An Invitation to the Edge of Eros

Dave Pendle
9 min readJan 22, 2025

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Exploring the Future of Consciousness

The Future of Consciousness online education series, in the summer of 2024 was a cooperative initiative between Daniel Pinchbeck, Advaya, and other convenors, brought together some of today’s most forward-thinking luminaries to explore the subject. Contributors included Jamie Wheal, Gary Lachman, Dean Radin, Alex Ebert, Jude Currivan, and Mona Sobhani, who explored cutting-edge ideas about the evolution of human awareness. Amidst this lineup of lectures and discussions, one offering stood apart — a compelling immersive inquiry into the direct experience of the Future of Consciousness itself.

Facilitated by Pamela von Sabljar, these sessions focused on Eros and its role in shaping the future. They weren’t lectures, slides, or third-person theoretical explorations. Additionally, this was no typical objectified classical ‘talking about’ seminar. Instead participants were invited into radically inclusive spaces where co-discovery unfolded moment by moment. With no predetermined answers, they were guided to turn their attention away from fixed ideas and into the pulsating immediacy of shared presence.

Anything from 12 to 30 participants joined these four, once weekly circles, spanning continents and time zones, each drawn by the promise of something distinctly different. What might be possible, they were asked, if attention were directed — not only inward to individual reflection but outward, toward the liminal space arising between them? Could they sense something fully enlivening, real, and emergent within that shared awareness?

This collective space, also described as a liminal realm of possibility, became the foundation of the exploration. It wasn’t an abstract concept to be defined but a phenomenon to be felt. “We’re not here to think our way into discovery,” Pamela explained. “We’re here to feel our way into it.”

And so, it began.

Silence as the Threshold

It started with silence. Not an absence of sound, but a charged presence — dense, humming, and imbued with possibility. For the participants, the first moments often felt disorienting, as if their habitual instincts to think and act were suspended. Instead, they were invited to listen — to themselves, to each other, and to the subtle vibrations in the shared space.

Gradually, something began to shift. The silence seemed to deepen, becoming a connective tissue that drew the group closer without a word. Then, one participant broke the stillness, her voice tentative but resolute:

“I feel it now — the room listening, our breaths weaving the silence into something alive.”

Another voice followed, soft but imbued with awe: “It’s as if the silence has its own texture, like a fabric that holds us. You don’t just hear it — you feel it in your body.”

This recognition of silence as an active presence rippled through the group. “It’s strange,” one participant later shared, “how something so still can feel so full. It’s like the silence is breathing with us, not just around us but through us.”

These and other contributions stimulated this thrilling notion. What if this was the future unfolding in and between those present? Not as a distant horizon but as something intimate and immediate emerging between people, as real as breath yet as ungraspable as light?

The Texture of Co-Discovery

This shared exploration wasn’t static; it was alive, evolving with every moment of attention. Initially, the experience felt intangible, like trying to tune a radio to a faint station just out of reach. Yet, as participants leaned into this relational space, something began to take form — not externalised, yet not entirely internal either.

“It’s like there is one embedded phenomenon creating everything and it is looking at itself through us,” someone said during one session. Her voice carried both wonder and certainty. “From every angle, it’s the same experience — and yet it’s endlessly new.”

Another participant likened it to a ripple effect: “It’s as if each of us is a drop in a still pond, and when one speaks or moves, the ripples flow outward, touching everyone else.”

These eddies of consciousness seemed to move through the participants like a current, shifting and flowing with their collective attention. One participant described it as a woven presence, the threads of awareness tightening and loosening with the rhythm of breath. Another likened it to a tuning fork, each individual note amplifying and resonating with the group.

Yet there was also a rawness to the experience, an immediacy that defied language. “It feels like walking into a storm,” one member reflected. “Not chaotic, but powerful — like you’re standing in the eye of something vast and alive.”

The space wasn’t static; it responded, shifted, and expanded with each moment of inquiry. Words emerged, unpolished but raw and alive, carrying the weight of something larger than each singular speaker.

Eros: The Pulse of Creation

At the heart of these explorations was the mutual recognition of Eros, described not merely as desire but as the creative impulse embedded in the fabric of the universe. It was perceived as the primordial urge, that births stars and yet also shapes the connections between individuals — a force immanent in the smallest moments yet transcendent in its reach.

One participant captured its paradoxical nature perfectly: “Eros feels like standing on the edge of a knife — risky, raw, alive. It’s the pull of something vast, drawing us forward and yet dissolving our fear of the unknown.”

Another described it as a kind of gravitational pull: “It’s like a magnetic force, drawing everything toward some unseen center. You can’t resist it, and you don’t want to — it feels like the universe is breathing you.”

In these circles, Eros wasn’t an abstract idea confined to mythology or philosophy. It lived and in the shared space, palpable and present. Participants spoke of it as a pulse, a rhythm that connected them to each other and to something far greater. “It’s not just between us,” one member observed. “It’s as if it’s threading through everything — through the air, the silence, even the gaps between our words.”

This presence of Eros brought with it a sense of intimacy and wonder, but also an undeniable edge. The creative force didn’t invite comfort; it called for surrender and risk. “It’s like stepping into a current,” someone reflected. “You don’t know where it will take you, but you trust it will carry you somewhere you need to go.”

The Challenge and the Gift

Stepping into the shared space was both an invitation and a test. For many participants, the practice revealed unexpected challenges — not external obstacles, but subtle internal resistances. In a world driven by action and answers, the prospect and immediacy of not-knowing in real time, could feel disorienting, even unnerving.

One participant described it as a “dance with vulnerability,” explaining: “There were moments when I felt exposed, like the silence was stripping away the layers I usually hide behind. It wasn’t comfortable, but it was real.” Another reflected on the tension between their habitual need to contribute and the unfamiliar pull to simply be. “I kept wanting to fill the space, to say something that would make sense of it all. But the more I resisted that urge, the more I realized how much is already there without words.”

The shared field magnified these internal struggles, but it also offered a gift: the possibility of seeing oneself not as one singular isolated unit but as part of a larger, interconnected whole. The sense of separation — between self and other, between thought and feeling — began to dissolve.

However, this dissolution wasn’t linear or easy. Ego crept in, bringing with it self-doubt, over analysis, or the fear of judgment. Some participants wrestled with a sense of inadequacy, questioning whether they were “doing it right.” But as one member put it, “The beauty of this space is that there’s no right way. It’s messy, raw, and perfect in its imperfection.”

This duality — the tension between the comfort of the known and the thrill of the emergent — was where growth emergence and evolution happened. The challenge became the gift: an opportunity to meet one’s edges, not to push past them but to lean into them with curiosity and openness. The whole assembly was alive and awakening to an experiential embodied glimpse of the Future of Consciousness.

Integration: Carrying the Experience Forward

The resonance of these sessions didn’t fade when the Zoom calls ended. For many, what began as an exploration of shared presence became a catalyst for transformation in daily life. Participants spoke of subtle yet profound shifts — an attunement to the spaces between words, a heightened sensitivity to others, and a renewed capacity to embrace uncertainty.

One participant reflected: “It’s like my way of relating to people has softened. I’m not just listening to their words anymore; I’m listening to everything — their pauses, their silences, even what they don’t say. It’s changed how I show up in conversations, how I hold space for others.”

For others, the integration was less about subtle attunement and more about direct action. “This practice has made me braver,” another shared. “I’ve started speaking up in ways I never would have before — not from a place of needing to be heard, but from a place of offering something to the shared experience.”

The experience of the shared space also inspired participants to rethink their relationship with time and productivity. “There’s a slowness to this work,” one person said. “And I’ve started to carry that into my day-to-day. I’m less hurried, more deliberate. Even in the smallest tasks, I find myself pausing to notice the space around me.”

Integration wasn’t always seamless. Participants acknowledged the challenge of maintaining this expanded awareness in the face of everyday demands and distractions. “The world out there doesn’t move at the pace of presence,” one member reflected. “It’s easy to get pulled back into old habits. But even when I do, I can still feel that thread of connection — it’s like a subtle undercurrent, reminding me of what’s possible.”

Ultimately, the real gift of integration lay in its simplicity: the ability to bring the extraordinary into the ordinary, to let the practice of shared presence ripple into the flow of daily life. Whether in conversations, moments of solitude, or encounters with nature, participants found themselves continually drawn back to that quiet, fertile space of co-discovery.

An Open Invitation

This is the beginning of a language we don’t yet fully speak, a way of being that is only just emerging. It invites all of us — not as isolated individualistic consumers but as participants in a vast universal, shared resonance.

To step into this mystery is to discover the future of consciousness, not as an abstract horizon but as something alive between, waiting to unfold in every shared moment of attention.

To showcase the nature of this type of enquiry I will interview Pamela von Sabljar for Phenomenal Conversation #36 titled an ‘Invitation to the Living Edge of Eros’ part interview, live experiential exploration and collective sensing experience, we will attempt to manifest and explore together the Emergent Edge Eros.

Taking place online Tuesday 26 February 2025 at 19.00–21.00 CET
Event Page or Tickets

About the author Dave Pendle; I am synthesising almost 30 years experience in non profit enterprises with over 40 years of deep personal development experience. Passionate about enabling others’ sense of fulfillment, impact and trust, to engage wholeheartedly with inspiration and commitment to 21st century work and life.

My website Generative You, explains my interests in more in depth, so do sign up for my newsletter or express an interest in my services, or share there how you best like to connect with me. I also run a monthly conversation series Phenomenal Conversations co-exploring life defining topics, with pioneering changemakers who embody systemic and regenerative change in their whole life.

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Dave Pendle
Dave Pendle

Written by Dave Pendle

Navigating this civilizational moment of disruption to usher in the more beautiful world…

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