About “The Imaginal Cafe”

This is a DRAFT of our “Imaginal Cafe” concept. We will continue to develop this as we head toward a launch in mid-September, 2019. Stay tuned!

Dialogs and Engagement to Envision and Catalyze Our Future

Envisioning Imaginal Cafes:

“Imaginal Cafes” are informal, flexible events, where, through structured social dialogs, participants explore the issues, opportunities and visions of our common future. We will catalyze discussions on the future of our society, our fundamental values, and the necessity of “A World for All”.

The Imaginal Cafes will catalyze practices that bring about coherence, synchrony and shared consciousness.  We will create opportunities for expanding and maturing our consciousness and spirit, in non-religious contexts.  We will do this by fostering human-to-human connections.

The Imaginal Cafes will create a safe space for discussions on creating a working, positive and uplifting world of peace and security, seeking resources and solutions to support the needs of humans. Imaginal Cafes are an opportunity to actually practice community, bonding and autonomy.  Imaginal Cafes will provide the opportunity to positively and creatively design our own futures that are cooperative and relational, rather than competitive. Together, we will empower people to re-learn what it means to be human in a symbiotic way.

The Imaginal Cafes will build on the accomplishments of the “Commons Cafe” dialogic model that was successfully executed by Commonway in the late 1990’s.

What We Will Do:

  • Build infrastructure for networking, research, information, administration and management of the Imaginal Cafe project.
  • Conduct a minimum of 200 Imaginal Cafes nationwide, over the course of three years.
  • Engage a minimum of 25,000 people in fundamental discussions and activities on the future of society.
  • Catalyze indirect Imaginal Cafes in churches, colleges and community groups, plugging into existing communities to increase awareness and involvement.

The Imaginal Cafes:

  • Purpose of Imaginal Cafes:
    1. Satisfy the human need for connection, community and bonding.
    2. Healing alienation and disconnection.
    3. Deep connection between human beings on the fundamental issues of a new society.
    4. Training participants on the elements of an inclusive society.
  • Elements of the “Imaginal Cafe”:
    1. Dialog in small groups
    2. Dialog in flexible, informal but structured environments
    3. Food and drink present to create indirect connections between people
    4. Dialog to build cohesion, collective energy
    5. Networking with other Imaginal Cafe Groups
  • Imaginal Scripts: In any dialog, the quality of the questions themselves can either connect or divide a group, will foster or inhibit inclusivity.  The Imaginal Scripts will bring awareness to these splits and create ways to bridge harmony.

The Imaginal Scripts are carefully crafted dialog facilitation points (“scripts”), encourage participants to engage in positive, future-oriented conversations and to form common bonds, despite the existence of potentially separating issues.  The Imaginal Scripts are designed to present scenarios where participants can search for “win-win” scenarios to difficult societal issues. Imaginal Scripts will include:

  1. Questions
  2. Discussions
  3. Imaginal games
  4. Role-plays
  5. Other activities

To sign up for the Imaginal Cafe Introduction, as well as for questions? Comments? Encouragements? Use the form below!