New Age communities

New Age communities are places where, intentionally or accidentally, communities have grown up to include significant numbers of people with New Age beliefs. An Intentional community may have specific aims but are varied and have a variety of structures, purposes and means of subsistence. These include authoritarian, democratic and consensual systems of internal government.[1] New Age communities also exist on the Internet.[2]

Notable communities

Australia

Asia

  • Ubud – south East Asia's centre for yoga and alternative lifestyle
  • Pai Northern Thailand

Europe

  • Ceredigion, Wales
  • Christiania, Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Damanhur – a commune, ecovillage, and spiritual community situated in the Piedmont region of northern Italy about 30 miles (50 km) north of the city of Turin. The group holds a mix of New Age and neopagan beliefs.
  • Dornach, Switzerland
  • Findhorn – a community founded in 1962 to act as a focal point for the work of Eileen and Peter Caddy and Dorothy Maclean near Findhorn, in Moray, Scotland
  • Glastonbury – is particularly notable for the myths and legends surrounding a nearby hill, Glastonbury Tor, which rises up from the otherwise flat landscape of the Somerset Levels. These myths concern Joseph of Arimathea and the Holy Grail, and also King Arthur. Glastonbury is also said to be the centre of several ley lines.
  • Monte Verità in Ascona, Switzerland.
  • Totnes – known as "Britain's alternative capital. A New Age nirvana of Sufis, surfers and Buddhist builders ..."[3]

United States

Central America

  • San Marcos La Laguna, Guatemala – A very small town on Lake Atitlan. There is an assortment of schools, teachers, and healers. Las Piramides del Ka was the first school to bring yoga and meditation to San Marcos La Laguna. Now there are a variety of different schools teaching yoga, Tai Chi, Massage, Reiki, breathwork, etc.

India

Charismatic leadership

Such communities may be founded by charismatic leaders who may be credited with quasi-religious status, being considered gurus or messiahs. Such leaders inhibit the survival of these communities.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Oliver Popenoe, Cris Popenoe (1984). Seeds of Tomorrow: New Age Communities that Work. Harper&Row. ISBN 0-06-250680-3.
  2. ↑ Kemp, Daren and James R. Lewis, ed. (2007). "The Diffuse Communities of the New Age". Handbook of New Age. Brill Academic Publishers. pp. 175–79. ISBN 90-04-15355-1. Retrieved 2010-08-28.
  3. ↑ Lucy Siegle (2005-05-08). Shiny hippy people. London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2010-05-20.
  4. ↑ Christoph Brumann (2000). "The Dominance of One and Its Perils: Charismatic Leadership and Branch Structures in Utopian Communes". Journal of Anthropological Research. 56, No. 4 (4): 425–451. JSTOR 3630926.
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