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The Stelle Group
P.O. BOX 75, QUINLAN, TX 75474, U.S.A. December 31, 1986 Dear Friend and Supporter: I am writing this letter to
you the last day of the year—a time when all of us normally are reflecting on
the activities of the past year and beginning to develop our goals and
resolutions for the New Year. It is usually this time right after the
Christmas holidays when our lives are less busy and we are somewhat freer to
involve ourselves in retrospection and planning for the future. It is unfortunate that it
is necessary for me to intrude upon this period by having to communicate to
you about recent events concerning The Stelle Group. You may have received
some letters over the last three weeks from three former members who called
themselves “The Stelle Members’ Committee for Truth.” We really do not know
who has been sent these letters. We do know that the three persons on the Committee
have identified themselves as Betty Van Dyke, Marjorie Haines, and Karen
Robertson. The first mailing was dated
December 9, 1986, and was unsigned. The second mailing was dated December 16,
1986, and was signed by the three persons. There has now been a third
mailing, on December 20th, and it was signed by only Karen. By the time you
receive this letter, the Committee may have sent out other statements. This whole situation
creates a real dilemma for us. On the one hand, the letters have caused some
persons to call and ask what is really going on. Those questions deserve a
direct and candid answer, On the other hand, to get involved in responding to
all of the erroneous statements in the letters somehow gives them more
credence than is warranted. So I would like to approach
the whole situation with something of an overview and in the process try to
answer the key questions that some persons have raised in their telephone
calls to us. Over the last eight months,
The Stelle Group and The Adelphi Organization have been going through a
process with Richard very similar to the one that The Stelle Group went
through in 1974 and 1975. This process is reported from Richard’s point of
view in the Results Chapter, Chapter 17, of The Ultimate Frontier. Almost
no one who was present then shared the same perspective as Richard presented. The present situation
surfaced last April when an associate of The Stelle Group came to the Office
of Human Resources (Membership) with a problem concerning Richard. She
reported having had a personal relationship with Richard in which she felt he
had been deceitful and from which she felt negative emotional effects. She
acknowledged her responsibility in prolonging the relationship having
realized she had done so because she didn’t want to admit to herself she had
allowed herself to be deceived. She also said that she felt a strong
responsibility to make the matter known to The Stelle Group so that future
new associates, who are usually in awe of Richard and might be vulnerable to
such a relationship, would be forewarned. Another woman reported a
similar situation in Stelle at the same time. Over the next several months
other members told the Board of similar experiences that they had had
involving Richard. The Board of Trustees of
The Stelle Group and the Board of Directors of The Adelphi Organization began
holding joint meetings with Richard to discuss possible solutions to the
situation. On the one hand, we did not feel that we could ignore the
situation since it would have meant one set of standards and behaviors for
Richard and another set of standards and behaviors for the members. In the
past, members have been asked to resign or even been expelled for such
behavior. Richard himself was expelled by a panel of seven members after a
fair hearing in 1975 for such behavior, On the other hand, we did not want to
handle it through expulsion proceedings because of the conflict and eventual
schism that resulted from that approach then. We came up with what was considered,
by all parties involved, a creative solution, a win-win solution; Richard
would maintain the key positions that he held in both organizations, the
day-to-day affairs would be handled in each organization by the next
appropriate office, and Richard agreed to pursue counseling in order to get
in touch with whatever it is in his personality that keeps him from seeing
the effects of certain of his behaviors on people in his environment. We
selected a psychiatrist to serve as a consultant, and Richard selected the
person he has worked with in Radix for six years to serve as his counselor,
This was announced to the memberships of both organizations in Stelle and
Dallas, and we were greatly relieved when the members were so highly
supportive of this direction. This agreement broke down
very early on. Richard said later that we had forced him into it, there were
some misunderstandings on both sides, and some of the members began to take
sides even though there was no real hard information for people to evaluate
because the agreement involved our efforts to try to keep certain acts of
Richard’s life from being a matter of public discussion. We try to do the
same thing for all members. So both boards and Richard
met together with the psychiatrist as a consultant to try to reach a new
approach. Although Betty, Marjorie, and Karen say that we pressured Richard
to resign, the truth is we encouraged Richard to come up with a solution that
was acceptable to him and would meet criteria that would allow both organizations
to function with some degree of integrity and not have one standard for
Richard and another standard for the members. We did not and have not pressured
him to resign. If anything, we have felt pressured to come up with a solution
that avoids a double standard. To have supported a double
standard would have seemed to us to turn Richard into a guru and the group
into a cult-type organization. Richard has always taught that no one should
turn his life over to gurus or other spiritual teachers. He has always taught
just the opposite, that people should pursue the scientist-philosopher
approach to life, and this value is deeply ingrained in both organizations.
It has become even more deeply ingrained as a result of the events of this
last eight months. Perhaps without intending to do so, Richard has become the
ultimate teacher of the principles he has been telling us to follow. Throughout the eight
months, more examples surfaced directly from the members as to conflicts that
they had had with Richard in which they felt that they had not been dealt
with honestly and forthrightly, One of the key ones concerned the information
about the location of Philadelphia. We reported this to you in
a special mailing along with a brief summary of the situation with Richard
that we felt allowed the reader to know that there were significant problems
and changes within both organizations and yet we felt still protected
Richard’s privacy to the degree that we were able to do so given the
situation. We felt that this would keep the door open to his future
involvement in both organizations if he was willing to seek out counseling on
his own and also give us the space to resolve the legal issues that had been
created as a result of certain actions that Richard had taken. These legal issues had
developed concurrently with Richard’s personal situations. To deal with these
questions, we consulted an attorney. He recommended an agreement which both
the Trustees and Richard agreed to after Richard asked to think about
it overnight and requested some changes, which were made. We sent a copy of
this agreement to you so that you could see for yourself the specific issues.
Again, this did not go into the background of the situation; we did not feel
this was appropriate since to do so would have necessitated a presentation
that our attorney had advised us not to do for legal considerations. We also
felt that it was a fair presentation since both Richard and I had signed The
Stelle Group’s agreement. A similar agreement was signed between Richard and
the new president of The Adelphi Organization. Richard’s tendency in the
past has been to quit when this kind of situation develops. He has done so on
at least two other occasions. He offered to do so again this time about
half—way through the process and requested that both boards agree to grant
him a pension, and he would retire, leave the area, and we would report that
he was away on assignment. The unanimous response of the members of both
boards was that this was not a true solution to the situation. Of course,
Richard continues to receive a royalty on all sales of his publications that
he wrote. Richard shortly thereafter
resigned from The Adelphi Organization at a meeting of its Board of Directors
that he called to be held at his house. So when Betty, Marjorie, and Karen
say that the Board of Trustees of The Stelle Group forced Richard to resign
from The Adelphi Organization, they are wrong. The Board of Trustees were not
present and did not even know that the board meeting of The Adelphi
Organization was being held. Also, the Board of Trustees of The Stelle Group
has absolutely no authority over the affairs of The Adelphi Organization. Up to this point all of the
discussion and negotiation had been between the joint boards and Richard,
primarily because we thought it was not appropriate to spread around details
of his personal life. The memberships knew that many long discussions with
Richard were taking place, but their lack of specific information was
creating a lot of confusion and quite a rumor-mill. This was understandable,
and we realized the position the members were in since they did not have the
information necessary to evaluate the situation fully. When we announced that
Richard had decided to resign, some members voiced concern over the whole
situation, and the majority of the members voted to receive a disclosure and
discussion of the facts. Betty, Marjorie, and Karen were among those who
supported such a process even though Richard’s therapist had advised that
Richard not attend any such meetings and Richard had personally requested
that we wait until he left the area before we went into such a process. This
was reported to the members, but they felt that if they waited it might be
too late to correct any injustice that we may possibly be causing Richard. So the disclosure and group
discussion began. Members shared their own personal experiences and the joint
boards reported its perspective on the process. Richard finally decided to
attend the meetings. He listened to everyone’s point of view and then
requested an opportunity to share his perspective. He spent two evenings
sharing his feelings and views. People questioned and challenged him just as
they had done the joint boards. As the full story became known, more and more
of the members expressed support for how the Board had tried to handle the
process even though they and we recognized that we had made some mistakes. At one point, at least 70%
of all the participants of both organizations in Dallas signed a petition urging
Richard to pursue his counseling. At that point, he had stated that he was
going to discontinue working with his therapist. Although no such petition
was undertaken in Stelle, we were assured that even a greater percentage of
the members there supported Richard in continuing with his counseling. Richard had an opportunity
to tell his truth to the members and did so. He spent two evenings doing so.
The vast majority of the members here still supported the efforts of the
joint boards to work it out with Richard and still do. Betty, Marjorie, and
Karen heard the same thing that everyone else heard. Their conclusions are
simply different from those of the overwhelming majority. Karen made several
proposals and petitions that did not receive any real support from within the
membership. Perhaps these three women did not feel heard; perhaps they felt
their views were not being respected. If so, then we all share in the
responsibility of becoming better listeners. We felt that we were beginning
to get our primary focus back on the main business of The Stelle Group—To
Reach More and Teach More. Even though we regretted that the situation with
Richard had not been resolved to everyone’s satisfaction, we were starting to
feel optimistic that this time we had avoided the serious fallout of the
events of 1974-75. We still felt the door was open to a future working
relationship with Richard if he pursued the counseling. When we started receiving
phone calls from financial supporters who had received the first unsigned
letter from the committee, we had no knowledge of the letter’s contents, who
had sent it out, or how they had obtained a copy of the confidential
information giving the names and addresses of those of you who financially
support the educational programs of The Stelle Group. The information was
obtained without authorization and without anyone’s prior knowledge. This
information is not available to even the members of The Stelle Group because
we feel it is privileged information and it is the business of no one except
the individual donor. I called two people who had
expressed strong views of disapproval of the joint boards during the
meetings. They said that they did not know anything about the letter. I
called Betty and Karen and neither of them was home. I left a message on each
of their recorders saying that I was trying to locate who was sending out the
letter. I said the taking of the donors’ information was a very serious
matter and if they knew anything about the situation, would they please
contact me so that we could meet with our respective attorneys to discuss the
seriousness of the situation and hopefully resolve it. The following Monday
morning there was an open letter to all of the members saying that Betty,
Marjorie, and Karen had formed the committee and had sent out the letter.
They said that because of my phone message they felt that there was the
possibility of litigation so they would not discuss anything with anyone
except through a written, signed form sent by mail to them. Since all three of these
ladies still had access to the office and yet they would not communicate with
us, I felt it was necessary to try to avoid further unauthorized access to
the confidential information about the financial supporters of The Stelle
Group. Since Karen worked in the school adjoining the office, I terminated
her employment immediately. The Board terminated the membership of all three
women. These actions were admittedly strong, but I felt that we had no choice
under the circumstances since we have a moral and legal responsibility to
protect that information and The Stelle Group. We contacted our attorney
and showed him the committee’s letter to the donors and their open letter to
the members. He wrote a letter explaining in legal terms the seriousness of
the situation and gave them a time frame in which to respond. Since they
mentioned in their letter that Richard would write to people if they wrote to
him directly requesting his statement, the attorney felt it was necessary to
include Richard in the mailing. None of the ladies responded. Richard wrote
the attorney saying that he was not involved in the activities of the
committee although he indicated to one woman that he would be willing to
respond to any enquiries that they generated. The second mailing occurred
between the time of our contacting our attorney and the time they were
requested to respond. In this mailing the three women reported that they had
disbanded the committee. In addition, two of the women wrote personal
letters. The women again accused us of trying to suppress the truth. At the
same time, they will not return phone calls to either me or our attorney or
show any willingness to discuss the situation to reach some resolution. We called a special meeting
of the membership to explain what was occurring to the best of our knowledge.
Again, the overwhelming majority of the membership expressed support for our
actions as indicated above, and some members even expressed that they felt we
had been too lenient. Yesterday, a letter was
hand-delivered to the three women explaining again in the strongest possible
language the importance of their returning the confidential information on
the financial supporters of The Stelle Group. The letter requests them to call
our attorney and to discuss it with us. It provides an agreement for them to
sign stating that they have returned all of the information and will
discontinue making false statements. It states that if they do not do so, we
will have no alternative but to pursue legal recourse in order to retrieve
the confidential list and data. When it became clear that,
against the recommendations of the therapists, the whole situation was going
to be discussed in detail by the membership, our consulting psychiatrist warned
me what to expect. He said that if information was presented that threatened
the reality of people who had been holding Richard on a pedestal, rather than
take Richard off of the pedestal they put him on, they would direct their
feelings of disappointment, resentment and anger about Richard away from him
and to the people who bring out this information. He said that we should be
prepared to have the position of the Boards devalued in their eyes. So even though there were
times that I sensed real anger and sometimes hatred coming from one or more
of the three ladies, and even though sometimes I would feel angry and
resentful toward them for not being more understanding of the dilemma that
the joint boards and Richard were in, intellectually I could understand why
this was occurring. However, I did not anticipate that their feelings would
be so strong that they would make an unauthorized acquisition of our confidential
files in order to reach our financial supporters. Now once again, in an
effort to try to manage the process so that the door is kept open for Richard
to be involved in the future if he is willing to pursue counseling and so
that we can clean up the legal difficulties, we are in the position of trying
to balance how much of the situation to share and still do so with
discretion. We have tried to give you the information you need to discern the
truths in this situation; we have also tried to maintain some degree of
privacy for Richard and the women who have spoken to the joint boards about
him. If this is not adequate, please do feel free to call with any further
concerns or questions that you may have. We realize that there may
be some persons who feel they can no longer support The Stelle Group because
Richard is not directly involved—even though this is not the first time he
has been absent from the group. We realize that there are
some persons who feel a stronger commitment to The Stelle Group because we
are willing to risk following the philosophy without idealizing Richard. We realize that there may
be persons who feel they can no longer support The Stelle Group because
Richard is somehow more human than they had hoped, even though neither
Richard nor The Stelle Group has ever required that a person believe in
Richard or in all of the philosophy to be a participant. We realize that for some of
us this long process of coming to accept Richard as he is, is just one more
intense lesson in applying the philosophy, and just one more bond with the
principles of the Brotherhoods’ philosophy. Whatever you decide about
your future relationship with The Stelle Group, we respect both your right
and responsibility to decide individually. We believe that acting on our
beliefs is the fastest way to grow. Perhaps the fact that this
letter comes to you at the time of the New Year is not really an accident
since there is no such thing as a coincidence or an accident. Perhaps this
latest crisis in the life of The Stelle Group is really another opportunity
for all of us to reflect upon why we first responded so positively to the
philosophy. The story I have heard over
and over is that when people first read the book it spoke to them of the
deepest truths that they had ever felt or believed and may not even have been
able to express to themselves let alone to another person. I know that we
have received countless letters from people who have said that their lives
have been changed by this philosophy, I know mine has, and so have the lives
of the other members who have already found their way here. I know we will
continue to do what we can to let others know of the philosophy and of the
communities of Stelle and Adelphi. We look forward to once
again focusing our energies upon the education of the children in our schools
in Stelle and Dallas, the adult education programs on the philosophy that are
now offered in several cities throughout the country, the continued
investment in the growth and expansion of Stelle, and the pilot projects on
the self-sufficient technologies. I am asking that you re-new
your commitment to help us share the philosophy with more people. You have
been generous in the past. We will appreciate your continued support during
this critical transition in the life of The Stelle Group. Thank you for listening.
Thank you for helping. Sincerely, Malcolm Carnahan President |
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