Ecology brings in a sense of nature as relationships, and recent developments in this field have changed the sense of identity. Milla speaks of the potential uses of fungi and how recent development projects arise from a worldview that doesn’t prioritize nature.
Ecology and yoga
Ecology is described as relationships across different levels rather than categorizing individual organisms. I was thinking of the hierarchical and concentric aspects described in Integral Yoga. Have you ever gone in that direction in your experience in the forest, in your work? I’m also thinking of the individual human body as a microcosm.
Milla: To me, one of the most interesting elements when engaging with nature is to explore relationships, to understand on the cognitive level, but also to feel those relationships. Studying fungi has brought that to my life.
We can look at the self or the human body as itself composed of relationships. Maybe even the human mind in certain ways, is relationships. It’s formed through relationships, it exists in relationships.
That fungi break down everything in life, including the ego, has taught me to shift lenses on this concept of self and what it means. I try to engage with the world through that dynamic understanding of self. I feel it helps me understand myself as more than one.
Sometimes it’s useful to categorize, and the human mind is used to and operates well with categorization. But first I think once should cultivate flexibility to break down those boxes, and only then reassemble.
Sometimes walking through the forest, you get access to a version of the world that doesn’t feel it has boxes. That’s when the mind, which is so entangled with the ego, takes a backseat.
I feel this fluidity of energy, but in a way, it’s also relationships, right? So in that flow of energy, there are nodes, but also no nodes. There are nodes and interaction but at the same time there’s flow, and what it has taught me is that we survive through interaction within ourselves and with the world around us. I know for me that interaction with the non-human world is as fundamental as with the human world.
Fungi have helped me break down a lot of categories that have fixed my perception of the world, whether it’s political categories, individual identity, or any concepts that divide.
Symbionts and entangled life
In the book Entangled Merlin Sheldrake talks about how fungi have brought a new understanding that has changed our ideas about identity. He points to how fungi are both multiple and individual at the same time.
Milla: Yes, as you mentioned, he describes mycorrhizal fungi as not even, in a sense, a separate species. That in working with the tree, they act as one with it. They’re not completely separate.
You can also see this play out in mycelium (the fungal body) which is one individual, yet each hypha, each strand, can also act independently. And a single strand of the fungus may break off acting as an individual and then reattach the original body, fusing as one again.
A number of fungi can switch roles and forms. They switch between saprobic (decomposers), mutualistic (symbiotic), or parasitic forms. And this switching illustrates dynamism. And that switch; it’s not good or bad, it’s just what the environment requires.
The microbiome as a new vision
In Ed Yong’s book I Contain Multitudes he presented a new vision for the environment, and what it means to be human. We’re no longer individuals; in terms of numbers we harbor more bacteria than our own cells.
Milla: Yes, there are whole ecosystems that make up each “individual.” Which challenges the concept of an individual itself. So within the human body is this ecosystem with all these complex interactions and exchanges happening, it is fascinating. And it’s also very sad that the health sciences and a lot of agriculture have failed to capture this complex reality and instead paint a simplified picture that demonized fungi when so much relies on them. We’re framing them that way without realizing how much we depend on them. A lot of our medicine has been created by fungi. Fungi are in our gut, in the body. We rely on fungi to support the food crops in agriculture. Most of the time fungi become a ‘problem’ they are actually an indication of an unbalanced system.
Radical mycology
In radical mycology fungi are being used to filter out pollutants or digest plastic.
Milla: Yes, a lot of today’s innovations are using fungi. Yet it’s also worth questioning our systems. Sometimes technocratic solutions are sought rather than questioning the actual system that’s causing the problem. Fungi are used for bioremediation, to heal ecosystems that are damaged, clear pollutants, and other solutions, for example, as alternatives to unsustainable packaging. They are such versatile and adaptable organisms that they are proving very useful.
I have an attachment to fungi that’s very ecosystem-based. My relationship isn’t cultivation-based, it’s not a question of how I can use fungi. My interest is much more in the question “How do fungi support the world?” I have a little bit of resistance and caution in terms of how we want to use fungi for our own benefit. We do need to reduce plastic, and clear our oceans, we do need to find more sustained methods with, for example, concrete. But still, I think that the most important thing is to use fungi and this knowledge to help us question the very system. Do we need these capitalist systems? Do we need to use fungi to fix our problems while keeping our current practice, our current civilization methods? Why exploit them rather than let them help us understand how to live differently? These decomposers are there for a reason, not only to break down our waste, but to break down our minds.
Destruction of trees in Auroville
In the last few years Auroville has experienced a massive destruction of trees, in particular for building the ring road. How do you see that with the afforestation and restoration going on in Auroville? Are they in conflict? Is there a way to harmonize them?
Milla: Clearly they have been in conflict — as events have shown. The frameworks, the operational practices, the belief systems behind the approaches towards Auroville’s development are different. The future world that each imagines looks different. It seems that with the drive for quick development, there is little consideration for nature. When the goal is to reduce costs while building a concrete city, there is no space for a deeper understanding of the ecosystems that are being impacted, nor considerations on what the larger consequences might be.
There have not been impact assessments prior to the developments, to determine the damage. And development has overridden environmental protection. You can see this in Auroville, but also worldwide. In India, there exists a development paradigm that doesn’t prioritize nature, and doesn’t consider the complexity of ecological systems. In that paradigm one thinks that after digging up the earth and putting in granite all you have to do is plant a few trees and that will balance it out. That’s not the reality, right? You’re shaping, you’re changing that whole ecosystem that took time to build, you’re destroying soil that took years to create and growing trees without consideration for their suitability.
The wood wide web
Has the concept of the wood wide web changed our vision of nature? What does it give us? How do you see nature in general, in Auroville, or in relation to yoga?
Milla: I think people in general have been brought up with the idea of nature as competition. That evolution was a fight which the strongest won. And this perspective of nature is very clear in our societal structures. Humans often perceive life as competition. But in media this idea that nature is collaboration, as support, has allowed people to soften their idea of nature. And it reminds us that support is necessary and collaboration is essential to our systems.
But I also feel that concept of the Wood Wide Web has been sensationalized. There is exchange between fungi and trees, but it’s not all collaboration. From a critical scientific perspective I look at the research: most of what has been done has been largely in mono-dominant forests, on one main species, not the diverse forests I live in. It’s not been tested on scale. They also can’t calculate for diffusion of nutrients in the soil. There are other ways than the mycelium that things can be communicated.
I know I spoke of anthropomorphizing nature with the intent to be playful in my way of connection. But sometimes mainstream media extracts claims from science to suit a narrative.
Interview with Milla den Hollander, May 10, 2026
1 Sri Aurobindo International Institute for Educational Research, a unit of the Auroville Foundation which supports and coordinates most of the educational programs.