Jesus-loving hippie earns £1,200 per week showing tourists around his incredible flower power van during summer months in California
Jameson Godlove, 54, who spent years dressed as Saint Francis of Assisi, travels the world spreading a message of unity and oneness
A JESUS-loving hippie earns £1,200 per week showing summer tourists around his incredible flower power van - while promoting his message of unity and oneness.
Jameson Godlove, 54, who goes by the name One Feather, spent years dressed as Jesus Christ before donning a brown robe and preaching the teachings of Saint Francis – every single day for three years.
It was during that period that he started to develop his art van – which he calls the Temple of One Love – which is covered in thousands of toys and trinkets from his travels.
After spreading his Christian message, the bearded gentle giant evolved into One Feather, a herb-smoking hippie who continues to travel across America and the globe preaching about love.
For the past 16 years, he has spent his summers in sun-drenched Santa Barbara, California, showing off his van to tourists – who are happy to gift him a few bucks after being won over by his positive message.
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Pennsylvania-born Jameson insists that on a busy day, he can easily earn £160 from donations.
He said: “I would say that 99% of the tourists love the van as it’s so unique and has a deep spiritual vibe and message to it - promoting unity and oneness.
“I have used the characters from our collective pop culture including Star Wars and Star Trek characters which use metaphors to show how we are all connected.”
Jameson's started his path to hippie heaven in the Navy where he worked as a hospital corpsman looking after Vietnam veterans.
A then-teenage Jameson was caught smoking marijuana and thrown in a military correctional facility for 30 days.
Upon his release, he was given an ultimatum – he could re-join the Navy but he would never be able to smoke sweet Mary Jane again.
He said: “It was in 1982, when Ronald Reagan was pumping his chest getting tough on drugs before the marijuana-like conscious state we are in today.
“And then I had a choice to quit smoking pot or be a good Navy core man – so I decided to give a middle finger to the system. I’ve always been a hippie at heart.
“The best thing my country ever did was throw me out for smoking the chronic.”
In 1995, Jameson bought his beloved vehicle, a 1976 Dodge Sportsman Van B-200, for £1,400 which would become his spiritual home.
He purchased the van from a fellow hippie who was homeless and had a wife and child.
And with social services threatening to take the man’s baby away, Jameson heroically bought the car and the couple were able to find an apartment and keep their bundle of joy.
He said: “While building the van and living the hippie lifestyle, I drove it cross country four times and twice up and down the east coast of the US and about a dozen times up and down the west coast.”
After joining a hippie commune, Jameson donned the white robe of Jesus after dosing heavily on a sack of magic mushrooms.
He then travelled the world searching out sacred places of worship before receiving his next spiritual calling in Italy.
He said: “When I was in Italy I went to Assisi, birthplace of St Francis and was moved spiritually by his life and message of love, trusting that the universe will provide if your faith in love is solid enough to see you through the rough times.
“Then in 2000, after already five years in the van, working odd jobs to support my simplified lifestyle, I was inspired to do a modern day version of his story by living just on the tips or donations and see if I could live exclusively off of love.
“Saint Francis lived off the tip jar or the collection plate – so that’s when I started living off my heart, my art and robed as Francis.
“For three years I woke every morning and swallowed a communion wafer, said the prayer of Saint Francis and donned the robe
“I tried to live by his teachings every day before I dropped the robe and opened myself up again and became the Brother.
“I started to follow the spiritual-led principles from the teachings of a book called ‘A Course in Miracles’.
“Those teachings are in line with universal divine love with a traditional Christian understanding.”
Jameson used all his donations as Saint Francis to buy trinkets from craft shops to develop his art car.
Now the van boasts more than 5,000 toys, such as figurines from Harry Potter and Marvel Comics, and souvenirs from his travels and life on the road including miniatures of Big Ben and Edinburgh Castle.
The love-enthusiast has travelled all over the world through out Asia, South America and Europe.
Jameson has never married - although he insists that not having a family has given him the freedom to explore the world and himself.
He said: "Don't think me perpetually single, I have been most fortunate with attracting several relationships over the years and just again single after the recent five year run.
"As for family, I've never had the desire to raise kids nor the means too so choose not to. The freedom of this decision is why I have been blessed enough to have travelled the world many times over."
The trinket-laden van is now too heavy to travel and is kept in storage in California, while Jameson spends his off-season living at his home in Kentucky – which he was lucky enough to buy with his hippie earnings.
And through following his own path in life, he now earns twice as much as he ever could as a nurse.
But the ageing-van isn't the only one showing wear and tear. At 54, Jameson struggles with a bad back and doesn't know how many more years he can spend interacting with tourists down in Santa Barbara.
He said: “After 21 years in the van, and 16 seasons in California, I'm running down and I don't know how many years I have left in me.
“I am hoping to write a book and hopefully turn my story into a way to still support myself and spread my message.
“Maybe I'll inspire a new generation of hippies.
“I feel honoured to have been able to achieve the so-called American dream of home ownership having done it so individually, and artistically, following the beat of my own heart.”
“My favourite message which I scrawl on the van’s chalkboard is ‘we are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.’”
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