Have any of you wanted to start a commune? (mystic, amish)

[lilithu]

When I was a freshman in high school, I wanted to start my own religion and buy an island and live there with my followers. Does that count?

[Seyorni]

From some of these posts I get the impression that there's a lot of misinformation about intentional communities, ecovillages, &c.

Intentional communities are not a relic of the 60s. There are thousands of them going strong today, all over the world. They rarely receive media attention and most people are unaware of them.
The image of intentional communities as tribes of unwashed but idealistic hippies sharing a tipi and trying to farm a few plots of beans and squash is colorful and cinematic, but not usually realistic.
Intentional Communities may be rural or urban. Their organizational and economic models, size, missions and "lifestyle" vary quite a bit -- and members generally do bathe and have clean clothes.

[Jaiket]

Originally Posted by lilithu

When I was a freshman in high school, I wanted to start my own religion and buy an island and live there with my followers. Does that count?

How's that coming?

[Buttons*]

Originally Posted by lilithu

When I was a freshman in high school, I wanted to start my own religion and buy an island and live there with my followers. Does that count?

i thought about doing that too

its a shame no one ever followed me....

....unless, of course, you former Choodianists want to go and get an RF island we all can live on

[lilithu]

Originally Posted by Jaiket

How's that coming?

I started on my own version of the bible at that time. My version of Genesis was going to tie the scriptures and evolutionary theory together. I was convinced that people just didn't understand that the two were not at odds with each other and I was going to be the one to show how we can all get along. Silly me, I was fourteen, was just taking intro bio, and now that I look back on it I didn't really understand evolutionary theory myself!

Bacially, the more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know. I'll leave starting one's own religion to the likes of L. Ron Hubbard. Studying the ones that are already in existence already takes up too much of my time.

To go back to the commune thing, UUs used to have a semi-monastic order - the Congregation of Abraxas - named after the gnostic god. It's as close to a commune as we ever got, and that wasn't that close (since it was only part time). If one existed right now, I'd be sorely tempted to join.