Over the last few months, we’ve hosted a variety of events exploring diverse themes that we believe are important to making sense of the times we live in. We’ve delved into the nature of time and consciousness both in theory and practice with Jeremy Johnson, Bonnitta Roy, and Ivo Mensch. We’ve examined the nature of the metacrisis with Dougald Hine and Jonathan Rowson. We’ve considered the theme of darkness and its relationship to spiritual practice with Lorna Walker and Shanti Faiia. And most recently, we’ve explored the potential of music to respond to the metacrisis with Michael Bready, Greg Thomas, and Brother Phap Linh. (The conversations with Greg Thomas and Phap Linh and Ivo Mensch’s presentation on Futurability are not yet publicly listed on youtube, but as a subscriber to our substack you can access them early by clicking the link on their names.)
We’re excited to host more of these events in 2024 and look forward to creating more spaces for shared inquiry, but we’ve decided to make some changes. In the past, some of our events have been for paying community members only. Going forward, all of our public events are going to be free and open to everyone. We regularly receive messages from people all over the world wanting to join these inquiries - many from low-income countries - and while we are aware of the imperative to find ways to enhance our financial sustainability, we also don’t want to create unnecessary barriers to participation.
We also experimented with using the platform Mighty Networks as a hub for our community activity, but for a range of reasons, we’ve decided it's not the right fit for us. Instead, Substack will now be our primary means of communication. However, we still want to offer a way for those interested in our work to connect with each other, so we’ve activated the chat function within Substack - it’s like a group chat or live hangout. The best way to use the substack chat function is with the app:
To find the chat space, open the app, and you’ll see two bubbles in the bottom bar. When you click that you’ll see a row for the Perspectiva chat inside.
One useful feature of the substack chat app is the ability to start threads and reply within those threads. It’s like a 3D or nested version of WhatsApp. You can see how it works in this video:
Ideally, we’d like any subscriber of Perspectiva’s substack to be able to start threads and engage in conversations that interest them. However, with thousands of subscribers, we’re concerned that this could get a little messy and might be a challenge to moderate. So for the time being we’re restricting the ability to start threads to paying substack subscribers. Any subscriber will be able to reply, but only paying subscribers will be able to start new threads.
To kick things off, we’ve started a thread so that you can introduce yourself. You might like to share why you’re interested in Perspectiva’s work or share an article or video that inspired you recently. (Please note that any advertising will be removed).
Events over the coming weeks
Leading from Confusion with Jonathan Rowson
On the Thursday 21st of March at 4pm UK time (9am PST, 12pm EST, 5pm CET), Jonathan Rowson will host Leading from Confusion, a communal inquiry where Jonathan will begin by discussing a topic which he is confused about and seek to build a conversation with the group from there. Register to join below:
Antidebate Watch Party
And on the Monday 25th of March at 4pm UK time (9am PST, 12pm EST, 5pm CET), we’ll be holding a “watch party” where we’ll gather to watch the recent documentary we released on the antidebate. We’ll spend the first 25 minutes watching the film, and then move into a group discussion. If you haven’t seen the film you can watch it here:
If you’d like to more information on the antidebate check out the recent podcast Jonathan recorded with Jim Rutt: https://www.jimruttshow.com/jonathan-rowson-2/
We have more exciting projects in the works including new podcasts and books with Perspectiva Press and look forward to telling you more about our plans soon. If you’d like to support us, the easiest way to do so is by becoming a paid subscriber to our substack. Thanks for now!
We look forward to seeing you soon,
The Perspectiva Team
Hi - the zoom link to the Antidebate Watch Party isn't working. When I click on it I get a message from Zoom saying - 'Uh oh! You seem to have lost your way.'
I searched for the meeting on zooms upcoming events but with no joy.
The previous link for the 'leading from confusion' meeting works fine and links to zoom. So I don't think the error is coming from my side.
With just over 2 hrs to go, I'm hoping you receive this in time to look into it!
Thanks,
Richard