Resonant Reading (Saturday)-WE instead of I-Eagleman
An exploration of ideas, feelings, and our life experiences, using a different short reading as our springboard each time. The sessions are on Saturdays, 4-5, and on Wednesdays, 12-1. All are wide open and you are welcome to come twice a week or once in a while.
The participants over the years have found that the approach we take, and the respectful, affectionate community of inquirers in which we read and converse, are as important as the reading itself. While many small groups begin with a check-in, with a session only an hour long, Resonant Reading jumps right in to the conversation. Those who are frequently in the group get to know each other very well this way, and those who are new will soon find they are among friends.

Facilitators use a light hand, posting the reading in the chat and calling on whoever’s Zoom hand is up. Suggestions for readings* come from group members, who also take turns facilitating, if they want to try that role.

The reading for this session: Saturday, November 29

Throughout the book you will often find the narrator’s term we instead of I. This is for three reasons. First, as with any book that synthesizes large bodies of knowledge, I collaborate with thousands of scientists and historians over the course of centuries. Second, the reading of a book should be an active collaboration between reader and writer. Third, our brains are composed of vast, complex, and shifting collections of subparts, most of which we have no access to; this book was written over the course of a few years by several different people, all of whom were named David Eagleman, but who were somewhat different with each passing hour.
–David Eagleman, Incognito (2011), p. 228.
[Concluding his acknowledgements at the end of the book, Eagleman explains his use of “we” rather than “I” when referring to the book’s author.]

How to join:

  • Join this class from your Web browser: https://zoom.us/j/91019857324, passcode 227385
  • Join this class using the Zoom app: Meeting ID: 910 1985 7324
  • Join this class by phone: 669 900 9128 US (San Jose), Meeting ID: 910 1985 7324
  • Join this class by on-tap on mobile phones: +16699009128,,91019857324# US (San Jose)
  • Phoning in, but not in the bay area?  Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/abL8clvIYT

This is the Zoom link for Saturdays. For the Wednesday Zoom link, go to the Calendar and click on a Wednesday session.

Questions? Drop an e-mail to resonant-reading+owner@uucpa.org.

 

*This activity was formerly called “Sacred Text Reading.” That proved misleading–for one thing, more often than not our sources are secular–but it’s worth describing the qualities of a sacred text, which we still look for in the readings we choose. It is any reading that helps us to:

  • connect to something of supreme importance to us
  • feel more connected to other beings or to the universe
  • feel more intensely alive
  • align our lives with our values,
  • perceive or feel more deeply
  • be more fully and authentically ourselves.