Oct 09

Bluelab is a developing non profit corporation providing new approaches to new media art productions. Bluelab will seek collaborative involvement on the part of many leading artists, filmmakers, performers, writers and musicians along with highly regarded spiritual teachers and leaders of other fields. Our hope is to aid in "The Great Work"--that of saving the world.

The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. Albert Einstein If one wishes to change the world, one must first become that change. Forbearance, patience and tolerance are the only conditions which keep two (or more) individual hearts united.

Hazrat Inayat Khan It seems that far too many people even sophisticated, intelligent and educated people have little or no idea what true community actually is. Perhaps even fewer have personal experience with it. Bluelab offers a way for talented and skilled professional artists to work together in a truly comfortable and supportive atmosphere with quality professional tools.

Bluelab encourages spiritual practice which can be defined in a wide range of interpretations but which simply helps individuals to relax controls and to effectively quell the personal ego and its influences. We re not interested in ideologies though many of us are personally dedicated to various religious or philosophical interests we re more interested in the experience. As Jung said, contact with the numinous (God) is what heals us .

As Joseph Campbell once said, "Religion is often a defence against the religious experience." It's clear to most of us that experience is what we need--not concepts. If one studies religion from a mystical perspective one finds a lot less to argue about.

The problem here is not with the mystics of the world. They have never been the trouble makers. Jimmy Hendrix is quoted as saying, When the power of love becomes greater than the love of power, there will be peace.

Wow! What a vision! This material is full of big, complex, good ideas.

I'm impressed! I also have a few comments but mostly I just want to say, as a fan of integralism, that the idea of Bluelab is sorely needed to help alter consciousness. I like it.

I was impressed by the depth and breadth of your vision. I can appreciate how much it needs the grounding of a good business plan. I was wondering, since I don't really know you, how far you have gotten with this ambitious and visionary project.

I am, I suppose, typical of your target audience/market. As such I couldn't help but notice that the documents you sent me all seemed to resonate with one voice. It is your vision after all!

But, it was striking that the documents seemed to have only one voice (except for the quotes), given the emphasis upon collaboration, I would expect the vision of Bluelab to be more multi-vocal. I would urge you to consider this. The impact is heightened, at least to those of us with collective sensibilities, if your descriptions of this important vision, take a variety of forms of expression (beyond the words of the world visionaries you quote).

I am concerned that the ideas and concepts that inform Bluelab are so potent, and so inspiring, that they are too far beyond even the most visionary of western artists. Have you already started building community with a group of artists? I should think that Bluelab could start becoming a presence in the art scene by building community now among the folks who s vision and willingness to collaborate the whole project depends.

I am concerned that your efforts to make the Bluelab vision whole will mean that you are presenting a vision that is too daunting, no matter how compelling and important. Two ways it seems like it could be daunting to me. The commitment required by the whole vision is massive, a life-time commitment, like your own, but I think you want to start people (even the most visionary of people) where they are.

Commitment needs to be acquired step-by-step. Secondly, you know the vision has to change (to accommodate others) so you need collaborators now. Too full a vision, with too much specificity, desirable as that is on some levels, inadvertently excludes those who need to be brought along (which is most everybody).

I would urge you, if you aren't already doing this, to start building community amongst the important constituencies that you hope Bluelab will include.
There are a multitude of good, I would say essential, ideas in what is moving you. I would like to see you succeed.

Even a broken attempt, that falls well short of what you have proposed herein, would be a great contribution. If you can pull-off the whole enchilada then great! But, what I'm saying is that I think the initiative is a good one, that I want to support in any way I can.

As I said I would urge you to do some community-building now, and I would be happy to help in any way my limitations will allow.
Interestingly, my own passion is not so different from yours. Before my stroke, I was hot to try and create a group learning lab, a space that was designed to facilitate and study groups involved in trying to evolve themselves and their members.

To me, this is an art now, and not really a science. We, it seems to me, could all benefit if we could study the best groups and group workers struggling together to become extraordinary. Perhaps Bluelab could also serve in this way.

The reliance on media to capture and present something different, new and unique is similar. My commitment is to helping humanity realize its own social potential. Community is clearly an essential ingredient!

There are a few basic things I d like to clarify from the outset. Triage is not a New Age venture. It is new and perhaps smacks of new agyess to the untrained eye, but it s grounded in ancient teachings, principles, and lineages.

One of the keys of all authentic religious or spiritual teachings is that they deal on very clear and practical levels with the human ego. It seems that much of what distinguishes true spiritual teaching from false is around how the ego is addressed and how power is dealt with. An ancient safeguard against corruption and abuse of power has been an established lineage and structure administered and taught from generation to generation by adepts who kept people who were unprepared to handle spiritual gifts from technologies that could be exploited toward their access.

Today, anyone anywhere with a computer and modem has access to vast libraries of esoteric knowledge which, as with anything in this world can be abused and exploited for wrong purposes. We hope to be wise enough to learn from the treasure troves of available contemporary writings often assembled after terrible debacles that resulted in harm and pain for many people before they were recognized and deconstructed.
I am not promoting myself as a teacher .

True teachers are almost without exception sanctioned to teach by recognized lineage holders. I am an ordained Sufi minister or Cherag but in my tradition this does not confer any particular authority. In our Kansas City community we have a Sheik who is our leader here and we have others in our lineage that he answers to.

Our Pir or spiritual direc or of our lineage, Shabda Khan has a teacher that he still talks with and receives guidance and direction from. Unless there comes a day when my teacher tells me to teach I will not misrepresnt myself with such a title. To those who understand the full gravity of teaching and the responsibilities inherent in guiding human beings spiritually, the awesome liabilities of such a position are sobering.

There is a reliable network of reputable and authentic teachers throughout the world and as with any field most are known to one another. Through such knowledge of one another, there is accountability. Charlatans are usually spotted and reported upon fairly quickly.

Unfortunately for every real and authentic spiritual teacher there are perhaps twenty-five who range from less than ideal or poorly informed to outright frauds and again, one quick safeguard is the pedigree of the teacher. Who is the teacher s teacher? What spiritual school or lineage is he or she linked to?

What are the senior students under this purported teacher like? Do they seem healthy and balanced and sincere and at least in some ways, mature? What do they say of their teacher?

What if artists were offered stipends, room and board allowing them to come together and to work intensively and without distraction for substantial blocks of time on film, music and real time performance collaborations? What if artists and thinkers could explore important issues in depth leading to transformational theater, installation, film and music? What if these artists were guided by experts through a structured community building process prior to beginning to create their projects?

What if artists were given opportunity to work with and interact with some of the leaders of our time in the fields of art, science, and philosophy? What if these artists were given all the production equipment and technical assistance they might need to produce global quality shows? What if supporters and friends of our organization were given intimate amphitheater access to segments of our artists processes as well as early rehearsals, scheduled meals, activities and fellowship?

What if the productions could be built and performed with some eventually touring the US and the world? Nothing is more challenging, nothing less sentimental, than the invitation of spirit to become who we are and not who we think we ought to be The new monk wears an invisible robe. Thomas Moore, the Religion of the Soul The question is no longer how did we get here, and why?

But, where can we possibly go, and how? We live in a society that has drastically narrowed our sensitivity to moral and spiritual issues; the problem we face is how to deal with a belief structure that has blocked both psychological and spiritual development. If there is a new agenda, a new vision now emerging within our society, how might one help put it into practice?

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bluelab is being developed upon the issue first posed by Einstein, "a problem cannot be solved at the same level of consciousness in which it was created. It has become evident to many that in order to meet the problems we face as a species we must embrace a radical revision of our beliefs and our behaviors. bluelab functions upon the strong presumption that artists likely figure significantly into the revisioning of a new world and the invention of ways to communicate our discoveries.

As we all learn more and more about our essential interconnectedness it also becomes increasingly evident that artists can t function in a social vacuum. The label of artist is only used as a signifier of persons with specific media skills and training who are fluent in creative processes and who have some professional link to art. In terms of the way bluelab will in fact function, we are working to develop a sound and effective approach to community building which relies heavily upon time tested processes that are well understood and are seeking the help of people who are expert in these processes.

Why all the talk of community ?It is our firm belief that by building works in a heightened communal space we will in fact be building works potent with transformational energies. Jung talked about the distinctions between liminal or transformative space and liminoid , or works that are simply entertaining.

With a hard look at where we are at as a species and planet it seems like simple math that we must link art making to the real task at hand that of saving the earth. bluelab has been founded by Jeff Hogue and created out of a perceived need to reconsider art making and professional collaborative art practice proceeding boldly from visionary prerogatives. We don t find fault with the many artists who will not be drawn to what we are doing for spiritual practice and its interface with collaborative art making are not for everyone.

In light of our present global endgame scenario it seems frivolous at best to argue over rhetorical issues. bluelab is intended for the Great Work --that of joining leaders of many fields worldwide who are engaged in the work of saving the earth. We believe that perhaps the only way to meet these challenges is to deeply transform ourselves which implies structured spiritual practice to be determined by each member for her or himself.

This is the turning point. When serious professional artists are willing to embrace the rigors of authentic spiritual practice, the work of community building and heightened artistic collaboration will undoubtedly fall quickly into place. The abundance of quotes from Sufi teachers have been included simply because they are part of my daily practice and do not infer a direct link between bluelab and Sufism.

In point of fact, any serious spiritual practitioner must see that there can be no schism between the teachings of true Sufism and any sincere humanitarian interest. In the interest of those who may fear some sort of covert Islamic link, Sufism as it s practiced and defined by and large in the West is Universalist in its orientation and in fact many Sufi s roots are Christian and Jewish. Save us, our Lord, from the earthly passions and the attachments which blind mankind.

Save us, our Lord from the temptations of power, fame and wealth, which keep humanity away from Thy glorious vision. Save us, our Lord, from the souls who are constantly occupied in hurting and harming their fellowman and who take pleasure in the pain of another. Save us, our Lord, from the evil eye of envy and jealousy, which falleth upon Thy bountiful gifts.

Save us, our Lord, from falling into the hands of the playful children of earth, lest they might use us in their games; they might play with us and then break us in the end, as children destroy their toys. Save us, our Lord, from all manner of injury that cometh from the bitterness of our adversaries and from the ignorance of our loving friends. Amen Some renaissance theologians worked hard at reconciling paganism with Judaism and Christianity.

We have yet to achieve this détente that is essential to the life of the soul. Fragments of our hearts and minds are located in the garden of Gethsemane and in the garden of Epicurus, on the zodiac of the Apostles and on the zodiac of the animals, in the wine of Dionysus and in the wine of the Eucharist, in the psalms of David and in the hymns of Homer. It is not a matter of belonging to a religion or professing one s faith, it is a matter of orientation in life and participation in its mysteries.

We can all be pagan in our affirmation of all of life. Christian in our affirmation of communal love, Jewish in our affirmation of the sacredness of family, Buddhist in our affirmation of emptiness, and Taoist in our affirmation of paradox. The new monk wears invisible robes.

Thomas Merton travels across the globe, and in the home of Eastern monks, dies. Isn t this a myth for our time and about the resurrection of the monastic spirit!