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We need to step out of the infrastructure as it is. Our routines, ways of thinking, patterns, are killing us and the planet. We need to break out of the status quo, quickly.
In recent days I've had some catalyzing convos and now have yet another way to accelerate this process. https://twitter.com/tropical_toxic/status/1385704623827308551
In recent days I've had some catalyzing convos and now have yet another way to accelerate this process. https://twitter.com/tropical_toxic/status/1385704623827308551
When I saw the image above yesterday I almost began to cry. All of us have endured many years of community deprivation, loneliness, and last year was the most intense yet. We all want to crawl out of our screens and toward one another. But where to even start?
I think the answer might be in the model of psychedelics research, which has been showing promising signs of helping with many of the disorders of our lonely society: anxiety, depression, PTSD.
The way many researchers think this works is that drugs can disrupt mental patterns. The graph on the left shows our normal neural connections, a few set nodes talk to themselves. On the right, thousands of diverse connections between parts of the brain that almost never talk.
I've often thought an annual dose of LSD could be helpful to shake up normal ways of thinking. You go from your normal thought-loops "gotta get to work, I'm running late, my to do list is crushing" to "I can take a moment with my kids, don't the clouds look nice today?" etc.
But it also feels like not enough. The daily life we return to after a journey in our heads brings us back to the infrastructure that gives us anxiety, depression. So, how do we change that infrastructure itself to be more beautiful, diverse, connected, meaningful?
I've also been advocating for community building through shared projects of creation. That is, creative and meaningful work as the basis for community. https://twitter.com/RizomaSchool/status/1385638101075349507
One way to accelerate this process is to have a kind of macrodose of human connection, via a retreat where people are asked to focus on a specific project together. The new setting, the new people, the project, all allow connections you could never make via your set routines.
In this scenario the human connection is the drug forcing diverse neural pathways and neurogenesis. But instead of it being this thing that happened in your head, it's something that happened in the world and the result of the experience is relationships!
After the macrodose/retreat/neurogenesis people all go back to their lives, BUT you have a built in microdose that reminds you of the experience and the creativity you had there, and that is continued connection in relationships.
One way to think about this model is a film set. A bunch of people who want to make something come together for a time. They connect and create. It's not all perfect, but the director and actors and relationships all kind of make a culture. Then it's over and they disband.
And with these kinds of creative acts, you don't really know what's going to happen until you do them. Just like a drug trip. The only way to the other side is through.
So I am scheming now about how I will make this happen for myself and my own projects and people.
So I am scheming now about how I will make this happen for myself and my own projects and people.
And, yes, working out the logistics is going to be hard. Welcome to the world of constraint that sets parameters for all creativity. We are in a world where we have to navigate risk and challenges and push through anyways. There is no other choice but to push through!
But if you do push through, and do something weird that shakes up your life, the potential positives are absolutely unbelievable.
What if that project and culture is the substrate for the next little world in which you live the rest of your life?
What if that project and culture is the substrate for the next little world in which you live the rest of your life?
I keep thinking of a model like cafes in 1890s Vienna. You have these artists and they get together drinking coffee and arguing and sharing their work and it's the time they spent together that made their work better than it would have been if they wrote alone.
And @myceliummage told me this story about Bell Labs. In his retelling there was some study done to figure out what did all the Nobel winners from Bell have in common? They all had lunch with the one guy who connected and accelerated their ideas.
There are tons of historical models for such activities, but now we have even more ability to find each other to collaborate asynchronously. But the vision here is necessarily *some* in-person experiences as the missing accelerant.
I invite you to start scheming and collaborating on potential projects and experiences, thereby building community. I know it's scary to step out of the zoom screen, but if you don't step out how will you ever know what's on the other side?
Any and all of the above. Build community near and far. For projects, festivals, art, apprenticeships, fairs, retreats
https://twitter.com/LadiJadi1/status/1386381944502509574?s=19
https://twitter.com/LadiJadi1/status/1386381944502509574?s=19
We can't go back but we can model from the past. Now is the time to set tradition
https://twitter.com/LadiJadi1/status/1386384305824358411?s=19
https://twitter.com/LadiJadi1/status/1386384305824358411?s=19
This is going to happen even if it's just a few of us stumbling around in the newness of it for a long weekend https://twitter.com/AnarContrarian/status/1386391634640703489?s=19
More good ideas https://twitter.com/gorenflo/status/1386400587021897728?s=19
