The_Jester

I apologize if this doesn't exactly fit the subforum it's in but it was a really spiritual experience for me! I know there isn't much to discuss, but if anyone has any questions about other things I left out(cuz I left a lot out) then please feel free to ask or whatever.
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I had heard about the rainbow gathering online and from a few people. I was told, no money involved, bring what you need, and bring some things to trade. I was told everyone there is there to get together and hang out. I was told everyone is your brother, or your sister and they all look out for each other. I knew it was a hippy thing so I guessed some things, but decided to just go knowing only that.

So me and my buddy Bryan, headed out on the first of July. We had bad directions but we had a GPS and we figured we'd find it somehow. So we got lost in the middle of nowhere, Pennsylvania, but we knew we were somewhat near the right place because of the GPS. So we drove through a small town and BOOM. We see some kids wearing tye-dyes and stuff hanging outside of a small store of sorts.

We pull up next to them ask them where they were from, how they were, etc. Waited maybe half an hour with them and just kind of rested from the drive. We ended up following another car to the gathering.

So we pull in and parking was a mess. Cops patrolling one lane hilly dirt roads etc. No one stopped or bothered us but we did sadly see someone's car COMPLETELY torn apart being searched. Kind of sent chills considering we brought some things we probably shouldn't have. We kept it as cool as possible with blood red eyes.

I helped an older fellow, a real nice guy, get up this hill because he was on foot, and I was driving. He ended up showing us a nice parking spot. We knew there was no money involved so we just left it in the car. Said good-bye to the older guy, grabbed our gear and hobbled around trying to find the main camp, or someone to tell us were to go.

On the way there we tried helping a brother who was stuck off-road. Couldn't help but hey we tried. Everyone we passed was saying "Welcome Home", "I Love You", or "Hello, how are you?" etc. Everyone was so nice!

So we make our way down this big hill really a long walk, but it added to the journey and we knew it would. Along the way we saw physically handicapped brothers and sisters who were just so happy to be there, being helped by other's.

We set down our stuff by a tree not even thinking about getting robbed or anything, didn't even need to set my guard up. We went and found a nice spot to camp JUST before night-fall. While we were setting up camp my friend "Bryan" was getting upset because we were struggling to get things going, until a really tall fellow named Bob came out of his tent and helped us set up camp. People there are so nice!

I'll spare some details, but Bob was a really awesome guy we met from Minnesota really just living life and exploring. Interested in religion, philosophy, Native American ideas and symbols. He was pretty much called to be there by so many synchronicities in his life. He had a kind soul and we hung out with him for most the time we were there.

Ended up bumping into the group of kids we met at the store and talked for a brief while, wished them well and off they went. Once I got to the main circle we walked around a bit near the fires watching people juggle fire/poi. Amazingly talented, and everyone was applauded. People brought drums, violins, guitars, basses, sing, and played all over!

I had never seen such a large group of people looking out for each other and taking care of each other. Whenever someone asked me for a cigarette or anything I had I WANTED to give to them. I was overtaken by giving. I just knew that I had been that person before. It was late though and Bryan and I got separated. Me without a flashlight, Bryan with one, so I figured he was fine. I was asking people who I passed along the way where I was. I ended up following a local couple who were also lost, through a swamp to the information center. Really nice people, the girls name was Lacey but I forget the guy's name.

They lead me to the information center where two sisters wished me blessings that I would find my way back to camp, and I said good bye to Lacey and her companion. At main-circle I asked someone holding a hookah if they knew roughly were my camp-site was, and another brother came up and said he would help me find my way once the girl he was with came out of their tent. He lead me to were I needed to go where I thanked him and handed him a couple cigarettes for helping me.

I made my way back to camp but we forgot to bring my blanket and it was cold. Bob let me borrow one of his blankets which was really kind and I slept really well. We woke up and went to the car to get the things we had forgotten. It was a long hike but it was really enjoyable and I was well rested thanks to Bob.

I was essentially fasting the whole time, only eating what I needed to keep moving(an m&mor a little granola every 4 hours). A really cool girl walked by us when Bryan was eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and asked if she could have one and of course we set everything out for her. I stopped for a second.

I couldn't think of a time I had ever fed someone I had never met. It was a humbling experience even though it probably sounds trivial. I know what it's like to be hungry. I remember thinking what if in a moment of being hungry, I could have just walked up to someone and asked for something to eat and had known they would LOVE to feed me? I was that love, in that moment. She told us were she was from, which eludes me now, but we carried on for a while about pets and stories. She gave us both a hug and we wished her well and sent her back on her way as she went to compost some garbage for the gathering.

We made our way around back to the main circle. We sat down outside of it. I was sitting lotus with my hands down while people were sharing things at the circle and drums were going from outside. People were dancing, practicing martial arts, praying, meditating, etc. I closed my eyes and focused on my breath. The drums got louder and louder. I popped out of my head, I was an external observer of not only my self but of the whole meadow. With the sounds, the dancers, with everyone and everything. I opened my eyes and dropped my posture, and realized I had been smiling almost the whole time I was there.

All walks of life were present there. Young, old, well off, poor, clothed, unclothed, dirty, clean, yellow, black, brown, white, costumed, in normal clothes, punks, hippies, artists, singers, dancers, writers, thinkers, talkers, hikers, etc the list is endless. The most important thing was in my opinion, was that we all loved, respected and cared for each other as if we were each other.

It hit me. Everyone on this planet is my brother and/or my sister, I felt home. I truly understand why they said "Welcome Home". I was supposed to be there, right then, it was right, and everything else, was just not present. I was home. In the middle of nowhere, somewhere I had never been. Surrounded by a family that consciously knew it had taken me in with open arms.

People telling each other they were beautiful, or that they loved them or just a hello when passing by. Mutual respect, community, and harmony, through seeming chaos. Even though the police or as some call "LEO's" or "6Up's" were trying to be off to the side, uninvolved, they were talked to by many and were kind even to a seemingly large gathering of non-law-abiding citizens. "Am I in another world?", I kept asking myself.

All of those California license plates in Pennsylvania, all the people I had met that had been there for weeks and were staying weeks longer, it all made sense. It was a utopia. I felt so grateful for all the on the road kids and adults who follow the gatherings and the family. I had been telling strangers I Loved them and I meant it the whole time.

We ended up walking into the woods on a whim even though it was Pizza Night. Which meant pizza was at one of the camp-sight kitchens "Lovin' Oven". Until we stumbled our way to a distant camp-sight(granola-funk) where there was a huge stage being lit by the crowds flash-lights, being amplified only by human voice. No cell-phones, no distractions, no ulterior reasons to be there, no cost. There I watched a dating show, that was truly hilarious, un-staged, and adorable beyond words really. There was no question in my mind that these couples actually did go off and have a date after the show.

Off we went back into the woods were we ran into Bob again. We headed back to camp where Bryan passed out and Bob and I talked for a long time about everything we could. When we woke up the next morning my friend really wanted to leave and I didn't want to keep him there seeing as how I drove.

On the way out people were sad to see us leave. I was sad to leave as well. Bob bumped into us luckily on the trail and we exchanged e-mails and phone numbers, he is a good friend and I hope to see him again sometime. In fact it hasn't left my mind that I missed main prayer on the 4th. I am glad I didn't take any pictures simply because I will have to go to the next one to do that.

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In LOVING kindness,

The forum fool.

Mafoo

i love that. its kind of a shame that its so surprising when people are kind, i wish it was more common place.

good story, i actually got goosebumps reading it

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PLUR
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return

Jenna_Grows

Sounds like you had a great experience. Thanks for sharing it.

my_scatterheart

<3

__________________
Be mindful even if your mind is full. -J. De La Vega

Pharm Girl

There's a Rainbow Gathering in Vermont this month......and an Elders Meeting at the end of July at Hope Mountain.....

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.....The Time has Come to 'Walk the Talk'.....~

......A message for ALL from the Deer Tribe...~

It is a great journey —
but you must do the walking
and have the willingness to change
and make the leap into
the next level of human evolution.

Become an inquisitive free thinking
individual that takes
responsibility for your life
and the spiritual accountability to live life to the fullest.

Fuck the Monkeys

The Rev

I gotta check this out.

Thanks, Jester.



The Rev

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Prophet Saddam

hijabihippie

Proof of the existence of Allah, in my opinion.

Thanks.

my_scatterheart

Or kindness in people.
Why does everything good have to be the presence of a God?
Why can't we just let ourselves possess the good? Do we really hate ourselves that much, that even the smallest of human victories can't just be our own successes? Drives me nuts.

__________________
Be mindful even if your mind is full. -J. De La Vega

K10

Amen

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Just because you tie dye your wool, doesn't mean
you're not a sheep.
R.I.P. Alice D.

hijabihippie

1. "Thou art God!"
--Robert Heinlein, Stranger In A Strange Land

2. The great scientist Sir Isaac Newton had a friend who did not believe in God. He was always asserting that the creation of the world and the activities in it do not imply any god. Once Newton was sitting by the side of a marvelous model of the solar system, absorbed in the thoughts of planetary motion. At that time his friend entered and started gazing at the model with great curiosity. After sometime he asked Newton:

"Isaac, who made this?"

Without even lifting his head, Newton replied: "Nobody".

"Isaac, I am asking about this wonderful model. Who made this?"

"I told you no one."

The friend was peeved. Raising his voice, he asked, "Are you kidding me? This is working so wonderfully and when I ask you who made it you say 'No one'. What do you mean?"

"My dear friend, if no one is necessary to create the solar system, do you mean to say that someone is necessary to make a trivial model of it?"

--source unknown

The_Jester

@Pharm_Girl - I might try to go to the Vermont regional depending on how my funds are looking for gas and tolls etc. I have to go to my two friends wedding reception thing next week(need a gift yikes! hope they don't mind cash). We shall see. This time I am going alone though so my friend or anyone else doesn't drag me down from getting the full experience.

If anyone is going next year to the annual gathering we should have a yahooka pow-wow(or at least say hi and chit-chat)!

Thanks everyone for reading my poorly written story which didn't include EVERYTHING but it should give you an idea of what these things are like. Oh yes and everything documented in that was sober, no hallucinating or anything(cept a couple drags of the herbs of course).

__________________
In LOVING kindness,

The forum fool.

Pharm Girl

The invites are on a web site....

__________________

.....The Time has Come to 'Walk the Talk'.....~

......A message for ALL from the Deer Tribe...~

It is a great journey —
but you must do the walking
and have the willingness to change
and make the leap into
the next level of human evolution.

Become an inquisitive free thinking
individual that takes
responsibility for your life
and the spiritual accountability to live life to the fullest.

Fuck the Monkeys

my_scatterheart

Answering in quotes is always fun.

__________________
Be mindful even if your mind is full. -J. De La Vega

420smokeman

lol that was funny

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cause there aint nothing else to do and any where i go i know im you and i keep coming back forward through to myself