That Time I Lived In A Nudist Community With Aliens?!

I guess the truth is the title is not quite how it sounds, yes I lived in a “nudist community” but it was much more complex than simply just that. On my travels to the other end of the world, deep in the madness of Melbourne city, I started to grow tired of the hustle and bustle of city life.

In all honesty it was quite intense for me, as a country bumpkin from Devon, this was a far stretch for me. A completely opposite reality to what I was used to, but hey that’s a different story. I decided it was my time to move on, to find a new adventure to pursue. All I knew was that I wanted to be in nature, somewhere beautiful to reconnect to myself after 3 months of hardcore partying. I had recently joined this website called “HelpX” , (a place to find work in exchange for free accommodation and/or food.) I found quite a few tempting places and was offered many strange opportunities by all kinds of people. But there was one place that really stood out, a community of people of all ages living in the mountains of Murwillumbah, near the natural bridge. Surrounded by mountains full of crystallised earth and consumed by only greens lands, rivers and complete and utter beauty. I had contact back and forth with a man called Will, we got on really well and he told me of the beauty that the place consisted of, of the freedom and amazing lifestyle they were all living and he felt I would be a perfect addition to the tribe.

We spoke and exchanged stories for a couple weeks and I finally decided this was the place I was due to go. I had to book flights to Brisbane, which I was completely shitting myself about, the first time I had ever gotten on a flight on my own, bare in mind this was actually only the third time I had ever been abroad and I had taken myself as far away from England as possible! (I believe I had just turned 19 at this point of my travels).

I was very excited about this next step of the journey, although there were a few warning signs when I started receiving messages from Will about aliens and videos of alien interrogations and all of this mad wacky stuff! I was a bit freaked out at first but I thought I had nothing to lose so why the hell not go and check out this weird random community in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of people I have never met who seem to be very much interested in aliens, what could go wrong aye?

I had to get a plane and a few buses, I had no idea where I was going, I wasn't very good at map reading and directions and all that jazz at this point, it was all new to me. All I knew was that I had to turn up to this random little town in the middle of nowhere, which is where Will was due to pick me up. I was on the bus trying to get a signal to contact Will and my phone was literally about to die. The sun began to set and it quickly turned dark outside, the whole time I thinking to myself “ oh fuck, I’m literally turning up to this random place with no money, no phone and just hoping he will be there to pick me up, I don’t even know what he looks like?!”. Some would say this was stupid, I like to think of it as blindly trusting in the universe;)

Anyway, I got off the bus and sat on this bench, I remember feeling very anxious and worried but I also knew I was exactly where I needed to be. I waited for what felt like forever and started getting a little worried, after a while a car pulled up on the opposite side of the road. A man got out and I shouted “Hi are you Will?”, He looked at me really confused and responded “ no who are you”. Feeling puzzled and a little embarrassed I said sorry and started to walk away, he then shouted “ no no I’m joking, I’m Will, nice to meet you”. Okay this was slightly concerning, was he Will or some random pretending to be? It was time to wack out the questions and begin making sure he was who he said he was. All was well, being guided by my inner compass and ability to suss a person out, I could in fact almost swear this was almost certainly Will. I got in the car and we began driving to the community. He was a lovely man and very eccentric, he was around 70 but looked much younger.

I have to say, I was not the slightest surprised when he spent the next hour and half talking to me about aliens on the car journey back and all of the secret governmental organisations and plans. I was slightly worried, thinking to myself “What the fuck have you got yourself in to Merrie”, I humoured him as you know anything is possible and I’m definitely not closed minded to anything being a reality.

Anyway, to cut a long story short this was the beginning of the many crazy months to come. The community consisted of a number of houses spread over acres and acres of land, the most incredibly nostalgic place I had ever been. The people were amazing, all very quirky, passionate and very very open minded. Little did I know what was due to unfold. To be completely honest with you it was not a nudist community when I got there, but it was soon to evolve into one. After weeks of connecting with the residents, we all grew in understanding of ourselves and each other. We spent most of our time meditating, eating raw foods, dancing around, tripping on shrooms and giving each other group massages. It was pretty magical.

I think they were slightly taken back when I arrived, a proper party girl from the UK, who loved to drink, dance and socialise. Although I am and have always been very zen and chilled out, open minded and most would call me a “hippy”, I also enjoyed and still do enjoy indulging in the darker realms of life. I think this was hard for some of them to understand, how I could be so aware of myself and the world around me but absolutely love drinking and smoking?, it kind of baffled them and it took them a while to really see what I was all about.

So how did we transform this place into a free-flowing nudist community?

Well, one of the biggest factors being that, I love being nude, pretty much I would be nude all the time if I could, if it was socially acceptable to be. It was also absolutely fucking boiling there, reaching up to 45 degrees on some of the days. I remember mentioning to a couple of the young guys around my age, how important it was to embrace your nude bodies, to run around naked and free and to be comfortable in your natural form. I think at first they were skeptical thinking that I was some kind of sexual predator there to initiate them or some shit, but they didn't tell me this until later on in our relationships! I guess I had always been quite comfortable in my skin, and they obviously didn’t feel the same way. Nor had they met many younger women that had been.

I kept enforcing how important it was to connect to this part of themselves so eventually they listened, I can be very persistent when I believe something to be of importance. They began making the time to go down to the creek at the bottom of the valley, getting nude and running around the rocks and embracing the freedom that followed. It soon became a ritual, that was done very often. Till one day we were all gardening together naked and it became so so normal. It was an important stage of our growth, learning to embrace our nude bodies without sexualising one another and without feeling shame or guilt for simply being free.

This became our normal way of life for the 3 months that I was there, not that we spent every single moment of every day running around butt naked, but we could have if we wanted to. We had created such a safe space of understanding and acceptance that we all felt as if we could be our most raw and honest selves whenever we felt it necessary, and that we would always hold that space for one another to do so. We became like a big family who believed in changing the world for the better, a place filled with magic and love. Of creation and manifestation outside of time. I rarely used my phone whilst I was there, other than for music. I spent 3 months mediating in the sun, dancing, writing, creating and gardening. Oh and aliens remained the running background theme throughout it all. All thanks to Will.

You'll have to wait to find out more about “ That time I and everyone else was convinced I was getting abducted by aliens”. Trust me, it’s a good one!