How do we form resilient villages that model personal sovereignty, healthy interdependency around basic needs, and reunion with earth?

It seems to me we’re at a crossroads in this time of accelerating economic/political failure and creeping authoritarianism. We’ve had back-to-the-land enthusiasm (1G, 60s and 70s), a renaissance in natural building and permaculture (2G, 90s and 2000s), but now most communities I’m familiar with are struggling to demonstrate a nourishing and stable alternative to the industrial-growth mainstream. Conflict, transiency, the distraction of off-site livelihood, and the lack of shared spiritual practices are common.  It’s time to build interdependency around basic needs, not just the physical ones (like food, housing, energy, and stewardship of the land), but the emotional/spiritual ones like meaning, growth, cooperation, beauty, and emergence. But how do we make this happen? Visitors should notice a palpable vibrance when they arrive. We would be part of a network of many other like villages, eventually, which share knowledge, skills, and trade.

The main problems seem to be:

1. transiency and lacking a critical mass of long-term, diverse-skill residents for economic self-sufficiency and/or a lack of nearby mainstream populations to trade with.
2. daily communal spiritual practices that form a foundational culture of trust and care (e.g. daily group meditation).
3. communication practices and agreements that generate creativity and sustain connection through conflict and challenges (e.g. Nonviolent Communication, Council Circles, Focusing)

I’ve lived in five communities over 5 of the past 13 years and want to pool my experience with others of similar aspirations and experience in order to mutually understand what works, what doesn’t work, and what can we practically implement assuming that the building costs and land acquisition are solvable. I would like to live in such a place, preferrably the Pacific Northwest, but am open to other places in the USA.

I propose weekly zoom calls to identify what values and practices we can put on the table, and then enter a process of discovery. As a facilitator of nonviolent communication, focusing, and process workshops, I’m happy to offer some practices and agreements to form a nurturing and efficient container. Please email Frank at frank@emergentdialogue.com if you have seasoned experience living in an intentional community and you’d like to conjure and I’ll set up some meetings.