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Communes USA

by Christian Goodwillie

History Religion & Spirituality Society & Culture

Season 1

Camphill Communities- Villagers and Co-Workers

The Camphill Movement is a worldwide network of communities designed to include people with and without intellectual disabilities: Villagers and Co-Workers. Based on the Anthroposophical teachings of Rudolf Steiner, Camphill seeks to develop each person's inherent potential to grow, learn, and achieve. On today's episode we talk with Dan McKanan, the Ralph Waldo Emerson Unitarian Universalist Senior Lecturer at Harvard Divinity School, and author of Camphill and the Future: Spirituality and Disability in an Evolving Communal Movement. McKanan has lived and worked at Camphill communities.

The New Motor- Spiritualist John Murray Spear

This week we have a fantastically weird-yet true-story that rivals Frankenstein. Spiritualist John Murray Spear and his followers constructed a "New Motor," or "Electrical Infant," under the direction of the spirits of Benjamin Franklin and others. It was to be animated with a charge of sexual energy with a mission of redeeming humanity. We speak with John B. Buescher, author of The Remarkable Life of John Murray Spear: Agitator for the Spirit Land.

Zendik Farm- Mating in Captivity, part 2

On this second episode of a two-part look at the Zendik Farm Arts Cooperative we speak with former member Helen Zuman. With roots in the Beat and hippie movements of late 1960s southern California, Zendik's message evolved to prophesy "Ecocide," a sure result of our "Death Culture." Helen Zuman's memoir Mating in Captivity can be found here.

Zendik Farm- Escape from the Death Culture, part 1

On this first episode of a two-part look at the Zendik Farm Arts Cooperative we speak with former members Jeanne Nolan and Verd Nolan. With roots in the Beat and hippie movements of late 1960s southern California, Zendik's message evolved to prophesy "Ecocide," a sure result of our "Death Culture." Jeanne Nolan's memoir From the Ground Up can be found here.

The Vitellus of the Cosmogonic Egg: The Koreshan Unity, part 2

Take a trip inside!!! Cyrus Reed Teed, aka Koresh, posited that the earth was a hollow sphere and all the cosmos were contained therein. His followers believed this messiah would lead them into androgynous immortality as they journeyed from Chicago to the Florida gulf coast. We're joined by experts Lyn Millner, author of The Allure of Immortality: An American Cult, a Florida Swamp, and a Renegade Prophet, along with Adam Morris, author of American Messiahs: False Prophets of a Damned Nation. Part 2

Heaven in a Hollow Earth: The Koreshan Unity, part 1

Take a trip inside!!! Cyrus Reed Teed, aka Koresh, posited that the earth was a hollow sphere and all the cosmos were contained therein. His followers believed this messiah would lead them into androgynous immortality as they journeyed from Chicago to the Florida gulf coast. We're joined by experts Lyn Millner, author of The Allure of Immortality: An American Cult, a Florida Swamp, and a Renegade Prophet, along with Adam Morris, author of American Messiahs: False Prophets of a Damned Nation. Part 1

Pilot Communes USA

This introductory episode covers America's communal history at a high level, exploring questions and themes that will resonate throughout the series.