HYPERSPACE MEETING

Ed and I met on the internet. He had an account through his work. I got an internet account when I worked at Penn State University. He said he could project to me on the astral plane and have sex with me. He claimed he was a master (an adept), that he could come to me and have astral sex with me. I was aware of astral travel. I kept the fact that I had been astral projecting all my life a secret and never told anyone. I started traveling when I was an infant.

At first, I didn’t think exchanging sexual energy in the astral as cheating since we would not be not touching. Intrigued, I told him yes, to come to me and “try it”. Well much to my surprise, he was able to connect with me and we made love. It was very intense, profound and extremely powerful I never intended to fall in love. But we did. Now I understand that when you have astral sex and you are not single, you are cheating.

I hadn’t realized how empty my soul felt until I went to Hawaii. Coming to Hawaii symbolized my awakening, childhood’s end, and time to throw off the shackles of bondage I’d created for myself because I was a Pleaser and couldn’t say no from my Center, my Aware Ego. I had no idea who I was. My identity was wrapped up in the parameters my society, religion, culture, and my country had erected for me. My reactions to life had been totally unconscious at this point in time. I had no idea I could even choose, that I could say no. I thought I was my father’s daughter, my husband’s wife. I was a possession, a rag doll. I dissociated and operated my body like a Puppet Master, from above.

INCOMPATIBLE WITH MY HUSBAND

My husband was a good man. We were just not very compatible. I felt trapped in my marriage. John didn’t know how to listen to my personal truth. We could not create a safe container between us for the truth to emerge. If I said things he did not like, he berated me for weeks leaving me feeling dead inside, feeling like a vampire had just sucked me dry.

I don’t blame him for our disastrous bonding pattern. We are not taught conscious relating skills in this society. I don’t even blame myself (although I felt horribly guilty for a long while and had to do extensive therapy to resolve my issues around our relationship). None of us are given very good models.

GREAT DEPRESSION, WWII & PTSD

My parents suffered from PTSD having endured the Great Depression and WWII. The generation before suffered WWI. And so on. The beat of life goes on. We’re all flying blind. They are both deceased. Now that they are on the other side and hopefully have greater wisdom, I wonder how they would rate their 52 years of marriage on a scale of 1 to 10?

Note: Ed and I were probably being manipulated by ETs (or perhaps by our higher selves and over-souls) to bring us together and get me to Hawaii. Over twenty-five years later, I’m still trying to figure it out completely. I’ve learned to forgive all the players in this melodrama. Despite any pain I’ve felt, I appreciate that I did not have a boring life. I’ll explain more, later why I’ve reached this conclusion after interviewing hundreds of experiencers over the years.

ESCAPE FROM MY DYSFUNCTIONAL LIFE

I escaped my dysfunctional marriage, my crazy family, my overly conservative state, my cultural conditioning. I fled the reality I knew and in its place created a fantasy, a new container for my existence. Still, unconscious, unaware of what it meant to be conscious, Ed and I had a whirlwind romance (more like an affair) with hot, passionate sex that elevated my spirits and made my heart soar in ways it hadn’t for quite a while.

FALLING IN LOVE IS EASY

Ed was not the only one I would fall in love with over the next few years. I admit I do love the feeling of being in love, when biochemically lots of chemicals get released which gives you a natural high that’s super intoxicating. The chemical release, the excitement, and high are called NRE or “new relationship energy” in the polyamory world. Sex was my new drug. Romance, drama, and excitement would feed me over the next few years. With Ed, I felt intense love for the first time in a long time after many years of feeling disconnected from life. But after a while, I wondered what is love? Was this love?

OUT OF BODY UP ABOVE

I didn’t remember most of what happened the previous two years with my second ex. I felt numb. I managed to go to therapy a half dozen times with John in a futile attempt to save my marriage. He showed up and even paid for it. He doesn’t come from that kind of background. So I appreciate his efforts, for trying. I operated my body from above, like a puppet master. I went through the motions of life, not fully being a part of life, but the observer watching my life.

POST NUPTIAL DIVORCE NEGOTIATIONS

Before I left we negotiated our divorce. We just used his attorney. I ask for nothing. His lawyer wanted to give me ore. I let him talk me into taking something. He said ours was the most peaceful divorce he had ever negotiated. But he didn’t realize how battered I felt. And I’m not here to paint John as a villain in my play. He had a part, but my life from beginning to that point in time was so extreme in so many ways. If you dare read my tale, even parts of it, you may come to an understanding of why I was so shut down in 1993 when I left my second marriage.

GUILTY

Yes, I could have blamed him to lessen my guilt and the horrible part I played in this phase of my life. But, in the end, I didn’t take much. I just wanted out. But it’s not that I wanted out of my life with John. I just wanted to exchange what was for something better and I used this catalyst to give me the courage. I was just a coward. But there was a part of me that was the bravest person that ever lived. And she chose life. I was just along for the ride.

After a week of fun and romance with Ed in Honolulu, reality set in. His wife came back from the mainland after surgery that saved her life and he had to go back home to his wife and his job. I didn’t particularly like Michelle because she didn’t jump up and down and embrace my crazy suggestion of abandoning all reason and starting a polyamorous lifestyle with me and Ed. I knew that sounded crazy and if I were in her shoes, I’d probably feel the same way she was. And I didn’t want her dead. I just wanted what I wanted with no rhyme or reason because I was traumatized from my life and wasn’t really in my right mind.

WIFE IS BACK IN TOWN

So with Michelle back in town, Ed and I were now on a time limit. He could only see me now and again in between his life with his wife and working a job (which he absolutely hated). He suffered from PTSD from the Vietnam war and really was pretty low functioning. I knew I was low functioning, but I chose to be out here in the world, wasn’t rich so I had to get my shit together and make things work or end up living in the streets. It was time to start a new life, get a job, find things to do with myself to have fun, so I got to work.

MY POLYAMOROUS LIFE BEGINS

Ed and I had committed to exploring polyamory and even co-founded the first polyamory support group, Pali-Paths in Honolulu, with a few other poly advocates. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was about to embark on one of the most exciting and fun times of my life. Since I had decided to have a sense of adventure rather than show up as a victim, everything that happened in that time, the good, bad and the ugly was perfect–exactly what I needed to learn, grow and evolve.

We convinced his wife, Michelle to try it out. How in the world did we do that? She’s a very intelligent woman. To her credit, she did give it a whirl. And she never did actually lose control of the entire situation. She just had to see it through. She always knew, in the end, it wasn’t for her, she could quit any time. She controlled the resources and all the money. And I was a new kid on the block with nothing to offer in that department. She ended up running a major department in a major hospital. She agreed to remain with Ed while he and I explored polyamory.

Ed discovered polyamory years ago. When I met him he said he had belonged to * Kerista (http://www.kerista.com/) years ago, back in the 1980s. It was he who introduced me to the word polyamory and the concept behind it when I was living in Pennsylvania and he in Hawaii and we were writing to each other via the internet. The internet was still in its infancy back in the early 1990s. I was fortunate in that I had access to the internet at Penn State University. In my free time, I researched polyamory. I got the logic of it, understood, and embraced it.

WHAT IS POLYAMORY?

Polyamory made sense and was a way to explain what was happening to me. I found myself falling in love with Ed while I still loved my then-husband, John. I had heard about swinging and others I knew over the years played with it. Swinging was not for me. I even suspected my parents experimented with swinging back in the 50s or 60s. After WWII and even going into the love-ins of the 60s, having sex with or loving more than one at a time was a universal concept bantered around by the counter-culture, the hippies, and others (like swingers) who silently rebelled while pretending they had perfect, monogamous marriages during the day.

MONGAMOUS WOMAN, POLYAMOROUS MAN

One doesn’t have to be polyamorous to have polyamorous partners who are actively poly. There must be agreement and transparency. I didn’t do polyamory right when I was just starting out. I made every poly mistake possible. I ran a lot of fantasies about how the four of us, me, Ed, John, and Michele could end up together, a foursome, happily ever after. I had seen the movie ** “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice” and read “The Harrad Experiment”. This was not a new idea and maybe, we were mature enough that we could make it work. But that was my will, Ed’s will, and not Michelle’s will. We were trying to convince her. We failed horribly.

Note: While it didn’t work out in the long run, we were relatively young (in our late 30s, early 40s), full of passion and hope, had non-conventional ideas and loving intentions. We believed fully in the concept of polyamory. While it seemed new and we believed it was in its infancy in the early 1990s, polyamory had been around since Robert Rimmer (Harrad Experiment) and Robert Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land & Time Enough for Love) introduced the concept to the world in the early 1960s. The term polyamory had not yet been coined.

HOME ALONE

I was left alone a lot, so I had to find something to do or go crazy. I went down to the mall, found a couple of new-age bookstores and a jewelry store that had psychic readers upstairs. Both had flyers and bulletin boards. I found several groups to explore which included monthly Sufi dances, weekly poly meetings, and Sunday church with a bunch of table-taping spiritualists called “Your Spiritual Center” that met at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. I even found another group called * “The Aquarian Foundation” which was based on mediums from the 1940s and 50s. About six months later I found an ongoing UFO Group. Amazing. I was in heaven.

When I walked in the door at the church (which met at the Hilton Hawaiian Hotel in Waikiki), I was met by a handsome man named Mr. Chun (not his real name) and his beautiful long-haired Asian friend. Since I’m from Pennsylvania and have blonde hair, blue eyes, and super white skin, I stood out in a crowd of predominately Asian and Polynesian mixed people. Mr. Chun and his lady friend smiled at me and motioned me to join them in the front row while saying, “Welcome back. We remember you from the ship.” I knew I was at home.

Arthur Pacheco (now deceased) channeled Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and a Native American named White Thunder (or something like that). They brought in a card table and did table tipping, where discarnate spirits communicated to us and literally made the table rise on one leg, one time for yes and two times for now. The service was often opened by a family from South America with Peruvian flutes. The sound sent everyone into a highly spiritual, meditative vibe. The facilities were uplifting and amazing.

I convinced Ed to come with me a few times, and he seemed to enjoy it. A few weeks in I was introduced to Tj, but I don’t remember it very well. After all, that was over 25 years ago. But later I met TJ again, and we pieced things together a bit. So here’s what I learned. We still don’t have all the pieces of this puzzle, yet.

PSI WORLD SEMINARS

I started feeling antsy, depressed, overwhelmed and began suffering anxiety attacks. I called Mr. Chun (who had become my mentor) and asked him what could I do. There must be something I can do to make more progress, faster. He recommend PSI World Seminars. He was somehow involved. There I learned about remote viewing and the games that the powers that be play with humanity.

Janet Kira Ninmah Lessin met Theresa Jannette Thurmond Morris in 1993 at the USA government Psy-Ops recruitment center that operated covertly under the name “Your Spiritual Center.” They acted as a recruitment center for a related program called People Synergistically Involved (PSI) World Seminars.

PROJECT STARGATE

PSI World Seminars was a front for Project Stargate, a CIA operation designed to recruit and track psychics who work (without their knowledge for the most part) for the CIA and US Government in intelligence.

Once identified, potential candidates were selected, often involuntarily tracked and monitored through frequent abductions and mind wiped. Many techniques were implemented to control and manipulate these unwilling volunteers. Few ever received acknowledgment or even became aware that they were being used in this capacity. This system not only saved the US Government billions of dollars (as few ever received any pay for their work), but these efforts probably saved the world from open slavery.

Meanwhile, humanity has been continually enslaved since our solar system was set up as a penal system by unknown forces billions of years ago. The Anunnaki created us as a slave race.

REFERENCES

STARGATE PROJECT WIKIPEDIA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_Project

Stargate Project was the 1991 code name for a secret U.S. Army unit established in 1978 at Fort Meade, Maryland, by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and SRI International (a California contractor) to investigate the potential for psychic phenomena in military and domestic intelligence applications. The Project, and its precursors and sister projects, originally went by various code names—GONDOLA WISH, GRILL FLAME, CENTER LANE, PROJECT CF, SUN STREAK, SCANATE—until 1991 when they were consolidated and rechristened as “Stargate Project”.

Stargate Project work primarily involved remote viewing, the purported ability to psychically “see” events, sites, or information from a great distance.^[1] The project was overseen until 1987 by Lt. Frederick Holmes “Skip” Atwater, an aide and “psychic headhunter” to Maj. Gen. Albert Stubblebine, and later president of the Monroe Institute.^[2] The unit was small-scale, comprising about 15 to 20 individuals, and was run out of “an old, leaky wooden barracks”.^[3]

The Stargate Project was terminated and declassified in 1995 after a CIA report concluded that it was never useful in any intelligence operation. Information provided by the program was vague and included irrelevant and erroneous data, and there was reason to suspect that its project managers had changed the reports so they would fit background cues.^[4] The program was featured in the 2004 book and 2009 film, both titled The Men Who Stare at Goats,^[5][6][7][8] although neither mentions it by name.

HIGHER LEVELS OF EXISTENCE

While on the human level I’ve been used, on the soul level I’m empowered (like the Buddha and Christed Consciousness beings that came here before me). Many souls come down into the Earth dimension to intervene and attempt to keep humanity and the countless species that continually visit us on course. We are on the path to enlightenment and ascension. We need to keep on track and sometimes accelerate progress. We may at times seem to fall behind and even take steps backward and devolve rather than evolve. But higher more conscious, aware, and evolved species are always stepping in, kicking butt, and keeping us on track. We are far too valuable in the grand design of existence to perish or fall back into total darkness.

CONSTANT DOWNLOADS & COMMUNICATION

My dreams are rich, lucid, full of information that pans out, proves itself correct time and again. Last night my guides and higher self were conveying to Janet, my human part was that I’ve found and identified my “superpowers”. These abilities were genetically shut off by the Anunnaki initially. Then subsequent species who wanted to maintain the matrix game stepped in and kept the interference going for their own agenda.

THE GAIA PROJECT

On the highest level of existence, all who are participating have volunteered (consciously or not). No one wants the game to end till it’s maximized its potential and reached a conclusion that creates win-for-all beings and souls that have willingly volunteered for the Gaia Project. This matrix game maximizes soul growth and evolution for all creation. While we may not be aware of our roles and the repercussions of our actions on this human level, our higher selves remain aware and monitor and maintain operations for maximum potential for everyone and everything.

TIME LORD

A few nights before my guides revealed to me that I am a “Time Lord,” a title that actually is genderless. What that means is that I can travel through, manipulate and change items in the timeline and influence others to come to participate in those revised timelines. My goal as a Time Lord is to minimize casualties and keep things from getting too perverse where growth and positive experiences become impossible.

SLIVER OF HOPE & JOY

There must always be at least a sliver of joy in every lifetime, every thread even when souls are locked in what seems to be a total slave system. For without that possibility and times when souls can feel hope and inspiration, souls will stop incarnating and participating in the game at all. That must not happen, or the game is over, and nothing will have been accomplished. The goal of existence is experience. The goal is the journey, not the destination and the journey gives us something to do.

ONE GOD UNIVERSE

All souls and beings are here in what is known as the OGU (the One God Universe) for growth, expansion, and the evolution of consciousness. A section of existence was created, carved out of the totality of existence for those who volunteered to come down into lower densities to play a game. Some kept going lower and lower till they reached third dimensional physicality.

Parameters are maintained somewhere in the equation so Time Lords and Buddha’s and Christed Consciousness can come down into lower vibratory frequency realms. They volunteer and are come down into it faster than anyone can think it. The system is continually monitored. A fragile balance is maintained to sustain the structure.

MULTIDIMENSIONAL, SIMULTANEOUS EXISTENCES

While I was originally tracked in and recruited (volunteered?) at birth, I subsequently spent most of my life being a “normal human” like most of you during the day. But my nights were wild full of paranormal activity and astral explorations. As I reconstruct my timeline, I realize that I exist on several timelines or multiverses simultaneously and that we all exist in this capacity, but few experiences the totality of existence as a reality as one’s soul has to be in a particular level of development to recognize what’s actually going on.

TUNNEL VISION

Most humans exist in a form of tunnel vision, focused on one time, here and now to fully understand it. I am an ancient, old, old soul and thus I can incorporate and integrate it without going insane. Even so, it’s very complicated, and sometimes I feel frustrated and other negative emotions and judgments that threaten to throw me off-center. Fortunately, I have incarnated with many of my soul mates along with my Twin Flame, and we are all ancient souls who can navigate the waters at a higher level, more efficiently and effectively.

ALL SOULS ARE EQUAL

None of us are better than any others. We are all equal, and if we got that one simple concept, we’d stop treating others like we do and accept them in whatever form they currently choose to inhabit. The most insane thing about human existence is any kind of racism, sexism, prejudice, or bigotry. From the eternal, highest level of awareness, such things are incomprehensible. That’s why as long as humanity remains so divided, so deeply entrenched in such a horrendous, insane schism, they will be isolated/quarantined to protect the other beings in existence.

POLARITY ACCELERATES ASCENSION

However, the good news is now we no longer need to wait for everyone to get it. We can invite contact and interact with other beings now, and the others will simply be left behind. I feel sorry for them and send them love, understanding, and compassion and pray they wake up and get it. Yet these days I see acceleration once again of racism, violence, projection, rejection, hatred, and war, I pray this is simply the polarity maximizing the continuum for the final push out as we birth and a new paradigm of love and understanding.

KERISTA UTOPIAN VISION

Kerista was a utopian community that was started in New York City in 1956 by John Peltz “Bro Jud” Presmont. Throughout much of its history, Kerista was centered on the ideals of polyfidelity^[1] and creation of intentional communities. Kerista underwent several incarnations that later became known as the “Old Tribe,” which was associated with a fairly large, but fluid membership.

• Aquarian Foundation – Religious Organization, Nondenominational Church2440 Kuhio Ave, #6, Honolulu, HI · (808) 926-8134 *

Kerista **

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerista

Founding

Kerista was founded by John Presmont after an auditory-hallucination telling him that he was the founder of the next great religion of the world. After time spent in New York in the 1950s, and several island experiments in Dominica, Honduras and Belize in the ’60s, Jud settled in San Francisco at the end of the ’60s.

Old Tribe

Kerista-inspired storefronts and communal houses existed in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco Bay Area throughout the 60’s, and were moderately popular. The ideology shared by the Old Tribe was remarkably simple: ‘Wash your own dish’, ‘No one belongs to anyone else’, ‘Kerista is freedom and love’. The main tenets of the Old Tribe embody the hippie ideals of ‘good vibes’ and the ‘righteous high’, racial and sexual liberation, and a strong tendency towards dropping out of the straight-world and living a non-conformist life of idealism, spontaneity, and fun. In addition, Old Tribers started the use of a Ouija board for wisdom and guidance, and use of the “alphabet-board” continued in the New Tribe.

One division occurred in the Old Tribe over the Vietnam War. Jud was a patriotic WWII ex-soldier, and he supported US military intervention. However, the vast majority of the Old Tribe were anti-war. Jud’s pro-military beliefs were unpopular in leftist circles, and regularly surprised visitors who expected Jud to be left-of-center.

New Tribe

From 1971 until 1991, the community was centered at the Kerista Commune (not a single physical building), founded in the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco, California. The Keristans maintained a very high profile which included publication of a popular free newspaper and several national media appearances.^[2]

When it was active, Kerista was a focal point for people interested in alternative and non-monogamous lifestyles. The terms polyfidelity and compersion were coined at the Kerista Commune. The commune developed an entire vocabulary around alternative lifestyles—for example their term polyintimacy in their literature was similar to the term popularized as polyamory years later. Entrance to the commune was extremely selective. Potential members were expected to attend the Growth Coop for several months, interact with other Keristans at potluck volleyball and during newspaper distribution, and socialize with different BFIC families. This intense mutual-selection process included months of transitional celibacy. Starting in Fall 1986 it included screening for AIDS/HIV ^[3] before joining a sleeping schedule. By 1987 there was no celibacy period, but three months of transitional safer sex and quarterly HIV testing for the duration. A more controversial policy was men being required to have a vasectomy in order to join. That policy was overturned a year before the New Tribe ended.

Social contract standards

Kerista accumulated a codified social contract over its history that all members were expected to agree and comply with, at all times.^[4] Starting with a few unwritten rules in 1971 to 26 standards^[5] in 1979, the social contract evolved to 84 standards ^[6] by 1983. There were over 100 standards in 1991.

Examples from the 84 Standards include:

• Total Rationality at All Times
• Search for Truth through the Elimination of Contradictions
• No Jealousy, No Anger, No Rivalry, No Sexism, No Ageism, No Racism, No Classism, No Duplicity, No Alienation, No Profanity, No Flippancy
• Social Tolerance, Equality, Verbality, Participatory Democracy, Accountability, Conviviality, Graceful Distancing
• Positive Attitude towards the ‘Toggle-Switch’ Mode of Decision-Making
• There is One and only One Objective Reality

Gestalt-O-Rama / Utopian Psychology

Kerista used a group process called Gestalt-O-Rama, loosely taken from Fritz Perls‘ concept of gestalt (“enhanced awareness of sensation, perception, bodily feelings, emotion, and behavior, in the present moment.”) For Keristans, gestalt consisted of a lot of conversation in groups. Maintaining personal ‘resolve-on-the-lifestyle’, a euphemism for being aligned with the social contract, was a daily task for many Keristans. Being ‘unresolved-on-the-lifestyle’, even momentarily or temporarily, was worthy of immediate gestalt and possible expulsion from the family or commune. Practically, a member could be “called out” on any standards violation or non-utopian thought or action by anyone at any time.

Publications

Kerista produced zines that included drawings and comics. Some concerned day-to-day life. Others presented a lighthearted polytheistic mythology which revolved around a pantheon of benevolent and technologically adept goddesses and gods. The comic Far Out West, written by one of the founders Eve “Even Eve” Furchgott, claimed to be “The First Utopian Comic Strip.”^[7] Features presented in the zine included articles and essays concerning life within the community and their proposed World Plan to establish a functional Utopian society on a larger scale. The volume of publications and art work produced by Kerista Commune was quite a bit greater than other groups that were active in the Haight Ashbury during this period.^{[citation needed]} Kerista claimed singer Joan Jett as the “Matron Saint” of their community.^[8]

Work Life / Abacus

The Keristans shared income and could choose whether to have outside paying jobs or work within the community (which operated several businesses, a legally incorporated church, and an educational non-profit organization).^[9]

The most successful of the businesses was Abacus, Inc., an early Macintosh computer vendor in San Francisco, which eventually offered a variety of computer hardware, training and services. At its height, Abacus employed over 250 people and had offices in five major California cities. Voted the 33rd and 42nd fastest-growing privately held company in America by Inc. Magazine in 1990 and 1991 respectively, Abacus achieved revenues in excess of $25 million per year. Prior to Apple Computer Corporation abandoning the Value-Added Reseller in 1992, Abacus was the top reseller of Macintosh computers in the Bay Area in 1991.

Membership

A web site run by a long term former member or Kerista Commune website lists 44 people as having joined Kerista at various times during the community’s history, though at least 75 passed through briefly. The commune population numbered 5 at founding in 1971, and numbered 25 at dissolution in 1991. Before dissolution, there were closer to 30 Keristans in residence.

The commune maintained a very active program of social events and Gestalt-o-rama rap groups, which were open to the public 3-4 nights a week, and were mandatory for Keristans to regularly attend. The commune functioned a lot like a religious order and was an important focal point for a larger community of people in San Francisco interested in alternative lifestyles. The events sponsored by Kerista were almost always free and non-commercial.

In 1979 and 1980, two children were born in the community. Beginning in 1983, the adult male Keristans had vasectomies to deal with birth control and address global population issues. All male members subsequently had the requirement of having a vasectomy within a set period of time after joining the community.

Family Life / Polyfidelity / Sleeping Schedule

The family structure of Kerista was composed of fidelitous groups called B-FICs (Best-Friend Identity Clusters). Keristans practiced non-preferential polyfidelity. Polyfidelity requires consensus to accept a new person into the group, either a man or woman.

Non-preferentiality was an important concept of Keristan polyfidelity, and had lofty goals but was more intended to keep people from coupling-up. Non-preferentiality proved very difficult to achieve. Keristans had a transitional celibacy period after joining a group of three months, sometimes waived.

A single B-FIC was composed of men and women who rotated sleeping with all of the opposite-sex members on a balanced rotational sleeping schedule. The sleeping-schedule assigned each family member to sleep with a different opposite-sex partner each night. Since the BFICs were rarely balanced between men and women (typically more women than men), on any given night several family-members would have no partner to sleep with and were assigned a ‘Zero-Night’ – when they slept alone. In addition to the programmed sleeping schedule, it was permitted to sleep with any opposite-sex family-member at any time, which was termed a ‘freebie’.

Jud as leader

Jud exerted clear leadership and unparalleled influence over the daily life and direction of the commune and its members. He was a highly verbal and charismatic man, and had boundless confidence in his own opinion. As the oldest Keristan with many marriages and communal experiments behind him, he often dominated commune discussions. Jud typically got into fights with famous people who came to visit or study Kerista, like Steve Gaskin from The Farm, Mario Savio from the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, and the researcher Robert Weiss.

Criticism

After an arranged visit to Kerista by three professors, the New Tribe was criticized for not being egalitarian, notably in Bro Jud’s dominance of many commune matters.^[10] The same professors questioned whether Kerista was feminist, and whether Kerista made only token contributions to philanthropy.^[10] A separate dissertation, written by an ex-Keristan, argued that Jud was not the primary problem, and instead criticized Kerista for institutionalizing ‘…a fetish for purity’, describing ‘the core psychological process in Kerista was anxiety-producing and ultimately destructive because it centered around the toxic value of purity, which made the commune a bad place to live.’^[11]

Dissolution

In November 1991, Bro Jud left the Purple Submarine and the Kerista Commune after sharp divisions were exposed within the membership. Conflicts between Abacus and Kerista had grown more acute, as Abacus became more successful and difficult to manage. Other issues discussed during dissolution include allowing less-religious people into the commune and the loosening of superfluous rules.

After many incidents with members beginning to confront Jud’s behavior, Jud left Purple and Kerista. Within a few months, the community was dissolved by vote. Bro Jud went on to create The World Academy of Keristan Education.^[12] Several former members of the commune still live in the San Francisco Bay Area, while a number moved to Hawaii and purchased a block of adjoining parcels of land.

John (Bro Jud) Presmont died on December 13, 2009 in San Francisco.^[13] In his last years, Jud had been seen regularly on ‘The Bro Jud Show’ on San Francisco public-access television cable TV.

Kerista, Robert A. Heinlein, and Stranger in a Strange Land

Science-fiction author Robert A. Heinlein, in a 1966 letter to his agent Lurton Blassingame, mentioned Kerista in connection with his 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land:

I recently learned that it was considered the “New Testament” — and compulsory reading — of a far-out cult called “Kerista.” (Kee-rist!). I don’t know exactly what “Kerista” is, but its L.A. chapter offered me $100 to speak. (I turned them down.)^[14]

The person who invited Heinlein to speak may have been Kerry Thornley, co-founder of Discordianism, who at the time lived in Watts. Thornley had joined Kerista in 1966 and was known^{[by whom?]} to be a lifelong science-fiction fan.^[15]

Kerista’s polyamorous sexual practice was influenced, as was that of the Church of All Worlds, by Robert A. Heinlein’s (1907-88) science-fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land (1961), in which the Martian-raised human Michael Valentine Smith founded The Church of All Worlds, preached sexual freedom and the truth of all religions, and is martyred by narrow-minded people who are not ready for freedom.^[15]

** Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_&Carol&Ted&_Alice

This article is about the 1969 film. For the 1973 television series based on this film, see Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (TV series).

Plot

After a weekend of emotional honesty at an Esalen-style retreat, Los Angeles sophisticates Bob and Carol Sanders (Robert Culp and Natalie Wood) return home determined to embrace complete openness. They share their enthusiasm and excitement over their new-found philosophy with their more conservative friends Ted and Alice Henderson (Elliott Gould and Dyan Cannon), who remain doubtful. Soon after, filmmaker Bob has an affair with a young production assistant on a film shoot in San Francisco. When he gets home he admits his liaison to Carol, describing the event as a purely physical act, not an emotional one. To Bob’s surprise, Carol is completely accepting of his extramarital behavior. Later, Carol gleefully reveals the affair to Ted and Alice as they are leaving a dinner party. Disturbed by Bob’s infidelity and Carol’s candor, Alice becomes physically ill on the drive home. She and Ted have a difficult time coping with the news in bed that night. But as time passes they grow to accept that Bob and Carol really are fine with the affair. Later, Ted admits to Bob that he was tempted to have an affair once, but didn’t go through with it; Bob tells Ted he should, rationalizing: “You’ve got the guilt anyway. Don’t waste it.”

During another visit to San Francisco, Bob decides to skip a second encounter with the young woman, instead returning home a day early. When he arrives, he discovers Carol having an affair with her tennis instructor. Although initially outraged, Bob quickly realizes that the encounter was purely physical, like his own affair. He settles down and even chats and drinks with the man.

When the two couples travel together to Las Vegas, Bob and Carol reveal Carol’s affair to Ted and Alice. Ted then admits to an affair on a recent business trip to Miami. An outraged Alice demands that this new ethos be taken to its obvious conclusion: a mate-sharing foursome. Ted is reluctant, explaining that he loves Carol “like a sister,” but eventually acknowledges that he finds her attractive. After discussing it, all four remove their clothes and climb into bed together. Swapping partners, Bob and Alice kiss fervently, as do Ted and Carol, but after a few moments all four simply stop.

The scene cuts to the couples walking to the elevator, riding it down, and walking out of the casino hand-in-hand with their original partners. A crowd of men and women of various cultures and races congregate in the casino parking lot, wherein the four main characters exchange long stares with each other and with strangers, reminiscent of the non-verbal communication shown in the early scene at the retreat. Over this final scene, the film’s theme song reminds the viewer that “what the world needs now is love.” The credits roll as the couples look into each other’s eyes.

Cast

• Natalie Wood as Carol Sanders
• Robert Culp as Bob Sanders
• Elliott Gould as Ted Henderson
• Dyan Cannon as Alice Henderson
• Horst Ebersberg as Horst
• Lee Bergere as Emilio
• Donald F. Muhich as Psychiatrist
• Noble Lee Holderread Jr. as Sean Sanders
• K. T. Stevens as Phyllis
• Celeste Yarnall as Susan
• Lynn Borden as Cutter
• Greg Mullavey as Group Leader
• Linda Burton as Stewardess
• Leif Garrett as Jimmy Henderson

Musical score and soundtrack

Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
Soundtrack album by Quincy Jones
Released	1969
Recorded	1969
Genre	Film score
Length	31:41
Label	Bell Bell 1200
Producer	Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones chronology
Walking in Space (1969)Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)Cactus Flower (1969)

The film score was composed, arranged and conducted by Quincy Jones and featured Jackie DeShannon performing Burt Bacharach and Hal David‘s “What the World Needs Now Is Love” and Sarah Vaughan performing “I know that my Redeemer liveth” from Part III of Handel‘s Messiah. The soundtrack album was released on the Bell label in 1969.^[4][5] The Vinyl Factory said “in 1969 (a busy year for the man), Jones produced this sparkling score, with its lavish string arrangements and jazzy interludes. … What sounds like a lot work went into an unconventional soundtrack for an unconventional movie about sexual experimentation”.^[6]

Track listing[edit]

All compositions by Quincy Jones except where noted

1. “Main Title From Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus)” (George Frideric Handel adapted by Quincy Jones) − 2:24
2. “Sun Dance (Handel’s Messiah Pt. 3)” (Handel adapted by Jones) − 3:46
3. “Giggle Grass” − 2:30
4. “Sweet Wheat” − 3:31
5. “What The World Needs Now (Instrumental)” (Burt Bacharach, Hal David) − 3:07
6. “What The World Needs Now” (Bacharach, David) − 3:48
7. “Celebration of Life (Instrumental) (Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus)” (Handel adapted by Jones) − 2:54
8. “Sun Dance (Instrumental) (Handel’s Messiah Pt. 3)” (Handel adapted by Jones) − 3:31
9. “Dynamite” − 2:34
10. “Flop Sweat” − 3:27

Personnel[edit]

• Unidentified orchestra arranged and conducted by Quincy Jones
• Merrilee Rush (track 6), Sarah Vaughan (track 2) − vocals

Release[edit]

The film was the first American film to open the New York Film Festival, opening on September 16, 1969. It opened October 8, 1969 at Cinema I in New York City before the Columbus Day holiday weekend.^[1][7]

Reaction[edit]

Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice became the signature film of Paul Mazursky and was a critical and commercial success. It was the sixth highest-grossing film of 1969. It grossed $50,000 in its first week setting a house record.^[7] After this film’s release, it led to other movies dealing with wife swapping, infidelity, and other types of experimentation with interpersonal relationships inside American society. Mazursky himself would do a few more stories set in California, including Alex in Wonderland and Down and Out in Beverly Hills.

Vincent Canby of The New York Times panned the film as “unpleasant because it acts superior to the people in it, which is no mean feat because Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice are conceived as cheerful but humorless boobs, no more equipped to deal with their sexual liberation than Lucy and Desi and Ozzie and Harriet.”^[8] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, however, gave the film four stars out of four and wrote, “The genius of ‘Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice’ is that it understands the peculiar nature of the moral crisis for Americans in this age group, and understands that the way to consider it is in a comedy.”^[9] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times called it “a scintillating social comedy and a movie which could turn out to have more to say about you than any flick you’ll see this year.”^[10] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three-and-a-half-stars out of four and called it “the best comedy of the year,” with acting that was “eminently tender and believable.”^[11] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post declared it “the sharpest American comedy in several years … It may be the same old marital war, but the battle lines and the weapons are modern, and this makes all the difference in the world between a comedy that feels ‘new’ and one that feels second-hand.”^[12] Writing in The New Yorker the film critic Pauline Kael praised both the film and director Mazursky, calling it “a slick, whorey movie, and the liveliest American comedy so far this year. Mazursky, directing his first picture, has developed a style from satiric improvisational revue theatre—he and Tucker [co-writer] were part of the Second City troupe—and from TV situation comedy, and, with skill and wit, has made this mixture work—though it looks conventional, it isn’t.”^[13] John Simon called Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice ‘deplorable’.^[14]

The film holds a score of 79% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 19 reviews.^[15]

Natalie Wood decided to gamble her $750,000 fee on a percentage of the gross, earning $5 million over the course of three years. She had deeply regretted declining a similar offer with the box office smash West Side Story.^[16]

Awards and honors

Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice was nominated for four Academy Awards in 1970: for Best Cinematography; Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor for Gould and Best Supporting Actress for Cannon.

It received the 1969 New York Film Critics Awards for Best Supporting Actress (Cannon) and Best Screenplay and the 1969 Writers Guild of America Award for Best-Written American Comedy Written Directly for the Screen.^[17]

TV version

Main article: Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (TV series)

A sitcom by Screen Gems based on the film appeared on ABC during the 1973–74 season, starring Anita Gillette, Robert Urich, David Spielberg, and Anne Archer. A 10-year-old Jodie Foster also appeared as Ted and Alice’s daughter. (This differed from the film, in that Ted and Alice had a son.)

Because of the overt sexual nature of the film – when it was released it was rated R – much of the humor could not be translated into a network TV project. Thus the characters needed to be substantially “toned down,” losing much of the film’s edge. The series did poorly and was canceled after only one season.^[18]

In popular culture

• The Carol Burnett Show used Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice as the basis for a sketch in Season 3, Episode 9 in 1969.
• The title of the 2016 episode of the sitcom New Girl, “Bob & Carol & Nick & Schmidt”, is a play on the title of the film.
• Along with Mazursky’s Blume in Love (1973), Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice served as the opening feature for the reopening of Quentin Tarantino‘s New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles in 2014.
• Comedy television program SCTV created a comedic parody of the film titled Garth & Gord & Fiona & Alice, a “Canadian film made for Canadians by Canadians,” and distributed by American Films International.

Stranger in a Strange Land

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land

For other uses, see Stranger in a Strange Land (disambiguation).

Hardcover, showing Rodin‘s sculpture Fallen Caryatid Carrying her Stone
Author	Robert A. Heinlein
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Science fiction
Publisher	G. P. Putnam’s Sons
Publication date	June 1, 1961
Media type	Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages	408 (208,018 words)
ISBN	978-0-441-79034-0

Stranger in a Strange Land is a 1961 science fiction novel by American author Robert A. Heinlein. It tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human who comes to Earth in early adulthood after being born on the planet Mars and raised by Martians, and explores his interaction with and eventual transformation of Terran culture.

The title “Stranger in a Strange Land” is a direct quotation from the King James Bible (taken from Exodus 2:22).^[1] The working title for the book was “A Martian Named Smith”, which was also the name of the screenplay started by a character at the end of the novel.^[2]

Heinlein’s widow Virginia arranged to have the original unedited manuscript published in 1991, three years after Heinlein’s death. Critics disagree^[3] about which version is superior, but Heinlein preferred the original manuscript and described the heavily edited version as “telegraphese“.^[4]

In 2012, the Library of Congress named it one of 88 “Books that Shaped America”.^[5]

Plot

The story focuses on a human raised on Mars and his adaptation to and understanding of humans and their culture. It is set in a post-Third World War United States, where organized religions are politically powerful. There is a World Federation of Free Nations, including the demilitarized US, with a world government supported by Special Service troops.

Prior to WWIII the manned spacecraft Envoy is launched toward Mars, but all contact is lost shortly before landing. Twenty-five years later, the spacecraft Champion makes contact with the inhabitants of Mars and finds a single survivor, Valentine Michael Smith. Born on the Envoy, he was raised entirely by the Martians. He is ordered by them to accompany the returning expedition.

Because Smith is unaccustomed to the conditions on Earth, he is confined at Bethesda Hospital, where, having never seen a human female, he is attended by male staff only. Seeing that restriction as a challenge, Nurse Gillian Boardman eludes the guards and goes in to see Smith. By sharing a glass of water with him, she inadvertently becomes his first “water brother”, which is considered to be a profound relationship by the Martians as water on Mars is extremely scarce.

Gillian tells her lover, reporter Ben Caxton, about her experience with Smith. Ben explains that as heir to the entire exploration party, Smith is extremely wealthy, and following a legal precedent set during the colonisation of the Moon, he could be considered owner of Mars itself. His arrival on Earth has prompted a political power struggle that puts his life in danger. Ben persuades her to bug Smith’s room and publishes stories to bait the government into releasing him. Ben is seized by the government, and Gillian persuades Smith to leave the hospital with her. When government agents catch up with them, Smith makes the agents vanish and then is so shocked by Gillian’s terrified reaction that he enters a semblance of catatonia. Gillian, remembering Ben’s earlier suggestion, conveys Smith to Jubal Harshaw, a famous author who is also a physician and a lawyer.

Smith continues to demonstrate psychic abilities and superhuman intelligence, coupled with a childlike naïveté. When Harshaw tries to explain religion to him, Smith understands the concept of God only as “one who groks“, which includes every extant organism. That leads him to express the Martian concept of life as the phrase “Thou art God” although he knows that to be a bad translation. Many other human concepts such as war, clothing, and jealousy are strange to him, and the idea of an afterlife is a fact that he takes for granted because Martian society is directed by “Old Ones”, the spirits of Martians who have “discorporated”. It is also customary for loved ones and friends to eat the bodies of the dead in a rite similar to Holy Communion. Eventually, Harshaw arranges freedom for Smith and recognition that human law, which would have granted ownership of Mars to Smith, has no applicability to a planet that is already inhabited by intelligent life.

Still inexhaustibly wealthy and now free to travel, Smith becomes a celebrity and is feted by the Earth’s elite. He investigates many religions, including the Fosterite Church of the New Revelation, a populist megachurch in which sexuality, gambling, alcohol consumption, and similar activities are allowed and even encouraged and considered “sinning” only when they are not under church auspices. The Church of the New Revelation is organized in a complexity of initiatory levels: an outer circle, open to the public; a middle circle of ordinary members, who support the church financially; and an inner circle of the “eternally saved”, attractive, highly sexed men and women, who serve as clergy and recruit new members. The Church owns many politicians and uses violence against those who oppose it. Smith also has a brief career as a magician in a carnival (performing actual miracles), in which he and Gillian befriend the show’s tattooed lady, an “eternally saved” Fosterite named Patricia Paiwonski.

Eventually, Smith starts a Martian-influenced “Church of All Worlds”, combining elements of the Fosterite cult (especially the sexual aspects) with Western esotericism, whose members learn the Martian language and thus acquire the ability to truly “grok” the nature of reality, granting them psychokinesis. The church is eventually besieged by Fosterites for practicing “blasphemy“, and the church building is destroyed, but unknown to the public, Smith’s followers teleport to safety. Smith is arrested by the police, but escapes and returns to his followers, later explaining to Jubal that his gigantic fortune has been bequeathed to the Church. With that wealth and their new abilities, Church members will be able to reorganize human societies and cultures. Eventually, those who cannot or will not learn Smith’s methods will die out, leaving Homo Superior. That incidentally may save Earth from eventual destruction by the Martians, who were responsible for the destruction of the fifth planet eons ago (resulting in the asteroid belt).

Smith is killed by a mob raised against him by the Fosterites. From the afterlife, he speaks briefly to grief-stricken Jubal to dissuade him from suicide. Having consumed a small portion of Smith’s remains in keeping with Martian custom, Jubal and some of the Church members return to Jubal’s home to regroup and prepare for their new evangelical role founding congregations. Meanwhile, Smith reappears in the afterlife to replace the Fosterites’ eponymous founder, amid hints that Smith was an incarnation of the Archangel Michael.

Characters

Heinlein named his main character “Smith” because of a speech he made at a science fiction convention regarding the unpronounceable names assigned to extraterrestrials. After describing the importance of establishing a dramatic difference between humans and aliens, Heinlein concluded, “Besides, whoever heard of a Martian named Smith?”^[2] The title Stranger In a Strange Land is taken from the King James Version of Exodus 2:22, “And she bore him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land”.^[1]

In the preface to the uncut, original version of the book re-issued in 1991, Heinlein’s widow, Virginia, wrote: “The given names of the chief characters have great importance to the plot. They were carefully selected: Jubal means ‘the father of all,’ Michael stands for ‘Who is like God?'”.Valentine Michael SmithKnown as Michael Smith or “Mike”, the “Man from Mars” is born on Mars in the interval between the landing of the Envoy and the arrival of the Champion. He is 20 years old when the Champion arrives and brings him to Earth.Gillian (Jill) BoardmanA nurse at Bethesda Hospital who sneaks Mike out of government custody. She plays a key role in introducing him to human culture and becomes one of his closest confidantes and a central figure in the Church of All Worlds, which Mike develops.

Ben CaxtonAn early love interest of Jill and an investigative journalist (Jill sees him as of the “lippmann“, political, rather than the “winchell“, or celebrity gossip inclination), who masterminds Mike’s initial freedom from custody. He joins Mike’s inner circle but remains somewhat skeptical at first of the social order that it develops.Jubal HarshawA popular writer, lawyer, and doctor, now semi-retired to a house in the Pocono Mountains, an influential but reclusive public figure who provides pivotal support for Mike’s independence and a safe haven for him. Elderly but in good health, he serves as a father figure for the inner circle while keeping a suspicious distance from it. The character’s name was chosen by Heinlein to have unusual overtones, like Jonathan Hoag.^[6] Mike enshrines him (much to Harshaw’s initial chagrin) as the patron saint of the church he founds.

Anne, Miriam, DorcasHarshaw’s three personal/professional secretaries, who live with him and take turns as his “front”, responding to his instructions. Anne is certified as a Fair Witness, empowered to provide objective legal testimony about events that she witnesses. All three become early acolytes of Michael’s church. Duke, LarryHandymen who work for Harshaw and live in his estate; they also become central members of the church. Dr. “Stinky” Mahmoud A semanticist, crew member of the Champion and the second human (after Mike) to gain a working knowledge of the Martian language but does not “grok” the language. He becomes a member of the church while retaining his Muslim faith. Patty PaiwonskiA “tattooed lady” and snake handler at the circus Mike and Jill join for a time. She has ties to the Fosterite church, which she retains as a member of Mike’s inner circle.

Joseph DouglasSecretary-General of the Federation of Free States, which has evolved indirectly from the United Nations into a true world government.Alice DouglasSometimes called “Agnes”, Joe Douglas’ wife. As the First Lady, she manipulates her husband, making major economic, political, and staffing decisions and frequently consults astrologer Becky Vesant for major decisions.FosterThe founder of the Church of the New Revelation (Fosterite), who now exists as an archangel.DigbyFoster’s successor as head of the Fosterite Church; he becomes an archangel under Foster after Mike “discorporates” him.

Reception

Heinlein’s deliberately provocative book generated considerable controversy.^[7] The free love and commune living aspects of the Church of All Worlds led to the book’s exclusion from school reading lists. After it was rumored to be associated with Charles Manson, it was removed from school libraries as well.

Writing in The New York Times, Orville Prescott received the novel caustically, describing it as a “disastrous mishmash of science fiction, laborious humor, dreary social satire and cheap eroticism”; he characterized Stranger in a Strange Land as “puerile and ludicrous”, saying “when a non-stop orgy is combined with a lot of preposterous chatter, it becomes unendurable, an affront to the patience and intelligence of readers”.^[8] Galaxy reviewer Floyd C. Gale rated the novel 3.5 stars out of five, saying “the book’s shortcomings lie not so much in its emancipation as in the fact that Heinlein has bitten off too large a chewing portion”.^[9]

Despite such reviews, Stranger in a Strange Land won the 1962 Hugo Award for Best Novel^[10] and became the first science fiction novel to enter The New York Times Book Review‘s best-seller list.^[7] In 2012, it was included in a Library of Congress exhibition of “Books That Shaped America”.^[11]

Critics have also suggested that Jubal Harshaw is actually a stand-in for Robert Heinlein himself, based on similarities in career choice and general disposition,^[12] though Harshaw is much older than Heinlein was at the time of writing. Literary critic Dan Schneider wrote that Harshaw’s belief in his own free will, was one “which Mike, Jill, and the Fosterites misinterpret as a pandeistic urge, ‘Thou art God!'”^[13]

Development

Heinlein got the idea for the novel when he and his wife Virginia were brainstorming one evening in 1948. She suggested a new version of Rudyard Kipling‘s The Jungle Book (1894), but with a child raised by Martians instead of wolves. He decided to go further with the idea and worked on the story on and off for more than a decade.^[14] His editors at Putnam then required him to cut its 220,000-word length down to 160,000 words before publication.

Originally titled The Heretic, the book was written in part as a deliberate attempt to challenge social mores. In the course of the story, Heinlein uses Smith’s open-mindedness to reevaluate such institutions as religion, money, monogamy, and the fear of death. Heinlein completed writing it ten years after he had plotted it out in detail. He later wrote, “I had been in no hurry to finish it, as that story could not be published commercially until the public mores changed. I could see them changing and it turned out that I had timed it right.”^[15]

The book was dedicated in part to science fiction author Philip José Farmer, who had explored sexual themes in works such as The Lovers (1952). It was also influenced by the satiric fantasies of James Branch Cabell.

Heinlein was surprised that some readers thought the book described how he believed society should be organized, explaining: “I was not giving answers. I was trying to shake the reader loose from some preconceptions and induce him to think for himself, along new and fresh lines. In consequence, each reader gets something different out of that book because he himself supplies the answers … It is an invitation to think – not to believe.”^[7]

Influence

The book significantly influenced modern culture in a variety of ways.

Church of All Worlds

A central element of the second half of the novel is the religious movement founded by Smith, the “Church of All Worlds”, an initiatory mystery religion blending elements of paganism and revivalism, with psychic training and instruction in the Martian language. In 1968, Oberon Zell-Ravenheart (then Tim Zell) founded the Church of All Worlds, a Neopagan religious organization modeled in many ways after the fictional organization in the novel. The spiritual path included several ideas from the book, including polyamory, non-mainstream family structures, social libertarianism, water-sharing rituals, an acceptance of all religious paths by a single tradition, and the use of several terms such as “grok”, “Thou art God”, and “Never Thirst”.

Heinlein objected to Zell’s lumping him with other writers such as Ayn Rand and Robert Rimmer; Heinlein felt that those writers used their art for propaganda purposes, while he simply asked questions of the reader, expecting each reader to answer for him- or herself. He wrote to Zell in a letter: “… each reader gets something different out of the book because he himself supplies the answers. If I managed to shake him loose from some prejudice, preconception or unexamined assumption, that was all I intended to do.”^[16]

Though Heinlein was neither a member nor a promoter of the Church, it was formed including frequent correspondence between Zell and Heinlein, and Heinlein was a paid subscriber to the Church’s magazine Green Egg.^{[citation needed]} This Church still exists as a 501(c)(3) recognized religious organization incorporated in California, with membership worldwide, and it remains an active part of the neopagan community.^[17]

Grok

The word “grok“, coined in the novel, made its way into the English language. In Heinlein’s invented Martian language, “grok” literally means “to drink” and figuratively means “to comprehend”, “to love”, and “to be one with”. The word rapidly became common parlance among science fiction fans, hippies, and later computer programmers^[18] and hackers,^[19] and has since entered the Oxford English Dictionary.^[20]

Fair Witness

The profession of Fair Witness, invented for the novel, has been cited in such varied contexts as environmentalism,^[21] psychology,^[22] technology,^[23] digital signatures,^[24] and science,^[25] as well as books on leadership,^[26] and Sufism.^[27] A Fair Witness is an individual trained to observe events and report exactly what is seen and heard, making no extrapolations or assumptions. When in the Fair Witness uniform of a white robe, they are presumed to be observing and opining in their professional capacity.^[28] Works that refer to the Fair Witness emphasize the profession’s impartiality, integrity, objectivity, and reliability.^[29][30]

An example from the book illustrates the role of Fair Witness when Anne is asked what color a house is. She answers, “It’s white on this side.” The character Jubal then explains, “You see? It doesn’t occur to Anne to infer that the other side is white, too. All the King’s horses couldn’t force her to commit herself…unless she went there and looked – and even then she wouldn’t assume that it stayed white after she left.”^[28]

Waterbed

Stranger in a Strange Land contains an early description of the waterbed, an invention that made its real-world debut in 1968. Charles Hall, who brought a waterbed design to the United States Patent Office, was refused a patent on the grounds that Heinlein’s descriptions in Stranger in a Strange Land and another novel, Double Star (1956), constituted prior art.^[31]

In popular culture

• Leon Russell and the Shelter People features a song titled Stranger in a Strange Land with lyrics that describe ideas from the novel, sometimes narrated by Valentine’s perspective, other times in a 3rd person.

• Heinlein’s novella Lost Legacy (1941) lends its theme, and possibly some characters, to Stranger in a Strange Land. In a relevant part of the story, Joan Freeman is described as feeling like “a stranger in a strange land”.^[32]
• The Police released an Andy Summers-penned song titled “Friends”, as the B-side to their hit “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” (1980), that referenced the novel. Summers claimed that it “was about eating your friends, or ‘grocking’ them as [Stranger in a Strange Land] put it”.^[33]
• Billy Joel‘s song “We Didn’t Start the Fire” (1989) mentions the novel.
• The Byrds‘ song “Triad” (1967), a song about a menage a trois, uses the term “water brother” from the novel.
• In November 2016, Syfy announced plans to develop a TV series based on the novel with Paramount Television and Universal Cable Productions co-producing the series.^[34]

Publication history

Two major versions of this book exist:

• The 1961 version which, at the publisher’s request, Heinlein cut by 25% in length. Approximately 60,000 words were removed from the original manuscript, including some sharp criticism of American attitudes toward sex and religion.^[7] The book was marketed to a mainstream readership, and was the first science fiction novel to be listed on The New York Times Best Seller list for fiction. By 1997, over 100,000 copies of the hardback edition had been sold along with nearly five million copies of the paperback.^[7] None of his later novels would match this level of success.^[35]
• The 1991 version, retrieved from Heinlein’s archives in the University of California, Santa Cruz, Special Collections Department by Heinlein’s widow, Virginia, and published posthumously, which reproduces the original manuscript and restores all cuts. It came about because in 1989, Virginia renewed the copyright to Stranger and cancelled the existing publication contracts in accordance with the Copyright Act of 1976. Both Heinlein’s agent and his publisher (which had new senior editors) agreed that the uncut version was better: readers are used to longer books, and what was seen as objectionable in 1961 was no longer so 30 years later.^[4]

Heinlein himself remarked in a letter he wrote to Oberon Zell-Ravenheart in 1972 that he thought his shorter, edited version was better. He wrote, “SISL was never censored by anyone in any fashion. The first draft was nearly twice as long as the published version. I cut it myself to bring it down to a commercial length. But I did not leave out anything of any importance; I simply trimmed all possible excess verbiage. Perhaps you have noticed that it reads “fast” despite its length; that is why. … The original, longest version of SISL … is really not worth your trouble, as it is the same story throughout—simply not as well told. With it is the brushpenned version which shows exactly what was cut out—nothing worth reading, that is. I learned to write for pulp magazines, in which one was paid by the yard rather than by the package; it was not until I started writing for the Saturday Evening Post that I learned the virtue of brevity.”^[36]

Additionally, since Heinlein added material while he was editing the manuscript for the commercial release, the 1991 publication of the original manuscript is missing some material that was in the novel when it was first published.^[37]

The Harrad Experiment

---

The Harrad Experiment Kindle Edition

by Robert H. Rimmer  (Author)  Format: Kindle Edition

A new-age ‘experiment’ takes place in the 1960s at Harrad College, a privately endowed and liberally run school that admits carefully selected students. This social experiment encourages premarital living arrangements and is totally committed – not mere lip-service or public-relations hype – to getting young men and women to think and act for themselves. What do they think about? Everything that interests the author, Bob Rimmer: human relations, sex, history, philosophy, anatomy, existentialism, art, music, Zen, politics – and, once more, sex. Four Harrad students record their thoughts regularly for four years. Their diaries include large chunks of college ‘action’, conversation, and portraits of fellow students, so the reader is swept into the lives of these young adults trying to sort out the jumbled mores of America’s Sixties.

Stanley Kolasukas, a bright, good-looking youth from a poor Polish family finds himself a roommate of Sheila Grove, the introspective daughter of an oil millionaire.Harry Schacht, a brilliant but ungainly medical student from an Orthodox Jewish background, lives with Beth Hillyer, a girl with enough drive to be a better doctor and enough sensuality to need many men in her life. Jack Dawes, imaginative and enthusiastic, lives with Valerie Latrobe, a dominant girl who believes she can better any man at anything.

The original “Harrad Experiment” sold more than three million copies. This 25th anniversary edition includes a new epilogue describing the startling ‘Harrad/Premar Solution’, a fully up-to-date and annotated bibliography of books that support the daring, joyfully subversive premises outlined in Harrad, and Robert Rimmer’s candid, controversial autobiography. When you have read this book, you will find yourself entertaining the question of whether a real-life Harrad Experiment could – or should – be going on somewhere today, turning out a very special group of young men and women with the potential to utterly change America’s ways of living, thinking, and loving in the 21st century.

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The Harrad Experiment
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ted Post
Produced by	Noel Marshall Mel Sokolow Dennis F. Stevens
Written by	Novel: Robert H. Rimmer Screenplay: Michael Werner Ted Cassidy
Starring	James Whitmore Tippi Hedren Don Johnson Bruno Kirby Laurie Walters Victoria Thompson
Music by	Artie Butler
Cinematography	Richard H. Kline
Edited by	Bill Brame
Distributed by	Cinerama Releasing Corporation
Release date	May 11, 1973
Running time	97 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$400,000[1]
Box office	$3,000,000 (US/ Canada rentals)[2]

The Harrad Experiment is a 1973 coming-of-age film about a fictional school called Harrad College where the students learn about sexuality and experiment with each other. Based on the 1966 novel of the same name by Robert Rimmer, this film deals with the concept of free love during the height of the sexual revolution which took place in the United States during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The movie stars James Whitmore and Tippi Hedren as the married couple who run the school, and includes a young Don Johnson (who would later go on to be Hedren’s son-in-law) as one of the students who tries to go beyond the rules. It was directed by Ted Post.

A sequel, Harrad Summer, was released in 1974.

Cast

• James Whitmore as Philip Tenhausen
• Tippi Hedren as Margaret Tenhausen
• Don Johnson as Stanley Cole
• Bruno Kirby as Harry Schacht (as B. Kirby Jr.)
• Laurie Walters as Sheila Grove
• Victoria Thompson as Beth Hillyer
• Elliott Street as Wilson
• Robert Middleton as Sidney Bower
• Billy Sands as Jack
• Sharon Ullrick (née Taggart) as Barbara
• Maggie Wellman as Cynthia
• Michael Greene as Yoga Instructor
• Ron Kolman as Evan
• Eric Server as Workman
• Robert C. Ross as Workman

Additional cast(all uncredited)

• Ted Cassidy as the diner patron
• Gregory Harrison as a student
• Melody Patterson as Jeannie
• Dennis F. Stevens as the heckler at the Ice House
• The Ace Trucking Company
  • George Memmoli
  • Michael Mislove
  • Mary Elaine Monti
  • Bill Saluga
  • Fred Willard
• Melanie Griffith as an extra

Home video

The film was released on DVD on May 22, 2001 by Marengo Films.^[3]

Reception

Time Out said that while Post had employed long, “voyeuristic” takes and the theme music was poor, the film had more appeal than his other work and deserved its success.^[4]

Cultural references

In The Wonder Years‘ season 4 episode “Growing Up”, Kevin’s hippie older sister is seen reading a copy of The Harrad Experiment while driving to a company picnic with her family.

In the Seinfeld episode “The Label Maker“, George Costanza describes his girlfriend’s having a male roommate as a “bizarre Harrad Experiment”.

• The Harrad Experiment at IMDb
• The Harrad Experiment at Rotten Tomatoes