A SACRED UNITY

The Bateson Idea Group, in collaboration with Triarchy Press in the UK, has embarked on a multi-year project of creating new editions of some of Gregory Bateson’s books that are no longer widely available.

Our first collaboration is a new edition of A Sacred Unity: Further Steps to an Ecology of Mind. This collection of Bateson’s writings first appeared in 1991 edited by Rodney Donaldson. The book was published in June of 2023, with a new introduction by Nora Bateson and Stephen Nachmanovitch.

“A Sacred Unity in this new edition comes at a profoundly consequential  moment. Perceptual distortions – always with us – are now threatening humanity itself and the entire biosphere. In the face of such muddle and danger, Gregory Bateson provides deep wisdom, explaining how living things and their relationships connect to the whole. This is not an easy book but it is one that richly rewards the careful reader with fresh understanding of what it means to be human in a world of biological and natural systems.”
— Jerry Brown, California Governor 1975-1983; 2011-2019. Executive Chair, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists

“A Sacred Unity is a magnificent manifesto bringing mind and matter together. It heals the wounds caused by Cartesian dualism and split between mind and matter. It is a timely book of timeless wisdom. Gregory Bateson was a radical thinker and a great visionary. He elucidated most clearly and convincingly that the existential truth of life is relatedness. We don’t have five disconnect fingers in our hands, we have four interconnected relationships! This was a simple but a powerful metaphor to say that everything is made of relationships. Read this book, you will gain a new and profound perspective on life. This is one of the groundbreaking books which will help us to transcend division, domination, conflicts and desire to control.”
     — Satish Kumar, Founder, Schumacher College & Editor Emeritus, Resurgence and Ecologist

 “This extraordinary collection of the thinking, life, and work of anthropologist and systems thinker Gregory Bateson has enormous relevance for today. A groundbreaking book for all time."
— Roshi Joan Halifax, Abbot, Upaya Zen Center