How Getting Naked With Strangers Killed My Social Anxiety | Exploring The Correlation Between Nudity And Trust

In the first year of my cosmic psy travels across Europe I had the pleasure of visiting a Rainbow Gathering with a few of my new friends I had met at Ozora festival a few weeks earlier.

While I will relay the story in all its depth and detail in later posts - in the context of the whole epic journey that changed my life completely in the summer of 2012 - I feel this experience of being naked amongst other humans deserves its own post up front, right now.

Let me tell you how I found myself naked amongst strangers. Strangers I could trust. And what changed in me when that happened.

What is a rainbow gathering?

A rainbow gathering is a temporary get-together of people in nature, far away from society's regular modes of consciousness and conduct. People from all over the Earth meet at a previously chosen location in nature - a mountain area, a forest, a lake, a deserted island - whatever the tribe decides on and where such an isolated location can be found. These gatherings happen regularly on all continents on Earth. Many volunteers and participants help to build that community from scratch - infrastructure is made out of wood, people bring pots and tools, others bring food and instruments, people give lectures, teach their skills, and share their passions with those who want to receive them ...

It's a really mindblowing experience, and going to a rainbow gathering for the first time changed a lot for me because it wasn't always comfortable. You are thrown back to square one of being a human on Earth: You live in and with nature, you are constantly exposed to the elements and you meet the most interesting people you never seem to meet in cities or regular society.

If you want to find out more about rainbow gatherings you could start with the documentary "We Love You" - filmed at a gathering in North America.

If you consider yourself a modern age hippie or anything remotely close to that you may want to find a gathering near you and just visit. The level of authenticity and the potential to learn about yourself with these people is immense.

And we are really not used to that way of interaction from our regular culture of isolation and mistrust. At all.

_{@olaivart's entry for @yoganarchista's nude drawing contest}

Arriving at the gathering in central Europe

I remember the day when we first showed up at the location. It was a magnificent rural area in the mountains of Slovakia, a small and laid-back country in the middle of continental Europe without all the hustle and bustle of more urban countries.

We had driven our caravan forever to get there and had finally arrived near the location in the mountains. We set up camp outside the rainbow area to get used to the new environment and to shake off the semi-stressful travel vibes before we would decide to pack our stuff and walk into the forest to meet the rainbows the next day.

I had been told that many people will be nude at European rainbow gatherings beforehand, and - while no specific behavior like this is expected or required of you to be part of the community - I felt it might teach me a lot about society and some buried aspects of myself.

I thought about how I hadn't really gone naked in public ever since playing at the beach as a little kid, and though the thought of being nude with strangers kind of scared me, I felt I would try it out if I could muster up enough courage to do so. And if it felt right. After all I had just come from a week of dancing barefoot with all sorts of lovely people at Ozora - I figured this might be the perfect opportunity to leave my comfort zone further.

Now or never!

_{@yoogyart's entry for @yoganarchista's nude drawing contest}

A journey into a different human realm

After a good night's rest in our caravan and tents we were woken up by the sun. We packed our bags, ate a small breakfast and marched off into the woods, where others had already put up some loving signposts made out of wood and painted with colors, geometric patterns and a loving "Welcome" message - showing newcomers the way to the gathering grounds.

We had already met a few small groups leaving the area the night before, because we came in the last week of the gathering and the peak number of participants had already come and gone. Which kind of made it easier on me, being a first timer to this sort of strange human society I had never been a part of before. I was glad there were not thousands of people there still, that might have scared me a bit too much.

When we got to the "base camp" we were greeted warmly. A small hut had been set up there, built out of wood, with a cauldron in the middle where something was cooking that smelled unfamiliar and enticing. The few people around the cauldron welcomed us, pointed us to where the main part of the gathering was set up down a magical looking forest trail, and then returned to cooking and having their discussion about something cosmic. I think they were going back and forth about whether reincarnation is likely a thing or not.

It must have been the first time I had met random people who would discuss this topic out in the open in ernest - well, out in the open in a secluded forest location with open minded people far away from televisions, radio stations and politics. It fascinated me.

These people really seemed different, probably "crazy" to most.
I felt right at home.

_{@hustletoparadise's entry for @yoganarchista's nude drawing contest}

The shock of nudity and how it blasted my conditioning away in less than 3 seconds

As we walked down that beautiful dirt path I was confronted with one of my inner demons (fears), that I didn't quite know I had in me.

A wonderful girl roughly my age came along the path towards us and smiled when she saw us with our backpacks on.

The shocking thing about her was... she was totally and utterly naked, walking barefoot along the path.

It made me feel uneasy, a surge of nervousness rushed through my mind and body - all the conditioned mindfucks came up, like - "oh my god, do I hug her? Is that impolite? What if I hug her too tightly? What if I stare at her boobs too long, what if she catches me eyeing her too strongly? What if I get an erection and it turns super embarrassing?" Blablabla.

If you live in a city and you never usually meet people who are naked, I'm sure you can relate to these sorts of fears if you imagine they would all turn naked from one moment to the next - and then having to figure it out ;)

_{@fermentedphil's entry for @yoganarchista's nude drawing contest}

Well, the amazing thing is - none of that mattered. None of these fears were even close to being accurate, they were nothing but ghosts in my mind, and I saw that clearly after interacting with this girl for merely seconds. Which still shocks me to this day.

First of all, I noticed quickly that I did not have much desire or automatic drive to stare at her body at all. You know why? Because I could see everything.

It hit me in an instant that being naked somehow takes the odd mysticism of nakedness away. I could see moles on her skin, little imperfections here and there like we all have, I could see hair between her legs, I could see her breasts which looked natural more than anything else. I could see dirt on her feet and a little bracelet around her ankle. And the totality of her whole appearance just came across as one unit, as a real human being.

I noticed how her appearance had little to do with what it is generally assumed to be underneath girls' dresses. Rather this girl just seemed real. And that moment was more important to me than I would have ever expected.

It was magic!

_{@christianyocte's entry for @yoganarchista's nude drawing contest}

One moment I had worried myself to death when she came into view, the next moment I saw all this worry fall of, just like that. All the worries evaporated and were washed away.

I caught myself looking deep into her eyes, almost by default instead of forcing myself to not stare at her body. I was amazed! My automatic reaction to seeing her naked in full was the complete opposite of what I had fearfully expected. No hang-ups.

But not only that, she must have picked up on my initial insecurity, because she smiled, put out her arms and walked straight towards me, giving me one of the greatest heartfelt hugs I had ever gotten from a stranger.

And not like a polite or overcalculated hug where she would try her best to not rub against me. Quite the contrary. A totally trusting and honest hug, where she pulled myself closer against her body and held me for like 20 seconds, until she slowly let go, looked into my eyes and said something like "No need to worry, we're all family here. Welcome home."

I was speechless.

_{@speaklife's entry for @yoganarchista's nude drawing contest}

She let me go and proceeded to hug my other friends in the same heartfelt manner, and I noticed she would not make a difference in hugging them. She hugged my male friends just like she had hugged me, and after that she did the same to my female friend who was with us on this roadtrip. We felt instantly connected with her, and that seemed phenomenal considering we didn't even know each other's name. Nor did we seem to have to bring that up at all because it seemed utterly artificial and irrelevant, and I realized that everything important had been said already, without saying much at all <3

Then she smiled at us again and simply went on her way to the basecamp.

And that was that interaction.

No hang-ups, no small talk, no excuses, no apologies, no shame, no miscommunication, no expectations, no forced attitudes. Just raw authentic being in trust.

She must have been one of the first women I had ever met who were really free. She lived it. She gave me a gift through that interaction that I will never ever forget. Thank you sister!

Dude, what just happened?!

Weeks later when I returned to my apartment, this topic of nudity was one of the first ones I had put on my agenda to research more deeply.

What had happened there? Why did I not get aroused? Or rather why was I so certain being with naked people would be an issue at all? How is it that I effortlessly looked into her eyes by default when I would have bet beforehand that I would catch myself staring at her boobs against my will to be polite?

Well, the research took me a while, but I eventually struck gold!

I arrived at a small and hard to find documentary back then that really hits the nail on the head. And I have managed to find a copy that is still online today. The quality is not ideal, but it really is a great insight if what I wrote here speaks to you.

I feel this little story of mine serves as a great precursor for us to reconsider the topic of nudity altogether - we're all humans, we're born naked, and wearing clothes seems to be one of those areas where anyone and everyone conspicuously agrees without ever having questioned the notion. It seems so normal to us that we don't really think about it as a thing - more like an immutable law of nature or something.

Ever since that day, I am vowing to say: We likely got it all wrong.

Nudity, clothes, it's all different than we assume, but as always I trust you can decide that for yourself and arrive at your own conclusions.

Confusing a communicative state of being with sexual conditioning

Because we are so heavily stuck in our minds and our conditioning, some if not most people will want me to label this post as "NSFW" because of its "nude" content, when that is precisely NOT the point: Being naked has little to do with sexuality per se, we have just conflated the two areas so much because we are victims of centuries of programming. As cheesy as it sounds ;)

So yes, there will be naked people in this documentary, be warned - man, how sick to warn of that ahahaha - all of us start out naked! However, this film can already relay a great sense of that freedom and the artificial norms we have never considered, the sense of freedom and connection I have briefly tried to describe above. Maybe as close as you can get without meeting people like this in actuality for yourself, which I can really recommend.

I had never been into nudity, nor have I changed my ways much since then. That being said, I feel totally free today to drop my clothes without much problem and not getting drowned in all the self-judgments, because I feel a tremendous wound of my psyche has been healed through my time at the rainbow gathering. It feels... rather priceless.

_{@sethlinson's entry for @yoganarchista's nude drawing contest}

On nudity, clothing and subconscious ramifications of separation and mistrust

I loved this documentary so much because it would relay all these experiences I had shared with that girl at the rainbow gathering from a totally different viewpoint - the viewpoint of a woman who decided to live in a nude community on a permanent basis.

She describes the effects that being amongst naked people first had on her, and it was pretty much the same story as for me, only - she would take it much further, digging up aspects I had not considered.

She tells us how clothes could really be a major aspect in how we feel separated from nature and each other - not merely a "smart way" to keep our bodies warm. There is something to be said about becoming vulnerable by volition, and experiencing how mutual trust will reward those who dared to cross the line of shielding their most intimate view from others - without fear of being resented or judged.

I would later extrapolate and take that idea further after having more similar experiences in the ensuing years. I claim: Clothes may very well be one of the greatest tools of separation humans have never noticed.

It could be considered an advanced form of (mind)control over society's ability to work as a unit, to pull in the same direction and to solve conflicts on an eye-to-eye level, from human to human, recognizing our mutual will and readiness to treat each other the way we would like to be treated.

When we're naked, there is no denying that we're all made from the same cloth. All the ways of separating people vanish. And everybody somehow knows it.

Shocking, I know. Maybe preposterous...
Good! I hit a nerve <3

I am not saying this to shock you, I say this because I think it's likely true. And this channel has been created to explore all sorts of paradigms and their likelihoods, especially if they are contrary to what we think we know, and if there is good evidence to support them. In the end you decide for yourself. Like I do for myself.

Civilized society caging us in

One of the things Carina mentions in her story is how bad she would feel, how cheap and how... forced, when she would have to leave the community to go to college within "civilized society". And why?

Because she is forced to put on clothes so that she doesn't get arrested.

She would describe how wearing clothes would correlate to strange men staring at her, wondering what is beneath her dress, and yet remain distant. A way of communication and focussing attention that would not feel friendly like in the naturist community, but rather: objectifying.

It really was an eye-opener to me. Not only does the degree of trust change when people cover up and interact, the behavior of the participants changes as well.

I realized that it's perfectly OK in society to go naked, until you turn about 6 or 7. Then - for no good reason it is suddenly deemed inappropriate - even when it is the middle of summer, the sun is burning and you are still far away from puberty.

After years of decoding these societal control mechanisms in other areas such as economics, politics, history and so forth, I felt I had found another major puzzle piece most people may have never considered. A deeply rooted hidden program we mistake for reality.

Our clothes may shield us from the cold... but they also shield us from each other.
From trusting each other on a fundamental level.

If you can't grasp or won't accept this idea - don't.

I wouldn't have been able to see it like that without hugging that naked girl in the forest and without later seeing this documentary to connect the dots. Which is precisely the reason I write this article. And while we may be stuck with clothes for now, it may be a great idea to go somewhere where you can safely take them off among people and experience the non-sexual delight of being naked with others.

Maybe you feel that meeting naked people you don't know at all might be a little too much for you at first - no problem. Watch this short documentary instead and see how they live together, feel how they interact, and listen to Carina and the other interviewees tell their story.

From what I have experienced I can say:
I think she has the right idea. <3

Looking forward to your comments.
This should be good ;)

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Much love