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.
Dr. David J. Chalmers is the Professor of Philosophy and Neural Science and co-director of the Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness at the New York University. He is the author of several books including his latest publication: Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy. In this engaging conversation, Swami Sarvapriyananda and Dr. Chalmers discuss ancient and modern perspectives on consciousness.
This text about Analytic Idealism was generated by OpenAI’s chatGPT:
Analytic idealism is a philosophical perspective that combines elements of idealism, a traditional philosophical position that holds that reality is fundamentally mental or spiritual in nature, with the rigor and clarity of analytic philosophy, a modern movement that emphasizes logical and linguistic analysis.
Analytic idealism argues that the fundamental nature of reality is mental or spiritual, rather than material or physical. According to this perspective, the material world and the physical objects we perceive are ultimately reducible to mental or spiritual entities, and it is these mental or spiritual entities that are the fundamental building blocks of reality.
One of the key figures in the development of analytic idealism is the philosopher David Chalmers, who has written extensively on the subject. In his book “The Character of Consciousness,” Chalmers argues that consciousness is a fundamental aspect of reality, and that it cannot be reduced to or explained by material or physical processes. He suggests that the most plausible explanation for consciousness is that it is a fundamental aspect of reality, akin to space, time, and mass.
Overall, analytic idealism is a philosophical perspective that offers a unique and thought-provoking perspective on the nature of reality and consciousness. It challenges traditional materialist assumptions about the nature of reality and suggests that consciousness and the mental may be more fundamental than the physical. By considering this perspective, we can gain a deeper understanding of the nature of reality and the place of consciousness within it.
”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.
Author John Van Auken, a Director at the Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.), discusses the multidimensional origins of humankind, through the lens of Edgar Cayce’s reading and the ancient civilizations of Lemuria and Atlantis. Auken’s expertise is mysticism, particularly Egyptian and Christian mysticism and meditation. He has appeared on several television and radio programs, including the Discovery Channel’s, Searching for Atlantis, and the History Channel’s, Digging for the Truth.
This is a short documentary made by my dear friend @charliewood93 which I had the pleasure to meet and work with to document the beauty of growing food to re-establish the missing link with nature. Please let me know if it inspired you to spend time outdoors growing your own food.
From the left-brain right-brain divide to the metaphysics of magic, Dr Iain McGilchrist addresses the profound questions of living well. The esteemed thinker was in conversation with Freddie Sayers at the UnHerd Club on 20th April 2023.
Now available for free, THRIVE II explores breakthrough innovations from around the world, unpacks the principles they have in common and offers insights, tools and strategies for reclaiming our lives and our future.
Director Tom Shadyac speaks with intellectual and spiritual leaders about what’s wrong with our world and how we can improve both it and the way we live in it. Stars: Tim Allen, Morgan Freeman, Steve Carell, Jim Carrey, The Dalai Lama, Jennifer Aniston, Danny DeVito, Michael Douglas, Courteney Cox, Brad Dourif, Noam Chomsky, Daniel Quinn, Desmond Tutu, Ray Anderson, John Francis, Thom Hartmann, Chris Jordan, Howard Zinn, Dean Radin, Karo
Artist Tully Arnot’s latest work, EPIPHYTES, is a multi-sensory virtual reality experience exploring plant communication, posthumanism and alternate forms of perception. To create EPIPHYTES, Arnot partnered with evolutionary biologist Monica Gagliano, who pioneered the brand-new research field of plant bioacoustics, for the first time experimentally demonstrating that plants emit their own ‘voices’ and detect and respond to the sounds of their environments. Her work has extended the concept of cognition (including perception, learning processes, memory) in plants. The pair spoke about Arnot’s practice and why he chose VR as a medium to express his ideas, and discussed the importance of slowing down, ‘listening’ to, and looking more closely at the communication lines and biological relationships that exist in the plant kingdom as a means of altering the way we perceive our world.
This May, join Slavoj Žižek, Esther Freud, Eric Weinstein, Roger Penrose, Fiona Hill, Lisa Randall, Denis Noble, Brian Greene and many more at the HowTheLightGetsIn festival Hay2023 edition!
