[Seed2009](/Seed2009) > [Agenda](/Seed2009/Agenda) > [The federation of Damanhur](/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:](http://www.thetemples.org/) “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
Goal of Damanhur is to inspire, not proselytize
- they want Lion to do something *different* in Seattle
Self-regulating systems
- ex: plants “watering themselves” using sensors (caused a flood)
Both sharing and competitiveness are virtues
- Damanhurians believe in the transformative power of games
Work
- 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](/SolSeedCreed)
Relation with nearby towns
- nearest town's mayor is a Damanhurian
- have majority board positions on 3 next nearest towns
Apathy
- 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](/discipline)
- walking stone circuits can be used to “get into action”
- [philosophical](/SolSeedPhilosophy) 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](/Empathy)
- 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](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Huxley) and [Teilhard de Chardin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Teilhard_de_Chardin): transhumanism means “becoming more human”
How to draw people in?
- Lion: Damanhur relies on word of mouth (“Advertising is for chips”)
- Julie: ask people to bring a friend
Kim: Principles vs. concrete description of “what you want to get done”
- 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](http://www.indrasrainbow.org/) -- connected with [Institute of Noetic Sciences](http://www.noetic.org/)
- New Possibilities Group
- specific current project: movie interpretation
Information about Damanhur
- [damanhur.org website]
- [Le storie di Damanhur](http://it.damanhur.biz/index.php?page=shop.product_details&product_id=1072&category_id=12&flypage=flypage.tpl&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1) -- comic books in Italian about the founding of Damanhur
- [Damanhur: Temples of Humanity](http://www.amazon.com/Damanhur-Temples-Humankind-Silvia-Buffagni/dp/1556435770) -- book of pictures of the temples
- [Damanhur: The Story of the Amazing Artistic Society in Italy](http://www.amazon.com/Damanhur-Extraordinary-Artistic-Spiritual-Community/dp/1592750109/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b) and [Damanhur: The Society They Tried to Brand as a Cult](http://www.amazon.com/Damanhur-Community-They-Tried-Brand/dp/072253700X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231892073&sr=1-1) (Jeff Merrifield) -- detailed analysis of community structure, stories, history, ideas, life