SPIRITUALITY / PRACTICAL
It’s Only Natural, Part I
What exactly is Naturism? Is it just people making an excuse to walk around naked? Or something more?
If you’d believe it, I took an impromptu poll on this. I asked in the Sovryn Tech Patreon-only Discord channel whether they’d like me to write about “pacifism” or “naturism” in Issue 6 of the Sovryn Technica Newsletter (which you’re reading now). “Naturism” beat “pacifism” to a pulp with that poll (pun intended), and so here we are. However, don’t worry, we’ll get to “pacifism” in a future segment.
Speaking of future segments, there are some of “givens” (which are different from “axioms” like we discussed in a previous newsletter issue) I’d you to take with this piece, but they are things that also will be the subject of (multiple) future segments. These are:
1. Symbols have power. Whether imbued, like the pyramid on a dollar bill, or inherent, like humanity’s evolutionary disposition against the sight of snakes and spiders. As Confucius said so eloquently, “Signs and symbols rule the world, not words nor laws.”
NOTE: Yes, I’m well aware that characters of the alphabet can be symbols themselves, but the power of letters and numbers is a separate conversation from the points on symbols.
2. The power structures you are popularly told govern the world are at best a bunch of bumbling idiots that have lost control of the air conditioning ducts, and at worst a dog and pony show blinding the masses from the real infrastructure and groups (yes, plural, there is no New World Order — at least not without Hulk Hogan) that actually makes the world go round. To quote Blade, “The world you’re living in is just a sugar-coated topping…there is another world beneath it.”
NOTE: Before you jump to any conclusions, I am in no way saying that we live in a computer simulation or other “brain-in-a-vat” business. Debunking this notion has been done many times as the evidence against it accrues over the years on my podcast Sovryn Tech.
3. Money does not hold the value and importance in the “machinery of the world” most think it does. In the grand scheme of things, it’s an incredibly modern human innovation (and remember, “innovation” doesn’t always equate to “improvement”…you can innovate past perfection). There are methods of exchange (a more accurate phrase than “mediums of exchange” — deal with it, Rothbard) that are far older, more intrinsic, more established (by those aware), and infinitely more valuable than any form of money you can mention — be it cowry shells, gold, or Bitcoin.
NOTE: For reasons I won’t get into here, Bitcoin is actually the most valuable and powerful form of currency (in its traditional definition) ever devised, and it has nothing to do with the internet. I say this just to confirm that I am by no means insulting Bitcoin when I list it off among other forms of money. I’ve been a fan since 2010.
Now with that out of the way, keep your pants on, we’re going to talk about naturism (another pun intended).
Dictionary.com defines naturism as: “another name for nudism”. This is not helpful. I get it that to many naturism is synonymous with nudism — “the practice of going nude, especially in places that allow mixed-gender groups” — but this isn’t entirely accurate. Yes, nudism is an element of naturism, but it’s just that, an element. Naturism is about so much more than just walking around naked.
The term naturism was first coined in Belgium in 1778. A French-speaking Belgian named Jean Baptiste Luc Planchon used the term to advocate nudism as a means of improving the hygiène de vie: healthy living. You see, naturism is about much more than just walking around naked in public (which you can do legally in Vermont, apparently, though I have yet to test this).
Wikipedia actually provides the better definition: “…nudism emphasizes the practice of nudity, whereas naturism highlights an attitude favoring harmony with nature and respect for the environment, into which that practice is integrated. That said, naturists come from a range of philosophical and cultural backgrounds; there is no single naturist ideology.”
Much better. And I’ll second that last point about there not being a singular naturist ideology. Like anarchism, it can take many different shapes. But just as anarchism broadly advocates a life without governments, naturism does have it’s own abstract concept that extends across most prefixes and suffixes — reconnecting with nature, both of the Earth and yourself. So let’s explore this abstract.
NOTE: Naturism is not inherently “anti-technology”, or somehow in opposition to electronics. Some certainly do take naturism that far, but again, it’s not inherent, and I’m not arguing for a lack of electronic devices and tools.
The abstract, simply put, is that what comprises Material Civilization and has made the individual so far removed from what environmentally and biologically makes them an individual, that it has caused mental and physical (and, I would argue, spiritual) ailments. Beyond this abstract, naturists take things to differing degrees of severity…
…And that’s where I come in with my thoughts and practice of naturism.
While not the most important aspect of naturism, let’s get the more controversial aspect out of the way: nudism. First, if it’s below 60 degrees Fahrenheit where you are, put on something to keep you warm. No nudist or naturist would tell you you have to be naked in the middle of a New England winter. And by all means wear some kind of foot covering when desired. You’re a naturist, not an idiot.
Second, I’d love to see the percentage (and I’m not even sure this research has been done) of people that are allergic to either laundry detergent, sensitive to fabric on their skin, or develop skin tags or even cancer just from the constant rubbing of clothing on them. All of these conditions absolutely exist, and are at least commonplace considering how many clothing products exist for sensitive skin. The conclusion?
We are literally allergic to clothes.
Is this the most important part of the “don’t wear clothes” argument? No. But remember, naturism started by advocating for nudity as an aspect of healthy living, so I wanted to get that out of the way. Next: the fashion industry.
Do you know what would happen if one day everyone just decided to become nudists? Literally trillions of dollars would be wiped out of global economy, and potentially millions of jobs would disappear over night. It’d be an economic calamity that would make the Great Depression seem like a simple cost-cutting measure at K-Mart. It’d almost be funny to see what the fashion industry would do in that scenario. My guess would be they’d become Puritan Christians overnight and suddenly lobby for extreme modesty by law just to sell the fabric, when only the day before they were selling bikinis made of fishing line to you. The fashion industry is a not-so-silent power player in the world, and something that bucks their “trendsetting” so completely is going to meet the meatgrinder of their marketing machine.
Speaking of that. You know who loves the fashion industry? The bureaucrats and the oligarchs. Why? Because they can make the pleebs to jump through hoops every season to have to keep changing their style and keep up with the latest trend or face the ire and wrath of the TikTok/Instagram culture worshipers on the public stage. But not only that, the bureaucrats and the oligarchs aren’t exactly known for their healthy lifestyles. They like that Material Civilization often judges a person’s worth on the quality of their clothes, the quality and amount of material possessions, and the size of their bank account to acquire such things. And in the endless quest of the masses to keep up with those in power or try to mimic and feign their perceived power, the masses are just running the treadmill to make enough money to keep up. Who cares how happy you are regularly? Don’t dare pay attention to how you feel inside and out, you’ve got to get the latest from Nike!
Which leads to our next point: branding. No, no, not like pushing a hot poker on you as if you were cattle…though in many ways it’s not that different. I’m talking about you spending $30 (at least, SEE: inflation) for a piece of cloth that, while at first you think it’s helping advertise “you”, actually has giant letters on it like “FILA” or “Champion” or what not, marketing freely to the whole world what corporation duped you into believing in their moisture-wicking. A person becomes a walking billboard for these companies, and they don’t even pay the person for it, the person pays them! I mean, I’ll wear a Star Wars shirt as often as the next guy, but at least that’s something I want to advertise.
This is to say nothing of the fact that the present state of Material Civilization is not sustainable, and it seems to be effectively eating itself as late. Walking around like an advertisement for what is ultimately industrial waste only mentally and culturally reinforces these corporate and political failures, and creates a societal permeation — or collective conscious idea — that Material Civilization is too core to human existence to let it fail. We must protect the way things are or die trying, they say. For indeed, TikTok can’t watch itself!
Now here’s where things might sound a little woo-woo. In mystical practice, there is the common use of symbols called “sigils”. Particularly in the context of chaos magic, sigils refer to a symbolic representation of the mystic’s (or “practitioner’s”) desired outcome. For a (poor) example, if you want to put a hex on someone, you can light candles around a sigil (symbol) that you’ve “impressed” the idea upon of someone being hexed and — the theory goes — the person and outcome the sigil represented would soon become hexed (barring any other mystical intervention).
So…what if that Reebok symbol on your shirt were actually a sigil working against you? I’m not saying it is, and actually this could still be true without any mysticism involved (and without symbols, read about Wiccans cleansing jewelry and charms that they buy on Amazon, for instance). But for an experiment, just try and walk around certain parts of Afghanistan with a USA flag patch on your arm without getting “harsh treatment”. Having been there, I know for a fact that won’t go well for you, and it all comes down to a logo. Sigil magic or not, why advertise for a corporation (and pay for the privilege, at that!) that has no interest in you beyond their bottom line?
NOTE: Always remember that even if symbols or sigils don’t mean anything to you consciously and you don’t believe they have any inherent power at all (and hey, good for you), they likely *do* mean something to someone else, and that someone else may be someone of influence in Material Civilization.
Again, forget about the mystical sigil aspects if you prefer, but the point stands that symbols can have a powerful psychological effect on you that can be completely unconscious, but potentially still deleterious personally, or on a much larger scale. And we haven’t even begun to discuss the effects on your most precious of commodities: your attention and focus.
NOTE: Exclude Adidas from this discussion on branding. It’s been a cultural meme for decades on what that company name is an acronym for, and personally, I think that’s a wonderful thing.
I don’t want to end this on a weird note, but to keep this from turning into a book, we need to break this into a Part II (and maybe a Part III). In the next segment on naturism, we’re going to talk about the very real health benefits of naturism that goes even beyond nudism (though we might still have some to cover there, especially for psychological health). And we’ll also discuss more of the practical (and spiritual) applications of naturism. While I would’ve liked to start with those first, it was important to start discussing nudism and some of the reasons it may not be so accepted, as it is the elephant in the room that’s giving you the full monty right now.
Hey wait…why isn’t that elephant wearing clothes? How does it survive without high fashion or air conditioning? What, does it work for peanuts? This is madness!
I’ll bring more madness in Part II next issue.
This article originally appeared in the “Spirituality” section of the Sovryn Technica Newsletter, Issue 06.
