Sensing that our difficulties originate there, he proposed a collective inquiry into the nature of thought and its interpenetration with culture. He envisioned dialogue as a means for unfolding new levels of intelligence and creativity. The word dialogue derives from two Greek roots suggesting the image of a river of meaning flowing between and through a group of people. To release that flow is what dialogue is about. Over the last few years people in different parts of the world have experimented with group dialogue to test its potential.
Dialogue sets up a practice field for an inquiry into our relations and values.
Its underlying premise is that the patterns of thought and behavior active in large groups have some similarity to those creating turmoil in the larger world. We focus attention on those patterns of thought and interacting that freeze and block the free flow of communication in the group and those that release it. To identify, share and integrate the deeper sources of meaning that may results is what dialogue makes possible. Dialogue starts little insurrections in the area of our convictions. We learn how difficult it is for us to communicate in groups and why that is so.