The Living Classroom, Second Edition

Book excerpt: A pioneering work in teaching and transpersonal psychology, The Living Classroom explores the dynamics of collective consciousness in the classroom. In this second edition, Bache has, in his own words, "come out of the psychedelic closet," speaking candidly about the role that psychedelics played in the development of his integral, holistic pedagogy. Combining scientific research with personal accounts collected over thirty years, Bache examines the subtle influences that radiate invisibly around teachers as they work—unintended, cognitive resonances that spring up between teachers and students in the classroom. While these kinds of synchronistic connections are often overlooked by traditional academics, Bache demonstrates that they occur too frequently and are too pointed to be dismissed as mere coincidence. Drawing upon Rupert Sheldrake's theory of morphic fields, Bache proposes that well-taught courses generate "learning fields" around them, forms of collective consciousness that can trigger new insights and startling personal transformations. Moving beyond theory, this book is rich with student stories and offers practical, hands-on strategies for teachers who want to begin working with these learning fields to take their teaching to a more conscious level.