The International Cafe Society.

Years ago, before the internet, I was a member of an organization that called itself 'The International Cafe Society'. Founded my Michael Cavanaugh, we met once a week at a cafe on Post near Geary streets in San Francisco and mostly discussed politics. We were a group of usually only five or six people, rarely all the same ones.

Some of the people I brought into the ICS were also in my esoteric group The Masters Of Gnosis. They were formed as part of my goal of bringing the ancient religion of Gnosticism into the modern discussions. In 1973 I'd bought a book at City Light Bookstore titled The Gnostics by Jacque Lacarrere. It set my imagination on high and I started having meetings to discuss the concepts outlined in the book. It was also a time of a new music explosion in SF, so as a musician and composer I decided to create a music production unit from MOG volunteers. Also in the mid-70's an art movement was forming in the Bay Area that took its inspiration from the Dadaists of the early 1900's. Defined as Neo-Dadaism, the movement was alive in the music community. Bands like Pink Section, The Dogmatics, Los Microwaves, Tuxedo Moon, Arkansaw Man, Inflatable Boy Clams and The Longshoremen gave the blunt-edged challenge to their audiences much in the way original Dada art shows challenged theirs. I started a record label and called it DADA-POP. 

My religious interest evolved through the years. As Gnosticism interests grew in the late 70's and early 80's, my personal interest in it waned. On the coattails of the New Age market, GNOSIS magazine made a huge impact with esoteric minded people (as did Elaine Pagels' book, The Gnostic Gospels). I liked the magazine very much for having a wealth of information in each issue, but I DID NOT like the dogma and mythologies it brought to the definition of Gnosticism. I began to form, occasionally in writing but mostly in my head, a new theology, based as much on experiential knowledge as much as it was spiritual release and euphoria. 

I'd always been fascinated by Time.

Like many who have been raised since birth to be Christian, my first concept of Eternity was presented to me in the tales of Heaven and Hell that came from the church. I don't recall the moment I thought of Eternity as an actual 'thing' (I was probably 4 or 5 years old), but I do remember that for several years afterwards I believed the simplest of explanations; Heaven was good and pleasurable and hell was bad and painful, and after you go there you stay FOREVER. I do remember, around the age of 7 or 8, thinking that was grossly unfair, and starting to wonder whether it could possibly be true.

...to be continued,...