the timboucher experience

One of the things I’m the most interested in is the connection between stories and religion. I’m very interested in how people construct systems of religious belief by clothing themselves in certain sets of symbols and accompanying story-systems. Basically, how do people make use of stories to construct and guide their life… something along those lines. I’m also very into trying to answer questions like:

1. When does a story become a religion?
2. What’s the difference between “suspension of disbelief” in a story and “faith” in a religion?
3. How does a particular system make sense of all the various layers of story which overlap in it?
4. How do multiples stories/religiones combine to form new ones?
5. In what ways can you compare various types of stories - such as comparing a religion to a popular movie, or an advertising campaign to an ancient myth?
6. What’s the best way to decode knowledge which is contained within stories?

Anyway, stuff like that. I could go on and on with those… So, I’m continually trying to figure out useful mental tools and models which will allow me to explore this area in new ways and from novel angles.

My most one involves using stories as sacraments. By that, I’m presupposing that religions fundamentally consist of stories. I don’t mean to reduce religions to “mere” stories, but I seek to elevate all stories, and to sanctify the process by which we generate, share & respond to stories.

On that note, so far I have cooked up “Seven Sacraments of Stories,” which fall into three broad categories: (I) Transmission, (II) Generation, & (III) Resonance. The order & terminology is still being worked out, and I welcome suggestions on the matter. Also, there’s a lot of overlap, and there’s meant to be. It’s not really meant to be a “hard & fast” way of describing all stories, rather its meant to be used as a tool to make certain types of connections more concrete and tangible. Anyway, here they are:

1. Giving a story
2. Receiving a story
3. Creating a story
4. Modifying a story
5. Combining stories
6. Understanding a story
7. Acting out a story

I placed the act of story-telling and of having a story told to you at the top because they seem to me to be the most important and primal of all the rest. They are the basic way by which we transmit knowledge and experience to one another.

Creating, modifying and combining come next, and fall into the category of generation. I’m thinking of various ways which stories are created and altered. Most of these happen quite naturally while stories are being transmitted, I think. We naturally create new details, or enhance or omit elements of a story, changing its focus. Or we bring in references to other stories in order to quickly flesh out details or associations in a particular area.

The last two deal with how we respond to stories in a positive way. By “understanding” I don’t necessarily mean intellectual understanding of a story, although that may be included. I mean it more in terms of breaking that word down to its components, a sort of “standing under” a story as though it were a waterfall and letting it wash over you. Perhaps the term resonance is more appropriate, since when you receive a good story, it’s almost as though it sets some part of you vibrating in response because it somehow relates to you or feels right or important. This is kind of a squishy area which I need to come back to and flesh out more. Also, the idea of acting out a story is basically connected to rituals, and I consider it as a way for a person to comprehend elements of a story from the inside out, and have it affect their life in a way that a “mere” hearing of a story can’t quite accomplish. I think acting out stories is actually a major part of what happens internally any time that you hear a story.

Anyway, more on this later as I try to take this direction of thinking and run with it. I just wanted to write down the essential elements of what I’ve come up with so far, in order to give them the chance to air out and the ability to morph and grow in the sunlight.

• If its from Atlantis, it’s gotta be good
• The Religion of Buying
• Legal procedures for coming back from the dead
• Badger power!
• Imagine a life without stories