The 1960s was a watershed moment in the wellness movement. It was defined in the US by the civil rights movement, the Vietnam war and its resulting anti-war protests and a generational divide. It was a time when the world was split by a Cold War, where a near conflict between the West and communist Soviet Russia erupted, contrasted by a golden age in America when the first man landed on the moon.
From a wellness perspective, the 1960s was the decade when fat became the number one enemy and meal replacements hit the U.S. market with names like English Toffee and Chocolate Coconut. Pepsi released its one-calorie Cola with other products such as Slim Mint chewing gum that advertised itself as helping one to eat less. Weight loss also took a hold on the spa industry, with fat farms and weight loss camps popping up in America at the rate of two or three a year mainly targeting the elite. It was also when the term aerobics was coined, stationary bikes, which had been introduced in the 1950s, became popular, as did vibrating belts or rollers to shake away fat. In the West, this was the decade when the social norms of the 1950s were turned upside down, in part due to the pill which gave women more control and independence. It is referred to as the swinging sixties because of this newfound sexual freedom and new styles of music such as the Beatles. It also witnessed the birth of the hippy counter-culture movement.
Now referred to as the Baby Boomer generation, many white middle-class teenagers and young people, both in Europe and America began to reject the 1950s conservative way of life, which they saw as superficial and materialistic. They began to travel to countries such as India and Thailand to search out new ways of living and different approaches to spirituality. Visiting or living in communes with their own values and systems, such as going for a time to a Kibbutz in Israel became popular. In the US, many young people emigrated to liberal cities such as San Francisco to search out a new way of life, often practicing free love, consuming vegetarian diets, and practicing alternative therapies and holistic health, which often included cannabis and hallucinogenic drugs in place of traditional medicine. The hippies found alternatives to Christianity, embracing religions from the East, brought back from their travels such as Buddhism and Hinduism and mixing them with esoteric beliefs such as astrology. The hippie culture inspired the opening of spiritual and holistic retreats, such as the Esalen retreat in California, introducing spiritual influences from the East with Western science, combining Zen Buddhism, Western psychology and yoga to create a utopian vision.
Following on from the 1960s, the next decade of the 1970s was synonymous with bellbottoms, discotheques, and recession. While people had been calorie-counting for decades, in the 1970s, amphetamine prescriptions that suppressed appetite (given to soldiers in the Vietnam war to keep them awake) became widely used in the U.S. By the 1970s, ephedra (a drug combination of ephedrine and caffeine) was the diet drug of choice, followed later by feh-phen. Both drugs help reduce appetite, however, following reports of hypertension, stroke and heart problems, they were eventually removed from the market in the 1990s. Although it had been set up a decade before in 1963, this was the decade when Weight Watchers established itself as the dominant weight loss brand. In 1978, Weight Watchers was bought by Heinz and although it was later sold, it continued to develop and distribute slimming products launching its quick success food program, increasing the recommended vegetable intake from two to three servings and introducing a vegetarian meal plan.
While each decade witnessed certain fitness trends (such as the stretching and gymnastics of the 30s and 40s, hula-hooping of the 50s, and vibrating belts of the 60s), the 1970s saw the introduction of jazzercize, an intense calorie-burning dance routine, and the popularization of roller skating. It was also the era of the running and jogging culture and the introduction of specific footwear for this sport. Fitness facilities were still few and far between, those that did exist were either bodybuilding, sports centers, or home multi-gyms that focused on strength equipment.
Fat camps and farms continued to remain popular in the States and in Western Europe. The difference between these and modern-day weight loss programs was the luxury component and the sole focus on calories and quick weight loss, attracting films stars such as Elizabeth Taylor and Carrie Fisher, executives and their wives. Spas in Central Europe witnessed an expansion, and countries such as Hungary realized that their natural resources such as thermal water and expertise in physiotherapy could attract foreign tourists from neighboring countries, hence Eastern Europe experienced a boom in the building of medical spa hotels, aimed primarily at elderly guests suffering from muscular skeletal diseases. Historical spas that had been established in the 18th and 19th centuries, were expanded into factory-like mega-treatment centers for working people, who under socialist systems were now able to benefit from their therapies, whether the treatments they offered were evidence-based or not. Likewise in Central Western Europe in countries like Germany and Austria, spa destinations expanded with larger facilities and more hotels attracting a wider class of guests and day visitors.
In the West, the fight for equality, such as civil, women’s and LGBTQ rights continued. In reaction to the ongoing war in Vietnam, there was also a popular reactionary peace movement in the U.S. that contrasted and clashed with a new right-wing movement that based itself on conservative Christian values. This was also the era where wellness started to become embraced by certain sections of society, in part caused by the New Age movement (a spillover from the hippies). The New Age movement had its roots in theosophy (a 19th-century occult movement) that believed a deeper spiritual reality could be reached through transcending consciousness by means such as meditation. Proponents believed that a new age of spiritual consciousness and a peaceful spiritual awakening of the general population was on the horizon. Eastern mysticism, Zen meditation, tarot reading, astrology, yoga, meditation, auras and energies were all integrated into this movement, inspired by the theosophist David Spangler, who believed that astrological observations heralded the dawning of a new era known as the Age of Aquarius. This paved the way for writers and thinkers such as Helen Schucman who wrote the 1976 book A Course in Miracles, (the miracle being the act of gaining an awareness of love’s presence in one’s own life) and The Road Less Travelled (1978) by M. Scott Peck, a book which combined science and religion to help solve life’s problems through discipline, love and goodwill. Other ground-breaking self-help books of the era included Thomas Anthony Harris’s I’m OK, you’re OK (1969), another guide for solving life’s problems. The New Age movement also embraced the sexual liberation of the 1960s with books such as George and Nena O’Neill’s Open Marriage: A New Life Style for Couples (1972), as an alternative to traditional monogamous marriage, and the revolutionary Joy of Sex (1972). This new age movement with its eclectic mix of Buddhism, Taoism, paganism, clairvoyance, the occult and magic, superstition and psychotherapy as well as belief in a life force or qi penetrated well into the 1980s. Perhaps its biggest influence on today’s perception of wellness is its focus on the self: self-improvement, self-development, holistic health, and the belief that humans are all interconnected. By the late 80s, three to five million Americans had identified themselves as New Age.
Against this backdrop of holism and self-development, inspired by Dunn’s work (described in detail in the previous article), John Travis (author and doctor) launched the very first wellness center in Mill Valley California. He decided that rather than treating sick people he would dedicate his life to inspiring people to be well. A wellness program was offered for eight months which covered weekly group meetings and individual sessions where clients were taught how to relax, improve their communication skills, take responsibility for themselves, and visualize desired outcomes. A tool was also developed to assess one’s levels of wellness called the wellness inventory. He published a 12-dimension wellness assessment tool, The Wellness Inventory (1975) and The Wellness Workbook (1977) – the latter are both still in use today. He also created his illness-wellness continuum, wellness being attainable through mindfulness, education and action.
The influence of the hippies and New Age movement is still evident today in many wellness facilities. Its effects managed to survive the individualist, money-focused decade of the 1980s. It also inspired a new generation of self-help books and interest in life longevity and health habits. Conversely, however, it is also responsible for many dubious, non-evidence-based services and treatments that can still be found in many spas and wellness centers today. To find out more check out our book: entitled “Wellness for the 21st Century, thriving in a post pandemic world”, now available on Amazon.