Summary: | <p> It is well documented that the heart has a particular way of thinking; an intelligence critical to human evolution and, in particular, to a revolution in human consciousness. However, the truth remains: despite humanity’s deepening intuition and recent evidence regarding the heart’s wisdom, most people in Western cotemporary culture have not been taught how to listen and speak from the heart, let alone how to follow their hearts (Childre, Martin, & Beech, 2000). The Way of Council (Zimmerman & Coyle, 2009) is a process that teaches us how to listen and speak from the heart. The current study investigated this process as well as the lived experiences of people who self-identified as carriers of Council. The study’s aim was to portray the carriers’ reality as anchored by the intention of carrying Council as a spiritual path.</p><p> The narrative participatory approach designed for this study drew upon organic inquiry characteristics to translate the textures of Council Carriers’ lived experiences into a clear understanding of carriers’ reality. Between November and December 2014, 12 participants (including the researcher) engaged in a number of activities, such as one-on-one interviews, sharing a space in an online platform for a 3-week period, and participating in 2 online Councils. These Councils served to collect much of the data through the heart-felt sacred storytelling this process promotes. Council’s intuitive way of responding to stories was core to the three-dimensional process of analysis that led to the study’s findings.</p><p> These findings suggested that The Way of Council reminds people how to relate to others in a heart-centered way and, therefore, to learn to be human beings. This way of relating is facilitated by Council’s invitation to tell stories and to follow the heart’s soullike, all-accepting energy. While not generalizable, these findings contribute new insights regarding a Council Consciousness and how Council provides people today with a level of experience that bridges the gap between native and contemporary paradigms. These findings also encourage the implementation of Council conversations at all societal levels in order to transform humanity’s ways of thinking and relating.</p><p>
|