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Monjoronson Conversations #64 - Design Team Development - Nov 16, 2012 - Daniel Raphael, Colorado

Topics:

• Introducing Design Teams to Liberal Arts Colleges and Universities
• Presenting this Material to Secular Minds
• “Green Sustainability” Versus “Social Sustainability”
• Training for the Various Roles in the Design Team
• The Proper Role for a Faculty Member
• Advise the Staff to Participate in a Team of Their Own
• Presenting this Concept as Non-religious
• Sustainability as an Issue of Morality
• In How Many Roles Should the Students Participate?
• The Importance of Facilitator
• Learning to Use the Schematic Is an Essential Skill
• Why Is Social Sustainability Crucial?
• Introducing Meditation Without Proselytizing
• The Design Teams Are Not Alone; They Have Resources
• Sharing this Transcript with the Academic Faculty
• Closing Message for Jeff
• Providing Guidance to Others During These Trying Times
• The Process Has Begun Globally

 TR:  Daniel Raphael
Moderator:  Michael McCray
Guest:  Jeff Cutler
November 16, 2012

Prayer:  As we come to the center of our being in preparation for this session, we surround ourselves, and invoke the presence of the Creator around us and in us. We join in friendship and love and with our Thought Adjusters, as we prepare for these moments together.  We give thanks for this opportunity for this new revelation of understanding of our ultimate and personal and planetary relationship to our Creator, and we give thanks with great joy for that.  Amen.

MONJORONSON:  This is Monjoronson.  It is good to be with you again, my friends.

MMc:  Welcome!  We have a guest with us today.  His name is Jeff Cutler.  I’m sure you understand why he is here.  Is there anything you would like to say to us before we get started?

MONJORONSON:  No, I will enjoy his presence in this forum as a new experience for us all.  Please proceed.

MMc:  Jeff, would you like to ask your questions?

Jeff:  Yes, thank you.  First, I must say that I am humbled to be invited into your presence, and this opportunity in my life.  Are you aware of my plans, or should I summarize them for you briefly?

MONJORONSON:  Please summarize them for the record.


Introducing design teams to Liberal Arts Colleges and Universities

Jeff:  I am the Treasurer of the Foundation of a public Liberal Arts College in Oregon, that is struggling for its identity, like many other small schools, struggling with its cost structure and looking for a change in direction.  It is my hope that as the faculty and the Academic Senate are now searching for other answers and other directions to go with the student body, that introducing your model of social sustainability into the curriculum of the upper division students will ignite some great interest in this training and will bring students to this training and give them working tools that they will be able to use when many of the government functions, either due to cataclysms or due to just financial collapse, start to unravel in our country and these skills become highly valuable.

My first question is:  Is this small public Liberal Arts School an appropriate place to incubate this model?

MONJORONSON:  Yes, it is.  I will comment more with your next question.

Jeff:  Is the team that I am building as a cooperative team to try to build an implementation of this model, are we reinventing the wheel, or is there a successful precedent that we could learn from to bring this to an educational institution?

MONJORONSON:  You are inventing the wheel, though the fundamental elements of it are available for your construction.  These will be revealed to you as your team works with these materials.  You will find that there are more materials available than you realize, though once you begin the inquiry method with members of this team, you will discover more of those materials.

Jeff:  Do you have any opinion about the probability of our success with the educational institutions and the mind set of those folks?  By success I mean the introduction of a values-based model with only a slight change into a belief system that is very hostile to spiritual leanings?




Presenting this material to secular minds

MONJORONSON:  This will essentially be successful.  There are ways of presenting these materials to secular minds, which gives them hope and the opportunity to expand this qualitative model.  The Liberal Arts educational setting is a perfect setting for this, as it complements what we are doing.  This is a holistic approach.  The Liberal Arts college setting provides a holistic approach for the application of these principles and procedures that are useful in the various fields within a Liberal Arts college.

Jeff:  Sustainability seems to be a very popular word, and certainly it’s gaining interest with the younger people.  There are several schools in the U.S. offering degrees in sustainability.  Are there any to your knowledge, of this course work?  Is it based upon statements of shared values and beliefs, or is it simply a re-organization of “green philosophy and green technology?”


“Green sustainability” versus “social sustainability”

MONJORONSON:  The work that you see outside of your own team setting in other universities and academic settings, are principally of the “green” adaptation of sustainability.  Their concerns are material sustainability and at the most, how it effects or affects the social component of your society.  This is a highly incomplete model to follow.  Yours will be very dynamic and you will find that those members of your staff who become involved in this will soon be invited to discuss this topic at large across the nation in the other academic fields.

Jeff:  In this model, there is a facilitator role, a counselor role, and inquiring mind role, and a recorder role.  How much training should the facilitator have prior to joining a team?  I am informed by one of my team members, who has a degree in Theology and is a wonderful woman, is a professional counselor and facilitator.  She says there is quite a bit of literature.  Is this a good prerequisite start for finding students who would want to join these teams?  Is the facilitator role a place to start?


Training for the various roles in the design team

MONJORONSON:  Yes, it would be an excellent place to start.  I would counsel you to also look into the training for mediation.  Mediators are highly capable and objective and are able to see several sides of a topic at the same time without becoming invested or personally involved in that mediation or facilitation.  The necessity of objectivity in the role of the facilitator is primary to their effectiveness in leading the team, both in the social and also the work process involved in the team.  You mentioned the consultant role; this can either be one who is non-visible, a spiritual Melchizedek, or it can be in a secular term, a highly objective individual who is not predisposed to spiritual connections.  This role is a bit different from the facilitator, as it is even more removed from the process, and acts more as an observer of the overall process, and then provides direction so the team and the sub-teams and committees are able to maintain their focus on the long-term objectives of the team process.  Do you understand?

Jeff:  Yes, sir, I think so.  What then would you say is the proper role for a faculty member or someone who represents the academic institution?


The proper role for a faculty member

MONJORONSON:  First, before this person comes on board, they must be very clear about the intentions of the team and of each member, as they come on board.  These intentions and agendas must be very transparent and stated clearly, so that everyone knows their position and how they will participate.  The role of a faculty member to a team of students would be one of advisor, or would be perhaps the consultant.  They would be there to assist in the training and development of the minds and behavior of team members and to help them achieve the long-term goal that the team has accepted for its purpose.  Does this help?

Jeff:  Yes, it does.

MMc:  I have a question.  Do you foresee the faculty member as a participant in the team, or do you see the faculty member as an advisor to the team but not a participant?

Jeff:  I don’t know.  I am not capable of understanding at this point, whether the faculty member… what their proper role should be.  All I know is that it is their institution and their mind, and they want to generally control as much as they possibly can.  I’m trying to struggle for a role here, where they would not pre-empt the values-based founding of this model.


Advise the staff to participate in a team of their own

MONJORONSON:  Let me be of assistance, if I may.  Before the team is formed with students, it may be advisable for an academic teaching staff to participate in a team of their own.  These team developments are highly experiential and there is a great deal to learn experientially in the process.  What we have found with most Western thinkers is that they are quantitatively involved; they have objectives that stem from their intelligence, their intellect and they are very linear in thinking.  The process of the team is highly qualitative and values-based.  Many times the processes in developmental teams or experimental teams are highly evolutionary.  Often the results are not fully known to the members until sometime after the conclusion of their last meeting.  It would be very helpful for staff members to have experienced the team setting, so that they can be more accurately, vicariously connected with the students as they exercise the team.

Jeff:  On a slightly different slant, in the works that I have read so far, for both the channeling and the spiritual consultant, you indicate that there are non-religious [words] or words that do not have great associated meaning with religion that defines spiritual, that they be available to substitute here to make this, at least, easier to go down with the faculty?


Presenting this concept as non-religious

MONJORONSON:  Yes.  I refer you to a book that was guided to this one to read, and that is the book entitled, “Synchronicity” by Joseph Jaworski.  In this book you will find that he is a highly evolved and developed linear thinker as an eminent attorney, yet as you read through the book towards the latter part of it, he discloses that the tremendous insights of leadership are oftentimes done through a leap of faith, and that prior to these tremendous decisions and taking action by great leaders, they have withdrawn from the fray of the moment to reflect upon that situation, to go within themselves to seek the Source, whatever and however that may be construed in their mind.  Only the most stubborn, non-believer will insist that there is no other “source” within them but their own intelligence.  Most thinking individuals realize that those “Ah-Ha’s,” those insights, those incredible insights into their lives and into a situation come to them spontaneously, almost without asking, and that there is something synergistically going on in their mind that allows them to see these great insights and take accurate action.  Yes, this can be stated in non-offensive terms.  We wish you to understand, and those who look at this material, to know that this is absolutely not religious material; it is not connected to a religion, it is not connected to any institutionalized, organized religion or associated with any, and that spirituality is well known among indigenous individuals throughout the world, even before there were organized religions, and that this is the same “source” that is available to modern-day individuals.

Jeff:  Matthew Fox, who writes about Christianity, has said that sustainability is another word for “justice.”  He states, “What is just is sustainable and what is unjust is not.”  Is this a good line of reasoning for directing these student work groups to find questions, or sustainable issues?  Is sustainability of the planet and of the people proper subject matter?


Sustainability as an issue of morality

MONJORONSON:  Yes, it is.  We, however, see sustainability as an issue of morality.  Social sustainability as it is being described to you is addressed at three levels:  the individual level, the social level, and the global level, and that Mr. Fox’ description of justice parallels this very well.  We wish to, however, call “a spade a spade” as this morality takes into account the justice, and the mercy of the process of sustainability, to assist individuals to make moral decisions that support social sustainability.  This morality provides a means globally, socially and individually of how to make decisions that benefit all concerned, rather than being selfish.  We understand his word very clearly and this is as useful to you as it is to us.  You can choose how you wish to use that word, but his use parallels our use of the word “morality” and social sustainability.

Jeff:  How many different roles should we be trying to coach these students in?  For them to become proficient as teachers, or to be able to go into their communities or the businesses that they may work for, etc., how many teams do you estimate that they should have participated in and how many roles should they have experienced in this participation?


In how many roles should the students participate?

MONJORONSON:  Let us take the roles first.  First, they should have experienced all of the roles, and that they know the primary function of each role and have had the experience of applying those roles in the team setting.  The primary role that each student must be well acquainted with is the role of inquiring member; the art of inquiry, as Dr. McCray has been working on, is primary to the function of everyone within the design team.  If one does not have the curiosity or capacity to ask questions, then they are not suitable for participating in the team.  Even those individuals who are socially reticent, those who are socially withdrawn, as some members of a team may be, can be quite useful as they will eventually come to a summation of ideas and conclusions, but that too must be followed with a question.  It follows the process of inquiry and then coming to conclusions and insights, and then there are almost always follow-up questions that continue on.


The importance of facilitator

The next important role is facilitator.  This is the development of the capacity to facilitate two processes simultaneously while remaining objective at the same time.  For too long your nation and those of other nations have been politicized, that is that there are definitely partisan elements and positions with partisan interest that wish to be maintained and strengthened.  However, in social sustainability there is one interest and that is the broad survival existence, maintenance and sustainability of all individuals.  It will become known eventually that there are certain social policies which are not functional and which do not assist in the process of social sustainability, and which will need to be amended—that is a later development.  So the role of the team is to take an objective look at the social issues that are involved in a society and to examine the topic at hand in an objective way and dissect it and analyze it so that everyone understands how it works.


Learning to use the schematic is an essential skill

A further skill that is essential to this is to know how to work the schematic for validating social sustainability.  In that process, you will find that when you have certain expectations that emanate from the beliefs, that almost always within those beliefs are unstated, underlying assumptions.  The process of the team is to ferret out and discover those assumptions, both in the team and within each individual who participates.  Assumptions are the underlying strengths and underlying weaknesses of every society.  There are commonalities that help everyone to operate on the same level at the same time, for the smooth running of a society.  Yet, if those assumptions have inherent elements of bigotry and prejudice and bias in them that cause separation from others, then they are flawed and they ultimately lead to the destruction and collapse of a social existence.


Why is social sustainability crucial?

Social sustainability means that everyone arrives in the future together, and that everyone is supported, and everyone has an equal opportunity to grow and to develop a life of quality living.  Therefore, it is essential that these assumptions be exposed and either validated or invalidated, and that this becomes a record for others to observe and to use to avoid the pitfalls of hidden assumptions. This produces a finite record of beliefs and assumptions, which can be used to shortcut the long-term tedious process of exposing them for other future teams.

I apologize for taking your question quite afar from your original intent.  Please continue.

Jeff:   I thank you for the answer!  My last question is:  Is there a way of encouraging stillness and meditation in the groups without appearing to proselytize them into our own belief system?


Introducing meditation without proselytizing

MONJORONSON:  Yes, there most surely is.  This is the gateway to enlightenment, without reference to any religion or belief system.  Enlightenment, the time apart, the time of stillness, the time of no-thought allows each human mind to integrate those loose facets which remain unconnected during the activity of the busy mind.  But while the mind is still, there are other mind and brain functions which can bring these disparate facets together into new integrated wholes, so that the individual who comes out of stillness has an “Ah-Ha,” or within minutes in another situation, truly understands in a deeper way, what they have been studying.  Reflection in time apart is a necessary part of the development of enlightenment.  It is the time where one does not enter into stillness with an intention other than to let the mind coordinate and bring together the parts, so that there is a synergism that occurs.  This synergism can be many faceted.  For example, if you have ten elements, you can bring about a synergism of many more conclusions, which lead to further invention and bringing together of those conclusions into more new ones.  Yes, this is essential; this is truly education at a very internal process and a high level of functioning.

Jeff:  I have no other questions, Monjoronson.


The design teams are not alone; they have resources

MONJORONSON:  Please do not let your team think that they are alone, or that they are doing this without prior resources; that they do not have to rethink this totally.  We are on the cusp of publishing some different formats for the public’s use to assist teams such as yours, and academic settings such as this, to move forward.  You are welcome to this forum again, if you wish.  We—as you perhaps know—are already entering the foundations of the global Christian Church to assist it in bringing new energy and vigor and vitality into its stagnant and staid programs.  We have a real contact involved with that at the present time and we wish to develop that in the academic setting as well.  We do feel that we can be successful in the academic setting, and that it is an essential function in that setting to develop widespread and broad educational programs for the benefit of the global population.  Some may say that that may be quite a fantastical development, but we assure you that the beginnings of great things has always occurred in humble settings.

Jeff:  That leads me to a last question, as I don’t want to run Daniel into the ground.

MONJORONSON:  That is not our concern.  He is here, a willing servant of our crew.  Thank you.  Please continue.

Jeff:  Is it appropriate for me to share this transcript with the key people that would be the academic faculty team to merge this into their school?


Sharing this transcript with the academic faculty

MONJORONSON:  Yes, you are welcome to.  We do not want our material to be off-putting, or to offend anyone.  This material, although it has begun in a channeled, spiritual setting, has applications to every secular interest that wants to engage its own sustainability into the future.  We have begun this way because few see this world in objective terms, as would a Planetary Manager, of how to bring a global population/civilization into the future without its self-destruction, its decline and disappearance, which has occurred so many times in the past with other smaller civilizations.  The human mind and human social organizations simply are not strong enough or consistent enough and its members are not long-lived enough to support the continuation of a sustainability project, which will take on the era of decades and centuries to complete.  Therefore, it is outside the human species to do this.  We have [celestial] members who have been here for thousands of years and it will continue on for thousands of years, which can see through the duration of this project.  However, this will not be done by us alone, but must be done co-creatively with our mortal helpers.  I think you truly understand this, do you not?  (Jeff:  I do.)  Thank you.  You are most welcome to bring forward any further questions regarding this topic, as we have a primary interest in academia and the development of social sustainability as an ongoing part of every Liberal Arts College and University.

Jeff:  I have no further questions today.  This is quite enough for me to digest and deal with.  I will stay in email contact with Dr. McCray, if that’s okay, and report on the progress I am making with my team.

MONJORONSON:  Thank you very much!  Do not be afraid to use our resources in ways that are not known to others.  We have tremendous ability to offer options of thinking to even those who do not believe in God.

MMc:  Thank you, Monjoronson.  Do you have any closing words for Jeff?  And I have a question about how to look at this situation:  Should we be looking at publishing this for our general audience, or should we commit to this privately for the moment?

MONJORONSON:  This is most adequate to be published.  We do not see any particular privacy issues in the transcript, or in the content of our conversations here that it must be private.  Mr. Cutler is one who should also avail himself to make that decision.  If he feels that it can be public, then let us publish it as public.  If he thinks that it must be private, then we will respect his wishes.

MMc:  Do you have any closing words for him?


Closing message for Jeff

MONJORONSON:  Yes.  What you are seeing, dear friend, is the very beginning, the embryonic beginning of a developmental process that will also evolve.  This is experiential.  We are learning as much from your involvement as you are from it with us.  You will also learn a great deal about how difficult it is to introduce new subject areas into academia.  We have had great difficulty with great minds, as they think that “they have invented the wheel and they do not need any spare tires.”  This is difficult to believe that a totally new area of inquiry and of education can come about so spontaneously, yet this is the content/context of what we are proposing to do.  We truly believe and support wholeheartedly that this topic can be produced and invested and introduced into an academic, secular setting successfully, and that it will be of great interest to the development of greater foundations of social wisdom that must under-gird and create the foundations for sustainable universities and sustainable societies and communities.  We encourage you to continue on with your pursuit; please stay the course with us as we move ahead.  Your successes will be ours, and our successes and insights will be shared with you as promptly as we possibly can.  We thank you for volunteering for this and we thank you for your approach to this team to investigate and discuss this topic.  It is vital to your society and to the evolution of the human species—it is that fundamental.  Thank you and we wish you a good day.

Jeff:  Thank you and good day.

MMc:  I have only one question that was sent me by an audience member, if I may put that forward now?

MONJORONSON:  Yes.


Providing guidance to others during these trying times

MMc:  “An audience member put forth the following question:  We are seeing the breakdown of society now.  As this continues, we are being asked to provide guidance and comfort to others.  We have been in training for this for some time, but we will be going through some of the same changes in emotions and needs as others do.  How can we spiritually prep ourselves for the days to come?  What advice can you give us to handle this situation?”

MONJORONSON:  Yes, I would be very glad to address your question, and it continues on as it has always been, and that is to live each moment in the “now.”  This moment “now” is the most important that you have for every future moment of your life.  Remember that in the days ahead that you do not look back with regret, as that will be just as isolating and just as ineffectual as worrying about the future.  In this moment I advise you to listen, to be still, to invite your higher mind to reveal to you in those moments throughout the following day and those moments ahead, those opportunities that arise, that you may have neglected or had overseen, to see them with a new light and see them as a way of including you into a prosperous and stable, sustainable future.  Oftentimes in the future, you look back and you also see the opportunities that you missed, that you were blind to, or you were so prejudiced or biased that you forgot about them and denied that they were worthwhile in pursuing.

You must realize in the moment that you are vulnerable, that you are vulnerable to your real physical, social world around you, and that you also must be vulnerable to the leadership of God within you, and to your spiritual assistants.  Know that you are not of total mind to know everything, and that you must share this moment in your mind with those who have higher wisdom and deeper wisdom to assist you.  When you open the way for us to be present with you, we will share with you ideas and thoughts about how to become more safe, more stable, more prosperous, more sustainable, more at peace with your life, even when you have less.  Yes, we realize that one of the greatest difficulties for you in this journey, during these difficult times of cataclysms and chaos and social upheaval is that you are affected by it.  And so, in those moments when you shiver from fear, when you are incapacitated by worry, realize that you can do nothing effective without becoming still first.  When you are still, then you become available to yourself to guide yourself with all the wisdom you have learned in your life to move ahead.

You have done great things so far, and you can do great things in the future.  You must live in the immediate moment to realize that, and also to be still in this moment, even when calamity is all around you, for if you are to be a leader with us, then you must be still; you must be calm; you must be able to make decisions and move ahead—even courageously—even knowing that in the moment when you have few options, you can be guided to make the right choice.  When you do this, you become vulnerable to your Thought Adjuster, who can participate in that moment with you, and in that moment, you can be most effective.

MMc:  I don’t have any other questions for today.  Do you have any closing words for us, Monjoronson?


The process has begun globally

MONJORONSON:  You see, my friends, you have begun to see that we have started the process of probing large social institutions of your world.  We are not shy to engage the whole Christian Church, globally, or of all academia, beginning in very humble circumstances, that we are persistent and we will continue to engage these institutions.  If one opportunity closes, we will start another, and so on until someone says, “Ah, I see the light!  Now I know what we must do.”  The other large institutions of your world of government and of the economy have yet to be engaged, but we must first engage those people who are believers—believers in the churches and the believers in the academic settings to give credence and validity to these very, very basic concepts of social sustainability.  From this will lead to the greater understanding of sustainable economies and sustainable democracies, which are essential to those same institutions and the days of light and life—they must evolve or die.  Our hope is in you, individually:  You are effective; you are powerful; you affect the “all” and the “all” affects you.  You must engage yourself capably and competently to make your power felt and known to produce the results that are needed.  It begins with you.  A decision to think co-creatively with us, to bring about co-creative change for the highest and greatest good of all concerned, and so we give thanks with you, knowing that your Father Within and Christ Michael’s plans for the Correcting Time will be fully accomplished in time.  Thank you.

 MMc:  Thank you very much.

END