Free Entheogenic Artistic Community

[SKA]

This has been on my mind for many years and I do plan to follow through on this plan to make it a reality one day. In a Nuttshell: I hope to be able to unite with alot of people to be able to buy a patch of land together. Possibly a small island in a group of small islands. With enough people united under an official organisation for arts, entheogenesis, Music, spiritual and creative developement and healing the costs can be split and the costs per person dramatically lowered. Now this would be possible but would require quite a bunch of people to save up a decent amount of money, put it together and buy a patch of land or island. This will take time. I'm hoping to erect a completely selfproviding community where people can live in freedom and self-dependance. Where they can devote their lives fully to music and arts. Where Entheogens can be used as Creativity stimulants, Psycho-spiritual healing sacraments and recreationally in all freedom; without prosecution. The idea was to grow from there into a community + small bungalow park. If we can get a small number of tourists they can stay in those bungalows and if they want they can participate in well guided ayahuasca, peyote, mushroom, Iboga ceremonies and cures. For the Entheogens they would have to pay a humble price(under 5 euros). You could have shops that sell Marijuana, pure DMT, some other herbs, pipes and bongs. You could have artists try and sell their paintings, music-albums, jewelery..etc on a small market place. You could charge 7 Euros for a night in a bungalow + Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner...etc See where this is going? That way the community can earn some extra money that it can use to buy medical supplies and medicines as well as food in case of need. If each community member tells a couple of their close friends and family that they are welcome to stay in a tropical entheogenic community for just 7 Euros a night I don't think there'll be a shortage of visitors. That last part is merely a distant future vision. I'll stick to what I can do in the here and now. Selfproviding To be selfproviding this community would have farms, fish breeding ponds and perhaps some cattle(chicken, goats) to provide it's own food, solar panels and/or windgenerators and/or waterfall-driven generators to generate electricity, filtering units to filter water into drinkable tap-water and a sewage system to get rid of human waste. The main sewer-pipe could be lead into a large tank where the human waste could be used as fertiliser, but also to filter off methane gasses from the sewage in the tank. Methane gas could be used for driving engines and generators that can generate electricity and drive machines so filtering it off of sewage and storing it migght be handy. That and building some stone houses would provide the simple basic needs for survival. Freedom In the meanwhile I'm trying to figure out if it's possible to, when the land has been bought, make your own laws and be free of any other country's laws? Because I intend to create a community in which entheogenic plants are holy, not illegal. I wish to be free to cultivate these plants, prepare them, consume them and make extracts from them without being harrassed/arrested/shot on sight by some goofy drug enforcement agency of some nearby conservative country. Does any one have any ideas concerning laws on land you bought and constituting your own laws? I guess that information would be most helpfull. Right now I'm trying to spark a discussion where you guys can criticise me in the Practicality of my idea. So NOT ON THE PHILOSOPHICAL ASPECT OF THIS PLAN. This isn't a moral discussion: I allready made up my mind so save yourself the trouble. Any practical problems you see in my plan: let me know. I hope to continuously make my plan better and error-proof. I was hoping you people could help me.

[juroara]

I don't really care about mushrooms But I do like the idea about being apart of a self-sufficient community!

[SKA]

I don't really care about mushrooms But I do like the idea about being apart of a self-sufficient community! Well some of us do, but the point is that is a very personal choice. And I hope to create a self-providing community in which people respect one another's personal choices and beliefs. So that they are tolerant towards beliefs and lifechoices that differ from their own. Currently in the countries we live in our Governments have made all sorts of laws that limit personal freedom. And I hope to create a community where people are free from prosecution and condemnation of authorities and eachother(just as long as no harm to others is done), because instead they respect eachother's beliefs and choices, no matter how much they may differ. It's not only a practical survival challenge. It's also a socio-political challenge. It's a challenge, to improve practically/technically as well as socially as a human community. I think humans are really ready for the next step; the evolution of our social structures. Now what we are lacking round here are Social skills. Comming from a materialism-related lack of general Spiritual awareness. So I was hoping to improve our spiritual awareness and social awareness to higher standards in this community. That is very much the whole motivation of my community-dream.

[C-Fonz]

I love this idea and have had many along the same lines. I think where you buy the island concerns the legality of it. I'm not certain whether you get full legal rights to your island. Though you would have to be careful of who you let onto the island. A lot of people wouldn't be ready for such a place.

[grasshoppa]

This idea seems like an extremely far fetched hippie utopia. I'm all for it if you can get it going and sustain it, it would be pretty amazing to accomplish that. I dobut you'd be able to live by your own laws, it would depend where you bought the island. It would probably take millions of dollars, and countless hours of labour to set this up. It's not exactly practical, although it's a great idea.

[C-Fonz]

This idea seems like an extremely far fetched hippie utopia. I'm all for it if you can get it going and sustain it, it would be pretty amazing to accomplish that. I dobut you'd be able to live by your own laws, it would depend where you bought the island. It would probably take millions of dollars, and countless hours of labour to set this up. It's not exactly practical, although it's a great idea. Not exactly http://www.privateislandsonline.com/ It all depends on where you buy it, and from what little amount of digging I did I read (http://www.wikihow.com/Buy-a-Private-Island)that you own the island until the high tide marking, meaning you can't build there. It could quite possibly become practical, though in need of planning.

[grasshoppa]

Hmm nice links. They would obviously need a large island, to house multiple farms, crops, and residence. SKA, if you are really serious about this like you seem to be you should do some calculating to see how many people could actually live in such a fashion, sustainably of course. You have to take into accout so many things, quite a daunting task. Before you get too far ahead of yourself you should really buckle down on figuring out the financial aspect of the project, then work on how it would be sustained, how many people could participe and contribute (both money and time). I wish you the best of luck, but honestly it's a HUGE task to take on.

[Alric]

Well its all about location and money. You need to either need to find land that isn't claimed from anyone, or buy the land from someone with clear ownership and make sure you have an agreement with that country that the land is free from them. Having a lot of people helps. So does being in a location that is not going to bother a lot of neighbors. Basically what you do, is you just claim you are a free country. Once you say you are, you are. You are then free to created any laws you wish. It just takes diplomacy, to make sure no other countries don't bother you. If you can keep them off your back, then you really have no problems. The things to remember are that as long as you are not a threat to anyone, people probably won't bother you. Though you just need to keep in mind that your entering an ambiguous area. Diplomacy is key. Alternately, if you own the land you do have privacy rights. If you made it private property and only allowed invited guests in, the government can not send police or anything onto your land. So you are pretty much to free to do whatever you want, and they are not going to interfere. However you would still technically fall under their laws. Which means if someone gets murdered or something, they could come over. Though it does also give you protection, since no one is going to invade the US to attack someones private land on an island.

[Indecent Exposure]

This is a brilliant idea that I have thought about myself a number of times. I've also evisaged an Academy there aswell, not in the modern sense, but in the sense of the Ancient Greek sense; a place for debate on all topics and the pursuit of knowledge. I think Mckenna owed a parcel of land in Hawaii, maybe this would be worth looking into.

[SKA]

Thanks for all the input guys! DV seems more alive than it has been a long time. Well I have some positive news regarding the legal situation: Santo Daime pulled it of to gain Legal immunity for drug charges when it comes to their ayahuasca-services. They can cultivate, distribute, prepare and ingest Ayahuasca ceremonially free from prosecution. They can be found in the UK, Brazil, US, Holland, Germany, France..etc. They can use ayahuasca in all these countries without hinder. They did this under the bliss of the law on Religious Freedom. So maybe that's the way to go. Also there's an Island that is much the comminuty I wish to start; www. wasiwaska.org These people gathered, Scientists, Shamans, Doctors/Neurologists/Psyhciatrists and Psychologists, Artists and Botanic experts to cultivate, ingest and study Ayahuasca and other psycho-spiritual plants without being legally hindered or prosecuted. So they pulled it off as well. Maybe it's worth finding out what allows them to do this so freely in Brazil. Those two stories are sparks of hope for my Community dream. Stay tuned on this Topic people. I've been making some schematic drawings of possible self sustaining, independant communities. I will scan them and post them here to give you guys a visual sample of my dream community. PS: To come back to the issue of Freedom; I hope people in the community respect the fact that some may praise and use entheogenic plants with meditation and chanting, while others may prefer contemplative meditation without entheogenesis, chanting, rituals. That some may prefer to smoke cannabis while meditating under a tree, while others may prefer divining and healing without the use of any plants or drugs. This issue expands beyond entheogenesis. Because some people may enjoy pork, chicken, fish and cow-meat, while others would never eat any meat, or never eat Cows meat, or Never eat Prok for personal reasons. This issue is individual freedom and it is very dear to me. Therefor I praise the simple Pagan Law "Do whatever you wish, just so long as it does no harm to others" And I hope to see all this diversity in norms and values coexist in harmony and peace. This is how I hope to make a Change in lifestyle. A change from the social norms and values we have been taught and kept to in our crowded, market based-societies. I see many people fight eachother's differing views endlessly, to the point it gets just downright nasty. To the point people find it nececairy to use violence, even excessive violence, to prove themselves right. It's a lack of acceptance. It's a neurotic desire that makes people strive for uniformity and fearfully stamp out any anomalies/deviations to the tight, narrow norms that rule. I was really hoping to try and break that mentality to make way for a better social life form. One of acceptance, respect, dignity and humbleness. One that is founded on and stimulates one-ness and ego-less ness. A social life form that embraces and accepts variety and differences. A community that embraces and accepts Racial, Sexual, Religious, Ideological (and any other kind of) Variety and differences. A community that values and protects individual freedom.

[grasshoppa]

I look forward to seeing the sketches/plans

[SpecialInterests]

I'd jump on that in a second. Love psychedelics and love the idea of a new society; specifically one that entails a self-sustained, people-governed free humanity.

[juroara]

well..if you ever do find a way to make it into a reality one day, give me a shout. my sister is studying architecture. it's her drive to design a community that is entirely eco-friendly and keeps the needs of the human being in mind. that is, our need for a community I've seen some of the buildings she's studied, and they're actually exciting. one apartment complex was designed like a step pyramid. and on each level of the steps were gardens. viewed from a specific angle, it looks more like a grassy hill than a modern apartment and for people who find average homes are too uninspiring to meditate in, architects are exploring more than just green roofs. my sister showed me this awesome building that has moss growing not just on the outside, but also within it's walls as well. it made it feel like a sacred temple, but just a room away was a kitchen and living room I mean, if you're gonna build from scratch, why go with boring cookie cutter box homes?

[SKA]

Sweet. My sister is an architect as well. She's however rather fond of our market-based society so no chance of her helping along But yeah I had hoped to blend houses into the landscape, rather than removing landscape and building houses in it's place. And off course clean, sustainable ways of generating electricity. Those moss-wall temples sound really great. Next to houses I was hoping to build 1 large, central, public building. It could serve as the town's hall and Community Temple/Ceremonial hall. This building would be very Earthly, so the moss might come in nicely here. I am going to draw some sketches of this temple, public building. If any of you are inspired by this, feel free to sketch some ideas and post the scans of it here.

[SpecialInterests]

Tree houses imo. Very sophiscated tree houses I might add :p. I'm studying to become a civil engineer and I hope my work and ideas can someday contribute to the building or remodeling of society. It's probably the biggest reason I decided to take it.

[SKA]

Tree houses imo. Very sophiscated tree houses I might add :p. I'm studying to become a civil engineer and I hope my work and ideas can someday contribute to the building or remodeling of society. It's probably the biggest reason I decided to take it. Yes this I have been thinking too. This is space efficient. Off course you could only do that in REALLY strong, fat, tall and longliving trees. Like those really fat amazonian 50 meter trees, giant pines, forrest giants, Baobab trees... There are plenty gigantic tree species, but then the community would have to be built in the treetops of an existing, at least 20 years old forrest of giant trees. And that forrest would also have to be near a freshwatersupply. Those are perhaps too specific, narrow requirements. Getting tapwater to come from the tap in a treehouse might also be quite a hassle. And would there be a reasonable way of getting up and down yourself? Maybe a primitive, yet effective elevator? I think simple insulate brick buildings as houses would probably be best. Treehouses probably make better guard towers. They could be interconnected with simple bridges of rope and wooden planks Speaking of guard towers; Allthough I don't wish to fortify the community and have any guns in the community, I do wish to at least be able to defend the community just in CASE armed/aggresive people with bad intentions harm the community and it's members. Off course I hope to avoid such situations all together, but just in case such situations are unavoidable I want to have at least somewhat of a defence. I gave this defence issue alot of thoughts before and because I despise violence and killing so much, I designed a weapon that is non-lethal, non-harmfull, yet very effective at disabling violent people. It's nothing new by the way: Darts tainted with sedative/entheogenic compounds from plants.4-OH-DMT(AKA Bufotenin) in moderately high doses causes a shockingly fast shift in awareness, musclecramps, extreme nausae, vomiting followed by extreme sedation/lethargy. Allthough it is anything but kind to blow a dart leaded with Bufotenin into someone, it is probably the kindest way of taking them down if they pose an immediate threat. Any aggressive (possibly armed) outsiders that come into our community to cause harm could be shot with a Bufotenin dart. Within a minute they would collapse, go into a sort of visionairy dissociated state, crowch down to the ground, through up violently for a minute or 5... In the meanwhile it would be quite easy to overpower them, disarm them and drag them into a cell or something. Bufotenin is pretty much Psychedelic pepperspray. This way you CAN defend your community, yet never have to kill trying to do so.

[SpecialInterests]

Oh yeah, lowcost housing would be the way to go at first for sure. Not in it for the luxury. It's a cool concept but in reality it wouldn't be the first one to jump on.

[juroara]

free entheogenic artistic community and guard towers does not compute how many communities do you know that have or need guard towers to protect them? except a military base or prisons? which are designed to keep people in, or out. are we prisoners or just hate all strangers?? the best defense is openness, fair business and trade, and a tight nit community that looks after it's own today my mom's car was broken in, parked in front of the apartment building, in front of our neighbors window, in broad daylight. someone could have even seen the thief fiddling the car door handle and thought nothing of it - because that stranger wouldn't know my mom or what car she drives to realize that it was a thief the same thing happens when people discretely break into homes. neighbors could be going for stroll, walking a dog, and think nothing of it if I were you, I would stick to developing a community. not starting some country in the middle of no where. think about the benefits of an independent community within an established country, think about honestly what you know you can't offer us - a hospital as for business or trade, that is really your best defense. the number one business or trade that could be offered to outsiders is alternative medicine and practices. meditation classes and so on. or even a place where people can retreat to. need to get away from life. need to slow down. or build a center where we could invite the leaders in the field of consciousness to hold lectures on their newest findings <-- people love lectures the sky's the limits if you keep the doors wide open it would also bring in money for the community either by way of donations or profit. and we could all have an *optional* job doing something we all genuinely enjoy yes I know money, the root of all things evil. especially with the threat of a collapse of the world economy, who want's their freedoms to be run by money? isn't part of the point of being self-sufficient, to not need money to run our lives anymore? to not live pay-check to pay-check? yes the community if built correctly has the potential to liberate it's members from having to pay rent, pay bills, or even pay for food. obviously, this also frees you from having to work a meaningless job as well. these are all real possibilities if you build and live green *some smarter individuals have already liberated themselves, so I know it is a real possibility* but think of all the simple luxuries you still need money for, like a good pair of jeans.............or rice, seriously I need rice and I know I can't grow it just keep this in mind. and really ask yourself exactly what is it you are aiming for? a community? a new way of living? or a country? an independent self-sufficient community, even if it takes a decade to get moving, is still at least do-able. how dedicated are you?

[SKA]

I was hoping for no need for defence, but I guess that kind of depends on the location of the community. Pirates can get ashore of an island, smugglers... I off course hope the community can be built in a safe enough part of the world so it doesn't need protection. It was merely a what-if scenario. I'm very dedicated. Just trying to figure out the dangers and problems. Also I hope to take some basic medical knowledge to the community and off course a small clinic. Perhaps in time we can find some Medical personel with handy knowledge to join us. If we erect a small bungalowpark, or hotelbuilding with hotelrooms next to our community for 5 to 7 dollars a night with Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner + selling extra foods, drinks, jewelery, paintings, Music, herbs...etc we could earn money for the community. That money could be used to import some basic, nececairy medicines and medical tools/equipment from other countries; Sterilising Alcohol, Anti-bacterial substances, anti-viral substances, fungicides, Malaria medicine, bandage, stich-wire...etc Off course besides selling things to tourists, the community people could also sell their paintings, Music albums, Jewelery, sculptures, handmade carpets...etc on an internet store. Off course all earned money should be added to the Community's funds. If we were to obtain a legal status concerning Marijuana, Mushrooms, Ayahuasca/DMT, Salvia, Peyote/San Pedro and other Entheogenic herbs then we would have no shortage of people who'd want to visit our community and we'd be able to earn quite some money for the community. Even IF we couldn't grow rice, we could earn enough money to buy rice. I'm a rice freak too. If this community is built in a tropical or subtropical climate alot of foodcrops will grow nicely; Casave, Potatoe, Tomato, Lettuce, perhaps some kinds of rice, perhaps some kinds of grain, carrots, unions, garlic, aromatic spices and herbs...etc PS: Money ain't the root of all evil. It's our own greed, comming from our Ego's that is the root of all evil. But I think we can overcome our Ego's if we are motivated and encouraged enough. I certainly am willing to work on that.

[dajo]

Yeah it's do-able! There are and have been plenty of autonomous communities. I think it's a great idea and I can absoluetly see myself living in one sometime later in my life... or maybe not so much later, who knows. I don't know about the legal status of entheogens, though. Often times it is only when you bring up a certain matter that it will be prohibited. If you just do your thing and not await the 'Ok' from authorities, I don't think anyone will bother much.

[SKA]

Yeah it's do-able! There are and have been plenty of autonomous communities. I think it's a great idea and I can absoluetly see myself living in one sometime later in my life... or maybe not so much later, who knows. I don't know about the legal status of entheogens, though. Often times it is only when you bring up a certain matter that it will be prohibited. If you just do your thing and not await the 'Ok' from authorities, I don't think anyone will bother much. Yeah I feel much the same way. I think that if our community could buy an island or piece of uninhabited, raw nature dominated land and do our business, not much authorities will bother to harrass us unless we partook in illegal activities on THEIR soil. If legally delicate matters are kept will within the community then I don't think authorities are likely to interfere. I guess it would also be worth trying to buy this land in a country whose authorities are known to respect people's individual freedoms more than most other countries. Portugal for instance. California state seems to be getting closer and closer to legalising Marijuana and decriminalising softdrugs so who knows in the near future it might be a suitable place. By the way I had some ideas for the housing: I think it might actually be best to build houses burried in hills, hobbit-style. Hollow hills with doors and windows. Hillhouses overgrown with grass or moss. It's a nice way of thermally insulating houses as well as keeping the enviroment a natural one.

[SpecialInterests]

Yeah I feel much the same way. By the way I had some ideas for the housing: I think it might actually be best to build houses burried in hills, hobbit-style. Hollow hills with doors and windows. Hillhouses overgrown with grass or moss. It's a nice way of thermally insulating houses as well as keeping the enviroment a natural one. It is an awesome concept but that would require a lot of labour, equipment, and time for the same quality and space of shelter. The best option would be just to go with something similar to the low cost housing we see being built today. The materials and equipment needed is readily available, cost effective, and also the know how of actually building them is readily available. It would be the most efficient way to go at first...

[grasshoppa]

Use bamboo trees to make houses.

[Sandform]

Sounds like the plot to that one movie with Leonardo Dicaprio.

[SKA]

It is an awesome concept but that would require a lot of labour, equipment, and time for the same quality and space of shelter. The best option would be just to go with something similar to the low cost housing we see being built today. The materials and equipment needed is readily available, cost effective, and also the know how of actually building them is readily available. It would be the most efficient way to go at first... Well there's nothing expensive about burrying houses in hills. Just takes a bunch of digging. The thing is a burried house is well isolated. A brick or Bamboo house could be wrapped in watertight foil/canvas to keep water out. Then this house wrapped in canvas can be burried into a hill. Another cost effective way of building houses is building Yurts; Mongolian large round tents. They can be built up and broken down easily and so if need be they could be moved. I happen to have a connection with some people that actually live in Yurts as well as people that built them in mass production. My mom told me about these water-filtering units that can clean water into drinkable water. 1 for every house would be very handy. Also if the Community's water reservoir is continuously kept running then the water is less likely to be infested with disease or dangerious algae.