Poly Planet GAIA - Opens Today - View Now - Newsletter # 0 - Feb 9, 2010

Go to Webpage for Newsletter # 1

English Translation - Serena's Interview on Italian TV - Tatami

Talk Show - Tatami - RaiTre  - Italian Public TV

Script of Interview with Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, 2/15/2009, Minutes: 20-30

Hostess Camilla Raznovich; Guests: Serena Anderlini, Author, Theorist; Michela Marzano, Philosopher; Ricky Tognazzi, Actor

Camilla Raznovich:  Good evening, Serena Anderlini, theorist and practitioner of polyamory, a topic about which she has written many books.  So, I’d like to understand how you figured out that you had a tendency to love more than one partner at the same time.

Serena Anderlini:  I figured it out because I loved the people with whom my partners fell in love.  If they fell in love with them, I fell in love with them too, and so I wanted to transform the negative energies of hatred, envy, jealousy, into a positive energy in which I was able to share this love.  It was a rather long path because one cannot easily transform a negative sentiment into a positive one, one has to go though a whole process of inner transformation, a spiritual process that makes one capable of embracing a type of love that is not possessive.  For me this is comparable to a father, or a mother, who have twelve children.  Will the twelve children be less loved?  No.  At times in these big families people love each other a lot, so why can’t this multiplicity also happen also in the area of partners, why?  Why is love for our children supposed to be altruistic and love for one’s partners egotistic?  Why?

CR: And at this time, how many partners do you have?

SA: I didn’t come here to tell you that. It’s none of your business.  (Applause.)

CR: But you have more than one at the same time?

SA: Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t.

CR: Ok. But actually I’m sure you realize that if you don’t, then there is no reason for you to be on the show.  That is, you either are willing to share from your experience or, to put it quite bluntly, I don’t know what to tell you. 

SA: Well, yes, you see, in polyamory one gives time to each partner, which is to say that one emphasizes the relationship, and not “recreational sex.”  I’m not opposed to recreational sex per se, but in polyamory the relationship is emphasized so that each partner becomes a person with whom there is an amorous relationship, an emotional relationship.  And so to every relationship one has to devote a certain time.  Then comes the time when one can be together with all of one’s partners, or the time when they are together among themselves, for example, when I’m not around.  But there always has to be balance.

CR: The new thing then is the simultaneity of these relationships?

SA: Yes. And also, how can I put, it’s a bit like when one is cooking, if one puts too many pots on the fire at the same time, then something gets burned.  So one only manages as many relationships as one can afford to invest in.

CR: I know you are a mother.  How do you tell about this lifestyle to your daughter?

SA: Well, through my books, for example.  In my biological family, my daughter has been the person who has read my books most carefully.  We have talked about them together, I have seen her intelligence, I have seen the way she has approached a world that she does not know very well because we live quite far away from each other.  And I dare say that I believe that for her it must be a source of pride to have a mother who experiments with her own life.  She has also made her own choices in her own life, and no one has disapproved of them.  If she had grown up in a family where there is only one way to do things right, her choices too would have been  . .

CR: And beyond your daughter, is there anyone in your family who has criticized you, who has been opposed to your choices?

SA: I dare say that since my family of origin was atheist, we’ve never suffered from a Catholic monopoly over spirituality.  So since there wasn’t a prescribed style of spirituality, everyone has found his or her own way toward it.  And so we have not been in the way of each other in these matters.  Not the slightest bit.   I dare say that when for the first time I found out about the bisexual aspect of myself, and I talked about it with my father, who was still alive then, that was the time when we became friends again, friends like when I was a little girl.  It was the time when he found his daughter again.

CR: Michela Marzano, we’ve heard that even though sexual promiscuity has happened historically, now one can have also relationships, and so in the case of polyamory, several loves coexist without promiscuity.  These loves are experienced with much courage, in the light of day, and simultaneously.

MM: Yes.  Well, I must admit that I am, I wouldn’t say perplexed, since, naturally, I listen, I’ve listened with much attention.  Let’s say I’m almost in admiration of the energy that manifests, because I know that to manage a relationship with only one person absorbs a whole lot of energy.  One has to give a lot of oneself to get to establish a connection.  At the same time, it appears to me that the vision here is a bit idealized.  It appears as if everything is good, the relationship with the father, with the daughter, with society.  Now, it’s extremely difficult to be able to satisfy all of one’s exigencies, all of one’s needs, and love several persons at the same time without having someone suffer.  This is what strikes me.  What is the effect, what is the impact of this will to go beyond the egotism of possession, what’s the impact on others.  Because jealousy can certainly be pathological, but at the same time jealousy is sometimes the sign of attachment, of the fact that I love the other person, and I don’t want this person to be simply the object of attention of a whole bunch of other persons.

CR: Marzano, hold on till we get Anderlini to respond.

MM: Just one more point.  Because in relation to the interview with Jacques Attali, there is one thing that I found interesting, and that is the fact of making a parallel between affective and economic relationships.  In economic relationships, there actually is an exchange, as when I buy or sell something.  In emotional relationships, to be able to build something, one gives something of oneself, something deeper that cannot simply be sold or exchanged.  In my view, there is a difference in quality between the simple exchange of merchandises, and in the fact of putting oneself at stake in the relationship with another. 

CR: Anderlini?

SA: It is the transformation of one’s inner landscape, the transformation of emotions, and this is something that is done via spirituality, via meditation, some do it via prayer, there are many ways to do it.  In any event, it is an effect of the inner landscape, and it is something that happens gradually, also in poly communities.  For example, if a person is new, it is understood that this person will have a process of transformation.  If then at some point the person decides that polyamory is not for him or her, the person can pick another lifestyle.

Ricky Tognazzi: In Italy, people simply say that “two is company, three is war,” guerra,” or “guera” as they pronounce it here in Rome.  You know what I mean.  In particular, I am the child of the sessantottino generation, the generation that powered the revolution of 1968.  Free love, stuff . . . it was a massacre, something scary, we hurt each other a lot.  But I’m not talking about liberated sex, because that was actually quite amusing.  I’m talking about the implications of faithfulness, not only a faithfulness not practiced, but also expressed as such, a declared non-exclusivity.  The great sincerity of couples: “we have to tell each other everything, but on the other hand, if we cannot be together all the time, each should be free to make his or her experiences as long as than . . . “  To make a long story short, something terrifying, we hurt ourselves and each other, so, I mean, how do we get past this point?

SA: It depends on how you do it.  For example in the polyamorist communities that I know there are people our age, but also older, people there are admitted at any age, even eighty, and such senior participants actually exist.

RT: So, I’m still on time there . . .

SA: Yeah, you’re still on time (giggles).

RT: I cannot participate with the people of the Castle Party (only under 40), but I can . . .

SA: Yeah, and it’s not so expensive.  What happened is that at the time you’re talking about, these experiments where done brutally, people did not know the arts of loving.  And what I claim is that, in our culture, love has become a pathology or an instinct.  We have forgotten that in many cultures love has been an art, an art that can be learned.  As I learn how to paint, so I learn how to love.  And I learn how to love also the love of the other.  I learn to respect the feelings of these other persons.

MM: I would like to interject because I feel there is another important point.  I perfectly understand that we need to get out of the myth according to which the “other” person can stand for the totality.  The other is never the totality.  In order to affirm myself in life I need a series of different spheres because there is a difference between the love we bring to our children and to our lovers/companions.  Love for our children has a tender core, a softness.  We project toward our children a whole series of expectations, therefore we operate in a gift mode.  In a couple’s relationship, there is something that is rather related to reciprocity: I give and at the same time I expect.  And to be able to give there is the precondition of being available to give, that energy has to be present.  What really strikes me in what we’ve heard so far is that it is as if we were in a dream of omnipotence.  I can love everyone and I can love them at the same time.    

¿Come Puede la Humanidad Hacer la Paz con el Planeta Tierra?

Conferencia Magistral con Presentacion de Libro 

Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Mayaguez

Edificio Chardon, Anfiteatro Figueroa-Chapel

Jueves, 11 de febrero, 2010, 10:30-12:00AM

La reconocida estudiosa de temas culturales, Dra. SERENA ANDERLINI-D'ONOFRIO, finalista del Premio Lambda, autora y editora de muchos libros, y proponente de la debatida Teoría de Gaia en el estudio de las humanidades, ofrecerá una CONFERENCIA MAGISTRAL el jueves, 11 de febrero, a la HORA UNIVERSAL (10:30-12:00), en el ANFITEATRO FIGUEROA CHAPEL.

La conferencia, títulada 
¿COMO PUEDE LA HUMANIDAD HACER LA PAZ CON 
NUESTRA AMABLE ANFITRIONA, EL PLANETA TIERRA? 
presentará los temas del mas reciente libro de la conferenciante
GAIA & the NEW POLITICS of LOVE: NOTES for a POLY PLANET
publicado en 2009 por el editorial North Atlantic Books, Berkeley.

La introduccion de la conferenciante es a cargo de la 
Dra. DIMARIS ACOSTA, Departamento de Biologia, RUM.

"Nuestra especie aparece estar en guerra con el planeta que ha desarollado el ambiente natural consono a la vida humana, con el calentamiento global como el mas reconocido ejemplo de tal hostlidad.  Las teoría científica conocida como Gaia nos indíca que esta guerra no la podemos gañar, ya que el precio seria derrumbar el mismo sistema de vidas interconnectadas que nos ha dado hospitalidad.¿Como podemos lograr la paz?  Es necesario un cambio en el paradígma cultural.  La conferencia presentará las nuevas políticas del amor que ayuden a realizar este cambio, así como las aplicacions prácticas que le pueden corresponder."

La conferencia de TEMA INTERDISCIPLINARIO 
se presenta como parte del CICLO DE HUMANIDADES.  
Se seguirá por un animado debate moderado por el 
Dr. HECTOR HUYKE, Departamento de Humanidades, RUM.

QUE PARTICIPEN SIN FALTA Y QUE ANIMEN A 
TOD@S SUS ESTUDIANTES EN PARTICIPAR.   
¡NO PUEDEN PERDERSE ESTA UNICA OPORTUNIDAD!
QUE EXTIENDAN LA INVITACION A MEMBR@S DE LA COMUNIDAD Y 
ORGANIZACIONES INTRA- Y EXTRA-MURALES INTERESADAS.

¡¡¡GRACIAS!!!

La Dra. SERENA ANDERLINI-D'ONOFRIO es catedrática en el Departamento de Humanidades, RUM.  Además del libro presentado, es autora de Eros: A Journey of Multiple Loves (2007), y de The 'Weak' Subject (1998); es editora de Plural Loves (2003), Women and Bisexuality (2003), y de Bisexuality and Queer Theory (2010); y es traductora de In Spite of Plato (por la filosofa italiana Adriana Cavarero, 1995) y de A Lake for the Heart (por el politico italiano Luigi Anderlini, su defunto padre).  Ella ha sido invitada a dar conferencias magistrales en California, Filadelfia, y Londres. 

COPIAS del LIBRO presentado estarán disponibles para l@s interesad@s.

Para mas informacion acerca de la Dra. SERENA ANDERLINI-D'ONOFRIO:
http://www.serenagaia.com
http://www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/

Gracias por su atencion, y que disculpen las duplicaciones en anunciar.

¡LES ESPERAMOS!

¿Que es el poliamorismo? - UPR Mayaguez - March 2, 2010

¿Del Otro Lao?: Perspectives on Queer Sexualities
UPR Mayaguez, March 2-4, 2010

¿Que es el poliamorismo?

Serena will be presenting the ideas, practices, organizations, styles of love and amorous relatedness, and movement  that characterize polyamory in our time, including 'compersion,' 'responsible non-monogamy,' 'expanded families,' 'diads,' 'tirads,' and 'pods,' the World Polyamory Association, Loving More, Polyamory Weekly, National Poly leadership, and the paradigm shift in which polyamory participates.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010, 3:30-3:45PM
This event is free of charge and open to the public
Edificio Chardon, Anfiteatro Figueroa Chapel
Come in early to secure your seat!

Gaia Theory: The Scientific and Spiritual Principles

Gaia, Eros, & the Sacred: 

Learning the Arts of Loving with Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio

Class # 1

Gaia Theory: The Scientific and Spiritual Principles

How does Gaia theory work?  
What does it mean?  
What difference does it make to us? 
How can we contribute to Gaia’s joy, health, and well being?

Gaia is the scientific and spiritual principle based on which the Earth, and its biota in particular, is a living being, a web of interconnected ecosystems whose health is proportional to the health of each cell in them.  All of us human and non-human animals, plants, microbes, and minerals, are little specks of life in this all-encompassing being.  As humans, we are more complex than other Earthlings, and there fore more vulnerable.  In this symbiotic system, the health of Gaia is proportional to the health of each live element in it.  An active knowledge of Gaia theory empowers today’s humans to resolve the ecological crisis we’re in, just like an active knowledge of Heliocentrism empowered Renaissance people to resolve theirs.

Exercises for this class include meditations that connect us to our inner symbiotic ecosystems, to other Earthlings, and to our first ancestors, bacteria.

Testimonials:

"Galileo, Issac Newton, and Louis Pasteur have something in common with Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio.  Based on their own personal observations, they have had original ideas about how the world functions . . . and . . . the strength of character to . . . and communicate these ideas despite . . . the commonly accepted "truth" of their time.  The controversial ideas of Galileo, Newton and Pasteur have since been shown to be correct and have changed the way we view the world we live in.  Serena's ideas and her strength of character in communicating them are equally important to us now," said Pat from Carolina.

Notes:

To schedule this class for your community write an email to Serena: serena.anderlini@gmail.com 

This class is a body/mind educational experience

Its topic is interconnected with the two subsequent topics in the series

The class can be taken alone or as part of the series

The class includes:

a SEMINAR to delineate its major ideas (with open Q & A period) – 60 to 90 minutes

a WORKSHOP to practice and experience them – additional 30-60 minutes

From the contents of Gaia and the New Politics of Love, by Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio.  Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2009

Erotic Energy & Its Circulation in an Amorous Community

Gaia, Eros, & the Sacred:

Learning the Arts of Loving with Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio

Class # 2

Sacred Erotic Energy and its Circulation in an Amorous Community

What is sacred erotic energy? 
How can we perceive it, absorb it, channel it? 
What makes us part of an amorous community?  
How can we contribute to its joy, health, and well being, and why is this good for us?

Eros was the god of love in ancient Greece and is often perceived as a spiritual force that pervades the material, that blows health and vitality in it, similarly to the prana, ki, and universal energy of Eastern traditions.  Erotic energy is sacred because it is part of a sacred tradition and because it denotes life, which is sacred in most belief systems.  Eros is a vital force that manifests in infinite ways and takes the form of the energy field where its presence is felt.  The ability to register this presence, to absorb and channel its energy that each of us has corresponds to the wealth we bring to our amorous and erotic communities.  Eros is what keeps Gaia alive.  The more we contribute, the more we receive.

Exercises for this class include safely giving and receiving sacred erotic energy in small groups and sharing about the experience and one’s interpretations of it.

Testimonials:

"Thank you so much for being you.  I have longed to meet another person who . . .  understands the importance of sustainability, the sharing of resources and the idea that Poly can save the planet . . . Oh, I am so happy that you exist . . . Sending you my thanks for the amazing healing under your facilitation, I am so very thankful for that gift," said Jason from Washington State.

Notes:

To schedule this class for your community write an email to Serena: serena.anderlini@gmail.com

This class is a body/mind educational experience

Its topic is interconnected with two other topics in the series

The class can be taken alone or as part of the series

The class includes:

a SEMINAR to delineate its major ideas (with open Q & A period) – 60 to 90 minutes

a WORKSHOP to practice and experience them – additional 30-60 minutes

From the contents of Gaia and the New Politics of Love, by Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio.  Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2009.  

The Sacred: Sharing Amorous Resources

Gaia, Eros, & the Sacred: 

Learning the Arts of Loving with Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio

Class # 3

Sharing Amorous Resources and Creating Global Health and Abundance

How can we safely share amorous resources?  
Why is the practice of safer sex important to an erotic community? 
What is fluid-bonding and why is it important to the health of an erotic community?

Safe sharing of amorous resources involves practices of love that empower all participants in an amorous community.  It is based on the Gaian principle that sharing resources creates abundance.  Gaia is “gay” in the sense that, as a live being it is by nature happy and cheerful, and in the sense that it is capable of as many forms of love as there are Earthlings to experience them.  Gaia is alive because its vital principle Eros is in her.  Therefore, it is in everyone’s best interest to radiate as much health, love, vitality, and well being as possible.  The more a participant contributes to his/her amorous and erotic communities in the ways of health, love, and vitality, the more each community will radiate these forces back, and so protect and enhance its participants’ vitality and health.

Exercises for this class include conversations about emotional and erotic safety, practicing healing and sensual touch, cuddling, spooning, as well as other forms of consensual amorous bonding, including three-way kissing.

Testimonials:

"Thank you so much for being you.  I have longed to meet another person who . . .  understands the importance of sustainability, the sharing of resources and the idea that Poly can save the planet . . . Oh, I am so happy that you exist . . . Sending you my thanks for the amazing healing under your facilitation, I am so very thankful for that gift," said Jason from Washington State.

Notes:

To schedule this class for your community write and email to Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio: serena.anderlini@gmail.com.

This class is a body/mind educational experience

Its topic is interconnected with the two previous topics in the series

The class can be taken alone or as part of the series

The class includes:

a SEMINAR to delineate its major ideas (with open Q & A period) – 60 to 90 minutes

a WORKSHOP to practice and experience them – additional 30-60 minutes

From the contents of Gaia and the New Politics of Love by Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio.  Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2009.