I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with The Evolver Network? I was introduced to them at the Psychedemia conference, and it seemed like an interesting idea. However, I have had a very difficult time finding much, if any, neutral, outside information about what this group actually does, other than act as a kind of "meetup for heads". There isn't a Spore in my town, and I've been considering starting one, but without some outside info, I'm not comfortable getting started with them.

Also, I have less than glorious feelings for Daniel Pinchbeck. I know he's the founder, so I'm definitely not interested if it's some kind of cult of personality around him.

Thanks.

My experience with Evolver is that it's not a cult around the founders. Honestly, they play an equal or less part in the actual content of the organization than it's contributors (Alex Grey, Starhawk, Dennis McKenna, etc.), from what I've seen. Evolver seems pretty legit to me.

As for starting spores, I've tried to do the same thing, they take a LONG time to get back to you with information...

Here's some informational pages that I've found:

https://sites.google.com...forum/project-definition
http://www.realitysandwich.com/start_spore

Pinchbeck means well IMO, and like SPiral Eye said its more about the contributors than the founders anyways. I don't have any experience with evolver spores but the realitysandwich/evolver network has done a lot of good things over the years, and my brief interactions with them have all been very positive