Things get ugly

The thing about sannyasins is that they are into sex. And all that lovey-dovey stuff that goes with it. And they like to talk about it. A lot. Most of us kids were well versed in the ins and outs (so to speak) of sexual intimacy. I would like to deny all of the media hype that we got - you know you saw some of it - the free love orgies and so forth, but really it all stems from some kernel of truth.

No, I didn't witness any creepy weird public sex orgies, but like i said, people were open and free about sex and they were having a lot of it. There was lots of kissing and hugging going on everywhere, and I'm sure there was a lot of fucking going on behind closed doors, if not in big creepy weird public sex orgies.

Some time in 1983, I went to Maggie's (Magdelena, the cafeteria) to have dinner. Sarv came running up from behind me, hoisted me up into the air, and planted a big kiss on me. Then he launched into this frantic tirade about how he heard it from on high that a decree was coming down that we were all to be prohibited from kissing so he was trying to get his last smooches in.

Some time in 1983, they figured out that AIDS was becoming a problem. They also figured out that it was passed from person to person through sexual contact. Imagine what that does in a free-sex-and-love community.

It was true. Sometime the next day, we all got called in to a meeting. I was still living in Antelope and going to school there. They brought us all in to the little kids' school room and they told us about AIDS. They told us about how it was spread, though they also told us it was spread through saliva. They told us it was going to be the next plague and probably what was going to bring humanity down. They told us how we were to prevent it:

- Always wear condoms when having sexual intercourse (OK)
- Wear rubber gloves when having any sexual contact (?)
- No kissing whatsoever (and now it starts getting crazy)
- Use alcohol on the toilet before and after use
- Use alcohol on telephones before and after use

Alcohol sprayers were everywhere - kitchens, each telephone area, food prep areas, bathrooms, etc. Everyone was paranoid. To this day, I feel weird kissing people on the lips again, though at the time I defied authority somewhat and snuck into the back of an empty bus with my boyfriend Kamal and french-kissed him for hours at a time.

Shortly after that initial meeting, we were called in to another one. We were told that every man, woman, and child living on the Ranch (the kids were moved back to the Ranch sometime during that hubbub) was going to have to have an AIDS test. People that tested positive for the virus were to be quarantined and continue to live separately from the rest of us for the rest of their days.

The panic I felt was overwhelming. I was sure all that kissing gave me AIDS.