The Four Stages to Achieving True Community

We believe the epitome of socioemotional development for adults is unconditional love; building True Community is a path to creating a supportive environment where it is easier to do this. We see genuine acceptance of one another and choosing to maintain an environment of people free to be themselves as something the collective consciousness of humanity desires. We also see it as a natural progression for humanity as an empathic civilization. One Community is designed to support the successful creation and sharing of such an environment through a detailed process of seeking those with a consciousness for The Highest Good of All and our commitment to the stages of community building, ongoing 2-directional feedback, consensus governing, and Highest Good society.

RELATED PAGES

HIGHEST GOOD SOCIETY     ●     TRUE COMMUNITY     ●     6 HUMAN NEEDS     ●     WORLD CHANGE

COMMUNITY BUILDING STAGES

One of the foremost authorities, researchers, and authors on the topic of Community building is Dr. M. Scott Peck. In his book, “The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace,” he identified 4 clear stages to successful building of True Community. We call this “Community” with a capital “C” and these are the four stages Dr. Peck outlined:

Pseudocommunity: This is a stage where people pretend to have a balanced and open friendship with one another, and cover up their differences, by acting as if the differences do not exist. Pretending differences don’t exist, and pseudocommunity, can never directly lead to True Community; so the goal is to maintain open communication and a commitment to celebrating diversity so people can spend as little time as possible in this “pretend” stage of community.

Chaos: When pseudocommunity fails to work, the members start falling upon each other, giving vent to their mutual disagreements and differences. This is a period of chaos. It is a time when the people in the community realize that differences cannot simply be ignored. Chaos looks counterproductive but it is the first genuine step towards Community building.

Emptiness: After chaos comes emptiness. At this stage, the people learn to empty themselves of those ego related factors that are preventing their entry into Community. Emptiness is a tough step because it involves the death of a part of the individual (ego). But, Peck argues, this death paves the way for the birth of a new creature, the Community.

True Community: Having worked through emptiness, the people in Community are in complete empathy with one another. There is a great level of tacit understanding. People are able to relate to each other’s feelings. Discussions, even when heated, never get sour, and motives are not questioned.

This is why we are committed to True Community. It is the place where people shine the brightest and the most profound healing and growth emanate.

“In genuine community there are no sides. It is not always easy, but by the time they reach community the members have learned how to give up cliques and factions. They have learned how to listen to each other and how not to reject each other. Sometimes consensus in community is reached with miraculous rapidity. But at other times it is arrived at only after lengthy struggle. Just because it is a safe place does not mean community is a place without conflict. It is, however, a place where conflict can be resolved without physical or emotional bloodshed and with wisdom as well as grace. A community is a group that can fight gracefully.” ~ M. Scott Peck

MAINTAINING TRUE COMMUNITY

Maintaining Community means recognizing that Community building is a socioemotional development process with specific stages, and committing to go through those stages as necessary to return to Genuine Community. This process becomes easier and more fluid each time as stages of pseudo community and chaos become more recognizable and undesirable with time spent in Genuine/True Community. Even more profound is that with time, while the issues that can cause a True Community to slip back into chaos become more and more complex, the rewards of higher states of consciousness and deeper connection are also greater and greater.

“It is like falling in love. When they enter community, people in a very real sense do fall in love with one another en masse. They not only feel like touching and hugging each other, they feel like hugging everyone all at once. During the highest moments the energy level is supernatural. It is ecstatic.” ~ M. Scott Peck

HELPFUL ACTIONS FOR FACILITATING GLOBAL COMMUNITY

SUMMARY

We as a species have the ability to live in a way that is supportive and representative of unconditional love for one another and the rest of humanity. One Community is doing everything we can to support this, including creating True Community as the social environment we consider most conducive to experiencing and sharing this. Commitment to going through the necessary stages to create and maintain True Community is an expression of our for The Highest Good of All philosophy and an important part of the Highest Good society we wish to promote. For this reason, it is also a foundation of our teacher/demonstration hub infrastructure and approach to positively and permanently transforming the world we all share.

FREQUENTLY ANSWERED QUESTIONS

Q: How are these ideals of True Community, thinking and creating for The Highest Good of All, unconditional love, and freedom for people to be themselves supported and practiced?

Primarily through very careful and detailed screening for people that already are accepting of other people’s individual choices, clearly identifying what it is that we are creating so like-minded people will join, and monthly 2-directional review and feedback sessions so we continue to grow together as a group.

Q: Where can I learn more about the One Community consensus governing model?

Please see these pages:

WHAT IS CONSENSUS   ●   CONSENSUS & GROUPS OF 200+   ●   PHASING IN CONSENSUS