Has anybody had experience, or known someone who did, with living in an intentional community? It could be as close to normal as a friends living together to help live out certain ideals (like a bunch of Buddhist college kids taking an apartment together) or as wild as living on a eco-village out in Montana. (Less flattering example: Branch David in Texas.)
Intentional communities are fairly common throughout history, especially in religious contexts; think Christian monasteries, or Gandhi's ashram. I majored in history and minored in sociology, and one of those perennial itches for me is the study of people as tribal. I think that, even as we live in cities with millions of others running around, we still itch to live in much smaller groups (<150). The tribal mentality expresses itself in everything from gangs to sports loyalties and sci-fi devotions. It's universal enough to run the political spectrum, from right-wing survivalist camps to hippie communes.
So, back to the question: anyone ever had any experience with these? My curiosity is personal, because there have been times when I would have liked to try it, but I've never met other people interested in it. Back in college, for instance, my ideal was some kind of spiritual village, like Gandhi's ashram or the earliest Christian communities, in which thins were shared in common and people lived simply, the community self-supporting. I'm not nearly as interested these days because I've read too much about Waco, Jonestown, and so on.
Intentional communities are fairly common throughout history, especially in religious contexts; think Christian monasteries, or Gandhi's ashram. I majored in history and minored in sociology, and one of those perennial itches for me is the study of people as tribal. I think that, even as we live in cities with millions of others running around, we still itch to live in much smaller groups (<150). The tribal mentality expresses itself in everything from gangs to sports loyalties and sci-fi devotions. It's universal enough to run the political spectrum, from right-wing survivalist camps to hippie communes.
So, back to the question: anyone ever had any experience with these? My curiosity is personal, because there have been times when I would have liked to try it, but I've never met other people interested in it. Back in college, for instance, my ideal was some kind of spiritual village, like Gandhi's ashram or the earliest Christian communities, in which thins were shared in common and people lived simply, the community self-supporting. I'm not nearly as interested these days because I've read too much about Waco, Jonestown, and so on.
Oh, would this count? 
