Friday, October 28, 2016

The Dark High Road. Approximating Time Travel

Identify the current scenario you are faced with. Identify the key events, realizations, and stages of personal growth (positive or negative) that stacked up and brought you to where you are now.
Now identify where you want to be now; the circumstances or scenarios you want to be experiencing now. Identify what key events, realizations, and stages of growth that would had to have occurred to get you to where you want to be in the present.
Once you identify to those things that would had to have happened, go do those things. Or do the closest approximation to them that you can achieve. Understand what it is about those could have beens that would let you move forward, then do something that achieves the same end. Practice, live your alternate history.
To compliment this, practice neutrality. Identify actions, people, conversations, places, that help you ease out of a polarized state and enter a state of neutrality. Search for places untouched by humans, the places where no one goes. Inhabit the ideas that no one inhabits. Do things that no one else does. By aligning to these untouched things, you carve out a unique niche that is completely your own and belongs to no one else. This will give you a sense of freedom to move when you have become stuck, caught up in the complications of others.



Sorting Maze

Create a kind of maze within a building  or an outdoor area. Create signs saying that people who meet certain conditions should go this way, and people that meet other conditions should go another way. Similarly there are certain doors you can only pass through, rooms you can only enter, it you meet the condition. Conditions include things like what  mood you're in, a problem you're faced with, or something you may be currently wishing for. These range from broad to specific. Come up conditions that are engaging and interesting. They should prompt the person to focus on their current state  of being or mode of response in an enlightening way. The locations these paths lead you through should likewise be interesting and reflective of the theme of the signs. Throughout the maze there are checkpoints which are small group activities for people who ended up in the same area. Be creative with this idea of the sorting maze. Feel free to incorporate any mechanisms or games that you think of.






Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Music Markets

A market where musicians set up and give performances in exchange for goods that visitors to the market bring. Visitors to the market bring gifts they wish to give away to performers that move them the most. Each "sound booth" at the market features a different performing group, but instruments such as pianos or drums may be shared among them. Additionally, the performers are separated appropriately to preserve sound.  Artists may be there on their own or representing a group, such as a charity, who they will give the gifts they receive to. The artists may request a specific type of gift. Sometimes items of value are auctioned off in exchange for musical performances, with the goods going to the winner of the competition.




Astronomy Cakes

During significant astronomical events such a alignments of planets, eclipses, meteor showers, distinguished full moons, etc. identify what the underlying symbolism of that event is. How does it correspond to what is happening to you now at this point on your life path? Mediate on its core essence, or the core essence of the experiences you are having during its occurrence.
Having done that, create a cake that embodies that core essence. Choose ingredients and flavors that are reflective of that essence. Decorate the cake with symbols or pictures that embody the theme. Make it a true work of art. Give these cakes away to friends who you feel close ties to during the specific time of that astronomical event. You can bake a selection of smaller cakes and give them out to people. You can't eat a cake that you baked, they are only to be given away as gifts. But you can eat the cakes that you receive.



Tower of Babel

Investigate and identify your definitions of love. What actions and behaviors is it constituted of? What things are required in order to give and receive love? These are your love languages. Try to narrow each one down to a single keyword such as "appreciation," "compassion," or "forgiveness," but also incorporate specific actions and behaviors that have the same level of  potency as the broader terms.  

Explore definitions and beliefs you may have about giving and receiving that may not serve you, or are contradictory in some way. Look at the people who influenced you in your life like parents and friends. See how their beliefs may have become ingrained into your perceptions. Not only will you identify your love languages, but you will trace them back to their origin.
Next, once you have decoded your ideas about love, explore how these ideas might be passed on through teaching. Think about sequential states and stages one might go through in the process of learning. What are the key pitfalls and obstacles?

In same way, investigate your concepts of heaven and perfection. Identify a series of key ideas that that are essential to heaven or a state of perfection. What is required to enter those states of being? What do you have to put in to receive back a balanced world? Sift through any negativity or contradictions. Assign keywords and symbols. Then think about how to teach these ideas. 

Design a fictional school where the love languages and heaven languages are taught. Create the structure of this organization. Who are its members?  Design a building that would serve these purposes.  













The Night Archive

Search for and curate a collection of things you encounter in your world that are bold and exist in contrast to the status quo. This may include a range of things that may hold relevance to current affairs, or things that are just strange or even disturbing. Focus on ideas, beliefs, behaviors, research findings, or stories and art.  Openly search for and state the truths we are not ready to face but will likely be required to in the future. A group of people will gather to share such things before entering them into an archive, which can be a notebook or some other invention of their making. These sessions are held only at night and are the equivalent of ghost stories around a camp fire, but with a twist. Choose an atmospheric nighttime setting; a place of expansive grandeur, or a dark room lit by candle light.


Managing Resources

    Discuss a scenario in which you collect a tax from those in your community, your state, or  your country. They are giving you their money for you to spend in a way that will benefit the community in the most potent and efficient way. Or in a different scenario, say that everyone in the community stops what they were doing for one full week, and you are given the opportunity to organize everyone's efforts to work on projects or participate in activities. How would you use that one week?  

     This can be tackled from a variety of angles such as, how can I manage these resources in a way that will dissolve limitations and bring people together? Or how can generate the most joy? It does not have to be serious, just establish a clear objective. You can even flip it and say your intention is spend their resources to impact the community in the most negative way possible.
But let's say were doing this from a positive angle, how would you approach the task of figuring out what course of action is the smartest for your people? What existing social institutions would you work with? Everyone participating in this discussion gives their accounts of what they would do, which can shed light on how they see the society is structured and what the biggest priorities (and polarities) are.  Have these conversations in the presence of a pristine body of water to symbolize clarity, simplicity, reflection, and the sustaining of life.

      Now, those who participated in this discussion participate in another activity where they literally give a small amount of money to one person to spend for their benefit. That person will take that money and buy gifts for each person individually, or for multiple people or the whole group, that will benefit them in the most potent way. Each person takes a turn in this role. You can divide people into smaller groups if needed. When this is achieved return to your clear body of water and present them with your gifts.  You can also go through the scenario where everyone in the group takes turns participating in some kind of organized effort or activity under the direction of one person over the course of a given period of time. When this is done, return to the clear water to discuss the results and experiences you had.






Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Giving a Face to Demons and Angels

Find the places where your vision is clearest; that feeling you get when you are standing at the top of a mountain, or in a place of untouchable stillness and peace. Seek out the places, the environments, that give you a sense of being reset. Identify the places in your life that are places of clarity and timelessness. Share these locations with others who you think may benefit from them.

While in one of these places, allow the ghosts of you, the negative self images of yourself that have been suppressed to come out and exist separately from you. Create portraits of them, written descriptions, theatrical imitations, or any kind of a representation that allows you to view them as being separate from who you really are. At the same time, create portraits of the positive self images that you have suppressed. Again, display them in a way that allows you to see them objectively, as being separate from who you really are. Allow these angels and demons their autonomy: the freedom to leave you and exist in their own worlds.





Memorial Walls

A place such as a garden or wall where you leave behind anonymous notes describing things you are leaving behind. Explain the old ideas, beliefs, behaviors, or practices that you have realized are being phased out of your experience. Also explain what you intend to replace the old patterns with. The notes can consist of single words, or highlight keywords that resonate most with the concept of the transition. Similar to a prayer wall, seeing these notes allows visitors to gauge what concepts regarding change are active within their community. This provides and opportunity for you to contemplate these intentions and consider what you want to give your support to.

In these memorial grounds you can leave any kind of mementos. You can leave such things as flowers, objects with sentimental value, or works of art (notes that are just drawings) that reinforce the idea of the change you are experiencing.