Unreal Estate

Lucinda Carspecken is Adjunct Professor in Qualitative Research Methods and Anthropology at Indiana University Bloomington.

"Anthropologist Carspecken (Indiana Univ.) offers an extraordinarily captivating and challenging book based on a year and a half of reflective research in the 109-acre intentional community of Lothlorien near Bloomington, Indiana. Integrating numerous revealing quotes from members and 26 photos, Carspecken thoroughly documents in vivid detail alternative worldviews, values, and behaviors associated with this dynamic experiment, ongoing since 1987. This book merits attention from general and academic audiences because Lothlorien contrasts dramatically with the mainstream US, thereby offering not only a penetrating critique but, far more importantly, serious alternatives for rethinking and reforming a society plagued by many problems resulting from the widespread alienation of people from nature and from each other. Most of the residents and visitors of Lothlorien are actively committed environmentalists pursuing sustainable and green lifestyles that revere land and life as sacred. This utopian residential community and ecumenical nonprofit organization is a sanctuary for individual freedom and creativity as well as an enchanting space for eclectic art, rituals, and festivals reflecting many religious influences, including Neo-Paganism. Collectively, members have imaginatively constructed a progressive, hopeful society based on sincerity, mutual respect, tolerance, caring, affection, equality, and genuine democracy. Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries. —Choice"— L. E. Sponsel, emeritus, University of Hawaii, June 2012"Anthropologist Carspecken . . . offers an extraordinarily captivating and challenging book based on a year and a half of reflective research in the 109-acre intentional community of Lothlorien. . . . Essential."—Choice"This book advances knowledge . . . in various areas of current critical and popular debate and will be of interest to scholars . . . as well as to a diverse popular readership."—Graham Harvey, author of Contemporary Paganism"So much attention is paid today to national affairs that we are losing an understanding of the nature of small-scale governance. Readers of An Unreal Estate will benefit greatly from the insights of community participants in their revealing interviews about opportunities, struggles, surprises, and the wide range of meaningful events that can occur in a small intentional community. This is a book that is very worthwhile for scholars as well as citizens to buy, read, and think hard about."—Elinor Ostrom, 2009 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences"This is the only study to date of a specifically neo-pagan community and therefore is a pioneering work."—Sabina Magliocco, author of Neo-Pagan Art and Altars"A significant contribution to the study of intentional communities."—Sarah M. Pike, author of New Age and Neopagan Religions in America

• AcknowledgmentsA Note on Names1. "That Dose of Unreality": An Introduction to Lothlorien Nature Sanctuary2. "Dream Flowers": Fiction and Utopian Imagination in Neo-Paganism and Alternative Communities3. Faerie and Avalon: Reimagining Nature4. "A Loose-Knit Anarchy": Reimagining Organization5. "The Land of Misfit Toys": Reimagining Community and Freedom6. "Something Mystical and Fine": Reimagining Ritual and Spiritual Experience7. "A Gypsy Community": Cycling, Learning, and Moving On8. "A Spontaneous Social Experiment"NotesBibliographyIndex