A new idea is dawning, gathering force in such diverse fields as the arts and sciences, organizational leadership, civic affairs, academia, and athletics. And along with the idea comes a new capacity for human experience that, according to evolutionary biologists, has been simmering under the surface for a million years or so. The idea that is thundering through the boardroom, the basketball court, the classroom, the community forum and symphony hall is known as “collective intelligence,” that the power of we is greater than the power of me, and that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Collective intelligence means many things; there is no single definition that fits the scope of the theme. Among the many dimensions are the art of human association, the power of the group, creative collaboration, synergy and teamwork, the soul of partnership, as well as sources of transpersonal wisdom that lie beyond our conscious awareness. When Two or More are Gathered Together surveys the many sides of collective intelligence and explores current developments of the theme from experts in psychology, science, business leadership, the arts, and the human potential movement. Each chapter explores a different dimension of the theme, and closes with a section titled Questions and Practice, to assist individuals and groups in realizing the practical implications of the ideas and putting them into action. The current research outlined in the book embraces many disciplines and has been successfully implemented into corporate development seminars, academic departments such as the Global Leadership Initiative at MIT, in the arts and entertainment such as the fabled Second City Improvisational group, and even at the United Nations in the UN Global Compact.

We are not alone. Imagine—what may happen in a community forum, a family gathering, a film set, or a business meeting, when individuals can come together and access the combined force of many minds focused in the same direction. Consider the potential of a group intuition which is more embracing and incisive than the insights realized by any one individual. Or imagine participating in the breathtaking synergy of a highly synchronized athletic team where players become parts of a single body devoted to excellence and personal mastery. Visualize a receptive, highly functioning group setting (opposed to the ego-bound and agenda-ridden associations we know all too well) where grace descends in the form of original new ideas and a new creative movement arising from the group itself that is coherent, elegant, and fresh. These conditions can, and I feel must, be integrated into our own lives if we wish to achieve our full potential, realize any degree of psychological wholeness or spiritual awakening, make our genuine contribution, and begin to address the seemingly insoluble problems that we face as a culture.

When Two or More are Gathered Together raises many questions: What are the different forms of collective intelligence? How do we access its wisdom in our own lives and professional domains? How may it help us in our own personal development, and what is its potential role in solving the massive social and environmental challenges of the modern world? I offer no answers, merely hope to awaken the potential of and hunger for an expanded intelligence that can help us in numerous and immeasurable ways. Carl Jung wrote in the first third of the twentieth century of the “collective unconscious,” a term most of us are familiar with that refers to the common archetypes of the human experience that lay buried within our unconscious. Current researchers use the term, collective consciousness, which implies a common mind that hovers in the atmosphere itself, that comes from the energies that pass between us and is a larger and more potent form of intelligence than our ordinary rational individual minds.

Written for the general reader, the book is designed as both a survey and a guide to assist individuals and groups realize the great potential of collective intelligence. When Two or More are Gathered Together acknowledges and builds upon the wisdom of both the Eastern and Western forms of thought and action. From the Western traditions, we have learned the lessons of independence, of an  individual agentic self, whole unto itself, and capable of great individual initiative and achievement. From the Eastern forms of thought, we are now learning the wisdom of interdependence, where life is viewed as an integrated whole, where underlying our differences we are all one people, one mind. Both standpoints are exceedingly important, indeed necessary for a full understanding and realization of collective intelligence. The book demonstrates how seeking personal initiative and individual achievement is inexorably twined to the collective realizations and interrelationships possible when people deeply come together. Quotes from many thinkers, artists, psychologists, professionals from diverse fields, and spiritual leaders enhance the text, lending dimension and scope to the theme.