Claim Now Love Sex Fear Death: The Inside Story Of The Process Church Of The Final Judgment Conceived By Timothy Wyllie Ready In Interactive Format
book was a helluva lot of fun, You rarely get this kind of levelheaded look at the inside of a cult like this, and I'm really grateful, Wyllie demystifies the Process Church and a lot of their evil rep, but there's still enough dark weirdness especially in the figure of the cult's mysterious and beautiful guru MaryAnn de Grimston to keep you intrigued.
Loved it. O capítulo do/a Genesis já vale o livro inteiro, que ser humano maravilhoso, . This was pretty unsatisfying. The largest section of the book was written by Tim Wyllie who was maddeningly impressionistic, for instance describing the Process leader as "a gorgon" he hated on sight, but also fell in love with the same day, without ever saying what it was about her that made him feel this way or telling us that much about what happened between them.
The whole narrative went this way, although he did provide a good timeline of the events surrounding the process of the Process, The other contributions, by a variety of other Process members, were far more instructive, and it was only at the very end of the book that I started to get my questions answered about what these people believed and what they were about.
I'm not sorry I read it but it would have gone better if almost the entire first half of the book hadn't been by Tim "No Details" Wyllie, A fascinating look at this cult from several insiders, Despite a lot of baseless accusations linking the Process Church of the Final Judgment to Satanism and horrific crimes Manson and the Son of Sam murders, the real story is far more interesting.
Recommended to fans ofs/s counterculture, occult groups, and group dynamics, A fun read, but even after all the anecdotes, apologies, apologias, and armchair psychoanalysis, I was left feeling as if we were only nibbling around the edges of the story the whole time.
I walked away with nearly no idea of this organization's goals and only very hazy pictures of its methods, Reading Robert DeGrimston's rambling pseudoesoteric texts at the tail end of the book, my suspicion is that beyond the cloaks and medallions there really wasn't much there at all.
But we aren't even left with that assurance after making our way through these firstperson accounts and Genesis P, Orridge's essay, which was really just a brief autobiographical sketch and seemed to have almost nothing to do with the Process as it actually existed in its own heyday.
Interesting account on strange satanjehovaluciferchrist worshipping cult from the 's by one of its core members, They loved german shepherds and later became Best Friends, the largest animal welfare organization in States : I am a fan of books on cults, Not sure exactly why. Perhaps it was the Time Magazine article I read when young about the People's Church and Jim Jones or the fact that for many years my parents followed an Indian teacher.
I had heard about this group as an early influence on Genesis P, Orridge in an interview and was keeping my eye out for it, Then I discovered the Process Church's beautiful magazines, The pages dedicated to their design are lovely, But what I didn't get, and really wanted, was more social details the more whacked out stuff of human relations, I was hoping to find something similar to The Source Family book, It did not seem as celebratory which was a bit disappointing at times, But still an interesting read if you are unfamiliar with this kind of material, The book is about the Process Church, a cult that began in thes, became the Foundation Faith, and later Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, The first section of the book is composed of first person accounts of what life was like inside the group, which is not how the media has generally portrayed cults.
The group was made up of young people rebelling against society and finding society within the group, This is a good anthropological study and will appeal to those trying to understand social structures, I'd loved to meet them, I can't believe that they had therapy telepathic sessions of their dogs! They do sound like cool people, but only from afar, I think it would be really easy to fall in their arms, specially with the current politics, I have a very strong interest in religious cults / NRMs so this was a book that I'd long tried to track down not least because of the scarcity of information about The Process Church.
It's generally good but I would have like more detailed information about their beliefs and practices in particular Compulsions Analysis, Instead the focus is very much on the human experience and the relationships that developed within the group, A few of the contributors say that they never really bought into the theological side of things so maybe it just isn't seen as important,
I do wonder though about the extent to which Wyllie has retained the Processian concept of responsibility whereby you are responsible both for what you do and what happens to you as he doesn't really seem to express the outrage that you would expect from a former member when it comes to some of their more damaging practices such as seperating children from their parents.
I wanted to like this a lot more than I did, The cult itself is interesting, and the guy has a fascinating viewpoint, but he isn't a very good writer, The Process Church, which started in, was out of step with the times in many ways: the group eschewed drugs and drug use their priests dressed all in black, with Mendes goats on their robes they openly worshipped “Jehovah, Christ, Satan and Lucifer” their logo, a cross between a cross pattée and a swastika, was out of step with the “peace and love” platitudes of the time.
Although they never reached the massive popularity of other movements, the cult attracted a small but persistent interest among musicians, artists, and other creative types throughout the years.
The cult published several magazines that are soughtafter by collectorsa reprint of several is currently selling on eBay for the low, low price of,.
Whether intentionally or not, Wyllies book reflects many of the patterns delineated in Rogue Messiahs, “The Process did have all the hallmarks of a cult,” Wyllie writes in the introduction, “charismatic and autocratic leaders, devotion to an unconventional ideology, personal poverty, obedience, celibacy from time to time, and a strict hierarchy, with secrets held between the levels.
” The end of the world formed a large part of their worldviewProcesseans “viewed life through the lens of an impending apocalypse, ”
Despite their reputation the group was linked, erroneously, with Charles Manson and his “family”, Wyllie doesnt mention any animal sacrifices, human sacrifices, blood oaths in the moonlight, or other Satanic melodramas.
This doesnt mean the group was sweetness and light, Mary Ann MacLean, the groups autocratic leader, often forced her followers into distressing or even traumatizing situations in order to maintain control, For example, she forced her inner circle to have sex with each other in highly choreographed orgies though this was not, as claimed in one book, a rite of initiation into the cultmost members had no idea this was going on.
The impact of these orgies was devastating:
Children were conceived who didnt know their true parents pairs who had no desire for one another were shoved together heterosexual men were persuaded to perform acts clearly distasteful for them and the women were sometimes treated like goddesses and sometimes like whores.
Reading this book made me think of a Simone Weil quote: “Imaginary evil is romantic and varied real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring, Imaginary good is boring real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating, ” The Process Churchs magazines featured cuttingedge graphic design, unconventional interviews with celebrities what does Muhammad Ali think of life after death, provocative articles that tackled deep questions of being and belonging.
The Process Church passionately opposed vivisection they criticized the Church of England in a concerntrollish way for being too wishywashy about their own beliefs, And yet the Processean reality was the same dreary one that many cult members endure, from the women of NXIVM to members of the Sea Org: despair, humiliation, and shame under control of a domineering leader.
If you want to get an inside view of life within a cult, especially in a cults inner circle, Id recommend this book, Wyllie was with the cult at its beginning and, after a leave of absence, followed the cult through the turmoil of the lates, Wyllie was also the art director for the groups magazine, and a member of the groups shortlived band, which gave him an interesting perspective on the Process Churchs attempts to spread their message to the wider culture.
Note: This review originally appeared on sitelinkaomonk, com. Love Sex Fear Death: The Inside Story of the Process Church of the Final Judgment goes behind the scenes of an “apocalyptic cult with an attitude, ”
In thes ands, The Process Church preached the union of Christ and Satan, seducing wayward, occultinclined hippies into a community that was at once terrifying and inspiring.
Timothy Wyllie, then a young architecture student, was one of them, A writer and former art director for The Process magazine, Wyllie shares his story and art in Feral Houses book,
Originally published on Flavorwire: sitelink comlovesex With this book I finally figured out why The Process Church is, like, cool and Scientology is, like, a bad Tom Cruise movie is there such a thing, though.
What DeGrimston and his hag had besides the Alsatians was that FONT,
It was one of the ones I used to buy in actual letraset, I'm not giving the name away here as it could inspire others, Memoirs from former cult members, Epilogue by Genesis P"Orridge was actually very readable and pulled it all together, why we are fascinated by Process Church and what we learned, This is one of the most fascinating books about the cult experience that I have read,
I was mainly reading this to be some sort of Satanic Panic completist and it is a cult and hey, satan,
OK, so no Satan or satan or the devil or whatever, I knew that already, but this is supposed to be THE satanic cult, So, no David Berkowitz and nobody was hanging out with Charles Manson but these selfdescribed cultists lacking a fondness for good ideas in hindsight, decided it would be awesome to interview him for one of their magazines.
Seriously, those Process magazines look really cool, but they were produced by idiots who were good at that magazine, OK, maybe not idiots, but not transcendent humans with deep spiritual answers to life either,
I would snap up their magazines in a heartbeat, but I probably wouldn't finish a single article, I am just not into finding myself via spiritual means or whatever these people were seeking and continue to seek, Oh, you silly magical hippies, Because they had a class on telepathy, I like how they freaked people out with the demon garb, but they were just another cult doing cult crap,
They were nothing to worry about Yes, Unless of course you were a member, Then, you had some worries, well founded worries, Real Life Cult Worries. Any child in this cult was neglected, I think their "leader" just hated kids, saw them as useless and inconvenient and made no accommodations for anything related to children, including pregnancy, And then the orgies. Cult orgies. Mandatory orgy time. I don't think anybody was clear on them having a ritual significance, so the only point was to control and hurt,
I think the Process experience sounds pretty awful, but a lot of the contributors have some amazing insights about life, how we change, and their cult experience.
Timothy Wyllie could be a hugely bitter man, but he isn't, I just don't sense much in the way of regret from him, This is not to say certain parts aren't clearly embarrassing or painful, His reflections were really interesting to me, Maybe I expected some broken, shameful humans, but that's not a part of this book,
They even credit some of the techniques they learned in the cult as being helpful after they left, Which was pretty weird to me, Not sure I have ever read that in a book about a cult,
Rad title right
Amazing sense of design,
The actual Process Church is another story,
The shadow leaders behind this movement cherished a murky and cynical view of community and relentlessly exploited the good will of a bunch of idealists,
I'm sorry but there is nothing inspiring about this particular cult save their existence in contrast to flower power, That's not enough.
Read The Source instead, Not only were those people freaky, they also approached enlightenment in a way that merged their paranoia with some genuine good vibes, . .
There's a difference, .