Hi John, I revisited our session from…actually over three years ago (IC-Live: Clean Space Experiment with John Davis and MVM). I also listened to this recent session with Michael. There was a lot that came out in both sessions about the nature of the ‘integral structure’ of consciousness.
Although Gebser emphasizes time as key feature of the integral mutation, I think the exercises show how fundamental our embodied space is, as well. Where are you speaking from when you say that? Where is the center that holds all the structures (in dynamic unfolding)?
As a group, at the time, in 2017, we were reading Peter Sloterdijk’s Spheres—now we are focused (among other things) on the Consciously Evolving Language course with Lisa. I am glad we are still at it!
I think my session (which was one of our early ones) with you was like an awkward dance, which nonetheless went well enough. I was more self-conscious of the placement of my feet. I was playing along with the exercise (which seemed elementary to me), at the same time, hoping we would talk more, and more concretely, about those desired outcomes—which I could only articulate abstractly at the time. (Now they are more well-formed.) I may have been compensating for the shitshow debacle of the previous year (2016). I could see how you were helping me along, leading me into more of an embodied communication pattern.
We are in a trans-tragic phase of culture now. Only a god could save us now, but some of us are not looking to be saved by a god. Rather, we would save ourselves by giving ourselves to the future, giving ourselves to the Earth. We could call this salvation from below. You and we have done a lot of hard work creating conditions—building soil structure—in the meantime.
Regenerating the entwining of biological and spiritual culture is I think part of what Permaculture (who naming and identity I find unfortunate—since what about Impermanence? Immanence and transcendence?) is about. I would like to go back and revisit more of our pasts sessions (Cafés, readers and writers groups, et al) in the coming months and years. I think we may learn a lot by re-connecting with a living archive, which cosmically expands, deepens and refines itself over time.