FALSE SCHOOL.
alert
There is a false school in the Gurdjieff-Fourth Way tradition,
teaching wrong work.
see- http://rickross.com/groups/fof.html
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alert
There is a false school in the Gurdjieff tradition,
teaching wrong work. Anyone interested in the
Fourth Way should be wary and avoid it.
Denise
I recently joined the Fourth Way School at Apollo and
this is the first I've heard of the sexual misconduct of
the teacher of this school, Robert Burton. If this is true
I would be very interested to know if there are other
Fourth Way teachers near me that I may learn more about. I
live in Northern California. I believe the Fourth Way is
the right way for me but would like to find a legitimate
teacher.
Sincerely,
Denise
alert
There is a false school in the Gurdjieff tradition,
teaching wrong work.
see-
http://rickross.com/groups/fof.html
DSW
"What You Focus On...Grows..."...?
ALAN
I checked out the site you provided in your March 8th post.
Definately a false group.
I first met Robert Burton at Red Mountain Ranch in Sonoma County, 48
miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge in California in 1969.
He was a 'tennis bum' at the time and when he saw how much money
Alexander Francis Horn was racking in from gulliable people who knew
their lives were crap, he became a 'work bum'.
And he was very successful until some of his male students started
questioning getting anal sex as spiritual enlightenment. There were many
stories in major newspapers about him molesting the young boys of his
students.
Alex Horn used to have him beaten up regularly as Alex was very
homophobic. Of course most of what Alex called his students got beaten
up regularly.
There is another "work" webstie claiming that Lord Pentland and John
Bennett were Alex Horns teachers, allowing Burton People to claim a
legitimate connection to the 'fourth-way' for Burton. It is true that in
the late 50's Alex did attend an open meeting with Lord Pentland, and he
actually shook John Bennett's hand in England as he was about to marry
and take to American one of Bennett's students of a few months, Anne.
Rodney Collin wrote in one of his many books that the way our
descendants will know of 'work activity' in our time, is by all the fake
groups, which is just about all anyone ever comes in contact with.
You are only 'in the work' if you are working.
ALAN
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alert
There is a false school in the Gurdjieff tradition,
teching wrong work.
ALAN
I have had several friends who were involved in Robert Burtons
Fellowship of Friends. Once they have been involved for awhile it is
usually a waste of time to try and talk with them.
Rodney Collin explains why groups like Burton's must exist.
Ouspensky explains why these false groups benefit those who want to work
as opposed to those who want to know.
It is all according to law.
ALAN
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I can NOT receive emails here. Please reply in the NG or to NONONONOSPAM
at webtv.net
astrid
The Gurdjieff group in Sonoma Valley was founded in San Francisco by
Alex Horn and his wife, Anne Burridge around 1965. She had previously
studied Ouspensky's work as a teenager with Bennett's group in
England. Many of the members of Robert de Ropp's group, who lived
nearby with his since 1961, defected to Horn's group.
You can read of the group's origins in David Archer's autobiographic
article, "Supping with Alex""
http://www.davearcher.com/alex.html
While Horn's San Francisco followers participated in the theatricals he
produced, he also had group meetings and events on Sonoma Mountain in
what is now the Sonoma Zen center.
About 1969, one of the group's buildings caught fire and they were
forced off their ranch. They moved to the nearby district of El
Verano. Horn rousted the Sonoma members to raise 40,000 for a ranch on
Red Mountain owned by top music producer, Frank Werber.
"Horn's first wife, Anne Burridge, as a teenager, is said to have
attended one of John Bennett's groups in England for about three years.
Three years or not, her training can at best only have been preparatory
as no deep understanding can be assimilated in such a short time.
Vanity and self-love are simply too strong. During her time with
Bennett, sometime in the 1960s, Anne met Alex Horn who had come to
England in the hopes of working with Bennett. Bennett refused and
warned Anne against any involvement with the American."
www.rickross.com/reference/theater/theater21.html
At about this time Anne and Alex divorced. Anne married Anthony Haas
and took the Sonoma faction with her to the ranch on Oakville Grade on
Red Mountain between Sonoma and Napa counties. She has adopted
approximately eight children. Two of these children are reported to
have allegedly said that their mothers had simply abandoned them at an
an early age. With Anne Haas' habit of dissolving and forcing
marriages, it is no wonder that mothers left the cult, but how is it
that the Haas' are able to keep their children?
Anne Haas had schools in Sonoma, Cotati, Sonoma Mt. K-8th at first;
then K-6th. She is said to be "...The 'mother' to the children. Very
totalitarian. Anne Haas was THE leader. Children were 'seen and not
heard' and you listened to elders at all times".
One cult researcher classifies Haas' group a "New Religious
Movement (NRM)":
"NRM of Anne Haas
· Her and husband Anthony Haas.
· Begin in S.F. during the 60's with previous husband Alex Horn.
Started then as a hippie movement group.
· Anne Haas called "the White Witch."
· Parents named children Anne or Tony. Elders called
"Auntie/Uncle.."
· Her (Annie's) mother was bound to Anne Haas financially. She had
to pay 450-600/mo. to send her daughter to school within group.
Eventually when her mother couldn't pay it, she would have to work it
off within the group.
· Schools in Sonoma, Cotati, Sonoma Mt. K-8th at first; then K-6th.
· Anne Haas was the "mother" to the children. Very totalitarian.
Anne Haas was THE leader.
· Children were "seen and not heard" and you listened to elders at
all times.
· Group all talked with a British accent over time."
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~rsmith/overview.htm
"Strange School"
It's not clear whether Sharon Gans appeared before or after Anne
divorced Alex - the divorce was in 1969 or 1970 - but afterward Horn
and Gans married and she became involved in his school and starred in
its plays. After the divorce, Anne said that "Alex had never really
been in the Work or submitted himself to a teacher."
She said she felt some responsibility for the damage that Alex had done
in the name of the Work and so began to teach herself. She took back
the ranch in Sonoma and many of his pupils.
Horn was able to recover and he lived quite well, as his school had a
gross income of $40,000 a month. That changed on December 23, 1978.
That was the day the San Francisco Chronicle published a front-page
article, "Strange School: Real-Life Drama in SF Theater Group". It
alleged financial exploitation of students and beatings for students
not selling enough tickets to the plays. With the Jim Jones' Guyana
massacre still hanging heavy and apparently not thinking they could get
a fair hearing, Horn and Gans left town for a ranch he had bought in
Condon, Montana. Later the two started groups in New York City.
However, by the end of 1988, Horn's abusive behavior became a problem.
A coup was staged and Horn was removed as the group's leader in favor
of Sharon Cans. Horn's fear of "feminine influence" had again played
out. It is said that he continues to lead groups in New York City.
http://www.rickross.com/reference/theater/theater21.html
A scandal broke out in 1978:
http://www.rickross.com/reference/theater/theater1.html
"The Allegations
"Beatings by theater leaders if students didn't meet quotas regarding
ticket sales. They typically sold tickets by soliciting people on the
street.
"Beatings and fines for making noise backstage, for "whimpering" or
falling asleep.
"Harassment of poor students to pay for classes.
"Arranged marriages.
"Pressured to have children. One member said, "We were expected to get
pregnant, (and) Sharon was always haranguing the women to have babies."
"Couples ordered to separate and divorce.
"Neglect of small children when parents worked for the group.
"Police investigated an informal group child-care center after
receiving reports of bruises and injuries concerning some of the
children.
"A probation officer in Juvenile Court told The Chronicle that he and a
police inspector made preliminary inquiries about the group's
child-care arrangement. They said children were not properly cared for.
"Frederick Mindel an attorney representing Gans and Horn at the time
refused to comment.
"No known formal complaints had been filed with Bay Area law
enforcement at the time of the story."
****
Gans and Horn fled with their group to their ranch in Montana, until
they began to attract suspicion from neighbors. They relocated to New
York and run several "Fourth Way" type schools today.
A History of the Gans-Horn Group
http://www.rickross.com/reference/theater/theater13.html
Beginning in the 90s Sharon Gans installed her son as a teacher. He had
been raised in the group and was a student on and off since his
graduation from college. He also led New York classes within the
"school" as well as occasionally teaching in Boston and traveling
monthly to Copenhagen, where a Gans devotee had started a new group.
But Sharon Gans son's position as a leader and her heir apparent
abruptly ended during the summer of 2000. He openly renounced her as
his teacher in a class he taught composed of younger students. This
incident was quickly hushed up and contained, so that other students,
grouped in various classes or cells, would not know the actual
circumstances regarding his departure from the group. This included a
seemingly frantic effort to exercise "damage control," which often
included late meetings early into the morning. Ultimately, Sharon's
estranged son was not heard from again and according to the rules,
students were not to contact and/or speak with him as a former member.
***
Does anyone have any more news on the activities of Sharon Gans' son
today? What is his first name? His age? With his mother's ousting of
him from the New York Gurdjieff group, he'd be ripe for any rival
Gurdjieff group. And he could be recruiting for Hass in Sonoma today.
The Sonoma Gurdjieff group faction is alive, well, and actively
recruiting in Sonoma Valley. Members target recruits members in bars,
at cancer charity functions, cafes, and public events. They will
befriend you, but they wait a long time to get to know all about you,
in a casual fashion. You may think two of your new friends don't know
each other because you see them as being in different social circles.
Not the case with these people. They can get to know different angles
of your personalities by observing you individually. Once three or
four of them have known you for a while, they'll know how to press your
buttons. If you've been exposed to this group before as a child (which
I was), they know even better.
They'll lure you in at parties, or with drugs, or through romance
and/or sex. They will wait until you are at a low point in your life
and then they'll do something like arrange to have a member of the
opposite sex make a pass at you. They'll often choose one you've known
on a platonic acquaintance basis for a while to ease the shock. In
once instance, a married potential recruit and her husband were invited
to dinner by alleged members and asked, in front of their kids, if they
were into wife swapping. The kids didn't bat an eyelash, as if they
heard that every day.
In the late 1960s, this group was teaching children to have intercourse
with each other, and adults engaged in intercourse with other adults in
front of them. I was exposed to this at age 16 months, and although my
mother says she saw this with her own eyes, she did nothing about it,
and denies she was ever a member of the group.
Today the cult has a "bondage room" on the third floor of a Masonic
building on the plaza in downtown Sonoma, according to an acquaintance
of 16 years who was raised in the group, and according to two other
corroborative statements. Cocaine and Viagra are the alleged drugs of
choice at gatherings here. There may be a Satanic element involved as
well. Each side of the plaza in downtown Sonoma, designed by the late
General Vallejo, is 666 feet square.
http://www.sacredsonoma.com/plaza.html
The group has a fascination with UFOs and aliens as well. The member
who was raised in the group has allegedly said he has to be in Colorado
in 2012 when "the world will end and the aliens will rescue me."
I have known members who display classic symptoms of childhood sexual
abuse including bulimia, fear of the dark, alcoholism, substance abuse,
and symptoms of ritual abuse such as dissociative disorder and MPD.
Seasoned members are very friendly, often charismatic, and always
manipulative. Many do some kind of community service to promote a
benign image. But one recruit reports when his friends in high school
attempted to induce him to join, he ran from the house they brought him
to, and when he fled, they caught him, beat him, and swore him to
secrecy.
The town of Sonoma itself is only 2 miles square, population about
9,000, with 31 registered sex offenders. Comparatively, Petaluma has
about 60,000 people and only 5 registered sex offenders.
astrid
http://www.davearcher.com/alex.html
"NRM of Anne Haas
"The Allegations
"Arranged marriages.
****
***
http://www.sacredsonoma.com/plaza.html
9,000, has 31 registered sex offenders. Comparatively, Petaluma has
about 60,000 people and has only 5 registered sex offenders.