Do you know the definition of madness?
One at least is “doing the same thing over and over again and expect a different outcome”! For far too long we have been doing just that – propping up outdated models of education, healthcare, commerce, finance, banking, energy, agriculture, governance and leadership.
The promoters of this Laboratory passionately believe that we need to update these and all aspects of our social interaction and behaviour to reflect our current understanding of the interdependency of everything, with all life and the planet, and the finiteness of all resources.
While there are others around the globe thinking these and similar thoughts, writing books, giving talks, making films, nowhere are these ideas being systematically tested and transformed into practical, scalable working models, suitable for adaptation anywhere.
The mission of this site is to bring together all the ingredients, people and resources required to create on the ground in the UK a living laboratory, to be known as the Light Living Laboratory (LLL), the design of which will base itself on joined-up, holistic thinking and the blinding insight that humanity too is an integral part of nature. Simple as this idea sounds, it will require a radical rethink in many areas, at core of which is our economic and financial system. The design principles of permaculture will play a major role in shaping the physical Laboratory.
The mission of the Light Living Laboratory (LLL) is for a group of self-selected people to live and work together in community in order to develop and demonstrate radically new ways of living for the 21st century.
The LLL will further encourage other communities and organisations around the globe to develop or reveal their own holistic models for living. This will eventually create a worldwide network that will become a repository of practical answers towards the day when the world at large will finally ask “how do we change, and fast”.
As we look around and pay attention to the signs, we can see that much of what we take for granted is heading towards collapse and radical change. Our current social institutions and practices, ways of living, understanding of the nature of life and our place in nature have all contributed towards an acceleration of this change; we now understand that in some instances we have been the actual cause. Unless we change our ways of being fast, what has helped us reach where we are today will actually accelerate our decline.
Better in these relatively calm times to give thought to, and experiment with, new ideas and have them available when destruction really hits, rather than wait until the chaos has set in and clear thinking will become that much more challenging and implementation that much more urgent. If we were the government of this country, we would be placing war-time resources and urgencies behind developing the concepts this Laboratory seeks to promote.
Structure of the Site
When committed to holistic thinking and being it is only to help our linear minds that we have to create categories of subjects that need to be addressed. Across the top of the heading of this site you will see a number of subjects; each of these needs to be addressed in direct relationship to all the others. Each section will of course address some of the reasons why we need to change our approach and views on it, along with those on all others.
The focus however in each section will be on coming up with new ideas and proposals, identifying and discussing other’s approach to the subject; etc. and at the Light Living Laboratory we will practice the resultant thoughts, ideas and models, e.g. on education; on agriculture; on leaderless leadership and governance; etc.
The core focus of our Light Living Laboratory has to be for us to find practical and real ways in which we live as part of nature and in full partnership with it. Without this re-integration with nature, we cannot hope to create world that will even begin to reflect what we all secretly and increasingly overtly yearn for. There is nothing theoretical in living in and with nature – if we succeed, we shall have immediate feedback, if we fail, this feedback will be equally immediate but a lot less pleasant.
Or home planet is going through fundamental structural change, if we ignore what is happening our world will be changed, if we remain in harmony and aligned with Earth’s needs and challenges we shall be creating the world we all want for ourselves and those who come after us. A few years of clear thought, hard work and no fear of set-backs will definitely be worth it.
While the Light Living Laboratory (LLL) is clearly intended to be a physical place, one in a series spanning the globe, it is also a virtual place, so please contribute by throwing in your ideas, participating in our discussions, consider joining our first LLL in the UK, and provide any support of any nature you can.
This project is so much more than a few people wanting to make a difference, wanting to live in an ideal nature-based community; this is about bringing together brave, warrior souls who are willing to experiment with new ideas, new ways of living, doing and dying, so that the world they help create will be a much better place. All the information we have access to suggests that our efforts, as well as those others around the world engaged in action, will be successful. After Earth’s period of turmoil ahead, the new world we shall help create will be an even better place than we can currently project.
It is difficult to enter into somebody else’s mind when it comes to visualizing what’s in there. Film-makers, artist, even a brilliant writer, can project their mental imagery outwards and succeed to different levels. Alas, the author of these pages does not fall into any of theses categories of master-communicator, other than in personal presentation, so please bear with him and help make the vision clearer. Please ask questions about anything that you feel remains unclear. The Light Living Laboratory is from inception intended to be collaborative.