Northern Calif: Once one leaves Middletown, CA, there are about 3 miles of beautiful, relatively untouched land, a kind of wonderland before the gate

Harbin ethnography:



... The clothing-optionalness, the hippie-clothing and the relaxed way of life there, all emerge significantly from the countercultural 1960s, I suggest here, in response to modernity, - particularly in alternative, regenerative and freedom-seeking ways that are rooted in Harbin as place.

“Once one leaves Middletown, California, there are about 3 miles of beautiful, relatively untouched land, a kind of wonderland (for me) before one comes to the Harbin gate, and a welcome transition to a place of ease. And the other land around here especially from the triangle intersection 2.3 miles to the Harbin gate, along the road, is also very beautiful.” (MacLeod, Harbin Field Notes 2007-2008, April 14, 2008). As a kind of landscape-based, moving, musical prelude to the 'world' of Harbin Hot Springs ahead, driving in on this beautiful road is a harbinger of the transition to a different place, a liminal, clothing-optional hot springs' retreat center, which is Heart Consciousness Church (HCC) in 2011.

As place, I sometimes anthropologically interpret Harbin as a kind of countercultural 'system,' or metaphorical, human, cultural 'ecosystem,' in its valley, in the context of a milieu that emerges out of the 1960s. ...













(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2011/02/northern-calif-once-one-leaves.html - February 11, 2011)