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Overview

  • 3 references 2 Confirmed & Positive
  • Fluent in English; learning Afrikaans
  • 36, Male
  • Member since 2011
  • Philosopher, yogi, poi
  • Nelson Mandela University MA Philosophy
  • No hometown listed
  • Profile 100% complete

About Me

"Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth," Alan Watts. I'm going to need braces after this! In personality typology, I'm an INTP, 5 with 4 Wing, Taurus, Dragon and Yellow Self-Existing Warrior (MBTI, Enneagram, Star Sign, Chinese Zodiac, Mayan Signature).

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

To fuse my inner and outer horizons by dancing with change.

Interests

A lot of my time is spent pondering. My master's treatise seeks to communicate to humanity a new way to change the world. My doctorate will probably be the project in which I seek to communicate a paradigm through which to change Western institutions in ways that will socialise humans into a positivity bias. My post-doctorate might be a multi-series fantasy novel in which Western, Eastern and African philosophies come to life in the form of magic. All three of these, and more, are co-creating one another.

  • writing
  • literature
  • architecture
  • festivals
  • yoga
  • meditation
  • anime
  • movies
  • traveling
  • hiking
  • trail running
  • tennis
  • philosophy
  • psychology
  • food
  • poi
  • buddhism
  • shamanism
  • psytrance
  • fire spinning
  • tai chi
  • barefoot

Music, Movies, and Books

Sometimes music is stomping in a forest and some other times it's sitting on a cushion. Two artists that spring to mind are Bonobo and Wax Tailor. I made the following playlist of philosophy discourses in music to listen to when trail running and poi dancing https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLq8VQbQjZMmTjyI6MHCqHBU-Ycc3vpVT9

I've gone through cyckes in movie, series, documentaries and anime; studied media analysis and presented on Gaspar Noé's Enter the Void at a conference. Hyperlink is my favourite moving picture genre. I fancy Hunter X Hunter, Wolf Children, Fargo, Whatever Works, The Royal Tenenbaums, Pulp Fiction, 11:14, and a whole lot more!

I love learning and ironically find that I learn from more fiction than non-fiction. Books and audiobooks that I've enjoyed are The Name of the Wind, The Gentlemen Bastard, Harry Potter, Shantaram, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Sapiens.

I like surrealist artwork such as Jacek Yerka' S.A.D.

Coursera is another pastime. The Positive Psychology module by Barbara Fredrickson is fantastic!

Check out my FaceBook profile to meet my tribe https://www.facebook.com/mchl.barker

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Drove down from Kenya through Tanzania, Zanzibar, Malawi and Botswana back to South Africa.

Teach, Learn, Share

What you offer will influence me in unforeseeable ways, which is how I like it!

What I Can Share with Hosts

Vegan chocolate, avo chocolate mouse, ginger tea, kefir, yoga, breathing (pranayama), meditation, yoga (demonstration and instruction), acroyoga, poi (teaching or performance), full moon hike, philosophical conversation, healthy lifestyle, enneagram personality test.

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Belgium, Botswana, Germany, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia

Countries I’ve Lived In

China, Netherlands, South Africa, United Kingdom

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