From the middle of the 19th Century until the 1930s, the Lebensreform (Reform of Life) movement aimed to establish new styles of living. In various fields, it sought freedom from the narrow constraints of moral values, to enrich the ways of living, promote vegetarianism, liberate body and mind, radically reform the notion of work and reconnect with nature. Communities were thus formed around ideas about food, natural medicine, nudism, architecture, dance or pedagogy, producing alternatives and avant-gardes. Sometimes, as at the famous Monte Verità, several of these aspects are found, complementing each other or with simple co-presence. Differing opinions nevertheless coexist there. Others were more ideologically severe, or organised as a religion, such as Theosophy, Anthroposophy or Mazdaznan. Still others, such as the völkisch movement or some trends of FKK, Freie Körperkultur (nudism), were not unrelated to the development and success of the Hitler regime, which was covered in the guise of Lebensreform and drowned its criminal acts in a mythologising sauce, with the backing of sanctifying architecture, fraternal and sacrificial rites, in a mixture of ultraconservatism and theatrical social esoterica.

These ideas resurfaced in the West after the Second World War. A new concept of community is emerging, which seems very individualistic. Meditation, yoga, food, love – the domains and the means are the same, but seem centred on individual fulfilment. After the failure or relative success of the youth movements of the 1960s, this cultural background persists and mingles quite smoothly with triumphant and acknowledged capitalism. With the arrival of Silicon Valley’s ideas at the forefront of human evolution, the merger is complete. Spiritual purity, libertarianism, health, moralisation of the body, well-being, bliss.

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