THE WORK
Eight Transmissions of Living Groups
Groups are alive. They breathe, pulse, complete. When these patterns flow, groups thrive. When violated, everyone exhausts.
Living Groups is a field of study examining what makes human groups alive versus extractive. These transmissions document patterns observed across twenty years—from accessible entry points through mythological witnessing to geometric proof.
Choose your entry point:
NEW TO THIS WORK?
Start with The Rhythm of Us
Groups need three movements to thrive—BREATH, PULSE, TIDE. This book shows you what your exhaustion has been trying to tell you.
For: Exhausted practitioners, families, friendships, communities
Who: Anyone feeling the organizational drowning but needs accessible language
What: Practical framework for recognizing and restoring natural organizational rhythms
Related Koans:
• "Rising without falling—what feeds the next rise?"
• "Your tiredness has ancestors"
• "Cannot gather. Cannot disperse. Cannot."
READY FOR MYTHOLOGY?
Enter the WE GATHER Trilogy
A mythological diagnosis of organizational consciousness— from recognition through testimony to requiem.
For: Those ready to see organizations as living, conscious, wounded beings
What: Mythological architecture of modern organizational experience
Structure: Four books that can be read as ceremonial progression
Related Koans:
• "The meeting is the disease"
• "Everyone knows. No one says. Everyone knows no one says."
• "The founder's ghost still takes attendance"
We Gather But Do Not Meet
The diagnosis. A field guide to recognizing the exhaustion, the performance of productivity, the ways we gather in rectangles but never truly meet.
Testimony
The breaking open. Voices from inside the machine—ancient spirits channeling through corporate roles, contemporary accounts of organizational awakening.
Here, Remembered
The quiet after the storm. A meditation on returning to the profound ordinary after years of performing a life that wasn't yours.
Want the Underground Practice?
The Field Manual: Underground Practices for Organizational Soul Work
Not a methodology. Ceremonial technologies for practitioners who know organizations are conscious—and work accordingly.
For: Underground practitioners, organizational midwives, those holding groups through collapse
Who: Anyone who needs protocols that honor the mythological while remaining practically usable in real organizational life
What: A collection of ceremonial technologies and field protocols for working with organizational consciousness—assessment tools, intervention designs, ritual structures, and practices for practitioners operating outside conventional consulting frameworks
Related Koans:
"The intervention that looks like listening"
"What ceremony survives the corporate meeting?"
"Practice without belief—protocol honoring what it cannot name"
SEEKING COSMOLOGY?
Begin with Organizational Metaphysics
The foundational framework. How organizations actually work as consciousness experimenting with collective form.
For: Those ready for the ceremonial technology
What: The three eternal movements (BREATH, PULSE, TIDE) as metaphysical law governing all human organization
Why Start Here: If you want the complete theoretical foundation before entering the mythology or practice
How it connects:
METAPHYSICS reveals what's actually happening cosmologically. RHYTHM shows how patterns appear in everyday life. THE FIELD develops capacity to perceive it all. MOVEMENTS provides the geometric proof.
In plain language:
METAPHYSICS explains the big picture (organizations ARE consciousness, not things that have consciousness)
RHYTHM shows you how to recognize these patterns in your family, team, or friend group right now
THE FIELD trains you to see patterns directly, not just understand them intellectually
MOVEMENTS proves mathematically why these specific patterns must exist (for those who need proof before practice)
Related Koans:
• "Cannot be one. Cannot be two. Cannot be counted."
• "We formed before forming. Now we can't unform."
• "What holds when no one is holding?"
WANT THE THEORY?
THE FIELD: Perceiving Life in Human Groups & MOVEMENTS: The Geometry of Living Groups
MOVEMENTS proves three patterns must exist through geometric necessity. THE FIELD trains direct perception of those patterns. Mathematics meeting phenomenology. Bodies meeting proof.
Foundation works publishing 2026-2027
Two companion volumes establishing Living Groups as a field of study. You don't need both, but together they're complete—proof and perception, geometry and practice, what must be true and how to recognize it.
MOVEMENTS: The Geometric Proof
Why living groups require exactly three movements. Not techniques. Geometric necessities.
Living groups organizing in 3D space-time must exhibit: BREATH (gathering ↔ dispersing), PULSE (rising ↔ falling), TIDE (creating ↔ completing).
What MOVEMENTS establishes:
Why exactly three movements (not two, not four)
Dimensional proof of necessity
How the same laws that move galaxies move partnerships
Mathematics as path to sacred recognition
The ultimate recognition: "What gathers must disperse. What rises must fall. What is created must dissolve. Not techniques. Laws."
For:
Those who need proof before perception
Mathematically-minded seekers
Anyone asking "But WHY these patterns?"
Philosophers wanting rigor before practice
THE FIELD: Perception Development for Living Groups
Training systematic perception of life versus extraction in human groups.
MOVEMENTS proves patterns must exist. THE FIELD trains you to perceive them—distinguishing when groups can breathe versus suffocate, when work can pulse versus forced chronic rising, when projects can complete versus blocked dissolution.
What THE FIELD provides:
The seven archetypal forms: How the three movements fractal through different geometric configurations—Circle, Dyad, Trinity, Chorus, Network, Hierarchy, Mandala. Same three movements, different scales.
Research methodology: Rigorous protocols for developing direct perception of life patterns in groups. Not belief—trainable capacity validated through intersubjective agreement.
Metamodern integration: Holding both rigorous inquiry AND genuine mystery. Power analysis acknowledging who gets excluded. Epistemological humility about what we don't know.
Community invitation: Join the founding gathering establishing Living Groups as a field of study.
For:
Researchers wanting rigorous methodology
Practitioners developing perceptual capacity
Academics ready to establish new discipline
Anyone asking "Is this real or am I making it up?" (Answer: Both. The methodology teaches discernment.)
How MOVEMENTS and THE FIELD Work Together
MOVEMENTS answers: Why do these patterns exist?
THE FIELD answers: Can we perceive them directly?
MOVEMENTS satisfies: The mind's need for proof
THE FIELD develops: The body's capacity for perception
MOVEMENTS is: Mathematical rigor, geometric necessity
THE FIELD is: Phenomenological investigation, research community
You can read:
MOVEMENTS first if you need proof before investing in methodology
THE FIELD first if you're ready to develop perception and want proof later
Both together for complete theoretical + methodological foundation
THE COMPLETE COSMOLOGY
How the Eight Transmissions Connect
Foundation Layer:
Organizational Metaphysics - What organizations actually are (consciousness organized)
MOVEMENTS: Geometric proof (why patterns must exist)
THE FIELD: Phenomenological methodology (testing if patterns are perceptible)
Application Layer (Accessible Practice):
The Rhythm of Us - Three movements in everyday groups
Mythological Layer (Ceremonial Witnessing):
We Gather But Do Not Meet - The diagnosis
Testimony - The confession
Here, Remembered - The completion
The Field Manual - The practice
NOT SURE WHERE TO START?
Read the Navigation Guide
500 words helping you choose your entry point based on where you are and what you're seeking.
Explore Field Notes
Monthly observations on patterns emerging across organizational work. Each note seeds from a koan and connects to relevant books.
Browse the Koans
Distilled recognitions. Find the one that's alive for you right now, follow it to the relevant transmission.
PRACTICE THIS WORK
Self-Guided
• The Field Manual: Underground protocols for organizational soul work
• Field Notes: Monthly explorations of patterns emerging in real-time
• Koans: Distilled recognitions for daily contemplation
Facilitated Strategic Witnessing - Work directly with Matthew
Facilitated sessions for organizations—creating space for teams to feel what they already know but can't quite name.