The Bull Magazine Spring/Summer 2019

Cameron Kern Managing Editor

Gina Wong Reporter

Richard Espinoza Reporter

Chelsea Westman Reporter

George Apikyan Photo Editor

Ray Zandi Reporter

Paulina Vidanez Reporter

Maja Losinka Reporter

Felipe Gamino Reporter

Chris Torres Reporter/Photographer

Alexis Canelo Reporter

Je Favre Adviser

Jill Connelly Adviser

Natalie Miranda Reporter/Photographer

EDITOR’S NOTE

My hope for the reader is to go on a journey of discovery, while opening doors of perceptions and reducing steadfast ideas in the stereotypes of alternative beleifs.

Aliens, ghost hunters and psychadelics are among the beliefs that are as real and crucial to some as they are a complete fanasty to others.

Our goal was to ask questions without judgment and to go wherever the road led.

I grew up a Catholic with a

Star of David above the door next to a horse shoe and a ribbon of garlic—all for good luck and to keep evil spirits out.

My mother carried a Buddah statue in her purse, and my grandmother would cure any ailments we had with herbs from her hometown in Oaxaca, Mexico.

A portrait of Our Lady of Solitude hung in my grandmothers bedroom. Mystified, I would spend hours looking at her, and it would bring me a peace that has remained with me through my adult life.

My mother once told me,

“It’s all the same. All religions beleive in the same God. They just go by different names.”

She taught me that love and compassion is the common denominator that keeps us connected through our differences.

While reading, feel free to have skepticism, while enjoying with an open mind and an open heart.

STORY BY ALEXIS CANELO PHOTOS BY NATALIE MIRANDA

FROM THE GREAT BEYOND

Men and women draped in crimson robes, deeply entranced in prayer and mantra surrounded a spiritual power battery channeling their energies toward it to be released at a later time. They are participating in Operation Prayer Power.

Worshipping beings from another planet sounds like something from a sci-fi film. However, this is a reality for the thousands of members in the Aetherius Society.

The religion was formed in the mid-1950s by George King, according to the Aetherius Society website. King acted as a medium and would share messages given to him by higher beings.

Life outside our planet remains a mere speculation, but for the Aetherius Society it is religion.

According to Life, Here and Beyond by Marc Kaufman, published on the Astrobiology page of the NASA website, extraterrestrial life is possible but has not been proven.

“No life beyond Earth has ever been found; there is no evidence that alien life has ever

“These Gods from space would include Jesus, who we believe came from Venus, would include the Buddha, who we also believe came from Venus, and Sri Krishna, who we believe came from the planet Saturn.”

who we also believe came from Venus, and Sri Krishna, who we believe came from the planet Saturn, which is the most evolved planet in our solar system,” Nugent said.

Steven Medway is the son of a Sunday School teacher and a priest at the Aetherius Society. Medway said the Master Aetherius, one of the higher beings, would communicate through King.

visited our planet. It’s all a story,” Kaufman said. “This does not mean, however, that the universe is lifeless. While no clear signs of life have ever been detected, the possibility of extraterrestrial biology the scientific logic that supports it has grown increasingly plausible.”

Paul Nugent, a priest at the Aetherius Society, explained some of the beliefs.

“We believe in the Aetherius Society that these masters, these gods from space, would include Jesus, who we believe came from Venus, would include the Buddha,

“It was the Master Aetherius, who the society is named after, he would actually forecast where flying saucers would be time and place a week before,” Medway said. “They appeared in the reports or in the papers. And so it kind of proved that they were who they said they were.”

Incidents like these helped strengthen Medway’s beliefs.

“Nobody knew about Chernobyl for weeks until they started picking up the radiation and questioning where it came from,” Medway said. “Nobody knew about that, probably even the CIA didn’t know this. This cosmic being on a spacecraft was monitoring it and there was a report in ‘Pravda’ [Soviet

- Paul Nugent Priest at the Aetherius Society

newspaper] about thousands of people witnessing a flying saucer hovering over Chernobyl for hours. It looked like it was absorbing the energy. So you get correlations like that.”

After Medway’s father died, he was left with unanswered questions. Even the Methodist Church that he was a part of could not help. Medway’s primary question was why his father died when he did.

“They just quoted the Bible, but they didn’t really give realistic or down to Earth answers. So that’s when I started to get disappointed and looking elsewhere,” Medway said.

Medway’s older brother introduced him to the relatively new religion.

“My older brother found the Society in England first and told me about it while I was still at school. When I was 18 I left

school, I left home and joined him on the other side of London and became a member. That was in 1971,” Medway said.

The Society helped answer the questions Medway had.

“I found the Society answered all the questions about reincarnation and the law of Karma. Everything is meant to be as it is,” Medway said.

The Society organizes pilgrimages to what they call “holy mountains.”

“I first went to a holy mountain when I was 17, one in Scotland, north of the northern end of the British Isles,” Medway said. “ In those days, hippie days, they used to call it being stoned, but I hadn’t smoked anything. It was just like, wow, that’s just bliss.”

Ernesto Villacís, who was raised Catholic, had been researching numerology and astrology when he took the advice

of a friend to go to a metaphysical study class. It was at that class he discovered the work of King and he said he began curing his heart condition. Attending the class was the beginning of a journey for Villacis.

“I feel so at home in this class. Like everything they’re saying to me makes sense,” Villacis said.

The practices resonated deeply within Villacis.

“I started delving into it more and I read The Nine Freedoms. That was one of the first books I read, which had a huge impact on me,” Villacis said.

Villacis was looking for ways to cure his heart condition and get off his prescription medication.

“I wanted to heal myself naturally. So he [the organizer] said, if you practice these exercises and you’ve practiced

F á tima Miramontes send her energy to the spiritual power battery during Operation Prayer Power, which releases energy during times of crisis at the Aetherius Society church in Los A ngeles, Calif.

them good and you do other things like prayer, mantra, good diet and that sort of stuff, then you probably won’t need medications anymore,” Villac í s said. “So I took his advice, I took the practices very seriously, and within a year and a half, I was off medications completely.”

Senior Director of Physical Plant Management at CSUN Jason Wang studied cult and cult behavior while in graduate school. Wang believes that cults are not inherently bad.

“I don’t think cult behavior is negative and I want to start from that as a premise,” Wang said. “Being in a group where you’re connected with things, there’s rules and rituals, things you have to know that you become once you

gain that knowledge and participate in those activities or rituals and you become a part of a group. That’s what we crave.”

Nugent said the Society is commonly characterized as a cult, which carries a negative connotation.

“I think people would call us a cult, which in the correct sense we are. I mean a cult is any non-mainstream religious organization. Unfortunately, though, it’s developed a very negative connotation because there have been various, bizarre religious groups that have done ridiculous things,” Nugent said. “People sort of tend to go ‘Oh, it’s a cult, therefore it’s got to be bad.’ We would contest that.”

Nicole Jarvis spreads Palo Santo to prepare the room for Max Garcia’s healing at Aromagica Sol & Luna in Northridge, Calif.

[L-R] Mario Pulido and Ernesto Villacos pray facing toward the altar dressed in red robes at the Aetherius Society Church in Los Angeles, Calif.

Hunting voices lost in death

Connecting with a life lost helps others find closure

“I’m a facilitator between worlds.”

- Cathreena Garrett, Co-founder of the GHOST Rescue CREW

Cathreena Garrett (left) and Carrie Trimble (right), founders of the GHOST Rescue CREW showcase ghost hunting equipment in Lake Elsinore, Calif.

Story by Cameron Kern

Photos by Magdalena Bleu Briggs

Atwo-story house with an American flag flying out on the porch stands proudly on a street corner in Lake Elsinore, California.

Many who catch a glance of the residency could agree on its ordinary features and regularities in structure. But, when the sun sets and the lights fade, what remains in the home could be viewed to some as supernatural or extraordinary.

Two women sat in the center of the living room, shrouded in a thick layer of complete darkness. A fluorescent light peered with a subtle hue from the corner of the next room. Broken purple and green dashed from its all glass, religious artistry displayed on the lamp cover.

They sat holding what is known in the ghost hunting community as a Spirit Box, which is used to communicate with aparitions through supposed radio frequencies.

It’s a line of connection between the living and the dead.

“Who is here,” one of the women said.

The reply was a symphony of mumbles and random guttural phrases, which is said to be emitted from the Spirit Box, kept in the vernacular of a lost soul confined in the brick lined walls of a house that has survived a lifetime.

A family surrounded the women and peered with intensity and concern. The two women sat equally invested, beleiving they stand as the only source of communication between a grieving family desperate for closure for the deaths of two loved ones who both died in the home.

Cathreena Garrett, alongside her partner Carrie Trimble, have been professionally

communicating and excavating spirits as a team for the last two years. The GHOST Rescue CREW specializes in empath healings, clearing negative spirits and using the modern technology to capture evidence of paranormal activity.

“I’m a facilitator between worlds,” Garrett said. “Others (spirits) feel like they have something to say to a loved one, or they may be ashamed of what they’ve done in their life and they think they’re going to go to hell. So until then, many are going to stay here.”

According to CREW, their latest paranormal endeavor came from a local, Guy Swenson. His daughter Christian Swenson died in the home due to an overdose on drugs in 2012, and his mother Judy Swenson also died in the home in 2003.

Guy owns the home and rents it to tenants in the area. He said that he hasn’t had traumatic ghost-related experiences, but his tenants often complain to

him that there’s something here.

“I once heard something. It sounded like someone was dragging a body or something in the kitchen. I got up, and there was nothing there,” Guy said.

Garrett and Trimble, who have been bus drivers for the Lake Elsinore Unified School District for decades, became compelled by the story of the haunted home. They now rent and live in the house, hoping to find the truth about possible spirits that reside with them.

After spending time in the home, they believe spirits remain– along with something evil.

According to CREW, William Suff, known by many as the Lake Elsinore Killer, gained infamy from his slayings of young women. It’s estimated that he murdered more than 12 people.

The GHOST Rescue CREW believes that some of the remains of his victims could be on the land.

“I once heard something. It sounded like someone was dragging a body or something in the kitchen. I got up and there was nothing there.”

-Guy Swenson, Home owner

“The timeline really works out to where we think there might be something buried underneath this house,” Garrett said. “And we’ve had several psychics come and say the same thing. And I’m a psychic medium too, and I’m feeling the same thing. They just want closure. They want people to know this happened. At that point we’ll take care of it from there and help them cross over.”

To excavate the spirits, the pair uses various means of equipment, ranging from traditional tools, such as the Angel Board, as well as modern technology. They most commonly use Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) and Spirit Boxes, which both are meant to capture the disembodied voices on microphones.

Guy sat with Garrett and Trimble in the stairwell in the hallway where they reportedly have had success in reaching out to the spirits that linger in the house.

“If someone is here, show us a sign,” Guy called out.

The invitation was followed by silence shrouded in the shadowy maze-like architecture of the house.

Then a loud bang erupted from a different room. The team cheered as they equated this to a new piece of evidence in their arsenal.

But, some may disagree with their findings.

Professor of Anthropology

Brian Pierson has worked in a morgue studying dead bodies for decades.

“I’ve got skeletons of humans in the back room all around me all the time. I study them constantly, and I have been for years. Have I ever seen a ghost? I have not,” Pierson said. “I’m terrified to death

because I don’t believe in an afterlife. If I saw a ghost, I could believe in an afterlife.”

Pierson said there are certain elements in psychology that debunk many of the leading ghost hunting technology used by the GHOST Rescue CREW and hunters around the world.

“It’s fundamentally nonsense noise,” Pierson said. “Humans love to put things into categories. The biggest one that we do is we like to find patterns in things. We will find patterns in clouds. Every time you look up at a cloud, you see something. The Grand Tetons are a name for three big boobs. That’s literally what they call it, because they look like breasts to somebody and it’s not.”

Garrett and Trimble welcome these sorts of criticisms and think that the things they do make it hard to deny there evidence. Their Facebook page has more than 1,000 followers, and their live streams of ghost hunts earn hundreds of views.

“We get so much evidence. I’m not just saying that because it’s us, but we get a lot of evidence where people are asking us, ‘Is this real? Are you guys editing it?’ And

it’s why we go live on Facebook. So people can see it firsthand,” Trimble said.

According to Garrett and Trimble, their overwhelming amount of evidence of the paranormal gained such credibility that they were given an official license from the Irvine Police Department to work on investigations and counseling.

“We work with a lot of children and we do a lot of healing. That’s another side of what we do and I love what we do. We’re helping children sleep at night,” Trimble said.

Garrett and Trimble concluded the investigation at the Lake Elsinore home after many hours of what they said was communicating with the spirits.

Guy doesn’t know for sure if what the GHOST Rescue CREW did will stop any further paranormal activity, but he is at peace having the closure of saying goodbye to his mother and daughter for the last time.

“I felt them leave. It felt like a sense of relief. I feel like they are fine now and in a good place,” he said. They let me know that when no one else could.”

Carrie Trimble (left) and Cathreena Garrett (right) sit near a spirit box, which is said to be used to communicate with ghosts and spirits in Lake Elsinore, Calif.

Fo Guang Shan Hsi Lai Temple, located in Hacienda Heights, Calif., is one of the largest Buddhist temples in North America.

A BUDDHIST STATE OF MIND

Awarm upland air was flooding through the window at the West Hills Meditation Center, dancing to the sound of chirping birds and passing cars.

The smell of aromatic incense releasing rose-infused smoke spread over the room.

Bits of sunset light were still falling through the window as about a dozen people settled into comfortable spots on the carpetmany with crowded thoughts they hoped to let go.

Participants in the meditation sessions, held each Saturday and Sunday, receive help with their breathing, which may also improve vision, taste, touch, proprioception, hearing and smell.

In Buddhist philosophy, human beings have the ability to live with great determination. They have a gift of extraordinary human intelligence and the ability to develop mental energy to use it in a positive way. Awareness of having this potential is the source of fundamental strength, according to Buddhist teachings, which also stipulate that it can allow people to deal with difficulties without falling into a

sense of hopelessness. This is the reality that has been part of Sri Lanka native, Master Shantha Shobhana, who in 1987 decided to become a Buddhist Monk.

Despite his parents disapproval, Shobhana believed the calling was something bigger, like a

boundary-less dimension of human experience, something with roots so deep he couldn’t question it. ’’The Monk told my parents, ‘No, You can’t keep this child. Let him do what he wants. He’s going to go, so it’s better to let him go to Temple,’’ Shobhana said.

According to Shobhana, from that day he devoted himself to Buddhism and self-care through meditation, but also acupuncture and yoga. He understood that he is someone who can guide people and help them become better through the Buddhist philosophy.

‘’When someone comes with the pain, I know it’s in their mind. We don’t have any problems

Photos and story by Maja Losinska

‘’The meditation helps to increase mental capacity, then your mind starts to absorb different levels of vibrations and wisdom.”

-Shantha Shobhana

Buddhist Monk

Buddhist Monk Shantha Shobhana during his meditation , West Hills.

in life, but the way we think, when we are stuck mentally, this is our problem,’’ Shobhana said.

Shobhana said there is no magic in healing, and that all the answers are within people. Meditation processes facilitate the management of emotions and control or even prevent relapse after winning the fight against depression.

“The pain is the indicator, something that can teach you. You can transform that pain into wisdom If you learn to recognize and understand it, ”Shobhana said.

Happiness is not defined as an emotion gained through positive aspects, Shobhana explained. He added that emotions are fragile and happiness is the internal energy built on the foundation of positive affirmations. It is people’s responsibility how they react to a problem, not the problem itself.

There are many fields of psychology that have their roots in this philosophical heritage. A psychologist with 22 years practice, Heidi Michelle Taylor, uses Buddhist psychology aspects in her practice.

‘’Training your mind is a component of becoming happy, although some people have biochemical imbalances and do need medications,’’ Taylor said.

She said people are constantly changing and mentally growing. Buddhist philosophy focuses on the present, while people usually still live the past trying to figure out what went right or wrong.

‘’I believe it’s helpful to look back but not to get stuck there,’’ Taylor said.

Pursuant to Buddhism philosophy the healthier your mind is, the easier it is for you to manifest what you want in life. People cannot create a pleasant environment If their mind is at a war.

In Westlake Village, the Tushita Kadampa Meditation Center hold daily sessions.

Attendee and teacher Dana Minas said she healed herself from toxic situations realizing the problem laid within her.

‘’I started with the different types of meditations and I completely purified those relationships and transformed others”, Minas said. ‘’I’ve realized I was the one that created that toxicity and I am the one that can change my mind and purify it,’’ said Minas.

Shobhana compares people to a drop of water in the middle of the jungle. That water doesn’t need any navigation to find the ocean, just like people who seek for answers. They will find it when they are conscious and ready.

Spiritual values have firm roots in the world and they aim in the biggest realization in the present existence. Shobhana said there is the key point to understand the pain.

‘’If you practice to develop your consciousness, that is where you recognize what is inside suffering. You already have all the answers, you have to observe and recognize,’’ Shobhana said.

Buddhist Monk Shantha Shobhana during his meditation , West Hills.

West Thai of Los Angeles Buddhist Temple, North Hollywood, Calif.

Psychedelics in the Modern World

More than 40 participants arrived at a yoga studio in downtown Los Angeles, expecting to undergo a psychedelic journey.

This journey encouraged guests to get comfortable as possible on various yoga mats and blankets. The music began, incense burned, guests were guided to smoke marijuana in a ceremonial manner.

As they started smoking, they were guided into meditation while stoned. Assistants of the organizers walked around to make sure that no felt uncomfortable or unsafe.

Once the meditation was over, those who wanted to express their experiences were encouraged to share.

Through this three-hour ceremonial sacrament of smoking marijuana and meditating, guests may have been able to tap into the psychedelic spirit, one that stronger drugs may provide. Some evidence shows that there might

be a benefit in taking psychedelic drugs to deal with extreme trauma.

Do these drugs truly allow the user to alter their perception of reality, or is it all anecdotal?

From the start of the psychedelic community in the early 1950’s, drug use has been

and researcher Timothy Leary, and it was through Leary’s work with psilocybin (“magic” mushrooms) that sparked the counter-culture that spread across the United States.

At Harvard, Leary began the Harvard Psilocybin Project, aiming to find possible benefits of the mushroom. His work was quickly shutdown by the university, however his in the psychedelic counter-culture was ever-growing.

both mocked and praised from users and non-users.

In earlier times, the drug Peyote, which is native to Mexico and Southwestern Texas, was distributed through coffee shops and mailed across America.

Peyote’s spread was pivotal in laying the framework of study for Harvard University psychologist

“Turn on, tune in, drop out,” were Leary’s famous words. Coined at a gathering of more than 30,000 hippies in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. It was a catchphrase that would inspire many young Americans to embrace the cultural changes and try psychedelic drugs for themselves.

What do these drugs do? The three most popular psychedelics are LSD, psilocybin (the active chemical in certain mushrooms), and MDMA (also known as Molly). These drugs share similar

Story by Ramin Zandi

Photos by Magdalena Bleu Briggs

“Spiritual Transcendence” one of the many pieces Laurie Shapiro has created

“Maybe you can see more of yourself, which matters the most”Shapiro

properties; however, LSD and psilocybin share more in common than MDMA.

Psychopharmacology is the term that refers to how the chemical compounds in these drugs can affect the human brain. What LSD and psilocybin have in common in their psychopharmacology is that they target serotonin receptor sites.

Naturally, these receptor sites act as a listening tool for the incoming neurotransmitters that secrete in your brain naturally.

According to Jennifer Moses, a psychology professor at Pierce College, these drugs intensify these sites.

“Essentially, they make the catcher’s mitts better at catching serotonin. So, we call them agonists, which is any chemical that increases that neurotransmission of a certain neurotransmitter,” Moses said. “It makes any signal it was trying to send louder.”

These sites that control serotonin in its non-amplified state measure the levels of hunger, mood and well-being. By increasing the receiving portion of these sites, it can alter specific things that serotonin regulates. MDMA shares a similar effect, but MDMA also increases the output of serotonin as well, which makes MDMA much more potent. By taking any of these drugs, Moses said, you will have mind effects.

“If you increase the effects of serotonin you will amplify mood, which will sometimes cause euphoria, but not always,” Moses explained. “You could amplify it and it could cause serotonin to be irregulated, where too much of a good can sometimes be bad.”

Users of psychedelics would most likely experience a change

of perception in reality. Moses mentioned that because serotonin also holds a role in learning and memory, it could impact what the user takes in from their psychedelic experience. Also, these drugs may cause mild hallucinations, and that could influence the user’s perception. Ultimately, it’s whatever the user brings to the table is what will affect the outcome of their trip. But, there are drawbacks to psychedelics. Unlike cannabis, psychedelic drugs are illegal. Also, there are bodies of evidence that

installations. Shaprio said she has had experiences in her life with psychedelic drugs that altered her perception of reality, which influenced her pesonality.

Shapiro grew up in a more liberal family, but not necessarily a hippie household. Her parents viewed mind-altering substances negatively, and advised Shapiro against them. She enrolled at the school of art at Carnegie Mellon, and she said her freshman year is when she experienced the bulk of her psychedelic trips. According to Shapiro, safety is the key component to a good experience.

“There’s a time and place, and I can’t stress enough how important it is to be comfortable before taking psychedelics.” Shaprio said.

show an increase in neurotoxicity (damage to the brain) with the usage of MDMA. By altering certain perceptions of reality, it could have a great impact on how the user might express themselves further on in life.

Laurie Shapiro is a Los Angeles based artist who specializes in

Shaprio explained that psychedelics don’t necessarily have an impact on the art itself, but more so an impact on the artists internal feelings.

“They’ve influenced me as a person, although they are not an important aspect to the work getting made. Instead, at times, they’ve influenced my ideas and perception of the world.” Shapiro said. “As an artist that’s making work that’s very personal, those emotions are always going to

Laurie Shapiro posing with her assistant Lucy Declercq.

“It may be as effective as other psychedelic therapies for trauma resolution”

- McQueen

come out.”

It also depends on the type of art you create, she said. Since Shapiro’s art is personal, by going through trips that altered her perception of reality, it could have an impact on the outcome of the art that she creates.

“By doing things that open your mind and show you more of reality, that will affect your work.” Shapiro said. “Maybe you can see more of yourself, which matters the most”

It is not just artists that could be affected by the psychedelic properties.

Daniel McQueen believes that psychedelic aspects can heal those who need it with the help of cannabis.

McQueen earned a degree in transpersonal counseling psychology at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. His intention was to become a psychedelic therapist, and shortly

after he graduated, cannabis became legal in Colorado.

“That created an opportunity that allowed me to step into this line of work that was legal,” McQueen said. “I didn’t have to

wait for other medicines to become legal.”

McQueen’s experiences with psychedelics and his education is what allows him to do this type of training with people.

McQueen is the founder and president of an organization called Medicinal Mindfulness. The various programs that Medicinal Mindfulness offers include psychotherapy, psychedelic education and psychedelic-sitter training.

They achieve this by facilitating psychedelic integration circles, and the newly formed concious cannabis circles. The overall goal of the program, McQueen explained, is to teach people how to use cannabis as a psychedelic with intention and skill.

“It may be as effective as other psychedelic therapies for trauma resolution,” McQueen said.

McQueen has been able to connect to the public through these conscious cannabis circles, usually held in Yoga studios, that anyone can attend. Including one held at Evoke Yoga, located in downtown Los Angeles. The

purpose is not to get people stoned beyond comprehension but to encourage people to alter their perception of reality.

What McQueen hopes is to use cannabis as a psychedelic to achieve the same effects the psychedelics have on users.

In the more modern era, people are not shipping Peyote throughout the United States. Instead, those who are attracted to the psychedelic community can connect with who provide psychedelic assistance.

Whether the user is attempting to understand themselves, cope with trauma or even trying to understand how the world works, the psychedelic culture has an evident impact on the modern world.

According to McQueen, with the proper setting and experienced guides, those who tap into the psychedelic aspect have the benefit of gaining new ideas through the altering of reality.

“If used safely, with intention and with the right support it can be a very meaningful and enriching life experience.”

Laurie Shapiro preparing to light some incense

Family photos courtesy of Satanassi family and Nori Muster curtesy of Bill Muster

SURVIVING A CULT Insidious

Her journal was all that was left behind.

Sad evidence within the pages showed how she struggled with the notion that everything she was told growing up was a lie.

She wrote she was talking to God and still trying to get prophecies.

As a child she was the most committed out of all her siblings a true believer she embodied gave the love they preached and taught all to portray.

Yet, she received daily beatings, told she was rotten and possessed by the devil.

After the beatings, she would go to her room and pray God to forgive her for her mistakes.

At 23 she started a successful business only after she had traveled the world with a professional dance company.

At 28 she put a gun to her head.

Her name was Victoria Ainis, and she was raised in The Family International, formerly The Children of God, one of the most notorious biblical based cults, [see page 33 for definitions of cults and seven signs your in a cult].

It was founded in the late 1960’s in Huntington Beach Calif., by David Berg.

Victoria’s mother and uncle joined the cult after members proselytized at their college in California.

The commune spread throughout the world and Victoria’s mother moved to several countrties with some Family International members.

Like other women in the cult, she was used as bait for “Flirty Fishing,” a type of “holy” prostitution where the women sold their bodies.

They generated money for the cult, while also proselytizing to their clients.

This resulted in Jesus babies, a term used by the organization for children born out from Flirty Fishing and raised in large group homes.

After the fourth child, Victoria’s mother was forced to marry Romano Satanassi, which resulted in five more children.

Victoria lived with her mother in South Africa, along with sisters Maria Ainis, Martina and Carla Satanassi.

Maria recalled her early chidhood as restricrted. They were put into groups according to their age and lived in a boarding school within the community of more than 100 people. Children were only allowed to visit with their parents an hour a day.

“They didn’t like if you were creative. They didn’t like if you thought for yourself. They pretty much wanted to control everything that you did, thought and believed,” Maria said.

“Any sense of self or individualism was basically robbed from you to whip us

into control.”

Their day would begin the same as other across the globe. They would wake, make their beds and get ready for breakfast.

However, after breakfast they had three hours of work and then they were supposed to pray and receive prophecies from Jesus.

Written reports were expected of what they learned in thier prophecies.

Everything the children did was monitored by an adult supervisor, from how many glasses of water to how many times they used the bathroom.

Demerits were given any time any of the house rules were broken, which, according to Maria, were unavoidable because the house rules kept changing.

“So at the end of the week you would have certain amount of demerits. and you would get a fucking beating,” Maria said.

“We just learned to not say anything.” Martina added. “Because if we would get in trouble we would get beat and

Photos and Story by Magdalena Bleu Briggs

“Women are taught and made to believe that their body was God’s gift of love to men, and therefore, they needed to go out into the world and share it freely.”

-Maria Ainis

Former member of The Family Internationa

our other siblings would get beatings.”

Their sister said Victoria received the worst of the beatings from their father, more so than her siblings.

“It made me very angry and made me have a lot of resentment towards him, and I didn’t respect my mom because she kind of just let everything happen.

Members were taught they were supposed to be God’s right hand, prophets that would help Jesus re-build paradise on Earth after the apocalypse.

“I remember thinking I don’t want to be a missionary and feeling so much shame and guilt,” Maria said.

“You were made to feel like you would rot in hell,” Martina added.

Like many Bible-based cults, the Family International believes a person can be saved and spend eternity in heaven only after they

repent and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

They also believe that all other Christian faith groups are in error to some degree.

However, according to an article on the group in the Los Angeles Times, by Roy Rivenburg, sex was a strong theme.

Berg was quoted saying, “Theres nothing in the world wrong with sex as long as its done with love ... no matter who it’s with or what age or relative for that matter!”

The article also stated that Berg instructed the masturbation of young boys by their parents, sex with ghosts and sex with children.

Maria said, when she was growing up children were encouraged at a young age to be open about sex. Little girls were seen as adults at the age of 12.

They were encourage to not wear underwear or bras

and wear translucent clothing, according to written materials by David Berg that were distributed theroughout the commune.

“Women are taught and made to believe that their body was God’s gift of love to men, and therefore, they needed to go out into the world and share it freely,” Maria said.

She recollected that at the age of 12, she took her mother aside and begged to run away with her siblings, away from the commune and religion.

Maria feelt hopeful she was was able to to reach her mother’s sensibilities, but the cult won time and again.

“It’s a very psychotic way to

raise a child,” Maria said.

Dr. Rachel Bernstein is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She has specialized in helping victims of cults transition into society and deprogramming years of cult mentality and emotional abuse for more than 20 years.

Bernstein noted when a person is involved in a cult they are given the impression that without it they would be nothing, and, left to their own devices to

Left to Right: Sisters and survivors Martina Satanassi, Maria Ainisi and Carla Satanassi in their home in Calif.

Photo courtesty of Satanassi family Victoria Ainis before her death on February 14, 2015

make decisions for themselves, they will make the wrong ones.

The reason you are taught these things is so you stay and you are dependent on them for every decision, she said.

According to Patrick Ryan, a professional cult mediator since 1984 and founder of Cult Mediation, influencing or helping people maintain a relationship with their loved ones no matter what the circumstances is the most important.

“Ultimately you want to be able to come out to something,” Ryan said.

“The worst thing possible is to come out of a group and you have no one on the outside, because you isolated everyone.”

Each sister, including Victoria, left the cult at different opportunities, and they eventually moved to Los Angeles to reunite with their grandparents and begin a new life.

Only their estranged father remains in South Africa and is still affiliated with the Family International.

The sisters are working on healing the pain and confusion of the past.

“I remember having this sense that it was wrong. I didn’t want this for me. When I grow

up, this is not going to be me.” Martina recalled. “I don’t know how, but I knew this was not going to be my life.”

Eyes welled up as they spoke of their lives and healing, relating to others, getting to know themselves as who they really have become away from the programming.

“You are supposed to be God’s love, and yet there’s so much abuse. How do you hit your kids?” Maria asked.

According to Bernstein, cults tend to target people when they are in places of transition—most commonly colleges, prisons, hospitals and halfway homes.

“Cults usually send out charming, attractive people to recruit. What people don’t understand is that you get drowned into a well-oiled machine of manipulation,” Bernstein said. “There is a need for more professionals out there who are willing to understand and not blame the family or the victim for this.”

Bernstein worries there is a lack of help and understanding for people that have left a cult.

“I’d like to see more people doing this type of work,” Bernstein explained. “I would like to see the general public be more educated so people don’t have to worry about telling their stories and be judged and blamed.”

Both Ryan and Bernstein have seen cult members leave and come out without family without money, and, in some extreme cases, no education or the knowledge of how the outside world works.

“The hardest thing to deal with is cult mentality,” Ryan said. “You are helping someone

re-evaluate or look at things they don’t particularly want to look at, and nobody wants to look at things you don’t want to look at.”

Ryan wants people to be better consumers, for people to learn to really investigate anything that makes amazing claims or seems too good to be true.

What helped these sisters survive and overcome was the strong bond they shared..

“Everything we are now is because we tried to be everything that they weren’t,” Carla said.

Martina credits her success to her sisters and the support they offer each other.

“We pulled away from everything they were, and that’s why we’re strong, because we just tried to be completely opposite.”

The sisters want people to have the strength to question everything.

Martina said of Victoria,

“She was in it the longest. She was the most commited and got the worse of the beatings growing up, yet she was the sweetest, most beautiful soul on the planet. She was the love we were preached to be.”

Family portrait of the Satanassis while living on the commune of The Family Internarional in South Africa.

Dr. Rachel Bernstein in her o ce in Encino Calif.,

SOUND &

Sound therapy helps people cope with stress and trauma

As the grey, suede wand caressed the rim of the dark purple crystal alchemy bowl, a peaceful buzzing reverberated throughout the sound studio, as if a swarm of bees were singing a lullaby.

The two musicians started to play multiple bowls at the same time, each with different colors and unique sounds. Their pitches ranged from low to high like a middle school choir of adolescent teens going through puberty.

Along with singing bowls, they clashed together wooden chimes, waved spiritual wands and played percussion instruments that

bathed the room with streams of sound.

To complement the blissful tunes of the instruments, the women used their voices to create a relaxing harmony.

Rebecca Dru and Misti Cooper are not just sound therapists. They serve as spiritual entrepreneurs prepared to take people on sound voyages with the purpose of releasing negative energy trapped in the crevasses of their bodies.

“The truth of the matter is that all pain or trauma is stored in the molecules of your cells,” Dru said. “The only way to release that is through sound.”

Sound therapy uses frequencies, music and special instruments played in therapeutic ways, combined with deep selfreflection techniques to improve health and well being, according to the British Academy of Sound Therapy (BAST).

Dr. Helen Lavretsky, a geriatric psychiatrist and professor in the Department of Psychiatry at University of California, Los Angeles, said there are many health benefits to sound healing. It is often used with people who have sleep disorders because it helps them relax.

“People will buy sound

machines so they can listen to classical music, or any relaxing musical preference or gongs in order to fall asleep, so there are multiple health effects to sound healing,” Lavretsky said.

According to a 2016 medical study published in the Journal of Evidence-Based Integrative Medicine, participants reported “signifcantly less tension, anger, fatigue and depressed mood.”

According to Dru, a woman had developed a brain issue and lost all functions with her body to the point of spoon-feeding. At the hospital, her mother felt an urge to start humming her daughter’s favorite songs.

SO UL

“In humming, the daughter was brought back and is fine now,” Dru said. “She can sing and do whatever because sound is transformative.”

Sound is an effective method of therapy because the human bodies are virtually made of sound, according to Lavretsky.

“Our body constantly vibrates at a certain frequency,” Lavretsky said. “If there is an erratic frequency, the way to calm down and bring it to a coherent state of relaxation is to play music.”

The human body is made of sound Lavretsky said, so this means certain frequencies can alter or change cell structure.

Cooper said if a cancer cell decides to turn against itself in the body, sound can abolish that cell if the frequency is just right. Because the diseased cell would be dead, it would not be able to regenerate.

“Think about an opera singer that holds up a crystal glass and she sings a pitch and the frequency breaks the glass,” Cooper said. “It is the same concept.”

Despite using a plethora of sound healing instruments, the voice is Dru’s specialty. She uses it to open neural pathways in the brain.

Misti Cooper, a spiritual alchemist, lies down on the floor surrounded by crystal alchemy bowls in her apartment in West Hollywood, Calif.

Story and Photos by Christopher Torres

“My favorite thing, is the voice because it doesn’t cost you anything,” Dru said. “It’s with you all the time and it’s in your body. So it affects you probably like nothing else. You don’t have to know how to sing in order to create sound either. What you have to learn how to do is create the harmonics in the sound.”

Dru started playing piano at 2 and started working with kids when she was 7. She believes that by using sound, movement and rhythm with children, she can open up new neural pathways in the brain.

At elementary schools, Dru has worked with troubled youth who got behind in class because a new lesson would begin before they understood the last one.

“The kids that had the most problems were doing these rhythms I could never do,” Dru said. “I said let’s try doing your times tables or your spelling while doing the rhythms again, and they knew it. They remembered it.”

By opening neural pathways in the brain, it releases the stress and trauma trapped in the cells of the body, Cooper said, and she added that this results in creating sounds that may come off as

“unhuman.”

“After you release them, all of a sudden you are lifted, you are lighter and you feel better,” Cooper said. “That is because you have allowed that sound, that frequency, that vibration to come out of the cells and tissues of the body.”

At 3, Cooper said she was awakened by a spirit in the middle of the night and instructed to head to the garage. When she opened the door, there was an energy that Cooper described as “jagged,” and it started throwing electricity at her.

“It was like match sticks on my skin started burning,” Cooper said. “It got to a point where I thought I was going to die, but then all of a sudden I just go into a trance and I was lifted up and filled with so much electricity. Till this day, I can feel it running through my body.”

After this experience, Cooper said she was able to see energy waves coming toward her off of people, which sparked her career as a spiritual alchemist.

“When I had these out-ofbody experiences, I became like a billion pieces of stars out in the universe,” Cooper said. “I was nothing, and, yet, I was everything.”

Cooper said the spirit showed her the sequencing of creation through her chakras.

According to Cooper, chakras are portals in the body that focus on something different in our lives. For example, the root chakra is about stability, grounding and being on the earth plane. It is about survival mode, food and shelter.

These chakras also spin just like how a galaxy spins, said Cooper, who added that because our bodies are made of sound, it is

going to mirror everything that is in outer space.

“By monitoring the rate of spin of your chakras, that actually will help you become a healthier person,” Cooper said. “So they shouldn’t be spinning too slow or too fast. It is all about being in balance.”

Cooper does her healing through chakras by using them as a portal. She said you can heal your body through sound instead of taking medicine.

Countries outside of the United States are more active in using this kind of therapy in a clinical setting, but the U.S. is slowly catching up to them according to Lavretsky.

“The U.S. healthcare system is now picking up on recognizing alternative and integrative medicine,” Lavretsky said. “They are finding ways of improving outcomes of mainstream medicine.”

With children living in an era of coping with their pain and trauma by turning to drugs and violence, Dru emphasized that the children need to find an outlet that is productive.

“I have over a 1,000 kids that I have worked with, and I said to them that you have a choice in life,” Dru said. “You want to get into gangs? You want to do drugs? You want to get into fights? That’s your choice, or you can find an outlet.”

Dru and Cooper believe that society is too busy finding everything wrong with each other instead of going about life in a simple loving way.

“The basis of our meditations are sound, light and love,” Cooper said. “And I think that’s one thing that we as humanity forget.”

Rebecca Dru, an intuitive spiritual sound healer, clashes the Koshi Chimes on her balony in West Hollywood, Calif.

The Afterlife What happens when we die?

Story by Gina Wong

Photo Illustrations by George Apikyan

Some people believe the afterlife is a spirit realm we enter after our soul leaves the human body on Earth and ultimately gets sent up into the heavens.

They also believe the physical body may no longer be alive, but the mind and soul still lives in the afterlife.

Christians believe in an heaven and hell. Sikhs believe in doing good deeds so they can merge back with God. Jews believe that another life is awaiting us after we have moved from the physical world.

World Religions Professor Jill Carroll said some scholars suggest that the belief in an afterlife was one of the primary reasons for religions to develop in the first place.

“Religions are human cultural products, and humans beings create religions,” Carroll said. “Whatever the religions have in them in terms of beliefs are things that human beings deeply care about.”

Carroll said people have always cared about death and the questions that surround it, such as what happens when we die and is there life after death?

“Religions include various theories of the afterlife as a way to address the human anxiety, needs and desires,” Carroll said.

According to Roberta Grimes, author of The Fun of Dying, some departing people may begin to see or hear their loved ones who have already died.

“The person who is passing will stop communicating with the living because they will start to communicate with the people who are coming forr them in their mind,” Grimes said.

According to her, when it’s time to die, the outer body is the one that stays, but the spiritual body gathers at our center and generally leaves through the chest, sometimes through the top of the head.

In each religion, the interpretation of the afterlife is different and based on a person’s belief system.

Gene Hall, the former pastor of New Life Christian Church in Glendale, said in the Christian faith, after we die, the soul is given a heavenly body.

“Some people believe that we are going to be recognized and we are going to recognize others ,” Hall said.

Hall described heaven as God’s dwelling.

“It’s all loving, forgiveness, mercy, grace, kindness, goodness and all things that are beautiful and lovely,” Hall said. “God is the author of all those things.”

On the other hand, Hall believes that hell is the opposite of all that is good, and justice will be served.

“It’s a separation of love, mercy, kindness, light and hope. Basically, it’s all the things we count in life as being good, but in this place, it’s all missing,” Hall said.

At some point, Hall explained, God will create a new heaven and a new Earth.

“And during that time humanity will be with God forever,” he said. “There will be no more sickness, no more pain and no more sorrow.”

Despite the idea that people will either get to go to heaven or hell, Hall believes that no one can be sure if they will get to enter heaven.

“It is the gift of God and a gift of grace and it can’t be earned, so that no one can boast about it,” Hall said.

Carroll said from a philosophical standpoint the afterlife often functions as a way to bring moral balance back into life.

“The belief in a heaven or hell is a way for some people to restore moral balance in a world that

existed in both.

“The soul descended down to achieve a purpose,” Kluwgant said. “When the purpose is no longer viable because the purpose was either fulfilled or not, the soul is able to return back to heaven.”

As an intellectual, Kluwgant believes that the idea of an afterlife as a place of rewards or punishments is not important.

“The ways I use the teachings of an afterlife is that I simply know what’s right and what’s wrong,” Kluwgant said. “I just want to be in the present moment.”

Sewak Khurana, the principal of Sunday School at the Valley Sikh Temple, said the main philosophy is to merge back with God.

doesn’t always seem fair,” Carroll said. “If someone does bad things in the world and seems to get away with it. then the belief in an afterlife is a way to believe that they are going to get what they deserve in hell.”

Rabbi Isser Kluwgant said the concept of the afterlife is the World to Come, which is kind of like the good place.

In Jewish faith, there are two stages of the afterlife that is mentioned in the Torah.

Stage one is when the soul is in waiting. Stage two is known as the Era of Redemption.

“There is the stage where the soul ascends on high, the soul comes down into the body and then it goes back into heaven and then it’s just kind of waiting,” Kluwgant said. “All the souls come back into this current world and there is no more evil in the world.”

Jews believe that not only is there an afterlife, but there is a before life, and a person has

“The ocean has bubbles, which represent the human being, and once someone dies they go back into the ocean and return to God,” Khurana said.

He added that good deeds must be done. Otherwise, a person’s journey can go in life cycles for committing bad deeds.

“Our goal is to remember God and do good deeds so we can get salvation, and the soul can return back to where we came from,” Khurana said.

Carroll said religion can be a central motivator for how a person behaves during their time on Earth, because in Christianity there is an encouragement to do the right thing even if there is no benefit for doing these actions.

“Our actions should come from an honest character, not from some kind of selfish motivation to go to heaven,” Carroll said.

Hall added, “At the end of the day, everything will all be worth it, even if at times it may not feel that way.”

“I celebrate the good days and if things don’t work out perfectly on Earth, I know that there is a life to come where things will be perfect. What is not fulfilled on this side of eternity will be fulfilled on the other side.”

- Gene Hall Pastor

Facing Page Photo Illustration by George Apakyan

The Catholic Complication

Story by Paulina Vidanez

Often, Mass brings comfort to those seeking truth, community and a re-affirmation of their faith. People find that their anxiety washes away as the organ tones reverberate through the hall and the congregation sings hymns of God’s love.

But church leaves others feeling alienated.

Em Bartholet was raised in a Catholic household and attended an all-girl Catholic school for the better part of her adolescence. Often, she said, refuge was found in faith and prayer with her family.

In the fourth grade, Bartholet wanted to become a nun. With

her strong personal sense of spirituality, Bartholet wanted to combine her love of God with the desire to help people.

“When I was little, all I knew was the Catholic Church,” Bartholet said.

As a child, she didn’t understand the issues she would soon find with Church’s teachings. The Church was her word and her lifeline to God. The only thing Bartholet understood was that the Church wanted people to be good and treat each other well.

With a strong heart, Bartholet decided, “I’ll be a nun. I can help people all the time. That’ll be my job: to love people and to help them.”

But when Bartholet was 12, she began to turn away from her faith.

“I didn’t tell anyone, but I decided I hated God because my life was not great at the time,” Bartholet said.

Her mother would guilt her. Even though she didn’t believe in what the Catholic faith believed, her mother was adamant: “You are Catholic.”

With messages Bartholet believed were contrasting, such as “God forgives anything” and “Don’t do these things that God doesn’t like or you’ll go to hell,” she began to believe organized religion was hypocritical.

The Baptistery of St. John in Florence, Italy.

Photographed by Magdalena Bleu Briggs

In Catholic school, Bartholet said she and her classmates were taught to be homophobic and judgemental. Although she said she didn’t know that gay men, let alone gay women or bisexual people, existed until seventh grade, Bartholet believed the teachings were in sharp contrast to her mother’s instructions to be kind to others regardless of their orientations.

Bartholet said she began to feel unwelcome in the Church, more so when she realized she was not straight.

She said she saw the effects that the Church had on her LGBT+ peers, which she called “horrifying,” and it became hard for her to want to stay in a community that she believed was judgemental.

“I started having panic attacks during Mass,” she said. “My mom thought I was doing it for attention, but I just couldn’t stand to see the pain. I didn’t want anything to do with that.”

Being raised in an environment where she thought no one would ever accept her for her sexual orientation and gender identity, Bartholet thought it would be impossible for her to find an accepting community.

As a child, Bartholet said she kept a prayer book with her and wrote in it often. She would go to confession and come out feeling better. As she grew older, Bartholet said she still enjoyed going to church and felt like it made her feel closer to God, but the relationship was still tumultuous.

“Sometimes I would be like, God is great,” she said. “God will make everything better. And sometimes I’d be like, screw God, God let this happen to me. God made this happen because God

made everything.”

As a child, Bartholet also faced suicidal thoughts, and said, “I was eventually told people who kill themselves go to hell because that has thrown away God’s gift of life.”

Although the fear of hell was a

good deterrent from wanting to take your own life, “That is a great way to mess up a 12-year-old who’s had suicidal ideation and attempts,” Bartholet said.

Izzy Silvis, a friend Bartholet made through college, said Bartholet remains spiritual despite her background. “I feel as though Em’s spirituality is nature based,” she said.

To Silvis, Bartholet’s openness and intuition regarding things in nature feels like “a breath of fresh air.”

“Em pushed me to question what I think about religion and how forms of spirituality not only free the mind and the soul, but are rooted in feminist theory,” she said.

Although it’s widely

believed that the United States is rising in secularism, Richard Flory, the senior director of research and evaluation at the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture, disagrees.

“The majority of people who are disaffiliating from religious groups still maintain some sort of religious traditions,” Flory said. “It lives really deep in the American identity of who I am is who I am. People don’t want to be involved, but underneath that is how they understand themselves in relation to religion.”

Bartholet still believes that religion is powerful. “Religion has the potential to do beautiful, beautiful things for the world,” she said.

Although she said she finds organized religion scary and the idea of worshipping a god separate from humans strange, Bartholet has seen the impact that faith and religious tenets has on people who want to create social change.

“I watched people suffer so much because of religion,” Bartholet said. “But I will always have a little bit of Catholic in me. I can’t get away from that.”

“I will always have a little bit of Catholic in me. I can’t get away from that.”

― EM BARTHOLET

of St. Florence, Italy. Photographed by Briggs

Devil if you dare

The origin of Satan explored

STORY AND PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY NATALIE MIRANDA

The name drips off the lips of those who are damned to speak it. Like blood, its influence runs through the veins of different faiths.

According to a 2017 Gallup Poll, 61 percent of Americans say they’re believers of the devil.

In the Christian faith, the origin story of what is known to be the devil is an angel cast down from heaven, often referred to as an opposer of God.

Seventh-Day Adventist Church Pastor Paulo Oliveira said Christianity and Judaism share the same creation story.

Oliveira describes how the devil is first introduced in the Old Testament.

“He is depicted as a perfect being created by God, and that’s the name Lucifer, which is full of light,” Oliveira said. “And it’s funny because we think of perception of perfection as the absence of any capability or ability to do anything wrong.”

The story is the same, but the interpretation of scripture in Judaism is different.

Reformed Rabbi Barry Lutz said the devil doesn’t exist in Judaism.

In the Torah, portraying the devil or devil-like figures represents the inclination to sin, rather than a singular being.

“In Judaism, there isn’t this notion of opposing forces, there isn’t that dualism in the way that it exists in Christianity, which is of course related to this idea of heaven and hell, that if you do good, you go to heaven, if you do bad, you go to hell,” Lutz said.

The sins of the world are in the hands of a figure or notion that has many aliases, but its face is an apsect that is usually associated with a universally recognizable image of a red-skinned and horned creature.

The imagery of the devil may have originated from Greek mythology. The figure Pan seems to be in part, the inspiration.

Pan is the Greek god of the wild, shepherds and flock. He is a half goat, half-human figure of that with goat’s feet and a horned head.

Following approximately 300 C.E. Pan became demonized by the western world. Images of Pan were largely associated with the devil after the Council of Nicea issued the Nicene Creed and the Roman Catholic Church was established in 325 C.E.

Adjunct Instructor of Anthropology Gregory Simon is a cultural anthropologist. Simon researcherd in West Sumatra and explored ideas about what makes people good or bad and why people do things that are not good.

Simon said in Islamic tradition, in the Koran, there’s this idea of evilness and that basically corresponds to the Satan or the devil.

“There is actually a little lack of clarity and some debates in Islam about the origin of Iblis. Iblis in some versions is an angel,” Simon said.

Simon added that the people in West Sumatra often describe evil as an external force.

“People tell me stories: ‘I feel this desire to steal,’ ‘I wanted to steal’ or ‘I did steal my friend’s thing,” Simon said. “‘I did that and I’m responsible for it, but it’s not really me because it’s coming from this force, this devil.’”

Simon said the notion of the devil is more abstract in human existence.

“It’s only through living in the world where you come into contact with all of these kind of corrupting forces as you try to

make way for your world,” Simon said. “There’s all these things that sort of take that original purity and try to push it in bad directions. And those things kind of worm their way into you, but they’re never really the heart of you.”

Core Education Committee member from the California Zoroastrian Center Artemis Javanshir said the concept of a devil is not embodied in a singular being.

“In Zoroastrian religion, we believe that good and evil exists in us,” Javanshir said. “So if we decide to use our good mind and try to be progressive and do good things, then we are exercising Spenta Mainyu, which means progressive mentality.

Although the devil is often associated with terror, the imagery can be viewed as humorous when realized in the world of entertainment.

American cinema sometimes sees the devil as an icon for the clever and a role model for the mischievous, living in the minds of modern imagination.

Assistant Professor of Cinema Ken Windrum said the portrayal of the devil in media, particularly in cinema, is often comedic.

“It’s easy to make into a joke,” Windrum said. “The devil is a costume, lots of people throw the word devil around, football teams have the name devil, the devil is cute – ‘You little devil.’ It’s a sexy costume on Halloween. Windrum questioned why the portrayal of the devil is the way it is.

“Why is the devil so hard to represent?” Windrum asked.

“Why is the devil this funny? Is it because a lot of people don’t believe in the devil or is it because those that do believe, think it’s too scary?”

Astrologer to the Stars and Back

It was around 55 years ago when Ronald Reagan wrote his autobiography Where’s theRestofMe?and ventured off into the world of politics after a bubbly career as a Hollywood actor. The ‘60s brought a time of turbulence and uncertainty, and Reagan searched for insight about his political journey through a way no one could imagine.

Reagan followed astrology. He and Nancy Reagan believed that astrology could make a difference in their lives, and they sought the most recognized astrologist in California. They found ‘Astrologer to the Stars,’ Carroll Righter.

Righter was a famous astrologer to many celebrities in the ‘50s and ‘60s. He left a legacy of insight and tradition behind by founding the Carroll Righter Astrological Foundation in Hollywood.

Fransiscus Cisco Huijbregts is one of the primary teachers

and organizers and owns more than 1,000 astrology books. He said Righter’s work has been recognized by many Hollywood celebrities.

“He came out here and basically became the ‘Astrologer to the Stars,’” Huijbregts said. “It was a lot of fun. He started this place in 1964 and he was syndicated in about 166 newspapers. He was at the time an astrologer to Ronald Reagan and was his astrologer from the ‘40s. He used to come here all the time with both wives before he became Republican.”

Righter held exclusive monthly sun sign parties in his home, which featured live animals or figures that represented the sign that was being celebrated. Huijbregts said movie stars were in the house and came during the parties.

“The ones that he kept up the most were the Leo parties,” Huijbregts said. “One time he

had a real big lion out there and a couple times he had lion cubs. He would have the animal that belonged to the zodiac,” Huijbregts said.

Astrology is known as a pseudoscience that relates human behavior and predictive elements to the relative positions and movements of celestial objects in space. The practice focuses on our solar system and how we are “ultimately connected and influenced by the stars.”

History Chair at Haverford College Darin Hayton has a Ph.D. in history and the philosophy of science. He has studied ancient astrology and has written a book on its applications throughout the Roman era.

Astrology has been known for thousands of years. Once considered a serious science, it is primarily used for religion and philosophy today.

“What we recognize as

Dan Khoury with attendees at the Carroll Righter Astrological Foundation in Hollywood.

Story by Chelsea Westman

Photos by George Apikyan and Chelsea Westman

astrology, conditions of the major planets, including the sun and the moon, dates back to at least the Hellenistic decrees,” Hayton said.

“So, we’re looking at second, third century B.C.E. Greece, and before that you can see elements that we might say are astrological.

In “Understanding ScienceHow Science Really Works” - a series for the UC Museum of Palaeontology, there are zero cases of astrology contributing to any scientific discovery.

The research article stated, “Over the 2,500 years that people have been using the zodiac to predetermine their lives, the signs have moved into different positions and are invalid today. For instance, a person born between March 21 and April 19 might think they are an Aries, when in reality they were born in Pisces.”

Despite a lack of scientific evidence, Hayton said astrology is a viable study that has gone through a number of iterations in development over the last 2,000 years.

“There’s a lot of development and different ways to extend the

way that astrology can be applied in the domains where it is thought to be useful, such as politics, religion, medicine and weather,” he said.

Jack Taube, another primary teacher, explained what astrology means to him in terms of spiritual practice.

means to him in terms of spiritual blueprint of your life of the things that you are going to experience and the things you are going to go

very popular at that time,” Khoury said.

Khoury reflected on the time of the sun sign parties and the attention they brought to the foundation.

“They would close down the streets, and the limousines would come drop off everybody,” Khoury said.

Khoury added there never is a moment that is the same, and astrological charts depict individuality.

“Normally, you think the solar system is flat,” Khoury said. “It’s moving forward through space. Even though you may say that Venus is in the same sign as another person, it is also in a whole different space. It’s not the same cycle ever, so that shows you how individual we are and how we focus into bringing all this stuff together and that’s what these charts do.”

Khoury said astrology is the understanding of the connectivity of signs and understanding it’s really a form of how things evolve.

we involve the metaphysical and the spiritual along with the

“The horoscope is a roadmap or blueprint of your life of the things that you are going to experience and the things you are going to go through,” Taube said. “In astrology, we involve the metaphysical and the spiritual along with the practical things of life.

In my life, I could see astrology has played a role. Unfortunately, we find out the mistakes we make in life by going and making the mistakes.”

Dan Khoury, the third primary teacher, taught at the foundation and left to teach at the New Age Bible and Philosophy Center in Santa Monica until it closed, and, then found himself back teaching under Righter’s roof.

“I came around in ‘92. I received my first book on astrology when I was in Vietnam. I picked up Linda Goodman’s Sun Sign , which was

“With a good astrology, you can understand the details of the flow of these situations and how personality is expressed in certain ways,” Khoury said.

Heather Conlon is a regular atendee who has been coming for about three months by herself. She said she feels more balanced with each visit.

Huijbregts said we all are fundamentally working with the same planets and the same aspects.

“That’s the nature of it. Once you realize that everything is connected, then you can start seeing how everything relates.”

Jack Taube teaches a beginning astrology class at the Carroll Righter Astrological Foundation in Hollywood.

Worshiper feeding seed to a fire during fire ceremony in Gurujat India.

Photo by Magdalena Bleu Briggs

Having divine protection

Miriam Bayas has been working with angels for as long as she can remember. Even though not everyone believes in them, they were there for her.

“I can say I am fortunate that I have them to protect me. I remember one day I had to leave because it was already 7 p.m. and in my mind I thought I had locked the door,” Bayas said. “When I arrived the next day and I saw that I didn’t I thought they stole from me, but the store was intact.”

Bayas said that she saw in the security camera recording a man that was trying to go in, but the door wouldn’t open. After three attempts, he left.

Those angels remain a daily part of her life, Bayas said, and she shares her love of all things spiritual as the owner of Aromagica Sol & Luna. The store sells candles, herbs, crystals, stones and incense.

Bayas said that 80 percent of her clients that go to the store

pass by, but something grabs their attention and they walk in.

“Crystals are something that come from Mother Earth. Brazil is one of the beautiful countries that God and the universe put ice on that country. And then they have big mines, whenever you go to Rio. It is very intense in the Amazon and you will find all kinds of crystals,” Bayas said.

Emily Earl, a co-worker, said that she enjoys working with Bayas and has developed a friendship over time.

Earl said that Bayas has a welcoming personality.

“She is very caring and is always willing to listen if I ever need anything to discuss on a personal or a professional level,” Earl said. “She has been a really great friend to me over the past year and I really enjoyed getting to know her.”

Marybeth Murphy, an angelic spiritual coach, has been doing angel readings professionally for 15 years. She said that her clients have left transformed.

“They leave different knowing that everything is going to be okay,” Murphy said. They have a feeling of peace.”

Murphy said that angels are non-denominational. When she meets with her clients she said that religion is not involved.

Murphy said that everyone has guardian angels with them.

“There’s no way to interpret them. They are designed to work and protect us. No one can understand them except you,” Murphy said. “And that’s what I teach people. I help them understand that they also can communicate with you.”

Bayas said that when people ask her if there is anyone that does card readings, she says no because that is not apart of her beliefs.

“What is the past, it already happened. The future, only God knows what will occur,” Bayas said. “I don’t understand why people will request for that service when no one knows what will happen years from now.”

STORY BY FELIPE GAMINO

PHOTO BY MAGDALENA BLEU BRIGGS

ARE YOU IN CULT

Most cult-like organizations rebuke the idea of opposition or criticism.

Common Cults

Bible based: Leaders are regarded as the official speaker for God.

Cults are renowned for being totalitarian in nature, meaning they are closed off from the outside world.

Commercial MultiMarketing-Cults:

Members are encouraged to participate in costly and sometimes lengthy seminars and to sell the group’s “product” to others.

Many cult members are anxious to abandon thier respective groups in fear of retaliation from the organization.

Cults are businesses. Members often pay a large sum to remain a part of the commune

Political Cults/Terrorist:

Members are asked to take on a cause and have it become their purpose.

One on One:

Generally, an intimate relationship used to manipulate and control the partner, children or students.

The information comes from Dr. Rachel Bernstien, M.E.T and apologeticsindex.org