Case Study: Ritual Abuse In Bartlesville, Oklahoma

Ritual abuse has been alleged to occur in a number of different locations nationally and internationally. Areas like Napa Valley in California have been specifically pointed out as hotspots for such abuse and are relatively well known for the issue.

One less well known location that can serve as a case study of ritual abuse is the surprisingly wealthy small town called Bartlesville, in Oklahoma.

Bartlesville has an unusual history for a small mid western town. It includes a number of buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and Bruce Goff, and the Bartlesville Community Center was designed by William Wesley Peters, one of Wright's students.

Bruce Goff was charged with 'corrupting the morals of a minor' in the 1950's, and Frank Lloyd Wright's troubled private life was notorious if not downright abusive. Wright's first Taliesin studio was also the scene of a brutal murder, during which the building was burnt to the ground. Interestingly, the second incarnation of Taliesin was also destroyed by fire.

The New York Post describes Wright: "He was a narcissist and control freak, a spendthrift and adulterer who led a life marked by scandal, debt and even murder." Within a year of the firey massacre, Wright had proclaimed his love for another woman who had penned him a condolence letter.

The Post also noted Wright's abusive personality, and wrote regarding conditions at a later incarnation of Taliesin:

"The Wrights dictated their workers’ sex lives, rotating the few women as needed. On the plus side, Friedland noted, many young gay men found the compound a safe space during homophobic times."

In my reading of this commune, it may have been a haven for early 20th century adherents to the ritualistic cults involved in serious abusive practices. I provide this context, because Wright and his acolytes formed the center of Bartlesville architecture and provide a potentially important tie into more recent claims of ritual abuse in that area.

Taliesin West:

The spiral here is reminiscent of the oft-cited 'pedo spiral' noted by the FBI and greatly discussed in the last year.

"Rituals at Taliesin also included extemporized ‘sermonettes’ by Wright and by some of his Apprentices on Sundays. Readings included Nietzsche, a variety of poets, and essays written by Taliesin Fellowship members and visitors. (Wright had been raised a Unitarian, but Olgivanna was inclined toward Theosophy and, prior to marrying Wright, had spent time in France with Gurdjieff and his disciples.) Chamber music was sometimes part of these Sunday exercises in spirituality at Taliesin. The symbolic function of music in these rituals was, I would say, ‘sacrament-like’: mysterious, or embodying a sacred mystery that the Fellowship regarded as essential; mediating ‘grace’ for the Fellowship members or in a ‘tikkun olam’ sense, for all of humankind; a means for communing with God or entering into and participating in transcendence. Chamber music as sacred mystery, a portal to the source of meaning and value. Chamber music co-opted as ‘tool’ for cult?"

The style of 'cult' present at Taliesin is probably in part connected with Wright's third Wife, Oglivanna Lloyd Wright, who was an ardent disciple of the Mystic George Gurdjieff.

Interestingly, one of Gudjieff's other fanatic disciples was none other than head of British Military Intelligence in the Middle East John G. Bennet. Bennet was also very active in the Subud movement.

Gurdjieff is rumored to have been a Russian spy, also said to have personally known Stalin. Gurdjieff's beliefs were stongly influenced by Blavatsky's Theosophy. He also claims to have had contact with the "Sarmoung Brotherhood," apparently related to Sufism and Asian shamanism, which Gurdjieff described:

"What struck us most was the word "Sarmoung", which we had come across several times in the book called "Merkhavat". This word is the name of a famous esoteric school which, according to tradition, was founded in Babylon as far back as 2500 BC, and which was known to have existed somewhere in Mesopotamia up to the sixth or seventh century AD; ...."

One infamous performance artist Maria Abramovic, provides a key insight into Gurdjieff's practices. She stated in an interview that: "I looked at different people, like shamans, and I was very influenced by theosophy and Buddhism. So who can be my daddy? I’d like to think of Gurdjieff as my daddy. Gurdjieff mixed with volcano."

Again, Oglivanna is not only distantly related to Bartlesville through her husband's architectural work which included the Bartlesville Price Tower. Her daughter married one of Wright's acolytes, William Wesley Peters. Peters built the Bartlesville community center. Peters was described as a Wright devotee by the New York Times. When he died, he was chairman of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, and he was Wright's first apprentice. Peters was also later briefly married to Svetlana Alliluyeva, the youngest child and only daughter of Joseph Stalin, in a union arranged by his former mother-in-law, Olgivanna Lloyd Wright. So it appears that rumors of Gurdjieff's connection to Stalin may have had some basis in reality.

Importantly, some sources links Gurdjieff's practices to Tavistock and the Nazis - which may be substantiated by his disciple having been the head of British Military Intelligence in the Middle East. This may represent an early crux between military intelligence groups and esotericism which has also been described at places like Esalen.

Gurdjieff is also associated with he Human Potential Movement, which was born at Esalen. I've written a number of times about the connections between Esalen, military intelligence, and the use of the Human Potential Movement as a euphemism for MKULTRA experimentation. Some documents claim that Gurdjieff taught Karl Haushofer and was directly involved in the esoteric arm of Nazi activity, for example, the Vril society.

It's also notable that infamous MKULTRA doctor and False Memory Syndrome Associate Dr. Joylon West, was stationed for years at Oklahoma City University in Norman. West was affiliated with the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, and it was during this time that he killed an elephant with LSD in Oklahoma. This ties indirectly to Bartlesville in that Bruce Goff, who built many structures in the area, taught at the same campus as West. It was while teaching at this campus in 1955 that Goff was accused of pedophilia. A report by Hypoallergenic about Goff states:

"Goff lived in Bartlesville after being forced to retire from the University of Oklahoma where he was department chair at the architecture school, which he had invigorated as a center for avant-garde thought on design. The exact reasons for his forced exile are still unclear, but are definitely linked to the fact that he was gay. He was accused of endangering the morals of a minor, "