In our current era of growing interest in alternatives to the dominant, globalized, market-based culture, often called the “First World,” the School of Intentioneering provides information on the traditions and cultural innovations lived in the parallel culture of the decentralized, time-based economies of the “Fourth World.” Through aiding understanding of the history and development of the Fourth World, the School of Intentioneering supports those living in or interested in the community lifestyle within the competitive culture.

Currently the focus of the School of Intentioneering is upon publishing materials and producing videos for an online course and other presentations to support its mission (above), with opportunities for others to engage in these projects. The School is part of an urban community called the Dry Gulch Ecovillage, supported by rental income from two apartments available periodically to those interested in participating in the work of the School of Intentioneering. Future income is planned from publishing print and video resources, along with speaking and consulting services, for supporting the intentional communities movement, and its local networks of communities. These can then engage with other local, culturally-progressive educational, governmental, religious, business, and other organizations to create a regional “commonwealth,” through projects such as Transition Towns and bioregional organizations. Dry Gulch Ecovillage plans to support commonwealths in both Denver and in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri, planning in the Ozarks a real estate investment cooperative and a community land trust. The various programs of the School of Intentioneering are intended to present and support the many aspects of society and culture which involve lifestyles of gifting and sharing. The following are current projects in development for writing, organizing, speaking, teaching, and fund raising:

• The Utopia Writer’s Guild is planned to be a collaborative writing project for producing a range of different print resources and videos about community, to involve more than one writer. A resource called the “Group Writing Process” is available for coordinating the contributions of a group of writers on particular topics.

• The Cofamily in Partnership Spirituality is the extension of the concept of the family beyond single-parents, nuclear families, and extended families, to a fourth model of family to include three-to-nine adults who are not all related biologically. The term “cofamily” is intended to refer only to three-to-nine adults, with or without children, living and working together. Since religious conservatives place a spiritual value on at least two of the first three forms of family, the fourth family design is given a religious dimension called “Partnership Spirituality,” emphasizing the equality of women and men in place of the patriarchal family. This furthers the syncretism of Christianity, adding to its earlier influences of Judaism, Persian Dualism, Stoicism, and Paganism, the influence of women’s spirituality. The result is a new egalitarian religion outside of the patriarchal Abrahamic faiths, simply by deifying Mary of Magdala in the same way that Jesus of Nazareth was deified: we say it is so, then for us, so it is! Partnership Spirituality brings back the “Love Feast” as a celebration of community, through respecting the sacred, including life, land, and all acts of love and pleasure, and through honoring artistic expression. Partnership Spirituality emphasizes the good works of gifting and sharing (see the Epistle of James, Jesus’ brother, in the New Testament) over St. Paul’s focus upon faith. The cofamily idea represents mutual support among a small group of adults within a larger society. When a cofamily forms within a contemporary secular or religious communal society, it is called a “nested cofamily.”

• The 2027 Convergence of Religion and Political-Economics emphasizes how the two actually have similar influences upon society and culture, as both rely upon belief and faith more than reason. 2027 represents the 200^th anniversary of the first known printing of the term “socialism” in an 1827 issue of the Owenite journal The London Cooperative Magazine, and the 2,000^th anniversary of the beginning of Jesus of Nazareth’s ministry upon his reaching the age of thirty. While “Christian Socialism” was a 19^th century communitarian movement, the 2027 Convergence of these two anniversaries emphasizes “class-harmony community,” honoring Jesus’ ministry of love to both rich and poor, as opposed to the class-conflict of Marxist Communist theory. Egalitarian communalism, using non-monetary, time-based economics, represents what Marx and Engels envisioned for their second stage of communism, while communitarian socialism today is class-harmony community.

If you are interested in living and working with us in Denver, the Ozarks, or elsewhere please contact: 4thWorld(at)consultant.com