What is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads? – Camus

The property selected by Dr. Stelle and approved by the Elder Brothers in Ramona’s Valley of the Sun is off the beaten path, tucked back against rolling hills in a quiet rural setting. Since 1954, it has been the home of the Lemurian Order, known as Gateway.

For over sixty years, with the Lemurian Fellowship’s patient guidance, the Lemurian Order has worked to create what Dr. Stelle termed “the ideal life,” in which the wellbeing of others is as important as our own. Lemurian life is based on the laws and principles that made the Lemurian civilization an outstanding success, and stresses cooperation, consideration, and mutual respect. To the degree all involved adhere to these ideals, it infuses a growing feeling of security and purpose rarely found in the world today.

When anyone works hard to create harmony and peace, this effort can be felt in their environment. And when many people work together to realize these spiritual blessings over a period of years, their community gradually takes on the higher vibration we associate with true spiritual living. Eventually, this becomes palpable enough that people begin to notice it.

Those of us who live at Gateway sometimes take its tranquility for granted, but seldom do we drive in the entry road that we don’t feel the cares of the world begin to slip away as our eyes light on a spread of purple fillaree, or the chuckle of a meadowlark soothes our ear. For some of us, the sense of peace starts with the coruscating colors of the dawn sky or an especially clear rainbow. Or it may be the bass chorus of bullfrogs after a rain, or the warble of five or six coyotes vying to sound like a dozen.

For students and Order members who visit Gateway, the contrast to their normal lives is usually sharper. One recent visitor said, “I felt the need to put aside some of the more vexing problems and allow situations to be as they are without interference. It is nice to let go and relax when resting in a grove of trees with the wind blowing softly and the leaves rustling, each bird song adding beauty to this scene of tranquility and peace.”

Another said, “When we walk the land on a quiet day, with the breeze nodding the flowers, and with sunlight and shadows playing on the grass, there is a continuity of peace each of us can carry away to our separate lives, that can bring us together in reflection and meditations, or in time of need.”

And when strangers, unacquainted with Lemurian ideals and unaware of Gateway’s purpose, comment about what they feel here, it’s always gratifying, an indication that we are succeeding at what we’re trying to accomplish. Often, a contractor will pause while installing a water heater or repairing a phone line to say, “You really have a peaceful place here.” And not long ago, a delivery crew brought a new mattress that was scheduled to arrive in the afternoon. They didn’t make it until after dark and they were all tired and in a hurry to be done by then. Yet, the one who carried the mattress in, paused a moment to say, “It’s really peaceful here.”

It really is.