Damanhur is one such heresy in the western world. it transgresses all the boundaries between art/science/spirituality and plays havoc with consensus reality. These days we can't burn heretics- we can only subject them to character assasination. And boy has Damanhur been 'assasinated' over the years!

There's clearly an effective use of mythology in Damanhur- and a real understanding of how a robust mythology- depicted in fantastical and creative forms is always at the root of a flourishing society. In short this is because humans think in mythic or archetypal patterns- its impossible to do otherwise even though the religion of 'logic' often tries to claim otherwise- that we will 'escape/transcend' such irrationality. This is the neo-cortex trying to wage war on the primitive autonomic part of the brain and emerge victorious/The corporation attempting to dominate and conquer the natural environment /- or- to use another mythological image the snake trying to eat its own tail. Or even simpler- an impossibility/suicide

The dominant mythology conditioning the minds of many westerners is that existence arises from 'dead' chaotic matter, consciousness is an accidental by-product (epiphenomenon) of the firing of electrical impulses and our lives are utterly insignificant in the grande scheme of the universe. This has replaced the consciousness structuring entity of christianity. Some of us have even been lead to believe that this picture has been 'proven' scientifically and are not even aware that it is a grand mythological interpretation of specific bits of experimental data that prove no such thing (even assuming it ever could be 'proven') now for me this mythology we have created is 10000 times more crazy (and suicidal) than the wildest experiments in consesnsus reality going on at Damanhur but thats just me.

We have foisted such a repressive and intolerable mythology on ourselves that when we come across a community that is operating autonomously according to different archetypes it can cause all kinds of uncomfortable reactions in us. – intense jealousy is one. It the same as when an infantile persons stumbles across the path of fully developed human being (rare in the west these days) it can cause a shock and even make one feel 'creepy'.

the archetype at the root of damanhur seems to be that of 'conscious evolution'. the universe becoming aware of itself. Its a story that a lot of other groups are embracing such as http://www.enlightennext.org(a publishing enterprise run by an intentional community). Of course history teaches us that any mythological archetype can (and usually is) made into a system of manipulation and control (see christianity and science) and this evolutionary spirituality is no exception. its already being used to sell a lot of meditation and 'brainwave entrainment' cd's!

At the momment the biggest cirticism i see is this insistence that much of the damanhur teaching is 'new' or direct from Falco. That seems a little manipulative though i may be mis-understanding. There is clearly a basis in the western mystery tradition and Hermeticism or what is unhappily still called 'occultism' and 'magic'. certainly the proper and effective use of the imagination is a key aspect of magic and the western tradition- and these practices are fundamnetal to Damanhur.

Perhaps though, its no wonder the Damanhurians don't use or acknowledge those old terms since they've largely become reservoirs of people's projected fears and dark phantasies. Now we call it 'the science of conscious evolution' which is what magic, alchemy, and hermeticism always were anyway.

Basically, the concept of “freedom” is turned upside-down at Damanhur. Whereas out here, we think of freedom as “that relaxed freedom at the end of the day, after we're done with work, wherein we can do whatever we want,” they think of freedom as “the ability to persue dreams.”

If you have dreams but can't bring yourself to the discipline to carry them out, — as far as Damanhurian philosophy is concerned, “You aren't free.”

What this results in, is Damanhurians who are intensely dedicated to their work, whatever it is, and who are intensely eager to work on multi-person projects, because divine results require the work of more than one person.

My understanding is that the ethic is, “find your inner nature, find others with similar dreams and complementary natures, and work together with them to make something real.” This is all within the framework of global change and betterment of the human condition.

Damanhurians do not take vacations, do not take holidays, and basically work all day, every day. (*) This is all taken on by themselves, and it is always clear to them, “This is your path of volition.” How does this work out? The path of the Initiate forces some very hard questions on people: “You are aging. What have you done with your life? What are you doing with your life? Are you truly free? What is freedom? What happened to your idealistic visions of youth? Did people get to you? Did you grow tired? Will you find solace in idleness?”

(*) There *are* things called “Journeys,” which are roughly equivalent to vacations. But they're “vacations with a purpose,” generally; To develop other parts of the individual, to explore strange new concepts, to do metaphysical research, to carry out a ritual, or whatever: It's not, “Let's go to the beach and get a tan.”

Damanhur moves at a steady clip. If you don't keep up, you start to move towards the periphery; They're not about slowing down. That said, if you request help, or you want to move faster, they'll share tips, heart, and slow down for you, so that you can go fast again. They have a complex relationship between competition and cooperation. Damanhurians are very competitive. At the same time, I am hard pressed to think of a more sensitive and caring and sharing community. I had a fairly low key bad evening once, and the next day, everybody seemed to have known about it, and was asking me, “Are you okay? What happened?” — even staff at the grocery store, who I didn't even know!

This may all sound very paradoxical, but I have never met a happier people, and with such a heavy investment in each other's mutual happiness. They laugh, sing, smile, hug, and there is a strong sense of solidarity, just about everywhere. When they say “Con te,” they really mean it.

They have deep psychic sensitivity. I don't mean “psi phenomenon,” but rather: They're very sensitive to moods, feelings, the subjective experience within themselves and others, mindset, set, and setting. They live in a surreal world, both in terms of their thoughts, and in terms of their environment (pillars everywhere, artworks everywhere, labyrinths, circuits, little statues of people, and on and on.)

I thought the observation above of “Falco is an illusionist” was interesting; I think he would say so himself, directly, if he hasn't already. In the Path of the Initiate books, there are many references to “The Power of Maya,” the power of illusion. Their concept of illusion is not negative, though; Rather, it is conscious dreaming that they're focusing on. They don't see illusion as falsehood, so much as they see it as a conduit both of possible reality, and Being (Truth.)

They take apart language, look at connotations and associations, ritual, art, geometry, form, time — quite rigorously, and measure the affects of these forces on themselves and others. They take imagination very seriously, (while retaining humor, of course, …,) and the path from imagination to reality very seriously. So “illusion” is something they think about a lot, and then how to transfer reality from where it is, to what the “illusion” is. They have a very complex and baroque metaphysics, for researching and communicating all of these ideas, and carrying them out.

Damanhur is really difficult to understand and to describe. I visited for a week with a friend. I got into it immediately, my friend had a much harder time initially. After we talked, and worked there for a while, he saw it the way I did. If you focus on “are these ideas real or not,” you're sort of missing the point. I mean, the whole Path of the Initiate book series is deliberately and explicitly framed as fiction. My impression is that many, perhaps (?) most Damanhurians, do not take these intentional myths literally. But there is deep truth to what is being said. It's hard to argue with the idea of, “We're aging,” and the questions of, “What is man? What is life for? What does your life mean, in the grand scheme of things?”

I was at Damanhur for a month, and was a resident working guest for that month, besides also working for the local bio construction company.
First of all, the posts posted are of tourists and not of those that have been there, regardless, the last post carrys a tune of truth. If Oberto is a dictator i know not, but, what i do know, is that the man is a teacher, but, again, understand that what this means is, aparently more linked to the old ways of teaching has expressed by Carlos Castaneda….in other words, he will reflect what YOU are, back to you! Regardless, at times it does indeed appear has if he toys with one…again, a reminder that, it is not in 5 minutes, let alone 5 months, that u shall grasp the so called everything, hummm?
He is though a funny man, but, to know this, one must first know him, and, no, i do not.

Now, Damanhur is devided by groups, or small guilds if you will. Nucleos as they call it. The one i stayed at, very beautyfull installed near the temple, in the woods, is a very pleasent group. The people are all extremelly nice, and they care. This nucleos name was TIN, but, in the region of baldiseero there are many more nucleos. Each nucleo as a project. The project of Tin, was the forest and the horses. attended by one very nice young german lady….damn shes hot! hehehe, er, sorry about that:)
Anyway, the other nucleos have other projects. Theres the nucleo of temple, porta de la luna, if im not mistake and their reponsability is the temple…There the nucleo arboriclo, and their responsibility is to construct houses on the trees. Very nice this one:)
Listen, Damanhur is nota cult, it has depth, but yes, it is indeed a sad truth that most of the people there have a GREAT deal of zombie energy. I do not know why such is. And i assure you that Oberto has noticed it also. But know this also, to be a citrezen of damanhur, is not to be a slave. UNLESS, u desire it. For one can chose, and it is all about that, to be citezen A, B, C and D. The A has more responsibilitys there and the last, pops in when it wants. The slave part is lonked to each individual who DOES NOT understand the concept of spirtual path linked with HIS or HERS OWN FREE TIME!!!!! But, i do not think that it is the Founder that dictate what work he or she will do, and how many hours it should o and so on, and on…..People are left to themselves in that respect…sadly enough, it bypasses them the meaning of many things acting like that.

Second, the TEMPLE is an amasing thing. What our first reader got while he was there, was an impact from his mind. Because is mind as a world view and it desires to keep it. A world view is the aspect that almost all of humanity has that dictates what is and what is not….whatever lable you wishto apply to it. Economical, spiritual, political…etc…etc…But, this lable of this internal mechanism, wold view, also makes a human being be extremelly slective and very, VERY, biased by what the mind is afraid of!!! In the case of the chap in the first post, the fear was that there is INDEED more to life than it seems, and that he is not in control of it, and that, there is fear to know that there is more to life then it seems, and that, indeed, it is complex and hard work, and yes, it means shutting down the internal dialogue that you have withtyourtself everyday, and yes, it means fighting your own mind, and yes, it means that almost all of humanity spends its time talking withself, and yes, it means that when one talks with one self, one learns nothing and waists all ones energy….yesm we are all insanelly crazy… And no, this is not knowledge from damanhut, it is from the TOltec path. Something WAYYYYYY beyound there, for now…

Why i did not stay there? Although i did my stuff there, from tai chi to running and etc…etc…the people there still carryed their old baggage to that new community life, in the end it means that it is no diferent then any other small village, only that it teaches a few trinkets of knowlege…Usefull, but nothing compared to the toltec path of even falun dafa. Still, the place is precilely that, a laboraty and one with many inner circles, and many kinds of people with personnal power.

Still, besides the many faults, as it is to expect, the people are very nice, if masterlly closed. Indoctrinated is not the word to be used, although there are aspects of it there. The word is more, coerced into understanding that, spirituality is hard work. Unfortenally, thy missed the real meaning of the hard work part, the inner temple of ourselfves, and concentrate on the hard work part of the job…In other words, damanhurians are working on 10 projetcs, instead of just working on one or maybe 3…
The end result is a group of chaps that is tired like shit…and a chap called Oberto that trys to raise the moral, if i can call it that, im sure he will not!! But, the choice, the choice, the choice to work hard, or to meditate, or to whatever, comes from the person….Zombie or innitiate…thats the person choice. Unfortenally, most prefer zombie, easiar….and so, there are many people of damanhur that are more close than a walnut…and more nuts! hahahahaha! But still, its all part of the beauty. For KRYON, so lovelly saus that, DUALITY is within us, so, fight or not, hummm? Be not afraid of DEJA VU, it is you remenbering YOU! and your story, that you wrote…that is the meaning of the game of life. THe ROLE…

Well, and that is that…for now, anyone with some questions can writte to me at dometheo@gmail.com

Peace to you, and may you be able to shut down your internal dialogue, for it is the first step to inner power…

I had thought that the complex was more interesting but I’ve never been there. I didn’t stop by the one time that I was in Italy because, frankly, I was busy with Venice, Florence, etc.

They have made it nearly 30 years and are still a going concern. That puts them in a minority of the odder end of spiritual groups.

I wouldn’t really mock the name thing. After all, I’ve been given at least one Tibetan refuge name and another Japanese name when I took vows. I can’t mock the names that others take for spiritual reasons too much.

A creepy vibe is unfortunate though. I’ve met a number of groups that had that, over the years, so I know the kind of thing that you’re talking about.

I’ve mostly been interested in what they’ve built because it is so rare to see someone dig out a set of spaced underground and decorate them in a symbolic way following any sort of spiritual system. It’s just not something done in the last century or two. It makes a place stand out a little.

Thanks for the first hand input though. You’re the first person that I’ve communicated with that’s been out there.

This post just goes to show that you can’t really judge a spiritual organization by its website or its PR.

You have to go there–physically–meet the people and see the place to get a real feel for what’s going on. I did go to Damanhur (unfortunately)–and the reality is much, much less than it looks in the nice articles or the fancy books.

This place is a joke. First, the followers who live there take on the name of both an animal and a plant. So you might end up meeting people named Sparrow Pinecone, Ravenhawk Tulip, and so on.

They have a ridiculous mish-mash of beliefs including how “everything came from Atlantis” and similar BS. They have some completely ridiculous labyrinth-like paths laid out with rock in open fields; the idea is that by walking the various patterns you cure certain diseases or improve psychic abilities or whatever.

But the real mess is in the underground “temple” if you can call it that–basically, its an art project that has not succeeded. Nothing looks nearly as cool or sophisticated as it does in the photos: its cheesy, poorly done, lacking in any subtlety and a real waste of time–not to mention that the energy in the place is fairly negative (under statement).

One of the most sorry aspects of the place is that they take have a time travel lab; the tour guide gives most transparent rap ever about how they are doing time travel experiments. Its very sad…none of the instruments are working, everything is covered in dust and unplugged, and so on. I couldn’t tell if the tour guides truly believed time travel was occurring or if they were conscious of the fabrication. Their stories of “dimensions”, “frequencies”, “earth grids” and so on are quite bogus. One finds oneself eager to leave the underground temple part way through the tour.

The energy of the people in the place is quite creepy and somewhat robotic; everyone is spouting the party line. Apparently, the founder dude has channeled everything from his lifetimes in Atlantis and before, including an ancient language, songs, etc. All of this is 6th grade metaphysics or worse. This is nothing cool or awesome about the scene at all.

On the underground tour, you’re herded through rabbit warrens by watchers who keep tabs you in a spooky way. They frequently point out “important” aspects of the tunnels that are actually trite and hokey. There were several attempts at indoctrinating those on the tour.

The whole place feels very fake and unfortunate. These people do not have a “wonder of the world” or a new way to live on the planet. They’re running a small Western ashram that isn’t changing the world; its allowing a tiny group of people to work out there fantasies; I have no problem with it. Let’s just not pretend its some great or new anything.

The only awesome thing I noticed about Damunhur is the dedication—to delusion, it appears.

Tim