THE SUPREME ART OF DIALOGUE
structures of meaning
Anthony Blake
305 pages, with illustrations; including glossary, bibliographic references, name and subject indices
£15 (UK) $30 (USA)
DuVersity Publications
order from Karen Stefano registrar@duversity.org or use order form
The Supreme Art of Dialogue attempts to integrate diverse perspectives on the dialogue process, including the spiritual and the scientific and is itself a kind of dialogue incorporating many points of view. At its core is a reconciliation between numerical or formal and verbal or qualitative ways of thinking. It has four main sources. Each contrasts with each of the others in contrasting ways, and engages with the others reciprocally.
Structural Communication [Bennett] method of dealing with both content and structure of meaning independently; two-channel, two-way communication based on writing. Structure is explicit and related to systematics. Developed for educational purposes in the 1960s; further developed eventually into LogoVisual Technology
Dialogue [de Mare and Bohm] free-floating conversation not directed to the future but to the present moment; with diffuse structure allowing for emergence, based on speaking. Structure is implicit. De Mare's median group is a special case of the maximum number of participants compatible with the possibility of equality between them. Dialogue requires the suspension of everyday habits and assumptions of discourse. Facilitation of dialogue varies according to theoretical perspective, purpose and context, from virtually nonexistent to very managed.
N-logue [Blake] structured conversation based on the number of participants N; usually articulated and observable for small numbers up to 4; can be written or spoken. They require even more stringent suspensions of habit than dialogue in general. Structure is explicit. N-logues are treated as particles of meaning making of various sizes and qualities called logons. Instead of 'adding' their separate minds together, the N persons take on roles of an N-mind. They can be practised as an art in their own right or discerned and cultivated as they arise spontaneously in dialogue. Dialogue is composed of N-logues. N-logue is conscious. Derives from systematics.
ILM [Matchett] based on listening to complex sounds, especially music, that are more highly structured than speech in form, allowing content to arise of itself; centred in individuals though conducted in a group, where all listen to the same source but do not talk with each other. Structure is implicit. ILM is taken to symbolise and invoke access to the information field that underlies the very possibility of communication. Whatever an ILM experience means is just what the individual wants it to mean.
From the Glossary
The dialogue process is of supreme importance in human life yet only now is it beginning to be acknowledged. The late Patrick de Mare always insisted that dialogue was mind and that mind was that between brains rather than in brains. The key figures in the discourse of The Supreme Art include: John Bennett, mathematician and mystic and student of Gurdjieff; David Bohm, physicist; Patrick de Mare, pioneer of the median group concept; Gordon Lawrence, pioneer of the Social Dreaming Matrix, and Edward Matchett, an explorer of how genius might be developed.
“Very, very good. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading it.” Gordon Lawrence.
CONTENTS
Introduction
Chapter One – Dialogue
Origins
The Form of Dialogue
The Energies of Dialogue
Dialogue and Culture
To Know Together
Meaning Logic
Roles in the Structure of Meaning
The Significance of Neutralisation
Meditation and Dialogue
The Will of Dialogue
The Mathematical Feel of Dialogue
N-Logue
Chapter Two – Encounters with Meaning
The Importance of Meaning
Structure and Meaning
Meaning and Words
Media
Removing the Veils
Structure
The Structure of Experience and the Experience of Structure
Chapter Three – Structural Diversity
Structural Communication
Dialogue
Principles of Structure
Higher Intelligence
Music and Love
Webs of Meaning
Chapter Four – Trust in the Process
Dialogue Phenomena
Interface between Finite and Transfinite
The Space of Meaning
Dialogue and Consciousness
The Space, Time and Will of Mutuality
On Religion
Trust in the Process
Three Kinds of Mind
The Categories of John Bennett
Progression
Twelve Categories
Interlude – Technics of Dialogue
The Measure of Dialogue
Why Increase Diversity?
The Sayable
Chapter Five – The Game of Dialogue
Fabric and Circles of Meaning
Structures of Meaning Making
Meaning Games
Matrix
A Theatrical View of Dialogue
A Scientific View of Dialogue
Logons
Greater Meaning
The Experiential Barrier
The Barrier of Creativity
The Genius of Dialogue
Chapter Six – Immediate Liberation of Meaning – ILM
Universal Field of Meaning
Awakening Intelligence
The Sound of Music
Impulse Power
Naturalist’s Trance
In the Realm of the Senses
Vast Computation
Chapter Seven – Large Group Meetings and Beyond
Beginnings
Mental Space
Agora
Making of a Shared Present Moment
Ideals of Facilitation
Conscious Society
Global Dialogue
Levels and Scales of Meaning
Historical Roles of Groups
Chapter Eight – The Fabric of Reality
Chapter Nine – The Conjunction of Opposites
Glossary
Bibliographic Compilation
Subject Index
Name Index