Lineage, Continuity, and Myth-Making at a Cultural Threshold

Presented as part of the Vision Lab Salon Series (February 2026), organized by Vision Lab — an interdisciplinary arts and research collective originally founded at Harvard Divinity School.

“Lineage, Continuity, and Myth-Making at a Cultural Threshold” is a hybrid lecture-performance by Stephanie Smit (Giek), founder of Reality Cult. Combining artistic reincarnation research, symbolic analysis, philosophical inquiry, and performative storytelling, the work explores soul continuity, collective memory, myth-making, and recurring relational dynamics across time.

Developed within Stephanie Smit’s broader Reality Cult research framework, the presentation investigates how emotional patterns, creative affinities, symbolic roles, and archetypal identities may continue to re-emerge throughout different historical and cultural periods. Rather than approaching reincarnation as fixed doctrine, the work explores continuity as a lived, symbolic, psychological, and relational phenomenon.

Vision Lab Salon Series at Harvard Divinity School

The presentation was developed for the Vision Lab Salon Series, an international forum for contemplative, artistic, philosophical, and interdisciplinary research practices organized by Vision Lab, a collective originally founded at Harvard Divinity School.

The series brings together artists, scholars, researchers, and contemplative practitioners within an intimate dialogical setting focused on inquiry, experimentation, and exchange.

Artistic Reincarnation Research and Soul Group Dynamics

Drawing from karmic astrology, intuitive inquiry, mythology, symbolic analysis, and comparative historical research, Stephanie Smit explores how recurring identity patterns may shape artistic collaboration, attraction, emotional recognition, and creative movements across time.

A central aspect of the presentation concerns what she describes as soul group dynamics — recurring experiences of resonance, familiarity, symbolic repetition, and shared psychological or creative themes between individuals across lifetimes or historical periods.

Rather than reducing these experiences to literal reincarnation claims alone, the work approaches them as multidimensional relational phenomena operating between mythology, psychology, symbolism, memory, and spiritual experience.

Myth-Making, Symbolic Memory, and Cultural Continuity

The presentation approaches myth not as fiction, but as a cultural technology through which societies organize meaning, transformation, identity, and collective imagination.

Particular attention is given to moments of cultural transition where older symbolic systems begin to lose coherence, creating space for new narratives, identities, and mythologies to emerge.

Within this framework, symbolic memory is explored as something that may persist collectively through artistic movements, emotional structures, archetypal roles, and cultural patterns that continue to reappear across generations.

Performance as Philosophical Inquiry

Combining spoken text, visual material, symbolic analysis, and performative presence, the work positions performance itself as a space for philosophical and perceptual inquiry.

Rather than offering fixed conclusions, the presentation invites audiences to reflect on continuity, consciousness, identity, memory, and the possibility that human lives participate within larger symbolic and narrative structures moving across time.

The work proposes artistic research and performance as alternative frameworks for approaching questions surrounding reincarnation, collective memory, and cultural continuity beyond conventional academic or institutional structures.

Ongoing Collaboration with Vision Lab

Following her performance “A Soul’s Journey” at the Vision Lab conference in 2025, Stephanie Smit became part of the Vision Lab collective — an interdisciplinary network originally founded at Harvard Divinity School exploring consciousness, spirituality, philosophy, contemplative practice, and artistic research.

Through this ongoing collaboration, Stephanie Smit contributes to an international dialogue between artists, scholars, contemplative practitioners, and interdisciplinary researchers investigating symbolism, cultural transformation, myth-making, memory, and expanded models of identity and consciousness.

New talks, exhibitions, performative research formats, salon gatherings, and collaborative interdisciplinary projects are currently in development within the evolving Vision Lab framework.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is artistic reincarnation research?

Artistic reincarnation research is an interdisciplinary approach combining art, symbolism, astrology, mythology, intuitive inquiry, historical analysis, and creative practice to investigate recurring emotional, psychological, symbolic, and archetypal patterns across lifetimes and historical periods.

What are soul group dynamics?

Soul group dynamics refer to recurring experiences of recognition, emotional familiarity, attraction, creative resonance, symbolic repetition, and shared themes between individuals across time.

What is symbolic memory?

Symbolic memory refers to the persistence of emotional, cultural, archetypal, and mythological patterns across generations, artistic movements, identities, and historical periods.

What is the Vision Lab Salon Series?

The Vision Lab Salon Series is an interdisciplinary forum organized by Vision Lab, a research and arts collective originally founded at Harvard Divinity School, bringing together artists, scholars, contemplative practitioners, and researchers exploring consciousness, spirituality, philosophy, and contemporary culture.

Is this work philosophical, spiritual, artistic, or psychological?

Reality Cult approaches reincarnation research as an interdisciplinary field existing between artistic research, philosophy, symbolism, spirituality, psychology, mythology, and cultural analysis.

What role does performance play in the research?

Performance is approached as a form of embodied philosophical inquiry through which audiences engage emotionally, psychologically, and symbolically with questions surrounding identity, continuity, memory, and consciousness.

What is the Reality Cult constellation project?

The Reality Cult constellation project is an evolving interactive research platform mapping proposed soul lineages, recurring archetypes, cultural relationships, symbolic themes, and historical continuities between individuals across time.