ORIGINS is a way of tapping into the archetypal forces that move us, thus realigning with our source, healing our souls, and providing a base for revitalizing performing art as myth and ritual. The ORIGINS Process consists of a highly structured training that produces vigorous individual and collective transformation, which gets expressed in story form. The same methods, used as a basis both for therapy and training performers, yield powerful works of improvisational theater, dance and opera. Workshops and productions have been held all over the world.

 

The ORIGINS work relates directly to a fundamental shift of paradigms in our time and the resulting evolution of cultural consciousness. We are moving from an essentially patriarchal, dominating mode in our sources of influence and institutions to a mode of partnership, greater tolerance and differentiation. Psychologically this means a shift from pursuing an ideal way of being, which creates negative shadows, in favor of wholeness and completeness which is all inclusive. The ORIGINS Process evokes and dramatizes essential elements of this transformation.

 

The trainings are based in Jungian psychology and combine guided fantasy, Gestalt therapy, movement expression, ceremony, meditation, deep improvisation and psychodrama. Each training is organized into schematic programs based on one of the basic archetypal systems of human transformation; the Hero’s Journey or the Romance Archetype.

 

The ORIGINS trainings are held all over the world and presented in English, French, and German. Trainings and productions may be scheduled by interested parties in any location.

 

The complete ORIGINS Process has five stages:

 

1. CHAOS: You learn how to let yourself go free into your cathartic expression and instinctual spontaneity without judgment or inhibition. This produces a sense of power and freedom of being.

 

2. DREAM: You create archetypal characters out of the matter and issues of your present life and reality. You generate the story of your own life myth, your “Dream,” and present the characters and their adventure in a solo improvised psychodrama performance. Group analysis of this Dream yields a unique understanding of who you are in your totality and how to deal with the self-sabotage in your being.

 

3. MYTH: The group synthesizes their individual dramas into a collective myth, which is expressed in an improvised performance. This establishes a group identity in dramatic form.

 

4. RITUAL: The myth is mounted into a full-scale production. This yields a finished performance intended to stimulate the same integration and mystical experience in its audience that has been experienced by each participant.

 

5. CONTEMPLATION:  The finished performance, which has been recorded, may thereafter be used by anyone to contemplate or meditate upon the essential content of the Work.

 

BENEFITS

 

THERAPY AND PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION

 

Workshops featuring only the “Chaos” and “Dream” portion of the Process often stand alone as a highly effective form of therapy and self-realization. The work facilitates a transformation from being divided against yourself to being whole, as you discover the mythical structure of your life. Through this work, you gain important new insights, attaining a clear relationship with the agents of your self-sabotage, stepping out of the victim condition into a position of empowerment, and achieving an authentic connection with your own center.

 

SPIRITUALITY

 

The work clarifies your internal relationship to the divine through an authentic vision and experience of your own integrated wholeness. The process instills the realization that you are one with all of humanity. In “Myth” and “Ritual”, this vision becomes the basis for a performance work intended to bring its audience to a similar experience.  Connecting with your authentic truth and ground of being yields an understanding of individual and collective wholeness, a very concrete experience of the divine.  In the “Contemplation,” anyone can experience the essential spiritual message of the work.

 

PERFORMING ART

 

The performances created by the ORIGINS Process have a basic structure, but they are largely improvised in the moment. In “Chaos” and “Dream” performers learn to allow their personal archetypes to speak through them. In “Myth” and “Ritual” performers deepen this ability to become a channel for the universal archetypes themselves. This ancient technique is still practiced in cultures like Bali where authentic trance performing occurs. We call it “Oracular Performing.” Learning how to do this builds tremendous self-confidence and enhances individual development. Professional performers who learn the mystical essence of archaic performing, greatly strengthen their capacity as performers of any kind. The performances are stunningly powerful.