SILK  ROAD  ACADEMY
EXPLORING   EAST   &   WEST:   FROM   A   PILGRIMAGE   OF  POTENTIALITY   TO  A  MOSAIC  OF  MAGNIFICENCE

Welcome to Silk Road Academy
Blending the best of Western science and Oriental wisdom

Workshop Facilitator

François D. Knuchel

SPEAKER - WRITER - FACILITATOR - PHILOSOPHER - ENTERPRENEUR

François Knuchel helps managers striving to develop & sustain cooperation within their organisations and enhance communication across borders. He draws on a wealth of experience as an intercultural management consultant, trainer and curriculum designer, with over 20 years' experience working with international executives, managers and directors of leading companies like Toyota, Suzuki, Kobelco, Yamanouchi Pharmaceuticals and Sanwa Bank throughout Asia. He is founder and Managing Director of Transcultural Synergy. His main area of expertise is helping people bridge cultures and cooperation beyond teams, whether these be across work units, functions, departments, organisations or countries. He is a master of accelerated learning techniques, which he uses extensively in his highly interactive workshops.

A British-Swiss national, Francois Knuchel graduated in communications at McGill in Canada. He speaks 5 languages fluently, including Japanese, and is well travelled throughout Asia-Pacific. He has lived in Switzerland, Germany, Canada & Japan, and is now based in the UK. He has held numerous senior management positions in personnel, project & product management, as well as branch & general management, including several years as Executive Director in Japan and Regional Manager for Asia-Pacific. He is a member of SIETAR (Society for Intercultural Education, Training And Research), and a former PR Director for SIETAR-Japan. He writes regularly and gives public speeches on international communication and culture bridging issues.

Francois Knuchel spent over 15 years consulting blue-chip companies in Asia (Technology Transfer, Joint-Ventures) in projects with North America and Europe. Through this he is intimately familiar with Japanese management styles and principles such as TQC, JIT and Kaizen. As an intercultural facilitator and communicator, he has extensive experience in imports & exports, and is at home in many industries. He also has substantial sales and marketing experience and he co-founded Route 2 Solutions, a marketing group assisting companies develop international business. Apart from his communications work, he is very interested in cross-border post-merger integration issues, and on a personal level he is pursuing his passion for harmony, working towards a "Philosophy of Peace".

About Silk Road Academy

The Silk Road Academy is not a training institute, but a learning organisation striving to explore the best in Oriental and Occidental wisdom, as disseminated in Western science and Eastern philosophy. Although we run workshops, we are not fountains of wisdom, but are constantly exploring new realms of knowledge and experience, using a variety of techniques, some conventional, some esoteric. Through our workshops we share whatever wisdom we have gained, but our workshops are also exploration sessions where together we learn and explore new realms of reality. Consequently our workshops are fluid and ever changing as we continuously learn new things. Our approach is holistic, in other words we are constantly exploring life from new and different perspectives.

ON HUMAN POTENTIALITIES

Still only 10% of brain is actually used, that is, despite progress, there is still a great deal of potentiality which is latent! What can be done with the kind of humans we are at the present?

A point to stress are HUMAN DIFFERENCES (i.e. unique to each individual). To awaken we need to recognize these differences and not follow one and only one ideal. What is need is to get the best of all!

We need different kinds of education for different types and ways of seeing - DIFFERENTIAL EDUCATION
For example on a vertical and horizontal level. We need ways to open up potentialities. For instance, how do we offset specialisation in education? Courses in humanities is good but not enough, because humanities is a world of SYMBOLS & LANGUAGE, just like science too.

So what is needed: direct training of mind / body

NON-VERBAL HUMANITIES! (all fields so far are verbal!)
Spinoza: "Teach the body to do many things. Then the mind will function at a high level and reach spirituality!"

NON-VERBAL HUMANITIES EDUCATION:
1) PERCEPTION:
a) Gestalt therapy (exercises to live in the present) - Increase awareness of HERE AND NOW in receptive way
b) Imagination - Forster creativity
c) Body Awareness: techniques: Alexander, yoga and so on. TANTRA: 118 exercises in consciousness

2) Actualising Benevolence and Love
How to love and be benevolent? The postulates (e.g. "Love thy neighbour") is given in religions, but not
the means! No known techniques, except in remote "primitive" societies. How to deal with aggressiveness and prejudice?
e.g. dancing of the Greeks, orgies or festivals: to get rid of tensions. Nowadays discos, but problem: it is as such not sanctioned!! Tension creates adrelonine and hence aggression. We need means to get rid of this tension.

One way would be to reinterpret and collect all the ancient and oriental techniques from empirical findings! Aldous Huxley said that what is required is a foundation for a systematic examination of various fields of techniques, to work out a modern system! This is not utopian, because we have all pre-requirements. It would hence be quite possible to develop potentialities with the present means!

Mission:
The current mission of the Silk Road Academy is to help people learn "life skills" from both Western and Eastern sources taking a holistic interdisciplinary approach through our workshops. The longer term vision is to contribute to this more systematic examination and practical exploration in the spirit espoused by Aldous Huxley. This would also contribute to our vision for a Mosaic for Peace.

Workshops available for organisations in-house - to arrange see Enquiry Form. Some 'public' workshops also held West of London, England - for dates, venue and fees see Dates & Venue,  to book see Booking Form.

COME AND EXPERIENCE THE FLOATING MAGIC OF REVIVED ENERGY!