A pair of Twin Oakers offer appetizing beginnings with Leslie Greenwood's delightful, "this-is-how-it-is" testament to living in close quarters with others, followed by Keenan's informal yet observant survey sighting some of the growth benefits of living in community. Ed Groody lays out a foundation for building and sustaining a healthy "experience of community" as developed by Dr. M. Scott Peck. Wayne Tittes of People House provides a snapshot of his urban workshop/growth center community's ideas for supporting personal growth. And inspired by A Course in Miracles  are Dr. Gerald Jampolsky's techniques of "Attitudinal Healing." Christine Lehman shares the essentials of this more spiritually based group work from her experience of working with Attitudinal Healing in community.

What would it look like raising children to have full access to their inner impulses and resources? Janet Lederman spent much of her life examining these issues and created the Gazebo School Park to test out her ideas. Jaelitza, a teacher at Gazebo, offers her observations on the benefits of Janet's innovations, for children as well as for Gazebo's host community. A lively interview with Richard Strozzi Heckler echoes Gazebo's value of learning in the body,  but from the Eastern, martial arts' perspective. In our discussion, Richard, a fourth-degree Black Belt, describes how the principles of Aikido and body-learning can benefit groups and intentional communities.

Just for spice, you'll find poems written from a contemplative state by Lomi School founder and meditator Robert K. Hall. And, so we don't take our aspirations too seriously, cartoons by Jonathan of Twin Oaks. Both add to the sweet and sour taste of our Human Potential smorgasbord.

Environmental scientist and psychotherapist Will Keepin introduces Gender Healing Workshops, now offered in the new men's and women's relational movement. Next we dip into the adolescent stages of the Human Potential Movement in an excerpt from John Heider's irreverent novel, Living in Paradox: A Utopian Soap Opera   (which gives us the opportunity to consider the pertinence of Human Potential Theory for our lives today).

Mildred Gordon's overview of the Feedback Learning experiment as practiced at Ganas community gives us another look at a community grounded in a personal growth modality. Another form of feedback is Gestalt Practice, a method developed in community as an evolution of existential therapies, with an inspiration from Buddhism. Christine Price shares her experiences with this egalitarian practice as she lived it in her 20 years at Esalen Institute.

Julie Mazo of Shannon Farm describes the conundrum of teaching conflict resolution and  practicing it at home, and offers helpful tools for resolving conflicts. And from Scotland comes a dessert served warmly by Kajedo, summarizing, among other things, one of the common threads running through most offerings in this issue--that basically what we have to offer each other, as a healing, as a gift, and as a teaching, is our own experience. "I'll show you mine, if you show me yours." It's like kids stuff, really. To be human is to be vulnerable. To be vulnerable is to be able to touch and be touched, and consequently to heal and to grow. Enjoy!