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Planetary Citizens Empowerment Work/Playshop
an ongoing experimental work/playshop
Next Organizing Meeting: Thursday, January 16, 7-9PM, 2003
at LifeArt In Keene
PCI is a grassroots movement to empower people to live their life of the dreams within the context of a healthy, connected
community and planet. When we are living out of our highest vision for the planet, we cannot help but be successful personally. By activating our inner spiritual fire and talents, we learn to become conscious
co-creators instead of cynical spectators.
PCI is a is an opportunity for people to gather to engage in a deeper level of conversation than normally happens in our social and
political spheres. Our fundamental question is, “What future do we want to inhabit?” We then focus on how to manifest our life-affirming visions, and how to work harmoniously with others to uplift our community,
the environment, and all of life. PCI is metapolitical and metareligious. It is a place where everybody belongs and has a voice.
PCI has two components: 1) a Core Workshop and 2) Project Circles. The Core workshop, slated to begin in February, is a weekly experiential
training that addresses the fundamental issues of creating the life we envision for ourselves. With theatre games, improvisational sounding and movement, energy exercises, and other processes, we learn to “inhabit
the body” of our future self. We playfully address spiritual, psychological, and social challenges and develop skills for living a centered, peaceful, and creative life.
The PCI Project Circles are where the ideas generated by the Core Workshop and other visioning meetings are put into practice. So far
members are discussing such projects as a buy-local initiative, local currency (time dollars), free holistic clinic, meditation groups, prison outreach, a website, and other community activist projects. One does not
have to participate in the Core Workshop in order to participate in a Project Circle.
Initial meetings of stakeholders
in November and December generated an abundance of ideas, including: a"buy local" database, a local bartering/time dollars initiative, peacework training
in schools, greater community involvement in environmental issues, free holistic clinic, drug-free rave dances, zen meditation groups, and life skills training.
We must be the change we want to see happen in the world.
-- Mahatma Gandhi
The Planetary Citizens Empowerment Work/Playshop is a high-energy, playful, and
transformative context for supporting individuals and groups in becoming conscious, responsible, loving and creative agents of change at the local, national, and global levels.
The workshop takes the position that only when we live from our deepest sense of creative passion, combined with our highest vision for community and planet, can we be
truly happy and alive. The workshop aims to transmit skills for enhancing one’s sense of purpose and connectedness, for transforming fear, cynicism, and other self-defeating
patterns, and for creating synergy and win-win agreements among individuals. As the workshop develops, it is anticipated that participants, individually and in self-selected
groups, will dedicate themselves to one or more areas of personal, social, environmental, or political activism.
During the course of the workshop we will be open to exploring issues of identity,
relationship, gender, race, status, economic opportunity, sexual orientation, politics, and other issues relevant to personal and planetary evolution. Group activity will center
around theatre games, role-playing, dialogue, and creative self-expression, where visions, hopes, and challenges can be acted out, and new choices for thinking, feeling,
and acting can be exercised and integrated into one's daily life functioning. The workshop aims to assist individuals in developing the following skills:
- Visioning Positive Futures by expanding one's mental concepts beyond
socially-conditioned limits. Positive imagination is an act of will that paves the way for the realization of our visions. It is also an act of faith because it requires us to
step beyond the appearances of our current reality and to hold the space for something better to emerge. To do this we must learn to release destructive
patterns of hopelessness, cynicism, blame and negativity, and to cease resisting and opposing what is and instead offer positive alternatives.
- Developing Deep Purpose. By opening to our own deepest desires as well as to
our spiritual calling, we develop the strength of character that helps us choose the healthiest and most self-fulfilling life path. Our purpose is our pole star, guiding us
through the many distractions and temptations along the way, helping us to stay focused and to be powerful manifesters and effective agents of change.
- Developing an attitude of Interpersonal Synergy where we come to recognize
our power to deeply affect the quality of other people's lives, and how joining with others can multiply our creative energy. Skills here include networking, listening,
and working through relationship tensions.
- Developing the Inner Observer so as to step beyond one's own mental and
emotional patterns and to experience the still center within. This process helps us to attain depth of insight in which we learn to look beyond the surface appearance
of things and thus to appreciate the deeper purpose behind all events. In this way we also develop and a attitude of inclusivity in which we transcend the
us-versus-them polarization that perpetuates fear, anger, and violence.
- With a strong inner observer, we can begin to apply Self-Management Skills to
help us step back from our dramas and transform the inner tensions that lead to outer conflict and unhappiness. These skills include self-regulation of thoughts,
transformation of fear and negative emotions, and strengthening of ego boundaries in relationships, for example, through assertiveness training.
- Radical Empowerment is an attitude and a practice of standing for the highest in
ourselves and others, and acting in ways that enhance the quality of love and unlimited possibility in our world. With radical empowerment, we find ourselves more
courageously acting in ways that further our purpose and vision, more willing to speak our truth to others, and more capable of inspiring others to live from their highest integrity and vision.
- With the development of these skills, we are ready to become powerful Planetary Activists
for creating positive change in our communities, our nation, and around the globe. Such activists are expert networkers and organizers, and are creative, resourceful, and determined leaders in the quest to create a positive future for
everyone and everything in this planet.
Participation in this work/playshop is by application only (this does not apply to
upcoming organizing meetings or to Project Circles). The reason for this is that the process is powerfully transformative and requires adaptive ego strength. Adults age 18
and over may apply. Suggested donation will be $10 per session. Proceeds goes to support PCI programs and LifeArt Center.
We are looking for participants to make a commitment to be present at each session, if
at all possible. Beginning in February, the plan is for the group to meet one evening a week, from 7-9pm at LifeArt Center (definite days/times will be confirmed soon; other
days/times/locations may be considered depending on group size). I encourage those of you who are interested to be present at all of the organizing meetings, to help us develop awareness and momentum.
If you are a facilitator (or would like to be one) and have skills you feel would contribute
to the processes of the workshop, or just wish to be part of the development process, please contact me. We are looking for a wide range of individuals to be involved, not only
as participants, but as leaders, networkers and supporters of the process. The intention is that out of this experimental process will emerge a rigorous vehicle for transformation
and empowerment that can be ultimately be shared locally, nationally and internationally.
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