Join me on a trip to… Damanhur
In the fall of 2024, I went on what has been probably one of my most extraordinary journeys so far. I visited the community of Damanhur in Italy. Damanhur is a spiritual and ecological community, located in the hills of Northern Italy, north of Turin. This community, often described as a utopian experiment, was founded in the 1970s and has developed into a blossoming network of ecovillages with a strong focus on spirituality, art, and sustainable development. Damanhur is both a physical place and a philosophy that is all about mutual connection, esoteric knowledge and a holistic way of life. Damanhur has a great, spiritual purpose.
Apart from the fact that I had never had to rely this heavily on my anthropologist eyes, these people and this place have deeply touched my heart. It was special, complicated, confusing, and strikingly beautiful. As the Damanhurians themselves like to put it: Damanhur is complex. After their first trip to India, you hear most travelers and anthropologists sigh: “I can’t tell you what it was like, India is just indescribable, you love it and hate it at the same time.” After my 10-day visit to Damanhur I experienced the same confusion and culture shock, though magnified. Damanhur is utopian. And utterly concrete. Above all, Damanhur is many things. Strange. Strikingly beautiful. Complex. This complexity derives from the fact that you can look at Damanhur in so many ways. In this article I will look at Damanhur with the eyes of an anthropologist, and from different perspectives.
Next, I will share my lessons learned from Damanhur that can benefit our organizations and society as a whole. Because there’s so much that we can learn from tribes all over the world and because Damanhur has discovered so much about building tribes and reaching goals.
