Purple People-Cheaters? The California Sex Commune Pt. 2

of them. I was like, oh my, because I mean it's two year anniversary, right, so do the math they opened a bar in like that just happened to be when the opportunity came up. But I know they were kind of like what am I doing? This is insane, you know. So I'm just so happy that they have landed, you know, so well. And there's such great people that

it's like, yeah, cool people succeeding, you know. I definitely thought it was going to be like a friends and family party and then we got there and it was like, oh no, this is the entire neighborhood. It was yeah, but that was so I mean again, I was just like, yeah, it was great karaoke. Um, yeah, I say something you sure did, did you say criminal, that's right, and you're saying foolish Games. Yeah, it wasn't my best. I don't

know about that. I do have a full recording of it. No, look, I'm telling you I like the Foolish Games is my karaoke song, and I am confident in what I do with that song. I love to do it. It's never it's never done me wrong. But I didn't even try on some of those notes because I was too far gone. I really need to set a rule for myself on karaoke, and it's like three drink maximum. Beyond that, just save it for next time. I cannot recall how I sang, but I doubt it was great. I have a video

from that except I was. It was also well passed my point of no return and i'm screen from behind the camera along with you. So well, it's for the best that we don't upload these things. One day, we'll do a good round of karaoke and y'all can y'all can be I don't know what the word is, delighted. We'll have karaoke, Yeah, ridic you can have to have our theme song as one of everyone can sing it with us. Well, that sounds that would be really fun. Well,

so glad to have you back from part two. Of course. I am Eli, I'm Diana, and this is you caught us right in the middle of a of an amazing story. Yeah for real, we didn't even know this was going

to be too parton to record it. I swear I know, and I am so sorry because we we like to split our two partners up between Wednesdays and Friday so you don't have to wait over the whole weekend stories to know, so that we can be like and don't like, hang on two your butts because there's more coming important, you know, But like, we didn't even know that this time,

just kept it going. But Part two is going to be awesome because we still have so much to cover about the Purple People cult and don't call them purple people that don't have that, and don't call it a cult, don't call it a cults. Necessarily, we're going to figure that out. We have to decide that. Um I will start off by saying Eli is not on LSD point all of you. That's right away. I did say I was going to do we were going to find some but never happened. I had a little too much t

e Q the other night, and I'm still recovering. So no LSD for me today or anytime soon, probably because those days are behind me. Those days only happened once and it was a great time. You're like that, want and done for me? Prolie. Well, when last we left you, we had gone over you know, the Purple House and the purple limousines that the people of Lafayette More House living and traveling, and we had discussed kind of their

basic philosophy. We talked about their public orgasm demonstration sometimes what three days, three hours, three hours? Now that can do that? How did it? Who fed Diana? She sat there? But if you get distracted by the food, I'm going to stop exactly better get back to that nurse. We also talked a little bit about some of the courses that they teach, like basic and Advanced Sensuality, and of course they're sixty nine course Mutual Stimulation or whatever that

longest title was. We asked you for some course ideas for the school. Please send them our way, don't forget. But we still have to talk about More University, which was their accredited university that they had for a number of years, And of course all of the controversies about this group of there are many. They run the gamut from run of the mill allegations of monetary exploitation, ho hum, two stories about like fox slave auctions and accusations of

them being a cult and stuff like that. So there's still so so much more to cover um and uncover. So let's get to it. Let's go, Hey, their French, come listen. Well, Eli and Diana got some stories to tell. There's no match making, a romantic tips. It's just about ridiculous relationships, a lover, it might be any type of person at all, and abstract constrom a concrete wall. But if there's a story where the second glance ridiculous roles

a production of I Heart Radio. So by nine seventy seven, the institute had been established as the More University and they were empowered by the state of California to give out batch. There's of humanities, masters and communications and doctorates on lifestyles and sexuality. Can you imagine, Oh, what are you a doctor of doing it? You have to do That's literally one of their courses, the two handed dah

my god, paging doctor do. But it makes it hard because like they're like doctor Victor Bronco and doctor Cindy Barronco and doctors like all these doctors, and I'm like, I don't know if I want to call you a doctor, you know, right, my doctor, an actual doctor told me to go orgasm my way through a east infection, like like I have some doctors in my family and just thinking of what they had to go through, just like they deserve it more bank of knowledge in their minds

based on repeated you know, study and experimentation, proven results, a lot of work, I mean, which they feel that they are doing a lot of experimentation and sharing their results. But it's just again, it's just different. It just feels different,

and I don't want to camm a doctor. I don't know, I don't know what I mean experimentation on like the human genome versus cranking it crank and these are like peer reviewed, you know right, So like, I don't know, there are many different kinds of doctors out there who deserve to be called doctors who aren't you know, studied medical doctors necessarily or scientists or whatever. I just don't know.

If the masturbation school well anyway, at the time, it would cost you around forty three thousand dollars to complete a doctorate at More University. And that's that's a lot for college today. Yeah it is, but if you convert that to modern dollars, it would be over three hundred and fourteen thousand dollars this Ivy league. And at the time people weren't used to paying much for higher education. But like we said, even today, this is an insane

amount of money. Who would pay for that? Can you imagine only your mom being like, give me a check. I'm gonna go learn how to masturbate better. It's only three thousand dollars. I got my doctorate in a right. Suddenly there are some student loans I don't want forgiven. But you know what, I never would to learn to do it in the bathtub if they hadn't hadn't taken that classhouse. In addition to paying for courses, More house evaluates, as the new Bees are called, they would pay monthly

to live in the Purple Palace. But they also had to clean and cook and help fix the place up. Because house elite, like Victor another long term residence, they didn't have to do any of that. They that back and just enjoyed their hedonism, drop an acid and getting laid. They served Victor like, you know, they would do business deals for him, or like the ladies would make cookies or whatever. Like Victor really did not have to do ships of anyone. I mean even at the Oneida compound,

even he did more. But as these folks insisted to Robin Green, this wasn't selfish on the elite's behalf. Ken Brown, the president of the Institute in nine, told Robin quote, as Victor would say, the way to enjoy your life is to do whatever anybody wants you to do. To be a slave. Everyone is afraid that they're going to get conned or had or cheated or done in, or they think they're going to have their souls stolen or something, so they'll never be slaves. But that is exactly what

you want to do. That That's what I mean by unselfishly serving the world. I'm hearing him say this. He's like, you know, people always think they're gonna get conned or head or cheated or done in or ripped off, or I'm gonna like steal all the money out of your wallet when you're not looking. And I'm like, are you just saying what you're gonna do, but you are doing that, So the idea of being these evaluates serve by doing chores and so on, and the elites serve by teaching

the evaluates. Basically, yeah, classic, like you're doing your part by feeding me grapes as I lay on my couch, and I'm doing my part by eating those grapes. Well, and it's very yeah, and it's so like manipulous. It's very insidious to me to kind of try to convince people that what you want is for me to be happy. Do you know what I'm saying? What you want is to give me everything I ask for, And then of course what I want is for you to have a thing you want to of course, but like it just

looks so different. But it's also something like just overall that shitty thing people do where they're like, oh, I hated that hazing. I can't wait till I'm one of the ones that do that hazing, instead of like I don't want that, so I didn't. I mean, I didn't like that, So let's not do it anymore. If you go through hell, then you'll be in a position one way to put someone else through hell. Right, why not

take the hell out of it. Right. It's like when people are like, I can't stand that younger people have it easier than I did, and I'm like, I thought we were all working to make the world easier all the time for everyone. That inherently means younger people are going to have it easier than us where should and we're doing it damn find job at leaving them a much worse world. Oh God, I want you to have what you want, and what you want is to serve me, right,

And you're so right, that's exactly what I want. I mean, I don't know. So in a way, they're all they're all like, yes, I'm fully in, I'm very enthusiastic, but

I'm like, are you I don't know. So he's literally telling people that they want to be slaves and that he's happy to oblige, right, but that he's also a slave in his way as well, that that we're all if if if you're which in a way I kind of get if you're living in a group setting, right, because you're like, the point is if you live together,

you can't be super selfish. You have to make room for other people's and want and that means subsuming some of your own unless we all agree that what you want is what I want, and that way we all get more of what we want and fewer people are unhappy. So he's saying that everyone, including himself, wants to be

a slave. But don't worry. It gets worse because in Robbin's nineteen seventy two follow up Beyond Shazam, she mentions an April Renaissance fair at one more House look Pitian quote with such events scheduled as a slave auction where luscious slave girls and young studs are sold for a day to the highest bidder, which is like the most unacceptable thing I've ever heard from a sex cult. I'm like, even if you're like, okay, sure, I'm down to be a slave for a day for someone, that still feels

so weird and awful. It's like stage as slave boxes. No one should take part in that. I don't care how consenting you are to the idea of like servitude and everything like that, this is just an unacceptable set up, you know, uh not okay. Robin also shares a story about a resident named Judas who said that his life had gotten quote phenomenally better since joining but only a few weeks after he said that his wife died by suicide. Now Robin writes, quote that weekend, Victor and Judas devoted

a sixty five dollar course to a discussion of Susan's death. Ah, that just puts such a bad taste on the outer that somebody killed herself because of whatever reason. I don't know if it's related to this lifestyle, if whatever she might have had, some other issues that were going on,

had nothing to do with this. Who cares you charge somebody sixty five dollars to listen to a discussion about someone's life who is no longer here to speak for themselves and tell you it just is a pretty weird thing to do to me, to like try to monetarily

gain off of that. And if I'm like very sympathetic to Judas here and just imagining that he's like really broken and hurt by this, then I absolutely think that Victor came in and convinced him to do this thing in a state where he wasn't really capable of of thinking clearly. It's um, you know, the not being sympathetic to Victor, It's possible, but he just didn't really care that much about her and thought, oh, this is a good opportunity for makes bucks ahead. Right, it's either Victor

andrewdas suck or just Victors but it sucks. Like that's just a really gross thing to do. Now, I have to say that these articles written by Robin Green, they might not have been written in good faith. I will say that because in Joe Hagen's biography of Yon Winner,

who is the founder and editor of Rolling Stone. This biography is called Sticky Fingers The Life and Times of Yahn Winner, he writes that Yawn's mother had gotten really into more house um, she divorced his dad, She hung out with Vick a lot in the front seat in

his purple car, her hair blowing in the winds. Journalistic bias may be going on here, exactly, so Joe wrote in the biography quote in an edible rage, Yon Winner attacked Baranco, and the only way he knew how he assigned writer Robin Green is resident assassin, to profile Baranco in Rolling Stone and really expose him for the hustler he was okay. Fun fact, Robin Green went on to um win some Emmys for writing episodes of The Sopranos Her so she maybe wasn't assassin. I don't know she

knew about stuff, so I don't know. I was just like, who's a resident assassin at the Rolling Stone? Right, So it's possible that you know this is a hit piece. But he did say go expose him for the hustler he is, So she might have just dug extra hard to find the real ship. This is what I'm wondering, because I'm like, I don't think you know, these are quotes from people. I don't think that she misrepresented anything

they said. But she might have picked and chosen very carefully what she wanted to show us, or she asked some leading questions, or she only asked certain people. I mean, there's plenty of ways to very carefully caterer article. I'm imagining her showing up at the campus and being like, all right, I'm going to dig deep and find this now. And the first guy she talks to is like, yeah, we had a slave auction last week, just like, okay, this is going to be easier than I thought. Wow,

this is this is very simple. Thank you for doing my job for me. I guess I can go. And the allegations that she has of monetary exploitation in these articles have not been repeated since nineteen seventy two, so maybe it really is just kind of you know, this yawn trying to be like I don't want my mom's new boyfriend. Okay, okay, And as you said, it must be said. Victor never hid being a hustler. He was

proud of being a hustler. Ken Brown, who again was the president of the Institute in nineteen seventy one, said quote, it's a good scam. We call ourselves hustlers, and other people marks Victor hustles their asses and their souls. He takes their dough to feed himself, but he sees to it that they win. To we only hustle people for their own benefit. I know if they put the hard earned money into the Institute, they'll win by committing that much.

It's up to them whether or not they feel victimized. So that exactly that is where I have the problem, because I'm like, I could totally see someone being like, this is a this is a this is a hustle, but it's going to turn out so much better for you. I'm picturing a mom being like, eat your vegetables, like bacon, bacon, chocolate, but it's a broccoliever. I'm like, so, there are definitely hustles that people do that are better for you in

the long run. Right, But then that little quote about it's up to you whether or not you feel victimized is that thing of like, oh, you're really responsible for all your feelings and emotions, and so if you feel bad, that's on you. That's not anything I did. And that feels very much like stepping away from your own actions and consequences of your actions and kind of being like,

that's all your problem. And there's so many like cults and MLM's and all sorts of schemes and even some religions that are out there, and they're saying, well, but I've got hundreds of examples of people who really benefited from this, Therefore it's a good thing. And they don't mention the thousands of people who were done wrong by them, who lost all their money, who ended up in a worse situation than they started. They're like, well, that's their fault.

They didn't do it right. I mean, I went to like a like this modeling school when I was younger. I'll omit the name, but it was a big one and uh, and it was that. I mean they had they grabbed you at the mall and brought you to this seminar and they're like, you have what it takes. I'm they brought me into a private room with an agent and said, we saw five people today, but you're the one. If you come take our classes, we are

really going to get you somewhere. And you know, obviously they tell literally every person that, but you feel special. I got some bad advice from a teacher who used to work for them, Um, and I did it and I got there and I was like, there are people who paid their money to this organization and found success. I'm guessing like five, because the way they make all their money is by the many, many, many, many people who get in there and don't because they're not really

offering you that much. They're letting you pay them for you to do the work. So it's it just gives me those kinds of vibes where they're like, look at all these people that are perfectly happy in this place, and I'm all over speculation station right now because I never interviewed a single one of these people. There clearly are some people who loved in We're perfectly happy going

through this whole purple experience. Um, but you know, you gotta wonder when this guy says that it's like it's your fault if you didn't have a good time, right if you feel like I took your money, well, but you should feel like I took it for a good reason. I guess like, I don't know. I'm sorry. I guess you didn't want to be a slave like a normal Next time somebody knocks the window out of the car, I'll be like, well, travel hard not to feel victimized.

I guess like, I don't know. It's just very weird things. Okay, but you know we're talking about money here. But money wasn't the only problem going on, because, according to an article called University of Sex by K. L. Billen, Victor established a nonprofit that was called turn On to America in order to collect government and foundation funds for housing unplaceable foster children, paroles, and alcoholics. I mean that sounds like a good program. That's nice, you know, And they

had the space. I guess. Neighbors would complain though about drug use and trash. They said Hypodermic needles would often be thrown over their fences and the various allegations were brought up to in eight, Contra Costa County health officials reported a three year old girl developing gon a rhea at the Lafayette House and now no charges were ever brought to her parents, so we're not really sure exactly what came of all this. They did have to pay a fine, or they agreed to pay a fine, but yeah,

what happened? How did she get it? I that's that's sticky. Yes. That same year, the county Sheriff's office said they had evidence of sexual molestation of underage kids and illegal drug use, but for unknown reasons, the investigation was called off and no charges were ever brought. Now that's weird, right because was it called off because they really didn't have evidence and they were just like, look at these weirdos, you know?

Or was it called off for some like somebody paid somebody something, or somebody knew somebody somewhere called off because the guy at the head of this organization definitely had mafia ties and charged people three thousand dollars a year to go to his college and probably have a ship ton of money in a in the walls. Yeah, definitely

a lot of money. I mean, you know, there's no reason again speculation station he paid somebody off, but but there's no at all, any allegations that he paid anyone off. There's no evidence. No one ever said that, Like you're good at it, Like it's true that usually hear some whispers. So it's just so odd that they decided they were, like, we got evidence, but we're not doing anything about it. Like why not? I think you only hear whispers when it doesn't go well. I think the good payoffs you

never know anything about. Why would we and how could we know? I don't know if we don't creepy. Also, like, yeah, I feel a little uncomfortable with the sex commune saying let's take in a bunch of orphan kids. You know, it kind of sounds like they do nay, yeah, and they're very impressionable when they're younger. You know, maybe they if they really want to do good, they donate some funds to an existing organization that already has a reputation

of taking care of orphan kids. Don't start your own and you're at your sex house. That's weird. That's just common advice. I would say, if you ever have an idea like I should start a nonprofit for this reason. Go google it. There might already be an organization that exists for that exact purpose. And now you don't have to compete for funds. You can just help them with their mission or start a nonprofit, which, just from experience, I want to tell you you don't want to do

that now. In Night, the head of the More Department of Medical Science, Dr Mark Hirsch, had his license revoked because he had been prescribing excessive amounts of narcotics and mood altering drugs. Interestingly, that same year, Mark married Susie Vick's ex wife, Purple Susie. Purple Susie is interesting. Now. For their part, More University has filed multiple libel lawsuits against newspapers and Contra Costa County, although they rarely won.

So that's good because if they come after us, unfortunately they might lose. Hey, we put all this in specially so we're safe here. Um. So yeah, they're they're always ready to sue anybody who says anything crazy about them. Um, and I guess that people don't necessarily have the evidence they need to uphold it in court either, So it's like nobody really wins these lawsuits or you know, they just kind of fizzle out. I guess yeah, okay, dropped speaking,

it dropped. It's been a minute, so I think it's time for us to drop some commercials on you all. But stay tuned because we'll be right back right after this and welcome back to the show, everybody. So in the mid eighties, the US government really wanted to crack down on all the universities and colleges that had started around the nation that weren't really schools. They were just

kind of quote unquote diploma mills. Now, some of these schools, they were real brick and mortar places you could go and you could earned things about herbal medicine or hypnotism. But you know, they're kind of like out there topics and maybe the information isn't very verified or you know, it's a little bit like KG whether or not it's good. And some of these schools really only had a po box. You paid your money and they mailed you a diploma period.

You never opened a book or tended a class nothing. So in the government's view, this is unfair to the general public because of course, many of us are trying to pick doctors and nurses and so on, and we don't look at their school. We don't go and research what school they went to. You know, you just see a diploma and you're like great, good time. So now we can't trust any of the qualifications we're seeing. So they're like, we really got to crack down on these

fake schools. But at the time, they had no existing qualifications for a good college or real college, like, they had nothing for it, so they kind of had to make it up. They had to start creating those qualifications and more. Universe City was a big part of California figuring out what made a real school. So the evaluator showed up in and they did not like what they saw that more. Um, first of all, it was no

required reading whatsoever, no books anywhere. The only library there is one that is full of hundreds of videotapes of orgasm demonstration. Yeah there were no you just know those are vhs bad Lightingly well, they have a little they have a state of the art like television studio and this the center of attention is the gynecological table. So

that might actually be well, very well lit. I don't know, um, but like they're labeled like Vic's birthday and just yeah, no, nobody, it's just a very specialized library old sixty minutes episodes do not watch. There were also no financial records available. When they were like, hey, we want to see like you know, your income, revenue, profit loss, they're like, nope, we don't have none of that. There were no qualifications for the faculty except that they must be more alumni.

So the evaluators were like, okay, some of y'all are have your doctorate from more Can we see your thess? You know your dissertations? Like ticket, I thought we were back to the poop thing. Different school like that. That's a real science school. Um now. So they're like, you've got dissertations, surely can we see them? And they gave

him a box with eleven inside. Most of them were handwritten and unbound, and one evaluator is quoted in the University of Sex articles saying one woman wrote that Vic had kept a stimulation of a student going for seven hours and why couldn't her boyfriend do that? That was her thesis in this I will wonder what the hell's wrong with my boyfriend's dick. Also, I guess you needs to take another class, right, he could be doing me

like that again. I'm thinking of all the doctors and my family and the things they had to do to get their dessertation. Months they spent on writing. It was a lot more than like, well, what the hell's wrong with this guy? Well, in nine a guy named Alan Steele who was a hypnotherapist from Florida who treats sexual disorders. Which hang on a second, Alan Steele treating sexual disorders, that's like, go on, that's like Dr Too is your dentists,

or like Dr Stone works on your kidneys. Come on, that's what they call that determinative determinative Nominismah, it's like that the Harry Potter nominal determinism. That's what it is. Yeah, yeah, commanders there, I guess I work with animals exactly, specifically lizards. All right. So Alan Steele wrote a letter to the California Council for Private post Secondary Education about more University, who he and his wife had paid nearly fifty thousand

dollars for graduate courses. He wrote, quote, while I was living on campus, there was encouragement to use illegal drugs, including the availability to purchase illegal drugs. They also engage in prostitution, that is, sex for money, with quotas of conquests, which, if not met, results in threats of physical violence and exclusion. Yikes. More University responded by filing a hundred and twenty million dollar libel lawsuit against Alan Steele, who stood by his accusations.

One paper sent an undercover reporter to take some classes there, and they reported the teacher quote asking them to strip and you as mirrors to take a visual inventory of their bodies and homework. Questions asked whether they would have sex with men, little people, paraplegics, and animals. Why do you need to know that? That's? Why is that used?

Why is that useful? I will say, Alan Steel's prostitution claims seem to be verified by that slave auction, because even if they are fully fine with that and everything, that's still sex for money, isn't that. I don't know about these quotas that he's talking about, but there is there is that. Yeah, I mean, that's that's that tracks. I wonder how that hold up in court if you'd be like, well, they were paying me for me to

hang out with them all day. Yeah. The sex courts go pretty aggressively after sex workers, so possibly, I don't know, but More University maintained its accreditation and it's uneasy truce with the neighbors until the early nineteen nineties when they started using military surplus tense on their Lafayette camp is to house the homeless. All these quote unquote unattractive people,

which is pretty rude, made their neighbors furious. They had way more complaints, but more University said, according to the University of Sex article quote that it was a witch hunt caused by the long standing activism of Barnco and others on behalf of the homeless. More House attorney Richard Highland pointed out that Barunco was of black and Jewish heritage, and therefore the complaints were based in racism, which the article calls a PC trick, basically the nineties way of

saying the some woke bullshit. Yeah, well know, if his race really came into it, right, right, And it's not like a school that's got it's not like an institution like this that has a lot of problems can't also be trying to do good things for homelessness. It's true, you know, like maybe they were. I'm not going to sit here and say, you know, they put up tents on their property and said you may live here. Uh

that that was necessarily a bad thing. I just don't know if they went to those people in said and while you're here, you gotta come sixty nine us. Don't worry you want to you prefer to be a sex slave, you know. I don't know, again, making wild accusations here based on nothing but what they evidends we've been presented. But I'll say I don't pick up that you do any sex if you don't want to write. I don't

pick that up at all from their vibe. But it does get a little like, Okay, well, how impressionable are the people you're talking to you? How much are they willing to subsume their personalities? I mean, it's just like regular cult stuff is how much is your personality kind of taking over my brain right and making me make decisions that maybe I would not normally make right. I mean, it's that coercion. It's like I'm not having sex if I don't want to. But did I did I want to?

Or did did you make me think that I want to? I mean, I don't know, I don't know, but calling more university a diploma mill might not be very fair. Um, they did operate for about fifteen years, and they only ever gave out a total of nine D diplomas in its lifetime, So this wasn't like they were just throwing them out here and there. You really had to do the coursework whatever that meant. You had to go through all these different courses and you really had to like

do something. I suppose jimmy your way behind on your bathtub masturbation. I'm going to have to give you a D. I can tell you haven't been masturbating, and by D I mean dick. I couldn't find the exact date. But they lost their accreditation sometime in the nineties. Um, so they're no longer a university. They're not allowed to give out PhDs anymore. Nobin can be a doctor in in D a doctor in D. And now their website says quote,

we are an intentional community founded in night. Our intention is to maximize our potential, both as individuals and as a group, and to have life be as much fun as possible. We consider ourselves social researchers, and we study in the living laboratory of our lives and the lives of the students, what reliably works and what doesn't work for creating a happy life. We present the findings of our lifestyle experiments in the form of courses offered to

the public. And it's not all sex either, Like you know, they have the advanced and basic sensuality, but they also discuss how to live together harmoniously, whether or not you're having sex with each other. Um, And they laud their quote one no vote rule as basically kind of the cornerstone of their harmony in the house. So essentially what happens is if there's like an idea for the whole community to try, or like something for the house to do,

like probably this military surplus tant thing. They brought it to the community. They had a big meeting, you like, this is what I want to do. I want to house the homeless on the property. Every resident has one hard veto if anyone votes, know, if anyone uses their veto, the whole community backs off the idea. It's ever brought up again. Your veto is fine and good, and we

hear you, and no problem. But because everyone has the same veto power and everyone knows that everyone has the same power, it invites a lot more compromise and discussion, they say, and so they have had very few no votes ever cast In one one quote, it was only two in the entire lifetime of the of the Lafayette

Morehouse location. And this is a similar rule that they teach for polyamorous relationships or as they call it, getting strange ass Okay, but they're and that kind of reminded me of how we talked about jealousy, because they're kind of like, the goal is that we're all having fun, right The whole goal is that we're supposed to be having fun right now. If one person isn't having fun, none of us are having fun because our whole goal

is for everyone to have fun. So if you're not into it, all you have to do is say no, no problem. The issue is dropped. And that's why I kind of get the feeling that there's not a lot of coercion in the sex department, Like once you get as far as you're willing to go there, they seem to be pretty willing to be like, that's as far as they want to go. That's that's hopefully very true. I'll throw it because I'm I've been getting more and more cynical as as we've been going more into the story.

And I wonder, though I'm thinking about this, everyone gets one, you get one, Vito, And I also wonder if that's not a way to sort of curb dissent because you're like, well, anytime you want, you can use your veto and you're thinking, well, I only have one, so I don't like this thing, but I'm not gonna use my one viteo because what if later something comes up, like like, let's translate it

to the polyamory thing, just for a smaller example. Like let's say let's say you and I are like, well, we're gonna start being polyamorous, but we each get one veto to say if there's a partner here, we can say we don't like them. You know, I know you all are having fun, but I'm not kick them out. But somebody might come in who I'm like okay with but not really actually happy with. But I'm like, I don't want to use my one veto now because what

if the next person sucks worth? So I just kind of live in this sort of like sort of deal with it. Plays I don't know that is something I wanted some clarification on that I never found. Was you get one no vote like per meeting or is it

one in your life. That's what I wasn't entirely sure about. Yeah, I mean it sounds to me again I'm extrapolighting here, but it seems like if this is all about every you know, the whole town, and it's all about every you know, decision we make together, you'd think it'd just be one per person, because if everybody had one every meeting, you'd never get anything done. It's very true, So you're

probably right. It could go either way. I mean, it's it's just another thing that is either exploitable or utopia. I don't know. I think it's it's so individualistic, like it just depends like are you a strong minded person? Do you really know what you want? Can you be led? How much can you be led? I mean again, it's that coercion thing, like where do you know that you're into it? And where do you know you've been manipulated up?

Because at the end of the day, we're just you know, a bunch of walking tissues with a big slab of fat and electricity in our heads. That's hallucinating everything that we see, and we're trying to make like societal rules about things where we should be like, you know, eating figs off the tree, sleeping in a cave at nights, and you know we should be sleeping in the heat of the day. It's probably better, see right here, a dumb idea and then a slightly better idea. All right.

So Victor Barronco died in two thousand two, and since then Cindy Barronco has carried on his work as the leader of the Lafayette Morehouse Communes. Now their daughter together Sugar and Goes Baranco, such a hippie kid's name. She teaches several of these courses, including the Man Woman Conversation on Gender. That course used to be taught by Victor, where he would talk about the different languages people speak man.

You know, I'm speaking man ease and your speaking woman ease, which is all kinds of I don't we don't even need to get into I don't. I don't need to tell you how many problems there are with that. Of course, he said, one of these languages, and I'll let you guess which one is the voice of reason and logic, and the other is emotional. This is such a brand new thinking right. In his view, women were meant to direct the man and the man was meant to provide the power, which is, I will say, is not a

bad dynamic in a two person relationship. But to say that it's already established which gender does which now, it actually makes me think of my big fat Greek wedding where she's always she goes to her mom and she's like, Dad's always saying I'm the head of the family. I'm the head of the family, and her mom's like, sure, the man's the head of the family, but the woman is and neck and she can turn the head any way she wants. That's it's like a similar vibe to me.

Still very gendered expectations and pressures. Yeah, and all of this is extremely gendered and very heteronormative. I would say, I I don't see anything about gay relationships in there or anything like that. I'm sure they have them, because they did talk a little bit about Susie maybe being a like a stimulator and show like maybe perhaps being someone who who did the stimulation of a woman who

was demonstrating the three hours or whatever. Um. I did not find that in enough places to feel that it was verified, So I don't know. And I know there's some threesomes there and stuff, but there's just not a lot of like these are two men who are very happy here. These are two women here, you know, like non binary dad even there exactly. So I'm like, man, I don't know exactly how they feel about the gender

conversation these days. Yeah, because going back to this class, Victor is quoted as saying, it's like at the woman is the steerer and the man's the motor. And once you can relax men and settle down into slavery in the motor room, what a gas. They take care of you, sexually, feed you and clothe you. They take care of all your creature comforts, and all you gotta do is shovel cold. And then he sums it all up saying, quote, if you flash that you're a man, just look and see

what you're doing. And that's what a man should be doing, and the same for a woman. You don't have to do nothing. Just be old you, and that's steering, and he'll be old him, and that's the motor. And the more you be you, the more he'll be him. So this is sometimes when I'm trying to transcribe these quotes. I was like, they're definitely on drugs, right, because like sometimes he just goes off on like a whole other thing and like, wait, you're a minute ago you talking

about Cindy, and now you're always here talking on something else. Well, and there's something there's some disconnect there between men are like this and women are like that, and that's how the function of the relationship is. But whatever you're doing is what you should be doing. You could just be you and that's the thing you should be doing. I'm like, I I'm like half on board with you, but half not. Yeah, you know, it's just that sort of style of speak

where it's sort of left open to manipulation. Like there's almost a way that it's like, yeah, if I word it like this, I can kind of make it mean that you should sixty nine me later or that you should make me cookies later, like either one. I can make it work or whatever. I will say that I

do like that. He says, if you flash that you're a man, because that's kind of like and and Sugar in the video about the gender Conversation on their website, she says, if you're a person who identifies as a man. So I'm like, maybe they do, or like, if you're trans man, then your man's fine with us. We don't care, you know, I just I just don't know because they don't have a lot of conversation that. Okay, So are

they a cult? That's the big question, right Well, we are going to take a quick commercial break and then come back and try to answer that for you. We'll have a definitive answer three minutes right back. Welcome back to the show, And we are trying to figure out

if Lafayette More House is a cult. Let's let's let's answer it once and for all, because most of their libel suits arose from newspapers calling them a sex cult, and they feel like they are not a cult, and in many ways they kind of aren't, because you know, in a regular cult, it's this one dominant leader, every charismatic, everybody is obsessed that they kind of got that going um. But you're usually encouraged to cut off all your family

and friends. You're supposed to either leave behind all your physical possessions or bring them and all your money to and give them to the cult um. And then of course you can't leave the grounds for any reason. The whole point of the cult is that you now live in this little bubble and you never leave. But at Lafayette More House you can leave whenever you want. Many people work outside of the house, a lot of people live off campus. They don't live in the house. Um.

They have families outside of the house and everything. So there's nother that cut off kind of from your whole family and friends thing. But of course there's some definitely questionable culti type things about them that we've already kind of talked about. Those allegations, for one, are a little bit creepy. What's going on with the kids, I don't know,

you know, stuff like that. Um. But also some of the way they talk about how it works for these evaluates, these newbies is a little bit hazy and culti in. Sergeant Bill co Ken Brown is quoted as saying, when people move in as a value, it's we push them, treat them like victims. Say, you're working in the kitchen heart all day, doing your best, and you get to the point where you don't think you can do anymore. That's when we tell them to drive to San Jose to get us a taco and To top it off,

we don't give them money for gas. We prove to people that they can do more than they thought they could, so they can feel like heroes. Is that what they feel like or do they feel like they have to right? And I don't know how far away Stan Jose is from Lafayette, but probably a far it's a drive, I can tell you that to drive now. Victor also taught

similar lessons using a hamburger as an analogy. Alright, so his his analogy is if your wife worked really hard to make you a hamburger and it has everything on it but the ketchup you asked for, and there's no ketchup in the house, and all the stores are closed. Quote, if you eat that hamburger, you lose. You'll spend the rest of your life eating garbage. You've got to demand catch up on that hamburger, or you're cheating yourself and her too. Anytime. I'm willing to have us lose, because

if you're inadequacy or mine, we both lose. I have so many problems with this. I do too. Right away. There's no ketchup in the house, and there's stores are all closed. So are you just not going to eat is not not more of a loss? What what do you mean? I don't know it has I'll talk about two sides of it. On one side that I I'll say what I like. I like this idea that there's something you want you shouldn't necessarily settle for less. Right, Sure, it seems like there's no way to get it, but

maybe there is. Have you really exhausted all your options? You know, maybe there's some other way to make this happen. And I I'm initially really turned off by this idea of like, and she loses to like. If I don't get what I want, then it's then you're also losing out.

But if I'm out and like you asked me to bring you a hamburger and a milkshake, and I forget the milkshake and you and I get home, you know, even if you're just like totally cool with it, which you would be, I would never send you out back out for a milkshake. Right, Um, I I still feel bad. I still feel like I didn't do what I wanted to do, which was to get you what you wanted.

So I do kind of lose in that scenario. Right, You feel like you failed right away, right, so I can lose I can pull out a good version of this, But it also reeks to me of sort of like this like beta conversation, Like if you settle for less than what you demand, then you're losing out. Then you're not You're going to eat ship your whole life because you didn't get catch up on this burger. And I'm like, life is full of compromise, and that's how you get ahead.

You know, if you sit there and don't eat because you didn't get gotta jump on burger, not only are you a toddler throwing fit, but also now you're hungry. How well are you functioning at this point? That feels like more of a loss than me that you didn't eat the food at all, even though everything you wanted but the one thing. And then now you think too, Oh later, I'll buy the ketchup or whatever so that I'll have what I want, and then I'll have what

I want in the future. What a lesson I've learned, Right, You got to learn from mistakes they happen. Well, except no mistakes, everything exactly perfect. That's what I'm challenging is this idea that there are there are definitely mistakes. There have been mistakes all through the evolution of us as a species. When somebody when one guy in a camp was like, oh, let me eat these berries and then died. O, the guy next him was like, I'm not gonna eat

those berries. That's for sure that mistake. You know. The dead guy isn't like no mistakes, alright, yeah, no, no regrets, regrets. Um. They also at Morehouse have a philosophy that all words are good, or that if you use a word, it loses its power. So in the nineteen seventy one article they use some racial slurs that I will not repeat um, specifically about black people. You can guess what they are, I'm sure, but don't say im. And they also call there's like a story about a guy who comes in

and he's missing too. He had two fingers amputated, and he felt real uncomfortable, so he had his fist curled up like he was hiding his hands away, and VIC was like, hey, stubs. You know it made everyone real uncomfortable because he was like, had said the unstayable, but because he said it, the word was robbed of its power, and the guy was able to uncurl his fist and he was able to just be himself. But I'm like, he's in his room later that night. I don't know.

I know some people who do feel that way about words, and we talk a lot about reclaiming words all the time, so there's something to that. But again, it as as it's a majority white people talking, it feels very weird for them to be using racial slurs and again a majority able bodied people as well, saying crazy shit. I'm like, well, then, what did Stubbs get to say to you, Vick? Did he call you names? Like? Did he get to give it back? I don't know. It doesn't tell you, but anyway,

I don't love that it feels abusive. And then be like, oh, well, you're the one giving the word power. Um, so you're the one abusing yourself. I'm not abusing you. You're abusing you. And if you feel victimized, that's on here. Yeah, you know, and that they may have even convinced themselves of this, But at the end of the day, it's I have found a way to believe that I can do whatever I want, right, you know, I've I've I've I've written logic, which is very easy to write, logic. You could write

logic about all kinds of things. You can explain away everything in a very meaningful sounding way. Um, but it's still using logic to allow yourself to have no consequences for your actions and to be able to do whatever you feel like doing, which they've literally said as their philosophy. So yeah, can you use your hard no on that? Can you be like, hey, my veto is you can't call me the N word? How about that? But there

you go? Would you use it for that? Or would you be like, oh God, if they're doing this, they're gonna do something worse later, So I better let this slide and can and hold onto my no. That's the kind of thing where I'm like, I don't know about this one no veto power. That feels like another system of control to me. Sure I gotta stay my one no for that slave auction they're going to try to, right,

I don't know, Well, I don't know. So Marco Bennetto thinks that while a lot of Victor's behavior at the time wouldn't fly today, it still doesn't count as a cult. He writes, quote, they were hedonists, and they sought mostly to have a good time in their little world. Their principal interest wasn't having better sex. They didn't even care

much for making money. They only taught and recruited to the extent to fund the party, which they hoped they could return to as soon as possible, And indeed, all their courses are designed to be some kind of party. Vic's most famous saying is enlightenment is when you realize that what was planned was a party. I mean, sure, sure, yeah.

I pushed back a little on the idea that they did not care about money, because they literally, like according to tax records, had millions and millions of dollars at least at one point. I don't know what they're like today, but with all the property they had, all the all the rental fees to live there, all the course fees, they had quite a lot of money. And I don't think they did not care about that money. It's so split.

This is one of those like the first half of this episode, I was like, cool, these guys sound great, and then you get more into it, and again, maybe it's the hit piece, maybe it's maybe it's you know, journalists, journalists actively going out to make this place sound as

crazy as they can and works. That's very good. I might be having my opinions manipulated right now, but um, the history of any other times something like this comes up and turns out to be a little shady, even Oneida, which sounded great, but then there is like a lot of really uncomfortable um eugenics going on and telling you who you can and can't have sex with and stuff like that. Like you know, it feels very hard to trust,

I think, is where I'm coming from here. And while I really do think that there's some decent foundations for some philosophies and and ways to live your life in some of the stuff Victor was saying, Um, I am concerned about maybe how those philosophies were used to you just manipulate people in some way. And like it must be said again that no one has come out in the many years since that article came out, or or Alan Steel's ninety for whatever letter that he sent, nothing nothing,

So maybe most people are very happy there. Maybe it's just fine, maybe they totally get it in which maybe the LSD really I don't know, but like and I don't even know if that's involved anymore. Do LSD like the But I mean If that's the case, then sent me a pamphlet. You know, I would love to hear from someone who's been who was involved in like kind of a grade. Oh my god. If you are a purple person and don't like us calling you that, please write to us. Let us know, because I would bring

you on the show. You know, let's talk. I did find the Atlanta location. Maybe that when I go knock on the door. Maybe I don't know, um, but yeah, it's very interesting. I've been, like I said, I've been very cynical in this episode and said some accusatory things, some of which I stand by. Um, but I'm also very just like how a lot of it is just can you know, how can you know? You know, I'm

very uncomfortable, very individual life stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, And you know, some of the allegations we talked about no follow up, no arrests, no nothing, so who knows if they were real. And it's true that, you know, alternative lifestyles do welcome a lot of hatred without any reason. You know, they're just like I see people free and happy, live in their lives, having a great time over there in that purple house, and I'm really miserable at my

stupid job, and you shouldn't be happy. I'm gonna say that you didn't fucked up ships so that people are mad at you too, and now they all hate you. I think that does happen with no grounds whatsoever. Definitely, But you know, it is weird when there's all these little whispers, you know. And I will say too that after Vic died, I feel like no has been zero controversy since the two thousand's when he died in two

thousand two. So I'm like it could be that his personality was just a little too much um or he was just so libelous that he was like always starting starn a lawsuit over some ship and Cindy's like, I'll let it slide, and so they're just not in the headlines or something. But there hasn't been much since he passed that that seems to like nothing seems to be

going on these days. I mean, going back to some of the stuff we talked about earlier about like you know, did they pay off authorities and mafia and stuff like that, like that that does take a lot to be able to cover up of that scale is something I think we often fall into this belief that like it's so easy to have a conspiracy and a big cover up and all this stuff, but it's it's hard to do.

And and I don't think that this group is like as big as Scientology or something like that, which which you know, which they might have the more of the resources. Uh if if something like that, we're going on to cover it up, or any or the Catholics or any any sort of big, huge organization that with a lot of money, you know, these guys seem a bit more what mom and pop. I don't know, but big I think I saw somewhere it was like between sixty fifty

members at any time. It's, yeah, it's not huge. And then when they were a university, it was like thousands of people had come and taken a course or two, you know, so not not Scientology. Definitely not so hard to say that they would be covering up things that

are still going on there. And I was going to say it was the kind of thing that I feel like in a more modern world, if they were continuing this decades and decades later, I would imagine that leadership eventually became people who were truly devoted to these this better way of life that they really believed in, or they were truly devoted into making the money off of it and kind of turning in into a a profit scam.

It could go either way. My other question was, is it gendered in a way where a man's in charge so people are very like, oh, he's probably getting laid raw long, and he's using people, he's manipulating people. And then once a woman was in charge, it was like,

I'm sure it's fine, which is not necessarily true. I'm just saying it's like their man woman gender of course, is all about how society gives you an idea of what a man and a woman is supposed to be, and then you lock that in and it changes everything and you you should be able to funk with that or use it to your advantage. Is kind of their idea.

So anyway, I just wondered, I was like, once it was a woman in charge, I wonder if people just stopped looking, if there might still be stuff there, but they're just not looking because they're like, women don't do that, even though women do. I don't know. Again, speculations now they might have inspired a cult because there was a group called One Taste that focused on meditative orgasms for women. It was very much about women figuring out how to

make their orgasms more intense. And the woman who ran that did use a lot of victors techniques and teachings and stuff like that, and her she took all the courses and then used it and her one taste thing. But they were way more monetarily exploitative, incredibly coercive. They were actually subject of an FBI investigation. They were subsequently shut down, even though there's still some centers that sort of independently operate. Um, so they might have inspired a cults.

And I guess that sort of takes away my gender thing because she was in charge of that, and they definitely got looked at. So there you go. Women can be cult leaders too. Yeah, ladies, we can do it too. And I will say too in case you're wondering, Um, you know, not everybody at more Houses polyamorous. They don't all just be piled up on each other. Uh. There are definitely many orgies at more Houses. Apparently they really know how to party. It's how one guy put it.

Just waiting for the pamphlet right any day now. But some, uh, some are polyamorous. Many are monogamous and some are actually celibate, So you know there's a there's a variety of sexual experience happening at your house. Interesting, What a subject, What a bizarre thing to look into. I still don't know how to feel, To be perfectly frank with you, I think there's a lot of things in it that I'm like totally, I agree, I agree, I don't like that,

I love that, I don't like that like. I think that we will probably have an easier time forming our opinion when the libel lawsuit shows up in the then we'll be real quick. We'll have a whole second, very brief episode. We're actually they're great. Turns out they're awesome. Nothing wrong, Sorry about everything we said, not taking the episode down, but will add just downloads, tell your friends sunk. Actually it sounds like great publicity for us. True, Actually

go ahead and file libels not so fast. Well, thank you to Sean again for this suggestion, because it is a very interesting one to look into. For shure, this is what this show is all about. And I'm dying to hear what y'all think. I mean? Is this a cult to you? Do you feel like it's sucked? Up,

is it cool? How have you done it? I mean, especially if you know anyone or I've been there or anything and you have some on the ground, hands on experience, Please tell us what you're felt like it was about, or anything we missed or fucked up about this or misrepresented. I want to know. My dream is that a Purple People leader shows up at the house tomorrow and grants me a rock and roll wish. Cool, a rock and roll wish that They're like, we don't do that. You're

supposed to want things that you already have. I'm back in the eighties movie guys. Sorry, I lost interest in the sex cult the first time you ever said that in your lifetime. No, So reach out with your impressions about the Purple People and the Purple Palace or the Fuck University or whatever you wanna call it. We are Ridic Romance at gmail dot com, that's right, or you

can find us on Twitter and Instagram. I'm at Oh great, it's Eli, and I'm Diana Mite Boom and the show is at ridic Romance and we can't wait to hear from you. As always. Thanks again to Sean, and thank you for being here and spending your time with us. We will see you next time. So long friends, it is time to go. Thanks so listening to our show. Tell your friends name's uncles in dance To listen to our show Ridiculous Roll Dance