Voluntary Peasants/Life Inside the Ultimate American Commune: THE FARM

Soon To Be a TV Series
True, far-out 60s stories—cool adventures, good vibes, humor. The psychedelic sixties come alive in this multi-level history/memoir, of a journalist who dropped out to live the times and seek enlightenment.

This is an inside look into The Farm, an amazing 1,500-member hippie commune in the backwoods of Tennessee. Enter what may seem another world—an audacious attempt to create a better way of living—an Earth-friendly, people-friendly, pacifist, eclectic, agrarian, vegan, spiritual community, cannabis church and home-birthing center and a lifestyle the world can afford.

“Imagine all the people living life in peace.”—John Lennon
That was us. We had it going.

Let your head soar free and take a trip—an extraordinary journey from Greenwich Village beatniks in the ‘50s through the psychedelic ‘60s and ‘70s—heady, revolutionary times—times rich in lessons that can possibly help us now.

In the sixties, Melvyn was a UPI wire service reporter and editor. These are far-out adventures coming of age, going with the flow—riding a powerful wave of energy that raised consciousness and shattered conventional paradigms around the world.

After attending Woodstock, Melvyn followed the energy to San Francisco, sampled the spiritual smorgasbord of swamis, yogis, gurus and chose to follow hippie “self-realized spiritual teacher” Stephen Gaskin on a round-the-country, hippie bus caravan. Hop on a fun hippie bus and journey to Tennessee to begin a new life.

The psychedelic sixties come alive in this multi-level history/memoir. Hop aboard a hippie bus caravan around the country—100 multi-colored, refitted buses with 300 settlers on their way to Tennessee to live collectively, build a town and live a fun, peaceful, meaningful lifestyle, simple, close to nature. For twelve years the community grew from 300 to 1,500 as Melvyn learned new trades working as a farmer, carpenter and mason. He built houses, ran the community kitchen and bakery, was a flour miller, telephone repairman, apprentice auto mechanic, gatekeeper, editor of the town newspaper, and a DJ on the community FM-radio station.

Voluntary Peasants conveys sixties energy, vibes, mindscape and philosophy. Beyond sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll—true tales of a remarkable experiment in collective living as thousands of high-minded people join forces, pool resources and attempt to create a gracious, meaningful, sustainable lifestyle.

After a devastating 1976 earthquake in Guatemala, Melvyn worked with The Farm’s hippie Peace Corps, Plenty International and Guatemalan Mayans building schools, clinics and houses in remote mountain villages and a clinic for Mother Teresa in Guatemala City. For this and other humanitarian projects, The Farm was awarded the “alternative Nobel Prize” the Swedish Right Livelihood Award.

Voluntary Peasants takes an up-close look at Counter Culture Hall of Fame hippie guru Stephen Gaskin—dubbed by High Times: “the Gandhi of the counter culture” and examines the author’s remarkable student-teacher relationship, Most Influential Women Hall of Fame midwife Ina May Gaskin and author of Spiritual Midwifery, the whole guru trip and the insidious workings of the phenomenon known as “groupthink.”
Voluntary Peasants is available as a 422-page paperback with 40 photos only at www.voluntarypeasants.com. Voluntary Peasants will soon be available as an audiobook.
Includes the author’s backstory: Enlightenment/What’s It Good For
Voluntary Peasants is also available as an Audiobook at Amazon’s Audible.