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Damanhur

By Jeff Merrifield

Foreword by Esperide Ananas

In Italy, almost 30 years ago, a group of people dug deep into an Alpine mountainside and built the remarkable Temples of Humankind at Damanhur. These Temples are an extraordinary work of art that has been described as "an Eighth Wonder of the World".

The Temples are just one of the extraordinary achievements of the people of the Federation of Damanhur. A United Nations award-winning sustainable community, Damanhur is an eco-society based upon ethical and spiritual values. In creating community, Damanhur has drawn on ancient knowledge, esoteric traditions, and modern research to promote a culture of peace and balanced development through solidarity, volunteering, a respect for the environment, and social and political commitment.

Damanhurians participate in cutting edge research in such fields as contemporary science, healing, the structure of time, and the interaction with intelligent energies. Damanhur has a system of community that effectively balances encouragement for individuals to reach their highest potential, with an enlightened, democratic structure to provide for the common good.

Damanhur is a place where dreams are realized, where ideas beyond reason are given a chance, and where very often they become a reality. This is the story of how and why this can happen.

(2006) 352 pp. Softcover. 6x9 inches.

Click here for more information about the community of Damanhur.

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Damanhur: The Story of the Extraordinary Italian Artisitic and Spiritual Community is the story of the Federation of Damanhur, a 30-year-old community that has achieved the "impossible" task of carving the multi-chambered, multi-leveled Temples of Humankind inside a mountain in northern Italy. Damanhur is a community whose values encompass the best of human nature, fostering individual creative expression, protecting the common good, local currency based on trust, biosustainability, and cutting edge techniques in the healing arts. Author, Jeff Merrifield, spent months living at Damanhur, observing how the community works and interviewing its residents. His fascinating account is illustrated with more than 150 black and white photographs and eight color plates. Many people who are working on the forefront of change in diverse fields (science, art, music, education, healing, bio-sustainability, ecology, and spirituality) will be interested in reading about these extraordinary accomplishments and the community that created them.

Building the Temples of Humankind

Digging a corridor into the mountain in the Temples of Humankind at Damanhur, Italy

Digging a corridor into the mountain in the Temples of Humankind at Damanhur, Italy "The first pickax hit the rock on a warm August night in 1978. Some three decades later, well over three million buckets of rock, earth, and clay have been taken out of the mountain, and il Tempio dell'Uomo, the Temples of Humankind, stand as testament to the heroic struggle of those who built them." p. 31

"They were to dig toward the heart of the Earth...and build a Temple such as had not been seen for thousands of years. It was to be made by hand, and by will, and in secret." p. 31

"The digging remained secret, of course, because the group had no planning permission. Not that it would ever have been granted. There were no regulations for digging into a mountain and building Temples, so any application for planning permit would have been turned down flat." p. 35

The Hall of Metals

Hall of Metals in the Temples of Humankind

"Cobra Alloro, who is in charge of the sculpting and terracotta workshop. Cobra first came to Damanhur when he was 21. He had been a railway clerk, but his first creative endeavors in the community were with wood. It was only when large columns were needed for the Open Temple, that he attempted clay work. So he found out about terracotta by acquiring the largest kiln available and making huge sections of 6-meter [about 20-foot] high columns. His favorite works are the ceiling pieces his workshop created for the Hall of Metals. Far from easy to make, they represented two years developmental work. For Cobra, this was not just an aesthetic project, but a human story of struggle, of conquest, of discovering how to collaborate with the other arts laboratories. Great friendships were developed during the work, powerful personal links established. It was as if the Hall of Metals marked the coming of age of the Damanhurian artists." pp. 74-75

The Temples are Discovered

In the Hall of Water

[In 1991 Damanhur was blackmailed by a former resident who knew about the secret Temples. Damanhur did not accept this extortion. Local officials demanded to see the secret Temples. A few years of political, legal, and press battles ensued.]

"On October 9 the first press conference was held in Damanhur to announce the existence of the Temples. From that day on, for three years, virtually every week there were journalists and television crews at Damanhur. Coboldo said: 'We started an action that became a chain reaction. It was all new for us. We had been used to building the Temples in silence and secrecy. Now, from one day to the next, it became the subject of public discussion. It was really strange and difficult.'

"But the Public Prosecutor had given us a lifeline by giving us access to the Temples, even though it was under sequestration. Journalists, politicians and technicians, architects and engineers were also allowed to visit. So we were able to show the Temples to all sorts of people and ask them to help us find a way of saving them." p. 192.

The Temples of Humankind were saved

Hall of Water

"The campaign worked. The more people came to Damanhur, the stronger it became. Now visitors were coming from all over the world, not tourists coming to ogle, but serious people interested in Damanhur's ideas, interested in the spiritual journey. Damanhur would never be the same again. It was no longer engaged in building secret Temples, but in playing host to the fellow seekers of the world, finding common cause with other individuals and groups on their own spiritual paths." pp. 193-194

"Some Italian Members of Parliament visited the Temples and felt it was necessary to bring the problem directly to Rome in order to find a solution. In 1995 the Temples were declared a work of art by the regional Beaux Arts authority and finally, in 1996, all actions against Damanhur and Oberto Airaudi in relation to the Temples were dropped." pp. 193-194

Spheroself, stiloself and other healing tools

Healing with Selfic Technology

"Selfica is an ancient science based on the basic form of our universe: the spiral. It was known by the Egyptians, the Celts, and the Arabs, who used it until the eighth century BCE, and Selfica has been developed at Damanhur for about 30 years. It uses spirals and metals to concentrate and direct vital energies. The objects that are developed from this discipline are called Selfs. They are frequently constructed out of gold and silver, because these are the best conductors, but copper and brass are also used." p. 279

Giunco talks about Selfica

Giunco in the Selfic Workshop, SeLet, at Damanhur

Cicogna Giunco, who has worked on the development of Selfica for many years, as well as being responsible for the Way of the Monks, talked with me. I began by asking her, "What exactly is a Self?"

'Selfs are subtle beings. They have an existence. They have different forms, because they have different functions. The simple ones, those that use metals, copper mostly, rather than alchemical liquids, range in function from amplifying the aura of a person to increasing the sensibility and perceptions, from regulating the immune system to helping the memory, or, for houses or motor vehicles, balancing the environment.

'For every coil or turn in the form of a spiral, there is an increase in the speed at which energy flows along it. Angles, on the other hand, divert the energy. It makes a difference whether you use copper and brass, or gold and silver.

'The person working with the materials has an important influence. I can do this work because I am following the Way of the Monks. For example, when working with copper thread, as I work with it, as I pull it out, as I form it into shape, I can actually charge it with a subtle energy. It is about creating the suitable conditions to create such exchange and transfer energies.' p. 281-282

Selfic circuitry in the Temples of Humankind

Selfic 'cabin' in the Temples of Humankind

Selfic 'cabin' in the Temples of Humankind "The whole of the Temples of Humankind is a living, active being, full of vital energy that is a result of the interaction between the Selfs, the construction and artwork, and the interaction of those using it. It is claimed that the Temple complex is the largest Selfic structure in the world. It contains some 300 tons of Selfic circuitry built inside its walls and floors, as well as the Selfic qualities that were transferred to the very building materials during the construction process." p. 284

SelLet - Selfic workshop online

Selfic jewelry

The Selfic workshop, takes orders for Selfic healing instruments and jewelry online.