Our Long-Term Vision

We hold a vision for an onsite living-learning community of teachers, students, and caretakers, working in concert to bring the institution alive as a lived experience.

We see uniting with fellow communitarians who wish to join us in anchoring this vision.

We seek financial and energetic supporters of all kinds to contribute to bringing it into life.

We see a living learning laboratory of humans, growing an experiential understanding of how to live communally once again, while learning real-world skills to help them succeed. This is perfect for anyone feeling the calling to start a community, and not knowing where to begin. Or for groups who may have met roadblocks and are looking for a synthesized incubator in which to gain the skills to build their dream. This is for those aspiring leaders who wish to be immersed in, and eventually certified by, an alternative 'college' that empowers them to unleash the genius of their unique leadership in order to provide solutions to these radical times.

Our core facilitators hold the overall community framework and offer a curated curriculum that weaves together our unique flavor of eastern mysticism, western scientific, and indigenous practices, through specific lineages we've been empowered to teach. Students/community members are invested in instruction across a broad range, and then have the opportunity to deepen into specific pathways aligned with their desired community roles.

The heart of this learning would take place through extended immersions of living and learning in the village itself, starting with month-long incubators, and 9 month immersions. The village is interwoven into the local culture and feeds back to it by offering seasonal trainings and creative events, along with ongoing access to our community temple space for services and rituals.

We’ve identified five essential aspects to our curriculum:

1. Sacred Arts:

13 moon mystery school (Goddess lineage)
Pachakuti Mesa Tradition of cross-cultural shamanic arts
Western Buddhist order
Sophia Christ community Temple (Rose lineage)
Rites of Passage ceremonies

2. Community Arts:

Sociocratic Governance
Starhawk's community roles
8 Shields community design
Non-Violent Communication
Restorative Justice
LETS Alternative Economics system
Conscious relationships

3. Creative Arts:

Hawaiian & indigenous hand-crafts
Sacred Theatre & Art for Activism
Contact Improv
Myth Writing & Storytelling
Song Circle & Crystal Bowl Music

4. Land Arts:

Permaculture
Wild Harvesting
Natural Building
Solar & Alternative Energy
8 Shields Deep Nature Connection

5. Healing Arts:

East/West Herbal Medicine
Shamanic Medicine
Basic Wilderness First Aid & WFR
Somatic therapy
Sacred Sound Therapy

Our Mission

To empower all generations of leadership, in creating a sustainable, just, conscious, and deeply connected world for the next 7 generations and beyond. To be a model community that seeds the sprouting of many others over its lifetime; building a global network of local resilience.

This school would not just be a place to learn information, but a chrysalis that allows people to fundamentally transform within it. Students may come here with an initial interest in permaculture, for example, but through their experience of the community and through ritual & healing processes, they might come to discover they have a deep artistic impulse that had never been allowed to flourish.

As a school, it must be a blueprint for a new model of human learning; one that allows for learning at the mental level, as well as the emotional, physical, spiritual, and social levels. It will be a model for a new kind of village, in which both the needs of the group and the needs of the individual are held in equal regard.

We see the community itself as a living laboratory. Here we can experiment with new models of relating and governing. These include application of developed structures such as dynamic governance, restorative justice, and alternative relationship styles, as well as experimentation to hone those structures or find new expressions. This experimentation also extends to legal & financial arrangements around property & income sharing, as well as to green technology, permaculture, and homesteading techniques to live in harmony with the natural world.

Who Are WE

So far, we are two Committed Founders, and one Provisional. Read more about us HERE. We’re in the stage of gathering other potential founders, coalescing our visions, and acquiring funds for land. We are currently living on Kumukahi Ecovillage on the Big Island of Hawai'i, and are exploring bringing our project here.

We would like to gather a core team of around 5-8 people. Ideally we'd like at least one stakeholder founder for each of the five aspects of the curriculum, along with admin and land-tending support.

If you feel you could anchor one of these aspects, and be involved at the founder level, please see the specifications below, and get in touch.

Who Are YOU

At this point, we’re only ready to hear from long-term pioneering co-founders, and financial donors/investors. If that’s not you, but this all sounds amazing and you think you might want to participate as a future contributor or student, subscribe for updates.

We are looking for some blend of:

You have at least a year of experience living in intentional community.
You have experience running your own business, and/or working in a collectively managed business.
You are already running an established business in one of the 5 categories above.
You have served in a service-oriented, non-profit, or activist organization.
You have experience acting on a board of directors, or organizational capacity.
You have founded, managed, or been the main admin for long-term educational programming.
You have experience homesteading- either urban or rural environment
You have read Diana Leafe Christian’s book “Creating a Life Together” and/or are subscribed to Communities Magazine.
You have experience with basic communitarian skills such as: NVC, alternative governance, conflict transformation, food sharing, community meetings, sharing common spaces, work parties, upholding community agreements…
Bonus specialty skills: alternative economics, administration or educational director skills, adept in off-grid living, sociocracy, food production & sale, medical practice, rewilding/ancestral skills, Hawaiian cultural wisdom keeper.

Steps to explore becoming a Founder:

Connect with us! (email us: humannatureinstitute@gmail.com)
Fill out our membership application
Schedule a discovery call with one of our founders
You may then be invited to our biweekly meetings to contribute to our co-creative process.

We look forward to hearing from you, and to making this vision a reality!