Robert Earl Burton and The Fellowship of Friends: September 1975

Introduction

Robert Earl Burton founded The Fellowship of Friends in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1970. Burton modeled his own group after that of Alex Horn, loosely borrowing from the Fourth Way teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky. In recent years, the Fellowship has cast its net more broadly, embracing any spiritual tradition that includes (or can be interpreted to include) the notion of "presence."

The Fellowship of Friends exhibits the hallmarks of a "doomsday religious cult," wherein Burton exercises absolute authority, and demands loyalty and obedience. He warns that his is the only path to consciousness and eternal life. Invoking his gift of prophecy, he has over the years prepared his flock for great calamities (e.g. a depression in 1984, the fall of California in 1998, nuclear holocaust in 2006, and most recently the October 2018 "Fall of California Redux.")

According to Burton, Armageddon still looms in our future and when it finally arrives, non-believers shall perish while, through the direct intervention and guidance from 44 angels (recently expanded to 81 angels, including himself and his divine father, Leonardo da Vinci), Burton and his followers shall be spared, founding a new and more perfect civilization. Read more about the blog.

Presented in a reverse chronology, the Fellowship's history may be navigated via the "Blog Archive" located in the sidebar below.

Tuesday, September 30, 1975

September 1975 Notes

September 14:

Robert almost rides on a motorcycle, then decides against it. “I shouldn’t tempt Higher Forces…”

September 20:

Article in Appeal-Democrat [which article?]

(Around this time, members are making trips to Skandia Restaurant on L.A.’s Sunset Strip, one of Robert's favorites, to learn recipes so they can replicate them at Renaissance.)

Saturday, September 20, 1975

"The Fellowship of Friends"

[ed. - This is a placeholder. The Appeal-Democrat newspaper in Marysville, CA featured an article titled "The Fellowship of Friends," but the contents are unavailable.]