August 25, 2009
Nontheist Friends,
Here is information about online Quaker Meetings that I know of. While none of them are explicitly nontheistically friendly, I see them as interesting options. All are open to attendees, and welcoming, I suspect. Are there others?
Quaker Meetings in Second Life (meets on Sea Turtle Island in-world)
The following page mentions both the Saturday Meeting, which I've attended, as well as the Wednesday Quaker Meeting:
homefries.org/wiki/
Online Quaker Meeting (London)
And Silent Meetings here are requested at all and any times:
quakerworship.org/
I've blogged a little about these here:
scott-macleod.blogspot.
I gravitate away (a lot) from the word 'worship,' with my leanings as an evolutionary biologically-oriented nontheist friend. 'Silent meeting' nomenclature works for me. I often elicit the relaxation response in silent meetings, with its rich, salutary, biological effects, perhaps enriched in meetings among gathered nontheist Friends. I also find flax seed oil for omega-3 fatty acids (1000 mg 3-4 times a day with food, as well as a daily multi-vitamin) harmonizing and brightening. Although I haven't seen the clinical evidence for this, I'm looking for related medical studies, and suspect I will find them. (Some friends of mine have experienced this, too, and others haven't). I also find a good, supportive community to be salutary.
Someone on the nontheist Friends' email list replied (August 25, 2009):
"I went to the Second Life meeting about a month ago, but there was no one there, though I'm pretty certain it was at the right time (10:00 Pacific time, right?). But maybe it was a good thing since I'm new to Second Life and hadn't yet figured out how to get clothes; so my avatar was stark naked (no obvious naughty bits, but no clothing either). I couldn't help wondering if SL Friends would accept me as I was. Anyway, I figured out the clothing thing and am now thoroughly decent and ready to try again some day."
Ian
Nontheist Friends,
The Saturday Quaker Meeting in Second Life at 10 am Pacific Time has always had pretty good attendance - avatars sitting in silence - when I've attended (perhaps 7 times). Having an avatar (it's like having an email address, and it's free) is useful also for attending classes, conversations, lectures and concerts in Second Life. (Second Life is pretty reliable these days, in my experience, but 2 gigs of RAM (memory) help. I've taught 'Society and Information Technology' in-world - in Second Life - for a number of years there).
I did find just a few references online to Quaker naturism when I looked. Although much of the developed world has social norms of wearing clothing, as does Second Life (although not all of the 'modern' world and Second Life), I find it interesting to think about examples of non-clothing 'norms.' Since all of our ancestors over tens of thousands of generations did not wear clothes, and a fair number of people (possibly a billion-ish?) in the world still live naked, and a fair number of Western European beaches are at least topless, I affirm clothing-optionalness, and am a little wary of clothing-centric norms. Just as nontheistic Friends have not always been 'accepted' within the Society of Friends (Quakers) - perhaps nontheist Friends are making progress - I'm personally curious to see how clothing-optionalness may grow as a practice in general (and possibly in the Society of Friends and even among nontheist friends). {Note: I'm writing an ethnography/anthropology about clothing-optional Harbin Hot Springs - harbin.org - in northern California, in which I'm creating a virtual Harbin in Second Life, or Open Simulator, for comparison, where, like on-the-ground Harbin, clothing-optionalness will be the norm, and a fascinating, virtual field site}. (And some people on this nontheist Friends list have visited the parallel, also clothing-optional, Esalen and other hot springs, I think).
Harbin Hot Springs (which is clothing-optional) is officially / legally a church in the state of California {Heart Consciousness Church}; it began in its current form in 1972, emerging out of the 60s ('counterculture'). And it's a curious and beautiful place. I find the relaxation response greatly enhanced in the Harbin warm pool, with a lot of parallels with opening to gatheredness (group relaxation response?) in Quaker silent meeting. Here's a letter I've written with more thoughts about Quaker Meeting online in Second Life, the relaxation response vis-a-vis silent meeting, and potentially in your bathtub, as well as ideas for eliciting the neurochemistry of loving bliss, naturally :) ~ scottmacleod.com/
With friendly greetings,
Scott
scottmacleod.com
worlduniversity.wikia.
(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2009/08/wilderness-falls-nontheist-friendly.html - August 25, 2009)
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