Bill Watterson, creator of the revered comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, released in October 2023 a new graphic novel The Mysteries — his first published work in the 28 years since Calvin and Hobbes ended. In the YouTube video above Watterson narrates his collaboration process with artist John Kascht. As Polygon notes, "Kascht’s realistic style and methodical, researched process clashed almost irreconcilably with Watterson’s intense need to keep things sketched and improvised... After a year’s work, the pair dumped everything they had created and started over, realizing that juxtaposing their clashing styles within one image created interesting results with a “weird energy.” “Things clicked when we gave up,” Kascht says."
“Working through differences toward a common purpose is practically an act of defiance these days, and I’m as proud of that as of any other aspect of the collaboration,” Watterson says."
My recent experiences with Human Energy's Science of the Noosphere Master Class and the N2 Conference are examples of the creative mashup between scientific and spiritual worldviews, working through differences toward a common purpose.
The N2 Conference defined itself as "Beyond the Individual" - "an international, interdisciplinary conference fostering creative collaboration for intentionally and ethically steering the future evolution of global consciousness."
There was more congeniality at the D2 Conference than in the Master Class, partly because a few disrupters in the Master Class were noticeably absent (because of self-selection) from the D2 Conference, and partly because of actual face-to-face conversations rather than online meetings. However, However, I believe the synergy was primarily due to the intentionality of diverse people, engaged in a common search to find out how to accelerate the rapid expansion of the Noosphere. At D2 we felt part of something bigger than ourselves as individuals and there was an openness to learn from others' points of view. Appreciation and mutual respect were shared among those in the Conference. Diversity evolved into unity because of intentionality.
Speaking about both the diversity and unity of the presenters, Robert Wright expressed the sense of collaboration at the D2 Conference: "A number of them I had been keeping in different parts of my brain: David Sloan Wilson I had filed under evolutionary science; Kevin Kelly is a techno-visionary; and Brian Swimme expressed a kind of cosmic spirituality... and now, here they all are in the same room. And that's the kind of synergy that this Conference is all about!"
At the N2 Conference there was lots of discussion about how to best communicate a "Third Story." Dr. Clement Vidal identified the psychological resistances and affordances to the idea of the Noosphere by the public at large. Francis Heylighen has been developing a mathematical model to link the philosophical idea of the Third Story as an alternative to traditional religious and scientific stories.
Storytellers such as Jennifer Morgan have written age-appropriate children's books to communicate understanding of the universe and evolution. Emily DeMoor presented alternative literary narratives that may be used in secondary-level English language arts courses. Ellen Rigsby talked about college students' understanding of the concepts of the noosphere and the need for developing the human capacity to steer evolution to deal with problems that affect all of humanity. John Cressler presented the challenges and successes of nurturing the Noosphere on college campuses.
Film-makers were concerned about using concepts, words, and images that are clearly understood.
Teilhard scholar and theologian Ilia Delio uses the word "myth" to identify the importance of science-appropriate worldviews, suggesting religion needs to be updated from ancient Greek and medieval assumptions to be consistent with current scientific understandings.
“A myth is always a true story because it narrates a sacred history, not necessarily a factual history, but one that has meaning and value for human life. Myths are true in that they have the symbolic and imaginative power to make us aware of the unity of reality in its greatest depth and breadth” ~ Ilia Delio
Collaboration in "steering the future evolution of global consciousness" is the goal of Human Energy.
Other organizations such as Pachamama Alliance are seeing the need to share a "New Story"- Love, Wonder, and Climate Action: Crafting a New Narrative, On November 15, 2023, they had a webinar with Alixa Garcia, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Bill McKibben about the importance of expressing the awe, wonder, and the sheer miracle of being alive in this vast universe.