Lindisfarne Association

The Lindisfarne chapel in Crestone, Colorado

The Lindisfarne Association (1972–2012) was 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 was inspired by the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead's idea of an integral philosophy of organism, and by Teilhard de Chardin's idea of planetization.

History

In 1972, with funding from Sydney and Jean Lanier, and later from Laurance Rockefeller, Thompson founded the Lindisfarne Association, first in Southampton, New York in 1973 and then to Manhattan to the Church of the Holy Communion and Buildings which was leased to Lindisfarne from 1976–1979. In 1979 its final move was to Crestone, Colorado, where today the Lindisfarne Fellows House, the Lindisfarne Chapel, and the Lindisfarne Mountain Retreat are under the ownership and management of the Crestone Mountain Zen Center. Lindisfarne has functioned variously as a sponsor of classes, conferences, and concerts and public lectures events, and as a think tank and retreat, similar to the Esalen Institute in California. Lindisfarne functioned as a not-for-profit foundation until 2009; the Lindisfarne Fellowship continued to hold annual meetings until 2012. It is no longer an active organization.

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 the Lindisfarne Fellowship have included, among others:

• ecological philosopher David Abram
• mathematician Ralph Abraham
• anthropologist Gregory Bateson
• anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson
• poet Wendell Berry
• Keith Critchlow, geometer, art historian
• Zen Buddhist Joan Halifax-Roshi
• economist Hazel Henderson
• ecologist Wes Jackson
• poet Jane Hirshfield
• political scientist Merle Lefkoff
• scientist James Lovelock

• biologist Stuart Kauffman
• biologist Lynn Margulis
• dean James Parks Morton
• 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
• John Todd, biologist
• Nancy Jack Todd, writer
• Rebecca Todd, cognitive psychologist
• architect Sim Van der Ryn
• philosopher Francisco Varela
• Michaela Walsh
• composer Paul Winter
• physicist/contemplative Arthur Zajonc
• composer Evan Chambers
• Sufi Pir Zia Inayat-Khan

Current status

The Lindisfarne Association disbanded as a not-for-profit institution in 2009. The Lindisfarne Fellows continued to meet once a year up to 2012 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)
• 2007 Symposium Notes from the Wild River Review