“Be Excellent to Each Other.”

Individual behavior is the sole criteria that can result in an individual being barred from participation for a length of time. The conditions for initial and continued participation consist of providing the basic environment required to reach towards our goals.

Barring from Participation:

If necessary, an individual may need to be barred to protect the required environment and to give individual time to make adjustments/changes. If these are pursued and result in significant improvement, the barred individual can apply to be reinstated early. Conversely, should it be necessary for an individual to be barred for the same pattern of behavior, it will be for a longer term. If this occurs after an appeal has been granted, further appeals are unlikely to be granted.

We don't expect participants to have mastered these requirements over night, rather a commitment to engaging with others in the following ways and learning habits and skills to be able to live up to that commitment. Initial slip ups are expected, occasional slip ups will happen.

• Civility: treat each other with respect. (more below.)

• Collegiality: treat each other as colleagues. (more below.)

• Authenticity: authentic self-representation and expression. (more below.)

• Cooperative Engagement: following accepted standards of scholarly engagement such as following Critical Thinking criteria, and Universal Intellectual Standards in general, and utilizing accepted (or developing) methods and forms of inquiry. In a cooperative helpful environment. (more below.)

• Do Not Seek to Harm: No matter the nature of difference or disagreement, actively attacking another to cause them harm whether through direct confrontation or through indirect undermining of their relationships with others, is not acceptable.

• This is part of the bare minimum for participation at any level, and will usually result in being barred from participation for a significant period.

• Strive to express by example the central value of emancipation/liberation.

Civility & Collegiality:

• Etiquette: act with awareness of the needs of others. (Basic elementary school etiquette of equality. Raise you hand, wait your turn, queue up, etc.)

• Collegiality: Treating others as colleagues, which includes respectful and friendly treatment. While real collegiality (becoming colleagues) takes time to develop, one sign of it will be to address each other by first names, except in formal introductions.

• Individuality: Treat each person as the unique individual and spark of divinity that they are. Only individuals join and participate in TGI, not organizations or traditions. Group identification is a serious source of bias, and identifying someone with a group in effect is an attempt to bind them, as is proselytizing. This includes theoretical groups from stereotyping and sweeping generalizations..

• At TGI we criticize the position or argument not the person.

Authenticity:

Speak from the heart, for you are the perfect day and within you dwells the light that does not fail.- The Gospel of Truth

• Strive to act in accord with the authentic core inner self, not the whims of ego identification.

• This can be confusing in a “be yourself” culture where “yourself” merely refers to your current ego-identity or state.

• In view of the many difficult identity and emotional issues involved in late-teen and early adulthood, and other considerations, minors will not be able to participate. The minimum age for participation may be raised based on experience and/or research.

• Actual names (meaning legal names including acceptable variations/diminutives) will be used by group participants. Some proof of identity will be required in most cases, such as appearing on web cam holding a picture ID with your name on it (all other info can be covered).

• This is done to foster an environment more conducive to collegial interaction, and also to remove a common internet means of acting inauthentically and tools for acting inappropriately.

• Permission to use an alternate name will be given for serious reasons such as personal safety or employment. You will still need to provide proof of actual identity that will remain confidential.

Cooperative Engagement

People quarrel because they cannot argue. - GK Chesterton

To assess the natural quality of even the cleverest heads ... one should take note of how they interpret and reproduce the opinions of their opponents: for how this is done betrays the natural measure of every intellect. – The perfect sage without knowing it elevates his opponent into the ideal and purifies his contradictory opinion of every blemish and extraneous element: only when his opponent has by this means become a god with shining weapons does the sage oppose him. (FN, DB:V.431)

Never keep back or bury in silence that which can be thought against your thoughts! Give it praise! It is among the foremost requirements of honesty of thought. Every day you must conduct your campaign also against yourself. ...your concern is truth... (FN, DB:IV.370)

Where does the ego cease? – Most people take a thing that they know under their protection, as if knowledge of it sufficed to make it their property. The ego's desire for appropriation is boundless... (FN, DB:IV.285)

Egos can get over-invested and become overly defensive very easily, identify with a position or idea and be drawn into an ego-driven all-out fight. Aspects of internet communication can significantly exacerbate this problem.

Gnostics view the human ego as a psychological analogy/interpretation of the demiurge. So entering an ego-driven fight results in being at the mercy of, in bondage to, your own personal demiurge.

Both caution and assistance from others who can recognize the beginning of such a situation are invaluable.

We move towards liberation by not being trapped in, or blind to our many inherent biases and ego-identifications. Researchers in all fields need to carefully reduce and/or account for them in their particular line of inquiry.

All of this occurs with a community. Colleagues are repeatedly consulted throughout the research process. To seriously engage in research whether for personal or wider use – we must become a community of colleagues.