Another Way of Leading: Love, Coherence and Not-Knowing at the Spirit of Oneness Retreat

In late August 2025, thirty‑three people from different countries, disciplines and spiritual lineages gathered at Villa Unspunnen near Interlaken, Switzerland, for the first Spirit of Oneness Retreat. Embedded in the dramatic landscape between the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, this circle met not to discuss Oneness as an idea, but to explore it as a lived reality through silence, dialogue, embodied practice and multidimensional ritual. Over several days, a “golden thread” became visible – a felt sense of unity, love and deep coherence weaving through diverse experiences.

The Spirit of Oneness retreat offers a rare, embodied glimpse of what becomes possible when leadership, power, not‑knowing and unity are coherently aligned. It created conditions in which Oneness could be directly experienced as a living field. This review intends to trace the conditions that allowed such a field to emerge and the insights it offers for future work with leadership and transformation.

Leadership in service of the field

Leadership at Spirit of Oneness was clear yet remarkably light and joyful. Three co‑facilitators held the space “with love, light and laughter”, each bringing distinct gifts – connection to place and multidimensionality, planetary and cosmic perspective, and moderation of meaning and participation. Rather than pushing a pre‑set program, they continually tuned into what wanted to emerge, explicitly inviting the subtle realms, nature, ancestral and even star lineages into the gathering - and creating space for everyone to join in this.

Power - a word that hardly fits the context - was thus exercised as service: grounded in deep listening rather than control, expressed as invitation, and shared with the circle instead of concentrated in a single authority.

The underlying design – Instigation, Inner‑Tuition, Integration – created a strong, simple architecture that held the group without constraining it. Within this frame, participants were invited to become “soul‑models”, co‑creating the field through their presence and contribution rather than consuming a sequence of sessions.​

Not‑knowing as shared practice

A defining quality of the retreat was the way not‑knowing was honoured. Rather than being treated as a deficit to be fixed, the “field of unknowing” was named as a sacred space.

The process deliberately opened room for intuition and inner tuition, used poetry, movement, ritual and constellation work to access non‑linear intelligences, and invited trust in and surrender to what cannot be planned or captured conceptually.

In this way, not‑knowing became a collective practice: participants could rest together in stillness, listening for and engaging with what wanted to emerge next. Uncertainty was not a gap in leadership, but a consciously held threshold between what had been and what was coming into being.

Oneness as lived reality

The Spirit of Oneness Retreat was rooted in the conviction that unity is not merely an ideal but a fundamental reality that can be experienced and enacted.

This was cultivated on several levels. The retreat was framed within a cosmic and planetary context: Gaia, cosmic intelligences, ancestors, future generations and subtle realms were explicitly acknowledged as active participants in the field, expanding the sense of “we” beyond the human circle. Collective field work  invited the group to explore what the “Knowing Field” wanted them to see about what is emerging. Through embodied practices like Qi Gong, dance, nature immersion, gong ceremony, meditation, spontaneous dancing and shared laughter, nervous systems softened and unity was anchored in the body; participants spoke of renewed trust in life, a felt sense of belonging, courage to live from the heart and a commitment to serve life where they are.

A central metaphor – the golden thread – captured the insight that “we are already woven, remembering how to move together.” Oneness was thus experienced as something to be acknowledged, to relax into and to be nurtured by.

Love as an organising force of life itself

The golden thread also lent itself as a symbol pointing to the power of Love - Love as an organising force of life itself. By practicing Love-in-Action we as human beings co-create with the larger planetary and cosmic forces.

Deep coherence

What emerged over the days was not conceptual agreement but coherence. The triple‑loop design invited action, reflection and re‑configuration of being, allowing insights to ripple through individual, relational and subtle dimensions.

In my view, the most important elements supporting coherence included: a clearly held intention to serve the good of the whole and the evolutionary potential of humanity, a process architecture that balanced form and freedom, continuous reflection and adaptation of the design, deep respect for the not-knowing, the willingness of all to surrender to the flow, and a rhythm of silence, expression and integration that kept returning the group to shared ground.

Because of this, differences in background, language and spiritual framing did not fragment the field; they enriched it. The retreat became a “living field of love‑in‑action”, in which diversity could be held within an underlying sense of oneness.

A felt example for future work

Spirit of Oneness offers a felt example of conditions that allow collective processes to become deeply generative:

Leadership that is anchored in inner alignment and humble service, rather than in control or charisma. ​

Power understood as something that flows through a coherent field, rather than as something individuals hold over one another.

Love as an organising force of life itself.

Not‑knowing embraced as a shared threshold, held by practices of listening and stillness.

Oneness cultivated as an embodied experience, through which joy, courage, tenderness and clarity naturally arise.

Coherence tended as an ongoing practice, a lived experience that hopefully carries on - in ways seen and unseen - in the individual lives of the participants, as well as in the subtle realms and the collective.

In this sense, the retreat can be seen as a prototype of another way of being together: a way in which the deeper intelligence of life itself is trusted to move through the many, as one. Leadership thus becomes an expression of love‑in‑action.

 

 

Macht und Liebe

Macht – ein Wort, das im Deutschen oft schwer wiegt. Es ruft Assoziationen von Kontrolle, Unterdrückung oder Manipulation hervor. Im Englischen klingt „power“ offener, neutraler – es steht auch für Energie, Handlungskraft oder das Potenzial, etwas zu bewirken. Diese Zweideutigkeit sagt womöglich was aus über unser kulturelles Verständnis von Macht und wie es unsere Haltung demgegenüber prägt.

Ob wir es wollen oder nicht – Macht ist allgegenwärtig. Sie durchzieht alle sozialen Gefüge, auch jene, die bewusst versuchen, ohne Machthierarchien auszukommen. Wo Menschen zusammenkommen, entstehen Dynamiken von Einfluss und Entscheidung. In Organisationen, Teams und Gemeinschaften gibt es immer Menschen, die lenken, gestalten und/oder bewahren. Wer diese Strukturen leugnet, läuft Gefahr, unbewusste Machtmechanismen zuzulassen, die oft destruktiver wirken als offen reflektierte Führung.

Deshalb brauchen wir Klarheit und Wissen über das Wesen der Macht. Wie wirkt sie? Wie kann sie konstruktiv gestaltet werden? Welche Rolle spielt sie in unserem eigenen Leben? Hier setzen aktuelle Bücher an, die neue Perspektiven eröffnen. Ich bin gespannt auf das neue Buch von Prof. Dr. Carsten C. Schermuly „Psychologie der Macht“, das demnächst erscheint. Er ist Direktor des Instituts für New Work und Coaching bei der "SRH University of Applied Sciences" in Berlin.

Erkenntnisse über das Thema Macht sind nicht nur für politische oder wirtschaftliche Systeme relevant, sondern für jede Zusammenarbeit – insbesondere dort, wo Hierarchien bewusst flach gehalten werden. In meiner Tätigkeit als Teambegleiterin, Supervisorin und Moderatorin arbeite ich vor allem mit Gruppen, die sich selbst als gleichberechtigt organisieren. Es ist ein hohes Ideal und darf nicht zu Ohn-Macht führen. Es erfordert dazu ein tiefes Bewusstsein für die Dynamiken, die entstehen, wenn Entscheidungen getroffen und Verantwortung verteilt wird. Eva Stützel hat sich in dem Buch „Macht voll verändern“ (2024) vor allem mit solchen nicht-hierarchischen Strukturen und Gemeinschaften beschäftigt.

Ein Buch, das mich nachhaltig inspiriert, erschien bereits in 2010. Adam Kahane beschreibt in „Power and Love: A Theory and Practice of Social Change“ das essenzielle Spannungsfeld zwischen diesen beiden Kräften: Ohne Liebe wird Macht destruktiv, ohne Macht bleibt Liebe wirkungslos. Leider wurden dieses und auch die anderen sehr inspirierenden Bücher dieses Autors bis jetzt nicht ins Deutsche übersetzt. Seine Ausführungen wurzeln in seiner Beratungsexpertise in herausfordernden Situationen.

In der aktuellen Austauschgruppe „Spiritualität und Politik“ gehen wir der Frage nach: Wie kann eine spirituelle Haltung helfen, mit Macht reflektiert umzugehen? In einer Zeit, in der Misstrauen gegenüber Autorität wächst, aber gleichzeitig klare Ausrichtung und Handlungsfähigkeit dringend benötigt werden, kann eine bewusste Verbindung von innerer Integrität und verantwortungsvoller Macht ein Schlüssel sein.

Macht ist eine Kraft, die gelenkt werden will. Ob in der Gesellschaft, in Organisationen oder im persönlichen Leben – sie fordert uns heraus, unser eigenes Verhältnis zu ihr zu hinterfragen. Wo übe ich Macht aus? Wo lehne ich sie ab, obwohl ich sie vielleicht nutzen könnte, um Gutes zu bewirken? Und wie finde ich inmitten dieser Kräfte mein eigenes Gleichgewicht?

Mir scheint es in der momentanen Situation wichtig, Macht als Gestaltungskraft zu sehen und dabei darauf zu achten, dass die Verbindung mit humanen Werten nicht auf der Strecke bleibt. Ein Handeln aus innerer Stille, Liebe und Verantwortung.

Wisdom Embraces the Whole of a Person

Beautiful quote: „Wisdom is a way of knowing that goes beyond one’s mind, one’s rational understanding, and embraces the whole of a person: mind, heart, and body. These three centers must all be working, and working in harmony, as the first prerequisite to the Wisdom way of knowing.“ Cynthia Bourgeault

Center for Practical Wisdom

Wisdom is needed! It is the mission of the Center for Practical Wisdom to deepen the scientific understanding of wisdom and its role in the decisions and choices that affect everyday life. They connect scientists, scholars, educators, and students to initiate wisdom research & disseminate findings to the public.

„Wisdom was once regarded as a subject worthy of rigorous scholarly inquiry in order to understand its nature and benefits. It is difficult to imagine a subject more central to the highest aspirations of being human. The study of wisdom holds great promise for shedding light on and opening up new insights for human flourishing.
As part of the Center for Practical Wisdom, the website features the latest news and publications on wisdom science, and encourages interdisciplinary discussions about how wisdom can play a role in the professions and in public life.“

http://wisdomcenter.uchicago.edu/

Collective Wisdom vs. Collective Intelligence

Tom Atlee in an article that was written a while ago: „I am coming to suspect that it is the fringes that make the difference between collective intelligence and collective wisdom.
Collective intelligence solves problems or resolves conflicts of, by and for a group, an organization, a community or a whole society. It solves those problems and conflicts for the here and now, for people who are interested, aware, and involved.
Collective wisdom, on the other hand, has a bigger challenge. It needs to expand out from the particular problem or conflict, from the here and now, from those interested, aware and involved. It needs to embrace larger contexts, interests, drivers and possibilities. It has to consider the deep needs of people long gone and yet unborn, and to delve into deeper levels of understanding and caring. It ventures into unseen dimensions of life – into background trends, hidden corruptions and connections, psychospiritual influences, scientific microcosms and macrocosms – to realize unexpected consequences, novel resources, and extraordinarily potent answers. Being the Big Picture form of intelligence, wisdom is born out of our capacity to stretch creatively into the unknown and the unacknowledged, into the new angle, the deeper parts of ourselves, the fringe insights and possibilities.“

The wisdom of the fringes?

Characteristics of a Wise Person & a Wise Democracy

In this blog entry Tom Atlee aks the question whether it is presumptuous and misleading when he calls his vision of democracy “wise”. His vision is one of political and governance systems accessing the wisdom, power, and participation of the whole community and the whole of life in service of the whole community and the whole of life. He describes the characteristics of a wise person and looks at what those qualities mean in the context of a community or society.

http://www.tomatleeblog.com/archives/175327501

Wisdom-Related Resources

While there is no easy or simple way to develop wisdom, there are clearly definable pathways for cultivating and strengthening it. The Wisdom Page provides a wealth of advice and guided practices for the nurturance and growth of wisdom.
Since 1995 The Wisdom Page has been connecting those interested in wisdom with a wide range of wisdom-related resources. Over the years the website has expanded in content and grown in popularity.
Amidst ongoing concerns over numerous perceived problems and challenges in the world today—environmental, economic, social, ethical, and technological— it is more important than ever to emphasize the critical relevance of wisdom in constructively facing these challenges. Wisdom is not just about “wise sayings” and philosophical insights of the past; wisdom is “vitally important” for our individual and collective future. Wisdom faces forward. Though numerous technological and economic solutions are offered to address the problems of today, the pursuit and development of wisdom is key to a positive future for humanity.

It Starts With Uncertainty

From a dialogue between Margaret Wheatley and Pema Chodrön touching upon themes like uncertainty, compassion and courage. It was written down in 1999, but its content is becoming more relevant by the day. A long but inspiring and encouraging read!
„In fact, a lot of people do know how to be together, but it’s a skill that hasn’t been considered important or given any status in our society. It’s actually been dismissed as insignificant and soft and fuzzy. So courage is what we need, and the source of that courage is recognizing that the questions, doubts and desires that move in me move in everyone else as well.“

http://www.margaretwheatley.com/articles/uncertainty.html

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