"Draining The Swamp": An Interactive GAME Of Personal And Collective Transformation

How we transform the Dark Side at New Horizons and guide you on the adventure of a lifetime!

Whatever is wrong in Washington, you/we don’t need to keep it going! 

“Draining The Swamp” Is One Of New Horizons Unique Interactive Games

Based on “old” New Horizons "signature" program --

The Truth or Dare GAME

(originally the “Discount Derby” as created by Martin G. Groder, M.D.)

“Draining The Swamp” is an interactive game based on more than fifty years of New Horizons evolving community development principles and practices to create the most up-to-date group dynamic  strategies.

Do you believe that our Congressional representatives ought to --

• Learn how to work cooperatively with one another, at least to some degree;
• Learn how to establish some degree of win-win intention on behalf of American citizens;
• Find elegant solutions to the collective challenges facing our nation?

If these ideals make sense to you, are you willing to develop the necessary skills, to practice, in your own life, what you preach?

If you believe as we do, that greater unity is a way to a healthier future -- then New Horizons “Draining The Swamp” interactive game is a great place for you to start taking some next steps!

The objective of New Horizons this “Draining The Swamp” GAME is to help participants clear away personal cobwebs that obscure the clarity needed for people to solve small and large social problems. “Draining The Swamp” aids players in developing enhanced communication and conflict resolving skills to help move beyond power struggles and abuses. It also facilitates participant’s development of strengthened community bonds.  

Our “Draining The Swamp GAME” might even assist some folks in developing artfulness in helping to reweave the fabric of our society and politics?

Date: TBA 
Next Day Long Program 

New Horizons Harpers Ferry Retreat Center

Bring snacks and a bag lunch. Stay for potluck dinner and campfire storytelling.

Space will be limited! 

Register early!

Fee: Donations encouraged. $100 suggested or --

Pledge time, talent or treasures to ---

New Horizons Coffee House Conversations Project

Contact: Anastasia 240.409.5347
Email: SuperSleuthDSW

Bored In America? Why I Decided To Go Fishing.

I discussed this theme on my last Possible Society In Motion Radio Show, “Bored In America. I Am Going Fishing.”  

The “why” about it is this ---

First off, my take on boredom is that it is an emotional, somewhat physically uncomfortable state that substitutes for the fullness of authentic, meaningful connectedness. 

(See the full GRAD definition here. Then score yourself on the Survivor/Addict Personality Inventory, which focuses on what I am really discussing here, to identify the personal characteristics of yours that feed this state. Each one of the items on the inventory can be a contributing factor to “your boredom. Think about it!)

Boredom then is akin, in many cases, to being a non-ingested chemical addiction, meaning an addiction state that the individual creates out of their own chemistry.

For example, no internet, no cell phone – boredom. But what about fishing?

If you can understand that “boredom” arises out of an emotional state reflecting the absence of meaning and/or substance, you might comprehend why I decided to go fishing, metaphorically (as the only fishing I have ever done is for crabs in the Chesapeake),  for the Memorial Day weekend.  

My family is dispersed, to say the least, and our wonderful U.S.A., as acted out in front of our very eyes amid unceasing reports of local, national and internation conflicts and violence along with our national election campaign drama, is hardly fulfilling. At least not for me, it isn’t. 

Everywhere we turn there are media reports of the rather routine proliferation of human impoverishment we are living in to the level of pure glut of nothingness!  I am concerned, of course. But still, after awhile this "news" is boring, especially when being any significant part of the solution is way out of reach.

This is except for the 1%, of course, exemplified by our noteworthy celebrities who are so bored they must create almost daily dramas of one sort or another, off or onstage such as the case may be, to seemingly give themselves some semblance of being alive. Boring!

When it comes to substance and meaning we are sadly lacking, steeped in want of the special kind of riches, unique to humans, that eludes many if not most, as things stand now.

But Mother Nature, the caregiver of forested trees, fishing holes, sparkling waters, bright sunshine and fluffy clouds is abundant with endless troves replete with natural resources to offset boredom.  That’s why with a free weekend for me, as this one has been, having gotten, early on, to the point of boredom with our present political campaign dramas and other offerings of the greater world via high tech, I thought going fishing would be my best bet, along with my daily indulgences of unlimted writing times.

Wishing you the abundance of your life well-lived and the bounty of your human endeavors overflowing, I offer you here one more tidbit for consideration on how to better our world, at least in America –

 If you’re bored, how about a walk in the woods or hanging out your own “gone fishing” sign – and doing it, one way or another.

Then, if you are still feeling an absence of meaning, tune into my podcast on –

“Bored In America. I Am Going Fishing.”

From “Awful” to “Awe” And All Points Between

Maps, guide books, personal and shared stories (lots of storytelling) online and face-to-face interactions; support and guidance, personal mentoring, hand holding, encouraging words, words of wisdom from those who have traveled before us. These are what it takes and more to get from wherever one is that might be called “awful” (or even ordinary) to “awe.”

I kid you not the journey is perilous. Only the truly determined need apply. The climb to the top of Mt. Everest is metaphorically its kin as is the struggle of the butterfly to leave its cocoon.

To assist your climb, today I want to bring the main map of the journey to your attention. I introduced it to you, originally, in Chapter One, Part 2: Challenges.

There are two versions.  The first I am offering is a modification of the BIG ONE, Murat’s Chart Of Ascension.  The version below is my simplified version of the BIG ONE.  I will save that one until we are further along on our “adventure of a lifetime” travels here.

If you see the BIG ONE too soon you might dismiss it as too “airy fairy” or religious which it is not. As I know it, it is just common sense if you are sensitive enough to see the ultra-subtleties of life energies and/or scientifically-oriented enough to see that science and mysticism must at their outer edges just simply merge.

For now this first version will do.

For starters, allow me to bring your attention to the following diagram/map that when understood and followed will give you a marked path to follow from “awful” which equals living the life of a “survivor/addict” to “awe,” the way I call the Compassionate Warrior way.

Notice on the chart below that there is a triangle shape on the lower part and a straight line rising from it. Ideally you would want your way of life to be on that straight line, not in the "lower triangle." Keeping that in mind is one of the best guidelines I can offer you.

Step Number One Guideline For The Adventure of A Lifetime: Everything you will find on this site and the other New Horizons’ sponsored sites, referring to the Dark Side, the Dark Side Warrior and the Survivor/Addict are about a way of life that is driven by survival imperatives, placing you in the “lower triangle."

Survival driven urgency is generally more illusory than authentic.  Lookout for “urgencies” as you travel on this trail. Urgencies and “excitement” are like drugs that will keep you lower triangle bound.

Some of the ways I have given you suggestions about how to identify these in yourself  are found in these –

• Survival Driven Behaviors;
• Exploring Your Dark Side;
• The Survivor/Addict Personality Inventory;
• Blog articles on the New Horizons Small “Zones of Peace”Project blog site;
• My personal stories, especially those related to my Inner Warrior, on the Anastasia The Storyteller site.

Follow the guide posts and you will find you are truly on the adventure of a lifetime. 

Let me know  if I/we can assist you on it.

Destination “Awe” – That’s Where We Are Heading

No doubt about it, Exploring Your Dark Side: The Adventure Of A Lifetime (the blog and the books), is my life’s work as well as incorporating the life’s work of many other wise and wonderful people. And, without doubt it has a very specific destination in mind. So it seems fit for me to be as explicit as I can in describing our destination to you.

Our Beloved Murat Yagan, did his utmost to lay out the map and the destination as best he could in the near one hundred years he was with us on this earth plane. When he departed he left behind as much as he was able in written form and a world full of acolytes, aspiring to pass on to others the teachings they received from him.

My earlier mentor, Martin G. Groder M.D., did the same though his teachings are sparse when they come down to the written word. This site endeavors to remedy that deficiency as best I am able. For me – and – all that the New Horizons Support Network, Inc. embodies the teachings of both of these men, incorporated with who and what I have become, are offered on these sites with supreme devotion. 

Three New Horizons’ sponsored blog sites have been created to summarize and encapsulate all of this. 

• New Horizons Small “Zones Of Peace” Project
• Anastasia The Storyteller
• Exploring Your Dark Side: The Adventure Of A Lifetime

And, two online radio shows.

• The Possible Society In Motion Radio Show
• Anastasia The Storyteller Radio Show

Each of these has pieces of the puzzle – and – so do you. We are on journey to our highest attainment. Each individual adventure is unique and different. I/We wish you the best on yours and are available to assist in guiding you if you need me/us.

One small, yet grand beyond words piece I have for you today is to direct your attention to the New Horizons Small “Zones of Peace” Project site with the urging that you check out articles labeled “awe” or any reference to it. “Awe” comes as close as I can offer to describe what our destination looks/feels like when you get there.

Below you will find a list of identifying personal characteristics that may also assist you in measuring your progress; the difference between the Light and the Dark Sides. Clarity, love, joy and unity with all of life are words that might define the destination or state of being we are after. 

Optimally healthy in body, mind and spirit in one’s personal life as well as with all other life also come close. And – still I fall short in describing where we are headed. But you will know when you get there.

Also check out Murat’s Seven Ways To Knowledge to help affirm yourself  in knowing you are on your way even when you are not seemingly anywhere new at all. Yet it’s all part of the adventure. 

You will know when you get there! 

In a beautiful video of Murat’s life, produced not too long before his passing he spoke of knowing that a “rose” smelled of God.

I wish you a similar knowing for your arrival at Destination “Awe.”  

What else could it be but awesome!