Don't Call Them Purple People! The California Sex Commune Pt. 1

it's been many years. I have forgotten so many things since I've ever seen this movie. It's amazing that I remember it exists. But I remember the image of that Purple People Leader. To me, the song is related to itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow pikini. So I'm like, there must have been a tape. There was cassette tape of like kids tunes or something. Forget it was that. It was tee boca pikini. It was on top of spaghetti. It was time me kangaroo down. Oh, I don't know

that one, or I didn't make attention to the B sides. Possible, Yeah, all those old kids comedy songs, for sure. Purple people leader was on that, Well, here we are with some purple people finally, and the only people getting eaten are they're eating each other. They're eating each other. So people they're are they're eating purple people, I guess, and they're purple people eaters, which brings me to say, this episode not about cannibals. No, it's about sex and a lot

of it. So heads up, hand down. But I'm excited to get to this one. This story is very very ridiculous, very wild. Yeah, kind of in line with our Oneida episode about people trying to figure out how to the best sex and the best life that they can possibly have together somehow with a lot of rules. Isn't that what we're all kind trying to do? It's very true, and so you can see why so many people through history have applied themselves very passionately to this this question. Yeah,

this pursuit of perfection. This topic was suggested by Sean on Twitter. Thank you, Sean, this was a great suggestion. It was nineteen sixty six and Victor Baranco was lost. He was a self made millionaire. He had a wife, he was crazy about it, had kids, everything he was supposed to want, but he still felt empty, and one day he decided to deliberately examine his life, thinking, if there are questions, then there are answers logical. If I think about it long enough, I'll solve this problem. And

in a flash he realized everything was perfect. He was perfect, the universe was perfect, and he was responsible for everything that happened to him. That flash of perfection, as Victor called it, became the center of his More philosophy, and in night, he and his wife Susie established the More House Commune and Lifestyle in Lafayette, California, teaching courses on sensuality, orgasm,

and more. So let's take a deeper look at the longest running, most successful free love Commune, still an operation today, as deep as you want it, baby, Oh no, let's go. Hey their French come listen. Well, Eli and Diana got some stories to tell. There's no matchmaking a romantic tips, It's just about ridiculous relationships. A lover might be any type of person at all, and abstract consent a concrete wall. But if there's a story, were the Second Glance Show,

Ridiculous Rolevance the production of I Heart Radio. So Victor was born to a black father and a Jewish mother in Oakland, California. Yeah, and by the time he was a teenager, he's a pretty big hustler type of guy. In a n Rolling Stone article called Sergeant Bill co Meets the New Culture by Robin Green, he talks about how he met Susie, his wife, when he was twenty four. She was only eighteen. She was the daughter of a

wealthy doctor, and her dad did not approve of Victor. Now, Victor had a lot of money, but he got it in shady ways. For example, he created a bunch of fake companies, put them in his seven year old son's name, and then bankrupted there. His son was liable for those bankruptcies, but as Victor said, quote, hey, in seven years, he'll only be fourteen, So I guess no harm, no foul

to his credit order whatever. He also bragged about pushing phony watches and jewelry on people, quote like I would pretend to be a truck driver with an overload of goods. Or I had an engagement ring said, and my girl decided to marry somebody else, and I'd be crying the blues and a bar After the time when the jewelry stores were closed of course. Alright, alright, alright, so he's trying. And he also had a jewelry store himself where they

would sell fake engagement rings to sailors. He said, quote, it was such an incredible hustle. We guarantee the thing was genuine. But what it was was a chip, a ten point chip in a sparkle setting, and it looked big. It was worth maybe eight dollars. I made a lot of money, but Susie's father was right. I was a bum, So I decided to go straight. Poor sailors. Haven't they been through enough? Okay? Well, and what's even sadders? He would even be like, some of these sailors had never

even seen the ocean before they became sailors. So they were really small town people and they just had no idea. You know, He's like, I see the you know, the green on you kind of So Victor and Susie married in the year nineteen fifty nine, and Victor started managing a drive in movie theater. Big business for sure, but he wasn't making enough money, so he used some mafia connections to become a bookie, and he would fly people

out to Vegas to gamble at some point. He also took part in a c I A sponsored LSD experiment legit MK ultraship. I guess I'm guessing he's one of the volunteers and not some of the people that were forced to take LSD. Hey man, free doses. I'm ready, sign me up, let's document this. Well, what's so funny about those experiments is that they were trying. You know, the government's like, we don't want people to have LSD.

But because they did these experiments, all these guys would go volunteer and of course get a bunch of LSD and then pass it around their community. So the government, in trying to keep it from people, then gave it to the people. Come on, guys, you really really biff that one. Well. Then Victor decided to become a washing machine salesman, but he got angry at his manager for taking too big of a commission, and Victor laughs in an interview about shaking that manager so hard that he

wet his pants. Shake of a violent streak. Perhaps he's like, I'll shake you harder than the washing machine. But finally Victor hit on his treasure trove real estate. He would buy a cheap rundown house and he would live in it while he fixed it up and then try and sell it for a profit. It's very I don't even know if it's a scheme, right, I mean, you're just like the scheme is just a plan. It doesn't have

fair enough. It's got such a negative connotation. Somebody said, hey, I'm running the scheme, I'd say, oh, no, you're right. But one of the major projects of the early nineteen sixties for Victor and Susie was trying to improve their sex life because Susie was quote frigid according to one more House convert Marco Bennetto. So they went to several

doctors and psychiatrists. They also went to like free love type places to try and figure this out, figure out her frigidity, which we can only assume that's the only word we got, but we can just assume that they

probably mean she wasn't sexually act like passionate. It wasn't something that was Yeah, maybe she had like a low libido or trouble orgasm e. It wasn't very interested, you know, had a like a mental block, right right, But it seems like she was maybe interested in improving that because they went to all these places, including the Sexual Freedom League in Berkeley, California in the early sixties, and of course the hippie mecca of hate, Ashbury. They all ended

up there at least one. I think it's where's that Nian God hate Ashbury. They hate and hate Ashbury, hate Ashbury. Maybe it was like Greenland and Iceland love Ashbury. Yeah, hate, so the only hateful people. That's not working. Man, Let's hang on, let's rethink this scheme. I think we smoked too much weed about that when by nineteen sixty six Victor felt like he had tried everything but was still

missing something. I tried everything. I got LSD from the government, I flipped the house, I got involved with the mafia. The world is cold to me now. But on the Lafayette Morehouse website, he's quoted as saying, quote, I went through all the schemes, you know, all the systems. I played with Zen Buddhism. I did psychology to the hilt, I did religion. I did making money, I did playing football, and I did being a social butterfly. I did all

the things that are supposed to get you right. And after doing them all and having what society said should make you happy, which was like a good reputation in the business I was in making money, having a family that was socially acceptable in every aspect of what socially acceptable is. I didn't find it that much fun. I don't like live in in the system, man. Yeah, Man, I'd like to opt out, right, which fair enough, honestly,

many of us liked opt out of this system. So one day, Susie's out of town for the weekend and he says that he laid himself down on the living room rug to try to figure this whole thing out. And they never mentioned this, but I'm pretty sure drugs are involved. Look, if it's the sixties and you laid down on a living room rug, you didn't do it sober. You had some chemicals sometime at some point. Maybe not chemicals, man, this ship is natural natural. Well, this LSD came straight

from the plant, man, the plant that the government runs. Um. He figured, you know what, if I got a question, then there must be an answer, right, And all I have to do is think through it until I find an answer that seems true. And then I keep testing the answer and it keeps holding true. That's got to be it, right. I like it but I'm challenging it because I have questions to which there are no answers. Now after well, you're not on LSD, that might fair.

Maybe try it on the next episode. I'll be on LSD. Oh what a time. I'm very like I'm looking forward to that now. After a while of laying on the rug trip and balls, probably he found his answer, what he called his flash to perfection, that he was perfect and the world was perfect just as it was, but

they're also was always room for more. Marco Beneto explains it as something of a precursor to the law of attraction from The Secret If you're remembering that, the idea was that we all can attract exactly what we want. So just put out into the universe what you want in this world and it will come to you, just because of the law of attraction. And that's all you need. Okay, when you make like a vision board and any day now you'll get it, right, Yeah, I mean, well, I

we'll get too into it. But it's the very privileged mindset to be. You know, there's there's a lot of starving people in the world who might have a vision board, and I ain't gonna help it's full of noodles and there's no noodles. Yes, absolutely, so they're definitely yeah, not my favorite law. There's there's some power to positive thinking, but I think you have to have a base level of some sort of privilege or you know, to be in a setting where those things are afforded to you,

you know, right. Yeah. But more House is a little more expansive in their definition because they don't think humans do or even should, only attract good things. Um Victor believed that quote, human beings want to experience the full range of human emotions, and that includes bad things too. All Right, we unconsciously attract good and bad experiences that can contribute to our growth and development. If everything is always good, how do you really grow? Right? How do

you know everything is good if nothing's bad? Right? Marco Benetto wrote, quote, it's about taking on responsibility for the results that you generate. I personally can't or won't believe that these ideas are true in a universal way. Shit happens, cancer cells find a home, racism and genocide exist, and so on. But in the interpersonal realm, I think it is true. I believe that all my relationships happened for a reason, and maybe we're even engineered by spirit. If

this is superstition, so be it. I don't mind holding superstitions that make me happier, more effective, and more loving. Okay, Well that sort of addresses that a little bit. I was gonna say. It's sort of what Marco is saying is like, there are starving people and they could think about food all day long. That doesn't going to make the food appear. There's there's bigger things happening in this world than just you and your personal little little things

that you want. But in your personal world you certainly have more control than maybe you believe. Okay, So starting with the idea that you're already perfect and that there's room for improvement is the foundation of the Moorhouse philosophy. I get on board with half that. I mean, I'm already perfect, right, So now your reactions, your fears, your judgments, all of those are perfect just as they are that, which means you can relax. Man, you know, worry about

all that. Your fears part of the whole cycle. Man, emphasis mine, Um, But you know what it's saying is that if you're perfect, you're not defensive. You know, you're more receptive to hearing what can be worked on, and that opens you up to more possibilities because you're not

sitting in judgment of yourself. Right, And they say things like, you've never made a mistake in your life because everything you've done has made you you are and therefore and you're perfect and therefore so everything you've done is fine and good and you couldn't be better. Right. So with this idea, Victor decided to create the more philosophy and that's m O r E. And that philosophy is that

quote fun is the goal, love is the way. Now, he wanted to prove that people could live in a group setting without doing anything you don't want to do, right, you could serve the world unselfishly and you could profit from it, which is what they call quote responsible hedonism. I know, I'm thinking a lot about Collette because she was a hedonist, you know, and a lot of thought

of her circle. Where hedonists it's all about just pursuing fun things and everything's great but in there, but they also ignored a lot of things, whereas these guys are like, you need to involve yourself a little more in the world around. Can you help people you know. But here's the thing. Victor himself, he just didn't have the look. He kind of looked a little square man, you know, so he couldn't be out there starting a hedonistic love commune.

I thought he was a narc total businessman looking due short hair, oh my god, get it. But fortunately he was friends with Bobby Kerr through the Sexual Freedom League. Bobby was a long haired hippie kid who was going to be perfect for bringing in recruits. According to that Sergeant Bill co Rolling Stone article, Victor offered to give Bobby anything he wanted if he would just come with him to help him establish this commune. So Bobby, here's this.

He's like, all right, man, and I wanted ten dollars sports car, and guess what he got it love attraction. Indeed, Bobby told Rolling Stone quote, I didn't trust him at first. He didn't think there was anything bad about controlling people. And he told me the money was nothing but dirty green paper and not a cause for bad and he was enjoying himself. His idea was to con people into enjoying themselves too. It made sense to me. I got hooked. What's funny is that by the time he's saying that quote.

He um, he himself had become the square. He had become the businessman of the group kind of, and he was in charge of a lot of real estate transactions and stuff. So he kind of became what he didn't want to become. I suppose all those hippies did my parents. Well, there's still a few of them hanging out here doing the good, doing the good work. Speaking of good work, let's take a quick break and hear about some good work being done by these corporate sponsors. Welcome back to

the show, everybody now. Victor and Susie started the first more House in Oakland. I think it's a little hard to suss out, but in nineteen sixty eight they acquired the seventeen acre plot of land in Lafayette, California, where they restored this big gass house. And this is not the only more House in existence. There are still operating houses in Boston, Hawaii, and here in Atlanta, actually right here in INMND Park. But more House, none of it.

Not to be confused with the historically black college and university more House, which got it start as a Baptist college and would probably not appreciate the association do you think they constantly have to be like, no, no, it's not that, I don't think so, it's probably the other way around. More than likely, somebody stumbles into the More House on Waverley Way and they're like, wait on, manute. Somebody's like some high schoolers like I just applied to

More House, and then we have the strangest questions. They asked me how much I'm masturbated. This is the only college where they ask for a dick measurement on the application that I've seen so far. I feel like I'm gonna head back to them and Yale, but that's for the skull and bones now. The Lafayette More House House is the most well known because that's where they established the More University. Will get to that, and the house

has painted a bright electric purple. To get around the expansive acreage, residents drive purple golf cards, and if they ever want to go anywhere as a group, they use limos that they restore on the property. In nineteen seventy two, they showed up en masks to see The Godfather in sixteen purple Cadillac limousine. Quote. We really caused quite a stir One member told Robin Green in her nineteen seventy two Rolling Stone follow up article Beyond Shazam, and can

I one day create that? Stir Can I have sixteen purple Cadillac limousines take me to a movie. Uh? It sounds like you've got to start a sex cult to do that, which I had long encouraged. I think the Fringe Festival is about two steps away. No, look, I'm just saying a nudge in either direction and you might

get there. I'll bring it to the board. Yeah. Today, the Lafayette more House campus is over twenty three acres and it has a swimming pool, a boxing ring, to tennis courts, a cocktail lounge, a television studio, and a nightclub. It's like a baller location right in a big purple house. Big eggplant purple. Yeah, very bright purple. Well, eggplants pretty dark. I'm just thinking, No, I'm just thinking about the dick emoji. That's the only reason I'm associating it. Well, okay, So

this purple apparently serves two purposes. One is that simply it's Susie Baranco's favorite color. So Victor was like, this is my lady. She loves purple. For putting it up on the house. She gets what she wants. It's your favorite color too, I do love. I were to start a sex cult, I'd have a real problem competing with these guys because I'd be like, well, my wife's favorite colors purple too, So what do I do. That's true, I'll have to find a new favorite color, I guess.

I don't think we should let them push us around like that. I think it's time for us. I think we'll give purpose. Someone else has a tern with purple. I had when when we went on All State Chorus trip, right yeah. In in middle school, there was this whole thing, you know, boys and girls couldn't be in the same room together, all that stuff. So the way they set that rule was they said no purple. And I was like,

what the hell are they talking about. And one of the other students, one of my classmates, explained to me, She's like, because boys are blue and girls are pink, so like blue and red is purple, so you can't mix. And I was like, that's the dumbest explanation I've ever just And I'll tell you what. No purple was a solid catch phrase for a few years for its sheer stupidity. That's very dumb, extremely dumb thing. Well, we would use it, you know, in the future anytime, you know, mocking those

kinds of rules. And then we would also use it for any time an obnoxiously stupid rule was set up. Would be like, oh, it's a no purple rule. Well that's useful because then you can immediately be like, I don't even even know what it is. It's dumb and I'm not paying attention to hard fast on that one. Alright, So big purple house. Susie loved purple. And the other reason that they used purple so much was because it helps people understand that they're entering a unique space when

they come onto the campus. Because obviously you see this big bright purple house, purple limousines, purple cards. You know you're not in a normal setting. They're like, suspend your everyday ship, all right, we're in a purple place. And like the Wonka factory, Yes, it's exactly. Let go of everything you thought you do. Houses can be purple. Who um. They also have a sign up on campus to tell you where you are at all times, and that sign

simply says here. And they also have a clock that tells you what time it is, and it simply says now. Oh my god, that's the most hippie ship I've heard. I have to say. The clock is legit twelve, you know number clock, but all the numbers just say now now. So I guess you can still technically, if it works, you can technically read the time. But it's still just as now everywhere. I've got an important doctor's appointment at three fifteen. What time is it? It's now? Man, Okay,

I guess I'll go. I might be late or early, who knows. I'm supposed to have an interview, uh in the in the C building. Can you tell me where I am right now? Yeah? Man, you're here. This is where I'm like, hippie stuff so funny because I'm like, I see what you're doing is you're supposed to be present. So you're here and now, and that's all that matters. If you just show me thin about the past, you show me think about the future. This is where you are,

this is what you're doing. All that's fine. It's not very practical, however, when you need to like pay bills because it be somewhere, because it does wetter well, because of all this predilection for purple, More House residents are sometimes called the purple people. They don't like it, but they are called purple to you about it. They pushed back. They're the ones who painted everything purpose I mean, you know.

The house is often referred to as the Purple Palace, although some journalists in the seventies preferred to call it fuck you get it, get it. And that's because one of the major focuses of more House is just like Victor and SUSY's initial marriage project, improve your sex life. Keep in mind that at the time that the Moorhouse folks are starting this commune with all of its sexual fulfillment focus, it was considered indecent to use the word

vagina in a published article. I'm sorry, I should have. We should have given a warning front. So even though this was like the free love era and everything, like, society at large was still kind of prudish when it came to talking about sex and the language they used.

I will say that in like two thousand and three, I got super piste because some lady drove by a theater who that was showing the Vagina Monologue, and she wrote an entire letter about how they should change it to the who haa monologue because her little six year old said, Mommy, what's a vagina? And I was like, your six year old has one? So I don't understand why who ha is better? But you're not still asking, right,

I was like, you're dumb. No purple rule, I guess just to say we haven't got much better about vaginas. That's all I'm saying. I would have. I don't know if you did this, but I would have immediately gone home and written the who ha monologues. I did not, but I should, and they'd probably be way filthier than the vagina monologue ever wanted to be. Send us your who monologues? Oh my, no video? Please? Yeah, I think we can all get in trouble with it. Thank you,

all right. So they have a hard time talking about sex, but Victor felt that in order to have really good sex, you have to have conversations. Just true, very true, still today, still today, still hasn't changed yet. One day, well, we can stop having all these conversations about sex, I start talking about it. But he also felt that you had to be intentionally present to the sensations of sex instead

of just being in your head about it. So like, say you're having sex with somebody and instead of thinking about how good it's making you feel, or how close you are to the person you're doing it with, and all that, you're thinking about maybe things you don't like about your body, or you're worried that the other person isn't having a good time or whatever. The victor that made you what he called a lazy comer comer come right because he felt like you're not you're not engaging

all your senses in what you're doing. You're distracted, you're elsewhere, You're you're doing too many things at once. Right again, you're here and now that's all you're doing. Right, which when you're having sex. Yeah, I don't care where I am or what time it is. That's a great time to say what time is it? It's now, keep at it. You know why you ask me what time it is while we're having sex? Down, I feel incredibly offended. We have to have a conversation about this man real clockwatcher.

But Linda Gray, who's another more House trainee, described all this as sort of what Victor was saying. She said, quote, most of our obstacles to orgasmic intensity center on our limiting preconceived notions about sex, and we carry these thoughts

into bed. The training involves getting to know our physical bodies as instruments capable of exquisite music, instruments that we can play alone or with a partner at any time of our choosing technique is far outweighed by our ability to pay attention, our ability to focus on a particular stroke in a particular moment, and to approve of what's happening.

And that's important. I do think that's really interesting to think about, like applying your mind very much to what you're doing, because I think a lot of sex talk is about how orgasm or feeling good before an orgasm, to the build up to climax or something is very like it cloud your brain and you know you kind of stop thinking altogether. Um, but they're feeling is that's

not true? If you if you engage your brain, it'll be like ten times better for you then if you disengage your And I think that can be true, especially if you you are thinking I like this, I approve of this, I'm into it. Like that must be helpful, right, Yeah? And I was gonna say too at the end there

she says, to approve of what's happening. That's that's your consent right right exactly you're talking about you should be conscious of what's going on, and you should say like this, this works, not that, Yeah, but I I approve of that works. Goodness, HERD approval, HERD approval on that. And what it presupposes is that you know what you approve

of and what you like. And I think a lot of people don't know, Like they're not willing to experiment necessarily, either alone or with a partner, about what they like. And so it's like, Okay, you're supposed to figure that out and then you can tell people and then you have a great time together and who loses, you know, which I think is true definitely. So they taught courses on how to achieve this orgasmic potential, and interestingly, they feel like intercourse, like penis and vagina a sex is

quote a haphazard proposition. They're like, sometimes it goes great, but not always. That's one of the more clumsy ways to have sex. I suppose it's a hit and miss way, all right. To them, mutual masturbation is the most effective way for everyone to have the best possible time together. Because with mutual masturbation, each person is fully focused on one person's enjoyment. Right, So if if you and I are having sex and you're masturbating me, you and I

are both fully focused on me. My brain is engaged on how much I'm enjoying and creating it, and you're engaged on me as well, and then we vice versa. Whereas if we're having intercourse, we're both concentrating on either ourselves or the other person rather than putting all our focus on our own pleasure or your own pleasure. So they're like one orgasm at a time so that it gets so so like you get the full focus and

then I get the full focus. If we're both trying to happen at the same time, there's too much distinct. So I wouldn't say one orgasm at a time because they want continual especially, but like exactly one person at a time, Yeah, to take turns kind of vibe, Yeah, one person at a time. You know, one person has ten orgasms, the other person as one, and you know we call it even and we call it even. Yeah, I guess, uh, they call it doing another person when

you masturbate them. They're doing you. I guess, you know, I just some way that makes more sense than what we you know, casually refer to as doing someone. It's true, you're you're really doing something right there. It makes sense. The course is about to have the perfect do so I'll do you super well, I guess, and I'm going to use this do dad. I wonder if they do employ toys. I think it's mostly about fingers, but they probably do. Do they do? Do they do? Do what

they do? Do do your duty? Just don't douty, don't do while we are doing the do unless you approve. I don't know. We're throwing a lot onto them at this. I don't into is brought up on their website whatsoever. I think what we need to do do right now is go to a commercial break because what's the poop jokes hit? They don't stop better, we need to stop.

We'll be right back, stick around and we're back. So in the class of basic sensuality, women and men are given plaster penises and vaginas to practice their techniques on. I wonder if today it's more like dildos, like you know, yeah, regular sex toys. Um, but They also are given homework, which is to go home on a bath, koda, do not disturb, sign on the door, and masterate. Okay, Now, I have always been very anti homework. I know you

hate it. I've only got a few waking hours at home in between school and bed uh and I and I you know, you know I benefited from doing well on tests and stuff without anyway. Point I'm making is this would have drastically changed my opinion on homework. You would have done this homework homework you just didn't even know you were a little well makes sense. I think the point is to figure out what you like, right,

so you know you approve. Now, Apparently some women, including Susie Baranko, we're able to get to a point where they could come immediately at the first touch and just keep coming for hours in intense of that kind of time. If you do it's now. Man, if you devote all your life to it, then you got all the time, just like God. These people have never you know, they never watched ted Lasso. They don't time, They probably don't. Yeah, now would you rather come for three hours or watch

ted Lasso? Can I watch two hours of ted Lasso? Had come for one hour, because sometimes out an episode of ted Lassoed end being choice I mean, Hannah, well, for real, my god, and listen to this. In ninety six, Victor Baranco actually put on the first public demonstration of this of the three hour Organs of the three hour Orgasm.

This was at the Lafayette More House. A woman named Diana was in the proverbial hot scene, and since it was meant to be an educational experience, Victor put her on a gynecological table, so she had like her feet up in stirrups, not very sexy, and he wore latex gloves as he stimulated her. Apparently, um so again, it was supposed to be more of a medical you know vibes, so we're supposed to get a porno feeling out of this. Well for something that is a porno feeling, we're very true.

And for three hours people watch Diana have orgasm after orgasm. They would only pause for brief cigarette breaks before getting right back to it. And I say, you know, you're in the sixties. In the seventies, there stop for cigarettes. He also had her recite nursery rhymes the whole time, and if she trailed off, he would stop until she picked it back up again. So she'd be like, get lost,

you know, because she's orgasming for hours. Right, She'd be like, I'd get kind of like sucked into what was happening to me, and he would stop, and I'm like, oh, yeah, Mary had a little or whatever. Little Jack Horner sat in his corner eating his Christmas high Hi. Hi, back to the story. Oh sorry, sorry, um weird. So it was. I mean, it's like having a nursery rhyme power, you know,

fucking machine or something, I guess. And the point of this was apparently to demonstrate that your brain and your memory and your motor functions and everything are all completely functional during an orgasm, and they can be used to intensify your pleasure. So again, instead of acting like a good orgasm is so consuming that like your brain disappears, you know, and you stop thinking and you stop feeling conscious, They're they're saying that your orgasms are better when your

brain is engaged. As Linda Gray put it, quote, your brain is on your side, which is a nice thing to say. Not always true, depends on right. My brain has been on someone else's side at various times, all right, we'll challenge that because I just this week saw a headline pop up. I did a quick google here um and just from Medical Daily, they said there was a study that during an orgasm, the lateral orbitofrontal cortex, the

brain reach behind the left eye, shuts down. During an orgasm, this region is considered to be the voice of reason and controls behavior, it says. The brain of both a man and woman is said to look much like the brain of a person taking heroin during an orgasm, according to a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience. Okay, well, then you'll see this won't be the first time you'll see some specious medical advice. This guy who laid down on a rug and thought about it for a while

didn't come up with sounds scientific results. Okay, Now, you might be wondering why this woman, Diana did this public demonstration and not Victor's wife Susie, who apparently had been the main demonstrator for a number of years. But that's because in nineteen seventy six, Victor and Susie got divorced, and Susie had continued to live at Lafayette morehow but it seems like she wasn't really trying to have a sexual relationship with Victor anymore. Yeah, I don't know how.

There's no information about how they grew apart, what exactly came between them, or if they just kind of felt like we got to the point where it's over now. I don't know, like there's nowhere further for us to go together or what. So they had divorced, but meanwhile, Diana was in love with Victor, so she was fully ready to be a part of this. She had even gotten a friend of hers, Cindy Goin's, and her husband Anthony,

to join more House. In nineteen four, Cindy apparently started taking courses because she had a yeast infection that wouldn't go away, and quote Vic thought, if your crotch was broken, there was a reason it wanted more attention paid to it, which again is the kind of medical advice you'd get from someone who decided to take smells d and lay down and think about it. Yeah, I don't know about that one. Do not try that to rid yourself the

yeast ship. He basically like more orgasms for this yeast infection. So I really feel like it's counter into it. Yeah, but she said it works She's like, I took no medicine. I had a bunch of orgasms. The yeast infection went away. But I feel like that ship clears up on its own if you let it hang out for a long time. I don't know. I don't know that much about yeast infections, but maybe it works, but I ain't gonna try it when I get one, like a medicated cream, please and

thank you. So. Cindy and her husband became residents of the Lafayette Morehouse, and when Vic was forty two, he had what he called a thunderbolt experience, and he fell madly in love with Cindy. He said, quote all the sudden, everything I was doing meant something. I never thought the party was going to slowly again. Nothing was dull anymore because I had this magnificent obsession. What it did was put me into my life. Somehow I used her as an excuse to pay even more attention to my own life.

What I'm telling you is without giving up being interesting, if you will direct your attention towards being interested, you might stumble across your own magnificent obsession. And it doesn't have to be a tall blond, I added, isn't there because Cindy and I kind of agree with that. Actually, when when I read that, I was like, he sounds crazy a bit. But I've always thought that if you want to be an interesting person, your first task is

to be interested. You have to be curious, right, because you can't get interesting if you're not interested in what's going on around you. Was I wrong that ted Lasso is a big part of this, and now be curious, not judgmental. Absolutely, So the two of them got married in nineteen seventy nine, and Vic then had an artificial lake constructed in the shape of a heart as a

tribute to Cindy. I just find that romantic that if you go to Lafayette morehow everything's purple for Susie, there's this lake for Cindy, Like you know, there's just all these little touches of Vick's true love for these these women. I think his his his real love for them was very real, for sure. So I just find that kind of cute. Okay, But back to the orgasm stuff. Who Now, they did not stop at these public demonstrations, all right,

They started handing out degrees about this. Now. At first they called it the Institute of Human abilities, which kind of sounds like a professor X type of school or something. And they taught courses on basic and advanced sensuality, basic hexing, group living, basic and Advanced communication, jealousy, relationships, and something

called man woman a conversation about gender. Okay, can I jump back real quick and say that I would totally ask some people to take a group living course because I have group lived a few times in my life, and we all could have used a course of course would have been And I'll tell you basic hexing is not like a wizard thing. It's like a wizard thing. No. For them. Hexing to them is basically like uh, saying

mean things to you, essentially, but they're true. So it's like being bluntly honest with you about things, or with anyone about things that need that are true about you or things that need to change whatever. And so you kind of bring people down that way. It's sort of a manipulation tactic um, and then you bring them back up with blessing and you tell them nice things and

you make them feel good about themselves. And so this is like the perfection thing where they tell you how perfect you are and then they tell you what you need to change. You're great. I love you, You're perfect. No change. Hey, welcome to class today. You've got a stupid face. Nobody likes you. Your voice is kind of annoying, your eyes are too far apart, and I don't like the way you smell and the way you say the letter S is just a little irritating at all times.

But you make great brownies. Uh, everybody loves your elbows. And um, don't forget that one time that you, you know, pulled me away from the be getting hit by that moving car. You know, I mean, I think, so okay, you know what, Can you just tell me the second part? No, because then you won't change and improve a kid? Fix my stupid face. What's funny is there? Like? Listen um? Basic hex sing is like everyone uses hex sing. You and I do it every day, even if you don't

take a course on it. We all hecks, we all bless right. And they said, we used to call it the Blessing course and nobody took it. Now that's a hex that's what they say. That's quote from our little video. Interesting, that's a hex. He wants to learn how to be nice to someone, but everybody wants to learn how I know, how to be how to heck someone, which again I

kind of get. Um. Oh, they also have a course called quote Mutual Pleasurable Stimulation of the Human Nervous System Intensive, which is better known as the sixty nine course, and I think they should just call it that because I was like, I don't know what that means. Ritual pleasurable stimulation of the human nervous system. Oh, you're talking about the old sixty nine. I think everybody could use a course in that, because it's not something you can just

naturally do. I think there's some acrobat acrobatics involves. Now. Of course, all these classes cost money, and so did living in the moor House. You paid to live there, and upon completing these courses you could start your own more House, which basically meant that Victor created a franchise of communes that Robin Green called quote so effective and profitable that people in Berkeley referred to Baranco as the Colonel Sanders of the commune scene. Yeah, yeah, he's like,

I got eleven herbs and spices for you. Basically, excuse me. I should also mention that you can start your own more house. But more House the collective. The bigger organization would purchase the property, so you never got to own the property. They all that money went to the larger organization. Just just throwing that in there. Before you start your

own more House franchise, be aware, don't get excited. This is where many of the controversies about Lafayette more House are based, and they essentially started with Robin Green's nine seventy one Sergeant Bill co article and her follow up Beyond Shazam, both of which spent a lot of time discussing the money that the courses cost. Usually each course was about forty of dollars at the cheapest, which today, let me pull up the currency converter is about three

hundred and thirty dollars. And you would take like a three hour class where a teacher would demonstrate the best positions for masturbating and then assign you homework to go home and masturbate. So to Robin, it was like a real scheme. Yeah. Basically, like she's like you're kind of getting ripped off to be like told to Everyone knows how to masturbate, you know, Like she's kind of like sneering at it, and I don't need to pay anyone to tell me to go home and masturbate. I'm doing

it well. So originally we were going to do this, you know, as a one part episode, but there's just so much more to talk about here because all those controversies that we were just referring to, there's so much there there is, and they barely scratched the surface. Seriously, I mean, we got to talk about some of the

trouble that this place has gotten into. Uh maybe some potential cover ups about some nefarious possibly happenings, we don't know, but it's it's, you know, everything we've heard so far it sounds kind of nice. I mean mostly there's just a couple of things where I'm like, you know, but for the most part, it's I mean it is very peace and love and now and right, you know, just have better sex. What could be problem? What could be

the problem with that? I mean, this guy went from conning sailors for their eight dollar diamond rings having three hour orgasms for his wife, you know. I mean, that's that's quite a journey, right, And that's the other thing. Like so many like sex cult type stories, it's about a guy and he gets a lot of young women. You know to have sex with him, and that's why it's really gross and exploitative. And this cult is definitely a guy, very charismatic leader, but it's all about your pleasure.

It's not really about his pleasure. And I'm sure he's getting laid plenty, but you know, it seems like such a different focus um that it's like, well, that's kind of a nice change his exchange rates because he's like, I'm going to give you three hours, three hours of orgasms, now my turn, please, I'd like my ten minutes, thank you very much. Well, who knows. They might have had some tan trick techniques for gentlemen as well. It's just

not quite the focus of their website. It's mostly about women or using for an hour, but maybe the men also orgasm for an hour and they just don't, you know, finish until the very end, but they can feel like they're having an orgasm for a long time. I don't know if that's possible. I don't know. All things are

possible through drugs. There was a lot of them. That was some of the Robin Green articles she mentioned talking to people who had dropped a little acid before a basic sensuality class like that, so that was the only time that anyone ever admitted that, Like, there's some drugs going on in this process, but I think you can infer some of the ways they talk having a real good time. I don't know what L s D does dear sex experience. I mean, I've never sund it myself.

I don't know. Terrifying, like because if it goes the wrong way, it's like suddenly I'm having sex with Satan. I don't know. It's like a giant cockroach. Yeah, maybe that's the good thing about it. Like you drop a little acid and I see you as you really are man, and your cockroach. Well, I'm not fucking no cockroach. Like, but like sometimes I look in your r is so beautiful man and knows the right choice, and there's a little cockroach going. I knew someone would see for myself.

I'm a nice I've been having an existential crisis. I just woke up like this. I just talk, Oh my gods, like a transformer situation, like a fly situation. I was thinking, Kafka, that was yeah the fly. Wait, that was was a cockroach? Oh I thought it was a fly. Okay, it's a cockroach, Okay, alright, well then I knew I gotta. I'm very well. Yeah, it's a very upsetting book. You don't need to go into Russian literature. We're having an orgasm high right now.

Russian literature. Oh yeah, I know. It's a bummer to split this in the two up. I feel like season finale a ted Lasso, Everyone's just gonna be like, what happens next? Now? What? It's so weird. We got on this like our sexy episode got on this. I don't know, although I did like how Keeley when she was still dating Jamie Tart, she was like down boy, you know, it was like okay, Like damn, that's pretty hot. For as wholesome as ted Lasso is. It's a sexy show.

It is, they say, they curse. It's set in England, so much more chill. Everyone is very attractive, unnecessarily so for leaving these normal lives. Real people aren't that pretty? Are they? I haven't seen a human being in four years. Do people really look like you? How are you out there? But we do, you know, yeah, we we think it's best to split it up. I just you know, honestly, I just spent too long talking about my middle school chorus Experience. Damn it. I guess we've got to find

some LSD for you to do. Oh yeah, for the next episode, I'll be tripping balls the whole time. Now, maybe one day we'll do an episode super high on every drug we can get our hands. Oh my god, oh god, it'll just be You'll just and then just hit upload. I won't even edit it. You'll just hear I'll hit record and then you'll just hear me rocking in the corner. Where am I? What's happening? My heart? I could smell my heart? Yeah? Who wants to get

together and do drugs? Mr? Experience? Meanwhile I would have left, but I'm sorry. Here swinging through the trees outside, singing and dancing look at some pretty light Oh man, what um, what class would you teach at the Institute of Human Abilities? Probably none of them? If I'm honest, What class would you make up for the Institute of Human Abilities? I

should ask? It has to be like advanced oral calculations, you know where it sounds like a class, but it's when you get down to it, it's just like how to funk like this? Oh? You know? Because what was one the mutual pleasurable stimulation of the human nervous system. Right, it has to sound superman scientific um okay, like digital nostril exploration. It sounds like a community does community episode.

So many of those funny us sounding, let's be honest, to probably be digital rectal exploration or digital exploration of the hidden human areas or something where we teach you how to finger your butt hole forbidden fruit, like the geographical exploration of the bodies, canyons, canyons of the body, and it's like how to do a rim job. That's one I'd love to hear from y'all if you have, if you have a class that you would teach at

at the Institute of Human Abilities. But it has to be Yeah, you have to tell us what the government name is and then what your yes please send those well again, really excited to bring you the second half of this episode where it gets, uh, we take this really interesting, almost idyllic sounding, uh you know, sex festival going on at this place, at this purple place right in like self help improvement coach type vibe. Right, But

there's a darker side. Maybe they're always is not they're always true true, there's a darker side to all of us the Dark side of the Moon. The moon is my butt. Yeah, advanced Dark Side of the Moon add awesome, Oh my god? Well, yes, stay tuned for part two, where we really dive into the controversies and side if this is a cult, because that's the big question, is this a cult? And we have the definitive answer. Yeah, we will make it, y'all. Please catch us next week.

In the meantime, we would love to hear from you about this episode, about any episode. Uh, feel free to reach out through email. We are ridict Romance at gmail dot com right, or slide into the d m s on Twitter and Instagram. I'm at Dynamite Boom and I'm at Oh great, it's Eli and the show is at predict Romance. That's right. Drop a comment or send us a message. We would love to hear from you either way. Yeah, and thanks again to Sean for the suggestions. Uh, we're

getting two episodes out of who Knew? So thank you sir. Awesome and we'll see you all next time. Thanks for being here, Thank you, Bye bye, so long friends, it's time to go. Thanks so listening to our show tell your friends names Uncle Sandance to listen to our show ridiculous roll nance