No Mad Living
by Jan Svante Vanbart

This is the sto­ry of ”The Illuminated Elephants”, a modern rebel tri­be and their kalei­dosco­pic adven­tu­res whe­re they meet exci­ting peop­le and disco­ver ama­zing pla­ces. They learn about arts and crafts, about ritu­als and tra­di­tions. With their avant-gar­de thea­ter plays, they also — with humor and seri­ous­ness — spre­ad the vision that it is pos­sib­le to live in har­mo­ny with natu­re, a wise alter­na­ti­ve to the many, often devas­ta­ting life­sty­le that cha­rac­te­ri­zes Western culture.

NO MAD LIVING is a sequel to Jan Svante Vanbart’s pre­vious book Vi drog – jor­den runt med 68-gene­ra­tio­nen (Wahlström & Widstrand 2005). It also begins with a sum­ma­ry of the jour­ney that began in 1973 at the legen­da­ry artist com­mu­ne ”Drakabygget” in nort­hwes­tern Skåne — through Europe and Asia, via Australia — to Mexico, whe­re they arri­ved in April 1975.

Now they tra­vel up to the US and then back to Mexico. The book is divi­ded into for­ty-seven chap­ters with hea­dings such as ”Haiti Babas Died Here”, ”Soma”, ”A new Base”, ”The White Mountains”, ”The Tucson event”, ”Nihe nahu­ko pue­blo” and ”Huehuecoyotl”.

Although ”The Illuminated Elephants” is always on the road, their stay is some­ti­mes a litt­le long­er. As a rea­der, one may for a whi­le think that mee­tings and disco­ve­ri­es do not appe­ar to be coin­ci­dences. Probably their spe­ci­al appli­cant is a com­bi­na­tion with the invi­ting open­ness they encoun­ter. After all, it is the 1970s that are often cha­rac­te­ri­zed by “pea­ce, love and understan­ding”. New worlds, spi­ri­tu­al and some­ti­mes psyche­de­lic expe­ri­ences, do not frighten them but pro­vi­de inspi­ra­tion to move on to a goal that will even­tu­al­ly emer­ge in clarity.

About Jan Svante Vanbart »

The trip ends on March 6, 1982 when The Illuminated Elephants reaches the loca­tion in Mexico whe­re they establish the eco­vil­lage of Huehuecoyotl. But they don’t stop. Involvement in the envi­ron­men­tal and “alter­na­ti­ve” move­ments, regu­lar trips and other groups that visi­ted them, has con­tri­bu­ted to more eco-vil­la­ges in the region.

”To be continued!

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