1e39 Article 56542 of rec.music.gdead: Path: wam.umd.edu!haven.umd.edu!darwin.sura.net!wupost!uwm.edu!ogicse!clark!pro-odyssey.cts.com!merc From: merc@pro-odyssey.cts.com (Mercury Lee) Newsgroups: rec.music.gdead Subject: Spinners Article Message-ID: <1992Jan29.231107.2760@pro-odyssey.cts.com> Date: 30 Jan 92 07:11:07 GMT Article-I.D.: pro-odys.1992Jan29.231107.2760 Sender: usenet@clark.edu Organization: ProLine [pro-odyssey] Fairfield Ca. 707/437-4734 Lines: 201 Ok, Here is the spinner article. I have had it typed, but I havn't been able to get the bbs to accept my uploads..... Merc! SPINNERS' OR SINNERS? (From Worchester Telegram + Gazette Newspaper Dec. 9, 1991) The Church of Unlimited Devotion is nothing if not eclectic. From Catholicism it takes Holy Communion and the Rosary. From Hinduism it takes the repetitious chanting of the name of Krishna. And from Sufism comes the whirling dance of the dervish. The church's name can be found in a song by the Grateful Dead - "The Golden Road (to Unlimited Devotion)." Members of the church, which is based in Philo, Calif., follow this rock band on most of its tours. Because of the spinning dance they perform both at concerts and as part of their religious devotions, they are know as "the Spinners." They are vegetarian, and take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Of the 40 people living in Philo, 20 have taken vows. Their day is filled with ceremonies taken from various religions. They study the Bible, the lives of saints, the Bhagavad- Gita and other sacred works. They renounce possessions, and celibacy is required of unmarried members. Viktoria Ruchkan, 19, daughter of Boris Ruchkan of Milwaukee, dropped out of college to join the church. She first came in contact with Unlimited Devotion the way most new members do - at a Grateful Dead concert. Since then Ruchkan has been trying to persuade his daughter to leave. She refuses. While some parents of church members support their children's involvement in Unlimited Devotion, others say that the church is not simply a religion, but a cult. "I have no doubt my daughter is brainwashed," Ruchkan said. "One of the group's teachings is to substitute the real family with the cult family, and this they have done." Viktoria denies this, and says her difficulties with her father go back before she joined the church. SON OF JUDGE One of the founders of the church is Joseph Lian III. 31, a native of Worcester. Lian believes Ruchkan is persecuting the church. Ruchkan placed an ad in the Telegram & Gazette last month asking for information about Lian and the church. That was done, Lian feels, to embarrass his father, Judge Joseph Lian Jr., who sits in the probate court. The younger Lian last lived in Massachusetts from 1985 to 1987, when he ran the Back to Basics health-food store in Shrewsbury. He was then on probation after being found guilty of trying to carry 22 pounds of marijuana through a border patrol checkpoint at the Texas-Mexico border. Church secretary Anne Laughlin and member Timothy Mack were also found guilty. The original of possession with intent to distribute was reduced to simple possession. The three were given one-year suspended sentences, five years' probation and $1,000 fines. "That was a mistake I made seven years ago," Lian said. "I learned my lesson, and I haven't been involved in anything like that since." Unlimited Devotion was incorporated as a church in California in January, but has been growing for about eight years, Lian said. The members lived a largely nomadic existence until a year ago, when Luther Dulaney of San Francisco loaned the group $108,000 to help buy the Mendocino farm, which members call simply "The Land." PREGNANCY Dulaney regrets making the loan. "They talk about poverty," he said, "but these guys are on a $300,000 piece of land, so the poverty thing sort of flies out the window. Nobody was supposed to have any association with the opposite sex, and the next thing one of the leaders gets someone pregnant. But when ordinary members started getting close to each other, we'd get a verbal lashing from Joseph. "I'm not up on recognizing mind control techniques, but I know there was tremendous peer pressure there, and it was initiated by Joseph." Lian said Dulaney was disgruntled since having a crush on a church member that was not reciprocated. Dulaney also said the male members of the church used marijuana sacramentally, offering it to Krishna before smoking it. Lian denies this, and two parents who visited the church in October said they saw no such ceremony. Some parents don't mind their children's involvement. "Our observation was that the young people are there because they want to be," said William Mack of Guilford, Conn. "If they're just living their own lives and not messing up other people, that's what I judge by." What Mack can't fathom is the group's passion for the Grateful Dead. "I went to one concert, and there was a huge crowd seemingly transported to another world," he said, "but all I heard was a lot of indecipherable noise. I grew up on Dizzy Gillespie." But at least two other parents - the father of a present member and the mother of one who was deprogrammed after leaving the church - share Ruchkan's concerns. Both requested anonymity. "They told him he would have to disown his physical family," a mother said. The other parent said his daughter won't speak to him any more. "They punish the parents by stopping the members from talking with you," he said. "Joseph Lian has created a cloistered atmosphere where he has control over everything - funds, food, everything. It's a cult." 'NOT A CULT' "It's a mystery to us why a few of these parents hold such a strong grudge," Lian said. "The church is not a cult. What we're doing isn't new. We see the unity of all bona fide world faiths." Lian emphasized that the Grateful Dead's music was not a principle part of religion. "Their music provides an aspect of meditation that helped the group come to a basic understanding of religious principles," he said. "It can be any music" When Viktoria was last at her parent's home, Ruchkan had her examined by Carol Giambalvo, a board member of the Cult Awareness Network. Giambalvo concluded that Viktoria exhibited "dissociative states, a dual personality, and an inability to deal with reality," She said repetitious praying, chanting and dancing leave people in highly suggestible states. Viktoria disagrees. She says that "spinning" to the Grateful Dead or any other kind of music is not a "trancelike" experience. "It's clear meditation," she said. "It's like a prayer." "My father's hatred of Joseph is not a sudden thing," she said "He has always had something against my beliefs and lifestyle." Ruchkan attends concerts in his area whenever the Grateful Dead are playing so he may see his daughter. The last one was in Milwaukee a week ago. "I say my daughter, but when she talked to me, it was like the group talking, not her," he said. "I did not feel I was looking at my daughter." This article reproduced without permission. Another Merc! production. Internet: merc@pro-odyssey.cts.com I've been where the water tastes like wine, and those chilly winds didn't blow either....... . 0