Besides being the
German word for "
place", this is the name of an "
alternative community" in
Illinois, about 2 hours south of
Chicago. Founded at the end of the
1960s, and originally based on the
philosophy expressed in the book
The Ultimate Frontier, it has since become just another
alternative community, trying embarrassedly to forget its roots.
Originally, many inhabitants of Stelle believed that a
poleshift would occur on
May 5, 2000 due to the
alignment of the planets. This number dwindled faster and faster as the date approached.
The author of The Ultimate Frontier was one
Richard Kienenger, who used the pen name
Eklal Kueshana. He was discredited in the mid-
1970s, probably primarily due to problems with abusing the
power inhererent in his status as the
spiritual founder of Stelle, concretely abusing it to get
sex. He moved off to found a
sister community,
Adelphi, in
Texas, which never took off as well as Stelle.
It was probably this early loss of the founder's
prestige that prevented Stelle from having the
sociological traits of a
cult, including, for example, an
end-of-the-world mass suicide ritual. However, even if Kienenger had retained his prestige and been the mass-suicide sort, he would not have been acting in accord with his own group's philosophy: the general plan was to take off in
airships (
dirigibles) somewhat before the expected
catastrophe, and remain in the air several weeks until the dust settled.
I almost ended up living in Stelle from age 5 to age 18. My
father has lived there and nearby for 15 years; I lived nearby for 1 year.
(This expanded
node replaces the original two nodes for this subject, which read "
Harmless" and "
Mostly Harmless," respectively.)