LSD Children Cult
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I'm looking right at each one of you. You are the initiate. You are the cosmic being. You're staring into the awakening. Welcome to Theories of the Third Kind. Welcome to Theories of the Third Kind. My name is Aaron. The other host joining me is Daniel Sun. Hello. Now, before we start today's episode, we do have a quick announcement to make.

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And that is the end of the announcements. So let's get into today's episode. Located in the heart of Australia is a hidden community, one that is surrounded by mystery and manipulation, hiding itself from the prying eyes of society. Some call them the cult of deception, promising salvation, but delivering torment.

Did their leader truly possess the power to exert absolute control over her followers, convincing them that she was a divine being? Or was it all just a top secret plan by the government to test the effectiveness of mind-altering drugs? In this exploration, we navigate the intricate web of manipulation, seeking to understand the profound and lasting impact

of a cult that captured the souls of its members. This is the LSD Children Cult. All right. So before we start the episode, real quick, we need to set something straight. Some people call this group a cult. Some people call it a sect. We are going to call them both. Yeah. And we will be using the terms interchangeably today.

However, if you are wondering what the difference is between a cult and a sect, don't worry. We will quickly explain them to you. Now, since Aaron used to be a cult leader, I am going to let him start it off and explain what a cult is. Now, before we get into that, we are going to take a quick break and we'll be right back. All right. Welcome back.

Cults are usually defined as a small group of people who have strong beliefs which are outside of the mainstream and are viewed somehow bad or negatively.

An example of a cult would be the religious UFO group called Heaven's Gate. Oh, that one. Now, this group believed that the end of the world was coming and that they would be turned into an alien species and taken to another world in our universe called Tila, the evolutionary level above human.

Now, the followers, who are now aliens, by the way, they would live on Tela in a state of pure bliss. These new alien residents would get rid of their old human ways. They wouldn't have to eat regular food anymore, and instead, they would get their nourishment by absorbing pure sunlight through their buttholes.

Also, the followers were told by the leaders that due to their alien form, they would not have to engage in sexual intercourse and that they would never die. Which, that sounds pretty shitty if you ask me. A little bit, little bit. Yeah, but apparently some people thought it was cool because in 1997, 39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult committed suicide.

Which, by the way, that is never the option. If you are thinking that way, you should call and get help. And I'm being 100% serious right now. 100%. That is not something that we play around with. Always seek help. It is not the cowardly thing to do. So there you go. That's an example of a cult. Now, Dan here, he's going to tell you what a sect is. And no, I've never been part of one. That's not why I'm doing this.

So a sect is a small group of people who have a religious belief that is similar to, but slightly different than a mainstream religion. To put it even simpler, a sect is a religious group that has separated from its parent religion, but keeps similar worldviews and acknowledges the same sources of history. The Amish in the United States are perhaps the most well-known example of a current sect. And that right there is the difference between the two. By the way, I do have a quick knowledge nugget to hit the listeners with.

Something that you can whip out at the dinner table and chat with your family about, you know, something other than your ding dong. But you don't want to really whip that out at dinner table. No, not at all. Anyway, so historically, the word sect comes from the Latin word sequi, which means to follow, or secta, which means following. Now, the word cult comes from the Latin word cultura.

which it is not spelled anywhere close to that. So I don't know how they got that pronunciation. But anyways, Kultura means to worship. So there you go. All right. What? Am I going to enter a spelling bee? Jesus Christ, man. Hey, I'm just giving the listeners some knowledge nuggets, man. We know you were a cult leader. You don't have to brag about it, okay? I wasn't. All right. So now that we have all of that cleared up, let's dive into today's episode.

So for us to fully understand this story, we need to first talk about the individual that this entire episode revolves around. So Dan, start this off and tell us about Ann Hamilton Byrne. Well, first off, Ann isn't her real name. She was actually born as Evelyn Grace Victoria Edwards. But we're going to call her Ann from now on since that's what she wanted. So Ann was born on December 30th, 1921 in Sale, Victoria.

which of course is located in the country of Australia. Anne's father, Ralph Edwards, was born in Melbourne, Australia. And in Melbourne is where he would marry his second wife, Anne's mother, Florence. Now, Florence was not from Australia. She was from way across the sea in old London, England.

However, that did not matter because fate brought the two of them together. During World War I, as Ralph was fighting for his country, he would cross paths with Florence and they would fall in love. Eventually, Ralph and Florence got married and they had a total of seven children. And like we always say...

They were f***ing, okay? So Anne was the oldest out of these seven children. And you would think that, you know, with f***ing so much and having so many children that they were prepared to take care of all of them. However, that was not the case. Florence, you know, Anne's mother, she developed paranoid schizophrenia and it took a toll on her marriage.

For example, sometimes when the family would go out in public, Florence would decide to, hey, I'm going to set my hair on fire just randomly. And if that wasn't bad enough, at random times all throughout the day, Florence would claim that she was a medium and could communicate with the dead.

This type of behavior became so frequent that Ralph would randomly leave home for long periods of time. Of course, this would only add to Florence's mental stress and cause her to spiral even further down. It was around this time that Florence would officially get diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and end up being hospitalized in four different mental institutions.

She would spend a total of 27 years in those mental institutions, eventually passing away in one of them. Now, when Florence first got hospitalized, Ralph came back home and started to take care of his children. However, he started falling behind on multiple bills, including some unpaid war veteran debt. So he said after those kids, he ended up leaving them all alone, hit the road and started working as a traveling salesman.

Now, due to Ralph leaving and becoming a salesman, as well as their crazy-ass mama being institutionalized, the children did not have anyone or any money. So needless to say, for the rest of their childhood, they lived in poverty. Eventually, word got around town about these kids being left alone, which led to Anne and her siblings being placed in the old Melbourne orphanage. Then in 1929, at the age of eight years old, Anne would be enrolled at the Sunshine Primary School.

So following that, not much is documented or known about the rest of Anne's childhood or her teenage life. However, the documentation trail does pick back up in the early 1940s when Anne was 20 years old. In 1941, Anne changed her legal name of Evelyn Grace Victoria Edwards to Anne Hamilton. Also, during this time is when she would meet her future husband, Don Lionel Harris.

Now, before Don had met Anne, he was in the military, and we actually uncovered that he was an intelligence officer

which no one mentions that, but we uncovered it. That's because he went by Don. That is. He went by Don, and everybody called him Lionel. And in every single report about this story, they called him Lionel. Anyway, so like we stated, Don had met Anne. He was in the military. He was an intelligence officer. However, he said, f*** this, and decided to go AWOL for about eight months.

Now, during that eight-month period is when he would meet Anne. They would quickly get married and move to Victoria. Their honeymoon didn't last for long because the military found where Lionel was located and ended up arresting his ass. For his punishment, Lionel had to serve another year in the military before being discharged on compassionate grounds. Shortly after he was released, Anne became pregnant.

And in 1943, she gave birth to a baby girl named Judith Harris. Which, by the way, Judith would later change her name to Natasha Hamilton Byrne. So from here on out, we aren't going to call her Judith. We're going to call her Natasha. So from 1943 to the early 1950s, things were pretty normal for Lonnell and Ann. Together, they raised their daughter, Natasha, and they were enjoying life. So in 1955, Lonnell told Ann...

You know what? Natasha is 12 years old and she needs a sibling. She needs like a little baby brother. Let's adopt. And thought it was a great idea. So they started shopping around. Good God. Like it's groceries or something. Well, I mean, she does. Yeah, later on she does. A few months later, the couple fell in love with a young boy who was an orphan at the Bernardo Holmes.

They were quickly approved for adoption and Lionel decided to hop in his car and drive to the home to pick up their new baby boy. On the drive there, Lionel was just cruising along, excited about what his future had in store for him and his family. However, his daydreaming would be interrupted with a loud crashing sound and then everything would turn black. Lionel was killed in a head-on car collision.

Of course, Anne became extremely depressed and would often isolate herself. However, this did not last long. Anne began searching for an outlet, and at the time, yoga was the new hot thing in Melbourne. Anne decided to try it out, and for the next five years, she would attend a yoga class daily, sometimes even multiple times a day. So like we previously stated, yoga was this big hot thing in Australia at the time.

Everyone was either learning it, becoming a teacher of it, with the dreams of eventually opening up their own yoga studio. And Anne was no exception. Anne shared that same goal, but she was never given that opportunity. However, that would all change. One rainy day in 1960, Anne was walking down the street, daydreaming about yoga,

She had been practicing it for the past five years and as she looked at the passing shops, she thought to herself, wow, I would love to turn one of these into a yoga studio. And she ended up coming across an individual pulling down some awnings in front of the Gita School of Yoga. This individual was Margaret Sexman. She had just opened up the new yoga studio and was pulling down its awnings. Anne stopped walking and began helping her. The two individuals struck up a conversation and Margaret said the following. Let me tell you about my past.

I was born in 1905 in Switzerland, and I lived a hard life. At the age of just 16 years old, I contracted tuberculosis and had to start treatment in a sanatorium in the Swiss Alps. And guess what? This treatment lasted over six years. As tough as those six years were, they played a critical role in who I am today. It was during those years that I would take an interest in breathing and relaxation techniques.

This interest led me down a rabbit hole and I began listening to podcasts like Theories of the Third Kind. Just kidding. Yeah, she didn't say that. She wish she did. Yeah. So Margaret continued on and stated, those breathing techniques led me into studying techniques on how to expand consciousness. This expansion of consciousness led me to learn about yoga. And let me tell you what, I love yoga.

Anyway, so my condition improved and in 1929, I was able to leave the sanatorium after spending six years of my life there. And at this point in my life, I was bored and I wanted to see the world. So I started traveling to every place that I could go to. Afterwards, I got bored and decided to settle down in Paris for a little bit where I was offered a modeling job for Dior and ended up taking it. I did the modeling gig for a while until the late 1940s, around the time that World War II ended.

My journey did not stop there. You see, I learned that there were people trying to get into Switzerland. So I decided to take a job as a smuggler, sneaking refugees into my own country. I only did this for a little while because during it, I decided that I wanted to see the world again and ultimately pursue my interest in yoga. So I immediately traveled to India.

Upon arriving in India, I traveled to the Tibetan border. It was at this border where I met my guru. My almighty guru took me into a cave where I spent the next five years. Goddamn Neanderthal. Right? During these five years, I knew nothing else but meditation, yoga, the intense practices of tantra, and the study of cosmology and evolution. So they were f***ing in that cave.

She was really a prisoner. That's what it was. She was very trustworthy to follow a guru into a cave. Hey, follow me into this cave. I want to show you something. I will teach you how to close your eyes and meditate. He puts a lotion on his skin. Or he gets the yoga pose again. Oh, my God. All right. Continuing on. So just try to revisualize the scene. We're in a cave. No, no, not that scene. We're on the side of the street. Margaret's still telling Anne her story. All right.

Margaret continues on and says, a few years later in 1954, I decided to move to Sydney, Australia. So I hopped on a boat and headed that way. Now, when this boat stopped, I got off of it thinking it was Sydney, but no, I found out it was Melbourne, but I didn't mind. So I decided to just stay here anyway. And guess what, Ann? This yoga studio right here, it's mine. I'm the owner of it.

It's called the Gita School of Yoga. I got the name from the Baba Vagita. So my yoga school is Australia's very first full-time yoga school with its own permanent premises. No one else is doing it like me. Also, we offer yoga classes each weekday and night. Now, everything in my studio is designed by me, Ann, even down to the pathway that you walk down when you enter.

This pathway is a small, narrow, pebbled path, which allows the students to essentially enter into a walking meditation while walking to class. So yeah, that's my story, Ann, and how I opened up this class. I'm sure Ann just stood there and was like, damn, I just asked how your day was, bitch. Not your entire story. Yeah, I saw you needed help, so I decided to help you. Actually trying to be a kind civilian. The only time. But that was pretty much just a long sales pitch. Yeah, it pretty much was.

Now, Anne just stood there the entire time listening to her. Afterwards, Anne told Margaret about her yoga past. This impressed Margaret so much that she offered Anne a teaching position at the new studio. Of course, Anne accepted it and began teaching yoga classes. And we do have a photo of Margaret teaching a yoga pose to a student of hers. And that student is not Anne, by the way. And we will post this photo up on our website, Theories of the Third Kind, for anyone that wants to take a look at it.

You can just go there and click on today's episode and all of the photographs and anything else that we mentioned today will be located right there for you. You know, I see the picture of her. That doesn't look like what a yoga teacher would look like. And then I look again and I'm just like, that's exactly what a yoga teacher would look like. She looks like a ballet teacher to me. That's exactly what this looks like. Yeah. All right. So this teaching gig that Ann took, it didn't last long.

So only three months into teaching, Margaret approached Anne and said to her, and we quote, Hey, uh, I'm getting word from my students that you were casting spells during class and you even put a spell on a fellow student, end quote. And that really did happen. Of course, Anne denied these claims, but the damage was already done.

Margaret fired Anne from her teaching position. However, this did not deter Anne's passion for yoga. She quickly began studying numerous books and teachings, eventually becoming knowledgeable on theosophy, anthroposophy, G.I. Gurchief's Fourth Way, and other works by several spiritual teachers. She eventually started setting up her own yoga studio in the city of Turok, Australia. And this would be the start of her twisted teachings.

So now that you have a good understanding of who Anne is, along with her life leading up to the early 1960s, that takes us to our next section. The story of how the cult was created. And this is where things get juicy. Now before we get into that, we are going to take a quick break and we'll be right back.

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And get an inside perspective from the experts closest to the cases. I really appreciate platforms like this that are there for the victims and to give them a voice. Listen now to the Crime Door TV podcast, your home for true crime analysis. All right. Welcome back. Now, something that you need to know about contributed to the creation of this cult is what was going on in Australia at the time.

It was the early 1960s. A lot of middle-aged housewives, stay-at-home mothers, and single mothers started to develop an overall dissatisfaction with mainstream Christianity. These dissatisfied individuals started exploring other options and becoming aware of Hinduism along with Buddhism. Now, this is important because you know how we previously stated that Anne opened up her own yoga studio in Turok?

Well, she noticed this demographic and what they desired. So Anne began teaching Hatha yoga and began adding a wide range of spiritual teachings to her classes, mixing together Hindu and Christian ideas. She also started consulting astrologers, offering astrology readings, and would even break out Ouija boards in the middle of yoga sessions. Gotta summon up those posing demons. Trying to act like her mother now.

Word of these new spiritual yoga classes began to spread and these curious, wealthy, bored, and unfulfilled middle-aged women started showing up in the masses. During her teachings, Anne began growing close bonds with her clients when they would ask her any information regarding her background. She would not tell them about her crazy-ass mama or her trick of a daddy or how she grew up poor.

Anne instead would lie and make up stories about her childhood. For example, Anne claimed that her mother was Scottish with red hair and that she had descended from French royalty. She would also claim that her mother had psychic powers and was a pupil of almost every famous spiritual teacher. When asked about her father, Anne would lie again and claim that her father was an inventor and close friend to multiple celebrities.

Also, Anne stated that her childhood home was a grand mansion that had massive grounds on it, on which she played on. She also stated that she went to school at Burbank Girls Grammar School, which is a private boarding school in Victoria. So needless to say, Anne was pretty happy with her life. She had her own yoga studio, the clientele, brainwashed individuals, and everything was going pretty well.

Now, it was during this period that Anne would meet another military man who she would ultimately fall in love with. His name was Michael Riley. He was a South African naval officer. And just a little fun fact, Michael and Anne would get married in 1965. One year later, in 1966, they would end up getting a divorce. Just keep that in the back of your head because it plays a role later on. All right, back to the story. So we need to jump back in time just a little bit.

We need to go back before Michael and Anne got married and talk about an individual named Dr. Rainer Johnson, because he plays a giant role in the creation of this cult. So this individual named Rainer Johnson was born on April 5th, 1901 in England. Oi, this coffee sucks. In 1922, he earned his master's degree at the University of Oxford.

Then two years later, in 1924, Rayner earned his PhD in physics at the University of London, becoming a leading scholar in spectroscopy. And by the way, spectroscopy is a scientific method of studying objects and materials based on patterns of color. And I know that might sound a little bit confusing, but it's really not. So we know that light and matter, that they interact with each other.

And when they interact, they give out very specific and predictable results. For example, different materials give off and interact with different colors of light in different ways. And this all depends on certain things like temperature, the composition of the material, and the motion of it.

To make it even more simple, spectroscopy is just a way that scientists figure out what things are made of, how hot they are, how dense they are, and how fast they are moving. And all of that information comes from a detailed color pattern. And it is used in astrology a lot. Anyway, just another knowledge nugget for you. Please continue with the topic, Dan. I feel like all that shit was just made up.

It does seem like wizardry, doesn't it? It does, but it works. It works. All right. So that is what Dr. Johnson was teaching. Lights and shit. So in 1934, Dr. Johnson moved to Melbourne and became the master of Queen's College, University of Melbourne. While he was in Australia, he ended up developing a close friendship with an individual named Ambrose Pratt.

Now, Ambrose was a writer and businessman, but he was also a mystic who was obsessed with Buddhism and its teachings. Ambrose would often talk to his friend, Dr. Johnson, about the study of paranormal phenomena. These talks would ultimately shift Dr. Johnson's interest away from science and more towards learning about the paranormal and the spiritual world.

Dr. Johnson would go on and publish multiple books over the subjects. In 1953, he published The Imprisoned Splendor. In 1957, he published Nurslings of Immortality. And in 1959, he published Watcher on the Hills. These books were widely read and reviewed throughout the world, which established him as a leading authority in the field of spirituality and the paranormal.

So that right there is Dr. Rainer Johnson. Now, you remember where I was talking about Ann earlier and how we left off with her meeting her new military boo named Michael Riley. Well, it was 1962 and Michael ended up learning about Ann's yoga classes and her spiritual teachings. And by the way, just a reminder, Michael and Ann had not gotten married yet. That happens in 1965. And we're just in 1962 right now. Michael ends up learning about Ann's yoga classes and her like doing spiritual classes in her yoga classes.

So Michael tells Anne that, hey, I want to introduce you to somebody that I knew previously. Years ago, while I was in college and I was doing some gardening work on the side, one of the gardens that I worked on belonged to Dr. Rainer Johnson. Now, this Dr. Johnson is like the leading guy in the spiritual world and the paranormal. So, you know, I figured I could introduce you to and, you know, you could become friends with the doctor and y'all could have similar interests.

So on December 22, 1962, Anne arrived on Dr. Johnson's doorstep, introduced herself, and they chatted for a while. During the chat, Anne told Dr. Johnson about her yoga studio and how she began adding a wide range of spiritual teachings to her classes, mixing together Hindu and Christian ideas. Anne also told Dr. Johnson that she had gained a tremendous following in a short period.

which means that these types of spiritual beliefs resonated greatly with the human race. Due to this, Anne stated that she wanted to branch off of those spiritual yoga classes she taught and start an official religious and philosophical discussion group that contained smart individuals like himself. Dr. Johnson was intrigued, but changed the subject and told Anne that he had an upcoming trip with his wife, Mary.

They were going to spend the upcoming summer of 1963 traveling around certain parts of India, learning more about their spiritual ways. As soon as he finished his sentence, Anne looked at him seriously and said, I have the ability of premonition. Listen to me. Do not go to India. Your wife, Mary, is going to fall ill. Now, it's important to note that if someone said this in modern times, no one would really blink an eye. Nope. However,

If someone said that back in 1960, that type of belief of, you know, seeing the future was sort of taboo back then. That whole spirituality scene had not fully developed yet, especially in Australia. However, since Dr. Johnson was familiar with those types of beliefs, it wasn't really taboo for him. And he didn't automatically dismiss what Anne was saying. Instead, he just thanked her for coming over and then Anne left.

So we're going to fast forward to Dr. Johnson's trip to India in the summer of 1963. While in Calcutta, their trip was cut short due to Mary developing a severe illness. This in turn made Dr. Johnson, Mary, and even their daughter Maureen believe that Anne might really hold some spiritual powers. As the family discussed it between themselves, they came to the conclusion that they should push Anne to create a spiritual discussion group that she was talking about and then join it.

After returning from India, Dr. Johnson, Mary, and their daughter Maureen, along with four other people, they all went over to Anne's house. They told Anne that, hey, your premonition was correct and that if she wanted to start a weekly spiritual discussion group, they would join it. Anne was excited and told him, I already knew that this would happen because I could see the future. Duh.

and then stated that they should all consume a bunch of hallucinogenic mushrooms and listen to her discuss her newest beliefs regarding spiritualism and religion. Everyone agreed and they consumed the psilocybin mushrooms and afterwards they all sat around and started to discuss spiritualism. About 20 to 30 minutes into the conversation, everyone's mood changed. Individuals started to become very happy and euphoric and some of them even started to giggle a bit.

At around the one-hour mark, it was stated that Anne asked everyone to be quiet. She got out of her chair and stood in the middle of the room in front of everyone. Anne then started talking out loud as if she was giving a sermon at a Sunday church service. As individuals listened to the words pour out of her mouth, the individual sitting down started to only be able to focus on Anne.

When they were only focusing on her, the outside portions of her began to glow, move, and swirl. Everyone listening and experiencing this went into a trance-like state. That's hallucinogenic mushrooms for you. I wonder if she was using dry ice and shit then too at that moment. No, the giddiness and euphoria 20 to 30 minutes in is typical for mushrooms. And the hour mark, hour to hour and a half is when you hit your peak. And that's when you're able to intensely focus in on like one certain thing.

But everything around that certain thing becomes like they stated, you know, it glows and moves and kind of swirls. I don't know. It's hard to explain. Because I know she used dry ice and some flashing lights to. Yeah, that's that's later on with the children. Yeah. So during this time, when Anne's up there, you know, giving her sermon and everyone around her is just sitting there tripping and watching her is when Anne decided to say, hey, I am Jesus Christ reincarnated as a woman.

and I am a God amongst humans. Anne also stated that humanity was in its final karmic cycle, after which there would be no further reincarnation. However, since she was Jesus Christ reincarnated, she could take humanity's sin, paying their karmic debt, and that they would receive salvation. Anne then declared that she was creating a group that was separate from her spiritual classes at her yoga studio.

With this group, she stated that she could help humanity. Anyone could join her group and she would relieve them of their karmic sins and give them salvation. In return, all she wanted was to be the master of the group and obedience from her members so that she could ultimately help humanity. Now, the seven individuals sitting down listening to her spout off this crazy ass stuff, they truly believed her.

And then stated to the seven individuals sitting down that she wanted them to be her first seven members of her group, a.k.a. cult. But she didn't say that part. And guess what? They all agreed. And then began to hug everyone, congratulating them on being saved and becoming a part of the family. At this point, someone asked out loud, Hey, what the hell is the name of our group? And was like, wait, wait, wait.

then told everyone that the name of her group was to be called the Great White Brotherhood of Initiates and Masters. Wait, I don't think that's a good idea. Could we change the name? Nope, that's what I have decided. The Great White Brotherhood of Initiates and Masters. And that is what her cult was first initially called, the Great White Brotherhood of Initiates and Masters. And it is the official start of Anne's cult.

Now, real quick, I want to give a quick refresher about her cult's beliefs before we dive deeper into what happens next and how quickly they expand. So we found an interview from an individual named Andrew, who was a member of the cult for over 10 years. Andrew explains the beliefs of Anne pretty well, and I figured that we could read that. So Andrew states, and we quote,

Anne Hamilton Byrne would often require us to refer to her as the Living Master. Anne was the very center and soul and substance of this single pathway to salvation that was laid down by the Supreme Father, a.k.a. God. Without love and the help of the Living Master, a.k.a. Anne, no human soul could ever be liberated from the material world.

Our human souls were locked into an endless reincarnation cycle and the living master, Anne, was the only one who could stop this. We, as in the members, were told to only do what we think the master, Anne, would approve of. If us followers thought that way and always used that line of thinking and questioning...

then we were told that essentially it is the master acting on it, not the follower. And side note real quick, not throwing any shade, but doesn't this sound similar to those, you know, what would Jesus do bracelets? They do. Are those still a thing? I have no idea. I know like back when I was in elementary school, everybody wore them. What would Jesus do? Yeah, I did see them a lot. What would Dan do? WWDD.

Again, I'm not making fun of any religion. Just saying they sound pretty similar. It really does. And I would have never put the two together. Yeah. Anyway, continue on. So Andrew kept going on and stating, I went through a period where I would have died for Anne. We were told to take mind-expanding drugs, such as LSD, and that under its effects, we were able to regress through one's life and back into past lives. The spiritual method was called clearing.

According to Anne, you had to clear out things from your past and you could only go to Anne to get the clearing. So that right there was a brief interview from the past member of Anne's cult, aka the Great White Brotherhood, aka the family. Now that we have a full understanding of the cult's beliefs, let's talk about how they were able to grow so quickly.

So you remember Dr. Johnson and his achievements, right? How he was very well respected in the scientific community. Well, since Dr. Johnson was one of the first seven members of Anne's group, those seven members were told to start recruiting more members so that Anne could help the world. Dr. Johnson would start using his connections and introduce Anne to his friends and associates, most of whom were successful professionals, including lawyers, doctors, teachers, and psychiatrists.

These individuals then agreed to go to one of Anne's group sessions where they would be dosed with LSD while Anne stood up in front of them. While under the full effect of LSD, Anne would give them the full speech about how she was Jesus reincarnated, the human race is stuck in a cycle including the person sitting there.

However, she can help not only them, but the human race by stopping the cycle and taking on their karmic debt. You know, blah, blah, blah. Pretty much the same speech that the previous member Andrew described. Now, under the effects of LSD and seeing halos and other visual hallucinations while Anne was giving her speech, these individuals were easily manipulated. That is how Anne was able to recruit so many respected and wealthy people.

Now, these rich members would then start purchasing properties for Anne and hold their initiations or meetings at them. The properties were located around 21 miles east of the city of Melbourne in an area of national parks. These properties included, and by the way, the cult gave each of these properties a name, so we will say their name, purpose, and location.

The first property is called Winvera. This was purchased as the house for Anne to live in, and it was located in Fernie Creek. The next property is called Shantanikatan Lodge, a.k.a. the Abode of Peace. This was the cult's ritual center, and it was also located in Fernie Creek. The next property is called Kailama, a.k.a. Up Top. This was a resort that members went to for multiple reasons. It was located around 93 miles northeast of Melbourne, near Lake Ilden.

Sounds like somewhere off of Lord of the Rings. Come to my Lake Eildon. You must travel to Lake Eildon to throw the ring into the volcano somewhere. Now, those three properties were the main ones that the cult used. However, Anne also had multiple other personal properties purchased for her. She had Broom Farm, a three-story mansion on 40 acres of farmland that is worth several millions of dollars. Anne also had multiple houses in England and at least a dozen houses near Fernie Creek.

She also had a large amount of land purchased for her in the mountains outside of New York. This large area of land had three houses built on it, and it is estimated that throughout the world, Ann owned at least $150 million worth of properties and land. Now, is that the value back then or now? Back then. Damn. Yeah. Bitch was rich. She's good.

Now, even though they had an assort of land and properties, Anne was still not satisfied. She wanted to, and I quote, save as many human souls as possible, aka recruit as many followers as she could get. Now, before we get into that, we are going to take a quick break. This is our last one, so don't go nowhere. All right, welcome back. So in 1965, Dr. Johnson decided to use his connections again and introduce Anne to an individual named Dr. Lance Howard Whitaker.

Now, Dr. Whitaker was a psychiatrist at the local New Haven Hospital, and he was quickly initiated into the cult. Now, this New Haven Hospital that Dr. Whitaker worked at, it was a private psychiatric hospital. Now, this hospital ended up becoming a recruiting ground for the cult. Two other psychiatrists from New Haven, along with its owner, all joined Ann's cult. These new members then told other workers at the hospital to join Ann, and which they did.

Eventually, the entire staff of the hospital was in the cult. After that, the staff was told by Anne to start recruiting the patients into the group. Around this time is when the cult started administering electroconvulsive therapy and lobotomies by the hospital staff to the cult members, all under the direction of Anne.

Also, Ann started officially working at the hospital as a nurse, and the hospital became her source for many different types of pills that she would just hand out to the members. So around 1969, the owner of the New Haven Hospital ended up dying. With the owner passing away, New Haven went from being a private clinic into a tax-exempt, non-profit foundation with Ann being listed as joint trustee and executor.

So basically, she had full control over the hospital. Following that, Anne continues to recruit individuals. And then in the early 1970s, she gathers the members of her cult and makes an announcement. Anne claims that during a recent LSD trip that she had been given a mission by the Almighty God.

She needs the group to stop recruiting adults and refocus their recruiting to children only.

And this recruiting would be by every and all avenues, meaning that members should start adopting kids for her and having children for her or find loopholes in the medical world and start taking children from mothers who show up at the psychiatric hospital in New Haven or convince those women who show up to sign over their children while under the effects of drugs.

So Anne was saying, hey, take all avenues you can to recruit as many children as you can. Even if a woman comes in who's a mother and has a child, give her drugs and put her under the effect and then have her sign a waiver to sign her child over. So like she said, she wanted children by any means necessary. So messed up. It is. And it gets worse. Now Anne realizes that she's going to need help with these kids. So she starts recruiting women from her yoga classes to be the ones who take care of the children.

These women are referred to as aunties, and their sole purpose was to care for the children that would join the family. So from 1968 and 1975, Anne acquired a total of 14 infants and young children. Some were the biological children of members of the family. Others had been obtained through illegal adoptions arranged by lawyers, doctors, and social workers who were all part of the cult.

Now, all the children's identities were changed using false birth certificates, and all of them were given the last name of Hamilton Byrne. Also, all of the children were made to dress alike, even to the extent of having their hair dyed blonde. Well, a very, very, very blonde. Almost a white color. Similar to that girl on the TV show Game of Thrones. You know, the one with the dragons? Daenerys? Daenerys?

I don't freaking know. I don't. Daenerys, you know, being a queen of the dragons. Okay. Yeah, her hair color, that really whitish look. Okay, so like the whitish blonde. Yeah. All right. Now, these children were all kept in seclusion and they were all homeschooled at the cult property called Uptop, which is the one located on Lake Ilden. The children were then told that Anne was their biological mother and only knew the other members of the cult

by aunties and uncles. I know I say aunties and you say aunties or some other way. I thought it was aunties, so I usually say aunt. Oh, okay. Potatoes, potatoes. The children were denied all access to the outside world and subjected to a discipline that included starvation diets and frequent unprovoked beatings. Multiple different psychiatric drugs were also frequently administered to the children. Valium, tramadol. Everything. They were given everything under the sun.

Another common thing that the children were subjected to was isolation. Anne would give them LSD, and while under its influence, she would place the child in a dark room all by themselves. Speakers were then placed inside the dark room with the child and would play recordings of Anne speaking to them. This type of treatment was very common, and it happened for a very, very long time. And you're probably wondering, how the hell has law enforcement not stepped in?

Well, they're about to. So around this time in the early 1970s, the local police started receiving reports of a strange family that had weird looking children with bleach blonde hair. The police read these reports and started wondering. So they started to look into the state filings and learned that the property that these children were spotted at, that property was reported as being a registered school.

So the police assumed that these bleach blonde haired kids were being homeschooled. Due to this, the authorities did not look into the property or its members for the next almost 20 years, even with multiple reports flooding in. Finally, though, in 1987, one of the children of the cult, 14-year-old Sarah Moore, was expelled from the group for being rebellious against Anne. And also, Sarah had invited a non-sect member back to the property without anyone's permission or knowledge.

which is a big no-no. So after Sarah was kicked out, she ended up living with this girl who had successfully ran away from her family, and they started a life of their own outside of the cult with no support or help from anyone. After meeting multiple other girls her age and sharing her story with them, Sarah was finally convinced that she should go to the police and file a report on Ann and the aunties.

After the report, statements were provided to the police that detailed the types of abuse, including the LSD trips and all the other messed up stuff that was occurring at Uptop, where all the children of the cult were being held. In August of 1987, the police and community services would commence a raid on the property of Uptop. During the raid, Anne was nowhere to be found. It was quickly discovered that she was out of the country and would be returning in a few months.

However, her husband Bill was at up top property during the rape. Now real quick, I know we didn't talk about Bill, so we'll give you a quick overview of how he met Ann. So we all know that Ann had met that one military dude named Michael, who was Dr. Johnson's gardener, and he introduced Dr. Johnson and Ann. We also know that Ann married Michael in 1965, and then they divorced one year later in 1966.

Following that, while Ann was working as a nurse at New Haven, Bill brought his son to New Haven for treatment. Ann and Bill met one another and they just hit it off. However, Bill was married at the time. And you know what's messed up? Only a short time later, Bill's wife was admitted to New Haven by false claims of her being crazy.

Afterwards, Bill and his wife divorced, and then in 1978, Ann and Bill would marry one another, which Bill immediately became her number two, aka the right-hand man over the entire cult. So that is the backstory of Bill. Now, like we were saying, during the raid in 1987, Ann was overseas, but Bill was not. He was arrested and six children were removed from the group and placed into the government's care.

Now, even though Bill was arrested, he was not charged with anything and he was released. A few months later, around October to November, Bill got on a plane and flew to Hawaii where he would meet up with Ann. Now, even after that raid and all the claims from the children, Ann was still not arrested or charged with anything. And that seemed to be the end of her interaction with law enforcement.

But that would not be the case. On December 12, 1987, the Monbulk Primary School ended up having a fire. It was reported and Detective Lex DeMond was called to the scene to investigate. During his investigation, Detective Lex would interview multiple students. During one of his interviews, he learned about the local cult known as The Family. This piqued Lex's interest and he decided to look into them.

The more Lex learned about the cult, the more angry and upset he became. He started to gather up as much incriminating information as he could regarding this cult so that he could present this as a report and suggestion for official investigation.

By June of 1989, Lex would finally get enough information to create a strong report recommending Victoria Police into opening up a criminal investigation into the family and Ann Hamilton Byrne. Victoria Police agreed and they created Operation Forest Task Force. With the help of not only Australia, but also the UK and the United States, this operation investigated the family.

During this period, multiple members of the cult started coming forth and revealing information to the investigators about the adoption scam process. Ann and Bill learned about this, and they decided to go into hiding. For the next few years, the operation had issues locating Bill and Ann. But finally, in 1993, it was discovered that they were living in some mountains in New York.

The FBI was alerted, and in June of 1993, Bill and Ann were arrested. Two months later, in August of 1993, Ann and Bill were both extradited to Australia. When they got back to Australia, both Ann and Bill appeared in the Victorian Magistrates Court, where they were both charged with crimes of conspiracy to defraud by falsely registering the births of triplets. That's the only thing they were charged with. Yep. Yep. So that following year, they would both appear in court.

And guess what? They would get zero prison time. Instead, they were only fined $5,000 each. That was it. They didn't get any more charges. They didn't get anything else. Just a slap on the bank account and they were free to go. And that wasn't even like a slap. She owned multi-million dollar properties. So it was like a little fart on the bank account. Just a little queef. That's upsetting. Yeah.

After escaping the charges, Ann and Bill pretty much went back into hiding for a little while. Multiple news stations all around the world started running the story, and this is what caused them to become so well-known. With Ann and Bill in hiding, you would figure the cult would break up, but they did not. They would still hold meetings, in which Ann would call into and speak to the members. In 2001, Bill ended up passing away.

Multiple media outlets had their cameras ready outside the funeral, hoping to capture a glimpse of Anne. Anne did attend Bill's funeral, and it was her only public appearance following her conviction. After the funeral, Anne went back into hiding. Multiple members of the church, including the children who were taken away in the 80s, they started to come forward and tell their stories to the media.

Now, this only fueled more hate towards Anne, and the general public thought, hey, it's unfair that she was able to escape the justice system. In 2007, Anne was placed in palliative care suffering from dementia. Shortly after that, a former adopted child of the cult did an interview with an ABC local radio show. In the interview, the former adopted child stated that the cult was still active, but there was drama going on between the members due to them trying to figure out who the next leader would be.

Two years later, in 2009, for the first time ever, Anne did an interview with 60 Minutes, in which she denied all the allegations against her. She did admit, though, to having a group of children under her care, but she stated that she never harmed them. Following that, in 2016, a documentary on the cult called The Family was released at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

Then in March of 2019, a mini-series was released titled The Cult of the Family. Only three months later, on June 13th, 2019, at a suburban Melbourne nursing home, Anne Hamilton Byrne would pass away at the age of 97, having never been convicted of any of her crimes. And that right there is the story over the LSD children cult, aka the Great White Brotherhood, aka The Family.

and their leader, Ann Hamilton Byrne. However, just like every week, this episode does not stop here, because now we are going to get into the strange facts and findings where we discuss all the weird stuff we stumbled upon during our research. So our first strange fact and finding is about Ben Shinton, one of the children Ann adopted illegally.

Ben gave an interview and during it he talked about the family and Dan and we have a short audio clip of that interview that we're going to take a listen to right now. My life was turned upside down so all the foundations of who mom and dad was, what reality was, what the rules were of engagement with people proved all to be wrong. So I very quickly learned that

communities you can grow up with, people can be sincere but sincerely wrong. And so just because someone says something's true and everyone says it, that is not the case. So I spent years trying to work out what truth really was, trying to fit in, nickname of psycho at school, destroying relationships everywhere I went.

traveling around Australia at one point with a school group and in tears thinking I had a head start but working out I didn't I mean life was extremely extremely difficult but I made a decision I'm determined to find out what the answers are I'm not going to sink I'm going to swim no matter what the cost damn well good for you Ben yeah good for you but man that's gonna suck living a life like that and then trying to I guess integrate back into normal society well

in a society, not going to say normal, but into society had to be tough. Yeah. And of course, seems like he was kind of bullied as well. And having your childhood taken away from you. So let's move on to our next strange fact and finding, which is about Anne's beliefs and what inspired them. Now, as we mentioned during the episode, we learned that Anne got a lot of her inspiration and beliefs from Hinduism and multiple other practices.

Well, as we were researching her beliefs, we stumbled upon something else that I haven't seen anyone else report. I've seen him just a couple times. Well, not by an official news agency or anything like that. Yeah, nobody in the news, social media or anything like that really reported on it. But we learned that Anne got the inspiration for her beliefs from a very important individual. And it is hidden pretty well. Helena Blavatsky. Now, who is Helena? Well,

Helena Blavatsky was a Russian-born medium and ended up becoming a prominent figure in occult teachings in the late 19th century. She founded Theosophy, which is a spiritual movement that aimed to synthesize Eastern and Western philosophies. Helena claimed to have access to secret knowledge obtained from her travels and encounters with Eastern mystics.

She also claimed to have revealed hidden truths about the universe, human existence, and the spiritual nature of reality. Anne stated that Helena's claims were a revelation and played a major role in inspiration for her core beliefs of her group, aka cult. But she didn't say that. She just said her group, not cult. Now, here's a real strange fact and findings for you.

Do you know who else was heavily influenced by Helena's writings? Alistair, Crowley, Crowley, however you want to say it. But Alistair developed his own system of belief called the Lema, and its core values were inspired from Helena as well. But just like how Anne found inspiration from Helena, so did Alistair Crowley. Crazy. That I honestly would have never put the two together. Yeah, and I've never heard of anyone connecting those three together. I mean, I didn't really hear about Anne Hamilton Byrne until we started researching this.

I heard about her a little bit. I think I did hear about it, but I didn't look into it too much. Now I know why. Crazy stuff. Yeah. So our next strange fact and finding is just as strange. And it is about Julian Assange. Now, I hope everyone knows who he is, but if you don't, it's okay. Julian Assange is an Australian guy who invented WikiLeaks in 2006. Now, why are we mentioning him?

Well, supposedly, in the unauthorized autobiography that was released about him, it was confirmed that Julian's childhood involved the cult known as the family, aka the Great White Brotherhood. What happened is that when Julian was a kid, his mother had a relationship with a younger guy. This guy ended up being Ann Hamilton Burns' adopted son, who was active in the cult at the time.

Then when Julian's mother would try to leave him, the guy would beat her. For years, Julian and his mother went into hiding all around Australia, trying to get away from this guy who could not stop pursuing them. And it is rumored that Julian was one of the blonde haired children that was tested on the LSD, that his mother would allow her boyfriend to

to take Julian to some of these initiations and subject him to this quote unquote treatment to correct his behaviors. But there is no solid evidence proving any of that. The only thing would be that his appearance kind of matches with the kids. Yeah. He has the very, very similar appearance. Yeah. The very, very, very, very blonde hair. And I think beard as well, if he wears it out. Yeah.

Crazy stuff right there. All right. So let's move on to our next strange fact and finding is about one of the children in the family, Sarah Moore. Now, Sarah was the one that was expelled from the family and went to the police that pretty much pushed over the domino that started the entire investigation. Well, Sarah ended up writing a book called Unseen, Unheard, Unknown.

Which, by the way, that was the family, a.k.a. cult's motto that they lived by. Unseen, unheard, unknown. If that's not, like, weird enough, I mean, like, come on. Yeah. But Sarah got out of the cult and was able to grow up, live her life. She became a doctor, but she still suffered from the physical and mental abuse that she was subjected to as a child. She did end up having issues where she tried to commit suicide in 2008. Didn't work, thank God.

But then in 2016, after she gave him a doctor, you know, lived her life, wrote a book, she ended up passing away suddenly from heart failure at the age of 46. Damn. CIA got her. You know how like some people would think that the kids would be like, you know, I hate you to the parents or Ann or whatever, and try to like seek revenge. But Sarah was more of, I don't hate Ann. I don't think she was coldly or anything. I just think she was just sick in the head. But I forgive her for that.

Okay. That's good. It was good on her part. Yeah. If that's how she copes and moves on. All right. So let's get into our last strange fact and finding, which is about orphanages in Australia.

So during the first half of the 20th century, most institutions were run by state governments, charities, welfare, and religious organizations, and sometimes private individuals who got the moolah. So they were pretty much run by whoever. Yeah. Now this definitely included orphanages and children's homes, even involving industrial or training schools.

In total, there were around 800 institutions operating between the 1920s through the 1980s in Australia. Now, these institutions were under-resourced, poorly supervised, and lacked government scrutiny. This caused a shortage of resources since no one really cared about them, and due to this, these orphanages and children's homes would often split their resources.

This splitting of resources happened for a while. Eventually, by the 1950s, there was a high amount of concern about the level of care these children were receiving in these institutions. You know, saying, hey, they aren't receiving much because pretty much nobody gives a shit about them. So this led to many of the larger orphanages and children's homes being closed down. So with those being closed down, this left the smaller cottage and foster homes to be used.

Also, the child protection sector became more professional and had actual accountability due to the changes in the child protection policy during the 70s and 80s, which I did find out some of those orphanages, they were very strict physical wise. Yeah. There's a lot of orphanages and pretty much rehabilitation homes for children in the 40s all the way up until current.

That no one talks about the abuse that occurs there. We have a list of them with reports that are just mind-blowing, especially that one in Maine that just recently closed down. Holy shit. How did they allow that? Anyway, we'll talk about that at a later date. Yeah. All right. So that right there was our last strange fact and finding. Now let's move into our theories section where we discuss...

the theories surrounding this topic. So our first theory is called secret testing. Now, this theory states that the reason Anne was never prosecuted for what she did was because the entire family, aka cult, was a front for the government to do their secret testing. The government wanted to test out how LSD could control individuals, as well as other methods of techniques and conditioning.

This included not only adults, but children as well. The government knew that they would not get approval for such barbaric testing, so instead they decided on an alternate route. The government influenced Anne and promised her immunity in exchange for the results of certain tests being run on adults and children. The tests that the cult ran. Anne figured out a way to use LSD to warp the minds of individuals and heavily influence them.

The government then documented the findings. This is why she was never convicted and charges never stuck on her. So to sum it up, this theory states that the cult was pretty much an off-the-books government testing program. And you know what's weird?

Jim Jones, the cult leader of the People's Temple, you know, that cult? Yeah. Well, between 1955 and 1978, that cult leader, Jim Jones, who convinced over 909 people to commit suicide. Well, before that happened, Jim Jones claimed that his cult was the exact same thing.

just an off the books government testing program and that's why he moved all the way to the other side of the world was to get away from the government and to protect his people but instead he was like hey the only way i'm going to protect them is to get all them to commit suicide by drinking the kool-aid well it wasn't really kool-aid oh yeah it was off-brand yeah it was off-brand stuff but yeah pretty much sorry kool-aid man yeah he said at the start of it you know i'm i accepted i

the government's deal in getting these people and testing them for him. But he started to care for him, moved away from the government and the government was like, well, we're coming to get you. So he's like, well, I'm going to save my people that I care about here, drink Kool-Aid, we're all going to die. Yeah. And by the way, we did do an episode over Jim Jones. It's called Jonestown. It's an older episode, but it is a good one. It is a very good one. Sad one too. Yeah. Anyway, so that right there is our first theory.

Alright, so our next theory is called demonic possession. This theory states that Anne was controlled by a specific demon and this demon demanded control over humans and children. The rituals Anne would perform were actually the demon gaining the souls of those members. Now, I didn't look to see if there were any demons that matched this criteria of being a persuasive cult leader who wants to control and to brainwash people.

So if you or a loved one is versed in demons and knows, you know, what demon this could be, send us an email with that information. What, do you want to use it? No, I just want to connect the dots. Oh, okay. No, I was about to say, uh-oh. I ain't summoning no demons. Hell no. Yeah. I got enough troubles of my own. You know what? I like that theory. I mean. I just want to know what type of demon wants that control. Honestly, I'd generalize all demons probably want that just to be able to control people and the suffering that they have. Yeah.

All right. So let's get into the last theory that we have, which is my favorite and it's called deep rooted. I know you had this one kind of blacked out until now. Yeah. I wrote this theory out and then I blacked it out. So Dan couldn't see it. All right. So this theory states that, Hey, we know that Ann's parents left when she was eight years old, right? Yeah. Ann was the oldest of her six siblings. Correct.

Of course, we all know that they were gathered up and taken to an orphanage after her father left. Now, maybe Anne had some deep-rooted guilt from feeling inadequate. You know, she had her little brothers and sisters looking up to her since she was the oldest, and they expected her to take care of them when their father left, but she was unable to, which this led to guilt.

shame and that all brewed for decades now and looked towards yoga and meditation as maybe a source of healing from her past trauma she created a group so that she could help others eventually incorporating children since she still had that guilt of not being enough for her siblings

The children aspect spiraled out of control along with other aspects of the group, which led her feeling like a god or savior. Now, this feeling only multiplied over the years and boom, there you have it. She's a psychotic cult leader, all due to her past trauma as a child and her ineffective ways of dealing with it. I only read this on one site that I found. I wasn't able to find it anywhere else. And honestly, I can't find it again, it seems.

But I believe one of Anne's siblings ended up dying kind of like a gruesome, terrible death or something like that. Ooh, I didn't read about this. And I look deep into this shit. I didn't read about that. And she had to go and identify the body. Oh, good Lord. Now, I don't know. I've only read that on one site, but I couldn't find anything else about it. But kind of fits into this theory of kind of being inadequate that, you know, she had to take care of her six siblings. And then later on,

One of the siblings that she was trying to take care of end up dying and she wasn't there to protect them. Yeah. Pretty much at eight years old, she had to take care of six other young kids and then she got them all taken away. And then she was placed in that sunshine school. Tried to become the mother of the kids. Yeah. She had to step up and it didn't work out. It's crazy. That one I can honestly see. And it just warped her mind because of that. Yeah. I could definitely see that.

So I guess we move into our own personal thoughts and theories. And I'm going to ask you, Dan, after going over and researching this topic nonstop, what do you think is the reason

why Anne did what she did and created this group aka cult do you think it was a government testing program that was secret or maybe it was just due to deep-rooted inadequacies from her childhood or do you think it was a demonic possession what do you think I do not think it was a demonic possession I do believe it does have part of the deep-rooted theory of where she felt inadequate

But most of all, I believe she was mentally ill and her growing up with her siblings in orphanages, reading up on how those orphanages and foster care homes were back then, they weren't the best place to be growing up. They seem to be kind of physically violent and all that. And it kind of makes me think that this type of growing up, she thought it was right.

that this is what she grew up to. So she figured, hey, this must be the way that, you know, things go. And the fact that she felt a little inadequate with taking care of her siblings after she gained all the money and followers and stuff, she wanted to try to make up for not being there for her siblings. So she wanted kids. Now, the way she raised those kids were the way that she believed after her mind was being warped by growing up in those orphanages and such was the way to do it, which

I don't think that was the right way, but that is how she'd let it. Now with the LSD and such, it was more like she wanted to make sure the kids were docile. They listened to her. She didn't want them to, you know, hate each other. So she definitely made sure that they all believe that they were siblings, dyed their hair, made them all wear the same clothes before they even got like a new kid or new baby. She would walk around pretending like she was pregnant, even though she wasn't. And I believe she had like a hysterectomy.

So she wasn't able to have kids, but she wanted people to believe that she was pregnant. So when these kids do arrive, like, oh, hey, it is my baby. Wanted them to be a family. Definitely think she was mentally sick. She felt inadequate. And honestly, she looked like a reptilian at the end. So she may have just been going for adrenochrome. I don't know. All right. I can dig that. But I'm going to have to disagree. I think I truly know what happened.

This is the most in-depth research I've ever done into an episode. I spent hours and hours scouring over everything that I could find. He is not just like joking about that. We had the document partially done and he's just like, all right, probably another hour or two. I should have it done. Frigging four hours go by.

Yeah, I'm deep into this. The whole document was like changed and everything. He kept finding more information. He kept diving deeper. And during the process of looking into this, I truly believe I found out what was behind this entire cult and what really happened. Let me have it. And no one else has mentioned this.

Okay, there's a few things I'm going to mention. Lionel, aka Don Harris. The intelligence officer. Yep, the intelligence officer that supposedly went AWOL for eight months. During that eight-month period, he met Ann. Yeah. Okay, and they quickly got married, and then he supposedly died in a car crash. Now, I truly believe that Ann's childhood that she said she had was not it.

That never existed. Her parents never existed. Her siblings never existed. None of them. Her childhood never existed. I truly believe her real childhood was the one that she told her students in her yoga class. Now, why do I say that? I'll get back to that, okay? But first, I want to say we know for a fact that Lionel, aka Don Harris, was an intelligence officer, okay? This is what I think happened.

Don Harris met Anne. At the current time, it was the 60s. What was happening? LSD testing. Big time going on. Secret LSD testing. MKUltra was going on in the United States. Australia wanted to do the same thing. So the intelligence community at the time in Australia started to have conversations. How can we do this and keep it off the books? So they started this program.

to get individuals to start infiltrating yoga groups and creating subgroups in the yoga groups and then start secretly dosing individuals with lsd to see how well they could manipulate the mind and then send the reports back to the government and they would be not charged with anything they would have immunity that individual would okay okay

So Don Harris is getting all this information as an intelligence officer saying, okay, well, we're about to start this group. He meets Ann. He's like, oh, hey, you're charming. You're beautiful. What do you think about spiritualism and yoga? He's like, oh yeah, that's nice. And he's like, okay, brings her in, marries her. And the intelligence community is like, hey, this is a great chick to start up a yoga thing. We're going to frame you dying, Don. And then we're going to commence her as an aggrieving woman,

who sought after yoga as a way to cope with your death. And then that's going to be the start of her recruitment into the cult. We have proof, found proof, that her yoga studio was paid for not by her. It was paid by government officials in Australia. Another thing that is weird, as I started looking into the secret intelligence operations

And how the CIA worked, and I know it's not to do with it, but the CIA intelligence operations and multiple others all do a very similar technique. When you're an intelligence officer deep undercover, you are given an entire false story about your childhood. I believe they created her entire childhood up because there is no documents about any proof of her siblings, a mother or father ever existing.

And what better way to say, oh, her father just ran away, went on the road and oh, her mother was a schizophrenic. She died in the hospital. Another thing that I found out that New Haven hospital, there's documents that prove from 1968 to 1974, the Australian government allowed LSD testing on patients there. Really? When it was owned by Ann. So I truly believe the reason why none of these charges stuck is because from the very beginning,

They saw this beautiful, charismatic woman that could be a yoga teacher and do their government bidding of trying to figure out this MKUltra and if the government could use LSD as a test.

Which is why, if you remember, the United States and the UK started helping in trying to find her because they were also involved in this. Because all three intelligence communities with the United States, the UK and Australia all shared information regarding their investigations into mind altering substances.

Hmm. I was curious about why the FBI in the UK would get involved in Operation Forest Task Force to find Ann and Bill. Yep. Okay. I 100% without a shadow of a doubt truly believe that is what the case is here.

How could she not been convicted or charged with any of the crimes against those children? There is hours and hours of video footage of the children after they were taken from the raid and placed into the police custody of the police interviewing them. And the children just saying what they went through in the horrors based on that testimony alone. How was she not charged with anything? I'm telling you.

She was a part of the intelligence community from the very beginning. And this was all just a undercover operation. I know it sounds crazy, but there's tons of proof that back all that up. What if it started before her with her parents? You said there's like no proof of them ever existing, but that's the only connection I can make with like UK at least. So Ralph Edwards, he was in World War I. Florence was from London. Wandsworth, I believe.

What if that's when the testing or the experiment for this actually started? And when once Florence started to pretty much lose her mind, they're just like, all right, she's the failed experiment. Well, hey, she did have a child. Let's use her next. She's the perfect candidate for the fact that, you know, let's say that her mom was given LSD and say Anne was born.

With the fact that, you know, Florence was under the influence of LSD and shit. I don't know if that would have really affected the birthing or anything. I don't know. I'm ignorant in the process of if that lysergic or whatever acid can penetrate a fetus or not. Yeah. But I mean, guaranteed that was like a free candidate for them. Ralph Edwards was just like, well, I can't be a part of that one. Cause he was just like, I'm not going to deal with kids.

So they kept an eye on Anne because there's a part of Anne's life that... From 8 to 20? Yeah. There's nothing. Absolutely nothing. You can't find anything from her life from 8 to 20 years old. No documentation whatsoever. Yeah, then all of a sudden, Lonnell Harris goes AWOL and all of a sudden he meets 20-year-old Anne. For some odd reason, I believe her true childhood is what she told her ladies at the yoga studio she had. I do believe she was mentally sick, but...

I mean, it could go into that as well, being testing that that would lead to probably her being mentally ill. Yeah. And by the way, I find it hard that all of these high up elites in these institutions, you know, these psychiatrists, these doctors would fall for her trap of being, you know, pretty much brainwashed into her cult as a member.

A lot of them were a part of the LSD testing through the government. Like I said, New Haven had a contract with the government to do LSD testing on its patients. Maybe a lot of these psychiatrists were a part of it and then they just grouped them into the cult saying, oh yeah, they were members just in case one of them blows the whistle. They could say, oh no, this person was part of the cult. They're trying to shift the blame to the government. No, they were part of the cult. I don't know. It's,

It's weird that she didn't get charged with anything. But then again, while she was in the nursing home suffering from dementia. That's another thing, man. They said she started suffering from dementia in 2007, but she gave her first interview in 2009 to ABC. While she was in the nursing home, the group still came to the nursing home for their weekly meetings and shit.

I think the government placed a thing and said, hey, she's got dementia. Well, not the government said it, but it was a tactic by them to create a false narrative in case she decides to spill the beans before she died. They'd say, oh, no, no, no, no. She has dementia. We never did a government testing program. Yeah, she has dementia. She doesn't remember half of the shit she did to the kids or anything like that. But during the 2009 interview with 60 Minutes, she seemed fine. They asked her, like, did you ever, like, beat the kids? She's like, no.

No, yeah. Like they were hit, you know, but never like beaten. Like she disciplined them, but it wasn't like a full on beat the shit out of them. But she would discipline them with a steel heel of a shoe from what one of the kids said. That's got to hurt. Yeah. Regardless, I think the children were abused. The kids were abused. But I think it was all under the direction of a secret program.

That's just my thought on it. But anyways. I mean, it could be anything because there's a lot of mystery to that. And there was some f***ery afoot. All right. Well, if you are a loved one, were a part of the family, a.k.a. cult, a.k.a. the great brotherhood of initiates and masters, a.k.a. the LSD children cult, please send us an email. We would love to talk to you. Let us know your experience if you want to talk about it. Yeah.

With that being said, do you have anything else you want to add to today's episode, Dan? I am tired of reading about this cult. Yeah, I do not blame you. It was a lot of research, a lot of time put into it, but still, I enjoyed actually doing the episode. A lot of crazy stuff. Well, with that being said, I want to thank you for joining us today. And again, thank you for your support. You are all amazing, every single one of you. So Dan, do you want to roll us out? Sure, I will.

It's okay to be out of this world with your thoughts because you are not alone.