"Califia's Children: Alternative Spiritual Movements in California"

"CALIFIA'S CHILDREN: ALTERNATIVE SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS IN CALIFORNIA" with author Mike Marinacci

From sex cults to religious murder-gangs, from UFO devotees to crazy Christian sects, and from psychedelic churches to New Age communes, California has produced more fascinating, bizarre and sometimes sinister “new religions” than anywhere else on Earth. From the Azusa Street Revival Meetings in L.A. in the early 1900s, to the Ancient Mystical Order of the Rosy Cross – or Rosicrucians – which settled in San Jose in 1928, to Church of Satan Founder, Anton Lavey, in San Francisco in the mid-1960s, and hundreds more, California has been a hotbed for alternative spirituality.
Join author and self-described “Scholar of Weirdness” Mike Marinacci for this amazing trip to the fringes of Golden State spirituality. With fascinating anecdotes and rare photos, Mr. Marinacci will cover the histories, beliefs, and doings of California’s strangest and most colorful religious groups.

Bio:
A lifelong California resident, Mike Marinacci has written several books about the weirder aspects of Golden State history and culture. His most recent work, Psychedelic Cults and Outlaw Churches, covers the now-booming phenomenon of religious groups devoted to the use of entheogens. Mike lives in rural Northern California with his fiancée and a French bulldog.

Doors open at 7:00 PM, lecture at 7:30 PM at The 418 Project, 155 South River Street, downtown Santa Cruz at the Dragons Gate.

$10 in advance, $15 at the door.