Global Social Witnessing

Thomas Steininger in dialogue with Kazuma Matoba

How do we, as individuals from a particular culture, become truly global humans?

Truly experiencing ourselves as part of a global, not just local, reality calls for a new consciousness. New practices are beginning to emerge that connect us with our global reality.

Kazuma Matoba, Apl.-Professor for Intercultural Education and Communication at Witten/Herdecke University in Germany, has been developing one such practice with the spiritual teacher Thomas Hübl. They call this practice Global Social Witnessing, which is a way of exploring our global social realities through science and art.

As Kazuma Matoba says: “We want to be mentally, emotionally and physically present with all human and living beings who experience intense and profound moments of struggling, doubting, and suffering. When we see people on the news children in famine in Africa or a crying mother with her dead child in Syria-we feel touched and empathetic with these people. This often happens, but the impression is not permanent, because it is just too much for us and we do not always want to deal with it.

These everyday thoughts are deeply rooted in an individualistic dualism. We and the world are separated. Through climate change and refugee crisis, we have begun to realize that we are interconnected. So we can testify to suffering people with belief that we are not separate from them, but we and they are part of a great system.”

In this week’s Radio evolve, Thomas Steininger talks with Kazuma Matoba about the practice of Global Social Witnessing.