Hello Folks,
 

When I posted my initial request (in many places) for feedback on this subject I said that I would share my findings.

This is posted simultaneously in several online groups where the subject has been well received as a fairly popular one.  My heartfelt thanks to all who responded to my original and subsequent postings about it, and I welcome continued discussion with you about it. I've been exploring this subject for a long time, and have reviewed countless writings on it, as well as the anecdotal feedback of many people offering their experiences and views in many Internet postings and in conversation with me.

My favorite writing found so far on this subject is by Aileen Goodson at http://www.primitivism.com/nudity.htm which is an excerpt from her book THERAPY, NUDITY & JOY. Check it out.  It
is a scholarly piece, with bibliographic footnotes.  (My citing this link does not mean that I support primitivism, though some of it does make sense to me, as do many other things opposing it.)

Searches on the words nude, nudity, naked, etc. yield many interesting hits at the site http://www.sacred-texts.com/index.htm
which made for some good reading that has helped me form my own conclusion. (As with most searches, you have to dig through a lot of links to get to the "good" ones.)

I should clarify what it is that I've been seeking.  As is often (and perhaps always) the case, the answer is in the process of the inquiry itself.  Inquiring has helped me to clarify what I was looking for.

Basically it seems I've been looking for answers to the questions:

Are there positive spiritual values or spiritual significance to the
practice of non-sexual nudity or "naturism"?  If so, what are they?

Can answers to the above questions be used to formulate a cohesive doctrine of practice that I could include in my own spiritual discipline and recommend to others (either for the sake of enhancing a spiritual discipline or just for the sake of yet another defense of naturism)?

Also, to explain "where I'm coming from," I should point out that my concept of "spirituality" is an "integral" one.  I see mind, body and spirit as three aspects one integral whole.  This means that to me, thought, mentality, psychology, philosophy, physicality, temporality, soul, spirit, essence, metaphysic and any and all other aspects of humanity are all essentially "spiritual."  I am gradually developing a personal spiritual discipline that I tentatively call "panentheistic integral spirituality" (panENtheism not to be confused with pantheism) which includes mental, physical, spiritual and social practices.  I should also note that my preferred working definition of the word "spirit" is "essence," which I believe to be reasonably applicable to discussion of spirituality in theistic, atheistic, and agnostic terms and perspectives.

Many of the references I found on the subject of nudity-and-spirituality are about sexuality, which runs heavily in so much of human spiritual history. My search has been about non-sexual nudity as a spiritual practice.  So, in this particular enquiry, I've avoided the issue of "spiritual sex" such as Tantra and Pagan sex rituals.  I know that I walk a fine (or even imaginary) line in doing so, because it's hard to separate sexuality and nudity, or sexuality and anything, for that matter.  (As my former wife often said about the totality of reality, "It's all about sex.")  When digging deeply
into the core of human spirituality, sex does come up as a root issue, because of the deep connection between spirituality and rebirth, renewal, bliss, and regeneration, all of which are so well expressed in human sexuality.  Still, I'm "sticking to my guns" and focusing on non-sexual nudity, or naturism, as a possible component of spiritual practice or discipline.

So far, the respectably serious ways in which I've found non-sexual nudity to be spiritually significant in some disciplines are as ways to express or demonstrate one or more of the following things:

- purity

- openness

- sincerity

- shamelessness

- fearlessness

- naked submission or reverence to God or gods, or to fellow practitioners (i.e., "Look! I'm not ashamed before You, nor to be known completely by You! And I'm not hiding anything!")

- humility, trust, or honesty between practitioners of a spiritual
discipline

- removal of the trappings of social status, fashion, and other such
impurities during the practice of spiritual rites

- equality among participants in a practice or discipline (How much more might Thomas Jefferson have really sensed "all men created equal" if he had spent an hour a day nude in public with everyone else, including his slaves?)

- freedom

- bliss

- a degree of divestiture of everyday temporality

- reverie associated with nudity that inclines one to feel closer to Nature or closer to Self with a capital S

- communion with nature and with humanity in its natural condition,
unrestricted and unfettered by clothing

- protestation
 

There are examples in many texts (both sacred and secular) about spirituality that refer to nudity, but so far I don't see a cohesive doctrine that one could take home and put into practice, though I could formulate one of my own from the above.  I have decided not to bother trying to assemble a set of authoritative citations of the above elements of nudity in spiritual practice.  This is largely because there is such a dearth of anything authoritative on the subject from spiritual leaders or scholars, and of what is available, so much of it is arcane, cryptic, or mired in entanglements with other issues, making it hard to isolate any specific spiritual value or significance to the nudity itself as a single aspect or type of practice.

My reluctance to try to document citations is also because for every positive one, there seem to be as many negative ones, where religionists and ecclesiastic as well as secular authorities used nudity in punitive, sexist, embarrassing, or just plain criminal ways (by modern standards in our society).  So there's not much point in going point-for-point into the subject because it's so easy to come up with valid counterpoints.

It's not hard to see how so much of the current global culture has become staunchly anti-nudity.  Nudity has been horribly abused, and it is so relatively easy to do so.

Furthermore, most reasonable people stumbling across the list of values above can (and should) easily say that these are self-evident.  And they have been confirmed anecdotally by naturists from many walks of life, including those of widely varied religions, mainline and otherwise.

So I've concluded that I don't need anyone else's authority to conclude that the answers to my questions stated above are: Yes, and here's a tentative list, and it can be used to formulate a doctrine for practice, and it is highly recommendable!

Anyone who wants "authoritative" support for such a practice (i.e., can't settle for what is self-evident), should go search for it on their own, as I did, and, as always, if they are able and willing, find that the answer is in the process of the inquiry itself (which is tending to become a sort of cornerstone of my overall philosophy about anything).

I'll keep studying this issue as a hobby in the future, but after the scores of things I've read, I'm pretty well satisfied with the answer I've got so far (above).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dare to be free! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Deke
adkpenpal@hotmail.com