This is a guest post by Lynne Desilva-Johnson, cross-posted from her blog, The Trouble with Bartleby
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So… I’ve begun writing a book. On Evolution.
(
What?! I know. It sounds crazy to me too.)It’s hard to start a sentence with “basically” about the book’s concept, but it boils down to the idea that we are “aevolving,” or, “auto-evolving.”
That is to say, I propose that we are in the process of evolving our selves, not only generationally but laterally.
Which brings us to The Big Caveat:
I am not an empirical scientist, nor is the book by any means an empirical exercise.
If there must be a title, I am a philosopher (and poet) …though I am fond of “alchemist,” as well.
While I am the first to admit that while my background includes a love of an relationship to hard science, I also wish to stress from the outset that neither I nor this book intends or suggests to offer the type of “truth” allowed for via empirical methodologies.
In fact, this study relies on the opposite: an understanding of strict empiricism as limited by our own perceptual limitations. At the same time, though, it always allows for and wishes to engage with those instances where (despite our limitations) we feel, intuit, perceive, detect, and are able to document “proof” allying with my theoretic explorations — in the lab or beyond.
The first hint in cyberspace that this project was underway was my recent call for “forward thinking evolutionary biologists or similar” which went out into the twittersphere as well at to the Next Edge and Federation/Emergence Collective groups via Facebook — a move which has already and will continue to prove essential to the evolution of the book, in ways that in fact demonstrate some of the concepts I will outline as we move forward.
That is to say — our evolution, in the way I propose (which isn’t necessarily a new phenomenon) has been accelerated to the point of visibility only via its collusion with a peak in technological/systems capabilities that have allowed our patterns of communication to begin operating at a similar speed and in similar, seemingly “chaotic” patterns — algorithms central to other organic/universal (ie, biologial, mathematical, ecological, astological) phenomena.
Not only do I have no wish to claim this book as empirically “true,” I also have no desire for a traditional, academic-intellectual-ontological “ownership” of its evolution in my own psyche. As I pull from my various inputs and experiences, the exponential bibliography of study and happenstance that has led to my being able to derive and put forth this treatise, I wish to humbly put forth that this is OUR book. I happened to have the series of personal, epistemological crises necessary for its emotional outcropping and eventual writing but I also know it to be the outcome of interactions, systems, energies, and knowledge far beyond my capacities.
This book, in its writing, has been and will be pulled from a range of resources. It relies on an intellectual tradition (as well as silenced counternarratives), personal and social observation, and perceptual phenomena both personal and shared. Critically, it relies on a vast pool of shared resources, drawing for each of its chapters from the deep wells of inquiry I have the priveledge to be privy to across a wide range of disciplines both intellectual and spiritual. Friends, friends of friends, and contacts from every area of my life — all of whom I like to consider friends in deed.The intention is to document the process of this books
own Aevolution as I write via chapter treatments and research, posted via my blog and concurrently on
Emergent by Design.
Considering that I still, somehow, work two jobs totalling 50-odd hours a week (neither of which are at a computer), am doing my very best to give all I can in support of Beckett Rose and her Daddies, and co-edit a magazine launching next month, I am grateful to still have the mental acuity to write this at all! What this means, though, is that posts more frequently than monthly are unrealistic.
In the interim, of course, I will continue to seek collaborators and resources, and of course will be very grateful for any guidance towards (or offers of) funding to help me complete this project. I may, in fact, decide to Kickstart it… but I’m still very Borges-like in my fear of over-publicizing something yet so nascent beyond a controlled sphere.
What you see below is a guiding quote, from French lettrist Gabriel Pomerand, and my working Table of Contents. I hope that within a week or so I’ll be able to post another introductory blog further unpacking the essential theoretical components behind this hypothesis… please note that as these first theoretical ideas form they are not always entirely ready for deconstruction and deep dissection, and as such I may not automatically engage in theoretical debate (yet).
However, please contact me if you feel inspired to share personal observations or stories, contacts, resources, structural or practical meta-suggestions, or other (gentle) thoughts of any kind. I thank you for your time, your support, and your (anticipated) patience during this process — I could not have, can not, and will not be able to do it without you.
ONWARD!
Lynne DeSilva-Johnson
2.9.2012
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AEVOLUTION :: An Auto-Evolutionary Treatise
I want to work the miracle which is precisely the act
whereby one comes to no longer believe one’s own eyes.
– Bernard Pomerand
Contents May be Under Pressure
Preface: Intention and Goals, Framework, Intellectual Heritage
Introduction: “Aevolution” unpacked: theory and practice
BACKGROUND THEORY
The Science and Spirituality Dialectic:
Hard Science (Pun Intended): Empirical Underpinnings
Magical Realism: Esoteric Wisdom Traditions
OBSERVABLES
Cultural Output/Materia
Avant Garde/Creative Experimentation and Expression
Evolution of “Language”/Universal Communication
Channels of Practice: Tattoos, Technology, and Transcendence
– Auto-Aesthetic and Interperceptual Markmaking – Includes/not limited to Body Modification and Dress
– U-Topia: Liminal/Palimpsestic/Rhizomatic Environments/Rituals/Events/Use of Space
– Emergent Efficiencies: New Technologies, Avatar Activity and Quantum Simultaneity
– Queer to Stay: Genderfluity as an Evolved Body/Mind State
– Transcendence: Lightwork, Psychedelia and Energy Bodies
Conclusion: AEvolutionary Manifestation and Intention: A Practical Guide
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**the image here is from
Esther Johnson, a contemporary artist residing in Mississippi, USA
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Lynne DeSilva-Johnson prefers to be described in the universal language we’ve only begun to (re-)learn. In lay English she can be called Poet, Educator, Philosopher, Alchemist, Friend, Artist, Writer, Healer, Conduit, Rogue, Free Spirit, Instigator and occasionally Curmudgeon. Her students think she is Eccentric, and she likes that very much indeed.She can be found at
The Trouble with Bartleby, via
@onlywhatican, and lurking in the cobwebbed corners of the mental universe.
emergent by design 
