Learning Towns

 These are small villages that members of the society will stay in temporarily for a month or two. Here are some common features of these villages.

Shifting House

Place for focusing on the restoration of vision and voice through the exploration of fluidity. Here they learn to explore ways of making flexible or malleable existing belief and schema structures. Exploration of shifting.    

Assimilation House

Place for focusing on the crystallizing of knowledge and acquired experiences. The main practice consists of sharing knowledge and stories by the fire, reviewing what has been learned/acquired. They employ various use of fires, burning of special woods and substances to symbolize the activation of certain constructs and the dissolution of old ones.

They also explore the use of sleep and dreams as the mind’s way of stabilizing the inflow of new energy. Part of this includes dream interpretation as a way to understand where you really are in the middle of the transition.

 Exploration of assimilation.  

Forge

The forge functions as a form of initiation into the life of the warrior, a lifestyle that can be applicable to anyone. One of several sides to their first entry into this life begins with crafting and forging. While in this stage they explore concepts that involve tuning, shaping, honing, testing for weaknesses, durability, and potency. They learn to test the weapons they make and form an understanding of balance and sustainability in the physical world, while simultaneously laying the foundations for their own physical presence. It is an exploration of the art of breaking themselves and others. An exploration of potential weaknesses and how they can be exploited. Weapons includes bows, staves, swords, and knives.

Mirror House:

This is where you go to receive positive reinforcement from your peers within your group who help you explore and refine your self-image. This is something the whole group participates in. It is a sort of council where they give and receive feedback on how they view each other and their standing in the group (focusing on one person at a time) then refining those images to improve the cohesiveness of the group. There is a guide who specializes in teaching the group how to deal with this. They also go here to refine ideas the individual has for contributing to the group, as well as discuss projects and plans that pertain to group structure.

The Inn and Barracks:

Participants rotate between two different living quarters. The barracks, which are stripped down and where everything is run according to strict rules and daily schedule designed to cultivate discipline and self-regulation. In the barracks they are required to cook and eat their own food hastily.

On alternating days they will stay in the Inn which by contrast is completely unstructured. However, they bring nothing with them into the Inn, everything is provided for them in their room by another, including clothing. Food is also provided. The room is staged by another person who tries to place things in the room (sometimes hidden) that will be of significance of inspiration during their stay there like books for example, or things that will help them create a very specific kind of experience. The Inn is a place of restoration and healing and it is also as a public gathering place with a gathering hall downstairs. Visitors from outside also stay here.

The Stables:

This is where they raise and train animals. It is an operation center for doing conservation work in the surrounding areas, such as tending to wild animals and observing their behaviors in the environment.

Obstacle courses:

Various obstacles and playground type equipment is built into and throughout the town. Getting from place to place often requires navigating some kind of obstacle that testing things such as climbing, balance, jumping. This teaches constant alertness. There are obstacle areas outside the town used for training exercises such as battle simulations. 

Horticulture: 

 In the town they learn about plants, herbs and their uses, and how to grow their own food.