# The Source Family · The Cult Dossier · The Atlas · The Congregation of Tomorrow

Source: https://congregationoftomorrow.org/atlas/library/cults/057-the-source-family/ · The Congregation of Tomorrow · the Atlas · language: en
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The Cult Dossier · No. 057 · Syncretic / Other Nrm
The Source Family
The Brotherhood of the Source
1969 – 1975 · Los Angeles (the Source Restaurant, Sunset Strip); Hawaii
VI. THE 1970s — THE GREAT PROLIFERATION
Fully religious — syncretic Aquarian commune
### Who led it
### What it worshipped and taught
### Who was in it
### How it ended, or where it stands
### The dead
### Of note
### Its timeline
- 1969 Baker opens the Source Restaurant on Sunset Boulevard — the most successful health food restaurant in Los Angeles, patronised by Marlon Brando, John Lennon, Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, and satirised in Woody Allen's Annie Hall.
- 1972–1974 The family grows to about 140 members living in a Hollywood Hills mansion (the Mother House); the restaurant funds everything.
- 1974 Yod takes 13 spiritual wives while his legal wife remains; internal conflict and public attention force them out of Los Angeles.
- 1974–1975 The group relocates to Hawaii, loses the restaurant income, and disintegrates into poverty.
- 25 AUGUST 1975 Father Yod, aged 53, with no training — by some accounts a single lesson — launches himself off a 1,300-FOOT CLIFF AT KAMEHAME RIDGE on the EASTERN SHORE OF OʻAHU, overlooking Rabbit Island, on a hang glider. HIS WIVES, GATHERED AT THE LAUNCH SITE, BEGGED HIM NOT TO JUMP. He survived the impact and DIED NINE HOURS LATER of internal injuries. (THIS FILE PREVIOUSLY PLACED THE JUMP AT NAWILIWILI ON KAUAI — THE WRONG ISLAND). He crashes onto the beach, refuses medical attention, and dies nine hours later.
- 1975 The family disperses within months.
### Its people
### Father Yod
Jim Baker; YaHoWha
Founder, the Source Family · 4 July 1922 – 25 August 1975 · active 1969–1975
Before the law. Twice investigated for homicide; both rulings were self-defence.
Where things stand. Deceased 1975. Surviving members preserved the archive themselves and largely retain affection for the group.
- 1969 Opens the Source Restaurant.
- 1972–74 Community grows to ~140 in a Hollywood Hills mansion.
- 1974 Takes 13 spiritual wives; the group is forced out of Los Angeles.
- 25 AUGUST 1975 Dies after a hang-glider crash at Nawiliwili, Kauai.
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