Inspirational Inception of Raw Spirit Festival
By Happy Oasis
High up in the Himalayas on my deathbed with pneumonia I discovered the vital force of raw vegan foods. For two months, ayurvedic and allopathic doctors had been advising me to eat more curd and drink more milk while on a prescribed course of antibiotics. During a brief bout of consciousness, I grabbed a bedside book called Yogic Cures To Common Diseases, which miraculously opened to the subject of pneumonia. The yogic author recommended a vegetable juice fast; this felt right and I immediately partook. Within hours, I felt the tingling, healing effects of fresh vegetable juice, and for three fascinating days I lay in bed alert, witnessing the pneumonia gradually recede from the limbs to the core of my stomach as it reversed into bronchitis, then merely a cold, until all traces of illness evaporated entirely, leaving me feeling clearer, happier, lighter and brighter than I'd ever previously experienced.
While leading mountaineering trips in the Himalayas, I began experimenting with this sacred body temple as a scientific research laboratory, and via fasting on cold blue mountain stream water and raw vegan foraged trail-side vegetation coupled with vigorous alpine exercise, I observed my chronic fatigue, arthritis and diabetes soon reverse, and the remnants of typhoid fever and tuberculosis disappear. For the next seven years, while traveling deliciously slowly, mostly by foot, with a backpack through the hinterlands of Asia, for the first time, I enjoyed a body free of illness on a simple raw vegan diet, something most travelers claim is impossible to do in the orient. I carried a light wooden salad bowl as do mendicant yogis and monks, and my daily fare was picked in the wild or bartered from farmers who i encountered at tiny farmers markets or occasional wilderness farms along the trails.
Friendly tribal farmers would often invite me to hike home with them where I would sometimes stay for months. In forgotten paradises far from the throng of humanity, I was adopted by loving families who taught me their languages, their ways, and how to thrive by growing gardens and walking long distances to forage for rare native vegetable delicacies and preventative herbal medicines while visiting ancient half-buried Buddhist stupas or sacred Shiva pilgrimage sites, which were usually steep, austere mountain peaks with nobody there but the holy howling wind, after joyous days of crossing verdant valleys and climbing through floribundant gorges cut by rushing rivers teeming with hanging ferns and waterfalls.
We lived off the grid with no thoughts of solar panels or refrigerators or tv, since my families had no reference to these. Instead, we awoke to the sunshine who powered us, had no need for refrigeration since our growing supermarket surrounded us, and far more engaging than television, everyone told-a-vision as each child was taught to sing, to dance and tell stories for endless evenings of laughter and merriment around the fire or cuddled together under shared blankets beneath the stars or moon. Life was sweetly idyllic, moving slowly from season to heartfelt season until each family who adopted me over the years became forcefully invaded in various ways by those wanting their land, their food and happiness, remarkably similar to the portrayal in The Avatar movie. The first times I organized serving raw foods was to the stranded surviving members of my adopted families at countryside refugee camps and orphanages.
Seven adventurous years had passed since the pneumonia. I was a Buddhist lay nun abiding at a jungle monastery in Thailand, and it was New Year's Eve. Beneath the light of the full moon, I journaled about the many blessings of the year, then prayed for the highest aspirations worthy for living another new year. I gave thanks for the gifts of outstanding health, remarkable joy and unusual strength, which I traced back to the fateful pneumonia which proved to be a boon, as the Chinese adage concurs: "Those who experience serious illness once, grow healthier and live longer than those who know no illness."
At midnight while meditating into the new year, I saw vast portions of humanity, just like me, needlessly filling hospitals and doctors’ offices, and amidst the boddhisattva monastic ambience rose a new compassion that silently inspired me to return to America to start a festival for all of humanity about not only organic raw vegan foods, but also about the intrinsic importance of really living via embracing nature, foraging, gardening, giving, storytelling, singing, dancing, listening, loving, laughing, stretching, meditating, wondering, praying, co-creating and communing with kindness, family, community and fun-filled celebration moment after miraculous moment.
I was thusly inspired to found the Raw Spirit Festival Inc, a 501c3 educational non profit. It grew from 150 participants in the first year to 2500 two years later. In 2009, more than 6000 people attended Raw Spirit Festivals and Potluck Celebrations. The touching friendships, funloving conversations, touching thank you letters, inspiring Raw Spirit stories, songs, poems, humorous quips, insights, raw vegan treats, books, cds, generous donations, and Raw Spirit-inspired marriages, babies, jobs, and companies born from those participants who have undergone life-enhancing transformations are a few of the affirmations that continue to enthuse me to continue on this wonderful lifepath, despite the long hours and volunteer position.
This year's festival at Watson Lake Park in Arizona's Granite Dells is one I am looking forward to, not only for the stunningly-beautiful landscape, but for the unprecedented stellar lineup. The sixth annual Raw Spirit Festival is a full three-day event featuring two stages (Lake and Meadow Stages) with mixed world-class musical performers and dynamic health-eco-peace research presenters amidst gorgeous natural backdrops. Additionally, the Sacred Exercise Area (featuring an eclectic array of yoga, chi kung, tai chi, pranayama, poetry, prayers, meditation and beyond) is perched atop the lakeside cliff with spectacular vistas of the jagged lake, it's surreal sheer-rock shores and many islands. Scrumptious Raw Vegan Demos and Tastings are in the Hilltop Pagoda with sweeping vistas of panoramic mountains. Plus, we've added acoustic jam areas, spontaneous sharing circles, campfires, healing and massage areas, a full kids' program, quiet temple spaces, an organic farmers' market, and an exciting display of innovative educational vendors with a focus on healthy living, community, ecology, peace, inspired inventions, music, dancing, poetry, art, nature and the world's largest organic raw vegan restaurant court. We are anticipating this year's festival to be the largest and loveliest ever with the most eclectic array of fantastic foods, philosophies, and fabulous friends. Plus, for the first time ever, Raw Spirit is offering post-festival activities: On Monday Sept 27th, the all-day Raw Spirit Business Forum; On Tuesday Sept 28th, Guided Tour To Sedona; On Wednesday Sept 29th, Meditation, Yoga and Singing Retreat: On Thursday Sept 30th - Sunday October 3rd, Swim, Hike and/or Helicopter into Arizona's hidden Caribbean paradise: Havasupai Village, the Havasu Falls and miles of stunning swimming pools deep inside the Grand Canyon.
Happy Oasis is founder of the Raw Spirit Festivals. The next one takes place September 24 - 26th at spectacular Watson Lake Park in the gorgeous Granite Dells of northern Arizona.
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