The individual, community, and society – The age-old question

Interaction among individuals within collectives over a period of time leads to the evolution of human culture. With the backdrop of several worsening crises in the world today, two trends are worth highlighting - one, individuals isolating themselves from collectives and one another. And second, collectives turning into static machines with codes and standards. The above two reasons make it tempting to pit individuals against the system or society, and collectives against individuality. Yet it is urgent that we begin recognizing the complex relationship between a person and a group of people in order to transform both for the better.

"A world where collectives (different groups of people) find harmony in their unique as well as shared context with the world" an inquiry that brought some of us together has turned into our vision for the world. We wish to achieve this vision by engaging with a collective as a unit of change within which an individual is not a mere part of a greater whole but a whole in itself.

Nature shows the way...

Such work requires a deep awareness of diversity and interconnection. Much like an enabler as mycelium, a network of fungal threads, that communicate and transport nutrients and other vital information across the forest. We as a group aspire to learn from this beautiful phenomenon of nature and provide space for collectives to nourish, reflect, make sense of their inner self and bring that harmony in the external world. We wish to continuously evolve in The Mycelium Way.

It took 11 months of open inquiry for individuals within this group to find resonance over a shared goal. We spent time holding open questions, challenging our beliefs, and exploring multiple realities. During this time, values like - inquiry, community, and humanness held us firm and guided us through the journey. We wish to translate these values into the processes and culture that we shall co-create with other collectives.

The Mycelium Way orginated out of a function at Youth Alliance and now is being incubated under Youth Alliance.

The Mycelium Way aims to work with collectives of all shapes and sizes. Our intention is to inspire a conscious movement towards community, inquiry, and humanness in all traditional and non-traditional organizational processes. Currently, we offer four contextualized programs to build self, systemic and cultural awareness in a collective -