I begin lots and lots of blog posts, but many invariably slip through the net as we move on to other naturist-related news. Some begin as a ‘good idea’ that peters out. There’s about 500 drafts for the 2000+ posts we have published, so a 25% failure rate.
I began the following post at the beginning of this year, but it was (yet another post) never completed. This week I’ve been tidying up aspects of the blog, trashing some posts and examining others for possible use. With SL’s own ‘Burning Man’ happening in October (21st-29th)*, I thought it was a useful time to revisit this particular ‘counter culture’ posting, rework it and expand it.
One fascinating article I read in the media, early in this year, was about Rainbow Gatherings, a loose conglomeration of ‘new age’ type people that we’ve written about before in the context of a hippy counterculture.
SL serves people interested in this sort of hippy look very well, with ‘boho’ fashion being regularly blogged by various people, there’s a variety of dreadlock hairstyles in SL, and becoming a hippy avatar is relatively easy and cheap to do, whereupon you can visit numerous sims where aspects of this alternative lifestyle takes place, and usually these sims are nude-friendly, as they are in real life.
There are several excellent sims where you can indulge your inner, or visible, hippy, counterculture lifestyle.
Flower Fairy practices her yoga in a quiet, SL gorge
I’ll be revisiting the ‘Burn 2’ (SL’s own ‘Burning Man’ festival) again next week, as well as talking to and hopefully photographing some of SL’s ‘hippy’ avatars.
Ella
*We were part of the press team for Burn2 last year and have applied to be part of that again this year.
the sl naturist 
This is from the Aotearoa New Zealand Rainbow Family Newsmail, which I focalise. Gatherings are clothes optional. Many like the feeling of freedom. Others see in nudity a spiritual component. Either way here we are creating an Eden where you can be naked without shame. This doesn’t mean you can’t wear clothes, you just don’t have to. We celebrate diversity with tolerance + acceptance, knowing we are all really part of the ONE. I would like to share a report I wrote on thw winter gathering held at a old hippy community at Takaka. The occasion of Matariki was marked by a sweat lodge ceremony held on the nearby beach at Milnthorpe. Proceedings began with the lighting of a large bonfire at dusk of driftwood into which stones were placed. A structure of bent branches covered with blankets, the lodge, was located nearby. At a given time we removed our clothes and moved inside in an orderly way where we sat cross legged in circular fashion. On four occasions hot stones were received and welcomed from the fire and placed into a central fire pit.
Water sprinkled, to a prayer, generated clouds of hot steam, and a feeling of close oneness.
At one point personal prayers of thanks and appreciation were recited. Gathering around the bonfire, on leaving, for seemingly ages , the heat dried and warmed our naked bodies.
Some choose to swim in the incoming tide, the phenomena of green luminescent water adding to the occasion. Overhead the Milky Way slowly traversed the sky and in the distance the lights of Farewell Spit and the dark shape of hills. The quarter moon came and set. And not a breath of wind.
Sunset was just as spectacular as the night was. Pure magic. What a memory.
Back in the house [of the community] the lights were off for the night. The coal range generating a warm comforting heat in the dark.This was the time for head-torches and freshly baked bread.
Gerald.
Thanks for the info, Gerald. You write about it so descriptively and enthusiastically. Mention of a sweat lodge reminds me of a time I did that…in fact, I must see if I can blog about it! 🙂
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