Living in the Infosphere
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In the Introduction to Digital Dharma, I wrote:
An electronic web surrounds the planet. Our ideas travel instantaneously to all points of the globe on electromagnetic waves and pulses of light. In the last decade communications networks have advanced from wires to fiber optics, from interconnected radio and television grids to a world of billions of wirelessly communicating sensory devices -- each with its own address in cyberspace... the Infosphere is now a field that engulfs our physical, mental and etheric bodies; it affects our dreaming and our cultural life. Our evolving nervous system has been extended, as media sage Marshal McLuhan predicted in the early 1960's, into a global embrace.
My focus was on looking at our outer communications networks as metaphors for the inner communications challenges held for us at each of the body's chakra centers: to look at each media form that we are creating in silicon chips, RF spectrum, and fiberoptics, as reflecting a new turn on the spiral of consciousness. At the base, we have the emergence of differentiated self-awareness -- and the concerns for safety and identity -- represented by the on-off pulses of the electric telegraph and its successor technologies of wireless, "IM" and text messaging. The light and shadow of "relationship" was magnified by how we use the telephone, while radio amplified the "mental-egoic" realm of personal and state power -- in determining who gets to speak and who can only listen. Television, I wrote in an earlier RS post, gives us the opportunity of seeing the "threatening other" in compassion versus retreating into hard-heartedness, or in counter-response to the pain of recognition, emotional addiction, codependence and consumption.
Our new IP-based communications systems and forms -- the Internet, digital media, pervasive wireless networks and embedded communicating microprocessors -- are not only changing our ways of seeing the world, they have pushed us, like it or not, into a new psychic environment of [what Marc Pesce calls] hyper-connectivity. Our nervous system has not only been "outered" as McLuhan warned us, but it has been evolving into its next stage of development. Social networks, Twitters, geospatial mashups and reveal-all blogs, are the rehearsal halls in silicon and copper and light and magnetism, for the distributed human intelligence predicted by such sages as Teilhard de Chardin and Sri Aurobindo. In this new networked domain:
- All persons and objects have a voice
- All things can be found, and all that was hidden will be seen
- All are connected, at multiple levels of coded reality; and
- What is real depends on how we interpret or manipulate these codes.
Like any evolutionary stress, there is no guarantee that our species will emerge successful. Over-stimulated by our extended neurons, we can shut down or get lost in the sea of incoming data. With our psychic barriers down, we have been booted into what mystics have called the etheric realms: a domain of thought-forms, tricksters and jinns, angels and guides. Without proper tools and spiritual preparation, this place can be an endless hall of mirrors, trapping us in the morass of our electronically magnified addictions and fears. Pushed into the Infosphere -- all of our secrets revealed, our every thought accessible, connected to the planet's very intelligence -- we must draw upon the deep wisdom of the protector archetypes as we embark on our cyber-shamanic initiation: the Warrior (establishing boundaries, expressing power), the Lover (establishing clean connections, building online community), the Magician (able to discern shadow from light, create simulations and recognize the larger patterns), and the Elder/Crone/King (able to hold both virtual and concrete identities, able to not only see, but change the codes, and heal the web).
There are those that argue that our networks have so altered our consciousness that we have destroyed this plane of our karmic enfolding; that our attention has been so ripped from our self-control, that we can no longer imagine a world beyond iconic representation, and addictive consumption of manufactured stories. I don't challenge these warnings, but my spiritual path encourages looking the demons in the eye. I am willing to keep staring, knowing that the way to the light is often through the darkness. I want to hear from those who have lost countless hours and dollars in the dark alleys of internet porn, gaming, and inappropriate online relationships; and from those who just can't stop talking -- whether on the phone, at the computer, or bent over the keys of a PDA or cellphone. But, even more importantly, I want to open a dialog with those who are forging new social networks to care for the planet, their local communities, to celebrate joy or share their painful moments.
I propose that over the next two months I post a short essay on each of the following above topics and invite your responses and comments:
- 1. Boundaries and the Other: Who Am I, Where Am I? [How do we express the need for acknowledgement of self as expressed in Caller-ID, Texting and SMS, ringtones, and MySpace?]
- 2. Relationships and Nourishment: Negotiating Connection with Others [What is the quality of our connections to internet chats, internet sex and gambling, online support communities, etc.?]
- 3. Showing My Face(s): Finding My Voice, Expressing My Power [How do we express identity, from aliases and avatars, gaming behaviors, blogging identities, online political organizing?]
- 4. Building Community: Compassion versus Codependence, Who can visit My Space? [How do we define our "tribe" and its relations with the "others" online, via video journalism, social networks, and alternative worlds?]
- 5. Living in the Matrix: Confronting the Long Zoom to the Astral [How do we remain "authentic" when traversing Indra's Web - the world of videogames, Pervasive Computing and immersive data clouds?]
- 6. Capturing the Gift or Becoming the Demon: Can We Live in the Infosphere Without Abandoning the Embodied Ecosphere? [Is networked consciousness antithetical to living in the body in the here and now presence? Is Twitter a precursor to telepathy, or just global brain chatter? Can Flash Mobs and Meet-Ups bring us back to joyous appreciation of being on the planet together, or are they empty spectacle?]
It is my hope that the RS discussions will generate some good conversations about coping with the insatiable pull of mediated connectivity. Beyond this, we can share our esoteric tools and practices that will help heal the entire communications grid of the planet. And, should this discussion really take off, hopefully it may lead to a new book that will be a follow-up to my more-structured Digital Dharma. Are you willing to start the conversation?
Image by LightSpectral, courtesy of Creative Commons license.
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- 10-17-08
- Steven Vedro's blog
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This is a great idea. I
Agape
morphic resonance
magnetic shields
poles
Santa clause
sun - earth relationship
self
similar
activities
Night time
Caves
paint
you
motionship
fields of delay
rip across time
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emotion time
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rolling
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around the world
in a tea daze
a green tea daze
our ambition superfluous
to shuffle in a spire
which memory do i use?
off limit space shuttles
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magic memoric touch
space
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Watching eachother move
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Getting rid of the masks we wear....
From what i can gather so far this is going to be a search for truth of a different kind so i look forward and hope judgement does'nt creep in because it is thru fear of other peoples opinions that force people to don the masks,all we can do online(for as long as we have it)is communicate...looking forward Steven
Xanaduxero....do you wish people to comment on your identity?Is that what you seek...by the doing onto others line? Solas
you got it CJ....
i just asked a question regarding your post X and you responded as if it was a threat!!!You serve disparaging comments out and i think the whole intent of this particular article has touched a nerve with you(I'm only measuring this in the manner of your response)I think it is sad that posts have to degenerate to offensive responses,maybe its necessary sometimes,maybe i just dont get it....the truth has hit a nerve...
There has only been a few comments here and already the case study has begun....the power of language and words can free us or tie us up even further....whats it gonna be...lets wait and see...
beannacht X...(blessings in Gaelic)....
Solas...(light in Gaelic)
Words are symbols; only shards of light on our EM Spectrum.
Yes, we are energy bodies...
Moving towards telepathy?
Yes. I think that our technologies of connectivity are actually reflecting something going on in consciousness. Television was about the heart, our Internet practice is about the dropping of boundaries -- what happens when everyone can speak at us, how do we filter appropriately, what do we show of ourselves when there are no secrets?
The next steps are about seeing the codes that create beliefs, and cocreating thought together!
Yes. I've been having an
Yes. I've been having an increasing number of synchronicities as well. I've also had very interesting dreams in the pat couple of nights. Last night, it was about a pole shift that actually happened in my dream. This is the second dream I've had about this. The other night I was taught a song by a shaman while standing next to my father who was been dead for 9 years. I belive very much in telepathy (all of a sudden) as it has been occurring more frequently. I've been able to close my eyes and see my girlfriend at work or in bed or see my cat in my house. Pretty interesting stuff.
If you're jaded stay home because we're building it.
myspace.com/alanpatrick
True Psychic Energy Flows...
The Web of Iktomi
The Spider
I believe the Shamanic journey is a search for truth of who we are and want to be. It is a dream of unity on a worldwide scale for the common people. In this web we are all connected to is like the spider’s web – the way of the trickster. In the Lakota world the name given to him is Iktomi.
We have come to a time in humanity where the flow of ideas can reach all the way around the world with the click of a mouse. There is sort of a mystery or magic involved to it. You wish to see what change can come about because of your idea or belief or prediction that is given to the world. It is a source of personal power but how high or low can this electronic web of beliefs take us into a better world for all without action from those who are participating in it.
I believe, for those aspiring Shamans, it should be used and is used for sacred storytelling, even if in the truth of your own. You can move the wind with a dance. You can move a soul into proper course with a good story. But then it ends there because being a Shaman means hands on, it means looking into the other persons eyes, actually touching who they are, for their soul to carry on the rest of the way on the right path is much of the glance you give to them. I read dreams but I would not try to read someone’s dream without first knowing them. You have to have a relationship with the person before you can know their dreams, to know their powers, weather good or bad, because in the end thru you they somehow find their connection to who they are.
A few weeks back I had mentioned something to someone on the internet that had a Lakota friend, I had mentioned to for him to tell his Lakota friend what I felt especially about so many people, looking for the right road, not having any teachers to learn the practice of a Shamanic way of being. It is as if I was only learning my new way of being, my new sacredness, from my own personal conceptions of what life was throwing at me and how I was responding to it thru word, thought, and action.
Then before the full moon of October I was standing outside an auto garage. A man came out to smoke and we began small chatter. He was Lakota and he invited me to his sweat lodge. He told me to call him before the full moon. I departed our greeting with me giving him my Bear Claw necklace and he returned with a beautiful feather.
And on the evening of the full moon I went to his lodge with my son. It was October 14th, my father’s birthday, I had just met my grandson, Aeden, (means Little Fire), for the first time, in Chicago, the weekend before October 14th, here Aeden’s mother danced as we sang songs. And on the night of the full moon the Lakota explained the ceremony to me as rocks burned red on an dancing fire that the Spirits (Grandfathers) walk through.
I have a heart problem but I did not tell the Lakota about my heart problem as I was fearing he would not allow me in the sweat lodge, I made a small-talk lie that made him think everything was fine. During our discussion he even told me that he would do something that he doesn’t do, he told me that he would smoke the Chalupa with me. The Chalupa is the ceremonial pipe, it is the most sacred object that a Lakota holds, it is the symbol of the human being at the point of conception. The smoke that we took in and blew out from the Chalupa would rise to The Great Creator.
The men present at the sweat lodge undressed and went into the lodge. The rocks were brought into the lodge by a firekeeper and the Lakota then began the ceremony and we all prayed and sang songs together. When it came my time to pray my heart was racing and I was feeling much pain. The lie that I had given was told to the Lakota and terms forgiveness asked for. I then asked to be removed and my seat be given to my Son’s Grandfather to hear his prayer. I sat outside the sweat lodge dripping tears of remorse for much in my life. I heard my Son’s sacred prayer and felt more remorse. The forest became alive with the wild sounds of the animals. The Lakota then invited me back into the sweat lodge accepting me in my moment of sorrow. We all then gave thanks to The Great Spirit.
After departing the sweat lodge we then stood around the Sacred Dancing Fire. The Lakota lit the Chalupa. I took it in my hands and sucked in, thought of my prayer as a moment of loving the moment of my human connection to all that is alive and living, I hoped for my Son’s prayer to his Grandfather. I then passed the pipe to my son.
The next day, a woman that I had known was angry with me. It was an out of the blue anger that was false and untrue. But this woman came to my home when I was sleeping and threw a large painting of the colors of chakras I had painted for her in the back of my pick-up. She then threw logs from a tree that fallen from a wind storm in Cincinnati last month which tore thru the painting. I just had to shake my head wondering why she would do such a thing.
Then the mother of my son called me yesterday asking me to help her with her yard, I went and helped her. For if you hold the Chalupa you can not have any guilt or jealousy or anger within you. When I arrived at the yard we began burning leaves and branches from the yard until the night came and until there were no branches or leaves or logs to burn. I then walked up to my truck and grabbed the wooden logs that still sat there from the angry woman, and my son’s mother and myself both sat and talked good about our past and people we knew, we then sat silent looking into the warm fire as my son slept in the home close to us both.
The Lakota tells me he dances at the Alter of Iktomi. There’s something to it all. I believe that the Trickster trips you up to get you on the right path. To understand yourself in the human element of all that is living around you. If you are all talk or write and no action, if your sights are to high or low, if selfishness and jealousy or guilt or anger are overpowering you then you will find the trickster hard and often against you, and just the opposite is true too. For I had enough wood to burn all night long and I am able to tell the world about it. I am also able to show the world my daughter dancing… I call it the Little Fire Dance.
http://deanefamilyusa.proboards18.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=3302
There's always a balance, and you are in the center of it all.
Live it.
oh what a tangled web has been woven....
Another great story Peter,iktomi is indeed very powerful....and you know i kinda knew the trickster was among us,theres an ocean divide and we have a saying here....Gan Teanga,Gan Tir.....without language,without land,there is something missing...you know your Lakota,when it speaks thru lodges thru songs you know its power,we started singing Gaelic songs in our lodges and it opened us up more to great spirit...so what did i do with that powerful experience?I learned to be thankful for anything good or bad that came my way because it helped me find MY OWN WAY....a way that was not detrimental to others.....at least i tried to,consciously....thinking and talking bout all of this is one way...we don't have the power to validate our actions on these posts....but just to register them and trust,trust others in their honesty,and hope that the same is afforded back....
Maybe i'm living in lala land....but i have to say its peaceful here....not many crops grow in rage or defiance at nature,they need care,attention and intention,helping them along with the elements...
Reminded of another quote....".The center cannot hold,mere anarchy is loosed upon the world "...
Is the Trickster like Peyote medicine?holding up the mirrors.....?its always the distraction from the core to help us see the core for what it really is?...do i have that right Peter?
Solas
What rough beast today?
Was it Hitler or Crowley then?.....who is it today?......."between my finger and my thumb,the squat pen rests,snug as a gun"...powerful written words,widening gyres,everexpanding spirals....staircases leading to where.....
Solas
Crowley was put out ....
Natives
I never had a peyote and so I don't know about how it relates to the trickster.
You wrote,"Its always the distraction from the core to help us see the core for what it really is? Do I have that right Peter?"
I kept on writting tonight and then erasing... trying to find a right answer to give. I thought of the eleven crows I saw today. I thought of the pigons. I thought of the hawk lost in the sun. I thought of the morning dove. I thought of my son. I thought of my ex-wife. I thought of my lost religion. I thought of vikings and serpents and 666. I thought of Buddha. I thought of that cigerette that I need to stop smoking. I thought of silence. I thought of Kokopelli and Christ. I thought of my daughter. I thought of my hair. I thought of my money. I thought of an old lover. I thought of the Sea Serpent. I thought of the Lokota. I thought of a Celtic song. I thought of my Grandma Lynch. I thought of my car needing a tuneup. I thought of Obama. I thought of McCain. I thought of the stock market going down the drain. I thought of my childhood and my cousin Ed. I thought of a good answer coming from my heart and head... I thought of a story to give. A song about dreams withering and dying. I thought and thought and thought and wrote only to quickly erase it again and again.
You know Birdie... the answer to your question was only to be a simple yes. Its always the distraction from the core to help us see the core for what it really is.
A song for you and that Lakota that had brought me into the lodge...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMM6exAPdME&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdkrxLtj1kk&NR=1
There might be two but you can always put them together to make one song... the first was written by an Irishman and the second by a Lakota.
We're all natives...
Its good to know where you're from in order to know yourself..Christy is great...i gotta learn how to do all this linkage and pastage stuff...its all aesthetics but they are tools after all...
Hooooooooo
Solas
xanaduxero, your words have the power to confuse as well.
Television and the Heart
the spirit is the bone
thanks for the zizek, JP
the thing i love most about him is that one can only understand about 1/3 of what he is saying and still get it.
which is precisely his point.
you might like this essay as well:
http://www.lacan.com/zizwhiteriot.html
in the intro, he quotes terry eagleton:
"There is a paradox in the idea of transformation. If a transformation is deep-seated enough, it might also transform the very criteria by which we could identify it, thus making it unintelligible to us. But if it is intelligible, it might be because the transformation was not radical enough. If we can talk about the change then it is not full-blooded enough; but if it is full-blooded enough, it threatens to fall outside our comprehension. Change must presuppose continuity - a subject to whom the alteration occurs - if we are not to be left merely with two incommensurable states; but how can such continuity be compatible with revolutionary upheaval?"
to which i wonder why we do we continue to obssess over the criteria of how the transformation will occur rather than simply allowing the transformation to happen in and of its own accord and via the channels of its own making.
is it that we secretly wish for transformation in name only and in our fear of transformation, attempt to define that transformation so as to prevent true transformation from actually occurring?
examples of this question are abundant in our current events and the reactions of most people to such events, even those of us who claim to be supportive of 'transformation'.
i/o/w if we were to encounter a transformation on the road, who among us would be ready to kill it, even if in killing it would 'will the transformation'?
p.s. please do not imply this as a veiled provocation toward any particular individuals any more than it is towards the person who has written these words you read.
Comments Guidelines
Hi CJ,
That's all good and fine but as a web magazine we do have some guidelines that we ask all participants to adhere to. They are pretty standard for sites across the web. If you can't play by a few of these simple guidelines, our community has asked that we moderate the comments more diligently. "Stay on topic" and "Be Civil" are a couple ones you might like to be more aware of you'd like to continue participating in the site.
Be Civil: Please respond respectfully to all participants on the site. Of course, you're welcome to disagree and debate people's ideas; we just ask that you do so with general common courtesy. Personal attacks aren't helpful to anyone.
Stay on Topic: Rambling essays or poems about your dog's vegan eating habits should wait until we run a story about dogs, vegans, and/or eating habits. Also, please refrain from putting up irrelevant public gestures or extraneous "comments graffiti."
Keep it Clean: Try and stay clear of swearing. There are other interesting ways of expressing your thoughts and we also want the kiddies to be able to check out the site if they like.
As one of those "folks that wrote a book..."
I don't want to get caught in the morass of defining the "rules" for this site. My only request is that anyone's responses to my posts have at least a little to do with the topic. I think that folks responding about the nature of internet chat and forums meets this desire. I would ask that you and anyone responding think about the core metaphors I suggested in my "trigger post" -- how do these new technologies of instant communications affect our sense of self, our ability to try on different ego states, our need to project power and be heard, how we negotiate emotional boundaries from a place of compassion versus codependence, how our sense of incarnation has changed as we connect with the global intelligence -- and the divine beyond that.
Hugs
spinning straw[berry fields] into gold[en rules & calves]
Buddha: Events happen, deeds are done, but there is no individual doer thereof.
Gurdjieff: Everything just happens.
bobbinghead: Okay, so I was sitting in Baltimore a few hours ago, reading on ESPN.com about the game in Berlin while I was half-watching a celebration in Italy on TV while I was on the phone with my mom who was in an Italian neighborhood in Toronto (I could hear the crazy celebration of honking horns & screams through the phone while my mom was describing the crazy party that she was watching). I suddenly asked myself, "Where am I?" One second I was in Berlin, the next second I was in Toronto, then I was in Italy, then I was sitting in my apartment. I was all over the place."
BOB: As you ricochet amid the effects of the present environment(s)/body(ies), a stabilizing pattern one can remember mentally for ballast is the fact that the fluid shifts are ENHANCED temporarily, OBSOLESCED pretty quickly, RETRIEVED later, and always FLIP INTO their opposites or even stranger pools at some point. This pattern is McLuhan's tetrad. Psychologically (or personally) applied, I term it "conscious quadrophrenia" - an excuse for presenting a sane mask/mnemonic.
James Joyce: Yes, the viability of vicinals if invisible is invincible.
bobbinghead: You're "in the interval between" them & "in touch with all of them." So I'm thinking that "conscious quadrophenia" means that you should put on different costumes & assume different roles & enter different environments but not identify with any of them (so that you don't get caught in any "single-minded obsessions"). Try, like Rumplestiltskin, to keep people from knowing your "name" (your true/complete identity) because, if they discover your name, you're instantly defined by (confined to) a single quadrant & you fall under the spell of all its limitations (the "trivial manipulations of contents").
If you keep your identity fluid, by never identifying with whichever costume/body/environment/quadrant you're putting on at the moment, you can be virtually whoever, whenever, wherever, however you want. "HERE COMES EVERYBODY."
If you keep your head bobbing at all times, no one ever gets a good look at your face, right?
Wyndham Lewis: Cherish and develop, side by side, your six most constant indications of different personalities. You will then acquire the potentiality of six men. Leave your front door one day as B; the next march down the street as E. A variety of clothes, hats especially, are of help in this wider dramatization of yourself. Never fall into the vulgarity of being or assuming yourself to be one ego. Each trench must have another one behind it. Each single self — that you manage to be at any given time — must have five at least indifferent to it. You must have a power of indifference of five to one. All the greatest actions in the world have been five parts out of six impersonal in the impulse of their origin. To follow this principle you need only cultivate your memory. You will avoid being the blind man of any moment. B will see what is hidden to D. =(Who were Turgenev's ''Six Unknown''? Himself.)
James Joyce: Children may as well play as not. The ogre comes in any case.
Sonja Thelma Ficta: My name's also a reference to the 3 Qabalistic/Masonic Pillars. Sonja = wisdom to contrive; Thelma = strength to support; Ficta = beauty to adorn. I'm three in one that's but one of many. & of course my name is also an anagram. Keep your head bobbing.
Gurdjieff: Holy-Affirming, Holy-Denying, Holy-Reconciling, Transubstantiate in me, For my Being.
"To-day do I bake, to-morrow I brew,
The day after that the queen's child comes in;
And oh! I am glad that nobody knew
That the name I am called is Rumpelstiltskin!"
straw man in the son
Is it light that burns, or Luminol? As i pondered these words i succumbed to the catacombs of memory from being in the basement all night fixing this plumbing that's been going on since the flashlight broke.
I take this flashlight to be the black magic of protective archetypes i've felt around this site. I'm a jerk if I can believe in(i thought it was finny funny how everything i decided that whatever ways i chain this moment to the next i'd always have the flowers small echoes of sun. that's my past.
I just wonder how you relate to it and what happens in my head if you were wrong. i've been thinking we're so absorbed in this self that we play roles of Absentee-ballots that we dissiapte psychich barriers and we're all tunnels and scraping along the sky. Barrier? Tommy just set a magazine infront of my that says:
Wave good bye to
remote controls? this sensitivity helps calculate the difference between dark matter and dark energy, the tv says behind me, the big bang. In essence, i've been integrating the fate of the universe into a crumpled paper probe pulling away the light it is collecting planets.
So this being is a way to relate to the aliens, as we step through them, it takes 2.3 million years back in time. The stars are so far away they might not even be there anymore. These become more easily predicted thanks to the Double-You map. a big chill, a big rip. a factor 2 to one there's more dark energy than dark matter. Universe was a pleasant song that cooled me entire body. (through the evolution of names and branded psychosis)
Oliver i would'nt worry about it....
She likes to bait people,if in fact, she is a she,if thats even her face...i dunno....some people use this platform as a launchpad for their own hot air but others just like to...... share...
Steven, you have a lot of info here on cyber behaviour,self endorsing techniques and how there are no boundaries for some people....
Theres a bigger picture here....some of us are doing it,some of us have to write about it and then there are others who just.....have their own issues.... Solas
boundaries
The work of the first chakra -- or stage of emotional development -- is to know that one "is here." A sense of self -- HeNeiNe in Hebrew (I am Here). Without, one has little control over the other communications centers -- relationships are emeshed, the voice has no control, thoughts run amok!
As we connect on the web, learning to filter the incoming stream of thought becomes more important than "grabbing the microphone." In the old days (3rd level consciousness) the King/Pope/Boss/Editor had this control, then we moved to firewalls and filters on the individual level (I protect myself), now our work as a community is to create P2P evaluation processes that grant our attention to those we respect. I am interested in seeing how this might be accomplished on a site that honors "self-expression" such as RS!
the metasexual agenda
its fascinating to me how the comment section is a microcosm of the article it responds to... or rather illustrates the interactivity and tensions between the topics he poses. the archetypes all gathered around the table: the countless lovers enriching this discussion and community through their articles and feedback; the warriors ever-controversial in their theories and practices, challenging both the written ideas on this site and the unwritten rules which govern it; the elders trying to navigate the grey area between the two; the magicians who attempt to translate this virtual dance into a new poetry.
the epic battle of the internet is not between good and evil but rather the morally-neutral axes of anarchy and organization. the internet has revolutionized our ability to communicate and freely express ourselves. empowered with new tools for self-expression, we are encouraged to turn both inward and outward - inward to create the content of our expressions and outward to share them with others. at the same time, our ability to share and communicate with others is contingent upon various forms of (hierarchical and nonhierarchical) organization; if we had no shared understandings or common language (in the broader sense of the term), we would never be able to find one another. we can never escape our reliance on codes of one form or another. and our experiences as social beings have taught us that organization is a powerful means by which to translate our free expressions into action.
these fundamental assumptions constitute the hidden core of contemporary debate about the internet. enthusiasts believe that increased access to the means (and ends) of the production of expression (which is, in a way, the means of the production of meaning) provides an answer to censorship and will usher in the information revolution/age of interactivity/era of global community/dynasty of creativity/etc. its critics fear that the internets horizontal and ultimately unregulatable structure - the same quality which makes it so liberatory - will culminate in an unnavigable mess of idea fragments/spambots/mundane blog posts about how durrnk u got 2nite omg/outrageously false accusations.
the reality probably lies somewhere in the middle, which is why steven is right that we must draw on all of these archetypes. we need lovers to establish communities based on our shared understandings just as much as we need warriors to illuminate tensions and encourage critical debate. there is no right or wrong way to run an online forum, and the variability in human thought as well as the fluid nature of the internet guarantees that rules can be nothing more than ongoing discussions. yet these discussions are vital to the continued existence of the internet; they are what keep it from falling too far into either end of the spectrum mentioned above. the internet, like other pneumatic structures (think geodesic domes), sustains its shape by distributing its tensions equally across its surface; otherwise it would collapse in on itself. everything is balanced, but nothing is static. therefore balance does not exist in opposition to struggle; it IS struggle.
the question i have for steven, a question which i see reflected in the comment shenanigans, is: how will these archetypes hold up to the fluidity of the ever-evolving netscape? if we are free to choose how to express our identity, how can we identify authenticity in our virtual interactions with others? how are we to distinguish between a trickster and a troll? how can we reconcile our inability to accurately judge the intents of others with our need to establish common values for productive discussions? where does creative expression end and textual masturbation begin - especially when what one mind reads as a nonsensical ejaculation holds profound meaning for another? how much organization do we need to translate our virtual anarchic expressions into real-world action?
...how will these archetypes hold up?
Good questions Renee. This is indeed what I am pondering. I think too much of the discussion has come from the wounded Lover and Warrior archetypes. The web, as a collection of "small networks," needs Witches/Shamans/Magicians and Elders/Crones as well.
The first can see the "big picture" -- the patterns of our interactions themselves, helping us do the "long zoo" thing and get some perspective about our ego attachment to being "seen" as we think we should be. This is the work of meditation and spiritual growth, of connecting to something bigger.
The second archetype is one of blessing.
Cheers Again!!!
We talked about everything and just spoke about that evening before. Sometimes things just misunderstood and being human, well, that’s understood. Sometimes we just need to do what we have to do. Love is sometimes just trying to make it all work right.
To those who aspire to be Shamans!!! I met a Lakota Dancer but I bet you he is a Medicine Man. There is a difference between Medicine Men and Shamans… they each play a part in your development as a human being, yes agreed, but one is a really good dancer and the other gives it his best try for all the rest. But the biggest thing they have in common is that we can find both of these types in every culture and throughout the history of humanity… their prayers are always heard thru the Great Spirit of Life. Sometimes it’s only a birdie that answers back but they hear the Great Spirit answering.
To those many Tricksters!!! He go ahead and throw the wood in my truck, try to get me angry with rage, try to get me to see me for who I am. Sometimes the best answer is laughing over an early turkey diner. The truth is always found in retelling the story on how it ended. Cheers!
To Wounded Lovers!!! Sometimes silence and just getting along is the best answer. I’m still here so I really can’t say to much. But I’d take them all back if I could!!! Let me start with that little girl in the fifth grade. Man we broke up after going out for ten months. I asked her if she would kiss me one night and she broke up with me!!!!! I cried for days. Man, my heart is still broken. And hey, I’d take all my lovers back since then and I’d even take back that girl that didn’t except my first kiss. I love all my lovers, past-present-future, still!
To Wicked Witch XX of the Far-Out West!!! O well, I’m sure I had you before somewhere in the past too. I guess I’d take you back to. Just be nice this time… and if I ask for a kiss… don’t refuse me this time like a little girl once did to me a long time ago. I still think you’re cute, and you in return, you should just think that of everyone else. Agreed? I hope so. It just makes people feel better of themselves.
To Psychedelic Poet Laureate Magician!!! Keep writing! Here’s one fore you…
three J's in a row that's
J am J oy an J sus
or three fishhooks
or three of Dempsy’s half swings
J is for Juxtapose
J erry
J o J o
J umprope
(Something Dempsy did a lot)
J ustify
J uniper
J aw
J ingle
Janet
Jackson
Robert J ohnson singin like an angel
J unky or Bukowski
J upiter
j inx
j elly bean
j enny
j ail
j apenese beetle
Lyndon J Johnson
That's should be a B
To Occasional Crones!!! There’s nothing wrong with old ladies!!! That’s what it says in the American Heritage Dictionary. Nope, there’s nothing wrong with the crones in my book. I guess we need to group them into our elders.
To the Elders!!!
May they show us all well and always towards a new day. May freedom, wisdom, and common sense be their tools that led us to a better way of being… Peace!!!!!
To the Common People of the World and the Leaders of Every Nation!!! United The Common People Will All Stand… Divided We All Fall. What are you doing for The Seventh Generation yet to come? May the Great Spirit guide you to understanding and hope and peace to you too!!!!
Cheers again!
Self-Organizing
We need to pray.
If we take inventory and find that we don't have the strength to "get off our butts," we need to pray.
Recite this oath: "I vow to spend no more than an hour reading and writing on the Internet. If I don't have the strength to do this, I vow to pray for the strength."
Recite it out loud, with your mouth and tongue and all of your heart-- it'll help break the virtual-material barrier.
So easy! Such a simple thing to do! We'll be off and away in no time!
Reporting Comments
It's interesting to see how Steven's article seemed to manifest issues we are working with on the site right now. Creating "boundaries" is important when engaging online, and for the spiritual path in general (just ask your local energy healer, yogi, etc). We have some boundaries on this site and we ask all of you out there to help us hold them within the comments section. This is such a vital life-force for our community but we see how negative personal attacks drag the conversations into spaces that aren't helpful or transformative for anyone.
If you see a comment that is a personal attack, please flag the comment with the "report this" button and let the RS Moderators take care of it from there. The sooner we learn about these types of comments, the sooner we can free them from the site and continue our discussions about the actual articles and topics at hand.
Chevy Van
From my nephew Mike and Jim and my brother Mark made this vid a couple years back...
Lighten up everyone!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qmTQo9Pp9I
Everytime I watch it I laugh my ass off.
Erleichda
missed the point again.
I read olive's post, and yours (in full)
I don't want to lecture you about love or anything else, I just want you to stop using the comment space as your personal space for whatever you want to write, especially if what you want to write is a big long paragraph about years ago on another chat board. Stick to the content and we won't end up in this situation.
I don't pretend to know anything, you said "the thing is..." more than once in your prolonged post about irrelevant, chat networks. I don't know "the thing" YOU pretend to know, sir.
Jennifer,
That stuff on transference - to the Chorus in a tragedy or to hired weepers or to a laugh track - was interesting.
Laughter is laughter, even if it's canned. A stone is a stone, right?
But is a stone from the wall of a church the same as a stone from the wall of a prison?
Thanks for the link.
Reality is whatever you can get away with.
"EVERYTHING'S NEGOTIABLE."
- Francis Buxton's father
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Right move
I believe its time to call it like it is
Credit and Trust
Of course the credit markets are blocked. No trust. Too many lies. Fourth-level work opened the heart to the world, but all we found was suffering. Without the grounding in compassionate spiritual practice, the open heart cries out for a pain-killer -- drugs, entertainment, consumption -- all fueled by credit. "Give me now, I'll pay you tomorrow."
Internet consciousness -- I'll show you mine, if you show me your's --puts "transparency" back into the mix. Thus, the collapse.
cash injection junkies!
It's about Talk, not Cyber-Space.
No, no-- that's not right:
We're discussing the incompetence of talk, in talk.
Ever been in a meeting, and heard people say, "Stop talking!-- now is time for action!" ..?
Fortunately, they had the wisdom to not think that the existence of talking itself was the problem-- you would agree?
People aren't attracted to the Internet because of gadgetry; If anything, they are frustrated with knobs and dials and buttons and accounts and clicks.
People are attracted to the Internet because they can talk with other people over it, who are interested in similar discussion; Not because the ads make the people do it.
now its time for ACTION!
Machines versus Self-Discovery
Yes, all of these technologies are extensions of the nervous system (McLuhan called it "outering"), and for most of us, our nervous system supports the ego (pain body) need for safety in stuff. However, with the shift of consciousness into fifth-level work (networks, connectivity, holism), it is no surprise that the dominant technology metaphor is the Internet. In the end, the net is only a metaphor for the work of human development. it is the place where we can practice in photons and electrons, what we really want to do at the soul level: build communities of trust and balance.
Television reflected the work of opening the heart to the "other." The 'net is about connectivity, boundaries and contagion with the others' memes.
machines
thank you for your comment steven,
What I wonder is if that practice in "photons and electrons" will be necessary, when we can in fact honestly carry out what we really want to do at soul-level, in our waking-dream. In a trust-balance based community, similar discussion and practice of any type, would be readily available due to the open-mindedness of the people living in that community and the shared-identity that they hold. At that point would our web-connection be worth it's mere reflection of our daily practices? And if so, is the web the best medium? Dreaming could be a way for us to connect in the future, as well as telepathy.
As you say: "The 'net is about connectivity, boundaries and contagion with the others' memes."
And for now, it serves it's purpose, however; I firmly believe everything one ever needs can be found within.
Yes, In a trust-based community...
The Headless Dove
Closing this thread -- new essay next week
Don't tread on us
My journey as a warrior was short lived but it ended in freedom. The warrior seems to make everything right again. Sometimes it may take years and other times months, days, hours, or maybe even minutes but the warrior does know how to cut clean when needed but he also knows how to hang on for protection. The warrior’s finest gift given or taken is laughter.
The good warrior needs to be there when called. The needs of the whole far surpass the needs of only a warrior’s. A true warrior is usually light in anger. The only time you may see a warrior upset is when backs are turned on those in need that the warrior calls their own, another time may be when the warrior is fighting for a truth that needs to be known to all. A warrior will call all types to witness injustice done to the most vulnerable. The warrior will hang onto the end until all begin to see, heal, and teach correctly the right way of relationship, in truth, with each other. A warrior doesn’t want the drama but the warrior will poke back when provoked. And watch out because a warrior’s pokes my be so subtle that they go unnoticed to all but the warrior
Do well on the warrior series, sir. I hope that you will try to answer why the warrior’s greatest instrument or tool is the rattle. I believe, correct me if you must, that the first tool of a warrior, the first tool that was ever used by a warrior was an old gourd found in a field. The warrior’s first shake -- besides being cold -- was that of a found rattling gourd shaking in the warrior’s hand, it made the warrior smile and even made her baby calm in a time of warning. And the warrior was happy.
O and I would like to know if CJ is correct in saying the warrior is outside all… or something like that. You know I believe my next shield will be that of a rattlesnake on it.
But it will say...
Don't Tread On Us
Wishing you well in your essays.
To The Thugs...
Take notice on the harm you have caused us all!!!!
Did you know that the Federal Reserve was set up in 1913?
This song was also written about that year...
Why are the bankers of the world the supporters of our biggest thugs?
How many of our sons and daughters will your next wars kill?
People in debt is always slavery...
Why do you hold the door on us and all others as the world is starving for the right answer to freedom?
Remember that the oppisite of warrior is thug.
And in the end it's not all about the money and it does matter who you are... Be a warrior for the right thing to do... freedom. I heard a song that reminds me of the day The Federal Reserve was born... 1913.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz7oguguIZE
"Take notice," is always the first cry of a good warrior.
Take notice!!!!!
To The Warriors:
Take Notice!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9dnKUfvmwE
Be.
P.S. To Us All... Cheers!!!