![]() “Communication is easier when you’re naked,” he said. Like other nudists, he extols the lifestyle for its ability to break down ordinary social barriers. “It’s easy to ridicule something that you don’t know anything about.” “I used to think nudists were wackos,” says Paul Stevens, 82, a Woodland Hills pharmacist who began coming to Elysium with his wife in the late 1960s and has continued since her death 10 years ago. The model, for instance, didn’t want her name revealed for fear that it would complicate a child custody battle. “If I wanted to be leered at, I’d go to the beach.”Īlthough uninhibited among themselves, many nudists remain wary about revealing their lifestyle to others, noting the lingering stigma associated with it. ![]() She brings her young daughter whenever possible. “Small bits of clothing are far more seductive than nudity can ever be,” explains a divorced fashion model, lounging in a lawn chair, her chin resting on her knees. It is a park scene like any other, except that, for the most part, the participants aren’t wearing clothes. People read, meditate, sunbathe, throw Frisbees. On sunny weekends, when crowds number in the hundreds, the grounds are filled with couples and families with lunches spread on picnic blankets. Patrons are invited to get in touch with their senses, to smell the grass, enjoy the fresh air, count the clouds. There are no loudspeakers, televisions or radios. Nestled below a hill at the end of a tree-lined back road, Elysium is a rustic Shangri-La where visitors are encouraged to shed their problems along with their attire.Ī sign on a towel rack beside the steam bath reads, “Leave Your Hang-ups Here.” He is among the movement’s elder statesmen, having spent four decades trying to demystify the nudist way of life.įor the past 26 years, his focus, and the source of his pride, has been Elysium Fields. Sitting on a veranda overlooking his domain, wrapped in a towel as a concession to the weather, Lange resembles a professor who has just stepped out of the shower. “What we were hoping for and fighting for in the ‘60s, people are more comfortable doing now,” said Ed Lange, Elysium’s 72-year-old founder and a former Life magazine photographer. Women who wouldn’t be caught in a singles bar swear by the secluded, eight-acre compound as a place to meet quality men. Parents take their kids there to explain the birds and bees. The camp, where sex is prohibited, has become a popular venue for self-awareness experts spreading the New Age gospel. A product of the sexual revolution of the 1960s, it has survived prudish neighbors, prayer vigils outside its gates, and, until recently, persistent efforts by Los Angeles County officials to close it down.Īlthough a few of the nation’s 100 or so nudist camps have fallen on bad times, Elysium Fields-like nude recreation generally-thrives. With the passage of time, the Elysium Fields nudist camp in Topanga Canyon is more quaint than risque. Some play tennis in nothing but sneakers. Waitresses and teachers mingle with affluent couples and aging hipsters, their tanned bodies glistening in the sun. On warm weekends, its grassy, eucalyptus-scented grounds are covered with naked men and women.
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