BASIC RAINBOW

In the evolution of humankind it has been the spirit of cooperation that has
enabled us to create the wonders of social harmony and technical achievement
that we most value. For the past twelve years - as of these writing - a
group of grownup children has propounded and created a unique event –-The
Rainbow Gatherings—dedicated to making visible the power of this cooperative
spirit.

These gatherings have occurred each year during the first week of July on
public lands. They are free and open to everyone. They have hosted up to
20,000 or more people. But most importantly they have demonstrated the
potential for humans to live together, work together, celebrate together
without the exploitation one of the other, without the hierarchical
domination of government and without the imposition of money as a means of
motivation our behavior. Perhaps these significantly point to the future.

Begun in the spring of 1970 - though "begun" is not quite the right word -
by the cojoined visions of a number of people who saw these gatherings as a
means of transforming the world toward a more peaceful, more ecologically
secure place. How little each of our small efforts seemed to be. How
invisible in the face of the machinery of war and exploitation. Yet what
might our efforts produce if in some way we could combine our energies - if
only for some short time - to make a living example of how things could be.

I say "begun" is not quite the right word because clearly, to us, humans had
been gathering as we envisioned since the dawn of our species. In historical
times this practice has largely been in the domain of religious movements;
the Buddha’s meetings at Raj Gris, Jesus’ assemblies at the Sea of Galilee,
The Native American Ghost or Sun Dances, and so forth. This suited our
tastes well; blasted by the skyrocketing politics of the 1960’s, seared in
the psychedelic furnaces and banged out in the eco-logical realization of
the fragility of our resources, we had arrived at the conclusion that a
spiritual understanding of ourselves as one human family was our best hope
for avoiding certain destruction.

At the tail end of the 1960’s the Peace Movement was badly torn by divisions
of violence and non-violence, by neo-maoists, neo-marxists, by CIA
infiltration and by powered peace movement bureaucrats. There was no room
for the creative consciousness that had sprouted to take ‘route’. There was
in fact a disassembly of the peace movement as we knew it; the back-to
the-land-ers went their own way; the food co-op people went theirs; the yoga
and eastern mystics followed their path; the worker collectives fended for
themselves; the rock-n’-rollers went to the festivals in the face of
mounting opposition from the nation’s anti-" Woodstock laws"; the
marxist-maoists theorized in progressively smaller circles and Nixon’s
advisors suggested the Kent State Massacre to stem the tide of collegiate
rebellion. It was a ripe time for something new.

When an arts festival in the Pacific Northwest brought together a number of
tribally-oriented groups it was only natural that we should discuss and
share our visions of What Was Happening and What Could We Do? The idea of a
Gathering - for all people - engaged our imaginations. It was an uplifting
experience. We planned and envisioned all at once.

The publicizing of the Gathering was to be -and still is- largely word of
mouth. We found as we talked with others that every so often someone would
light up -as though they themselves had independently seen, or desired this
event to be. These people spread the word. We saw ourselves not so much as
the innovators but as literally called upon to revive this form of human
congregation.

At first we referred to the Gathering as The World Family Gathering -
viewing this as a time when people of all different types and races, nations
and clans and so on who so desired could come together - for free - as one
family. Sometimes we thought the whole world would stop for a moment to
gather.

Our own little part of this World Family of Humankind we call the Rainbow
Family - because we felt a part of everyone, all the races and peoples of
the spectrum.

Months later when we regrouped at the Vortex I festival we got named The
Rainbow Family of Living Light. Mostly, I think, we saw that title as a
passing fancy, but the name stuck and by the time the 1st Gathering, the
Colorado Gathering, happened people were calling this the Rainbow Gathering
and we, we were all the Rainbow People.

For over two years we worked and talked our way to the Gathering. Our
politics were faith and elbow grease.We traveled across the country and
visited the co-op food stores, the yoga ashrams, the street scene, the peace
action groups. We posted notices in the cafes; printed "Howdy Folks"
newsletters; made announcements at rock festivals and on listener sponsored
radio and TV. We sang in parks, leafleted in slums and shopping malls,
printed and reprinted invitations and finally maps.

We met a lot of doubt.

Doubt both that such a thing could be done without great financial backing
or famous-name stars to attract attention and doubt that humans could get
together in a peaceful manner for free without crime, chaos and mayhem.

Initially we had agreed upon July 1-4, 1972 somewhere in Colorado as the
time and place to gather. Little did we expect such opposition as we got.

All along we maintained - and still do - an attitude of willingness to work
with local administrators. We went to Colorado, to the state capitol and
laid out this entire plan by they must’ve thought we were joking or crazy.
Months later when they realized it was really happening, rumors were howling
through their corridors, local right-wingers were up in arms and the news
and local officials panicked.

We had been drawn to a region near the headwaters of the Colorado River as
the right spot to gather at. The US Forest Service ordered every campground
within 50 miles "closed for repairs". The governor called up 4000 National
Guard troops for maneuvers. A friendly farmer and engineer gave us his wheat
field to park on -so we camped there. And then, after much counseling we
moved at dawn up to Strawberry Lake. Zam! The State police barricaded the
roads. For a week we played "cops ‘n hippies" with diversionary movements,
secret trails and supply lines. The blockaded camp grew and grew. The
Colorado Police arrested all hitchhikers. They stopped every
longhair-carrying vehicle for complete inspection. If your rig didn’t pass,
it was towed away. "Routine inspection for highway safety" we were told. You
had to walk or they busted you for loitering. If you didn’t have enough
money they busted you for vagrancy. The records will show over 700 people
were arrested - for doing nothing other than trying peacefully to get to the
Gathering.

Ultimately the parking area where people were arriving was filled to
overcrowding and the group counciled and decided to up and walk through the
barricades. Three to four thousand people strong we shouldered our packs and
began the 7 mile walk through town to the roadblock beyond.

In the meantime the gathering encampment had grown considerable. Close to
2000 people were already inside setting up the village community in the
woods where we were heading.

On the outside we had been negotiating continuously showing pictures of the
I-camp developments, explaining how we were peaceful, gentle people, and how
we planned to proceed, sustain and cleanup the operation.

The county hauled us to court where we maintained that all this was clearly
permitted under the US Constitution’s 1st amendment guarantee for peaceable
assembly and religious freedom. The judge ruled in favor of the count’s ban
on mass gatherings passed less than a week before. But while the judge
ruled, the column of backpackers rounded the bend at the barricade. Faced
with no other realistic choice the sheriff’s department let the swarms of
singing, praying, peaceful marchers pass on by.

The column continued for the next three days as people from around the world
walked past the barricade and on up the next six miles to the Gathering at
Strawberry Lake.

Over the years since, we have worked out a lot of our difficulties with
various vested authorities, but each gathering in its own way touches on the
realities of the people’s rights and the forces that would restrict us. One
year the public health department may be extremely helpful and friendly, the
next they may lead the opposition. One set of county agents may try to scare
us away, while in the next they welcome us. but each year as we express the
boundaries of freedom we encounter those forces that would compress those
boundaries around us.

Over the years we have developed a liaison team to help us work with
government officials, and teams who introduce ourselves to the local
population in the most friendly and open manner.

It is also true that these gatherings have been of great economic benefit to
whatever towns we have landed near. Each year so far we have been in a
different state so we have the opportunity to get to know the continent and
its people.

20 or 25,000 or more people came to Colorado and we were beginners in the
art of community design. What we lacked in experience we made up in faith.
Faith that we humans would figure it out. And from that came a tide of
creativity and cooperation.

We developed the community kitchens. We devised numerous prototypes for
waste disposal and sanitation. We engineered water-systems and supply
storage - all this was, after all, taking place in the cradle between
towering mountains from which the ordinary hodgepodge of conveniences was
far far away.

We had published in the spring before the Gathering a booklet called The
Rainbow Oracle which concerned itself with these plans in theory but
everyone knows that theorizing or describing and actually doing are often
worlds apart.

So it is in the doing of these things that one discovers the
non-hierarchical methods of working together - the exact methods that we
humans will need to know, use and teach in the future.

Within the framework of these gatherings what is it that focuses our
intentions together?

>From the beginning moments of this plan we saw a silence, -a space- at the
center of the Gathering where we could all come together to express our
thought, feelings, hopes, contemplation’s, meditations or prayers together
in silence - means acceptable to everyone- that we each can do as well and
no one better than each other- a form that preserves each one’s individual
point of view and at the same time unites us in action and stillness.

The silence allows for those who pray to pray each in their own way; and for
those who meditate to meditate each in their own way; and for those who
chose to contemplate to do so each one of us left to listen to the wind,
feel the earth turn beneath us and watch the clouds and sky together with
our brothers and sisters in the Cathedral of Nature.

How can I tell or write the insights, emotions, visions, feelings and
experiences that occur within this silent communion?

Not everyone comes to the silence. There isn’t any pressure to participate.
But most people come. Sometimes we do it right in the middle of the
gathering inside the tipi circle. Other years we choose a meadow or ridge
just outside the camp that we hike to.

Some years we have even left the gathering site to go to a particular place:
in 1972 to Table Mountain, CO, and in 1976 to the international boundary
between Montana, USA and Alberta, Canada as a gesture of international
goodwill. We did a hands across the border ceremony and met lots of
opposition - even though it was held in Waterton-Glacier International Peace
Park. There were threats and official threats. The immigration department
called in SWAT teams. We negotiated -as usual- and then went and did the
action. In the end the officials admitted they didn’t see what all the fuss
had been about.

After that we began gathering for a week -July 1-7- instead of just the
first four days of July. It was just too short a time: a couple of days to
set up, then the meditation on the Fourth of July and then home? There
wasn’t enough time to enjoy the camp, the people, the activities offered. So
we extended the event to its present 7 days and developed the workshop,
arts, council and pageant aspects of the gathering.

The design of the gathering community incorporates most of the aspects of
human society. Just because we are utopian naturalists doesn’t mean we don’t
get all of the problems of the human experience. We do.

We have the same problems as anybody else; as any other community; disease,
theft, aggression, craziness. But we do get to apply our own techniques of
healing, of teaching, of involvement and cooperation to solve these
situations.

The essential teachings are very simple.

Human hygiene in disposal of our own wastes, in cleanliness around food
preparation, in maintaining clear water supplies, and in preventing the
spread of disease are simple lessons that often we in the developed and
protected hi-tech nations have gotten out of touch with. The basic standards
of what humans need to keep-it-together-clean is made plain in the set up of
a gathering.

Innumerable eco-logical lessons are learned in the construction of kitchens,
washing facilities, water lines, and latrines. Provision of all of these is
a tremendous cooperative effort and for many of us it is the most creative
time working together to devise and design. There are sprout farms to be
planted and watered, water sources to be protected and transducted by pipe
to easy access taps, compost pits and trench privies to be dug and monitored
in each neighborhood, and information about how and why all this works to be
transmitted to each and every person who enters the scene.

For that we begin with a parking and Rap 107 crew whose job it is to welcome
you, help you park and deliver "Rap 107" - what we call the traditional
information about the encampment and health & sanitation data.

All this is very essential. Without it, and without careful following, the
result of thousands of people in a near-wilderness away from the instant
conveniences of hot water and porcelain sanitation can lead very quickly to
water contamination and hygienic breakdown.

The information involved in this mirrors the needs of every human community,
town and city. So in the set up and maintenance of these villages we get to
see and understand what the parameters of human needs are; so we can tell
what is really necessary from what is extra; and so that we can get the feel
for taking care of our needs independently, cooperatively without having to
depend on giant corporations and big government.

The experience of taking community responsibility has powerful repercussions
for each of our own personal growths. We encounter people with ideas
different from our own and we have to work out solutions.

Time is short and before long this valley will be filled with people
exploring and testing everything.

Booths are constructed for information and Rumor Control, maps made of the
camp, a news sheet published, and workshop bulletin boards erected for
posting of workshop and class descriptions, whereabouts and times.

This last part encompasses a broad spectrum of educational opportunities, as
well as allowing for the cross pollination of ideas that characterized the
techno-poetical schools of the future.

Several hundred workshops and classes are offered each gathering, Solar
energy, midwifery, health and diet, yoga, massage, herb walks, nature
studies, handicrafts, woodcarving, weaving are all popular.

Alliance meetings take place with people from social change causes such as
an end to capital punishment, blindness relief, Amnesty International,
Oxfam, Greenpeace, and Citizens against Toxic Sprays. No Nukes groups, peace
action coalitions, anarchist and justice groups representing causes from
around the world meet to share information, recruit volunteers and
co-inspire each other.

This is one of the Rainbow Gathering’s most important aspects because it
strengthens the ties among many of the hands that work in the peace or
healing movements year round without being exposed much to what the other
hands are doing. It also introduces many of the younger rainbows to the
multi-faced problems of the world and to some of the organizations and
people who are busy making solutions.

These facilities, these shelters, waterlines, tools and meals –where do they
come from? Much is packed in by the participants to contribute to the whole.
And the rest?

In the old days there was a marvelous wizard with a cone-shaped hat from
which would be pulled stars,galaxies, food, clothing, shelter and energy!

We too use the Magic Hat: hats are passed at dinner times, or at councils
and are placed at strategic locations - or carried by musically accompanied
hat passers through the camp for contributions and wishes.

The donations are counted by the banking council and open books are kept in
open meeting. The result is apportioned according to our needs. No body goes
hungry.. as if by magic…

C.A.L.M. is our Center for Alternative Living Medicine. Staffed by
rainbow-faced doctors, nurses and healers the idea is to provide, for free,
health care both for immediate problems and long-range health planning.

This includes a M.A.S.H. emergency and evacuation unit, an herbal
apothecary, a women’s center and massage area.

Therapies include acupuncture, acupressure, chiropractic, herbal,
nutritional, allopathic and meditative techniques. The aim is to make
available these various solutions and advise the patient on what method or
methods are most appropriate in each instance. Many people have never
encountered an opportunity to make use or natural or alternative healing
arts so we present these alongside - and in harmony or balance with - the
standard medical approach.

Classes and workshops teach and demonstrate all of the above - and more;
first aid, plant identification, iridology, conscious healing, foot and body
massage, polarity balancing and so on. For a complete list, come to one of
the gatherings and visit your C.A.L.M.

Our Council is our public forum and decision-making body. Everyone who
attends belongs to it. One person speaks at a time. Everyone gets a chance
to be heard. The council meets almost every day of the gathering as well as
during set up and cleanup. But its function is not merely decision-making.
It is a forum for ideas, a place for poets, a platform for political
proposals, and a megaphone for announcements. Some people just want to blow
kisses, others have a particular message of importance.

The council can decide to stay focused on one issue and select a person to
help keep that focus. Often a feather is passed from hand to hand to speaker
to speaker.

Some agenda items are decided by consensus: That is when the resolve is
clearly stated and in the silence that follows no one raises an objecting
voice.

Other times it is not so easy. We do use shows of hands to get an idea of
how the group feels generally, but we avoid the voting process because it
leads to endless campaigning and a tyranny of the majority rule.

Often the council will be of two minds about an issue; that’s OK too. We
have to learn to live with our difference. And often it’s better if two
solutions are approached rather than one idea followed and the other
abandoned.

The council process is rich with alternative. That’s what we like about it.
Sometimes we break into small groups to talk things out among different
divisions before re-grouping into one large council. The council circle
doesn’t limit us to one repeated pattern for making decisions. In some cases
consensus may be the only acceptable route. In others a straw poll may make
the matter clear; in other cases we must all listen carefully and then
individually decide what course of action to take. Often only the discussion
happens at council and the decisioning happens in each one’s camps during
later meetings.

The council (formally the Rainbow Family Tribal Council) has entered into
agreements with local, county and federal agencies as well as private
parties.

The supply depot, CALM, Kid Village, Networkers and other parts of the
gathering all have their own smaller councils that operate on the same basis
and which are connected and responsible to the main gathering council.

Tribal groups from every part of the world have used council methods similar
to these. We feel this is an advanced and subtle process that puts the
benefit of everyone at its heart, that recognized the innate intelligence of
the human character, that keeps poetry music and lightness in the midst of
our debate and that awakens us to the experience of direct personal
participation in the process of our association.

It is so sweet, so tasty this process -even when it is bogged down it is
full of compassion and commitment. We have kept with this council for over a
dozen years and found it to be an effective means of self-organization-and
found it to be an effective aid in the prevention of political decay.

Some people see us as directly associated with the American Indians, and the
Indigenous Culture. Clearly in some ways we are. The indigenous people are
the ancestors of the human culture on this continent and we have learned a
lot from them.

The tipi is a prime example; although it is difficult to backpack while
trail camping, when setting up an encampment or gathering that will last
weeks or seasonally, it is a superior structure. The tipi incorporates
sophisticated design that allows for air currents and comport in either hot
or rainy weather. The smoke flaps let one build a fire in almost any wind
conditions. Tipi life orients people to the rhythms of the earth and the
circular patterns of nature. We set our tipi in a circle in a meadow to
center our camp.

We have learned a lot, too from the many Native American elders and
spiritual teachers who have come to speak at our councils and shared their
insight and wisdom. Native crafts are practiced and produced. Also, the
sweats are a big part of gathering life. These are the indigenous version of
the sauna and in a remote encampment, far from porcelain tubs and showers it
is essential to have a method of cleansing -just dipping in the river won’t
do it- and we have got to keep soap out of the streams. But the sweat lodges
are more than just indigenous plumbing. There is a communion and deep
cleansing that occurs in the hutches where the herbs and water are sprinkled
on the red hot rocks. Songs are sung, meditations offered and long lasting
friendships born.

While tipi life and traditional ways are evidenced everywhere so are the
hi-tech wonders of the future. Windmills charge 12-volt communications
systems. Solar hot water units hang from trees and silicon-generated
electricity lights the CALM center at night. There is balance between past
and future techniques. The idea of course is to be open enough and
discerning enough to choose the best of each.

Indeed, the gatherings present in practical example many of the choices of
the communitarian back-to-the-land life: homemade clothes, redesigned
vehicles, horses for transport, goats for mild, extensive sprout farms,
composting, geodesic structures, and recycling of materials and wastes. All
of which indicate a personalized and harmonized relationship between the
individual and the natural patterns around us.

Each neighborhood at the gathering has its own kitchen which often doubles
as a focus for music, song and dance. In the evenings and long into the
nights , poets, storytellers and puppeteers perform among guitars, banjos,
dulcimers, flutes, conga, drums. Sometimes sweet notes of jazz saxophone
slide through the forest, other times tribal chants and dancing shake the
ground.

As a result of this plus the many pageants, ceremonials, and celebrations
that occur we get a reputation as a nation of partyers. Especially because
this shows some of our most colorful photogenic effects, it is this
celebrative atmosphere that has attracted the most film, photo and video
coverage.

While it is true that many people attend the gathering for the "party", we
do distinguish between "the party" and "the process". Because "the party" is
like the icing where the real cake of the matter is "the process" of human
cooperation that keeps the whole thing together. And the process of coming
from the party into responsible participation in the event is something the
gathering does to almost everyone who attends.

This learning that we can hold responsibility collectively without
authoritarianism with benefit and success is one of the roots of the future
growth of our species.

The taste of Freedom gives the human palate an appetite for more.

We have held the ground on the question of the people’s use of public lands;
the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to express our religious
beliefs. It is on this issue that we have focused our attention. A Freedom
is of little value if it is written on paper only. When we exercise our
natural rights then we gain the benefits that those Freedoms contain.

In gathering freely on public lands and doing the devotions both of service
and celebration that we do, we help keep the door to public lands open for
other groups and individuals. How nice it would be if all people, people in
many of the countries where there isn’t the emphasis on individual freedoms
we have here, people in places where gathering together is considered a
criminal act, people in places where the government owns 90% of the land and
the people have no rights to it - - how nice it would be for these
gatherings to spread irrepressibly and open up these doors everywhere.

Each year at the gathering the council decides in what region the next
year’s gathering will be. The process of landing in that area early,
scouting for sites, meeting the local people and officials, setting up,
maintaining and cleaning up the gathering down to the last bit of recycling
and finale of cars leaving the parking lot, we call, "The Ride". Going for
the whole ride is an immensely enlightening and rewarding experience. I
recommend it highly for anyone who wants to know how the world really works.

The gatherings are like a little piece of the whole world. They’re open and
public enough so we get a little bit of everyone and everything; good and
bad. The only difference is that unrestricted by many of the world’s dogmas
we get a chance to try out new solutions and new ways of relating.

Shanti Sena means Peace Center and it is the name we give to the brother and
sisterhood which attends to the security of the camp.

Preparation for this includes training in non-violence techniques,
persuasion, peer group pressure and the art of drawing an alienated person
into the reality of human kindness. In the ideal situation when an incident
arises it is taken care of by the people who are right there present, but
the Shanti Sena maintains camps and roving teams whose mission is to help
out with whatever difficulties folds may find themselves in. Often these
teams double up with the fire-watch crews on regular tours of the camp.

Non-violence is a strong and powerful force when practiced as the creative
tactic that it is. Shanti Sena holds meetings to orient people to the nature
of these practices. Communication is the key. Although we are not beyond
restraining someone who is violently aggressive, peer group attention with
understanding and love is enough to settle most disputes.

Honey bees, when one member of the hive flips out have been known to form a
cluster ball around that one and hum until the crazed bee cools out.

"Cooperation’s" is an area of the encampment set up for people or groups who
need help with something or "a little more co-operation". Often disputes
between camps or neighborhoods are worked out here. "Co-op" also serves as a
volunteer center for newcomers who want to plug into the processes, and as a
planning center for complex supply runs, pageants, and networking.

Another cornerstone of the entire operation is Kid Village. Kitchens with
extra healthy snacks, activities for kids of all ages, adventures that
teach, arts and crafts, hiking, swimming, rafting, and tree-houses are all
part of the plan.

Child care happens here on a cooperative basis. There are areas for nursing
moms and infants. Clowns, mimes, and magicians entertain regularly but the
essence of Kid Village has to do with teaching the values and virtues of the
sharing and caring life.

All of these things happen because people like ourselves bring it together -
not just the willpower and labor but the tents and tipis, the stainless
steel kitchen gear, the clown makeup, the puppets, the tools. Each person
who understands this process bring all they can both practical and
pleasurable to make this happen the way it does.

The volunteer and participatory nature of a Rainbow Gathering cannot be over
emphasized -as one mirror said to another, "It’s all done with people".

These forces of positivity provide on a visible scale a living example of (I
take this quote direct from our first "howdy folks"), "the true truth that
humanity is not so fouled up".

Further, the lessons learned from these experiences can be extracted and put
to use everywhere.

The gatherings brings together so many different kinds of people -this is
one of its riches; that different races, economic brackets, educationally
and culturally diverse people get to meet each other up close and discover
our common good.

Each neighborhood and kitchen has its different character. The Krishna’s
come and set up Krana’s Prasadam feasts complete with chanting, well-fed
smiles and Vedic lectures and plays. Madam Frog caters to pilgrims of all
faiths with exotic teas and entertainment. The sprout gardens provide raw
foods, salads and juices. We have learned that respect for each other’s diet
is essential to our peace. Mostly we are oriented toward whole foods,
healthy foods but you will find a little of everything.

At the traders’ circle arts and crafts are displayed alongside shells,
stones, feathers and other natural items. "Jibber Jabber", that is, uniquely
fashioned or unusual goods take prime place alongside woven blankets,
ceramics, and jewelry. This lively exchange is open every day except the
Fourth of July when it shuts down during the silent meditation.

The extension of this event through regional gatherings is an important
outgrowth of the plan; in the year prior to this writing there have been
regional Rainbow Gatherings in New Mexico, Michigan, Colorado, Maryland,
Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Arizona and Mexico as well as urban picnics or
potlucks in New York, Boulder Colorado and Washington DC.

Although these are much smaller they keep folks in touch over the winter
season, they bring new people in on a local level, and they teach the arts
of community and logistics to a widening circle of brothers and sisters. We
have heard of the desire to hold rainbow-type gathering in Europe, South
America and the Orient. The more the merrier; from the first moment we have
wanted to gather with everyone - - and we still do.

On the rough side we have been shot at (outside the camp) in three different
instances over a dozen year period. And we have had traffic accidents - -
the roads to these affairs go way up into the mountains, so please drive
carefully. We have had several endangerment’s and two deaths by people who
hiked out of camp and fell from steep cliffs. The natural world is full of
elemental dangers. We choose sites that are safe for gathering but the vast
wildernesses that we adjoin contain all the wild hazards of raw terrain.

We are natural beings experiencing our own true nature.

But what distinguishes these particular gatherings from the many "new age"
type gatherings and healing arts fairs that are now occurring? Of course all
of these events are of precious value but there are certain distinguishing
factors it is important to understand.

1. The event is free and non-commercial: Not even one cent is charged to
attend. Food, medical services, parking, entertainment, workshops and
classed are all given through donated time and energy

2. The events are open to everyone without discrimination on account of
race, age, religion, economics, politics or sex.

3. The event is held on public lands. When this is done there is a relation
of strength and love between the earth and the people on it. It upholds
fundamental political realities concerning people and space, and concerning
governmental authority and inalienable human rights. When we gather on
private lands we run the all-too-often-fulfilled risk of human
possessiveness and we create separate classes: property holders and
gatherers. This is not in anyone’s best interest.

4. Somewhere in the event there is an opportunity for everyone to come
together to put our minds and hearts toward peace as one people and as one
family. This should be done in the most all-inclusive way so no one feels
uninvited and so that the emanation of this focus can be as clean and clear
as possible.

Lots of amazing things happen at these gatherings. Just the stories would
fill books in themselves.

One year we saw a great White Buffalo appear in snow on the side of a
mountain.

We have seen rainbows on the Fourths of July.

In New Mexico we floated 15,000 organic grapefruits 2 miles down the Gila
River to get them into camp.

In Oregon we had our first Kid’s Parade - -a dazzle razzle we still use to
culminate the silence on the Fourth of July.

In Arkansas the sheriff rode in and arrested 5 people for swimming in the
nude. About half the gathering moved to the steps of the county courthouse.
The judge sent everyone (the five included) out of town and the sheriff was
so ridiculed in the State press that in November he lost his first election
in 24 years.

When in rained forever in Idaho, we finally figured to take off our boots
and dance in our "mud socks" till the sun came out.

In Arizona a giant rainbow hot air balloon floated over the tipi circle
giving kids and astronauts a birds-eye view of the site.

At the end of the gathering on the 7th of July we move right away into
cleanup so we can utilize the massive energies present to disappear our
effects and revitalize the spot. Overall we call the cleanup processes that
we use, "Naturalization".

To begin with we recycle all our garbage during the gathering based on a
color-coded seven part separation: Red is metal & aluminum; Orange is glass;
Yellow is burnables; Green is compost; Blue is plastic; Indigo is lost and
found; and Violet is free and giveaways. Color-coded source separation is
the key to future urban recycling.

The camp draws itself in, dismantling the outer reaches first and then
pulling back to the welcome center, then the parking lot and finally out and
gone. The idea is to disappear completely as much of our impact as possible.

Campfires are dismantled, rocks widely scattered, ashes scattered or buried.
Latrines and compost pits are filled in. Every tiniest bit of paper,
cellophane or litter is picked up. Shelters, posts, booths, are all taken
apart and laid down and no signs left.

Then we begin to revitalize the high use areas; hardened ground is spaded
over or aerated with shovels, picks and hoes.

The many trails that connect the entire village are vanished; hoed for
aeration of the soil, raked over, blocked with branches and boulders, and
strewn with pine needles, leaves and duff. Water bars are built along all
the steep laces to prevent gullying.

Often we pack decades worth of old scrap out of the forest. Stuff that has
been discarded there over generations!

Where there is need, perhaps along a stream bank we prepare special
reinforcement with matted brush to prevent erosion.

Flat or open spaces are raked over to vanish every possible trace. Then we
naturalize each area by scattering leaves and loose brush for ground cover.
Rocks and twigs and logs are randomly strewn about to provide habitat for
the small forest creatures and lastly, when we humans are all but out of the
site we broadcast specially selected seed that is native to the area’s
climate and altitude.

This process is vital to the idea of the gatherings. By returning the site
to nature’s own processes in as revitalized a state as possible we leave no
residual problems for ourselves or the other inhabitants of the forest.

Only memories and the lushness of nature remain.

The gatherings belong to everyone not to any one person or group of people.
But it is each single individual’s effort and contribution that makes the
gatherings happen in the way they do. In life each single person is a
special and sacred part of the whole human family. The value of each one’s
being and doing is a lesson humanity still has to learn. The end of wars,
the cooperation of our species, the benefits of good health and a sound
environment, the nourishment of the hungry and the cessation of economic
exploitation are the real goals of the rainbow --- the pot of gold at the
trail’s end.

>From there we can concentrate on the pleasures of this beautiful earth and
on the thrilling exploration of the stars beyond.

All of the impasses to be overcome - violence, economic oppression,
ideological or religious conflicts - are the Cro Magnon leftovers of an
immature race. The pace of evolution is sure-footedly going to circumvent
these obstacles and get on with the marvelous creation of growing and living
in harmony.

Indeed there are enough of the goods and goodies - and the means to
distribute - for us all to live like princes and queens.

In prayer or contemplation there is a place within where we Can contact the
Life-force that is commonly shared by all of us. It is from this place that
the rainbow light shines forth illuminating the way.

Will the humans be able to cooperate? And enjoy life? And be at peace?

The gathering shows that it can be done.