Some help to better understand...

Hello my name is Michelle and I am doing a research paper on Hippies and a part of the paper will be addressing neo-hippies (this group specifically). I don't know much and my paper could really use a few first hand perspectives- which may even make me reconsider what I will write in my paper. Below is my Proposal and a few questions that can be answered in whatever length is convenient. Please I really need the help so thank you so much to anyone who replies.

For my paper I will be looking at the Hippie subculture from the 60's and analyzing how it was resistant against mainstream culture through the outlets of drugs and sex. I will also show the evolution of the subculture through the more modern neo-hippies (one specific group being the Rainbow Family) and how the new age hippies have shifted ways to resist mainstream by not putting alot of emphasis on drugs and sex but the environment and gatherings. I will conduct my research by going through older newspapers to find how the media portrayed hippies as bad because of their resistance to society by using drugs and promoting sexual exploration and I will also use academic articles and books to analyze how hippies used drugs and sex. I will post a survey on the website hippy.com and get the opinions (young and old) about the use of drugs and sex back in the 60's and also see what the people on the site know about neo-hippies and whether they think the neo-hippies have evolved away from the original hippies. In addition to the survey I will also interview the views of drugs and sex/ neo-hippies from one person who was at woodstock and someone who was alive during the era but do not participate in the subculture.

Name:

Age:

Where you reside:

How or why did you get involved with Rainbow Family?

In your opinion do you believe that the Rainbow Family is still like the original
Hippy movement or just influenced by it and has taken on its own form with a new agenda, if so how (i.e environmentalism, vegetarianism)?

How is the Rainbow Family group mainly different from the original hippies?

How do you personally resist mainstream society?

Do you (in your opinion) believe drugs and sexual exploration are still used as forms of resistance

What are issues that you (and the Rainbow Family) believe are issues in
society that need to be combated and do you think the issues have changed from the 60’s?

How do people react when they hear you participate in the Rainbow Family?

 

#4- your already a "member" (can't find a better word, sry) if you have a belly button lol

 

Name: oshinn

Age: 25

Where you reside: planet earth

How or why did you get involved with Rainbow Family? i was told at birth that i could not keep the entire umbilical cord and so i settled for a nubbin

In your opinion do you believe that the Rainbow Family is still like the original
Hippy movement or just influenced by it and has taken on its own form with a new agenda, if so how (i.e environmentalism, vegetarianism)? i will not speculate on this because i was not alive then. but it is difficult to find another group that gathers en masse like rainbows do and is still able to maintain peace and harmony, reject money and promote universal brotherlove

How is the Rainbow Family group mainly different from the original hippies? i imagine living in the 21st century has offered its changes

How do you personally resist mainstream society? i look people in the eye, bake my own bread, do not own a TV and know who is Rabindranath Tagore

Do you (in your opinion) believe drugs and sexual exploration are still used as forms of resistance? resistance to what? i think that myspace status changes are used as forms of resistance... it's no longer shocking to openly admit to using drugs or having sex

What are issues that you (and the Rainbow Family) believe are issues in
society that need to be combated and do you think the issues have changed from the 60’s? i cannot speak for the rainbow family but as it encompasses the entire human race i will quote buddhist ideas and say that all human beings want to be free from suffering. and this is unchanging

How do people react when they hear you participate in the Rainbow Family? a friend thought it meant i was gay, my mother associated it with her being stopped at the border of canada in the 70s

 

For starters, I think you might get more responses by telling us more about yourself. Is this for a doctoral dissertation? a master's thesis? a high school source theme? Some people might even think you are a government agent of some kind. Who are you, sister? Take the feather and introduce yourself to the circle.

I do hope you plan on actually coming to a gathering. There are lots of things you can't learn about it by reading.

Name: Butterfly Bill

Age: 63

Where you reside: Muskogee, OK

How or why did you get involved with Rainbow Family? I have written a book about it, and you can read the first chapter of it at www.bliss-fire.com. That chapter describes my first gathering.

In your opinion do you believe that the Rainbow Family is still like the original Hippy movement or just influenced by it and has taken on its own form with a new agenda, if so how (i.e environmentalism, vegetarianism)?
The tie-dye and long hair has been supplanted a great deal by blacky-khaki, piercings, and tattoos. More of the young people are goth-punks and hardcore anarchists. There have always been lots of subcultures besides hippie present at gatherings, like Harley bikers, Krishna devotees, Jesus people, hoboes who hitchhike instead of hop trains (we call them "road dogs"), and there are lots of people who just wear shorts, tee shirts, baseball caps like you would see at the state fair. The Rainbow is all colors, more than just hippie. (And the gatherings have always been environmentalist and vegetarian.)

How is the Rainbow Family group mainly different from the original hippies? They have jobs and families and years of experience with life in general.

How do you personally resist mainstream society? One small way is wearing dresses in public. I also don't watch TV much, and when I do, I use the mute button during their obnoxious commercials and don't buy the stuff they are promoting. Mostly I just try and do things my way.

Do you (in your opinion) believe drugs and sexual exploration are still used as forms of resistance? Drugs (especially cannabis), yes. Sex, not so much (there was a disease back in the 80s that is still around).

What are issues that you (and the Rainbow Family) believe are issues in society that need to be combated and do you think the issues have changed from the 60’s? Go to a gathering and you might get 10,000 different answers. Go to a vision council and hear all the different things people think.

How do people react when they hear you participate in the Rainbow Family? Usually some kind of interest, if they are the kind of people who get interested in anything at all. If you are talking about hostility, I never get any of that.

 

Name: mikul tuba

Age: 55

Where you reside: Iowa

How or why did you get involved with Rainbow Family?
as an artist , dream travelling

In your opinion do you believe that the Rainbow Family is still like the original Hippy movement
some elders grump it ain't like the old daze , but all these 40 years are still the new daze . ask again in 200 years .

How is the Rainbow Family group mainly different/same from the original hippies?
there is no military draft action/resistance . however , govt agents can be a authoritative , manipulative pest within a U.S. gathering . peace is still not that easy . oh , sometimes it is .

How do you personally resist mainstream society?
i don't believe it exists .

Do you (in your opinion) believe drugs and sexual exploration are still used as forms of resistance
they are not forms of resistance . what is ? hmmm... a feather . whatever you think we are resisting ain't very strong .

What are issues that you (and the Rainbow Family) believe are issues in
society that need to be combated and do you think the issues have changed from the 60’s?
change comes slow to a society . peace and love is the issue . we are such warriors as to be heroic peacefully and lovely . combat is a strange idea . we do feel a struggle though and the struggle at times does feel bittersweet and mystical ... just in the next moment though something down to earth really does happen - like , someone weeps who was considering themselves an enemy .

How do people react when they hear you participate in the Rainbow Family?
they help me .

 

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay...bWq72vAg&q=travellers&hl=en&client=firefox-a#

Two documentaries that should interest you (UK New age traveller movement of the 70s-80s)


http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay...aGydnDAg&q=travellers&hl=en&client=firefox-a#

Great stuff there.

 

To Butterfly Bill
-Haha sorry if I seemed vague..I hail from Philadelphia and go to Temple University. The paper is just for my final for a youth cultures class. My real passion lies in science and Im currently applying to nursing schools. The human body fascinates me and I am continually astonished by microbiology. I enjoy traveling to the beach, flying kites, soccer + field hockey, all kinds of music, and just relaxing with friends and talking about anything and everything. My paper is due May 15th and if there is anything going on around Philadelphia I would gladly attend.

 

Name: Tradin' Bill

Age: 47

Where you reside: Ocala, Florida

How or why did you get involved with Rainbow Family?
I found Planet Loving Folks that understood Life & Love.

In your opinion do you believe that the Rainbow Family is still like the original Hippy movement.
The "Original Hippy Movement" was always close to "Rainbow Idea's" but we all have our differences.

How is the Rainbow Family group mainly different/same from the original hippies?
Both love all Life. Rainbow has attracted Various people types resisting the wrong doings to our planet and people.

How do you personally resist mainstream society?
I wear a Loin Cloth and/or surrong in public, But mainly I just smile alot.

Do you (in your opinion) believe drugs and sexual exploration are still used as forms of resistance
Mainstream people seem to be the only ones using these as a resistance nowadays! In the 60's people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and
people take Prozac to make it normal.

What are issues that you (and the Rainbow Family) believe are issues in
society that need to be combated and do you think the issues have changed from the 60’s?
No change. Planetary Wrongdoings.

How do people react when they hear you participate in the Rainbow Family?
10% shudder. 90% want to know more.

 

Name: Rev. ZenCoyote

Age:57

Where you reside: In the pocosin of N.C.

How or why did you get involved with Rainbow Family? My return to the old hippie ways in 1990 led me back to the Dead Family which was a straight line to Rainbow. Something like that....


In your opinion do you believe that the Rainbow Family is still like the original
Hippy movement or just influenced by it and has taken on its own form with a new agenda, if so how (i.e environmentalism, vegetarianism)? Yes

How is the Rainbow Family group mainly different from the original hippies? More elders involved than in the 60s and a greater diversity of people and lifestyles.

How do you personally resist mainstream society? I don't...resistance is futile. However, being a prankster, engaging people in conversation and making smiles and laughs happen is a way to "resist" the powers that be. Polite revolution



Do you (in your opinion) believe drugs and sexual exploration are still used as forms of resistance? No, they never were. IMO

What are issues that you (and the Rainbow Family) believe are issues in
society that need to be combated and do you think the issues have changed from the 60’s? None of the issues from the 60s have changed. In most areas things have worsened. War, poverty, environment, rights...the list is long. Still, (speaking only for myself) the fight for justice must go on. That is one facet of why I'm "Rainbow"

How do people react when they hear you participate in the Rainbow Family? Most people have no idea what I'm talking about. I usually direct them to the "Welcome Home" website.

I went to Woodstock. Think so anyway...I took the brown acid. Seriously though...If I can help you out, just ask.

Zen

 

oh iv'e heard that before..... can't remember where though....who originally said that?

 

"In the 60's people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and
people take Prozac to make it normal."

Wish I knew..... I picked it up a few years ago on a college campus.


Tradin' Bill

 

Most hippies are just teenagers that like to smoke pot.

 

I suppose you've read the info on CALM on WelcomeHome ?
Anybody know if Calm still needs a microscope?

 

hmmm, off to google i go lol

 

CALM always needs any medical equipment you can bring. Even if it duplicates something already there. (The owner of it may be leaving the gathering early and want to take it with.)

 

Yes, yes, nothing has changed, Calm & everybody else still needs everything. But before I brought an expensive & delicate piece of equipment out to the woods, I'd do a bit of checking to see if was actually needed.