Spinners Article
Mercury Lee
Here is the spinner article. I have had it typed, but I havn't been able
to get the bbs to accept my uploads.....
Merc!
SPINNERS' OR SINNERS?
(From Worchester Telegram + Gazette Newspaper Dec. 9, 1991)
The Church of Unlimited Devotion is nothing if not eclectic. From
Catholicism it takes Holy Communion and the Rosary. From Hinduism
it takes the repetitious chanting of the name of Krishna. And from
Sufism comes the whirling dance of the dervish.
The church's name can be found in a song by the Grateful Dead -
"The Golden Road (to Unlimited Devotion)." Members of the church,
which is based in Philo, Calif., follow this rock band on most of
its tours. Because of the spinning dance they perform both at
concerts and as part of their religious devotions, they are know as
"the Spinners." They are vegetarian, and take vows of poverty,
chastity and obedience. Of the 40 people living in Philo, 20 have
taken vows. Their day is filled with ceremonies taken from various
religions. They study the Bible, the lives of saints, the Bhagavad-
Gita and other sacred works. They renounce possessions, and
celibacy is required of unmarried members.
Viktoria Ruchkan, 19, daughter of Boris Ruchkan of Milwaukee,
dropped out of college to join the church. She first came in
contact with Unlimited Devotion the way most new members do - at a
Grateful Dead concert. Since then Ruchkan has been trying to
persuade his daughter to leave. She refuses.
While some parents of church members support their children's
involvement in Unlimited Devotion, others say that the church is
not simply a religion, but a cult. "I have no doubt my daughter is
brainwashed," Ruchkan said. "One of the group's teachings is to
substitute the real family with the cult family, and this they have
done." Viktoria denies this, and says her difficulties with her
father go back before she joined the church.
SON OF JUDGE
One of the founders of the church is Joseph Lian III. 31, a native
of Worcester. Lian believes Ruchkan is persecuting the church.
Ruchkan placed an ad in the Telegram & Gazette last month asking
for information about Lian and the church. That was done, Lian
feels, to embarrass his father, Judge Joseph Lian Jr., who sits in
the probate court.
The younger Lian last lived in Massachusetts from 1985 to 1987,
when he ran the Back to Basics health-food store in Shrewsbury. He
was then on probation after being found guilty of trying to carry
22 pounds of marijuana through a border patrol checkpoint at the
Texas-Mexico border. Church secretary Anne Laughlin and member
Timothy Mack were also found guilty. The original of possession
with intent to distribute was reduced to simple possession. The
three were given one-year suspended sentences, five years'
probation and $1,000 fines. "That was a mistake I made seven years
ago," Lian said. "I learned my lesson, and I haven't been involved
in anything like that since."
Unlimited Devotion was incorporated as a church in California in
January, but has been growing for about eight years, Lian said. The
members lived a largely nomadic existence until a year ago, when
Luther Dulaney of San Francisco loaned the group $108,000 to help
buy the Mendocino farm, which members call simply "The Land."
PREGNANCY
Dulaney regrets making the loan. "They talk about poverty," he
said, "but these guys are on a $300,000 piece of land, so the
poverty thing sort of flies out the window. Nobody was supposed to
have any association with the opposite sex, and the next thing one
of the leaders gets someone pregnant. But when ordinary members
started getting close to each other, we'd get a verbal lashing from
Joseph.
"I'm not up on recognizing mind control techniques, but I know
there was tremendous peer pressure there, and it was initiated by
Joseph." Lian said Dulaney was disgruntled since having a crush on
a church member that was not reciprocated. Dulaney also said the
male members of the church used marijuana sacramentally, offering
it to Krishna before smoking it. Lian denies this, and two parents
who visited the church in October said they saw no such ceremony.
Some parents don't mind their children's involvement. "Our
observation was that the young people are there because they want
to be," said William Mack of Guilford, Conn. "If they're just
living their own lives and not messing up other people, that's what
I judge by." What Mack can't fathom is the group's passion for the
Grateful Dead. "I went to one concert, and there was a huge crowd
seemingly transported to another world," he said, "but all I heard
was a lot of indecipherable noise. I grew up on Dizzy Gillespie."
But at least two other parents - the father of a present member
and the mother of one who was deprogrammed after leaving the church
- share Ruchkan's concerns. Both requested anonymity. "They told
him he would have to disown his physical family," a mother said.
The other parent said his daughter won't speak to him any more.
"They punish the parents by stopping the members from talking with
you," he said. "Joseph Lian has created a cloistered atmosphere
where he has control over everything - funds, food, everything.
It's a cult."
'NOT A CULT'
"It's a mystery to us why a few of these parents hold such a
strong grudge," Lian said. "The church is not a cult. What we're
doing isn't new. We see the unity of all bona fide world faiths."
Lian emphasized that the Grateful Dead's music was not a principle
part of religion. "Their music provides an aspect of meditation
that helped the group come to a basic understanding of religious
principles," he said. "It can be any music"
When Viktoria was last at her parent's home, Ruchkan had her
examined by Carol Giambalvo, a board member of the Cult Awareness
Network. Giambalvo concluded that Viktoria exhibited "dissociative
states, a dual personality, and an inability to deal with reality,"
She said repetitious praying, chanting and dancing leave people in
highly suggestible states.
Viktoria disagrees. She says that "spinning" to the Grateful Dead
or any other kind of music is not a "trancelike" experience. "It's
clear meditation," she said. "It's like a prayer."
"My father's hatred of Joseph is not a sudden thing," she said "He
has always had something against my beliefs and lifestyle."
Ruchkan attends concerts in his area whenever the Grateful Dead
are playing so he may see his daughter. The last one was in
Milwaukee a week ago. "I say my daughter, but when she talked to
me, it was like the group talking, not her," he said. "I did not
feel I was looking at my daughter."
This article reproduced without permission. Another Merc!
production.
Internet: me...@pro-odyssey.cts.com
I've been where the water tastes like wine, and those chilly winds didn't
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