On Dialogue
“A society is a link of relashionships that are set by people in order to work and live together: rules, laws, institutions and various things. It is done by thinking and agreeing that we are going to have them and then we do it. And behind that is a culture, which is shared meaning.”
Introduction
“In early stages, a facilitator is useful, but the facilitator role should be relinquished as quickly as possible, leaving the group to chart its own course.”
“The movement of a dialogue group is rarely from point A to point B. Rather, the movement is more typically recursive, with unexpected dynamic shifts following periods of frustration, boredom and agitation, in a perpetual cycle.”
Key components of a dialogue:
“Listening in dialogue is often taken to mean thorough, careful, empathetic sensitivity to the words and meanings of group members.”
“In early stages, a facilitator is useful, but the facilitator role should be relinquished as quickly as possible, leaving the group to chart its own course.”
“The movement of a dialogue group is rarely from point A to point B. Rather, the movement is more typically recursive, with unexpected dynamic shifts following periods of frustration, boredom and agitation, in a perpetual cycle.”
Key components of a dialogue:
- Shared meaning
- The nature of collective thought
- Pervasiveness of fragmentation
- Function of awareness
- Micro cultural context
- Undirected inquiry
- Impersonal fellowship
- Paradox of the observer and the observed.
“Listening in dialogue is often taken to mean thorough, careful, empathetic sensitivity to the words and meanings of group members.”
Chapter 1
On Communication
Even though technology has advanced and communication seems easier between people, it is not. People have ceased to understand each other.
Communication in dialogue: people are creating something new together.
In order to do this one must leave all prejudices, thoughts and influences outside.
Even though technology has advanced and communication seems easier between people, it is not. People have ceased to understand each other.
Communication in dialogue: people are creating something new together.
In order to do this one must leave all prejudices, thoughts and influences outside.
Chapter 2
On Dialogue
Before actually having a dialogue, one should discuss dialogue. (Meta-dialogue)
Dialogue comes from the greek dialogos.
Logos: the word (meaning of the word).
Dia: through
Dialogue can be seen as: Flow of meaning in a group. Out of which may emerge understanding.
Dialogue is a win-win situation.
Why do we have trouble communicating with a large group of people? Everyone has different assumptions ad opinions which come with emotional charge.
The opinions that we have are based on past thoughts: on experiences, what other people have said, what not. They are all part of us.
We defend our opinions because we identify ourselves with them.
Difficulties in thought
Opinions have like a mind of their own.
Individual thought is a result of collective thought and interactions with other people.
Collective thought is collectively shared meaning, coherent movement of thought.
Process of thought is tacit (can’t be described).
“If we begin to confront whats going in a dialogue group, we sort of have the nucleus of whats going on in all society.”
A circle allows direct communication.
“Our purpose is really to communicate coherently in truth, if you want to call that a purpose.”
Dialogue changes people. They start to behave differently, even when outside the dialogue. This is something that I think has happened in the MPC a lot.
When assumptions come up, what one has to do is to suspend them (don’t carry them out nor suppress them).
Necessity:
Proprioception: relation between interntion and action.
This also happens in thought. Thought creates problems and then tries to solve them. But by solving them, it just makes the problems worse.
Collective participation: sharing our opinions without hostility in order to think together. We have to try to find the meaning in our own opinion and in everybody elses.
Participation means both “to take part of” and “to take part in”.
“A society is a link of relashionships that are set by people in order to work and live together: rules, laws, institutions and various things. It is done by thinking and agreeing that we are going to have them and then we do it. And behind that is a culture, which is shared meaning.”
Difficulties:
We should all try to have the same goal, the same kind of consciousness.
“If we can all suspend carrying out our impulses, suspend our assumptions, and look at them all, then we are all in the same state of consciousness.”
Common consciousness: thinking together / one thought for all.
“Sensitivity: A certain way of knowing how to come in and how not to come in, of watching all the subtle cues and the senses and your response to them – what’s happening inside of you, what’s happening in the group.”
Body language is part of communication.
What blocks sensitivity is the defense of our assumptions and opinions.
We have to try to get rid of authorities and hierarchy, in order to have a good dialogue.
Having a definite purpose is limiting, we should move to something more open (even if it is expressing feelings). Open judgments and assumptions.
Before actually having a dialogue, one should discuss dialogue. (Meta-dialogue)
Dialogue comes from the greek dialogos.
Logos: the word (meaning of the word).
Dia: through
Dialogue can be seen as: Flow of meaning in a group. Out of which may emerge understanding.
Dialogue is a win-win situation.
Why do we have trouble communicating with a large group of people? Everyone has different assumptions ad opinions which come with emotional charge.
The opinions that we have are based on past thoughts: on experiences, what other people have said, what not. They are all part of us.
We defend our opinions because we identify ourselves with them.
Difficulties in thought
- Fragmentation (divisions we make)
- Thinking the defend (we defend ourselves from ourselves)
- Thought is the problem (Individual and collective thought)
- Unconsciously defending our opinions (without us knowing)
Opinions have like a mind of their own.
Individual thought is a result of collective thought and interactions with other people.
Collective thought is collectively shared meaning, coherent movement of thought.
Process of thought is tacit (can’t be described).
“If we begin to confront whats going in a dialogue group, we sort of have the nucleus of whats going on in all society.”
A circle allows direct communication.
“Our purpose is really to communicate coherently in truth, if you want to call that a purpose.”
Dialogue changes people. They start to behave differently, even when outside the dialogue. This is something that I think has happened in the MPC a lot.
When assumptions come up, what one has to do is to suspend them (don’t carry them out nor suppress them).
Necessity:
- Cant be turned aside.
- Creates impulses.
- Ask yourself if it is necessary.
Proprioception: relation between interntion and action.
This also happens in thought. Thought creates problems and then tries to solve them. But by solving them, it just makes the problems worse.
Collective participation: sharing our opinions without hostility in order to think together. We have to try to find the meaning in our own opinion and in everybody elses.
Participation means both “to take part of” and “to take part in”.
“A society is a link of relashionships that are set by people in order to work and live together: rules, laws, institutions and various things. It is done by thinking and agreeing that we are going to have them and then we do it. And behind that is a culture, which is shared meaning.”
Difficulties:
- In dialogue people adopt different roles (dominant, weak)
- We try to get our point of view across as quickly as we can
We should all try to have the same goal, the same kind of consciousness.
“If we can all suspend carrying out our impulses, suspend our assumptions, and look at them all, then we are all in the same state of consciousness.”
Common consciousness: thinking together / one thought for all.
“Sensitivity: A certain way of knowing how to come in and how not to come in, of watching all the subtle cues and the senses and your response to them – what’s happening inside of you, what’s happening in the group.”
Body language is part of communication.
What blocks sensitivity is the defense of our assumptions and opinions.
We have to try to get rid of authorities and hierarchy, in order to have a good dialogue.
Having a definite purpose is limiting, we should move to something more open (even if it is expressing feelings). Open judgments and assumptions.
Chapter 3
The Nature of Collective Thought
“Practically all of what has been called nature has been arranged by thought. Yet thought also goes wrong somehow, and produces destruction.”
Many of the problems we have in the world are because our stream of thought is messed up. And the only way to solve this is by acknowledging it, recognizing it, etc. (proprioception)But really there is something greater happening which is that the process of thought is wrong, and that is collective.
“I’m trying to say that most of our thoughts in its general form is not individual. It originates in whole culture and it pervades us. We pick it up as children from parents, from friends, from school, from newspapers, from books, and so on. We make a small change in it; we select certain parts of it which we like, and we may reject other parts. But still, it all comes from that pool.”
Isn’t this just like corn-pone opinions?
“You build up knowledge through experience, through practice. You must think about it, organize it, it goes into your memory and becomes knowledge.”
That is why its important that one tries to do it by oneself. People can help you, support you, but at the end they can’t do it for you. The experience is yours.
“Michael Polanyi has called Tacit Knowledge – the knowledge which you can’t state in words but which is there.” Example: How to ride a bicycle.
Thought is a representation of experience.
Here we can see that we can’t really ever truly get to know ourselves because we might have a different perception of ourselves than the rest of the people.
Everyone has different representations of the same thing.
These are different views that people can have on a forest:
This happens in dialogue because we get representations of different people.
“Our relationship depends on how we present other people to ourselves, and how we present ourselves to other people.”
“Practically all of what has been called nature has been arranged by thought. Yet thought also goes wrong somehow, and produces destruction.”
Many of the problems we have in the world are because our stream of thought is messed up. And the only way to solve this is by acknowledging it, recognizing it, etc. (proprioception)But really there is something greater happening which is that the process of thought is wrong, and that is collective.
“I’m trying to say that most of our thoughts in its general form is not individual. It originates in whole culture and it pervades us. We pick it up as children from parents, from friends, from school, from newspapers, from books, and so on. We make a small change in it; we select certain parts of it which we like, and we may reject other parts. But still, it all comes from that pool.”
Isn’t this just like corn-pone opinions?
“You build up knowledge through experience, through practice. You must think about it, organize it, it goes into your memory and becomes knowledge.”
That is why its important that one tries to do it by oneself. People can help you, support you, but at the end they can’t do it for you. The experience is yours.
“Michael Polanyi has called Tacit Knowledge – the knowledge which you can’t state in words but which is there.” Example: How to ride a bicycle.
Thought is a representation of experience.
Here we can see that we can’t really ever truly get to know ourselves because we might have a different perception of ourselves than the rest of the people.
Everyone has different representations of the same thing.
These are different views that people can have on a forest:
- Lumber
- As a painting
- Trails
This happens in dialogue because we get representations of different people.
“Our relationship depends on how we present other people to ourselves, and how we present ourselves to other people.”
Chapter 4
The Problem and the Paradox
“Sometimes, without noticing it, we accept absurd problems with false or self-contradictory presuppositions.”
Most of the time when we are affected psychologically, we shouldn’t describe the situation as a problem, but as a paradox. Example: falling for flattery while you still know it is bad.
If we see it as a problem, our brain will keep trying to look for a solution.
(This relates to the identity chapter in Difficult Conversations.)
“What is needed is that people be ready to give serious and sustained attention to a paradoxical pattern that has come to dominate their thinking and feeling.”
Root paradox: that the activity of his thought is controlled by the very thing that it appears to be trying to control.
“Sometimes, without noticing it, we accept absurd problems with false or self-contradictory presuppositions.”
Most of the time when we are affected psychologically, we shouldn’t describe the situation as a problem, but as a paradox. Example: falling for flattery while you still know it is bad.
If we see it as a problem, our brain will keep trying to look for a solution.
(This relates to the identity chapter in Difficult Conversations.)
“What is needed is that people be ready to give serious and sustained attention to a paradoxical pattern that has come to dominate their thinking and feeling.”
Root paradox: that the activity of his thought is controlled by the very thing that it appears to be trying to control.
Chapter 5
The Oberver and the Observed
“Normally we don’t see that our assumptions are affecting the nature of our observations. But the assumptions affected by the way we see things, the way we experience them and consequently, the things that we want to do.”
We look through assumptions.
Observer: what gathers. Chooses the important, relevant information and organizes it.
“According to what you assume, you will collect and gather certain information as important and put it together in a certain way, in a certain structure.”
Assumptions go hand in hand with emotions.
“Normally we don’t see that our assumptions are affecting the nature of our observations. But the assumptions affected by the way we see things, the way we experience them and consequently, the things that we want to do.”
We look through assumptions.
Observer: what gathers. Chooses the important, relevant information and organizes it.
“According to what you assume, you will collect and gather certain information as important and put it together in a certain way, in a certain structure.”
Assumptions go hand in hand with emotions.
Chapter 6
Suspension, The Body and Proprioception
Sometimes when we feel or think something, we start acting a certain way without us noticing it.
If you notice this, you can:
In the process of suspension you notice:
Recall: go over the words which hurt you, and see what happened.
“The thing to do is to find the words which express what’s going on, and see what those words do – not for the purpose of finding the content of the words, but for the purpose of seeing what they do.”
Incoherence: your intentions and your results don’t agree.
“Some incoherence is inevitable, because knowledge is not perfect. All knowledge is limited, because it is an abstraction from the whole. It consists only of what you have learned up to this point.”
Coherence: order, beauty, harmony. We are built to appreciate coherence, and if something is not coherent we believe it is not worthwhile.
Tacit process of thought: actual knowledge (coherent or not)
“Thought should be able to perceive its own movement, be aware of its own movement. In the process of thought, there should be the awareness of that movement, of the intention to think and of the result which that thinking produces. By being attentive, we can be aware of how thought produces a result outside ourselves. And then maybe we could also be attentive to the results it produces within ourselves. Perhaps we could even be immediately aware of how it affects perception.”
Kind of how we know when our body is moving.
Thought treats itself as truth.
We can look at thought as a system of reflexes (when certain things happen, something else happens automatically).
“Thought is a set of reflexes which is potentially unlimited; you can add more and more, and you can modify your reflexes.”
Thought according to Bohm: emotions, bodily state, physical reaction, everything else.
Sometimes when we feel or think something, we start acting a certain way without us noticing it.
If you notice this, you can:
- Carry the action
- Suppress it
- Suspend it
In the process of suspension you notice:
- Physical reactions are produced by thought.
- Thoughts are affecting feeling and feelings are affecting thought.
Recall: go over the words which hurt you, and see what happened.
“The thing to do is to find the words which express what’s going on, and see what those words do – not for the purpose of finding the content of the words, but for the purpose of seeing what they do.”
Incoherence: your intentions and your results don’t agree.
“Some incoherence is inevitable, because knowledge is not perfect. All knowledge is limited, because it is an abstraction from the whole. It consists only of what you have learned up to this point.”
Coherence: order, beauty, harmony. We are built to appreciate coherence, and if something is not coherent we believe it is not worthwhile.
Tacit process of thought: actual knowledge (coherent or not)
“Thought should be able to perceive its own movement, be aware of its own movement. In the process of thought, there should be the awareness of that movement, of the intention to think and of the result which that thinking produces. By being attentive, we can be aware of how thought produces a result outside ourselves. And then maybe we could also be attentive to the results it produces within ourselves. Perhaps we could even be immediately aware of how it affects perception.”
Kind of how we know when our body is moving.
Thought treats itself as truth.
We can look at thought as a system of reflexes (when certain things happen, something else happens automatically).
“Thought is a set of reflexes which is potentially unlimited; you can add more and more, and you can modify your reflexes.”
Thought according to Bohm: emotions, bodily state, physical reaction, everything else.
Chapter 7
Participatory Thought and the Unlimited
Participatory thought:
a different way of perceiving and thinking.
Aware of the participation of their thought. Example: I am my country.
Literal thought:
“That’s all nonsense. We don’t pay attention to that at all.”
Reality as it is.
The way things really are.
Technical thought:
Aims to be unambiguous
We worship or words and thoughts
We believe our words cover all of the reality.
Participation:
By using literal thought, people begin to treat everything else as a separate object.
Participatory thought tries to unite everything.
At the beginning, people where very participatory. But as civilizations sprung, societies began to be more literal.
The problem with this is that we start seeing everything as objects, even people and ourselves.
“Society… it is a reality created by all the people through their consciousness.”
In a society, even if we don’t see it, everyone participates.
A dialogue is the same way.
“Even if you don’t make a visible contribution, you are still partaking and taking part in some way.”
Dimensions of the human being:
Participatory thought:
a different way of perceiving and thinking.
Aware of the participation of their thought. Example: I am my country.
Literal thought:
“That’s all nonsense. We don’t pay attention to that at all.”
Reality as it is.
The way things really are.
Technical thought:
Aims to be unambiguous
We worship or words and thoughts
We believe our words cover all of the reality.
Participation:
- To partake of
- To partake in
By using literal thought, people begin to treat everything else as a separate object.
Participatory thought tries to unite everything.
At the beginning, people where very participatory. But as civilizations sprung, societies began to be more literal.
The problem with this is that we start seeing everything as objects, even people and ourselves.
“Society… it is a reality created by all the people through their consciousness.”
In a society, even if we don’t see it, everyone participates.
A dialogue is the same way.
“Even if you don’t make a visible contribution, you are still partaking and taking part in some way.”
Dimensions of the human being:
- Individual: individual body different from others (physical, experience, background, capacities)
- Collective: great number of people (society and culture)
- Cosmic: man’s immersion of nature (cosmology of science and religion