Revisiting a Eureka, California meditation group from the 1970s
January 22, 2009
I am following up on one of my previous posts here, “The 1970s and It’s Spiritual Influences, part one”, due to seeing someone finding this blog as a result of an internet search for a “picture of Bruce Avenell”. First, here’s the link to that article:
http://atiasrama.wordpress.com/2008/12/14/the-1970s-and-its-spiritual-influences-part-one/
And, here’s the relevant section of that article:
Then, there was experimentation with a practice that clearly was goal oriented or a search for experiences. But, what the hell, I wanted to travel to exotic lands! So, I was exposed to “surat shabda yoga” in my late teens (in Eureka, California, of all places!) and even though I never joined the Ruhani Satsang, got Initiated by Kirpal Singh, or took those classes Bruce Avenell was offering, I had obtained the details of the practice and started in with that.
I did my own google searching and see that Bruce Avenell’s old meditation group, founded in Eureka, California at the very end of the 1960s, appears to be going strong still! I used to visit him in his small Eureka apartment when I interviewed him for an assignment for a journalism class at Humboldt State University. (And, one time I loaned him a book on the old “I AM Society” associated with the Mt. Shasta metaphysical scene, a book loaned to me by an elderly neighbor.) Here’s what I found:
And, a yahoo group founded by his daughter:
Hey, Wanderer. I’ve got a bunch of friends who went to Humboldt. I lived in Arcata for a few months when I was first re-entering society after 2.5 years in Indian ashram. I definitely considered staying there, but had a series of failed job interviews. I had good clerical skills, but there was that gaping hole in my resume, and the Humboldt employment situation is always dicey for non-dope-growers.
In my frustration, I moved to Berkeley, where I knew there was plentiful word-processing work that paid twice as much as typical Arcata jobs. That, and the pull of the Pink Floyd Lasarium show in Golden Gate Park, and bagels with cream cheese, tomatoes, and sprouts on Telegraph Avenue.
ANYWAY: I graduated high school in ‘77, so if you’re around my age, you could have run into some of my friends in Arcata or HSU. Do any of these names mean anything to you… Raul Oliva, Ray Lucas, Mike Whitsel, Doyle “Derry” Royal, Ruth Kirby, Tom “Peter” Kardas, Charles Brock, Mike Hamilton?
Hi Stuart, it looks like I’m about 8 years older…My last year at Humboldt State was in 1974.
You had an interesting fork in the road there! Back when living in Arcata for those few months. BTW, I remember that Pink Floyd Lasarium show from the 70s, there at the Park.