We are continuing the series of conversations with Antero Alli on an experiential medium called ParaTheatre. To have a better understanding of the context, and for the introduction of the speakers, please refer to the first talk in the series.

In this episode, we touch upon the following topics:

• ParaTheatre – how to start
• Qualities needed for this work
• Flexibility of ego
  • Ego as a self-image. Fixed ego is an attempt to preserve this self-image. Flexible ego is the ability to be at home with both self-image and its opposite.
  • Polarization technique as a way to support flexible ego
  • Flexible ego is the same as a strong ego; as opposed to big ego.
• On thinking before acting
• Existing conditions
  • Dealing with things that come up
  • Antero’s example – escaing INTO reality, instead of away from it
• Keeping a journal
• Talking with our bodies
  • We are continually sending signals
  • Becoming more conscious of these signals, and allowing their expression without the constant need to evaluate the appropriateness of your actions, as you would in a typical social context
  • Exploration of unfamiliar; creativity
• Codification project
• (Not) Mythologizing Archetypes
• No-form – nothing special
• No-form "conversion" period
• ParaTheatre from books
• Finding a language
  • And how weird it may look for an uninitiated observer

We are continuing the series of conversations with Antero Alli on an experiential medium called ParaTheatre. To have a better understanding of the context, and for the introduction of the speakers, please refer to the first talk in the series.

In this episode, we touch upon the following topics:

• Relationship to Space
  • The very first ritual – entering the room
  • Territorial instinct
  • Relationship to space and no-form
• Verticality
  • Virtical vs. Horisontal attention
• Asocial Intent
  • To avoid the burden of social considerations – approval, attraction, wanting to beat up someone, etc.
  • Not the same as anti-social (meaning "hostile"); instead, re-focused on relation to space around people
  • Allows for connection to "verticality"
  • Interaction with other people becomes from the place of offering, where one’s needs are already met by the connection to the vertical sources. The interactions become more authentic; you present yourself as you are, not as you want them to see you. You are not losing yourself in the other person. In contrast, most social interactions are based on meeting the needs, "what can I get from you", and very little vertical connection.
• Feeling the body deeply
  • ParaTheatre as a medium for triggering visions
  • Feeling the body deeply to find the visions / images that are
• Direct Experience
  • Choice of what to be true to
  • Ritual is not solving the conflict, but exposing the conflict, and interacting with it as the energy source for movement
• The Force of Commitment
  • Your capacity for follow-through
  • Commitment always determines the quality of the result, in anything you do.
  • Increasing the force of commitment
  • Fear (of inadequacy) is where commitment is most required. Fear is the beginning stage of converting fears into commitments.
• Integrity Point

Today we are starting another series of conversations with Antero Alli on an experiential medium called ParaTheatre.

Antero has been producing work in various mediums of theatre and
paratheatre since 1977 and, experimental video documents and feature
fiction films since 1993.

His paratheatre work is documented in his book, "Towards an Archeology
of the Soul" and in his videos "CRUX", "Archaic Community" and "Orphans of Delirium". Alli’s 2005 docufiction feature, "The Greater
Circulation", incoporates a paratheatre performance in a critically
acclaimed cinematic treatment of poet Rainer Maria Rilke’s "Requiem
for a Friend". His recent experimental feature, "The Invisible Forest" was inspired by the ideas of French Surrealist playwright/actor,
Antonin Artaud.

Twice a year, he facilitates paratheatre labs in Berkeley, California
with each lab having a focus on rituals based on specific themes, like
movements recalled from dreams, beginer’s mind, and others.

In this first episode, we touch upon the following topics:

• What is ParaTheatre?
• Reasons to do ParaTheatre
  • To get high, to get in a certain state of consciousness
  • Spiritual reasons, self-healing in a way. Experience communion with minimal interference of one’s beliefs, conceptions, ideas.
  • To stay honest to one’s impulses, get in touch with spontaneity, flexibility of ego
  • To induce visions: it’s a process of entering of feeling my body deeply; releasing energies that are trapped in my body, committing fully to the expression of those energies, and releasing images that have been trapped in the body with these energies.
  • Performance arts people enter because they’ve got into a rut of repetition, to let their talent take over
  • As a yoga: a physically intensive discipline with mind attention and intention and focus
  • Those who have outgrown the hedonic motivation, the need to get high, move to circuit 6 in a way
  • People who approach it more like a worship, more like a 7th circuit
• What is a ritual?
• Ritual as initiatic experience
  • Cultivate greater receptivity to the unknown
• Ritual Process
• Group Circle
  • Talk about what happened
  • Let off steam
  • Begin psychological intergation of pre- or post-verbal experiences

Happy New Year 2009 to all of you!

As the founders of RCG, we have gone a long way, and sometimes,
looking back, it is hard to recognize the people we were just over two
years ago. And yet, as we look forward, we see that the journey has
but just begun.

In the coming year, we have a whole bunch of podcasts already lined up
for you as gifts from the Radical Change Group, and from the people
and practitioners who are working with us, and through us, in bringing
this to you.

The coming year will see some exciting topics that the three of us
cover – the original trio of the three friends.

In addition, we’ll be introducing some new conversations. Some
highlights of the topics include:

• The talks on Shamanism with Ismana
• On 5Rhythms dancing with the originator of the 5Rhythms Gabrielle Roth
• Continuing our conversations on the strategy of the dolphin with Paul
  Kordis
• Speaking about a form of theatre known as ParaTheatre with Antero Alli
• Mythology with Paul Rebillot

And we’re going to have a new focus on a few other areas, such as the works of Buckminster Fuller that impacted us deeply, and the work of Joseph Campbell and Richard Roberts.

We are also going to have more regular blog posts on our webpage – please visit us, read it, and if you like it – share it with your friends, and help us spread the word.

Why are we doing it?

In the spirit of Positive Deviance, because some things need to be done – to cause both societal and personal change. The key questions that we ask are:

• What if… Transformational teachings were given as gifts, rather than traded for money?
• What if… You had access to iconoclasts and change makers on-demand, rather than at their limited availability?
• What if… The conversations were spontaneous, open, and emergent, rather than scripted, dogmatic, and dry?
• What if… Change was approached holistically, through the synthesis of many streams of thought?
• What if… The project was based on a sense of contribution to a vibrant community of like minded individuals?

The Gift Economy

This is a whole notion that we have started with the RCG. We want to get involved – help us shape what is becoming a shared gift, a shared reality, and also for you to take charge and shape it in your own ways.

Currently, we have two more projects going:

• Restoring some old tapes by Joseph Campbell and Richard Roberts, and
• The Buckminster Fuller project

For both of them, our goal is to restore these tapes and videos, digitize them for the modern media, and distribute it across the World for free. We need your help here, we need you get involved, in any way possible.

We also have a Listener’s Survey – please take a minute to fill it out, so we know what resonates with you and what doesn’t, and how we can improve this.

Technocrati Tags: Radical Change Group, Transformation, Gift Economy, New Year, Shamanism, Ismana, 5Rhythms, Gabrielle Roth, Mythology, Paul Rebillot, Joseph Campbell, Strategy of the Dolphin, Paul Kordis, ParaTheatre, Antero Alli, Positive Deviance, Buckminster Fuller