The Lorien Foundation, PO Box 23813 Santa Fe NM 87502 (575) 770 1228

The Lorien Community Vision

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Lorien Community Vision 09-2018

 

Introduction: In 1998 I received the vision of establishing a community on a particular piece of land in Northern New Mexico. At the time I was living in a loosely knit community within a mile or two from this property and was actively engaged in community development activities in the region. I recognized the potential the entire region had to compensate for the kinds of lifestyles and disregard for Nature that were becoming rampant both locally and globally. This piece of land and the vision for a land-based community offered a respectful way of living on the Earth sustainably. This particular property is extensive enough and has many elements already present to form a solid basis on which to develop the kind of community I envisage. I describe the elements below.

Over the years since then, my life experience has brought me into intimate connection with many who share the vision of a sustainable way of living in community upon the Earth Mother. I have been witness and an integral part of the web of what I call The Rainbow Weave. This Rainbow weave, that includes all tribes, nations, generations and religious beliefs, is progressing at a fierce pace, because it must. I see a narrow window in which it is imperative to develop sustainable, land based rural and urban communities that can develop an alternative “civilization” to the one that is destroying the Earth, humanity and all life forms on our beloved planet.

In 2011 I moved from the area to Santa Fe and the vision sat on the shelf and on my computer waiting for a sign that it was time to revise and reactivate it. My guidance, and the pressure from the many I have encountered, young and old, who are hungry to live in this kind of community, along with my own evolvement as an Elder with the passing of the years, have all indicated that this is the time I had been waiting for. It is time. At the time of this draft in September of 2018, the messages and clarity that has been given to me indicate a window of about 5 years. It is definitely the time to move forward with the vision, which is not just mine but that of the “people”. It is not a community based on fear because of the changes the world is undergoing, but a necessity to develop an alternative way of being here on this planet and provide a foundation for our children and grandchildren and the coming generations.

The foundation of this community is complete respect for each individual, the Earth and environment and the desire to live and work together as an extended family. The community vision entails a return to the concept of village, clan, or tribe in a contemporary setting. The elements of this vision are not isolated from the broader community already existing in the geographical area described below. They will enhance the lives of local residents as well as those who will be drawn to the energy and programs developed on the land.

The Lorien Foundation is a New Mexico Non-profit organization created to develop and further community. Its goal is to promote wholeness, wellness, and balance. The model that this community offers to the world is the realization that the dreams and hopes of many around the world who pray for and work for peace, harmony and unity can be achieved and realized in our lifetime. The Lorien Foundation was created on September 5th 2002 to become a seed container for this and perhaps many other communities. One role the Lorien Foundation can play is in providing loans, education and resources to assist in community and land development.

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Below is an outline of the different elements and programs currently considered for development as part of the overall picture. This outline presents an interconnected, comprehensive vision. The components, inform, feed and expand one another, so that what emerges is a comprehensive approach to how this geographical area can develop over the coming years, allowing growth and expansion, while preserving the quality and highest expression of sustainable development that benefits the whole. Please refer to the diagram on the following page. Some of these elements were drafted a long time ago and reflect some of my specific interests at the time. The descriptions and outlines of these programs and elements are more current.

The following is a list of basic elements:

1. Food production and basic survival essentials for sustainability
2. Clustered housing
3. Non polluting, sustainable energy production and “zero waste” management
4. Community Resource Center
5. Children’s resources, schooling, birthing facility, youth programs
6. Healing Center and rehab programs
7. Vocational resources; workshops, training; products and skills, cooperative business
8. Research Center; Development and application of technologies for healing and environmental restoration
9. Resource center and hospice facilities for the Elderly

10. 11. 12. 13.

Communications and network with other communities
Programs, retreats and workshops for visitors; volunteer programs and opportunities Festivals, arts, performance, visiting leaders and visionaries
Shelter, seed and tool library and facilities for disaster refuge.

The items listed above are expanded below the diagram, (unavailable here) not in the same order however.

 

1. Community Resource Center:

This building is the heart of the community. It is the social center as well as the location for many of the programs, activities and offices. It is a circular building with a basement and domed roof, surrounded by botanical gardens and sports facilities. Individual rooms are situated around the perimeter of the central hall.

It will incorporate:

1. An open, central space with wooden dance floor and a stage at one end. It will be used for gatherings, concerts, performances, yoga, workshops and other large group activities, as well as for the school.
2. Separate room(s) for the use of a school, play group, etc
3. An art room
4. A music room and recording studio
5. A library room
6. A youth room for youth programs, recreation and meetings
7. A communications/network center and foundation office. An underground shelter that can house, feed and support many people in the event of a major natural or man-made disaster. It will contain supplies, water, food and other necessities for an extended period of shelter. It will be built on a well that can be operated by hand pump. The entire community building will be built to be impermeable to water and polluted atmosphere, and will be designed to withstand Earth movement and high winds. It will contain its own energy generation system and will have place for at least 150-200 people to sleep and live for an extended period. Seeds and gardening equipment. The building will be one of the first priorities and phases of development for this community project

2. Clustered Housing:

People are already drawn to relocate to New Mexico and will continue to do so. Instead of land being endlessly subdivided and fenced in, this practice of clustered homes and reserved open space, offers a sane, environmentally-friendly method for orderly development with minimal impact on the land. The stewards of the community will together determine the optimum approach to distribution and management of housing and how allocation is to be determined, whether houses would be bought and sold, leased from the trust or another system that is in harmony with the guidelines and principles on which the community is founded.

The idea of clustered housing is to concentrate land use for dwellings into a “neighborhood” or cluster of 6-8 houses around a central garden, central water source of supply, utilities and energy source(s). Today there is technology available for providing electrical power for appliances and utilities that is virtually free energy sourced, which means non-polluting and sustainable. Water purification, gray water recycling and permaculture techniques can ensure a healthful and ecologically viable sustainable mini- community that has it’s own source of herbs, vegetables and recreational spaces. These small clustered communities would be in close proximity to other similar “cells” that together form a network of cells with recreational facilities, etc shared by the larger network of cells.

The houses are built from ecologically sound materials and are designed to be inexpensive yet comfortable. Each home is individually stewarded or leased by the occupant(s). The remainder of the land is undeveloped, except for animal shelters, centers and buildings for cottage industries belonging to programs of the community.

The land is owned by a land trust or foundation so it is protected as some form of preserve. There is no private “ownership” in the current sense. When an occupants moves, their place is filled by others on a waiting list. When the land reaches capacity, a new piece, perhaps adjoining, is acquired and developed in a similar manner. In this manner there is a gradual proliferation of “cells” which together form organic components of the whole “body” of the community. There is the possibility of eventually incorporating the entire region as a village. These “cells” also enlarge the area of land that is part of a green belt or preserve and provide extensive arable land for the cultivation of crops such as hemp that produce products for a sustainable community and trade or sale.

As with all aspects of the community, the specifics of technology, materials and designs of these homes and programs will be engineered on the basis of collaborative agreement by founding members of the community

3. Food Production:

It is easier to be self sufficient as a community. To grow and generate the food and other requirements for a community’s self-sufficiency requires extensive agriculture, gardening and animal husbandry. When these activities are combined with co-operative business incentives, the food production/agricultural aspect of this vision becomes an entire enterprise. Initially intensive organic gardens and greenhouses provide fresh vegetables, seeds and byproducts for food. Fruit trees and hedges of berries and nuts, hives for bees and hemp provide additional necessities. Herbs and other medicinal plants can be grown around buildings and in designated gardens. As land is available, agricultural programs expand for the production of community basics and industry that can financially sustain the land and community. All production and products in excess of the community’s needs are sold as an operation of the co-operative farming business.

As adjoining land is acquired and developed for the various programs of the Foundation, designated areas of these plots will be allocated to agricultural programs. Thus certain areas that are primarily sagebrush can be farmed. The agricultural development of the parts of the land creates a rich tapestry that weaves together the structures with tree, crop, mountain, sagebrush and open space. As no pesticides are used, the land and the residents benefit. Because the acquisition of the land requires a considerable investment, there must also be a way to establish the means for paying back the investment and ensuring the sustainability financially as well as environmentally. Agricultural crops and byproducts provide one means of doing so.

An important aspect of the land’s development is the planting of trees and orchards. This is also an alignment with the principles of stewardship of the land and a healthy respect for the land the water and the air.

4. Education – Schooling, youth programs, vocational training

A living community is made up of many generations. We plant orchards, we plant knowledge and information and train the vines of the future so that our children and their children become stewards of the land and the New earth. Conscious parenting, conscious schooling, development of life skills and the kind of skills required to farm, grow, sustain – all these avenues of endeavor grow with the community as it grows in size, in scope and in wisdom. Eventually provision is made for the little ones, the developing ones and the teachers and guides that will teach the new understandings of our place in the Whole and how we are interconnected with all life. Nature becomes our guiding force and our educational efforts must be in alignment with Natural and Universal laws. This requires that we develop and implement specific educational programs and provide schooling, vocational training and higher/adult educational programs in alignment with these principles. The essential conditioning children receive from their parents, caregivers and environment in the first 7 years of their lives, imprints and affects them for the rest of their lives. Because we are aware of this, it becomes the mission and duty of the community to provide the most loving, supportive and encouraging environment for the growth and up bringing of children throughout the growing cycles into maturity. The education system must also cater for children who have grown up with conditions on the Spectrum and with special qualities and needs, integrating them wherever possible. Art, Music, Nature and life expression become integral aspects of their curriculum and all teaching is based on an understanding of the emotional, spiritual and physical and psychological needs of the growing child at the stage they are at.

The Community will also develop programs teaching occupational skills and providing rehabilitation for youth at risk, drug addiction, ex-offenders, etc. so that we are also contributing to new models for benevolent action in the world.

5. Co-Operative Business Development:

All endeavors of the community and foundation are aimed at bridging gaps, engendering union and co-operation and promoting harmony, peace and benefit locally and globally. It therefore is a natural unfolding to encourage activities that are economically and socially beneficial. All activities of the community are set up and encouraged to operate as co-operative ventures, whether as businesses or as not-for-profit activities. This allows each program and structure or organization to operate as sovereign to itself but connected to the whole and also totally connected within. This means that any businesses are essentially what today would be regarded as an “employee owned and operated” business.

6. Healing Center, Hospice and Birthing Center:

From the inception of this vision, there was always an intention for the community to be a model and a means for healing on an individual, communal and global level. The establishment of a healing center that focuses on the restoration of wholeness for those who have been affected by war, violence trauma, and abuse has always been a priority in my mind. Healing The Scars is a non profit/Ministry that was established for this purpose wherein traditional therapies such as psychotherapy, dance, art and occupational therapies in combination with HeartThread provide an integrated way of restoring wholeness and providing meaningful opportunities to engage and become a part of a community. The community provides access to gardening, farming, horses and other animals, workshops providing maintenance and products using wood, metal and other materials so that in additional to a support system, the community provides life skills and ways in which individuals and groups can be rehabilitated and integrated into the life of a community, whether communities and Society and become healers and leaders.

The Healing Center would be under the medical control of a Health professional like a Psychiatrist with a strong alignment with the community’s visions and mission. All therapists and practitioners would be licensed in their fields. In addition to standard treatment and therapy, the center would offer a certain range of practices that draw on ancient healing practices from Indigenous wisdom. Use of Color, Sound, Crystal, Scalar and Tesla technologies etc., would be incorporated as long as they are monitored and subject to approval by a”medical control”.

 

Birthing Center. The greatest service one can offer the future is to provide a space of love and welcome from the earliest moments of a human’s life. The Birthing center provides prenatal care, education and support in providing mother and child with the optimal conditions for a positive, loving and empowering environment in which a child and mother can spend the first formative moments of the child’s life. If a child is born into a vibration of love and light the effects will be longstanding and the ability to provide an ongoing encouraging and positive influence on the child as it grows is the greatest influence one can have so that the child does not have to spend their lives undoing the harm that most of us adults have grown up with, conditioned and been programmed to believe. Children are born into a space of peace, harmony and love where the finest care and support for mother and newborn is provided. The Birthing Center is also under the same medical control and is staffed and supervised by qualified Nurse Midwives. The facility will be designed to offer water births and will have the possibility of live harp music by trained harp therapists.

Hospice. A community serves all ages, all generations. There must be provision for a meaningful and supportive environment for members of the community and their family to feel the love and caring as they move towards the end of their lives. A setting in Nature with access to the highest quality of care and a loving, supportive environment for their transition is a gift we would all want our family members and ourselves to have. The Hospice would be under the same medical supervision with professional caregivers as the healing and birthing centers. Youth programs and general community programs also provide opportunities for a variety of people to interact with the patients as appropriate and as needed. The harp/music and other therapists also can provide their services.

7. Elders

The beauty and peace of the surroundings and the ability of a community to take care of all ages provides an ideal place for the elders of the community to feel like they are being taken care of in their latter days. They are the Elders of the community. Their wisdom and experience is available to the entire community and there is a place for those of us residing here to bring our parents and grandparents and for those of us who need an extra hand when we grow old, to know that we will be taken care of by our community. In addition to he healing center and hospice there is a special facility for elders who are no longer able to care for themselves where they can receive care and support and yet live in relative independence. Professional and family care is an ongoing faculty of this support network. Housing is tailored to the needs of less mobile elders and people with mobility issues. The younger people, therapists and special programs all assist in catering for the needs of the elders

8. Environmental/Technological Research:

Devices for measuring frequencies and energetics of water and ingredients, processes for producing live and enhanced water, healing essences and the effects of color, sound and crystal technology will be able to be measured and studied so that programs ensue that could be sources of revenue for the community and the foundation.

development and educational programs of the Foundation and the Community. These technologies will be used in the community’s evolvement and can eventually be made available on a much larger scale. In particular technologies connected to healing and consciousness raising will be researched and developed so that they can be deployed in the healing center to benefit the community and those seeking healing.

 

There are new technologies available and being developed that do not depend on fossil fuel, that do not pollute and that can clean heavy metals from water, soil and air. These technologies are important to the health of the planet and the future of humanity. They are the key to our survival and are therefore part of the ongoing research,

9. Children’s Refuge Program:

The future is uncertain. Within the unfolding of this vision, and within the development of a self-sufficient community experience, there is a place this community can offer to orphaned children from the many disaster arenas of the world. If the desire to destroy continues, the numbers of dispossessed and endangered children will grow. If natural disasters are a part of the future, then this community can offer succor, provide a means of education, nourishment, rightful employment and love to these children. They were always a part of this vision and the domes and yurts and structures that will house them, have already been seen in the etheric realms by many. This community provides a concrete environment in which these children can find safety and love and can grow up to heal from the wounds of separation.

10. Youth programs:

The Community Center includes provision for numerous programs run by teens and young people for their peers from all over the country. Programs that work with at- risk youth, outdoor programs, rehab for young people, etc will all be run by young people for young people.

11. Animal Sanctuary:

Because the community serves all species and dimensions, it is only natural that programs working specifically with animals will find a home here. Among these will be programs taking care of wounded wildlife and a possible veterinary service for agricultural and pet animals who are part of the community and neighborhood. There is also a potential for a model educational Wolf Sanctuary with a connection to networks supporting a return of wolves to the wild.

12. Global Village Network:

This is a “visionary” community. We are not alone. There are many individuals and groups simultaneously developing and promoting similar community visions. Many, like us, are looking for startup funding. Many are waiting for money to purchase land. As we all move forward into a new era, it is important that we are connected in active ways to this wave of development across the planet. We are already a part of a network of “visionary” communities “returning” to the land to create a blueprint for how one can live harmoniously with the Natural world. A part of this movement involves the creation and sustenance of a global association of eco-villages. This organization is taking place and we are involved in the process. This association will find the funding, at the highest level, for all these communities and will be an important factor in maintaining connectivity, promoting education and providing models and potentiality for expansion of this network, globally.

There are already available new technologies for providing free energy, heating, agriculture, reversal of ecological damage, etc. The showcases for these technologies will be these “eco-villages”. It is therefore important that this network become recognized as a force for restoration, regeneration and innovation in the world. This is the appeal to potential donors and financial supporters of this network. The association then has access to those with the wealth and desire to see these ventures flourish. Artists, film stars, entrepreneurs, tycoons can then choose to align with this movement and take credit for some of its success.

The communication center in the Community building is the focus for this activity and for the co-ordination of networking with this global movement.

13. The Land. See the following promotional video from a few years ago:

https://vimeo.com/140016332

The land currently under consideration for this community is for sale. The ranch is being offered as a whole at 6094 acres for $11.5 million. It was recently reduced from $12 million. It can also be purchased in 2 parts. First is the lower portion, listed at $3.5 million for 660 acres. Or the upper ranch with a mountain cabin at 12,000 feet with 5433 acres is listed for $8.5 million. The details and platte are shown below. The Vimeo aerial video above gives a spectacular visual outline of the entire land and its potential. It is currently listed with a Taos Real Estate firm. In order to view the entire land there is a prerequisite letter required showing availability of funds. Our specific immediate interest would be the lower ranch.

 

The information on the land is confidential Please address all inquiries to:

The Lorien Foundation PO Box 23813
Santa Fe NM 87502

You can connect with us by email at HealingTheScars@Gmail.com

The previous outline is from 10th April, 2004.