The House of Who Podcast (S4 Ep1): Pleasure, pain & performing in a sexy vaudville-esque variety show

Transcript

Hi and welcome to the House of Who podcast, formerly known as Artist CEO podcast. I am your host, Shan Free here at house of who we talk about. Basically, who are you? Who am I, who are we? And why does it matter? This is the place where we still talk about business and art and the integration of the two, how creativity concerns business and in fact, how business can be works of art, we can get all philosophical soon, don't you worry? But even the question I think therefore, I am, is that true? Is it because we think get ready, we're expanding what it means to be?

Anyway, So what, what have I been up to lately? . . . And it's all about how sexiness has nothing to do with age. Sexiness has to do with spoiler, alert, freedom and freedom. Yeah, that's what I think is actually.

So, it’s my birthday today. Thank you. I’m…the meaning of life, the universe, and everything.  / I’m turning 42.  Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy? Anyone, anyone? Anyway, / I used to think sexy was Young & Beautiful. Perky, Oh Yeah, tight, firm, big here small there but now I know what’s up. You want to know what’s really sexy? Truth. Freedom.  / Truth of who you are. Freedom from the bullshit. You know what I mean.  Alll the bullshit. Screw the bull shit. Fuck that shit. Funny. When we say “screw this” or “fuck that” it means “have sex with” which is strange because why are we having sex with something we don’t like? Maybe: bc its an empowering transformation from “something I despise” to “something I desire!” I like it. [trying it on:] Fuck war - I will have sex with war. Screw hypocrisy - hello, hypocrisy, I would like to do you. Fuck anxiety I hate anxiety  - sexy anxiety, I love the energy. That’s actually kind of great. It turns everything on its head. We can find equal pleasure and benefit in all the things: things we like and things we don’t, so now the whole world becomes an object of our ardor and desire, and that’s where the fun begins. Then we can add in solipsism–solipsism? The theory that if everything is in your head, then the self is all that can be known to exist-–so basically everything is you, All Is One kind of stuff, so now we are having sex with everything we like and don’t like and everything is us and so it’s just one big masterbatory existence. Yay! Pleasure party! 

And that kicked off my erotica performance career apparently. So I've been showing up whenever I'm here in California because these days I'm spending some of my, some of my days in France. And so I'm, I'm part of the company now. I'm in the company at the California performing monthly in the show and it's called Forbidden Kiss. Anyway, we're in from below, but that's what I've been up to. And it's been really fun to explore this whole other side of myself, this whole other world before was not part of my, not just work and artwork and writing, but personality. And I realize how malleable who we are really is and that we can get interested in something and then we can explore it and we can write about it or talk about it or think about it or read about it, basically explore it. And in that way, we can kind of assimilate parts of it, whatever parts feel appealing and leave the rest into the new fabric of who we are. And so that's been really fun because now I can say, oh yes, I am a intellectual erotica performer, why not? And also just tapping into parts of myself that are sensual and erotic. And to me that connects so deeply back to freedom because it's about being free in our bodies and it doesn't have to be so heavy handed with the sexy. It can just be about being freer in our bodies and our minds and what we consider acceptable and safe and what we're willing to express and what we're willing to take in. And and for me, this has been a wonderful invitation to continue on with my lifelong journey of freeing yourself and being free with your identity and waking up. 

Hello everybody. I’m Dr E Rotica. You can call me Erica. Oh, im not a doctor doctor. (But if you want to Play Doctor, we can.) I hold a doctorate, a PhD is What’s Sexy. Today I have an excerpt from my newly published paper: Redefining Mindfuck: an experiential hypothesis I propose we reclaim the concept and word of “mindfuck”. More like “mindsex.” Mindlove. When we open our minds to a thought that has the potential to liberate our bodies. I’m not going to ram my idea in there, like so much discourse today. I’m going to slip my idea into your mind, gently. Do I have your consent? Definitions: Fuck, noun & verb: Sex, intercourse! can involve any parts: penis and a vagina, penis and anus, tongue and vagina, etc. For our purposes: the “touching“ of erotic body parts or “penetration“ of one body part into a space that would otherwise be considered sacred or very very personal. Something of mine into something of yours. Mind, noun: that which allows us to be aware of the world, our experiences, thoughts, ideas, concepts, consciousness itself– these are at times synonymous of Mind, and at other times, an aspect of Mind. “Mind” is both a thing and a space in which things appear. And it is a deeply intimate and private part of ourselves. So in theory, I could stick my thoughts into your consciousness or you could stick your ideas into my mind. And we’d be mindfucking. That sounds like a good Wednesday night.

And so, yeah, for yourself and the rest will follow. So, that's been great. That's been exciting. So that's what I'm up to and maybe I'll talk about it more. And then on the other side of that is pain. I've been recently reading and learning about the mind, body connection as it relates to pain and how pain can be all in the, not that it's all in the mind, like it's not real, it's real, but more that it can originate in the brain rather than in the body. So I've been reading a lot about the neuroscience behind pain. The neuroscience really behind how we create a reality and what it is to have a belief or an opinion or even an identity and how that exists in the brain, but a lot of stuff that exists in the brain are maybe not factual true representations out in the physical world. And where is that line between fact and fiction and the brain and reality? And how do we learn about our cognitive habits and take hold of them and be intentional and really making choice and realizing how much choice we have and also how much choice we don't have about what we see as our reality, what we see as ourselves and therefore who we are because belief includes influences, excuse me, influences behavior and behavior, influences action and action, influences what we create and that influences reality. So it's really fascinating in particular, I'm reading a book right now called The Way Out by Alan Gordon with Alon Ziv .And it's basically about the Neuroscience of Chronic Pain because I am a chronic pain or I have been a chronic pain sufferer. I'm rewriting that self identification. And let me just quote you one thing from this book, the brain is capable of generating any physical sensation, any physical sensation in any part of the body. One more time, the brain is capable of generating any physical sensation in any part of the body. Pain in your back, your neck, your eyes, your teeth, muscle pain, nerve pain, sharp pain, dull, pain, tightness, tingling, burning, numbness, that's amazing. Basically, it is possible to experience any type of sensation and it is originating from the brain rather than the body. What that means is you can be experiencing things that you think are coming from the physical world via your body. And that doesn't, actually, there's not an actual physical stimulating source. That's amazing. I mean, we could wax philosophical about what that has what, how that connects back to our perception of reality and where it's originating from. But even just keeping with the body, that's fascinating and tremendously empowering. So I'm reading a lot about how chronic pain can be something that's called neuropathic pain, which is brain originating pain and how why that happens, how it happens and what we can do about it and how that can actually empower us to rewrite circuits in the brain that have been formed that are kind of a mistake because the body is interpreting danger signals or sorry, the brain is interpreting danger signals from the body. And that being actually not true. The the brain is sort of misfiring or mis wired really to be interpreting danger signals that actually don't, aren't indicating true physios, structural problems. That's a big deal. I may be geeing out a little bit and maybe I just lost a few readers, but for those who are still with me, I mean, really fucking fascinating, right? Most of us experience some kind of chronic pain. I know a lot of people with chronic pain. So to me, this is really fascinating. So basically I'm exploring through art and through science, pain and pleasure. And then this is also coming around to work in professional sphere and branding and naming and collaboration and creation. Because that's always a perennial pursuit of mine is how do we balance our creative lives, our professional lives? Do they need to be different? Do they need to be the same? Do we even need to have these labels anymore? I don't know that's for another show, but I am. Well, I've got something very exciting going on. I can't talk about it yet because the papers aren't signed yet. Yes, legal papers and contracts are involved, you know how I love legal stuff. And so, but I'm very excited to reveal it hopefully very soon in the next few months, but it's exciting. It's new collaborations are afoot transformation for House of who is afoot. You might have already noticed the name change of the podcast and house of who continuing to be a vehicle for self actualization to be a vehicle for self exploration and discovery, definition freedom and all things who are you, who am I and changing that question into a statement I am this, I am that I am neither this nor that I am so hope that's a happy little update and you enjoyed it and you're interested to come along with me on my journey, sending love and freedom and peace to everyone and all things out there. And yeah, may you know who you are and love it.