Intentional Communities: New Models for a Peaceful World

The world is now too dangerous for anything less than Utopia.

—R. Buckminster Fuller

Creating Peaceful Communities

In this issue we have looked at ''peace'' mainly as a world condition - the end of war, and the flourishing of new methods for settling the differences that arise among nations.

But our spiritual knowing reflects a deeper truth: that it is how we handle conflict within ourselves that becomes outpictured in our world (see, for example, this month's article On Peace, by St. Germain).

"If we justify war,'' Ruth Benedict said, ''it is because all peoples always justify the traits of which they find themselves possessed, not because war will bear an objective examination of its merits'' (Patterns of Culture, 1934; see Creative Quotations from Ruth Benedict).

But if anthropological research holds true, ''human nature'' is not necessarily competitive or violent, as many of us have thought. Rather, it is cultural imperatives that drive the development of altruism versus the me-first attitude.

Intentional Community: A Model for Peace?

Other than our own minds and hearts, perhaps the most important model for the living of peace is the intentional community. And the flowering of these kinds of communities at this time is an extraordinary worldwide phenomenon, another "untold story" in our magazine's search for peace trends. In the United States, for example, there are over 600 co-housing communities alone (see Intentional Communities List). And co-housing is only one style of intentional community.

So for this issue we have interviewed two individuals who have direct experience of intentional communities, and how they resolve the conflicts that have plagued and destroyed so many others.

But first, we will take a look at some of the theoretical underpinnings of Utopia.

Synergetic versus Competitive Worldviews

If theorists such as Ruth Benedict, Margaret Meade, and Abraham Maslow - the father of transpersonal psychology - are correct, it may be that these new intentional communities mushrooming up all over the world actually do contain the seeds of both inner peace and world peace.

Autocratic intentional communities in the 19th century have given the word ''Utopia'' a bad name. But anthropological and theoretical studies done in the mid-20th century shed light on how we may remake our world.

The core concept is this:

''Societies where nonaggression is conspicious have social orders in which the individual by the same act and at the same time serves his own advantage and that of the group.''

This quote is from Ruth Benedict's Patterns of Culture, cited above, the seminal work for our understanding of the true nature of synergy in human societies. According to Benedict, the synergetic worldview cannot even imagine benefiting at the expense of one's neighbor.

Margaret Meade made this idea graphically real in her important book Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies. In this book, Meade portrays the gentle Arapesh, who, for example, gave away their produce to neighbors, and ate only that which they themselves had been given by others. It was a social gaffe to eat from one's own garden!

An interesting double-take on Arapesh society was that, although the job of ''head man'' existed, it was way down on the social scale. Even among the Arapesh, there were people, Meade told us, who enjoyed power - but the others looked upon them much the way many of us look upon janitors and garbage collectors - ''somebody's got to do it.''

It was actually this idea of the synergetic worldview that Chairman Mao was attempting to actualize in China. He thought that by forcing people to ''share,'' he could change their worldview in a single generation. Unfortunately, Mao basically ended up proving that you can't legislate attitudes.

But although there have been spectacular failures, the Utopian ideal remains valid and viable. ''Without the Utopias of other times,'' said Anatole France, ''men would still live in caves, miserable and naked. It was Utopians who traced the lines of the first city. . . Out of generous dreams come beneficial realities. Utopia is the principle of all progress, and the essay into a better future.''

The Alpha Farm, and Lama Foundation

To get a feeling for how successful intentional communities solve the various situations that arise in living together, we contacted Caroline Estes, co-founder of the Alpha Farm, a community in rural Oregon northwest of Eugene (Alpha Farm website). And we also spoke to Drunvalo, who lived for two years at the Lama Foundation, another intentional community, this one located in New Mexico. (On May 5, 1996, Lama Foundation underwent a tragic fire that destroyed most of the village, but the community has since been mostly rebuilt.)

Caroline Estes began Alpha Farm with her husband and two children, who are grown up now. According to Caroline, ''Alpha is considered a karma yoga community; one in which the totality of oneself is spiritually expressed in terms of one's work and being available to the community.''

Caroline said that the governance and orderly working of Alpha Farm is partly done through regular community meetings, which are held every other month.

Initially, she said, the farm had two kinds of meetings: spiritual and ''third'' meetings. Spiritual meetings were eclectic in nature - often filled with singing, meditation, and influences introduced by Sufi, Buddhist, or Quaker Friends residents. But while singing and meditation is still practiced, Caroline said, the spiritual meetings per se have been discontinued as various members have moved on.

''Third'' meetings are those that consider and decide policy and interpersonal issues. While the community has some long-term visitors, only permanent residents may attend. ''Third'' meetings begin in the morning and last until agreement is reached - sometimes all day.

A new type of meeting, called the ''2.5'' and held every Tuesday, has been added in order to keep members apprised of events and policies. Recently, for example, some of the members at a 2.5 meeting recommended that Alpha make a concerted effort to conserve electricity. ''They suggested that one day every month be spent without using electricity except to power the water heater and the office,'' Caroline said, ''and that this conservation be increased incrementally in the next two months, adding another day with each ensuing month.'' The members agreed and it was done.

At another 2.5 meeting, two members mentioned that Japanese drummers were going to be performing in Eugene and inquired as to whether any other Alpha members would like to accompany them to the performance. Surprisingly, Caroline said, the entire community chose to attend.

Living at Lama Foundation

The Spirit of Ma'at's editor-in-chief, Drunvalo Melchizedek, provided insights based upon his own stay at Lama Foundation, an intentional community in New Mexico. ''It was around 1980 or 1982,'' Drunvalo said. ''I wanted to accelerate my spiritual development. One reason I chose the Lama Foundation was because of longstanding family ties to the Taos Indians. I stayed in the community for two years and could have stayed forever.''

In response to our questions about how Lama Foundation operated, Drunvalo told us:

The Foundation's governing structure consisted then of a board of 30 or so directors appointed for one year. The board decided on the direction the Foundation would take in the ensuing year, and appointed about nine people to comprise a core group designated to carry out projects.

Every week the core group conducted a meeting at which everyone's presence was mandatory (there were then normally 30 to 60 individuals in residence at any one time). During these meetings, every issue that had been a source of conflict was addressed and resolved before the meeting ended, regardless of how long it took to achieve consensus. Such conflicts were usually interpersonal, but sometimes they related to the operation of the Foundation. And sometimes the consensus project actually lasted for several days.

The work of the community was assigned to residents by the core group mentioned earlier. ''Those who had special training or skills were given commensurate responsibility,'' Drunvalo said, ''but everyone participated in providing maintenance services, which were assigned on a rotating basis. In addition, the Foundation operated its own school, and any resident with teaching skills was assigned to this duty.''

How can Utopian communities project peace? Drunvalo feels that the fostering of consensus decision-making in resolving conflict is key to the development of peace at all levels.

Caroline Estes agrees. ''I believe,'' she said, ''that by overcoming our dependence on consuming, we can eradicate competitiveness and aggression. And by using consensus decision-making in our personal lives we can help set the standard for achieving peace.''

Please visit our Links page for a long list of websites devoted to intentional communities.

Please exit window to return to magazine.