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Love, Sex, Fear, Death: The Inside Story of The Process Church of the Final Judgment

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There is no doubt that The Process Church of the Final Judgment has left a dark, indelible watermark of a sort upon the psyche of many who grew up during the 1960s and 1970s. Much of its mystique was due to the ultra-secret constraints placed upon members of the cult by the leadership, coupled with certain atrocities perpetrated by those with tenuous connections with the cult, such as the Manson family.

Over the decades since the cult's ostensible demise, conspiracy theorists and yellow journalists have woven a rich tapestry of innuendoes and lies which have blossomed to monstrous proportions, from Ed Sanders' The Family to Vincent Bugliosi's Helter Skelter and to Maury Terry's phantasmagoria tale and sensationalist screed The Ultimate Evil and many lesser tomes in print and on the internet.

Compounding such wild-eyed speculations were the group's own visual style and strident theological manifestos bearing such titles as The Gods On War and Humanity is the Devil.

Love Sex Fear Death will, I am sure, be a big disappointment to many of those intent upon cheap thrills and titillations. The truth is generally far less prosaic, and in this case, certainly not sensationalist in any sense of the word. It is instead an insightful and factual account written by those who were there and a part of the cult.

Timothy Wyllie has written a sober, heartfelt chronicle of the cult. He was there from the inception of the group and was a classmate of one of the two principal founders and leaders of the group: Robert Moore DeGrimston.

Such sermons in print, whether symbolic, metaphorical or literal, certainly lent credence to such theories and provided a ready handle for paranoid speculations. Add to all of this the group's external attire and symbols, and it would be easy to feel that something wicked this way has come and arrived.

In both of the two primary sections of the book written as personal accounts by former insiders in the cult's hierarchy, we are presented with the fact that, however photogenic and verbally adept DeGrimston and his writings may have been, the real leader and ultimate fuehrer of the group was his wife, Mary Ann MacLean, a former London call-girl whose specialty was the role of dominatrix.

And dominatrix extraordinaire she was, taking the trade to a new level and unique application. Based upon the two primary accounts by Timothy Wyllie and Malachi McCormack, Mary Ann was a master manipulator brimming with charm and guile. She apparently had learned her stuff during her previous profession and learned its lessons well, and knew exactly how to apply these insights into human psychology to her customers and later to her followers. She knew how to seduce them and twist them around her finger and kept them coming back for more. Those who encountered Process members often spoke of the high level of intelligence and civility of its members. Unfortunately, well mannered, intelligent types with academic backgrounds were little match for the well honed instincts and intuitions of Mary Ann.

Most deplorable was her manipulating her own breeding program among the members and the manner in which she had the children treated in a fashion less kindly than the dogs of the group were treated. Mary Ann was a childless and barren woman, and it seems she was disposed to a contempt and resentment of those with normal maternal instincts in regards to how the children were treated and nurtured.

Her counterpart, Robert, seemed little more then a medium for her message and a window-dressing for the group. When he no longer served his mistress, he was conveniently cast to the wayside. She and Robert composed what they called the Omega of the group (the pinnacle of its power) and lived like the reigning Queen and King off the labors of the membership. Their lifestyle and travels were like that of the rich and famous. Large, expensive apartments, palatial estates were their lot in life as the membership of the cult often subsisted on leftovers from supermarket dumpsters.

Mary Ann seemed to take her dominatrix skills to an awesome level. She seemed worldly wise beyond her followers, many of whom viewed her as a goddess incarnate (in this case, Hecate) and worshipped her and served her whims with unquestioning loyalty and obedience, thinking all the time that her callous manner was somehow geared toward a spiritual growth or revelation.

Timothy Wyllie's account is clear and concise, informed and thoughtful. There are shorter chapters by a number of members of lesser stature in the group, all who in one way or another corroborate Wyllie's more lengthy account in the main. All the dispositions have an essentially subjective First Person accounting. That, I think, is to be expected in a group so very compartmentalized.

The book itself is handsomely packaged and providing nearly half of the volume with colored and black and white samples of the beautiful and artistic publications from the Process. Adam Parfrey has outdone himself on the editing and aesthetics of his production, and Timothy Wyllie no less can share that credit.

Though the book broadens knowledge of the inner dynamics of the cult, it is not so much a definitive history of the Process writ large, but is instead many personal accounts of individual experiences in the group. As Wyllie makes clear, there are probably as many stories as there were individual members.

There are still some relevant questions that were not addressed here and perhaps were beyond the personal knowledge of the authors. Nevertheless, I highly recommend this book for anyone with an interest in the Process as well as the period of history covered here. It serves as an essential and primary building block in understanding the social and cultural aspects that have helped to shape the world we currently abide in.

Love, Sex, Fear and Death is a must read for anyone interested in the inner workings of a secretive organization. The late 60s, early 70s were rife with cults but this one was very different in that it still has an impact on society so many years later. Timothy Wyllie has done a remarkable job detailing the events that led up to the formation of a cult and its eventual decline. Since the people that stayed through to the bitter end now run the largest no kill animal sanctuary in the US and are worth millions of dollars, this makes the book even more interesting and relevant.
I was involved with The Process for a few years, on the inside. Therefore I know that these writings are honest to the extreme. For anyone that wants to better understand that era this is a must-read.

COMMONLY HELD ASSUMPTION: Cults attract mindless, feeble-willed automatons who blindly fulfill oft-deranged leaders wishes and whims.

REVELATION: Highly motivated, articulate individuals of complex intelligence and unparalleled loyalty propel societies, cultures and yes, also cults to infamous achievements and horrific downfalls.

Such are the revelations in this candid, intimate and disturbing look back at a dark side of the peace and love hippie years, The Process Church of the Final Judgement, written by former insider/high-ranking cult member Timothy Wyllie and other "processeans".

Mr. Wyllie, both multi-talented and a highly creative intellect, writes from the head and heart exposing both his soft underbelly as well as the gaping discrepancies that any devotee to "The Process" had to rectify, ignore or dismiss in order to function in the convoluted reality created by cult leader Mary Ann MacLean - the "incarnate Goddess" all but worshipped by cult members.

Having dabbled on the periphery of a number of cults and cult-like movements over my years, I was simultaneously delighted (relieved!) and yet a tad envious having never personally committed so fully to any movement as Timothy and the others did to "the Process", thus I have missed the exhilaration... and horrors of this heightened level of social experiment.

For that is, in the bigger picture, the function cults have played over the millennia in "civilized" societies. Just as an individual may become enmeshed in a cult for reasons of personal need or past trauma, cults are society-specific, working out the needs or distortions inherent in the structure of each. As the "black sheep" in the family will act out and thereby absorb the brunt of a nuclear family system disorder, cults can also serve to help societies purge/decompress their systemic dysfunctions but giving voice to often unspeakable aspects, ultimately serving the societal good.

This book, with all the heartfelt and self-deprecating admissions, also highlights the potential for human growth through "alternative" experiences - as challenging and absurd as they may look next to the mediocrity of "normal" socially acceptable lives and behaviors.

A great read - richly revealing, engaging and provocative.

Since Robert N. Taylor has provided an excellent review of the contents of this book and an overview of the historical context of the Process Church, I would like to contribute some reflections that are more personal, but also more metaphysical.

I first became aware of the Process Church, or at least its name, in Hunter Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, where Thompson taunts his drugged-up and hungry attorney by pretending to know about a cafeteria run by the Process, "just a few tables" but with an interesting back room... The attorney freaks out and tells Gonzo "Don't even mention the Process around here, man," implying they could give Manson a run for his money in the woo-woo department. Later, I came across some references in Burroughs [he, like they, flirted with Scientology in London]; usually, at this point Bowie would follow up, but I don't recall him ever mentioning them, although the infamous `fascist' period, with uniform and salute, might speak of some influence.

Instead, much later one heard of their influence on Psychic TV [and indeed Gen pops up here to add his own chapter]. But it wasn't until nearly the Millennium that I found some of the original materials, republished in Simon Dwyer's Rapid Eye.

Alas, however impressed I might have been in 1973, by this time they seemed like the home-made theology of some art student, or the sort of thing Fred Berger might have cobbled together to surround photos of languid runaways in Propaganda. Still, cool graphic design.

So it was with great expectations that I ordered this book, so as to finally get some inside insight into the ultimate hippie cult.

The good news is that about half the book consists of an unrivaled collection of reproductions of rare Process publications, photographs of Processeans going about their tasks [ranging from "donating" their time, i.e., panhandling, to hosting cable-access talk shows] and original doctrinal statements by Robert deGrimston. This part alone makes the book self-recommending to anyone who has wondered what made the Church so compelling in its time, and a continuing source of artistic inspiration to this day.

The balance of the book consists in a variety of personal memoirs, which I found of less interest, as least on their own terms. While a few, such as Edward Mason's "My Life in the Process," manage to convey what made the Church's doctrines attractive to them and how they tried to implement them in their own lives, the rest, including the longest, Timothy Wyllies's "My Life Inside The Process Church" seem like typical "my life in the cult" stories.

There is, however, one really cool story about how Miles Davis freaked-out and tried to assault a group of Process mendicants in Greenwich Village; perhaps this is where Miles got his notorious wish to "get the chance to strangle a white man" before he died. There's also some bitchy Scientology gossip, such as L. Ron's teeth rotting out because of his fear of dentists, that should give Tom, Katie and Kirstie something to think about.

But anyone expecting "inside information" or a serious discussion of the Church's theology and practices should still look to William Bainbridge's older and "outside" study, Satan's Power : A Deviant Psychotherapy Cult.

It's hard to believe that so many people could spend so many years apparently doing nothing all day but sell magazines on the streets and run a coffee house on Thursdays. Far from being Satanists, vampires or cannibals, the Processeans seem to have been the original slackers; its not hard to imagine them hanging out at the Process Comic Book Store and whiling away the time comparing various superheroes to their own gods, Jehovah, Christ and Satan.

The enormous amounts of leftover time seem to have been filled in with occasional bouts of "training" in telepathy and other such New Age junk, as well as, in Wyllie's case, far-out predictive dreams and "near death" experiences, to hit the rest of the New Age checklist. Oh, and endless bull sessions wondering what the leaders, living grandly in their separate quarters [usually a penthouse or upstate mansion] were thinking about them.

One get the impression of a group of people who think, correctly, that they are much smarter than everyone else, and even more spiritually attuned as well. Unfortunately, lacking access to what Frithjof Schuon would call "metaphysical data," they are unable to do more than construct their own personal theology out of random bits that seem `cool'. Unable to judge anything by objective metaphysical principles, they are easy prey for the husband and wife team [or rather, wife and husband team] of the deGrimstons, aka The Omega.

On reflection, the wearisome content of the various memoirs may actually be more significant than one might think at first.

It's the emphasis, if only by default, on telepathy and other "cool" "spiritual" experiences that provides the key to not only why these memoirs fail to maintain the occult thrill of the Church`s own media, but also why The Process itself failed. As Guenon pointed out over and over, spiritual development [or `initiation'] has nothing to do with "experiences," however far-out.

Preoccupation with such "experiences" is the chief sign of an essentially non-metaphysical, indeed materialistic, point of view; the vast "systems" [another bad sign for Guenon] and cults build up around them, which Guenon tirelessly exposed [see The Spiritist Fallacy and elsewhere for his evisceration of Theosophy and its smarter cousin, Anthroposophy] are either mutual deception in good faith, or, as here, a cynical method of controlling and exploiting the duped.

We have either a foolish pseudo-Tradition, or a Satanic counter-Tradition; in neither case has materialism been surpassed, only a "cooler" version for "the new generation" has been produced.

Speaking of Theosophy, and other "spiritualist" groups beloved by stereotypical "old ladies," it is only too appropriate that The Process turned out to be a matriarchal cult, whose "leader," Robert deGrimston, was simply the first victim, soon cast aside as the female-led group mutated into a very-70s cable access "ministry," complete with leisure suits and goatees worn by various Fr. Groovies, and then became an animal rescue charity in Utah. Manson, it turns out, would have eaten their lunch, and then the members themselves.

In the end, The Process seems to have been, as Guenon says in Perspectives on Initiation, one of "the many fantastical groups of our day, especially in Anglo-Saxon countries, which `ape' the forms of initiatic organizations but conceal absolutely nothing" and "reminding one of children who, left to themselves, want to handle redoubtable forces without knowing anything about them; if deplorable accidents too often result...we should not be unduly surprised."

Still, really cool fashions and graphic design sense, still the best around.

Timothy Wyllie writes the story of "The Process Church" with both
objectivity and insight.
In both long-shot and close-up he takes the reader into an experience
that transcends his/her previous imprints of attraction and aversion.
This intense "Oh Wow"! and "Oh No"! story is told with clarity, wit
and an eye for detail, a chimera of the sixties and seventies from
another angle and through another filter.
The book is brilliantly edited by Adam Parfrey.
Complex, many-layered material is organized into three parts to offer
the reader options for spontaneous exploration. Understanding deepens
by dipping into the three segments at will.
First; the recollections of Timothy Wyllie and other Process members.
Second; excerpts of The Process Church's scripture, written by Robert
De Grimston, spiritual leader.
Third; excerpts from The Process Magazine" in which writing and
illustration and highly avant-garde layout perform their Psychedelic
Sans Drug Dance.
In the cult the cream of talent rose rapidly and was readily used to
profit the community. At an age impossible in conventional publishing,
young Timothy was a major force in creating a magazine that, sold on
the streets by the theatrically costumed Processeans, brought major
revenue to sustain the community. "Lucy (was not) in the Sky with
Diamonds," but the black, white and red graphics of the magazine
revealed another psychic climate, The Jehovan - Luciferian - Satanic
union.
I recommend bathing in the stunning graphics every once in a while to
color Wyllie's story and also referring to the Robert De Grimston
material, which presented as an entity has saved Timothy the labor of
elucidating the Process Doctrine in detail in his unfolding story.
Wyllie reveals the psychological climate within the cult and the
challenge of establishing The Process across Europe and the United
States. All Processeans were on a constantly ascending learning curve,
sometimes demanding raw survival skills. Living within the community
required the development of selfless intimacy with others, and the
emotional flexibility of balancing on the shifting sands of the
ever-changing values and demands of the leaders, who Wyllie paints
from many angles in diverse media.
Out of the fertile soil of revelation and devastation, Timothy and his
companions bring forth a rich and mutant crop.

Timothy Wyllie has written a merciless depiction of his own motives and activities during his long, strange trip with the Process Church of the Final Judgment. Half a dozen other former members contributed shorter pieces. Adam Parfrey did an excellent editing job, incorporating Process-related graphics, texts, and photographs, and a chapter by Genesis P-Orridge on the influence of the Process materials on his own work. (The graphics reproduced from the Process magazine are excellent!)

After finishing the book I found myself thinking about the Process Church (and the later organizations it morphed into) as an awesome exercise in control on the part of the cult leader, Mary Ann MacLean. A prostitute earlier in life, she mastered the control techniques of the pimps she encountered, and later employed them to keep a religious order (and later an animal rescue organization) supplying her with the cash she needed to live in high style.

I am not capable of evaluating the theological aspects of the Process Church. I found the reproduced texts (by Robert de Grimston) about Jehovah, Lucifer, and Satan to be tedious. I suspect a lot of the "magick" that Timothy Wyllie describes was real, but had to be encountered first-hand in live sessions in some of the more advanced Process chapters relatively early in the group's existence.

As an avid reader I have come across the works of author Timothy Wyllie in the past. Those books were great reads and were thoroughly entertaining, uplifting, and mind-opening.

In Mr. Wyllie's earlier books he touched on his experience(s) in the Process, but he never went too deep into them. My guess is that those experiences were not important in the context of books about dolphins, extraterrestrials, and angels.

In "Love, Sex, Fear, Death," one can not only see how intense experiences form future mindsets (in the case of Mr. Wyllie and the impact his time in the Process had on his future research and explorations), but also how strong individuals knowingly -- and willingly -- put themselves in situations where growth is inevitable.

This book shows what happened in the Process, but from the point-of-view of different members. Each had a different take, and each take was very interesting. By the time you get to the last page, you will find that your entire pre-determined view of cults/religious organizations/etc. has been shattered. Where I once thought of these people as weak-minded "sheep," I now see them as explorers trying to find ways to grow. They went through the fire and came out stronger for it.

Maybe this is not the case with every cult, but at least this book has opened my eyes enough that I will not simply stereotype. I hope it would have the same impact on you.

"Love, Sex, Fear, Death" is highly recommended. Through its content, you will be inspired. If you are an open-minded individual, you may even find that you are comparing things you've done in your life to those you read about in the book. I did.

Thank you again, Mr. Wyllie!

This is a wonderful book. Timothy Wyllie remembers and dismembers himself and The Process with intelligence, compassion and humor. The human urge to find meaning, to belong to something greater than ourselves, has led most of us and humanity itself down some truly strange byways, and The Process, and the '60's and early '70's was a fertile time for strange. Wyllie's book is also generous, as a number of other Process members share their recollections along with his, and the reader is invited to feel the elephant along with the blind folk. It is a worthwhile journey, both as an historical record and as a document of this human Thing we are doing here.
David Field

Though now receding into the hazy memory of the twentieth century cultural landscape, The Process Church of the Final Judgment was one of the most fascinating (and notorious) new religious movements to come out of the 1960s. Often characterized as part of the darker side of the hippy era, little inside information has been available. That is, until Feral House's new publication Love, Sex, Fear, Death. At its height, hundreds of devotees, conspicuous in their black cloaks and swastika-like silver mandalas, swept the streets of London, New York, Boston, Chicago, New Orleans, and Toronto, selling magazines and books with titles like "Fear" and "Humanity is the Devil."

Celebrities like Marianne Faithful, James Coburn, and Mick Jagger participated in Process publications, and Funkadelic, in its Maggot Brain album, reprinted Process' "Fear Issue." Process' "Death Issue" interviewed the freshly-imprisoned Charles Manson leading conspiracy theorists such as Ed Sanders (The Family) and Maury Terry (The Ultimate Evil) to link The Process Church to the notorious murder sprees conducted in Manson's name. The Church's theology and publications influenced modern experimental music groups such as Skinny Puppy and Psychick TV/Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth.

Love, Sex, Fear, Death tells the previously untold secret inside story of The Process Church, which later became into Foundation Faith of the Millennium, and most recently as the Utah-based animal sanctuary, Best Friends now featured in the reality TV show Dogtown.

The book was originally intended to be a collection of Process magazines collected and edited by Adam Parfrey and Genesis P-Orridge. As they began talking with former Process members the monograph project quickly became eclipsed by the fascinating inside story of the Church. The book includes a lengthy text by Timothy Wyllie, one of the earliest members of the Process and, later, Foundation Faith organizations; interviews with other former members; reproductions of Process magazines (many in color); never-before-seen photographs; and fascinating transcripts from holy books and legal actions. In addition to the Process materials, the book also includes a fascinating essay by Genesis P-Orridge and an introduction by Adam Parfrey.

I have long been intrigued by the imagery and mystery of the Process Church--their members' appearance and their media aesthetic an irresistible contrast to the free-form psychedelia and proto-New Ageyness of the hippy era. This book is nothing less than a quantum leap in the availability of information on the Process Church. Wyllie, Parfrey and the folks at Feral House have produced a significant addition to the textual archive of 20th cult (and occult) history.

Love,Sex, Fear and Death is an interesting attempt to make sense of the experience that a number of members had in the Process Church in the late 60s and early 70s. Its main shortcoming is also its main virtue. The lengthy and very interesting account of Timothy Weilly (aka Fr. Micah) is the heart of the book and very informative. The other much shorter accounts are not nearly as strong. In particular, the excerpts of the interevier with Malachi McCormick (aka Fr. Malachi) give a rather different view that the others and I would have liked to see it expanded. I myself was involved on the edges of the Prcess and so it was particularly interesting to me. I lent it to a friend who was interested but had no experience with the Process and hist response was that there was too little of what the Process was and what it believed which made it hard for him to follow. Still despite its limitations, it is an interesting window into a particular time and place.