"Silent Worship with Avatars"
or
A Religious Society of Friends Meeting in Cyberspace
[ one avatar's first-person account of the holodeck ]
My name is Bruce Mowbray. I was born in Second Life on March 15, 2010.
In the image above, I'm standing at the entrance to a Friends Meetinghouse --
barefooted, my back to you, and - oh, yes! - sporting a long white tail.
A few weeks ago, during my very first hour in Second Life [hereafter, simply "SL"], I learned how to walk, run, sit, fly, use the search engine, change my appearance, and teleport myself to thousands of locations in SL's virtual-reality universe.
My mission(s): to find and explore new worlds relevant to my physical-world interests --
- to attend Science Friday (PBS radio) and other discussion/lecture/concert events
- to find Buddhist sanghas for daily meditation
- to discover networks for prison reform, non-violence, and environmental action
- to wander forests and parks
(Here I am exploring with Gerard Lionheart, a high school senior living in El Salvador. Gerard speaks only Spanish. Fortunately, Second Life translates dozens of languages - instantly. I type English: Gerard reads a Spanish version of whatever I've written, and vice versa.)
- to find sparkling, solitary mountain lakes and skinny-dip in them
- to join drum circles and sit in tribal sweat lodges
- to engage in live book discussions
---- and far too many other interests to list here!
All along the way, avatars with similar interests invited me to join their communities,
usually inviting me to receive notifications of their groups' meetings and other events.
"Sure!" I said, and that's how, a few days later, I happened to receive this email from Scot Jung:
Scot is the avatar who convenes weekly silent worship at the Friends Meetinghouse on Sea Turtle Island.
With over 250 members, it's the largest Quaker community in Second Life.
I arrived early to explore the huge but simple meeting house and to center myself for worship.
Feeling a bit shy and self-conscious -- yet determined not to wear shoes or detach my tail --
I changed into a nice "Namaste" shirt, took off my sparkly necklace, moved across the room, sat, and waited for folks to arrive.
Scot personally greeted each arriving avatar and gave each of us a notecard:
- a grand total of 12 from around the First Life world. ("1st Life" means physical existence as we know it.)
(Needless to say, my worries about personal appearance quickly dissipated.)
The 45-minute Meeting was un-programmed, and no one spoke out of the silence during the first half-hour.
Anyone who felt a Leading to speak typed her message into the chat box so all could see it.
Here's an overhead view of the Meetinghouse showing part of the "Nearby Chat" record at the left.
[I'm close to the top. Above most of us is a label of the SL group we identify with and our avatar's name.]
[Meeting began at 10 a.m. SL Time -- 1 p.m. Ohio time. At the right of each name in the Chat, note the SL time that each person spoke.]
After the Rise of the Meeting, we socialized awhile. All newbies (like myself) were warmly welcomed.
Thecla Habilis (living in 1st World England) and Dash Earthboy (raised in Ohio Amish country, now living in backwoods Georgia - also an SL newbie) , and I then teleported to an outdoor location where we sat in big beanbag chairs, shared coffee, ice cream, and Oreo cookies, and got better acquainted.
I found the whole experience to be exhilarating.
- - - - - - - -
"Afterward" from Bruce's human back-up in 1st World:
Although I've been exploring Second Life for less than two months, the experience seems to have affected me profoundly. Because every avatar is "backed" by an actual flesh-and-blood person sitting at a computer somewhere in the physical world, one gets a powerful sense of Global Connectedness in Second Life. Language is no barrier -- That's if you're typing (SL offers instant translation). In most locations, one can also interact with "live voice" using a microphone, in which case she will hear a wonderful diversity of accents and languages. I have never entered Second Life when there were fewer than 60,000 others there.
www.secondlife.com (It's free.)
A link to Wikipedia's entry on Holodecks (fascinating Star Trek stuff!)
"Second Life" in YouTube.com (search) reveals many informative videos from Second Life.
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I would love to know what you think about any of this, so, if you wish, email me at hermitdog42@gmail.com
As for me. . .? Well, I'd prefer to skinny-dip in an actual mountain lake,
and wander through an actual forest, and attend an actual Friends Meeting.
But, when access to the physical world is limited or unavailable, Second Life can also be exhilarating.
It's a beginning.