Chasing Sunset

When you get naked you feel wild, healthy, alert, free and alive!

Clothing is crushing us! Trapped in tomb-like textiles, we exile our flesh from experiencing the environment. We atrophy the majority of our epidermis. If you put a plaster cast on a broken arm, the skin starves for Vitamin D; muscles weaken due to strangled range of motion; nerve synapses depress to a whimper of their former joy. Twenty-first century hominids shroud the entire skin palette, obliterating symbiosis with the planet except via face, neck and hands. (Burqa-clad Muslim women lose nearly 100%.) We hide in cocoons, when we could be free as butterflies.

History reveals many cultures that were not clothes-minded. Spartans were basically bare and their victories in pan-Hellenic sports competitions enticed all neighboring Greeks to exercise nude, creating the word “gymnasium” (Greek gymnos = naked). Romans mingled in magnificent bathhouses, enjoying dense communal nudity as they drank, dined, bathed, read books, argued politics, and watched theater. Adamists - naked heretics - performed stripped-down church services in North Africa, Bohemia, the Netherlands, and England. Pre-Hitler Germans were avid adherents of Freikorperkultur (“Free Body Culture”) with 70,000 attending co-ed Nacktkultur schools. There’s naked Japanese in hot springs, naked Finns in saunas, “sky-clad” Jain monks in India, plus millions of nudists worldwide going to “Nakation” camps, beaches, and resorts, still sporty as Spartans. They hike naked (“free bush rambling”), canoe naked (“canuding”), bicycle naked, ride horses naked, run naked, play volleyball, badminton, ping-pong and chess naked, swim naked, dance naked, do Naked Yoga, Naked Tai Chi, Naked Gardening, Naked Bowling, and you and I, dear reader, we’re both NIFOC - Naked In Front of Computers.

Many famous figures are bare-all aficionados; too many politicians to name, so I’ll just list sci-fi and scientists: Leonard Nimoy, Alexander Graham Bell, Robert Heinlein, and seismologist Charles Richter. Of course, most movie stars skinny-dip at the French Riviera, trying to elude paparazzi seeking pix of Bruce Willis’ willy or Natalie Portman’s port side.

Specific studies indicating that skin-only is superior:

The Clothes You Were Born In. Pediatricians agree that infants thrive with a daily dose of “naked time” because the unhampered range of motion aids brain development. Recent discoveries reveal that the “plastic” brain changes and develops throughout our entire lives. Neuroplasticity pioneer Michael M. Merzenich believes, “everything you can see happen in a young brain can happen in an older brain.” This indicates that “naked time” is equally valuable for humans of any age, especially the elderly.

Barefoot Medicine. Going shoeless is now recognized as an anti-Alzheimer’s, brain-boosting activity because the sole sensation entices your brain into growing extra, efficient neuron connections. Merzenich believes our brains decline if we “limit the sensory feedback from our feet.” He advocates walking barefoot (to improve balance, posture, and co-ordination functions in the vestibulocerebellum.) Dr. Norman Doidge (author of The Brain That Changes Itself) concurs that skipping shoes will increase brain flexibility and youthfulness, and many podiatrists now advise going barefoot as much as possible. Bare feet are today’s prescription. Tomorrow’s elixir will take the next step: Bare Body.

Soothe Away Your Crazies. Massage is recognized as a therapeutic treatment for mental health issues like depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolarism, borderline personality disorder, learning difficulties, and low self-esteem. The skin stimulation of massage - improving blood flow and detoxifying the lymph system - is duplicated by the warmth, freedom, and improved circulation generated in Nakedness.

Socialization. Self-actualization proponent Abraham Maslow believed “Nudism… is itself a kind of therapy.” Health benefits of social nudity include stress reduction, satiation of curiosity about the human body, reduction of porn addiction, a sense of full-body integration and developing a wholesome attitude about the opposite gender. Research at the University of Northern Iowa discovered that nudists have significantly higher body self-acceptance. Another study by Lawrence Casher concluded that teens at a New York nudist camp were “extraordinarily well-adjusted, happy, and thoughtful.”

Weak Body, Worried Mind. Clothes are a breeding ground for filthy fungi and bad bacterium, causing yeast infections, urinary tract infections, rotting toenails. Lyme Disease deer ticks can grab onto your sweater and sea lice can sneak into your bathing suit crotch. Testicular cancer is linked to tight briefs, breast cancer to tight bras. Cinched-up belts, ties, and clothes impede breathing. Men’s snug pants raise testicle temperature, lowering sperm count and fertility. Plus, sunlight that nudists receive produces vitamin D that creates strong bones and prevents osteoporosis and cancers.

Comic Relief (Just Joking!). Have you noticed that the furry Norway Rat only lives 2-3 years, while the Naked Mole Rat survives to be 28?
In addition to all this, clothes are a huge money/time-suck with shopping, laundry, taking on-and-off, stashing in closets and dressers, plus gazillions of hours wondering what so-and-so looks like with their undies removed. Americans spend at least $900 million annually on bathing suits alone; our carbon footprint would shrink like a wool sweater if fabric was no longer manufactured.

So… is the future going to be full frontal? Will the post-Singularity planet be stripped, once climate is controlled by nanobots? Will everyone choose to be nude, strutting around like the Nuba dancers and wrestlers of Leni Reifenstahl? Trends point to a time where there won’t be a stitch to worry about. Fodor’s Guide says nudism is tourism’s fastest-growing sector, and American naturist clubs claim their enrollment is growing 20% annually. The German airline OssiUrlaub.de offers nude chartered flights to a Baltic sea resort, and today’s lengthy luggage searches at airports might steer travelers to destinations where they only need carry-on towels and sunblock. Twenty million Europeans already go to nude beaches and spas.

Go for it. Your body will thank you!

Source: H+ Magazine