THURSDAY, 4/13 ~ Ludic Liberation Lab: THE LAW OF OBSTRUCTION
attraction + obstacle = desire
Dear Ludic Liberators,
I failed to host a Lab in March because MY LIFE WAS FALLING APART. It’s actually still falling apart, but I’m back on my (existential gamemaker) bullshit and finding ways to PLAY WITH THE MESS AND THE CHAOS! 🌪 🤠
Want to join me in the wild ride?
Something I’m learning in the midst of life falling apart is that it can be hard to know what you want from this position. The want becomes both very basic and impossible: “Aah, stop falling apart, life!” But the universe doesn’t like this kind of want, because it’s always pushing us towards the next wild transformation, the next karmic lesson in our divine journey — it doesn’t just want us to settle back into a story whose moment has passed. In light of this (frustrating) realization, I’m having to learn to play with my desires in a new way… which has inspired this month’s lab!
THE LAW OF OBSTRUCTION
You’ve probably heard of THE LAW OF ATTRACTION — you know, the idea from “The Secret” and related manifestation magic literature — that if you just truly, deeply vibrate with the cosmic energy of the thing you want, the universe will deliver it to you on a silver platter. BUT if you instead vibrate with the energy of your LACK — of not having the thing you want — the universe will keep delivering that crushing lack to you, instead.
But I bet you haven’t yet heard of THE LAW OF OBSTRUCTION (because I just invented it!) — which says that it’s not actually the thing you consciously WANT that your divine self needs. Rather, what your deeper self wants is the CHALLENGE of overcoming the obstacle on the way of pursuing the object of your desire. The law of obstruction came to me after learning the “erotic equation” from Dr. Jack Morin — author of The Erotic Mind. The erotic equation is:
attraction + obstacle = desire
Morin studied the mystery of people’s sexual desires, and discovered that intense lust was often stoked by the presence of an obstacle to the object of attraction — some sort of distance, challenge, unavailability, or inappropriateness between them. The formula helps explain the temptation of adulterous affairs or the aching dream of becoming a rock star/great writer/famous artist. If these things were easy and available to anyone, we wouldn’t want them so much.
Satisfaction of one’s desire is thus not only in getting to have what you want, but in winning the game of overcoming the obstacle on the way to the reward. But what if the obstacle is so large that it overshadows and overwhelms both the feeling of desire and the pull of attraction? Well, why not then make a game of the obstacle itself? That’s where the juice is anyway!
This Thursday, April 13, 2023, join me to play with THE LAW OF OBSTRUCTION. We will use some classic Ludic Liberation structures such as Desire Sourcery and iterate on them to uncover the hidden obstacles that motivate our attraction in the first place. We will then employ one another as Mirrors and Oracles to make relating to our obstacles more interesting and fun, and design a personal existential game mechanic to keep joyfully battling our current monster.
🗓 THURSDAY, April 13, 2023
⏰ 6-7:30pm EDT
📍 Zoom
🎟 FREE but registration required (and space is limited)!