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SRF Walrus > History of SRF > Hidden Valley
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srfwalrus ezOP (11/9/02 6:28 am) Reply	Hidden Valley How did SRF end up with Hidden Valley? People have emailed the Walrus admins and I have no idea!
crogman1 Registered User (11/11/02 5:17 am) Reply	Re: Hidden Valley I believe there is a new age doctor down there who donated the property. He is not directly part of SRF although apparently a friend of some kind. The whole property down there is a strange almost-SRF type place where the mother center management forces them to make their own money and support themselves. They are somewhat independent but there are several monastics there. Most members find it a great place to take a retreat partly due to the relaxed nature of the place.
wholetruth Registered User (11/11/02 8:55 am) Reply	Re: Hidden Valley The property was originally Dr. Jensen's Hidden Valley Health Ranch, owned by Dr. Bernard Jensen, a very kindly chiropractor and "natural health doctor." I don't know the story of how SRF acquired the property, but was under the impression they purchased it or it was purchased for them.
username Registered User (11/11/02 10:11 am) Reply	Re: Hidden Valley hmm, I believe the property next door was the Jensen colon cleansing doctor's place. I went to the open house at Hidden Valley when it first opened. The monk there said something about how they acquired it ... my memory is not to clear.... it could have been left to them in somebody's estate? but then why didn't srf just sell the property for the cash - unless there was a restriction on it like they had to use it for a men's retreat. I remember the monk there telling another monk who was visiting that SRF board or daya mata did not want to take on the project, and that they almost broke away from SRF about this situation. It was necessary I believe for them NOT to expect mother center to pay ANY of the expenses.
psychdev Registered User (11/18/02 7:57 pm) Reply	Re: Hidden Valley I can add a little bit regarding the acquisition of HV. My understanding (from a long-time HV resident in 1981) is that a devotee/business person (Mr. Black--but NOT Oliver Black) wanted SRF to have a farm-ashram which was something like Ananda. In a way, a "competitor". This was in the mid 1970s. However, Daya Ma (who actually has a very shrewd, if conservative, business sense) would not accept the property unless it was completely self-sufficient and paid-for. So Mr. Black very ingenuously set up a gourmet herb growing business, primarily based on growing Basil for gourmet restaurants in Southern California. This was a very lucrative business for about 10+ years, and allowed the ashram to be self-supporting, perhaps even generating a surplus (not sure about this). Then with NAFTA, Mexico imports became much more lucrative and their Basil growing business collapsed, leaving HV with roughly half a million unpaid money owed to them. So they have developed flower growing and some herb-growing business, which has expanded, but is not as successful as the Basil line. The end of this tale, as I heard it anyway, was that Mr. Black was rewarded by granting his wish to become a monastic, despite being well past the 35-year-old age limit which was rather strictly enforced in the 1970s and 1980s. Again, this is all hearsay--nothing official. However, I believe it is correct.
wholetruth Registered User (11/19/02 6:33 am) Reply	Re: Hidden Valley Interesting. I guess the Dr. Jensen connection was incorrect. Thanks.
psychdev Registered User (11/19/02 6:38 am) Reply	Re: Hidden Valley No, the Dr. Jensen connection IS correct. Dr. Jensen, a chiropracter and health-advocate, was the original owner of the property and had some kind of connection to SRF and may have met Master (although I don't think he was actually a member of SRF). He sold most of his property to SRF and moved into a house just on the edge of the property. I believe that he just recently (last year?) died. Dr. jensen had used the property as a kind of health-retreat, from which he made at least part of his income.
wholetruth Registered User (11/19/02 7:13 pm) Reply	Re: Hidden Valley Well, thank you again, psychdev. I don't feel so dumb after all!
Gitano no divino Registered User (11/20/02 12:34 pm) Reply	Re: Hidden Valley I remember going to Dr. Jensen´s house on the edge of the Hidden Valley property and meeting the venerable doctor himself, 23 years ago. A friend of mine, who was in medical school at the time, had just conducted a scientific study of iridology, a pseudo-science which Jensen promoted (the study got published in JAMA). Unfortunately, this research showed that iridology was LESS ACCURATE THAN RANDOM GUESSING!! (No real surprises there, I guess!) I must say, though, that Jensen took the news like a true sport. He said that we have to respect the truth, and if an idea is no good, it should be thrown out. Now just imagine if that became SRF´s Thought for the Day! Well, there´s nothing to stop us from doing that as individuals. Since getting on the Walrus, I´ve been having a major housecleaning. Untruth sure piles up on you!
caliyogi Registered User (12/4/02 9:57 pm) Reply	Re: Hidden Valley I also know that HV is not doing so well financially, they had to take a one-time loan from the mother center to keep going. "One-time" meaning Mother Center won't do it again, they better become profitable. They were real stricklers for the suggested $40/night "donation" when I was going there regularly about a year ago.
member108 Registered User (12/5/02 6:25 am) Reply	Re: Hidden Valley I would hate to see SRF lose that place. It is a nice place to go regardless of the weirdness at the head quarters. It is also a nice place for the monks to hide. Of course maybe without that place some of the monks might leave earlier and get on with their lives and search for God?
Carbohydramoy Registered User (12/22/02 7:43 am) Reply	Re: Hidden Valley Hidden Valley was founded under the general direction of Bro. Dharmananda in the mid-80's. Tom Black, a resident lay-disciple, now a monastic living in Encinitas, provided the money for the land, then owned by Dr. Bernard Jensen, who maintained a small home on the property. HV was originally set up as a form of "how-to-live" program and later became a quasi "pre-monastic" training program. The herb business, which was started primarily by Tom Black and Paul Friedman to aid both SRF and Hidden Valley, was the prime work-day focus of the facility. Mr. Friedman, the founder of "The Greenhouse", donated megabucks to SRF as did Tom Black. They had a falling out years ago, however both remain loyal disciples.
username Registered User (12/22/02 8:13 pm) Reply	Re: Hidden Valley What is the "greenhouse"? Where did black get the money? Friedman I assume is a lay disciple?
psychdev Registered User (12/26/02 5:00 pm) Reply	Re: Hidden Valley HV was actually founded around 1977 or 1978. It was already a going concern in the early 1980s. Mr. Black, as I understand it, was a successfull businessman, who applied his business skills to the purchase of the land. A subtext for creating HV (as indicated in my earlier posting) was to provide an alternative to Ananda for SRF members, in addition to have a premonastic training center. There was a great deal of demand on the part of members for something like Ananda. This was apparently resisted by SRF leadership. As a result, Mr. Black (and apparently Mr. Friedman) purchased the land themselves and then set up the business to prove the concept, and later turned over the working business to SRF. Again, all this is second-hand, told to me by a resident about 20 years ago. But I believe it's accurate.

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