Rounding out the guide are the personal story of author Stambecco Pesco, one of the first Damanhurians, and travel profiles and essays by friends of Damanhur-Massimo Introvigne, director of the Center for the Study of New Religions, anthropologist Richard Grossinger, and others. Esperide Ananas is Damanhur's Communications Director. Stambecco Pesco is editor in chief of the community's publishing house, Val Ra. Artist Cinzia di Felice is a well-known graphic novelist. Illustrators Ape Soia and Pangolino Tulipano collaborated on artistic projects for more than 20 years, including art for the Temples of Humankind. All live in Damanhur.
Damanhur and the Temples of Humankind are for the twenty-first century what Assisi was in the time of Saint Francis-both represent the deepest commitment to the well-being and dignity of all our fellow human beings, and the highest respect for other living things and indeed for all of creation. -Ashok Khosla, president of the Club of Rome, chairman of Development Alternatives, former director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), and 2002 recipient of the Sasakawa Environment Prize Damanhur, for me, is a laboratory for the future. What you know for sure is that the future won't be like the past. We don't quite know yet what the future will be like, but we know that we can't continue the same way as we have done before. Therefore, we must try to set out new ways so that we can live together ... without disadvantaging each other ... live together in peace and solidarity ... -Ervin Laszlo, founder of the Club of Budapest, philosopher of science, and author of Science and the Akashic Field: An Integral Theory of Everything The people of Damanhur have expressed their creativity through the communal systems of education, economics, sociopolitics, environmental stewardship, agriculture, and all the arts and crafts. Damanhur and its temples are a beacon of possibility for the future. -Alex Grey, founder of the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors in New York, artist, and author of Art Psalms