Starr*, you have offered a great response here. I agree with every word you wrote, and share your concerns and insights.

I think what I should do with your comments -- and this entire conversation -- is highlight it somehow -- maybe on a special page, maybe link it to the sacred activism section. There are so many themes that emerge in response to your questions...

How do we avoid becoming "preachy" -- and just as sectarian as the "old paradigm" we hope we are leaving behind? That's a great question -- maybe deserving a long answer. I'd say there are bunch of things we might talk about -- including "resonance" -- and maybe particularly bring up this new theme that is emerging for me -- that I call "The Spirit of the Center".

In a nutshell -- think of a council fire -- with the flame and the smoke rising vertically at the center. Then -- consider an analogy with the human "chakras" -- and think of the chakras of each individual person in the council circle beginning to line up in a perfectly vertical way. They get in-synch with each other...

Just as the flame ascend at the center of the circle, the chakras and spirit-energy of each person lines up and ascends. My feeling is -- these energies all align together. This is the form of the supreme global namaste. Each individual chakra lines up to the vertical -- and in the center of the circle, the energies of every person in the circle become congruent -- overlapping, lined up in the same vertical flow.

Here in Santa Barbara we've done some experiments with "Collective Avatar" -- as a group gets so in-synch it's almost as though they can "speak with one voice" -- "one voice in many bodies".

I have begun to feel that this "voice of the center" can be understood as the voice of leadership. It emerges from sacred listening, and attunement in the circle. My own feeling is -- this is very powerful. it's very authentic (in my opinion) -- and because it is so simple, it can connect everything. It's very primal.

And this is only a small part of a response to your comment....