25 years in the making

It's 1999 in Cape Town, South Africa. Nelson Mandela is the president, Internet cafés are popping up everywhere and three young friends are planning to create an ambitious website that would connect like-minded people across the globe.

It was simple back then.... before websites turned into social media and before social media ushered in an age of scrolling, trolling, fake news... and addiction.

A quarter of a century later and one of these friends finally decides to finish what was started. More than ever, the spirit of that special website needs to happen.

What is it, you ask?

Quite simply… a community, both online and offline.

A community of individuals interested in taking a conscious path that looks something like this:

• Acceptance of self and committed to a path of continuous growth.

• Seekers of truth and not swayed by societies demands. Curious.

• Aware of the impact of words, choices, and actions.

• Accepting and celebrating others for their differences.

• Welcoming discomfort and fear as a path to growth.

• Practicing conscious spending, discerning needs from wants.

• Interested in giving and serving over acquiring and accumulating.

• Drawn to meaningful travel over pure escapism.

So... we started with these ideals and came up with a vision.

Inspiring a better world... city by city.

And it took us to this first goal...

Choose a city, build a platform and just BEGIN

Which resulted in THIS (Conscious City Melbourne)

We invite you to have a look around and start contributing. Let's build this thing together now, shall we?

What is Conscious Living?

It might be easier to examine the 'why' before the 'what'.

There is an epidemic of loneliness and discontent across the world. It seems to be getting worse. This, despite the advances in science, healthcare and technology.

The world is in conflict and communities are fracturing.

Conscious City doesn't claim to have the answers, but we believe that we can contribute to creating a better, kinder Internet and a better world through this platform by bringing people together under the theme of "consciousness"

A dictionary definition of conscious - "aware of and responding to one's surroundings".

This seems simple enough, but we know only too well that 'one's surroundings' is a subjective term these days. The surroundings of a 15 year old may be largely limited to their instagram or Tik Tok feed, with very little attention to what's actually going on around them.

So that's what we're aiming for here. A little less scrolling and a lot more tactile experience of the world around us and importantly, starting with our local communities. Sure, this is still a digital platform - but let's use it the way we thought we'd use it 25 years ago. As a force for truth, connection, sharing and to add value in whatever form that can be delivered and received.

It is tempting to be prescriptive and throw down a set of rules to try and shape this community into one person's vision. For now, we're opening it up to see where it goes... with some guard rails!