Brotherhood of the Spirit: A Tale of a 1970s New Age Community

Michael and Carrie Kline, Talking Across the Lines

“Brotherhood of the Spirit:” An Unvarnished Window into New Age Communal Life of the Post-Vietnam Era in Western Massachusetts Recorded by Carrie Nobel Kline and Joan Stoia for the 350th Anniversary of Northfield, Massachusetts Oral History Project in the Fall of 2022. This 65-minute audio recorded narrative offers a moving, compellingly honest account of back-to-the-land, intentional, spiritual, drug-free, homegrown living by members of the “Brotherhood of the Spirit (BOS).” Founded by Michael Metelica in 1969, the nascent tree house gathering was driven by aspirations of simple living and honest dealings. From a rural hangout it soon became the promised land for many alienated, aimless youngsters, eager to embrace drug-free opportunities for collective living and collaborative accomplishments. Our protagonist, Mark Alvin, a current resident of Northfield, ruminates in compelling detail about the “fantastic adventures” of his seven years as a committed community member at a time when, “We thought we were going to save the world.” Mark Alvin found himself in the company of others consumed by desires to make art and music, “cooky, creative, wacky” people attracted to the place, along with a wide variety of misfits, artists, people just out of treatment centers and mental institutions. With all of this formative activity going on around him, tone-deaf Metelica, having the charismatic power of making others do what he wanted, was fixated on becoming a rock star. BOS, which by the early 1980s had acquired houses in other villages, went on to purchase the Shea Theater and surrounding block in Turners Falls, MA as the population of the Brotherhood blossomed to several hundred passionately involved members. Perhaps the most vivid of Alvin's descriptions depict farming operations in the Northfield bottom lands along the Connecticut River involving field crews with scores of young workers whose collective ambitions met all challenges with success and celebration. Reflecting on such a rich experience, Alvin exudes enthusiasm at the opportunity of finally fully sharing his story with people eager to hear it—and getting to tell it in his own way.