Living Library
A Curated Reading List for our Living Lab
Welcome to our Living Library, a continuously evolving collection of works that inform, inspire, and challenge the foundational thinking of our Living Lab. Here, you'll find a multidisciplinary reading list reflecting the values, research, and what has contributed to the vision behind Sumati Group, and our own curricula theory, The Sumati Concept and The Wondervention Effect, and our broader inquiries into systems change, spiritual inquiry, education, ecology, and the future of governance.
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My path has been shaped by a deep inquiry into systems, spirit, and story, a lifelong wondervention that has led me across continents, disciplines, and ancestral memory. The books in our Living Library are not just resources; they are companions on my own journey of building career capital rooted in integrity, wisdom seeking, and the courage to imagine otherwise.
This library reflects the independent study that have shaped my work, where academia meets the intuitive, and the future is built by those willing to ask the harder questions. This is a process and ongoing journey, and so the list will continue to evolve as we do…
~ Lisen Ydse Christiansen, Founder of Sumati Group
How to use this resource…
This searchable resource is designed to foster transparent knowledge-sharing, deepen our collective practice, and spark critical engagement. Whether you're a curious visitor, a dedicated changemaker, or a future collaborator, we invite you to explore, reflect, and inquire alongside us.
Each entry is tagged by theme and author, and organized by core focus area. We've included brief descriptions for each featured work, spanning historical and contemporary texts, books, whitepapers, and emerging thought leadership across disciplines, centuries, and literary styles.
➤ Browse or Search by author, or focus area.
➤ Find content aligned with your interests or your work.
➤ Use as a Syllabus Builder for programs, workshops, or community discussions.
Focus Areas
- African, Asian, Indigenous and Feminist Wisdom Traditions
- Complementary Manuscripts, White Papers, and Journals
- Consciousness, Inner Work & Spiritual Inquiry
- Critical Thinking, Logic & Epistemological Integrity
- Dialogical & Cognitive Models of Self
- Earth, Ecology & Post-Capitalist Imaginaries
- Ethics, Effective Altruism & Long-Term Futurism
- Indigenous Knowledge Systems & Ancestral Intelligence
- Mysticism, Imaginal Knowing, and Cultural Archetypes
- NeuroAwareness, Body Wisdom & Dialogical Mind
- Systems Innovation, Civic Infrastructure & Applied Ethics
- Systems Thinking, Regenerative Design & DAO Infrastructure
- Transformative Education & Participatory Methodologies
Authors
- Adrienne Maree Brown
- Bell Hooks
- Bhikhu Parekh
- Brian Christian
- Bruno Latour
- Carl Jung
- Carl Sagan
- Caroline Myss
- Caroline Van Eck
- Charles Eisenstein
- Christina Sharpe
- Clarissa Pinkola Estés
- Cole Arthur Riley
- D.Q. McInerny
- Daniel Christian Wahl
- Dante
- Darcia Narvaez
- David Graeber & David Wengrow
- Donella Meadows
- Donna Haraway
- Dr. David Frawley
- Eleanor Rosch
- Elias Ashmole
- Emanuel Swedenborg
- Eric A. Posner & E. Glen Weyl
- Ethan Kross
- Evan Thompson
- Francisco Varela
- Fred B. Eiseman Jr.
- Fritjof Capra & Pier Luigi Luisi
- Gary Zukav
- George Monbiot
- Giancarlo Dimaggio
- Henry Corbin
- Hubert Hermans
- Hugh Brody
- Iain McGilchrist
- Ira Shor & Paulo Freire
- Jacob K. Olupona
- John Dee
- Joshua Greene
- Kahlil Gibran
- Keith H. Basso
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Linda Tuhiwai Smith
- Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
- Malidoma Patrice Somé
- Margaret Wheatley & Deborah Frieze
- Melba Joyce Boyd
- Michael A. Singer
Across Time and Territory: A Reading List for Reclaiming Ancestral, Indigenous, and Feminine Wisdom
This section honors lineages of resilience and intuitive knowledge: Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ Women Who Run With the Wolves, Malidoma Somé’s Of Water and the Spirit, and Wade Davis’ The Wayfinders. With works from Bali (Sekala and Niskala), West Africa (Adinkra cosmology), Sámi authors like Rauna Kuokkanen, and Christina Sharpe’s In the Wake, this is a vital current of remembrance, resistance, and reweaving.
Rethinking the Earth: Reading Into Ecological Futures and Post-Capitalist Possibilities
Charles Eisenstein’s Sacred Economics, Donna Haraway’s Staying with the Trouble, and Bruno Latour’s Down to Earth articulate a necessary rupture from extractive systems. This category explores ecological interdependence, planetary design, and poetic realism. Vettese and Pendergrass’s Half-Earth Socialism and Stewart Brand’s Whole Earth Discipline expand the discourse into techno-ecological futures.
Ethics for the Long Now: A Reading List on Effective Altruism, Moral Imagination & Future Stewardship
Inspired by William MacAskill’s What We Owe the Future and Toby Ord’s The Precipice, this section challenges us to think beyond our lifetimes. Ethics, risk, and future stewardship converge in Roman Krznaric’s The Good Ancestor and Brian Christian’s The Alignment Problem, calling for responsibility that spans generations.
Mysticism, Imaginal Knowing & Cultural Archetypes: A Journey Through the Liminal Library
For journeys beyond the everyday, Henry Corbin’s Alone With the Alone and The Voyage and the Messenger root us in imaginal cosmologies shaped by mystical philosophy. Jung’s Liber Novus and Dante’s Divine Comedy weave archetype and myth into transformative inner landscapes. John Dee, alchemist and philosopher, stands alongside Emanuel Swedenborg’s cosmic metaphysics and Leonardo da Vinci’s visionary diary entries - each revealing hidden orders within the seen and unseen. Ashmole’s manuscripts deepens this lineage of esoteric inquiry. Writings like Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet and Vaughan-Lee’s Return of the Feminine round out an alchemical ecosystem of archetypal and mythopoetic transformation. These works offer insight into symbolic thinking, metaphysical inquiry, and the soul’s role in shaping reality throughout centuries, and how the inquiry of those have shaped both the creative fields, as well as science.
Reading the Mind Within: Dialogues Between Brain, Self, and Culture
What if the self is not singular but made of many voices? What if thought isn’t confined to the skull, but dances between body and world? What if morality doesn’t begin in doctrine, but in the arms of a caregiver? These are not just philosophical musings, they’re empirical, neurological, and deeply human questions at the heart of this reading journey.
In these pages, you’ll encounter theories that see consciousness as emergent rather than isolated, identity as relational rather than static, and thought as embodied rather than abstract. Whether through the lens of divided brain hemispheres, inner speech, or enactive cognition, each book invites you to reexamine the boundaries between self and other, brain and culture, knowing and being. Together, they form a chorus of perspectives, scientific, psychological, and philosophical, that challenge the myth of the isolated mind.
Read them slowly. Let them speak to one another. And more importantly, let them speak to the multiple selves within you.
Transforming Learning, Transforming Lives: A Reading List on Transformative Education & Participatory Methodologies
Rooted in Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, this curation expands into Scharmer’s Theory U, Bell Hooks' Teaching Community, and Moeller’s Art of Hosting. These works imagine learning as a co-creative act, education as liberation. The inclusion of OECD’s 2030 reports and Walk Out Walk On shows how schools and systems alike must become sites of emergence and evolutionary design.
Complementary Manuscripts, White Papers, and Journals
Drawing from Otto Scharmer’s Theory U and MIT’s Presencing Institute case studies, this section models a “lead-from-the-future-as-it-emerges” approach, grounding inner sensing in collective systemic sensing. Stanford Social Innovation Review enriches this with explorations of systems change and DAO philanthropy, while Metagov & Govbase’s governance frameworks illustrate how decentralized infrastructures transform consent and accountability.
7 Essential Readings on Indigenous Knowledge Systems & Ancestral Intelligence
Rooted in land and lineage, this section centers Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass alongside Tyson Yunkaporta’s Sand Talk. Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s Decolonizing Methodologies sets a decolonial research ethic, while Virginia R. Beavert’s Gift of Knowledge, Keith Basso’s Wisdom Sits in Places, and Sámi voices like Nils-Aslak Valkeapää honor oral traditions, cosmological knowing, and place-based wisdom.
Critical Thinking, Logic & Epistemological Integrity
Stuart Hanscomb’s Critical Thinking: The Basics reminds us that wonder and inquiry must be matched with discernment and epistemological integrity. This grounding ensures our research, dialogue, and storytelling rest on rigorous foundations of truth-seeking.
10 Transformative Books on Consciousness, Inner Work & Spiritual Inquiry
A tapestry of spiritual, psychological, and metaphysical texts, from The Red Book by Carl Jung to The Seat of the Soul by Gary Zukav unfolds in this section. Works like Black Liturgies by Cole Arthur Riley and Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Maree Brown anchor inner transformation within sociocultural presence. Dr. David Frawley, Caroline Myss, and Mick Collins offer archetypal maps and integrative medicine pathways for deeper embodiment and self-awareness.
Rethinking Systems: A Regenerative Reading List for Systems Change, DAO Infrastructure & New Governance Models
Works like The Alignment Problem, The DAO of DAOs, and The Precipice guide our inquiry into the ethics of AI, decentralized governance, and long-term responsibility across generations. This exploration is grounded in systems thinking through Donella Meadows’ Thinking in Systems and Daniel Christian Wahl’s Designing Regenerative Cultures. George Monbiot’s Regenesis and Graeber & Wengrow’s The Dawn of Everything challenge us to reimagine ecological futures beyond scarcity and hierarchy. Meanwhile, the frameworks emerging from Metagov’s DAO of DAOs and RadicalxChange writings illuminate paths toward transparent, participatory, and values-driven infrastructures. Bhikhu Parekh’s reflections on Gandhi remind us that these structural innovations must remain rooted in nonviolent ethics and moral clarity.
Why a Reading List?
As a Living Lab committed to evolving practice, we believe knowledge should be alive; shared, questioned, and continually reimagined. Learning is not a destination but a lifelong journey, beautifully symbolized by the Adinkra symbol Nkyinkyim, which speaks to the ever-unfolding path of growth, movement, and transformation.
This reading list is not static. It reflects our current constellation of inquiry, shaped by curiosity, context, and collective contribution. Your suggestions help it evolve. Let this be more than a bookshelf. Let it be a portal, into deeper knowing, brave conversations, and bold reimaginings of what’s possible.
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