Clothing is crushing us! Trapped in tomb-like textiles, we exile our flesh from experiencing the environment. We atrophy the majority of our epidermis. If you put a plaster cast on a broken arm, the skin starves for Vitamin D; muscles weaken due to strangled range of motion; nerve synapses depress to a whimper of their former joy. Twenty-first century hominids shroud the entire skin palette, obliterating symbiosis with the planet except via face, neck and hands. (Burqa-clad Muslim women lose nearly 100%.) We hide in cocoons, when we could be free as butterflies.
History reveals many cultures that were not clothes-minded. Spartans were basically bare and their victories in pan-Hellenic sports competitions enticed all neighboring Greeks to exercise nude, creating the word “gymnasium” (Greek gymnos = naked). Romans mingled in magnificent bathhouses, enjoying dense communal nudity as they drank, dined, defecated, bathed, read books, argued politics, and watched theater. Adamists — naked heretics — performed stripped-down church services in North Africa, Bohemia, the Netherlands, and England. Pre-Hitler Germans were avid adherents of Freikorperkultur (“Free Body Culture”) with 70,000 attending co-ed Nacktkultur schools. There’s naked Japanese in hot springs, naked Finns in saunas, “sky-clad” Jain monks in India, plus millions of nudists worldwide going to “Nakation” camps, beaches, and resorts, still sporty as Spartans. They hike naked (“free bush rambling”), canoe naked (“canuding”), bicycle naked, ride horses naked, run naked, play volleyball, badminton, ping-pong and chess naked, swim naked, dance naked, do Naked Yoga, Naked Tai Chi, Naked Gardening, Naked Bowling, and you and I, dear reader, we’re both NIFOC — Naked In Front of Computers.
Many famous figures are bare-all aficionados; too many politicians to name, so I’ll just list sci-fi and scientists: Leonard Nimoy, Alexander Graham Bell, Robert Heinlein, and seismologist Charles Richter. Of course, most movie stars skinny-dip at the French Riviera, trying to elude paparazzi seeking pix of Bruce Willis’ willy or Natalie Portman’s port side.
Specific studies have not yet proven that full-scale nudity directly benefits brain performance, but here’s peripheral evidence indicating that skin-only is superior:
1. The Clothes You Were Born In. Pediatricians agree that infants thrive with a daily dose of “naked time” because the unhampered range of motion aids brain development. Recent discoveries reveal that the “plastic” brain changes and develops throughout our entire lives. Neuroplasticity pioneer Michael M. Merzenich believes, “everything you can see happen in a young brain can happen in an older brain.” This indicates that “naked time” is equally valuable for humans of any age, especially the elderly.
2. Barefoot Medicine. Going shoeless is now recognized as an anti-Alzheimer’s, brain-boosting activity because the sole sensation entices your brain into growing extra, efficient neuron connections. Merzenich believes our brains decline if we “limit the sensory feedback from our feet.” He advocates walking barefoot (to improve balance, posture, and co-ordination functions in the vestibulocerebellum.) Dr. Norman Doidge (author of The Brain That Changes Itself) concurs that skipping shoes will increase brain flexibility and youthfulness, and many podiatrists now advise going barefoot as much as possible. Bare feet are today’s prescription. Tomorrow’s elixir will take the next step: Bare Body.
Read more of “Get Naked: It’s Good for Your Brain” by Hank Hyena
