About Us
The mission of the Memnosyne Institute is to help the diverse people of the world consciously encourage an evolution for themselves and for future generations by providing humanity with the means to encourage positive, peaceful global collaboration in seven main areas of knowledge.
In other words we are helping communities to better handle the challenges and opportunities brought about by globalization.
The Institute is organized around these seven centers, each depicted in the graphic to the left. We have programs serving the local, national and international communities including the goal of establishing The Memnosyne Campus For Humanity in Dallas.
We believe that for solutions to be sustainable we must recognize how each of these areas influence the others in a given society and to design the solutions with that understanding so as to maximize our impact. We call this process "social acupuncture" which has been recognized by the Integral Leadership Review, YPO and other organizations as an important model for the future of effective humanitarianism.
Seven Centers of Knowledge
Memnosyne Instutute consists of seven centers of knowledge. These include:
The Center for
Indigenous Cultures
The Memnosyne Institute is an advocate for indigenous people's human rights and recognizes the importance of their insights towards today's global challenges.. The Center's initiatives includes helping indigenous people sustain their identities and empower them to speak for themselves.
Past achievements include negotiating the first alliance in 300 years between Hopi/Navajo tribes; the signing of the Redstone Statement defining Indigenous Environmental Philosophy via indigenous environmental scientists and leaders from around the world; Cultural Exchanges with Maori, Egyptian, Tolteca, Hopi, Yurok, Igbo, Yoruba, Apache, Ute, Maya, and more.
Currently we have two Cultural Center projects in Mexico:
Centro Cultural Tolteca de Teotihuacan AC / Toltec Cultural Center
Raxalaj Mayab / Maya Cultural Center
The Center for
Global and Local Outreach
The Center for Global and Local Outreach is designed to explore, form and promote the art and science of humanitarian "outreach" via applying integral approaches.
Past achievements include our "Hamster Wheel" program designed to help communities escape a cyclical situation via a strategic investment in the community. Among the communities this has aided include the Batwa community in Rwanda and
the people of Haiti.
Currently, it's biggest projects include The School Out of A Box program and forging the collaboration with Dr. Don E. Beck's Vital Signs Monitor with Barbara Marx Hubbard's Wheel of Co-Creation to aid in empowering nations to identify and measure the interdependent influences necessary towards achieving the United Nations' Sustainability Development Goals.
We are also the only non-profit to have permission to have a
Club of Budapest Chapter under our NGO "umbrella", The
Club of Budapest Americas. This arrangement has led to a collaborative publication: "Empower Journal" a publication focused on "Integral Theory In Compassionate Sustainable Action"
The Center for
the Environment, Science,
Economics and Technology
The Center seeks to open dialogue about threats
to the environment through education, dialogue and action.
Past accomplishments include hosting Texas' first Social Sustainability Investment Conference, the signing of the Redstone Statement defining Indigenous Environmental Philosophy via indigenous environmental scientists and leaders from around the world, and collaborating with inventor Harvey Lacey to make possible hurricane wind proof homes made out of the Styrofoam pollution overwhelming Haitian communities.
Currently, we have continued the vision of the now retired center's founding director, Dr. Phillip Shinoda, in the creation of GreenSourceDFW.org which has linked the many "arms" of north Texas' "green" community together (grass roots non-profits, large scale NGO's, for-profits, inventors, SRI investors, conscious capitalists, etc.) via an online publication, via the annual GreenSourceDFW Awards acknowledging the leaders in these categorie and via the Annual Run for the Environment.
The Center for
Arts
The Center utilizes art to educate, awaken visual consciousness
and give voice to the human spirit for positive social change.
Past accomplishments include the "Coloring Book Program" designed to expose young children in racially/culturally homogenous environments to the realization of being part of a larger racially/culturally/religious diverse humanity. The coloring books have been distributed among communities in Rwanda, Tanzania, and in communities in Asia and Native American Reservations.
Currently, we are continuing the "Mural Empowerment Project" which aims at providing a more inclusive historical view of the contributions to humanity made by all races via a combination of a coloring-book style mural/documentary. The first one, "Sankofa", focused on African Americans, and has been used by communities in Philadelphia, the Gullah in South Carolina, Dallas' African American History Museum, New Orleans, Washington DC, etc. and continues to be used by schools and NGO's nationwide. The next one will be focused on the Hispanic/Native American Community.
The Center for
Spirituality
The center for spirituality provides avenues to explore the many dimensions of spirituality in wellness, art, music, philosophy, architecture and life purpose.
Past accomplishments include, the launch of the first "Sacred Geometry Renaissance Project " in collaboration with Rice University, SMU Perkins School of Theology, Crow Collection of Asian Art, Dallas Biblical Arts Museum and UTD and more.
The project highlighted sacred geometry's application from biomimicry to spirituality, to engineering to music, art, philosophy. world cultures, architecture. and more.
Currently, we are working with world renowned architect, Keith Critchlow, who has designed the first two buildings for the Memnosyne Campus for Humanity, (the Center for Outreach and the Center for Spirituality). These will be unveiled to Dallas in 2016.
The Center for
Interfaith Initiatives and Inquiry
A gathering place for scholars and active practitioners of all faiths who seek common ground for understanding and practical service to humanity through its education outreach programs.
Past accomplishments include the "Many Paths, One Source" documentary featuring 45 spiritual leaders from Western, Eastern, Indigenous and New Age spiritual traditions identifying "10 essential truths" their traditions could agree upon; the creation of the Memnosyne Interfaith Scholar Program in collaboration with The SMU Perkins School of Theology and The Journal for Interfaith Dialogue, and the establishment of the DFW Interfaith Service Volunteers.
Currently, the Interfaith Service Volunteers led to the creation of FoodSourceDFW.org - a network which has become one of the nations leading initiatives to fight food waste by forging collaborations with food pantries and homeless shelters with food distributors and each other. Other ongoing initiatives include "Faiths In Conversation" which was recognized for its work in getting conservative Abrahamic faiths to explore multiple topics and thereby help reduce stereotypes in the local DFW area. Internationally, Memnosyne's Israel/Palestine Chapter continues it's own initiatives as well.
The Center for Health and Medicine
The Center engages constructive interaction that bridges Eastern, Western, Indigenous and Holistic Healthcare practices.