Heavenly Mountain

After work today, I decided that I needed to go on an adventure so I took a road that I have been meaning to follow for the last year or so. Today was incredibly beautiful and just perfect for a drive through the hilly countryside of Boone. I had heard about this, now abandoned, 'Buddhist temple' on top of Heavenly Mountain from a couple of friends and I vaguely knew that it was somewhere in the direction that I was traveling. Apparently, the place was/is a big compound consisting of temples, dormitories, etc. and my goal was to see it. After a couple of wrong turns and ending up at the entrance to Turtle Island (which, if you don't know what this is you should definitely research it and its founder Eustace Conway), I eventually chose the right twisting mountain road and ended up among many buildings whose style is completely foreign in Boone or the surrounding area. They, as I later discovered, are not built using Chinese architecture but rather Indian. All of them featured a kalash roof ornament as well as, a vastu style fence. This place is incredibly beautiful with some of the best mountain views around and on top of that it is just crazy to be among all of the intricate, large, and completely out of place buildings. If the apartments weren't so far away I would definitely want to live in one!!!

It turns out that this place was supposed to be a community/retreat center for believers of a certain type of Transcendental Meditation. It was created in the mid 1990s and actually became quite large--many people came and stayed and there are even giant crystals on the property that are supposed to create 'good energy'. The facility was closed when one of the property owners decided to disassociate himself with the practice and required the practitioners to leave. Who know what will happen to this incredible place--for now it will suffice to house college students!

The only camera I had with me was my Holga--so Godwilling, I will post some AWESOME pictures of the Heavenly Mountain resort as soon as the film is ready. In the meantime, check this out.


Also, Turtle Island, like I mentioned before is in the same area. It is a sort of preserve I suppose, where people come to live and work off the grid. It is an almost primitive living community where the people grow their own food, build their own houses, make everything they need, and all without most modern technology. I visited a couple of years ago and it was a very interesting experience. I recommend reading the book, 'The Last American Man' by Elizabeth Gilbert, to learn a bit more about the man behind Turtle Island.