Lindisfarne Association

The Lindisfarne chapel in Crestone, Colorado

The Lindisfarne Association is a group of intellectuals of diverse interests organized by cultural historian William Irwin Thompson for the "study and realization of a new planetary culture". 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."

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 varying locations.

Goals

According to the Lindisfarne Association website, Lindisfarne's fourfold goals are:

1. The Planetization of the Esoteric
2. The realization of the inner harmony of all the great universal religions and the spiritual traditions of the tribal peoples of the world.
3. 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.
4. 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
• anthropologist Gregory Bateson
• anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson
• poet Wendell Berry
• futurist Stewart Brand
• Zen Buddhist Joan Halifax-Roshi
• economist Hazel Henderson
• ecologist Wes Jackson
• anthropologist Robert Lawlor
• political scientist Merle Lefkoff
• scientist James Lovelock

• biologist Stuart Kauffman
• biologist Lynn Margulis
• author Michael Murphy
• philosopher/author John Michell
• dancer/anthropologist Natasha Myers
• spiritual teacher David Spangler
• religious scholar Elaine Pagels
• poet Kathleen Raine
• writer Dorion Sagan
• economist E. F. Schumacher
• astronaut Rusty Schweickart
• poet Gary Snyder

• architect Paolo Soleri
• monk David Steindl-Rast
• publisher/editor Joy Stocke
• physician/scientist/contemplative Neil Theise
• philosopher Evan Thompson
• architect Sim Van der Ryn
• philosopher Francisco Varela
• Michaela Walsh
• composer Paul Winter
• physicist/contemplative Arthur Zajonc
• composer Evan Chambers

Current status

The Lindisfarne Association disbanded as a not-for-profit institution in 2009. The Lindisfarne Fellows continue to meet once a year at varying locations as an informal group interested in one another's creative projects.

References

See William Irwin Thompson, "Afterword" to DARKNESS AND SCATTERED LIGHT (New York: Doubleday, 1978), 181-183.

External links

• Lindisfarne Association website at WilliamIrwinThompson.org; Internet Archived version)
• Annals of Earth website
• 2007 Symposium Notes from the Wild River Review