Editor’s note: In 1982 the Findhorn Foundation offered the first Group Consciousness workshop, focalised by Kay Tift and Linda Gardiner. We are indebted to Hans Meininger, to get a glimpse of the content of the workshop as well as his experience from the scrapbook he made. We have extracted the text to make it more legible, but also provide the facsimile for a more authentic sense of it.

To look through the book please use the arrows at the bottom left of the window, use Zoom or Toggle Fullscreen for easier reading.

 

Welcome Letter

Welcome to Findhorn’s first TWO-week workshop in Group Consciousness. During Week One we’ll explore together basic issues in group life. These include:

  • Characteristics of a healthy group
  • Physical, emotional and mental aspects of group life
  • Stages in group growth
  • Leadership and decision-making functions

During the second week, acting as a single entity (to the degree we are willing and able to do this we will work together on a project for Findhorn Foundation that we select. This means you’ll have a whole week to practice and enjoy the skills you developed during Week One.

To prepare yourself for this workshop, you might want to look at the following questions which we’ve been asking ourselves:

  • Why did I choose to participate in this workshop?
  • What do I perceive as good/useful about group life, and what is negative/not-good?
  • What is a Group Being?
  • How can working on a project during week two that serves Findhorn Foundation also serve ME?

Or if you have other questions, bring thorn with you!

You’re welcome to arrive any time after noon on Saturday, February 20. Our first formal session will begin after Brunch on Sunday at 12:00 noon in Room 8. We’re looking forward to your participation !

Love, Kay & Linda

QUESTION: What is this Group Consciousness Workshop all about?

ANSWER: It’s about discovering how to create a new human species–the group being.

We begin where the individual human being leaves off; that is, our hard-won ego states as self-conscious adults are the starting, not the ending point.

One way to understand what consciousness-raising in group life is all about is to compare the growth of a group to that of a single person. For example, a child moves from dependency upon parenting figures (for physical survival) to independence, or freedom from controlling parents (for psychic survival), to voluntary interdependence (for spiritual growth).

In the same way, a new group needs firm and loving guidance until its members choose to separate from their “parent” leadership, to discover and celebrate their own uniqueness… to empower themselves. The most challenging time in group life is this adolescence period when each member is shouting out, MY WILL BE DONE. Eventually, if all conditions are favorable, the members discover they must yield to a group need, a group purpose…a group Being.

Another way of comparing individual and group life is to look at their similar energy paths. Spiritual energy can flow through a person to the degree his physical, mental and emotional bodies are healthy and functioning in harmony with each other. This concept is pretty well understood and accepted here at Findhorn today, and most members are striving for balance at nourishing each of these bodies. However, as a community we are just beginning to acknowledge that for spiritual energy to flew through a GROUP Being, ITS physical, mental and emotional components must also be healthy and functioning harmoniously.

For example:

Physical Body – Group members have an identity, of “boundary skin”, and can name the members of their group at any given time.
Mental Body – Members clarify the purpose of any task/job/mission they are working on and each individual makes a commitment to support that purpose.
Emotional Body – Members use their disagreements to learn about inter-dependence, instead of as excuses to fight or flee. Pleasure and trust with each other increase when differences are explored.
Spiritual Being -The group is an evolving, living, organism with a spiritual energy that is consciously experienced by its members to the degree their human parts (physical, mental, emotional) are balanced.

The purpose of this workshop is to help each participant, to the degree they desire, gain tools to assist group members get what they want from their time together. By the end of the workshop its members will know more about the forces which cause a group to behave the way it does, and will have gained abilities to use those forces in a constructive way. We have only as many choices in group life as we have awareness of options, and experiencing group life together consciously means releasing traditional roles of scapegoating the leader, playing the victim, suffocating from rigid rules etc. It means discovering new ways to relate to SELF, OTHERS, a GROUP TASK.

THREE GROUP NEEDS

During every group interaction, three types of needs are present:

PERSONAL NEEDS (I) — finding out where you fit into the group, and whether your personal needs will be met
GROUP NEEDS (WE) — developing ground rules, useful member roles, and group structures as needs emerge; making communication agreements
GROUP TASK (IT) — focusing on the agreed-upon objective(s)

I - WE - IT Diagram HM Scrapbook 1982

making group decisions HM Scrapbook 1982

GROUP LIFE

SOME DEFINITIONS AND ASSUMPTIONS

  • POWER – the ability to do something (live current going to a light bulb, for example.) All power is essentially God’s energy.
  • AUTHORITY – the ability to control power (person who turns on the switch).
  • LEADERSHIP – a function of directing/managing
    • the use of power, and
    • the delegation of authority
  • GOVERNMENT — the provision of leadership to help a group create and maintain an environment that enables it to reach its goals.

——

  1. You and I are divine. All members at all meetings are divine. We are limitless spirit as well as limited matter. Our consciousness evolves out of interaction and friction between these two.
  2. A group is divine. In group life, a “group being” evolves which is more than the sum of its members’ separate states of awareness. It’s a synergistic phenomenon.
  3. Groups grow in stages like individuals do, and different group-communication tools are needed for different levels of membership maturity.
  4. Learning to work lovingly and efficiently with others isn’t easy. There’s no reason to spend time in meetings unless you receive something for yourself out of the group effort that you couldn’t get for yourself alone.