Dery Dyer - The Return of Collective Intelligence: Ancient Wisdom for a World out of Balance

To Pachamama in ayni and with greatest love

The R ETURN of C OLLECTIVE I NTELLIGENCE

At this critical, uncertain time in history, building interdependence and community resilience is crucial. To do this effectively, we need to bust out of our mental straitjackets and breathe in the freedom of collective intelligence. Dery Dyers exciting book is at the leading edge of how to do just that!

BILL PFEIFFER, FOUNDER OF SACRED EARTH NETWORK AND AUTHOR OF WILD EARTH, WILD SOUL: A MANUAL FOR AN ECSTATIC CULTURE

We need to draw on our collective intelligence, and we need to realize that the best way of doing so is to re-cognize the intelligence that resides in each of us. Dery Dyers book tells us why and how. A must-read in our critical times.

ERVIN LASZLO, PH.D., PHILOSOPHER AND AUTHOR OF SCIENCE AND THEAKASHIC FIELD

A compelling weaving of story, science, and mysticism that will help you remember who you are and the potential within and all around you. Dyer shows us how to release conditioning and misperception to see from the eyes of the heart and to root into primordial rhythms. She guides us into the mysteryto live in harmony with the Earth and the sacred circle of all life.

LLYN CEDAR ROBERTS, AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF SHAPESHIFTING INTO HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS AND COAUTHOR OF SPEAKING WITH NATURE

The Return of Collective Intelligence is much more than a bookit is a Michelin-star mind meal at what could arguably be humanitys last supper. Dery Dyer has dished out a veritable smorgasbord. This beautifully crafted, highly readable ride through the latest literature and research on collective intelligence brings clarity while delivering a challenge to our hearts that (she rightly tells us) our intellects alone cannot answerhow do we cultivate wisdom in this information age? Dyer skillfully offers a clearer lens through which to evaluate the usefulness and limitations of our social networks and digital media platforms. By directing us to indigenous wisdom and Great Nature as the sanctuary and source of collective intelligence, her words ring the golden truth bell in our hearts. Our collective intelligence contains the resources required to right our world through love, empathy, and connection, if we act together. This is the promise and hope provided by the title of this work. May our collective intelligence indeed return, and quickly! Dery Dyer has certainly done her part to make it so.

ELIZABETH B. JENKINS, AUTHOR OF THREE BOOKS ON INKA NATURE WISDOM, THE RETURN OF THE INKA, JOURNEY TO QEROS, AND THE FOURTH LEVEL

A richly textured tapestry, artfully woven from widely disparate threads of human experiencefrom ancient civilizations to modern medicine, education, and quantum science. If you harbor any doubt about the essential intra-connectedness of life across space-time, and that we are designed for the sole purpose of co-creating the magical TOGETHER, Dery Dyers engaging narrative will relieve you of it!

CHRISTINA STRUTT, PRINCIPAL THINKING PARTNER AT COCREATING CLARITY

I breezed through this book during the 24 hours when I was in the midst of tech-savvy people conferring about the internets future. My neural excitation surpassed my ability to stay grounded in wisdom about who to be and what to do! Im endorsing The Return of Collective Intelligence as a prompt for our fieldworkto utilize Dery Dyers great integration that stretches across times and cultures. The words on these pages are a robust pod for passing, the best collection Ive seenbut how do we choose to live, applying what we learn? Please, lets not go back to sleep.

JOAN LEDERMAN, STEWARD OF THE COLLECTIVE WISDOM INITIATIVE

In Gratitude

As might be expected, this book is a collective effort.

It grew out of an innovative two-and-a-half-year doctoral program in New Paradigm thought created in 2002 by the late visionary educator Francisco Gutirrez. Headquartered at Costa Ricas Universidad de La Salle, the Doctorado de la Tercera Cultura is also offered in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Panama, and Spain.

The program is unique in many respects. Instead of being taught by professors, you learn from the authors of books on a vast reading lista bursting treasure trove of world wisdom most of us would never encounter otherwise.

Upon entering the program, you must declare your chifladura (madness, passion, obsession)whatever it is youre hungering to know more about. (Three guesses as to what mine was!) Your reading and writing are done through the lens of your chifladura. You must also find a group of people with similar or related chifladuras and produce group work.

It was one of the most enjoyable, life-changing experiences Ive ever had.

Like the rivers of wisdom that flow from so many different sources into this book, the wisdom from our work in the doctorado program flowed into what Id learned over the years from native wisdom keepers and other friends and teachers, many of whom are quoted here. For these priceless gifts, which have enriched my life beyond measure, Im deeply grateful.

The book has had good friends helping it every step of the way. My soul teacher Janine Fafard planted the seeds years ago during many latenight conversations; laughter-filled talks with soul sister Katya de Luisa made new insights bloom; Linda Moller, the soul sister who first set my feet on the Andean Path, bravely slogged through an embarrassingly boring and overwritten early draft and gave me excellent criticism. Ehud Sperling and Jon Graham generously offered incredibly valuable advice that inspired me to vanquish my timidity and write from my heart.

Along the way, I was delighted and humbled to discover that the editorial job requirements at Inner Traditions include infinite kindness and patience with clueless, fretful newbie authors. Special thanks to Patricia Rydle and Mindy Branstetter for gently shepherding this one through the bewildering publishing process.

And the book would never have happened without the consistent kindness of my husband (and fellow chiflado) Jim Molloy, who listened to me patiently; clarified my thinking with brilliant insights; contributed books, photos, technical and artistic skills, and countless hours of his valuable time; and repeatedly restored the peaceand my sanitywith timely interventions whenever hed find me locked in mortal combat with my nemesis, modern technology.

May he and my other co-chifladosVictoria Fontan, Jacqueline Gillet, Jan Hurwitch, and Steven Kogelcontinue exploring, learning and helping the world. May the spirits of my parents, Elisabeth and Richard Dyer, see their work in this work. And may my many waikis (spiritual brothers and sisters), on Earth and in spirit, whose light illuminates this book and my life, recognize their contributions and know that I honor and thank them, even though I cant possibly list them all.

I am truly blessed by so many beingsincluding the unseen helpers who unfailingly placed the right books in my hands at precisely the perfect moments. Mil gracias!

INTRODUCTION

What Is This Force Called Collective Intelligence?

It was magic!