Living Without Money

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"Jesus said, 'don't lie, and don't do what you hate.'"
(Gospel of Thomas 6)
If you doubt what's in this website, follow this saying,
then you'll know whether or not it is true.
Aren't lying and doing what you hate one in the same?

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):

  33. What about hygiene? (And its High Philosophy)

All ABOVE FAQ's ON 1 PAGE FOR PRINT-OUT  

Please feel free to print & copy.  Nothing on this site is under copyright.  These ideas cannot be owned.

    Links:

    Contains links to other moneyless individuals (see below) all over the world, and info on living in and creating a moneyless world for yourself!
    Created by el Pavlik (see below)

    The Zeitgeist Movement
    visions of a moneyless world from some different perspectives than my own.

    Quotes about money & banking 

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    SOME OTHER FOLKS 
    VOLUNTARILY LIVING MONEYLESS
    IN THE MODERN WORLD:

    Heidemarie Schwermer
    living moneyless in Germany since 1996.
     
    Mark Boyle,
    An Irishman living moneyless in the UK
    freeconomy, online gift-economy community he founded
    His book, The Moneyless Man

    Raphael, Benjamin, Nieves & Camille (Forward the (R)evolution):
    from Germany & France (repectively) who have boat-hopped & hitch-hiked around the world with no money, raising consciousness. 

    Peace Pilgrim
    Most hard-cord of all of us!  She lived nearly 30 years without money, wandering North America with nothing but the clothes she wore & a few items in her pockets until she died at age 79!

    elf Pavlik,
    Gave up money a couple years ago on the European continent (he claims no nationality or state I.D.) and has been bringing us moneyless folks together into a cohesive movement. 

    Tomi Astikainen
    from Finland.  He gave up money a couple years ago and has been traveling internationally since.  He is writing an online book for free!
     
    Adin,
    proving "Umbutu" in South Africa.  He started a 5-year experiment in 2009 of not spending money, though he raises it, not for himself, but for good causes.

    Sonja Kruse,
    proving "Umbutu", in South Africa.  She wandered without money for about a year and discontinued it to do other grand things with her life.

    Öff Öff Jürgen Wagner,
    in Germany. Theologian living moneyless (I hope to update about him when I know more).

    There are probably others I've missed and many more who are off the grid and under the radar who can't be listed here.

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    Audio & Videos

    Moneyless In Moab  (15 min) 2006 docu-film by Gordon Stevenson

    Zero Currency (10 min) 2009 docu-film by Brad Barber
     
    Beehive Stories: Grand County (5:48 min) KBYU TV docu-film, part of a Utah series by Brad Barber, taken from filming for Zero Currency above.

    Two videos, featuring Mark Boyle & Suelo, made by our wandering Christian friends:

    Money As Debt     (47 min) Banking & money explained so simply a child can understand it.  After watching, I challenge you to ask yourself: Is it possible to ethically do any business with any bank anywhere?

    2. Do You Think Money Is Evil?

    No.  Money is illusion.  Illusion is neither good nor evil.  Attachment to illusion is evil.  Attachment to illusion is called idolatry.    

    Few will even question what money really is, because it is so pervasive, like air.  Yet, unlike air, money does not exist outside the mind, but is only pervasive in the mind (unless we get into deeper Buddhist philosophy, which points out that all things arise from mind).    

    Contrary to common definitions, money is not gold or silver, cowry shells or cattle; money is not bills, it is not credit cards, it is not numbers in a bank or tabulations on paper.  Money is purely belief in the head.  Money exists no place else but in the mind.  Money is a strange phenomenon that exists only because two or more people believe it exists. 

    Where two or more are gathered in the belief of money, money is in their midst.   

    To say that I live without money isn't saying anything, really.  That's like saying I live without belief in Santa Claus.  Now, if we lived in a world where everybody believed in Santa Claus, you might think I'm stepping out on a limb to live without Santa Claus, who never existed.   
     
    What if we saw gold for what it is?  Gold is pretty, but virtually useless in most cases.  But somebody decided it has an inflated worth, and everybody decided to believe this decision.  Now few people see gold for its reality, but they see fictitious values.  Natives in North America thought Europeans were utterly insane because of their lust for such a useless yellow substance.

    What if we spent as much of our wealth and energy on living beings as we do on guarding and revering gold bars at Fort Knox, gold bars which do nothing, gold bars which don't hear, don't see, don't smell, don't taste and don't speak, and which provide neither food nor clothing nor shelter nor warmth to a single living being!  What if we spent as much of our wealth and energy on living beings and as we do on guarding and revering pieces of paper and coins, as well as numbers in data-bases, which do absolutely nothing, which don't hear, don't see, don't smell, don't taste and don't speak, and which provide neither food nor clothing nor shelter nor warmth to a single living being!  

    Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; eyes they have, but they do not see; they have ears, but they do not hear; noses they have, but they do not smell; they have hands, but they do not handle; feet they have, but they do not walk; nor do they mutter through their throat. Those who make them are like them; so is everyone who trusts in them.   (Psalm 115:4-8)

    Imagine if you had eyes that saw.  Imagine that you had eyes that saw reality rather than your own belief.  Imagine if you saw a $100 bill as a piece of paper with a pretty work of art on it, and nothing else.    

    Our real selves live without money, always have, and always will. 

    Only our pretend selves can live with and use and own money.  Don't get me wrong, that's not even saying that money is evil, or that to pretend is evil!  But when we think our pretense is reality, this is when we've sunk into disaster.

    Think about this, please.  
    I am tired of living in the pretend world that thinks itself real.  I am tired of being a pretense.
    People of commerce often tell children and people like us to get real, to join the real world. 

    Now I want you to reconsider who is really in the real world. 

    Really consider this, please!  

     
    It's kind of funny how those most attached to money always tell me emphatically,

    'Money is not the root of all evil, but  "The love of money is the root of all evil"!' (quoting 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 10)

    If only they believe what has just come out of their own mouths.   People get emphatic about defending what they most love.  

     

    Alcoholics in denial are quick to emphatically tell you that alcohol isn't the problem, it is dependence on alcohol that is the problem.  They assure you they can quit any time.  Same with a heroin addict in denial or any other addict in denial.  

     

    No, heroin is not evil.  The problem truly is addiction to heroin.  But, I ask you this: do you know of anybody who shoots heroin who isn't addicted?  And I also ask you this, what is more addictive, heroin or money?  

     

    Now any AA attender will tell you that the first step in overcoming addiction is to let go of your denial and admit your addiction.  Then you can proceed to the next 11 steps, one at a time.