Backstory III: Metaverse—an idea lands…

“METAVERSE”

The Metaverse is the convergence of 1) virtually-enhanced physical reality and 2) physically
persistent virtual space. It is a fusion of both, while allowing users to experience it as either.

Our daughter, Olivia, who was then nine years old, had appeared in a couple of short films made by New York based director and friend, Cathy Lee Crane.

Cathy’s films paid homage to famed Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini in theme and location. It was during this time that Cathy called to ask for Olivia to appear in a new project she was shooting in Bologna. The partially black and white and color 16mm short titled “Pasolini’s Last Words” featured Gossip Girl star, Amanda Setton, and one of my oldest and dearest friends, Lee Delong. Olivia was up for it so as a family we loaded into the car and took a road trip to Bologna, a wonderful and quite socially progressive city (for Italy) that is about four and a half hours from where we live.

Over three days we accompanied the filmmaking process, shooting long hours and enjoying the company of our director friend and her cast late into the evenings.

By the time we headed home, we were all tired but happy.

I remember we had exited the autostrada at Ivrea, and were just a few kilometers from home. I had been dozing on and off during the journey back and was in the sort of netherworld between being asleep and awake, with everything a bit fuzzy.

This was the state I was in when THE IDEA landed, like a full thought construct in my head.

What if we took all of the diverse story worlds that existed in Damanhur and built a digital online METAVERSE? A digital construct where all of the diverse story realities I had been exposed to in Damanhur, could exist juxtaposed against one another. A world where we could immerse an outside audience in our magical reality and they could explore and PLAY within it.

It landed like a full color world in my head.

At the time I knew nothing about online game worlds. The extent of my knowledge was that something called Second Life was becoming a popular platform for virtual interaction.

I arrived home and began to voraciously research what was happening online in virtual worlds. This was November of 2010. I discovered that humanity was spending 3 BILLION hours a week in virtual online game worlds and 912.5 MILLION hours a week in mobile game worlds. Terms like massively multiplayer online game world entered my lexicon.

I remembered that in the divination I had been asked to write a four page document and share the idea that was destined to come, with the King Guides and with Falco. The message had been awfully precise. A four page document.

I sat down and with research that I had done, the document seemed to flow easily onto the page. Falco and the King Guides did not know me well at this point, so the document began with a brief description of who I am and what I had accomplished in the entertainment industry prior to coming to Damanhur. The document was titled “Damanhur: The New Frontier” and this is, in part, what I proposed the creation of:

A VIRTUAL INTERACTIVE 3D UNIVERSE.
A universe that mirrors our reality in Damanhur and creates a forum to tell and connect multiple stories simultaneously. A universe that invites our audience to enter and interact with those stories, with each other, and with Damanhur in life-changing ways.

Our growing dream is to create a portal for humanity to actually enter the Virtual Universe of Damanhur and the worlds it connects to beyond; the creation of a “METAVERSE” on the World-Wide-Web that is committed to the evolution of humanity.

I explained in this document that a “Metaverse” is the convergence of 1) virtually-enhanced physical reality and 2) physically persistent virtual space. It is a fusion of both, while allowing users to experience it as either.

I went on to explain in this document that this project:

… brings the vision of the “New Life” project to the world, without the world having to
physically come to Damanhur. It provides the opportunity for a vast portion of humanity to
touch, enter, and participate in our reality in a significant and revolutionary new way. It can be a personal path of change, for each individual user.

Then I shared the reality of what was happening in the digital world outside of Damanhur at that time:

Virtual Worlds are emerging as a critical frontier for humanity. In strategic business analysis, Virtual Worlds are projected to grow to over one billion users within the next 7 years. Revenue projections from Virtual Worlds go from 2 Billion USD in 2010 to 9 Billion USD in 2013.

And I expressed what the opportunity that lay in front of us could be:

At present, there is not a single Virtual World on the web that functions as a spiritual path. We have the opportunity to create the first.

A CATALYST FOR CHANGE IN THE WORLD:

For a “citizen” to advance in our Metaverse, they will have to physically participate within their own community. This commitment to action is critical. We will create links with humanitarian networks worldwide who will verify a “virtual citizen’s” physical participation. In turn, we will create deeper access for those who volunteer. The only way to advance in the Damanhur Metaverse, is to commit to action.

I shared what I envisioned the benefits to Damanhur to be:

BENEFITS TO DAMANHUR:
Are many with more to come, but to identify a few:
— Revenue: through membership and the myriad of monetization possibilities in a Metaverse
— Increase in both world-wide awareness of and alignment with Damanhur
— Virtual marketplace for Damanhurian goods and services
— A platform for sustainable, ongoing employment in the community
— Support for the New Life project
— A new outlet for Olami courses in the Virtual World
— A forum to create widespread support for the Temple of the Peoples
— The possibility to create a Virtual Esoteric Library
— A forum to connect people all over the planet to their spiritual path
— A strong platform from which to finance and realize future film projects in Damanhur

I included what I envisioned the steps to realize this project to be:

INITIAL STEPS TO REALIZATION:

STEP 1. Propose the idea within Damanhur,

STEP 2. Create an alliance between Damanhur, as content provider and Emanate
as Producers, (EMANATE was the production company that I envisioned creating to steward the project).

STEP 3. Secure between 15K USD and 25K USD in seed capitol to host a
Symposium in Damanhur for targeted potential team members.

This symposium will bring together specific Damanhurians with a targeted group of potential “guest” team members; an Art Director, two top level animators and six experienced MMOG programmers. Through our many contacts, Emanate has access to these skilled people. We will, however, only select people who will resonate with the sensitive nature of this project.

Our goal is to emerge from the symposium with a creative map, realistic time-line and a
budgetary structure for the first round of funding for the project.

STEP 4. Develop a media kit that will convey the fullness of the idea to potential
investors and launch the first round of funding.

STEP 5. With first round funding in place, we will create a technology greenhouse, here
in Damanhur. With our design team and programmers the DAMANHUR METAVERSE will be designed and prepared for launch.

STEP 6. Will proceed concurrent with Step 5. We will create “viral” marketing
tools to create awareness of the coming Metaverse.

STEP 7. Launch of the first tiers of the Metaverse. Invitation to the World to enter our
Virtual Damanhur. After the initial launch, there will be ongoing content creation and continual universe building in the Metaverse. Throughout the life of the Metaverse there will be vital ongoing contact with the “Virtual Citizens” and Damanurians. As we carefully grow, nurture and mature our Metaverse, it is possible to envision, somewhere in the future, the creation of a “Virtual School of Meditation,” and world-wide participation in our research and way of life.

I addressed the issue of how we would preserve the integrity of our Community in the process of the project creation:

PRESERVATION OF THE INTEGRITY OF DAMANHUR:

This is a project that is both completely of Damanhur and for Damanhur. The project will be based and administered from here. For every “guest team member” there will be a Damanhurian counterpart. Any and all information that enters the Metaverse will be approved by Damanhur.

And I concluded with the TIMELINE in which this project could be accomplished. In retrospect, knowing what happened over the next seven years, a very optimistic and naive timeline.

IN CONCLUSION:
In our timeline for the Metaverse of Damanhur, creation happens in 2011, with a beta launch late in the year. The actual launch will happen in early 2012.

This is a very big vision that holds the potential to touch every aspect of Damanhur. Ultimately,we are creating a magical instrument that will speak to a youth culture who are technologically driven, computer savvy and motivated by gaming, and parallel universes. This whole new generation embodies the very future of Damanhur.

The project had landed in my mind with such clarity.

With the four pages that had been prescribed in the divination written, I shared the idea and the document with Formica. Damanhur is an Italian community and the people who would need to read this document do not speak or read English. By now we were approaching the Christmas holiday. The document would need to be translated before it could go to the King Guides of Damanhur and to Falco, admittedly, the three busiest people in the Community. I had no idea when or how this idea would be received by Damanhur’s leaders, and yet I trusted that something way beyond me was working to orchestrate what was beginning to play out.

Then, on the morning of the last day of 2010, I was asked to come to a meeting with Damanhur’s King Guides…