"Decades before Charles Manson's followers spread terror in Los Angeles and Jim Jones orchestrated mass suicide in Guyana, a bearded mystic named Thomas Lake Harris preached salvation in the hills above Santa Rosa. He claimed to speak with spirits, rewrote the Bible and battled demons in trances. His followers gave him their money - sometimes a great deal more. What began as a utopian experiment called Fountaingrove ended in scandal and headlines about "spiritual harems" and mind control."
"Harris said he experienced an "overflowing" love of Christ at 15, when he attended a revival meeting. He began his public life as a Unitarian minister in New York around 1845. But his path soon veered into the realm of spiritualism. Claiming the ability to serve as a medium, he drew inspiration from the teachings of the Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, whose writings sparked a lifelong fascination with the spirit world."
Thomas Lake Harris was a 19th-century mystic who claimed mediumship, rewrote the Bible and battled demons in trances. He attracted devoted followers who donated significant sums and joined a utopian settlement called Fountaingrove near Santa Rosa. Harris was born in 1823 in Fenny Stratford, England, and emigrated to the United States at age five, settling in Utica, New York. He experienced a profound religious conversion at 15, began as a Unitarian minister around 1845, and later embraced spiritualism under the influence of Emanuel Swedenborg. Early communal ventures emphasized spiritual purity and manual labor but ended amid scandal and accusations of manipulation.
Read at The Mercury News
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