Seed2009 > Agenda > The federation of Damanhur
This was a _combined_ session; It was: "The Federation of Damanhur" combined with "Battling Apathy." They were combined because action and working together are central tenants of Damanhurian philosophy, built in at the very ground of it's thinking.
Spirituality of Damanhur
- temples: “digging into the earth = digging into their souls”
- were almost shut down at one point, but a judge who walked through them decided they had to be saved
- balancing three spheres: Divinity, Humanity, Nature
- Damanhurian "Divinity" is a complex subject, but the sphere of divinity can very roughly be understood as the sphere of spirits, fairies, ideas, gods and goddesses, ultimate purpose, philosophy, geometry, and so on.
- aggressive pursuit of the divine / “divinizing matter”
- The human being serves as a bridge between the Divine, and the world of matter. Action is required for this to happen.
- Damanhurian sacred script covering their coins (alternative currency)
- Some Damanhurians believe in contact w/ alien forces or spirits, others not
- example: trees have “auras”
- Lion, as a naturalist, felt spiritual energy when walking through the Damanhur “territory”
- Esoteric physics: treat metaphors as material things and make art of them
- includes things like how to hold a conversation
- Divinity means the line connecting us to the Real, which we can never directly perceive
- they want Lion to do something different in Seattle
- ex: plants “watering themselves” using sensors (caused a flood)
- Damanhurians believe in the transformative power of games
- Damanhurians take no vacations, holidays, or weekends
- Kim: “I don't see my job as work”
- 60 industries
- “if creative nature of every individual is realized, society will be healthy”
- proposal: add these principles to the SolSeedCreed
- nearest town's mayor is a Damanhurian
- have majority board positions on 3 next nearest towns
- Kim:
- issue in education: Students want to graduate, not actually go through the curriculum
- fishing metaphor: “cast a line” (start from others' point of view to try to bring them somewhere else)
- ex. ask “Why don't you care? What do you care about?”
- recognize how people communicate (choose the right diction, tone, etc.) to promote understanding
- know who the other person is and acknowledge them
- know what is acceptable/normal in a given place/culture
- conflict:
- Julie: be detached and see it as “fairy-tale anger”
- People should accept where they are, but not necessarily be comfortable with
- Debbie: people just following along is distressing
- Lion: in Damanhur, freedom is self-discipline
- walking stone circuits can be used to “get into action”
- philosophical choices required for action
- Damanhurians see an individual as myriad voices
- have to work with others
- no drugs other than alcohol in moderation
- Julie:
- Dalai Lama says we need development of values, not just mental and material development of the youth
- action coming from concern and care
- act locally
- have to be “complete” and happy where you are before you can go somewhere else
- Lion: Spiriata has a technical, “mainstream” but transhumanist vision
- Julian Huxley and Teilhard de Chardin: transhumanism means “becoming more human”
- Lion: Damanhur relies on word of mouth (“Advertising is for chips”)
- Julie: ask people to bring a friend
- Lion has found that people will join Spiriata just because they like the principles
- the idea is to use ourselves as test subjects for everyone's ideas
- interested groups
- Indra's Rainbow -- connected with Institute of Noetic Sciences
- New Possibilities Group
- specific current project: movie interpretation
- [damanhur.org website]
- Le storie di Damanhur -- comic books in Italian about the founding of Damanhur
- Damanhur: Temples of Humanity -- book of pictures of the temples
- Damanhur: The Story of the Amazing Artistic Society in Italy and Damanhur: The Society They Tried to Brand as a Cult (Jeff Merrifield) -- detailed analysis of community structure, stories, history, ideas, life
Goal of Damanhur is to inspire, not proselytize
Self-regulating systems
Both sharing and competitiveness are virtues
Work
Relation with nearby towns
Apathy
How to draw people in?
Kim: Principles vs. concrete description of “what you want to get done”
Information about Damanhur