Voice Dialogue
I went to a voice dialogue workshop at Great Vow monastery this weekend. It is a very powerful process, especially when combined with a mediation practice (and a body oriented practice makes it work even deeper).
Some reminders for me:
(a) All voices seek to help us, in their own way. It is important to expressively acknowledge their contribution and intention ("what would happen to ... if you did not ...?" etc.)
(b) Each of the voices has less mature and a more mature expression.
(c) Through dialogue, each of the voices can be brought into awareness, and into each other's awareness. They can be reminded of their original funtion (to help us), and assisted in helping us in a more finetuned/fruitful/mature way. They gradually work more together as a finetuned and coordinated orchestra.
(d) I also found that it is possible to do a "mass broadcasting" in addition to the regular one-on-one dialogue with the voices. It can be used to help bring the voices into each other's awareness, to remind them of their purpose (to help the individual), and that their way of helping can be fine tuned and informed by the outcomes for the individual. After doing this, I experienced an alignment that was quite surprising.