Several weeks ago, I was interviewed by Taylor Holmes on my upcoming presentation on The 5 Essentials of Designing and Building Sacred Space at the Lightning in a Bottle Festival. Taylor and I talked for just under an hour and he asked me some really provocative questions on the potential for learning at a music festival like Lightning in a Bottle. He also re-inspired my interest in author Tom Robbins, whose books I read way back in the early nineties.
The article is entitled, “LIB Defines Partying With A Purpose.” In celebration of the upcoming event, I will soon be releasing sections from my article, “In Defense of Intoxication: The Links Between Altered States and Creative Insight.” For now, enjoy Taylor’s article:
May 10, 2012 — Images of newborn animals learning to stand, then run, jump and frolic with their kin alongside verdant spears of vegetation stretching towards the sun have become an iconic representation of the joy of life.
Springtime, the earthly embodiment of new life, fresh growth and play for many riders of earth’s elliptical roller coaster ride, has been celebrated by the human animal for millennia and this year is no exception. Southern California’s Silverado Canyon, traditional home of the Acjachemen tribe and more recent home of the groundbreaking Lightning In A Bottle festival, will be the container for some concentrated springtime magic beginning May 24.
Famous for its stellar musical lineup and dance floor excitement, Lightning In A Bottle, or LIB, offers many ways for festival goers to cultivate new growth mentally, physically and spiritually. A very special area within the festival grounds called The Lucent Temple of Consciousness offers a smorgasbord of knowledge in the form of yoga/movement instruction, workshops, speakers and temple music. With institutional education costs rising so high as to be prohibitive to many who thirst for learning, LIB is a great opportunity to jam pack a brain for less than the price of a couple community college units (and a lot more fun).
Architect, creativity coach, and writer Austin Hill Shaw (Austinhillshaw.com), who will be giving a talk on the “Five Essentials of Designing and Building Sacred Space,” said that the festival environment offers a “unique container where people can let their guard down and learn.”
Academic and scientific learning has for centuries been concerned primarily with the material world of objective reality while spiritual traditions emphasize the subjective experience. Although both approaches seek to deal with many of the same problems, their denial of the other’s validity has often times halted progress and created conflict. Shaw believes that when these two aspects of knowledge are reconciled through the frame of connectivity, we get an approach with a lot of “real power.”
Produced by the world famous The Do Lab, Lightning In A Bottle pairs real world skills like solar cooking and spirulina cultivation with a sacred view of humankind’s role in protecting and healing our planet in a really unique way. Using a holistic approach to effectively address the serious problems of our age — epitomized by the LIB attitude (leave it better, leave it beautiful) — The Do Lab has sought to create a festival that will inspire solutions to the immense global challenges facing mankind and to have a lot of fun doing it.
For Taylor Holmes full article, see “LIB Defines Partying With A Purpose: The Lucent Temple Of Consciousness At The Lightning In A Bottle Festival Inspires New Levels Of Dance And Spiritual Awakenings To Improve The World”