brotherh00d of the wh1te t3mp1e

so my father has this story.

in the, i guess, early-mid '60s, he went with some friends from santa fe up to visit the university of colorado, where his friends were thinking of going to school. they were all in their late teens i suppose. they were in a pickup truck, dad and his two friends (brothers). somewhere on the road up out of new mexico, they found a young guy hitchhiking. dad says the guy was about their age, maybe a little older, good looking clean-cut american boy. there was no room in the cab, but they told him he could hop in back if he wanted. so he tossed his duffel bag in and jumped up.

they rode along for a ways and eventually decided to stop for a bite at a roadside restaurant. the hitchhiker jumped out along with them and came in for a cup of coffee. so they're all sitting at the table, being pleasant, and they ask him where he's headed, where he wants to be dropped off. "oh," he says, a little vaguely, "just up at shamballa." and dad his friends are a little skeptical, like, "what? shamballa?" yeah, the hitchhiker says. so they get out a map, and he points out to them that there is a place on it called shamballa, colorado. in what looks like the middle of nowhere. huh, they say. so... what's at shamballa? the hitchhiker gets a little uncomfortable and doesn't really want to talk about this. but boys being boys, they keep pestering him, where are you going, what are you doing? finally he decides to just tell them: he's going to the br0therh0od of the wh1t3 templ3.

this, obviously, does not answer any questions so much as raise a whole bunch of them. like, what??? so then the hitchhiker says he's read about this place, the temple, and there are people there, and they're waiting. waiting for what? this goes on for a while, and eventually what they figure out from his half-answers is that this is some kind of rocky mountain ufo cult. people waiting for the spaceships. more specifically, hitchhiker guy says, they're waiting for a messiah. and the good news, he says, that he wants to bring to the people of shamballa is that he, hitchhiker guy, is the messiah they're waiting for. but he's not, like, bragging about this. he's sort of embarrassed as he's telling the whole story. but he really needs to go to shamballa.

so on they drive, with the hitchhiker in the bed of the pickup and the three of them up front talking about wtf is up with this guy. it's getting into evening by the time they get close to the turnoff to shamballa -- which turns out to be just a dirt road up off the highway. they offer to drive the guy up the road, but he really just wants to walk up himself. so they leave him at the side of the highway, he starts walking up the dirt road and they head on up toward boulder. but they keep talking about this, the guy, the brotherhood and temple and after 45 minutes or so they all agree they just have to go back and check this place out. by now it's dark, and by the time they turn around and get back to the turnoff it's getting late. they turn on up the hill, on the dirt road, which winds around and up and down and by now they're starting to feel a little bit way away from everything and it's all a little creepy. then the road crests the hill and suddenly they're in the middle of a little, like, community. modest ranch houses, all clustered together. and sort of in the middle is a somewhat larger but not exactly massive blocky white building. and there is no one around. no lights in the houses. nothing. the only light comes from their headlights, which they are very aware of. there is no sign of the hitchhiker. they turn around, as quickly and quietly as possible, and head back down the hill.

that's the whole story, but after he told me it, i did some web searches and found several things.

like, from time magazine, 1946:

Dr. Doreal is a chubby, bald little man with glittery eyes who turned up 17 years ago in Denver, Colo, and incorporated a new church: the Brotherhood of the White Temple. He said he was part Choctaw, born on an Oklahoma reservation and that, after serving in the Signal Corps during World War I, he had gone to Tibet and been received into the inner circle of the Royal Order of Shamballa Priests.

and a photo:

http://history.dpld.org/timeline/images/small/brotherhood/10013533.jpg

and there is also the website of the brotherhood itself, apparently still a going concern of some kind, which i'm not going to link but is easily googleable. it includes enticing information such as:

The Brotherh00d of the White Templ3 Correspondence College is recognized by the State of Colorado as a bona fide post secondary religious educational institution. The College Work is a series of lessons on every branch of occult, metaphysical and Spiritual Science including healing. These Lessons are divided into four Neophyte and twelve Temple grades. These sixteen grades require approximately four and one-half years to complete. Each grade has from twelve to twenty-seven lessons, one lesson being mailed each week. Upon completion of this course, the student may then be invited to enter the Inner Work of the Brotherhood.

A contribution of $25 dollars for a one-time Entrance Fee and $25 dollars due for the first month is required, which will be returned if the application is rejected for any reason. A further contribution of $25 dollars each month is required as long as one remains a member. Upon being accepted for membership, you will be mailed the first lesson, a membership card and a contribution card.

dad figured the hitchhiker probably wasn't the messiah, and that the authorities of the temple might not look kindly to anyone showing up claiming to be such. on the other hand, if he had $25, they might have been happy to see him anyway.

isn't there an old ilx thread about wacky theosophical cults? i'd go look for it, but i do intend to sleep soon.

a few california-centric threads.

"IN THIS TRAINING, YOU'RE GOING TO FIND OUT YOU'VE BEEN ACTING LIKE ASSHOLES. ALL YOUR FUCKING CLEVERNESS AND SELF-DECEPTION HAVE GOTTEN YOU NOWHERE!"
Eden Ahbez, Jack Parsons, and other LA kooks...

they keep pestering him, where are you going, what are you doing? finally he decides to just tell them: he's going to the br0therh0od of the wh1t3 templ3.

this, obviously, does not answer any questions so much as raise a whole bunch of them. like, what???

Haha, it's like watching Lost.

A good friend of mine was born into a cult, though she doesn't remember much about it. Had a given cult name, I forget it though. I always wanted to press her for more info but I wasn't sure how comfortable she was talking about it all.

This is a great story! It sounds like an episode of the Twilight Zone.

pretty fuckin unsettling imo

btw from thread title i assumed this was about wh1t3 p0w3r punk rock or something

great story! wonder where everybody went. reminds me of the eaerly x-files episode about a quasi-amish sect that's actually a bunch of sex-changing aliens.

They probably sensed the non-believers.

what if..they changed into their true forms, which were the ranch houses themselves!

Nice

oh hell i just realized i google-proofed every mention of the name except the one i c-and-p'ed from time magazine.

well, i'm guessing the brotherhood these days is a couple old dudes cashing social security checks. but maybe i'll get some mod intervention JUST TO BE SAFE.

No Elvis Telecom on this thread yet? I'm shocked!

dude this is such a rad story

Wow this is so creepy - I shivered when I got to the end of the story. Stuff like this really freaks me out and completely fascinates me at the same time. I've got to go read some more about this . . .

and i just remembered that dad described the actual temple as looking like a temple -- like a greek thing, with white columns and all, totally at odds with the ranch houses, but small, like they couldn't afford a decent-sized one. so i'm guessing the building in the photo above is not the temple proper but maybe the adminisistrative building or something.

(and of course they saw it very briefly, by headlight illumination)

When I was having lunch I kept thinking about this, and how the residents of the town might have turned into houses, or become their houses.

I figure the driving buddies set off back down the dirt road toward the highway, scared a little but still attempting some jokes about it. Suddenly a huge form looms up in the headlights: smack in the middle of the road they've just come up, so large that it's straddling it, completely blocking any passage and pushing into the trees on either side, is a white stone two-story house. All its windows are dark.

haha.

more from the brotherhood's website:

The Brotherhood's Headquarters is in a hidden valley in the heart of the Rocky Mountains on forty acres, which joins 1540 acres that belongs to the members of the Brotherhood. From this valley the Brotherhood directs its Spiritual work throughout the world.
On the adjoining 1560 acres belonging to the members under the corporate title, "Shamb4lla 4shrama", members have erected homes. A fine road runs the length of the valley, a distance of about two miles. The valley is surrounded on all sides by mountains, magnificent pine trees crowd the sides of the valley and a stream of ever-flowing water pours across one end of the valley.
A Temple has been built for classes and meditation. All this is owned by the members who have contributed work and money to the project. Only members of the Brotherhood are entitled to apply for membership in Shamb4lla 4shrama. It was built as a Western Shamballa or Shangri-La for a Spiritual and Material Retreat from the world chaos which prophecy tells us is almost at hand.

a few interesting details in this lawsuit (PDF).

and i guess this is an aerial view. doesn't look real populated.

erected homes huh

i remember hearing about this place, maybe when I lived in colorado; there must have been a newspaper story on it or something.

I yield the floor to master-colorado-knowledge-holders nabisco and mandee

This thread is awesome

for some reasont his story popped into my head this morning, it rules

this is a great story, although I was hoping for some kind of pay off like "But when they went up in the morning, turned out that the town had been deserted nigh on a hundred years" or some such.

i dunno the "payoff" is pretty good anyway

I completely forgot about this awesome story. Thanks for reminding me Max.