Rainbow gatherings?

That actually sounds fun! I don’t think that’s a cult though. I’ve heard of those, I just didn’t know they were called rainbow gatherings! Since it’s always just a bunch of different people going to different places and nobody is really preaching or leading the group of people, I don’t think it could be considered a cult.

lol sounds like tam-tams in Montreal

I wouldn’t say “cult”. maybe “culture”?

Cult is just short for culture

the latin root (colere) is the same however culture (in latin, cultura) and cult (cultus in latin) have different meanings: cultura was used in the sense of growing or tending to--human culture grew out of humanity; whereas cultus was used in the sense of worship

Went to one here in NM a few years ago. I hated it.

I felt the same. Too much following for a bunch of supposedly free thinking bunch

Yes and No. Lots of these groups were set up by the Intelligence community in NorCal to capture all the post Summer of Love back-to-the-earth hippy types.

Not sure if Rainbow Gatherings are among them, safe to assume so. I think most of these were created and let loose, not guided day-to-day by a CIA agent.

But specifically "cult," I'd say no. Cults no doubt recruit there, but it itself is not a cult.

The core here, Rainbow Family via Wavy Gravy, is a cult. I think connected to the Laurel Canyon work/scene/crowd so detailed by David McGowan.

I spent part of an afternoon chatting with Wavy on Haight St. He was dressed as a clown, blowing bubbles, just getting his freak on. He didn't seem culty. Is there a Wavy connection to the Brotherhood of Eternal Love?

I'd imagine largely they're great people. For all the pitfalls NorCal attracts a good crowd. Cult is a bit of a loaded term.

IIRC Wavy was in that Leary, Kensey, etc crowd. CIA connected. That gives me pause for all the associated camps and programs and such.

I have no clue about a Wavy/BoEL connection.

That gives me pause for all the associated camps and programs and such.

Just checking. Yeah, Dave McGowan did ruin the joy of some once-favorite music and the respect for some people. Cynicism sucks but is prudent, judiciously, given how things have been gamed to our disadvantage. Wariness of any 'product' or group identity, especially the sort that's promoted, weighed with equal parts 'we're all in this together' and 'Cui bono?'.

Thanks for the feedback.

Fantastic book

these gatherings are cult-like in their necessity to be a fringe event. if hippies integrated with our society it would look so vastly different and most likely be untenable; these values and mores require their own spaces which one sees in rainbow gatherings and other jamfests.

certainly, like any subculture, there exist particular rejections of overall society which create an inward perspective; self-promoting hippiedom and the sensibilities hippies use to cope with reality. it's no more of a cult than any other fundamental religion

The rainbow family aka “the family” is not what you would call your traditional cult. It is a population of dead heads that originally formed in the “lot” (parking lot with vendors outside concerts) by people that followed the Grateful Dead around the country in the 70s and 80s. The inner circle of the group was rumored to manufacture the dead’s LSD and subsequently is rumored to be responsible for a significant amount of the LSD in America.

The mondern day rainbow family gathers in national parks around the country and basically has huge psychedelic fueled music gatherings.

It is quite rare in modern times to come across a true/ original “family” member, but the few that I have are some of the most genuine people you’d ever meet. You won’t meet anyone who is actually in the family that is under 60. The ones I have met have been around the outskirts of the widespread panic and Grateful Dead cover bands scene. Trust me you’ll know a true family member when you meet them. They also have some of the best Acid SWIM has ever tried.

TLDR: A group of original dead heads that basically worship psychedelics.

Can you speak to when/how the original The Family morphed into Rainbow Family? Did Wavy Gravy basically pied piper that scene?

Can you speak to when/how the original The Family morphed into Rainbow Family? Did Wavy Gravy basically pied piper that scene?

Do we get to be on your show and become famous if we do? I have a completely hilarious one that has nothing to do with horror or cults, and actually ends with seeing the hippies in question on a reality tv show a few months later. One of the great and amusing coincidences in my otherwise paranoid and meaningless existence.

I could spin it into horror if the price was right. lmk

I've been to a couple of them, too weird and dirty for me

These types of gatherings attract young people who are often disenchanted, unstable and looking for a path. This means that they can be easily taken in by an experienced manipulator, especially if hallucinogens are involved.

In general, I’ve always been disappointed when getting together with any group within the “free thought” or conspiracy subculture and find involvement here to be a waste of my time.

Anyone who I was drawn to thinking they had original ideas/ good researchers/ have their shit together have turned out to primarily be interested in getting beyond wasted on the daily and fucking. I suppose my quest for knowledge made me look like a conspiracy groupie...never meet your heroes...

idk, but the rainbow is a luciferian symbol - the components of light

Yeah, but they don't own any of the symbols, as much as they try to do so. Their goal is to pervert and commandeer these things, but there's always a good, positive side to symbols that they can't touch, try as they might.

Less like a cult, more like the hippy mafia, they mostly use spiritualism as a cover to peddle lsd

That about sums it up.

I’ve heard they are into trafficking, but I don’t have specific details.

TV gal- see if you can talk to any of the Zendik people, that’s a bonafide cult started by Wulf Zendik and perpetuated by his daughter Fawn. They made some badass freak music in the 80’s, complete with reverb-y flutes.

No, they just like drugs.