Offers a rated measure of how deeply people stay with their experience, and lessons from trials with fair comparison groups.
| Near | Middle | Far |
|---|---|---|
| Inside a person | ||
| Between two people | ||
| no fields | ||
| Groups and culture | ||
| no fields | ||
Near: studies what a circle does, in live interaction. The closest studies of live relating are of pairs. Many fields also study groups of three to twelve, but rarely a group that works like a circle.
| Inside a person | Between two people | Groups and culture | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assume nothing Notice assumptions and check them, instead of treating a story as fact. | |||
| Connection Stay with the connection itself, whatever it brings. | |||
| Curiosity Be genuinely interested in the other person, and in yourself. | no fields | no fields | |
| Impact Tell the person how what they say and do lands with you. | no fields | ||
| Own it Speak for yourself, and don’t make others answerable for what you feel. | no fields | no fields | |
| Reveal Say what is really going on for you as it happens, including what you would usually keep hidden. | |||
| Sensation Keep close to what the body is feeling. | no fields | no fields | |
| Takes part The leader holds the structure and is a participant too. | no fields | no fields | |
| Their world Explore with the person what it is like to be them, right now. | |||
| Welcome all Whatever comes up is welcome; nothing needs fixing. |
Our reading: a field sheds light on a move when it studies the mechanism the move relies on, and each field’s page gives the reason. None of these fields tests a move inside a circle.
| One personOne | Two peopleTwo | A small group (3–12)3–12 | A large gatheringMany | Institutions and societySociety | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inside a person | |||||
| Focusing, body therapies | |||||
| Improv, psychodrama | |||||
| Meditation research | |||||
| Micro-phenomenology | |||||
| Hypnosis, dream sharing | |||||
| Interoception | |||||
| Psychedelics, breathwork | |||||
| Religion and ritual | |||||
| Ego development | |||||
| Predictive processing | |||||
| Between two people | |||||
| Authenticity | |||||
| Conversation | |||||
| Emotion regulation | |||||
| Empathy | |||||
| How we see each other | |||||
| Listening | |||||
| Online relating | |||||
| Psychotherapy process | |||||
| Relationships | |||||
| Sharing emotions | |||||
| Synchrony | |||||
| Infant attunement | |||||
| Feeling understood | |||||
| Groups and culture | |||||
| Dialogue and repair | |||||
| Group therapy, T-groups | |||||
| Reflective groups | |||||
| Safety and harm | |||||
| Loneliness, belonging | |||||
| Sociology of emotion | |||||
| Team science | |||||
Our reading of the sizes of encounter each field studies. A dot means the field has studied encounters of that size, not that it has studied a circle. A small group of three to twelve is the size of a circle.
30 fields
Inside a person10
- NearFocusing, body and movement therapies
- NearImprovisation, psychodrama and playback theatre
Unscripted group relating of another kind, and a credible comparison group for a trial of Circling.
- NearMeditation research
Separates attention trained alone from attention shared with a partner, and keeps the most careful record of what can go wrong in practice.
- NearMicro-phenomenology and other first-person methods
Careful interview methods for describing a single moment of experience, such as a moment of being met.
- MiddleHypnosis, absorption and dream sharing
Rapport and expectation shape how people respond, so a facilitator’s framing matters; dream sharing is a listening practice that has been tested.
- MiddleInteroception: sensing your own body
How to measure attention to the body, the heart of Sensation, and which popular tests not to trust.
- MiddlePsychedelics, ceremony and breathwork
Studies bonding in group sessions, and shows that feeling warm towards someone is not the same as understanding them.
- MiddleReligion, ritual and shared silence
How communities teach people to recognise and name their experience, and how a group can keep silence together.
- FarAdult and ego development
Tests of lasting change in how adults make sense of themselves and others. The Integral lineage draws on it; the claims need caution.
- FarPredictive processing and active inference
Theories of how people update their expectations of each other: ideas to test, not yet evidence.
Between two people13
- NearAuthenticity, vulnerability and honesty
Shows that feeling authentic, being honest and disclosing are different things, each with its own evidence.
- NearConversation science
What people expect from a deep conversation compared with what happens, and how talk is built turn by turn.
- NearEmotion regulation and naming feelings
Tests naming, accepting and holding back feelings, some of it in live conversation.
- NearEmpathy, compassion and mentalizing
Separates feeling with someone, caring about them and understanding them accurately.
- NearHow we see each other
Rating designs in which everyone rates everyone, which fit a circle exactly.
- NearListening and rapport
Experiments that change how well someone is listened to, and measure what that does.
- NearOnline relating
What a screen changes about presence, closeness and fatigue.
- NearPsychotherapy process and Gestalt research
Studies strains in a live relationship and how they are repaired.
- NearRelationship and intimacy science
The best-developed account of how disclosure, met with a caring response, becomes closeness.
- NearSharing emotions and co-regulation
What the listener’s response adds when someone speaks about a feeling.
- NearSynchrony and paired-brain studies
How to measure the coordination of bodies and brains in a group, and how not to over-read it.
- MiddleInfant–caregiver attunement and repair
Second-by-second coding of bids, misses and repair between two people.
- MiddleThe reward of feeling understood
The closest laboratory version of being met: what disclosing and being understood do in the brain.
Groups and culture7
- NearDialogue and repair
Field experiments on structured encounters between people who disagree, or between people harmed and those responsible.
- NearGroup therapy, T-groups and group dynamics
Measures group climate, the facilitator’s influence, and whether change carries into the rest of life.
- NearReflective groups for professionals
Balint groups, Schwartz Rounds and empathy training: groups where speaking is optional, and listening taught as a skill.
- NearSafety and harm in groups
Measures that catch the harms an average hides: pressure, dependence and abuse.
- MiddleLoneliness and belonging
Separates a good session from lasting belonging, with trial designs to borrow.
- MiddleSociology of emotion, ritual and therapeutic culture
Where shared scripts for authenticity come from, and what emotional skill is worth in a culture.
- MiddleTeam science and psychological safety
Relates a team’s relational climate to what it achieves.
A field is near when it studies what a circle does in live interaction, middle when it studies a mechanism a circle relies on but mostly outside live relating, and far when it lends a frame or a method. The distances are our reading, made from a survey of each field’s reviews and closest studies in November 2026.
Most of the closest studies, of disclosure, listening and partner practice, are of pairs. Many fields also study groups of three to twelve: therapy and training groups, teams, classrooms, ceremonies. Few study such a group as it works in a circle, with everyone attending to one another at once and a leader who takes part. The encounter groups of the 1970s came closest, and that line of research faded with them.
Each field has a page with the researchers to read first, the works it has in this catalogue, the places to study it and the societies where its researchers meet.