It's nice to have a record of these events and am grateful to probably Ames Gilbert for having put them here. It's a pity that Mr. McCarthy had to change so many of the things I said to be able to publish anything.
It surprises me to see that these events only took place three years ago. A whole lifetime has gone by since then but it still hurts.
It's beautiful to find this:
Especially now that so many people are actually occupying the Public Squares of the World. Why didn't anyone in the FOF blog understand that THAT was the way to go? To go Public with the problem and make as much noise as we could possibly make? Ames did of course go with me twice and that was helpful but being so close to the Fellowship why hasn't he ever been there again or anybody else? Don't they understand yet that Public Space is third line of work at its best? We move in our physical dimension in three lines of life as clearly as three lines of work. Public Space is where we can actualize our equality as human beings. All other "clubs" and "separations" will tend to disappear and the consciousness of our humaneness will breathe in private life as strongly as in public life. The schism between them does not help the individual or society and has brought forth the present crisis: many thought they could do whatever they wanted against the "passive public" but the human spirit wakes up in every generation to confront the abuses the older generation tries to institutionalize. It is a most beautiful phenomenon to be able to trust our SElVES more than anything else, that is, the capacity of our "selves" to check "the few" amongst us abusing their power.
The fofblog, they say, is only getting 200 hits per day which is as lousy as it can get considering there are so very many ex-members. They are loosing the fight against the Fellowship but the problem really is that they never had a fight with it, they just talked about it. Real struggle takes a lot more than words. I am so very sorry for not having had more authority to inspire them to picket with and without me, to touch the dimension of the public sphere as it needs to be permeated by consciousness. I know I tried. Separating from the blog was necessary to remain true to that consciousness but I am sorry that I insulted them for not understanding it. Insulting them proves my own frustration too weak to be as human as it was necessary and abandon the struggle without hurting anyone. It's always so hard to walk away on one's own without calling out the cowardice but THAT acts against consciousness and separates the people involved. Those of us who wish to push human consciousness ahead cannot fail to act on it or we make it retrograde instead of evolving. I am glad that I have not abused anyone on the blogs since then. Ton left finally but he knew why.
It is still hard to live up to that understanding when abuse is so abundant. I fail almost daily and yet I've managed to avoid it so much more than ever before. I kept silent in the Fellowship cult for so very many years, and I am so sorry for it. It's necessary to learn to say one's word and move on with it in silence even if on one's own. Insulting or hurting others because they do not follow what one believes shows one's own fear and doubt and the consequences are always against consciousness. THAT is "missing the mark".
It is good to see that "life" is winning in the Public Squares of the World, even if so many people will be swept away before it can get a solid grip on actualizing itself in our practical lives. It is lovely to see old people standing up against drones and young people against abuse of power. I have never had so much hope for the human being as now. Hope, enthusiasm and gratitude. A joy that permeates like fresh air.
It's been only three years since these events! Wow! I've been recovering very gradually and am still far from being well. It's still difficult to socialize, be normal or spontaneous, saying hello and laughing like people do, I'm still rather "formal" and "stiff" about it. I spend a lot of time with the old people, my father who has an advanced alzheimer and my godfather who lives in pain but walks with it. The energy of old people is pure life. They no longer have time for make up. It has been very healing to live in estrato 3 or third class areas as they are now called in this neofascist country. Hardworking people are always busy trying to survive and don't have time to make up as many problems as middle and upper class people. We are in a lot more of a disadvantage in the middle and upper classes. There is a simplicity in the lower classes that we have lost in the upper classes. A healthy wonderful simplicity that takes life as it is.
I am moving to another area this week so that I can be closer to the elder and that is alright too. Everyone is human and it's necessary to actualize one's own humaneness wherever one happens to be.
It's been very strange to verify that sexuality involves the sphere of the self in an extremely particular dimension of its own. That couples behave with each other as they relate to themselves. The mirror of what is within reflecting itself without is a strange thing to look at for a beginner like me. Everything one does is simply a reflection of what one is and although we are "life", in our lack of consciousness of it, we reflect the multiple shadow or the multiplicity of the "shadowness" in our "actionless" for what we do cannot be called acts since in our unconscious reactiveness, what we do is like a "negative" of the act, like the negative of a picture.
It's been wonderful to verify the energetic quality of every human being. Every interchange is a qualitative act in which the amount of energy involved could be easily measured should we have the instruments to do so. They will, hopefully in the near future so that we start taking ourselves for what we are: pure energy inside a physical envelope. The beauty of verifying that lies in realizing that "life" interacts freely between people at ALL times and that connecting with each other is "life" itself. How could I better say that? Connecting with each other is allowing our being to be itself. Allowing our "self" to actualize in our lives. The Oneness of US to live itself out.
It's a delicate thing to try to live everything one IS out. We all seem to be trying to do that at all times or doing it without even trying but connecting our selves with that fact is necessary to be able to assume responsibility for our acts. It is not easy to become light but light shines behind every shadow that we are projecting and there is nothing "real" about the shadows.
I am a beginner each day.
Appeal-Democrat
By Ryan McCarthy
August 24, 2008 12:05:00 AM
Critics call the Fellowship of Friends a cult; members say it's a school of spiritual development
It's not that the emperor wears no clothes at the 1,171-acre property in the Sierra foothills with a winery, cemetery and main building meant to resemble a French castle, says Elena Haven.
The old folk tale speaks of adults afraid to say their ruler is naked. But Haven, a former member of the Yuba County-based Fellowship of Friends, said silence surrounded the colorful clothes — the salmon pink silk suit, shiny blue shoes or bright yellow pants — leader Robert Earl Burton, 69, sometimes wore.
"It's the picture of the whole phenomena," Haven, 49, said of the religious group that she calls a cult and that she left in 2007 after 17 years as a member.
That Fellowship members don't comment about Burton's clothing during gatherings at the group's headquarters in the foothills community of Oregon House is a symbol of more serious problems, Haven said.
The 6-foot, 4-inch silver-haired Burton, a one-time elementary school teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area, is the unchallenged ruler of the Fellowship and doesn't face questions, she said.
Not about his living like a king, not about a lifestyle said to rival a ruler in the last days of the Roman empire, not about the nuclear Armageddon that Burton proclaimed would happen in 2006, not about whether the Fellowship is following the "Fourth Way" system of spiritual development taught by two 20th-century Russian philosophers and mystics, Haven said.
"If you challenge him you have to leave the cult," she said. "No one can understand how crazy this can get."
A fresco-style ceiling painting that includes a depiction of a man with an erection is an example of the excesses of the Fellowship, Haven said.
Last month Haven did something other former members said no one had attempted since the Fellowship established its Sierra foothills site in 1971.
The 5-foot, 3-inch dark-haired Haven began picketing in July at the Rices Crossing Road entrance to the Fellowship property 29 miles outside of Marysville. Most members live in a bubble, unaware of what takes place in the Fellowship's inner circle, Haven said. Her protests came as the group said members from around the world — the Fellowship has centers for students in many countries — were gathering.
"How many more boys, Dear?" read one of her signs, a reference to what Haven said are the half-dozen young men constantly in Burton's company and known within the Fellowship as his boys. "Dear" is the term Burton uses to address members.
Read more at the Appeal-Democrat.
[ed. - The following is a sampling of the discussion that followed Elena's action.]
"Joseph G" wrote on the Fellowship of Friends Discussion blog, July 4, 2008:
"elena" wrote on the Fellowship of Friends Discussion blog, July 6, 2008:
"steve lang" wrote on the Fellowship of Friends Discussion blog, July 6, 2008:
"elena" wrote on the Fellowship of Friends Discussion blog, July 6, 2008:
It surprises me to see that these events only took place three years ago. A whole lifetime has gone by since then but it still hurts.
It's beautiful to find this:
The confrontation was obviously bringing them “down to earth”. I hope some of you in the vicinity feel inspired to do it every so often so that those on the fence can happily fall out knowing life is in the Public Square of towns and cities, were all people can fit.
Especially now that so many people are actually occupying the Public Squares of the World. Why didn't anyone in the FOF blog understand that THAT was the way to go? To go Public with the problem and make as much noise as we could possibly make? Ames did of course go with me twice and that was helpful but being so close to the Fellowship why hasn't he ever been there again or anybody else? Don't they understand yet that Public Space is third line of work at its best? We move in our physical dimension in three lines of life as clearly as three lines of work. Public Space is where we can actualize our equality as human beings. All other "clubs" and "separations" will tend to disappear and the consciousness of our humaneness will breathe in private life as strongly as in public life. The schism between them does not help the individual or society and has brought forth the present crisis: many thought they could do whatever they wanted against the "passive public" but the human spirit wakes up in every generation to confront the abuses the older generation tries to institutionalize. It is a most beautiful phenomenon to be able to trust our SElVES more than anything else, that is, the capacity of our "selves" to check "the few" amongst us abusing their power.
The fofblog, they say, is only getting 200 hits per day which is as lousy as it can get considering there are so very many ex-members. They are loosing the fight against the Fellowship but the problem really is that they never had a fight with it, they just talked about it. Real struggle takes a lot more than words. I am so very sorry for not having had more authority to inspire them to picket with and without me, to touch the dimension of the public sphere as it needs to be permeated by consciousness. I know I tried. Separating from the blog was necessary to remain true to that consciousness but I am sorry that I insulted them for not understanding it. Insulting them proves my own frustration too weak to be as human as it was necessary and abandon the struggle without hurting anyone. It's always so hard to walk away on one's own without calling out the cowardice but THAT acts against consciousness and separates the people involved. Those of us who wish to push human consciousness ahead cannot fail to act on it or we make it retrograde instead of evolving. I am glad that I have not abused anyone on the blogs since then. Ton left finally but he knew why.
It is still hard to live up to that understanding when abuse is so abundant. I fail almost daily and yet I've managed to avoid it so much more than ever before. I kept silent in the Fellowship cult for so very many years, and I am so sorry for it. It's necessary to learn to say one's word and move on with it in silence even if on one's own. Insulting or hurting others because they do not follow what one believes shows one's own fear and doubt and the consequences are always against consciousness. THAT is "missing the mark".
It is good to see that "life" is winning in the Public Squares of the World, even if so many people will be swept away before it can get a solid grip on actualizing itself in our practical lives. It is lovely to see old people standing up against drones and young people against abuse of power. I have never had so much hope for the human being as now. Hope, enthusiasm and gratitude. A joy that permeates like fresh air.
It's been only three years since these events! Wow! I've been recovering very gradually and am still far from being well. It's still difficult to socialize, be normal or spontaneous, saying hello and laughing like people do, I'm still rather "formal" and "stiff" about it. I spend a lot of time with the old people, my father who has an advanced alzheimer and my godfather who lives in pain but walks with it. The energy of old people is pure life. They no longer have time for make up. It has been very healing to live in estrato 3 or third class areas as they are now called in this neofascist country. Hardworking people are always busy trying to survive and don't have time to make up as many problems as middle and upper class people. We are in a lot more of a disadvantage in the middle and upper classes. There is a simplicity in the lower classes that we have lost in the upper classes. A healthy wonderful simplicity that takes life as it is.
I am moving to another area this week so that I can be closer to the elder and that is alright too. Everyone is human and it's necessary to actualize one's own humaneness wherever one happens to be.
It's been very strange to verify that sexuality involves the sphere of the self in an extremely particular dimension of its own. That couples behave with each other as they relate to themselves. The mirror of what is within reflecting itself without is a strange thing to look at for a beginner like me. Everything one does is simply a reflection of what one is and although we are "life", in our lack of consciousness of it, we reflect the multiple shadow or the multiplicity of the "shadowness" in our "actionless" for what we do cannot be called acts since in our unconscious reactiveness, what we do is like a "negative" of the act, like the negative of a picture.
It's been wonderful to verify the energetic quality of every human being. Every interchange is a qualitative act in which the amount of energy involved could be easily measured should we have the instruments to do so. They will, hopefully in the near future so that we start taking ourselves for what we are: pure energy inside a physical envelope. The beauty of verifying that lies in realizing that "life" interacts freely between people at ALL times and that connecting with each other is "life" itself. How could I better say that? Connecting with each other is allowing our being to be itself. Allowing our "self" to actualize in our lives. The Oneness of US to live itself out.
It's a delicate thing to try to live everything one IS out. We all seem to be trying to do that at all times or doing it without even trying but connecting our selves with that fact is necessary to be able to assume responsibility for our acts. It is not easy to become light but light shines behind every shadow that we are projecting and there is nothing "real" about the shadows.
I am a beginner each day.
THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2008
A former believer takes on the leader
By Ryan McCarthy
August 24, 2008 12:05:00 AM
Critics call the Fellowship of Friends a cult; members say it's a school of spiritual development
It's not that the emperor wears no clothes at the 1,171-acre property in the Sierra foothills with a winery, cemetery and main building meant to resemble a French castle, says Elena Haven.
The old folk tale speaks of adults afraid to say their ruler is naked. But Haven, a former member of the Yuba County-based Fellowship of Friends, said silence surrounded the colorful clothes — the salmon pink silk suit, shiny blue shoes or bright yellow pants — leader Robert Earl Burton, 69, sometimes wore.
"It's the picture of the whole phenomena," Haven, 49, said of the religious group that she calls a cult and that she left in 2007 after 17 years as a member.
That Fellowship members don't comment about Burton's clothing during gatherings at the group's headquarters in the foothills community of Oregon House is a symbol of more serious problems, Haven said.
The 6-foot, 4-inch silver-haired Burton, a one-time elementary school teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area, is the unchallenged ruler of the Fellowship and doesn't face questions, she said.
Not about his living like a king, not about a lifestyle said to rival a ruler in the last days of the Roman empire, not about the nuclear Armageddon that Burton proclaimed would happen in 2006, not about whether the Fellowship is following the "Fourth Way" system of spiritual development taught by two 20th-century Russian philosophers and mystics, Haven said.
"If you challenge him you have to leave the cult," she said. "No one can understand how crazy this can get."
A fresco-style ceiling painting that includes a depiction of a man with an erection is an example of the excesses of the Fellowship, Haven said.
Last month Haven did something other former members said no one had attempted since the Fellowship established its Sierra foothills site in 1971.
The 5-foot, 3-inch dark-haired Haven began picketing in July at the Rices Crossing Road entrance to the Fellowship property 29 miles outside of Marysville. Most members live in a bubble, unaware of what takes place in the Fellowship's inner circle, Haven said. Her protests came as the group said members from around the world — the Fellowship has centers for students in many countries — were gathering.
"How many more boys, Dear?" read one of her signs, a reference to what Haven said are the half-dozen young men constantly in Burton's company and known within the Fellowship as his boys. "Dear" is the term Burton uses to address members.
Read more at the Appeal-Democrat.
[ed. - The following is a sampling of the discussion that followed Elena's action.]
"Joseph G" wrote on the Fellowship of Friends Discussion blog, July 4, 2008:
I heard there was some kind of confrontation outside the property entrance yesterday that involved law enforcement and Abraham G. Just a rumor. Anyone know more?
"elena" wrote on the Fellowship of Friends Discussion blog, July 6, 2008:
Joseph G.
Thursday morning I was there with four signs that said:
How many more boys Dear?
Where did you leave the human?
Second line for idolatry? School for Cult?
For how long in denial?
I brought an old wooden ladder and hammered two of the signs and placed it on the side of the road, another one behind the car which I placed at the very corner turning towards regent way and I was holding one at different times.
The Sheriff came shortly after, told me to move the ladder a few meters and left. Came back shortly after and asked me what the signs said. I explained. He said he had been called many times and that they were saying the signs were defamatory but he did not find them defamatory so I could stay. Then another policeman came in the car with lights on top. He said I could not put any signs on the road, that the roads were the counties and the land, private property so unless I had a friend to put them I had to take away. So I asked what was the public space and the first Sheriff said, from gutter to gutter. So I asked if I put the signs on myself and walk from gutter to gutter can I do so? And the new policeman said yes. They talked with four men from the property for a long time. The President of the FOF, Mr. Mearns, Wayne M. Abraham I couldn’t see, and others who had driven down. Steven D. had driven by and told me I could not sit in the bus stop, it was his property and had called the Sheriff again. Many of the ladies in the ranks drove by. Many members. I drank too much water and my kidneys started hurting badly, I had to leave after three hours. I’ve heard kidneys don’t hurt but mine hurt badly since the surgery.
On Friday, they had parked two cars where I had parked the day before and brought another big trailer and put it on the right side so I parked right next to the gatehouse so that members could see the signs as they turned which I planted inside the car’s trunk with big wooden poles. Mr. Mearns drove down and told me that was Fellowship property and he’d call the Sheriff. The Sheriff took about forty five minutes to get there. I was standing in front of the gatehouse, in the corner with two signs so that I could meet those coming from regent and those from rices crossing and tried to talk to the Sheriff as he arrived but he told me to stay where I was, parked in the side next to the gatehouse, spoke with Mr. Mearns, looked at where my car was parked and explained to Mr. Mearns that I was using the same principle the other three cars were using and he could not ask me to move and that it was freedom of speech, independence day. He walked over to me and told me I was O.K. and left, so I drove my car a little closer to the edge of the turn next to the gatehouse and stayed there for about two hours.
I went again at four thirty on Friday, there was a toast at five thirty and a reception. Hundreds of students drove by. One screamed at me that they weren’t boys, that they were men and that he was one of them. Others looked much concerned. R. laughed. I guess she wasn’t doing the exercise!
Good for her. Many smiled, waved. I made one bad mistake because a lady stopped the traffic coming out of Apollo, asked me what that was all about and I thought she was making fun of me so I said, if you don’t know, Idon’t either. She looked frustrated and said sorry so I understood she was that oblivious of the blog, the boys, everything. I am very sorry with you, whoever you are.
Wayne M. came and took pictures of the signs and me after they realized they couldn’t accomplish anything with the Sheriff. I suppose they’ll sue me eventually. Who knows.
This afternoon someone in a white car with a red line in the front did as though they were going to run me over as I walked alone down the street. They changed their mind. I didn’t move. Just threatening fortunately.
The confrontation was obviously bringing them “down to earth”. I hope some of you in the vicinity feel inspired to do it every so often so that those on the fence can happily fall out knowing life is in the Public Square of towns and cities, were all people can fit.
I will go again and again, for as long as I can. You could come with your own signs and say what you think is worth saying.
"steve lang" wrote on the Fellowship of Friends Discussion blog, July 6, 2008:
Elena-
Congratulations! How interesting that Wayne Mo** would bring a camera to document what was sanctioned by the authorities as legal freedom of speech. That other brainwashed follower, Steven “Olive Oil” Damb*** was sounds equally over-protective in his reaction to your presence.
Speaking of olive oil, I don’t know how it is now, but when Steven first opened his oil business, he was using unpaid help (I was one of them) to pick his harvest from the trees that were located on Fellowship property. How did he manage to use Fellowship property to make a private profit?
"elena" wrote on the Fellowship of Friends Discussion blog, July 6, 2008:
Many people driving to the meeting this morning. Two more signs, one said:
“Life” 4th Way
the other one said:
Fem. Dom. [Family, friends, life] Cult Dominance [Robert, Robert, Robert]
Steven D. came again and told me the video camera was in his property. I placed it next to the public pole, the yuba foothills sign, the yard sale ad and the traffic sign. He was angry. My legs were shaky! Another guy took pictures of it and the other signs.
Some locals stopped and asked me if I was against the Fellowship. I said yes, they said, that is brave and put their thumbs up. Yesterday too. Blair stopped at the gatehouse for a while, spoke with the gatekeeper, then he met me at the Oregon House Store and asked me if I still had the house here.
There’s the journey forth by day from July 18th to 27th, they say the aim is to have as many followers as possible come to the events. It would be good if others joined the picketing. Please consider it. Maybe a big one that weekend?
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