Psychosynthesis Institute Magazine

Istituto di Psicosintesi

PSICOSINTESI

Psychosyinthesis Institute Magazine

Will Project

Work carried out by the co-creative group on the Will Project during the International Congress of Psychosynthesis in Canada from 11 to 15 September 1998.

Participants: 8 people from Canada, the USA and Italy.

Aim of the work: develop the work plan proposed by Roberto Assagioli through a creative group process, brain-storming, and reciprocal stimulation.

Work Practice:
1. Sharing our relationship with the Will Project
2. Group reading of the work plan proposed by Roberto Assagioli
3. Intuition of an individual symbol of the Will Project
4. Investigation, point by point, asking the question: "how is it possible to develop and accomplish this point? What could I do? What would I like to do? What meaning could the development of this point have for humankind?
5. Formulation of individual projects dedicated to the Will Project

Results:
- many new ideas, some realisable immediately
- some intuitions and clarifications on the sense of the Will Project with respect to working on the will
- some ideas of future possibilities
- ideas for Bologna 2000
- gaining awareness of the wealth contained in Assagioli's plan: investigating the points allows, in fact, to extract it, the plan is not an "arid list", but it transforms into a formidable creative drive
- hypothesis in the group structure of the Will Project: an "internal" reference nucleus and an ample flexible network of participants at different commitment levels
- common work programme in order to begin to build the "body of the Will Project":
- presence on Internet: from the Institute of Psychosynthesis
- connection between the Italian groups, which have worked for three years, and the present group, via e-mail with a monthly meeting.

The group worked contacting Assagioli's VISION, "briging it down to Earth", finding ways to realise it.

A work that allowed the participants to enter into contact with Roberto Assagioli's intuition: it expanded and elevated everyone's consciousness, allowing, at the same time, to not become detached from the ground and permitting the subtle energy of the Will to flow in each person.

A detailed outline of projects to be carried out.
Readers are invited both to choose an area to work on and to add to the ideas contained therein.

The points are the ones that R. Assagioli set out in his outline on the Will Project.

I. HISTORY, THEORIES

A. Develop an annotated bibliography of references to the will in historical writings.
B. Collect the material in A. (above) in one place
C. Develop a bibliography of references to the will in current psychosynthesis literature
D. Create a college course on the will
E. Carry out research studies on various theories of the will.
1. How the will is best developed
2. How the will is used by various types
a. Psychosintesis types and will
b. Enneagram types and will
c. MBTI types and will
d. TDF types and will
3. How the will is present/absent/referred to in each religion
F. Fund grants to support research on the will (for example, dissertation grants)
G. Research available funding resources which might support E. (above) and write grant requests to these sources of funding.

II. THE WILL IN PRESENT PSYCHOLOGY

A. Explore ways in which the popular literature (pop-psychology, self-help literature) is addressing the will (perhaps in different languages but corresponding to the will)
B. Research and write about references to the will in main line, humanistic, and existential psychologies (including Rollo May, Otto Rank, Silavno Arieti, and Williams James)
C. Develop a college course: Comparative Psychology of the WIII Today
D. Research the impact of culture on the will and the will's impact on culture
E. Host an "ecumenical" round table on the will (including representatives of various schools of psychology)

III. NATURE AND ASPECTS OF THE WILL

A. View the movie "Shine" and discuss the aspects of the will (as part of training on the will)
B. Explore consumerism and the will (or lack of will), including images used to drive consumerism
C. Create exercises and meditations for each aspect of the will
D. Teach wholeness of the will
E. Create entertaining games and interactive exercises on the aspect of the will for all age levels, and for individuals and groups (including families and training groups), create pleasure in using the will.
F. Explore and research the effectiveness of employing subliminal methods to train the will
G. Identify and promote the physical benefits of using the will ("sell" the will).
H. Clarify the connections between aspects of the will and psychosynthesis and their current psychological trends
I. Clarify the meaning of linguage used in the aspects of the will
J. Link the language used to talk about the will to the language of other disciplines
K. Develop marketable tools to reinforce aspects of the will: cards for meditation, visual aids (such as a mobile to illustrate the psychological laws in teaching the skilled will)
L. Develop a space or room of the will (for the Bologna Conference 2000 and in other contexts)
M. Develop an instrument to assess the development of aspects of the will in an individual:
1. Individually administered, self-scoring instrument
2. Group administered instrument (centrally scored)
3. Individually administered projective technique (similar in design to the T.A.T.)
N. Develop language to describe the transpersonal will in order to:
1. Consolidate an understanding of it
2. Connect the transpersonal will to practical experience in daily life
3. Relate the transpersonal will to all psychosynthesis types
O. Plan and execute cross-cultural research on the aspects of the will (see VI.D. below)
P. Plan and execute research on the diversity of understanding about and use of the will within a given culture (USA, Italy, Canada)

IV. QUALITIES OF THE WILL

A. Develop marketable products such as meditation cards ("Quality of the Day") and games
B. Develop physical meditations (mudras or stances) for each quality in order to bring the qualities to conscious awareness (see VII.A.3. below)
C. Develop a marketable video of the physical meditations
D. Develop a workshop on the qualities of the will
1. Emphasizing the different vibrations of the same energy
2. Employing various approaches to form a "network" of experiences to appeal to different learning styles
E. Develop new exercises for exploring the qualities of the will

V. STAGES OF THE WILL

A. Marketable product highlighting the stages (visual product)
B. Develop the metaphor of "Building a house" and stages of the will
1. Each room is a stage
2. Rooms have connections between them
3. This could be in written or workshop form
C. Develop the metaphor of Architecture for the stages of the will (workshop or written form)
D. Develop a workshop on purpose, motivation, and intention
E. As a part of the Will project, work with the stages of the will (this could be a focus of our internet chats)
F. Use the stages of the will in OD interventions
G. Research the stages of the will at various levels (going beyond each Stage)
H. Develop a workshop exploring territories that are generally unfamiliar
I. Apply the stages of the will to our own organizations
J. Include John Cullen's work on stages of the will in the Will Library

VI. RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS

A. Developing a theory of rigorous inquiry using the psychological functions (including the will) as ways of knowledge
B. Developing a theory of spiritual enrichment including relevant spiritual disciplines for each function
C. Develop mini-mobiles relating the psychological functions to the skillful will (see III.K. above)
D. Expand on the article in Psicosintesi regarding the use of the mobile to teach the psychological laws (the relationship of skilled will to the psychological functions), including an outline of the word on the mobile
E. Plan and execute cross-cultura research on the relationship of the will to the other psychological functions (see III.O. above)

VII. METHODS OF DEVELOPING THE WILL

A. Link with the co-creative group of movement
1. Discover the will through physical movement
2. Reinforce the direction of the will through physical movement
3. Develop physical meditations (mudras or stances) for each quality in order to bring the qualities to conscious awareness (see IV.B. above)
B. Link with the co-creative group of education
1. Develop a curriculum of the will for all age levels
2. Develop a curriculum of the will for parents to use with infants and toddlers
3. Review Diana Whitmore's book on psychosynthesis and education for references to the will
C. Compile annotated references to existing exercises on development of the will (from existing psychosynthesis material)
D. Develop mental exercises to develop the will
1. Affirmations
2. Concentrations
3. Meditation instructions
4. Suggestions for reflective meditations
5. Creative activities
E. Develop the use of external aids for the development of the will (architecture, music, art, etc)
1. Prepare bibliography of related music to and subdivide it for various aspects of the will
2. Compile examples of architecture related to aspects/qualities of the will and write a related article
3. Collect examples of art related to aspects/qualities of the will and write a related article
4. Write an illustrated article of examples of existing symbols of the will
5. For the Bologna 2000 conference, sponsor a creative competition for new symbols of the will
F. Use the internet to train the will
G. Develop self-scoring instrument (or an exercise) to aid reflection on and discovery of areas of aversion and affinity (what methods are attractive to an individual? What methods are unappealing?)
H. Write an article on the use of all methods of developing the will to achieve self-actulization/self-realizzation
I. For the Bologna 2000 conference, prepare a Room of the Will in which people "swim" in the will
J. Further develop this section of the outline to focus on each the general areas of methodology suggested by Assagioli
K. Develop a publishable workbook for the development of the will

VIII. FIELDS OF APPLICATION OF THE WILL

A. Medical - "All disease originates in the lack of love and the lack of will; the lack of love is a symptom of the lack of will"
1. Develop and research a theory of the relationship between will and health (life-style choices)
2. Develop a new model of stress management (for use in wellness coaching and in group seminars) centered around the development of the will
B. Education (see VII.B. above)
C. Publishing
1. Magazines
2. Periodicals
3. Books
4. Internet
D. Explore relationship of will to Native American Spirituality (article)
E. Enforce support and promote writing
F. Provide members of the Will Project (and others) with training in research and writing
techniques (logging field notes and compiling condesing them)
G. Translate material on the will into other languages

X.

X.

XI.

XII

XIII. General, far-reaching projects relating to more than one outline heading

A. Provide a place specifically designed for work on the will where people gather for an immersion experience in will development
B. Develop a University of the Will
C. Develop a library of the will including
1. Past writings
a. Psychosynthesis
b. Others
2. Current research and writing
a. Psychosynthesis
b. Others
D. Develop an internet aspect of the Will project
1. Will Project page on the Istituto di Psicosintesi website
2. Will Project forums, chat rooms, message boards etc. on a free internet site
3. Monthly meeting (via internet chat) of the Will Project co-creative group
E. Write a new book on the will, emphasizing the practical aspects of will development and use, as well as theory of the will.

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