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T H E C H A L L E N G E
T U R I N
fist translates as ‘future’. By the end of lessons, the average
tourist can communicate the sentence: “With dance, I develop
positive energy for myself, the world and others.” My ungainly
moves, however, have as much eloquence as the gibberish
gabblings of an average one-year-old. Parrot looks on as if I’m
mentally ill.
The Tree Village provides a welcome escape frommy
embarrassment. This arboreal network of wooden huts is
inhabited by friendly folk who say things like, “Trees heal us.
When we come down, we feel light and energetic.” Dreams
are big in Damanhur – you’re frequently asked, “What
did you dream last night?” – and the tree people believe
nocturnal reveries become more vivid the higher up you are.
To facilitate this, they’ve built a ‘dreamhouse’ in the higher
branches, replete with two mattresses.
All very interesting, but still no time machine. Indeed,
Damanhurians remain tight-lipped on this. “I have travelled
[
back in time] to many places,” Falcon had told us earlier.
“
Scientific things are going on, but we don’t talk about it.”
Later that day, we meet the superbly named Gnome Barley,
who works at the commune’s art gallery (there’s also an all-
organic supermarket, hairdressers and jewellery shop ). He
says the time machine looks like, “a telephone cabinet”.
I can’t work out whether he’s joking.
My hopes rise when Formica informs me that I’ve been
allwed to see the shiny jewel in the crown here: the Temples
of Humankind. Falcon started excavating the mountainside
with his cohorts in 1978 to, he says, “create temples from
in spirals and there’s a mini-Stonehenge. Along the way,
we meet Anaconda, a teacher at the commune's primary
school; Falcon, the aforementioned founder; and several
wheelbarrow pushing, middle-aged women, all of whom
seem inhumanly relaxed and dispense beatific greetings.
I’m also introduced to Porcupine, Formica’s 16-year-old son,
who emerges from the House of Community of the Children
(
when Damanhurians reach 15, they live together with other
15
to 22-year-olds, learning how to run households).
Damanhur is big on other kinds of education too, offering
courses in astral travel, astrology, communication with
the plant world, past-life research and more. To get a taster,
I opt for a ‘sacred dance’ lesson with Parrot. This consists
of learning 300 different gestures, so that you can build
sentences through your movements. Bowing your head
means ‘I’, looking above denotes ‘others’, while a clenched
Rumours abound that
Damanhur has its own time
machine.
Have they really
unlocked the quantum
conundrums that baffled
HG Wells, Stephen Hawking
and Marty McFly?
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