Recovering from Cultural Anesthesia & Returning to the Senses WITH PIERS KANIUKA & MICHAEL R. SPICHER

Description

We usually think of anaesthesia as something used in surgery. Its purpose is straightforward: to suspend sensation so that pain cannot be felt. But what if there is another kind of anaesthesia? Not physical, but cultural. Not something administered in a single moment by a physician, but something we drift into gradually through routine, distraction, efficiency, and environments that ask very little of our attention. Our fast paced culture is seemingly designed to keep a false promise of freedom found through numbing the senses growing and going strong. Whether it be overuse and dependence on social media and devices, overspending with online shopping, or the physical vices of substance abuse and addiction – debt, depression, isolation and ultimate unhappiness are on the rise and always at the ready. This kind of cultural anesthesia results in a loss of the human capacity to fully feel. The ancient Greeks had a word that points us toward the opposite of that feeling. Aisthesis, the root of aesthetics, means perception through the senses. It is our capacity to notice, to feel, and to respond to the world around us. This evening we will talk about new ways to see and be in the world with an expert in recovery in conversation with a philosopher of aesthetics.

 Piers Kaniuka, MA, MTS has been working with addicts for over thirty years. He invites you to join him in his attempt to shift the paradigm away from the medical model towards one that addresses the spiritual and the sociocultural causes of addiction. Piers is cofounder and executive director of Maine Recovery Collective, a residential treatment program dedicated to bringing holistic modalities to underserved populations in Maine. He was also a cofounder of the Liberation Institute, 501c3, a nonprofit that brought wellness, recovery, and educational services to incarcerated men at the Maine State Prison. Piers is former Chair of the Transpersonal Psychology department at Burlington College and is core faculty at the Alcyon Center, contemplative retreat located on Mount Desert Island. Piers holds Master’s degrees in Theological Studies (Bangor Theological Seminary) and Counseling Psychology (Antioch New England University).

Michael R. Spicher, PhD, is a philosopher and advisor who helps organizations and leaders use beauty and aesthetics as a strategic advantage. He works with companies and individuals to integrate aesthetic thinking into culture, brand, and leadership, and offers philosophical counseling to those seeking greater clarity and renewed purpose. He founded Aesthetics Research Lab in 2016 as a public platform for exploring and advancing the role of aesthetics in everyday life and work.