Fluidity Forum Videos, & 2025 Applications Open
Applications are open for Fluidity Forum 2025, which will be in the same location, 6 pm Thursday September 11, through 4 pm Sunday September 14, 2025. Here’s a big button for the application form!
There’s a big change to the application form this year: if you have ever been accepted before, you can skip the “getting to know you” questions and just use the short form, in which you just tell us what you plan to do, bring, or present, and whether you need an attendance discount.
The other change is that the top of the form links to two examples of applications that have been accepted.
Videos Of Fluidity Forum 2025
I’m done editing almost all the videos of Fluidity Forum sessions, and they’re on our YouTube channel! Each week, I’ll post one to the Fluidity Forum Twitter account. I’m especially proud of my talk “How To Not Start A Cult.” Please browse the whole channel and watch something!
Fluidity Lyceum
We’ve started having a monthly video call on our Discord server, for those who have ever registered for Fluidity Forum, in which one of us summarizes a book they read for ten minutes, and we discuss it. It’s called Fluidity Lyceum. Topics so far have included:
I presented on “Turn Your Life Into Art: Lessons In Psychomagic From The San Francisco Underground” by Caveat Magister, on the topic of Psychomagic. Nine guidelines to design a gathering that is a work of art and has a psychological effect.
Patrick Day presented on “Values-Based Data Science & Design” by Joe Edelman, on the topic of how to rebuild society on meaning.
Brandon Watson presented on “The Embodied Mind” by Varela, Thompson, and Rosch, a synthesis of cognitive science, phenomenology, and Buddhist thought.
We welcome you to join us for Fluidity Lyceum after you register for Fluidity Forum 2025 and join the Discord server!
Fluidity Fest
After Fluidity Forum 2023, we wanted to spend time together again, without waiting until September 2024. I didn't want to tell people they couldn't, but I made it clear I did not have time to organize two Fluidity Forums per year. And so, we agreed that what we were arranging was a satellite event, a "casual hang". We named it Fluidity Fest.
The main principle was the delegation rule: "Fluidity Fests are not organized by the Fluidity Forum organizers, Matt relaxes and doesn't do any work, other than letting people know about it". Fest is an exercise in seeing what the entire attendee base can do for itself without there being organizers per se.
Calling Fluidity Fest a "casual hang" makes it sound like nothing happened, but a ton happened! We self-organized to create a lot of elaborate meals, talks, games, and other activities, all with little-to-no preparation going into them. The biggest part was one of our attendees providing the retreat center she lived in, for free, and making it pay-what-you-want.
Last year at Fest I just stood back and watched things fail which I knew would fail. And actually, you know what? People said it was totally fine, they didn't mind, and they just solved it at the last minute at greater expense and everyone was happy. They congratulated me for relaxing. :)
Now that we've had Fluidity Forum 2024, we want to do the second Fluidity Fest, one year after the first one. I was extremely nervous because we lost our biggest advantage, the retreat center, and especially the person who lives there, who is very impressive. Two new attendees know some people who run a retreat center, from another organization they were involved in, and said they'd use that positive relationship to try to get us a good rate. Since the new venue wasn’t free, I was trying to figure out how to pay the up-front deposit for Fluidity Fest without risking funds which are earmarked for Fluidity Forum. And then a generous attendee fronted the money!
We set a price range for Fest where attendees could pay as little as $50, based on financial need. That’s great, because I’ve been unemployed for five months. It would have been awkward if I had not been able to attend. So far we have twelve attendees, and I’m sure many more will register in the last couple of weeks of February.
Just like with the section I wrote about Fluidity Lyceum, you might be wondering when I’m going to tell you the exact date, costs, and location. But again, you’ll get that when you register for Fluidity Forum! Here’s the application again:
Personal Matters
I haven’t posted to this newsletter as much as I should, as my time has been taken up with editing Fluidity Forum videos, and job-hunting. More of the latter. As a front end web developer, I was caught up in The Great Tech Layoffs Of 2024. Before then, I was already not seeing very few plausible job listings; the job boards were full of mostly AI-generated scams and time-wasters. My financial situation has become dire in the gig economy. In January I’m beginning to see some plausible job listings. I’m an open book, not a blaring radio, but if you wanted an explanation for why there have not been more newsletters, you are entitled to one and I’m happy to talk about it.
In-Person Organizer Meetings
And now, I’m off to attend a meeting for Fluidity Forum organizers. It feels so good to phrase that sentence that way! Instead of meeting with virtual calls, we have a lot of local organizers who meet in person, with a virtual call component. That has been amazing. And this time, the meeting is not even taking place in my house! The organization is expanding in a way that feels healthy.
There’s also an overlap of approximately 50% with those who attend a group that meets in my house for a variant on authentic relating and circling that we invented. (Think of it as the “right brain meets left brain” version, if that makes sense.) It’s been a good way to establish a working relationship and bridge different styles of conflict resolution and group decision-making. The signs are really looking up for Fluidity Forum’s future.
-Matt