Lindisfarne Association

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In his book "Reimagination of the World", Thompson described his reasons for naming his group after Lindisfarne, an island with a famous monastery (once inhabited by Saint Cuthbert) just off the coast of Northumberland in the North East of England:

"Although I used the word as a symbol of a small group of people effecting a transformation from one system to another, the word also brought with it the archetypical associations of a small group of monks holding onto ancient knowledge in a fallen world, a world that would soon overrun them during the Viking terror." [p5]

History

In 1972, with funding from Sydney and Jean Lanier, and later from Laurance Rockefeller, Thompson founded the Lindisfarne Association, which functioned variously as a sponsor of new age events and lectures, and as a think tank and retreat, similar to the Esalen Institute in California. Lindisfarne functioned through the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York for a number of years. Today Lindisfarne functions as a virtual association of the Fellows and meets once a year at the Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Goals

According to the Lindisfarne Association website, Lindisfarne's fourfold goals are:
# The Planetization of the Esoteric
# The realization of the inner harmony of all the great universal religions and the spiritual traditions of the tribal peoples of the world.
# The fostering of a new and healthier balance between nature and culture through the research and development of appropriate technologies, architectural settlements and compassionate economies for meta-industrial villages and convivial cities.
# The illumination of the spiritual foundations of political governance through scholarship and artistic communications that foster a global ecology of consciousness beyond the present ideological systems of warring industrial nation-states, outraged traditional societies, and ravaged lands and seas.

Members

Members of Lindisfarne have included, among others:
*mathematician Ralph Abraham
*anthropologist Gregory Bateson
*anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson
*poet Wendell Berry
*futurist Stewart Brand
*Zen Buddhist Joan Halifax-Roshi
*economist Hazel Henderson
*ecologist Wes Jackson
*anthropologist Robert Lawlor
*scientist James Lovelock
*biologist Stuart Kauffman
*biologist Lynn Margulis
*author Michael Murphy
*philosopher/author John Michell
*spiritual teacher David Spangler
*religious scholar Elaine Pagels
*poet Kathleen Raine
*economist E. F. Schumacher
*astronaut Rusty Schweickart
*poet Gary Snyder
*architect Paolo Soleri
*monk David Steindl-Rast
*architect Sim Van der Ryn
*philosopher Francisco Varela
*composer Paul Winter

Current status

Thompson offered a series of seminars in June 2006 ("Poetry and Speculations on the Meaning of Western Civilization") at the Crestone Zen Center in Crestone, Colorado. [http://www.williamirwinthompson.org/pages/6/index.htm] The Fellows now meet at the Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, directed by Joan Halifax-Roshi.

References

External links

* [http://www.pacweb.com/lindisfarne/ Lindisfarne Association website] at williamirwinthompson.org; [http://web.archive.org/web/20060113123716/http://www.pacweb.com/lindisfarne/ Internet Archived version] )
* [http://www.oceanarks.org/annals/ "Annals of Earth" website]
* [http://www.blogs.targetx.com/wildriverreview/penworldvoices/2007/08/scenes_from_a_symposium.html 2007 Symposium Notes from the Wild River Review]