"MY INVOLVEMENT WITH THE MOVEMENT - A FIRST HAND REPORT" By Bob von Holdt San Francisco, California I spent

3 1/2 years, from August 1982 until January of 1986 studying 'The Moveme nt'. I attended meetings, both public and internal, while collecting the materia ls cited in this report. I first encountered 'The Movement', then still known as the Community, at the 1982 San Francisco Fair. I had a strong curiosity about t he psychology of sects, cults and mass movements. How did they hold sway over th eir followers? What was the mechanism that turned the curious into True Believer s? Living near San Francisco, I had naturally followed the gristly tale of Jim J ones and Jonestown. I had also read a lot about the Rev. Moon and his 'Moonies' and was familiar with the Hare Krishna sect. But I had never been in close proxi mity to any of these groups and what knowledge I had was second hand. When I first encountered The Community I found a group of very dedicated, sincer e people who fervently believed in their mission to 'Humanize the Earth' and who spoke of embracing a dignified cause'. They also spoke of themselves as 'launch ing a Unstoppable Force' and as having found the one true solution to solving th e world's problems. (Over the next 3 1/2 years I would discover and observe just how totally consumed these individuals were by their all-consuming obsession wi th their cause, to the point where they were in many ways one-dimensional carica tures of normal, healthy members of society. I observed first hand the very subt le methods the Movement uses to make its followers psychologically dependent obe diently and mindlessly following its dictates and serving as self-replicating re cruiting machines programmed to carry out Silo's master plan.) Fascinated, I decided to learn more and started attending local meetings and eve nts to see what I could learn. This was the beginning of my adventure into the r ealm of 'internal work' - relaxation exercises, guided experiences, configuring an internal guide, working with 'the Force'. The more I learned the more curious I became (Like Alice when she disappeared down the rabbit hole) and the greater grew my appetite to learn still more. Like a viewer at a good horror film I was held by a mixture of fascination and dread. During the entire period that I was involved a little voice in the back of my mind kept telling me to flee, but a m orbid fascination kept me from responding. There were a number of times that I w as ready to walk away when some new internal document or some new development wo uld rekindle my curiosity and I would tell myself, "just a little longer, just a little longer..." And so what was originally intended to be a brief encounter l asting no more than a couple of meetings turned into a prolonged investigation d uring which time I "went along for the ride" and posed as a true believer and ga ve the appearance of accepting their "reality." I was told what a wonderful person Silo is. I heard how Silo, a truly original a nd new thinker, had discovered and announced the real, true solution for ending the suffering of humanity, how his followers were going to transform the individ ual and society and create a new world. I saw how some of his followers revered this man so much that they kept "shrines" to him in their homes, special photos of themselves with Silo on a trip they had taken to a conference. I heard the hu shed, reverential tones with which they spoke of him. I learned how truly dedica ted most of his followers were. I learned how many of them had left their jobs, friends and in some cases even their country to come to San Francisco and establ ish their movement here. Go, said their superiors, sending them on this mission, and unquestioningly and obediently, they came. I saw that they had in fact dedi cated their lives, every fiber of their being and their every waking breath to t he goal of building the movement.

At large meetings I saw how new people, recruited off the streets were surrounde d by warm, friendly people, made to feel welcome, told how important and valuabl e as human beings they were and told how they too could play a vital role in the great cause, be a part of this unstoppable moral force and march arm and arm in solidarity with their comrades into the brave new siloist world. At smaller weekly meetings I saw how the internal work, the guided experiences, made people feel better as well as vunerable to suggestion and more susceptable to being programed with the siloist world view and beginning the process of brea king down and reshaping the personality, eventually surrendering one's free will to the collective will of the group. If all goes well and the techniques are ef fective a new obedient true believer will be born. I had people constantly exhorting me to share the benefits I was deriving from t hese wonderous experiences with others. I was told I should bring friends, relat ives, co-workers, strangers I encountered on the street, anyone and everyone tha t I could so that they too could share in the wonderous benefits of participatin g in these experiences and also be given an opportunity to join in the great cau se. I was told how I could rise rapidly within the internal structure, that if I was very clear about my task and didn't allow any resistances to interfer, and kept bringing in new people to be "integrated and clarified" I would quickly bui ld my own structure. The more my structure grew, the higher the level I could at tain. If I was having difficulty attracting people, I must have internal resistances p reventing me from working effectively and I must work with dillegence to 'overco me these resistances' and let nothing prevent me totally dedicating myself to th e 'Work.' I also saw however, how competition was encouraged - who will be the f irst school member to reach the order level? This competition was part of the co nstant pressure that one felt to go out and recruit. We were often told stories about how Movement members somewhere in South America or Europe were working in the streets 12 hours a day to build the movement and what is wrong with us that we can only spare a lousy few hours a week? Competition was also fostered between the 'lines' or major councils. The council with the greatest membership held more control over regional decisions. I remem ber one internal 'election' within the Humanist Party' where each council had a slate of candidates for the Humanist Party party offices and each of the two lin es involved was trying to mobilize as many people as possible to vote for their slate. This contest for the party offices (which council or line would control t he party offices) was used as a major incentive for people to redouble their rec ruiting efforts during a two month period prior to the 'election.' I came to the conclusion that competition is used by The Movement as in important tool in its arsenal for motivating people to do its bidding and to draw them deeper into it s web of dependency. (To the great frustration of those 'orienting' me I never d id manage to overcome my resistances - in fact I never brought in any new recruu its and never built a structure - my internal defenses (resistances) were just t oo strong and I just could not in good conscience see my way to subjecting anyon e else to what I was experiencing and which aroused instinctive suspicions and a feeling of dread within me. I saw that Silo was considered practically infallible (though never described in those terms) and that his words were treated as pearls of wisdom to be savored by the true believers. I saw how local minor activities were planned locally but that major strategies always came down internally from above, either from the P rime Magister or from Silo himself (it was never made clear if Silo was the Prim e Magister but no one else was ever identified as holding this role and it seems logical that Silo is the P.M.). I learned that as one attained a higher level o ne became privy to information not available to those in the lower levels. While I was a member at the School Level I receive a number of internal documents (in

cluded in the collection on these disks) that I was told were for internal use o nly and shouldn't be shared with the lower level members, that they did not know enough yet to understand them and it would take to long to explain. I was also led to believe that there were directives and information available at the highe r levels (Order, etc.) that I were not accessible to me. I noticed how 'Tito' (E rnesto De Casas), then an Accepted Member and the orientor of Council 'G' and mo st of the other true believers who held rank in the structure would frequently c onsult with Silo by phone to make sure they were proceeding correctly. I saw over time a change in emphasis from internal work to external work - to go ing out into the streets and working hard to bring in new prospects to meetings. The Movement's leadership was gearing up for a shift from the 'stage of cadres' to 'the stage of masses.' I was encouraged to abandon friendships with people w ho weren't attracted to the movement. I was encouraged to find a girlfriend but to look within the Movement, that it would be too difficult, too distracting to have have such a relationship with someone outside the Movement, someone who did n't understand. In 1984 the movement began launching the Humanist Party in various countries aro und the world. We were told that Silo had however decided the time was not yet r ight to do so in the U.S. (When I asked my orientor how Silo could so well judge conditions here even though he lives in Argentina I was told that Silo has many contacts and friends here both inside and outside the Movement who keep him inf ormed). Sometime later, in early July, I attended a 'School' meeting (the level of school was the highest level I reached within the internal structure - at tha t time it was possible to reach that level without having the requisite 10 Activ e Members below oneself in one's structure, if one participated in certain retre ats ). I was greeted by several very excited long term members who told me that we were now launching the Humanist Party in the U.S. As there had been no mentio n of this at another meeting I had attended only two days earlier I asked who ha d made the decision. I was told that Silo had decided that the time was now righ t for us to do so and that he had made the decision. There had been no local dis cussion, debate or decision involved that I saw or heard of - just immediate tot al acceptance of Silo's decision. I was also told at the same meeting that Tito, our orientor for Council 'G' would have to take a behind the scenes role becaus e, being a foreign national (Argentina), he could not be directly involved in U. S. politics. I was also told it would be very important to downplay the South Am erican (Argentinian) connection and to do as much as possible to give an America n flavor to the Party. At subsequent meetings we received a draft outline of the Humanist Party Platfor m which had been sent in Spanish from Argentina and then translated into English and given to us to use as a guide for formulating our own platform. During this entire period I observed that a great deal of telephone consultations between S an Francisco and Argentina, specifically with Silo, occured. Many internal meeti ngs would begin with "I talked to Silo last night and he says . . . " I also obs erved that there seemed to be a great deal of coordination between developments here and elsewhere in the Movement. Finally, due to a great deal of stress from constantly being pressured to recrui t, and other factors my dread out weighed my curiosity and I walked away from th e Movement at the end of 1985. At that time I didn't feel any real need to repor t on my experiences to anyone because the HP has been very ineffective here as a recruitment tool of the Movement. In the spring of 1986 I began seeing members of the Movememt manning tables at local events and rallies as Green Future. Stop ping at one of their tables, I was told that the Movement was launching an excit ing new project to be more effective at building the Movement. I still was not v ery alarmed. My concern rapidly mounted when I read an item in the Sept. 30th, 1987 San Franc

isco Bay Guardian detailing Green Future's attempt to insinuate itself into the Northern California Greens, an affiliate of the Green Committees of Corresponden ce. As it says in a document entitled, "Brief Information About The Movement": " The Movement may also be able to guide and transform existing organizations that have demonstrated the ability to contribute to general human development." Since that time I have been exchanging information about the Siloists and the Mo vement with legitimate Green and secular humanist researchers and activists arou nd the planet in an effort to stave off further opportunistic incursions by memb ers of The Movement into legitimate organizations and movements.