Life-Dance Log: an I. S. experiment

Citizen of the World post.

{note: sorry for the probable lyrical format of this post; can't seem to get the end product to look like what I'm typing in. will try to fix later--p}

Myspace and BtTV

Myspace

As I’ve already posted, I have certainly been communicating with a lot of

strangers on Myspace. As I wrote in a previous post I have joined a lot of groups

there. I am not sure if this is a really healthy thing for me since it means so much

sitting in front of the computer and, as in the case of this blog, my invitations for

deeper involvement and collaboration seem to be being met with heroic

resistance. Still, I find it to be at least good practice in succinctness if sharing my

views and I like being pressed and challenged both as to the content and the

style of what I write. I find I often come up with better ways to explain aspects of

healthy culture through responding to these challenges. What follows is a bunch

of quotations from various posts of mine; some of which might be expanded into

essays on the other Blog. (I feel the need to say that, in some cases I have made

slight changes to the post as they appear in Myspace for the sake of spelling and

clarity.)

To the “Lets start a commune Group”:

I think though, that if we wait for certain unsustainable things to stop of

themselves than in many cases we court a kind of social chaos that will just

increase misery. On the other hand, I don’t believe in arguing against this or that

form of consumption in isolation...The point to me is to create an intrinsically

meaningful and healing way of life as an alternative to the dominant

“consumptive” lifestyle as a whole (a real alternative not just the same thing

stripped down and on a smaller scale) and find some way to introduce this to the

collective consciousness. A real “Life boat” for a sinking ship. Most such “boats”

are not “Life” boats at all but just “survival boats” that have the same hole in them

that sunk the Ship in the first place (though it might be a smaller hole at present).

It is important that this “hole” (I call it sick culture) is named and sustainably dealt

with, in any intentional community worth being in.

To a group on Prison Reform:

I think the problem is cultural essentially. A crime is an act of alienation. It is a

denial, stemming from unconsciousness, of the relationships and responsibilities

inherent in existing at all. The dominant culture of competition, addiction,

abstraction, and greed is based on such denial and unconsciousness, and, on

the whole, the laws generated by this alienated culture, ( a culture which is itself

transmitted, like any culture, across generations through formal and informal

education), produce criminality (both legal and illegal). Most crimes are legal.

Many laws are criminal. Most crimes are crimes of omission rather than

commission. Criminality as I define it is inherent in the culture and the system

that culture produces. There are many people (Scott peck calls them “people of

the Lie”) who are so alienated that they don’t even see that they are alienated,

and so effect a self-righteous myth of decent respectability that involves

projecting their own shadow onto others via a “justice” system that limits the label

“crime” only to certain crimes of commission (and certain other acts that really

are not “crimes” at all in my sense). This amounts to a denial of the criminality

(sickness) of the whole system and the culture that produces it and leads to a

penal system which it’s itself a criminal expression of, as well as a factory for,

alienation and unconsciousness.

A healthy culture would produce a healthy system and a healthy conception of

(and treatment for) alienation/crime. The best way to end crime (both legal and

illegal) is to end alienation and the culture of alienation. How might this be done?

Well I have my Ideas, which I will go into if asked.

To an Interfaith Group (the issue had to do with the idea of a Finite world and an

Infinite God);

I think that both the “finite” and “the infinite” are more relative categories of our

experience than absolute attributes. To be finite means to be distinct; things that

have relative beginnings and ends are relatively distinct from other things,

Something completely infinite (not finite) could not be distinguished from anything

else sense it would have no limits, no way to even recognize it (if you recognize it

by distinguishing it from the finite then it is bounded on that side and so is itself

partially finite and not wholly infinite). So something totally infinite is also totally

indistinct and totally unrecognizable. Moreover both the finite and the infinite can

also be distinguished from what is relatively Definite. Subjectively, our experience

of the finite is on a continuum with and culminates in, our experience of the here

and now of our own being. You could say that the finite is a kind of “thatness” as

distinct from our own definite “thisness” (the relatively infinite, which could also

be described as the relatively “indefinite”, would then be a kind of abstract

“itness”. These categories of experience are not rigidly separate but grade into

each other as when you see an (indefinite) “point” in the distance” that, as it gets

closer becomes “finite”, and so can now be recognized and distinguished as your

friend Sue. As Sue continues to approach and you sit down together and talk

your knowledge and experience of each other becomes relatively Definite. And

there is more than that; if you and sue would sit and meditate together, perhaps

gazing into each others eyes, after a while you both would find that your definite

experience of each other (and of yourselves as well) would itself pass over into

something mysterious, something Transdefinite (what IS existence anyway?). So

we have the relatively Infinite (“itness”), the relatively Finite (“thatness”) the

relatively Definite (“thisness”) and the relatively Transdefinite (“whatness”). These

are the first four of the seven cognitive categories of integral science (also called

Matrix Categories) they are apart of the cosmology of Healthy Culture and I think

our cultures having lost the kind of discernment implied in these relative

distinctions has lead to a lot of confusion and disagreement about religion as

about many other things, including mathematics.

Explaining Integral Science to someone on the Holographic Paradigm Group:

...To call it science at all is a bit risky since, being consciously both subjective

and objective; it has a more human quality. When you assume the fundamental

togetherness of subject and object, for example, then you must understand that

the experiments you perform on the world are also experiments you perform on yourself, and the “data” deriving from such experiments is necessarily both

subjective and objective.

All of this, being understood before hand, changes, not only the nature of the

experiments, but the intention behind them. Instead of being aimed at primarily

predicting and controlling some hyper objectified and disenchanted version of

“the world”, the intention becomes more like catalyzing ones own healing

together with that of others and that of the world. Experiments based on this

assumption have the effect of cultivating the togetherness that is assumed by the

cosmology and culture of the science. (In the same way, the assumptions of

apart-ness of our current science lead to experiments-and “data”- that reinforce

the sense of estrangement and alienation from self and world that was assumed

in conceiving the experiments). I have taken to calling the intention and motive

deriving from assumptions of primary togetherness “the integrative”, in the sense

of asking “what is your integrative” rather than “what is your objective?” and

meaning “what is your subjective And objective goal or rationale”...for a given

experiment; how could this experiment catalyze your own healing together with

that of others and the world?” Such an integral experiment requires at least some

degree of subjective “mapping” and self-knowledge just as much as it requires

some degree objective knowledge. And yet both kinds of knowledge are loosely

and non-dogmatically held and both are expected to change as the science

progresses.

None of this means that the integral scientist boycotts the language, technology

and data of normal science anymore than a doctor boycotts a patient because

the patience is sick. Integral Science explores sick science from its own

assumptions and method as an aspect of the cosmology of apartness which is

itself an aspect of the culture of apartness generally. My engagement with

modern science has been an attempt at moving both it and myself further in the

direction of healing as much as my engagement with everything else in the

dominant culture.

Finally, I posted these song lyrics on a World Peace group and also a Feminism

group. (In the World Peace group the topic was “U.S. soldiers as “Pawns of Evil” and in the Feminism group the Topic was about the invalidity of Gender). Imagine a kind of up-beat ragtime blues:

Uniforms (a song)

By horus/piankhy

You wear a uniform of a woman

You wear a uniform of a man

You wear a uniform of an employee

Or a Jew or a Mexican

You wear a uniform of a soldier boy

A uniform of a civilian too

And when you play the game of “me or them”

You wear a uniform of you:

Chorus:

Ohh, my friends, take off those uniforms!

You wear a uniform of a bourgeoisie

A uniform of a working class

You wear a uniform of Humanity

When the Martians come at last

You wear a uniform of your politics,

Your race and your religion too,

But if you want peace in the world my friend

This is my advice to you:

Ohh, my friends, take off those uniforms!

Well I’m talkin’ about your identity

I’m talkin bout your foolish pride

And the fear and insecurity

That scares you into takin’ those sides

“cause everybody is the same and different,

Butt-ugly and beautiful as any star,

And if you take off all of them uniforms

Maybe you’ll find out who the hell you are!

Ohh, my friends, take off those uniforms!

You wear a uniform of an anarchist

You wear a uniform of a wife

You wear a uniform for every thing you do

And for every part of your life

But there’s no uniform for Personhood

Or for authenticity

So if you're uptight and uncomfortable

Take this advice from me:

Ohh, my friends, take off those uniforms!

‘Cause it’s us it’s us it all of us (so please come off of it)

It’s us is us it’s all of us; this is “Themless” politics

It’s us it’s us it’s all of us good-and-evil, healthy-and-sick

It’s us it’s us it’s all of us: this is “Themless Politics”!

Ohh, my friends, take off those uniforms!

Anyway, many other groups, many posts. Sometimes interesting reactions,

sometimes no reaction. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be at it, but it seems

pretty harmless so far. Who knows, maybe something will come of it.

BtTV and MLF

I have been leaving the farm and going into town at least once a week since

before I started this blog. For a little more than a year I was volunteering in the

“radical” library of an info shop in Charlottesville called Better Than Television. It

was a pretty cool place underneath the Jefferson Theater on the downtown mall

with cafe space as well as space for a gallery, for performance and for books and

zines. Recently the whole project is in a kind of questionable transition since

having to leave the building that they were in because of its sale and renovation.

(any one interested in helping out with this transition can e-mail be and I try to get

you in touch with someone sill actively involved).

I supposed I volunteered mostly because I liked the place and its library even

though I don’t identify as an anarchist like most of the people involved. I guess I

also hoped to find folks interested in Healthy Culture and perhaps do some

cultural activism from the place itself. Also the place was talked about as a kind

of community center as well as in strinckly anarchist terms and there seemed to

be others besides myself who would have liked it to be more inclusive and less

factional in intent and feeling. We, the people in the collective of volunteers,

never managed to consense to any formal vision of the place. Ultimately i ended

up leaving, mostly to have more time to do cultural activism downtown that was

more directly related to my vision.

Anyway, the place had a house guitar and some other instruments and, while

working there I had the idea that we could make some money for rent (BtTV is all

donated time and money) by busking on the Charlottesville pedestrian mall just

outside. The actual busking never came off but what I most enjoyed during my

whole time volunteering there was “rehearsals” for our eventual “performances”

with the one of the main people behind the place and sometimes with others. We

would sometimes actually sit out on the mall and play but nobody ever felt the

desire to put out a hat or anything. We were not “performing” we were just living

and unselfconsciously expressing our lives though the music of our being

together in a friendly way . At some point I saw in the whole thing the potential to

become something so languidly sublime and yet ordinary as to amount to a kind

of cultural activism that could be an effective gateway/introduction to Healthy

Culture as a whole. I went home and wrote up the following flyer:

Music Liberation Front (MLF)

By Piankhy(horus)

The purpose of Music Liberation Front is to liberate music from the sway and

dominance of sick culture (the culture ofApart-ness). MLF is technically just one

aspect of the bigger project of Healthy Culture in general (which could be-but

isn’t- described as a Cultural Liberation Front). In part MLF is just a way of

focusing, when necessary, on how music and song can both express and

encourage Healthy Culture rather than the culture ofApart-ness and alienation.

Without an understanding of, and participation in Healthy Culture (the Culture of

Togetherness) in general, it could be very frustrating to get involved in MLF. Yet

MLF can itself serve as a door to that understanding. This is its chief purpose.

The participants in MLF are not musicians primarily or even at all, but Individual-

Persons who love music (probably more than many musicians do) and so hate to

see its healing potential lost in its forced enslavement to the sick culture

imperatives of competition, specialization, commodification, professionalism,

rigidity, image, ego, and performer/audience dichotomies among other things.

What do we do? People involved in MLF get together to experiment with ways to

do music in healing and egalitarian, consensual and life-logical ways. Anything

can happen from jams, improvised “commercials” for healthy culture, to relative

silence, to just hanging out. Even an impromptu “concert” in possible (though

nothing in the pandering or alienated, competitive or “spectacular” spirit of what

is often called “performance”). Musical specialists or professionals are not

excluded from MLF unless they prove to be unwilling or unable to bracket that

Identity at least during the MLF experimental gatherings, and to have all that they

have learned about music challenged and at times just ignored. People who

know nothing about music per se are equally, or even especially encouraged to

participate to any degree they feel comfortable with.

All MLF experiments are done in the spirit of the Life-Dance, which is the spirit of

Mutuality, and of both outer and inner Consensus. The goal of such experiments

is never Mastery, either of music, of our instruments, of ourselves, or of each

other but rather, the goal is true and living Friendship with Music, with our

Instruments (if we have any), with ourselves, and with each other and the world

at large, as Individual-Persons.

Those involved in the healthy cultural activism of MLF do not accept that Beauty,

in music or in anything else, is separable from Goodness or Truth or true Life.

Beautiful Music for us, consists of words, notes, sounds, and/or silences that are

friendly, uncoerced, truthful, appropriate, and inwardly and outwardly healing in

both the short and long term. Such Beauty-Truth-Goodness-Life as expressed in

beautiful music, and in the Life-Logic that goes along with it as words to tune,

constitute a major expression of Healthy Culture and of the Life-Dance, which is

its ritual aspect that culture.

For more information about MLF, or to get involved, contact Piankhy Thompson

at Piankhy9@hotmail. For more info about Piankhy and about Healthy Culture

generally check out the two blogs integralscience.motime.com and

Lifedancelog.motime.com as well.

Thanks and Welcome,

Piankhy

I showed it this flyer to some folks at BtTv and left some copies there. My fellow

“rehearsers” didn’t really get into it. They hadn’t gotten into Healthy Culture either

so I wasn’t surprised or even discouraged. I was just excited by the idea and I

still am; both because of what it is so far and because of what it might become.

The ritual basically amounts to a Life-Dance party among strangers in which the

Heart-dance (my heart-dances are usually musical or poetic) is getting more

attention, but in which the rest of that whole ritual is really equally there under the

surface, I see it as a broader kind of bridge from healthy culture to sick culture

that might be more accessible to the average person and that engages many of

my own aesthetic preoccupations in a potentially healing way.

I do see a danger though, that the easily-dissociated conception of “music” or

even “art” might not function, as I am intending, as a bridge to healthy culture for

others, so much as as a bridge away from it for myself. So far, the elusive and

unpredictable (because inner-consensus based) nature of the time and place of

these gestures keeps me too much of a moving target for the dominant cultures

co-opting and corrupting attentions to much affect me no matter how “good” (or

“bad”) my playing or singing happen to be on a certain occasion. Such “guerilla-

like” protective spontaneity might be more difficult if I were to be joined by others

on a regular basis, unless those others were already committed to Healthy

Culture. Still, so far, just having a clearer and more worked out vision for my own

musical expression makes me feel that that aspect of my creativity is more in the

service of my whole life and of healing in general then it has was before. I’m very

happy for this and, as for any sign of the other, unhealthy possibility, I remain

awake and Listening...