Robert Earl Burton and The Fellowship of Friends: November 1978

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.

Thursday, November 30, 1978

November 1978 Notes

The Lincoln Lodge in snow, November 1978 (Photo: T. Campion)

"Renaissance Vine" newsletter [summarized]

October 2: After nearly nine years, the final Bay Area meeting was held

In October, the wine tanks arrived

October 14: Renaissance's first harvest and grape crush

Breakfasts being hosted in the Tea Room

Send photos to P_tr_ck Tr_cc_lo for inclusion in FOF history

Use “yes” rather than “yeah”

November Concerts:

Lazlo Vargas, Eudice Shapiro Telluride String Quartet

Other Notes:

November 11:

Snow at Renaissance today!

November 12:

Snow continued into the afternoon today. Cello concert tonight: Lazlo Varga performed Bach's Suite Number 3 for Cello and Partita Number 2 for Violin (BWV 1004) which he just recently adapted for cello. He seemed proud of his accomplishment - and justifiably so. The chaconne is an amazingly complex and beautiful composition.

"After the concert, I dined in the Meissen Room - Barbara Haven hosted. Arrived home after silver washing, at about 2:30 a.m. and visited with Stella and friends for another two hours." [The famous "Stella's Coffee Shop" ran through the night at "The Epictetus Cottage" while she and Harold resided at Renaissance.]

November 18:

In Jonestown Guyana, "The People's Temple" cult leader Jim Jones leads nearly 1,000 followers in a mass murder-suicide. From the Fellowship of Friends perspective, Jones is a "false prophet," unlike Robert Burton. Burton would later remark confidently "Mr. Jones was close to the gates of hell. We would hope we are close to the gates of heaven.”

November 30:

In the Meissen Room tonight, Robert was unusually talkative. He reiterated the events that lay ahead of us: he said that the country would "squeak by" in 1983, but that a depression of three and a half years' duration would begin in 1984. He speculated that 1988 might be a good year to buy stocks.