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UN Meditation Room

The U.N. Meditation Room is built in the shape of a truncated pyramid. In the center is an altar made out of magnetite, the largest natural piece of magnetite ever mined. For meditation purposes it is probably the most ideal spot on the planet, since the magnetite altar has its foundation straight down, built into the bedrock of the land below; tapping into the energies of the earth itself. The mysterious mural also helps the worshippers tune into esoteric energies, and helps facilitate a state of altered consciousness.

Earth Charter Commission Co-Chairs

The Earth Charter Initiative was launched in 1994 by Maurice Strong, his newly formed Earth Council and Mikhail Gorbachev, acting in his capacity as president of Green Cross International. In 1997, the Earth Council and Green Cross International formed an Earth Charter Commission to give oversight to the process.

Sri Chinmoy

Indian Mystic, and outspoken advocate of the United Nations' "spiritual mission."

Kamla Chowdhry, India
Mikhail Gorbachev, Russia
Mercedes Sosa, Argentina
Maurice Strong, Canada
Amadou Toumani Toure, Mali
A.T. Anyaratne, Sri Lanka
Princess Basma Bint Talai, Jordan
Leonardo Boff, Brazil
Pierre Calame, France
Severn Cullis-Suzuki, Canada
Wakako Hironaka, Japan
John Hoyt, U.S.A.
Ruud Lubbers, The Netherlands
Wangari Maathai, Kenya
Elizabeth May, Canada
Federico Mayor, Spain
Shridath Ramphal, Guyana
Henriette Rasmussen, Greenland
Steven Rockefeller, U.S.
Mohamed Sahoun, Algeria
Awraham Soetendorp, The Netherlands
Pauline Tangiora, New Zealand
Erna Witoelar, Indonesia

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The Earth Charter and the Ark of the Gaia Covenant

“The real goal of the Earth Charter is that it will in fact become like the Ten Commandments.”
— Maurice Strong

“Do not do unto the environment of others what you do not want done to your own environment....My hope is that this charter will be a kind of Ten Commandments, a 'Sermon on the Mount', that provides a guide for human behavior toward the environment in the next century.”
— Mikhail Gorbachev, The Los Angeles Times, May 8, 1997

On September the 9th, 2001 a celebration of the Earth Charter was held at Shelburne Farms Vermont for the unveiling of the Earth Charter's final resting place. This "Ark of Hope" will be presented to the United Nations along with its contents in June of 2002. It is hoped that the United Nations will endorse the Earth Charter document on this occasion; the tenth anniversary of the UNCED Earth Summit in Rio.

Placed within the Ark, along with the Earth Charter, were various items called "Temenos Books" and "Temenos Earth Masks." Temenos is a concept adopted by Carl Jung to denote a magic circle, a sacred space where special rules and energies apply. Some of the Temenos Books were created within this magic circle by children, who filled them with visual affirmations for Mother Earth. Fashioned with the "earth elements", the Temenos Earth Masks were also worn and created by children.