Tag: Barbara Williamson

MEMORIES

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As the Nevada sun rouses itself from slumber I’m sitting in my living room jump starting the morning with a cup of coffee and a cuddle with Peggy Sue Lynx. What a way to enjoy the desert solitude! Peggy and I anticipate starting each day with an hour of meditation, interspersed with the intimate, healing sounds of ceremonial drumming which align with my bodily and spiritual rhythms. After seventy five years of searching for this degree of intimacy with nature, I pause to savor the experience. What a terrific feeling!

There are just the two of us now supporting one other. Our other family member and my life partner John joined the spirit world nearly two years ago; Peggy Sue and I have had to muster up all the strength possible. I found a message from John that embellishes our contributions over the span of forty seven years.
“Hello World”

We were—and still are—John and Barbara Williamson, a team that has survived many challenges, including one you speak of in hushed tones that lives under the name of “Death.” Though for now death complicates our relationship, we continue side by side on a wonderful journey that has led us through many realms over the past 47 years.

Together, through Sandstone Retreat and Tiger-Touch we have contributed needed changes within our culture. Some of these changes are still being assimilated. Some will never be. After all, not every grain of wheat lands in fertile soil.

At any rate, we are happy with our contributions. Perhaps in the long run they will be appreciated by others less inclined to investigate on their own.

We feel it only proper to record our most significant finding to date. That discovery determines how we humans bond with one another. Just as important is how we bond with non-human creatures. These bonds determine how much of our lives are spent with connections to the “animal” world and the balance of life on this Earth. That is the only route to “Peace on Earth” as the wise men of old envisioned it.

To read more in depth about our contributions order your copy of my story “An Extraordinary Life” sub: Love, Sex and Commitment at www.barbarawilliamson.org

I have included a link to the N Y Times final tribute to my amazing life partner John Williamson http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/us/john-williamson-dies-at-80-founded-sandstone-retreat.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

HAPPINESS; THAT ELUSIVE WILL-O-THE-WISP

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HAPPINESS: THAT ELUSIVE WILL-O-THE-WISP

There are three kinds of happiness: the kind you wish you had, the kind you think you have, and the kind that’s unmistakable. Problem is, those who don’t have happiness are looking for it in all the wrong places, and many who think they are happy are actually pleased—a paltry consolation prize. A feather on the sole of the foot may provoke laughter but it hardly brings joy.

Up until recently it appeared that the advertisers had won. People were looking to establish successful lives through goods and services, or as one writer put it, “He who dies with the most toys wins.” Is that to be our legacy, a tombstone surrounded with the gadgets that failed to add any years to our life or—more to the point—life to our years?

In the early l960’s a brilliant and my late partner, John Williamson ran computer models to determine what was wrong to cause everyone so much unhappiness and discontent? Ultimately his model findings would be the foundation to the creative design of Sandstone Retreat/Foundation, where the focus was belief that our minds, spirits, body and soul were loved and respected.

John determined that we were guided by the chatter inside our heads, a false sense of self that deludes us and which handles our problems by giving them names, namely the ego. We built a society on these false assumptions, either naively or cunningly steered by parents, school, books, film, television, advertising and other people’s feedback. And since most of the people on whom we model our behavior also conduct their lives based on false assumptions, we never learn to know anything different. We went about our lives based upon assumptions rather than real experience.

Upon examination, these assumptions turn out to be out of touch with reality. We say with the authority of tradition, ”Everybody knows that it is so,” or, “It has always been that way.” But if we try to analyze an assumption of this kind it falls apart as soon as we touch it. And that is why we prefer not to touch them and sometimes even fiercely defend them. We poor lemmings continue to leap into the sea, confident that there is land within our reach because, “everyone knows that.”

As a result, we end up living under the pressure of countless false fears. We live in a cage that is of our own making, but one that seems real enough so that we do not venture outside of it. We end up restricting, our actions and our choices, and thus strangle our precious potential. All this because of false fears based upon false assumptions.

The activity of ceremonial drumming is a pathway to the heart, leading us to know our true self. The heart reaches a magnetic field 500 times more powerful than our brain. One hour of drumming registers a huge boost to the immune system, and generates emotions of joy and bliss. It works across all cultural conflicts. Recently Cindy Stevens was in Iraq to revive their spirit. It is touching and you can view her drumming at; http://www.ubdrumcircles.com/video.php and join in to be a part of saving the world.

Meditation is another huge threat to the craziness in our lives. We are blessed with great support while heading into the New Year. May you have an exciting new year!

TH0SE EYES

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Big Cat collage 6x9 300dpi color

In “Through the Looking Glass,” Lewis Carroll’s Alice pondered her reflection in the mirror, and that of the room behind her. Everything was the same, yet reversed. Were there other differences in this inverse world? Did each door and window lead to a richer and more fascinating diversity?
I used to think that book was fiction until I looked into my Lynx’s eyes one day and Peggy Sue looked back. I saw myself reflected there, even as I saw the rest of the room behind me. But the Barbara that is reflected in Peggy’s eyes is different, and the deeper I look, the more different she is.

The Barbara that lives in Peggy never grew up on a farm, never meekly took an insult or contented herself with an introspective world that shrank from the harsh touch of life on a farm the way oil shrinks from water. No, that Barbara, despite being a bipedal human, must have slain a rabbit beneath the harvest moon or wrestled passionately with a lovesick stranger in the camphor fragrant pine barrens. And this Barbara seems to look at me with a puckish touch of mischief, ready to take my hand and pull me through the looking glass if I can just leave my baggage behind.

It is at moments like this that I realize her world is civilization. While our Watts and Detroit languish and wither to dust, it is nature who plants another flower for every one plucked, sprouts another sapling by the stump of a mighty monarch. In that world emotions are the spice of life, they are meant to be savored, not hidden behind a porcelain mask of propriety. There are contests, but never wars.

That said, I can only hope that those who follow me will not waste their youthful energies coming as far as I did from the straight rows of corn and their rigid, repressive moral code. I will always be my past, but then again I will always be my future too. It is alright to know that ideality is just as real as disappointment and heartbreak, and that mankind—if it endures—may reach it.
In the meanwhile I have my own routine, and it feeds my soul. Let me share a day with you.

Each day begins for me and Peggy Sue around 5 a .m. in our desert sage bush kingdom. I am tuned into feeling the flow of life, love & happiness while sitting in my living room surroundings with dear and precious Ms Lynx. Breakfast is the first thing on her mind so I quickly get her food then listen while she crunches chicken bones. After that she comes by for a sniff of my coffee.

Myself, I can do with a cup of coffee and a couple glasses of water while I Peer out thru the living room window and imagine my body levitating into the universe and ponder where my meditation journey will take me and what new souls/friends I will meet along the way.
I believe that I have some special offerings for the world. On the other hand maybe it is a figment of my imagination.

Throughout my hour of meditation I feel my own inner feelings of resistance at the thought of entering my office. Feelings of frustration and fear of the cold digital world are seeping through the walls like a dragon and cancels out my wonderful feelings of being human. The crippling effect on my emotions and psyche are very real and places restraint on success promoting my book.

I ask GOD for help! How do I face and erase this fear? Social networks seem devoid of feeling and emotions. I find this distasteful! I know high Tech is here to stay but what about being happy and enjoying daily life. Is there no time to have coffee with a friend and enjoy some meaningful conversation? Oh, that’s old stuff. People seem compelled to write text and push buttons and wait impatiently for a response. I note that hi-tech is controlling people rather than the other way around.

For a long time I have had the deep seated belief that hi-tech is having a crippling effect on humans or perhaps will be the death of humanity. At the very least Robots will steal their survival!

Everyday technology is dominating and dividing us further from communications with one another, as well as developing important relationships, feeling our feelings, and managing our emotions that are necessary to living a healthy and happy life of a real human being.

I call out to my sister on the other side of Peggy’s hazel eyes. She gives me a naughty side glance and the hint of a smile. “Hey Babs, are you going to finish that sausage?” Oh, did I forget to mention that Peggy Sue has projected a few of her vices onto me as well? But that, my friends, is another story.

TECHI INTERFERENCE

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Technology

These days people talk more and communicate less. Text messages blaze over wireless networks, and somewhere along the way from phone to phone the words make it through without their original emotional content, and without the reassurance of a smile or a sympathetic nod. Texting is used to fire an employee or even to dump a now-insignificant other. It is to this sort of communication what carpet bombing is to war—a chance to engage your opponent without seeing their look of horror or pain.

Yesterday, while driving through town delivering flyers for my book signing, I tuned into an unusual conversation on the radio about how technology is a distraction and competition to developing close relationships. How ironic that I should be spreading the word about returning to our intimate roots as a people only to have some man break in over invisible radio waves to predict the death of meaningful conversation! Folks, it’s time to shut off the T.V., stereo, computer, laptop, phones and any other tech devices and have some heart to heart talk.

Our world has become a total distraction that prevents us from knowing ourselves and our loved ones. I even see people taking a walk in the park with all of nature’s noise drowned out by their predetermined taste in music blaring through ear buds. Let us borrow an image from a popular seasonal classic, Jacob Marley’s ghost warning Ebenezer Scrooge. Except today’s Scrooges are forging chains of wire, signal strength, and chat windows. They have no idea the weight and length of strong chain they bear!

Knowing what is important to us is a step to filling our personal basic needs. GOD has a good plan for us all, if we just tune in and get the message.
In the 1960’s when we established Sandstone Retreat community of like minded people, at my age of 27, my working knowledge of what it took to have a great relationship was limited and learned on a daily basis, as it was with the other members. We recognized the need for one another to fill in what we were missing. Each of us showed our respect for one another and did not step across their sensitive boundaries. If that did happen a group of people would come down hard on them. Fortunately, at that time, we were free of most of the technical products, a blessing for us. Learning how to relate with others is quite difficult and at the same time, most rewarding. Our true power comes from forming strong relationships, so there-in lies the need for us to establish strong connections.

My friend, Sally Binford an Anthropologist/teacher always said “man is not longed for this world.” Let us try to prove her wrong. I must say my world rattles a little when I see headlines like this one, “The End of Humanity?” Artificial Intelligence could be the end of humanity world-renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking warned this week. He believes that Artificial Intelligence would have the ability to learn and adapt at a far faster rate than humans, “who are limited by slow biological evolution.”

The technological revolution grinds on with robots snatching up the jobs we quickly overlook or take for granted. Combined with the movement to increase minimum wage, robots are going to make it harder for many people to find jobs to survive. This is a real threat!

The sexual revolution in the 60’ and 70’s was more of an imagined threat to old attitudes and perceptions in the mass population. I saw the sexual revolution as offering up a smorgasbord of life’s delicacies to those hungry for pleasure, play and spiritual awakening. Yahoo, to what money cannot buy!

ON THE EDGE OF AN EXCITING NEW INNER WORLD

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enlightenmentOn the edge of an exciting new inner world

Missouri is part of what we Americans call the “Midwest.” It used to be the “West” back when pioneers started pushing away from the Atlantic and toward the Pacific. Somewhere along the route from being “West” to “Midwest” that burning spirit died off. Well, not entirely. A few hot coals were left behind and—no thanks to my folks—I was one of them.

I never liked windmills and white picket fences. While other little Missouri girls studied for their M.R.S. degree, I let my imagination run wild, chasing after butterflies and the promises of new horizons.

That pushback to the stifling conditions of my childhood was preparing me for something, though I wasn’t sure what. First I bucked the trend by rejecting out of hand being someone’s “better half” and living a life as “the little woman” who hung laundry, bounced babies, and canned pickles. I got myself involved in the business world, which was enough to raise eyebrows back on the farm. Problem is, there is quite a long distance between the upper eyelid and the hairline, and I managed to push the eyebrows even higher. Yes, I could just imagine what the Ladies League must have been saying about Little Barb and her big city ideas…

I finally found my stride when I became co-creator of Sandstone Foundation. To do that meant this rolling stone had to get rid of any remaining moss. It challenged my every thought and belief system. It was the re-making of Barbara and required me to tear down the retaining walls in my brain that contained so much old programming nonsense. At times the stimulation was overwhelming. Never did I consider myself a radical person. If anything I always felt conservative and had my share of commonsense. My focus was to understand myself and grow into a spectacular “human-being.” My late partner, John, dedicated himself to guiding me to be more human. Now, just let me say that was a big task to correct my alienated soul along with my rowdy rebel nature.

Forty five years ago when many of us first embraced change we were all in uncharted waters. I say thanks to Timothy Leary and friends for their brave march to a new consciousness. We explored ourselves in depth and became certified change agents. Every day with the Sandstone philosophy in tow, we were on a “mission impossible” task. Whoever, came into contact with us changed! Sometime changes registered positive and some showed their destructive nature depending on what was programmed into those retaining walls of their brain.

Soon after the happenings at Sandstone flooded the airwaves we received several phone calls from a Baptist minister advising us that we would burn in hell if we didn’t stop what we were doing. Now bear in mind that the Sandstone setting was private and secluded. We were not in the public’s face. He said there was not a place for sinners like us on the planet.

Well, John invited him to come up to Sandstone and have a fireside chat. The minister readily agreed to do so. After all someone needed to offer us salvation. All the community family members disappeared, leaving just the minister and John to their conversation. The minister was not prepared for such a beautiful Sandstone natural setting for starters. Walking into our warmly decorated living room, which could have been any millionaire’s abode, chilled him out. He sat down on the velvet couch and sort of deflated. Without a doubt, John explained that our course of action was needed for humanity and sexual freedom. When it was time for the minister to leave he shook John’s hand and felt the warmth and sincerity of his explanation and left with the understanding that Sandstone needed to be for the welfare of all. Guess he was satisfied since we never heard from this minister again.

At this moment, we are on the brink of the “last frontier”, exploring our Inner self. If we want to create great relationships we need to allow each other freedom. I have lost my partner but my life continues in an extraordinary fashion. The new meditation system that I use, and is used by many others around the world makes inner discovery and change easier than ever.

Everything Old is New Again

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This morning when I got up, I stuck a toe in the universe and did not immediately draw it back. I could almost hear John poking his head from behind a comet saying, “Come on in, the galaxy’s fine!” And it is. The mid-term election results have offered us all a reprieve from anarchy. Yes, I said that and I meant that. I’m all about sexual freedom but I didn’t say a thing about anarchy—sexual or otherwise. Freedom is being able to drive where you please on a nice spring day. Anarchy is skidding out of control on a winter layer of ice. Who wants that?

I ask myself; why would we throw away our wonderful freedoms for anarchy? It would remove at least the semblance of distributed power and give way for a few bright boys to seize the moment, feel important, and have power and control over everyone else. We’re talking about replacing the old trope of white superiority with the new and improved socialist superiority, but otherwise the same old game of one group crushing under another because “those people” are not fit to run this country. We’re talking crackpot studies showing that more educated people tend to vote Democrat. As if Republican ideas of small government are the product of stupid minds. Well given what the Democrats are doing to the educational system that shapes our young people, that’s hardly surprising.

John and I fought slavery. We fought for freedom from puritanical oppression and I continue to fight for freedom from any sort of oppression. That especially includes the government telling me how to spend my money, run my life, or phrase my language. We have already been that road in the last century. The luxury of Freedom in America is such a blessing and keeps the universe smiling on us. May we keep it that way!

IT’S TIME TO STOP TALKING AND START LISTENING

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meditation
We live in a world obsessed by speed and instant gratification. The online retailer Amazon.com is working to raise the bar from overnight shipping to same-day delivery using small, remotely piloted drones. It is almost unthinkable to us that people used to play chess BY MAIL, and that the great cathedrals of Europe were built over several generations.

In a world where beepers and one-hour film developing are no longer fast enough to suit us, we are left wondering how important the slow and serene art of meditation is to our health and well-being. It is critical. Critical is the perfect word since it means that which is of or about a crisis. Look at today’s headlines and ask yourself if we are in anything short of barely controlled anarchy.

Before the 1960s, most westerners saw the art of meditation as a mysterious and arcane practice. They did not know how, and they could not see why. Yet it was the key to filling a very urgent need for serenity, and when Maharishi’s ™ transcendental meditation made the art of contemplation more accessible, it attracted droves of new recruits. Everyone arriving at a gathering was given a beautiful red rose. It was the same message we had been hearing for years long past; it’s time to stop and smell the roses!

We are living in a culture that is driving itself crazy with distractions. We run to the shopping mall and spend money that we do not have in search of ever-elusive happiness. We go out to dinner and overeat or indulge in some sex without intimacy. We are looking for love in all the wrong places. We fool ourselves into thinking we find it by lowering the expectations of what love is. We love our hobbies, we love our favorite food, and having sex—any sex—is making love. I suppose anyone could meet any goal if they set it low enough. John and I liked pasta, we liked our hobbies. When we loved, it was spiritual and grand. Your love should be spiritual and grand as well.

The bottom line: people have lost their ability to stop their brain chatter, talking, talking, and more talking. If you want to be like me, it’s imperative that you set aside time daily to be alone and quiet to receive important messages from within yourself. You are so much more to discover than you realize. As Agnes Repplier said, it is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere.

In the late 1960’s, when John and I created Sandstone Retreat much engineering went into the creation of this beautiful and natural setting making it seem like a magical mystery tour. It was a brief time in our history, when a crack appeared in our culture’s consciousness. It was time to embrace change! Quiet time was there to be utilized by those that were capable enough to take advantage of it and experience their real self. The crack in the cosmic egg inspired all sorts of, “do your own thing,” activity which you could discover and add your own brand of creativity.

Today with all the advances toward understanding the “Brain” new technology has been developed to aide meditation practices through frequencies that create deep relaxation in the mind. You don’t need to know how to meditate because technology will do it for you. We stand on the edge of an exciting new frontier.

FEELING FEELINGS

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Feelings
I love sitting at my writing desk, wrapped in the peaceful sanctuary of the Nevada desert. It is a special time for me to reflect on some of my feelings, dreams and goals. It is so different from my early years in Missouri where any display of emotion was met with opposition ranging from mild disdain to utter intolerance. This was a farm, for heaven’s sake. How far could we go in life if we couldn’t lop the head off a turkey and see it flog the ground in its death throes before meeting its proper destiny—to feed the human race. After all, that’s what animals were put here for…to feed us and clothe us, right?

In the hierarchy of the Missouri farm, everything had a purpose and a place. Sex was for having young’uns who would try to wrest another fifty years of crops out of the soil when we were gone. Nature was put here to serve us, and for us to rise above. Conventional wisdom was the mortar that held the bits and pieces of culture into rigid order and pattern.

Except that those notions are all a bunch of hogwash! The ancient Greeks discovered stoicism, and it did not prevent their marble halls from crumbling to ruin. At least they endured the fall of their civilization with a stiff upper lip, for all that was worth.
Fortunately, having contracted some therapeutic help, I was able to become reacquainted with my emotions and embrace their warmth and passion. They are a valuable asset that are the pathway to our heart and simply require personal management. Without emotions to express feelings we are robots. Well, who wants to relate with a robot?

This weekend after watching two separate interviews we contributed for the sexual revolution documentary, I felt nostalgic for the good ole days of the 60’s and 70’s. The creation of Sandstone Retreat was a dream I carried with me from childhood. It was a dream formed in nature while walking home from school through the woods and cavorting with other animals. The environment felt so free and the air so light. Never saw a critter having a bad day. It felt as though we were all one without casting any judgment or guilt.

John & I created the perfect natural environment with Sandstone Retreat. Knowing that the environment would mold each and every one of us into it, and eventually members felt comfortable enough to remove their masks and felt a sigh of relief to feel their true nude self. It was a welcome relief to feel acceptance of body, mind, spirit, and at one with each other and the environment. The Sandstone environment washed out all negative thoughts and replaced them with enlightened and positive experiences that will never been forgotten.

LOST LOVE

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kamasutraWell over a millennium ago, Indian Hinduism treated sex as an art, a science and a spiritual practice. It was not considered a remnant of some dark and ancient bestial behavior, but rather a civilizing force. As such they wrote extensive treatises on how to elevate their sexual potential.

The most famous pieces of Indian literature on sex are the Kamasutra (aphorisms on love) and the Kamashrastra (from kama “pleasure”, and shastra “skill”). This collection of explicit sexual writings, both spiritual and practical, covered most aspects of human courtship and intercourse. The Kamasutra is thought to have been written in its final form sometime between the third and fifth century AD, a period of Indian history when sex epitomized love, pleasure, synergy and happiness. It was a successful strategy, which begs the question why around the 11th or 12th century, India took a conservative turn toward decreased freedom for women and a proscription against premarital and extramarital sex. They wrote a new sex manual suitable for their new order.

In Jewish law, sex is not considered intrinsically sinful or shameful when conducted in marriage, nor is it a necessary evil for the purpose of procreation. Sex is considered a private and holy act between a husband and wife. The residue of sex (as with any lost bodily fluid) was considered ritually unclean outside the body, and required ablution. Perhaps this is how sex became cast as a dirty act, forming an imprint in our brain that must somehow be removed.

Christianity re-emphasized the Jewish attitudes on sexuality with two new concepts. First, there was the reiterated idea that marriage was absolutely exclusive and indissoluble, placing further guidance on divorce and expanding on the reasons and principles behind those laws.

Second, in Old Testament times marriage was almost universal, in continuity with the total matrimony in Eden, but in the New Testament, the trajectory is extended forward to the goal of no marriage in the new heavens and new earth (see Matthew 22). Practically therefore the new age after Jesus now has marriage as only normative, but celibacy is a valuable gift in and of itself.

In present time, it feels as though our free will and identities have been stolen from us. My understanding from birth has been that each of us has a free spirit and entitled to create and live a chosen fruitful life of discovery, adventure, productivity and happiness, without meddlers and the dictates of a false society. This period of an open attitude towards sex reflects love, pleasure, synergy and happiness in their culture.
It was necessary to have a sexual revolution and the reason we pioneered Sandstone Retreat, which became known as the hub of the sexual revolution.

In 1972 we went so far as to create the Sandstone Movie for viewers to look in on members happily living an alternate lifestyle. It just happened that our principals were in sync with Hindu principals and expression of an open attitude towards sex reflects love, pleasure, synergy and happiness in the culture. The Sandstone Movie (only one of a kind) has been re-released on https://www.indieflix.com site. Just go there register (free) and search for “Sandstone.” Enjoy this rare event.

THE GREAT VEGETABLE REVOLUTION

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PART II
It took an understanding of nature to successfully and practically roll back the tide of gentrification and denaturing we had endured for centuries. And right at the height of the space age with men finally stepping on another heavenly body, a couple who were attuned to nature and its rhythms took yet another small step for a man that would yield another giant leap for mankind. John Williamson and I engineered a new social environment (or a very ancient social environment) focused on an alternate lifestyle that would free us from the masks we were forced to wear. We did not descend into anarchy, we gave control back to the natural order that created and fostered us.

Sandstone movie was first released in 1972 and is the only documentary today that features an alternate lifestyle community of people that desired to simply be themselves and shed the artificiality of living in a smoggy, chaotic and congested city. Included in this blog is the latest re-release information for those with interest in sexuality, multiple relationships and a functional community lifestyle.

“Sandstone” is a thought-provoking window into the heart of the sexual revolution in Southern California in the 1970’s. This legendary mountain top retreat was a fantasy playground for adults and an important social experiment rolled into one. Sandstone is relevant today because it facilitates an open dialogue about the pressure many people still feel from traditional societal expectations about sexuality and what is ‘normal’
About the film:

Filmed in the 1970’s, famed producer, Jonathan Dana’s “Sandstone” has been re-mastered and is making its exclusive worldwide digital premiere on Indie-Flix this week. The company’s goal is to entertain and engage their viewers with a socially relevant conversation about group marriage, relationships and sexuality.

The Cultural Connection:
When “Sandstone” was filmed, the ‘sexual revolution’ was a reaction to the pressure to be ‘normal’ as defined by mainstream society. It was a backlash against the traditional 1950’s lifestyle, in which appearance, perfection, and convention were prized above emotional fulfillment, freedom or growth.

While the term ‘sexual revolution’ generally implies the period from the 1960’s to the late 1970’s, in many ways our society is in the midst of a second wave of sexual liberation and equality. There is an increased acceptance and even celebration of sexual identity, the LGBTQ community and nontraditional relationship dynamics as Polyamory.

Only Nature is humanity’s physical, mental and emotional support system. Nature is trying to teach us to live and discover the persons we are! The shamanic journey teaches us to tap into our “true self” through respect and connections with nature. Getting grounded in our true self opens the pathway to our heart and ability to experience a happy and blissful life.