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Detroit, Michigan September 17–20, 2026 Applications open

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Thumbnail for The Comfort Cocoon

The Comfort Cocoon

This follow-up to last year’s talk about how to avoid starting a cult discusses the equal and opposite problem of hyper-individuated alienation. Almost everyone abandons voluntary associations at the slightest friction. Life is reduced to employment, a spouse, children, pets, maybe some extended family, and maybe "couple-friends". A life without voluntary associations is frictionless and predictable, but group skills atrophy, leading to anxiety. This is not a moral failing, just a predictable cultural drift. What can we do, without nagging or shaming, to make group life worth the trouble? Presented by Matt Arnold at Fluidity Forum, Sunday Sept 14, 2 pm. Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/...

Thumbnail for How To Not Start A Cult

How To Not Start A Cult

Matt Arnold gave this talk at Fluidity Forum, at 2:00 pm on Sunday, September 8, 2024. It all started with good intentions. A group had heightened emotional and psychological experiences, and years later, some of the participants wrote regretful blog posts saying they gained a sense of purpose but lost their sense of self; their sense of proportion; and their sense. We’ve heard the story many times. Mostly what we hear is advice about how to prevent joining one, but what about how to prevent starting one? Sometimes a group takes hold of each other negatively without anyone having ever planned for that. Can it be better designed from the outset? I’ll suggest practical ways to short-circuit several kinds of self-reinforcing spirals of group norms, and share perspectives from multiple sources, plus my own experiences.

Thumbnail for The Tantra Of Freestyling

The Tantra Of Freestyling

Duncan Horst gave this performance at Fluidity Forum at 1:30pm on Saturday September 7, 2024. Duncan Horst will be departing from his one man shows and improvisatory festival circuit musicals to deliver an exposition and demonstration of freestyle improvisation through the lens of Classical Tantra. The two are more closely linked than a casual scholar would imagine! He will combine theory and practice, including performance, metaphysics, and Eastern and Western philosophies to create art, alchemy, and philosophy to fuse them into a functional theory of consciousness which doubles as a living song, never before heard and never performed in the same way twice. This is the metaphorical overstuffed burrito of the fluid mode of consciousness in all her awesome power and terrible glory! A true experience.

Thumbnail for Steps Toward A Post industrial Manufacturing Economy

Steps Toward A Post industrial Manufacturing Economy

Richard Letts gave this talk at Fluidity Forum at 3:30pm on Friday September 6, 2024. This presentation is like strapping in for a rollercoaster into the Postindustrial Manufacturing Economy 2.0, where we wave goodbye to rusty old factories and say hello to a future where your neighbor’s 3D printer is the hero of the day. Think less “corporate giants” and more “local legends” using AI and drones to save the world—one custom couch at a time. It’s a cheeky guide for anyone who’s tired of the same old and ready to shake things up, making manufacturing as cool and community-focused as your favorite neighborhood coffee shop.

Thumbnail for Lenses We See The World With

Lenses We See The World With

Lauren Elbaum gave this talk at Fluidity Forum at 3:30pm on Saturday, September 7, 2024. Lauren makes a living off of her curiosity as a product researcher. This character trait has spilled over into noticing patterns in the way people behave and see the world day to day. She has followed up on some of those observations and created a talk about the lenses people see the world with.

Thumbnail for Dark Nights And Sense Making

Dark Nights And Sense Making

Jane Pierce and Jane Flowers presented this panel discussion at Fluidity Forum at 2pm on Friday, September 6, 2024. Join us for a discussion on the meaning crisis through the lens of evolutionary psychology. What can we learn from spiritual approaches to the Dark Night of the Soul that helps us navigate these experiences?

Thumbnail for Lightning Talks At Fluidity Forum 2024

Lightning Talks At Fluidity Forum 2024

September 7, 2024 Five Steps Of Synthesis - Blake Elias Left-Brain Pattern, Right-Brain Nebulosity - Patrick Day Invitation To Tonight's Sing-Along - Bree Bartholomew Vibrations - Carrie Day Dolphin Linguistic Capacity - Srikar Pamidi Spimes - Matt Arnold Meta-Philosophy - Blake Elias

Thumbnail for 7 Provisional Truths: A Field Guide to Construct Awareness

7 Provisional Truths: A Field Guide to Construct Awareness

Brandon Watson gave this talk at Fluidity Forum at 2pm on Saturday, September 7, 2024. Take a tour of the embodied mind and its consequences for how knowledge is constructed. Our journey pulls epistemology—a domain of philosophy that concerns itself with theories of knowledge—out of the cloistered halls of academia and into the messy realities of daily life. We’ll show how our concernful involvement with the everyday world is the ground for all knowledge, illustrating why knowledge involves far more than “justified, true beliefs”, and how a more sophisticated epistemology opens us to more constructive ways of framing our beliefs about Reality.

Thumbnail for Art On The Chaos Continua

Art On The Chaos Continua

Phil Goetz gave this talk from 10:00am to 11:20am on Saturday, September 7, at Fluidity Forum 2024. When we organize art along dimensions corresponding to the 3 meanings of the Greek word xaos, we find that: complexity and beauty are maximized in the center; any system capable of producing life generates artifacts in the center; empirically, the center contains naturalistic, representational art; and historically, such art correlates with peace, while symbolic art correlates with war. Therefore, naturalistic art is the most complex, beautiful, peaceful, and lifelike. Historically, the public prefers representational art to be from the center, while elites, priests, and rulers want it to come from one of the corners, where simplified, symbolic artistic styles exist, which are useful for propaganda and mind control. The most-common cycle of artistic development is 1. formal art develops, 2. formal art is gradually elaborated into naturalistic art, 3. civilizational elites replace naturalistic art with symbolic art, 4. civilization collapses, and culture begins again with formal art.

Thumbnail for Embodied Peacemaking

Embodied Peacemaking

Patrick Day gave this workshop at 7:00pm on Friday of Fluidity Forum 2024. When we are challenged or threatened, our natural tendency is to constrict or collapse our breathing, posture, movement, and attention—which is experienced as fear, anger, strain, shock, weakness, resignation, numbness, or dissociation. In anything we may do, these physical responses interfere with planning and physical coordination. In situations of stress or conflict, these powerful physical patterns undermine people’s ability to think rationally, interact empathically, and act peacefully. Embodied Peacemaking is the practice of learning how to open and balance your body and attention so that you can develop a physical and mental state of relaxation, expansiveness, calm alertness, and compassionate power. This state of mind/body integrity is the foundation for overcoming the distress response and for handling any of life’s challenges effectively. The handout is linked from this presentation's entry on the presentations2024 page of the Fluidity Forum website.

Thumbnail for Self-hypnosis And Neurolinguistic Programming

Self-hypnosis And Neurolinguistic Programming

Misha Tuesday gave this workshop at Fluidity Forum, at 5pm on Friday, September 6, 2024. A workshop to learn about cultivating trance and engaging with the unconscious mind for personal growth and transformation, as well as an exploration of semantic reframes and mindset cultivation.

Thumbnail for Exploring Boundaries With West Coast Swing Dance

Exploring Boundaries With West Coast Swing Dance

Harry Gao presented this workshop at Fluidity Forum, at 4pm on Friday, September 6, 2024. Healthy boundary pushing and boundary holding—in partner dance, flirting, or social interactions in general—is all about the dynamic between leader and follower. But good leading isn’t only being confident and good following isn’t only being receptive! In this short one-on-one lesson, Harry demonstrated the importance of leading with a follower’s receptiveness and following with a leader’s intentionality. This is key to creating a collaborative back-and-forth dynamic that’s fun for both parties! As someone who understands the fluidity of both roles, Harry was happy to teach leaders and followers. This is a beginner West Coast swing dance lesson that focuses on the connection between leader and follower and not as much about specific dance footwork; in other words, you don’t have to have any experience or desire to dance to gain something from this!

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Personal Space Awareness

Jane Pierce presented this workshop on Friday, September 6, 2024, at noon. A light hearted session to discover your innate ability to sense other people’s personal space and develop intentional control over your own. Explore your kinetic responses and help them become conscious knowledge. Jane Pierce is an intuitive coach who has been teaching for over 30 years. Her career as an educator began in the Detroit Public Schools as a math and science teacher. Jane earned her Healer/Counselor certificate from the Church of Tzaddi in 1994 and has facilitated practical spiritual development for thousands of adults in venues ranging from large conventions to intimate classrooms.

Thumbnail for Intro To Fluidity Forum

Intro To Fluidity Forum

Presented by Matt Arnold at 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm, Thursday September 5, 2024, at the second Fluidity Forum, in Detroit Michigan, USA.

Thumbnail for Fluid Awareness Is A Heart-Powered Protocol

Fluid Awareness Is A Heart-Powered Protocol

Saturday 3pm - 4pm, stage, Duncan Horst, at the first Fluidity Forum, in Detroit Michigan, USA. From the program book: "Mind based processing provides awareness of state space, but compassion and heart-field awareness is the ‘quantum leap’ which fuels multiple mental models. We will combine theory and practice to illustrate the necessity of the heart to reach Kegan V, post-integral awareness and render other meta-modern and beyond concepts real in your somatic experience."

Thumbnail for Rationality And Relevance Realization - wide shot

Rationality And Relevance Realization - wide shot

Presented 2pm, Saturday September 22, 2023, at the first Fluidity Forum, in Detroit Michigan, USA. Anna Riedl’s work connects the current academic rationality discourse, particularly the second great rationality debate, with Vervaeke’s relevance realization and Chapman’s metarationality, which she has both converged on from a different angle.