Harbin Hot Springs, California

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Harbin Hot Springs is a non-profit hot spring retreat center in Middletown, California, USA that has been a healing and gathering place from the early days of Native American occupation to the present.

The baths were commercially developed by settlers when buildings were erected on the site in the 1860s, with successive lodges being rebuilt as they burned down over the years. Harbin Hot Springs issued several postcards advertising the resort in the 1920s and 1930s[1].

After a decline in the 1950s, Harbin was largely abandoned until the late 1960s, when a group of hippies under the patronage of a charismatic scientist-cum-cult-leader briefly inhabited it and changed its name to Harbinger Hot Springs. During this time it housed a cultural experiment where nudity, group sex, continual drug use, and the mass chanting of "Om" were encouraged. Far from idyllic, the commune was known for its sexual exploitation of young women (often runaways) and for the filth that accumulated in the warm pools, presenting a health hazard to anyone who entered them. Harbinger was eventually shut down by the police due to health concerns. With the guru and the free supply of drugs removed, it reverted to quietude again.

In the early 1970s, after the Harbinger venture failed, the property again was known by the name Harbin Hot Springs and it then came under the care of the present owners, the Heart Consciousness Church.

Currently maintained by 150+ residents, Harbin, now a communitarian community, offers rustic facilities for retreats, lodging, massage, watsu and five mineral water pools at various temperatures. It is operated on a clothing optional basis, which means that nudity is permitted but not enforced. Many Bay Area New Age, Neopagan, Buddhist, yoga, art[2], and other organizations or teachers hold weekend retreats and week-long festivals at the facility, which is open to members. Harbin offers camping and rooms from simple dorms to elaborate cabins.