This article focuses on an ecovillage project called Tri-Star. Tri-Star is not for the faint of heart. It is a serious attempt at developing self-sustaining communities, off the grid and in preparation for an uncertain future that may include the fall of civilization.

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There are numerous attempts being made throughout the world regarding sustainable community living.  Most of these attempts function by looking at all aspects of one's life: food, health, relationship, spirituality as well as one's relationship to Nature.  Some of these movements include:

Transition Town, which is a movement across the world focusing on helping people develop resilience skills.  The function of Transition Town is to help people adapt to diminishing oil dependence due to diminishing supplies as well as climate change.  Transition Town also fosters more ecologically sound   behaviors within their community.  Transition Towns are movements meeting people where they are, within their existing community and homes.    

Ecovillages are planned communities, that are founded on the principle of sustainable living.   There is one in Ithaca, NY, which has been a relatively stable village.  

One of the frustrations some have with movements such as these is that they attract what some refer to as yuppies who are hippie wanna-be's! In essence, they have a lot of money to buy into what are often high dollar properties.   For example, in the comments section after the above film, Missy West states:

   Many of these so-called eco villages are only for the rich. The good news is there is increased

            movement among people to do affordable villages rather than those that are of high cost. It will

             take educating councils and other government agencies too as they love to put 'red tape' in the

             way of going green in affordable way. 

But then there are those that speak to living outside the "box" and are not for the rich. One such ecovillage is in Ireland:

These ecovillages are not all that extreme.  They are people working towards cultivating a sustainable lifestyle in a healthy fashion.  The question is:  "Is this enough?"  While some would give a "thumbs up" for effort, for these critics the effort is not good enough.  More radical strategies are necessary.

One such ecovillage model is Project Tri Star.

The mission of Project Tri Star is to create off-the-grid, eco-friendly, sustainable, and conscious communities that provide a safe and harmonious lifestyle for those who choose to live their lives based on natural and universal laws. They hope to create a community model that is both revolutionary and evolutionary in the world of long-term sustainability.

The intent of the Project TriStar initiative is to create a lifestyle and an environment that supports the community goals of self-sufficiency, healthy living, mutual respect, individual responsibility, and personal growth.  Their initiative is to bridge the gap between the physical world and the spiritual world in harmony with planet Earth. In essence, Project TriStar provides a realistic and attainable alternative to living in the social and economic structures that are commonly practiced throughout the world today. 

The members define successful planned community in terms of people, planning, and location. They understand that people form the heart and soul of any community endeavor. This fact underlines the importance of attracting like-minded people in order to ensure a cohesive and peaceful existence for the entire community.

Their plan defines the creation of a sustainable environment where people can live comfortably and in peace and harmony through a period that could result in some of the greatest challenges to human existence in known history.   The location of the Project TriStar communities will be chosen based on extensive research into the potentials and challenges surrounding these uncertain times along with a firm understanding of the balance between the risk, resources, practicality, and convenience.

In essence, the lands that they choose will be very remote.   In that remoteness, they are interested in inventing a lifestyle and environment that supports self-sufficiency, mutual respect, healthy living, individual responsibility and personal growth.   Ideas even include facilities for growing food underground should our air, soil, and water become too polluted for healthy agriculture.

Project TriStar is not for the faint of heart.   Their intent is to live very close to Nature in remote locations.   Within these locations, they desire living totally off grid.   No energy, for instance, will go into generating electricity. They also support a total raw vegan lifestyle.   Since animals such as dogs and cats are by nature carnivores, personal pets would not be welcomed in the villages.   There would be no access to manufactured medications.

In these very disturbing times of global warming, constant warfare, high rates of extinction, and immanent collapse, according to Project TriStar's Ivan Stein, these extreme measures are needed.   True community and spiritual growth would more truly meet our hungers, needs, and longings better than possessions and technology.   Isolating ourselves from the evils of the dominant culture and evolving toward participation in the universal law of harmonious interdependence would protect the community better than guns and fear.

As I write this, I think of the reactions many will have:   "Oh, my God!   Off the grid? Without man's "best friend"? I'll have to bust my a*s to survive?   I might starve to death.   No meat!? Not even cooking?   Oh, my God!   A tree might fall on my head, or I might be eaten by a 6 foot gator. Marauding outsiders might threaten our carefully achieved community resilience."

Upon discussion, my wife and I have less extreme but, perhaps, valid reservations.   Are these folks who are demanding so much of themselves and their members, simply visionaries of the true potential for human community or are they "realistic' eco-conscious survivalists?   Would such a life--living in dormitory housing, eating in a cafeteria setting, devoid of interaction with pets, working for the needs and order of the community rather than following one's heart, accepting regimentation, working toward spiritual ascension--really lead us to deeper community and enriched humanity?   It doesn't seem like the route we would choose into a more humane, Earth-friendly, co-creative future.   We believe too much in the diversity and creativity that humans display by nature to want to go down a pre-determined straight and narrow path.

These are real concerns.   Yet, if you read some of the studies on primordial cultures that were hunting and gathering types, it is reported that they work on average of 4.5 hours per day.   Let me repeat that.   Our ignorant and oftentimes naked savage ancestors worked an average of 4.5 hours per day.   The rest of the time was spent being with their kids, telling stories, dancing, creating Gods and Goddesses while being with Nature, which many realized was the Self.   This is why the term "Nature" means Essence.   Essence is the Self. In Hebrew, this Nature became Yahweh, or I AM while in Hindu, He-She became Brahmin, literally meaning "the Self.

If this is true, could Project TriStar be the true beginning of the leisure society? Perhaps the new Genesis can say Adam and Eve went back to the leisurely way of being natural? Yes, our return to Nature is a return to the Self, which is OUR Nature.   Our Self, which is more than the ego reading these lines, could then be recognized as THE Self!

Or as the Hindu Upanishad's say:

   It is above, it is below

   It is, in fact, this entire world

   and when one knows this

   one knows bliss in the self

   and in all worlds is free.

This self is our Nature.

So, here we remain, suffering through 40+ hours per week to be in debt to a pile of sociopathic bankers in order to get stuff we ultimately don't need, such as these computers we are reading from and writing upon. Yet, our ancestors worked an average of 4.5 hours per day?!   And we call those hours harsh and them ignorant savages.

Could projects like Tri-Star help us reclaim this lifestyle?   You decide.   Hopefully you do research before deciding.   Don't trust your conditioned mind.  Nor should you trust my word.  

Perhaps you'd like to listen to an interview my wife and I did with Tri-Star's Ivan Stein.   If so, go to:

The Project Tri-Star website is at:

http://www.projecttristar.net

If you wish to research self-sustaining communities more fully, you may wish to visit:

http://communities.ic.org

For more information on Transition Town, visit:

http://www.transitionnetwork.org

Authors Bio:
Burl Hall is a retired counselor who is living in a Senior Citizen Housing apartment. Burl has one book to his credit, titled "Sophia's Web: A Passionate Call to Heal our Wounded Nature." For more information, search the book on Amazon.

Burl's philosophy entails the idea that "everything effects and causes everything thing else." His spirituality of Sophia i.e., Wisdom is universal as well as within each of us. He also sees the idea of Chaos as not being "all over the place" but as infinite relationships.

The question I present in my articles speak not so much towards the politicians, but how WE the people can empower ourselves within a planet that is healthy, wealthy and wise.