Awakening from the Meaning Crisis
Dr. John Vervaeke has a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Toronto. An award-winning teacher, he regularly teaches Introduction to Cognitive Science. He also teaches the psychology courses Thinking and Reasoning and Higher Cognitive Processes. He is currently Professor of Cognitive Science at the University of Toronto.
In the past couple of years an amazing phenomenon has been happening in alternative media, One aspect has been the development of the Intellectual Dark Web and the Intellectual Deep Web. The IDW is a collection of increasing popular speakers and authors including Jordan Peterson, Sam Harris, Tim Ferris, Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro and others. These people are having incredible dialogs even with vastly differing views but are able to exchange ideas on far ranging topics in a meaningful way. Several of them reference John Vervaeke as a leading thinker.
Vervaeke has created an incredible series of videos on Awakening from the Meaning Crisis. We’ll discuss the introductory video and possibly a bit from a video on flow (which is where we hope to be in our discussions).
Link to the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54l8_ewcOlY
In February, 2017 San Diego Integral began the Focused Integral Group Discussion (FIGD) which is a meta-structuring format where we briefly switch into an agreed upon process to optimally utilize the We-Space. The objective of FIGD is to collectively feel deeper into any topic and promote a causal state experience where we briefly switch from a collective I to a collective we. A Focused Integral Group process is “running in the background” until a salient moment rises that we want to explore. This may be derived from a presentation, a poignant comment by a member, a poem…whatever has resonance and can be horizontally expanded by the collective. This moment is identified by the “moderator” who helps maintain focus.
FIGD have three parts. It begins with a formal focus, followed by commentary on the process and then a discussion. Each segment lasts for 3-8 minutes. We have committed to a minimal of three FIGD per meeting. We have found that the intensity of these collective focused moments have increased with experience and skill and seem to delightfully persist throughout the three phases. This is very much an experimental process we have been Improving upon after each meeting.
As previously mentioned FIGD was initially described for the February, 2017. The sequential evolution of FIGD can be seen in the PAGES tab above. New or returning members are encouraged to read these brief papers in preparation for participation. Updates have followed each SDI meeting.
SDI is committed to the creative advance into novelty.
If you have a topic suggestion please let us know and we’ll bring it to the conversation.