California, long a Mecca for eccentric cults, has also hosted more than its share of unusual and unorthodox Christian evangelists and sects. From pre-Gold Rush days to the 21st Century, visionaries seeking to revive or transform the Faith have flocked to California's shores, or have emerged from its environs as native sons and daughters. Their often-idiosyncratic crusades have influenced not only Golden State history and culture, but Christianity as a whole. California Jesus tells the little-known yet fascinating stories behind the people and groups that populate Californian Christendom, including: * The Children of God -- Born on the Huntington Beach boardwalk, this "Jesus People" hippie-ministry turned to prostituting its members and molesting its children in the name of Christ * Bebe and C. Thomas Patten -- married evangelists, these Oakland-based Pentecostal preachers scammed penniless Okie immigrants and major banks alike for millions * Joe Jeffers -- a renegade Baptist minister who started a murderous religious war between his followers and a rival's, made headlines in lurid L.A. sex scandals, and claimed that "Yahweh" had stashed several billion dollars for him in the constellation Orion * The Metropolitan Community Church -- Gay L. A. evangelist Troy Perry challenges homophobia with a hugely controversial, and much-attacked sect that ministers Christ's love to sexual "outsiders" * Church of the Holy Family -- film-star Mel Gibson's schismatic, secretive Malibu parish, which claims to be literally more Catholic than the Pope * Holy Mountain -- a huge, bizarre, ever-growing folk-art monument in the Imperial Valley desert built by an aging drifter to glorify God's love, that's now become an international tourist destination * And many, many more! Filled with captivating anecdotes about the state's most colorful and controversial Christian pastors and sects, and accompanied by many rare photos and illustrations, California Jesus illuminates this absorbing yet little-discussed aspect of both state history and culture, and the Christian experience. Believers and doubters alike, as well as anyone interested in the Golden State's unique spiritual heritage, will find this work hard to put down.

John Aiken and his wife Louise, both M.D.'s by profession, have a significant place in the psychedelic chronicles, but their story has been poorly documented. After both sons died by drowning in separate accidents, they retired to New Mexico for spiritual research, with and without psychedelics. Art Kleps, author of The Boo Hoo Bible, has credited their Church Of Awakening as being the very first non-Native American psychedelic church to be registered in the U.S. in 1963, predating both Klep's and Tim Leary's Millbrookers by a couple of years. Aiken's 1966 Explorations in Awareness, draws on a vast array of ancient and modern sources, presenting an esoteric doctrine of self-realization and ultimate transcendence, told in a pure, stripped-down style that displays self-confidence. It is a delight to read because it was a new psychedelic path with vedic-yogic along with Christian and Native American influences, and not a rehashed insight of Hippy "trips." The book includes trip reports, including one from an Indian guru, who does a respect-worthy attempt to interpret the cosmologic-metaphysic experiences of an acid trip into plain English. Aiken's early discussion of LSD vibe is very different from what followed during the Hippy years, and deserves much greater recognition than received. Aiken's approach to enlightenment is rooted in meditating while using psychedelics--peyote, magic mushrooms. This derivative of Aiken's classic Work picks up where Aiken and his wife left off back in the late Sixties--fifty years ago. While Aiken discusses meditation, he doesn't provide specific techniques for doing so and how to get over resistance and other side-tracks. Meditation had just been introduced to Americans by The Beatles in "We All Live in a Yellow Submarine" and other pop songs that captured psychic explorers' imagination. In this derivative, author Beverly Potter (Docpotter) will add specific how-to instructions, with illustrations, on how to meditate effectively, including how to "sit," how to defeat "the Money Mind," and how to handle other challenges psychonauts meet along the path to enlightenment. The volume will include a foreword by Michale Marinacci, author of California Jesus and Weird California, about the significance of The Church of the Awakening among the early non-Native American psychedelic churches. A second foreword by Dr. Carl Ruck, Professor of Classics at Boston University and author of Mushrooms of the Goddess and Entheogens, Myth, and Human Consciousness will address mystic self-transcendence ecstatic visions achieved with psychedelic meditation and answer the question: can psychedelics lead to God--a question Aiken posed in a 1966 article in Fate Magazine.

A comprehensive tour of North American spiritual groups that use psychoactive drugs in the search for higher consciousness. For thousands of years, human beings around the world have used hallucinogenic plants and fungi to alter consciousness and connect with the Divine. Although such practices faded with the rise of organized religion, the last century has seen a revival of entheogen-based spirituality in North America. From LSD-powered guru Timothy Leary to cannabis-sex cults to psychedelic outlaw churches, Mike Marinacci presents a comprehensive tour of North American religious sects and spiritual groups that use entheogens and psychoactive drugs in the search for higher consciousness, mystical insight, and spiritual enlightenment. Exploring prominent churches and cults in depth, he examines the lives of their colourful leaders, the origins of their unorthodox beliefs, the controversial practices of their congregants, and their many conflicts with both law enforcement and public opinion. He looks at the Native American Church and their legal battle over their peyote rituals, the cannabis-sex temple known as the Psychedelic Venus Church, the murderous end of the LSD-therapy cult known as the Church of Naturalism, and several other major groups and temples of psychedelic spirituality. He then offers an encyclopedic survey of dozens of minor organizations, many of which have never been documented in an authoritative source before. Sharing personal interviews and anecdotes about the strange, outrageous adventures of religious psychonauts alongside rare photos and illustrations, this extensively researched study of underground psychedelic religious groups in the United States reveals their spiritual and cultural influence from the 1960s to the present day.

Eerie California tells the story of the Golden State's strange and spooky sites. Describes over 100 locations in Northern, Central, and Southern California including these bizarre attractions: * Haunted houses, hotels, highways, and parks * Lairs of "Bigfoot" and other elusive creatures * Ancient, unexplained ruins and earthworks * Legendary lost civilizations and underground cities * Ghosts, phantoms, and apparitions * Accursed and "jinxed" places * "Phantom panthers" and other sinister animals * Weird cult centers * Earthquake lights, moving rocks, and more strange geology * Lake and sea serpents * Prehistoric rock and cave art * And much more! Now regarded as a classic "Weird America" survey, Eerie California includes over 100 photographs of actual sites and phenomena. Get ready to discover a side of the Golden State you never knew existed!