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So where did AR come from? Here i collate various online historys into the briefest form i can.

Because AR is a practice not a theory, model or framework, and because it has in large part developed in the commercial arena, it is, and remains almost entirely undocumented. It's stories and learnings are all siloed in various peoples heads.

First we have to acknowledge the pre-history. And this is about the encounter groups on the US west coast (Esalon), circa 1967, and T-groups on the east coast (more informed by Rogerian psychology and Gestalt). Susan Campbell was there among them.

Now we can dive in and attempt to understand the history of AR. Lets be clear this will inevitably be an approximation:

• The story has is that more than one group of friends in the late 90s, which may or may not have included certain substances, accidentally co-created Circling while trying to solve a conflict.
• Between 1998-2008 one of the groups offered intensive practice workshops in the Bay area on a commercial basis (Arete). Gradually perfecting the art of birthday circling, a practice that relied on experienced leaders. (Sengstock, Candelaria). In the mid 2000s when this and the other groups crossed paths, three separate groups emerged.
• In 2004 came the creation of Authentic World in 2004 (Cunov, Bayer). Later, between 2010-2019, they set up shop at the Boulder Integral Center to develop their Authentic Man Aletheia T3 programs (Cunov, MacNaughton). Now informed by integral theory, and still mostly based on the birthday circle, with its skillful charismatic facilitation, although they also started exploring the games format. It was at Boulder that the term Authentic Relating was coined. The Integral Center offered a subscription model for event attendance.
• In 2011 saw the birth (or rebirth) of The Circling Institute (Sengstock, Cotton) in the Bay area. More of a pedagogic framework started to arise and business development capacity increased.
• In 2012 a group in the Netherlands started Circling Europe. The organic circle / surrendered leadership model emerged. (Wilkinson, Thompson)
• Then, in 2014 some people from the Integral Centre went to Austin to create Authentic Revolution where it leaned into the idea of games nights which became very popular and a more developed AR brand emerged. The Relateful Company also set up shop in Austin to fill a role during the pandemic (Ness, Allen)
• In 2017 Kestano and Digges, also from the Integral Centre lineage, started ART International, which also leaned away from circling toward the AR dyadic practice format.

NB: names mentioned are a tiny subset of people involved. It was very much an organic emergence from various communities of practice.

Sources:

https://circlingguide.com/history-of-circling/

https://intromeditation.com/Wordpress/a-history-of-circling/

https://jasondigges.substack.com/p/the-history-of-authentic-relating

Now, we are left with the two loose brands: 'AR' and 'Circling', with ART and AuthRev largely carrying the torch for the former, and the (marriage of convenience) federation of TRC, TCI and CE holding the latter. My view, adopted from Beneteau, is that it is still very early days, something akin to the amercian wild west. And hence there is ton of room to grow and develop the practices. However because organicness/chaos/diversity/decentralisation is deeply embedded in its DNA, it will likely always struggle to achieve the status of a global phenomenon.

That's the paradox, irony or mystery of it. I get the sense that all that matters is what we might contribute to it, what unique part we might play within it.

Ahead i will look at the relationship between AR and Circling