Category: Biology/Ecology

Damanhur Movie

28-minute movie featuring the UN-declared “Community of the Future”

Nestled in the alpine foothills north of Piedmont, Italy, between Turin and Aosta, is a truly magical place on earth called Damanhur. In a 15-kilometer area surrounding the lush, green valley of Valchiusella lives a very active, multilingual community of 600 people. Damanhur is a Federation of spiritual communities, with its own Constitution, culture, art, music, currency, schools and uses of science and technology. Its citizens are open to sharing their knowledge and research with other groups and cultures of the world, with anyone who is interested in exploring these themes. Damanhur holds events at numerous centers, organizations and points of outreach in many cities around the world, and also hosts thousands of visitors each year who participate in tours, seminars, retreats and courses through Damanhur University. The community has attracted interest from scholars, educators and researchers in the fields of art, social sciences, spirituality, medicine and alternative health, economics and environmental sustainability.

Damanhur was founded in 1975 from the inspiration of Falco Tarassaco, né Oberto Airaudi (1950-2013). His enlightened and pragmatic vision created a fertile reality based on solidarity, sharing, love and respect for the environment. As a result, Damanhur has slowly expanded into a United Nations award-winning sustainable eco-community. Staying true to Falco’s original vision of a community based upon ethical and spiritual values, Damanhur has captivated attention around the world as a laboratory for experimenting with sustainable ways of living, in harmony with nature and its elements and forces.

Damanhur is perhaps best known for its extraordinary subterranean work of art and architecture, a cathedral known as the Temples of Humankind. It has been profiled on international television as the “Eighth Wonder of The World.” This complex was entirely dug by hand into the heart of the mountain. Decorated with mosaics, stained glass, sculptures, wall paintings and other works of art, it is dedicated to the awakening the divine spark present in every human being.

The Afterlife and the Unconscious Mind with Betty Kovács: New Thinking Allowed with Jeffrey Mishlove

Betty J. Kovács, PhD, taught symbolic/mythic language for twenty-five years. She has served as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Jung Society of Claremont, California, and sits on the Academic Advisory Board of Forever Family Foundation. Dr. Kovacs is author of Merchants of Light: The Consciousness That Is Changing the World, winner of The Scientific and Medical Network 2019 Book Prize and a Nautilus Silver Award. She has also written The Miracle of Death: There Is Nothing But Life. Her website is www.kamlak.com.

Here she explains that consciousness is infinite and that, ultimately, there is no real separation between our waking consciousness, our subconscious mind, and the afterlife. It is all one. However, that realization is difficult to maintain in the face of daily life’s necessities. She describes several powerful examples of both archetypal, visionary experiences and after-death communications. They blend into each other. She closes with a riveting prophetic vision.

Beyond Belief: Considering Evidence for Life After Life- Dr. Eben Alexander, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD.

Believing in the afterlife is one thing… proving it is another.

This year, people from around the world competed in an essay contest providing their rationale for life after death. Nearly $2 million in prize money was awarded with Las Vegas entrepreneur Robert Bigelow putting up the prize money. Jeffrey Mishlove took home half a million dollars for the winning essay.

Dr. Eben Alexander, author of “Proof of Heaven,” does not need to be convinced–he lived it. A highly trained neurosurgeon, Alexander was taught that although NDEs feel real, they are nothing more than fantasies produced by brains under extreme stress.

Then, Alexander’s own brain was attacked by a rare illness and shut down completely. Alexander spent a week in a coma. As his doctors considered stopping treatment, Alexander’s eyes popped open. He had come back. Alexander is a doctor who believes that true health can be achieved only when we realize that God and the soul are real and that death is not the end of personal existence but only a transition.

Mishlove and Alexander come together to tackle big questions such as, what is the best evidence for postmortem survival of human consciousness? How can we accommodate this evidence within a contemporary scientific and philosophical framework? Where is research on postmortem survival leading? Join the Vail Symposium for a program that will plumb the depths of belief on this consequential topic.

LIFE BEYOND: Chapter 1. Alien life, deep time, and our place in cosmic history (4K)

The biggest question of our time. Are we alone? Chapter 1 of this experience takes you to alien worlds and distant places in time and space, in search of where alien life might be hiding and what our place is within the history of life. After generations of wondering, the truth is finally within our reach. New research and technologies have brought us closer than ever to an answer – only a few decades in the eyes of some NASA scientists.

The search has led to new discoveries that will blow your mind wide open and give a profound new perspective on human life. The deeper we look, the deeper we see into nature’s imagination, and the more we learn about ourselves. I hope stewing on these thoughts tickles your brain as deeply as it does mine.

In upcoming chapters of Life Beyond we will explore making contact with intelligent life, the potential physics of alien biology, how to survive the end of the universe, and more.

Man Spends 30 Years Turning Degraded Land into Massive Forest – Fools & Dreamers (Full Documentary)

The incredible story of how degraded gorse-infested farmland has been regenerated back into beautiful New Zealand native forest over the course of 30 years.

Fools & Dreamers: Regenerating a Native Forest is a 30-minute documentary about Hinewai Nature Reserve, on New Zealand’s Banks Peninsula, and its kaitiaki/manager of 30 years, botanist Hugh Wilson. When, in 1987, Hugh let the local community know of his plans to allow the introduced ‘weed’ gorse to grow as a nurse canopy to regenerate farmland into native forest, people were not only skeptical but outright angry – the plan was the sort to be expected only of “fools and dreamers”.

Now considered a hero locally and across the country, Hugh oversees 1500 hectares resplendent in native forest, where birds and other wildlife are abundant and 47 known waterfalls are in permanent flow. He has proven without doubt that nature knows best – and that he is no fool.

Into the Soil | The Wisdom of Regenerative Farming | Full Documentary

”A refreshing perspective on what it means to be wealthy” – Don Smith, Kiss the Ground

In the documentary ”Into the Soil” we follow Brigid LeFevre, who runs a community supported agriculture operation (CSO) in Järna, Sweden. In her biodynamic vegetable garden she focuses on fermenting the harvest in order to enrich it with nutritious lactic acid bacteria.

Brigid grew up in an anthroposophically inspired Camphill community in Northern Ireland where volunteers lived and worked together with people with special needs. It was a self-sufficient community where the local store brought in bulk organic produce and each household would write down their purchases – without any actual exchange of money.

Growing up in a place where food was separated from the economic market has had a big impact on Brigid’s philosophy as a farmer. And really, come to think about it, why is it that the global ups and downs of the economy should determine the operating practices of small scale local farms?

In Brigid’s garden it doesn’t. She grows and ferments vegetables for the members, who subscribe to her sauerkraut, kimchi and lacto fermented pickles, all year round. The members support this regenerative agriculture operation with money or hands-on help in the garden.

It’s a local, circular economy, which underpins an alive garden, buzzing and chirping, where the goal isn’t to turn a profit, but rather to make the soil more alive with the passing of each season.

Directed and produced by Mattias Olsson for Campfire Stories. Musical score composed by Arvid Rask. Sound design by Boris Laible and Jonas Källstrand. Financed in part by the Namaste Foundation.