Cult to Culture
Tomorrow’s events:
Stoic Breath w/ Steve Beattie. EverydaySunday @ 10:00 AM ET.RSVP here.
Empathy Circle Training w/ Edwin Rutsch. October 4th, 11th, 18th, and 25th @ 3:30 PM ET. RSVP here.
Existential Kink w/ Carolyn Elliott. October 25th @ 5:30 PM ET. RSVP here.
Flowing With Unknowingness w/ Tyson Wagner. Every Sunday @ 8:30 PM ET. RSVP here. 60 mins.
An event to get excited about:
The Traumacene w/ Eric Garza. October 29th @ 8:00 PM ET. RSVP here.
Eric Garza visits The Stoa to discuss the term he coined: “the traumacene.” It is worth reading the article where he introduced the term: Awakening to the Traumacene.
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October 24, 2020
I got an encouraging email from somebody who recently discovered The Stoa, and he snuck in a cult joke:
I often find myself nodding along enthusiastically as I scroll through posts pausing to ask myself: fuck me is this what it is like to join a cult?!
I responded back:
It is not a cult. It is a culture.
A culture keeps all of the egos in check. A cult makes all of the egos subservient to one.
I do not like cult jokes. Another person made one before, and I hope that will be the end of them. I want to unpack here why this bothers me.
When people start making cult jokes in a sarcastic way like: haha, we are in a cult, then that is usually a sign they are in a cult, or they secretly and perversely want to be in one. I am reminded of Andrew Cohen, who created the EnlightenNext organization, and claims he experienced "cosmic consciousness" at a young age.
The Atlantic did a good video piece on him, called Holy Sh*t, We’re in a Cult, and it is worth the watch. It tracks how good-natured and highly competent people who want to grow spiritually can get captured in cult-like dynamics. Andrew, who does not seem like a bad guy, is surprisingly transparent about what he fell into. I do still get creepy guru vibes from him, but he is apologetic about what happened.
I sense he does have some spiritual capacities and insights, and that he was earnest in his attempts to build a more spiritual world. But he and his followers were unprepared for the intensity of group dynamics, and the projections that can emerge. They got caught up in a cult-like dynamic.
I imagine any cult jokes The Stoa has received or will receive is because of how unusual this place is. The jokes probably gesture towards how The Stoa does not fit neatly into any “Game A” organizational category, and how we have all of this “let us get into communitas” lovey-dovey vibes.
Somebody wrote this to me a month ago: I appreciate that you are a “steward” and not a guru.
Yeah, I am not another one of these spiritual-bypassing white guys co-opting Eastern traditions like Bentinho Massaro, who sit in front of an audience of hundreds of people and spout what seems to me to be feel-good spiritual mumbo-jumbo. I am not saying Benthinho does not have some spiritual capacities or insights, but that is all the more reason to be skeptical of a guy like that. Having spiritual capacities and insights can make you dangerous.
I am not enlightened or awakened in any Buddhistic sense. I don't even care about that. I am a Stoic. We Stoics look up to someone called the sage, and I never think I will become a sage. If anything, I am somewhat of a fuck-up, especially in the transactional Game A world, and this fuck-up stumbled upon a series of skills and traits throughout his life, such as: being hyper-organized, understanding social dynamics, being a decent-enough writer, and grokking the culture war—these skills afford me to be good (so far) at whatever this thing called The Stoa is.
The words to focus on in the above sentence: so far.
I am wary of myself, and I sense I am wary in a healthy way. I am also very wary about writing about the spiritual stuff I experience. I do feel like I am tapped into some daemonic energy, and sometimes things feel “channelled,” but maybe I should start writing like a normal person, and articulate this in the following way: I am tapped into some creative energy, and I sometimes enter into a flow state.
I have been feeling some parasocial projections towards me recently, and I understand how memetics work, and how belief systems can rapidly spread. People out there have a savior and guru hunger, and there are guys like Benthinho who are capitalizing on it, and making millions from it.
Somebody on Twitter wrote to me: You embody the archetype of Love. No. I do not embody the archetype of love. I mean, that sounds like a cool thing to embody, but that is being way too charitable for me. I am going to do my best to slap that parasocial shit away very fast.
If The Stoa or myself starts receiving too many projections, then I am out. This is not what this place is about. I like how we are focused on communitas here, that feels right. Perhaps the mission of The Stoa is to convert memetic tribes into embodied tribes, but now I actually feel called to push back on my previous comment: It is not a cult. It is a culture.
Maybe The Stoa is not a culture either, maybe it is a meta-culture: a place where the code of culture is rediscovered, which can afford a plurality of cultures to emerge from it. I do not think it is wise to expect some mono-culture to emerge from The Stoa, or that all of the people who come to The Stoa will get into communitas with one another.
I sense it is better to see this as a space where we co-discover (and re-discover) how to be together in a way that keeps all of the egos in check, while enhancing everyone’s individual sovereignty. This will give us the optionality of who we may get into communitas with.
Having the capacity to get into communitas with one another does not mean we need to get or stay in communitas with one another. That might not be the wisest course of action.
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