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The Nature Institute: Growing Holistic Science
The Nature Institute:
Growing Holistic Science
by John Beck
On a gray day last November we met with Craig Hol-
drege, director and senior researcher of The Nature Institute
in Ghent, NY, to talk about the institute’s plans for expansion.
Its modest building in upstate New York, between the
Hudson River and the Berkshire mountains and Massachusetts,
has been home to what the website (natureinstitute.org)
describes without false modesty as “incisive and thoughtful
research studies, publications, and education programs.” If
physical heft and force of consciousness are often overbalanced
toward glass and concrete in today’s universities, The
Nature Institute has it the other way around. Acutely aware
of the best contemporary thinking in natural and life sciences
and technology, the institute’s researches seek balance. The
mission statement is concise:
“Nature around us is whole and interconnected.
Though we are part of nature, we do not yet fathom
her depths, and our actions do not embody her
wisdom. A fundamental shift in our way of viewing
the world is necessary if we would contribute to
nature’s unity rather than dissolution. At The Nature
Institute, we develop new qualitative and holistic
approaches to seeing and understanding nature and
technology. Through research, publications, and
educational programs we work to create a new
paradigm that embraces nature’s wisdom in shaping a
sustainable and healthy future.”
Just the previous evening Johannes Kühl, leader of the
Natural Science Section at the Goetheanum in Switzerland,
had spoken to a crowd packed, sitting and standing,
into the institute’s small meeting room. With sufficient
support—$225,000 of which half has been raised,—there
will be a new wing added with a larger meeting and
34 • being human
seminar room, and added lab and research/office rooms
below. Room to grow, appropriate to a thriving initiative.
“The Nature Institute’s methodology is inspired by
integrative thinkers and scientists, such as Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe, Rudolf Steiner, Owen Barfield
and Kurt Goldstein. We develop ways of thinking and
perception that integrate self-reflective and critical
thought, imagination, and careful, detailed observation
of nature’s phenomena. Goethe’s words stand as
a motto for our efforts:
If we want to attain a living understanding of
nature, we must become as flexible and mobile as
nature herself.
“Biologist and Institute founder and director Craig
Holdrege, senior researcher and publications’ editor
Steve Talbott, associate researcher Henrike Holdrege,
and affiliate researchers Michael D’Aleo, Johannes Wirz,
and Ronald Brady (deceased) have authored books and
articles while also speaking at conferences, leading workshops,
training teachers, and lecturing widely.”
In a short conversation with Craig Holdrege it was
possible to move quickly to core issues. His recent book with
colleague Steve Talbott, Beyond Biotechnology: The Barren
Promise of Genetic Engineering, is a great achievement, calmly
taking up all the hype about genetic engineering and gently