Later that year, in the fall, we began discussing the need for some sort of meeting center. Nothing too fancy, but something to accommodate sizeable presentations. There were many groups of visitors who wanted to present materials of various kinds during their stay at Solfield, and we had no facilities to do so.
So in discussing this need, Harry suggested a partially enclosed pavilion with the ability to be entirely closed if that was required. We talked a great deal about how big such a structure would need to be, what seating capacity would be appropriate. The pavilion idea was perfect because it gave us the ability to have additional seating outside if necessary.
From there, the idea of a small amphitheater arose. Eventually it was decided, with tremendous excitement, that we would construct a pavilion somewhere on the property, one at the base of a slope which would be terraced into amphitheater seating. We played with that idea for a few weeks, sketching out possible designs and scouting out locations.
All that remained was to decide where to put it. There were a number of small hills on the property that held potential, but the problem was that none of them were adjacent to a flat area on which to build the pavilion. A slight tinge of discouragement crept in as we searched and sketched and scouted, to no avail. For the first time since the founding of Solfield, we felt a sense of resistance. Something wasn’t right. I felt it, and I know Harry and Anne felt it as well. Mike’s silence in response to the sites we showed him fed our negative feeling, and for a time it appeared as though we wouldn’t be going through with the project.
One morning in October I got up early and walked to Soul Mound. There were a few people there already, but each was sitting quietly somewhere on the mound, which was nearing completion. The work had continued throughout each of the past three seasons, and the steps now extended down to within one flight of the ground. The mound now had the appearance of a large pyramid, with the exception of the curved steps leading from one platform to the next.
I climbed to the top of the mound and sat on the edge looking down to the ground below. The first three temples were pretty much complete, with only cosmetic work left to be finished. Mike was planning to bring up a crew early in the spring to finish the detailed work and begin digging the foundations for the next three temples to be built.
I found myself pondering the exact location for the next temples to be built when I noticed that the clearing surrounding the mound was not entirely level. There was one particular area, almost directly north, where the ground fell away as it disappeared into the woods. I didn’t remember noticing it before, which surprised me because I had spent countless hours there over the previous four years. How could I not have noticed that?
I peered down toward the edge of the clearing and, without meaning to, I visualized a rounded pavilion with it’s back to the forest and its front facing the mound. It had a roof jutting out over a stage and rows of benches. I saw more rows of benches carved into the slope leading down to the pavilion. I saw people milling around. I heard music. I smelled food, and incense. I felt a tremendous surge of energy, so strong that I sprang to my feet. It was as though someone had just turned on a spigot inside me.
I suddenly understood why none of the other locations we had considered for the pavilion felt right. It was to be here, at the base of Soul Mound. In my mind it was already done. It already existed. All that was left now was to allow it to come into being.
My heart raced as I walked back down to the ground. I made my way over to the spot where the pavilion would be built, and I felt it in the ground under my feet. It was a very odd sensation, one hard to explain. I was feeling the energy of what would eventually be there.
I ran back to our cabin and woke Anne to tell her. Within the hour, there was a group of us standing atop Soul Mound visualizing the pavilion that would be built the following year. And everyone knew it. It was wonderful.
What we were visualizing was not just a pavilion. It wasn’t just going to be a bunch of stone and wood and some audio and video equipment.
Some of the most well known and respected spiritual teachers and leaders on the planet would eventually speak on that stage. Some of the most talented musicians and vocalists and dancers and poets would eventually perform on that stage.
Of course, we didn’t know that at the time. But I think I felt it. I felt the energy that would eventually be expressed. It was already there. It was already in the ground, and in the air. In fact, I believe I had felt that same energy many years before, when Anne and I had walked through that clearing one cool spring morning.
Long before there was a pavilion, or temples, or Soul Mound, or even Solfield itself, it had just been acres and acres of beautiful, unblemished landscape – woods and fields and streams and trees and birds and creatures of the forest. Yet somehow, the energy of what was to come was already there.
I can’t explain it – that’s more Harry’s department. But I have come to understand that the energy was there all along. Some people experience something similar when they are looking for property on which to build a house, or a business, or a garden. They can feel it, what it will turn into. Somehow, it’s already there. You just have to build it.
And so we did. The following spring, we built Soul Pavilion. And as I said, in the years that followed, a long list of powerful talents and personalities and spirits would grace that stage, and hours upon hours of performance and presentation and inspiration would echo up the hill and all the way to the top of Soul Mound.
In addition to the pavilion, we would also complete three more temples that following year – a Buddhist temple, a Hindu temple, and a structure dedicated to the various Native American traditions. At the end of July, Harry traveled back to Indiana to pack up his library and bring it out to Oregon. He timed his trip to coincide with Strassenfest, a German street festival held each summer in Jasper. Anne went with him, and the two of them returned two weeks later with two truckloads of books and fourteen people that would eventually become full time residents at Solfield.
By the end of that year, all six temples would be completed , with a small climate controlled library within each one. Harry began the monumental task of organizing and categorizing the thousands of books he had brought, along with several thousand more that were donated by visitors to Solfield and by other folks around the planet that had not yet visited but wanted to contribute books.
As we closed up Solfield for the winter, there was what could best be described as a trembling excitement for the following season that hung in the air. I could see it in everyone’s face. We all new that the following year was going to be huge. We already had much of the season booked, and there were more than a few prominent authors and speakers scheduled to appear on the pavilion stage. It was going to be challenging to manage the growth that was taking place, and we talked about that very subject all winter long.
Harry’s book had been growing in popularity that year, and his website was a beehive of activity and discussion regarding all things metaphysical and spiritual. Harry had posted updates and photos detailing the many projects at Solfield, and so the cat was now out of the bag (if it had ever really been in one).
One thing we discussed during the winter months was the need for more accommodations. We had built more cabins each year, and there were now over a hundred on the property that were rented out on a first come first served basis. Most of them were already reserved for every weekend and almost every week for the upcoming season.
One of our priorities in managing the growth of Solfield was to keep the focus upon coexistence with nature. The only buildings on the property were the cabins, the mess hall, the pavilion, and the temples. And the general consensus among us was that it would be unwise to do much more building. It was decided that we had expanded as much as we could without compromising the openness and natural feel of Solfield.
There would be no more cabins, no more buildings. Visitors could bring tents, which most of them already did anyway. There were more than enough fields and clearings throughout the property to accommodate many thousands of visitors. There were outhouses. There was a spring fed stream along the west side of the property, and we had since discovered two other springs that provided all the necessary drinking water.
Visitors brought their own food, and often donated what they did not need to the mess hall, which was then used to feed the building crews and for the various celebrations that were held throughout the year. In fact, we consistently ran a food surplus because of all that was donated by visitors, and this resulted in great feasts held every Saturday in the late afternoon.
Saturday evenings were always exciting, with large groups congregating around the mess hall to eat and then joining in a mass exodus to Soul Mound to enjoy the sunset and evening entertainment atop the mound or down in the pavilion. Saturday evenings were often the highlight of many visitors’ stay.
Are you getting a feel for what it’s like to be at Solfield? It’s very hard to put into words, though I did my best. It’s sort of the point of the whole story, though many readers may get something else from it. But in my opinion, Solfield is the whole point.
You see, once word spread about Solfield, and about Soul Mound, and about the temples and the pavilion and all the amazing things that were taking place there, people wanted to see it for themselves. They wanted to be there, to feel the energy and to contribute their own energy to it. Perhaps you feel that way as well.
When people come to Solfield, they come to enjoy a particular speaker or performer that is scheduled to appear. They come in groups to hold workshops or discussions. They come alone, to pray or to meditate upon Soul Mound, or to read a few of the thousands of books housed within the temples, some of which are rather rare.
But most of all, people come to feel the energy of acceptance and of celebration. Solfield is an environment in which one can interact with those who share similar beliefs and with those who hold very different beliefs. The mound itself symbolizes the mountain of truth, of reality. It can be viewed from many directions, many angles. It can be put to many uses. Or it can just be.
People come to Solfield to learn about other spiritual paths, or more about their own. People come to open themselves up in a safe place. They come to restore their balance, their enthusiasm, their reason for being on Earth.
There are as many reasons for visiting Solfield as there are visitors. Each person has their own priorities, their own reason for being there. But they all have one thing in common: the understanding that we’re all looking for the same thing.
And what is that thing that we’re all looking for?
Oh, I’m not the one to tell you. You’ll have to figure it out for yourself. And the answer may change over time. But what lies behind the answer never does.
So that is where we stand.
And that’s about all I have to say, so I will leave you now. I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to share my perspective on all of this, on what took place not only in Oregon, and in California, but also back east, in an average town in Ohio. That was where I met Harry. That was where you met Harry.
And that was where Harry told God that we needed one more messenger, one more voice that could help us straighten out the mess that we’re in. I think I get it now, and perhaps you do, too.
There is, however, one more thing to tell you about. Harry’s adventure did not end with the completion of Solfield. In fact, that was really only the beginning.
Creating Solfield was our job, mine and Anne’s. And all the others that participated, of course. But as I told you much earlier in the story, it was my role to present Harry’s message to the world, to turn it into something that would last. And I did that by publishing and promoting his book, but more so by participating in and funding Solfield. Harry never would have done that. He is a simple person, a one-on-one kind of guy. If it were left to him, he would have helped and taught and influenced a limited number of people. And that would have been fine, except for that part where he decided to sue God.
You see, Harry really meant it when he asked God for another messenger. And although it took many years for Harry to realize it, God had, in fact, agreed to do so. God did send the world another messenger.
His name was Harry.
