What is Collective Presencing?
Collective presencing is a participatory group practice that cultivates shared presence, deep listening, and collective wisdom through structured circle dialogue. It is a dialogue practice and inquiry process where participants cultivate a state of receptivity and deep listening while holding a guiding question in the group’s awareness and attention, allowing meaning to emerge, unfold, and weave. Unlike conventional group facilitation focused on problem-solving or consensus, collective presencing seeks to access what practitioners call “the magic in the middle”—a field of collective intelligence that exceeds the sum of individual contributions.
The practice emerges from the intersection of several lineages: Otto Scharmer’s Theory U concept of “presencing” (blending presence and sensing), circle practice traditions, and the work of evolutionary consciousness theorists like Jean Gebser and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. The practice that came to be called Collective Presencing seems to tell us something about evolution itself, about a human capacity beginning to emerge, and about the new paradigm that we see and feel unfolding through us. Where Scharmer’s work focuses primarily on individual and organizational transformation, collective presencing extends this into intentional group fields where participants attune to subtle energies and unmanifest potential together.
Origins & Lineage
The Women Moving the Edge project was co-initiated by Judy Wallace and Ria Baeck, and took form with the help and active participation of many other women. It ran for 6 years and included 13 gatherings (from 2006 till 2012, both in Europe and the US). The entire gathering, which took place in Denmark in March 2006, was a quest in search for collective intelligence (or collective wisdom) that was bigger than the sum of the individuals. Finn called it The Magic in the Middle. When the hosting team finally relinquished all attempts at facilitating a programme or design, they finally found themselves inside this collective magic for about two hours.
The practice draws on Otto Scharmer’s Theory U, developed in the early 2000s at MIT. Scharmer coined the term “presencing” that combines the concepts of presence and sensing. The book started out as an article supplementing ‘Theory U’, as developed by Otto Scharmer, because, inspiring as the framework was, it didn’t seem able to accommodate what had been lived in many women’s gatherings. Baeck and her collaborators, including Helen Titchen Beeth, formalized their findings into a book published in 2015.
The framework that best fit their experiences was Jean Gebser’s description of the mutation of consciousness, written half way through the previous century. Gebser (1905-1973) was a Swiss phenomenologist whose major work The Ever-Present Origin (1949) mapped human consciousness evolution through archaic, magic, mythical, mental, and integral structures. Great thinkers like Aurobindo’s descent of the supramental and Teilhard de Chardin’s noosphere foreshadowed this capacity.
The practice was first published in Kosmos magazine, Spring/Summer 2012. Since then, it has evolved through a global community of practitioners who offer regular free online sessions and in-person gatherings.
How It’s Practiced
Collective Presencing sessions create conditions where participants express and articulate beyond limited social scripts and roles, expanding what is possible to say and be. Participants practice subtle sensing—a finely tuned noticing of bodily perceptions, including the intelligence of the body and not just rational, linear, and conceptual capacities.
The practice typically unfolds in circle format, with participants seated in a circle, often using a talking piece. It involves connecting, through the body, with the unmanifest potential of whatever is being held—be it a person, a group, a place or a project. To hold space is to open the body and the subtle senses into conscious connection with the subtle energy of present potential in service of what wants to or can become manifest.
In this practice, participants don’t control what happens or have a specific agenda. The way of being together evokes group coherence, leading to collective wisdom, opening up the possibility for new insights, inspiration, creative emergence, more nuanced sensing, and generative ways of relating.
There are two distinct phases—in the first phase participants learn to be present, fully embodied in their selves and open to the others and what is going on in the group. In the second phase they build on these capacities gained to expand awareness to the wider context of soul, time and space.
Collective Presencing Today
A community offers regular free, open, online sessions, and everyone is welcome to join the practice and experience Collective Presencing. Those who have been practicing for years and feel called to tend to the community and the practice have formed a group called ‘core practitioners’—a self-organising network, a living collective with no fixed rules.
After each dialogue session, there is a half-hour debrief where all kinds of questions, comments, and reflections about the practice and the community are invited. Through answering these, the essence and nuances of the process are articulated. Participants can experience the practice through drop-in sessions before deciding to deepen their involvement.
The practice is being adapted into various contexts beyond its origins in women’s circles, including organizational development, Art of Hosting gatherings, community building initiatives, and collective sense-making for complex issues. Practitioners meet both online and at in-person retreats across Europe and North America.
Common Misconceptions
Collective presencing is not group meditation, though it shares contemplative qualities. It centers on dialogue and articulation, not silent sitting. It is not facilitation training or a technique for meeting efficiency—there are no agendas, action items, or problem-solving outcomes guaranteed.
It is not “new age harmony” or conflict avoidance. The practice builds inner muscles to feel and understand when a group is actually in coherence (which is different from a new-age kind of harmony). Tension and disagreement can be present; the practice is about staying with what is arising rather than forcing resolution.
Collective presencing differs from Scharmer’s Theory U, though related. While Theory U provides a systematic framework for organizational change and innovation, collective presencing focuses specifically on the cultivation of group presence and subtle collective awareness without predetermined outcomes.
It is not a rapid transformation technology. The practice requires sustained participation over time. The two-phase journey Baeck describes typically unfolds across months or years, not workshops or weekends.
How to Begin
Start with Ria Baeck’s book Collective Presencing (2015), available free online at collectivepresencing.org/the-book. The book provides both theoretical framework and experiential descriptions from years of practice.
Join the free online sessions offered regularly by the Collective Presencing community of practice. Visit collectivepresencing.org to find current offerings. These sessions provide direct experience of the practice with experienced hosts.
For theoretical grounding, explore Otto Scharmer’s Theory U: Leading from the Future as It Emerges (2007) to understand the concept of presencing. Then read Jean Gebser’s The Ever-Present Origin (1949/1985) for the consciousness evolution framework that informs the practice.
Develop foundational circle practice skills through resources like The Circle Way or Art of Hosting networks. Collective presencing builds on deep familiarity with council process, talking pieces, and holding space.
Expect to practice consistently for months before subtle capacities develop. This is not a technique to master but a relational field to inhabit. Find a local or online practice group committed to ongoing inquiry rather than one-time experiences.