Examine individual changes

''''The Brotherhood of Eternal Love''' was an informal spiritual organization of psychedelic drug adventurers (and distributors) that operated from the mid 1960s through the late 1970s. The group was founded in Orange County, California by John Griggs and friends in 1966. While the group had no formal leadership, Griggs, known as 'The Farmer', was regarded by some members as the spiritual center of the group, until his death in the summer of 1969. He was inducted into The High Times Counterculture Hall of Fame in December of 2011. ==Formation== The Brotherhood of Eternal Love was founded in 1966 by a loose-knit group of surfers, former car-club tough guys, former drug dealers and other young men and women seeking the company of fellow truth-seekers attempting to break free of the lives they'd been leading, and investigate the potential of the consciousness-altering agents they'd recently discovered, as well as meditation, kundalini yoga, and other spiritual practices. Many of these people had sequestered themselves in and near Orange County California's Modjeska Canyon at this time, meeting at the home of John and Carol Griggs -- the stone 'Church' which had been built decades previously for the theater director of actress Madame Helena Modjeska (1840–1909) [per Ed Berdet, owner of the property as of Jan 2011]. After a summer of much fellowship, discussion, and 'experiencing' of the new-found sacrament of LSD, they chose a formal name for themselves. Griggs' proposal, 'The Church of the Sleeping Angel' (a reference to the ridge line of nearby Saddleback Mt.), was quietly passed over, at least in part because it seemed to suggest Christianity. Chuck Mundell then suggested 'The Brotherhood of Eternal Love', which met with unanimous approval. Griggs visited [[Timothy Leary]] later this summer at William Hitchcock's Millbrook estate in New York. This meeting made a great impression upon both men, and led to Leary's later residence with the Brotherhood in Laguna Beach, CA. Griggs returned from this trip with advice from Leary to incorporate the group as a (tax-exempt) non-profit organization. The incorporation papers were filed with the State of California on Oct 26, 1966. Only fifteen days earlier, the State of California had banned the use [sale?, possession?] of LSD. [Nick Schou, ''Orange Suhnshine''] A Christmas tree fire at the Griggs' 'Church' residence in December 1966 precipitate the group's relocation to [[Laguna Beach]], with many moving into the run-down and inexpensive cottages of the Sarah Thurston Park neighborhood bordering Roosevelt Lane, off Laguna Canyon Rd.The group had no formal organization or leadership at this or any other time, though John Griggs' charismatic energy and enthusiasm for the cause of spreading cosmic consciousness to the larger population was an inspiration to many. He was regarded as a spiritual guide by at least some of the members, including some who aligned themselves with the group too late to have met him before his death on Aug 4, 1969. As his close friend Eddie Padilla put it, "John did not play the sitar, and he never owned a motorcycle, but he could talk the chrome off your bicycle handles. When he talked about God and the new psychedelic world his talent was untouchable." The original brothers were psychedelic explorers, and they ardently pursued personal and communal spiritual development through a variety of mostly Eastern traditions, including [[Taoism]], Paramahansa Yogananda's [[Self Realization Fellowship]], [[Hinduism]], and [[Vajrayana Buddhism]]. Many brothers and sisters freely mixed and matched elements of these traditions, to correspond to their own personal and collective experience, rooted in group 'sessions' of dosing on [[LSD]], psilocybin mushrooms, and other favored entheogens. Many early sessions took place in remote and pristine natural settings, often at Tahquitz Falls in the hills above Palm Springs. John Griggs and others guided these sessions with readings from Timothy Leary's books, 'The Psychedelic Experience' and 'Psychedelic Prayers'. The latter volume of verses, adapted by Leary from the [[Tao Teh Ching]], was one of the initial inspirations for the Brotherhood founders, and it continues to inform discussions within the present-day Brotherhood family. == ==Other activities== The organization may have been inspired by, but did not evolve from, Timothy Leary's [[League for Spiritual Discovery]] or the [[International Foundation for Internal Freedom]]. Many of its members were interested in peace and in ending the Vietnam war. A 1972 ''Rolling Stone'' article dubbed them the "Hippie Mafia." The Brotherhood also had a small vegetarian restaurant on Pacific Coast Highway, two blocks north of Mystic Arts, named "Love Animals, Don't eat them". This restaurant operated with volunteers, with much of the food donated. Menu items did not have a price and patrons left donations for the food ordered. [The LADET vegetarian restaurant was not a BEL enterprise; it was owned and operated by Curtis Rainbow and other members of the Rainbow group, also centered in Laguna Beach during the late 1960s. Many members of this group had friends among the Brotherhood, but they were not engaged in large-scale drug distribution. - WA, 1 Jan 2012] Members of the Brotherhood felt that the [[Vietnam War]] was not only illegal but that President [[Richard Nixon]] was using drug laws to imprison political opponents. Timothy Leary had this to say about the Brotherhood: "The whole concept of the Brotherhood of Eternal Love is like a bogeyman invented by the [narcs. The brotherhood was about a group of individuals who took the LSD, and they practiced the religion of the worship of nature, and they'd go into the mountains. But they were not bigshots at all. None of them ever drove anything better than a VW bus. They were just kind of in it for the spiritual thrill."<ref>[http://www.serendipity.li/dmt/nsand/leary.htm Timothy Leary]</ref> ==Legal prosecution== On August 5, 1972, dozens of group members in California, Oregon and Maui were arrested.<ref name="hight111209"/> Others scattered themselves around the world. ==Later arrests== In 1994, police arrested Russell Harrigan near Lake Tahoe, California. An Orange County judge dismissed the charges against Harrigan because of his exemplary lifestyle.<ref name="hight111209"/> In 1996, Orange Sunshine chemist Nicholas Sand was arrested in British Columbia, still making LSD, for which he spent several years in prison.<ref name="hight111209"/> On September 26, 2009, Brenice Lee Smith, a suspected member of the Brotherhood of Eternal Love was arrested in California, after nearly four decades on the lam. The 64-year-old Smith was taken into custody at San Francisco International Airport, after arriving from Nepal.<ref name="hight111209">{{cite news|last=Schou|first=Nick|title="Hippie Mafia" Hash Smuggler Arrested|url=http://hightimes.com/legal/ht_admin/6011|accessdate=22 July 2010|date=Nov 12, 2009}}</ref> He was arrested on two nearly 40-year-old warrants issued in Orange County, related to the sale and possession of drugs.<ref name="AP93009">{{cite news|title=Suspected LSD ring fugitive arrested in California|date=September 30, 2009|agency=THE ASSOCIATED PRESS}}</ref> On November 20, Smith, after serving two months in jail, pleaded guilty to a single charge of smuggling hashish. Released the next morning, he immediately got back on a plane, to live with his wife and daughter in Nepal.<ref name="hight120309">{{cite news|last=Schou|first=Nick|title=Case Closed on "Hippie Mafia" Smugglers|url=http://hightimes.com/news/ht_admin/6053|accessdate=22 July 2010|date=Dec 03, 2009}}</ref> ==In popular culture== The Brotherhood is the subject of the upcoming [[documentary]] film ''[[Orange Sunshine]]''. ==References== {{reflist}} * ''Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love and Its Quest to Spread Peace, Love, and Acid to the World'', Nicholas Schou (Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin's Press, 2010), ISBN 9780312551834. * ''The Brotherhood of Eternal Love, From Flower Power to Hippie Mafia: The Story of the LSD Counterculture'', Stewart Tendler and David May (1984), ISBN 1904879950. ==External links== * [http://us.macmillan.com/orangesunshine] ''Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love and Its Quest to Spread Peace, Love, and Acid to the World'', Nicholas Schou, St. Martin's Press, 2010. * [http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Orange-Sunshine-The-book-by-Nicholas-Schou/366745866648?ref=ts] ''Orange Sunshine'' on Facebook * [http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/brotherhood_of_eternal_love.pdf] The Brotherhood of Eternal Love, Stewart Tendler and David May, Granada Publishing Ltd., May 1984. * [http://orangesunshinemovie.com ''Orange Sunshine'' Documentary Film Official Site] * [http://www.ocweekly.com/2007-06-07/features/eternal-sunshine/ OC Weekly article] about the Brotherhood * [http://www.freemarijuanachurch.org/ Free Marijuana Church] * [http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/mid/sites/tregaron/pages/film.shtml Operation Julie] {{Hippies}} {{DEFAULTSORT:The Brotherhood Of Eternal Love}} [[Category:Hippie movement]] [[Category:Drug rings]] [[fr:The Brotherhood of Eternal Love]] [[ru:Братство Вечной Любви]]'