Islands of Light and Life
I say that we, as a species, cannot proceed on this path. The path I am talking about is one of separation, competition, destruction, anxiety, fear, scarcity. The separation from nature and our fellow humans must end. Now we may reconnect to the spirit and our innate abilities. We may accept that we are much more than machines. We are miracles.
For this, we need inspiration. We need ideas and models for what is possible. We require models showing how it is possible to live in peace with our fellows and with nature, profiting AND thriving WITHOUT exploitation. We need visible, experienceable examples, prototypes where all the theory from the books and the sages becomes a reality. Examples that say: Look, it works! Look, it feels fantastic! We need mentors, women and men, who are approachable and friendly. Characters who teach and impart the experiences gained from their work. Teachers who live in the middle of civilization, not in the loneliness of the wild.
Merging old and new
Imagine a network of sites across the land. Each of them is situated in the proximity of one or several settlements, villages, or towns, some even at the edge of a city. They are sites of work and of living, where its members are workers and inhabitants. They are centers of knowledge and cooperation, experimenting with natural lore and wisdom, open for the public, and willingly sharing their expertise with everyone asking for it. They integrate spirituality into everyday life, technology into mysticism, ecology into agriculture, psychology into communities, and collaboration. Three main topics form the fundament: Healing, Agriculture, and Self-Development. Three main activities make up the work: researching, applying, and teaching.
Healing the individual and the world
I envision holistic healing methods that combine conservative medicine with a variety of energetic healing, naturopathy, and indigenous traditions. By reviving the old wisdom of peasants, commonality, and indigenous traditions recipes for tinctures, ointments, and potions will become available for a wider public again. Parallelly the institution will be partnering with laboratories and anthroposophic pharma companies to facilitate scientific research on the recipes. The therapists working there come from all kinds of backgrounds: yoga, reiki, osteopathy, naturopathy, academic medicine, energetic healing, shamanic tradition, etc. They are working together and collaborating on cases. There will be no competition among each other. If a specific method seems to be more suitable, they will gladly recommend the patient to a colleague. By merging the different approaches doors to unprecedented knowledge will open up.
Agriculture: Pepping up life and land
The sites will try to be as autonomous on food as possible. They are cultivating fruits, grain, vegetables, herbs, healing plants, culture fungi, and keep some animals. All of this happens according to permacultural principles. Experiments with cultivation methods are a daily business. The animals support the permaculture, like chicken that not only provide eggs but also eat slugs for breakfast while roaming through a patch. They won’t be killed for meat. Instead, they are partners in the grand project ongoing. Since permaculture wants to integrate its human food growing part with as many natural cycles as possible, the whole area is buzzing with life. Insects of all kinds are crawling, buzzing, creeping, and fluttering around. Earthworms and billions of microorganisms populate the soil. They are decomposing the ample supply of organic material between the crop plants and thereby provide fertilization of the ground. Ponds offer a habitat for ducks, fish, crabs, plankton, algae, and water insects. They are also buffering the water balance of the whole area.
Pesticides and artificial fertilizers are entirely banned from the area.
Ways to live and work together
By now, there exists a multitude of experiences about living together and cooperating beyond hierarchies and traditional management models. This knowledge was gained by active and successful companies, profit and non-profit, and alternative, experimental communities. The book by Frederic Laloux ‘Reinventing Organizations’ offers profound insights and advice on how to organize human co-existence and collaboration.
So there will be no strong central administration that coordinates the different sites. Instead, the communities will be self-managing to a considerable extent. Decentralization is fundamental for the whole organization’s structure. There might be ‘leaders’, but they will be idea-generators, public representatives, internal defenders of the ideals and principles, and last-step authorities in mediation processes.
Wholeness of the individual members is a target and a requirement. It means that I can be my authentic, true self when living and working there, not only my male-rational part. I can be open, vulnerable, I can tell my truth without fear of getting into trouble. Actually, I have to be. A conflict resolving process makes sure that controversies can be resolved directly and sustainably. The members of the projects are sharing their experiences amongst each other in transfer sessions.
The purpose of the project’s endeavor is clear to everybody and therefore uniting, inspiring, and motivating. But it is not cast in stone. In yearly meetings that purpose can be questioned, cause it is not cast in stone. The existence of the organization is not an end in itself. It is a living organism. Evolutionary. Changing. Adapting.
Integrating the energies
There will be more to the connection with nature than just nurturing life. Our environment is buzzing with life, and it is buzzing with consciousness. That consciousness will be embraced and cherished. The cycles of nature and ancient celebrations like Samhain, Christmastide, and many others will be observed. Not out of esoteric craziness, but because they carry meaning and indicate times of the year when it is easier to achieve certain things. Some of the project members will be guardians, wardens of the energy and the site’s holistic well being. Cleaning it with rituals and meditations, also cooperating with their fellow guardians at the other sites.
It is the reconnection of the material and spiritual world that will be honored every day at those places. The ordinary job routine, the seminars, the work with and in nature, the festivities, and the meditations, all that is part of a giant celebration of life’s perfection and abundance.
Forming networks within networks within networks
The way the organization’s structure integrates with society will look like multiple cycles of different sizes and colors (topics), entangled with each other. Connections with the municipality in healing, teaching, trading and everyday life matters will be paralleled by regional, national, international seminars on permaculture, energy healing, collaboration, and meditation. Visitors from everywhere come to collect experiences. Partnerships with similar institutions around the globe, the industry, and science will be another form of those cycles. It is a symbol to another truth I want to shout out loud. Everything and everybody is connected.
Light towers in the middle of civilization
The sites of the organization are not in the middle of nowhere. The mebers are no eremits. They exist in the middle of society, as mentioned before. I want to give as many people as possible the chance to experience how this way of life feels. I want them to profit from the outcome and the knowledge of the projects. Because after some months of the project’s existence, the effects will become significant. Entering the site, visitors will perceive peace. Easiness. The burdens of everyday life will become less, and the mind extends. Room to think, room to feel emerges within.
I have encountered such an atmosphere when I have entered the Blaubeerwald, an estate in Bavaria, that has been tended by a spiritual and very conscious couple for nearly 30 years. It is also home to twenty rescued horses, donkeys pigs, and goats. They have managed to integrate all kinds of energy, connecting heaven and earth and bringing most of the ancient fairy tale figures back to their life. If I would have to describe the feeling of ‘wholeness’ I would draw on the feeling I perceived at this place.
I have seen such a community visiting the community ‘Schloss Tempelhof’ in Germany, where 150 people live together as a small village. They are nearly completely autonomous on food, running their own agriculture on 25 hectares of land with designated gardeners and farmers. They even have their own canteen for the whole community. Again, designated cooks included.
Every single part of this has already been established on the globe but not on such a scale, and not with all the aspects that I have mentioned. I want more of this, way more.
This is my vision.
When you think of the planet’s future, of your future life: How do you wanna live? Let it run free and let go of anxieties, doubts, and fear of shaming. Let go of the framework of the current system. What is your vision? Follow me, dream. We will see how far we can get.
