UCSB Library’s Special Research Collections (SRC) is often cited as a source in research papers, album releases, and monographs, but rarely does it appear in films. SRC recently made its film debut in a provocative documentary, Monkey on a Stick: Murder, Madness and the Hare Krishnas, directed by Canadian filmmaker Jason Lapeyre (I Declare War) and featuring research (and some physical materials) gleaned from the Library’s American Religions Collection (ARC), a collection renowned for its diverse representation of alternative religious and spiritual groups.
ARC was established in 1985 by J. Gordon Melton, a Methodist minister, prolific author of works such as the Encyclopedia of American Religions (1978), expert witness at numerous "cult" trials, and founder of the Institute for the Study of American Religion (ISAR). Melton donated his collection of more than 30,000 books, several thousand serial titles, 1,000 linear feet of manuscripts, and hundreds of audio and video files to UCSB Library. The core of the collection includes major sections relating to Astrology, Buddhism, Christian Science, Evangelical Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Magick, Mormonism, the New Age Movement, Spiritualism, Theosophy, and numerous others.
Under the leadership of longtime curator David Gartell, the ARC has continued to grow since Melton’s donation with the acquisition of discrete manuscript collections, including the Nori Muster Betrayal of the Spirit Collection, which contains correspondence, diaries, interviews, and other material from Muster’s time as a former member of International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) where she was associate editor of ISKCON World Review: Newspaper of the Hare Krishna Movement.
In 1978 while a student at UCSB, Muster met Hare Krishna devotees when they opened a preaching center in an apartment in Isla Vista. “After three years of college in Humboldt County, I transferred to UCSB in 1977. I needed a change in my life and sought a degree in sociology,” Muster remembers. “So, if not for my senior year at UCSB, I never would have met the Hare Krishnas.” After spending time at the center and learning their philosophy, she decided to join the Los Angeles temple the day after her graduation.
Muster went on to publish a book titled Betrayal of the Spirit: My Life behind the Headlines of the Hare Krishna Movement to chronicle her experiences and the descent of ISKCON into corruption and chaos. She describes her instinct to preserve this historic record: “When I left ISKCON in 1988, I rounded up all the documents, photos, publications, and other materials in my files, and put them in office storage boxes. She continues, “In 2006 I decided to find a permanent home for my boxes, so I reached out to UCSB. Ever since 2006 I've had the honor to have my ISKCON materials in the ARC historical archive.”
Captivated by the largely unknown sordid past of the Hare Krishna movement, Lapeyre contacted Muster to seek her insight into the details of ISKCON, who referred him to UCSB Library. With Muster as his guide and co-producer, Lapeyre accessed materials from the collection in an effort to bring to light the movement’s decades-long cover-up of criminality and abuse of power. Muster is a key figure in the film, revealing details about the organization’s sinister activities. The documentary includes several scenes that were filmed in SRC as well as interviews with other former Krishnas and dramatic reenactments to explain how matters spiraled out of control so fast and with such devastating consequences.
The film is based on The New York Times bestseller Monkey on a Stick: Murder, Madness and the Hare Krishnas, a sensational exposé from 1988 co-authored by investigative journalists John Hubner and Lindsey Gruson about the history of the Hare Krishna movement. In the late 1960s, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada decided to bring his version of ancient Hindu scripture to America. Despite or because of prescriptions against eating meat, engaging in sex or consuming drugs and alcohol, the Hare Krishna movement became hugely popular in the West — with George Harrison among its devotees. Chanting, orange robed, shaven headed pilgrims were ubiquitous in major cities across North America. Yet by the mid-1980s, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness was embroiled in multiple scandals involving guns, drugs, money laundering, child abuse, and murder.
Primary source materials are important references for documentarians, supporting storytelling via first person accounts. Lapeyre reflects this, noting that “the UCSB Library archive was a crucial piece of telling the story of ISKCON and Nori’s experiences in the movement. The importance of her foresight and diligence in collecting and preserving these materials, as well as of SRC's willingness to house and preserve them, can't be overstated. As Nori said during filming, ‘If you forget the past, you’re doomed to repeat it — and that’s called karma.’”
