I think Circling, or related practices, are an important part of the great common Neo-Enlightenment project of human progress. It’s a mechanism to understand more about ourselves and each other, and it involves some deliberate attempts to not steer towards ‘candy’ and instead stay focused on deepening. It’s a genuine practice with a body of knowledge, and Circling Europe in particular seems to have had a technological edge (in that their online Circling platform has allowed them to get many more people spending many more hours Circling).
I also think there are massive cultural differences between ‘rationalists’ as a people group and ‘relationalists’ (what I sometimes hear them called) as a people group. As an analogy, I think athleticism is an important part of being a human with a body, and yet have difficulty finding fitness approaches or products that don’t want to scream ‘jock masculinity!’ or ‘yoga femininity!’ at me. Consider Convict Conditioning, a solid series of graduated bodyweight exercises that build small skills in the right order, pitched as the sort of thing you can do in prison and which will make you “a TRUE man.”
Most people who come to Circling events do it because they think it’s fun, and because they’re genuinely interested in other people and connecting to them. Many of them are hippies and respond positively to woo. The Circler who clearly stated his commitment to openness in a way that crystallized this post (and made it better in the process) was Sean Wilkinson, whose bio I only felt comfortable linking to after that preamble.
And so just like I think it’s a mistake to let ‘dancing’ and ‘sports’ be forever out of reach because they’re “not for nerds,” I think it’s a mistake to let ‘human connection’ and ‘Circling’ be forever out of reach because they’re “not for nerds.” Progress on this front looks like a combination of ‘tolerating cultural differences’ and ‘creating additional products / marketing angles.’ For example, I imagine a Circling Immersion weekend with mostly rationalists to be more interesting for rationalists than a Circling Immersion weekend with mostly non-rationalists, but others who have more experience with both will have more informed views on the subject. (Almost all of my Circling experience is with rationalists and highly skilled facilitators, instead of median relationalists.)
Like this comment and/but my experience has been the opposite. All or even majority rationalist circles are harder to skill up in because the process is constantly getting derailed by cognitive defense mechanisms against imprecise, non theory driven metis.
I think Circling, or related practices, are an important part of the great common Neo-Enlightenment project of human progress. It’s a mechanism to understand more about ourselves and each other, and it involves some deliberate attempts to not steer towards ‘candy’ and instead stay focused on deepening. It’s a genuine practice with a body of knowledge, and Circling Europe in particular seems to have had a technological edge (in that their online Circling platform has allowed them to get many more people spending many more hours Circling).
I also think there are massive cultural differences between ‘rationalists’ as a people group and ‘relationalists’ (what I sometimes hear them called) as a people group. As an analogy, I think athleticism is an important part of being a human with a body, and yet have difficulty finding fitness approaches or products that don’t want to scream ‘jock masculinity!’ or ‘yoga femininity!’ at me. Consider Convict Conditioning, a solid series of graduated bodyweight exercises that build small skills in the right order, pitched as the sort of thing you can do in prison and which will make you “a TRUE man.”
Most people who come to Circling events do it because they think it’s fun, and because they’re genuinely interested in other people and connecting to them. Many of them are hippies and respond positively to woo. The Circler who clearly stated his commitment to openness in a way that crystallized this post (and made it better in the process) was Sean Wilkinson, whose bio I only felt comfortable linking to after that preamble.
And so just like I think it’s a mistake to let ‘dancing’ and ‘sports’ be forever out of reach because they’re “not for nerds,” I think it’s a mistake to let ‘human connection’ and ‘Circling’ be forever out of reach because they’re “not for nerds.” Progress on this front looks like a combination of ‘tolerating cultural differences’ and ‘creating additional products / marketing angles.’ For example, I imagine a Circling Immersion weekend with mostly rationalists to be more interesting for rationalists than a Circling Immersion weekend with mostly non-rationalists, but others who have more experience with both will have more informed views on the subject. (Almost all of my Circling experience is with rationalists and highly skilled facilitators, instead of median relationalists.)
Like this comment and/but my experience has been the opposite. All or even majority rationalist circles are harder to skill up in because the process is constantly getting derailed by cognitive defense mechanisms against imprecise, non theory driven metis.
I have experiences with Circling evening both with rationalists and with non-rationalists and I’m now running both kinds of events.
Both are interesting in their own ways. Circling with non-rationalists gives you insight into how people who aren’t rationalists work.