How would a lack of electricity affect your life? There are several groups of traditionalist people, who may use electricity but not are on grid dependent. Many Muslim communities are dealing well with survival and pleasure, strictly aligning their life on the rules of the Koran. Muslim communities follow strict health and hygiene rules, indication and avoidance of certain food and drinks, in fact, the Koran is Gods manual for maintenance of his Human creation and rules how human should handle nature, plants and animals.

But there is also a conservative Christian group of people, taking their Christianity as serious as Muslims regarding to Islam and the common factors are many, specially about the importance of social ties in the local community.

It is the Amish people in America who reject many of modern society's technology, including electricity from the public grid. That, however, does not prevent them from enjoying some of the comforts of technology. Interestingly, Amish don't reject electricity per se; the subject is more complicated than that.

The power source itself is not the issue. Running household items with electricity, like an iron or a lamp, is perfectly agreeable with Amish beliefs. Technology that adds value to the community is a welcome tool although each community individually decides what exactly is considered valuable.

Being connected to the power grid, however, would inevitably establish a tight connection to the non-Amish world. This in turn, fear the Amish, could influence their culture in undesired ways. Moreover, Amish leaders recognized early on that electricity can potentially power many things, and thus its use was banned in 1920.

Eliminating public power from the home prevents the temptation of using television, radio, and the Internet. Additionally, too much reliance on labor-saving devices, Amish feel, may deprive children of character-building opportunities to work. This is where it gets interesting. Since they refuse to buy electricity from the public grid, but still depend on energy for many of their everyday operations, they were forced to develop many workarounds. To power appliances, Amish use batteries, propane gas, compressed air pressure, various generators, windmills, hydraulic pumps, and even solar panels.

While not all their power sources, like propane gas or diesel, are sustainable, they are rather creative, independent, and used to living off the grid. Amish are probably not as backward as you may think. Most use electric lights, often LEDs, instead of candles, gas or oil lamps, they have gas-powered fridges, washers, solar-powered electric fences, they use electric tools, and back in 2008, someone even developed a Classic Word Processor, aka an Amish computer. This dumped down computer was "made specifically for the plain people by the plain people." It came without connectivity ports, sound, pictures, games, or other features beyond the ability to process documents and be useful for business.

For the Amish, the key is to stay off any grid that connects them too tightly to the modern world. The Amish are suspicious that beneath the glitter of modernity lurks a divisive force that in time might fragment and obliterate their close-knit community. The Amish's first and foremost concern is to preserve their Christian values and protect their cherished community. They are deeply aware of how quickly a community can deteriorate, if individuals temporarily forge common values to strive for personal goals or satisfaction.

If you thought the Amish are a dying community, no, that is not true. They aren't many, but their population has been growing from 165,000 in the year 2000, to approximately 249,000 in 2012. That's a 50% increase in 12 years. Meanwhile, overall birth rates in many Western countries are stagnating or even dropping. It seems like the Amish are thriving.

You can conquer this with deprecatory comments and comparisons all you want; there is something to be learned here. The Amish know what they value and they have a clear vision for their future; their lives revolve around their community. Based on these premises, they carefully evaluate every new technology, trying to understand what the consequences of its use may be and whether it can serve them in a good way.

When they do find a tool they have a need for, they amend the technology to remove all elements that don't serve them, such as with the word processor. They are never rushed to madly follow a trend and thus their culture is developing slow enough to maintain its key values and characteristics; its identity. They rule and hack technology, so gadgets won't run their life.

The lifestyle of the Amish might be backward and old-fashioned; most of their values, however, are universal and timeless. Western societies share many of these values, but what is our vision for our future? Consumption to maintain endless growth? And where are we ending up with this strategy compared to the Amish? This extremely simple, non-conforming, and self-sufficient lifestyle is a blueprint for how an intentional way of living, a way of life that is based on values and vision, paired with careful evaluation of new developments, can help an individual, a community, and a society thrive sustainably.

What could you, outside the Amish community, learn from them? Maybe just make sure you're in a community of other like-minded trust worthy people. None of this go-it-alone attitude people in this anti-social, isolating individualistic sick society we live in has put their finger on the answer. Amish hardly do anything alone. They understand that family and community makes them stronger. That's how they survive ans thrive.

How Amish people keep their food cold:

The Amish: How They Survive

This documentary takes you on an intimate journey into Ohio Amish life and culture. You will discover how rapid growth and economic pressures threaten their community. You will also meet a people who, as a result of creative disengagement with the culture around them, thrive.