Wine, Food, and Cults

 The Wine Lady was in a cult. I went to wine store on my block to get some spirits for a holiday celebration tomorrow. The owner is a nice hippie woman who always has interesting Dionysian things to say. Anyway she was telling me that she was in a cult growing up. I asked her what cult? She shrugged it off like it was no big deal...Love Family Cult. 'Ok, you have to tell me everything about this cult now."

Love Family or the Church of Jesus Christ at Armageddon was in Washington state. Paul Erdman was a stock broker who had an epiphany and changed his name to Love Israel in the 1960s. He recruited from the hippie community in Seattle and his following grew into the hundreds, ppl donated property, handed over their inheritance b/c Love Israel wanted to spread communal living and love. The Love family members farmed and opened restaurants and they had a lot of customers b/c they were very good at food and wine (aka Dionysus). In fact a lot of cults in the 1960s and 70s on the west coast were known for good food, wine, sex. And they would set up festivals that would attract outsiders. Love Family was the same. Love Israel sent his followers down to LA to study with another cult simply called 'The Source Family" that rode around in white volkswagon and had a very popular health food restaurant on the strip. Source Family also fanned out from having a new-agey restaurant that appealed to a certain affluent and easily influenced crowd. 

They grew in size until the 1980s. Around that time, Wine Lady said Love Israel started free basing coke and then had it in his mind that he should be the first to have sex with all the young girls growing up in the commune. Welp, that didn't sit to well with parents. So the Love Family's size dwindled to a few dozen ppl. But they didn't fade away immediately. They still had an amazing fresh food and festival so they continued on for another 20 yrs. 

So this stock broker changes his name to Love and then for the next 40 yrs lives like a mini-king in rural Washington. Wine Lady said her mom got her out of the cult and sent her to public school. She said everyone else in her age range who left the group and tried to reintegrate into society committed suicide. She's one of the last survivors. I asked her what happened to Love Israel? Apparently he went on to take on numerous jobs as a restauranteur and used car salesman. 

And what does a child raised in a cult grow up to do? Open up a wine store and hang out with foodies in Brooklyn. Wine Lady has led a life! 

I left the store thinking 'man, I gotta learn how to cook.'