This is the third GaiaYoga teaching book and the fifth book written by Ano. If An Introduction to GaiaYoga heralded the birth of GaiaYoga 1.0 in 2001, and True Human Freedom heralded the birth of GaiaYoga 4.0 in 2016, then this book heralds the birth of GaiaYoga 5.0. GaiaYoga 2.0 began when GaiaYoga Gardens (GYG) – permaculture homestead and intentional community site near Pahoa, Hawaii – was purchased and then moved into in 2003 by Ano and his partner Mercedes. GaiaYoga 3.0 began in 2009 when Ano and Melekai (the mother of Ano’s children) bought Mercedes out of her ownership in GYG and began co-creating GYG as partners and parents.
While the fundamental GaiaYoga vision and teaching has not really changed, there has been profound refinement in understanding how to execute this teaching effectively and bring the culture and consciousness of GaiaYoga into stable and sustainable manifestation in the world. In other words, the vision hasn’t changed (though it has gotten clearer), but seeing what it takes to rebirth an individual human and a bonded group of humans out of the “modern world” and span the huge gap from that cultural consciousness and into GaiaYoga Culture and Consciousness has evolved profoundly.
GaiaYoga 4.0 ended in 2021 with a lot of heartbreak, after it was looking like GYG was expanding and thriving more than it ever had. But something wasn’t quite working – and this led to most of the people who were becoming members of GYG leaving over the course of 18 months. Those who remained were left to figure out what happened and why. And also to determine how a different (more desirable and sustaining) result could occur. This led Ano into the deepest re-evaluation process of his adult life, since he first moved to Hawaii in 1992, and to birth of The Four No-Bull Truths and this book.
This book looks with laser-like sobriety at the workings of the Holistic Heart, bonded multi-generational community, the human mind and how it functions effectively or ineffectively, and at all the forces that can either lead us towards the beautiful world we want or unwittingly away from it. The hard-won wisdom in this book is standing of the shoulders of the previous GaiaYoga teaching books and hopefully completes the written dharma of GaiaYoga.
Yvette Renee Isais Olinger –
In Ano’s book “The Four No-Bull Truths” he highlights the importance of healthy good living and how this was accomplished in the past with the help of multi-generational support. And how the modern world has forgotten many of it’s core values in the importance of clan living or as he phrases it CAHBGI (Clan-and-Heart-Based Group Intimacy). Ano’s book does a great job at explaining the term “It takes a Village”. The idea of living in a clan providing Intimacy, child care and togetherness. We live in a world now where most people do not even know their neighbors. Ano covers the importance of community, familiarity and support. I love Ano’s honesty throughout the book and his transparency of sharing personal information. This gets one to know the heart of the author and see his vision more clearly. Ano doesn’t just write a book but practices what he preaches. The Four No-Bull Truths is not just a book he wrote but a book on what he is creating and has created. An extension of his own works of achieving a happy and healthy life. It is clear how much hard work, heartbreak and time Ano has put into creating a space where he shares a lifestyle that can benifit multiple people and their children. This book is very easy to read and understand as Ano has done a great job at delivering each point he makes within each section. I love the exercises and questions after each chapter. This gives the reader a chance to enteract and see how they truly feel about what they have just read. There seems to be no judgment from Ano on your thoughts of what he is proposing rather just an understanding of it. You can tell the heart is a big motivation in Ano’s book and life. Something I find very touching. If everyone does have the heart, transparency and integrity Ano has this lifestyle would surely flourish from them. I could see this being a course he can teach and maybe it is by just reading his book.
Saniel Bonder, Co-creator, Human Sun HEART Work and Maximizing Joy™, Founder, Waking Down in Mutuality®, –
Ano Tarletz Hanamana’s The Four No-Bull Truths of Clan and Heart Based Group Intimacy is an astounding effusion, a tropical jungle of a book. It’s as wild yet innately well-ordered as the synergy of innumerable species of sentient beings at GaiaYoga Garden’s 18 acres on the Big Island of Hawai’i. There they’ve co-created a partially humanized and farmed haven for their intimate explorations, a sanctuary that’s both consciously designed and allowed to grow free.
The Four No-Bull Truths is the unique masterwork of a man who has spent vastly more than Malcolm Gladwell’s “10,000 hours to genius” becoming, in Ano’s own phrase, an “Intimate Sphere Specialist.” Like most pioneering initiatives, the book has its share of messy rough edges. Ano acknowledges that its writing is partially a direct result of an extended personal experiment in “clan-based intimacy” that crashed and burned. And he admits that two of his less than maturely refined characteristics are arrogance and impatience. These and so many other honest, raw revelations make him a trustable voice, if not always one you can like or agree with.
So, I heartily recommend diving deep or even just taking random dips into this book. See what you might find provocative, illuminating, or inspiring for your own intimate life and, perhaps, your whole worldview. Ano offers original, fiercely considered and tested perspectives that I’ve never encountered anywhere else, on what it takes to be an authentic, “Heart-based” and socially wise human primate living sanely on Planet Earth.
Jessica Fern, Author of Polysecure and Polywise –
In The Four No-Bull Truths of Clan And Heart Based Group Intimacy, Ano Tarletz Hanamana offers a transformative guide to redefining intimacy and community in a world often dominated by isolation and superficial connections. Through personal anecdotes and profound insights, Ano challenges conventional notions of relationships, advocating for a holistic approach that honors our primal needs for connection, support, and belonging. This book is a heartfelt invitation to explore multi-generational, bonded communities that foster genuine intimacy and collective healing, offering a roadmap for those seeking deeper connections and a more authentic way of living in harmony with themselves, others, and nature. As a person devoted to living in and teaching about alternative relationship structures I learned even more about how I can be communally focused in my healing. For this I am grateful. I’m glad I read this book and that it was written.