My idea for my near future: 100 acer spiritual community resort in the wilderness

[Sempiternity]

I've lived in Seattle, Washington my whole life. I've liked city living, but as I get older (I'm 46 now) and more conscious, isolation and being in wilderness is way more appealing.

My grandfather died about a year ago. He was a multi-millionaire. I just now got the inheritance. $200,000, plus shares in multiple stocks, where I will be getting roughly $1,800 to $2,000 a month for the rest of my life. So the question now, is what to do with all this.

My idea is to buy as much land as I can in Washington state. I've found multiple options of between 60 acers to 100 acers of beautiful land within my price range throughout the state. The further out from civilization, the more land I can get. 

The plan would be to get 100 acres of secluded land, and build a number of shipping container homes on the land. Shipping containers only cost about $1,000-$1,500 each. And makes the perfect base for building a tiny-home. The pics below would be a basic design. Each one of these homes could be built for roughly $10,000 each. Solar for power. Rain-catching barrels and well for water. Starlink satellite internet and cell service. So pretty off-grid and self-contained. 

The idea would to build a space where like-minded individuals could either rent a house, like Airbnb, or to rent longterm to be in a community. I'd keep the rent on the units super low, to make it more manageable for people to stay in such a secluded area. Ideal for people that can work remotely or are retired. 

I could potentially use the space to hold various spiritual ceremonies, like Ayahuasca, 5-MEO, and mushroom ceremonies, for said like-minded peoples. Ideally, I'd want to be a haven for stage high-Green, Yellow, and Turquoise people.

So, what do you think, this is a good idea? Would you, or people you know, potentially be interested in living or staying in a situation like this? Do you think this would be a viable situation to make enough income through rentals to pay for itself with taxes and such? 

 

Edited March 15, 2021 by Sempiternity

[Sempiternity]

I would be open to buying land elsewhere. I'm just thinking Washington, since I like it here, the people are pretty high conscious, and this is where my family lives. I could also look at some Midwest states like Montana, Idaho, or Wyoming, where I could get much more acreage for my buck, but this would be even more secluded, and potentially surrounded by stage Red/Blue people, which wouldn't really jive with what I want to do. I'd also be interested in maybe moving out of country, like doing this in Costa Rica. 

[neovox]

 Fucking amazing!  When do we start building!?  I'd definitely apply myself to the cause given the opportunity 

[Kalki Avatar]

Sounds good and it may work. In fact it may become a trend. Im seeing many spiritual gurus and communities building stuff like this. Excluded societies in nature. Many believe a big chaos is to come and is better to be prepared. I think bentinho is into something like this as well. 

[Sempiternity]

4 hours ago, neovox said:

 Fucking amazing!  When do we start building!?  I'd definitely apply myself to the cause given the opportunity 

That's what I want to hear. Will post updates here as things progress. 

[NatureB]

I just stayed on a 3-acre lot where the guy was growing olives, grapes, coffee and misc other things. That way in 5 years he can quit his job and live off wine and olive oil sales. I recommend making it sustainable in that way as well.

This guy would let people stay for free via some app I forgot the name of, and require them to work 25 hours per week in exchange for 3 daily meals and a place to sleep. He rented out one half of his house on Airbnb and a space where an RV can park. Doing this, he was able to pay his $3,800 monthly mortgage for free. I recommend doing this.

I'm down to help out. 24, good with tools, motivated. This is also a great time because I am taking a long break from working.

[aurum]

@Sempiternity

I think it’s a really cool idea. Some questions I would ask yourself:

• How are you going to afford a down payment on land and developing it? You need a significant initial lump sum of cash. Unless you have savings, it sounds like your inheritance is coming in too slow for something like this.
• Have you considered other housing structures? Yurts, Geo domes, Cob, Super adobe etc
• What is the legality for doing something like psychedelic retreats in Washington?
• Will you also be living there?

Overall I think it can be done. You’re  basically talking about building a retreat center or some sort of transient ecovillage. Maybe research those and get some inspiration.

[flume]

I'd suggest you spend some time in communities (like these) before you start one yourself. Things like that always look nice on a youtube video but community living is way more counter intuitive than you'd think. It's a fascinating, complex system which needs careful and intentional handling. You'd think if all their needs are taken care of, people will just live peacefully together. But people need work, purpose, security and opportunities to grow. Most importantly, they need a vision they can understand and get behind. A vision you have to provide and embody everyday. Otherwise it will just turn sour, boring or fake over time.

So always start with your WHY. Work on that for a couple of years, live it, breathe it and the right people with gather around you. You'll have to face tough decisions everyday: What about disagreements? How do you balance individualism and community? Who are you taking in? A strong vision will provide you with the answers, nothing else. A community like this doesn't just run itself.

If money was all it took to build something like this, healthy and functioning communities would exist more widely. They don't. Because it's the most difficult thing ever to pull off.

On 16/03/2021 at 0:19 AM, Sempiternity said:

I'd want to be a haven for stage high-Green, Yellow, and Turquoise people.

I think Tier 2 starts finding havens pretty boring ;-) There are more effective ways for moving all people up the spiral. Which is really what it is all about in the end. At some point you'll get bored in any kind of paradise you can build for yourself. Anything that secludes itself can't be healthy on the long run. Imagine the opportunity you have at your hands to build something truly integral, truly healthy, truly inclusive.

Ok, I just realised I need to write a book, so thank you for your post. Might be the most fascinating topic I ever came across.

How can people live together in a healthy, supported and sustainable way? In a way that truly works. Fascinating.

Hope I didn't sound negative here btw. It's a great intention you have there, definitely keep digging. I've just been part of a few great and not so great communities over the past years and I've been surprised about my experiences many times. 

All the best!

[flowboy]

@flume awesome answer. I'll be sure to ask your input when I start mine.

@Sempiternity  Maybe you can visit Tamera to refine your own idea and take inspiration

[DIDego]

Hi!

O'boy this topic are so interesting and seems be so endless big to discuss.

@Sempiternity Happy you are up for discuss with various people, hope you not only seek for them who tell you what you like to hear and resonate with. But also try listen whatever others utter what you maybe already knows and might see as non relative or waste of time, because somewhere in that dialog can the smallest detail of them all, be hidden because not try listen properly, that can give you the answers you need at most in the very end to be fully successful.

Dig deep and watch after knowledge from all the people that have spend their lives doing this and found out by trial and errors. Maybe spend time and go long back in history to learn how evolution have developed stuff that are useful to find a way that last and not builds up a momentum of disaster that you had the chance to prevent if paying attention to what others have  done that failed or succeeded a community.

I'd really love the concept around what you describes my self and have spend many periods going in this fully, dreaming about find another way of living.

Have not experience from a spirituality community, but have lived with both a few people and also pretty large group of DIFFERENT people in various situations, there have always been a pretty happy and good time for a period, then starts the real life and the need to balance WILLS and SOCIAL issues and a lot of other stuff that involves building problems that need be solved before they have a risk to be a problem at all. 

As you probably already got a bunch of questions yourself, and diving into this big topic and get knowledge, gives answers, some is very good answers and some lead you to new stuff to find solutions about that seems as a perfect way doing stuff as an idea, but how to know what for real works, leads you into get more questions that probably only can be known by experience them at least in small scale.

 

 Turn some of my own conclusions mixed with what you write about the idea so far, as advice short and distilled.

Start slowly in a small investing scale and build somewhere to live for your self as ground zero and able travel and live in other communitys and still not feel that leave a huge burden that will collapse then away for gather knowledge and experience, then if ready go all in. It can be costly travel or pay for courses.

Build more on the land if possible. If not, buy a another land and still have your place until you grown into have proper understanding in so many of the aspect needed.

Let the idea grow and be ready to not able do it at all now, because something else comes along that puts your idea in a whole different path. but maybe still will end up as a 100 acre or who knows 10000 acre spiritual based but with a balanced tech holistic living.

Please consider do a journal and share the progress, discuss with others if you up for it and hopefully share some experience as well.

 

 //  

Edited March 20, 2021 by DIDego

[Leo Gura]

$200,000 and $2k/mo in Washington means you are broke.

The biggest challenge with building a commune is not the money, it is lack of consciousness and development. Your commune will quckly devolve into devilry if you do not possess unmost consciousness, leadership skills, and integrity in running it.

[Hello from Russia]

https://www.tripaneer.com/

^ Just to give you some inspiration what people do. This website is full of people with similar story like yours

[Bufo Alvarius]

I share the same goal, bulding a stage yellow/turquoise community in Europe. 

At the moment, I am visiting other communities to inquire, how they set the project initially off in the past and what challenges they were facing.

3 month ago, I went to the Sat Yoga Ashram and sat down with Shunyamurti himself and asked him for his advice about community building. What he said was along the lines what @Leo Gura and @flume said:

He said that from all people, you as the founder, must be rooted in God consciousness, upholding the highest level of integrity (Dharma) for the community.

In order to function as a selfless vehicle for Truth, you need to be operating from a state of consciousness that is not obscured by your own ego, your selfish drives and motives and that is neither prone to the temptations life will present, nor to the devilry of other egos. Reason being, that the thing that breaks communities apart are always interrelational conflicts (ego games). You need to be aligning the members of the community to a shared vision, shared goals, act as a selfless role model that functions as an ethical compass, rooted in Truth and in Unconditional Love. 

And even then, there is no guarantee that your community will survive the powerfull ego games, that slowly erode communal structures from within. Shunya's wife told me, that community building is hell, and that if it wasn't for Shunya patience in regards to all the ego devilry they were  facing, the community would have failed long time ago. 

The best advice is to go visit many other communities, that resonate with your vision and your core values, and see if you still like community building after having experienced these places first hand. Apart from the lessons you learn there, these place serve as good templates for the things you will want to copy and incorporate in your community and for the things you will want to create differently. It will definitely save you a lot of time and struggle and you might even find like-minded people that share your vision and join your cause.  Also, be assured, any shadows that lurk in your closet (childhood traumas, family issues etc.), and anything you haven't mastered in your current life (leadership, finances, relationships, communication, health, etc. etc.) will come flying at you the moment you are dealing with other egos in a community based setting.

By going to the Sat Yoga ashram, I learned a lot about myself and the reality of bulding and especially keeping a healthy community. Just by observing, I understood pretty quickly what works for them and what doesn't, when that many people share their survival needs in a coordinated manner. I learned where I need to adjust my fairy tale spiritual community expectations to the reality of gargantuan task that is at hand.

Attached two good essay's by Shunya, that talk along the lines of conscious community buidling. 

The Creation of an Ashram.pdf

Shunya Essay.pdf

Edited March 20, 2021 by Bufo Alvarius

[Snader]

Yea getting the land and all the building and that stuff is a walk in the park. The challenge is like Leo said, the people with different states of development.

Even such a community as this forum would quickly turn into shit if it wasn't constantly moderated by developed and conscious individuals.

I've realized how hard it is to create anything conscious especially if it's about raising or expressing consciousness. I've also plaid with some conscious business ideas in my head but it's like when you add ''consciousness'' into that process, it makes it sooo much harder -- when you really think about it holistically and pragmatically with wisdom and minimum self-bias. Makes me admire what Leo has been able to pull off.

Your idea is beautiful anyway and even though your plan to succeed is hard, it's not impossible by any means. You can definitely develop personal skills necessary to become a great commune leader  

[Preety_India]

Time for me to move to Seattle. 

Stage Green hippie Ayahuasca retreat. That's a real bait for me. 

 

[diamondpenguin]

Lol brother if your planning on starting a community like that on the west coast, your gonna need a lot more money. And a lot more cabins. Cause the cost of living on the west coast is high as hell. In oregon and washington if you ain't makin 80 grand a year your house poor. In California if you ain't rich living their is a joke. This sounds like a good idea man. You might want to figure how big it is how you want it to be and then go from there. You gotta have a blueprint and plan of the place before you go dumping any money into it. Honestly I live only a few hours away from you. We should go  get some coffee some time or something. That would be fun.

Edited March 21, 2021 by diamondpenguin

[Bodhitree]

I’ve lived in several communes, and my experience is that it would be difficult to sustain without some high consciousness focus that people are committed to. Something that people agree on and that keeps things together, in the Amazon the Indian tribes use ayahuasca ceremonies for this. I was in Osho’s commune in Oregon back in 1986, you should watch Wild, Wild Country on Netflix to see how things can go pear shaped with a larger-scale attempt at a commune.

There are practical problems with facilities such as schools and banks and medical care and postal and delivery service, where there are people there will be relationships and eventually kids. You should be aware that these things will come. Anyway it sounds like a great idea, wishing you all the best, it’s a pity that Washington State is a long way from the Netherlands. 

[How to be wise]

@Sempiternity You need to be able to resist all the hot girls who will come to your commune and want to sleep with you. 

[Yarco]

People living in their own individual shipping containers seems very secluded and like it won't foster a great sense of community.

Why not build one "great hall" area for activities, where everyone can come together for meals, etc. Then shared bedrooms where 5+ people sleep every night. Even reality TV shows like Big Brother get the communal aspect right in that regard.

 

[Nahm]

Two cents...

If using psychedelics, word will spread very quickly. Take a look at Colorado and Oregon. 

100 acres is too much imo. One house can be secluded in wooded area in as little as 2 or 3 acres. Add a buffer of a few acres for seclusion, and expansion, and you’re still not even close to 50 acres. 

 I’d shift that spend to the beautification of the place and advertising nationally, and look for a geographical balance of land location between view (lake, hilltop, mountain, etc) and nearest airport. Easy to do btw in those two states as every inch is gorgeous. Over an hour drive from airport to ‘compound’ is a turn off for many imo. Keep in mind while they will leave not so, they’re coming to you pretentious. 

I’d really contemplate people staying a week to two at a time, vs anyone living there, and thus developing a community. If you delegate the operation, don’t pick a Sheila. Make a pros and cons list for the community factor, and remove personal sentiment for a minute to see it as objectively as possible too. 

From what I’ve looked into the abodes as shown in the pictures (w solar, wood paneled, etc) are closer to 20k, which is the same as 28K to most contractors, half way into the build.

Network people with YouTube channels, yoga studios, etc. Get a high resolution quad-copter. Film a 1 minute showing, to be shared on YouTube channels. Makers of channels care about well being, and it’s a benefit to their subscribers to have you on an episode. 

If this guy is future useful, he loves traveling, helping, the outdoors, sharing, and meeting new people.

Congrats on the windfall btw and best of luck!