Bare Facts
Copyright 2000 Lake Edun Foundation, Inc.
Official Publication of the Lake Edun Foundation, Inc.
April 1, 2001

Box 1982; Topeka, KS 66601 Voice Mail: 785-478-BARN e-mail: benude@lakeedun.com Website: www.lakeedun.com

This Party's Not Too Taxing

by Mary Lou Schulenberg

Gordon and I will be hosting an early party this month at our special place.

We will enjoy an IRS Tax Relief Day on Saturday April 14. It will include a potluck dinner, so please bring a dish to share with others. On Sunday, April 15th we will have an Easter Egg Hunt for the children, both young and old.

We are approaching the weekend with optimism. We hope to camp out. But, just in case, we will have a sauna on Saturday night and also the season's first Friendship fire.

Join us to help make this early event really great. We hope to see everybody there. The lake is beautiful this time of year, so let us all enjoy this early spring season.

Plan Now For Our Open Houses

As a result of strong demand and excellent past results, the Board has scheduled two open houses this year. Plan now so you can take best advantage of these opportunities to introduce your friends and associates to the advantages Naturism offers. Remember, you receive a 25% discount on your renewal for every person you introduce to naturism that eventually joins the Lake Edun Foundation.

Here are some things you can do. Begin talking with your friends and associates. You never know which ones will be interested in investigating Naturism. Sometimes the people we believe are least likely to want to join are the most anxious. By starting early talking about Naturism, you give them an opportunity to mentally adjust to the idea of joining you. Remember, for most, this is a very big step.

If you are reluctant to ask a friend or associate yourself, we will be developing a list of likely prospects. We will mail a nice, personal invitation to them. We will not identify you as the person who suggested we contact them, but if they join, you will receive the credit. Just mail or email their name and address to us along with a short reason why you believe they would be interested in LEF, if you wish, and we will take it from there.

It's easy! Help us make this year's open houses even more successful than last year.

Scholarship Available

The American Nudist Research Library (ANRL) announced it has introduced a $1000 college scholarship available to any student who graduated from highschool between 1999 and this year. The parents of the applicant must have been a member of a recognized nudist club, or national or international nudist/naturist organization for the three years preceding their student's application.

Any Eduners interested in additional information and the application form should contact us. The deadline for making application is May 30.

Return To Edun Plans

By Eldon Lowther

Plans for this Return to Edun this year are well underway. By popular demand, we will enjoy Keroke Friday night. Sally & Deborah are working on some exciting games and activities for Saturday. With our long and positive history, it is easy to attract excellent bands for Saturday's entertainment. This is coming along very well.

Once again, we will have venders displaying their products. Anyone wishing to be a vender should contact LEF by phone or Email to reserve a space as soon as possible.

Ticket prices are steeply discounted for members who order early. Use the order form to reserve your place under the Return to Edun/9 sun before May 1.

Get Return to Edun/9 Tickets Early

Barry is making good progress on Return to Edun/9.

At its March meeting, the Board set prices for advance tickets to RtE/9 at $75 for a single and $90 per couple. This year, the ticket price includes free parking and freecamping. In addition, there is a $10 discount if you order your tickets before May 1, and a $5 discount to those who order before June 15. As is always the case, LEF members receive their tickets for half price if their membership expires after August 5. Ticket price at the gate will be the same for everyone: $80/single and $100/couple.

Use the form included with this issue of Bare Facts to place your order for tickets to RtE/9 and save big bucks.

DON'T FORGET

April 1; Sun; 7-9; Sauna

April 7; Sat; 10-12; Board of Directors meeting

April 7; Sat; 1-5; Work Day

April 7; Sat 6-8; Sauna

April 8; Sun; 11:30-2 pm; HN Bowling in Independence

April 14; Sat; Tax Party

April 15; Sun; Easter Egg Hunt

April 20; Fri; 8-10; HN Swim in KC

April 28; Sat; 7-9; Sauna

May 4; Fri; 6-midnite; Main area closed for private party

May 4; Fri; 8-10; Sauna

May 18; Fri; 8-10; HN Swim in KC

May 25; Sat; LEF camping equipment swap meet.

May 26; Sun; 60's Tie Dye Party

June 2-3; Coleman Hawkins Jazz-Fest in Topeka

June 9; Sat; 12-3; Open House

June 16; Sat; Renew Wedding Vows

July 7; Lake Edun Reunion

July 9-15; Nude Recreation Week

July 14; Sat; 12-3; Open House

August 3-5; Return to Edun

August 18; Sat; Kansas Invitational

Sept 2; Sun; Luau Party.

A Few Lines From The Prez:

by Eldon Rice

LEFoundation@kscable.com

Members and Guests of Lake Edun Beware:

At the end of last month, I had a spot on my back removed. It turned out to be a malignant melanoma. I picked a perfect time in my life to become a naturist. I found the lifestyle that fits both my wife, and myself and I get skin cancer.

If any of you see anything on your body that was not there a few months ago, get yourself to the doctor. The tests are not all in yet but we are very confident that we caught it in time. I just want everyone at Lake Edun to beware and use lots of sun screen when you are there this summer. This is nothing to mess with. It can be deadly. The sun rays are so strong that they can penetrate the water to a depth of one foot. Even on a cloudy day you can burn. Please use sun screen, wear a hat, and sunglasses. Let's all stay healthy and enjoy our time at the lake.

See you all soon.

Earn A Discount On Your Membership

By Dee Merrifield

At our annual meeting, our membership expressed strong support for a plan that would offer a discount to members willing to assist with our educational mission. As a result, the Board of Directors voted to allow a discount of $25 per person towards membership if you help in one of the following ways:

This discount is available to all members. For couples, either one or both members of the couple may qualify. If you have questions or believe you qualify or will qualify for this discount, contact me.

Items We Need

Let's Go Back To The Good 'ol Days

By Webb Garlinghouse

Some of our critics are concerned about public nudity. They yearn for a return to the "good 'ol days" when life was simpler and values were, somehow, more pure. They are eager to impose their understanding of the world upon others without bothering to determine what the world was really like back in the "good 'ol days."

I recently returned from a trip to New York City. While there, I saw two photographs I found interesting. The first was an undated photograph of a group of Indians on a rock out-cropping somewhere in the west. Perhaps they were on a hunting or scouting expedition. The caption identified the tribe. Everyone in the picture was naked. Obviously they were not bothered by their own nakedness.

But, this kind of evidence can be dismissed because they were a group of uncivilized savages. Surely, civilized people would not behave in this manner.

The other picture I noticed while thumbing through the visitor book I found in our hotel. It included an article on the history of New York. One of the photographs accompanying the story was taken of a New York dock and included a group of about a dozen boys to the side. The caption said something about city boys about to cool off in the New York harbor in 1893. I found several remarkable aspects to this photo: Although all the boys were naked they did not appear to be the subject of the photo; No one else in the picture was the least bit interested in their activities; No police were chasing them off or arresting them for being naked; Even the presumably present-day caption-writer found their state of undress so unremarkable it was not mentioned in the caption.

I must admit, when I find this kind of historical evidence, it is difficult not to be wistful for the "good 'ol days."

Fun Things To Do In Topeka

Spring has sprung, and fun things are starting to happen in Topeka. Here are some of the things happening in during the month of April. Come to town, have a little fun, then come on out to the lake to relax or camp overnight. (If you're brave enough)

April 7: Spring Fling at Gage Park. This is 'dollar day' at the zoo. That means anyone can get into the zoo for $1 on this day. The zoo is open from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.

April 21: NASCAR weekly racing series & O'Reilly Auto Parts Midwest Sprint Car Series at Heartland Park.. The race is Sat & Sun. Tickets are $l0 per adult. On Sat the gates open at 3:00 p.m. The race starts at 7:30 with pre-race events happening at 6:20.

April 28: Women's Rodeo, Domer Livestock Arena. Kansas Expocenter. Sat. only at 8:00 p.m. No ticket price yet, but guessing between $5 & $l0.

April 28: Celebrity Pancake Feed 7:30 am - noon. Combat Air Museum at Forbes Field. Cost of the feed $4. That gets you a tour of the air museum and all the pancakes you can eat. Now don't get too excited, the celebrities are all local, but we like them.

Reunion Planned At Lake Edun

Eldon proposed a new activity for the Foundation this year which we are looking forward to and hope all our members will enjoy. On July 7, we will hold a Reunion. It will be an opportunity for all our old friends and people who have visited in the past to visit us again. Over the years, we have made a lot of changes to our special place. We hope those who have been away for awhile will enjoy visiting us again to see some of our improvements.

If you know someone who visited Lake Edun in the past but has not been by recently, tell them about this special weekend. We want to hear from them again; we want them to see all the ways our special place has changed. In particular, we want them to once again experience the joyous freedom Naturism offers all of us.

Tell them to mark their calendar and plan to join us on Saturday, July 7 for our first annual Lake Edun Reunion. Let them once again enjoy the freedom only nature can provide. Who knows, they may be surprised at all the old friends they will see.

From The Mail Bag

Dear Lake Edun;

I think your club is about as close as I can go ... as nudist resorts are outlawed in Arkansas. When will you be open for the season this year? I have in-laws in Topeka, so I get up there several times a year.

- Frank (I am Danish) Dear Lake Edun,

We're hiking in the desert and sitting around a mesquite fire in the backyard until dark every evening ... guess you can't tell we like it here!

We certainly will pay a visit if we pass through Kansas this summer. Our best memories of our years in the KC area were the weekends we spent at Lake Edun. We don't know how we would have survived there without them!

- Keith & Marion
They recently moved to Tucson, AZ

Wholistic Health Fair

by Dee Merrifield

Thanks to the efforts of Russ, the Lake Edun Foundation was once again represented well at the Wholistic Health Fair in Kansas City this year. This event promoted 'total' mind and body health. It seemed very fitting to be furthering the cause of Naturism at a place that supports the merging of mind, body and spirit. Eldon and I were on hand to help Russ.

My perception was that about 90% of the people we spoke with were in favor of the concept of Naturism or at the very least curious to know more. Probably about 5-l0%, honestly said that it wasn't for them, but they were quite civil about it. Perhaps, with enough education, they will learn what we already know and want to join us at some point in the future.

Time will tell if our efforts bring us any new visitors. Thanks Russ for setting this up for us again.

Interest In Political Philosophy

In response to the proposal for special interest activities to pursue, several Eduners have expressed an interest in forming a group to discuss Political Philosophy.

As formulated, members of this group will read salient passages from the original writings by some of the world's greatest political philosophers and then discuss their work. This will include works by Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Thomas More, Machiavelli, Locke, and many more.

We can meet weekly or bi-monthly through the summer and monthly during the winter. Suggested meeting days have been Saturday or Sunday morning, or some weekday evening. If you are interested in this, let us know so we can include you in the group. See the masthead for ways to contact us, or slide a note in the barn. Be sure you include your preferred meeting schedule and any days that would definitely not work for you.

Random Thoughts & Reflections

Congratulations to Marge, our own resident artist. We learned she won the best of category for 3-dimensional work in the Cultures Without Borders Art Show held at the Kansas City Museum in March. She had three sculptures in the exhibit. We are proud of her accomplishment and wish her well. Look for Marge at the lake as the weather warms. You may also find her exhibiting her work at Return to Edun/9 in August.

The sauna on the 10th saw more than 10 Eduners come and go while benefitting from the relaxation it offers. After about an hour in the sauna's heat, after a few had left and before two more arrived, Bill quietly got up, walked to the lake and jumped in. When he returned, pt Mike challenged everyone to jump into the cold lake water so as not to let Bill's act go unanswered. After considerable discussion, there were six bodies trotting toward the dock and six splashes as they all hit the cold water. It didn't take long to warm up again and soon, all six decided it felt so good they did it again. Three even did it a third time. Winter sauna's are wonderful. Be sure you check the schedule and enjoy one before winter ends.

For over a year, we have been saving our aluminum. The proceeds are set aside in a special fund for a new tractor (which we need badly). You can help. Save your empty aluminum cans and other scrap aluminum. Bring it to the lake where we will keep it until we have enough to sell.

We will have a new gate soon which means we will have a new combination, also. Members will find their copy of the combination enclosed with this issue of Bare Facts.

With Spring comes planting time. As we do every year, we will be re-seeding many of our trails. Give the grass a chance to take root. If a trail is blocked off, please find an alternate path; if you see an area that has been seeded, please try to avoid it.

Save your Aluminum.

Bring it to the Lake!

Swap Meet

By Dee Merrifield

CW and Linda from Omaha made a great suggestion. They would like to see a swap meet/sale of camping equipment/supplies This means, if you have camping stuff that you would like to trade or sell, this is your opportunity.

The Board decided that Memorial Day weekend would be a prime time. There will be lots of Eduners out camping, and it is at the beginning of the camping season.

I will print another reminder in May's newsletter. If anyone would like to send me a list of things they might like to swap, please do so at merridee@msn.com. Otherwise, just bring your stuff on down and we'll trade.

Help With A Workday

Spring is always a busy time at our special place. While the weather is changing from the cold winter to something more suitable, we spend a few afternoons working to make some changes that will yield permanent improvements.

Consider spending an afternoon helping other Eduners plant trees, clean-up and fix-up. Working with others of like mind makes the time go quickly and the work is not really that hard. The best part comes later in the season when you and everyone else can enjoy the effort you put forth and you see the improvements it made.

Plan to help out on April 7. Bring gloves, a shovel, and chain saw, if you have them. Join the sauna that follows.The Naturalist Naturist

By Biology Bill

Every year at about this time we start making plans to fix up the grounds of Lake Edun, and to decide what we can change for the better this season. Nothing we could do, however, could change the Lake more than it has over the years… that is, over thousands and millions of years. The following is an approximate history of the Lake over time periods we can only imagine.

Cambrian Period, 510 million years ago. The spot that is to become Lake Edun is under the sea. The nearest spot of land, however, sits deserted in a vast, uninhabited continent. Not a bird chirps, and not an insect buzzes. Not a leaf rustles. Why is the place this uninhabited? Because to this point all major life forms live in the ocean.

Pennsylvanian Period, 300 million years ago. The spot that is to become Lake Edun has ridden continental drift to near the equator, and is warm and tropical. Early ancestors of crocodiles and lizards inhabit the land, and dragonflies with one-foot wingspans buzz overhead.

Cretaceous Period, 70 million years ago. The spot that is to become Lake Edun lies at the bottom of a wide sea, covering most of what some species that won't appear for 149 million years will eventually call the central United States. Giant mosasaurs (large, carnivorous reptiles similar in some ways to dinosaurs) swim far above in the water column, chasing large fish. (To see a mosasaur, go inside the front door of the KU Natural History Museum and look up.) The climate at the nearest edge of the great sea is much warmer than the present day, and dinosaurs roam the western United States, which looks rather different than today because the Rocky Mountains do not yet exist.

End of the Cretaceous Period, 65.3 million years ago. The spot that is to become Lake Edun isn't enjoying very much sunshine, because the day before a large meteor landed near what will later become Mexico, and a gigantic dust cloud is circling the globe, resulting in the event that we now know of as the death of the dinosaurs.

Early Eocene Period, 50 million years ago. The dinosaurs are gone, and strange-looking large mammals such as titanotheres wander through where Lake Edun will eventually be. The climate is about as warm as it will be within the last 65 million years, and Kansas is mostly a lush, warm forest.

Miocene Period, 5 million years ago. Worldwide temperatures are quite a bit lower than earlier in the chronology, but an odd-looking animal in eastern Africa has evolved to walk awkwardly on two legs. It is called an australopithecine, and it spends much of its time avoiding being eaten by large, leopard-like animals. Rhinoceroses roam the Kansas plains, which were at that time dotted with occasional trees, similar to today's African savannas.

Pleistocene Period, 15000 years ago. The spot that is to be Lake Edun is an arctic tundra, largely due to the glacier sitting 100 miles to the north. Wooly mammoths survive the howling cold winds with their long fur. Low, shrubby vegetation is all that can live under the harsh conditions. Many fossils that now appear from the depths of the Kaw River were formed at that time.

Early Holocene Period, 8000 years ago. Things have warmed up a lot, and Lake Edun is near the edge of a large forest covering the eastern United States. The mammoths are gone, however, possibly due to the efforts of humans occupying the central plains.

AD 1000. Indians follow the vast bison herds through the region, which is much more open than we know it. The forests that now cover large parts of Missouri and eastern Kansas are restricted to east of the Mississippi, in large part because the Indians burn the prairies regularly. A small stream runs through a certain tract of land in the middle of the plains. No lakes of any significant size exist in Kansas, however, because nobody has built a big enough dam yet.

Early 20th century. Somebody has built a moderate size dam to collect water from the small stream. Wildfires have not burned through the area for decades, and full-sized trees grow south of the dam where they previously did not exist.

2001. A bunch of people swim happily in the Lake, dressed as nature intended. Neither the Lake nor the trees giving onlookers shade on the shore should be there by prehistoric precedent, but the swimmers do not care. They give no thought to the spectre of the mosasaur, which considers a rise from the ancient shallow sea to swim the newfound waters.

Naked Beneath Your Clothing

By John Veltheim

parama.com/naked.htm

Psychology of the body

Progressively, over the centuries, society has developed the use of clothing as a mask. Clothing was originally used and designed to protect people from the elements of heat and cold, to stop themselves from getting burned or frozen. It was also used as a method of adornment to enhance attractiveness and for ritual and ceremonial reasons. In the latter centuries, people developed a cultural dependency on clothing. Clothes became a mask and a prop for perceived personality and character deficiencies.

We frequently see people who would not be seen "dead" without their clothing on. Clothing is often used to portray an image that is different from the person's perceived inner deficiencies. It is a form of artificiality or masking that they outwardly project to cover up any personality or emotional defects they think they have. People tend to feel that by hiding behind clothing they can metaphorically cover themselves and deny others exposure to the inner-self they perceive to be crippled. The need to do this most commonly occurs in people with low self-esteem.

Fashion

This process is being encouraged by the cultural excesses of fashion magazines in an industry with a very strong monetary interest in the promotion of clothing. These special interest industries create the belief that clothing is an essential to life itself, rather than a practical and fun auxiliary. The tragedy is that many have blindly accepted this. The average person thinks of clothing as one of the necessities of life that transcends mere protection and expands into the realm of personality, character and self-worth.

Guilt

Concurrent with this trend is a parallel trend to automatically associate nudity to sexual activity. Many religions choose to perceive sexual activity as a sin, and by association, choose to see nudity as a sin also. Some religions use this argument as a way of manipulating people into feeling guilty about nudity. Guilty people then think they need the church to forgive them. Also, guilty people can be controlled easily by authorities of any description. Vibrant, healthy, guilt-free people of high self esteem are traditionally very hard to 'manage' or control for churches or governments. Through the combination of the above influences, many societies created laws to make it illegal to go as nature intended.

When is it wrong to be naked? A naked new born baby is not considered wrong or bad. At what age does this child become bad? Is it 18 months or when they are three. A naked two year old on the beach is generally considered normal and inoffensive. So when is a child not a child? Is

it four years old or is it ten years old? People with issues around nudity will often say it is when they reach school age, and that would be five years old. That concept infers that when a naked child on the beach is 4 years 364 days 23 hours and 59 minutes old it is a healthy child with a good attitude to life. One minute later, when the child turns five it is suddenly a naughty, sinful child because he/she is still naked! That concept is obviously a farce.

Self-esteem

The creation of this absurd attitude often emerges from low self-esteem issues developed at a very young age. Children are influenced by an environment producing many negative attitudes about themselves. They are told, or it is inferred by certain actions, that they are not perfect, not lovable, not good enough, naughty, etc. As adults, they feel a need to camouflage these perceived inadequacies in our personality and character. We often create a series of attitudes and belief systems to compensate for these inadequacies. They also develop a series of masks to 'cover up' the weaknesses. For example, the person who feels weak deep down will often put on a 'tough' personality mask and adopt an aggressive posture.

Clothes are used continuously in this process; the weak person uses powerful or aggressive clothing. The 'naughty' person wears clothing designed to give them acceptance and make them appear 'good.' The unloved person tries to show he/she doesn't care wears rebellious and 'unacceptable' clothing. The 'guilty' person portrays themselves in pious and 'pure' attire with the 'holier than thou' attitude.

People who don't approve of themselves deep down also cover up by becoming judgmental of others. They feel that by pulling someone else down, they are bringing that individual down to their lower level. They ensure they always wear the 'right' clothing for each occasion so they wont be judged badly. People who hate being judged are the very people who tend to be judgmental themselves.

This whole process is unfortunate because the inner low self image people think they are hiding is not the true self. It is simply another mask at a deep level. The true self lies below that set of belief systems they are taught as a child. In situations where people are able to 'peel off' the outer masks and expose the true self, they always find someone they love and feel good about.

We are born pure, loving and innocent. The sooner we can get back in touch with that, the sooner we get in touch with experiencing the joy of life. The only reason we are not experiencing total abundance of joy, peace, love and financial security is because we are actively resisting those things which are our birth right. We resist them by creating the masks which act to separate us from our true inner selves and block us off from that abundance.

Shutting down

When people use clothing as a means of shutting out the world and covering up to stop the world from seeing their distorted inner self image, they create a tragedy of immense proportions. When hiding behind clothes, people are closing down their body energetically and psychologically. A healthy body has its energy, nervous system, and life forces flowing freely throughout it. When shut down psychologically and physically, the body energy shuts down, distorts and flows abnormally. This manifests major kinks in spiritual, emotional, mental and physical growth.

A suppressed energy system becomes inflexible and rigid. This is easily seen in the inflexible attitudes we encounter so often in our society, as well as the tendency for the human race to develop rigid, inflexible, arthritic bodies.

Interacting with life

Closing down and isolating one's energy also has a dramatic affect on their ability to relate to other people and the world. There have been many books recently that demonstrate we are energy systems constantly interacting

with all the energy systems in our environment. We draw energy from the world around us. Up to 40% of our oxygen intake is through our skins, (unless we stifle that through excess synthetic clothing and makeup!) Healthy individuals draw a large percentage of their energy through their skin from the atmosphere, the trees, plants and all of nature. (Unhealthy, needy people will also draw energy from other human beings like parasites.) This also involves a healthy exchange of energy. We draw in and give out energy. Our ability to do this depends upon the openness and flexibility of our energy systems.

When people psychologically and physically shut down, especially through the metaphor of needing clothing to hide from the world, we are not just hiding from other people, they hide from the world. They block the exchange of energy and reduce the total vitality available to them. They also impair their ability to relate to, and interact with, the world. That interaction is an essential criteria for any healthy organism. All cells, animals, plants and humans survive according to their interrelationships with the world around them. Once people insulate themselves, they cripple their ability to grow and process the world as they should.