a special feature the sunduiy daictly on the caravan Number 37' Night Editor: Jim Beattie C Sunday, November 22, 1970 4 The teachings of Stephen.. , ...Stephen's Caravan ALMOST TWO weeks ago, an assortment of converted school buses, trucks and vans ar- rived on the outskirts of Ann Arbor, carrying between 200 and 250 devoted followers of a spiritual teacher named Stephen. They called themselves beatniks and hippies, and seemed to live the easy and free life associat- ed with those names. Most of the Caravan pre- ferred to stay at a nearby park but some buses came into town to find work or to meet and talk to people. The Caravan travelling across the country from San Francisco is part of the intense spiritual community that has grown up around Stephen in the last five years. Once a teaching assistant of Dr. S. I. Hayakawa at San Francisco State College, Stephen was drawn into the growing hippie subculture of Haight-Ashbury. He claims to have discovered the spiritual world on his twenty-sixth acid trip and has been deeply im- mersed in that world ever since. In 1966, he began a class talking to anyone who would listen on Monday nights. "I was waiting for someone else to get up and tell the truth,' 'he says, "and no one did it. Finally I started doing it." Many who listened to the tall, lanky South- Easterner they, called the "psychedelic cowboy" cane to believe he was telling the truth. CONCENTRATE ON each moment as it occurs, Stephen taught. "All you need to know is don't past trip, don't future trip and don't be con- ceptual in the here and now." He taught that all men are God, - that by realizing and living in that oneness everyone could constantly be stoned. The Caravan is an offshoot of the group that attended the Monday night class. When Stephen accepted invitations to speak at a number of loca- tions around the country, many who had come to regard' Stephen as their source of spiritual in- spiration accompanied him on his travels. STEPHEN AND his flock came to Ann Arbor, preaching love and non-violence and talking about spiritual enlightenment. Stephen spoke three times to gatherings in Ann Arbor, and his followers talked at length with people around town. When the Caravan left after four days, a number of people left with them. Others are now organizing buses, planning to catch up with the caravan as soon as possible. But a greater number stayed behind, n o t knowing what to think or what to do, knowing only that they were dazed by Stephen, the things he said and the people who followed him. Among the people who came into close con- tact with members of the Caravan were five students living in' a house near campus. 0 n e of Stephen's followers, Mordecai, stayed at the house. Others often came in to talk, take show- ers, use the bathrooms, or crash for a night. These are the independent impressions of four of the students in that house. A ttention is energy I WAS WORKING at my desk, doing my job, think- ing and worrying about my political situation. Just like I always had. It's noisy where I work, so it's normal for strange people to walk in a little bewildered. When Mordecai walked in cautiously and carefully made his way around the room I hard- ly reacted. But I sympathised a bit with his anguish and looked at him inquisitively as he passed by everyone. Comforted a little by my glance, he raised an eyebrow. But he still wasn't sure. He looked out the window. Finally he came back, and this time our eyes met perfectly. "I'm with the Caravan," he ventured. "Have you heard about the Caravan?" I hadn't. But he was eager to explain. "It's 250 beatniks from around San Francisco, and we're traveling in buses and trucks trying to show that not all long-hairs are scary-you know, like Charley Manson. And we're following a spiritual leader. Have you ever heard of Stephen Gaskin?' Once again I hadn't. But I hadn't heard anyone call himself a beatnik in years, so my interest was aroused. Mordecai was looking for someone who might help him find a truck (he was riding along with the others) and he wanted a place to stay. I told him to come to the house, but not having much faith in people, I did not expect to see him again. How- ever, I soon learned that he trusted me, and he as- sumed I would trust him. He arrived. We didn't eat much of the same food, so we didn't have any for him. That was all right. But he did have dope; that was organic. It was all right. Not knowing what to expect, we sat in the middle of the floor and passed the pipe. Mordecai thought we ought to pay attention to each other, and that if we all did, we could all begin to tell what each was thinking. We would then get a group head, and by moving through our thoughts together, everyone would be as smart as all four of us. For an atheist who once was interested in science and retained the heavy influence of empiricism, that nation did not come easily. Telepathy? "Did you space out on your own trip right there man?" Mordecai asked. I had, of course. In silence he had known-he really was paying attention. How strange to think that my mind was indicated clearly enough through my exterior that anyone who paid attention could see it and feel it. Minute after min- ute we sat. Moment after moment Mordecai noticed what we were thinking and doing. Gradually we be- gan to learn. HUMAN ATTENTION is extremely valuable, it is energy. If we could stop wasting our energy through needless movements and worrying about our appearances before the others-if we could stop seeking that energy by distracting the gathering- then we could all pour our energy into everyone else, and that energy would stone us. By attending only to the present and those in it, we could feel what the whole group was doing. Instead of being self, - . )A 4 /- Facing the ol lif--ncmfrtbl f60 --R~D i 4 m A letter to spread words of love DEAR MARK, I told you something very important was happen- ing to me. I'm afraid the shortness of my comment has left you confused. I hope this letter can give you a little better idea of the impact Stephen and the Caravan has had on my life. Remember though as you read this that it has been a deep religious experience and words no matter how well they may flow will only be a faint, partial reflection of all that I felt and thought. Tuesday - Another day in the life. Late in the evening I meet Mordecai. We talk and he lets us know very quickly what he's into, what he believes. As we smoke together, the rap gets heavier and he directs it more at us: Don't be moving about so much he tells me. It's an energy habit you're using to attract attention ... Look into my eyes when you talk to me, it's more compassionate ...You have our attention - say something worthwhile to us and don't use the energy to boost your own ego ... and so on. At first I am confused. Then later as he explains more I am skeptical. He is telling me the "truth". But the truth is something one must create out of long despair and through each embittered experience. It's something we each have to stumble onto our- selves and though we can help each other here and there, no one can show us the way. Right?, Wrong. The spiritual "truth", Mordecai tells me, is absolute and applies to everyone just as truth about physical laws does. Wednesday - No classes, no homework. Mordecai has impressed me as a person. I'm going to listen some more - maybe this is something I can latch onto and learn from. In the afternoon we get stoned, stoned like I've never been on dope, stoned because the energy in the room is high, because people are getting it on together. Matthew is here from the Caravan and his face, gestures and speech are so gentle, so Christ-like. Thursday - Climbing higher as ego layers melt under the flame of a little white tab. James and I look into each others eyes and feel the energy pass- ing, rising, back and forth between us. All differ- ences, all conflict, all distance separating us dis- appear. I am he as he is me. THAT NIGHT we see Stephen. I begin to feel for the first time since the appearance of the Caravan people that I am becoming part of some- thing larger than myself, part of a community seek- ing fellowship and enlightenment. I have many friends now. Stephen speaks and there is no rejection in me of anything he says - the words fill my being and I grow stronger with the energy that they carry. Stephen is so amazingly perceptive and sensitive to the people in the room. Friday - Helping Jim on his first trip. Listening to Stephen at Canterbury. His daughter is there and she is so alive and aware - just beautiful. Stephen is having some trouble getting across to the people here tonight - they hiss him, they try hard to cut him down, I sense a lot of hostility and frustration. But near the end of the evening the ntoe of the dis- cussion changes and Stephen becomes more relaxed, more warm, more stoned. His closing words are filled with love, for that is why he is here talking to us. He really loves us. The Caravan people have showed me much. I learned that my ego was separating me from others. I learned that many of my actions were determined from a subconscious that I had no will over. I learn- ed that we create our own world, manifesting phy- sically our mental desires. And I came to apprec- iate so much more what the Beatles told us - that the love we take is equal to the love we make. Peace will not come by anger or violence, but by amplify- ing peace and love in our lives. Here and Now. Such it was that I shared communion with these people. Such it is that I am left to talk of it. A few days taken out of space and time, a few days spent walking and learning and being stoned. Together we climbed the mountain and saw the spiritual king- doms that lay before us and together we climbed down again. As we came to the shoreline I stopped, not yet having faith enough to walk on the water. But my vision is with them as they gently sweep over the ocean under the horizon in their journey to the east. --BRUCE N OVEMBER 10, 1970 B.C. (Before Caravan). After. two months of school, our pattern of life seemed well established. The five of us were getting along. well, no real problems. School was a drag but school was always a drag. We didn't have enough time to . do all the things we wanted, but we never had enough time. Then Mordecai appeared that Tuesday, talking about Stephen--enlightenment, being one, getting straight, breaking the ego, making the subcon- scious conscious and living in the here and now. He stayed with us four days. We rapped and "You can smoke grass and not get high, then you can tell some truth and the weed'll come on. And you can get high without the grass, just on the truth." "You straighten up the universe by straightening up yourself . . . All you need to know is don't past trip, don't future trip, and don't be concep- tual in the here and now." Stephen ............................... ......................,.......,...............................,...................................................... . ..... .... Feeling oneness, tripping on truth WHEN SOMEONE walks into your life who has attained the near perfection of honesty it's likely you'll do more than Just lift your eyebrows. In fact, if you're hip to it it will probably affect your out- look on life considerably. If it's real, your intuition will sense it quickly, and the longer you're around it, the more conscious its truthfulness becomes. You begin to understand astounding things about honesty you never admitted before. This is precisely what happened to the five of us when a number of the caravaners came into the household last week. Their straightness, egolessness, and lack of nervousness caught our attention like nothing ever had before. Problems we had encounter- ed living together were brought into sharp focus-the atrocious ego games we had been playing, the atten- tion-getting techniques, the superficial interest in one another were all things we had never consciously admitted. A lot of that has changed now since the momen- tous experience we underwent last week. For myself and Bruce the experience reached its optimum when we dropped a psychedelic drug Thursday and went Illusion was not replaced with illusion; it was erased. Illusion is the end result of what happens when the ego decides to shove something that's been perceived into/ the subconscious because it's not integratable with its previous structuring of reality. Hence, what is behind illusion we really know, we Just don't admit it to ourselves. Being stoned, whether on food, drugs or yoga; lets you know it by amplifying your subconscious to full consciousness. Ego itself took only a minimal effect and relating to others ceased being a function of it. j PEACE SETTLED around me and not excitement. All energy was directed to attention to the here and now-the energy of an ordered universe flowing through me. I cannot tell the experience, I can only tell about the experience. It can only be taught if one is will- ing to learn by looking beyond the words that de- scribe it. Since Thursday my ego has been gradually re- organizing itself , (nothing traumatic) t h o u g h it seems to have arrived at a different place than it each thus became a part of the immediate universe as it moved along. But you had to pay attention, because if you didn't, the people around you would know-because they were paying attention to you. Tripping into the past or the future by yourself could only destroy the stone.x But it was frightening to have that much energy poured in and out of me. Mordecai always looked directly in your eyes when he spoke, and its pretty difficult to look directly into someone's eyes. "It's more compassionate that way," he said. "You know, compassion means passion between two people." Still, it seemed easier to miss the beauty he might trans- mit, if only I could avoid the incredible truth he could send through his eyes when telling me what I was really doing. Strangely enough, Telepathy was already upon me. Yet it was incredibly painful to recognize that someone could help me by compassionately telling me what my actions really meant to the others. So horribly foreign to my usual life was the trust which facilitates the flow of energy! If only I had known that the others around me might observe me in an effort to help me, I would not have needed to feel threatened: But that first break into trust was hard because it necessitated admitting that the paranoia which precluded trust was based on the egotistical assumption that I was more important than the inner peace of the others and should thus be defended even at cost to them. I had prejudiced my whole life in favor of myself to keep my ego safe. And when the others, like myself, were defen- sive in that way, no one won. All our energy was wasted on ourselves, and everyone had been forced to seek attention furiously. Instead of living in harmony, we had fought and distracted each other. The pipe had stopped, but our minds had not. As I looked around the room, I could see that smoked and. ate brown rice and experienced and learned-and then he was gone. Now we're playing with the pieces, wavering be- tween putting them back together in their old form and fitting them into a new way of living. Mordecai was short, long hair, full beard. He projected a sense of calm and a sense of knowing; he was unobtrusive yet his presence radiated some- thing strong. Because he was strong, I fought him from the beginning. I honored myself that first night with the title of skeptic - I pretended to be discerning while the two Jims underwent what they later called a'religious conversion ruce doiibted, but by the next day' he had decided something important was hap- pening and he wanted to be part of it. I was unsure of Mordecai and of myself, un- willing to sell my soul to the stranger. By Wednesday evening, I was miserable and I began to admit why- I was afraid my world was moving on, leaving me behind. I felt the beginning of a feeling that became more solid in the next few days, a feeling that there was no half way with this new philosophy. These people were challenging my life, taunting me, by ex- ample, to throw away the things most central to me in order to take up something more meaningful. Threatened or not, the heavy feeling in the rest of the house drew me like a magnet. When we all went to hear Stephen Thursday night, I was ready to accept as much as I possibly could. We had built up a tremendous anticipation, expecting Christ for sure if his disciple Mordecai was so impressive. WE DID NOT find Christ but we were not dis- appointed. In Stephen I could see the philosophy at work, even if I could not feel it myself or even understand it thoroughly. Listening to him and to other Caravan people, I picked up fragments. All men are one. We must drop all barriers that keep us from realizing that unity, barriers like the ego, or prejudice in favor of the self, and the subconscious. We cannot past trip, or future trip, but we mustlive in the here and now, exist and be aware of and cope with it constantly. Get straight. And here were 200 people all helping each other to get straight and, for them, it seemed to be working. It was not until Friday night that I felt what I had been hearing about. I got three strong charges that night, as we heard Stephen for the second and last time. When he was finishing, Stephen sat up straight, breathed in deeply and fixed his eyes on the people jammed into Canterbury House. He looked at all of us and at each of us and had us completely transfixed, in communion with him. Later, I experienced the same stoned electric chill when we said goodbye to Mordecai. But the most powerful feeling I had during the entire time the Caravan was here was when I saw Stephen's little girl that night. She was about nine years old. She sat straight, like her father, and took deep breaths, like him. And her eyes were bright and sharp, beautifully and deeply aware. MUCH OF THE effect of the Caravan will wear off. But those moments, that look, cannot wear off, ever. Only after the Caravan had gone, I began to realize the full implications of what they were saying. Some of us tried to study but couldn't do a thing. Bruce thought very seriously about leaving to catch the Caravan. None of us wanted to lose the experi- *,