Copyright 1998 Lake Edun Foundation, Inc

Official Publication of the Lake Edun Foundation, Inc  December 1, 1998

The by-laws of the Lake Edun Foundation allow us to have up to 15 members on our Board of Directors.  At our annual membership meeting, the membership elected 10.  Your newly elected Board of Directors met on Sunday, November 15, 1998 and in accordance with our by-laws, elected 4 additional members to the board.
Members of the new Board of Directors are:
President - Kelly Shepardson (aka Dizzy)
Vice President - Chuck Sobke
Secretary - Dorothy Sands
Treasurer - Webb Garlinghouse
Education/Outreach - Lew Covell
Bare Facts Editor - Ed Weaverling
Web Master - Bob Grove
Member Relations - George Hess
Promotion/Publicity - Corrie with Vicki
Social - Vicki Knueppel with Corrie
Facilities - Chuck Sobke & Mark Sorensen
Conservation - Dave Peters
Legal Liason - Allan
Jon Mills

Hello.  I want to start by saying how honored I am to be elected as the new President of the Lake Edun Board of Directors.

Let me tell you about myself - I am a Sagittarius, enjoy long walks on the beach, and men that aren't afraid to show their soft side!  Just seeing if you were reading this!!  Seriously, I'm 28, have a BSW from Washburn University and am working on my Master's Degree at UMKC.  I currently live & work in Independence, MO.

I have been a naturist since my first experience at Lake Edun which was "Return to Edun 4" in 1996.  I was nervous my first time at Lake Edun, but everyone made me feel comfortable in a very short time.  I was hooked on the beauty of Lake Edun and naturism in general.

My goals for the upcoming year are simple.  I want  everyone to feel comfortable and at ease at our beautiful lake.  I also want to increase membership and make needed improvements on the lake.

Feel free to e-mail me with your comments at Dizzie28@yahoo.com.

Take care of yourselves and I look forward to seeing everyone at the saunas and the Christmas party.

Microwave Oven - The need for this is obvious.
Bench Vice - This will help us with the maintenance we perform on our facility.
Pay Phone - This would be mounted on the outside wall of the barn for use by members and guests.
Clear plastic jars with lids - For storing small parts in barn (nuts, bolts, screws, etc).
Trash can lids for barrels - People are normally quite courteous and if you give them trashcans to use, they will.  To help keep our place trashfree, we want to make additional trashcans available.  We need the kind of lids that you see on the cans at the beach.

DON'T FORGET
Dec 12; 10-12; Board of Directors meeting
Dec 12; Noon-4:00 PM; Workday
Dec 12; 7:00 PM; Lake Edun Xmas Party
Dec 27; 5-7:00 PM; Sauna
Jan 2; 5-7:00 PM; Sauna
Jan 16; Heartland Naturist Party
Jan 23; 5-7:00 PM; Sauna
Jun 25-27, 1999; Return to Edun 7

massage, acupressure, inversion therapy, workshops in Holotropic Breathwork and Initiating Your Dream Relationship, and the unique-to-Harbin Watsu treatment -- which seemed to be a sort of rebirthing massage done in warm water with both parties, of course, naked.

Jennifer was confident it would be a kind of utopian secular monastery. I was convinced it would be full of men pretending to want shiatsu when what they were really after was sex. I had visions of pools full of fat
guys and their unhappy partners pressuring us to join them so they could check us out while they tried to persuade my beloved to join them in mind-expanding sessions of group groping. Didn't it all happen before in California, and didn't it all go horribly wrong? I'd read all about it: Esalen, then EST, then the Kool-Aid Acid Test and then Charles Manson. I didn't want to worry her. I'd go. But I'd go prepared to get us out of
there in a hurry. I knew what to expect.

With the book finished and delivered, and after a beautiful drive to the Sonoma Valley and then over into the Napa Valley at Calistoga, we headed up into the surrounding oak-strewn hills. This was country carved from ancient volcanoes and the constant friction of the great continental plates. Despite months of summer drought, its valleys were still green, its fields and trees ever refreshed by streams of pure, mineral-laden
water sprung from a vast network of fissures reaching deep into ancient aquifers miles below us.

Just south of Clear Lake, halfway back into a high, winding canyon, is a place the local Lake Miwok people called eetawyomi -- the hot place.  Here, at the end of the Civil War, white settlers came and tapped several
of the area's many soda, iron and sulphur springs, renaming the place Harbin Hot Springs Health and Pleasure Resort. Some form of spa has been here ever since.

Only slightly mollified by the beauty of the trip, as we arrived I was still nervous about what we'd find. To my relief the receptionist greeted us fully clothed. In fact, nearly all the people we saw as we checked into our rooms had some sort of clothing on. Perhaps we really weren't expected to be naked from dawn to dusk.
As first-time visitors, we were given an introduction and told the rules. So there were rules. Great. And they were mostly about respect and peace and not intruding on other people, and about how "clothing-optional" meant you didn't have to be naked if you didn't want to (good) but that you couldn't be upset by people who did want to let it all hang out (fine by me).
To find our room we walked past native flower gardens, fountains and spectacular ancient trees into a long, Victorian-style building fronted on all three floors

"Harbin Hot Springs -- that's the naked place!" said my brother-in-law.

"Harbin's the only clothing-optional spa I've been to where even the people on reception were naked," a spa-savvy friend told me.

"Really, you're going to Harbin?" another friend asked. "You?"

Really. I was.

It wasn't my idea. But my wife, Jennifer, had spent the entire summer working 14-hour days, seven days a week, to finish a book, and I'd promised her a trip to any spa in California when it was done. She chose the naked place.

The nudity wasn't why she chose it. After a period of intense, desk-bound work she wanted to refocus her mind and get back in touch with her body.  And that's what Harbin is famous for helping people do.

Jennifer is a native Californian. She does yoga. She takes vitamins. She believes in massage. For her a good spa is a place worthy of pilgrimage -- a kind of modern Lourdes that, through a mixture of rigor and ecstasy, can cleanse you of the past and fortify you mentally and physically for the months ahead.

I was brought up in England, where yoga is what the Beatles did when they went peculiar. Where vitamins are sneaked into breakfast cereal because no one will take them voluntarily. Where massage is a sordid euphemism on a par with "hand relief." To me, spas are places to be held in deep suspicion.

But I had agreed to go. I especially had to go, I reasoned, because her spa of choice was going to be full of naked creeps trying to scope her out. I had to be there to protect her.

She chose Harbin Hot Springs, she told me, because it's the very opposite of the chichi luxury hotel spa -- the kind full of people crash-dieting and recovering from cosmetic surgery. Indeed, from the brochure Harbin looked to be a British caricature of Californian New Age culture made manifest. What it offered went way beyond a hot tub and a facial. We could opt for shiatsu

by a simple balcony. I had to admit that it was really a nice place. Very beautiful and no TV, no bar, no phone in your room. Nothing harassing you to spend money -- everything encouraging you to enjoy simplicity. Maybe it was a place where you really could relax and get your stressed-out mind and body back in harmony.

The aura of the place certainly seemed to be affecting me. I was a pushover when Jennifer suggested we go check out the pools. And there, when we finally got to see naked people by the dozen, their nudity seemed, suddenly, no big deal. In fact, it immediately struck me as an incredibly Edenic scene: people of all ages and shapes calmly bathing in shaded pools under a deep blue sky and a late summer's afternoon sun. That just about everyone was buck naked was suddenly irrelevant, or rather it now seemed only right. For them to have been clothed would have made it beach-like, more mundane, less serene.

There was no scoping. No groping. Within minutes we too had slipped out of our clothes and were in the warm pool, beginning to relax. And within a few more we were plunging our pale bodies into and out of probably the coldest and then the hottest water I've ever experienced. And what was really amazing was that I was actually feeling good about it.

It was time for a rapid reassessment of my prejudices. As Jennifer went to confirm the various massage-type treatments she'd booked for herself the next day, I stretched out my extremely white body in the sun and took stock.

The first thing that occurred to me was that the peaceful and rather beautiful scene before me was virtually unimaginable in American culture. It isn't just me who's been bred to associate nudity with smut. It is
still a criminal offense, for example, to show yourself naked in public in Arkansas. While I'm not sure I'd want to see everyone naked all the time, it now seemed sad to me how ashamed we are of seeing ourselves in our own skins.

I was also struck with how grown-up this all was. Nudity has such adolescent associations today. With thighs exposed on billboards, midriffs bared in magazines, oblique side views of unclothed bodies in ads directing us to imagine what has remained just hidden from view, nakedness is sold to us as a tease, as a promise of something rude we can't admit to wanting. But when nothing is hidden, the tease disappears.
There's a lot more erotic self-consciousness on a beach where nudity is banned -- with its short pants and brief bikinis -- than at Harbin, where everyone was revealing all. This place was sensual, but it wasn't sexualized.

The air of maturity arose also, I think, from what people were here for: to refresh their minds as well as their bodies. Harbin is not a nudist resort. It's not about getting an allover tan. Rather, it offers something that is both more serious and more rewarding. Mandalas hang in the gardens, cut flowers are arranged in votive niches around the pools. There's a meditation lawn, a medicine wheel, a pair of labyrinths to wander through.

It's true that there is a sense of New Age pick-and-mix to the place. The assortment of workshops, therapies and meditative studies do seem to reflect a kind of spiritual dilettantism. But there is also no bullying
orthodoxy here. And Harbin's choices are generously presented; you have the space to choose your own salvation.

Still, I couldn't quite bring myself to sign up for rebirthing, and I thought that on this first visit I'd skip the Watsu. Instead I did my own kind of spiritual thing -- hiking up through Harbin's 1,100 acres of chaparral before returning to sauna and swim, to dip in and out of the hot and cold pools and to drink the crystalline waters.

The second day revealed more of Harbin's charms: a repertory cinema that favors the positive and the fantastical over the negative and violent; a "village" of Victorian cottages and tepees where many of the community's workers live for free in return for part-time work at the spa; an area where you can paint a friend or yourself in different colors of mud -- both skin treatment and play. At one point I was reading outside our room and a silent troupe of naked, mud-daubed figures appeared in the garden in front of me. As they improvised a simple dance that managed to be both
serious and playful -- and unpretentious, because they didn't know they had an audience -- a thin young woman passed them dressed only in hot pants and carrying a tub of Ben and Jerry's ice cream. A perfect Harbin moment -- nature and nakedness, people feeling the freedom to explore and to risk ridiculousness, coupled with a healthy appetite.

What I'd been reading was some of Harbin's history. It turned out that not so long ago Harbin had been exactly what I had feared. Back in the '60s, it was occupied by a rogue Berkeley scientist and his friends and
followers. The place, renamed Harbinger, became a kind of summer camp for San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, filling with hundreds of heavily tripping hippies who'd leave only when the food or the drugs ran out or when bills came due. It was a place where, under the guise of mind expansion and alternative

thinking, people became mental and sexual exploiters -- or the ones who got exploited.

Harbinger was repeatedly raided and finally shut down when the pools -- trashed by the use of soap and shampoo in the mineral baths and by people's unwillingness to clean them -- became a foul, hepatitis-laden
sink.

The spa foundered for years while proposals for grand, yuppie-friendly developments came and went. Finally, a miracle happened. In the '80s, a philanthropic real estate developer with a yen to achieve more than
material wealth bought the land. He repaired and renovated the place, offering many of the resort's former squatters the right to stay in return for work. When the newly renamed Harbin was back on its feet, the owner sold it to a nonprofit foundation, the Heart Consciousness Church, for a dollar.

Today the place is run efficiently and with enough commercial acumen to pay for the filtering and maintenance necessary to keep the health authorities happy. But Harbin has also managed to retain a real connection with its hippie past, succeeding -- remarkably -- in keeping much of what was positive about that era while escaping what was bad.

Living as I do in the get-rich-quick, technology-worshipping sprawl that is Silicon Valley today, it's easy to forget there ever was a counterculture that offered a trenchant critique of the profit-at-all-costs way of life that the Valley has come to exemplify. As I left my reading to go back to the pools, I was grateful to be reminded of that history, and surprised I'd lost sight of it in my day-to-day immersion in Valley life.

I'd arrived as my wife's escort, as a rather cynical observer of the spa scene. Yet with no fanfare, with no hard sell, indeed almost by stealth, this most Californian of creations seemed to have won over my very
British suspicion. The mental and physical calm I was now enjoying as I sat quietly and surprisingly un-self-consciously naked again in the spa's warm waters was exactly what Jennifer had come here for. Could it be that I'd needed relaxing and refocusing as much as she did?

That would certainly explain how easy it had been that first time -- after days of anxiety -- to join the other naked souls in Harbin's pools. After all, it made sense now: If you need to escape the world of the material, you need to take off your clothes.
............................................................................
SALON | Oct. 29, 1998

forwarded to us by Dave Bitters

"Volley Ball! The Nudist Battlecry"

The morning sun is bright and new
It shines upon the wall
From deep within your cozy nest
You hear a distant call.

Comb your hair and brush your teeth
Forget the breakfast hall
It's time to get behind that net
And play some volley ball!

If you are young, or ninety-two
Or even eight feet tall
"You gotta play, we're short a man"
It's great, this volley ball.

By noon you are exhausted
It matters not at all
You'll play once more - "Let's even the score"
Who invented volley ball?

You slip away just for a swim
And to your cot you crawl
The moment that you close your eyes
Some guy hollers "Volley Ba-l-l-l"

The setting sun brings no release
We've floodlights on our court
Who wants to sleep the night away
And miss this noble sport?

And when your strength deserts you
And into bed you fall
Your dreams are shattered all too soon
"LET'S PLAY SOME VOLLEY BA-L-L-L!"

[ Ken Price, "Volley Ball! The Nudist Battlecry," Sun Tan, Vol.II, No. 4 (May 1953), p.15. ]

been to the lake knows there are places at Edun where we are visible from the road (South Beach, east end of dam, etc.).  As long as the neighbors can see in, they have ammunition to support their complaints.  We want zero visibility from the outside.  The transplanted cedars will give us an evergreen (no leaves falling off), privacy screen.

There is a core group of Edunites we can always count on to participate in our workdays.  Some Edunites just reap the benefits but never volunteer to work.  If you've never volunteered before, volunteer now!  This will be a labor intensive venture and everyone's help is needed.  Bring additional shovels and work gloves.  Don't worry about getting dirty before the party that night.  Bring along your party duds (or lack thereof) and toiletry items.  Local members have volunteered to let participants clean up at their homes before the party.  NOTE: Muscle-sore participants will have first dibs on a seat in the hot tub at the party!

Hi!  I am Vickie Knueppel, your Social Director for 1999.  Many of you might know me as the "Jewelry Lady".  I can usually be found on the beach making jewelry.  I am really excited about the coming year.  I am also looking forward to working with Corrie, my assistant.  I think the two of us have a lot of really good ideas.  You will find information about the Christmas party elsewhere in this edition of the Bare Facts.  If anyone has any ideas about what kind of activities they would like to see next year, e-mail me at carld@swbell.net or leave a message on the barn phone.  Remember, the activities are only fun if it is what the membership wants to do.  I hope to see all of you at the Xmas party on Dec 12th.  Remember to bring a gag gift ($10.00 max) if you want to participate in the gift exchange.

J Webb has been invited to speak on naturism to one of Topeka's Rotary Clubs at the Washburn University Student Union on Dec. 11th at 7:15 AM.
J Vickie & Corrie (with Webb's help) are working at arranging a location for us to hold indoor swim events in the Topeka area.
J As of the last Board of Directors meeting, our membership stood at 103 (47 males, 8 females, & 24 couples).  One more couple has joined since.
J Bob Grove is our new "Web Master".  If you are internet capable, keep an eye on our web site.  Over the next few months, the site will undergo many changes.
J KTWU, the local PBS TV station held a fundrising auction.  We donated a family membership and they actually auctioned it off!  Neat huh!!

The #1 way Lake Edun manages to keep our membership fees as low as they are is by using volunteer labor to do most of the facilities maintenance ourselves.  Once again, we need your help.  On December 12th from Noon to 4 PM, members will be working to improve the place we love.

This will be a combined conservation/maintenance project.  Carver, Chuck, & Mark will be heading up the work teams.  We have a lot of unwanted cedar trees on the backside of the lake.  Instead of just cutting them down, we want to transplant them to the east side between the lake and the road.  Anyone that has ever

Consider a unique gift from the Lake Edun Foundation for someone special on your Christmas list.  All gifts (except membership in TNS) are eligible for a 10% member discount (Lake Edun Foundation members only).

_____    Return to Edun T-shirt T-shirt with our tasteful Return to Edun logo on the front.  A wonderful way to proclaim your proclivity for  clothing-free enjoyment.  Available with either a large logo centered on the front or a smaller logo over the left breast.  Sizes: M, L, XL  XXL.  Specify large or small logo and shirt size when ordering.  Cost $12.00 for M, L, & XL; $15.00 for XXL.

_____    Return to Edun ball cap  White, adjustable ball cap with our Return to Edun logo on the front.  One size fits all.  $7.00 ea.
World Guide to Nude Beaches & Resorts The colorful, definitive guide to nude beaches, hot springs, parks, and resorts in the US and  around the world.  A must for anyone interested in experiencing and enjoying the large world of nude recreation.  $28.00 each.

_____    Membership in Lake Edun Foundation  One year membership in the friendliest organization in the Midwest.  The perfect gift for the  family on your Christmas list who enjoys spending quality time together.  Includes Bare Facts subscription.  $175.00 for a single member ship (includes kids); $200.00 for a couple/family membership.

_____    Subscription to Bare Facts One year (12 issues) subscription to Bare Facts, the informative newsletter for the Lake Edun Foundation.  Make it possible for your friends and associates to learn about our activities without actually having to make a full-body commitment to  clothing-free recreation.  The cost of subscription can apply toward membership.  $20.00 per year.

_____    Tickets to Return to Edun 7  Although we have not set prices for Return to Edun 7, we will offer advanced tickets at the same price as  Return to Edun 6 until the end of the year.  Give a meaningful gift of a complete weekend of clothing free enjoyment to someone special.  Our annual Return to Edun celebration has established itself as the area's premier clothing-free showcase.  Purchasing tickets for 1999 at a  discount to 1998 prices saves you money and tells a special couple on your Christmas list you truly care about their mental health.  Not  recommended for members; members will receive a substantial discount from the normal ticket price.  Single ticket - $45.00; Couple ticket  - $55.00

_____    Membership in The Naturist Society  Annual membership in The Naturist Society includes a subscription (4 issues) of the colorful and  informative publication, Nude and Natural.  TNS promotes free beaches and nude recreation and is the national organization most inter ested in the individual involved with clothing-free recreation.  Their quarterly publication is an excellent source of information about the  world in which we live.  Annual membership is $40.00.

_____    Tote-Tube  The answer to every naturist's problem,.. Where to carry keys, cash, etc.  It comes with an adjustable cord to wear around  your neck, wrist, or waist.  It's watertight and small enough to be unobtrusive.  Carry keys, film, money, matches, etc.  Also ideal for camp ing.  At only $3.00 each you should have several on hand.

_____    When ordering, please specify size, etc as necessary.  Also, indicate to whom the gifts should be sent.  If you wish an acknowledgement to  be sent, how do you want the card to read?

Name: __________________________________________________________________          Total ordered: __________

Address: ________________________________________________________________    Member Discount: __________
                              No discount on TNS membership

City: _______________________________________  State: ________  Zip: ________                Total Due: __________

�  Check enclosed

€  Please charge my Visa:            [  ][  ][  ][  ][  ][  ][  ][  ][  ][  ][  ][  ][  ][  ][  ][  ]    Exp. _____/_____

€  Please charge my MasterCard: [  ][  ][  ][  ][  ][  ][  ][  ][  ][  ][  ][  ][  ][  ][  ][  ]    Exp. _____/_____