Jazz/fusion guitarist John McLaughlin, in a more recent interview, referred to the group of spiritualist leader Sri Chinmoy as "a cult". He had previously been a fervent follower of Chinmoy and his writings.

It's difficult to draw solid conclusions from cult documentaries..particularly when they sometimes all differ from each other regarding theories about a specific cult's history. Very cool..all I have are doubts..but isn't that what all the news reporters want?

In the summer of 1971 ex members of the Church Of Satan were interrogated for the Black Magic sacrifice of a young man living in Vineland. This was not a secret to my friends and I because we witnessed adults gathered around an altar and not teenagers. A few teenagers belonged to the cult ..however they were scholars and acted mature for their age. Not run of the mill teenagers and they didnt possess typical characteristics of other teenagers in school. ..they were actually eerie and sadistic. They didn't flaunt evil as kids often did during the Satanic Panic of the 80s. They were mysterious and secretive about it all. The only problem is their secret was exposed to us when they made all that noise at Menantico. Screaming and pounding on oil barrels.

My friend Sharon used to tell me that they looked through you not unlike a catatonic stare..and they seemed to display multiple personalities..just as a few friends of mine in a younger age group acted after they joined. The ceremonies consisted of a lot of dancing and chanting along with deep tone pounding drums insistently which carried a sound across Menantico ponds and forest.

Several times people were chased by cult members because they took a wrong turn. Different people I knew at the time were scared and developed paranoia from that experience. A few were actually parents of young children who entered Menantico to take their family camping. The city officials did not take their reports seriously.

Certain individuals who revolted against Anton LeVay were interrogated. This did get printed and then seemed to vanish in thin air. The police claimed that they formed a cult on their own. The investigation included several detectives who ..for one reason or another...traveled to North Jersey to spy and question individuals.

While this plan was put in motion ..a few other investigators were interrogating members of the Chestnut Assembly Of God Church. Police suspected they were also members of the cult at Menantico. The newspapers made it seem as if this young man came up with the ritual all on his own and that he wanted to die. Because he had his 2 friends on a life insurance policy and that he had unsuccessfully attempted suicide before..it really made it seem like that to the average person.

The victim's friend stated the following: "He belonged to a Satan worshippers sect and said he had to die violently so he could be put in charge of 40 leagues of demons. According to what I've researched ...a sect is a smaller group of people and that's certainly not what people witnessed at Menantico. The cult of Menantico was sited and claimed to be between 40 and 50 people. This is more accurate ..more honest..because you could hear it and if you hid and watched it appeared to be a large group of people dancing and chanting.

I believe it was a cult that practiced Judeo-Christian concepts. It was more about your spirit. It involved demonology. It had nothing to do with the Church Of Satan..so evidently they did rebell against the Church Of Satan because supposedly their interests were forbidden by the Church Of Satan.

I recall in the late 80s when I visited the mayor and he told me that it was a wealthy organization. He claimed that people who were prominent in the community were behind it.

In 1971..the person in question was Lilith Sinclair. In 1972 she helped form the Temple Of Set on the East coast. That's one year after the murder at Menantico. Apparently the police had information that members of her group were in New Jersey in 1970.

This was probably thrown out of court or completely dismissed before ever entering a court of law . Even though a full scale investigation with many officers and detectives did occur it was based on circumstantial evidence and not physical evidence..so the newspapers decided to play the story up as three boys as fringe members of their age group, strange and way out, and needed psychiatric treatment.

The ritual appeared tragic and stupid in the newspaper. Some people in Vineland thought it was just teenagers on drugs. And when we were at Menantico watching adults worship the devil ..what were they doing? Sitting at home watching TV? How would they know the real deal? They were far worse than the city officials.



Edited by Jacob Schoolcraft - February 08 2023 at 21:49

Jacob Schoolcraft wrote: verslibre wrote: I watched the 1994 British-made Children of God documentary (it's on Freevee, formerly IMDb TV).  Children of God (TV Movie 1994) - IMDb The tagline is "a family describes their time within a religious cult, one that perpetuated pedophilia, sexual abuse, and prostitution." That couldn't be more on the money. CoG was founded in the late 1960s by a former missionary, David Brandt Berg, and while that reclusive, deranged f*ckwit expired many years ago (presumably around the time the documentary was released), the cult still exists under the name Family International. (They claim to have done away with or toned down their founder's tenets significantly.) Even with an invisible leader — Berg's whereabouts were closely guarded, and he was living outside North America when he died — who "communicated" only via obscene comic book-style tracts (which he authored under his pseudonym "Moses David") with liberal depictions of sexual relations between his followers and himself, each other, and even God (depicted as a lion) — the cult's integrity was fairly astonishing. Berg's utility of Christian doctrine was anything but. Rather, it was a perverse platform to freely implement a no-boundary approach to sex within the cult (dubbed "sharing"), a mindset that, to the horror of any outsider (and many within) did not exclude minors. Now, I thought the weirdo who founded Buddhafield (see: Holy Hell) was something else, but I reckon this Berg freak soundly one-ups him. Berg was a manipulator. He used his force to impose upon the 60's and 70s youth. The fact that people were taking drugs made his mission easier.

I watched the 1994 British-made Children of God documentary (it's on Freevee, formerly IMDb TV). 

I generally eat up documentaries on Jonestown. Odd, because the day that news came out, it was all so shocking and revolting all rolled up into one. Those descriptions keep me away from 9/11 documentaries as it remains a very horrific event to fathom.

[QUOTE=MortSahlFan] Wow... Thanks for sharing that story.
[/QUOTE

Thank you...]

In 1981 I was very active in the music business. During this time it was brought to my attention by a Christian musician that I was looking ill and and often appeared to be in a daze. He spoke with me privately and informed me that my wife , ( who was traveling with us and running the light show), was working roots on me.

Basically she had been putting roots in my food overtime and so it was like the medicine man deal ...a way of keeping me under control inducing me to follow her instructions while under the influence.

My grandmother on my mother's side of the family was born into the Shawnee tribe. My cousins were scared of her and they often spoke of her putting medicine in our food if she noticed our bad behavior.

My Christian friend tried to warn me that my wife was dangerous and that I should consider leaving her. She was a really interesting person to spend time with. In the 70s she copied all of Daevid Allen's lyricism on to paper . She studied the Planet Gong mythology. She had a personal interest in Robert Calvert and would often point out that his words predicted the future. She pointed out all the detail of his wording ..his references to modern technology, war, the government etc.. Dave Brock has stated a few times in recent years that several of Calvert predictions in Hawkwind songs were telling and match with what is relevant today.

She was an interesting person and it was difficult to leave her. She tried converting to Christianity for years. She had been raised in a family of witches. That's what she claimed. She disappeared for a year and I planned to divorce her. After I divorced her she began showing up periodically to my house with a small chest that contained stones and jewels . She claimed that she was living on a "Magic Farm" with these people and that she was an alchemist. She died in 2002 of a drug overdose. She was always trying to escape. She often said that Topographic Oceans by Yes was an escape for her.

I believe her family made an example of her. She had been in and out of mental hospitals and was prescribed psych meds and so she mixed it with a street drug and died in her sleep.

She had been subjected to the left hand path the whole of her life, but was always trying to escape something and whatever that was precisely I will never know. She studied the Bible for years and wanted to be a Christian...not unlike the Hermann Hesse story "The Field Devil" ...who was never accepted by the desert fathers to be loved by God and so he laid down in the desert looking at the stars and died. Always trying to escape what was imposed upon him not unlike my first wife who is buried under a small rock.

MSF / Jacob, those are crazy stories (not "crazy good"). Thanks for taking the time.

MortSahlFan wrote: I've been up very early, so I will try to remember every detail (and hope you never make his mistake). My friend joined "the 12 tribes of israel" slave labor camp cult. I still can't believe my friend joined this. I'm (I was?) his only friend. He's the last person I ever thought could fall for this. I thought he'd tell me most of his motivations or wants in his life, but maybe there's some vulnerability he won't share. I met him at some sales job many years ago. The guy didn't suffer fools gladly. He drank alcohol almost every night. Biker-looking dude. Not very social, but a very ... fair kinda guy. He got sick of this job that paid anywhere from $750-1500/week to go to this cult for work twice as long for ..... NOTHING! NOTHING! I think they might have received one day off. However, he is the type who disappears, and then will call after a year or so. Basically, he went broke sitting home and drinking whatever he had left, and stayed in a local homeless shelter. I'm guessing he got sick of it. I can't exactly remember how he found this, but some guy/leader will come to poor cities and pick people up and drive them to this farm. I looked into the specific place. They own SO much land, and they use these suckers to do ALL the work. He called me a few times, and I'd ask, "So how much do THEY work?" - I just remember being confused the entire time on the phone. I wanted to slap him over the phone. We used to make fun of these people. Now he becomes one of them! Why I think he joined. He did tell me, "After spending enough time (5-10 yrs?) they will choose a woman for you to marry". He's been married before, he's had girlfriends, but I have no idea why a woman from this cult is ideal. Maybe because the women from around here are .... poor? He wants a "good" girl? I have no idea. Like I said, lots of times he won't answer my calls, and after 1-2 calls, I stop calling. Many times I think to avoid his calls, but he's the closest thing to a music doppelganger. I've traveled the world, looking for people, and he was from my city the entire time, and actually was a DJ at the best (clearest) classic rock station. It didn't pay much, but at least he did something with his DJ school. It's music-related. He'd always say how sick he got working for little, or being exploited. I told him many times we should do our own YouTube channel, etc... I said I'd do all the work. I have a sound studio, microphones, everything. We talk about it anyway, so I'd suggest simply talking, and I'd record, do the rest. He'd either be really crass, or silly, and I thought, forget this... But he'd complain nonstop nonetheless, until... HE JOINED THE f**kING CULT.... AGAIN! After a year or so, he calls, and I say something like, "What the hell are you doing?" but in a funny way. "Didn't get enough plow training? You should ask to DJ their sermons. Do you have 5 wives yet?" and he would tell me how he couldn't drink alcohol  and possibly not smoke cigarettes. Again, if he would have said, "I just want to get away from the city, alcohol, my parents" - whatever, but I think there's something he's not telling me. Too many holes. Like I said, it makes no sense for him to join. When he'd come back, ALL he would ever do was complain about the place. Then again, when I first met him, all he'd do is complain about work. I would tell him, "I just left work. Don't wanna talk about it". In the first 15 months I knew him (or so), I had gone to Australia twice, trying a new continent musically. He's also a musician, but does he wanna record, jam, play live, anything? Nooooo. And we both are multi-instrumentalists, we know the same songs, and in 10+ years, we've jammed half-heartedly twice, because the guy has no heart. No brain it seems. Two months ago, he called me out of nowhere (again). We talked for 2 hours, and it was very ... boring. I'll ask, "Hear any new music? See any good movies? Books?" - and he hasn't done a thing. He sorta stopped progressing, and then ends with "Wanna hang out?" which means him coming over. Well, we just talked for 2 hours, about very little, lots of redundancy, so why hang out three days later? Especially with the music in the background - my throat was already "done" because I barely talk as it is. I sent him a text the next morning, telling him I wouldn't wanna get together. We just talked. COVID. And, knowing him, he's the type who will flake out, not call, pick up. He's done this once after I bought 2 tickets to see Bill Burr for example. I did text him, "This is why I don't wanna hang out".. Maybe this is why he left? Looking for friends at this place.. A place someone suddenly died. He told me he had been staying at his parents' house 3-4 days a week (despite having his own place from the government - which he completely lied about how he got it.. not sure why)... He's been going to church with them (again, makes no sense. It would be like ME going to church), and watching football with his adopted father (he always hated sports) and he always complained when he'd go over there. I would joke and make up these sadistic scenarios of him going back to the tribe and punctuating it with him volunteering to do things he hates because nothing he does makes sense. He was fun to work with, but that was short lived and 10 yrs ago. I'm guessing people who join cults might be hiding a lot of sh*t which could explain why they do it. Maybe they don't wanna live alone or try? I've been overseas 6 times, lived in hostels, once stayed at a farm, and the camaraderie is nice, getting to know people, etc., but not this bullsh*t of working 14 hours a day, and "Oh, but my meals and accommodation and everything is paid for" - oh wow!. I even took a calculator one day and calculated how much he would have made with the place we worked at. "In 3 months, you could have your own house". Was he interested? Naaaaaaaa. Maybe it's some sex thing? Maybe they give him a woman for every 50 hours worked. Maybe he's just too embarrassed to say. Or this silly promise of finding a woman as a wife (co-worker where they can work hand in hand.... 14 hours!).

This is absolutely insane!! How frustrating and disappointing to lose a friend in this way.