Why are you interested in communal living?

seems like people live together for plenty of different reasons, and have various motivations surrounding their desire for a communal lifestyle. so why are you interested in communal living?

 

I do live in a communal set-up. Just outside of Glastonbury, UK. I have done for a few years. We bought some land as a co-operative and moved onto the land just after. We have a small organic farm and run various activities on low-impact and sustainable living for schools and other organisations.
I'm originally from San francisco, US. I come from an alternative family and I moved to the UK with my close family to avoid the problems my Mother and Step-father had become involved with due to being within the Biker and Motorcycle Club lifestyle. Shortly after I met a guy who introduced me to the traveller lifestyle. After a while I got together with a group, we had a great idea..and well the rest is history.
For me living this lifestyle is safe, loving and aside from the rest of the world. We are a community who live close and look after each other. The majority of the western world holds values and lives in a way I could not; so I choose to opt-out.

Shayla x

 

Its more fun. There are people around to do stuff with, you help them & they help you. Think of the kind of Halloween party you can throw when you have 10 or 20 people helping out. Or how fast you can empty a truck when 5 people are helping lift and carry.

Its less expensive - we don't need a dishwasher or a washer dryer for every two people, and its easier on the planet.

I've been living communally since 1993, I've lived in the morehouse community now for about 10 years, I currently live at the Lafayette Morehouse.

 

To get off the grid, Be around people, Enjoy the good things in life.

 

To live a life off the land as much as possible and to be around like minded people.

 

being off the grid and living off the land seem to be pretty common thoughts. but what about the details of the community? seems like that is only a small portion of what a community might actually be about. many ideals could co-exist with living off the land and being off the grid. so if you had those two things, then what next?

george - what lead you to become interested in communal living and eventually meet your current community. think back. how did it start.

so you were a traveler then met the right people and founded a commune? cool.

 

I lived in a fraternity in college - at engineering school. It was more fun to have people to do things with. After university, lived in an apartment with room mates. Then moved in with a girl, lived "two in a box".

Our relationship wasn't that great, so I started looking for information, and wound up taking some communication and relationship courses from the Morehouse folks. I was very impressed with their information, one of the things they said was that humans are herding animals, and that its more fun to live in a group. So I went back to living in a shared household in Boston - which was an absolute blast. The Morehouse information was really helpful in group living and relationships, so I stayed in touch with the group. I eventually moved to California and continued to live in group houses. About 8 years after I first met the group I moved into an actual Morehouse and since have lived in both urban and suburban morehouses.

There are tons of group houses and various groups and communities in the bay area, what I've noticed is that most groups are short lived. I didn't realize how unusual it was that the morehouse groups have been together for decades.

 

to enjoy the company and freindship from others insted of living a false excistance if i can put a smile on a 1000 faces id die a happy man

 

i remember when my interest first sparked for communal living. i thought it would be nice to live with a group of people and share everything and live sustainably, and be free from the world. it wasn't long and i began to realise that sustainable living and communal living are pretty different. there are some communities that do not live a sustainable lifestyle, but still live a shared communal lifestyle.

when i thought of communal living, i thought of a utopian ideal of people living together in harmony. like an answer to many of the problems we face. i thought that humans were created to live in groups -- "it takes a village."

for some reason i was incredibly drawn to communal living.

 

so where has life taken you to now then dude im a 27 year old who wants to work hard and live harder in a perfect place id just grow my own food build my own home and be able to have a largh in the prosess do you know of anywhere lol

 

I'm pretty sure there was a post like this already---

Anyways, I'm seeking the livelihood of a commune for two reasons; First, because there is a growing realization that society is moving away from the good of the whole, and there is no way we will continue to survive at the rate we are going. I foresee the downfall of the US within 20 years. Already people who are 25-35 are starting to realize that they just can't make a decent living, the 16-21 age group is noticing they have very little future ahead of them, and the children will come to understand that for them, there is nothing. No one has a chance if we stick to the capitalism, commercialism, and overall greed-focused social structure.

Second, I want a life that is more than just working a job to pay bills. I want to work in the open air, to put food on the table of me and my friends, and to create a better world for us, not just myself. It's not really about me, sure, some of it is, but when I forsake 'me' it becomes 'us'..... I want us to have a future. I want us to be healthier in body and mind, and I don't want us to destroy the very ground we live on.