The programme is now closed. Series 2 coming soon.
You will never tell a more powerful story
than the one you tell with your life.
As humans, we find our way by story. Our stories shape us, hold us and give meaning to our lives. Every so often it becomes clear that a prevailing story is no longer serving. Now is such a time.
The old world is dying and the new world has yet to be born. Ordinary citizens all over the planet, who’ve been struggling with the deep divisions across society in today’s fraught and fear-based social and political landscape, are coming together in active participation to cocreate and embody a new story for their lives.
Scientists and visionaries tell us that the evolutionary story that is now unfolding is of an interconnected, interdependent, living universe, in which humans are embedded in nature, in reciprocity with the natural world – a story that indigenous peoples have always known, and that many of us are now remembering. This evolutionary new story enquiry is empowering a groundswell of individuals and communities who are waking up to the potential of an audacious new world that is changing lives and mobilising collective action toward an interconnected, highly creative and regenerative world.
This is why the Findhorn Foundation is hosting this exciting online journey at this time of systems collapse. The convergence of multiple crises we face on the planet requires collective solutions, and it is by gathering and working together in groups to dream into, and find our place within, a new story for humanity, that change will happen. We are inviting you to be an active partner in this bold journey into the next phase of humanity’s conscious evolution.
As we change our story, we change our world. What story will your life tell as the new paradigm emerges?
Join us to explore the New Story of your life
Explore your new story in collaboration with a community of like-minded visionaries, thought leaders and change makers, each carrying a thread of the new story. Their inspiration will enable you to discover what thread you are carrying.
This journey is for you if you sense a compelling impulse to consciously evolve, and are called to contribute to the collective healing of the planet at this extraordinary, and often challenging, time in human history.
One two-hour session per month, convened via online video-conferencing
Our journey comprises one two-hour session per month, over eight months, to experience what it is to live your new story. We will be using Zoom video-conferencing to convene our sessions – a very easy, user-friendly way to gather and proactively engage global audiences online. If you haven’t yet used the platform, we will guide you easily through the technology. Once you’ve registered, and before the first introductory session, we’ll send you the access information for Zoom so that you can participate. All you will need is a laptop, computer, tablet, or smartphone with a camera and stable internet access. You will be able to join us from the comfort of your own home or from wherever you are in the world.
The 8-session Journey
The eight-month journey from 16 August 2017 to 14 March 2018 is made up of 8 sessions. Times stated are London, UK time. Click here to convert to your local time.
Journey Objectives
Over the eight months, we are inviting you to take an experiential, participatory journey together into what needs to change in us, and in the human story. Each session will explore, at increasing levels of depth, what it is to live the new story personally, and accelerate it collectively, through:
- Understanding our own personal journey inside of our larger, collective story of human evolution.
- Awakening to ourselves as dynamic, inspired agents of change and learning how to powerfully cocreate the future of our world in a way that is uniquely ours.
- Catalysing our growth and evolution beyond the patterns and core beliefs of our past to make way for the new story to unfold.
- Honouring the best of the old story and integrating it into the new.
- Connecting with, and beginning to harness, the power of the collective field to carry the new story forward.
What you will receive
- 8 live sessions: The format of each session will be flexible and emergent but will include: a brief framing of the session and speaker introduction by the hosts (5 minutes), speaker presentation & dialogue with hosts (30 – 50 minutes), participant break out groups (20 minutes), return to the large group for Q&A/participant sharings (30-50 minutes), and closing remarks (5-10 minutes).
- Video recording of each session: All the speaker sessions will be recorded and made available within 48 hours following the session. If you are not able to attend one of the live sessions, you will be able to view the recording at your convenience. You may also want to view the recording to integrate the content of a particular session more deeply.
- Study Guides: To help integrate the content and experience of each session, a study guide will be provided including highlights of the essence of each session, questions for contemplation between sessions, and additional resources, featuring lists of videos, films, books, projects, events, and blogs relevant to each session.
- Participant Facebook Group: This will be your virtual home over the eight months. The Private Facebook Group will enable you to engage in shared enquiry between sessions to deepen the journey, build alliances, and share your questions, projects and visions with a community of peers. You may also choose to stay engaged after the programme as a way to integrate and continue to build community and support one another.
- Free access to our documentary film: An Enquiry into A New Story for Humanity: Change the Story, Change the World. The feature-length film is a great introduction to new story themes and may be useful to watch before the online learning journey begins.
Meet Our Change Makers
All of our inspiring change makers are proactively committed to pioneering new ways of living and being as we transition to a new evolutionary paradigm. In each session, we’ll have the opportunity to draw from their inspiration to help illuminate the way which, in turn, will compel us to take action in our own lives and communities.
Elisabet Sahtouris is an internationally known evolution biologist and futurist. With a post-doctoral degree at the American Museum of Natural History, she taught at MIT and the University of Massachusetts, contributed to the NOVA-Horizon TV series, is a fellow of the World Business Academy with an honorary Chair in Living Economies, and an advisor to Ethical Markets. She convened international symposia on Foundations of Science in Hokkaido and Kuala Lumpur. She is the author of EarthDance: Living Systems in Evolution, A Walk Through Time and Gaia’s Dance: The Story of Earth & Us. Elisabet is also a Fellow of the Findhorn Foundation.
Charles Eisenstein is a speaker and writer focusing on themes of human culture and identity. He is the author of several books, most recently Sacred Economics and The More Beautiful World our Hearts Know is Possible. His background includes a degree in mathematics and philosophy from Yale, a decade in Taiwan as a translator, and stints as a college instructor, a yoga teacher, and a construction worker. He currently writes and speaks full-time. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina with his wife and four children.
Pat McCabe, Woman Stands Shining has the honour of being of the Diné (Navajo) Nation. She brings the understanding of Indigenous ways of knowing into enquiry on Sustainability, and carries the foundation of Beauty and Spirit into places where it has been kept out. Her primary enquiry is humanity’s design for Thriving Life. She is an active participant in Indigenous Peoples gatherings in Chile, Belgium, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico and Bali. She has worked with India’s International Center for Cultural Studies, been a cultural consultant to Pachamama Alliance, a presenter at the National Bioneers Conference, and an international presenter on “The Feminine Design and Sustainability”. She is a guest instructor for Schumacher College’s “Becoming Indigenous” course.
Karambu Ringera is a visionary, an activist and a compassionate, committed, formidable force for change. She is the Founder and President of International Peace Initiatives and a Lecturer at the University of Nairobi. Born and raised in Kenya, with a Ph.D. in intercultural communication, Karambu has used her extensive academic background and international experience working in many countries to design and implement models of effective community engagement, women’s grassroots organising programs, collaborative problem-solving models, pre-emptive and post conflict reconciliation, proactive health campaigns, and a successful, working model of “Amani Homes,” community homes of peace for orphans and vulnerable children.
Kosha Joubert (MSc Org. Dev.) is Executive Director of the Global Ecovillage Network. She is an experienced international facilitator, trainer, and consultant, working extensively with community empowerment, intercultural collaboration and sustainable development. Kosha grew up in South Africa under Apartheid and has been dedicated to building bridges across divides ever since. She has lived in ecovillages for the past 25 years. Watch her TEDx Talk on Ecovillages here. Kosha is also co-founder of Gaia Education, which develops cutting-edge sustainability trainings, and is co-author of the international Ecovillage Design Education. Kosha received the 2017 Dadi Janki Award – 100 Women of Spirit – for engaging spirituality in life and work and making a difference in the world.Meet Your Hosts
Both Robin Alfred and Mattie Porte are long-time residents of the Findhorn Foundation Community and have each served the Findhorn Foundation in a number of diverse roles over the years. They have been proactively involved with new story themes since the lead up to the Foundation’s New Story Summit in 2014 and continue to live the new story in their own lives.
Former Chair of Trustees of the Findhorn Foundation and co-founder of Findhorn Consultancy Service, Robin Alfred is an international personal and organisational development coach and group facilitator who has worked with clients including Microsoft, Rolls Royce, BAE Systems, Equal Exchange, the UN, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace International and the Carbon Disclosure Project. Robin co-facilitated the Foundation’s New Story Summit and continues to support the acceleration of a new story in his work. He is coauthor of Beyond You and Me – Inspiration and Wisdom for Building Community.
Mattie Porte has lived and served in the Findhorn Community for 17 years. A psychologist and mentor, she is passionate about the evolution of consciousness and the potential in moving from our current paradigm of separation and fear to an emerging paradigm of unity and wholeness. She is the director and producer of the Foundation’s first feature-length documentary film: An Enquiry into a New Story for Humanity: Change the Story, Change the World. She is also the Communications and Relationship Building member of the Foundation’s New Story Team, and manages the New Story Hub and associated online community platforms, events and learning journeys.
