Zendik Farm

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Zendik Farm (Zendik Arts) is an intentional community founded in 1969. There is some focus on psychology, spirituality, and art. Many of the concepts attempted and applied at Zendik are based on the philosophic ideas and writings of Wulf Zendik.

Zendik Farm is a group of roughly 25 individuals ranging from 4 to 68 years old. They live on a farm in Marlinton, West Virginia, where they grow organic produce and keep livestock. They also build their own buildings using both conventional and eco-friendly methods. They have studios for producing music, video, dance, paintings, and sculpture. Zendik Farm hosts an annual music festival.

The original leader and founder of the community was Wulf Zendik (born Lawrence E. Wulfing) (1920–1999). The community teaches, tests and expands upon the social, political, and spiritual premises and principles established by Wulf and his life partner, Arol Zendik. Following Wulf's death, Arol now leads the movement. Wulf and Arol's daughter Fawn is also an important decision maker for the farm.

They create and sell music CDs, as well as magazines and books, including Wulf Zendik's early autobiographical novel A Quest Among the Bewildered. The farm is currently located on 200 acres that border the Monongahela National Forest in the mountains of Marlinton, West Virginia. It was originally located in California and has moved several times, first to the outskirts of Austin, Texas, and then briefly to central Florida. From Florida, they moved to the outskirts of Asheville, North Carolina; then finally to Marlinton, West Virginia.

They also produce and sell t-shirts and bumper stickers carrying their motto, “Stop Bitching / Start A Revolution”. “Road warriors” (members whose job it is to sell Zendik merchandise) sell at events from political rallies to summertime concert festivals such as Bonnaroo.[1]

1 Criticisms of Zendik Farm
2 Cult allegations
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Criticisms of Zendik Farm

Zendik's proseletyzing as a means of financial sustenance have lead some to question the community's intentions and its claim to be sincerely promoting revolution. Washington City Paper reporter Ryan Grim visited Zendik Farm briefly in the fall of 2005, and he wrote of his visit: “What became clear is that ‘Stop Bitching, Start a Revolution’ seems to be more of a slogan than a mantra: The Zendiks do decidedly more bitching than revolting.”[2]

Grim also spoke to a former visitor considering joining named Amy Welsh, a lesbian who says she was pressured by males at Zendik Farm to believe that her sexuality wasn't “real”. She said, “They kept telling me that I was only a lesbian because of the influence of the Death Culture, and now that I was in a loving family I should embrace my hetero side.” Amy Welsh was also surprised to see how little art was actually produced on the farm (“they work all day long… there is no time for art, even if anyone there was actually interested in it”) which often presents itself as an arts commune — the commune's title at the Intentional Communities Directory is “Zendik Farm Arts Foundation”.

It also states in their IC Directory profile that they do not restrict relationships between consenting adults, which contradicts former member Helen Newman's statements about her experience there.[3] Phil Weiss of the New York Observer wrote of Newman's experience, in 2006:

The farm held (Newman) sexually. Newman had never been much for dating. At Zendik, there were lots of good looking guys around, and she didn't have to negotiate meetings. You went to a third partyand had the friend make the request on your behalf. You met up that night in one of the designated sexual places at the farm. It sounds kind of sexy. Till you consider that Arol would break up couplings that went on too long. Monogamy was "dyadic," it sucked out your creative life and made you dishonest.

Currently there is no representative sample of the experiences of former Zendik members. There are several reflections of supposedly former members online, but Helen Newman is the only ex-member using her legal name. There are several newspaper articles available online, from dozens of local, national, and international reports that have been done on the commune - including by CNN. The few available samples tend to have a strong negative slant, but often contradict each other on the details of Zendik life.

[edit] Cult allegations

Critics of Zendik Farm from both the mainstream and liberal media, as well as several of its former members, have accused the commune of being a cult.[4] Current Zendik Farm members have accused hip-hop clubs, frat parties, shopping malls, and public schools of being a cult, perhaps to defray attention from their own unsavory religious practices. note: this article does not discuss "cult" in its original sense of "religious practice"; for that usage see Cult (religious practice). See Cult (disambiguation) for more meanings of the term "cult".

While there may be no current anthropological or sociological consensus as to what a cult is, there is a generally accepted understanding in the majority of western civilization, if not the world, that the word "cult" carries a negative connotation. Zendik Farm claims to be innovating a new "culture". The social norms of Zendik culture are considered to be outlandish by mainstream culture. A more neutral term for Zendik Farm would be a "new religious movement" (NRM).

Michael Langone's definition of a cult from Cultic Studies Journal:

Cults are groups that often exploit members psychologically and/or financially, typically by making members comply with leadership's demands through certain types of psychological manipulation, popularly called mind control, and through the inculcation of deep-seated anxious dependency on the group and its leaders.

Brandon Batzloff, editor for the online "eZine" Free Voices visited Zendik Farm briefly. He criticized the Zendik indoctrination technique of physically and socially sequestering new members of the group, and he also says he was strongly discouraged from leaving the farm to use the internet and was physically threatened when he did leave.^[1] Batzloff frequents Wikipedia and says on this article's talk page, "It is important to note that for nearly a year after publishing this article, I received death threats from anonymous 'friends' of Zendik. Thank you to whomever has been vigilant in ensuring that criticism of Zendik Farm remains on this page." It is not unheard of for death threats to be made against Zendik dissenters and defectors. These threats may be physical in nature, but are more often metaphysical and based on the Zendik penchant for black magic and the occult- reffered to in Zendikian double-speak as "psychic connections." An old Zendik magazine from 1985, Zendika Warrior, has an article where Arol explains these connections in referance to the death of actress Sharon Tate, who is believed to have been solicited to join the original Zendik Farm in 1969 and become the leader of Wulf Zendik's harem. While no direct link has been established, some former members have claimed Wulf has boasted of being one of Charles Manson's original spiritual mentors.[ Zindio, formerly Zindio Zendik. San Diego Underground Review. 1987]

Former member John Heffron differs with Blatzloff, according to information written in his livejournal. He states: "If someone wanted to 'do their own thing' and go into town for any reason, we would try to accommodate that within the work schedule. Certain days we made a trip into town for errands and waiting for that day to go to town was common, but it wasn't ever offered to people to just go do whatever whenever they felt like it. We also didn't provide free access to the internet for visitors, because the time on the computers was dedicated to the work that supported us and got Zendik art and ideas out into the world. The attitude towards visitors who were more concerned with internet access than interested in Zendik would result in encouragement to leave, but not threats."^[2]

According to several former members, Zendiks are repeatedly made to discuss their sex lives amongst the entire membership, sometimes even at meals. It is also reported that Arol decides which relationships will be allowed to prosper from sexual to romantic.[5] It is also known that Zendik members are not allowed to have private spending money, and Helen Newman (who gave the group her $13,000 traveling fellowship from Harvard within her first two weeks at Zendik Farm) was dropped off on the side of a road with only $10 in her pocket upon leaving the group. Zendik also puts new members through a "decontamination period", which Blatzloff experienced during his stay: new members are not allowed to share a room or be intimate with other members for the first two weeks of their stay at Zendik Farm, during which they are tested for an array of STDs and other communicable diseases. They are also given their own dishes, which they must wash themselves, they are not allowed to help in meal preparation. During this time (about two weeks typically), current Zendiks tend not to speak to the new member or sit near them during mealtimes and group events. Some say that this is an indoctrination technique employed by Zendiks to break the spirit of new members and enforce their desire to become a cohesive part of the membership.

According to several former members, a large part of the social glue on Zendik Farm is in what is termed Living Therapy. Zendiks openly discuss very intimate details of their lives - from sexuality to relationships to criminal histories - amongst the entire membership, sometimes even at meals. This part of the Zendiks' lives seems to be one of the most controversial aspects of living there. In the process of Living Therapy, one may be expected to reveal their “guts” to the group. This is seen as an invasion of privacy to many outside critics, but from the Zendik perspective it is a way to become free of the past and of devastating lifelong patterns.