Commusings: The Fertile Soil Where Commune Grows

Dear Commune Community,

There was nothing green in the green room. I poked at the graying, desiccated edges of the deli turkey with a toothpick. I opened a mayonnaise packet and squeezed out its goo to give the slice of fowl a head of white curly hair. The pickle would make a decent mouth, I thought.

God, this was boring… and yet I had come to expect this stultifying tedium as part of the hurry-up-and-wait media appearances of my rangy British client.

Someday, I woolgathered, I will start my own media company! I won’t put it in a windowless brick building in mini-mall-istan Hollywood. There will be no craft services cold cut plate. And I won’t be putting up talent in an over-air-conditioned Loews hotel.

The grim reality of “media” was central to the inspiration behind Commune. My co-founders and I chafed against the concept of creating content for human growth in a place where nothing grew. On the contrary, we wanted to create a breathing, living, organic set for creativity and connection.

Hence, when we launched the Commune course platform, we also purchased a beautifully rugged ranch at the end of a winding road in Topanga Canyon, California. Nestled in a valley of the Santa Monica mountains, this plot has served as the fertile soil for more than 150 courses and 600 podcast episodes.

Commune Topanga is our 10-acre experiment in well-being: One part production facility, one part retreat center, one part sustainability lab. There are meditation platforms perched above magical vistas, a redwood-clad yoga shala, glamping cabins, long communal dining tables, citrus, avocado, and pomegranate trees, buzzing beehives, a medley of chickens, and an incessant trickle of fascinating people – like Scotty.

Scotty is the erstwhile head of waste management at Burning Man. Never has a man more enamored with human fecal matter walked the earth. Scotty installed an array of solar-powered compostable toilets on the property. Every few weeks, we help the decomposition process along with microbes. Filtered out the back end of the system is a potent compost tea. I wouldn’t recommend it with milk and sugar, but the fruit trees love it. I joke with recurring visitors that they are eating their own shit.

Schuyler, my better three-quarters, and I have been manifesting this vision for decades. But lest you think it’s paradise-on-earth, please know that landslides have isolated the property for weeks, ground squirrels often get to all the lettuce before we do, and a bevy of bee stings once sent Jake into anaphylaxis. Be careful what you wish for.

All this said, Commune Topanga has provided the container for countless transformational experiences and hundreds of hours of inspired content. The list of luminaries who have decamped on property is too long to recount. Wim Hof and his entire family stayed for weeks after we had finished filming his course. Mark Hyman penned much of his last book on property. Zach Bush may have slept there more than I have. We filmed Marianne Williamson’s presidential announcement video in the kitchen.

On one morning like any other, I get my sleepy head out of bed, turn on the sauna and mosey to the patio only to find Gabor Mate in his pajamas. We sip coffee and dip into an animated conversation about how the Buddha intuited the impermanence of human physiology without the luxury of a microscope. And then we bake in the dry heat for a bit. Ali, our in-house chef, produces culinary art sourced from local farmers markets and lays it for our consumption.

From this place of deep nourishment, we produce the content that goes into our Membership. Last December, a group of 14 parents and adult children converged on the property. These dyads all suffered from estranged relationships. They were led by Gabor and his son Daniel in a 3-day workshop titled “Starting Fresh.” The teachings in combination with the set and setting yielded unimaginable breakthroughs and opened the possibility for healing.

Witnessing the transformations that happen at Commune is gratifying beyond words and upholds our original, somewhat madcap vision of a “production studio with chickens.”

Commune is opening our doors to an increasing number of retreats and immersive workshops. These retreats offer the opportunity to relax, learn, grow, and heal. But there’s something more. The most magical moments for me at Commune come in the spaces — when people connect and form deep bonds.

In this spirit, Commune is offering a couple of new “perks” to Lifetime members beyond access to all 150 courses we have filmed here, plus those still to come. If you become a Lifetime member, you will get 10% off any retreat and $1000 off our newest event: The Commune Experience.

The Commune Experience is a week-long immersion into “everything” well-being featuring a pantheon of teachers and doctors including Schuyler, Dr. Mary Pardee, Kia Miller, Kim Snyder, Seamus Mullen, Jake, Chandrima, and yours truly. Here are the details.

Join Lifetime Membership and meet your tribe. Even if you never physically set foot at Commune Topanga, it is the beating heart of everything we do, and its subtle magic imbues every course.

In love, include me,
Jeff