Kundalini and the Art of Being ... 4actually a fair amount of organization to the event. Although no one
is paid—since it is entirely free—hundreds of people, many of them
older hippie veterans, volunteer their time and energy long before
the gathering begins to prepare the site for the thousands of people
who will gather for the central week of festivities.
There is always a vast meadow that acts as the center of the gath-
ering, where circle is called and meals served. Food is prepared by
dozens of volunteer kitchens that spring up throughout the forest,
some of them a mile or more from main circle. Food supplies are ei-
ther donated or else paid for by money collected in the “magic hat,”
which is passed around the circle at each evening meal.
If a person should happen to miss breakfast or dinner or is hungry
in the middle of the day or any time of night, they can be sure of
finding something to eat, a cup of coffee or tea, cookies, popcorn
or tobacco at one of the many kitchens, down one of the narrow
trails leading into the woods—built from downed branches, twine
and plastic tarps by groups of grubby, scraggly, hairy, sweaty, smoky-
faced, smiling, arguing, laughing, ragged-clothed, dreadlocked, bead-
ed, necklaced, nose-ringed, tattooed, and half or completely naked
men and women, young and old; dogs and kids frolicking nearby,
folks playing drums, flutes, guitars and didgeridoos around crack-
ling fires, smoking marijuana and rolling tobacco, telling stories and
jokes, singing songs, hugging, giving massages, having philosophi-
cal discussions and arguments, sharing love, ideas and emotion of
all kinds. The kitchens have names like Everybody’s Kitchen, Turtle
Soup, Bliss, Popcorn Palace, Jah Love, Granola Funk, Om Chapati,
Aloha Camp, Pizza Pete’s, Sunshine Camp, Northwest Tribes, What-
ever Kitchen and Graceland Tea Mansion.
But the food is only one aspect of the gathering. Go farther down
that same trail, cross a stream, up a hill to another, smaller meadow,
and you’ll find a group of naked men and women standing quietly
around another fire, waiting for the coals to heat the rocks for a sweat
lodge ceremony. At the far end of main meadow is a silent teepee, set
aside for group meditation. There’s also Kid Village—devoted entirely