New Program: The Alchemy of Ecosexual Love

Connect with your natural gift to Love

The Alchemy of EcosexualLove combines practices and principles from Tao, Tantra, amorous inclusiveness, and sexual fluidity to empower participants to reconnect with their natural gift to love. 

By Dr. SerenaGaia, aka Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio

This sequence of three workshop is for people with the desire and courage to love fearlessly and unconditionally. When you overcome your fear of getting lovesick, of being rejected, of being consumed with jealousy, and of pleasure, what will keep your loving nature from becoming fully expressed?

This introductory training helps to dissipate these four major obstacles to love. We welcome diversity, appreciate consent, emphasize confidentiality, and support all forms of amorous expression.

Join us as we transform fear into love with the Alchemy of Ecosexual Love.

This content is organized in a sequence of three main 90-minute segments or workshops.

Workshops # 1 and # 2 focus on Tao and Tantra, workshop # 3 adds fluidity and inclusiveness (compersion).

The sequence can be complemented with an introductory evening, which may include a puja and a 30-minute documentary film, and a final ceremony called Wedding of Ecosexual Love. The ceremony may be followed by a facilitated celebration party.

The transforming program helps people overcome their fear of love. It works successfully with groups and in communities. Segments of it can also be included in gatherings and festivals. It has been produced in Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Italy, and Estonia.

As a recent attendee commented:

“The Alchemy changed the way I can receive or give touch, the way I feel about sexuality and the Earth. You created a bubble where we all could connect and be true to ourselves and show ourselves. You inspired me with the power of the energy that hands can create for another person in connection with the natural elements.”
– Karolina, attendee of the workshop

Links:

What Is the Alchemy of #EcosexualLove? Che cos’è l’Alchimia dell’#AmoreEcosessuale?

What is the Alchemy of Ecosexual Love? Che cos’è l’Alchimia dell’Amore Ecosessuale? It’s the alchemy by which widely diverse people come together to celebrate each other as lovers who already always share a partner, the Earth. E l’alchimia che fa si che persone molto diverse di trovino insieme per celebrare loro stessi come amanti della compagna che già comunque accomuna tutti e tutte: la Terra.

Recognizing each other as metamours involves a new energetic awareness of those who also love this partner. Riconoscersi come metamori comporta una nuova consapevolezza energetica per chi come noi ama questa compagna.

In a Wedding of Ecosexual Love, celebrating this shared lover together is easy. In uno Sposalizio d’ Amore ecosessuale è facile celebrare insieme questa amante condivisa. And it empowers people to feel that expanded love is ecological, sustainable, and good for you. Ed impodera le persone a sentire che l’amore espanso è ecologico, sostenibile, e buono per la salute. It also helps people find more fun in, and sustenance for, diadic relationships. Aiuta anche le persone a divertirsi di più, e sostenere più facilmente le relazioni diadiche.

For me this was a wonderful way to offer the world some of my most cherished gifts. Per me è stato un modo di portare al mondo alcuni del miei regali preferiti. It’s exciting to feel part of a new tribe and connected to a whole new set of friends. E eccitante sentirsi parte di una nuova tribù con un nuovo gruppo di amici e amiche.

“Let s love the earth we make love on.” Says my friend Susan M Block. “Amiamo la terra su cui facciamo l’amore.” Dice la mia amica Susan Block. At Suncave Gardens the earth conspires to do just that! A Suncave Gardens la terra cospira per fare proprio questo!

I feel a very deep sense of gratitude for all those who could be with us this time, for those who supported us, and for those with a wish to participate (again) in the future. Sento un profondo senso di gratitudine per tutte le persone che hanno potuto unirsi a noi questa volta, per chi ci ha sostenuto, e per chi desidera partecipare (di nuovo) nel futuro.

Let’s keep in touch and make our bonds stronger. Teniamoci in contatto e rafforziamo i legami. We will be present next time the Alchemy of Ecosexual Love manifests on an ecosystem that calls the loving energy of our team. Saremo presenti la prossima volta che l’Alchimia dell’Amore Ecosessuale si manifesta in un ecosistema che chiama l’energia amorevole della nostra equipe.

Beautiful experience? Memorable moments? Challenges? Breakthroughs? Comments are open for all participants and interested. Bella esperienza? Momenti memorabili? Sfide? Passi avanti? I commenti sono aperti per tutti e tutte le partecipanti e interessati/e.

Can we answer any questions?  Ci sono domande a cui possiamo rispondere?  Please do not hesitate to contact us.  Non esitate a contattarci.  We look forward to serving you in your journey of #EcosexualLove.  Non vediamo l’ora di servirvi nel vostro percorso di #AmoreEcosessuale. Enjoy!  Gustatevelo!

Aggiornamenti?  Contatti?  Programmazione?  Seguite la nostra pagina The Alchemy of Ecosexual Love su Facebook.  Updates?  Contacts?  Programs?  Follow our page The Alchemy of Ecosexual Love on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/AlchemyToo/

aka Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD
Erstwhile Professor of Humanities and Cinema at UPRM
Convenor of Practices of Ecosexuality: A Symposium

Author of Multiple Books
Website Serenagaia.org

Contact: serena.anderlini@gmail.com

Teacher of Humanities Online Series – Modern History for the Humanities and Love ResearchGate Profile

Academia.edu Profile
LinkedIn Profile
Fellow at the Humanities Institute, University of Connecticut, Storrs (2012-13)
Project: “Amorous Visions: Ecosexual Perspectives on Italian Cinema”

Mission Statement: The Alchemy of Ecosexual Love

The Alchemy of Ecosexual Love is an educational program in the arts of love designed for people with the desire and courage to love fearlessly and unconditionally.  It combines practices and principles from Tao, Tantra, amorous inclusiveness, and sexual fluidity to empower students to reconnect with our natural gift to love.

The program refers to the practices and principles of sex-positive education, which appreciates the value of amorous and sexual expression as a basis for human happiness, health, pleasure, joy, and well-being.  In sex-positive education, a wide variety of ways to express one’s amorous and sexual energy are appreciated, provided these expressions take place among people who are fully consenting adults.  Sex-positive education encourages self-awareness, open communication, good listening, and complete respect for the wishes and non-wishes of others.  Learning to respond to a proposal with a NO, and to accept that NO with respect and gratitude is a first step in sex-positive education.  A NO offered without apology or excuses is often a sign that the person who speaks is taking good care of themselves.  Accepting this response with respect and reverence is a way to contribute to co-creating spaces where a profusion of authentic YES’es is possible.

The practice of Ecosexual Love is based on inner guidance from the core of one’s personal ecosystem, and on respect and devotion to the ecosystems that surround us, including natural, human, and technological ones.  For example, awareness of our fears puts us in touch with our inner vibrations.  Addressing these insecurities is a way to raise our vibration above them and energetically dissipate external obstacles and critiques.

Respect for diversity is a way of being in awe of the diversity of nature, including human nature.  When we come from a place of love, we can appreciate the value of people’s choices even when they don’t correspond to ours.  For example, we can respect open relationships without practicing them, and learn to experience compersion as a way to overcome the fear of being consumed with jealousy.  The programs in The Alchemy of Ecosexual Love are designed to empower participants to evolve their talents in the arts of love and to become artists of Ecosexual Love.

The programs’ elements include the following:

  1. The Tao, a practical philosophy from the Orient that allows one to harmonize the elements of one’s personal ecosystem, treating one’s organs and other parts of the person like members of an expanded family, who function well when they get along.
  2. Tantra, another practical philosophy from the Orient that combines amorous expression with aspects of the sacred, sacred, allowing aural and energetic connections among people who wish to love each other with respect and reverence for their respective vital energies.
  3. Amorous inclusiveness, which allows one to expand one’s ability to love in a wider horizon, beyond exclusive and monogamous norms.
  4. Sexual fluidity, which allows one to perceive and appreciate amorous energies regardless of the gender of the person they emanate from.

The program’s experiential practices emphasize aspects of the practice of love as an art.  In particular, they are designed support participants in alchemically transforming the energy of fear into love.  The opportunity of the program’s courses is to dissipate four major fears that are common obstacles to love.

These fears include:

  • the fear of lovesickness
  • the fear of being rejected
  • the fear of being consumed with jealousy
  • the fear of pleasure

Once these energetic obstacles are removed, once the energy of fear is alchemically transformed into the energy of love, there are no reasons why a person cannot generate all the love he or she desires.  Participants in The Alchemy of Ecosexual Love are empowered to become sources of love in their own lives and communities.

  • The Alchemy of Ecosexual Love is affiliated with the educational non-profit 3WayKiss, whose mission is available at this link.
  • For a wider background on the evolution of this program, watch the documentary film Playa Azul I Love You: Together in Ecosexual Love (32 minutes).  Film free of charge on Vimeo. View trailer here.
  • The first introductory event in this program will take place at Suncave Gardens, in the vicinity of Rome, Italy, on June 29-July 1, 2018.  View program at this link.
Can we answer any questions?  Please do not hesitate to contact us.  We look forward to serving you in your journey of #EcosexualLove.  Enjoy!
aka Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD
Erstwhile Professor of Humanities and Cinema at UPRM
Convenor of Practices of Ecosexuality: A Symposium

Author of Multiple Books
Website Serenagaia.org

Contact: serena.anderlini@gmail.com

Teacher of Humanities Online Series – Modern History for the Humanities and Love ResearchGate Profile

Academia.edu Profile
LinkedIn Profile
Fellow at the Humanities Institute, University of Connecticut, Storrs (2012-13)
Project: “Amorous Visions: Ecosexual Perspectives on Italian Cinema”

The Alchemy of Ecosexual Love – Rome, June 29-July 1 – A Weekend Intensive – Program

Welcome to The Alchemy of Ecosexual Love.
DESCRIPTION

The Alchemy of EcosexualLove combines practices and principles from Tao, Tantra, amorous inclusiveness, and sexual fluidity to empower participants to reconnect with their natural gift to love.  

This weekend intensive is for people with the desire and courage to love fearlessly and unconditionally. When you overcome your fear of getting lovesick, of being rejected, of being consumed with jealousy, and with pleasure, what will keep your loving nature from becoming fully expressed?

This introductory training helps to dissipate these four major obstacles to love. We welcome diversity, appreciate consent, and support all forms of amorous expression. Join us as we transform fear into love with the Alchemy of EcosexualLove.

This bilingual edition is a space of encounter for diverse people in both Italian and English.  Our translation resources are abundant and we will make it easy for all participants.

The stunning location for this intensive is Suncave Gardens a retreat center in the verdant hills of the Roman countryside. The center is only a 30-minute drive from Rome’s main airport, Leonardo da Vinci (FCO). It serves organic meals made with local products. The amphitheater and the ancient Etruscan caves are equipped as enchanting activity rooms. The center also offers the amenity of a biolake naturist pool.

Feeling called to participate? Our super right-on-time option is open. A two full day intensive for only € 167! Space is limited. Book your spot now! Offer expires on June 15, 2018. Reserve your favorite accommodation and meals also now here.

PROGRAM

The weekend introductory program will allow you to be come familiar with the opportunities of the course.  Joins us at  The Hill of Oaks (Il Colle delle Querce) for this new and special edition, May 24-26, 2019.

Become and alchemist of ecosexual love:

  • Get rid of the fear of lovesickness
  • Get rid of the fear of being rejected
  • Get rid of the fear of being consumed with jealousy
  • Get rid of the fear of pleasure

The alchemy of ecosexual love is composed of a synergy of various elements.  When combined, these elements allow one to practice love as an art, and to generate all the love a person might desire.

These elements are the following:

  1. The Tao, a practical philosophy from the Orient that allows one to harmonize the elements of one’s personal ecosystem, treating one’s organs and other parts of the person like members of an expanded family,  who function well when they get along.
  2. Tantra, another practical philosophy from the Orient that combines amorous expression with aspects of the sacred, sacred, allowing aural and energetic connections among people who wish to love each other with respect and reverence for their respective vital energies.
  3. Amorous inclusiveness, which allows one to expand one’s ability to love in a wider horizon, beyond exclusive and monogamous norms.
  4. Sexual fluidity, which allows one to perceive and appreciate amorous energies regardless of the gender of the person they emanate from.

The weekend will allow you to get a taste of and practice these freedoms, with the possible option of going more deeply later if you so desire.  The introductory program is complete and empowering in itself.

The program begins on Friday at 4 pm, with arrivals and settling in.  The timeline is orientative.  We will evolve together with ease and latitude, while being present to the energies in the room.

FRIDAY, 5-8 PM

Introductions.  There will be an introduction time where participants will be invited to introduce themselves, and to share about their motivation to participate.

Activities

  • Tao: shaking, opening channels, rooting
  • Tantra: contact dance

Appetizers, soft drinks, juices, water

Theory.  Introduction to the Alchemy of Ecosexual Love

Topics:

  • The Ecosexual movement
  • The Earth as the partner we all share
  • Reconnecting our metabolism to the metabolism of the Earth
  • Knowing and loving the ecosystem called Thyself
  • Allowing it to emanate love to others
  • Meeting others as “metamours”
  • Sexual and amorous expression: an art of healing and loving
  • Also in nature: plants and their admired genital parts
  • Ecosexual love: the love that reaches beyond genders, and numbers, and orientations, and races, and ages, and ethnicity, and origins, and species, and even biological realms, to embrace all of life as a partner with equal rights.
  • Gaia, symbiosis, love, and ecosexuality

Promise of full presence and awareness until the wedding ceremony.

Tao Practices:

  • The inner smile exercise
  • The water wheel exercise
  • The reverse breathing exercise

Tantra Practices:

  • The inclusion exercise

Two people speak. A third person comes close to them. Opening up and welcoming. Apologizing and requesting privacy.

  • The consent exercise

No. No with redirection. Yes, with direction, guided touch, mudras.

  • Oxytocin group hug
  • Sharing about experience, discussing

8-9 PM: Vegetarian dinner with vegan options

9-10 PM:

  • Contact dance
  • Oxytocin group hug
  • Screening of short film Playa Azul I Love You
SATURDAY, morning

8:30-9:30 AM: Breakfast

9:30 AM-1:30 PM: We start our deprogramming for the weekend  

Let’s make love the ecology of our lives

Let’s consider three elements of ecosexual love:

  • Knowing and loving oneself
  • Knowing and loving our host planet: the Earth
  • Knowing and loving those who share this partner with us: Humankind

Practices of Ecosexual Love:

  • 10:00-11:30 AM Workshop # 1: Know and love the ecosystem called Thyself
  • 11:30 AM-1:00 PM Workshop # 2: Know and love the lover we all share: The Earth

1:30-2:30 PM: Vegetarian lunch with vegan options

SATURDAY, afternoon

3:00-5:00 PM: Break for meditation relax

  • 5:00-6:30 PM Workshop # 3: Know and love those who share this partner with you: Humankind  

6:30-7:00 PM: Break

7:003-8 PM: Let’s celebrate ecosexual love.  Plural wedding to the hosting ecosystem.

  • For a more detailed description of the workshops and this ritual, click here. 

8-9 PM: Vegetarian dinner with vegan options

Ready to participate? Our super early bird option is open. A two full day intensive for only € 167! Space is limited. Book your spot now! Offer expires on June 15, 2018. Reserve your favorite accommodation and meals also now here.

SUNDAY,  morning

8:30-9:30: Breakfast

10-11:30 AM: Options for practice

  • The pleasure emitter exercise
  • The tree hugging exercise
  • The cuddle exercise
  • Possible screening of short film Playa Azul I Love You.

11:30 AM-12:30 PM: Sharing, discussion: how to integrate the training to daily life?

12:30-100 PM:  Closing circle

1-2:30 PM: Vegetarian lunch with vegan options

Option to stay for the afternoon with free time to practice

Option to stay for dinner and overnight (not included)

Note: participants will have the option of arriving Friday morning and have lunch (not included), and even of arriving Thursday evening (dinner and overnight stay not included).

Visit Suncave Gardens, with its naturist biolake and the magical Etruscan cave. (Only a 30-minute drive from the Leonardo da Vinci airport.)

MEET YOUR FACILITATORS:

Dr. SerenaGaia, aka Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, is a teacher of #EcosexualLove.  She is leader in the ecosexual movement and an expert in the ecology of love. A teacher, writer, activist, scholar, filmmaker, and cultural theorist, she co-edited the collection Ecosexuality (2015), and co-directed Playa Azul I Love You (2016).  “Her prophetic books,” including Eros (2006) and Gaia (2009), “have inspired readers around the world,” Dr. Susan M. Block has said.

Dr. SerenaGaia believes that “a world where it is safe to love is a world where it is safe to live,” and intends to create that world with her sacred activism.  www.serenagaia.org

Monique Darling, Author of Beyond Cuddle Party and workshop facilitator extraordinaire, was born on this planet with the unique gifts and soul calling to help you remember how magnificent you truly are! Messages from your ancestors, your spirit guides, your body, nature, your soul, are all called upon and utilized so that you walk away knowing how deeply the cosmos loves you for YOU, exactly as you are, so you can begin to love and accept yourself too.
YOU, you are the gift! ????.
Monique has led nearly 2000 workshops in the past 8 years. She has taught at colleges across the US including Yale. She has been featured on TLC and The Dr’s as well as various radio shows, podcasts and magazines across the globe. She specializes in helping others reclaim their power and natural sensuality by transmuting fear and repression into courage, self-love and freedom. Her primary purpose is helping folks bring out their vulnerability, energetic embodiment and fearless relating. Learn more about Monique by going to www.juicyenlightenment.com or track her whereabouts at www.whereintheworldismoniquedarling.com

Peter Petersen has been teaching qigong for 17 years and has been a certified massage therapist for the last 15. Peter has facilitated in health clubs, hospitals, retirement villas, and several different wellness/spa resorts in Mexico and the United States, such as Rancho La Puerta, Mayacamas Ranch, and Present Moment Retreat. Peter has also been touring and teaching with Monique Darling for the last 3 years, honing his skills in facilitating dance, meditation, and Tantra Peter is also a personal wellness coach. This Qigong practice helps people ground themselves into their “now” to increase their present moment awareness of their behaviors, and find simple solutions to problematic habits such as: eating, moving, negative thinking, and sleeping. The result of this tool box of healthy information is that clients become their own health advocate and regain a sense of stability, peace, and well-being into their everyday lives

# # # # #

We appreciate your attention. Feeling called to participate? Our super early option is open.  Don’t miss it! A two full day intensive for only € 167! Space is limited. Book your spot now!  Offer expires on June 15, 2018. Reserve your favorite accommodation and meals also now here. 

Can we answer any questions?  Please do not hesitate to contact us.  We look forward to serving you in your journey of #EcosexualLove.  Enjoy!
aka Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD
Erstwhile Professor of Humanities and Cinema at UPRM
Convenor of Practices of Ecosexuality: A Symposium

Author of Multiple Books
Website Serenagaia.org

Contact: serena.anderlini@gmail.com

Teacher of Humanities Online Series – Modern History for the Humanities and Love ResearchGate Profile

Academia.edu Profile
LinkedIn Profile
Fellow at the Humanities Institute, University of Connecticut, Storrs (2012-13)
Project: “Amorous Visions: Ecosexual Perspectives on Italian Cinema”

A Plural Wedding of Ecosexual Love at Lolia Place, Big Island, Hawaii – Nov 5, 2017

Dear Earthlings–

Our practice of performing Plural Weddings of Ecosexual Love has expanded with the celebration of our union with Lolia Place Ecovillage, an intentional community and educational center in the district of Puna, south-east side of Big Island, Hawaii.  The Wedding was celebrated on November 5, 2017, at dusk, under the macadamia tree at the center of the community’s open grounds.  Some 20 very diverse participants gathered in the contact zone this center has established, to declare their love for the place.

A Plural Wedding of Ecosexual Love is a special kind of performative wedding that includes the contact zone or ecosystem upon which participants meet as a shared amorous partner.  The ceremony sacralizes the moment of union experienced by the ephemeral community that performs the practice, and symbolically transforms the ritual of matrimony into an open, inclusive one.

The ceremony is preceded by a series of three attunement practices that prepare most participants for the vows.  The practice called “Know and Love the Ecosystem Called Thyself” performs an attunement with one’s own personal ecosystem.  The practice called “Know and Love the Partner We All Share: Earth” performs an attunement with the all encompassing ecosystem called Gaia, and the four elements that characterize it: air, water, fire, earth.  The  practice called “Know and Love those Who Share this Partner with You: Humankind” attunes participants to fellow humans as “metamours,” or people with whom we already always share a partner.  The Wedding is a moment of union that synergizes the attunement process.

As Dr. SerenaGaia I view myself as a special minister for Plural Weddings of Ecosexual Love.  And I encourage communities with an affinity for this practice to invite me to perform it for them.   Much detailed descriptions are available at this link.  Perhaps a PWEL is at this time right for you and your communities?  I look forward to considering your invitations.  Thank you!

At Lolia Place Ecovillage, the sequence of attunements was embedded in a much wider event, the 1st Annual Gathering of EcosexualLove.  This five-day experience encompassed an expansive variety of practices in EcosexualLove.  The Gathering was produced by a team of four, including myself, Dr. SerenaGaia, poet Karen Hery of Portland, musician Saffire Bouchellion, and wrangler Walker O’Rourke, also of Portland.  During the Gathering, the Invocation and Vows I originally designed were collectively modified to adapt to the place.  Much gratitude goes to Walker for the research and rewording of various aspects.

Participants at the Gathering, and community members present at Lolia Place at the time, all convened together in a circle to be a part of this moment.  Lolia people included members of the leadership team, investors, interns and staff.  Gathering people included facilitators, participants, and organizers.  The ceremony started with the Invocation, read by Walker.  I pledged to read the Vows in a people’s mike form.  The circle was invited to repeat the lines and amplify their resonance across the grounds.  Everyone was able to bespeak their love for the shared amorous partner to a measure of their own comfort.

The revised Invocation and Vows are available.  Find the Invocation here.  Find the Vows here.  You are invited to enjoy and respect these documents as the emanation of a symbiotic earth that manifested through my imagination, as I came embody my sacred name of Dr. SerenaGaia.  Please let us know if we can support you in bringing the PWEL attunement process and ceremony to you.  Thank you!

The first Plural Wedding of Ecosexual Love (PWEL) was performed at Playa Azul, a “blue beach” on the west coast of Puerto Rico, on January 25, 2015.  It included a diverse group of participants from this Caribbean island and other world regions.  It was documented with the help of filmmaker Shaison Antony.  A series of photographs from that day is available at this link.  The Playa Azul PWEL is also the subject of the film Playa Azul I Love You: Together in Ecosexual Love.  You are invited to enjoy this 32-minute documentary free of charge.  Check the trailer at this linkPlaya Azul I Love You is a celebration of life in Western Puerto Rico, a region now devastated by the climate instabilities of our time, including super hurricane Maria.  Accordingly, the documentary explores the PWEL practice in the context of Gaia Theory, the science that interprets the evolution and stability of life on earth as a result of collaboration and symbiosis.  Please enjoy the film free of charge at this link.  Leave a comment to let us know what it inspires in you.  Thank you!

A PWEL is an experience of attunement to the practice of EcosexualLove for eco-sustainable communities.  The blue print of the original Wedding, and its reincarnation at Lolia Place Ecovillage, are intended to serve as a model for many others.  Please get in touch with us when you feel inspired to bring the experience to your communities.

Email serena.anderlini@gmail.com, or find Serena Anderlini of Puerto Rico on Facebook.

We will stay tuned.

Thank you!

We appreciate your listening.  Enjoy!
aka Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD
Erstwhile Professor of Humanities and Cinema at UPRM
Convenor of Practices of Ecosexuality: A Symposium
Fellow at the Humanities Institute, University of Connecticut, Storrs (2012-13)
Project: “Amorous Visions: Ecosexual Perspectives on Italian Cinema”

Program – The 1st Annual Gathering of #EcosexualLove @ Lolia Place, Hawaii

Hi Everyone–

Two more weeks to the 1st Annual Gathering of #EcosexualLove at Lolia Place, the ecovillage founded by Robert Silber in Hawaii.

The gathering runs November 1st to 6th, on the east side of Big Island.  We are excited about the Program.  We are able to offer a 5-day retreat, with vegetarian food and cabanas lodging, for only $ 500.  Our program design offers a variety of experiences in the practice of #EcosexualLove.  It is highly integrated with the local nature, ecosystems, and communities.

The program integrates many aspects of #EcosexualLove.  These include conscious sensuality, the relation of natural and personal ecosystems, the experience of dance and movement as forms of being, intersectionality and Earth oneness, sexual embodiment issues, knowledge as a path to love, and much more.

Themes for retreat days include “Getting Connected,” “Anchoring Practices,” “Going Deep and Wide,”  “What We Want and Need Most,” and “Plural Wedding Day.”  The sequence leads up to the ceremony of a Plural Wedding of Ecosexual Love.  This wedding is a simple performance that celebrates the love of all participants for the partner we all share, the Earth.  This love is expressed in particular for the ecosystem that has hosted this retreat, Lolia Ecovillage.  Because everyone shares this ecosystem, everyone is included as an equal.  Willing participants thus become spouses, or “spice,” of the Lolia Place ecosystem. Access and download the program at this link.  Thank you!

We are blessed with wonderful presenters and participants.  Meet them at this link. Thank you!

Excited about this retreat?  Space is limited, but even at this time we can accommodate a few more participants.  Follow your inspiration to join us with one simple click.  Scroll for the Registration button at the bottom of the screen.  Contact karenhery@gmail.com for any questions.  We look forward to welcoming you!

Does not work for you this time around?  Send your blessings to this 1st Gathering and plan to join a subsequent edition.  Share with friends and beloved in Hawaii too. All good wishes to you!

Thank you.
aka Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD
Erstwhile Professor of Humanities and Cinema at UPRM
Convenor of Practices of Ecosexuality: A Symposium
Fellow at the Humanities Institute, University of Connecticut, Storrs (2012-13)
Project: “Amorous Visions: Ecosexual Perspectives on Italian Cinema”

Reinventions – Falling in Love with the Humanities? Si, se Puede! When Basic Education Goes Digital

–Dear Fellow Earthlings–

While teaching a two-semester basic course in the Humanities in the past 10 + years, I’ve evolved a narrative about history that focuses on the Earth and all its people, and a series of readings that deploy the diverse and imaginative ways that humans have practiced the arts of love across time and space.

I feel the multiple crises we face today require that this course go digital.  That way everyone can take it from all over the planet.  I believe that would be a great gift.  It would empower people to make love the ecology of their lives in ways they feel inspired to.

Crises result in successful reinventions when there is openness, trust, collaboration.

–These are difficult to generate in times of crisis, and yet that’s when they are really necessary!

–A very wide support is necessary to evolve.

In this context, I am happy to accept the invitation from UPR Carolina, a small campus in the UPR system, to present my project on March 14.  We start at 11 am in the Teatro:

“Falling in Love with the Humanities?  Si, Se Puede!  Course Design Experiences from the Flipped/Hybrid Classroom.”

Don’t you love the beautiful poster they’ve prepared for me?  It’s really neat and I’m excited about the whole thing.

I believe that the humanities are the sciences that help us understand the belief systems we have.  The arts are the sciences that help us invent the belief systems we need.

And I believe that teaching the Humanities from the Point of View of Love and in a way that students love can get students to fall in love with the humanities, appreciate their significance, and become lifetime learners that will require these courses in their curricula.

In a crisis, reinventions are a path to the future.

Reinventions may be a challenge for large institutions because much agility is needed.

In a smaller context, activating the imagination together may be easier.

When we interpret the Arts and Humanities as sciences that help us understand the present and invent the future we need, we would not remotely consider doing away with them.

And yet, when a university is threatened with losing about one third of its total budget from one year to the next, one has to activate the imagination very quickly for a prayer to save these significant learning tools.

That’s what my proposal does.  The millennial generation loves to learn online.  It’s starved for knowledge they can use to invent the future they need.  What we can give them is a structure that will empower them to learn digitally about these things.  That’s what my course does.

The ways that love has been practiced across time and space are so diverse.  They’re so imaginative.  Learning about them is a way to learn about the beauty and diversity of our species.  And thus acquire the tools to co-design the amorous lives one wishes.

This is the reinvention I propose for a basic, two-semester course that’s part of most university curricula in the US and territories.

It has worked well at UPRM.

I’ve produced the Lectures for the period 1500-2000.

I’ve embedded all tests and learning modules in the Canvas LMS system.

I’ve taught the hybrid/flipped form for one semester, Fall 2016.

I’ve measured the results in a Survey and an Encuesta.

Students have given evidence of their love for the course with direct action as course protectors.  When we had a chance to run the course as hybrid/flipped, we created together this inspiring video.

The project is seeking an open heart space, a campus, ecoversity, or other kind of hospitable institution, eager to see it evolve into the next stage.  This could include producing the Lectures for the period Neolithic to 1500, upgrading the first semester to hybrid/flipped, and upgrading both semesters to MOOC, or massive online open-enrollment course.

Access the pdf print of the presentation “Falling in Love with the Humanities?  Si, Se Puede! ” at this link.  Enjoy!  Imagine the project done.

An investment in this project can accomplish many things at once:

  1. Take a basic course for a walk out of the presential classroom.
  2.  Optimize this course so it can be featured in the world-wide digital sphere.
  3.  Get millennial students to fall in love with the humanities and become lifetime learners.
  4.  Get the university that sponsors this project on the map of those institutions that care about the public and offer basic courses for free.
  5.  Offer potential students from all over the world a taste of this institution and attract them to study at the school and become part of the region.

These all seem very desirable things to me.  They can save money too, while keeping quality and even improving it.  I am investing my energies in these possibilities.

Send good energies and wish the project good luck!

Thank you!

drserenagaia

aka Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

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Professor of Humanities and Cinema
Convenor of Practices of Ecosexuality: A Symposium
Fellow at the Humanities Institute, University of Connecticut, Storrs (2012-13)
Project: “Amorous Visions: Ecosexual Perspectives on Italian Cinema”

 

Your Experience in Humanities 3112-Hybrid: Humanities and Love

Evaluation Survey Humanities 3112 – Hybrid Fall 2016

The Survey: “Your Experience in Humanities 3112-Hybrid”

šThis anonymous Survey was called “Your Experience in Humanities 3112-Hybrid.”

šThe study measures the quality of the educational experience in the Hybrid Sections of the course Humanities 3112, with thematic organization: Humanities and Love.

šThe Survey assesses the quality of interdependent and integrated elements in the distance and presential  modules of the course which constitute the Hybrid modality.

šThe Survey integrates elements of the experiential segment of the COE (Cuestionario de Opinion Estudiantil), of the “best-practices” empirically formulated by CREAD, and of the Objectives of the Course, as described in the syllabus.

šThe Survey: Characteristics

The course is an integrated study of the Humanities from 1500 to the present.

šRespondents are from the first three sections of the course taught in a Hybrid modality in the Fall of 2016.

šThe Survey was taken anonymously by participating students.

šIt was open on the Canvas LMS portal from November 10 to the 22.

šParticipation was 78.5 {a9d64f7890d157e71e6efcce19e215a5f853c7f4151cde0b7bf7aada464173f6}, with 55 students responding over a total of 70 currently in the course.

šThe Survey has 40 questions, with the results of each reported below.  In-Progress results speak of an overwhelmingly positive experience.  For details skip to penultimate slide.

The Survey is available at this link.

šIn-Progress Results

Event from a first glance to the percentages obtained in the top two options in each questions (Excellent and Very Good), it appears that the Hybrid course was an overwhelmingly positive experience for a vast majority of enrolled students.

šMore specific insights into the “best practices” that work well in this course and other similar courses may be inferred from a more specific analytical observation and discussion of the results in each question and cluster of related questions.

Thank you!

Questions, comments, observations?

 

Practices of Ecosexuality and Sex-Positive Education: Symposium Too

Prácticas de Ecosexualidad y la Educación al Sexo Positivo: Simposio Dos

CALL FOR PROPOSALS – CONVOCATORIA
OPEN NOW – Expires Nov 30, 2016

This event is an EXPLORATION of #ECOSEXUALITY and #SEX-POSITIVITY for the people of Western Puerto Rico, for all interested students, colleagues, community members of UPRM.

• What is #Ecosexuality?
• What is #Sex-Positive #Education?
• Where #Ecosexual #Health and #Love an #Sex-Positive #Education converge?
• How can the #EcosexualMovement and the #Sex-PositiveMovement help us co-create abundant ecosexual health, expression, and love?
• What is the transformative potential of these practices for our ecosystems, our regions, ourselves, and the partner we all share: the Earth?
• How can we bring their excitement and effervescence into our lives, communities, learning practices, and academic discourse?

A bilingual event – Un evento bulingüe
Deseas experimentar el simposio de manera mas profunda? Solicita unirte a nuestro equipo bilingüe
Want to experience the Symposium more deeply? Ask to join our bilingual team

These and more questions will be addressed in three days of symposium activities designed to offer a diversity of participating options.

Suggested topics include:
Ecosex, Sex-Positive Ed, and any or all of the following:
Health, diversity, consent, ecology, intersectionality, amorous behavior, relationships, fluidity, inclusiveness, genders, orientations, colonialism, nature, science, the internet, sex work, the adult industry.

Welcome contributions include:
Panels, videos, keynotes, films, dialogues, staged readings, book presentation, poems, songs, workshops, and more.

WHERE/WHEN:
ANNEX TO THE CAFETERIA (aka SALON TARZAN), RUM, FEB 1-3 – 10 AM – 8 PM
Followed by TE AMO PLAYA AZUL THREE and visits to local initiatives on Feb 4-5

Symposium Too is based on Ecosexuality: When Nature Inspires The Arts of Love, Serena Anderlini and Lindsay Hagamen eds. The first world-wide collection of writings on this topic, the book brings together the voices of 30 leaders to converge the multiple energies of the ecosexual movement.

Ecosexuality and Sex-Positivity are global and local movements. We welcome contributors from anywhere they might come. Welcome to Western Puerto Rico, a nature’s paradise in the dry season of February. We support you in enjoying a fun, healthy stay. We regret that we cannot cover travel, accommodation, or ground transportation expenses. We strongly encourage donations that will help us cover homemade meals, tasty and healthy. We will connect you with our generous and helpful welcome team!

Wonder what’s #Ecosexuality, what’s #Sex-Positive #Education? No mystery. Here are some taglines for inspiration:

• The Sex-Positive Movement embraces sexual diversity and expression and emphasizes safe sex and consent. It advocates education to sex and has its roots in the work of Wilhelm Reich.
• Ecosexuals envision the Earth as a lover and Eros as the untapped renewable energy of our time.
• Ecosexuality is the cultural practice that enables our species to reconnect our metabolism to the metabolism of the Earth.
• Ecosexual Love reaches beyond genders, numbers, orientations, ages, races, origins, species, and biological realms, to embrace all of life as a partner with equal rights.
• Make love is the ecology of your life. Love the Earth you make love on.

Abstracts and bios to serena.anderlini@gmail.com. Keep the total under 500 words. November 30 very last day. Make sure you use your favorite language.

This event is part of the multi-clustered project Islas Maravillas: Ecosexuality Education and Extensive Research at UPRM. Interested? Ask us about it.

Join us! Invite your students, colleagues, family, beloveds, neighbors, partners, friends.
SOCIAL MEDIA: Facebook, Twitter, Blog www.serenagaia.org/blog-2/

Lodging and travel info posted to Facebook event, here.

DOWNLOAD the CALL for PROPOSALS here.

Be part of the project!  We look forward to your enthusiasm and participation.

ecosexsymp2-sexposed-2017call-copy

UPDATES–

The Symposium is now also a CURSO CORTO that students at UPRM can take for one credit.

To view and download the course flier go here.

Student will need an enrollment sheet pre-signed by the Director of Humanities.

To view and download the Hoja de Matricula Prefirmada go here.

We hope to see you all at the symposium and course.

In love,

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Yay! May Day and the Experiment of Teaching Justice – “Debts” and Humanities First Hybrid

Dear Earthlings–

Rejoice with me!  Today, May 5th, 2016, I found out the requirement has been waived.  My two first hybrid sessions of H-Humanities 3112, Humanities and Love, are now being offered to all interested UPRM students.  I hear they filled up in a flash.  They’ll start in August.  I’m really happy to offer this service and learning opportunity to students who love to learn online.  Yay!

Read more about the saga below:

Today, April 30th, 2016, marks the first anniversary of my lynching by the Department of Humanities at UPRM.  That was really a very traumatic time.  I felt so bad I wanted to retire.  What was the big fight about?  Teaching in a part-online modality called “hybrid.”  The gory details are in two affidavits filed with the authorities of the campus.

A year later, my priority proposal has been approved of.  Woooow!  It’s H-Humanities 3112, from early modern to present time, with a focus on love.  The historical content– all freshly produced from what I call a public-private alliance between my 3WayKiss non-profit and the UPR–is all online.  It’s now a gift to the creative commons for those who believe in knowledge as love.  Enjoy it here! 

The Department even listened to the Proposal for Revitalization I designed, called “Action.”  The Prezi I made for the occasion is really fun.  You can watch it here: it’s public.  Colleagues listened carefully and a bunch of intelligent questions came after. What a great sign!  The gift economy is rich with imagination, and I do hope new life emanates from this proposal study.

However, as it turns out there is still a caveat.  Apparently, the Office of Academic Affairs now wants me to run a human experiment with my newly approved hybrid modality.  I think it’s a bad idea, and have expressed such.  Why?  Well, for any given course, a presential session must run parallel to any hybrid one.  That’s for purposes of comparison, authorities claim.  But the reality is that when teaching in a hybrid modality, to keep comparable standards and obtain comparable results, one must run a much more complex battery of tests and exams.  Memorization is not what does it.  Appropriate online tests are designed to train students in activating their minds and in thinking about what they’re studying. The tests are super time consuming and could never be run in class.  They really engage students who love to learn online.

So basically the human experiment Academic Affairs recommends is on in which one has to treat one group different from the other.  Now, I’ve never cared to be known as an easy-A professor.  But there hasn’t been a time when students have not found me to be very competent and just.  The hybrid modality I designed intended to alleviate their experience of learning in a degraded environments like our building, infested by dirty air-conditioner filters, fungi, asbestos and rats.  Something from which they suffered just as much as I did.

Now, if I did what Admins recommend,  I would probably risk my reputation as both competent and just, while I would also lose the best students’ trust.  What’s more, this human experiment would probably result in turning young minds off the desire to learn that spontaneously arises from their loving, enchanted minds.  Ouch!

One can certainly tell that the rules for online teaching modalities have NOT been designed by those familiar with the practice.  I can very well teach all my H-Huma 3112 sessions as hybrid next semester.  Students will be delighted, and that’s why I asked.

In a Puerto Rico crumbling under a debt much of which was fraudulently acquired, one would hope that common sense would prevail. There’s plenty of past and future session in the conventional style for comparison.  Wouldn’t this be a great time to support one another, and make the best of what little we have left?

May Day tomorrow is a time when we the people of the island  prepare for gathering in front of the Capitol, in San Juan, to reclaim our right to be treated like citizens.  I have my body sign ready.  It says: The people of Puerto Rico negotiate the debt.  Yes, the people and the land count.  More than whatever mess was engineered by financial capital and is now called “debt.”

A public university has the responsibility of behaving in ways that honor its commitment to knowledge, impartiality, and justice.  Beyond any ill fated or poorly conceived regulations.  I hope the Admins in question model this with their practice.  My right to be a teacher that’s competent and just is sacrosanct.

I have a request out to the Dean of Academic Affairs.   I hope the response comes fast.  Citizenship is a way of being one acquires when one stands by the principle that the laws and rules are made for the people and not vice versa.  Let’s practice that now!