on 'asocial'© 2003-2012 by Antero Alli
on 'asocial'
© 2003-2012 by Antero Alli
Social and Asocial Intent
Social intentions create social rituals; asocial intentions, asocial rituals. Both social and asocial intentions can mingle to produce various hybrids of group dynamics; part social, part asocial. Social and asocial intentions can also be isolated for the purpose of exploring their separate and distinct functions, values, and expressions.
Social rituals fulfill personal and social needs for security, status, courtship, emotional support, and a community sense of belonging. These rituals serve socialization processes and development of the social personality. Pursued as an end in itself, social rituals eventually conform to the consensus morals, ideas, dogmas, and status symbols of the group involved. Socially-defined rituals can often inhibit the creativity of authentic spontaneous impulses flowing free beyond the constraints of social considerations.
Asocial rituals express group dynamics that bypass socialization processes in lieu of realizing asocial agendas, such as any expansion of spatial awareness, intimacy with void (No-Form practice), prayer (Source Relations) and the evocation of archetypal forces. Certain but not all monasteries, sanghas, nunneries, and magickal orders offer classic examples of asocial settings that produce asocial rituals and lifestyles.
Many religious traditions incorporate social rituals and moral systems but these are generally not meant as pathways to mystical experience. These moral infrastructures are designed to maintain the social order of daily life. Many religious and social rituals help integrate the person more firmly into daily community life and can serve as a refuge from trauma, death of family members, evictions, marriages, births and so forth.
Reflecting on these dual ritual intents — asocial and social — can help determine which rituals might be suitable and even possible for any given group -- despite what that group wants, fantasizes about, or expects to achieve. Some groups are simply more inclined towards social rituals, while others are more inclined to explore their rituals in a more asocial climate.
The Physical Body as Gateway to the Internal Landscape
This paratheatre medium functions most effectively in an asocial climate that exalts individual integrity and autonomy above the satisfaction of consensus social needs. This process begins after each participant takes a silent pledge to themselves for becoming responsible for their own safety and problem-solving processes. Becoming accountable for one's personal fears and frustrations eliminates the need for any overseeing parental or guru figure, while supporting one's own integrity and autonomy. While working in an asocial climate, a unique asocial group unity eventually develops from each person's commitment to their own sources alongside a deepening regard for differences within the group -- a respect for each individual's truth, no matter what its nature. This kind of compassion nurtures an asocial climate.
An asocial climate gains momentum through any expansion of spatial awareness where the external space of the workspace itself is invested with value. This process starts by directing our attention off of ourselves and onto the space itself -- around, below and above us -- while physically moving through that space. By keeping the attention on the space itself -- rather than the things and people in the space -- we move about freely without collision. When an entire group follows this directive, a fluid group unity naturally unfolds in a swarming action of self-governing bodies.
Any ongoing practice of spatial awareness can dramatically increase the sense of trust between participants by the respect shown for each other's personal space. In this climate of mutual respect, more authentic responses can naturally emerge free of the compulsion for seeking external acceptance and approval and other inhibiting social habits. Furthering the asocial climate requires cultivating receptivity to inner space. In this paratheatre medium, this is accomplished through No-Form practice.
The physical body embodies and personifies the so-called Subconscious. When the body is felt deeply, conscious mind gains access to subconscious mind. In this way, the body serves as a gateway to the internal landscape where autonomous archetypal forces and complexes also reside. Once the body can be felt deeply, it more willingly yields its treasures of experience, cellular memory, and stream of unfettered impulses. Feeling the body deeply can be fulfilled in this work by the 30-minute physical warm-up that initiates each Lab session and also, through the continual application of jogging throughout each session.
THIS PAGE UPDATED: 2/20/2012
Other Writings on Paratheatre by Antero Alli
Cellular Choreography and Ritual Actions
