Author: Toronto OASIS

Our event starts at 11 am on the 2nd floor of the Koffler House (569 Spadina Avenue)

In this interactive session, we will, first, explore the nature of hierarchies: on what criteria are they based? How do we personally experience them? We will then relate this to knowledge: whose knowledge is valued? Whose knowledge is de-valued? Who has access to knowledge creation and dissemination? What effects does this have? The discussion is based on a theoretical approach called the BIAS FREE Framework. Anyone interested can find it on the internet, but there is no need to do so. We will not be dealing with the Framework as a whole, but only look at this most basic aspect of it.

We will have Margrit Eichler facilitating and leading us through this interactive session. Margrit Eichler is Professor Emerita of the Department of Social Justice Education at OISE/UT. One of her research streams is concerned with how to avoid biases in research that are often unconscious and due to existing social hierarchies. One of the outputs of this work is the BIAS FREE Framework, co-authored with Mary Anne Burke. It has been applied across the world. Since it is user-driven and asks questions rather than provide answers, it is applicable across different cultures.

Our musical performer this Sunday will be Lindsay Foote.  Lindsay is a singer songwriter who writes honest, soul-bearing music and couples that with a voice that will melt even the hardest heart.  Inspired by the alternative folk music scene, Lindsay has been writing songs for as long as she can remember. Originally from Winchester, Massachusetts, she moved to Canada in 2009 to study voice at the University of Toronto. 

Her newest release, Going Gone EP, boasts lush acoustic arrangements paired with Lindsay’s signature candid writing style. The songs explore love, loss, and facing the truth even in the toughest moments. From her Going Gone EP,  “Silence” was featured on CBC Metro Morning, CBC Big City Small World, and CJRU Double Booked. RAW RAMP Magazine calls these songs “the most celestial & moving folk songs you can imagine” and For the Rabbits calls it “the sound of an artist expanding their musical horizons and fulfilling a very rich promise.”

We are so enthused to have Lindsay Foote return to the Oasis stage!  https://www.lindsayfoote.com

To RSVP to this event please visit our Meetup page.

Our event starts at 11 am on the 2nd floor of the Koffler House (569 Spadina Avenue)

Broadly defined, experiences that could be categorized as “mystical” have been described across millennia of human history and by virtually all religious traditions. Mystical states of consciousness, specifically a personal spiritual experience of union with an aspect of “Divine reality” has long fascinated interest and frustratingly resisted inquiry. Recently published studies on the fringes of contemporary neuroscience has shown that psychedelic drugs like psilocybin and LSD, given under supportive conditions, can reliably occasion experiences that are phenomenologically similar to those experienced spontaneously by the mystics of history. In combination with cutting edge brain imaging technologies (such as MEG and functional MRI) and along with advances in biochemistry and receptor pharmacology this research has opened mysticism to rigorous scientific investigations into the causes and consequences of mystical states, and may allow for a future understanding that naturalizes mysticism.

This Sunday Brandon Cirella will be our featured speaker.  Brandon is an avid psychonaut, amateur (natural) philosopher and aspiring neuroscientist. He graduated with a BSc. Neuroscience and Mental Health, Carleton University. His research interests include psychoactive plants and chemicals and their effects on the brain and mind, their emerging usage as a form of psychotechnology, and the computational basis underlying neural information processing and the phenomenology of conscious experience. He is most intrigued by the mind-problem and the application of novel psychotechnologies to its solution. He is currently reading Process and Reality, a process-relational metaphysics by philosopher/mathematican Alfred North Whitehead. Most of his thinking is done to a classical soundtrack; Bach, Beethoven, Rachmaninov, and Chopin are frequently featured.

This Sunday we will to be returning to our regular format and having some live music in addition to having a speaker!  Our featured musician will be Abigail Lapell.  Check out a sampling of her music at  https://www.abigaillapell.com/.  It’s awesome!  Abigail Lapell is a Toronto folk noir songwriter who draws from roots, indie and punk rock traditions. Hailed as an artist to watch by NOW Magazine, she’s toured across North America and Europe, performing on vocals, piano, harmonica and finger style guitar. Closer to home, she’s completed tours by bicycle, canoe and train. Lapell won the 2017 Canadian Folk Music Award for Contemporary Album of the Year and the 2016 Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award from the Ontario Arts Council. Her new album, Hide Nor Hair, is out now on Coax Records.

To RSVP to this event please visit our Meetup page.

Our event starts at 11 am on the 2nd floor of the Koffler House (569 Spadina Avenue)

Ritual can be found in all living species and since time immemorial, rituals of one kind or another can be identified in human civilizations. Rituals play an important role in society. Rituals remind us of what is important and provide a sense of stability and continuity in our lives. However, our modern society doesn’t always include formalized or consistent rituals to mark events or the passage of time.

This week’s discussion will explore the idea of ritual in our lives. What is ritual? Why is it important? How do you think about or experience ritual in your life? What kind of ritual(s) do we have in our Oasis community? How as an Oasis community do we think about ritual?

You are invited to think about ritual this week. What rituals are important to you and why?

Martin Frith will be our discussion leader. Martin is a founding member of Toronto Oasis and in his personal and professional life wears many hats. As a Humanist Officiant, he has led public rituals marking, births, deaths, marriages and separations. As a therapist, he has worked with individuals, couples, families and organizations to use ritual to manage transitions.

To RSVP to this event please visit our Meetup page.

Our event starts at 11 am on the 2nd floor of the Koffler House (569 Spadina Avenue)

Based on and inspired by Jonathan Haidt’s book The Righteous Mind – Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion, this Sunday Tania Akon will lead us in a group discussion on morality.  We will discuss key questions and findings addressed in the book such as:

“Where Does Morality Come From?”

“The Conservative Advantage”

“Why Are We So Groupish?”

Tania Akon is a Toronto Oasis organizer.  She earned a B.A.Sc degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Toronto and a B.Ed from OISE, also at UofT.  She is currently a high school teacher and teaches Science-Physics/Mathematics/Computer Science.

To RSVP to this event please visit our Meetup page.

Our event starts at 11 am on the 2nd floor of the Koffler House (569 Spadina Avenue)

This Sunday at Oasis, Dan Cooperstock will lead us in a review and discussion of the 5 Oasis principles, including their full-paragraph explanations, the 12 principles of Humanism (given that we are now an affiliate member of Humanist Canada), and for some more contrast, the 7 Unitarian Universalist principles, and the (over-simplified) 6 Quaker testimonies (principles for living).

Dan is the Toronto Oasis Treasurer, a non-theist Quaker, and a software entrepreneur, writing and selling software for charities and churches. 

For anyone who would like to read all of those principles before the meeting, here is a link to the presentation, which contains them:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B-icUXlxfcN9H7Vnlo_xSL4EK4rmX5sx/view?usp=sharing

To RSVP to this event please visit our Meetup page.

Our event starts at 11 am on the 2nd floor of the Koffler House (569 Spadina Avenue)

From the earliest images of Lady Justice (ancient Egypt), to the silver screen’s adaptation of DC comic’s Justice League; we are a people that are both consumed and united by this one idea. It has been said that justice requires struggling, suffering, and sacrifice. Do we want more justice? Do we want a different kind of justice? Join us in a discussion as A. D’Agio facilitates a discussion on the topic of justice. What might justice look like in the 21st century, and what might be the cost?

Born in England, A. D’Agio resides now in Toronto, writing poetry and lyrics about humans, and their quirksome relationships with each another. Experience first hand the mind numbing madness:

https://twitter.com/HumanistPoet or https://www.facebook.com/HumanistPoetAdagio

To RSVP to this event please visit our Meetup page.

Our event starts at 11 am on the 2nd floor of the Koffler House (569 Spadina Avenue)

In animals, predators are most often selfish loners, although wolves, many apes and most marine mammals hunt cooperatively. Herbivores normally either live individually in safe environments, like trees, or are highly gregarious. Humans are somewhere in the middle and this duality emerges in many forms such as the political split seen in many countries between competitive, business-oriented, low-tax policies versus community-minded, cooperative, pro-welfare-state policies, or even simply Good and Evil which are strongly associated with, respectively, giving to the community and taking from it.

Join us this week for a group discussion on this topic. Share your experiences, knowledge and ideas! The discussion will be facilitated by Bob Fisher. Bob is a physicist and engineer originally from the UK, based in Houston and working temporarily in Toronto. He is approaching retirement and has no formal training in sociology or psychology: in fact he doesn’t understand people at all. In his spare time he is working on a book for an improved system of democracy.

To RSVP to this event please visit our Meetup page.

PLEASE NOTE THAT WE WILL BE BACK IN OUR USUAL LOCATION:

569 Spadina Ave. 2^nd Floor Main Activity Hall

Our events are held every Sunday at 11 am

For this Sunday’s Oasis meeting come participate in a workshop on rethinking how we conduct difficult conversations in our lives.  The workshop will be led by Jonathan Miller.  Formerly a project and marketing manager, Jonathan comes from the corporate world where he experienced firsthand the consequences of communication breakdowns. Workplace politics, conflict management and putting out fires wasted too much of his time and the company’s money. In 2016, he set out to study, develop and practice his own methodology for having clear and effective conversations. He now trains and coaches individuals on how to use their language to speak powerfully and authentically, be more productive and make meaningful connections.

In this workshop, we’ll touch on some high-level concepts in order to start rethinking the conversations we have in our lives. We’ll discuss concepts such as identity, defensiveness, and how to deal with that little voice inside your head.

To RSVP to this event please visit our Meetup page.

PLEASE NOTE THAT WE ARE NOT IN OUR USUAL LOCATION FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING- WE WILL BE IN Sidney Smith Hall, 100 St George St., Room 2111.

Our events are held every Sunday at 11 am

How do our stories affect our engagement with societal issues, and how can we use stories for positive impact? We will begin with a story to set the stage for an open discussion about narrative. The invitation for group participants is 1) to explore how our own narratives influence our responses to world issues, and 2) to consider how narratives can both mitigate distress over the state of the world and inspire action.

The meeting will be led by Lindsay Kochen, who works at a mindfulness-based psychotherapy practice. In addition to her training in trauma-focused healing modalities, Lindsay has a background in outdoor education, community health research, supportive housing advocacy, and street outreach. She enjoys learning alternative healing practices and honouring the body-mind-spirit connection through music and art.

To RSVP to this event please visit our Meetup page.