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© Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2020, Office 415, The Workstation, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield, S1 2BX
International Journal for the Study of New Religions 10.2 (2019) 139–158
ISSN 2041-9511 (print)
ISSN 2041-952X
(online)
https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.42007
e Process Church of the Final Judgment: e Demise by
Transmutation and Replacement of a Controversial New Religion
C M. C
University of Sydney
carole.cusack@sydney.edu.au
is article examines a new religious movement (NRM) founded by charis-
matic leaders in the mid-1960s from the viewpoint of its demise. e Process
Church of the Final Judgment was founded in 1966 in London by Mary Ann
MacLean and Robert de Grimston. e Process developed a theology meld-
ing esoteric Biblical motifs with psychoanalysis. e Process ceased to exist
two decades later due to changes in belief and aliation; members adopted
other, mainstream, identities. De Grimston was expelled from e Process in
1974, after which it transformed into e Foundation Faith of God under
MacLean’s leadership. e Foundation Faith of God later morphed into the
Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, Utah, abandoning a religious identity
in favour of an animal rights-based identity. Until recently little attention was
paid to how NRMs ended; the academic focus was overwhelmingly on the
origins of such groups. is study builds on new research to argue that e
Process ended via activities of transmutation and replacement. In 2020 e
Process is a defunct religion with extensive online archives, curated by ex-
members and enthusiasts. Processean ideas are kept “alive” and potentially able
to be revived; the status of virtual communities and attempted revivals is also
discussed with regard to identifying the precise date of the demise of NRMs.
Introduction
is article uses the lens of demise by “transmutation and replacement”
(Wright, Stausberg and Cusack 2020) to study e Process Church of the
Final Judgment, founded in 1966 by Mary Ann MacLean (1931–2005) and
Keywords e Process Church of the Final Judgment, Robert de Grimston, Mary Ann
MacLean, William Sims Bainbridge, Timothy Wyllie, Best Friends Animal Soci-
ety, new religious movement (NRM)
140 e Process Church of the Final Judgment
© Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2020
Robert de Grimston (né Moor, b. 1935). MacLean and de Grimston met at
the headquarters of the London branch of the Church of Scientology (est.
1954) in 1962 (Giudice 2017, 123) and drew on L. Ron Hubbard’s ideas and
practices in Compulsions Analysis, a psychoanalytic movement they founded
in 1963. Later, they developed a distinctive theology based on four gods,
Jehovah, Lucifer, Satan and Christ (Bromley and Ainsley 1995, 405). e
Process was a creative organisation, characterized by ritual innovation, non-
conventional sexual and living arrangements, and a publications strategy that
produced distinctive, arresting magazines. Its members, known as Processe-
ans, wore dramatic costumes and were highly visible on the streets of Ameri-
can cities in the late 1960s and early 1970s (Bainbridge 1991, 297). Yet,
two decades after MacLean and de Grimston met e Process was eectively
defunct. In 1974 de Grimston was ousted as Teacher of the religion after the
break-up of his marriage to Mary Ann, and the group transformed into new
entities. Various names were adopted, including the Foundation Church of
the New Millennium and the Foundation Faith of God, until in 1984 the
group became as Best Friends Animal Society, America’s largest no-kill animal
shelter in Kanab, Utah (Bainbridge 2015).
It is argued that e Process emerged in the 1960s, underwent a formal
change of leadership in 1974, and gradually altered. e strategy of aban-
doning esoteric beliefs and replacing them with more “acceptable” views
(“nominally” Christian- and then animal rights-based) resulted in the demise
of the original group. e mythic history of e Process is now part of the
conspiracist subculture, and claims that it persists underground have been
made by sensationalist authors such as Maury Terry, in e Ultimate Evil
(1989 [1987]), which alleges that David Berkowitz, the “Son of Sam” killer,
belonged to a Process oshoot called e Children based in Venice Califor-
nia. ere is no evidence that this is true, or that another alleged oshoot, the
Four P Movement ever existed (Rowlett 2017 [2008], 89). e conspiracist
narrative that cloaks the Process Church is largely due to the limited connec-
tion that e Process had with Charles Manson (1934–2017), who became
notorious for the 1969 Tate-La Bianca murders committed by members of
his “Family” (a name Processeans used for their own group), and the allega-
tions of Satanism that connected e Process to the Manson Family (Bain-
bridge 1978, 119–124).
e notion that religions can reach an endpoint or demise via transmuta-
tion or replacement is one that has not featured in academic literature until
recently.1 In new religious movements (NRMs), several classic studies map
1. A new book, e Demise of Religion: How Religions End, Die or Dissipate, edited by
Carole M. Cusack
141
© Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2020
the opposite trajectory; that a group that was not initially religious may, over
time, undergo transformations such that it becomes a religion. An example
is Richard Ofshe’s analysis of Synanon (Ofshe 1980). Synanon transmuted
to a religion from a therapeutic community between 1958 and 1975. ere
are commonalities shared by Synanon and e Process that merit further
attention, although it took a mere three years for Compulsions Analysis to
transform into a religion, compared to twenty for Synanon (Toti 2008).
My focus is on the replacement of Processean deviant religious identity with
a more socially acceptable Christian-seeming image, and nally with secu-
lar animal rights activism. irty-one Processeans founded Best Friends in
1984 (around half are still active in the sanctuary); they included Michael
Mountain and Steven Hirano (editors of Best Friends magazine, the group’s
main outreach prior to the internet), Gabriel DePeyer (Mary Ann’s second
husband), and (though she is not mentioned on the website), Mary Ann
MacLean, who died at Kanab in 2005 (Giudice 2017, 137).
e emergence and demise of new religions
New religious movements (NRMs) became a focus of scholarly attention in
the 1960s, when the retreat of Christianity from the public sphere combined
with the (post-colonial) phenomenon of Asian religious teachers moving to
the West to establish non-traditional organisations, that were signicantly
dierent to the “ocial” traditions in India, Japan, and Tibet, and other
countries. Additionally, home-grown Western gurus and religious lead-
ers came to prominence among countercultural youth (Cowan and Brom-
ley 2015, 5–10). Initially, NRMs were not treated as authentic religions
that oered credible alternative beliefs and values to traditional religion(s).
Gordon Melton argues that scholars began studying NRMs “by trying to
explain their emergence: What was wrong that people were turning to new
religions?” (Melton 2007, 109). e founders were deemed con-artists or
psychopaths, and their followers styled drop-out members of deviant sub-
cultures (Bainbridge and Stark 1979). In terms of xing dates of origin and
tracking societal and internal changes that result in demise, however, NRMs
present certain advantages over older religions. Foundation documents are
often available: it is a fact that in December 1953 “the Church of American
Michael Stausberg, Stuart A. Wright, and Carole M. Cusack (London and New York:
Bloomsbury, 2020) has advanced the study of the diverse endings of NRMs. It is the
rst book dedicated to how NRMs demise. However, transmutation and replacement is
one of the less-studied modes of demise, with a greater number of chapters given over to
violent or sudden endings (by murders, raids, suicides, and sexual scandals, for example).
142 e Process Church of the Final Judgment
© Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2020
Science, the Church of Scientology, and the Church of Spiritual Engineer-
ing” were founded by L. Ron Hubbard in Camden, New Jersey (Westbrook
2017, xi), though the ocial date the incorporation of the Church of Scien-
tology in California in February 1954.
e moment of demise is, however, dicult to pinpoint for both old and
new religions, although it is possible to state, for example, that the Shakers,
founded by Mother Ann Lee (1736–1784) in 1770 have only two members
and will soon be a dead religion, as they neither reproduce nor accept con-
verts (Blakemore 2017). To date there has been little research that addresses
this issue directly.2 e focus when discussing NRMs is often the charismatic
leader or guru, whose oratorical power and spiritual authority attracted mem-
bers in the rst place and established about the new faith. e death of the
leader is the most traumatic event in the lifecycle of a new religion (Melton
1991): yet, prophecies that are not fullled may also be fatal; as may internal
struggles. Melton gives examples of groups that ended with their founders or
shortly after: Frank B. Robinson (1856–1948) founded Psychiana in 1929,
which met its demise in 1952, despite the eorts of Robinson’s son to con-
tinue; and the Spirit Fruit Society, incorporated by its founder Jacob Beilhart
(1867–1908) in Lisbon, Ohio in 1901, ended in 1930 (Melton 1991, 9).
Other examples include the UFO group led by Dorothy Martin (“Marion
Keech,” 1900–1992), which began around 1954 in Chicago, and ended with
her death in Sedona, Arizona in 1992 (Clark 2007). is group is also core
to research on failed prophecy, being the subject of the inuential study by
Leon Festinger, Henry Riecken and Stanley Schachter, When Prophecy Fails
(2009 [1956]).
In the study of religions in general and NRMs in particular there has been
greater attention paid to narratives of origin and stories of success, than to
decline and the demise. Yet Rodney Stark’s article positing ten conditions for
success rather than failure opened by throwing down the gauntlet: “no more
than one religious movement out of 1,000 will attract more than 100,000
2. James Bissett Pratt (1921) published a note in e Journal of Religion, 1(1): 76–78 titled
“Why Do Religions Die?” which remains valuable. Pratt identies religions that died
(for example, ancient polytheisms) and others that “perished from the land of their ori-
gin” or are “having diculty sustaining a precarious life” (Buddhism, Zoroastrianism,
and Jainism) (1921, 77). He notes “some religions die from violence while others fall
prey to internal and more subtle evils” (1921, 78). He is more interested in religions that
decline and become moribund than those that end in violence; he argues that research
considering all the “social and psychological factors” is the way forward (1921, 78). He
states: “e intrinsic interest of such an investigation must be evident to all.” Pratt’s short
piece poses questions; he does not possess the research data necessary to answer them.
Carole M. Cusack
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© Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2020
followers and last for as long as a century” and nearly “every new group will
have one thing in common; eventual failure” (Stark 1996, 133).3 Timothy
Miller, in an issue of Nova Religio on intentional communities, agreed that
“[o]f the plethora of new religions that emerged in the United States after
1965, many are defunct or essentially defunct; some survive but in a heavily
modied form; and a few survive without massive changes” (Miller 2010,
14). e six movements he focused on all survived, but the general principle
stands. One explanation for this is proposed by Colin Campbell; he argues
that groups emerge from the “cultic milieu,” a reservoir of philosophical,
spiritual, religious and alternative ideas that have never been fully accepted in
the West (Campbell 1972). Examples of such ideas would include reincarna-
tion, alchemy, astrology, tarot, and many other beliefs and practices that are
now termed “New Age.” Such groups are unstable and temporary; “seekers”
in the cultic milieu move rapidly from one to another, and few, if any, groups
establish an institutional presence.
A nal consideration is that with regard to the demise of NRMs, the issue
of real-world groups being replaced by online communities has arisen in
recent years. e best example is e Family International (TFI), the succes-
sor institution to the Children of God (COG), founded by David Berg, also
known as Moses David or “Mo” (1919–1994) in 1968 (Nilsson 2011, 159).
Karen Zerby (Maria Fontaine), Berg’s second wife, devised the “Reboot” in
2010 with her husband Steve Kelly (Peter Amsterdam). e Reboot dissolved
communal living, permitted outside jobs and dating with non-TFI members,
and resulted in major defections from TFI (Borowik 2018, 66). Almost a dec-
ade on from the Reboot, Claire Borowik claimed that a virtual community
had replaced the “communal society model” (Borowik 2018, 79). us, at
present it cannot be condently stated that TFI has become extinct through
transmutation and replacement. Considering the demise of NRMs, the UFO
religion Heaven’s Gate and the intentional community Kerista may be more
relevant cases. Both are extinct (Kerista disbanded in 1991 and Heaven’s
Gate eectively ended with the suicides of thirty-nine members in 1997)
but online archives preserve the ideas and are sites of mass dissemination to
audiences much larger than the small real-world groups had in their heyday
3. Stark’s position is similar to that of Günter Kehrer (1986), who arms that new religions
have a high mortality rate, that they tend to die rather than to thrive. I owe this reference
to Janne Arp-Neumann (University of Göttingen). Elisabeth Arweck (2006) assesses
Kehrer’s ideas, noting that his study of NRMs had ceased by 1990, due to pressures in
the German academic environment. Kehrer worked mainly on the Unication Church,
a successful NRM. Stark builds on research he did in the 1980s with William Sims Bain-
bridge, so the two scholars reached the same conclusion independently, at the same time.
144 e Process Church of the Final Judgment
© Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2020
(Cusack 2019). Neither group has been eectively revived; that replacement
is yet to be attempted and documented.
e Process Church: Psychological origins and transformation to religion
Within the Process Church, Mary Ann MacLean and Robert de Grimston
formed a spiritual entity known as the Omega; Mary Ann was the Oracle
and Robert was the Teacher. A complex web of myth surrounds the de Grim-
stons. Robert Moor was born into an upper-middle class family in Shanghai,
came to England as an infant, attended a private school, joined the army, and
was married when he met Mary Ann at Scientology’s London headquarters
in 1962 (Wyllie 2009, 19–21). Mary Ann claimed to have been born into
poverty in Glasgow and to have little or no formal education. She moved
to London in the 1950s and was apparently a prostitute “under the sway of
a group of Maltese pimps” (Wyllie 2009, 55). It is rumoured that she was
engaged to the American boxer Sugar Ray Robinson and was linked to the
Profumo Aair in 1961 (Giudice 2017, 123). e rumours were refuted by
ex-Processean Timothy Wyllie (Father Micah, 1940–2017), in Love Sex Fear
Death: e Inside Story of the Process Church of the Final Judgment (2009).
is valuable insider publication contains a timeline of Process history,
Wyllie’s testimony, the reminiscences of six Processeans, extracts from de
Grimston’s writings, and essays by occult publisher Adam Parfrey (1957–
2018), and Genesis P-Orridge (1950–2020), alternative musician, artist,
occultist, and major archivist of Process materials. Wyllie, apart from his
time with e Process, was a prominent gure in the alternative spirituality
scene who published books omn a wide range of topics. After a near-death
experience in 1973, he studied “communication with non-human intelli-
gences, such as Dolphins, ETs, and Angels” (Robinson 2017), and became a
popular commentator on these topics on the internet. Love Sex Fear Death:
e Inside Story of the Process Church of the Final Judgment provided a cor-
rective to the ocial narrative of the Process that was established by Wil-
liam Sims Bainbridge in Satan’s Power: A Deviant Psychotherapy Cult (1978).
is study was based on eldwork among Processeans in America in 1970,
and in 1974–1975 after various schisms and splits occurred. In addition to
this monograph, Bainbridge has written articles and chapters on e Pro-
cess and, recently, a novel titled Revival: Resurrecting the Process Church of
the Final Judgment (2017a).4 From the viewpoint of academia, Bainbridge
4. Bainbridge’s study of e Process Church employs an older model of participant obser-
vation sociology in which the names and identities of individual members and whole
movements are pseudonymized. us, he calls L. Ron Hubbard “Gordon Rogers” and
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© Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2020
is synonymous with e Process and has published most about them: e
Process is also featured in the Italian sociologist Massimo Introvigne’s Satan-
ism: A Social History (2016); and Christian Giudice has published a study of
MacLean as a charismatic female NRM leader (Giudice 2017).
When Robert and Mary Ann met in Scientology she was a trained audi-
tor. As the dominant personality, and via auditing—Hubbard’s question and
answer therapy using the “e-meter” (a galvanometer)—she gained inuence
over Robert:
Mary Ann practiced a psychoanalysis-like technique on Robert, causing him
to re-live emotionally charged experiences from his past … One result was
that Robert developed an immensely powerful emotional attachment to Mary
Ann, as clients in psychoanalysis often do to their doctors.
(Bainbridge 1997, 246)
ey grew closer and diverted from Hubbard’s set rules in the use of the
e-meter while experimenting on other students. Mary Ann persuaded Rob-
ert to leave his wife, then to leave Scientology and use some of Hubbard’s
ideas and a stolen e-meter (which was later re-named the P-Scope), to start
Compulsions Analysis, a psychotherapy group that drew on both the work
of Alfred Adler (1870–1937) and Scientology in 1963 (Giudice 2017, 124).
Mary Ann and Robert married in 1964 (Smithells 1967, 17) and in 1965
adopted the surname de Grimston. In March 1966, after acquiring a clien-
tele largely from Robert’s friendship network, and adding group sessions to
supplement the initial one-on-one therapy, they moved headquarters to 2
Balfour Place, Mayfair, an upmarket location. In 1965 de Grimstons were
declared “Suppressive Persons” (SPs) by Hubbard. is term is used in Scien-
tology for enemies of the religion. In fact, the de Grimstons were “Squirrels,”
a Hubbard term for those who used the “Tech” in unauthorized ways outside
Scientology; that is, “teachers who learned about Scientology in various ways,
legitimate and illegitimate, and taught their own versions of it” (Cusack
2017, 488). Compulsions Analysis became popular and grew rapidly; Julian
Smithells estimates that “between 200 and 300 attended Process courses for
long or short periods” (1967, 17).
With a view to mapping the experiences that transformed Compulsions
Analysis into e Process, Bainbridge argues that Compulsions Analysis
underwent a “social implosion” after the introduction of the group sessions.
Scientology “Technianity,” Robert and Mary Ann are “Edward de Forest” and “Kitty
MacDougal” and the Process Church is designated e Power. e use of pseudonyms
for members makes cross-checking Bainbridge’s monograph with Timothy Wyllie’s book
dicult. Bainbridge’s later work is not anonymized.
146 e Process Church of the Final Judgment
© Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2020
He denes this as “social ties within it [an inner group] strengthen, and…
[ties] to persons outside it weaken” (Bainbridge 1997, 248). Wyllie conrms
this, stating that ten to twelve members became very close, and believed they
had been together in the past in the legendary land of Atlantis (Wyllie 2009,
28). is type of bonding is commonplace in NRMs; the gradual tightening
of loyalties that occurred in Heaven’s Gate is a case in point. Like Mary Ann
and Robert, Marshall Her Applewhite (1931–1997) and Bonnie Lu Nettles
(1927–1985) had around 200 followers when they went into seclusion for
four months in late 1975 to early 1976. Defections reduced the group to 88,
and some twenty more members left by the end of the year (Balch 1985).
is reduction to a core membership strengthened the bonds between those
who remained.
e Balfour Place headquarters was the communal living quarters of the
inner circle of Compulsions Analysis. Robert and Mary Ann trained others as
therapists as there were too many clients for them to handle personally. e
inner group broke with the open clientele, and therapy drifted toward religion,
resulting in a new entity, “e Process.” Members were “Processeans” and
the “monogram of the letter P” was adopted as a symbol (Bainbridge 1997,
250). e inner group decided to “build a new civilization in a tropical island
paradise” (Bainbridge 1997, 250). On 23 June 1966 the de Grimstons and
some twenty-ve to thirty followers (and six German Shepherd dogs) left for
Nassau in the Bahamas, where they began to contact non-corporeal “Beings”
via meditation; the Beings told them to move to Mexico. ey reached Xtul
(pronounced Shtool) on the Yucatan peninsula, and lived in spartan condi-
tions in an old salt factory (Edwards 2015). Robert wrote seven Xtul Dialogues
in a process akin to channeling or automatic writing, and members continued
their contact with supernatural entities. Processeans were also concretising
their beliefs about Mary Ann, whom Wyllie says they all knew was the true
power in e Process. She was acclaimed as a goddess by her followers, and
later self-identied as Hecate and Kali (Wyllie 2009, 36).
During their time at Xtul, Processeans gathered around Mary Ann and
Robert at night, and enacted “psychodramas” from history. Wyllie recalls tak-
ing on the role of the serpent in Eden (Mary Ann had told him of his extrater-
restrial reptilian ancestry while still in London) and agellating in penitence
(Wyllie 2009, 23–24, 32). e theology of the three gods, Jehovah (identied
with Mary Ann), Lucifer (identied with Robert) and Satan, with their emis-
sary Christ, was born in Xtul. Hurricane Inez struck Xtul on 7 October 1966;
the Processeans interpreted their survival in religious terms and e Process
transformed into e Process Church of the Final Judgment (Bainbridge
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1978, 66–70). is transmutation completed the shift from psychotherapy to
religion. Introvigne notes that the sojourn in the Yucatan was brief but “was
later mythologized as part of the sacred history of the small group. In Xtul,
according to de Grimston, e Process “met God face to face,” living an expe-
rience similar to that of Israel in the desert” (Introvigne 2016, 330).
In late 1966 the de Grimstons returned to London (a few Processeans
remained in Xtul) after a parent-led raid caused the departure of three under-
age members (Bainbridge 1997, 250). In London, the rst Process Church
magazine issue, Common Market, was published and the rst Coee House
was opened, in the basement of Balfour Place. In 1967 the de Grimstons and
certain of their inner circle travelled to the Middle East, reaching Israel in
May and Turkey in June. In Turkey Robert commenced writing apocalyptic
texts and produced As It Is and A Candle in Hell (e Process Church of the
Final Judgement 1968). Two important magazine issues, Freedom of Expres-
sion and Mindbenders, were printed that year. e remaining Xtul Processeans
migrated to New Orleans and opened a branch on Royal Street in the French
Quarter, and Robert and Mary Ann joined them in late 1967, renting a house
in Slidell. e Process Church of the Final Judgment was incorporated in Lou-
isiana, marking the formal establishment of the religion (Wyllie 2009, 20).
In December a San Francisco chapter was opened, and in 1968 chapters in
New York and Munich followed. Robert and Mary Ann travelled in Europe
seeking a permanent centre for e Process in October 1968 but did not
settle. In 1969 the Fear magazine issue appeared, and a chapter opened in
Paris, although the main focus had shifted to North America. Processeans, in
their dramatic black, cloaks, adorned with the swastika-like “P” symbol, and
the “Sabbatic Goat” of Eliphas Levi (or the “Goat of Mendes”) prominently
displayed, became a frequent sight on the streets of Boston, New Orleans,
Chicago, and other American cities (Bainbridge 1978, 3, 186).
e Process Church after 1974: Transmutation and replacement
In retrospect, 1971 was a year of great changes that point to the altered
identity of the group and its leadership that became apparent in 1974. e
Process had relocated permanently from the United Kingdom to America
and Canada, and the Balfour Place headquarters was closed. In addition to
the three gods that had emerged in the Xtul experience, Jehovah, Lucifer
and Satan (the “ree Goat Gods of the Universe”), the emissary Christ was
accepted as a fourth god (Bainbridge 1991, 299). One reason for this changed
public face was that in 1969 Charles Manson (1934–2017) and his “Fam-
ily” captured the media’s attention and put “cults” and fringe religions in
148 e Process Church of the Final Judgment
© Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2020
the spotlight (Bainbridge 1978, 119). Manson’s interest in both Scientology
and Satanism drew attention to e Process, and members had visited him
in prison in 1970 and the Death issue of its magazine from 1971 featured a
short letter written by Manson (Toti 2008, 245). Introvigne suggests that the
de Grimstons “probably wanted to take advantage of the strange popularity
the criminal was enjoying in some youth groups” (2016, 333).
e result was a disaster from which e Process would never recover.
Satanism was unpopular, and those authors who painted e Process as a
dark cult also linked the group to fascism (their P symbol being reminiscent
of a swastika) and admiration of Adolf Hitler (Taylor 1990, 167). Ed Sand-
ers’ bestseller e Family: e Story of Charles Manson’s Dune Buggy Attack
Battalion (1971) was a lurid, somewhat ctional amalgam of conspiracism,
Satanism and gossip, but Sanders did implicate “an English occult society
dedicated to observing and aiding the end of the world by stirring up murder,
violence and chaos, and dedicated to the proposition that they, the Process,
shall survive the gore as the chosen people” (Bainbridge 1991, 297). In a
1972 lawsuit, the publisher Dutton agreed to remove all references to e
Process in later editions of Sanders’ book. e Process received no monetary
compensation. Bainbridge notes that its press release after the settlement sim-
ply stated: “e Power [Bainbridge’s pseudonym for e Process] is a religious
organization devoted spreading the work of Christ” (Bainbridge 1978, 123).
In 1971 the black uniforms and cloaks were abandoned, and a new uni-
form of grey casual suits was adopted, to “mainstream” the Process Church
image. e suits had fashionable front pockets and ared pants and the
Mendes goat badges were replaced by tiny triangles with goats on them. Bain-
bridge is scathing with regard to this sartorial decision; the new uniforms were
drab compared with their dramatic predecessors, and the Processeans now
“looked like stewardesses from a third-rate airline” (Bainbridge 1978, 124).
Mary Ann and Robert moved to Toronto, and e Process became involved
in new activities, included winning grants to engage with social welfare and
setting up soup kitchens. Bainbridge claims this was motivated by a change
in their clientele; many new Disciples (entry rank) were psychologically and
physically unwell, and when they advanced to the level of Messenger (second
rank), longer-term Messengers were demoralized by their unsuitability for
that fundraising and missionising role (Bainbridge 1978, 134–138).
New communications emerged: the Toronto chapter made a radio pro-
gramme; the Facts N’ Figures pamphlet advertised “a membership in excess of
100,000” (Wyllie 2009, 21); and e Processean, a new newsletter, debuted in
1974. Tensions between Robert and Mary Ann came to a head in 1974 when
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Robert left e Process Church with his lover Morgana (Wyllie 2009, 105).
He was formally expelled by the Council of Masters in a letter backdated to
23 March. Robert then spent time in Xtul, New Orleans, Boston and Canada
attempting to re-create e Process as he imagined it. He last met with Mary
Ann in late 1974. No reconciliation was possible, and they divorced in 1975
(Wyllie 2009, 21). By 1976 Robert abandoned hope of reviving e Process,
and in 1979 he had reverted to his original surname (Moor), married Mor-
gana, and taken an oce job (Bainbridge 1978, 288–289).
Mary Ann became sole leader of e Process, which became the Foun-
dation Church of the Millennium, then the Foundation Faith of the Mil-
lennium, and in 1978 the Foundation Faith of God (Bainbridge 2015).
It may be hypothesized that the split in 1974 originated in the breakdown
of Robert and Mary Ann’s marital relationship (Giudice 2017, 135–136).
Mary Ann asserted the worship of Jehovah alone after the split, and the Bib-
lical or even “Christian” avour of the new names was at least in part to
distance the religion from accusations of Satanism (Bainbridge 1991, 300).
e Manson murders were in recent memory and Eileen Barker has argued
that the Peoples Temple mass death at Jonestown, Guyana on 18 November
1978, in which 909 died, triggered a “cult panic” that impacted controversial
and minority religions (Barker 1986). Yet, Bainbridge was predominantly
interested in Robert; he termed Mary Ann’s groups “the Establishment” and
claimed that they compensated for the loss of e Process doctrines “with
occult and psychic speculations” such as astrology and eurythmy (Bainbridge
1978, 238–239). is is evidence of his bias, as he was enthusiastic about
Process practices such as telepathy and psychometry and asserts that “psy-
chotherapy is a kind of magic” (Bainbridge 1978, 196). Wyllie, who left the
Foundation Faith in 1977 with about fteen others, acknowledges innova-
tions and successes: “[w]e were the rst to create Psychic Fairs; we started a
Healing Ministry; we put on conferences on subjects as varied as Alternative
Medicine and UFO Contactees” (Wyllie 2009, 108). Mary Ann soon remar-
ried, replacing her ex-husband Robert (“the Christ of Carnaby Street”) with a
new messiah, Gabriel DePeyer or Father Christian (Wyllie 2009, 65).
Bainbridge’s focus on Robert meant that he failed to understand the struc-
ture of e Process. Wyllie insists that the real leader of e Process was
Mary Ann and Robert was no more than an attractive spokesman for her
ideas. Wyllie states that he watched “while an original and eective psycho-
therapeutic system was gradually usurped and bent to the desires and fanta-
sies of one terrifyingly powerful woman, Mary Ann” and that his book was
“an attempt to understand this strange woman and the extraordinary hold
150 e Process Church of the Final Judgment
© Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2020
she had over me, and so many others” (Wyllie 2009, 15). Initiates viewed
her as an incarnation of the goddess Kali or Hecate “who in ancient mythol-
ogy was always accompanied by dogs, just like Mary Ann” (Introvigne 2016,
334). is fact is a plausible explanation of why the bulk of the Processeans
stayed with Mary Ann, while Robert’s attempts to rebuild the group failed
(Giudice 2017). Sabrina Verney’s memoir of Xtul refers kindly to Robert, but
is fervently devotional when discussing Mary Ann:
ose green eyes certainly are extraordinary, but it’s her manner—unrued,
lucid, authoritative, condent, razor-sharp—that draws me. Once settled in
her chair, her gaze moves slowly around, making eye contact with each per-
son, instantly assessing their state of mind. Some people can’t meet her eyes
at all—I can’t either—and some she deliberately skims over. She notices eve-
rything, is afraid of nothing. Plainly, she is the undisputed leader of the group.
It isn’t long before I realise I am in the presence of a natural teacher.
(Verney 2011, 62)
e inner circle of e Process was fully aware of Mary Ann’s power. Mem-
bers sought to touch her when she walked by and cried openly in her pres-
ence; they believed she could astral travel and revered her unerring ability to
“read” people (Edwards 2015). She broke up relationships, directed orgies
among the inner circle, and devised “sex magic” rituals. Her dogs were also
treated with respect; Sammy M. Nasr (Father Joab) recalled that the “dogs
were thought to be aspects of the gods” and were included in telepathy ses-
sions (Wyllie 2009, 129).
e Foundation Faith of God was moderately successful for a while. How-
ever, in 1977 Mary Ann sued Wyllie, who had founded a group in New York
called the Unit, which he wanted recognized as an independent chapter of
the Foundation. Mary Ann lost her case against Wyllie, but despite the court
victory the Unit disbanded (Introvigne 2016, 335). e Foundation was then
briey based in Prescott, Arizona and began to take in stray and maltreated
animals. In 2004, Michael (né Hugh) Mountain was interviewed by a jour-
nalist, Lou Kilzer, regarding the origins of Best Friends Anima Society, and
he explained:
Some members had been animal advocates for years, and German shepherds
had been associated with them since they rst left London in 1966. Mary
Ann Degrimston [sic], for one, had been active in the anti-vivisectionist
movement. Although members had worked in a variety of charities for hu-
mans, they came to realize that love of animals was one thing they all shared.
(Kilzer 2004)
Carole M. Cusack
151
© Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2020
In 1984, after selling its ranch in Arizona, the Foundation moved to Kanab,
Utah, where it bought 3,000 acres of land established a no-kill shelter, Best
Friends Animal Society (Glen 2001). Mountain was not entirely comfortable
with being questioned by Kilzer about Best Friends’ origins in e Process,
but he dismissed rumours that Lake House, the home of Mary Ann and her
husband Gabriel, was a “religious site” and the group was still, secretly, a
“cult,” saying of his time with e Process, “We were not trying to be sensible
at that point in time ... [It] was wonderful fun, it was nutty” (Kilzer 2004).
In 1993 the Process Church’s faith and teachings were declared obsolete and
its archives were destroyed, and the group formally disbanded. In that year
Best Friends was incorporated, removing all religious language, and avowing
its purpose was the care of animals in need (Bainbridge 2017b, 65). e nal
transmutation/replacement had occurred.
Final Replacements? Internet archives and modern groups inspired by e Process
Bainbridge has argued that from the earliest days of Compulsions Analysis
Mary Ann’s concern for animal rights was a vital concern, and given that
e Process had published a text claiming that animal abuse was “the ulti-
mate sin” the shift that transformed e Process into Best Friends “was a
logical progression rather than some kind of conversion—a concentration on
one element of an originally complex system” (Bainbridge 2017b, 66). Mary
Ann’s beloved German Shepherds were a constant presence in the group, par-
ticipating in ritual and being involved in e Process’ telepathy circles, and
they were present during the crucial Xtul experience. Bainbridge claims this
is part of a process of “paganization.” He says:
Best Friends extols humane values but does not publicly worship Jehovah or
Christ, let alone Lucifer or Satan. It illustrates one of the fundamental mecha-
nisms of paganization in the modern world: preservation of some cultural
element of a religion but disconnection from supernatural beliefs.
(Bainbridge 2015, 8)
Bainbridge describes “paganization” as a process where there is “disconnec-
tion from supernatural beliefs” although the group retain some aspects of its
original religious identity (Bainbridge 2017b, 67). e website of the animal
sanctuary contains a short history that states:
e founders of Best Friends began their work 20 years before they founded
the Sanctuary. ey came together in the turbulent 1960s in an eort to sort
out personal conict and live a better life. ey saw the problems that bedev-
iled the larger society as scaled-up symptoms of the pettiness and problems
that trouble and destroy personal and family relationships. While the obvious
152 e Process Church of the Final Judgment
© Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2020
answer of kindness was a glib toss-o for most, the discipline of observing a
life committed to kindness was of a dierent order of commitment. e very
simple principle of the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have
them do unto you,” was and is their guiding philosophy, and they extended
this essential guide to life to the animals with whom we share the planet and
especially to those with whom we share our homes.
(Best Friends: Save em All 2018)
Bainbridge’s use of the term “paganization” is idiosyncratic, and his argu-
ment regarding Best Friends is dubious, if the intention is to indicate that
e Process somehow continues as an inner, gnostic reality concealed by the
outer-directed guise of a “secular” animal shelter.
e model of demise by transformation and replacement is complicated
by the schisms and splinter groups that emerge during changes of leadership
and teachings. e internet has compounded this problem in a number of
signicant ways. First, materials that were distributed in paper copies or were
restricted to inner circles of members are available online (e Process Church
of the Final Judgement 1968). Ex-members, enthusiasts and archivists upload
images and documents, and the once esoteric or secretive (or limited in cir-
culation) becomes available to all. at means that although the physical
group has not existed for decades, the ideas are available for anyone to revive
(Bainbridge 2017b). In fact, Bainbridge’s proprietorial position with regard to
e Process is problematic (his favouring of Robert over Mary Ann has been
noted above), and specically, he has fomented confusion around the issue of
whether the religion is defunct. His “paganization” thesis is in fact conspira-
cist, as it obliquely suggests that e Process lives on and that Best Friends
Animal Society is merely a front for this notorious, controversial religion.
I contend that no such survival or revival exists in the case of e Process
but am aware that Bainbridge accords far greater signicance to a range of
pop cultural phenomena (including bands, websites, books and artists) that
reference the aesthetics and ideas of e Process (Bainbridge 2017b). In addi-
tion to Wyllie’s reminiscences, there are three self-published books by ex-
members. Sabrina Verney’s Xtul: An Experience of the Process (2011) has been
mentioned above and is of value for its account of the group’s sojourn in Xtul.
A second memoir, Coast to Coast, is by Jonathan DePeyer, son of Gabriel and
stepson of Mary Ann, who lived in e Process as a child but was later reu-
nited with his mother (DePeyer 2007). e novel, Beyond the Cabin by Jared
Nathan Garrett, describes in ctional form the experience of growing up in
Garrett the Foundation Faith (Garrett 2014). Bainbridge himself has written
a novel and one short story which he describes as “science ction science c-
Carole M. Cusack
153
© Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2020
tion that plays with the group’s beliefs and practices, thus exploring possible
future religious innovations” (Bainbridge 2017b, 74). Memoirs and ctions,
however, even those authored by religious studies scholars, do not amount to
the revival of e Process.
Bainbridge also thinks it is signicant that a variety of alternative bands
have written songs inspired by e Process and otherwise make use of Pro-
cessean materials: the band Psychic TV and associated esoteric “order” ee
Temple ov Psychick Youth, founded by Genesis P-Orridge, included “many
references to e Process… Usually covertly… To try to set up a new climate
that would enable a re-evaluation and rehabilitation of the IDEAS which I
found constantly relevant and powerful” (P-Orridge in Bainbridge 2015);
Sabbath Assembly has performed Process hymns and has a presence on You-
Tube (Giudice 2017, 132, 134); and in the early 1970s George Clinton’s
band Funkadelic had Processean lyrical content due to Clinton’s involvement
in the religion. Also, a member of Skinny Puppy, William Morrison, “was
inspired by e Process to start Process Media Labs, a multi-media com-
pany” (Wyllie 2009, 13), and “members of New Processean Order and Lay
it On e Line are … self-professed Processeans, despite being too young to
have belonged to the original group” (Bainbridge 2015). Also, there are sites
that archive Process literature, and the Process Church YouTube Channel,
which claims to be run by Processeans in England, hosts videos of readings
of Robert de Grimston’s work and also music videos (Bainbridge 2015). Yet
this interest in Processean ideas similarly does not amount to a revival of a
defunct religion.
ese “virtual” groups raise questions about the types of relationships and
encounters that are possible in the “meat world” and what can be achieved
in online environments. Wyllie has detailed the group sexual activity that the
de Grimstons mandated, activity that involved restrictions on members and
increased control by the Omega. First, when sex was banned and members
lived in dormitories, the Omega identied members as either sons, daugh-
ters, fathers and mothers, and allowed sons and daughters to choose partners
from the fathers and mothers. e couple was then given a week together
in a private bedroom (referred to as “Absorption”), which Wyllie states was
often unsuccessful. He argued with his partner and beat her, which he attrib-
uted to being beaten at school (Wyllie 2009, 60–61). Mary Ann developed
sex magic rituals for the couples described above. e “spiritually married”
couples “after a short prayer…brought themselves to orgasm. e male of
the pair emptied himself into a carefully placed silver bowl, the content of
which, with the addition of a splash of paran, was then…burnt along with
154 e Process Church of the Final Judgment
© Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2020
another short prayer” (Wyllie 2009, 61). e third type of sexual activity
that took place among the inner circle was group sex, which the Omega
abstained from. Wyllie thought the sexual rituals were “to control us through
sexual guilt and humiliation,” and that these practices ultimately contributed
to the demise of the group (Wyllie 2009, 64). It is clearly the case that the
central place accorded to bodily practices (rituals, attire, coee shops, street
evangelism, and so on), would render a virtual revival of the Process Church
impossible. e absence of Mary Ann, the embodied goddess and leader of
the religion, makes that doubly true. e two things cannot be the same;
the original religion had ended by transformation and replacement, and any
“revival” (digital or otherwise) would be an entirely dierent phenomenon.
Conclusion
I have argued that e Process Church of the Final Judgment was a contro-
versial new religion founded by Mary Ann MacLean and Robert de Grimston
in 1966. It was led by Mary Ann (and to a lesser extent by Robert) until
their marital break-up in 1974 (Giudice 2017). Subsequent groups that
stemmed from the original religion, including the more mainstream Founda-
tion Church/Foundation Faith churches led by Mary Ann from 1974 into
the early 1980s, all evidenced the process of transformation and replacement
(Wright, Stausberg and Cusack 2020). is involved abandoning the radical
theology of the four gods, Jehovah, Satan, Lucifer and Christ, and making
public statements, engaging in charitable work, and changing the costumes of
members, to bring e Foundation closer to the socially acceptable, broadly
“Christian norm” of a religion (Bainbridge 2015). e last incarnation of e
Process, Best Friends Animal Society, a no-kill animal shelter in Kanab, Utah,
despite the involvement of original Processeans, is clearly not e Process
Church; its demise by transmutation and replacement is nal.
Acknowledgments
is study was written for “e Demise of Religion” project at the Nor-
wegian Academy of Science and Letters, Oslo (2018–2019) led by Michael
Stausberg (University of Bergen) and James R. Lewis (Wuhan University).
I thank my colleagues for feedback on earlier drafts of this article.
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