86 International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 10, 2019
this truth by Satan. Satan was seen as the spirit
of separation that keeps us from loving each
other, building positive relationships, and living
together harmoniously. By rejecting Satan and
the World, and living in perfect agreement, the
Love Family could create Heaven on Earth
where members would live forever in their
physical bodies.
These ideas grew out of an LSD vision
experienced by Paul Erdmann, then 27, in 1967
during the Summer of Love in San Francisco’s
Haight-Ashbury district. The following year,
Erdmann returned to his hometown of Seattle
and began attracting young hippie seekers who
were inspired by his vision, absolute conviction,
and willingness to take bold action. Other
visions followed, including one that revealed
Erdmann’s true name, Love. Before long, Love
transformed his amorphous ideas into a simple
but coherent belief system based on the Old and
New Testaments of the Bible. Together, Love
and his followers were the resurrected body of
Jesus Christ. They were the true Israelites, called
by God to build New Jerusalem. In recognition
of their Israelite identities, they all took the
surname Israel. The key to their success was to
be Jesus Christ by living as One.
However, Oneness did not mean social equality.
The Love Family was a patriarchal kingdom
believed to reflect a divine hierarchy symbolized
by a golden pyramid. At its apex was Love, who
had absolute authority as the King of Israel. He
had complete control over who joined, who was
baptized, who got a virtue name, how money
was allocated, where members lived, whom they
had sex with, and who got kicked out. The
Family’s small size and communal structure
gave Love enormous freedom to micromanage
daily life, which he did virtually every day. Ms.
Israel portrays Love as the object of slavish
devotion, an attitude that he promoted by
constantly being attuned to and managing the
collective mood.
Assisting Love were the elders. These were men
with virtue names handpicked for their
commitment to community ideals, leadership
ability, and, most of all, their devotion to Love.
Each elder and his “elder lady” supervised a
household that consisted of up to 20 people
sharing a house or yurt. The next tier included
all other baptized members with virtue names.
Together the “virtues” made up the core of the
Family. At the bottom of the pyramid was a
servant class that consisted of newer members
such as Ms. Israel and her mother. They were
identified by Hebrew names chosen from the
Bible.
Within each stratum of the hierarchy, women
occupied a secondary position and were
expected to bow to men and do their bidding. On
one of my early visits, I was chatting with an
elder in his house when another elder man
walked in and joined the conversation. Although
the elder lady was busy cooking, folding
laundry, and feeding a baby, the man said to her,
without so much as a glance, “Charity, will you
give me a braid?” The elder lady immediately
dropped what she was doing and, without a
word, proceeded to braid his hair while we, the
men, continued to talk as if she weren’t there.
As a young newcomer, Ms. Israel quickly
realized that to fit in she had no choice but to go
with the flow so she watched what the members
did and modeled her actions after theirs.
Initially, she had been shocked at her mother’s
transformation, but soon she realized that she,
too, had become meek and submissive.
So why did people such as Rachel’s mother join
the Family? Ms. Israel addresses this question in
an excellent chapter, “Why Love? ...” (Chapter
5), She finds that members came from very
diverse backgrounds—rich and poor, good
families and bad but for the most part they were
young hippies looking for communal
alternatives to mainstream society but
disillusioned by everything they had tried. That
is, until they met the Love Family, which they
often likened to “coming home” (p. 159). By the
time Ms. Israel’s mother joined, the Family no
longer needed to proselytize because “droves of
people” (p. 156) from the counterculture were
eager to join, even knowing that total
submission was part of the deal.
Ms. Israel has no use for those who claim they
were brainwashed, and she gives little attention
to the issue. “They had all made the choice to be
there in the first place and had willingly
relinquished their autonomy,” she writes (p.
this truth by Satan. Satan was seen as the spirit
of separation that keeps us from loving each
other, building positive relationships, and living
together harmoniously. By rejecting Satan and
the World, and living in perfect agreement, the
Love Family could create Heaven on Earth
where members would live forever in their
physical bodies.
These ideas grew out of an LSD vision
experienced by Paul Erdmann, then 27, in 1967
during the Summer of Love in San Francisco’s
Haight-Ashbury district. The following year,
Erdmann returned to his hometown of Seattle
and began attracting young hippie seekers who
were inspired by his vision, absolute conviction,
and willingness to take bold action. Other
visions followed, including one that revealed
Erdmann’s true name, Love. Before long, Love
transformed his amorphous ideas into a simple
but coherent belief system based on the Old and
New Testaments of the Bible. Together, Love
and his followers were the resurrected body of
Jesus Christ. They were the true Israelites, called
by God to build New Jerusalem. In recognition
of their Israelite identities, they all took the
surname Israel. The key to their success was to
be Jesus Christ by living as One.
However, Oneness did not mean social equality.
The Love Family was a patriarchal kingdom
believed to reflect a divine hierarchy symbolized
by a golden pyramid. At its apex was Love, who
had absolute authority as the King of Israel. He
had complete control over who joined, who was
baptized, who got a virtue name, how money
was allocated, where members lived, whom they
had sex with, and who got kicked out. The
Family’s small size and communal structure
gave Love enormous freedom to micromanage
daily life, which he did virtually every day. Ms.
Israel portrays Love as the object of slavish
devotion, an attitude that he promoted by
constantly being attuned to and managing the
collective mood.
Assisting Love were the elders. These were men
with virtue names handpicked for their
commitment to community ideals, leadership
ability, and, most of all, their devotion to Love.
Each elder and his “elder lady” supervised a
household that consisted of up to 20 people
sharing a house or yurt. The next tier included
all other baptized members with virtue names.
Together the “virtues” made up the core of the
Family. At the bottom of the pyramid was a
servant class that consisted of newer members
such as Ms. Israel and her mother. They were
identified by Hebrew names chosen from the
Bible.
Within each stratum of the hierarchy, women
occupied a secondary position and were
expected to bow to men and do their bidding. On
one of my early visits, I was chatting with an
elder in his house when another elder man
walked in and joined the conversation. Although
the elder lady was busy cooking, folding
laundry, and feeding a baby, the man said to her,
without so much as a glance, “Charity, will you
give me a braid?” The elder lady immediately
dropped what she was doing and, without a
word, proceeded to braid his hair while we, the
men, continued to talk as if she weren’t there.
As a young newcomer, Ms. Israel quickly
realized that to fit in she had no choice but to go
with the flow so she watched what the members
did and modeled her actions after theirs.
Initially, she had been shocked at her mother’s
transformation, but soon she realized that she,
too, had become meek and submissive.
So why did people such as Rachel’s mother join
the Family? Ms. Israel addresses this question in
an excellent chapter, “Why Love? ...” (Chapter
5), She finds that members came from very
diverse backgrounds—rich and poor, good
families and bad but for the most part they were
young hippies looking for communal
alternatives to mainstream society but
disillusioned by everything they had tried. That
is, until they met the Love Family, which they
often likened to “coming home” (p. 159). By the
time Ms. Israel’s mother joined, the Family no
longer needed to proselytize because “droves of
people” (p. 156) from the counterculture were
eager to join, even knowing that total
submission was part of the deal.
Ms. Israel has no use for those who claim they
were brainwashed, and she gives little attention
to the issue. “They had all made the choice to be
there in the first place and had willingly
relinquished their autonomy,” she writes (p.
