In October 1981, I left the Synanon cult with my family, which consisted of my mother, stepfather, and stepsister. We left Synanon with few resources. My stepfather had a handful of silver dollars and my stepsister a hundred dollars. My mother’s father, seeing our plight, gave us a car he had bought at auction and a thousand dollars. We were not sure where we would live, but we knew it would be another commune. Our first month outside of Synanon, we spent in Santa Clara, California, in an apartment that belonged to my stepfather’s ex-wife’s sister and her family. The ex-wife was a close friend of both my parents and had remained in Synanon. Her sister and family were out of town for the month, so the apartment gave us somewhere to land and time for my parents to begin what my mother called “commune shopping.” This was not a popular idea with my sister and me, but we had little choice in the matter. Our opinion of what commune we liked best counted in the decision, but not whether or not we lived in a commune.

The three contestants up for consideration were, Kerista, a polygamous community in San Francisco, The Summit Light House in Calabasas, California, a new age community whose guru channeled the ascended masters; and the University of The Trees, an accredited college in Santa Cruz California. This last community was more academic-based. The alternative education and research center focused on studying human consciousness, meditation, Radionics, dowsing, social networking, and a burgeoning nutritional business that revolved around spirulina. There was another community we would not be visiting called, The Farm. It was in Tennessee and revolved around the modern midwifery movement. In my second book, Synanon Kid Grows Up: Learning to Live Outside The Synanon Cult, I devote a chapter to each of the communities and what I thought about them from my then eleven-year-old mind. 

Both my mother and stepfather were greatly enmeshed in the new age movement. They attended many workshops and seminars held by different gurus and leaders within the movement and maintained a daily practice of chanting and meditating. They were firm believers in reincarnation and read many books on the subject. My son has become fascinated with the theory of reincarnation and is pursuing a Ph.D. in studying and researching the phenomenon.

Suppose you are a regular reader of my fiction. In that case, you will notice that I often write about characters and families on the fringe of society and the darker side of communes, drawing from my experience and exposure to alternative movements. But I am a thriller and horror writer and do not always address the deeper complexity of cults and communes in my fiction. After all, thrillers are about suspense and turning the page to find out whodunnit and why. In this post, I present Synanon, the foundation of my formative childhood years, the University of The Trees, the commune our family chose to become involved with after Synanon, and our visits with Kerista and The Summit Light House. Please enjoy, and feel free to write me about your thoughts or experience living in a commune. 

Synanon was founded in 1958 by a man named Charles Dederich. Dederich struggled with alcoholism and sought help from Alcoholics Anonymous for the disease. His experience with AA led him to become an enthusiastic spokesperson and zealot for the support group. Chuck’s participation in a small LSD study funded by The National Institute of Health out of UCLA in 1957 would create a paradigm shift in his thinking. The study was run by physician Sidney Cohen, and psychiatrist, Keith Dittman, who were part of an intellectual group of philosophers regularly experimenting with LSD. Dittman and Cohen thought LSD might be a useful alternative drug for helping alcoholics recover from their addiction. The experiment was a failure, but not for Chuck. During his LSD high, he experienced what he called a melding into cosmic consciousness, which he would later name dissipation. This experience led him to study sociology, religious studies, and eastern philosophy. 

Chuck began to hold group sessions in his home, inspired by the AA meetings, but they differed from the AA get-togethers. These groups were loud and boisterous, evolving into a form of attack therapy that would become an essential part of the Synanon lifestyle. 

Synanon history can be divided into three distinct eras. 

Synanon I evolved from Chuck’s passion for helping individuals with alcohol and drug addiction. What started as a small group of people meeting at Chuck’s home to address their issues in frank plain talk organically grew into a challenging style of constructive confrontation. These verbal confrontations were the burgeonings of what is better known as attack therapy. As word spread within the Santa Monica community that there was a man helping addicts and alcoholics using innovative and unorthodox methods, more people wanted to become involved in what Chuck was doing, and the regular meetings became a club of sorts called, The Tender Loving Club, the name later changed to Synanon.

With the club’s popularity, Synanon began receiving publicity and donations from organizations like The Lions Club, American Legion, churches, and schools. When the club grew to the point that Chuck could not accommodate everyone in his apartment, he rented an old storefront for members to convene. When the storefront was condemned, The Friars Club donated money to Synanon for the organization to buy the old National Guard Armory building on Ocean Ave in Santa Monica. At the armory building in Santa Monica, in what would be the first drug rehabilitation center, addicts would join and spend time kicking their habit; Santa Monica residents who neighbored the armory began to complain, and in 1959 Chuck was ordered by the county to shut down his therapy center. He refused and was later arrested for operating a hospital without a license. This attracted news stories written in the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, and Time Magazine. 

 Synanon’s innovative way of helping drug addicts began to attract criminologists, sociologists, and psychiatrists. In 1961, an Oakland assemblyman by the name of Nicholas Petris introduced the Save Synanon Bill, and a few months later, the bill AR 2626 was signed by then-Governor, Edmond Brown Sr. This bill would excuse from the definition of a hospital, a place that housed alcoholics and addicts desiring to aid each other without treatment by drugs.

This bill would later protect the unregulated industry of treatment centers and troubled youth programs inspired by Synanon methods. Many of these programs would become rife with abuse.

 As Synanon grew ever more successful, government agencies began to examine Synanon’s success. Professor Lewis Yablonski, a sociologist, criminologist, and psychotherapist who had great success working with gang members, was impressed with what Chuck Dederich was doing at Synanon and became involved in the organization taking on the role of research director. In 1962, he and Betty, Chuck’s soon-to-be wife, gave presentations at the White House on narcotics addiction. Later that month, Senator Thomas Dodd of Connecticut and a member of the senate subcommittee on juvenile delinquency informed congress of the Synanon social experiment and that if studied and improved by correctional experts, psychiatrists, and other social scientists, it may lead the way in future effective treatment for not only drug treatment, but criminals and juvenile delinquents. 

 At this point, Synanon had donated 4000 hours of free counseling at the federal prison. Synanon also moved into a Reno Prison. Nevada legislature gave $1000 a month to cover the cost. Yablonski said, “Synanon was building a bridge between prisoners and society.” In December of 1962, the Assembly Committee on Criminal Procedure released its recommendation that the state take a friendly “non-directive” interest in Synanon and research on the results. It made five positive findings. 

1. Keeps addicts off the street.
2. Saves taxpayer money.
3. Education through speakers.
4. Research Opportunities
5. Rehabilitation

By 1963 Synanon had grown into Synanon Industries. Synanon sold art rugs from India and began a magazine called The Synanon Scene. ADGAP was launched, Advertising Gift And Promotions, Synanon Supply, Synanon Auto Repair, and Service Stations. Within five years, Synanon was the largest landowner in Santa Monica and would expand into Venice, San Diego, Connecticut, New York, San Francisco, and Oakland. 

 In 1965 Synanon members began to preach about the social ills of society on college campuses, and students were taught Synanon-style attack therapy called “The Game.” These game clubs were set up at USC, UCLA, UC Berkeley, University of Nevada, Cal State, San Diego State, and Sonoma State. Doctor Daniel Casriel, a New York psychiatrist was the first to author a book about Synanon in 1963, So Fair A House. Dr. Casriel decided to have a psychological test done on ten percent of Synanon members who had been clean for two years or more. He sent them to the Hacker Psychiatric clinic in Los Angeles for evaluation. The results were not what he expected. 

Hacker was an expert on the violence in man. The behavior of the Synanon people had changed, but internally little had. Most still had underlying personality disorders with components of neurotic, paranoid, or disturbed character disorder. Despite the many clean days, they still identified closely with their former drug culture. 

These findings raised the question: That if formerly violent people were embracing doctrines of non-violence not by internal change but by group coercion, what happens if the doctrine reverts to violence?

 By 1967 Synanon II had evolved. Chuck became disenchanted with only treating drug addicts. He began to see Synanon as a social movement and experimental society for which he had grand ideas of growing a Synanon city in Northern California. Three large plots of land were bought for such a purpose. In Synanon City, Chuck imagined people flocking to live where they would learn self-sustainability, environmentalism, and a radical communication style which was the game. Hundreds of people were already drawn to Synanon’s game clubs, which it offered to the greater community. Chuck’s hope was to bring these individuals into the community. At this point, he had given up on rehabilitating addicts, and Synanon became a cradle-to-grave society. In Synanon’s social movement, people would work to maximize their human potential. Synanon members “re-lived childhood traumas and experienced the suspension, or dissipation, of the self-supporting mechanism, real and quasi-hallucinations, euphoria and indiscriminate love. As in earlier Dissipations, quasi-hallucinations of Dederich as the Savior and Father and of Synanon as the ultimate way of life occurred among the participants. The Ouija Board played an important part in this, and subsequent Ouija sessions dealt with Synanon as being the ultimate way and recorded alleged communications with famous persons long dead, who advised Synanon about its purpose and significance” (Lang, 1978: 109).

 In 1974 Synanon moved into its final and most violent era, Synanon III. “Having redefined the organization, Synanon adopted a new religious rhetoric and attempted to secure church organization status from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).” (Ofshe, R., 1980) Community members were required to participate in a daily physical fitness regime, cut their hair short or shave it, and omit sugar from their diet. Members were no longer allowed to have children, and women were, at a certain point, ordered to abort if they were pregnant, while later, men were mandated to get vasectomies. Synanon’s stance on non-violence turned to a violent, hostile view toward community members and others who Synanon people felt threatened the community. Finally, Charles Diedrich was named the highest spiritual authority of the Synanon religion, the court of last resort in all disputes. He alone could promulgate the laws and decisions of the group (Garfield, 1977). 

 By 1977 Synanon had become a full-fledged cult, but it would be another fourteen years before it finally collapsed under a mountain of lawsuits, and the community’s savior, Diedrich, would descend back into the sad existence of alcoholism and disgrace. 

 References

 The Social Development of the Synanon Cult: The Managerial Strategy of Organizational Transformation Author(s): Richard Ofshe, Sociological Analysis, Vol. 41, No. 2 (Summer, 1980), pp. 109-127 (19 pages) Published by: Oxford University Press

From Miracle To Madness, Paul Morantz, 2014, Crestia Publications

The Text Below Is Taken From The Kerista Website

The second and most influential phase of Kerista was the twenty years in which the “New Tribe” existed as a stable communal house in San Francisco’s bohemian Haight-Ashbury district. In February 1971, Jud, aged forty-eight, met Eve (born Susan) Furchgott in 1953, the artist daughter of pharmacologist Robert Furchgott (1916-2009), [Image at right] who won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1998 (Martin 2009). With Eva (Bluejay) Way, they established a commune in the Haight, then a run-down district with Victorian and Edwardian houses available for very cheap rents. The original “Living School Residence Group” was later called a “superfamily, then … a PCG (polyfidelitous closed group), then … a B-FIC (Best Friend Identity Cluster)” (Kerista 2002-2015). Over the next twenty years approximately forty people joined Kerista, though the group rarely had more than twenty-five living together at any one time. Jud’s ideal of thirty-six people, balanced between men and women, was never realized. B-FICs (“beefics”) of between four and fifteen people were formed, and had names like the Purple Submarine and Sanity Mix (Kerista 2002-2015). The group ran a successful Apple computer resale business, distributed the free newspaper Utopian Classroom, and ran “rap groups” and various community outreaches. In 1975, Eve initiated publication of Far Out West, which was introduced as “The First Utopian Comic Strip” and was created to spread the group’s message.

DOCTRINES/BELIEFS

Kerista had very few metaphysical beliefs, but was possessed of a strong set of principles, a kind of code of conduct that governed relationships between members. The early concept of Buddho, developed by Dau in New York, remained a vital part of Keristan belief and practice throughout. Buddho was termed “the art of no-defense” and was cultivated chiefly through self-observation (Wilson 1965). As members observed their own conversations and actions, they became aware of the ways in which they habitually “defended” themselves against others. Wilson characterized Buddho as “escape from other-directedness” and explained that “more advanced Buddho includes the conquest of greed, sexual jealousy, and other ‘hang-ups'” (Cottrell 2015:241). During the “New Tribe” era, Dau and Jud had parted ways, but the “gestalt” sessions that were integral to the commune in the most idealistic sense carried on that tradition of self-observation and verbal defusing of defense mechanisms, to create harmony in the group. That the gestalt sessions had a dark, more negative impact was unfortunate, but the goal of a unified community with shared standards was crucial to the “New Tribe.”

Unsurprisingly, many of the principles developed within Kerista were concerned with sex. When Robert Anton Wilson interviewed Jud, he was informed that in place of the “10 Commandments” Kerista would have “69 Positions,” a witty reference to the slang term for a sexual position in which partners give mutual oral gratification. Jud had, to date, only fixed upon twenty-five positions, which he argued were simply common sense. These were: To read more about Kerista, you can go here https://wrldrels.org/2017/01/19/kerista-commune/

Recently a documentary has been made about Kerista. You can watch it here https://www.amazon.com/Far-Out-West-Californias-Kerista/dp/B099CGC3CF

This Information is copy and pasted from Britannica.com

The precursor of The Summit Lighthouse is the parent church of Universal Church Triumphant, inspired by the I AM Movement, which is the original movement for the ascended masters and an offshoot of theosophy. 

The church’s theology is a syncretistic belief system, including elements of Buddhism, Christianity, esoteric mysticism and alchemy, with a belief in angels and elementals (or spirits of nature). It centers on communications received from Ascended Masters through the Holy Spirit. Many of the Ascended Masters, such as Sanat Kumara, Maitreya, Djwal Khul, El Morya, Kuthumi, Paul the Venetian, Serapis Bey, the Master Hilarion, the Master Jesus and Saint Germain, have their roots in Theosophy and the writings of Madame Blavatsky, C.W. Leadbeater, and Alice A. Bailey. Others, such as Buddha, Confucius, Lanto and Lady Master Nada, were identified as Ascended Masters in the “I AM” Activity or the Bridge to Freedom. Some, such as Lady Master Lotus and Lanello, are Ascended Masters who were first identified as such by Elizabeth Clare Prophet. All in all, she identified more than 200 Ascended Masters that were not identified as Masters of the Ancient Wisdom in the original teachings of Theosophy.

For more information you can go here: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Church-Universal-and-Triumphant

The Text Below Is Copy And Pasted From Wikipedia

Christopher Hills (April 9, 1926 – January 31, 1997) was an English-born author, described as the “Father of Spirulina”[1] for popularizing spirulina cyanobacteria as a food supplement. He also wrote 30 books on consciousness, meditation, yoga and spiritual evolution, divining, world government, aquaculture, and personal health.

Hills was variously headlined by the press as a “Western Guru Scientist”,[2] “Natural Foods Pioneer”,[3] “Evolutionary Revolutionary”[4] and a “Modern Merlin”.[5]

As a commodities trader and art patron in Jamaica, he retired from business at an early age to follow a spiritual quest that took him around the world as a speaker, author, entrepreneur and pioneer of algae as an efficient source of food and fuel for humanity.

 University of the Trees, an accredited college and an alternative education and research center for the social sciences to study the laws of nature and their relation to human consciousness.[90] Students lived on campus and studied subjects as diverse as Radionics and dowsing (Hills was a well-known diviner[91]), meditation, hatha yoga, the Vedas, and early forms of social networking he called “Group Consciousness”.

The campus housed University of the Trees Press which published Christopher Hills’ writings and the research of a number of resident students who obtained degrees at the university and wrote books on light & color frequencies and the science of Radionics. Hills coauthored “Conduct Your Own Awareness Sessions” with new-age author Robert B. Stone to whom the University later bestowed an honorary PhD. A small workshop produced pendulums for dowsing and a line of negative ion generators. With the buildup of the vitamin business surrounding discoveries that spirulina had significant weight loss benefits University of the Trees became one of the largest employers in the San Lorenzo Valley[92] and leased more than 10 buildings in Boulder Creek for housing students and warehousing for Light Force,[93] a burgeoning nutritional products brand based on spirulina.

From this base in California, Hills extended his hospitality to a pantheon of visiting scientists, writers, philosophers and scholars such as Alan Watts, Edgar Mitchell, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Allen Ginsberg, Thelma Moss, Hiroshi Motoyama, Haridas Chaudhuri, Sri Lanka president Ranasinghe Premadasa, Menninger Foundation‘s Swami Rama, Dr. Evarts G. Loomis, Viktoras Kulvinskas, Max Lüscher, Marcia Moore, Bernard Jensen and countless others in the fields of human potential, holistic health, aquaculture, religion, quantum physics and alternative medicine.