NATURISM IN PORTUGAL

Being a naturist is more about your philosophy than your social behavior.

Naturists do not demand a utopian return to their origin but, whatever benefits cybernetics and technology are able to provide, naturists do need a niche of their own within the ecosystem. It's exactly this balance between the two that naturists want to achieve in their attitude to nature, to their bodies and to others.

Naturists favor the natural flow of things. They want to see themselves in a framework set for them by nature, but this framework so often proves to be synthetic and totally divorced from the earth that owns us. Naturists, whenever possible, prefer the natural way than to use artificial methods. They're in touch with natural medicine, yoga, natural food, protecting the environment, physical and mental exercise: in short, naturists believe in whatever leads to "mens sana in corpore sano".

In most of Europe, naturism has been with us for decades already as an organized movement and it's clear that it has been gaining in popularity. Its regrettable that in Portugal we have not yet so much encouraged this trend so that people who seek a healthy contact with nature can get to know the natural beauties of the country we live in.

Naturism in Portugal began when people on their own initiative chose a way of life within the principals that naturism believes in; yet, with very few exceptions, there are no organized points of reference for people who share the same ideals.

Nudist has always been associated with naturism but the alliance of the two is only too understandable, given that neither movement can rely on the ideological auspices of an established doctrine. But, if virtually all nudists are naturists, not all naturists are nudists. There are innumerable cultural reasons why people who choose a lifestyle based on natural principals do not feel at easy without their cloths on. We owe respect to them for their view and acknowledge their rights.

And while on this subject it might be of interest, in favor of those who do not strip, to quote Engels: "my freedom ends where yours begins" and, in favor of those who do strip to quote Michael Angelo: "What spirit could be so blind and empty as not to understand that the human foot is more noble than the shoe that covers it, and that the human skin is more lovely than the raiment that clothes it..."

The essence of our ideals is as ancient as our species.
We simply aim at not having constricted, in society, the most natural thing in the world: our body.