Well guess not. They're so used to having it all, for them selves, that they forgot the joy of sharing space. So i started exploring other possibilities, in my mind, in my imagination and in my heart. Took me years of preparation to finally let go of the physical place i had been living in for 11 years. Found a new community, quickly on the rise, in an old monastery in Bussum (North of Central Netherlands), it was a temporary project where we could explore living as a community. This experiment failed miserably! Jumping in, unprepared, with a group of 20, leads to chaos, which leads to the controllers needing to take control, and that's what happened. Us creative souls were kicked out and the control group still 'lives' there. The rest of us scattered.
At a workshop in Home of Gaia - Amsterdam i learned about GEN. I had already visited several Ecovillages in the Netherlands and Belgium, or similar projects such as co-housing, tiny-housing and "erfdelen" (sharing a farm/yard). They talked about needing 2 things to start a community: a vision and a mission. If not everyone shares either this vision or is on a different mission, then the project is doomed to fail. Of all initiatives 90% fails within the first year. Of the 10% remaining only 10% survives. So 99% fails!
I was staggered by this number, ready to give up. But then at another meeting i asked about that 1%. Who are they? Where are they? And how did they manage? That's when i learned about the 5 pillars and how they work:
1. Social2. Culture
3. Economic
4. Ecologic
5. Holistic (center)
1. Social
A lot of starting communities fail, because the interested people think they know each other. They have probably met a few times, did some groundwork in workshops and think they're ready for the real deal. And that's when shit hits the fan! They had no idea what was coming, because they hadn't realized that living in a community is like living together, in ONE house. And most of the people i've met that wanted to join a community, were actually trying to escape that system, that prison, of having to share space or a space, with spouse, or loved ones. Way too confronting, very little breathing space. The problems they found outside of themselves, were actually inside of themselves. So no matter where they moved, the problems wouldn't go away. They just took them along with them, wherever they went.
So before starting any community. Live together, for a while. Share space, food, love, joy, laughter and heartship (i know it's spelled hardship). During weekends, a mid-week, or for longer periods of time. But nothing definitive, yet!
2. Culture
Many so called spiritual communities think they agree. They follow a certain teacher or teaching, and assume this is solid ground to base their community on. It is NOT! Simply because on the surface we may appear to agree with each other, but you also need to be able to disagree with each other. That's a culture, that's what a culture is all about. Having open conversations, being able to listen to one and other, heck: have debates, just as long as you respect each other's preferences, and speak up when you don't or can't. Disagreement hidden beneath a layer of spiritual bla bla* is like a poison in your drinking water, slowly contaminating the whole community, breaking it down piece by piece, leading to organ failure and possible death. (LOL how dramatic!)
So develop a culture beforehand. Use the vision and the mission to build solid ground for this new culture to emerge. Clear leadership plays a big role in this. With democracy being an immanent failure many peoples resort to experiments like Sociocracy, but that's based on individual responsibility and many humans are just not ready for that yet. Not saying that this is a failing system as well, but beware, it's an experiment, so try it out, don't blindly believe its THE solution. It is NOT. You are the solution, within you is the solution.
* i was gonna say dogma or stigma, but those words are meaningless if we have different opinions or experiences with these exact words
3. Economic
So often i hear someone say: "money is energy" and "where attention goes, energy flows". Both can be very true, but also very much still an illusion. If we hide or mask our core beliefs, because we think we believe in a moneyless system, or think there's no greed involved when you claim you don't work for profit, then we're not only fooling ourselves but also those that depend on us.
To me living in a community is sharing your wealth. Whether that would be in the form of money, skills or property; shared abundance has a future. Everything else is still loaded with ego. We still need money to buy stuff in the 3D world (for as long as it remains) and even in a 4D world money still plays a major role. So create your own mini economy by sharing what you have as a community for free, but ask money from the 'outside world'. It's totally fine to ask&receive money from those that don't live inside the community. That's what they do too.
4. Ecologic
For me still very much misunderstood. Nature is in perfect balance. Humans are not. So thinking we need to or can control nature for our own benefit is not very ecological. We need to learn to work with nature, to let Mother Nature do what it does best, and to assist her the best way we can. Permaculture to me is still a means of control, but it is a step in the right direction. Foodforest the way Wouter van Eck has set up, is THE way to go in my opinion. It takes at least a decade and proper preparation for it to work, so a "moestuintje" is fine to start with, along with eco-toilets, rainwater-showers and solar-panels.
5. Holistic
Finding the proper balance between these 4, will lead to the 5th dimension: a holistic community. I hope to see you there, one day ; ]
Here's some interesting links and graphs:
social cultural economic and ecological uses of forest
Wouter van Eck: Basic Food Forest Principles
https://plukrijp.be/en/
https://www.degroteeik.be/
https://www.greenfacts.org/en/forests/l-3/8-economic-social-benefits.htm
https://www.gaiaeducation.org/elearning-programmes/design-for-sustainability/
http://www.morethangreen.es/en/ideology/four-sustainabilities-cultural-economic-social-environmental-sustainability/#sthash.hX8IozTJ.dpbs
