A School for Spiritual Voices

Since the dawn of human time, stories passed down the collected wisdom of the species. The storyteller was a sacred role within the tribe telling stories that helped the people live. We learned to trust stories over a thousand generations; to rely on them to survive. Today, stories are used to capture attention, shape values and sell things. The tool that helped us live imprisons us.

If we hope to heal our world, we must take our stories back. This is HANA's work: uplifting the role models we want our children to be hearing; people of great power, wisdom, and compassion. HANA provides fellowship, support and resources, helps them craft their stories and share them with the world, and helps their bodies heal along the way. HANA puts a village at their backs.

Stories for Life

Stories as Medicine

Stories are tools to make meaning of a shifting world. Tribes need wise, spiritually deep role models to learn what it means to live well.

Stories for Change

Stories move stuck energy inside of individuals, relationships, and the collective. When channeled, crafted, and shared, stories heal.

Stories are spells that shape the world. Sacred stories illuminate the path toward healing and manifest a transformed world.

This moment is calling
for stories that serve life

HANA is run by storyteller and spiritual teacher David Alder, a martial artist, visual artist, public speaker and servant to the sacred. David cultivates personal power through spiritual practice, wielding his physical and structural privilege to uplift the voices of those often-overlooked wisdom-keepers our society desperately needs to hear.

David began teaching storytelling through his course Parables Of Change where he saw the gifts of extraordinary changemakers blossom within the structure that he brought. He built HANA to continue serving his students, helping bring theirs and other enspirited voices to the world. He now supports HANA's Sacred Storytelling Fellows through year-long journeys of growing their power, crafting their stories and sharing them with the world.

David facilitates storytelling workshops and retreats, and supports world-class artists, authors, and musicians who want to bring a spiritual dimension to their work. A teacher and coach first, David also tells his own stories, often illustrating them by hand. His work explores movements of healing and the edge of culture change. Tim Ferriss described David's graphic novel We Will Call It Pala as "required reading for those interested in psychedelics." As of Fall 2025, David has taken his new graphic story Dancing With Dad on tour, running workshops for foundations, universities and storied venues exploring love and family and the paths toward how we heal.