Magic
- Fellowship for Intentional Community
- Near Palo Alto
- In Palo Alto
- In California
Mission: Valuescience for common good
From www.ic.org/directory/magic/:
Magic is a residential service-learning community. Some residents operate an educational, charitable organization by the same name.
We establish the Magic community and the service organization upon a yet-to-be widely recognized connection between science and value: Ideas about value entail prediction; science is the sole demonstrated means for making predictions better than can be made by chance.
We perceive that valuescience is key to accurately discerning and realizing value. Magic residents and friends who sustain the service organization are aiming to improve our own and others' lives by honing valuescience practice and contributing to others' doing so.
Readers wary of "science" may be reassured to learn that we are also deeply "religious" in a literal sense (re- = again and lig- = connect). We see ecological science as the basis for unifying religion, with which people from diverse backgrounds can reconnect to other humans, other life, Earth, and cosmos.
Core themes in Magic community life and public services are: (1) valuescience; (2) health/awareness; (3) cooperation; and (4) stewardship. We view the Magic community as both laboratory and demonstration. We're aiming to ever more fully "walk our talk."
Magic services to the general public include lectures and seminars about valuescience; life-planning workshops; swimming, running, bicycling, and hatha yoga instruction; youth mentoring; mediation; community organizing; planting and caring for trees and other vegetation; water- and land-management planning and advocacy; neighborhood design; and publishing.
Though few in numbers, we address diverse issues at many levels and in an integrated way. We do groundbreaking research, results of which we've published in top-tier scientific journals. We also perform hands-on demonstration projects. For example, we've established thousands of native oaks and tens of thousands of perennial understory plants on public-access open space nearby, and we've reconfigured streets in several neighborhoods to reduce short-cutting and vehicle speeds. Our research and demonstration projects have received national and international recognition for excellence in fields ranging from environmental law to dispute resolution.
We aim to strike a balance between utilizing the extraordinary resources of our Stanford University/Silicon Valley surroundings and maintaining contemplative, modest lives. We welcome opportunities to meet new people and to explore how we may interact to mutual benefit.
- Address
- Physical Address
- Palo Alto, California
- United States