Therafields by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Canada, General
ISBN: 9780228839323
Google: NrDezQEACAAJ
Publisher: Tellwell Talent
Published: 2020-09-22T00:37:01+00:00

10

THE HEART AND SPIRIT OF COMMUNITY

the speech is gathering

what’ll we say next time

after the city’s dead

after the fantasy that is north america crumbles

what’ll we do if we’re left

knowing the people we thot weren’t listening weren’t

it is simple hell a complex vision of heaven

operating as a curse does

brings you down

from The Martyrology Book 2 bpNichol

D URING THE THREE YEARS from 1970 through 1972, the population of Therafields almost tripled from 200 members to 585. Most of these new members belonged to the youth counterculture and were attracted by the communal living situations, by the farm and the organic farming, and by the pursuit of self-knowledge through therapy. During 1968 and 1969, Lea had put the infrastructure to accommodate them in place. In 1967 the eight therapists taking groups had agreed to contribute their fees from marathons to maintain the farm. By 1968, one third of the therapists’ income covered the cost of the employees and services at the office and farm, and in 1969 the therapists became commissioned employees of a newly formed corporation. The psychotherapists believed that this structure was necessary to create lines of credit, but that they would function semi-independently. But the question of whether therapists were employees or semi-independent would create confusion as long as Therafields was in existence.

In September 1969, Therafields was incorporated with Robert Hindley-Smith as president, bpNichol as vice president and Renwick Day serving as treasurer. At the time, there was much joking about these designations, for no one imagined that such conventional hierarchies would ever play a role in a movement based on trust and co-operation where decisions were made by consensus. However, those corporate positions became gradually more powerful and were filled by the same three people until Therafields was dissolved.

In 1970, Therafields Foundation, a non-profit corporation, was founded with the intention of removing Therafields Farm from the reaches of normal business and assuring that the farm would remain the patrimony of everyone who was in therapy, past, present and future. If the Foundation dissolved, its assets by law had to be passed on to another non-profit corporation. The Foundation was later granted charitable status by the federal government.

In 1970, Therafields Environmental Centre (York) Ltd., a revamp of the 1969 corporation, was mandated in its letters patent to offer therapeutic services and “to conduct studies and/or experiments and/or to provide instructions in the fields of creativity, environment, communal living, emotional education and growth.” Members of Hypno 1 owned all the voting shares and so controlled the corporation. By 1973, 427 of the 633 members were the actual owners having paid $1 for each of their common shares in Therafields. Lea did not own shares and the other therapists owned only a small portion. The ownership of the community was now communal, but adopting a conventional financial structure enabled it to borrow money freely. It was generally agreed that there would be no financial gain from any of the shares unless the community dissolved and no one expected that would ever happen. Individuals

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