What the world needs now is for men and women of uncommon wisdom and insight to step forward and help to create a new, more humane, compassionate, social-political/environmental reality. But how might we train such men and women to rise to their fullest potential?

Le't's create an opportunity for extraordinary educational experiences designed to reconnect candidate individuals with the Earth and the timeless wisdom of Natural Law. Such a process would be designed to nurture the highest potential in those individuals willing to step forward to meet the challenges wrought by our present era of global disintegration. We will call these special schools of soul/earth/psyche leadership training, PsyEarth Institutes.

Designing the New World envisions the first PsyEarth Institute as a wilderness retreat, comprising of a series of rustic, yet comfortable buildings and hermitages located within a 10,000 acre private ranch hidden deep within the mountains of the American Southwest. The PsyEarth Institute’s mission is to provide an environment where the individual can reconnect his or her mind, soul, consciousness and spirit with that of the Earth’s and learn to become an effective planetary steward, possibly serving in a future global leadership position. The Institute would be best known for its 12-month, 4-phase experiential program keyed to the solstice and equinox cycles.

      Participants would begin their 12-month commitment with extensive wilderness survival training during the summer. Upon the arrival of autumn equinox in late September, students are then dispatched to small, isolated hermitages to live in seclusion for three months. While in retreat, the student undergoes a process of “directed personal self-examination” and learns to reunite psyche with Nature and a the Source of All That Is. 

      Following the December winter solstice, PsyEarth Institute apprentices continue to remain in their forest redoubts for an additional three months but meet with other members of their group on a weekly basis at a central location. Students are charged to refine their intuitive skills acquired earlier and venture deep into uncharted intuitional and spiritual territory. The next six months finds the participants lodged in dormitories at Institute headquarters. Daily classes focus on rooting out old psychological patterns that prevent attainment of one’s full personal potential. Students undertake extensive past-life regressions to help them understand present-life relationships and develop a sense of soul destiny. After processing their multi-lifetime experiences, students team up with members of the opposite sex to work toward restoring trust between men and women and exploring the creative and profound benefits of properly balanced male and female energy. 

      During the final six weeks of the program, students concentrate on shifting themselves to the next level of possibility — the new man and woman of the 21st century. To help in this transformation, participants study the principles of alchemy and Natural Law, the lives of extraordinary men and woman of different cultures, and work to develop and refine critical leadership skills. Elders from various indigenous cultures share their personal wisdom with the students.

FROM A PARTICIPANT’S DIARY

    I thought about Phase I.  I’ll be all alone up there in the woods.  No fellow humans or comforting radio, TV or newspapers connecting me to the larger sphere of civilization.  But, we were told, we’d learn much about our inner self, perhaps for the first time in our lives. In reality, this meant confronting our internal dragons. But would this process of self-directed examination actually pave the road to real insight? And would real insight guarantee I’d be a happier, more effective human being?

    This would be no easy endeavor. No simple thing. I have my doubts. Lots of them. And they keep returning to harass me as I prepare for liftoff into space or descent into the underworld — whatever the case might be.  But what was the alternative? A life of media-mediated denial? Living as a regular citizen while civilization descends into violence and madness? I have no desire to fritter away the prime of my life in some inane job while my life force and that of the planet’s fade to black?  No way. While I live, I must pursue my mission, my destiny, here on Planet Earth — whatever it is. This much I feel sure about.

December 18

    It was, after all, the season of death.  Winter-whipped winds raced through the pines that shielded my small ridgetop stone shelter.  A dimmer sun, moving lower across the tree tops, meant night descended quickly.  Winter Solstice — the shortest day and longest night — loomed nearer day by day.  I felt the growing darkness as my own shadow self closing in on me, revealing itself as inadequacy, confusion and failure. The venom worked its treachery until all seemed lost.  But what was lost? An outmoded way of being? A life of separation, fragmentation, alienation?  Exile from a true, all-species community; a life of fear and paranoia? I could feel the terror in the trees, the anxiety in the plants, the worry in the water.  And anger . . .  I felt powerless to do anything about anything. And I became even angrier.   

January, Phase II -- Communication

      In our weekly meetings back at the lodge we discussed the animal reality at length. Human evolution would have flickered out long ago were it not for the presence of our non-human brethren. Our species is mightily beholden to the gift of animal flesh, fur, fin, feather and bone. Our ancestor hunter-gatherers knew well this fact and accorded the human-animal relationship the highest degree of reverence. When the aboriginal human entered the forest, he knew he was setting foot on sacred ground. But to perpetuate himself and his kind, he needed access to the web of natural intelligence. And so he developed many ingenious means of inter-species communication. Human would ask Bear if Bear would agree to provide food and life for his tribe. If Bear agreed, Human and Bear would begin the dance of giving and taking. Also, Native Americans would thank the spirit of the animal they killed and pray that it return to physical form again soon.

      "Go meet Wolf," encouraged our staff. "He's newly arrived here, thanks to a local reintroduction program." Eyes widened as we expressed our doubt and fear. "You need to meet Wolf — and Bear too. Consider that it was the fear of the wild, the dark and the unknown that drove the wedge between humankind and the Earth. Our mission here is to mend that break, heal the wounding, and explore the meaning of the human-to-other-than-human relationship."

       Next, we were challenged by staff to develop our "group mind" — sending thoughts to each other by mental telepathy. As expected, first results were poor. Back at our hermitages, most of us were challenged with separating our own thoughts from those incoming from other sources. We simply could not distinguish the transmission signal from the background noise inside our heads. Secretly, I think most of us held substantial doubts about the viability of the process, and subsequently, any successes were greeted with healthy skepticism.

      Nevertheless, small knowings led to larger ones, and we began to experience the power of the process. At weekly meetings, we learned from others who shared what techniques worked for them — humans racheting each other up the long evolutionary ladder. It also became obvious that a great deal of trust was required to admit another person's thoughts into one's own. But once we opened ourselves to the possibility of mutual trust, we began to sense each other’s thought presence in our minds. We felt ourselves reaching out through the trees, across the miles of topographic separation to make contact, feeble as it was. I experienced incoming messages as long-awaited letters from home — a welcomed reunion that carried an extra spark of soul-felt recognition. I sensed there was great potential here for enhancing human community.

     After three weeks of nonstop work on our recalcitrant egos, each of us teamed up with a partner of the opposite sex. We practiced working with our male and female energies through use of special yoga exercises. And we’d engage in long discussions about our personal experiences with the opposite sex, and what it meant to be male or female. Almost immediately we found ourselves confronting the trust factor — or lack of it.

      With the help of our guides, we explored how to shatter these deeply embedded fears and conceptual blocks and define new ways of relating to each other, "Remember that all humans embody both the masculine and feminine. Move beyond your distrust, as difficult as it might seem, and regard each other personally, and in this present moment, with highest honor — as fellow god or goddess.

So, come join the fun and help Design the New World.