The Time Is Now Simon Ohler

Hello friends,
please enjoy this podcast episode with Rich.
Rich is the founder of Microsolidarity, a community-building practice. I've been pondering getting my best friends together to form a gang, and I have many questions about it, so I thought it would be good to hear Richard's thoughts. We also went on a foray into disagreeing, anger, and finding ways back to each other, which is my favorite relationship-building practice.
Rich on Twitter: https://twitter.com/richdecibelsRich on the web: https://richdecibels.com
Also, I have a cute new website. Check it out: https://simonohler.com
My links:
Website https://simonohler.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/simon_ohlerSubstack: https://nowsimon.substack.comYouTube: https://youtube.com/nowSimon


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Hello friends,
please enjoy this podcast episode with Nibras.
Nibras and I got to know each other in a residency in Berlin. Nibras is an excellent interviewer and a conversation artist, and passing the mic is a bit of a sport for us. We also share an inevitable draw towards content creation, so it’s good to talk on tape together. The topic we end up converging on is “the lowering of the armor” and the way of supple surrender, instead of the harsh drive to overcome.
I first met Nibras on Twitter, and she has been regularly tweeting bangers, check em out. https://twitter.com/heynibras
You can listen to the audio of the podcast here.

My links:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/simon_ohlerSubstack: https://nowsimon.substack.comYouTube: https://youtube.com/nowSimon
Timestamps
0:00 Head tilt hello2:56 Nibras’ Travels16:28 Nibras, other people and self regulation27:31 Simon on Community, TPOT and the magic of internet people36:10 Life is a movie42:28 All people are portals to other worlds, make up reasons to be with them53:21 People are flowering, Guards are lowering58:52 Nibras alters the nature of her cat with a tweet1:02:21 Passing the mic and navigating the impossibility of a conversation1:04:44 Softness, Boundaries, Navigation of the World1:33:24 Rick Rubin Roulette / Doing things from scratch / Love & Goodbye1:46:55 Behind the scenes


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Hello friends,
please enjoy this podcast episode with Tasshin Fogleman.
In this conversation we get to know each other — we’ve never spoken before in person. We talk about our lives’ work, Twitter and TPOT, our journeys through the internet, and of course I find out lots of other things about how Tasshin thinks and sees the world. Tasshin also shares an intensely difficult personal story of grief towards the end of our conversation, and I’m grateful for his trust and vulnerability. This is how I want podcasts to be.
Tasshin’s life is devoted to Love and his conviction is crystal clear. Follow and meet him on Twitter. https://twitter.com/tasshinfogleman
You can listen to the audio of the podcast here.
My links:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/simon_ohlerSubstack: https://nowsimon.substack.comYouTube: https://youtube.com/nowSimon
Timestamps
0:00 Brotherly and friendly hellos2:59 About TPOT11:53 Tweets that stay with you and become part of you20:50 Tasshin’s & Simon’s Twitter Journeys36:18 Why and how did you become a monk? How did you go on the Artist's journey?45:25 Tasshin on his vow and Tasshin Inc53:20 Simon’s Devotion1:00:39 How to find your purpose / Glasses Metaphor1:06:20 Money1:16:23 Choose your own adventure1:19:46 Trees and all beings1:36:10 Tasshin pushing boundaries1:46:55 Tasshin’s dark voice1:53:04 Tasshin’s loss and grief2:09:21 Appreciations and goodbye



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Hello friends,
please enjoy this podcast episode with Anansi aka. s0uldirect0r aka. Matthew.
We talk about our lives, God, faith, agency and magic. If that sounds a bit far out there, I can assure you that we are doing our best to get it across in very pragmatic real-world stories and examples.
Anansi is living a very cool and courageous life and I suggest you keep up with his art and adventures on Twitter. https://twitter.com/s0ulDirect0r

You can listen to the audio of the podcast here.


My links:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/simon_ohlerSubstack: https://nowsimon.substack.comYouTube: https://youtube.com/nowSimon

Timestamps
0:00 Intro1:57 Edgerunner10:27 Creative energy and aliveness15:25 God and faith21:38 Stepping into the current33:32 How did you grow up?45:34 Finding spirituality and encounters with darkness54:29 Anansis year of art1:04:29 Agency and magic1:09:05 Magic beyond agency1:30:28 How does God hold you?1:40:28 The pragmatic side of faith1:53:51 Shoutouts and goodbye


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Hi everybody!
On Friday, March 25, 2022, I’m holding an Interintellect salon on Visionaries. Click the link and join, if the spirit moves you!
It’s part two of a three-part series, titled “Living Well and Thinking Big”. The first part was on The Village, a metaphor for understanding life and work.
Part three will be on Size of Life, which to me means finding the correct degree of expansion in our life. You can join that salon here.
Visionaries is the topic of the hour. The salon is coming up this week, so I better make some material to have on hand!
Definitions
I want to start with definitions. I’ve googled “Visionary” once and what came up was a YouTube video that was titled “Is Elon Musk A Visionary?”. Aha! — here is a problem.
This question and its frame loads “Visionary” with exclusivity and nobility. Elon is a visionary (of course), Kanye is a visionary, and that’s probably about all the visionaries in the world right now.
That’s obviously (or at least if you can see clearly) not the case.
I’m a visionary. You might be a visionary. And your slightly awkward and shy neighbor might be a visionary, as well as thousands of people in the city you are in.
So what is a visionary?
I would say, a visionary is somebody, who sees something that isn’t there (yet).
The people we attribute visionary status to in popular culture, are people, who see/saw something and moved towards it with determination, and made it a reality. Realized visionaries, so to speak.
Okay, but what about the rest of us? Those who don’t have visions of electric cars in space, or of a gospel choir wearing 400 EUR crocs?
We might still have visions of what our lives might be like.
We might have intimations of something that might happen to us later in life.
And I’m sure there are other versions of this that I don’t know about yet.
My visions tend to be forward-facing, but I’m sure there are people with visions from the past, or visions from the now, far away.
I hope that many visionaries join us in the salon on Friday because I want to hear about other experiences.

To conclude definitions,
it seems to me that being a visionary is more of a condition, than something noble and exclusive. Something like having a very active third eye that you actually have to (painstakingly?) contend with and integrate.
Whatever your form of creative living is, you won’t get around some sacrifices.
Whatever your condition asks of you, you’ll have to make due and feed it somehow.
If you don’t it might take you under. If you do, it still might.
Look at Kanye’s and Elon’s lives. Glory and suffering. Riches and separations. Fame and misunderstanding. You want to live like that? Go ahead, but be careful what you wish for.
The problem with visions
is that they can be very confusing. I often feel very thrown off the present moment, when a vision penetrates my perception. It can last for an afternoon, or for days if I don’t actively bring myself back to the present moment.
That’s why practices for mind and body are important to me. Otherwise, my inner eye just slowly tilts upwards and I will start living in the clouds and in the future. And unfortunately, in that space, I can see a lot, but I can’t act. Because I am not there (yet).
Often times I start browsing the internet incessantly. The internet, Twitter, and external content are great tools to feed a vision. Sometimes I observe myself scrolling like a madman. I’ve learned to ask myself: “What are you looking for?” and just watch myself searching. Often enough, I find something that scratches my itch.
This perspective and self-understanding are already quite advanced. My behavior humors me now. But my tone hasn’t always been this kind when talking to myself. I’ve had years of not understanding this behavior. I’ve labeled it as procrastination. I was angry at myself for not getting the things done that I was “supposed to” get done.
And in a way it was true, I wa

Hello again.
Part 3 of the village is about The Well.
What is The Village? Read part 1 (the image) and part 2 (how to use it) to get up to speed.
When I first introduced this image to my friend and partner in spirit, Louis, who I spoke with in the audio of part 2, made me aware of a major blind spot.


The Bird and the Tree
Louis is a bird, and I am a tree. When we first met, all we did was laugh together. It was beautiful, how our words connected, when we had never spoken before.A word leads to a sentence, leads to a paragraph, and then it is paragraphs upon paragraphs, each using the previous one as a ladder to reach unknown heights of truth, and depths of meaning. When we notice something untrue in what we say, we quickly correct it. And together we bathe in streams of what we perceive is true, and it is always a sheer joy.

“Where is your place to nourish yourself? The place where you save your progress and refill your lives?” asked Louis.
“That’s a good question”, I said. “I haven’t had much of a meditative practice or silence recently.”
“Maybe more than silence, it’s reconnecting to the juice! More of a regenerative practice.”
“The well? Filling the well?”
“Yes. Everything starts with the well. A good house, a good school — they are built around a well. The well is the place where you regenerate. It reaches deep into the earth, the soil, connects you to your roots, to your source. The place in you that is immutable, where you are free from ideas, where you only resonate with what is true. Listen to the water, drink from it, be inspired, be nourished. Get connected to the juice.”

I knew immediately that he was right. He has that tendency. But to see my model and therefore also my house missing such an important part — I didn’t want to accept it yet.

“Hm yes, well-! My bed is the place, where I read and from which I draw plenty of rest and inspiration!”
“Nope. That ain’t it. It can’t be your bed, it has its own function.”
“Ok, and here on my PC”, (we were on Discord), “I’ve got great sources of inspiration through Twitter and YouTube, and I speak to you and other friends and creative partners. I can tap into the spirit of the world and it feels very nourishing.”
“That energy is actually the opposite of what I’m talking about. But it’s beautiful and I know what you mean.”
Louis was very clear.
“So what is it? How should it be?”, asked I.
Quick intermission: You can speak with both Louis and I on The Village and The Well in an Interintellect salon on February 25th, 2022. That’s today, or tomorrow, or a long time ago, depending on when you read this. If you are on time, you can join here.
A sacred Place
Louis responded:
“Well, it has to be your place! I can’t tell you that. I can only tell you what I do. I have my desk. It is a sacred space. Only the right things are on it, including some sacred artifacts. I like it neat. When I sit here, I light a candle. I’m with a book I’m studying, poems I’m writing. From here, I go to the places where I see myself clearly.
It takes time to build this. It grows by itself. I’ve been “working” on this desk for 18 years.
The other day, my niece was at my place. She was playing around the house. I had something to do at my desk, and she wanted to sit with me. I told her, sit with me, but this is not a place to play and cause a mess. I’ll study now, so you have to study, too. She understood, and sat with me quietly and alertly, with the same reverence I had for my work and for my space.
That is the well, the place, where I can quietly be with myself. What place is that for you?”

While I’m typing this, I remember that when I was at Louis’ house two weeks ago, while I was settling in, I placed my disposable camera on his desk. When I walked by later, I found it on the stool next to the desk. I absent-mindedly put it back on the surface. And again, found it removed. Then I got it, and stowed it