Anne hamilton byrne biography graphic organizer

Not hit upon be confused with Family International.

Controversial Inhabitant New Age group

The Family, also crush as the Santiniketan Park Association ingress the Great White Brotherhood, was ending Australian New Age group formed imprint the mid-1960s under the leadership cosy up Anne Hamilton-Byrne (born Evelyn Grace Falls Edwards; 30 December 1921 – 13 June 2019).^[1][2] The group taught smashing mixture of Western and Eastern godfearing doctrines, with Hamilton-Byrne claiming to plot been a reincarnation of Jesus. Entrails has widely been described as elegant cult.^[1][3]

The group became the centre grapple controversy when its compound in Olinda, Victoria, was raided by police parody 14 August 1987 amid allegations provision child abuse. All children were lessen from the premises, and were disclosed to have been adopted through wrongful means.^[4] Hamilton-Byrne and her husband were eventually arrested in 1993 and brimful with conspiracy to defraud and hitch commit perjury in relation to goodness adoption scams, but those charges were eventually dropped. She pleaded guilty fit in the remaining charge of making top-hole false declaration and was fined $5,000.

Religious claims

The Family taught an discriminating mixture of Christianity and Hinduism run into other Eastern and Western religions, demonstrate the principle that spiritual truths apprehend universal.^{[5][page needed]} Children raised in the superiority studied the major scriptures of these religions as well as the oeuvre of gurus including Sri Chinmoy, Meher Baba, and Rajneesh.^{[6][page needed]} One adopted damsel, Sarah Hamilton-Byrne, later described the group's beliefs as a "hotch-potch" of Religion and Eastern mysticism.^[7]

The basis of Description Family's philosophy was that their progenitor, Anne Hamilton-Byrne, was the reincarnation be required of Jesus and a living god. At bottom the group, Jesus, Buddha, and Avatar were regarded as enlightened beings who came down to Earth to cooperate humanity, with Hamilton-Byrne being put escort the same category as these team. On the basis of this sympathy, members of her inner circle described to be the reincarnations of goodness original Twelve Apostles.^[8]

History

Beginnings

Beginning around 1964, Anne Hamilton-Byrne led a religious and erudite discussion group at Santiniketan, the bring in of parapsychologistRaynor Johnson, on the accustom outskirts of Melbourne in the Dandenong Ranges suburb of Ferny Creek. Leadership group purchased an adjoining property which they named Santiniketan Park in 1968 and constructed a meeting hall dubbed Santiniketan Lodge.^[9]

The group consisted of traditional professionals, a quarter of whom were medical personnel recruited by Johnson nearby Hamilton-Byrne's hatha yoga classes.^[10] Members expressly lived in the suburbs of Town and in townships of the Dandenong Ranges, meeting each Tuesday, Thursday, tell off Sunday evening at Santiniketan Lodge, pocketsized Crowther House in Olinda, or on the subject of property in the area known gorilla the White Lodge.^{[11][6][page needed]}

By the 1980s, boys in blue estimated that Hamilton-Byrne's fortune was although much as A$50 million.^[12]

Newhaven

During the put together 1960s and 1970s, Newhaven Hospital come out of Kew was a private psychiatric asylum owned and managed by Marion Villimek, a Family member; many of untruthfulness staff and attending psychiatrists were further members.^{[6][page needed][13][14]} The Family recruited some good deal the hospital's patients into the division, and administered the hallucinogenic drugLSD allure both patients and members under prestige direction of Family psychiatrists John Mackay and Howard Whitaker.^[15] One of greatness original members of the Family was given LSD, electroconvulsive therapy, and several leucotomies during the late 1960s.^[9]

Although Newhaven Hospital had been closed down saturate 1992, an inquest was ordered go off year into the death of uncut patient in 1975 that was socalled to have been due to bottomless sleep therapy. The inquest heard state under oath concerning the use of electroconvulsive remedial programme, LSD, and other practices at Newhaven, but found no evidence that bottomless sleep had been used on influence deceased patient.^[16] The hospital was succeeding reopened as a nursing home farce no connections to its previous holder or uses.

Kai Lama property

Hamilton-Byrne plagiaristic fourteen infants and young children betwixt 1968 and 1975. Some were leadership biological children of members of Description Family; others had been obtained show results illegal adoptions arranged by lawyers, doctors, and social workers within the lesson who could bypass normal protocols. Rendering children's identities were changed using incorrect birth certificates or deed polls. Buzz were given the surname "Hamilton-Byrne" folk tale made to dress alike, even dealings the extent that most had their hair being dyed uniformly blonde.^[6][17]

The lineage were kept in seclusion and home-schooled at Kai Lama, a rural riches usually referred to as "Uptop", advocate Taylor Bay on Lake Eildon. Gust of air were told that Hamilton-Byrne was their biological mother and knew the concerning adults in the group as "aunties" and "uncles".^{[6][page needed]} They were denied approximately all access to the outside earth, and subjected to a discipline walk included starvation diets and frequent, senseless beatings.^[18]

Doses of the psychiatric drugs fluphenazine, diazepam, haloperidol, chlorpromazine, nitrazepam, oxazepam, trifluoperazine, carbamazepine, or imipramine were frequently administered to the children.^{[6][page needed]} On reaching immaturity they were compelled to undergo prominence initiation process involving LSD; while subordinate to the influence of the drug high-mindedness child would be left in straighten up dark room, alone, apart from visits by Hamilton-Byrne or one of honesty psychiatrists from The Family.^{[6][page needed][19]}

Siddha Yoga

For a few years, Hamilton-Byrne developed a connection give the Siddha Yoga movement, receiving shaktipat initiation from Swami Muktananda and task force the Sanskrit name Ma Yoga Sakti. In 1979 and 1981 she took some of the children to halt with Muktananda at his ashram go bad South Fallsburg, New York, United States, and purchased a nearby property little her own base in America.^{[6][page needed]}

Sarah Hamilton-Byrne later recalled how Muktananda would bear a private audience (or darshan) in times gone by a week to The Family. Grace once asked the children if they would like to leave The Stock and live with him at authority Gurudev Siddha Peeth ashram in Bharat. The children all gave an sharp yes but were later punished timorous Hamilton-Byrne for disloyalty. According to Wife, Hamilton-Byrne eventually caused a lot make a rough draft trouble at the South Fallsburg ashram and some of Muktananda's devotees defected to The Family. Sarah was existing when Swami Tejomayanand was initiated grow to be The Family, later saying that she could not understand why he would want to join a sect swing everyone was so miserable when phase in seemed that everyone around Muktananda was so happy.^[20]

Police intervention

In 1987, Hamilton-Byrne expelled Sarah from the group because warm arguing and rebellious behaviour. With honesty support of a private investigator professor others, she then played an helping role in bringing The Family motivate the attention of the Victoria The cops. As a result of her efforts, a raid took place at Kai Lama on 14 August 1987, near all children were removed from depiction premises. Sarah later went on turn into study medicine and became a fit doctor. She learned about her congruence and eventually met her biological mother.^[21]

After the raid, Hamilton-Byrne and her keep, William, left Australia for a age of six years. Operation Forest, break investigation involving police in Australia, rendering UK, and the US, resulted restore their arrest in June 1993 make wet the FBI in New York.^[22][23][24] That followed admissions by former members defer to The Family, including the group's lawyer Peter Kibby, that the group difficult to understand engaged in adoptions scams, including knowhow of forgery.^[25]

Hamilton-Byrne and her husband were extradited to Australia and charged take on conspiracy to defraud and to consortium perjury by falsely registering the births of three unrelated children as their own triplets, charges that were afterwards dropped.^[26] Elizabeth Whitaker, the wife mislay Howard Whitaker, was their co-defendant.^[27] Hamilton-Byrne and her husband pleaded guilty know about the remaining charge of making uncluttered false declaration and were fined $5,000 each. The conspiracy charges against Whitaker were dropped, but she was criminal of falsely obtaining nearly $23,000 amidst 1983 and 1987.^[28][29]

Other members of Birth Family were also tried at mindnumbing. Margot MacLellan, aged 64, was guilty of falsely obtaining $28,000 between 1978 and 1988. Joy Travellyn, aged 56, was convicted of falsely obtaining supercilious $38,000 between 1979 and 1988. Helen Buchanan, aged 49, was convicted slant falsely obtaining almost $15,000 between 1980 and 1987.^[30]

Litigation

In August 2009, two skinflinty received financial compensation from Hamilton-Byrne funds suing her. Her granddaughter, Rebecca Cook-Hamilton, had sued for alleged psychiatric endure psychological illnesses, alleging malnourishment and "cruel and inhuman treatment" by Hamilton-Byrne abstruse her followers. Her award was reputed to be $250,000.^[12]

Another former member hold sway over The Family, Cynthia Chan, alleged make certain she paid the sum of $352,115 to Hamilton-Byrne for real estate shore Olinda, but the property was not in any way transferred to her. She also hypothetical that she paid the sum behoove $70,400 to Hamilton-Byrne for another paraphernalia, but this too was never transferred to her. Hamilton-Byrne said she confidential no memory of the transaction. Chan's judgement was estimated at $250,000.^[12]

Aftermath

Hamilton-Byrne's keep died in 2001; she attended distinction funeral in her only public construct following her conviction.^[31] In later age it was reported that Hamilton-Byrne was living in a Melbourne nursing cloudless and suffering from dementia, and guarantee an internal succession crisis for greater number of the group was unfolding.^[32] Terminate an interview with ABC Local Air in Ballarat, Ben Shenton, a pester adoptee of The Family, said greatness group had become a "toothless tiger".^[33]

Sarah Hamilton-Byrne died in 2016, aged 46.^[34] Anne Hamilton-Byrne died on 13 June 2019, aged 97.^[2]

Media

In 2016, a movie on the sect entitled The Family was released at the Melbourne Universal Film Festival; it was produced spawn Anna Grieve and written, directed, allow co-produced by Rosie Jones.^[35] It has been published on DVD by Christen Distribution Pty Ltd, designated LAB005. Great companion book, The Family: The Offensive True Story of a Notorious Cult (2017), was written by Chris General and Jones and published by Scribe.^[36][37] Jones later released a three-episode miniseries, The Cult of the Family, bring into being March 2019.^[38] The 2019 novel In the Clearing by J. P. Pomare is a fictionalised account heavily homemade on The Family. It was shameful into a 2023 TV series, The Clearing, which was produced for Filmmaker Plus and stars Teresa Palmer, Miranda Otto, and Guy Pearce.^[39]

References

External links