Core Groups: Building Evolving Social Structures
by Jane Ilene Cohen
copyright © 12/10/04
The challenge we have before us at this time in human history is how to really come together with each other, beginning with our closest social community. We all are living within a global, as well as more local, social fabric that holds in place an experience of reality. This effects how we perceive our power, safety, survival, well-being, and in what ways we are in relationship with each other. Much of the social environment we are effected by is not by conscious choice, and its bottommost survival foundation is fear and force-based. A fear and force-based paradigm of reality by definition separates us from each other, and therefore creates conflict, as is being demonstrated in much of our global and more immediate world. Coming together, on the other hand, inherently contains the resources we are looking for. The difference between being separate from each other, and coming together with each other, is the difference between avoiding the present moment and coming into it.
As much as we are drawn toward intimacy with each other, we are also repelled by it, because if the coming together is not in the context of transformation, each person has to compromise and limit themselves in some form. Real coming together requires radical and ongoing transformation. It is a highly evolutionary process. This is the purpose of Core Groups -- as I'm forming them.
In order for people to come together in genuine intimacy without truncating ourselves in any way, it is essential to bring out into the open our subjective experience -- what we feel, what we want, what matters to us, how we are responding to each other. In other words, it is necessary to open up emotional truth. These desires and responses, whether clear expressions or distorted by unhealed issues, are what they are. This living material cannot be controlled or made to be something it is not. It is the objective fact of our subjective experience. It is therefore the portal that brings us into the here-and-now, which accesses Universal or Divine consciousness and intention. It is where things can be untangled so that life works. The group's purpose is to get ourselves in the position and experience of accessing this level of consciousness.
People are generally afraid to find out what is really true about themselves, and in relation to each other, because we're afraid it will lead to our lives and relationships not working. The opposite is true. It's the avoidance, and therefore the distortion of what we deeply desire and what matters to us, that causes us to go in directions that cause us and others harm, and divides us from a deeply satisfying, meaningful, congruent and empowered life. These groups are demonstrations of the principle that when we get down to the actual truth, beyond the unhealed issues, we find that whatever is really true between us and each other person, works.
To a significant degree our passionate desires toward what is the most meaningful to us are diverted around our defense systems, social taboos, closed channels to possibilities, limited connections with each other. The group process brings to consciousness, out into the open, the distorted perceptions of these unhealed issues, when they are triggered in interaction. The Core Group forms the social context upholding an un-triggered experience of reality, supported by the facilitator. Transformation occurs when reality experience is juxtaposed with the distorted perception of reality, within the context of the group. The group is holding the consciousness of a safety net for the irrational emotions to release as the consciousness shifts to allow this new reality in. This creates an extraordinary bond between people going through this experience.
In these Groups we are not just focusing on individuals' unhealed issues, but the distorted social context we are living in. For example, people often have responses to each other or to life, beginning in childhood, that don't fit into the social model of what is acceptable. And then we form unhealed issues based on this conflict, which are generally some form of deciding that life is not meant to work. In the group context of exploring what is really true between people in terms of intentions, desires, soul purpose, etc. -- when we explore beyond the unhealed issues that hold in place the dysfunctional social model, the group experience can shift into a more conscious, functional, satisfying and true social fabric and survival system.
These Core Groups are about creating whatever your heart's desire is, personally and in the world, whether it's collectively as a group, or in different configurations within the group where there is alignment. Accessing intentions and desires on progressively deeper levels charts courses deep into the unknown, creating possibilities never before dreamed of. The deeper we go, more questions and answers are revealed, leading us into the heart of our God-selves in all of our magnificence and power. It puts us in the context in which life works, and resources and solutions open up.
These groups are about creating a reality framework that is a completely positive, empowered, solid knowing of the beneficence of the universe. The intention of these groups is to create a social fabric that shifts our bottommost survival and well-being paradigm to one in which the Divine leads. It is about getting ourselves into the position where we are creating from a higher source. It is a melding of human and Divine intentions, bringing the human experience, with all of its responses and desires, into a process that accesses the Divine. It is using the human experience as a portal into the Divine experience, by bringing it into the present moment. Everything when brought into the present moment leads to the Divine.
This group is about getting ourselves into the position where we can truly come together, bringing in our gifts, our pieces of the puzzle. When we put our most powerful pieces of the puzzle together, we access huge power. And with that aligned vibration, we create a powerful energy vortex.
Group Details:
Participants: Your circle of friends, community core group, or people with whom you want to create a social fabric. 6 - 10 people.
Time: Weekly 3-hour groups, 7 - 10 PM, in 8-week segments, which can be on-going. (Day of the week to be determined by the schedule of participants and facilitator.)
Fee: $42 registration fee, paid in advance + $294 balance, payable at the first group, covers an 8-week segment. (Total is $336, and amounts to $42 per 3-hour group.) (Payment plan can be arranged.)
Location: Encinitas, CA. (Address and directions will be given upon registration.)
Facilitator: Jane Ilene Cohen, Transformational & Intuitive Counselor (NLP Master Practitioner, TimeLine Therapy, A Course in Miracles, Abraham-Hicks). Jane specializes in relationships and has a private counseling practice in Encinitas, CA, for individuals and couples, as well as facilitating groups.
Contact: Call Jane to register and for more specifics at: (760) 753-0733, JC@janecohen.net, http://www.janecohen.net
