After leaving Dakotah in 2002 a new phase in my life started. First it took some effort to dissolve everything in Spokane and get used to a different pace. I rested a lot and spent my time reading, walking, attending local events and following spurs of the moment. I had a cushion of savings that allowed me to not need to look immediately for work.

So when I ran across a very successful healer that works mainly in Brazil and after hearing the stories from people that had visited him, I did some more research and got really intrigued. Surgeries without anesthesia, miraculous remissions of serious illnesses, scraping with kitchen knifes on the cornea of eyes and more, all without sterilization. Not a single infection reported over a period of 30 years and several times tried in courts by the medical establishment without any convictions. And all the help and healing was given for free. It sounded too fantastic, but my acquaintances confirmed to have witnessed all that in person, and more. Well, I decided I needed to check it out for myself. I ended up going there 3 times, first by myself, then with my mother and the third time on my own again, but also to start an Internet café in the village. Taking my mom there was a real adventure as she cannot walk and hardly stand – it took quite some organizing and preparation. Everything went well and she enjoyed it greatly. No major physical healing has occurred for her, nor for myself. The experience of love and emotional release was dramatic and profound for both of us. I also did observe a few of the hard to believe procedures as well as successful healings on others.

As I had to pick up my mom from and bring her back to Germany, I spent quite some time in Europe. After returning from Brazil with her, I visited another ecovillage in Italy that I had heard about. I have had visited several other ecovillages before, among them Crystal Waters in Australia, Lebensgarten Steyerberg in Germany and Lost Valley Educational Center in USA. Damanhur is located in Italy and maintains an interesting website. This place combines spirituality, science, healing, arts, sustainability, local economy, community and other areas in a quite fascinating way. It has its own constitution, esoteric physics, local currency, they have their own businesses and schools, they have a great part in the economic up trend of the area and they are becoming a major player in the local government.

When I returned from Germany to Sandpoint, I started working on a project to establish an Eco-Center in Sandpoint. The vision was to establish a place where all the different groups and activities working in the area of sustainability could meet and work on their projects. After a place was found it took a while to get some basic renovation done. Some friends helped to make it possible and about a year after moving in, the Inland Northwest Eco-Center opened. There was a resource library, broadband Internet access and a video station, all for research purposes and free of charge. I started a bookstore offering books on all aspects of green living and had an ongoing program of events and workshops. There was a permanent display of green building materials and another friend started a small seed exchange. At the Open House in May 2005 about 150 people came to this full day program and slow food buffet. It was a smashing success! Strangely enough, the two weeks after it, there was hardly anything going on at the Eco-Center. In order to support the Eco-Center financially I started doing fulfillment for a small bookseller from Oregon. That turned out to be a lot of work for very little financial reward and so I stopped it.

This project was an incredible and valuable experience, something I really had wanted to do for a long time, to create a place for the community to work on transforming our town to a place that becomes "green" over time. Envisioning, starting and running the Inland Northwest Eco-Center showed me that, yes, I can start a project like that, but if the community is not involved, it is a lonely journey and the fun and joy go out of it pretty quickly. Also, focusing on the green renovation in great detail diminished the energy available for getting ready to open.

As I got overwhelmed and somewhat tired, I also learned how an even unconscious thought or wish could change my reality in a flash. The day before my accident when I broke my leg, a thought came to my mind – maybe I just get sick or have an accident to such a degree, so that I cannot continue with the Eco-Center. And that is exactly what happened.