Stephen Gaskin (February 16, 1935 – July 1, 2014) was an American

counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. H ...

Hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The mos ...

best known for his presence in the

Haight-Ashbury Haight-Ashbury () is a district of San Francisco, California, named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. It is also called The Haight and The Upper Haight. The neighborhood is known as one of the main centers of the counterculture ...

district of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

in the 1960s and for co-founding " The Farm", a spiritual

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

in 1970. He was a

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...

presidential primary candidate in 2000 on a platform which included campaign finance reform,

universal health care Universal health care (also called universal health coverage, universal coverage, or universal care) is a health care system in which all residents of a particular country or region are assured access to health care. It is generally organized ar ...

, and decriminalization of marijuana. He was the author of over a dozen books, political activist, a philanthropic organizer and a self-proclaimed professional Hippie.

Life

Gaskin was born in

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

and served in the

US Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through com ...

from 1952 to 1955. In the 1960s, he moved to

and taught English, creative writing, and general semantics at San Francisco State College, where he was a student of

S. I. Hayakawa Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa (July 18, 1906 – February 27, 1992) was a Canadian-born American academic and politician of Japanese ancestry. A professor of English, he served as president of San Francisco State University and then as U.S. Senator from ...

. His writing class evolved into an open discussion group known as Monday Night Class, which involved up to 1500 students. Through 1968, the class was held San Francisco State University Campus, later in "The Family Dog", an auditorium on the

Great Highway The Great Highway is a road in San Francisco that forms the city's western edge along the Pacific coast. Built in 1929, it runs for approximately next to Ocean Beach. Its southern end is at Skyline Boulevard ( State Route 35) near Lake Merced; ...

on the land side of Ocean Beach on the shore of the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...

in the Outer Richmond neighborhood of

. Gaskin spoke about his experiences with

psychedelic drug Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary states of consciousness (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips").Pollan, Michael (2018). ''How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science o ...

s and

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...

experiences, and lectured about the importance of ecological awareness. This popular weekly gathering was attended by

hippies A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...

from all over the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area G ...

during the years 1968–1970. Gaskin became known as ''San Francisco's

acid In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a se ...

guru''. In 1970, Gaskin and a caravan of 60 vehicles crossed the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

to settle 60 miles south-west of

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...

, forming a community called " The Farm", which the ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' came to call "the

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

of American Communes". This community was "a platform from which to launch efforts to improve the lot of poor and indigenous peoples, whales, and old growth trees" The Farm eventually transitioned to an

intentional community An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious ...

Summertown, Tennessee Summertown is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Lawrence County, Tennessee, United States. The population of Summertown was 866 at the 2010 census. The town has a ZIP Code of 38483. Some rural areas in neighboring ...

. For example, the community raised 1,200 earthquake-resistant homes and several public buildings and water lines in 5 villages in Guatemala, sent independent

dosimetry Radiation dosimetry in the fields of health physics and radiation protection is the measurement, calculation and assessment of the ionizing radiation dose absorbed by an object, usually the human body. This applies both internally, due to ingested ...

teams after the

Three Mile Island accident The Three Mile Island accident was a partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island, Unit 2 (TMI-2) reactor in Pennsylvania, United States. It began at 4 a.m. on March 28, 1979. It is the most significant accident in U.S. commercial nuclea ...

and the

Chernobyl disaster The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. It is one of only two n ...

, and gave the Rainbow Warrior equipment to escape from a Spanish harbor. Gaskin went to prison in 1974 for

marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various t ...

possession, because some members of the community had planted several marijuana plants on the nearby "Martin farm" property, against his recommendation. This was a nearby property where the Caravan first "landed" in Summertown, before purchasing the initial 1200 acres of "the Farm". He served one year of a three-year sentence. After his release, his voting rights were rescinded. He brought a lawsuit challenging the legality of mass retroactive disenfranchisement under the

Tennessee Constitution The Constitution of the State of Tennessee defines the form, structure, activities, character, and fundamental rules (and means for changing them) of the U.S. State of Tennessee. The original constitution of Tennessee came into effect on June 1, ...

in the case Gaskin v. Collins. After winning in lower courts, the case went to the

Tennessee Supreme Court The Tennessee Supreme Court is the ultimate judicial tribunal of the state of Tennessee. Roger A. Page is the Chief Justice. Unlike other states, in which the state attorney general is directly elected or appointed by the governor or state leg ...

and in 1981 returned voting rights to more than a quarter of a million convicts. In ''Volume One: Sunday Morning Services on the Farm'' and earlier talks, Stephen Gaskin produced a substantial body of spiritual teaching. His ideas are now contained in books and tapes of the Sunday Morning Services which were published by the Book Publishing Company on The Farm. They speak of magic,

energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of ...

and life in

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, t ...

as well as of service to humanity. Gaskin was the first recipient of the

Right Livelihood Award The Right Livelihood Award is an international award to "honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today." The prize was established in 1980 by German-Swedish philanthropist Jakob vo ...

in 1980 (listed as Plenty International) and was inducted into the Counterculture Hall of Fame in 2004. He was awarded the Golden Bolt Award by The Farm Motor Pool (for helping buy a lemon semi), and won the Guru-Off (without even entering), racking up 77 points to

Krishnamurti is a South Indian name. It has several spelling variants. Variants The following is a non-exhaustive list. Some spellings separate the name elements , e.g. . Etymology and usage Derived from the Hindu deity Krishna and the Sanskrit term mur ...

's 73. Gaskin continued to work as an international activist, writer and speaker until a few months before his death. His topics ranged from humorous advice on all aspects of communal life and farming to modern communications, the counter-culture, spirituality, drug law reform, and social and ecological issues. He was a drummer in The Farm Band, an early Jam Band which toured in the 1970s and 1980s. His last published works were revised and annotated versions of ''Monday Night Class'' and ''The Caravan.'' He died on July 1, 2014, from

natural causes In many legal jurisdictions, the manner of death is a determination, typically made by the coroner, medical examiner, police, or similar officials, and recorded as a vital statistic. Within the United States and the United Kingdom, a distin ...

, in his home, surrounded by family.

Bibliography

''In order of first publication date.'' * Copy available at the

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different ...

Library. * (original edition ©1970 by Book Farm and published by Book Farm, Santa Rosa, California.) * * This book was printed on low quality paper which deteriorated rapidly. A few copies are in library inventories. * * * * *
''Earlier editions published as:'' * * * * *
''Reprinted as'' * * *

Notes

References

External links

*
Interview with Stephen Gaskin
nbsp;by Stephen McKiernan, Binghamton University Libraries Center for the Study of the 1960s, May 13, 2010 * The Farm's website with more information on Stephen Gaskin. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gaskin, Stephen 1935 births 2014 deaths Writers from San Francisco Nonviolence advocates American pacifists American male writers American cannabis activists California Greens Green Party of the United States politicians United States Marines People from Denver Activists from California San Francisco State University alumni

Life

Bibliography

See also

Notes

References

External links