Principles and Practices of Deep Transformation
Laying the groundwork for an ecological civilisation
Programme Overview
Type: e-Learning
Start Date: April, 7th, 2025
Length: 10 weeks
Study Time: 4 hours +/ week
Facilitation: With Facilitators
Registrations: until April, 14th, 2025
Developed by:
We need deep transformation
Our civilisation is careening at an accelerating pace toward a precipice of climate breakdown, ecological destruction, and gaping inequality. Redirecting humanity’s trajectory will require a fundamental transformation of society encompassing virtually every aspect of the human experience: our values, our goals and our collective behaviour.
The depiction of humans as selfish individuals, the view of nature as a resource to be exploited, and the idea that technology alone can fix our biggest problems, are all profound misconceptions that have collectively led our civilisation down a path to disaster.
We need to transform our core human identity, our relationships with others, and with the nonhuman world.
Once we shift our worldview, another world becomes possible
The only way we can truly change our trajectory is by approaching society’s problems from the foundation of an alternative worldview—one that affirms life, rather than the accumulation of wealth above all else.
This worldview already exists: it is one of deep interconnectedness, which integrates the findings of modern systems thinking, evolutionary biology, and cognitive neuroscience with insights from Buddhism, Taoism, and Indigenous knowledge.
Ultimately, this worldview could serve as the basis for a fundamentally different type of society: an ecological civilization.
Learn the principles and practice of Deep Transformation
This course, based largely on the work of Jeremy Lent’s recent book The Web of Meaning, but also drawing on many other diverse sources, lays out principles and practices of deep transformation for the individual, for community, and for society at large.
It offers participants a deep but accessible guided exploration of an alternative life-affirming worldview based on the intersection of modern science and the world’s great wisdom traditions, along with an inspiring and practical vision of pathways that could lead to an ecological civilization.
Dive into your own experience of Deep Transformation
- Understand the flaws of our dominant worldview
- Explore an alternative, life-affirming worldview of deep interconnectedness
- Learn how modern science validates the great wisdom traditions of earlier cultures
- Discover the exciting and practical pathways that lead to a regenerative future: an Ecological Civilization
Dive into deep transformation!
"We need to transform our core human identity, our relationships with others, and with the nonhuman world."
Course Instructor
The course will be offered by Jeremy Lent, author of The Patterning Instinct and The Web of Meaning
Jeremy Lent, described by Guardian journalist George Monbiot as “one of the greatest thinkers of our age,” is an author and speaker whose work investigates the underlying causes of our civilization’s existential crisis, and explores pathways toward a life-affirming future. His award-winning book, The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity’s Search for Meaning, examines the way humans have made meaning from the cosmos from hunter-gatherer times to the present day. His recent book, The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe, offers a solid foundation for an integrative worldview that could lead humanity to a sustainable, flourishing future. He is founder of the nonprofit Liology Institute and writes topical articles exploring the deeper patterns of political and cultural developments at Patterns of Meaning.
Jeremy Lent’s website: Explore more about The Web of Meaning
Course Objectives
- Recognize the need and exciting potential for a deep transformation of our civilization
- Understand the flaws of our dominant worldview and why it is driving humanity to a precipice
- Comprehend and articulate an alternative worldview based on deep interconnectedness
- Appreciate how modern scientific insights echo the ancient wisdom of Indigenous knowledge, Taoism, and Buddhism.
- Connect the dots between the different transformative and life-affirming movements blossoming around the world in economics, politics, technology, culture, spirituality, and science.
- Be able to visualize and describe an Ecological Civilization and identify the practical pathways that are leading to it.
- Feel inspired by the possibility of a life-affirming future for humanity on a regenerated Earth.
- Identify how your own lifepath and engagement can help amplify the global movement toward Deep Transformation and an Ecological Civilization
Course Content
The Course contains material from Jeremy’s books The Patterning Instinct and The Web of Meaning, as well as his writings on an Ecological Civilization.
It begins by investigating the historical cognitive drivers of our current civilization: “How Did We Get Here?” The bulk of the course identifies the flaws in the dominant worldview by exploring the central existential questions everyone asks at some time in their lives—Who Am I?, Where Am I?, What Am I?, How Should I Live?, Why Am I? and Where Are We Going?—and exploring the possibilities provided by an alternative worldview of deep interrelatedness.
The final weeks of the course introduce participants to the exciting vision of an alternative life-affirming civilization—an Ecological Civilization—and identifies current practical pathways that are leading to it.
Week 1: How Did We Get Here?
- Historical Patterns of Meaning
- Reshaping Our Metaphors of Meaning
Week 2: Who Am I?
- The Nameless Uncarved Wood
- The Most Important Relationship In Your Life
Week 3: Where Am I?
- The Patterns of the Universe
- The Harmonic Dance of Life
Week 4: What Am I?
- The Deep Purpose of Life
- The Tao in My Own Nature
Week 5: How Should I Live? ( Part I)
- Flourishing As an Integrated Organism
- Cultivating Values
Week 6: How Should I Live? (Part II)
- Human/Nature
- Fractal Flourishing
Week 7: Why Am I?
- Everything Is Connected
- From Self to Infinite Li: The Fractal Nature of Identity
Week 8: Where Are We Going?
- Accelerating Toward a Precipice
- The Vision of an Ecological Civilization
Week 9: An Eco Civilization in Practice
- Economy and Wealth Distribution
- Technology, Governance, Earth Symbiosis, and Culture
Week 10: Toward an Eco Civilization
- How Change Happens
- Pathways Toward an Ecological Civilization
Course Structure
Each week you can expect:
- Two pre-recorded presentations of approximately 30 minutes (ranging 25–35 minutes);
- Assigned readings (including chapters from The Web of Meaning as well as other articles, excerpts, and occasional videos);
- Weekly prompts to share and reflect with peers in the course community platform;
- Discussion Groups to explore questions posed at the end of each presentation (students expected to attend one session per week. Discussion groups are offered at 7 PM UTC every Tuesday to accommodate most time zones);
- Two 1-hour long live Q&A and discussion with Jeremy Lent at 8 PM UTC on Fridays: May 9 and June 13.
Course Testimonials
Certificate of Completion
- The Principles and Practices of Deep Transformation runs for 10 weeks (including an orientation period).
- Participants will receive a 30% discount code to buy the book in English in audiobook, eBook or paperback formats (the book is not mandatory for this course). The discount is valid for all formats but shipping for paperback only available for the US and Canada.
- We suggest you dedicate a minimum of 3 hours a week to receive maximum benefit from this programme.
- You can choose to pay in full or in instalments.
- The participants have the option to choose one of the payments options £100, £150 and £200 according to their financial availability. We provide a limited number of scholarships. Applications will be accepted until March 26, 2025 and results will be communicated to applicants by April 4, 2024. Fill the Form here
- For further information, please email: yan@gaiaeducation.org
Graduates of our programmes have gone on to contribute to sustainability projects, build communities, become social entrepreneurs, partake in permaculture projects and bio-dynamic farming, support transition movements and much more.
Upon certification you will have the background and confidence to take an active role in Principles and Practices of Deep Transformation, resilience and regeneration, both professionally and personally, working for small and large- scale community projects, eco-social enterprises or transition initiatives in civil society, the public sector or business.
To receive a Certificate of Completion students need to engage and participate in all activities during the 10 weeks period of the programme Principles and Practices of Deep Transformation. At the end of their participation students will have successfully completed the minimum required activities and will have access to an alumni platform with all the content of the course and access to some sharing and interaction tools with other participants.
