May 31st, 2025

This is the summary of our 2^nd online group meeting on ‘Reducing dependency on money & banking’, March 31^st, 2025. It was a wonderful group. Much sharing happened. The conversation was inspiring and empowering. Thank you to everyone who participated. 

Below are some key points of our discussion. We right away dove into practicalities around non-monetary exchange, cutting bills, and the difficulties related to the healthy sharing of resources. We also talked about donation systems, giving freely and healthier ways to use money via a new type of bank and new, experimental, community-based currencies. And much more. I started the conversation by sharing about the sudden end of a recent non-monetary work exchange that I had organised through the Workaway platform.

Non-monetary work exchanges:

• Workaway and similar platforms are a possibility to work in exchange for food and a place to stay. There is a diversity of platforms through which travellers, or anyone who wishes to be part of a project on a non-monetary basis can find hosts. Many platforms are focused on a particular type of experience such as house-sitting, animal care, or organic farming. Personally I like Workaway because of the diversity of initiatives featured. For me such exchanges are a meaningful way to travel as the collaboration with local people and projects offers deeper insights into local cultures.
• In the last 2 years I noticed an increasing openness to variations in exchange conditions, and more room for negotiation – moving away from a fixed number of work hours, and towards an appreciation and valuation not only of work but also company, the presence of another person, enjoyable conversations etc. My exchanges sometimes also included airplane tickets, or shared excursions to explore the region rather than just food and accommodation. There is a lot of flexibility once a real bond between host and traveller forms which is valued and nourished from both sides.

Sharing one’s resources in healthy ways:

• Someone shared that she has abundant financial resources and land, and would like to give more, but inviting people to shared living and care for her land has proven difficult. People need to fit together on many levels, and complement each other. A lot of pioneer work is needed, and the importance of exchange of ideas and mutual encouragement was pointed out as being more helpful than searching for solutions. Through meeting and conversation we already move forward and open pathways energetically. The physical then falls into place more easily and smoothly.
• I have heard from many hosts who run transformative projects and invite volunteers to their places that a high level of selectiveness is needed when we choose who we work or share a living space with. Ability to adapt to new people and changing circumstances is also key.
• It was suggested that we simply need to keep moving and set strong boundaries which we get better at the more often we do it.

Reducing bills in tight, very regulated countries:

• One person, living in Switzerland shared that she has not used her health insurance in decades, but living without health insurance is illegal. She would like to get rid of that very expensive bill, but how? If she cancels her current insurance, then she has to provide proof of purchasing a new one. The same happens in Germany, but what I noticed is that leaving the country which was an obvious reason to terminate my German health insurance without opening a new one got me out of the system. When I later re-entered the country and lived there for 5 months nobody approached me regarding insurance. It was still illegal but I was able to live in Germany without a health insurance. So, getting out of the system in some reasonable way such as leaving the country for a while may open the door for getting off the radar.

Donation-based work:

• In countries where people are not used to financial freedom at all meaning room for negotiation and a multiplicity of monetary exchange models, donation systems are often perceived as awkward. This includes many western European countries like Germany, Switzerland, UK etc. As a result donation-based work can be tedious and frustrating when people are simply paralysed when confronted with financial choice rather than set prices. However, we concluded that the more people switch to donation-based systems, the clearer these pathways become, and societies get more used to checking in with themselves about what and how much they wish to give.
• It was pointed out that sliding scales are often perceived as easier to deal with because lower and upper price limits are set which provides orientation.
• There is a lot of fear connected with switching to donation-based work that was shared about, because such exchange models may be misused and misinterpreted by less awake community members. Donation-based work also seems to be perceived as less predictable regarding income. Yet financial predictability is decreasing quickly under any circumstances. More about fear further down…

Giving freely:

• It was shared that in the UK there is already a variety of groups/communities which are rooted entirely in the concept of giving freely. This includes for example The Growing Network which supports local people with growing and sharing food, seeds, plants and more. Another example is A Touch of Gentleness – a community that freely shares hand massages and genuine listening. Both projects aim to deepen community bonds, create healthy safety networks and a culture that is rooted in nature’s ways of exchange. I also recently found out about Sand River Community Farm in the USA which operates entirely on the principles of gifting. The project sees itself as a radical hospitality model and experiment.
• We noticed that many of us who were part of the group call are involved in non-monetary food exchanges, or even in personal or community initiatives which are rooted in the principles of giving freely. This was a beautiful realisation.

What is your relationship with money…

• Is a good question to ask to gain more clarity. Where are you at regarding your financial life? Does it feel good? Do you feel in healthy control? Are there areas where you could use money less? May such a change even deepen the bond with neighbours, friends, colleagues etc.? If something does not feel right, then there is a reason for it. Allowing this feeling to fully surface is important. No distracting because the non-addressing of what needs change leads to non-alignment with the ways in which nature functions.

Creating spaces for sharing ideas and experiences:

• The need for spaces to share and exchange as we move forward in difficult times was brought up many times, and much gratitude was expressed for Sun Beings and the online group meeting. Conversations like this are so important. Not only do we support each other but we could literally feel issues which were addressed dissolving, and new pathways opening up – materialisation in action. Personally, I have so often experienced major shifts after simply talking about a challenge with another person, laying it all out clearly. We all experience these kinds of dynamics. Suddenly at the physical level the right things can fall into place.

Facing fear was a re-occurring topic:

• Making bold moves out of the system, pioneering new ways of business, community, health care etc., setting clear boundaries and sticking to what truly and deeply resonates takes courage and often brings up fear. We discussed how this fear needs to be given the space to fully arise and be felt. It then usually either dissolves, or at least more clarity arises, and new pathways can open. This is not possible when fear is suppressed, or pushed to the side through distraction.
• Someone recently suggested in a different type of online meeting that it may be useful to address fear, and facing fear through Sun Beings. I may record a video about this topic, and there was also agreement that a group call would be appreciated. Stay tuned…
• It was shared that asking oneself: “What exactly is it that I am afraid of?” can be powerful because often the issue that emerges as the cause of the fear is something that we already know we do not need to be frightened of. It is sometimes even laughable. But if we don’t inquire into it, then we can’t see it for what it is. Being overwhelmed by fear is rarely necessary. Often fear just indicates that a move needs to be made.

Does everyone need to get out of the financial system, or reduce their dependency on it now?

• Of course not. We can put ourselves under a lot of pressure by pushing for what we BELIEVE needs to change in our lives. Once the right point for that change has come though, it happens by itself without forcing anything. How to navigate that road in practical ways once we are already on it can be challenging and this is why we meet and discuss.
• One person shared that she is collaborating with people who are fully integrated in the industrial farming system. Yet she farms organically. Such exchange of frequency, food, experience and inspiration is just as important as creating pathways which lay fully, or close to fully outside institutional and industrial systems. It can have massive ripple effects.
• There are also people who operate within the old systems and who will eventually take part in bringing them down. This is why they need to be there. There is no one set way of navigating these times.

Healthier monetary systems:

• Someone from the USA pointed us to the Global Family Bank as a resource and example for dealing with money differently. Here is an excerpt from the website “This journey [of this bank] began in 2008 when Hunter began his hypothesis, Love Is Energy. Research focused on the energy of love and he found that we are programmed to believe that life is balanced opposites. He began to observe from an energy perspective of frequency and vibration that LOVE and EVIL are not opposites, but two completely different energies that are not compatible in vibration and frequency and therefore not in resonance.”
• I also pointed to two new currencies rotted in France: JEU – Jardin d’Echange Universel and La June G1 as examples for decentralised community-based currencies. Both emphasise mutual support without hierarchy, debt, interest rates, or inflation.
• You can find many more projects which change the way we deal with money on our ‘Economies of care’ page, as well as on other pages throughout the Sun Beings website.

Variations in call times to include additional geographic regions:

• We received emails from members of the Sun Beings community who live in Australia and India pointing out that the call times are difficult for them, or not suitable at all. Hence in the near future we will host a group call which includes these times zones. Thank you so much for reaching out to us.