In my summary for the month of September, 2020, I noted that I had become a supporting member of The Stoa. In October I wrote My Reflections on The Stoa. There have been major developments since then which I find very interesting. At this time I want to capture my thoughts. And I am very interested in how this story will continue in 2021.
From Peter Limberg’s journal:
Nov 11 - The Meta-Troll
Last month somebody forewarned me about “dark energies” that may emerge if people start feeling rejected by me, and these ambiguous asks that come during the projection phase may indeed turn into dark energies if not responded to with wisdom.
Dec 4 - The Opposition Is the Way
I am feeling frustrated, and it has a primordial quality to it. I could not sleep last night because of this. This frustration is making me want to write stupid things, in a childish way…
I am called to write now not because of this advice thing though. I sense I am here because of the primordial frustration I am experiencing. I have been privately journaling, in an aggressive way, about raw and uncomfortable things. I am being intrapersonally relentless with myself, and I am experiencing a flood of unexpected emotions. I get a catharsis on a certain issue, then boom, I get slapped with some surprising emotional shit that is pretty intense.
With his journal entry below, Peter Limberg was signalling big changes and that provoked some intense reactions.
The Unstoa, Lifeworks, and Becoming an Outsider Artist
December 12th, 2020
Step 1. Delete the website.
Step 2. Cancel all upcoming Zoom events.
Step 3. Send a message on this mailing list announcing The Stoa experiment is over.
This will take me 30 minutes to do. I am ready to do this, and The Stoa will be over when I do...
The Stoa’s first session was on March 21st of this year, and perhaps it would be cool to end it on the same day next year. We’ll throw a big party, existentially dance, flow with unknowingness, and go on Socratic speed dates for the whole day. We will realize this strange place is not the place that will melt all of our trauma, nor will that delicious communitas we yearn for be discovered here…
I was also going to delete the Discord channel, as it was only meant to be a one-month experiment. It has taken a life of its own though, so I decided to “deofficialize” it. It is now called “The Unstoa.” Ria Baeck asked why I did this, and as with most things I do these days, it was ultimately a “listen to the daemon” thing. I could tease out some reasons though…
When it came to the Discord experiment, I was pretty hands-off from the beginning, and I let the collective intelligence do its thing. The whole server looks messy to me though, with all these unused channels, and naming conventions that do not tickle my weird coinage tastes. I am not interested in taking responsibility for it. Since it had the official branding of The Stoa, a tension started forming within me, and by deofficializing the Discord this tension has been resolved.
Dec 20 - Maybe the End of The Stoa Party
What is The Stoa? I finally came up with an answer ...
The highest signal place on the internet that nobody knows about.
Well, you know about it.
I was musing in my recent journals about ending this thing, and that seemed to send ripples out into the digital colonnade; people have been reaching out to me asking if this is true.
Well, maybe it is true. I am committed to continuing with it until March 21st, which will be the one year anniversary of The Stoa. I think I’ll throw a party on that date and call it the following: Maybe the End of The Stoa Party…
From now until March 21st we will all play in uncertainty, but what makes this different from any other day? This is an opportunity of course to practice our Stoicism, and not only get into the right relationship with this thing called The Stoa, but for us to get into the right relationship with uncertainty itself.
On December 21st on The Unstoa Discord Peter posted the following:
Hello everyone,
If you have read my journal entry yesterday, you'll know that the Stoa may end on March 21st. https://thestoa.substack.com/p/maybe-the-end-of-the-stoa-party
Going into 2021 there will be some changes, including the deleting of this Discord server. I will delete this server on the morning of the 24th, before 12 PM ET, so in 3 days. It will most likely be replaced with another one that is Stoa affiliated, but with greater stewarding from myself. I'll elaborate on the reasons for this particular decision in an upcoming journal entry.
Given this, if you so choose, now is the time to create a new Discord server with some of the connections you made here, and save anything you think might be valuable. My ask is that you do not make any new server about the Stoa in general though, but rather about something that has emerged from it.
@Albert Kim, from Noetic Nomads, was kind enough to offer his new Discord as a home for any non-Stoa projects that have emerged in this server, e.g. Pro-Social Network, Egg Plant, etc. That strikes me as a good new home for things like this. Here is the link to Albert's group: https://discord.gg/84FRmXUzNs
Also, here are existing Discord servers related to The Stoa that you can join ...
Social Design Club: https://discord.gg/9UCkwnbF3j@Laurence
Glass Bead Game: https://discord.gg/6ZUa6JFTcS@Evan%27s
Thank you, @Arran Rogerson, @Hannah, @David Mc, and @Evan McMullen for discussing this with me beforehand. I hope this Stoa/Unstoa Discord experience gave you all some benefit. The Stoa will continue into the new year, at least until March 21st, and official events/updates can be found here ...
thestoa.ca
thestoa.substack.com
Warmly
Peter
I am on the fringes of The Stoa but I have come to really like this community. I read Peter’s journal entries, listen to some sessions on YouTube and browse on Discord. Occasionally I comment and I will capture some of those comments below, before they are lost. But I am finding it difficult to capture my experience in words.
I saved the following two tributes to Peter which I thought were particularly meaningful. There is also angst, which I am not capturing. What is clear to me is that there is a wide range of experiences amongst the members of this community.
Omer DangoorYesterday (December 21) at 2:55 PM
When Peter initially announced that he might be putting an end to the Stoa next year it hit pretty hard, causing anger and sadness within me, leading to an introspection which helped me see my growing attachment to this space. Not surprising given how valuable it has been to me and how it has helped me in the process of healing, learning and growing during this insane year. The Stoa also carried (and still carries) for me, within itself, a multitude of profound potentialities, from the possibility of making incredibly awesome friends here, to the notion we keep hammering in, which still hits very hard, of the Stoa being the ground for the realest societal change that is actually needed. So you can imagine how much I was holding at that moment.
Anyways, my past experience has shown me that whenever I'm faced with an attachment like this one, the best thing is first to let it go (as much as I can), before I try to involve myself with it in any way. So while being in the process of getting more into the right relationship with The Stoa, I started to note down some thoughts from more of an unattached place. I am feeling invited to share some of my thoughts, particularly because of the conversation that's been opening up here, mainly by @jambarree , and Peter's admirable stoic receptivity to it and to other criticism along the way. I'd like to frame it as an attempt to bridge between the polarized viewpoints, i.e: sticking to the neat tower metaphor - destroying the tower vs passing stewardship of the tower:
2:55 PM
Let's fucking say it, the Stoa is first and foremost Peter's work of art. What I mean by that is - I believe it is often easy to forget how almost every aspect of the Stoa has directly been shaped by Peter's tinder care, intention, creativity, dedication and vision. If what we're after is to maintain the essence of the Stoa, the assumption that simply by passing the torch we would be able to do so, is wrong. The essence of a given space cannot only be ascribed to the community around it, it is much more than that. I'm not going to pretend to know what else it consists of but I can surely tell you that in the Stoa case, Peter holds a huge chunk of that pie. It may be helpful to presence InterIntellect now, as an example of a space with a similar community, that has a much different essence to it. Ok, so if we proceed from the realization that the Stoa after Peter will not be the same Stoa, what does it leave the Stoa's "successors" with? Well, they would get to, in some form, keep the valuable community of people that's been established around the Stoa. they would get to keep, to some lesser or greater extent, the capability of outreach that the Stoa has developed along the way, which would help in bringing in old and new speakers. And they would get to keep some of the foundation on which it was built to help with organizing the actual events and such..
2:56 PM
But... Saying all this leaves me with a hollow feeling.. There's an odd question that wants to come out - "What is the stoa without Peter?". I don't know the answer to this question but it does raise a thought - If the Stoa is to continue, maybe the focus should go more towards exploring what the essence of the Stoa is in the first place? maybe we should explore it collectively? maybe through transparent exploration it would seem feasible to continue to carry the torch appropriately? maybe not? maybe through this process it would even seem possible for Peter to remain in some form a contributor to this work of art? I don't know but I damn sure think it's worth exploring. Maybe there's a third option? We get to build another tower using the scraped material of the old one? With all of the above being said, I want to say that no matter what ends up happening, I will always be grateful to what this little experiment has given to me and to the world and that would suffice, at least for me. Thanks again Peter and community for holding this space. Much love.
December 22, 2020
Ria BaeckToday at 4:20 AM
@Omer Dangoor I can support every sentence you have written here! Thanks to Peter and all!
There are now over 500 members in The Unstoa Discord community. This was achieved without actively seeking followers, rather just the opposite. It is clear to me that for some the experience is far more intense than mine. I am overwhelmed by the volume of activity on The Stoa and I ignore most of it. I cannot imagine what the experience is like for Peter, although he has done his best to put it in words.
JohnStokdijk12/15/2020
My reaction to Peter's latest journal entry was instantaneous. I will not unsubscribe from the mailing list. I will not stop supporting Peter on Patreon. I do not attend many live events but I will continue to watch some of the YouTube videos.
JohnStokdijk12/17/2020
Peter's journal entry published yesterday is a dose of reality and offers good advice. I struggled in the old system for 43 years until I retired. I am very grateful that that phase of my life is over. All I can do now is encourage others to continue the struggle, to survive, and keep working to build a new world. The struggle provides you with an opportunity to practice personal transformation. Failing in Game A will not bring Game B closer.
Peter Limberg12/17/2020
"Failing in Game A will not bring Game B closer." Great line. That basically sums up what I wanted to express in that entry.
JohnStokdijk12/19/2020
Whatever Peter decides, I will always be grateful for his journal entries and for The Stoa and its many wonderful sessions. Of course, I hope they continue. But more importantly, Peter must be appropriately selfish and do what is best for himself. And I am especially grateful for collective presencing finding me through The Stoa.
JohnStokdijk Yesterday at 8:27 AM (December 21)
March 21st now looms large. But I will continue to support The Stoa with my small monthly contribution until then. Something about Peter deserves more discussion. He talks of trust. I trust him because he practices radical personal transparency. Not many leaders do; all leaders should. I would like to see far more radical personal transparency at The Unstoa. The intelligence on display in this space is amazing, almost intimidating to ordinary people like me. But it is not easy to get to know the people hiding behind those brilliant minds with awesome ideas. Thank you, Peter, for modeling something which needs to be part of any path forward.
Finally, I also want to capture some of the fragmentation of The Stoa community. I am already a member, but not an active member, of six of these groups listed below. So far, none are developing the kind of community that I am looking. All these changes and uncertainties cause me no anxiety.
davidkobilnykToday at 9:41 AM (December 22)
Let’s see, as for related discord servers, I’m on the following:
Artistic Metaversity (https://discord.gg/BKzAnZZ8)
Game ~B (https://discord.gg/sa39MNP7)
Conjure
Mutations Salon
Noetic Nomads (https://discord.gg/fHD8PntT)
Engineering Tech Solutions (https://discord.gg/4UJSsmZv)
Social Design Club (https://discord.gg/UZ5CrPPt)
The Glass Bead Game (https://discord.gg/B9hhVXV6)
Awakening from the Meaning Crisis (https://discord.gg/AdBKvvKQ)
Rebel Wisdom (https://discord.gg/XM8f92PH)
The Coffeehouse Academy (https://discord.gg/5cAUwxW2)
The Bridge (waiting on invite)
Are there any others to join?