*PlanetPuna* The Aloha Planet created by THE SIRIUS INSTITUTE ::
Dedicated to the creation of human/dolphin co-creative habitats where dolphins and people can learn from each other through music, underwater birth, dolphin healing and restoration.
Who are we? We are dolphin researchers based in Hawaii working under the name The Sirius Institute. Our founding partner is Star Newland and our research director is Michael T. Hyson, Ph.D., a neurobiologist.
Star was a close friend and colleague of the late Dr. John C. Lilly, M.D., and Toni Lilly, who pioneered communication with the dolphins.
Michael was a close friend and colleague of the late Dr. Hank Truby, a linguist and acoustic phonetician who helped invent the sonogram or "voice printing". He worked closely with Lilly and his dolphin projects for 17 years, including attempts to teach dolphins Elvar and Tolva English. We are inheritors of this tradition and have built on this legacy. We have many partners and associates, biologists, MD's, engineers, midwives, doulas, architects and others that help us in this work.
*PlanetPuna* is for Fun! There is a greater ease in encountering novelty if it is enjoyable. Recent research in fields as varied as education, neurobiology, and psychophysics has shown that, especially while learning, our state of mind is important. Attention required for learning is activated by fun! excitement and free investigation enhancing personal growth and learning processes.
The application of this new insight currently takes place at the new learning centres accessible in this community and beyond called Camp Paradise 'pod' homes - our home and neighbourhood based learning facilities . In response, *PlanetPuna* brings into reach a new educational environment based on technology and fun! available to all.
It is exciting to discover how Puna, in the heart of old Hawai'i, and the World-Wide Web present a unique environment to make its contribution to Puna's local network a brilliant success: From our domain we are part of the cyber or virtual or global community. People from around the world can click into Hawai'i, find *PlanetPuna*, and directly connect with folks here.
Through the sites established by our access facilities, visitors can set up virtual or real visits with a local ohana; or contact people whose work they saw on our *PlanetPuna* websites; or become acquainted with our *products and producers*; or bring their children and participate in fun!-filled research projects with real *researchers and scientists* (our collaborators cover fields ranging from maritime biology and interface with dolphins to space, optometry, agriculture, language, music, art, medicine and so much more) .
How did you get interested in the dolphins? I became interested when I was 12-13 after reading John Lilly's books Man & Dolphin and Mind of the Dolphin. Then I got a chance to be with them at a facility in Texas the next summer. So dolphins have been in my life since then. I even got to swim with the original Flipper, a dolphin named Mitzi.
Later, I met Dr. Hank Truby at the University of Miami and worked with him on dolphin and other projects for about 12 years, including a project of the World Dolphin Foundation with the dolphins Florida and Liberty.
I met Paradise Newland at Dr. Lilly's 75th birthday in 1990 and we have been running her Sirius Institute together ever since. This brought us to Hawaii to study the free dolphins and whales here and establish Human-Dolphin Habitats and dolphin attended underwater birthing centers.
What is the Sirius Institute?
Sirius Institute is a tax-exempt consortium with the purpose of "dolphinizing" the planet. This means the integration of the Cetacea (dolphins and whales) into our culture. A second goal is the "humanization of space" which involves the settlement of the solar system and beyond.
We can integrate the Cetacea with us through direct interactions, by communication through interfaces and translators, using dolphin attended underwater childbirth, raising our children together with the Cetacea, developing dolphin assisted therapy, and by legal recognition of their rights under human law through the Cetacean Commonwealth. The dolphins and whales are co-species with us on our planet and we can all benefit from this recognition.
Just follow the links to the Sirius Institute and we have pretty extensive documentation.
Those interested can email us at
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or write us at
Box 1645 Pahoa, Hawaii 96778
or call us at 808-965-9667
If you are inspired to support our work, please do. We have a Paypal account under
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and a link from our website. All gifts are tax-deductible.
We would also like people to sign up for our Cetacean Commonwealth. Please contact us and give us your input in all this. There are people, I'm sure, with expertise in many areas, that could help in this work. If they are interested in helping there is much to do. We especially want a legal team to make their case for recognition before the United Nations.
click HERE to experience the *PlanetPuna* Hawaii Virtual Tour!
