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What is NGL?

Many of us within NGL are asked by our friends, family, and people we engage with elsewhere to speak about NGL, and many of us have struggled with what to say. As you read this, you may understand why we struggle, because NGL doesn’t neatly fit into any known category. 

Is NGL a research lab?
Yes and no…

Is NGL a research lab? Yes and no…

We are very much like a research lab in that we are constantly experimenting. Maybe even more than a research lab. We turn everything into an experiment. “Experiments with Truth”, a term that came to us from Gandhi, is built into our purpose, and we even have a template for our version of experimenting with truth. Like a research lab, we also are getting better at documenting everything we learn (so far, it’s mostly the community living experiments) so we can share it with others and learn even more, because learning is vital to all we do. 

And we are very much not like a research lab. Our learning isn’t for its own sake; it’s intended to support our movement towards vision. And our sharing with others is not very formal and certainly without peer review. And, unlike scientists, we are, constantly and happily, experimenting with ourselves, and not as the voice of authority. We aim to bring humility to what we experiment with and to surrender to life. And we also do many things that don’t happen in research labs: we build human systems, we take bold intuitive leaps, and we lean a lot on collective wisdom and integration of multiple perspectives.

Then is NGL a university?
Yes and no…

Then is NGL a university? Yes and no…

We are very much like a university, in that we engage in ongoing study of many wide-ranging topics, we hold reverence for theory, and we bring rigor to all that we learn and teach. We have a growing body of written works that spells out the NGL framework (originally written entirely by Miki based on her work with her sister Inbal, and now beginning to be actively engaged with by others, too). We have ongoing courses and other forms of engagement that support the integration of learning all around. We encourage everyone within NGL to keep learning and have a significant apprenticeship program that is dedicated to that. And like the original universities, we invite ourselves and everyone who studies with us to question everything and learn more and more what is possible for humans.

And we are very much not like a university, even though we are slowly adopting the name “Liberation University” to make sense of much of what we do. Unlike regular universities, we are shifting from knowledge consumption to engaging in knowledge co-creation within fields led by those whose natural authority we recognize based on experience, wisdom, and deep integration of the NGL framework without any form of control or power over; we develop individualized learning journeys based on needs and capacity and have no standardized curriculum for anything; we nurture critical thinking, empowerment, and deep self-trust without evaluating, criticizing, or coercing anyone to learn anything. And we see love, including courageous feedback, as the foundation of all teaching, leaning on structures only to the extent that they support our commitment to learning.

Then is NGL an organization?
Yes and no…

Then is NGL an organization? Yes and no…

We are very much like an organization, in that we are focusing on getting many things done, interfacing with people, communities, and organizations in different places around the world, offering courses, coaching, materials, and tools. Like many organizations, we hold a collective vision, we function within a shared purpose, we orient to shared values and principles, and we have explicit systems that guide how we operate.

And we are very much not like an organization. We are not registered as an organization anywhere in the world. We don’t have bosses, employees, or a board. We don’t even have a bank account! We dedicate substantial energy to our individual and collective liberation (it’s even part of our purpose!), and we have very little distinction between “work” and “life”, to the point of bringing our life choices for co-discernment with others. Even when we engage in clerical tasks we think of it as liberation logistics. We don’t have any form of coercion or incentive and we are committed to only doing what is within capacity and for which we have wholehearted willingness (although we are not fully there yet in terms of honoring our capacity limits). Our only form of structural power is what comes from technical access to resources, and we are slowly dismantling even that. We want to distribute power, agency, and decision making as much as possible and engage in project stewardship rather than project management, so that everyone is empowered to engage from within their own thinking rather than following along.

Then is NGL an NVC community?
Yes and no…

Then is NGL an NVC community? Yes and no…

We are very much like an NVC (Nonviolent Communication) community, in that all we do arises from the deepest principles and practices that Marshall Rosenberg (the creator of NVC) gifted to humanity. NVC is deeply woven into everything we do, both in terms of how we function with each other and in terms of what we share with others. We lean on NVC for many of our processes and we orient to needs in all our systems. And we see what we bring to the world as caring for Marshall’s legacy and dreams for social change.

And we are very much not like most NVC communities. Our courses are oriented to skill building as it supports liberation and not skill building for its own sake. We value and treasure connection as it contributes to purpose and not connection for its own sake. We lean on NVC principles, empathy, acknowledgments, and other NVC processes to support healing as needed to nourish our capacity to contribute to purpose and align means with ends and not healing for its own sake. And we support individuals as part of building collective capacity to prototype a global maternal gift economy and not individual well-being for its own sake.

Then is NGL a monastic community?
Yes and no…

Then is NGL a monastic community? Yes and no…

We are very much like a monastic community in that we have a number of very deep practices of liberation that we are dedicated to, and in the sense that many of us have that our life is not our own and is, instead, dedicated to a much larger purpose and vision, simply framed as realigning humanity with life. We also share, with many monastic communities, the intention to reduce our dependence on mainstream society. Like many monastic communities, we orient to what we bring to others as gifts and offerings, not as products or services. And we are conscious of a lineage that we are part of.

And we are very much not like a monastic community. We are not celibate (though some of us are engaging with deep explorations in relation to how even sexual desire is profoundly shaped by patriarchal conditioning). We are deeply engaging with the material dimension of life and aim to integrate it with the spiritual. We don’t follow any rules or particular forms or rituals. We have no gurus and no formal hierarchy; only the organic unfolding of natural authority. And we are seeing a future in which we have many intergenerational communities around the world committed to all ages collaboration. In fact, we are already taking steps to make that kind of collaboration possible.

Then is NGL a family?
Yes and no…

Then is NGL a family? Yes and no…

We are very much like a family in that we orient to each other’s needs at a deep level in which we support and cheer each other as we progress with our life’s choices. We strive for the deepest intimacy possible between humans by sharing with each other the impacts of our actions in support of continuing to grow our intimacy, deepening our individual and collective liberation, and learning how to function together more harmoniously in service to life. And we are continually moving towards increasing our shared risk by making more decisions from a place of choice and within togetherness and by pooling our material resources, especially financial resources, based on needs, purpose, and willingness, and challenge each other along the way.

And we are very much not like a family. To begin with, we feel concerned about the very meaning of family given that the root of the word comes from Latin and the original word from which “familia” derives is “famulus” which means servant. And in Hebrew, the word for family also comes from the same root as “female slave”. Many of us believe that the setup of family that is normative at present is detrimental to the well-being of people within it, since any twosome is a weak structure for walking together towards liberation, and even more so one made up of a woman and a man, especially when caring for children is also part of what that twosome is holding. In addition, given that we in NGL are not biologically linked to each other, our way of functioning stretches beyond what most people would consider a family.

Then is NGL a mutual aid society?
Yes and no…

Then is NGL a mutual aid society? Yes and no…

We are very much like a mutual aid society in that we are endlessly committed to caring for each other’s material needs, both in times of flourishing and in times of challenge. We ask our larger community of several thousand to give us financial gifts and we then share them with each other, without anyone being hired to do anything. We listen carefully to what we each say about our material needs and we orient to them with immense reverence and trust in life.

And we are very much not like a mutual aid society. Coming together to share material resources to care for our needs is only one of the things we do together. Our shared purpose is much larger than only caring for ourselves, because we care for all of humanity. We think of ourselves as prototyping a global maternal gift economy, which is a little bit akin to humanity becoming one big mutual aid society instead of being divided into nations and religions that so often go to war with each other. And we also offer our own gifts of many kinds to the world.

Then is NGL a cult?
Yes and no…

Then is NGL a cult? Yes and no…

We are very much like a cult, in that some people follow and accept what those of us who lead within NGL say, especially if it’s Miki, our seed founder, and do so based on habits of deferring to authority rather than based on conscious entrustment, and so far none of what we have tried has shifted this phenomenon. Sadly, people are sometimes afraid to express divergent opinions or to give feedback about things that don’t work for them, even though the commitment to (though not always the capacity for) engaging with feedback is very strong. We use a lot of endless acronyms, words with special meaning, and even words we have made up like proclusion. People sometimes orient to the deep commitments and to the language we use within NGL as if they are “norms” and “rules” rather than using them as opportunities to explore whether it actually makes sense for them to be part of NGL because of deep alignment with what we are trying to do. There is very little elsewhere that resembles what we do, and sometimes people stay within NGL even when it doesn’t work for them in significant ways simply because of longing for belonging within a community oriented towards a vision they resonate with. And sometimes people in our lives worry about us given how much of our energy goes into NGL and how deep our connections with each other are.

And we are very much not like a cult. We put immense effort into supporting people’s empowerment, and those who stick around for a while find more rather than less capacity to choose and stand within their strength and to challenge, from within deep connection and trust, those of us who lead. This also includes supporting each other in finding ways of engaging with others in our life, outside NGL, with more integrity and alignment with nonviolence rather than only resting in the comfort and companionship we find within NGL. We have seen time and time again just how much more solid and resilient we become when we engage with divergences, either through input into proposed decisions or through feedback that comes to us, and discover a path that integrates them. There is a huge level of transparency in how we function: all our meetings are recorded and generally available for anyone within NGL to observe; we just about always take notes which are also available; and our finances are entirely visible, including to those from whom we ask for financial gifts. Even though we are very committed to what we are doing and see it as a viable path for humanity, we are also committed to deep humility and to not knowing just how far what we are doing can go. And we are in deep and ongoing exploration about what we can do to reduce ever more the impacts of the phenomenon of disempowerment in relation to those perceived to be in authority.

Then is NGL a project?
Yes and no…

Then is NGL a project? Yes and no…

We are very much like a project in that we have a very clear (andhuge!) picture of the outcome we long for. We are a group of people that are working together to create an island of visionary functioning in which we embody the large vision we have for humanity in everything we do. We also are very dedicated to purpose, to the point of sometimes being off putting to people who want us to put more energy into connection and enjoyment of each other. And we do tons of design and planning of what we do and where we go, even as we are often finding ourselves doing something else and learning unexpected lessons, not the ones we set out to learn.

And we are very much not like a project. We have no clear sequence of tasks that are intended to achieve a particular outcome. We consider plans “an empathy guess of the future” and constantly adapt to what we learn, to changing circumstances, to new insights, to the reality that our experiments change us, and to the limits of our capacity, especially the enormity of obstacles we are facing. We consciously choose to take baby steps and to leave voids rather than overstretch beyond capacity (though we do still overstretch given the immensity of our longings). We ground ourselves in the now and in capacity more so than in some end goal. And, perhaps most importantly, we have no end date because what we took upon ourselves is work that is unlikely to be finished in our lifetime.

Then is NGL an activist movement?
Yes and no…

Then is NGL an activist movement? Yes and no…

We are very much like an activist movement in that we think a lot about the immense challenges that humanity is facing and see ourselves as committed to take action, within our means and in alignment with what is ours to do, to create the largest shifts possible as we move towards vision. We function on the individual, collective, economic, political, and spiritual planes, and we have something to say or do in all areas of life as we fervently work to align means with ends.

And we are very much not like an activist movement. We haven’t engaged in activities such as demonstrations, civil disobedience, petitions, door-to-door campaigning, or much else that activists do (and it’s unknown whether we ever will). Instead of focusing on justice and rights, we focus on needs and on liberation for all, no exceptions. Though we engage in many projects, including having birthed the “Women in White” project, most of our work is focused on what Gandhi called “constructive program” which, for us, looks like creating an environment of high trust within NGL so we can learn and share blueprints for how humans can collaborate, make integrative decisions, share resources based on needs, liberate ourselves and each other, share feedback for continual learning, and engage with conflict in ways that increase capacity. One of our deepest hopes is that we can overall increase our capacity to model what is possible, to share our findings with others, and to inspire nonlinear change within the human field in the direction of realigning humanity with life.