Every time we are in relationship, or we encounter another person, knowledge is flowing i.e. we are learning something from the other person and the other person is learning something from us.
Knowledge is flowing in the mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual areas of our being. So it is not only head knowledge! Even when we are teaching, we are learning. Sometimes we are aware that we are learning, but a lot of the time, in our day-to-day life, we are not aware; i.e. our learning is unconscious.
By way of contrast, consider one-way knowledge flow which I give a bit of attention to here. That is, the belief that knowledge of what is good for us flows from people who have a high level of formal education, high status in society, (and maybe) long life and professional experience, etc. to those who don’t.
Two-way knowledge flow proposes that I am learning from the other as he is learning from me – even if I am the helper and he is a person in deep distress being helped.
This is sometimes challenging for formally educated practitioners. Almost all mainstream teaching/learning in our society – including the educational paradigm that we are all familiar with – is one-way!
In particular, we need to be open to the idea of two-way knowledge flow if we aspire to share power – that which I promote as being so helpful for healing in this website.
Two-way knowledge flow is sometimes called bi-directional knowledge flow – we learn when we teach, absorb as we impart knowledge, and every encounter assists us in enhancing our understanding of the topic, the other and of course ourselves.