This has been on my mind for many years and I do plan to follow through on this plan to make it a reality one day.



In a Nuttshell:

The idea was to grow from there into a community + small bungalow park. If we can get a small number of tourists they can stay in those bungalows and if they want they can participate in well guided ayahuasca, peyote, mushroom, Iboga ceremonies and cures. For the Entheogens they would have to pay a humble price(under 5 euros). You could have shops that sell Marijuana, pure DMT, some other herbs, pipes and bongs. You could have artists try and sell their paintings, music-albums, jewelery..etc on a small market place.

You could charge 7 Euros for a night in a bungalow + Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner...etc See where this is going? That way the community can earn some extra money that it can use to buy medical supplies and medicines as well as food in case of need. If each community member tells a couple of their close friends and family that they are welcome to stay in a tropical entheogenic community for just 7 Euros a night I don't think there'll be a shortage of visitors.

That last part is merely a distant future vision. I'll stick to what I can do in the here and now.



Selfproviding

To be selfproviding this community would have farms, fish breeding ponds and perhaps some cattle(chicken, goats) to provide it's own food, solar panels and/or windgenerators and/or waterfall-driven generators to generate electricity, filtering units to filter water into drinkable tap-water and a sewage system to get rid of human waste.

The main sewer-pipe could be lead into a large tank where the human waste could be used as fertiliser, but also to filter off methane gasses from the sewage in the tank. Methane gas could be used for driving engines and generators that can generate electricity and drive machines so filtering it off of sewage and storing it migght be handy.

That and building some stone houses would provide the simple basic needs for survival.



Freedom

In the meanwhile I'm trying to figure out if it's possible to, when the land has been bought, make your own laws and be free of any other country's laws?

Because I intend to create a community in which entheogenic plants are holy, not illegal. I wish to be free to cultivate these plants, prepare them, consume them and make extracts from them without being harrassed/arrested/shot on sight by some goofy drug enforcement agency of some nearby conservative country.

Does any one have any ideas concerning laws on land you bought and constituting your own laws? I guess that information would be most helpfull.
Any practical problems you see in my plan: let me know. I hope to continuously make my plan better and error-proof. I was hoping you people could help me.

Sounds a bit like Huxley's Island a nice idea indeed.


PEACE
MV

Ive had this exact same idea only not nearly as well thought out, it does seem well within the realm of possibility, and well worth the investment the tough part would be like you say, making it an autonomous entity.

Perhaps I am being pessimistic but if we were to have an isolated island in the middle of nowhere, we would need to worry likely about other countries either attempting to tax us or worse, unless there was a defense function but this seems to be against the purpose of the island. I don't know also if it is possible to have an island without a national affiliation, perhaps it would be possible to create a territory of another country not directy privy to the laws of that nation but which paid taxes in exchange for defense. Perhaps the first thing to do would be to figure out where any possible islands for purchase would be and then figure out who owns them etc.

If we could figure this out then yes certainly the monetary cost would be next. I did a very quick search and the cost for islands in the caribbean was between $300,000 and up to the millions but for our purposes a few islands could likely be purchased for under a half million dollars and would innevitably pay itself back. Problem is still local governments as these are in the caribbean

check this one out its pricey at 550,000 but its pretty sweet. http://www.caribbeanisla...nds-for-sale/Harbor-Caye

here is another good one off of chile that seems ideal, possibly too southern but check it out. http://www.privateisland...ne.com/cui-cui-chile.htm

thanks for the stimulating post

Peace and Love

Well the founders of Wasiwaska have pulled it off to start an entheogenic, scientific, shamanic, medical and artistic community with an ethnobotanical garden, ayahuasca ceremonies and many other entheogens. This they've done on the Brazilian island of Florianopolis. Check: http://wasiwaska.org/ Very interresting place.
So somehow they found a way to participate in entheogenesis, entheogenic plant research and cultivation without risk of prosecution.

Perhaps they've done this much the way Santo Daime has gotten away with using Ayahuasca as a sacrament in Brazil, Germany, France, Holland, UK and US under the laws of religious freedom.
Perhaps this entheogenic artistic community, yet to be developped, can assure a legal status this way too.

To come back to the issue of defence:
I don't have many moral objections with having a small militia to defend the community in case of need. It's pretty much useless to fight soldiers of any government as they'll simply overpower us. Unless we arm ourselves to the teeth with machine guns and bombs, but indeed: That's not the kind of Community I wish to make. It's best to make a legal deal with the local governments concerning entheogenesis.(like Santo Daime did)
Do not forget however that on the world's seas there are pirates and smugglers/bandits/armed criminals. If they see an island that might be worth looting and notice there is no defence whatsoever, they probably won't hesitate going on land with guns and/or swords and loot and harm people.

Just in that case I think it's a good idea to at least be Able to Give them hell. With the variety of psychoactive plants we would grow it'd be easy to sedate/overpower armed strangers without actually harming them. Blowguns and 5-MeO Darts? Bufotenine Darts? Nasty! Immediately sedative opiate darts?

I don't hope to turn the community into a closed fortress, but cleverly concieling guard posts in treetop platforms and houses would be a clever way to keep an eye on the perimeter and it would be a very safe and stealthy place from which to blow psychoactive darts at terraspassers below. I have a friend who is a Commando, so if he might 1 day join me his knowledge might come in very handy.

You see I'm all very supportive of non-violence, butif your community is under attack and violence is done uppon you, it is your duty to defend yourself and eachother. To stand together and defend the community as 1 against the outside threat. You can't sit around and while people are stealing from you, extorting you, enslaving you, exploiting you....That's why I'm moving away from "the civilised world" in the first place; Want more Freedom. So I'll be damned if I'll let a bunch of armed criminals enslave and exploit me. If I really must, I will fight.

I would want to have a small self-sufficient community based around ethnobotanicals and the use of entheogens.

but I would ONLY allow botanicals to be used as psychoactives, no synthetics or extracts, or I fear we'd all get arrested no matter what country we were in.

I think we should begin making this a reality.

I have $10,000 in the bank.... anybody else in?

That's why people like us should unite. 10 scattered, weak communities? Or 1 strong community?
I would be down to settle for being legally left alone for using entheogenic plants in raw form. Santo Daime, Uniao do Vegetal, Peyote church of the inner light and Wasiwaska have all managed to start communities that practice legally permitted entheogenesis in amazingly conservative countries(UK, US, France, Germany, Holland) So it would be the way to go about establishing a legal entheogenic community.

Ya I'm sorry but no country will accept us if y'all plan to set up a DMT factory at the farm.

We'd have to stick to plants... there has been some tolerance shown for plant-drugs by nations like Brazil.

I completely agree, if we remain seperate we run the risks of being easily conquered, via legislation or otherwise. If we were united we would stand a much better chance and between all the extremely intelligent persons in this community it doesn't seem too far fetched. Also if we could parlay a deal similar to santo daime it would be much easier and less expensive than creating an island community, which runs into many more logistical issues.

Its a very exciting topic to say the least, I would love to turn my passion for entheogens into a full blown lifestyle, instead of pretending to be someone I'm not so society doesn't throw me in the can.

Maybe I'm being pessimistic, but don't these things, with human nature as it is, end up becoming like Jonestown?

Very good point Morphane and certainly a valid concern


In a way you are correct as far as I know none of the communes from the sixties worked out very well long term with all the original members. Disagreements personal conflicts ect, now I do not mean they were not a good thing to try but they were far from the Utopia that most associate with a commune.

And in my opinions skip the weapons stock pile. The general population has no access to weapons but a elite few do this usually does not work out very well. If possible become enlightened and lose your fear of Death when the pirates come laugh in there faces and explain there foolishness. This would be impossible for me if I had a family to protect I would likley hide out and attack them before they got to my family.

Living compounds surrounded by cactus thorns and moats full of alligators or pits of venomous snakes would be much safer. Just take proper care for your gators and snakes.

I would likely just take my chances and skip the gators and snakes as well

I think you can pretty much do as you please on a island in international waters. Look at all the Human rights violations going on around the world in many countries we are all aware of it and NOTHING is being done. So I would not worry about the law in other countries.

Read Huxleys Island a excellent book far ahead of its time.
http://www.island.org/Huxley/

PEACE
MV

Great idea

I hope in the future your vision gets off the ground and takes a step closer to becoming a reality.You already have a community of minds here to help make plans.