Four Stages of Conversations designs a new conference model, using ancient shamanistic methods of hypnosis and guided imagination to enhance participants’ powers of intuition. Lundahl & Seitl have considerable experience of staging perception-altering situations, normally for their trans-disciplinary artworks. This project is a first attempt to use these skills in a more directly functional way, in decision making. It is an ongoing project which will be developed over the coming years in collaboration with governments and financial institutions.

When asked to imagine a new financial system or other new ways of structuring society we are often stopped by an invisible force that obstructs our vision; this force can be called “the experience gap”. When we have no direct experience of something, it becomes very hard to imagine and so when new ideas are discussed they remain theoretical. The reality that this idea represents has no resonance with our past experiences.

When bridging the experience gap, our ability to visualise and use intuition is an important tool for steering the imaginative mind. However the rational, conscious mind has predominantly been the mind-set that leaders around the world bring with them when they sit down at discussion tables and take important decisions.

With advances in technology and science, humanity is making a transition into a new species: a homo evolutis which directly and deliberately controls its own evolution. With our decisions comes a great responsibility – for the world we can imagine is also our potential future.