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The Cult Dossier · No. 062 · Occult / Esoteric / Satanic

Fellowship of Friends

Living Presence; the Apollo community

1970 – present · Oregon House, California (Apollo / Renaissance)

VII. THE 1980s — SIEGE AND SCANDAL

Fully religious — Fourth Way esoteric school

Who led it

ROBERT EARL BURTON (b.1939), a former schoolteacher, who declared himself a conscious being, one of only a handful in history, and later claimed to be guided by 44 ANGELS — the awakened dead, in his account, among them Abraham Lincoln, Bach and Jesus.

What it worshipped and taught

A version of the Fourth Way of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky — self-remembering, the elimination of negative emotions, and the building of an astral body. In practice the school became an aesthetic project: members were required to cultivate refined taste in classical music, wine, opera and fine art, and the community built a vineyard, an opera house and a substantial art collection. Burton predicted that California would fall into the sea in 1998 and that civilisation would collapse in 2006, leaving the Fellowship as an ark.

Who was in it

Robert Burton; Alex Horn, his own former teacher; Girard Haven; the plaintiffs in the 1984 and 1996 lawsuits; Troy Buzbee, who sued in 1996 alleging sexual abuse beginning at age 17; the ex-member site the Fellowship of Friends Discussion.

How it ended, or where it stands

Active, with more than 1,500 members reported in 2022 and a core living at Apollo in Oregon House, California.

The dead

—

Of note

The most notable feature is the use of high culture as the control aesthetic — an unusual variant in which the demand is not asceticism but connoisseurship, funded by member tithes of a large share of income.

Its timeline

  1. 1970 Founded in San Francisco on 1 January.
  2. 1971 Community established at Oregon House in the Sierra foothills; named Renaissance, later Apollo.
  3. 1970s–2020s Membership is reported at MORE THAN 1,500 as of 2022, with more than 600 living at or near Apollo, a 1,200-acre compound, and centres in Europe, Russia and South America. Each lawsuit cost it roughly 100 members.
  4. 1984 Burton sued by a former member alleging he coerced young male members into sex; settled.
  5. 1996 Troy Buzbee files suit alleging sustained sexual abuse; settled out of court.
  6. 1998 A predicted California catastrophe does not occur.
  7. 2006 The predicted collapse of civilisation — after which Apollo was to be the last surviving outpost — does not occur. The dates have simply been moved each time.
  8. 2022 A LAWSUIT PUTS THE GROUP INSIDE GOOGLE. The contractor KEVIN LLOYD alleges that Fellowship members used contractor staffing as a hiring channel, and that PETER LUBBERS, a member, ran Google Developer Studio and hired fellow members. Lloyd settled in December 2022; Google confirmed Lubbers no longer worked there.

Its people

Robert Earl Burton

—

Founder, the Fellowship of Friends · born 1939 · active 1970–present

A former schoolteacher who declared himself a conscious being — one of only a handful in history — and later claimed guidance from 44 angels — the awakened dead, in his account, among them Abraham Lincoln, Bach and Goethe. His Fourth Way school made high culture the control aesthetic: members were required to cultivate refined taste in classical music, opera, wine and fine art, and tithed a large share of income to fund a vineyard, an opera house and an art collection. Sued in 1984 and 1996 by former members alleging he coerced young male members into sex; both settled.

Before the law. NEVER CRIMINALLY CHARGED IN FIFTY-FIVE YEARS. Two civil suits (1984, 1996) settled out of court. A DECEMBER 2023 YUBA COUNTY SUIT BY SIX MEN alleges rampant sexual abuse and trafficking, and a separate insurer action alleges the organisation concealed earlier abuse claims when seeking cover. Neither has concluded.

Where things stand. LIVING AND STILL LEADING — CONFIRMED AUGUST 2026. He remains the Fellowship's spiritual leader and still lives at APOLLO, the 1,200-acre compound at OREGON HOUSE, Yuba County, which also operates the Renaissance Vineyard and Winery. The Fellowship continues, much reduced. THIS FIELD PREVIOUSLY SAID ONLY 'LIVING', WHICH BURIED THE LIVE LITIGATION SET OUT IN THE LEGAL FIELD BELOW: the December 2023 suit by six men was still proceeding toward a jury trial as of mid-2025, and the insurer's action in the US District Court for the Eastern District of California names Burton, the Fellowship and twelve unnamed individuals. HE HAS STILL NEVER BEEN CRIMINALLY CHARGED.

  1. 1970 Founds the Fellowship on 1 January.
  2. 1971 Community established at Oregon House, California.
  3. 1984 Sued over alleged sexual coercion of young male members; settled.
  4. 1996 Troy Buzbee sues alleging abuse from age 17; settled.
  5. 1998, 2006 Two predicted catastrophes fail to occur.
  6. DECEMBER 2023 A LAWSUIT IS FILED IN YUBA COUNTY by SIX MEN alleging 'rampant, unceasing sexual abuse' by Burton, carried out in concert with senior members and with workers at the RENAISSANCE VINEYARD AND WINERY. The complaint alleges the men were effectively TRAFFICKED for Burton's sexual use. This is a far larger action than the settled suits of 1984 and 1996.
  7. 2024–2025 SCOTTSDALE INSURANCE ALLEGES THE FELLOWSHIP AND BURTON CONCEALED prior settlements and legal claims involving sexual abuse when applying for insurance cover — a separate action turning on what the organisation knew and did not disclose.
  8. 2025–2026 Burton, aged 84, remains in place. The 1,200-acre Apollo compound at Oregon House, 70 miles north of Sacramento, still operates: Versailles-inspired gardens, a Roman amphitheatre, hundreds of palm trees, WHITE CAMELS AND WATER BUFFALO, and the vineyard that funds much of it.

Checked 2026-09-26 · living: health details are kept at home

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