The Source Family, Ultraviolence & Lana Del Rey

[Lanakai 661]

"I’m one of the very few who kept his picture up.  I’m the only one of his women that stayed his woman [in the way that I did it].  For the past 40 years, I became an Aquarian nun; I haven’t been with any other man–that means I’ve been celibate.  And in great joy, and it was my choice; it wasn’t hard.  It’s just, I was still connected with him.  I have been working with him."

http://www.monsterfresh.com/2013/12/04/isis-aquarian-interview-source-family/

 

"We had a very strong understanding, and he had me by the nape of the neck and I knew I wasn't done. I remained his wife, and I became, it wasn't on purpose – but I became what they call, an Aquarian nun."

http://realitysandwich.com/139810/isis_aquarian_father_yod/

 

 

- Isis Aquarian on Father Yod

 

 

 

[Wilde_child 490]

She is pretty.

[surfnoirqueen 9]

Hi! I think it would be nice to turn this topic on after the Freak video. As I was watching the video this topic just came in mind. A lot of people said it was like a reference to Jim Jones and Charles Manson, the Kool aid cult (related to the red drink) and other stuff related. But It reminded me a lot of Father Yod and his wives also.

 

It's 'laladelrey' here, i couldn't recover my account, so I'm using this one :c

[WhiteHydrangea 4,215]

Father talks about the Freak video with NME http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/i-kicked-some-girl-in-the-face-by-accident-father-john-misty-on-appearing-in-lana-del-reys-freak-vid

[vodkatonic 32]

i agree, when i saw the freak video all i could think of was the source family. when father john is talking to himself in the beginning and halfway through i think of charles manson, but idk, when her and FJM were dancing it was very identical to TSF 

[DouglasReese 500]

I think more than anything, the video for "Freak" validates this entire interpretation. 

[surfnoirqueen 9]

Father talks about the Freak video with NME http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/i-kicked-some-girl-in-the-face-by-accident-father-john-misty-on-appearing-in-lana-del-reys-freak-vid

Thanks! I haven't seen this! So as people were talking on other topic (one about the Freak video), and as some evidences, the Freak video is really the footage for that Ultraviolence video that never came out.

[DeadAgainst 1,515]

The Manson Family and the Source Family as the two aspects of the Hierophant card of the Tarot

 

Charles Manson -- a charismatic liar; representing the empty belief systems of the Outer Church

Father Yod -- a genuine dabbler in esoteric mysteries; representing the initiations of the seeker; the Kabbalistic masculine Yod meets the feminine Heh

[WhiteHydrangea 4,215]

From IMDB: The Source Family was a radical experiment in '70s utopian living. Their outlandish style, popular health food restaurant, rock band, and beautiful women made them the darlings of Hollywood’s Sunset Strip; but their outsider ideals and the unconventional behavior of their spiritual leader, Father Yod, caused controversy with local authorities.

 

Before we journey down the rabbit hole that is the Source Family, their leader Father Yod and the influence all of this may have had on Lana Del Rey and her album Ultraviolence, here is some background information of who they were and what they did:

 

 

 

 

Here's a brief description taken from the Amazon description of the book, The Source: The Untold Story of Father Yod, Ya Ho Wa 13, and The Source Family.

 

 

“While the boho scene has never completely disappeared from L.A., Father Yod and the Source Family are enjoying a new era of notoriety, inspiring indie-folk musicians like Devendra Banhart and mega-producers like Rick Rubin. Aquarian’s book has become a style bible of sorts, with its dreamy images of the comely cult.”—T-Style, The New York Times

 

It was 1972, time of the cult-occult-commune explosion. By day, the Source Family dressed in colorful robes and served organic cuisine to John Lennon, Julie Chistie, Frank Zappa, and many other celebrities at the famed Source restaurant. By night, in their mansion in the Hollywood Hills, they explored the cosmos with their spiritual leader, Father Yod.

 

Yod was an outlandish figure who had 14 wives, drove a Rolls-Royce, and fronted his own psychedelic rock band, Ya Ho Wa 13, now considered one of the most singular psychedelic bands of all time. He surprised many by suddenly morphing from health food restaurateur into mystical leader of what many considered a cult: a group of young people who lived strictly devoted to his esoteric teachings, unusual sexual practices, and philosophies of natural living and dying.

 

Still, as controversial as he was to outsiders, Father Yod was, by inside accounts, a deeply loving and spiritually powerful magus who taught his Family to recognize their divinity within and their innate connectedness to all of creation.

 

The Source Family’s astonishing and moving true story—kept secret for over 30 years after Father’s hang-gliding accident and death in 1975—is revealed here for the first time by the Family members themselves, offering readers an insider’s perspective into this vital utopian social experiment.

 

Illustrated with over 200 color and black and white period photographs, this book contains a bonus CD of never-before-heard Source Family music, interviews and changes, including an extremely rare recording of Ya Ho Wa 13 performing live at Beverly Hills High School in 1973.

 

"...a mesmerizing look at a time that might as well have been a thousand years in the past...I can't help but marvel that a spiritual movement of such idealism could ever have existed in our uber-materialistic world." — Ann Magnuson, PAPER Magazine

"The Source Family contributed a powerful chapter to our communal history, and having Isis Aquarian's empathetic recording of it enriches us all." — Timothy Miller, Author of America's Alternative Religions

 

The Wikipedia page on Father Yod: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Yod

 

Wonderfully in depth 5-part article about the Family focusing on the Family historian, Isis Aquarian: http://www.monsterfresh.com/2013/08/26/introduction-isis-aquarian-source-family/

 

If you have some time to kill or want to investigate further, you can watch the documentaries. There is quite a bit of nudity and video footage of a birth, so fair warning!:

 

The 2012 Documentary that inpired this post, The Source Family http://www.thesourcedoc.com/

 

The trailer: 

 

http://youtu.be/F3f4aleOAxo

 

This movie is roughly an hour and a half and is on Netflix (USA only I think) or you can download from the internet, but please do try to watch it legally! It is a beautiful piece of film and you will definitely see a good glimpse of the evidence I will be posting here.

 

If you have a whole afternoon to kill, there is a very well done albeit "amateur" documentary on youtube from 2007: Revisiting Father Yod and the Source Family. Warning: it is 2.5 hours long!

 

 

 

 

There are also many excellent articles on Jim Baker, Father Yod and the Family available online. While I will be linking some of them here as references, I will mostly be focusing on the Family and their own personal interpretations of what was going on during the time they were active as I believe this is where Lana gathered most of her inspiration from. There are a lot of negative articles written about what actually was going on behind closed doors at the Family homes and while I'm sure some may be accurate, and will lend support to some theories, the writers of the articles were not a part of the Family and did not experience first hand what went on. While most former Family members do have criticism toward Jim Baker, the man, they speak very highly of Father Yod as their Earthly Spiritual Father, enough so that I don't doubt they would embellish. I recommend reading all evidence and articles with a grain of salt as all of it is personal anecdotes and there is no solid facts to back up any claims made.

I encourage every member of Lana Boards to dig in and discover any other pieces of evidence you may find regarding this topic. I will add to this post as new evidence is found with credit to the finder!

 

Here is the original post that I made in the Ultraviolence lyrics thread so please have a look at that for an idea of what started all of this:

 

http://lanaboards.com/index.php?/topic/4684-ultraviolence/?p=198053

 

So hopefully now you have an idea of the Family, we'll jump into the evidence we have. Some of it will be stuff that I and other users have already posted on the UV thread, some will be new. Please note, this section will be updated as more info is discovered.

 

The Source Family and their Influence on Ultraviolence

 

General Evidence

 

 

 

- Ultraviolence was originally considered a "Spiritual" album for Lana (You don't get much more spiritual than Father Yod) http://www.nme.com/news/lana-del-rey/68937

 

- The Documentary that was featured at many international film festivals and shone a spotlight back on the Source Family was released in 2012. This would have been around the same time that Lana had released Born To Die and would have started to write for Ultraviolence.

 

- This instagram photo posted by Lana's sister Chuck, with the caption "Sister Wives"

 

http://instagram.com/p/pF6jVgiZvj/

 

Sister Wives is a polygamy term used frequently in communes where having multiple wives is practiced. Father Yod is known for having 13 wives. It is safe to say that Lana and Chuck are dressed similarily to what Yod's wives were known for wearing: Long hair, white gauze-y flowing clothing.

 

- Father Yod recorded roughly 65 albums in a short 5 year time span. He was fond of spontaneously recording, and done in one take. From the Ya Ho Wha 13 Wiki page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ya_Ho_Wha_13: "All of the records with Father Yod’s participation were completely improvised, with no rehearsals or overdubs." Lana has stated that she prefers to record her songs in one take as well (see the Paradise edition of Yayo) and will record in studio with the band (you can faintly hear her vocals on the UV intrumentals)

 

- There is evidence that despite Father Yod's death in 1975 via a Hang Gliding accident (or suicide depending on how you look at it) many people are still drawn to the Source Family teachings and the release of the book, the documentaries as well as the discovery of old recordings and Isis Aquarian's photos and video there has been a resurgence of new followers. This includes some famous people including musician Billy Corgan from the Smashing Pumpkins and Music producer Rick Rubin (see the above Amazon description, Lana has worked with on Paradise) Lana has also gone on record saying: "I used to be a member of an underground sect which was reigned by a guru. He surrounded himself with young girls. He thought that he had to break people first to build them up again. At the end I quit the sect." (This could also be about The Atlantic Group, an Alcoholic's Anonymous sect which she was a member of that is known for setting the young women of the group up with the leaders of the group, however Lana could be pulling from her experience with AG and projecting onto the Source Family)

 

- As @@DeadAgainst posted in the original UV thread:

 

http://www.full-stop...ira/jodi-wiley/

 

(Quote from above article)

 

"Source Family was like an alchemical mystery school – they were occultists. ... really going to a mystical core of all the teachings they were exploring, and being so freeform. And of course the Source Family women were in many ways either young and beautiful or sophisticated women who were wearing gorgeous revealing clothing. ... Father Yod as Jim Baker had been interested in Eastern and Western mysticism since the ’50s, when he was briefly a Vedantic monk. He was immersed in the teachings of Manly P. Hall, who wrote The Secret Teachings of All Ages. I don’t know if you know that book, but it’s a really important work that breaks down esoteric traditions across a variety of cultures

— from Qabbalah to Tarot to Astrology."

 

"I'm the Queen of Alchemy ..."

 

Initiation from Father Yod as Initiation from God; broken down and built up again (pledge allegiance to your dead dad)

 

- @@DeadAgainst posted this snippet from a recent interview with Lana:

 

You say that you are documenting or dreaming something in your songs. Now you’re approaching more serious things like living in a cult…

You want to know if it’s true?

 

That would be a bit flat. Maybe I should ask it like that: How much did this period of your life influence your artistic evolution?

I prefer this question too. It was a period. I was looking for people who were like me but also people who seemed to be connected with bigger things like supernatural. I was influenced by visionary people. I wanted more than just writing and live from one day to another. But I found out that this didn’t work for me. I thought I could live together with others as an idealistic artist’s commune, so that you inspire each other.

 

from: http://lanaboards.co...erview-with-dpa

 

- Lana's connections to other spiritual teachings. in Yod's book Liberation he speaks of being in tune with your vibrations and aligning yourself with the power of the Law of Attraction and the Source which is also the basis of the book "Ask and it is Given" by Abraham Hicks. Lana has said was one of her favorite books that changed her life in this article: http://hk.asiatatler.com/culture-lifestyle/arts/interview-lana-del-rey

 

 

 

Lyrical Evidence

While I believe some songs on UV are inspired by the Source Family, I don't think that all songs were inspired by them. So you won't see Old Money on this list for example, as it is clearly written for the Great Gatsby, inspired by the character of Daisy and written as an epilogue to Lana's Young and Beautiful.

 

I also believe Lana is inspired from many different things and she weaves them into her own story, either by becoming who she is writing about or imagining herself in a similar situation. She has said before that is in the habit of writing about several things in a song and tying them all together. For example, Video Games being about two different men, etc. So while some lyrics fit the Source theory, others will not as they are probably influenced either by her life or something else.

 

Cruel World

 

 

Shared my body and my mind with you

That's all over now

Did what I had to do

Cause you're so far past me now

Shared my body and my life with you

That's way over now

There's not more a mind can do

You're so famous now

 

and

 

Got your bible and your gun

You like your women and you like fun

 

Father Yod had an original cult wife Ah-Om (or Robin) who he married when she was 19 and he was in his 50's. They spent the first years of the cult traveling around the world, visiting many different gurus and gathering the knowledge of many different sects from the East and West to make up their own version of a religion. Robin most definitely shared her body with Yod as well as her mind, stating that on the Source's first offical family meditation, she was finally seeing into Yod's mind. When Father Yod became well known in Hollywood and more and more people began joining them is when he decided that he would take 13 additional wives. "You're so famous" line could indicate that she knew she couldn't get through to him anymore, he would not listen to reason at this point.

 

The gun and bible verse may be a nod to the Bible that Yod wrote: Liberation and other Source Teachings which contains it's own 10 comandments and the violent nature of Jim Baker, which was always bubbling under the surface. The next line is quite obvious if it is about Yod since clearly he liked his 13 women and was all about having fun and just doing whatever he wanted. One day he would want to mimic the Knight's Templar and would make everyone dress up and follow the Knight's practice and the next day would want to mimic Native American tribes, etc. etc. Members of the Source Family have stated in the documentaries that life at the Source was all about leisure and never work or stress. Yod was always planning fun excursions for members and there was never a dull moment.

 

 

Ultraviolence

 

 

Basically everything in the lyrics of UV could apply to this theory. I will point out the stronger points here. I believe that Lana could be singing this from the perspective of Jim's first cult wife, Robin.

 

"He used to call me DN, that stood for Deadly Nightshade because I was filled with poison but blessed with beauty and rage Jim told me that"

- All the members of The Source changed their names to hippy names that described their personalities like Sunflower, Galaxy, Heaven, Isis, etc. Jim would obviously be Jim Baker, aka Father Yod, YaHoWa, etc. We all know Jim also happens to be a very significant name in Lana's life as well.

 

"He hit me and it felt like a kiss" and "He hurt me but it felt like true love"

- Could be reference to Jim Baker's previous violent nature (he was twice aquitted for murder, robbed banks, and had a very short temper before he hit rock bottom, had his spiritual awakening and became Yod) which he shared with Robin when they were married. Despite knowing all the bad things he did in his life and how violent he could be, how he basically cheated on her with 13 other women RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER and told her she couldn't do anything about it.... her love for him never faltered. Or could be a reference to his philandering ways, he's hurting her but not in a physical way. When Yod took 13 wives Robin said it felt like "he had skinned me alive", yet 40+ years later she says she has never loved another quite like Jim.

 

"I could have died right there

Cause Jim was right beside me

Jim raised me up

He hurt me but it felt like true love

Jim taught me that

Loving him was never enough"

- Many of the Aquarians from the Source Family say that they are prepared for death and what it will brings as it is just another journey we all must take. They learnt this from the meditations conducted by Father Yod and they know that this existence we live in is just the bridge between the before and after. Hence why she could have died right then (Also I think Lana just likes that phrase lol) 

"You're my Cult Leader"

- Obvious in that Jim Baker was indeed a cult leader/guru. @@evilentity pointed out that: "in interviews Lana often used the word "guru" to describe this cult leader. "Guru" often has an Eastern religion connotation and Father Yod/Jim Baker's Wikipedia page says he "studied philosophy, religion, and esoteric spiritual teachings, even becoming a Vedantic monk for a time. He later became a follower of Yogi Bhajan, a Sikh spiritual leader and teacher of Kundalini Yoga."

 

Jim Baker was well documented to have violent characteristics in his past and the stipulations he put on the Family as Father Yod could be seen as cruel and unusual to outsiders with the authorities becoming involved on more than one occasion, yet Source Family members were never forced to stay and partake and after all these years, they still love him for what he taught them.

 

The way Lana sings about her Jim is nearly identical to the way former Source members speak about their Jim in the 2012 Doc. He wasn't a good man, he left his two flesh families and five children behind to start his cult. He was a strict about his teachings and the living conditions they lived in were abhorrent at times toward the end, despite the fact he owned a Rolls Royce and wore expensive suits, but they still speak of their unconditional love for him and the fact they would never change their experience even if they could.

 

 

 

Shades of Cool

 

 

Again most of the lyrics fit so I won't repost all of them here, just the ones that are quite evident.

 

"And when he calls, he calls for me, and not for you

He lives for love, he loves his drugs, he loves his baby too

But I can't fix him, can't make him better

And I can't do nothing about his strange weather"

 

and

 

"He lives for love, for women too

I'm one of many Bonnie's blue

And when he calls, he calls for me, and not for you

He prays for love, he prays for peace, and maybe someone new"

 

This could be in reference to the many wives Father Yod had. Despite 13 of them, I assume Robin was still his favourite and the one he called for when he needed emotional support. It's safe to say Yod lived for love, drugs and women as that is basically what he built his religion on. Robin states in the doc that after she became pregnant with his child, she hoped he would regain his senses and separate from the other wives to be with her, when she says "And that's when they started calling him God..." and from that point on he was lost to her and lost what little sanity he had left.

 

The strange weather line could be in reference to Family member Galaxy stating that many of them on occasion witness Father Yod shoot lightning out of his head during meditation. If you listen closely as Lana sings those lines, you can hear electrical pulses in the background.

 

"Neglectful Lover" and "You're crumbling sadly" could be about Yod being neglectful of Robin and their child as he delved deeper into his God-complex.

 

 

 

Brooklyn Baby

 

 

@@evilentity posted this in response to the original post in the UV thread:

 

"They say I'm too young to love you

I don't know what I need

They think I don't understand

The freedom land of the 70's

 

As in, she's too young to sing about and identify with a cult prevalent in the '60s and '70s that was about peace, love, sex, drugs, and rock & roll. As I was reading this, the thing I was most curious about was when this documentary came out, which you said at the end was 2012, which you correctly noted would fit perfectly. Whether or not this was part of her inspiration, we have found a lot of cases where she seems to have been inspired by movies and things like that. At the same time we've so far been unable to match certain details in her songs with real life, like the elusive K. I've been thinking more and more lately that when she says all her songs are autobiographical, they're autobiographical of herself watching TV. Or perhaps Netflix in this instance. It reminds me of this quote from her KulturSPIEGEL interview:

 

KulturSPIEGEL: Is it true that you grew up without a TV?

Lana Del Rey: Even though there was a TV in the living room of my parents' house, it wasn't connected to the cable network, it was just a display for video films. There were normally connected TVs in my father's and mother's rooms on which I was allowed to watch cartoons as a child. But only rarely. My parents thought that TV was too overtaxing for me, that it impressed me too much. They were probably right. When I saw something interesting on TV as a child, I would parrot them for days after that which scared my parents so much that they took the family TV from the network when I was 7. I wasn't allowed to watch TV normally until I was 14. Back then, I used to sit in front of MTV 24/7 and inhale everything I saw on there.

I think it's also notable there are references to TV watching in several of her songs, a pleasure she took much enjoyment from, but was denied her for a long time."

 

 

 

Aesthetic Evidence

This section is about the pictures used for Ultraviolence vs pictures from The Source Family Archives as well as the soundscape Dan Auerbach and Lana came up with. Lana had stated that her new take on the UV album was "Unlistenable" with many different sounds, tempo changes, etc. Some of the Ya Ho Wha recordings sound very similar to how Lana re-did UV with the layered sounds, experimental vocals and tempo changes.

 

Sound

 

 

 

There are many videos on youtube (for some reason they won't post here) that are good example of what I am talking about. If you look up Savage Sons of Yahowha or I'm Going To Take You Home (both very different but still in the genre of psychedelic rock) you can hear the influence between the music created by Ya Ho Wha 13 and the soundwall that Lana and Dan have created with Ultraviolence. It's almost as if she took that sound and decided to lay jazz vocals over top. In fact, Jim was known to scat in his songs too...

 

From a recent review of a Source album on Pitchfork http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/16820-the-thought-adjusters/: "Still, the center of the The Thought Adjusters is Father Yod, and his oddly malleable singing is the star of each song. His voice stretches and cracks and distorts, hitting on a gut level rather than a pitch-perfect one. His lopsided cries inject energy into the longer songs, but I'm partial to one of the shortest and sparsest tracks, "Seed of Yahowha". Here, Yod has an almost rap-like sense of timing, mimicking and counterpointing some wiry, Beefheart-esque guitar. He might never actually hit a note-- it's all charm and charisma, and when you hear it, you can understand why it led many a Source family member down Yod's winding path."

 

I'd say Lana definitely went this route with UV, maybe not to the unlistenable extent that Father Yod did with screaming and chanting, but especially with the subtle offkey background vocals in Shades of Cool, and the way she sings Pretty When You Cry. Not to mention the psychedelic "narco-swing" and West Coast California in the 70s vibes that the album gives off.

 

 

Visuals

 

 

Here is a gallery of pictures from the Source Family archives:

 

http://banditblog.com/thesourcefamil/

 

You can also google "The Source Family Pictures" to see the google gallery for more examples. You'll notice, they have nearly the same aesthetic as the pictures that were used for UV promos.

 

@ noted the connection between several pictures from the Source family archives looking similar to the UV booklet picture for FMWttT.

 

@ noted that this picture of Isis and Yod: http://lanaboards.com/uploads/monthly_07_2014/post-2501-0-14130000-1404546889.jpg and another: 

 

 

 

looked very similar to the picture of Lana sitting on Dan's lap in the studio.

 

 

 

 

As I stated above I will continue updating this post with more evidence as I find it. Please feel free to post any similarities you might find and I will happily add it with credit to you!

 

Congratulations, your theory has been proved correct! Well, something at least a little bit   

 

It probably has been mentioned but I don't wanna read through all the pages. Look at this photo on the drum at the end of the video 

 

That really looks like Lana and FJM in an outtake from the Freak footage?      It's too random to just be thrown in, why would they add that in post production for no reason must be alluding to an upcoming collab 

 

 

It is: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2245223/mediaviewer/rm1034920960

 

 

omg just found it. WOW. the resemblance is uncanny on the drum. Even the colour grading of the footage in Freak matched the colour of this photo.

[Lanakai 661]

 

Congratulations, your theory has been proved correct! Well, something at least a little bit   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wow! Just saw the video and the smile on my face is a mile wide... THANK YOU :) 

[kitschesque 9,881]

OMG, realizing a pic of the Source Family was put on the drums in Love video and researching them for the last 3 days and ONLY THEN discovering this thread? You guys connected it with UV back in 2014? I love this forum.

[DeadAgainst 1,515]

At least now we know Jimmy Necco was full of shit when he said Jim was Jim Beam

[Flowerbomb 65,592]

Digging this thread. I love the Source Family, for real. I always got a 'cult" vibe from UV.

[Lanakai 661]

Just found another relevant article from March 2012... 

 

http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/tv-film/1098364/billy-corgan-talks-and-talks-about-the-source-film-ya-ho-wha-13

 

Billy Corgan Talks -- and Talks -- About 'The Source' Film, Ya Ho Wha 13 and How a Drum Circle Changed His Thinking

 

Billy mentions our dear Lana in the answer to the last question of the article. Interesting.

[Dark Angel 201,027]

i wonder if the newly leaked outtake titled "cult leader" is about this cult?

 

these lyrics stick out to me...

 

"girls in nightgowns, hold their hands forever

girls with pink lips cultivate the sound

they watch, we kiss on a bed of roses"

 

cultivate the sound... jim was a musician...

[blackenedrussianpoetry 2,383]

‘Love’ is quite my favorite Lana video but how the fuck have I never noticed that photo on the drums…