Introduction to the Zoom Session: Dana White, PhD
Human existence is undergoing massive change right now, and whatever the new world order will be, once we adapt to – or handle – the coronavirus pandemic, in all likelihood, human existence will never be the same – be it globally, in America, or here in Southern California.
The thought of how life will be different motivated my preliminary talks with two therapist friends – specifically to address how people working in the healing professions might need to modify their practices from meeting with people in person to some form of minimal human contact. This zoom session emanated from these initial discussions.
It does not seem implausible that the way we base much of modern life on structured patterns of humans congregating (schools, religion, workplace, recreation, entertainment, hanging out), we may face immediate needs to minimize, modify, and even possibly eliminate our assumptions and patterns collecting ourselves together. This is already happening.
The Myth Salon began as an experiment in bringing people together to invite discussion about particular topics of cultural relevance and the frontiers and opportunities brought about as a result in the transformations of consciousness that will inevitably happen. Most of the people in this community have involvement in some form of mythology, education, psychology, or cultural studies. Given the need to develop alternatives to gathering together in person, we have created this zoom session to explore the feasibility of a sustained practice of virtual meeting places.
We are facing an immediate need to reorient ourselves into a world that is changing in such profound ways that the old ways of being not only no longer apply – they actually are dangerous – to moving forward. The human handshake has been a virtually timeless symbol of offering peace and establishing relations with one another for millennia. Touching each another by hugging, embracing, comforting, guiding and back-patting, have enabled human growth and sensitivity to progress as expressions of the psyche’s intention and desire.
But all this is changing – and however the coronavirus pandemic is rewriting the script of human interchange, we must of necessity move our guiding impulses from the heart to the head. Or, at least we must until a means to thwart the advance of the virus is developed.
And that’s what we wish to explore in the first zoom session that will explore transforming consciousness. At this point, we are developing the zoom session as a first step to see what is plausible both as content and form or structure. Clearly, we cannot remotely exhaust the potential topics in an hour, but we can identify what topics would be worthy of a session. And, we will want to determine whether the structural format of nine people lends itself to producing a meaningful outcome – a discussion that starts with a nine-person interchange and could be streamed live or recorded and uploaded to become available for others.
It is our hope that we can define the viability of these operational parameters:
Shifting from face-to-face to virtual/tech-based interaction:
Workplace
Religion
Marketplace
Entertainment
Dating, relations
What is the impact upon people whose lives depend upon being public?
Jobs
Products and Services
Providers, Producers, Consumers
Will Transforming Consciousness be limited to the nine people in this first session? Is the nine-person setup the right number for a zoom session format?
Will the first session lead to subsequent sessions that use the first session as a model for future sessions? How can the first session become a model for other groups to examine this and other topics?
What are the possibilities we can hope to accomplish by meeting up this way?
Notes and considerations:
Myths and consequences of separating the self from the collective
Psyche archetypally configured to the collective (herd) – relational by nature
Polytheisms are multiple constructs, relationships among gods, forces
Activities/venues: sports events, arenas, schools, concerts, malls, movies, travel, cruises.
Transportation, freedom of movement, access vs/ personal autonomy
New rules and orders of being
What if the pandemic lasts a year or more?
Themes:
Go your own way
Be all that you can be
I did it my way
Safety in numbers
Pair up with a partner
We teach ourselves from birth to individualize, form identity, establish personal autonomy
There is disbelief in oneness – except in religion and spiritual traditions where humanity is viewed as the mirror/reflection/emanation of a divine being that is oneness.