As some of you will know when I was 19 I spent three tumultuous weeks hanging out with the Unification Church (aka the ‘Moonies) near Leicester Square. That doesn’t sound long and it wasn’t but its impact was enough to make me drop out of university for 9 months and return to Durham to study Theology, instead of Philosophy.
Of course, my experience was not that dramatic compared to some
people's which can range over a number of years or become permanent. In
addition, although I definitely feel I’d lost control of my thoughts to a great
extent, I was never 100% sold and there were always doubts. I wasn’t forcibly
coerced by my family to see the exit counsellor I met in Scotland and after
speaking with him, I shed all attachments pretty quickly and had no doubt that
that was the right thing to do.
The experience, however, did signal a quite radical departure in
my life. I became, after I left, much more interested in spirituality and even
more withdrawn and other-worldly and to be honest felt that the entire texture
of my consciousness had changed, pretentious as that might sound. I lost all
interest in the question of what career I should pursue or in my life direction
as such, thinking the present tense the only moment of eschatological
significance (yes, I really did think like that). I dropped any former interest
I'd held in extra-curricular activities such as acting, rowing, student
journalism (and drinking!) and instead spent much of my time wandering between
cafes reading and reflecting on the beauty of God and the universe – without,
I’m glad to report, trying to recruit or convert anyone to anything, though my
experiences were definitely Christ-inflected. I entered what felt like a
permanent high that lasted for the next 4 years. A friend at uni wondered if
I’d dropped a tab of acid and had never come down. Sadly this elevated state of
mind was not to last, and I trace the first of my occasional but long-lasting
cycles of mania and depression to this original descent in the autumn of 1994.
I don’t know and maybe I never will whether I would still have developed my
'alleged' ‘bi-polarity’ if I hadn’t visited the ‘Principle Life Study Center’
in December 1990. Oddly enough, however, it has only very recently occurred to
me that there might have been a connection.
Anyway enough about me. That said, this book, of the many
written about cult experiences, is of particular interest because it is the
only resource I can find online that even mentions the existence of the
Principle Life Study Centre which was located near The Ivy restaurant and
St.Martin’s Theatre on West Street (where Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap is
still being shown). The author, Yolande Brener, was also by her own account a
visitor at the same time, though I don’t remember her. She may have been out
fundraising at the time, I guess, since she’d joined a few months earlier and
this is what I would have been shortly destined to if I’d stuck around. I’m
pretty sure that the German guy she mentions, Andreas, and the Australian with
the chin and the ‘meteor chest’ were the two guys I spent most of my time with.
Her descriptions seem accurate and are similar to my own experiences. Anyway,
not that I am an advert or anything, or presume that I am interesting, blah
blah (though cult experiences as such might be), but the Kindle book is only
3.39 sterling if you want to take a look. The section about the Centre as such
are from page 39 to 56.
Btw, if you happen to know what became of the Principle Life
Study Center and when it closed down (last time I checked it was an Arabic
café), I’d be interested to know.
Have a Happy Thursday.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Holy-Candy-Joined-Married-Stranger/dp/0692215174
