THE WALDEN COMMUNITY

Beyond Walden Two

For the people who initiated the Walden Community, reading the novel Walden Two by B.F. Skinner was our first contact with the idea of intentional community. It was thus an essential book which put us on the way of the world of communities; and more concretely brought us to search a radical, egalitarian and sharing communal way of living, with communal education; strongly based on the theory and practice of scientific psychology; and firmly decided to build a whole alternative to the dominant model of society, through a deep cultural transformation. 

When we met, after several visits to Los Horcones Community in Mexico, and after other experiences in different kinds of intentional communities in Great Britain, we decided to found a new community, as we hadn't find one where we could fulfill our aspirations of fundamental social transformation (see Links: Intentional Communities).

At that time, we reflected and debated deeply about the strengths and limitations of the Walden Two model, and we concluded that, in order to build a feasible and truly developed culture, it was necessary "to go beyond Walden Two". Los Horcones state that they are a "Walden Two Community" not because they follow the book, but because they are based on Behavior Experimental Analysis and its philosophy, Radical Behaviorism (trend of psychology and vision of the world to which Skinner devoted his life). For us, it was beginning to become clear that this feature was enough to decide that we weren't going to be a "Walden Two Community". 

We judged essential to develop a wide and integrating vision of scientific psychology. Our experience with the challenges that communal life and the building of the Walden Culture put us every day has made us more and more convicted of this idea. This vision includes relevant contributions for our culture from developmental psychology, cognitive-behavioral psychology (including Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy), social psychology, preventive psychology, environmental psychology, behavior experimental analysis and, in general, from any trend or model which has not only conceptual coherence and empirical basis, but also positive consequences derived from its language, given its importance not only in the description of reality but also in its building. For example, apart from the objections that could be made to the conceptual coherence and empirical basis of psychoanalysis or astrology, an analysis of the reality that these models build, of the consequences of its language on the behavior of people who look for help in them, is enough reason for us for not taking them into consideration for our project.

We consider that the difference between this integrating vision and one based essentially on behavioral  psychology (for example) produces by itself dramatic consequences not only on the community's ability for solving troubles and advancing, but also on the definition itself of the objectives of change, and on the amplitude and strength of our  philosophical and epistemological bases, which affects deeply our vision of the world and our decisions in all areas of life. It also affects in a crucial manner our possibilities of achieving a true intimacy (sharing and acknowledgement of everyone's thoughts and feelings of all kinds) and thus the true and deep friendship upon which we want to build our social structure (see Links: Psychology).

Despite all this we've said, we decided to choose the name "Walden" for the community (without the "Two"), because we believe that with our thought and our life we are continuing and developing a flow of ideas on transformation of the foundations of society, of which, between others, the books Walden or Life in the Woods by H. D. Thoreau, and Walden Two by B. F. Skinner, are representative, even if it's clear that it comes from before. We think that this name can serve as an stimulus for other people who have felt intensely "touched" by these readings, as ourselves, and that at the same time it doesn't emphasize the figure or the work of any specific author, according to our egalitarian philosophy (it ultimately derives from Walden Pond in Massachusetts, U.S.A.).

Though we don't consider indispensable that any person who thinks of the possibility of making part of this community has read Walden Two, knowing the impact that the book made on you and your reflections on it may be very important for the deep previous written communication we favor with people who think of becoming members (see Community Description).

May, 2004.