ndian-born wellness guru Deepak Chopra has become a cultural luminary in the US thanks to his evangelization of holistic new age healing techniques for both "body and soul."
But now the Californian-based Chopra is shifting his focus from frustrated "bobo's" -- the Bohemian bourgeoisie of the Baby Boom -- to their boisterous brats.
This summer he is inaugurating a summer camp called CosmiKids for children aged five to 12. The program plans to swap traditional camp activities like fishing and swimming for such new age delights as "Pint-size Aromatherapy" and "Fishing for Intentions at the Bridge of Imagination."
"Children of today have a more deeply felt interest in personal development and self-empowerment," explains CosmiKids Director Judy Williams.
Chopra's touchy-feely camp is far from alone -- it even has three nude kids' summer camps to compete with -- as America's huge summer camp industry embraces its latest fad: replacing old-fashioned adventures with new age hokum.
The reason for the shift is simple: the old style of physically challenging and austere summer getaways that were as American as milk shakes, apple pie and cheerleaders now seem to be increasingly irrelevant if not downright objectionable to the pampered youth of the digital generation.
Today, happy young campers can be found at establishments that offer veggie meals only, poetry sessions, massages, yoga, tai chi, pilates and meditation.
Like many other new age fads that promise a return to basics, such humble esotericism, doesn't come cheap: some camps charge as much as US$2,000 a week. Such activities are still a rarity for the 10 million kids who will attend 12,000 summer camps this year.
But organizers say that their camps are fast growing pioneers and well worth it for the life-changing experiences they offer.
At Omega, a wellness retreat that has just started a US$2,000 two-week teen camp in New York, kids while away the hours learning to write poetry and cleansing themselves in purification techniques that camp leaders believe will help turn directionless youth into responsible, focused and well-balanced adults.
Adam Simon, who directs the Omega camp, told the Wall Street Journal that he was inspired to start the camp after learning many of the adults at his wellness seminars started feeling sad and angry as teenagers.
"I want to work with teenagers and see if I can get to this earlier," he said.
The Ananda Living Wisdom Summer Camps in California offers service and meditation retreats, long canoe trips where speaking is banned, trail restoration activities, and non-denominational prayer services at the camp's temple.
The 55-year-old Camp Walt Whitman in Piermont, New Hampshire is starting a wellness program this summer that includes yoga, meditation and nutrition courses.
Jancy Dorfman, the camp's director, says such electives reach out to children who may have struggled at swimming or horseback riding.
"It's sort of an equalizer," she says.
Wolfe Seymour, 12, the son of a dancer and screenwriter, says he had mixed feelings about his experiences at a new age camp.
"I liked that it was more relaxed than other camps that I've been to. But I think I missed the sense of adventure and the physically tough activities."
He just laughs when asked if he would ever consider going to to Camp White Tail, a new nudist camp for kids that is causing controversy in Virginia.
The camp is the third au naturel camp for juveniles in the nation, and is part of a 45-acre family nudist resort. Organizers say that the camp for 11- to 18-year-olds is aimed at the children of member families for whom cavorting around in the buff is no big deal.
The camp offers the usual activities, plus such nude delights as splattering each others naked bodies with pudding.
Strict rules are enforced against lustful behavior, but that isn't comforting conservative critics, who have called on police to shut down the establishment. Police say the camp is perfectly legal, however. "Nudist camps as such are not prohibited by law," said a police representative. "If parents drop off their children there, there isn't anything I can do."
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