The Christ Family

The Christ Family was of course a cult in every way. When I was on a group bus for the first time with many other group members, my feet bleeding, confused, tired and overwhelmed by the initial experience, I was thinking through this decision, and told by another group member that "Thinking will get you nowhere." The cult experience is a confusing and isolating experience when you first join the group. There eventually reaches a point where you either leave or turn off your critical thinking mechanism and "go on faith." This is of course familiar to the Christian experience, which is what the group does. It hijacks all of your former beliefs and redefines them to fit the group think mentality. We are right and they are wrong. The group is all that can save you, without the group you are surely lost forever. There is a sense of certainty and belonging, and really draws in the young, lost, hurting and searching. It brings meaning where there was only doubt and confusion. I was a perfect target for the group, drifting and searching for meaning. I think this is in part why the group was a positive experience for me. It filled the void in me and created thought for me. Life was easy and clear. No complicated relationships or feelings of failure. I was able to simply let go of self and fall into the mind think of the group. This collective thought is disturbing to the outside observer, who often does not understand the appeal, but appealing to the religious drifter. When I got out I worked as a deprogrammer for a while helping others get out of the group. It always struck me how stuck these young people were, and how key words known only to an insider could break the spell of the conditioning. I for what ever reason knew I would join the group before I joined the group or even knew they existed. I was going to school in Tulsa at the time and quit school after having a series of dreams about white robed people who were vegetarians taking me away from Tulsa on a bus. The day after I withdrew from school two white robbed Christ family members were sitting down outside my apartment building. This has always seemed odd to me, this premonition.
There has always been a loosely organized philosophy, and interpreted by different members in different ways. Some members were able to follow the "no killing, No sex, no Materialism, while others were not so successful. There has always been "stories" rumored through the Christ Family of Amen doing various things, including tearing up a two million dollar check. There are contradicting beliefs that run through the group, which tend to clash. Like most religious groups, there is a belief in love, and even a song "Love over all things love," however there is a harsh rejection of alternative beliefs or ideas. This is of course a tool of any exclusive group, which assures that the member maintains his/her idealogical prison. Breaking outside of the approved parameters of thought will result in spiritual catastrophe. Most group members i encountered were like the one you described. They keep fragments of their past religious/spiritual beliefs and make it fit the parameters of the Christ Family. The primary parameters being Lightening Amen is God, No Killing, No Sex, No Materialism, and that the Christ family members have been raised from the world into the body of Christ, the family of true believers. There is a feeling of being elite and "special" and no one can get to God "Amen" but through their group. It is their mission to save the non members, and help them rise above the world into the kingdom of Heaven on Earth, The Christ Family. One of the worst sins anyone can commit is to say something against Lightening Amen. This is not tolerated, not even in thought. This is seen as the face of Satin himself. Like any cult, or other religious movements to some extent, they attempt to control not only what you do, but more importantly what you think. They not only want you to live the life, but to believe "be and live in", without question. Todays group is not near as zealous and far roaming as the group of the 80's. i spent almost three years in the group, and traveled non-stop in the group. I went North in the summer and South in the winter, including Mexico and Canada. At that time the lower less connected group like myself did not stop at camps or live in buses, but lived on the road all the time, white robe and bare feet. Many of us became fairly good at putting together a coherent message, primarily from just being on the road and having to talk about it daily. This was before the melt down of Lightening, arrest, scandals etc...I only visited with him one time in the desert of California for about 3 days. He was like a mythical figure come to life for those of us who were under the control of the group, and of the thoughts required by the group.