✦ Shope Creek Wilderness
A place to experience yourself
in novel and expanded ways.
People come here and get what they need
and what they're ready for.
✦ The Land
The house is part of the story.
The land is the story.
Shope Creek Wilderness sits in the mountains outside Asheville, North Carolina, where forest, water, wildlife, art, sound and human experience meet.
"A place of learning, a place of alignment, a place of realization, a place of sharing, a place where magic lives. Dragons and yetis come to play, and children shine."
The land has repeatedly brought people into deeper relationships with themselves, nature, and whatever they understand consciousness to be.
Some come for an afternoon.
Some return for years.
Some create.
Some rest.
Some leave with a question.
Some leave with something they are finally ready to make.
✦ The Experience
There is no signal.
Shope Creek Wilderness Experience
A visit may include time in the forest, conversation, creative work, music, movement, wellness practices, time alone, experiences with practitioners, or simply sitting quietly enough to notice something you hadn't noticed before.
The point is not the modality. The point is what becomes available when normal noise is reduced.
We let go of what has been, and we allow what can be.
"People get what they need
and what they're ready for."
✦ The Field Beyond
"Beyond the idea of right doing and wrongdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there."
This is the Field of Infinite Possibility. The land itself is that field — a place beyond judgment, where what becomes possible is not determined by what came before.
"Ours is not to seek for love, but to find and clear all of the things that we do to block it."
There is nothing to heal. It is simply blocked energy.
Alignment with our true selves helps us recognize the blockages. The modalities and experiences available at Shope Creek Wilderness help clear them.
These are formulations Stephen has offered, rather than verified verbatim quotations.
✦ When the Land Is Shared
What happens when
land is shared?
On September 11, 2019, Shope Creek Wilderness filed for nonprofit status as a 501(c)(3).
Its mission was to move children and adults beyond the idea of nature deficit disorder, helping them reconnect with the natural world in any way possible.
This allowed the land to practice sharing: giving without anticipation of receipt.
Forest Floor is an example of that principle in action.
Forest Floor began small.
Two counselors. Nine kids. A piece of land.
Over time, hundreds of young people experienced the forest through the program.
Shope Creek did not have to invent the children's experience. It made the land available. Something grew.
The program's growth demonstrates the value and success of the sharing concept.
"Giving without anticipation of receipt."
✦ After Helene
When the land needed
something back.
After Hurricane Helene damaged Shope Creek, neighbors and community members arrived to help. People brought:
The place that had been shared with others suddenly experienced others sharing with it.
✦ The Offerings
Conscious Biology
In addition to Forest Floor, the current offerings include the Center for Conscious Biology.
Joda Williams is developing an approach she calls Conscious Biology, bringing together her work around human potential, nutrition, botanical practices, coaching and other wellness modalities.
Shope Creek provides a setting for exploration and development of that work.
✦ Open House
Come experience
the land.
An open house at Shope Creek is an invitation to explore the property, meet some of the people currently working here and experience several of the spaces and modalities available on the land.
No prescribed outcome. No requirement to believe anything.
Come curious.
November 1st
RSVP for November 1st✦ Stay at Shope Creek
Stay near
the land.
Select accommodations at Shope Creek are currently available through short-term rental. Artists, writers, founders and others who want time near the property can inquire about availability.
Experiences, sessions and access to particular areas or practitioners are separate and depend on availability.
Inquire about stayingYou may not know
why you're coming.
That's okay. Many people didn't.
Come experience the land.
Take what you're ready for.
Leave what you're ready to leave.
And when it's time — take whatever you found back into the world.
Shope Creek Wilderness
Asheville, North Carolina
✦ Connect
Invited Conversations
Shope Creek is private land, shared by invitation. If you'd like to start a conversation — about an open house, a stay, or simply visiting — we'd love to hear from you.