Imaginal education: Game playing, science fiction, language, art and world-making

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Part 1 of Renaissance Zones: experimenting with the intentional significance of the Damanhur community

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Eliciting imagination

The first challenge is to educate the imagination beyond the constraints of mainstream mindsets. There are many traces of such explorations in reaction to space-based thinking. Stephen Hawking argues that: "If you combine Einstein's general theory of relativity with quantum mechanics, [time travel] does begin to seem a possibility" (Foreword to Lawrence Krauss. The Physics of Star Trek, 1995). According to Hawking, "building a genuine time machine will not be as easy as sitting in a chair and twirling a few knobs. Modern proposals for such a machine face one severe problem: the energy supply." But he also asserts that "it doesn't involve much money -- what it needs is an openness of mind to consider possibilities that might appear fantastic".

The following approaches can be used, whether separately or in combination:

Game playing: There is a long tradition of educative game playing, now strongly enhanced through interactive and internet-linked computers. Many classical games can also have their symbolic dimensions, allowing them to be played either superficially or as exercises in symbolic interaction offering insights into a configuration or map of possibilities.

In exploring ways beyond linearity, one of the most conveniently comprehensible forms is that of a map explicitly giving space to the existence of other modes (as indicated in an earlier paper, using that of Myers-Briggs, in exploring alternative forms of dialogue). It is therefore worth speculating on the possibilities of representing the variety of opportunities for dialogue on a surface resembling the classical board game common to many cultures. Clues to the organization of such a mapping might be:

• board games like chess and draughts suggest ways of seeing relationships between "opposing" dialogue partners. The games constrain the ability of each to move in relation to the other. The "developmental" value of "levels" is still present, with notions of lines and angles of advance and retreat, advantage and disadvantage, challenge and threat, that are experienced in dialogue. Particular pieces or positions may be "lost" or "taken".
• such board games have been extensively used in Buddhist and related traditions as a complement to religious education. Players move over the board between conditions ("heavens", "hells", etc) in a manner somewhat similar to "snakes and ladders" (Harish Johari. Leela: the game of self-knowledge, 1980). Here each position is uniquely identified, possibly by illustration, as are the inscribed pieces in a game such as mahjong or the areas of a mandala. The Transformation Game developed at the Findhorn Foundation is a modern innovation with related intentions.
• qualities of space occupation and encirclement are admirably represented in games such as go. The transformation and interpenetration of spaces is elegantly represented by some of the morphing drawings of M C Escher -- a technique now highly developed on computers.
• one traditional presentation of the 64 different conditions identified by the Book of Changes is a square 8x8 pattern. It is worth recalling the number of studies that have explored the use of its binary coding pattern [more], notably in relation to the genetic code and the specificity of certain key amino acids (Martin Schonberger. I Ching and the Genetic Code, 1992). Seemingly unrelated is the remarkable identification by Buddhists of the network of 64 possible philosophical viewpoints (Bhikku Bodhi (Tr). The Discourse on the All-Embracing Net of Views; the Brahmajala Sutta and its commentarial exegesis, 1978) [more;
• the computer-based Game of Life (first developed by John Conway) has proved to be a very thought provoking illustration of how patterns emerge, grow, move, evolve and decay over a surface similar to that of the board games described above (Manfred Eigen and Ruthild Winkler. Laws of the Game; how the principles of nature govern chance, 1981). This has been valuable in the study of chaotic systems. Versions in 3D are now accessible over the web. [more;

Recent years have seen the rapid development of home computer games that simulate the management of cities, countries, worlds and galactic empires. These were preceded by the development of more specialized games for management education and, most notably, for military strategy. The continuing development of the latter is now basic to the development and training for modern warfare, as was the case for the war against Iraq. Strategic dependence on them is highlighted by the fact that the Americans were confronted with a surprising degree of resistance, and subsequent looting, that they complained had not been previously "wargamed" to guide their response.

Within international agencies, however, the closest equivalent tends to be the use of world modelling, specifically economic modelling -- which tends to exclude any qualitative and non-quantifiable dimensions. Such models are used to develop and compare future scenarios. These in no way provide for the access or involvement of the wider population whose futures it is intended to manage through their guidance. The games also tend to be incomprehensible and irrelevant to policy makers -- whose children are enthusiastically engaged in managing cities and worlds through computer games. Unfortunately, the most popular home computer games tend to be those which educate the mind to destroy opponents -- and as such provide an ideal training facility for the modern military. There is no significant market for computer games that evoke thinking appropriate to fruitful dialogue with those holding radically opposed views.

As with the Transformation Game of the Findhorn Foundation, Damanhur has developed its own Game of Life (with a computer- based variant known as Super Risk, or Risiko)

Role playing: These games range from those based on an extension of board games (such as Dungeons and Dragons) to the many interactive computer-based games in virtual reality (such as EverQuest). These allow participants to develop characters (avatars) and collaborate with each other, possibly in attacking opponents. From one perspective role playing is an extension of techniques used in psychodrama in order to improve group relationships. Dungeons and Dragons has been remarkable for its efforts to document (in an extensive series of manuals) a wide range of mythical and symbolical figures -- and to encourage participants to absorb and use that otherwise abstruse knowledge imaginatively.

At Damanhur, if only through adoption of the names of endangered species, members engage in a form of role playing within the community conceived as an ecosystem. This echoes the practice of tribes in which individuals associate themselves with particular totemic animals. At Damanhur, the adoption of such a name is subject to the acceptance of the community as a whole which will fail to respond to an inappropriately chosen name. Extensive use is made of ritual in which role playing is a major factor. Aspects of such roles are active in the general organization of Damanhur. However it is also possible to view the whole community process at Damanhur as a continually renewed psychodrama -- for the benefit of all participants, and especially as stimulated by the Game of Life.

Science fiction: This form of fiction is well-recognized for its role in educating the imagination of many generations. Of special interest here are those forms which have explored alternative languages (discussed below) and the use of special games. Both these devices encourage readers to reflect on the dynamics and coherence of alternative frameworks. The most renowned game is that allusively protrayed by Hermann Hesse (Magister Ludi or the Glass Bead Game, 1943) as being practiced in the realm of Castalia -- an exemplar for communities such as Damanhur. Hesse received the Nobel Prize for the work in 1946. The game remains of extensive interest on the web and indeed is seen as having similarities to the web [more]. It "lays the foundations for an artistic/conceptual game, which integrates all fields of human and cosmic knowledge through forms of organic universal symbolism, expressed by its players with the dynamic fluidity of music" [more]. The game so allusively described is a celebration of culture and symbolism and its mathematical associations.

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