Last week, a nude dining event took place in a trendy New York neighborhood. New York citizens participated in guided breathing exercises and nude dining.
The inventor of the experience, Charlie Ann Max, claimed that both men and women participated in the “Füde Breathwork Experience,” which purportedly had no sexual component but sought to connect people with their “pure authentic selves.” (Watch: https://metro.co.uk/video/nude-dining)
Max’s love for cooking, nudity, and companionship inspired her to host her first naked group meals in 2020.
The Füde Dinner Experience, The Füde Breathwork Experience, The Füde Clay Experience, and The Füde Photo Experience are the four sister events she presently organizes in New York and Los Angeles.
Max’s German-Jewish heritage is honored by the name, which is pronounced like “food.”
For entry, competitors must pay anywhere from USD 44 to USD 88.
Niko Jane, who took part in her third Füde, said it was “definitely worth it.”
“It’s stepping out of your comfort zone in such a safe way, even though it doesn’t seem like that walking in the door,” said Jane. “When you get here, you’re… everyone’s a little timid and a little, like, slow. But I mean, the more you’re here, people are just hanging out, and we just happen to be naked. It’s nice to be in a space that’s not sexual. Naked.”
A breathwork facilitator guided the participants through the breathing exercise after which they had a vegan dinner of herb salad, basmati rice, and chocolate-covered strawberries.
Many, like Mehow Podstawski, focused instead on the breakthroughs that came from the breathwork.
“Out of nowhere, I realized that I was working through a fear that I didn’t know I had, and I just started crying,” said Podstawski. “And all of a sudden, it was like this fear that you have is so irrational that it doesn’t matter, and you are powerful enough and strong enough to, like, go through this, and take on the next opportunity that comes your way because you are, you have the strength, and the only reason why you’re saying ‘no’ is because you’re scared. And so that was really nice.”
Everyone who attended the event had to register through a website and then were screened so that participants would have a safe experience.
“A lot of times people are nervous,” said Max. “People are coming in for the first time to experience nudity in a group, and so it’s important that we have different facilitators to come in to help people feel more comfortable.”
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