Ram Dass sent us this advice:

"Since here is contained in there, it would undoubtedly serve there well to Be Here Now."

These times are not primarily the fault of the Republicans, or greedy business tycoons, or misguided enviro-enthusiasts, or anybody else in particular. The forces bringing about change are beyond our ability to manipulate. But the outcomes will be profoundly affected by the creativeness of our responses. The transition pains can be significantly lessened by the kinds of activities you are involved with.

Willis went on to encourage this Mighty Companions activity, saying:

Tim Piering, who exemplifies a new
soft-spoken warriorship, is a
systems thinker who was looking
to connect all the dots on a meta-map
so we could see Oneness everywhere.

Tim: I'm reminded of the old shamanic principle, which is to hold multiple models and move between them. If a person is capable of doing that, what gets injected into the system is wisdom. One of the definitions of God is seeing everything at one time.

Willis: Because it's a whole-system kind of change, wherever you are in that system that part has to change. So, if you're in films, fine. If you're in advertising, fine. Therapy, fine. Whatever it is, that's a place from which to change that part of the system. What groups can do is to gently, and in a not-too-masculine way, explore the nature of this change at the social level. What I feel we lack is this conversation.

Arthur: The new order in society can't possibly be based on how different and wonderful the existing boxes are. It can't be about having enough boxes. We've got a million boxes. But if you are really listening, you're not applying your boxes. If you are hearing something you have never heard before it's not coming through because you drew on your repertoire, but because you did something other than draw on your repertoire. Only through that order of new thinking do we have something other than a system, or a set of boxes. We can't possibly have a culture on earth that's going to be hospitable toward life unless our very ways of living and being and working come alive. Something else has to be brought to bear so the genuine inspiration of what's to happen can move through you.

M.C.: So what do we need? What are we missing?

Willis: Some of the work that I'm involved in is trying to change the epistemology of mainstream science. If we just charge out there and do battle, we're not going to get anywhere. We did a project with scientists where we got the ones who were most willing to raise these questions. We took them off into a retreat setting -- 15, 20 of them -- and for 4 or 5 days humbly tried to explore together. And then we did it again, and then again. We finally came out with some documents that I think really have something, and the next time a group gets together they can start from a little bit farther along. Given what is trying to happen here, battle is to be avoided wherever we can and forces that seem to be opposing are to be played with to see if they might be willing to support something. Bear in mind, God has a lot of patience and we can learn from Him, or Her, as the case may be.

Arthur: So much of method and tactic is driven by what's appropriate at the moment. Sometimes stark confrontation is absolutely essential -- someone has to stand up and speak.

Tim: I wrote down four things that jumped out at me throughout this discussion. First, "Is there life in it? Is it alive?" Another is, "What's trying to happen?" Another one is, "Is there a flow to it?" And finally, "Not mine, but thine." As we speak these things, I feel we go deeper into an understanding, into the mystery. How do we speak with Spirit? How do we speak from Being? How do we speak a language that can resonate across the spectrum and, like tuning forks, connect people who are on different frequencies?

Daphne: Don't you find that when you step out, in the courage to speak that language, that you pierce the denial that is habitual? I think people are waiting to have that denial spoken to.

Tim: When I speak to groups, if I'm in my head, they're in their heads. If I'm in my heart, they're in their hearts. A heart speaks to other hearts. It takes real courage. You just have to continue to be vulnerable, to open up. But when you do, there's another kind of listening that appears.

Daphne: I think that there are many forces that are wanting us not to move forward and not to come together, and that to be mindful of them is very important.

Arthur: And to be ruthlessly honest about ourselves as to how much those forces live in us -- our fear, our rage, our doubt, our insecurity.

Tim: The most important thing right now to me is that for the first time I feel like I have gotten out of the way and let Spirit flow through in my interactions. We are becoming templates for Spirit to flow through. As templates, we are going to wake up other templates, no matter what track you take -- whether it's business or science or mythology or prophecy. The central discipline is to not become distracted. It is to stay in the awareness -- an awareness that has a million faces. The trick is not to grab on to any one face, because if you do you are distracted and chasing a memory. Your skill is in letting go. A warrior learns how to acquire a focus; an advanced warrior learns how to let go and flow.

Daphne: There are so few men embodying that, so I am inspired by your example. And encouraged, because in my interactions with men I see that there is so much sorrow and so little freedom to come into a new way. I've seen that the great opportunity for men is that moment of connection with their own sorrow. And yet there's great fear that comes out of the traditional male consciousness: "Well, I have to hold the aggressive position," or, "I have to be strong," or, "I have to bungi jump more," as opposed to free-falling into the experience that is the transcendence and the liberation.

Arthur: What will happen in a room full of people, I notice, is that people will begin to say that there's something among us that's not just what you bring and what I bring. They can pay attention to it like it's a real phenomenon. They can even speak from it. Relationship is not an abstraction. It's actually palpable, when the parties to it are awake enough to allow it. So you can do little analyses from that place. How far does this extend, this relatedness? And what is its origin? It's what I call an alternative science. Now, the kinds of things that have been said for a long time as spiritual truths become accessible to a scientifically-minded observer, which I find real important in working with men -- because men want to know, and I respect them deeply for it. "Show it to me. Show me!"

M.C.: Barbara Hubbard is doing a project involving 100 circles meeting in living rooms. And the presenting question for her was how to create that "otherness" where we feel so bonded.

Daphne: I think the formula is very simple: it is "where two or more are gathered." We don't know why that "other" consciousness happens.

M.C.: What frame of mind must we be in when two or more are gathered?

Daphne: A gathering frame of mind. I think the minute you introduce a demand the possibility for the mysterious third party is somehow challenged.

Arthur: It involves truthfulness, being with people that you care to be with, having some shared commitments, having a willingness to get through it. Having somebody you can go to if you run into trouble and having some kind of text you share, or some kind of practice you share, I think helps. At the individual level, what we confront most readily is fear. Willis talked about the fear of the coming transformation. Those fears go very deep. They go down to our most intimate vulnerabilities as fragile fleshy beings. I think that if we are going to talk about systemic change or evolution of culture, we have to talk about the paranoia of being a human being and how we respond to that and to one another.

Participant Bio's

WILLIS HARMAN (1918-1997) was president of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, a 50,000+ member organization he co-founded with astronaut Edgar Mitchell; was co-founder of the World Business Academy; and was an emeritus professor of engineering-economic systems at Stanford University. His several books included HIGHER CREATIVITY, co-authored with Howard Rheingold; GLOBAL MIND CHANGE: The Promise of the Last Years of the Twentieth Century; NEW METAPHYSICAL FOUNDATION OF MODERN SCIENCE, a landmark anthology he edited and contributed to; CREATIVE WORK: The Constructive Role of Business in a Transforming Society, co-authored with John Hormann; and the forthcoming, BIOLOGY REVISIONED, co-authored with Elisabet Sahtouris. A passionate advocate for fundamental systems changes, Willis was the motivator for the creation of Mighty Companions' Herringbone Project

ARTHUR EGENDORF is a psychologist in private practice, who is a nationally recognized expert in treating war trauma. After graduating from Harvard, he served in army intelligence in Vietnam and, like many other veterans of the war, was deeply troubled on his return. His book, HEALING FROM THE WAR, which won the 1986 Christopher Award "for affirming the highest human values," tells how he transformed that pain and helped hundreds of other veterans do the same. It empowers each of us to cultivate the warrior spirit, properly healed and called to a new mission: to negotiate, for ourselves and our world, a truly lasting peace.

DAPHNE ROSE KINGMA is a poet, psychotherapist, and teacher specializing in relationships. She has been in private practice for more than 25 years. She is the best-selling author of COMING APART: Why Relationships End and How to Live Through the Ending of Yours; TRUE LOVE: How to Make Your Relationship Sweeter, Deeper and More Passionate; A GARLAND OF LOVE: Meditations on the Meaning and Magic of Love; WEDDINGS FROM THE HEART: Ceremonies for an Unforgettable Wedding; THE MEN WE NEVER KNEW: How to Deepen Your Relationship with the Man You Love; and HEART AND SOUL. Dubbed the Love Doctor by the San Francisco Chronicle, her books have been translated into seven languages. She has lectured widely, conducted workshops around the world, and frequently guests on television with Oprah Winfrey, Sally Jessy Raphael and Phil Donahue.