Cults and Communes Are in the Amherst Massachusetts Area That Cut People Off From Their Families

The Brotherhood of the Spirit (renamed Renaissance Community in 1974) was one of the largest and virtually enduring communes in the northeast United States and as such was a distinct link between the commune phenomenon of the 1960s and the electric current New Age movement. In existence from 1968 through 1988, its rise and fall mirrored that of its charismatic and mercurial leader, Michael "Rapunzel" Metelica. The Alliance of the Spirit underwent several distinct identity changes during its 20-year history.^[ane]

The Brotherhood of the Spirit: 1968–1973 [edit]

Brotherhood of the Spirit: Warwick, Mass. 1970.

Michael Metelica was born in 1950 and grew up in the modest rural town of Leyden, Massachusetts. At age 16, he dropped out of high school and after reading an commodity about the Hells Angels motorcycle gang, moved to California to join them. Repelled by their trigger-happy nature, he was instead drawn to the 1967 Summertime of Love only returned to Leyden the following twelvemonth. In May 1968, he asked a local blueberry farmer named Donnie Herron if he could build a treehouse on his land, and after receiving permission, lived at that place in solitary meditation, working for farmers for free and expecting nothing in return.

In search of answers for his spiritual experiences, Metelica consulted Beth St. Clair, a psychologist, and her cousin Charles Hapgood, a professor at Keene State Higher, New Hampshire and author of "Globe'southward Shifting Crust" the foreword of which was written by Albert Einstein. They in turn introduced him to a farmer named Elwood Babbitt, a trance-medium in the Edgar Cayce tradition. These people believed that the Earth was about to undergo cataclysmic changes in preparation of the Aquarian Age. Babbitt, in particular, said he was getting information through his spirit guides who warned that humanity's selfish and cocky-subversive behavior would cause nature to literally rebel in such a fashion as to cause widespread death and devastation. These "Earth Changes" as they were called would be a forerunner to the spiritual enlightenment of the Aquarian Age, supposedly the next step in the evolution of the human race.

Metelica became something of a local sensation and attracted his get-go following from among his boyhood friends. Later the treehouse was destroyed in late 1968 by suspicious locals, Metelica and his niggling ring wandered around the many colina towns in the area, gaining more members, teaching their view of spirituality at area churches and schools until by early 1970, they numbered effectually 50. Rules were mandated banning drugs, cigarettes, booze and sexual promiscuity and members good to purge themselves of their imperfections through meditation and intense meet-group confrontation tactics. By then, Metelica knew that he had the makings of a deliberate community that was based on spiritual beliefs and practice. According to Babbitt, groups like the Brotherhood would be the harbingers of a New Age, operation as teachers of this higher wisdom to the shattered survivors of these worldwide cataclysms.

In March 1970, The Brotherhood purchased a 25-acre belongings in Warwick, Massachusetts and the group underwent the outset of its many radical transformations. Their growth coincided with a counter-cultural migration every bit millions of young Americans, disenchanted with the "establishment" during the Vietnam War era, dropped out of universities and cities en masse and hit the road that summertime looking for new venues. The membership skyrocketed to 150 leading to the acquisition of an additional house in nearby Northfield, Massachusetts, the building of a dormitory in Warwick and more stringent membership rules. Metelica became less involved with the commune, devoting nearly of his energy to the commune's band Spirit in Flesh, whose mission was to bring about the message of spirituality through the medium of rock and curlicue. In late 1970, Spirit in Flesh signed a contract with Metromedia records and the district's focus began to shift into a full-time promotion of the ring.

Veterans of the Brotherhood of the Spirit consider the Warwick era as being the closest to their ideal of a spiritual customs composed of independently inspired individuals. Their youthful enthusiasm allowed them to overcome the many hardships created by an insulated surround defended to personal growth and spiritual reflection. For the many that came from urban backgrounds, Warwick introduced the realities of self-sufficiency through logging, business firm building, the cultivating and canning of homegrown nutrient, and the ability to savour life without the distractions of mainstream media. Their spiritual conventionalities system was based on aspects of Buddhism and New Age thinking mixed with an enlightened, almost Gnostic form of Christianity. Reincarnation, meditation, and the ability of positive thought were considered to be major doctrines.

The years 1971-1972 were spent in frenzied activities surrounding Spirit in Flesh, including the printing of several one thousand silk-screened posters that were placed all across the United States and even into parts of Europe. Because of the sluggish support from the record label, the commune devised its own guerilla tactics to promote the band which included marches in New York Urban center, mass phone call-ins to Metromedia, and infiltrating popular national TV talk shows to announce the ring's impending success. These tactics culminated in a concert at Carnegie Hall, which was sparsely attended. The showtime album, which featured the entire membership of the Brotherhood commune on its encompass, sold less than 1,000 copies.

The Brotherhood had adult into an efficient entity aside from promotional activities for the ring. An elaborate infrastructure including business direction, child care, auto maintenance, farming and food production was created. New members signed over all their money and possessions, making a "lifetime commitment" to the district. Controversy arose due to Brotherhood members being briefly on welfare while Metelica was gifted with a Rolls-Royce. In that location were also numerous run-ins with local selectmen about building code violations concerning the district'due south houses and septic systems. By late 1972, with membership at nearly 300, the commune's first public businesses were launched. A magazine, Free Spirit Press, was sold along the East Coast from a rainbow-painted schoolhouse motorcoach. Also in tardily 1972, the district bought the Shea Theater block in Turners Falls, Massachusetts a decomposable working-class village of Montague, side by side to the metropolis of Greenfield. Metelica issued an order that all members must find jobs outside the commune. By now, the Alliance of the Spirit had been mentioned in the Wall Street Journal, Wait, Family Circle, and Mademoiselle magazines. They had also been featured on 60 Minutes and the David Frost show.^[i]

The Metelica Aquarian Concept and Renaissance Community: 1973–1976 [edit]

Sunday Meeting:Renaissance Community, 1976.

In 1973, the commune went through its virtually desperate and traumatic change, morphing into what became known as the Metelica Aquarian Concept. Metelica shifted his focus from his band (renamed Metelica) to take absolute control over the running of the district. He demanded that every cent earned by commune members exist turned over to him whereby he then spent the money to radically reshape the appearance of the group. A shopping spree ensued that purchased 35 new cars (the tiny Honda 600 which got l mpg), 3 GMC motor homes and an airplane, plus several moving picture, video and still cameras. Metelica'south aim was to supercede the image of ragged commune hippies with that of media-savvy entrepreneurs who would change the mainstream social club by mimicking its demand for image and materiality. This shift in focus acquired some long-term members to exit every bit well as causing a more than negative reaction from the local community. Metelica'southward demand for complete ability caused a cult-like mentality to permeate the grouping which was divided into a distinct hierarchy with him as the unquestioned and undisputed leader. The nadir of this period was the murder of a district fellow member while hitch-hiking from piece of work, a criminal offence which was never solved and the subsequent "Metelica Marches" whereby members vigiled on the streets of Turners Falls and Greenfield with signs proclaiming Metelica as a new organized religion. The Shea Theater complex in Turners Falls became the nerve eye of the group while the Warwick property slowly fell into decline. It was during this time that Metelica's drug and alcohol addictions began which would have dire consequences for the group in the near future.

In 1974, the commune became the legally recognized and taxation-exempt Renaissance Church and Renaissance Community; Metelica inverse his name to Rapunzel (although few of his former adherents currently refer to him as such.) All community properties (which now included several residences in Turners Falls) were lavishly renovated while members worked a variety of jobs in the outside globe.

One of these work experiences occurred at the Belchertown Land School which housed shut to a 1000 developmentally disabled people of diverse ages and infirmities. Conditions at the school were described by i observer as "barbaric" and "medieval." Due to a lawsuit in 1973, the school was mandated to hire one hundred additional employees. Commune fellow member Larry Raffel arranged for fifty of his communal peers to be hired and to work in each edifice on the grounds. Their care and consideration helped transform Belchertown Land School into a more than humane institution. During the three years of their tenure at the school, commune members helped release over a hundred residents from locked wards and into the mainstream community.

The kickoff of many business and artistic ventures were launched during this time while Metelica worked total-time in the Shea Theater'south recording studio with various bands. Meetings in which Rapunzel discussed his philosophy and worldview at length were held in the theater complex. The Renaissance Church, meanwhile, opened its Sunday services to the full general public featuring music and meditations with an accommodating spiritual philosophy. It too sponsored a free Christmas dinner in the Shea Theater for the next few years, which was fully attended and reportedly popular with the outside population.

By 1975, Renaissance operated a dozen businesses downtown. These reportedly included a 24-hour grocery, Cucumber Grocery, Dan Pritchet Audio, a tape store, and a stylized pizza parlor, Zapmia Pizza. The Noble Banquet eating place featured diversely innovative cuisine. Rocket'southward Argent Train provided luxury-modeled tour buses for stone musicians including the Rolling Stones and Linda Ronstadt. Silver Screen Design and Renaissance Greeting Cards were founded at this time. These businesses used first-upward funds from working Renaissance members and ii went to become successful national enterprises. These were coupled with contracting crews specializing in loftier-level industrial and residential painting, paving and excavating, carpentry and plumbing. The recording studio, video lab, darkroom and media equipment were made freely available to members to appoint in creative enterprises. The Choir, an all-women chorus, was created at this time and performed both at church services and at outside concerts. A "Renaissance Radio Show" was syndicated nationally. Outreach to the local community was made through a series of costless public events culminating in a Renaissance Faire street festival (non associated with the better-known Renaissance Pleasure Faire of Southern California) that attracted almost 3,000.

The community was popular with immature people from Turners Falls, who sought employment in Renaissance businesses or simply hung out in the "drop-in eye". Members merits that Renaissance revitalized Turners Falls without regime grants or taxpayer money. While Metelica was still a central figure, devotion to him was giving mode to a growing sense of personal autonomy as members practiced a variety of new skills and acquired leadership abilities of their own.

The 2001 Center in Gill: 1975–1988 [edit]

2001 Center garden with new houses, 1982.

At the end of 1975, the Renaissance Customs purchased the rural Olde Stone Lodge in Gill, Massachusetts and began constructing another self-sufficient customs utilizing alternative energy and sustainable technologies. Over again, the group radically inverse its identity every bit the focus shifted away from the Turners Falls businesses (well-nigh of which closed) to the edifice of innovatively designed houses on the eighty-acre Gill holding, nicknamed the "2001 Center."

During this fourth dimension, the customs began networking with other spiritual communities; specially Findhorn in Scotland, whose leaders and members exchanged visits with those of Renaissance.^[1] There was also a huge increase of children. These were later said by members to be the almost relaxed and harmonious years since the kickoff. At the 1976 May 24-hour interval rock concert, 14,000 people descended on Gill, but otherwise the community got on well with the boondocks.

Although the financial policies regarding commune members was gradually liberalized, the dispute concerning Metelica's leadership role divided the community into two hostile groups culminating in the decision by the card company to separate from the customs and re-establish itself in southern Maine. A large segment of core members departed. By the mid-1980s the population of the community was drastically reduced to about 70 adult members with an equal number of children.

For the adjacent few years, this remnant continued to build their houses and maintain the land in Gill despite the departure of other long-term members and the influx of new ones, some of whom were violent or otherwise dysfunctional. Rapunzel's increasingly erratic behavior caused some other rebellion confronting his authorisation in 1984, this time centered around the silkscreen visitor. This led to a final migration of vital members from which Renaissance never recovered.

Meanwhile, reunions and newsletters of former members signaled a shift in focus toward those who had left and were trying to process the communal experience for themselves. From 1984 until 1988, the customs, now down to its final dozen members, struggled to maintain some semblance of cohesion as group meetings and projects ended and the country itself began to deteriorate. In 1988, the remaining community leadership offered Metelica $10,000 to leave and never return. He accepted and moved to upstate New York for the rest of his life.

The Aftermath: 1988–2003 - Resurrection 2021 [edit]

In 1988, the Renaissance Customs as a recognizable communal entity came to an end. The Gill property was cleaned upward and cooperatively managed. The diverse houses were sold off to individual ownership and the Olde Stone Club firm was renovated into dissever apartments. Several successful contracting businesses based in Gill still exist, along with regular seminars dealing with meditation and spiritual practice. Former and current members attend reunions and talk over the community'southward controversial legacy. Sometime members have gone on to become teachers, artists, health-intendance providers, millionaire executives, and at least ane ordained Buddhist monk. In May 2006, quondam member Bruce Geisler produced a documentary motion picture nigh the community entitled Complimentary Spirits: The Birth, Life and Loss of a New Age Dream.

Michael Metelica lived out the residuum of his life in the Hudson River valley in upstate New York. There he was licensed as an EMT, attended Alcoholics Anonymous to care for his addictions, and entered therapy for bipolar disorder. He was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer in May 2002. The following month a gathering in his award occurred at the home of his long-time friend and mentor, Beth St. Clair, and was attended past his children, and about 100 of his former followers. He died in February 2003 in Cairo, New York. The NEW RENAISSANCE MINISTRY was (EST.) 2021 to rebuild on the great ideals that grew from information technology, all are welcome. links and more information coming soon.

References [edit]

1. ^ ^{a b c} Sreenivasan, Jyotsna (2008). Utopias in American history. Santa Barbara, CA, Usa: ABC-CLIO. pp. 330–334. ISBN9781598840520. OCLC 213444815.

External links [edit]

• "Daniel A. Dark-brown Photograph Collection". Special Collections and University Archives – UMass Amherst Libraries . Retrieved 2018-04-27 .
• Devine, Tom (2009-05-22). "Valley Guru". The Baystate Objectivist . Retrieved 2018-04-27 .

Coordinates: 42°38′36″Northward 72°29′26″W  /  42.6432°N 72.4906°Westward  / 42.6432; -72.4906

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_Community

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