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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

JIM BAKER (1922–1975), a decorated Marine, judo expert and restaurateur who had killed two men with his hands in unrelated incidents ruled self-defence, and who renamed himself FATHER YOD and later YaHoWha.

What it worshipped and taught

A blend of Yogananda, Christianity, Kabbalah, tantra and psychedelia. Father Yod taught himself as the earthly manifestation of the Father. Practices: 3 a.m. meditation, breath work, a raw vegetarian diet, sacramental cannabis, celibacy periods, and a daily class in which Yod delivered his teachings. Members took names ending in -aha (Sunflower Aquarian, Electricity Aquarian, Isis Aquarian, Djin Aquarian). The band YA HO WA 13 recorded roughly 65 albums in the basement, pressed in editions of a few hundred, now among the most collectible private-press records in the world.

Who was in it

Jim Baker (Father Yod / YaHoWha); Robin Baker (Ahom); Isis Aquarian, the group's archivist; Sunflower Aquarian; Djin Aquarian; Electricity Aquarian; Makushla; the 13 spiritual wives Yod took in 1974, which precipitated the collapse.

How it ended, or where it stands

Ended with the leader's death; members dispersed peacefully.

The dead

1 (Father Yod)

Of note

A rare case in which the surviving members largely retained affection for the group and preserved its archive themselves — Isis Aquarian's The Source (2007) and the 2012 documentary are member-produced. Included as the counter-example to the assumption that all such groups end in trauma.

Its timeline

  1. 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.
  2. 1972–1974 The family grows to about 140 members living in a Hollywood Hills mansion (the Mother House); the restaurant funds everything.
  3. 1974 Yod takes 13 spiritual wives while his legal wife remains; internal conflict and public attention force them out of Los Angeles.
  4. 1974–1975 The group relocates to Hawaii, loses the restaurant income, and disintegrates into poverty.
  5. 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.
  6. 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

A decorated Marine and judo expert who had killed two men with his hands in incidents ruled self-defence, then opened the most successful health food restaurant in Los Angeles — the Source, on Sunset Boulevard, patronised by Brando, Lennon and Beatty and satirised in Annie Hall. He presented himself as the earthly manifestation of the Father, took 13 spiritual wives in 1974, and recorded roughly 65 albums with the band Ya Ho Wa 13 in the basement. He died attempting a hang-glider flight off a 1,300-foot cliff in Kauai with no training and no instruction, refusing medical treatment for nine hours afterwards.

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.

  1. 1969 Opens the Source Restaurant.
  2. 1972–74 Community grows to ~140 in a Hollywood Hills mansion.
  3. 1974 Takes 13 spiritual wives; the group is forced out of Los Angeles.
  4. 25 AUGUST 1975 Dies after a hang-glider crash at Nawiliwili, Kauai.

Checked

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