Our Team
New Members: Chris, Alisha & Paula recently arrived ~ updating soon!
Richard Weaver- Founder
From Engineer to Re-engineer After spending the first 25 years running an electrical engineering company specializing in oil refinery air quality monitoring I started to realize there is something very wrong with civilization. Why is our built civilization so ugly when nature is very beautiful and why are so many people unhappy, or worse, mentally ill and even committing suicide? And so began the long journey down a very deep rabbit hole. Shortly after retirement in 1998 the Y2K event started looming large and although I did not believe civilization would collapse, I began to realize just how vulnerable our civilization was. My first big "aha moment" came when I read Daniel Quinn's "Beyond Civilization". Having bought into the common belief that our current civilization is the peak of human achievement it came as quite a shock to learn that it might not be. Later I found Charles Eisenstein's book "Ascent of Humanity" which added even more ideas about what has gone terribly wrong in our civilization with a plausible narrative as to how and why. Then I read Micheal Reynolds trilogy "Earthship, Build your own" in 2002. The earthship books were so astonishing, it showed how to build an off-grid fully functioning house with utilities. Between 2002 and 2006 my family and I built one! The answer to so many problems. As I turned my attention from one industrial complex to the next it became clear that our foundational money system is destroying the environment, people and creating such ugly cities and built structures. But it goes much deeper, all the way down to our base belief system. It is from here, this faulty belief in separation, separation from nature, separation from each other and the belief that what I do to another or the environment does not affect me, a belief system started by Western religions (separate from God) and perpetuated by science (separate from the universe) is the foundation of the faulty belief system that creates the faulty money system, creating the faulty food, water, housing, energy, sanitation, education and medical systems that destroy the very product or service that is trying to be provided. The answers are out there, how to create all we need in abundance, but because of our belief system we dismiss the solutions as nonsense because they go against the ideas of growth, economy of scale, consumerism and globalization. But these old story ideas have serious flaws, we need a new belief in connectedness and sharing and a return to small scale operations at the local level; relocalization. Stay small and replicate! After building the earthship, pioneering electric vehicles, learning about permaculture and regenerative agriculture I became a speaker to get the word out about climate change and I started a Transition Town movement. But few came, few changed. Then this spring (2018) an opportunity arose and I bought 145 acres surrounding my earthship with the intent to create an intentional community. Some of the most abused are people with "mental illness" and my new vision is to provide them education in our new community, not with formal classes, but hands on creation of our houses and utilities using the latest off-grid sustainable building techniques and to regenerate the overgrazed fields into beautiful food producing art pieces, that's right, artistic, regenerative farming and houses too! All who come are welcome to stay, move on or replicate. As I write this it is 2018 and I am 68 years old and for the first time in my life I feel very passionate about my role in helping to create a new story for humanity and our planet earth. |
Diana Anthony -Arts & Hospitality Collaborator
“Pot Stirrer” I like this designation because it’s irrational. What I like best about myself is that ever since I can remember, I have been dedicated to understanding the human experience. I am broadly rather than narrowly informed. From my present perspective, it is a beautiful and coherent pattern. I have watched myself grow from naïve numbness, to suicidal depression, to wakeful happiness. I attended Catholic and public elementary schools in Wisconsin and Alabama, public high school in Alabama (National Honor Society). I studied Art and English at the University of South Alabama, earned a BA in English (Music) at American Christian College (1974), and earned a BS in Psychology (Native American Studies) at Montana State University. Many years ago I found myself in a desperate battle to reclaim my life from the tar pit of severe depression. But I’m chemically sensitive, so pharmaceuticals were not an option. I chose analysis, spiritual practice, education and especially GROWING UP, as the chief means of my liberation from depression. I ate a whole foods diet with vitamins and herbs. I earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and did advanced studies in Twelve Step programs. I gained broad and inclusive perspectives that allow me to apprehend that many influences including socioeconomic and cultural factors contribute to well-being or lack of it. I have always included movement, art and being in Nature as foundational to well-being. ALL THAT SELF-HELP WORKED!! I finally enjoy mental and emotional stability and a huge appreciation for the complexity of human life, health and well-being. It did not happen in a vacuum. There were human communities and partnerships. Wounding happens in the presence of other humans as does healing. I have a theory that any effort we put into Self-help yields 10X or more than if we turn ourselves over to experts. Lightning Ranch embraces a “first we are humans” philosophy. We are humans embedded in a living system, the Earth. Our experiment is to restore damaged land to lush productivity that nourishes human life, domestic animals and wild ones. We aim to grow a community that restores sanity to human relations. I bring the passion of an amateur (in its root sense “lover of”) to this enterprise. My love will be focused on food, arts, movement and Psyche (mind, consciousness, awareness). I will “stir it up.” |
Lance Rayborn
From Scientist to Spiritual Healer Pictured excitingly holding my first block of homemade cheese I made from our goats! I was the first person in my family to go to college as well as obtain an advanced degree. I followed the mainstream recipe for success with grateful support from my family: get an education, get a good job with benefits, have your own place and car, etc. Even though I had everything I could ever want, I was intermittently depressed, abused and addicted to drugs, suicidal, bulimic at times, an insomniac my whole life, amongst many other struggles. Studying and working in climate research allowed me to understand firsthand how sick our planet is, due to much more than the climate change narrative, yet I finally realized sitting behind a desk 50+ hours a week wasn’t going to change that. Fortunately I followed my intuition and left my job and career behind to search for what I was really here for. Who are we really? Why are we here? What is consciousness? These are all questions that saved my life, because it gave me something beyond my depressed reality to cling to in hope that there are actually answers to these questions. My saving grace was my love for Mother Earth and my relentless curiosity to understand the workings of our existence, as well as meeting some beautiful people who tremendously helped open my mind to alternative perspectives I had never heard anywhere before. Fast forward to undeniable evidence of higher guidance, inter-dimensional energy experiences and personal life transformation that catalyzed the remembering of my soul’s mission, and allowed me to obtain true healing to catapult me beyond my dis-eased life as an atheist climate scientist to the life I was supposed to embark on. This also aligned me with truth, the cosmic, universal truth that is accessible within all of us. The above are no longer questions in my mind after awakening, but primary drivers in how I conduct my daily life. Unfortunately such truths, and many others in society, have been infiltrated and subjugated by darkness and the power elites they subvert to establish a greedy, inhumane, corporate-controlled and unfairly governed society that seek to remove our birth rights of sovereignty on a global scale. In my awakenings I realized how unnatural and unhealthy our modern civilization and lifestyles have become, with focuses on money, technology, pharmaceuticals, materialism, pop culture, etc., which I was so entrained in and guilty of subscribing to myself. I have seen firsthand and now firmly believe the majority of the systems and information we rely on — our food, housing, medical care, government, politics, media and even some science — are highly corrupt and keep the populace in a state of confusion, fear and thus dis-ease, diminishing the potential of people to truly have productive, meaningful and loving lives that are in balance with nature and our interconnected reality. Through this inner transformation I aligned with my soul’s purpose on Earth in this lifetime as an energy and karmic healer to restore balance to the stresses and traumas we all inevitably experience as well as being an advocate and catalyst to spiritually awaken others to the truths of our reality most are blind to, albeit not at their fault. I have gratefully, through alternative healing I now provide to others, obtained significant control and balance of my life, emotions, energy, etc., obtaining full restoration of my sleep so that I no longer succumb to insomnia (which literally healed overnight), amongst other issues I struggled with like drug abuses, depression and archetypical trauma. I am so grateful to have found Lightning Ranch - an intentional community that understands we must build a bridge from our “old story” of civilization to a new one that seeks harmony, sovereignty and self-empowered health and wellness. Lightning Ranch provides the lifestyle that frees you from the control of our systems that keep us sick or complacent. We strive to meet all our own needs, understanding that humans have the capability to provide, heal and love for themselves. We build natural, minimalistic housing structures, plant and harvest our own food, cultivate animal and livestock operations, and focus on personal health and wellness in a freedom-oriented and self-responsible environment. Lightning Ranch has allowed me to thrive, and embrace the more natural lifestyles we were meant to be living, in harmony with Gaia to help her and all of us who rely on her to heal. I continue to work and heal towards creating a beautiful community that will be at the forefront of what a “new story” civilization can look like. Oh, and I like running, hiking, playing tennis, yoga, meditation, esoteric/occult research, and long walks (or just whaling) on the beach. I’m an I/ENFP and 5w4. My websites: www.LanceRayborn.com & www.DivinePartnership.net For freedom and healing! |