The Inner Dimension: the Laboratory for developing the Self-aware Intelligence

The inner dimension is the inner space, the evolutionary space, the subjective space, the intangible space, the creative space, the space where vision is generated and from where I see, the space of experience, of how I live myself. It conditions behaviour, relationships, and the structures we create to organize ourselves.

The inner dimension is a uniquely human space and it is essential to recognize it and attend it.  In fact, social changes are propelled from the “I” sphere, as much in the interior (what we are), as in the exterior (what we do), even if it is the “we” sphere that demands change and expresses its need.

From the invisibility of this space, conciliation of family, professional and personal life becomes impossible.

From the invisibility of this space, it becomes impossible to repeat innovative and successful experiences when they emerge from “apparently” different contexts.

From our profound lack of knowledge about this space, its language, its need, its potential and its power, we are “calling” and, at the same time, we are closing the door to innovation and the Change in Paradigm.

It is important that all the methodology directed towards knowledge creation and towards processes related to a Person’s inner dimension, be caring, subtle, and compassionate and directed by People that accompany, support and experience in turn.

The importance of developing my Vision as a source of Transformative Action

Vision belongs to the Person.  

Personal vision is a type of intelligence that is in constant evolution and is significant in our world of People and of the diverse organizational forms we have been capable of creating in accordance with our increasing vision of our world and of our needs.  To begin with, this type of intelligence, that of People, isn’t the only possible intelligence developed in our surroundings, but it is the only one that we know and that we can develop and that has defined, concrete characteristics that are sufficiently known and recognized.

To develop vision and Self-aware Intelligence, each Person, each individual, must engage in the process of developing his or her potential. THE EVOLUTION OF PEOPLE, the continuous transformation of “I”, is the way towards constant evolution, the way towards spheres of increasing vision, thus permitting the application of this new vision in every aspect of life (private, family, workplace, social, etc…).  The pathway is the development of the interior of each “I”.

The difficulty arises when we want to carry out the process only by way of the collective sphere (through “we”), or through “they” (that is, through the surroundings, the institutions, the Organizations).  This puts our effort in places where efficient and lasting transformation cannot take place. The “I” is the place that must be transformed before the critical mass can impact in “we”, that is, in the group.  The transformation of “I” will provoke a domino effect in every other sphere. “We” evolves through “I”, through the intimate space; it does not evolve through the collective sphere, but rather, through the individual one.  From this fact stems the importance of the INDIVIDUAL TRANSFORMATION that we promote and help to develop through VisionToAction International School for Changemakers.

How is Vision developed?

How is Vision developed? By learning to see more. How does one learn to see more? By permitting the entrance of thoughts and ideas that respond to a new logic; a logic that responds to systemic vision, the comprehension of the relationship among all systems, among all, beginning with the system that we are, the result of the union between our physical body, our emotional body, our mental body….

 An intelligence that becomes conscious of itself and knows, therefore, that it can go beyond what it was and what it now is.

The Self-aware Intelligence embraces Bodily Intelligence, Emotional Intelligence, Social Intelligence, Spiritual Intelligence…transcending them, giving them meaning and acknowledgement, that is to say, giving them “organic coherence”.

This is the kind of intelligence we human beings are approaching more and more as we evolve; it is the SELF-AWARE INTELLIGENCE.  It means amplifying the sensation of identity and, at the same time, of belonging - as much to a family, as to a collective, as to a species, as to a particular live element of a system.  This brings with it, as a consequence, a relationship as much with oneself as with others, as with the surroundings, whatever they may be, a relationship in which caring, interdependence and inter-independence of all its living elements are essential and natural (Sustainability).

This development and installation of SELF-AWARE INTELLIGENCE leads to an understanding of the movement of systems (relational systems, organizational systems, cultural systems….), of how we modify reality as we act within them, and of how we are affected by external changes. We also come to understand those spheres in which any modification entails as much in our own purely human sphere as in our surroundings and all that is inherent to our habitat, our dear Planet.  The development of Self-aware Intelligence means to stimulate a process of coherence and innovation, not only within the business sphere but also in all spheres in which the human being is implicated. The development of Self-aware Intelligence implies a process of Social Innovation at every level.

It makes no sense to speak of a change in paradigm, or of a Global System, if we are not capable of seeing all the networks and all the spheres that they include, how they are affected by any change or modification, and how each sphere, in turn, affects the rest of the system and the Global System itself.

We don’t know of any form of communication other than the one that allows us the relationship we have among ourselves.  We need this relationship to develop our intelligence.  That is to say, throughout our history, we have only been able to remember what others have lived in a lineal manner, be it orally or via the written word, because we haven’t yet developed a capacity to remember more than the facts, and all these can be changed according to different perspectives, historical periods, etc….  In as far as what we are, we only possess the cellular memory in our DNA, but this memory is not accessible to the ordinary state of consciousness.  And if only the memory of objective facts is important (as appears to be the case lately, according to the paradigm that we are leaving behind), then we really don’t yet know who we are individually or collectively. 

To unite with the aim of generating something greater than ourselves, even though the fruits will be collected by future generations, is something beyond the reach of the reflexive intelligence that we are using at the moment.  We in VisionToAction are passionately committed to overcoming this limitation.