The Edge Of The Horizon
a cohort of philanthropist parents
exploring a world where children thrive
exploring a world where children thrive
a cohort of philanthropist parents
exploring a world where children thrive
exploring a world where children thrive
The Edge Of The Horizon gathers philanthropist parents, those with the greatest stakes in change, to study ways to shape the future their children will inherit.
The Edge Of The Horizon gathers philanthropist parents to study ways to shape the future their children will inherit.
Over seven weeks, the group will workshop Island, Aldous Huxley's forgotten masterpiece, studying a flourishing society, searching for how to make it real.
Over seven weeks, the group will workshop Island, Aldous Huxley's forgotten masterpiece, studying a flourishing society, searching for how to make it real.
In this cohort you will:
Expand your sense of imagination
Visualize a transformed world
Embrace your bravest dreams
Build fellowship with peers
Gain insight into what is yours to do
An Atlas of Change
Island renders a wildly beautiful world, laying out seven paths that lead to its creation. The cohort studies these paths, exploring their role as levers of change.
An Atlas of Change
Island renders a wildly beautiful world, laying out seven paths that lead to its creation. The cohort studies these paths, exploring their role as levers of change.
Course of study:
Course of study:
toward a future where children
never lose the brightness in their eyes
never lose the brightness in their eyes
Cohort Design:
The group will read Island in seven parts, focusing each week on a key pillar of Huxley's utopia
Workshop the Story
For each pillar, the group will interview a world-class thinker practicing in the field
Meet with Practitioners
Building fellowship with other parent philanthropists is part of the medicine of the cohort
Connect with Peers
The cohort welcomes world-class practitioners as advisors for each of the seven paths.
Advisor Spotlight
Katsi Cook, leader of the Indigenous Midwifery Movement has supported delivering babies, mostly in tribal contexts, over forty five years as a midwife.
Katsi brings her wisdom and experience to the cohort to share stories of what she calls "ecstatic birth,” and the impact she has seen this have on families and communities.
Katsi brings her wisdom and experience to the cohort to share stories of what she calls "ecstatic birth,” and the impact she has seen this have on families and communities.
Course Information
- The cohort runs for seven weeks, gathers weekly on Thursdays, 9/12 - 10/24 for a two hour call over Zoom
- Participants read a portion of Island each week, breaking the book into seven parts
- Each week (Fridays 2 - 3pm Eastern) the cohort gathers for office hours, an intimate setting to discuss the book and connect as parents and peers
The weekly call is structured in three parts:
- Workshop: in the first part of the session, the cohort reviews that section of the book, discusses the merits of the pillar as a lever for change, with discussion on how it may apply to the world today
- Interview: in the second session, the group welcomes one of the distinguished advisors of the course - a world-class practitioner within that week's pillar, for an interview and Q&A
- Sense-make: in the final portion of the call, the group debriefs on what was shared as participants share their insights and reflections
- The Edge Of The Horizon welcomes seven world-class practitioners working within each pillar as advisors.
- Each will join the cohort for an interview where they will share their stories, expertise, and wisdom about the pillar in which they work.
- The course is comprised of wealth-holder parents who are wielding their resources to create positive change in the world.
- Some participants deploy their capital through a foundation or DAF, while others are earlier on their philanthropic journey.
- Life (and parenting) have a way of throwing unexpected bumps - all sessions will be recorded
- The hope is that participants make all seven calls, where their presence enriches the discussion and there is time to connect with parent peers.
- If someone has to miss a session, they will receive the recorded interview to listen to as a podcast
Click the button at the bottom of the page that says, "Join Cohort." This will prompt you with an option to send an email to the team who will support you in how to pay and formally sign you up.
Aldous Huxley achieved global fame for his blockbuster dystopia Brave New World. As he grew as a human being and became more spiritual, he came to regret his legacy of a story for how things fall apart. He believed a better world was possible, and he committed his life to searching for what it was.
Three decades of research took him to dozens of countries, hundreds of conversations with leading thinkers of his age, and through several thousand books. Huxley, considered one of the 20th century's brightest minds, turned his polymathic brain to deciphering how humanity could thrive. This would be the material for his utopia, Island.
Within days of finally beginning Island, Huxley was diagnosed with cancer. He spent the next two years racing against death, his health deteriorating, struggling to leave behind his vision of a better world. In 1962, he published Island knowing it was flawed. The result was a stilting novel that encases the life's work of a once-in-a-generation mind.
Three decades of research took him to dozens of countries, hundreds of conversations with leading thinkers of his age, and through several thousand books. Huxley, considered one of the 20th century's brightest minds, turned his polymathic brain to deciphering how humanity could thrive. This would be the material for his utopia, Island.
Within days of finally beginning Island, Huxley was diagnosed with cancer. He spent the next two years racing against death, his health deteriorating, struggling to leave behind his vision of a better world. In 1962, he published Island knowing it was flawed. The result was a stilting novel that encases the life's work of a once-in-a-generation mind.
"Those children you saw were being taught a very simple technique — a technique that we'll develop later on into a method of liberation."
-Aldous Huxley, Island p. 225
toward a future where children
never lose the brightness in their eyes
never lose the brightness in their eyes
Cohort Dates
Thursdays 12 - 2pm Eastern
February 13th - April 3rd
Workshop Sessions
Fridays 2 - 3pm
Price: $2,450
Thursdays 12 - 2pm Eastern
February 13th - April 3rd
Workshop Sessions
Fridays 2 - 3pm
Price: $2,450
Cohort Dates:
Thursdays, 12 - 2pm Eastern
February 13th - April 3rd
Workshop Sessions: Fridays 2 - 3pm
Price: $2,450
Thursdays, 12 - 2pm Eastern
February 13th - April 3rd
Workshop Sessions: Fridays 2 - 3pm
Price: $2,450
The Psychedelic Society is led by artist and storyteller David Alder, author of the viral graphic novel We Will Call It Pala, a story described by Tim Ferriss as "required reading" for the psychedelic field.
This course is an expansion of David's work supporting philanthropists searching for upstream interventions in making giant change. David uses the lens of Island to help visualize a transformed world and chart a course of deploying resources to make it real.
This course is an expansion of David's work supporting philanthropists searching for upstream interventions in making giant change. David uses the lens of Island to help visualize a transformed world and chart a course of deploying resources to make it real.
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Welcoming our connection, and eager to learn more about the stories on your heart.
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Share a bit about yourself and what brings you to Parables Of Change
The Edge Of The Horizon
It's thrilling to hear that you're interested in joining the cohort. Share a sentence about what brings you here, and David Alder will be in touch to schedule an intake call.
Parables Of Change
Course Design:
Schedule: Wednesdays, 3:00 - 5:30pm Eastern
May 22nd | May 29th | June 5th | June 12th | June 19th | July 3rd
Price: $875
- Six weekly Zoom calls, 2.5 hours each
- Structured writing process with deadlines + accountability
- Weekly office hours (optional)
- Two rounds of edits + feedback from David Alder
- Feedback, notes, and support from other writers
- Access to Parablitians alumni group
Schedule: Wednesdays, 3:00 - 5:30pm Eastern
May 22nd | May 29th | June 5th | June 12th | June 19th | July 3rd
Price: $875
In Island, the society's leaders focus the State's resources on making childbirth beautiful, safe, and as painless as possible. The policy is a triumph, changing not only how life is brought into the world, but creating an appetite for more reforms by focusing on something that leaps across partisan divides. This practice becomes a gleaming doorway to more life.
The cohort will study the role of birth in creating unity in a deeply divided time; learn and share stories of what beautiful birth can mean; meet with an iconic indigenous midwife who has stewarded hundreds of births; and workshop how the culture might reimagine birth and the impact that this might have.
The cohort will study the role of birth in creating unity in a deeply divided time; learn and share stories of what beautiful birth can mean; meet with an iconic indigenous midwife who has stewarded hundreds of births; and workshop how the culture might reimagine birth and the impact that this might have.
Practice Beautiful Birth
Among the many lessons in school in Island is a whole curriculum on anger. Children learn to locate their anger in their bodies and to see it as something separate from themselves. They learn a dozen ways to let it go, and do this with every feeling. They are wise beyond belief by the time they are nine years old.
The cohort will study how education might be aimed at sharpening young people's feelings as much as sharpening their minds; meet with a world-class innovator and preschool teacher; study and share practices that create mind-body connections, hone intuitions, and yield the power to discern; and workshop how such curriculum could become common core.
The cohort will study how education might be aimed at sharpening young people's feelings as much as sharpening their minds; meet with a world-class innovator and preschool teacher; study and share practices that create mind-body connections, hone intuitions, and yield the power to discern; and workshop how such curriculum could become common core.
Teach Children How To Feel
In Island, the final rite of passage from adolescence to adulthood involves climbing a sheer cliff in pairs. Young people train for more than a year for the rite, seeking mentorship from elders and guidance from older peers, strengthening their bodies, and practicing collaboration when the stakes are high.
The cohort will study the role of rites of passage in creating wise, empowered, service-minded young people; welcome a leader wielding rites of passage to break cycles of trauma in his community; imagine how this social technology could fill voids of connection and meaning; and workshop how they might be made available to communities everywhere.
The cohort will study the role of rites of passage in creating wise, empowered, service-minded young people; welcome a leader wielding rites of passage to break cycles of trauma in his community; imagine how this social technology could fill voids of connection and meaning; and workshop how they might be made available to communities everywhere.
Hold Rites Of Passage
A foundational practice in the society of Island is ceremonial use of psychedelics, helping young people come of age with wisdom, adults turn toward beauty throughout their lives, and old people transcend their fear of death. Ceremony is seen as a social technology for building connection and making meaning.
The cohort will study the role of ritual and ceremony in treating purposelessness and disconnection; explore cycles of years and lives as anchor points for ceremony; meet with iconic leaders of a Lakota Sundance; and workshop how these technologies may be applied to society, especially in light of the re-emergence of psychedelics.
The cohort will study the role of ritual and ceremony in treating purposelessness and disconnection; explore cycles of years and lives as anchor points for ceremony; meet with iconic leaders of a Lakota Sundance; and workshop how these technologies may be applied to society, especially in light of the re-emergence of psychedelics.
Wield Ritual & Ceremony
The people in Island make an art form out of what Huxley calls, "The Yoga Of Love," cultivating lovemaking as if it were a craft. The society sizzles with aliveness as the uninhibited feminine flows forth, filling life with sensuality and beauty. The society eliminates sexual shame, creating a tantric, ecstatic utopia.
The cohort will study the role of healthy sexuality in creating a richer sense of aliveness, connectedness, and presence; meet with a world-class creator of a community that embraces eros; learn how such places are created; and workshopping how this culture could become more authentically embodied and less possessed by lust.
The cohort will study the role of healthy sexuality in creating a richer sense of aliveness, connectedness, and presence; meet with a world-class creator of a community that embraces eros; learn how such places are created; and workshopping how this culture could become more authentically embodied and less possessed by lust.
Cultivate Sacred Sexuality
The greatest triumph of the society in Island could be the caliber of men that it creates. This is exemplified by the character of Vijaya, a mountain of a man, six foot eight and pure muscle who is not inhibited in his power but instead taught to wield it with grace while embracing his sensitive side.
The cohort will study the craft of raising healthy men; explore how this might create safety for all; examine the role of the feminine principle in creating beauty; meet with a leader who has helped hundreds of men find gentle yet unyielding power; and workshop ways this society could approach raising generations of healthy men.
The cohort will study the craft of raising healthy men; explore how this might create safety for all; examine the role of the feminine principle in creating beauty; meet with a leader who has helped hundreds of men find gentle yet unyielding power; and workshop ways this society could approach raising generations of healthy men.
Raise Healthy Men
The society in Island turns dying into an act of beauty — the final ritual in the glorious lives they lead. The fact of death is not avoided, and dying is not hidden out of sight. Young people witness to death as they grow up, watching older generations leave the world in peace.
The cohort will study the role of beautiful death in transcending fear and supporting a culture of slowness, calm, and peace; meet a remarkably graceful steward of death; examine the tools and practices that lead to exquisite death; and workshop ways to help this society could reimagine what death can be.
The cohort will study the role of beautiful death in transcending fear and supporting a culture of slowness, calm, and peace; meet a remarkably graceful steward of death; examine the tools and practices that lead to exquisite death; and workshop ways to help this society could reimagine what death can be.
Create Exquisite Death
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here and now studios © 2024