Aliveness Initiative
About
The truth of interdependence is all around us. As ecological beings, we are interwoven with the web of life. Our bodies have more non-human cells than human, and we co-regulate with the community of life through processes of synchrony, coherence, and communitas.
We emerge from the recognition that Western cultural systems have largely framed life through extraction, control, objectification and separation—often marginalizing embodied wisdom, relational intelligence, and the sacred dimensions of existence. As a species we have lost our right relationship with the truth of what it means to be ecological beings on a living planet living within the cosmos in the mystery of life.
The Aliveness Initiative began as an effort to re-awaken that connection: to bring together researchers, healers, indigenous wisdom keepers, and everyday people exploring, modelling and co-creating what it means to belong again to the living world.
Aliveness has the potential to catalyze the movement towards a life-sustaining society and unleash human and more-than-human flourishing and deepen right relationships. Imagine Aliveness as the intersubjective space, love, purpose or spirit of which we are all belong, in our uniqueness, in a reciprocal relationship, with all life.
We acknowledge that :
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The primacy of empirical knowledge is at odds with the complexity and mystery of life, fragmenting wholeness while marginalizing internal sensing, the unknown and embodied wisdom.
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The western world is in a crisis of disconnection and othering, manifesting in loneliness, anxiety and depression.
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The crisis of disconnection from the natural world is fueling a polycrisis of climate change and the great extinction, forcing the existential question of what it means to be human, to be alive.
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The human species is facing a spiritual crisis of meaning.
We acknowledge and honor ancient wisdom and planet teachers.
“The land is the real teacher. All we need as students is mindfulness. Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world, receiving the gifts with open eyes and open heart.”
Robin Wall Kimmerer
“Healing comes when the individual remembers his or her identity – the purpose chosen in the world of ancestral wisdom – and reconnects with that world of Spirit.”
Malidoma Patrice Some
"Alienation from nature and the loss of the experience of being part of the living creation is the greatest tragedy of our materialistic era. It is the causative reason for ecological devastation and climate change. Therefore, I attribute the absolute highest importance to consciousness change.” Albert Hoffman
Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street into a sacred bond.
Robin Wall Kimmerer
“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.”
Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth
Together, oneness and interbeing open a profound embodied awareness of the interconnectedness of all life and in this sensing into life’s interdependence. And, as all life is interconnected, all life senses back, charting a path toward personal and planetary healing. Oneness necessitates new language and mysteriocentrism, a centering of spirit, or interbeing in human consciousness, communities and well-being.
We are called to right the dominant cultural story of what it means to be alive on a living planet. To heal, to belong, to flourish and come Alive.
The Aliveness initiative fosters islands of coherence by identifying, sharing, supporting and amplifying practices which:
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Cultivate the capacity for looking at the world from perspectives which include other and interbeing.
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Foster curiosity about the mystery of life and welcome ceremony and ritual.
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Cultivate an appreciation for the intelligence and consciousness of the more-than-human world.
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Center embodied consciousness and ecological belonging at the heart of well-being and human flourishing.
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Reawaken embodied knowledge and sensing.
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Nourish the felt sense of relationship and reciprocity with all life; awe and joy.
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Embrace and embody the ecological self and ecological principles.
The Aliveness Initiative is guided by a small, interdisciplinary team — researchers, clinicians, and practitioners working at the intersection of ecological science, contemplative practice, and human health.