International Jean Gebser Society Unconference

Online only

THEME: What does the breakdown in mental-rational consciousness foretell?

Our nation faces difficulties from many sides, enmiring us in political division and violence. The old ways of facing difficulties are not working, and new ways that are effective are yet to emerge. The fragmentation in perception of reality has reached a fever pitch. It is causing a schism throughout society that is genuinely dangerous. How can we Gebserians help stop this slide into what Nora Bateson has termed “schismogenesis?” Is there a better world on the other side?

This year’s conference itself is unlike any of our previous conferences. It is organized to maximize participants’ contributions in a creative, organic, self-organizing manner. We are calling it the Unconference Conference. The following website gives a summary about what to expect in an Unconference: https://unconference.net/unconferencing-how-to-prepare-to-attend-an-unconference-2/

The methodology we will use is called Open Space. Open Space was developed originally by Harrison Owen, and it is particularly suitable for maximizing the creative support and best thinking of all who wish to be involved.

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Schedule:

From 10:00 am to noon PT on Saturday, November 8, we will convene with a dialogue circle moderated by Glenn Aparicio Parry. Some of the principles of dialogue include listening for the purpose of understanding, having no agenda, no expectation of a result, and getting out of one’s own tacit infrastructure of biases and assumptions.

From 1:00-4:00 pm PT, we will go into Open Space moderated by Rijon (Ryan) Erickson.

Rijon will “open the space” with a brief explanation of the principles and purpose of Open Space Technology and guide the group in the creation of an agenda for the afternoon.

All topics related to the theme are welcome, and all participants are encouraged to convene sessions on the topics that they care most about and conduct those sessions in the manner they see fit.

Start times and Zoom rooms are identified for each topic. In addition, there will be rooms created to enable participants to engage in spontaneous conversations outside of the defined sessions, much like the “coffee break” or “water cooler” conversations that are often the highlight of traditional conferences. The point of the structure is to allow for maximum agency within the lightest of constraints. Time, place, and topic are up to the participants to decide, and each person is responsible for their own experience.

To conclude the Open Space, all participants are called together into a “closing circle” to acknowledge the passing of time and recognize and share their experience of the day, insights, or a summary of the group’s conversation.

Cost: $25

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Inspirations from Jean Gebser

There are today more than enough psychic ruins ravaging the world ever since thought lost its immediate directedness and qualitative mental character, and became deficient in the fragmentation of rationalization, sectorization, and perspectivation. Let us now turn to this nearly formless form of thinking. EPO 255

The theme of our epoch is aperspectivity. The irruption of time into perspectival, spatial thought is manifest in all areas of our lives. The emerging consciousness of time as an immeasurable and mentally inconceivable world constituent—this is the basic, aperspectival manifestation. EPO 528

Present-day technology is an unmastered time…. Instead of intensifying time, man has quantified it by rational thinking into a cascading motion. This failure, which encroaches on our daily lives with increasing force, will be successfully corrected when the awareness of the foundations and the true demands of a genuine technology are pioneered. This awareness will restructure technology to the same degree that it is now about to reshape our entire reality. Then, in the most successful realizations, the “every-day” will be an “all (i.e., universal)-day.” EPO 533

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