A Critique of Sacha Stone’s 'NewEarth Tennessee' Micronation

Identifying Red Flags in So-Called Consciousness-Based Community Projects

Sacha Stone, source: X

Millions of people are awakening to the need for fundamental transformation—seeking sovereignty from systems of control, authentic community, and spiritual connection. This awakening represents humanity’s deepest aspirations for freedom and conscious living. Yet because these desires are so profound, they create fertile ground for exploitation by those who would co-opt spiritual language for personal profit.

The NewEarth Tennessee “micronation” project, spearheaded by the charismatic, self-appointed New Age elder, Sacha Stone, shows how we can perpetuate old structures of hierarchy and control under the guise of sovereignty and spirituality, thus contaminating legitimate movements for change. By examining this venture, we can identify warning signs that help us distinguish between something that is truly rooted in higher consciousness and sophisticated spiritual and emotional manipulation.

My intent is not to insult Sacha as a person but to raise valid questions about his venture that may help preserve the integrity of communities who are modeling the kind of care, kindness, compassion, and personal responsibility that characterizes truly new solutions. While people are free to get on board with endeavors such as his, when they fail—as they often do—they reflect poorly on the rest of the movement.

The current stakes demand that we hold ourselves to higher standards, including scrutiny for people and projects that promise us real freedom and pull on our collective heartstrings.

If Sacha’s team is legitimate and well-intentioned, they should welcome the inquiry on what makes them the template for “New Earth” living, demonstrate the values they profess, and be open to suggested refinements to help achieve what is a bold and beautiful vision.

At the end of this article is a list of questions that address many of the concerns raised below. I will gladly publish substantive, good-faith responses upon request.

Utopian Promises, Hierarchical Reality

Stone’s NewEarth Tennessee project, about an hour from where I live, is marketing itself as a complete alternative to existing systems: a “sovereign micronation” operating outside federal and state authority, where 2,000-3,000 residents eventually will live. The vision includes:

• "Regenesis Centers" offering advanced healing technologies

• Regenerative, organic agriculture

• 100-150 homes initially, expanding to thousands of residents

• Sovereignty University providing "real" education

• Industrial park-style buildings for commerce and manufacturing

• Headquarters for Stone’s other initiatives

• Regular festivals generating community income

• Complete autonomy from government oversight

NewEarth Tennessee

My issue is not with the vision—go for it!—but with the fundamental contradictions inherent in its structure that undermine its goals and makes it likely that instead of being a blueprint, it will be used as justification for why such communities are doomed to fail.

The idea that it will be a sovereign, self-sufficient, and enlightened community is belied by how it is being set up, revealing just another plutocratic system that ironically claims to be outside of the legal system while relying on legal indemnification provisions to protect Stone while members shoulder the risk.

Below are a few examples of the contradictions and flaws inherent in the community design, as of May 2025.

Pay-to-Play Hierarchy: The membership system creates another form of wealth-based hierarchy cloaked in vapid spiritual language:

• $10,000: "Golden Ticket" membership for access to the property and community

• $100,000: "Level 2" status with priority, exclusive access, and governance influence in the "Resonance Chamber"

Note that these payments don’t contribute to actual construction costs—they simply purchase permission to build. This creates a double-extraction system where members pay massive fees for access, then fund their own infrastructure development.

However, despite having taken people’s money and bought land, the “matriarch” Marcia Willardson said, “We don’t even have the first ink on the page of the plan.” Let me repeat—there is no plan to actually deliver on the promises made.

Manufactured Authority: The planned summer solstice ceremony will theatrically “transfer” donor-purchased land to a “hereditary individual” who will then “consecrate” or bless Stone's authority over the land, legitimizing his control. He’s essentially crowning himself through ceremony, using Native American ritual to manufacture the “hereditary redemption” he bizarrely claims is necessary. Using Indigenous spiritual history to legitimize what amounts to another form of wealthy colonization perverts the very traditions being invoked.

Even the solstice event is marketed in a way that reinforces and seems to exploit belief in authority by featuring speakers with fancy titles, like chiefs, his holiness, sheriff, king, etc. It reinforces the very hierarchical thinking that positions certain people as more important or more worth listening to based on status rather than substance. I wonder how many of the speakers truly looked into this before lending their name to it.

No Community Standards: Unlike other mission-driven intentional communities that carefully vet potential members for compatibility, skills, and commitment, NewEarth apparently requires only financial capacity, stated interest, and agreement to the stated terms and conditions. Members must agree to their terms upon signing without genuine collaboration and co-creation as the community is forming. It is a top-down vision that others must consent to.

Demographic Class System: According to the FAQ, current membership is 70% “financially-responsible” females with a median age of 60+. Stone envisions 40-50 families on 60 acres of undeveloped land, requiring massive physical labor for infrastructure, farming, construction, and maintenance. Yet the current membership lacks the physical capacity for such work, being more of a retirement community than a “barn-raising” effort. How can such demographics support self-sufficiency?

The FAQ mentions expectations for “young families” and “digital nomads” to join later, revealing the unspoken class system: older members provide capital while younger members provide labor. This isn’t a community growing older together and sustaining itself over generations—it is outsourcing labor to the young while the elders control the wealth.

Contempt for Existing Community: Stone refers to “the idiocy and ignorance of neighbors”—revealing fundamental disrespect for the very people among whom he claims to want to build conscious community and arrogantly bestow benefits upon. Unsurprisingly, the local community has organized against him, seeing him as a charlatan looking to start a cult and build a community that could fundamentally alter the local environment and stress the resources and infrastructure of the small, rural community. The locals say they are barred from the upcoming Tennessee event, though it appears anyone willing to pay $400 can attend.

Privatized Gains, Socialized Losses

The more I looked at this, the more it looked like a real estate scam, where people purchasing memberships fronted the cash for the land, while ownership goes to Sacha and his successors, as the “presiding elder,” in perpetuity.

He seems to have it set up where he has maximum reward and minimal risk.

For example, as stated in the terms and conditions: “To the maximum extent permitted by law, NewEarth Tennessee Micronation and or NewEarth Nation Trust 01 shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, or consequential damages, claims, fines, penalties or otherwise arising from participation in this campaign irrespective of cause. Our liability is limited to the maximum extent permitted by law.” Apparently sovereignty doesn’t apply when you want to protect yourself.

Further, the Golden Ticket membership agreement reveals extensive enforced secrecy. Members must sign confidentiality agreements that prohibit them from discussing “any information or material” about their experience, including “emails, phone conversations, conference calls, social media communications” and even “correspondence samples.”

This secrecy requirement directly opposes transparency and creates a perfect environment for abuse—members cannot warn others about problems or organize collective action. The agreement states members cannot “distribute, forward, disseminate, post, publish, broadcast, redistribute, sell, share, otherwise disclose private matters in any manner” without written consent.

At the same time, any “suggestions, comments, and/or ideas made by the Member” to the association’s documents become the property of NewEarth Nation Society. This means members not only fund the project financially but surrender intellectual contributions as well.

While I can understand wanting to build some invisibility around the project to avoid potential legal challenges and public attacks, the terms could also point to a high control environment and/or a design that cannot withstand public scrutiny.

In summary, the risk distribution seems heavily skewed away from Stone and to the members.

Stone’s Financial Benefits:

• Immediate revenue via memberships and promotional events

• Asset ownership: Legal title to property purchased with member donations

• Ongoing income: Planned NewEarth operations, festivals, and educational programs

• Media value: Speaking fees and ancillary gains from project publicity

Stone’s Risk Protection:

• Religious corporation structure shields personal liability

• Tennessee location chosen to minimize regulatory oversight

• Members fund their own construction after paying access fees

• If project fails, Stone retains real estate

Members’ Financial Exposure:

• $10,000+ membership fees buy only the right to build, not actual construction

• Additional investment for home construction on land they don't own

• No equity protection or legal recourse if ejected

Members’ Risks:

• No guarantee of actual community development

• No clear exit strategy as terms prohibit refunds of any kind

• No clear expertise in managing and overseeing community development or obligations for Stone’s continued involvement

• Potential legal liability from ambiguous sovereign citizen claims

This risk distribution—where Stone captures most benefits while members bear most risks—characterizes exploitative schemes rather than genuine community ventures. Part of the reason he chose Tennessee may have been to avoid accountability and have greater leverage to pursue his vision without interference (though the local community is resisting).

Who Falls for This and Why

So who is signing up? As mentioned above, current membership is heavily weighted toward older women. My starting assumption is that these are intelligent, accomplished, well-resourced, and well-intentioned people motivated by genuine ideals. That said, it is possible that older women are more susceptible to seeing him as charming, charismatic, and a bit of a rebel, with long hair and a bare chest to boot. They may also be more inclined to respect authority, see him as a savior figure, and be seeking stability, companionship, and spiritual purpose as they enter the later stages of life.

This doesn’t make these older women wrong or stupid but it can make them particularly vulnerable to psychological manipulation, including the basic tactics used of creating “exclusive memberships,” manufactured scarcity and urgency, and celebrity endorsement.

For example, aside from Sacha’s cult-like personality, his “consecration” event relies on others with status and influence within the freedom and spirituality movement to lend legitimacy. He is also telling people that Patriot Streetfighter Scott McKay plans to build a house there, building a kind of exclusive “celebrity” association and access.

Sacha’s vision is also so large and so ambitious that it can make rational evaluation more difficult. It touches on people’s deep desire for change and belonging, creating an emotional pull that can bypass intellectual analysis. Incidentally, the bigger the vision, the easier it also becomes to justify extraordinary costs, even without a track record of community development, agriculture, and shared governance.

The Damage to Authentic Movements

The chances of this NewEarth project succeeding in its vision are extremely low. As previously mentioned, there is no plan to actually deliver on the promises made. And what has been put in place as the foundation is fatally flawed—not just as a truly sovereign, higher consciousness community but as a viable real-estate project.

When projects like NewEarth inevitably fail, they create multiple forms of damage:

Credibility Erosion: Critics use failed "sovereignty" or "consciousness" projects as evidence that all alternative community work is fraudulent or flawed, making legitimate initiatives harder to establish and fund.

Resource Diversion: Money that could support authentic projects gets captured by grifters, depleting the financial resources available for genuine transformation work.

Psychological Fatigue: Participants become cynical about community organizing and spiritual development, withdrawing from legitimate efforts for change.

Legal Precedent: Problematic projects create legal complications that affect legitimate alternative communities and sovereignty initiatives.

We cannot create post-authority communities through pay-to-play hierarchies. We cannot achieve collective liberation through exclusive financial barriers. We cannot build authentic sovereignty by manufacturing ceremonial authority and making enemies of our neighbors.

True community emerges from shared values, mutual aid, joint commitment, and collective decision-making—not from purchasing access to someone else’s vision.

Our collective liberation depends on supporting initiatives that practice what they preach: financial transparency, inclusive participation, democratic governance, and respect for existing communities. The work of transformation is too important, and the need too urgent, to allow it to be corrupted by those who see our dreams as their ticket to wealth and power.

Commonsense Questions

Given the incomplete public information about this project, it is possible that I do not have the full picture or have misinterpreted some of the material and sources. If I have gotten anything wrong, I welcome the correction.

Should Stone or others associated with the NewEarth membership want to set the record straight, here are a list of questions they should be able to answer.

Note that I did attempt to ask Stone to clarify his position on authority related to the solstice event and he responded with a personal attack rather than addressing the substantive questions raised.

Financial Transparency

1. What percentage of membership fees goes toward land purchase versus Stone's personal compensation?

2. Do Golden Ticket holders receive any equity stake in the property or improvements they fund?

3. What legal protections do members have if they're asked to leave the community?

4. How are construction costs, maintenance fees, and ongoing expenses determined and overseen?

Community Governance

5. How are community decisions made beyond the "Resonance Chamber" of high-paying members?

6. What conflict resolution processes exist for disputes between members or with Stone?

7. What happens to member investments if Stone becomes incapacitated or dies?

8. How can members exit the community and recover their investments?

Legal Structure

9. What specific legal mechanisms create "sovereignty" from federal and state oversight?

10. How does the religious corporation status affect member rights and tax obligations?

11. What are members' legal liabilities regarding sovereign citizen claims and tax obligations?

12. How does the community plan to comply with or influence local regulations and community standards?

Practical Implementation

13. What relevant experience does Stone and Willardson have in community development, sustainable agriculture, or manufacturing?

14. How will aging demographics (median age 60+) handle the physical demands of rural homesteading?

15. What infrastructure exists for healthcare, emergency services, and basic utilities for thousands of residents?

16. How will the community integrate with local Tennessee communities rather than displacing them?

Community Standards

17. Beyond payment, what criteria determine membership acceptance or rejection?

18. What skills, commitments, or compatibility assessments are required?

19. How are community values and behavioral expectations established and enforced?

20. What trial or probationary periods exist before full membership commitment?

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    Carolyn Brouillard is a passionate explorer of potential and possibility devoted to the liberation of the human race from all systems of control. As a transformational coach, she helps change-seekers create a life they love through transforming their thinking and claiming their power. She is also Managing Partner of ExoFuturesConsulting, which works with forward-thinking organizations ready to explore the profound implications of contact with non-human intelligence.