A review of "Father Yod and the Brotherhood of the Source"
This is a short article by David Christopher Lane, also
available at the website Integral World. Lane reminisces about the first time
he met a self-appointed guru, a certain Father Yod, who owned a vegetarian
restaurant at Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Lane was a precocious 16-year old,
but apparently a quite tough (or quite impossible) teenager, since he didn't
fall for Yod's cultic manipulations. Indeed, Lane and Yod seem to have spent
much of their time arguing!
I never heard of Yod or his “family”, the Source, before. However, it seems to have been a rather typical 70's California cult. Yod was elderly, spouted a big beard and spoke with a fake Indian accent. He was constantly surrounded by young adoring females. When not expounding on kundalini or assorted New Age themes, Father Yod smoke pot or reamed out his devotees. He also recorded rock songs! Manson Family, much? Ironically, James Baker (Yod's real name) died the same year (1975) that he had predicted the apocalypse. Even more ironically, he was the victim of his own teachings: after a serious but not necessarily lethal accident, his female devotees refused to take him to a hospital, arguing that the guru would surely heal himself. He didn't.
Lane muses that although Yod was a manipulative, abusive cultist, he nevertheless had some interesting or inspiring ideas (including vegetarianism). Many spiritual seekers hook on to whatever partial insights a self-proclaimed guru might have, and then accept all the “paraphernalia” as well (along with the abusive leadership). The author, who is today a skeptic-atheist-materialist, argues that we should perhaps be more discerning during our spiritual quests…
Not sure how to rate this somewhat curious e-article, but eventually, I give it three stars.
I never heard of Yod or his “family”, the Source, before. However, it seems to have been a rather typical 70's California cult. Yod was elderly, spouted a big beard and spoke with a fake Indian accent. He was constantly surrounded by young adoring females. When not expounding on kundalini or assorted New Age themes, Father Yod smoke pot or reamed out his devotees. He also recorded rock songs! Manson Family, much? Ironically, James Baker (Yod's real name) died the same year (1975) that he had predicted the apocalypse. Even more ironically, he was the victim of his own teachings: after a serious but not necessarily lethal accident, his female devotees refused to take him to a hospital, arguing that the guru would surely heal himself. He didn't.
Lane muses that although Yod was a manipulative, abusive cultist, he nevertheless had some interesting or inspiring ideas (including vegetarianism). Many spiritual seekers hook on to whatever partial insights a self-proclaimed guru might have, and then accept all the “paraphernalia” as well (along with the abusive leadership). The author, who is today a skeptic-atheist-materialist, argues that we should perhaps be more discerning during our spiritual quests…
Not sure how to rate this somewhat curious e-article, but eventually, I give it three stars.
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