“Damanhur for me is a laboratory for the future. What we know is sure that the future will not be like the past.
We know that we can not continue the same way as we have done before.
Therefore we must try out new ways, living together in peace and harmony.
In this I think that Damanhur is offering a very important contribution. “

– Ervin Laszlo, scientist and philosopher, founder of The Club of Budapest

Damanhur Foundation’s goal is to select the best practices from the Federation of Damanhur. New forms of society are possible and practicable. They are the indispensable pathways to the creation of a new planetary balance in social, economic, human and cultural terms. It is indeed crucial at this point in time to process new templates that can be flexible enough to be applied under different conditions. Existing new societies can create benchmarks for others: communities are human laboratories for the future, where new paradigms, systems and norms can be tested.

The well-known Italian sociologist and Catholic priest Luigi Berzano summed up his impressions of Damanhur as a social laboratory and its positive impact on the valley in this way:

“Since my first studies on Damanhur in 1989 the dimension, which has interested and surprised me most, was that of the “social experiment”. Studying Damanhur I got the perception of what the Carthusian monasteries and the abbeys represented in the Middle Ages. Establishing themselves inside agricultural valleys, they brought benefits and revitalized entire zones. In a valley which had all the economical and social indexes of depression and ageing, Damanhur has revitalized the valley in demographic terms, has reactivated the interest for many ancient trades, has brought back the pleasure for artistic production in many sectors. And since the beginning, Damanhur has represented an element of social innovation. “

Damanhur can provide useful insights and models for society at large. The Federation has reached a stage of maturity, with over 45 years of experience in community living. Happy societies, who live in the world, have experimented with all aspects of life, especially in relation to new “human technologies”, exploring the positive effects of chosen and shared social models in the creation of sustainable and happy societies.

Development and value — two of the main reference points for the assessment of any society — in Damanhur are defined in terms of the quality of life for members of all ages, considering overall health and happiness, the access to continuous education, artistic expression at all ages, the quality and quantity of meaningful exchanges among members; an harmonious relationship with the land; and the relevance of a spiritual dimension of life. Value is a sense of individual and collective fulfilment created by the practical realization of everybody’s dreams and ideals. For this reason, the philosophy of Damanhur is based upon positive thinking as an element capable of directing the best of people’s energies. Damanhur’s history is a demonstration of this principle, and every Damanhurian is committed to thinking positively about the future, other people and themselves.

Professor Paul Ray, sociologist and co-author of “The Cultural Creatives,” taught at seminar at Damanhur, and at the end of his visit he declared:

“The issue of our time is how can we try out new approaches to community that will actually work and spread. We desperately need at this time to have something that will actually work. So the real value of Damanhur is giving permission to people to try out a new world, to show that a new world is possible.“

Professor Ray made this declaration in 2008: today, more than a decade later, Damanhur is still showing that a new world is, indeed, possible.

Falco had awakened in himself the capacity to tap into the great reservoirs
of knowledge of our universe.
His work brought to life a new spiritual paradigm,
new arts and sciences. 

His constant commitment towards the transformation of our planet and the awakening of every human being is inextricably woven into the experience of Damanhur and its School of Meditation, which is founded on his vision of the Divine Ecosystem, of Ritual and Initiation.

His message of practical idealism has given shape to the impossible dream of the Temples of Humankind, a work of sacred art built by hand in the heart of a mountain.