Four Quarters just can't catch a break - Tranceam זין חמאס

Updated 2 years ago

I once had a friend who appeared in this video in the 90s:

His father was in a famous West Coast ’60s band. His parents were major acid heads, and when the acid ran out, to achieve the same effect they became born-again Christians. They lived like hobbits in a commune in Northern California.
One day of the young boys was found to have been molested by one of the an adult men. After much praying and forgiveness, the molester was allowed to stay if he asked forgiveness from Jesus Christ.
Being a Christian man, what could go wrong?
Soon afterward, another boy got molested by the same man.
Jesus forgive me, I am a sinner! The man said.
The mothers would have none of it.
Long story short, the commune completely fell apart. His dad went on to be in The Ever Lovin’ Spoonfuls and was a co-creator of the song Wipeout.
In general, I don’t trust these types of alt communities, although I have certainly lived in one – The clothing-optional Ark at the University of Texas in Austin and had a great experience. I would caution against out-of-control religious idealism, and anything involving a Leader.
And remember that these communities more than anything remind one of how Police and Courts are necessary modern evils.
I thought of all of this story as I followed Four Quarters Interfaith Sanctuary in Artemas, Pennsylvania over the decades. The area is beautiful, “An American Stonehenge!” I blithely decreed back in the 2000s. Many of the people are wonderful, some are not. Some are complete assholes. Deranged rednecks from the Hills Have Eyes. As Nicole would say, Dirty Hippies. We were modern, gentle, passive Earth-conscious trance hippies who had been at many spots all over the Eastern seaboard with nary a problem, yet from 2000-2008 we were treated pretty poorly by some of the locals, which must have burned them hardcore as we stopped having festivals there, and they began to take in the more, shall we say, cruder musical genres and much rougher elements. Where once they had John Lennon, they now had to deal with ICP.
Rather than go through myriad unsubstantiated anecdotes, of which I have dozens, (No, really, I do, from groping to Luddite car shackling with chains) I thought it would be a more straightforward and more productive exercise to publish a running list of links going back to the 90s: