From the beginning until almost the present, all human cultures have developed fundamentally in the form of monologues, that is, people talked only with those who thought as they themselves did--or should! Now humanity is beginning to move out of that "Age of Monologue" into the dawning "Age of Dialogue" wherein people are beginning truly to encounter the Other -- in dialogue, in Deep-Dialogue. 

By dialogue we mean here Deep-Dialogue, which is a way of encountering and understanding oneself and the world at the deepest levels, opening up possibilities of grasping the fundamental meanings of life, individually and corporately, and its various dimensions. This in turn transforms the way we deal with ourselves, others, and the world. 

Thus, Deep-Dialogue on a broad, communal scale is a whole new way of thinking, of understanding the world. It was understood and practiced in the past by a number of spiritual geniuses -- Gautama, Jesus, the Sufis, Gandhi . . .-- but it never before reached into communal consciousness. Now, applying the insights and experiences of prior giants, it has. In that vital sense Deep-Dialogue is something new under the sun. 

At the heart of every culture lies a religion or formative set of beliefs. Our beliefs shape our values, relationships, and actions. Beliefs or religion can inspire and unite; they also have the power to divide and destroy. 

Through the ages, religious, cultural and ethnic differences have led to misunderstanding, hostility, and conflict. Today war, and cultural, ethnic and religious prejudice and violence not only thrive, but threaten entire areas with individual and communal annihilation. The scarred streets of Sarajevo, Beirut, and Belfast and the killing fields of Cambodia and Rwanda testify to the terrible destruction committed in the name of religion or culture. 

If the world is to benefit from the tremendous creative power of the different cultures and religions and diminish their potentially destructive forces, we must join together, regardless of faith, ideology, or culture to confront the threats to the world: injustice, violence, poverty, and the destruction of the global ecosystem. By engaging in dialogue holders of different worldviews and believers of different faiths can learn from each other, and change. Through dialogue, we can promote better understanding of and creative cooperation among cultures and religions, while acknowledging and accepting their differences. 

To advance intercultural, interreligious understanding and creative collaboration, the Global Dialogue Institute (GDI) promotes dialogue, Deep-Dialogue, within and among the cultures, religions and other direction-shaping forces of the world. GDI fosters the Three Dimensions of Deep-Dialogue (ethics, globality, spirituality) by organizing and promoting research, publications, and face-to-face Inter-World Encounters in its Twelve-Step Program to Deep-Dialogue leading through the Seven Stages of Deep-Dialogue, guided by its Deep-Dialogue Decalogue. 

As humanity moves into the Third Millennium, it is time to take the power and promise of Deep-Dialogue to a new level where it can make a structural difference in confronting the world's problems. At the heart of GDI's mission is the conviction that dialogue channels energies into solving common human problems. Thus, GDI is working to expand Deep-Dialogue on all levels among the world's cultural, ethical and religious traditions and the direction-giving groupings of society to propel humankind toward a deeper understanding and creative cooperation among cultures and faiths. For through Deep-Dialogue, people come to confront the challenges of tomorrow  by valuing diversity among cultural and religious traditions and moving closer to a peaceful, creative coexistence. 

Dialogue in recent decades has already helped all three major branches of Christianity -- Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant--break down walls of fear and prejudice and move closer to each other. Dialogues between Protestants of different denominations have led to church mergers and to the creation of interdenominational councils. Through dialogue both the Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches (Protestants and Orthodox) have developed a more positive attitude toward people of other religious traditions. Dialogue led Catholics to stop blaming Jews for the death of Jesus and to establish chairs of Jewish Studies at Catholic colleges and universities in. Eventually dialogue brought the Vatican to recognize the State of Israel. Buddhist-Christian dialogue has led Christians to a greater appreciation of the meditative tradition and Buddhists to a stronger commitment to social action. Three-way dialogue has brought Jews, Christians, and Muslims to face a number of ethical issues together, resulting in, among other things, the issuance of a code of international business ethics. 

For over a third of a century, the Institute for Interreligious, Intercultural Dialogue (IIID), the "parent" of GDI, has made significant progress in establishing dialogue as a valid and preferred approach to dealing with conflicts arising from cultural and religious differences. GDI's roots are twofold, a coming together of the life-work of Leonard Swidler and Ashok Gangadean. 

Since 1966, Leonard Swidler has been Professor of Catholic Thought and Interreligious Dialogue at Temple University. He is the editor of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies (co-founded in 1963 with his wife Arlene Anderson Swidler), a scholarly periodical widely regarded as the most important ecumenical, interreligious, interideological dialogue publication in the world. JES publishes pioneering articles by key scholars that promote dialogue, reviews of hundreds of books, along with abstracts of relevant articles and in-depth analytical reports of dialogue events. The quarterly publication, which reaches more than 700 libraries and ecumenical centers all over the world, is headquartered at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Eventually, work with the JES led to the founding of the IIID and several related consortia. Swidler has published more than 50 books and 150 articles, including After the Absolute: The Dialogical Future of Religion (1990), Death or Dialogue-From Monologue to the Age of Dialogue(1990), Human Rights: Christians, Marxists, and Others in Dialogue (1991), Toward a Catholic Constitution(1996) and For all Life: Toward a Universal Declaration of a Global Ethic (1998). His "Dialogue Decalogue" (1983) has been translated into over a dozen languages. 

Ashok Gangadean is Professor of Philosophy at Haverford College (Haverford, PA) where he has taught for the past thirty years. He was the first Director of the Gest Center for Cross-Cultural Study of Religion at Haverford beginning in the late l970's. Throughout his career he has been concerned with testing and clarifying the dynamics of deep dialogue between worlds. One primary concern has been to clarify the universal logos or common ground out of which diverse worldviews are generated and held in mutual relation and interaction. He finds that this primal logos is at the heart of the dynamics of human reason and deep dialogue whenever diverse perspectives engage each other. His book, Meditative Reason: Toward Universal Grammar (Peter Lang, Revisioning Philosophy Series, l993) attempts to open the way to global reason, and a companion volume, Between Worlds: The Emergence of Global Reason(Peter Lang, l997) further opens the way to global philosophy and the dialogical common ground between diverse worlds. He is also the Co-Convenor of the World Commission on Global Consciousness and Spirituality which brings eminent global leaders together in sustained deep dialogue. 

In merging their respective life-long work in dialogue, Professors Leonard Swidler and Ashok Gangadean are the Founder-Directors of the Global Dialogue Institute. 
 

1. The Institute for Interreligious, Intercultural Dialogue (IIID). The IIID began in 1978 by translating the fundamental research published in the Journal of Ecumenical Studies into concrete activities and partnerships. It sponsored numerous conferences on interreligious, interideological, intercultural dialogue, including a number of seminars on Jewish-Christian dialogue in Germany (East and West) and the United States, Christian-Marxist Dialogue in Europe, the United States, the Soviet Union and China, and an International Buddhist-Christian Dialogue Conference in Japan. Since 1977, IIID collaborated with, first, the Kennedy Institute of Georgetown University, and then the National Conference of Christians and Jews, in sponsoring the "International Scholars' Annual Trialogue" (ISAT--Jewish-Christian-Muslim). 

Such face-to-face encounters, meeting in the United States, Europe and the Near East, bring together renowned scholars represent- ing various world religions, ideologies and cultures, and have pushed dialogue forward into new spheres. These conferences resulted in the publication of several major books, including: 1) From Holocaust to Dialogue: A Jewish-Christian Dialogue Between Americans and Germans; 2) Abraham, Father of Three Religions; 3) Human Rights: Christians, Marxists and Others in Dialogue; 4) How Jews, Christians, Muslims Can Together Move from Theory to Practice; and 5) Toward a Theology of World Religions. 

2. Through Inter-World Encounters GDI reaches out to the direction-giving groupings of society -- business, science, communications, education, the arts, medicine. By promoting and coordinating Deep-Dialogue Inter-World Encounters among the direction-giving groupings of society, GDI, for example, encourages businesses to explore questions of global social responsibility, and even spirituality in the workplace. In 1995-97, GDI first focussed on linking intercultural, interreligious dialogue with corporate business leaders. It held for business leaders the first four of a series of Roundtables, two regional large Conferences and one International Invitational four-day conference to articulate and disseminate the GDI vision of global dialogue and responsibility. GDI also organized conferences or sessions for the national meetings of the American Society for Public Administrators and the National League of Cities as well as the international meeting of the Union Internationale des Avocats. 

3. Interreligious Dialogue Network. By establishing and linking together organizations designated as "JES-Affiliated Societies," an informal, world-wide network for exchanging information among those interested in dialogue has been created. 

4. The Center for Grass-Roots Dialogue. Through its collaboration with the congregation of the Paoli (Pennsylvania) Presbyterian Church, the "Center for Grass-Roots Dialogue" is creating techniques and resource materials and training members for the practice of dialogue at this crucial level. Participants in this partnership have already established relationships with Presbyterian churches in Asia and are beginning to share the insights generated by dialogue with adjoining presbyteries. 

5. Teaching about Religion in Dialogue. Through its close relationship with the Department of Religion at Temple University, a major state-related university located in Philadelphia, the GDI is attempting to set up programs to instruct public school teachers to teach about religion in an objective and dialogue-oriented manner. 

In a related project, called "The Three Rs in Pennsylvania," GDI, in conjunction with the "Freedom Forum and the First Amendment Center" at Vanderbilt University, is working with public school officials, parents, and clergy to introduce a dialogue-based approach to teaching about religions and values in the state's public schools. 

6. The Commission for Bosnia in Dialogue. In 1995 the Editors of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies, Leonard Swidler and Paul Mojzes, traveled to Bosnia at the invitation of Zajedno (Together), an interreligious organization in Sarajevo, to lay the groundwork for the collaborative establishment of a Department of Interreligious Dialogue at the University of Sarajevo to provide a scholarly, dialogue-oriented study of world religions, especially Catholic and Orthodox Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. 

7. The Center for Global Ethics. In 1995 the "Center for Global Ethics" was established to work with scholars, activists, and leaders in the business, religious, and professional communities to develop a set of basic ethical principles to counter the threats to our planet--ecological devastation, environmental degradation, overpopulation, pollution, famine, war, and the disastrous misuses of technology. In collaboration with the Tübingen, Germany-based "Foundation for Global Ethics," the Center has begun to synthesize a statement of Global Ethics and is working with such organizations as the United Nations, UNESCO, and the "World Conference on Religion and Peace" to gain eventual world-wide approval and implementation. 

8. Technological Advances. Recognizing the importance of electronic technology in communicating issues of global significance to a world-wide audience, GDI has set up a site on the World Wide Web: (http://astro.temple.edu/~dialogue) and has launched three Internet email networks: interrel@listserv.temple.edu (Interreligious Dialogue), a private discussion forum for scholars; g-ethic@listserev.temple.edu (Global Ethics), a public discussion forum; and vatican2@listserv.temple.edu (Vatican2), a forum for progressive Catholic thought.
 

The Global Dialogue Institute has taken the concept of dialogue into new territory -- Deep-Dialogue. As each sub-organization targets a different audience, they are united by a belief in the promise and power of Deep-Dialogue to dismantle hostility and help counter the destructive forces in the world. 

For more than three decades, the Journal of Ecumenical Studies, The Institute for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue, and the Global Dialogue Institute have fostered Deep-Dialogue through publications, programs, and outreach. Each measure of success reinforces the determination of GDI, IIID, and JES to strive even harder, more imaginatively, and creatively to build a peaceful world where people of all cultures and religions respect one another and the Earth we share. Please join us. 

The Global Dialogue Institute (GDI) facilitates Inter-World Encounters with "Deep-Dialogue," experienced in Seven Stages brought about with the aid of the its Twelve-Step Program and Deep-Dialogue Decalogue. The GDI has thus developed a Transformational Technology which translates the creativity generated by intercultural, interreligious dialogue at the deepest levels to the opinion-shaping groups of society. 

Deep-Dialogue is a way of encountering and understanding oneself, others, and the world at the deepest levels, which opens up possibilities of grasping individually and corporately the fundamental meanings of life and its various dimensions. 

Dialogue: Dialogue, understood as Deep-Dialogue, is an encounter with those whose view of the world is significantly different from our own-- an Inter-World Encounter. The primary purpose of this opening out is for each to gain a new insight into reality. Such a dialogical encounter enables each of us to view ourselves, others, and the world, as well as our understanding of it, from a new perspective, more "objectively" enriched through the eyes of others. This whole new way of understand- ing reality, which is opening up and being made explicit now at the turn of the third millennium, provides each of us the opportunity to probe the inner depth of the meaning of life as it faces us in the different dimensions of our experience: individually, with others, at work, in the family, on the several levels of community up to the global level, and amidst the world around us. 

Ethics: Ethics is the set of principles which each of us develops by which we decide how to act both in general and in particular situations. Because of the fluidity of modern society it is especially vital both for individuals and for communities to develop integrated, holistic ways of ethical behavior. At the same time it is essential that we enter respectfully into Deep-Dialogue with those whose ethical principles appear to be grounded differently from ours. That is: we need to experience Inter-World Encounters which will lead us through the Seven Stages, both to seek out what is held in common and to discern true differences. In the end it is necessary for human survival that such individual and group commitments to integrated ethical living in a dialogical context expand to the fullest, aiming at the joint discovery of a "Global Ethic." 

Globality: Globalization on the physical level is accelerating at such a rapid rate that intellectually and emotionally we humans need to focus our full attention on this reality if we are to survive on all three levels, intellectual, emotional and even physical-let alone flourish. However, globalization is likewise an incredible opportunity to overcome the "Divisive Dualisms" that have plagued humankind from the beginning: Body-spirit, men-women, black-white, rich-poor, labor-management, religious-secular, nation-nation, etc. A humane globalization cannot succeed by way of dominance. Rather, it can be accomplished only by Deep-Dialogue: within persons, among individuals, between groups, and onto the global level--issuing in a "Global Ethic," that is, the basic ethical principles discovered to be actually held world-wide, arrived at by consensus, brought about through Deep-Dialogue. 

Spirituality: Spirituality refers to the way each individual and groups inwardly understand the meaning of life and then outwardly give it expression. Thus, spirituality underlies all aspects of every-day life-- including every specific religion or ideology, each of which are particular crystallizations of that perception of the meaning of life and how to manifest it. As persons mature they enter into a kind of Deep-Dialogue within themselves, thereby giving shape to their personal understanding of the meaning of life -- their spirituality. Though this has often been done within the context of a religious tradition, today many are discovering spiritual meaning in alternative ways. Hence, spirituality provides the basis from which ethics, the principles of behavior, springs. So too, because of the shifting quality of contemporary society, it is vital that each of us develop integrated, holistic ways of fusing our spirituality and everyday life: in the family, at work, in our communities, up to the global level, and in relation to the world around us. At the same time it is essential that we enter into Deep-Dialogue with those whose spirituality is different from ours, both to seek out what is held in common and to discern true differences. 

The Global Dialogue Institute's Transformational Technology is custom-designed to quickly lead individuals and groups through the Seven Stages with the aid of the Twelve-Step Program and Deep-Dialogue Decalogue into Deep-Dialogue and assist them to apply its results and implications to their specific settings. 

All through the ages, across the spectrum of cultures, humans have been in an ongoing quest to develop an effec-tive technology of life by which individuals and communities may flourish. The great philosophical, spiritual and religious traditions have made magnificent advances in this common quest. Moreover, there is a remarkable convergence, and even significant consensus, among these global traditions.

Nevertheless the evolution of cultures has made clear that despite the best intentions and efforts, human relations continue to break down when different perspectives, worldviews, ideologies come into confrontation. Contemporary life has made it abundantly clear that the key to our very survival now turns on learning how to cope creatively with the powerful forces that arise when diverse worldviews collide. It is apparent now that the most urgent priority facing cultures today is finding creative practical solutions to the immense problems of human relations generated when different worldviews meet. The technology of Deep-Dialogue has been developed and tested over decades precisely in response to this challenge.

1. The Development of Deep-Dialogue

Deep-Dialogue is a way of en-countering and under-standing oneself and the world at the deepest levels, opening up pos-sibili-ties of grasping the fundamental meanings of life, individually and corporately, and its vari-ous dimensions. This in turn  transforms the way we deal with ourselves, others, and the world.

Deep-Dialogue has emerged experimentally out of a wide range of Inter-World Encounters. When we live through the encounters of religious worlds, as we gain inter-cultural experience, as we struggle with the historic patterns of collisions of diverse philosophical world-views, as we creatively engage the powerful forces in civic life where ideologies and lifeworlds battle . . . this inter-world experience enables us to rise to a higher global perspective. As we attain this higher perspective we begin to see deeper patterns and pervasive dynamics evident in cultural evolution over the centuries.

One remarkable discovery of these intensive inter-world experiments is that there must be, and is, a deeper common ground or source out of which diverse worldviews and perspectives arise. As we gain access to this deeper global source of all cultural life and experi-ence it becomes more evident that we humans are in the midst of a profound self-transformation and maturation of our humanness.

Here we can see that we humans in all cultures and worlds play a direct role in shaping our experience, our living realities. One great lesson in global evolution is that our cultural realities are directly affected by our thought-patterns. One great insight gained from the vast resources of the religious, philosophical, spiritual and moral traditions of the ages is that the more we humans are locked in egocentric, monological thought patterns, the more we suffer, the more there is failure in our personal and corporate lives, the more there is violence and the breakdown of human relations between perspectives and worldviews.

At the same time, this global insight teaches that the more we self-transform and awaken to dialogical patterns of thought and living, the more we flourish and gain wellbeing in our personal and corporate lives. It gradually becomes clear in this global drama that we humans have been in a painful struggle of maturation from monological to dialogical ways of being. It may be said that all the great religious, spiritual, rational, scientific, moral and political advances in cultural evolution have occurred in this maturation from a egocentric, monological life to more awakened dialogical living.

Deep-Dialogue is a human technology designed to help individuals and communities flourish by self-transforming into dialogical patterns of life through creative Inter-World Encounters.

2. What is Unique in Deep-Dialogue

Deep-Dialogue is a truly global and universally applicable technology of life since it emerges from the global foundations of authentic reason (Logos) which is at the foundation of all experience and cultural life. By tapping this global essence of authentic reason, Deep-Dialogue helps us fulfill the deepest strivings of our diverse philosophical, spiritual, religious, civic and scientific goals. It is able to be impartial, not privileging any one cultural or religious worldview or civic-secular ideology.

Religious worlds have been in deep battles through the centuries. Scientific worldviews have been in an ongoing confrontation with religious and spiritual lifeworlds. Secular cultures have been frustrated in seeking to open civic space in which multiple worldviews, perspectives and ideologies may flourish together in civilized nonviolent ways. Deeply destructive divisions continue to pervade contemporary cultures on all sides-civil secular culture remains fragmented in competing ideologies and religious, ethnic worlds continue in pernicious alienation, walls are constructed between religious, secular and scientific worldviews -- and our personal inner lives reflect this fragmentation, alienation and disintegration.

Deep-Dialogue is designed to help resolve these human problems by going to their source, by opening deeper global, dialogical, civilized space in which people may achieve individual and corporate wellbeing. By helping people to awaken to the deeper common ground which is the source of their lifeworlds, Deep-Dialogue helps to solve at this existential level the basic impasse in all cultural life. It helps people to realize their deepest individuality while coexisting in unity.

3. Introducing the Technology of Deep-Dialogue

Deep-Dialogue as presented here has been distilled in joint effort through extensive Inter-World Encounters over several decades. It is designed to help individuals and groups awaken to the deeper source of their life and worlds, and thus to flourish in truly realizing their deepest potential in their personal and shared lives. The process of Deep-Dialogue recognizes that when individuals flourish the communities in which they live and work improve in quality of life and productivity.  But it also sees that there are real inter-personal forces in our shared corporate lives that must also be awakened and transformed. For this reason Deep-Dialogue is designed to creatively transform both individual persons and institutions, communities and corporate life.

One key to understanding the process of Deep-Dialogue is to remember that it all turns on being willing to open oneself to authentic Inter-World Encounters, to be willing to stand back critically and objectively from one's deepest habits of interpretation and world-making, as we transform ourselves into other lifeworlds. This is vital in the dialogical awakening-by expanding beyond the boundaries of our world we become more deeply in touch with the common ground which is the source of our own world and the world of others. This is why Deep-Dialogue is Global Dialogue. In this dialogical turn we become more deeply in touch with our authentic Selves as we genuinely encounter Others. Thus, this profound and challenging transformation continues over a lifetime.

4. The Scope and Applicability of Deep-Dialogue

This is a process designed to be adaptable and applicable to the widest range of human situations. We humans exist and live in perspectives, in lifeworlds or worldviews, in some form of interpreta-tion. All our experience depends upon our habits of interpretation and world-making. Our inner psychic lives and our inter-personal relations are shaped by our habits of mind. The process of Deep-Dialogue is designed to help people in the full spectrum of life situations. It applies to our personal relations at home, it applies to our professional relations at work, it applies to our social and political lives in the culture at large, it applies to our relations with our environment or ecology in the largest sense.

In this respect the process is designed to solve human problems in all walks of life, to help wherever worldviews or differing perspec-tives collide: In inter-cultural relations, in religious or ethnic confronta-tions or conflict, in situations where prejudice and bigotry produce violence, in the many areas of cultural life where communication or discourse breakdown, wherever ideologies collide, in our institutional and corporate lives where tensions arise as differing perspectives come into conflict.... Since Deep-Dialogue works at the very source of the breakdown of human relations and discourse it provides the most effective tools for solving intractable and chronic problems of prejudice, ethnic conflict, ideological gridlock, tribal thinking and other forms of breakdown in human relations. This is why it provides the deep foundation underlying the many techniques that have been developed for "diversity training," "tolerance education," "communication skills," "conflict resolution," "nonviolent training," and "peace making," "negotiation and arbitration".... Deep-Dialogue sets the framework within which each of these "applied techniques" can work to their maximum effect-in a lasting way.

5. Introducing the Documents of Deep-Dialogue

The Technology of Deep-Dialogue is an organic and integral process that has diverse dimensions. The Documents that we introduce here form an integral whole and should be read and used as such. Each is designed to amplify and enrich the other. There are many alternative contexts or situations in which this process may be used-in seminars, retreats, workshops, courses, conferences and the like, in varying periods of time. These documents are designed both for training leaders in diverse fields and for grass-roots practitioners in all walks of life. It is part of a larger manual that includes supporting anthologies of essays and audio and video material
developed to deepen the process.

a) The Basic Documents of Deep-Dialogue

Deep-Dialogue: Its Three Dimensions -- orients the participant to the fundamental dimensions of Deep-Dialogue: Ethics, Globality and Spirituality. This document helps the reader to see the underlying connections between these three dimensions and the Deep-Dialogue process. It helps to make clear that Deep-Dialogue is Global Dialogue, involving the deep dynamics of Inter-World Encounters. It stresses that the essence of Ethics is this dialogical process, and it clarifies that the deepest essence of spiritual awakening is founded on authentic reason entering the common ground between worlds.

The Seven Stages of Deep-Dialogue -- helps the participant to feel and experience the depth of the transformation between worlds-to have a vivid sense of moving beyond the boundary of one's world into a very different world, and returning in a expanded sense to one's own roots. This helps to model the process for the participant and brings out the organic unity of the process and of these documents.

The Ten Groundrules of Deep-Dialogue -- since entering the sacred space of Deep-Dialogue is the very process of embodying Global Ethics, these Groundrules are in effect procedural guidelines for moving into the consensus process of Global Ethics.

The Twelve Steps of Deep-Dialogue -- articulates the classic steps of concrete actions for actually advancing in the Deep-Dialogue process.

The Inter-World Encounter Through Deep-Dialogue -- the Thirty-three-hour Seminar for Twelve Senior Executives is just one sample of a practical application  of the above four Basic Documents. There are limitless of application, depending on the groups served and their needs. Each application will be custom designed.

The Promise and Power of Deep-Dialogue and Dialogue Made Real -- provide the broad context of the Global Dialogue Institute (and its predecessor organizations, the Journal of Ecumenical Studies and the Institute for Interreligious, Intercultural Dialogue) for the past three decades and lay out briefly plans for the future.