“We need a philosophy we can smell, a pheromonal philosophy that draws us into the liminal and gives us the tools to navigate it. And it will not be the intellectuals who get us there. It will not be the autistic machinations of Silicon Valley, or the frothy mouthed proclamations of activists. It will be the artists, the shamans, those who go deeply within through embodied practices, the makers and doers and dancers. It will be those who are not talking about entering the liminal, but those who live there and know it like a second skin. ” – Alexander Beiner
Jean Gebser was a 20th century cultural philosopher who deeply valued the arts and what we could learn from them, and pointed the way towards a future integral consciousness that lives into the liminal spaces. His magnum opus, The Ever-Present Origin demonstrates the importance of moving from a Quantitative orientation to the Qualitative. Jeremy Johnson has written an excellent introduction to Gebser’s thought, covering the major themes of The Ever-Present Origin, and making clear its continued, and in fact increasing relevance to the culture of today, and of tomorrow. Check out Seeing Through the World: Jean Gebser and Integral Consciousness, by Jeremy Johnson.
Near the end of his life (1973), Gebser wrote another book, Decline and Participation (to me a fascinating title), which has not yet been translated into English. Johnson offers a short excerpt that has been translated (via Georg Feurstein). In this exceprt, Gebser discusses the qualities of the integral human being (homo integer).
“Haste is replaced by silence and the capacity for silence;
Goal oriented, purposive thought is replaced by unintentionalness;
The pursuit of power is replaced by the genuine capacity for love;
Quantitative idle motion (Leerlauf) is replaced by the qualitative spiritual process;
Manipulation is replaced by the patient acceptance of the providential powers;
Mechanistic classification and organization is replaced by the “being-in-order” (In-der-Ordnung-sein);
Prejudice is replaced by the renunciation of value judgements, that is to say, the emotional short-circuit (Kurzschluss) is replaced by unsentimental tolerance;
Action is replaced by poise (Haltung);
Homo faber is replaced by homo integer;
The divided human being is replaced by the whole human being;
The emptiness of the limited world is replaced by the open expanse of the open world.”
(Gebser, Decline and Participation)
Now read that again, slowly, with long deep breaths between each statement, as I’m going to do right now…
When I do this, my whole nervous system slows down and relaxes into this quiet, calm, less hurried liminal space.
integral permaculture 
Oh, I love that one.
The concepts of resistance and activism have been undergoing quite a bit of scrutiny themselves — here, here and here to point out just a few examples. (The briefest of Internet searches on the toxicity of “call-out culture” alone actually turns up quite a few excellent examples.)
I’d hazard to guess that if “activists” redirected their energies — away from other, at root, inviolable persons and toward the forces behind the forces of oppression, to cite but one example — we’d be much further along the “Red Road” than we are today.
At the moment, though, “activism” primarily reflects the language of war and totalitarianism itself or, in other words, the “divide and conquer” mentality itself; and “friendly fire incidents” are presently the norm.
Thanks for the introduction to Naked Conversations. I’m always pleased to run across people who appreciate the power of conversation.
Thanks IW. Are you familiar with Rebel Wisdom? You might enjoy this…
I may have stumbled across Rebel Wisdom in my travels now and then. Not this particular interview, though. Thank you. There is definitely some good stuff to be found there.
Wheal is, on occasion, speaking my own “native” language (resonance and dissonance, etc.), but honestly loses me at “global-centric.” Also, what is being termed “conversation” here is, in actuality, ideological debate — and heated ideological debate at that — which in our time, strikes me as so much beating a dead horse.
But there is “no way out but through,” as they say.
This is great! Thanks. It’s good to see you writing again on your blog. I’ll be curious to hear more what you think of the ‘liminal’.
Angela Presence and Flow
On Sat, Sep 7, 2019 at 9:31 AM integral permaculture wrote:
> davidm58 posted: “”We need a philosophy we can smell, a pheromonal > philosophy that draws us into the liminal and gives us the tools to > navigate it. And it will not be the intellectuals who get us there. It will > not be the autistic machinations of Silicon Valley, or the fro” >