As a group of people inspired by the Icarus Project, we offer you this preamble as a tool for your gatherings. You can summarize or read the preamble out loud to begin your meeting, as a way to focus the purpose and keep the bigger vision in everyone’s mind. As your group learns its own lessons and needs, feel free to revise and create your own version.

Welcome everyone to our Icarus Project local gathering.

The Icarus Project envisions a new culture and language that resonates with our actual experiences of ‘mental illness’ rather than trying to fit our lives into a conventional framework. We see our madness as a dangerous gift to be cultivated and taken care of, rather than as a disease or disorder needing to be “cured” or “overcome.”

This is a space for people to come together and learn from each others’ different views and experiences of madness. People who take psychiatric drugs are welcome here, as are people who don’t take psychiatric drugs. People who use diagnosis categories to describe themselves are welcome, as are people who define themselves differently. The Icarus Project values self-determination and mutual support.

This gathering has some basic agreements to ensure inclusion, safety, and open dialog:

• We ‘listen like allies.’ We respect a wide diversity of choices and perspectives, even when we disagree, and we don’t judge or invalidate other people’s experiences. We try not to interrupt. When it’s our turn to speak, we can ask others for feedback and advice, or just have people listen without responding. All responses are in a positive spirit of support and respect.
• We also practice 'step up step back.' People who are quiet are encouraged to speak, and those who talk a lot are encouraged to give others a chance. We invite new people to introduce themselves if they want. And silence is also always ok.
• As a community, we try to use ‘owl vision’, the ability to listen closely to the speaker while also having a feeling for the needs of the whole group. Keep in mind that others might be waiting to speak, or when we all might need to take a break.
• We recognize that overcoming oppression helps everyone’s liberation; it is the group’s responsibility to challenge racism, classism, sexism, ageism, homophobia, and other forms of prejudice. We educate each other in the spirit of solidarity, and hold others accountable for their behavior without criticizing who they are as people.
• We respect spiritual beliefs, altered states of consciousness, and definitions of reality that fall outside the mainstream material view.
• In order to be as clear as possible, we try to use “I statements” when speaking to the group. This helps us avoid misunderstandings, and invokes trust and sensitivity.
• We try to pay attention to repeating patterns in each other’s lives, in order to identify root causes. We try to notice common themes and roles that we play out together as a group.
• To create trust we respect confidentiality. The group decides on what level of disclosure and openness outside the group we want.

This is a work in progress. We need everyone’s feedback and ideas of how to improve our efforts and strengthen our group. And as we meet, keep in mind that there are many other people gathering like this to build community support networks with a vision of a new world.