Front Street Weekly

In some of the cases, I think, that the theology is based on somebody's psychotic delusions and I think it's really sick. You know religions that have, have, have, fit in the needs of the time have grown very rapidly. Many of us practice spirituality once a week at some sort of religious service. But others spend a lifetime searching for a reason to believe. Are we facing a spiritual epidemic? And later tonight we'll high- tail it across some hot hot coals when we take you fire walking. Is it a way to treat what ails you, just a money making scam, or a little magic in the night? And you'll see why this year's Salem Art Fair and Festival continues to attract artists from all over the Northwest. Good evening. I'm Gwyneth Gamble Booth. You'll see those stories tonight on Front Street Weekly, Oregon Public Television's news magazine. Jim Swenson will be back in November. What do Jerry Falwell, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and Mary Kay Ash have in common?

Probably very little except that each is the head of a devoted following. Falwell leads many conservative Christians in the Moral Majority. Rajneesh's followers have taken up residence in a commune in Central Oregon. And Mary Kay's beauty consultants pursue their work with a religious fervor. But this story is not about any one group. It deals with the individual search for something in which to believe wholeheartedly. And as Hope Robertson tells us, that search in Oregon has raised the question of religious freedom. [Music playing] I found that I wasn't satisfied with what I learned through my family about religion. [Music playing] I just quit college and so I was looking for a new group of friends. [Music playing]

[Music playing] It sounded great. Who doesn't want to be a good person and help the world? Psychologists tell us that all of us will come to a point of searching in our lives. Times of change and transition. A time when the old answers don't fit anymore and so each one of us goes about searching for his own understanding. The meaning of life. Can I help you? John Carmichael grew up Presbyterian but John turned away from the church because the religious message there had lost its meaning for him. John became a Scientologist. 15 years later he heads the church's Oregon operation. Tell you what there is, there something here that makes people excited. And that's why Scientology grows so fast. People get excited about it. People read the books and they come in. But if people are finding life's purpose in Scientology's book "Dianetics" they are also finding it elsewhere in Oregon.

The message at Rajneeshpuram doesn't come from books, it comes from this man, Bhagwan Rajneesh. These people here are here because they have experienced something. They have left their countries, their families. They have left everything they had just to come to me. But despite optimism and large membership counts alternative religions are having some tough times these days. Lawsuits and run-them-out-of-town campaigns. Julie Christofferson Tichborne sued Scientology in a 39 million dollar lawsuit alleging consumer fraud. The case has been declared a mistrial, but that probably just means going back to court again. A group called The Thousand Friends of Oregon is trying to raise money and support so they can challenge in court Rajneeshpuram's right to exist. And all new religions have come under attack by a group of researchers who say we're in the middle of a

spiritual epidemic. They accuse these new faiths of spreading, what they call, information disease. Some educators, psychologists and clergymen are also trying to sound a warning. Brainwashing is a very interesting phenomenon. Cults are organizations which systematically are taking away the freedom of individuals to choose their own life course. Any restriction of choice is dangerous. Certainly it's dangerous to what I consider good education. Deception is one of the ways these groups get people in. I think that there is always danger in those churches or groups that promise to have all the answers. It's what leads us to kill off the people that we disagree with. Here is a 2000 year old cult - Christianity. Now so well accepted it's sometimes called "that old time religion" and old time religion is having trouble

competing in these new times with new denominations. We're a religion because we're right and they're a cult because they're leading us away from true religion. But Methodist minister John Schweibert says that's not the way he feels. This spring he came to the defense of the Church of Scientology on the grounds of religious freedom. [Schweibert] We could argue, theologically, about which is the most valid but I think they have to have equal standing in this country if we believe in religious freedom. [Hope Robertson] Rodney Page represents ecumenical denominations in Portland. For him the issue in the Tichborne lawsuit was consumer fraud, not the first amendment. [Rodney Page] And again, I want to say that I wouldn't defend one of our own denominations and would take same position with the Lutherans, the Catholics, the Presbyterians, the Methodists, or anybody else to do the same thing. [Hope Robertson] Page is one of those beginning to turn a questioning eye toward new religions. [Rodney Page] There must be some specific kinds of reason that some of these people are being caught up in some of these cults.

[Hope Robertson] Could it be the same types of reasons that people are caught up in Christian religions as well? [Rodney Page] No, I think that there's something fundamentally different. [New speaker] Somebody once said a cult is a religion that isn't yours. [Hope Robertson]The students you see today on college campuses aren't the same ones who shaved their heads and chanted Hari Krishna a few years ago. It's a different market. Different true beliefs are going to sell to this generation, says Milton Bennett. One of his classes at Portland State University is called Communication and Cults: Coercion and Conversion. [Milton Bennett] You see all kinds of groups that are kind of replacing those Eastern philosophy based groups doing exactly the same thing and predominately, I think, here we're talking about fundamentalist Christian groups; fundamentalist Moslem groups; and, what we call, the economic cults the make a million dollars through positive thinking kinds of groups, pyramidal marketing schemes and the like. And the practice that most concerns Bennett is control of information. [Milton Bennett] When people say to you, this wonderful thing happened to me, changed my life, and you have to come and do this, I want to share it with you. And then you ask in return, well so what happens here? And you know

tell me a little bit about it. And they say, I can't. I'm sorry, but you have to experience it. [Hope Robertson]You have to see it for yourself. [Milton Bennett] Uh huh. That is to me a red flag, it's a dangerous sign. You want to say hey, wait a minute. [Hope Robertson] The search for answers often takes us on an inward journey. Who am I? What is my purpose here? This personality test will give you some quick insights and it's free. But who is it that's analyzing my personality? Well I'll tell you, it's the Church of Scientology. But the church's name is written nowhere on this flyer. [New speaker ]If somebody didn't put it on that one flyer- [Hope Robertson]There are other things that it's . .[New speaker] I apologize. [Hope Robertson] There are other things that it's not on and to some people it appears to be a deception. If it's not an outright attempted deception it at least comes off that way, in that, it doesn't communicate all the facts. And the fact is it's a Scientology personality test, and that's a Scientology book and they don't talk about Scientology. [New speaker] Dianetics the Modern Science of Mental Health?

I would be surprised if it didn't talk about Scientology. [Hope Robertson] He's right. The book Dianetics, the book that sold the religion of Scientology to millions, mentioned Scientology but only in the last 11 pages. These former members belong to different groups, but they have a lot in common. The group philosophy. [New speaker] There are things like world peace, betterment of mankind. [Hope Robertson] And group restrictions. [New speaker] The people were so warm and enthusiastic in what they believed, what they thought was the way. The basic premise. And they didn't seem to mind the guidelines or the restrictions that were imposed upon them to get them to that goal. [Hope Robertson] All of them feel they grew spiritually, but they also said they grew past the group and when that happened all ran into the same psychological barriers. [New speaker] It's real hard to then just pull out because you do have to go through losing all of your friends. [New speaker] One minute she's saying I love you, I really care about you, and then the next, well, I don't care about you anymore. You're evil now.

[Hope Robertson] Adrian Greek's daughter joined the Unification Church several years ago. While he waits for her to come home he counsels former group members. [Adrian Greek] In fact it's like a con game. They were promised something which they have never gotten and for which they initially blamed themselves for not accomplishing rather than blaming the or- the organization or the people who promised him. [New speaker] Questions aren't encouraged or they're given cliched answers and pretty soon you have you get enough of that and your reality changes, it shifts. [Hope Robertson]Once inside a group things look different, says Janet. She used to belong to a Bible based organization. No one tried to stop her from going to see a movie about cults. [Janet] And we kind of shrugged it off and said "yeah, that's what happens when you get involved in a cult". Within two months after I left the group, I saw the movie again and everything that happened to me: getting involved and staying involved, and leaving the group was happening to a young man in the movie and was almost word for word. [Hope Robertson] Psychologist Pam Munter has a word for that kind of control: brainwashing.

[Pam Munter]Sometimes it happens from overstimulation. Too much thought, too many ideas, no rest, no privacy. Like going away on a six day European vacation where you're in three cities a day for six days. You come home when you're just wired and someone says, How was your trip? And they say, I don't know. That's a kind of brainwashing. [Alexis Artwall] I think it's silly to think in that cults are going to come in and rape the mind of every person in society. [Hope Robertson] Alexis Artwall is also a psychologist, but she doesn't buy the idea that people are duped into joining groups. [Alexis Artwall] We don't like this feeling of being alone and completely on our own so we seek to get structure, we seek to affiliate with groups, we seek to find some kind of meaning in life. [Sandra Penches] There's a trend now nationally toward not wanting to make an independent decision. And the cults are picking up on that and they're exploiting it for their own personal gain, both in terms of money and power, I think.

[Hope Robertson] Sandra Penches counseled a surviving member of the People's Temple who didn't go to Guyana. She has seen at close range how far reaching are the effects of total allegiance. [Sandra Penches] People have told Rajneesh apparently that they will do whatever he tells them to do. Members of the other groups have said that they will do whatever their leader tells them to do. And so if they are in fact stockpiling guns and the leader then commands them to act on that by attacking someone or murdering someone, this could happen. [Hope Robertson] The talk of violence is often as evident as the weapons themselves and just as eerie. [New speaker] It's one of the press who has a gun on them. So I do warn you that, that you better believe it. That you are going to be a dead man if you try any pranks. [New speaker] One of my friends who had been in for six years said he was at that point where if they would have asked him to pick up a gun and defend someone or to shoot someone, he said, he could have done that. [Hope Robertson] Just because you've heard the names of certain groups in this program doesn't mean they're harmful, and it doesn't mean they're harm free.

[New speaker] The Rajneesh, and the people of the Unification Church too, have a right to their religious freedom but with the Catholics and the Lutherans and the Baptists and everyone else in this country. [New speaker] I think that we have laws on our books which enable us to prosecute con artists and a lot of those laws are not being enforced because many of these groups will identify themselves as a religion and a soon as you say "I'm a religion" you have the protection of the Constitution. I think that at the time the Constitution was written we didn't have this problem, we didn't have a lot of people exploiting the label "religion" in order to either evade taxes or in order to get a protection for what was essentially a con racket. [New speaker] My point would just be that the government has no place in regulating those things for individuals. That it's up to an individual to decide what he wants to participate in, what he wants to believe, what he wants to practice. [Music playing] [New speaker] I think happiness is going to come right in here with each person. It's not going to

come from another person, it's not going to come from a group of people. It's only going to happen right here with each individual person. [Gwyneth Gamble] While some people are searching for life's meaning in new religions, others are turning to an ancient folk rite: fire walking. In the last year or so hundreds of people in the Northwest have trekked across burning hot coals. Reporter Marilyn Deutsch went to find out if fire walking is for real or some kind of magic in the night. [Marilyn Deutsch] It's been called everything from a cancer cure to a stupid stunt, from honest psychology to a cruel hoax. Whichever, fire walking is a hot ticket item in America's grab bag of self help therapies. [New speaker] It felt great just to let go. . . Stand there . . . Go for it. [New speaker] It's neat to know that I've done it

and that I can do it. [Marilyn Deutsch] They did it and they did not burn. But why did these folks want to do it? Want to walk barefoot across twelve hundred degree coals? [New speaker] Purpose of the walk is not necessary to walk on fire but to overcome fears and limiting beliefs that we have about ourselves. [Marilyn Deutsch] Promoters say the idea is simple, if you think you can, you can. And there's more. [New speaker] I would want to experience a paradigm shift. Just a basic shifting of awareness. [New speaker] I think it's mainly a thing of learning to be responsible for myself and claiming my own space. [New speaker] You know if I can walk on fire I can do anything. And it does help my confidence. [New speaker] Because the veil of fear that a person has to face when they walk on fire is seemingly impossible. [Fire crackling] [Marilyn Deutsch] Face that fear and you can face the ones in your daily life. That's the message. Dare to be great. Turn risk into success. David Boon, high school

dropout, ex Buddhist, even suggests you can heal yourself of dread diseases. It's all a state of mind. Or is it something else? [Clapping] How you look at a fire walking probably depends upon what you see as real and what you see as possible in this world. Is amazing that we can fire walk? [New speaker] No, the problem as far as physics is concerned is that there is no problem. [Marilyn Deutsch] Here's how scientists see it: If you walk fast enough you won't get burned. Maybe just a blister or two. The average walk lasts just two seconds. Scientists point out that wood is a poor conductor of heat, that a bed of coals is mostly ash. Ash in turn is an excellent insulator which keeps your feet from burning. [Singing] That's one theory, here's another. To treat pain, family doctor John Shilkey sometimes hypnotizes his patients. Shilkey thinks fire

walkers may unknowingly hypnotize themselves. [Dr. Shilkey] Once they're able to do this then suggestions can be given either directly or by suggestion or by implication that they're going to succeed in doing it. [Marilyn Deutsch] Take that one step further. Shilkey thinks this altered state of mind can also alter the chemistry of your body and let you walk without feeling pain. For example, you face the fire, you get nervous, your feet sweat. And the sweat protects your bare feet from the heat. [New speaker] Really the scientific community doesn't exactly understand what goes on in fire walking. [Marilyn Deutsch] What goes on in firewalking, says Northwest skeptic Michael Dennett, is plain and simple. It's a deception. You're saying then that it's not mind over matter. [Michael Dennett] Absolutely not. Fire walking is a magic trick. [Marilyn Deutsch] An illusion Dennett says, just like this one. [Music playing] For magician John Finley turning doves into bunnies is a stage act. And that's

how he looks at fire walking. Nothing spiritual, nothing psychic. Is it a scam? [John Finley] Coming from a magician I'd say yes. They. . . perhaps they serve their purpose in society, who knows. [Marilyn Deutsch] Fire walking is a new American fad and an ancient Eastern ritual. In Sri Lanka, for example Hindus walk what they call the fiery path. It is an expression of devotion, a way of fulfilling a religious pledge. [Fire crackling] Today from Hollywood parties, to parking lots in Southeast Portland, to grassy lawns in rural Oregon tens of thousands of people are following the ancient's footsteps. It's not devotion to God. It's devotion to yourself. Knowing yourself and knowing what you believe. Those are the teachings of fire walk instructor Steve Hillinger. [Steve Hillinger] Anybody else? Any feelings in here? [New speaker] I'm starting to feel really anxious and

just like- [Marilyn Deutsch] Hillinger has conducted about 20 fire walking seminars over the last year and a half. He's taken roughly 200 people across the coals, but that's the evening's finale. For $65 Hillinger offers roughly nine hours of preparation, a series of chats, meditations and exercises designed to teach you to trust yourself and to trust others. This is what's called a trust fall. The trusting one is Diana Overture. Tonight she's a fire walker, by day she's a tree. [Diana Overture] I'm very still and I'm looking at the ground, I'm concentrating. Who else can do that? [Marilyn Deutsch] Diana runs a Montessori school. The fears she is trying to conquer through fire walking might be on the mind of any young single woman. [Diana Overture] You know, getting in new relationships with people, marriage, having children, running a school. Little things like that are kind of scary, you know.

[Marilyn Deutsch] But an entirely different set of fears motivated Barry Carathe. Walking is challenge enough for Carathe. He suffers from a blood disease and moves with the aid of an artificial hip. Every other day he gets himself a blood transfusion. [Barry Carathe] I've got fears around my illness, which is hemophilia. [Marilyn Deutsch] Like what? Fear of AIDS from the blood products I use. [Marilyn Deutsch] According to fire walkers, confronting your fears and the fire means knowing whether you really want to walk or not. Whichever you do, says Hillinger, is right for you. Carathe decided it wasn't right to fire walk this evening. [People singing] [Laughing] Last spring Tom Baird went for a fire walk. [Tom Baird] And I was just so sure that anybody could walk through it, I didn't understand the phenomena and still don't. [Marilyn Deutsch] What Baird, an IBM systems engineer, understood was a pain from those second degree burns on his right foot. Still he says that's all part of the process.

He'll try fire walking again. Meanwhile the skeptics and believers remain as far apart as ever. Still it may very well be that exploiting common principles of physics makes good psychology too. [Gwyneth Gamble] Our next story deals with the magic of a real event, because to Salem every summer comes the festival that produces a happy marriage of culture and commerce. It's the annual Salem Art Fair and Festival, a three day happening held in the heart of Bush's Pasture Park in downtown Salem. In July, on the hottest day of Oregon's unseasonably warm summer, we visited this major Northwest art event. Reminiscent of an old fashioned community social, people of all ages joined in the excitement of the festival. Some felt the heat a little more than others. [Baby crying] Even Sesame Street's Big Bird joined the celebration. [Child speaking] Thanks for coming.

[Big Bird] It's good to be here. [Gwyneth Gamble] The official opening of the art fair began with a band concert featuring the All City student band. People picnicked on the grass, strolled among the booths and enjoyed the very warm day. [Band playing] In its thirty sixth year, why is this art festival so successful? Salem mayor Sue Harris believes: [Sue Harris] We won the All-America City award, which is a national award, two years ago for volunteer projects that we've done in Salem and this is just a very well publicized example of what volunteers can do in our community. [Gwyneth Gamble] Festival executive director, Cynthia Green, believes it's the broad based community support plus the strength of the Salem Art Association which makes this event so well received. We spoke with her in the historic Victorian Bush House.

[ Cynthia Green] It's amazing, but the whole city becomes excited over the art fair. It's just- I'm not fabricating this and I'm not exaggerating. They all know it's coming and you can just feel it. I mean everybody knows about it, it's wonderful. [Gwyneth Gamble] What do you want people to go away with once they visit at this festival? [Cynthia Green] I would hope that people will leave the Art Fair feeling like they had had a truly meaningful arts experience. [Gwyneth Gamble] The arts event includes a juried two dimensional exhibit of Oregon artists. Green told us of the artist's involvement. [Cynthia Green] We have 200 exhibiting artists, well actually, 194 exhibiting artists this year. Close to 200. And there are countless artists who also help as volunteers to put the Art Fair on. There are about 600 of those people. [Gwyneth Gamble] Visual art on exhibit and for sale included ceramics, textiles, as well as jewelry. The artists themselves feel this art fair is very special. Ceramicist Charles Hannagan

explained why. [Charles Hannagan] I treat it as a garden party and we bring everything down the same way I would show it if someone was coming to my own garden. I do a lot of gardening, Salem's that kind of town. It's away from the city even though you live in the city and that's what makes this fair show nice. [Gwyneth Gamble] As opposed to, say, the Bellevue arts fair or . . .[Charles Hannagan] Well that's a big asphalt . . . Can you imagine that in 100 degree heat day? [Gwyneth Gamble] For jewelry artist and designer Joe Apodaca it was his first year in Salem. [Joe Apodaca] I think some fairs don't have all the arts and I think I enjoy fairs where they combine them all. What I find are valuable for art fairs and being in art fairs is a number of things. I think it can be a test market for new pieces that you've done, like we have a number of earrings that we've been doing with shell and different colors and so we put them out and see the reaction that the public has. [Gwyneth Gamble] Do you envision Mr. Apodaca and his art coming back next year?

[Joe Apodaca] Oh yes, I think I will continue to come to this fair. I think it has a real good feeling. [Gwyneth Gamble] In order to bring the July art fair to fruition the efforts of hundreds of volunteers are needed, working on the event year round. These dedicated people are led by two co-chairs and 55 coordinators. In 1985, the festival was chaired by Vern Fotz and Aralia Firth. [Aralia Firth] I think the biggest challenge is getting people to head up the communities because those people really carry the wall once they have their committee intact. [Gwyneth Gamble]How many volunteers do you use for this event? [Vern Fotz] We have 500. 35 committees. [Aralia Firth] I think we have even more than that. 500 approaching 1000, I would say, with 35 committees. [Vern Fotz] Certainly 500 volunteers is Pretty consistent year after year, from all across the community. [Gwyneth Gamble] It is a community wide event isn't it? [Vern Fotz] It is certainly that. [Gwyneth Gamble] And so, along with the celebration of visual arts, the Salem Art Fair and Festival is an example of ongoing community support to produce an event that is fun, as well

as profitable, for the entire city. The Salem Art Association continues to rally the entire community around arts events. Right now they are encouraging artists and craftspeople working in all arts media to enter works to be juried for the upcoming Christmas collection exhibition. It's scheduled for November 23rd through December 24th in the Bush Gallery. And here's what you'll see on the next edition of Front Street Weekly: Carol Pope runs a unique organization for women ex-offenders. But why is her program so effective? [Carol Pope] I have been to prison. I know what it's like to be in a cage. [Gwyneth Gamble] And baseball, that great American pastime. These little leaguers could slide into the majors if their parents called the games. And some of Oregon's livestock is destroyed annually by this common weed, tansy ragwort. We'll tell you what's being done about it. That's our program for this evening.

We'll be here next week with more of Front Street Weekly. We hope to see you then. Good night.