play in a circle of people.

Mandala/yantra patterns express the state of interrelated existence which I have called our

organic state, a connection to all realms of existence which is deeply anchored and

experienced in the body, and these patterns emerge from a primal source which generates

similar archetypal forms in all human cultures (Khanna 2003 23-4). In other words, the

patterns are not manufactured from the intellect and imposed on present time; they are

patterns of reality which continually reveal themselves and are perceived through the

senses again and again through time.

It is movement in space which brings the two-dimensional circle into a new

dimension: as soon as it spins on any axis, the circle becomes a sphere (Lundy 1998 4).

Just as the circle of people generates a sphere of energy, a body in movement (or even in

potential movement) is the center of a living sphere. Rudolf Laban, who founded

movement schools throughout Europe and in America, diagramed geometrically a sphere

of movement, the three-dimensional space which surrounds an upright, moving body. He

drew this as a cube, with 26 space-direction lines radiating from a central, 27th point of
 9
orientation (Thornton 1971 48). Irmgaard Bartenieff, a student of Laban who founded her

own school in New York, called this a kinesphere, a spherical energy membrane

delineated by all the points that our body could reach if we stood at a central point and

extended our extremities along 13 axes in space. Her diagram is of an icosahedron, with

20 triangular faces and 12 vertices (Bartenieff 1980 33). This shape is commonly known

as the geodesic dome, but imagine that dome fully built as a living sphere, covered with a

luminous membrane, and filled with constantly changing energy. Human being!!

Lets say you have a group of people standing in a circle. Each person is in their

own kinesphere, or personal energy bubble, and all these individual bubbles touch and in

some cases intersect those of the persons on either side of them. The circle is like a

necklace of pearls which hum with a variety of energies, colors and sounds. How does

this necklace of life generate an encompassing sphere for the whole group?

There are two perspectives you can take in answer to this question, both

simultaneously true. The first perspective refers back to the word Intuitive in my title,

because it comes from the point of view that the circle is something we simply know,

something of which we have an immediate experience even though we may not be able to

explain why. This perspective is that the sphere is a shape which exists at every level of

matter, from the planet earth to the human body to electrons to quantum space to essence

realms. When people form a circle, for whatever purpose, they are merely stepping into a

blueprint of inter-dimensional access which has existed for all time (Sheldrake 1995 13).

Lone Wolf, an Odawa Indian from the Great Lakes region, describes the individuals

place in a pre-existing sphere of existence.

 10
I see myself standing here in the center, and immediately encircling me is my
family. Surrounding them are all our family members. Out from them are those
who share my clan dodem. In a wider circle are all Odawa. Encircling them are all
Indian peoples, then all people. Around them are all the ancestors. Out from them
are all the animals and plants. Then come A-ki (Earth),Mishomis (sun), and
Nokomis (Moon). The next largest circle are the great powers, or manidos. Its
everyones job to keep these relationships held together, across all the circles, and
from their own place as center. When all are connected, thats what we mean when
we say, Mino gwayako pimaadizi, he lives a good and honest life (Pflug,
Melissa A. 2000 122).

Activating the circles sphere through attention to its technology merely dials in

access to multidimensional streams of information which are always present, but which

we are usually too distracted to use. Journalist Lynne McTaggart, in The Field, describes

how physicists Hal Puthoff and Russell Targ investigated for the CIA the phenomenon of

remote viewing, the ability of some people to simply see or know information from

out of nowhere. In their research findings, the scientists concluded that information was

traveling at some low-frequency channel, and that remote viewers were accessing

information stored in a vast energy field known as the Zero Point Field. Puthoff felt that

people could sharpen their ability to interact with this limitless database of information.

With practice, people could enlarge their brains receiving mechanisms to gain
access to information stored in the Zero Point Field. This giant cryptogram,
continually encoded with every atom in the universe, held all the information of the
world every sight and sound and smell. When remote viewers were seeing a
particular scene, their minds werent actually somehow transported to the scene.
What they were seeing was the information that their traveler had encoded in
quantum fluctuation. They were picking up information contained in The Field. In a
sense, The Field allowed us to hold the whole of the universe inside us. Those good
at remote viewing werent seeing anything invisible to the rest of us. All they were
doing was dampening down the other distractions (McTaggart 2002 159).
 11
A second perspective, which will influence the instructions given by a circle

leader more directly, is that, through the intentional direction of the energy waves at our

command (those of our own bodies and minds), we can concentrate energy in a way

which constructs very specific wave forms. We can build an electromagnetic

environment in the same way that we can with the proper tools, materials and skills -

build a dance hall, and let its shelter and inspiration surround us as we move within it.

Once established in the structured container of the circle, the wave forms assist our brains

in achieving enhanced awareness and the conscious intentionality to find the attunement

that Hal Puthoff dreamed about.

Nikola Tesla, a brilliant physicist and inventor of the late 1800s, understood that

working with the patterns and templates of nature and the earths electromagnetic field

would generate an unlimited supply of free energy for mankind, energy which could be

put to a myriad of uses. His devices worked with basic principles of di-polar feedback

loops, working in relation to a central columnar form, to generate a dynamic charge

which would spread out in concentric waves into the earths ionosphere - a sphere

encompassing the earth- and return, creating infinite repeating wave forms which humans

could harness with antennae (Papic 2002, Tesla 2000 79 ). Our human circle work also

generates a central stationary wave form which moves out in concentric circles, forming a

sphere which interacts with other dimensions, or atmospheres surrounding that of our

common, consensual reality. The enhanced energy inside this environment affects our

bodies, brains, and overall mind in such a way that we have more energy and can
 12
experience an enhanced intelligence, and can more easily access information as to how to

navigate our daily challenges.

There is a matrix which is a living fluid field of energy containing information

from all existence; when we activate a circle, we are intentionally constructing a spherical

device which gives us access to this vast matrix. We can, using what I am calling circle

technology, bring resource from this matrix to any aspect of our individual or collective

lives which needs attention.

The Torus

The basic shape of the environment, as I have said, is a circle of points girdling a

sphere containing a torus (donut) in which stands a column. Let me address the torus

shape, because it creates the column, which then outpours into the sustaining sphere.

Given the perimeter circle of people, a center point is automatically defined, and

relational energy can move between center and rim. If you traced a single line which

moved from one person into the center, over the other side of the torus, back to the

center, and home to the person, it would form a lemniscate figure eight shape in its

journey. A lemniscate, which many people know as a moebius strip, is a three-

dimensional curve form which flows in a figure eight, with a twist in the middle. If you

cross-section a torus (donut), you will get a lemniscate.

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Fig. 4. A torus is made up of lemniscates (Weisstein 2003).

Many lines moving from each person to the center and returning will form

intricate symmetrical patterns, as when a pendulum traces its journey in the sand. The

mandala formed by the moving pendulum is a good representation of what the torus part

of our circle technology would look like if viewed from above.

Fig. 5. The figure eight of the pendulum (Coppin 2005).

Each participant, by their repetition of attention, movement and sound in

particular beat patterns, is relating to the center and creating an energetic feedback loop.

The intention and momentum of each body is given to the center and the center returns
 14
energy to each. My experience is that attention and energy, when directed into and out of

the center of the circle with rhythmic regularity, form a substance which flows from each

individual in a moebius loop shape, the infinite figure eight. This substance has been

identified as prana in the Hindu yogic system, as chi in Chinese philosophy and science,

and is referred to by scientist and healer Barbara Brennan as bio-plasmic streamers, a

particularly palpable description (DiCarlo,Russell E. 1996). As this constant flow of

energy pulses in and out of the center, the lines of its flow could be charted as a torus

shape formed by lemniscate loops.

I have considered that the pulses of energy from the people in the circle are more

vector-like, shooting straight into the center and directly countering each other. In this

case, the flow of the energy would travel from each person to the bounce-back of the

center, then would fling up or down and back to its sender, creating a series of loops

between the rim and the center. This tube of loops would create the torus. But in an

experiential sense, you cannot stand in a circle and send energy to the center without

being aware of and inclusive of others across from you. I think attentional energy must

naturally flow into the center, over to the other side of the circle, and back in a fluid

figure eight, many of which, like a three-dimensional pendulum, construct a torus.

Nikola Tesla, who fathered countless modern inventions including wireless

technology, was motivated by hope that he might discover a way to generate endless free

energy for mankind. One of his inventions was a Dynamo Electric Machine, the

blueprints for which look like the pendulum diagram mentioned above
 15

Fig. 6. Teslas Dynamo Electric Machine (Tesla 1993 Ch.2, Fig.7).

He placed coils of conductive material in a circle around a central generator. The

feedback loop, or current from generator to coil back to generator, emitted an alternating

current of high frequency. What Tesla was most interested in was the energy field which

resulted around the structure (1993 42). He saw his inventions as part of a vast sphere of

energy waves surrounding the earth called the Schumann Resonance, and strove to

interact with this enormous spherical energy field via his devices (Tesla 2000 79).

The Column

In 1999, I described the center as a column containing a double helix which

eventually filled the circle with an energy like manta rays spiraling in a column of ocean,

energy which people could use to clear their beings of distress and to access timeless

potential (Martha 1999). I now think of it as an architecture of circuitry which lines up all
 16
the centers: the center of the circle, or collective body with the center of the individual

body, with the atomic center, thereby intensifying our natural potential to access

universal information and create cellular transformation.

The columnar form in the center of the circle appears throughout world traditions.

Native American powwows start with the consecration of the land and the building of a

circular central arbor, with a central fire, from which the drummers will generate the

heartbeat of the earth for the entire dance ritual (Pflug, Melissa A. 2000 135-37). The

purpose of the powwow is to regenerate the sphere of existence shared by all human and

non-human dimensions. The universal energy can then flow freely into the central arbor

and back out through the sphere to purify and transform individuals for their continued

life on earth. The closing intention of the powwow radiates out in a spherical prayer:

mitakuye oyasin, For all the below me and above me and around me things (Kidwell,

Noley and Tinker 2001 50-51).

The Axis Mundi, or world center which connects heaven and earth, exists in many

cultures and is represented at times by intertwined serpents around a shaft, and by

depictions of the Tree of Life, a great tree which is the uniter of worlds (Wikipedia 2006).

The Tree of Life, its sturdy trunk topped by spreading branches mirrored by spreading

roots at its feet, gives direct access to knowledge of other dimensions of existence, and

provides guidance and rejuvenation to the human realm. There is often an entrance into,

or emergence point out of the trunk of the tree, a portal into the vital central column of

Life itself.
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Fig. 7. Yggdrasil, the Norse Tree of Life Fig. 8. Celtic Tree of Life.

Anthropologist and ethnopharmacologist Jeremy Narby describes the culture-

wide Tree of Life as a shamanistic technology for accessing information which is used to

heal people and navigate the world. For him, the metaphors of the spiraling double

serpents and the tree of heaven, which describe a columnar pathway between the worlds,

point to human DNA and its infinite capacity for creativity and transformation (Narby

1998 92-102).

The Raising of the Djed was an ancient Egyptian practice whereby a circle of

movement and sound was used at the winter solstice to raise a central pillar of energy

which aligned with the Pole Star. By aligning their own bodies, they could raise the

spinal column of the god Osiris , and create a columnar link between Earths North pole

and the Pole Star, thereby creating geophysical stability at a moment when the world was

in flux (Timms 1994). Arising from the depths of the underworld, alchemized by the
 18
erotic energy of Isiss will and desire flowing into the ritual container, the Djed embodied

an eternal wellspring of new life even in apparent death (HG 2002).

In Sacred Dance the central column is referred to as the vertical cylinder at the

heart of the etheric temple created by the dancers in their paths of rhythmic movement

(Watts 2006 136-141). The cylinder contains intertwined serpents on a path of resolution

into the divine (Lorimer 2002 96-101). The Center is simply a chalice, a container in

which energy, built up through repetitive movement, eventually overflows into the group.

The quality of the energy depends on the intention of the leader and the dancers: it can be

for ill or for good (Watts 2006 140-141).

Physicist F. David Peat also describes a system of navigation into the world of

powers and energies used in the far northern part of North America, Siberia and other

parts of the Arctic Circle. Called the Shaking Tent, the ritual is only performed by skilled

healers in urgent circumstances, for healing or to find lost souls. The small tent is well-

anchored to the ground, but once the healer is within and begins the journey, the tent is

often seen to spin rapidly though still anchored - while many different voices and

sounds emanate. It is said by those who sit in a circle outside the tent, that the tent

becomes an energetic column of energy extending from the center of the earth into the

sky, enabling the operator to utilize the universal energies to travel in pursuit of their

healing goals (Peat 2002 295-6).

Another term coined to describe this transit tube between planes of reality comes

from theoretical physics: the wormhole. A worm sitting atop an apple could inch its way

around on the surface to get from end to end, or it could bore straight through the core to
 19
the exit at the bottom. Physics has posited that wormholes exist not only between

universes but also between space-time locations within our known universe; these tunnels

could allow rapid transit between points which to our ordinary perceptions are separated,

points such as moments in the past or future, or knowledge bases stored in areas of the

universal computer mind different than the ones we use for everyday work (Lucien

1997).

But imagine again this sphere, containing a torus in the center of which is a

column of energy. Earth herself (a sphere with a toroidal electromagnetic field), when hit

by solar winds, becomes temporarily supercharged until a plasma fountain erupts at each

pole, sending the extra energy back into the earths atmosphere (Carlowitz 1998).

If you looked down into the column from either end to see the fluid dynamics of

the energy fountain from within, you would likely see unfolding flowers made from layer

upon layer of hexagons, welling up and out from the center. This has to do with

oscillation, or vibration, as the primary physical reality. Vibration has been categorized

by frequency, and amplitude. Changing vibrational frequency on the string of a violin by

fingering, for example, will result in different notes. Changing frequency in the light

spectrum will result in different colors. Changing amplitude will result in different

volume or brightness levels. Hans Jenny, the creator of Cymatics, a visually stunning

process by which sound frequencies can be seen to take form in liquids, revealed a fluid

yet uniform progression of shapes which predictably resulted from increasing the

amplitude (loudness) of a tone. (Jenny 2001). Hexagons (among many other shapes) form

as part of the progression of shapes which flow in constant kaleidoscopic motion in

 20
response to the intensification of vibration. They form as the result of continuous

dynamic flow of oscillation between the edge of the container and the center. The cover

of Dr. Jennys book, Cymatics, features a radiant sunlike pattern composed of

overlapping hexagons, which he calls a standing wave, formed by sound vibrations in

water.

Fig. 9. Three overlapping hexagons formed by sound (Jenny 2001 121).

One expert on sound currents says the image is created by the sound-syllable Om

(Van Dyke 2001 101). The Om sound is a seed mantra in Hindu cosmology, representing

the fundamental thought-form of all-pervading reality, equated with the creative point

in the center of the circle (Khanna 2003 37).

Although many shapes form as a result of vibration, I favor the hexagon as the

likely shape to be fountaining most consistently inside the column of the circle. In
 21
geometry, the pattern of shapes proceeds from a circle to two overlapping, to six circles

around a central seventh circle, a shape called the Genesis pattern.

Fig. 10. Genesis pattern (Melchezidek 1998 153).

This shape is also seen in the Rose at the center of the Chartres Cathedral

labyrinth (Artress 1995 59). Egyptologist Lucy Lamie considered it the key to the

Egyptian tri-level system of consciousness (Melchezidek 1998 231). It is also known as

the Star of David, at the center of which is a hexagon.

Hexagons also form geometrically as a function of two opposite, intertwined

spirals inside a circle, a shape which I believe is occurring within the column and is

described below. The electromagnetic field of the earth creates two spirals moving in

opposite directions. This is why crystals which grow in the Northern hemisphere display

a spiral structure to the right or clockwise, while those in the Southern hemisphere spiral

to the left, or counterclockwise (Bowman 2003 9).When plotted on a polar graph a 2D

chart of the sphere of the earth, centered on the polar center, two opposite Golden Mean

spirals point to two opposing triangles, with a hexagon in the center, a shape which in 3D
 22
movement would be continuously generated by the infinitely moving double helix (see

next section). This diagram is also said to be a top view of your energy field, which

extends about 27 feet from your center out in every direction.

Fig. 11. Two spirals form a hexagon

(Melchezidek 1998 223, 290).

The Helix

Helix is the Greek word for spiral, and in mathematics refers to the curve in three

dimensions (as on a cylinder or screw thread) while a spiral is a line drawn around a fixed

point on a flat plane (Ward 2006 18). While the spiral expands ever outward with each

whorl, the helix maintains the same diameter, and thereby concentrates the lateral energy

of the spiral into a columnar form. I will use the word helix to describe the rotating

energy inside the column, because it is the fact that these two wave forms keep each other

in check which creates a field of energy (discussed below as a scalar wave) which

expands into other dimensions. I will say spiral when I mean a conical, expanding form.
 23
The column contains a double helix, with one course of energy which winds

upwards while the other winds downwards, creating its own wave form of two opposite

forces in complete equilibrium. The limitless power of this wave is due to the balance

between the two forces, the energy generated by their paired dance. The full force of up

must be met by the full force of down in order to find the generative source. I emphasize

this paired directional reality, because in the Western culture there is still a huge bias to

imagine that an upward direction in the body represents a higher, and therefore better

consciousness. This is a dangerous assumption in that it pulls us prematurely up and out

of our bodies and into an exhausting search for solutions in the realms of ideas

disengaged from our earthly density. Sustainable trans-formation occurs through the

interrelationship of our deep physicality with non-material forms. Perhaps at some point

we will genuinely evolve out of our physical existence, but if that is what is called for, I

do not think it will be by going up and out, but by going through matter, by becoming

the universal essence within our cellular reality.

Spiral energy lines into and out of the earth have been charted by geomancers,

dowsers and more recently by engineers with electronic equipment at sacred sites world-

wide, locations which have drawn people from ancient times to access source energy for

inspiration and renewal (Ward 2006 70-86). Through time, pagan circles and churches

have come and gone on the sites. At these places where geophysical anomalies of

extremely high and extremely low vibrations occur, people report that divine energy has a

direct route down into matter, and those in physical form have a more direct channel to

larger forces, whatever they may call them. In other words, the force of each spiral is
 24
strong, moving from the center of the earth out into the cosmos, and from the cosmos into

the earth, and this gives humans a sense of connection to other dimensions of existence.

The experience of the double helix which brings vital force to our consciousness

is represented in countless world traditions as two intertwined serpents, or divine twins

who create life through transformation (Narby 1998 62). These are also seen to represent

a helical ladder, or braided rope, the symbol of the shamanic profession, by which, in the

words of Mircea Eliade, the Gods descend to earth and men go up to the sky (Eliade

1964). Eliade says that this double helix ladder of the shaman is the earliest version of the

axis mundi, found in creation myths as the tree of life (Narby 1998 63). The caduceus,

two serpents intertwined on a rod, are today a symbol of the Western medical profession.

In Hindu Tantric metaphysics, creation begins with two inextricable elements,

Sakti and Siva. Sakti is the potential power of the universe, represented by the circle, and

Siva is the germinal creative force, self-awareness, represented by the point in the center

of the circle. At first, this primordial consciousness existing as a relationship of forces -

is akin to the Zero Point Field, in that it contains undifferentiated, infinite information

about every aspect of existence. As the dynamic tension of contraction and expansion

between Siva and Sakti begins to move, it generates life out in a dual helix form, a fractal

pattern which draws inward and unfolds outward in a constant rhythm of relationship

(Khanna 2003 70-75).

During one circle workshop (my experimental laboratory) in which we focused on

building up the circle energy to stimulate the pineal gland and access visionary states, we

unexpectedly generated the double helix form during a long structure which was designed
 25
to build the energy in the center. People sat in facing pairs around the center, like spokes

in a wheel. Each pair concentrated a loop of energy for 25 minutes. At regular intervals,

one pair rotated into the center to utilize the energized space for personal meditation or

healing purposes. Their vacated seats were always filled by a pair of assistants, so the

continuity of the circumference of the circle was maintained. This created a torus

composed of concentrated loops of energy. We were pulsing energy into and out of the

center at regular intervals. At one point, as the energy built to a higher intensity, I

spontaneously began running at high speed around the perimeter of the circle (this is not

my usual mode of movement these days I felt swept up in an energy current that called

for articulation), and asked my colleague Helen to do the same in the opposite direction.

Intuitively, I wanted to fulfill this shape which emerged from the circle. I believe we

were moving the double helix energy which was being generated by the torus of the

group (Martha 2006).

A similar corkscrew magnetic field is referred to in plasma physics. Plasma is an

ionized substance which is estimated by some to comprise 99% of the universe

(Bhattacharjee and Gurnett 2005). The Madison Symmetric Torus device, a huge metal

donut, first establishes a loop current called poloidal current which forms a magnetic field

in the shape of a torus, which we did by sitting in pairs and creating loops of energy, a

circular tube. The MST then shoots a stream of current called toroidal current - along

the tube of the torus, in order to create a corkscrew pattern of magnetic field lines within

the plasma (University of Wisconsin 2006). Helen and I ran in this stream, describing the

double helix field which was occurring.

 26

The Scalar Wave

The confluence of waves meeting in the center creates a central wave form called

the scalar wave taking place at the invisible center of the columnar form in the donut

hole. Scalar waves are by definition fifth-dimensional waves, beyond our three-

dimensional conception of time and space, so there is no good way to diagram them. A

major distinction to keep in mind is that wave forms which we are accustomed to

thinking of in this three-dimensional world are called Hertzian waves, and they are

latitudinal or horizontal waves which move in one direction with varying amplitudes and

frequencies. They are diagrammed as a single line form. A scalar wave is a longitudinal,

or standing wave which can only be drawn as a dynamic relationship to another wave

form, looks on paper very much like a double helix, and emanates its field in every

direction at once, more like a concentric flow. It is beyond the confines of space and

time, and in fact oscillates time (Bearden 2001).

Fig. 12. A scalar wave form (Bearden 2001).

 27

Fig. 13. The scalar electromagnetic field (Bearden 2001).

Scalar waves occur constantly in nature, whenever a force meets its equal and

opposite force. Dr. Valerie Hunt, a physicist at the University of California Los Angeles,

writes about her laboratorys investigation into scalar waves, first articulated

scientifically by Nikola Tesla in the late 1800s.

The literature states that the scalar wave is created when two common
electromagnetic waves come together from two different converging vectors or
angles; where the energy vectors meet the equal frequencies cancel each other
leaving a standing or stationary energy. The space the scalar occupies is not a
vacuum but alive with checked and balanced energies. The literature describes that
it can be created by electromagnetic generators or naturally when similar frequency
waves in the environment meet from two different vectors (Hunt 2000).

Hunt believes that when human thought and intent connects with the scalar energy at the

nucleus level, any change or resetting of the physical body - and theoretically of the

physical plane - is possible (Hunt 2000). In a simple example, scalar waves can be

created when electrical wires are wrapped around a mobius coil frame (the lemniscate

figure eight). The current flows in opposite directions, generating opposing

 28
electromagnetic fields which cancel each other to create a scalar wave (Linsteadt and

Boekemeyer 2003).

Tom Beardon is a physicist and engineer who believes that scalar energy resides

in the nucleus of the atom, and that it is a repository for information (Patten and

Hutchison 1991 4). Beardon describes a latticework inside the scalar wave, called the

Whittaker structure, which contains all information in the universe in the form of

quantum potential (Patten and Hutchison 1991 6). He feels, like Puthoff with the Zero

Point Field, that we can evolve our awareness to the point where we can intentionally

access and organize the potential in the Whittaker structure to our advantage in all areas

of human development: healing, education, and genetic change (Patten and Hutchison

1991 6-7). With our awareness and practice of physical presence and conscious intention

in the circle, we can deliberately place our bodies in resonance with the potential of this

atomic latticework.

Lets say you walk through a doorway just as your friend comes through from the

other side. You both stop just before impact, and for a moment the space between you

resonates with the impact you almost made. You both laugh or exclaim, discharging how

much energy you just felt, and go on your way more alert from the wake-up of the

encounter, perhaps contemplating all the possible outcomes the moment could have had.

Anyone who witnessed this near-collision would have felt its energy as well. I believe

that scalar waves, which occur throughout nature, are like this: two waves, of water, of

wind, of energy, of attention, bounce off each other in a way which kicks up a standing

wave, one which hums with potential. We are just at the beginning of understanding how
 29
much energy is contained in that space between the two of you in the doorway, and how

we could learn to use that energy source.

A large scalar wave is generated at the center of the circle, by wave forms

meeting there and neutralizing the momentum and direction of the other. The more exact

science of these processes I must leave to physicists, but here is my understanding of

what goes on.

The torus is formed by the continuous lemniscate loops of attention and energy

which are being generated by the people in the circle. Once formed, the inner slope of the

torus begins to generate its own wave form which radiates out into the center.

Simultaneously, the opposite, interior slope of the torus is sending out a wave form which

directly mirrors its counterpart, and the two wave forms interfere, or check each other,

creating a standing wave, a charged empty space.

 THE BODY IN THE CIRCLE

How is the body affected by being inside this environment? The first effect is

profoundly physical the bodys recognition that it is IN an environment, a container

composed of the basic elements of human consciousness: awareness, in a body, in

relationship to others in the same container. In the container of the earth and her

atmosphere, we experience a constant flow of stimuli from every direction: the sky, the

temperature, the creatures, the sounds, the insect world, and it affects our physiology. In

the container of human civilization, we are stimulated by people and all our tools our

language, customs, and our technology and it impacts our physiology. The container of

the purposeful circle environment is built out of energy elements (of attention and

physical movement and relationship) which emanate from the body, and in shapes which

resonate with those of the body: sphere, torus, column, double helix, and scalar field.

Because these same shapes resonate within the circle and our bodies, being inside the

30
 31
circle technology we are nested in a familiar hologram of energy fields. Cellular

recognition is instantaneous, like a puzzle piece settling into place.

The Sphere

As previously mentioned, Laban and Bartenieff described the kinesphere which

surrounds each persons body with potential movement (1980 33). This energy sphere

surrounding the body appears in world traditions and spiritual paintings throughout

history, with two well-known examples being the dancing Shiva in Hindu mythology,

and Leonardo DaVincis Vitruvian man. Some traditions describe this surrounding

energy phenomenon as an aura, and its shape is what is called an elliptical sphere, or egg

(Brennan 1987 41). Within the body, spheres of energy called chakras in the Hindu yogic

system are identified at the seven major centers where the nerve ganglia emanate from

the spine (Judith 1999 11).

 32

Fig. 14. The spherical chakras, with the intertwined serpents, and the energy field
of the body (Heartwood 2006).

We all begin as a dance of spheres; the perfectly spherical ovum (present in all

life forms) takes in the sperm, which loses its tail to form a sphere; the two spherical

pronuclei merge to form the zygote which becomes our body (Melchizedek 1998 187-

88). An even deeper principle of matter is that an atom exists in the spherical dance of

electrons around their corresponding protons clustered in the nucleic center (Becker and

Selden 1985 79-80). Recently, I saw a quantum image of an electron which looks exactly

like a circle of people forming the outermost of several concentric circles around a central

point.
 33

Fig. 15. Quantum image of an electron (Horgan October 2006 62).

The Torus

Since 1991, the HeartMath Research Center has demonstrated through repeated

studies that the electromagnetic field of the heart - the most powerful rhythmic field

produced by the body is a fat donut, a torus which extends 5-15 feet around the body

(McCraty, Atkinson and Tomasino 2001 20, Oschman, James L. 2000 ix).

Fig. 16. Cardioelectromagnetic field (McCraty, Atkinson and

Tomasino 2001 20).
 34
Their studies point to this cardioelectromagnetic field as a transmitter of

information which can be intentionally focused to create healthful communication

between the organ systems of the body and between people (McCraty, Atkinson and

Tomasino 2003 1-17). The toroidal field, generated by the heart, centers around the body

axis and expands to encompass the whole body because of the helical flow of heart

electricity through the vascular system and other tissues. With about 50,000 miles of

blood vessels in the body, this system propagates the helical field to all of the tissues

(Oschman, James L. 2000 77).

Russian scientists have plotted the topography of the electromagnetic fields

emanating from the glands in the brain, and the shape is an egg-sphere containing a

donut, in the center of which is a column with trumpet-shaped ends; they connect this

column to the Einstein-Rosen Bridge in physics, which is a wormhole in space-time, a

portal which makes it possible to perceive simultaneously existing dimensions (Leading

Edge International Research Group 1997).

The Column

The column of energy central to the body appears in countless systems of thought

about how physical energy is organized (Judith 1999 14). In all cases a dynamic energy

flow through the column is an essential ingredient. In the Hindu chakra system, the seven

major chakra spheres line up along a column called the sushumna, which is the central

integrating channel, or superhighway for transporting information between the body

 35
and all other dimensions of existence (Judith 1999 17). What is called the kundalini

energy, or the activated double helix (represented as intertwined serpents) moves up and

down inside this column, generating vital force.

Fig. 16. Sushumna, chakra spheres, and intertwined serpents. Many texts
show the serpents meeting at the third eye, or pineal gland.

Cabalistic tradition describes a Middle Pillar, with five major spheres which are

located according to harmonic patterns of the etheric body ether being identified with

the Hindu yogic prana and the qi of Eastern medicine and martial arts - where it most

potently resides in the physical (Greer 1997 158-62). The energies within the Pillar are

corresponding spirals: the Invoking Whirl, which moves downwards to ground in the

physical body and the earth, and the Expanding Whirl, which moves up and radiates out

into the entire aura (Greer 1997 167).

 36

Fig. 17. The spheres of the Middle Pillar (Greer 1997 161).

In the very formation of our first cells, the spherical, fertilized ovum, develops a

di-polar charge (movement to top and bottom poles in the sphere) along which a tube is

formed down the center. In a fetus, and in our adult bodies, this tube extends from the

fontanel, or soft spot on the crown of the head, to the perineum at the base of the torso,

and in a newborn will pulse equally at both ends in a bidirectional flow of breath and

heartbeat (Melchizedek 1998 188-91).

The Helix

A most obvious double helix in the body is our DNA. The DNA molecule forms

in the salt water of the cell all cells contain salt water into a ladder made up of two
 37
ribbons with rungs of nucleobase pairs. Your genetic text is written on both ribbons, one

the inverse of the other. The ribbons contain enzymatic technology to transcribe, repair

and duplicate genetic text according to precision protocol. If your DNA were a

continuous strand, it would stretch for approximately 125 billion miles enough to wrap

around the earth 5 million times (Narby 1998 88). One biologist says that DNA contains

over a hundred trillion times as much information by volume as our most sophisticated

information storage devices (Wills 1991 103). Wills also describes DNA as intertwined,

duplicate serpents (1991 37).

The Desana tribe of the Colombian Amazon saw the corpus callosum of the brain

as occupied by two serpents spiraling rhythmically from side to side, and individual

awareness and integration is achieved by surrendering to their vital force together, rather

than holding them in opposition. Near the head of the serpent (the one which faces the

front of the head) is a hexagonal rock crystal, just outside the brain; it is there where a

particle of solar energy resides and irradiates the brain. (Narby 1998 56-7).

In the Hindu practice, Sakti, the female vital energy winds her way up like a

serpent from the base of the spine, opening each spherical chakra on the way, in order to

gain mystical union with Siva, the male vital energy which descends in an answering

spiral through the crown of the head. The upward current of liberation entwines eternally

with the downward current of manifestation, to create the phenomenal and spiritual

worlds (Judith 1999 30-36). This philosophy and practice can be used to achieve states of

physical coherence with the vibrational worlds along a continuum. Meditation on these

forms can produce beneficial changes in the nervous and hormonal systems, which
 38
regulate all body processes and have a huge influence on mood and thoughts (Judith 1999

118). The physical practice of tantra, or sexual meditation in partnership, can also be

directed to access states of vision and communion with spiritual realms.

In Taoist erotic practices, one is taught to activate ones own Chi (Qi) through

cultivating an energy loop in the body called the Microscosmic Orbit. Through this

energy process, involving precise physical practices at different organ energy centers of

the body, each lover generates a spiraling Qi energy which entwines with that of their

partner in order to enhance life force for both (Chia 1986 261-263). In other words,

precise attention to the inherent flow of energy in the body amplifies existing spirals,

which then create energizing electromagnetic fields. In Taoist practice, it is possible by

these means to enter the visionary knowledgeable continuum, from which one would

return transformed (Picknett and Prince 1997 260).

In Egypt, the Alchemies of Horus, taught in the Temple of Isis, trained initiates in

a process of ascending the seven seals (analogous to the seven chakras) by means of the

Djed, which was the ritual to raise the spine of Osiris back to life and form a column to

align the earth with the heavens. The two practitioners raise entwined serpents within

their own bodies, opening the seven seals, and stimulating the pineal gland at the center

of the head to create a blue fire called the Uraeus.

The Uraeus is often a blue fire that extends up the spine both laterally and
horizontally and into the brain, and it undulates with the changes in energy within
these pathways. The activation of the Uraeus increases the brains potential for
intelligence, creativity, and, most importantly receptivity, for the task of the
initiate is to change the quality of ones being so that the attunement to the Ba or
Celestial Soul is clear and unobstructed (Kenyon and Sion 2006 32-37). (italics are
mine)
 39

It is said that by sending their serpents through each others bodies during sexual

intercourse, the partners can create a potent magnetic field, centered on the womb, which

generates limitless life force for the expansion of the consciousness to multi-dimensional

realms in their language, strengthening the Ka, or Soul Body. By the male, electrical

element nesting within the magnetic, female field created at orgasm, the potency of both

beings is enriched (Kenyon and Sion 2006 56-7).

Scholars of the Gnostic Gospels and early Christianity acknowledge that Mary

Magdalene was trained in the techniques of Isis, and was the spiritual equal and essential

consort of Jesus (Picknett and Prince 1997 257-61, Kenyon and Sion 2006 33-39). Some

say that the Song of Songs is actually a liturgy to the sacred marriage, or tantric ritual,

uniting the two (Picknett and Prince 1997 258). It is possible that the union of these two

energies is what created the being (Christ resurrected) who could both return to the God

source through death and yet remain visible to those on earth, a being who was truly

multi-dimensional. There are also suggestions in the early texts that the ultimate spiritual

development was that of the androgyne, meaning one who fully realized equal male and

female energies within oneself (Leloup 2002 102-04). In alchemical tradition, the symbol

for the ultimate process, the Great Work, is the hermaphrodite - Hermes and Aphrodite

blended in one person (Picknett and Prince 1997 114). In all of these examples, the

magnitude of energy which results from a balanced union of opposite or inverse forces is

life-giving and evolutionary.

I believe that the immersion in fields generated by the double helix energy in the

circle can give the same benefit to all participants that these partner-based sexual

practices give: a more complete activation of the life force within each body, with
 40

enhanced intelligence and creativity, and access to multidimensional streams of

knowledge which can advance us on practical as well as spiritual levels.

The Scalar Wave

Innovative scientist Dr.Valerie Hunt, in her book Mind Mastery Meditations,

describes how to create a scalar wave large enough to encompass your body. This

exercise is so valuable as a physical experience of the scalar wave form, that I include it

verbatim from Dr. Hunt. You can take a short break from reading and do it right now.

Dont worry about the chakra part if it doesnt seem resonant to you.

This exercise can be learned best by sitting. After acquiring the skill it can be
repeated while standing and lying.

...Prepare your field by breathing through and spinning the chakras.

Visualize your entire body as a container where you will draw in electromagnetic
energy with each inhalation, bringing it into the center of the body. Do not move it
out or up or down, just in.

Start by breathing energy in through the front of your body, head to toe. Then
focus your attention upon breathing energy through the back of your body, also
head to toe, into the center so it meets the front energy and folds upon itself,
going nowhere.

Next breathe through both sides of your body simultaneously, right & left, from
head to toes. Let the energy again meet the same opposing energy building up and
enfolding into a scalar standing field in the center of the body.
Now concentrate upon the top of your head and the bottom of our feet to breathe in
energy until it meets in the middle of the body to enfold upon itself.

The center of your body is now filled with a powerful quiet pool of energy . Now is
when the pool of energy expands outwards, through all your cells towards the body
surface, like a balloon inflating. Allow this to continue until the center scalar
energy has dissipated outward loosening tight muscles and connective tissue, and
expanding the space between the cells.
 41
Begin the process all over again but this time breathe from all directions into the
center of the body simultaneously...When your scalar field is full you will start to
experience its spontaneous even expansion towards the body surfaces. You focus
your attention upon allowing this slow spreading apart of all cells giving them
breathing room. The body area will seem larger and more resilient. (Dr. Valerie
Hunt 1997 54).

Another good example of scalar waves in the body comes from the field of

Acoustic Brainwave Entrainment, a term first introduced by Dr. Gerald Oster in 1973

(Thompson 1988). This is the study of the beneficial effects of sound waves on our

brains. Neurophysicist F. Holmes Atwater says that when two sounds enter the head

through the two ears, the wave action creates a standing wave (scalar) in each hemisphere

of the brain. According to Atwater, it is the standing wave which entrains the brain by

establishing equivalent electromagnetic environments and maximizing interhemispheric

neural communication (Thompson 1988). When the brain is in a balanced state, many

forms of intelligence are enhanced: people become more relaxed and physically capable,

comprehension levels go up, memory becomes easier, and access to altered states is often

possible (Center for Neuracoustic Research 1988). In addition to acoustic stimuli, other

means of producing dual wave forms through the senses - side-to-side eye movement,

touch to two sides of the body, even spinning - have been shown to activate information

processing physiology in a way which allows bound attention to become free and

available (Shapiro 1995 30, Flint 1994 7).

Scalar waves abound in the body, and are intrinsically connected to the infinity

figure eight, or moebius loop. In the mitochondria, where energy is produced in the body,
 42
the DNA forms a supercoil, which is a series of moebius loops. Each loop generates a

scalar wave, due to the motion of its opposing electromagnetic fields. Most cells contain

thousands of these moebius supercoils, all generating scalar waves (Linsteadt and

Boekemeyer 2003). Blood circulating in the body forms a moebius coil, with the center

of the figure eight being the heart, where venous blood passes through the right atrium,

overlapping aortic blood moving through the left atrium. Just behind the heart, the lungs

with their extensive capillary network store the neutral field energy of the scalar waves,

becoming a battery for the energetic communication system that connects all cells

(Linsteadt and Boekemeyer 2003).

 THE BODY OF THE CIRCLE

So a group of people have come together, with vibrating shapes, or

electromagnetic fields in their bodies which are fractal units of a larger, identical, living

hologram the circle. Through proximity, and through following a protocol of activation,

the larger body of the circle is brought to immediate life and assumes its own fields and

its own resonant influence on the people within it. The body of the circle is a distinct

energetic entity, which is much like an individual, with its own character, qualities, and

quirks. On a metaphysical level, my experience is that each circle body has a distinct soul

who calls us forth into a dance of learning and healing together. We humans give this

circle soul a temporary corporality with which to partake of the world, and the circle soul

brings its huge universal powers for us to use as a temporary resource for our personal

inquiries.

The protocol of activation can be called ritual or curriculum, but a sequential

building of elements is present in all rituals and teaching modalities, in order to develop

43
 44

the full body of the circle. The important structural endpoint is that each individual has

become fully present and is contributing to the energetic formation of the group body.

Barbara Ann Brennan uses an exercise which she calls the Group Hara Line. This

requires that each person in the circle first align their own vertical line of energy which is

called the Hara Line and consists of three major centers: a vortex above the head (the ID

point where individuation from God begins); a sphere of diffuse light in the chest called

the soul seat; and a small sphere of vibration 2 inches below the navel, called the tan

tien, which energetically connects with the molten core of the earth (Brennan 1993 289).

As people do this simultaneously in a circle of meditation, the Group Hara Line forms

organically in the center of the circle, and it has the same energetic shape as does an

individual hara line. Brennan says that the Group Hara Line represents the group purpose,

and that any group aligned in this way will succeed without conflict (1993 300-01).

Fig. 18. Brennans Group Hara Line. Notice that the Group Line in the center has
 45
its own ID point, soul seat, and tan tien grounding into the earth.

My ideas about the necessary basic elements for activating the body of the circle

are detailed in the Leaders Guide portion of this book. The basic sequence flows from a

simple perimeter circle through activating vertical, horizontal, and saggital planes, and

rhythmic entrainment of the body centers in both the individual bodies and the circle

body. When fully activated, the circle body is a complex, vital body made up of all the

basic geometries and circuitry found in our own individual bodies; it is, after all, a larger

hologram of which we are fractal parts of the whole.

 46
Fig. 19 & 20. The basic energy shapes are the same for the body and the circle
body.

My experience is that the circle goes through stages of activation, which I call dilations,

as it grows into a fully-formed energy body with its own strength and ability to affect all

dimensions it interpenetrates.

Dilations

When a circle dilates, it literally expands, sometimes by a small amount,

sometimes in a widening rush of release. I like dilation as a metaphor because it is so

physical, and because it is necessary to the birthing process, which on an energetic level

is exactly what the circle is going through; it is a body which is opening to allow an

entirely new awareness to come through in a way which is organic and elemental,

responsive to our midwifery but beyond our control. Dilations can be felt as a sudden

clarity and space in the room, as if the walls just moved out a few inches, leaving a sense

of spaciousness, like the moment of stepping from the woods into a clearing after a long

hike.

A dilation is the result of a state change; energy vibrates at an increasingly higher

or lower frequency until, suddenly, matter changes state and takes on different qualities

and characteristics. State change is a property of matter; water can change its physical

properties in relation to cold or heat; it can become snow crystals, solid ice, or it can boil

and steam. In terms of a collective body, state changes appear to occur through an
 47

instantaneous signal prompted by signals from the environment created in the container

of the circle. Fritjof Capra, a theoretical physicist, points to a common pattern of

organization in all living systems. He talks about networks as the fundamental self-

organizing mechanism for all organisms, and networks nesting within networks of

increasing complexity.

The first, and most obvious property of any network is its non-linearity it goes in
all directions. Thus the relationships in a network pattern are non-linear
relationships. In particular, an influence, or message, may travel along a cyclical
path, which may become a feedback loop. The concept of feedback is intimately
connected with the network pattern (Capra 1996 82).

Capra gives a simple example of a self-organizing system in the image of a human

community with an active network of communication. If one member of a community

makes a mistake or commits an infraction, the grapevine will carry the news of that

mistake and the results will get back to the offender along a feedback loop. The

consequences of the mistake will ripple through the whole community via the movement

of communication along feedback loops, and the whole group body will evolve

accordingly, in what is called self-organizing. Capra talks about the need for a self-

organizing system to have a constant stream of energy through it in order to create new

forms, rather than being a finite structure with a completely static energy field. In physics

terms this is called an open system operating far from equilibrium, and results in the

spontaneous emergence of new structures and new forms of behavior (Capra 1996 85). In

the circle, as dilations occur, new levels of consciousness are born, accompanied by new

behaviors as the nascent awareness grows in strength.

 48
Emergence theory is a field which demonstrates how the whole is smarter than the

one, and how intentional behaviors emerge from the apparent chaos of living systems in

an orderly manner. Steven Johnson, in Emergence, gives a memorable example of this in

the case of a slime mold an amoeba-like organism with no centralized brain - which

mastered a maze to find the most efficient route to food (Johnson 2001 15-17). The slime

mold could go suddenly from a collection of distinctly individual cells to a single body

moving together, in order to reach the goal. At first scientists searched for the leader

cells, the ones who gave orders to the others in order to organize their effort, but no

leaders were found.

Two scientists in 1969 - Evelyn Fox Keller, a Harvard PhD in physics, and Lee

Segel, an applied mathematician - published their findings that the slime mold cells were

individually reading the signals in the environment, responding to the signals by emitting

a chemical called cyclic AMP, and as the group reached a certain level of cyclic AMP,

aggregation, or group behavior occurred. This theory, which was a breakthrough in the

systems theory field, indicated that the smaller systems ability to generate aggregate

behavior for its own purposes was dependent upon signals from its global environment,

and that the information which activated the aggregation came through the whole system

at one time, like light penetrating a glass globe. In a group of humans in a circle, I believe

that when the entire group reaches a certain vibrational frequency, a dilation occurs, and

just as the slime mold became aggregate and mobile at a certain chemical frequency, the

circle body dilates its awareness level to become a collective organism capable of new

levels of problem-solving.
 49
In our present case as humans, the signals from our environment appear to be in the

form of accelerating levels of energy and complex information, which demand a

response. Rather than collectively falling asleep in front of the TV, we need to get

together to find our way through the maze, just like the slime mold does. We can use the

circle to develop the power of successful aggregate responses to changing social and

environmental conditions.

State change due to sound vibration is magnificently demonstrated in the images

recorded by Hans Jenny, a Swiss scientist and researcher in Cymatics. Dr. Jenny (1904-

1972) developed the Cymascope, or tonoscope, and this device enabled him to record

over decades the forms produced in matter by different sounds. The device is essentially

a plate surface covered with lycopodium(club moss) powder, sand or liquid (Jenny 2001

63-8). When sound vibration makes contact with the plate, the substance begins to move,

and the universal shapes - circle, triangle, square, pentagram, figure eights emerge like

shifting forms according to the frequency of the sound. Intricate symmetrical mandalas

show up, many types of circles, each rotating on its own axis, all breathtakingly beautiful.

Jenny emphasizes the sequences, or periodicity of the state changes, as expressions of

universal patterns, and he marks that the shift from one state to another is always abrupt.

What we really see in these abruptly appearing patterns are qualities. And certainly
the proposition that Nature makes no leaps (natura non facit saltus) does not hold
true here; on the contrary here Nature does make quantum leaps in an expressive
way: quantitative augmentation is accompanied by a corresponding gradation
corresponding discontinuities in which something qualitative appears, Natura facit
saltus! The process in which quantity and quality are manifested here is also
characteristic of another aspect of these harmonic vibrations: it demonstrates the
periodic style according to which systems are built up in Nature (Jenny 2001 219-
21).
 50

Jenny understood that his study, through sound, of the morphology of vibration applied

to vibration levels of every kind; that he was ultimately illuminating what he called the

objective play of Nature , the methodical sequence of shapes with accompanying

qualities - which formed in response to the application of sound (2001 214). In a circle of

people you will find specific stages of group cohesion which take place, with different

energetic qualities and creative possibilities at each stage. Educational psychologist

Bruce Tuckman coined terms for these stages in 1965 which have more or less remained

workable for the field of group organization since then:

Groups initially concern themselves with orientation accomplished primarily

through testing. Such testing serves to identify the boundaries of both interpersonal
and task behaviors. Coincident with testing in the interpersonal realm is the
establishment of dependency relationships with leaders, other group members, or
pre-existing standards. It may be said that orientation, testing and dependence
constitute the group process of forming.

The second point in the sequence is characterized by conflict and polarization

around interpersonal issues, with concomitant emotional responding in the task
sphere. These behaviors serve as resistance to group influence and task
requirements and may be labeled as storming.

Resistance is overcome in the third stage in which in-group feeling and

cohesiveness develop, new standards evolve, and new roles are adopted. In the task
realm, intimate, personal opinions are expressed. Thus, we have the stage of
norming.

Finally, the group attains the fourth and final stage in which interpersonal structure
becomes the tool of task activities. Roles become flexible and functional, and group
energy is channeled into the task. Structural issues have been resolved, and
structure can now become supportive of task performance. This stage can be
labeled as performing (Tuckman 1965 384-99).

In 1977, Tuckman reviewed 22 group studies with colleague Mary Ann Jensen, and they

added a fifth stage:

 51
Adjourning involves dissolution. It entails the termination of roles, the completion
of tasks and reduction of dependency (Forsyth 1990: 77). Some commentators have
described this stage as 'mourning' given the loss that is sometimes felt by former
participants. The process can be stressful - particularly where the dissolution is
unplanned (ibid.: 88) (Smith 2005).

I have seen this final stage described as transforming, which has an appealing ring

to it, but I think adjourning more accurately honors the care that should be taken with

what I call completion of the circle. I like Tuckmans simple description of the stages of

group development, partly because the titles are easy to remember and can be reassuring

to a leader when puzzling behaviors are occurring in the group. It also fits with an even

simpler three-stage ritual model - beginning, middle and end - in that most of the work

gets done in the middle of the groups evolution. A leader can plan on the initial

formative stages moving into a creative middle, with integration and ending stages. If the

container holds the energy, and if the vibration is steadily applied, then developmental

stages of the group body will occur.

What this points to is the reliability of the circle to generate expanding levels of

consciousness through state changes; the container of the circle is like the plate surface in

Jennys tonoscope; the intention, movement and sound of the participants increases the

rhythmic oscillations of the circle; state changes in the collective energy field will occur

according to the morphology of vibration; these state changes produce dilations in group

awareness leading to the birth of a next iteration of consciousness.

The experiential effect is that of letting go into a larger body which moves and

breathes around our individual body. When a person can, for a while, let go of their
 52
separate identity, with all its strategies and defenses, and breathe and move in a larger,

trustworthy body, all kinds of core realignments become possible. While we may never

achieve a perfect endless state of undisturbed continuum, a strong circle has integrity and

vitality which can support the surrender of the vigilance of the I. The primary way in

which a circle of people generate the shared field which I call the circle body, is through

rhythm.

Rhythm

Rhythm pulses at every level of our existence. The Schumann Cavity, first

described by Nikola Tesla in 1899, is an electrical energy phenomenon which surrounds

the earth between ground level and 80 kilometers up. A frequency pulse of 8 Hertz

resonates in a constant way within this cavity (Tesla 2000 78). There is a periodicity, or

rhythm, to the motion of the planets and the action of the tides. Certainly we know that

there are rhythms to the seasons, the cycle of day and night, the nesting and migration

patterns of the animals. Every culture has rhythms of work and rest, the calendar marking

ordinary and non-ordinary days of secular and religious activities.

Our bodies have rhythms, too, of hunger and thirst, of waking and sleeping, of

high moods and low. Our heart has a rhythm of 60 beats per minute at rest (Flatischler

2002 94). The brain has a rhythm section in the thalamus, which alternates between a

period of oscillation for 1.5-28 seconds followed by silent, or free-run period of 5-25

seconds (Oschman, James 2000 96). These heart and brain currents propagate to every
 53
cell in the body through the circulatory and nervous systems. Chilean neuroscientist

Humberto Maturana saw the nervous system as a circular organization basic to all

living systems:

Living systems[are] organized in a closed causal circular process that allows for
evolutionary change in the way the circularity is maintained, but not for the loss of
the circularity itself (Capra 1996 95-99).

The thalamic rhythms pulse throughout this circle of the nervous system; cardiac

rhythm makes waves of electromagnetic, sound and blood pressure activity which are

felt by every cell in the body (McCraty 2003 1). In those systems, as well as in every

molecule in the body, water has been shown to be a semiconductor of electrical current,

which flows in frequency and amplitude, experienced by us as unconscious rhythmic

pulsation (Oschman, James 2000 59-62, 95). Felt or not, rhythmic pulses are filling our

bodies at every moment of our lives, and in a group these pulses talk to each other at

every level.

Peoples rhythms come together in so many ways, and they form entrainment

patterns. Entrainment is simply when two waves, or rhythms, become so closely aligned

that they are moving in the same rhythm, a phase-lock. Moving in rhythm, by singing, or

drumming or dancing, is our most obvious way to create an entrainment pattern, and

humans have always moved together in rhythm. One practical reason for entrainment is

simple; more and better work can get done by a group which is unified in its purpose and

actions.

William H. McNeill, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Chicago,

coins the term muscular bonding for the emotional and social bond which forms in all
 54

groups of people who move in rhythm together. He identifies group rhythmic movement

as a strategy for survival among humans through all time, and addresses its use for

numerous purposes: skill transmission (when hunters dance their exploits in order to

prepare for the next); social cohesion and hence community viability - in the tribe or

village; efficiency of repetitive or massive work tasks (like building the Pyramids);

access to spiritual information through trance; and the promotion of military esprit de

corps (spirit of the body) (McNeill, William H. 1995).

He surmises about the brain state created by keeping together in time:

It has occurred to me that rhythmic input from muscles and voice, after gradually
suffusing through the entire nervous system, may provoke echoes of the fetal
condition when a major and perhaps principal external stimulus to the developing
brain was the mothers heartbeat. If so, one might suppose that adults when dancing
or merely marching together might arouse something like the state of consciousness
they left behind in infancy, when psychologists seem to agree that no distinction is
made between self and surroundings (McNeill, William H. 1995 7).

It may be that when we are immersed in a collective, rhythmic body and not

expending energy to maintain separation, our brains are most receptive to whatever

intention, data, or learning occurs in our surroundings. McNeill is pointing to a human

technology of keeping together in time which has been essential to our survival, and is

therefore built into our genetic structure.

In MacNeills womb hypothesis, he is suggesting that collective rhythmic

movement creates a containment experience and a rhythmic environment which can be

felt by the entire body, en environment in which we can immerse and let go. In fish and

in birds, the group movement of schooling or flocking reduces the burden of sensory

processing and induces a restful waking state which gives increased energy to the bodies
 55

of the participants (Kavanau 1998 269-79).

Dr. Brent Logan, creator of the BabyPlus Prenatal Education System, asserts that

a mothers heartbeat (generally 60 beats per minute when resting) is a sonic stimulus

which serves as an indigenous governor for the rate at which the infants beginning

brain waves fluctuate (Logan 1995). His work is built on the idea that the babys brain

waves and consequent tissue development follow the rhythm of the mothers heartbeat.

Logan has tested a program of audio stimulation for the baby by means of a belt

on the mothers abdomen. The program starts with a recording of the repetitive heartbeat

of the mother at rest, and is played for a one hour sessions twice a day. Over a period of

weeks, the audio tapes gradually increase the rhythm and complexity of the heartbeat

sound. His theory is that the fetal brain will be induced to accelerate the rate at which it

compares and contrasts data, thus building memory banks for greater facility. The babies

who experience this stimulation 25,000 mothers and babies using this since 1989 - are

showing accelerated rates of brain development accompanied by greater relaxation states

(Logan 1995).

Another use of sound vibration to enhance intelligence is through Acoustic

Brainwave Entrainment. In 1973, Dr. Gerald Oster identified binaural beats in the brain

beats which are created when tones of different frequencies are presented separately to

each ear. As the brain puts together the two tones that it hears, the brain hemispheres

match frequencies, and become available for symmetrical processing. Binaural beat

technology can be used with precision to change brain waves, to literally flex the capacity

of the brain to reorganize itself for increased learning capacities as well as better mental

and emotional health.

 56

The research suggests that different frequencies affect the production of

neurotransmitters specific to different brain centers, producing new neural pathways and

thereby increasing learning ability, creativity, mental clarity and intelligence. Alpha and

theta waves, both of them slower than our ordinary waking beta wave state, seem

especially critical to supporting the true capacity of the human intelligence (Thompson

1988, Hunt 1996 159). Theta waves are essential to a process called Long Term

Potentiation (LTP), which the brain must go through in order to store incoming

information as memory (Thompson 1988).

The alpha brain wave rhythm is essential to a learning technique called

Suggestology (the eponymous school and book are by Bulgarian psychiatrist Dr. Georgi

Lozanov), in wide use in Bulgaria, the Soviet Union and France, which was reporting

phenomenal results in learning new languages up to 1000 new words a day, with

excellent long-term recall (Ostrander and Schroeder 1979 15). Dr. Lozanov was in effect

working backwards from his studies of people who possessed supernormal psychic

abilities, yogis with supermemory, and instant calculators (people who can do

complicated computations in a flash.)

Instruments showed that at the moment these people performed astonishing mental
feats, their bodies were in a state of rest, their brain waves were at a relaxed alpha
rhythm (7-14 cycles per second). They did not strain, will, or coerce the mind to
function. It happened effortlessly. It actually seemed to happen because physical and
mental effort werent involved (Ostrander and Schroeder 1979 63).
 57
Most of us, when we do cognitive work which requires concentration, are in a beta wave

state (13-40 cycles per second), with a certain degree of effort and tension in our bodies.

Lozanov would say that this effort impairs rather than improves our capacity to learn.

The essence of Superlearning is the synchronization of patterns: heartbeat, breath,

external rhythm of the music or metronome, and the delivery timing of the new

information. Baroque music, which was composed on the ratios articulated by the Greek

mathematician Pythagoras (500 B.C.) since these were perceived to bring about a

sacred resonance most beneficial to the human body/mind has a rhythm of 60 beats per

minute, and has been found to be the best rhythm to create superlearning states

(Ostrander and Schroeder 1979 84) .

Sentimentality aside, the mothers heartbeat is the major rhythm upon which all

human tissue was formed, cell by cell, so it is one we all intuitively know how to use to

support our own vitality. When we come together in a circle, the heart rhythm in each of

our chests begins to entrain with those nearby, and it can affect the brain waves in a

positive way. The HeartMath research demonstrates that people within five feet of each

other can entrain heart rhythms and can intentionally change those rhythms to influence

the level of alpha rhythms in the brain of the other (McCraty 2003 4).

It is said that all human rhythmic structures are built on the heartbeat as the

primary, fetal, rhythm. A beat then divides into two, three, or four intervals, just as a cell

divides in order to generate new life (Flatischler 2002 92). It is the division of the beat

into smaller increments which increases the frequency of the sound. In a superb form of

rhythm and sound work called Ta Ke Ti Na (the syllables have no meaning), taught by
 58
Reinhard and Cornelia Flatischler, people move in a circle to a central drumbeat, and

slowly build up layers of rhythm as their feet step, their hands clap, gesture or shake a

rattle, and their voices speak syllables on beat or backbeat. The leader calls out slight

changes in step, hands, or voice, as well as shifts in beat emphasis, so that the currents of

sound and rhythm are constantly changing. In this moving circle, a multidimensional

attention is developed, as the movers bodies engage in polyrhythmic layers of sensation,

and the movers minds follow multiple layers of attention (Flatischler 2002 94).

The multidimensional attention which emerges might be likened to states of

meditation, where any effort to pay attention has been released, and as a result, the

availability of awareness expands. I experience this in both meditation and Ta Ke Ti Na

- as an extra-clear intelligence, in which my mind is relaxed and spacious. All incoming

information has equal valence; all is of interest, and my speed of comprehension and

recall is swift to instantaneous. This brain state is well-described by Dr. Lester Fehmi of

the Princeton Biofeedback Research Institute in speaking about hemispheric

synchronization as the maximum efficiency of information transport through the whole

brain. He says,

Instead of feeling separate and narrow-focused, you tend to feel more into it that
is, unified with the experience, you are the experience and the scope of your
awareness is widened a great deal, so that youre including many more experiences
at the same time. Theres a whole-brain sensory integration going on, and its as if
you become less self-conscious and you function more intuitively (Fehmi and Fritz
1980).
 59
Rhythmic entrainment of the group creates a rhythmic environment which in turn

affects the sensory-motoric system to support a more spacious, capable state of awareness

where multidimensional intelligence is inherent. Rhythm established by the group

oscillation, at the subtle or gross levels establishes an entrained, collective rhythmic

environment and produces a more unified state of collective intelligence.

And rhythmic entrainment leading to dilations in the group awareness does not

depend on structured rhythmic exercises, but on the organic entrainment of existing

rhythms in the body. Dr. William Condon, of the Boston University School of Medicine,

elucidated the fact that people in conversation will unconsciously entrain their body

movements to each other and to the voice of the speaker. Condon states that this form of

entrainment

appears to be a universal characteristic of human communication, and perhaps

characterizes much of animal behavior in general. Communication is thus like a
dance, with everyone engaged in intricate and shared movements across many
dimensions, yet all strangely oblivious that they are doing so. Even total strangers
will display this synchronization (Judith 1999 251).

At the group level, entrainment can arise from moving expressively and making sound

together, without a directed rhythmic structure. In the 1960s, Dr. Price Cobbs, a black

psychiatrist, and George Leonard, a white founder of Esalen Institute, conducted

interracial encounter groups, where black and white participants had very different

speech rhythms. People were encouraged to speak out their fears and resentments. After

an initial period of painful, slow group energy, the rhythms would eventually pick up

until everyone was shouting and stamping their feet, reaching a fever pitch until some of

the shouts and curses began to turn into laughter. They describe:
 60
Then a strange thing happens: the entire group suddenly stops, then begins again,
then stops, then begins again more quietly all in perfect rhythm. After this the
encounter resumes with a new tone of tenderness and ease. Its as if the pendulums
of understanding are swinging together, the heart cells beating as one (Judith 1999
252).

Time

The ability to include many more experiences at the same time is also a change in the

individuals perception of time itself, and this shift in perception must be cultivated and

allowed to resonate in the space of the circle. We are all accustomed entrained, if you

will, by our educational system - to arrive at a meeting or gathering expecting to receive

information. Education, as a socially organized entity, is set up to insert selected types of

information, which the culture has deemed important to function and survival, into the

students. How this is done goes to educational philosophy, but it still boils down to a

prescribed list of topics or skills being inculcated into a group of students in a certain

amount of time. Therefore, whether the curricular goals can be met in the expected time

frame becomes a reference point driving educators and educational institutions. A

students experience of time pressure can put them into a hyper-function state or can

cause their circuits to jam entirely. Time pressure can activate the visceral fight-or-flight

response, which has a direct effect on which part of our brain is available to attend

(Dennison and Dennison 1989 19-20, Hannaford 1995 160-176).

 61
So, in the circle, how much time do we actually have? Again, this is a complex

question, the answer to which is very different in different cultures. What we know is that

the sense of time and the brains processing speed can both be changed through the

influence of rhythmic frequencies applied to the body. Studies show that people in a

slowed-down brain state, or who perceive that they have more time than that shown on

the clock, can dramatically accelerate their learning performance (Ostrander and

Schroeder 1979 69,314). More learning can be accomplished in much less clock time if

the sense of time is spacious via the rhythmic environment.

Flatischler credits the interval between rhythmic beats as the location of endless

time.

The message that lives in the interval says, you have time and space. I find it
particularly helpful to remember this at stressful moments. Conventional time is
only a construct of our mind, sometimes a force which makes our daily life seem
rushed. When you enter the intervals of a pulsation deeper and deeper they lead you
to timelessness, they guide you to a simultaneity of deep silence and pulsating
movement (Flatischler 2002 30).

This experience of the timeless now is sought after in many meditative practices,

which often involve a similar route through physical practice as that we are following in

the circle: create a grounded container in which creative energy is free flowing, and focus

intention in order to access the full field of resource (which some might call the Divine).

The difference is that we are weaving our individual abilities to attend and intend, into a

larger body with which to access timelessness, with, in my opinion, larger results for the

individual and for the entire field.

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Between

Resonant with the experience of timelessness, the space Between is a doorway

into the fluid matrix of infinite potential; in fact, it is perhaps the most powerful element

at play in the circle. This Between is potent because it is created by relationship and

therefore always moving and vibratory. It can be felt in the silence between drum beats,

the pause while speaking, the moment of possibility when two people arrive face to face,

the spaces between bodies. Our mind tends to focus on action, and we tend to think of

what is really happening as a narrative string of actions (He did this, and then I said

that, and then we went there). But the Between spaces resonate with a deeper, quieter

potential which is a fractal of the vast energy created at the very heart of the circle, and as

a leader you want to notice and cultivate this Between element in order to strengthen the

vitality of your circle.

The simplest way to visualize the Between is through the most generative shape

in geometry, the Vesica Pisces. The Vesica is the almond-shaped space which occurs

when two circles overlap. It also symbolizes the joining of heaven and earth (the Hieros

Gamos, or sacred marriage of opposites), the Hermetic doctrine of "As Above, So

Below" and is the major symbol for the cosmic temples of this age in the west, the Gothic

cathedrals (Shirts 2003).

Robert Lawlor, a mathematician specializing in Sacred Geometry, views the

Vesica from a metaphysical viewpoint in the following diagram, where it expresses as the

realm of the human, to live between changing and unchanging principles, balancing

complementary poles of consciousness.

 63

Fig. 21. Lawlor 2003 32).

Lawlor also makes a multi-dimensional connection mathematically, in describing the

activity of the square root of 3 in the construction of the Vesica and eventually the

hexagon as a basic form.

Thus the square root of 3 is linked to the formative process, and this connection is
further clarified when one observes the relationship of the Vesica and the square
root of 3 to the hexagon, which is the symmetry of order for the measure of the
earth, the measure of time (through the 360 degree of the Great Circle of the
heavens), and also the basic formation of mineral crystals, especially of the carbon
bonding patterns which allow for the formation of all organic substances (Lawlor
2003 33).
 64

Fig. 22.The hexagon is the result of Lawlors geometric proof of the Square root

of 3 proportion in the Vesica Pisces

This vesica shape is seen world-wide, as an indication of sacred space, a liminal

portal of transformation (Moore 2002). In Christian icons the mandorla (derived from

almond-shaped) encircles the sacred figure with protection and power (Jensen 2005). And

the contemporary Icthus symbol, the stylized Christian fish, was used by early Christians

as a secret symbol to be scratched on walls, the first person scraping a circle, and the

second an overlapping one (Moore 2002).

It is no accident that the shape of the vesica is also a vulva, a portal of life, a place

where new forms emerge into our world. Sheela-na-gig is a figure who appears on

churches throughout England and Ireland, displaying her yoni (vulva) as a source of life

and a place of protection (Harding 2007). In the Hindu pantheon, the goddess Lajja

Gowri displays her yoni as the tap root of spiritual fertility which blossoms like a lotus of

enlightenment in place of her head (Kamat 2006). One of my personal favorites is the

goddess Baubo, who came to Demeter, the Greek Earth Mother when she was in her
 65

darkest despair about her daughter Persephones banishment to Hades. Baubo danced for

Demeter, and showed her yoni; this caused Demeter to laugh out loud, and the possibility

of new life began in that moment. This flashing dance of regeneration shows up with

Baubo dancing for a grieving Isis in Egypt (when she believed Osiris to be dead and

dismembered) and among the shamanistic Melissae, the female Bee Masters, it is a

gesture to dispel unbalanced energies to prepare a ritual area (Schwarz 2007, Buxton

2004 167).

Whether expressed mathematically, religiously, or mythically, the vesica shape

indicates the boundless energetic potential in the Between spaces. In the circle, we are

each moving in a sphere of energy, our own kinesphere. As we interact with others, this

Between space, where the spheres overlap to varying degrees, is constantly being

activated; the vesica portal is constantly being formed, inviting creation, generating

energy.

As this Between space activates with potential, we have access to greater realms

of information. This is because all information is stored between particles, in wave forms

which are in constant motion. Lynn McTaggart, author of The Field, describes how

waves encode information:

One of the most important aspect of waves is that they are encoders and carriers of
information. When two waves are in phase, and overlap each other technically
called interference the combined amplitude of the waves is greater than each
individual amplitude. The signal gets stronger. This amounts to an imprinting or
exchange of information, called constructive interference. If one is peaking when
the other is troughing, they tend to cancel each other out a process called
destructive interference. Once theyve collided, each wave contains information,
in the form of energy coding, about the other, including all the other information it
contains. Interference patterns amount to a constant accumulation of information,
and waves have a virtually infinite capacity for storage (McTaggart 2002 26).
 66

Information is transmitted between people, between states, always in movement,

in relationship. In our emotional lives, it is often as someone leaves or dies that we

suddenly speak truths which could not come to the surface prior to the imminent state

change. My yoga teacher Nirvaire Singh used to say that it was good for a baby, when

her neck was strong enough, to be tossed from one parent to the other, back and forth. He

said that it was in the air that the baby experienced her true nature (as well as much

chuckling). It is through her suspension in space between parents that the baby knows

her true nature.

When I interviewed computer programmer Eric McRae, he explained the

sequences of electronic impulses coded as 1s and 0s, which would transmit information

almost instantaneously across the globe. But where is the information, I asked Where

is it physically existing? He shrugged and replied Its between the 1s and 0s. In my

mind, this means it is the moving state change from a 1 to a 0 which carries the particle of

information.

Jeff Thompson, in his article on The Scientific Research Behind Acoustic

Brainwave Entrainment, notes that, At the brain wave pattern at the juncture between

alpha and theta rhythms, often called the crossover point by neuroscientists, subjects

have experienced some remarkable changes. Houston therapist William Beckwith has

reported that in his clients the experience of this crossover point is often accompanied by

the seemingly miraculous resolutions of complex psychological problems. (Thompson

1988).

Drum circle facilitator Arthur Hull addresses the circuitry of the circle: if we want
 67

to achieve a goal, small or large, circuitry must be laid down as we master, through

repetition, the connections between body and brain required by the task (Hull 1998 87).

The task of eating food with a utensil becomes automatic because the circuitry has been

forged by eating again and again. Hull generates exercises for activating peripheral

vision, hearing and feeling in a circle of moving people. Participants move from their

place on the rim of the circle into the center and back out to a spot elsewhere on the

circle, in smooth figure eight patterns. Hull instructs movers to look for the spaces

between to move into, in order to create unbroken flow. He talks about an energetic

locale in the circle when all three periphery senses of vision, hearing and feeling come

together:

When they are operating simultaneously in an ongoing circle, it is like standing

inside the calm center of a whistling hurricane, where time has stopped, and you
have all the time, information and knowledge you need to do the right thing. (Hull
1998 56-66).

Reinhard Flatischler, in his Rhythm of Life workshop, referred to the universal

matrix which we access through rhythmic movement and sound, and mentioned that the

way into the matrix was between the 3-beat rhythm and the 4-beat rhythms which we

were creating. In his writing, he calls this simultaneity; when our attention is truly

engaged with two or more rhythms at the same time, we are in fact simultaneously

occupying two or more different worlds at the same time, and this space between our

streams of attention is in fact the portal to the matrix of multidimensional reality

(Flatischler 2002 76). According to Master Nobuo Shioya, a revered Japanese physician

who is 103 years old and in excellent health, intention is the force which makes healing

and accomplishments real in the three-dimensional world, by gathering ghost particles

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which exist on the border between the third and fourth dimensions (Emoto 2004 143).

And finally, in The Gospel of Mary, the nous, which exists between soul and

psyche, is a way of perceiving, a faculty of mind between subjective and objective

reality, which permits sight/perception of the divine realms. The nous is an inner element

which one already possesses but must discover, an ability to directly address infinite

wisdom and love. There where is the nous, lies the treasure. (Leloup 2002 115-125).

Crystalline Circuitry

Throughout the research and writing of this project, the hexagon shape kept

intruding on my awareness. I decided I had to heed my own advice about second

attention, and observe the glimmering shape at the periphery of what I thought I was

doing.

I had a dream about the hexagon of the honeycomb, so I studied bees, and found

that they intuitively build their near-perfect hexagonal cells according to the

electromagnetic field of the earth, which if you diagram it geometrically on two axes, is

hexagonal. (For that matter, they also do a figure-eight waggle dance to deliver specific

information about the location of nectar.) I read a wonderful book called The Shamanic

Way of the Bee in which the door to the final initiation dance is created in a ritual in

which the male and female participants first establish entrainment through rhythms of a

full-body lemniscate movement, which leads into the whirling together of the male and

female energies in a wild double helix (Buxton 2004 118-126). During the final initiation,
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which the author undergoes alone, a single snowflake (a perfect hexagon) falls into the

fire before the initiate truly goes into the realms beyond this physical plane (Buxton 2004

174).

A beautiful body of work by Masaru Emoto, in which for decades he

photographed water in its crystalline form (hexagons) as it responded to different forms

of music and communication, points to waters extreme conductive sensitivity to thoughts

and intention. Emoto frequently experimented with circles of people concentrating a

single thought into the water sample. In 1999, Master Shioya and Dr. Emoto participated

in a gathering of 350 people who were invited to chant prayers for peace to Lake Biwa,

Japans largest lake, which was annually beset with putrid algae. The algae did not

reappear (Emoto 2004 145).

Emoto surmises that the mass of 350 people praying out loud with a unified

intention created 2,000 kHz of ultrasound (an inaudible vibration coming off the audible

sound); 1,100 kHz of ultrasound has been shown to create tiny air bubbles in water and

decompose dioxin and other deadly toxins. He applies the mass, or number of people

praying with intention, to Einsteins theory of relativity, the well-known E=MC2, but

conjectures that C could stand for consciousness as another expression of the speed of

light; this would mean that the number of people bringing a focused consciousness to a

task could create an exponential amount of energy for the accomplishment of that task

(Emoto 2004 144-147). A more precise application of the saying Strength in Numbers!
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Fig. 23. Lake Biwa water before the prayer.

Fig. 24. Lake Biwa water after the prayer (Emoto 2002)

The hexagon in the center of the Star of David (and, I believe, moving inside the

column at the center of the circle), also brought me into contact with the Merkaba, which

I earlier described as the star tetrahedron, the three-dimensional version of the Star of

David. In several traditions, the Merkaba is a vehicle, a chariot or a form of transport

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between dimensions (Melchezidek 1998 5,Wikipedia 2007, Ezekiel1:4-26 1987 1037-9).

In the Biblical description of Ezekiels vision, the four living creatures which emerge

from a flash of light have a very fractal, lattice-like quality; they each have four faces and

two sets of wings, which are joined together with great regularity and which move as a

piece. Ezekiel also says the vehicle was made of beryl and of sapphire, which are both

crystals shaped on four axes (Simpson 1997 38-9).

The work of this arrangement appears as wheels inside wheels, which reach a

great height, and which move with the quadrant of creatures. The four-shape is an

activated portal, and the wheels could be a spiral or columnar form, which, moving away

from Ezekiel, appears to reach great heights. Each of these wheels has four eyes upon it.

In a vision state, I have seen what I call the Avenue of Eyes, an expansive boulevard of

light and eyes leading to a tiered structure covered in more light and eyes. My personal

experience is simply that of consciousness awakening within me by connecting to other

dimensions of existence.

In more recent work called The Flower of Life teachings by Drunvalo

Melchezidek, the Merkaba is described as an interdimensional vehicle (Mer-Ka-Vah

means chariot in Hebrew) that will help us return to our original higher state of

consciousness (Melchezidek 1998 5). The Merkaba is an energy field which can be

created in the body by a precise Egyptian system of setting star tetrahedrons spinning to

create a double helix. One thing I appreciate about this body of work is that it

acknowledges that we cannot apply a mental understanding of the Merkaba machine

without the heartfelt comprehension of unconditional love. In other words, the essential

fuel for the vehicle is the light which emanates from our open hearts. This is a
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metaphysical fact which you can see demonstrated in circles and groups everywhere. An

entire ritual or curriculum can take place, but if the heart of understanding and

compassion is not ignited, the center of the circle will not fully form, and people will

leave with a hollow or isolated feeling. On the other hand, a heart-ignited circle can hold

strong through all kinds of errors and wobbles; this is because the heart-opening causes

the torus to be vibrant, which causes the center to fully activate, with all the resulting

benefits of change energy and access to multidimensional reality.

The hexagon also led me to a very simple model for how the body of the circle

functions to distill vibratory energy from the infinitely potential to the humanly useful

levels. This model is something which grows from the earth, has a lattice-like molecular

structure with spiral chains, and is a circuitry for the transmission of electrical and

vibratory energy: the quartz crystal, a hexagonal form if viewed from above (Bowman

2003 9, Simpson 1997 32-42). What I like about this model is that the crystal does not

produce energy, but temporarily contains and amplifies a universal energy which exists

everywhere. It does this by positive silicon ions and negative oxygen ions moving along

its lattice circuitry (Simpson 1997 42). James Oschman, a foremost scientist in the field

of Energy Medicine, describes the organization of the bodys connective tissue,

cytoskeletal and nuclear molecules as a living matrix with a crystalline structure. His

point is that optimum health and performance arise as emergent properties of the living

matrix, only when all elements of it are connected, just as the conductive properties of a

crystal emerge as a function of the whole, and, I would say, just as the beneficial energy

effects of the circle arise from the interconnectedness of all present:

A crystal cannot be described in terms of its constituent atoms alone. A crystal can
contain within it a variety of entities (such as electrons, protons, phonons,
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plasmons, holes, excitons, solitons, polarons, and conformons) that arise as
emergent or collective properties of the crystal system. When the crystal is broken
into its constituents, these peculiar particles and entities disappear, or at least their
properties are drastically altered. Moreover, the important, even vital, collective
properties cannot be predicted from study of the systems components, taken one
by one (Oschman, James L. 2000 89).

The Quakers say a meeting for worship is gathered when a collective arrival at

a certain quality of presence is reached. No one can predict or cause this gathered

presence to infuse the group, but when it happens, you know it. A deep quiet peace

blooms inside without effort. No one person can get there by themselves. I have

noticed, and heard others remark, about how the special intelligence of the circle, so

palpable when we are gathered, cant be touched in the same way out of the circle; you

remember that you were in something powerful, without being able to recall exactly what

it was. Circled, we experience a living matrix which can only be perceived when we

come together; there is a level of information flow, a conductivity between people and

between dimensions of reality, which is a direct product of the collective body.

Oschman paraphrases the means of crystal conductivity as described by Professor

Albert Szent-Gyorgy in 1941,

In crystals, a great number of atoms or molecules are packed closely together in a

lattice arrangement. The bonding electrons that hold the crystal together, which are
called valency electrons, are actually mobile. They are not fixed in place, they do
not belong to any particular atom, molecule, or bond, but instead they belong to the
whole system. Hence a great number of atoms or molecules can join together to
form an energetic continuum. Energy, in the form of excited electrons, can move
about within the crystal lattice (Oschman, James L. 2000 59).

This energetic continuum property of the crystal lattice has been used throughout

time to transmit information: between bodies in the case of hands-on healers using

crystals; between dimensions in the case of shamanic traditions, where crystals have been
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used for thousands of years; and more recently between points on the globe and beyond

in the form of crystal circuitry in computer technology (Simpson 1997, Bowman 2003,

Narby 1998 57, Matthews 1992 109-11, Harner 1990 108-12). Oschman himself has

experimented with circles of people in which they entrain breath and heart rhythms and

establish a circular energy flow through the hands before letting the current act on an

individual, with healing results. His idea is that the essence that nourishes the living

matrix, and that is lacking in those places of disorder or pain, is information.Once

supplied in the pure form that can only come from another organism, the information

directs the repair systems of the body to repair themselves. (Oschman, James L. 2000

245-7).

In the circle body there are infinite streams of information which are flowing like

currents in the sea: intuitive, quantum, archetypal, electromagnetic, erotic, intellectual,

emotional, and spirit realm streams, to name just a few. We select what we are looking

for. Native Americans believe that contact with the spirit world, for instance, gives you

the necessary information about how to conduct yourself in the world and interact with

your environment and with your fellow human beings; that stream of information (the

spirit world) is therefore critical in that culture to defining your choices and actions

(Kidwell, Noley and Tinker 2001 15-16).

But it is not only the selection of information which informs the quality of life,

but also the means by which the information is selected or obtained. The circle body, like

the crystal, activates a living matrix of circuitry which taps into the quantum lattice inside

the scalar wave at the center of the circle; in this level of access, we can directly know

constellations of information which transcend time and space; and in doing so we

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intrinsically share, or feed back this knowledge with the circle. This is a different kind of

knowing than the competitive acquisition of proprietary information. Also, these

experiences of knowing are not just temporary, altered-state experiences. The

transcendent function of the brain, activated in what are called hybrid states of

consciousness - between conscious and unconscious, between neurological and

psychological, between rational and irrational has been shown to have life-long effects,

in new neural pathways, newly found energy, and creative solutions from the whole brain

(Ross 1986).

And this selection of information is not just a one-way extraction of energy for

our own ends, as is the current practice of managing energy resources from our globe. By

using the energetics of the circle to immerse, or participate in the fluid field of the

universe, we certainly benefit, but we do so by taking our place in a vast

interconnectedness, rather than by insisting on manipulating matter through analytical

means alone, an immature method which cuts us off from unlimited streams of

information and inspiration. At least one evolutionary biologist, Darwin Sloan Wilson,

feels that the intelligence of the collective body can be developed to promote a

harmonious consciousness necessary to our survival (Angier 2007 17).

In closing, Ill return to physicist Hal Puthoffs vision of The Field:

Hal realized that this represented nothing less than a unifying concept of the
universe, which showed that everything was in some sort of connection and balance
with the rest of the cosmos. The universes very currency might be learned
information, as imprinted upon this fluid, mutable field of information. The Field
demonstrated that the real currency of the universe the very reason for its stability
is an exchange of energy. If we were all connected through The Field, then it just
might be possible to tap into this vast reservoir of energy information and extract
information from it. With such vast energy to be harnessed, virtually anything was
possible that is, if human beings had some sort of quantum structure allowing
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them access to it. But there was the stumbling block. That would require that our
bodies operated according to the laws of the quantum world (McTaggart 2002 36).

Through aligning ourselves in brain and body, in space and in time, with the

universal shape of the circle, we have activated a structure which is tuned to many

dimensions: sensory, vibratory, electromagnetic, cosmic, but also subatomic. From a

quantum physics perspective, we are merely apprehending information which is already

there, picking it up like a television channel.

What this means to us is that, as information is transmitted to the group from an

external source such as the environment, we can receive the information through the

entire group, and our collective ability to integrate the information will serve each

individual. The holographic recording of information by the whole group means that

more information is available to everyone, because we intercepted the information with a

wider net than any one of us could create. At more advanced levels, this circle

technology can be used to intentionally access specific channels of information which are

stored in the Zero Point Field; the collective intelligence and capacities to comprehend

with between perception can be applied in realms of education, healing and the evolution

of consciousness.

If we do honor the value of multidimensional attention, what we need is a device

which receives and transmits many streams of information simultaneously. We need a

device which, like a wireless computer, has immediate access to unlimited streams of

information that we can call upon or direct at will. We already have the device, and it is

our collective body. We are the technology for change.

 LEADERS GUIDE

A circle leader is like a symphony conductor; the conductor appears to be merely

standing in front of the musicians and waving a little wand, but in fact it is the conductor

who knows, feels, and invites every note of the symphony into sound at the precise

moment it is needed to create a collective experience beyond the written music or any

one of the instruments. The conductors technical skill as a musician, a translator, and an

engineer is perceptible only by the way the audience, and the symphony members, feel

during and after the piece moved beyond explanation, and more connected to the depth

of life than when they came in. And the conductor needs the musicians to give their best,

and the audience to attend and receive the work.

This book contains a description of the elements I feel are essential to creating a

strong circle with a positive outcome for everyone involved. Your purpose, and your

context, will determine the language that you use and the exact nature of the structures

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which you apply within the circle work. If your purpose is one of delivering information,

then your language will be that of didactic, cognitive transmission of material. If your

purpose is developmental, walking people through a series of experiences, then your

structures will be designed to let people feel their way through problems and principles.

If your purpose is spiritual seeking information or contact with spiritual sources- then

you will follow the protocols and rituals which suit your tradition and practice.

Whichever context and language you work in, the elements of circle dynamics

share a common framework, and the issues of circle management are similar. I have been

part of circles which were led well and circles which were led poorly. There is a huge

difference between the two, both in the quality of the individual experience and in the

texture, or resonance, of the group awareness which results from the gathering. A well-

led circle helps each participant achieve personal goals for the event, while at the same

time it illuminates a rich, shared reality which connects people deeply to our common

life. It is in and from this deeper reality that real change can be seeded. The potency of

this shared reality, the quality of the circle body itself, is a natural force that can be

cultivated.

The circle is a tool that makes people smarter, more fully intelligent. It is a

technology that can be used in a wide variety of applications to create a chamber of

attention in which peoples bodies relax and their minds come into an open learning state.

In this state of attention it is natural to access multi-dimensional streams of information,

in the way that computers access the potential information streams of the internet. Multi-

dimensional is a term which refers to the simultaneous existence of layers of reality, all of

which contain information which humans need at different times in their lives.
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This is a guide for those who are called to lead circles. Leadership is a complex

calling; besides conductor, you are trail guide, minister, therapist, and choreographer, and

it is a calling which requires self-confrontation and self-care. The circle is an alchemical

fire of sorts, and it can exert tremendous pressure on you as it draws out impurities and

distills essence. I have found that if I understand and play the circle technology like the

instrument that it is, I can conserve my own energy and health and run an even better

circle experience for others than if I overwork my psychic and emotional bodies.

The circle is a technology, on one level a literal device with structure and

circuitry; in order to effectively use this technology, the leaders (or operators of the

technology) need to be trained in how to harness and direct the power of the collective

body. This role requires delicacy and precision, and the capacity to attend to myriad

aspects of the workings within the circle. I will discuss collective and interpersonal

dynamics which affect the integrity of the circle and the concentration and quality of

energy which can be attained by the group.

My heart is with you who are called to lead and learn in - the circle. The more

skilled leadership we can create, the more often circles can experience rotating

leadership, a true circle form. You are following an instinct that is grounded in our cells,

and you are invoking an ancient form of humans breathing in concert with the earth, and

into all the realms with which we interdepend for our lives.
 BECOMING A LEADER

Calling

Something is drawing you to the circle. First, you have probably felt the need to

be part of circles, and over time, as you have felt how the circle works, you have

developed a hunger to try your hand at leading. This is akin to the calling to play a

musical instrument, a blend of your own visceral need to be inside the music, and your

intense curiosity to see what you can do if you get really good at playing the thing. You

know it will take a lot of practice, and youll need some good teachers, but you have to

do it. In fact, the music metaphor is perfect when it comes to the art of circle leadership.

When you listen to a song, you are affected in two major ways. You listen to the

words, and the story they are telling, and you respond with your mind and heart. You also

experience the encompassing feeling of the music, and this feeling lingers in your

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humming, or your toe which taps whenever you recall the song, or the complex

associations which light up when the song plays again. A circle is like a song in this way.

People are focusing their minds on the content and at the same time their bodies

are experiencing the container as an environment, a music in which they are immersed.

The shape and rhythm of how this container moves, breathe, expands is going to make

them feel secure, energized, leaden or disconnected. Your expertise as a composer and

director of the music behind the words will be an underlying influence on everything the

group experiences. You are using your skill to create an environment in which each

person has enough security to relax and unfold, and enough activation to be surprised by

themselves in a constructive way.

Training

Get training in the attentional state necessary to run a circle. You must be able to

hold multi-directional and multi-dimensional attention as well as keep track of logistics

and time in an organized, efficient way. This requires focused, sustained, disciplined

attention, and training over time develops this ability. Do not underestimate the personal

and professional preparation required for leading a circle. It is skill, not magic, which

brings forth a circle that is strong enough for real magic to occur.

Do your own emotional processing work. Work with people who honor healing as

a multi-dimensional process, who can hold space for deep body expression as well as

intellectual and spiritual principles. The places where you have emotional blindness,

through denial or unexpressed feelings, WILL come up in circle leadership, so you

should know your own emotional constellations well know when to grieve, how to
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rage, where your lacuna, or gaps in awareness are, and where your vulnerabilities lie. Its

much more real for a leader to say Wow, thats a challenging area for me, but heres

how I handle it right now, than to bluff out an answer or regurgitate a precept.

Honesty really is the best policy, and you need to have spent time in your own

interior explorations for people to be able to follow you into the realms you claim

expertise in. This applies in any subject, whether it seems emotional or not. People are

following your music as well as your words, and they will recognize the emotional

honesty of your own journey with the material. This is what will create trust in your

leadership, on an equally important level with your cognitive mastery of the curriculum.

The leaders body is like a seed or a tuning fork in the center of concentric waves

of possibility nested within the circle. The degree to which the leader can resonate in the

various chambers of process that go on in a circle and in an individual, will set a tone of

potential capacity for group process.

You will also need consultation and additional training as the work of leadership

opens up new aspects in your being. This a budget item in time and dollars which you

should plan on. Do not rely on the circles you lead to handle your process needs; you are

in a professional capacity when you lead, and you need personal support for your private

life and internal work.

Identify Your Purpose

Personally Why are you in the work or the event? What do you need from it?

As Leader Why are you in the role of leader right now?

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What strengths and weaknesses are you working out?

For the Group What is your heartfelt intention for the groups experience?

What do you want your circle to do? What is your destination?

How do you want people to feel when they come to the end of the work?

What information do you want them to have?

What process do you want to put in motion within them?

Know Yourself

Your biases/ your world views (influenced by class, race, gender, sexual orientation, life

experience)

Beliefs about the way it is thought forms

Wounds, confusions and vulnerabilities

How you express emotion/control emotion

What kind of support you need

Strengths and kindnesses ways in which you can afford to be generous

Your skills your professional reference base/systems of thought

Judgments

What is good or bad in you

Which parts you despise, judge

BE CURIOUS and respectful about it ALL

Find it all equally interesting equi-valent (valence meaning charge)

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Know Your Style

How will material /didactic principles get presented example: do you like

making set presentations followed by discussion or is a question and answer better

for you? Or do you elucidate principles as you lead exercises?

What presentation tools do you enjoy using?

Do you prefer an intimate style or one with a little more distance? Any style can

be very effective if it is genuinely yours.

Know Your Mechanics

How will structures physically work?

Where will people put their bodies in the space?

Chairs, mats, set-up of entire space, bathrooms, etc..

Music, slides, any presentation materials, plug-ins, tech procedures

Know your Limits

Activities or behaviors you cannot tolerate in your groups

Areas of expertise and areas of ignorance

Signals within you that you have reached a limit and need a break or additional

support

Know how to be curious.

Curiosity is the great antidote to shame and fear. Be curious about the many
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creative ways that each person has devised to deal with life, even if these include anti-

social or less than cooperative strategies. Curiosity will always produce more elegant

solutions between people than rigid authority.

Know Your Business

Find out how others handle all the elements necessary in organizing and leading

groups. If you are promoting, enrolling and leading your own circles, find a way to

delegate!! Promotion is one set of tasks which should take place well in advance of the

event, and which you need to make decisions about. You can pay a service or arrange

work trade for flyer distribution. Let your ad reps work for you at any publication.

Articles and websites are a great way to self-promote.

Enrollment is time-consuming, and requires a lot of personal interaction. This can

be enjoyable, but it can be draining, especially since those phone calls can be flying right

up until the event begins. I recommend hiring a coordinator to handle your enrollment

and logistics for the event. Coordinators are usually doing this work for love of you or of

the curriculum, but its also important to write a simple contract giving them a flat fee or

percentage of the gross or net proceeds for specific work rendered. This expresses your

shared interest in the financial success of the event as well as your personal success. If

you do not create financially viable events or an endowment of your work, you will

eventually run out of steam. Ideally, you want someone coordinating your event who has

experienced both you as a leader, and the curriculum you are teaching, at least a few

times, and can answer enrollment questions from personal knowledge. It is best to arrive

at the event fresh and ready to teach.

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Transparency of leadership

The most powerful leadership is a real presence with the truth. The greatest gift

you can give people is to be curious and loving about the mysterious process of being

together, and they can follow that lead. This means that you must practice compassion for

yourself as a fallible person as you lead.

When you do hit a place thats confusing you can simply say so. You can ask

everyone to breathe, or give focus; you may need a moment to clarify or consult with

your staff. I speak directly in front of the group with my co-facilitator; I dont feel

diminished to reveal that we, too, are in a process and can help each other through. You

want those moments to be very light and free, with gravity but without burden. Its better

to acknowledge when there is a glitch rather than to pretend its not happening, if what

you want is a space of clarity as a guiding principle.

Another great response to problems is to simply wonder out loud about them. You

can remark upon challenging phenomena to the whole group. Ask people to step back

from seeking solutions and simply hold the problem together in curiosity and possibility.

This takes the strain off the leader to come up with an answer, when the answer may not

actually be there yet. It also models a type of receptive, spherical power which is an

antidote to the power model which says decisive action (no matter how inane) is good

leadership.
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Self-Care

Leadership Training/Consultation

Preparation of Curriculum and Tools

Team alignment

Sleep and Nutrition

Nurturing

Clearing space/Debriefing your experience/Notes to Self

Rest and Integration after an event

Checklist of Tools

-Time piece with highly visible face (the digital clocks which double as timers which you

can preset to intervals are nice but make sure they have a vibrate capacity and not just

an alarm or beep)

-Thick-soled slippers or indoor shoes if it is a shoes-off space (this will save your back if

you are standing a lot)

-Travel mug with a screw-tight lid for tea and/or water bottle

-Supplements if you need them between meals or at specific times.

-Small notebook with pen for notes to self

-Chime of some kind to get the groups attention or to start and end rituals. I recommend

the sweet but penetrating meditation chimes.

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-Written curriculum repertoire of possible exercises (at least two ways to go at each

juncture, and many small exercises for changing mood or state)

-Shoulder bag to carry everything to and from the meeting space

-Music if needed (check the facility for sound system to meet your needs)

-Prior knowledge of the space (size, heat, bathrooms, floor covering, chairs or backjacks,

electrical outlets, lighting)

-Didactic tools (white board, flip chart, models or art work, copies for all, videos,

A-V equipment.
 YOUR TEAM

Team cohesion

The commitment and skill of your assistants will make an enormous difference to

the energetic clarity and grace of the event, and especially to your own expenditure of

energy you really need to have a good team! You can have criteria for those who assist

you, just spell it out up front and those who are ready to work with you will show up. If

possible, meet ahead of time as a group to review purpose, curriculum, and tasks. If you

can prepare a curriculum outline (including what they need to do to prepare for each

structure) or assistant contracts and guidelines ahead of time, ask them to review these

before your first meeting. Use e-mail to connect ahead of time. If you have an event

coordinator, which is wonderful, they may do much of this prep work ahead of your

arrival, so be in contact with them about weaving yourself into the team. Find out what

has been addressed with the team, and who is responsible for what. Respect the

leadership of the coordinator while being clear about accountability. In most cases, they

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are accountable for all the event production and logistics, as well as for organizational

tasks during the event. You are accountable for the content and facilitation once the circle

begins.

Your job as a leader is to be as clear as possible about the types of support you

need from your team, and what your expectations of them will be. Appreciate them

whenever possible. Let them know about your style of communication. Warn them in

advance if your tendency is to be abrupt or curt when you are under stress. Remind them

that all of your attention is likely to be focused on managing the circle and there may not

be attention or even acknowledgement coming their way, but that does not mean you do

not notice their good work or need their support.

Check-in meetings

Its crucial to build in check-in meetings during the event with the whole staff,

before, during and after the days exercises. Staff should be advised ahead of time, for

instance, if you want them to plan on having meals together. Start the day with a staff

meeting, and end with a debriefing meeting. During the day, staff can come together

before any meal break to make your next action plan together, and see if anyone needs

additional support. This keeps the core circle in close contact and allows information

about the group to be known by all; it also permits the release of emotional tension if a

staff member is having a challenging time. The staff energy flows out along the web of

the whole group, so take good care of all staff!

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Staff Agreements or Contracts

Be clear up front about job descriptions, time commitments, financial or other

benefits in exchange for work. You may want the equivalent of a non-compete clause in

your agreement; be clear about whether or not your staff may take your work out and

teach it themselves. People are assisting for many reasons, some of which have do to with

their own professional development. Its kindest all around to discuss and clarify these

agreements ahead of time.

Staff-Participant Boundaries

It is a good idea to establish specific boundaries between staff and participants, in

order to keep the working space clear and conserve the staffs energy for supporting the

whole group. The basis of the understanding is that the integrity and power of the circle

created by all, but directed by the staff - is paramount for the benefit of everyone

participating. Staff members need to stay clear of personal entanglements in order to best

serve the forward progress of the group.

This might include anything from announcing that staff are only available at

specific times, to stating the degree of emotional contact participants can expect from the

staff. For instance, in circles where I work with erotic energy, I developed with my

colleagues what we called the 60-day boundary. Staff members agreed to refrain from

any erotic contact/development of erotic relationships with participants during the event

or for 60 days following the event. The purpose of this boundary was to give people a

way to work with their own attractions and projections in the transpersonal work of the
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circle, to use the extra energy for their own transformation. It was an invitation to bring

their sexual energy into their heart centers by respectfully observing a boundary out of

kindness and sensitivity, giving integration time after the circle before making decisions

in a social context.

The boundary worked in favor of participants in that they had space to do their

own work without being distracted or intruded upon, and it worked to protect the

vulnerability of the staff, who needed to know that a persons attraction to them was

about them, and not about their position of authority. Per human nature, we had differing

levels of adherence to this 60-day boundary, and it was amazing to see how invariably the

breaking of the boundary (or perhaps the breaking of the agreement itself) either leaked

energy from the circle work or caused difficult reverberations in peoples lives later on.

To the Assistants

Your job is to support the leader, the team, and the group, in that order. Each

leader will have their own way of navigating all the currents of energy which are flowing

in any particular group. They will have a sense of direction and order which may or may

not match yours.

There will be moments when you feel that:

-the group is not going well

-a situation is getting out of hand

-something could be done better

-an error was made

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-a cue was missed

-an instruction wasnt given the way it should have been

-the group will never make it through the curriculum

-you are not getting what you need

-the leader is crazy, or at least wholly inadequate to the job

All of this has to be surrendered. Your question cannot be whether the leader is

right or wrong (they are both). It must be How can I help this particular individual to

make their best decisions as to what needs to happen next in this group?

Your responsibility is to say to leader, either verbally or in other ways, I am here to

support you in your best thinking, and to learn from you, including your mistakes. I am

here to take great curiosity in the creativity of the whole process. I am here to serve you

and the group.

Moving in the Middle Ground

As an assistant, you make an agreement that when your own process comes up in

a very compelling way, you will move it in the middle ground. Moving in the middle

ground means that you touch into the power of your internal experience without allowing

it to sweep you away, in the way that you might, were you not charged with holding the

container. You allow yourself double streams of attention, first to your agreement to

serve the group and simultaneously to the fact that in your humanity you are being moved

by the power of the work into your own learning realm. You can have a fluid attention

which stays on task and also acknowledges the process which is moving within you,
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allowing the double streams to intertwine and move together. Share where and when you

can with your team members to create support for your process, but do not put an

expectation on the leader that they will be able to tend you personally while they are

tending the group.

Psychic Range Riding

A very important function that the assistants perform is what my colleague Rae

Larson calls psychic range riding. This is just what it sounds like. Assistants psychically

and intuitively move in the group and around the perimeter of the group, and notice if one

person has, at some level, started to wander off or get lost. Often, a persons material will

make them feel different or alone, or incapable of connection, or invisible. If a straggler

is heading off, sometimes all it takes is a kind word or genuine inquiry from a staff

member to correct their course and invite them back in. If, in your psychic range riding,

you see someone getting lost in a serious rift, its important to report that to the team

during a check-in, or directly to the leader.

Oracle

Along with your range riding reports on how individuals are faring, you may be

asked to act as an oracle for reading the circle body (thanks here to Isa Magdalena for the

practice of the oracle). This is a great way for leaders to use the team, to gain more clarity

as to what state the group is in at any given time. The oracular question the leader is

asking is not What should I do? but, What are people perceiving/experiencing right

now in the group? Where are the energy blocks or leaks? What is not moving? Are there
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shapes arising which are dissociative, or oppositional?( I say shapes because often these

things are happening in several people, or even sometimes in particular places in the

room). The answers of the oracle are not interpretive, they are a direct report of

experience; the leader will synthesize all the information.

This exercise is a way to expand awareness and possibility from within the center

circle; a leaders singular perspective can expand out to numerous points of view from a

trusted network. Often, the expanded perspective will cause enough fluidity that the

leader will simply know what to do next. As an assistant, its your job to use this intuitive

technology in a simple manner; contribute your true perspective and let the mix solve any

problems, rather than rush in with what you think needs to happen.

Fielding complaints

If you are fielding complaints by the participants, do not collude in the

complaining nature. Listen respectfully to the complaint. Acknowledge that it is

important feedback and that you can transmit it to the team. (Notice I said team, not

leader.) Dont promise solutions, because you dont yet know what, if any, the solution

will be. Listen closely and ask questions. Sometimes, peoples complaints are requests

for attention rather than requests for solutions. Or, they simply need strategic support for

solving their own dilemma.

A staff member who rushes in with solutions can be a distraction from what is

actually happening in their process of transformation. Transformation is challenging, and

we all look for ways out of the pressure or feelings of confusion and agitation. A person
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may without realizing it - try to get the staff to do the transformation for them by

making the leader, staff or situation into the problem which they can complain about. (I

cannot make this huge leap in understanding or grieve this loss because the temperature

in the room is all wrong. If the staff would make the temperature work, then I could do

what I came here for.)

Use the aikido loop (Page 91), from heart to heart. Take in their complaint, their

struggle, with your compassionate heart, and roll it right through the loop in a graceful

way that steps into trust for the unfolding process and respect for their ability to show up

for themselves and learn.

Ground your own anxiety, especially if things seem choppy or strained in the

group. If your own anxious thoughts are cropping up and you are in doubt as to the ability

of the leader, this is a prime time for you to get on the wagon with a complaining

participant about how the leader is failing you both. This is the worst thing you can do; it

feeds the fire of separation for that participant; and it pulls you out of service, out of your

team and into the participant pool in the circle. Keep it simple. With compassion and

respect, say youll communicate their feedback to the whole team without promising

solutions.
 ELEMENTS OF THE CIRCLE

Attention

Attention is the main malleable substance which you, as a leader, are shaping. In

many ways, working with collective attention is like directing molten light into a

holographic map. People will direct their cognitive attention to whatever images and

instructions you set out for them. They will do their best to follow your markers.

Eventually, once enough people become aligned and confident about the map which you

have set out, once the exercises have created a relaxed entrainment of the group attention,

this gathered group intelligence will carry you all into an enjoyable state of creativity and

awareness. Your job as leader will be to steadily continue to direct the group attention to

the markers on the path, even as the exhilaration and opening of creativity engenders a

higher level of chaos!

In order to set out clear markers, you need to know your trail and your destination

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your map. This means the shape and linear sequence of the ritual or curriculum, but it

also means being able to monitor the state and flow of attention in the group.

You must be able to open your own attention to many simultaneous levels. First,

attention has to be on the body of the circle, and the containers integrity. For this to

remain primary, the team needs to be in integrity; if the circle is feeling off to you, look

first to your team. Secondly, your attention is on the quality of energy which is moving

(or not) inside the container. This will inform you as to what states of energy are

occurring and where you want to take the group energetically; from this assessment you

can make your decisions as to what structures would serve the movement of the group.

And, third, your attention is on any and many - individual processes and how these

individual processes are flowing with that of the group body.

Your job as leader is to focus group attention, using your personality, voice, and

ideas, to direct each persons attention to their own work and to the life of the circle.

The Aikido loop

There is a very simple energy shape which you can use at every level of the circle

which I call the aikido loop, and it is the moebius coil, an infinitely moving figure eight

of energy. Aikido is a beautiful martial art which teaches principles of using awareness to

direct the flow of incoming energy from others. In circle leadership you are constantly

fielding direct energy focused on you, some of it supportive attention, some of it

projections as to who you are, and some of it in the form of requests for help or counsel.

As a leader or staff member you can use this aikido loop to support yourself in
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letting the often intense processes in the group flow easily through and past you,

minimizing wear and tear on your body and psyche. When conversing with an individual,

as their energy comes toward you, let it come, even into your body, but let it flow around

a loop and back out to move them in some direction where you prefer them to go. You

can allow the loop to flow through your heart center and gather compassion on its way

back out, in order to genuinely give a clear, firm response to whatever is before you. This

is similar to the Tonglen meditation in the Buddhist tradition, in that you do not resist an

incoming force, but you breathe it in, and on the exhale breathe out the healing response

that makes immediate, compassionate sense1 .

When you are literally in the center of the circle, speaking or instructing from

there, remember that you are at the convergence point of as many figure eight loops as

there are combinations of people in the circle, so you literally hold all those filaments in

your hand. Be thoughtful and gracious about the privilege of playing this instrument.

Have fun!

In a discussion format, where you are leading from the front of a group, the loops

will all be there, and, in the case of a question-answer format, when people are throwing

many ideas or questions at you, things can begin to move faster, the quality of the

concentrated attention can become more pressurized for you. It is your job and your right

to decide when to slow things down; pause, ask everyone to pause and breathe with you,

or use any other tool you may have to moderate the intensity of the group attention.

Getting Attention Out

This term comes out of the Re-evaluation Co-Counseling community, which has
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done powerful and intricate work with the whole realm of human attention. Its important

to remember whenever you have internal processes going on in the group, that people

may be touching on material which may be sensitive or immobilizing in some way.

Sometimes very small occurrences can bring up strong feelings for people. The

purpose of the exercise is to remind people first of their beauty and success as a person,

in order to establish this as an ever-present resource as challenging work proceeds.

This exercise could be used in the Inside-Outside structure, where people are

sharing in pairs. One rule of thumb is to always ask the questions themselves in pairs. If

you are trying to get at something that is bothering people in the group, dont go right for

it. First, go to a question that is easy to answer and brings attention to a pleasurable

aspect. For instance, What is something, small or large, which you genuinely like about

yourself (your body, your job, your life)?. Emphasize that it can be a small thing; make

the question light and easy to answer. People succeed when they put their attention on

something they enjoy. Only after you have peoples attention out do you ask a question

that might be more challenging to answer, ie. What would you most like to change about

your body, your job, your life?

Free attention

Once the container is activated and the energy gets moving, the multidimensional

reality is apparent in that people find themselves and others opening and expressing more

freely and in unexpected ways. People start letting go into the ever-changing reality that

they encounter in that environment. If the container is set properly then it the container

- can be felt and counted on. People let go of clinging with their attention to the outer rim
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of structured reality and let go into their own internal experience of what I call the fluid

core. The fluid core exists at the center of our individual beings, at the center of the circle

body, and at the center of the energetic universe, in what physicists call the zero point

field. The quality of attention available here is relaxed, expanded and free to see a wider

reality, inclusive of more possibilities than were previously known. In this state the group

will often regain the state of playing with attention.

Playing with attention

While I do not glamorize the past, I do feel there is a skill set concerning shared

attention which may have gotten trampled in our current screen-driven culture. Without

screens and the industries which accompany them (and maybe radio before that), people

clearly understood that, if there was to be any entertainment or communication, then it

would be coming from themselves or other people. This involved looking deeply at other

human beings, and using music, stories, conversation, dance, flirtation, teasing, recitation

to draw forth their attention and shape it in order to move emotions, delight the senses

and relieve personal and community tensions and woes. People also had no mediating

communication tools, and their communications were direct and sensual, pleasant or not.

Attention meant connection to others, with all the risks and benefits of that connection. I

have noticed that after a group has done several dilations of embodied, powerful work

together, they begin to play with attention together; moments of mini-entertainment arise

joyfully; jokes, wrestling, stories, costumes, bring happiness and a sense of feeding each

other.
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Second attention

I like to say that whats really going on is so much more interesting than what you

think is going on. What our logical brains attach to is following the logical progression of

the curriculum, which is important. What is simultaneously happening is a multi-layered

weaving of energies at every level of awareness to create the larger mind of the circle.

This circle mind can follow infinite information streams, a high powered hook-up. We do

not yet know how to use it with any real precision. Second attention can be cultivated, by

noticing glimpses of the irrational, the little thought or image which flickers past off to

the periphery, glimmers which we routinely ignore in favor of whats really going on.

As a leader, these glimmers will often provide the key to inspiration for next steps in your

work, in a similar way to dreams.

Second attention responds well to strong witnessing. If your power to ground and

witness is strong, you can allow a truth or expression which is strange to you to emerge

and pass through for instance, how completely afraid or angry or despairing someone

is, or how crazy they may seem and in that way broaden the invitation for truth to

enter the space. If you also stay clear in your intention that whatever enters the space be

for the benefit of everyone in it, then revelations will pertain to what people need to help

them on their way.

Presence

Presence is a nothing that is everything. It can be reached through letting go and

allowing, rather than by trying to be present. It is an attentive receptivity, a sober

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inebriation. I find that most people come into presence when they are invited into their

whole body; when people truly feel and breathe into their pelvic floor, a natural

grounding and widening of their field occurs, and when they feel enveloped and full, they

become present. As a leader, this requires that you have found how to create presence and

fullness within your own being, and from there you can invite presence in others. Foster

trust and deep embodiment, and people will awaken to presence.

One teaching direction is to walk people through exercises where they are

listening to one another. You can demonstrate what presence is not, for instance, by

showing what a distracted listener looks like: eyes flicking around or glazing over,

thoughts elsewhere; or conversely, showing someone who is over-attentive and invasive

with their gaze or their effort to look like a good listener. Presence is like witnessing, a

relaxed enjoyment of the process of listening and being.

Love

People need to feel respected and well-treated to truly enter into being present,

into bringing themselves whole-heartedly into the work of the circle. You invite the

presence of love into the circle by inviting people to notice the loveable aspects of

themselves and by bringing attention to the pleasure of treating each other well. This does

not need to be rushed or forced; I have been in circles where there was an over-bright

expectation that we all instantly loved each other, and it caused me to feel alienated,

because I did not feel connected in those moments. Had I been able to slowly unfold into

appreciation and genuine contact with the others, I would have come into an authentic
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place of love for my fellows, not because I was told to do so, but because that is who I

am.

As a leader, you set a loving tone by being in contact with your own love and

enjoyment of life and the exploration before you. This can be quiet and serious, or playful

and expressive, depending on your mood; if you are in your own loving nature, people

will know that, whatever your style. Let everyone find their own way into loving

presence by recognizing them as loving beings. You can also ask that the presence of

love be felt by everyone in the group, either as a silent prayer or aloud with the group; it

is a mysterious process that opens people to love, and you dont have to pretend to have

the formula; ask everyone to help with this.

Principles

Establish early on, through experiential exercises, the main principles which you

feel are necessary to create a good working space. Principles are like scaffolding, but in

action. You walk people through a practical way to embody the principle in relation to

each other. If you have a principle of attention to the center, you say so, and lead an

exercise in which people give their attention to the center, so they can feel it. If you have

a principle of witnessing, you have people witness each other in pairs. I find that the

Inside-Outside circle structure is a great place to make sure I have touched on all the

main principles. In my case I make sure to address Grounding, Breath, Spine,

Boundaries, Witnessing, Kindness, Listening to the Body, Care of the Circle.

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Rhythm

Rhythm, or periodicity, is happening at every level of the circle. You have

structural rhythms of beginning, middle and end; morning, afternoon and evening; units

of work in terms of hours or minutes. You have body rhythms of peoples functional

needs, and you have the organic tendency of a group to synchronize their heart, breath

and brain rhythms to differing degrees. You then have the influence of any music or

presentation you are giving. And, very importantly if you are using your voice to lead,

you have the cadence and sound of your own voice, and which terms you use with what

frequency. You also have the rhythm of call-and-response: what pattern is established

between leader presentation and group sharing, in groups or in discussion format? All of

these create rhythms, and the combined rhythms of the circle will affect the tone and

clarity of the energy.

An obvious way to invite a group rhythm is through music or movement, song or

dance. Use these at the level that you feel enjoyment in them. Leading song or dance

should be done from comfort and enthusiasm in your own body. If you need simpler

voice/movement exercises, go to voice/ movement events to learn from others. But breath

can also be used to synchronize the rhythms of a group, or simple walking. Even

conversation or talking shares will lead to rhythmic entrainment among people, simply

because this is what humans do.

Dont force others to follow your idea of rhythm; tune into the group and offer

exercises which seem to fit the tone or which lead to the transition that you want to make.
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For instance, in my teaching of all age groups, if my movement is synchronized to the

movement of the students, then their ability to take in my instruction is direct and clear,

whereas if I am out-of-synch with their movement or outside of their rhythm pattern, the

students have trouble taking in my words. The students can hear easily when I have

synchronized with their pulse pattern and type of movement.

Using Music

I have noticed over many years of playing music for people to move to and have

embodiment experiences in, that the rhythm and mass of the music is more important

than the words themselves (unless of course your curriculum is studying specific musical

lyrics!). Words, however gorgeous they are, require people to listen with a cognitive

aspect of their mind, a language function. Words which fill one person with ecstasy may

cause another to feel alienated. Use lyrics with awareness of the whole group. Pure

rhythm and what I am calling mass enough sound body, usually created by a blend of

different instruments or audio lines , to hold and enfold the body in a full, firm sound

which can carry the body in a tactile way are more conducive to deeply letting go and

dropping into an organic state. This is the basis for chanting repetitive phrases, both

verbal and musical to let the cognitive mind let go and the person to simply be inside

their experience.

Specifically, I have observed this carrying effect (or lack thereof) on peoples bodies

for many years. For women in particular, or perhaps I should say for entering the yin, or

feminine energy, the beat should be strong and consistent, without sharp edges, gradually
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increasing in frequency and intensity if an acceleration of energy is desired. A

preponderance of womens voices leads to the female, interior space. Sudden changes can

be distracting or even shocking to the internal attention. Men, or the creation of a yang,

male energy environment seem to require more volume, faster, harder beats and a little

more crashing around in terms of sudden changes.

Choose music with as much beauty as you can find. Beauty is a sense of everything

coming together in a way that creates ecstatic union, an understanding of deeper

relationships, and this will serve the cohesion and work of the circle. This quote about

beauty in music from Robert Jourdain, also describes the transcendent operation of the

circle:

Many people say that it is beauty alone that draws them to music. But great music
brings us even more. By providing the brain with an artificial environment, and
forcing it through that environment in controlled ways, music imparts the means of
experiencing relations far deeper than we encounter in our everyday lives. When
music is written with genius, every event is carefully selected to build the
substructure for exceptionally deep relations. No resource is wasted, no distractions
are allowed. In this perfect world, our brains are able to piece together larger
understandings than they can in the workaday external world, perceiving all-
encompassing relations that go much deeper than those we find in everyday
experience. Thus, however briefly, we attain a greater grasp of the world (or at least
a small part of it), as if rising from the ground to look down upon the confining
maze of ordinary existence.We respond not just to the beauty of the sustained
deep relations that are revealed, but also to the fact of our perceiving them. As our
brains are thrown into overdrive, we feel our very existence expand and realize that
we can be more than we normally are, and that the world is more than it seems.
That is cause enough for ecstasy2.

Time

I use the term organic time as differentiated from clock time. The term organic
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refers to an organism which has developed at a rate which suits its cellular nature, in

concert with all the elements of nature in which it grows. Organic time for humans is

intrinsic to the body; one must be able to feel ones passage through the moments and

hours, and trust the growth of ideas and expressions to emerge from beneath our

awareness into the daylight of the mind in a sturdy way.

In our organic state, time is cyclical instead of linear, because inside the sphere of

awareness we are inclusive of a complex system of life, and forward movement includes

a world of moving parts. We arrive at a place only when the whole organism arrives, all

the parts of our awareness gathered in one place. So, while we can definitely aim for a

point of arrival, we cannot force every living aspect of our beings to line up exactly on

that point with precision.

Clock time Gregorian time was imposed in order to put organic time into a

predictable structure, no matter what was unfolding in the natural world or in the body of

man. So, by its nature, clock time calls attention to limitation. This can be a useful tool,

just like the framing of a house; clock time is a structure which delineates boundaries and

contains experience. But because it has been used to hurry and intimidate us so routinely,

bodies intuitively cringe if time is perceived as dominant, and peoples attention can

become confused and agitated with feelings of being rushed. Your tone when steering a

group through clock time structure must be graceful, and acknowledge the interplay

between the adherence to time agreements and the impulse to let go into timeless

experience or process. Go for a feeling of all the time in the world, while choosing to take

the next step because it is interesting.

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Managing Time Structure

Make friends with time structure when you lead groups. First, the group needs to

trust you to run the time structure according to the stated agreements. If you are in a

situation for instance, a tribal environment where the agreement is that time will follow

the body or emotional process of the people, it is still important to state when transitions

will be made: when people finish speaking, when their bodies are exhausted, when they

need to eat, when the sun comes up. If this is a consensus process, how do the members

indicate that it is complete? If the leader is not clear about the structure (even if the

structure is to be unstructured or body-structured) then the judgment calls become

subjective and subject to endless discussion or criticism. There does have to be a deciding

line somewhere, or the group can lose energy and simply fade away from its original

purpose.

More commonly in Western culture, you have a set amount of clock time. Youve

stated that the event schedule is 6-9 pm Friday evening, 9-6 Saturday and Sunday. People

have set aside that time and made their plans accordingly. If you fail to keep time

agreements, the group trust and attention may fracture. Sometimes people depart,

physically or energetically. It is equally important to impress upon participants their

responsibility to keep time agreements around start times or returns from meals or breaks.

If you wait 10-15 minutes for everyone to get in the door, and then 10 minutes for

everyone to get settled, youve lost half an hour out of a three- hour session.
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Structured time can be your friend in the circle of individual shares. Some folks

are in the habit of rambling, or describing, rather than communicating their essential

experience, especially if it involves fears or conflicts. Clock time provides containment,

an impetus to get to the point. The simplest structure is to have speaking shares be two

minutes long, with a definite rattle or shaker signaling that time is up. This also puts a

structure of equality in place so that people dont need to fight for space and can proceed

with the content of their communication.

Time as a Fluid Medium

Time is an interesting element in the circle because it contracts and expands

depending on the contraction and expansion of the group body. As the circle sets up, the

scalar wave in the center exerts more influence, and time becomes more fluid. The

benefit of this is that people will be able to clear the past more efficiently, and they will

be able to access information from other times and places.

The challenge to you as a leader is that it can become increasingly difficult to

keep track of clock time. I have frequently had moments where, try as I might, I cannot

comprehend the scratchings on the clock face; we have departed the realm where clock

time has meaning. However, as a leader I have agreed to be the bridge between timeless

realms and the ordinary clock time world. So I write down on paper, as any substantial

ritual or structure begins, the start time and, from that, the exact clock times when I need

to give a signal or instruction (halfway through - 10:45, ten minutes to go - 11:05, ending

11:15). As I go through the structure I can follow the larger energy thats moving and

shifting and evolving and I can look back at the paper, match it to the clock, and do what
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I said Id do.

Conversely there will be situations where time seems to drag and nothing is

happening. The tendency is to want to get busy and make something happen. But it is

more interesting to me to name this energy phenomenon (nothing happening, which a

lot of people have anxiety about) to the group and bring breath and attention

attendance- to it. There is a lot going on in the nothing.

It may also signal a contraction or rest after a big movement in the group body.

Contractions closing after opening are normal and necessary, and having a few

exercises in your repertoire which celebrate and explore contraction will serve you well.

Also, see State Changes, Page __.

Embodiment

It isnt the action of higher forces, but rather a descent into the body, into cellular

awareness, where the real changes will take place in matter, making an entirely new

creation. The Mother, Aurobindo Ashram, India

Given that my whole career has been about embodiment, this should be a long

section, but great books have been written on this subject, some in my bibliography. For

the purpose of this circle book, I will say that, in order to have a vital circle, you must

regularly and joyfully invite the full physical presence of each persons body as a starting

place for wisdom. However you think about the whole cosmic creation, it is through our

bodies that we intersect and comprehend what we can of the greater mysteries which
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surround and interpenetrate our daily world, and it is the true care of our bodies which

shapes our earthly existence.

Unfortunately, due to the relentless body shame perpetrated by our culture, people

can be very disconnected from their bodies, and this shared dilemma should be treated

directly and with compassion. Most people are very vulnerable as to how their bodies are

seen and judged (even, and maybe especially the ones who look good). Focus mainly

on re-membering physicality: grounding, breath and spine, sensations, bones, muscles,

fluid joints the internal, felt experience, not the external looks. In an exercise on seeing

each other, for instance, the emphasis is not on what you can see, which activates the

critical eye, but on how you are seeing: the depth of relaxation and openness in the body

of the beholder. Only with a grounded, soft body can you truly see and appreciate others

as they are. I have an exercise which I call soft eyes, which leads to the relaxation of

the backs of the eyeballs and all the muscles which flow from that surface down into the

ground. Soft eyes can see more than eyes which are looking hard.

Use movement and body-awareness exercises as much as possible; conduct these

exercises with a purpose of self-awareness, of increasing the practice of listening to the

body as a source of revelation. Any time spent in deepening embodiment will contribute

to the overall intelligence of the group. Real embodiment takes time, so build in time in

your curriculum for the language of the body to unfold. And weave in constant reminders

of embodiment, to help people keep the process alive continuously. I tell my groups in

advance that they will hear me remind them to breathe throughout the course, and I do so

freely, especially anytime there is a hesitation or blank space in the group energy.
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Ongoing training in embodiment and movement techniques will give you new ideas for

your repertoire.

Just as you will activate horizontal, vertical and saggital energy in the sphere of the

circle body, you want to regularly invite embodied awareness on each of these planes in

each person. Help people re-member their whole body, their relation of their body to the

earth as their primary relationship throughout life; help them re-member that the reason

to practice grounding, breath and the wave motion of the spine is to contact the fluid core

of their being, the constant wave motion that carries them at all times.

Bring in some attention to the base of the torso, whether you call it the root of the

body or the pelvic floor; depending on the context and language you are working in, you

can mention the genitals as a well of creativity and vulnerability. I suggest that the

genitals be included for the reason that they are so strenuously and unnaturally avoided in

our cultural dialogue, and our bodies feel that active omission, and a deep core tension

results. Obviously, if this is too uncomfortable for you or for the group, let it go, but find

a way to include every part of the body that you can.

Large, fast, highly structured or extended moves will engage the large muscle

groups, and produce a yang, forceful energy. Slow, small, subtle moves with a random

fluid quality will engage the smaller muscle networks closer in to the spine and the pelvic

root, and will access the yin or spacious channels. Low amplitude energy fields have been

recorded with light continuous movement in the arms while holding steady in the legs

and torso, and sharp, strong amplitude fields result from war dances with strong,

muscular activity3. Some people will feel far more comfortable in one mode than the
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other, so when you lead people into a particular field of energy, be prepared to help those

who experience resistance. Make transitions gradual, emphasize the diversity of ways,

and encourage each person to do the exercise in their own way. If people run into

difficulties, assure them that their experience is normal (if necessary, expand your own

definition of normal). If you have specific suggestions that might make it easier for them,

make those suggestions, but dont rush to correct or help then get it right, as this will

only feed anxiety and therefore resistance (tension) patterns.

Touch

Touch is always occurring on a continuum; seeing and hearing, speaking to each

other these are all forms of touch. We can touch one another with our presence, if we

simply become aware of it. Physical touch is an arena in which I feel that our culture

needs a complete reeducation. People are starving for consistent, affectionate, safe touch,

and we are not teaching a useful skill set around managing all the nuances and nurturant

potential, as well as the risks of physical touch. We are losing our skills of choice,

tolerance and navigation simply because we are not habituated to the land of touch. For

many it has become unfamiliar and charged, full of unusual meaning, potential danger

and unrealistic fulfillment, instead of a steady deepening into contact, with

communication and choices at every instance.

This is a big subject, with a huge variety of associations for everyone. In leading

any kind of touch exercises, the following guidelines apply:

-Be direct that you are teaching a touch exercise.

- Instruct that people are always at choice to do or not do the process.

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-Build in No. Demonstrate or Lead it in an exercise.

-Less is More. People can learn huge amounts from very simple touch coupled

with awareness of all its effects on their bodies.

- Be Kind. We are all learning about how to touch well.

Desire

Desire as an organizing force is how we all got here in the first place. The expression

of longing for life through sex brought our bodies into being, so desires physicalization

is a primary vibration in our cellular template. If we deny or refuse to exercise our

experience of desire, we are refusing to fully understand our wiring as human beings.

If people could work more freely with their desires, they would develop a nuanced

repertoire of sensation and choice within their own bodies as well as the ability to

recognize desire in its pure undifferentiated form; like stem cells, which can become any

tissue, desire is a core substance which can grow into any number of forms, depending on

how it is grounded and directed into expression. Getting to know your desires without

judgment, and finding safe ways to enact feedback loops where you feel, express and

fulfill, or at least gain familiarity with your desires, will make you more adept at

choosing which desires to act upon. It will also give the signal to your being to go ahead

and have desire, to play with it, to master the skills of riding desire and enjoying its

presence, rather than cancelling your sensations due to fear that desire will consume you

or damage you. Its untethered expression can damage you, but only when a lack of skills
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causes a failure to make integrated choices when desire (which is simply an increased

charge in the body) is present. You want your system to handle large surges of charge of

any kind of emotion or desire by allowing the surge to flow gracefully through a

grounded net or web of circuitry.

Problems come when the charge surges through and you only have a few circuits

available to handle the current. Those circuits congest, or overload, and then certain

organ or tissue systems or energy centers, driven by too much charge, compel you to act

or to inhibit, and your ability to decide on fully humane action becomes limited. If you

are circulating energy in all systems, then you can maintain more self-awareness and

hence more choice when a large surge comes through.

Desire anchors the intention, makes it personal and specific to the present time of

your life, brings it into the now, into the cellular level of the appetite for this world and

how you want to participate in it.

Bringing consciousness to the cellular level is what opens the portal to universal

information. The universal fields can gain access to the cellular fields and they can feed

each other, strengthen each other. Maureen St.Germain, a teacher of the Flower of Life

work, when asked the purpose of the whole interrelationship between humans and other

beings, thought for a moment, and said To expand the database1. My image is of an

enormous plant, consciousness growing in the soil of experience. The plant needs to have

molecules of experience fed to it through the tiny root hairs which are each individuals

1
Saint Germain, personal comment to author, 2006.
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myriad life experiences, sensate life. This enormous input of experience is feeding the

plant, which takes in the nutrients as well as the light of the cosmos for its photosynthesis

process. It then pushes out a few more root hairs, seeking more experience. We need the

plant to keep feeding our growth and pushing us further. The plant needs us for every

miniscule nutrient which fills it with a way to evolve.

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BUILDING THE CIRCLE

The Perimeter

As you physically gather the circle into your beginning position, sitting or

standing, be aware that you are setting the template for the container. Choose your

position in the circle intentionally; put yourself wherever in the room you feel most

grounded and can move most easily with any tools. This may be near your chair, music

table or presentation materials. Decide ahead of time what proximity you want to your

co-facilitator if you have one, and to your staff. For instance, I generally like to be near

my stuff, with my co-facilitator next to me (so that we present as a unit and can easily

confer), and the assistants positioned evenly through the circle to create a framework of

grounding. There may be times when you decide to stand in different places in the circle

to get a feel for what is happening there.

Notice if you have a sided-ness to your awareness. For example, my peripheral

vision appears to be best on my left side, so I will see and be aware of the left half of the

circle easily, while the right half can seem more vague to me; I consciously turn my head

and open my vision to the people on my right more often in order to compensate.

Opening remarks

In the first minutes, you are really just talking to gather in the group attention.

Everyones thoughts are still swirling and adjusting to the many factors in the room. This

is a good time to give any historical background, anecdotal remarks about getting to the

event, acknowledgements of other peoples support and influence. It is also great to

identify what you are doing talking as the energy is gathering because it helps people
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become aware of something going on below their minds, and it lets them off the hook

from trying to pay close, detailed attention to what is being said. Noticing the space or the

land is a way to emphasize attention to the present. Save necessary logistical

communications for later, when people can hear you.

Introductions

Simple introductions help people bring themselves into present time in a new

group, so make the introductions easy and brief. Give specific instructions about what

you are asking them to say. For example, their name, where they are from and one third

thing. (Keep it to three, to avoid confusion). We often ask for peoples parents names, to

acknowledge ancestors. If you want a little sillier energy, ask people to say their favorite

flavor of ice cream. Be specific about brevity if you want the shares to be brief, using a

chime if necessary to signal the stated amount of time (1 or 2 minutes) but stay light.

Often on initial introductions people will be very brief, but if someone is going

over time, be cheerfully firm about the time limits; it is best to be clear from the

beginning that you are on the job of managing the circle well. People need to feel that

they can trust you and relax into the learning they came to do.

Prayers or invocations

This can be a long or short element, depending on your tradition, and in some

traditions this element would come first. I do the opening remarks and introductions first

because I want to emphasize each person bringing themselves into presence as essential

to the organic formation of the circle body. The importance of invoking, or giving voice
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to, specific assistance for the group, wherever that comes from, is that it grounds the

group in a shared context and begins to build the container. It also can hearten a group to

connect with a sense of support from surrounding energies. This can be visualized as a

sphere of allies who enfold this particular circle of people. All can contribute by

imagining or speaking aloud their allies, qualities, and blessings as a gift to the work of

the circle. I have everyone speak simultaneously, to embody our equality in creating the

circle (as opposed to a powerful leader saying prayers for the whole); I like the feeling of

the circle body arising from all of us at once. It also takes less time than everyone taking

a turn!

The four shape, whether as a cross, a square, the four directions, or the four

guardians, is so prevalent in nearly every tradition I have seen, that it seems an essential

shape to invoke in the foundation of the group4. The circle is protected and stabilized by

the square. The four directions are symbolized by a cross shape, an axis which aligns the

center of the circle with the electromagnetic field of the earth, and with the Pole Star in

the heavens, thereby calling on the energy available there5. I think of this cross as a three-

dimensional one: vertical, horizontal, and saggital planes with a common center, the three

primary axes of a sphere. In the simplest, body-based form this could look like reaching

down to the earth, up to the sky, and out to all beings in and around the circle.
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Fig. 25. Reaching into the planes of the body.

Confidentiality

An agreement to confidentiality is particularly important in order to surrender the

egotistical framework and immerse in the non-ordinary potential of the circle energy. The

idea that ones expressions exist in the present only and wont be recorded or judged by

others in ordinary social terms relieves us of the critical eye that hinders real eureka

moments.

I explain confidentiality as two-fold; confidentiality outside and inside the circle.

Outside confidentiality means that you simply do not speak about any person or work

other than your own to anyone once you leave the circle and return to your everyday life.

No details of any kind. As a facilitator, I make the exception that I give express

permission for people to share anything I have said as a leader that may help them

integrate, understand or share their experience with others. Whether you permit that is up

to you.
Inside confidentiality means that during break or meal times people must ask

permission of another to even refer to work which that person did inside the circle. If

someone has let themself surrender to a non-ordinary space and has discovered a new

aspect of themselves, or surprised themselves with the intensity of their feelings, they

may need privacy or time to integrate, and it can be invasive to have another person

suddenly remark on a very internal experience.

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I like to remind people of the energetic benefit which they receive by leaving

other peoples business alone. I have found that the devoted practice of confidentiality

over time conserves resources for personal transformation; I keep my energy in the circle

and in my own body, where it can feed my core process of vitality and renewal.

Boundaries

People have a huge range of experiences and interpretations of this word.

Successful boundaries are living, in-the-moment communications which arise from an

internal authority. What is most important is to name principles of respect and

communication between people as an expectation in the group. There may be specific

behaviors which you can suggest or request that people refrain from, (eg. partaking of

alcohol or drugs during a workshop), but be aware that if you make something a hard and

fast rule, then you need to be prepared to follow through with consequences if the rule is

broken. Establish guidelines for personal boundaries, respectful practices to insure that

each person has a way to communicate about levels of contact which work for them.

When you move into experiential structures, include some practice exercises for

saying No and Yes in different ways, so that people have been through the process

together and it is alive in the circle.

There may be boundaries in the space, areas where people may not go. Or there

may be boundaries to the work in progress. For instance, I tell people early on that their

emotional expression is absolutely welcome in the space, and there are boundaries: No

damage to others or to the space (this includes hurling intense expressions at other people

they must pick out pillows or points on the wall for this); and, if sound levels begin to
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dominate the space, I may ask someone to scream into a pillow, for instance, or go

outside with an assistant and pound the earth.

Share your Information and State your Expectations

Give people the planned schedule, including when meals and breaks will occur.

Be clear as to attendance expectations do you want people present for every part of the

schedule - are there optional structures or time periods? Give your reasons for why their

attendance is important for the whole event. In ritual or deep process circles, for instance,

the presence or absence of each individual can be acutely felt and must be acknowledged

as having weight and impact on the group.

Future pace and give options for those moments when a person may feel they

have to leave the circle. Let them know this is a normal part of the process, and that if

that feeling presses on them, they have choices; for example, they can request support

from staff or others, they can utilize a centering space if you have one, to take a break yet

still be part of the circle. If you build in the solo centering and support option as part of

the circle process, it will create more fluidity around your requests for full presence. This

centering space is simply a pad with cozy pillows along one wall of the room (I

recommend a wall rather than a corner for open flow of energy). It can be used solely for

centering time, as a separate way to still be part of the circle and the work in the room. Be

clear that it is not a space for socializing, and that it should be preserved as a sanctuary.

Let people know that staff will provide contact and support for anyone who needs it in

the centering space; participants should not get pulled out of the circle if a friend is in

distress.
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Logistics of the facility, bathrooms, supply tables, etc.

This is best done in smaller bits, at the beginning of each day or section,

according to what people need to know for that evening, or morning or afternoon. Too

many logistics all at once, and no one will remember what was said. You will need to

plan time at regular intervals to state and restate logistical matters.

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The Sphere

Establish the Axes: Vertical, Horizontal, Saggital. Three dimensions must be

established in the body and in the circle before any other dimensions can be experienced.

In the Body

Fig. 26. The sphere will be as large as the axes you establish.

To establish the vertical axis in the body, use exercises which move energy into

the earth or from the earth into the body, and also between the sky and the body. Invite a

full vertical flow of energy through the body, either upward or down. One of the simplest

ways to do this is to work in a sequence of grounding, breath, and spine. Wave motion

which extends from the feet through the spine and into expansion and awareness of the

lungs will set up a wave motion in the cerebrospinal fluid which will help people to

become present and attentive6.

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Horizontality is about opening the arms, reaching out to be in relationship with

others. At first, I suggest working without touching others, so that people can feel their

own reaching out as a full process in their own body before it becomes about physical

contact with others. Guide people to source this extension in their core body, so that the

reaching out begins deep in their torso, from approximately two inches below their navel

(the qi center, and the power center in Pilates) and flows through all core muscles as it

moves out along their arms. You can experiment with reaching out from the heart, or

from the back plane, or from the soles of the feet.

The Saggital, or front-to-back dimension is best called in by people feeling the

front plane and back plane of their body, through touch or movement. Especially remind

people of their back planes, as culturally we are trained to be frontally-fixated. A very

simple way to invite the back plane and at the same time create easy connection is to

have people stand back-to-back and breathe and relax, supporting each other, or backing

each other up in relaxing and grounding.

The Saggital plane (at least in the Western culture) relates to the past behind us

and the future ahead, so you can invite people to connect to these time dimensions

through their front-back bodies. In all of these planes, emphasize full flow through all

channels or circuits in the body.

In The Circle Body

The size and strength of the circle sphere is determined by the length and
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completeness of each axis line. For example, in protein formation, there is an eight-

pointed star, each point of which denotes one essential amino acid. If one of the amino

acids - one point on the star - is incomplete, then the rest of the star points will extend

only to the same degree as the incomplete one, and the protein cannot fully form.

Fig. 27. The missing extension of the Lysine causes the whole protein to be smaller

(Lappe 1991 175).

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Fig. 28. This circle body will grow larger if you strengthen its vertical axis.

The vertical axis (V) in the circle body is first established by bringing direct

attention to the line from the center of the earth to high above our vision, up to the stars.

You can talk about this polar alignment in any way which suits your tradition, but it is

important to physically express it, through moving the eyes or in greater body movement,

so that the individuals are physically resonating with the vertical center of the circle. As

the central column builds up over time, you will find ways to bring attention to it

repeatedly.

Literally reaching out the arms and touching others in the circle, by holding

hands, touching fingers, dancing together, will establish horizontality (H), and any

sharing exercise in duos or small groups will build this horizontal flow. Start this type of

contact gently and move between internal(vertical) and relational (horizontal) exercises to

give people a chance to feel grounded (vertical), while making contact (horizontal) with

others. You can increase the depth of sharing as long as grounding has been established.

Dances, or any kind of group movement, are very efficient and satisfying means of

establishing all planes. Make sure they contain movements which address the center.

In the circle, you can bring attention to the saggital (S) plane by describing the

vector line which extends from the center of the circle out through each person and into

the world(s) behind them. They also bring into the circle everything behind them, their

past, their support, their unseen selves. Imagine a giant wheel, or web, which extends

from the center, out through each person into the world beyond, and then flows back into

the center. Or simply step into the center, and back out, as a group.

If you promote too much contact (H) without grounding (V), you will get a
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container which has no grounding strength, and you will lose some peoples genuine

presence. They may go for quite some time, cooperating in the exercises, but the feeling

will get hollow and forced and eventually someone will leave or act out. I have been in

circles where we were expected to make intimate contact almost immediately with people

we had just met, and the circle, though we attempted to follow instructions, never

actually gathered into one body, because we were not given a chance to take grounded

steps into contact.

Also, you need to balance H and V with the Saggital, by bringing attention

regularly to the center and back to the perimeter, the pulse in and out. This is most simply

done by naming the circle as a body with a center, a body which needs attention. Have

people notice whether they are standing in an actual geometric circle where they can see

everyone equally, and adjust if they cannot. Have people speak or direct attention to the

center as a living phenomenon. Without the saggital web, the process will take place on

the perimeter, and the energy food generated by the work that goes on will not be

shared by the whole circle, and therefore will not be fully realized.
 The Torus

Subtly, the torus is automatically activating as people stand in awareness of each

other in the opening circle. During any opening remarks, introductions and invocations,

the lines of attention are going out across the circle in their natural lemniscate loops.

People are noticing each other, and are beginning to resonate with charge in relation to

each other. To really get a clear torus going, you can be direct about this, asking people to

take note of their line of contact with each other individual in the circle. You want the

heart rhythm of the circle, the electromagnetic field of the heart of the circle to be strong,

and to do this you need everyones heart to link up, to amplify the individual

cardioelectrical fields into one for the body of the circle. Some of this is happening

automatically, but it is wise to call it in directly for the benefit of the circle body and to be

clear about each persons importance to the endeavor.

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It is not necessary and it is counterproductive - to force sentiment (how loving and

connected we all should feel) as a way of getting to the heart energy. Simply ask

everyone to imagine what they need in the way of allies, blessings, qualities in order to

feel present and safe in the circle, and then ask everyone to simultaneously speak those

qualities, allies or blessings that they can bring as a gift to the health of the circle. When

people recall feelings and images of being loved, they will activate authentic heart

energy. If everyone speaks simultaneously, then they have both the privacy of a wave of

group sound and the sense of being heard by human ears; they direct this connectedness

to the center of the circle. This creates a strong torus energy for the body of the circle and

can of course be repeated easily at any point; the invitations you make are formed to help

people remember themselves as loved and appreciated.

The continued strength of the torus depends on people getting to interact with each

other. With every new exercise mix people up into new combinations, so that they get a

chance to connect with everyone, otherwise people will fall into comfort ruts of

associating only with those they are familiar with. Circle strength and vibrancy depends

on connections in every possible combination, so that when people are all standing in the

big circle, there will be energized filaments holding the whole web in place. Then when

the energy is directed toward the center of the circle, it can run clean.

This does not mean that everyone has to feel good about every other individual,

only that some knowledge, respect and good will be established, even if the personal

charge seems negative. Say this, in order to let them know its valid and useful to let
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energy be present that may have an uncomfortable or negative charge. It can all be

converted to clean energy if we let it flow.

Structures

Structures (exercises) are created to give people an experience. Each structure is its

own little environment within the larger environment of the circle. Ideally, structures are

created from your own experience in your own body: how would you learn this principle

or material with ease? This self-inquiry should inform the design of your structures. You

may draw from other leaders structures which you have experienced, adding adaptations

which would make it easier for you to be in the exercise, or you may invent something

completely new from a need within yourself. I always attribute ideas and structures which

I get from others; attribution brings in the honor I feel toward other teachers, and creates

a circle of peer support around me which helps me relax away from trying to feel smarter

than I am!

Pay attention if you get a vague feeling that something is missing in the work or in

the circle. If you keep getting this feeling, what do you need to create to respond to that

call? How do you express the process of inquiry which you are in, in the form of a

structure which others can follow?

Take Time to Set Up the Structure

A clear set-up will save time and prevent confusion/distraction during the
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structure itself. In every structure that you lead (in other words, for any segment that you

are giving directions about), know the following:

Purpose

Principles

Transition points

Literal instructions for what they should do in the exercise

Possible difficulties people may face/solutions

Time frame

Ending

Witnessing

I learned about witnessing at The Institute for Transformational Movement in

Seattle in 1989, and it has been an essential element of my private practice and of every

group I have led since then. Witnessing is the capacity to see the truth in others without

judgment, and it is a skill that needs constant practice. It is a skill you can call on any

time you are directing people to be present to one another, as it is so easy to interfere with

anothers full expression because of our own discomfort. For instance, for some people,

to see another person in their erotic energy equals an invitation to get physically

involved, when it may be nothing of the kind. For some, it is so difficult to simply be

present to the full expression of sorrow, that they cannot help but rush in to fix it, i.e. stop

it. The sorrowing person may have finally been ready to lay down their sorrow and let it

flow out of their bodies, and the helpful behavior may have stolen a golden opportunity

for release.
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To convey witnessing in an embodied way, I suggest imagining that you are a

huge tree in an ancient forest. You have been growing there, rooted in the earth, for over

600 years. At some point, a human comes into the clearing at your feet and throws

themselves on the ground, raging, crying, laughing, dancing. You are with them, you feel

the sound vibrations of their expression, you witness and even feel tree-empathy for their

emotion, and you remain alive to your whole ancient forest life at the same time. When

they are done, they leave, and you remain in your clearing, which returns to its forest self.

You are fully alive and resonant with them without getting pulled into their experience.

Between

We are each moving in a sphere of energy, our own kinesphere. As we interact

with others, this Between space, where the spheres overlap to varying degrees, is

constantly being activated; the vesica portal is constantly being formed, inviting creation,

generating energy.7 We have a choice as to what purpose we direct this energy.

On a personal level, we get a sense of another person just by being near them. We

are receiving information undoubtedly far more than we can be aware of about who

this person is and how we react to them. This is rightly called chemistry, because it is

in fact an interaction of charged particles, which in their relatedness impart information

from body to body, being to being. We have the tendency to constantly interpret this in

personal ways, but at one level it is pure energy, and is available as an energizing force

for the circle. If people can learn to notice the charge between them positive or negative

- as pure energy, and contribute it willingly to the purpose of strengthening the circle,

then the collective environment of the sphere is enriched, and more free energy is
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available for intentional use.

As a leader, you are responsible for bringing attention to all the phases of this

technology. The phases I suggest are:

- Acknowledge Relationship as an ever-present energy source. It is often

unconsciously assumed, and therefore ignored.

- Perceive the Chemistry. Let thoughts and images run without speaking. Notice the

positive or negative charge you feel with an individual.

- Feel the Energetics. Simply feel the energy charge running in your body.

- Give Energy to the Center. Let the circle purify the charge.

Creating Structures in Response to the Group Process

Truth Telegrams

This was invented on the spot because we had a man in the group who could not

align with the respectful attitude of the work; he was sexually hitting on the women and

making them very uncomfortable. Several women came to us the leaders and staff - to

report this persons unacceptable behavior. We had to address the problem, but we

wanted the communication to be as true and direct as possible, not mediated through us

as authority figures. We also couldnt be clear as to exactly what he was doing, since

he wasnt doing it to us. We knew we had many strong women who could speak clearly

and effectively. So we made the Truth Telegram structure; an inside circle of the men,
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with the women in the outside circle (so women wouldnt feel hemmed in and less

powerful in their speaking). Each person would get 20 seconds with the person standing

before them, to say what truth they needed them to know NOW 20 seconds for the

telegram to travel the other direction, and then they would each move one to the left, into

a new pair, and the truth telegram would shoot back and forth, 20 seconds each way. We

set this up clearly ahead of time, so everyone understood the format, and we told people

they had to say their truth without explanation or equivocation; there would be no time

for embellishment. We kept strict time, signaling the 20 second switches and the move to

the left in no-nonsense, urgent way. The whole group structure was complete in 20

minutes, including set-up. In this process, the problem man heard from five or six

women, rapid-fire, that his behavior was unacceptable (actually, that is my assumption, I

did not hear what they said!). Whatever they said got his attention in a way that our

authority intervention would not have done. He stopped the offensive behavior and

took in the feedback. He reported several weeks after the workshop that he felt he got

caned by the women and that it changed him in a positive way. He was treating his wife

of many years with new respect and kindness, and he was handing down more humane

decisions from the bench where he served as a federal judge. This was one of the most

interesting moments in my years of teaching, and I thank him for showing up to learn. I

was grateful that using the circle structure could take us all out of our ideas of right and

wrong and into a compassionate solution.

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Queen of Destiny and Queen of Control

Each time it would come time to choose partners for a long, intimate structure, I

noticed that a very rigid field of energy would arise, containing a schoolyard level of

fierce anxiety and competition for power. (Some people express this quietly, through

resentful compliance or confused immobility, but it is no less intense a field) First, it is

important to acknowledge that its a vulnerable place, this choosing of people, and we all

have associations with being chosen or being patently unchosen.

A few remarks which I have found helpful in setup of the choosing structure: the

course of choosing often does not run the way we think it will; when I have put great

effort into getting things set up right I have often been disappointed in the results, while

many of my most powerful healing experiences have been with people I was sure I could

not work with. I invite everyone to let go of their mind and breathe into their bodies and

their intention for their work. If there are couples who have prearranged their placement I

put them at the very front, to take them and their partners out of the pool of choices.

I first put attention on the last place in line, which I call the Queen of Destiny

position. I start here because once this position is filled, then the tension will ease a bit

since it becomes known who will go last. The Queen of Destiny is a powerful position

because she or he is letting go of control of choice. She is accepting whatever chance

brings her to work with. In this way she is exerting her faith and confidence in herself

that she can make a meaningful experience out of any raw material which comes her way.

I name all this and honor the power of the position. There is at least one and often more
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people who want that position. Shifting the attention to the pleasures of letting go is a

nice way to start the exercise.

Then I go affectionately to the first position in line, the Queen of Control. I say there

are many times when we need to have maximum choice in our lives, and that the Control

Queen gets to have her need met, with all respect and love. I do remind them that the

Queen of Control, being first to choose, can be harder than one thinks, as the choice is

entirely up to you. Once the first in line is settled, I then ask the others to arrange

themselves in the middle positions.

Kaleidoscope

This structure was also created to respond to the anxiety people feel about choosing

others for their personal rituals. This is their big chance to do a ritual for which they have

hope and fear, and they want to choose the right people. But the mind gets very active

about what is right. Some people need others to look a certain way, have certain skills,

or not be certain ways. Sometimes people become fixed on making sure someone is not

in their group, due to their aversion to that person for whatever reason. There is an

anxiety for some that they may miss the boat or fail to get what they need if they dont

get it right. This choosing process can bring up very intensified energy, filled with

anxiety and mental stratagems and a kind of brutality of will that comes from fear.

The kaleidoscope structure was designed to bring some of that to the surface before

any actual choosing took place, for a ritual which would require that people work in four-
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person groups. For the kaleidoscope, we asked people to arrange themselves in four

concentric circles, called A,B,C, and D, with spokes of four persons each.

The rhythm we established was that, at the chime, everyone would breathe, and the

AB side of each spoke folded out to meet the CD side face to face. We then guided this

foursome for several minutes to breathe and look at each other and let their imagination

consider all the possibilities of what could emerge to work with in this group. Breathe,

chime, AB spoke folds back in to the four concentric circles. Circle B rotates left, circle

D rotates right. Again, chime, breathe, AB side of spoke folds out to meet CD face to

face, etc. After each rotation of the concentric circles, a new combination of ABCD will

result. Each person, with their anxieties and fantasies about their ritual, can contemplate

all the possibilities introduced by the new combinations. Hopefully, they begin to realize

that there are many opportunities which interest them, more than if they solely follow

their minds picture of what they want.

As we went through many combinations in this way, the energy of the room settled

and became grounded and more open-hearted, as people began to realize that they could

work well with any combination in the room. As the energy really settled in and breath

became easier, we (leaders) agreed with each other on the moment when the groups fell

into place, and announced that these were the ritual groups. Everyone seemed satisfied,

not because they got their perfect group or avoided their worst people, but because they

became relaxed and curious about a broader range of possibilities.

 THE CENTER (COLUMN)

Physically Marking the Center

It is helpful to designate the center in some visible way, but you want this central

circle to be mobile and flexible if you need room to move and work in the center. In other

words, an elaborate altar at the center of the circle can work if you either want to use it

for focusing consecration or themes, or if all the personal work will take place on or

around the altar. Just remember that you are committing to a fixed or mobile energy at

the center of the group. Because my groups work with ritual and expressive embodiment,

I prefer simple and literal demarcations of the center: fabric, stones, a string or scattering

of flower petals arranged in a circle. It is helpful to have a piece of fabric with a good-

sized circle shape on it stretched overhead on the ceiling to mark the top of the column

which forms the center.

My favorite method of marking the center so far was created when each member

of the circle walked the land as a beginning ritual, and brought a stone into the meeting

140
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space. We then placed the stones into a circle below the ceiling circle. Throughout the

retreat, sitting, standing, dancing, we directed attention and energy to the circle of stones.

If we broke into smaller groups for certain rituals or exercises, we set up the small groups

with orientation to the center described by the stones, so that Streaming or Pulsing (see

below)from the whole group could be called at any point by the leader. When we did a

vigorous Sufi dance around the stones, to my vision the central column became

undulating and thick, like the body of a serpent, one segment of which I could see

penetrating this earth plane, while its head and tail were moving above and below my

awareness.

As the work progressed, we could widen out the circle of stones to allow room for

people to go in and do their work during certain rituals. Like an inhalation and

exhalation, we could bring the stones back in when the ritual was complete. During our

last round of work, we dilated the center by moving the stones out into a huge circle

encompassing us all for the duration of a long ritual composed of stanzas of personal

work. Our completion ritual at the end of the week then included each person returning a

stone to the land.

Streaming

The most practical exercise for building the center once you have established it, is

to simply send energy in and out of the center. Establish this practice early on in the

group. Have people practice streaming their energy into the center for a few seconds. Just

the instruction is enough; let people find their own way of aligning with the idea of

streaming. Remind them that they can stream energy from any position or state of mind.
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Practice streaming energy out of the circle and ask people to notice the difference in how

that feels compared with streaming in.

I use Streaming In to strengthen the center of the circle body, and Streaming Out

if people need a boost for their personal work this strengthens the perimeter of the

circle body. You can also experiment with Streaming Out as a way to interpenetrate other

dimensions with the pulse of the circle. Once you have introduced this practice, use it

with a regular rhythm, so that it becomes an easy second nature practice for the group.

Then you need only call Stream In or Stream Out when you want to direct

strengthening energy to the body of the circle.

Pulsing

This is like a concentrated version of Stream In and Stream Out together, a quick

Pulse to the center. This command, as with Stream In and Stream Out, can be given by

someone who is working in the center who wants a surge of energy to boost their process.

It can also be called by the leader if this is an agreement. The leader can follow their

instinct and observational powers as to when more energy or more group attention should

be focused into or out of the center work.

Working in Concentric Layers around the Center

As a leader, you can invite group attention to different levels of work depending

on how directly you concentrate energy into the center. In a business meeting with

agenda items and task delegation, the center functions like a group intellect, and is

formed by mindful attention to a unified purpose, along with clear inclusion of all
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members. Simple focusing techniques such as a moment of silence, a breath together, a

dedication or statement of purpose for the meeting, will re-mind people of the group

conscience and their relation to it.

In groups where the stated purpose is one of personal healing or learning more

about interior processes, the center functions like the heart of the group body, a unifying

point of attention and support. I dont give a lot of direct attention to the center, but I

name the well-spring of its energy as a resource for all. I focus on engaging people in the

content of the material, being responsible in their treatment of each other, and on tending

the perimeter integrity of the circle; the work tends to become deeply personal and

interpersonal, with an abundance of emotional experiences and expression. The general

tone of these groups has been one of moving in a heart space sometimes cozy,

sometimes requiring great courage - and opening to kindness and celebration of one

another. Participants report back stories of powerful personal transformations on the

emotional, psychic and sometimes chemical levels.2

If I want a group to tap into the full multidimensional reality for visionary

purposes which I currently define as accessing information from spirit or non-human

realms, I have methodically focused the groups attention on concentrating energy at the

center, and understanding the center as a portal to other realms. In these groups,

emotional expression seems to be embedded in a transpersonal field; deep emotion and

2
One woman, who had struggled with health problems related to low testosterone, reported that
her tested levels of testosterone went up to desirable levels after the workshop and stayed there. Two
chronic pain sufferers, one with rheumatoid arthritis and one with fibromyalgia, reported marked relief of
pain and increased mobility during and after the workshops. These relief effects wore off in the two weeks
following the events.
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personal expression take place, but blend more softly into the rarefied energy that begins

to permeate the circle.

In these center-focused groups, it is palpable to many of us that the energy of the

entire group not only accelerates but clarifies, like the clearer air at altitude. People hear

buzzing sounds and report visions which elucidate aspects of their lives. Some feel the

energy of the circle vehicle intensify and accelerate beyond the physical space we

occupy, as we continue to stream energy in and out of the center. The center becomes a

space of heightened energy which people use for concentrated meditation, expression, or

vision states. The enjoyment of each other during breaks and afterwards is quiet and

profound, with spontaneous dance and storytelling and goofiness filling the space with

joy. For months after these circles people have reported that they feel clearer and lighter,

closer to their sense of themselves and to their vision in the world.

Using the Center for Personal Work

Once the circle is activated and the center is strong, it can de dedicated and used

for express purposes (pun intended the center is now a concentrated wave energy which

accelerates process of whatever kind you focus inside it). People can meditate in the

center, move there, or can enact rituals or scenes alone or with others which allow them

to discover new personal circuitry to solve old problems. I suggest that structure be held

meticulously by the facilitators, in order to permit no distractions of the group attention

from holding a clean center for those who are working there. Follow the rhythm and

repetition of sounding the chimes to begin, clearly mark the beginning and end of each

ritual with chimes and a changing of the guardians, and end as you began. Keep all
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agreements stated in the beginning of the structure.

Clock time can be spelled out in advance; whether it is to be equal divisions or

organic time, what the entire structure time will be, when breaks will occur. Its

important for the staff to hold time as abundant at the same time as you let people feel the

urgency of now as the time to do what they most need to do. An interesting thing about

giving everyone in the circle 7 minutes, for example, is how many different ways seven

minutes can feel, and just how much distance can be traveled during that time.

Working in the center requires the container to be sturdy and yet flexible, a living

web. In support of its sturdiness, I suggest that the following structures be used:

-Four guardians: people who stand in four stabilizing positions and assume the role of

witness

-One facilitator always in charge of the structure staying on the perimeter (other may go

in)

-Time agreements stated at the beginning and kept clearly by facilitator or timekeeper

-Beginning and Ending: use the same markers (chimes, prayers, drum)

-Completion and Divestment

The whole format of opening up space in a circle for individuals to do their own

healing work is a book in itself. Our bodies all contain such a vast array of experiences

and we need release and transformation in so many areas. As a leader, you need to remain

humble as to just how much you know or understand, and at the same time be willing to

utilize every skill you do have to support people in their healing.

For instance, if you have not had trauma in your life first, thank your lucky stars
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- and second, learn whatever you can about how trauma is experienced and healed by

those whove been there. It is a whole realm with very specific nuances and markers.

Most importantly you must respect the persons creative decisions which they have made

in order to manage traumas effects, and their abilities to both release their trauma and

also keep it contained if they choose, even if this looks like denial or tension holding.

Never assume you know what they need, or that they just need to let go of their resistance

(this one is insulting, simplistic, and can cause a lot of pain).

Stay grounded and curious and in kind companionship with them as they decide

where to go next. Ask what they need or what would feel like support. You are not there

as their therapist, you are there to help them use the support of the circle to move

themselves forward. If you are in fact a skilled therapist, you may contribute specific

support according to your expertise, but I would stay primarily in the frame of reference

of the circle body as the resource, rather than in the one-on-one modality of the therapy

session.

Intention

When I think of intention, I think of a little sailboat on the ocean. We each have

our little boat on a huge ocean of possibility. We have a map in our head or hands, and a

sense of direction and destination. Intention is the course we set in order to traverse the

ocean to get to our destination. We will trim the sails and tack left and right many times

in order to keep to our course, our intention. Each person will have their own way of

setting intention and interpreting information, so your job is to call attention to the

process and let them exercise the muscle.

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You do this by articulating the principle of intention and by creating structures in

which people warm up and exercise their intention process all along the way. The

simplest way to do this is to simply suggest that people form an intention at the beginning

of each structure, and that they observe how information coalesces around their intention

in both small and large exercises. Bring focus to the action and interaction of their

intention with the whole fluid field. When a person sets an intention, they magnetize

electromagnetic fields which wrap around them, and they may receive information in

many different forms. We have been trained to automatically reject or simply fail to

recognize many streams of information, so as leader you must name and honor a

multiplicity of ways of knowing.

Information streams nest inside each other like Russian dolls or a telescoping

reality along a continuum, and the observer or the intention point is where particular

streams of information coalesce for human apprehension and use. Another metaphor is

that of the inention dropping like a plumb line into the fluid medium of the scalar field,

and information magnetizing along the line in a spiral formation. When someone sets an

intention, they may, like the little sailor on the big ocean, see many different sights in

their travels along that course; they may see archetypal images, glimpse occluded

memories, get extremely practical data, tap into a hidden wellspring of emotion, or

simply know something they didnt before. All information streams are valid and are

organizing along their intention; coach them to let it all flow in and sort it out later.

Relate intention to specific places in the body. For instance, if someones

intention is to have more joy in their life, ask what part of their body is asking or reaching

out for new information about joy. The complete intention is always connected to the
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body, so that as the information from the field spirals in, the body can personally filter

and integrate the information which it needs in the present moment. Your lungs will

select a different spiral of information than your back, or your knee or your kidneys. The

alchemy of transformation begins at the cellular level, as the accelerated flow of new

information becomes available.

Intention is the major principle to stay aware of in working in the center. The

groups intention has been developed and refined as the circle body and the central

column have been built. The transformation which takes place in the center is happening

in the individual, and also in the body of the whole group; a sequence of work will

emerge like a plant over a period of time in a circle body; pieces of work in the center

will follow and expand upon those which have gone before. It is often like being inside

an unfolding story at the heart of the group, where each persons chapter leads

improbably yet clearly on to the next. By the end of the center work, you may feel

satisfied, knowing everything got said. Or you may have an unfinished feeling. If you

do feel unfinished, you can either take this desire for satisfaction openly into the next

round of work, or you can honor the agitating mystery of the unfinished as an invisible

seed which will unfold later, and declare the work complete.

Using the Center for Group Intention

When we are working with an organized center, we are both receiving, letting the

necessary information collect within us, and we are transmitting. Physics Researcher

Valerie Hunt says that the scalar wave is a carrier of information, and suggests that the

entire group focus an intention to place into the scalar wave to send it to a destination
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person or purpose3. This is similar to a prayer group focusing on one recipient for their

prayers, with the twist being focusing attention on a space which has been pre-energized

at the physical center of the group (in many ways like a space-time altar on which to

place prayer objects).

I feel that in the act of building the circle and making the center available to

individuals for personal illumination, we are sending out group intentions inherent in our

action: interdependence on each other, support for transformation, a willingness to

communicate with larger energies than our own, and faith in our bodies as evolving and

wise.

I have used images like webs radiating out from our circle, asking people to send

their intentions out along the filaments, into their lives and the world at large. A favorite

form of mine is what I think of as the pulse prayer. After we settle into a sitting mediation

for a few minutes to find the still center of our beings, I ask people to feel the blessings

they have received in the circle. On the first (of three) pulses, I ask them to physically

pulse the blessings out to all their loved ones and friends. On the second, we pulse/stretch

the blessing state to a larger circle which includes people they do not know or even like.

And on the third pulse, we push it out there even bigger, to anyone at all who might need

some extra energy or blessing.

State Changes

3
Val Hunt, e-mail message to author, August 4, 2006.
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State changes depend on feedback loops. At a recent birthday party, I asked my

friends to make remarks which would give me perspective on myself at 50. These women

were there for me, not for a formal circle process, and about half had experience with

circles. We sat in a loose circle, and in no particular order, people spoke to me. I received

their speaking and made some small remarks which connected with what they had said.

At first some people were hesitant to share, but as people went around, the energy of the

group opened up, people shared more, and, despite my saying we could move on to cake,

a second round emerged. The sharing in this round was about noticing the circle itself,

and the life force and enjoyment that we were all experiencing from the circle of

womens wisdom.

My point is, the circle awareness activated organically, out of the basic elements

of a shared intention (to give me birthday feedback), and a center (me) with which to

weave the feedback loop process. At some point in the process, a state change occurred,

and the energy hummed and fattened as a result, until it was palpable to everyone as its

own force, separate from me as its focal point. We probably could have gone several

more rounds, with ever-deepening shares, until we were complete, but in this case my

desire for cake intervened.

State changes depend on energy build up. Energy vibrates at an increasingly

higher frequency (faster, not better) until, suddenly, matter changes state and takes on

different qualities and characteristics. The body of the circle is a palpable body composed

of energy, and you as a leader are always attending this body. There are times to relieve

tension in the group, in order for it to ground and soften, and there are times to allow the

tension and charge to build usually by insisting on the maintenance of boundaries so

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that the state of the energy becomes taut and accelerated. Personal breakthroughs can

occur for people in any phase of the circle body energy, so watch your own judgments

about what kind of energy is necessary for transformation. Think thick, wide, fat,

meandering, as well as high, fast and intense.

Emotional coherence of the group body

The main ingredient for coherence is for everyone to feel included. This requires

you as a leader, with help from your staff, to genuinely connect to each person in the

group or to make sure they are feeling connected to others. This may be done literally, or

energetically. I suggest that you frequently acknowledge aloud the variety and depth of

experiences which are taking place in the circle at every moment; some of which are easy

and fun, and many of which are uncomfortable or downright difficult.

Because the Western culture either hides or dramatizes the dark feelings and

thoughts, we need to constantly antidote that misunderstanding, and normalize the fact

that much of life can be strange. It is normal to feel emotions of anger, sadness and fear,

as well as those of happiness or trust. It is normal to carry residual shame if you have

been subject to it from others. It is normal to go in and out of contact with yourself (to

differing degrees) and with others and to need boundaries and help in that process. The

range of experience and expression of these elements of human experience is enormous.

We can all do our best to witness and include each other, even if we do not understand or

share the others reality.

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The Flock of Birds Phenomenon

If you are getting a flurry of questions, or a sudden press of requests, or a global

sense of confusion in the group, then something else may be going on. I call it the flock

of birds phenomenon; when a group gets anxious about moving into the next exercise or

phase of energy, there is often a wave of nervous behaviors that rise up like a flock of

birds lifting off a tidal plain. Its not exactly flying theyd rather settle back down to

earth but something has them agitated and fluttering. Do whatever you can as a leader

to redirect energy to grounding and breathing, reasserting peoples inner authority and

sense of direction. Do so within yourself especially, as you want to stay grounded and not

get pulled up with the agitation. Listen for what is really needed: time to share, emotional

release, movement, more information, encouragement to go for it.

Loss or Contraction of Energy

If the group energy has a flat quality, you may begin to feel hollow, distant, or

vague, and the odds are good that others are feeling this too. Check the obvious causes

first: are you talking too much, or is there too much verbiage going on? Has the group

been sitting too long and needs to move? Is a time or curricular agreement not being met?

If you make these necessary corrections, and the energy is still flat, you might need a

game or exercise which activates relational connection. This can be very simple, turning

to the person on one side of you and answering a couple of questions What did you have

for lunch? What did you like about it?, or it can be followed by a deeper inquiry, such as

What is feeling flat inside you right now?, or What about this situation is putting you

to sleep? (This last might engender a little laughter, but also some perked-up attention,
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because it acknowledges that something flattening is going on and we dont have to

ignore that.)

If the energy is still flat or congested, then you may have one or more individuals

who are for some reason withholding their energy and causing a stop-flow in the circle.

See Challenges in Group Process, below.

Challenges in Group Process

Always honor that the group is giving you the gift of their mind as a feedback

system. If people are not understanding something, pay attention, identify this, and try

another way to give the direction or solicit questions/comments in order to ascertain what

is in the way. Stay alive to the dialogue which is always occurring between you and the

group body it is interesting and awakening and will make you a better leader/teacher if

you relish the learning process that you are in, and include the group in your moments

(some of them) of taking their feedback and making responses to that. It honors the

listening process and the dance that you are in with them.

Questions

Questions always arise as you are working; use the moment to teach, elucidate a

principle and suggest action steps. If a question is arising in the group, then it is likely

that more than one person is holding it. Answer as clearly as possible. Respond with

something people can use. Questions often boil down to what should I do when ____?
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Give specific things that people can do when situations arise for them. Or give the

general reassurance that they are on track and they do not need to change anything, just

breathe into it. Honor all processes, help them to practice honoring every moment and

feeling with a breath, releasing their thoughts and judgments.

If, after these responses, the questioner is still not satisfied, you may need to draw

a line, because this kind of dynamic can begin to involve group energy and agitate the

whole group. This can be done by honoring the need for more, without making yourself

available in that moment. One possible reply is: That is such an important piece you are

bringing up, thank you, and in the interests of time we cannot address that at this

moment. It sounds like you could use some additional support. Is there someone who can

talk to ____ after this meeting? (Get that persons agreement, and check in with them

later) Or Can you check in with one of the assistants during the break?

Objections are nothing more than questions. What is the person really

asking/seeking? Is this question or concern resonating throughout the group?

People Being Late

The important vision to keep before people when doing circle work is the shared

responsibility for the care of the circle body, since it is the circle body which actually

moves forward to accomplish the work. Each person has an impact on the health and

well-being of the circle and whether we can progress together, and it is this which makes

timeliness and participation so essential. In other words, clock time (with all the issues

people have about relating to the clock) is not the point at all; in keeping their time

agreements, people honor everyone else in the circle, and our shared desire to have a
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great, productive time together.

I have found it best, if people are creating a problem by being late, to express my

genuine wish and welcome that they be part of the circle, and at the same time my

responsibility to support the circle by insisting on timeliness. In the case of two people

who were repeatedly very late, I once had to go so far as to say that the circle would close

to their participation at a certain time, and I was prepared to lock the doors and be done

with it. I explained that any more waiting for them would damage the cohesion and depth

of the circle. The people in question came on time, and we all cheered, because we

wanted them there.

Expression of Strong Emotion

The only reason this can seem a challenge is because culturally we have all been

intensively trained away from letting it happen. The most important factor when strong

emotional expression comes up in a group is the comfort level of the leader and staff with

strong emotion. The entire group will be taking their cue from your bodies as to whether

there is a grounded way to feel and express strong emotion. This does not mean that you

allow one persons emotional expression to dominate the group; it means that you are

friendly and respectful in your own body with a full range of emotions, and you can

respond to and guide others when their emotions are intense.

This is where you will want to have done your own depth work around emotional

issues. If you have not grieved a loss, felt enraged at an injustice, needed someone

beyond reason, or known toxic shame, then when someone in the group is swept with that

emotion, the your body will be closed and the unconscious answer will be No to that
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persons state. The No will be felt by the whole group as well as by the individual, and

two basic choices will automatically fall into place: remove authentic, out-of-control

emotional expressions from the menu of possibility, or have the emotional expression by

breaking through the leaders resistance or sense of order. The first choice will cause a

shut-down of energy in either the person or the group, and the second choice can result in

disruption of the group so that the e-motion can move.

If you are familiar with the emotion which is coming up, you can resonate with it

and respond compassionately to the person expressing it. From this resonant place, you

can offer choices for support and expression which work for the whole group. For

instance, if it is clear that the person must express their emotion immediately, then your

choices as a leader are: 1. give the person the support of a staff member to witness them

in another space while the group continues its curriculum; 2. take time right then and

there, having the group serve as witnesses; or, 3. create a structure on-the-spot for the

whole group to move and make sound, which will enfold the expression of the individual

and release group tension. You will have to make the choice swiftly, depending on many

factors, so at this type of moment you want to feel flexible and agile of mind, and this can

only be done if you know your own emotional humanity.

Another unconscious communication which you can make about strong emotion

is that which results from being over-focused on its cathartic release. In a circle this

might look like an inordinate amount of time or staff attention paid to people who are

making big expressions of sorrow or anger or fear. If you notice you are making a lot of

effort to get people to express in big ways, you may be attached to cathartic release. By

doing this, you will declare that big expressions of emotion have more value than other
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experiences in the circle. While catharsis can often move things forward, so can many

other energetic experiences in the circle, so attend to the full range

The best route is one of trusting the body, and trusting the circle. The body knows

when and how to release held feelings; all thats needed is a space which can hold the

person while they surrender to expression. In a circle, all the facets of who we are as

humans are present and natural: one is crying, one is blissful, one is in quiet reflection,

one is very frightened; it is all happening simultaneously and none of it needs to be

controlled, though guidance is appropriate. I identify parameters for the big expression of

emotion at the beginning of the circle, such as no damage to any person or to the space,

and that if the sound level begins to dominate the space I may ask someone to scream

into a pillow. Since this has been said early on, everyone is aligned if I take action on

these things in an extreme moment.

Our big circle body can contain and support anything that needs to happen, and it

can all find its course to satisfying resolution without disrespect or damage to anyone in

the circle.

This is a huge contradiction to most peoples rigid patterns to get a grip on deep

emotion or states of disorganized surrender. The culture teaches us to keep it positive,

keep it under control, and these are very deeply ingrained rules which create patterns of

breath and muscle tension. People can get very anxious, but also liberated when those

rules are being broken. If you set up a chance for group movement, you might get a circle

filled with all kinds of expression, a huge wave coming through the collective body, and

you get to stay centered and reasonably comfortable as the wave form swells and breaks

(which it will).
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Conversely, when the no-expression rule is broken, some people will grip all the

harder and become extremely anxious, because it may have been truly dangerous at some

point for them when big movement or sound was occurring. They may look around the

room a lot, or become hyper-vigilant, hypercritical, or very tense in their body. Speak to

those people either individually or by reminding the group that their job is to breathe and

ground, this is a natural wave washing through, there is nothing they need to do, and its

okay to feel afraid and breathe through it. Send assistants to be near them if they need

support and remind them to ask for support either by making eye contact with another

person or by getting themselves into a grounded or safer position in their body. Repeat

the instruction to breathe deeply as a way to stay present in intensity.

Dissociation

Dissociation is an amazing, creative process. Anyone who has dissociated (gone

out of or adjacent to their body) has done so out of desire for life. Id like to reframe the

idea that dissociation is a bad thing; remember that in shamanic and religious traditions

out of body experiences are courted as a high state of awareness which brings gifts. In

a situation where fear or injury has caused someone to involuntarily dissociate, remember

that in doing so they are not only going away from the hurt, but they are also going

towards a workable place in their being where they can keep themselves alive and be part

of this world. The human beings intricate and brilliant strategies for creating a workable

reality deserve our complete respect, even if it looks crazy to us.

The main impact of a person dissociating in group work is that they are

profoundly alone. Because we were so desperately alone in the moments which caused us
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to dissociate, the place is encoded with isolation. If you can, have a team member be with

them, someone who feels safe and alive and curious, and who respects the dissociated

persons ability to make choices as to how to create support and rejoin the group (or not).

Often the whole chemistry of isolation changes when a kind presence illuminates the

possibility of return to integration and engagement. The person knows the way back; they

may just need reminders that it is now safe to come back.

If the person is not able to find their way back, you will have to make choices

based on how much resource you can devote to their process. You might have a staff

person work with them in the centering space or outside the circle, but this should be

time-limited in most cases; it is not good for the attention of the circle to have staff or

participants out for too long. In extreme cases you might have to call for their support

people to pick them up. Explain everything clearly to the person; they deserve your full

respect, and you get to have whatever boundaries are necessary to serve the circle.

Regression

Regression is a delicate instance, because you actually have a young person in the

room in addition to the adult who signed up for your course. If working with inner

children is one of the stated purposes and processes of your course, then you will have

structures in place for the welcoming of that regressed aspect. If that is not the agreement

of the circle, then you need to help the person make some choices. Be respectful about

this young person but also clarify the boundaries of this particular space, which may be

an adults-only space. It may not be appropriate in the case of erotic work, for instance
 160

for a young person aspect to remain in the room.

You can address the participant about their young aspect, and tell them that they

need to find another care space for the young one. Sometimes a detailed visualization of a

nurturing caregiver and environment will suffice to give the young one somewhere to go

psychically while the adult continues with their work in the circle. If the person is fully

regressed and not responding to adult communication, then you must designate a staff

member to help the person to a separate location where they can be tended while they

reintegrate. If in a reasonable period of time there is no reintegration occurring, it is best

to call their contacts and have someone pick them up, because the process they have gone

into is beyond the scope of your support resources. All of this should be communicated to

the regressed person, whether they appear to hear you or not. Most people can make very

lucid decisions about how to manage their regression, even as they are immersed in it.

In or Out?

At times people will separate out and get into the conversation of staying or

leaving: are they in or are they out? This is a place to be attentive and precise as a leader,

because you want to honor the persons learning about this dynamic and what it means to

them, while not allowing their in/out exploration to dominate or leak energy from the

group. When you are developing group coherence, which you must have in place before

the group can change state as a body, one individuals ambivalence about being in the

group can stop progress for the whole group. Waiting, being intimidated, worrying about

the individual all of these can draw so much attention that a state change cannot take

place. It is the responsibility of the staff to efficiently help the ambivalent person by
 161

offering support and clarifying choices; at the same time, the in/out wobble cannot go on

for too long without damage to the work.

When this dynamic has begun, find out as much as possible from the person about

their perspective. Check in with staff to get a reading from others about what is

happening and what the person might really need. Look into your hearts to recognize

yourselves in this person, in order to act in compassion, even when a difficult pattern is in

play. Have the staff member with the most empathy and kind feeling about the situation

offer help, and see if it is enough of a link to reconnect the person into the group.

Another strategy is to share your perspective with a person in difficulty. Share in

general the patterns that you see or the types of choices that people can make when they

find themselves in this participants situation. Share your experience over the years as to

what seems to have worked for people, such as sitting in the centering space, talking to a

staff member, writing down their experience, etc. You can set up pieces of time for them

to experiment with options, and a check- in time. Break overwhelming moments into

smaller time frames with specific things to do in order to clarify what is going on.

There are basic signs you can look for when participants bring up this exploration,

which will help you to choose your own actions.

The person who needs a bridge into the circle

-Has fears and doubts coming up about whether they can trust the process or do whats

required. Is separating because they dont know how to include themselves.

 162
-Displays some concern about how their behavior is impacting the group they are aware

of the circle as well as of themselves.

-Needs more information about their choices to create support (who they can get help

from, ways they can participate, even in the centering space), and when they get this

information, they take new action in order to stay connected, even if their feelings are

strong.
 163

The person who needs a bridge out of the circle

-Has intractable judgments or criticisms about staff or participants. Is separating because

others cannot be trusted/are not safe enough.

-displays no awareness of how they impact the group. Wants the group to change to

include them.

-Rejects all choices for creating support, and will not generate ideas for how to connect.

Their attention is solely on the danger, and not on their own feelings. This person needs

help to choose out, because for some reason the bridge back in has closed for them. This

is not a failure on anyones part; it simply means theyve gone as far as they can for now.

As a leader you must deal with your own disappointment and your issues about

being a bad guy, and clarify for the person that, as they have currently configured things,

the group is not working for them. You can acknowledge limitations while holding the

boundaries that the group will not adapt to the demands of one individual. You may have

to declare a moment in time when the person needs to leave, and have your staff help

them do so. The remaining choice for the person may be whether to say goodbye to the

group before they go, and you offer that choice only if you feel they can be respectful in

using it.
Dont overextend your staff, or knock yourself out trying to accommodate

someone. If you find your team in an overextended position, it probably indicates the

hopelessness the person is dealing with underneath their insatiable demands no matter

how hard people try to reach them, they are cut off. However, you can recognize

underlying issues without being able to handle them in the circle, and it is up to you to

tell the truth if this you cannot go forward with someone in a situation.
 164
Irving Yalom, in his book on group psychotherapy, (and this applies during the

enrollment process as well), says that if for some reason you as a leader find you cant

work with an individual, you dont have to understand or explain why8. You get to say no

to the person being in your group, simply because it will impair your function if you try

to field their issues or energy dynamics. You have a responsibility to the group to do your

job, and keep your space clear so that can happen. I have said this dynamic is more than

I can personally handle, and Im sorry if my limitations hurt you, but this is the truth and

I am responsible for being able to do my job.

 COMPLETION

Divestment

Divestment is taking off the garments of projection and expectation with which

you have clothed yourself and others, in order that everyone goes free into the next

reality. I use this at the end of any substantial ritual where people have worked intimately

with one another, and at the end of the whole event. The simplest exercise is to face each

other in pairs or face the center as a group and whoosh away with a swift downward

sweeping of your hands over your body - any ideas/hopes/expectations you may have

generated about another during the work.

Sometimes people do not want to divest their hopes or expectations for another

person if they feel that they want to build something with them beyond the event. It is a

risk to let go, and it is exciting to release each other into a clear space of truth and a larger

possibility than that which we cling to.

165
 166

Additionally, the purpose of divestment is to leave the circle field clean and ready

for its next use by others. If we leave time projections or images of ourselves and others

in the field of the circle, these seed resonances could develop form later on, or cause

problems for other users, just as litter would. People have set their intentions and

attracted resonant fields to themselves which are already active; these they keep. But it is

important to leave the temenos - the sanctuary- of the circle clean, just like we would

leave a community room clean when our meeting is done.

This is also a potent way to encourage people to be in their own authority. If a

person has found someone they are very attracted to, for instance, and it is time to divest,

they must let go of the ties they are weaving around that person as a completion to the

circle in which they have met. The two people set each other free to become whoever

they need to be after the circle is done. If, after the circle, the desire to know that person

is still active, then the usual social protocol must be followed, which will test and clarify

whether their attraction has any life outside the body of the circle. The circle is left clean,

and the relationship must stand or fall on its own, as any real relationship must eventually

do.

Sometimes you discover that the service the other person did you inside the circle

was to illuminate an occluded desire; you have the responsibility to go into your life and

deal with your own desire; they are not there to fulfill it, only to awaken it. Sometimes

relationships formed inside the circle carry over into the social context, sometimes they

do not. In either case, divestment allows you to honor the work you have done to that

moment, and bow to your future purpose together, without knowing what it may be.
 167

Closing Remarks

Acknowledgements/ Gifts

Self-care recommendations

Reminders of confidentiality

Contact parameters for participants with each other and with staff

Opportunities for other work

Logistics of departure

End it clearly

Clean Up of Space

Plan time and have staff schedule themselves for this it may take a couple of

hours, and you need to find time for a staff debriefing. Leave the space better than you

found it, respecting all the landlord protocols. Be grateful for a good working space it is

a rare gift!

Staff Debriefing

People have worked hard, and it is easy to let this final step slip, but it is very

important in order to complete the event and acknowledge the great work you have done

together. This may morph into a shared meal, or, in the ideal, another group of people

come in to feed and pamper the core staff, after all the debriefing is done!
 168

Personal debriefing where everyone got stuck, attached/emotions

High points, celebration

Laughing at selves, the whole situation

Assessments of the success of different structures/ ideas for improvement

Materials inventory/ corrections for next time

Acknowledgements and gifts

Divestment and Goodbye

 169

END NOTES

1 Pema Chodron, Going Against the Grain, in When Things Fall Apart (Boston & London:
Shambala, 1997), 93-7.

2 Robert Jourdain, Music, the Brain and Ecstasy (New York: Avon Books, 1997), 331.

3 Valerie Hunt, Infinite Mind (Malibu, California: Malibu Publishing, 1996), 135.

4 John Matthews, The Celtic Shaman (Rockport, Massachusetts: Element Inc., 1992), 37.

5 Searles O'Dubhain, The Four Treasures Arrangement, 1997, Mid- Atlantic Geomancy,
http://www.geomancy.org/ezines/ezine_7.

6 Anodea Judith, Wheels of Life (St. Paul, MN.: Llewellyn Publications, 1999), 118.

7 Drunvalo Melchezidek, The Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life (Flagstaff, Arizona: Light
Technology Publishing, 1998), 151.

8 Irvin Yalom, The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy (New York: Basic Books,
1995), 107.

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