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1st Fridays of the Month
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1st Fridays of the Month
Hi All, You may already be aware that @manuela and @bobeng are coordinating a Channel McGilchrist members’ meeting on Zoom on the first Friday of the month at 6 pm CET.
Posting their Zoom link here for visibility.
Have a great discussion!Warm regards,
JenaManuela van der Glas is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82002305947?pwd=Q3c3M3FOQ2ZaV1NGNnArbTVTeHhtdz09
Meeting ID: 820 0230 5947
Passcode: 794220
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kvxJhqMf8
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33 Replies
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🙏🏻 Dear Jena, thank you very much for your support. With kindness, Manuela
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It was lovely creating a conversation with @Forest and @chrys about the way we attend and how it changes what we see, (fairy/,metaphysic’) handmade arts, beauty, being human/aware/conscious vs. machine/manipulation and our (limited) bandwidt of perception.
I enjoyed that exchange of perspective and complementing experience a lot.
Thank you for being there. 🙏🏻
I wish for you all that all goes well, inspired thoughts and actions will lead to good outcomes and look forward to continue our conversation on
Friday, 3rd of May 2024 at 6 pm CET.
With kindness,
Manuela
P.S. @bobeng I wish you a good month as well and look forward to seeing you next month again.
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Thank you and @Forest (and @boben) for getting this going. Really wonderful to see real human beings (even if only virtually.)
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Lovely that you were there Christina. I look forward to seeing you again then!
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I look forward to seeing you agian Bob.
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This sounds interesting; If I may, I’ll see you May 3.
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Wonderful, Peter!
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What time are we calling in on May 3, Peter? Somehow I’m always an hour off.
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Dear all &
@chrys @Forest @bobeng @pbarus
To make organisation smoother,
I created one zoom link for the coming first Fridays of the month meetings, which are:
May 3, 2024 18:00 CET / Amsterdam
Jun 7, 2024 18:00 CET / Amsterdam
Jul 5, 2024 18:00 CET / Amsterdam
Aug 2, 2024 18:00 CET / Amsterdam
Sep 6, 2024 18:00 CET / Amsterdam
Oct 4, 2024 18:00 CET / Amsterdam
Nov 1, 2024 18:00 CET / Amsterdam
Dec 6, 2024 18:00 CET / Amsterdam
Jan 3, 2025 18:00 CET / Amsterdam
Feb 7, 2025 18:00 CET / Amsterdam
Mar 7, 2025 18:00 CET / Amsterdam
Apr 4, 2025 18:00 CET / Amsterdam
May 2, 2025 18:00 CET / Amsterdam
Jun 6, 2025 18:00 CET / Amsterdam
Jul 4, 2025 18:00 CET / Amsterdam
Aug 1, 2025 18:00 CET / Amsterdam
Sep 5, 2025 18:00 CET / Amsterdam
Oct 3, 2025 18:00 CET / Amsterdam
Nov 7, 2025 18:00 CET / Amsterdam
Dec 5, 2025 18:00 CET / Amsterdam
To have the day/time in your calendar, please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87384960880?pwd=ZkxPaHczSXBscVFDTHJaZHlSak1WQT09
Meeting ID: 873 8496 0880
Passcode: 770577
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+15642172000,,87384960880#,,,,*770577# US
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Meeting ID: 873 8496 0880
Passcode: 770577
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbT5hrntVW
On: https://www.worldtimebuddy.com/
you can check your timezone, if the automated calendar entry doensn’t work.
I am very much looking forward to seeing you all again.
With kindness,
Manuela
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Dear all,
it was lovely that we saw each other @bobeng @forest @shannon @chrys @pbarus
Among other topics, we shared perspectives of language & identity, beauty, teaching & learning, being & presencing, history, friction & water/flow and why we are here.
A thank you to everyone for sharing.
We see each other again on Friday, the 6th of June 2024 at 6 pm CET.
I wish you all a lovely time with loads of inspiration and beautiful moments.
With kindness,
Manuela
PS. Anyone from the channelmcgilchrist is welcome 😊
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I was so glad to have joined this gathering. We had the most wonderful conversation! After a round of introductory remarks, we just soared, sharing from our own lives the ways in which Iain’s work has inspired so many different insights among us, bringing depth and clarity to our interactions in many different walks of life.
I hope to see you all again, at any excuse! Each one brought something that enriched us all. Thank you!
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Yes, thank you @manuela @bobeng @forest @shannon @pbarus.
As I mentioned, McGilchrist’s statement (here is what was said at the Conference on Iain’s work at CIIS) “if we could just get a small percentage, perhaps only 3% or 5% of the population, really to see what I’m getting at about the difference between this fragmented, pointless cosmos of random movements of pieces that have no meaning, no direction, and no beauty, no goodness, no truth. If we could get away from that in only a small fraction of the population, I think a lot of things would change.”
Hearing that, I find myself facing the question: what would it mean to “really get” what Iain is getting at? It is wonderful to encounter these ideas and have a sense that inner thoughts and feelings are affirmed.
At the same time, I am certain that doesn’t go far enough to meet the need of this threshold McGilchrist speaks of. I say that because I can (sometimes) see where I’ve bought into the madness. (Ideological arrogance is one that I sometimes recognize.)
If there is already a topic here where this is being discussed, please provide a pointer.
#3%
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Christina, Thanks for sharing that quotation and your questions. I like them. Yeah what would it look like?
I’m curious to hear more of his thoughts on that topic and yours too. I always wonder how ideas reach their moment and quicksilvery flow through a people. If I had to guess about the 3-5%, I’d guess it to be the top people in academia, corporations, policy-making, and government for the tipping point to work. Having met farmers and simple people in this world, I don’t think the beatific vision is lost on them. I think it’s lost on the most educated and powerful, sadly. But then there’s (possibly many?) would-be brilliants that hide their lights under a basket because of a hostile environment. Maybe that’s where the small percentage makes a big difference; first the status quo embankment is breached, then the river starts to rush.
I think it’s a lovely question to ponder, what it looks like for us personally to “really get” the message. I’m with you in that question.
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Thank you, Manuela, Bob, Peter, Christina, and Forest. I’m glad for the space we had together!
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Dear all
I hope this finds you all well and in good spirits.
This post is to let you know that I had to change my zoom login just now in order to be able to host our ‘First Friday of the month’ [ because our old host provider didn’t continue with its services and therefore my old login email is no more receiving e-mails with a log in code as verification.]
This is why our zoom link for our monthly Friday’s needed to change as well.
To make a long story short – here is the new zoom link:
https://us05web.zoom.us/j/81776254730?pwd=6D0ET12JZja2pHG6xJlHuMBRbBgbv3.1
‘Technology willing’ – we will meet today at 6 pm CET [Amsterdam time].
I hope you can make it and I am looking forward to to seeing you there.
With kindness,
Manuela
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What a great conversation today with Manuela. We were able to follow-up on Iain’s Q&A on Thursday and even spoke about conversation itself. Manuela noted the importance of silence in a conversation which resonated deeply with me. The absence of silence (in my experience) can indicate that participants are largely reacting (associatively) rather than responding to each other. With her hands, Manuela mimicked perfectly the superficiality of a ping pong-style conversation. And what can the silence bring? An opening for something larger to enter the conversation. Thank you, Manuela!
And there was much, much more. Too much to try to summarize. But I promised I would share some links, so here goes.
A friend recently shared a New Yorker article written by Nathan Heller. While the topic of attention is of interest to me, I found the article written as if to blur the line between fact and fiction, and maybe even a bit manipulative. Still, a sense that maybe there is something here.
There is this quote in the article:
Catherine L. Hansen, an assistant professor at the University of Tokyo (snip) “When I look at the world, I feel that something is being lost or actively undermined,” she told me. “Sometimes it feels like attention. Sometimes it feels like imagination. Sometimes it feels like”—she thought for a moment—“that thing you wanted when you became an English major, that sort of half-dreamed, half-real thing you thought you were going to be. Whatever that is: it’s under attack.”>>
(My response to Manuela continued in the next reply.)
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/05/06/the-battle-for-attention
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This past week, another friend suggested I listen to Ezra Klein’s interview with D. Graham Burnett – a name I remembered from the New Yorker article. (In fact, it was the New Yorker article that led Klein to interview Burnett.) Burnett was one of the original ‘Friends of Attention’ some of whom then developed the ‘Strothers School of Radical Attention’. Toward the end of the Klein interview, they share one of the exercises done at the attention labs at the Strothers School in which they listen to a short piece of music four times. For each the four, a mood of listening is suggested. For the first, ‘Just listen.’ For the second, ‘Recall’ (What do you remember?) For the third, ‘Discover’ (What are you hearing for the first time?) And for the last, ‘Don’t listen.’
It is impossible for me to listen to this interview and not wonder if there has even been an intersection with Iain’s work. (Though it may be that a tangible worldly connection is not necessary for an influence to have taken place.)
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In that interview, Burnett shares one of ‘The Twelve Theses on Attention’ developed by some of the Friends of Attention. These have been translated into several languages.
https://friendsofattention.net/documents/12theses
friendsofattention.net
Twelve Theses on Attention | Friends of Attention
Twelve Theses on Attention | Friends of Attention
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I love the 12 theses of attention, thank you for sharing Christina.
One phrase that caught my eye was ‘attention entrapped’ – this lead to the thought of ‘humans becoming more and more (automatically) tied to algorithms/ triggers – due to the dopamine release such an interaction provides us with and therefore one could get addicted to ‘loads of dopamine’ and therefore as Iain said “callus it over” and even more is needed – a vicious cycle that ‘entraps’ the ince free to roam attention (seeking that what needed / wanted to be found in the natural world? – I wonder) ..
I hope to see you again on Friday, next, the 5th of July – and continue our conversation.
Thank you, Christina. 🙏🏻
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Thank you for sharing this. For me it is difficult to listen to, and catch the sounds, make words and attach meaning to the words – because it is quickly spoken.
This reminds me of Iains’ last Q&A where one was inquiring about music.
It seems to me that our individual ears need to be tuned-in (trained) to perceive sounds and ‘make words/attach meaning’ to these sounds. In addition to that one’s perception also may differ due to one’s mother tongue that might have entirely different sounds, speeds and a carried meaning – as well as the levels of stress or allostatic load such a tens body (muscles / eardrums) carries and therefore is less able to hear.
In the past days I came across Alexandre Tannous whoms work regarding sound resonates with me: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/128-alexandre-tannous
What thoughts come up from your side?
thegreatsimplification.com
Episode 128
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When I try to do the 4 exercises, I perceive it as like ‘putting on glasses / a filter / a focus’ – depending on its ‘openness’ ie ‘just listen’, a variety of levels can unfold, like listening to my body, my heartbeat, how ot feels, listening to what I am thinking (now typing) – listening to the ambient noise, ie a pet snoring, an ambulance go by, ‘just listen’ – the washing machine turning, gushing water, … fascinating exercises.
Cristina, what did you ‘hear’ when you ‘just listened’?
I can imagine hearing the seagulls calling for each other or for treats or for food 🪿( = emoj goose – I know its not a seagull, but it is sharing the same colours of the feather – white reflecting, whereas black would absorb…)
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Dear Christina, thank you for being in the conversation and sharing your perspectives. One that stuck with me was: “…when I .. I don’t even notice the beautiful bay when I go out the door…” –
this happens in my body when it is ‘tense/pressured/stressed’ – it goes ‘tunnel view’ automatically (auto pilot) to help me reaching my goal most economically (energy wise) thereby ‘blocking out environment’.
I am very much looking for to our next conversation.
With kindness,
Manuela
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@chrys and @manuela, I love how you’ve continued your conversation. (I on the other hand find this platform cumbersome for such purposes 😞). Thank you @chrys for referring us to the New Yorker article and the related podcast. I did listen to the podcast and have yet to try the exercise. D Graham Burnett’s discussion about attention made think of Amishi Jha, whose work on attention in contrast seems more of a left-hemisphere approach. (And have they collaborated with one another?) Mostly the podcast took me back to a question that I’ve toyed with occasionally. Assuming that the way(s) we attend to the world is foundational (to what comes into being, to how the world changes us and the relationship between us), how can we manifest or channel with intention the way(s) that we attend? What are some practices to strengthen that capacity? This is where D Graham’s discussion helped. It’s my loss that after listening to the podcast a couple of weeks ago that I didn’t look up the Strother School for Radical Attention. They have live events at their brick-and-mortar location in Brooklyn, within 60 miles (96 kilometers) from my home in NJ. By the way, I just read and really enjoyed Fully Alive by Elizabeth Oldfield, who will part of Iain’s day-long program on 25 October. Looking forward to our next Zoom on 5 July!
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Dear Bob
It was lovely to read your post. Indeed, it seems to be close to where you live, but 95 miles, can be a distance – and it needs time to get there.
You mentioned ‘coming into being’. Two days ago I was watching the latest conversation with Iain on uTube – in which he mentioned that there is a “… electromagnetic field, a field that brings / pulls things into being…” This is very much in synchronicity with that what you wrote in your post. Lovely.
By the way – today is the 1st Friday of the month and we will meet on zoom at 6 pm CET [Amsterdam time] our zoom-link is: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81776254730?pwd=6D0ET12JZja2pHG6xJlHuMBRbBgbv3.1
The zoom link, I will post it in the ‘general section’ again, to ensure that the ones who love to be there, can.
Bob, I wish you a lovely morning and look forward to seeing you later.
@chrys I hope you can make it too.
With kindness,
Manuela
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Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting
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dear @manuela , @Forest , @janschloesser , and @chrys . because i’ve found this platform cumbersome, i agreed at the end of today’s call to start a whatsapp chat group for us (and anyone who will join our 1st friday calls). if you follow this link, it should take you directly to the group chat that i’ve titled uncreatively “mcgilchrist general discussion group.” then i will approve you and you’ll be part of the group. https://chat.whatsapp.com/IE0YJ9TkDqWHVJRjnophT2
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Hello Bob,
I cannot disagree with your comment about this platform being cumbersome. But I confess to misgivings about breaking off onto another app – especially without trying first to see how/if this one that Iain’s team has provided could be made to work. -
Dear Christina
just to let you know, I asked CMcG-support to look into ‘re-arranging’ the area so that it gives us a ‘better ‘chat’ overview’?
With kindness,
Manuela
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Thank you to @janschloesser for sharing that link.The drawing and awareness practices compliment things that reading The Matter With Things spontaneously brings up for me.
https://innerwilds.blog/p/solving-mcgilchrists-big-problem
innerwilds.blog
Solving McGilchrist's Big Problem (or, fix right hemisphere imbalance with these 7 weird tricks?)
He never really gives ideas for WHAT TO DO about hemisphere dominance; luckily, I'm here for y'all
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Glad to hear that the article was useful to you, Christina 🙂
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