'DIALOGUE' COMES FROM THE GREEK "DIALOGOS:" Logos means "the word," or in
our case we would think of "the meaning of the word," and dia means
"through" (not two-a dialogue can be among any number of people; even one
person can have a sense of dialogue within him- or herself if the spirit of
the dialogue is present). The image this derivation suggests is of a stream
of meaning flowing among us and through us and between us-a flow of meaning
in the whole group, out of which will emerge some new understanding,
something creative. When everybody is sensitive to all the nuances going
around, and not merely to what is happening in ones own mind, there forms a
meaning which is shared. And in that way we con talk together coherently and
think together. It is this shored meaning that is the "glue" or "cement"
that holds people and societies together.

Contrast this with the word "discussion," which has the some root as
"'percussion" and "concussion." Discussion really means to break things up.
It emphasizes the idea of analysis, where there may be many points of view.
A great deal of what we call "discussion" is not deeply serious, in the
sense that there are all sorts of things held to be non-negotiable,
untouchable, things that people don't even want to talk about. Discussion is
like a ping-pong game, with people batting the ideas back and forth in order
to win the game.

in a dialogue there is no attempt to gain points, or to make your particular
view prevail. It is more a common participation, in which people are not
playing a game against each other but with each other. In a dialogue,
everybody wins.

THE POWER OF THE GROUP The power of the group could be compared to a laser.
Ordinary light is called "incoherent," which means that it is going in all
sorts of directions; the light waves are not in phase with each other so
they don't build up. But a laser a very intense beam which is coherent. The
light waves build up strength because they are all going in the same
direction, and the beam can do all sorts of things that ordinary light
cannot.

Now, you could say that our ordinary thought in society is incoherent-it is
going in all sorts of directions, with thoughts conflicting and canceling
each other out. But if people were to think together in a coherent way, as
in a dialogue situation, it would have tremendous power. Then we might have
such a coherent movement of communication, coherent not only at the level we
recognize, but at the tacit level-at the level for which we have only a
vague feeling. That would be even more important.

"Tacit" means that which is unspoken, which cannot be described‹like the
tacit knowledge required to ride a bicycle. It is the actual knowledge, and
it may be coherent or not. I am proposing that thought-thinking-is actually
a subtle tacit process. I think we all realize that we do almost everything
by this sort of tacit knowledge. Thought is emerging from the tacit ground,
and any fundamental change in thought will come from the tacit ground. So if
we are communicating at the tacit level, then maybe thought is changing.

COMMON CONSCIOUSNESS The tacit process is common-it is shared. The sharing
is not merely the explicit communication and the body language. There is
also a deeper tacit process which is common. I think the whole human race
knew this for a million years; and then in five thousand years of
civilization we have lost it, because our societies got too big. But now we
have to get started again, because it has become urgent that we communicate,
to share our consciousness. We must be able to think together, in order to
do intelligently whatever is necessary.

The point is that this notion of dialogue and common consciousness suggests
that there is some way out of our collective difficulties. If we can all
suspend carrying out our impulses, suspend our assumptions and look at them,
then we are all in the same state of consciousness. In dialogue the whole
structure of defensiveness and opinions and division can collapse; and
suddenly the feeling can change to one of fellowship and friendship,
participation and sharing. We are then partaking of the common
consciousness.

ASSUMPTIONS People will, however, come to a group with different interests
and assumptions. They are basic assumptions, not merely superficial
assumptions-such as assumptions about the meaning of life; about your own
self-interest, your country's interest, or your religious interest; about
what you really think is important.

We could also call assumptions "opinions." The word "opinion" is used in
several senses. When a doctor has an opinion, that's the best assumption
s/he can make based on the evidence. The doctor may then say, "Okay, I'm not
quite sure, so let's get a second opinion." A good doctor does not react to
defend the assumption-if the second opinion turns out to be different, s/he
doesn't jump up and say, "How can you say such things?" That doctor's
opinion would be an example of a rational sort of opinion, one not defended
with a strong reaction.

Opinions can tend to be experienced as "truths," assumptions that we are
identified with, and which we defend. But as long as we have a defensive
attitude blocking and holding assumptions, sticking to them and saying,
"I've got to be right"-then intelligence is very limited, because
intelligence requires that you don't defend an assumption. The proper
structure of an assumption or of an opinion is that it is open to evidence
that it may not be right.

Cultural assumptions are very powerful and you are not usually aware of
them, just as you are not normally aware of an accent in the way you talk.
Other people can tell you that you've got one, or if you listen carefully
you might find it. But the accent is part of your culture. A great deal of
your assumptions are part of your culture, too, and this comes out in
relationship.

Krishnamurti said that "to be" is to be related. But relationship can be
very painful. He said that you have to think/feel out all your mental
processes and work them through, and then that will open the way to
something else. And I think that is what can happen in the dialogue group.
Certain painful things can happen for some people; you have to work it all
out.

This is part of what I consider dialogue-for people to realize what is on
each other's minds without coming to any conclusions or judgments. In a
dialogue we have to sort of weigh the question a little, ponder it a little,
feel it out. You become more familiar with how thought works.

It isn't necessary that everybody be convinced to have the same view. This
sharing of mind, of consciousness, is more important than the content of the
opinions. You may find that the answer is not in the opinions at all, but
somewhere else. Truth does not emerge from opinions; it must emerge from
something else-perhaps from a more free movement of this tacit mind.


TRUTH AND MEANING Dialogue may not be concerned directly with truth-it may
arrive at truth, but it is concerned with meaning. if the meaning is
incoherent you will never arrive at truth. You may think, "My meaning is
coherent and somebody else's isn't," but then we'll never have meaning
shared. And if some of us come to the "truth," while a lot of people are
left out, it's not going to solve the problem. You will have the "truth" for
yourself and for your own group, whatever consolation that is. But we will
continue to have conflict. Therefore it is necessary to share meaning. Our
society is incoherent, and hasn't done that very well for a long time, if it
ever has.

There is no "road" to truth. In dialogue we share all the roads and we
finally see that none of them matters. We see the meaning of all the roads,
and therefore we come to the "no road." Underneath, all the roads are the
same because of the very fact that they are "roads"-they are rigid.

THE Collective DIMENSION There may be no pat political "answer" to the
world's problems. However, the important point is not the answer‹just as in
a dialogue, the important point is not the particular opinions-but rather
the softening up, the opening UP, of the mind, and looking at all the
opinions.

The collective dimension of the human being, where we have a considerable
number of people, has a qualitatively new feature: It has great
power-potentially, or even actually. And in dialogue we discuss how to bring
that to some sort of coherence and order. The question is really: Do you see
the necessity of this process? That's the key question. If you see that it
is absolutely necessary, then you have to do something.

We should keep in mind, nonetheless, that the dialogue is not only directed
at solving the ills of society, although we do have to solve those ills. But
thats only the beginning. When we have a very high energy of coherence, we
might get beyond just being a group that could solve social problems.

Possibly it could make a new change in the individual and a change in the
relation to the cosmos. Such an energy has been called "communion." It is a
kind of participation. The early Christians had a Greek word koinonia, the
root of which means "to participate"-the idea of partaking of the whole and
taking part in it; not merely the whole group, but the whole. This, then, is
what I mean by "dialogue." I suggest that through dialogue there is the
possibility for a transformation of the nature of consciousness, both
individually and collectively. That's what we're exploring.

David Bohm earned his PhD at Berkeley under Robert Oppenheimer He was
Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of London, and a
Fellow of the Royal Society. His published works include Quantum Theory,
Causality and Chance in Modern Physics, Wholeness and the Implicate Order,
and, with F. David Peat, Science, Order, Creativity.

This article is reprinted from the Noetic Sciences Review, Autumn 1992.www.noetic.org