Alexander and Nicole Gratovsky are Russian and European (Belgium, Spain)
anthropologist
An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...
s of Russian descent, spouses, co-authors of books, films, expositions, public presentations, and cultural events in the field of mind and consciousness research.
First joint projects
Alexander and Nicole (maiden name Kors) met in 1990 in Brussels and were baptised into the Orthodox faith and married at the
Novodevichy Convent
Novodevichy Convent, also known as Bogoroditse-Smolensky Monastery (russian: Новоде́вичий монасты́рь, Богоро́дице-Смоле́нский монасты́рь), is probably the best-known clois ...
in Moscow in the same year. At baptism, Nicole received the name Tatiana. The couple were married by father Mikhail Ryazantsev.
In 1998, the Gratovskys created the Ultimate Experience Club, engaged in the study of human possibilities, existential consulting, transformative practices and
logotherapy
Logotherapy was developed by neurologist and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl and is based on the premise that the primary motivational force of an individual is to find a meaning in life. Frankl describes it as "the Third Viennese School of Psychothe ...
in Europe (Belgium) and Russia. Collaborators included leading psychologists, in particular, Jean Becchio and Alexander Asmolov. The Club developed and published a number of humanitarian technologies in the field of conscious construction of the future in the form of collective monographs. Based on the results of the club's projects, the Gratovskys wrote a series of documentary adventure novels under the pseudonym Alex Forain.
In the early 2000s, the Gratovskys began to engage in independent "non-invasive" studies of free-living
dolphin
A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the ...
s and whales. Having spent more than 5,000 hours with free dolphins and
whale
Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...
s, based on their own experience of interaction with them, as well as numerous scientific data indicating the high level of intelligence of
cetacea
Cetacea (; , ) is an infraorder of aquatic mammals that includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Key characteristics are their fully aquatic lifestyle, streamlined body shape, often large size and exclusively carnivorous diet. They propel them ...
ns, their possession of
self-awareness
In philosophy of self, self-awareness is the experience of one's own personality or individuality. It is not to be confused with consciousness in the sense of qualia. While consciousness is being aware of one's environment and body and lifesty ...
, a highly organised society and culture, the Gratovskys consider cetaceans to be carriers of the most developed (although organised differently to that of humans) consciousness on the planet, with "capabilities and a way of life that contain highly important lessons for humans."
Dolphin Embassy
In 2008, the Gratovskys created the Dolphin Embassy: "an interdisciplinary centre considering the modern era, not from the
anthropocentric
Anthropocentrism (; ) is the belief that human beings are the central or most important entity in the universe. The term can be used interchangeably with humanocentrism, and some refer to the concept as human supremacy or human exceptionalism. ...
position of the "conqueror of nature" and the "crown of creation," but from the perspective of the planet as a unified, living and intelligent organism and, as a special case, from the position of dolphins and whales."
The Embassy is simultaneously a research, consulting, production and cultural centre, with its permanent headquarters on Tenerife (Canary Islands). This location was chosen due it being both minimally politically engaged and one of the world's "capitals" of cetaceans.
The Embassy appoints "chargés d'affaires." According to the project's creators, these are individuals whose main concern and interest are the
planet
A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a you ...
and humanity as a whole. The Embassy's official website and a series of interviews by the Gratovskys indicate that they include approximately one hundred prominent scientists and cultural figures from different countries, among the first of whom were
Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian medievalist, philosopher, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular 1980 novel ''The Name of the ...
,
Ervin Laszlo Ervin may refer to:
*Ervin (given name)
*Ervin (surname)
*Ervin Township, Howard County, Indiana, one of eleven townships in Howard County, Indiana, USA
See also
* Justice Ervin (disambiguation)
* Earvin
* Ervine
* Erving (disambiguation)
* Erwan
...
,
Giacomo Rizzolatti
Giacomo Rizzolatti (born 28 April 1937) is an Italian neurophysiologist who works at the University of Parma. Born in Kyiv, UkSSR, he is the Senior Scientist of the research team that discovered mirror neurons in the frontal and parietal cortex ...
,
Slava Polunin
Vyacheslav Ivanovich “Slava” Polunin PAR and others. The Embassy organises independent research expeditions (including the
round-the-world
Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical body (e.g. a planet or moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth.
The first recorded circumnavigation of the Earth was the Magel ...
"Archaeology of Possibilities" project,) publishing their results in films and books, as well as presenting them during special public events.
One area of research is the possibility of interaction between humans and wildlife, in particular, experiments on the creation of a direct "dialogue" between free dolphins/whales and outstanding modern jazz improvisation musicians (including
Arkady Shilkloper
Arkady Shilkloper (born 17 October 1956) is a Russian multi-instrumentalist (horn, alphorn, flugelhorn, corno da caccia, didgeridoo, shofar, and others) and composer, currently living in Berlin. He is known as one of the best jazz performers ...
, Davide Swarup,
David Rothenberg
David Rothenberg (born 1962) is a professor of philosophy and music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, with a special interest in animal sounds as music. He is also a composer and jazz musician whose books and recordings reflect a long ...
), carried out on the Embassy's expedition vessels using underwater acoustic equipment. The video of the musician and public figure Mikhail Kazinik relating the story of one of these experiments in the Federation Council of the Russian Federation in June 2017 evoked significant public interest and gained more than 693,000 views on YouTube (as at 20 May 2020).
Public Activity
The Gratovskys engage in public speaking, as well as organisation of educational and cultural events. Central events include the annual Dolphinity World Festival on Tenerife, as well as Dolphin Day at the
St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
International Cultural Forum, focused on the nature of consciousness, the unity of the world and the possibility of direct interaction between mankind and the
universe
The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the universe. Acc ...
.
In 2017, the multimedia exhibition "Just Like You. Human and Dolphin" was visited by 8,000 people over two days.
On 18 November 2017, the Dolphin Language and
Culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...
scientific and practical conference was organised by the Gratovskys in St. Petersburg with the participation of leading cetacean researchers, such as Jim Darling,
Hal Whitehead
Hal Whitehead is a biologist specializing in the study of the sperm whale (''Physeter macrocephalus''). Whitehead is professor at Dalhousie University. The primary field research vessel of his laboratory is the ''Balaena'', a Valiant 40 ocean-goin ...
an Toni Frohoff among others.
This resulted in the adoption of the "International Declaration on the Protection of the Rights and Freedom of Dolphins and Whales," which recognises cetaceans as "(non-human)
individual
An individual is that which exists as a distinct entity. Individuality (or self-hood) is the state or quality of being an individual; particularly (in the case of humans) of being a person unique from other people and possessing one's own Maslow ...
s with self-awareness, endowed with intelligence and feelings," in 10 points establishing a new type of relationship between humans and cetaceans: without violence, exploitation and slavery. The Declaration has been signed by prominent scientists, public figures and cultural figures from different countries.
From 10 to 14 October 2019, the NOW Worldview Assembly, organised by the Gratovskys, took place in
Delphi
Delphi (; ), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), in ancient times was a sacred precinct that served as the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient classical world. The oracle ...
, Greece. The Assembly brought together more than 100 thinkers, authors of breakthrough scientific discoveries, ideas and practices from around the world.
The Assembly's initiators formulated the event's purpose as follows:
Participants included
Ashok Khosla
Ashok Khosla is an Indian environmentalist currently based in Delhi. He received his PhD in experimental physics from Harvard University with a doctoral dissertation in the hyperfine structure of hydrogen halide isotopes. He is the co-chair o ...
, co-chair of the United Nations Environment Programme International Resource Panel;
Barry Kerzin
Barry Michael Kerzin (born November 1, 1947) is an American physician and Buddhist monk. He has lived in Dharamshala, India since 1988 and serves as a personal physician to the 14th Dalai Lama, along with treating people in the local community. ...
, personal physician to the Dalai Lama; Janusz Wiśniewski, writer, author of the novel ''Loneliness on the Net''; Gerald Pollack, author of the theory of the fourth phase of water; George Ovashvili, film director, screenwriter and producer;
Kalevi Kull
Kalevi Kull (born 12 August 1952, Tartu) is a biosemiotics professor at the University of Tartu, Estonia.
He graduated from the University of Tartu in 1975. His earlier work dealt with ethology and field ecology. He has studied the mechanisms ...
, head of the International Society for Biosemiotic Studies; heads of the foremost international associations of thinkers, the
Club of Rome
The Club of Rome is a nonprofit, informal organization of intellectuals and business leaders whose goal is a critical discussion of pressing global issues. The Club of Rome was founded in 1968 at Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, Italy. It consists ...
and the
Club of Budapest
Ervin László founded international organization the Club of Budapest in 1993 to expand beyond the scientific purpose of the General Evolution Research Group to try to mobilize the resources of humanity to meet future challenges.
The Club of Buda ...
; among others. The Assembly was held behind closed doors, deliberately excluding the presence of journalists and members of the general public. The Assembly's report, published as a separate book, concludes that urgent changes to humanity's current way of life and
hierarchy of values Hierarchy of values is a concept in US legal analysis that Yale Law School and New York Law School Professor Myres McDougal popularized. It refers to an ordered list of social values that influence judicial decision-making. Different jurists or lega ...
are necessary and inevitable, and new definitions of fundamental existential concepts, such as intelligence, consciousness and life, among others, are proposed in the form of modern Delphic Maxims, with the first being: "Consciousness is the ability to choose the
future
The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently ...
."
Books
* ''Out of the Box'' (English and French title) under the pseudonym Alex Forain. Russian title: ''Танго с манекеном'' (lit. trans. Tango with a Mannequin).
* ''The Promise of Atlantis''. Russian title: ''Генератор возможностей'' (lit. trans. Generator of Possibilities) (second edition).
* ''The Dolphin Principle''. Russian title: ''Принцип дельфина'' (third edition, supplemented).
* ''12 vessels of Ji. 12 сосудов ЖИ'' (dual-language edition).
* ''Book of Wonders''. Russian title: ''План А'' (lit. trans. Plan A).
* ''Another humanity. Dolphins. Другое человечество. Дельфины'' (dual-language edition).
* ''Nature of Wonders''. Russian title: ''О природе чудес''.
All books are illustrated with original photographs.
Films
''Predator of Tenderness'' film
trilogy
A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games, and are less common in other art forms. Three-part wor ...
(Russian title: ''Хищник Нежность''): three films by the Gratovskys (as screenwriters, directors and producers) created on the boundary between the genres of art and documentary. The first film in the trilogy, ''
My Pilot, Whale
''My Pilot, Whale'' is a short documentary film directed by Alexander and Nicole Gratovsky, demonstrating direct communication between a human and free pilot whales in the open ocean.
The entire underwater part was shot without diving equipment ...
''(Russian title: ''Мой Пилот, Кит''), proposes a view from a human perspective of a dolphin as an "older brother" and the possibility of contact between them. The second, '' Intraterrestrial'' (Russian title: ''Интратеррестр''), is a dialogue between a human and a dolphin, two cultures and two
worldview
A worldview or world-view or ''Weltanschauung'' is the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the whole of the individual's or society's knowledge, culture, and point of view. A worldview can include natural p ...
s. The third, ''Revelation of
Jonah
Jonah or Jonas, ''Yōnā'', "dove"; gr, Ἰωνᾶς ''Iōnâs''; ar, يونس ' or '; Latin: ''Ionas'' son of Amittai, is a prophet in the Hebrew Bible and the Quran, from Gath-hepher of the northern kingdom of Israel in about the 8th cent ...
'' (Russian title: ''Откровение Ионы''), which looks at man from the perspective of a whale, symbolising the universe as a whole, is a new interpretation of the biblical
parable
A parable is a succinct, didactic story, in prose or verse, that illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles. It differs from a fable in that fables employ animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature as characters, w ...
, with the focus transferred from the person of the prophet to modern humanity. The films received numerous prizes from international film festivals. The authors opened the Russian version of ''Revelation of Jonah'' for public access immediately after completing work on it on 23 April 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia. As at 20 May 2020, more than 89 thousand people had watched the film.
Family
The Gratovskys have a son, Anton, a grandson, Maxim, and a granddaughter, Julia Anna Maria.
Hobbies
Alexander and Nicole are qualified to sail
yachts
A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...
and dance
Argentine tango
Argentine tango is a musical genre and accompanying social dance originating at the end of the 19th century in the suburbs of Buenos Aires. It typically has a or rhythmic time signature, and two or three parts repeating in patterns such as AB ...