CONVERSATIONS THAT MATTER
PSYCHOLOGY
2017, May 2nd at 10 AM PT/ 7 PM CET

Presencing and the emergence of – what?

WITH TOM CHRISTENSEN AND MONIA FRUEHWIRTH

Monia Fruehwirth has been a guest in the first ever episode of the Wisdom Factory and has joined us many times to share her wisdom. She continues participating in several series, Conversations that Matter, Conscious Ageing, Women Matters and (in German) Die Frauen am virtuellen Brunnen.

In one of our shows she met Tom Christensen and both felt like wanting to continue the conversation – which we actually did, until the sudden death of Tom interrupted the promising flow of exchanging knowledge and wisdom, with us hosts and our audience.

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Streamed live on May 2nd 2017

Time Stamps: WHERE to find WHAT in the video

00:00 Introductions and preliminaries, the dance metaphor and we dive in with comments by the guests and Heidi, a half minute of quiet meditation.

08:14 Tom takes control, “What can we do with our being.” Opening the “world of wizardry”.

10:00 Monika reports on her meditation period and the feelings of just ”being” together, memories of IEC gathering a week earlier.

13:40 Tom asks about the different kinds of presencing: the “15 year old” type and the “adult” type and demonstrates

16:30 Heidi asks just what presencing means in this context. Monika uses Sharmer’s Theory U and is urged to become more concrete.

18:37 Tom shows what it is by contrasting it with what isn’t, like the stories and monkey mind of our younger selves, anchored in past and future. It takes narrowing that attention to the present and holding it intentionally. It doesn’t work for all situations.

22;57 Mark asks if some dream/non-dream fluctuations are examples. Is it alpha or gamma states he’s describing? Monika wonders how people who have never experienced it could be lured into trying it.

25:26 Tome shares a test to see if it’s happening, starting with someone you’re angry with. But how do you calm your anger?

27:00 Other suggestions to make an object of your emotions, can you think and feel about your thoughts and feelings which requires at least “modern” capacities of consciousness. Now it’s OUR playground!

29:40 Tom explains how presencing solo is different from doing it in a group. Heidi uses the example of making music together.

32:40 Tom looks into the special qualities of music: melodic (linear) intervals and harmonic (present) intervals or chords. Monika comments on “distance” or perspective.

35:29 What presencing requires of us in each interaction.

36:05 Monika asks what we would like to “presence” right now? Tom wants collective intelligence for problem solving, just as we are doing right now, with inquiry, not answers. Heidi continues. So does Tom who comments on the phenomenon of “other” than just on “additive” in a we space. Heidi makes an analogy with the parts vs. the whole of the human body.

39:30 Monika asks how many universes (“wholes”) are there? What is the common denominator for a collective but divided mind? Tom points out that there won’t be a collective mind with different universes as he tries to look closely at Monika’s “verbiage” because collective implies agreement. He suggests “going meta” to examine areas of agreement. Total agreement is not necessary

42:58 The need to suspend the “discriminating” mind for a while in order to enter a we space. A judgemental, fearful or separating mind cannot enter. This can’t be “imposed” on anyone, unless someone really wants, for example, the “Truth” to be revealed and imposed upon them. And that includes 70% of the world!

45:00 Monika shares from the recent IEC regathering, reminding us of the compassion and responsibility we have for our impact on others (including the 70%!) “The Dharma Door” The importance of being humble.

47:40 Tom reflects on a past life experience and how he is using that experience. Tom’s current live as a “trickster”!

50:12 Heidi reports on a “we space” experience on the Women Matters” series and the involvement of the whole body, not just mind and heart. Tom tells a story about Heidi and me and we are flattered.

54:25 The shortcomings of being an angel! Knowing less and less!

55:30 Encouraging Tom to develop his theory (in another show) of a new level of development that is emerging as boomers grow old and “graduate” from the post modernism they’ve been immersed in since the 60’s.

57:22 Monika brings up “recalibrating” collective consciousness. We go on to what next, how we met, going forward, more topics to explore, thank you’s and goodbye’s.

About Monia Frühwirth

Monika is speaking out of the experience of 7 decades of an intense life which was dedicated to the evolution of consciousness in herself and others.

Monika is a true leader. Thanks to her constant efforts the philosophy of Ken Wilber was introduced and spread in Germany. Her way of adopting leadership was – and is – translating innumerable amounts of texts, publishing articles, editing print media and creating the German Integral Association together with some like minded people.

Monika was one of the first women in the German-speaking Integral scene – which at first was very “head biased” – the enthusiasm about a brilliant theory. She introduced into the Integral Community the “Feminine Integral Consciousness Field”, a self-organized group of women who tried to translate the theory into their everyday life practice. My friendship with her began with being part of this group of women and their attempt to find a FEMININE WAY of bringing the Integral WORLDVIEW out into the WORLD.

About Tom Christensen
Tom Christensen “Tom C.”, was the editor of and one of the authors in two books of Gravesian-Spiral Dynamics case studies. He provided Gravesian trainings and writes often on this topic, and others. Tom had braided his life over the past 40 years with constant strands of business, art including painting, sculpture, poetry and piano, regular engagement in sports & gardening, and raising a family. Tom C. was married, and with Stephanie they have 7 children, and 4 of the most charming grandchildren in the world. In years before, Tom C. served as an orderly, nursing assistant, and the first hospice counselor at UW-Madison Hospitals. This phase left him with a wider and more comfortable appreciation for the extremely wide range of end-of-life experiences for people. This background with dying, combined with an appreciation of the possibility of lifelong learning, has led him to welcome each day of his new, more obvious, aging phase, as another opening for discovery and adventure. “No one has ever lived THIS life before. I wonder what’s next?!”

Tom died unexpectedly in late spring 2018 shortly after another show in The Wisdom Factory with Monia Fruehwirth.

HEIDI´S INTRO TO THE SHOW

Our commitment at the Wisdom Factory is to make the integral worldview and related advanced ideas available to the public in a – hopefully – understandable and enjoyable form. We enjoy to talk with people who have their experience, their knowledge and their wisdom to share and who are ready to talk about their insights in an engaging way which is not purely academic.

So far we talked with hundred and more people, we arranged panel discussions where they could meet and get to know each other, and some of our guests attended the shows of others – and got interested in knowing each other better, as it is the case with Tom and Monika.

How exciting! Our intention is to connect people – and voilà: Monika Frühwirth and Tom Christensen are interested in talking to each other, in private and in public, to explore their ideas about life, growing up and the role of us humans in all stages of our lives.

For this first conversations many possible topics popped up and we had to chose one to start with:

Presencing and the emergence of – what?

Presencing is “The action or process of summoning up the presence of something; the action of making present” (en.oxforddictionaries.com). Most of us became aware of this term by ways of “Theory U” by Otto Scharmer where he describes a process called “presencing” and its opposite “absencing” with which we can describe human behavior in various situations. (I wrote a short blogpost some time ago to introduce the notion. You can check it out here)

Theory U – The cicles of Presencing and Absensing: Source: http://presencing.com

The Presencing Process

When we engage together in a presencing process, there is the potential of the unforeseen to emerge. In Scharmer’s book there are many examples given of incredible results, including the opening to others which before were considered atrocious enemies.
In our show with Monika and Tom we are most likely entering in such a process and we will see what will come up – and you can be the observer of what is happening in all levels of existence. You will certainly be able to realize that we don#t necessarily need to be present in person to enter into a common field when sensing into our presence together. With open mind, open heart and open will we might be able to co-create something tangible in our time together.