Notes from Meeting of Board of Trustees of The Stelle Group with

Richard Kieninger on February 17, 1976, 2.30 p.m., at Stelle, Illinois

 

Present:   Malcolm Carnahan, Walter Cox, Jeanette Williams, Richard Kieninger

 

Richard was in the Stelle area on personal business on February 17, so the Board of Trustees took advantage of the opportunity to set up a meeting for the discussion of several currently relevant subject areas. The dis­cussion is summarized as follows. (Richard has reviewed the minutes.)

 

I.       Human Sexuality. Malcolm said we are thinking of continuing the small group discussion format to discuss the subject of human sexuality within the group. He asked whether Richard had any cautions or suggestions on this. Richard said he thought it would be good to get underway as soon as possible with such discussions. He said people have to find out what they can be comfortable with however, children will be comfortable with almost anything we teach them from the beginning. The effect of the image that we present to the outside world was discussed. Richard and the trustees thought this to be an area that has to be carefully considered if we are going to involve ourselves in discussions of or possible changes in our socio-sexual system. Malcolm asked whether monogamy is one of the assumptions of the Lemurian Philosophy. Richard said that monogamy and polygamy are both natural, and he couldn’t say one works better than the other in all instances, but monogamy is what people tend toward. He said different societies have experienced the problems of scattering (adultery) in different ways; adultery existed in every society, but it is a fact that only those societies that were not openly permissive toward adultery tended to be the societies that were most successful and succeeded to a higher level of civilization. He said it has been built into us to become dissatisfied with any status quo but that is what moves mankind forward. He said that in Lemuria by the time a person reached 25 years of age he really knew himself and knew what he wanted. Such people were in a better position to establish a stable relationship; and when a couple had made a successful go at living together for a couple of years they might decide they wanted to have children and be part of that very important phase of rearing children. Richard emphasized that marital stability is required after there are children in a family, for the psychological damage of spitting up is to severe for children and the whole society. He said many different sexual and marital systems have been tried that are reasonably workable in dif­ferent parts of the world, but that the systems where sexual expression is suppressed altogether except within marriage have never worked in the long run. He said we are going to have to decide in advance on a sexual program for the Stelle children because we can’t change systems on them every three years should we come up with a new idea. He added that children have to learn to be responsible in their relations to each other; that some adult or older person has to teach the rules of fair play. Richard said he didn’t know how well any group of adults coming out of this society can change radically in one lifetime, but that it is possible; this is where decisions will have to be made as to where and how fast we want to move. Malcolm asked whether Richard felt that anything people want to experiment with during this transitional period is all right. Richard said only if it was with the agreement of the group, that you couldn’t have part of the group doing something that is revolting to the rest or you soon wouldn’t have a group. He said some sort of ground rules have to be established-perhaps the alternatives or parameters that are to be acceptable.

 

Richard said the Brotherhoods have pointed out that loyalty to family is very important, and it has been shown that the family is still the best indoctrinator of social agreement.

 

Malcolm asked about the concept of polar coupling between male and female Egos. Richard answered that that is why there will always be monogamy. He said when we get all of the other neurotic garbage out of our traditions and ourselves we will be able to love in fulfilling, stable relationships, yet our allegiances of love (not necessarily sexual) will be extended beyond our mates. Marriage cannot provide every social, intellectual, and emotional need of its participants.

 

Richard said he has had a serious problem all of the time he has been dealing with The Stelle Group in the past, and that he doesn’t know whether he has really resolved it yet. The philosophy he has been taught and as he believes it and tries to practice it is quite different than what he evaluates the members and the group as a whole are able to accept. So he hasn’t necessarily taught exactly what he believes and feels. He said The Stelle Group still imposes upon him certain expectations that he tries to fulfill, with which he can never be totally comfortable because  “I am me, not what a number of individuals each in their own way need of me or demand of me,” and that has gotten him to a point where he feels in some ways he can hardly deal effectively with the group. He said not only has he tried to balance what he thinks with what the group is able in his estimation to accept but also he has tried to consider what the neighbors outside are willing to put up with at Stelle. So in trying to coordinate those three things he does not feel he has been very proficient, that he is too divided by it. Walter expressed that we are dealing now with that area of considering how we will affect our neighbors-that we have to use a great deal of discretion in what we do here at Stelle; the city can’t become known as the “free-for-all community,” even though it will not be that. Richard agreed there are public proprieties which have to be observed, and should be observed even more fastidiously by The Stelle Group.

 

 

 

(Discussion continues on other subjects)

 

 

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