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.

Saturday, October 31, 1981

October 1981 Notes

Sunset over Milton Pond (Photo: T. Campion)

"Renaissance Vine" newsletter [summarized]
October 1: contraction exercise rescinded (members can now use contractions)

Concerts:
October 3 and 4: Philadelphia Quartet

October 24 and 25: Istvan Nadas

October 31: Maureen Forester, contralto

November 7 and 8: Alma Trio
1,354 members

September 19: Matthias McDonald passed away

Photos: sunset over Milton Pond

Other Notes

October 25:
Incident of rock-throwing at students’ cars on Rice’s Crossing Road. [Based upon license numbers, the culprits were traced to Oregon House and Olivehurst.]
October 26:
Harvest of Riesling the day before it rains.
October 29:
Robert in Los Angeles