The Farm: The Hippies of Tennessee

Stephen GaskinWikimedia

During the hippie movement of the 1960s and 1970s, there was a man who was considered to be a hippie 'high priest' named Professor Stephen Gaskin. This man was a professor at San Francisco State University and he had some very interesting teachings to provide to his students. He would have crowds of over a thousand hippie followers and any given time listing to his teaching of spiritual values. Like most members of the hippie movement, he preached a form of religious anarchism where he would combine the values of Christian anarchism and Buddhist anarchism into a combined ideology of freedom and faith. Most of these teachings would come in the form of his "Monday Night Class" lectures available to pretty much anybody who decided to visit his university at the right moment. Soon, however, the good professor had the idea of creating a proper community elsewhere where he could practice the religious anarchist beliefs that he preached.

This particular community would be known as The Farm, a commune located near the town of Summertown, Tennessee. The principles of this particular intentional community are based on the principle of religious anarcho-pacifism (though you do not have to be religious in order to join the community) and respect for the planet Earth. This community was founded in 1971 and also based itself on self-sufficiency. Early buildings of the community were created using converted school buses and modified army tents which helped to house residents & visitors alike. The main diet of people in The Farm tends to be vegetarian in nature. The community currently has multiple 'crews' to handle different functions of the community including an electrical crew, a farming crew, a clinic group, a firewood crew, people to maintain a school system, a demolition crew, and a bakery crew among other 'crews'. The Farm also has a charity and aid foundation called Plenty International that provides help during disaster events across the country. Overall, The Farm is a successful anarcho-pacifist society and a swell place to visit if you want to see the lifestyles of the religious branch of the hippie movement continue to this day!