Who am I?
My name is Claire Loiseleur. I was born in 1971 in France. The eldest of six children, I lived in Iran from 1976 to 1978, where I learned to read and write in two alphabets. After returning to France, I lived mostly in the Paris area, where I learned to play the violin and studied English and German, among other things.
Married at 22, I carried and welcomed eleven children, born on the four continents where we lived. All of them were born within the intimacy of the couple, in an atmosphere of peace and respect, and my children were raised close to Nature, in a free and self-directed way.
Since 2009, I have lived in the Andes of Bolivia, near Samaipata.
I’m a mom
I’m the mother of a very large family
Between January 1996 and August 2015, I had the joy of welcoming eleven children, born on the four continents where we lived… Here are some images set to music from this wonderful adventure…
I’m a musician
I come from a family of amateur musicians on my father’s side, so I began learning the violin and music theory at age 8. From age 10 to 18, I was a member of a youth orchestra. Through it, I took part in exchange programs and gave concerts in Germany, Austria, Italy, and Poland, back when the famous wall between western and eastern Europe still stood.
I’m an adventurer
When we married, we wanted to work in Africa. So we lived six months in Zabré, Burkina Faso, in 1994, then two years in Maroua, in the far north of Cameroon, where our second child was born. Because of health problems, we returned to live in France, in the Layon hills of Anjou, from 1998 to 2005. Then, to see our dreams through, we dared to leave everything behind and set off on an adventure halfway around the world, with our six children at the time. We spent one year in New Caledonia, where our seventh child was born, and then three years in Australia, where our eighth child was born. Finally, we settled in Bolivia, where our last three children were born.
I love living close to Nature
I grew up in the city, but ever since I was very young I have felt deeply drawn to Nature, and I have always sought to get closer to it. I started out living in the countryside, in Anjou, from 1998 to 2005. Then, in New Caledonia and Australia, we lived mostly camping for nearly four years. Since 2009, I have lived in the Andes at an elevation of 1,650 meters (about 5,400 feet), on land I am the guardian of, reached by a dirt road, near Amboró National Park and far from the water and electricity grids.
I’m fascinated by living things and passionate about Life and natural health
The health problems we faced in Africa, in a very difficult environment, made our family’s health my top priority as soon as we returned to France in 1998. I wanted to understand. I then discovered the book La méthode harmoniste by Raymond Dextreit (“The Harmonist Method”; this book has not been translated into English), which was a revelation: in it I understood why the body becomes ill, what illness means, and how to support the body through it. Since then, I have taken charge of my own body’s health myself, including during my many pregnancies, as well as that of my young children. I talk about this in more detail in this video: My journey toward natural health, 29 years of self-reliance – 29 YEARS WITHOUT A DOCTOR
It is this experience of more than twenty-five years that I share today at the ¡Viva la Vida! Center. This place of natural, healthy, and happy living welcomes residents who want to regenerate their health by living in harmony with Nature, following the principles of natural health.
I’m a life sciences engineer
After earning a scientific baccalaureate (the French high school diploma), I deliberately chose to pursue studies related to life, because it was the field that attracted and fascinated me most. I spent two years in preparatory classes in biology and advanced mathematics at the Lycée Saint-Louis in Paris. In September 1991, I enrolled at the École Nationale Supérieure Agronomique de Montpellier (National Graduate School of Agronomy of Montpellier, now Institut Agro Montpellier), where I earned an engineering degree in general agronomy. I then pursued graduate studies at the Centre National d’Études Agronomiques des Régions Chaudes in Montpellier (National Center for Agronomic Studies of Warm Regions, now part of Institut Agro Montpellier), because I felt drawn to the countries of the Southern Hemisphere, especially Africa. There I earned an engineering degree in tropical agronomy, specializing in social water management.
We were called “life engineers.” I love that label, which resonates deeply with what calls to my soul. An engineer is someone who uses their ingenuity to find practical solutions to the problems they face. Personally, I love Nature, and I am convinced that it holds the solutions to most of the life-related problems we face. Concretely, I named the land I am the guardian of in the Andes of Bolivia the Fertile Gardens of Pachamama. To make it an increasingly pleasant and productive place to live year-round, I cultivate it with permaculture, with the occasional help of volunteers, following the the principles of natural farming.
My goal is to feed the residents of the ¡Viva la Vida! Center there and offer them a setting conducive to well-being and regeneration.
I’m an idealist and a realist
I am driven by a strong ideal of a better world, which I call the “New World,” but what truly fulfills me is bringing the reality I live ever closer to that ideal. In this regard, I really like the following quote, attributed to Albert Schweitzer: “The ideal remains for us what a star is to a sailor. It cannot be reached, but it remains a guide.”
The areas that interest me most are linked to life: natural health, natural education, and natural agriculture.
Having lived for several years on five of the continents of our magnificent Planet, I have gained experience that I also share in writing. That is the purpose of the Books of Light for a New World: to bear witness to what I have lived and put into practice, in order to inspire readers to build, each at their own level, a better world governed by Love.
I speak and write in three languages
I speak three languages fluently: French, my mother tongue; Spanish, the common language of Bolivia, where I have lived since 2009; and English, the universal language of communication. This allows me to welcome French-, Spanish-, and English-speaking residents and volunteers.
I also write and publish in these three languages: on my website, in my books, in my YouTube videos, and on Facebook. I work first in French, then translate little by little.
“What I call the New World is an ideal world — the world we dream of living in: a better world, fairer, more beautiful, more harmonious, more pleasant to live in, and ultimately happier. A world freed from fear and the games of the ego. A world governed by the forces of authentic, unconditional, and universal love. A world where peace, joy, tolerance, and kindness have become the norm.
Let us be the change we want to see in the world, in the spirit of Gandhi, who wrote that ‘if we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change.’ It is up to all of us to act, each at our own level, to begin building this New World today. Let us stop criticizing everything we dislike on this Earth: it is wasted time and energy!
Let us put on our glasses of love and, together, become the courageous builders of a better world — one increasingly aligned with the ideal we feel deep within our heart — knowing that, as this quote attributed to Albert Schweitzer puts it so well: ‘The ideal remains for us what a star is for the sailor. It cannot be reached, but it remains a guide.’”
