The Group Dr. C. A.

Crowley 1 The Groups origin, foundation, and basic beliefs A cultic offshoot of Native American Spirituality and The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints The Groups beginnings are difficult to pin down. Ron Livingston, the man recognized as the Prophet and High Priest of The Group, began preaching and gathering a following during the early 1970s. The primary development of The Group took place between 1974 and 2001. By the early 1990s, 91 persons (Searles, 1993) had been part of The Group at various times but were no longer involved, and approximately 30 families were living on two separate tracts of land (one of 40 acres, another of 160 acres) in the rural Midwest (see Figures 12). In the initial stages, this group had the official sanctioning of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS). Indeed, during a portion of these early years, Ron was even an employee of the RLDS World Church as a missionary to the Navajo and other Native American peoples.

Figure 1. Map of West Village (The 160).

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Figure 2. Map of East Village (The 80). At the very beginning of the evolution of this cult, looking somewhat like the character Billy Jack from the movie by the same name, Ron walked around campus with a homemade leather hunting bag packed with books slung over his shoulder and wearing a high crown, Navajo-style felt hat and a fringed leather jacket. Because of his unique appearance among middle-class White adolescents, he began to attract attention and followers from among idealistically religious young college students. Several of these followers, myself included, spent summers with Ron, living and working on various Indian reservations across the United States and Canada. Those that met with Rons group tended to be individuals dissatisfied with traditional RLDS services. Many of us believed that the things Ron preached had much greater spiritual

The Group Dr. C. A. Crowley 3 depthwe felt touched and fed.1 During the interviews, Debra, a former member, summarized this pull as follows: Ron was representing something that was touching me. Similarly, Edward remembered that the things he had to say were appealing to me, and he was someone that I focused on as being a person of wisdom. Sharon explained that when Ron was talking about this stuff, I was like, this is what Ive been wanting to know all this time, while Gregory admitted, I was just amazed. I mean, it was like nothing Id ever experienced in religion before. Um, enthralled might be the better term. I recall sitting in thrall listening to the message of spiritual uniqueness and godly attention with which I had grown up. But here, with Ron, it didnt seem theoretical. When Rons blue eyes touched and held mine, it was as if Id been struck by lightning. God Really meant me, and He Really meant now. It was all I had hoped and dreamed of in my 17 years of life. I was very shy and timid. Id grown up in a home that was violent, with an alcoholic father. I was no stranger to what I considered hell on earth, and I was no stranger in knowing how to keep secrets. All spring I attended every session Ron conducted. I went from a GPA of 3.76 to failing classes, primarily because I was off following Ron, trying to get his attention. Finally, just before school was out for the summer, I gathered my courage and asked Ron if I could join his summer team. I was devastated when he could barely spare me a glance and told me No. He suggested that I hook up with one of the Churchs other summer ministries to the Indians. I was apparently too soft and timid. I sadly went home, once again feeling rejected by God, and uncertain what I would do with my first summer away from college. After a week at home, I got a phone call from one of Rons seconds those young men who were closest to

Unless otherwise indicated, all direct quotations are taken from participant interviews.

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him and would be in charge of various groups sent out over the summer. I was asked to attend the training camp that was already underway. Ron had a message for me. As I nervously waited for Ron to notice me, I watched everyone else practice Native American skills beading, basket making, tanning hides, making arrowheadsI yearned to be a part of it all. Ron did finally notice me. We sat on the ground, near and yet apart from all that was going on. Ron told me that he had to repent of having sent me away, because God had spoken to him and told him that I needed to be there, and that I needed to be a part of his Team. He then passed me off to one of his seconds, and told me to learn as much as I can because we were going to Wisconsin for our first camp in a few days. While we were in Wisconsin, several important things happened. Our main reason for being there was to teach the Wisconsin Ojibwa how to build a birch bark canoe. But, Ron being Ron, his demonstration model was going to be the worlds largest birch bark canoe. Whatever Ron built, it was almost invariable superlative in some way usually it was the worlds largest. As we spent time in Wisconsin working with the young Ojibwa men, Ron seemed to form an attachment to me. He seemed to view me as an innocent, angelic woman/child. I could do no wrong in his eyes. (Although I will admit, my natural tendency was to be timid and well behaved.) We slept in the open or in co-educational teepees. It wasnt long until Ron had pulled his sleeping bag next to mine. I often fell asleep with him holding my hand. A few days before Rons wife was to arrive at our camp, I awoke with Ron petting my face and whispering about how soft my skin was. When my eyes met his, he jerked back and got up. That was the last time I slept near Ron. By nightfall, he had moved his sleeping bag out under the canoe we were building.

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While Ron had been focused on the canoe building during the day hours, I had been involved with making a sweat lodge with some of the others, as well as digging pine roots to help with the sewing of the canoe. Through the course of these activities, I had met and become close with one of the Ojibwa boys who was about my own age. As Ron became aware of this, he called me aside to warn me of the untrustworthiness of the boy involved. The next day he also switched my assignment from being on his team there in Wisconsin, to the much smaller team that would go to Oregon to spend a month with the Warm Springs, and then go on to spend some time with the Shoshone. I felt as if I had been judged as evil and unworthy. Ron avoided me thereafter. I felt rejected and defiled. I was no longer the innocent, but was now a fallen angel. I was sent away from the prophets presence. Over the next year, I continued to be involved with The Team and Rons spiritual teachings. But, once I had lost my virginal status, I was never viewed quite the same, and never returned to my place in Rons group. Eventually, I married, had a child and lost track of Ron and his teachings. Over time, as my marriage disintegrated, I entered a doctoral psychology program. As so often happens in graduate school, my marriage continued to crumble. Half way through my second year the divorce became final. I managed to finish that year. But at about the time my money ran out, I happened to be in Lamoni so my daughter could visit with her father. On a whim, I pulled up next to Rons welding shop. I never even got out of the car. Ron was there so I pulled up next to him and asked him what he had to say to me, What does God have to say to me? Ron spoke with me briefly and encouraged me to come back to Lamoni, there were things happening of which I needed to be a part. The Group helped me move back, and I lived in the

The Group Dr. C. A. Crowley 6 Groups Hogan (church) while my daughter stayed with her dad until I was able to find a job and home for us. I had returned to the fold. In order to support my daughter and myself, I opened a private school for the children of The Group. It was set up as a one-room schoolhouse with all grades in a single room. Officially, the children where homeschooled and the parents helped support me by paying tuition, supplying needed items, supplying a place to live and a place to teach. It is this memory, as well as memories of a desire for a new name, where my actions were the catalyst that prompted The Group to move in a more isolated and cult-like direction. To this day, I feel a sense of sadness that I was the agent for these events. As time passed, Rons teachings moved increasingly farther from mainstream doctrine, but always, seemingly, in small, barely noticeable steps. Gregory verbalized it very specifically: In fact, the whole thing was a journey of small steps. Small, very reasonable steps. As former members looked back from the vantage point of distance, the end-point seemed miles from where it all began, but each small change was manageable and hardly noticeable, even for the mainstream RLDS church administration. For years wed been talking about how authority didnt come through the church, you know, said Gregory. It was a small step to say the church can say I dont have, you know authority, that its totally irrelevant Therefore, when Ron finally claimed authority as the High Priest, almost no one found it unusual or unacceptable.

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Figure 1. Hogan-style home built by Ron Livingston at entrance to Holy Name University.

Things proceeded in this fashion of small, gradual changes for several more years until, in 1988, Livingston led a group, many of them his relatives, into rural isolation. The reason, according to Livingston, was that he believed the world is in the process of self-destruction, and the only ones who will last, generation after generation, will be the ones who worship the earth (as cited in Pollack, 1988, p1T.). A newspaper article of the time contained the following reported: With his thick gray beard flowing from his sad face, Ron Livingston looks like a modern Moses in coveralls and hooded sweatshirt (see the photo reproduced in Figure 5). It also reported the self-proclaimed high priest as saying, We are a model community (as cited in Wenske, 1990, p. A1). In fact, this model community claimed at various times to be a financial

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venture combining worship with primitive canoe building (Pollock, 1988), a commune (Fruhling, 1990a), and the resurgence of an ancient Jewish sect know as the Essenes (Briggs, 1992). However, The Group eventually established a written Covenant that lay out the expectations between God and The Group. At one point, Livingston and his followers went so far as to file documents at the Decatur county courthouse declaring void their birth certificates, marriage certificates, social security numbers, and all other legal ties to society. (This makes one wonder how 20 years later they can use that same legal system to sue people to stop attempts to inform society.) One such document, filed September 1989, has Livingston renouncing his name because he had been informed by God His designation for me, which is a feeling that can be neither written nor spoken (as cited in ODonnell, 1993, p. 6B). Since that time, Livingston has been variously referred to as the Brother of Frank, (reminiscent of the ancient Mormon prophet known as the Brother of Jared), the Father of Jeff, and his most enduring pseudonym, simply Grandpa (written Gpa). For a time, The Group functioned in two worlds, with some members living as part of the commune and other members continuing to live locally while worshiping with The Group (it was this latter faction that my four-year-old daughter and I were part of). During this time, Ron continued to preach the following doctrine: Remember what you are going to repent of. You have to make preparations to come out of Babylon. Remember He said, If you partake of her sins you shall receive of her plagues. The Lord said, I shall spare none that remain in Babylon. (Radio sermon tapes) However, despite Rons urgency for his followers to leave Babylon (mainstream society) and follow him, this dualism was allowed to continue until 1990.

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Figure 2. The Group Pastor (who was later sent to prison for child molestation), High Priest (Ron Livingston) and The Group Guardian (Jeff Livingston). Aprons are leather worship garments. Objects in the hands of the High Priest and The Group Guardian are righteous elements used for the service. According to Sharon, another former devotee, thats when things got really crazy in The Group. Things like three weeks and a day prophecy. Three weeks and a day. Move out to the land. And we sold everything we had. Her husband, Edward, embellished further: That whole thing in March of 90, the three weeks and a day, was to get people out on the land into a community that was forced to rely on each other to the exclusion of the outside world. To not get any input no matter what the cost was. We didnt have the building supplies for a house, the knowledge of gardening, the practical concerns that would go into this. As reported in the newspaper, The Group was hurriedly preparing for the end of the world, or, at a minimum, the end of the Kansas City metropolitan area (Fruhling, 1990b, p. 1B). Livingston, however, told the reporter that their hurry was quite aside from any impending apocalypse: Its just that hes impatient to get The Group sealed off from the influences of the world. Livingston, 47, said he decided . . . [the membership] were dragging [their] feet and

The Group Dr. C. A. Crowley 10 needed a March 31 deadline (Fruhling, p. 1B). In contrast, Edward remembers events as follows: Yeah. Twenty-two days. I remember that night out on the land when he gave that prophecy. Later he denied that those details were part of the prophecy. But if youd been in the building, you couldnt separate the non-prophetic part from the prophetic part. Well, prior to that he had declared himself High Priest over North America and said that everything I say from now on will be prophetic. And then he gave the three weeks and a day prophecy. And later retracted. According to Fruhling (1990b), others maintain that Livingston has indeed been saying that the end is coming . . . and that the land occupied by him and his followers will be the one safe place (p. 1B). The Groups homes out on The Land, for the most part, were built of rough sawn, unaged lumber, and most had only dirt floors (see Figure 6). According to Christine, a former child member, The little house we lived in had the packed dirt floors, ya know? I think we ended up putting wood over it, but its just that rough, slat wood, ya know? Not treated or anything like that. The only insulation, if indeed there was any, consisted of leaves or raw wool stuffed between the inner and outer walls. The only heat source was usually a homemade wood-burning stove, often used for both heating and cooking. Christine, who was about five or six at the time I knew her, recalled the physical discomfort: I just remember being so tired all the time, and cold. . . . I could not wake up even with the fire, once they started it. I was just so cold I didnt want to get out of bed. It was freezing! I remember so many quilts being piled on me, and we stayed in some other persons house for a while too. . . But, no it was freezing.

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Figure 3. Representative The Group home during the period under study. Sharon remembered that it just took a long time to do just normal, everyday tasks. Things got so dirty. Mud and dirt were a big problem. Had to wear boots most of the time. Christine also recalled the issue of primitive sanitation: If I had to pee, I could just go outside and squat. For a long time, outhouses did not even exist. A few were created once some murmuring began that the public health department was having issues with the lack of sanitation facilities. Until then, bathrooms were wherever members happened to find some privacy when the urge struck. Most homes consisted of one octagonal room that served as kitchen, dining area, and sleeping area (see Figure 7), although there were communal cook fires in each village. Often,

The Group Dr. C. A. Crowley 12 more than one family would live in a single dwelling, sharing the one room: We had lots of people staying with us; we were staying with other people, Christine remembered. I had like five different houses during that time come to think of it. Daily activities were very reminiscent of pre-Colonial life. Water was drawn and hauled by hand from a communal well. Laundry was done on rocks. Brooms were made from prairie grass, and light was provided by candles. Sharon remembered that it just seemed like an intense amount of work. There was always more to do than you had time to do it. I felt motivated to do it, butit just took a long time to do just normal, everyday tasks. Edward, who was a teenager and lived with his parents when I first met him, painted the following portrait of his everyday life: It seems like the daily routine, when it wasnt broken up by meetings of one kind or another, at least for me, was to get up pretty early in the morning, do morning prayers, get the stove going and cook some oatmeal. About a cup of oatmeal with some raisins, that was breakfast. And then Id go off to whatever worksite. . . . And the way they had it organized was that in the morning youd work on whatever was the identified as The Group project and maybe working on someones home or building a school or something of that sort. All the men converged on that site to work on that project. In the afternoons, you could work on your own house or your own project. Usually without help, if you werent the fortunate one to be identified as The Group project. Besides oatmeal, the food consisted primarily of what could be stored as bulk and what could be grown or foraged. Christine admitted that to this day, she still loves cheese and beans and rice. (laughs) Which is so funny! [We had] a lot of beans and cheese and rice, yeah! There were times, however, that for Christine, the monotony and restrictions of the diet would grate; then her Mom would sneak off into town sometimes and buy us cookies. Other items, as Christine remembered, included Oh, yeah! Fried dandelions. Dipped in batter, just the tops of the

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dandelions. . . . and we made a cake out of who knows what and frosted it, but put little purple flowers all over it and ate the flowers. . . .Meat? I dont think we ate any meat. The dandelion incident was one that happened before The Group moved out to The Land. It may, in fact, have been the beginning of that phase of development. The women, in our homemade, long cotton skirts and dresses, gathered dandelion heads from the fields and roadsides about town. We prepared them for the Sunday morning meeting that started about 9:00 a.m. and lasted well into the afternoon. It was at this meeting that Ron informed us that he was going to go out to the wilderness for forty days and forty nights to call forth The Records, and that it was our repentance to continue on without his presence and to not distract him from his sacred duty of wrestling with Satan on our behalf. Gregory, too, had been involved in The Group as both an adolescent and an adult. Married to Rons daughter, he served as one of the Apostles, ranking in The Group hierarchy above everyone except Ron and his son Jeff: The attempt, he recalled, the desire, was to be completely self sufficient. Only to eat things that wed grown or gathered or hunted (See Figure 8). William, who had been in The Group since adolescence, added the following explanation: Everything you would eat, you would need to know Gods feeling in that thing. Lets say for example, that you felt that you had to have a specific feeling that God would have. Well, the ideal thing would be to, when you would eat something, you would eat something that would represent that feeling. Therefore, as the comments above illustrate, diet went beyond a simple matter of availability to a committed act of repentance reflective of the doctrine. Being overweight was also a very obvious sign of the need to repent. All of the adults, and the few children, that began as overweight, quickly lost their excess weight.

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Figure 4. Floor plans from two different homes: an octagonal home from East Village and a rectangle home from West Village.

Figure 5. One familys pantry of foraged and bulk produce from one years labor.

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Clothing also seemed to be a reflection of doctrine, as Rebecca, one of the younger former members recalled: Clothing was always very simple. And all the memories I have of peoples clothing, its out of date even for, you know, the 80s or whatever it would have been. And I seem to have this image of quite a bit of people in loose white shirts and loose white cotton pants, just very loose, no structure, no color. This memory is supported by the picture taken and supplied by The Group for publication in one of their books of scripture and reproduced below (see Figure 9).

Figure 6. High Priest and scribes using Urim and Thummim. This picture illustrates the plain, loose white clothing and general avoidance of unnatural materials. THIS FIGURE WAS DELETED AS PART OF A LEGAL AGREEMENT WITH THIS CHURCH. THE SUED ME IN AN ATTEMPT TO PROHIBIT INFORMATION BEING RELEASED TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC. Gregory explained the underlying rational: [The idea was] only to wear things that wed made or spun or killed. Far from that. I mean, you know, that was the desire. But never even came close to doing that. I mean, its so difficult to do. You have to prioritize things somehow. Thats a good one to be lax on. But the idea being there will be a day when they cant rely on anybody else. During the groups formative years, most of their doctrine fell under an umbrella they referred to as the Eternal Christ. Essentially, this phrase means that Christ is in and through

The Group Dr. C. A. Crowley 16 all things (Doctrine and Covenants, Section 85: 2). That is, everything that exists is literally Gods feelings for the disciple given physical form and referred to as an element. For example, cedar is Gods feeling of seeing only the best in humans, the direction south refers to spiritual heritage, and the red-winged blackbird signifies new beginnings after hard times. Therefore, a red-winged blackbird flying toward the south becomes the voice of God telling those that see it that new beginnings are coming after hard times if they will only look to their spiritual heritage. Even individuals themselves were elementsfeelings of God given physical form. Ron, as The Groups self-proclaimed High Priest, identified or defined nearly all interpretations of element and gave people their spiritual names, which he received, often through the use of the Urim and Thummim (both defined below), known also as the Breastplate of Judgment. Goker Harim III (one of Rons pseudonyms) gives the following explanation for the provenance of these ideas: One night in November of 1997, my wife and I were sleeping. . . . So this night I was lying awake. The room started getting light and . . . I saw the Lord standing over my bed. He had the Urim and Thummim fully assembled in both His hands. He said, If I hold this for you, you can see through my Fathers eyes whatsoever I desire of you. . . . No greater truth can come to the eyes of any man. And He gave me other instructions regarding righteousness. . . . The Urim and Thummim we have [two] smooth three-cornered stones . . . directly affixed to the rims of two bows that are gold. . .and. . .are like the old-fashioned spectacles, if you are thinking of the kind held by a stick. The Urim and Thummim I have will not work indoors, but it must have sunlight on it for it to work. The Lord told me that the word Urim means lights and the word Thummim means perfections. What the Lord said was that the Urim (lights) must be only held by someone who is perfect. Therefore, the Thummim is a device to allow the breastpiece to suspend the Urim before the high priests face without him touching it, assuming that any High Priest is sinful. The Thummim is itself a cross, the extensions being made of a special wood and the center a gold cross. The breastplate consists of twelve stones engraved with ancient Hebrew characters. The breastpiece feels the twelve gifts that Christ gave His Father and put into all creation. It feels Him personally. That is what holds the Thummim. When I am using the Urim and Thummim, if I reach out to brush my hair away or to scratch and I accidentally touch the Urim, it quits working (See Figure 10).

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Figure 7. High Priest using Urim and Thummim, with attendant scribes. THIS FIGURE WAS DELETED AS PART OF A LEGAL AGREEMENT WITH THIS CHURCH. THE SUED ME IN AN ATTEMPT TO PROHIBIT INFORMATION BEING RELEASED TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC. The doctrine of The Group was centered on repentance and the establishment of a righteous The Group. As seems common for this group, however, righteousness was not defined as in an English-language dictionary. Rather, the word righteousness refers to the proper relationship with element (diary entry by Edward, January 11, 1989), a proper relationship most often defined by Ron. Essentially, this new community was based on members belief that everything represents a feeling of Jesus Christ. We eat a certain kind of food because we need the feeling it possesses, not just because were hungry, explained Livingston (as cited in Pollack, 1988, p. 10T). Therefore, The Group followers draw water from their well, each tool used, from the spar, to the rope, to the wooden bucket feels things related to water. We want to keep those feelings pure (as cited in Pollack, 10T) Thus, because of the spiritual significance of literally all things, Livingston and his followers used thorns for combs and thatched the roof of Livingstons house with reeds from South Dakota (most of their single-story, dirt-floored homes of rough-sawn lumber were shingled with cedar; see Figure 11). Livingston claimed that these thorn combs were of the same kind of thorns that were in Christs crown of thorns (as cited in Fruhling,

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1990a, p. 5A). Followers of The Group thus claimed to have identified the literal feelings of Jesus Christ in several hundred of the items in their environment. As Livingston interpreted it, Those thorns literally are made of these feelings [Christs ability to love people in spite of their sins]. Its not symbolic. Its literal (as cited in Fruhling, 5A). It is on this philosophy that The Group members have based their religion and their lives. Through the interpretation of Christs feelings revealed all about them (which they term righteousness), individuals try to maintain a constant state of repentance, thereby improving their relationship between themselves, their children, and God. For The Group members, the world is also a very dualistic place, divided between the repentant and unrepentant (or unrepentive, as they term it); between the righteous and Babylon, the Whore of the Earth. Anyone not part of The Group is considered unrepentive and part of Babylon: To put it simply, the kind of God that is held in view by the worlds masses is rapidly becoming obsolete and there is, in reality, just no healthy options in the human endeavor of expressing God than to return to our ancient roots in the preflood religion of Enoch. The only other alternative will be sorcery, witchcraft and all the vile forms of the occult. You will find that in the days that lie ahead, these two alternatives will dominate the worlds societies.

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Figure 8. Ron Livingston (second from left) and his Apostles in front of his two-storied stone home with its unique thatched roof. Doctrinally, The Group recognizes only two churches: Christs Church (of which they are the righteous representatives) and the Great and Abominable Church (belonged to by everyone who is not in the first). Individuals are either for or against God. If for God, they live by the most extreme form of covenant, the Everlasting Covenant (Shabuot), which requires the intent to always speak the Word and be governed by Christ so God will establish the New Jerusalem here on earth, which will die and be remade. Those not living in this manner are against God and live by priestcraft, sorceries, and secret combinations (groups that belong to Satan and that seek power). How this system of beliefs translates into life can be seen in their rituals and routines. Many so-called elements (any person or thing) have been defined by the High Priest, Ron

The Group Dr. C. A. Crowley 20 Livingston, or Gpa. What such definition means is that Gpa has decided which feeling of Christ is represented by that particular part of creation. All individuals, from the newborn infant to the eldest member of the village, surround themselves with and use various elements to aid in their repentance (a change in response to their relationship with God). Since each component of creation around them is trying to speak to them about their relationship with God and Gods feelings toward them, literally everything is about element, righteousness, and repentance. In addition, all individuals hold a sacred or spiritual name that defines Gods vision of their created purpose. This name has been revealed to the individual and The Group through a service known as the naming ceremony, in which the High Priest communes with God to learn every individuals true spiritual name. The researchers own spiritual name was Tonteel, which meant very awesomely water. According to Ron, this name meant being created to be very feminine (because water is feminine), which in turn meant being utterly humble, submissive, gentle, and nurturing. Water brings life to all things, so Tonteel was created to bring life through Christ to all those around her. (Coincidentally, Ron reported that God revealed this spiritual name just shortly after my admission of missing the ocean.) These spiritual names were literally held sacred and were generally used only among The Group members. Sharing with outsiders was considered akin to sullying sacred secrets and was actually deemed dangerous: There are enemies of the Lord out there, even though they may think they are religious, they are enemies to His work, enemies to The Group living, enemies to all things common, etc. Amazing... but true, and there are other, less savory characters than that, sorcerers, and such, who use information to hone in on to direct their evil prayers. And then there are the crazies, those who have guns and think they hear Goid's [sic] voice telling them things... these are just some of the dangers involved. So - we have to be careful, if not for our own sake, then for the sake of our children. (Post 2835, Web Board, February 16, 2005, 9:37 AM)

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In addition to spiritual names, individuals often had sacred bundles, prayer pipes, (see Figure 12) and directions. Any of these items could indicate particular elements of special importance to guiding that persons repentance (the researchers element, represented on the effigy prayer pipe, was the tern, a seabird, and her direction was Eastthe direction of faith, childlike innocence, and new beginnings). Fundamentally, all this symbolism spoke to what God intended for Tonteel (his vision of her created purpose) but in which she mostly fell short, thus calling her to repentance. In addition to the prayer pipe, the contents of a sacred bundle could include a two-sided prayer corn bag (one side containing white corn meal for morning prayers, and the other containing yellow corn meal for evening prayersall stone ground by hand), various element bags (containing whatever elements God had revealed were necessary for repentance and that were subsequently used as incense; e.g., sage, cedar, and kinnickinick), bluestem for lighting the prayer pipe (gender and marital status would determine whether this was big or little bluestem), various bird feathers (depending upon the individuals direction east was the cardinal; south, the flicker; west, the thrush; and north, the blue jaybut often including eagle feathers for fanning incense), and braids of sweet grass (again used as incense to aid repentance). Since repentance was so vital to The Groups central tenets, servicesreferred to as Repentance Practice (RP) and conducted by the priestswere held to assist people or teach them the proper way to repent. RP, considered an opportunity to draw closer to God, was based on several philosophies: (a) grief is a repentant feeling; (b) good people repent, all others go to Hell; (c) members sins should trouble them down to the dust; (d) God wounds and then heals; and (e) God rebukes all those He loves. These sessions were designed to make members practice

The Group Dr. C. A. Crowley 22 feeling repentant under any conditions (diary entry by Edward, January 11, 1989). Three levels of Repentance Practice were identified during a January 1989 educational lesson. In level-one RP, the sin or alleged sin is presented in a kind way, without opposition; in level two, the person is pacified but must learn to recognize pacification and still repent; and in level three, calls to repentance are presented with meanness and harshness or in other inappropriate ways. An earlier meeting (August 16, 1987) had hinted at a further level of repentance: once The Group members had pooled all of their resources, the gift of becoming like a childcited as the deepest most profound level of repentance that there is would be revealed (diary entry by Susan, August 16, 1987). During the time period under study, level-one RP was predominant. During this service, individuals would sit in a circle on the dirt floor of the church hogan, while a priest or other The Group member named individuals and identified their sin(s). Those so named were then expected to follow four specific steps: 1. Acknowledge the sin. 2. Apologize to the person(s) involved and to Christ while refraining from stating I need to apologize . . ., which is considered a dodge not an apology. 3. Name one thing that will be different. 4. Practice the repentance. Commit words to actions by practicing the change.

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Figure 9. Open sacred bundle showing outer wrap of sack cloth, inner wrap of blue wool, braid of sweet grass, squirrel effigy pipe, bone awl for tamping and cleaning pipe, feathers, little bluestem, and element bundles (most likely containing cedar, sage, corn pollen and/or kinnickinick). This is a womans bundle. A mans would have had an inner wrap of red wool. During RP, certain behaviors called red flagsor indicators of unrepentant feelings were pointed out (diary entry by Edward, January 11, 1989). Outside repentance practice, calling something a red flag was considered preaching sin and deemed inappropriate. However, during RP, all individuals were expected to explain their own red flag if at all possible. Those feeling they had done nothing wrong were still expected to follow the four steps of repentance because Christ was ultimately submissive and responsive, although he wasnt wrong. Thus, red flags were to be viewed positively because they help elucidate the repentive and resistant feelings (diary entry by Edward). The following were noted in Edwards same diary entry as red flags:

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1. Changing the subject. 2. Explaining or justifying the sin. 3. Placing blame or fault, even on oneself. 4. Not acknowledging the sin. 5. Not apologizing. 6. Not saying what will be different. This list is expanded in a second diary entry from February 1989: 7. Excusing oneself from practicing repentance because a priest made an error in stating the repentance or was poorly motivated (often referred to as a misspelled invitation). 8. Voicing feelings of being attacked or picked on, or joking about being attacked. By November of 1989, The Group was beginning to transition to level-two RP, which dealt with repenting in the face of pacification. The Groups view of pacification was that it does not deny a sin but instead expresses a feeling that repentance is not necessary for certain sins under certain circumstances. Again, Edwards journal entries listed examples of pacification: It wasnt your fault. You didnt mean it. He means well. Accept me the way I am. Everybodys doing it. Thus, level-two RP focused on individuals defending their need for repentance regardless of opposition and counterarguments. Once a sin had been named in RP, the rest of The Group would bombard the individual with reasons not to repent; that is, the person must maintain that what they presented as a sin is actually a sin. This total focus on repentance and righteousness epitomizes being a covenant member of The Group. Everything that exists is a feeling of Jesus Christ around each member, which has

The Group Dr. C. A. Crowley 25

been given physical form (righteousness), and everything that happens speaks about how individuals separate themselves from righteousness and is thus a call to repentance. For example, if a person stubs a toe, it is a call to repentance (and means something different depending on which toe of which foot [see Figure 13 and 14] and what it was stubbed against). Similarly, if the fire dies, the wind blows, the rains fall, or drought prevails, all are part of the Covenant.

Figure 10. Handout from a Group meeting explaining definitions of various body parts.

On the other hand, if members immerse themselves in repentance and righteousness, God will 1. Unseal for them things sealed from the foundation of the world; 2. Bless them upon the land forever; 3. Fight their battles;

The Group Dr. C. A. Crowley 26

4. Nourish their children; 5. Multiply them; 6. Withhold no blessings; and 7. Do away with sickness and sorrow.

Figure 11. Handout from a Group meeting explaining definitions of hands and feet. It was at about this point in the groups development that I was becoming confused. The doctrine stated that the more you followed the teachings of God (as revealed to Ron, as the High Priest), the closer to God you would become and the more joyous your life. This was not my experience. I made an appointment with Ron. We sat on the ground before a fire outside of his home. I shared my concerns with him. That it didnt seem right that the longer I was involved the more depressed I got. That the harder I tried, the more that was pointed out that I was doing wrong, was in need of repentance. Ron told me an analogy. I was walking down an arroyo with a very heavy pack on my back. I was walking along when God spoke to be and said, Go

The Group Dr. C. A. Crowley 27 faster. So, I walked faster. God again spoke to me and said, No, go faster! So, again, I go faster, and again, Im exhorted to go even faster. By this time Im at a run and sweating and can barely go on. God says again, Go faster! Now, quick climb up the sides! Hurry, reach the top! Just as I drag myself over the edge, a flood races through the arroyo. If I had not followed the exhortations of God, I would be dead. So Rons story went. At the end, I informed him that the God I believed in was a God of love who would have lifted me out of harms way instead of acting as a slave driver whipping me to faster speeds. Ron then prophesied that he had seen two futures for me. In one, I had long hair, and was the fulfillment of my spiritual name, Tonteel. I was a very feminine woman of God. In the other, if I left the group, I would have my hair shorn, never find a husband, loose the daughter I have and never have any other children. (Ron knew all my greatest fears.) As we walked together to the communal well, I asked one last question. I dont remember the comment he made that brought this question to mind, but I asked, Ron, are you saying you are Moses?? Rons response was, Yes, I am like unto Moses. I left the Land and the Group that day with no intention of ever returning. While I did return, it was never again as a disciple of the Communitys Covenant.