After the Manson slaughter and arrests, a hush came across the counterculture community. Manson and his followers were archetypal hippies, at least in the way they looked - scruffy, beareded men and lovely young women who eschewed makeup for natural beauty, who lived in a communal atmosphere. The sordid sex and drug tales coming out of the Spahn ranch tittitated straights and devastated freaks.
Certainly, there were some who embraced Manson and his girls as heroes. The Weather Underground, for their part, celebrated him. Bernadine Dohrn, wife of Bill Ayers, friend of our Drone-Master in Chief noted how awesome it was that the Family, ".. killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them, then they even shoved a fork into the pig Tate's stomach! Wild!"
Most hippies, however, who simply wanted to smoke pot, grow organic crops, and spend their lives peacefully, were less accepting of Charles' actions.
Among them was Sanders, who went to California to figure out just what the hell had gone wrong with the countercultural movement. His book, The Family, went on to infamy, but at the time, Sanders just wanted to find out what the hell was going on, and discovered a that certain elements of the LA scene had gotten very, very dark, and that Manson was connected to them in some way.
I used to actually own a copy of an original hardcover of The Family - whether I still own it anymore remains to be seen. It might well be in the storage unit, it might well be gone forever. It's hard to say. But it is filled with all manner of dark stories, two of which tie Manson to the Solar Lodge and to the Process Church.
The Process chapter has been cut from all American releases aside from the original hardcover, due to a successful lawsuit by the Church (and by the Solar Lodge OTO, for their chapter), though the case rests less on its legal merits and more on the fact that Sanders' American publishers decided to capitulate to the cults. In the UK, the Process, at least, if not the Solar Lodge as well, lost their case and had to pay Sanders' legal fees.
While Sanders' language is vivid, it is far from academic or neutral - he really does consider the Process Church to be terrible, and is not ashamed to admit it. Describing them as, "black-caped, black-garbed, death-worshiping" and "hooded snuffoids," though even Sanders' evidence doesn't provide a direct link, but rather a "this stuff was in the air, these guys were dangerous, and their message may have inspired Manson."
And, it is hard to not be sympathetic to Sanders' stance. Possessing, as I do, a copy of the Feral House Holy Writ publication, there are in fact misanthropic screeds, writings about sex that strongly suggest corpse desecration (at least in fantasy), and Jehovah as a god, in Process theology, was very much devoted to war and death for purification, while Satan as a god was devoted to war and death for "kicks." There's no evidence that Manson was involved with the Process Church, however. None whatsoever. Is it possible that Manson read their literature? Quite possible, as the covers were garish, morbid, and eye-catching - but there's no evidence beyond the fact that the two operated in a similar mileau and that both believed in the unification of God and Satan - although Manson went beyond Process theology, which taught a unification of opposites, but saying that the two were unified in himself, not in an abstract metaphysical sense, and that he was Christ on top of it.
Again, it is possible that Manson was influenced by the group, but given how tightly Robert and Mary Anne held the reins, it's highly unlikely that Manson would ever have been a member.
There are a number of curious things about Manson I will recount when I write about him, but for right now, it seems very unlikely that he was involved with the Process in any realistic way, though whether he was involved with peripheral groups is less difficult to ascertain, and those peripheral groups will be discussed next - or at least, what little is known about them
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