A Passionate Spirit
Page 24
Paul Adams, Eddie Brazil & Peter Underwood for their book Shadows in the Nave: A Guide to the Haunted Churches of England (The History Press, 2011).
My sister, Julia Gardner, who first recounted her paranormal experience whilst babysitting in a French villa several years ago.
I wish to thank the following people who gave guidance, editorial feedback and encouragement at many different stages of this journey: Ann Andrews, Gaby Calvert, Vanessa Comer, Alison and Sarah Hull, Helen Lambell, Victoria Lee, Coral Pavitt, Mike Priaulx, Dave Rawcliffe, Abigail Robinson, Freda Skillman, David Smith and Kim Watson.
Many thanks are due to those who helped me with research: Stewart McGill, Director and Founder of Playbox Theatre; members of the Anglican clergy John Alderman, Ellie Clack, Sharon Jones and Nat Reuss; retired police officer Andy Mitchell; and Missing Persons Co-ordinator for the Gloucestershire Constabulary, Christine Pfister.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
The initial idea for Natasha and her sect arose from a real-life New Age sect known as The Family which began in Australia in the 1960s.
The Family was led by Anne Hamilton-Byrne, who taught an eclectic mixture of Christianity and Hinduism with other Eastern and Western religions on the principle that spiritual truths are universal.
The group began benignly enough as a religious and philosophical discussion group led by Anne at Santiniketan, the home of Dr Raynor Johnson at Ferny Creek on the eastern outskirts of Melbourne. The group consisted of middle-class professionals; a quarter of whom were nurses and other medical personnel.
During the late 1960s and the 1970s, Newhaven Hospital in Kew, Australia, was a private psychiatric hospital owned and managed by one of Anne’s followers; many of its staff and attending psychiatrists were also members of her group. Many patients at Newhaven were treated with the hallucinogenic drug LSD. The hospital was used to recruit potential new members from among the patients, and also to administer LSD to members under the direction of the Santiniketan psychiatrists Dr John Mackay and Dr Howard Whitaker. The hospital was closed down by 1992, and the building was later reopened as a nursing home with no connections to its previous owner or uses.
Anne acquired fourteen infants and young children between about 1968 and 1975. Some were the natural children of members of The Family; others had been obtained through irregular adoptions arranged by lawyers, doctors and social workers within the group who could bypass the normal processes. The children’s identities were changed using false birth certificates or deed poll, all being given the surname ‘Hamilton-Byrne’ and dressed alike even to the extent of their hair being dyed uniformly blonde.
The children were kept in seclusion and home-schooled at a rural property on Lake Eildon in Victoria. There they were indoctrinated with spiritual teachings which were a syncretism of Christianity, Zen, Hinduism, shamanism and an uncritical adoration of Anne. They were given photos of Anne to put on their altars to worship. They were told that she was their biological mother, and knew the other adults in the group as ‘aunties’ and ‘uncles’. They were denied almost all access to the outside world, and subjected to a discipline that included frequent, severe beatings – often for little or no reason – and starvation diets.
The children were frequently dosed with psychiatric drugs. On reaching adolescence they were compelled to undergo an initiation involving LSD: while under the influence of the drug the child would be left in a dark room, alone, apart from visits by Anne or one of the psychiatrists from the group.
The group had an inner circle who justified their actions by their claim to be reincarnations of the apostles of Jesus. The basis of The Family’s philosophy was that Anne was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, who they said was a great master who came down to Earth, in the same category as Buddha and Krishna.
It was Anne’s intention that the children would continue her sect after the Earth was consumed by a holocaust caused by a meteor or asteroid. They would be the inheritors of the Earth. She originally planned to collect up to twenty-eight children.
Details of the abusive treatment of the children later emerged in an account of their captivity by one of the children, Sarah Hamilton-Byrne, in her book Unseen Unheard Unknown published by Penguin in 1995.
Sarah was expelled by Anne in 1987 because of arguing and rebellious behaviour. With the support of a private investigator and others, she played an instrumental role in bringing The Family to the attention of the Victorian police. As a result, a raid took place at the property on Friday, 14 August 1987, and all children were removed from the premises.
One of the children, says Sarah in her book, probably around 12 years of age… was the size of a 5-year-old… suffering from… psychosocial short stature… a condition of failed growth which occurs in children who have been so psychologically or physically harrassed during their development that they fail to produce the growth hormone required.
Sarah later went on to study medicine and become a qualified doctor. She also learned that she had been adopted, and eventually met her biological mother.
After the raid in 1987, Anne and her husband, William, remained outside Australia for the next six years. Anne was never brought to justice for child abuse, as the children were so severely traumatised by their experience that for some time they were unable to give evidence in court. Most of the abuse was under statutory limitation, writes Sarah in her book, which meant that charges could not be laid because a certain period of time had elapsed after they had occurred.
The only charges that were ever brought against Anne and her husband were for financial misdemeanours, and conspiracy to defraud and to commit perjury by falsely registering the births of three unrelated children as their own triplets. They pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of making a false declaration and were fined $5,000 each.
One of the children sued her in 2007 for alleged psychiatric and psychological illnesses. She alleged that she received ‘cruel and inhuman treatment’ from Hamilton-Byrne and her servants, including beatings, being locked in a freezing shed overnight and being forced to take medications. She also alleged that she was given insufficient food. Her payout was estimated to be $250,000.
As at April 2015, Anne was reported to be in the dementia care wing at a nursing home in suburban Melbourne where a handful of acolytes still cling to the belief that she is a living god and visit her regularly while behind the scenes her once plentiful assets or properties are being sold, transferred or given away. Despite this her estate is estimated to be $20m.
(The Family ‘Living God’ Fades to Grey, Estate Remains, article by Chris Johnston, 17 May 2014 in The Age, Melbourne, Australia; and Notorious Cult ‘Lodge’ in Legal Battle, article by Chris Johnston, 7 April 2015 in The Sydney Morning Herald.)
Please see the author’s blog post on this subject: http://scskillman.com/2012/07/27/mystical-experiences-and-glimpses-of-eternity-mini-series-part-2-the-curious-case-of-the-kindly-professor-and-the-cunning-cult-leader/
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SC Skillman studied English Literature at Lancaster University. She has previously worked within a BBC radio production office and later spent four years in Australia. She now lives in Warwickshire with her husband David, their son Jamie and daughter Abigail.
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