| 1. | Abacus Method -
A basic approach to forming and organizing any type of social production in which one person (the project originator)
looks for a second person to join him/her, then those two look for a third, the three for a fourth, and so on. |
2. | ABNQ -
A non-phonetic acronym for 'Almost But Not Quite'. This refers to people who come very close to being able to hang into doing something
(be in a particular BFIC, or identify as a Keristan, for instance) but cannot keep it up beyond a given point. A person in this category has
many subpersonality coalitions that are capable of doing the thing in question, so that one has the impression for some time that they
are going to stick with it. |
3. | Alphabet Board -
An important cultural artifact used for 'telepathic information transfer through touching inspiration together'.
The alphabet board looks something like a ouija board, with the letters of the alphabet and numbers painted in a circle on its surface.
Keristans (two or more at a time) put their fingers in a cup on the board. The cup moves to spell out messages and answers to questions
posed. The movment is spontaneous and totally uncontrived, occurring via subconscious ideomotor activity. The source of the messages is
believed to be morphogenetic intelligence fields, which personify themselves into human-like personalities for the purpose of transmitting the information.
These personalities are the 'Sacred Names', the pantheon of Keristan deities. The alphabet board first appeared in Keristan life
through a series of mystical and humorous circumstances. A transient stranger left an old folding bed in one of the early Keristan houses
in New York's East Village (circa 1964). When it was eventually opened up, there was a large piece of plywood inside with letters crudely painted on
it in a large circle. Someone said, "That's a oiuja board". For days the early Keristans tried to get it to work, with no success.
Finally, it started working, and they became very excited. A couple of the men were so excited that they decided to use the board to predict the outcome
of the horse races that day, and went down to the track to bet on the predicted winners. Naturally, they lost. In fact, they lost all their money,
including their bus fare to get home. When they finally made it back and asked the board what happened, the response was "Schmucks, don't use me!".
The board has always had a good sense of humor. It is the source of all Keristan's names, as well as volumes of advice, wisdom, practical suggestions
plans, stories, plays and great comfort. |
7. | BFIC -
Short for 'Best Friend Identity Cluster', the formal name of a Keristan family. A BFIC (pronounced 'bee-fick') starts with a group originator
and grows to a maximum of 36 adults. Each member joins the group with a current intention of lifetime involvement and a nonpreferential feeling
of deep affection for all other members. |
8. | Board Session -
A session during which two or more Keristans use the alphabet board and receive information from the Sacred Names morphogenetic intelligence fields. |
10. | Chastening -
A technique used to try to modify a recurrent and serious negative behavioural problem. Chastening is similar to 'docking' a person
from some privilege she/he normally is entitled to - for some limited period of time. For instance, people have been chastened from attending the
Growth Coop for being excessively non-verbal there, even after repeated gestant conversations about non-verbality. chastened from staying in Keristan space
after a series of chronuic aggressive outbursts indicating an absence of trust and tenderness, and chastened from being on their sleeping schedules
after repeatedly acting insensitive to partners. The idea is to help ingrain the importance of getting control of the negative behavior
in question, and inculcate appreciation for the thing from which the person is being chastened. |
12. | Compersion -
The positive emotion that comes from seeing one's partners enjoying themselves together, the antithesis of jealousy. Compersion (the word)
was coined by the alphabet board when a word to describe the emotion was being sought. Interestingly, some years later, an anthropological term
'comperage' was discovered by a Keristan in a book opened at random. 'Comperage' refers to a custom practiced by certain pre-technological tribes of men
'sharing' their wives with visiting male guests (the women sleep with the visitors as an expression of goodwill and hospitality). At the time that
the board coined 'compersion', no one had ever heard of comperage or any words similar to it. An example of intelligence fields being on the ball, one might say.
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