Anybody been to East Wind?

Oops...nevermind.

 

Due to a recent post about East Wind, I'll keep searching for a more decent place.

 

I stayed at Eastwind for about 4 months. IT IS NOT A FAMILY PLACE that is why I left is their attitude towards children is very messed up. When I was there an adult physically abused a kid and it brought up a lot of issues and history. Fist off hardly anyone cared about the abuse and said it was the kids fault. A 11 year olds fault a 40 year old man beat him up held him down and choked him until he passed out and the threw a glass jar at him?

But the incident brought up some stories of molestations in the past and some of the members even said it was the parent of the 6 year olds fault that she got molested because she should of kept a better eye on her.

They have a place where a few people have kids called Lilyput and they were having a child molester living their and the people would defend him and say it was just because he was depressed. He had confessed to molesting over a dozen children in his adult life.

That was plenty enough for me to drop my membership and never go back. Very mess up attitudes towards children…

Just a lot of strange older single men lurking around. When I was there they also found tons of child porn history on the Internet browsers.

And yes they don’t like pregnant women you have to be a member for 2 years or something and ask the community permission to have a kid. Their was some women there when I was their that had got abortions so they would not get thrown out for being pregnant.

It is a very wealthy community in a nice place but it just attracts selfish jerks. I watched a few really nice people get fed up and leave and a bunch of wierd selfish jerks stay. It has a very high turn over a lot of unhappy people.

But yeah not a place for children..

I am not a drunk but I like to drink beer and yes they drink A LOT of beer more the 8 kegs a week.

 

Thank for the info on East Wind, I was looking into going there, it looked like a great place, but with your recent posting, I think I'll pass on it. Too bad, if not for all the drinking and stuff you mentioned, it looked like I'd enjoy being there. the area and activities and even the work seemed enjoyable. i don't mind some drinking at a party or while fishing by the creek, but excessively can lead to problems. In my experience, even non violent people have great potential to become violent when drunk.
Dang, what a disappointment...
Peace man.

 

You might want to look in to Twin Oaks it is in Virginia I think. I have met a few people that lived there and said it was O.K. they have the same visiting type opportunities as Eastwind.
I think they have a high turn over and not many kids so I’m not sure what that says about them. ?
Yeah it is too bad about eastwind I was thinking about living there it is nice country and a very prosperous community due to there nutbutter factory but it has just attracted a lot of sketchy people.
.

 

i would consider looking for a place through word of mouth or through small "oriented" site links to places,,, more so than those that are huge and advertised largely....... just me own personal opinion i have gathered of five years of community leavers n travelers passing thru here...

 

Yeah, I kind of had my heart set on visiting there... they should set some rules on habitual drinking, and filter certain people that would lessen the value of the East Wind experience.
I've seen plenty of partying in my life, and really don't want to struggle with it by seeing it on an everyday basis.
I know communities allow individual freedom, but aren't they also about lifting your spirit and learn new things to better one's self, try new things through work and play, and live differently than normal society?
Why destroy a good thing and ruin it for others to try?

 

I think Eastwinds problem goes a lot deeper then just the alcohol. It is about 1/3 of the community that drank every evening when I was there. Which is a lot but the drinkers but the drinkers had a lot more sense of community then most of the non-drinkers. Most of the people would hide in there own little corner of the community and they hated the place they would much rather be in a studio apartment by themselves then live there but they had a easy life so they stay. But most of they people don’t act like a community they act like they live in an apartment in a big city. When something happens they just say “I don’t care it doesn’t affect me”. They don’t want to live in a community they want their own private life they are just stuck there. If you ask them honestly they will tell you they hate the place and the people.

I find it a horrible thought to live in a community and if something bad happened to me the community would say I don’t care.
It just blew my mind when people just sat there and said they did care if kid got abused “that’s why I don’t have kids” or “they should keep a better eye on them”.
That type of person should be living in a studio apartment in L.A. or somewhere.

You can take people out of a fucked up rat race but some people are just a fuck up rat race no matter where you put them.
When I was there I saw some good people with a lot of sense of community got fed up and left. I think when you get an environment like that people who are looking for a nice community go somewhere else and people who just want an easy life take advantage of it and stay.
The drinking was a big issue there when I was there, there is a few people that were pretty much drinking themselves to death and the community is supporting people to sit around and get drunk all day.
But it is a dilemma to start making rules in a community designed for people seeking freedom. If you ban alcohol that is taking away a freedom, prohibition has never worked and if you ban alcohol what next?
If you make rules to throw people out they will get abused and people who are unpopular will get thrown out for made up reasons so in the community politics it is virtually impossible to get thrown out. That was some of the issues that Eastwind was dealing with when I was there. But you got a lot of people who are drunk all day, a lot people who don’t work at all who can’t get kicked out and don’t care.
What makes a community a community?
I learned a lot about community staying at Eastwind I learned about what works and a lot about what doesn’t work.
.

 

Right on Sidd, sounds like East Wind has lost their original purpose, their sense of community,and forgot about the dream of it all. Perhaps they should have a census and kick out the unworthy. There are plenty of people who want to live in a community that will fulfill the dream to live better and learn from each other in a positive light.
Aren't they supposed to be like a counterpart of Twin Oaks? Then I think Twin Oaks should step in and set things right, provide council on new rules and help make necessary changes.
Alcohol at such places should be for enjoyment, community gatherings, or for some fishing by the creek, not to indulge binges for people to drown out their sorrows, which is what they're doing.

 

I really don’t like talking negative about a community I visit and have thought of deleting my comments a few times in the past month.
It is agenst my policy to talk negative about a community that I visit. I have visited a lot of communities and Eastwind is the only one I will talk negative about due to the attitude they have towards children.

Any place that protects child molesters is a bad place...

keep your kids away from this place...

 

I lived at East Wind for a year in 2005.

East Wind is not your normal commune filled with yuppies and the overly-educated, but is primarily a blue collar commune. People there deal with problems much more like an extended family would, perhaps a dysfunctional family. None the less, this is how they choose to live and how they choose to be.

During my stay there, there was one accusation of inappropriate behavior between and adult and a child. Long and heart rending community meetings were held to discuss this issue, because it was not cut and dry. Quite the contrary. In the end, the community chose to eject this member.

There was one case where a womans boyfriend once shoved her teenage son, not too long after this, and after many many metings this man was also ejected from the community.

Just before i got there, there was a man who was looking at pornography that others found disturbing. I believe it was hentai? They asked this fellow to leave. It was still a hot topic of discussion when I got there.

East Wind is not utopia, that is for damned sure. But it is doing its best. Many of you won't appreciate it. I know I sure had trouble living there. But I think many people there do do their best and do fight the good fight and do value community.

I am unsure about what is being talked about, when this accusation of child molestation is being brought up. I hope to get more information. I do know that it is not easy to eject a member there, and that the process for justice there can be slow and frustrating.

I wonder if the story is more complicated then is being described.

Anyhow, I think anyone should go to a community and find out the truth for themselves.

 

Oh yeah right.. I’m sure it was just some cartoon porn.

I know about Eastwind I don’t want to talk trash about the community, but I will say NONE of the surrounding communities will allow any of their children to step foot on that place… for a very long time now.
I really don’t think you want to know about the skeletons in the barn at Eastwind.
I have to agree with the one of the above posters
*****KEEP YOUR KIDS AWAY FROM EASTWIND…******

 

This makes me sad to hear. My experience was that East Wind gets all kinds of folks, but has always been consistent with removing people who threaten their kids.

I just visited East Wind for a week, and the kids scene there was really cool. I would be really upset to think that those kids were in some sort of danger.

I just thought of another story of how, after I had left, an older man from the rainbow tribe was pushed out of the community when another rainbow kid came in and said that the man had a bad reputation with kids. The man left that day.

I hope that those who have real knowledge will PM me, and tell me what they know. I will look into it, I want to know.

I have always thought that East Wind is a great place for young children. I think it is harder as the children enter their teens, as there are all kinds of folks there and that there are just as many bad role models as good ones. Parents seem to leave when their children enter their teenage years.

East Wind is not very selective in its membership, and tries not to judge books by their cover. For every dozen good and honest people that come through, a rotten egg will come through as well, and it takes time to realy get to know people. In my opinion they could stand to be more selective with their membership process, but a lot of people there feel like thay have been harshly judged all their lives and do not wish to do the same towards others.

Sometimes this leads to people getting second chances and making something of themselves, other times it leads to the community harboring and enabling bad apples.

I think it is important to keep in mind when you go there, especially with children, that all kinds of people live there. I do not think that the community is family oriented. The community is much more oriented to single adults.

I do not think it is fair to say that East Wind harbors preadators of children. I have seen many people ejected from the community over childhood safety issues.

I think people should visit the community and see if it right for them.

 

Hey Sidd, you said that you've visited alot of communities...
So which ones would you recommend?

 

I want to shed a tear and hug with you...because it is just this open mindedness that becomes so empowering....not enabling but empowering

We All Change


And if you do not then it is only because you limit your Self...and this is something that in order to BeCome more you must step into the Change and Be


So yah judge not....
and when you do so judge, be not surprised that you draw judgement to yourself

Blessings and Love All

Namaste

 

Yeah, but I was wondering what was up with your avatar? What is it? And I also noticed "government employee" under your name. What line of work are you in?

 

I live on a forming commune in the NW with Rainbow roots.

 

don't unless they aren't true. people have a right to know. especially that kind of thing.

 

I live at East Wind, and have for about a year, and I feel the need to counter some of the negative comments posted. As for drinking, there are people who drink a lot and people who never do. If you can't tolerate any drinking around it's not for you, but drinking certainly isn't the only thing going on around here.

As for the more serious allegations of child abuse, I must say there has been nothing remotely like that in the year I've been here, I don't know everything that's gone on in the past but that certainly would not be tolerated now, and I have heard stories of people who've been expelled for such things in the past that are not nearly as bad as what you've alleged happened. The kids are an important part of the community and I think it's a great place for young kids. It is a longer and more involved process to become a member if you have kids because the community can only support so many kids, but child abuse is one of the last things I'd worry about when considering East Wind.

All in all, East Wind is not for everyone and certainly not utopia, we do have plenty of interpersonal drama, but physical violence, and especially to children is not something that is tolerated. Seeing these things said about East Wind on this forum saddens me and I wonder how many good people who would like it here have been scared away by the negative rantings on this thread. If you think you might want to live here, do a visit and see for yourself. It's true we sometimes get people here to do a three-week visitor period who come and leave abruptly after a few days or less, it obviously wasn't what they thought it would be, and I haven't had any luck getting out of them what they expected that was so different. However the majority of the visitors that pass through here have a good time whether or not hey end up staying. We have beautiful land, over a thousand acres of it, and there are few other large established secular income-sharing communities out there, Twin Oaks is the only other large one in this country, and the biggest difference between twin Oaks and East Wind is that Twin Oaks is much more structured. East Wind is set up to be less structured and the two communities have very different vibes, and I think diversity is a good thing in the communities movement.

 

Also, I noticed many of the early comments on this thread were from a few years ago. Although I wasn't at East Wind back then, almost everything that I've heard is that the community is in a better place now than four or five years ago, which was kind of a low point. Although we have some long term members, there is also a lot of turnover, so things can change pretty fast compared to most living situations.