Otto Scharmer & Andrew Cohen - Radical Spiritual Evolution

What makes it possible for groups of ordinary people to enter into—and even stabilize in—higher states of consciousness? What are the nuts and bolts of this extraordinary process and why is it so significant for the future of our species? In this in-depth EnlightenNext interview, collective intelligence pioneer, economist, and MIT senior lecturer C. Otto Scharmer asks spiritual teacher Andrew Cohen about the evolution of higher consciousness and the necessity for creating an enlightened revolution in human culture. Cohen describes his goal of taking “the Many” and creating “the One”, an ultimately challenging maneuver he believes holds the key to the next step in our evolution. Such a radical collective attainment occurs only when people are attuned to what Cohen calls the Authentic Self, the liberated expression of ones humanity free from the influence of ego. It is a profound leap that rests upon a shared desire to urgently create a new philosophical, moral and spiritual context for oneself and for the world. This is a rare and remarkable discussion about the future of humanity between two bold innovators in the field of collective intelligence, human development, and spiritual evolution.

BIO

Dr. C. Otto Scharmer is a Senior Lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a founding co-director of ELIAS (Emerging Leaders for Innovations Across Systems), a joint leadership development initiative of the UN Global Compact, and the Society for Organizational Learning (SoL), along with leading global companies, the World Bank, and NGOs. ELIAS uses the U process of presencing to help young executives co-create profound systems innovations for a more sustainable world. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Center for Innovation and Knowledge Research, Helsinki School of Economics. An international action researcher, he is a co-founder SoL and has consulted with multinational firms and international institutions in the United States, Europe, and Asia.

Scharmer holds a Ph.D. in economics and management from Witten-Herdecke University, Germany. His article “Strategic Leadership within the Triad Growth-Employment-Ecology” won the McKinsey Research Award in 1991. His most recent work has included research in the form of dialogue interviews with 150 eminent thinkers on leadership, strategy, and knowledge creation. A synthesis of this research has resulted in a theoretical framework and practice called presencing, which he elaborates in his forthcoming book, Theory U: Leading from the Future as it Emerges, as well as in a co-authored book with Peter Senge, Joseph Jaworski, and Betty Sue Flowers, Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future (2004). With his colleagues, Otto has used presencing to facilitate profound innovation and change processes both within companies and across societal systems. He lives with his wife and their two children in Boston, Massachusetts.

Andrew Cohen, founder of EnlightenNext magazine, is a spiritual teacher and acclaimed author widely recognized as a defining voice in the emerging field of evolutionary spirituality. A life-changing awakening in 1986 brought Cohen to the end of his own search for liberation while simultaneously starting him on an exploration of the meaning and significance of enlightenment for our time. This has led him to a profound investigation of the human predicament and into dialogue with sages, saints, and spiritual luminaries from nearly every tradition and beyond.

In 1992, Cohen released the first issue of EnlightenNext (formerly What Is Enlightenment), expanding his own inquiry through the public forum of a magazine and pioneering an innovative form of spiritual journalism reminiscent of classical Socratic dialogue. Over the last decade on the pages of EnlightenNext, Cohen has brought together leading thinkers—mystics and materialists, philosophers and psychologists—to call for a higher and wholly contemporary synthesis of the spiritual truths found in the East and the empirical rigor of the West. Through the magazine and his writings, Cohen is creating a new context for understanding enlightenment as a human evolutionary imperative. Together with a growing network of integral visionaries, including Ken Wilber and Don Beck, he is helping to define a culture of thought that places spiritual transformation at the center of any vision of transforming the world.