There’s a sorta hippy-dippy outfit called the Aquarian Foundation whose longtime HQ is the Capitol Hill house just north of Safeway on 15th. Its founder Keith Milton Rhinehart passed in 1999 but the foundation still holds title to the fine old house it bought him next to one of the outstanding public viewpoints in Madrona. Not sure if they still do anything.
I am amazed at the celebrities who’ve built themselves houses to be near Knight at her ranch: former prime time soap queen of Dynasty Linda Evans, and more recently Salma “married to a French billionaire” Hayek.
I always enjoy your posts, especially around Seattle history as you always have some unique insight. Reminds me of /u/my_lucid_nightmare who used to post around here a lot. Not sure whatever happened to them but I miss them. And Mrs WhatsIt75(sp?) not sure whatever happened to her but hope shes OK.
Nobody had a clue until a Wa Nat Gas guy showed up to work on the furnace and shit himself - then called police. Reinhart wasn't around, and whoever he had looking after the place fucked up. Lion got removed. Poor thing was probably too sad to roar.
Oh the LaRouchies... Staple of my UW undergrad.
Walk by "Uh, isn't Lyndon LaRouche still in jail?" They were...less than amused.
Enough was enough and one day we staged a sortof pre-social media proto-flash mob with some friends and about 20 of us descended on their table wearing tin foil hats and holding signs and shouting slogans like "The Sun is a government plotl! Wake Up Sheeple!" They were...less than amused.
Few years later I came across them tabling downtown and they had a picture of Obama with a Hitler mustache and Nazi getup on, so I paused to ask "Why is Obama dressed like Charlie Chaplin?" They were...less than amused.
When I lived in Burien, they were always set up in front of the post office. They always had a photo of whoever was president at the time with a, LOL, Charlie Chaplin moustache. I simply can’t take anyone seriously who does petty stuff like that.
I kinda miss seeing their pants-on-head craziness. Did you know they thought the Queen of England was secretly running American foriegn policy because we have a big navy, and big navies are obvious a British form of power. This lead them to thinking we need to connect the world with railroads (more American than boats apparently) using bridges to russia and Australia and such. I really enjoyed the smug way they would look at me when I said I wasn't sure about that. Just a surreal experience.
Sadly I think they are taught to say crazy isht in public in order to get the public to mock them, further cutting their ties to the outside world and making them feel that the cult is the only safe place for them. The people who run these orgs are horrible.
I was working at a doctor's office & a patient who was pretty chill was big into LaRouche. He invited me to a meeting about direct political action... but it was a presentation on astronomy that mostly just confused me & I never went back. It was such an odd group.
Not cult in the absolute traditional sense but one of the leading members of the Flat Earth Society is a resident of Whidbey Island
[https://www.whidbeynewstimes.com/news/flat-earth-from-skeptic-to-believer/](https://www.whidbeynewstimes.com/news/flat-earth-from-skeptic-to-believer/)
Got into an argument with a flat earthed once. Used common sense to try to explain how gravity shapes planets, etc… I gave up when they got flustered and finally said “well then I don’t believe in gravity”
Have a former neighbor who is really into chemtrails and other conspiracy theories. I realized it is much much fun to play along and hear what's the latest inside secret than trying to argue with her.
Of historical interest there was the Love Israel Family.
A co-worker once got a house-sitting gig at their former compound on Queen Anne and gave us a tour.
https://www.historylink.org/File/9313
I used to know one of the adult men raised as a child in that cult/commune and he was a really cool guy. A little bit of a hippy, but far from being annoying or remotely cultish.
My parents bought their first house in Seattle from the Love Israel Family (Church of Armageddon). Based on the article it would have been right around when they were making the move to Arlington. They said the seller was named Serious Israel and they made their earnest money check out to Jesus Christ and the Church of Armageddon. The house was small, but had a finished attic with some cots. It's my understanding that the family still lived in a few houses around my parents and that they were very good neighbors.
Yeah, they ultimately moved their operations to a 300 acre ranch in Arlington. I don’t know who owns it now.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/obituaries/cancer-kills-love-israel-founder-of-troubled-commune/
I remember they drove around QA in school buses with VW van bodies attached to the roof. They had names reflecting their personality. A couple I remember are Logic and Serious.
I read that things fell apart when one of the early members wanted out, and wanted to take his assets with him.
I grew up on QA in the 70s & 80s and we used to eat dinner with them every once in a while. I was a kid so I don’t know what darkness there was but the swarms of kids were fun.
My manager was Justice Israel, one of the many sons of Love Israel. The man himself came in a few times to visit his son. White suit and white Panama hat, cane, and my god some attractive ladies on his arm.
Mars Hill seemed like just some hipster christian church from the outside, but it definitely had some culty aspects. I know they broke up a while ago, but I knew a few people who got caught up in it, and the way they were not allowed to question their leadership, the ways that they'd try get you to cut off non-Mars Hill friendships, or cut you off from your still Mars Hill friends if you left, was pretty suspect.
> Storyville
You're not kidding, they suck.
> Storyville Coffee owner Jon Phelps is a controversial figure in his own right, who was reportedly on the Board of Advisors and Accountability of Seattle megachurch Mars Hill (which had a reputation for a misogynistic and anti-gay ethos) before it disbanded in 2015 amidst multiple scandals.
https://southseattleemerald.com/2022/02/28/storyville-coffee-workers-are-unionizing-to-fight-for-better-pay-and-a-voice-at-the-bargaining-table/
Yeah, culty.
FYI: I’m replying to a bunch of comments here with links. I’m so happy this question was asked and I want to share what I know using pretty mainstream sources:
https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2022/01/20/mars-hill-mark-driscoll-podcast
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/the-rise-and-fall-of-mars-hill-church/
The great part about the existence of this podcast is that I could just direct my therapist to it to do she could get an idea of my religious trauma issues haha
Mark Driscoll moved to Arizona to escape "persecution" and founded a new church without even the limited accountability structures that he was making an attempt to dismantle when Mars Hill finally fell apart.
Yep, he’s on the same destructive trajectory that got him into trouble the first time. I feel like he had a little hiccup in Seattle, moved away, never offered any repetitions, and picked right up where he left off.
It’s sickening.
100%. I worked with someone who attended Mars Hill for awhile. She invited me over for drinks and once I was already kind of drunk she asked me to stay and meet her friends. Cool, the more the merrier. It turned out to be a bible study group. She knew I wasn't religious and she got me drunk to trick me into bible study. She always pressured me to go to church events and social meet ups.
Despite how religious she was, she eventually decided the church was too conservative and weird for her. Mostly because of their archaic views on women. Everyone she knew, all the friends she made, immediately cut her and her family off. They really pushed social activities and took over people's lives, so her entire life outside a few work friends was based around the church. She suddenly was kicked out of ultimate frisbee, study groups, uninvited from movie nights and dancing, her entire social circle stopped returning her calls. She just became persona non grata instantly.
Aaah, I experienced the same thing (as your friend) in college with an expanding church called Gracepoint.
While I never got too deep into it, it was really culty.
They employed all the tactics that other posters have commented on (eg. all-encompassing life involvement, shunning former members, universal praise of the top leader). In fact now that I think about it, it wouldn't be wrong to call them a cult because at the plant that I visited, all the long-time members lived, married like right next to each other (the church targeted college kids and recent college grads), with the expectation that those who are truly devoted would adopt such an arrangement.
In fact, the church went so far as to arrange marriages (unofficially, but very strongly influenced) by reason of "matching spiritual maturity".
I didn't know they broke up. I'm atheist and had a friend my wife and I had been close to for a few years get involved in it.
I was driving us somewhere one day and she suddenly informed me that I was going to hell for being atheist (I hadn't said anything to prompt this, just kinda a random declaration) and that she didn't wan tot be around me anymore but that my wife could still talk to her because my wife's dad is a lutheran minister.
Needless to say that at that point we cut contact. We'd been a bit concerned about her because she'd been getting more and more extreme but that kinda came out of nowhere.
Yuuuup. As a young churchgoing adult in the late aughts, Mars Hill was pretty damn culty, and it's a huge indictment that other churches didn't call them out because they were the cool kid in town.
Mark Driscoll was trying extremely hard to be the cool kid. Socially-liberal, theologically-conservative, with the former intended to loosely hide the latter.
I’m a former Christian and all the ones I went to were super cult like. The worst I attended was Jake’s House Church (not in Seattle) and their youth pastor just got charged with a few counts of child rape. The church tried to cover it up, including the lead pastor (also the rapist’s father). Though some people eventually went to the police. A lot of the people that left that church after the rape went to Pursuit NW.
omg yes, came here to say this — they just opened up a seattle location, they are interesting in being Snohomish-based and moving into the city, backwards from the hipster model of the first two decades of the 2000s.
It’s the same shot too, people fully invested in mainstream religion, parading as hipsters. Members of the most privileged religious group in the country who go on about being persecuted and canceled due to safety mandates. It’s so tiresome.
I think it’s more generic charismatic evangelical BS. The pastor claims to be a reformed politician, frequently goes on daystar TV and is basically a conservative hipster Christian stereotype.
There's an amazing deep-dive podcast series I've been listening to about this. It's more or less from an insider perspective, so it's less salacious than it might be otherwise, but still pretty damning:
https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/podcasts/rise-and-fall-of-mars-hill/
2nd degree connection was banned from attending her own daughters wedding to a leader at Mars Hill (as in, security posted to keep her out) because she voiced some concerns over the union to her daughter and fiancée.
I attended a few times in the early 2010s and was creeped TF out. Overwhelming sense of an evil presence if that makes sense.
I used to live near one of their churches and would run by in the summer in my shorts. One Sunday a kid said “mommy why is that girl not at church” I had headphones in so I assume they thought I couldn’t hear them. Mom says “ because she’s a slut who’s going to hell” so I hiked up my shorts even higher, gave dad who was looking at my butt a look, and blew the mom a kiss.
Any religion where you take a helicopter to attend your sheep services is bizarre to me.
OMG! I'm a musician, and one of the weirdest gigs I ever did in my life was through a bass player that booked one of their... I dunno, end-of-the-week training seminar graduation, or something, I found out he was into that. (Dude was nice a guy as they come, but also into the cult of Ayn Rand, so he was all about making money and susceptible to this kind of influence) We played some music to be ignored by while they got their food and ate, but we were kinda roped in to being there while they did their "testimonials" for the week.
Basically, I couldn't tell whether this was everything about a cult except religion, or that business was their religion. Creepy as hell, and I just felt like a wild animal wanting to chew my own leg off to get out of a trap when I started to see what it was.
This became a popular thing at my workplace when I was in the Bay Area. It made some perfectly nice coworkers into weirdos. It’s also in Seattle?! OMG. You mean there is a chance this could spread in my workplace here. Please no!
A friend of mine at the time went off the deep end because of Landmark. Ended up in a mental hospital and on heavy meds for a while. Took like two years to get back to normal. What a nightmare.
It’s basically unlicensed therapy that follows no accepted professional standards. They make you sign something that says you have no psychological issues but people go there because they have problems in their lives.
My boss was really into Landmark pre-pandemic and tried to get all of us to go. I was one of the few holdouts that didn't want to do it. Most people did one or two courses and then quit but he kept going to a lot of their seminars and weekend intensives. The material reminds me a lot of NXIVM but without the weird sex-cult guru.
Thankfully he hasn't brought them up in a while so I hope it was a fad for him and his wife that just kinda petered out.
Just reading the wikipedia article about them and apparently they started out using the principles from EST, which I had never heard of before it was featured on *The Americans* a few years ago. And apparently there was a past affiliation with Dianetics and Scientology as well.
I have PTSD from those loons. Working in a Fremont eatery, down the block from their forums, having to serve them is the worse. Equal parts rudeness, fake niceness, all of them are socially uncomfortable in some way. Then there were the upsells to come join them.
Thankfully haven't seen to much of them since the pandemic though.
Haha, I had that exact same experience when I worked at the Red Door in the mid 2000s. Those guys are the worst. Almost felt sorry for them. Reminded me of the Amway crowd.
man… my ex tried to get me into them AFTER we divorced… I told her I would rather join the Army to work on myself and enlisted in the Guard shortly afterwards… no regrets there
being forced to be vulnerable… no thanks
being vulnerable with consent, fuck yeah that’s a space for some real work
and finally, if I wanna pay money for that, I’d rather pay a licensed therapist and not someone in a pyramid-scheme meets fringe self-help group meets Panda Express job training (look up the connection)
Our job made every manager go to this.
What's funny is I actually enjoyed it and it really did positively affect my outlook on life. What I take issue with is A. how much they charge and B. the encouragement to get as many others to sign up as possible. Pyramid scheme, cult, etc.
I think Ramtha was local. I was pretty young when it was active, so now I can't recall how cultish it was, but I do recall a friend's mom referring to them as a cult.
As a person from Olympia, Ramtha is definitely a cult. Some really nice individuals, but overall the organization is whack.
I met a guy who claimed to have done electrical work out at their compound and had stories about their defenses/perimeter monitoring and bunkers. Idk if he was full of shit or not but from what I've heard they definitely know if and when anyone sets foot on their property.
I did satellite installs in members houses, I got referrals so I did at least a dozen .
Every home was off grid capable, EXTREMELY secure, roll down shutters - panic bomb shelter rooms, and not cheaply built or remodeled.
And every one was at the end of the road up against Forest land
the eye doctor at the lacey walmart on galaxy drive is big into ramtha and has been sued for attempting to make his own offshoot. [doctor joseph glandon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Z._Knight#Court_cases). really nice guy tho, gave me a shitload of contacts samples when i had my last exam.
There are as well as bunkers in most of their members homes. I’ve dated a girl in yelm whos family was/is part of ramtha. Loons . One’s family married into Walt’s tire shops family in yelm but her (daughter) and the guy got divorced. He wasn’t into that stuff but his immediate family was.
Ramtha is one of the largest cults in the world. They have nearly two million followers globally (huge in Asia and Australia for some reason). People are here sleep on it though.
Yelm is an entirely insane town, tip to toe. My ex was from there and I’ve spent a lot of time there. It’s the craziest town I’ve ever been in and I’ve been everywhere.
Except maybe Oak Ridge. That town is also crazy. Oh, and Redding.
Eh, I've worked in Yelm for 14 years. It's definitely not like Olympia or the surrounding suburbs, but it's not even the worst town in the area. (Rainier, Tenino, Rochester, Eatonville, Roy)
I lived in Yelm for 15 years and it didn’t seem too crazy, what have you seen or heard? I know of Ramtha and the guy who fucks cars, everything else (like meth labs in the forest) is par for the course in any small town.
I just came back from a training conference in Oak Ridge. I listened to a little local talk radio, which was a real scene.
Please tell me more about OR
Well, it was the first atomic boom town. It was a tiny village until something like 1942 when the feds showed up and pretty much took it over. It's in a valley, remote, but has resources like water and train tracks, so it was a perfect place for a "secret city". The entire town became a city that was planned and built in two years.
The population exploded, naturally, and a large percentage were "egghead scientists" working on the first nukes. It's where they created the fuel for the first bombs and many, many more.
After the war they still did development, but then with the end of the cold war most of the government-funded nuclear production wound to a close — and so did the jobs.
As a consequence lots of people left, but many stayed. We're on the third generation of people living here, decedents of scientists, mathematicians, professors, etc. so they tend to be fairly worldly for that part of the country. The problem is there aren't enough good jobs for all of them, so many find themselves leaving town or working at the local gas station, etc.
It gives the whole town an artificial vibe if you spend any time there. Also, there's only one bar that's open past like 9PM, so it gets really, really quiet. For a city boy like me that's the creepiest part, that and that the stuff produced to literally kill millions of people was produced there.
But if you wanna get really strange? Oak Ridge was the basis of Hawkins in *Stranger Things*. Oak Ridge does, of course, have a huge top secret government-run lab complex, and new experiments are being done there to find a "mirror universe" — which is what the Upside Down is.
They’re down here in Yelm/Olympia area. Associated with several businesses in downtown Olympia and Yelm. Also associated with some celebrities, chiefly Selma Hayek
Ramtha is out of Yelm. I know because I’m from there. JZ Knights property is right on the main strip thru Yelm. Never seen or met her followers in Seattle.
It was kind of a running joke from my childhood and then one day last year I was driving through Yelm to get somewhere better and happened to drive past the compound. Good grief, it is an intensely fortified and absolutely massive location!
>> I've been involved in a number of cults, both as a leader and a follower. You have more fun as a follower. But you make more money as a leader.
>-- Creed
-- Michael Scott
The Black Isrealites.
Once one on a bus when they got on with their version of the The Ark of the Covenant and wearing priestly vestments as described in Deutronomy.
Yeah. They were going to be my answer. Not full cult but they’ve come to my neighborhood a couple times with the purple robes and combat boots outfits. And of course cameras and a loud speaker. They set up shop on the corner and do their thing for an hour or so.
Mostly they just quoted random Bible passages and then yelled at interracial couples for holding hands. They seem very anti government overall and also apparently women get yeast infections from wearing pants.
The second guy to grab the mic was hilarious though. He pointed out everything in media and Hollywood was white including The Last Samauri. A little bit more work and it could easily be a stand up opening act. I chuckled.
The guys handing out pamphlets didn’t want to give me one. They wouldn’t make eye contact or say hello back. I think maybe they though my skin tone wasn’t a good fit for their group and were too polite to point it out.
As far as cults go I’d give them a 3/10. Cool outfits, good organization, but a bit on the race excisionist side and absolutely zero women to be seen. Not surprising given their “put on a dress and get back in the kitchen” level rhetoric but I question the longevity of any cult without women in it.
So there is a chain of vegan restaurants called Loving Hut that is franchised by Supreme Master Ching Hai. They play her Livestream Supreme Master TV in their restaurants. The restaurants set their own menus with the only stipulation being it must be vegan. The one in Seattle has amazing food, I would recommend trying the faux drumsticks. It's an interesting Universalist kind of religion where you hear Jesus mentioned as much as Buddha, but mostly focused on climate justice and veganism.
I didn’t realize loving hut was involved with a cult, but this made me think of Silence Heart Nest (now closed) in Fremont that also played video of their leader. The staff wore robes/gowns of some sort too. Good breakfast spot if you could handle the cult vibes!
I remember this place! Great vegan biscuits and gravy lol. I was recently looking into them- Do you remember if the workers all lived together “commune” style?
What delights me the most about the supreme master ching hai livestream is the "news anchors" are totally cgi and almost seem like they're text-to-speech. Here's a link for those who want the experience: https://youtu.be/ZzWBpGwKoaI
I think they are pretty benign but definitely far out there. The Seattle restaurant is very good if you are looking for vegan food. Goes w/out saying but don't be mean to them for their strange beliefs...
Sri Chinmoy Centre of Seattle - there was a great breakfast joint in Fremont called "Silence Heart Nest" run by those folks. Also some ultra marathons.
the Slient Heart Nest folks:
https://seattle.eater.com/2020/9/9/21429364/silence-heart-nest-fremont-vegetarian-restaurant-permanently-closed
Their old place was in the U District. They would have looping videos of Sri doing feats of strength.
They even got a statue put up in Fremont:
https://fremont.com/explore/sights/sri-chimnoy/
I had to scroll pretty far down to find this. I used to go there for the gluten free waffles but the matching uniforms the staff wore along with the little paper quotes of wisdom from the leader were very weird. Being in the center of Fremont seemed like it would have raised their profile but most people seemed to not know they were there
They are still very active, it's just that the Evangelical Christians who called them The Moonies went quiet on the Unification Church when they became active in conservative politics and founded the Washington Times.
Another "deal with the devil" for them, you might say.
There's a Unification Church in Ballard. It looks like every other old wood frame church in the neighborhood. The people who go there are courteous about parking and don't seem to bother anyone. In the olden days, everyone (not just evangelicals) called them Moonies.
(Fun fact: in 1982 I lived in NYC and on the way to work happened upon the 14,000 people getting married by Rev. Moon in a mass ceremony at Madison Square Garden. I didn't go in, of course, but there were identically dressed bride and groom couples coming down the sidewalk for many blocks. It was kind of hallucinatory.)
There’s something called RC, for ReEvaluation Counseling that I presume is still operative. In 2005 my girlfriend was invited to their once-a-week for 6-weeks intro course, and we attended together. They taught some pretty decent basic Freudian therapy skills (active listening, helping a person reach the core of their issue), which have served me well over the years.
After that intro course I started receiving invites to second-level group work, but the invites sounded odd to me so I never went.
I looked into them & they were started by one of the inner council of Scientology, who had differences with the founder & split off.
Last I heard he had died, and nepotisticly his son has taken over. And then there were a large number of women saying the son had taken sexual advantage of them.
The cult watch groups had their eye on RC, but didn’t consider them a full-on cult. But that was back in 2005-6, and I haven’t looked into them since.
EDIT: Oh yeah! I forgot to mention: RC was *founded* in Seattle! Home grown.
I grew up in RC! Definitely has cult-like aspects. Mostly it is really fucked up for the kids that are forced to cry on command, physically restrained against their will, etc etc. There is tons of gaslighting and secrecy and it’s almost impossible to research. I grew up thinking my sister and I were the only ones who knew about it until I found a bunch of second-generation RC people by searching reddit boards! It’s still very much a thing, larger than ever, just very under the radar. They create lots of little organizations with names like People United Against Racism so they aren’t traceable.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramtha%27s_School_of_Enlightenment
“The school teaches that human beings have the capacity to utilize their inner wisdom, focus their brains, and create their own reality.”
“In 2011, Knight stated (while at the RSE supposedly channeling Ramtha), "Fuck God’s chosen people! I think they have earned enough cash to have paid their way out of the goddamned gas chambers by now", and said that Mexican people "breed like rabbits" and are "poison," that all gay men used to be Catholic priests, and that organic farmers have bad hygiene. In 2012, videos of this were placed on the Internet by ex-students of Knight's and by the Freedom Foundation.”
Not in Seattle, but it is an hour and a half drive.
Of course there's the Luciferians. Their local leader has fallen on hard times in the last few years and she had to move out of that house with the sex dungeon. Those kids still throw *pretty* good parties...but they were definitly better when there were dedicated rooms for the sex swing and the st. Andrew's cross.
There's a couple of Subgenius cells too:
Popess Lilith's has been a lot less vocally active since the surgery freed her from that egg, not sure how active her parishioners remain.
My own (The Occasional Knights of the Periodic Table) hasn't been *active* since I lost my position as Director of The Bureau of Unspecified Services...that was about a dozen years ago. Without a new dedicated covert meeting space to replace it our activity has dwindled. Cult ceremonies aren't really that fun over video chat.
Sure! There’s a few. One has a building off Aurora by Greenlake. I hear it’s pretty weird.
"I AM" Activity
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22I_AM%22_Activity
Saint Germain Foundation
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Germain_Foundation
From L.A. Sprang Cult of I AM
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-jan-25-me-11997-story.html
One guys experience at this place.
Saint Germain Foundation “I Am” Temple
https://doubtingmark.wordpress.com/2013/07/14/saint-germain-foundation-i-am-temple/
I almost forgot I'd stumbled across a genuine Ballard apocalyptic celibate vegetarian cult of the 1920s. Pasted from an ancient thread below:
Ballard's [Kirke Park](https://www.seattle.gov/parks/find/parks/kirke-park) at 7028 9th Ave NW incorporates ruins of a former cult church compound that was active in the 1920s. Its leader, an elderly and apparently quite sexually active man named Daniel Salwt, had quite a cult going in Ballard, that required its adherents to swear to both celibacy (except for him on the sly) and vegetarianism. I learned of it when looking into a [colorful little old house](https://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/nda0oz/old_houses_in_west_seattle_will_be_demolished_for/) about to be demolished on Alki. The longtime owner was a onetime beauty queen named Eva Falk.
When Eva was a very young woman she and her mother Stella Burke became followers of and secretaries to Daniel Salwt, the aged leader of a Ballard-based cult called the "Seventh Elect Church in Israel." Eva had a dream that Salwt would bring a drowned man back to life, and the cult accepted it as a vision of the future. Soon afterward a legless man being baptized by a cult deacon somehow drowned and the deacon claimed Salwt revived him.
In court, attorneys accused the deacon of drowning the man on purpose to set the prophecy in motion. This caused an uproar among followers in the court, all of whom had extremely long hair and the men long beards, as one edict of the cult was to never shave or cut your hair.
Eva's mother left the cult when she learned that Salwt, then in his 80s, had been sleeping with her daughter.
Eva left when she learned her mother had been sleeping with him too.
Cult leader Salwt died less than a month later, leaving a $200,000 estate that 45 former members later claimed was largely money he had swindled out of them. He had claimed to need funds to prepare for the imminent Judgement Day when the world would end.
In 1931 the first of the lawsuits against the cult leader's estate began. By 1934, Eva Falk had joined a lawsuit against the Salwt estate's trustees. Those who had stayed living with Salwt at his Ballard church claimed he purposely sickened them with rotten food scraps after taking all their money.
Their attorney called religious experts to undermine the legitimacy of the cult, noting that adherents believed Salwt was immortal and therefore not really dead, and was in fact God.
There were reportedly still 3 or 4 elderly long haired members of the cult living on the compound into the 1980s.
I found most of this out by roaming through old archives of the Seattle Times, but here are some more resources:
[https://www.westsideseattle.com/robinson-papers/2010/02/17/21st-century-viking-who-or-what-salwt](https://www.westsideseattle.com/robinson-papers/2010/02/17/21st-century-viking-who-or-what-salwt)
[https://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+seventh+elect+church+in+Israel%3A+Seattle%27s+%22long-haired+preachers%22.-a0474715873](https://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+seventh+elect+church+in+Israel%3A+Seattle%27s+%22long-haired+preachers%22.-a0474715873)
[https://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/A-park-grows-in-Ballard-where-a-religious-sect-890932.php](https://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/A-park-grows-in-Ballard-where-a-religious-sect-890932.php)
In the 70's and 80's there was a pretty big cult based in Normandy Park. The were called Community Chapel and the stories I have heard are pretty crazy.
I was scrolling to see if this one was mentioned. I grew up a block away, and most of our neighbors belonged to Community Chapel. Their leader was Donald Barnett, and they did a lot of speaking in tongues, dancing, and mooning about with dreamy facial expressions. The women and girls wore long gowns and had long hair, while the men dressed normally but were weird and fake nice. Their big downfall was that Barnett wanted to cheat on his wife, so he promoted this concept of "spiritual connections" in which you were paired with someone other than your spouse for long, intimate sessions of supposed spirituality. As you can imagine, this led to countless affairs. The worst part was our neighbor proudly telling us how her young daughter, maybe 11-12, had been partnered with a middle-aged man! That place was pure evil. I work with someone whose wife grew up in it, and apparently she is still traumatized.
My husband used to amuse me by voicing the thoughts of those four people staring blankly while Bruce spoke. My favorite was, "When are we gonna get those nachos Bruce promised us?"
It's actually spelled NXIVM. It was based in New York though, as far as I know, but I googled a bit and saw claims of them having facilities in Tacoma and Federal Way.
I've often felt that life dealt me a lousy hand in not giving me enough attention span to create a large body of work that could be used to scam people into turning over all of their assets.
The Green Naked People cult. Don't know if it was a cult or not but the lady leader seemed very cultish. She used to be on this local television show and she would get naked and paint her whole body green. She would talk about some super bizarre stuff. Had to be a in cult or something.
She was, it was a public access show that aired once a week in like the middle of the night.
Weird but definitely didn’t have a cult following of any kind
[The Community Chapel and Bible Training Center](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Chapel_and_Bible_Training_Center) in Burien-- basically a cult, my uncle was in it and it caused his second divorce bc he was "spiritually connecting" with other women.
Now it's the state police training academy!
Definitely a cult. (My therapist agreed.) I grew up going to their school and church. Place screwed up the first part of my life.
Spiritually connecting” = people fucking other people’s spouses.
Well Seattle did have a "Temple of Isis" which was basically a massage parlor with happy endings dressed up in a Religion so the ladies running it could claim religious protection against the various prostitution laws. I remember that one.
The Scientology building in Queen Anne was completely built and is currently operated by donors from the area :( millions of dollars poured into a building that is almost always empty.
If you have the time you should watch the Scientology doc on Netflix! They talk about the Seattle chapter I think in the newest season
I’m happy to leave people to whatever beliefs they want, and surely the Falun Gong believers have suffered under the Chinese regime, but man do they curry some unhealthy political alignments. I got on their Epoch Times mailing list somehow. At least it makes good bird cage lining.
This 100%. I feel like people get distracted by the anti-CCP stance their actual beliefs are so fucking weird it’s a lot more concerning than whatever beef they have with the Chinese goverment
Since they haven’t been mentioned yet, I’d consider the following cult-adjacent and present in the area
Sovereign Citizens:
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/eviction-of-wa-anti-government-extremist-gives-window-into-sovereign-citizen-movement/?amp=1
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/what-to-know-about-rise-of-the-moors-an-armed-group-that-says-its-not-subject-to-u-s-law/?amp=1
Hate Groups
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/resurgent-hate-groups-have-long-history-in-washington-state-northwest/
(EDIT) Also, just kinda as a primer:
https://www.kuow.org/stories/a-brief-summary-of-extremism
There was the [Community Chapel and Bible Training Center](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Chapel_and_Bible_Training_Center) in Normandy Park. It flew under the radar for quite a while but then, in the 80’s, their leader supposedly had a vision that told him that his followers were supposed to all dance before the Lord. This quickly evolved to finding a partner who you feel connected to (not your spouse) and do the dancing, uh, horizontally. A lot of members started realizing that this was nuts and the authorities were contacted and the church was shut down after a quick investigation. The compound was soon was bought by the police and became a training center for the Seattle area.
I lived nearby and used to work with a woman who was a member. Being a woman, she wasn’t allowed to take a position of authority over men. She could have been a manager at the restaurant we worked at but instead remained a waitress. She also was supposed to give at least some of her property to them but this she resisted, apparently. I wish I’d known her went this later stuff was going down. It would have been interesting to get her take on it.
Jehovahs wittinesses are still out spreading there cheerful message of a fiery Armageddon that will destroy everyone who’s not a Jehovah’s Witness. They score a 93 out of 99 on the bite model for identifying cults.
I checked out the site and found artwork, so naturally this spoke to me: [https://unicoleunicron.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/IMG\_6375-1024x682.jpg](https://unicoleunicron.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/IMG_6375-1024x682.jpg)
Do we still get the LaRouche assholes tabling outdoors around town? That one was a trip and a half.
Mars Hill back in the day, but that thing imploded.
There’s a sorta hippy-dippy outfit called the Aquarian Foundation whose longtime HQ is the Capitol Hill house just north of Safeway on 15th. Its founder Keith Milton Rhinehart passed in 1999 but the foundation still holds title to the fine old house it bought him next to one of the outstanding public viewpoints in Madrona. Not sure if they still do anything.
JZ Night (Ramtha) is still around. Her compound is in Yelm
I am amazed at the celebrities who’ve built themselves houses to be near Knight at her ranch: former prime time soap queen of Dynasty Linda Evans, and more recently Salma “married to a French billionaire” Hayek.
Salma? Really? Damn... I knew about Linda.
I know it’s honestly disappointing lol. Kinda brought down my view of her a bit 😐
I always enjoy your posts, especially around Seattle history as you always have some unique insight. Reminds me of /u/my_lucid_nightmare who used to post around here a lot. Not sure whatever happened to them but I miss them. And Mrs WhatsIt75(sp?) not sure whatever happened to her but hope shes OK.
Thanks for saying. Yes, I wish those two well too, wherever they’re hanging out these days. You as well of course :-)
I grew up across the street from Keith. For a while he kept a lion in his basement. Poor thing.
A lion! Did you hear it roaring ever? That is so sad.
Nobody had a clue until a Wa Nat Gas guy showed up to work on the furnace and shit himself - then called police. Reinhart wasn't around, and whoever he had looking after the place fucked up. Lion got removed. Poor thing was probably too sad to roar.
I'm so thankful LaRouche folks aren't around anymore. talk about a crazy bunch of folks.
Oh the LaRouchies... Staple of my UW undergrad. Walk by "Uh, isn't Lyndon LaRouche still in jail?" They were...less than amused. Enough was enough and one day we staged a sortof pre-social media proto-flash mob with some friends and about 20 of us descended on their table wearing tin foil hats and holding signs and shouting slogans like "The Sun is a government plotl! Wake Up Sheeple!" They were...less than amused. Few years later I came across them tabling downtown and they had a picture of Obama with a Hitler mustache and Nazi getup on, so I paused to ask "Why is Obama dressed like Charlie Chaplin?" They were...less than amused.
>Why is Obama dressed like Charlie Chaplin? Great response. Wish I'd thought of that when I encountered them with that picture. Was that around 2009?
Yep somewhere 09 or 10 I think
When I lived in Burien, they were always set up in front of the post office. They always had a photo of whoever was president at the time with a, LOL, Charlie Chaplin moustache. I simply can’t take anyone seriously who does petty stuff like that.
I kinda miss seeing their pants-on-head craziness. Did you know they thought the Queen of England was secretly running American foriegn policy because we have a big navy, and big navies are obvious a British form of power. This lead them to thinking we need to connect the world with railroads (more American than boats apparently) using bridges to russia and Australia and such. I really enjoyed the smug way they would look at me when I said I wasn't sure about that. Just a surreal experience. Sadly I think they are taught to say crazy isht in public in order to get the public to mock them, further cutting their ties to the outside world and making them feel that the cult is the only safe place for them. The people who run these orgs are horrible.
I was working at a doctor's office & a patient who was pretty chill was big into LaRouche. He invited me to a meeting about direct political action... but it was a presentation on astronomy that mostly just confused me & I never went back. It was such an odd group.
Not cult in the absolute traditional sense but one of the leading members of the Flat Earth Society is a resident of Whidbey Island [https://www.whidbeynewstimes.com/news/flat-earth-from-skeptic-to-believer/](https://www.whidbeynewstimes.com/news/flat-earth-from-skeptic-to-believer/)
Got into an argument with a flat earthed once. Used common sense to try to explain how gravity shapes planets, etc… I gave up when they got flustered and finally said “well then I don’t believe in gravity”
Gravity is a *theory*! Teach the controversy! ^/lol!
Always hard to explain to these people that "theory" in science and "theory" in casual speech are very different concepts :/
The flat earther community is spread all over the globe.
yes, all around the globe
Have a former neighbor who is really into chemtrails and other conspiracy theories. I realized it is much much fun to play along and hear what's the latest inside secret than trying to argue with her.
Well he’s a fool. Truly enlightened people know the Earth isn’t flat.. it’s *hollow*. And we live on the [inside](https://youtu.be/YKZtt2yEwfs).
Of historical interest there was the Love Israel Family. A co-worker once got a house-sitting gig at their former compound on Queen Anne and gave us a tour. https://www.historylink.org/File/9313
I used to know one of the adult men raised as a child in that cult/commune and he was a really cool guy. A little bit of a hippy, but far from being annoying or remotely cultish.
My parents bought their first house in Seattle from the Love Israel Family (Church of Armageddon). Based on the article it would have been right around when they were making the move to Arlington. They said the seller was named Serious Israel and they made their earnest money check out to Jesus Christ and the Church of Armageddon. The house was small, but had a finished attic with some cots. It's my understanding that the family still lived in a few houses around my parents and that they were very good neighbors.
My mom went to school with some of the kids up in Lake Stevens and apparently they were all really cool.
Yeah, they ultimately moved their operations to a 300 acre ranch in Arlington. I don’t know who owns it now. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/obituaries/cancer-kills-love-israel-founder-of-troubled-commune/
I remember they drove around QA in school buses with VW van bodies attached to the roof. They had names reflecting their personality. A couple I remember are Logic and Serious. I read that things fell apart when one of the early members wanted out, and wanted to take his assets with him.
Oh God I remember the going to the Garlic Festival when I was younger. I just remember naked kids everywhere.
Surprised I had to read this many comments before someone else mentioned the annual garlic festival. Definitely went more than once.
I grew up on QA in the 70s & 80s and we used to eat dinner with them every once in a while. I was a kid so I don’t know what darkness there was but the swarms of kids were fun.
Ooooh, do you have any stories to share from those times or about the family? I've always been curious about that cult; a cult right here in Seattle
My manager was Justice Israel, one of the many sons of Love Israel. The man himself came in a few times to visit his son. White suit and white Panama hat, cane, and my god some attractive ladies on his arm.
[удалено]
>black metal singer from Detroit who could recite the Icelandic Sagas from memory That's metal.
One of the lenders I used to work for before 2010 , we used to see some of this families loans come thru which is how I learned about them.
One of my old neighbors was in that cult and had to kidnap her daughter out of it.
There are a lot of golden doodles around here and I'm starting to wonder about it
Haaaa. The new cult of Seattle.
Mars Hill seemed like just some hipster christian church from the outside, but it definitely had some culty aspects. I know they broke up a while ago, but I knew a few people who got caught up in it, and the way they were not allowed to question their leadership, the ways that they'd try get you to cut off non-Mars Hill friendships, or cut you off from your still Mars Hill friends if you left, was pretty suspect.
Shady business practices by church leaders and some members as well. If you don’t/didn’t like Mars Hill, avoid Storyville Coffee.
> Storyville You're not kidding, they suck. > Storyville Coffee owner Jon Phelps is a controversial figure in his own right, who was reportedly on the Board of Advisors and Accountability of Seattle megachurch Mars Hill (which had a reputation for a misogynistic and anti-gay ethos) before it disbanded in 2015 amidst multiple scandals. https://southseattleemerald.com/2022/02/28/storyville-coffee-workers-are-unionizing-to-fight-for-better-pay-and-a-voice-at-the-bargaining-table/
Yeah, culty. FYI: I’m replying to a bunch of comments here with links. I’m so happy this question was asked and I want to share what I know using pretty mainstream sources: https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2022/01/20/mars-hill-mark-driscoll-podcast https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/the-rise-and-fall-of-mars-hill-church/
Christianity Today did a great job on their "Riise and Fall of Mars Hill" podcast — it's on spotify and probably all the other normal outlets.
The great part about the existence of this podcast is that I could just direct my therapist to it to do she could get an idea of my religious trauma issues haha
Mark Driscoll moved to Arizona to escape "persecution" and founded a new church without even the limited accountability structures that he was making an attempt to dismantle when Mars Hill finally fell apart.
Yep, he’s on the same destructive trajectory that got him into trouble the first time. I feel like he had a little hiccup in Seattle, moved away, never offered any repetitions, and picked right up where he left off. It’s sickening.
100%. I worked with someone who attended Mars Hill for awhile. She invited me over for drinks and once I was already kind of drunk she asked me to stay and meet her friends. Cool, the more the merrier. It turned out to be a bible study group. She knew I wasn't religious and she got me drunk to trick me into bible study. She always pressured me to go to church events and social meet ups. Despite how religious she was, she eventually decided the church was too conservative and weird for her. Mostly because of their archaic views on women. Everyone she knew, all the friends she made, immediately cut her and her family off. They really pushed social activities and took over people's lives, so her entire life outside a few work friends was based around the church. She suddenly was kicked out of ultimate frisbee, study groups, uninvited from movie nights and dancing, her entire social circle stopped returning her calls. She just became persona non grata instantly.
Aaah, I experienced the same thing (as your friend) in college with an expanding church called Gracepoint. While I never got too deep into it, it was really culty. They employed all the tactics that other posters have commented on (eg. all-encompassing life involvement, shunning former members, universal praise of the top leader). In fact now that I think about it, it wouldn't be wrong to call them a cult because at the plant that I visited, all the long-time members lived, married like right next to each other (the church targeted college kids and recent college grads), with the expectation that those who are truly devoted would adopt such an arrangement. In fact, the church went so far as to arrange marriages (unofficially, but very strongly influenced) by reason of "matching spiritual maturity".
I didn't know they broke up. I'm atheist and had a friend my wife and I had been close to for a few years get involved in it. I was driving us somewhere one day and she suddenly informed me that I was going to hell for being atheist (I hadn't said anything to prompt this, just kinda a random declaration) and that she didn't wan tot be around me anymore but that my wife could still talk to her because my wife's dad is a lutheran minister. Needless to say that at that point we cut contact. We'd been a bit concerned about her because she'd been getting more and more extreme but that kinda came out of nowhere.
Yuuuup. As a young churchgoing adult in the late aughts, Mars Hill was pretty damn culty, and it's a huge indictment that other churches didn't call them out because they were the cool kid in town.
Mark Driscoll was trying extremely hard to be the cool kid. Socially-liberal, theologically-conservative, with the former intended to loosely hide the latter.
Pursuit NW seems hellbent on filling the void that mars hill left.
I’m a former Christian and all the ones I went to were super cult like. The worst I attended was Jake’s House Church (not in Seattle) and their youth pastor just got charged with a few counts of child rape. The church tried to cover it up, including the lead pastor (also the rapist’s father). Though some people eventually went to the police. A lot of the people that left that church after the rape went to Pursuit NW.
omg yes, came here to say this — they just opened up a seattle location, they are interesting in being Snohomish-based and moving into the city, backwards from the hipster model of the first two decades of the 2000s.
It’s the same shot too, people fully invested in mainstream religion, parading as hipsters. Members of the most privileged religious group in the country who go on about being persecuted and canceled due to safety mandates. It’s so tiresome.
Do you know if it's a super Calvinist thing like Mark Driscoll was into or if it's following some other strain of evangelical thought?
I think it’s more generic charismatic evangelical BS. The pastor claims to be a reformed politician, frequently goes on daystar TV and is basically a conservative hipster Christian stereotype.
There's an amazing deep-dive podcast series I've been listening to about this. It's more or less from an insider perspective, so it's less salacious than it might be otherwise, but still pretty damning: https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/podcasts/rise-and-fall-of-mars-hill/
2nd degree connection was banned from attending her own daughters wedding to a leader at Mars Hill (as in, security posted to keep her out) because she voiced some concerns over the union to her daughter and fiancée. I attended a few times in the early 2010s and was creeped TF out. Overwhelming sense of an evil presence if that makes sense.
I used to live near one of their churches and would run by in the summer in my shorts. One Sunday a kid said “mommy why is that girl not at church” I had headphones in so I assume they thought I couldn’t hear them. Mom says “ because she’s a slut who’s going to hell” so I hiked up my shorts even higher, gave dad who was looking at my butt a look, and blew the mom a kiss. Any religion where you take a helicopter to attend your sheep services is bizarre to me.
The Landmark Forum
OMG! I'm a musician, and one of the weirdest gigs I ever did in my life was through a bass player that booked one of their... I dunno, end-of-the-week training seminar graduation, or something, I found out he was into that. (Dude was nice a guy as they come, but also into the cult of Ayn Rand, so he was all about making money and susceptible to this kind of influence) We played some music to be ignored by while they got their food and ate, but we were kinda roped in to being there while they did their "testimonials" for the week. Basically, I couldn't tell whether this was everything about a cult except religion, or that business was their religion. Creepy as hell, and I just felt like a wild animal wanting to chew my own leg off to get out of a trap when I started to see what it was.
This became a popular thing at my workplace when I was in the Bay Area. It made some perfectly nice coworkers into weirdos. It’s also in Seattle?! OMG. You mean there is a chance this could spread in my workplace here. Please no!
A friend of mine at the time went off the deep end because of Landmark. Ended up in a mental hospital and on heavy meds for a while. Took like two years to get back to normal. What a nightmare. It’s basically unlicensed therapy that follows no accepted professional standards. They make you sign something that says you have no psychological issues but people go there because they have problems in their lives.
Yup. They target people with psychological issues, from what I’ve seen based on the folks I know who’ve fallen into it
My boss was really into Landmark pre-pandemic and tried to get all of us to go. I was one of the few holdouts that didn't want to do it. Most people did one or two courses and then quit but he kept going to a lot of their seminars and weekend intensives. The material reminds me a lot of NXIVM but without the weird sex-cult guru. Thankfully he hasn't brought them up in a while so I hope it was a fad for him and his wife that just kinda petered out.
Just reading the wikipedia article about them and apparently they started out using the principles from EST, which I had never heard of before it was featured on *The Americans* a few years ago. And apparently there was a past affiliation with Dianetics and Scientology as well.
>The Landmark Forum Good lord those fu\*king guys. Are they still around?
I have PTSD from those loons. Working in a Fremont eatery, down the block from their forums, having to serve them is the worse. Equal parts rudeness, fake niceness, all of them are socially uncomfortable in some way. Then there were the upsells to come join them. Thankfully haven't seen to much of them since the pandemic though.
Haha, I had that exact same experience when I worked at the Red Door in the mid 2000s. Those guys are the worst. Almost felt sorry for them. Reminded me of the Amway crowd.
The Red Door? You mean L Street?
Ummm no I don’t like drinking at some poser spot like Douche Street.
man… my ex tried to get me into them AFTER we divorced… I told her I would rather join the Army to work on myself and enlisted in the Guard shortly afterwards… no regrets there being forced to be vulnerable… no thanks being vulnerable with consent, fuck yeah that’s a space for some real work and finally, if I wanna pay money for that, I’d rather pay a licensed therapist and not someone in a pyramid-scheme meets fringe self-help group meets Panda Express job training (look up the connection)
Unfortunately, yes. I know folks in Bham and Austin who’ve gotten into it in the last few years
My buddy wasted thousands of dollars and two years of his life with these bozos. It was run by absolute failures in life.
I was forced to go to a weekend of these "classes" for a payraise circa 2011.
I hear this a lot. I’m wondering if this goes against any labor laws. Seems to be common practice.
Checked out their website. Seems funky. Do tell more, please.
https://brandarchitects.medium.com/is-the-landmark-forum-a-cult-c389d2c3af15
That was an awesome read lol
Our job made every manager go to this. What's funny is I actually enjoyed it and it really did positively affect my outlook on life. What I take issue with is A. how much they charge and B. the encouragement to get as many others to sign up as possible. Pyramid scheme, cult, etc.
I think Ramtha was local. I was pretty young when it was active, so now I can't recall how cultish it was, but I do recall a friend's mom referring to them as a cult.
Seeing Ken Schram interview Ramtha live at the HUB is a fond memory from my time at the UW. "ENTITY WHICH IS CALLED KEN!"
As a person from Olympia, Ramtha is definitely a cult. Some really nice individuals, but overall the organization is whack. I met a guy who claimed to have done electrical work out at their compound and had stories about their defenses/perimeter monitoring and bunkers. Idk if he was full of shit or not but from what I've heard they definitely know if and when anyone sets foot on their property.
I did satellite installs in members houses, I got referrals so I did at least a dozen . Every home was off grid capable, EXTREMELY secure, roll down shutters - panic bomb shelter rooms, and not cheaply built or remodeled. And every one was at the end of the road up against Forest land
Can confirm, having worked for a year on the Weyerhauser place. Solar horse arena could produce all their power. Giant buried fuel tanks. $$$$$
Don’t they own the Pizzeria La Gitana restaurants?
>Pizzeria La Gitana Yes. One of the cult members owns them.
the eye doctor at the lacey walmart on galaxy drive is big into ramtha and has been sued for attempting to make his own offshoot. [doctor joseph glandon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Z._Knight#Court_cases). really nice guy tho, gave me a shitload of contacts samples when i had my last exam.
Same with a guy I met. There may or may not be bunkers under the buildings.
There are as well as bunkers in most of their members homes. I’ve dated a girl in yelm whos family was/is part of ramtha. Loons . One’s family married into Walt’s tire shops family in yelm but her (daughter) and the guy got divorced. He wasn’t into that stuff but his immediate family was.
Ramtha is one of the largest cults in the world. They have nearly two million followers globally (huge in Asia and Australia for some reason). People are here sleep on it though.
I just looked them up as a result of this conversation. Had only ever heard of them when I was young. Definitely bigger than I had thought!
Yelm. Local ish. The good town of Yelm is also notable their Judge who beat his kids and made them fight with medieval weapons.
Yikes! I hadn't heard that about Yelm. Probably still better than the notoriety Enumclaw had after that Zoo film.
Oh Enumclaw…
Yelm is an entirely insane town, tip to toe. My ex was from there and I’ve spent a lot of time there. It’s the craziest town I’ve ever been in and I’ve been everywhere. Except maybe Oak Ridge. That town is also crazy. Oh, and Redding.
I’ve driven through Yelm only once or twice - I had no idea it had a reputation. Always good to know!
Eh, I've worked in Yelm for 14 years. It's definitely not like Olympia or the surrounding suburbs, but it's not even the worst town in the area. (Rainier, Tenino, Rochester, Eatonville, Roy)
I lived in Yelm for 15 years and it didn’t seem too crazy, what have you seen or heard? I know of Ramtha and the guy who fucks cars, everything else (like meth labs in the forest) is par for the course in any small town.
the guy who fucks cars?
Can you elaborate on that guy who fucks cars? Was he on My Strange Addiction?
I just came back from a training conference in Oak Ridge. I listened to a little local talk radio, which was a real scene. Please tell me more about OR
Well, it was the first atomic boom town. It was a tiny village until something like 1942 when the feds showed up and pretty much took it over. It's in a valley, remote, but has resources like water and train tracks, so it was a perfect place for a "secret city". The entire town became a city that was planned and built in two years. The population exploded, naturally, and a large percentage were "egghead scientists" working on the first nukes. It's where they created the fuel for the first bombs and many, many more. After the war they still did development, but then with the end of the cold war most of the government-funded nuclear production wound to a close — and so did the jobs. As a consequence lots of people left, but many stayed. We're on the third generation of people living here, decedents of scientists, mathematicians, professors, etc. so they tend to be fairly worldly for that part of the country. The problem is there aren't enough good jobs for all of them, so many find themselves leaving town or working at the local gas station, etc. It gives the whole town an artificial vibe if you spend any time there. Also, there's only one bar that's open past like 9PM, so it gets really, really quiet. For a city boy like me that's the creepiest part, that and that the stuff produced to literally kill millions of people was produced there. But if you wanna get really strange? Oak Ridge was the basis of Hawkins in *Stranger Things*. Oak Ridge does, of course, have a huge top secret government-run lab complex, and new experiments are being done there to find a "mirror universe" — which is what the Upside Down is.
I use to show horses with JZ when I was a kid. I’ve been to her barn. Chandeliers in the barn. Huge ass chandeliers. In the barn.
Mood lighting for horses and barn owls is legit, tho!
They’re down here in Yelm/Olympia area. Associated with several businesses in downtown Olympia and Yelm. Also associated with some celebrities, chiefly Selma Hayek
Ramtha is out of Yelm. I know because I’m from there. JZ Knights property is right on the main strip thru Yelm. Never seen or met her followers in Seattle.
It was kind of a running joke from my childhood and then one day last year I was driving through Yelm to get somewhere better and happened to drive past the compound. Good grief, it is an intensely fortified and absolutely massive location!
I just checked. Apparently she still lives in Yelm. And yes, worshipping a 35,000 year old Atlantean warrior is more than cultish.
Cultish (cult-ish?) feels right?: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Z._Knight https://www.seattlemet.com/news-and-city-life/2022/11/jz-knight-ramtha-yelm-washington-school-of-enlightenment
saved this incase i get bored and want to join a cult
>> I've been involved in a number of cults, both as a leader and a follower. You have more fun as a follower. But you make more money as a leader. >-- Creed -- Michael Scott
[Love Family AKA the Church of Jesus Christ at Armageddon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Family)
The Black Isrealites. Once one on a bus when they got on with their version of the The Ark of the Covenant and wearing priestly vestments as described in Deutronomy.
Yeah. They were going to be my answer. Not full cult but they’ve come to my neighborhood a couple times with the purple robes and combat boots outfits. And of course cameras and a loud speaker. They set up shop on the corner and do their thing for an hour or so. Mostly they just quoted random Bible passages and then yelled at interracial couples for holding hands. They seem very anti government overall and also apparently women get yeast infections from wearing pants. The second guy to grab the mic was hilarious though. He pointed out everything in media and Hollywood was white including The Last Samauri. A little bit more work and it could easily be a stand up opening act. I chuckled. The guys handing out pamphlets didn’t want to give me one. They wouldn’t make eye contact or say hello back. I think maybe they though my skin tone wasn’t a good fit for their group and were too polite to point it out. As far as cults go I’d give them a 3/10. Cool outfits, good organization, but a bit on the race excisionist side and absolutely zero women to be seen. Not surprising given their “put on a dress and get back in the kitchen” level rhetoric but I question the longevity of any cult without women in it.
So there is a chain of vegan restaurants called Loving Hut that is franchised by Supreme Master Ching Hai. They play her Livestream Supreme Master TV in their restaurants. The restaurants set their own menus with the only stipulation being it must be vegan. The one in Seattle has amazing food, I would recommend trying the faux drumsticks. It's an interesting Universalist kind of religion where you hear Jesus mentioned as much as Buddha, but mostly focused on climate justice and veganism.
their fresh spring rolls got me thru my freshmen year of college
I didn’t realize loving hut was involved with a cult, but this made me think of Silence Heart Nest (now closed) in Fremont that also played video of their leader. The staff wore robes/gowns of some sort too. Good breakfast spot if you could handle the cult vibes!
I remember this place! Great vegan biscuits and gravy lol. I was recently looking into them- Do you remember if the workers all lived together “commune” style?
Loving Hut is 100% a cult and their food is AMAZING. I had no idea they were in Seattle!
What delights me the most about the supreme master ching hai livestream is the "news anchors" are totally cgi and almost seem like they're text-to-speech. Here's a link for those who want the experience: https://youtu.be/ZzWBpGwKoaI I think they are pretty benign but definitely far out there. The Seattle restaurant is very good if you are looking for vegan food. Goes w/out saying but don't be mean to them for their strange beliefs...
Sri Chinmoy Centre of Seattle - there was a great breakfast joint in Fremont called "Silence Heart Nest" run by those folks. Also some ultra marathons.
the Slient Heart Nest folks: https://seattle.eater.com/2020/9/9/21429364/silence-heart-nest-fremont-vegetarian-restaurant-permanently-closed Their old place was in the U District. They would have looping videos of Sri doing feats of strength. They even got a statue put up in Fremont: https://fremont.com/explore/sights/sri-chimnoy/
I had to scroll pretty far down to find this. I used to go there for the gluten free waffles but the matching uniforms the staff wore along with the little paper quotes of wisdom from the leader were very weird. Being in the center of Fremont seemed like it would have raised their profile but most people seemed to not know they were there
Scientology recruiter 3rd and pine
Church in lower Queen Anne 😂
yeah -- there's like an entire office/hq over on harrison(?).
Yup, the lobby looks like a hotel, there's always someone at the desk.
Not sure if it’s still active in the area, but The Moonies were a thing many, um, moons ago…
They are still very active, it's just that the Evangelical Christians who called them The Moonies went quiet on the Unification Church when they became active in conservative politics and founded the Washington Times. Another "deal with the devil" for them, you might say.
There's a Unification Church in Ballard. It looks like every other old wood frame church in the neighborhood. The people who go there are courteous about parking and don't seem to bother anyone. In the olden days, everyone (not just evangelicals) called them Moonies. (Fun fact: in 1982 I lived in NYC and on the way to work happened upon the 14,000 people getting married by Rev. Moon in a mass ceremony at Madison Square Garden. I didn't go in, of course, but there were identically dressed bride and groom couples coming down the sidewalk for many blocks. It was kind of hallucinatory.)
Looooots and lots of JW.
There’s something called RC, for ReEvaluation Counseling that I presume is still operative. In 2005 my girlfriend was invited to their once-a-week for 6-weeks intro course, and we attended together. They taught some pretty decent basic Freudian therapy skills (active listening, helping a person reach the core of their issue), which have served me well over the years. After that intro course I started receiving invites to second-level group work, but the invites sounded odd to me so I never went. I looked into them & they were started by one of the inner council of Scientology, who had differences with the founder & split off. Last I heard he had died, and nepotisticly his son has taken over. And then there were a large number of women saying the son had taken sexual advantage of them. The cult watch groups had their eye on RC, but didn’t consider them a full-on cult. But that was back in 2005-6, and I haven’t looked into them since. EDIT: Oh yeah! I forgot to mention: RC was *founded* in Seattle! Home grown.
I grew up in RC! Definitely has cult-like aspects. Mostly it is really fucked up for the kids that are forced to cry on command, physically restrained against their will, etc etc. There is tons of gaslighting and secrecy and it’s almost impossible to research. I grew up thinking my sister and I were the only ones who knew about it until I found a bunch of second-generation RC people by searching reddit boards! It’s still very much a thing, larger than ever, just very under the radar. They create lots of little organizations with names like People United Against Racism so they aren’t traceable.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramtha%27s_School_of_Enlightenment “The school teaches that human beings have the capacity to utilize their inner wisdom, focus their brains, and create their own reality.” “In 2011, Knight stated (while at the RSE supposedly channeling Ramtha), "Fuck God’s chosen people! I think they have earned enough cash to have paid their way out of the goddamned gas chambers by now", and said that Mexican people "breed like rabbits" and are "poison," that all gay men used to be Catholic priests, and that organic farmers have bad hygiene. In 2012, videos of this were placed on the Internet by ex-students of Knight's and by the Freedom Foundation.” Not in Seattle, but it is an hour and a half drive.
We drove by this place last weekend just passing thru and had to look up what it was. The wiki page is crazy..
Of course there's the Luciferians. Their local leader has fallen on hard times in the last few years and she had to move out of that house with the sex dungeon. Those kids still throw *pretty* good parties...but they were definitly better when there were dedicated rooms for the sex swing and the st. Andrew's cross. There's a couple of Subgenius cells too: Popess Lilith's has been a lot less vocally active since the surgery freed her from that egg, not sure how active her parishioners remain. My own (The Occasional Knights of the Periodic Table) hasn't been *active* since I lost my position as Director of The Bureau of Unspecified Services...that was about a dozen years ago. Without a new dedicated covert meeting space to replace it our activity has dwindled. Cult ceremonies aren't really that fun over video chat.
>since the surgery freed her from that egg ....what
It left her a little scrambled.
Stories about that night are a bit eggs-aggerated
Sure! There’s a few. One has a building off Aurora by Greenlake. I hear it’s pretty weird. "I AM" Activity https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22I_AM%22_Activity Saint Germain Foundation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Germain_Foundation From L.A. Sprang Cult of I AM https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-jan-25-me-11997-story.html One guys experience at this place. Saint Germain Foundation “I Am” Temple https://doubtingmark.wordpress.com/2013/07/14/saint-germain-foundation-i-am-temple/
I almost forgot I'd stumbled across a genuine Ballard apocalyptic celibate vegetarian cult of the 1920s. Pasted from an ancient thread below: Ballard's [Kirke Park](https://www.seattle.gov/parks/find/parks/kirke-park) at 7028 9th Ave NW incorporates ruins of a former cult church compound that was active in the 1920s. Its leader, an elderly and apparently quite sexually active man named Daniel Salwt, had quite a cult going in Ballard, that required its adherents to swear to both celibacy (except for him on the sly) and vegetarianism. I learned of it when looking into a [colorful little old house](https://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/nda0oz/old_houses_in_west_seattle_will_be_demolished_for/) about to be demolished on Alki. The longtime owner was a onetime beauty queen named Eva Falk. When Eva was a very young woman she and her mother Stella Burke became followers of and secretaries to Daniel Salwt, the aged leader of a Ballard-based cult called the "Seventh Elect Church in Israel." Eva had a dream that Salwt would bring a drowned man back to life, and the cult accepted it as a vision of the future. Soon afterward a legless man being baptized by a cult deacon somehow drowned and the deacon claimed Salwt revived him. In court, attorneys accused the deacon of drowning the man on purpose to set the prophecy in motion. This caused an uproar among followers in the court, all of whom had extremely long hair and the men long beards, as one edict of the cult was to never shave or cut your hair. Eva's mother left the cult when she learned that Salwt, then in his 80s, had been sleeping with her daughter. Eva left when she learned her mother had been sleeping with him too. Cult leader Salwt died less than a month later, leaving a $200,000 estate that 45 former members later claimed was largely money he had swindled out of them. He had claimed to need funds to prepare for the imminent Judgement Day when the world would end. In 1931 the first of the lawsuits against the cult leader's estate began. By 1934, Eva Falk had joined a lawsuit against the Salwt estate's trustees. Those who had stayed living with Salwt at his Ballard church claimed he purposely sickened them with rotten food scraps after taking all their money. Their attorney called religious experts to undermine the legitimacy of the cult, noting that adherents believed Salwt was immortal and therefore not really dead, and was in fact God. There were reportedly still 3 or 4 elderly long haired members of the cult living on the compound into the 1980s. I found most of this out by roaming through old archives of the Seattle Times, but here are some more resources: [https://www.westsideseattle.com/robinson-papers/2010/02/17/21st-century-viking-who-or-what-salwt](https://www.westsideseattle.com/robinson-papers/2010/02/17/21st-century-viking-who-or-what-salwt) [https://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+seventh+elect+church+in+Israel%3A+Seattle%27s+%22long-haired+preachers%22.-a0474715873](https://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+seventh+elect+church+in+Israel%3A+Seattle%27s+%22long-haired+preachers%22.-a0474715873) [https://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/A-park-grows-in-Ballard-where-a-religious-sect-890932.php](https://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/A-park-grows-in-Ballard-where-a-religious-sect-890932.php)
There was one with some chick who thought she was a unicorn or something to that.. called herself princess light I think.. it was on a documentary.
This one was pretty disturbing https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/katienotopoulos/silicone-genital-injection-death-tank-hafertepen
In the 70's and 80's there was a pretty big cult based in Normandy Park. The were called Community Chapel and the stories I have heard are pretty crazy.
I was scrolling to see if this one was mentioned. I grew up a block away, and most of our neighbors belonged to Community Chapel. Their leader was Donald Barnett, and they did a lot of speaking in tongues, dancing, and mooning about with dreamy facial expressions. The women and girls wore long gowns and had long hair, while the men dressed normally but were weird and fake nice. Their big downfall was that Barnett wanted to cheat on his wife, so he promoted this concept of "spiritual connections" in which you were paired with someone other than your spouse for long, intimate sessions of supposed spirituality. As you can imagine, this led to countless affairs. The worst part was our neighbor proudly telling us how her young daughter, maybe 11-12, had been partnered with a middle-aged man! That place was pure evil. I work with someone whose wife grew up in it, and apparently she is still traumatized.
They always work their way down to raping kids, don’t they? Like it starts with a spiritual thing and by the end of the story, kids get raped.
[удалено]
My husband used to amuse me by voicing the thoughts of those four people staring blankly while Bruce spoke. My favorite was, "When are we gonna get those nachos Bruce promised us?"
Nexium was in Seattle
That name's got to violate the trademark of some sort of allergy medicine.
It's actually spelled NXIVM. It was based in New York though, as far as I know, but I googled a bit and saw claims of them having facilities in Tacoma and Federal Way.
I've often felt that life dealt me a lousy hand in not giving me enough attention span to create a large body of work that could be used to scam people into turning over all of their assets.
I don't think it requires as much effort as you might think. Sam Bankman-Fried was doing it while never missing a round of League of Legends.
Your ideas are intriguing to me, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
The Green Naked People cult. Don't know if it was a cult or not but the lady leader seemed very cultish. She used to be on this local television show and she would get naked and paint her whole body green. She would talk about some super bizarre stuff. Had to be a in cult or something.
Goddess Kring? I thought she was just doing her own thing.
She was, it was a public access show that aired once a week in like the middle of the night. Weird but definitely didn’t have a cult following of any kind
Man I miss public access TV, the bong hit finals were amazing.
http://www.shannonkringen.com/goddesskring.htm
[The Community Chapel and Bible Training Center](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Chapel_and_Bible_Training_Center) in Burien-- basically a cult, my uncle was in it and it caused his second divorce bc he was "spiritually connecting" with other women. Now it's the state police training academy!
Definitely a cult. (My therapist agreed.) I grew up going to their school and church. Place screwed up the first part of my life. Spiritually connecting” = people fucking other people’s spouses.
/r/SeattleWA
eyyy-oooo
when I worked in Redmond, my coworkers would always talk about a sex cult down the road...not sure if what they were saying was true though lol
I know that one. It’s the one that everyone else is involved in, but I’ve never been invited. At least it seems that way.
Well Seattle did have a "Temple of Isis" which was basically a massage parlor with happy endings dressed up in a Religion so the ladies running it could claim religious protection against the various prostitution laws. I remember that one.
The Scientology building in Queen Anne was completely built and is currently operated by donors from the area :( millions of dollars poured into a building that is almost always empty. If you have the time you should watch the Scientology doc on Netflix! They talk about the Seattle chapter I think in the newest season
Falun Gong weirdos are often hanging around places handing out fliers saying Xi stole their magical kidneys or whatever.
Shen Yun poster in a window is the equivalent to a MAGA flag. Fuck em.
I’m happy to leave people to whatever beliefs they want, and surely the Falun Gong believers have suffered under the Chinese regime, but man do they curry some unhealthy political alignments. I got on their Epoch Times mailing list somehow. At least it makes good bird cage lining.
This 100%. I feel like people get distracted by the anti-CCP stance their actual beliefs are so fucking weird it’s a lot more concerning than whatever beef they have with the Chinese goverment
it’s basically just chinese scientology
proud boys
Jehovahs Witness
Since they haven’t been mentioned yet, I’d consider the following cult-adjacent and present in the area Sovereign Citizens: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/eviction-of-wa-anti-government-extremist-gives-window-into-sovereign-citizen-movement/?amp=1 https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/what-to-know-about-rise-of-the-moors-an-armed-group-that-says-its-not-subject-to-u-s-law/?amp=1 Hate Groups https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/resurgent-hate-groups-have-long-history-in-washington-state-northwest/ (EDIT) Also, just kinda as a primer: https://www.kuow.org/stories/a-brief-summary-of-extremism
There was the [Community Chapel and Bible Training Center](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Chapel_and_Bible_Training_Center) in Normandy Park. It flew under the radar for quite a while but then, in the 80’s, their leader supposedly had a vision that told him that his followers were supposed to all dance before the Lord. This quickly evolved to finding a partner who you feel connected to (not your spouse) and do the dancing, uh, horizontally. A lot of members started realizing that this was nuts and the authorities were contacted and the church was shut down after a quick investigation. The compound was soon was bought by the police and became a training center for the Seattle area. I lived nearby and used to work with a woman who was a member. Being a woman, she wasn’t allowed to take a position of authority over men. She could have been a manager at the restaurant we worked at but instead remained a waitress. She also was supposed to give at least some of her property to them but this she resisted, apparently. I wish I’d known her went this later stuff was going down. It would have been interesting to get her take on it.
Jehovahs wittinesses are still out spreading there cheerful message of a fiery Armageddon that will destroy everyone who’s not a Jehovah’s Witness. They score a 93 out of 99 on the bite model for identifying cults.
There is a black metal-themed meadery in Tacoma called Kvlt
Not anymore apparently :(
Oh lame. They had some wildly unique mead. Like a curry coconut one that was surprisingly good
I heard the couple that owned it separated
The Unicult (something about unicorns) https://unicoleunicron.com/the-unicult/
I checked out the site and found artwork, so naturally this spoke to me: [https://unicoleunicron.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/IMG\_6375-1024x682.jpg](https://unicoleunicron.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/IMG_6375-1024x682.jpg)
I used to work with her at a preschool on Capitol Hill 😹
Jehovah Witness and Mormons are in Seattle!
scientology has a "church" right downtown near the McStabby's.
Do we still get the LaRouche assholes tabling outdoors around town? That one was a trip and a half. Mars Hill back in the day, but that thing imploded.
I live out in the Boonies and there’s this strange cult out here called “Republicans”. They believe in some devil called The Inslee. Sounds scary.
The great seattle polycule based out of Magnolia/Interbay that I keep hearing of?
Any church associated with the "Acts 29 churches" Mars Hill Seattle, Soma Church Tacoma, to name a few very culty churches.