FAR

This virtual lecture series is part of the Global Warming Series painting exhibition by David J Emerson Young on view at FAR, and facilitated by Marc and Christel Gopin. Learn more about the exhibit here.

Tune in for all lectures on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/fourt...

• May 18th: David Young’s artwork expresses the mind’s engagement with the sublime beauty of this world and also an imaginative and emotional engagement with the threats against human continuity, and threats against the continuity of nature itself. The art will be drawn upon in terms of an affective and visual manifestation of the global warming crisis and its effect on our deepest loves, our deepest yearnings, our love of beauty, but also our deepest fears of loss.
  The facilitated session will focus on exploring our collective thoughts and feelings on what needs to change in order to survive and flourish in new ways that bring the best out in all of us and our communities.
• May 19th: Utilizing David Young’s art, we will explore what the effects of global warming are on animals and nature, the consequences, the loss of our beloved Arctic, snow-capped mountains, and the ongoing extinction of so many species we have come to love and expect to exist long after we are gone, along with our offspring. We will explore the sense of loss, grieving, and fear of the future that are natural and normal feelings. But left unspoken and hidden, suchmourning and fears often lead societies to panic and search for scapegoats to blame, or to seize upon false conspiracy theories to oversimplify reality and prompt dangerous and conflictive behavior. Overcoming these tendencies is best done through empathy, compassion and Compassionate Reasoning, as well as the skills oflistening and conflict resolution. We will explore as a group how to do this as a community, as individuals, and as families.
• May 20th: This session with the help of David Young’s artwork, will focus our minds on the challenges to human survival and flourishing. The emerging catastrophes, the fear of them, the radicalization of politics, are all evidence of disturbances of the mind in the direction of fear and anger that is out of control. Instead we will search for the ways to engage communities and relationships with empathy, compassion and tried and true methods of conflict management, conflict resolution and reconciliation, as these reactions are expressed in Dr. Gopin’s eightfold steps of healing conflict in his Healing the Heart of Conflict.
• May 21st: This session will ‘bring it all together’, a summary of the findings of the previous sessions, the collective ideas that have emerged from participants, in conjunction with a deeper dive into the art and science of Compassionate Reasoning. This approach unites the best lessons of thousands of years of ethical wisdom and philosophytogether with the latest findings of positive psychology, compassion science, and neuroscience. The workshop will culminate with a constructive process of building visions of a new future, a different future than global warming and extinction, a future based on compassion, reasoning, imagination, and an unprecedented investment in ethical collaboration between the diversity of peoples in our communities and on the planet. We will explore, with the help of the affective effects of Young’s art, how to provoke our higher minds in the direction of creativity, imagination, problem solving for human survival, animal survival, and enabling nature’s ability to flourish again.

About the lecturers: Marc and Christel Gopin are international and national experts in the facilitation of challenging subjects for communities to face together. From the Middle East and Africa to dozens of American states, they focus on the skills to help people analyze, communicate about and cope with deeply challenging problems and crises.This methodology is called Compassionate Reasoning: Changing the Mind to Change the World, the subject of Marc’s forthcoming volume from Oxford University Press, his 9th book. It is focused on changing the mind in order to change the world, on the mind’s power to move from negative feelings to positive communication and collaboration with others.