Module 1: Introduction To Global Social Witnessing

How do I witness the world?

When you look into the world and are confronted with it´s challenges it might be difficult to respond in a way that feels adequate in relation to the magnitude and suffering that you read or hear about. A feeling of overwhelm or inability to let in what is described in the news seems inevitable, regarding the quantity of information and the tremendous suffering and hardship that is conveyed. We tend to become numb and shut down our emotional experience, only processing information on a cognitive level, or we become hyper-activated and stressed, which also limits access to our genuine feeling response. In this way we lose connection with our compassion and care about the mutual world we are inhabiting. Though as mature citizens, it is important to know and feel that we are an integral part of society and of what is happening in it.

Global Social Witnessing

To help us to grow into our mature citizenship and become more aware of the We-aspect of what is happening in society, renowned teacher, author and facilitator Thomas Hübl proposed the practice and social technology of Global Social Witnessing. This practice can help us to move from a sense of separateness between ourselves and the world, to a recognition of deep interconnection. Global Social Witnessing can be defined as a social technology that helps us to mindfully attend to global events with an embodied awareness, thereby creating an inner world space mirroring these events. In other words, it means tracking my own inner experience and responses arising in response to events within society. One important element of the practice is not just processing information on a mental level but becoming increasingly aware of the physical and emotional dimensions of our response to events within society.

Witnessing the imprint of reality within ourselves

When we witness an event, we are witnessing the imprint that the event leaves within us, within our nervous systems. We are a kind of “resonance body” that can be more or less sensitive to the impulse it receives. Our physical, emotional and mental responses are all important aspects of that imprint. The more refined our resonance body or interior experience is, the better we can relate and respond to the world. In Global Social Witnessing we learn to sharpen our perception of our interior and thereby our capability to witness ourselves as part of the larger whole.

The role of trauma

It is important to recognize that we are born into a pre-traumatized world. This world as it is seems normal to us since we are conditioned through this collective trauma field. This field is built into our nervous systems through our cultural conditioning, our genetic heritage passed down from our ancestors, collective (unconscious) systems, and individual traumatizing experiences. Where we carry unintegrated trauma within us, we tend to remain frozen and numb and our capacity to sense, resonate and relate is limited. This reduces our capacity to witness. When events in the world touch these traumatized places in us, we tend to either get numb or hyper-activated, removed or over-attached. We cannot respond from a regulated space where we feel ourselves being part of what we are witnessing.

Finding the “sweet spot”

The practice of Global Social Witnessing invites us to slow down and notice the edges of our capacity to relate. This is the sweet spot, noticing where I am not able to sense, where overwhelm leads to numbness or hyper-activation (that can include dropping into emotions from past experiences). In this way, as we grow awareness of our experience of separation without trying to overcome it, something can ease and widen the space for the mapping of outside events within ourselves. Our ability to sense and resonate with those events is expanded.

We see Global Social Witnessing as an intervention; it has an effect on events. The foundational experience of every healing relationship is being seen and felt. The same is true for events within society. We believe that if events are truly seen and felt and witnessed, there is an effect on us personally and on these events as our societal responsiveness increases. To move from numbness, indifference, avoidance or hyper-activation to connection and compassion brings about response-ability, the increasing ability to respond from a place of wholeness. As a consciousness technology Global Social Witnessing can promote an upward spiraling of awareness within the social body. As we integrate more unconscious material, trauma points get unfrozen, leading to a higher capacity to relate and a higher capacity to respond.

Global Social Witnessing as social intervention technology

Introduction to Global Social Witnessing

Module 2: GSW - Introduction II