I am honored to be included to the list of presenters at the International Transpersonal Conference 2010 (Moscow, Russia). The list of presenters also includes Stan Grof, Alex Grey, Stanley Krippner, Dimitry Spivak, Jim Garrison, Bernard Lietaer, Andrew Cohen, Jenny Wade and others.
I will be giving two presentations (on June 24 and June 26). The first will be about the altstates.net project (one of the few projects of that kind in the field of altered states of consciousness research that is supported by a mainstream scientific organization) and the second will be about the Global Dialogue: Russian Contribution program I have been co-developing together with Dr. Mark Tourevski, Dr. Joachim Faust and others for more than a year.
Unfortunately, I couldn't visit Alex Grey's seminars and he leaves on the day I come to Moscow but I wrote a letter that I gave to my friend in Moscow so he would pass it to Alex.
Everything happens so quick in Russia (and the brand new world at large)...
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Interior Gulag
A few days ago I defended my thesis (that is, diploma). Basically, it means the end of the 5-years journey that fragmented my life and taught me an important lesson. The lesson is, if you want to jump into something for five years you had better be very conscious about what you are doing.
There was no joy. But there was a sense of freedom. Whole life is in front of me, and there are no deadlines, credit tests, and papers. I am responsible for my actions and for who I am.
Last week, just a couple of days before the thesis defense, I watched a Russian movie Karaul (1989). It is a movie that is worth being watched by anyone. I perceived it metaphorically as a story about what I have recently been calling "interior Gulag." Most Russians who were born in the USSR have it. The Soviet Union was a totalitarian social system which forced replication of specific patterns and states of consciousness in its citizens. One of the specific states it has been reinforcing in order to ensure that its citizens act as parts of a mechanism was the state of being a prisoner who is forced to do things he or she doesn't want or need—useless things, pointless stuff, hard meaningless work. Many people in today's Russia continue to live as if it was the Stalin's time and they were in Gulag.
I want to write about it in more detail. But now I am too tired.
Please be well.
There was no joy. But there was a sense of freedom. Whole life is in front of me, and there are no deadlines, credit tests, and papers. I am responsible for my actions and for who I am.
Last week, just a couple of days before the thesis defense, I watched a Russian movie Karaul (1989). It is a movie that is worth being watched by anyone. I perceived it metaphorically as a story about what I have recently been calling "interior Gulag." Most Russians who were born in the USSR have it. The Soviet Union was a totalitarian social system which forced replication of specific patterns and states of consciousness in its citizens. One of the specific states it has been reinforcing in order to ensure that its citizens act as parts of a mechanism was the state of being a prisoner who is forced to do things he or she doesn't want or need—useless things, pointless stuff, hard meaningless work. Many people in today's Russia continue to live as if it was the Stalin's time and they were in Gulag.
I want to write about it in more detail. But now I am too tired.
Please be well.
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