Page 8 RAIN October 1981 Survival School ? In several of my conversations in southern Oregon, reference was made to a "survival school" up in the hills near Grants Pass. Everyone had something to say about it, but almost no one had actually been there and seen the place. I decided to check it out. - Just outside of Grants Pass, in Selma, is a beautiful ranch property of about 370 acres, with 5 small lakes and several buildings, including a main farmhouse, shop, barn and.dormitories. The people who run Tall Timber Ranch consider it a "training center" for rural skills, although to hear some of · the townspeople talk about the place you'd think it housed the last vestiges of Jim Jones. The owner, Roy Masters, bought it just after the Jonestown incident in Guyana in 1978, and somehow the cult stigma has never completely left the place. It's understandable. Roy Masters lives in Los Angeles and only visits the ranch · occasionally. If you don't recognize the name, you're not one ohhe millions of people nationwide, especially in southern California, who listen to the man's syndicated radio program "A Moment of Truth." His books include How Your Mind Can Keep You Well; How to Control Your Emotions; Secret of Life; Sex, Sin and Salvation; How to Conquer Suffering Without Doctors; No One Has To Die; and most recently, The Satan Principle (1979). His Foundation for Human Understanding publishes his books and owns both the ranch and a thrift store in Grants Pass. At any one time you're apt to find 25-30 "students" or "kids" at Tall Timber, where they stay for 3 month terms. These "kids" range in age from 16 to 35 years old and pay · $2500 apiece for the privilege of being at the ranch. Additional short-term visitors pay $35 a day. What happehs at Tall Timber to attract these people? Well, nothing much to write home about, according to the ranch foreman. As a matter of fact, many of these "students" are sent, not necessarily of their own choosing, by th~ir parents. There are lots of projects coordinated by the small staff for the combined purposes of maintaining the ranch and teaching skills for rural living, but no indoctrination, no pressure to obey, conform, work or pray, so far as I could tell. No preaching, no target practice, no preparation for war. Just some nice, remarkably polite city kids learning country skills. Why do people come to Tall Timber? "Because they hear Roy on the rad'io." What does he say? "You have to hear him." Well, what does he write about? "I couldn't do him justice. You have to read him yourself." So I did (see access). "Watch those who try to sell you a religion that says Cod loves you as you are. That god is always Satan." Alice Johnston described the ranch in somewhat different terms. While she hasn't actually seen the ranch in operation, she said she is "close to people-who do go up there all the time, so I'm kind of close indirectly." She described it this way: "Tall Timber Ranch is a place where young people can come and be rehabilitated. I mean, they've been on the city streets in Chicago and New York and have gotten into crime, and they're brought out here to Tall Timber Ranch in Selma where they're given a good life; they're being directed by superiors, and being watched, guided, and trained to do certain things, do things other than smoke dope and carry a gun. And Ithi~k that's a fantastic program." -Mark Roseland The Satan Principle, by Roy Masters, 1979, 261pp., $6.50 from: words, everything you do is wrong and harmful. Adam the evil apple of knowledge, causing them both to "fall" from Grace, so women and knowledge are (still) both evil. (Some people really hold a grudge, don't they?) "Knowledge," Woman, and You are evil. "Understanding" and Roy Masters are good. Foundation of Human Understanding 8780 Venice Blvd. P .0. Box 34036 Los Angele~, CA 90034 In this book, at least, Roy Masters doesn't say much. The book gets its length because he is extremely redundant, saying the same thing over and over again with minor variations. What Masters does say, though, is a contradictory mixture of sense and nonsense. For instance, in discussing the Scriptures he writes "Get that through your thick skull-YOU ARE NOT MEANT TO LEARN VERSE AND CHAPTER. Study kills." Yet he also insists that "Doubting truth is original sin.".Read on: It is no longer you who decides anything. It is Satan who tempts you to decide all things. For through all your struggles and acts of will, the will of hell is actuated. In other To think hard about anything provides an almost perfect escape from re~lizing its deeper meaning. It is easy to fool ourselves into believing that we are seeking truth when we look to.knowledge for truth, because just as the appeal of knowledge can lead astray, so can more of it lead you from realizing the sin of it. And that is just as true of knowledge about good things as it is of the knowledge of evil. Sensible women seek the dominance of a wise husband. The rest appoint a weak male whom they can dominate and manipulate. ... [This] represents the kind of democracy we have now, where the sinful masses elect idol-politicians who justify them in their sins. Wading through wearisome religious psychobabble one finds Masters' ideas rooted in a traditional religious framework: .Eve gave Paradoxically, you can't argue with Masters using rational processes (i.e., thinking) since that is based upon knowledge and so is inherently evil, nor can you argue with him by "understanding" -though he neglects to tell you this-because "understanding" is. for the most part individualized and not articulated. Satan takes many forms,·warns Masters. "Watch those who try to sell you a religion that says God loves you as you are. The god who loves you as you are is robbing you of repentance and change. That god is always Satan, even when he is dressed up as a Christian minister of the gospel." . · I'm sure Christian ministers will be happy to hear that! -MR
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