Articles about Circle of Friends yoga/meditation group in San Diego "Union-Tribune", 5/04/2000
Bat Child (Sue M.)
http://www.uniontribune.com/news/uniontrib/thu/currents/news_1c4loft.html
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Trouble Aloft
What once was a dream of artistic creativity is now a nightmare of
legal accusations
By James Hebert
STAFF WRITER
May 4, 2000
Alot of property disputes find their way to the San Diego court
system. Few of them involve an SUV-driving Sufi guru; the supposed
donation of almost an entire building in a quest for yogi-hood; and a
cadre of artists with designs on conquering the world.
But that's the story, or part of it anyway, at the World Evolution
Loft, a kind of high-tech youth center and artistic funhouse at the
corner of Sixth Avenue and Broadway downtown.
The Loft aspires to be a crucible of creativity, a place where young
artists can let their imaginations run wild, free of financial worry
aside from modest monthly dues.
At banks of sleek computers and in studios packed with recording gear,
its members indulge their artistic impulses -- creating Web sites,
composing music and even finding inspiration to forge new identities
for themselves.
As an artist who calls himself Shiva (the name of a destroyer-god in
Indian mythology) wrote in an introduction to his work recently
exhibited at the building:
"I have chosen to detonate my stardom here at the World Evolution
Loft."
But before he gets his chance, the Loft -- which is now the subject of
an eviction proceeding -- could well detonate itself.
And not necessarily in a good way.
Tug of war
The dispute at the center of the case, destined for a hearing later
this month in San Diego Superior Court, is over who has the right to
occupy the four-story building that houses the Loft.
World Evolution Loft Inc., which is affiliated with a
yoga-and-meditation organization called Circle of Friends, claims it
has a right to use three-quarters of the building because of a
supposed oral agreement made five years ago with Matthew Gordon, head
of the partnership that holds title to the property.
Part of that deal, according to court filings, involved Gordon's offer
to donate the use of three floors of the building as a service toward
becoming a murshid, or a spiritual leader in the Sufi tradition.
But Gordon counters that "we didn't buy them the building in any way,
shape or form." He says his partnership was happy to let the Circle be
part of the Loft, but only on a lease basis, and definitely not for
all time.
"When we bought the property," says Gordon, "we wanted to rent the
artists studio spaces up there. We thought it was a real creative
vision. We saw that the rental market at the time was not that good.
"This was a pretty rough space, and a space that artists would be
attracted to because it is rough."
Now that the market is looking better, Gordon -- whose partnership
owns two other buildings downtown -- says it is simply the right time
to sell the property.
But he also cites more pressing reasons for wanting to sell the
building. According to Gordon, who moved to San Diego from Chicago
last year, the Loft may have been a spawning ground for activities
including illegal parties and drug use in the months since Gordon says
World Evolution took over control of the building.
Gordon also believes those now running the Loft are collecting rent
money that rightfully should go to the partnership.
Meanwhile, although his company (now known as the Sixth And Broadway
Corp.) holds title to the building, Gordon says he has not been
allowed to so much as step inside for several months.
"When you come out here one day a month, everything looks fine," he
says. And then you move here, and you go, 'Omigod.' "
Sati Ah, the manager of the Loft, insists Gordon is not barred from
the building. "It's just like any other landlord/tenant relationship,"
she says. "All he has to do is make an appointment."
Yogi speak
The Circle of Friends' key spiritual leader is a Sufi devotee who
drives a Ford Excursion SUV, lives in the pricey Harbor Towers complex
and calls himself Murshid. (Real name: Jesse Lafayette Drennen III.)
Drennen, who has known Gordon for some 20 years, says there is
"absolutely nothing" to his accusations, and that they are simply
self-serving.
The value of downtown real estate has risen considerably in the past
few years, due to the racing economy and the forthcoming downtown
ballpark, and Drennen believes Gordon's move is essentially just a
money grab.
"When somebody believes the building they bought for $900,000 (in
1995) is worth $5 million (now), there's almost anything some people
will do to get that money," he says.
According to Drennen, the Loft is "a drug-free community, and we teach
against the use of drugs through yoga."
"We have parties there, and we do our best to keep drugs out of there,
but we can't control everybody. (But) anybody who's been part of the
project understands what it's all about."
Still, Drennen acknowledges, "I'm the last one to claim that I know
everything that goes on with everyone who walks through the door of
one our projects. And I don't want to."
Acting Sgt. Ken Nelson of the San Diego Police Department's vice unit
said the situation with the Loft is "under investigation."
He said one citation was issued there in late March because a dance
event was being held without the proper permit.
But he described that incident as "very minor," and said that "we've
not seen any sign of the reportedly illicit activity."
As far as who has the right to the possession of the building, Drennen
says, "Our case has never been based on the classic idea of ownership.
Our case is based on a partnership. Matthew Gordon was someone who we
knew for a long time. He was wanting to be part of what we were doing
in the deepest possible way."
Drennen downplays the idea that Gordon made the pact as part of his
Sufi initiation, although it is mentioned in the court filings from
the World Evolution lawyers. Drennen says the gesture was wholly
voluntary, and never requested.
As for Gordon's expressed concern about activities at the Loft,
Drennen says: "The reason this is all coming up right now has nothing
to do with the project, nothing to do with the Sufi tradition, and
nothing to do whether I'm a good person or not. It all has to do with
selling a building."
Feuds and disillusionment
When it comes to property disputes, Circle of Friends does have
something of a history.
Most recently, the Circle and Murshid were sued by a former member who
had donated more than $50,000 to launch a now-defunct bookstore in
Leucadia.
She claimed the donation was made under the influence of brainwashing
and coercion. Last year, the two sides agreed in mediation that the
Circle would pay the former member $20,000, although it admitted no
liability.
The latest court case could well decide whether the Loft survives, at
least downtown. And yet one irony is that the young artists and
entrepreneurs who originally conceived of the Loft vision are largely
gone, driven away by feuds and disillusionment.
"When I walked into that place for the first time, it was magical,"
says Chris Howland, who launched a magazine at the Loft called Sin at
a time when the building was largely in disuse.
At the time, one of Howland's colleagues at the Loft spoke of how the
project's ideas and influence "will be all around the planet
eventually." That hasn't quite happened yet.
"The thing that happened is the Circle of Friends and different people
that got involved really wanted to institute policies, to have
pictures of yoga people all around -- all this stuff that, honestly,
the people the Loft was created for scares them away," says Howland,
who now publishes a night life magazine called Where @.
"The Loft was never intended as a way of propagating belief systems on
people," he adds, emphasizing that he takes no sides in the current
fight. "The point was to create a place that was exempt from all
that."
But in some ways, the original dream of Howland and the other founders
continues.
At rows of gleaming electronic equipment, much of it provided directly
or indirectly by Circle of Friends, artists and entrepreneurs do
computer graphics and other creative projects.
The Loft also has fully equipped music studios and a stage for live
performances. It hosts special events ranging from a Sunday open-mike
night to a Thursday dance party, and offers a range of yoga classes.
Loft manager Sati Ah says the place has about 50 members who pay dues
each month, plus some 20 to 30 who become members on a temporary basis
to work on specific projects.
Members pay $130 a month, or $100 if they rent office space in the
building. Group and corporate memberships are also available at $160
for up to five people, she said.
The fees entitle members to use video and audio equipment, attend yoga
classes and take advantage of other Loft services, although use of
some of the higher-end electronic equipment requires an extra fee.
On a recent evening, a Cuban performer and spiritual man named Regino
Jimenez was leading a group of drummers called Ilu Aña in music
derived from the Santeria spiritual tradition, also known as Ocha.
Among those watching the performance was Anna Morrone, an office
manager for a travel agency who also teaches yoga at the Loft.
"I just really like the way this place has developed over the past
several years," she said. "It offers young kids a safe place to be
creative."
A couple of floors below, a poster on a wall lists the Loft's "Four
Prime Directives."
Among the decrees: "Those that participate must be givers more than
takers."
When it comes to the fate of the Loft, who has been taking, and who
will have to give, is now for the court to decide.
Copyright 2000 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
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And found at:
http://www.uniontribune.com/news/uniontrib/thu/currents/news_1c4loftbar.html
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Circle of Friends dismisses cult label applied by others
May 4, 2000
The story of Circle of Friends, the yoga-and-meditation organization
that helped create the Loft in its present form, stretches back to
1974, when it was founded in Colorado by Jesse Drennen.
Drennen, now known as Murshid, was affiliated with various Sufi groups
in the '70s before starting the Circle. The organization is now based
in Long Beach but has satellite projects such as the Liberty Advance
yoga-and-meditation center in Boulevard, east of San Diego.
The director of the Liberty center is Rudi Kadre, who is Murshid's
companion as well as a former companion of Matthew Gordon, head of the
partnership that owns the downtown Loft building. Kadre also describes
herself as one of the directors of the Loft.
According to Sati Ah, manager of the Loft, the Circle is less directly
connected with the downtown project than it was five years ago. The
Loft's resources, she says, are held in trust by a New Mexico-based
group called the Nida Foundation, two of whose board members are also
Circle members.
The Loft gets some support through members' fees, and through the
rents that some businesses pay for space at the facility. (Among those
businesses is Digigami, a computer-services company owned by Gen
Kiyooka, who joined World Evolution Loft in the recent court action
against Matthew Gordon and his partners.)
Equipment such as computers and recording gear is also donated to the
foundation by the Murshid Corp., which essentially consists of Murshid
himself. Sati Ah says the equipment and other resources come from
people who have known Murshid and the Circle over the years and
support the goals of its projects.
And what are those goals? The World Evolution Loft's official "Vision
Statement" reads, "Every city needs a place where art and commerce can
converge." The Loft, it says, helps people "realize their full
creative potential" through "both outer and inner sciences."
The inner technologies it refers to are "yoga, meditation and martial
arts that dissolve bad habits and stress that can inhibit the flow of
creativity and the ability to make clear decisions."
Rudi Kadre says the Loft seeks to give its members a sense of
community and belonging, "which serves a human purpose and a spiritual
purpose."
The legal conflict now surrounding the Loft is not the first to
involve the Circle of Friends and its projects.
In 1982, the Circle was sued by a Denver man who had given an
apartment building, two vehicles and more than $30,000 to the group.
He left the Circle a week after joining, saying he had been subjected
to a coercive system of exercise, sleep deprivation and other
stresses.
Although he sued for $600,000, he gained back only the building and
one car in a settlement. Murshid characterizes the incident as
stemming from a romance gone wrong between the man and another member.
More recently, a woman named Alison Lewis sued Murshid and the Circle
on similar grounds. Lewis had donated some $50,000 and a car to the
group in order to open a Circle bookstore (since closed) in Leucadia.
According to her lawsuit, as soon as Lewis moved into the group's
communal residence, she was placed on a two-week fast from food,
followed by a diet consisting only of herbs in soup.
The suit also claimed Lewis' "personal boundaries were all broken
down," and that the "group pressure of the communal residence"
included "punishments for complaining and bizarre group sleeping and
sexual habits and mind-control exercises."
The Circle countered that no coercion took place, and that Lewis gave
her money and time freely and voluntarily. The two sides settled the
case in mediation last year, with the Circle paying $20,000 but
admitting no liability.
The suit refers to the Circle as a "cult," a description Murshid says
he's heard before.
"One of the things that's been said about us is that we're a cult and
we're run by one person," he says. "There's nothing further from the
truth. The beauty of this place is that it's run by many people."
But Cutler Lewis, Alison's father, is still upset about how he says
his daughter was treated by the Circle and Murshid.
"There's no question, he's been living off the fruits of other
people's endeavors. He's a very slippery individual, and extremely
smart. He talks people out of their worldly goods for looking after
them."
As for his daughter, Lewis says: "She has put it behind her. It's been
a learning experience. It will scar her forever in certain ways. But
you have to get on with life."
-- James Hebert
Copyright 2000 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
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