Module 4:
INTERSUBJECTIVE AWAKENING
Recommended Reading
Teaching from Patricia
The we-space that resides within the intersubjective domain constitutes a shared reality where two or more people are in full contact with the same interior experience.
- Patricia Albere
Most of us have been taught to focus on our subjective awakening and experience. Subjective means what we experience as individuals somatically, psychologically and spiritually. It can be both a beautiful and painful journey as we become more sensitive and aware of our inner world. Meditation can give us access to a subjective experience of nondual awakening or oneness. Other kinds of practices and processes teach us to pay closer attention to body sensations, thoughts, feelings, energies, dreams and stories that exist in our private, subjective experience of ourselves. I sometimes call it the in and down way of knowing oneself. We look inside and connect as deeply as we can with our body, mind and soul.
The inner world that exists between us, which is sometimes called inter-subjectivity or we-space, is a new inner frontier that is just beginning to be developed and explored. Most of us have very little access to that collective inner space, but over the course of the next few decades our society will develop a rich experience of intersubjectivity that will rival our current experience of personal subjectivity.
Intersubjectivity is the space that opens up when we focus on the space between us in a particular way. What happens when we do, we find ourselves in a shared inner space. It’s like our subjective experience except we are both inside the same shared world. We are no longer in separate subjective worlds where the best we can do is to share openly across the distance to a sympathetic listener. We are actually together, inside what is unfolding.
The goal of Mutual Awakening is not only to find this shared inner space between us, but also to spiritually energize it. When we do this we discover levels of unity and care with others that cannot be attained until we move beyond the inherent separation of the individual inner world.
Suddenly, we are no longer isolated inside our minds; we are together with others on the inside of our experience in the same way that we are together in the outer world. We have discovered an inner space that we share and that can be explored and awakened. Those who have had experiences of entering this shared inner space never forget them.
Deepening Exercise
First it’s important to become more conscious of the automatic sense of separateness that arises from our subjective orientation. Write in a journal or share with a friend what you are experiencing right now subjectively. Look inside yourself and be as sensitive and attuned as you can to your body sensations, subtle energies, thoughts, feelings, images, sense of awareness, memories, etc.
Notice how you feel as you become more focused and attuned to yourself. Many of us have devoted time and energy to practices and therapies that have enabled us to become aware of our inner world, which is undeniably important.
To begin to experience what intersubjective awakening is, you will need to experiment with either another person or you can also focus on your cat or dog or a tree or plant. Choose something that is alive and has some level of consciousness. If it’s another person, you can guide them to do what you are being asked to do and you may experience mutual oneness or being inside a subjective experience together (intersubjective).
If it’s an animal or plant, you will be able to experience a kind of interpenetration and oneness with them. We don’t realize that our consciousness can be directed anywhere. Even though generally we live inside our subjective bubble of self-concern, it doesn’t mean we can’t enter into a flower or another person, if and when we want. We just need to know how.
Sit in front of whatever you have chosen to connect with and let your consciousness interpenetrate them - go all the way inside and see if you can sense them from the inside. What are you experiencing as them? So for example, if I do this with my cat, I experience immediate silence, a kind of pristine emptiness and heightened awareness that I feel through my senses. I become one with him and his consciousness.
With another person, sit facing each other and look into each other’s eyes. Come from your origination point (which is spoken about in the book) and ask them to do the same. Then lean into the space you share and beyond that to be inside their experience as they enter yours. Continue to look into each other’s eyes and sense what is present when you are oriented in that way together. Stay connected and share back and forth what you are experiencing for a few minutes.
To have a full experience of intersubjective awakening with another person, it will be helpful to be guided and trained to do the Mutual Awakening Practice with all the nuances and clarity needed to allow both of you to enter into the multidimensional oneness and all that comes with that.
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