Phoenix of the Sea is a song and an eco-spiritual healing practice of interspecies communication.
As the moon dips in the darkness, the Whales move day and night in the cytoplasmic blue.
Bringing forth the froth to the air, a Phoenix kind of dare -- to re-emerge again and again, a song bathed with fire towards the higher realm of peace. Darkness, black on black where loved ones dwell, the ashy tears heal eventually.
See the light.
Anneka and Joshua Bowman Interviewed by Kythe Heller.
Kythe: Tell us a little bit about your background, and how you became interested in your project. And what does your background have to do with the whales?
Anneka: I'm a soul healer and teacher in soul communication. I've had experiences communicating with the whales, like when the mom came and gave birth right in front of our house. And then there was another whale that was calling out for our attention. And so then I had feeling of responsibility, because I wasn't really listening to that. I just wasn't really listening to his message. And so that created the desire to do a ceremony or a blessing for the whales and acknowledge them, and acknowledge their communication. But it was painful because of all the degradation that their environment is facing, and our environment too for that matter. So the Vision Lab turned out to be a really good way to face that and manifest something.
Kythe: It sounds like you have had a lot of sensitivity to animals and the environment and the natural world, like going back deep into your history. Could you talk a little bit about how you grew up and how the environment was important and might have led you to this kind of sensitivity?
Anneka: My first four years were actually in New York city. So you know, that story of the child that grows up in the cave. And then at some point they let the child out of the cave and into that shamanic community in South America. They keep the child in the cave for the first however-many years and they let it out. And then when it sees the natural world, it's like the green and the beauty and the sunlight is even more magnificent. Something like that happened for me, where I was surrounded by dirt and cement and traffic and squalor, you know? My mom tried to make our home environment good. And there was spaciousness and colors and paintings, but just being in the city so that when I finally had the chance to come to nature, it imprinted me on how beautiful nature is. And made me even more curious about all the subtle messages that are in the songs of the birds and the frogs and the natural rhythm, all of those things.
Kythe: Josh, how did your early life, connect you with the whales and with the environment and all the creatures?
Joshua: We always had the house by the ocean. I always could see them from a distance.
Kythe: Do you remember the first time when you had the sense of communicating with them?
Joshua: I would always just see them as a kid, and only when I grew up did I get it. I could communicate, I liked to talk with them.
Kythe: Are you saying that when you started to grow up, you felt like you could understand them better? How did you learn all of your knowledge about the environment and nature, about natural medicine and ways of dealing with these creatures in their own world and in their own space,?
Joshua: I think it was an understanding of my dad. My dad learned from a guy that really was intuitive in the ocean. His name was Herbert Mountain. And so he could put his hand in the water. And understand the water. And so as a kid, I always wanted to do that, to be able to do that.
And I'm still not able to do that, but then a big part of it is, the whales are deep. There's so much more [in the ocean] than the whales, but the whales are a fun area to understand for me as a kid, and then growing up because of their acrobatic abilities. In both worlds, hitting that stratosphere out of the ocean and then also in the ocean. It's just amazing. They're very amazing dynamic creatures.
Kythe:. How did you get involved in Vision Lab and how does this project about communication with whales connect to the Phoenix? And what does the Phoenix mean to you?
Joshua: That's a complicated question. You’ve brought out just the creativity of trying to grab two different concepts and bring them together, like the whales and the Phoenix. I studied three areas, because mitochondria exist in human cells, but also exist in whale cells. So I pull the idea of mitochondria, connected to the Phoenix, and connected to the whales and their abilities.
Kythe: They do form a beautiful and creative set of connections, Josh, and I just want to elaborate a little more on it. So my understanding is that you've been doing a deep dive study into mitochondria because you see a lot of connections and uses for curing cancer and alternative therapies that are based in knowledge of the mitochondria.
So what I'm not clear about is how does the mitochondria relate to the whale? Except, you know, obviously both humans and whales have mitochondria in their cells, but what else is bringing these two things together for you?
Joshua: Oh, for me, the Phoenix goes into the ash and ... heals itself, as a by-product. Mitochondria does that also. There's product as by-product. The Phoenix uses the ash and that helps the Phoenix heal.
Kythe: You're talking about the rebirth from the ashes and from death as a kind of healing. That's so profound in so many ways. And I think it's a really wonderful connection to the mitochondria and the healing of the human body.
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Joshua: And that involves heat. As your atoms collide, this is how the chemistry creates energy. So the mitochondria has a byproduct when it cleaves one phosphate to create that ATP molecule. And so that creation has a bypass of ROS reactive oxygen species. That's used in both ways. It can cause damage to the human cells, but it also can create this pathway of communication and it's used for good. Also as long as it's in homeostasis, there’s a kind of a balance. So I can take that from the mitochondria to the whale, because one of the ideas of why they get so acrobatic and splash around is they mix the water, bringing stuff up, and then mix things around. But their actual death--I mean, I was just dumbfounded how much their death creates life, literal life for 40 or 60 years in the ocean.
Kythe: Well, that's all the nutrients from the whale's body...
Joshua: There's one specific organism. They’re only found on dead whales and there’s this kind of puzzle on how that certain organism finds the dead whale. [But the whale’s body] supports a biome of, life for about 40 to 60 years.
Kythe: It seems like healing is the thing that actually connects the whale, the Phoenix and the mitochondria in the way that you see these things together. And it's really interesting that the other point of connection seems to be about the way the mitochondria is involved in communication pathways within the human organism. But the way it seems like your communication with the whale is also a kind of new pathway that's being created, or remembered.
Joshua: There's a connection between our own cells and the mitochondria in that the nucleus there is DNA and Doris M RNA. I mean, there's MRNs and that is de coincide and it can, it can only exist with each other.
Kythe: Vision Lab is about the visionary and we're trying to create better futures. So how do you see this project with the whales and the Phoenix and the mitochondria? What is your aspiration for the future?
Joshua: To encourage, preserve and, enhance the view of the beauty of the whale. But it's to start with the whale. Because that's a fun connection that I like to go with.
Kythe: That's really great. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks for taking a little time off of work and talking to me, it's going to be so fun to transcribe this.
Anneka, how did you get involved with the Vision Lab and how does this whale project come about and relate to the Phoenix?
Anneka: Well, a couple things. One is I want to chime in on Josh with the mitochondria. Because the mitochondria creates energy. That's its function. And so in terms of death and rebirth, when I think of the Phoenix, I think of that. You know, the Phoenix dies and is reborn
and how does it do it? There's a part of it that doesn't die and it has the seed of becoming a Phoenix again. And what is that? In a sense, that would be the mitochondria of the cell, the part that creates the energy, the basic essence.
Kythe: How did you get involved with Vision Lab?
Anneka: The theme of death and rebirth is how I always saw the Phoenix. So I'm actually going to include another mini project I did, which was a poem about the lava, and the lava bringing destruction, and then rebirth. Pele, you know, she destroys, but she creates.
I think it was really my my feelings of failure regarding communicating with the whales, or listening to their messages, and bringing forth their messages to the world. And Vision Lab gave me that chance to not only repair the damage, but also to apologize to the whales. To
communicate with them again, but also even bring what it gave me a little; a vehicle to bring that communication out into the world.
Kythe: I know that you yourself are, and have always been, a visionary. You deal a lot with the inner subtle realms and you've trained yourself extensively in many different spiritual practices and modalities of healing.
And the Phoenix and the mitochondria is deeply involved with healing at all levels. So I guess what I'm wondering is, from this visionary perspective, how do you see this work moving forward into the future? And what kind of future do you think that this can move torwards and call into being?
Anneka: I've been thinking a lot about what is the essence of my business solutions, helping people open their spiritual channels. What's the core of that? What's the one thing that's always driving it? It would be to help people connect to their own inner essence, their own inner truth, their own inner knowing. And in a sense it's to help people connect to the part of themselves.
That is the Phoenix. No matter what is destroyed in your outer environment, no matter what transformations you go through, or the environment or the world goes through, there is always a part of you that has that higher perspective, higher purpose, higher function. As long as you're alive in your body, it's there, driving your next book. So my business is to help people draw closer to that essence.
With the whales, they're going through their own transformation. They're going through their own challenges with the environment that we've created. It's my personal guilt, but also existential guilt as a human being, for the radiation from Fukushima, for the trash that's in the ocean, for what we, as humanity, have created for the whales.
And so we are their destroyers. But how can we connect with them and listen to them and learn from them so that we can also assist with their renewal?
So for my part. I feel that it works with my business in terms of helping people connect. If they can communicate, then they could understand and, their hearts can be open and they can move to assist other creatures.
And then also, in terms of how it's given me a boost in terms of being more fearless in my marketing, being more fearless in showing up as who I really am with all the guests. And not pretending to be less than what I am just to stay safe in these uncertain times.
So maybe, um, not so profound--
Kythe: That's really beautiful actually..
Anneka: And I think it was really a pivotal moment when [you] gave me feedback when I said, ‘Oh, well, when I perform this next, you're not going to see my face. You're going to see images of the dolphins or images of the islands or images of the lava or images other than me.’
And [you were] like, no, you performing the piece is part of the creation of the piece. Even on a video, not even in person, it absolutely actually comes through that my face, my voice, my gestures contributed to [your] experience of understanding the message I was trying to convey.
Kythe: Absolutely.
Anneka: That was a really profound feedback for me. That was really, really positive and helped me quite a bit to come out of myself, come out of my self-consciousness and realize it's more important to convey the message as fully and deeply as possible. And what I look like doesn't really matter. It's not about my ego sense of how I appear or if I did a good enough job.
Kythe: It's deeper than that too. It's actually like the subtlety of reading your emotion and your expression, and just being able to see the authenticity of where you're coming from as a person. I mean, all of that is conveyed to you, you know?
Anneka: Yeah. So it was really helpful.
Kythe: And I hope continues to be helpful in this last phase. Actually that's a great question: What does the Phoenix mean to you personally? Do you feel like you are a Phoenix?
Anneka: Yeah, Because, you know, I did die for a little while, long enough to know just how much gets stripped away. Long enough to be grateful for the process of letting go. Even if it's painful, it's worth it. So I'm not only a Phoenix personally, but honestly, I'm a seed Phoenix for humanity that if I'm able to go through my journey and come out the other side stronger and wiser and more powerful, and share that wisdom and that strength and that power with the world in that respect, I'm a seed Phoenix for humanity to evolve and to make it through the collective Phoenix transformation we were all going through, right?
Kythe: That was so beautiful. Do you want to chime in, Joshua? Are you a Phoenix? What is your personal relationship to the Phoenix?
Joshua: Yeah, I would say I'm a half, half. That'd be a, like a Phoenix whale. Both worlds.
Kythe: So what does it mean to be in both worlds of the Phoenix and the whale at once? Like you identify with that on a personal level?
Joshua: Yeah. Just because the Phoenix, the, well, we have never heard the sound of the Phoenix, but I have heard the song of the whale. And why I say ‘both worlds’ is because in my view, it's almost as if the ocean would be earth, and the sky would be heaven, and the will can break through that rush, through the ground and kiss the heavens. And that's just my dreaming other things.
Kythe:. Oh, that's so gorgeous. All right. I think that's a good place to stop. I appreciate your time and your energy and your effort, and this is perfect.
Anneka: We love you and we appreciate you. We're not giving up on us.
Leviathan
Outside of time we move and sing, each melody is new creation.
We nourish the corals as our sound vibrations
course through their bodies
clearing the blockages in their channels
dissolving accretions in their passageways.
Our movements churn oxygen into the waters
giving food for the algae, hence the plankton, hence the fish.
Even the messy stuffs of our bodies skin and passageways sloughs off
and gives further sustenance, sifting down into the deep
generations thrive upon our leavings.
Our songs are the timelines of our people, a chronicle of planets past.
Our consciousness swims through space just as our bodies tone the oceans
we visit other realms and carry the messages of intelligence beyond this earth.
Here upon this sacred orb we witness and record
delights of life and crystal worlds that passed before
integrated harmonious technologies that shimmered into thriving life.
All of Lemuria swam and sang with us
for eons humanity was our close friend and ally
sharing in the teachings of our breath.
Alas we must include the bitter records of your rapacious greed
to slaughter our families and extract our light, light enough for many candles.
We scarcely hear our voices over the roar and din of your noise pollution
extending to the sonar killing pulsations of your warrior clans testing
questing for yet another way to destroy.
We mourn amongst the detritus of your ignorance
our dead companions lost to your incomprehensible actions
only a soul entirely cut off from the source of its life can slaughter with such wanton cruelty
to us your mind is shattered, you are the walking dead.
In these broken times we navigate the massive islands of garbage churning in the ocean gyre, each particle a false hope of food, the poisoned apple.
Now comes the oil you slick so carelessly onto our shores and nurseries
even the silent shimmering, where you have shattered the fabric of creation
Isotopes creating aberrations, abortions and miscarriage of our young
and still you allow to dump and spew.
Patiently we sing, make new migrations, decimated we endure, and cling to life.
One day we heard the song of a human on the shore
a child of the old ways when we could reach into each other’s minds
share stories and visions and dreams.
Patiently we journey to her shores each night, slapping the water, bellowing, and sending forth our supernatural resonant calls.
Anneka … Listen, we are dying, help us …
Anneka … teach humanity, allow humans return to source
the place where we are one.
Oh whale, each night I heard your song, I sensed your love and message.
I cannot make excuses for the pain, the beatings, and the hopelessness
that bound my mouth like a muzzle
I lay in the comfort of my bed each night I listened but closed my heart
from breaking. How can any one person even feel such devastation
or hope to shift even one fission particle lost to harmony for 10,000 years ?
Oh whale what can I do for you now ?
I fear it has gone too far, there is no way through anymore
this long century of devastation has left behind indelible marks
great gashes and sears.
The body of humanity is like a mass of scar tissue after a fire
Yes, we function, but the nerves are cauterized, we no longer sense connection.
Our lips have lost the taste for living foods
we are taught only to enjoy the smells of chemicals
see beauty only in adornment
and scan each face for enmity.
Humanity is lost. What am I, Anneka ? supposed to do
I can stand on the roof and scream, fiddle, caper, or fawn
there is nothing I can do to make them listen.
Dear Anneka, Listen, listen to our message
you can be one human who resonates our call
Go out and share our wisdom, patience, the slow beating of our heart.
Sing back to us each day just as we sang to you
be the human who opens to all creation
flowing forth the inexhaustible source
the infinite feedback loop of light.
Nourish us outside of space and time
here where we dwell with our beloved companions
and share the boundless presence that holds us in return.
Anneka: I'm a soul healer and teacher in soul communication. I've had experiences communicating with the whales, like when the mom came and gave birth right in front of our house. And then there was another whale that was calling out for our attention. And so then I had feeling of responsibility, because I wasn't really listening to that. I just wasn't really listening to his message. And so that created the desire to do a ceremony or a blessing for the whales and acknowledge them, and acknowledge their communication. But it was painful because of all the degradation that their environment is facing, and our environment too for that matter. So the Vision Lab turned out to be a really good way to face that and manifest something.
Kythe: It sounds like you have had a lot of sensitivity to animals and the environment and the natural world, like going back deep into your history. Could you talk a little bit about how you grew up and how the environment was important and might have led you to this kind of sensitivity?
Anneka: My first four years were actually in New York city. So you know, that story of the child that grows up in the cave. And then at some point they let the child out of the cave and into that shamanic community in South America. They keep the child in the cave for the first however-many years and they let it out. And then when it sees the natural world, it's like the green and the beauty and the sunlight is even more magnificent. Something like that happened for me, where I was surrounded by dirt and cement and traffic and squalor, you know? My mom tried to make our home environment good. And there was spaciousness and colors and paintings, but just being in the city so that when I finally had the chance to come to nature, it imprinted me on how beautiful nature is. And made me even more curious about all the subtle messages that are in the songs of the birds and the frogs and the natural rhythm, all of those things.
Kythe: Josh, how did your early life, connect you with the whales and with the environment and all the creatures?
Joshua: We always had the house by the ocean. I always could see them from a distance.
Kythe: Do you remember the first time when you had the sense of communicating with them?
Joshua: I would always just see them as a kid, and only when I grew up did I get it. I could communicate, I liked to talk with them.
Kythe: Are you saying that when you started to grow up, you felt like you could understand them better? How did you learn all of your knowledge about the environment and nature, about natural medicine and ways of dealing with these creatures in their own world and in their own space,?
Joshua: I think it was an understanding of my dad. My dad learned from a guy that really was intuitive in the ocean. His name was Herbert Mountain. And so he could put his hand in the water. And understand the water. And so as a kid, I always wanted to do that, to be able to do that.
And I'm still not able to do that, but then a big part of it is, the whales are deep. There's so much more [in the ocean] than the whales, but the whales are a fun area to understand for me as a kid, and then growing up because of their acrobatic abilities. In both worlds, hitting that stratosphere out of the ocean and then also in the ocean. It's just amazing. They're very amazing dynamic creatures.
Kythe:. How did you get involved in Vision Lab and how does this project about communication with whales connect to the Phoenix? And what does the Phoenix mean to you?
Joshua: That's a complicated question. You’ve brought out just the creativity of trying to grab two different concepts and bring them together, like the whales and the Phoenix. I studied three areas, because mitochondria exist in human cells, but also exist in whale cells. So I pull the idea of mitochondria, connected to the Phoenix, and connected to the whales and their abilities.
Kythe: They do form a beautiful and creative set of connections, Josh, and I just want to elaborate a little more on it. So my understanding is that you've been doing a deep dive study into mitochondria because you see a lot of connections and uses for curing cancer and alternative therapies that are based in knowledge of the mitochondria.
So what I'm not clear about is how does the mitochondria relate to the whale? Except, you know, obviously both humans and whales have mitochondria in their cells, but what else is bringing these two things together for you?
Joshua: Oh, for me, the Phoenix goes into the ash and ... heals itself, as a by-product. Mitochondria does that also. There's product as by-product. The Phoenix uses the ash and that helps the Phoenix heal.
Kythe: You're talking about the rebirth from the ashes and from death as a kind of healing. That's so profound in so many ways. And I think it's a really wonderful connection to the mitochondria and the healing of the human body.
Joshua: And that involves heat. As your atoms collide, this is how the chemistry creates energy. So the mitochondria has a byproduct when it cleaves one phosphate to create that ATP molecule. And so that creation has a bypass of ROS reactive oxygen species. That's used in both ways. It can cause damage to the human cells, but it also can create this pathway of communication and it's used for good. Also as long as it's in homeostasis, there’s a kind of a balance. So I can take that from the mitochondria to the whale, because one of the ideas of why they get so acrobatic and splash around is they mix the water, bringing stuff up, and then mix things around. But their actual death--I mean, I was just dumbfounded how much their death creates life, literal life for 40 or 60 years in the ocean.
Kythe: Well, that's all the nutrients from the whale's body...
Joshua: There's one specific organism. They’re only found on dead whales and there’s this kind of puzzle on how that certain organism finds the dead whale. [But the whale’s body] supports a biome of, life for about 40 to 60 years.
Kythe: It seems like healing is the thing that actually connects the whale, the Phoenix and the mitochondria in the way that you see these things together. And it's really interesting that the other point of connection seems to be about the way the mitochondria is involved in communication pathways within the human organism. But the way it seems like your communication with the whale is also a kind of new pathway that's being created, or remembered.
Joshua: There's a connection between our own cells and the mitochondria in that the nucleus there is DNA and Doris M RNA. I mean, there's MRNs and that is de coincide and it can, it can only exist with each other.
Kythe: Vision Lab is about the visionary and we're trying to create better futures. So how do you see this project with the whales and the Phoenix and the mitochondria? What is your aspiration for the future?
Joshua: To encourage, preserve and, enhance the view of the beauty of the whale. But it's to start with the whale. Because that's a fun connection that I like to go with.
Kythe: That's really great. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks for taking a little time off of work and talking to me, it's going to be so fun to transcribe this.
Anneka, how did you get involved with the Vision Lab and how does this whale project come about and relate to the Phoenix?
Anneka: Well, a couple things. One is I want to chime in on Josh with the mitochondria. Because the mitochondria creates energy. That's its function. And so in terms of death and rebirth, when I think of the Phoenix, I think of that. You know, the Phoenix dies and is reborn
and how does it do it? There's a part of it that doesn't die and it has the seed of becoming a Phoenix again. And what is that? In a sense, that would be the mitochondria of the cell, the part that creates the energy, the basic essence.
Kythe: How did you get involved with Vision Lab?
Anneka: The theme of death and rebirth is how I always saw the Phoenix. So I'm actually going to include another mini project I did, which was a poem about the lava, and the lava bringing destruction, and then rebirth. Pele, you know, she destroys, but she creates.
I think it was really my my feelings of failure regarding communicating with the whales, or listening to their messages, and bringing forth their messages to the world. And Vision Lab gave me that chance to not only repair the damage, but also to apologize to the whales. To
communicate with them again, but also even bring what it gave me a little; a vehicle to bring that communication out into the world.
Kythe: I know that you yourself are, and have always been, a visionary. You deal a lot with the inner subtle realms and you've trained yourself extensively in many different spiritual practices and modalities of healing.
And the Phoenix and the mitochondria is deeply involved with healing at all levels. So I guess what I'm wondering is, from this visionary perspective, how do you see this work moving forward into the future? And what kind of future do you think that this can move torwards and call into being?
Anneka: I've been thinking a lot about what is the essence of my business solutions, helping people open their spiritual channels. What's the core of that? What's the one thing that's always driving it? It would be to help people connect to their own inner essence, their own inner truth, their own inner knowing. And in a sense it's to help people connect to the part of themselves.
That is the Phoenix. No matter what is destroyed in your outer environment, no matter what transformations you go through, or the environment or the world goes through, there is always a part of you that has that higher perspective, higher purpose, higher function. As long as you're alive in your body, it's there, driving your next book. So my business is to help people draw closer to that essence.
With the whales, they're going through their own transformation. They're going through their own challenges with the environment that we've created. It's my personal guilt, but also existential guilt as a human being, for the radiation from Fukushima, for the trash that's in the ocean, for what we, as humanity, have created for the whales.
And so we are their destroyers. But how can we connect with them and listen to them and learn from them so that we can also assist with their renewal?
So for my part. I feel that it works with my business in terms of helping people connect. If they can communicate, then they could understand and, their hearts can be open and they can move to assist other creatures.
And then also, in terms of how it's given me a boost in terms of being more fearless in my marketing, being more fearless in showing up as who I really am with all the guests. And not pretending to be less than what I am just to stay safe in these uncertain times.
So maybe, um, not so profound--
Kythe: That's really beautiful actually..
Anneka: And I think it was really a pivotal moment when [you] gave me feedback when I said, ‘Oh, well, when I perform this next, you're not going to see my face. You're going to see images of the dolphins or images of the islands or images of the lava or images other than me.’
And [you were] like, no, you performing the piece is part of the creation of the piece. Even on a video, not even in person, it absolutely actually comes through that my face, my voice, my gestures contributed to [your] experience of understanding the message I was trying to convey.
Kythe: Absolutely.
Anneka: That was a really profound feedback for me. That was really, really positive and helped me quite a bit to come out of myself, come out of my self-consciousness and realize it's more important to convey the message as fully and deeply as possible. And what I look like doesn't really matter. It's not about my ego sense of how I appear or if I did a good enough job.
Kythe: It's deeper than that too. It's actually like the subtlety of reading your emotion and your expression, and just being able to see the authenticity of where you're coming from as a person. I mean, all of that is conveyed to you, you know?
Anneka: Yeah. So it was really helpful.
Kythe: And I hope continues to be helpful in this last phase. Actually that's a great question: What does the Phoenix mean to you personally? Do you feel like you are a Phoenix?
Anneka: Yeah, Because, you know, I did die for a little while, long enough to know just how much gets stripped away. Long enough to be grateful for the process of letting go. Even if it's painful, it's worth it. So I'm not only a Phoenix personally, but honestly, I'm a seed Phoenix for humanity that if I'm able to go through my journey and come out the other side stronger and wiser and more powerful, and share that wisdom and that strength and that power with the world in that respect, I'm a seed Phoenix for humanity to evolve and to make it through the collective Phoenix transformation we were all going through, right?
Kythe: That was so beautiful. Do you want to chime in, Joshua? Are you a Phoenix? What is your personal relationship to the Phoenix?
Joshua: Yeah, I would say I'm a half, half. That'd be a, like a Phoenix whale. Both worlds.
Kythe: So what does it mean to be in both worlds of the Phoenix and the whale at once? Like you identify with that on a personal level?
Joshua: Yeah. Just because the Phoenix, the, well, we have never heard the sound of the Phoenix, but I have heard the song of the whale. And why I say ‘both worlds’ is because in my view, it's almost as if the ocean would be earth, and the sky would be heaven, and the will can break through that rush, through the ground and kiss the heavens. And that's just my dreaming other things.
Kythe:. Oh, that's so gorgeous. All right. I think that's a good place to stop. I appreciate your time and your energy and your effort, and this is perfect.
Anneka: We love you and we appreciate you. We're not giving up on us.
Leviathan
Outside of time we move and sing, each melody is new creation.
We nourish the corals as our sound vibrations
course through their bodies
clearing the blockages in their channels
dissolving accretions in their passageways.
Our movements churn oxygen into the waters
giving food for the algae, hence the plankton, hence the fish.
Even the messy stuffs of our bodies skin and passageways sloughs off
and gives further sustenance, sifting down into the deep
generations thrive upon our leavings.
Our songs are the timelines of our people, a chronicle of planets past.
Our consciousness swims through space just as our bodies tone the oceans
we visit other realms and carry the messages of intelligence beyond this earth.
Here upon this sacred orb we witness and record
delights of life and crystal worlds that passed before
integrated harmonious technologies that shimmered into thriving life.
All of Lemuria swam and sang with us
for eons humanity was our close friend and ally
sharing in the teachings of our breath.
Alas we must include the bitter records of your rapacious greed
to slaughter our families and extract our light, light enough for many candles.
We scarcely hear our voices over the roar and din of your noise pollution
extending to the sonar killing pulsations of your warrior clans testing
questing for yet another way to destroy.
We mourn amongst the detritus of your ignorance
our dead companions lost to your incomprehensible actions
only a soul entirely cut off from the source of its life can slaughter with such wanton cruelty
to us your mind is shattered, you are the walking dead.
In these broken times we navigate the massive islands of garbage churning in the ocean gyre, each particle a false hope of food, the poisoned apple.
Now comes the oil you slick so carelessly onto our shores and nurseries
even the silent shimmering, where you have shattered the fabric of creation
Isotopes creating aberrations, abortions and miscarriage of our young
and still you allow to dump and spew.
Patiently we sing, make new migrations, decimated we endure, and cling to life.
One day we heard the song of a human on the shore
a child of the old ways when we could reach into each other’s minds
share stories and visions and dreams.
Patiently we journey to her shores each night, slapping the water, bellowing, and sending forth our supernatural resonant calls.
Anneka … Listen, we are dying, help us …
Anneka … teach humanity, allow humans return to source
the place where we are one.
Oh whale, each night I heard your song, I sensed your love and message.
I cannot make excuses for the pain, the beatings, and the hopelessness
that bound my mouth like a muzzle
I lay in the comfort of my bed each night I listened but closed my heart
from breaking. How can any one person even feel such devastation
or hope to shift even one fission particle lost to harmony for 10,000 years ?
Oh whale what can I do for you now ?
I fear it has gone too far, there is no way through anymore
this long century of devastation has left behind indelible marks
great gashes and sears.
The body of humanity is like a mass of scar tissue after a fire
Yes, we function, but the nerves are cauterized, we no longer sense connection.
Our lips have lost the taste for living foods
we are taught only to enjoy the smells of chemicals
see beauty only in adornment
and scan each face for enmity.
Humanity is lost. What am I, Anneka ? supposed to do
I can stand on the roof and scream, fiddle, caper, or fawn
there is nothing I can do to make them listen.
Dear Anneka, Listen, listen to our message
you can be one human who resonates our call
Go out and share our wisdom, patience, the slow beating of our heart.
Sing back to us each day just as we sang to you
be the human who opens to all creation
flowing forth the inexhaustible source
the infinite feedback loop of light.
Nourish us outside of space and time
here where we dwell with our beloved companions
and share the boundless presence that holds us in return.
I would like to welcome everyone to tonight's presentation of this incredibly special event of the Phoenix of the sea with Anika Bowman and Joshua Bowman.
And. There's a huge mystery surrounding what they will present tonight. Um, but it will be about apologizing to whales and it will involve poetry and it will also involve their beautiful place of residence on the Island of Hawaii, the big Island, where they live right on the shore. So. There's nothing else to say before we have a direct experience, unmediated experience, these two lovely beings.
Um, so I will present them now start with,
yeah. And everyone, please mute yourselves.
Okay.
As the wound in the vast darkness. Well, his moon day and night and the cytoplasmic emotion to the bonds or shifting sees inner and outer realms, a richness itching to break free of the confines. You might have. We'll see you, the warm, cool air as a Phoenix. There's from slumber to rebirth all the EHRs as a Phoenix into new life where the mighty split the tear through remerge.
Again, a light zone is Adam's mingle based by fire the desires towards the higher. The realm of peace in darkness, the vast emptiness black on black or loved ones, Doyle the ashiness or four way bond and embrace stuck in here. Eventually seeing the light, we are so rich to the sky and, uh, will ensure the way.
Okay.
Outside of time, we moved and say good slime was new creation, nourishing the corals as our sound vibrations, of course, through their bodies, cleaning the blockages and their channels to solving accretions in their passageways, our movements. Churned oxygen into the waters, giving food for the allergy and hence the plankton, the messy stuff from our bodies sloughing off to give further sustenance.
Our songs where the timelines of our people, a Chronicle of planets pass. Yeah.
On this water earth memoria swam and sang with us for some Ian's humanity. He was our friend.
Now we must add the briefer songs. Of your spacious rapacious, greed, just Lauder our bodies to extract our light light enough. For many candles that time has passed. We can scarcely hear our family songs over the roar and din. Of your noise pollution, even. So the sonar killing pulsation of your warrior clans testing questing for yet another way to destroy.
No, we swim in the silent shimmering. Creating aberrations abortions and miscarriages of our young and still you allow Fukushima to spill. Yeah. Add the oils you slick. So carelessly onto our shores and nurseries, the massive islands of garbage. Churning in our Geier each particle of forest, a false hope of food, the poisoned Apple.
Patiently we sing.
No migrations just made it to light.
One day. I heard the song of a human on the shore, a human of the old ways. Where we could reach into each other's minds, share stories and visions and dreams patiently. I journey to her shores each night, slapping the water bellowing and sending forth my supernatural resonant calls.
Humanity.
Each night. She heard us patiently. I returned each night, but she had closed her heart to me.
Oh, well, Oh, well, each night I heard your song. I sent your love and message. I cannot make excuses for the pain. The beatings found my mouth, like a muscle
as I lay in the comfort of my bed each night I listened, but I closed my soul to action.
Oh. Oh, well, Oh, well, what can we do for you now? I fear it has gone too far. There's no way through anymore. A long century of devastation has left behind indelible marks. Great gashes and Sears. The body of humanity is like a mash of scar tissue after a fire.
Yes we function, but our nerves are cauterized. We no longer sense connection. Our lips have lost the taste for living food. We are taught only to enjoy the rancid smell of chemicals.
Only in adornment and scan each face.
What am I supposed to do?
I can stand on the roof. I scream.
There's nothing I can do to make them listen.
You're Anneka. You can listen. You can be the one who listens to our song.
Even one who shares the slow feeding of our heart
patients sing back to us each day, just as we sang to you.
Okay. Of the human bodies in all of this water earth creation
in return.
Uh,
Okay.
Visualize and see 11. Okay.
Whatever ocean is closest to you, whatever beach and shore you adore. Bring yourself there. Face fast immensity.
Sent your heart message of love
for your party.
You might not be.
Do better.
Try your best. Try your greatest in your heart. No matter the trials and tribulations stay stable
gratitude for the magnificence of creation of the ocean.
Central gratitude that we have received in this precious human caretakers of mother earth.
As you feel, you can see
spiritual senses, just show you.
What's going on, maybe we lost the signal.
That was great. That was so beautiful.
How would you feel about talking to everyone who participated or witnessed if people have questions or wanted to, to say something about their experience of what they just witnessed?
Yeah.
I'm going to change the view back to gallery so that we can see each other. Yeah.
There's a beautiful chat comment by, um, it says thank you for representing Pachamama and walk up Papa. Um,
Anyone else have thoughts or want to share something about their experience of this? Uh,
It was beautiful. It reminded me of the first time that I ever saw Emily arnica in my life. She's saying a chorus of, I love my, uh, my ear loves that the favorite part of my body and all the parts of my body are sweet. To me. That's amazing. Thank you. And then it also reminded me the first time I ever got sh, um, S S faced drunk when I was 15.
I broke out into tears because of the dolphins just happened. So I guess it made me feel tapped into. A younger, innocent, more innocent version of myself.
Thank you, Darren.
I feel like I witnessed Aanuka singing that song too.
It was beautiful. I have just very clear memory of it.
You know, I wrote, I wrote that song. That song came to me on the motion in Portugal one day. One of those special dates, when things open up.
Thank you for sharing a day like that with us right now. Thank you for including the sun and the wind in her poem. It's um, I am just there with you. It's hard to talk, which is a good thing for me, having nothing to say is very good for me. And so beautiful. It's really beautiful. Monica. I was so glad that I could think a couple of months ago you talked about the whale that kept coming up on to the shore near where you live.
I was envisioning that. Most of the time I have this whale coming and communicating with you. So it was very helpful to have the backstory. And also I love the beach as much as I love theater. Like they're my two favorite things. And so seeing that ocean is really amazing right now. Yeah. You know, um, after that year we had.
Laughed. And then finally after it left, like after like two, Josh is looking at the whales snapping around right now.
Right now I'm getting
Yeah, I don't think there's any way. The camera is not as good as the human eye.
So I was saying.
We hardly saw any whales after that. And they were, there were some whales, but they were like way off shore, like way on the horizon. You can just barely see some spouts and splash
and then this year, whatever it might be. The, um, they're coming again closer to the shores and they're jumping and they're vocalizing at night. We can hear them again. So there's less, there's less tourists, boats. Yeah, they had a chance to rejuvenate.
So I have a question for you guys. So, um, there was a line in the poem about the whales, recognizing that you knew the old ways. And so they felt like they could talk with you. What is that like, what are some of the ways in which there can be this kind of cross species communication, developing? What allows them to recognize you or whoever is able to speak or communicate with them?
Exactly. And like, how do you learn that language or con or continue to grow in your knowledge of it? I think Darren brought it up already. Really it's heart to heart and soul to soul. It's not a mental process. It's something you feel in your heart. So deep, it goes to your soul. And Darren described, you know, in the innocence of his 15 year old self.
There is an aspect of him that just, he made that communication. He made that bridge in the dolphin world and soul song, which Josh and I did is a way to open that bridge to open your soul communication to the soul world, because everything has a soul. So if you're in your soul song, And you open your soul language, you open your spiritual eyes and ears.
Then you can receive the messages from the souls that surround you, and you can send messages. You can have conversations with anything. The ocean, the higher self of someone you're in conflict with the grocery store, you can have conversations with your bank account and to try to get it to be more fluffy.
And, um, the Holy thing. Um, you can have conversations because everything has a soul, right? So you drop in with your innocence. You drop into your heart, you leave the mind behind you, open your heart connect soul to soul, and there you are.
Yeah, I should give a shout out to one of my spiritual teachers, Dr. Shaw, who has specific ways technologies of consciousness to connect more deeply
channels.
To help you reclaim
my birthright as a human being, just as we all have that birthright,
you got anything to say, Jack?
There's a question here from grace, she's saying Anneka, how can we protect that innocence in this world? Yeah. And I think in the flow, I'm remembering back. I remember something there's something about staying present. So even though you're in pain or even though you're in frustration, or even though you're in sorrow or grief for more,
I choose to stay present, just choose to stay present in that and really allow yourself to feel.
I think you got to help your mom get onto the next call. Yeah. Just allow yourself to be present with. And that light of our consciousness of our awareness. That's the one good way we can use our mind is in a higher sense of consciousness and awareness to bring awareness. And as you're there, you also can visualize and call upon.
Whatever your, your higher power is to bring love like forgiveness and compassion to those struggles, pains, sorrows, and as you heal and self transform, because we're all connected, we just have to hope and pray. That our own process of staying present, staying connected, ripples out. And then when you're in that connected state, you'll also start to get messages.
Each one will have their own individual unique message of do this. Oh, you have this gift and ability to share on social media. So that's your job. Do it. You know, you have this gift and ability to do a trash cleanup. The email just came into your box the other day, go ahead, spend the time, whatever it might be, you'll start to get messages.
And then the magical thing is if you follow the messages,
If you follow the messages, you get more messages.
Okay. And then my story is one of like shutting down, you know, like I was getting the messages, but I didn't know how to follow them. And I was feeling despair. Helplessness hopelessness.
So I appreciate this opportunity to give voice take action.
Thank you so much. Aanuka I'm also, uh, thinking about the whales themselves, you know, Like, what do you think about their perspective on all of this? Like those whales out in the ocean? Like if they're like listening in on this call, what do you think they think about it? Well, how do they explain. The poem, there was a lot of emotion and human anguish and suffering.
And of course they have that when they're, when their family members die in front of their eyes.
But in general, they're not as disturbed. You know, cause they didn't, they're not the ones that created all the pollution, so they suffer its effects, but they maintain that's. The amazing thing about them is they maintain this very loving. Presence. And they maintain their connection to their own hearts and souls to their tribe, to their responsibilities, to their songs.
They're very patient for us. You know, they've been here for eons and eons of time and in their songs and then their awareness, they traveled back through time. Just as they shared to me, as I float out the poem, they shared like a time of happiness and joy when humans for the most part were connected to mother nature and recognizing we are mother nature.
We're not separate from her. And so they have patience and they also recognize that. There's like a time returns. There's eons of time that cycle. And we're in a very, very difficult cycle right now, but the time will come again, maybe not in yours, that individual whales or your in my lifetime, but the time will come again.
When all of humanity is connected again to mother and nose. Knows it from the bottom of their toes to the tips of their hair. And that time will come again. So they take the long view.
It's not me. That's static on the line.
All right, let me, um, let me mute. Well, you were just saying, reminded me of, of one of the early scenes in the Madeleine L'Engle book, a swiftly tilting planet when the. Character Charles Wallace goes within parcels. I think his name is, and he rides a dolphin and it's in an earlier time. And I think that's why I cried actually, because I remember something about in the book, there was something about like how dolphins were getting caught up in the tuna nets.
That's what made me sad. But anyway, It just reminded me what you were saying. Reminded me of that scene in a swiftly tilting planet, which is one of my favorite books, which I read when I was probably 12 or something. It's a beautiful scene because he's like, he's riding the dolphin and it's just beautiful and everything is perfect.
It's like an Eden kind of image.
Without the I'm blaming Steve shit.
Yeah. Um, coincidence, coincidentally, my friend, Stephen lady, who, um, in that film that, that, um, my little troop showed a few weeks ago. Um, he was singing the song. He had written that song about the whales this weekend. Every year. He has a big whale Fest, uh, in his backyard and basement in Providence, Rhode Island.
And they, and it's this amazing party and people travel in for it. And he schedules bands in like every 20 minutes and people just play music all night long and all the proceeds go to a variety of organizations to save the whales, but it's all devoted to the whale. And I'm, I really missed it this year because it's, we can't do it this year.
Is that in Providence? Yeah. Yeah. I'll let you know next year I'm going
to go. It's also something so incredible about the voices of the Wells, because them migrate thousands and thousands of miles secretly under the seat. Um, and for a long time, it was not known how they were able to communicate and meet up with each other across such vast distances. And during world war two, the submarines actually interfered with the whales calls that get magnified under water.
And so these whales would bump into each other and lose their way. And so at the same time their voices were studied and the language of Wales is so complex and has so many, um, multitudes of words and syntax, configurations. And so a lot was learned about how they communicate and how to avoid, um, interfering with their frequencies.
At that time. And I, and a lot of the really early recordings of whale songs were made by the submarines, um, at that time, like more than 50 years ago. And I don't know if you've all heard those. Like, I got really fascinated with them at one point and tracked down many recordings under underwater of the Wales voices, but there's such a, um,
So, so world of speech and communication and delight and depth and resonance in those voices. Um, and I think, I think they're also so much influencing everything in the herd world that we share in the air as well. Without us even recognizing it, like there are all these resonant things happening all around us.
And I feel like as Aanuka was saying, the more that we listen, the more that we can tap into these things that we didn't even know, we could hear before
grace is saying all these amazing things in the chat. She says, thank you, Anika. And there's a link to a book called the cultural lives of whales and dolphins, which looks really interesting and good. Yeah. It's a book on my list. One of the many that I would like to read this year, but, um, a friend of mine recommended it to me and it's by these two scientists who've been studying whales for the whole of their lives.
Um, So amazing. I, I loved, uh, at the beginning of the piece, Aanuka hearing the whales. Where was the sound coming from?
Came from Josh's cell phone. There's something called the Jupiter project. You can look that up and they, they go and they record, um, we all songs. Oh, wow.
And they they're actually off the, I think they're off this coast trying to play one
anyway, Josh isn't here right now, so I cannot pull it up again, but yeah, you just pull up the Jupiter project and sometimes they live stream like the. Microphone's in the water and they're just live streaming, whatever the dock the wheels are doing. And then they also have recordings to listen to. So that's what Joshua was, was using for them.
Great arnica. I know that Josh isn't there right now, but he was when he told us the amazing story about the shark and he was saying that he goes out and. The boat into the, um, what did he call that channel of water then? I don't know. There's like one and Maui. He would go out and then get underneath the boat and hold onto the boat underwater.
So I listened to the whales Hunter. Yeah. Does he frequently hear them when he goes. Under the boat like that, or is that a rare occurrence or is that easy to do? It's kind of a quest. So, uh, he's always, he's, you know, he's watching the water and then when he sees the dolphins or the whales, he runs down and jumps in and, um, some days we've heard them really well.
He'll grab me when he can. And some days we hear them really well. But, uh, sometimes they're like pretty far away. You hear them? Yeah. And for a couple of years we didn't hear them at all. Cause they were so far out way on the horizon. You could barely see us out, but this year they're back there. They're coming closer again.
I very much would like to do that someday. I know me too. And it makes me think also of the story of Joan. And the, well, you know, imagine you guys, what it's like to be swallowed by a whale and actually live inside of well, I mean, all kinds of things have been found in the belly of a whale. Like if a whale ate enough stuff, you could probably like.
Survive in there. I'm like random stuff though. Whale, April long time, like Volkswagen bug, like completely intact has been found inside of whale, a blue whale. So it makes me wonder, you know, like what if the world was entirely inside out, because that is a vision of the world. Turned inside out where everything that's inside becomes you're outside.
And the walls of the whale on the inside become like the walls of your residence on the outside. And so your world is the size of a whale, but it's a great metaphor because it shows us how small our own bubbles are of knowledge. Like what if we're right now, actually inside the belly of a whale? And we don't know it, you know, like Krishna's mouth.
Exactly
Kieth. What is that image? There's a, there's an image. There's like a, like a hundreds of years old image of the universe, like on a giant tortoise. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, I think it's the one that's in the you punish ads, right? I don't know. I was just, um, I was presented with that image when I was working on something last year and it blew me away.
Anybody that knows it korma, um, it's the korma, uh, avatar of Vishnu. So Vishnu comes in many forms and one of them is that is the tortoise. And it's called korma in the Hindu tradition. Thank you.
What does that mean, korma? What does that mean? What is going on here?
So why is my favorite Indian?
It's like, it's very mild.
It's K U R M a. So it's different from korma, you know, that you eat. Okay. All right. So, um, Thank you so much arnica and Joshua, that was such a delicious and, um, completely mesmerizing presentation. Thank you. Um, and meaningful and. Depth full and subtle. Yeah. Josh and I thank you for the opportunity. Maybe this is still just a test run.
We can do a better version. Yeah. I'd like, it would be amazing if we could help you like figure out the whole video aspect. Cause it would be so beautiful to kind of create a video of this. Um, so the second part of tonight's, um, Plan is to create a collective beginning to envision lab manifesto. And this is something that I've wanted to do for a long time, but grace also brought it up a few sessions ago and she's been really avid about wanting to pursue it.
And I've, I've written a couple of things about vision lab, which are at this point, like just kind of starters, but it seems really important to create something that's purely and totally. Collectively based. And, um, you know, there are a couple of things that we can think about when we think about manifestos and obviously like many different groups have written them in the past though.
We don't need to follow any kind of prescription at all. But I think maybe the first thing, and this just seemed like the best way of starting things out. Is to have a word drop by which, by which, I mean, just share a blank Google doc, and everyone can just write whatever they want on it. And I also want to acknowledge that people have different ways of participating with language and different, um, you know, different sensitivities around writing process.
So. Whatever you want to do is great. Like, if you want to just send your notes afterwards, that's fine. If you want to just kind of like write some words down or bullet points on this document. That's great. If you have like a couple of ideas that you want to just get down, I think, um, whatever you feel like doing whatever you feel comfortable doing, that seems good.
Um, I'm just going to. Let's see, I'll just share a link to this on the chat. Yeah.
Um, but basically like w maybe just for a little bit of orientation, um, there's some really amazing and strange, uh, manifestos, um, like the data manifesto, for example, or the surrealist manifesto. I. I encourage you guys to look those up if you're curious. Um, they're very much based in dissidents. Um, okay.
Wait, can you use some permissions? Okay, hold on. Sure, sure, sure, sure, sure. Um, all right. Let's just.
Is that a whale
and Anika's
is that a, Oh no, I was going to freak out
why? Oh, I see what the issue is. Okay. I, um, Share with like anyone who has the link, I think is the option on Google docs. Right, right, right. Hold on. Just a second.
Google.
Mine just failed. Cause I have like an old computer, so I'll just listen or chat or something. I'm not going to do it. Okay. Hold on. It's just taking forever to load.
Come on. Google goals.
Okay. And now let me just add it to the chat. Um, okay, so that one should work. Hopefully. So, um, a couple of things that, uh, grace and I were thinking about today is, you know, what is it that we are committed to in vision lab? Like what, and maybe we can just leave this document open and people can just add to it as they wish, but.
I thought it would be really interesting to have a conversation just to open conversation and we can add notes, maybe somebody does anyone want to be the scribe and kind of like take notes on the conversation. Okay. Thanks Chris. Should I take notes in the doc? Yeah, you can take notes in the doc and anyone who wants to hopefully can add whatever they want to, to the doc themselves.
And I just tried to. Um, I've only got view access. Sorry. I thought I just changed it. I'm in the dark now, but I just, I can't actually add anything to it. We're getting there one step at a time. Sorry. Okay. I just changed the name and okay. And it should, okay. Wait, hold on. Okay. I'm changing everyone to editor.
Yes, there we go. Okay. Perfect. Sorry. All right. So new link. So everyone using the latest link should have editing permissions on all of it. So great. So anyone can add anything at any time. And I thought we could have a conversation and there were a few different questions that came up to ask everyone collectively.
So. One is what, what have you, like, what has been the benefit? You still can't edit the document where you can now? No, I can't. Maybe only grace. Can I see a bunch of people on it. Everyone able to do, are you using the latest link? I see the new title. Reload. It, yeah. The most recent link says anyone on the internet with this link can edit.
Okay. But you still have to reload it. I think. Yeah. I think you're right. So after I reloaded, I can edit it. Okay. I hope that works for you. Thanks. Is it working now? Yeah. Okay. Cool. So, um, one, one question is, um, what is, you know, what have you benefited, but have benefited from, with vision lab? Like what has it offered to your life and your creative practice and your intentions for your purpose?
That would be one thing to consider. And. A related question is what do you want vision lab to do or, or be in the future? Are there any key words that, um, manifest this for you or make it, um, make it palpable or present for you? Are there words that we should be committed to as. A kind of ethics of vision or that we're concerned with, that we want to dedicate ourselves to, um, all these kinds of questions.
Like I think, you know, certainly a co and what do we mean exactly by collective? Like what sort of form should it take? How do we want to think about what our relationship is to each other and to our projects, to our. To our goals as a creative entity, um, all kinds of questions around this. Um, there was a group at Harvard that I was a part of last semester, which was really interesting.
They were trying to be experimental around creating, um, a collective of professors and students and other, you know, other. Other people at the university, some workers and some, um, some just like many, many different sorts of people. And so there were three words that they chose to kind of think through together.
One was presence. One was, um, mentorship and the third was collectivity. And I thought that was kind of interesting. And then there were sort of sub words, like. A consciousness of history was one that they found really important too. So thinking about histories of colonialism and racism and how to kind of reenact history, um, towards, uh, I thought, I thought that was, I thought that was an interesting way of proceeding with like certain key words and then kind of thinking about them.
Definitely like the surrealist or dentist manifestos. Are all about like rejecting previous art and kind of having this very like vivid and, um, sort of, uh, almost like ostentatiously strange kind of perspective, or like not making the same thing twice or, you know, something that's, um, trying to conceive of a radical mindset of creation.
You know, so that all of that is a possibility in terms of what it is that we want to make or support. Um, I think, you know, certainly like right now in this culture, like there's a lot of concern with changing these. Systemic oppressions. So that's a big part. Can I interrupt you a second? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's a lot what, you're what you're saying already. And I think one of the things that would be nice if we could pass it and say, what are those three words that you just said that you were in that group so that people could put those down and we could use those words as jumping off. Sure. Thanks to ki I think she agrees.
Okay. So these three words were presence, mentorship and collectivity,
but this is about art, you know, and that was about something else. So I feel like, um, I feel like I would encourage people to maybe be more poetic and maybe visionary, you know? I mean, cause I feel like if you're, if you're trying to have a collective that Harvard with workers and professors, that's really a different orientation than what I think vision live is, which is totally out of the box.
Um, I have some things I, I'm not, I mean, my computer is really old and I can't get into the Google doc, but I have, I have some writing from the very first time division lab had our, that little retreat we had. Yeah. Oh my goodness. You were there. That's right. That was.
So I, and a lot of it has about, um, spirituality and art as a context rather than content providers and, um, about, yeah, I mean, so I can write some of that stuff up, but, um, It had a lot to do about healing and it had a lot to do about art and, um, connections with people and, Oh, and here, why a bird transformation, unconscious sources.
Wait, there was a Firebird at the original vision love thing three years ago. Yep. Yep. That was like this time three years ago. And then it was right after, uh, the Twitter church. Um, increase our spirituality and resistance to labeling Firebird transformation on consciousness at the source.
So, um, It's Oh, and this was cool, but to enter into a non-con conventional space, the spirit of chance and how people relate to each other in a general, in a generative way. Hmm. That kind of reminds me of the temporary autonomous zones. The Taz. I dunno about that. It's um, yeah, like the, like when I lived in Portland, that was sort of a big thing though.
Um, do you remember those Giovanna? Like there was a bookstore that was really into the like Hakeem Bay, like anarchist thought and stuff. Yeah. Well, and it's been, it's been so big this year with, um, black lives matter and being anti-fascist. Good thing. Yeah. Being anti-fascist is a good thing. Why does it sound like such a bad thing in this culture?
So I'm going to shut up. I know. I just rattled off like a bunch of things. So maybe we just need time to like, write some stuff down on this document. So let's take like five minutes to just word drop, like whatever has emerged from you. So from ideas or sparks from this conversation or anything that you want to say, and then we can talk about it further, but just drop whatever words on the document.
Like they can just be bullet points or actual words or a thought or whatever, and this will be a good start. So it's six 10 right now. So let's do this until six 15, and then gather again.
And any, if you just click on that last link that I posted on the chat, you should be able to get onto the document.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay. Can we just have one more minute of just adding, like the craziest thing that comes to the top of your head to this document? Like just total stream of consciousness for one minute. Just like whatever your crazy mind thinks, like outside of logic and outside of any context, like, um, some, some, some like utterly outrageous thing just for a minute.
Okay.
Okay, one more question. Um, how can vision lab be better for doing these things? Like, is there anything that we should change or like, Restructure or reorganize or like what would help us to achieve all this stuff that you want vision lab to do or be, or are there any specific programs we should start or I don't know, could it, it could be answered in any way.
Okay. Yeah.
okay. Um, so, uh, we have a few minutes here at the end. Um, do you guys want to just talk about this or take a moment to read through, or what do we need to do now?
I feel like anything that we're leaving out or that we should like, think about adding.
I feel like I need to go through this first and read all of it. Should we just take a few minutes to like, for everyone to just read through it?
Yeah, let's do that.
Does adding plus one or plus two mean, but you're like supporting that you're emphasizing. Is that what you're doing? Yeah. So maybe we should all be like read through and like add plus one to everything we agree with.
Um, it's pretty late here. I, I have to wind down now. Um, but I agree with pretty much everything in the dark and I'll, I'll review it, um, tomorrow or the next day, uh, during the day. Okay. Thank you so much, grace for staying up with us. Um, and you and I are meeting on Wednesday, so we can talk about it more then does everybody, has everybody saved this, got this doc so that they can access it and add to it at any time they want to, because right now it's just, um, in the chat as like the Google doc link.
So just maybe we can just take a moment and everyone can save it in whatever form. They want to any, if you want me to send you a copy of it, I'm happy to do that. We definitely don't want everybody having their own copy. Um, the value of a document like this is that. Um, it's shared, so everyone should save the URL, not make a copy.
Oh, right, right. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Or if you hit the thrive icon at the top, at the very top, your, you can add the link to your drive, so it'll show up and it will be the same document that everybody's working on. Okay. Yeah. We want to make sure that it's the same document everyone is working on. Oh my God.
That would be a disaster. Okay. I'm going to change the name to real vision lab. Okay. All right. So, um, yeah. So if everyone can keep, um, access to this particular document and maybe yeah. Maybe people can just look up, look more added or whatever on their own, but any final thoughts. I mean, it would be great to kind of like wrap up with a few words or comments or thoughts from people was that this is Sue, this is super pedestrian, but I just, I don't understand how to save it in a way that I'll save it as, as an active doc.
So, um, if somebody could just email it to me as an act of doc, I'm sharing my screen right now. So if you got up here, um, It's changed to a file icon for me, because I just saved it to my drive, but it will be here. And it's like the little Google drive, um, logo. And if you hit that button, it should say links to your drive.
So you'll have access, but it won't, it won't duplicate the document or anything.
Is anybody doing this in the phone? Yeah. And Joshua and Annika are okay. So, so add a star to it. So, um, Billy, I think you have different icons maybe from your phone. I think there's a different view, right? Yeah. It's okay. I think Matt is sanding right?
Yeah, I'm on an iPad and I don't have that iconic race to that either. So yeah, Matt, if help us.
Thank you. I don't have that either. One more. Second. I've been having. Trouble getting the paste to work weirdly. Here's my dog. Here's my dog
mascot, except she's not a whale is a dog
Dharma dog.
She's a doodle. Well, he's a doodle.
Oh guys, when I was in Hawaii and we took a boat to go and swim with the dolphins, the captain had a little dog and he would put her in an inflatable, a fin on the dog and the dog would jump into the water and the whales will come. And the double play with what means that will play with the dolphins.
Yes, I have pictures. I could show you.
Thank you, Matt. So, yes, dogs can be dolphins. That's amazing if everybody saves this and you know what I'm going to actually like add this to our, um, vision lab, Facebook group too. Yeah. That seems like a good thing. And if everybody can save it, then they'll have access to the live document. Thank you, Matt.
Yeah. So he's saying, so Matt saying, you can save the address book, market, whatever. Right?
Thank you, everyone. This was such a thrilling evening as well. And like I saw lots of references to joy in the document. I have to go back and read through it obviously, but like, I think Joe is like very revolutionary right now. Um, maybe we can end on that, but thank you all so much for goodnight, Astrid.
Good night.
Good night.
Anneka Bowman is a poet, healer, and teacher. She has a long and winding life path with many chapters of endeavor and is still an apprentice to her community, her environment, and a passionate life-long learner. Anneka’s current highest service is as a Certified Divine Direct Soul Communicator and Soul Teacher through the Tao Academy, empowered by Dr and Master Zhi Gang Sha. She and her husband Joshua Bowman are Tao Hands Practitioners, leading spiritual healing groups from their home on the Kona coast of Big Island Hawaii. Anneka has a deep background in authentic movement and somatic psychology, with a Masters degree in Dance Movement Therapy from the Naropa University, and taught movement educators at Breitenbush, the Omega Institute, and Black Mountain Artists retreat center. Anneka also had a delightful chapter as a Shamanic Healer and intuitive reader at spiritual and music festivals through the Pacific Northwest and beyond. In addition, Anneka has many years and wide experience in Counseling, Therapy, and Social Service employment, including a few years as a Certified Addictions Counselor. Long ago Anneka laid her foundation in education with an idealistic dual major in Anthropology and Art History from Reed College, which reflects her fascinations at that time and still informs her life philosophies and practice of inclusion and acceptance. Anneka had a unique childhood and upbringing, born in New York to artist philosophers dedicated to the study and practice of self remembrance with mystic leader GI Gurdjieff. Her earliest memories are of art gallery openings in her parents' Star Turtle Gallery, one of the first galleries located in New York's Lower East Side, and of joining artist collectives in rural Connecticut during the Summer of Love. In terms of Vision Lab, Anneka is a Phoenix, having burned herself down to the ground more than once in this life and built herself anew.
Joshua Bowman was born and raised here on the north side of the Big Island Hawaii. At the moment he lives at Kawaihae with his wife Anneka where they have a humble home. He has loved Science all of his life—the seed was placed in him when he was diagnosed with a possible brain tumor at age 17. It took one year of crazy tests to diagnose him with a benign brain tumor 2 months before he graduated high school. He also had the catalyst by helping his dad journey through Cancer. With the departure of his father, he dedicated myself to the study of Cancer, focusing on Holistic cures or helpers that do not hurt one’s self but only the Cancer cells. His studies took him to the Mitochondria—mainly linking my thoughts to a cool chemist and his ideas called the Otto Warburg effect. He loves talking to others about the Mitochondria and a broad spectrum of movers and shakers in cellular biology.