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, February 28, 1978

February 1978 Notes

Typical salary for member employed at Mount Carmel/Renaissance: $120.00 per month, including meals, but excluding housing, healthcare and other expenses. Work schedules can be seven days a week.
February 27:
New word exercises are instituted: avoid the use of "well," "up," and "antidisestablishmentarianism." And, by the way, the "wit exercise" is ended.

From an ex-member's journal:
February 14, 1979 - First paycheck as a member of the winery corporation [Renaissance Vineyard and Winery Corporation] - over $500 - after taxes and automatic deduction of (mandatory) "donations," $130.