From Isolated Urban Centres to the Wellbeing Centre of Intentional Communities

I’ve just been doing research on intentional communities, as my feeling is to start to live in harmony with the planet. The rumblings in Europe are the forerunner to collapse, and it is not to be panicked by change, it is to embrace a new way. The current system is not ecologically or socially sustainable. People are accustomed with their house and backyard, but even that is shrinking as property developers increase housing prices to the point where it is becoming unaffordable. In truth this is a good development as people have to find alternatives. Today in sharing houses (house mates) people remove themselves from others, spending much time in their room or going out. I have observed them not sharing together but living separate lives in the same house. This is the current situation today as fewer people know how to share, consider others or respect a communal home. Many just do their own thing. However, that will change.

Ultimately we have to learn to live in community and in harmony with the planet. The rising cost of living and natural changes will determine this. The benefits of sharing in community include: lower costs, shared purpose, deeper friendships, empathy, inclusivity and collective support. This was the original intention of the tribe and community is the larger manifestation of an enlarged family. It is ecologically harmonious with nature as resources are shared. Moreover, as we let go of marketing and societally influenced addictions, we will come off the electricity grid and grow our own food that is healthy without chemicals. We will learn the rhythms of nature and our lives will revolve around that. It is not a primitive life it will be a natural life that is in balance. It is indeed the future that is coming, without doubt.

Here is an article I found which gives a good rundown on the rationale, practicality and extent of intentional communities. This indeed is a growing phenomenon not only physically but spiritually.

Refer to http://www.heartfeltcommunications.com.au/pdf/Ecovillages.pdf

The highest intention… Ecovillages and Intentional communities

Living in the concrete red-bus dotted metropolis on the Thames, several years ago, I remember writing poetry while on the travelling caterpillar that burrows deeply beneath the bustling centre. In my poem, I likened the lives of Londoners to ants marching a regular beat backwards and forwards from one concrete anthill to another burrowing deep within the bowels of the earth and corridors of their 40 hour weekly prisons. This grey existence is highlighted by loneliness. It is a world where the news reports people who have died in their homes only to be found several months later. This twenty first century social dislocation fans out into rural areas and has trickled across the globe, touching even the remote parts of the developing world. All over the planet, people are waking up to the disconnection from each other and themselves and are meeting together to cook up creative options to bolster a sense of community as well as preserve the precious resources of the earth.

Since the commune movement of the sixties, and establishment of centres like the Findhorn Community in Scotland, there has been an enormous rise in ecosettlements and intentional communities, where people live out the principles of sustainability and still function in the material world. Today there are 150 thousand eco-villages worldwide. Many have been inspired by the Findhorn Community, which began in 1962 in a caravan park in northeast Scotland. Today Findhorn is famous internationally for its experiments with new models of holistic and sustainable living and the Findhorn Foundation, established by the community in 1972, is a major centre of holistic education, conducting programmes for over 4,500 residential visitors a year from over 50 countries.

There are as many varieties of ecovillages, eco-settlements, co-housing cooperatives and intentional communities as there are foreign languages. Each has its own managing working principles and ways to resolve conflict, or reach agreement, but one thing they all have in common, is the intention to live in harmony with each other and with the environment. Now this is a deep commitment, it is often difficult to live in harmony with oneself, let alone your partner, children or neighbours! But, inspirational communities around the world are showing it can be done, and even more importantly, are willing to give it a go.

So, how big is the phenomenon of carving out a sense of community and living consciously. Research figures from the Gaia Foundation, an “anti-organisation”, that promotes sustainability and provides support for related projects show that, in Victoria and New South Wales, there are hundreds of co-ops. There are 60 communities in South Australia and about 20 either established or in the process of being established, intentional communities in Western Australia.