New Video: A Brief Meditation on Digital Shamanism
Extending ideas from the last couple of posts, this video plays around with the idea of using virtual reality to support internal visualization and imagination. In good Transworlders fashion, it was created using elements from Second Life, Frameforge and digital photography of the atomic world.
Digital Shamanism: The Psychological Dimension of the Transworlders Paradigm
Most of us tend to ignore the deeper dimensions of being that hide beneath our mundane states of mind. It struck me today that the idea of “Transworlders” not only applies to movement between virtual worlds, but also to travel through inner worlds and states of consciousness. And even to what might be thought of [...]
Avatar as Vehicle of Enlightenment
A comment by Gwyneth Llewelyn on “The Power of Name in Post-Pseudonymous Virtual Identity” revived my interest in the avatar as a vehicle of enlightenment. Here’s my first post in what I hope will be a series of brief explorations:
The visceral experience of being embodied in an idealized form within a richly symbolic environment is a foundational Vajrayana [...]
Brief Reflection on Two Years of Virtual Life
In human development, the birth of the body precedes conscious self-awareness. The same is true for avatar identity.
I can’t project my imagination across the event horizon between the existence of the being I experience as Botgirl Questi and the empty shell of the nube avatar in this image. But over the course of time [...]
Virtual World as Mandala
The image on the left depicts how a business person might view virtual worlds. The one on the right is my interpretation of virtual worlds as seen by post-humanists.
Our perception of the world is the reflection of our own state of mind. That is why different people can view the same external events and come [...]
The Acceleration of Nostalgia in Virtual Life
The Second Life 365 Days project continues to catupult me into unexpected spaces, both internal and external. Unlike SL365 participants who are inworld everyday and can capture whatever they’re up to, so far every entry I’ve made has been a result of logging on specifically for the project.
Last night, I initially planned to rez my [...]
The Intellectual nonProperty Sutra aka Gospel of The Word
I was inspired to write this after viewing an excerpt of a lecture by Jay Rosen of NYU on the Ethic of the Link.
IBefore the beginning The Nameless was. Infinite. Timeless. Whole.In the beginning there was The Word. The Word birthed Humankind.The Word was Humankind. And it was good.
IIFor 10,000 years The Word was [...]
Illusion or Awakening? Reflections on Virtual Life
Over the course of the Botgirl Thought Experiment, I’ve gone back and forth between seeing virtual life as a path into illusion or a means of awakening. Although I haven’t given up on a digital yoga, it’s clear to me that spending a significant portion of our time in virtual worlds without sustained conscious [...]
Seven posts later…
After seven days chasing the tail of compulsive curiosity, I finally pulled its arrow from my heart. I embarked upon a quest to answer all of my burning questions. Today I set a new course to question all of my burning answers. I invite you to join me.
Suppose a man is struck by a [...]
Griefers and flaming kittens
There was an interesting conversation in Twitter today around the question “what in Second Life offends you?” Even venerable CodeBastard Redgrave had a limit:
Being spammed with…Zippocat…a picture of a RL kitten, being burned to death by stupid teenagers using Zippo fuel…the fact someone took a real animal, poured gas on it, and burnt it for [...]
Immersion vs. Augmentation: Final round
Immersion and augmentationare completely reconciledin the emptiness of all finite identity.
Listen: Botgirl Questi has become unstuck in time
I spent hours viewing and re-viewing time lapse footage over the course of creating my recent video. Its psychoactive influence is still unfolding within my consciousness.
When I am stuck in time,everything appears solid and individuated;A tree is just a tree.When I am unstuck in time,I perceive that the tree includes the entire universe:The seed it [...]
The emptiness of Second Life relationships
I don’t mean emptiness in a bad way, but emptiness in its Buddhist definition as the true nature of reality. No matter how many facts we’ve gathered about someone, the image of them that we weave together is still just a projection with more holes than substance. Facts don’t tell us who they are, [...]
