{"id":4245,"date":"2018-01-25T18:38:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-25T17:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/potulnauniverzita.cz\/2018\/01\/25\/charles-eisenstein-skoly-technologii-sjednoceni\/"},"modified":"2021-01-25T21:29:25","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T20:29:25","slug":"charles-eisenstein-skoly-technologii-sjednoceni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/potulnauniverzita.cz\/en\/charles-eisenstein-skoly-technologii-sjednoceni\/","title":{"rendered":"Charles Eisenstein: Schools of Unification Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this essay, the American writer, philosopher, and cultural activist Charles Eisenstein (1960) develops a vision of transformative education outside the traditional school system. He reflects on the possible deeper message of various intentional communities, ecovillages, soil institutes, and retreat centers as a new network of education, united by the common purpose of spreading a new story of coexistence into the life of our civilization; he calls this nascent educational system \u201cschools of technologies of unification.\u201d In this text, the author develops the idea that he first formulated in the book The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible (2013)<\/em>, which under the name A more beautiful world is possible, our hearts know it<\/em> is currently being published by Maitrea Publishing House in a Czech translation by Hana Bernardov\u00e1.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ekovesnice
Tamera Ecovillage \u2013 Healing Biotope 1 \/ School and Research Base (Portugal)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When I graduated from college in 1985, it was an unquestionably important step for an intelligent young person from the middle or upper middle class. I entered an elite school not out of any particular ambition, but because the narrative surrounding me said that this was the right way to do things with my life. College, and probably the other degrees that followed, represented a path to full participation in society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But deep down, there was a problem\u2014I didn't want to participate fully in society. I felt that something was fundamentally wrong. As I learned more about how the world worked, I didn't want to be a part of it. Even the public service paths that an elite education might have prepared me for seemed to still be part of the same system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, I didn't know of any alternative to university, or perhaps I didn't have the courage to look for one. And besides, at that time I still couldn't identify the cause of my laziness, my passive rebellion, and my loss of motivation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, my two sons are college-aged\u2014one is eighteen and the other is twenty\u2014but neither has gone to college. The vague intuition that guided my unconscious rebellion has transformed into a complete refusal to follow \u201cthis program.\u201d Moreover, my sons now have alternatives that did not exist in the 1980s. Jimi has spent time in ecological, spiritual, and permaculture programs in the United States and Costa Rica that prepare people to participate in a future that is not just an extension of the present, but a different world with different values and ways of understanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Programs like these exist all over the world today, but they are still scattered and lack a unifying narrative that can present them as a solid alternative to traditional higher education. Young people have to be lucky enough to find them, or know how to find them. Wouldn\u2019t it be great if this kind of education\u2014education in what the planet needs most right now\u2014were more readily available?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine a sprawling archipelago of earth-connected institutions of learning for people like my sons, a haven for alternative approaches to earth, mind, matter, and body that are marginal or absent from traditional universities. How much exciting work\u2014whether in medicine, agriculture, or social change\u2014is happening outside academia today, and remains completely invisible to many young people who might otherwise follow it in their careers; as a result, it also lacks the financial support and research within the wider community that could take it to the next level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need a parallel system of development technology that can govern society when traditional systems and technologies are unable to adequately address our problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • We must, as Ken Carey put it, establish islands of the future in the ocean of the past. For reasons that I will describe below, let us call these places schools of unification technology. They have two main functions: research and teaching. For students, especially young people who would otherwise go to college or graduate school, they are places for:<\/li>
  • acquiring knowledge that is not available at traditional universities                                 <\/li>
  • acquiring skills that will be useful and valued in the transformed world of the future          <\/li>
  • acquiring skills that help bring about transformation                                 <\/li>
  • freeing ourselves from the programs of traditional education and creating a sanctuary in which our vocation can develop                                                          <\/li>
  • coming together with a group of people who share a common vision of what the world can be.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    For researchers, there are places for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    • developing new knowledge in an environment where they are not considered crazy                              <\/li>
    • collaboration with other avant-garde workers in non-traditional areas of research           <\/li>
    • clarifying new knowledge through teaching                                          <\/li>
    • passing on new knowledge to the next generation and overseeing its development                  <\/li>
    • testing, maturing and developing techniques to make them ready for wider use.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
      \"P\u016fdn\u00ed
      The Land Institute in Kansas (USA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

      What is technology?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      What kind of technology are we talking about here? The word usually brings to mind things like computers, robots, lasers, nano-scale manufacturing, gene editing, chemical engineering, and electronics. This is what we understand as "high tech."<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      All of these technologies share certain characteristics. They depend on a high degree of specialization, require a huge industrial infrastructure to produce, originate from scientific research, and are based on the use of energy to manipulate and control matter. Therefore, the standard dictionary definition of technology is \u201cthe application of scientific knowledge to practical purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Over the past five centuries, these technologies have transformed the world, but they have proven incapable of solving the problems we face today, many of which are paradoxically caused by the very kind of technology we were trying to use to fix them. Whether it is the degradation of soil by chemical fertilizers that creates the need for more chemicals, or whether it is medical interventions that produce side effects that require more medical interventions, technology often becomes a \u201csolution\u201d in the sense of a dependency that requires more technology to cope with the consequences of the previous technology. More broadly, the entire scientific-industrial system has created the ecological degradation and social atomization that we are trying to solve with the same technological thinking based on quantification, engineering, and management. This way of thinking pursues the dream of a technical utopia: only if we could exercise precise control over every piece of matter, only if we could quantify, name, and digitize every object with its own IP address, only then could we rationally govern the world, eliminate uncertainty, and maximize our human well-being. The same ambition is reflected on the social plane in the program of total information awareness, where every economic transaction, every social interaction, or every physical movement is recorded and stored in a database.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Yet it is clear that despite steady advances in our ability to control matter and society, the promise of utopia is fading into the future and has in fact crossed the event horizon called cynicism. Today, no one believes that material and social engineering opens the way to a perfect world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      For these reasons\u2014the failure of the promise of technology and the worsening crisis of technology as we know it today\u2014I would like to offer an expanded understanding of technology. The kind of technology described above is merely a subset of all technology, which I call \u201ctechnology of separation\u201d; this technology will always have a place in the world, but at the present historical moment we must focus our collective will and energy on a different kind of technology, which I will call \u201ctechnology of unification.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      To broaden our definition of technology, we can simply return to the Greek roots of the word, which mean \u201clogos of skill.\u201d Technology is a system of techniques for using human will to transform the material world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \"Ekovesnice
      Tamera Ecovillage \u2013 working with animals to heal the landscape<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

      Transition in our story<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      Technology is not just a random collection of techniques. As the \u201clogos of skill\u201d suggests, these techniques are interconnected and grow out of a common logic, a unifying story or worldview. This story determines what we consider real, possible, and important. It answers the questions \u201cWhat can we do?\u201d \u201cWhat should we do?\u201d and \u201cHow can we do it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The technology of separation that dominates today's world is based on a story of separation that includes the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      • That humans are separated from nature                        <\/li>
      • The concept of oneself as a separate individual                                      <\/li>
      • Complete individuality, in terms of awareness and experience, exists only in humans.<\/li>
      • Competition as a defining characteristic of life                          <\/li>
      • Controlling and managing others as the key to well-being                         <\/li>
      • That all things are composed of standard identical building blocks<\/li>
      • That being real means being measurable and quantifiable           <\/li>
      • That the forces of nature are essentially random and therefore human progress depends on insulating ourselves from their risks and harnessing them for our own purposes             <\/li>
      • Linear and reductionist thinking as the basis of technology             <\/li>
      • Causality, based on power                                  <\/li>
      • That humanity's destiny is to subdue and overcome nature<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

        These are the threads of the mythology that has dominated civilization over the past few thousand years, and especially over the past few centuries. This mythology is rapidly becoming obsolete, and it is giving way to a new and ancient story of coexistence. This story includes the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        • Our self is at its core relational                         <\/li>
        • Humans are not separate from nature                           <\/li>
        • What we do to the world, we do to ourselves                        <\/li>
        • The basic properties of the "self" (i.e. consciousness, intelligence) are omnipresent and universal; everything is alive<\/li>
        • Every being is a holographic mirror of the whole                    <\/li>
        • Cooperation, mutual sharing, and symbiosis are defining characteristics of life and evolution        <\/li>
        • Morphic resonance is a primary causal principle                 <\/li>
        • Every being has unique and necessary gifts that contribute to the well-being and evolution of the whole.               <\/li>
        • Humanity's destiny is to use its unique abilities to serve the health and development of Gaia.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
          \"Spole\u010denstv\u00ed
          Klein Jasedow Community \u2013 a place of transformative learning (Germany)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

          Technologies of unification emerge from the story of coexistence and contribute to its development into a world civilization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          Technologies of unification contribute to the unification of man and nature, body and mind, thought and feeling, matter and spirit, modern and ancient, male and female. They reunite all that was artificially separated or even opposed in the civilization of separation. It is not about erasing binary opposites, nor about dissolving all boundaries; rather, it is about understanding that each contains the other, that the part includes the whole, that the inner mirrors the outer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          \"Ekovesnice
          The Farm Ecovillage \u2013 Educational Center (Tennessee, USA)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

          Examples of unification technologies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

          Almost every practice, whether in medicine, agriculture, energy, or education, that we call \u201calternative\u201d or \u201cholistic,\u201d is evidence of a technology of unification. Here are a few examples that illustrate how these methods draw from the story of co-existence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

          • Regenerative agriculture<\/strong>, such as no-till organic gardening. This practice is motivated in particular by the understanding that the health of crops and people is inextricably linked to the health of the soil. Therefore, regenerative agriculture seeks to serve the well-being of the soil; it is based on the belief that the health of the soil means the health of everything else. Second, regenerative agriculture sees the soil not as a mere source of chemical nutrients, but as a living being with its own kind of intelligence and as part of a larger living entity, which is the entire agricultural ecosystem. Therefore, rather than simply imposing some methodological formula on a piece of land, the farmer carefully observes the landscape until he comes to know it intimately as an entity in itself, so that he can ask \u201cWhat does this land desire?\u201d This relationship is intimate, personal and unique and cannot be reduced to some set of quantitative data regarding soil composition and rainfall distribution. <\/li>
          • Homeopathy<\/strong> is based on the realization that every state of a human being is mirrored by a certain material substance. Our self and the world around us are not separate from each other. Homeopaths believe that introducing the information signature of this substance into the body will unlock the pattern of illness and bring healing. Moreover, the medium for transmitting the information signature is water, which in homeopathy is not understood as some general substance, defined only by its chemical formula, but as a substance that is capable of storing information and structure (which is a view that is also supported by scientific thought today).<\/li>
          • Truth and reconciliation processes<\/strong>. The story of separation says, \u201cIf I were in your totality of circumstances\u2014biographical, economic, cultural, etc.\u2014I wouldn\u2019t do what you do. I\u2019m better than you.\u201d Criminal law is based on this belief: people do bad things because they are bad people and therefore must be intimidated by the threat of punishment. The story of cohabitation, however, says the opposite. It says, \u201cIf I were in your totality of circumstances, my brother, I would do what you do.\u201d Truth and reconciliation processes change these circumstances, based on the belief that if such a person could connect with the full impact of their actions, they would no longer want to do such things. They rely on the healing power of making the truth visible. Abuse is about disconnecting from empathy and dehumanizing the victim. By sharing their stories with perpetrators and the listening community, victims regain their full humanity in the eyes of all present.<\/li>
          • Universal Basic Income (UBI) and community-based forms of resource sharing<\/strong>. In the narrative of separation, which claims that it is human nature to maximize one\u2019s rational self-interest, this is a crazy idea. If everyone\u2019s basic needs were met, what would compel people to work and contribute to society? But if we believe that it is in our human nature to want to contribute something meaningful, something greater than our own nature, then UPR and resource sharing are ways we can support this impulse. They recognize and support the kinds of contributions and gifts that are difficult to quantify, such as providing loving care to children or the elderly, such as creating art and music, or such as healing the land and water in ways that do not increase economic production, etc.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
            \"Spole\u010denstv\u00ed
            Damanhur Community, Underground Temples of Humanity \u2013 Hall of the Earth (Italy)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

            Technologies of unification therefore include material technologies, social technologies, and also non-material technologies that are based on different understandings of what is real. A non-exhaustive list of these could include: toxic waste remediation using mushrooms; composting toilets and grey and black water recycling systems; herbal medicine; psychotropic drug therapy; earth building techniques; sacred architecture; sound healing; hypnosis and mind-matter control techniques; nonviolent communication; compassionate listening; sociocracy, holocracy, and other group decision-making methods; consultative processes; regenerative circles; family constellations; tantric sexual practices; communication with non-human beings; nonviolent methods of direct political action; implosive engines; free energy generators (1); employee-owned cooperatives and other similar forms of economic cooperation; biodynamic agriculture; agroforestry; sustainable gardening; wetland restoration; Montessori education; Waldorf education; voice, dance, and mask techniques; the use of trance and dream states of consciousness. \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            All of these technologies draw in different ways on the new and at the same time old story of co-existence. While in their real-life applications they may sometimes embody aspects of separation, they also represent steps toward a new story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Therefore, you may feel a sense of kinship or alliance with workers in fields that may otherwise seem completely unrelated to what you do. What does crystal therapy have in common with composting toilets or contact parenting? At a deep level, they are related because their \u201cwhat\u201d and \u201chow\u201d stem from the same common story. Reading through a list of examples of unification technologies, the reader may feel unsatisfied with some of them. While all of them transcend some aspect of consensual reality (social, economic, medical, material\u2026), some of them are more connected to the traditional scientific worldview than others. You may be ready and willing to accept composting toilets, biogas systems, and solar collectors, but you may draw the line at astrology, free energy generators, and the use of copper discs to structure drinking water. I dare not express my own opinion about the authenticity of such technologies, except to say that just because a changed worldview allows us to believe that they are possible does not mean that any of them actually work. Regardless, the new story motivates various avenues of research that may or may not bear fruit\u2014just as is the case with today\u2019s commonly known technologies. Whether these technologies are useful or not, if you are, like me, still somewhat conditioned by the old story, some of them will seem unreal to you. That\u2019s because they come from a realm beyond what we as a society consider real. We must explore beyond the boundaries of what is safe and familiar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \"Nadace
            Findhorn Foundation and Community \u2013 Universal Hall (Scotland)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

            Alternative research and development<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

            Unlike traditional technologies, which enjoy a vast research infrastructure and powerful economic incentives to encourage their further development, unification technologies are typically quite marginal. They benefit from little, if any, institutional support and, instead, often face strong resistance. Some technologies, such as herbal medicine or regenerative agriculture, have large communities of practice and research, and some support from traditional academia. However, the career prospects for an engineer who specializes in human feces (2) or an expert in animal communication are as rare as they are certain for a petroleum engineer or a corporate communications specialist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            There are good economic reasons for this: technologies that do not support the extraction of resources from the earth or their consumption are less monetizable in the current system. They are unlikely to result in a positive return on invested capital; therefore, they require financing from people who are not seeking profit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            There is overwhelming support for the technologies that have brought us to our current predicament, but only minimal support for the technologies that are most needed for our society to make the transition to the ecological age. The technologies of unification require a community of practice and the patronage of visionary bearers of financial wealth and other resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Like traditional technologies, unification technologies need their own incubators and research and development parks. In various forms, they are already appearing on the fringes of society. Ecovillages, herbalism schools, traditional Chinese medicine schools, holistically oriented vocational and higher education institutions, soil institutes, and other centers provide places where researchers can develop their technologies while being at least partially protected from external hostile forces and economic pressures. Some technologies are better supported than others: probably the best-supported in this regard are various forms of regenerative agriculture and permaculture, practiced in thousands of ecovillages and intentional communities around the world; they are still present to some extent even in traditional villages that have not completely surrendered to mechanized chemical agriculture. Yet these approaches are still marginal in university departments of agriculture today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \"Nadace
            Findhorn Foundation and Community \u2013 A New Story Summit (Universal Hall, September 2014)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

            Some examples of incubators for unification technologies include The Land Institute in Kansas (3), which is dedicated to sustainable agriculture; The Farm intentional community in Tennessee (4), which is pioneering the restoration of childbirth in the United States; Tamera Ecovillage in Portugal, which focuses on healing human sexuality as well as conserving water in the landscape and developing a culture of peace (5); and the Damanhur intentional community in Italy, with its astonishing experiments in sacred architecture and plant communication. (6) There are also growing connections between institutions that are part of this movement, such as Numundo (7) and the global network of Ecoversities (8). These institutions are each pioneering in their own way, while in other ways they may remain traditional. Each has chosen its own areas of inquiry within the vast territory of unification. In a healthy future on a habitable planet, places like these must no longer be radical outsiders, but must become completely natural.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Generation of star offspring<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

            In trying to describe today\u2019s generation of young people coming of age who do not fit into the dominant models of the existing higher education system, the obviously new-age term \u201cstar offspring\u201d has just come to mind. The rewards and threats that drive most people to conform to the old story no longer have any effect on these young people. They cannot be corrupted by a normal career. That is why much of what traditional universities offer is unattractive to them: both in the content of the curriculum and in the form in which it is presented to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Some of them, who somehow manage to get through university, also engage in political activism, expressing their desires and their enthusiasm. Others, the lucky ones, find the content of a new story on the margins and in the crevices of their institutions, in which they are supported by professors who are adept at sleuthing. But many more of them drop out of school or refuse to enter it altogether. It is not because they are not interested in studying; it is because what they want to learn is not so easily accessible. They are here on Earth with a specific purpose and are not willing to spend years of their lives doing something that is not in line with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            When these young people get their first glimpse of permaculture or the gift economy or herbalism or some other technology of unification, they come alive. Their eyes light up with understanding: here's what I'm looking for. Or at least, here's a pointer that tells me that what I'm looking for is out there somewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \"Damanhursk\u00e1
            Damanhur University \u2013 Mystery School, ritual in the Open Temple (Italy)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

            These young people are equally powerfully impacted when they meet other members of their tribe, allies in the purpose of serving the healing of Gaia, and especially when they meet elders who model an alternative life path. Then they realize that they are not crazy and that they are not alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            All of this speaks to the great need for an alternative university system. Can you see it? It is just on the other side of the horizon, and it is very different from today's institutions. It is an organic, decentralized network of programs, a dispersed university that is organizationally diverse and united by a common goal. Young people will spend a month here, a summer there, a week somewhere else, a year in another place, exploring different programs and weaving them together into a coherent form of education. In four years, they will develop the skills to find a place in a regenerative, holistic system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            They also form lifelong bonds with people who will be their deep allies during this time. They coalesce into movements and socialize into cultural groups that are part of an emerging parallel society that is, of course, connected to the mainstream, but also forms a distinct identity. After the rite of passage (i.e., after graduation), graduates cannot carry credentials that are acceptable within mainstream institutions. However, the parallel society recognizes and values their education and achievements, as well as their courage to follow this path. Graduates transfer the technologies of unification they have mastered into their professions, which are now marginal, but which will be held in high esteem as the world heals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The parallel society, as I have already mentioned, will not remain "alternative" for long. The central structures of our society are in a state of deep crisis. When they collapse, we will be grateful that we have something healthy ready to step into the vacuum that has arisen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Following this path requires courage from young people, because it is a preparation for a world that does not yet exist, a world that values the technologies of unification. Yet this world, paradoxically, will never exist if we do not prepare for it. The technologies that serve the ecological future also serve the transition to this future. And to risk following this path is to make a gift of one's own life, and that is a powerful prayer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \"Spole\u010denstv\u00ed
            Klein Jasedow Community \u2013 Summer Festival (House of Sound)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

            In alliance with Earth<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

            I recently spent some time with a friend who had founded a radical alternative school on a beautiful piece of land in North Carolina. (9) She said that when she first visited the place, she was whispered, \u201cConnect with me.\u201d I\u2019m not sure if my friend literally heard the whisper or if she meant it metaphorically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            In any case, she said "Yes" and from that moment on, something began to grow that could not have been created through her own intention alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            One of the technologies of unification has to do with communicating with the earth and building communion with the forces of the earth. As the prevailing culture today gradually turns to healing, special places on Earth are seen as a new opportunity for communion. They call their partners to themselves, whether through dreams, synchronicities, or through answers to their long, thorny searches. These are places that offer the ideal habitat for Institutes of Unification Technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Many of these places express their uniqueness in clearly visible ways. For example, I recently visited a 600-plus-acre tract near Santa Fe, nestled in a valley that houses an old Christian Brothers retreat center that is up for sale. At the end of the valley is a beautiful waterfall, gushing from an almost vaginal cleft in the rocks, an oasis in a very dry area with old ponds and orchards\u2026 land that begs to be used for sacred purposes; but like so many such places, it is also the focus of developers. What path lies ahead for this place? It almost symbolizes a larger choice for all of humanity. Will we continue to exploit and conquer until there is no beauty left on this earth? Or will we enter into an alliance with the forces of the earth that are inviting us to rejoin them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            I believe that the vision I have outlined here cannot be achieved without the help of these special places on earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            These places can be urban or rural and will develop depending on the type of technology they will use. Sacredness exists in all places; in fact, many cities have been founded on specific earthly zones. It is important that it is a physical place and not just an immaterial digital spirit. We are currently at the historical peak of abstract knowledge, disconnected from place and therefore ready to return. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \"Ekovesnice
            Tamera Ecovillage \u2013 Healing Biotope 1 (healing the landscape through water retention)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

            I have come into contact with many visionaries who have financial wealth or land or rich social capital and are eager to serve the birth of a new story on earth. These are people whose vision transcends conventional ecological and political boundaries. They understand the need for a revolution in means, not just a revolution in ends. They realize that all current orthodoxies\u2014whether in science, finance, politics, or our relationship to the planet\u2014are part of the same matrix. They are seriously engaged with alternatives to the standard worldview; perhaps they have had mystical experiences or engaged with indigenous worldviews, and they understand that healing this planet cannot remain in the realm of the \u201calternative\u201d or \u201cspiritual,\u201d but must be integrated into every aspect of our lives. What would an education look like that took these approaches seriously\u2014not as mere objects of psychological or anthropological study, but as valuable and important ways in which we can engage with knowledge? What would it mean if we brought them into the foundations of politics, economics, agriculture, medicine, and community management?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            I offer a vision of schools of unification technologies as a step beyond \u201cintentional communities.\u201d Like ourselves, communities flourish when they have a mission, when they have a reason for being that goes beyond themselves. That reason could be to maintain and operate a school or institute of unification technologies. Each of these schools could represent a unique blend of the technologies they serve, yet all would be united by a common purpose\u2014to bring the story of co-existence to our civilization. This is what the institutes of unification technologies (whether they call themselves that or not) will bring together into a global community of communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The purpose of this introduction is not to invent a new idea; it is a report of something that wants to happen, an attempt to name that which has no name and thereby bring it into greater visibility. Schools of unification technology today mostly exist as a field of possibilities. It is my hope that the description I have offered here will be like an ideational seed crystal around which this latent possibility can begin to crystallize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Translation: Ji\u0159\u00ed Zem\u00e1nek \/ PILGRIM \u2013 The Wandering University of Nature<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \"Ekovesnice
            Sieben Linden Ecovillage (Germany)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

            Footnotes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
            1. In the English original "over-unity energy device".<\/em><\/li>
            2. In the English original "humane engineer".<\/em><\/li>
            3. See www.landinstitute.org<\/a>.<\/li>
            4. See www.thefarmcommunity.com<\/a>.<\/li>
            5. See www.tamera.org<\/a>.<\/li>
            6. See www.damanhur.org<\/a>.<\/li>
            7. See www.numundo.org<\/a>.<\/li>
            8. See www.shikshantar.org\/communities-practice\/ecoversities-network<\/a>.<\/li>
            9. See www.ncva.k12.com<\/a>.<\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

              In this essay, American writer, philosopher, and cultural activist Charles Eisenstein (1960) develops a vision of transformative education beyond the traditional school system. He reflects on the possible deeper message of various intentional communities, ecovillages, soil institutes, and retreat centers as a new network of education, united by a common purpose to spread a new story of coexistence into the life of our civilization; he calls this nascent educational system \u201cschools of unification technologies.\u201d\u2026 Continue reading Charles Eisenstein: Schools of Unification Technology<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[30,50],"class_list":["post-4245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-texty","tag-charles-eisenstein","tag-vzdelavani","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/potulnauniverzita.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/potulnauniverzita.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/potulnauniverzita.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/potulnauniverzita.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/potulnauniverzita.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4245"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/potulnauniverzita.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7157,"href":"https:\/\/potulnauniverzita.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4245\/revisions\/7157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/potulnauniverzita.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/potulnauniverzita.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/potulnauniverzita.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/potulnauniverzita.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}