AS Societies - aren't most communes made up AS people?

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I've only had contact with a few communes. A lot of the people there sure seemed to be on the spectrum. Maybe a lot of AS people are driven to create societies for people of like minds.

Which ones have you been to? Did you do the typical "three-week visit" a lot of them offer?

I would love to live with those who understood me. It hurts to be so different because people are so cruel to those they don't understand.

These communes I went to were years ago, hippy days and they were short visits, except for a huge house in Chicago that I lived in for a few months. There was one in Michigan where they built a lot of geodesic domes and let me play with their welding equiptment so show me how easy it was. I talked on the phone to someone about The Farm in Tennessee and there was another farm in Wisconson. I visited only one Oregon commune where the people were really unfriendly but they wanted more people there but hated people so it never got big.

Nowadays I've met or talked to Oregon people who live in communes but I can't get away for visits right now.

I met lots of people on my wavelength.

I've spent a fair amount of time in communes and long suspected there is a high incidence of ASD's. I think you may find the same in 'outlaw' biker gangs and religious orders. Some intrepid psychologists are need for extended field trips. (Hermits too; that Stylities geezer - definitely on the wrong planet)

This might be true... on the other hand though, I am fiercely independent to a fault, and almost refuse to associate with any social group. I have enough trouble with groups I -MUST- be a part of (work, etc...). But that's probably just me, I think I'm weird even for an Aspie.

i'd like to live with another aspie i just dont know how to get started. give me a few options and it will take me forever to decide. in about 5 months my lease is up as many of you know and i'll be looking for a new place to live. so if anyones intrested and isnt a serial killer let me know

IMHO Aspies are the people LEAST suited to communal living and thus, least likely to be drawn into or accepted in it.

When I was very, very young, I spent a lot of time in the London equivalent of Haight Ashbury, and it seems to me that, although freethinking and wild on the surface, underneath, the hippy "communards" were creatures of the herd indeed...conforming rigidly to their own group norms and rejecting everyone who did not. There was certainly not more acceptance for this Aspie than there was anywhere else.

Same goes for biker gangs etc...

But I cannot help wondering if these people were, superficially "Aspie wannabes" even though, of course, AS was unheard of then?

M

that's got me thinking. yep, now i remember, the herd instinct, fascistic undertones,...try being a meat eater in a room full of hippies...But, aren't you part of a commun(ity) on WP. Diagnostically speaking I'm very AS, very independent, but deep down, always looking for my herd. MOO! MOOO!

I believe many of us are ver independent because for years we have not found a group we truly felt comfortable in. In highschool I always wondered why I didn't feel comfortable in any group...There were the kickers (Texas guys), the freaks, the preppy gang...and I had friends in all of them...they all attempted to include me in their group, but I could never be part of any of those groups...

I do, however, believe that if I found a group of people that were more like me, I'd love to be a part of it...I just haven't found it...Just random people here and there...

Where do you find out more about these people? What is their lifestyle, and why do they choose it? I know nothing about this.

Mechanima's observations about it seem logical to me.

The Kindree organization in Eugene, Oregon isn't a commune but it has a lot of spectrum people doing things together and it feels very communal. They do art, music, retreats and just coping infromatiom. When I hang around with them, it's fun and it's a complete feeling of acceptance. They have in their mission statement to celebrate the autism spectrum.

There is a great little "vignette" in the movie "In the Name of the Father" that took me stright back to Charrington St, and 1972, when I actually lived there...although, to be honest, it was more evocative of the slightly different "scene" in Stoke Newington, a few miles away.

That is what they were like...with their alternative conformity.

And they NEEDED people, and the reinforcement of a group in all the ways I can't even identify with, being that near mythical creature the "Schizoid Aspie" myself...

Personally I like people a lot, even groups of people, but find them exhausting hard work, I NEED isolation and autonomy...

Having really "been there" communal living became one of me greatest, rational fears.

M

Intentional Communities website


And for a prominent example of a stable income-sharing community:

Twin Oaks Intentional Community in Virginia

Huh, those are really interesting. There's something that sounds sort of appealing about that, but also kind of terrifying.

My biggest problems with groups, communes, too, is that, often I don't know what is expected of me so I stay out of everyone's way. Sometimes that causes resentment because people could think I'm just being lazy. We need to talk to each other and avoid misundertandings. Some things need to be spelled out more to AS than to NT. It's like we don't know all the dance steps.