Early Years
Ariana Amnisos was born in Jerusalem on February 29, 1968 and grew up amid the violent struggles of the Middle East. From her earliest years, she exhibited a deep aversion to violence. “I could not come to terms with the hate, poverty and violence around me,” she remembers. Her mother worked for Oxfam amid the Bedouin people in the Negev Desert. Her father was an archeologist on the staff of the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem. Her father's research focus was the influence of Minoan culture on the Middle East. Both her parents originally came from the Greek island of Crete.

University
During the turbulent 1980s, Ariana studied physics at American University in Beirut. She became fascinated with the mind-expanding discoveries of advanced physics after reading Gary Zukav's The Dancing Wu Li Masters. While a student, her passion for the underdog got her involved in student protests. “I fully expected that we could make our statements through symbolic tactics that would never cause any harm,” she explained, “but in the summer before my senior year, events got out of hand. Protests became violent and the violence escalated. Innocent people got hurt and a student friend was killed. These consequences were too much for me and I couldn't stay in Lebanon. I took a year off and returned home to think. I worked with my mother among the Bedouin people and spent months by myself in the serenity of the desert. I emerged from that experience with a resolution to steer clear of anything violent and dedicate myself to finding a way for the human family to live in greater harmony.” She returned to American University and changed her focus to psychology and comparative religion. After graduation, she landed a position with UNESCO in Paris. It was here that Ariana met Pierre Pascal.

U.N. Peacemakers
Pierre and Ariana became close as they worked together to understand and reverse the underlying causes of resentment and violence. They developed a reputation as brilliant and passionate internationalists and rose quickly through the ranks. They were eventually posted at the United Nations in New York to lead a peacekeeping team that mediated ethnic conflicts around the world.

During our conversations, Ariana explained how they used these real life opportunities to test and hone Pierre's ideas about a process that could break the cycle of violence: “We often managed to persuade the partisans to renounce the use of violence and disarm. But it never lasted. Sooner or later there would be another incident that would start a new cycle of violence. Although we succeeded time and again to gain a promising peace, the element that would make the peace permanent eluded us.” Ariana and Pierre continued to hope that at some point in their work they would discover the missing element and articulate a process for making peace more permanent.

Pierre and Ariana were at the forefront of a campaign to have all countries disband national armies and adopt cooperative security arrangements. “All countries should be subject to a rule of law that applies equally to all nations,” explained Ariana. “We took this step because of the dangers of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, first among governments and inevitably among terrorist groups.”

Tragedy
A year ago, in the fall of 2005, Pierre was murdered while en route to attend a peace conference. This tragedy was headline news around the world and resulted in a massive manhunt for the killers. It was believed that terrorists were responsible. Media coverage of Pierre's work and his ideas was intense. American opinion was sharply divided. Those who favored a supra-national police force were outraged by his murder and became more passionate in their advocacy for peace and the rule of law. Americans opposed to Pierre's work saw his death as an object lesson that proved that the U.S. should never renounce the use of its own military force, nor compromise its sovereignty.

The Island of Crete
Pierre's murder sent Ariana into a deep depression. She resigned her U.N. position and sought refuge on the island of Crete. She spent the next few months in a small house owned by her uncle, Alexander Argus. Ariana's father had lived in the same house during his retirement and his library was still there. She describes her time there: “I lost myself in my father's books and notes on Minoan culture. I needed to make sense of my beliefs and recent experiences and reconnect with my core self. Most importantly, I was dismayed and angered by the terrible death of my partner and husband. Why Pierre? He was the most empathetic and compassionate person I had ever known. He was admired by all who worked with him. He asked so little for himself and gave so much.”

Sifting through her father's books, Ariana discovered the literature on the Sanctuary of Eleusis, a religious center that flourished in ancient Greece. Located near Athens, Eleusis was one of the most revered sites in the ancient world. It was the center for a religious school whose initiates came from all over the civilized world and included such founders of Western Civilization as Homer, Solon, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. The experience of the initiates and what happened during the religious rites were sacred mysteries that remain secret to this day.

Ariana focused on those rites: “I became curious – what is known today about these mysteries? Is there a greater meaning to the wisdom of the ancients that is yet to be discovered?” She studied modern scholars and learned that the ancient world took these sacred rites very seriously: “The mystery rites were the most important religious practice for Greek civilization for nearly two thousand years, yet we still don't know very much about them.” The sanctuary was destroyed when the Goths invaded Greece at the end of the fourth century A.D. This destruction marked the end of classical Greek culture.

As Ariana continued to study Minoan culture, she saw what she and Pierre had been searching for, the element that could make peace permanent: “I was impressed with the values of my ancient ancestors and their achievements. I could see how these values and practices were the likely origin of the mystery school at Eleusis. I began to imagine how such values would be expressed today. I realized how congruent the ideas were with the spirituality of quantum physics that had enchanted me as a young student. As I delved deeper into the Minoan civilization, a powerful truth emerged. It was why the Minoan civilization flourished and spread peace throughout the Mediterranean world even though they had no weapons or armies. It was the reason the mystery of Eleusis was such an important religious inspiration for Greek civilization for two thousand years and remained a mystery for the fourteen hundred years after the Sanctuary was destroyed. Thinking about the applicability of this simple but powerful truth lifted my mood. I was feeling the energy build up in me. I started working on plans. Soon I would be ready. I thought deeply about the discoveries of quantum physics. I studied evolutionary psychology and the role of memes in the formation of culture. I saw how I would express the ancient values and practices using the concepts of modern science so today's generation would accept what I felt in my heart was right for our times.”

Birth of a Movement
Around this time, Ariana was contacted by a man she did not know then but who would soon become a valuable partner. “He told me his name was Boris Badderov and he had a message from Pierre. He asked to meet with me. He insisted that I keep what he told me a secret. I agreed and listened carefully, in silence. After Boris told me his story and what he knew about Pierre's death and gave me Pierre's message for me, I sat lost in thought for some minutes. Then I accepted the trust that Pierre had shown in Boris and told Boris about my plans for a peace movement.” In a later interview, Badderov told the Chronicle how impressed he was by the way Ariana was able to connect the tragedy of Pierre's death with her discovery of an ancient way for human transformation and peace.

Ariana explored with Badderov the potential impact of a world network of communities of young people who adopt a lifestyle and values inspired by the ideals and practices of Minoan culture. As Badderov elaborated in a later interview, “We talked for a long time. Then Ariana asked me to work with her. I agreed and she laid out the broad outlines of a plan. The transformation ritual would remain a mystery, just as it had been for the Greek world. It was a mystery every initiate would know but not talk about. ‘Let our movement become known by how we live our lives and what we do,' Ariana declared. I liked that.”

“With Boris by my side”, Ariana explained, “I knew the practical details of my plan would be taken care of. Boris gave me confidence and I was relieved when he agreed to run the organization and find the funds to get it started. He began to gather a core team of leaders with the mix of talents we needed to establish the movement.”

Ariana called the movement Elysia and the followers Elysians. “I derived the name Elysia from the Elysian Fields of the ancient Greeks. It's the land of bliss for those blessed by the gods and initiated at the Sanctuary of Eleusis near Athens. The name Eleusis means the place of happy arrival.”

Part Two of this series will continue with a report by our San Francisco staff on the community Ariana leads.