Where We Meet the World: Reflections, News and Updates

Our acclaimed Regenerative Stewardship psilocybin retreat in the Netherlands is happening again in November. For readers in Australia or Asia, I’m doing a free webinar on October 10th, for once at a convenient time!

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If we change, will the world change? The nature of the dance between individual transformation and systems change is one of the most urgent questions of the times. It’s also one of the most misleading.

Often, we approach it like a complicated problem. Complicated systems are made up of many interconnecting parts, like a car engine, that don’t interact with other systems. For optimal functioning, you just have to tinker with those individual parts. Our society is enabled by machines, so it’s reasonable that when society isn’t working, we look to the component parts: human beings.

We then decide that these parts need to be ‘upgraded’ so that the system can function properly. If the problem is a lack of compassion and awareness, then the solution is for people to ‘raise their consciousness’. If enough people do, they will change the system.

This idea is widespread. Many New Age, conspirituality, ecological and Marxist groups are rife with the belief that social transformation happens when enough people reach a certain level of consciousness. More mainstream thinkers also point to this; in his 2000 book Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Malcolm Gladwell theorises that if 20% of a population start behaving in a new way, they create a ‘tipping point’ in that can lead to collective change. There may be truth to this, but it’s fiercely debated. The popular idea that individual change necessarily leads to social change might come from a misunderstanding of what kind of beings we are, and how systems work.

The world we live in isn’t complicated. It’s complex. Society is an unfathomable weaving of adaptive and interconnected processes that drive novel and unexpected outcomes. Human beings are complex and unpredictable, with multiple conflicting desires, personalities and imaginings creating a beautiful universe in each of us. These many universes are embedded in the systems we’re part of, which in turn move through us and change us as we change them. And all of this is happening everywhere all at once.

Trying to understand this complex dance has been my main inquiry in recent years. It’s the subject of my book, and it runs through most of the projects I’m working on today. This piece originally began as an update email about what’s coming up on The Bigger Picture, and while it is that, it’s also an exploration of the interplay between our inner worlds and the systems we belong to.

Regenerative Stewardship 

The idea of how to direct personal transformation outward into the world is what led me to co-create Regenerative Stewardship with Natasja Pelgrom. It’s a five day process combining relational practices, ritual and psilocybin ceremonies. Our next retreat in November will be our fourth, and mark a year since we started running it. 

The dance between our inner and outer world permeates the process, and over the last year Natasja and I have both become fascinated with the mystery at the heart of it. The transformations people are experiencing are emergent, complex and sometimes completely unexpected. This points to a kind of paradox at the heart of the whole endeavor of changing ourselves; none of us really know what transformation we need. If we did, we may just do it and not need to seek out a new perspective. 

The most powerful transformations come from experiences that take us beyond ourselves. Beyond our existing perceptual frames. Beyond what we think we need, or who we think we are. Straight into the heart of what is true, what needs to be felt, what needs to be accepted. And once that has been experienced, we can draw on courage and support to move in the direction we want to move in. Psychedelics open the doors of perception, but it’s up to us to step through.

The transformations we’ve witnessed over the last year are beautiful and sometimes extraordinary (you can read some people’s experiences if you scroll down here). What has stayed with me most is a sense of mystery and gratitude. We’ve put a lot of attention into evolving and adapting the process over the last year, including unique preparation and integration techniques, but ultimately it’s an emergent process, more than the sum of its parts, and some parts of it will always be inherently mysterious. 

That mystery makes the question of how inner transformation leads to wider societal change even harder to answer. I believe the link is profound, and I propose some ways in which psychedelics can facilitate social change in my book, but ultimately none of us can say for sure. Earlier this week, I spoke to an academic who wants to study the process and help us gather some real data, which is an exciting development. 

If that happens, it will take us full circle, because Natasja and I created this process after we were approached by two other academics. They were running a study exploring whether psilocybin can impact leadership. Specifically, whether it can change someone’s conception of what a stakeholder is. For example, a CEO working from a purely ego-centric perspective might see only themselves and their shareholders as real stakeholders. A more empathetic and expansive view would include employees, employees’ families, the natural environment, the city the company operates in, and possibly the whole cosmos. 

While the logistics of being involved in that study didn’t work, we were inspired to create a psychedelic process centered on self-leadership (what I sometimes call sovereignty) and stewardship, one that would invite people to direct their insights to making an impact in their own lives, organisations and communities.

If this is something that calls to you, we currently have two places available for our November retreat, including one scholarship spot (40% discount). You can read about on the button below, and book an initial call if it feels like the right process for you.

My Own Exploration

Reflecting on other people’s transformation inevitably twists me back to looking at my own. At the moment I’m committed to reviving my daily meditation practice, which used to be a big part of my life. However, as I got interested in more relational practices and therapy, as well as my weekly sessions with the wonderful Trish Blain, my practices became more interpersonal and relationally focused. I moved away from a strict daily meditation practice, focusing more on meditating when I felt like it.

That’s a far cry from where I began. In my late teens, I started a daily meditation practice. After a decade, I realised that I was missing something. I was too focused on my own inner world, without enough feedback from the outside. Without including relational work, it’s very easy to stay blind to our own shadows. That set me on a journey that included going on processes like The Path of Love, regular therapy and eventually training as a counsellor and leading group processes.

Today, I’m realising that I’ve swung too far in the other direction. My meditation practice has become rusty, and as a result I’ve become slack in my internal mental discipline. The time has come to focus. However, I’m trying to be careful not to pendulum back the other way.

I connect strongly with the philosophy of discipline Jocko Willink lays out in the track above by Akira the Don. That said, I want to balance it with its opposites; relaxation, compassion, letting go. My love of Integral theory, and my work with Trish Blain and her Four Forces model are helping me change how I combine practices.

What works best is a ‘yes and’ approach, creating what John Vervaeke calls an ‘ecology of practices’. It’s an additive philosophy where we bring in what’s missing without throwing out what’s already there. My quest right now is to bring back my internal discipline as fully as possible, with all the uncompromising energy Willink is putting out, while still staying open, emotionally raw and flexible through relational practices. Inevitably, I’m going to get it wrong in some way, but my intention is to become ‘less foolish’ in the process, as Peter Limberg might put it.

Coming up on ‘The Bigger Picture’ 

On the subject of expanding out from a single perspective, I’m currently exploring ways to grow what’s on offer here on The Bigger Picture, and plan to open up to invited guest writers in the next few months. Eventually, I hope to open for wider submissions from readers who also write.

Before that, I’m going to start reading my pieces out loud and releasing audio podcast versions (thanks to everyone who responded to my recent poll around this in Notes). For paid subscribers, I’ll be offering bonus audios with additional content. Every piece I write has a second document I call ‘cut bits’ which includes ideas, extensions and tangents that I’ve cut from the main piece, but that I still find interesting.

New Ways of Knowing

The response to New Ways of Knowing  has been amazing, thank you to everyone who’s booked: the live tickets are already half sold out and the course doesn’t begin for two months. Right now I’m deeply immersed in revisiting complexity theory and developing new meditations and dialogue practices which I’m going to be testing out on willing friends and family soon. I’m also eagerly awaiting Nora Bateson’s new book Combining which comes out in November and will of course be on the reading list and feature in her session.

It’s a joy to be researching and designing a course again, and naturally the question of how we as individuals can embody and influence the systems around us is at the heart of it. Many of us believe deeply that it’s possible, but how does it actually work? How can we combine a deep and multi-faceted understanding of the outer world through systems theory, cognitive science and complexity studies with practices, philosophies and new ideas that actually make a difference? In some ways, we’ll all be inquiring into this together through the course, and it’s my hope the course itself leads to insights and collaborations that open up new possibilities.   

As a reminder, all paid members get a 25% discount on New Ways of Knowing - just select the Substack Ticket option. Those in the Community Member tier get a 50% discount (alongside our monthly calls). If you’re in that tier and haven’t already, send me an email and I’ll send you the code. 

One of the images I generated for the course, and the home of some truly terrifying squirrels.

Help Required!

On that note, I’m also looking to hire someone to help with logistics and community management for New Ways of Knowing. That involves being the point of contact for participants, keeping the admin flowing, and helping on the live zoom calls as well. Ideally, you’d have experience with Mighty Networks and running large Zoom meetings (or confident that you could pick it up fast). The role would be part time, running from early December until a couple of weeks after the course ends in March. If this sounds of interest, send an email to hello@alexanderbeiner.com with the subject ‘NWK Role’ with some info about yourself and your experience. 

Closing the Loop

There’s lots more to come on The Bigger Picture, including a special artistic project that will launch here next year which I’ll be announcing soon.

To close, I wanted to say a big thank you to everyone for reading my work. The Bigger Picture has been going for almost a year now and it’s become deeply meaningful for me. I love writing more than anything, and I’m incredibly grateful you take the time to read my pieces.

All your positive comments and messages, as well as your constructive criticism, give me an experience of the ‘reciprocal opening’ John Vervaeke talks about; a back and forth that helps me expand into new curiosities and insights, and I hope the same is true for you.