Damanhur : The Story of the Extraordinary Italian Artistic and Spiritual Community

by Merrifield, Jeff

• ISBN13: 9781592750108
• ISBN10: 1592750109
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-11-10
• Publisher: Hanford Mead Pub

Summary

In Italy, almost 30 years ago, a group of people dug deep into an Alpine mountainside and built the remarkable Temples of Humankind at Damanhur. These Temples are an extraordinary work of art that has been described as 'an Eighth Wonder of the World'. The Temples are just one of the extraordinary achievements of the people of the Federation of Damanhur. A United Nations award-winning sustainable community, Damanhur is an eco-society based upon ethical and spiritual values. In creating community, Damanhur has drawn on ancient knowledge, esoteric traditions, and modern research to promote a culture of peace and balanced development through solidarity, volunteering, a respect for the environment, and social and political commitment. Damanhurians participate in cutting edge research in such fields as contemporary science, healing, the structure of time, and the interaction with intelligent energies. Damanhur has a system of community that effectively balances encouragement for individuals to reach their highest potential, with an enlightened, democratic structure to provide for the common good. This edition adds extensive updates about the Federation of Damanhur and illustrates Merrifield's description for the first time with 152 black and white photos (there are also 8 pages of color plates as well) that show the human face of this community's incredible accomplishments. A table of contents, extensive index, and a table of illustrations make the book user-friendly to those who want to find out about certain areas of Damanhur's metaphysical and biological research, art, financial system, political involvement, unique system of healing, education, or the biosustainable, intentional community at Damanhur. Damanhur is a place where dreams are realized, where ideas beyond reason are given a chance, and where very often they become a reality. This is the story of how and why this can happen.

Author Biography

Jeff Merrifield, Ph.D., has worked in local government community arts as animateur and coordinator, organizing festivals, large-scale arts events and innovative projects, for over 43 years. Alongside this community work, he has developed his own creative projects and is founder of Playback Arts, producing theater, video, and publications. He is author of an investigation into the Cathar persecutions, The Perfect Heretics, numerous articles on a range of esoteric subjects and has written fourteen plays, edited three books of children's poetry, and one of senior citizen reminiscences. Jeff is coordinator of Artswork Essex, a charitable trust providing arts activities for young people, is founder of the Essex Arts Award and is trainer of advisers for the national young people's Arts Award. He lives in the Essex village of Great Totham in the UK.