community love & self-fulfillment
[this document is also available as a download for printing]
Building Small Communities
The best personal therapy involves building communities of mutual sharing and co-operation. In sharing our problems, activities, desires and skills we find we can begin to shed our fearful self-protective consumerism and competition, becoming instead the seeds of community within greater society where deeper human spiritual needs and values are fulfilled.
Competitive individualism has been hammered into us all for so long now in both institutionalised education and the world of work, that we tend to believe that any other way of living is unreal. This vast myth and illusion must soon be exploded if the human race is to become harmonious, free from conflict within itself and with its beautiful, most precious planetary home.
Why have therapies, counselling, natural healing become such a rapidly expanding industry? Competitive individualism at work, at home, at play, have driven deeper spiritual human need and values into such small corners that these sessions seem to be the only panacea. they will continue to be panacea until society ceases to be driven along by competitive individualism, and begins to be driven by the enduring human values of co-operation, sharing and love, not confined to peaceful weekend retreats and therapeutic workshops but right across all our day to day activities.
Eco-Sustaining Co-operative Ways of Living
Somewhere, somehow seed communities, fully interactive with the greater environmental communities, must practically demonstrate how true co-operative caring and sharing ways of living with each other, with nature and cosmos, are the way forward for a more harmonious, self-fulfilling, sustaining (economically, ecologically and socially) way of life. In the structure, aims and philosophy of the eco-spiritual co-operative community we're in the process of starting here in South Hams, is embodied such a way of life.
SHHECom Visions
Our members have sufficient skills to offer a wide range of healing and holistic educational sessions and courses to the greater public, ensuring sufficient income to cover their low rents of purpose self built, eco-cyclic homes, outside food, children's needs costs, shared transport and clothes.
All the buildings in this community are to be highly energy efficient, all wastes processed to produce methane power, electricity and compost for our food productive permaculture woodland gardens. Hence the usual overheads of individualised job-centred life, like heavy mortgages or rent, food, energies council taxes for waste and water are radically reduced or eliminated completely.
Ways to Self-Sustaining Rural Life
So instead of the misguided individualised self-centred competitive consumerist way of "normal life", we are seeding a self-sustaining, fulfilling way of living that's offering to the greater society a wide range of sessions and courses, mostly having a holistic experiential approach, as well as holistic health care services, and an eco-sustaining lifestyle to demonstrate its feasibility.
In an area of high unemployment like South Hams Rural District it is essential to give every local person, whatever their age, maximum encouragement to develop and enjoy their potential abilities. Another important aspect of life is to feel needed, useful and valued.
Sustainable Living Centre (all about local sustainable living)
Every individual wants to feel that they are respected and needed by the community in which they live. So our Centre can become a place local persons of all ages enjoy coming to so they can develop their creativity, skills and health, along with others of common purpose.
At this Centre we want to give people the inspiration and skills to build their own lives without having to rely on government subsidies or handouts. Once people realise that there are many others like themselves who feel unwanted and superfluous to a society which tends to view unemployment as de-grading, they can begin to build their self respect and confidence in a new environment of co-operation and mutual caring.
Our group's attitude is that every person has some special ability, talent or quality to offer in the context of their particular surroundings. For example, in more isolated rural areas, where chances of regular employment are slim, there are many whose skills, imagination and talent offer a wealth of possibilities, like growing all kinds of food in diversified, intensive, permaculturally-conceived woodland, gardens and fields traditionally regarded as fit only for sheep, dairy cattle or pigs.
Once a mutually-encouraging atmosphere begins to evolve in rural communities, people meeting together to share ideas, skills and experiences, the whole economy can move away from being depressed and dependent to becoming a mutually-enriching and self-empowering, spiritually and physically supportive totality.
Economic Revival in Great Torrington
There are some good examples of small towns in Devon, previously very depressed in local economy, which have radically revived. One of these is Great Torrington, where one socially entrepreneur suggested at a town meeting that local people might get together at open meetings and pool their ideas to diversify and stimulate their local economy.
By sharing and co-operating, they stimulated each other to create new businesses, modes of food production, shared transport, childcare, healthcare, entertainments, social activities of all kinds. What had been a depressing, potentially dying community, has become a buoyant and inspiring place to live and enjoy.
SHHECom Vision
The founder members of our South Hams Holistic Education Centre and Workers Co-op have a common vision to build a way of life that is emotionally and spiritually, self sustaining economically, ecologically and socially for all people of all ages living in the South Hams. The vision includes providing a wide spectrum of holistic educational and health services, all of which are practically relevant to all persons wishing to build for themselves healthy, self-sustaining into the future communities, having all the qualities of the above vision.
(See also the Transition Town Totnes website www.totnes.transitionnetwork.org.)
Our Centre Secretary Jeffrey has written several very practical strategy papers outlining the holistic health and educational sessions and courses our present community members (or workers) can offer, along with other strategy issues such as centre location, land and buildings needed, types of accommodation, design criteria.
[Printable copies of these papers are available on our downloads page.]
It also outlines the need for our Centre buildings and homes to be living demonstrations of on-site sourced energy systems, water and waste recycling, rapid but well insulated buildings techniques using local natural materials. the designs will demonstrate how low cost, self build systems can create emotionally and spiritually-satisfying environments which are themselves healthy, relaxing and healing.
The architect of this project Jeffrey Gale, has spent large parts of his life researching, designing and building cosmic eco-homes, temples and holistic health centres in Britain and abroad. He has a life long interest in localised cyclic energy, water and waste systems, sacred geometry, colour and sound, especially when used in healing, architecture and garden design. He is currently writing a book about Jaina Philosophy and Healthcare.
The Survival of Localised Rural Life
Self is a moving intersection of many other selves and conscious beings. We are formed of the beings intersecting with ours. True individuality can be an illusion unless placed in the context of a mutually sharing, loving community. So expressive soul-self realisation and deeper happiness is more likely when a person lives and develops in such a community. Sooner or later we all need the caring and loving support of some kind of community, even if that is just friends and family, but the human mind is atrophied unless it can participate in the challenges of the greater world.
One of the greatest problems facing the Rural Development Areas at present is the difficulty many previously specialised working people have in adapting to a completely new way of living. In a truly sustaining society our land is ultimately our greatest resource. Yet younger and middle-aged people are constantly being drained away from it, obliged to seek work in tourism, information technologies and service industries in towns, or more often in cities. So many villages in South Hams have become commuter or retirement ghettoes where private individualism flourishes at the cost of caring co-operative community life.
There is a wealth of knowledge and experience gained over many years and generations in rural families, which this region of traditionally animal-centred small farms needs to revive and survive into the future. The realignment of this wisdom into both sustaining wholesome productive eco-cycles, as well as enriched community life is our greatest challenge.
[this document is also available as a download for printing]
Building Small Communities
The best personal therapy involves building communities of mutual sharing and co-operation. In sharing our problems, activities, desires and skills we find we can begin to shed our fearful self-protective consumerism and competition, becoming instead the seeds of community within greater society where deeper human spiritual needs and values are fulfilled.
Competitive individualism has been hammered into us all for so long now in both institutionalised education and the world of work, that we tend to believe that any other way of living is unreal. This vast myth and illusion must soon be exploded if the human race is to become harmonious, free from conflict within itself and with its beautiful, most precious planetary home.
Why have therapies, counselling, natural healing become such a rapidly expanding industry? Competitive individualism at work, at home, at play, have driven deeper spiritual human need and values into such small corners that these sessions seem to be the only panacea. they will continue to be panacea until society ceases to be driven along by competitive individualism, and begins to be driven by the enduring human values of co-operation, sharing and love, not confined to peaceful weekend retreats and therapeutic workshops but right across all our day to day activities.
Eco-Sustaining Co-operative Ways of Living
Somewhere, somehow seed communities, fully interactive with the greater environmental communities, must practically demonstrate how true co-operative caring and sharing ways of living with each other, with nature and cosmos, are the way forward for a more harmonious, self-fulfilling, sustaining (economically, ecologically and socially) way of life. In the structure, aims and philosophy of the eco-spiritual co-operative community we're in the process of starting here in South Hams, is embodied such a way of life.
SHHECom Visions
Our members have sufficient skills to offer a wide range of healing and holistic educational sessions and courses to the greater public, ensuring sufficient income to cover their low rents of purpose self built, eco-cyclic homes, outside food, children's needs costs, shared transport and clothes.
All the buildings in this community are to be highly energy efficient, all wastes processed to produce methane power, electricity and compost for our food productive permaculture woodland gardens. Hence the usual overheads of individualised job-centred life, like heavy mortgages or rent, food, energies council taxes for waste and water are radically reduced or eliminated completely.
Ways to Self-Sustaining Rural Life
So instead of the misguided individualised self-centred competitive consumerist way of "normal life", we are seeding a self-sustaining, fulfilling way of living that's offering to the greater society a wide range of sessions and courses, mostly having a holistic experiential approach, as well as holistic health care services, and an eco-sustaining lifestyle to demonstrate its feasibility.
In an area of high unemployment like South Hams Rural District it is essential to give every local person, whatever their age, maximum encouragement to develop and enjoy their potential abilities. Another important aspect of life is to feel needed, useful and valued.
Sustainable Living Centre (all about local sustainable living)
Every individual wants to feel that they are respected and needed by the community in which they live. So our Centre can become a place local persons of all ages enjoy coming to so they can develop their creativity, skills and health, along with others of common purpose.
At this Centre we want to give people the inspiration and skills to build their own lives without having to rely on government subsidies or handouts. Once people realise that there are many others like themselves who feel unwanted and superfluous to a society which tends to view unemployment as de-grading, they can begin to build their self respect and confidence in a new environment of co-operation and mutual caring.
Our group's attitude is that every person has some special ability, talent or quality to offer in the context of their particular surroundings. For example, in more isolated rural areas, where chances of regular employment are slim, there are many whose skills, imagination and talent offer a wealth of possibilities, like growing all kinds of food in diversified, intensive, permaculturally-conceived woodland, gardens and fields traditionally regarded as fit only for sheep, dairy cattle or pigs.
Once a mutually-encouraging atmosphere begins to evolve in rural communities, people meeting together to share ideas, skills and experiences, the whole economy can move away from being depressed and dependent to becoming a mutually-enriching and self-empowering, spiritually and physically supportive totality.
Economic Revival in Great Torrington
There are some good examples of small towns in Devon, previously very depressed in local economy, which have radically revived. One of these is Great Torrington, where one socially entrepreneur suggested at a town meeting that local people might get together at open meetings and pool their ideas to diversify and stimulate their local economy.
By sharing and co-operating, they stimulated each other to create new businesses, modes of food production, shared transport, childcare, healthcare, entertainments, social activities of all kinds. What had been a depressing, potentially dying community, has become a buoyant and inspiring place to live and enjoy.
SHHECom Vision
The founder members of our South Hams Holistic Education Centre and Workers Co-op have a common vision to build a way of life that is emotionally and spiritually, self sustaining economically, ecologically and socially for all people of all ages living in the South Hams. The vision includes providing a wide spectrum of holistic educational and health services, all of which are practically relevant to all persons wishing to build for themselves healthy, self-sustaining into the future communities, having all the qualities of the above vision.
(See also the Transition Town Totnes website www.totnes.transitionnetwork.org.)
Our Centre Secretary Jeffrey has written several very practical strategy papers outlining the holistic health and educational sessions and courses our present community members (or workers) can offer, along with other strategy issues such as centre location, land and buildings needed, types of accommodation, design criteria.
[Printable copies of these papers are available on our downloads page.]
It also outlines the need for our Centre buildings and homes to be living demonstrations of on-site sourced energy systems, water and waste recycling, rapid but well insulated buildings techniques using local natural materials. the designs will demonstrate how low cost, self build systems can create emotionally and spiritually-satisfying environments which are themselves healthy, relaxing and healing.
The architect of this project Jeffrey Gale, has spent large parts of his life researching, designing and building cosmic eco-homes, temples and holistic health centres in Britain and abroad. He has a life long interest in localised cyclic energy, water and waste systems, sacred geometry, colour and sound, especially when used in healing, architecture and garden design. He is currently writing a book about Jaina Philosophy and Healthcare.
The Survival of Localised Rural Life
Self is a moving intersection of many other selves and conscious beings. We are formed of the beings intersecting with ours. True individuality can be an illusion unless placed in the context of a mutually sharing, loving community. So expressive soul-self realisation and deeper happiness is more likely when a person lives and develops in such a community. Sooner or later we all need the caring and loving support of some kind of community, even if that is just friends and family, but the human mind is atrophied unless it can participate in the challenges of the greater world.
One of the greatest problems facing the Rural Development Areas at present is the difficulty many previously specialised working people have in adapting to a completely new way of living. In a truly sustaining society our land is ultimately our greatest resource. Yet younger and middle-aged people are constantly being drained away from it, obliged to seek work in tourism, information technologies and service industries in towns, or more often in cities. So many villages in South Hams have become commuter or retirement ghettoes where private individualism flourishes at the cost of caring co-operative community life.
There is a wealth of knowledge and experience gained over many years and generations in rural families, which this region of traditionally animal-centred small farms needs to revive and survive into the future. The realignment of this wisdom into both sustaining wholesome productive eco-cycles, as well as enriched community life is our greatest challenge.
Jeffrey Gale