The Ojai Foundation

OUR HISTORY

pre-1980 1980-1990 1990-2000 current

The Ojai Foundation began in 1975 as Human Dimensions Institute/West (HDIW), a non-profit organization exploring the interface between science and spirituality, and situated on 40 acres of land in the Upper Ojai Valley in Southern California.

This 40-acre parcel was part of 450 acres originally purchased in 1927 by visionary Theosophist, Dr. Annie Besant, to provide for an eclectic community devoted to artistic, agricultural and educational projects that would encourage a rich cross-cultural environment in a spiritual climate. The Happy Valley Foundation was created to steward the land and her vision, including overseeing the Happy Valley School, their first formal institution, founded in 1946.

The early years of HDIW were guided by a young visionary, Luke Gatto, under whose guidance was the development of an ecologically self-sufficient environment or Bio-Shelter, designed by Sean Wellesley-Miller of MIT. Then in 1979, anthropologist Dr. Joan Halifax (at that time research assistant to mythologist Joseph Campbell) was asked to lead the organization in a new direction, which was then renamed The Ojai Foundation (TOF).

Dr. Halifax, with a background of personal study with shamans, Zen masters, Tibetan Lamas, Native American elders and spiritual leaders from around the world, had recently published two books, now classics in the field: Shaman: The Wounded Healer, and Shamanic Voices. Her wide-ranging ties with indigenous peoples and her western academic connections helped to draw an extraordinary faculty to the rustic facility that came to be known informally as the "Wizard's Camp".

1980 - 1990

Throughout the 1980s, TOF was the setting for a unique experiment in community living, holistic education and spiritual practice. A distinctive aspect of its programs was the resident community's commitment to dissolving the barriers between faculty, staff, and workshop participants through the Council Process, a circle form of communication and wisdom sharing practiced by virtually all indigenous peoples around the world. In the practice of Council, each person learns to offer their personal story from their heart, not their head, and to listen with full attention. In Council, there are no fixed leaders, but rather facilitators; the group's emerging spirit and the process itself are the primary guides and everyone in the circle shares responsibility and leadership for what evolves. Many teachers found participating in Council and being witnessed by their peers an inspiring and creative practice.

The faculty over these years included: Joseph Campbell, R.D. Lang, Jean Houston, Rupert Sheldrake, Jill Purce, Ralph Abraham, Terence McKenna, Ralph Metzner, Francis Huxley, Andrew Weil, Heymeyohsts Storm, Jose Arguelles, Pir Vilayat Khan, Joanna Macy, and many Native American, Tibetan, Zen, and Judeo-Christian teachers.

The many "firsts" of the Wizard's Camp included: seminal Men's Gatherings with poet Robert Bly (author of Iron John); Women's Gatherings and conferences whose faculty included Mary Catherine Bateson, Naomi Newman, Deena Metzger, Tsultrim Allione, Vicki Noble, Riane Eisler, Terry Tempest Williams, and Laura Simms. Conferences on cutting-edge topics, such as chaos theory, hospice work, plant shamanism, ethnobotany, psycho-immunology, dream research, and mind-body studies made for a rich stew. The Foundation was also one of the first institutions in North America to explore an on-going dialogue between Tibetan and Native American spirituality, (an exploration undertaken at the request of elders from both lineages). Several of the first American retreats led by noted peace activist, poet and Vietnamese Zen master, Thich Nhat Hanh, were held at the Foundation.

In 1990, Joan left for Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she founded Upaya Foundation, a center for Buddhist studies and contemplative practice.

1990 - 2000

The Foundation continued under the leadership of the Board of Directors, co-chaired by educators Jack Zimmerman and Virginia Coyle, both of whom had worked with TOF since its earliest days. Jack and Gigi, together with fellow TOF elders Leon Berg and Lola Rae Long, played a central role in developing and disseminating the Way of Council here and abroad. Under their direction, the Foundation's seminal communication practices spread to schools, businesses, healing centers, spiritual and religious communities, and to many profit and non-profit organizations, including the the PeaceMaker Order, Xerox Corporation, Southern California Edison, and Spirit Rock Meditation Center.

The Way of Council, by Jack Zimmerman and Gigi Coyle, was published in 1996 and has been instrumental in helping to take Council into the world.

Jack was particularly passionate in bringing Council into the lives of children. With his guiding vision, the Foundation's Council work and "Mysteries" programs at Crossroads High School in Santa Monica (on-going since the early 1980s) spread to include numerous private and public middle and high schools, both middle and senior level in Los Angeles and across the country. Teachers and administrators have praised this work as vital in helping young people develop basic life skills and healthy self-esteem through clear and compassionate communication.

One school in the public sector, Palms Middle School in Los Angeles, has made a strong commitment to the Council process. There have been over 1,700 children, representing nearly 30 different languages and ethnic groups, sitting in Council every week at Palms. Their teachers and Council facilitators receive their training through The Ojai Foundation. Every season, leadership students from the sixth and eighth grades in Los Angeles schools come to the Foundation's retreat center in Ojai to study and practice Council.

In parallel with these school initiatives, Gigi explored the use of Council in such divergent applications as solo vision fasts and corporate training programs. Gigi carried Council into her work with wilderness rites of passage through her role as Associate Director of The School of Lost Borders. Her course, the Nature of Council, and her leadership intensives with both TOF and The School of Lost Borders continue themes of shamanic wisdom and eco-therapy seeded in the early days of the Wizard's Camp in Ojai.

Increased demand for additional Council programs away from the retreat center and in educational, therapeutic, and business arenas led, in 1999, to the creation of the Center for Council Training (CCT).

CCT was established to provide ongoing trainings and programs, in-service and retreat-based internships, and support for schools, businesses, and communities implementing Council in the world. CCT is structured as a decentralized network of "pods", or local support groups, with coordinating offices in Los Angeles and Ojai. Today, CCT is increasingly worldwide in its reach, with on-going trainings and programs in North America, Europe, Israel, and South Africa.

Currently

Because Council is much more than simply a communication technique, the staff, teachers, and volunteers at the retreat center in Ojai continued to grow in the direction of living Council as a personal and spiritual path. Council became not only what we taught, but our daily practice, our form of governance, and the heart of our community.

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