Kathy loaned me a wondrous book today:

Centered On the Edge
Mapping a Field of Collective Intelligence & Spiritual Wisdom

A study and report supported by the Fetzer Institute,
Kalamazoo, Michigan US September 2001

Fetzer begins the book with a story about how it came into being:

"As part of an institutional assessment process ..., Fetzer [Institute] asked author Jacob Needleman to offer his reflections about the future role of the Institute. In his letter to Fetzer, Jacob offers a provocative image:

" I [believe] that the group is the art form of the future. ... {E}very great culture has created forms of sacred art that were needed in order to transmit and ... discover by experience the truths which were necessary to absorb into one's life. ... In our present culture, as I see it, the main need is for a form that can enable human beings to share their perception and attention and, through that sharing, to become a conduit for the appearance of spiritual intelligence."

"Jacob then underscores the urgency of this image, observing that 'we obviously cannot confront this tangled world alone. ... It takes no great insight to realize that we have no choice but to think together, ponder together, in groups and communities. The question is how to do this. How to come together and think and hear each other in order to touch, or be touched by, the intelligence we need.' "

"How do we come together in order to touch, or be touched by, the intelligence we need?"

"This question, and Jacob's image of "the group as art form of the future," provided the principal catalyst for our exploration. This book is one small utterance in response to Jacob's provocation."


Here's a sample quote randomly chosen from the many inspiring words and images in this lovely book:
 
"What we know about individuals, no matter how rich the details, will never give us the ability to predict how they will behave as a system.

Once individuals link together they become something different. ...

Relationships change us, reveal us, evoke more from us.
Only when we join with others do our gifts
become visible, even to ourselves."

- Margaret Wheatley and
    Myron Kellner-Rogers