Testimonies
On this page we insert some testimonies of those who came into contact with the Alice project.
MEETING WITH ALICE PROJECT
In the meeting at Vaiano (Prato), organized by the magazine “Terra Nova”, on the theme: “A whole other school”. In the workshop there were several experts representing Alice: Gloria Germani (philosopher and writer), Alice Lugnan, Agata Montevecchi (Alice Project trainers), Mauro Scardovelli (jurist, psychotherapist, music therapist, founder of Aleph – Humanistic Biodynamics); Silvia Diolaiuti, psychologist and manager of training for the training of Alice operators; Patrizia di Edoardo, elementary teacher, specializing in the teaching of mathematics and 32 people from different parts of Italy attended the seminar. At the end of the meeting, Agata Montevecchi’s proposal : an inter-religious meditation on peace. The participants held hands, sending positive energy to the whole Universe. Here is the meditation practiced by Alice’s school children.
Visualize the image of your God that represents love, compassion, peace, joy and wisdom. It could be Jesus, Buddha, Shiva, Mahavir, Guru Nanak or the image of Holy Mecca.
If you don’t believe in any particular God, you can imagine a great shining diamond.
Imprint the image of your God in your mind and say this prayer:
“May I and every living being in the Universe be happy and free from suffering. May I make myself and others happy”.
Now imagine that God, Mecca and the great diamond dissolve into a shining Clear Light of peace. The light of peace, love, joy and wisdom. The light transforms your mind and your body making them also pure shining light.
Join your hands with those of the companions close to you.
The light shines out of you through your hands and becomes one with your neighbor’s light.
It becomes a deep, magical river of light that brings peace and joy, flooding and transforming your school, your city, your country, the Earth and the entire Universe into divine light.
Everything becomes the light of love and joy as you are. You are one with the happiness and love of the Universe.
Now the wonderful light of love and peace returns to your heart and remains there forever.
You feel good and happy with your mates.
When you feel it, open your eyes. You are here, in your school, with your companions, wise, happy and calm.
COMMENT OF A SPEAKER AT THE MEETING IN VAIANO
A wonderful atmosphere.
“I was very satisfied with the weekend. We were really exhaustive with completely different characters and knowledge that meant that there was an answer to every type of request and an absolutely total and unified picture of the Alice model with empathy, kindness and willingness to constructive dialogue“.
FEED BACK FROM A SPEAKER AT THE MEETING IN VAIANO
“…To be very honest, I think it went well because in the end we managed to convey Alice’s deep spirit, the meaning of your work and a long journey. I think I have also understood some important things, from this point of view. You cannot have personal goals or subjective needs in doing this kind of business. It would not be enough to believe in the goodness of the project, if you have other things to get back to you, whether they are self-image, accounts or personal relationships. We must be as pure as possible, certainly not absolutely, but profound coherence, yes! It is I who must thank you for this lesson, beyond any other suggestion of the Alice model. I know that I have always been looking for it, I know that I touch it every now and then, but I know that I have seen it in existence for you and I believe you always pass it on. As for me, you know you can count on me and I will do my best to promote and support what I believe in …” (…)
MORE ABOUT THE VAIANO MEETING LETTER
“I would like an Alice project for my soul”
Dear Valentino, my name is (…) and I was one of the participants of the seminar on the Alice Project held in Vaiano last Saturday. First of all, I am writing to thank you for the work you have done and that you continue to do and for the path that you are marking with a light and decisive hand, indicating a point where the horizon dreams of the light. In the past, I learned about the Alice Project through the passionate words of Mauro Scardovelli, whom I have been following for some time.
In Vaiano, thanks to her collaborators, I was able to deepen Alice and immerse myself, literally, in the flow of her experience. Thus, looking at Alice’s soul, I found a hidden path that she led me away; and, far from me, I found myself. Yes, because in that Vaiano classroom I was reflected in the eyes of her collaborators and in the intense and clear ones of the Indian children and young people who animated the Alice Project in the videos shown. I am the mother of a four-year-old girl, (…), I work as an educator in a libertarian school (…) and, after Vaiano, her Project has deeply caressed my heart. It is as if the Alice Project had taken root in my innermost soil, blooming softly and grafting along the trail of a path that has always belonged to me.
I would like an Alice Project for my daughter. I would like an Alice Project for children that I accompany every day, hand in hand, along their path. I would like an Alice Project for my soul. I would like an Alice Project for this suffering Italy.
Therefore, I am writing to you also to find out how I can carry on this feeling of mine, how I can offer this opportunity to those around me and also to myself. Vaiano spoke of the fact that, even recently, you have organized training in Italy. Personally, I would be interested in any type of training: therefore, how can I follow it on this path ? (…)
THE ALICE MODEL
Dear Valentino, yesterday I attended the seminar and met your wonderful collaborators and the philosophy of the Alice project. It was a wonderful experience that made me understand that I am on the right path for my personal search for the truth… to be centered, to be aware, to have faith in oneself and in one’s abilities so as not to break in the wind just like the bamboo of which the delightful math teacher spoke to. Knowing the power of one’s mind and words, meditation and its fundamental importance. In my little one I had already started the candle exercise a week ago, reminding me of a book I had read by Tiziano Terzani which in a certain sense has brought me up to now to see the video with your children staring right at the candle. Live in the present being there and savor the “everything” and the joy of life. It is as if there is a wonderful thread that unites everything that I have lived and I can only marvel at this and be happy for the incredible drawings of life. I would like to start right away with me as a mother to help my son be aware of his emotions, I really enjoyed the exercise of the colored balls to indicate mood and the visualization exercises. I talked to Ilaria about a possible course for parents on the “model” Alice (in the classroom yesterday the term method was not liked 
) I would like to involve and inform the mothers close to me because I feel that a revolution is really needed but this revolution must first start with us. Her work, her research and dedication are illuminating. In Italy all of her experience is needed to improve our society and awaken consciences. This morning I will be at the conference on digital children, I talked about it with Gloria who tells me that technology is not loved by you, but I believe that it is necessary to find a meeting point because unfortunately it is not possible to make a big bonfire of all this electronics, even if I do not hide that I would be the first to set the fire, but we should fight so that technology is a friend, a precious ally and not an enemy. But this is my personal vision. Even if I don’t know her, I would like to personally thank her even just for having seen the smiling face of that child on the video, but I apologize, I don’t remember the name who had problems with hyperactivity and had compulsive behaviors that after only three months has completely transformed… Really unbelievable. So thanks again and best wishes for her invaluable work.
Best wishes.
(…)
FROM OUR FORMER CHAKMA STUDENT
(We have slightly edited it)
Namaste all of you !
I want to write and share with all something about myself and the experiences and knowledge I’ve got from Alice project school. I studied there years at Alice project school from 2013 to 2016. I studied at Alice project without any problems for three years. I think that I got some knowledge from Alice project school. Different-different kinds of teaching are taught to the boys to increased the power of their mind and brain. Such kinds of teachings I didn’t get from childhood except at the Alice school. I think I won’t get them in the future too. When we were new boys (students) of Alice project we were unable to understand the teaching during the explanation, because we didn’t know Hindi and English, except chakma’s language. The months passed, I attempted to study hard with the right motivation and intention, then I succeed to understand the teaching of Bau (the founder of Alice project). Before, I studied in the Government school, which is established next to the Deban village (where there is a new Alice project school), in Arunachal Pradesh. In that school I was really good in studies but I didn’t have teaching about Emotional intelligence, Thought – intelligence, and didn’t know about mind, religion, karma etc. I’ve known many things in three years at Alice project. Now I realize that my mind has some capacity to understand easily anything, to explain and to reply questions that are difficult for someone but are easy for me. I’ve studied several kinds of subjects at Alice project which are not taught in others school. (MIND) What’s mind and what’s there? Can we find something inside the mind if we cut into two parts ? Where do the thoughts and emotion come from? Does the mind sleep when we sleep ? What’s the difference between awake mind and asleep mind? Thoughts and emotions arise into the mind any time but we don’t have consciousness to know and recognize them as they are. Our mind is totally filled by the ego thought (I). Every people’s mind is completely filled by ego (I) Due to the ego we can’t properly develop our personality and we get suffering from our problems. If we think for others, then we will have fewer thoughts for ourselves and we will have less suffering caused by our ego-mind. We can reduce our suffering by giving more space to the thoughts for others than for ourselves. The more we give space to the thoughts of others the more we develop love, compassion, kindness, and serenity instead of our selfishness. During the sleeping time our senses vision, smell, sound, taste and touch are not working. So we have only a mental reality. For example, sometimes we dream a snake that comes and bites us. Why we do not die? We do not die because the reality created our five senses is not there. Only the image of the snake is there. Valentino says that the image or picture of snake cannot kill anyone, but if we can really see, touch, smell, listen to a snake… then we have to run away, because it can kill us. In the dreaming time we think that what we see is real, like when we are awake. For this reason we suffer during the dream, because we don’t have awareness that there is not a real snake. Valentino says that – as in the dream – even when we are awake we do not have awareness about the reality, for this reason we suffer. To have awareness we need to practice meditation. Bau (Valentino Giacomin) showed us the exact way of samsara : where we have to go; it depends on us to choose the exact way for our good or bad luck. So, I’m grateful to our Alice project’s founder. I express him my gratitude; may he never forget me forever and I will always remember him. I pray to God that he may have a long life. I can’t forget the Alice project subconsciously too. I will remember it in heaven too !
THANKS ALICE PROJECT! Thanks for reading !
Vinod 16 years old – former student class X – Alice Project, Bodhgaya
THE TEACHERS TELL
How to put Alice into practice…
In the first half of the morning I was in fifth grade, where I had to administer some history entry tests. At the beginning we reviewed the topics a bit, then I gave the first sheet ; since I saw them very nervous in view of the next sheet, I invited them to breathe while closing their eyes, but some pupils started joking with “ohm” and laughing … I remained calm, explaining that this exercise was for them, not for me, and that I was in no hurry to administer the next card… when there was reasonable silence I gave the card, and the same with the third and last card… since there was still an hour before the break, I gave them invited to talk about themselves, how they felt, but for about half an hour at least 6-7 children kept joking, trying to make others laugh, they played with cards or do-it-yourself spinning tops, and didn’t listen to me… at some point, perhaps, I said a “magic” word; I asked: “Why all this fear of talking about yourself ?” And a little girl raised her hand asking to tell me about an episode that had happened to her … there was silence and she told an episode in which she was afraid… immediately afterwards, dozens of hands raised, to tell me the moments in which the more they had been afraid in their life: road accidents, thieves in their own house, bites by a dog… I tried to make them reflect on the thought behind their fear and in the end I thanked them… ‘vented to one of their teachers, saying “What a heavy class, many are unable to listen to each other, nor to open up, it is very sad!” And she “Yes, they have been like that since the First, only threats and punishments work with them !”. However, I am happy with what little I managed to get, even if it took half an hour of chaos before they realized I was there for them. Moreover, if in five years they have been accustomed only to threats and punishments, and have never brought out their anxieties, their doubts, their insecurities, it is normal that they are struggling now, and that some are still not willing to trust.
In the second half of the morning I was in Prima… dead tired, to tell the truth… a non-Italian girl who kept getting up… sigh… I left the task asked by the teacher, almost giving up on proposing anything “me”… then a dialogue between children convinced me to intervene: they discussed as many do about some sports, getting heated and arguing that theirs was ‘better’ and that of their companions was ‘as babies’… at that point, I thought back to the famous juice of Alice’s video and I proposed to the children to reflect on this with me: if I like a pear and your partner doesn’t like it, I say that the pear is good, she who is ugly … but where is the good? In the pear? Slowly they understood that the good or the bad could not be in the pear, someone said it was “out of the pear”… finally a little girl understood that the good / bad is in our head… I concluded by saying that when we give labels or judgments in reality we are only talking about words, our thoughts, air… while they were in line, the same child complained about the behavior of another, saying “Be silly and kick my satchel”… I looked him in the eye and I said to him : “Do you remember ? Stupid is just a word in your head, Giorgio (the partner) kicked your satchel and bothered you, but we don’t need to give him a label for that”… Sure, with Prima’s kids, work would be a lot, every day we should stop on these and other topics…
But I know it won’t do it : the teachers don’t have the preparation to do it, and perhaps not even the confidence that it could be the right way… it only makes me sad when I enter their classrooms and find placards with the rules”.
1. We must listen to ourselves
2. You have to help yourself ”or something like that… These are not things that can be imposed! And I am amazed that teachers still believe that this can solve the problem ! Anyone who has had a child should know: children often do the opposite of what you ask… First you need to win their trust, showing your affection, your sincere interest in them (…)
ALICE IN PRACTICAL LIFE
Testimony
“If it hadn’t been for Alice, lived in first person, I would never have been able to remain calm and not feel uncomfortable… I remember other moments of my school experience when a thought came to my mind” I’m doing something wrong! I don’t know what to do and now they feel it… I wish I was somewhere else !” And of course it ended with screams, threats or notes in the diary… This time no. Only “Come on, for sure they behave like this for a reason that depends on their experience… they are not angry with me and do not intend to hurt me … I can show my calm and my confidence to offer them an alternative to this suffering… the calmer I will be, the more credible I will be…”
Alice is now part of me. Whenever my child gets angry and says, for example, “stupid ball !” if the ball does not do what he would like, I always tell him that the fool is in his head and that it is he who has had a negative experience and who gives his definitions… the ball is just a ball, it is neither stupid neither intelligent, neither good nor bad… maybe slowly she will understand, with time and repetition, as well as obviously with the most important thing, that is the example (I try not to give definitions and labels when I am angry myself !) …
I would have betrayed myself not to tell classes about something that improved my life !
(…) There is no other solution: I can only improve MY life and help others choose THEIR !!”
DEAR VALENTINO
A reflection on a question I asked you some time ago. I told you that, when someone makes me suffer (e.g. people I discuss with, etc.). I can’t do the tong-len meditation… now I understand that this was happening because I kept thinking that the cause of my suffering lay outside of myself (in people, in T., etc.)… yesterday I managed to cheer up, instead, by turning my attention to myself, attributing to MYSELF the responsibility for my suffering (i.e. my attachment to the thought that someone else was doing me suffer) !! It was something I had never thought about and never would have gotten there – despite the various readings on the Alice project – without a (fairly) constant practice of relaxation and meditation… sometimes it can be difficult to “get out” of one’s thousand thoughts and try to break away from them… “
E.
FROM THE DIARY OF AN “ALICIAN” MASTER
Here I am…
Alternative to religion: in fact, the Italian or mathematics teacher gives additional work to make up for grammatical or logical deficiencies… the alternative teacher is a homework assistant…
At least that’s the way it goes with the Third, in which two children have spelling difficulties and one doesn’t really know Italian…
With the fifth, the discourse is different ; the teachers prepare almost nothing for the pupils, who therefore do not know what to do for almost two hours… and then there is my handsome “pain in the ass” who does not want to do anything, but only to disturb by making others laugh…
Start : A. (the pain in the ass) complains because there are no grades in the alternative subject, he wants to do things to get a good grade … I ask “Are you the grade you get ?”, A little girl initially replies Yes (and even she draws an 8 on my chest when I ask her, if she is an 8, where is that 8)… I still ask her what the grade measures, she “how intelligent are you” … I : “and if that day of the verification you are not well and you miss the whole assignment, but in reality you know things ?”… then he understands that the grade cannot measure intelligence… so what does it measure ? “How good you are !” She replies… but we are always there… how do you know how to do things… what things ?… the exercises… that exercise, only that ! And in that moment !!
Children are unable to be very careful, because A. disturbs… I pretend nothing has happened, I just don’t laugh and try to take up the subject again…
I… (the little girl, there are 4 in all), she asks me questions about religion, she asks me why some people change their religion, it turns out that A. is a mulatto and her mother was a Catholic … asks “teacher, what do you teach ?” I smile and don’t answer.
Each speech leads us to Alice, the children begin to focus on the answers and affirmations come out such as the fact that the labels are in our mind… A. still tries to disturb and teases a companion, I point out that he is giving a ‘ ericle that is inside him, not on his partner, as even IF I said “A. is a pain in the ass it would just be my label !” He is silent and after a while someone says that he is angry. They ask me where anger comes from. Through a few questions they come to understand that it comes from a thought. I read them the story of the rough lake (at the bottom of Wise Rabbit) and we talk about it : mud is the negative thoughts of water… I also read the story of emotions and that of the woodcutters of the Solomon Islands. Then I remember the comics at the beginning of the book, and everyone rushes to see them, including A. The bell rings, the others in class have just finished seeing a movie. A. gets angry “Well, now they’ll boast that they’ve seen the film and we haven’t”, I take him aside and say : “What are you feeling, envy ? Jealousy ? OK that’s great. There is no feeling that it is wrong. All are fine. The important thing is to recognize them… and not try to send them away, but accept them as they are, otherwise they dominate us! Even anger… do you know how I do when I’m angry ? I imagine Mr. Anger coming into my house to mess everything up, I look at him and I realize how ugly and ridiculous he is, so I’m no longer angry, but I laugh !”… He listened to everything, and in the end he let himself be taken by the arm for the exit… he seemed appeased, and certainly intrigued by all those things I told for an hour without ever scolding him or forcing him to do something.
I am happy, because I am regaining the enthusiasm of when I started doing this job. And I believe that if “destiny” has put me in the path of these children, almost boys, it will be for a purpose !
It’s up to me to find out, and smile thinking about the answer to I.’s question. I teach the Alice project, a little girl who, like you, could not put her thoughts and emotions in order, a little girl who learned to live better by looking inside her !!
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