Why We Practice WeSpace & Whole-Body Mystical Awakening

What is the purpose of our WeSpace groups? Why do we advocate Whole-Body Mystical Awakening practices?

At ICN, our stated purpose is “Gathering a global community of dedicated mystical practitioners for the loving evolution of Christianity and the world.”

We dedicate ourselves to our mystical practice because it takes us into the pathways of inhabiting and becoming this transformative presence in the world. Because it is how we become conscious participants in the divine, creative work of loving evolution.

WeSpace, Practice, MysticismPaul Smith & Luke HealyJanuary 20, 2024WBMA, WeSpace, ValuesComment

WeSpace Groups—Why We Need the “We”

I (Paul) was twenty years old and very much a devoted follower of Jesus when I first realized a striking thing about Jesus that I had not grasped before. The first action Jesus took in his public ministry to heal and change his world was to gather a few others willing to follow him. He spent an extraordinary amount of time together with them as they shared their lives in radical ways. From that humble but dynamic beginning, we now have a world in which one-third of its 7.7 billion people claim to be his followers. His life and message of love, although not always followed, have made a radical, worldwide impact.

I decided I needed such a group in my life and asked six of my closest Christian friends if they would be willing to meet weekly to share our lives and pray for each other. Since that time over sixty years ago, I have always had such a group in my life. After seminary, I was called to pastor, for almost half a century the only church I would ever lead. The first thing I did was gather a few church members together in a small group that met weekly to share and pray. That multiplied until over 400 members of our congregation were meeting regularly in small groups which became the dynamic relational and spiritual center for our life together.

My (Luke) long passion for gathering has taken many forms throughout my life. Early on in my church life I was asking why our gatherings looked the way they did. I explored new forms such as house churches, new monastic intentional community, contemplative gatherings, and other ways of gathering small groups together. While traditional churches are shrinking, Christians still very much need to gather together. The spaces and ways need to keep evolving to serve the Christianity of the future.

We are seeking to do just that with Integral Christian Network. This movement invites followers of Jesus from around the world to meet primarily on the Internet via Zoom, for now. More local groups may develop in the future. In what we call “WeSpace groups,” anywhere from four to eight participants share their lives with one another and practice a form of meditative prayer together we call Whole-Body Mystical Awakening.

WeSpace, Practice, CommunityPaul Smith & Luke HealyJanuary 6, 2024WeSpace, Mystical Community Comment

Becoming More Than Myself

Part Five: Whole-Body Mystical Presencing

A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. The striving to free oneself from this delusion is the one issue of true religion. – Albert Einstein

The mystics throughout the ages have attested to the illusion of separateness and the fundamental interconnectedness of life, that we are more than just separate individuals. Scientists are now saying the same thing, as our awareness of quantum reality has broken us out of the boxes of physical materialism and a Newtonian view of the world and universe.

More and more are waking up not only to this knowledge, but also to the experience of this freedom.

Practice, WeSpaceLuke HealySeptember 16, 2023WBMP, WeSpace, presencing, Embodiment Comments

Navigating Natural Rhythms of Community

Phases of Group Development
Practicing Community – Part Thirteen

It is the nature of life to grow and evolve. So too, every group and community that is alive will go through change and growth. Unfortunately, many spiritual communities instead take a static approach to community life. They try to keep things the way they are, reinforcing the traditional patterns and set processes that bind the members to a repetitive cycle.

But if the spiritual community continues to evolve, it can be a synergistic process of personal growth and communal evolution working in tandem.

Let’s look at some natural phases of the process of community life and where that can lead us if we navigate them with wisdom and grace.

Community, Practice, WeSpaceLuke HealyMarch 18, 2023Mystical Community, WeSpace, Evolution, DevelopmentComment

Living in Our Communal Body

The Body of Christ Becoming
Practicing Community – Part Ten

As we begin to awaken to the experience of our shared interiors, of the we-space that constitutes communal energy, mutual knowing, and interbeing on a mystical and very real level—that which is “in here” together—we expand beyond this limited story of individualism. We come into the experience of our intersubjective reality. This is where the subject of the sentence becomes plural: from I to We. Not just as a collection of separate parts, but a real and dynamic collective. How do we experience this?

Community, PracticeLuke HealyJanuary 7, 2023Mystical Community, WeSpace, EmbodimentComment

Our Vital Need for Spiritual Intimacy

Deep Relationality at the Heart of Evolution
Practicing Community – Part Nine

“You can go no further alone.”

This was the phrase I heard at a turning point of my spiritual journey, at the great shift from individuality into the call to deeper community.

The ironic thing is that I had been living in an intentional community and had long pursued various forms of church expressions, small groups, and spiritual friendships. “What do you mean?” I thought, “I have sought community my whole life!”

But I knew. It was the mystical journey that had reached the end of its isolation. The unfolding and awakening could no longer be something that only I experienced inside myself—for I had begun to come into the experiential knowing that these interior realities were not confined to my individual space. They could no longer be felt and engaged with apart from the dynamic and lively field of interbeing, of interconnection, of WeSpace.

A new intimacy was beckoning beyond the realm of myself, beyond the external forms of commonality that brought me together with others, beyond just the sharing of ideas and ideals.

It is the call of mystical love.

Community, WeSpaceLuke HealyDecember 31, 2022Mystical Community, WeSpace, Heart PathComment

Finding Mystical Community

My Story of Evolution with Spiritual Community
Practicing Community – Part One

We left the church on Easter Sunday. Standing on the stone steps out front, the tradition was for the congregation to release dozens of colored balloons after the service. Floating up into the sky, they reflected the sun in pastel hues, slowly spreading out across the bright blue expanse. Up from the grave and risen to life. Now free. Dressed in their finest, the high heels clicked and the dress shoes scuffed against the sidewalks as people headed back to their cars. And I knew I wouldn’t be coming back.

Community, WeSpaceLuke HealyJuly 30, 2022Mystical Community, WeSpace Comments

Beloved Community Becoming