FLR DOCTRINE
THE MANUAL OF
NO CONCLUSION
INSTRUCTIONS FOR AN
INCONCLUSIVE EXPERIENCE
OF UNCERTAIN PRACTICE
ACCORDING TO FATHER L. ROD
DOCTRINE OF INCONCLUSIVE PLAY
PLAY IS THE PERMISSION STRUCTURE.
The Doctrine of Inconclusive Play recognizes no requirement that the encounter produce a result.
WHAT → WHERE
WHAT
"What is happening?" immediately invites interpretation, explanation, causality, psychology.
WHERE
"Where is it happening?" keeps attention in the field. PHENOMENOLOGICAL!
THE SELVES
THE AUGMENTED SELF™
The self that knows.
—It interprets.
—It categorizes.
—It predicts.
—It recognizes patterns.
—It constructs a coherent story.
—It knows what happened.
Useful. Necessary. Exhausting.
THE TRUE AUGMENTED SELF™
The self that remains available to what it does not yet know.
—It doesn't abandon knowledge.
—It doesn't become empty.
—It becomes capable of not immediately completing the experience.
OPERATIVE CONDITION
THE UNFIXED SELF™
AKA
THE POROUS SELF™
The Unfixed Self is not without identity. It simply isn't finished.
The Porous Self is not boundary-less. It has boundaries, but they are permeable enough for encounter.
"Where are we now?"
The Porous Self permits the answer to change.
THE PROGRESSION
PATH A
WHATISM™
↓AUGMENTED SELF™
↓FIXATION
PATH B
WHEREABOUTISM™
↓TRUE AUGMENTED SELF™
↓UNFIXED / POROUS SELF™
↓PLAY
Play is the condition in which the Unfixed Self can remain available.
FLR PROPOSITIONS
THE UNFIXED SELF™ IS NOT LOST. IT IS CURRENTLY UNLOCATED.
POROSITY IS NOT THE ABSENCE OF BOUNDARIES. IT IS THE ABILITY TO NOTICE WHEN THEY HAVE MOVED.
WHEREABOUTISM™
WHATISM asks.
WHO AM I?
WHEREABOUTISM asks.
WHERE AM I?
WHERE ARE WE NOW?
THE FLR PHYSICS OF PLAY
TERMINUS
FIXEDNESS
↓WHATISM
↓AUGMENTED SELF
↓INTERPRETATION
↓CONCLUSION
CONTINUATION
PLAY
↓WHEREABOUTISM
↓POROUS SELF
↓NOTICE
↓CONTINUATION
The right column loops. PLAY → WHEREABOUTISM → POROUS SELF → NOTICE → PLAY.
CAUTION
CONTINUOUS WHEREABOUTS SYNDROME
The Whereaboutist does not arrive. The Whereabouts continues. Not searching for an answer. Searching for where the encounter has moved.
The hand was here.
Now the bell.
Now the laugh.
Now the doorway.
Now the stranger.
Now the silence.
Now somewhere else.
The field is not a destination. It is continuously relocating itself.
This is why "peak experience" isn't quite right either. A peak implies an apex. A summit. A highest point. FLR's ideal condition has no summit. It is continuous availability.
PEAK WHEREABOUTISM
A joke/technical term for those rare moments when you're completely inside this condition.
Do not try to remain there. Because trying to maintain the state immediately creates another Augmented Self:
THE CLONED AUGMENTED SELF™
Am I still in Whereaboutism?
Am I still in Whereaboutism?
YOU HAVE BEEN SEEN
▪A hand.
▪A face.
▪A thumb.
▪A posture.
▪A moment of hesitation.
▪A willingness to play.
▪A refusal.
▪A glance.
▪A laugh.
Nothing more is required.
I.not a compliment.
II.It is not therapy.
III.It is not affirmation.
IV.It is not a declaration of spiritual insight.
V.It is an observation.
For one brief interval, you entered the field. FLR noticed. That is all.
Perhaps you were beautiful.
Perhaps you were uncomfortable.
Perhaps you were suspicious.
Perhaps you were delighted.
Perhaps you wanted nothing whatsoever to do with FLR.
All of these conditions remain inconclusive.
To be seen does not mean to be interpreted.
To be seen does not mean to be known.
Something happened here, and FLR noticed.
MYTHOLOGICAL RECIPROCITY
Sometimes two strangers meet inside a story neither of them has completely agreed upon.
One person makes an opening. The other person recognizes it. And instead of asking: Is this real? they answer: Yes.
A woman dances alone.
FLR approaches.
He says: "I've been searching for you."
She understands.
Not literally.
Something stranger.
She recognizes the world being proposed.
There is now a story.
She is someone FLR has been searching for.
FLR is someone who has finally found her.
The fortune was always meant for her.
The moment was already waiting.
None of this has to be true.
That is precisely why it can become true enough to play.
Mythological reciprocity occurs when one person offers a small piece of imaginary reality and another person accepts it — not as factual information, but as a place to stand.
▪A gesture.
▪A costume.
▪A bell.
▪A fortune.
▪A strange sentence.
▪A willingness to answer the invitation.
Neither person owns it. Neither person invented it alone. It exists between them. This is the Third Thing.
The invitation may be refused.
The mythology may collapse.
The participant may walk away.
Nothing has gone wrong.
The field remains inconclusive.
But sometimes —
someone enters.
And FLR enters with them.
For thirty seconds,
the world becomes slightly stranger.
That is enough.