Tools for Raising Consciousness
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“If we don't take the risk, we will find ourselves stuck in a level of mind inadequate to the demands of the times.” - Dancing at the Edge
At its simplest, consciousness is ‘sentience’ or ‘awareness of existence’. It is still commonly believed to be what separates humans from other living beings, and despite our advances in neuroscience, it remains mysterious and controversial.
Our consciousness is so fascinating because it is reflexive. It is able to scrutinise and evaluate itself, and therefore influence the course of its own evolution. We can try to change ourselves, and therefore change our impact on others and the world around us. The same force that imagined slavery, imagined its abolition - whilst imagining other, less detectable ways to enslave. And so it continues.
We are now at a juncture where many of us are looking at our consciousness in a different light. We have created in such an industrious way, but in doing so we have plundered the earth. Can we continue to evolve our consciousness at a rate that can outpace the destruction we’re causing?
This is what is meant by ‘raising consciousness’. This instalment of the LXD meetup will explore the following questions. What are the best tools or approaches we have for raising consciousness? How can we create the conditions that favour evolution of consciousness? What does raising consciousness mean to us as individuals? Can we pinpoint an aha moment in our own lives when our consciousness 'lifted'? As learning designers, how might we connect the experiences we design to deeper shifts in mindset, worldview and beyond?
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You’ll hear from:
Alex Evans and Kate Pumphrey, Larger Us. Larger Us is all about beginning the quest for a better future in the places where our states of mind meet the state of the world.
Dan Burgess. Dan will reflect on his practice across projects including Good for Nothing, Wild Labs and his podcast The Spaceship Earth.
Lucy Williams and Tim Gifford, LearnJam. Lucy and Tim will reflect on an Innovate UK funded project to collate approaches to inclusive learning design, and how working towards inclusion requires far deeper shifts than you might imagine.
Selina Bakkar, Amaliah.
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In this meetup you will:
- Hear from our guests who will respond to our questions
- Take part in a discussion group to reflect on your own experiences
- Contribute to a collaborative doc where we’ll collect the ‘tools’
- Leave with inspiration for how to connect your learning design practice to the theme
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Please note: the money we collect from ticket sales will be donated to the Trussell Trust, to help ensure food banks can support vulnerable people during the coronavirus pandemic.