David Lee Hamblin / Utah SRA Case

[Wombaticus Rex]

I want to bring things back around to David Lee Hamblin.

While the larger culture here is fascinating, I'll still be reading about it in 2023 and there are much more immediate concerns. As this story has been taken up by true believers of various stripes, it's mostly being boiled down to the most salacious details and/or being snapped into place to fit everyone's pre-existing narratives.

Yet what is in front of us here is far stranger.

At some point during the 1990s, and perhaps far sooner, David Lee Hamblin's personal perversions because something larger and more systemic. He was able to turn victims into accomplices and attract other predators as co-conspirators, and the resulting network is something closely resembling a "cult."

There are three overlapping fronts for this: his role as a licensed psychotherapist (first to go), his position and standing in the LDS community (close second to go), and then his strange shadow career as a "medicine man" unlicensed therapist running peyote groups, perhaps across multiple states and even into Mexico. It is completely possible that, emboldened by his success in 2012-14 beating his charges, he is continuing to operate in 2022. It is clear from his behavior over the years that he has little concern for law enforcement and a vastly inflated sense of his own importance & destiny.

In the absence of other victim testimony, the statement of Brett Bluth becomes central to this. It's valuable to dig into a single case but dangerous to extrapolate a bigger theory from a single incomplete and traumatized POV. Bluth's involvement begins in 1994, at the referral of Bishop Conrad Gottfredson of the Alpine stake.

There are a hundred leads embedded in his ten-page testimony but I want to focus on a single thread here.

Notably, Bluth states: "Bishop Gottfredson told me that Dr. Hamblin was having success with reparative therapy techniques, the theraputic process of making gay people strait (sic)." This is one year after Sundance co-founder and current inmate Sterling Van Wagenen called the police on August 21st to confess to fondling the friend of one of his children, also stating that he was "currently in [REDACTED] with David Hamblin in Provo." (This per a scan of Salt Lake City Sheriff's Department document marked Case 93-91448, which later notes is it "closed to case 93-91297. This case is concerning the same incident.")

There are no dates provided in Bluth's statement, only an approximate timeline. Under "FIRST MEETING," he states he met "Dr. Hamblin in his offices/residence. His office was the rear portion of a ranch style house that had been remodeled to hold his family and his private practice. He explained to me that his family lived in Spring City, Utah and that during the week they would sometimes travel with him and live in the residential side of the home."

Under "MONTHS 2-6," Gottfredson reappears after Bluth has been "diagnosed" as an SRA survivor and prescribed Masonic bullshit as a cure: "Bishop Conrad Gottfredson begins attending my sessions. Both men use the [Melchizedek] priesthood to exorcise my personalities."

Under "MONTHS 6-12," Bluth states "Bishop Conrad Gottfredson tells me that he believes he was accessed by ritual abusers and enters into his own process of therapy with Dr. Hamblin. I know nothing further of his accounts." Further: "Dr. Hamblin introduces me to Angie Fenton, a thirty year old woman with multiple personality disorder due to ritual abuse. Angie Fenton was also referred to Dr. Hamblin through Bishop Conrad Gottfredson. I knew Angie only as CJ, a seven year old boy. Dr. Hamblin would combine our sessions. He would put us under hypnosis and begin cutting off our personalities using the Melchizedek priesthood."

(All emphasis mine throughout, of course.)

Things quickly take a still creepier turn during "MONTHS 12-18," as Hamblin begins to pressure Bluth into sexual acts. From one of the least disgusting passages: "Dr. Hamblin again suggests that having a sexual experience with a righteous man might heal me of my homosexuality."

(The "righteous man" phrasing is interesting in light of the fact that, a decade later, Hamblin will publish "The Righteous Branch," a boring ramble of a book attempting to synthesize LDS teachings with Lakota and Seminole traditions.)

All of this culminates in an act of sexual abuse that takes place in Hamblin's office. So we have a nascent profile here of how 1) abuse gets justified and recontextualized, 2) victims get pressured into a pretense of consent, and most of all 3) Hamblin is completely comfortable compartmentalizing his perversions alongside his professional and family life, with blurred lines and minimal firewalls.

Recall how Hamblin lost his license: per Utah County paper The Daily Herald June 9th, 2001 - “Dr. Hamblin’s license to practice was revoked for having intimate relations with several patients during clinical therapeutic sessions, and claiming it was therapeutic,” said Lauri Arensmeys, operational manager for the Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing.

While that pattern is consistent, it is also, sadly, far from unique.

From here, though, Bluth's testimony offers us a glimpse into what Hamblin has been doing since his divorce and transition to cracker messiah.

One last detour into the "MONTHS 12-18" stack: "David takes CJ (Angie Fenton) and I to his farm house in Spring City. We spend the weekend. David has both CJ (Angie Fenton) and I lie on the floor and began the exorcism process using the priesthood. Dr. Hamblin's wife Rosie was present and assisting. All of his children were present or in close proximity." Here, I think, we begin to see the real David and Roselle Hamblin, but that is another thread and a much bigger mosaic.

So: in the aftermath of his assault, Bluth cuts off contact with Hamblin. Then, in 1996, "Six months after ... I receive a phone call from Hamblin. He gives me a phone number and asks me to call it. He would not tell me why I was calling but said to use his name as a referral. I called the number and was connected to Lynne Whitesides. She informed me they were a group of people participating in peyote ceremonies with a Native American medicine man."

"I went to my first ceremony. I began to attend ceremony on a regular basis ... the peyote was administered by James Mooney." It must be mentioned here that James Mooney is, in point of fact, neither Native American nor a medicine man. He was at the center of the Oklevueha Earthwalks Native American Church (formally incorporated in Utah April 11 1997, 1353164-0140) which was involved in years of protracted legal battles over peyote as a sacrament. During that time, David Lee Hamblin was often quoted in the media as a "spokesman" for the church, and once as "a friend of the Mooneys and a spiritual leader of Oklevueha EarthWalks."

Now, in 2011, Hamblin incorporates his own legal front, the TAHTEYA TOPA (FOUR WINDS) NATIVE AMERICAN CHURCH, also listing Eldon Talley and Wayne Jones Hintze in the filing. Given how far gone Hamblin was by that point it is difficult to view Talley and Hintze charitably, but those are threads for another time: the point for now is only that Hamblin is patterning his operation after the man he learned it from, James Warren Mooney.

And there is considerable overlap here between Hamblin's network and Mooney's "therapy" flock. Bluth continues: "I later learned from Lynne Whitesides that Anne Mecham Gregorson, in attendance at the ceremony, had been a patient of Dr. Hamblin and had been subjected to the same diagnosis and the same pattern of sexual abuse ... Via Lynne Whitesides I understood that there were a total of five women abused with these same techniques while in Dr. Hamblin's care. Lynne Whitesides may or may not be cooperative..."

I want to be clear that it is completely possible that David Hamblin is connected to other cult activity via his peyote church circles, family lineage and LDS connections, and indeed, possible that he is connected to actual MKULTRA programs via his academic background (his paper from U. Arizona is interesting in this light, as is his work at Cornell Hospital's Westchester Division) and, again, through his family lineage. (Same goes for Roselle Anderson. BYU is spook fuckin' city.)

But at minimum here, we have a pattern of Hamblin deliberately using "Satanic Ritual Abuse" narratives as both pretext and cover for acts of straightforward sexual abuse of his patients, plural, and a victim attesting to Roselle's active involvement. He is finding victims through both LDS and peyote church pipelines. I believe, based on additional testimony I will not share, that Hamblin has repeatedly found victims through "conversion therapy" referrals from LDS, some of them even coming after he had his license revoked. (I also suspect that will be a matter of public record before the year is out, and a focus of the Utah County Sheriff Department's current investigation.)

For those reading this with access to the original GRAMA files, take a look at report 15PR10122, from April 28, 2015. A woman reports "suspicious" behavior by Hamblin in depth based on his past accusations and current behavior in peyote "therapy" community. Extensive and important corroboration for Hamblin's patterns of abuse, and a lot of dots you can connect with some patient sleuthing. I am not comfortable getting into that since almost every name involved is not willingly on the record yet. Also, this is already far too long.

All of this only raises more questions but I wanted to sort some threads out on a slow afternoon because I am concerned about the direction that online coverage is taking; that kind of bullshit only helps the perps.

[Wombaticus Rex]

(The "righteous man" phrasing is interesting in light of the fact that, a decade later, Hamblin will publish "The Righteous Branch," a boring ramble of a book attempting to synthesize LDS teachings with Lakota and Seminole traditions.)

I believe I had this wrong -- Huichol traditions.

Medicine Man Path Lined With Divorce, Criminal Charges for LDS Psychologist
Salt Lake Tribune, Oct. 21, 2000

PROVO -- David Hamblin is a man devoted to two different religious traditions -- the Mormon teachings he grew up with and the American Indian beliefs he embraced as an adult.

The Provo psychologist, who contends Indian religion wields the wisdom to heal a world that has lost contact with a spiritual center, is studying to become a medicine man in the tradition of Mexico's Huichol (pronounced WEE-chol) Indians.

But his estranged wife and Utah law enforcement take a jaundiced view of his activities, which allegedly include the ceremonial consumption of peyote and veneration of raptor feathers, deer entrails and other parts of protected wildlife, according to court records.

...

Through his activities with the Native American Church, Hamblin says he met a medicine man who agreed to teach him the shamanistic practices of the Huichol.

The Huichol are a Mexican tribe that has remained culturally intact thanks to its geographic isolation in the Sierra Madre Occidental in the states of Jalisco and Nayarit. As a result, up to 20,000 Huichol still practice a religion unadulterated by Christian influences.

Hamblin declined to identify his teacher, saying that he wished to protect that person's privacy.

...

Central aspects of Huichol religion involve a deer hunt in which the life of a young animal is taken in a ceremonial way, along with peyote rituals and veneration of maize, the primary subsistence crop for the Huichol.

...

Again, Hamblin declined to go into specifics about the deer rituals.

"It's not for me to explain. The Huichol have a tradition of the son of god visiting them. They saw his energy was the same energy of the deer. He's strong, mild, and he sacrifices himself for his people so they can live. Hunting the deer is a metaphor for hunting and finding God," Hamblin said.

The article goes on to document how Hamblin tried to get a legal permit for this but the state declined, then:

This apparently did not deter Hamblin, who went ahead and engaged in the killing and dismemberment of wildlife, court documents allege. These practices at and near the Hamblin family's second home in Spring City disturbed Roselle Hamblin, who discussed the matter with the couple's LDS bishop. The bishop brought the matter to the attention of authorities in January 1999.

Mooney, who described himself as a friend of the Hamblin's, acknowledged bailing Hamblin out of jail, but was bothered by his illegal action, which he declined to discuss in detail.

"I don't support him in any way, shape or form. I stand up for the laws of our community. Any time you break he law you need to be prosecuted to the hilt. I've advised him against doing this and he ignores me," said Mooney.

...

Within a few days of his arrest, Hamblin separated from his wife and later sued for divorce, which is still pending in a bitter legal struggle.

The article then outlines the incident described in GRAMA dump (Case 9906344.pdf) on June 13th, when Roselle got one of her daughters to go into Hamblin's Provo house through an open window to find "Indian items" he was forbidden from having. They located eagle feathers and a peyote button and called police and a wildlife officer, one "Dave Hintze."

(This does turn out to the brother of Wayne Jones Hintze, who helps Hamblin co-found his "church" front in 2011.)

At the time of the seizure, Hamblin was teaching sunday school at his local LDS ward, he said.

"They used my children as witnesses against me," Hamblin said. "It's almost unforgiveable."

This article also troubles my timeline in terms of when Hamblin lost his license. According to my notes -- and other published sources -- Hamblin was teaching sunday school a year after having his license revoked for molesting patients. Published on October 21st, 2000, though, The Salt Lake Tribune article goes on to state:

Hamblin wants to raise a religion-based defense this time around, but he has not been able to hire an attorney because his assets are locked up in the divorce. He asked the judge to appoint a special counsel, but the judge ruled that someone with an $80,000 income does not qualify for indigence.

...

Even if he prevails, the trial will hardly put an end to Hamblin's legal quagmire.

Last June, more than a year after the peyote seizure, Utah County prosecutors charged Hamblin with drug possession with intent to distribute, a second-degree felony that could put him in prison and cost him his license to practice psychology if he is convicted.

Yet a Daily Herald (Utah County / Provo) article on June 8th, 2001, tells a different story, albeit retroactively:

Peyote possession has man facing trial

PROVO — A Provo man who belongs to a church that uses peyote in its religious practice has been bound over to face trial on felony drug possession charges. He pleaded not guilty.
...

Fourth District Court records state Hamblin was seeking to make a modest living from being a “medicine person” after losing his license to practice psychology in Utah in October 1999.

“Dr. Hamblin’s license to practice was revoked for having intimate relations with several patients during clinical therapeutic sessions, and claiming it was therapeutic,” said Lauri Arensmeys, operational manager for the Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing.

This rather implies that Hamblin was continuing his Provo practice without a license. I can understand a journalist overlooking that detail but it seems odd that the courts (and county prosecutors!) would. Still, overall the portrait of a man quite completely full of shit, and likely telling tall tales about his top secret Huichol medicine man, as well.

Edit: Hamblin, somehow, still had a New York license until the December 2012 charges were announced and he was arrested. Yet the Regents decision only references "professional misconduct," presumably a reference to his molestation of patients in '99. ("Found guilty" may indicate there was a criminal proceeding but I haven't found that yet, perhaps it's just a reference to the decision from Utah's licensing division.)

Regents Actions In 24 Professional Discipline Cases and 2 Restoration Petitions
January 14-15, 2013

PSYCHOLOGY

David L. Hamblin; Provo, UT 84604; Lic. No. 009519; Cal. No. 26467; Application to surrender license granted. Summary: Licensee did not contest the charge of having been found guilty of professional misconduct in the State of Utah.

[Wombaticus Rex]

Further: "Dr. Hamblin introduces me to Angie Fenton, a thirty year old woman with multiple personality disorder due to ritual abuse. Angie Fenton was also referred to Dr. Hamblin through Bishop Conrad Gottfredson. I knew Angie only as CJ, a seven year old boy. Dr. Hamblin would combine our sessions. He would put us under hypnosis and begin cutting off our personalities using the Melchizedek priesthood."

...

One last detour into the "MONTHS 12-18" stack: "David takes CJ (Angie Fenton) and I to his farm house in Spring City. We spend the weekend. David has both CJ (Angie Fenton) and I lie on the floor and began the exorcism process using the priesthood. Dr. Hamblin's wife Rosie was present and assisting. All of his children were present or in close proximity."

Corroborated by one of the Hamblin daughters, listed as "V2" in GRAMA doc. "Case 2006175.pdf" pg. 5

The sessions with "CJ" would go all afternoon into the night. In some of the sessions "CJ"s bishop and stake president were present. Nothing occurred sexually when they were there. The sessions were videotaped by the bishop.

The report is unclear due to redactions but it seems like "CJ" is named earlier in the same paragraph as a patient of Hamblin's who was his source for a "satanic oath" and "satanic rituals" which he would later use when abusing his daughters. He also made "V2" sit in on therapy sessions with her, which escalated to enacting ritual abuse on her in front of "CJ."

For chronology, those statements are from a police interview on June 28, 2000.

I wonder what Bishop Conrad Gottfredson did with those videotapes?

Earlier in that same document, the "V1" interview also corroborates the pattern that Bluth reported:

S1/Hamblin always tried to do therapy on V1/[redacted]. He would use hypnosis. He would tell her that she was ritually abused by one of her dads friends or something like that. He told her that he had to fix her. He would give her a blessing casting out evil parts.

On one occasion S1/Hamblin gave V1/[redacted] Payote (sic). They had gone to an Indian ceremony for the blessing of the land. He offered her something that looked like cornmeal in a bag. She asked him if it was Payote. He said that it was not, that it was herbs. She was sick in bed for two days after taking the stuff that S1/Hamblin gave her. This occurred in a canyon near Spring City Utah.

[Wombaticus Rex]

Mooney, who described himself as a friend of the Hamblin's, acknowledged bailing Hamblin out of jail, but was bothered by his illegal action, which he declined to discuss in detail.

"I don't support him in any way, shape or form. I stand up for the laws of our community. Any time you break he law you need to be prosecuted to the hilt. I've advised him against doing this and he ignores me," said Mooney.

Spent some time this week digging into James Warren Mooney, which was a tiresome march but some colorful history just the same. (I did not appreciate that LDS is one of many factions in the cold war to buy out the islands of Hawaii, and have had missionaries making conversions since before the Civil War, but that definitely helps explain how characters in this orbit keep on Deus Ex Machina swooping in from the Pacific, like Loren and Lesley Hardy.)

Having been able to assemble fairly comprehensive timelines and biographical sketches of so many of the players here, I am impressed by how opaque Mooney is. For a man so desperate to prove his "Seminole Medicine Man" lineage, his early years are a bit of a cipher. Like most New Age types, it often difficult to discern how much he believes his own bullshit; living the lie becomes very necessary in that line of work, especially as the decades drag on.

Broadly, though: Mooney is a prolific networker and monetizer, always looking to insinuate himself into other circles and buff his resume by any means necessary. Since incorporating OKLEVUEHA EARTHWALKS NATIVE AMERICAN CHURCH OF UTAH in 1987, he has been spinning off other ventures in two directions.

First, establishing a nonprofit network of "Native American Sprituality" fronts -- in quotes because it is entirely horseshit, not because it's his term of trade -- like the "Sacred Wisdom Circle Institute." Most of these seem to be exercises in getting grant money and legitimizing Mooney's credentials as a thought leader. (There is also an undercurrent of establishing him as a "representative" or "ambassador" for a sovereign but ill-defined native nations community, but I can't tell yet if this is a brilliant legal strategy or just the kind of thing you get up to when you smoke weed all day every day.)

Second, licensing ONAC spinoffs and selling ONAC membership cards in an attempt to capitalize upon his legal victories in Utah. Peyote was exempted from Schedule 1 restrictions for Native Americans by Federal legislation in '78 and then more explicitly in a followup act in '94. Mooney created his own "Native American Church" and administered peyote rituals to anyone willing to show up and make a donation. This led to legal problems and convictions which were appealed and then overturned by the Utah State Supreme Court in 2004.

As a side note, David Okerlund Leavitt's big brother Michael was Governor of Utah for almost the entire arc of Mooney's legal battles with that state, and appointed three of the five justices who rendered that 2004 decision. This is embarrassingly rank speculation, even by my own low standards, but I do wonder if there wasn't an angle here to create some kind of "peyote tourism" racket in Utah (or, heck, create a Federal religious exemption wedge wide enough to drive 'protected polygamy' through) -- and further, whether this plan was complicated or blown somehow by David Lee Hamblin going Full Huichol Native and doing ritual animal sacrifices in his backyard.

String art on bulletin boards, aside, though, there is no question that for Flaming Eagle Mooney, the plan was to build a legal drug empire: that's what he has been doing ever since. From 2016:

In a 10,000-year-old tradition where it's taboo to step forward as a public figure, one has emerged. And it's a voice pushing for changes that nobody else wants.

James "Flaming Eagle" Mooney, founder of the Oklevueha Native American Church, says marijuana, ayahuasca and "sacred sexuality" are as important to his church as peyote.

"Cannabis has always been sacred, used since time immemorial," Mooney said in an interview, reached on the phone at a golf course in Utah. "Anything produced by Mother Earth is a sacrament. Outlawing a plant is a sign of a sick society."

Mooney's attempt to extend sacred status to nontraditional plants and practices has enraged the leaders of the oldest branches of the Native American Church, who say his churches represent an attempt to capitalize on federal protections designed to protect a persecuted heritage by appropriating their name.

His critics have him dead to rights, of course: an ONAC card costs $250 and near as I can tell, starting your own chapter starts at $7500. Mooney claims 20,000 members and 300 churches, numbers I find every bit as plausible as his native ancestry.

Even if true, though, those suckers won't get much for their money. It does not appear that any of Mooney's attempts to extend the 2004 Utah ruling into a larger penumbra of protections has worked in court. Anywhere. Poor Branden James Barnes caught a two decade sentence for growing marijuana under ONAC's good graces when Michigan authorities found his membership cards an insufficient defense. (Membership is also no protection against death, as one Ayahuasca healing customer found out in Kentucky.)

Despite all that recent sprawl, his 90's arc has some curious footnotes. He has mentioned at various points that he's done "undercover work" but, surprising for a such a garrulous self-promoter, I can't find much elaboration on that. Also, he was doing peyote sweat lodge healings back then in a corrections context, which is probably related to the "undercover work" thing, and definitely reminiscent of the kind of experiments that RI is too familiar with.

Colorful but tiresome, yet all this connects back to Brett Bluth, who truly did the world a small favor by stepping forward to give testimony. Recall that after being abused by Hamblin, Bluth was given a referral to Lynne Whitesides who ran a peyote group, likely informal rather than incorporated, where the substance administered by Flaming Eagle himself.

Lynne Whitesides is a very interesting character, a cosmopolitan and intellectual Mormon of much repute and some infamy as one of the "September Six," a turning point for the modern LDS but, I assure you, boring as fuck to actually read up on. What I find most interesting about Whitesides is that it's very difficult so far to find anything on record about her connections to Mooney.

It is likely that there was an extensive "peyote underground" in the Southwest, then and now, composed of informal groups like this composed of respectable people not eager to discuss their spirit quest. Remember that Rachel Talley, who referred to David Hamblin as her "medicine man," was hosting group events in her home for Hamblin to speak at; these are networks rendered in kitchens and canyons. What makes Mooney so unusual (and helpful) is that he is making himself into a public figure, not to mention incorporating nonprofits left and right.

Finally, Whitesides does show up in Victim Statement #2:

pg.13-14

Redacted were especially excited about "The September Six," a group that was
excommunicated or disfellowshipped from the LDS Church and talked about them
and had some of them speak at our home or at other's homes around that time.
Redacted talked a lot about "Gileadi" for a period of years (Avraham Gileadi).
Redacted was also obsessed with Terry Warner from BYU, who was a mentor to
him. Terry spoke to a group at our house at least once and came over other times.

During these years they (bringing us along most of the time) would drive to Salt
Lake City to Lynne Whitesides' house or other's homes to have "discussions" with
their SLC friends. At Lynne's house, I would end up sitting alone or with Redacted
in a hallway. I didn't want to be with the adults and Lynne's children and the other
CS members' children loved to watch "Tales from the Crypt." The Whitesides had a
home in Spring City for some time, too.

As does James Mooney:

pg. 56

Redacted and Redacted did some proselytizing for the Church (CS) through his
therapy practice, doing therapy on struggling children of group members, though
the "Bible/Scripture Study" meetings they held, and other times. Redacted and
Joe also volunteered with James Mooney who was working at the Gunnison Prison
to teach the prisoners there. During that time, they often talked about their
success in building "alliances" there with prisoners and employees.

pg. 64-65

NATIVE AMERICAN CEREMONIES/ PRACTICES
Redacted had long been interested in Native American everything when Joe
Bennion introduced him to James "Flaming Eagle" Mooney and his following.
Qames was working with prisoners at the Gunnison Prison and invited Redacted
and Joe to join him. They talked about how it was a great way to proselytize for the
Church (CS).

Redacted often talked about how good-looking he (himself) was and how he had
"the high cheekbones" like Native American people. Redacted and Redacted went
through his genealogy to find Native American bloodlines. Redacted was
devastated and angry when he found out that his only Native American ancestor
had been born in the sixteen hundreds. However, Redacted said often he had been
reincarnated many times and had been an "Indian" at least once, if not several times.

...

Redacted sought the approval of James Mooney, but often mocked and disparaged
him to us and his closer friends at home. He and Joe laughed and made gay jokes
about his Indian name, "Flaming Eagle." They also made fun of James' wife, Linda.
They joked
about how Linda was "a fake" and wore foundation (makeup) and tanning lotion
that was several shades darker than her real color. They said she also dyed her
brown hair black. Redacted said James and Linda were both con artists and actors,
but they respected and coveted the following and power they had.

When Redacted started getting into peyote, he taught us that it was so pure, it
would never leave residue in us (like other drugs, he said). He found a verse in the
Book of Mormon that he claimed talked about peyote - or "the medicine," as we
were supposed to reverently call it. He used this verse to convince LOS clients and
others into taking peyote. He said the more one took, the more cleansing it was - to
body, mind, and spirit. He said the peyote facilitated "a broken heart and a contrite
spirit," essential for Redacted (and his clients) to acquire. He gave it to us at home
and at ceremonies (he had more than one bag of it - dried). He also had a peyote
plant for a while in his office in Provo and then Spring City.

Redacted desperately wanted the kind of power James had even though he had no
direct Native American bloodline. After a while, he started talking at home about
how he was going to abandon his clinical practice to become a "medicine man." He
said he wanted to grow his hair out.

Date: 1st group peyote ceremony
Documented in paperwork from David & Roselle Hamblin Custody Trial
Time: Evening to next morning
Location: Gunnison, Utah

During the custody trial, I was told by Redacted's attorney to write about my
experience at a peyote ceremony. Redacted edited it once I was finished and I
handed it in with her revisions. She changed it to say that I "blacked out" for much of
the night, which was a lie. It was the decision of the Counsel that I be able to say
certain, fairly mild, things about David, but no one else. James Mooney came to the
court for my testimony, to threaten me and make sure that I said nothing
inflammatory about him, Linda, the group and Council in Spring City, or other
followers and activities of Mooney and others. He sat in the back and openly mocked
me with exaggerated arm and head gestures and laughed at the particularly painful
parts (to me) of my testimony. I was really surprised the judge did not throw him
out as his laughing was audible and his behavior was obvious. Sometimes I got
disapproving looks from Redacted, Redacted, Redacted, Redacted Suki, or others
that would tell me I had said too much or was in danger of doing so.

[Wombaticus Rex]

Odds and ends:

I wonder what Bishop Conrad Gottfredson did with those videotapes?

Especially considering he was the founder of Provo business "Modern Image Film and Video."

As a side note, David Okerlund Leavitt's big brother Michael was Governor of Utah for almost the entire arc of Mooney's legal battles with that state, and appointed three of the five justices who rendered that 2004 decision.

Those three justices were Ronald "Quill and Dagger" Nehring, Michael Jon Wilkins, and Jill Parrish, the author of the decision. Perhaps worth pointing out that Jill Parrish was also the same judge who ran point on the lawsuit against Russell Nelson, denying the motion to expedite a deposition, and then dismissing the case altogether a year later.

And there is considerable overlap here between Hamblin's network and Mooney's "therapy" flock. Bluth continues: "I later learned from Lynne Whitesides that Anne Mecham Gregorson, in attendance at the ceremony, had been a patient of Dr. Hamblin and had been subjected to the same diagnosis and the same pattern of sexual abuse ... Via Lynne Whitesides I understood that there were a total of five women abused with these same techniques while in Dr. Hamblin's care. Lynne Whitesides may or may not be cooperative..."

Also mentioned in the "Victim Statement" documents as attending peyote events: Joe and Lee Bennion, "Alysa Wolfe" - also written as Alyssa Wolf, David's sister Susan Christensen aka Suki, his brother Steven, and one "Con Gotfredson." Other participants are mentioned but never named, there is also an incident with a "Huichal tribal chief" outlined from "Sometime in the warmer months between the years 1997-1998" in Spring City.

Finally, the Zellar team is dropping breadcrumbs about an earlier Leavitt adoption:
https://inthezellar.com/?p=426
https://inthezellar.com/?p=429
https://inthezellar.com/?p=436

Large grains of salt, of course, but some curious potential leads.

[Wombaticus Rex]

After focusing on the verifiable background and archival record, I am beginning to return to the central trio of "Victim Statement" documents. Again, there is no corroboration aside from the fact that at least three, possibly four, of the Hamblin daughters are reporting the same expansive pattern of abuse.

There are, however, many details that offer insights into the family dynamic and the circles they were living in. Lurid allegations aside, each of the victim statements offer descriptions of their real lives, residences, relatives, family friends. Much like the excerpt I quote upstream about David Hamblin's contempt and jealousy for James Mooney, these are banal and believable observations about principal characters in this saga. So: Leavitts and Hamblins.

The personage of David Leavitt is implicated in three of the victim testimonies, all of them Grand Guignol lurid. By his own admission, he knew Hamblin while the alleged abuse was taking place, stating in the press conference that "This therapist was my elders quorum president in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was my neighbor. I had a family connection."

This is from Victim Statement #3 -- what follows is not a comprehensive selection and I am omitting many descriptions of sexual assault:

pg. 91: "From what Redacted have told me, in historic (pioneer times) the Leavitt family and the
Hamblin family have been close-like during Jacob Hamblin times in the 1800's. In fact,
Redacted would talk about how David H. and David L were friends growing up. They were even
called to the same mission, although did not serve together. Rosie would tell me that the Leavitt
family was high ranking in our church, but not as high as Redacted. Although I rarely saw the
Leavitt's in social settings they would sometimes participate in the ceremonies. Rosie also told
me however, that David L's wife, was not high-ranking, and that in fact, she and her sisters all
got caught up in hokey things that weren't really involved in the normal group. She told me how
David L's wife, Shalom, became infatuated with David H., and she and her sisters wanted all
sorts of "therapy'' from him. Rosie told me that David L became jealous, and was willing to help
Rosie during the divorce by making David sound like he was going crazy, as planned by the
council which you will see in "The Council" section below. David L went to David H. when he
was in jail for poaching and asked him what he was doing with his life. From what David L has
told me, David H. got mad at David Land told him that they couldn't be friends any more, and
that he (David H.) was "living a higher law." David L. testified in court about this, or shared his
testimony with appropriate sources for the court's decision, and ended up helping Rosie."

The bit about mission work is verifiably true: at the time, the New York area was called "The Cumorah Mission," named after the Hill Cumorah site in Palmyra, New York. David Leavitt, the younger of the two, served on "Spanish-speaking" mission to NYC itself around 1983-84. Sometime during 1970-72, I believe, David Lee Hamblin "served in the Cumorah Mission in New York State," per The Daily Herald (Provo, UT), July 11, 1976. (No date is given in the source.)

As documented in this thread already, Leavitt confirms that he was involved in the divorce proceedings and testified against David Hamblin on Roselle's behalf.

pg. 105: "Rosie and David often called David Leavitt "the conspirator." From
what they said, people in this role are assigned to attack anyone who may be a threat
to the group by starting rumors, planting false information and evidence that would
take down anyone who is against the groups. They send people to bug houses, send
threats, watch, listen, and gather information."

Victim Statement #2:

pg. 126: "During the early period of Redacted's current investigation, Rosie told me that
David Leavitt's private detective had found CJ and that she was an unresponsive
"vegetable," a "blob," a "shell." That she was absolutely useless to our case because
she was incoherent. Rosie gave me the same story about Redacted's former Spring
City client, Sheranne. Rosie said there was no hope of getting them to testify against
Redacted. I have since seen that CJ (Angela Fenton) has a page on facebook and
Redacted ran into Sheranne several years ago working in an office in Sanpete
County. Redacted said Sheranne asked how Redacted were and wished us the best."

[Wombaticus Rex]

Despite all that recent sprawl, his 90's arc has some curious footnotes. He has mentioned at various points that he's done "undercover work" but, surprising for a such a garrulous self-promoter, I can't find much elaboration on that. Also, he was doing peyote sweat lodge healings back then in a corrections context, which is probably related to the "undercover work" thing, and definitely reminiscent of the kind of experiments that RI is too familiar with.

The past two months have been a sobering reminder of just how broken google SERPs are, and worse, that nothing exists to replace it: other search engines might be "better on privacy" (likely a pitch for rubes rather than a commitment to customers who pay nothing) but nothing has yet improved on google for speed and depth. But for keyword results? Well, I apologize for my years in the SEO trenches, I earned this fate and did it for very little money, too.

Doing parallel searches for all Mooney's adjacent orgs brought me to "Law Enforcement Against Prohibition." Bear in mind that what follows could easily be bullshit: it is reasonable to assume that an organization of former LEOs would carefully vet their membership, but in practice, that's not very likely. If people were less quick to trust the appearance of being earnest, sociopaths would have a much harder time out here. Still:

Officer James “Flaming Eagle” Mooney (Fmr.)
Utah Department of Corrections
Spanish Fork, UT

James Mooney spent more than a decade in law enforcement in Utah and the State Department of Corrections, during which he established a reputation as one of the most successful undercover police officers in Utah. In 1993, he was given the Citizen’s Award of Commendation from the State of Utah, signed by Governor Mike Leavitt.

Mooney is a well-respected expert and leader in health, substance abuse, and corrections. A Seminole Indian, he was dedicated at age four to do the Creator’s work as a Medicine Man. Many of the American Indian ceremonies he facilitates deal with substance, physical, emotional abuse, and other unresolved debilitating issues that block healing and empowerment behaviors. Mooney was also the director of the Last Shot Program for the Central Utah Correctional Facility, which lowered recidivism to below 30% over a period of 18 months. He was awarded the Medal of Merit from Governor Leavitt for his achievements in deterring inmates from returning to crime and eventually prison.

As co-founder of the Oklevueha Native American Church (O.N.A.C.), Mooney has several roles through which he attempts to correct some of the damage the War on Drugs has put on American families. In addition to his role as a healer, he serves as the director of the recidivism reduction clergy program of O.N.A.C. In his opinion, the War on Drugs is presently the largest contributing factor to the disruption of the American family unit. O.N.A.C. is dedicated in healing families of the destruction caused by the drug war.

ONAC, bear in mind, is dedicated to selling membership cards offer legal protections that do not actually exist because they never hold up in court. They have demonstrably, objectively, destroyed families over the course of the past two decades, and it's mighty curious that a "former undercover" is currently networking coast to coast where the new age and the drug market overlap.

Has Flaming Eagle ever been hassled by the DEA?

[Belligerent Savant]

.
This has been stellar spare time reading material. Duly appreciate the time dedicated.
Nothing more to add at this time.
(the above comment would otherwise be presented as a 'thumbs up'/'heart' emoji elsewhere. Alas. One of the benefits of the old school platform, eh)

[Wombaticus Rex]

A curious overlap between the careers of Mooney and Hamblin, revolving around Provo company Novell, who were briefly raking in billions per year in revenue in the middle of the 90's -- and the mid to late 90's is exactly where it all goes down for both of those men.

I found this in the course of trying to nail down a timeline for Mooney, and specifically how and where that pudgy motherfucker could have packed in "ten years of law enforcement experience" beyond his brief (1994-1997) stint with the Utah Department of Corrections. I still have no answer, indicating that 1) despite my exertions I remain an amateur hack, 2) Mooney is simply lying, again, or 3) his Oklevueha arc was somehow cover for him to manage controlled buy operations.

The most extensive bio sketch that Mooney has received in reputable print was a Daily Herald piece from May 22, 2005. Thankfully this is still archived, sparing me the need to transcribe microfiche .jpgs. Insane if true: Mooney claims he received a half million dollar donation as a thank you for helping a Novell family.

For six months, he administered peyote to a relative of a wealthy former Novell executive.

...

Mooney said the executive donated $500,000 to the church because he was so pleased with the results of the treatment. Mooney’s decision to spend nearly all of that donation on a large home on six acres in Benjamin angered many of his followers and caused about half to leave. Mooney says he intended the 5,000 square-foot home, with its vast fields, its indoor swimming pool and its tennis court, to be a refuge for his followers. He paid $25,000 to have plans drawn up for a retreat that was to be built on the property.

“I estimated that we could have about 1,000 people coming there for help at a time,” he said.

As a side note for urbanites poaching this thread: six acres is not very much land, so "vast fields" is almost as funny as the tennis court. Benjamin is hardly the boonies, it's a bunch of agricultural tracts outside of Spanish Fork alongside Interstate 15. Property records indicate the deed for his complex was passed to "Washington Mutual Bank" in 2003, so it's not hard to puzzle out what happened there, but I was surprised to see that it later wound up (2014) owned by Susan E. Christensen -- aka Susan "Suki" Hamblin, who is mentioned constantly in the "Victim Statement" documentation. Small world, huh? They have really let the place go -- the tennis court is now a parking lot.

Dated September 7, 2012 and addressed to "Sergeant Dan Dove," the GRAMA dump doc named "Statement.pdf" is Roselle Hamblin's assessment of "Retaliation Danger and Flight Risk of David Hamblin," issued several months before the man was actually arrested at his condo. In it, she states:

When DH was arrested and taken to the Sanpete County Jail in January of 1999 and to the Juab
County Jail in December of 1999, he was bailed out by friends or relatives within just a few hours.
His current resources may include a number of wealthy clients. For instance, at the time of his
first arrest he was driving a Lexus (full of illegal hunting kills and feathers from protected wildlife)
on loan from his counseling clients who were founders of Novell. DH also has family resources,
including his four siblings and divorced parents. His father Robert L. Hamblin is a retired
professor, and maintains a fairly close relationship with him. His mother, Mary June Adams
Hamblin of Provo, also a retired professor, has large real estate holdings. She and DH's aunts
own a large portion of the Jamestown Square land on both sides of University Avenue in Provo,
various commercial and residential properties, as well as cabins and building lots in Wildwood
and Springdell communities in Provo Canyon. I expect he would be able to raise a fair amount
of money for bail.

As we've seen already in the thread, James Mooney "acknowledged bailing Hamblin out of jail" but it was unclear if that happened both times or only once.

Now, during this time, the CEO of Novell was Eric "Burning Man" Schmidt. Juicy indeed, but also highly unlikely. I am inclined to pursue other leads with closer ties to the Provo area: note that Roselle stipulates the family in question were involved with founding the company.

This may be opaque to me, but David Leavitt likely knows who this executive was. From the opener of that same Daily Herald piece:

James and Linda Mooney remember the date — Oct. 10, 2000 — because their youngest daughter was celebrating her 10th birthday. They returned from an afternoon lunch to a find a
half-dozen patrol cars parked on the front lawn.

...

James Mooney watched as officers walked in and out of doors, upstairs then downstairs. “They ransacked our entire church. They took our donation slips and our donation records,” Mooney said of the raid.

The only other mention of the Oklevueha revenue flow I find stems from coverage of Mooney's 2005 suit over the raid:

The lawsuit seeks attorney's fees, the return of the peyote and other items taken from the church during an October 2000 search and other monetary damages deemed appropriate, Marshall said.

"If Mr. Bryson had given me my medicine back after they raided the church, if Mr. Bryson had given me the medicine back after the supreme court decision, it would never have come to this," Mooney said.

He said there were about 18,000 peyote buttons confiscated in 2000.

Peyote is being sold for about $350 per 1,000 buttons right now, but the price fluctuates, Mooney said.

He also said his church was taking in about $650,000 in yearly donations at the time he was charged with drug distribution for providing peyote to non-American Indian church members.

Officers have said they confiscated about 12,000 peyote buttons from the six-acre complex in Benjamin, Utah, that serves as home to the church.

[DrEvil]

This is really fucking weird.

My uncle from Cleveland (who, fun fact, apparently shows up in the Presidential Commission on Organized Crime report from 1986, although I haven't read the report yet) was involved in getting financing for Novell in the eighties when they were struggling. At the same time he was also an investor in another software company alongside Jackie Presser of Teamsters fame. I don't have any evidence, and I would prefer not to mention his name since my aunt is still alive and visiting right now (dinner conversations are awkward enough already thank you very much), but I'm pretty sure he was at least on the outskirts of Cleveland organized crime as a money guy. His dad was also a big Cleveland name, with several dubious financial dealings, some of which I'm pretty sure involved the Teamsters.

There is a bit of family lore that goes with my suspicions: another aunt and uncle of mine from Europe were visiting my potentially mobbed up American uncle in the seventies, and they were meeting in Vegas (Cleveland and Vegas seem to go pretty well together) at a fancy hotel where my American uncle had booked them a room. My aunt and uncle show up looking like your average poor European backpackers, and the hotel staff are treating them accordingly, barely acknowledging their existence, right up until the moment they say who their room is booked under, at which point the staff very obviously become terrified and start falling over themselves to help them. They got the strong impression the staff suddenly thought they were the kind of people who will have your legs broken if you fuck with them.

[Wombaticus Rex]

Ah, Cleveland. They punch way above their weight class when it comes to OC, for sure, just an impressive track record.

Still digging on the Novell angle and had the misfortune to dig through Jeffrey Vernon Merkey's online footprint. Although he is definitely involved with Mooney, definitely another fake Indian, and definitely got fired from Novell, based on his property records, I find it impossible that he was, at any point in his sad life, in a position to give out $500,000 donations, or even pass around a Lexus.

Some interesting details from a 2004 Deseret News piece ("Dark Cloud Over Peyote Still Lingers")follow.

First, like any New Age healer, Mooney has multiple versions of his origin story -- on the church website, he received a call out of the blue in 1988 from Florida that began his journey, but he apparently tells reporter Jesse Hyde it started with taking peyote in '87:

Mooney first took peyote in 1987 to cure manic depression. It was an experience that changed his life: He stopped living as a white man and became a nomad, living with natives in Mexico, Canada and across the United States. "I dropped out, sat in circles naked, sat in the desert for days at a time, lived in the mountains," he said.

For Mooney, who had grown up denying his Indian heritage, it was a period of personal re-discovery. From a tribal chief in Florida, he learned he was a descendent of Osceola, a Seminole war chief, and that he was born to be a medicine man.

Some more talk on finances:

Mooney said he never charged for peyote but suggested a donation of $200 per ceremony. He and other members of the church also said they never turned someone away who couldn't pay.

"We helped drug addicts, people who didn't have any money, people off the street," said Ogden resident Nick Stark, who acted as Mooney's right-hand man.

In its first year of operation, Mooney said his church made $250,000; the next year he said he made $600,000. He guesses he would have made $3 million the year he was arrested.

To give a fair shake to a pathological liar, $250k at $200 per pop would only require 1,250 paying patrons. Doing sessions ~10 at a time twice a week could account for that. So, not a huge stretch. Three million, though, is astonishing and indicates that Mooney was doing some kind of upstream income arrangement with the ONAC branches he sold franchises to. Or, you know, once again is just full of shit.

I've had Nick Stark aka "Flowing Moose" on my radar since last month but he does not appear to be connected to Hamblin or Leavitt, despite being cited as "Mooney's right-hand man" in that Deseret piece. Still, one detail I found has stuck with me, this from a 2000 Salt Lake Tribune piece "Drug Arrest Raises Legal Questions About Peyote," helpfully archived here.

Some of the churchgoers crying in the tepee sell cars or are successful in other professions. Other conflicted souls claim to be drug addicts, child molesters and even murderers. Each comes to Nick Stark -- a medicine man in the Native American Church -- to eat peyote and drink a tea made from the hallucinogenic plant.

The believers say the peyote helps purge their souls of a dark and torturous past. "This is like a truth serum," says Dianne Sanders, a member of Stark's church. "It shows you where you are in life. It takes you closer to God."

(The article goes on to note he holds "twice-a-month meetings in his backyard," so again, ONAC is not exactly operating on a sufficiently industrial scale to explain their revenues. Also: "Authorities arrested Stark at his home in Ogden Canyon on July 8, confiscating $11,000 in cash and 3,500 of the quarter-size peyote buttons.")

Officers began investigating Stark after a woman reported she had been held against her will at his home and forced to consume peyote. Stark denies her allegations and contends he is legally authorized to use and administer peyote, an all-natural drug.

He told police he is one-quarter Iroquois Indian and a member of the Oklevueha Earth Walks Native American Indian Church in Benjamin, just south of Spanish Fork. "It ain't about training," Stark said. "It's something you're either born to do or not."

James Mooney, the church's president, confirmed Stark is empowered by the church to carry out spiritual ceremonies using peyote as its Ogden chapter leader and is a church-authorized medicine man.

...

At their first meeting, attendees instantly become members of his church, which Stark contends endows them with the legal privilege to consume peyote.

It was a first-time parishioner who complained to Ogden police about Stark. Jackquelyn Nicole Burnett, 24, of Salt Lake City, said she voluntarily joined 26 others in the tepee on the evening of July 7 because she was "curious about Native American religion." Burnett and the group ate dinner together at around 8 p.m.

What happened during the next 16 hours, however, is disputed. Burnett told police Stark yelled at her and forced her to eat peyote against her will, wielding a 6-foot-long stick. After taking the drug, Burnett began sobbing and told Stark she wanted to leave, she said. She claims Stark refused.

Burnett said she was disturbed by "a lot of confessions going on" inside the tepee.

"Some guy admitted that he had molested a neighbor," Burnett told The Salt Lake Tribune on Thursday. "He said the boy was 6 and he was asking for forgiveness from the medicine."

Others in attendance sought psychic healing, said Burnett. "Somebody had been raped, another girl was bulimic. . . . I felt like I was around a bunch of crazy people, and I wanted to get out."

Stark admits yelling at Burnett, refusing to let her leave and telling her if she did he would be "obligated to call the police and let them know you're on the loose on a controlled substance." But Stark and others who were at the ceremony deny Burnett was compelled to swallow peyote, which has a foul and bitter taste. Church rules, they contend, require each person at the ceremony to stand in front of the group and profess that they are there of their own free will and state, "Nick, give me the medicine."

These groups are a "target rich environment" to say the least, and the illegality of it all only enhances the blackmail potential.

[liminalOyster]

Finally read the thread. Had no idea what I was missing out on. Or that Great Chief Mooney showed up in here. Good stuff. Interesting that Oklevueha must've gained a fair degree of legitimacy and acceptability due to the great Liberalization of Ayahuasca in the past decade.

[Wombaticus Rex]

Finally read the thread. Had no idea what I was missing out on. Or that Great Chief Mooney showed up in here. Good stuff. Interesting that Oklevueha must've gained a fair degree of legitimacy and acceptability due to the great Liberalization of Ayahuasca in the past decade.

I think they have gained scale, assets and momentum, but legitimacy, fuck no. They haven't won a single court case since the Utah Supreme Court decision and they have had dozens of dues-paying, card-carrying members get their lives destroyed between prison time and civil forfeiture. (Here's a good survey on their ayahuasca enterprises.)

ONAC also hasn't made much inroads with the actual Native American Church communities but in another decade that's likely to change just due to the attrition of elders dying and Mooney making more money.

Their efforts in California to create dispensary churches got washed away by the tide of legal retail sales and the attorney they brought on board, Matthew Pappas, left on bad terms, warning of involvement with organized crime / pornography financiers and overall shit governance; in typical form, Mooney had excuses and played the victim while smearing Pappas as "off his meds." One constant with all these ONAC guys: for all the intrigue and insanity, they're just very boring men.

I still think the "300 churches" claim is overblown but there are definitely at least fifty that I have identified so far. Some of them are barely concealed fronts for other hustles, like the "Nemenhah" group, who sell miracle cures and are currently freestyling their own Mormon-flavored Native American cosmology. (Just take a look at these credentials.) The network is not only reminiscent of Sovereign Citizen groups, it overlaps with them at many points.

Still, I think Mooney himself has had the most success on the legitimacy front. Thanks to the Law Enforcement Against Prohibition nonprofit, since respun as the "Law Enforcement Action Partnership," he's been able to cement himself as an area expert based on his three years of correctional experience and I've seen him show in a lot of material like this, with his name alongside a lot of actual heavy hitters in criminal justice reform, including Vermonters Sarah George and NYPD alum Brandon del Pozo, who will definitely read this because he googles himself often.

[liminalOyster]

Finally read the thread. Had no idea what I was missing out on. Or that Great Chief Mooney showed up in here. Good stuff. Interesting that Oklevueha must've gained a fair degree of legitimacy and acceptability due to the great Liberalization of Ayahuasca in the past decade.

I think they have gained scale, assets and momentum, but legitimacy, fuck no. They haven't won a single court case since the Utah Supreme Court decision and they have had dozens of dues-paying, card-carrying members get their lives destroyed between prison time and civil forfeiture. (Here's a good survey on their ayahuasca enterprises.)

ONAC also hasn't made much inroads with the actual Native American Church communities but in another decade that's likely to change just due to the attrition of elders dying and Mooney making more money.

Their efforts in California to create dispensary churches got washed away by the tide of legal retail sales and the attorney they brought on board, Matthew Pappas, left on bad terms, warning of involvement with organized crime / pornography financiers and overall shit governance; in typical form, Mooney had excuses and played the victim while smearing Pappas as "off his meds." One constant with all these ONAC guys: for all the intrigue and insanity, they're just very boring men.

I still think the "300 churches" claim is overblown but there are definitely at least fifty that I have identified so far. Some of them are barely concealed fronts for other hustles, like the "Nemenhah" group, who sell miracle cures and are currently freestyling their own Mormon-flavored Native American cosmology. (Just take a look at these credentials.) The network is not only reminiscent of Sovereign Citizen groups, it overlaps with them at many points.

Still, I think Mooney himself has had the most success on the legitimacy front. Thanks to the Law Enforcement Against Prohibition nonprofit, since respun as the "Law Enforcement Action Partnership," he's been able to cement himself as an area expert based on his three years of correctional experience and I've seen him show in a lot of material like this, with his name alongside a lot of actual heavy hitters in criminal justice reform, including Vermonters Sarah George and NYPD alum Brandon del Pozo, who will definitely read this because he googles himself often.

Sorry, to qualify that .... there's a mess of milquetoast people who likely have an ONAC card somewhere in their mementos from the "journey" they did at a yoga studio after-hours in 2017 and likely assume it is the NAC because they heard "native" and didn't bother looking it up further when the "shaman" said "ancient ways" enough times. Only a tangential anecdote btw but word has it there are Crowleyite Aya groups popping up in the South. Good times..... /s

Lots of good leads here. Thanks.

[Wombaticus Rex]

there's a mess of milquetoast people who likely have an ONAC card somewhere in their mementos from the "journey" they did at a yoga studio after-hours in 2017 and likely assume it is the NAC because they heard "native" and didn't bother looking it up further when the "shaman" said "ancient ways" enough times. Only a tangential anecdote btw but word has it there are Crowleyite Aya groups popping up in the South. Good times.....

Yeah, finding out Xeni Hamm Jardin was a member caused me acute physical pain. Since pursuing the Mooney angle, I have also learned a number of my friends shelled out the cracker reparations full price of $250 to be down with the Seminole clown, and just as you said, thought pretty much nothing of it, then or since. Most of them never even met another member, let alone attended a session. White guilt is a hell of a drug.