http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3144/2795616672_e9a700dbf9.jpg
Divine Order of the Royal Arms of the Great Eleven (a.k.a. The Eleven Club or more commonly known: The Blackburn Cult). Forty years before Charlie Manson, the Santa Susanna Mountains were home base to the Great Eleven cult. Taking their name from 11:3 in Revelation "And I will grant my two witnesses power to prophesy for one thousand two hundred and sixty days," the cult was really just May Otis Blackburn and her "girl of many loves" (according to the press) daughter, Ruth Rizzio. Ruth had a small grifting business going for herself when in 1922 her mother was charged by the archangel Gabriel to reveal the mysteries of heaven and earth. Faster than you can solve the equation SEX + RELIGION = COLD CASH, mom and daughter had relocated from Bunker Hill up to 164 acres of donated Santa Susannas and set themselves up with a steady income from believers and a supply of animals to periodically sacrifice. Copy-pasting from the links:
The "two" whose prophetic activities the cult believed were foretold in the verse were a mother and daughter who used sex, religion, greed and animal sacrifices to separate believers from their money. Most of this occurred while the cultists were awaiting the return of the Messiah--an event they believed would coincide with the "resurrection" of a dead 16-year-old "priestess," whose body they kept on ice in a bathtub. Occasionally, the dead "priestess" was taken off the ice for a spin around Los Angeles in the back seat of a touring car.The alleged angels allegedly told the alleged prophets to close their doors on the world for more than three years and to write a book about the "sixth sense" called the "Great Sixth Seal," explaining the mysteries of life and health, heaven and earth. The angels also promised to reveal the "lost measurements" that would lead them to all the hidden gold and oil deposits in the world.Upon hearing this revelation, Clifford Dabney, the nephew of local oil magnate Joseph Dabney, joined the cult and offered Blackburn $40,000 in cash and property, including 164 rolling acres that sprawled across a canyon in the community of Santa Susana Knolls in Simi Valley.All she had to do was share the "lost measurements."It was in the canyon that the cult built a dozen cabins and a temple filled with furniture, including a massive gilded wood throne weighing 800 pounds, sitting upon four hand-carved paws and adorned with a lion's head. The temple was sealed off, waiting for Christ's return.Cult members were said to gather there at night in the woods, as high priestesses in long robes sacrificed mules in a ceremony called the “Jaws of Death.” Following these rites, the cultists danced about in the nude around ceremonial bonfires. On this same site, the leader of the Great Eleven Club, Mrs. May Otis Blackburn, later baked a disciple in a brick oven to cure a “blood malady.” Two days later, the disciple predictably died. Soon after, the Great Eleven Club became the subject of a police investigation when it was discovered that four other members had mysteriously disappeared. One of the more gruesome discoveries was the corpse of a 16-year old girl, Willa Rhoads, who was stored in a pickled state for three years while the cult awaited her resurrection. Rhoads’ body was later exhumed from a crypt beneath a house in Venice, California. Afterwards, the cult reportedly relocated to the Lake Tahoe area, and was never heard from again.
The alleged angels allegedly told the alleged prophets to close their doors on the world for more than three years and to write a book about the "sixth sense" called the "Great Sixth Seal," explaining the mysteries of life and health, heaven and earth. The angels also promised to reveal the "lost measurements" that would lead them to all the hidden gold and oil deposits in the world.
Upon hearing this revelation, Clifford Dabney, the nephew of local oil magnate Joseph Dabney, joined the cult and offered Blackburn $40,000 in cash and property, including 164 rolling acres that sprawled across a canyon in the community of Santa Susana Knolls in Simi Valley.
All she had to do was share the "lost measurements."
It was in the canyon that the cult built a dozen cabins and a temple filled with furniture, including a massive gilded wood throne weighing 800 pounds, sitting upon four hand-carved paws and adorned with a lion's head. The temple was sealed off, waiting for Christ's return.
Cult members were said to gather there at night in the woods, as high priestesses in long robes sacrificed mules in a ceremony called the “Jaws of Death.” Following these rites, the cultists danced about in the nude around ceremonial bonfires. On this same site, the leader of the Great Eleven Club, Mrs. May Otis Blackburn, later baked a disciple in a brick oven to cure a “blood malady.” Two days later, the disciple predictably died. Soon after, the Great Eleven Club became the subject of a police investigation when it was discovered that four other members had mysteriously disappeared. One of the more gruesome discoveries was the corpse of a 16-year old girl, Willa Rhoads, who was stored in a pickled state for three years while the cult awaited her resurrection. Rhoads’ body was later exhumed from a crypt beneath a house in Venice, California. Afterwards, the cult reportedly relocated to the Lake Tahoe area, and was never heard from again.
Selected links:http://www.onbunkerhill.org/greatelevenhttp://articles.latimes.com/1999/may/23/local/me-40217http://gorightly.wordpress.com/2009/01/03/the-great-eleven-club/
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 8 July 2009 08:42 (fourteen years ago) link
On this same site, the leader of the Great Eleven Club, Mrs. May Otis Blackburn, later baked a disciple in a brick oven to cure a “blood malady.” Two days later, the disciple predictably died.
!!
― gnarly sceptre, Wednesday, 8 July 2009 11:16 (fourteen years ago) link
http://www.borderlands.com/archives/meade.jpg
Borderland Sciences Research Foundation. Golden Dawn/Society Of The Inner Light member Meade Layne founded BSRF in Vista, CA to further investigate the metaphysical aspects of the Swedish "ghost rocket" wave of 1946 and their similarities to some elements of the Shaver Mysteries - a series of stories that (sort of) details the existence of parallel civilization on Earth. Maybe.
Vague as that is, Layne finds himself writing about UFOs just as the 1947 saucer wave crashes which gives him plenty of ears for his weird mix of off-the-shelf occultism, Ascended Masters, flying saucers, Tibetan Brotherhoods, and Little Green Men. Unlike much of the tin can/spaceship UFOs theories of the time, Layne looked at UFOs as an anti-materialistic, paranormal phenomonon. Besides, Layne and his Inner Light friends had been chatting with the Space People since the beginning so they knew They were already on the way.
Layne passes/ascends/whatever in 1961, but Borderland Sciences continues today (they're based in Eureka, CA now) - mostly as a publishing house now. Trevor Constable is probably his closest disciple, but Constable deserves his own entry (plus I'm not sure if he's SoCal based)
― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 11 August 2009 22:49 (fourteen years ago) link
Jan 4, 1920 - Police raid Temple Of The Sun cult headquarters
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c630a53ef0128769a5e32970c-pi
― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 5 January 2010 01:07 (fourteen years ago) link
awesome thread
― Cunga, Friday, 29 January 2010 23:22 (fourteen years ago) link
Any other book recommendations, Elvis Telecom? I'm already looking into the ones mentioned upthread.
― Cunga, Friday, 29 January 2010 23:44 (fourteen years ago) link
http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/cameron.jpg
Marjorie Cameron There's so much WTF in her life that I can't really condense it down so I'll resort to copy/paste
When she was 17, the Great Depression was underway and Cameron moved with her family to Davenport, Iowa, a considerably larger town than Belle Plain. Having trouble adjusting and after the suicide of a close friend, Cameron several times tried unsuccessfully to take her own life using sleeping pills. She claims that these near brushes with death had further enhanced her psychic abilities, reportedly giving her a glimpse into the realm of the dead.In 1943, in the midst of World War II, the 21 year-old Cameron joined the Navy-turning down several scholarships. She was sent along with 3000 other women to boot camp in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Soon she was selected for a high-level job in Washington, DC, where she applied her artistic skills by drawing maps for the war efforts. She was then sent to the Joint Chiefs of Staff where she once met Winston Churchill. She had a drafting table at the head of their conference room. Later, she felt that many men died in the South Pacific as a result of her drawings, Cameron considered all of her drawings to be magical talismans that had a very real effect on the world, she always felt a karmic connection to these men and believed that later tragic events in her life were the result of her participation in their deaths.By the late 1950s, Cameron was living in Malibu and hanging out with a crowd of artists that included the likes of Dennis Hopper, Wallace Berman, Bruce Conner, and others. Wallace Berman's show at the Ferus Gallery was closed in 1957 after displaying one of Cameron's drawings which depicted a woman, possibly Cameron, being taken from behind by an alien creature.When rocket propulsion researcher and occultist Jack Parsons met Marjorie Cameron, he regarded her as the fulfilment of magical rituals he had been performing as the beginning of the Babalon Working, roughly, an attempt to incarnate in a physical body a divine entity that would bring about great change for the Aeon of Horus.Parsons wrote of Cameron in a letter to his mentor Aleister Crowley in 1946:"The feeling of tension and unease continued for four days. Then on January 18 1946 at sunset, whilst the Scribe and I were on the Mojave Desert, the feeling of tension suddenly stopped. I turned to him and said 'it is done', in absolute certainty that the Operation was accomplished. I returned home, and found a young woman (Marjorie Cameron) answering the requirements waiting for me. She is describable as an air of fire type with bronze red hair, fiery and subtle, determined and obstinate, sincere and perverse, with extraordinary personality, talent and intelligence. During the period of January 19 to February 27 I invoked the Goddess BABALON (a particular aspect of the Egyptian goddess Nuit) with the aid of magical partner (Ron Hubbard), as was proper to one of my grade."They termed this incarnation the Moonchild. Writes Aleister Crowley on the subject:"The Aeon of Horus is of the nature of a child. To perceive this, we must conceive of the nature of a child without the veil of sentimentality - beyond good and evil, perfectly gentle, perfectly ruthless, containing all possibilities within the limits of heredity, and highly susceptible to training and environment. But the nature of Horus is also the nature of force - blind, terrible, unlimited force."The Babalon Working was allegedly successful.After her husband Jack Parsons' death, she starred in Kenneth Anger's 1965 cult-film Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome. Both Cameron and Kenneth believed that this film was proof to the world that she had manifested the force of Babalon on Earth. Anger later said of her that "She was doing art for the sake of magick and her soul. She never sold her paintings." Cameron later burned most of her paintings in the late 1950s in a symbolic suicide performed with her second husband Sherif Kimmil after they had been up for several days on speed and had formed what Cameron called a "suicide club". Kimmil slit his wrists in the bathroom at the same time as the burning. Cameron's two brothers, her sister and also her father worked JPL, the company co-founded by her husband, Jack Parsons. She was a protege of mythologist Joseph Campbell.Marjorie Cameron Parsons Kimmel died of cancer on the 24th of July, 1995
In 1943, in the midst of World War II, the 21 year-old Cameron joined the Navy-turning down several scholarships. She was sent along with 3000 other women to boot camp in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Soon she was selected for a high-level job in Washington, DC, where she applied her artistic skills by drawing maps for the war efforts. She was then sent to the Joint Chiefs of Staff where she once met Winston Churchill. She had a drafting table at the head of their conference room. Later, she felt that many men died in the South Pacific as a result of her drawings, Cameron considered all of her drawings to be magical talismans that had a very real effect on the world, she always felt a karmic connection to these men and believed that later tragic events in her life were the result of her participation in their deaths.
By the late 1950s, Cameron was living in Malibu and hanging out with a crowd of artists that included the likes of Dennis Hopper, Wallace Berman, Bruce Conner, and others. Wallace Berman's show at the Ferus Gallery was closed in 1957 after displaying one of Cameron's drawings which depicted a woman, possibly Cameron, being taken from behind by an alien creature.
When rocket propulsion researcher and occultist Jack Parsons met Marjorie Cameron, he regarded her as the fulfilment of magical rituals he had been performing as the beginning of the Babalon Working, roughly, an attempt to incarnate in a physical body a divine entity that would bring about great change for the Aeon of Horus.Parsons wrote of Cameron in a letter to his mentor Aleister Crowley in 1946:
"The feeling of tension and unease continued for four days. Then on January 18 1946 at sunset, whilst the Scribe and I were on the Mojave Desert, the feeling of tension suddenly stopped. I turned to him and said 'it is done', in absolute certainty that the Operation was accomplished. I returned home, and found a young woman (Marjorie Cameron) answering the requirements waiting for me. She is describable as an air of fire type with bronze red hair, fiery and subtle, determined and obstinate, sincere and perverse, with extraordinary personality, talent and intelligence. During the period of January 19 to February 27 I invoked the Goddess BABALON (a particular aspect of the Egyptian goddess Nuit) with the aid of magical partner (Ron Hubbard), as was proper to one of my grade."
They termed this incarnation the Moonchild. Writes Aleister Crowley on the subject:
"The Aeon of Horus is of the nature of a child. To perceive this, we must conceive of the nature of a child without the veil of sentimentality - beyond good and evil, perfectly gentle, perfectly ruthless, containing all possibilities within the limits of heredity, and highly susceptible to training and environment. But the nature of Horus is also the nature of force - blind, terrible, unlimited force."
The Babalon Working was allegedly successful.
After her husband Jack Parsons' death, she starred in Kenneth Anger's 1965 cult-film Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome. Both Cameron and Kenneth believed that this film was proof to the world that she had manifested the force of Babalon on Earth. Anger later said of her that "She was doing art for the sake of magick and her soul. She never sold her paintings." Cameron later burned most of her paintings in the late 1950s in a symbolic suicide performed with her second husband Sherif Kimmil after they had been up for several days on speed and had formed what Cameron called a "suicide club". Kimmil slit his wrists in the bathroom at the same time as the burning. Cameron's two brothers, her sister and also her father worked JPL, the company co-founded by her husband, Jack Parsons. She was a protege of mythologist Joseph Campbell.
Marjorie Cameron Parsons Kimmel died of cancer on the 24th of July, 1995
― Stockhausen's Helicopter Quartet (Elvis Telecom), Tuesday, 16 November 2010 02:02 (thirteen years ago) link
Visionary State is still the one to start with, but really you can just pick anything out of the occult section of the Amok Books/Koma Books catalog and keep checking the footnotes/references. I'm just starting in on L.A. Despair: A Landscape of Crimes & Bad Times which is a compendium of bottom-of-barrel true crime sordidness that's catnip for the Ellroy set.
― Stockhausen's Helicopter Quartet (Elvis Telecom), Tuesday, 16 November 2010 02:13 (thirteen years ago) link
When I saw Craig Baldwin introduce Mock Up On Mu, an unfortunately terrible film about Parsons, Cameron, Hubbard et al, he really talked up John Carter's Sex and Rockets.
― C0L1N B..., Tuesday, 16 November 2010 02:57 (thirteen years ago) link
I wonder if Ross MacDonald was thinking of this with The Moving Target?
― boots get knocked from here to czechoslovakier (milo z), Tuesday, 16 November 2010 03:33 (thirteen years ago) link
There's a book out on Marjorie Cameron now.
Wormwood Star: The Magickal Life of Marjorie Cameron
― nickn, Wednesday, 9 February 2011 03:23 (thirteen years ago) link
Oh cool! I had no idea...
― Stockhausen's Ekranoplan Quartet (Elvis Telecom), Wednesday, 9 February 2011 03:42 (thirteen years ago) link
Emperor Norton wuz robbed. Oh wait, this is an LA thread.
― The 33 1/3 Policeman (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 15 February 2011 16:22 (thirteen years ago) link
I was going to say.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 15 February 2011 16:25 (thirteen years ago) link
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/5240_1200084928019_1405412996_557342_6187673_n.jpg
― jaxon, Friday, 11 March 2011 20:08 (thirteen years ago) link
This book just popped up on my radar...
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51qLjirH1KL._SL500_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-40,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg
Seems to be hyper-bullshitic, but this isn't the first time I've heard of high weirdness going on in the early Inland Empire. Only it doesn't just tie in the Zodiac Killer, but throws in Crowley, Harry Houdini and the occult geography that connects them all together.
Podcast interview with the authors here: http://radiomisterioso.com/2011/08/01/walter-bosley-and-richard-spence-occult-murder-from-1915/ (follow iTunes link on the right)
― Stockhausen's Ekranoplan Quartet (Elvis Telecom), Tuesday, 2 August 2011 22:18 (twelve years ago) link
slept-on post by jaxon above!
― puerile fantasies (Matt P), Tuesday, 2 August 2011 22:23 (twelve years ago) link
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2735/4051980281_4259952d81.jpg
Krotona (a.k.a. Krotona Institute Of Theosophy) Founded in 1919, Krotona was envisioned as a utopian Theosophist colony, a "modern Athens" where residents would "suffer neither fog nor dust nor frost." When it was finally completed in Beachwood Canyon, the colony was an oddball architectural mashup best described as Walt Disney Moorish complete with onion domes, keyhole windows, and Rosicrucian carvings everywhere. Most of the colony was funded by a Hawaiian sugar cane heiress and during it's heyday from 1919 to 1924, attracted assorted mystics, New Atlantis searchers, requisite celebrities (Mary Astor and Charlie Chaplin were active there), and anyone questing for the California Dream.
LA's growth eventually suburbanized the Hollywood Hills and in the late 1920s Krotona split for Ojai where it remains. Parts of the Krotona complex remain today and like a lot of buildings from that era - it's been subdivided into apartments. One of Krotona's lodges is still used for theosophist lectures.
― Stockhausen's Ekranoplan Quartet (Elvis Telecom), Monday, 24 October 2011 22:05 (twelve years ago) link
So that's where Pynchon got the idea.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 24 October 2011 22:08 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.cinefamily.org/films/special-events-november-2011/#process-media-presents-aliens-from-spaceship-earth-director-in-person-2
― reconstituted pork offal slurry (get bent), Saturday, 19 November 2011 05:21 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jg5RXSZiU8
Now that looks prime.
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 19 November 2011 05:24 (twelve years ago) link
already got tickets.
― reconstituted pork offal slurry (get bent), Saturday, 19 November 2011 05:24 (twelve years ago) link
damn, that's my kind of movie
― Chris S, Saturday, 19 November 2011 05:33 (twelve years ago) link
There're lots of L.A. kooks, I gather.
― Bon Ivoj (jaymc), Saturday, 19 November 2011 06:41 (twelve years ago) link
There's a movie about the Source cult that premiered at SXSW. Brief description here.
The Source
― nickn, Sunday, 18 March 2012 06:55 (twelve years ago) link
Patrick 'The Lama' Lundborg has a feature in the forthcoming magazine FLASHBACK!http://galacticramble.blogspot.com/2012/02/flashback-magazine.html?showComment=1332010778054#c7808808967812838351about Psychedelic Roots in the 50s. Not sure exactly what it's about, but seeing this thread I wonder if it's related. Won't know until it comes out in April
― Stevolende, Sunday, 18 March 2012 12:06 (twelve years ago) link
Esotouric is running their "Maja's Mysteries Tour" again in April. Recommended if you're interested by any of this... http://esotouric.com/maja-4-28-12
― Reality Check Cashing Services (Elvis Telecom), Thursday, 22 March 2012 20:35 (twelve years ago) link
that Source documentary was AMAZING, caught it earlier today here in Berkeley. easily one of the best films on the counterculture and cults/communes I've seen.
there are a couple more showings coming up in SF soon, as well as a meet & greet at Aquarius Records this Tuesday, and a performance by Yahowa 13's Djin Aquarian at the Vortex Room on Saturday
― Chris S, Monday, 23 April 2012 05:54 (eleven years ago) link
?! It's screening as part of the SF Film Festival on Friday and Sunday - I'm glad it's amazing, because I want to see it.
― sarahell, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 18:10 (eleven years ago) link
I try to make a point of peeling myself away from the screens, stepping outside and walking around for a while, no matter how busy ( reaching the backyard, at least). Also been meaning to check out some more self-organized (?) meditation. But listening to Donovan and the winds he's walking through during the last part of this clip, I'm reminded of having read that meditating brain waves were found to be not unlike those generated during a nap--nothing wrong w that, but also reminded i've been wondering if my type of zoning out on a tree is any better/different than staring at screens.
― dow, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 19:28 (eleven years ago) link
Kinda poignant http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/05/07/fifteen-years-after-the-suicides-who-is-running-the-heavens-gate-website/
― dow, Monday, 7 May 2012 22:01 (eleven years ago) link
The Lewis Shiner story I remember best is "Jeff Beck," which should def be in an anthology of rock x sf--maybe it already is? Anyway, it's in this collection, which I haven't read, and online (xpost and sev others)http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1235134277l/257355.jpg
― dow, Monday, 7 May 2012 22:11 (eleven years ago) link
what the heckimage credit: Perihelio Deviant Arthttp://static.flickr.com/67/193228466_587a24c090_o.jpg
― dow, Monday, 7 May 2012 22:19 (eleven years ago) link
Sorry! I meant to post those last two on I Love Books--but both kinda Cali/Kali appropriate also.
― dow, Monday, 7 May 2012 22:21 (eleven years ago) link
Coming to the Art Los Angeles Contemporary show at the Barker Hanger in Santa Monica:
Presented by Paris, LA magazine, director Jodi Wille screens scenes from and discusses her documentary "The Source." The film explores Source Family, a radical experiment in '70s utopian living. "The Source" provides an intimate, insiders’ view at this incredible group of people through their own archival photos, home movies, audio recordings, and contemporary interviews with members of the family. Jodi Wille is a filmmaker, book editor, and photographer known for collaborating with individuals who have amassed personal archives that document American subcultures. 4pm on Friday, January 25 at Art Los Angeles Contemporary.
http://www.artlosangelesfair.com/
― nickn, Friday, 18 January 2013 03:42 (eleven years ago) link
LA "nature boys" (a la Eden Ahbez) showing up in a Donald Duck strip from the 50s is not something I expected
― Welcome to my world of proses (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 4 February 2013 18:03 (eleven years ago) link
"Nature Boy" was so big not surprised at it showing up anywhere at all.
― Leopard Skin POLL-Box Hat (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 February 2013 18:08 (eleven years ago) link
I can't find an img of it but it was pretty lol to see Donald giving a speech to a bunch of hippies
― Welcome to my world of proses (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 4 February 2013 18:11 (eleven years ago) link
or proto-hippies as the case may be
oh good holy crap -- came to this thread via marjorie cameron/elrond hubbard/the parsonage, stayed for the "nature boy"
at least i can say that i learned something new today.
― this customer is a jerk (La Lechera), Monday, 4 February 2013 18:31 (eleven years ago) link
Speaking xp of The Source Family--Father Yod's, that is--here's the trailer for the doc:http://vimeo.com/58953915
― dow, Wednesday, 6 February 2013 23:54 (eleven years ago) link
http://ih.constantcontact.com/fs133/1102021487007/img/241.jpg
THE SOURCE FAMILY
IN THEATRES MAY 1, 2013
VIA DRAG CITY FILM DISTRIBUTION
NEW YORK CITY PREMIERE @ IFC CENTER ON WED. MAY 1STos Angeles, CA (February 6, 2013) -- Drag City Film Distribution announced today the May 1st theatrical release of THE SOURCE FAMILY (previously titled The Source), the feature length documentary directed by Maria Demopoulos and Jodi Wille about Father Yod and The Source Family's radical experiment in '70s utopian living. This treasure trove of interviews with never-before-seen home movies, photographs, and original music created by The Source Family themselves provides an unparalleled insider's view into the cult/commune phenomenon and wild social experimentation of the early '70s - as well as a being a wholly unique California story. The Source Family's outlandish lifestyle, popular celebrity-hangout restaurant, rock band, and beautiful women made them the darlings of Hollywood's Sunset Strip; but their outsider ideals, controversial spiritual leader Father Yod, along with his 13 wives, instigated local authorities. They fled to Hawaii, leading to their dramatic demise. Years later, family members surface and the rock band reforms, revealing how their time with Father Yod shaped their lives in the most unexpected ways. These personal accounts, along with interviews with outsiders, make up the interviews in the film. However, the story is largely cinematic, expressed through the use of the group's extensive film and audio archive maintained by Isis Aquarian, one of Father's wives, Family documentarian, and a central character in the documentary (as well as being associate producer). The film's soundtrack is composed entirely of original Source Family music produced from 1971-1975.THE SOURCE FAMILY is inspired by the cult-classic book The Source: The Story of Father Yod, Ya Ho Wa 13 and The Source Family written by Isis Aquarian and Electricity Aquarian and edited by Jodi Wille (Process Media, 2007). It received extensive praise in outlets including The New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Times, PAPER, NPR, and LA Weekly.THE SOURCE FAMILY, then titled The Source, was selected to world-premiere as one of eight documentary feature films in competition at SXSW 2012 and has played numerous festivals since, including sold-out screenings at SXSW, Silverdocs, Hot Docs Doc Soup, San Francisco International Film Festival, and the Seattle Film Festival. Other festivals and special screenings include the True/False Boon Dawdle and Burning Man.THE SOURCE FAMILY will premiere at the IFC Center in New York City on Wed. May 1st. Other premiere dates and related special events will be announced in the coming weeks.
― dow, Wednesday, 6 February 2013 23:59 (eleven years ago) link
Got some of their music a couple years ago: pretty cool, so hopefully the soundtrack will get its own release.
― dow, Thursday, 7 February 2013 00:01 (eleven years ago) link
will see!!
― and that sounds like a gong-concert (La Lechera), Thursday, 7 February 2013 00:04 (eleven years ago) link
another relevant film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5CpWvk0WtI
A radical hybrid of spy, sci-fi, Western, and even horror genres, Craig Baldwin’s Mock Up On Mu cobbles together a feature-length “collage-narrative” based on (mostly) true stories of California’s post-War sub-cultures of rocket pioneers, alternative religions, and Beat lifestyles. Pulp-serial snippets, industrial-film imagery, and B- (and Z-) fiction clips are intercut with newly shot live-action material, powering a playful, allegorical trajectory through the now-mythic occult matrix of Jack Parsons (Crowleyite founder of the Jet Propulsion Lab), L.Ron Hubbard (sci-fi author turned cult-leader), and Marjorie Cameron (bohemian artist and “mother of the New Age movement”). Their intertwined tales spin out into a speculative farce on the militarization of space, and the corporate take-over of spiritual fulfillment and leisure-time.
― Chris S, Tuesday, 12 February 2013 06:52 (eleven years ago) link
Hadn't heard of that, thanks! Also, something I used to hear about in the 70s: brain breathing--not the yoga kind, this is vaya con trepanation. Think Wm. Burroughs mentioned meeting a couple of euphoric brain breathers, though whether they were experiencing increased oxygenation or a touch of lobotomy, I dunno:http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Trepanation
― dow, Thursday, 14 February 2013 21:33 (eleven years ago) link
The Source tour dates.
http://boingboing.net/2013/03/07/movie-poster-for-the-new-the.html
― nickn, Friday, 8 March 2013 04:15 (eleven years ago) link
Yes Lord that poster!http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001h_yvoje1DNM5Pg421LA_7Bo2vY-CaIdmJK-Li2QQKKOhwoibShEcD36NvCcnO-W0P4tbq-nWYpqR12x75Qi5oTc-tKc6NTYP_KDAdzJZTqqUXwX0FloC8O_T9lwP78eHXev8EIPlI6OBpUTEABtX8HRpcza4NxG-GpzmwxlszJs=
― dow, Friday, 5 April 2013 18:31 (eleven years ago) link
And the most extensive listings so farLos Angeles, CA (April 5, 2013) - Drag City Film Distribution expands the theatrical run of THE SOURCE FAMILY (previously titled The Source), the feature length documentary directed by Maria Demopoulos and Jodi Wille about Father Yod and The Source Family's radical experiment in '70s utopian living, and announces special premiere events happening in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and beyond. Directors Jodi Wille and Maria Demopoulous have organized a series of special events in various cities: bands will form to play original Source Family music, renowned chefs will prepare and serve original Source recipes, original Source Family members will lead workshops teaching rituals and meditations, and various Source Family members will be present for Q&As following screenings. A detailed list of all of these events is below, along with a list of all of the cities where THE SOURCE FAMILY will be playing throughout May and June. More cities are being added.
The Source Family's outlandish lifestyle, popular celebrity hangout restaurant, rock band, and beautiful women made them the darlings of Hollywood's Sunset Strip; but their outsider ideals and controversial spiritual leader, Father Yod, instigated local authorities. Yod was a visionary health food restaurateur, war hero, and judo champion who had thirteen wives and fronted the now legendary psych band Ya Ho Wa 13. The family fled to Hawaii, leading to their dramatic demise. Years later, family members surface and the rock band reforms, revealing how the experience shaped their lives in the most unexpected ways. These personal accounts, along with interviews with outsiders, make up the experiences told in THE SOURCE FAMILY. However, the story is largely cinematic, expressed through the use of the group's extensive film and audio archive maintained by Isis Aquarian, one of Father's wives and a central character in the documentary (as well as being associate producer). The film's soundtrack is composed entirely of original Source Family music produced from 1971-1975. This treasure trove of interviews and never-before-seen home movies, photographs, and original music provides an unparalleled insider's view into the cult/commune phenomenon and wildly outside-the-box social experimentation of the early '70s-as well as a being a wholly unique California story.
THE SOURCE FAMILY trailer - http://vimeo.com/58953915
THE SOURCE FAMILY official poster - http://bit.ly/10a2Wwr
THE SOURCE FAMILY will premiere in theaters in 25+ cities beginning May 1st.
**** new additions
New York, NY - opens Wed. 5/1 @ IFC Center - http://www.ifccenter.com/ San Francisco, CA - opens Thu. 5/2 @ Roxie Cinema - http://www.roxie.com/ Seattle, WA - opens Fri. 5/3 @ SIFF Cinema Uptown - http://www.siff.net/cinema/index.aspx Los Angeles, CA - opens Thu. 5/9@ West Hollywood Standard Hotel, Fri. May 10 @ Cinefamily - http://www.cinefamily.org/ Boston, MA -opens Fri. 5/10 @ Coolidge Corner - http://coolidge.org **** Dallas, TX - runs Fri. 5/10-Sun. 5/12 @ Texas Theatre - http://thetexastheatre.com/ Philadelphia, PA - plays Sat. 5/11 @ International House Philadelphia - http://ihousephilly.org/film/ Ft. Collins, CO - runs Wed. 5/15 & Thu. 5/16 @ Lyric Cinema Café - http://lyriccinemacafe.com/ Columbia, MO - runs Wed. 5/15 & Thu. 5/16 @ Ragtag Cinema - http://www.ragtagfilm.com/ Houston, TX - opens Fri. 5/17@ Sundance Cinemas - http://bit.ly/14JIfJ2 **** Portland, OR - opens Fri. 5/17 @ Hollywood Theatre - http://hollywoodtheatre.org/ San Jose, CA - opens Fri. 5/17 @ Camera 3 Downtown - http://bit.ly/c7Udoq Salt Lake City, UT - opens Fri. 5/17@ Tower Theatre - http://www.saltlakefilmsociety.org **** Santa Fe, NM - opens Fri. 5/17 @ Center for Contemporary Arts - http://www.ccasantafe.org Tulsa, OK - opens Fri. 5/17 @ Circle Cinema - http://www.circlecinema.com/ Miami, FL - opens Fri. 5/17 @ O Cinema - http://www.o-cinema.org/ Bellingham, WA - opens Fri. 5/17@ Pickford Film Center - http://pickfordcinema.org/ Nashville, TN - opens Fri. 5/17 @ Belcourt Theatre - http://www.belcourt.org Nevada City, CA - runs Fri. 5/17-Sun. 5/19 @ Nevada Theater - http://bit.ly/WY1pns Phoenix, AZ - runs Fri. 5/17-Sun. 5/19 @ Film Bar - http://www.thefilmbarphx.com/ Austin, TX - runs Sun. 5/19-Mon. 5/20@ Alamo Drafthouse - Ritz - http://bit.ly/kwhUzr Jacksonville, FL - plays Mon. 5/20 @ Sun-Ray Cinema - http://www.sunraycinema.com **** Portland, ME - plays Fri. 5/24 @ SPACE Gallery - http://www.space538.org **** Denver, CO - opens Fri. 5/31 @ SIE FilmCenter -http://www.denverfilm.org/filmcenter/ **** Cleveland OH - plays Wed. 6/5 @ Cleveland Museum of Art - www.ClevelandArt.org/Film Omaha, NE - opens Fri. 6/7 @ Film Streams - http://www.filmstreams.org/ **** Chicago, IL - opens Fri. 6/14 @ Music Box - http://www.musicboxtheatre.com/ **** Hartford, CT - opens Fri. 6/21@ Reel Art Ways - http://www.realartways.org/ ****
THE SOURCE FAMILY PREMIERE EVENTS:NEW YORK
Sun. 4/28 - Source Family Immersion: Dinner with The Source Family @ Temple M, Harlem, 7pm
(private residence, tickets will be sold through brown paper tickets and address sent to participants only, link to come soon)
Dinner party with original Source restaurant recipes in a converted church by chef Anne Apparu and Dave Nuss Special guests Isis Aquarian (family archivist, one of Father Yod's wives and associate producer of the film) and Electricity Aquarian, who will lead a meditation ritual exercise Original Source Family music performed by Dave Nuss (No Neck Blues Band, Sabbath Assembly), Matt Sweeney, Sophia Knapp, Spencer Yeh, Rachel Mason, Damon McMahon and Amen Dunes, Gordon Roecker, and the improv group Georgia.
Mon. 4/29 - An Evening of Source Family Film Rarities @ Spectacle Theatre, Brooklyn
Rare films and public access clips from Source Family archives with Isis Aquarian (family documentarian, one of Father's 13 wives, associate producer), Electricity Aquarian, and directors Maria Demopoulos and Jodi Wille
Tue. 4/30 - Source Family Immersion @ Body Actualized Center, Brooklyn
5 pm: "Playshop" with Electricity Aquarian teaching the basic white magic rituals and "keys" from the Source Family. 7 pm: Source Family pop-up restaurant by chef Anne Apparu ($12) Soundtrack listening party as dinner is served 9 pm: Special live Source Family-inspired musical performance with surprise guests
Wed. 5/1 - THE SOURCE FAMILY National Theatrical Premiere @ IFC Center, West Village
Q&A with directors Maria Demopoulos, Jodi Wille and Isis Aquarian and Electricity Aquarian Original recipe Source Family cheesecake by chef Anne Apparu served in concessions.
SAN FRANCISCO
Wed. 5/2 - THE SOURCE FAMILY Premiere (Food/Show/Party) @ The Roxie (produced by The Roxie, Bold Italic, and Folk Yeah)
Q&A with Maria Demopoulos, Jodi Wille, Isis Aquarian, and Galaxy Aquarian Post-screening Source food served by Bold Italic and musical performance by Source Family tribute band at The Chapel including musicians: Michael Beach, Adam Camilleri and Peter Warden (all of Electric Jellyfish), Noel von Harmonson (Comets on Fire/Sic Alps), Andy Carlton (Carlton Melton), and Utrillo Kushner (Comets on Fire/Colossal Yes)
Thurs. 5/3 THE SOURCE FAMILY screening and special Rarities after-film screening @ The Roxie
Post-screening special presentation of ultra-rare home movies and public access clips from Source Family archives with Isis Aquarian, Electricity Aquarian, and Maria Demopoulos and Jodi Wille
SEATTLE
Thu. 5/3 - THE SOURCE FAMILY Premiere @ SIFF Uptown Theatre
Post-screening Q&A with original Source Family members Makushla (Father Yod's "Mother Angel), Omne Aquarian (Family astrologer, family photographer), Rain Aquarian (Thoughtful Israel) and One Aquarian (Won Israel)
LOS ANGELES
Thu. 5/9 - THE SOURCE FAMILY Premiere @ Standard Hotel, West Hollywood (produced by Cinefamily/Cinespia)
350-seat premiere on the pool deck of the Standard Hotel, across the street from the original Source restaurant Group white magic ritual with Source Family members and fans in the parking lot before the event Special menu of original Source Family recipes offered by The Standard Hotel About 40 original Source Family members will be in attendance Post-screening Q&A with Maria Demopoulos, Jodi Wille and Isis Aquarian After party features original Source Family music performed by Guy Blakeslee (Entrance Band) and featuring Will Scott (Wolfmother), Mira Bolette (White Magic), plus a special performance by Ann Magnuson
Fri. 5/10 - Thu. 5/16 - THE SOURCE FAMILY One-Week Run @ Cinefamily
Special appearances and Q&As throughout the week by Isis Aquarian, Maria Demopoulos, Jodi Wille, and Source Family members Pop-up restaurant at the Cinefamily featuring original Source restaurant recipes prepared by chef Anne Apparu 5/10 is "Family Night" - Source Family members to attend and connect with the public Ritual and meditation workshops led by Source Family members during the week Local filmmakers' shorts and music videos will be presented prior to the film on several nights
DALLAS
Fri. 5/10 - THE SOURCE FAMILY Premiere @ Texas Theater
Post-screening Q&A with original Source Family members Joshua, Summer and Wave Aquarian
PORTLAND
Fri. 5/17 - THE SOURCE FAMILY Premiere @ Hollywood Theater
Post-screening Q&A with original Source Family members Aquarius Aquarian and Cosmos Aquarian (now known as Dr. Mark)
PHOENIX
Fri. 5/17 - THE SOURCE FAMILY Premiere @ The Film Bar
Post-screening Q&A with original Source Family members Ahom (Father Yod's first wife and family musician)
THE SOURCE FAMILY is inspired by the cult-classic book The Source: The Story of Father Yod, Ya Ho Wa 13 and The Source Family written by Isis Aquarian and Electricity Aquarian and edited by Jodi Wille (Process Media, 2007). It received extensive praise in outlets including The New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Times, PAPER, NPR, and LA Weekly.
THE SOURCE FAMILY, then titled The Source, was selected to world-premiere as one of eight documentary feature films in competition at SXSW 2012 and has played numerous festivals since, including sold-out screenings at SXSW, Silverdocs, Hot Docs Doc Soup, San Francisco International Film Festival, and the Seattle Film Festival. Other festivals and special screenings include the True/False Boon Dawdle and Burning Man.
For more information, visit:
http://www.thesourcedoc.com/
http://www.facebook.com/thesourcedoc
https://twitter.com/sourcefamilydoc
http://www.pitchperfectpr.com/a_source.html
― dow, Friday, 5 April 2013 18:41 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah. Love the quote here from Jonathan Richman and then the rest is something I only just recently heard about:
If the Velvets were busy, Richman would wander through Cambridge and sometimes pick up an issue of Avatar. (“I wasn’t sure I understood all of it but could seethey admired this Mel fellow,” he says.) Meanwhile, another young Velvet Underground fanatic was also reading Avatar, and he felt he understood everything it published, especially the Mel-centric pages. Wayne McGuire had been arrested and convicted for selling the paper in November 1967. For his loyalty, Lyman invited him and other salesmen to Fort Hill for a celebratory dinner, and McGuire dedicated himself to turning the population of Boston on to his guru’s brilliance. Once the Velvets started frequenting the Tea Party, the band got rolled onto McGuire’s hero roster, leading to his Crawdaddy essay “The Boston Sound,” easily the most intense endorsement of the Velvets to be published during their career. “NOW IS THE TIME FOR DISTORTIONS TO BURN,” McGuire screams via typewriter, “with flaming sword in hand I will clear away those ugly growths which parade as insightful musical criticism. . . . This is a review of the Velvet Underground, this is a review of the end of the world.”Walsh, Ryan H.. Astral Weeks (pp. 120-121). Penguin Publishing Group.
― Sterl of the Quarter (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 19 November 2021 22:52 (two years ago) link
Mel Lyman seems like a real prick
― Andy the Grasshopper, Friday, 19 November 2021 22:57 (two years ago) link
Yeah, Rolling Stone did an expose of him pretty early on: among many other things, he saw Jim Kweskin coming, got into the Kweskin Band as harmonica player (in the witty, lively, multiple POV music doc Festival, he condescends to drop us some pearls ov wisdomb), may have had something to do with Kweskin disbanding them at peak, then moving into Lyman Family house, butt of jokes, called "Jimmy the Jew" by Mel, back on stage later ranting about end of the world, did at least one album about that, some better stuff later, at least he's outlived Mel, I think.probably in the Rolling Stone anthology Mindfuckers, published by their Straight Arrow Press, long OOP< but some other stuff in there I wish I could forget. (Nah if I could find an affordable copy, would prob re-read)
― dow, Saturday, 20 November 2021 02:18 (two years ago) link
There’s an old clip from The Dick Cavett Show online where he’s interviewing those two kids from Zabriskie Point and they’re talking about that whole Mel Lyman business and it’s just really creepy to watch.
― Josefa, Saturday, 20 November 2021 02:37 (two years ago) link
Yeah, read about that but didn’t watch.
― Sterl of the Quarter (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 20 November 2021 02:38 (two years ago) link
I did watch John Simon vs. Mort Sahl though, which was also kind of unpleasant.
― Sterl of the Quarter (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 20 November 2021 02:45 (two years ago) link
Seem to recall Antonioni visiting Sammy Davis, Jr.’s poolhouse to talk to The Band while they were recording the s/t about possibly doing the soundtrack for Zabriskie Point but can’t find a reference right now.
― Sterl of the Quarter (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 20 November 2021 02:52 (two years ago) link
Some discussion here: The Band.
― Sterl of the Quarter (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 20 November 2021 02:54 (two years ago) link
Kliph Nesteroff wrote a great article about Lyman for the WFMU blog - it leads with this messed up Cavett interview.
― Elvis Telecom, Saturday, 20 November 2021 22:26 (two years ago) link
Yeah, keep coming back to that article, but it’s so dense I haven’t gotten all the way through it.
― Sterl of the Quarter (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 20 November 2021 22:39 (two years ago) link
Every time I see the name Geoff Muldaur I think of his ex-wife Maria and her song “Midnight at the Oasis,” written by big time soap opera composer and meditation maven David Nichtern.
― Sterl of the Quarter (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 20 November 2021 22:42 (two years ago) link
To further detail, here is an article by Nichtern’s son: https://lithub.com/how-loving-the-princess-bride-led-me-to-buddhism/
― Sterl of the Quarter (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 20 November 2021 22:47 (two years ago) link
To further derail
― Sterl of the Quarter (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 20 November 2021 22:53 (two years ago) link
(inevitable)
The surprising afterlife of a ’70s L.A. cult - How the Source Family became hot IP in 2023
Though the Source Family disbanded in 1978, fascination with the group and its practices has surged in the new millennium. Since the mid-aughts, there have been documentary films, books and multiple CD and vinyl record reissues of the group’s music. Bootleg T-shirts, hoodies, mugs and stickers appear in Google search results. All of these may be traced to a vast collection of images, video and audio recordings, recipes and manifestos that has survived the march of time.After joining the Family in 1972, Isis Aquarian, who was born Charlene Peters, the daughter of an archivist for the Air Force and NASA, served as the group’s documentarian, creating the artful material that has been drawn from for various archival projects over the last 15 or so years. After the group fell apart, she made it her mission to preserve the Family’s legacy.Most recently, in November, Isis, curator Charlie Kitchings and filmmaker and publisher Jodi Wille, who has previously worked with Isis on a book and a feature documentary, released “Family: The Source Family Scrapbook” in conjunction with the independent record label Sacred Bones. The book includes previously unpublished photographs and ephemera from Isis’ archive and detailed captions that contextualize the images. Isis also moved her archive, around 50 boxes of materials, to the American Religions Collection at the UC Santa Barbara library. In conjunction with the book’s release, a series of Source Family events took place in Santa Barbara, Los Feliz, Malibu and Culver City in late March.And now, Hollywood is getting involved.At a private dinner in Malibu on March 25 sponsored by the media company Atlas Obscura, guests including actors Patricia Arquette and Mark Ruffalo, music producer Rick Rubin, actor and producer Ben Sinclair, original Source Family members and other curious parties were invited on “a journey into the cult roots of health food.” The menu, inspired by dishes at the original Source restaurant, featured seven courses including “psychedelic toast,” “multidimensional soup” and a re-creation of the restaurant’s “aware salad,” served by staff engaged in Source Family cosplay, dressed in flowing white frocks and wigs. Isis and fellow Source Family members Venus, Zerathustra and Galaxy Aquarian blessed the meal with a ritual they performed in the Family. “As above, so below, and around, we go, YaHoWah,” they chanted with corresponding hand gestures, as if guiding energy around the 40-person table decorated with poppies, dill flowers, wheat and cut papaya, a flower child’s rendering of a medieval banquet.Arquette, who spent her childhood in a Subud commune in Virginia, said she’s always been fascinated by various religious philosophies and spiritual seekers. “It’s been nice to talk to these elders who are here, about their radical experiences as young people,” she said. “Especially when they talked about how Father Yod went down his own ego path. That they acknowledged it made me feel like there’s not an absolute revisionist history.”The Malibu event doubled as a hub of in-progress Hollywood spiritual ventures. According to Wille, Ruffalo, his manager Margaret Riley and the producer Stacey Sher are working on a Source Family limited series in which Ruffalo will play Father Yod. Sinclair is developing a series about the spiritual leader Ram Dass while Rubin is producing a docuseries about Yogi Bhajan. Two days after the event in Malibu, Rubin sent a limo for Isis and interviewed her for three hours with a full camera crew because, he said by email, that he’s “excited by … Isis Aquarian’s bird’s-eye view of Jim Baker’s evolution from successful man of the world to spiritual leader, whose ever-curious hunger for deeper spiritual connection was shared by 150 like-minded souls.”Rubin said he learned about the Family after he moved to California in the late ’80s and began dining at the Source Restaurant. “Something about the space held an energy even though the Source Family had already moved on.” During Father Yod’s lifetime, wrote Rubin, “The Source story was a local story. Now it’s global.”...A Q&A at the Philosophical Research Society on March 23, which followed a screening of Wille’s 2013 documentary “The Source Family,” made with Maria Demopoulos, turned into one of the more heated discussions that Wille and the Family have participated in since they began working together. Some audience members implied that the film’s narrative arc, and the family member’s answers that night, were selective, omitting Father Yod’s use of alcohol and cocaine. One questioner politely asked if the three female Family members on stage — Isis, Galaxy and Venus — if they were aware, at the time, of the negative perspectives presented in the film, or if they feel negatively about the Family today. Another asked about patriarchy and power structures.
After joining the Family in 1972, Isis Aquarian, who was born Charlene Peters, the daughter of an archivist for the Air Force and NASA, served as the group’s documentarian, creating the artful material that has been drawn from for various archival projects over the last 15 or so years. After the group fell apart, she made it her mission to preserve the Family’s legacy.
Most recently, in November, Isis, curator Charlie Kitchings and filmmaker and publisher Jodi Wille, who has previously worked with Isis on a book and a feature documentary, released “Family: The Source Family Scrapbook” in conjunction with the independent record label Sacred Bones. The book includes previously unpublished photographs and ephemera from Isis’ archive and detailed captions that contextualize the images. Isis also moved her archive, around 50 boxes of materials, to the American Religions Collection at the UC Santa Barbara library. In conjunction with the book’s release, a series of Source Family events took place in Santa Barbara, Los Feliz, Malibu and Culver City in late March.
And now, Hollywood is getting involved.
At a private dinner in Malibu on March 25 sponsored by the media company Atlas Obscura, guests including actors Patricia Arquette and Mark Ruffalo, music producer Rick Rubin, actor and producer Ben Sinclair, original Source Family members and other curious parties were invited on “a journey into the cult roots of health food.” The menu, inspired by dishes at the original Source restaurant, featured seven courses including “psychedelic toast,” “multidimensional soup” and a re-creation of the restaurant’s “aware salad,” served by staff engaged in Source Family cosplay, dressed in flowing white frocks and wigs. Isis and fellow Source Family members Venus, Zerathustra and Galaxy Aquarian blessed the meal with a ritual they performed in the Family. “As above, so below, and around, we go, YaHoWah,” they chanted with corresponding hand gestures, as if guiding energy around the 40-person table decorated with poppies, dill flowers, wheat and cut papaya, a flower child’s rendering of a medieval banquet.
Arquette, who spent her childhood in a Subud commune in Virginia, said she’s always been fascinated by various religious philosophies and spiritual seekers. “It’s been nice to talk to these elders who are here, about their radical experiences as young people,” she said. “Especially when they talked about how Father Yod went down his own ego path. That they acknowledged it made me feel like there’s not an absolute revisionist history.”
The Malibu event doubled as a hub of in-progress Hollywood spiritual ventures. According to Wille, Ruffalo, his manager Margaret Riley and the producer Stacey Sher are working on a Source Family limited series in which Ruffalo will play Father Yod. Sinclair is developing a series about the spiritual leader Ram Dass while Rubin is producing a docuseries about Yogi Bhajan. Two days after the event in Malibu, Rubin sent a limo for Isis and interviewed her for three hours with a full camera crew because, he said by email, that he’s “excited by … Isis Aquarian’s bird’s-eye view of Jim Baker’s evolution from successful man of the world to spiritual leader, whose ever-curious hunger for deeper spiritual connection was shared by 150 like-minded souls.”
Rubin said he learned about the Family after he moved to California in the late ’80s and began dining at the Source Restaurant. “Something about the space held an energy even though the Source Family had already moved on.” During Father Yod’s lifetime, wrote Rubin, “The Source story was a local story. Now it’s global.”
...
A Q&A at the Philosophical Research Society on March 23, which followed a screening of Wille’s 2013 documentary “The Source Family,” made with Maria Demopoulos, turned into one of the more heated discussions that Wille and the Family have participated in since they began working together. Some audience members implied that the film’s narrative arc, and the family member’s answers that night, were selective, omitting Father Yod’s use of alcohol and cocaine. One questioner politely asked if the three female Family members on stage — Isis, Galaxy and Venus — if they were aware, at the time, of the negative perspectives presented in the film, or if they feel negatively about the Family today. Another asked about patriarchy and power structures.
― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 13 April 2023 00:54 (one year ago) link
About right.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 13 April 2023 03:14 (one year ago) link
feel like this ties in to the May Pang interview that Ned also linked to, in that the eventual answer/explanation/context is "it was the 70s, man"
it's unclear how that Q&A resolved? would love to hear more context.
― Perverted By Linguiça (sleeve), Thursday, 13 April 2023 03:29 (one year ago) link
Great LAT article on the current state of the Philosophical Research Society (live in LA? check it out!)https://www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story/2023-09-11/philosophical-research-society-los-angeles-arts-culture-events-for-mystics-esoterica
― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 12 September 2023 08:07 (seven months ago) link
Thanks for that, cool article... this detail stood out: The organization purchased the Los Feliz property in 1935 for just $10 and soon began construction on the arched Mayan-inspired building in what was then a wild mustard field.
at the intersection of Los Feliz and Griffith Park boulevards, that's crazy
― Andy the Grasshopper, Tuesday, 12 September 2023 18:14 (seven months ago) link