Integral Storyfield Work

(session convened by Tom Atlee)

Synergizing diverse elements – storytellers, stories, media, perspectives, audience dimensions of ourselves, etc. for maximum transformational power

 

What are the elements of this Integral StoryField? It is:

Multi-Dimensional

o    multi-modal

o    multi-media

o    multi-disciplinary

o    multi-viewpoint

o    multi-energetic

o    multi-generational

o    multi-cultural

 

Engaging:

o    audience participatory

o    inspirational, evocative

o    in-tune, grounded in peoples actual reality and longings

o    uses: “Imagineering” and visionary fiction linked to non-fiction ?? to action

 

Collaborative

o    many stories and storytellers loosely knit within a metastory and

o    Network resources for collaborative story works, online spaces, gatherings, funding,     venues,

 

What else?. . .

 

Tom wants the culture to awaken to its potential to evolve itself.

 

Sort of proposal, but that can box things in, more of a draft of a particular kind of vision.  

 

Alli: Noticing who is present, who is synthesizing is predominantly white and male.

Pejorative that “we” the thinkers are going to give “you” the activists what to do or how it is.  We are all change agents, there needs to be more collaboration. Equity seems to be missing. Who’s doing the speaking and who’s doing the listening? A greater listening to the stories that are not often heard.

 

Tom: Listening as another node of engagement

 

Alli:  Generational equity, race equity, class equity

 

Gabrielle: This point is implicit but needs to be made explicity, in maybe 2 or 3 words

If equity is a value, then we need to actively seek out the “other” stories to give balance.

These dimensions are the story, The story is organic, will never end, always engaging, collaborative, multi-dimensional.

 

Conscious evolution:  evolution is happening regardless, but our challenge is to make it conscious and intervene with what is already happening.

 

Larry:  The environment will be turbulent.  Some people need to be thinking about Plan B.  There may be a time when we can’t interact like we are now.  Disk-netting by Pony Express.  We may need to slow down the process.

 

Plan B for times of crisis and loss of infrastructure

 

Future is coming really fast – we need to honor the past and we’re in a new ballgame.  Anything could happen that could make Dresden seem tame.

 

George: Shares a Vision Video: a 2 – minute video of his vision of his life in 2018

This vision video idea was inspired by an Australian named Malcolm Cohan who posted his own Vision Video on YouTube. George saw it and knew he wanted to bring him to North America. He did, and they developed huge vision that’s gone nowhere so far. Usually this would mean dropping the idea but instead George decided to pray and meditate on the question, and when he heard about StoryField he had a strpng feeling that this is the group to share his vision with.

 

The vision is that we have to go after society with the same tools that society has formed around, which is media.  We could come together as StoryField participants on a given day and launch a campaign that takes over the exisiting media by showing all the good things that are happening.

 

Vision for Humanity Videos.  What if we could get 1% of the world to make a vision video, and then take over the airwaves showing them?

Buy cable channels, create internet channels, jumble tron at Times Square and play visions of hope all day.  Drive people to a website; if you like something, or someone's vision you can donate money to making it happen or supporting it.  Create a movement that’s ongoing that creates a movement across the world, that combats mainstream media constant negativity.

 

Tom:  What kind of network would make a space where ideas like this could find a voice and be considered by those who can make them into reality?  There are  many visions such as this.  What can we create to empower those visions?  Are we willing to take 10-20% of our time to make this possible?

 

Living statement on website.

 

What are the next steps for building a network that can have an ongoing exisitence?

 

What resources do we have now?

 

The wilki, blogs and websiteStoryfield.com (is currently owned by a project gathering stories in a regional area

 

Collectively allying to create the infrastructure… if there was a website, what would it contain?

 

•    Great organization so that people can find just what they want

        * list serves for each group linked to from a wiki

 

George brings us back to Vision with this quote:

“A How will ruin a good What everytime”

What is the common vison? That seems most important.

 

Vision is not necessarily one thing. It could be a unified project, a place where people could come together, or...

 

Tom’s ultimate vision is that this group develops into a capacity that the society has to recreate this Story Field over and over again, as needed, in inclusive, life-serving ways in order to support global survival and positive evolution.

 

Perhaps there is a synergy between the how and the what.  We need to look towards a future when we become more successful and attract a lot more people than we have now.

 

Sante Fe Institute – scientists interested in Complexity Theory – you could drop a bomb on the Sante Fe institute, but complexity theory would still be alive in the world. This could be like that – a space providing services for whoever needs them that can be re-created as needed. A virtual extension of this week – holding space for many things to happen.

 

Tipping Point – when there is a critical mass that embodied this idea, we can move on.

 

We can articulate the ideas behind this vision so clearly that the critical mass of society can take it forward beyond us. The group creates the synthesis – the contextual story – that each of us can go forward to produce our own projects taking those ideas forward.

 

There is no one ‘story’ - there are different stories… we can have agreement about underlying values embodied in the future – equity, justice, sustainability, non-violence, but there is no way to get agreement on the story itself.

 

These ideas provide a basis for which ANY story could be created.

 

Les: People here are committed to the whole, but not everyone shares that perspective and as individuals we each have different stories.

The organizing principles for a Meta Story depend on who is telling the stories.

 

Our stories here generally focus on our love for the planet, the species, the whole. What if we flip this idea, into the understanding that We are the whole, the community of humans, and our stories express our love for the parts.

 

This gives a great context for those of us drawn to so many things … we don’t have to be the one to take care of all the parts.

 

Tom is yearning for a community space using an open space model where there is space for everyone’s vision.

 

Let’s say you are both an individual and a part of the community. As a part of the community, you want to create a space where people can come together. As an individual you want to game to play, a project.

 

Michael has a prophetic voice, speaking with such certainty that it will probably turn off some people so they needed to address it. He couldn’t turn off certainty without losing his voice, but they changed the context of his work to the idea of prophetic inquiries.

 

Tom: I would like to create a space for the stories that is inquiry-based. Something that says “This is where we’re focusing right now – if you’re focusing somewhere else, that's cool. Come on in, and let’s talk.”

 

With the creation of the right circumstances, life energy comes to people. The content we need comes out of these spaces – the ones that evoke what needs to come up next.

 

Tom: I don’t want something defined so narrowly that life-giving energy can’t show up. What is the minimum infrastructure we need? Paul Hawken has set up his infrastructure so that people can take pieces of it and host it on their own site. He has a filter – the content must not be violent, etc. so for example he doesn’t include Earth First, because in his terms it is violent. But if someone else wanted to create a database of Environmental Actists that does include Earth First, they could just take his database and make it their own.

 

Lion G: Introduces Systemizing Stories through Parametric Analysis – to have a complete analysis of a story, you need all these identifiable parameters. He asks, "is this a useful model"?

 

Les: It feels like we’re having two conversations – it’s an open space, but there is an agenda, too. We can just lay it out clearly, and people will either be included or not. Let's be clear. What do you want to foster?

 

This conference is an example of what we’re talking about. How do we take the capacities that this conference has allowed and keep it alive and going beyond Friday? It’s not about the content, but rather, how to keep the conversation going. The stories are already imbedded w/in the community that is emerging, and can grow within those attendees and their networks.

 

Creating the capacity so that we can offer resources online to those people who would come to the well. Self-generating conversation.

 

Tom: An open space is a place where someone can say “I want to do this” and they can go forward with it and attract those who want to play. It is also a place where things no one has thought of can emerge.

 

Larry: Tools, technique, Task, Time And Teams. We’re toddlers – we’re the most advanced with the most advanced communication tools, but the existing system is not adequate to the task. Are there stories that three year olds could relate to. The toddler stage is the stage where you don’t know failure.

 

Les: I believe what we need is collectve passion, juice, vision, that calls to us all so that we respond to the call by continuing the conversation. What has already been born (pr may be born) is the calling, the collective calling. A spiritual realization that we are not just individual beings. We are also part of Being. I am also community being, and a big being, etc. When it comes down to issues - Global Being.

 

When enough of us can acknowledge we are Collective Beings, everything we do will express community’s love for the solution to the problems we face.

 

Adin: (reading from what came from an earlier session –Taking integrated new stories to mainstream culture: "We are each immensely powerful. Our daily choices are creating reality as it is..."

 

George: This is the structure and the form, the values, that are the dna, the underpinnings, of this idea. The elements that allow the people with their different ideas to play and develop. Like Craig’s List or eBay, we help people connect.

 

Back to what we have: wikis, blogs, list serve, Skype or conference calls (must be facilitated)

 

Don’t have: Networking software. Michael Shackman has software (will it work?). Or one idea (from Lion Goodman) is that we can use Zaadz. We can also check out Paul Hawken’s site. Three people team to carry help morph this community onto Zaadz: Amy, Lion. George.

Note: During a later conversation with other members of the tech team there were some differences of opinion about what platform or mash-up of software might be best, and there was an agreement that the tech team would meet and make some suggestions.

 

We also want to capture the Storie/s of this conference.

What are the ways that might happen?

•   Conference Notes/ wiki

•   We could make a Storyfield Vision Video

•   Film & Videos taken from the conference

•   Individual Blog Posts (all tagged with the same tag. We've been using sfconf07 on Flickr)

 

Where is the energy for a conference next year?

The idea combination woulf be Lion (Kimbro) & Vanessa! The old convening group will be happy to share their experiences with the new conveners. There will be a need for funding, as the money for this one has run out (the person who was at Kellogg who funded it is now at Fetzer). Kellogg might fund it again… two parts to the grant – doing the conference and one for research – for a total of $75,000. There are other sources for funding that might be even more appropriate, given their charters. Someone needs to do some research and make some connections. Anything below $100,000 she can get agreement from her supervisor right away.

 

We decided to take this conversation to the larger group to see who might be interested in convening next year's conference, finding funding, etc.