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[[File:The Cob House - Cadhay.jpg|250px|right|]]
: ''More about this topic in [[Natural building]].''<br>
: ''By [[User:John|John Eagles]], February 2, 2003.''
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*[https://vimeo.com/119738797 Listen to a reading of this article]
Most houses are built as constructions in which we can live. Not much thought is generally given to what a house could mean in terms of relation to the environment around it and the meaning of houses for the development of people as spiritual beings.

A home is more than a house. A house is understood here as a mere physical construction in which people are dwelling. A home is much more than that.

A home is a place where you can feel home. What makes that you feel home in a house?

It is a big question, but important enough to ask it and to find some first answers.

This brochure is meant as a first exploration of the matter. Complete answers are not given. You are invited to read and are called to start your own thoughts about it.

Using natural materials for building houses seems logical, but our thoughts have to go far beyond that.

How houses are built reflects the culture of the society. Germanic and Celtic people built houses of natural materials. Romans built houses of stone. Hippies tried again to learn from our oldest ancestors.

Houses have to do with culture. Culture has to do with the more internal aspects of our lives.

How we build our houses has much to do with how we want to live. We can therefore not answer the question of how to build houses without contemplating about our way of life.

Do you want to live in harmony with nature or is it that you don’t care much about that? Do you seek for higher values in life or are you just trying to make money?

I assume that the readers of this brochure do care about nature and also do care about more internal aspects of life. Hopefully you find a stimulus for trying new building methods and an invitation to contemplate the culture in which you live when you read the following pages.

== YOUR HOME A MINI-COSMOS ==
Practically all people live in houses. Some people live in tents. In the present time, many people live in apartments in big flats.

In the Western world, most people let their houses be built by building contractors. Many people don’t own their house but rent it.

In historic times, most people built their own houses. Also in many present-day societies, people do still build their own huts, houses or tents. Though often such homes are built in a more simple, some would say primitive way, there is deep satisfaction and great benefit in building your own house.

In this article i shall try to explain why i think it to be beneficial to learn to make your own furniture, to build your house and to make it into one united body with the garden around your dwelling.
== THE MEANING OF A HOUSE ==
Let us begin with thinking about the meaning of a house. A house is made for people, first of all. Many people let also animals live in their house. Still, when you think of a house, you first think of a dwelling for people.

There is a house and there are people. A house offers protection and shelter for people. People engage in many activities in their houses. There is a kitchen in which you prepare food. There is a bedroom in which you sleep. Many farmers also use their houses for performing their profession.

People live in houses. There are of course also houses made for other purposes than giving a home for a family of people. There are buildings made for businesses, schools, hospitals etc. In this article i shall focus mainly on family houses, houses built for people to live in.

Houses are made for people. People do live in houses. The question of what is a house, what should be a house, cannot be separated from the question of what is the identity of man. We can only understand about the meaning of houses when we have an idea about what man really is.

Though many people did or do live in bad ways, people originally are very highly developed and beautiful beings. Modern scientists have gotten far in their ability to understand and control life of man on earth. Potentially, human beings are able to understand the world around them, the world of living animals, plants, and microorganisms, and the world of non-living things. When we are able to understand the nature of the world around us, we also should be able to have good dominion over this world.

I know that many people misuse their abilities. Instead of living in harmony with nature, they exploit its riches to get material benefit. In this article i am not speaking about the reality of human daily life, i am speaking about the ideal of how it could and should be.

How can people get understanding of the world of nature? Why can we understand something about how our bodies are made? How can we send spaceships to the moon? How can we understand about the world in that we live?

It is only because the cosmos around us is not strange to us. The cosmos is made in exactly the same way as humans were. Microorganisms that live in a healthy soil do also live in our intestines and on our skin. Our bodies are constructed from the same chemical elements that make out the rest of the cosmos.

People have bodies that are incredibly ingenious and complicated. Human bodies are beautiful instruments that beat any man-made robot. Our physical bodies are the instruments that enable us to think, feel and desire. Like the hardware of a computer allows computer programs to run, the human body allows for programs of human thinking and feeling and will. The functions of thinking and feeling and will do together constitute what is commonly referred to as the ‘mind’ of man.

Man is not just a materialistic being. Man has a mind of intellect, emotion and will. It is difficult to understand the relation between mind and body. When we compare the mind of man with the instinct of an animal, we could say that the mind of man and the instinct of an animal are taking an internal and a guiding position in relation to the animal’s and human body.

The instinct of an animal guides the body of an animal. Likewise, the mind of man is capable of steering the body of man.

The instinct of animals is not directly visible. We assume that animals have an instinct, a kind of animal mind, because animals do behave in similar and particular ways in certain situations. The mind is invisible and internal in relation to the body.

The mind of man is capable to comprehend the principles of the universe. Mind and body of man together are like a small cosmos, a microcosm. If man develops further and refrains from acting in evil ways, man is potentially able to have good dominion over the cosmos.

It is necessary that man uses his or her mind well. This is possible because each human being is able to love. Deep in the mind of man there is still a more internal function that makes out the essence of man. It is the heart of love. Though people often are controlled by emotions of hatred, when people choose to do right, they are capable of feeling and expressing deepest love for other man and for all of nature.

I would call this ability of man to love in good ways, man’s ‘Divine Nature.’ You may believe in a God or in many gods or in no god. I hope that you, at any rate, do believe in the potential ability of man to love and to be good.

With the heart of love, human beings can embrace the beauty of the cosmos. They can enjoy nature. Parents feel happy when their children are happy.

Man is a microcosm, because man can embrace the universe with her or his love, can comprehend the principles of nature with his mind, and have dominion over the world of things with the sophisticated human body.
== A HOUSE EXTENDING THE FUNCTIONS OF THE HUMAN BODY ==
What does all this have to do with building houses?

People tend to flock together and form families or groups. Such a family or a group often lives together in one house.

That house offers shelter for the group. The house also enables the members of the family or group to perform all kind of tasks in relation to society.

When you live in a house that others made for you, it might easily be so that you aren’t happy in that house. Often such a house doesn’t suit your needs.

Because man is a microcosm, man can only be really satisfied in life when man does develop all latent talents. It is my firm belief that a lot of unhappiness comes because people got stuck in a type of life in which they do not anymore experience the challenges of continued growth.

When we look at it from this viewpoint, a house could get the meaning of an instrument extending the functions of the human body. A house is then not just a personal instrument, but it is one that is shared by a small group of people living together in harmony.

The concept is the following: Each human being is a microcosm. Each human being is potentially able to understand and have good dominion over the universe. People live or try to live together in social groups. In most cultures, a man and a woman forming a couple make out the main unit in such a group. Said in a different way: a man and a woman form a couple, get children and grow into a family.

We could say that what a human body is for an individual, the house is for a family or small group.

What should a house be?

A house is more than just the walls made from brick stones. A house is an atmosphere of love, a place where you can rest, where you can think properly; it is a home where you feel well. Included in the house are machines such as a washing machine, computers etc. Such a house could function for a small group as a healthy body does for an individual.

To get a good atmosphere in a house it is very important that good materials are being used. Certainly, no poisonous matter should come into the house. The more you try to elevate your life by meditation, prayer, learning about spiritual life, etc., the more that you will feel the need that your house is a good place.

It is not enough anymore that you let your house be built by anyone. Preferably, you would wish to build your whole house yourself. When you make a chair for one of your children, you want to put into that chair all the love you feel for your child. You don’t want that chair be made by a stranger whose thoughts are going to the money he will earn.

All the small details begin to matter. You want your garden to form a harmonious unit with the house. You want to determine what kind of color the flowers next to the entrance door should have.

All this has to do with the fact that man has so big potentials and has gotten such a high mission in life. Man can grow to become a real microcosm. When you want to fulfill your destiny as a microcosm, you will have to make of your house a beautiful home of love, a real mini-cosmos of harmony. (February 2, 2003)
== GOOD MATERIALS FOR A HOUSE ==
Please join me on a journey to discover more about what a house should be and which materials are fit for building houses.

There are built all kind of houses in the world. Houses are also made for companies and organizations to do their business. What i want to write about are houses to live in.

It seldom happens that one person builds a whole house for him- or herself alone. In most living houses, families or small groups of people reside.

When a house is made it should be fit for the people to live in. The big question is how this can be done in the best possible way. What kinds of houses do people need? What kind of materials are best applied for building a good house?

Thousands of years ago all people built their houses from resources that were available to them in nature. Also many people who presently are living in rather primitive circumstances do use the materials nature provides them.

In modern advanced societies there are available all kind of synthetically produced materials. Though such resources are often durable and cheap, it remains a big question whether they provide for happy living.
== A HOUSE IS FOR ITS INHABITANTS WHAT A BODY IS FOR AN INDIVIDUAL ==
What is needed for a happy life?

I am proposing here a thesis for this. This view does not claim to be a recipe for your happiness, but it is meant as a tool that helps us to find out how houses can be built in better ways.

The thesis is that the happiness of people comes from them having good relations with each other and to the world around them. When the members of a family live in good harmony they all will feel happier than when they engage in continuous strife.

A living house is a dwelling for a group of people or for a family. What function does this house perform for this group of people?

A house is comparable to the body of man. A house is for a family what a body is for an individual. The body of man is seen here as the instrument for a person’s mind. Your body does what your mind tells your body to do. You have certain thoughts and feelings and desires, and your body is the instrument to express these thoughts, feelings or desires.

When we see a living house as more than just the skin that the walls and roof make out, then a living house is actually extending the functions of the individual bodies of the people living in that house.

In a house you have a telephone that extends the ears. There is a television that extends the eyes. The walls of the house protect the people inside like the skin of your body protects the organs inside.

A living house is seen here in its entirety. The living house is practically a living organism. When you open the mouth of your body, you can eat food to maintain your body. Likewise, the door of a house could open to bring in food and equipment that makes the house and its inhabitants live well.

Your thoughts, feelings and desires make up your mind. Your mind makes use of the instrument that your body is. Likewise, a group of people living in a house could be compared to the mind while the external house itself is like the body of that group-mind.

When you break a leg, you don’t only feel pain in your leg, but your whole life suffers. When your skin is open because of having a big injury, you will have to wait for that skin to heal before you can feel happy again.

When you live in a house, you don’t want the glasses be broken, because you would feel very uncomfortable.

When you go outside in the rain and you put on a plastic coat, you are protected against the rain, but your sweat might run out because of the bad climate within the plastic tissue of the raincoat.

Like the clothing of an individual extends the function of his or her body, so a house extends the functions of a group of people. You don’t feel good in a plastic raincoat and people don’t feel good in an artificial house.

Apparently, a house is a very complicated organism. A living house should be designed in such a way that many functions can be performed inside of that house. Like the body has exits for what remains from consumed food, so a house should have a toilet. Nobody would like it when the entrance for food in your body would be very near the exit of food remains. You would not like it when the door for your toilet is placed inside of the kitchen.

When we see a living house as an extended body for a group of people, we can learn many lessons for how to design and build a house well.

In this article i want to focus on the question which materials are adequate for building a good house.
== A HOUSE RELATES TO THE EARTH, TO THE ENVIRONMENT AND TO THE SUN, MOON AND STARS ==
People feel happier when they have good relations to the people around them. You also want to be in harmony with yourself. You want to do what you think is right. When you do something that you know to be wrong, your bad conscience plagues you. While you could call the relations to the people around you to be horizontal, your relation to your own conscience could be considered to be vertical. Also the relation of you to the earth is a vertical one.

For a living house we see the same kind of horizontal and vertical relations.

A house is ‘rooted’ or founded into the earth. Each house takes its very particular place on the surface of the earth. There are places on earth that are hardly fit for building houses. Underneath the surface of the earth there are running water streams, just as there are visible rivers and brooks on the surface of the earth. When you place your house on the wrong place, it could be that you will always have trouble with moisture inside of the house.

A house also takes its place in the environment. Usually houses are built on the surface of the earth. Around the house is a garden, there are other houses, there are plants, animals etc. around the house.

When our living house relates well to its environment, that house will be equipped to perform some of its functions well. People living in the house will feel happier. When you come out from your house in an ugly environment, you will feel less well than when your house lies in a beautiful piece of nature.

Finally, each house is situated in relation to the sun, moon and stars. When you make of your house a bunker, no ray of light coming from the sun, moon or stars would ever enter that house. When you live in the northern hemisphere and you put the entrance and windows of the house to the south, sunbeams can enter your house.

A house is founded in the earth. This is called the relation of the house to the earth. It is a vertical relation going downward.

A house is relating to the environment around the house. There are other houses, there are mountains and rivers and lakes, and there are animals and plants surrounding each house. This is called the relation of the house to the environment. It is a horizontal relation.

A house is also relating to the sun, moon and stars. This is called a vertical relation going upward.

A living house relates to the place where it is built. A house should have a good relation to the earth on which it stands.

A living house relates to its direct environment on the surface of the earth. A good house should be in harmony with that environment of plants, animals etc.

A living house also relates to the sun, moon and stars.
== THE EMPTY HOUSE IS LIKE THE SKIN OF A BODY ==
When we see the house in its whole as comparable to the body of man, then what function does the structure of foundations, walls and roof have? Inside the house there are computers that compare to the brains of man, there is a television and there are windows that compare to the sense of the eyes, there is a telephone that corresponds to mouth and ears, etc.

When we look at how a house appears to us, we see the structure of the house with its foundation, walls and roof. It is like you have a look at the outside of a human body. You see the skin of the body with on it antennas that correspond to the auricles, the windows that match to the eyes, etc.

Our conclusion is that an empty house that is not yet inhabited and furnished is like the skin of the body.
== MATERIALS FOR THE FOUNDATION OF A HOUSE ==
Let us try to come to conclusions about what kinds of materials are suitable for building a good house.

We should make a differentiation according to the three main kinds of relations that each house has to its surroundings.

First, each house relates to the earth itself in which it is founded.

What kinds of materials are fit for making the foundation of a house?

The function of a foundation is to make a solid relation between the house and the earth on that it stands. The location of the house on the surface of the earth is also a matter of feeling or personal liking. One can get the help from someone who knows about geomantics. Geomantics is the knowledge to find the right location for houses. There have to be considered such things as watercourses underneath the earth’s surface and also energy lines that run through the earth.

Of course, a foundation of a house also needs a stable layer to stand on.

It seems rather logical that foundations of houses are made of stone. Natural stone is a material that comes from deeper inside the earth.

We could choose natural stones or we could choose for man-made stones. In the latter case we have the choice between some kind of brick or concrete.

Brick stones are made from materials such as tone, sand and lime that come from the surface of the earth. This material is heated in processes that are similar to what takes place inside of the earth, where under big heat and pressure new stone is produced.

Concrete is a mixture of sand, small stones (gravel), and cement. Cement is produced from heating grained limestone. Sometimes also other material than limestone is used for producing cement. Concrete makes a kind of artificial stone.
== MATERIALS FOR THE WALLS AND THE ROOF ==
What kinds of materials are suited for the part of the house that relates to the horizontal environment?

Here we are speaking about the function of the house comparable to the skin of the body.

The skin of the body and the skin that the walls and roof of a house are making should have some main functions.

The skin of a body protects the inside of the body against the outside climate.

The skin of a body has a breathing function. This breathing goes in two directions.

The skin of a body has the function to emit harmful substances that came in the body or were produced in the body.

The skin of a body has the function to maintain the form of the body.

The skin or the outside of a body has the function of allowing it to be sensitive itself and to provide for other senses like eyes and ears to perform its work.

The skin or the outside of a body also has the function for allowing for food to come into the body.

Summarizing, both the skin of a house and the skin of the body should fulfill the six main functions of:

1.     Protection

2.     Breathing

3.     Excretion

4.     Form

5.     Sense

6.     Feeding

It can be argued that those materials that have performed skin functions in their original situation or environment are also equipped to perform these same functions when those materials are used for building a house.

When you make walls of stone, you get a strong house. Form is not a big problem, but stones don’t breathe and also don’t give much protection against the cold. Natural or man-made stones don’t appear to be the best kind of material for building walls and roofs of houses.

The earth itself is protected with a layer of materials that make a kind of skin of the earth. These are materials such as loam, sand and tone.

Trees and plants are extending the skin function of the earth. Materials such as wood, straw and reed are also equipped to provide for a good skin function of the walls and roof of a house.

Animal skins are used for making tents. It is good material but it is hardly used for building houses.

Why could we not make use of other materials than the ones that nature provided for us?

When i build a house of wood and loam and straw, my house will never do any harm to the environment. What shall i do with synthetic materials such as plastics or noxious chemicals that were added to my building products? When the house is broken down, i have to get rid of them. Usually we don’t see where this stuff goes. But suppose you could only dump them in your own garden? There they bring harm to the food that you grow for your animals and yourself. The problem becomes visible when you think on a smaller scale.

Suppose you live in a house made of concrete plates. You hear it each time when the children of the next house walk over their floor. Is this good for your nerves? Do these sounds please you? Do they help to maintain your good health? Or do such contact sounds add to the level of stress in your life?

Several mistakes were made in building such houses with concrete walls. First, the material itself does not isolate enough against sounds. Second, there has not been thought well about what is a good environment for a living house. Do apartment flats or long lines of houses built as one unit give us a good living environment?

Of course, there is also the matter of financing. But is building in a cheap way an excuse for building in a wrong way?

I would argue that building in the right way, with the right materials, will be much more economical in the long term. What is the cost of destruction of your good health and the nature around you?

Let us look at some materials in more detail.

Wood comes from trees. Trees are standing strongly up in the winds blazing over them. They tower high above the surface of the earth. The material of wood is very well equipped for building the structure of a house.

Loam is a mixture of tone, sand, stones and sometimes organic particles. Loam covers the earth. The material has good breathing qualities and can be formed into stones or moulds to put up walls. Loam walls can soak up a lot of water damp and provide for a rather ideal in-house climate. Comparatively speaking, loam looks very much like the flesh in a human body. It gives beautiful shapes, but it can’t stand direct rain.

Lime is a material that comes from protective shells of animals. Lime can be used from fresh shells or it can be taken from lime rocks of sediments that came from shells of animals that lived millions of years ago. In either case, lime is a very good material to cover the walls of loam to protect it against rain and crumbling.

Straw and reed can be used for making a roof and also for adding to the loam from which your walls were made. In nature, grasses and leaves of trees fall down on the surface of the earth. They don’t only feed the organisms living in the soil, but they also provide for a not-too-cold and not-too-hot climate in the soil. All animals live from plants and plants live from what the soil gives them. The isolation of layers of decaying plant materials on top of a soil make sure that such a soil is healthy and fertile.

In our houses we can make use of the isolation value of materials such as reed and straw. Straw can be applied inside of loam walls and reeds can be arranged as a thatched roof. You never get a better isolation against cold or heat!
== THE SENSES OF A HOUSE ==
When you want to enjoy the morning rays of the sun, you make a window that catches those early sunbeams.

If your house is isolated well, you might be able to keep it warm most of the year with the heat of sunrays.

Not everybody is so aware of it, but also moon and star rays help to make us feel healthy, energetic and good.

With the sand of the earth we can make sun collectors that give all the energy our house needs. Is it not a tremendous difference whether you get your energy from such a clean and energetic source as the sun instead of from energy produced in dirty power stations?

== THE SPIRIT OF A HOME ==
You don’t like to live in a dead house.

You also probably don’t like to live in a house where a murder was committed.

You like to feel that your house is your own good home.

You want your house to have a good atmosphere. You want to feel happy in your house.

You want that your house has, what i call, a good ‘spirit.’

First, what is the spirit of a home?

Second, how can the spirit of a home be influenced in good ways?

=== WHAT IS THE SPIRIT OF A HOUSE? ===

I am using the word ‘spirit’ because i find it the best suitable to describe what i mean. The word ‘spirit’ is used here in the meaning of atmosphere. At the same time, spirit means more than just atmosphere. Spirit also means real nature or real character. Spirit refers to something that though invisible is yet something that can be experienced in some way.

With ‘spirit of a house’ i do not mean that a house would be a kind of living being that could live independently from the existence of the house. I also do not refer to ghosts or something like that.

The word ‘spiritual’ can only be understood in relation to the word ‘physical.’

While physical is an adverb referring to that what we see, touch and experience with our physical senses, spiritual refers to what can only be sensed with what many people call their ‘sixth sense.’

In a certain house you feel good, but in another house that doesn’t differ externally from the first house, you might feel bad.

We want to feel good in the house in that we live. To a certain degree, feeling good is a matter of having chosen the right design, materials and so forth. But even when all external conditions were chosen right, you might still feel bad in a house.

I write this article because i want to increase your and my awareness of how to build and furnish a house in such a way that it feels good to live in it.

Try to understand what spirit is from the following example.

Suppose you make a chair, or you make a meal, or you play a piece of music, or you do anything that is creative. If you just do it without giving much love and effort into your work, if you play the notes in a mechanical way, your creation will be all right, but you won’t touch the heart of anyone.

That what you do to just mechanically perform your actions could be called the physical aspect. That you what you have given into your creativity as extra love and concentration could be called the spiritual aspect.

It makes a big difference whether you made your own house, giving into it all the thoughts and love that you have for your future or small children, or you let the work be done by workers who got paid for it but who just could not have equal love for your children.

‘Spirit’ could be defined as a kind of energy that was brought into a creation. When you make something with good energy, with energy that is accompanied by good thoughts and feelings, then you make things that have a good spirit. If you make things without giving much thought to what you do, for example because you just work for money, then you will not be able to bring much spirit into your creations. When you do things but your heart is against it, you might even bring bad energy or bad spirit into your creations.

‘Spirit’ is the result of energy of your mind, your thoughts and feelings and your love or hatred and desires. When someone makes things in a mechanical way, not much ‘spirit’ will be attached to what is manufactured. It is the extra energy of love and desire that makes the ‘spirit’ of a place.

There is spirit in everything. There is spirit in each stone, in each animal, in each human being, and also in each house.
=== IN WHAT WAYS CAN ‘SPIRIT’ BE AFFECTED? ===
‘Spirit’ as it was defined here can be influenced in a number of ways.

1.     The materials that are used. Materials can have all kind of origins. Materials that come from good places in nature do always have a good spirit. Most of the materials that were produced in factories have a rather cold and lifeless spirit. When we see a piece of wood, we get reminded of the forest where the tree was growing. The wood carries in it a memory of where the tree grew, and that memory comes to us and gives us a good feeling. When the design of the nerves in the wood are drawn on a piece of plastic that covers a wall, that fake-wood will never give us the same excitement. Fake is fake. Fake things never make a good spirit in a room. Fake things make a fake spirit. And poisonous materials carry in them a spirit of warning to those who are sensitive for it.

2.     The location of the house. There are places where you feel good and there are places where you feel bad. This could be explained in all kind of ways, but whether we know an explanation or not, most of us will agree that not all locations give the same feeling. There are places on the earth very much fit for living, there are other places unsuitable for dwelling. Whether a location is good or bad depends on many factors. Also how you situate your house in the environment can be of much influence. For example, when your house is built at the slope of a mountain, there is a big difference in putting the backside or front side facing the mountain.

3.     History of materials or things. Things get filled with the spirit of the environment in which those things were placed. When a chair was used in a church for attendants offering their prayers, that chair will take into it the spirit of those prayers. Another but similar chair might have been used in a bank where people only spoke about money. Also the spirit of that chair will change and be affected by the environment. Some people are very sensitive for such things. Maybe you are less sensitive but that doesn’t mean that you are entirely insensitive for such things. It means that we have to be careful with the materials that we apply for making things. Used things, second-hand things are always a little risky. It is not advisable, for example, to use the wood of a used floor to make an eating table. The memories of feet walking over that floor are forever inscribed into the spirit of those boards.

4.     How things were made. Someone who has much pleasure in making a house will contribute to the spirit of the house in a good way. The joy of this person will somehow attach to the house. We don’t need to exaggerate such influences, but we should also not simply discard them. I surely don’t want my house to be made by someone having a very bad mood! It adds very much to your house if you make it yourself, having joy and good hope for what you make.

5.     People living in the house or visiting it. More than by anything else, the spirit of your house will be affected by how you live in it and by which people you allow to come in. People all the time have a big influence on their environment. Did you never experience how the presence of some people makes you feel good while the presence of others makes you feel bad? An old person gives another feeling than a young baby. Though the spiritual influence that people have on their environment is difficult to measure, it nevertheless adds to the overall atmosphere in a house.

6.     The form and design of your house. There could be written very much about this. Forms and structures have a big influence on the atmosphere in a house. You feel very different in a room with a low ceiling than in one with a high one. A round room has another ‘spirit’ than a square space.

7.     The way that you furnished your dwelling and the inner-architecture of the house. There are many examples to be given for this. Do you like it when the front door of your house would be placed in your living room? Probably not. When you live in a busy city, you want to place a barrier between the atmosphere of the street and that in your home. So architects design halls that form a buffer between outside and inside the house. Such a hall has a completely different atmosphere than your living room. Also how you furnish your house makes a big difference. A stone floor gives a different feeling than a thick and warm carpet.

8.     Activities performed in a room. A room and all things in it become affected by the activities performed in that room. All what you did in a space had influence on all things standing there. The energy of the words you speak is entering the wood of your ceiling and all other materials in that room.

9.     The cleanliness and order in a house. There is no doubt about it that dirt brings a bad atmosphere in a room. Though by cleaning a room you can’t make up for the bad effects caused by other kind of conditions, you can improve very much the atmosphere of a house by keeping it orderly and clean.

10.  Influence of good air and good smells. When there is clean and fresh air in your house, you also provide for a better atmosphere. Certain nice-smelling natural products, for example incense, can be applied to improve the atmosphere in a house. A house also needs good ventilation to bring in fresh air.

11.  Light. A light room with windows through which the sun shines in makes a better atmosphere than a cellar where it is always dark. Though electrical light can be of some help, there is nothing so beautiful as direct sunlight.

12.  Colors. Colors and harmony between different kinds of colors can make a big difference in atmosphere.

== CONCLUSION ==

I did not try to be complete in my description of how to improve the spirit of a home. I just hope that you start thinking more about it, so you can improve the livability of your own environment.

The world of building and furnishing your own house is rich and full of rewards. It is part of the entire life we live. It is impossible though to create a great home without you or i going a course of self-improvement and spiritual growth. That’s why it is not only beautiful but also rather necessary that we get part in building and furnishing our own homes.

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[[Category:Home Church]]
[[Category:Natural building]]