During this dark time of uncertainty, when all familiar systems seem to be collapsing around us, I take enormous comfort in one simple fact: the extraordinary regenerative power of small groups to create miracles.

In this season of miracles, I have repeatedly witnessed the greatest miracle of all in our Power of Eight® circles: our own human capacity to heal and to be healed in the process.
Instant miracles
Sixty-three-year-old Sande Cournoyer, scheduled for knee replacement, and barely able to walk without falling, able to do a deep squat, throw away her brace and cancel her surgery after her first Power of Eight® session.
Beverly Sparks, whose shoulder was dislocated and in terrible pain after a car accident, feeling her shoulder slide back into normal position and become virtually pain-free during her group healing.
Joan, who’d had two mini-strokes and could no longer focus her eyes, able to see normally.
Groups of Arabs and Israelis—sworn enemies—participating in an Intention Experiment, spontaneously sending love to each other and exclaiming, “My God is your God.”
And there’ve been thousands of others, healed in a single Power of Eight® session—in 10 minutes.
What is it about groups that helps to manifest all these personal miracles so instantly?
Melinda Jacobs, an experienced meditator, intuitive and an empath, told me that her Power of Eight® group experience was profoundly different from ordinary meditation.
“There was this light, a ball of light—a light being of sorts—as if they were the magnifiers and they were behind us and their energy was coming through us,” she said. “It was very profound to feel us contained within another circle of light behind us.”
The X factor
What is the rational explanation for all these miracles?
Some things in our lives are just beyond our explanation or understanding, and when people come together, miracles just happen—miracles that cannot be reduced to the sum of certain facts and observable data, the workings of the vagus nerve or brain.
I’ve come to believe that miracles aren’t individual but the result of collective forces, especially when we move past the puniness of the self.
I’ve given up trying to explain magic. It’s enough to show, even in small glimpses, that it’s there.
I’ve witnessed the extraordinary power of a small group to create hope and healing in the lives of every group member. I’ve understood that the most powerful transformational state of all is altruism.
Moving away from self-help is our most potent healer. The healing is all in the participation, the desire to pray with one voice. Each time we participate in a healing, we heal one small part of ourselves.
The power of other-help
One day when I was listening to the song “One” by U2, I was suddenly struck by the simple wisdom of the words “We get to carry each other.”
The song of course focuses on how we are still “one” even if “we’re not the same,” but I realize now that the line about carrying each other doesn’t refer to obligation; it’s about privilege. With the opportunity to carry each other, we are given the opportunity to be healed.
When I think of this Christmas season, I think of what Jesus may have been trying to tell us, in his instruction to the apostles in the Bible’s Acts to pray passionately with one voice.
No matter whether you are religious or, like me, have a more secular sense of spirituality, his words continue to resonate.
Don’t play small when it comes to healing yourself or healing the world. This is too big an enterprise to attempt by yourself.
May you find your group to heal with this holiday season and new year.