Housekeeping: One week left to preorder New Age Grifter
My new book on UFO cults and the people who loathe them comes out August 24
I’m getting pretty excited for the release of my upcoming book New Age Grifter: The True Story of Gabriel of Urantia and His Cosmic Family, which comes out next Thursday.
From the back-cover text:
Gabriel of Urantia is the leader of a commune in the desert of southern Arizona. He has spent the last decades weaving together a belief system — a tapestry of Eastern spirituality, born-again Christianity, and New Age platitudes. His disciples tend the garden, take classes, run his businesses and serve their leader while they wait for the end of the world.
But Gabriel is a guru with an eye towards the recording charts. His band, TaliasVan and the Bright and Morning Star Band, is a 12-piece ensemble that combines Gabriel’s teachings and jazzy easy-listening tunes to join the long list of spiritually inspired musical acts spreading their message through song.
Journalist Joseph L. Flatley has investigated Gabriel’s group for the past five years. He uses legal documents, press accounts, academic research, and untold hours of exclusive interviews to get to the corrupted core of this experimental society. How does the group make its money? How does it control his followers? What is its connection to a powerful and controversial hedge fund billionaire? How can we recognize when beliefs and practices become destructive?
Available for preorder now from Bookshop.org (or, if you insist, from Amazon).
If you’re in front of your computer at 10 p.m. eastern time this Friday, make sure you check out my interview on the Age of Transitions podcast, which will be broadcast live from the inestimable Ochelli.com studios (here: https://ochelli.com/listen-live/).
Speaking of podcasts, a new episode of FAILED STATE UPDATE (the podcast) is out now, featuring Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick director Steven Intermill. We talk about the museum itself, alternative religions, harassment by fundamentalist weirdos, and much more.
I was on Boys’ Bible Study at the beginning of the month to discuss my new book, as well as the work of outsider filmmaker Tom “cTom” Charley. This is a great show that explores the utterly absurd world of Christian cinema and what it says about our utterly absurd country. I can’t recommend it highly enough. I have also discussed the book recently on Tea’s Weird Week and The Washington Babylon 11 Minute Podcast.
And be sure to check your email Thursday morning for my latest article on QAnon, disinformation, and an obscure intentional community called The Finders.
— Lenny