bohemian grove

Introduction

The Bohemian Club's membership includes many artists, particularly musicians, as well as many high-ranking business leaders, government officials (including some US Presidents) and senior media executives. As a measure of the Club's exclusivity, it is reported the waiting list for membership is from 15 to 20 years, though a fast track, three-year membership process is possible. Two current members must sponsor a prospective member. An initial fee of $10,000 is required in addition to yearly "upkeep" fees.

After 40 years of membership the men earn "Old Guard" status, giving them reserved seating at the Grove's daily talks, as well as other perquisites. Members may also invite guests to the Grove, who are subject to a rigorous screening procedure. These guests come from across America and overseas. Californian guests are generally limited to attendance at the "Spring Jinks", in June, preceding the main July encampment.

The Grove motto is "Weaving Spiders Come Not Here", which implies that outside concerns and business deals are to be left outside. However, there is demonstrable evidence of political and business deals having been developed at the Grove. The Grove is particularly famous for a Manhattan Project planning meeting that took place there in September of 1942, which subsequently led to the atomic bomb. Those attending, apart from Ernest Lawrence and military officials, included the president of Harvard and representatives of Standard Oil and General Electric. Grove members take particular pride in this event and often relate the story to new attendees.^[2]

History

Bohemian Grove was established over time, shortly after the founding of the Bohemian Club in 1872. For several years, the members of the Club camped together at various locations, including the present Muir Woods, Samuel P. Taylor State Park, and a separate redwood grove near Duncan Mills, down river from the current location. Regular July encampments similar to those held today began in 1899.

The first parcel of the grove was purchased from Melvin Cyrus Meeker who developed a successful logging operation in the area. Gradually over the next decades, members of the Club purchased land surrounding the original location to the perimeter of the basin in which it resides. This was done to secure the rights to the water, so that its water supply would not be affected by uphill operations.

Not long after the Club's establishment by newspaper journalists, it was commandeered by prominent San Francisco-based businessmen, who provided the financial resources necessary to acquire further acreage and facilities at the Grove. They still retained the "bohemians" however — the artists and musicians — who continued to entertain international members and guests.

The Grove itself consists of redwood trees over 1,500 years old. It is a spectacular nature preserve, untouched by logging, and containing many elevated walkways. The longevity of the redwoods stands as emblematic of an untouched natural setting, far removed from modern day vulgarity. This traditional "purity" underpins the Cremation of Care ceremony (see below).

Past attendees

The Bohemian Club is a private club; only active members of the Club (known as "Bohos") and their guests may visit the Grove. These guests have been known to include politicians and notable figures from countries outside the US. Particularly during the midsummer encampment, the number of guests is strictly limited due to the small size of the facilities. Nevertheless, up to 1,500 members and guests have been reported as attending some of the annual encampments.

Both the annual Club Membership and Grove Guest Lists are kept secret but a few dedicated researchers have gained access to some of them. [See Peter Martin Phillips' Dissertation, Kerry Richardson and Joel van der Reijden's comprehensive Membership List (refer External Links below) for references to these names.] From these varied sources, reportedly, notable past attendees have included, from the current administration:

• George W. Bush
• Dick Cheney
• Donald Rumsfeld
• Karl Rove

American Presidents

• George Herbert Walker Bush
• Bill Clinton
• Ronald Reagan
• Jimmy Carter
• Gerald Ford
• Richard Nixon
• Dwight D. Eisenhower
• Harry Truman
• Herbert Hoover
• Calvin Coolidge
• William Howard Taft
• Theodore Roosevelt

As well as,

• Jeb Bush
• Henry Kissinger
• George Shultz
• Earl Warren
• Robert Kennedy
• David Rockefeller
• David Rockefeller, Jr.
• Nelson Rockefeller
• James Wolfensohn
• Alan Greenspan
• Paul Volcker
• Colin Powell
• Jack Welch
• David Packard
• Riley P. Bechtel
• Henry Ford II
• Prince Philip
• John Major
• Helmut Schmidt
• Lee Kuan Yew
• James A. Baker III
• Newt Gingrich
• Arnold Schwarzenegger
• Bob Novak
• Malcolm Forbes
• David S. Broder
• Neil Armstrong
• Mark Twain
• Francis Ford Coppola
• Charlton Heston
• Clint Eastwood
• Walter Cronkite
• Erling Finch Week

Facilities

The primary activities taking place at the Grove are varied and expensive entertainment, such as an elaborate Grove Play (known as "High Jinx") and musical comedies ("Low Jinx") — where female roles are played by men in drag — produced by the members and associate members of the Club. Thus, the majority of common facilities are entertainment venues, interspersed among the giant redwoods.

There are also sleeping quarters, or "camps" scattered throughout the grove, of which it is reported there were a total of 104 as of 2005. These camps, which are frequently patrilineal, are the principal means through which high-level business and political contacts and friendships are formed. For senior corporate executives, the camps are said to be the pinnacle of socio-political networking in the US.

According to Joel van der Reijden (see External Links below for a full list of camps and substantive details on the past affiliations of the camps' members), the pre-eminent camps are:

• Mandalay (Big Business/Defense Contractors/Politics/US Presidents);
• Hill Billies (Big Business/Banking/Politics/Universities/Media);
• Cave Man (Think Tanks/Oil Companies/Banking/Defense Contractors/Universities/Media);
• Stowaway (Rockefeller Family Members/Oil Companies/Banking/Think Tanks);
• Uplifters (Corporate Executives/Big Business);
• Owls Nest (US Presidents/Military/Defense Contractors);
• Hideaway (Foundations/Military/Defense Contractors);
• Isle of Aves (Military/Defense Contractors);
• Lost Angels (Banking/Defense Contractors/Media);
• Silverado squatters (Big Business/Defense Contractors);
• Sempervirens (Californian-based Corporations);
• Hillside (Military — Joint Chiefs of Staff)

• Grove Stage — it is an amphitheatre with seating for 2,000 used primarily for the Grove Play production, on the last Friday of the midsummer encampment. The stage extends up the hill side, and is also home to the second largest outdoor pipe organ in the world.
• Field Circle — a bowl-shaped amphitheatre used for the mid-weekend, "Low Jinx" musical comedy, as well as for variety shows.
• Campfire Circle — has a campfire pit in the middle of the circle, surrounded by carved redwood log benches. Used for smaller shows in a more intimate setting.
• Museum Stage — a semi-outdoor venue with a covered stage. Lectures and small ensembles shows.
• Dining Circle — seating approximately 1500 diners simultaneously.
• Club House — built in 1903, it is the site of the Manhattan Project planning meeting held in 1942 (see above).
• The Owl Shrine and the Lake — an artificial lake in the middle of the grove, used for the noon-time concerts and also the venue of the Cremation of Care, that takes place on the first Saturday of the encampment. It is also the location of the daily (12.30pm) "Lakeside Talks." Professor G. William Domhoff (see below) states these significant informal talks (many on public policy issues) have been given over the years by entertainers, professors, astronauts, business leaders, cabinet officers, CIA directors, future presidents and former presidents; these have been the subject of ongoing controversy, as the transcripts of these talks have never been released to the public.

Symbolism and rituals

Since the founding of the club, the Bohemian Grove's symbol has been the owl, long held as a representative of wisdom. A forty-foot concrete owl stands at the head of the lake in the Grove and, since 1929, has served as the site of the yearly "Cremation of Care" ceremony (see below). The club's motto, Weaving Spiders Come Not Here, is taken from the second scene of Act 2 from A Midsummer Night's Dream; it signifies that the Grove is limited to exchanging friendship and the free sharing of common passion, summarized in the term, "the Bohemian Spirit."

The Club's patron saint is John of Nepomuk, who legend says suffered death at the hands of a Bohemian monarch rather than disclose the confessional secrets of the queen. A large wood carving of St. John in cleric robes with his index finger over his lips stands at the shore of the lake in the Grove, symbolising the secrecy kept by the Grove's attendees throughout its long history.

Cremation of Care

The Cremation of Care was devised in 1893 by a member named Joseph D. Redding, a lawyer from New York. During the ceremony, which serves as the opening to the Grove encampment, a mock human sacrifice representing "dull care" is cremated to symbolize the liberation of the participants. The New York Times described the show in a June 25, 1899 article:

"Great attention was paid to all the details, and the Druid priests who figured prominently in the show bore all the insignia of their order on their vestments. Over 500 persons figured in the spectacle, and electric and calcium lights were used to illuminate the tableaus. There was a symphony orchestra and a grand chorus. A Druids' altar and sacrificial stone lent an air of realism to the scenes. Mr. Redding served as High Priest of Bohemia. Then came a procession of eight Druid priests bearing six chained captives — a Gaul, a Celt, a Roman, a barbarian, and two men from the Far North. Each captive was in costume and each in turn pleaded his cause before the assembly, but was condemned to death. Only the Gaul, who represented Bohemia, was able to make a defense that lifted the sentence from the heads of the captives. A loving cup was then drunk by Druids, captives, and Bohemians. Mephisto and a number of devils rushed in and attempted to rescue [an effigy representing a personification of] "Care" from the catafalque [sacrificial pyre]. The devil made an impassioned address, saying that goodfellowship was a mockery and that "Care" could not be banished. Then the Druid leader drove them into the woods with a lighted torch, which he at once applied to the funeral pyre. After this came the "low jinx," a species of amateur minstrel show. Then the Bohemians retired to their tents and to such sleep as the wags and practical jokers of the club permitted them to take."^{citation needed]}

Today, the ritual consists of hooded members accepting the effigy representing "dull care" from a ferryman traveling across a creek. Music and fireworks accompany the ritual, for dramatic effect. The mock human sacrifice is placed on an altar and set on fire. The ritual represents the act of embracing the revelry of Bohemian Grove while setting aside the "dull cares" of the outside world.

The ceremony takes place next to a 45-foot (15 m) high concrete owl statue. During the ceremony, audio plays through nearby speakers providing the illusion of a speaking statue. The voice of the former-newsman Walter Cronkite, a member of the Bohemian Club, is used as the voice of The Owl during the ceremony.

The ceremony involves the poling of a small boat across a lake containing an effigy of Care. Contrary to rumor, Care is not a child. Although "dead", Care has a speaking part and a deep voice. As suggested by the title, Care is eventually burned under the Owl statue towards the end of ceremony. This cremation symbolizes that within the Bohemian Grove members leave the care of the outside world. Contrary to rumor, no parts of the script contain reference to prisoners of the Druids representing enemy tribes such as the Gauls and Celts.

G.W. Domhoff, a sociologist, was able to obtain an unusual amount of access to the Bohemian Club's records and membership and was able to thoroughly research the group because of this. He was able to detail the Cremation of Care ceremony, along with the High and Low Jinx and other ceremonies and plays of the Club.

The ceremony is meant to represent the destruction or burning of worldly concern. Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones infiltrated the Bohemian Grove in 2000 and filmed the final portion of the ceremony for his film Dark Secrets: Inside Bohemian Grove. The grove and Jones' antics were also covered by Jon Ronson in Channel 4's four-part documentary, Secret Rulers of the World.

Rumors, Protests and Controversies

With the combination of secrecy, power, and an elite bias, the Bohemian Grove is an attractive target for annual protests at the July encampment from political activists. Specifically, the Bohemian Grove Action Network organizes protests and has aided journalists who wish to penetrate the secrecy surrounding the encampment. Over the years, individuals have infiltrated the Grove then later published video and claimed accounts of the activities at Bohemian Grove.

On July 15, 2000, Alex Jones and Mike Hanson infiltrated the Grove with two hidden video cameras and filmed the Cremation of Care ritual. In his documentary about the infiltration, Dark Secrets: Inside Bohemian Grove, Jones contends that a large group of members engage in an "ancient Canaanite, Luciferian, Babylon mystery religion ceremony" involving a 45-foot statue of an owl.

Jones had a fellow infiltrator, the author Jon Ronson, who documented the adventure in his book, Them: Adventures With Extremists. Ronson's interpretation of the ritual was more sanguine, claiming it was a startlingly immature and weird way for world leaders to behave on their summer vacation, but not evidence of covert Satanism.

In the Franklin Coverup Scandal of 1989, Paul A. Bonacci claimed that he had been kidnapped and flown to the Grove by Republican leader Lawrence King and was forced into sexual acts with other boys. In a later lawsuit claiming that Paul Bonacci was the subject of mind control experiments, Bonacci testified to these and other charges in court with U.S. Senior District Judge Warren Urbom presiding. Bonacci was awarded $1 million by Judge Urbom in a default judgement, but the judge did not find that the allegations were true.^[3] A grand jury investigated the claims in the Franklin Coverup Scandal. On July 23, 1990, after hearing many hours of testimony, the grand jury threw out all of the allegations concerning sexual abuse, labeling the charges a "carefully crafted hoax".

Harry Shearer of This is Spinal Tap fame (and a Bohemian Grove attendee) has made a movie with the same parody concept about Bohemian Grove, called Teddy Bears' Picnic.

Quotations

• "The Bohemian Grove, that I attend from time to time — the (inaudible) and the others come there — but it is the most faggy goddamn thing that you would ever imagine. The San Francisco crowd, it's just terrible. I can't even shake hands with anybody from San Francisco." — President Richard M. Nixon, Bohemian Club member starting in 1953 (Domhoff, p 15);

• "If I were to choose the speech that gave me the most pleasure and satisfaction in my political career, it would be my Lakeside Speech at the Bohemian Grove in July 1967. Because this speech traditionally was off the record it received no publicity at the time. But in many important ways it marked the first milestone on my road to the presidency." — President Richard Nixon again, in a more mellow mood, in his Memoirs (1978), cited by Domhoff below. (The rule that sitting presidents are not allowed to attend the Grove was sparked by a media clamour to cover a Lakeside Talk that Nixon wanted to give in 1971, but was forced by the directors of the Grove to withdraw.)

• "Who would ever have imagined that the president of the United States, together with a large chunk of America's elite, attends a yearly gathering where an ancient Babylonian (mock) human sacrifice is carried out in front of a huge stone owl?" — Joel van der Reijden (2005 Website: see External Links below);

• "The mood is reminiscent of high school. There's no end to the pee-pee and penis jokes, suggesting that these men, advanced in so many other ways, were emotionally arrested sometime during adolescence"  — Philip Weiss, Spy Magazine journalist, who infiltrated the Grove in 1989.

• "So, I was there witnessing something right out of the medieval painter Hieronymus Bosch’s Visions of Hell: burning metal crosses, priests in red and black robes with the high priest in a silver robe with a red cape, a burning body screaming in pain, a giant stone great-horned owl, world leaders, bankers, media and the head of academia engaged in these activities. It was total insanity"  — Alex Jones, describing the Cremation of Care ceremony he witnessed at the Grove in 2000 (see External Links below).

Further reading

• For a definitive look at the history of the Grove and the composition of Bohemian Club members and their social, business and political affiliations, updating Domhoff's book (below), see: A Relative Advantage: Sociology of the San Francisco Bohemian Club by Peter Martin Phillips B.A. (University of Santa Clara) 1970 M.A. (California State University, Sacramento) 1974 M.A. (University of California, Davis) 1992. [See External Links below: Sociology of the Bohemian Grove, Doctoral Dissertation, Sonoma State University]

• Domhoff, G. William, The Bohemian Grove and Other Retreats: A study in ruling class cohesiveness, Harper and Row, 1974.
• Field, Charles K. , The Cremation of Care, 1946, 1953
• Fletcher, Robert H., The Annals of the Bohemian Club, Hicks-Judd, 1900
• Hanson, Mike, Bohemian Grove: Cult Of Conspiracy, iUniverse Inc, 2004
• Hoover, Herbert, Memoirs, Vol 2: The Cabinet and the Presidency, Macmillan, 1952. Hoover was a prominent figure in the Grove's history and coined the phrase: "The Greatest Men's Party on Earth".
• Ickes, Harold L. , The Secret Diary of Harold L. Ickes, Vol 1. The First Thousand Days, 1933-36. Simon and Schuster, 1953. Ickes was Secretary of the Interior during the New Deal.
• Maupin, Armistead, Significant Others Chatto and Windus 1988. A fictionalised account of the grove, as described from the point of view of one of the major characters in this the fourth of the 'Tales from the city' series. Sympathetic and well informed, it includes an accurate description of the cremation of care ceremony. .
• McCartney, Laton, Friends in High Places: The Bechtel Story: The Most Secret Corporation and how It Engineered the World, Ballantine Books, Updated edition,1989. For the remarkable network of links between the Californian-based and privately-owned Bechtel Corporation and members of Reagan's Cabinet, along with their Camp membership in the Grove.
• Nader, Ralph, The Big Boys, Pantheon, 1987. Contains a chapter on high-level businessmen and the tightly-held secrecy of their Club membership.
• Nixon, Richard, RN : The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, Grosset & Dunlap, 1978.
• Quigley, Carroll, Tragedy And Hope: A History of the World in Our Time, G. S. G. & Associates, Incorporated, 1975. The seminal book by the history professor of Georgetown University that serves as the basis for many current conspiracy theories and studies of socio-economic elites.
• Santilli, Armand, The Boys at Bohemian Grove, Xlibris Corporation, 2004
• Schmidt, Helmut, Men and Powers : A Political Retrospective, Random House, 1990. He states in his memoirs that Germany had similar institutions, some of which included such rituals as Cremation of Care, but that his favorite was the Bohemian Grove.
• Shultz, George P., Turmoil and Triumph: Diplomacy, Power and the Victory of the American Ideal, Macmillan Publishing Company, 1993.
• van der Zee, John, Power at Ease: Inside the Greatest Men's Party on Earth, Harcourt Brace Javonovich, 1974. The author waited tables at the Grove in the summer of 1972. The book has a comprehensive history of the Grove and an extensive bibliography.
• Warren, Earl, The Memoirs of Chief Justice Earl Warren , Madison Books, 2001. A frequent attendee, Warren mentions the Grove in his reminiscences.
• Watson, Thomas J. Jr., & Peter Petre, Father, Son & Co. : My Life at IBM and Beyond, Bantam, 2000. A rare glimpse by a top IBM CEO of an insider's business perspective on the Grove.

See also

• Sun Valley Conferences — Annual meetings held over five days in early July in Idaho of top media/communications/IT business leaders/CEO's. Known also as Allen & Company conferences for its investment bank founder, regular attendees have included Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Rupert Murdoch.
• Pacific-Union Club — An elite San Francisco-based club whose membership interlinks with the Bohemian Club and Grove.
• Rancheros visitadores — Annual meetings held in Santa Barbara in May.

Other international gatherings of high-level business/political/media officials:

• World Economic Forum — Annual meetings, mostly held in Davos, Switzerland
• Bilderberg Group — Annual meetings, rotated through the US, Canada, Europe and Asia
• Trilateral Commission — Annual meetings, rotated through the US, Europe and Asia

References

External links

• Social Cohesion & the Bohemian Grove: The Power Elite at Summer Camp by Professor G. William Domhoff: A sociological perspective on the Grove, 2006 (discounts conspiracy theories).
• A Relative Advantage: Sociology of the Bohemian Grove, A Doctoral Dissertation by Peter Phillips, Ph.D., Professor Sociology/Director Project Censored, Sonoma State University.
• Article on the Bohemian Grove by Joël van der Reijden 2005 (Project for the Exposure of Hidden Institutions) Contains a detailed timeline on the history of the Club and Grove, an analysis of the possible origins of the Cremation of Care ritual, a list of known "Camps", and Club membership and attendees of the Grove.
• An Elite Alliance March 2006, article on former NASA head and current LSU Chancellor Sean O'Keefe's participation in the Bohemian Grove.
• Sonoma County Free Press: Bohemian Grove Action Network The protest group BGAN was formed in 1980 by Mary Moore and is still operative; it has employee contacts inside the Grove and has been given selected Grove Camp Membership (2004) and Guest (1979) lists.
• Kerry Richardson Index of Bohemian Grove Reportage Web site of a Santa Rosa, California based photographer and researcher; contains both text and photographs of camp attendees.
• Masters of the Universe Go to Camp: Inside the Bohemian Grove Spy Magazine journalist Philip Weiss infiltrated the Grove in 1989.
• Free Press International: Bohemian Grove Contains articles and names of attendees.
• FAIR: The Story People Magazine Won't Let You Read An account of a People Magazine journalist who infiltrated the Grove only to be evicted by his boss, a Time-Warner executive.
• Université Tangente See "Decipher the System" section and select "The Ring, upper social class." [Contains a purported authentic list (pdf) of Grove Camps' Membership (2002), but the list is not sourced.]
• "Downtime: Constructing Leisure" See a site-related installation by the collective Bureau d'études that focuses on the history and impact of the Bohemian Club and its annual retreat at the Grove.
• Bureau d'études installation view Gallery view of the Bureau d'études Bohemian Club project (4th slide).
• Ralph Nader interview on the Bohemian Grove On Sonoma County Radio Station KSRO with Pat Thurston, in July, 2005 (audio files).
• The Bohemian Grove Is an Offshoot of Skull and Bones — New, Exclusive Photos
• Old Bohemia, New Bohemia Compares Bohemian Grove and Burning Man, Forbes Magazine.
• Sacramento News & Review article
• Rotten Library Entry on the Bohemian Grove
• On The Right Mentions Newt Gingrich, National Review.
• Transcript Of US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld at the tribute to Milton Friedman: He regrets missing the 2001 birthday lunch that Ed Feulner hosted every year on the road to Bohemian Grove.
• Teddy Bears' Picnic IMDB page.
• Alex Jones interview Goes into detail about how he managed to infiltrate the Grove in July, 2000.
• Archive of Bohemian Grove material
• Research Material : Bohemian Grove & Club Tidbits Contains excerpts from various articles/books on the Grove.
• Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' video Dark Secrets Inside Bohemian Grove
• Information page on Bohemian Grove and The Cremation of Care
• Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting Article on Bohemian Grove that mentions the ceremony
• Cremation of Care at YouTube: 1 2
• Example of international policy being set at Bohemian Grove: see http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/18069.html or http://anglonoel.blogspot.com/2005/11/piece-on-bohemian-grove.html
• Joke/Prankster Rapper MC Weak conducts a "lyrical investigation" of the Bohemian Grove.

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