Your NameIvor Guest
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Cohort AssignmentGreat Britain & Ireland Hybrid In-Person/Online with Intensive in Devon, Spring-Summer 2024
1. What do you see as your primary work at this stage of your life?

My primary work is to come as close to operating from a place of authentic self as possible. I have lived enough life to have understood that most of what is going on out there is self defeating at best. This world desperately needs new solutions/systems to live by, and I feel ready to step up to that challenge in all areas of my life. I am open minded as to where that might position me going forward.

2. What role do you see as yours to play?

Having many years of experience working in the front line of creativity (as a record producer and composer), I have developed some ability to understand and direct the creative process. This involves setting up the conditions, both psychological and physical, to 'midwife' the birth of artistic content. Another way of saying this is an ability to try and recognise what 'life' is attempting to do in a given situation, after which I try to set up optimum conditions for it to express itself.
I have intuitively attempted to use this kind of approach in other areas, most importantly in the management of wilderness land and other assets. While I have certainly 'done good' with some of these projects, when I was exposed to regenerative work, I realised that there was a great deal I don't know about how to do this.
In short, this type of 'midwifing' of life, the creative process, whatever you want to call it, is an area that I can be strong in.

3. What goals or aims do you have in regard to the above?

My aim has really always been to have my 'field of influence' in this life thriving in such a way that it has a positive influence on the world around it, as well as being sustainable and as secure as possible for myself and my family, and for any wider 'stakeholders'.

4. Where do you feel your next arenas for personal growth are?

My personal growth has been the main focus of my life for many years. Around 30, in fact. For the first 20 years of that time, I was feeling around in the dark. After a fairly dramatic pivot moment around a decade ago, during which various previously unseen (by me!) realities were revealed to me, I feel very grateful to have moved into a period of natural unfolding of a process characterised by a widening worldview, greater depth and insight all around, greater abilities to communicate effectively and an improvement in relationships. I feel 'the ground' very strongly. (None of this is to say that I don't suffer from the trickier aspects of having to deal with my inherited/environmentally constructed psychology, which I do, and the integration of which I continue to work hard on).
Lately I have been going through a rapid change of worldview towards an understanding, in short, of my true position as a child of the earth, as opposed to the erroneous worldview held by almost every aspect of the culture that we exist in. My heart just might be waking up.

5. And for professional growth?

Professionally my music career is having a bit of a peak moment, but nevertheless I am taking a step back from that in order to try and do this work. I don't know how the musical aspect will play out.
Ultimately I am more interested in doing regenerative work. Some of that will be focussed (and I think should be) on getting my own life set up regeneratively, but if I were to be able to contribute meaningfully to other projects I would be very open minded to do that going forwards. It's very exciting to me that I might be able to build on my inherent (and tested) abilities to make meaningful interventions in the way the world functions.

6. What have you invested in to get you where you are?

I'm not quite sure as to the meaning of this question, but in order for me to have arrived at where I find myself in this life today, I have worked extremely hard on the self development piece. I have remained committed to this for my entire adult life. I felt intuitively from a young age that it would be necessary for me, both to save my own life and to have any chance of building anything positive, to do this work. I have a lot of experience of many types of therapies- allopathic, 'alternative', psychological, psychiatric, somatic etc. My only real achievement has been to not give up on my seeking for solutions, until finally (20 years too late!) they began to present themselves to me.

7. What fields of learning and which thinkers have been important in your life?

Without doubt the most important areas have been in developmental, integral, and to a slightly lesser extent stages model, psychology. I was fortunate enough to be mentored and treated by the late Dr. Daniel P. Brown, who was responsible for the pivot moment I alluded to above. I also have a good deal of experience in somatic work, Qi Gong and buddhist meditation systems.
I have read Ken Wilbur, Paul Brunton, Charles Eisenstein, Gurdjieff (through Ospensky), Steiner (and some Theosophy), a bit of sacred geometry, Adyashanti, Ian McGilchrist, a little spiral dynamics etc. to name a few!!

8. Can you frame your philosophy or cosmology of life? What role(s) do humans play in it?

I feel deeply connected to what might be called 'the ground'. My personality has taken some time to catch up with this connection- I am aware of a deeper structure underpinning reality in a non- conceptual way. It is my actual lived experience to be in touch with an 'overself' (to paraphrase Paul Brunton).
This has meant quite a rapid change in worldview, which is still evolving constantly. I believe I have a role to play in this life as a part of an interconnected web, and if I follow the subtle inner directives to the best of my abilities I will move closer to that. I am not particularly interested in speculating about wider cosmological structures etc. (although I have read quite a bit about this topic)- it is almost like I have been given a torch that allows me to see enough of what I need to see to be able to be effective. I am happy to play that role and open minded as to how that might or might not evolve.

Date CreatedMay 23, 2024