Kundalini and the Art of Being ... 149reading books expressing similar views for a number of years. And
yet, for all their lofty talk, something about them just seemed a little
out of whack. This wasn’t quite what I’d expected. I wasn’t that into
rigid formality, and didn’t really care much for people who claimed
to “know the answers.” Although understanding the nature of reality
and human history was intriguing and worth investigating, recogniz-
ing the underlying mystery of the universe was more important to
me than having it all figured out. This group seemed a little too sure
of themselves.
I left the meeting feeling perplexed, but with an invitation to come
to their weekly Sunday service a couple of days later. I felt torn by
my conflicting perceptions and emotions. Either these people were
a remarkable group of beings beyond my current spiritual and in-
tellectual grasp, or they were just your standard cult lunatics, who
thought they were the center of the universe. I couldn’t quite tell. I
didn’t want to make hasty judgments about people just because they
impressed me as being a little freakish. I was something of a freak
myself and liked hanging out with unusual characters. I decided to
attend their Sunday service, where I suspected I would get a better
feel for the community.
I hitched back into town to meet up with Natty and Apollo. We
camped at the usual spot that night, in the woods near town. The
next day, we drove out of town a few miles to a good swimming
hole along the river that had been recommended to us by someone
we’d met while hanging out at the health food store. It was a clear,
hot day, and the river hit the spot like an ice-cold lemonade. It was
fun just to play around in the sun for a day, bullshit, and work on
our tans. We camped nearby that night; and the next morning, Natty
and Apollo once again drove me into town for my next community
meeting.
The commune’s Sunday service felt eerily similar to my evalua-
tion, but on a larger, grander scale. More than a hundred members
from the community attended, who either lived on their shared land
outside of town, or else in the greater Sedona community. They sat