The people

My personal interest (Luc Sala)

Maybe it is helpful to explain what attract me in this setup and what I want to do in MySTèR in Breyell. It has to do with my exploration of my inner child, something I have kind of lost during my years as mediaman and entrepreneur. I like to have a place where I can entertain, work and feel free to do explore, mostly my psyche and it’s still little understood traumas, desires, ramblings and corners. I have a small apartment in Amsterdam centre, where I live, but used to have the larger Myster center in Amsterdam where I could receive up to a hundred people, guests from abroad etc. I was, for years, looking for a place to entertain my worldwide circle of friends, as guests, for workshops, concerts, teachings etc. Being able to offer them a nice place, opportunity to schedule workshops, rituals etc. would be a means to stay in contact with this global community of writers, teachers, friends. At http://www.mindlift.tv/ one can get an impression of the people I am talking about. Also my extensive library would be an asset for the place, also my audio-video editing equipment for professional productions, my art collection, statues, tools, Tipi etc. I also like to have a working place for writing and editing video, but still in a community setting. Furthermore, I would like to be able to invite my family  (kids, grandchildren) to join me for holidays or special events, do projects with them. I like to travel a lot, but would spend about half the time in the community. I am not interested being the custodian or working there, but would be available for incidental projects and partake in regular chores like housekeeping, fixing things, expansions etc. More at www.myster.nl/boekje60jaar.pdf

My personal interest (Agnès Wagemans)

Is to live together with others and also having my private space. I am selling my house in Zwolle this year and would like to have a smaller place somewhere to put my personal things. Apart from that I would like to have some space in order to work with people, mostly on a one-to-one base, doing therapy, healing and counselling and a space to paint, eventually giving workshops or courses.

Having a garden would be nice, not only to have the possibility to sit in it, enjoying the plants and the animals, but also to create a herbal garden or to do rituals outside.

I enjoy to eat with others regularly and can find pleasure in creating such meals.

It also would be nice to have a possibility to display my paintings and drawings.

I cannot predict how much time of the year I would be around, since travelling also is part of the things I want to do. That does not mean that I would not feel responsible for my share in the property as a whole and to connect with the others involved, in order to build up a living space together where it is pleasant to meet each other and to be.

My personal interest (Kyra Kuitert)

Since I left my parents at 17 I lived for exactly 20 years in several, very different kind of communities. Ranging from 3 to over a 100 people, from the heart of Amsterdam to the countryside of Colorado, in groups both very spiritual and very down-to-earth, woman-only and with or without kids. Those were 20 wonderful years and somehow seem to have fit my versatility.

Since almost 8 years I live on my own now. All in all a very good experience as well but already from the start I knew this was not my final situation.  Probably it is for that reason that already since long I am active in the Dutch en the Global ecovillage movement, dreaming of an ecological and spiritual community somewhere in a green surroundings.

I graduated as a gardener, landscape architect, Permaculture designer and Feng Shui consultant. So overall you could say that my path is to co-create our surroundings and add quality to the life of other beings. No surprise: having a large garden with room for fruits, herbs, veggies and quite corners for relaxation and meditation is a must, although I am realistic enough not to opt for a self-sustaining way of living. In living together with others I most enjoyed the common meals, sharing daily life (including emotions from time to time), accepting each other more or less as brothers and sisters and the spontaneous activities like going for a walk, sharing a cup of tea and a story, playing a game, working in the garden or just simply hanging in front of the TV together. This I miss so much living alone. Or at least; when you live alone you always have to arrange those things. So maybe I'm just being lazy…  ; -)

A place to grow old?

For many people interested in community living, there is the underlying motive that they are looking for a place to grow old in a supportive environment, with friends, freedom and creative and intellectual stimulation. This is an acceptable motive, as long as it’s clear and in the open, but often we hide this beneath altruistic and noble stories about helping humanity. And practically, it means we have to ascertain access for wheelchairs and other adaptations.

For many, the idea to have a place where they can grow old with likeminded people is very attractive, the baby boomers are near that point. It would be best, however, if people of all ages would participate, children are an asset and keep us grounded in reality.

Expansion

There is the idea, that such a place/center/habitat could be the nucleus of a series of similar habitats based on the same principle, allowing partners to occasionally shift to another location, eg. in Belgium, Germany, France or elsewhere. Once the first place would be operational, this idea could be taken wider, new partners found and more locations, but still with this tribal community idea as a basis. In that way a group of habitats/estates could be formed, allowing more people to participate and more diversity. Setups like the Global Ecotechnics group www.globalecotechnics.com/ with locations all around the world kind of operate like that. Especially the creative individuals we are targeting might like that idea, having more homes and places to live and thus a larger and more international community.

Is this a reality? Yes, look at www.myster.nl

Are you interested? People who like to join us in this great place are invited to at least come and visit and if things click, to come live with us for a few months, so we can see if things “click”.