2008.09.15 07:00 - Steam, Moon or no Moon

That morning, I (Pema) was the guardian. I sat by myself in the pavilion, until after a few minutes Spring arrived.

Spring Held: may i join u
Pema Pera: hi there!
Pema Pera: Of course
Pema Pera: please take a seat if you like
Spring Held: ty
Pema Pera: Have you been here before?
Spring Held: this is so beautiful
Pema Pera: thank you!
Spring Held: no i havent
Pema Pera: We gather here every six hours, each day
Pema Pera: http://playasbeing.wordpress.com/ is our web site

We were both silent for a while.

Spring Held: sorry i was lost in ur profile
Pema Pera: haha, that's fine -- I was reading your profile too
Spring Held: I belong to the zen retreat group next door
Pema Pera: interesting, isn't it, these greeting rituals in SL :-)
Pema Pera: yes, I like to go there too, when I have time
Spring Held: smiles in deed
Pema Pera: right now I'm in Japan, so it is 10 am for me, not convenient for my work
Spring Held: this is one of the more beautiful sims
Fael Illyar: Hi Pema, Hello Spring :)
Pema Pera: Hi Fael!
Spring Held: Hello Fael

Fael joined us, followed by Umbriel.

Pema Pera: Yes, it is, I'm very glad that I found this sim, when I started this group, half a year ago
Pema Pera: and Dakini, the leader of the Zen Retreat, gave me her teahouse as a place to gather in
Spring Held: thats wonderful
Spring Held: Hello Kenyang
Spring Held: whoops
Umbriel Levenque: Metta
Pema Pera: Hi Umbriel!
Spring Held: excuse me
Pema Pera: Umbriel and Fael, Spring is here for the first time
Pema Pera: was here for the first time :-)

Immediately after my introduction, Spring disappeared.

Fael Illyar: Ah, sounded like you know her from somewhere else?
Umbriel Levenque: I see
Pema Pera: no, first time we met, five minutes ago :-)
Fael Illyar: Oh, there was someone new this morning too
Pema Pera: but little by little I begin to feel I'm getting to know the whole world, LR and SL :-)
Pema Pera: ah, do you remember who?
Fael Illyar: said she'll come again.
Fael Illyar: well, she asked to stay anonymous.
Pema Pera: ah!
Fael Illyar: embarrassed about asking "silly" questions
Pema Pera: somebody I know?
Fael Illyar: probably not.

Since Spring had suddenly teleported away, I used IM to ask blog inclusion permission.

Pema Pera: I just got permission from Spring to be added to the chat log, via IM, so we can keep the whole dialogue
Fael Illyar: Ah, good :)
Umbriel Levenque: :-)
Fael Illyar: it's unhealthy to get too scared of "multiple" personalities.
Pema Pera: ?
Fael Illyar: well, you might end up repressing parts of yourself.
Pema Pera: who is scared? Sorry, I lost the context
Umbriel Levenque: Fael you possibly meant "multiple personalities" rather than "multiple" personalities
Fael Illyar: Ah, ofcourse, thank you Umbriel

While I was still wondering what Fael had meant, Wol and Corvi arrived.

Fael Illyar: Hi Wol :)
Fael Illyar: nice wings :)
Fael Illyar: Hi Corvi :)
Wol Euler: good morning everyone
Pema Pera: Hi Wol!
Pema Pera: And hi Corvi!
Wol Euler: hello corvi, fancy meeting you here.
Umbriel Levenque: No problem
Umbriel Levenque: Metta
Corvuscorva Nightfire blushes...sorry I'm late...I wasn't paying attention to the time.
Fael Illyar: You know how I've been to meetings much less during the past month?
Fael Illyar: that's partially because I was repressing the part of myself that very much liked to be here.
Wol Euler: mm?
Umbriel Levenque: Yes
Pema Pera: can you say more?
Fael Illyar: Yes, if you remember my "multiple personalities" incident?
Umbriel Levenque: (Wol & Corvi, will send you a log of what you just missed)
Pema Pera: yes
Wol Euler: (ty!)
Fael Illyar: Well I messed up a bit with things there and got scared of allowing this part of me that I call Fael to surface much at all.
Fael Illyar: Of course, I spent the last month blissfully unaware of it too.
Fael Illyar: until yesterday that is, when I somehow squarely hit the fear.
Umbriel Levenque: Why does Fael characteristics scare the RL person Fael?
Umbriel Levenque: do* um... typo
Fael Illyar: they don't, not as such. I just got scared that the incident might happen again. I didn't trust myself to not repeat it
Corvuscorva Nightfire nods.
Umbriel Levenque: repeat it - 'it' as supressing or RL person go hiding?
Fael Illyar: RL person go hide in the corner kind of thing.
Wol Euler nods
Corvuscorva Nightfire: hello, Spring.
Fael Illyar: wb Spring :)
Umbriel Levenque: ah okay
Pema Pera: Hi Spring, welcome back!

Spring returned for a while.

Spring Held: hello everyone
Umbriel Levenque: wb
Wol Euler: hello spring
Pema Pera: Wol and Corvi, Spring is here for the first time today
Spring Held: serendipity
Pema Pera: and seems to fit right in :-)
Wol Euler: ah!
Spring Held: ur all very kind
Pema Pera: Have you talked with Adams about her relationship with her RL person, comparing notes?
Pema Pera: <- Fael
Fael Illyar: not yet, I just had the repressed part resurface an hour ago and had to let off steam first :)
Fael Illyar: Umbriel was kind enough to receive it :)
Pema Pera: :-) Thank you, Umbriel!
Wol Euler chuckles
Umbriel Levenque blushes
Pema Pera: If you were Moon, your avatar would now really blow steam!!
Umbriel Levenque: Would you say your experience was in any way related to PaB Fael?
Fael Illyar: ah, yes, Moon would really blow steam from his AV :)
Fael Illyar: Well, it definitely wouldn't have happened now without PaB.
Wol Euler nods. But for what it#s worth, I do think it would have happened to you at some stage.
Wol Euler: Just later on, and that much sharper.

An interesting observation, by Wol. Of course, we cannot really test such ideas in an objective way, given that we cannot repeat history, but I tend to agree with Wol's opinion. The Play as Being exploration invites us to open up more than we normally do, but does not really try to push us in any particular direction. It seems to be more a matter of acceleration and faciliation of what any individual may be underway already in terms of potential explorations.

Corvuscorva Nightfire: the parting of identities or the allowing of them now?
Fael Illyar: Yes
Wol Euler: (brb, rain starting, must close up)
Fael Illyar: now, an interesting side question about a thing that just happened in RL here
Umbriel Levenque: Sure Wol
Fael Illyar: have any of you seen a battery start to bubble it's contents out just being there on the table?
Corvuscorva Nightfire: No!
Umbriel Levenque: Yes
Corvuscorva Nightfire: what kind of battery?
Fael Illyar: AA
Pema Pera: yes me too
Pema Pera: very rarely
Pema Pera: but it can happen
Pema Pera: there is a lot of power packed into a bttery and a slight manifacturing fault can have grave consequences after a while :)
Fael Illyar: it was an empty one though
Pema Pera: ah, but the chemicals were still there
Fael Illyar: sure
Pema Pera: there have been recalls for exploding batteries with laptops
Pema Pera: but of course those are a lot more powerful
Fael Illyar: Hi Cal :)
Pema Pera: Hi Cal!
Corvuscorva Nightfire: Hiya, Cal!
Caledonia Heron: hey there :)
Spring Held: Hello cal
Umbriel Levenque: Metta

Caledonia joined us.

Pema Pera: Cal, meet Spring, who is here for the first time
Caledonia Heron: hi Spring :) nice to meet you
Spring Held: hello
Spring Held: Hiya Cal
Wol Euler: back, hello Cal
Pema Pera: Spring, what we do here is related to an unusual kind of exploration of reality
Pema Pera: described in http://playasbeing.wordpress.com/
Caledonia Heron: hey Wol :)
Pema Pera: and in a wiki that that site is pointing too
Spring Held: Im a psychologist
Umbriel Levenque: wb
Pema Pera: in RL we spend a few hours each day to pause for 9 seconds every 15 minutes or so
Spring Held: for the most pat i am an observer
Pema Pera: as a kind of nano-meditation
Umbriel Levenque: :-)
Spring Held: yes
Fael Illyar: Yes, the idea of PaB is to observe yourself :)
Pema Pera: and here we sometimes talk about what we experience
Pema Pera: and how it influences our lives
Spring Held: my experiences relate to the person i am in rl
Spring Held: i simply cannot be anything else
Umbriel Levenque: Sounds simple yet highly original idea Pema
Pema Pera: thanks, Umbriel -- and at the same time it has connections with many ancient practices
Pema Pera: the main difference is that those were given after years, typically not in the beginning of practice
Pema Pera: whereas here we just jump in
Pema Pera: (or out, :)

I added the latter sentence since Spring seemed to jump out at the very moment I talked about jumping in.

Fael Illyar: She's rather jumpy it seems :)
Pema Pera: (in case of Spring)
Pema Pera: (crash, I guess)
Wol Euler: lol
Fael Illyar: looked like a teleport to me
Wol Euler: presumably, she didn't seem the type to leave without saying goodbye. But who knows...
Pema Pera: SL works in mysterious ways . . . .

Time for me to jump into bed.

Pema Pera: well, I probably should get some sleep, it's approaching midnight again
Caledonia Heron: bye Pema
Umbriel Levenque: Good night Pema
Umbriel Levenque: Metta
Fael Illyar: Good night Pema :)
Wol Euler: bye pema, sleep well. nice to see you again
Pema Pera: if someone can send me the rest of the log, at piet@ias.edu , or append it tomorrow after I have put my half up, that would be great!
Pema Pera: Thanks, Wol!
Pema Pera: See you all soon again!
Corvuscorva Nightfire: bye
Corvuscorva Nightfire: be well!
Pema Pera: thanks!