One Kiss or Two? by Andy Scott

Author:Andy Scott
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gerald Duckworth & Co

7

It’s All in the Mind

Juan Mann’s life changed with a hug. Aged twenty-two and studying anthropology in London, he should have been in his prime. But things had begun to fall apart. His parents had divorced and his fiancée had broken off their engagement. He dropped out of his course, headed back home to Australia and ended up living as a recluse in a remote corner of town. Then, just as he’d hit rock-bottom, an old friend got in touch and dragged him to a party. And that’s when it happened: a stranger came up and gave him a hug. His world turned. ‘I felt like a king. It was the greatest thing that ever happened,’ he recalled.

Having experienced the transforming power of the gesture, a few days later, on 30 June 2004, Mann made a sign – ‘FREE HUGS’ – and took to the streets of Sydney. Standing in a busy shopping mall, he initially felt terrified, lonelier than ever. But he resolved to give it an hour and eventually an old lady tapped him on the shoulder. She’d also been going through a tough time, having recently lost her daughter in a car accident and, just that day, her dog. But now that he was confronted with someone who actually wanted a hug, Mann suddenly felt uneasy about the whole idea. Nevertheless, he knelt down and put his arms out. It was one of the most awkward hugs he’d ever had, though the lady said that it had brightened her day and left smiling. It was enough to keep Mann going and soon he was giving out hugs every few minutes, each time feeling a surge of well-being himself.

Over the next weeks and months, Mann kept returning to the mall with his sign. He hugged anyone and everyone, from students and tourists who were after a photo opportunity to people suffering from deep mental trauma, apparently even bringing one man back from the brink of suicide. The good vibes were infectious. Even people who didn’t stop for a hug were left smiling. It was ‘fast-food emotion’, Mann reflected. Soon others were joining him and, with the help of a music video, what became known as the ‘Free Hugs Campaign’ took off, spreading to more than seventy countries, including the likes of Norway, Jordan, Israel, Taiwan and even the UK (though it took a Portuguese waitress to get it going here).1

But while it was Mann and the music video that really got the Free Hugs Campaign going, none of this comes close to the efforts of a sixty-two-year-old Indian women, Mata Amritanandamayi. Affectionately known as Amma (meaning mother), it’s estimated that she has given out over 34 million hugs around the world, earning her unofficial canonisation as the ‘Hugging Saint’. From a small fishing village in southern India, Amma was born into the ‘untouchable’ caste, so low that they were segregated from the rest of Indian society to avoid contamination. Growing up in a world of poverty, she was struck by the terrible suffering around her.

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