Speaker 1: What a weekend. I know, so much activities, so much activity.
Speaker 1: What we we we did two things. We did two things. Well,
Speaker 1: we went we got to go to a party for
Speaker 1: our friends bar that they've owned for a year now, right,
Speaker 1: two years party Bob and Harriet's home bar in Atlanta. Uh.
Speaker 1: Some of our favorite people in the world on that
Speaker 1: place and we always have such a good time there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it was packed. So I was just so proud
Speaker 1: of them. I was like, oh my, because I mean
Speaker 1: it's two year anniversary, right, so do the math they
Speaker 1: opened a bar in like that just happened to be
Speaker 1: when the opportunity came up. But I know they were
Speaker 1: kind of like what am I doing? This is insane,
Speaker 1: you know. So I'm just so happy that they have landed,
Speaker 1: you know, so well. And there's such great people that
Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, cool people succeeding, you know. I definitely
Speaker 1: thought it was going to be like a friends and
Speaker 1: family party and then we got there and it was like,
Speaker 1: oh no, this is the entire neighborhood. It was yeah,
Speaker 1: but that was so I mean again, I was just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was great karaoke. Um, yeah, I say something you
Speaker 1: sure did, did you say criminal, that's right, and you're
Speaker 1: saying foolish Games. Yeah, it wasn't my best. I don't
Speaker 1: know about that. I do have a full recording of it. No, look,
Speaker 1: I'm telling you I like the Foolish Games is my
Speaker 1: karaoke song, and I am confident in what I do
Speaker 1: with that song. I love to do it. It's never
Speaker 1: it's never done me wrong. But I didn't even try
Speaker 1: on some of those notes because I was too far gone.
Speaker 1: I really need to set a rule for myself on karaoke,
Speaker 1: and it's like three drink maximum. Beyond that, just save
Speaker 1: it for next time. I cannot recall how I sang,
Speaker 1: but I doubt it was great. I have a video
Speaker 1: from that except I was. It was also well passed
Speaker 1: my point of no return and i'm screen from behind
Speaker 1: the camera along with you. So well, it's for the
Speaker 1: best that we don't upload these things. One day, we'll
Speaker 1: do a good round of karaoke and y'all can y'all
Speaker 1: can be I don't know what the word is, delighted.
Speaker 1: We'll have karaoke, Yeah, ridic you can have to have
Speaker 1: our theme song as one of everyone can sing it
Speaker 1: with us. Well, that sounds that would be really fun. Well,
Speaker 1: so glad to have you back from part two. Of course.
Speaker 1: I am Eli, I'm Diana, and this is you caught
Speaker 1: us right in the middle of a of an amazing story.
Speaker 1: Yeah for real, we didn't even know this was going
Speaker 1: to be too parton to record it. I swear I know,
Speaker 1: and I am so sorry because we we like to
Speaker 1: split our two partners up between Wednesdays and Friday so
Speaker 1: you don't have to wait over the whole weekend stories
Speaker 1: to know, so that we can be like and don't like,
Speaker 1: hang on two your butts because there's more coming important,
Speaker 1: you know, But like, we didn't even know that this time,
Speaker 1: just kept it going. But Part two is going to
Speaker 1: be awesome because we still have so much to cover
Speaker 1: about the Purple People cult and don't call them purple
Speaker 1: people that don't have that, and don't call it a cult,
Speaker 1: don't call it a cults. Necessarily, we're going to figure
Speaker 1: that out. We have to decide that. Um I will
Speaker 1: start off by saying Eli is not on LSD point
Speaker 1: all of you. That's right away. I did say I
Speaker 1: was going to do we were going to find some
Speaker 1: but never happened. I had a little too much t
Speaker 1: e Q the other night, and I'm still recovering. So
Speaker 1: no LSD for me today or anytime soon, probably because
Speaker 1: those days are behind me. Those days only happened once
Speaker 1: and it was a great time. You're like that, want
Speaker 1: and done for me? Prolie. Well, when last we left you,
Speaker 1: we had gone over you know, the Purple House and
Speaker 1: the purple limousines that the people of Lafayette More House
Speaker 1: living and traveling, and we had discussed kind of their
Speaker 1: basic philosophy. We talked about their public orgasm demonstration sometimes
Speaker 1: what three days, three hours, three hours? Now that can
Speaker 1: do that? How did it? Who fed Diana? She sat there?
Speaker 1: But if you get distracted by the food, I'm going
Speaker 1: to stop exactly better get back to that nurse. We
Speaker 1: also talked a little bit about some of the courses
Speaker 1: that they teach, like basic and Advanced Sensuality, and of
Speaker 1: course they're sixty nine course Mutual Stimulation or whatever that
Speaker 1: longest title was. We asked you for some course ideas
Speaker 1: for the school. Please send them our way, don't forget.
Speaker 1: But we still have to talk about More University, which
Speaker 1: was their accredited university that they had for a number
Speaker 1: of years, And of course all of the controversies about
Speaker 1: this group of there are many. They run the gamut
Speaker 1: from run of the mill allegations of monetary exploitation, ho hum,
Speaker 1: two stories about like fox slave auctions and accusations of
Speaker 1: them being a cult and stuff like that. So there's
Speaker 1: still so so much more to cover um and uncover.
Speaker 1: So let's get to it. Let's go, Hey, their French,
Speaker 1: come listen. Well, Eli and Diana got some stories to tell.
Speaker 1: There's no match making, a romantic tips. It's just about
Speaker 1: ridiculous relationships, a lover, it might be any type of
Speaker 1: person at all, and abstract constrom a concrete wall. But
Speaker 1: if there's a story where the second glance ridiculous roles
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. So by nine seventy seven,
Speaker 1: the institute had been established as the More University and
Speaker 1: they were empowered by the state of California to give
Speaker 1: out batch. There's of humanities, masters and communications and doctorates
Speaker 1: on lifestyles and sexuality. Can you imagine, Oh, what are
Speaker 1: you a doctor of doing it? You have to do
Speaker 1: That's literally one of their courses, the two handed dah
Speaker 1: my god, paging doctor do. But it makes it hard
Speaker 1: because like they're like doctor Victor Bronco and doctor Cindy
Speaker 1: Barronco and doctors like all these doctors, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I want to call you a doctor,
Speaker 1: you know, right, my doctor, an actual doctor told me
Speaker 1: to go orgasm my way through a east infection, like
Speaker 1: like I have some doctors in my family and just
Speaker 1: thinking of what they had to go through, just like
Speaker 1: they deserve it more bank of knowledge in their minds
Speaker 1: based on repeated you know, study and experimentation, proven results,
Speaker 1: a lot of work, I mean, which they feel that
Speaker 1: they are doing a lot of experimentation and sharing their results.
Speaker 1: But it's just again, it's just different. It just feels different,
Speaker 1: and I don't want to camm a doctor. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't know what I mean experimentation on like the
Speaker 1: human genome versus cranking it crank and these are like
Speaker 1: peer reviewed, you know right, So like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: there are many different kinds of doctors out there who
Speaker 1: deserve to be called doctors who aren't you know, studied
Speaker 1: medical doctors necessarily or scientists or whatever. I just don't know.
Speaker 1: If the masturbation school well anyway, at the time, it
Speaker 1: would cost you around forty three thousand dollars to complete
Speaker 1: a doctorate at More University. And that's that's a lot
Speaker 1: for college today. Yeah it is, but if you convert
Speaker 1: that to modern dollars, it would be over three hundred
Speaker 1: and fourteen thousand dollars this Ivy league. And at the
Speaker 1: time people weren't used to paying much for higher education.
Speaker 1: But like we said, even today, this is an insane
Speaker 1: amount of money. Who would pay for that? Can you
Speaker 1: imagine only your mom being like, give me a check.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go learn how to masturbate better. It's only
Speaker 1: three thousand dollars. I got my doctorate in a right.
Speaker 1: Suddenly there are some student loans I don't want forgiven.
Speaker 1: But you know what, I never would to learn to
Speaker 1: do it in the bathtub if they hadn't hadn't taken
Speaker 1: that classhouse. In addition to paying for courses, More house evaluates,
Speaker 1: as the new Bees are called, they would pay monthly
Speaker 1: to live in the Purple Palace. But they also had
Speaker 1: to clean and cook and help fix the place up.
Speaker 1: Because house elite, like Victor another long term residence, they
Speaker 1: didn't have to do any of that. They that back
Speaker 1: and just enjoyed their hedonism, drop an acid and getting laid.
Speaker 1: They served Victor like, you know, they would do business
Speaker 1: deals for him, or like the ladies would make cookies
Speaker 1: or whatever. Like Victor really did not have to do
Speaker 1: ships of anyone. I mean even at the Oneida compound,
Speaker 1: even he did more. But as these folks insisted to
Speaker 1: Robin Green, this wasn't selfish on the elite's behalf. Ken Brown,
Speaker 1: the president of the Institute in nine, told Robin quote,
Speaker 1: as Victor would say, the way to enjoy your life
Speaker 1: is to do whatever anybody wants you to do. To
Speaker 1: be a slave. Everyone is afraid that they're going to
Speaker 1: get conned or had or cheated or done in, or
Speaker 1: they think they're going to have their souls stolen or something,
Speaker 1: so they'll never be slaves. But that is exactly what
Speaker 1: you want to do. That That's what I mean by
Speaker 1: unselfishly serving the world. I'm hearing him say this. He's like,
Speaker 1: you know, people always think they're gonna get conned or
Speaker 1: head or cheated or done in or ripped off, or
Speaker 1: I'm gonna like steal all the money out of your
Speaker 1: wallet when you're not looking. And I'm like, are you
Speaker 1: just saying what you're gonna do, but you are doing that,
Speaker 1: So the idea of being these evaluates serve by doing
Speaker 1: chores and so on, and the elites serve by teaching
Speaker 1: the evaluates. Basically, yeah, classic, like you're doing your part
Speaker 1: by feeding me grapes as I lay on my couch,
Speaker 1: and I'm doing my part by eating those grapes. Well,
Speaker 1: and it's very yeah, and it's so like manipulous. It's
Speaker 1: very insidious to me to kind of try to convince
Speaker 1: people that what you want is for me to be happy.
Speaker 1: Do you know what I'm saying? What you want is
Speaker 1: to give me everything I ask for, And then of
Speaker 1: course what I want is for you to have a
Speaker 1: thing you want to of course, but like it just
Speaker 1: looks so different. But it's also something like just overall
Speaker 1: that shitty thing people do where they're like, oh, I
Speaker 1: hated that hazing. I can't wait till I'm one of
Speaker 1: the ones that do that hazing, instead of like I
Speaker 1: don't want that, so I didn't. I mean, I didn't
Speaker 1: like that, So let's not do it anymore. If you
Speaker 1: go through hell, then you'll be in a position one
Speaker 1: way to put someone else through hell. Right, why not
Speaker 1: take the hell out of it. Right. It's like when
Speaker 1: people are like, I can't stand that younger people have
Speaker 1: it easier than I did, and I'm like, I thought
Speaker 1: we were all working to make the world easier all
Speaker 1: the time for everyone. That inherently means younger people are
Speaker 1: going to have it easier than us where should and
Speaker 1: we're doing it damn find job at leaving them a
Speaker 1: much worse world. Oh God, I want you to have
Speaker 1: what you want, and what you want is to serve me, right,
Speaker 1: And you're so right, that's exactly what I want. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know. So in a way, they're all they're
Speaker 1: all like, yes, I'm fully in, I'm very enthusiastic, but
Speaker 1: I'm like, are you I don't know. So he's literally
Speaker 1: telling people that they want to be slaves and that
Speaker 1: he's happy to oblige, right, but that he's also a
Speaker 1: slave in his way as well, that that we're all
Speaker 1: if if if you're which in a way I kind
Speaker 1: of get if you're living in a group setting, right,
Speaker 1: because you're like, the point is if you live together,
Speaker 1: you can't be super selfish. You have to make room
Speaker 1: for other people's and want and that means subsuming some
Speaker 1: of your own unless we all agree that what you
Speaker 1: want is what I want, and that way we all
Speaker 1: get more of what we want and fewer people are unhappy.
Speaker 1: So he's saying that everyone, including himself, wants to be
Speaker 1: a slave. But don't worry. It gets worse because in
Speaker 1: Robbin's nineteen seventy two follow up Beyond Shazam, she mentions
Speaker 1: an April Renaissance fair at one more House look Pitian
Speaker 1: quote with such events scheduled as a slave auction where
Speaker 1: luscious slave girls and young studs are sold for a
Speaker 1: day to the highest bidder, which is like the most
Speaker 1: unacceptable thing I've ever heard from a sex cult. I'm like,
Speaker 1: even if you're like, okay, sure, I'm down to be
Speaker 1: a slave for a day for someone, that still feels
Speaker 1: so weird and awful. It's like stage as slave boxes.
Speaker 1: No one should take part in that. I don't care
Speaker 1: how consenting you are to the idea of like servitude
Speaker 1: and everything like that, this is just an unacceptable set up,
Speaker 1: you know, uh not okay. Robin also shares a story
Speaker 1: about a resident named Judas who said that his life
Speaker 1: had gotten quote phenomenally better since joining but only a
Speaker 1: few weeks after he said that his wife died by suicide.
Speaker 1: Now Robin writes, quote that weekend, Victor and Judas devoted
Speaker 1: a sixty five dollar course to a discussion of Susan's death. Ah,
Speaker 1: that just puts such a bad taste on the outer
Speaker 1: that somebody killed herself because of whatever reason. I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's related to this lifestyle, if whatever she
Speaker 1: might have had, some other issues that were going on,
Speaker 1: had nothing to do with this. Who cares you charge
Speaker 1: somebody sixty five dollars to listen to a discussion about
Speaker 1: someone's life who is no longer here to speak for
Speaker 1: themselves and tell you it just is a pretty weird
Speaker 1: thing to do to me, to like try to monetarily
Speaker 1: gain off of that. And if I'm like very sympathetic
Speaker 1: to Judas here and just imagining that he's like really
Speaker 1: broken and hurt by this, then I absolutely think that
Speaker 1: Victor came in and convinced him to do this thing
Speaker 1: in a state where he wasn't really capable of of
Speaker 1: thinking clearly. It's um, you know, the not being sympathetic
Speaker 1: to Victor, It's possible, but he just didn't really care
Speaker 1: that much about her and thought, oh, this is a
Speaker 1: good opportunity for makes bucks ahead. Right, it's either Victor
Speaker 1: andrewdas suck or just Victors but it sucks. Like that's
Speaker 1: just a really gross thing to do. Now, I have
Speaker 1: to say that these articles written by Robin Green, they
Speaker 1: might not have been written in good faith. I will
Speaker 1: say that because in Joe Hagen's biography of Yon Winner,
Speaker 1: who is the founder and editor of Rolling Stone. This
Speaker 1: biography is called Sticky Fingers The Life and Times of
Speaker 1: Yahn Winner, he writes that Yawn's mother had gotten really
Speaker 1: into more house um, she divorced his dad, She hung
Speaker 1: out with Vick a lot in the front seat in
Speaker 1: his purple car, her hair blowing in the winds. Journalistic
Speaker 1: bias may be going on here, exactly, so Joe wrote
Speaker 1: in the biography quote in an edible rage, Yon Winner
Speaker 1: attacked Baranco, and the only way he knew how he
Speaker 1: assigned writer Robin Green is resident assassin, to profile Baranco
Speaker 1: in Rolling Stone and really expose him for the hustler
Speaker 1: he was okay. Fun fact, Robin Green went on to
Speaker 1: um win some Emmys for writing episodes of The Sopranos
Speaker 1: Her so she maybe wasn't assassin. I don't know she
Speaker 1: knew about stuff, so I don't know. I was just like,
Speaker 1: who's a resident assassin at the Rolling Stone? Right, So
Speaker 1: it's possible that you know this is a hit piece.
Speaker 1: But he did say go expose him for the hustler
Speaker 1: he is, So she might have just dug extra hard
Speaker 1: to find the real ship. This is what I'm wondering,
Speaker 1: because I'm like, I don't think you know, these are
Speaker 1: quotes from people. I don't think that she misrepresented anything
Speaker 1: they said. But she might have picked and chosen very
Speaker 1: carefully what she wanted to show us, or she asked
Speaker 1: some leading questions, or she only asked certain people. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's plenty of ways to very carefully caterer article. I'm
Speaker 1: imagining her showing up at the campus and being like,
Speaker 1: all right, I'm going to dig deep and find this now.
Speaker 1: And the first guy she talks to is like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we had a slave auction last week, just like, okay,
Speaker 1: this is going to be easier than I thought. Wow,
Speaker 1: this is this is very simple. Thank you for doing
Speaker 1: my job for me. I guess I can go. And
Speaker 1: the allegations that she has of monetary exploitation in these
Speaker 1: articles have not been repeated since nineteen seventy two, so
Speaker 1: maybe it really is just kind of you know, this
Speaker 1: yawn trying to be like I don't want my mom's
Speaker 1: new boyfriend. Okay, okay, And as you said, it must
Speaker 1: be said. Victor never hid being a hustler. He was
Speaker 1: proud of being a hustler. Ken Brown, who again was
Speaker 1: the president of the Institute in nineteen seventy one, said quote,
Speaker 1: it's a good scam. We call ourselves hustlers, and other
Speaker 1: people marks Victor hustles their asses and their souls. He
Speaker 1: takes their dough to feed himself, but he sees to
Speaker 1: it that they win. To we only hustle people for
Speaker 1: their own benefit. I know if they put the hard
Speaker 1: earned money into the Institute, they'll win by committing that much.
Speaker 1: It's up to them whether or not they feel victimized.
Speaker 1: So that exactly that is where I have the problem,
Speaker 1: because I'm like, I could totally see someone being like,
Speaker 1: this is a this is a this is a hustle,
Speaker 1: but it's going to turn out so much better for you.
Speaker 1: I'm picturing a mom being like, eat your vegetables, like bacon, bacon, chocolate,
Speaker 1: but it's a broccoliever. I'm like, so, there are definitely
Speaker 1: hustles that people do that are better for you in
Speaker 1: the long run. Right, But then that little quote about
Speaker 1: it's up to you whether or not you feel victimized
Speaker 1: is that thing of like, oh, you're really responsible for
Speaker 1: all your feelings and emotions, and so if you feel bad,
Speaker 1: that's on you. That's not anything I did. And that
Speaker 1: feels very much like stepping away from your own actions
Speaker 1: and consequences of your actions and kind of being like,
Speaker 1: that's all your problem. And there's so many like cults
Speaker 1: and MLM's and all sorts of schemes and even some
Speaker 1: religions that are out there, and they're saying, well, but
Speaker 1: I've got hundreds of examples of people who really benefited
Speaker 1: from this, Therefore it's a good thing. And they don't
Speaker 1: mention the thousands of people who were done wrong by them,
Speaker 1: who lost all their money, who ended up in a
Speaker 1: worse situation than they started. They're like, well, that's their fault.
Speaker 1: They didn't do it right. I mean, I went to
Speaker 1: like a like this modeling school when I was younger.
Speaker 1: I'll omit the name, but it was a big one
Speaker 1: and uh, and it was that. I mean they had
Speaker 1: they grabbed you at the mall and brought you to
Speaker 1: this seminar and they're like, you have what it takes.
Speaker 1: I'm they brought me into a private room with an
Speaker 1: agent and said, we saw five people today, but you're
Speaker 1: the one. If you come take our classes, we are
Speaker 1: really going to get you somewhere. And you know, obviously
Speaker 1: they tell literally every person that, but you feel special.
Speaker 1: I got some bad advice from a teacher who used
Speaker 1: to work for them, Um, and I did it and
Speaker 1: I got there and I was like, there are people
Speaker 1: who paid their money to this organization and found success.
Speaker 1: I'm guessing like five, because the way they make all
Speaker 1: their money is by the many, many, many, many people
Speaker 1: who get in there and don't because they're not really
Speaker 1: offering you that much. They're letting you pay them for
Speaker 1: you to do the work. So it's it just gives
Speaker 1: me those kinds of vibes where they're like, look at
Speaker 1: all these people that are perfectly happy in this place,
Speaker 1: and I'm all over speculation station right now because I
Speaker 1: never interviewed a single one of these people. There clearly
Speaker 1: are some people who loved in We're perfectly happy going
Speaker 1: through this whole purple experience. Um, but you know, you
Speaker 1: gotta wonder when this guy says that it's like it's
Speaker 1: your fault if you didn't have a good time, right
Speaker 1: if you feel like I took your money, well, but
Speaker 1: you should feel like I took it for a good reason.
Speaker 1: I guess like, I don't know. I'm sorry. I guess
Speaker 1: you didn't want to be a slave like a normal
Speaker 1: Next time somebody knocks the window out of the car,
Speaker 1: I'll be like, well, travel hard not to feel victimized.
Speaker 1: I guess like, I don't know. It's just very weird things. Okay,
Speaker 1: but you know we're talking about money here. But money
Speaker 1: wasn't the only problem going on, because, according to an
Speaker 1: article called University of Sex by K. L. Billen, Victor
Speaker 1: established a nonprofit that was called turn On to America
Speaker 1: in order to collect government and foundation funds for housing
Speaker 1: unplaceable foster children, paroles, and alcoholics. I mean that sounds
Speaker 1: like a good program. That's nice, you know, And they
Speaker 1: had the space. I guess. Neighbors would complain though about
Speaker 1: drug use and trash. They said Hypodermic needles would often
Speaker 1: be thrown over their fences and the various allegations were
Speaker 1: brought up to in eight, Contra Costa County health officials
Speaker 1: reported a three year old girl developing gon a rhea
Speaker 1: at the Lafayette House and now no charges were ever
Speaker 1: brought to her parents, so we're not really sure exactly
Speaker 1: what came of all this. They did have to pay
Speaker 1: a fine, or they agreed to pay a fine, but yeah,
Speaker 1: what happened? How did she get it? I that's that's sticky. Yes.
Speaker 1: That same year, the county Sheriff's office said they had
Speaker 1: evidence of sexual molestation of underage kids and illegal drug use,
Speaker 1: but for unknown reasons, the investigation was called off and
Speaker 1: no charges were ever brought. Now that's weird, right because
Speaker 1: was it called off because they really didn't have evidence
Speaker 1: and they were just like, look at these weirdos, you know?
Speaker 1: Or was it called off for some like somebody paid
Speaker 1: somebody something, or somebody knew somebody somewhere called off because
Speaker 1: the guy at the head of this organization definitely had
Speaker 1: mafia ties and charged people three thousand dollars a year
Speaker 1: to go to his college and probably have a ship
Speaker 1: ton of money in a in the walls. Yeah, definitely
Speaker 1: a lot of money. I mean, you know, there's no
Speaker 1: reason again speculation station he paid somebody off, but but
Speaker 1: there's no at all, any allegations that he paid anyone off.
Speaker 1: There's no evidence. No one ever said that, Like you're
Speaker 1: good at it, Like it's true that usually hear some whispers.
Speaker 1: So it's just so odd that they decided they were, like,
Speaker 1: we got evidence, but we're not doing anything about it.
Speaker 1: Like why not? I think you only hear whispers when
Speaker 1: it doesn't go well. I think the good payoffs you
Speaker 1: never know anything about. Why would we and how could
Speaker 1: we know? I don't know if we don't creepy. Also, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel a little uncomfortable with the sex commune saying
Speaker 1: let's take in a bunch of orphan kids. You know,
Speaker 1: it kind of sounds like they do nay, yeah, and
Speaker 1: they're very impressionable when they're younger. You know, maybe they
Speaker 1: if they really want to do good, they donate some
Speaker 1: funds to an existing organization that already has a reputation
Speaker 1: of taking care of orphan kids. Don't start your own
Speaker 1: and you're at your sex house. That's weird. That's just
Speaker 1: common advice. I would say, if you ever have an
Speaker 1: idea like I should start a nonprofit for this reason.
Speaker 1: Go google it. There might already be an organization that
Speaker 1: exists for that exact purpose. And now you don't have
Speaker 1: to compete for funds. You can just help them with
Speaker 1: their mission or start a nonprofit, which, just from experience,
Speaker 1: I want to tell you you don't want to do
Speaker 1: that now. In Night, the head of the More Department
Speaker 1: of Medical Science, Dr Mark Hirsch, had his license revoked
Speaker 1: because he had been prescribing excessive amounts of narcotics and
Speaker 1: mood altering drugs. Interestingly, that same year, Mark married Susie
Speaker 1: Vick's ex wife, Purple Susie. Purple Susie is interesting. Now.
Speaker 1: For their part, More University has filed multiple libel lawsuits
Speaker 1: against newspapers and Contra Costa County, although they rarely won.
Speaker 1: So that's good because if they come after us, unfortunately
Speaker 1: they might lose. Hey, we put all this in specially
Speaker 1: so we're safe here. Um. So yeah, they're they're always
Speaker 1: ready to sue anybody who says anything crazy about them. Um,
Speaker 1: and I guess that people don't necessarily have the evidence
Speaker 1: they need to uphold it in court either, So it's
Speaker 1: like nobody really wins these lawsuits or you know, they
Speaker 1: just kind of fizzle out. I guess yeah, okay, dropped speaking,
Speaker 1: it dropped. It's been a minute, so I think it's
Speaker 1: time for us to drop some commercials on you all.
Speaker 1: But stay tuned because we'll be right back right after
Speaker 1: this and welcome back to the show, everybody. So in
Speaker 1: the mid eighties, the US government really wanted to crack
Speaker 1: down on all the universities and colleges that had started
Speaker 1: around the nation that weren't really schools. They were just
Speaker 1: kind of quote unquote diploma mills. Now, some of these schools,
Speaker 1: they were real brick and mortar places you could go
Speaker 1: and you could earned things about herbal medicine or hypnotism.
Speaker 1: But you know, they're kind of like out there topics
Speaker 1: and maybe the information isn't very verified or you know,
Speaker 1: it's a little bit like KG whether or not it's good.
Speaker 1: And some of these schools really only had a po box.
Speaker 1: You paid your money and they mailed you a diploma period.
Speaker 1: You never opened a book or tended a class nothing.
Speaker 1: So in the government's view, this is unfair to the
Speaker 1: general public because of course, many of us are trying
Speaker 1: to pick doctors and nurses and so on, and we
Speaker 1: don't look at their school. We don't go and research
Speaker 1: what school they went to. You know, you just see
Speaker 1: a diploma and you're like great, good time. So now
Speaker 1: we can't trust any of the qualifications we're seeing. So
Speaker 1: they're like, we really got to crack down on these
Speaker 1: fake schools. But at the time, they had no existing
Speaker 1: qualifications for a good college or real college, like, they
Speaker 1: had nothing for it, so they kind of had to
Speaker 1: make it up. They had to start creating those qualifications
Speaker 1: and more. Universe City was a big part of California
Speaker 1: figuring out what made a real school. So the evaluator
Speaker 1: showed up in and they did not like what they
Speaker 1: saw that more. Um, first of all, it was no
Speaker 1: required reading whatsoever, no books anywhere. The only library there
Speaker 1: is one that is full of hundreds of videotapes of
Speaker 1: orgasm demonstration. Yeah there were no you just know those
Speaker 1: are vhs bad Lightingly well, they have a little they
Speaker 1: have a state of the art like television studio and
Speaker 1: this the center of attention is the gynecological table. So
Speaker 1: that might actually be well, very well lit. I don't know, um,
Speaker 1: but like they're labeled like Vic's birthday and just yeah, no, nobody,
Speaker 1: it's just a very specialized library old sixty minutes episodes
Speaker 1: do not watch. There were also no financial records available.
Speaker 1: When they were like, hey, we want to see like
Speaker 1: you know, your income, revenue, profit loss, they're like, nope,
Speaker 1: we don't have none of that. There were no qualifications
Speaker 1: for the faculty except that they must be more alumni.
Speaker 1: So the evaluators were like, okay, some of y'all are
Speaker 1: have your doctorate from more Can we see your thess?
Speaker 1: You know your dissertations? Like ticket, I thought we were
Speaker 1: back to the poop thing. Different school like that. That's
Speaker 1: a real science school. Um now. So they're like, you've
Speaker 1: got dissertations, surely can we see them? And they gave
Speaker 1: him a box with eleven inside. Most of them were
Speaker 1: handwritten and unbound, and one evaluator is quoted in the
Speaker 1: University of Sex articles saying one woman wrote that Vic
Speaker 1: had kept a stimulation of a student going for seven
Speaker 1: hours and why couldn't her boyfriend do that? That was
Speaker 1: her thesis in this I will wonder what the hell's
Speaker 1: wrong with my boyfriend's dick. Also, I guess you needs
Speaker 1: to take another class, right, he could be doing me
Speaker 1: like that again. I'm thinking of all the doctors and
Speaker 1: my family and the things they had to do to
Speaker 1: get their dessertation. Months they spent on writing. It was
Speaker 1: a lot more than like, well, what the hell's wrong
Speaker 1: with this guy? Well, in nine a guy named Alan
Speaker 1: Steele who was a hypnotherapist from Florida who treats sexual disorders.
Speaker 1: Which hang on a second, Alan Steele treating sexual disorders,
Speaker 1: that's like, go on, that's like Dr Too is your dentists,
Speaker 1: or like Dr Stone works on your kidneys. Come on,
Speaker 1: that's what they call that determinative determinative Nominismah, it's like
Speaker 1: that the Harry Potter nominal determinism. That's what it is. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: commanders there, I guess I work with animals exactly, specifically lizards.
Speaker 1: All right. So Alan Steele wrote a letter to the
Speaker 1: California Council for Private post Secondary Education about more University,
Speaker 1: who he and his wife had paid nearly fifty thousand
Speaker 1: dollars for graduate courses. He wrote, quote, while I was
Speaker 1: living on campus, there was encouragement to use illegal drugs,
Speaker 1: including the availability to purchase illegal drugs. They also engage
Speaker 1: in prostitution, that is, sex for money, with quotas of conquests, which,
Speaker 1: if not met, results in threats of physical violence and exclusion. Yikes.
Speaker 1: More University responded by filing a hundred and twenty million
Speaker 1: dollar libel lawsuit against Alan Steele, who stood by his accusations.
Speaker 1: One paper sent an undercover reporter to take some classes there,
Speaker 1: and they reported the teacher quote asking them to strip
Speaker 1: and you as mirrors to take a visual inventory of
Speaker 1: their bodies and homework. Questions asked whether they would have
Speaker 1: sex with men, little people, paraplegics, and animals. Why do
Speaker 1: you need to know that? That's? Why is that used?
Speaker 1: Why is that useful? I will say, Alan Steel's prostitution
Speaker 1: claims seem to be verified by that slave auction, because
Speaker 1: even if they are fully fine with that and everything,
Speaker 1: that's still sex for money, isn't that. I don't know
Speaker 1: about these quotas that he's talking about, but there is
Speaker 1: there is that. Yeah, I mean, that's that's that tracks.
Speaker 1: I wonder how that hold up in court if you'd
Speaker 1: be like, well, they were paying me for me to
Speaker 1: hang out with them all day. Yeah. The sex courts
Speaker 1: go pretty aggressively after sex workers, so possibly, I don't know,
Speaker 1: but More University maintained its accreditation and it's uneasy truce
Speaker 1: with the neighbors until the early nineteen nineties when they
Speaker 1: started using military surplus tense on their Lafayette camp is
Speaker 1: to house the homeless. All these quote unquote unattractive people,
Speaker 1: which is pretty rude, made their neighbors furious. They had
Speaker 1: way more complaints, but more University said, according to the
Speaker 1: University of Sex article quote that it was a witch
Speaker 1: hunt caused by the long standing activism of Barnco and
Speaker 1: others on behalf of the homeless. More House attorney Richard
Speaker 1: Highland pointed out that Barunco was of black and Jewish heritage,
Speaker 1: and therefore the complaints were based in racism, which the
Speaker 1: article calls a PC trick, basically the nineties way of
Speaker 1: saying the some woke bullshit. Yeah, well know, if his
Speaker 1: race really came into it, right, right, And it's not
Speaker 1: like a school that's got it's not like an institution
Speaker 1: like this that has a lot of problems can't also
Speaker 1: be trying to do good things for homelessness. It's true,
Speaker 1: you know, like maybe they were. I'm not going to
Speaker 1: sit here and say, you know, they put up tents
Speaker 1: on their property and said you may live here. Uh
Speaker 1: that that was necessarily a bad thing. I just don't
Speaker 1: know if they went to those people in said and
Speaker 1: while you're here, you gotta come sixty nine us. Don't
Speaker 1: worry you want to you prefer to be a sex slave,
Speaker 1: you know. I don't know, again, making wild accusations here
Speaker 1: based on nothing but what they evidends we've been presented.
Speaker 1: But I'll say I don't pick up that you do
Speaker 1: any sex if you don't want to write. I don't
Speaker 1: pick that up at all from their vibe. But it
Speaker 1: does get a little like, Okay, well, how impressionable are
Speaker 1: the people you're talking to you? How much are they
Speaker 1: willing to subsume their personalities? I mean, it's just like
Speaker 1: regular cult stuff is how much is your personality kind
Speaker 1: of taking over my brain right and making me make
Speaker 1: decisions that maybe I would not normally make right. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's that coercion. It's like I'm not having sex if
Speaker 1: I don't want to. But did I did I want to?
Speaker 1: Or did did you make me think that I want to?
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know, I don't know, but calling
Speaker 1: more university a diploma mill might not be very fair. Um,
Speaker 1: they did operate for about fifteen years, and they only
Speaker 1: ever gave out a total of nine D diplomas in
Speaker 1: its lifetime, So this wasn't like they were just throwing
Speaker 1: them out here and there. You really had to do
Speaker 1: the coursework whatever that meant. You had to go through
Speaker 1: all these different courses and you really had to like
Speaker 1: do something. I suppose jimmy your way behind on your
Speaker 1: bathtub masturbation. I'm going to have to give you a D.
Speaker 1: I can tell you haven't been masturbating, and by D
Speaker 1: I mean dick. I couldn't find the exact date. But
Speaker 1: they lost their accreditation sometime in the nineties. Um, so
Speaker 1: they're no longer a university. They're not allowed to give
Speaker 1: out PhDs anymore. Nobin can be a doctor in in
Speaker 1: D a doctor in D. And now their website says quote,
Speaker 1: we are an intentional community founded in night. Our intention
Speaker 1: is to maximize our potential, both as individuals and as
Speaker 1: a group, and to have life be as much fun
Speaker 1: as possible. We consider ourselves social researchers, and we study
Speaker 1: in the living laboratory of our lives and the lives
Speaker 1: of the students, what reliably works and what doesn't work
Speaker 1: for creating a happy life. We present the findings of
Speaker 1: our lifestyle experiments in the form of courses offered to
Speaker 1: the public. And it's not all sex either, Like you know,
Speaker 1: they have the advanced and basic sensuality, but they also
Speaker 1: discuss how to live together harmoniously, whether or not you're
Speaker 1: having sex with each other. Um, And they laud their
Speaker 1: quote one no vote rule as basically kind of the
Speaker 1: cornerstone of their harmony in the house. So essentially what
Speaker 1: happens is if there's like an idea for the whole
Speaker 1: community to try, or like something for the house to do,
Speaker 1: like probably this military surplus tant thing. They brought it
Speaker 1: to the community. They had a big meeting, you like,
Speaker 1: this is what I want to do. I want to
Speaker 1: house the homeless on the property. Every resident has one
Speaker 1: hard veto if anyone votes, know, if anyone uses their veto,
Speaker 1: the whole community backs off the idea. It's ever brought
Speaker 1: up again. Your veto is fine and good, and we
Speaker 1: hear you, and no problem. But because everyone has the
Speaker 1: same veto power and everyone knows that everyone has the
Speaker 1: same power, it invites a lot more compromise and discussion,
Speaker 1: they say, and so they have had very few no
Speaker 1: votes ever cast In one one quote, it was only
Speaker 1: two in the entire lifetime of the of the Lafayette
Speaker 1: Morehouse location. And this is a similar rule that they
Speaker 1: teach for polyamorous relationships or as they call it, getting
Speaker 1: strange ass Okay, but they're and that kind of reminded
Speaker 1: me of how we talked about jealousy, because they're kind
Speaker 1: of like, the goal is that we're all having fun,
Speaker 1: right The whole goal is that we're supposed to be
Speaker 1: having fun right now. If one person isn't having fun,
Speaker 1: none of us are having fun because our whole goal
Speaker 1: is for everyone to have fun. So if you're not
Speaker 1: into it, all you have to do is say no,
Speaker 1: no problem. The issue is dropped. And that's why I
Speaker 1: kind of get the feeling that there's not a lot
Speaker 1: of coercion in the sex department, Like once you get
Speaker 1: as far as you're willing to go there, they seem
Speaker 1: to be pretty willing to be like, that's as far
Speaker 1: as they want to go. That's that's hopefully very true.
Speaker 1: I'll throw it because I'm I've been getting more and
Speaker 1: more cynical as as we've been going more into the story.
Speaker 1: And I wonder, though I'm thinking about this, everyone gets one,
Speaker 1: you get one, Vito, And I also wonder if that's
Speaker 1: not a way to sort of curb dissent because you're like, well,
Speaker 1: anytime you want, you can use your veto and you're thinking, well,
Speaker 1: I only have one, so I don't like this thing,
Speaker 1: but I'm not gonna use my one viteo because what
Speaker 1: if later something comes up, like like, let's translate it
Speaker 1: to the polyamory thing, just for a smaller example. Like
Speaker 1: let's say let's say you and I are like, well,
Speaker 1: we're gonna start being polyamorous, but we each get one
Speaker 1: veto to say if there's a partner here, we can
Speaker 1: say we don't like them. You know, I know you
Speaker 1: all are having fun, but I'm not kick them out.
Speaker 1: But somebody might come in who I'm like okay with
Speaker 1: but not really actually happy with. But I'm like, I
Speaker 1: don't want to use my one veto now because what
Speaker 1: if the next person sucks worth? So I just kind
Speaker 1: of live in this sort of like sort of deal
Speaker 1: with it. Plays I don't know that is something I
Speaker 1: wanted some clarification on that I never found. Was you
Speaker 1: get one no vote like per meeting or is it
Speaker 1: one in your life. That's what I wasn't entirely sure about. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it sounds to me again I'm extrapolighting here,
Speaker 1: but it seems like if this is all about every
Speaker 1: you know, the whole town, and it's all about every
Speaker 1: you know, decision we make together, you'd think it'd just
Speaker 1: be one per person, because if everybody had one every meeting,
Speaker 1: you'd never get anything done. It's very true, So you're
Speaker 1: probably right. It could go either way. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: it's just another thing that is either exploitable or utopia.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think it's it's so individualistic, like
Speaker 1: it just depends like are you a strong minded person?
Speaker 1: Do you really know what you want? Can you be led?
Speaker 1: How much can you be led? I mean again, it's
Speaker 1: that coercion thing, like where do you know that you're
Speaker 1: into it? And where do you know you've been manipulated up?
Speaker 1: Because at the end of the day, we're just you know,
Speaker 1: a bunch of walking tissues with a big slab of
Speaker 1: fat and electricity in our heads. That's hallucinating everything that
Speaker 1: we see, and we're trying to make like societal rules
Speaker 1: about things where we should be like, you know, eating
Speaker 1: figs off the tree, sleeping in a cave at nights,
Speaker 1: and you know we should be sleeping in the heat
Speaker 1: of the day. It's probably better, see right here, a
Speaker 1: dumb idea and then a slightly better idea. All right.
Speaker 1: So Victor Barronco died in two thousand two, and since
Speaker 1: then Cindy Barronco has carried on his work as the
Speaker 1: leader of the Lafayette Morehouse Communes. Now their daughter together
Speaker 1: Sugar and Goes Baranco, such a hippie kid's name. She
Speaker 1: teaches several of these courses, including the Man Woman Conversation
Speaker 1: on Gender. That course used to be taught by Victor,
Speaker 1: where he would talk about the different languages people speak man.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm speaking man ease and your speaking woman ease,
Speaker 1: which is all kinds of I don't we don't even
Speaker 1: need to get into I don't. I don't need to
Speaker 1: tell you how many problems there are with that. Of course,
Speaker 1: he said, one of these languages, and I'll let you
Speaker 1: guess which one is the voice of reason and logic,
Speaker 1: and the other is emotional. This is such a brand
Speaker 1: new thinking right. In his view, women were meant to
Speaker 1: direct the man and the man was meant to provide
Speaker 1: the power, which is, I will say, is not a
Speaker 1: bad dynamic in a two person relationship. But to say
Speaker 1: that it's already established which gender does which now, it
Speaker 1: actually makes me think of my big fat Greek wedding
Speaker 1: where she's always she goes to her mom and she's like,
Speaker 1: Dad's always saying I'm the head of the family. I'm
Speaker 1: the head of the family, and her mom's like, sure,
Speaker 1: the man's the head of the family, but the woman
Speaker 1: is and neck and she can turn the head any
Speaker 1: way she wants. That's it's like a similar vibe to me.
Speaker 1: Still very gendered expectations and pressures. Yeah, and all of
Speaker 1: this is extremely gendered and very heteronormative. I would say,
Speaker 1: I I don't see anything about gay relationships in there
Speaker 1: or anything like that. I'm sure they have them, because
Speaker 1: they did talk a little bit about Susie maybe being
Speaker 1: a like a stimulator and show like maybe perhaps being
Speaker 1: someone who who did the stimulation of a woman who
Speaker 1: was demonstrating the three hours or whatever. Um. I did
Speaker 1: not find that in enough places to feel that it
Speaker 1: was verified, So I don't know. And I know there's
Speaker 1: some threesomes there and stuff, but there's just not a
Speaker 1: lot of like these are two men who are very
Speaker 1: happy here. These are two women here, you know, like
Speaker 1: non binary dad even there exactly. So I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: I don't know exactly how they feel about the gender
Speaker 1: conversation these days. Yeah, because going back to this class,
Speaker 1: Victor is quoted as saying, it's like at the woman
Speaker 1: is the steerer and the man's the motor. And once
Speaker 1: you can relax men and settle down into slavery in
Speaker 1: the motor room, what a gas. They take care of you, sexually,
Speaker 1: feed you and clothe you. They take care of all
Speaker 1: your creature comforts, and all you gotta do is shovel cold.
Speaker 1: And then he sums it all up saying, quote, if
Speaker 1: you flash that you're a man, just look and see
Speaker 1: what you're doing. And that's what a man should be doing,
Speaker 1: and the same for a woman. You don't have to
Speaker 1: do nothing. Just be old you, and that's steering, and
Speaker 1: he'll be old him, and that's the motor. And the
Speaker 1: more you be you, the more he'll be him. So
Speaker 1: this is sometimes when I'm trying to transcribe these quotes.
Speaker 1: I was like, they're definitely on drugs, right, because like
Speaker 1: sometimes he just goes off on like a whole other
Speaker 1: thing and like, wait, you're a minute ago you talking
Speaker 1: about Cindy, and now you're always here talking on something else. Well,
Speaker 1: and there's something there's some disconnect there between men are
Speaker 1: like this and women are like that, and that's how
Speaker 1: the function of the relationship is. But whatever you're doing
Speaker 1: is what you should be doing. You could just be
Speaker 1: you and that's the thing you should be doing. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I I'm like half on board with you, but half not. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, it's just that sort of style of speak
Speaker 1: where it's sort of left open to manipulation. Like there's
Speaker 1: almost a way that it's like, yeah, if I word
Speaker 1: it like this, I can kind of make it mean
Speaker 1: that you should sixty nine me later or that you
Speaker 1: should make me cookies later, like either one. I can
Speaker 1: make it work or whatever. I will say that I
Speaker 1: do like that. He says, if you flash that you're
Speaker 1: a man, because that's kind of like and and Sugar
Speaker 1: in the video about the gender Conversation on their website,
Speaker 1: she says, if you're a person who identifies as a man.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, maybe they do, or like, if you're
Speaker 1: trans man, then your man's fine with us. We don't care,
Speaker 1: you know, I just I just don't know because they
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of conversation that. Okay, So are
Speaker 1: they a cult? That's the big question, right Well, we
Speaker 1: are going to take a quick commercial break and then
Speaker 1: come back and try to answer that for you. We'll
Speaker 1: have a definitive answer three minutes right back. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to the show, And we are trying to figure out
Speaker 1: if Lafayette More House is a cult. Let's let's let's
Speaker 1: answer it once and for all, because most of their
Speaker 1: libel suits arose from newspapers calling them a sex cult,
Speaker 1: and they feel like they are not a cult, and
Speaker 1: in many ways they kind of aren't, because you know,
Speaker 1: in a regular cult, it's this one dominant leader, every charismatic,
Speaker 1: everybody is obsessed that they kind of got that going um.
Speaker 1: But you're usually encouraged to cut off all your family
Speaker 1: and friends. You're supposed to either leave behind all your
Speaker 1: physical possessions or bring them and all your money to
Speaker 1: and give them to the cult um. And then of
Speaker 1: course you can't leave the grounds for any reason. The
Speaker 1: whole point of the cult is that you now live
Speaker 1: in this little bubble and you never leave. But at
Speaker 1: Lafayette More House you can leave whenever you want. Many
Speaker 1: people work outside of the house, a lot of people
Speaker 1: live off campus. They don't live in the house. Um.
Speaker 1: They have families outside of the house and everything. So
Speaker 1: there's nother that cut off kind of from your whole
Speaker 1: family and friends thing. But of course there's some definitely
Speaker 1: questionable culti type things about them that we've already kind
Speaker 1: of talked about. Those allegations, for one, are a little
Speaker 1: bit creepy. What's going on with the kids, I don't know,
Speaker 1: you know, stuff like that. Um. But also some of
Speaker 1: the way they talk about how it works for these evaluates,
Speaker 1: these newbies is a little bit hazy and culti in.
Speaker 1: Sergeant Bill co Ken Brown is quoted as saying, when
Speaker 1: people move in as a value, it's we push them,
Speaker 1: treat them like victims. Say, you're working in the kitchen
Speaker 1: heart all day, doing your best, and you get to
Speaker 1: the point where you don't think you can do anymore.
Speaker 1: That's when we tell them to drive to San Jose
Speaker 1: to get us a taco and To top it off,
Speaker 1: we don't give them money for gas. We prove to
Speaker 1: people that they can do more than they thought they could,
Speaker 1: so they can feel like heroes. Is that what they
Speaker 1: feel like or do they feel like they have to right?
Speaker 1: And I don't know how far away Stan Jose is
Speaker 1: from Lafayette, but probably a far it's a drive, I
Speaker 1: can tell you that to drive now. Victor also taught
Speaker 1: similar lessons using a hamburger as an analogy. Alright, so
Speaker 1: his his analogy is if your wife worked really hard
Speaker 1: to make you a hamburger and it has everything on
Speaker 1: it but the ketchup you asked for, and there's no
Speaker 1: ketchup in the house, and all the stores are closed. Quote,
Speaker 1: if you eat that hamburger, you lose. You'll spend the
Speaker 1: rest of your life eating garbage. You've got to demand
Speaker 1: catch up on that hamburger, or you're cheating yourself and
Speaker 1: her too. Anytime. I'm willing to have us lose, because
Speaker 1: if you're inadequacy or mine, we both lose. I have
Speaker 1: so many problems with this. I do too. Right away.
Speaker 1: There's no ketchup in the house, and there's stores are
Speaker 1: all closed. So are you just not going to eat
Speaker 1: is not not more of a loss? What what do
Speaker 1: you mean? I don't know it has I'll talk about
Speaker 1: two sides of it. On one side that I I'll
Speaker 1: say what I like. I like this idea that there's
Speaker 1: something you want you shouldn't necessarily settle for less. Right, Sure,
Speaker 1: it seems like there's no way to get it, but
Speaker 1: maybe there is. Have you really exhausted all your options?
Speaker 1: You know, maybe there's some other way to make this happen.
Speaker 1: And I I'm initially really turned off by this idea
Speaker 1: of like, and she loses to like. If I don't
Speaker 1: get what I want, then it's then you're also losing out.
Speaker 1: But if I'm out and like you asked me to
Speaker 1: bring you a hamburger and a milkshake, and I forget
Speaker 1: the milkshake and you and I get home, you know,
Speaker 1: even if you're just like totally cool with it, which
Speaker 1: you would be, I would never send you out back
Speaker 1: out for a milkshake. Right, Um, I I still feel bad.
Speaker 1: I still feel like I didn't do what I wanted
Speaker 1: to do, which was to get you what you wanted.
Speaker 1: So I do kind of lose in that scenario. Right,
Speaker 1: You feel like you failed right away, right, so I
Speaker 1: can lose I can pull out a good version of this,
Speaker 1: But it also reeks to me of sort of like
Speaker 1: this like beta conversation, Like if you settle for less
Speaker 1: than what you demand, then you're losing out. Then you're
Speaker 1: not You're going to eat ship your whole life because
Speaker 1: you didn't get catch up on this burger. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: life is full of compromise, and that's how you get ahead.
Speaker 1: You know, if you sit there and don't eat because
Speaker 1: you didn't get gotta jump on burger, not only are
Speaker 1: you a toddler throwing fit, but also now you're hungry.
Speaker 1: How well are you functioning at this point? That feels
Speaker 1: like more of a loss than me that you didn't
Speaker 1: eat the food at all, even though everything you wanted
Speaker 1: but the one thing. And then now you think too,
Speaker 1: Oh later, I'll buy the ketchup or whatever so that
Speaker 1: I'll have what I want, and then I'll have what
Speaker 1: I want in the future. What a lesson I've learned, Right,
Speaker 1: You got to learn from mistakes they happen. Well, except
Speaker 1: no mistakes, everything exactly perfect. That's what I'm challenging is
Speaker 1: this idea that there are there are definitely mistakes. There
Speaker 1: have been mistakes all through the evolution of us as
Speaker 1: a species. When somebody when one guy in a camp
Speaker 1: was like, oh, let me eat these berries and then died. O,
Speaker 1: the guy next him was like, I'm not gonna eat
Speaker 1: those berries. That's for sure that mistake. You know. The
Speaker 1: dead guy isn't like no mistakes, alright, yeah, no, no regrets, regrets. Um.
Speaker 1: They also at Morehouse have a philosophy that all words
Speaker 1: are good, or that if you use a word, it
Speaker 1: loses its power. So in the nineteen seventy one article
Speaker 1: they use some racial slurs that I will not repeat um,
Speaker 1: specifically about black people. You can guess what they are,
Speaker 1: I'm sure, but don't say im. And they also call
Speaker 1: there's like a story about a guy who comes in
Speaker 1: and he's missing too. He had two fingers amputated, and
Speaker 1: he felt real uncomfortable, so he had his fist curled
Speaker 1: up like he was hiding his hands away, and VIC
Speaker 1: was like, hey, stubs. You know it made everyone real
Speaker 1: uncomfortable because he was like, had said the unstayable, but
Speaker 1: because he said it, the word was robbed of its power,
Speaker 1: and the guy was able to uncurl his fist and
Speaker 1: he was able to just be himself. But I'm like,
Speaker 1: he's in his room later that night. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I know some people who do feel that way about words,
Speaker 1: and we talk a lot about reclaiming words all the time,
Speaker 1: so there's something to that. But again, it as as
Speaker 1: it's a majority white people talking, it feels very weird
Speaker 1: for them to be using racial slurs and again a
Speaker 1: majority able bodied people as well, saying crazy shit. I'm like, well, then,
Speaker 1: what did Stubbs get to say to you, Vick? Did
Speaker 1: he call you names? Like? Did he get to give
Speaker 1: it back? I don't know. It doesn't tell you, but anyway,
Speaker 1: I don't love that it feels abusive. And then be like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: you're the one giving the word power. Um, so you're
Speaker 1: the one abusing yourself. I'm not abusing you. You're abusing you.
Speaker 1: And if you feel victimized, that's on here. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: and that they may have even convinced themselves of this,
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, it's I have
Speaker 1: found a way to believe that I can do whatever
Speaker 1: I want, right, you know, I've I've I've I've written logic,
Speaker 1: which is very easy to write, logic. You could write
Speaker 1: logic about all kinds of things. You can explain away
Speaker 1: everything in a very meaningful sounding way. Um, but it's
Speaker 1: still using logic to allow yourself to have no consequences
Speaker 1: for your actions and to be able to do whatever
Speaker 1: you feel like doing, which they've literally said as their philosophy.
Speaker 1: So yeah, can you use your hard no on that?
Speaker 1: Can you be like, hey, my veto is you can't
Speaker 1: call me the N word? How about that? But there
Speaker 1: you go? Would you use it for that? Or would
Speaker 1: you be like, oh God, if they're doing this, they're
Speaker 1: gonna do something worse later, So I better let this
Speaker 1: slide and can and hold onto my no. That's the
Speaker 1: kind of thing where I'm like, I don't know about
Speaker 1: this one no veto power. That feels like another system
Speaker 1: of control to me. Sure I gotta stay my one
Speaker 1: no for that slave auction they're going to try to, right,
Speaker 1: I don't know, Well, I don't know. So Marco Bennetto
Speaker 1: thinks that while a lot of Victor's behavior at the
Speaker 1: time wouldn't fly today, it still doesn't count as a cult.
Speaker 1: He writes, quote, they were hedonists, and they sought mostly
Speaker 1: to have a good time in their little world. Their
Speaker 1: principal interest wasn't having better sex. They didn't even care
Speaker 1: much for making money. They only taught and recruited to
Speaker 1: the extent to fund the party, which they hoped they
Speaker 1: could return to as soon as possible, And indeed, all
Speaker 1: their courses are designed to be some kind of party.
Speaker 1: Vic's most famous saying is enlightenment is when you realize
Speaker 1: that what was planned was a party. I mean, sure, sure, yeah.
Speaker 1: I pushed back a little on the idea that they
Speaker 1: did not care about money, because they literally, like according
Speaker 1: to tax records, had millions and millions of dollars at
Speaker 1: least at one point. I don't know what they're like today,
Speaker 1: but with all the property they had, all the all
Speaker 1: the rental fees to live there, all the course fees,
Speaker 1: they had quite a lot of money. And I don't
Speaker 1: think they did not care about that money. It's so split.
Speaker 1: This is one of those like the first half of
Speaker 1: this episode, I was like, cool, these guys sound great,
Speaker 1: and then you get more into it, and again, maybe
Speaker 1: it's the hit piece, maybe it's maybe it's you know, journalists,
Speaker 1: journalists actively going out to make this place sound as
Speaker 1: crazy as they can and works. That's very good. I
Speaker 1: might be having my opinions manipulated right now, but um,
Speaker 1: the history of any other times something like this comes
Speaker 1: up and turns out to be a little shady, even Oneida,
Speaker 1: which sounded great, but then there is like a lot
Speaker 1: of really uncomfortable um eugenics going on and telling you
Speaker 1: who you can and can't have sex with and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. Like you know, it feels very hard to trust,
Speaker 1: I think, is where I'm coming from here. And while
Speaker 1: I really do think that there's some decent foundations for
Speaker 1: some philosophies and and ways to live your life in
Speaker 1: some of the stuff Victor was saying, Um, I am
Speaker 1: concerned about maybe how those philosophies were used to you
Speaker 1: just manipulate people in some way. And like it must
Speaker 1: be said again that no one has come out in
Speaker 1: the many years since that article came out, or or
Speaker 1: Alan Steel's ninety for whatever letter that he sent, nothing nothing,
Speaker 1: So maybe most people are very happy there. Maybe it's
Speaker 1: just fine, maybe they totally get it in which maybe
Speaker 1: the LSD really I don't know, but like and I
Speaker 1: don't even know if that's involved anymore. Do LSD like
Speaker 1: the But I mean If that's the case, then sent
Speaker 1: me a pamphlet. You know, I would love to hear
Speaker 1: from someone who's been who was involved in like kind
Speaker 1: of a grade. Oh my god. If you are a
Speaker 1: purple person and don't like us calling you that, please
Speaker 1: write to us. Let us know, because I would bring
Speaker 1: you on the show. You know, let's talk. I did
Speaker 1: find the Atlanta location. Maybe that when I go knock
Speaker 1: on the door. Maybe I don't know, um, but yeah,
Speaker 1: it's very interesting. I've been, like I said, I've been
Speaker 1: very cynical in this episode and said some accusatory things,
Speaker 1: some of which I stand by. Um, but I'm also
Speaker 1: very just like how a lot of it is just
Speaker 1: can you know, how can you know? You know, I'm
Speaker 1: very uncomfortable, very individual life stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, And
Speaker 1: you know, some of the allegations we talked about no
Speaker 1: follow up, no arrests, no nothing, so who knows if
Speaker 1: they were real. And it's true that, you know, alternative
Speaker 1: lifestyles do welcome a lot of hatred without any reason.
Speaker 1: You know, they're just like I see people free and happy,
Speaker 1: live in their lives, having a great time over there
Speaker 1: in that purple house, and I'm really miserable at my
Speaker 1: stupid job, and you shouldn't be happy. I'm gonna say
Speaker 1: that you didn't fucked up ships so that people are
Speaker 1: mad at you too, and now they all hate you.
Speaker 1: I think that does happen with no grounds whatsoever. Definitely,
Speaker 1: But you know, it is weird when there's all these
Speaker 1: little whispers, you know. And I will say too that
Speaker 1: after Vic died, I feel like no has been zero
Speaker 1: controversy since the two thousand's when he died in two
Speaker 1: thousand two. So I'm like it could be that his
Speaker 1: personality was just a little too much um or he
Speaker 1: was just so libelous that he was like always starting
Speaker 1: starn a lawsuit over some ship and Cindy's like, I'll
Speaker 1: let it slide, and so they're just not in the
Speaker 1: headlines or something. But there hasn't been much since he
Speaker 1: passed that that seems to like nothing seems to be
Speaker 1: going on these days. I mean, going back to some
Speaker 1: of the stuff we talked about earlier about like you know,
Speaker 1: did they pay off authorities and mafia and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: like that that does take a lot to be able
Speaker 1: to cover up of that scale is something I think
Speaker 1: we often fall into this belief that like it's so
Speaker 1: easy to have a conspiracy and a big cover up
Speaker 1: and all this stuff, but it's it's hard to do.
Speaker 1: And and I don't think that this group is like
Speaker 1: as big as Scientology or something like that, which which
Speaker 1: you know, which they might have the more of the resources.
Speaker 1: Uh if if something like that, we're going on to
Speaker 1: cover it up, or any or the Catholics or any
Speaker 1: any sort of big, huge organization that with a lot
Speaker 1: of money, you know, these guys seem a bit more
Speaker 1: what mom and pop. I don't know, but big I
Speaker 1: think I saw somewhere it was like between sixty fifty
Speaker 1: members at any time. It's, yeah, it's not huge. And
Speaker 1: then when they were a university, it was like thousands
Speaker 1: of people had come and taken a course or two,
Speaker 1: you know, so not not Scientology. Definitely not so hard
Speaker 1: to say that they would be covering up things that
Speaker 1: are still going on there. And I was going to
Speaker 1: say it was the kind of thing that I feel
Speaker 1: like in a more modern world, if they were continuing
Speaker 1: this decades and decades later, I would imagine that leadership
Speaker 1: eventually became people who were truly devoted to these this
Speaker 1: better way of life that they really believed in, or
Speaker 1: they were truly devoted into making the money off of
Speaker 1: it and kind of turning in into a a profit scam.
Speaker 1: It could go either way. My other question was, is
Speaker 1: it gendered in a way where a man's in charge
Speaker 1: so people are very like, oh, he's probably getting laid
Speaker 1: raw long, and he's using people, he's manipulating people. And
Speaker 1: then once a woman was in charge, it was like,
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's fine, which is not necessarily true. I'm
Speaker 1: just saying it's like their man woman gender of course,
Speaker 1: is all about how society gives you an idea of
Speaker 1: what a man and a woman is supposed to be,
Speaker 1: and then you lock that in and it changes everything
Speaker 1: and you you should be able to funk with that
Speaker 1: or use it to your advantage. Is kind of their idea.
Speaker 1: So anyway, I just wondered, I was like, once it
Speaker 1: was a woman in charge, I wonder if people just
Speaker 1: stopped looking, if there might still be stuff there, but
Speaker 1: they're just not looking because they're like, women don't do that,
Speaker 1: even though women do. I don't know. Again, speculations now
Speaker 1: they might have inspired a cult because there was a
Speaker 1: group called One Taste that focused on meditative orgasms for women.
Speaker 1: It was very much about women figuring out how to
Speaker 1: make their orgasms more intense. And the woman who ran
Speaker 1: that did use a lot of victors techniques and teachings
Speaker 1: and stuff like that, and her she took all the
Speaker 1: courses and then used it and her one taste thing.
Speaker 1: But they were way more monetarily exploitative, incredibly coercive. They
Speaker 1: were actually subject of an FBI investigation. They were subsequently
Speaker 1: shut down, even though there's still some centers that sort
Speaker 1: of independently operate. Um, so they might have inspired a cults.
Speaker 1: And I guess that sort of takes away my gender
Speaker 1: thing because she was in charge of that, and they
Speaker 1: definitely got looked at. So there you go. Women can
Speaker 1: be cult leaders too. Yeah, ladies, we can do it too.
Speaker 1: And I will say too in case you're wondering, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, not everybody at more Houses polyamorous. They don't
Speaker 1: all just be piled up on each other. Uh. There
Speaker 1: are definitely many orgies at more Houses. Apparently they really
Speaker 1: know how to party. It's how one guy put it.
Speaker 1: Just waiting for the pamphlet right any day now. But some, uh,
Speaker 1: some are polyamorous. Many are monogamous and some are actually celibate,
Speaker 1: So you know there's a there's a variety of sexual
Speaker 1: experience happening at your house. Interesting, What a subject, What
Speaker 1: a bizarre thing to look into. I still don't know
Speaker 1: how to feel, To be perfectly frank with you, I
Speaker 1: think there's a lot of things in it that I'm
Speaker 1: like totally, I agree, I agree, I don't like that,
Speaker 1: I love that, I don't like that like. I think
Speaker 1: that we will probably have an easier time forming our
Speaker 1: opinion when the libel lawsuit shows up in the then
Speaker 1: we'll be real quick. We'll have a whole second, very
Speaker 1: brief episode. We're actually they're great. Turns out they're awesome.
Speaker 1: Nothing wrong, Sorry about everything we said, not taking the
Speaker 1: episode down, but will add just downloads, tell your friends sunk.
Speaker 1: Actually it sounds like great publicity for us. True, Actually
Speaker 1: go ahead and file libels not so fast. Well, thank
Speaker 1: you to Sean again for this suggestion, because it is
Speaker 1: a very interesting one to look into. For shure, this
Speaker 1: is what this show is all about. And I'm dying
Speaker 1: to hear what y'all think. I mean? Is this a
Speaker 1: cult to you? Do you feel like it's sucked? Up,
Speaker 1: is it cool? How have you done it? I mean,
Speaker 1: especially if you know anyone or I've been there or
Speaker 1: anything and you have some on the ground, hands on experience,
Speaker 1: Please tell us what you're felt like it was about,
Speaker 1: or anything we missed or fucked up about this or misrepresented.
Speaker 1: I want to know. My dream is that a Purple
Speaker 1: People leader shows up at the house tomorrow and grants
Speaker 1: me a rock and roll wish. Cool, a rock and
Speaker 1: roll wish that They're like, we don't do that. You're
Speaker 1: supposed to want things that you already have. I'm back
Speaker 1: in the eighties movie guys. Sorry, I lost interest in
Speaker 1: the sex cult the first time you ever said that
Speaker 1: in your lifetime. No, So reach out with your impressions
Speaker 1: about the Purple People and the Purple Palace or the
Speaker 1: Fuck University or whatever you wanna call it. We are
Speaker 1: Ridic Romance at gmail dot com, that's right, or you
Speaker 1: can find us on Twitter and Instagram. I'm at Oh great,
Speaker 1: it's Eli, and I'm Diana Mite Boom and the show
Speaker 1: is at ridic Romance and we can't wait to hear
Speaker 1: from you. As always. Thanks again to Sean, and thank
Speaker 1: you for being here and spending your time with us.
Speaker 1: We will see you next time. So long friends, it
Speaker 1: is time to go. Thanks so listening to our show.
Speaker 1: Tell your friends name's uncles in dance To listen to
Speaker 1: our show Ridiculous Roll Dance