Harbin Hot Springs, California
(Page 2 of 4)
July/August 1984
By the Mother Earth News editors
Lowell Smith, Christine Wippert, and Ishvara
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At Harbin Hot Springs we've come together to fulfill the dreams of the New Age. We do this by providing a serene and beautiful environment for people in which they can realize their human potential ... heal them-selves and others ... and be in tune with natural and spiritual energies in living, working, and creating. We enjoy and share this environment with visitors, both individuals and groups that come for education, recreation, and retreat. The quiet here, the clean air, and the famed hot and cold pools are popular with local people and visitors from points as distant as Sweden, Germany, Hawaii, and Pakistan.
The community accepts for membership those people who, in their own ways, feel a resonance with the New Age ideals of the human potential movement, the holistic natural movement, and/or universal spirituality. We have no required beliefs or practices. What's important to us is how people act, rather than what they profess to believe.
Many programs, which are organized largely on a do-it-yourself basis, are available, but none are mandatory. These include awareness groups ... groups designed specifically for men, women, or parents ... yoga, t'ai chi, and dance/aerobics classes ... macrobiotic and cooking programs ... and so on.
For centuries Native Americans believed Harbin Hot Springs had magical, healing properties. The property functioned as a wellknown European-type spa in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. After a colorful history and a gradual decline, the resort was abandoned in 1968. In 1972 it was purchased by one of our community's founding members, who donated the property to Heart Consciousness Church, a nonprofit corporation organized by the resident community to manage the land and to help manifest the community's common ideals and beliefs.
The transformation since those beginnings has been remarkable. New construction has been taking place at an impressive rate, along with loving renovation of our older buildings. Our large community garden, which has replaced—for the most part—individual plots, is starting its third year and is a showpiece.
There are several established schools here: the Niyama School of Massage, the Harbinger Center work-study program, the East West Center of Macrobiotics, and the Shiatsu Center. The school for our own children has three certified teachers, parent volunteers, and other helpers who simply like youngsters. Our cabinet shop builds our furniture, doors, and windows; we expect eventually to make such products for outside sales. In our auto shop an expert mechanic repairs vehicles for visitors and community members.
