I found Australian cult The Family’s left-behind library. Here’s what their books reveal
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For more than five decades, Australian cult The Family has sparked both fascination and controversy. Founded in the early 1960s by yoga instructor turned spiritual guru Anne Hamilton-Byrne, this New Age group – predominately based in and around Melbourne’s Dandenong Ranges – was estimated to have numbered about 200 people at its peak. Many were from educated middle-class and professional backgrounds.
Hamilton-Byrne illegally adopted 14 children, who were raised, along with roughly 14 others, by women called “aunties” at a secluded property in Victoria’s alpine region of Lake Eildon. It was raided by police in 1987. Former child members recall strict schedules marked by spiritual exercises, minimal meals, and harsh discipline.
The Family’s leader claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. She taught an eclectic blend of Christianity, Eastern philosophy and mysticism. LSD use was central, used as a pathway to spiritual enlightenment. When she died in 2019, aged 98, she left behind no formal written doctrine outlining The Family’s alternative beliefs – only a handful of (privately circulated) cassette recordings.
Determined to piece together The Family’s extensive worldview, I visited the abandoned Santiniketan Lodge, once the group’s primary meeting place, shortly after it was listed for sale last year.
In a small room scattered across stained carpet lay remnants of a forgotten library: dust-riddled books on yoga and meditation, histories of medieval saints and mystics, cosmic education, life extension and biographies written via psychography (spirit writing).
With permission, I gathered a selection of these books – 18 in total. I chose titles with similar themes, those referenced in past research on The Family, and books with distinct annotations or identifying names inside their covers.
One by one, I read them. Together, they reveal telling insights into the ideas that shaped Hamilton-Byrne’s eccentric teachings and were used to justify some of The Family’s more coercive practices.
This is what I found.
Read more https://theconversation.com/i-found-australian-cult-the-familys-left-behind-library-heres-what-their-books-reveal-273581
Content retrieved from: https://theconversation.com/i-found-australian-cult-the-familys-left-behind-library-heres-what-their-books-reveal-273581.
