by Dieter Duhm
Where morphogenetic fields are set in motion, special “field powers” begin to operate. We can observe a small example of the effect of field powers in fire-walking. Somewhere someone proved that one could walk barefoot over glowing coals. This gave rise to a worldwide fire-walking “movement” in which participants could cross a seven meter-long carpet of burning coals without hurting themselves. This was made possible by the power of fields, without which most participants would certainly have burned their feet. The field power is generated through information. In this case the information that “it is possible.” The case of Reinhold Messner’s ascent of Everest without additional oxygen is similar in that his achievement also released the new information that “this is possible” and many people could then follow suit.
The kind of “leap” that applied to fire walking can also be made in social and sexual arenas. As soon as an idea spreads, the inner switch can turn from “impossible” to “possible,” from “no” to “yes,” from “ugly” to “wonderful.” The variability of human judgment is nearly limitless. It is not questions of individual taste, but field powers that will integrate free sexuality into the planetary community. The same holds true for nonviolent behavior toward animals, for abolishing slaughterhouses, for discovering the Sacred Matrix, for implementing the global Healing Biotopes plan, and eventually for the entire global revolution. The revolution will end the world process of capitalism and replace it with a highly interconnected system of decentralized, autonomous communities. That which is currently working only crudely in some groups will tomorrow be the cultural treasure of all humanity. Social and sexual renewal will assume a central position in the new culture – as will the principles of decentralized water, food, and energy supplies. Independent, free communities will follow principles of regional subsistence economy on their land and share their surplus with those in their surroundings. There will no longer be foreign powers watching over their land and demanding money for its use. The curse of the past will have ended. How could we have gone so far astray? We will lift this spell by establishing a powerful morphogenetic field of liberation.
More than seven billion people need to organize themselves anew. A collective shift of this scale is possible within the power of a field. The power of fields is generated by the centers and projects, the movements and events that people all over the world undertake for the creation of Terra Nova. The great transformation that we are currently going through is a profound shift from one field of power to another. Within the new field we no longer submit to an overpowering God, but activate the God we carry within us. We do not increase our strength by dominating nature, but by cooperating with it. New intellectual and spiritual power fields are arising for the fundamental issues of life, from the material basis to the soul realms of Eros and religion. According to the principle of spiritual attraction, every power field draws the potential for manifestation towards itself. Those who activate within themselves the power field of love attract all that serves love. When we establish the power field of a Healing Biotope it will attract all that serves its realization. The work we need to do consists above all in establishing new power fields of intellect and spirit. It will serve every new Healing Biotope to have a school and a “church” to establish and affirm the new intellectual and spiritual power fields. In Tamera we hold a “matinee” every Sunday, a gathering in which the intellectual and spiritual foundations of our work are revisited and affirmed.
Outside there is a big sunflower. It is nine in the morning; its bloom faces the east. At noon it will salute the south as it follows the path of the sun. Its movement happens “by itself”; no effort is needed. This heavy flower finds itself in the power field of the sun and therefore requires no individual mechanical power to carry out its movement. It is worthwhile to pause here, to reflect a moment on the miracle of invisible power fields and their effect on the material world. Nearly everything seems possible for the human being when he is able to activate the appropriate power field. A man ties himself between two cars that then drive in opposite directions; they cannot move from the spot because the man has activated a power field wherein he cannot be ripped apart. This actually happened.
Religion, Eros, love, community, home, trust, solidarity, and cooperation are fundamental to human existence. If a new power field is created for these, we will have accumulated the power of the morphogenetic world process that will bring about a new civilization. If the worldwide power field for Terra Nova is established successfully we will experience the jubilation of a world that had suffered too long under the nefarious tyranny of the old fields of power.
WORKS CITED
1. Victor Hugo, History of a Crime (Deposition of a Witness), trans. Huntington Smith (New York: T.Y. Crowell, 1888). Back to reading
PART V
TAMERA: A GLOBAL PEACE SCHOOL
Chapter 31: The Tamera Project
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So long as there is a single child starving, one single animal tortured, one African girl circumcised, one woman raped, one person mistreated on the grounds of their faith, one young person forced to go to war then our world is in disorder. It is our definitive task to free this world from such atrocious pain. We could always say “this is an illusion,” but as soon as our eyes start to open, as soon as we see the suffering of these victims, as soon as we ourselves are one of these tortured beings, there is just a single cry – the cry for relief.1
This extract is taken from one of our foundational texts. It is because we have heard this cry that we have done everything in our power to find an answer. The extent of global violence required approaches to peace work that far exceeded conventional concepts. In May 1978, a project was founded in Germany under the name “Bauhuette” [“Builder’s Lodge”], from which the project “Tamera” in Portugal originated.
It has been from the beginning an interdisciplinary research project which drew intimate connections between the fields of nature, community, and spirituality. Issues of sexuality have been as important as questions of ethics and theology. Our work has been about shaping the material, social, intellectual, and spiritual conditions of our cohabitation with the aim of creating on the one hand, a functioning community and on the other a generalizable perspective of global peace work. At the center of our work was and is a new bond between masculine and feminine powers, a new love between the genders, a new cooperation with the beings of nature, and a new connection with the powers and laws of the divine world. Our objective is to establish “Biosphere III” – a comprehensive model of regional self-sufficiency linked to a university where the basic issues of Terra Nova are researched and taught, while internal education takes place in the “Political Ashram.”
While the social atmosphere has often been turbulent, ours has always remained a research and peace project. As founders, we needed time and again to correct our assumptions and ways behaving. The clash with contemporary ways of thinking was severe; it was difficult to come safely through the aforementioned vilification and harassment. It seems that this too was part of our curriculum. The work of all community members was and is aimed at activating thoughts of peace and healing in all conflicts. This also applies to internal love relationships. Seeing where the project has arrived today, I am sure that the work done so far has laid essential ground for a coming peace culture. The ethical, social, and ecological information developed is fertile soil for the germination of the new global society. The project orients itself in both theory and practice along the guideline of a new global culture in harmony with life, the Earth, and all fellow beings, as has been described in this book. At the core lies the development of a new humaneness based on trust and compassion and the creation of a model of life wherein this humaneness can endure.
Approximately one hundred and sixty people live and work in Tamera. There is a children’s center, the “Escola da Esperança” (a combined primary and secondary school) a center for adult learning, and a school for feminine peace knowle
dge. Parallel to this is an ecology center, a technology department, a department for regional autonomy, an experimental hectare for the cooperation with visible and invisible beings, a self-sufficient Solar Village test field, a Love School and an office for international networking and information exchange (the Institute for Global Peace Work). All of this has arisen, from scratch, over the course of twenty years on an area of 330 acres.
In her book about Tamera, the journalist Leila Dregger writes,
A walk through Tamera today takes one through cascades of lakes and ponds, on the shores of which grow the permaculture gardens used for both teaching and food supply. In the coming years the water landscape will be expanded and completed, so that the trees on the hills will also be able to grow again and return to health.
The summer kitchen of the Solar Village test field demonstrates techniques for cooking with solar energy and biogas, electricity generation, food preservation, and pumping water. Almost all of the systems were built in Tamera’s own workshops. In the research greenhouse new technologies are tested which are intended to free settlements of the future from dependence on centralized energy supply systems.
On the building sites, simple traditional construction techniques are combined with modern architectural concepts. Participants of the peace education programs study in seminar rooms and the auditorium. Theatre and music groups rehearse for their performances on the stages of the Aula. The participants of the Youth School for Global Learning are being taught by young adults who were students themselves here a few years ago.
Men and women from different countries and cultures are working together to support the development of the new systems. They contribute their knowledge and experience and gain insights, which they will use for the creation of autonomous settlements in their home countries…
The most important aspect in all of this is coming together. People who previously learned to perceive each other as enemies, for example those from Israel and Palestine, are working here hand-in-hand. Common work toward a higher goal, more important for the people of both “sides” than the conflict, leaves no space for hostility. Responsibility for the whole and mutual support are the basic ethical guidelines for living together in Tamera…
Through this combination a worldwide network of different groups and initiatives has developed, all connected with Tamera to bring its knowledge to their projects, or to create new projects based on similar principles. Young people love to invest all their energy and joy into such a planetary perspective.
Let us now take a look at the world. We direct our attention not towards today's metropolitan areas, but to the places where new centers for peace are developing. If we look closely, we discover the signs of a global renaissance. Gentle yet unstoppable, a powerful movement is forming, a movement for reconnection with nature and reconciliation with each other in the certainty of a different future – a movement for a free Earth.2
The development of Tamera has now reached a point where we are able to offer a cogent concept for self-sufficiency to those areas of our planet in the direst crises, and a firm material basis for their autonomy. We are thinking of regions like Haiti after the 2010 earthquake or the Philippines after the 2013 typhoon. Empowered by the morphogenetic field of the new culture, devastated areas could be rebuilt and given new orientation. Instead of sinking hopelessly into poverty they could turn into birth-places for a new era of civilization. It is very simple – those who came out last in global competition could move to the forefront of the planetary development. If international aid organizations succeed in manifesting the new ecological and social ideas in these kinds of crisis areas these places will be connected to the power field of Terra Nova. They will therefore, after centuries of enslavement and exploitation, be at the beginning of an evolution headed toward autonomy, freedom, and membership in the new planetary community. In order to take this research to its necessary maturity, we need the support of experts as well as financial support to sponsor people from crisis regions, who are eager to learn, to come to Tamera to study the principles and examples of decentralized autonomy models, and to implement them in their countries.
Over the course of thirty-seven years a network of socially and politically engaged people formed, which will not fail due to human conflict. It was an absolutely inconceivable, incredible journey that no one could possibly have foreseen. Many have left the project; new people have joined. It will be a lasting memory for all who have participated. I thank all who have gone with us through thick and thin. Some have children who are now as old as they themselves were when they entered; four generations live together here. I thank the community for the solidarity and cohesion it has shown through the difficult times and I thank our spiritual guidance without which we would barely have survived some of our most severe challenges. Our work continues. Ahead of us lies the creation of “Biosphere III,” as well as building a “Universal Hall,” a gathering place for global peace workers. The continuation of our work will rely on expert knowledge and financial assistance. The morphogenetic world process is still in its early stages. We invite new activists, the Terra Nova School groups, and all friends in the network to help make this work a success.
On behalf of all lovers.
On behalf of all children.
On behalf of all creatures.
Thank you and Amen!
WORKS CITED
1. Dieter Duhm, et al., Setting Foundations for a New Civilization: Perspectives for the Global Revolution. A Collection of Study Materials from the Terra Nova School (Belzig: Verlag Meiga, 2013). Back to reading
2. Leila Dregger, Tamera: A Model for the Future (Belzig: Verlag Meiga, 2010). Back to reading
Tamera in Pictures
(Left) Sabine Lichtenfels, co-founder of Tamera, head of the Global Love School
(Right) Dieter Duhm, co-founder of Tamera, initiator of the Healing Biotopes Plan
In Tamera’s auditorium
Building a biogas plant with Thomas H. Culhane (left) in Tamera
Tamera’s Solar Village test-field
Vasamalli Kurtaz, representative of the Todas tribe in India, cooks with some children from Tamera
Children’s Theater, “The Black Shadow and the Riddle of the Princess.”
Before the construction of the Water Retention Landscape in Tamera
Building a Water Retention space
Retention Landscape after creating “Lake 1”
Tamera’s recovering nature
Grace Pilgrimage in Israel-Palestine
Grace Pilgrimage in Colombia
Stone Circle in Évora, Portugal
Tibetan lamas offer a blessing to Sabine Lichtenfels in Tamera
SD Forum during an art course
Inner and outer movements in the SD Forum
Exercises of courage in a study group
Art Course
We love pigs
Olive Harvest in Tamera
After the harvest
(Left) Global Campus in a Sao Paulo, Brazil favela (slum)
(Right) Praying with the Global Campus in Tamera
Encounter with the military, Global Campus, Colombia
Glossary
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Agathon: Greek for “the good,” the highest or supreme good in a moral sense, summum bonum. According to Plato, it cannot be precisely explained; but once it is seen, it allows one to understand all else.1 Back to reading
Akashic Records: Term coined by theosophy and anthroposophy in the late 1800s from akasha, the Sanskrit word for "sky," "space," "luminous," or "æther," referring to an all-encompassing world memory in immaterial form.2 Back to reading
Alpha Frequency: Also referred to as “alpha waves.” Neural oscillations in the frequency range of 7.5–12.5 Hz arising from coherent electrical activity in the human brain, associated with states of higher consciousness and healing effects for the organism. The alpha frequency is apparently compatible with the Schumann resonance of the Earth's e
lectromagnetic field. Back to reading
Ananda: Pali and Sanskrit word for “bliss.” Referred to as the state of primordial joy of life in Indian philosophy. Back to reading
Assemblage point: Term coined by Carlos Castañeda. The epicenter of energy within the human energy field, “the point where perception is assembled.” It is considered central to both our psychological and physical existence. In The Power of Silence, Castañeda writes, “When the assemblage point shifts, it makes possible the perception of an entirely different world – as objective and factual as the one we normally perceive.”3 Back to reading
Body Armor: Term coined by Wilhelm Reich.4 According to his research, healthy organisms and organs have natural expansion and contraction; it is the pulsation of life energy. When human organisms are “armored,” their pulsation is disturbed and movement restricted. This is experienced as a lack of aliveness, constant tension and often leads to disease and violence. Back to reading
Carrier Wave: An electromagnetic wave that can be modulated in frequency, amplitude, or phase to transmit information. In this book the term is used in a rather figurative sense for the fundamental underlying vibration of Terra Nova, able to convey the specific features of that new field all over the world. Back to reading