Stephen Gaskin
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Stephen Gaskin is a counter-cultural icon best known for his presence in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco in the 1960s and for co-founding "The Farm", a famous spiritual Intentional Community in Summertown, Tennessee.[1] He was a Green Party presidential primary candidate in 2000 on a platform which included Campaign Finance Reform, Universal Health Care, and Marijuana Decriminalization.[2]
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[edit] Life
Gaskin was born on February 16, 1935 in Denver, Colorado and served in the United States Marines from 1952 to 1955. In the 1960s, he moved to San Francisco and taught English, creative writing, and general semantics at San Francisco State College where he was a student of S. I. Hayakawa.[3] His writing class became an open discussion known as Monday Night Class involving up to 1500 students and in 1970, a caravan of 60 vehicles crossed the United States to settle 60 miles south-east of Nashville, Tennessee.[3] Gaskin went to prison in 1974 for marijuana possession. He served one year of a three-year sentence.[2]
Stephen Gaskin produced in his Volume One: Sunday Morning Services on the Farm and earlier talks a substantial body of spiritual teaching which is contained in his books and tapes of the Services which were published by the Farm. They speak of magic, energy and life in community as well as of service to humanity.[4]
Gaskin was recipient of the first Right Livelihood Award (Alternative Nobel Prize) in 1980, and an inductee 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 ever entering), racking up 77 points to Krishnamurti’s 73.
Gaskin works as an international activist and speaker, and continues to write. He has been a frequent speaker at both the Starwood Festival and the WinterStar Symposium. His most recent books are revised and annotated versions of Monday Night Class and The Caravan.
[edit] Bibliography
- 1964 - Forty Miles of Bad Road
- 1970 - Monday Night Class (his most famous book) (Book Farm/Bookworks)
- 1972 - The Caravan (Random House)
- 1974 - Hey Beatnik!: This is the Farm Book (The Book Publishing Co.)
- 1976 - The Big Dummy's Guide to CB Radio (The Book Publishing Company) ISBN 0913990043 ASIN B000BO893A
- 1977 - Volume One: Sunday Morning Services on The Farm
- 1978 - This Season's People: A Book of Spiritual Teachings (Book Publishing Company) ISBN 0913990051
- 1979 - Mind at Play (The Book Publishing Co.) ISBN 0913990248
- 1986 - Rendered Infamous: A Book of Political Reality (Greenwood Pub Group) (Hardcover) ISBN 089789099X
- 1990 - Haight Ashbury Flashbacks (Ronin Publishing; 2nd edition) ISBN 0914171305
- 1998 - Cannabis Spirituality: Including 13 Guidelines for Sanity and Safety ([High Times] Press; 1st ed edition) ISBN 0964785862
- 1999 - Amazing Dope Tales (Ronin Publishing (CA); 3rd edition) ISBN 1579510108
- 2000 - An Outlaw in My Heart: A Political Activist's User's Manual (Camino Books) ISBN 0940159643
- 2005 - Monday Night Class (Book Publishing Company (TN); Revised edition) ISBN 1570671818
- The Hidden Holocaust: Stephen Gaskin Reveals What's Really Going On in Guatemala
- Stephen Speaks to San Francisco
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Meunier, Rachel (1994). Communal Living in the Late 60s and Early 70s. The Farm, Summertown, Tennessee.
- ^ a b Stephen Gaskin for President Synthesis/Regeneration 22 (Spring 2000)
- ^ a b Bates, Albert (1993) J. Edgar Hoover and The Farm International Communal Studies Conference on Culture, Thought and Living in Community. New Harmony, Indiana,
- ^ Stephen Gaskin. Website
[edit] References
- Farber, Philip H. Interview of Stephen Gaskin in Paradigm Shift, October 1998.
