Eden Ahbez, Jack Parsons, and other LA kooks...

I was going to say.

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/5240_1200084928019_1405412996_557342_6187673_n.jpg

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)

slept-on post by jaxon above!

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.

So that's where Pynchon got the idea.

http://www.cinefamily.org/films/special-events-november-2011/#process-media-presents-aliens-from-spaceship-earth-director-in-person-2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jg5RXSZiU8

Now that looks prime.

already got tickets.

damn, that's my kind of movie

There're lots of L.A. kooks, I gather.

There's a movie about the Source cult that premiered at SXSW. Brief description here.

The Source

Patrick 'The Lama' Lundborg has a feature in the forthcoming magazine FLASHBACK!
http://galacticramble.blogspot.com/2012/02/flashback-magazine.html?showComment=1332010778054#c7808808967812838351
about 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

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

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

?! 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.

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.

Kinda poignant http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/05/07/fifteen-years-after-the-suicides-who-is-running-the-heavens-gate-website/

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

what the heck
image credit: Perihelio Deviant Art
http://static.flickr.com/67/193228466_587a24c090_o.jpg

Sorry! I meant to post those last two on I Love Books--but both kinda Cali/Kali appropriate also.

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/

LA "nature boys" (a la Eden Ahbez) showing up in a Donald Duck strip from the 50s is not something I expected

"Nature Boy" was so big not surprised at it showing up anywhere at all.

I can't find an img of it but it was pretty lol to see Donald giving a speech to a bunch of hippies

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.

Speaking xp of The Source Family--Father Yod's, that is--here's the trailer for the doc:
http://vimeo.com/58953915

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 1ST
os 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.

Got some of their music a couple years ago: pretty cool, so hopefully the soundtrack will get its own release.

will see!!

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.

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

The Source tour dates.

http://boingboing.net/2013/03/07/movie-poster-for-the-new-the.html

Yes Lord that poster!
http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001h_yvoje1DNM5Pg421LA_7Bo2vY-CaIdmJK-Li2QQKKOhwoibShEcD36NvCcnO-W0P4tbq-nWYpqR12x75Qi5oTc-tKc6NTYP_KDAdzJZTqqUXwX0FloC8O_T9lwP78eHXev8EIPlI6OBpUTEABtX8HRpcza4NxG-GpzmwxlszJs=

And the most extensive listings so far
Los 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

on the calendar!

oh I wannna see thsi

something tells me im not gonna be hooked-up enough to make that nyc premiere screening...

update from Drag City: soundtrack's streaming pre-release (May 21)

http://www.dragcity.com/system/stories/primary_images/731/large.jpg?1368824046
In case you don't know the underground legend already or haven't seen the film yet - for the last couple decades, the cult around The Source Family cult has enjoyed the music of Ya Ho Wa 13, whose nine albums with Father were a major part of their story. Recorded during an eleven-month span during 1973 and '74, these albums continue to fascinate listeners to this day. The Original Soundtrack album pulls plums and cherries from these freakish fruit trees of The Source Family, whose album releases from the 1970s are an indication of how weird the world can be even when it isn't trying.

Some of the most awesome jams from their privately-pressed classics are represented here, along with a brace of previously unreleased song chosen to include the widest variety of Source Family members, revealing the talents of many not previously showcased. Their music ranges from soulful to spiritual to shamanistic, with Father fronting the band on journeys through inner and outer psychosis and bliss - and for the next li'l bit, you can stream the whole thing, here!http://boingboing.net/2013/05/15/free-stream-the-source-family.html

14 tracks in 38 minutes and change, half or 'em excerpts, but brilliantly chosen. A standard of thoughtful, passionate versatility and precision that might've earned daily bread in the L.A. music biz, brought on home to Father Yod--although his own voice is phonogenic enough to get work in Babylon, if he wanted it. Streaming 'til the CD release on May 21, I think--but worth checking later, if you don't have time before that--here's a more direct link
https://soundcloud.com/drag-city/sets/the-source-family-soundtrack

THIS THREAD

Saw Source Family yesterday. It was pretty good, the music was mostly great, did not expect live birth scene but hey why not. Overall, worthwhile for Isis's rather amazing amount of footage and the story, which I didn't know a whole lot about aside from that the Source Family existed.

When the "underground-to-mainstream" co-option train goes non-linear, look out! From Vogue Magazine: Dress the Part: Get The Source Family's 70s Boho-Cult Chic Look

that's insane

The Creation of Beachwood Canyon's Theosophist "Dreamland"
http://la.curbed.com/archives/2014/05/the_creation_of_beachwood_canyons_theosophist_dreamland_1.php

Oh yeah, Andy Samberg and Joanna Newsome bought it:
Moorcrest was built for the utopian Krotona Colony in Beachwood Canyon and was designed by Marie Russak Hotchener, a rare-for-the-time female architect who designed several buildings for the Theosophist community; Moorcrest is considered one of her most famous and out-there pieces.They just do not build 'em like this anymore.
Links to other coverage of high level koo-koo arkitexture on this same page:
http://la.curbed.com/archives/2014/07/41_photos_inside_andy_samberg_and_joanna_newsoms_mindblowing_moorcrest_estate.php

goddamn

so jeal
can't stop thinking about what it must be like to wake up there every day

(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.

About right.

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.

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

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