1/6/10 - The Naked Truth

The Naked Truth

1/6/10

“Our nakedness is a metaphor for our willingness to expose ourselves to the light.  Only evil needs a covering to shadow the darkness within.”  (J. Bird from her book, Heart Wide Open)

Yesterday, around 1:30 p.m. there came a knock on the door to my therapy room from my daughter, Destiny, telling me to get dressed as there were cops here at Heartsong wanting to arrest me.  I was in the middle of a sacred healing ceremony called “Ananda Nirvana” which in Sanskrit means “Blissful Heaven.”  This ceremony is not unlike the “Washing and Anointing Endowment Ceremony” which I had modeled after going through the Mormon Temple in 1979.  Since then I have been excommunicated from the LDS Church (without a court trial, mind you) because my husband, at the time, had joined the Mormon Fundamentalists. 

As a practicing Minister for my own church calling it “The Church of the Gathering of What is Real” and a Naturist Bodyworker, I was performing this sacred ceremony naked—as God intended.  As is also my regular custom and practice, I had the church member I was administering to sign all of the necessary legal disclosure forms, which included signing a private membership form which automatically enrolled him as a member of “The Church.”  These forms had all been drawn up by my attorney, who was also one of my clients, as a legal “protective umbrella” for me and my private members.  All of this is clearly explained to church members in detail along with descriptions of “Church Members Only” therapies which include the Ananda Nirvana ceremony involving sacred Aruvedic/Lomi Lomi massage, chakra energy work and hot towel washing of the body.  By mutual adult consent, my private member agreed not to be draped and also agreed to allow me to practice as I enjoy practicing sacred bodywork—au naturel.  I then asked him if there were any relationship issues I needed to be aware of, and he indicated that there weren’t.  I also explained that this was not a sexual solicitation, but the intent was for holistic healing of the body, mind and spirit—and not to create harm or damage in any way.  He agreed to all of the clearly disclosed terms of agreement while he and I were both still dressed.  I then lit the ceremonial candles, turned out the lights and turned on the soft music while he got undressed and onto the table face down.  I then got undressed so I would not get any of the warmed, organic coconut oil on my clothing while I did the over and under the body Aruvedic/Lomi Lomi treatment on the warm, oiled table.

About 30 minutes into the massage—just as I had asked my client to turn over—my daughter knocks on the door telling me that the police are here.  Before I or my church member could get dressed so as not to expose ourselves to the public view of my daughter (who’s uncomfortable around nudity) or anyone else who might be waiting outside the door, two male cops and one female cop barge into the room ready to arrest me.  I ask them politely to leave and close the door so that I can get dressed and so that my church member can also get dressed.  But they insist on leaving the door wide open and staying in the room to gawk at the two of us naked.  I then asked their permission to grab an available bathrobe to hand to my client and then grabbed another one for myself. 

Sitting on the edge of the massage table in my white bathrobe, I am then interrogated for over an hour concerning my “Sacred Ceremony” while my church member (now dressed) is interrogated in the other room on the couch.  He is then released without being charged.  (My son-in-law says he noticed the cops behind the house release his hand-cuffs followed by a slap on the back and a handshake, so I believe he was a mole in a “sting” operation.)

I, on the other hand, after thoroughly explaining the therapeutic and spiritual practices offered at Heartsong (in defense of my innocence of any wrongdoing) notice that blood is running down both of my legs.  I’m having one of those “periods from hell” as I’m pre-menopausal and have had eleven children.  The tampon I’d been wearing during the session had reached its capacity and so I politely asked if I could change into my clothes and put on a sanitary pad.  I am beset with resistance from the male “peace officers,” but finally a female officer has some compassion for me and agrees to escort me into my own bathroom where I am forced to disrobe in front of her in order to change my clothes and take care of my female issues.  (How embarrassing!)

After that the interrogation resumes in the retail center where I submit all of my Church Proclamation information and Kundalini/Tantric Energy Awakening Class curriculum to the officers.  I was more than willing to oblige them and offered any information they wanted concerning my therapy work as a Holistic Health Practitioner, Minister and Bodyworker.  I also offered them a guided tour of the Healing Center to show them all of our facilities because frankly, I had nothing to hide.  The ten arresting officers declined the offer, yet I later found out they had already searched my entire premises (which is also my residence) for drugs and weapons without a search warrant and had brutalized my son who was painting walls in the basement by kicking him in the leg when he refused to answer their questions.   

After that I was asked to surrender my I.D. to arresting officer “Hall” so that he could issue me a citation for “sexual solicitation.”  I, quite frankly, was dumbfounded. (Yet, admittedly somewhat flattered that a 52-year-old grandmother of 12 grandchildren had the capability of soliciting sex.)  I then asked them point-blank if this was simply a case of police harassment because of my outspoken opinions concerning the eight women who were arrested up a Diamond Fork.  They gave me a sideward glance and then I asked all of them if they were familiar with the articles in the Deseret News and City Weekly where I’m quoted in defense of these women fire-fighters:

That angers naturists like "J Bird," who says she has been going to Diamond Fork for clothing-optional meetings for years.

They call it "Church of the Hot Springs," and it has become a meeting place of spirituality and a way to enjoy the elements with all skin exposed, she said.

"We've had meetings up there for years and years and never run into anything quite so horrid. I am just appalled at the treatment those women got."

She said getting "skin deep" in the wild has nothing to do with sexuality.

"We get close to nature, close to God and are free from the limitations that society imposes on us."

As a result of the October encounter, Bird's group is tentatively planning a "soak-in" as a protest.  (Deseret News, December 9, 2009)

E-mail: amyjoi@desnews.com

Holladay’s Heartsong Healing Center spa owner Janae “Jesse” Bird knows one man who coordinated some of those improvements about a decade ago.  Bird’s friend became less active in the naturist community after receiving a lewdness citation at another of Utah’s hot springs.  Because he works with juveniles, Bird says, he rarely ventures to the springs anymore.

Bird is also a minister to about 500 people who attend The Church of the Gathering of what is Real or, when they gather at Diamond Fork, The Church of the Hot Springs.  She feels the threat of receiving lewdness citations for nude bathing at Diamond Fork violates her religious freedom.

“A lot of times, when Christ spoke, it was out in nature,” she says.  “That’s where we feel most close to God, and close to each other.”

Bird hopes to organize a “soak-in” to protest the lewdness citations, but no date has been set.

In a paper she wrote for her church in 2007, Bird quoted the Gospel of Thomas, a book of Jesus’ teachings thought to be written about 100 A.D. but not discovered until 1945.  In it, disciples ask Jesus, “When will you appear to us?”  Jesus responds, “When you strip without being ashamed, and you take your clothes and put them under your feet like little children and trample them, then you will see the son of the living one and you will not be afraid.  (Naked Zeal by Jesse Fruhwirth, page 14 of December 17, 2009 City Weekly)

All of the officers present confirmed that they were familiar with the two articles exposing the Utah County Sheriff’s Department for their “illegal arrests” of the female skinny-dippers up at Diamond Fork.  I told them I felt they were now harassing me and persecuting me for my own religious beliefs.  I refused to surrender my I.D. in order for Officer Hall to process the citation and told him that this was akin to a traffic officer asking a pedestrian to surrender their I.D. in order to issue a traffic violation when the pedestrian isn’t even in the car traveling down the highway.  Officer Hall didn’t appreciate my response and then when I asked him concerning the charges and why I was being charged with “sexual solicitation” he got extremely belligerent with me and said that it was “none of my business and that would all be discussed at my court hearing.”  I asked him if there had been any complaints issued that he was investigating and he again told me that all that would be discussed in court.  I then firmly told him that he was in violation of my rights as a private citizen in my own home and a Minister in my Church Sanctuary and that my hospitality in allowing the “Peace Officers” into my home had ended.  I then politely but firmly asked all ten police officers to leave my home unless they could show me a search warrant and probable cause to arrest me.

Officer Hall didn’t like my attitude so he grabbed my arms, twisting them hard up behind my back, handcuffed me and dragged me to his police car.  I begged him to release me as I told him that I was again hemorrhaging and needed to change my pad.  He didn’t have any compassion for me but simply threw a blanket over his passenger seat to protect his upholstery and shoved me hard into the front seat next to him.  He then drove me to the Salt Lake County Jail where I spent the next 6 hours being booked, body searched, and fingerprinted. 

As I was sitting in the holding tank with my arms uncomfortably pinned behind me, the tight handcuffs digging into my wrists, and blood from my now saturated sanitary napkin flowing down my capris (I’d asked several guards to allow me to change my pad but they ignored me), I recalled the only other time I was arrested.  It was after I’d escaped my polygamous relationship and I was arrested for trespassing on my own property in Montana in order to see my ten children that my polygamist ex-husband had been holding hostage for six months.  After spending a night in jail, crying my eyes out, the female judge released me with permission to “go home and horse-whip my husband.” 

This time after six hours of being held against my will, roughly bodily searched, fingerprinted and booked, I was released on my own recognizance.  My record was immaculate as I’ve never had even as much as an unpaid parking ticket in my 52 years of life on this planet.  I pride myself in being a law-abiding citizen and have tried to run Heartsong Healing Center in accordance with all Utah laws.  It has been difficult but I have never had any complaints in the nearly two years I’ve been in business.  As a Naturist, I feel I have a right to practice my profession in the privacy of my own home and sanctuary the way I feel most comfortable.  Heartsong is a reflective merger between Harbin and the Bellagio where I used to work as a lead therapist.  I learned Watsu/Waterdance (which the Bellagio paid for) and Aruvedic massage at Harbin which is a clothing optional spiritual retreat center in California’s Napa Valley where traditionally these therapies are performed in the nude.  Nudity there is considered “sacred” and I can honestly say I have never used my naked body to solicit sex.  I feel our bodies are our “sacred temples” and is where we worship God.  Our “church members only” massages are specifically designed for holistic (holy) healing of the body, mind and spirit and if I am guilty of anything—it’s being too open about my spiritual beliefs. 

As a youth growing up in the LDS religion I still remember having to memorize the Twelve Articles of Faith in order to receive my “Duty to God Award” in Primary.  One of my favorite Articles of Faith was number eleven which states:

“We claim the privilege of worshipping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience and allow all men (and women) the same privilege.  Let them worship how, where or what they may.”

There are two types of people in this world—adapters and transformers.  Adapters are those who try to adapt to their environment—not matter what.  It’s the easy road and most of us like to take it.  There’s a lot less risk and drama involved on this road.  Then there are those like me who are transformers.  They have a vision of what they would like their environment to look like—and they spend every waking moment trying to create that ideal environment.  There’s a lot of risk and drama on this road to transformation as it is a difficult path to take.  You must go up against everything that doesn’t match your perfect world and that means a lot of hard work and often heartache.  But I am committed to this road and if you are too—please join me on this path of transformation. 

I truly hope that this incident doesn’t turn into another “Salem Witch Hunt” here in Utah, where enlightened women (like myself) who are ordained by God to do sacred Goddess work are hunted down, persecuted and prosecuted.  I pray that we have truly evolved past the dark ages and are now ready to embrace the light of who we truly are—children of a loving Father/Mother God—and are willing to expose our own nakedness to the light.  I also pray for Chelsea and Cara, the two beautiful yet distraught female inmates I was able to minister to while in prison (Chelsea was 3 months pregnant with a two-year-old waiting at home for her and Cara was suffering from her own personal meltdown).  I also pray for the young nineteen-year-old college student who was arrested for rape when the father of an eighteen-year-old Mormon girl insisted that she press rape charges on this fine, outstanding young man who made love to his virgin girlfriend on New Year’s Eve.  (They both had a little too much to drink, I’m afraid, and simply allowed things to go too far.)  Unfortunately, now this young man is damaged for life because of her father’s superfluous “rape charge.”  I pray my career as an outstanding massage therapist and very successful spa owner here in Utah isn’t damaged because of these “superfluous charges”.  We have so much to offer here at Heartsong that isn’t available anywhere else in the country which include: Watsu, Waterdance, Ashiatsu, Thai Yoga Massage, Nirvana Massage, and cutting-edge healing technologies from around the world which are not found anywhere else.  It would be a great travesty to all Utahans to have to shut down Heartsong because of these “harassment charges.”

Thanks for listening and please pray for me and Heartsong and envision these charges being dropped.  If you feel to, you may also call the Salt Lake City Sheriff’s Department and issue a “citizen’s complaint” against these charges.  This can all be done anonymously and there is power in numbers.  I appreciate your love, support and healing prayers for all humanity who suffers because of ignorance and injustice.  Thanks—J. Bird (still naked as a and not a “jail bird” I hope)  God bless us everyone!