Strange days have tracked us down [The Process, Church of the Final Judgment, part 6.66]

We left young Master Gibbons locked in a storage shed.  A storage shed that was just another A-Frame, measuring 36 feet.

The next morning, a member of the group, who worked at the bank of America as her day job, was headed to Los Angeles, and asked the man who had been in charge of Gibbons, Steve Quilley, if he needed anything.

Quilley had been placed in charge of Gibbons since the last fire was set, and was the one who discovered him trying to set fire to the kitchen, the one who called Gibbons' father, and the one who locked him up.

The member, Julie Oster, noticed Gibbons in the crate, and told Steve to let him go.  When Steve refused to do so, she became angry, she left, first trying to find the boy's mother and, unable to find her, went to Margie Myer, the mother of Kathy, and told her about the boy in the shed.

However, according to Hoffman, Myer was 'vindictive' toward the group.

Unbeknownst to the group, Marge was vindictive towards the group. She felt indignation towards the group for "stealing" her brother (she was a devout member) from her, and resented the group's rules of celibacy. Instead of finding Beverly, Saul's mother, Marge contacted the police. The police gave her all the assistance she needed by sending her Larry Creech -- a police informer, who was later accompanied by Michael Childs, and undercover agent.

The idea of a group based on Crowley's thought enforcing a strict celibacy rule is pretty hilarious, but beyond that, let's look at what happened next.

The two posed as hippies and went undercover, claiming to want to borrow a car jack and look at horses that Margie had for sale.

Instead of looking at horses, however, Creech went looking for the storage shed, and found it.  The  men left quickly thereafter, but upon their return they brought the weight of the Riverside County Sheriffs with them.

Everyone present was arrested, although Quilley managed to escape, and a warrant was put out for Brayton's arrest, which she evaded for quite some time.  Included in the arrest sweep was Julie Oster and Gibbons' mother, Beverly.  A list of all arrested follows:

CLIFFORD ALAN REOS, white male, age 21, 5'10", 160 pounds, brown hair, and green eyes;

MICHAEL JOHN FOXWORTH, white male, age 20, 6'20", 175 pounds, brown hair, and brown eyes;

GARDNER HERBERT REYNOLDS, JR., white male, age 22, 5'11", 180 pounds, brown hair, and hazel eyes;

JAMES EDWARD HUNGERFORD, white male, age 22, 6', 175 pounds, brown hair, and blue eyes;

VIRGINIA CELESTE MICHEL, white female, age 21, 5'3", 110 pounds, brown hair, and blue eyes;

PATRICIA ANN MOSHER, white female, age 26, 5'3", 105 pounds, brown hair, and blue eyes;

JACK REVEL NEECE, white male, age 22, 5'8", 140 pounds, brown hair, and blue eyes;

JOHN FRANCIS NICHOLSON, white male, age 21, 5'8", 148 pounds, brown hair, and blue eyes;

JUIDH LYNN OSTER, nee Angelson, also known as Julie Oster, an employee of the Bank of America;

BEVERLY JUNE GIBBONS, white female, date of birth 5/13/33, 5'4", 105 pounds, brown hair, and brown eyes;

JEFFERY FLYNN

Here, stories diverge.

The press reported that the boy was locked in a 6x6 shipping crate for 56 days, where he was left without regular food or water in the hot California summer sun.  They attribute this treatment to a fire started by Gibbons alone, and claimed that he was punished thusly because he destroyed precious Crowley artifacts owned by Brayton.

These claims were based upon Creech's testimony.  The group claims that Creech was already in trouble with the law, that he lied on the stand, and that he recanted his testimony.

Another member, Clifford "Al" Reos, turned states' evidence, and spied on the group, then testified against them.

Hoffman, in the LA Free Press, claimed Reos was, "driven by paranoid delusions and nerve-crushing fear."

Maybe, maybe not.

One of the problems with researching this sort of thing is that the source documents are just not there.  Or rather, they are, but they're not online.  They're in microfiche archives in California.  For a researcher in Mass., that's not exactly accessible.

Still, there are options, and the case has achieved some level of notoriety.  There's an image of Gibbons, scanned in from an old newspaper, but the text is indecipherable.

Fortunately, there is a transcript of this article, here (http://sracases.tripod.com/GIBBONS2.HTM) with another picture of a continuaton of the article, which is much more legible.

Crucially, this is the boy's testimony.

In it, he states that he was placed in both the A-frame storage unit, AND a box.  He claims that Brayton torched his fingers after the fire, then that he was placed inside of the A-frame.

He was in the A-frame for 20 days, and had been confined there by a fellow cultist, Spud Reynolds.  He was only allowed to leave for showers, and he was accompanied by Jeffrey Flynn when he did this.  Another article from the era says he was also allowed to do "chores."

After being in the A-frame for those 20 days, the boy testified that he was moved to the crate.  In both the A-frame and in the crate, he had a chain around his ankle.  However, in the A-frame, he was only fed bread and water.  In the crate, he was fed full meals, but was given cans to dispose of his waste and his trash in.

The Distract Attorney, according to the article, held up very damning evidence - a photograph of the box, with a plate, cans, a spoon, a plastic bottle, and "some other items."  Anthony also reported that he was bitten all over by insects.

While doctor reports stated that the boy was in good condition, he did not see a doctor until three days after the arrests.

He was also able to recognise all of the cultists except for his own mother.  He testified that he rarely saw her around.

Because Brayton and her husband, the boy's father, and a few other cultists fled the country after the arrests were made (they went to property Brayton owned in Mexico), the FBI was brought in, and the FBI file, aside from strikes of a black marker over certain things, is available to the public.

It is worth quoting:

Riverside County Sheriff's Deputies proceeded to the commune, where they found SAUL GIBBONS sitting on a mattress in a 6' by 6' box. A heavy metal chain was padlocked to his left leg and the other end of the chain was locked to a large metal plate. The box also contained a No. 10 can partially filled with human waste and swarming with flies. Also, the box contained an uncovered plastic jug with drinking water, a food encrusted plate, and a small washtub filled with dirty water. The stench was nauseating, the flies were swarming, it was hot, and the boy could not recall how long he had been in the box. The recorded temperature in Blythe since 7/1/69 reached 117 degrees with 12 days reaching 110 degrees or more.

Investigation determined that on 5/20/69 the Quonset hut at the commune, with many of the cult's belongings, burned down. This fire was not reported to authorities.

Cult members determined that SAUL GIBBONS set the fire and about three days later, GEORGINA BRAYTON, RICHARD BRAYTON, and ROBERT DUERRSTEIN, as well as other cult members, proceeded to the commune from Los Angeles.

XXX former O.T.O. members, stated that GEORGINA BRAYTON is the leader of the group and ROBERT DUERRSTEIN is second in command. The group is strictly disciplined and JEAN BRAYTON finalizes all decisions.
Upon arrival at the commune in May, JEAN BRAYTON is alleged to have held lit matches to the hand of SAUL GIBBONS as punishment for burning the Quonset down and for killing two goats which were destroyed by the fire. She allegedly made SAUL bury the goats after which he was "beaten all day" with bamboo sticks by the adult members of the commune while the BRAYTONS and DUERRSTEIN watched. SAUL was then put in an "A" frame building by the "cow pens" and chained to the heavy metal plate. He allegedly stayed in the "A" frame two weeks, during which time he was fed only bread and water. Thereafter, he was transferred to the 6' by 6' wooden box in which he was found on 7/26/69.

A week or two after SAUL's original punishment at the commune, a meeting was held at the O.T.O. Temple, 2627 Menlo, Los Angeles. JEAN BRAYTON told those present that as punishment for setting the fire she had burned SAULS's hands with matches, made him dig the grave and bury the carcasses of the two goats. and then chained him in an "A" frame, where he was to sit in Asana, a yogie position. She then said that when it was convenient, she was going to give SAUL LSD and set fire to the structure in which he was chained and give him just enough chain to get out of reach of the fire. She asked if anyone had any objections or better ideas. No one, including SAULS' mother, BEVERLY GIBBONS, who was present at the meeting, had any objections. ROBERT DUERRSTEIN suggested they kill the child, but JEAN BRAYTON said this would not be necessary. BEVERLY GIBBONS allegedly remarked during these conversations that it was "sacrificing one to save many".

Absolutely harrowing reading.  The former members of the Solar Lodge claim that this was a gigantic conspiracy among the conservative community at Blythe to 'get back at them' for their 'weird beliefs.'

For some reason, I have my doubts, although the group WAS getting attention.

The Solar Lodge bookshop, The Eye of Horus

One of their members was busted before the Gibbons fracas for selling marijuana in front of their bookstore, called The Eye of Horus.  Reportedly, even by people who claim that the Gibbons case is mostly disinformation such as Frater Shiva, Brayton was enraged that the man was conducting his own business, outside of the group.

Even from a sympathetic perspective, Brayton doesn't seem to come across as a very nice individual.  She, like Mary Ann MacLean of the Process, was the head of all operations.  She had the money to purchase large amounts of land (MacLean tried to do the same, but was often in dire financial straits), and was very strict and possessive towards her 'wards.'

Celibacy was the order of the day, with the claim that sexual energy could be transformed into magicakal workings.  No one was allowed independent thought, children were separated from their parents (again, according to the sympathetic account by Frater Shiva, Brayton sought to destroy 'the family').  She was a desperately jealous god.

However, Shiva's account is based upon the claims by loyal Lodge members and his own experience - he claims every time he saw the boy, the boy was engaged in re-building efforts.  This doesn't conflict with Gibbons' testimony.  It doesn't necessarily mean that he was not chained up otherwise.

Brayton was also a thief, who stole Crowley relics from Sascha Germer (the widow of Karl Germer, who was the head of the OTO in the US until his death). These were relics that the boy supposedly burned when he started setting fires (or was accused of doing so, anyway).

From Cornelius93's account (http://www.cornelius93.com/EpistleSolarLodge.html) which is otherwise pro-Solar Lodge:

A  group of individuals, believing the O.T.O. was dead, took it upon themselves to break into certain homes and steal the Crowley libraries -- just as Soror Meral had feared would happen. Their intent was to preserve what they felt was rightfully' theirs and to re-establish the O.T.O. This sounds like a noble gesture but, regardless what these individuals thought, they had no right to other people's personal property. Wanting to jump-start the O.T.O. was one thing, but their methods of obtaining Crowleyanity was felonious and nothing less than pure thievery

The first break-in occurred in the summer of 1965, the second in1966. Both were at Mildred Burlingame's house, an old Agape Lodge member whose husband had died shortly before the first incident. The third break-in occurred shortly afterwards and was at Israel Regardie's house while he was away. The fourth house which was ransacked was at West Point, Califomia, the home of Sascha Germer.

...

Unlike the earlier cases, Sascha Gerrner was home during the theft. It began when someone knocked at her front door. She asked who it was and a reply was heard that it was a member of the O.T.O. Unfortunately when she opened the door she was immediately sprayed in the face with a gas, knocked to the floor and overpowered. A drug was then injected by a syringe which knocked her out cold. When she came to she found that her house had been ransacked and that many books in the second floor library had been stolen. Aleister Crowley's personal robes, many O.T.O. documents and ritual papers were also missing. Sascha tried to call the police but found that the phone lines had been cut. When she finally did notify the local Constable, he took her story, along with a few photographs, but no fingerprints were taken or any serious investigation was done. Soror Meral has stated that it was obvious that "they put her story down to the wanderings of the demented mind of a lady who had been alone too long." In other words, they didn't believe her. Her house was dirty, being normally in disarray, and they weren't sure she was actually burglarized.

...

[Sascha accused a fellow member's daughter of the theft, The member, Soror Meral, said that her daughter had no interest in Crowley, and began her own investigation]

Soror Meral immediately began a personal investigation to discover the identities of the real thieves and to clear her daughter's name. One of the people who responded to her letter of inquiry was an Agape Lodge member named Mildred Burlingame. It was during a visit with Mildred that Soror Meral learned that her house, like Sascha's, had been burglarized. She was quick to learn that Mildred had her own suspicions as to who was responsible for the thefts. She believed that it was a former student of hers named Georgina 'Jean' Brayton. The first time Mildred's house was broken into it showed absolutely no signs of forced entry. Since Jean had keys to her house, she became a suspect. Mildred decided to change the locks and because of such, the next time her house was burglarized a back window was jimmied open.

While this does not prove that Brayton was responsible for the burglary at Germer's, it does seem as if burglary was not unfamiliar to her.

Like MacLean, she also had an aversion to cameras (I can find absolutely no pictures of the woman anywhere).

A drawing of Brayton, 1973, from http://xdell.blogspot.com/2008/08/devils-in-slide.html

Former cultists also claimed that Brayton had a tendency towards racism and a belief in an apocalyptic race-war that would destroy civilisation (shades of Manson, again).  Others, of course, claim that this is false and come up with theories as to why people would slander Brayton.

Ed Sanders, who I will detail later, wrote thus:

One grim anecdote tells how the cult had managed to instill its racism into the six-year-old Anthony Gibbons. After the arrests, the lad was sent to a foster home where he was cared for by a black lady. The boy requested a sword from her so that he might perform a magic ritual called "The Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram."

The woman remained nearby as if to observe the ceremony but Anthony announced that "we don't let niggers watch."

For those who are not hip to their occultism, the Ritual here, known also as the LBRP or LBR, is a ritual from the Golden Dawn that is performed to banish all impurities in the magician's area.  It's a very basic ritual, in that it is used routinely by occultists of different stripes, to cleanse the ritual space.

On its own, the Solar Lodge is pretty obscure.  The only reason this case is even remembered is because of Sanders, and because of his connecting the group with the greater dark occult scene in LA, that the Process and Charles Manson, were also members of.  There's no connection between the Solar Lodge and the Process, except that they both had very apocalyptic views (as did Manson).

In fact, the Solar Lodge OTO was not even a legitimate organisation, insofar as the official OTO of the US is concerned.  Brayton had been intiated appropriately, but she had no authority to create a new temple.  Of course, she did anyway.

After some convictions were scored against the people arrested during the police raid, the Solar Lodge of the OTO changed its name to the far more unwieldy "Velle Transcendental Research Association, Inc."  Brayton remained on the lam for about eighteen months, before finally returning, her husband and Gibbons' father in tow.  They received surprisingly low sentences, especially for being federal fugitives.

Brayton's husband was found not guilty, while Brayton herself pleaded no contest and received probation and a fine of $500.  For federal child abuse charges.

Gibbons' father pled guilty, but I can't find what his conviction was.  It was probably fairly small, too.

Brayton and company claimed they fled the country because they were afraid of a "biased" trial.  The "Velle" group still exists to this day.

Their Satanic Majesties Request [The Process, Church of the Final Judgment, part 5]

I have not written on our dear friends Bobby and Mary for a while, due to lack of inspiration.  But tonight, I am going to give it a shot.

However, this will not strictly be about the Process, but about other groups that were around at the same tme, and much later, and how their existence brought the Process unwanted infamy.

I suppose the best time and place to start would be Frisco, on April 30th, 1966.

According to Germanic folklore and superstition, April 30th was the night when witches and demons ran amok on the mountain known as the Brocken, the tallest mountain in the Hartz mountains.  It is called Walpurgisnacht, after the Anglo-Saxon saint who preached to the Franks, Walburga.

She was canonised on May 1st, which was traditionally the first day of spring in the Germanic countries, and the evening before May 1st was celebrated even by witches and demons - this is probably a holdover from older pagan spring rituals that would call in the spring throughout the night.

On April 30th, 1966, Howard Levey shaved his head, declared himself to be 'Anton LaVey,' and founded his 'Church of Satan.'

The Church had its origins in Friday evening get-togethers that Levey would hold in his home, wherein he and his guests would discuss topics of an occult nature.

Levey claimed he had a colourful history long before he founded his church.  He said that he quit school to join the circus, that he was a photographer for the Frisco PD and photographed a number of homicide scenes, and even claimed he slept with a pre-fame Marilyn Monroe while he performed music at a burlesque house called the Mayan.

It's likely that these were all lies.  There's no record of any of his supposed career as a SFPD photographer, or for his claims that he was involved in the circus.

While Miss Monroe has long since passed away, no one from Monroe's crowd - agents, friends, family - have any knowledge of this supposed affair.  Furthermore, the owner of the Mayan has stated that not only was the place not a burlesque house, but that no Howard Levey performed there, nor did a pre-fame Monroe (birth name:  Norma Jean Mortenson, then changed to Baker while still a child).

According to neo-pagan Druid Issac Bonewits, Levey had no real grounding in the occult arts.  From his article, "My Satanic Adventure" (located on the web here: http://www.neopagan.net/SatanicAdventure.html):

During this time, I became a regular at the Church of Satan. I attended LaVey’s lectures, went to his Friday night rituals, and quickly became one of his regular altar boys and a “Satanic Minister.” I’ll never forget the evening when I decided to ad lib some fake “Enochian” invocations during one of the ceremonies. I dramatically intoned a lot of gibberish, using the same guttural tones that Anton always used, and everyone in the ritual acted very impressed. Afterwards, I asked Anton, “How’d you like my Enochian?” and he gave me a look that would have melted sheetrock. He did not, however, warn me of the dangers of mucking with this ceremonial language, as any real Enochian magician would have done out of sheer self-preservation (since they all believe that it is a terribly powerful magical tongue), nor did he complain that I had ruined his magical intent, as he would have done if he had actually been doing any magic. It was at that point that I realized two important things about Anton: he really didn’t know very much about Enochian and he wasn’t actually trying to do magic in his supposedly magical rites. I began to wonder if he even knew how.

...

To me it was all just another part of the adventure. I continued to listen admiringly to Anton’s tales, though I was somewhat shocked when he claimed that his huge library of occult books had been swindled from rich widows. I was more shocked when I realized that he had read only a tiny fraction of them, and that at seventeen I had read far more books on parapsychology, comparative religion and the occult than he had, despite his twenty years’ head start.

Nevertheless, an organisation known as the "Church of Satan" gained quite a bit of publicity, leading to LaVey becoming the poster-boy for the emergence of Satan in the so-called Age of Aquarius.

Another group, far less influential, but far more notorious in the annals of 60s cults was The Solar Lodge.  Founded in 1962 and based loosely on Aleister Crowley's Ordo Templi Orientis, the Solar Lodge became best known for the controversy surrounding the "boy in the box" incident.

This incident involved a six year old named Anthony Saul Gibbons, whose parents were members of the group, in 1969 - just a few weeks before the Manson murders made cult-based crime a topic on everyones' lips.

At that point, a woman by the name of Georgina "Jean" Brayton was then head of the Solar Lodge, and according to press reports, she ruled the group with an iron fist.

The boy reportedly set a fire - whether it was accidental or intentional has not been fully resolved.  According to members of the Solar Lodge, it was intentional.

The official Lodge story (as reported in the LA Free Press, September 17, 1971, in a piece by an Ed Hoffman) is thus:

The group had established a base of operations 38 miles north of Blythe, California, in the desert.  From humble beginnings, they had established a main office, areas for livestock, and apartment buildings (reportedly built from piano boxes and A-frames).

While the group had originally all lived together in the main office building, growth forced the building of more areas to live.  These areas were certainly not up to code or very habitable, but the members of the Solar Lodge moved to them anyway.

Two children, Anthony Saul Gibbons and Kathy Myer, set fire to the apartment building they lived in, because they wanted to go back to living in the main building.  However, the fire soon went out of control, and before long, much of the group's construction had been destroyed, and two goats were killed.

The children were said to be 'problem children,' from broken homes.  The mother of Kathy, Marge Myer, could not support her daughter, and begged for the group to keep her.  Gibbons' father, Jim Gibbons, did the same.  Jim was a probation counselor in Los Angeles who was separated from his wife, Beverly, who lived with the Lodge.

The children were separated, and two months went by, while construction was underway on rebuilding the apartments.  Finally life was settling back to normal, when Saul was found once more trying to set a fire, this time in a kitchen of a new building.

The group contacted his father again, who was enraged, and told them that he'd be there to pick up Saul in the morning.  He told them to lock him up somehow, so that he could no longer get into trouble, and leave him be until the next morning.

Saul was therefore put into a storage shed and locked in for the rest of the night.

I want to end it on that note, because, well, it's a good note to end a story on!  There's more to it, and even more weirdness coming.

You may wonder what any of this has to do with the Process Church.  The answer is:  nothing and everything.  There were lots of fringe religious groups in California, many of which were later tied to Manson, or tied to the Process Church, or both.  These are just two.  There are more, and to get a fuller understanding the Process Conspiracy, and the final collapse of the Process Church, it is important to understand that.  I hope that in coming entries, I can tie this all neatly together to make a well-rounded story and, of course, to share my own bizarre obsessions wtih long-gone cults and genuinely strange personages.

In the Time of Abaddon I [The Process, Church of the Final Judgment] (part 4)

When the Process Church opened a branch in San Francisco, they were just a strange, new religious movement that was looking to make converts.

They stepped into a cultural tinderbox.

San Francisco was where Haight-Ashbury was, and in 1967, thousands of young people followed the lyrics of a song written by John Philips of the Mamas and the Papas, to wear flowers in their hair and come to San Francisco.

Expecting to meet some "gentle people,"" many kids instead found themselves homeless, addicted to drugs, involved in prostitution and underground pornography, members of cults, and worse.

When it became clear that young, idealistic kids were migrating to San Francisco, a lot of less than pure-hearted people flocked there too, to exploit them, and lots of other people used the freedom and idealism to act out their darkest fantasies and desires.

The Process first tried to enlist the San Francisco Oracle, a leading underground paper, to their cause, but the paper declined, being far more interested in sex, drugs, and rock and roll than Jesus and Satan.  They reportedly also tried to interest Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan, but he was less than impressed.

Still, the Process set up shop at 407 Cole Street.  They were just up the road from 636 Cole, which was the address of a 32 year old ex-con named Charles Manson who was surviving by panhandling, and also preaching his own Scientology-influenced  Biblical message to anyone who would listen.

While Moor and MacLean - the future DeGrimstons - studied Scientology in London's Hubbard Institute, Charlie Manson was  studying it in various prisons.  Since he was a child, Manson had been in and out of juvies and prisons, and learned  everything there - indeed, it was in prison where he learned how to play guitar.

The natural question is - did Manson ever meet up with Processeans?  More to the point, did he ever meet up with "The Omega"?

No actual evidence exists for any sort of meeting, and dates are extremely hard to come by.  Manson didn't keep his flat at Cole forever - he was living on the road, cashing at the pads of his followers, etc.  

Given the stringent rules for joining - celibacy, obedience, giving everything one owns to the church - it seems very unlikely that Charlie Manson ever joined the Process Church proper, or any church, for that matter.

He loved to have sex with underage girls, which makes celibacy very unlikely.  He never had much to his name, relying instead on aid from his followers and petty crime.  Most importantly, Charles Manson was not the sort of man who would permit others to boss him around.

One can imagine that if Manson and Mary Ann ever did meet, the results would be hilarious, with Mary Ann attempting to make Charles obey her with threats, manipulation, intimidation, whatever, and Charles spouting off a line about how women have their place, and to shut up and make him some money or give him sex.

Further, simply because the Process Church existed in name in San Francisco, that doesn't mean that "The Omega" was there  much.  If Charlie, or the other family members, crossed paths with Process members, it is very unlikely that those members would have been Robert or Mary Ann.

In addition, the mere fact that Mary Ann attempted to make the Process appear wealthy and classy to outsiders - a fact that Wylie reiterates when he writes about her spending above the group's means - it seems very unlikely that they'd care one iota about some scroungy 32 year old ex-con.

It's not hard to imagine Charlie or one of his girls getting Process material, reading it, assimilating it, turning it to his own ends, and using it that way.  It is extremely hard to imagine that someone like Charlie Manson had any real dealings with the Process beyond the superficial.

Manson did have connections to some strange folks in those days, and when I write on Manson, believe me, they'll be covered - but not the Process.

Unfortunately for the Process, they did become forever linked with Manson in the popular imagination due to the efforts of one beatnik author/musician to figure out how the hippie movement went so wrong, and while the Process probably never counted Manson as a member, they made their own connection to him after the murders which, in retrospect, was a very, very bad move.

We Give Our Lives (The Process, Church of the Final Judgment) [part 3]

After Inez devestated Xtul, the Process members contacted their families and returned back to England.  Inez had destroyed everything, at least on a material, physical level, but it had been a transformative experience for the group on a spiritual level.

They had taken the advice of their spirit guides, their 'gods' as the guides were called, and gone to Xtul.  The gods had seen them through the hurricane.  The gods had saved them.  Then, Robert wrote - or channeled - the "Xtul Dialogues," which created a more concrete theology for the Process.  When they returned to England, they returned with an evangelical furor.

They returned to their digs in the Mayfair district, the Balfour Mansion, and set up shop.  Now, however, the leaders, Robert and Mary Anne, were making themselves more and more separate from the general members.  Robert and Mary Ann dubbed themselves "The Omega," and kept to themselves, working through intermediaries.  Most of the power, according to Wylie, was possessed by Mary Ann, and she used a chain of women of varying levels of authority to keep tabs on the management of the group.

The members of the Process would spend their days panhandling and selling their newly-created magazine to interested passerbys.  Those who were interested in the group went to the coffee house that the Process ran, which had either been opened recently, or re-opened (Wylie implies that the coffee house was a post-Xtul development, while other sources suggest otherwise).

The food there was, according to Wylie, both tasty and nutrtious, and reflected the interest in organic products that the hippie generation first kindled in America.

The days for the Processeans developed into a steady rhythm of morning meditation, breakfast, work on telepathy or proselytising, dinner, evening meditation, sleep.  The only break in this routine was on Thursday afternoons and evenings, which the members were allowed to themselves.

Of course, Wylie makes clear that this, while cultic, was a necessary element of the religion, and not at all unwelcome.  The Process would also put on theatre shows, give talks, host speakers, and show films, all on a variety of esoteric topics, from Aleister Crowley to UFOs.

However, becoming a Processean was not an easy job.  One had to be committed.  Giving up all of one's possessions to the group was but the first step.  Strict celibacy was enforced, and joining the group was a process that, at minimum, took two years.  People were interested and intriguied, but they didn't join.

To the Process, of course, that just proved their own elitest beliefs about themselves, as spiritually advanced beings.

The first magazine was a, "two-color  broadsheet , focused  for  some  unaccountable  reason  on the Common  Market" that demanded, in angry, Apocalyptic terms, that England not join it.  Wylie has no idea where this sentiment came from, and chalks it up to Mary Ann.

The Process also founded their own printing press, and began publishing books by Robert, which articulated and expounded on the Process' unique theology - unfortunately for the Process, this theology would get them into trouble.  Therefore, an exploration of this theology is needed.

In traditional Christianity, Jehovah/YHVH is the single god of the universe.  However, with the doctrine of the Trinity, this god's son, Jesus - who was born in the first century CE - is also the same as this god.  Wars have been fought over the intricate relationship between Jesus and YHVH.  The orthodox view of Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, and most mainstream Protestants is reflected in the words of the Nicene Creed, a Creed written to settle disputes over this very issue.

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.

In this cosmology, there is an evil figure, commonly called Satan, but also called Lucifer, though their exact distinction, if any, is less precise.  While God/Jesus stands for righteousness and goodness, correct moral order, justice, truth, Satan/Lucifer has a variety of functions, from an accuser of the righteous to someone who actively tries to harm humanity.

In DeGrimston's theology, however, things are different.  In his theology, there are three primary gods - Jehovah, Lucifer, and Satan.  However, while they may be opposites, they have been unified in Jesus Christ.

As DeGrimston wrote in As It Is:

Christ said: Love thine enemy. Christ's Enemy was Satan and Satan's Enemy was Christ. Through love, enmity is destroyed. Through love, saint and sinner destroy the enmity between them. Through love, Christ and Satan have destroyed their enmity and come together for the End. Christ to judge, Satan to execute the judgment.

This isn't an entirely original thought.  A Church Father by the name of Origen proposed a similar scheme, whereby Christ forgave Satan and all sinners.  He was duly attacked by the orthodox members of the church, and those teachings were deemed heretical, but the idea of Christ forgiving Satan was not original to the Process.

The Process, however, took that idea, and made Satan into a key player in both the end of humanity and the judgment thereof.

They also used the figures of Jehovah, Lucifer, and Satan as archetypes for each human being.  Due to the Process' origins in the psychoanalytic community, it is reasonable to assume that "The Omega" came across Jung's psychology types (which later formed the basis for the MBTI).  The three gods are a similar exercise in determining personality type.

• Jehovah, as a god, is rigid, demanding, righteous but unmerciful, and aesetic.  He is also a god of extreme self-reliance, of duty, of discipline.
• Lucifer is more of a "party animal," but with harmony and peace as the goal.  Lucifer could be best seen as a hippy, a figure who believes in free love, enjoying all that life has to offer, but living in harmony and love with others.
• Satan is more complex.  He is devoted to abandonment and filth, in the hopes of trascendence.  He is destruction and fury and hate - but not as ends of themselves, but as methods of transcending mere humanity, transcending all limits.

While each person had elements of all three gods in them, each person was more in tune with one of the gods than with the others.

The much touted "Satanism" of the group had little to do with 'gothic' Satanism, as portrayed by the church, therefore.  It wasn't 'Catholic' Satanism (inverse masses, defrocked priests, etc.), nor was it LaVeyan Satanism.  Their Satan was more in tune with the Hindu aghori - those who indulge in what is vile so as to transcend it.  They might be interested in such unpleasant ideas as cannibalism and necrophilia (topics brought up by Satanists in the magazines), but they were not interested in having a black mass or sacrificing goats to the devi, or similar nonsensel.  It was religion mixed with psychology, all designed to bring about transcendence and the destruction of emnity.

Christ was not considered a 'god' so much as an emissary, but people identified with him anyway.  Wylie recounts that he never considered these gods to be truly divine, but took them as psychological archetypes, and feels that other members of the Process felt the same way.

Unfortunately, the media has never shown much ability to grasp the subtleties of religion, so this new theology, coupled with the Process' attire - black capes, black robes, goates of Mendes patches - quickly led to them being labeled "Satanists," even though they really were not.  Highly unorthodox, definitely, but 'Satanists'?  Please.

The notoriety didn't necessarily hurt, however.  By their third magazine, the Process had managed to get an interview with Mick Jagger.  Placing Jagger's face on the front cover of the magazine no doubt earned some sales, but also earned the ire of Mary Ann, who was enraged that Robert was not on there instead.

Mary Ann continued to rule over the Processeans in other ways, too.  While celibacy had been the norm for the Processeans up to this point, as more people joined, it became more and more evident that some sort of sexual outlet was required.  The plan, therefore, was that The Omega subdivided the men and women into four seperate groups.  Daughters, Sons, Mothers, Fathers.  Sons and Daughters were those who were more inexperienced in the religion, and needed a guiding hand.  Fathers and Mothers were those who were more advanced, and could guide.  The Sons and Daughters could choose which Father or Mother they wanted to be with, and the couples could spend a week alone in a bedroom without being required to work.  Therefore, a "daughter" might choose a "father," and they would spend a week together engaging in whatever they wanted to - in most cases, people spent that week having sex!

These initial "relationships" led, later on, to more long-term partnerships, even marriage and children, for some couples.  After that week, however, it was back to celibacy for the Processeans, although there were odd ceremonies that would appear that were reminiscient of sex magic, according to Wylie - such as a man masturbating himself to orgasm, emptying his sperm into a sacred bowl, and then having that sperm along with kerosene burnt while prayers were said.

While London remained the base of operations for the Process, by 1967, it had begun to branch out into the United States, first in New Orleans, then in San Francisco.  While other chapters opened elsewhere in 1967 and 1968 - Munich, for example, or Greenwich Village - it is the San Francisco branch that will forever ensure that the Process is remembered, because in 1969, an fairly small event, statistically speaking, would nevertheless forever traumatise the United States and lead to the Process' eventual decline.

We Come From the One (The Process, Church of the Final Judgment) [part 2]

According to official Process doctrine, spirits - the "gods" - recommended that the Mayfair Mindbenders escape England and go elsewhere.  More likely, it was the negative publicity and legal woes that prompted this exodus, but the result was the same - in mid-1966, the de Grimstons, about 35 followers, and a pack of German Shepherds left England.  The group believed that they were leaving England for good.

By this point, the conflicts with parents, legal "authorities," and the general collapse of the Western World led the group to believe that the end was near - and getting nearer by the day, and it led to an us vs. them mentality.

The Processeans first left for Nassau, then the Bahamas.  Then the spirits led them to Mexico, and finally to Xtul, where they formed a community.  Miles from civilisation - miles even from a populated town - the group continued their spiritual work, and got down to the work of survival in the jungle.  Considering that all of the members were from England at this point, the fact that they even survived in this wilderness is amazing unto itself, and the group took that was validation that the gods were with them.

That sense of validation would receive a tremendous boost in late September of 1966, when Xtul was battered by hurricane Inez.

Timothy Wylie gives a vivid description of Inez in his book LOVE SEX FEAR DEATH.  The hurricane battered the home of the movement and destroyed much of their work.  For three days and nights, the Process was under siege.  When the hurricane left, and the rubble was cleared, all members had survived.  This was a storm that claimed quite a number of lives (1000, accoring to wunderground.com).  Clearly, the gods were with them.

During this period of time, a piece of work known as the Xtul Dialogues was composed - or, perhaps, channeled by Robert from the gods.  It was in fact written in November of '66, after Inez, and consists of seven dialogues and a epilogue called "Diversion."

In the first Dialogue, the new purpose of the group is established - love.  To establish love, one must combat the enemy of love, that is, ignorance.  The psychiatric underpinnings of the group are still present here.  The unconscious is ignorance.  Consciousness is love.  The unconscious is rejection, whereas the conscious is acceptance and truth.  God is identified with the conscious mind.

14 But is that possible when there is unconscious conflict?

By the conscious separation of the two. Just as beings have one choice only withregard to GOD, to include or to exclude ,so they have one choice only with regard to the unconscious, to identify or to detach,to be submerged or to separate.
With GOD the valid choice is to include. With unconsciousness the valid choice is theinversion, to exclude. to detach.

15 Why is this?

Because whereas GOD is truth and acceptance, unconscousness is lies and rejection.It is motivated by conflict andresponsibility, both of which are rejections of the truth.

16 How has this come about?

Through the exclusion of GOD. All doing, thinking and feeling which are motivated byunconscious pressure areproduced in order to fill the gap left by the exclusion of GOD.

17 What is valid then?

Being. The only choice which is not motivated by unconscious conflict, is the choice ofinclusion or exclusion of the unconscious. If the unconscious is deliberately and consciously excluded, then all doing,thinking and feeling become valid. Exclude the unconscious and replace it with GOD.

It is here that the Process first  established its identification with God - and first established its first deity, Jehovah.

Jehovah is an English rendition of the holy name of God which in Hebrew is spelled out by the Hebrew letters YOD HEH VAU HEH, or, YHVH (or YHWH).  The Hebrews, like many ancient peoples, considered the name of their god to be too powerful to be spoken.  If one knew the true name of a god, one could gain power over the god, thus the injunction against using the name of the "LORD" in vain.

The origins and etymology of Jehovah are too involved to get into here, and there is much debate over whether or not Jehovah is even an acceptable way of pronouncing the holy name (Yahweh is a far more popular term in scholarly circles).  Still, it was clear that the Process doctrines identified God with Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews, Jews, and Christians.

In the first Dialogue, the believer in the Process is told to simply be.  Stop struggling, stop trying to figure things out, and just be.  Determining things on one's own excludes God.  This is, of course, beneficial to any sort of religion or cult that aims to establish control over the mind of the believer and is a standard doctrine taught in a number of 'mainstream' Christian and Islamic churches and mosques to this day.  The Jews, of course, tend to be far more interested in arguing and fighting over minute points of Talmudic lore for this to ever work on them!

Communication with the spirits and gods is recommended, but of course, such a practice will eventually to divisions.

The second Dialogue sets out the cosmology of the Process.  There are multiple universes, with multiple gods, but those gods are all parts of the True God.  Each god is also a universe unto itself.  Jehovah is "the knowledge of the physical universe."

Humans posesses five physical senses, but there are up to thirteen in the physical universe.  Humans can only truly grok a small element of the physical universe.  Telepathy is a pre-requisite to all consciousnesses, not a "sixth sense."  Sorry, M. Night Shamalyan!

The second Dialogue continues to differentiate how physical consciousnesses can and cannot be part of god.

In the third Dialogue, a new term comes into play - xtummer (pronounced "shoo-mer").  According to the notes:

(7) To xtumm (pronounced 'shtoom'; oo as in 'good') is to kill either physically, spiritually ormentally, depending on the context.The extent of the 'death' can vary. For example: to xtumm someone can mean simply meanto silence him, to knock him senseless or to destroy him completely. Also atmospheres can be xtummed, contactbetweened people can be xtummed,etc. In the present context a 'xtummer' refers to one who kills contacts and atmospheres on aspiritual level, with heavy deadening projections and attitudes.

In other words, this Dialogue is about how to deal with someone who is an outsider, or a nonbeliever.  The way to deal with this person is simply to ignore him or her.  People are at different levels of spiritual awareness and ability, and it is foolish to let yourself be inconvenienced in any way by someone who cannot, or will not, contribute spiritually.

The fourth dialogue continues in similar wise, about how one should be focused on the physical and let the spiritual take care of itself.  Working on the spiritual on your own is futile.  The spiritual is the domain of God.  Let God deal with it.  One's responsibility is to the physical only, and even on that level, the responsibility is minimal.

7 What do we do about demands we instinctively make on ourselves and those around us, that give us agony and frustration?

At the stage the group has reached, these can only be spiritual demands, presumptuous demands, demands that haveno relevance to your environment whatever. Physical demands can be made and met without pain or frustration.The most prominent physical demand is security. This is best met with discipline in the formof set formulas of living thatthat eliminate choice in the primary areas and make it as wide and free as possible in the secondary.

8 What are the primary areas?

Sleeping, eating and working.The less choice in these areas as regards time, quantity, quality, etc., the more freedom you feel in these areas, and that includes freedom from demand, requirement and expectation, as well as rigid control, the better.

Notice that the demands made in the primary areas should be physical and most definiyely not spiritual.

The other dialogues continue in similar wise, with emphasis on focusing on the physical demands and letting the spiritual take care of itself, because it is the domain of God.  In some ways, this is analogous to the doctrine in some Churches to not "try" to be good, but to let Christ "work" on that for you.

The Dialogues were not meant for outsiders.  These were meant for people already inside.  These were the "Rule of St. Benedict" of the Process Church.

The final part of the Dialogues is called "Diversions," and attacks coincidence, but from what I read, it appears to be more along the lines of a, "huh, what a funny coincidence" line of thought rather than a more meaningful understanding of synchronicity.

4 Why is humanity fooled by Coincidence?

Because Coincidence offers himself as an escape route from the ever present threat of Recognition.

'Down this alley', he cries, and off the terrified human goes, choosing to be amazed by the antics of Coincidence rather than face the overwhelming evidence of Significance and thus fall into the waiting arms of Recognition.

Unfortunately for the Process, even before Inez, parents and lawsuits were still plaguing them, and once Inez had destroyed Xtul, the Process decided to return to London, and back to the Balfour.

They had come to Xtul as kids caught up in the occult craze of Swinging London, and they mixed that with psychotherapy and Scientology.

Now, they were a religious community with a sense of direction and doctrine, and now their duty was to draw in other lost souls.