8 - Kingsley Dennis (New Monasticism)

“The battlefield has gone more and more internally, more into our minds.” - Kingsley Dennis http://kingsleydennis.com/In this episode we hang out with Kingsley Dennis, prolific author and one of the most articulate voices in the emerging global movement of “new monasticism.” * Support Future Fossils Podcast on Patreon: patreon.com/michaelgarfield * Kingsley joined us from his gorgeous home in Spain to talk about…well, almost everything:– Reimagining the planet as a living cell with the help of biologist Lewis Thomas;– Flocking and schooling behavior in humans, and how outlier “weirdos” form the skin/edges/sensate drivers of culture (a shift from the periphery, not the center);– Gregory Bateson’s “difference that makes a difference” and information as inherently meaningful (a qualitative dimension to “data” that we largely ignore, but will be integrated into the wisdom of a mature society); – Violent revolutions in the aftermath of new information technologies, and the deconstruction of hierarchical control – trees falling and saplings springing up;– Time compression in a digital society and the increasingly inhospitable urban environment optimized for machines;– Time compression in psychology and increased rates of travel and communication;– New generations will be brought up in a fully digital society, and their epigenetic response will sprout new organs of perception, instinctively more adjusted and naturalized to time-space compression;– Evolutionary whiplash vs. cruising altitude comfort/complacency;– Soul work and evolution through difficulty:“Disruptive energy is actually needed in order to catalyze the shift to a different order [but] it’s hard to talk about this without sounding distant.” - Kingsley Dennis  Get bonus content on PatreonSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/futurefossils. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelgarfield.substack.com/subscribe