The Journey of the Most Liberated Woman in America: Polyamory at the Legendary Sandstone Retreat

One of the Sexual Revolution pioneers, Barbara Williamson, shares her story for the first time ever as co-founder of the highly successful and controversial Sandstone Retreat in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Sandstone Retreat quickly became outrageously popular with membership reaching five hundred, and numerous newspapers, magazines, books, movies, and television shows clamoring for interviews. It became known as the hub of the sexual revolution.

Barbara’s life partner, John, was branded as “The Messiah of Sex” and Barbara herself as “The Most Liberated Woman in America.

University professors nationwide rushed to visit this new kind of unstructured free love community to view and study members joyously living an alternative lifestyle.

The dress code was optional but mostly, everyone preferred nudity. The goal at Sandstone was understanding society and setting it free. They believed in the sexual self as being at the core of organized social behavior. When sexuality is distorted, it leads to a distortion of the basic self.