Robert Earl Burton and The Fellowship of Friends: January 1983

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.

Monday, January 31, 1983

January 1983 Notes

January 28:

Goethe Academy concert: Istvan Nadas, piano

Note included with January 1, 1983 Renaissance Journal:

“In preparation for the coming depression, the Renaissance Journal will be published once a month. Concurrently in London, Barbara and Girard Haven will publish a monthly newsletter, A Letter from London. The Teacher urges members to subscribe so that they will have two sources of input for the months ahead.”

Additional note:

The Goethe Academy is now displaying a pair of Chinese famille rose urns from the Ch'ien Lung Period (circa 1765). A pamphlet states,

A pair of urns bearing the same design but in inferior condition, showing considerable signs of wear, are on permanent display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, near to Canova's sculpture of Perseus with the Head of Medusa.