Mutations

In this episode, Jeremy offers an inspired monologue on recent discussions concerning whether one should be "against the machine," that is, against progress. "We can't just be against the worldview of progress," Jeremy wrote on a recent Mutations post. Rather, we ought to "stand firmly from another position, articulate another worldview."

Technology shouldn't be ceded to the technologist, anymore than spirituality should be ceded to the reactionary right.

What is needed is to respond to technoculture from a position of depth.

The machine of progress needs to be met and exceeded with another, weirder temporality.

It is precisely through embracing this weirder time that techno-culture has a chance to be subverted, and technology's more radical and emancipatory aspects might be potentiated.

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Mutations is pleased to announce the launch of our first 2026 course offering: "Seeing Through the World: Jean Gebser and Integral Consciousness" starts on January 28th and runs for five consecutive weeks. We will be taking an in-depth look at many of themes explored in this episode. Scholarships are available!

We hope to see you in class.

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In this episode Jeremy contemplates the 'shape' of time with the help of French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. If reclaiming time from the catastrophe of progress requires that we invent new forms of temporality, then perhaps the fold, a concept developed by Deleuze, can help us develop better metaphors, more dynamic 'shapes,' for time. Folds and pleats fold, unfold, and enfold, emphasizing interrelationships between past, present and future. The fold helps us think with a weirder time of the present, opening a zig-zagging path towards more relational futures.

Show note:

• Join Jeremy for a weekend seminar starting on December 5, "Integral Futuring: Reclaiming Time in the Radical Present."
• Gilles Deleuze. The Fold: Liebniz and the Baroque.
• Forthcoming: Fragments of an Integral Future: Essays on Time, Ecology, and a New Worldview (early 2026).

Mutations podcast returns in this short, off-the-cuff episode as Jeremy offers an update on the manuscript (spoiler alert: it is now complete!), introduces a new online class happening in December, and gives listeners a rough sketch of where the show is headed next.

"Integral Futuring: Reclaiming Time in the Radical Present" is a three-day weekend seminar, beginning on December 5th. One might describe it as a riff on reclaiming the future, planetary thinking, and the need for a new temporality beyond the clock. Presentations are followed by breakout discussions, resource sharing, and Q&A. Join a community of fellow seekers and explorers for a weekend of in-depth conversations and fellowship.

Please reach out if you might need a student discount/pay-what-you-can link. No one will be turned away.

In this appropriately seasonal episode, John Anderson joins me for a follow up conversation to explore the differences between the weird and the eerie, drawing from the late Mark Fisher's same-titled book, an animistic take on hauntology, before wrapping up our conversation with a few spooky stories.

Show notes:

John's Patreon, Instagram

Following Hurricane Ian, John Anderson joined me in St. Petersburg, Florida for an extended visit. We sat down one evening to (finally) record one the many longform conversations we've had the benefit of enjoying recently. Together, John and I explore the intersection of Chinese Medicine, Daoist philosophy, temporal arts, and animist attitudes towards not only weathering Anthropocene storms, but living and realizing the innate and creative wholeness that is our human spirit.

ABOUT JOHN:

John is a fellow Revelore Press author (see The Way of the Living Ghost, and Opening the Vermillion Spirit).

John Anderson is a practitioner and teacher of several styles of Asian medicine having received his Master’s degree in Oriental Medicine at the Florida College of Integrative Medicine (FCIM) and his Doctorate in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine at the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine (OCOM). Dr. Anderson’s formal training extends to the use of herbal medicine from the perspective of Chinese medicine, both classical (ShangHan method) and contemporary (through the Ding/Shen/Hammer lineage).

In addition to his formal education in Chinese Medicine, he has had training in Lakota practices and in Eastern esoteric herbal medicine and Chinese folk medicines. As part of his broader learning process, he has worked with plants, stones, and other natural ingredients for the better part of twenty years, beginning with many aspects of contemporary European paganism. This interest evolved and grew to encompass Eastern philosophies and practices. His ongoing research interests include: Gu syndromes, virtue medicine in tradition of Wang Fengyi, Daoist and Buddhist exorcistic practices, and Disability Studies at large. His work on Gu has appeared in Verdant Gnosis, volume 4. Opening the Vermillion Spirit is the second of three books, following on his 2019 Way of the Living Ghost.

John's Patreon

A midnight recording I've dubbed "three theses on liminality." What definition of "liminal" would be satisfactorily descriptive as to the conditions of the present? Isn't our epoch, by definition, a kind of civilizational liminality? Three theses came together for me in this playful exercise. Liminality: a threshold, the interregnum (Gramsci), and the Janus-Faced World (Gebser)/Coyolxuahqui (Anzaldua) Imperative.

Show notes:

Joe Lightfoot's article, "The Liminal Web: Mapping An Emergent Subculture Of Sensemakers, Meta-Theorists & Systems Poets"

Seeing Through the World (2022 Online Course)

Mutations Patreon

Readings: Antonio Gramsci, Prison Notebooks. Jean Gebser, The Ever-Present Origin. Gloria Anzaldúa, Light in the Dark/Luz en lo Oscuro. Jeremy Johnson, Seeing Through the World.

For this episode of Mutations, Henry Andrews joins me for a conversation on the emergence of "Hellametamodernism," the tensions between 'systems poets' and 'meta theory' in metamodern and Game B community discourse, and how Nora Bateson's "aphanipoiesis" offers a different approach to "going meta."

BIO: Henry Andrews is self-taught Gravesian theorist whose interests include examining the theory with a critical eye, and searching for applications beyond those popularized through Spiral Dynamics. He is currently developing an embodied conversational ritual based on Gravesian patterns and other concepts.  

SHOW NOTES:  

Please enjoy the audio from this year's Origins: A Cosmo-Local Gathering conference panel between Rudolf Hammerli (Swiss Gebser Society president, Novalis publisher), Aaron Cheak (former US Gebser Society president, Rubedo Press publisher), and myself. During the panel, Rudolf Hammerli shares his memories of Jean Gebser and additionally distills "four pillars" of Gebser's integral philosophy, with commentary by Aaron Cheak and myself. The segment concludes with a poetry reading by Michael Love, introduced by former Gebser Society president and panelist Dr. Dave Zuckerman (see his talk, Transforming Outcomes as Sacramento State). Please see here for more information about the 2021 Gebser Conference.

Episode Notes: