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Network For a New Culture / ZEGG, Circling, and Authentic Relating

Network For a New Culture (NFNC) is a North American group  inspired by the German community ZEGG.

ZEGG (which is a German acronym for “Center for Experimental Cultural Design”) is an eco-village and conference center near Berlin, founded in 1991.  ZEGG was originally inspired by a famous 3-year German community experiment called “Bauhütte”, started in 1978 and conducted by Dieter Duhm and associates.  Dieter Duhm later left ZEGG and founded the Tamera eco-village in Portugal.

ZEGG is a pioneer community practicing radical authenticity, with a particular focus on the liberation of sex and love.  As such, it can be seen as an “intellectual parent” to the Circling movement, although there is no causal connection or even association at the moment between the two movements.  The ZEGG community has developed practices and tools for personal expression and trust building in large groups, coming from a commitment to non-violence and to creating a more humane and loving eco-system.  Their primary community-building process is called the ZEGG Forum.

The ZEGG Forum process, along with related ideas, expanded to North America as the Network for a New Culture, and has been wildly successful here with 5 different connected groups, one on the East Coast and four on the West Coast.

NFNC seeks to build a sustainable, violence-free culture through exploring intimacy, personal growth, transparency, radical honesty, equality, compassion, sexual freedom, and the power of community. NFNC believes that one of the keys to stopping the destruction of the planet is to return to the heart. They aspire to create a world where we can all be free to come from our hearts, thereby changing the culture from the inside out. NFNC facilitates events and programs designed to help heal the wounds between men and women, between men and men, women and women, the individual and the community, and between the community and the Earth.

This effort is currently pursued primarily via retreats and workshops during the year, the most significant being annual Summer Camps where what occurs is as experimental as the culture we are trying to build. At these events, there is always a clear emphasis on freedom of choice and full support of any decisions made. In other words, each individual is “at choice” to explore or not according to their own comfort level within parameters of communication designed to create “win-win” results.

NFNC events provide exciting ways to integrate new thoughts, build new relationships and get a feel for community living within a safe and stimulating atmosphere of creativity and fun. These events are designed to move participants from the conceptual directly into the experiential.

There is a great deal of overlap between the goals and practices of NFNC and Circling.  They are both wonderful communities and I would like to see more interplay between the two.

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  • What happened when I fully committed to bringing Authentic Relating into all my relationships
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  • Trauma is good for you: Authentic Relating and "karma acceleration"

Upcoming Events

Upcoming events below and on our Google Calendar

Communities Map

Authentic Relating Organizations

  • Circling Institute (San Francisco and Global)
  • The Relateful Company  (previously CircleAnywhere (Global)
  • Circling Europe (Europe and North America)
  • ART International (Global)
  • Authentic Relating Go (Global)
  • Connection Institute (Boston & Global)
  • The Connection Movement (New York City)
  • Austin Circling Studio (Austin, TX)
  • Evolutionary Relating (Australia)
  • Circling Cornwall (UK)
  • Let’s Be Authentic (Philadelphia, PA)
  • Realness Project (Prison work)
  • The Awkward Leadership School (Toronto)
  • Integral Centered Leadership (Boulder, CO)

Local communities can be found on Meetup.com and on the Authentic Revolution communities map

Free Circling Video Course

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Recommended Books

Quotes

  • “There is no place to get to but more here” — Decker Cunov, co-founder of Circling
  • “You will always outlive my concept of you. And I will always have a concept for you to outlive” — Guy Sengstock, founder of Circling
  • “Pain is not a punishment, pleasure is not a reward… good and bad, happy and sad, all thoughts vanish into emptiness” — Pema Chodron
  • “If we were all to sit in a circle and confess our sins, we would laugh at each other for lack of originality” — Kahlil Gibran
  • “No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care” — Theodore Roosevelt
  • “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand. They listen with the intent to reply” — Stephen Covey
  • “Trust that people move towards wholeness, and we just have to follow” — Alexis Shepperd, co-founder of the Authentic Woman Experience
  • “Depression is the reward we get for being ‘good’ ” — Marshall Rosenberg
  • When we are angry, killing people is too superficial — Marshall Rosenberg
  • “You don’t need to get what you want if you can express what you want” — Strephon Kaplan-Williams

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Marco’s Books and Blogs


Relational Power: Win Friends, Influence Others, and End Loneliness Through the Practice of Authentic Relating

 


Broke, Single, Crazy and Old: The Redemption of a Sex and Love Addict

 


As Lovers Do: a Manual for Men

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