The Love Spores Are In!

As we discuss what an Evolver Social Movement might look like, I'd like to take a moment to point out that the seeds (or should I say Spores) of it are already taking root. Here's the early report-backs from this month's gatherings. We'll have more coming in over the next few days. I hope this gives fellow Evolvers an idea of how we are beginning to create community, not just online but in actual physical space. Personally, I think this is just a glimpse into what we can accomplish together.

I'd also like to give a heartfelt thanks to the regional coordinators and all their amazing effort and inspiration!

Blessings,
Jonathan

Love Spore Post-Spore Questionnaires

* * *

Atlanta

How many people helped organize the event? 3

How many people showed up? 45

Did you collaborate with any groups? No

Where did the event take place (name of café, yoga center, etc)?
Parkgrounds CoffeeHouse

What did you do that night (give brief outline/description)?
We had various presenters guiding us through different meditations,
excersises and conversations. We asked everyone to bring a gift to
this one. We bought a bunch of small gifts for those who did not bring
anything. Many brought a gift. After the intention setting ceremony,
we all sat in as close to a circle as we could and exchanged gifts to
the person on our right. This broke up the ice and raised the energy.
Then we had a presenter speak about opening your heart and lead us on
a heart rhythm meditation. We had another presenter do a heart chakra
opening excercise with the group, guiding us through various chants
and tones. We had a tantra teacher talk about tantra, individual and
couples practices, sacred sexuality and relationships. Lastly, we had
some one lead us on a moving meditation which slowly dispersed into
music being played and everyone moving about and dancing. This
concluded the night.

What themes came up?
Love, self love, opening your own heart space and exploring within
before being able to partner up. Individual practices for inner heart
exploration. Tantric exercises. Ejaculation, pros and cons. Honesty
and communication within a relationship. Intelligence of the heart.
Heart math. Heart energy field.

***

Baltimore

Your Name: Robin Gunkel

Regional City: Baltimore

How many people helped organize the event? Me- oh, thought I was going to get a break this month; )

How many people showed up? Probably 30, they trickled in through out the night

Did you collaborate with any groups? No, just our speaker, space, and musicians

Where did the event take place (name of café, yoga center, etc)?
The Yabba Pot, a vegan soul food bar

What did you do that night (give brief outline/description)?

The spore started at 7 and we actually got going at 7:30. We began with us in a circle with Mike and I talking about Evolver. Then I introduced Tom Swiss, our workshop presenter for the night. He gave a workshop on How Not to Flirt with a Goddess (Tom’s description below). This lead into a general discussion on flirting but also touched on redefining relationships away from economic power, cultivating strength in yourself, making connections with archetypes, creating your mental state through body language, becoming aware of the dynamic interplay of yin and yang energy, claiming back the commercial co-opted psyche, complimenting people on what they have a choice about, discussing the differences between polyamory and swinging etc.

We then had some DJs, a group called Plaeground, http://www.plaeground.com/ chill out the space with ambient soundscapes as some poetry was read against their music.

There was also a huge, delicious vegan chocolate cake for us- a gift from the Yabba Pot for my 33rd birthday, as we hosted the spore on my b-day.

Then after our spore, we all went to The Red Maple to see belly dancing and fire spinning. Fun, fun…

“How Not to Flirt With a Goddess
For the most interesting sort of sacred sexuality practices, you need a partner, which implies going out and trying to make a special connection with someone. Unfortunately mainstream society teaches us men to behave in some amazingly stupid ways to pick up women. We'll discuss some more sane and respectful ways to flirt with self-actualized and aware women. While this workshop is aimed at straight men, much of the advice is universal, and women and gay men are invited to come share their observations and advice.”

What themes came up?
Mentioned above

***

Boulder, CO

Your Name:

Jason Bowman

How many people helped organize the event?

1

How many people showed up?

35....almost double last month.

Did you collaborate with any groups? If so, which ones?

collaboration was between the many colorful and vibrant subcultural groups that attended the meeting. the co-creation of the event was based around making new connections and expanding the venn diagrams of our separate communities into a holistic sphere of interaction and understanding.

Where did the event take place (name of café, yoga center, etc)?

a warm and welcoming private home with a roaring fire and plenty of couch space.

What did you do that night (give brief outline/description)?

45 minutes of casual interaction and greetings began the gathering. i started the discourse by leading a brief meditation centering energy in breath. we each visualized our heart centers and then created an energetic connection between our hearts in the mind’s eye. we strengthened this bond in silence and then expanded our circle of hearts to include everyone on the planet and sent loving healing vibration out into infinity.

after the meditation, i opened up the floor for any initial thoughts related to the theme. it quickly became apparent that the theme was too broad and there were too many positive and passionate thoughts to have a focused conversation with so many people. so, we split into three groups. after a little more than an hour spent in 12 person groups we reconvened and shared the themes and thoughts that came up. highly present ideas made themselves known and we spent time melding them together in a warm and focused space. we closed the circle by creating a physical connection between everyone and then broke into casual social time.

What themes came up?

transactional vs. selfless love

language of defining love

polyamory

stages of love (self, partner, divine, four elements)

inner acceptance leading to outer compassion

friendship, familyhood

the need for continued dialog outside of the evolver circle

* * *

Chicago

Regional City:Chicago
Your Name: Smu

How many people helped organize the event? Just me.

How many people showed up? 5

Did you collaborate with any groups? Triple Dot Mas was a promoter who
is letting me use the room.

Where did the event take place (name of café, yoga center, etc)? the
Tonic Room

What did you do that night (give brief outline/description)? We had a
fascinating discussion regarding Love/ sex.

What themes came up? agape, philios and eros, monogamy, Palamory, we
took detours into problems with culture and "isms" but the evening
flowed in an organic way. A single human in time-space has gender. The
multidimensional being includes all which means it is both/and. So,
when you talk about erotic love at the human level there is a joining
of (little) self of one "gender" with the (little) self of another
person who is of a different or same gender. This joining can give
access to the multidimensional self. (Our spore conversation explored
the difference between "meaningful sex" and "f**king. One does need to
acknowledge that the act of making love can have differing qualities
and intentions.) Tantra is an art

***

Columbus

Regional City: Columbus, Ohio
Your Name: Robbt

How many people helped organize the event?
1

How many people showed up?
10

Did you collaborate with any groups? If so, which ones?
None, other than the Sporeprint Infoshop

Where did the event take place (name of café, yoga center, etc)?
Sporeprint Infoshop – a radical community center and library

What did you do that night (give brief outline/description)?

We had a go around about what interested people about coming to the Love
Spore and we discussed love and various aspects of how it is a social.

What themes came up?

We discussed love and what people thought about it. Love was seen as the
primary motivating factor for some people and permeated everything. Then we
also discussed polyamory and new people showed up and the conversation got
a little bit more lively. We ended up discussing relationships and the
origins of monogamy and patriarchy and somehow ended up with a discussion
about property and marriage.
The conversation ended with a go around about what people thought about
marriage, there was a variety of opinions as some of the crowd were happily
married and others were indifferent about it.

***

Long Beach

Your Name: Tony Damico

Regional City: Long Beach, CA

How many people helped organize the event? 6

How many people showed up? 75

Did you collaborate with any groups? If so, which ones?

Artists as Art, Tinderbox

Where did the event take place (name of café, yoga center, etc)?

The Sipology Annex

What did you do that night (give outline)?

pictures: http://ow.ly/16Bid

video: http://vimeo.com/9552835

Opening Poet: Mindy Nettifee

Introduction to Evolver, preview by Tony D

Opening Meditation: Yve Hart (opening the heart)

Artist Paul Hogue (introducing his live art piece), Curator Liza Mitchell (introducting the space)

Lacey C. Clark (talk on self-love)

Keith and Maura Leon (talk on relationships and communication)

bell hooks excerpt on defining love read by Christine Petit

Small group discussions “defining love” led by Isa Love

“Polyamory on Parade” group reading conducted by RS contributor Amy George

“Love Notes” open mic: 8 Evolvers read short poems or excerpts (led by C.P.)

Isabella Stoloff talk

Alyssandra Nighswonger: acoustic folk set

Isabella Stoloff did a shamanic healing, led a group meditation

What themes came up?

Self-love, relationships, polyamory, that we are bodies of light, the cosmic perspective on love, moving out of a fear-based reality, communicating better in relationships, the incompatibility of love and capitalism, defining love ourselves, the myth of love in pop culture, shamanism and homoluminous, moving forward in love as a community.

* * *

Los Angeles

Regional City: Los Angeles

Your Name(s):

Erin Shaw, B. Novic, Jill Ettinger

How many people helped organize the event?

3

How many people showed up?

about 45

Did you collaborate with any groups? If so, which ones?

N/A

Where did the event take place (name of café, yoga center, etc)?

Crescent Heights United Methodist Church, West Hollywood

What did you do that night (give brief outline/description)?

We began with our Evolver intro and moved into a brief grounding heart centered yoga session, followed by all the Evolvers introducing themselves by name, as we cast a circle to facilitate a flowing converstational space. Baza led the opening ritual, an exercise in Kardiamancy or heart divination. Then we conducted a world cafe, an interactive conversation game, and discussed the theme as a group, by spiraling throught these three questions –1) When have you felt most loved? 2) When have you felt most loved? 3) How can love transform or heal the world?.

Following, we introduced Evonne Heyning (an interactive experience producer) and Kaye Porter (a hypnotherapy specialist, and relationship coach), who gave us a preview of their upcoming South by Southwest presentation "Intimacy and Network Culture." They touched on passion and intention as renewable resources, multiple definitions of the word "partner," and how social media affects relationships. The Funkmeyers followed with a sort of neomonkey chant and an interpretive dance/talk about love and sex in the fourth dimension.

What themes came up? (see world cafe papers)

One of the most interesting themes was the idea that love is a matter of self acceptance and self reflection. Talking about love opens people up to it in a profound way. There is no right way to love; we are all unique expressions of the divine manifestation. Knowing that so much emotional baggage can emerge during this discussion, we took great effort to create a safe setting, and ground the group dynamic with yoga, meditation and by closing with dancing and socializing alike.

***

New Orleans

Regional City: New Orleans
Your Name: Ben Kappel

How many people helped organize the event?
2
How many people showed up?
18
Did you collaborate with any groups? If so, which ones?
No
Where did the event take place (name of café, yoga center, etc)?
Swan River Yoga Downtown

What did you do that night (give brief outline/description)?
We started off by screening a talk by Osho entitled "Making Love as a
Sacred Experience" followed by a couple of short clips talking about
Tantra. From there we gathered in a circle for a group discussion

What themes came up?
Monagamy vs Polyamory, Societal expectations, Astrology, Empowerment,
overpopulation, conscious love making, ltr's, parenting, Tantra

* * *

Portland

Regional City: Portland

Your Name: Justin Levy

How many people helped organize the event? 5

How many people showed up? 26

Did you collaborate with any groups? If so, which ones? No

Where did the event take place (name of café, yoga center, etc)? A private home

What did you do that night (give brief outline/description)? I started by giving the introduction—this is what evolver is about, etc… Then Fred (unsure of his last name) from the center for nonviolent communication gave a talk about his work and connected it to love. Very beautiful and heartfelt talk. He went into his personal life, his work in prisons, very emotional stuff. We then had a couple of our evolvers do a brief sound healing and meditation. We then had a Deanna Feeley, a local healer and therapist give a talk on love. She specifically mentioned sex, eros and love—how these frequently get confused and how to make things more clear within ourselves. Both talks included questions and answers from our community.

What themes came up? A big theme was the number of people in involved in love—love of oneself, monogamous love, polyamory. Love as an expression or a state of being, or even an energetic resonance. People also discussed their love wounds.

***

Salt Lake City

February 2010 LOVE

Regional City: Salt Lake

Your Name: Terra Cronshey (Tyro_Terra)

How many people helped organize the event? 4

How many people showed up? 29

Did you collaborate with any groups? Yes. If so, which ones? Flow Yoga and www.Live-On-Purpose.net

Where did the event take place (name of café, yoga center, etc)? Flow Yoga

What did you do that night (give brief outline/description)? Sunny and Monica directed an Alchemical Gender Circle where we openly discussed Love and Love Relationships. First the group gathered in a Circle and set in the intention. Next two circles were formed, women inside men. The women had an open dialog while the men witnessed without speaking. Then women and men switched. To close the night, a full circles was formed of men and women – those who hadn’t shared already that night were invited to share.

What themes came up? Open Relationships, perspectives on love as a changing, dynamic component of our relationships – not a fixed ingredient, roles of men and women, societal assumptions, pressures and ideals and ‘the shift’ – a sense of movement towards a new Love (a new understanding? New awareness? New entity? New formation? New gender perspectives?) The conversation clearly could have gone on much longer…

***

Sydney

Regional City: Sydney, Australia
Your Name: Luke Fullagar

How many people helped organize the event?

5

How many people showed up?

18

Did you collaborate with any groups? If so, which ones?

Yes.

The Sydney Polyamory group.

Where did the event take place (name of café, yoga center, etc)?

At a centrally-located café named ‘The Hive’.

What did you do that night (give brief outline/description)?

· We started with intros
· 10 mins heart meditation led by Tim Mansfield
· Our guests from the polyamoury group then took the floor and talked to us for about an hour.
· We then opened discussion with the poly guests for another hour.
· We broke out into more casual conversations afterwards.
· We walked through the upcoming sessions and discussed how we might organize the Spore meets.
· We also talked about putting together something for the local Burning Man regional coming up in June, and talked about having a movie night once a month as well.

What themes came up?

There was a lovely level of personal disclosure and intimacy about member’s interests and experiences with polyamory. Healing through a poly lifestyle was explored. Single people and people in couples were fairly evenly represented and the conversation was well contained in that.

***

Vancouver

Regional City:Vancouver BC

Your Name:Sobey

How many people helped organize the event? 2

How many people showed up? 30

Did you collaborate with any groups? If so, which ones?

Olive Tree Household

Where did the event take place (name of café, yoga center, etc)?

Olive Tree House (residence/community potluck house)

What did you do that night (give brief outline/description)?

We began with a brief grounding and centering meditation. Went into info about Evolver then an hour long slideshow about the history of love on the Earth including

esoteric traditions, cultural analysis and giving context of tantra both ancient and modern approaches.We ended with a collective Marriage to Self ceremony and kirtan and Rumi inspired song with audience participatory jamming and chorus singing.