Shifting Paradigms: An Applied Anthropologist and a Socio-Spiritual Movement Meet the Ozarks

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Participatory Action Research (PAR)

Shifting Paradigms: An Applied Anthropologist and a Socio-Spiritual Movement

Meet the Ozarks

By Matt Oppenheim

matt oppenheim <opp...@earthlink.net>

Transformative Learning and Change

California Institute of Integral Studies

To exist humanly is to name the world, to change it. Once named, the world in its turn

reappears to the namer as a problem and requires of them a new naming. Human beings

are not built in silence, but in words in work, in action –reflection.

Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

To liberate society . . . consciousness will have to be aroused among the people; their

eyes will have to be opened by knowledge. Let them understand the what’s the why’s

and the where’s. Thus study is essential, very essential.

P.R. Sarkar, Liberation of Intellect: Neohumanism

In the fall of 2001, I began to experiment with a process of participatory action research

(PAR) in the spiritual movement I have been dedicated to for over twenty- five years, Ananda

Marga (Ananda Marga is a global spiritual movement, based on the teachings of eastern

mysticism – see www.anandamarga.org) and its associated organization for social liberation

Proutist Universal (see www.prout.org). While our philosophy encourages a process of social

liberation through a synergy of social activism and the cultivation of spiritual awakening, our

members largely lack a praxis to apply this knowledge to the lived experience of real

communities. Our discourse remains largely theoretical.

This paper tells the story of an initial paradigm shift from theory to action that is evolving

as I write this. In the summer of 2002, a friend and town planner, Allan Rosen, and I facilitated

four-day PAR training at our national retreat center in the Ozarks of Missouri. Our members

formed teams and did fieldwork in the local community. The objective was to simultaneously

transform our relationship with the surrounding community and shift the local community’s

perception of us. We often came to the retreat as “spiritual tourists,” coming for spiritual

renewal while ignoring local history, culture and social issues. At the same time local community

members called us “orange people” and one of our nuns was told that people thought we

kidnapped and killed people. The PAR experience transformed our relationship with the

community and planted the seeds for a partnership with community organizations.

As an applied anthropologist, I have also been able to experiment with my own paradigm

shift through this process. Applied anthropology speaks the language of community change, but

the field in general is awkward in facilitating the process of true community transformation and

relationship building. It focuses on western/positivist notions of community that is problemoriented

rather than transformational (see Van Willigen, 1996 for a general survey of this field)).

My transformation involves the discovery of my own ”indigenous” praxis of applied

anthropology that is grounded in the spiritual processes and values of my spiritual faith and

integrated with the concepts and processes of social liberation in our social philosophy. Here I

have discovered a delightful fit with Paulo Freire and popular education and an emerging field of

indigenous social science praxis based on the work of Maori anthropologist, Linda Tuhiwai

Smith.

Introduction

The aim of participatory action research is to change practices, social structures, and

social media which maintain irrationality, injustice, and unsatisfying forms of

existence.ı

It seeks to bring together action and reflection, theory and practice, in participation with

others, in the pursuit of practical solutions to issues of pressing concern to people, and

more generally the flourishing of individual persons and their communities.

From The Handbook of Action Research,

Participative Inquiry and Practice

Peter Reason and Hillary Bradbury, 2001, p 1.

Thirty of us sat in a circle, chanting Baba Nam Kevalam (roughly translated from sanskrt

as “let us ideate on supreme love”). We then meditated silently in this white-carpeted room with

large windows that overlooked the lake, children’s playground, and lush foliage of our retreat

center.

This was the beginning of four-day training in participatory action research for our

members who were interested in our philosophy of social transformation. This article tells the

story of this training; the learning going on by those facilitating the training, as well as what was

learned by the participants. The training came at the end of a year of personal examination and

experimentation with participatory methods. It involved the examination of my own paradigm of

applied anthropology and a heuristic process (Moustakas, 1990) of inner reflection about a

participatory praxis that matched our philosophy of spiritual and social transformation.

This story begins by introducing the field of PAR and the relevance of critical pedagogy

and pensamiento proprio (the emerging culture of activism). Next is a narration of the

background and purpose to the training. This is followed with a dialogue about how the above

concepts shed light on applying our social and spiritual philosophy to the PAR training. The

Ananda Marga Ozarks retreat center is then described and the pre-planning and preparation for

the training is discussed. The eight sessions of the PAR process are presented, which include

each of the training sessions, and the final sessions synthesizing and reflecting upon what was

learned. Finally, I conclude with a discussion of what the facilitators learned from the

experience and how I have used the experience for my own praxis of social change.

Participatory Action Research, Critical Pedagogy and Pensamiento Proprio

Participatory action research is one of an array of emerging participatory technologies, in

which a team or community inquire about issues that concern them, asking initial passionate

questions, investigating and dialoguing, taking action to address these issues and reflecting upon

the process. This paradigm is based on the epistemology of action in relationship, that

knowledge, action, and inquiry form a cycle of collective engagement, within the group, and

within the community or environment of inquiry (Reason and Bradbury, 2001, pp 9 - 12).

The special nature of participatory action research is that it focuses on the structural

nature of a social problem, and often assists oppressed or marginalized people identifying and

overcoming the cause of their oppression (Fals-Borda, 1991, Whyte, 1991). In the process, the

group often evolves its own particular style or ideology of action and reflection that is termed

pensamiento proprio (literally own beliefs or “alternative ideology”). Pensamiento proprio is the

special culture or way of learning that a group evolves from its own values, local culture,

experiences, and generation of knowledge (de Roux in Fals-Borda, 1991, pp 49-53).

As a whole, participatory technologies often refer back to the inspirational work of

Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire (Freire, 1995). Freire developed a tool for teaching literacy,

where exploited factory workers reflected upon themes in their daily life – factory and living

conditions, and contrasted these with the values and lifestyle that was sacred to their culture.

Through this process, consciousness-raising was coupled with activism enabling poor workers to

transform their lives through love, rather than anger.

Participatory methods have found a home in education reform in the field of critical

pedagogy (see Giroux, 1997 for a thorough review of this field), again based strongly on the

insights of Paulo Freire. This field challenges the educator to interrogate the mental frameworks

that may prescribe or colonize their notions of education, for example in the way that history

texts inscribe a model of history as the story of our “dead white founding fathers,” neglecting the

mosaic of perspectives and histories. Here, participatory methods help the educator in creating

new forms of knowledge in relationship with others, for example working with students to

develop their own notions of history through studying the local community.

I bring up the dynamics of PAR, pensamiento proprio and of critical pedagogy, because

they were an essential part of the process of developing the PAR training for Ananda Marga.

While our teachings encourage us to rise above colonizing sentiments and psychologies, our

social service projects reflect a western colonizing model. Many of our schools often follow the

British colonial style of row by row seating with a call and response teaching style. Our social

science research also often follows the western colonial model of the lone researcher extracting

information (Notable exceptions are regional studies done in Eastern Siberia and Burkina Faso,

Africa). A special concern of ours in facilitating the process was to discuss our taken for granted

assumptions as well as to make more transparent the influences that colonize our notions and

relationships with a community. It was critical to begin to consider our spiritual and social

ideology as its own epistemology of social science.

In thinking about our own indigenous pensamiento proprio, I was strongly influenced by

the work of Maori anthropologist, Linda Tuhiwai Smith, (2001). Smith articulates an indigenous

social research project attuned to and immersed within a Maori epistemology.

Smith followed her traditionally educated academic Maori father to research in American

museums, and entered academia steeped in positivist tradition. Her book deconstructs the

westernizing impact of her own style of research. Then she dialogues about her own Maori past

and struggle to find a Maori research praxis that does not just respond, resist or struggle with

colonizing methodologies. It is one that finds strength, purpose and practice immersed in Maori

community, culture, and the struggle to negotiate its goals in western terms.

Smith welds her notion of a Maori-based research process to two interdependent Maori

concepts: Kaupapa and Whanau (2001, pp 184 – 193). Kaupapa is a truly Maori indigenous

worldview, and it is also an organic concept, actively engaged with and circumscribed. It is

research that involves the mentorship of elders, and is culturally appropriate while satisfying the

rigors of research. (Kathy Irwin in Smith, page 184). Kaupapa Maori is a criticalist approach in

analyzing the structural and political causes of inequalities, yet it is also emancipatory, and

grounded in community (Smith, pp. 185-186).

Whanau is the notion of Maori family or community organization; it is the core social

unit, rather than just a collection of individuals. It is a way of protecting ethical values, of giving

voice to community, and a way of bringing individual expertise and backgrounds into a research

collective.

After reading Smith, I realized that our social and spiritual philosophy formed a similar

indigenous value system, ontology, and epistemology of social science. Our spiritual philosophy

was based on eastern mysticism and the search for universal truth through the practice of

meditation. Our social philosophy sought to complement the inner spiritual culture with an outer

social culture of harmony and equilibrium while being pragmatic about pressing social issues.

Like Smith’s process of de-colonization, our philosophy was meant to help us rise above the

conditioning of imposed psychic exploitation, seeking liberation by penetrating this colonizing

process, and grounding social transformation in cultural, social and ecological sustainability.

Just as Smith’s purpose was to evolve a Maori social science praxis, our task should be to evolve

A similar praxis arising from our social and spiritual philosophy.

Background to the Ozarks Training

My experience with participatory methods began in 1994 when I helped start a primary

school in Australia for Ananda Marga. There was a conflict between our desire to teach through

our spiritual philosophy and a desire in the community for an anarchist-oriented school. We

conducted community-wide focus groups to learn of the community’s diverse values and

interests in education, and then developed a vision for the school that integrated our spiritual

values with the interests of the community.

In 1995 I returned to the U.S. and attended graduate school in applied anthropology. My

thesis experimented with a collaborative research process in telling the story of how parents

transformed through their involvement in a very innovative school-based family center

(Oppenheim, 1999). I was hired as a program developer for the community organization that

emerged from this process. Action research with community residents was utilized in the

development of programs. Next I worked on an action research project, understanding how

students, student leaders, teachers, and community volunteers worked together in creating a

supportive community for academic success at a local high school.

Through my PhD program in Transformational Learning and Change at California

Institute of Integral Studies I began to learn how to integrate participatory research methods with

the social and spiritual philosophy of Ananda Marga and Proutist Universal. I facilitated schoolbased

collaborative trainings and conferences integrating art, music and experiential exercises,

and even invited several Ananda Marga monks and nuns to participant. Through this process

participants were able to listen and dialogue on a meaningful level. This would become the

foundation for future projects where students, teachers, parents and agency staff worked

together.

I began to feel that work of Proutist Universal in the U.S. could benefit greatly through

the application of participatory methods and the accompanying process of relationship building,

dialogue and application of knowledge to real world issues. We could come to discover our own

values and style of PAR that reflected our spiritual philosophy as well the philosophy of social

transformation termed PROUT (PROUT stands for the Progressive Utilization Theory, and

integrates personal spiritual upliftment with social transformation through regional selfdetermination

and cooperative economics, protection of local environments, cultures and

languages, and a strategy for global cooperation).

In the fall of 2001 I facilitated a retreat based on PAR for our organization in Los

Angeles. Similar to the Ozarks, we had a retreat center. After team-building exercises and

dialogue about our own experiences and values of activism, several local activists discussed their

work. The following day, we broke into teams to analyze issues presented the previous day and

apply our social principles in discussing solutions. We came up with a plan to form a

cooperative as a way to counter globalization, unite with like-minded groups, and to increase the

role our retreat center could play in demonstrating an alternative future for the region (While a

leadership team met several times to plan this cooperative, the idea has since lapsed, due largely

to the fact of my own ill health and other commitments that prevent my leadership of this

project.).

That summer I attended our national spiritual retreat at our Ozarks center. There, we had

several workshops with my friends in Proutist Universal. The workshops engaged us in thinking

about how global exploitation impacted our lives, and we had several experiential exercises

linking our somatic and emotional lives to the ideals of the PROUT philosophy. However a

discussion emerged about how to relate our philosophy and work to projects for transformation

in our communities. At the end of the retreat Allan and I shared our perceptions. We were in

agreement about the challenges facing our organization, and regretted the fact that while we had

come to this center for decades, we had never really connected with the local community our

with the Ozarks region. Our plans to facilitate a PAR training the following summer began to

take shape, and after the retreat we communicated regularly. I shared with him my knowledge of

PAR, and we probed deeper into the reasons and objectives for the training.

The classical reason cited for PAR is a perceived need or problem on the part of an

oppressed or exploited people. For Whyte (2001) the initial problem or question arises as an itch

or a spark – there is a persistent or critical question to be answered or a social context to be

explored in order for transformation or emancipation from oppression to occur.

For us the initial itch or problem was the worldview through which we viewed and

experienced the community around our retreat center as well as the worldview through which the

larger community experienced us. While members of the local community often referred to us as

“orange people” and it was rumored that we kidnapped children, we experienced the Ozarks

through the lens of the “spiritual tourist.”

Another itch was the need for us to work together as a team – we came form all over the

U.S. and had never learned to work together. As a consequence our discussions were usually

more theoretical than practical - we needed to learn to bring our social philosophy to life in the

real world.

I first came to this center in 1982, then after more than twenty-five years overseas, came

back again in 1999, 2000, and 2001, and 2002. However I cannot really say that I came to the

Ozarks, because I would land in St Louis or Kansas City and quickly drive to the retreat, never

really even leaving to visit the local community, except to buy a quick snack at the local health

food store. Most of our members did the same thing. We came to the region to get our own

spiritual needs fulfilled while ignoring and shutting out the larger Ozarks community. My

colleague had similar experiences but had increasingly ventured out of the retreat center to

explore the Ozarks region. Occasionally he would stay in a local hotel and began to talk with

local residents, explored local historical sites, and visited the Mark Twain National Forest.

We agreed that our image of the local community was through the lens of the spiritual

tourist, where most of our members “used” the local region for snack food, recreation in the local

river, shopping for souvenirs and other typical tourist activities. Many members believed that

local residents were all lily-white Christians, with many prejudices.

That we were tourists full of examined assumptions was ironic, since our social and

spiritual philosophy is deeply embedded in the awareness and praxis of immersing ourselves in

service to our communities, our region and to planet earth. In fact the name our guru designated

for these rural centers was “master units” signifying that should become regional centers for rural

revitalization movements – rebuilding local economies, showing examples of ecological

sustainability.

Many local community members also gazed at us from a similar but very different

stereotypical lens, based on appearance and superficial behavior, and their assumptions about

who we were. We were most often called the “orange people,” and local teenagers had been

vandalizing the property for years. They thought that we were lizard worshippers, because there

was a very large concrete lizard on our children’s’ playground. When one of our orange clad

nuns had a flat tire, two local folks pulled over to help and told her that they had heard that we

kidnapped and killed people.

A large contingent of our group were volunteers for Proutist Universal, the social activist

arm of our movement, which opposed capitalism with an alternative vision of society, combining

the development of cooperatives with sustainable economic regions. We had been coming

together at national retreats for over thirty years, but somehow had never really gotten to know

each other deeply, or ever worked on a project together. Our meetings remained highly

theoretical, and we each had our own notions and idiosyncratic visions and projects for

implementing our vast social philosophy on a practical level. The training should give us a

foundation to strategically plan for the application of our philosophy to real world problems.

In setting the stage for the training in PAR at our spiritual community, my co-facilitator

and I had three goals in mind in developing our own pensamiento proprio of social

transformation. This would be the underlying culture or ideology of social transformation that

would structure the more outward process of community engagement with the Ozarks region.

These goals included:

(1) Linking our own teachings of social liberation with the writings of Paulo Freire and

popular education and the basic tenets of participatory action research;

(2) Facilitating a group process that would integrate our spiritual practices and

philosophy with our social philosophy in crafting our own “indigenous” vision of

PAR – linked to fieldwork in the Ozarks, and

(3) Creating a group awareness and dialogue about our emergent style of PAR.

Integrating PROUT, Popular Education and PAR

The work of Paulo Freire was significant in linking our philosophy to the field of popular

education and to PAR. A key theme in the writings of Paulo Freire is to raise one’s

consciousness above the prescribing influences of colonization:

One of the basic elements of the relationship between oppressor and oppressed is

prescription. Every prescription represents the imposition of one individuals choice upon

another, transforming the consciousness of the prescribed to into one that conforms with

the prescriber’s consciousness. (Freire, 1995, p 29).

The preceptor of our social philosophy, P.R. Sarkar, defined the philosophy of PROUT in

a historical moment in India quite similar to that of Paulo in Brazil. Both were writing to

counteract the psychological imprint of exploitation that was left in the wake of colonial empires

from which independence had been recently achieved. While the more visible form of the

colonizer was no longer present, the structures of oppression remained in the economic tyranny

of large corporations and government corruption. Here is Sarkar speaking about the

psychological exploitation of the colonizer:

You will find that in each case of economic exploitation, psychic exploitation was the

foundation: if you go deep into the background, you will discover a continuous and

cunning attempt to create inferiority complexes in the minds of the exploited. (Sarkar,

1999, p 50).

Freire’s project of liberation was to encourage marginalized people to create the world

anew through grounding their knowledge and beliefs in their own daily experiences of life, in

contrast to imposed forms of knowledge, based on a libratory love for all humanity:

To exist humanly is to name the world, to change it. Once named, the world in its turn

reappears to the namer as a problem and requires of them a new naming. Human beings

are not built in silence, but in words in work, in action –reflection (p. 9).

Sarkar also emphasizes the liberation of intellect, through rational inquiry about

psychological and economic oppression, the expansion of love to the entire created universe, and

pursuing an inward personal sense of truth under the concept of Neohumanism:

You must create opportunities for all people to judge everything in the light of truth.

Liberate the intellect of each and every person (1999, p 77).

To liberate society from this unbearable situation, (when bureaucracy is turned into

oligarchy), consciousness will have to be aroused among the people; their eyes will have

to be opened by knowledge. Let them understand the what’s the why’s and the where’s.

Thus study is essential, very essential (1999, p 54).

While Freire believes that true liberation is based on love, of all humankind, and even the

oppressor, with Sarkar, love is specifically defined as the ability to rise above limiting

sentiments and to embrace a love and compassion that spreads to all the beings – human, animal

as well as the inanimate. Human society is then defined as a collective movement to create a

society based on this expanded love:

. . .the endeavor to advance towards the ultimate reality by forming a society free from

all inequalities, with everyone of the human race moving in unison is called “samasamaja”

tattva (1999, p. 41).

Freire’s project was to reflect upon key themes in the daily life of exploited factory

workers. Looking at these experiences and dialoguing about what liberation would feel like, the

process began for social liberation. Freire encouraged the oppressed to embrace their oppressors;

else they would repeat the same oppression themselves. Love would then guide their hearts and

minds towards liberation.

With Sarkar, intuitional practice is the grounding of both social and spiritual liberation.

Here members utilize the process of meditation in associating their minds and hearts with

compassionate love that has the capability of rising above ensnaring psychic traps.

Participatory action research is a process that evolves in situ. Participants evolve new

knowledge and collective action based on their shared experiences, common values that arise,

and processes that are indigenous to the group. In opposition to imposed and prescribed ways of

knowing, an emergent ideology, the pensamiento proprio, represents the indigenous worldview

of activism.

Similarly, to Sarkar, social transformation must be grounded upon and revitalize local

culture. Culture is the élan vital; the vital historical force under girding the spirit of collectivity,

and a cosmology that has evolved from relationship with the living earth in communion with

other human beings:

It is proper for human beings to struggle for political freedom, for social emancipation;

but if their cultural backbone is broken, then all their struggles will end in nothing. – Like

offering ghee into a fire that has died out (1999, p. 58).

PAR is such a process that merges an ideology of liberation with a knowledge creation process:

It seeks to bring together action and reflection, theory and practice, in participation with

others, in the pursuit of practical solutions to issues of pressing concern to people, and

more generally the flourishing of individual persons and their communities.

The aim of Participatory action research is to change practices, social structures, and

social media which maintain irrationality, injustice, and unsatisfying forms of existence

(Reason and Bradbury, p 1).

Integrating our Social Philosophy and Spiritual Practices

The task for those of us in Proutist Universal was then to begin to evolve our own

pensamiento proprio, critical of the influences that colonize our thinking, connecting with our

cultural roots, and linking our spiritual and social ideology to a grounded process of

transformation. This process would naturally utilize and be based in philosophy of PROUT, a

social ideology providing a theory or vision for social transformation. As in Freire’s philosophy

of critical pedagogy as well as with Smith’s Maori praxis of Kaupapa and Whenau, PROUT

provides tools for social analysis and the development of social strategies, rather than a

prescriptive formula for social emancipation. Basic tenets of this ideology include:

Intuitional Science: The ancient practice of astaunga yoga, an integration of meditation,

ethical values, and physical harmony. Intuitional practices are essential in rising above individual

entrapments and to expand compassion and universal love (see www.anandamarga.org).

Neohumanism: As discussed above, the practice of rising above oppressive psychologies

and melding universal love for the creation to the process of social liberation (Sarkar, 1999).

Samaja: The concept or spirit of society, as a collective movement of people towards

common goals. Samaja integrates the strength of local language and culture, and the merger of

collective responsibilities and interests. Local samaja movements are often linked to

geographical areas and ethnic groups (see www.prout.org).

Sadvipra: PROUT’s concept of leadership as self-less social activists who rise above

individual ambitions and merge with the spirit of collective society. Relevant here is PROUT’s

analysis of social class, encapsulated in the theory of social cycles, where a predominant

psychological worldview (for example, the warrior as guardian, merchant class, intellectual or

oppressed working class is critical to understanding social oppression in a particular culture or

historical epoch) predominates in a given society or in a particular historical epoch. The

potential of the sadvipra is to embody the highest qualities of each psychological disposition as

an eclectic leader (see www.prout.org).

Economic Democracy and Decentralization: Much of PROUT's socio-economic and

social change strategy is comprised of the following dynamics that integrate regional selfreliance

into a system of global cooperation (see Sarkar, 1992 for a comprehensive review):

· Cooperative Economics: While collective resources are guarded and

organized on a regional level, cooperative economics (locally owned and run

consumer and producer cooperatives) is seen as the fundamental fabric of

economic democracy.

· Quadro-dimensional Economics: Sarkar encourages social activists to

consider psycho economics – or the ethical and psychological atmosphere of

work; peoples economics – the ability for people to satisfy their basic needs

and have reliable access to produced goods, commercial economics – where

production and distribution is tied to developing the most efficient process and

the most effective and cost effective means to benefit all people, and general

economy – which integrates cooperatives, small scale cooperative industries,

and regionally governed industries that govern the use of natural resources –

trees, water, oil, and minerals to prevent the domination of wealthy

industrialists.

· Balanced Economic Planning: For local economic sustainability as well

ecological balance, a vibrant economy is looked at through the lens of an

equilibrium amongst the agricultural, industrial, service, and retail sectors: an

over-industrialized region is over-urbanized and environmentally destructive,

for example

· Integrated Development Projects – projects that demonstrate regional

economic principles, as well as conservation practices.

· Prama: Translated as dynamic equipoise and equilibrium is an over arching

dynamic of the integration of society’s spiritual, intellectual and physical

needs and potentials as well as a sense of equilibrium on all social levels, the

ecological, cultural and economic, and the individual and collective, for

example (Sarkar, 1992, pp. 40-57).

How were these tenets utilized in developing the training? My co-facilitator and I briefly

touched on much of these concepts through our preparation. We had intentions to integrate them

more thoroughly than could actually occur in the short time we had available. To briefly review

their relevance to our training: We have already discussed how the philosophy of Neohumanism

was essential in developing the training. Intuitional Science was integrated through the practice

of short meditations and chanting as sessions began, and very importantly through the discussion

of using spiritual ideation or outlook in developing teamwork and in interacting with the

community. We were also aware of the concept of kosas, or levels of mind (including the

creative, intellectual, collective, spiritual, and universal) in developing activities that addressed

various ways of knowing and experiencing ourselves and the world around us. The notion of

samaja was the key concept orienting our PAR to the Ozarks as a region, attentive to the local

cultural values and history. Principles of economic democracy and decentralization were utilized

(and unfortunately just touched upon at the actual training because of lack of time) as tools to

analyze the cause of social strengths and weaknesses. They were also touched upon in

brainstorming solutions.

In taking all of the above into consideration, Freire’s popular education, the field of

critical pedagogy, the key themes of PAR as well as the components and strategy of PROUT,

Fals-Broda and Rahman seem to have hit the mark by providing four focuses for the knowledge

creation process of PAR (2001, pp 8-9). We would rely on these extensively in crafting the

details of our training curriculum:

The first is collective research: the investigation of social realities with a sense of

collective dialogue – inquiry into the daily lives and experiences of people and developing a

group consciousness.

Second is the critical recovery of history: collecting the insider story of history,

popular stories and accounts, looking to elders and those who voices may be silent.

The third element is valuing and applying folk culture - local values and feelings about

the past present and future. Also included are valuing local cultures of art, recreation, music, and

drama.

The final tenet is the production and diffusion of new knowledge: incorporating new

styles and ways of knowledge and action into a group and community. New groups and ways of

action emerge, as well as new styles of knowledge through group talents and styles of knowing,

for example, art, music, drama, and written products.

Dialogue and Reflection.

Reflecting and evaluating experience is an essential process in becoming more

conscious and intentional about one’s actions. In engaging our members in reflecting upon how

prout would integrate with PAR and how we could create our pensamiento proprio, we believed

that a final dialogue session was critical. Here we designed questions relating to how the

experience related to the initial passionate questions and problems, how well participants were

able to relate our social philosophy to the training, how effective they felt a similar process might

be in their own communities, and goals they identified for future trainings and work together.

The Setting: Ananda Kanan - The Ananda Marga Ozarks Retreat Center

The Ananda Kanan (Sanskrit for “garden of bliss) spiritual retreat center is the national

retreat center for Ananda Marga. Located approximately seventy-five miles east of Springfield

Missouri, Ananda Kanan is twenty miles south east of West Plains, the nexus for small rural

townships in a hundred mile radius. In the heart of the southern Ozarks in south central

Missouri, the area is typical of much of the Ozarks, near dense forest, vast pasturelands, and

rambling rivers. Our site features a lake, large pastures, and a forested area. The facilities

feature extensive dormitories; dining and meeting facilities and can serve over three hundred

people.

The center hosts our large semi annual retreats, bi-monthly meetings of our contingent of

monks and nuns from across the world who work in “New York Sector” (Globally, Ananda

Marga is divided into nine sectors or regions, and New York Sector contains North and Central

America and the countered of the Caribbean), an annual alternative spring retreat for spiritually

minded college students, and occasionally hosts retreat for local grass roots organizations, such

as the Ozarks Area Action Council. A senior Ananda Marga monk with a junior monk assisting

him, and several volunteers who help maintain the grounds manages most the time the center.

Often members of Ananda Marga, or an occasional additional monk or nun stop by to repair their

cars while on cross-country trips, to seek spiritual renewal, or to enjoy the satsaunga (spiritual

company).

Adjacent to the property is land held by the founder of this retreat center, with a twostory

house, garage, and art gallery. This member is a landscape and portrait artists who is

rapidly becoming known in the Ozarks for naturalistic murals commissioned by local townships

or public schools.

Pre-planning and Preparation

In late spring, 2001 we began sketching out a proposal for our process to present to the

leadership board of Proutist Universal in the U.S. We had formal approval to go ahead towards

the end of winter, 2002. It would take until just a week before the training to finalize the exact

dates and time that we would have available for the training – there were time conflicts with

other programs essential to the retreat and the meetings planned for PROUT. The training would

be held the first four days, followed by a purely spiritual retreat the next three. The amount of

time we initially planned needed to be diminished, because there were other activities planned

for the members of Proutist Universal. The experience could not possibly do justice to our

original vision or to the integrity of participatory action research. It would be a taste of the

experience, and training about the concepts and tools of PAR, as well as a dialogue and

reflection tool in shedding new light on how PROUT could be used for social transformation.

Through our dialogue, we both came to appreciate our different angles on the process.

He was more interested and experienced in the analytical or fact-finding aspect of the process,

where I was more focused on the process of relationship building and experiential learning. We

began to track down information and contacts for the Ozarks over the Internet. It was easy to

track down statistics and demographic information from state departments and research

conducted by the extension services of the University of Missouri. Early in spring, we began to

call contacts and arrange for meetings. I was to meet with the student head of the ecology club at

the local university, an extension of Southwest Missouri State University, as well as the director

of the Ozarks Bioregional Council. He had contacted and had meetings planned with the Ozarks

Action Agency and the extension officer from the University of Missouri. At the same time we

dialogued about the key goals and concepts for the training.

We arrived three days before the training to do advanced field research. I met with

contacts, learning about community sites to visit. We visited the public library to locate local

historical and demographic data and found a number of visitors at the library that were happy to

talk about their personal experiences and insights. We visited several agencies, arranging

meetings, collecting information, and traveled around the region several times – observing where

people socialized, shopped and worked. I also find it interesting to visit the local cemeteries. It

turned out that there were many neighborhood graveyards, where a small network of families

would bury their relatives. At the library we were learning that West Plains had long been a

nexus for local trade.

As we hurriedly made photocopies of documents, assembled our field kits for each group

to use, coordinated meetings in the community, and sat down to orchestrate the details of our

training, we were making final adjustments with other scheduled events at the retreat. With our

busy working schedules during the year it was hard for the two of us to do justice to the passion

we felt for this process and the interest demonstrated by the members of our organization.

The PAR training would be part of the four-day training for members of Proutist

Universal (At the retreat, the first four days were dedicated to training programs with three of the

many trades of departments of Ananda Marga – education, disaster relief were the other two) as

well as activities for children and people new to Ananda Marga.) Our part of the Proutist

Universal Training would be comprised of five two to three hour program slots divided into

eights sessions.

The Ozarks PAR Training, June 28 – July 1, 2002

There were twenty-eight participants in our workshop. They arrived at our retreat center

from across the U.S., Mexico, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Germany, and one participant was a recent

refugee from the Congo, a fellow anthropologist who was staying with me in Los Angeles. They

came from a wide variety of ethnicities with avocations including a professor of geography at

Florida State University, an adjunct economics professor, the owner of a health foods supermarket,

several alternative business-owners, free-lance writers, engineers, undergraduate and

graduate students, the director of a large activist non-profit organization, and several monks and

one nun from our spiritual organization. There was an approximate balance in gender with ages

ranging from eighteen to late fifties.

Session One: Introduction

On the morning of the first day of the retreat, we learned that the presenter of the morning

program had not arrived from the East Coast, so we had to jump into action. My co-presenter

was off in town following up contacts. We began with a short spiritual chant and meditation.

After an overview of our program, we discussed the “initial itch;” the passion and

purpose behind doing the workshop. This included the feeling we had as spiritual tourists, the

need to link PROUT to practical action, and the need to evolve teamwork in the organization.

Participants shared their own perceptions and experiences of these issues. I discussed the work

of Paulo Freire, and the basic tenets of participatory action research. I was especially careful to

tie quotes from Freire to the writings of our spiritual preceptor, P.R. Sarkar from his book:

Liberation of Intellect: Neohumanism.

We discussed the lens of participatory action research through which our own philosophy

could be woven into a participatory process. PAR was a relational process, in which participants

evolved relationships amongst themselves through the process and then mirrored this process

with the community. Emphasized was Freire’s purpose of rising above prescriptive ways of

knowing, constructing new ways of experiencing and dialoguing about social life. The idea of

pensamiento proprio was briefly defined – that each group developed its own ideology or

cosmology of activism, based on its own value system and the development of its distinct

learning community. I reviewed a few tenets of PROUT as tools to analyze social conditions,

rather than as theoretical concepts as prescriptions for a future society.

Session Two – Group Process and Teamwork Development

In this session we experienced group process exercises to become more conscious of the

relational nature of PAR. Here I utilized Jacob Moreno’s concept of sociogram and socio-drama

in designing exercises to develop a sense of teamwork and to appreciate individual learning

styles and values (see web site: Social Network Analysis: A Handbook by John Scott

Sociometric Analysis and Graph Theory, p 8). I briefly related the exercises to the yogic notion

of kosas mentioned in an earlier section of this paper.

The exercises were designed to see how participants related spatially to one another. We

set out a long line of masking tape and participants were asked where they stood on a continuum

that at one end represented the value of being goal oriented and at the opposite end, the value of

being process oriented. As they stood on the line, we asked each other what that meant for us in

our daily lives. One member was a musician and felt completely process oriented; he said that

he just enjoyed the feeling of being creative. Our nun was entirely goal oriented and valued

having clear tasks and outcomes. Other questions included whether participants were primarily

verbal, kinesthetic, visual or auditory learners, whether they learned better with greater

autonomy or collectivity, and whether they preferred working with collective decision-making or

through a higher authority. I sensed that participants were beginning to see new aspects to many

people we had known for over twenty years. Participants were reminded to think about these

differences as they planned their fieldwork – to build on each person’s talents and strengths, and

to validate the fact that each person might place a higher value on different types of knowledge

in the community. For example, some might privilege analytical fact finding, while another

might find greater value in having a more intimate talk with a community member. I remarked

that the same awareness and appreciation of similarities and differences would help us

understand the larger community.

Session Three – Overview of the Ozarks

In the afternoon of the third day, co-facilitator Allan Rosen presented an overview of the

Ozarks Region. He began with a discussion of the geography, the river systems, flora and fauna,

and key themes in the region. Regional demographics were presented – there was a high rate of

poverty, low high school graduation rates, a recent influx of retirement age populations, and

several pressing ecological issue. Participants read aloud accounts from pioneer families about

their struggles to survive, as well as passages from state reports about the natural splendor of the

region and the themes of geographical isolation and the strong sense of family and community

support

The founding member of our spiritual community came into the session to present his

experiences over the past twenty years. He is a landscape and mural artist who worked with

local schools and civic groups in the region, and had a lot to share about local values and issues

of concern. He felt that the locals were very family and community oriented, and that social

networks were strongly connected to Baptist congregations. While people were poor, there was

still a strong local barter economy. He told us that people were outgoing and friendly when we

also extended our friendship. He played tennis and basketball with a local school principal as

well as a preacher. But he cautioned that people might remain a little distant, hesitant to make

friend with non-Christian that others might disapprove of. He shared several of his landscape

paintings of dilapidated barns or tranquil creek side settings. He mentioned that he would like to

work with other artists raising funds and awareness for environmental and historical preservation

projects – badly needed in this area of changing demographics and outside business investments.

After this, another member talked about her plan to meet with local Native Americans.

She shared her knowledge of the general history of Native American spirituality as well as the

genocidal exploitation that Native Americans experienced.

Session Four – Fieldwork Preparation

The following afternoon was our next session, preparing for fieldwork activities the

following morning. Participants formed fieldwork teams on the topics of: Native Americans,

ecology, family and poverty issues and economics. They would meet and plan a strategy to

accomplish a number of tasks within a very short span of time – there was five hours to carry out

this session.

Each team was given a fieldwork kit containing (1) resource materials on their topic –

local maps, handouts from local agencies, data derived from the internet, and a list of local

contacts; (2) a Polaroid camera (3) drawing pencils and paper to draw or take notes upon; and (4)

a sample interview form which listed a few questions that would be common to all groups, with

space for each group to write questions concerning their topics.

Teams shared the common goals of interviewing local experts on their topics,

interviewing a sample of local residents, visiting a site relevant to their topic (For example, the

ecology group could visit a waste dump site), and collecting informational materials to share

with the group.

A major concern was how to introduce ourselves when conducting interviews. We were

clear that rather than trying to inspire people about our philosophy, our purpose was to listen and

observe the community. A consensus arose that we would present ourselves as students in a

training seminar about the local region. As members of a social service organization, we wanted

to learn about local issues in order to better serve the community in the future.

Our member from Mexico discussed her experiences conducting similar fieldwork in

rural Mexico. She found it helpful for those participants to interview residents in pairs, one

would conduct a formal interview and take notes with another when engage the person in a

friendly more open conversation to gain their confidence and sense of trust

Then each group went their separate way to strategize for their fieldwork, establishing

roles and tasks and planning logistics such as transportation. When the teams returned from the

field they would also need time to plan their presentations to the larger group.

Session Five – Fieldwork

Teams went out into the community on their own. Some enthusiastically left early in the

morning, bringing food for lunch with them. We stayed back to plan the afternoon’s session.

Session Six – Group Presentations

As the teams came back to the meeting room in the afternoon, we formed a circle, and

reflected briefly on what had just occurred. This had been a hurried and perhaps at times

frustrating experience, however it also must have had moments of excitement and fulfillment as

well. Each team sat and further prepared for their presentations

The first group had focused on area economics. They had videotaped several interviews

with local business owners and their meeting with the extension representative from the

University of Missouri – held in Mountain View, a small town about fifteen miles north east of

our center. Those interviewed talked about where they had grown up, their level of education

and their history of work experience. Several people had stayed in the local community their

entire lives, others had moved away and returned later. At the chamber of commerce there was

optimism with extensive plans and activities for community improvement that included

revitalizing the downtown area, holding local fundraisers, and starting a community center.

Key concerns from those interviewed included the struggle to achieve credit for business

investment, farms not generating enough income to support families, and a looming tax crisis,

where funds may not be available to support local programs. Strengths mentioned were the local

informal economy and the spirit of community and family support. One participant in the

fieldwork who was a university student remarked “It was exciting because we were actually

seeing what people needed.” The group felt that agency staff were very open to our social

philosophy and had many beliefs and values in common with our own.

The second group visited two Native American centers in West Plains. Local Cherokee

leaders spoke of the “trail of tears” the long forced march of the Cherokee to reservations, and

how they settled in Missouri. They spoke of their spiritual values and of the sweat lodge. The

original spring that Native Americans gathered near actually flowed underneath the center.

There were conflicts with the local community; for example, the town council preferred initially

to sell the building that would become their center to a local church for $90,000, when they had

offered to pay $300,000.

The Ananda Marga nun who accompanied the group felt that many of the values and

practices of the Cherokee were similar to indigenous peoples in India. Participants were deeply

touched by this experience; it was the first time many participants had ever talked to a Native

American about their spirituality as well as their struggles. The center leaders shared their plans

for introducing bilingual education programs.

At the same time that many of the group members visited these centers, another

participant in was interviewing local residents about their attitudes towards Native Americans.

There was a consensus that they deserved to have their original lands returned and to have

respect and support for their culture.

The third group met first at the Ozarks Action Center to investigate family and poverty

issues. The agency worked extensively with local residents, holding community surveys and

facilitating focus groups. There was a quote on the wall that caught everyone’s eye that

reinforced the center’s mission to build local capacity: “Never be afraid to try something new.

Remember, amateurs built the Ark (referring to Noah), professionals built the Titanic.”

The director of the agency presented an educational video on the working poor. Local

counties averaged about 23% below the poverty level, twice the average in the rest of Missouri.

Others lived just above the poverty and lacked access to basic services, because they were not

technically poor. Many senior citizens fell into this category. There were high incidences of

child abuse, too many low paying jobs, lack of proper housing, a low percentage of high school

graduates going on to higher education, a rapidly increasing prison population, lack of sufficient

job training, healthcare choices or recreational opportunities. There were significant numbers of

women who were parents below the age of 18.

After this meeting, teams of three went into the community to interview residents. They

went to the downtown plaza, a local park and the Wal-Mart on the outskirts of town. Outside the

music store in the town plaza they were surprised to hear a tape of spiritual chanting from our

spiritual organization playing. Evidently, appreciation of our movement was much wider than

many had expected.

Business owners had to adapt quickly to the opening of the Wal-Mart if they were to

survive. One owner converted his hardware store to antiques. Many interviewed lamented the

loss of local culture, and the yearning to preserve the small town atmosphere. An elderly couple

interviewed in the park felt that few people knew their neighbors and that national fast food

chains had replaced local restaurants, where people prepared food themselves. People expressed

that both teens and the elderly were least well served in the community. Teens did not have

much to do in their free time; they drank and play video games. Social life was shopping at Wal-

Mart or going to church.

One woman remarked that people in general were afraid of we orange people. She

suggested that we make a flier explaining who we were for locals.

The final group to present concerned the local environment. All participants first visited

the State of Missouri Conservation Center in West Plains. There agency staff discussed the

history of environmental issues in the area – deforestation caused soil erosion, which led to an

extensive presence of stones in creeks and rivers. This then led to a decline in local fish and

fresh water crustaceans. Hunting led to the decline of local deer mammal populations.

The establishment of the Missouri Conservation authority brought new funds and power

to the protection of animal species and the renewal of the forests and rivers. Because of this there

has been an inspiring recovery of local ecosystems. The agency was holding local town

meetings discussing environmental issues and has started a stream-watch volunteer program.

Recent problems are caused by the rapid growth of new businesses. Unfortunately

recent funding cuts and a predicted tax crisis may seriously impair the work of this center.

The group then split into groups, interviewing residents about their attitudes towards the

environment. A teen took participants behind his house that bordered the small creek that went

through West Plains. There was garbage thrown into the creek bed, and the teen remarked that

people lacked any real concern for the creek. There was a consensus that people were less

concerned about environmental issues as their own survival.

Session Seven – Summary and Synthesis of Key Themes

After a few minutes of stretching, teams would meet to synthesize what they had

experienced into key themes. For this session, residents of our retreat center were invited as well

as other members who had not participated in the workshops of Proutist Universal.

First we briefly reviewed several tenets of PROUT that might give us insight into the

issues that participants experienced. One principle that seemed especially relevant was balanced

economic planning (Sarkar, 1992, pp33-39). A sustainable economy and one that was in

harmony with the environment had a balanced involvement in agriculture, industry, services, and

retail trade. In the Ozarks it was evident that the earlier agricultural economy was giving way to

a growing retail trade, where imported products sold in the local Wal-mart usurped locally

produced goods, leading to the impoverishment of local farms and the closure of local industries

and stores. Another principles of PROUT was the encouragement of economic cooperatives

(1992, pp. 128 – 145). In the Ozarks it seemed like the long history of neighborly cooperation

could easily be utilized in strengthening a local economic infrastructure.

Representatives from each group then wrote down their common issues on the wall.

These were divided into strengths and problems or critical issues:

Local strengths

The resident’s love of local culture, home and sense of place.

The strong survival strategies that people utilized, including the sense of support and informal

economy.

The importance people placed on education.

The way agencies had developed town meetings.

A sense of optimism.

The fact that there was a renewal of ecosystems.

The openness of the Native Americans.

The strong sense of family and the sense of collectivity.

Local problems and critical issues

The need to utilize local resources and plant local vegetation.

Aging demographics that impacted local resources – healthcare and housing, for example.

The fear of exploitation by outside business interests...

Several looming crises – poverty, lack of local infrastructure.

Lack of coordinated planning between various agencies and levels of government.

The lack of meaningful employment.

An absence of living wages.

A lack of job training.

The clash between old and new values.

The lack of long-term investment.

Women’s welfare – sufficient healthcare and family support.

The need for educational initiatives, especially for indigenous people to learn their languages.

We then quickly distilled this list into concise inclusive themes that included: poverty

and family issues, education and training, ecological awareness, and economic exploitation as

problem areas, and sense of family and collectivity and the informal economy as shared

strengths.

Our participant form Mexico then spontaneously talked about how she was working with

the Zapatistas in Mexico to elevate the awareness of the impact of globalization on indigenous

people. She said that people in Missouri were part of the same chain of events. There was an

industrial corridor, running from the industrial cities of the northeast U.S. through the south and

into Central and South America. Here, cheap labor was exploited in maquilas in the global south

for the benefit of consumers and wealthy corporations in the north.

In Mexico they (the Zapatistas) are trying to create an anti movement to develop an

economy to counter the influence of [corporations such as] Wal-Mart. The hope of

indigenous peoples is that we here [in the U.S.] wake up. They are paying 20 cents per

hour [in Mexico]; there is a tremendous impact on the environment. In California, they

(activists) are starting to boycott sweatshop products.

Roughly translation of Spanish through an interpreter

A participant asked how this was relevant to what were seeing in Missouri. We brought

up the point that opportunities for employment were escaping the area, while corporations could

exploit cheap labor in Central America. This indeed could be the cause of younger people

fleeing the area. One of the principles in our social philosophy was that local resources should

be developed into finished goods in the local region, and these products used to fulfill the basic

necessities of local residents first before being exported from the region.

I used this discussion to point out that the very purpose of this training was to see how the

principles of our philosophy could be utilized and analytical tools to understand local problems

and begin to dialogue about solutions. This was not a prescriptive process, but a slowly evolving

dialogue with local residents – elevating our sense of partnership and understanding with local

residents, at the same time, utilizing our philosophy to better understand the causes of problems,

at the same time seeking avenues for coming up with local solutions. Participants had learned

through the experience that people naturally came up with solutions and strategies that were in

harmony with our philosophy – the idea of promoting cooperatives, focusing on local economic

self-reliance, sustaining ecosystems, and supporting local cultures were all fundamental

principles our spiritual preceptor had discussed in the late 1950’s, when he stressed the

importance of linking social activism to the process of spiritual fulfillment.

There was not enough time to thoroughly discuss an action plan and to further link the

principles of our philosophy to what we had experienced in a didactic way. Participants briefly

shared ideas for utilizing what we had learned and possible next steps. There was a consensus

that agencies we visited were keenly interested in learning about our findings. There was also an

interest in sharing what we found with the larger membership of our organization at the retreat

site. I mentioned that in the future, there would be several opportunities for volunteer

involvement to develop a closer relationship with local residents. We could join the local stream

watch group, for example. The facilitator of the Native American group mentioned that she had

invited the director of one of the centers to give a presentation at our evening cultural program.

Seven people volunteered to assemble our materials and develop a booklet or presentation about

what we had learned to share with our own organization and the local community. I had

mentioned earlier that I felt that local schools and the library would probably appreciate these

materials.

Session Eight - Graduation and Final Reflection

The conclusion of the training was a graduation ceremony, presided by the global head of

Proutist Universal who happened to be at our spiritual retreat. The local head of our organization

in New York Sector congratulated the participants on their work, and each participant received a

certificate of completion. However before this, we again stood in a circle and reflected upon

what we had learned in the training. We would reflect on the initial passionate questions, what

we had learned through the process, and what people suggested for the future. I asked

participants questions such as: How the experience had helped them learn about each other as

well as the community? If the experience had helped them better understand how to utilize our

social philosophy in the real world? What they had felt and experienced during the fieldwork?

Had been prepared before going into the field? Answers fell into the following themes:

I. Shifting Assumptions – Participants had shifted their assumptions and gained insights about

local residents:

Today I discovered the third world inside the USA. People are afraid of newcomers, of

the big corporations coming to their area, of loosing their culture and they are all

European, from European ancestry and they are afraid of all these rich people coming

and they feel like so little, and smashed. That’s something I didn’t know about; it’s a

discovery for me.

Anthropologist from the Congo

This participant was a political refugee, arrested in the Democratic Republic of the

Congo, held in military detention, and finally making it to a refugee camp in the country of

Benin. In the PAR process, he adopted the role of listener and observer, and realized that his

assumptions of European heritage Americans as a seemingly homogenous empowered group

shifted dramatically. Another participant shifted her assumption that locals were prejudiced

towards minorities:

Before we went out I was worried about asking the white people in the streets about

how they felt about indigenous people . . . because I thought they would be as racist as

I imagined they were. But after I heard the feedback from (a participant who

interviewed people in town about their attitudes of indigenous peoples), I was really

pleased. It changed my perceptions of the people here in a very positive way.

Director of member-run social action agency

Participants also shifted their fears and assumptions about the process itself:

For me in the beginning I thought it would be difficult. This particular place we are in,

Ananda Kanan, and to go outside, and interact with these people, and I thought it would

be difficult, so I was completely wrong, so unless we go and meet people we cannot

[know].

Participant from Portugal

II. How the community observed us.

Some views reinforced our notions of how the community viewed us - as orange people

in a cult, capable of inhuman actions and aloof form the community. In an interview with a

person in town, one woman remarked that it was widely believed that before we arrived, there

was a group practicing witchcraft and that we were continuing the practice. It was believed that

we were people that stayed inside and rarely left our property.

Shifting our relationship with the community.

A theme the recurred in participants’ reflections were that many people interviewed

shared many principals of our social philosophy – there was a natural and common value system

waiting to be cultivated:

Talking to this nice indigenous couple for me and also with the other experiences for me,

there are a whole bunch of people out there who have the same ideas that we have as

Proutists. They also want to connect, they also want to build up a network, and work

together with other groups with the same ideas.

Engineer from Germany

IV. Learning from the Experience.

There were barriers to overcome in the process. Clearly, many participants had not

connected our vast philosophy with the basics of community organizing before:

The thing that I found that was inspiring was learning how easy it is to make a phone call

and make a connection real fast, to go over there just to find out their qualities what

they’re doing and how they are doing their work.

Participant from Missouri now living in Columbia

V. Linking our philosophy to practical action.

It’s a great way to know the problems in your community, while giving people some

dignity, some respect. Everybody loves to talk about what they are into. It’s a nice [and]

humble way for us to get involved in our communities.

Business owner

VI. Participants felt that the process developed a spirit of teamwork and the beginning of a

learning community:

Also, very important, we learned about the community and also very important we

learned about each other, how we all work, [and] what our capacities are.

Ananda Marga monk

VII. Participants saw the relevancy of the experience to issues and potential projects in their

respective communities.

The woman from Puerto Rico saw the problem of the encroachment of multinational

corporations in the Ozarks as occurring in her own country. She felt that she could return with a

clearer idea of how to address these issues. Another member felt that the Ananda Marga retreat

center in Germany could benefit from the same process:

To me it’s a great inspiration for Germany. We’re in the same boat. In Germany our

retreat center, we have it in a small village.

Engineer from Germany

VIII. Reflections about the training process.

There was a consensus that the trainings had been beneficial and insightful, and there

was an interest to continue this type of training and community involvement. The greatest

insight was gained through the field experience itself. There really was a change in

consciousness – many understanding for the first time how our philosophy could be translated

into action. People appreciated what they had learned form the regional overview, it had helped

them prepare for fieldwork, and it was mentioned that the team building exercises had helped

them learn about one another.

There were also several suggestions for improving the training. More time was needed to

engage in effective fieldwork, and many participants felt ill prepared for introducing themselves

to local residents. There was a suggestion for each team to have its own trained facilitator as

well as more time in the beginning of the training for participants to get to know each other. Few

participants recalled the discussion and presentation on the first morning about the connection

between theories of popular education and critical pedagogy – there was a strong consensus that

participants preferred to learn through action rather than through discussions of concepts. Also,

the other aspects of our PROUT workshop (part of the overall program involved presentations

from other people) were not integrated or related to the PAR process. These included a

presentation of our theory by the director of Proutist Universal in New York Sector and a slide

show from about the Global Forum recently held in Brazil. These were very relevant and in the

future, could well serve an integrated training.

IX. Ideas for future work together.

Participants enthusiastically wanted to hold similar trainings in their local communities.

Seven people volunteered to help organize these events, however there was reluctance for them

to help facilitate the trainings themselves – they needed more training. An agreement arose to

include a similar training in the global conference of Proutist Universal that would be held at the

same site the following year. There was interest in holding a concert to benefit local agencies

and initiatives at this conference (one of the members of our organization was a nationally

renowned fiddle player – what Ozarks resident would turn down the opportunity to hear her

play?), and an idea to hold a community forum on the Ozarks at a local community center. Also

regarding continued participation locally, there was a reiteration of interest in compiling what we

had learned and sharing this with local agencies. One participant suggested that more permanent

residents of our spiritual community participate in countywide events. Another suggestion was

to participate in the community forums facilitated by the Missouri State Conservation Agency.

Conclusion

Allan and I sat outside the house where our training seminar was held on a comfortable

couch, discussing the often hectic experiences of the training. Allan felt that the experience was

quite effective, but he was also concerned to address the suggestions that participants had for

improvement. I felt uplifted by the enthusiastic participation, yet also tired from the demands of

organizing and facilitating the training.

The experience had definitely brought the two of us closer together and we had begun to

appreciate our common perspectives as well as where we diverged. We realized that it was

important to encourage others with diverse experience and perspectives to bring new insights

into the process, enriching the experience. We had clearly addressed the initial passionate

questions that inspired the training, although it was obvious that lasting changes would take a

more extensive commitment from ourselves as well as the members of Proutist Universal. We

were encouraged by the interest shown by many participants in continuing the process in their

local communities and made a commitment to each other to continue our partnership.

I believe that we can see features of an emerging pensamiento proprio through the reflections of

participants in the training. These features include:

Learning in relationship and in appreciation of each other.

Recognition and support of individual learning styles and value differences.

Learning and acting in relationship with a wider community.

Beginning to act through the lens of the regional approach of our social philosophy.

Beginning to apply the principles of our social philosophy to the real world experience of

community members.

Beginning to apply our spiritual outlook – of universal compassion and spiritual ideation to

activism.

Participants definitely shifted their perspectives and experiences away from the spiritual tourist

model, and more towards a model of community engagement. They had become aware of their

assumptions by listening to residents. We do not know if our process was shifting assumptions

of residents as well. We do know that people in local agencies were delighted to cooperate with

us and look forward to our contact in the future. In several cases they expressed that they felt

commonality with our principles. We also know that we were learning how to engage with local

residents much more in the way that they engage with one another – through friendly one on one

contact and discussions about the things that matter to them. This is certainly a beginning for

mutual understanding and appreciation. Like any true project of social engagement, locals want

to see time proven commitments, so only time will tell how committed we become to the local

community.

After the training I began to recognize that I felt very much at home in the Ozarks. I felt

much closer to locals by listening and sharing with them. I also felt closer to my fellow

participants. West Plans has a good deal in common with the home-town of my mother, Helena

Arkansas. This city was now nearly a ghost town with the decline of the cotton industry,

however people were very close to each other and I think very much effected by the serenity of a

small town surrounded by much natural beauty. Virtually everyone that I knew also came from a

small rural town, or rather their ancestors did. They did not leave by choice, but found their

future in the rapid urbanization that is ubiquitous on our planet. I felt like the local issues in

West Plains were very much my own issues. Through the PAR process I had really transformed

in my relationship with the Ozarks as well as my own sense of personal mission and sense of

place.

More than six months after the Ozarks PAR training the experience has two distinct but

complementary courses for further reflection and action for me.

It is clear that the more outward PAR process as a project for training our members and

engaging in activism was integral to yet distinct from the greater project of evolving our own

praxis or pensamiento proprio of PAR for Proutist Universal.

Facilitating PAR training is a focus on crafting an experience for a wide variety of our

members. The priority for training and action are tangible skills to engage our members with our

vast philosophy. As a collective process, there is a gradual evolution of a learning community

that will have multiples stages of development. The first steps are holding pragmatic trainings,

where members experience and reflect on the benefits gained and begin to dialogue about theory

in action. From the final reflection session at the retreat, it is clear the learning experiences that

will be remembered and passed on to others are about tangible experiences with people in the

community rather than about theory or concepts and dynamics behind the process.

The project of training then becomes one of consciously creating an “atmosphere” of

engagement. Here, the more obvious activism begins to create a climate in which participants

reflect upon the less obvious theory and processes behind the training. We are creating, in Lev

Vygotsky’s terms of the zone of proximal development (1978), an environment to nurture the

potential of individuals to engage in the creation and reproduction of this learning environment

themselves. Over time, the creation, maintenance and development of this learning community

may well result in the creation of a true community-based pensamiento proprio, one that is

integral with the organization itself. Here I am inspired by the work of Barbara Rogoff (2001)

and her co-authors who have told the story of the thirty year development of an alternative

elementary school, where both the tacit and explicit knowledge of their learning community is

perpetuated through the everyday experience of the participants. Here, I feel a calling back to

the more traditional role of the anthropologist, in telling the story of this development in our own

organization, listening attentively and sharing the stories that emerge form this everyday

experience.

There are many challenges to the continuing evolution of this learning community of

PAR. Our organization faces severe financial challenges. We also live far away from each

other, and several months may go by without meeting or working together. I am however

heartened by the existing folklore of activism in our organization. Several members who have

been active in Proutist Universal over several decades often recall meaningful experiences and

trainings long ago, where they walked the streets and met with other activist organizations, as

well as several conferences and retreats where Native American leaders and progressive activists

came to actively dialogue with us. This folklore can be added to and encouraged as a consistent

collective memory through all the other struggles and challenges we face.

At the same time, the wider project of evolving the theory and praxis of PROUT as an

indigenous praxis of PAR is complementary although separate. Here, there are several scholars

and activists in our organization that are framing our philosophy as a distinct ontological and

epistemological system. I am inspired by the work of futurist, Sohail Inayatullah and his work,

Understanding Sarkar: The Indian Episteme, Macrohistory and Transformative Knowledge

(2002). Inayatullah is addressing the comprehensive project of our philosophy, that of spiritual

and social liberation in the context of historians and social philosophers from a variety of

ontological and epistemological paradigms. He then is utilizing this dialogue in crafting his own

global work in the field of social studies. My own task becomes a lifetime of a continued

heuristics of mapping my own experiences, consciousness raising, research and praxis, and then

sharing this in communion of other likeminded thinkers, both within Ananda Marga and Proutist

Universal and the wider community of participatory facilitators and scholars.

Finally, I feel inspired to justify in clear terms the very purpose of this project. Sarkar,

the founder of PROUT is also my own spiritual guide, and has given me deep insight and sense

of purpose through several occasions of personal contact. At one point, he decided that Proutist

Universal was not following its purpose in social transformation. He dismantled the

organization, and later re-organized it with the admonition that its members should be involved

in direct service to society. In other words, our vast theory should be applied in action. At

another time, he grounded our philosophy in the direction to: “Know the area, make a plan, and

serve the people.”

Recent years are unfolding a vision of the future that can easily be seen as a worse case

scenario; the starvation of millions, the lack of access to clean water, multinational corporations

directly linked to murderous right wing death squads and third world squalor. Outside the

Ananda Marga house where I write this, teenagers are murdered in broad daylight. In the wider

Los Angeles community, forty percent of the population has no access to adequate healthcare

and many of our high schools feature a forty percent dropout rate. Sadly both schools and

hospitals are now declining due directly to the crippling of our State economy because of the

corrupt practices of Enron Corporation.

There is a crucial need for focused activism, yet activism without vision and sustained

transformation will lead nowhere. At the same time, a vast vision and inspiring idealism is

problematic without real world pragmatism. It is precisely in the day-to-day struggle to unite

theory with action, vision with pragmatism, love with a sense purpose, that true transformation

will be fostered. The focus for this transformation is found in those communities of action

whose members unite their passions and intentions with the real world of the neighborhoods

around them. This transformation matures and evolves through the growth of a deep reflection

and dialogue of action in relationship, where the growth and maturation of its members becomes

a mirror within itself for the transformation of the world outside itself: I conclude by repeating

Paulo Freire’s worlds:

To exist humanly is to name the world, to change it. Once named, the world in its turn

reappears to the namer as a problem and requires of them a new naming. Human beings

are not built in silence, but in words in work, in action –reflection.

Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

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Oppenheim Participatory action research Shifting paradigms...11 february 2010.pdf

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