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New Culture Institute Presents the 2nd Annual

Network For a New Culture 2014 Infinite Games Camp

Sunday evening August 10th through Sunday August 18th


Embark on a Journey of Self-Discovery,
Transformation, and Communion with Nature


NFNC Infinite Games Camp provides extended experiences in building a sustainable, violence-free culture through exploring intimacy, personal growth, transparency, radical honesty, equality, compassion, sexual freedom, and the power of community.

Come! Play with us in the forest paradise of Southern Oregon!  Enjoy seven days of camping, connecting, and community building that will radically change the way you view the world!   We feature a broad selection of experiential workshops designed to facilitate self discovery, deep personal transformation, emotional transparency, honest communication, and greater intimacy in our lives. The schedule is arranged so that most participants can have a full camp experience and yet take off only one week from work.

We are deeply committed to co-creating a New Culture, and Infinite Games Camp is our next great idea for just how to get there from here!


Infinite Games Camp

Immediately following this year's regular Summer Camp, we will be presenting a follow-on 7 day camp running from Sunday evening August 10th through Sunday August 18th. The theme of this camp will be Infinite Games, a Sustainable Model for the Future. We will be presenting an intensive highly experiential workshop on distinguishing our current Finite games (where we have winners and losers, rules, and the past pushing us forward), and Infinite Games (where we play to keep the play alive, constantly changing the rules to insure everyone keeps winning, and being pulled by the future).

The Infinite Game Camp is open to all Summer Campers, this year and past years. The Registration is separate here, or can be included in your main Summer Camp registration.  Note: IGCamp will be providing all the food prep-- karma yoga will only be for cleanup.


About Infinite Games Camp...

The Infinite Game officially starts Sunday evening the 10th and runs through Sunday the 18th. We are going to use this time to engage campers in looking deeply at the nature of our community; reviewing past accomplishments, looking at present conditions, and contemplating the future we are creating.

This exploration will take place through a specific lens, the play of The Infinite Game, which draws inspiration from ideas expressed in James P. Carse's book "Finite and Infinite Games." Carse's ideas serve as the core of a six day experiential curriculum that will largely be conducted as a game in play. Each day consists of six hours of experiential course activity, divided into two sessions, morning and late afternoon. We'll be using the art and skills of Circling and forum to go deep with each other.

We believe that the experiences of the game will have a compelling appeal for those who care about the evolution of our culture and the future of intentional community. Because of the experimental nature of this camp, a prerequisite to participation is having come to a week-long Summer Camp or other NFNC sanctioned camp. Exceptions for skilled practitioners will require permission from the organizers.

Participants will be fed and otherwise cared for in the same manner as Summer Camp.

Schedule and Themes

Sunday Evening: Foundation for Relating - Meet your Playmates
Camp Orientation, setting the container, and creating our personal and camp intentions, and exploring "What is Red?"

Monday: Introduction - Rules are meant to be broken, and What games are You playing
We establish the foundation for the game we are going to play with an introduction to the principles presented in Carse's book; comparing and contrasting finite and infinite play:

We enter a vision of life that addresses the nature of property and power, of culture and community, of sexuality and self-discovery revealed in a game with a context of play and possibility. The game seeks a collective vision to propagate the empowerment of each other in service to our community and cultural. However, there is nothing fixed here; boundaries, rules, players, goals, perspectives, everything is at play and likely to change. The outcome is entirely in your hands.

Tuesday: Becoming an Infinite Player - Here or There, The Game is Afoot
We train in the play of the game, giving context to and practice in becoming effective players.

Regardless of the work done individually and collectively in the past, the nature of play does not come naturally. There's a learning curve and information that helps to bring a deeper understanding of the unique qualities required of players. Unobstructed attention, freedom from identification with the who and what of the past, a deep sense of presence, curiosity as to what wants to arise in the moment, and a general sense of playfulness are but a few of the qualities that will be explored and manifested.

Wednesday: Infinite Sexuality - It's getting Hot in here
We dive deep into our sexual ethos and explore how our natural tendencies toward sexuality can best serve to empower the entire community in the play of the game.

Speaking of fun, what would a Summer Camp event be without a certain amount of sexual energy? We shall try not to disappoint. After all, the game is yours, the rules are yours, the boundaries are yours, the play is yours, and on this day we celebrate our mutual attractions and the energy that brings. Where do you want to take this game? Let's find out!

Thursday: The Past Pushes, The Future Pulls - The Future calls your Name, the Guru Knows
We initiate the game exploring a shift that can occur in the play of the game where participants and community move beyond futures that are being pushed forward and narrowly defined by the past to where the future pulls forward to expanding possibility.

We all know this story. There is a strong tendency toward near-sightedness; a myopic way of seeing along a linear path whereby the past continuously pushes us forward into the future within a narrowly defined and repetitive pattern of experience. While life may seem to be growing in depth and understanding the underlying pattern of the weave does not seem to change. As we grow more intent in our patterns a kind of numbness sets in that has feeling increasingly removed from the most pleasurable sensations and experiences of life. Yet, we also know that it doesn't need to be this way. All around us are the embryonic callings of new more expansive futures that want to be born, that could be born if only we would relax our gaze, look about, and become curious to new possibility. Most profound life altering thinking takes place almost entirely beyond the threshold of our patterned awareness in the hazy background of chaos and the more nuanced intuitive realms of experience. When we allow ourselves this expansion of vision, when we see previously unrecognized possibility, it can passionately call us forward into new futures that then occur as inherently obvious. So, how do we make this shift and how does the game get us there? We are going to find out.

Friday: Empowering The Future - Play or Be Played, Cavorting with Community
We define a field of play capable of supporting the empowerment of each and every player, which in turn holds the potential to empower the entire community. Here, infinite play can be seen as an easily adoptable substitute for what we otherwise define as purpose and a foundation on which all else can build.

We are all responsible. There are no spectators in the game of life. We create games for self and others. We play games within games. We either act or are acted upon and not to act is to self-select to be acted upon and become marginalized. Depending on the nature of play those games may be collectively beneficial or entirely self-serving. Without purposeful action to create mutually beneficial games the play tends to devolve toward its lowest level common denominator. So, let's create the most enjoyable, empowering, fun games that we can possibly imagine! Why not?

Saturday: The Game of New Culture - A New Dawn, a New Day; Carpe Diem, and Thanks for all the Fish
We examine our community's evolution and how it follows a series of transformations, each involving a leap from the previous stage toward a higher level of organization, structural complexity, dynamism and autonomy.

Sunday: Pulling it all together...
(( We're still designing this day. ))

Monday thru Wednesday: Putting it all away...
After a morning Forum to clear, harvest, and preparing for the takedown, we put the remainder of camp away, pack up our camps, and head back to the default world with a whole new perspective.


All around us focus has turned from personal fulfillment to community empowerment. Arguably the great work of the human potential movement is giving way to a global social potential movement. We were there at the onset of this change which in terms of its scope and impact on the larger societies is still very much in its infancy. And, we are here now, recognizing great opportunity but with many of the same questions that trouble other groups as they contemplate the future of their communities and culture. On this last day our program we will explore potential futures considering how we can move our game beyond the container of the event into new realms of collective action.


Mission Statement

Network For a New Culture is co-creating the transformation of our Culture into Universal Love in the deepest sense. By Universal Love we mean deep intimacy, transparency, honesty, spirituality, genuine equality, compassion, and sexual freedom all through the context of community.

 

For more information:

email: ig14@nfnc.org