"Church of Facebook" & Cinemorphics

This view of the increasingly pervasive use of social media in identity shaping has important implications for possible uses of Cinemorphics.

From Fraser Hamilton...
Is Facebook the new religion?
in Interaction design

Today I listened to an interesting interview with AS Byatt, the Booker Prize-winning author.
She suggested that social networks, formed and nurtured in applications such as Facebook and Twitter are replacing religion as way of identifying ourselves. Facebook is being used as a mirror.

In generations past, religions were defined people and societies: what is acceptable, what the social norms are, how to behave, and so on. However, with the demise of religion (at least in the west), we’re now looking at reality as it really is. We’re left to work out how to say who we are.

While the broadcast media – press, TV, radio – help us define ourselves, increasingly social media such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs let us work out who we are. We ask ourselves “How do I differ from this person?”, “Is this something I would do?”, and so on.

With religion playing less and less of a role in our lives, we are coming to learn that you only exist if you tell people you are there.

Psychology Today Article & Cinemorphics

Here's an article that obviously can be read from the POV of Cinemorphics:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201404/reinvent-yourself

The article discusses WHAT to do to reinvent yourself, but comes up short in the "how to do it" department...i.e....the METHOD.

Cinemorphics adds the Method to the madness of re-creating your self.

Cinemorphic Play (Cinemorphing)

An extreme example of the exercise described below from Improv Everywhere...
 

On October 25, 2005 I posted a brief exercise suggestion, Operation 3 - Madonna - Brando, which I re-present and elaborate on below. This is one of a new group of exercises and experiments, which emphasize Cinemorphic play. 

Spend the day "as" a well known personality. i.e. pretend you are…say… Johnny Depp or Lady Gaga all day…identify with and play an array of different personas. Don't just feel it from the inside…act it out. Do impersonations. Variation: Be an animal for a day…a gorilla, say…or a cat.

This casual exercise can be developed in detail also to interesting effect e.g…

Reincarnation: Research some dead historic figure, either well known or obscure, then “reanimate” them, complete with accurate costume, props, speech patterns, etc. in actual locations.

Doppelganger: Do the same for a living person, again either well known or obscure. Create their double. Possibly confront them with themselves.

Movie/theater/literary characters: Do the same with a well described fictitious character.

Make scenes: Once a character is ready to “manifest” in public, work with one or more other players who have also developed characters along one of these lines, to put together scenarios, either scripted or improvised, to perform, with variations, in several locations, e.g. a café, a train station, in a park, etc…anywhere there will be an audience that can either just watch or become “spect-actors” (Boal).

Note: These scenes can also be played out in public with the players not yet in full historic/double/fictitious character and costume…just as actors rehearsing, to interesting effect. This would be more like Boal’s Invisible Theater.

Record these experiments with HIDDEN cameras if desired. Obviously recording them with even a small crew will change/damage the effect. It may be, in the case of period costumed players, that the spect-actors will record the scenes with their phone cameras. “Insider” friends of the players can also do this, of course. An interesting side effect of this would be a subsequent viral YouTube post.

CINEMORPHICS 2.0: Cinemorphic Play

Cinemorphics was originally conceived  and practiced as a method of reality handling that could address certain problems...e.g. substance abuse, shyness, aging, etc. and only secondarily as a technique for pure self expression...i.e...."playing with your self".

In Cinemorphics 2.0, the emphasis shifts. We are currently assembling a set of routines, exercises and games, which, while similar to many practiced in groups and individual sessions addressing problem solving in the past, put the accent on a different beat...the amplification and elaboration of the players' creativity.

One of the modified routines states partially...

"...look at yourself as a constantly evolving work of performance art. This is an advanced exercise that can involve much hard work and development…or not…if the player, once told that he/she is a fiction, “gets it”.

“One should either be a work of art or wear a work of art”

Oscar Wilde

Dates for a new Cinemorphics 2.0 Workshop will be announced here in the next few weeks.

Fernando Pessoa revisited

On October 19, 2005 I posted a short piece to this blog about ALWAYS ASTONISHED: Selected Prose by Fernando Pessoa, which may be found HERE. Pessoa's life and work is of particular interest to Cinemorphics because of his method of creating "heteronyms", alternative personas, all of whom composed work "in character". Here is an excerpt from a short biography of Pessoa...

"Literary alter egos were popular among early twentieth-century writers: Pound had Mauberley, Rilke had Malte Laurids Brigge, and Valéry had Monsieur Teste. But no one took their alter ego as far as Pessoa, who gave up his own life to confer quasi-real substance on the poets he designated at heteronyms, giving each a personal biography, psychology, politics, aesthetics, religion, and physique...

...At least seventy-two names besides Fernando Pessoa were "responsible" for the thousands of texts that were actually written and the many more that he only planned. Although Pessoa also published some works pseudonymically, he distinguished this from the "heteronymic" project: "A pseudonymic work is, except for the name with which it is signed, the work of an author writing as himself; a heteronymic work is by an author writing outside his own personality: it is the work of a complete individuality made up by him, just as the utterances of some character in a drama would be."

The entire bio may be found HERE. A powerful study in character play.

- See more at: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/752#sthash.ohzmK8Mn.dpuf

At least seventy-two names besides Fernando Pessoa were "responsible" for the thousands of texts that were actually written and the many more that he only planned. Although Pessoa also published some works pseudonymically, he distinguished this from the "heteronymic" project: "A pseudonymic work is, except for the name with which it is signed, the work of an author writing as himself; a heteronymic work is by an author writing outside his own personality: it is the work of a complete individuality made up by him, just as the utterances of some character in a drama would be." - See more at: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/752#sthash.ohzmK8Mn.dpuf

At least seventy-two names besides Fernando Pessoa were "responsible" for the thousands of texts that were actually written and the many more that he only planned. Although Pessoa also published some works pseudonymically, he distinguished this from the "heteronymic" project: "A pseudonymic work is, except for the name with which it is signed, the work of an author writing as himself; a heteronymic work is by an author writing outside his own personality: it is the work of a complete individuality made up by him, just as the utterances of some character in a drama would be."

- See more at: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/752#sthash.ohzmK8Mn.dpuf

Selfshifting

"You" are a bodymind, not a body with a mind or vice versa. Things that influence either, influence both…powerfully.

"You" are a verb, not a noun. "You" are fluid, constantly changing…at every level. The static "you" is a persistent illusion.

"You"… "Your self", persona, ego…”who you are”…however named, is a construct that is formed by the interaction of genetics, imprinting, conditioning and learning. "You" have little input into this process until after "you" have been thoroughly shaped by "your" parents, peers, culture.

Now consider that this "you" that "you" now seem to be is, actually, very much like a fictitious character that may appear in a novel, play or movie and may be re-written, re-produced and re-performed, using the techniques of those media…

More specifically…

When someone asks, who are you?, your response may include your name, age, sex, race, height, weight, hair and eye color, where you live, whether you are married or not, whether you have children, what you do for a living, your hobbies, your likes and dislikes, your religious beliefs, your hopes, fears, hang-ups, skills, etc. If pushed, you could produce an exhaustive "character" description of all of the things that, when combined, make up what you take to be you. You identify with this description, this construct.

This description of who you take yourself to be...your ego/persona/self...includes genetic, biological and physical components as well as culturally conditioned, learned and psychologically "shaped" components. Most of these components have been assembled over a long period of time without your input. (e.g. you were born with black hair and learned to speak Spanish growing up.) Some you believe you have intentionally cultivated (e.g. you decided to learn to play the guitar and make your living as a musician). In many cases the distinction between which of your attributes were come by intentionally and which were thrust upon you by nature or nurture is very blurry.

In any case, this description of who you think you really are, this construct with which you identify, can be looked at in another way. If written out, your description of yourself reads like a character description in a movie script, play or novel. Consider yourself a fictitious character that has been devised by the haphazard, natural forces of ordinary life in the world but which you have believed is the real and only you.

Now that you realize that this "you" that you can observe and describe is very much like a character in a movie, consider the possibilities. If your life is a movie and you are the star, lets have a look at how your character was written...to a great extent not by you...and how you are being directed...also in many cases not by you. If you don't like what you see, demand a re-write. Your character...your self...is not written in stone. It is malleable and can be re-written, then rehearsed and performed by you...at first with the collaboration of and direction by a professional and then by you alone. You can also learn to be your own best, most discerning audience, write your own reviews...decide what is working and what is not. You become the producer, the star performer, the critic. You learn how to take charge…

You learn how to Selfshift…you learn Intentional Selfshifting. You are now able to see yourself as an actor not a person…an actor who is playing with the self…engaged in the endlessly entertaining Infinite Game of life instead of just wading through the daily drudgery. You may construct several variations of your self that you can shift among, identifying and dis-identifying with one after the other depending on which one you want to “wear” in any given situation. You now have a “wardrobe” of personas to choose from, all the while realizing that none of them are really YOU. You are now the creator of these characters, these selves/personas/egos, not their slaves. You are the master not the servant, the host not the guest.

Social Media as Cinemorphics Playground

Here are some excerpts from a very interesting article with implications for the (obvious) ways that social media may be used as a Cinemorphics tool/toy...warning labels (lamentably) not included. We recommend the entire article, which may be found HERE.

I instagram, therefore I am: From Descartes to the 'selfie'

Is the self autonomous, existing independently of its environment, or are we actually an inseparable part of a larger social web?

By Gabriel Bukobza | Dec. 21, 2013 | 4:00 PM

U.S.

René Descartes had a tough life. His mother died when he was a year old, and he was raised by his grandmother, who died when he was 13. He never married, and had an illegitimate daughter. Tragically, she died from an illness when she was 5 years old. For most of his life, he preferred solitude to social interaction. Toward the end of his life he became the private tutor of Queen Christina of Sweden, but his bad luck persisted. A few months after arriving in frozen Stockholm, he contracted pneumonia, to which the philosopher, mathematician and writer succumbed in 1650, at the age of 54.

Descartes was ridden with anxiety, which is not surprising considering his life history, and apparently had at least one nervous breakdown. However, he was also ambitious and courageous, convinced that his mission was to understand the truth in its most objective form. After casting off all universally held opinions, rebelling against his teachers’ authority and abandoning the study of books, he began to investigate the experience of one’s selfhood from its very foundations.

Descartes will always be remembered as the one who defined humans as the only creatures who are capable of using their intellect in order to prove their own existence. His famous epigram, coined originally not in Latin but in French – “Je pense, donc je suis” (“I think, therefore I am”) – formulated a philosophical axiom that defines the most basic human he formulated a philosophical axiom that defines the most basic human unit: the autonomous individual. Such a person needs no proof or external drive to attain the truth, nor any external affirmation to validate his life or to realize his freedom.

When Descartes was a child, another book was published in Europe, which preceded and complemented his own ideas. This book was the Spaniard Miguel de Cervantes’ “Don Quixote.” Considered to be the first modern novel, it turned the individual and the turns and twists of his fate into objects of observation. Its second part is particularly fascinating, because it’s there that Don Quixote encounters fictional characters who know him because they read of his exploits in the first part of the book.

This constitutes a sharp expression of an art form that is aware of itself and reflexive − illustrating for the reader the different transformations that the hero undergoes. Sancho Panza, the wise fool who accompanies Don Quixote, says as they approach their village at the end of their journey that even though he suffered defeat at the hands of others, Don Quixote has vanquished himself, and that is the biggest victory one can hope for.

To date, stories of self-transformation are considered in Western literature to be inspiring myths that serve as guiding lights. They are avidly consumed since they reflect and validate the concept of the self as it has been molded over the last few centuries. Indeed, it’s hard to think of a film in which the main protagonist’s spirit does not undergo some transformation. As Robert McKee writes in his best seller  on scriptwriting, “Story,” the plot will not be convincing unless the hero’s plans fail, his character changes only then to succeed.

The autonomous, self-aware self is a construct of the modern era. Nowadays, when millions of people obsessively take their own “selfie” shots on their smartphones, they are likely unaware of the link between their behavior and the writings of Descartes and Cervantes. However, the legacy bequeathed by those two and others has dramatically impacted the development of the concept of self-awareness and has affected every facet of life. The autonomous individual owns his property, his decisions, his identity and life. He belongs to a community and does not live in isolation, but he is separate from any definition that may link him to others, taking sole responsibility for his actions...

Please click on above link for the entire article.

CINEMORPHICS BRIEFLY RE-STATED

Your self, persona, ego…"who you are'…however named, is a construct that is formed by the interaction of genetics, imprinting, conditioning and learning. "You" have little input into this process until after "you" have been thoroughly shaped by your parents, peers, culture, etc.

Now consider that this "you" that "you" now "are", however, is similar to a fictitious character that may appear in a novel, play or movie and may be re-written, re-produced and re-performed as is the case in those media, using the techniques of those media.



Your framework for doing this may be aesthetic (make yourself into a work of art), as play (the "infinite game"), as counselling (I effectively wrote alcohol, cocaine and cigarettes out of my script), or as magick (use your imagination).

Cinemorphics transforms and adapts the motion picture and theatrical techniques of character development, scripting, method acting, fundraising, criticism, wardrobe, make-up, special effects, editing, promotion, marketing, etc. into a model, symbol and skill set, and mythology - a complete system - that is very powerful and effective when applied to personal reality shifting.



This blog suggests…instigates…tempts…points…
It is partly practical…partly theoretical…partly whimsical…

Ready to go into take a meeting…make a pitch…go into production…

Click HERE to contact us about Cinemorphic workshops and sessions.

DOING CINEMORPHICS

I have revised this post slightly since it was first published in 2007. These brief instructions provide one informal way to introduce oneself to the Cinemorphic Method.

Go to the Archives of this blog and click on October 2005. Scroll all the way down to the first post, dated Saturday, October 15, 2005 and work backwards through the Cinemorphics FAQ, observations, exercises and notes to the present. Skip around...pick and choose...go out and try it...

At first, doing Cinemorphics is a lot like learning to ride a bicycle...a matter of balance, habit and confidence. Once you get the hang of it the world's a different place...

(Photo at right is of ALFRED JARRY (1873-1907), fanatical cyclist, playwright, poet, artist and freelance scoundrel, whose work prefigured theater of the absurd, Dada, Surrealism, Futurism, Pop Art...and Cinemorphics (Jarry made himself into a work of art). Among his other diverse accomplishments, Jarry was also Pablo Picasso's weapon supplier and the father of 'PATAPHYSICS.)

Cosplay and Cinemorphics

Cosplay can be viewed as an imaginatively exaggerated version of one way to use Cinemorphics. This brief description of cosplay is from Wikipedia:

Cosplay (コスプレ kosupure?), short for "costume play", is a performance art in which participants wear costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture centered on role play. A broader use of the term cosplay applies to any costumed role play in venues apart from the stage, regardless of the cultural context. Favorite sources include manga, anime, comic books, video games, and films. Any entity from the real or virtual world that lends itself to dramatic interpretation may be taken up as a subject. Inanimate objects are given anthropomorphic forms and it is not unusual to see genders switched, with women playing male roles and vice versa. There is also a subset of cosplay culture centered on sex appeal, with cosplayers specifically choosing characters that are known for their attractiveness and/or revealing costumes. The Internet has enabled many cosplayers to create social networks and websites centered on cosplay activities, while forums allow cosplayers to share stories, photographs, news, and general information. The rapid growth in the number of people cosplaying as a hobby since 1990 has made the phenomenon a significant aspect of popular culture. This is particularly the case in Asia, where cosplay influences Japanese street fashion.

The video is from Comic Con.
 

Hieronymus Moondog Interview

Interview with Charles Webb, founder of Cinemorphics.

Have you ever used Cinemorphics yourself?

Do you mean have I ever created another persona for myself and used it in “real” life?

Yeah…that’s the question.

Couple of times, yes. The most recent instance of this involves a fictitious character named Hieronymus P. Moondog that I created and used in various pieces several years ago. On many occasions my friends have referred to me as Moondog, and in the past few months, I have "made appearances" as Moondog on the internet.

How so?

Several blogs and websites…created and written as Moondog. Also, I have gotten ordained as Moondog and plan to get an advanced degree as Moondog.

Ordained?
Yeah...as a Dudeist priest...

Buddhist priest?
Dudeist...Dudeist priest...the Dude, man...look it up...

Er...so your fictitious character has taken over and is on the loose…

I guess you could put it that way…what a trip!.

Do you think a fictitious character like Moondog can effectively operate in the real world?

I don't see why not. You are as fictitious as Moondog...how are you doing in the real world?

Uhhh...let's see (checks notes)...are you Moondog all the time now?

Don't want to answer that one, huh?...OK…I move in and out of character. I write as Moondog, and occasionally am in character as Moondog when I leave the house.

Is there a special Moondog costume?

Moondog and I dress pretty much alike.

Have other people done this…sounds kind of strange.

Yeah…lots. Check out the Cinemorphics blog. Some people even get apartments, I.D., bank accounts, and so on as their “fictitious” alter ego.

Didn’t Carlos Castaneda use this as one of his techniques?

Lots of people have done similar things for a wide variety of reasons…

But I thought that Castaneda…

No more talk of Castaneda. Why don’t you ask me about Andy Warhol?

What about Andy Warhol?

He did this in reverse…

What do you mean?

He found actors who looked like him, made them up, rehearsed them, them sent them out on the college circuit in the 60s. Of course, with him, you could never tell whether he was real or fake even if you knew it was the “real” Andy standing there.

You’re making my head spin.

Good. How do you know that you are the real you and not some made up you that turned out this way by chance and can be re-worked? Who is the real you…really?

Can we get back to the interview?

This is the interview.

Uhhh…let me look at my questions. Aren’t there legal implications?

Coward. (long pause) OK…It’s a boring question, but I’ll answer it. (another long pause) No…not if you aren’t trying to con somebody out of money. I mean…its common in a way. Many writers use pseudonyms and even do interviews and book signings in character. Same with musicians, actors…con men, of course.

Where can we find the writings of H.P. Moondog on the net?

Search “Satori Tango” and “Pin Dudeism”.

Strange titles. Can you tell us something about them?

Just do the search and read for yourself.

I didn’t mean to offend you.

No offense taken.

Are you Moondog now…or Webb?

I’ll let you be the judge of that.

Any advice if someone wanted to play around with this?

Read the blog and the sourcebook…”Who’s Asking?”(below) After you’ve done that, get back in touch.

Thank you Mr. Webb.

Rev. Moondog to you…

Thank you Rev. Moondog. Could I ask you just one more thing?

Sure.

How did you come up with the name Hieronymus P. Moondog?

I'll leave that a mystery for now...

METHOD AGING and the Infinite Game

A new and expanded version of METHOD AGING and Improvisational Longevity entitled METHOD AGING and The Infinite Game is now available in paperback HERE and at AMAZON. It is also available on Kindle at Amazon, Nook at Barnes & Noble and at the Apple iBookstore. Other eBook formats are available HERE.

METHOD AGING and The Infinite Game

You are both very old and very young. Scientists say you are made of stardust, which makes you billions of years old. On the other hand, your emotional age in an unhappy state can be that of a screaming baby. Your functional age is defined as an interaction of the chronological, physiological, psychological, and emotional ages of "you". This is an approximation of your age based on what physical and mental activities you can usually perform on a daily basis. Your age is indeterminate…you are a verb not a noun…you have no fixed age. You can learn to think of your age as an improvisation…a spontaneous movement of your bodymind…not how many years you have been kicking around the planet.

The static "you" is a stubborn illusion. "You"… your self, persona, ego…who "you" are… is a dynamic assemblage that is formed by the interaction of genetics, imprinting, learning, culture, etc....a character description, similar in many ways to a character in a film or novel, a character description which can be changed once it is recognized as such. One significant part of your character description that can be effectively re-written and re-performed is your functional age. This is Method Aging - a Cinemorphic adaptation of method acting applied to daily life. Once you are successful at this and then ask yourself..."who is it that is reinventing this "me" I identify with?"...a new perspective may emerge, as well as a new perception of your relationship with time and your story. "You" are no longer a slave to your history. You may also see that "you" are not really playing what you now realize is the infinite game..."it" is playing you. And you both are a constantly whirling field of energy and potential...dancing with the Tao.

The TAO of AGING

The paperback version of The TAO of AGING is now available HERE and at AMAZON. The Kindle version is available HERE and on Amazon U.K. The Nook version is available HERE. The Apple iBookstore version is available HERE. All other eBook formats are available HERE.

The TAO of AGING

As The Tao of Aging opens, we encounter a strange old, sage-like Chinese philosopher and raconteur who claims to actually be Zhuangzi (ChuangTzu) - the second most important originator of Taoist thought after Lao Tzu.

Zhuangzi now lives in San Francisco and is known simply as "Z". As it turns out, over 2000 years after his exploits in ancient China, "Z" is still rambling about the world - trickster to the bone - tinkering with the way we look at what we call reality. He insists that he is not some mythical Taoist Immortal whose condition is due to an alchemical elixir but rather an ordinary man who pays attention to the Laws of Nature.
"I am not the Zhuangzi you have read about in books...wallowing in the mud all day. Stuck in the mud really, if you believe what you read, which you shouldn't. There are those who will say that the ideas I am telling you about now are not those of Zhuangzi - that they are different from Zhuangzi's teachings - contrary even. But if they were not freethinking - even heretical - they would not truly be Zhuangzi's - MY - ideas...
...And so you ask about some Tao of Aging? First, there is no Tao OF anything...just Tao. And Tao is not a noun, Tao is a verb. But even Taoing is not Tao because Tao has no name, even though I have just named it. Then, look for yourself. What you call your body may change in a way you call aging, but do 'you' age? Does your awareness get wet when it rains? Does your awareness turn into wearoutness over 'time'? I think not! Just think of yourself as a constantly changing field of energy and potential...swirling and twirling with the Tao..."

Is "Z" the real thing? Our conclusion by the end of our encounter with him...MAYBE...

ACTIVE AGING and Acting and Aging

The paperback version of METHOD AGING and Improvisational Longevity is now available HERE and at AMAZON. The Kindle version is available HERE, the Kindle, U.K. version is available HERE , the Nook version is available HERE and the Smashwords version (all other formats) is available HERE.

METHOD AGING...
YOU are a bodymind, not a body with a mind or vice versa. You are a verb, not a noun. You are fluid, constantly changing. The static you is a persistent illusion. You... your self, persona, ego...who you are... is a construct that is formed by the interaction of genetics, imprinting, and learning. You have little input into this process until after you have been thoroughly shaped by parents, peers and culture. Now consider that this you that you now seem to be is, actually, very much like a fictitious character that may appear in a novel, play or movie and may be re-written, re-produced and re-performed, using the techniques of those media. One part of your character description that can effectively be re-written, re-produced and re-performed is your functional age, which is defined as a combination and interaction of your chronological, physiological, psychological, and emotional ages. The Cinemorphic techniques discussed in METHOD AGING open the door to this transformation.

Cinemorphics At SAND

Cinemorphics was well received at the 2010 Science And Nonduality Conference in San Rafael, California on October 23rd. Please enjoy the video of the presentation below...

Who's Asking? Notes On Cinemorphics

WHO'S ASKING? Notes On Cinemorphics is now available online HERE.
If you are not familiar with Cinemorphics, I recommend checking out the "Doing Cinemorphics" post, below, before going to the Sourcebook...more entertaining that way...

STORY FIELDS

The STORY FIELD concept is very useful in thinking about the Cinemorphic manipulation of one's "reality"...the telling and re-telling of personal history...the creation of Tales of Power... An excerpt from a discussion of story fields is included below. This discussion itself as well as a very effective treatment of related ideas may be found HERE.



The Power of Story - The Story Paradigm

In the field of co-intelligence, stories are more than dramas people tell or read. Story, as a pattern, is a powerful way of organizing and sharing individual experience and exploring and co-creating shared realites. It forms one of the underlying structures of reality, comprehensible and responsive to those who possess what we call narrative intelligence. Our psyches and cultures are filled with narrative fields of influence, or story fields, which shape the awareness and behavior of the individuals and collectives associated with them.

Story-reality is the reality that we see when we recognize that every person, every being, every thing has a story and contains stories -- and, in fact, is a story -- and that all of these stories interconnect, that we are, in fact, surrounded by stories, embedded in stories and made of stories. When poet Murial Rukeyser tells us "the universe is made of stories, not atoms," she's describing story-reality. Ultimately, story-reality includes any and all actual events and realities, but experienced as stories, not as the more usual patterns -- objects-and-actions; matter, energy, space, time; patterns of probability; etc. Story-reality is made up of lived stories.

Lived stories are those real-life, actual stories that are happening in the real world all around us all the time. The actual unfolding events relating to any one actual entity or subject comprise that entity's or subject's lived story. Everything that exists has, embodies and participates in many lived stories. The way to co-intelligently engage in story-reality is to become sensitive to lived stories... to learn about the lived stories of people, places, things... to share our own lived stories... to discover how all these stories intersect, who or what is in the foreground and background of each other's lived stories. Ultimately, this provides the guidance we need to find our own most meaningful place in the universal story.

While analysis is good for control and prediction, story-sensibility is good for understanding meaning and role.

Narrative intelligence is the ability (or tendency) to perceive, know, think, feel, explain one's experience and influence reality through the use of stories and narrative forms.

Story fields are fields of influence or patterns of dynamic potential that permeate psycho-social space and influence the lives of those connected to them. They are made up of many mutually-reinforcing stories (myths, news, soap operas, lives, memories) and story-like phenomena (roles, metaphors, archetypes, images). A story field paints a particular picture of how life is or should be, and shapes the life within its range into its image.

The American Way of Life is a powerful story field, which includes everything from principles like freedom and the pursuit of happiness, to stories of cowboys and rags-to-riches heroes, to metaphors like the melting pot and the safety net, to images like the Statue of Liberty and the flag. It is communicated by movies, men in business suits, advertisements, college catalogues, and mall displays -- among many, many other things. It takes immense effort to resist or change it. Anyone or anything which doesn't live within this story-sea and move with its currents doesn't seem quite American.

Psychological, organizational or social transformation is usually preceded or accompanied by a change in the story field governing that system. It is therefore usually non-productive to try to change forms and habits without changing the story fields that hold them in place. Once the story field is changed, subsidiary patterns tend to realign rapidly. (This process is part of what has been called a paradigm shift.)

DISROBE THYSELF!

Philip H. Farber re-tells this Nasrudin tale as part of a book excerpt THE PERFECTED SELF .
One wonders what would happen if the esteemed Mulla were turned loose in Hollywood.



A hermit came into town from the forest, where he had been wandering naked for a long time. In the forest there had always been enough to eat, and enough places to hide when the storms came, if you didn't mind squatting in a hollow tree, eating small rodents. But the hermit grew tired of his solitude and longed for what he remembered of the stimulating quality of human interaction.
The gravelly road on the outskirts of town was too much for even the calloused feet of the hermit. Fortunately the hermit could see a fine pair of shoes lying in the rocks beside the road. He immediately put them on. They were a bit tight, but the leather was beautifully worked and, most importantly, the hermit could now walk upon the road with greater comfort.
As he came into the center of the village, the hermit began to grow hungry. With no game in sight, the hermit sought out a soup kitchen. Just as he was about to push open the weathered wooden door, he realized that couldn't enter the soup kitchen without a pair of pants. Fortunately, just outside, the hermit found a fine pair of pants. They were a bit short, and not quite his style, but they were a much finer pair than anything he had owned before becoming a hermit. With that, he went inside and enjoyed the soup, which of tasted of beef, not rodent.
Back out on the street, the hermit thought to visit a bank and ask for a loan to set up a small shop, so that he could provide for himself. He realized, though, that he couldn't go into the bank without a shirt. Fortunately, lying in the street was a fine shirt. It was a bit loose on the hermit, and not quite his favorite color, but it got him into the bank, where he easily talked the manager into giving him a loan.
He began to shop in the marketplace for the things he would need for his shop, but realized that the merchants would give him no respect without the vest of a guildmember . Fortunately, in an alley, he spotted a fine vest. True, it bore the markings of the blacksmith guild, and the hermit had hoped to open a bookstore, but it got him the respect he needed and he was soon operating a respectable blacksmith shop.
The shop did well, but the hermit soon realized that unless he allied himself with one of the town's religions and was known as a pious man, he would never draw larger numbers of customers. Fortunately, he found the turban of a Mulla on the street outside his shop. He put it on, and while it wasn't the color of the sect he had belonged to before becoming a hermit, it was a fine Mulla's turban, and he was immediately given great honor by the other villagers.
The villagers plied him with tasty food, paraded their daughters before him in hopes he would take a bride, and attended his every word. At one gathering in his honor, a naked man was hanging back with the beggars and low- lifes . This naked man was none other than the esteemed Mulla Nasrudin, who had recently been seen to dash out of the blacksmith shop where he had earned his living, shouting, "And these damn shoes are too tight!"
One of the low- lifes recognized the Mulla. "Say, Mulla, isn't that your turban that the new Mulla is wearing?"
"It's no matter," Nasrudin said. "I just came back into town to tell my wife that she can have the donkey... I was in the wrong sect, I hated blacksmithing , I owed money to the bank, and everything costs too much money. I'm going to live in the forest! Maybe when I come back in a few years I'll find some better clothing."

Want A SECOND LIFE?

SECOND LIFE is more even relevant to those interested in Cinemorphics than The Sims (see earlier post). You can check out the SECOND LIFE website HERE .



A VIRTUAL LIFE

A journey into a place in cyberspace where thousands of people have imaginary lives. Some even make a good living. Big advertisers are taking notice

As I step onto the polished wood floor of the peaceful Chinese country house, a fountain gurgles softly and a light breeze stirs the scarlet curtain in a doorway. Clad in a stylish blue-and-purple dress, Anshe Chung waves me to a low seat at a table set with bowls of white rice and cups of green tea. I'm here to ask her about her booming land development business, which she has built from nothing two years ago to an operation of 17 people around the world today. As we chat, her story sounds like a classic tale of entrepreneurship
.
Except I've left out one small detail: Chung's land, her beautifully appointed home, the steam rising from the teacups -- they don't exist. Or rather, they exist only as pixels dancing on the computer screens of people who inhabit the online virtual world called Second Life. Anshe Chung is an avatar, or onscreen graphic character, created by a Chinese-born language teacher living near Frankfurt, Germany. And the sitting room in which Chung and my avatar exchange text messages is just one scene in a vast online diorama operated by Second Life's creator, Linden Lab of San Francisco. Participants launch Second Life's software on their personal computers, log in, and then use their mice and keyboards to roam endless landscapes and cityscapes, chat with friends, create virtual homes on plots of imaginary land, and conduct real business.

To read the rest of the Robert D. Hof article click HERE .

Robert Anton Wilson's QUANTUM PSYCHOLOGY

I recently re-read Robert Anton Wilson's QUANTUM PSYCHOLOGY. Wow! If the subject matter of this blog interests you at all, at all you must acquaint yourself (or re-acquaint yourself) with R.A.W. and his world. You can check out the book HERE and check out R.A.W. himself HERE. I have included some comments and a brief overview below.



Philip K. Dick, author of Blade Runner
Wilson managed to reverse every mental polarity in me, as if I had been pulled through infinity. I was astonished and delighted.

Publishers Weekly
Erudite, witty and genuinely scary

Tom Robbins
Dazzlingthe most thrilling tilt-a-whirls and daring loop-o-planes on the midway of higher consciousness.



Sounds, London
The mans either a genius or Jesus.

Ray Tuckman, Broadcaster, KPFK Radio
With his humorous rapier, Wilson pokes and prods our misconceptions, prejudices and ignorance. A quantum banquet.

John Gribbin, physicist
Does for quantum mechanics what Durrell's Alexandria Quartet did for Relativity, but Wilson is funnier.

New Scientist
What great physicist hides behind the mask of Wilson?

Book Description
Throughout human history, thoughts, values and behaviors have been colored by language and the prevailing view of the universe. With the advent of Quantum Mechanics, relativity, non-Euclidean geometries, non-Aristotelian logic and General Semantics, the scientific view of the world has changed dramatically from just a few decades ago. Nonetheless, human thinking is still deeply rooted in the cosmology of the middle ages. Quantum Psychology is the book to change your way of perceiving yourself --- and the universe. The book for the 21st Century, complete with exercises. Picks up where Prometheus Rising left off. Some say it's materialistic, others call it scientific and still others insist it's mystical. It is all of these --- and none.

About the Author
Robert Anton Wilson is the coauthor (with the late Robert Shea), of the underground classic The Illuminatus! Trilogy which won the 1986 Prometheus Hall of Fame Award. His other writings include Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy, called "the most scientific of all science fiction novels" by New Scientist, and many nonfiction works of Futurist psychology and guerilla ontology. Wilson, who sees himself as a Futurist, author, and stand-up comic, regularly gives seminars at Esalan and other New Age centers. Wilson has made both a comedy record (Secrets of Power), and a punk rock record (The Chocolate Biscuit Conspiracy), and his play, Wilhelm Reich in Hell, has been performed throughout the world. His novel Illuminatus! was adapted as a 10-hour science fiction rock epic and performed under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at Great Britain's National Theatre, where Wilson appeared in a special cameo role. He is also a former editor at Playboy magazine.