What might a Quantum Leap look like? This was the question that began the Quantum Leap Conference during the Leap Year weekend 2008. The question evoked numerous images which included Indiana Jones stepping off the ledge of a cave into an abyss, to a school of dolphins jumping out of the water, to a group of sky divers holding hands in a circle as they began their descent, to the picture of the Berlin Wall falling down, to a chick cracking its egg. Images abounded and energy surged as former participants in the Engaging Impasse: Circles of Contemplation and Dialogue® gathered to see if a collective consciousness has emerged from their experience of the Circles and how it is both affected by and is affecting the larger movements for transformation.

A Quantum Leap is best described as a change that could not have been predicted by anything that came before it. It is not a linear cause and effect change. Today, many people who see that our economic, political, and religious systems and structures are breaking down and in need of great change find hope in the real possibility of a Quantum Leap to get our planet on a sustainable course. Right now it does not seem as if there is anything that will cause such a radical shift or effect. However, when one applies this understanding of change to our future it offers hope that such a shift can happen given numerous seemingly independent events moving us toward the same goal. Exactly when it will happen and where the tipping point may be is not known.

The idea of a tipping point or a quantum leap is complemented by the notion of the chaos point within systems thinking. Developed by Ervin Laslo in a book by that title, The Chaos Point, he refers to the “crucial tipping point in the evolution of a system in which trends that have brought the system to its present state break down and it can no longer return to its prior states and modes of behaviors. It is launched irreversibly on a new trajectory that leads either to breakdown or to breakthrough to a new structure and a new mode of operation.”

Another naming of this same moment is that of the Great Turning. Developed by Joanna Macy it is the name “for the transition from the industrial-growth society to a life-sustaining society. It identifies the shift from a self-destroying political economy to one in harmony with Earth and enduring for the future.” It is the unique time within which we are living when our economic consumption and exploitation threatens the very life of the planet. It is a time when the dominator culture needs to “turn” and transform into one marked by partnership and mutual care for the Earth community.

Quantum Leap…Chaos Point…the Great Turning…this was the context of the Quantum Leap conference. Having engaged impasse through the process of communal contemplation and dialogue at the Circles the participants were aware that something had happened in their lives. They had taken a long loving look at the real and were able to shed the constructs and outdated assumptions that too often keep us unaware of what is really going on in our world.

After each of the Circles participants spoke about finding one’s voice; speaking from a place of integrity; experiencing a shift in consciousness; becoming more open to paradox and ambiguity; recognizing that we are all connected and that we need to become aware of how we are complicit in those situations we call impasse; understanding that it is the change in you which will affect the change in others and in structures and systems; and realizing a personal transformation within a communal setting.

As the Circles progressed there was a definite sense that something collective was beginning to emerge between and among the Circles. It was as if the Engaging Impasse Circle community was creating its own morphogenic field. This refers to a theory developed by biologist, Rupert Sheldrake, which posits that each species creates its own field of behaviors, values, attitudes and beliefs which is at some point immediately accessible to every member of the species and no longer needs to be learned or taught.

Applying it to human behavior one can posit that multiple morphogenic fields emerge among individuals and groups of individuals over time. Among these fields there can be a morphic resonance as the seemingly independent movements or groups experience their interconnection and freely shape and are shaped by one another.

In the Circles it was as if each Circle built on what happened in previous Circles and moved to the next stage more quickly. As the Circles continued there was an increasing desire to imagine how these changes could manifest within our work and lives and how to do it together.

One goal of the Quantum Leap Conference was to see if in fact there is an Engaging Impasse morphogenic field and, if so, how does this field contribute new ways of being and doing to the larger movement for transformation. It became evident by the first day that indeed we had developed an Engaging Impasse morphogenic field. When asked to reflect on how one is different since the Engaging Impasse: Circles of Contemplation and Dialogue® experience and then to share that together in small groups, an amazing synergy and resonance revealed itself.

As participants posted their small group reflections for all to read, many had difficulty identifying which of the written responses came from their own group as the similarities were that great. Over and over again we acknowledged the value and the power of taking time for contemplation – both personally and with the various groups and communities with which we interact. We claimed a deeper understanding that as we change we change everything around us. We embraced with greater intentionality the deepening awareness of our connectedness among ourselves, with Earth, the Cosmos, and with all of creation. We recognized a new consciousness developing that appreciates oneness rather than separation, questioning rather than resolving, and taking the risk of doing things differently. We felt that this greater awareness has awakened in us a deepening understanding that when we reach the “critical mass” the leap happens. It’s not the ego or something under our control. It’s “God-energy.”

The rest of the day explored how the morphogenic field of the Engaging Impasse community has been shaped by and is shaping other fields of transformation. A specific focus was on how the Engaging Impasse field is in dialogue with the fields of chaos theory; the Universe Story/emerging consciousness; the Christian tradition specifically, Jesus, the Mystic; and art and the imagination.

The next day invited the participants to reflect on how the Engaging Impasse field contributes to the Quantum Leap, the chaos point and the Great Turning. The wisdom that emerged included the importance of contemplation-personal and communal; the connection between contemplation and social/ecclesial change; some practice at contemplating; an acknowledgement that something new is happening in the world; a commitment to use the fruits of Engaging Impasse to move together, in concert with Earth and the Divine, to a deeper, more just and loving way of being. The participants believed that it is out of such a process that glimpses, supports and challenges will emerge for the individual and collective next steps.

Some of the participants’ next steps included: deepening new insights into spirituality; bringing Engaging Impasse to local communities; ensuring that justice work responds to the urgencies of the day with calm, sustained, reflective efforts; infusing the education of parents and children shaped by the realities of poverty and violence with new images and models for living and learning in right relation; promoting leadership, especially in religious communities, that is grounded in contemplation as a springboard for justice; and focusing the intentional energies of this collective, along with those of other groups, to create a new, peaceful context particularly during the U.S. elections.

So did a Quantum Leap happen?

One of the participants, feminist theologian, Mary Hunt, described the Leap that was made. “We did not proclaim a manifesto, create a new organization, or develop a blueprint for solving the world’s woes. We did not agree to any least common denominators. Rather, we deepened in connection with one another. We looked at our next steps in light of the “we” not the “I”. We accompanied one another as we “paid attention” to Earth, the Divine, and the Human Community, something that Simone Weil said in Waiting for God could be done by everyone. We prayed and pondered. We sang and danced with abandon. We encountered one another in small groups, at table, in individual conversations out of which the sparks of new connections and rekindled relationships alike lit the way. We gradually came to realize that this was the Leap.”

Nancy Sylvester, IHM

©2008 Institute for Communal Contemplation and Dialogue
Reprint with permission circles@engagingimpasse.org

Background References for the Article:

Ervin Laslo. The Chaos Point. Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads Publishing Co., 2006.
Joanna Macy. “The Great Turning as Compass and Lens,” YES, a Journal of Positive Futures. Summer, 2006.
Lynne McTaggart. The Field. New York: Harper-Perennial, 2002.
Rupert Sheldrake. The Rebirth of Nature. Rochester, VT: Park Street Press, 1991.

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