THINKING LIKE A PLAGUE

MICROANIMISM I: FOUNDATIONS

The relationship between humans/human culture and microbes is unlike any other on the planet. Join this class and introduce yourself to an invisible universe of ancient wisdom.

OVERVIEW

Starts June 17th 10am (MT), 8 lessons

The program of study offered in this course is one of a kind. It focuses on microbial animism and developing the relationship that we, as human individuals, can have with “the smalls”. The smalls include bacteria, viruses, fungi, and all manner of other microbial life. We’ll examine the nature of the smalls as the foundation of all life on this planet, their influence in our personal lives, and their roles as our ancestors.

CURRICULUM

Each lesson will be 90 minutes, and will incorporate teachings around fundamental microbiology framed from an animist perspective, including ritual and guided practice. 8 lessons total, starting June 17th.

  • By the end of this lesson, students should be able to:

    • Understand the general importance of ritual
    • Describe the explosive nature of bacterial growth and how that relates to life on earth
    • Start an initial conceptualization of the ineffable world of the smalls
    • Begin to conceptualize the personhood of the smalls
    • Start to frame scientific research as a driver of the development of new world views, which can be combined with/contested by an animist perspective
    • Describe how the smalls are inherently divine

  • By the end of this lesson, students should be able to:

    • Visualize the microbial world as a network
    • Discuss the origins of life as an assembly of non-life
    • Describe some of the ways that viral genomes are varied and multi-faceted
    • Begin the discuss the nature of viral life
    • Describe how bacteria have sex and how that may have impacted how mammals have sex
    • Understand how microbes are a conduit to our own ancestors
    • Describe how microbial life makes all death productive

  • By the end of this lesson, students should be able to:

    • Discuss the strategies that multicellular and single-celled people employ to handle varied tasks
    • Start thinking about the personhood of viruses
    • Discuss the emergence of disease as a result of the non-consensual activity of humans
    • Understand the benefits of being small
    • Understand the benefits of diversity in the microbial world
    • Describe the relationship between V. fischeri and the Hawaiian Bobtail Squid
    • Discuss the function of taboos

  • By the end of this lesson, students should be able to:

    • Define ‘complex’, ‘complicated’, and ‘keystone species’
    • Describe some of the ways that phage infection can be helpful
    • Describe how the smalls are the purest example of “look at what they do, not what they say”
    • Discuss the limits of science and describe what the dark matter of biology is
    • Start to pick apart the paralysis we can feel in the face of the complexity of life
    • Describe the value in tiny connections

  • By the end of this lesson, students should be able to:

    • Discuss the function of disgust
    • Describe how microbes behave differently when they’ve been domesticated
    • Discuss equilibrium in the microbial world
    • Discuss how the microbial world challenges our sense of self
    • Define the gut-brain axis
    • Discuss the human microbiome as a continuum of nature

  • By the end of this lesson, students should be able to:

    • Describe some aspects of the relationship between humans and smallpox
    • Think about how to use prior personal experience with illness, to gain deeper access to relationship with the smalls
    • Describe the viral aspects of the human genome

  • By the end of this lesson, students should be able to:

    • Understand that there are no handbooks for living through epidemics and pandemics
    • Understand that epidemics and pandemics are entirely predictable and natural
    • Discuss how being an animist is not easy
    • Discuss how the smalls give us a startling reminder of our own mortality
    • Discuss how pandemics have personalities

  • By the end of this lesson, students should be able to:

    • Describe microanimism as a way to connect to ancestral lands when we are far away
    • Discuss the pitfalls of assigning the smalls responsibility for cleaning up our human messes
    • Discuss inherited microbes
    • Discuss microbes and the imprint of our ancestors’ experience
    • Understand the enormity of microbial generations
    • Discuss what it means to think like a plague

TO REGISTER:

I’m running this class with a minimum of six attendees. The deadline to sign up is June 25th.

Sign up by April 30th: $300
Sign up after June 1st: $320

To register, send your payment via Paypal or Venmo (both @sivwatkins) or the donation page, indicating very clearly which course you are paying for. Once you’ve paid, I’ll email you more info as soon as I can - I don’t have any automated replies set up, so it make take a couple days.

Email siv@microanimism.com with any questions.

“Dr. Watkins is a person of high integrity, genuine humility, depth of knowledge, and a cultivated sense of sarcasm. Her wisdom and embodied understanding of the smalls as they relate to human culture and life on earth are highly recommended.”

— Daniel Foor, PH.D

 

FAQs

  • To my knowledge, this course is completely unique. It focuses specifically on microbial animism and within this scope incorporates aspects of biology and science as well as the ritual arts and ancestral relationships.

  • Welcome. While this is largely a woo-free zone, it can be difficult to wrap your head around alternative frameworks of relationship with not-human people if you’ve been trained academically in the hard sciences. I totally get it. This is not a dogmatic program and you can take what is helpful and leave anything that doesn’t resonate. Thanks for your curiosity.

  • Welcome. To paraphrase The Exorcist, “it doesn’t matter that you don’t believe in the Devil, he believes in you”. This course is not going to try and convince you that robust scientific research is worthy of your attention and trust, it kind of assumes you’re already there. That said, I hope that our discussions could help foster a deeper appreciation of the processes behind the structure that is Science with a capital ‘S’, and we will indeed also cover the shortcomings inherent therein. Thanks for your curiosity.

  • You’ll get a full refund if you let me know within 5 days of purchase. After that, your space in the class is blocked out and there are no refunds.

  • No previous knowledge or understanding of biology, animism or ritual is required.

  • Check out the testimonials page.

  • Email me.