ZERKA FOUNDATION

SEEDS FOR THE EVOLUTION OF
SOCIETY, ORGANIZATIONS AND OUR LIVES

Experiential Training based on the work of J.L. and Zerka Moreno
Grandparents of Social Network Theory and Creators of Psychodrama and Sociometry
The name Zerka is the original name of the Jordan River and the name of the great grandmother of Zerka Moreno after whom Zerka Moreno was named. The great grandmother Zerka was a source of community healing as was Zerka Moreno.
Edward John Schreiber, TEP
“Mankind is a social and organic unity.” JL Moreno

Zerka Foundation
Amherst, Massachusetts

“A truly therapeutic procedure cannot have less an objective than the whole of mankind. But no adequate therapy can be prescribed as long as mankind is not a unity in some fashion and as long as its organization remains unknown.”
JL Moreno

This project teaches a form of social justice education based on the mystic wisdom of J.L. and Zerka Moreno. They were creators of sociatry, which means planting seeds for healing society. They are best known as the grandparents of social network theory and the founders of psychodrama, sociodrama and sociometry.

Within their body of work there is an experiential instrument called social microscopy. Social microscopy teaches a group how to find within itself a mirror of our society; how it organizes access, marginalization and power.

This is a lens to see what J.L. Moreno described as a central underlying social structure that is existing in groups, organizations, society and the world, impacting us all. Social microscopy shows this in a group or organization.

This educational training workshop also points to the presence and activity of an existential Intelligence that can be felt that brings insight to the entire group. To experience this Intelligence is to sense the fabric of life into which we are all connected. This educational training is now available.

Edward Schreiber, TEP
Trainer, Educator, Practitioner
Zerkafoundation.org

Social Microscopy

In all instances of personal and social injustice, there exists “an actual, dynamic, central structure underlying and determining all peripheral and formal groupings.” This dynamic structure found in groups and organizations reflects the same dynamic in our country and world. The Social Microscope teaches a group how to find and repair this underlying dynamic, to produce heightend communication and equity. The Social Microscope points then to the activity of the primordial field that exists around us, between us, and within us. The primordial field was described by Zerka Moreno as an “autonomous healing center” that shows itself to individuals and to the group as a whole. This workshop plants seeds for the evolution and enlightenment of our society, organiztations, and our lives.

edwschreiber@earthlink.net
ZerkaFoundation.org

Edward was mentored and certified by Zerka Moreno and is Board Certified as Trainer, Educator and Practitioner (TEP) in this discipline. He has authored the chapter on Psychodrama, Sociometry, Group Psychotherapy and Sociatry (Social Healing) in Kaplan & Sadock’s Comprehensive Textbook on Psychiatry and teaches the Social Microscope in Massachusetts and beyond by zoom and in person. For information about this project please reach out.

History and Stories Behind the Method

TO DREAM AGAIN

by Zerka Moreno

An important book is offered free of charge as a PDF file.

From Editor’s Note:

Zerka’s influence has been worldwide, and like her husband, she remains a voice on the world stage. Her story captures the human hunger for the end of suffering and for justice in the world. Like a Zen teacher, she taps the soul to awaken it to its power, to create and re-create itself. This book encourages each of us to create full, loving, and meaningful lives.

Embedded in the book are formulas for the emergence of an evolved consciousness. There is a story much greater than that of her life and soul; it is about a relationship to the Great Spirit, heard, felt, and followed. This final work in the J. L. and Zerka T. Moreno legacy is a teaching story for this awakening.

For a copy, please contact Edward Schreiber

edwschreiber@earthlink.net
ZerkaFoundation.org

Social Justice Mysticism in the Moreno Tradition

The Autonomous Healing Center Practice
And Discovering the Underlying Structure of Society

“Awakening the autonomous healing center, the power to heal oneself, is how I see the value of psychodrama and all forms of therapy.”
Zerka T Moreno

The genius, spontaneity and inspiration of J.L. Moreno and the systematic grounded spirituality of his collaborator and wife Zerka T. Moreno, gave this world comprehensive methods to address all dimensions of human existence. For individual development, psychodrama was created; for group development, sociodrama was created; while Sociatry addresses the underlying structure of our culture. What connects these to one another? The answer is in mystic codes they embedded into their work to addresses a core idea: There is always at least two of us at all times. If I am alone, there is me in relationship to the field around me, that Zerka called the autonomous healing center and J.L. called the godhead. This field is all around us, between us, and in us all at the same time. Moreno also discovered that in all organizations, groups and nations, there is an underlying structure that exists that has a determining impact on all areas of social reality. This discovery along with the autonomous healing center is what we call Social Justice Mysticism.
In this workshop we will offer:
  1. Deeper understanding of the Encounter Symbol as a presentation of First and Second Universe dynamic, the psychology of Moreno.
  2. Explanation of the underlying structure of society and social microscopy.
  3. Review of 4 basic codes and practical implementation in awakening practice.

edwschreiber@earthlink.net
ZerkaFoundation.org

The Circle Is Broken – A Psychodramatic Zen Story

I feel painfully reminded that we as a species are still at war with ourselves and one another. We see this in the news with Ukraine and Russia, with a continued great divide in the US, we can see this in families, communities, within our own minds, bodies, within ourselves, within our social atoms and organizations.

I remember well an ASGPP Conference some years ago at a workshop presented by the ASGPP Journal, in which one of the presenters said that the Circle was broken and needed to be healed. There are many ways to address broken circles, yet the one that has most impacted me are the ideas and experiential tools of JL Moreno, who developed pathways to the unbroken circle.

When we find our way to the unbroken circle, we find ourselves in contact with what has been written about by many spiritual seekers and teachers. To experience the unbroken circle is to find ourselves in connection with what Moreno described as a “primordial nature and first universe.” The experience of the primordial nature, the godhead, is a birthright of humanity. It is an experience in which the essential nature, primordial nature, becomes experientially known, even at a glimpse. The broken circle becomes unbroken within us, extending to a group and to society.

Moreno wrote about the two interrelated universes: the first universe of the formless primordial nature, and the second universe of individuated form such as Me, You, Us, Them, That. The experience of the intersection between the first and second universes is discovered deep within the self, and all around us, also between us. To stand in this intersection is what Zerka described as an awakening of the autonomous healing center. It is autonomous from us yet is within us, and it is between us and around us, all at the same time. It is not ours to own.

When Moreno studied groups throughout the world, large and small, formal and informal ones, even with the large groups called cultures, societies, humanity; he found within all of these groupings the presence of a sociometric structure he described as “an actual, dynamic, central structure underling and determining” all groups. He called it the sociodynamic effect.

To more fully understand the nature of the sociodynamic effect is to realize: What has not always been fully seen is now and has been playing a major role in determining the social reality we all face. To see this dynamic structure and to alter this in small groups was their idea. Zerka Moreno said in her training programs that these are seeds that we can learn, use and plant for the evolution and enlightenment of society, groups, organizations and our own lives, rooted in the experience of a Great Mystery. This Great Mystery is experientially realized, the presence of a force of good, an intelligence within us, around us and between us.