The early months of 1974 were a unique and special period in the history of Bubba Free John's Ashram Community. The entire Event was his conscious and uproarious creation. It began suddenly, unexpectedly, even though be announced late in 1973 that great events would soon begin which would culminate in early July. Inner and outer miracles have always been manifested in Bubba's Presence since he began his direct work with devotees in 1972. But this was an especially intensified, dramatic, and full time of his spiritual Revelation, and it was marked by celebrations of all kinds, from week-long parties to mystical apparitions, from miraculous manipulations of the weather to outrageous sermons on the fruitlessness of every kind of attainment. This period also marked the final establishment of Bubba's Perfect Function of Guru in God. July 7 was the date he indicated for the completion of his communication of the Dharma, the radical path of Understanding. From that time he relaxed the Siddhi or Power whereby he displayed the Teaching to devotees, and he came to rest in the Perfect Power and Presence that is the Heart, the Nature or Self of all, and its Conscious-Light, the Condition of all beings, things, and worlds.
--from the Preface to Garbage and the Goddess, Dawn Horse Press, 1974.
The founding years of the world's religions are generally considered the most significant, for that is the time when the charismatic revelation is in its primitive form -- and it is the time when the actions and teachings of the founder take root and set the paradigm out of which the religion will grow and flourish. The New Age religion of Daism is no exception. The events surrounding the introduction of the dharma of Daism had a life-altering effect on everyone who took part. The contours of what Daism would eventually become can be discerned in the earliest interactions between Franklin Jones (aka Bubba Free John) and his followers. For these and other reasons, the record of those dramatic times is and will continue to be of great interest to scholars of modern religions and cults. The most pivotal period of the history of Daism was documented, at the time, in a book called Garbage and the Goddess -- the last miracles and final spiritual instructions of bubba free john [sic]. The book was published in 1974 around the same time as the release of a movie about Bubba Free John called A Difficult Man, and a long playing record entitled The Gorilla Sermon. In the late 1970's, unexpectedly, all three of those works were recalled at Bubba Free John's insistence. Devotees were asked to turn in their personal copies, and a program was initiated to recall or buy all copies then in bookstores. According to witnesses, the book, the film, and the recordings were heaped into a pile on ashram property in Lake County, and burned. Today, according to several sources, new devotees are being told that many of the legendary events of those early days "never happened". All indications are that historical revisionism will very likely be part of Daism in the future. Therefore a clear need exists to collect and record witness accounts from that time, so that historians and scholars -- not to mention future Daists -- will have an accurate account of the founding years of Daism. Towards that end we are initiating The Garbage and the Goddess Project. Its purpose will be to document the events described in Garbage and the Goddess, as well as everything else about Bubba Free John/Franklin Jones during the period of Daism's founding. If anyone was around during the Garbage and the Goddess days (or any time in the 1970's) and is willing write about those times, or to be interviewed, by e-mail or phone, please contact me. (If you wish to maintain privacy, you can obtain a free e-mail address at http://www.yahoo.com/ or one of the other free e-mail services. Your privacy will be protected.) thanks!
Elias
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