Post-imperialism-A-Template-for-a-New-Social-Order

[Neil]

Higher - more specific education is when it gets a bit more tricky as a small community would not have the facilities for 18 years plus education purely because it would only amount to maybe one class per age. Would there be visiting 'lecturers' or would these children have to leave the village to a centralized education centre that catered for 10 communities say? It would encourage 'external' socialising/mixing and well as a cross pollination of ideas too for the children. I am sure the Elders will be regularly meeting with other Elders around the region - just as the native Indian tribes did. Just speculating here!

I only see ~15% max of the population needing or requiring what we would consider to be the equivalent of a university education. The reason for this is that many occupations which basically amount to skilled trades have been "professionalized" to make more money for the educational industry and to limit access to middle class jobs to middle class families that can afford to go through the motions. In addition, the state of public education is so banal and deplorable that employers want higher and higher degrees as an insurance policy against incompetent employees. Hence, in many cities where there are a surplus of overeducated young professionals vying for a position, jobs that really only require high school subjects and a reasonable degree of intelligence, now require at least a bachelor's degree, which in itself is now becoming a bit passé, with a master's + some BS certification becoming the preferred qualification. This is a rather aberrant state of affairs. Basically all entry level business, finance, construction, nursing, tourism, most engineering, technician, transportation, and IT, and many lower level functionary or clerical positions in government and education could be learned with a vocational high school diploma (which would be roughly equivalent to an AS degree) + apprenticeship. The focus of the education would shift from talking about the discipline and credentialism, to actually doing the discipline.

So that leaves us with certain highly technical fields of a more theoretical character. This would be most scientists, including advanced researchers in the fields listed above, some doctors (most holistic healers would not have to go this far), esotericists, and high-level government administrators who needed a wide breadth of knowledge to fulfill their duties effectively. These people would probably go to national institutes and be largely employed by the national government, with the best and brightest of those going on to the planetary government for even more advanced study. I think these colleges would probably be a synthesis of the forum and the philosophical schools of old. You would apply and be admitted to a certain research institute and study under certain "masters" as well as having round table interactions with other members of the institute regarding the material. The course of study would be a group effort and part of your grade would be how well you helped your classmates grasp the material. Since you are basically there to be a leader in your particular discipline, you have to be able to demonstrate that you can help others. You would graduate more as a class rather than individuals competing against each other, though you will go in different directions. Some would go back to the village, some would become part of the institute, and some would move on to government or other places. I found John Taylor Gatto's books to be a good read on how education could be reformed so that it actually educates instead of indoctrinates.

 

[Buddy]

I think Albert Camus and George Orwell are both interesting in that they are both suspicious of ideologies gaining control at the expense of some sort of "existential freedom" of the individual. Camus prefers to be a principled "rebel" rather than an ideological "revolutionary". In 1984 for example, Winston Smith as a member of the Outer Party has a job, receives coupons for his clothing, can engage in organized social physical exercise programmes. His material needs are met, but he still feels like he is a pawn within the system, and lacking some conception of natural freedom.

I thought that had already been addressed two ways:

1) a child growing up within the outlines of this template would not know any different and would not have been subjected to the pain of having suffered any other ideology. From where would the movement of disatisfaction with this template come?

2) I don't see how a person coming into this community organization post-melt-down, or participating in organizing it would begin to feel he is a pawn within the system, even though, in a sense, he is not so special simply because we must earn our keep by offering people what they want...not what we want to give them.

If a person decides they don't want to live under this system, then what alternative will there be? He can leave can't he...to wander around and maybe create his own Temporary Autonomous Zone or pirate utopia?(_https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporary_Autonomous_Zone) Hmmm...always wanted to be a pirate. :D

Besides, does "existential freedom" really exist? For the Existential philosophers, freedom is seen as a transitory opportunity for self-evolution. It's first move is to make a person aware of what he is and see that he takes the full responsibility for his own existence. But who of those folks really understood, or understands, what man is? Who can truly be an individual, when all he knows and can recognize has been given to him by the culture or by someone else and where did that person get his/her information, and how to act without being under the pressure of momentum of the entire heritage of mankind that has been modified only slightly by the philosophers?

I might be asking the wrong questions, though, because what I'm seeing is a set up for an infinite regress that substitutes for anything actually getting done. Don't think you mean it that way, though.

Am I so far off? If so, I'd like to know. It would be good to read proposed alternatives or modifications that take into consideration all we've learned so far, including about the insinuation of the warrior god, Yahweh, into Judaism and Saudi Wahhabism into Islam, effectively turning a peaceful stream of thought into a vortex of division, agitation and destruction. And of course, how to prevent it from happening again.

 

[bjorb]

I don’t mind exams but I do hate time limits and open questions. I write like an infant. My writing is never the same.


[quote author=Mal7]I think it is utopian to think one can just state what the level of wealth would be in the planned society[/quote]

Focus isn’t wealth. Focus is community based. There would be no true upper-middle or lower class. If I understood it correctly everyone will be provided for. If it works, it would truly be revolutionary. George Orwell spoke about an authoritarian government. In this new system we are meant to look out for each other. Care for each other, provide for each other. Its community based. Not authoritarian.


Did anyone took in account the 'underground' civilizations that are meant to replace us. Did I got it right? In what kind of state are they? I am bit of a lose here. Not sure if my memory serves me well.
I know this article was written with the underlying focus of building something up from the perspective of having a clean state.

But what do you think would happen without 4STS control and with the billions of 'humans' (different model) living there. They are just like us earthlings. We share this planet together. Just what is going on there I wonder. And what if they suddenly reach the surface.

 

[whitecoast]

Yes; can this be elaborated on? It looks to me as if the working hypothesis is something to the effect that a small percentage is 'born' gay, but that weird imprinting events (do you think that gay parents are more likely to accidentally do this to their children?) turn a larger percentage 'gay' than should have been. If so, is there a concern that the latter 'accidental' group has some special vulnerability? Is more prone to paraphilias? Something like that?

The idea is that marriage consecrates an union between two 'sister' souls. Those souls can incarnate in individuals of opposite sex or same sex. Therefore marriages is open to heterosexual and homosexual couples.

However, nature made humans such that only heterosexual couples can procreate/have children. Therefore the 'rule' is that only heterosexual couples can have children (through procreation or adoption).

I think the bolded part is committing the philosophical fallacy called appealing to nature. According to this "rule", infertile couples would be considered ineligible for adoption. But just because a couple can't biologically create children doesn't mean their parental or nurturing instincts or behaviors are in any way compromised. And if infertile hetero couples are allowed, why are the gay ones excluded? I mean, really, what's sexual preference got to do with parenting ability at all?

This video seems to be showing signs of infection of a mild form of the transhumanist thought virus. Machines will save us, but in the end all of these short cuts are really dead ends because human consciousness is largely taken out of the equation, causing the mind to atrophy. From an esoteric perspective, whenever one willingly reduces their level of consciousness and places that faith in a mechanical process for the sake of convenience, they are automatically aligning with the forces of entropy. You become lunch.

I tend to have a different perspective on transhumanism. I see the work itself as a transhumanist project, since it's about acquiring faculties and abilities beyond the scope of regular humans by learning to perceive reality more objectively and absorb useful information in non-sensory ways. I think the same way you do about transhumanism through the purely materialistic lens, but I think there is a third way available. If you use technology to improve your ability to remember yourself and be conscious more often (such as an app or implant that can help monitor self-regulation and amygdala hijacks, just as an example), you could be more objective and in possession of your person, and able to DO. In this context willpower goes much further in benefiting the lives of others.

While some may think this would create a dependency on certain conditions to do thinks we should naturally be able to do, it would also allow us to do things we cannot naturally do. In fact I would argue that the invention of a writing system is an example of such an (incredibly beneficial) dependency. Same goes for the paleo/keto diet. I'm sure many people on neolithic diets who worked on themselves would consider us "cheating" by making it easier for us to manage our moods and improve our thinking, instead of working a lot harder to achieve the same ends. Realistically though, it's best to use the knowledge we have to improve our ability to do good in the world. If that includes adopting methods of augmenting our thinking or feeling, it's fair game, OSIT. Suppose you could acquire the knowledge of whole libraries by allowing info to be installed directly into the mind? Reading all the books manually may seem like a pious act, but that takes time away from doing other things beneficial to people. Suppose you acquired software that grants linguistic or mathematical abilities, or musical ability? (Imagine the community-wide social gatherings with THAT superpower!) Suppose psychopaths had augmentation that manipulated their reward systems to make them capable of genuinely altruistic behavior? Suppose distributed thought developed to the point of allowing you to program your subconscious system 1 directly?

To me that would not render the work irrelevant, it would shift the focus of work away from individual self-hacking and more towards the more complex nuances of collaborative social co-creation. If you think of 2D organisms in their predator-prey relations, they would be positively bemused if we told them as 3D beings that we got feeding ourselves and avoiding being eaten down pat. They would ask, "what do you work on yourself for then? What else is there to life?"

I guess the 4D STS/STO battle would occur within those in charge of creating these types of enhancements. They could unleash incredible abilities, or program and enslave minds through suggestion and mind control. There's a lot of technology out there that could do wonders if it was put to humanitarian use. For one it would be impossible for psychopaths to hide their pathology in the cradle-to-grave surveillance state and culture of "big data" information gathering. Imagine being able to track the ponerization of a certain community in real time, isolating key vectors and reconditioning them before the bad decisions collectively add up?

That's what occurred to me. A complete system and number of points would have to be worked out in detail, but adding or losing points for different things could definitely weed out the baddies and help the pro-social people to rise.

Things like finishing school might get points. Finishing school with high grades, added points. Entering an apprenticeship program at a young age might get more points than entering at a usual age. Service activities. People would lose points for any kinds of abusive behavior, etc. There are just a whole host of things to think about there.

The beauty of it is that instead of being good so you get your reward in heaven, you can get it here. And same for those who lose points or go negative: they can end up in one of the circles of hell.

China is actually in the process of implementing en mass a community points system, termed "social credit", which is like a credit score that describes your contribution to society as a whole. It's another great piece of social engineering technology that will in all odds be horribly misused. I brought it up previously here: https://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,40500.msg623853.html#msg623853

 

[bjorb]

[quote author= whitecoast]And if infertile hetero couples are allowed, why are the gay ones excluded?[/quote]

Listening to nature is important. It is the respected way creation intended. Our lessons are tied this way. We came to learn certain lessons and our bodies are meant to assist others and us in that way. Gender roles have their purposes.

My experience mirror’s the esoteric view. The Feminine energy is something very powerful and I think essential for giving children the love they need in their upbringing.

Fathers are just as responsible and accountable. Somehow they always play a smaller role and just live their own life or something. Motherly love is on a completely different level. I can’t help it, but that’s my experience and what I am seeing everywhere.

Maybe exploring the paranormal and metaphysics could shed more light on it. I am not entirely sure about it all. It’s a touchy subject for sure. But not everyone is able to see the lessons within. The students are not meant to be the architects of the school. If my assessments holds any water ( I am not sure ) They should try to understand and accept it. But that's my take on it. I am not speaking on behalf of anyone.

Btw, Gay and Bi can point out to Shaman potential I believe. ( Very important role )

 

[Hindsight Man]

Sorry if this has already been addressed in later pages,I only read the first 2,but I felt that I had to reply.I'm honestly a little bit shocked at the 3D view of a potential future and technology.Yes all infrastructure is likely to be completely destroyed,but is the current technology that we're familiar with the only one that's possible?Do the Cassie transcripts not exist all of a sudden or something?Are we not aware of technologies based on psychic abilities i.e. Kantekkians,druids etc.What about more simple ones like sound wave focusing with bronze instruments?Does the Coral Reef Castle not exist?It's possible with a little know how to create bio luminescent bacteria that eats dirt and produces light,no electricity necessary. It's even possible to create eye drops that allow you to see in the dark (google it, it's really cool) if you don't want to light up your surroundings/give away your position. Cassies mentioned a 1000 year period,I don't know if that means that it'll take 1000 years to get to 4D,but they also mentioned that some people will develop superpowers,which changes things.In short,things'll be very different.
Another thought I had while doing breathing exercises is ''What is technology but a technique'''.What I mean by that is any technique that makes your life easier is technically a technology of sorts.EE is a re-discovered technology of stress management/karmic release for example. So while all infrastructure will be gone,that doesn't mean we have to go back to ''wiping with leaves and living in shit'' as a lot of people here seem to view it.

On a different note,yes we'll have to compete with pathologicals.It's a part of life.You may even have to kill some,accept it.If you find yourself in a group of people who have no knowledge or awareness whatsoever and you have no opportunity to move then that group is your family.And as the one with awareness of pathologicals it'll be up to you to teach them and protect them until they can protect themselves.I know the idea of having to kill is unpleasant but I don't think that desperate masses of frenzied people will give you much choice.Remember,you're not killing to survive for the sake of survival,but for a chance to live long enough to share the light.Even Caesar killed,and I'm sure so has Gurdjieff as he's been in more than one shootout.I look at my neighbours,at people I see on the train or in daily life and they are already violent,crude.What will happen when there's no food,water,shelter?A big free for all.If it's possible to remove yourself from violence,do it,but what if you see someone else being mugged,assaulted?What if it's an old man,woman,child?What will you do when the attackers won't back down?Are you ready,mentally to put yourself in physical danger for others or will you ''leave them to their lessons'' so to speak.What happens when everyone else already ignores those problems as ''par for the course''?I don't see this being addressed at all.Pathologicals don't just stop because you asked them.Remember,you can't call the police,there are no cops.You can't get a restraining order,there are no lawyers,you can't go to court,there are no judges.What will you do,what will be the best course of action?How are we to proceed?Personally I think that leaving hapless victims in those situations is worse then killing the attackers.I would feel like a part of my humanity would die if i were to witness such injustice and simply let it happen.Granted the live to fight another day motto may be applicable in some circumstances,but not all surely. :/

 

[whitecoast]

[quote author= whitecoast]And if infertile hetero couples are allowed, why are the gay ones excluded?

Listening to nature is important. It is the respected way creation intended.[/quote]

What's your opinion on wearing clothes? Or using electricity? Or performing blood transfusions? Do you see where this whole "appeal to nature" thing gets us?

My experience mirror’s the esoteric view. The Feminine energy is something very powerful and I think essential for giving children the love they need in their upbringing. Fathers are just as responsible and accountable. Somehow they always play a smaller role and just live their own life or something. Motherly love is on a completely different level. I can’t help it, but that’s my experience and what I am seeing everywhere.

I do agree each sex generally has specialized inclinations. But that IS a generalization, and so cannot capture the nuances of every situation, or proscribe the best line of action in a given situation (as per law of three). Not all women have a strong maternal instinct, and some men have stronger paternal instincts than others. But even going by stereotypes, lesbian couples should be lauded as the best child-rearing combination because of all the "feminine energy". But instead they're excluded. Lastly, FWIW, couples (hetero or gay) which lack parental inclinations are not likely to want children anyway, much less sit through 5 years of probationary screening and education.

 

[Buddy]

[quote author= whitecoast]And if infertile hetero couples are allowed, why are the gay ones excluded?

Listening to nature is important. It is the respected way creation intended.

What's your opinion on wearing clothes? Or using electricity? Or performing blood transfusions? Do you see where this whole "appeal to nature" thing gets us?[/quote]

I knew that was coming and was prepared to point out the lack of clear defining of terms if we want to go philosophical here-even about being philosophical.

In that same article describing the appeal to nature, we find this statement:

In some philosophical frameworks where natural and good are clearly defined in a specific context, the appeal to nature might be valid and cogent.

We certainly have to work with nature rather than oppose it confrontationally, so, I guess a good question to explore first (?) is, do we all have the same understanding of terms and is the context correct?

 

[Mal7]

If a person decides they don't want to live under this system, then what alternative will there be? He can leave can't he...to wander around and maybe create his own Temporary Autonomous Zone or pirate utopia?(_https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporary_Autonomous_Zone) Hmmm...always wanted to be a pirate. :D

I am not advocating a social model of lawlessness. My position is more that laws should be kept to the minimum that is necessary to prevent harm to others, and to establish a compassionate society that doesn't have extremes of inequality. Maybe this is just details, but the proposed template to me suggests more laws than I think may be necessary. For example, that every capable person of working age works 25 hours per week for an equal salary.

At present, I have more autonomy than this. I can work for only 15 hours per week if I choose. That would make it difficult to pay my bills, but at least I wouldn't be sent to live in a walled enclave. Or I can work 50 hours per week, and perhaps afford a longer holiday than my lazier neighbor who knocks off each day after 5 hours work.

So I would prefer a society that allows more free enterprise. This could be called free market capitalism. Capitalism gets a lot of bad press from the "Left", but the actual present system in the world isn't a particularly pure form of capitalism. It is more like crony capitalism, where the large capitalist enterprises are in cahoots with, and subsidized by, the government and lawmakers. When banks are bailed out, that isn't capitalism, it's more like socialism for the rich. Capitalism is supposed to lead to privatized risk, and public benefit. Bailing out the banks was the opposite - the public took on the risk, and the private banks received the benefit.

I don't see anything wrong with people in highly skilled work areas, like neurosurgeons, receiving a higher salary than others in less skilled work. The neurosurgeon has had to train longer, and has a position where their duties are more critical and needing of careful attention than a relatively unskilled job such as apple picking.

Plato's Laws presents a model of society that has adherents and detractors. Some see it as a model that is too illiberal and authoritarian. Near the end of Book III the Athenian Stranger suggests a moderate model, avoiding the excesses of liberality or tyranny:

With a view to this we selected two kinds of government, the one the most despotic, and the other the most free; and now we are considering which of them is the right form: we took a mean in both cases, of despotism in the one, and of liberty in the other, and we saw that in a mean they attained their perfection; but that when they were carried to the extreme of either, slavery or licence, neither party were the gainers.

Of course nobody is suggesting adopting Plato's laws wholesale without seeing where they might be improved. From what I know of Greek society, it seems to have been patriarchal and one where slaves where considered somewhat like chattels. I don't think know that Plato addressed these issues. The Laws, Book VII, also advocate censoring the arts:

Athenian Stranger: And what has it been the object of our argument to show? Did we not imply that the poets are not always quite capable of knowing what is good or evil? And if one of them utters a mistaken prayer in song or words, he will make our citizens pray for the opposite of what is good in matters of the highest import; than which, as I was saying, there can be few greater mistakes. Shall we then propose as one our laws and models relating to the Muses -

Cleinias: What? - will you explain the law more precisely?

Athenian Stranger: Shall we make a law that the poet shall compose nothing contrary to the ideas of the lawful, or just, or beautiful, or good, which are allowed in the state? nor shall he be permitted to communicate his compositions to any private individuals, until he shall have shown them to the appointed judges and the guardians of the law, and they are satisfied with them. As to the persons whom we appoint to be our legislators about music and as to the director of education, these have been already indicated. Once more then, as I have asked more than once, shall this be our third law, and type, and model - What do you say?

Cleinias: Let it be so, by all means.

 

[Buddy]

So I would prefer a society that allows more free enterprise.

Well, gee whiz. Why didn't we say that in the first place?

...a possibly useful reminder of something said in the article:

This is an exercise of thought and also an exercise of hope, and there's not much to lose, because no matter how imperfect this sociopolitical model is, it's unlikely to be as destructive as its predecessors, no matter how hard we try!


...you will find below many very operational and concrete ideas that are definitely worth testing.


This is, by definition, an incomplete work that must evolve in an organic way. It's a first step aimed at planting a seed in the reader's mind and encouraging him/her to think about this ideal world. And let's face it: every great (and not-so great) achievement in this world started with an idea, a flash of imagination or inspiration that informed the process that became the foundation of its realization.

I know you read that and I'm not being a smarty-pants...I'm just admiring that someone actually discussed this whole idea and then presented something in writing, in public, while there's still time for folks to think about it all. Who else has done that?

Where it goes from here is anyone's guess, I guess.

 

[SeekinTruth]

I'm getting the impression that there may be somewhat of the problems Gurdjieff commented on so much. Such as (false) personality and essence - what a person is born with, what is theirs - and what was not part of essence but an accumulation of what was not theirs and by imitation of others became their personality. What Joe said about looking at it from a clean slate is already being shown as a particular difficulty, because so many of the "values" of this current social paradigm are being "embraced".

As important as free will and freedom in general are, I think there's a whole lot of mixing up what are really just illusions in our present world. It's like Gurdjieff said, when one doesn't have actual freedom or will, their insistence on preserving what they don't have (because of the imbalanced environment they've developed in) can only hold them back from gaining actual freedom and will.

On technology having good aspects: yes, certainly. But wanting to use high tech for enhancing, for example, capabilities of consciousness may be inherently tilted toward Service To Self. Too many terms and definitions seem to be being mixed up (such as what is natural - this is part of the result of the world we live in). I can't see how, for example keto/paleo diet can be seen as anything other than being what was at one time completely natural - not some technological "cheating".

Anyway, just to repeat, no matter what flaws may exist in any given template for an attempt at creating a better social order (it's never going to be perfect, and doesn't have to be, just much better and more sustainable than the current disorder) it's worth exploring the core values, and overcoming the core problems that got us here. It's interesting to see how the discussion will proceed, if the letting go of what we're familiar with will open up to being more creative with ideas (even if the premise is that it all has to be enshrined into laws eventually - after all, the universe is based on all sorts of natural laws too). Trying to take the best aspects of the current social "order", preserving the core of those, and improving everything else may be why there seems to be a tripping over how much of what we're familiar with being preserved. We should maybe start by reviewing how much of our freedoms and individuality, for example, is real and how much is illusion currently. Or so I think.

 

[Nienna]

Thank you, ST, for your post.

I'm getting the impression that there may be somewhat of the problems Gurdjieff commented on so much. Such as (false) personality and essence - what a person is born with, what is theirs - and what was not part of essence but an accumulation of what was not theirs and by imitation of others became their personality. What Joe said about looking at it from a clean slate is already being shown as a particular difficulty, because so many of the "values" of this current social paradigm are being "embraced".

I still see several people thinking about, "What's in it for me?!" instead of wondering what's in it for all of us. Getting rid of our STS programming seems to be very hard to do. I remember seeing a video either on the forum, or on fb where a researcher was trying to get across the idea of competition to a group of tribal children in, I think, Africa. They were told that the first one to fun fast enough to cross the finish line would get a bag of sweets. These children couldn't understand why only one person should get to have a prize. So they all held hands and ran together and crossed the finish line together and so all got to share the sweets. I prefer this egalitarian way of living to the capitalistic and selfish way us "civilized" people live. But, that's just me.

As important as free will and freedom in general are, I think there's a whole lot of mixing up what are really just illusions in our present world. It's like Gurdjieff said, when one doesn't have actual freedom or will, their insistence on preserving what they don't have (because of the imbalanced environment they've developed in) can only hold them back from gaining actual freedom and will.

On technology having good aspects: yes, certainly. But wanting to use high tech for enhancing, for example, capabilities of consciousness may be inherently tilted toward Service To Self. Too many terms and definitions seem to be being mixed up (such as what is natural - this is part of the result of the world we live in). I can't see how, for example keto/paleo diet can be seen as anything other than being what was at one time completely natural - not some technological "cheating".

Anyway, just to repeat, no matter what flaws may exist in any given template for an attempt at creating a better social order (it's never going to be perfect, and doesn't have to be, just much better and more sustainable than the current disorder) it's worth exploring the core values, and overcoming the core problems that got us here. It's interesting to see how the discussion will proceed, if the letting go of what we're familiar with will open up to being more creative with ideas (even if the premise is that it all has to be enshrined into laws eventually - after all, the universe is based on all sorts of natural laws too). Trying to take the best aspects of the current social "order", preserving the core of those, and improving everything else may be why there seems to be a tripping over how much of what we're familiar with being preserved. We should maybe start by reviewing how much of our freedoms and individuality, for example, is real and how much is illusion currently. Or so I think.

True.

 

[kalibex]

I think it's interesting to see the different responses here. I can understand that some may be viewing the idea from the perspective of what we have today, and all the ways it can go wrong, and all the abuses of power and lies we experience.

That's pretty much it. We know that there's no such thing as infinite 'personal freedom' in a civil society - we know that.

But we've been under the thumb of the Man for so long - so much psychopath-beneffiting coercion, much of it ludicrously flip-flopping:

'Stay home and raise the kids.... Oops; there's a war on, go out and work; we miscalculated and too many of the men are off getting killed and traumatized... Oop; war's over, get back in the house...oh, and start consuming like crazy, too...'

First one thing...then another. So of course many of us will be hypersensitive to any whiff of constraint. We just want some clarification, some explanations.

If you really think that your general ideas are truly a combination of 'The best of the old, the best of the new'...? They may be so.

Just remember... You're talking to a traumatized people.

Edited to add: This is an impressive general outline; not that it really matters, but I personally found very little to question, as I mentioned earlier. What I did feel uneasy about, I inquired about. Most of clarifications thus far have been reasonable; a few I'm still not quite certain on. If I'm again being oversensitive or 'seeing things', feel free to correct me, but some folks seem a bit taken aback that there's been a certain amount of constructive criticism...

 

[happyliza]

Regarding the discussions on education etc here, ahead of its time, such a 'school' does already exist for many years now. I have been involved with this idea since 2008 and intended to incorporate this model into my 'community' project here from the outset. I have friends or the same ideas who have visited this school and are totally amazed and confirm all that is written about it and more.

Furthermore it was the idea of Kin's Domains - a wonderful Russian concept that is practised in many Russian communities already, that incorporate many of the ideas here. Though to include everything about FOTCM is what would make the concept complete IMO. This is what I found missing when doing my research at the time on my own ideal. I spent one week with Vladimir Megre and those who already live in Kins Domains and those who were preparing to do so. So I was very involved in the grass-roots so to say. They are far ahead of our 'eco'villages etc. Yet another proof of great things being done in Russia!

So we are not totally reinventing everything from scratch here - much is already attempted, which is good news. Honing needs to be done though as we realize.

Anyway to save a lot of time and energy on 'education' matters here is a brilliant foundation:
https://www.ringingcedars.com/tekos_school/
http://www.thisisenergy.com/blog/95-school-of-the-future
http://www.icajapan.org/home-english/abundance/learning/

Mikhail Petrovich Shchetinin - Kin's School - Lycee School at Tekos

http://loveforlife.com.au/content/08/12/31/mikhail-petrovich-shchetinin-kins-school-lycee-school-tekos-mikhail-petrovich-shche

A model school for the future has been established in Russia under the guidance of Academician Mikhail Petrovich Shchetinin.

[Note: Embedded videos located at the bottom of this webpage.]

In a small city in southern Russia there is a remarkable Lyceum school. Its students come from more than 40 different nationalities. New approaches to moral and intellectual education allow students to cover the full school curriculum in the space of a few years, and to earn one or more academic degrees by the time they are 15-17. The preservation and interfusion of ethnic traditions through folklore, song and dances of various nationalities affords the opportunity for children of different backgrounds, cultures and faiths to gain a deeper understanding of each other. The noble ideas of service to one's Motherland and highest moral standards, along with mutual assistance and support, unite children and adults of various nationalities in building a bright future together.


Mikhail Petrovich Shchetinin

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What is Shchetinin's school?

This is a school in Southern Russia created by alternative educator Academician Shchetinin, where ordinary pupils with little if any help from adult teachers cover the whole 11-year curriculum of the Russian school system in just two years, get official bachelor's and master's degrees from accredited universities by the time they are seventeen, and also have designed, built and decorated their campus all by themselves. The school is described in Book 3.
Can I visit the school? Do they accept visitors?

Yes. Although no special invitation or prior arrangements have been needed until recently, it is now asked that you contact the school beforehand. Due to the overwhelming interest and the constant stream of visitors all year round, students have been distracted from their studies and it is requested that you do NOT drop in unannounced. The School's location is given in one of the books.


Bright Tidings - On The Pathway To Man

We see education gradually turning into a two-edged lie: the young ones pretend to study, the older ones pretend to teach. The mighty energy of the human spirit gets squeezed out by the rigidity and inflexibility of educational technology.

The integrity of the child as an individual - indeed, the integrity of the environment - this is the mutual relationship of the two basic principles underlying the concept of the school as shared by myself and my like-minded colleagues. The very first lesson in the school ought to touch upon the meaning of human existence.

In our world today the whole educational curriculum is divided up into divergent layers, isolated from each other. The world of perception is transformed into isolated 'corridors' to such an extent that it is sometimes hard for the pupil to believe that they are all part and parcel of a single whole. Art draws its very strength from the fact that it synthesises fractionalised phenomena, offers a holistic system of education and child-raising, and inculcates a holistic world-view.

But art cannot fully address this question if children are not immersed in an atmosphere where genuine life-values are affirmed - an atmosphere of shared labour and searchings, where every lesson is permeated with a sense of creativity. Then we have something to think about. Then we have a basis on which children will be able to appreciate art with understanding. For if there is no opportunity to live and experience this high ideal first-hand, then the high ideal is not truly perceived - it remains an ideal in word only, and hence begins to compromise itself.

In our educational process we work on the basis of a three-part harmony: "I see - I analyse - I act."

It is not just that we place our own tremendous emphasis on music, visual art and dance - they should make themselves felt in the school on a day-by-day basis, and this is the crux of the whole thing.

No programme, no methodology can in and of itself guarantee success in child-raising on the whole.

Together with the educators of the Children's Music School in Kizliar (Daghestan), we emphasise the direct dependence of success in music on the level of a person's overall development, rather than on any special, isolated musical talents. It turns out that skill on one area is manifest when skill is shown in many areas of life.

Young people often conquer summits simply because they have never been persuaded that these summits are unattainable. It is our view that skill in one area of activity is made up of skills in others. Talent is a whole network of different gifts. Which means the task of developing one set of skills is expanded when all of them are set in motion together. And to bring up a specialist, consequently, one has to bring out the overall Man - Man as a unified whole...

...Years are behind us now. I have held on to the conviction that Man can do everything! It is precisely through making sense of this saying that our multifunctional school, the whole school complex, the whole school-Man, has been developed. Our purpose is not 'knowledge-know-how-habits'. It is not endless drilling and rote-learning, or the spoon-feeding of information. Rather, it is the raising of Man to live harmoniously, to act in harmony with society - a Man who, when he sees and analyses the phenomena of life which surround him, can feel their interconnection, can perceive the world as a whole. And no matter what he becomes - an engineer, physicist, chemist, builder, teacher etc. - he will understand that he is going out into a whole, complete, unified world!

We are in the process of shaping Man's ability to get along in this whole, unified world from a very young age. Right from childhood Man must be raised beginning with his roots, with his very essence. And the essence of Man is his humanity. And this consists in re-uniting, one way or another, his life-forces in the struggle against the forces of chaos and disintegration. But the development of Man's essence is not only the goal - it is at the same time the means to achieving this goal.

After all, why is the idea of the harmony of the individual so attractive and so productive? Because it alone is capable of appreciating the harmony of the world as the most valuable treasure, capable of preserving this integrity, this very harmony that has been in the making over millions of years of evolution...

In regular schools we notice how our once attentive, wide-eyed pupils seem to fall away from us. We see education gradually turning into a two-edged lie: the young ones pretend to study, the older ones pretend to teach. The mighty energy of the human spirit gets squeezed out by the rigidity and inflexibility of educational technology. It freezes up, only rarely causing faint and pitiful ripples of disturbance to monotonously long and boring classes. But just look at how the school's energy boils over between classes! During these long moments of despair it reminds one of the convulsions of a dying giant.

As a rule, the overwhelming majority of pupils have only two or three classes a day in which they are active, attentive, concentrated and participate as active creators in the learning process. More than two-thirds of the time spent in school is given over to inactivity. It is as though the brain were asleep. But this is not a sleep of relaxation. It is a sleep that is harmful to one's health.

The activity of exchanging information engenders the activity of energy exchange. A state of sleepiness and a sluggish flow of thought processes is reflected in a slowing down of psychophysical functions, in a retarded flow of energy exchange. The body and its nervous system are literally undergoing a slow death. The situation of the one who is 'sleeping' is exacerbated even further by being in a state of anxiety and tension resulting from an attempt to avoid being discouraged by one's inactivity...

The result is that for most of the time the body is in an oppressed state. Perhaps this is why the health curve on one's educational record falls from grade to grade, along with the extinguishing of one's mental forces. The traditional school is not in tune with children's nature. It is not really for them. It does not contribute either to the flourishing of their talents or to the development of their spiritual, physical and moral health. Like a knife-blade, it is aimed at a very narrow target: knowledge-know-how-habits. The focus is not on the child, not on the individual, not on the development of the immeasurable range of the abilities he is endowed with, of his whole universal selfhood, but simply on producing a product of the instructional process.

Mikhail Petrovich Shchetinin
"On the pathway to Man"
Contemporary Pedagogy ( Pedagogika nashikh dnei)
ed. Shalva Amonashvili et al.
Krasnodar : Knizhnoe izdatel'stvo, 1989, pp. 381-401.

Translated by John Woodsworth

Bright Tidings DVD

A model school for the future has been established in Russia under the guidance of Academician Mikhail Petrovich Shchetinin.

In a small city in southern Russia there is a remarkable Lyceum school. Its students come from more than 40 different nationalities. New approaches to moral and intellectual education allow students to cover the full school curriculum in the space of a few years, and to earn one or more academic degrees by the time they are 15-17. The preservation and interfusion of ethnic traditions through folklore, song and dances of various nationalities affords the opportunity for children of different backgrounds, cultures and faiths to gain a deeper understanding of each other. The noble ideas of service to one's Motherland and highest moral standards, along with mutual assistance and support, unite children and adults of various nationalities in building a bright future together.

The movie has been translated into English and subtitled. Note, it is right now only available in NTSC system.

This DVD can be purchased from here:
An Edited Excerpt From The Ringing Cedars Books

Link: http://loveforlife.com.au/node/1125

This forest school completely redefines our understanding of “education” !

At this school the children have designed, built, and decorated their own campus — without adult supervision! They cover the entire high-school math curriculum in one year and get official Master's degrees by the time they are seventeen. They cook their own meals, do the administrative work, and write their own textbooks. These students come and go as they please and their parents pay no tuition fees!
Megré describes his first visit to Tekos…

“… A narrow gravel road led from the main highway into the forest, to a valley nestled amidst the mountain peaks. The road soon came to an end in front of a most unusual two-storey mansion. It was still under construction. From one of the still frameless window openings wafted the sounds of children’s voices singing a Russian folk song.

“This building was part of the vision Anastasia had showed me back in the taiga forest, but now it was an altogether real experience.

“Without a word to anyone I made my way through various construction materials to touch this mansion with my own hands.

“As I approached, I saw a little girl, about ten years old, climbing deftly down a ladder. She went over to a pile of river pebbles and began selecting and dropping stones into an old herring tin. When she started back up the ladder, I climbed up after her, in the direction of the alluring music pouring forth from above.

“There on the second floor I watched as a group of kids like her, some a little older, were taking smooth pebbles out of a box and attaching them with a cement mixture to the wall, making an amazingly beautiful pattern. Two little girls at once carefully washed off each newly attached stone with damp rags. They set about their tasks in earnest, singing as they worked. No adults were present.

“Later I found out that the whole foundation, indeed, each brick of this structure, had been laid by a child’s hand. The children had come up with the whole design by themselves, including every corner of their building.

“And this is not the only such building on the little campus. In this amazing setting children are constructing not only their buildings, their campus, but their whole future in the process.

“And they sing! Here a ten-year-old girl is capable of building a house, doing splendid drawings and cooking meals, not to mention knowing ballroom dance steps and mastering the fundamentals of Russian martial arts.3

“The children of this forest school are acquainted with Anastasia. They themselves told me about her. Three hundred pupils from different Russian cities study here.

“At this school children take but a year to master the whole ten-year public-school maths syllabus, along with studying three foreign languages. They neither recruit nor produce child prodigies. They simply give the kids a chance to discover what already lies within.

“Academician Mikhail Petrovich Shchetinin’s school comes under the Russian Federation’s Ministry of Education. It charges no tuition fees. Even though the school does not advertise itself, it has no vacancies. Indeed, there is already a waiting list of 2,500 hopefuls for an unexpected opening.

“It is hard to find words to describe the joy on these children’s beaming faces… (cont'd)

* * *

Megré talks to one of the students:

“One gets the impression that each brick of your building here is filled with the bright energy of a great power.”

“Yes, that’s true,” answered an older, red-haired girl. “So much depends on the people who touch them. We have done all this with love, we are trying with our mental attitude to bring only what is good and happy to our future.”

“Who designed this building, the columns and paintings?”

“This was the result of our united, collective thinking.”

“Does that mean that while each one is outwardly working on their own individual task, in actual fact it represents a collective thought?”

“That’s right. Every evening we get together and plan out, or visualise, the day ahead. We come up with the images we want to see expressed in the design of our mansion. Some of the pupils here take on the role of architect — they give specific form to our common work, tie it all together.”

“What image is expressed in the room we’re standing in now?”

“The image of Svarog2 — the primordial element of heavenly fire. You can see him here in the symbols, in the pebble amulets.”

“Does your group recognise one of its own as a principal or superior?”

“We do have a leader, but by and large it is the collective thought that is at work here — lava, we call it.”

“Say that again — thought is lava?”

“That’s right — a state of mind, an image, a desire.”

“Do you all work with such great delight, everybody smiling, everybody with such sparkling eyes — everybody so cheerful?”

“Yes, our life is like that, since we are doing what we want, doing what we can, doing what we love to do.”

“You said each stone has its own pulse and rhythm?”

“Yes, and this pulse beats once a day — just once.”

“Is it like that with all stones, or do some beat twice a day?”

“Every stone’s pulse beats once a day.”

“Doesn’t it seem to you that your mansion is something like a temple?”

“A temple is not a form, but a state of mind. For example, the cupolas — they simply help you access a particular state of mind. The form is moulded by feeling. And it is not by chance that the form of a cupola or hipped roof came to us — they represent our aspirations for heaven and the descent of Heavenly Grace.”

“This building, where every stone is laid with a good thought, is it able to heal?”

“Of course.”

“And does it heal?”

“Yes, it does… (cont'd)”

* * *

In the Ringing Cedars Series, Anastasia completely redefines the concept of “education”. She insists that universal knowledge is accessible to each of us — and she steers us toward an entirely new model of education whereby children are taught to look within to find their own innate questions and answers. She reveals to the author the existence of this “forest school” where children, by using the methods she describes, are accomplishing results beyond our wildest dreams.

You can read much more about this school in these books and then watch a 30 minute DVD, available here. The words and images of these children will move you to tears — and touch the very core of your being — as you are reminded of the extraordinary beauty within every human being.

* * *

NOTES:

1. Mikhail Petrovich Shchetinin (1944 — ) Director (principal) of the Tekos School near Gelendzhik. Originally a music teacher by profession, Mikhail Petrovich has had a long and distinguished career in experimental education. The recipient of several awards, in 1991 he was honoured with the title Akademik (Academician) by the Russian Academy of Education.

2. Svarog — in Russian and Slavic mythology, the god of fire, the father and divine light of celestial and earthly fires, who created (Russian: svarganil) our Universe (Sanskrit and ancient Russian: svarga). Svarog fought and captured a giant malicious serpent or dragon (Zmey), which he used to pull a plough, separating the land of the living (or the visible world,Yav) from the land of the dead (or the invisible world, Nav) and thus establish order (or Rightness, Prav). In Christianity he is associated with, among others, the Archangel Michael.

 

[happyliza]

Kinsman (Rodochelovek)

Every individual Man is the Eternal Primordial. Both the eternal Result and the Eternal source. I am talking about Kinsman. It is on this theory, concept and philosophy that our school, the Russian Kin School is founded.

The very thought that Man is part of the Great Cosmos gives pause for reflection on the thought that the human self must be, as Vernadsky put it, a ‘cosmic something’ which guarantees his active existence in the whole unlimited cosmic river of life. To live in the Cosmos means understanding and carrying its structure within one’s self, it means clearly knowing the laws by which it operates, the meaning of its existence, and to have mastered the techniques of existing in it.

The spatial dimensions of the Cosmos (i.e., infinity), its life in time (i.e., eternity), the infinite variations taking place with each of its component elements, all make Man realize the necessity of not only knowing about everything taking place in the Cosmic river of life, but also actively participating in it, being in perfect tune with its aspirations during each moment of cosmic happenings. All of this presupposes the existence within the human self of a power and ability to grasp (or ‘catch’) the innumerable signals of the immeasurable cosmos — to possess within one’s self a database that will facilitate an accurate, instantaneous response to constantly changing cosmic information, so that one who is inherently thinking about this will come to the following conclusions:

(1) The ‘cosmic something’ is some kind of matrix-like informational structure, engendered and nurtured over billions of millennia of Man’s life. Hence we cannot imagine this Man to be an entity limited to a single age, a single manifestation, or especially to the space of a few years or decades. Man is a child of Eternity, and so he constitutes his own Kin (Russian: rod), consisting within himself of an infinite number of manifestations of his existence.

(2) Man as a Kin (Rod), by any stretch of the imagination, cannot be fully accommodated within the artificial, impersonal stream of learning organized by our contemporary schools, all calculated on the basis of a miniscule, partial, primitive entity with a single manifestation of existence. And so the Child-Giant — Kinsman — rebels, protests and rejects; he comes across as the exact opposite of his social surroundings, of the society which has prepared him in such a strange manner for life and work. The School of Kinsman should be prepared by Kinsman. This means the children, just like the adults, should become teacher-researchers and creators of the school of Kinsman. By the same token the adults, just like the children, should become students in partnership with the children of this model educational system.

Hence the principles of the Kin school should be as follows:

1. The principle of nationality (narod), or Kin alike image (Rodoobraznost). Language, national songs, dances, handicrafts, customs, traditions, military arts, along with the culture of visual perception, sound and movement — all components of the concept of nationality — these are the living conditions for introducing the child - Kinsman into a world developed by the Kin, represented and unfolded in him and by him.

2. The principle of the supremacy of truth or fact-meaning correspondence. For “I am Truth,” says the Lord. The significance of all the happenings in the cosmos ultimately comes down to achieving the full mutual harmony of all components — of all elements of Love or Truth. Everything that makes up the life of the school — every law of physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, as discovered by the children together with adults — should serve to completely align their relationship to the world and to themselves. Only in this way will the school correspond to its students’ meaning of life. The aspiration for Truth, for a harmonized, just existence in the world and the correspondence of one’s actions to truth provide the only atmosphere in which healthy, moral and spiritual individuals can be developed.

3. The principle of ageless existence. The Kinsman has no age. The memory of the Kin — concentrated in us, or manifested (as it seems to us) in concepts such as conscience, the Divine spark, the matrix foundation of the individual, the spirit — is a priceless treasure which is unfolded in us through the inexhaustible might derived from relying on it and turning to it. We can see that the division of a school population into age-groups establishes the dominance of a single-manifestation Man and his experience in a single-manifestation life, thereby cutting off the memory of the Kin, or the Cosmic knowledge present in Man. The principle of agelessness establishes in the child the Pristine Man, and shifts the emphasis away from the miniscule body to the Great Spirit.

An age-free school population takes upon itself the task of creating the actual system of education, assigns and reassigns roles among the members of the population in accordance with the quality and characteristics of the fruits of their labours, individuals’ traits of character, their inclinations etc., but never according to age statistics. The primogenitor did not merely play with words. The primogenitor used words to designate the essence of each phenomenon, object or process he beheld.

The principle of agelessness is supported by the identification of the Russian word deti (children) with dedy (grandfathers). This shows us that the edges of the family tree presented to our contemporary age were called by a single name: deti, dedy or dedi. This points to the underlying unity of children (deti) with grandfathers (dedy). Talking with a child as one would with a grandfather means talking with a grandfather. We can see that what pertains to children is nothing less than immeasurable. The chief distinguishing characteristic of children is the immeasurability of their aspirations, which we frequently define as maximalism. Unable to fathom the depths of children’s thinking with our imagination, we, in an effort to cover ourselves, end up stifling our children, we cause them to fool around, we turn them into puppets, we minimize them.

4. The principle of purity and clarity of information. The world is a stream of God’s Word. The Word Pantareimerem signifies that everything that exists is informed and itself informs — a thought which lies lightly on the soul. The two axioms: (1) the cosmos is a system and (2) the cosmos is infinite - would not be possible without a third and fourth:

(3) The cosmos as a system would be impossible without a mutual information exchange among its component elements.

(4) The incredible expanses of cosmic space are possible only under the conditions of harmony and mutual harmonization of movement according to a Whole Meaning, according to a Whole image of one’s life-journey, accepted by all as an incontrovertible, indestructible constant.

The acceptance within one’s self of a Whole meaning for one’s journey by each component of that Whole provides life to the system of elements as well as each element in particular. The acceptance of the meaning by each one is a condition of their mutual harmonization as a system. This was the basis of the Russian veche and the Cossack lava — indeed, for the formation of any people as a single whole. It is the basic condition of existence of any organism or body, or any micro or macro symbiosis. When we accept the meaning of the Whole within, its image is evidently what we discover everywhere as our own likeness.

This likeness to all that is found within us links us — relates us — to everyone else. All are related to us by Knowledge, and the awareness within himself of the meaning of the Whole allows Man not only to read the book of the stars but to live according to what he reads in the stars in a single formation with them…

______________________________

1. Man (with a capital M) an equivalent of the Russian word Chelovek, referring to a human individual as representing the species, without reference to sex – the human race, humankind.

2. Kinsman (with a capital K) an equivalent of the Russian word Rodochelovek, — A man sharing the same racial, cultural, or national background as another.

3. Kin School (Russian: Rodovaya shkola) — like Rodochelovek (here translated ‘Kinsman’).

4. Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky (March 12, 1863 [O.S. February 28] - January 6, 1945) was a Russian-Ukrainian mineralogist and geochemist whose ideas of noosphere were an important contribution to the Russian cosmism. He was a founding father of several new disciplines, including geochemistry, biogeochemistry, and radiogeology.

5. Kin (with a capital K) an equivalent of the Russian word Rod – indicate conection with close and far parents, right to our first parent the God. King (initial capital letter ) – God (Kin, –ing) Rod — an ancient Slavic word first denoting God as the source of all life, but also including the concept of family. The root rod also appears in several other Russian words, including (rodstvenik) ‘kinfolk’, (srodni) ‘akin’, (Rodina) ‘Motherland’ and (priroda) ‘nature’.

6. deti, dedy — the author takes this a step further and posits an original combined root dedi.

7. veche — old Russian popular assembly, a kind of parliament. Ancient Russian form of self-government which brought to life understanding of true freedom of a Man and his self expression. Existed in Russia up until approximately the middle of sixteenth century.

8. lava — same principals of self-government as in veche. Cossack ultimately derived from a Turkic social term qazaq meaning "adventurer" or "free man". This term is first mentioned in a Ruthenian chronicle dated 1395.

Mikhail Shchetinin Professor, Director of State Lycee, Distinguished Teacher of Russia Full Member, “RAO” (Russian Academy of Education) Article originally from Uchitel’skaya gazeta, No 31 (1999) Translated by John Woodsworth


More on the school:
This is the school founded by Mikhail Shetinin which Anastasia presents in her books as a powerful example of how empowering education should be to bring out the most in our children.

Children are valued and respected for the wise beings they are and appreciated for the innate wisdom and creative abilities they all have.

Education is seen as drawing this out, not putting information in. There are no adult teachers.

Children are given responsibility for their own education, learning together and teaching each other in small groups of mixed ages (8 and 17 years) and covering the entire high school syllabus in a year or two, while also managing the school, its administration, meals, maintenance etc all by themselves.

They focus on one academic subject at a time, mastering its core principles before adding the “fat” around this before moving on to another area.

They are encouraged to delve as deep as they desire into a subject, moving into university level – there are no restrictions to their learning. All areas of learning are connected and understood as parts of one big jigsaw puzzle that all fit together beautifully.

This is a disciplined orderly environment yet children feel free and independent to grow to their full potential. The students themselves have built and decorated the school from scratch, brick by brick and written their own text books.

The school develops the whole person with much time being devoted each day to the arts: music, dance, culture exploration, exercise, and all this in a healthy outdoor environment; learning from nature, in nature and with nature.

This is a school for the future where the outdated model of our current school system is seriously challenged and an inspiring example of how things can and should be is presented.

Mikhail Shetinin together with Leonid Sharaskin, who brought the Ringing Cedars books to the English speaking world, are investigating ways to bring this positive example of education to the Western world. Shetinin’s book on his philosophy of education will hopefully be available in English in the near future. A international tour of Shetinin and his pupils is planned for late 2010.
The School: Humanity’s New Future

Deep Snow Press: The School: Humanity’s New Future

In the foothills of the highest mountain in Europe, in a valley with glacier-fed springs, surrounded by ancient megaliths and natural power spots, there lies a school where the future of humanity is now being forged. A bright future.

A dream? A reality!

For three decades now a Russian visionary Mikhail Shetinin has been shattering both mainstream and ‘alternative’ views on education, while creating humanity’s new future. At his School, the children have designed, built, and decorated their own campus. They cover the entire high-school curriculum in one year and get official Master’s degrees by the time they are seventeen. They cook their meals, do administrative work, and write their own textbooks. They contemplate the meaning of the Universe and swim in mountain streams. They dance, draw, sing, and pick strawberries in the surrounding fields. They can shoot from an automatic rifle and fight with swords. They master ancient folk crafts by awakening their ancestral memory, which goes deeper than any written history now known to us. The girls choose not to wear miniskirts, make-up, or flashy jewelry. They have no interest in TV or video games. They do not prepare themselves for ‘life’ — they live every moment they breathe. They do it all with a mission to reclaim our true essence and to bring back to planet Earth the era of awareness and peace... The School will fill you with tremendous inspiration as you witness the enormous creative power revealed in each human being.

Get a glimpse of the fourth dimension!

We have carefully prepared a “3 in 1” version of this remarkable documentary. It includes the DVD with two versions of the film: with English subtitles (preserving the beautiful Russian soundtrack and the resonant voices of the children) and with English dubbing. Plus, included is a 16-page full-color booklet with the full transcript of the film (you’ll want to refer to it again and again), and with never-before-published photographs of the School! All-region DVD (NTSC). Running time: information-packed 30 min, distilled from hundreds of hours of footage.