How Storytelling Gives Back What has been Taken From us

We are all storytellers. We live in a network of stories. There isn't a stronger connection between people than storytelling.

Jimmy Neil Smith

The lights of Ibiza airport shimmer in the distance. The infinity pool drinks the last strokes of the purple sunset as the cool dark water is ready for the stars.

Some people enter the villa. They don't know it yet, but they have the chance to be a star in their own story this evening. Or a loser, a gambler, a lover of life. Anything they choose. Everything the story chooses them to be. Every colour they are.

Host Michael places the last candles inside the living room where a huge vagina-shaped crystal welcomes the visitors for tonight's Ibiza Storytelling gathering. Entering the cosey room feels like entering the womb of time.

Tonight we will get catapulted back to the origins of mankind where our story as humanity began, around burning wood purging flames to the sky.

Our contemporary fire tonight is cleverly built in the wall. Colorful cushions spread out in a circle. The crystal talking stick in the middle soon will transport the storyteller out of time and space. People sit down talking, some hide in the cushions. The fire lights up and casts a shadow on one part of Michael's face when he slowly enters the room. The murmurs die away like the last rays of daylight outside when he takes the talking stick.

In Ibiza tonight, in a beautiful villa high in the hills, the scene is set, the magic is welcomed in our sacred circle. 

Let the story begin.

The power of sharing and attention

It feels like we're going to take something crucial back that is taken from us the last 2 crazy years.

We have been driven apart by walls of social media dopamine, lock downs, the breaking apart of social cohesion, and the increase of fear for other humans through a global raging propaganda machine of relentless fear. 

Tonight we take back what is ours.

Hearts beating together. 

Intimacy.

We leave our frantic narcissistic dopamine-driven behavior in the bag outside that collects our phones. Tonight, we are invited to open up to the stories of other real beings instead of checking our Facebook storyline to gain some more self-worth.

There are several ritual acts this evening. All of them are as old as humanity. We do them semi-conscious, but in fact, they are the foundation of undivided attention. 

The circle and the talking stick.

The Sacred circle 

The circle is a sacred form. Stepping in it allows us to look at all the faces around us. It is also sacred in itself, representing life, birth, and death, wholeness, oneness. A sacred storytelling circle needs to be opened, and to be closed. Like a ceremony.

Inside the circle is a safe place of transition. We can take all the roles we want, choose every shadow to be lit. The people in the circle are holding the space.

We have a chance to literally take the front seat of life in the full presence of others. It's a great exercise in coming fully alive. 

What is presence, you might ask?

Presence

Presence is undivided attention, feeling connected to the ground and at the same time tethered to consciousness. 

Something that Zoom calls never will be able to replace.

How hard big tech may try pushing us in a virtual fake world, nothing beats real human connection. 

This practice raises the vibration in the room. More awareness can poor in like the bright light of Orion that now can be seen hovering above Ibiza town. This vibration and attention can possibly become a channel. And here is where the magic happens.

For me, the challenge is to step in the circle blank. With no preconceived idea of what I am going to tell. Let spirit guide me. Let the words be chosen that need to be spoken. Let the story be woven by intentions, the moods, the attention, and spirits of all present this evening.

When my mind gets in the way, people will lose their attention.

How attention and story heals us

That's what storytellers do. We restore order with imagination. We instill hope again and again.

Walt Disney

A story has a healing power in itself. 

Because it invites us into the part of the brain that saved homo sapiens, the imagination. It also takes us by the hand to lead us into the unknown, behind the big door of the mind.

In a story we can transcend our personal suffering, A story gives meaning to our lives. We can shelter there for the rawness, indifference, and randomness of life.

We find shelter in our life stories because of that meaning giving quality of storytelling. And at the end of the day, as Jamie Wheal calls us, we are storytelling monkeys. 

When we share our gift of story, it becomes more powerful. 

What happens when we speak from that place of imagination, courage, and the heart? We will touch other people's souls.

Connection

Ever felt lifted up standing in front of a group? 

In a circle, this undivided attention and presence activate something magical we can actually use for our story. We are no longer alone, isolated. We become part of a bigger group. 

We're back in the safety of the clan. 

When a story is spoken from the heart and is inspired by the moment, we speak for all of us gathered in the circle. Then healing words poor out in the space between us. Tears can flow. We are lifted out of our separated life from others. This can be deeply healing.

Words have the power to connect. Stories overcome the experience of separation. In connection is healing.

Take your front seat

The people that accept the invitation to speak take the crystal talking stick and sit on a small round chair looking at the circle. 

Many get a bit nervous. They now symbolically took the front seat of their life.

They get 5 minutes to do basically anything they like. Most of the people tell a story, some play music, some start a guided meditation, a song, a prayer, a combination of all of that. 

You are free to step into the front seat of your life, you also can remain in the shade. But remember: you deserve that front seat, that's the main reason you are here for in the first place

Tonight's storytelling evening breathes a very compelling mix of a jet-set lifestyle, hippie culture, haute cuisine, and being present to one and another. 

In Ibiza, what your name is and what you do for a living is less important than being fully authentically you.

The magic of storytelling is invited through the channel we create with our imagination and presence.

When Orion is on its way through the journey of the night, inside a Villa on a hilltop in Ibiza, men and women are swept on the shores of their imagination, connected through the sacred web of their stories. 

Outside, time stood still.

Create your own story. Choose your reality.

Lucien Lecarme