Philosophy and Performance

In November 2019, Dr Gary Anderson and Dr Niamh Malone ran a 6 week pilot project with 9 adult learners in HMP Risley, Warrington. The project introduced adult learners to a selection of Western philosophers and key critical theories. The design of the course was a result of the collaboration between learners and tutors, and their shared priorities for selecting key philosophers. The relationship between the structures of society and how this is reflected in philosophical thinking and performance formats framed each of the week’s sessions. Liverpool Hope University students on the BA Drama and Theatre degree pathway, participated in the classes held within the prison. This was an excellent opportunity to bring two learning communities together, with both the adult learners and university students sharing the educational space.

The project was so well received by the adult leaners in Risley, that on their request, we were asked to return and deliver another 6 week programme. We were half way through when, unfortunately, our visits had to be suspended due to COVID-19 restrictions, but we are due to return once the lockdown is lifted.

We are also currently working on providing a 10 credit university accredited academic course, which will help adult leaners consider the option of further and higher education on their release.

So bro; how’s it gonna go?

What ya sayin’, fold or flow?

Persist and resist, raise a clenched fist

Or cease and desist, cease to exist

Stick or twist…a noose round your neck

The first pirouette, of an in-cell silhouette

Like the lad on E1, his sentence now done

Leaving feet first, with a toe tag, in his none name-brand body bag

Perchance to sleep, no longer afraid

No longer fearing the post mortem blade

RIP means Risley In Perpetuity

No rest, from the shared hell of a shared cell

The shared smell of another man shitting, forever and ever, Amen, bro’

To be controlled or take control.

Man is born free but everywhere he is in chains. This bondage comes in the form of the enforced ignorance of religious thinking, plus the corruption of self-serving politicians and leaders who are selfish. We are faced with extreme inequality in the imbalance of power and wealth. Can man be set free of being and enslaved peasant by those who are in power? To be free is for one to behave in accordance with one’s own inner nature. We cannot be free if we are constantly limited by the actions and beliefs of others. Can man be set free by sleeping? Thus entering into the dream state which possibly could be controlled through lucid dreaming. Or can man be free in your conscious state by opposing and not abiding to be controlled by the state of government affairs, rules and regulations? We are brainwashed to live and be a certain way which may not be true to your own unique nature and beliefs Certain beliefs and ethics are instilled unto us from a very young age through school, whereby someone else tells you what is right or wrong and what is good and bad. Why do we have to do as you are told with no valid reason which is true to oneself? My question is: Why can’t I find my own purpose in life rather than being told how to be. We are lead to believe that the answers (of happiness or life) are external , but MY truth is that all answers are within. I personally decided to drop out of the conformity of society and find my own reason to life. My idea of being good is to be good to people and to our nature, the world we live in. My philosophy for life is to : judge not – love more – share knowledge and – learn to let go. That’s the moral of my story. live and let live. Know thyself.

Abolished in 2012, yet 223 people are still serving this sentence, and 9 out of every 10 people are way over their tariff! the prison system get 40% more money for every IPP prisoner, so it’s big business! We get one chance of freedom every 12 to 18 months, it’s continued oppression “yet no progression”! It’s not just IPP prisoners that suffer, their families suffer as well, we get no support apart from the 2 weeks before parole, its proved its not fit your purpose, but it’s all about money.

Most IPP prisoners feel like they’re not relevant, hope once a year! “Is it to be” “or not to be” or is this how its meant to be! so turn to drugs, so self harm! Most feel bitter! People are making millions on the back of our misery! Where is the hope! 2 hours every 12 to 18 months for your life to be dissected! But it’s all about money! Where is the guidance or the support, we need legislation put in place to sort out this injustice they call the IPP!

1. The reason I chose Pythagoras is because he is deeply religious and superstitious which I can relate to very much because I also class myself as being spiritual – religious to some extent and – very superstitious.
2. I can relate to a lot of his ideas and beliefs which I have learnt for myself through my own life experience – questioning everything and seeking my own truth.
3. I have had my own revelations through the mystical and science of this world.
4. Pythagoras has two sides of beliefs the mystical and the scientific which he did not see as contradictory. Therefore this can raise a lot of ideas about questions about ourselves and the world we live in.
5. Pythagoras inspired me that the truth can be self evident, by observing and noticing patterns of our nature. He also demonstrated the harmonic relationship of the stars planets and elements through the exact science of numbers and how they govern harmoniously.
6. Pythagorians had a profound effect on philosophical thought.
7. I want to be enlightened by means of demonstration rather than imagination by descriptive or figurative language! Seeing is believing! (Is my motto).
8. People of today have mastered the art of reality therefore rationality has been considered to be the highest part of human nature.
9. We have been taught to shut down the idea of experiencing and perceiving the world in different states of consciousness yet we and science know that there are many more states of consciousness to experience…and learn from. But instead these mysterious experiences and states of consciousness have been brandished, abandoned and rejected as fiction in the [symbol].
10. Aldous Huxley who was a writer, argued that ‘all humans have a deep seated urge for self transcendence’. He then went on to write how people feel extremely inadequate of their personal existence which brings them the misery of being suppressed and insulted human beings.
11. Deep down we want more. There is a sense of feeling which is deeply infused in our beings that there is more to life than material things. There is something bigger and wider but we just can’t grasp it.
12. Abraham Maslow the psychologist though that ‘humans have a fundamental need for peak experiences which go way beyond the self and feel to be connected to something bigger than them’.
13. In mystical literature they say that moments of ego – loss are known as ecstatic feelings or ‘ecstasy’. The word ‘ecstasy’ derive from the Greek word ‘ekstasis’ which means ‘standing outside the self’, but today we are thought to actually think of ecstatic experiences as being very happy.
14. We all crave some kind of ‘flow’, or ways of transcendence through ego-loss, where by we get lost in the moment and lose track of time which makes us feel deeply connected to something greater.
15. But it is difficult to let go of our ego when civilisation imposes great demands of us.
16. 16. We are also our own greatest enemies because we cut ourselves off from the cosmos by our own walls of fear and shame, which is brought on by our own worries and ambitions.
17. There are many ways we can shift this ego-consciousness and be fully absorbed in the ‘the now’.
18. Some people lose themselves in a healthy way through, music, meditation, exercise, sports and many more other ways which leads to self improvement or enlightenment. [footnote: Pythagorians believe that music connects our souls to the divine universe]
19. Whilst some other people unself or lose themselves in a toxic way, which is detrimental to their bodies and society, through drinking alcohol, taking synthetic drugs or self harming.
20. We all have our own ways of letting go every now and then, if we didn’t learn to let go then we would get exhausted and depressed.
21. The Philosopher Iris Murdoch wrote this: ‘We are anxiety ridden animals. Our minds are continually active, fabricating an anxious usually self preoccupied, often falsifying veil which partially conceals our world’.
22. It is important to take control of our bodies and manage our emotions so that we don’t fall victim to be controlled through political language, which George Orwell said: is designed to make lies sound truthful, murder respectable, and gives an appearance of absolute solidity to pure wind. So…..
23. It’s up to us as individuals to find our own balance in this orderly but chaotic world.