Everybody seems interested in performance ... if not their own than that of others.

For some the fascination begins with the extreme performance of elite performers like Olympic level athletes, for others it can be the outstanding performance of renown entrepreneurs and investors, for others the master-class mental performances of world-class chess players are what catch their attention, yet for another group it will be the day to day performance of making a life worth living ... but regardless of the specifics what we’re talking about can be thought of as an aesthetic consideration

Folks,

Howdy ... I’m almost feeling like I have a head cold, all full up with something that I can’t quite get clear. Yet in this case I know that the experience I’m having has much more to do with ideas than anything else. I’ve been rolling around in ideas for days, weeks, months ... or maybe more correctly years. Most of this time the ideas have flowed pretty well ... and to a great extent that remains true for me. Yet there I find myself tending a new crop of ideas about some ideas I’ve had for a while. And these new ideas are iterations and referential to a lifetime’s worth of old ideas.

Specifically, I’m finding a few things that stand out:

What seems so significant to me now has to do with the way the ideas are coalescing into some new form. I cannot speak to it yet, but I sense that it will have a form that I can speak to very soon. I already have some sense of where these ideas are going, I’m pretty darn sure of where the ideas have been drawn from that are in the process of coalescing, and I can even speculate on where they could end up in the short-term. What I cannot do yet revolves around a common language that would express what seems to me to be new ideas, although I am perfectly ready to accept that they are more likely revisited ideas that are expressing in a new way.

What I’ve been putting out, the aspect of these ideas that has been accessible to me for the last couple of years at least, has been around the idea of performance as an aesthetic consideration. Most folks are looking at performance from an analytical position, seeking to quantify the components to create a impact on the total performance experience. This would be anti-aesthetic in my opinion.

The primary distinction of the aesthetic consideration begins with the perception of the wholeform experience, perceiving the entirety of the experience as a singularity as opposed to a set of linked fragments.

Beyond the perception of the wholeform experience operating from the aesthetic consideration the perception of either “well-formedness” or “ill-formedness” of the experience becomes obvious.

Well-formedness and ill-formedness are expressions of the pattern inherent in the experience and the context that the experience occurs within.

My simple take on performance as an aesthetic consideration lives inside of the idea that the aesthetic consideration resides in the sensual experience of pattern ... both pattern as resonant and dissonant forms. Thinking about form as the primary consideration ... the wholeform experience, how the entirety operates ... positions the performer in a different relationship with performance.

Instead of considering fixing the aspects of the performance that are somehow wrong or not working, the performer who operates from the aesthetic consideration operates in regard to the wholeform experience, which resides beyond any specific aspect of the performance ... in this way of operating intention informs actions and overrides analysis.

We can say that we’re discussing the concept of intentionality here. This concept has been at the heart of my thinking since at least 2002 when I began my research for my doctoral dissertation. In fact the concept of intentionality became the central concept of my dissertation. [If you’re interested you can read more about this in my full dissertation “Towards A Theory of Transpersonal Decision-Making in Human Systems”, which you can purchase from Amazon.com.]

What I’ve been putting my attention on has been getting these ideas together in a a coherent form and then out in some way that makes sense independent of the entire historical context in which they were fermented. The basis of what I’ve been doing has been rooted in literally centuries of material dating back to the early Greeks. I know that the culmination I’ve been moving to, must stand alone before I’ll be able to express it in a way that relieves the sense of stuffiness I’ve been experiencing. So I’ve been dancing around the absolute center of the idea until very recently. Now I’m much, much closer and sense I’m closing in on that expression that will pull it all together for me.

Joseph Riggio

Princeton, NJ

P.S.: There’s still time to get in on the Intentional Performance program in Denmark this July. If you’re reading here ... you’ll probably be thrilled to be part of what we’ll be doing there ... go ahead download the brochure Intentional Performance.

PPS ... we are also still offering the entire Intentional Performance program for only $1750 when you attend both this program and the 2008 MythoSelf Facilitator’s/Trainer’s Intensive Training ... that’s a full $1000 off the Intentional Performance program fee!

Moving beyond the limits ...

Leaving behind what no longer works has been a long hard road ... and yet so utterly satisfying in every drop of sweat, blood and tears shed.

Now I find myself more and more embracing and being embraced by the aesthetic ... residing in aesthetic arrest ... and finding my performances expanding in ways unimaginable ... only possible in an imaginal way ...

Howdy all,

Some folks have been noticing that I’ve been appearing infrequently here on my blog ... at least based on some private emails I’ve been receiving. Well there are a bunch of reasons I could give, or I could sum them all up and say that I’ve been overwhelmed with the amount of things to be doing ... but it all becomes meaningless because regardless of what might be going on in my life or yours we all do what we decide is imperative for us to be doing. Simply I haven’t been called to be writing so much here lately ... and I’m beginning to think I understand a bit more why.

Let me start a bit earlier back than where we are right now. First of all I think we all want to live lives full of meaning and purpose ... to be in the flow of the cosmos knowing we are standing in a position well suited to us and where we can make an impact of some kind based on our unique potential ...

It was 1969 and I was most assuredly Dazed and Confused ... when Led Zeppelin debuted the tune with that same title on their premier album Led Zeppelin after Jimmy Page, who IMO was the greatest blues-rock guitarist of all time, reworked a version of the same tune from an earlier group he played with, the Yardbirds. The tune was originally written by a folk singer named Jake Holmes in 1967. It’s a dark tune about what sounds like a bad relationship or maybe an evil woman if you listen to the lyrics closely. But what Holmes said about in a 2001 interview was this:

“The song’s about a girl who hasn’t decided whether she wants to stay with me or not. It’s pretty much one of those love songs.”

I was ten years old when they released that album and that song. When I first heard it I was probably closer to twelve years old and it was 1971. The world around me was dazed and confused ... it was literally in a cultural, social upheaval ... war was raging, rioting had transformed the country and more specifically the city I lived in, politicians had lost virtually all their credibility ... the chant all around was a combination of “Down with the establishment!” and “Question Authority” ... I was a child of revolution, not an external revolution like civil war, but an internal revolution of the mind ... of values ... of everything that represented stability in the world as I knew it to be.

So I listened ... John Paul Jones driving the tune with that compelling, entrancing, exquisitely simple descending bass line ... Page with those ethereal sounds as he bowed his guitar ... John Bonham supporting the pulsing rhythms on drums ... and Robert Plant with that hauntingly pained vocal ... it was mesmerizing long before I heard the words. Literally it was a song title and a soundscape to me and for me ... a way beyond the limits of what I saw, heard and felt going on around me ... maybe even a way out.

The question of course would be, “A way beyond what?” ... “A way out of what?”

The simplest answer I could possibly offer would be, “A way beyond and out of the position of being dazed and confused ... beyond and out of the roiling circumstances surrounding me.”

As I’ve said this wasn’t, isn’t, about the words ... the lyrics ... nothing particularly profound there IMO ... true and honestly raw maybe ... but not profound. It was a purely aesthetic experience ... something that drew me in and opened up to me another position of perception. That sound drew me in and restructured how I saw the world around me, what I heard in what was being said, how I felt about it all ... even that which I myself couldn’t express ... couldn’t even point to ... and yet knew as well as I know my name that it was so ... aesthetic arrest.

At the time I was a committed fan ... listening to Led Zeppelin the way my children today listen to the bands they too find transport them as well. I must say I don’t get it, I don’t get the same experience of being transported by what they are listening to as they do, yet I do get that they are ... transported and beyond the limitations of the present.

And now we are back again ... to the present. I’ve made more than one comment about the idea expressed in the phrase, “Be Here Now” and all such nonsense pointed to being in the present ... in this space and time we occupy, e.g.: The Power of Now ... like where else can we be?!!?!? Of course we’re all here and now!

Yet many people recognize that they are not available to what is here or now ... what is present in this space and time. In essence they are in another space and time ... a fabrication that they impose on this space and time. It’s not a question of operating with a consideration of alternate space and time being present ... or calling into this space and time the consideration present in other space and time possibilities ... but the imposition on this space and time of another that doesn’t belong or fit.

This then becomes the essence of this dialogue ... the fit ... or as I prefer, the fit and match ... of things. Another way to call this out would be as the pattern of things. Pattern resides at the core ... the heart ... of the aesthetic position. When the pattern is recognized in the sensual experience the veil of the aesthetic has been drawn.

The challenge with all of this ... the aesthetic position ... has to do with the unspeakable nature of it. The aesthetic position cannot be spoken ... nor can it be written ... and therefore I have chosen more and more to remain silent.

I find myself drawn by the pull of the aesthetic. I’ve said clearly that the work I do resides in the aesthetic ... neither scientific or psychological, neither rational or irrational ... maybe non-rational, it’s not even philosophical ... although it’s most definitely informed by all of these and contained by none of them. I follow the pattern to see where it leads. Try selling that to a client who thinks they are paying for results!

Yet ... this is where I am ... embracing and embraced by the aesthetic. I am positioning myself more and more to hold this position ... for myself and for those who seek something of the same ... aesthetic arrest ...

Best regards,

Joseph Riggio

Architect and Designer of the MythoSelf Process

Princeton, NJ

I am stepping outside of the contained position this summer .. stepping into that place where the aesthetic reigns ... and yet connecting it to the place where we live in our ‘ordinary’ lives as well ... Intentional Performance ... it will be exciting to see who’s ready to let go and show up ... all I can promise is that I’ll be there and no where else.

As always and in all things the constant is change ... sometimes this means RADICAL CHANGE! ... and sometimes this can mean more subtle change as well. Yet in all change there must be adaptation ... and the distinction for humans remains constant ... the act of ‘Becoming Human’ ... a phrase I picked up from Joseph Campbell, reiterated in many way be my own mentor Roye Fraser ... and which I now love and hold to in my own work.

For me the idea of ”Intentional Performance” ... i.e.: performance based in intentionality ... resides at the heart of all I strive to do.

Welcome ...

If you’re a regular visitor to BlogNostra you probably realize that I’ve been a bit off in my posting schedule. To say the least I’ve been sporadically posting here over the last few months ... with an intention to be more regular in my posting, but challenged with all the things coming up around me. You’ll also notice something that I haven’t done before ... I’ve posted a picture. I did this, posted this picture, specifically because it will be the one that I intend to use for a new project I’ve been asked to work on, a new Internet radio program I’m calling Intentional Performance.

This program will begin airing on Saturdays starting the first week of April on Web Talk Radio.

Although I’m also currently hosting my live Internet radio show Leadership Intuitions on Voice America, this program offers both my listeners and me a different direction that I’m excited to be going in.

Here’s the description I wrote for the catalog entry about the show:

Intentional Performance

with Dr. Joseph Riggio


The shift from living an ordinary life to living a life that is extraordinary and authentic often requires only a millimeter of change in attitude.

Join Dr. Joseph Riggio and his guests as they talk about their failures and successes, the unique lessons they’ve learned and their tricks and tips for building a life from the inside out.

This show will take a different direction as I’ve said, first of all I intend to be doing interviews with some really interesting people on this show, drawing them out about “… their failures and successes, the unique lessons they’ve learned and their tips and tricks for building a life from the inside out.” This alone really sets this show apart from what I do on Leadership Intuitions, with Michael Cage who co-hosts that show with me.

While I still love doing Leadership Intuitions it’s really for a completely different audience experience. On that show, Leadership Intuitions, Michael and I discuss every aspect of leadership possible ... often talking about leadership in organizations and business, or in relation to entrepreneurship, but we also often discuss leadership as a personal or social attribute as well. In the new show Intentional Performance in addition to building it around interview with some of the truly fascinating people I know and meet, I’ll have a chance to take a direction that has become far more personal for me.

This new show really has me excited because I sense a complete alignment with where I am now in my own life and work, and that will be the focus and what I’ll be talking about on Intentional Peformance. The fundamental premise, “The shift ... of change in attitude.” has always been close to my heart. The idea of moving to the excitatory bias or to a positive position or even as I sometimes say “being at your best” stands directly at the center of the work I’ve been studying, developing and delivering for just about twenty years now.

It really, really gets me though when folks think that this idea of “being at your best” revolves around some airy, fairy concept of feeling good or being happy. As I’ve said a couple of hundred times, or maybe even a couple of thousand times ... “What I do has nothing to do with being happy ... although you may find yourself happy as a result ... the work itself has nothing to do with being happy as its intended outcome.” My work has as a singular intended outcome, ‘Becoming Human’, exemplified by two or three things that are primary in the way in which this specifically manifests:

This new show, Intentional Performance will be all about just these kinds of things! I intend to find people who are living in relation to these three points I’ve noted above, and have found for themselves their “blueprint for success.”

To sum up where I find myself going with this new adventure I’d have to say it’s about, “Creating Futures That Work.” I hope I find you there joining me on this next part of the journey ...

Joseph Riggio

Princeton, NJ

PS - Keep a lookout for the soon to be released information about my summer intensive retreat at the Blue Butterfly in Langebaek, Denmark. I wrote about this back in December (2007) in my blog posting, Continuing the Journey (check that posting out for more details about the program). BTW we have now confirmed the dates with Varuni at the Blue Butterfly, we’ll be there doing this program 7-11 July 2008 ... and I couldn’t be more excited. I’m going to limit the program to just twenty people to create a truly special, intimate, profound, transformative experience for everyone who attends.

Truth be told I hadn’t even realized that I’d already named the direction I was heading in, i.e.: Intentional Performance, when I was asked for a name for this new radio program ... but I’d obviously committed myself to this direction more than I knew myself before the beginning of this year ... that’s the power of intentionality!

PPS - I really hate to sound pushy, but if you haven’t done so already and you’re even slightly interested in attending the Intentional Performance Retreat with me in July at the Blue Butterfly please, please get a note to Nancy to be put on the mailing list for this program, 2008 Intentional Performance Retreat and we’ll do the rest ... we’ve already got people who have asked us to hold a space for them without even knowing the dates or the costs ... so I’m sure this program will fill very quickly when we release the program details and I will be limiting it to absolutely no more than twenty people!!! ... THANKS FOR UNDERSTANDING!

It’s been a wild trip here in Aspen. Yesterday afternoon more brilliant presentations ... although to be fair some were better than others ... and the conclusion of the day’s program were the presentations by three of the TED prize winners. If nothing else the folks who hang around TED are doing things ... exciting things, interesting things, compassionate things ... but definitely not sitting around twiddling their thumbs ...

Hey all,

One of the most intensely moving presentations IMO was given by Phil Zimbardo a social psychologist who worked at Standford for years and was the architect of the Standford Prison Experiment. He talked about “The Lucifer Effect” about “How Good People Turn Evil.” The most powerful part of this presentation for me were the raw photographs from Abu Ghraib ... truly disturbing images. Yet listening to Phil explain how people turn to evil was fascinating ... and even hopeful by the end of his presentation. He concluded with an idea I loved ... Heroic Imagination.

The intention of this entire session “Will Evil Prevail” was both terrifying and hopeful. The presenters included:

Irwin Redlener public health doctor, a specialist on disaster medicine who works with policymakers about the preparedness and lack of preparedness of dealing with potential disasters and the failure of the systems designed to deal with them.

Samantha Power the head of Harvard’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy a former and current journalist she’s been a close observer of U.S. foreign policy. She spoke to the need to have people on the ground who can and will address the need for collaboration, reconciliation and peace-making.

All in all these presentation opened the way for the afternoon presentations by the TED Prize winners:

Neil Turok a cosmologist, who has established a program to create a post graduate center in South Africa for advanced math and science, with the intention that in our lifetime we will see world-class scientists coming out of Africa where this education has not been present until just now.

Dave Eggers best-selling author of “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” and other books, who established a writing and tutoring lab in San Francisco to offering after-school programs to local students for free that has since opened six more chapters in cities across the U.S.

Karen Armstrong former nun and religious thinker and author, who is working towards large scale ecumenical understanding ... bringing together all the religions of the world into common conversation about humanity.

WOW! ... what a day of data and information flowing in from every quarter. As I said yesterday this has to be one of the major conference events on the planet ... if you think.

After all that the group divided into smaller groups that gathered at some local Aspen restaurants for some social time and dinner. A good time seemed to be had by all ... but more importantly from the reports I got back this morning people had yet another opportunity to connect with one another making the case for TED being a place that revolves around people connecting.

This morning it all began again ... the first session was all about “How do we create?” ... with presentations by John Knoll, visual effects wizard from StarWars/Lucas Film fame ... Amy Tan, novelist and author of “The Joy Luck Club” among other best selling books ... Yves Behar, designer who’s work includes the Jawbone bluetooth headset in addition to other award winning products and projects ... Robert J. Lang, origami artist and you’ve got to visit his website - this is not what you think about when you think about what origami is ... Tod Machover composer and inventor who built a technology called hyperinstruments and a software for making music even when you’re not a musician with a brilliant display that you’ll simply have to wait until it appears on TED.com to see for yourselves ...

This afternoon it continues ... a smorgasbord of ideas ... and I’ll report a bit more of what we’re experiencing in Aspen later today or tomorrow ... now I have to get back to the show ...

Joseph Riggio

Aspen, Colorado

I am at the TED Conference in Aspen and it’s Day Two ... you can join those of us who are either here in Aspen or in Monterey live virtually by visiting TED.com. I understand that they are broadcasting the conference in high quality video so you can at least see the sessions and take advantage of some of the most exciting ideas on the planet. Here’s my first review from the ground to whet your appetite for what is TED ...

Hello Folks,

I have been a TED.com fan for years ... I go there for inspiration and intelligence ... I recommend it to my students at Parsons ... and I’m sure after this experience my appreciation will have only increased. However, what I wasn’t able to get before was the electric energy of attending a TED conference live. Ultimately from this perspective, participating in the conference live what you get are that connections with people resides at the heart of TED.

One advantage of these connections are that they extend the experience of the presentations because it becomes possible to see the effect the presentations have on a live audience as they experience the presenter and the topic with you. Being here also immerses you in the social experience of the TED gathering. As fascinating as the presentations are, the people that TED draws ... their diversity, their range of accomplishments, their willingness to engage with the ideas ... are just as fascinating or more so. As I said, the atmosphere has an electricity to it ... and I’ve been told that even more true of the Monterey crowd.

So far the topics have covered:

Day ONE:

Among the fascinating ideas that jumped out for me have been:

Patricia Burchat, Particle Physicist from Standford University presenting on dark matter and the expanding universe.

Peter Ward, Paleontologist who talked about the relationship between global warming ... the transition from reptilian life to mammalian life ... the impact of bacterial blooms and hydrogen sulfide ... life preserving medical technology ... the Gaia Theory - NOT! ... and my favorite, the lack of intelligent life in the Universe other than on Planet Earth (I’ve been a proponent of this idea to the bane of my intellectual standing according to some for years ...) how’s that for list of things to connect?!!?!?!!

Craig Venter, Genetics Pioneer and Paul Rothemund, DNA Origamist talking about synthetic life forms.

Susan Blackmore, Pyschologist who took Richard Dawkins work on memes and expanded them into a full fledged science, memology.

In addition there have been a couple of kick-ass musical performances including one be Kaki King, who you must hear if you have never heard here before ... she’s an incredible guitarist with a virtuoso technique!

BTW I have to say that I’ve never been to a better organized or higher quality conference in my life! These people are brilliant at putting together a world-class conference. From the logistics to the on-site coordination and help, to the extra-added “goodies” like the best conference gift bag I’ve ever seen ... beyond what I’ve even considered could be possible as a gift bag. The organizers and sponsors are totally into making TED the best conference on the planet ... while keeping it feeling totally non-commercial!

So you are probably getting that I am having a blast and learning a lot in the process ... and we’re only half way through Day Two. What I find so exciting revolves the excitement of ideas ... not so much what they are ... but much, much more about what they do ... they way the replicate and expand once they become public. It feels like being in the midst of something important ...

What personally excites me has to do with the idea of integral thinking ... or convergence ... ideas coming together, effecting one another, expanding from their own force ... ideas expanding beyond the boundaries of fixed categories and being considered as an interplay of a unified dynamic system that we call the Universe. This idea has yet to reach formal education that still insists upon categories of ideas, subject areas, domains of expertise. The entire academic/professional paradigm demands evidence ... proof ... of expertise as gained in a “primary area of interest.” In college these are called “majors.” In professional life these are the gates that hold out anyone without the right credentials ... regardless of proclivity, experience or skill. Yet here at TED ideas come together ... and are accepted without boundaries.

I’ll follow up after I’ve experienced a bit more of TED live ... doing my best to share some of what I’m getting here with you. And, I’ll likely be adding in a bit of my own commentary in one way or another over the weeks and months to come.

I’m thinking, “If they let me ... I’m coming back again next year.” I think I’ve become a TEDster.

Joseph Riggio

Aspen, Colorado