Deep Ecology, Deep Democracy & Deep Listening: A Compassionate Response to Disaster Steven Fenwick, Ph.D.
In this talk, I wish to draw some basic principles from the environmental philosophy known as deep ecology as well as from principles of deep democracy as defined by my teacher Arnold Mindell, the founder of Process-oriented Psychology. I hope to show how this can be applied as a practice of deep listening in conflict resolution and ethical decision making related to the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
-Naess and other deep ecologists speak of deep ecology in terms of identifying with a larger sense of selfhood, an Ecological Self that includes all other beings in the world. This leads us to an ethic based on deep identification, caring and love for all other beings. Deep Ecology The deep questions are about how to sustain life as a whole, not only human life and culture. It embraces a larger sense of identity, caring and solidarity with all of humanity and all of life, rather than caring only about one s own self, one s own family, one s own country or even one s own species
Love is the felt experience of connection to another being. An economist says more for you is less for me. But the lover knows that more for you is more for me too. If you love somebody, their happiness is your happiness. Their pain is your pain. Your sense of self expands to include other beings. -Charles Eisenstein, author of Sacred Economics
It can be very difficult to put this into practice. How can we identify with the needs of the whole all parts of a given system, both the human and of the biological world when there are many different parts of the system with conflicting needs. For example, the need for people to have jobs, the need for corporations to make money for shareholders, the need for people to live in a clean and healthy environment, the needs of other species and ecological systems to be sustained, etc. All of these conflicting needs lead to many internal and external conflicts.
Deep Democracy as defined by the psychologist Arnold Mindell, can thus be a helpful concept. This is a philosophy of making decisions based on listening to all parts of a given system. This is applied at all systemic levels, from the individual level to the group/organization level to the world level.
Deep Democracy Openness to all of the voices, parts, feelings and roles, both within oneself and in the world as a whole, including perspectives that are normally marginalized from personal or collective awareness and identification. A greater wholeness and wisdom that arises out of the inclusion and interaction of all of these diverse inner and outer perspectives.
- Deep Democracy is A special feeling of belief in the inherent importance of all parts of ourselves and all viewpoints in the world around us. - Arnold Mindell
For organizations, communities and nations to succeed today and survive tomorrow, they must be deeply democratic that is, everyone and every feeling must be represented. Deep democracy is awareness of the diversity of people, roles, and feelings and a guesthouse attitude towards whatever comes to the door of one's attention Changes do not work for long if we ignore ou r deepest feelings about the issues Future governments can only succeed with awareness of feelings and dreams Arnold Mindell
The Deep Democracy concept was developed by Arnold Mindell as a guiding principle of his Process-oriented Psychology.
What is Process-Oriented Psychology? Developed by Arnold Mindell, originally a physicist and then a Jungian Analyst in the 1970 s. Developed originally from his study of how physical body symptoms mirror the meaning of dreams. He then expanded the paradigm to include meaning found in human communication signals, and the problems found in couples, families, groups, organizations, and the world as a whole. The world of human experience is found to be a process - a continuous flow of information that can be meaningfully unfolded.
Process-Oriented Psychology Works to bring more awareness to all levels of a system: the personal level the family level the group and organizational level the world level
Greater awareness allows for the resolution of conflicts and for greater wholeness and wisdom to arise.
World Work is one of the applications of Process-oriented Psychology. It is applying the principles of Processoriented Psychology to working with world problems in groups.
World Work applications: Local town meetings or smaller groups focused on various topics related to local, national or world problems. Organizational conflict resolution for businesses, governmental organizations and NGO s. Special World Work seminars focusing on various topics.
Three Aspects of Deep Democracy: Individuals plus the surrounding environment. Parts or roles within a system as shared inner feelings and dreams. A field that influences moods, feelings and realities.
Timespirits The beliefs, roles, feelings and spirits of a particular time in history.
Timespirits are differentiated parts of the overall global field; they are roles found throughout the world: communists and capitalists, workers and managers, poor countries and rich countries, heroes and villains, and so on.... Timespirits are like figures in a dream... When you identify with a timespirit in a given field, you actually experience the emotions of that spirit; your consciousness is altered so to speak. If one processes these roles by consciously identifying them, or even temporarily becoming them, they change. Timespirits transform. Arnold Mindell
Spacespirits This is the spiritual feeling of a place, the spirits of the earth or the energy of a particular place. Much like the traditional Japanese Shinto concept of kami - the gods or spirits that inhabit a particular place. Similar concepts are found in cultures all over the world. Each place on earth has it s own special feeling and wisdom to offer.
We are all sensitive to spacespirits and like indigenous people who identify certain areas, forests, and mountains as having more or less power, we are attracted to, or repulsed by places and intuitively feel those places of power as areas that can either support us or make us ill. Arnold Mindell
All of us are at heart nature lovers, but we often forget our love for nature when we deal with one another, thus dividing nature from humanity, the spacespirits from the group process. Arnold Mindell
By bringing more awareness and conscious interaction between all of the roles, feelings, timespirits and spacespirits within the field of the group, a deeper wisdom can arise.
In any group there are roles, beliefs and feelings that are marginalized and not identified with. We seek to make these more conscious by following subtle signals and non-verbal communication. We listen for hidden feelings and dreams within the group as well as listening to rational content, and we seek to do this in ways that are acceptable within the culture of that particular group.
Ghost Roles Roles, feelings and opinions that are marginalized and hidden within a group, so the group does not identify with them. They are hidden ghosts within a group. They may appear as background feelings, disturbances in the group, or a reference to a 3 rd party who is not present.
Deep Listening The attitude of deep democracy leads to a practice of deep listening. Deep Listening means that we deeply attend to all of our inner feelings and voices, even the ones that we usually ignore. It also means that we listen deeply to all points of view that others express, even those that we might disagree with, and can learn to feel the other position within oneself, knowing that every perspective adds something to the whole.
Arnold Mindell has discovered that all of the different parts, roles and conflicts present in any group, organization or in the whole world also exist as parts within each person. The larger system is thus reflected in each individual.
The Daoist Rainmaker Story
The complete whole is the complete whole. So also is any part of the complete whole. - Hua Hu Ching (Chinese Daoist text).
"Each person, each object in the world, is not merely itself, but involves every other person and object and, in fact, on one level IS every other person and object." - Avatamsaka Sutra
By bringing more awareness and harmony within ourselves, we bring more awareness and harmony to the world and vice versa.
To facilitate conflict...... It helps to find all of the parts of the world, within oneself. To facilitate conflict, one must first listen to the same conflict within oneself and make peace within. Process-oriented Psychology offers methods to work with resolving both the inner and outer conflict.
This means that one must listen deeply to all of the inner parts and voices as well as all of the outer parts and voices. It is very helpful for the facilitator to first resolve this conflict within him or herself by knowing all of these parts as inner parts and like the Daoist rainmaker, work on bringing these inner parts into harmony within oneself. Only then can one be of service in helping to resolve the conflict in the outer world.
How can we apply this approach in dealing with the disaster of 3-11?
Fukushima: the Invisible Disaster. Impacts of radiation on the health of current and future generations. The problems of containment and cleanup. The problem of disposal of radioactive waste material. Incineration? The problem of nuclear refugees. Future reliance on nuclear energy? Is it safe? Food safety. Economic impact.
Possible roles, timespirits and spacespirits related to Fukushima: The anti-nuclear movement. The government. TEPCO & nuclear industry. The media The general public who wants both affordable electricity and safe environment and food. The children and future generations The living creatures and spirits of the land and sea. Farmers and Fishermen whose products are effected. Other roles?
By applying Process-oriented methods of deep democracy and deep listening to all of these roles, we can bring more awareness and wisdom to the field of this problem.
Deep Listening Council A Process-oriented version of the Council of All Beings. A deep ecology group process developed by Joanna Macy and John Seed. A way to listen deeply to all of the different roles, feelings, timespirits and spacespirits surrounding a particular issue.
We must learn to mediate between all of these spirits, like the character of Ashitaka in Miyazaki s beautiful anime film Princess Mononoke. He loved both the people of Iron Town and the spirits of the forest, so he was able go between both sides of the conflict.
QuickTime and a decompressor are needed to see this picture.
By consciously processing the many roles, feelings and positions present within each of us, as well as roles present in society it is possible to arrive at a greater sense of wisdom for the whole system. Wiser decisions can then be made for the benefit of all.