Robert Earl Burton and The Fellowship of Friends: January 1984

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, January 31, 1984

January 1984 Notes

German white oak barrels in which the red wine vintages prior to 1983 are maturing. (Photo: James Kline)

[ed. - Absent in the below quotations from Robert Burton is mention of the financial collapse Burton had for years predicted would occur at this time, triggering a three and a half year depression.]

"Paul Gregory" posted on the Fellowship of Friends Discussion blog, January 5, 2013:

[ed. - Quotes from "The Teacher," Robert Burton from this time period, with apparent index numbers shown:]

We will leave the earth a better place than we found it. (010184.1314)

We are a new people being born: a holy family. (010184.23)

The Fellowship is on a collision course with tragic events, and yet we shall prevail. (013184.36)

Our task is so huge that sometimes one can hardly believe it. Difficult events are coming, and we will be ready. (013184.37)

We must move rapidly to make Renaissance as European as we can in the time that we have. (010184.13)

Humanity’s end is near. There could be no greater tragedy to bear from life’s viewpoint since it will be expunged. Only we few shall be left. We have self-remembering, and our hearts can bear the great emotional upheavals. (010184.1212)

We are people destined to survive the Last Judgment, and so we cannot be naïve. (010184.134)

The ark could not be cast into greater denying force than the Last Judgment. (010184.135)

To identify with the tragedy of life reduces of chances as well as posterity’s. (010184.138)

It is wonderful that our students are having children so that we can bequeath Renaissance to them. (010184.1311)

(In reference to the Spring of Moses on Mount Renaissance:)
The spring is bountifully flowing. After 2006, the spring will be necessary, as it is a natural source of water. Moses struck the rock and it gave forth water. Esoterically, that means that he struck the inaccessible emotional centre (the rock) and it gave forth water, the symbol for truth.
(010184.1312)

Influence C has established a network for centres around the world for people to board the ark. (010184.1310)

Mr. Gurdjieff spoke of what ten conscious beings working together can achieve. It will require seven conscious beings plus forty-four angels and the inner and outer circles working together in order to survive the Last Judgment. (013184.38)

Noah was laughed at when he built his ark. No one is laughing these days because many people believe that hydrogen warfare is probable. (013184.39)

We have a great responsibility to posterity. To posterity, we are everything; to present humanity, we are nothing. (013184.312)

From the Fellowship of Friends Wiki Page [Defunct]:

[ed. - Thoughts from "The Teacher," Robert Burton, with apparent index number shown.]

The phrase, Last judgement means that humanity has been judged unfit to continue. (010184.131)

Russia and the United States are on a collision course that is not to be averted. (010184.132)

All of the world’s great cities are on the same time now; all will perish one way or another in 2006. (010184.133)

Student: After Armageddon will Jesus’s life still play a prominent role in our lives?
Teacher: Yes. In posterity, it will be impossible to relegate Christ, humanity’s greatest achievement, to a less prominent role in our lives. (013184.912)

Influence C is preparing an ark for Renaissance; if they do not educate us, we cannot conserve for posterity. (010184.12)

Today was special because we planted many cypress trees, removed the first Renaissance bricks from our kiln, and cleared the site for our olive orchard. Renaissance is taking the form of the Mediterranean. (010184.14)

Dante wrote, ‘All hope abandon, ye who enter here.’ Some day the entrance to Renaissance might read, ‘All hope encourage, ye who enter here. (010184.16)

The earth is a haystack; the school, the needle; the ark, the thread from which to begin again. (013184.311)

We have our ark, our Renaissance, to build, and we must be good households to accomplish this. (013184.312)

Influence C wants something for us, a soul, and they want something from us, an ark. We are being educated in the arts so that we may preserve the best of mankind for mankind. With self-remembering, one can pursue one’s self and one’s art, and do both better. (013184.63)