Duncan Horst on NeuroConvergence and the Erotic Path to God

Duncan Horst discusses his work with Fifth Wall Productions, an interactive theater company aimed at breaking the distinction between actor and audience to foster a sense of community and combat nihilism. He explained the concept of the "fifth wall," which involves audience members actively participating in performances. Horst also delved into the importance of neuro convergence, integrating neurodiverse individuals into a unified framework, and emphasized the role of sexual practices and financial management in personal growth. He highlighted the need for trust and shared frameworks to create meaningful connections and enhance cognitive and creative capacities.

Transcript:

Adam Lamb 0:02

Welcome Duncan,

Duncan Horst 0:05

thank you, Adam.

Adam Lamb 0:07

I've followed your work for some time through our Facebook connection. I just spent the last half hour listening to your album that came out in late last year, and I have so much curiosity about you as a person. I will start by asking, What are you up to now? What lights you up in your your work in the world?

Duncan Horst 0:40

Well, there are a couple of different things that feel really germane to this conversation. They're all ultimately connected. It's kind of like a higher IQ version of like the Marvel Avengers arc, where they set up with like 23 different movies that all joined together to defeat Thanos. And in this case, like Thanos or Thanatos, like the ultimate Thanatos is not like a risk of death, but it's the risk of nihilism within a matter modern context. The two biggest ventures that I'm actively engaged in that combat nihilism are fifth wall productions, which is an interactive theater and event company that aspires to break the fifth wall so it's breaking the distinction between actor and audience, breaking The distinction between people who come in to consume entertainment to people who come in and create from the moment so creating, you know, clan size to tribe size gatherings where the identity structure is re knit from passive observer to active co creator within a meta, mythic lens that incorporates a lot of improvisation in order to get people to interact with and enact the archetypes as they're applied to the present moment. Is something that I feel is a plausible answer. It's a plausible answer like, is it the answer, no, but what it can do is it can create identity at the tribal level that is sufficient to modern nervous systems to begin to embody what is necessary in order to remain human.

Adam Lamb 2:41

I'm gonna slow you down, just not at the risk of infantilizing my audience or whoever happens across this recording, I want to back up and like I found that what you just said is I absolutely agree, and I find it very fascinating and interesting, and I want to unpack some of the language. So when you you talk about the fifth wall, and then you you mentioned a few dichotomies that you're breaking apart like, or rather fusing together the audience and the spectator, and being one of them. Can you give some background, perhaps, to this phrase the fifth wall is that something that already exists, or is that a something you made up?

Duncan Horst 3:31

Yes. So I have, like I have my own special little neuro convergent lens on things, the breaking the fourth wall is an established theater term. It's like in house of cards or Shakespeare, when an audience, when an actor, like breaks out of the thing and like does a whispered aside to the audience. Isn't this person ridiculous? And that's my secret plan, like, you know, to get people copacetic your the fourth wall is between what is on the stage and a stage. All theater is implicitly religious theater. You know, all acting started as a way for polities like Athens Greece to honor the local gods and create cultural unity so they could defend themselves against the Persians, or so that they could make sure that their