Who are your Heroes in History? Can you make them into a story field?
drlisal...@gmail.com
popping into my mind. I could see and feel their brilliance. My
imagination visualized the two of them coming together as one entity.
My very own personal "hybrid heroes". I imagine each of them as a
wing:
The left wing was Ben Franklin, founder of the United States, inventor
of electricity.
The right wing was Rumi, the ecstatic poet.
What if I could harness these heroes of history, these "twin wing"
giants, though their gravitas is enormous, how would it be to ride on
the back of this hybrid bird? Yesterday, as I had two business
meetings during the day, one in La Jolla and one Downtown, and then as
I painted in my art studio in the evening, I pondered this.
I love Ben Franklin. As a founding father of the United States, he
pulled together "the team" that would create our constitution. He was
always curious, invented electricity and hundreds of things. He would
be a very cool left wing to fly high in the 21 century. He could help
us created a new union for humanity's freedom. Perhaps he might also
discover a new type of "electricity", more subtle than our current
type that lights up our cities. Perhaps a type of electricity that
might illuminate our minds and imagination so we can see our way
through the dark times we live in.
(If inspired, for an overview of his life check out Wikapedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Franklin )
As much as I love Ben, I also really love Rumi the poet. Yesterday
during moments of reverie, I flew in my imagination with Rumi as my
left wing. I saw him in ecstatic joy, poetically dancing in response
to life around him. I saw him guiding me in my future, to trust my
expression of love for the one life that is always present.
Encouraging me to let my love for the "beloved one" flow out of me in
poetic expression-inspiring, connecting and transforming the world
through art.
(If inspired, check Rumi out at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi )
So my imaginary hybrid heroes are flying with me now on this one
glorious bird. On my left wing, Ben Franklin; on my right Rumi. I
believe with their help, I can be the wind beneath their wings. Their
guidance can help me in the decades to come with my work in the world.
To be a force of creative change that helps us unite as a enlightened
people to form a new union, where all countries, cultures and peoples
are equal. Where in life we trust. Where we have a constitution
created by the people and for the people and the planet.
With Rumi as my right wing, I will uses his genius to help me through
the arts. To use my artistry to help the world connect to a place
beyond the rational logical mind, a place of ecstatic love for all of
life. One that sees the unity of the whole living planet and responds
through dance and poetry. I will bring his spirit with me as I am in
my art studio in the months to come, finishing my 50 paintings for
India.
I'll call my "bird" with twin wings: BenRumi.
May the spirit of your heroes soar with you, as together we create a
new world!
Joy,
Lisa
Larry Victor
I received this twice by email, one titled Hybrid Heroes? I initially
thought you had posted both on the listserv and the blog; which I am
beginning to think to do as new people are not joining the listserv.
I am motivated to read (not just skim as I just did) with Wiki history
of Rumi. I think I read a some of his poetry, but am a bit more
familiar with Ben. Unfortunately, lacking mental imagery in both
visual and auditory domains, I experience poetry only conceptually at
the moment - yet I recognize the powerful synergy between these two
modes - TwinWing modes!
I just imagined teams, not just pairs, as linked systems of kites.
But, no visuals!
I am interested in what YOU experience, both as one wing with one of
them; and when riding or being the medium through which the twins
sail? Is there detail or only metaphor and deep emotion? Can you
experience their interactivity?
I tried to think of pairs, but what popped to mind was a real live
cybernetics seminar in Seattle that featured only two powerful
creative minds: Humberto Maturana < http://www.isss.org/maturana.htm
> and Herbert Brun < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Brun >.
Brun's "my words and where I want them" are conceptual poems that move
me greatly. In addition to each making multiple presentations and Q/A
with participants, there were many dialogs between the two. Brun
brought with him his team of musicians and performers from the Univ of
Illinois. That gathering, stands for me, alongside Woodstock (the
phenomenon, not just the music/concert) as powerful, life changing,
events.
I can fantasize on pairs of complementary minds in Colab Studios co-
composing (with support teams) new stories for cyberspace.
Larry Victor
Maturana, the other is a more recent paper that I set aside to listen
to via TextAloud, as it relates to their concept of "structural
coupling", which I feel essential
>
> I tried to think of pairs, but what popped to mind was a real live
> cybernetics seminar in Seattle that featured only two powerful
> creative minds: Humberto Maturana <http://www.isss.org/maturana.htm> and Herbert Brun <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Brun>.
>
I feel compelled to contribute my favorite Brun "poem" pp 48 in "my
words and where I want them". This enabled to me to finally comprehend
the long paper he had submitted for the conference. Brun, know to be a
stickler for precise language, deeply frustrated me by his paper,
which on initial reading was barely comprehensible. But, as I read it
a few times the meaning became clearer and clearer. His paper was an
example of anticommunication, that forced me out of the box.
Now Herbert Brun on "communication"
I use the word "communication" whenever
I wish to speak of a human relation
between persons and things which emerges
and is maintained through messages
required and permitted by already
available systems or mechanisms.
I use the word "anticommunication"
whenever I wish to speak of a human
relation between persons and things
which emerges and is maintained through
messages requiring and permitting not
yet available encoding and decoding
systems or mechanisms.
"communication" feed on, and speeds,
the decay of information in systems on
which depends the significance of human
relations.
"anticommunication" not only retards
this decay, but even creates systems
whose significance depends on human
relations.
Insistence on "communication" ultimately
leads to social and physical violence.
"anticommunication" ultimately leads to
the insistence on "composition" and peace.
======= the book is full of such "out of the box" revelations.
Lion Kimbro
Interesting!
I like it.
Communication, and anti-communication. {:)}=
Here is my understanding:
So, "communication" is just standard recognized language
used to maintain a system. For example, "Excuse me,"
or "Would you please" and so on, are communications,
when they're supporting the manners and rules of the world,
and prior agreements made, and so on. "Politeness" as a
system is one where communications go back and forth
between people, to maintain.
"Anti-communication" is when you're saying things that
nobody understands yet, because it's something new.
It could be a new idea, a new technology, a new vision,
-- something where people have to go, "Okay, what's this
mean, for me, for others, and how do we relate with it?"
The questions, "What is this," and "What does this mean,"
and "What does this connotate," and so on, have not been
answered yet, and there is exchange to continue, in order
to answer those things.
So it is an "anti-communication."
I'm looking at Brun here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NgMs3HQ9XWc
"Violence is a Message."
Larry Victor
comprehend a new message. I find the need to invent new "vector" words
as all existing words imply a bias. Scanning a diagram (multiple
dimensional language) may share meanings that could only be shared by
linear text via long, convoluted, sentences requiring feedback to
other parts of the sentence.
Many of Brun's utterances don't sound grammatical, yet he demonstrates
that they are. He also points out many of our utterances we consider
grammatically correct are not. He was a very difficult man to talk to,
as he refused to continue conversation if you were not using correct
grammar. I guess in conversation he insisted on communication, going
to other media, such as music and drama for anticommunication.
If I take Brun's video on VIOLENCE IS THE MESSAGE, I must ask what
Bush and Cheney are trying to escape from. There is a difference
between the violence of the freedom fighter and the aggressive
violence of dominators and their supporters.
drlisal...@gmail.com
Interesting comments on communication. From my point of view and
experience there is a multiplicity of levels in communication. They
exist in same species dialogue, but we can begin to understand
interspecies communication when viewing the whole biosphere from a
higher consciousness than our 5 senses provide us. This "communion"
is the whole biosphere communicating with each other. It is part of
the "one song" of the uni-verse being sung through communication both
in our species and the whole living earth connected. Reconnecting to
this "communion" of the whole living earth, an awakening universe, is
essential at this critical junction of our times.
Larry Victor
1) How do you set a comment to have "Show quoted text -"
2) You caught me with my mind knotted. There obviously are multiple
types of interaction among humans, between all organisms, and with
higher order entities. Non conscious signaling between humans is a
side interest of mine. I also can have deep sharings with my dogs and
cats. Occasionally I have an "Oceanic" feeling of oneness with GAIA.
3) My vocabulary does not use the term "communication" for most of
these other types of sharing; and I prefer to view them as a field
than levels. How vital each of them is for our current situation is an
open and necessary query.
3) The type of "communication" we have been discussing here, re Brun,
remains very critical - when the details of systems must be carefully
attended to. There is a tendency of some persons who focus on the more
"spiritual" modes of sharing to dismiss the importance of attending to
details of complexity.
What I hope to share at the conference is the vast diversity of human
cognitive worlds, and that all are important, as are the multiple cell
types for the viability of our whole organism. We are all both much
MORE ALIKE than we believe and have much GREATER DIVERSITY than we
believe. I must learn to more respect persons who experience what I
can't experience; and hope others can learn to more respect what I
experience that they don't - and that I may not experience as they
experience, and that it is OK.
A week from tonight I will be packing to get up before dawn to be at
the airport; but you will already be at Shambhalla.
See you there, Larry
drlisal...@gmail.com
Yes, I can experience their (Rumi and Ben Franklin's) interactivity as
I flow through my day. Because they are in my vision and experience
of daily life. Rumi sees through the lenses of my heart, as I gaze at
flowers in my garden, and suddenly am completely drunk. Intoxicated
with a "nectar of the god's", not from my rational brain, but from my
intuitive right brain. I am out of my mind, in love with the beloved-
with the glorious beauty in the duality of this cosmic dream. I am
also aware of the one eye I am seeing through. The same eye that the
"sleeping one universe" is dreaming all of creation through. I am in
the waking dream of the living earth, as the rest of my human family
is also awakening in the dream. The beauty of it all has me speaking
rhyming poetry like:
Flowers are we all humanity,
Some still with vanity,
Holding tight to a separate sense of light.
Some flowers have opened,
Petals surrendered to Sunshine,
Light from the Uni-Verse.
One song echoing eternally.
Yearningly towards Home,
One song together singing
Open flowers blooming,
Awakening Universe ringing,
Home, we are home at last.
The one awakening.
Home at last in the Garden of Delight,
Dawn is here, we hear the Song.
Home on this Garden Earth.
Free at last,
Free humanity,
Free to Create,
Free to dance with the One Song!
OK Larry, now Ben would say this:
I observe a new kind of electricity with the key I hold in my hand. It
is not the electricity that I invented in my earth lifetime that lit
up outer cities of humanity. But rather an inner light. One that is
seen by the one inner eye. In my lifetime several hundred years ago,
I was a part of a secret society, a brotherhood. Mason's secretly
building a new society "brick by brick". We shared our "insights"
with each other in rituals. This is the "in sight" I speak of as the
inner light.
Now in the 21st century, this new electricity is available for the
human family to use as they rebuild a new union under Life. As they
learn to access an intuitive intelligence, a new frontier of the human
brain, they will be able to harness the powers of the larger life in
our solar system. No longer will fossil fuels be necessary, as we
will use the power of the sun and the ocean waves for transport. We
will find our connection as a whole human species, as we move through
these troubled times.
Larry, hope these words are of use to you. See you in less than a
week!
Love, Lisa
Peggy Holman
> We are all both much
> MORE ALIKE than we believe and have much GREATER DIVERSITY than we
> believe. I must learn to more respect persons who experience what I
> can't experience; and hope others can learn to more respect what I
> experience that they don't - and that I may not experience as they
> experience, and that it is OK.
Yes, yes, yes! I see this as one of the major undercurrents of the
gathering because when we are truly invited to bring that diversity present,
I KNOW we'll trigger each other. Frankly, if there aren't rocky spots
during the gathering, I'll be disappointed. I think one of the great
opportunites of our time together is to experience being present to each
other and work through the ways we trigger each ohter. By doing so, we will
have accomplished something rare and valuable for understanding how to work
together in this conflicted world. I personally think this is an essential
skill for a return to wholeness - this time, not through the pressure to
conform (wholeness as undifferentiated sameness), but rather through an
invitation to bring our diversity fully present - what I think of as
differentiated wholeness.
A paraphrase from something I read by Peter and Trudy Johnson-Lenz is that
we are many small stories loosely knit. I put that together with Paul
Hawken's view of this large, unseen movement with no ideology... as he says:
"The movement's key contribution is the rejection of one big idea in order
to offer in its place thousand of practical and useful ones. Instead of
isms it offers processes, concerns, and compassion...The as yet undelivered
promise of this movement is a network of organizations that offer solutions
to disentangle what appear to be insoluable dilemmas: poverty, global
climate change, terrorism, ecological degradation, polarization of income,
loss of culture, and many more."
Our individual and collective capacity to weave together ideas that unite us
through the stories that differentiate us is how I believe that promise can
be realized.
see you all very soon!
Peggy
Lion Kimbro
like "spirit guides for atheists." It made it quite clear: "Look, this is a
thing in the imagination," but, boy, what an important and crucial
imagination it is. In fact, since it's backed by intelligence, I think that
there's a fighting argument that the imagination is, quite truthfully and
literally: alive.
I think that the basic idea of interacting with concepts, ideas,
archetypes, animals, rocks and things, computers, as if they were
intelligent, is immensely useful, and I can conceive of strong arguments
in favor of their use, on neurological grounds, existing within 30 years.
I can imagine that our brains are specially configured to relating with
people, and that may carry over as a mechanism for relating with ideas
in general.
In history, we've constantly envisioned the Earth ("Gaia,") the universe
(through "God,") and ideas (Greek pantheon) as people. People
that you can talk with, that do things for reasons, that have their own
ideas and tendencies, and so on.
Programmers talk about their creations in terms of "objects" today;
You may have heard of "object oriented programming." But there's
also actor based programming, and a number of trends in software and
firmware, point towards "directing virtual people" (or at least, intelligences
and personalities,) rather than just manipulating machinery and
so on.
I look forward to an evolutionary spirituality that grants "first-class
citizenship," or tangibility of a sort, to the constructs of the imagination.
In my own life, I personally have deep debts to:
* Belldandy and Keichi Morisato, a fictional couple from the
Ah! My Goddess storyworld, who have both deeply influenced me.
* my reconstructions of Napoleon Hill, Ray Kurzweil, Mark Twain
(re: Napoleon Hill, -- he fully endorsed imagining conversations with
"the greats," and practiced himself; he also said, (paraphrasing:)
"when you read a book, imagine that you are in a conversation with
the author, and don't hesitate to let your mind make up what they
would say back to you.")
* various arbitrary maps of the universes, inner and outer
We all have "doubles," as well-- fictional selves (is there even a
"real" one, beyond the observer?) that we use to understand ourselves,
our visions of who we are, and so on.
see also: the 5-worlds Mandala:
Reality, Technology, Imagination, Nature, and Story/Human.
http://www.communitywiki.org/en/FiveWorldsMandala
What does this idea have to contribute to storyfield?
I have a few ideas, but it's getting late, and I need to sleep.
Very briefly, here are a few hunches:
* A legitimation argument for evolutionary spirituality.
There are sincere questions and doubts about the utility of embodying
Gaia in the imagination-- will it lead to anti-intellectual confusions,
envisioning that the Earth really does have a material (and perhaps
irrationally vengeful) spirit? Perhaps there is an argument that we
can responsibly personify, and perhaps there is an even further argument
that it makes far more sense for our lives to do so, than to not do so.
If that is true, though, a number of other personifications make sense,
and I think the conclusions are startling.
* The field of self-help, in Evolutionary Spirituality. The prior point was
about the universe and ecology. But there's also a self-help angle.
( http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/05/sonia-choquette-interview/ )
This sort of angle could conceivably be the "in" for many people, to
Evolutionary Spirituality. That said, you'd better make damn well sure
you've got a good argument, since you're talking about simultaneously
directing people to: (1) accept that these things are imaginary, not real,
and then (2) entrust their life to the imagination. You want to direct this
argument to both the scientifically illiterate, AND scientifically literate.
* ...
* ...
* (more, but my brain is freezing; it's too late now)
Thinking out loud,
Lion Kimbro {:)}=