Your NameRob Harrison-Plastow
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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?

Learning to consciously participate in the construction of my reality from a place of unconditional love. Studying consciousness, cultivating my being in the world and learning to live well. More concretely, working from this space to build a secure present and future for my family as best I can; developing my understanding of myself, others and the world; and helping others.

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

I have more than one.

1. Being a good father (as well as my other family roles and friendships)
2. Being a good ancestor
3. Being a writer - sharing spiritual insights and experiences through writing and speaking
4. Being a qualitative researcher and communications strategist

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

Create a home for my family on land and in a community that will foster connection, security, peace and abudance for generations.

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

In greater self-acceptance and authenticity.

5. And for professional growth?

As above and also more concretely in finding a way of being myself, participating in the current system and also being a part of helping to create conditions conducive to systemic change. My thinking can often be too polarising in this regard and I'd like for it to more consistently settle in a place of balance, acceptance and joy as a result of being more adaptable in being able to adjust my thinking and seeing with greater skill.

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

Myself, my spirituality, the people around me and in to studying and reflecting. I've also invested in living in Cornwall, which shapes, enables and limits many different possiblities .

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

I'm not going to be able to do this question justice.

Music.
Literature, mythology and story.
Art.
Cosmology.
Spirituality.
Metaphysical poetry.
Critical Pedagogy & Transformative Learning.
Deep Ecology.
Systems Thinking.
Human geography.
Social Science.
Philosophy.
Ecological Economics.
Psychology & Neuroscience - particularly on perception, predictive processing and the theory of constructed emotion.
Non-violent communication.

Thinkers:
John Dunne, Karl Marx, Carl Jung, Alfred North Whitehead, Noam Chomsky, Carl Sagan, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Joseph Campbell, Jorge Luis Borges, Herman Hesse, Ernest Hemingway, Jack Kerouac, Herman Daly, Tim Jackson, Kate Raworth, Nate Hagens, Vandana Shiva, Daniel Schmachtenberger, Nora Bateson, Gregory Bateson, Kim Hare, Lisa Feldman-Barrett, Janine Benyus, Daniel Christian Wahl, Carol Sanford, Karl Friston, Sri Ramana Maharshi, Ram Dass, Alan Watts, Rupert Spira, Thomas Berry, Fritjof Capra, Ivan Illich, Dougald Hine, Rupert Read, The Seth Books by Jane Roberts, Arthur C Clarke, Christopher Nolan, A Course In Miracles.

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

Metaphysics: Consciousness is primary
Ontology: Felt Constructivism (synergy of emotion and cognition in a system of meaning making and feeling that drives behaviour and creates reality). We actively participate in the creativity of the universe.
Inter-subjectivity as opposed to Objectivity.
Non-dual perspective.
I am both an illusory separate self and the universal Self at the same time.
Life is a manifestation of the creative force of the universe (and therefore also the planet). Humans are a really interesting intersection between that creative, non-physical creative force (consciousness) and the physical creativity of living systems (the web of life, our bodies and environments) because of our capacity for self-awareness, language, culture and therefore memetic as well as biological evolution.

Our role as a manifestation of both consciousness and living systems is to play our part in creating conditions conducive to life and All That Is, which for me means cultivating unconditional love for everyone and everything - which sounds a lot simpler than it is!

Date CreatedJune 5, 2024