Friends of mine offline who are into New Age work often ask me how a Sig like this works. I am writing this mainly for them, for those who have trouble explaining it to their offline friends, and for any new user who might be in here for the very first time. The following are some questions I encounter and some answers.
"Isn't this the antithesis of everything the New Age is about? Don't computers dehumanize? Aren't they harmful? Isn't the New Age about getting in touch with yourself, about appreciating nature and the environment? So how does a netwrok like this fit in? And how can this beat a live workshop fulled with different people?"
We are surfing on the wave of the New Age and part of this New Age includes the transition into technology. Computers are becoming a way of life for almost everyone.
Can it beat a live offline workshop? You bet! Can you attend a workshop in your underwear and bathrobe?? One of the advantages of doing work like this online is that we have the opportunity to meet people from all over the Earth..and not only make contact with them but interact and become more intimate than any weekend workshop or seminar as we have daily contact with those we wish to. Non-users can't comprehend what a Conference online is like! How you can FEEL the energy and the mood of the people in the room. How meditation exercises online and Full Moon Healing can and DO work. Nor do they understand how it can beat a book at times as here you have live writers who will give you instant feedback, as well as being able to get a variety of ideas, information and opinions from scores of people. Real live human beings.
Dehumanizing? Unhealthy? Studies are being done on the health effects of computers but what about a 4 hour evening sitting in front of your color television watching garbage sit coms and degrading advertising??
The power of a network like this is almost infinite. We are communicating new ideas, meeting different people, and interacting with friends online. The databases and forums ARE electronic publishing, where virtually anyone who can string together a sentence (and some who cannot) have the opportunity to write, be read, and get instant feedback.
This is not a substitute for offline lectures, workshops, private meditations or nature but it is a darn good addition. Unless someone has experienced telecommunicating, it is very hard to describe it.
We, in the New Age, speak alot about mind expansion. I think this is not only mind expanding but it is mind blowing too! The term the "Collective Unconscious" is used alot. I view us here as the "Conscious Collective" though I am aware of at least one user who is semi-conscious, drinking Thunderbird, during Tarot Workshops.
We are contributing to the building of the New Age with very New Age tools. Crystals inside of computers! Channeling our energies across phone wires and mainframes and nodes to other minds all over the planet. Can it get any more Uranian than this?
One day, in the future, your grandchild may ask you "How did you and Grandpa start the Affirmative Advertising Agency in Blue Bell, Pa?" And you might reply:
"Well, your Grandfather and I met in a Tarot Conference on a computer decades ago, and we got to know each other very well. We learned all about Creative Visualization, manifesting realities, and after some time, he and I met each other in person. We then decided to start a chain of Hierophant Hotels which led to the development of the Affirmative Advertsing Agency dedicated to using only positive thoughts which promote peace, nourishment and growth. Then, one night on a cold, cold Taurus Full Moon, we created YOU!"
