We began our project, EarthStar Primal Habitat in 1997, and have successfully built our own little 309 square foot, circular B.E.L.L., (Biogenic, Ecodesic, Living Lighthouse) as inspired by the late Edmond Bordeaux Szekely, who translated the Essene Gospel of Peace and founded the Science of Biogenics.

            We live in our little B.E.L.L. on 2 and 1/2 acres in the country. We hope to serve as an inspiration and a model to others who might want to live lightly and gently on the earth in voluntary creative simplicity. We have developed an all-sided approach, demonstrating how to live a life of integrity, health and peace. We believe that the secret to happiness is in requiring only “a minimum of needs”.  It is possible to easily maintain a pleasant level of comfort by being willing to take responsibility for our lives, working on the basics of life and pursuing the “real” pleasures of life, such as whole foods, sunshine, fresh air, nature, beautiful music and fulfilling art, while eliminating the false pleasures of unhealthy diet, excess possessions, over-stimulation, too much busyness – discovering instead, the wisdom of the “greatness in the smallness.”

We constructed the B.E.L.L. ourselves, completely out of pine boards, cut from a local sawmill.  Since it is so small and the pine trees in our area are responsibly farmed by sustainable methods of replanting, etc., we feel that the B.E.L.L. is an ecologically- earth friendly building. It only cost $5,000 to build and we did all the work ourselves, even though we were as green as the grass about construction and carpentry.

Initially, we set up a rainwater catchment system with an 850-gallon underground cistern. We use a simple humanure, sawdust-composting system, as taught by Joe Jenkins in his book, The Humanure Handbook  http://www.weblife.org/humanure/  (we have no blackwater on our property) and we use all our greywater for trees and plants. Also, we’re able to grow a significant part of our food on the windowsills of our B.E.L.L., which has 19 windows. A large part of our food is Biogenic (life-generating) sprouts and baby greens. Because the B.E.L.L. is octagonal and surrounded by windows, it makes it somewhat like living in a greenhouse, complete with natural lighting and fresh air.

Mulching and composting enables us to recycle and rebuild our topsoil in order to grow organic vegetables for our vegetarian, biogenic diet. Our diet is about 75% raw and 25% cooked, consisting of sprouts, seeds, nuts, grasses, fruits and raw vegetables and simple, whole cooked foods. We do very little cooking, which makes it easy to live in such a small space. We use a single burner for our cooking and heating water and use a small under-the-counter refrigerator, which is sufficient for our needs. We plan to install a photovoltaic system in the future to supplement our energy needs.

Those are just the basic ideas of what we are trying to model, demonstrate and share with others. We are certified teachers of Biogenic Living, as taught by the International Biogenic Society, in Nelson, B.C. Canada. We feel that time is running out for our planet and that each one of us needs to take responsibility for our own lives, our health and peace, adopting sustainable ideas that are natural, ecologically sound and practical. We do not advocate that our way is "the only way", but only hope that our EarthStar Primal Habitat will serve as an inspiration, encouraging others to develop skills which will enable them to bring the forces of nature into their lives. This will ultimately lead the world to peace and health for the good of all mankind.

              If our information interests you and is appropriate for your study, please feel free to copy our articles and share them with others. You may also feel free to contact us for any more information you might need.

From the Great Heart,

Donna and Kevin Philippe-Johnson

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Also, please note that our story is beautifully written in chapter 13 in the new book by Linda Breen Pierce entitled, Choosing Simplicity: Real People Finding Peace and Fulfillment in a Complex World.  Her book can be ordered from her web site http://www.gallagherpress.com/pierce/index.htm