The Lindisfarne Association is a group of intellectuals of diverse interests organized by cultural historian William Irwin Thompson for the interdisciplinary discussion of the emerging planetary consciousness. It is inspired by Jean Gebser's idea of the integral structure of consciousness, and by Teilhard de Chardin's idea of the noosphere. In his book Reimagination of the World, Thompson described his reasons for naming his group after Lindisfarne, an island with a famous monastery (once inhabited by Saint Cuthbert) just off the coast of Northumberland in the North East of England:
Although I used the word as a symbol of a small group of people effecting a transformation from one system to another, the word also brought with it the archetypical associations of a small group of monks holding onto ancient knowledge in a fallen world, a world that would soon overrun them during the Viking terror.[1]
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History
In 1972, with funding from Sydney and Jean Lanier, and later from Laurance Rockefeller, Thompson founded the Lindisfarne Association, which functioned variously as a sponsor of new age events and lectures, and as a think tank and retreat, similar to the Esalen Institute in California. Lindisfarne functioned through the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York for a number of years. Today Lindisfarne functions as a virtual association of the Fellows and meets once a year at the Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Goals
According to the Lindisfarne Association website, Lindisfarne's fourfold goals are:
- The Planetization of the Esoteric
- The realization of the inner harmony of all the great universal religions and the spiritual traditions of the tribal peoples of the world.
- The fostering of a new and healthier balance between nature and culture through the research and development of appropriate technologies, architectural settlements and compassionate economies for meta-industrial villages and convivial cities.
- The illumination of the spiritual foundations of political governance through scholarship and artistic communications that foster a global ecology of consciousness beyond the present ideological systems of warring industrial nation-states, outraged traditional societies, and ravaged lands and seas.
Members
Members of Lindisfarne have included, among others: mathematician Ralph Abraham, Zen Buddhist Joan Halifax-roshi, anthropologist Gregory Bateson, anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson, poet Wendell Berry, futurist Stewart Brand, economist Hazel Henderson, ecologist Wes Jackson, scientist James Lovelock, biologist Stuart Kauffman, biologist Lynn Margulis, New age author Michael Murphy, spiritual philosopher and teacher David Spangler, religious scholar Elaine Pagels, poet Kathleen Raine, economist E. F. Schumacher, poet Gary Snyder, architect Paolo Soleri, monk David Steindl-Rast, architect Sim Van der Ryn, biologist and philosopher Francisco Varela, and composer Paul Winter.
Current status
Thompson offered a series of seminars in June 2006 ("Poetry and Speculations on the Meaning of Western Civilization") at the Crestone Zen Center in Crestone, Colorado [1]. The Fellows now meet at the Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, directed by Joan Halifax-Roshi.
References
- ^ p5
External links
- Lindisfarne Association website at williamirwinthompson.org; Internet Archived version)
- Annals of Earth website
- 2007 Symposium Notes from the Wild River Review
