The promise of Neos

What is at the heart of everything we do

Sunset at Neos. Peace as far as you can see.

You likely think of Neos as an eco village, a retreat center, a homestead, a healthier way of living — or a utopia, a place for dreamers and escapists.

It doesn’t matter. The ‘what’ has never been the point. It’s the why that matters.

Something has gone deeply wrong

The world is digressing. Not slowly, quietly, in ways we can ignore. Loudly. Visibly. Depression, loneliness and meaninglessness rising year on year. Wars multiplying. Profit over everything.

A species with more capability than ever before — and less peace, less meaning, less genuine connection than at almost any point in history.

The West is collapsing into the two-tier society it once scorned in the developing world. The majority struggling. A vanishingly small few holding more power and money than any human should.

Where are we heading?

AI and robotics, promising liberation — but pointing, given our current values and power structures, toward something else entirely: A world where most humans have been economically replaced. Where survival depends on conditional basic income, controlled by programmable money, issued by institutions that have never had your freedom as their primary concern. A digitally administered cage.

Why are we doing this to ourselves?

There are a many reasons. But at the root, there is only one: we have forgotten who we are.

As long as I experience myself as separate — from others, from nature, from the source of life itself — I will keep fighting. Keep destroying. Keep reaching for control because I am terrified of what happens if I let go.

In this video about Neos (early 2024) I close with asking:

The world is such a beautiful place, why are we fighting?

You are powerful beyond measure

Karen and I have both been gifted and challenged with touching what the ancient texts call oneness. The direct, unmediated experience that the human self is not the whole of what I am. That beneath the story of a separate person, fighting for survival, there is something eternal, unified and infinite.

You cannot think your way to this. You can only experience it.

And when you do, everything changes. The meaning of life stops being about accumulation and power and becomes evolution and service. Being my most shining, fully expressed self in service of something greater becomes the purpose of life.

How do we turn things around?

This is the only real response to what is happening in the world. Not a political answer. Not a technological answer. It’s about consciousness.

News, media and politics keep us in fear because fear keeps us small. An awakened person cannot be controlled. This is why the inner work is not a luxury — it is the most powerful act available to us.

This is why Neos is not primarily a place to rest, though rest happens here. It is a place to remember. To practice. To become, with real support, more fully what we already are.

A place to Wake Up

Neos exists for one reason: to help us wake up from the dream of separation.

For us to remember our true nature, reclaiming our power as conscious creators and bringing heaven to earth.

When enough of us remember who we truly are, the world will change — not because someone forced it to, but because a world full of awakened beings simply cannot sustain war, extraction and fear. It has no soil to grow in.

If most of us stop believing in war, there will be no more war. This is not naive but the most real thing I know.

Karen and I sharing why we are building Neos (August 2024):

A path full of challenges

Making this real is the hardest thing we will ever do.

The physical creation of the village — the planning, the financing, the building — is one kind of hard. But the real challenge is subtler and much more relentless: showing up as a conscious, open-hearted human being amidst all these challenges, when cows are dying, money is short and people let you down — all at once.

And yet:

Everything is a gift

The person who hurt me taught me about attachment. The money I lost taught me about fear and faith. The plans that collapsed taught me to hold vision without grasping. I needed to lose millions and let go of everything before Neos could be born. Everything is a gift on the journey of remembering.

Whatever you are carrying right now — it is not punishment. It is curriculum. The universe does not waste experience on anyone it believes cannot grow from it.

To be reborn, I first needed to die

37/ ayahuasca - jumping over the edge

Neos is made for us

The world does not need another retreat centre.

It needs places where human beings can remember, in their hearts, minds and bodies, what they actually are.

If this lands somewhere in you — not as an idea, but as a recognition — then Neos was made for you. Not because it will be easy. Because you understand that nothing worth doing is and that there’s nothing more worthy for us to do.

And then there will be peace, joy and unity.

What’s next?

After spending ten months on the land, Karen and I have gone through many trials and tribulations with people, team, partners, priorities, learning and growing every day, making mistakes and having breakthroughs.

We are tightening the container we are building, preparing the ground rules to invite those that are fully aligned with Neos’ mission to co-create a New Earth here with us.

More concrete on this in following newsletters.

Much love
Vincent

PS. If the above has evoked something in you, we invite you to join us for the Neos Experience April 9-12. You can sign up here:

PPS. April 2nd was the two year anniversary of signing the purchase contract for the land. I didn’t have the money, I din’t know how I am going to do it and I didn’t know the many challenges (and miracles) that would meet me along the way. All I knew was that Neos was meant to be built on this land.

Never underestimate the power of your deepest calling.

Curious about the journey of Neos? You can read about it here.

The sellers, the broker turned supporter and friend and myself at the signing