A Conference of Note

David and Kevin practicing in a corner of the room before plenary session

During the week of the summer solstice, I was imersed in coordinating a conference for the Association for the Advancement of Psychosynthesis (AAP) (www.aap-psychosynthesis.org). This conference had been in the making for two years and involved many people doing many tasks to prepare for what we were intending to be a new beginning for AAP, to open up to another discipline - in this case making a concerted effort to attract life coaches interested in a transpersonal approach to their practice, to welcome the new pscyosynthesis coaching course,  to introduce new people to psychosynthesis, and be a gathering of long time colleagues to "catch up" personally and have a lot of fun as well.

The conference was held on an eco-friendly campus in Burlington, VT, known as a  place of  environmentally friendly innovations. The cafeteria, served by an organic whole foods distributor, provided meals for the many different diets folks are committed to these days.

 The 28 workshops and the four pre-conferences, were all masterful presentations by those new to AAP and long time trainers, as well. The three plenary sessions introduced life coaching by the man who pioneered the approach in North America, presented the complexity of systems which exist when attempting to unify a community, and ended with an introduction to the principles of psychosynthesis coaching by the first  graduating class.

The preparation team went out of their way to create an intentional space. Initially disappointed that there would not be a logo to hang, we were surprised to see one displayed boldly in the three storied window space of the atrium - place of registration and the bookstore. Following a discussion, another appeared for the plenary room (for a small fee). A flute player volunteered to provide impromptu music at the beginning of each plenary session. He soon had a combo, including bongo drums, a guitar, and singers. By the all out efforts to create an intentional sacred space, this campus was very definitely the site of a grand conference.

Also woven into the fabric of this community event, were co-creative dialogue groups. Seven groups formed, semi-organically. The leaders of the groups agreed before hand and Friday evening when the conference broke into these groups, participants joined in where they felt drawn. Seven reports on Sunday, revealed that an abundance of creative dialogue had occurred in their meetings, some with next steps planned.

To have the conference coordinator be the same person as the co-chair of AAP, was unusual and seemingly impossible.  However, in the beginning of the planning, there was not much interest in a conference, so three of us, overworked already, took it on. The world conference in Italy the year before had been a huge success with over 500 (unheard of) attending and some felt was a demonstration of a supreme synthesis that Roberto Assagioli, father of psychosynthesis, had introduced. This left a sense among most that this conference would last forever!!  The year before that, the AAP conference planning fizzled out half way through the preparation. In 2010, there was a huge blow up in a workshop on the role of esoterism in psychosynthesis that marked that conference's fame.

So, there I was. Momentum built slowly but surely. Soon enough, there was a theme, a place, a logo, and a team in place. Even with the team, I was working ten hours a day for months - meditating and relaxing as I went. Nevertheless, when I went in for a relatively simple heart procedure, I ended up in ICU for five days and flat on my back for another ten days. this was a reminder to me that working as a team is  a critical element of such an event. Even before I was back on my feet, I was making a concerted effort to have that be our  modus operandi.

Because I was the contact person for solving all the little problems that come up in the course of an event happening, I was not feeling the success that was unfolding even with input from so many. One very wise long time colleague asked me if I was feeling this. This question was an opportunity to take some time to reflect and to "smell the roses" (an appropriate idiom of experiencing the beauty of it all in the midst of all the activity going on).

What a feeling!! I reveled in rejoicing that I did it! I manifest a practical vision that I had held in my heart. People were excited, community was renewed, old wounds were healed, new life was in the making. I sure hope the others who poured so much love into the making of this conference are experiencing the same feeling of success.  It was an amazingly complex event, filled with wonder, filling heart space, being transformed.

Asked to say what I felt was the highlight - the part which holds the whole in one image - of the conference, I have to say it was just before the final plenary. The flute player, was playing "Summertime" (and the livin' is easy...) and those already in the room broke out in song.

The great learning was that the way to interest new people is to introduce them through local networking introductory events (we did not draw life coaches who were strangers to psychosynthesis - this time anyway!!)

Can it get any better? When has this great "Yes" that is available to us all, been a  candle lit in the darkness of drowning in the minutia of implementation?