It was nice to be again at Wisdom 2.0 once more, which returned to San Francisco. An annual occasion we attended for years, this yr’s occasion ran from April 27-29, 2023 on the Yerba Buena Center. Some of this yr’s highlighted audio system embrace Yung Pueblo, Gabor Maté, Byron Katie, Jack Kornfield, Dr. Lyla June Johnston, Rhonda Magee, Alex Senegal, Mohammed Mohammed, Chip Conley, OpenAI/ChatGPT’s Sam Altman, MAPS founder Rick Doblin and plenty of extra.
It’s at all times nice to be within the presence of Spirit Rock’s Jack Kornfield who’s a part of the Wisdom 2.0 staff. An American author and instructor within the Vipassana motion in American Theravada Buddhism, he skilled as a Buddhist monk in Thailand, Burma and India, and has taught mindfulness meditation worldwide since 1974. He moderated and was half of some panel discussions on the primary stage with lead producer and host of the occasion, Soren Gordhamer. (under)
Soren Gordhamer and Jack Kornfield on the primary stage
Soren additionally interviewed Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who principally spoke of gender equality. She made a number of legitimate and compelling factors as a mom, as a mentor and as an entrepreneur. On the opposite facet of Covid, many individuals had extra time to spend with their households and Jennifer confirmed what they’ve discovered via analysis, together with the truth that when males spend time with their youngsters, there may be much less despair. Other questions introduced included: What about unworthiness? How can we take care of it? What impression is expertise having on our youngsters?
Soren Gordhamer and Jennifer Siebel Newsom
She says that we have to have a look at age acceptable design for expertise and in addition set boundaries on the place and when. During recess at college, youngsters aren’t socializing as a lot once they spend your entire break wanting down at their telephones. When youngsters are extra remoted and fewer social, it may well have an effect on their psychological well being, together with however not restricted to consuming issues, anxiousness and despair. “Comparison leads to all unhappiness,” says after which added, “Our kids are beautiful mirrors for us.”
Jennifer Siebel Newsom
While most individuals know her because the spouse of Governor Gavin Newsom, she’s additionally an American documentary filmmaker, director, producer and actress. Jennifer was behind Miss Representation, which premiered within the documentary competitors on the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. “We still devalue feminine power in our society,” she says.
Sounds True founder Tami Simon interviewed Dr. Jeremy Hunter on Managing Your Nervous System, a subject that could possibly be helpful for all of us. After all, doesn’t it really feel like we’re getting extra calls for? In the dialogue, they requested, “Can we use business to provoke our evolution?”
Sounds True founder Tami Simon at Wisdom 2.0
Using your life as a coaching floor, he mentioned how we will make a life regardless of all of the stuff hitting us regularly. In different phrases, how can we handle all of it whereas conserving our nervous system in examine? Jeremy says, “There’s very little systematically that focuses on the inward journey, what’s going on inside. What we’ve left off the table is sensing, feeling and connecting. We need to evolve to see a much more expanded view of ourselves and step into it.” He provides, “We have radically settled for what it means to be human.” I couldn’t agree extra.
Jeremy asserts that we have to evolve our personal private working system. He spoke of his personal experiences in life and the way beginning early on in our lives, we attempt to normalize what we now have skilled as youngsters. In different phrases, we normalize our trauma as a result of we don’t see it as trauma. He says that we should “heal our trauma and take it seriously.” Put one other manner, folks all too usually need to try too quickly. We might embark upon the therapeutic, however we will’t hand over or let go too quickly. “It’s not just transforming the wound, but it’s also removing the fear,” he provides.
Dr. Jeremy Hunter on stage with Tami Simon
Speaking of trauma, world famend trauma skilled Dr. Gabor Maté kicked issues off on the opening evening. The bestselling writer of 4 books printed in over thirty languages, Gabor is an internationally famend speaker extremely wanted for his experience on dependancy, trauma, childhood growth, and the connection of stress and sickness. He can also be co-developer of a therapeutic method, Compassionate Inquiry, now studied by tons of of therapists, physicians, counselors, and others internationally.
Soren Gordhamer and Dr. GaborMaté
Rather than providing quick-fix options to those advanced points, he weaves collectively scientific analysis, case histories, and his personal insights and expertise to current a broad perspective that empowers folks to advertise their very own therapeutic and others. After his Friday night fireplace chat, he returned on Saturday to reply questions casually with others on-site, which is the place I had a chance to attach with him.
I’ve been a fan of Byron Katie’s work for years. Ironically, she calls her work The Work. One of the distinctive issues about her appearances at Wisdom 2.0 (and infrequently different locations), is that she’ll work immediately with folks within the viewers, which she did once more. One of the issues we introduced up as a collective, was unworthiness – it comes up in all places doesn’t it?
She requested the viewers, “Notice what comes into your body when you think of moments in your life as unworthy.” It’s after we are in our small ego self that we don’t notice our energy. She provides, “I experience ego as a terrified, frightened child. Rest is the absence of ego, for ego doesn’t sleep.” No surprise meditation and silent moments along with your Higher Self kick ego to the door. This is how Byron Katie explains it:
“When you allow time and space before ego comes into the space, there is light and freedom. The ego comes in to name it. The ego doesn’t sleep because it’s terrified of being nothing. We’re always looking for the answer to ‘Who am I?’ In other words, the ego is looking for a home. When you sit in self-inquiry, the ego is noisy. But its respectful to listen to a terrified child, so compassion and empathy are needed. Observe: what is trying to emerge? Ask the wounded, terrified child about a belief system she holds. Is it really true?” -Byron Katie
Then she requested, “Witness how you react when you believe a thought or belief. Notice how you react and be witness to it. Get in touch with the situation.” If anger emerges, its helpful to do not forget that you can’t be offended except you’re prior to now or the long run. Try to get offended within the current second – it’s not attainable is it? When you’re really within the current second. Later, she says “No one would ever harm another human being if they weren’t asleep to themselves.”
One of the issues I really like about her teachings, is that it requires you to be current. When you’re prior to now or future, it’s as if there’s an egoic play going forwards and backwards, like being caught within the dream of a previous/future play. But if you sit in silence and authentically inquire from that place, you miss nothing. Anticipating is really the struggling.
Diego Perez additionally joined us (under on the appropriate). He is the poet and thinker behind the pen identify Yung Pueblo, which suggests ‘young people’ and it reminds him of his Ecuadorian roots and activism. He says, “every time we take in new stuff, we are always conditioning the mind; it happens continuously after age seven. Each of us are wired so differently that we need to find whatever works to unwire that conditioning.” He asks the viewers, “What meets my conditioning where it’s at?”
Left, David Simas and proper, Diego Perez
He asserts that slowing down is essential to that unwiring. Rather than consistently plugging into our expertise and social media, he suggests:
“Be present and just absorb things. We’re not critically thinking about the subjects we browse through. Be okay to say ‘no,’ and don’t always have an opinion. When you slow down, you allow yourself space and time to fully understand the topic, get the answers from within and just observe.” -Diego Perez (Yung Pueblo)
He continued to share his classes, you recognize…the elemental issues we attempt to educate youngsters however collectively fail at, reminiscent of being type to one another, selecting up after your self, not hitting each other, saying optimistic issues (not detrimental issues) to others and treating the planet properly. Hear hear. These are certainly fundamental and elementary finest practices. He says, “Your first reaction is your past, your intentional reaction is your present.”
Dr. Lyla June Johnston (aka Lyla June) additionally graced the Wisdom 2.0 stage this yr. She is an Indigenous musician, scholar, and group organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) and European lineages and I’ve heard her converse (and sing) in a number of others locations, together with the IONS Conference (Institute of Noetic Sciences). We captured a few of her efficiency on video, so be sure you try the abstract video on the backside of the article.
Lyla June Johnston
Her messages concentrate on Indigenous rights, supporting youth, conventional land stewardship practices and therapeutic inter-generational and inter-cultural trauma. Right after Lyla, Dr. Yuria Celidwen spoke on the primary stage. She is from Indigenous Nahua and Maya descent, born right into a household of mystics, healers, poets, and explorers from the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico. I really like the best way she speaks as a result of it’s poetic and synergistic, largely influenced by her elders’ songs and tales which enthralled her childhood. She says, “They enhanced my mythic imagination and emotional intuition, which became the fertile soil where the seeds of kindness, play, and wonder dig their roots.”
Dr. Yuria Celidwen
In her discuss, she spoke about how her grandparents obtained their data of therapeutic from the earth. Yuria says, “they listened to the chants of the wind and the gossip of the birds. In the forest and starlight night, she learned about transcendence and contemplative life. She has learned over the years how to transcend her narrow identity and expand into something much more, where she has learned how to care for all life on our planet. It is integral to her ancestors’ teachings.
“Finding home has been a lifelong journey, so it has been a constant inquiry,” she says. “Dreaming is…time without time, where we set ourselves free. In the face of impossibility, we learn that we can fly.” Her slides present how the advantage of indigenous sciences is at all times for the well-being of the planet, not for particular person acquire. It’s at all times concerning the collective acquire.
Dr. Yuria Celidwen’s slide
She additionally spoke concerning the ethics of belonging. Kin relationality is about embracing all of existence. Mother Earth is a nurturer. “Ecological belonging,” she says, “takes Mother Earth into consideration and her ability to thrive. There’s no such thing as a human being flourishing unless Mother Earth flourishes first.
Dr. Yuria Celidwen on the main stage
“We want transcendence, not transactions. We need to bridge and create a sense of belonging for everything on our shared existence. Being participants means having an ethics of belonging for all living things. It’s weaving mystery and inquiry and leave a sense of sacredness.” -Dr. Yuria Celidwen
Dr. Rick Doblin, who’s most generally known as the founder and govt director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), additionally took middle stage to speak about psychedelics. Fostering the psychedelic Renaissance, he joked about his bar mitzvah. He says he was hungry for the following degree expertise at age 13. Forward wind the clock to current day, his son stated to him after his first expertise, “Now I understand why you want to make this a medicine.”
Dr. Rick Doblin
Rick says, “we need an evolution of the spirit. Beyond PTSD, people long for a deeper spiritual experience, to quiet the mind and calm the soul.” That longing is definitely displaying up world wide proper now. We must personal our personal stuff – our traumas, our shadows, our triggers – all of it.
When somebody goes via PTSD, their mind isn’t sorting info usually. When folks have a MDMA expertise, he says, the concern alerts from these reminiscences are diminished. It will increase a connection inside the hippocampus and releases helpful issues like oxytocin. When they’ve performed research on mice, they’ve been capable of see that the MDMA will increase neuroplasticity which in people, could make psychotherapy simpler. Rick says, “The MDMA brings memories to the surface but in a way that makes them safer and not so traumatic.”
This shouldn’t be an extraordinary remedy expertise and the classes are lengthy. Consider 42 hours or longer of remedy with two therapists – in his case, they do the classes with one feminine and one male therapist. They name it The Archeology of Trauma. In their Phase 2 research, folks obtained higher over time on their very own with out the drug as a result of “they‘ve learned how to release the trauma in their bodies and the effects are durable.” The progress has been staggering when you consider how fast it is being implemented and increasingly accepted.
The topic of teenagers came up and their overuse of video games and social media as well as how to raise drugs with them. Rick asserts that the key is “teaching responsible use and accountability. Teach them that there’s a accountable solution to work together and have a relationship with regardless of the ‘thing‘ is, whether its video games or a drug. Kids need honest drug education.” They need to learn things in a way that makes them feel safe and also how they can navigate it without getting kicked out of their social peer group. Rick reminded us that there’s one factor that folks concern greater than demise and that’s getting kicked out of a tribe.
We are forging forward although and acceptance is occurring. Adoption is occurring. And therapeutic is occurring. It doesn’t imply that every one trauma disappears in a single day, however it does imply that we will work to scale back it one step at a time.
“We want a world of net zero trauma. It doesn’t mean no trauma. It means we’re not adding to it.” -Dr. Rick Doblin
Dr. Rick Doblin
Although I didn’t see each session, a favourite was john powell, who purposely spells his identify with a small j and a small p. He does this as a result of he shares the idea that we must be “part of the universe, not over it, as capitals signify”. He is an internationally acknowledged skilled within the areas of civil rights, civil liberties, structural racism, housing, poverty, and democracy in addition to the Director of the Othering & Belonging Institute on the University of California, Berkeley, a analysis institute that brings collectively students, group advocates, communicators, and policymakers to determine and remove the boundaries to an inclusive, simply, and sustainable society and to create transformative change towards a extra equitable world.
john powell on the Wisdom 2.0 stage in April
We additionally have been graced by the presence of Rhonda Magee who I am keen on. As a Professor of Law on the University of San Francisco, she has studied mindfulness, its underlying origins in Buddhism, and its potential advantages and purposes on this planet for greater than twenty years. A prolific writer, she attracts on regulation and authorized historical past to weave storytelling, poetry, evaluation and practices into inspiration for altering how we expect, act and reside higher collectively in a quickly altering world. A daring transfer, she obtained up on stage and led us in tune. (see the video under to get a peak of it). It was soul inspiring, genuine and I’d add, enjoyable.
Rhonda Magee leads the viewers in tune
The closing discuss was extra of a fireplace chat between Soren Gordhamer, Jack Kornfield and the founding father of OpenAI Sam Altman. Jack and Soren had questions however the motive that the room was packed was as a result of everybody had so many questions on how AI goes to impression our lives and the place ChatGBT is headed. What will it imply for society? How will it disrupt different industries? How will it have an effect on humanity and our trajectory as a species?
Soren Gordhamer and Jack Kornfield on the final panel of the day with Sam Altman of OpenAI
Excited concerning the collective knowledge from the lots for AI, Sam says, “This is going to be a massive change to society, so we need as many people involved as possible. We need developer cooperation and a framework from humanity about the values people respect and need.” How a lot will it develop into a part of our lives, you surprise? Sam says, “I think AI will just be part of society.”
Soren requested Sam, “How do you see the role of identity in your own life? And what’s the role of tech and AI?” Sam says, “Anything that gets you to question is good. It’s interesting to watch people try to understand if AI can have a real identity. I think it’s important to release this and allow people to adapt. I am somewhat worried but we will discover how to integrate this into our lives.”
Sam Altman, Founder of OpenAI
As for the magnitude of this sociological and technological shift, Sam says that he thinks it is going to be “bigger than a technological revolution. It will be closer to a societal revolution. It will happen on a societal level really fast but I think we should also take pride that society has come together to do incredible things in such a short period of time.”
They finally moved onto ChatGBT for apparent causes. It has exploded and rapidly. You would possibly say that ChatGBT has had a quicker adoption than the rest within the expertise business. Compare it to Instagram and different apps or instruments that took off in a short time. In the dialogue, they addressed the why, which led to issues rising as a result of it’s helpful, however I’d argue that’s not at all times the case. ChatGBT can also be surreal, has an awe element and its outerworldly in numerous methods.
But what about ChatCBT’s capacity to be taught by itself and determine issues out? Sam responded with a query, “Will this be one giant brain in the sky? I think it will be more like the all that contributes to the wisdom in the sky.” He added, “we will need to move beyond capitalism to handle humanity and where it’s going. As we evolve, we will need to move beyond it.”
We all appear to agree that humanity must develop a connection to the next consciousness and embody it. Consciousness is already there. The million greenback query is: will AI assist with this in a optimistic manner?
Jack piped in and stated, “I only appreciate collective wisdom. Let’s learn together on how we shepherd and steward this.” Jack additionally added his personal perspective into staying grounded and tending to your interior life as an entrepreneur. He says, “We need to get quiet enough to listen deeply to our own wisdom and insights, so we can have a spaciousness and a graciousness to make better decisions.” Hear hear Jack.
Jack Kornfield
Aside from discuss, panels and fireplace chats, there’s experiential time. Many of the audio system additionally went into deeper dive discussions with folks in smaller break-out rooms. And in fact, there’s networking with fascinating folks from world wide, all of whom are all for consciousness, expertise, science, enterprise and spirituality.
The principal stage
Dr. Gabor Mate chats with folks outdoors
Lyla June Johnston
Rhonda Magee
Soren Gordhamer
Soren Gordhamer with Rick Doblin
The Wisdom 2.0 staff
The Wisdom 2.0 staff
The lounge the place folks may sit, community and watch the primary stage walks on display.
A l’il connection time
Other sitting areas to talk and join
A breakout dialogue on AI and the place it’s headed.
Jenee Johnson of Sankofa Therapy
The principal stage
At our Birds of a Feather dinner dialogue consciousness, weaving in one of the best from science and spirituality.
Watch a Highlight Video right here to get a taste for the occasion should you’ve by no means been, in addition to our transient abstract video under from this yr’s occasion. We hope to see you subsequent yr.
Founder
She can also be the CEO and founding father of Magic Sauce Media, a brand new media providers consultancy centered on viral advertising, social media, branding, occasions and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped firms from 12 nations get traction available in the market. Known for her international and natural method to product and company launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an lively person of social media, she helps shoppers navigate digital waters from world wide. Renee has been running a blog for over 16 years and frequently writes on her private weblog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and different websites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a brand new media influencer and sport changer on numerous websites and books on the brand new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed because the sixth most influential girl in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her ardour for artwork, storytelling and pictures led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visible extension of her writing, the results of which has led to producing six photograph books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee can also be the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to different nations to share and be taught from friends, governments, companies, and most of the people with a view to educate, share, consider, and promote progressive applied sciences.