WEST - MAY 1990

THE GLOBE AND MAIL

THE WIZARD OF BACA GRANDE
A story about a burning bush, Shirley MacLaine, Zen Monks, and mystic crystals.
A story about the biggest water deal ever.
A story of how a boy from Oak Lake Manitoba set out to change the world.
Maurice Strong has gained more respect and influence than any other Canadian alive today. Now
he's risking it on a bold experiment that could save us all from ourselves - or just blow up in his
face. By Daniel Wood
These are the days of miracle and wonder and don't cry, baby, don't cry, don't cry - Paul Simon, "The
Boy in the Bubble"
Highway 17 is a blue line on the ma of southern !olorado that runs between nowhere and nowhere" #t
crosses the $io %rande outside of &lamosa and cuts due north through the San 'uis (alley, a blea)
e*anse of dust and sagebrush" The surrounding flatness is bro)en by the distant Sangre de !risto -
"Blood of !hrist" - +ountains, which rise in ,,1---metre cliffs along the .alley's eastern flan), ,/
)ilometres away" 0ther than that nothing" & rabbit dead on the two-lane ashalt" & high blue s)y"
There's nothing to indicate, nothing e*cet the words of my comanion, 1--year-old !anadian +aurice
Strong, that u ahead a few )ilometres, ast the obscure right turn mar)ed "!restone", ast the 'a2y 3
$anch and its yard of derelict farm e4uiment, beyond !restone itself, oulation 1-, a .illage of %od-
fearing Batists and a coule of recently arri.ed 5ew &gers, u there in the asen-co.ered foothills
below towering +t" 6it !arson, lies tangible e.idence of a great-some would say reosterous- utoian
dream" #ts goal is nothing less than to alter, utterly, the history of the world"
The dream belongs to multi-millionaire Strong, who grew u in 0a) 'a)e, +anitoba, dirt-ore, eating
igweed and dandelions for .egetables during the worst 7eression times, and who decided one day in
the early 18/-s that he would ma)e his mar) on the world" Today, his resume reads li)e the li.es of a
do2en great men" &t the age ,9, he was .ice-resident of 7ome Petroleum" &t :1, he became resident
of the Power !ororation of !anada" He went on to found and head !#7& ;the !anadian #nternational
7e.eloment &ssistance rogram< and later Petro-!anada" &t the global le.el, where he's better )nown
than in his own country, he is considered one of the world's leading en.ironmentalists"
The dream also belongs to Strong's mystical, /=-year-old 7anish-born wife, Hanne, whose .isions ha.e
roelled the lan" Together, they ha.e established in the !olorado desert a lace they call the Baca, an
international siritual community which they hoe will ser.e as a model for the way the world should
be - and, they say, must be - if human)ind is to sur.i.e"
#t all started in 187= when a mysterious man .isited Hanne bearing a rohecy of the coming
aocalyse" The dream grew amid omens that defy belief" #t has been nourished by the Strongs' friends,
such eole as $oc)efeller, Trudeau, the 7alai 'ama, and Shirley +ac'aine" &nd its future is now
entwined with olitical realities as bi2arre - and troublesome - as the rohecies and omens from which
the dream began"
5eedless to say, there are men out here on this high lain who do not line the sound of these things any
more than those of re.ious generations li)ed the earlier dreamers who tried to occuy this lace" #n a
region erennially oor, in a land barely tamed since .ast herds of buffalo roamed here o.er a century
ago, eole with dreams can be seen as intruders and a threat to the way things are" #f those eole are
rich, if they are foreigners, and if they are tal)ing about global harmony and a new world order - well,
it con>ures u in the minds of many of the locals the )ind of *enohobic susicion that rural &merica
sometimes feels toward strangers" &nd if these foreigners set out to establish within the morning
shadows of the Sangre de !risto ea)s and international community of siritual see)ers - a sort of
3nited 5ations of religious beliefs - comlete with monasteries and de.otees of the (edic mother
goddess and amulet-carrying nati.e &merican shamans and e.en Shirley +ac'aine and her 5ew &ge
followers, then such dreams can be seen as an affront to the Batists and born-again e.angelicals for
whom ?esus !hrist is the &nswer" &nd if, again, these foreigners were to disco.er, 4uite to their
surrise, that the enormous tract of land they'.e ac4uired to fulfil their lan haens to sit ato what
could be the largest untaed reser.oir of water in the 3"S"&" - smac) in the middle of the arched and
booming south-west - and the coule, together with some artners, from a comany to sell some of the
billions of dollars' worth of new-found water to fol)s in 7en.er and downstream along the $io %rande,
en.y and susicion and bigotry can combine into a otent force"
&nd that is e*actly what has haened" There ha.e been strange rumors and ublic rotests" There ha.e
been death threats" +istrust and the water may >eoardi2e the dream"
The Strongs are the latest in a line of dreamers who ha.e come to the San 'uis (alley ursuing a
.ision" The &na2asi #ndians and the Sanish con4uistadors assed this way centuries ago on the trail to
obli.ion" #n the 1==-s, miners came, belie.ing they'd found @l 7orado in the .eins of gold that ran into
the grey 4uart2ite along !ottonwood and Aillow and Sanish crea)s" But the gold ran out" The boom
town of !restone withered" 5e*t came a scheme in the 187-s to build a giant retirement community,
called Baca %rande after the nearby 97,71--hectare Baca %rant ranch" Thirty million dollars were sun)
into roads and utilities to ser.ice the 1-,--- lots" But only a few hundred settled" Bew now remain"
#n 187=, together with the other in.estors, Strong bought the Baca %rant - sight unseen - as art of a
much larger land urchase" He and his wife wal)ed the asen-lined cree)s and climbed among the
/,,---metre ea)s abo.e the Baca" They li)ed the solitude, the silences, the sunsets" They )new
nothing about the hidden water" They couldn't ha.e imagined what trouble it would bring"
0ne e.ening a gray-bearded stranger arri.ed unin.ited at their townhouse" He introduced himself as
%len &nderson and told Hanne, "#'.e been waiting for you"" He described to her the .isions he had had
while wandering in the nearby mountains" He saw that the leaders of all the worl's religions would
gather at the Baca" They'd build their temles and monasteries and churches, and olitical, educational,
and cororate leaders would follow" Together, he told Hanne, these people would give shape to a
new planetary order which would evolve from the economic collapse and environmental
catastrophes that would sweep the globe in the years ahead.
Hanne grew u amid wealth and ris) in wartime !oenhagen" Her mother wor)ed in the 7anish
$esistance, heling to ferry @uroean ?ews out of %ermany" &nd Hanne knew from earliest
childhood that she was different, that she had mystical abilities. She saw angels. She could recall
past lives. Something made her feel she was once and Indian and that she should go to the U.S. to
find her ancestral home. &fter an education of industrial and interior design" she went to &merica"
&nd so when she heard &nderson telling her about his .oices, she took it as prophecy. She headed
alone uphill into the mountains carrying and Indian pipe and a pouch of medicinal herbs and
found a promontory above the Baca. For three days she stayed there, fasting, meditating,
observing the land. It was no coincidence, she felt, that "The Old Man" - as she calls Anderson
now - came to her. His message could not be ignored. She would - with her husband's support and
his international connections - try to do what Anderson directed.
Ahen Strong heard this, he thought it outrageous" He called the lan grandiose and imractical" But
then, these 4ualities had always been art of his attraction to her" She wasn't afraid of thin)ing big"
Hanne heard her husband's doubts and )new enough about the man to )now that he, too, had had
unrealistic dreams, that he had global .isions, that he could be won o.er"
Strong grew u beside the railroad trac)s that assed through 0a) 'a)e, a town of /-- eole, 91
)ilometres west of Brandon" His father wor)ed for the !P$ until the 7eression hit, then odd >obs until
the war came" +aurice's school-teacher mother filled his mind with stories from history and images of
the world beyond +anitoba, and he recalls watching with a mi*ture of sadness and thrill the assing
freights co.ered with destitute eole tra.elling " He longed to see the world" Ahen the Second Aorld
Aar came - and life on the rairies gradually got better - he remembers as)ing his mother why it was
the world wor)ed that way" Ahy the suffering of the ':-sC Ahy the war and economic reco.ery nowC
She told him it didn't ha.e to be that way" She told him that, if he ut his mind to it, he could change
the world" Dou'd be surrised, she'd said, at how far you can go if you don't accet the limits, if you
don't set any barriers for yourself"
Hanne )new these words, for her husband occasionally reeated them" She hoed that at the Baca the
two of them, together, might - >ust might - be able to change the world"
#f a .isitor turns right at the D intersection >ust outside !restone, as # did many times during my stay,
the road climbs into the forested hills o.erloo)ing the San 'uis (ally, where the dreams of re.ious
occuants are turning to dust" !ircles of stones mar) long-abandoned nati.e sites from which attac)s
on the buffalo were launched" !ollased cabins, rusting machinery, and mounded trailings iles
indicate the deserted gold mines" &nd e.erywhere, sreading downhill onto the lain, an intricate
networ) of crumbling roads attests to the scale of the retirement community's failure" Scattered across
this landscae is e.idence of the newest utoian settlementE an e*4uisite !atholic monastery for
members of the monastic !armelite orderF a G179,--- solar-owered Hindu temleF a strange, mustard-
yellow tower called a 2igguratF a mud-caul)ed southwest #ndian hoganF a subterranean Hen Buddhist
centre comlete with a comuter and organic gardensF a house of thousands of crystals, another
occuied by an =9-year-old nati.e shaman, This is the Baca today" But today, #'m disco.ering, is only
the beginning" Bor the Strongs, it is a lifetime ro>ect"
# find myself wondering what dedication, what idealism comels them toward such an unli)ely dream"
&nd the more i learn, the more aware # become that #'.e entered a world of illusions, where the sufrace
conceals things unfathomable" # can't belie.e - though # would li)e to - the suernatural stories Hanne
tells" # wonder how an aggressi.e and calculating businessman li)e Strong can also be a mystic" # can't
figure out how Shirley +ac'aine will affect the Baca when she mo.es in" &nd # can't get the water -
the billions of dollars' worth of water - out of my mind"
# )ee going o.er the con.ersation in which the Strongs described to me the .ery first words that
assed between them" &t the arty in 5ew Dor) !ity o.er ,- years ago where they'd been introduced,
Hanne, well aware of Strong's reutation, had said to her future husband, "Some eole say you're a
genius" &nd some eole say you're a fa)e"" Hanne laughed at the memory and laughed harder at her
husband's rebuttal" Strong loo)ed at me at that moment and said, "&nd she's still wonderingI"
# get the imression that they en>oy this ambiguity, this flirtation between reality and illusion" # get the
imression that the tables could ha.e been turned, that Strong could ha.e confronted HanneE geniusC or
fa)eC The magus and the mystic, # tell myself" #t's imortant to figure it all out" The answers matter"
Bor, as the Strongs mention, they see the Baca as a aradigm for the entire lanet and say that the fate
of the earth is at sta)e"
Ahen Strong left 0a) 'a)e in 18/:, ha.ing s)ied four grades for his scholastic abilities and
graduated at age 1/, he carried with him an abiding sense of the world's in>ustices and a desire ne.er
again to be oor" He bought a tic)et on a train out of town" Bor a while, adding fi.e years to his age and
dar)ening his ubescent mustache for effect, he wor)ed with the merchant marine along the B"!" coast"
He then became an arentice fur trader in the High &rctic" He did a little rosecting" He li.ed among
the #nuit" He wandered" on day in 18/:, after a long rainy ride in an oen coal car, he found himself
bac) at 0a) 'a)e, cold, lonely" He could see the lights in the window of his house, but something told
him he could not go home again" He rode further on, stoing in Broad.iew, Sas)atchewan" &s he sat
beside the trac)s, a newsaer blew ast" He caught it" 0n the front age he read that !hurchill and
$oose.elt had agreed that they would, after the war, form a new international organi2ation dedicated to
world >ustice and eace" #t would be called the 3nited 5ations"
The concet hit him li)e a thunderbolt" "# )new at that moment," Strong told me, "# wanted to be art
of it""
#n the two decades that followed, he disco.ered that although his lac) of uni.ersity education re.ented
him from doing something of conse4uence at the international le.el, his shrewdness brought him
success in money matters" He arri.ed in &lberta during the boom of the early '9-s as a young financial
analyst seciali2ing in resource de.eloment" He befriended oil entrereneur ?ac) %allagher and later
>oined 7ome Petroleum as its third emloyee" He met and married Pauline, his first wife, with home he
had four children" By in.esting in oil and gas roerties and founding a series of resource-based
comanies, he earned his first million within a few years" He then mo.ed on to the residency of the
Power !ororation of !anada, a leading energy-in.estment firm" Binancial success, cororate
connections, and ower were his - and he hadn't turned :,"
But inside him, still unfulfilled, lay the seed lanted by his mother - that he could do something to
better the world" Then, in 1819, he was as)ed to meet Prime +inister 'ester Pearson" The P+ wanted
to )now if Strong was interested in bringing his managerial s)ills and his long-held international
concerns to the organi2ation now )nown as !#7&" Strong became director-general of @*ternal &id,
which ut him in charge of all !anadian foreign aid" He left, willingly, a G,--,----a-year >ob as a
cororate e*ecuti.e for a G,7,----a-year >ob as a ci.il ser.ant" #t didn't matter" He )new he would
finally get to fulfil his dream of becoming in.ol.ed with the 3nited 5ations"
Brom there, though his subse4uent friendshi with Pearson's successor, Pierre Trudeau, the millionaire
energy entrereneur-turned-international do-gooder found the cause that has come to dominate the ast
,- years of his life" Aith the suort of the !anadian go.ernment, he has articiated in or directed
ractically e.ery ma>or en.ironmental initiati.e that has come out of the 3nited 5ations from that time
to this" He organi2ed the first Aorld !onference on the @n.ironment in 187," Then he mo.ed to 6enya,
where he established and headed the 3"5" @n.ironment Program" &fter that, he >oined the Aorld
!ommission on the @n.ironment, which roduced the eochal 18=7 Brundtland $eort, the incendiary
that has ignited the resent global "green" mo.ement" Three months ago, he was appointed secretary-
general of the U.N.'s world conference on the environment and development to be held in Brazil
in 1992. From such platforms, he has proposed a new economic order based on the redistribution
of the developed world's industries and wealth to the Third World. He has called for a massive
retooling of western economies away from short-sighted consumption and toward long-term
conservation. On occasion, he has said that the one factor that may spare humanity from its
environmental folly is a worldwide spiritual reawakening. He hopes the Baca can serve as a seed.
"# belie.e the great frontier of the future is the frontier between the indi.idual sirit and the Sirit, the
cosmos," he confides to me on one of our many dri.es through the San 'uis (alley" "&t our highest
moments, we feel a sense of unity with the cosmos" & lot of us ha.e static, though" 0ur society runs on
eole feeling unfulfilled, unconnected" The rocess of atunement is the tric)" #t ta)es ractice" #
remember as)ing a mon) in Si))im, who'd >ust come out of three years, three months, and three days
of silent meditation, how his efforts had benefitted the world" He as)ed meE 'Ahy isn't it as imortant to
de.elo one's siritual nature as, say, an athlete in the west de.eloing his hysical rowess or an
intellectual de.eloing his intellectual abilitiesC'"
Here is a man, # tell myself, who has fulfilled many, erhas most, of his ambitions and dreams" He has
made millions" He has sat at the table with many of the earth's most owerful eole" He has tried - in a
rational and olitical way - to change the world" &nd yet, he shared with Hanne a sense of the rofound
mystical ossibilities that e*ist for those tho are reared to retreat from the hubbub and listen to the
moaning of the wind" The more 4uestionable 5ew &ge ractices - belief in things li)e crystals or
omens - hea.es to Hanne and her occult faith" His is a more scetical mind"
5e.ertheless, he confesses that a few years ago, while wal)ing with the famed author and >ournalist
Bill +oyers in the desert nearby, something strange, something ine*licable haened" &ccording to
StrongE "Ae'd been wal)ing, tal)ing, heading bac) to my ar)ed car" Suddenly, this bush - some
sagebrush - eruted in flames in front of usI #t >ust burst into flames" # was astounded" +oyers was, too"
& bush bursting into flamesI" He sha)es his head at the memory" He )nows it sounds, well, fla)y" But it
did haen, he reassures me" #t is the most imressi.e mystical e*erience he has had"
He is concerned, abo.e all, about man's e*tinction" The words of Percy Shelley's ironic 18th-century
oem 02ymandias - memori2ed in his youth - ha.e seemed, of late, more and more li)e the eitah of
human ci.ili2ationE
# met a tra.eller from an anti4ue land
Aho saidE Two .ast and trun)less legs of stone
Stand in the desert" 5ear them, on the sand,
Half sun), a shattered .isage lies, whose frown,
&nd wrin)les li, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its scultor well those assions read
Ahich yet sur.i.e, stamed on the lifeless things,
The hand that moc)ed them and the heart that fedE
&nd on the edestal these words aear -
"+y name is 02ymandias, )ing of )ingsE
'oo) on my wor)s, ye +ighty, and desairI"
5othing beside remains" $ound the decay
0f that colossal wrec), boundless and bare
The lone and le.el sand stretch far away
&long the way during the ast ,- years, not unnoticed in his home country, he agreed in 1871, at Pierre
Trudeau's re4uest, to set u and become !@0 of Petro-!anada" The country was in the midst of the
0P@!-induced oil crunch" Strong had energy-industry connections and well-)nown doubts about
unfettered caitalism" He too) the >ob" His old &lberta 0il Patch friends were aghast" Strong, an
aarent free-enterrise al, was heling the loathed 'iberals nationali2e arts of the country's oil and
gas industries"
"#'m a ma.eric)," says Strong, e*laining his willingness to lea.e the international field for
contro.ersial cororate >ob" "#'.e always been regarded as a eculiar tye" #'.e been in it, but not
necessarily of it"
This obser.ation, # soon disco.er, holds true for Strong's in.ol.ement in the Baca siritual communityE
he is in it, but not necessarily of it" By nature, he is a hilosohic and a little shy" He stammers at times"
&t the Baca, he affects the loo) of a westerner - cowboy ha, string tie, ointy boots" But his interests
are rimarily global" He tra.els endlessly, sea)ing on the need for en.ironmental legislation in one
lace, attending a board meeting in a second, .isiting influential friends along the way"
&s Hanne says, e*laining their unusual relationshi, "+aurice is out there, trying to sa.e the world"
He's out there, sea)ing, his dilomacy, his global .isions" But you'.e got to ha.e e*amles" There
ha.e to be laces where his ideas come to earth" His is the macro - the world" The Baca's the micro" #f
there's a glimmer of hoe for the future, that's what this lace is about""
Hanne refers to remain in the coule's new adobe house that sits on the lowest sloes of the Sangre de
!risto foothills" The two-bedroom building, li)e the Baca itself, is a rototye for the futureE the
basement, a large cold cellar for storing .egetables, fruit, and Hanne's growing collection of seeds from
rare and endangered lantsF in the antry, a mulching system with its comost-digesting earthwormsF
throughout the house, assi.e solar headings and trile-gla2ed windows" &s well, the house is crammed
with religious ob>ectsE &frican mas)s, sacred 5ealese stones, a half-do2en anti4ue Tibetan wall-
hangings called tan)as" #t was beneath one of these, #'m informed, that a .isiting associate of the 7ali
'ama, the Ta 'ama, died nine years ago while sitting cross-legged in dee medication" &ccording to
Tibetan custom, Hanne tells me, the dead lama was left untouched in an uright osition for four days
until his sirit had dearted" Ahen the body was finally mo.ed, she adds, the attending doctor noted
that it didn't smell and that it heard - and she ut her fist against her chest - was still warm"
Brom the house and the nearby ranch head4uarters, the Strongs o.ersee the religious community's
de.eloment, the rogress of which has not always been smooth" #n 1878, at the Strong's in.itation, the
first grous mo.ed to the Baca - the &sen #nstitute and the 'indisfarne &ssociation, a humanistic
&merican thin)-than) and a siritual society, resecti.ely" 'ater, they withdrew in the face of the site's
remoteness" Some of the locals were hay to see them go, for they imagined - in the resence of such
.isitors as Henry 6issinger, the Aorld Ban)'s $obert +c5amara, and the residents of the
organi2ations li)e #B+, Pan &m, and Har.ard 3ni.ersity - a clandestine, left-wing consiracy to
establish the Baca as the base for a world go.ernment" $umors circulated for a while that Strong had a
huge warehouse in !anada full of newly designed and minted currency, ready to issue when the
"internationalist consiracy" was initiated"
The truth is less grand" 7uring the last decade, the Strongs ha.e donated 1-- hectares and about G1
million to .arious religious grous to encourage them to settle in the Baca" &s well, se.eral wealthy
friends of the Strongs, including Shirley +ac'aine, lus 1-- or so other ractitioners of 5ew &ge
beliefs, ha.e in the last few years urchased land or homes amid the widely scattered buildings of the
traditional religions"
But it isn't until # see Hanne's ma labelled "The .alley of the $efuge of the Aorld Truths", that #
glimse the Big Picture" Ae unroll it on the floor of her study, directly beneath the tan)a where the
lama died" "Here's where the Tibetan monastery's going to go," she says, ointing" "Here's where a
rabbi from #srael's going to do a centre for the study of ?ewish +ysticism" The Taoists are coming in
188-" So's a Sufi leader and his grou" &nd here's Shirley +ac'aine's lace"
# loo)" They're all there, on the ma" So are the names of a score more religious grous and humanistic
associations that are slated for 1881 and beyond" "This is still an infant," she says, her .oice motherly"
"#t's still a seed" #t's a ,--, :--, /-- year ro>ect" To bring the world's religions together - that's a .ery
long road" To create an e*amle of a new future - that, two ta)es time" But this lace will ha.e a )ey
role in the future of man)ind""
# wan to belie.e her" # )now, howe.er, that fulling her determination are terrible fears that forces
beyond her control may o.erwhelm both the Baca and the lanet"
She eyes me, smiling at my sceticism" # comment on her con.iction as she begins rerolling the ma"
"+y only worry," she says, "is that the gurus and huc)sters will come here and it becomes a sort of
mecca" That's why #'.e hesitated so long about Shirley" # told her '#f you come here, it'll be o.errun with
crystal eole"' But Shirley feels the Baca's the lace for her" Her astrologer told her to mo.e here"
Some eole say it'll become a 'siritual suermar)et'" # guess it'll by my >ob to rotect it" The Baca's a
lace for the contemlati.e life" #t's not a lace for a 4uic) fi*"
Howe.er, # noticed, in the lower left-hand corner of the ma, one more unmentioned thingE a tiny, long,
and narrow rectangle drawn in blue, and the word &irort" The sun is almost setting" #ts light bla2es
abo.e the mountains of distant 5ew +e*ico and sets the rabbit brush beyond the windows aflame"
Hanne in.ites me to >oin her in her daily ritual of singing the sun down" Ae go outside and stand side
by side on the orch, facing est" She chants her mantra, and ancient (edic te*t, she e*lains, that goes
bac) to the dawn of ci.ili2ation" # don't understand a word, but # )now that Hanne feels it aligns her
with natural forces" # stand there, mirroring Hanne, my arms raised before my face, alms turned from
the sun, listening to her chant and thin)ing thisE yes, we li.e in a self-centered and cynical age" The
diseases of our times - the loneliness, the secret yearnings, the drugs, the materialism and money-
hunger - are measures of the alienation we feel from the natural rhythms and the ossibility of
eihanies that orders at other times ha.e felt" &nd yet"""and yet, # saw the wordE &irort" #s the Baca
really a grand siritual e*eriment, or a cle.er real estate scheme for aging 5ew &gersC &nd what will
haen with the waterC
#n the earliest stages of the Baca ro>ect, many of the local eole .iewed the arri.al of the Strongs and
their worldly friends much as they would an outbrea) of hoof-and-mouth disease" The lace was called
"!ult !ity" by )inder fol), and a centre of cannibalism, ritual deaths, and communism by those of a
more fanciful mind" #n time, according to !restone's grey-haired historian and lifetime resident, %ladys
Sisemore, most eole ha.e come to accet the newcomers" "Dou ha.e to ta)e the bitter with the
sweet," she says as she sits crocheting, describing her reaction to the strangers she occasionally meets
on +ain Street" But ractically no one in !restone - ractically no one, in fact across the entire San
'uis (alley - has accommodated himself to lans to sell the water"
&merican Aater 7e.eloment associates, &labama-born Buddy Ahitloc), reminding .alleys residents
he's and en.ironmentalist, that he has his home there, that he wouldn't >eoardi2e the region's
ecosystem" He has reassured eole that - if water is umed out - its first use will be to re.itali2e the
.alley" But the ranchers, farmers, and local landowners remain unimressed" They don't trust him"
They ha.e formed a coalition, called !iti2ens for San 'uis (alley Aater, under the leadershi of 9,-
year-old grain and cattle farmer %reg %osar" "Ae )now they'.e alied to ut in 1-- wells, uming
from ,,9-- feed dee, Ae )now they'.e already offered to sell ,9,--- acre feet to 7en.er" Peole feel
+aurice misled them" He said the water would be used at first to benefit the .alley" The eole here are
at least 88 ercent oosed to the water de.eloment" #t's an affront to us" #t will de.astate the .alley" #t
will deoulate it" There are eole who are narrow-minded enough to resort to .iolence""
#f the local eole )new what was really going on behind the scenes between Strong and his financial
artners, including wealthy (ancou.er in.estment financier Sam Bel2berg, they would be e.en more
worried"
The fact isE Strong, as chairman of the board of &merican Aater 7e.eloment, has had a series of
disagreements o.er his management of the Baca roerty in the last three years" Se.eral other board
members didn't li)e the idea of the siritual community in the first lace" But Strong was the largest
indi.idual in.estor" He'd ca>oled them to go along with the scheme" Howe.er, when word circulated
that Shirley +ac'aine might mo.e there, some of the !hristian fundamentalists on the board and the
hard-headed, bottom line-oriented Bel2berg resisted" Bel2berg feared that +ac'aine could antagoni2e
the locals" The conflict reached a head last year when Strong, under ressure from his board, remo.ed
1/- hectares for the siritual community from the larger Baca %rant $anch roerty and handed these
to Hanne for her to control" He then donated his shares in &merican Aater to a +ichigan-based bio-
energy research foundation and later 4uite the board, relin4uishing any future influence o.er the water
de.eloment lans"
7esite the imbroglio within &merican Aater 7e.eloment's board, the ro>ect continues" The
comany is mo.ing ahead on its G1,1-million roosal to drill the wells and construct a ieline to
ser.e 7en.er" The local coalition lans to fight e.ery ste along the way" The irony is that Strong, as a
longtime so)esman for the water ro>ect, is till seen as a target for criticism and susicion" 'ocal
eole feel he betrayed them and is now trying to sal.age things for himself and Hanne" #n a oor
desert region, you can - so the saying goes - mess with a man's wife erhas, but you don't mess with
his water" Strong would rather not tal) - nor ha.e me tal) - about the recent death threats made against
his friend and former business associate, Buddy Ahitloc)"
#t is with this sobering ersecti.e that # e*lore the territory of the utoian dream, trying to weigh the
significance of the occasional assing ic)u truc) with a rifle slung in a rac) across the rear window"
# sto and climb uhill to .isit the Haida)handi 3ni.ersal &shram, a (edic temle that sits on a high
bluff amid a inon ine forest" #t's imossible to o.erloo) the ad>acent 1/-s4uare-metre solar anel,
which heads the stone floors within the ashram" #n the future, says $am 'oti, a riestess of the temle,
there'll be hydro-electric ower from a small turbine in nearby Sanish !ree), high-tech toilets, and
dri-water-fed organic gardens" But as of now, only three de.otees li.e here" She gi.es me a glossy
brochure that tells about future lans" # sto at the !armelite +onastery, where eight !atholic mon)s -
women and men, all fairly young - send half their time in total seclusion" Bor G:9 a night, a .isitor can
stay in one of the hermitage's 1- small adobe bungalows, >oining the mon)s - if he wishes - at meals
and ray and labor"
# sto at the !restone +ountain Hen !enter, where a half-do2en students and Buddhist mon)s sit" The
discussion turns to Shirley +ac'aine" $andy Bo*, a long-time student of Hen, ac)nowledges that the
actress is a door for millions to a more siritual world" But, he adds, "The siritual ath ta)es the whole
life" #t's not found in a wee)end""
# also sto at some of the homes of the 1-- or so 5ew &gers who ha.e in recent years been buying the
roerties of the initial Baca retirees" They ha.e come of their own accord, unbidden and unassisted by
the Strongs" They ha.e surned the trendiness of Taos, 5ew +e*ico, or &ri2ona's oular sychic
centre, Sedona, where thousands arri.e daily hoing to get their astrological charts read and to find
their bliss" 5e.ertheless, at the Baca these days, sychic 7awn Taylor !arlson offers in-deth
instruction in other-world communications" Semu Huaute, =9, gi.es instruction in nati.e &merican
shamanism and myths" &t Barbra (ail's home, # am assaulted by crystals - thousands of them" They
crowd orch railings, windowsills, shel.es, and altars" They hang from (ail's nec) and ears" She is
thrilled to hear that +ac'ains has decided to build nearby a 5ew &ge study centre where eole can
ta)e short, wee)-long courses on the occult" (ail hoes to sell +ac'aine one of the biggest crystals"
Toward e.ening, # arri.e at the base of a sand dune toward the southern end of the Baca lands" &head
of me, rising absurdly from the dune's crest, is the #slamic 2iggurat, built by the Strongs' friend 5a>eeb
Halaby, former chairman of Pan &m and the father of the Jueen of ?ordan" # ascend to the tower's to,
where i notice weeds ha.e begun to srout" &round meE a .ast emtiness" #n my earsE an engulfing
silence" Somelace to the north, # tell myself, one of the world's most famous actresses and a leading
oulari2er of things occult will soon settle" She will, ine.itably, draw to this secial lace all the 5ew
&ge star-chasers, Ainnebago-bound celebrity hounds, and cynical >ournalists that Hanne fears will
come" To the south, # )now, another of the Strong's friends, Hisayoshi 0ta, a :/-year-old architect and
the son of a ?aanese tycoon, li.es the li.e of an &merican cowboy, running a heard of 1,/-- buffalo on
a ranch ad>acent to the Baca" He has decided to forsa)e the ell-mell life of 5ew Dor) to >oin the
Strongs in their siritual 4uest" Below me, beneath the desert's dustE a sea of fresh water, hidden,
untaed, unfathomable"
dreams and reality, dreams and reality, # thin)" But where does the truth lieC # wait for an answer, a
ortent, a .oice" # )now Hanne would hear something" But nothing" ?ust the faintest whiser of wind in
the cottonwoods along the dry bed of !ottonwood !ree) far below" Then, the lines from Strong's
recitation of 02ymandias come bac)E "+y name is 02ymandias, )ing of )ingsE 'oo) on my wor)s, ye
+ighty, and desairI" # ic) at the ealing aint on the 2iggurat" # wonder how long it will ta)e for the
roots of the weed to widen the tower's first, tiny crac)s" Ahy should the latest dream to be dreamt here
fare any better than those of the retirement community's de.eloers and the gold miners and the #ndian
hunters and e.en the dreams of the wild buffalo themsel.esC
# lea.e the Baca with Strong, retracing our route of a wee) earlier" Ae ass the 'a2y 3 $anch and turn
south on Highway 17" The desert slides by" Strong tells me he has often wished he could write" He has
a no.el he'd li)e to do" #t's something he has been thin)ing about for a decade" #t would be a cautionary
tale about the future"
Each year, he explains as a background to the telling of the novel's plot, the World Economic
Forum convenes in Davos, Switzerland. Over a thousand CEOs, prime ministers, finance
ministers, and leadings academics gather in February to attend meetings and set economic
agendas for the year ahead. With this as a setting, he then says: "What if a small group of these
world leaders were to conclude that the principal risk to the earth comes from the actions of the
rich counties? And if the world is to survive, those rich countries would have to sign an
agreement reducing their impact on the environment. Will they do it?" And Strong, driving as I
take notes, looks at me. Then his eyes go back to the Highway 17. The man who founded the
United Nations Environment Program and who wrote parts of the Burndtland Report and who
in 1992 will try to get the world's leaders, meeting in Brazil, to sign just such an agreement,
savors the questions hanging in the air. Will they do it? Will the rich countries agree to reduce
their impact on the environment? Will they agree to save the earth?
Strong resumes his story. "The group's conclusion is 'no'. The rich countries won't do it. They
won't change. So, in order to save the planet, the group decides: isn't the only hope for the planet
that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn't it our responsibility to bring that about?"
"This group of world leaders," he continues, "form a secret society to bring about an economic
collapse. It's February. They're all at Davos. These aren't terrorists. They're world leaders. They
have positioned themselves in the world's commodity and stock markets. They've engineered,
using their access to stock exchanges and computers and gold supplies, a panic. Then, they
prevent the world's stock markets from closing. They jam the gears. They hire mercenaries who
hold the rest of the world leaders at Davos as hostages. The markets can't close. The rich
countries..." And Strong makes a light motion with his fingers as if he were flicking a cigarette
butt out the window.
# sit there sellbound" This is not any storyteller tal)ing" This is +aurice Strong" He )nows these world
leaders" He is, in fact, co-chairman of the council of the Aorld @conomic Borum" He sits at the fulcrum
of ower" He is in a osition to do it"
"I probably shouldn't be saying things like this," he says.
Highway 17 cuts straight across the desert, heading out of the land of dreams
Ahen the truth is finally told, +aurice and Hanne Strong fear the world will come to this" 5o secret
societies" 5o hostage-ta)ings at 7a.os" But it will come to the same conclusionE the global economy,
saed by credit and debt loads and en.ironmental disasters, will simly come unstuc)" &nd nothing -
not e.en the insiration of the Baca - can sa.e human)ind from itself" They see the struggles and
roblems at the Baca as reflections of the roblems assaulting the lanet" They fear the Baca will be, at
best, an oasis in the desert of the future - and at worst, a lace where dreams die"