SanctuWHEREium Performance Script| Peter Pendergrass | 2013

SanctuWHEREium Performance Outline 1.

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Introduction (5 minutes total) Mirror of Disavowal (10 minutes total) Guru Rugu (15 Minutes total) Digital Auditory Mandala (20 minutes total: 5 minutes for setup; 15 minutes for recording) 5. Closing Sanctification (10 minutes total) Introduction (5 minutes – 8:30-8:35) - Welcome the audience, ask to get comfortable, find some space, etc.

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Introduction to me, my residency, the project…

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Introduce facilitators: Chris and Rebecca…

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Introduce simulcasting participants… Guru Rugu, James, Ara, Steph, David, Adam… Richard? People online, you will follow along and participate just as people in the space, to the best of your ability, given your physical distance.

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Questions for the night: How do we exist spiritually / express spirituality outside of the boundaries of institutional religion, in our everyday lives?

Main modes: collection of sacred, holy, magical, or otherwise meaningful objects, the media we take in, the language we use and the messages we communicate.

Our primary tools for communication today (apart from physical, face-to-face contact) is technology: computers (laptops, tablets, and others), cell phones, the Internet, etc.

Through and/or with contemporary technology, like the internet, iPhones, tablet computers, etc, how can we expand / acknowledge existing notions of mysticism (the search for purpose and meaning in the universe) and spirituality?

What kinds of applications could these things have for a personal spiritual practice, like this event tonight?

Questions for Facebook audience: Do you collect anything that expresses your spirituality? What object or objects are part of your personal spiritual practice. If you don’t consider yourself a spiritual person, do you have an object (or objects) that is especially meaningful in your life? What is it? Why is it special to you?

For all who are participating, please feel free to take pictures, post them to Instagram, Tweet, Tumble, Vine, etc. Please use the hashtag #SanctuWHEREium and mention me or Elsewhere in your post. See the handout slips of paper for that info.

Mirror of Disavowal (10 minutes – 8:35-8:45) -

Purpose of this exercise is to get into a relaxed but focused state of mind. We are going to accomplish this by shedding the concerns of our aesthetic and social minds, via the disavowal of the identities associated with those parts of our lives. We will be using our personal mobile devices for this purpose, so please get your phone out and set it to the camera. If you don’t have a camera on your phone, partner up with someone near you.

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Find a recent selfie, or take one right now. If you don’t have a photo capable phone, sit next to someone who does, and take a photo with both of you in the frame.

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Use your device as a mirror. Who is the person in the picture? What are your identities? As descriptors come to mind, silently, or in a low whisper, disavow that identity. E.g, “I am not an artist. I am not a citizen of Greensboro, NC. I am not a leader. I am not nervous. Etc.”

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Clear your mind, you have reset your conscious mind, open to the present without inhibition, and prepare to participate in the rest of this evenings proceedings. Now, I will turn the floor over to my friend and colleague Guru Rugu!

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Guru Rugu is a celebrated best-selling self-published self-helper from Los Angeles who has changed the lives of millions with his simple but effective experimental meditations. He has worked with many other illustrious experimental healers, artists, and writers, including Veranda Moot and Matador Oven. Guru Rugu has been helping "turn your desperation into inspiration" since 1955 when he helped co-found the Los Angeles Meditation Ghostwriters Guild Local #012, where he still serves as Chief Meditating Officer (CMO) and Intern Coordinator. In 1971, Guru Rugu helped co-found the experimental meditation center of los angeles – which has no center – with artist Adam Overton. Since 2010, Guru Rugu has worked intimately with Signify, Sanctify, Believe, a cute crew of religious technologists and publishing anarchivists hearkening from Los Angeles. Guru Rugu currently hosts Guru Rugu's Experimental Meditation Hour on KCHUNG Radio AM1630 every 1st Sunday from 10-11pm and archived at http://gururugu.kchungradio.org. He also provides inspirational tweets nearly every day at http://twitter.com/GuruHRugu. Though not formally

acknowledged, it is well-known that Guru Rugu was the inspiration behind Matador Oven's provocative and influential tract, A Dabblerist Manifesto.

Guru Rugu (15 minutes – 8:45-9:00) -

A.D.D. meditation, etc… Guided visualization.

Digital Auditory Mandala (20 minutes – 9:00-9:20) -

Thanks to Guru Rugu! The next part of our program tonight is a highly unpredictable, still in testing, sonic experiment. It is called the Digital Auditory Mandala, and the purpose of this extended meditation exercise is to activate our quotidian mobile technologies as sacred, spiritual tools. In the process, we will also be consecrating this SanctuWHEREium, as part of it’s public opening as a part of Elsewhere. Before anything happens, I will explain, and then my physical facilitators – Chris and Rebecca – will assist anyone who needs help getting ready.

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First, we will pair up. If you have only a cell phone, please find someone else who has only a cell phone. If you have both a laptop and a cellphone, please find someone else who has both. You will exchange phone numbers and/or add each other as contacts on either Google Hangouts or Skype, which ever is easiest for you. If you have a laptop, please get that ready first, and then the phones.

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Once everyone’s devices are ready, we will create a mandala consisting of three concentric circles. A mandala is traditionally a symbol of the universe, representing the connection of all things. The mandala is often used for drawing spiritual attention and creating sacred space. The center of the mandala is a microphone. The first circle will be cell phones. The second circle will be laptops, and the third circle will be us, sitting around the devices. The mic will be turned on. Then, you will call your partner on speaker phone, and then set your phone in a circle around the mic. Then, those with laptops will call each other on their video chat, with their laptop volumes turned all the way up. Then, we will hum. All of us will hum. Pick a tone, be dissonant or in harmony with those around you. The tone you choose will represent your personal energetic vibration. Are there any questions?

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SET UP!!! Get out devices. Pair up phones. Pair up laptops. Install Google Hangouts or Skype if necessary. Inner circle formation. Middle circle formation. Outer mantra circle…

We will spend 10-15 minutes with this humming mediation. Focus your thoughts and intentions on connecting, both with the people in the space around you, those of us who are participating through the Internet, and with our technological devices. These objects are an important part of our daily

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lives, and our purpose here is to activate them for positive spiritual activity in our lives.

Allow your hum to end with your next breath. Breathe deep, and be silent. We will now spend a couple of minutes with our silence.

Final Consecration (10 Minutes – 9:20-9:30) -

To close the evening, I’d like for everyone to take a piece of paper from one of my facilitators. Please take a moment to write an intention, hope, or goal.

Please come up to the community altar and place your intention in the green goblet. If you are online, please type yours into the chat window, and we will transcribe it onto paper for you.

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Take a moment to focus your energy on supporting of the lives of the people around you, and connecting with you through the Internet. The technology in our lives both connects and divides us, but I find myself cherishing my connections more than I lament my distances. As I said at the beginning of this evening, Greensboro and North Carolina are my home. The technology in my life has been invaluable in keeping me connected to the people I care about the most, and helping me strengthen relationship even though I may have been thousands of miles away. This definitely changed the way I think about and use the technology in my life, and I hope some of you in the audience enjoyed sharing this expanded idea of connection with me this evening.

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Thanks to everyone for coming, and participating in this evening. Everything we have done this evening has been part planned and part left to chance. It would not have been possible without your participation. I will be joining you on the first floor in just a minute! Thanks again!