How can i escape society...

If this is truly what you are looking for this is NOT an option

I dont want to "go off the grid"

This is very much possible. As I have been doing this for quite a while now.

Here a couple of my threads you might enjoy. They all add up to what you are talking about, and may make your journey that much closer to reality.

How I got off the grid, you can too!
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Bartering. Can your skill help you to survive?
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Bartering, getting off the grid, and mini homes Oh My!
www.abovetopsecret.com...

The Do It Yourself thread for when SHTF!
www.abovetopsecret.com...


Peace, NRE.

I really hope that you take the time to look into what I posted. I can totally agree that this is not for everyone. But with determination, heart, and a little patience there is nothing you cant do!

reply to post by Thurisaz


Whats wrong with only thinking of yourself? If no one wants to join in, how is it selfish? Obviously youre okay living within society, you wont be missing out on anything i do. Are animals selfish now? They only think of themselves and how to live just one more day.


I mean...look at this world, really look at it, does any of it matter? Im not going to be metaphysical and say theres some higher meaning, and that our world is an illusion, but our society is an illusion, no one has an idea of what really matters...not even i do, but i want to escape what i know doesnt matter...

Originally posted by 8fl0z
reply to post by Thurisaz

 

Whats wrong with only thinking of yourself? If no one wants to join in, how is it selfish? Obviously youre okay living within society, you wont be missing out on anything i do. Are animals selfish now? They only think of themselves and how to live just one more day.


I mean...look at this world, really look at it, does any of it matter? Im not going to be metaphysical and say theres some higher meaning, and that our world is an illusion, but our society is an illusion, no one has an idea of what really matters...not even i do, but i want to escape what i know doesnt matter...

Obviously you're not happy living where you're living, move. Just save up some money and get off the grid like a normal conspiracy person should.

reply to post by 8fl0z

i am but an animal of this Earth, is this not what animals do every day of their lives?

Sure biologically you are an animal. But do you want to live like an animal? Or a Human Being? Believe me I'm with you on this. I really am. I don't want the stupid paper any more than you do. But if you think you're depressed now, wait till you've been living off of nuts and berries and river water for a couple weeks. Then you spend your last bit of life energy trying to catch a fish, or a rabbit, and don't have the energy or the tools to clean it. Or you get diarrhea from some pathogen in the rabbit meat. Assuming you can catch it in the first place.

I live in Hawaii. I LOVE to eat fish. But I won't eat it unless I catch and clean it myself. Guess how often I eat fish. About 3 times a month. I fish almost every single day and I hardly ever catch anything. Just a small example, but you get my point right?

Agriculture: Have you ever farmed? If so skip this part. If not, I'm telling you it's extremely difficult. Almost as hard as catching fish. How are you gonna have the time or energy to wait 4 months for your crops to come in, assuming they aren't hit by pests/disease? What do you do without a refrigerator? How are you going to store all that food you just spent months waiting to grow. I'm just saying man, I feel your pain. But it's cold hard world out there that won't take any pity on you if you can't hack it.

Sure there are tribes that live off the land away from society still. Even thrive off it. But guess what. They've been doing it FOREVER. It's all they know. It's their life. That's not stuff you can just figure out on your own. One more place where a society, even a small one comes in handy.

Also, watch a movie called Into the Wild. It's a true story about a dude who had the same idea about running off to Alaska to escape society. I won't spoil it, but it might make you think twice about it. Sure opened my eyes. And it's a good flick in it's own right.

reply to post by 8fl0z


By 'consequences' I mean that there will be a stripping away of all you've been taught about yourself and humanity. You will begin to understand nature, the animals, the plants, the world around you, the food you eat, the energy inside them, in a way that you have not been taught about and that you will have no concept of before you experience it first hand.

It is a great adventure. You will not regret it if you have the strength and the wherewithal to live it.

reply to post by 8fl0z


as a kid i thought of this alot and its true man has reined over all the land. i always thought the forest would be a good place but somewhere close by you will find civilization. the ocean is the other i can think of and would probly be easier to escape but more dangerous. im sure if looked hard enough you could find what your looking for.

Living on the land and for the land is one of the best things in the world. At first I was terrified, when I realized that the planet will provide for me as long as I cared for it, I realized that I could never go back to the city. Any questions that I had was a click away. There are literally thousands of videos out there that can help you with everything, and anything.

There are many ways to do this, there are thousand of acres of land for sale. All you have to do is want it enough. I grew up in the Bronx in NYC, and now I grow my own food, and if I want to talk to my neighbors... I have to drive there.

I never knew there was so many stars until I got here. Your already a step ahead, by wanting out. Now, the rest is up to you.

Good luck.
Peace, NRE.

I take your question seriously as I have also thought about the same thing for the same reasons. The problem is, there is a lot to think about and a lot to prepare for and even then, your survival expectations are not particularly good, because your basically talking about going back to the stonage.

The starting premise that you must consider, is that whatever you take with you 90% of it will be useless within 12 months. Period.

Shelter

This is your first consideration when you decide on your location to settle, assuming of course that settling is your best option. Settling in terms of shelter is ideal because you can, over time, build a permanent shelter to withstand the elements or indeed make a cave more habitable for yourself. But by settling, you are putting yourself in the position of having to endure all of the seasons and whilst spring, summer and even autumn will likely provide bountiful foraging oppertunities, winter will bite you in the ass if you are not 100% ready for it. On way of course to deal with this is to migrate to warmer climes when it comes or indeed settle in a more temperate area. You mentioned Alaska as a possible destination, but consider how ridiculously bad the winter gets up there, its not to be taken lightly. I would reccomend that you take a tent which will act as a temporary shelter until such time as you can arrange something more permanent, but equally, use it as little as you can and keep it servicable, because it would be better to have it on hand in case of emergency, should you need it. In terms of building shelters etc, best to get a book (one of many I will suggest) that will give you info and knowledge on methods and types of shelters you can make, along with what materials you need and can scavenge from your environment. Take this book with you, undoubtedly you will need it until such time as you have mastered any and all techniques.

Food & Water

Your second consideration, but equally as important as the first. Locate yourself as near as you can to a source of fresh water, ideally a free flowing river or similar; not too far away that it takes you hours to travel to and from it, but not so close that in the event of it bursting its banks, that you dont get washed away. When taking water from the river, before use, you want to filter it as best you can to get and debris from it, but also before you even consider drinking it, I would suggest that you boil it first; this removes the vast majority of microbes and nasties in the water that could make you sick, but of course, is not 100%. Rivers are also a good source for food, fish being the most obvious; learn how to dam and make fish traps (books again) as these will give better longevity and results for catching (and indeed keeping fish) than say fish hooks and line. Also, spear fishing is for Crocodile Dundee, so you can discount that as well. I would reccomend taking some form or rudimentry fishing equipment with you initially before you perfect other methods, not only will it do in a stop gap but will be useful for times when the other methods are hampered (like winter). Learning to how and where to set snares and traps is another skill in order to trap smaller animals; to enable you to do this you will need to learn how to track and spot signs of animals (such as rabbits) as well as how to skin, gut and cook them; again you can undoubtedly find books to help you on this. Foraging is another essential skill you will need to learn; there are plenty of edible plants and berries out there but you need to identify those that are going to do you good as opposed to those that will poison you, another book will help you identify said plants and teach the best places to look for them. Bear in mind of course, that winter will bring much slimmer pickings. My advice would be to take a certain amount of food with you; canned goods are fine but are bulky so I would reccomend things like rice, oats etc that are dried and will keep for quite a while if not used. Start your foraging, trapping and fishing activites as a matter of urgency because I guarentee until you master all of the methods, your going to be spending a lot of time doing it and a lot of that time will be unsuccessful. One other very valuable thing to do will be to learn how to smoke meats and dry out fruits and berries; this increases their longevity allowing for storage which might mean the difference between life and death come the harsher climes. Book. Insects are also a good source of nourishment (especially larva) and actually pound for pound, contain more protein than beef and can help you out in a pinch, just got to overcome your sqeemish side and learn what is ok and what is not ok to eat. One final consideration is planting vegetables, potatoes, tomatoes and so on; but in order to do this you must take initial seeds with you and also know how, where and when to plant in order for it to work and that does not preculde the chances of natural things destryong your crops, wether it be birds, animals, insects or just plain old 'blight' and of course, you wont grow much during the winter anyway.

Equipment

Ok, so your gonna need knives and I mean more than one as well as a decent sharpening stone. Some knives you will use for food preparation others for labour tasks and so on. A decent quality knife, if well looked after will last a very long time, but there is always the chance of losing / breakage etc so best to have backups or its going to be time to make flint tools like our ancestors. Cooking utensils are a must, pots, kettle, pans etc; again if looked after properly they can last a lifetime too, so make sure you get the best quality available to you. Eating utensils are not too bad, stainless steel sporks for example, will also last if looked after but failing that, you still have your fingers. A pickaxe, a shovel and an axe (possibly even a htchet too) are essential and the heads if looked after will last forever (handles can always be replaced by you if needed, but you will want to learn how book book book) a spade is also not a bad idea, but no essential as a pickaxe will break up the earth well enough for you to be able to shovel it, so you might save some weight without it. Again, buy the best quality you can. Take a reasonable supply of matches as well as a number of flintsteels if you can, because you will NEED fire 365 days of the year, regardless. Naturally, the matches will run out and the flintsteels will wear out eventually so as soon as you are able, learn how to make fire just using the natural materials to hand, guess what? get a book and practise practise practise; try and save what you can from your consumeables. Plastic containers and bags are also a good thing to take with you, plastic being non-bio degradable (assuming it is looked after) can last a very long time assuming it doesnt get damaged and become useless.

Clothing

Now this is going to be a tough one, regardless of how well you look after the clothes you take with you, they will become ripped, wear out or even rot, leading them to be utterly useless. I doubt it is reasonable to grow cotton for example or shear sheep and learn to weave etc so what I imagine to be your best option will likely be to craft clothing from animal hides. This means not only learning to track, hunt and kill larger animals that will provide you with suitable hide (which is arguably the biggest threat to your wellbeing as winter if not bigger) but also how to cure those hides and make clothing from them (sewing using animal gut for thread as an example) you will definitely need a book for this too and also to start trying to do it before you end up running around buck nekked. Shoes and suchlike will be also craftable from animal hides too, so learn how to do that as well.

Hygene

This is important because it lends to your overall wellbeing; wash yourself every day, most likely in the river but do it downstream of where you intend to fish etc. Also wash your clothes too, it will increase their longevity. Soap will be a luxury once its gone, although I believe it is possible to make soap using animal fat, but you would have to look into that as I am unsure of how or what is required (or indeed if it is even possible at all). As for performing your 'toilet' activites, make sure you do it plenty far away from where you are camped, but also bury it. The risk of disease and illness from your own waste is quite high but also, if unburied it can attract unwanted attention, not only from insects but also from animals too. Keeping your teeth clean is going to be important, start out with a toothbrush etc but learn what natural alternatives there are as soon as you can.

General Health

This is the tough one. Leaving civilisation means leaving pharmacies and docotors behind, so you will need to not only take very good care of yourself and mitigate risks of injury / illness by preparing food / water properly and not doing daft things that might lead to injury. Eating a nutricious diet will be a must and is also possible to do; it is worth finding out what your intakes of fibre, protein, vitamins etc needs to be in order to remain as healthy as possible; if your body starts to lack certain elements or indeed if your food intake is not high enough, it will lead not only malnutrician, possible scurvy / rickets but also will reduce your natural resistance to germs leading you to be at risk from illness. It is worth getting a book on natural remedies (ie herbalsim) as some of the fauna and flora can be used to make remedies for a number of common ailments which will prove invaluable. Also, when you get cuts and scrapes, make sure they are kept clean and free from infection; afore mentioned herbalism poltices can help with this sort of thing. The bottom line though, you will get sick GUARENTEED! how serious or how often will not only depend on how well your body can fight it, how well you can create and provide natural remedies but also how lucky and careful you are. Be vigilant. Naturally, take as much as you can in terms of medicene and bandages etc with you, but again, they will run out once you use them. Also take plenty of toilet paper, but find out what plants are good to wipe with and get your rear accustomed to lack of comfort, because those rolls will dissapear quick!

Your Environment

This is something you need to know all about when deciding on your destination and also the area you are going to settle in. Whats the rainfall like? what are the risks fo flash flooding? How bad does it get in winter and how long for? What natural enemies, will I have; bears? snakes? insects? mointain lions? wolves? learn how to mitigate the risk of bumping into these nasties or have them wander up on you as much as you can. But also prepare yourself incase you find yourself staring down a timberwolf, the wilderness is nothing like it appears in Grizzley Adams, plently of stuff would much sooner kill and eat you than let you live in peace and harmony, so get yourself as prepared and tooled up as you possibly can.

The fact is, the above does not cover everything you should be considering, but I hope it is enough to at least make you think about what you want to do. Because even if you are amazingly lucky and extremely prepared, there are still a million and one ways that it can all go wrong and being in the wilderness when that happens, means its life or death. Just be REALLY sure its something you want to do,

Peace.

I would recommend a sailboat, as big as you can get. Preferably made of steel, i.e. bulletproof. A watermaker, some armor plating around the waterline. Fishing gear, spearfishing gear. And lots of weapons.

It's pretty easy to live off the sea, if you get away from overpopulated polluted areas. Stay in the tropical zone, you won't have to worry about winter. Head north in the hurricane season to take advantage of the amount of fish in cold waters like Alaska,but get back to the warmth before winter sets in.

Keep moving and you are off the radar of all govts. Go into Permanent Tourist mode.

speculationrules.com...

You could go buy an old amish homestead....land, barns and house...no wiring, or plumbing.
The Amish pick up and leave from time to time, especially Kentucky at the moment I hear....
Then you have a ready made, live on the land set up...just start running it. Get your animals and chickens..if you are friendly with the Amish that are left, they will help you with just about anything.
That is my best advice...

By joining SKOV

Getting off the grid would be a problem...But then again, there are plenty of places to hide in mountainous areas that have little to no human civilization. But I could never leave my beloved ATS

Originally posted by ZeroReady
Survival in this way would be extremely difficult. I've thought a lot about it as well, and have had many great conversations with my girlfriend about it. She's a lot smarter than I am and definitely opened my eyes to the reality of life as we know it. Today we as a society place a very heavy reliance on interconnectedness and division of labor. I told the girlfriend I'm tired of eating poisoned food all the time and I just want to be afforded the opportunity to provide for myself. She explained that doing so would mean devoting every waking moment to the basic needs of life. Food, shelter, water. This would leave no time for other more enjoyable aspects of life-music, philosophy, games, social interaction. We rely on so many other people doing lots of little small things so that no one person is required to do everything.

This is what allowed what we call civilization to spring about in the first place. People divided up their labor and finally had time to sit down and just think stuff up. Write songs. Get practice doing things other than pure survival.

Not to mention what happens when we have kids one day? They will need to be fed and cared for as well, and will be mostly helpless little whelps for quite some time.

I mean if you want to do it, by all means go for it. I would suggest some sort of commune though. At least 50 or so. But you will have a very difficult, uncomfortable, probably mostly miserable existence until the day you die of some bacterial infection, broken limb complications, starvation because you had some dental problem and can't operate on your own grill, the list goes on. We need other people. The world is tough place.

Hate to poohpooh on your dream. It's just reality.

This is actually a fallacy, strangely enough. It's counter-intuitive. Read Harlan Hubbard by Wendell Berry - Hubbard lived the life Thoreau tried and failed at, and Hubbard had enough free-time every evening to sit around playing stringed instruments with his wife and house-guests. He had enough free-time to paint an entire gallery's worth of paintings, write a number of hefty journals wherein he complained profusely about technological doodads like chainsaws and lawnmowers, and he still ran a near-totally self-sufficient homestead.

The reality isn't obvious to us domestic types.

Be careful of what you wish for, you just may get it.

Typical day living off the land....OK

2am Restart the fire in the wood stove, it has dropped to a toasty 55 degrees in your cabin. Look outside and see if it is raining yet... go back to bed.

5am Get up and stoke up the fire for the day. Bring in more wood from the porch since most of what you brought in yesterday has been burned. Go to the outhouse and do your business. Come in and pour water and wash face and hands. Put the frying pan on the stove to eat up so you can cook.

530am Go outside and get some more water. Fill up the wood stack on the porch. Get up eggs from the chicken coop. Hurry back inside because it is cool for spring this late.

6am The frying pan is hot now so you slice some sidemeat or bacon or cut some homemade sausage from a roll and put the meat back into the coldbox. That is what you use for refridgerator. Basically a metal box sitting in a whikey half barrel filled with water. The evaporation of water from around the dry metalbox keeps things cool... not cold, but cool. It is covered with plywood cut to fit like a lid. Anyway, you fry sausage or bacon, use the grease to fry a few potatoes, then scramble some eggs...the last few slices of homemade bread are toasted ontop of the stove. You eat and wash down with hot black coffee.

645am Bust and stack more wood so you always have some.

745 It is light enough now... feed and water the animals...chickens, pigs, goats...save the goats for last so you can milk the Nubian as she eats.

830 Pour milk into large basin or pot and add a little lemon juice so the milk curdles and seperates.

845am Start chopping weeds and hoeing corn to clean it up.

11am Come back in. It has heated up nicely, so you are down to a t-shirt and jeans. Check the goat milks and seperate the curds from the wey...take the curds and mix with salt in another bowl, gently oplace into a bowl lined with cheesecloth and set down into coolbox. Eat some beans that have been simmering on a fire most of the morning, that wear soaked the night before and that fire that you have been feeding in between chopping the garden.

12 noon Go and check your traps...see if there are squirrels, rabbits, opossums, etc for dinner. Rebait with apple peelings as needed.

130pm Back from walking traps...have a sqirrel and a rabbit and ran up on a patch of wild strawberries.. not many, but will be good for supper. Kill and clean the squirrel and rabbit... put the meat into a bowl with salt water to draw out the blood and wild taste. Washup and set the berries in the cool box. Mix another batch of bread, set in bowl and cover to rise.

230pm Go back and chop more corn and plant some beans, squash, transplant some peeper and tomato plants sown in a hotbed about 2 months ago. Dismantle the hay bales used to make the bed and use as mulch around the plants.

530pm...starting to turn twilight and some spring storms are coming in from the heat of the day. The fire you built outside is extinguished and the coals put into the woodstove to jumpstart it. While the stove heats up, check the animals one more time... goats last so you can milk the nubian.

6pm Put some more wood on the fire. Get it hot and put the small dutch oven on the front, the big dutch oven on the back...in the front...make a stew with onions, potatoes, hot pepper, sage, chopped squirrel and rabbit meat, chopped cabbage from the garden, and in the big dutchoven... place the risen bread dough and bake.

630pm Bring in more water for tonight and tommorow, fill up the wood box from the porch, check the garden after the storm to make sure it didn't blow over the corn or wash your new bean rows, make sure the animals are ok.

7pm Check the stew... mend some work pants... move the bread to the front of the fire and stew to back... fix some coffee

730pm lite some candles cause it is too dark... set the table and take up the stew, the bread, and put the washed berries and some honey into a small fry pan to simmer... eat supper

745 The berries are soft and made a syrup... pour over a slice of bread and eat like shortcake.. set a metal basin of water on stove to heat

830pm strip and wash off out of basin with water, soap, rag

9pm drink a glass of wine and relax

930pm go to bed

5am.. REPEAT above except today you walk to town instead of traps to trade eggs for coffee, a couple of chickens for some money to buy sugar and some bolts and nuts to fix a push plow

This is it...been there and done that. I suggest a happy medium between reclusion and society... that is where we live.

Originally posted by 8fl0z

Originally posted by Heartisblack
Suidide is the option, or you could be sick of your surroundings that creates depression too; move to another country.

edit on 16-8-2011 by Heartisblack because: (no reason given)

"i just want to escape..."

I just want to live a happy, healthy, peaceful life....

Hmmm, what are you gonna do when you accidentally rip your leg open while farming your own food? Get a toothache? Or when your wife cuts herself on something rusty and gets lockjaw? Too many people think that those good ole days were heaven. THEY WERE PURE HELL!

Yup, living off the land is the simple life. You get sick, you die. Simple.

Originally posted by AlreadyGone
Be careful of what you wish for, you just may get it.

What's wrong with all that? I'd think being directly connected to the tools and necessities of life would be more satisfying than using pre-fabricated commodities and machinery so complex that very few people actually understand them.

Personally, the biggest problem I've had with society since I was a kid is that hardly anyone ponders over the mystery that is a climate control system, or a microwave, or a television screen, or an induction coil... The logical result of that issue is; when something breaks and they don't know how to repair it, they simply replace it with a new product. Who knows where it came from or where the broken item goes? And for all we know, the refrigerator works because pixies are trapped inside it and they magically chill the air.

So in society, people spend all their time pouring over contracts and sales agreements, credit authorization requests, and loan documents... not to mention doing tedious, repetitive things to enrich the lives of people who have larger stocks of this particular type of rectangular paper that has a dead guy's face printed on the front. Seems stressful and difficult either way.

reply to post by 8fl0z


I agree... I'd love to escape from this hell hole of modern life. It's killing us AND the world around us.

well you can. But you just have to win a lottery and buy one of these www.privateislandsonline.com...

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