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Sebastian Wary: Of Kashis:
Some Residents Ask:Could Guru Be Another Koresh?
Jenny Vogt, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
03-26-1993
Frank Oberbeck is keeping a wary eye on Waco, Texas, these days from his tiny office near the Indian
River. It's not that he's that worried about David Koresh, the Branch Davidians and the bloody shootout
27 days ago, he says.
It's just that the whole thing has him wondering about the religious commune up the road.
"The fact that so many people can be so heavily influenced by one person . . . doesn't that make you
think something like that (Waco) could happen in our community?" asked Oberbeck, a Sebastian City
Council member and home builder. "The fact people are centered around that same lifestyle (as in
Waco) causes reason for doubt."
The people Oberbeck is talking about are members of the Kashi Church Foundation. On a
41-acre ranch three miles north of Sebastian, flamboyant guru Ma Jaya Bhagavati Cho preaches a
hybrid of Eastern and Western religion to about 150 followers. Her supplicants worship her like a deity.
Since the shooting in Waco, people in this 12,200-resident community in Indian River County and in tiny nearby Roseland are buzzing about the Kashis. "People are concerned, not just a few of
my neighbors, but citywide," said Sebastian retiree Al Vilardi, a failed candidate for City Council last
year.
Sebastian Mayor Lonnie Powell says there is fear in the community.
"You just don't know what's going on. . . . You don't know what's happening behind those trees there (on
the Kashi ranch) unless you're involved," he said. "It's scary."
Cho and her followers bought the Roseland property in 1976 and moved there with a small group,
eventually forming the tax-exempt, non-profit Kashi Church Foundation Inc. Disciples must abide by Cho's rules: no drugs, no alcohol, no meat and no sex unless trying to conceive a child. Residents live in large houses and apartments on the lush ranch grounds. Most have jobs off the ranch and share meals and child care.
Unlike Koresh's Branch Davidians, the Kashi Church Foundation does not subscribe to
apocalyptic prophecy. Rather, members are a mixture of Catholics, Jews and Protestants with a shared
interest in other faiths, including Buddhism, Hinduism and Taoism. Cho says she emphasizes love and community service. While secluded, the Kashi ranch is much more accessible than
Koresh's compound. And there is no evidence the group has ever stockpiled weapons.
Kashi officials would not comment for this story. Initially they requested written questions.
Once provided, however, they failed to respond despite repeated phone calls over four days.
The Kashis are not without their supporters in Indian River County. And at least one of
them blames the controversy on ignorance.
"They don't like Kashi and the reason they don't like Kashi is they're a
bunch of rednecks," said Maggy Bowman, an environmentalist and Indian River County commissioner
from 1982 to 1992. ' ' I just know they (the Kashis) are good and they are surrounded by a
very inhospitable, narrow-minded community."
Bowman says the Kashi group is "wonderful" and she points to their involvement in
community service work as evidence of their altruism.
Louise Cartwright, an unsuccessful candidate in the recent Sebastian City Council election, also calls
the Kashis peaceful.
"I think any informed or intelligent person wouldn't feel that way (afraid)," said Cartwright.
Not everyone in Sebastian and Roseland is talking about the Kashis. In fact, many here
don't know much about them.
A woman behind the front desk at the Sebastian River Area Chamber of Commerce said: "I don't know a
thing about them."
Likewise, Joe Warren, a lifelong Sebastian resident and commercial fisherman, was unaware of the Kashis.
"I don't know anything," he said, sitting in a Sebastian barbershop while his son got a haircut.
FEAR OF POLITICAL POWER
Still, the presence of the ranch and Guru Cho's followers has spawned rumors. Some of them are quite
bizarre, such as the 8-foot-tall man in purple robes spotted on the ranch, or the talk of animal sacrifice.
Some people are convinced Kashi members spy.
"I believe their (Kashi) members report all the things that are going on in this town," said
Will Conyers, mayor of Sebastian between 1990 and 1992. "They've got members in everything,
including the Chamber of Commerce and the medical profession."
But the most persistent fear is that the Kashis are trying to build a political power base.
Critics point to so-called "Kashi sympathizers" in local politics. They assert that some
candidates are supported by Kashi residents with money and get-out-the-vote phone
banks, but admit they have no proof.
"It's all rumors and innuendos, nothing concrete," conceded Kashi critic Burt Snell, a
Sebastian businessman. "It always just seemed like when something about the Kashis
was decided, it was always sort of in their favor."
Sebastian Mayor Powell agrees that the Kashis are a political force. He contends they
were involved in the 1990 City Council election, "but we can't prove it."
"For whatever reasons, they want power and they've got their people strategically located in all aspects of the community," said Sebastian retiree Bob Morrow. He said he has been telephoned by ranch
residents urging him to vote for specific candidates.
Bent Lorentzen, a former Kashi from 1976 to 1991, said one of Cho's top priorities was
amassing political power. He said he participated in phone banks at the ranch and helped post
"hundreds" of campaign signs around the county. He couldn't remember which candidates they
supported, however.
AIRPORT EXPANSION FOUGHT
"They were incredibly highly organized," said Lorentzen, who said he is in therapy as a result of his years with the group.
Even Kashi supporter Bowman said members of the Kashi group once
made campaign signs supporting her commission candidacy.
On two occasions, some Kashi members have sought the help of local government.
The first was their efforts beginning in 1988 to curb the expansion at the Sebastian Airport, located
across Roseland Road from the ranch. Two Kashi members-- ranch attorney John Evans
and ranch spokesman Richard Rosenkranz -- joined with other local residents to form a group that
wanted to control growth.
"There's been a lot of resentment that an outside group . . . could have so much influence on the city,"
Oberbeck said. "Logically, if you don't want to hear trains, you don't build next to the railroad tracks."
The Sebastian Airport was built in 1942; the Kashis moved to Roseland in 1976.
Steve Johnson supported the airport expansion. At the time, he was quoted in the local newspaper as
saying, "What you're dealing with is not just an organized group of people, but a cult group."
Shortly thereafter, Johnson said, he started receiving threatening phone calls. "After the second call I
said, `These people are crazy. I don't know what they might do.' "
But Maggy Bowman scoffs at the suggestion the Kashis would hurt anyone.
"There's about as much retribution as Mahatma Gandhi," she said.
Eventually, the runways were reconfigured and traffic was rerouted away from the Kashi
ranch, said Richard Votapka, mayor of Sebastian from 1988 to 1990.
And late last year, a company that makes martial arts gear focused attention again on the
Kashis.
DOUBTFUL OF PHYSICAL THREAT
In November, officials of Macho Products Inc. proposed moving from Palm Bay to a site near Sebastian.
Macho Products was established in 1979 by Cho's husband, SooSe Cho, and Rosanne Henry, who was
then a Kashi member, to provide jobs for Kashi residents, Henry said. She
said the company is named after the guru -- Ma Cho.
The company lists two residents of the Kashi ranch as officers. A third is listed as a
resident of property next to the ranch. Macho Products profits help support the ranch, SooSe said in an
interview last year.
Initially, some residents opposed the move simply because Macho had a record of polluting the air in
Palm Bay. They formed a committee and filled public hearings. They complained that Macho uses
hazardous chemicals and that the factory was going to be too close to two local schools.
As the debate continued, more and more people learned about the Macho- Kashi
connection. Some people, including Al Vilardi, see the move as an attempt by Cho to consolidate her
power by having Macho closer to the ranch.
John Kebbel, a teacher at a nearby school, said he sees "incredible hypocrisy" in the self-proclaimed
environmentally concerned Kashi Church Foundation being connected to a company that pollutes.
The Kashis co-host the annual Indian River Festival, recently renamed Arlo Guthrie's
Great Music Festival. The festival benefits environmental causes.
Dudley Gordon, Macho's president, who does not live on the ranch, tried to allay residents' concerns at
a January County Commission meeting. He said that the plant will include state-of-the-art pollution controls. Based on a recommendation from the county's planning department, the Planning and Zoning
Commission approved the application.
Meanwhile, news reports from Waco make some local residents uneasy. Most doubt the Kashis
pose any physical threat. They worry, however, that the group will grow and begin to wield more
and more political power.
"My worst fear is that more of them will move here and that this thing will get even worse," said Kebbel.
"If they were just quiet and stayed on the ranch it would be OK, but I really feel like any time there's a chance to make money they'll come out, stir up politics and create a lot of polarization."
Staff Writer Sarah K. Duran contributed to this report.
© The Palm Beach Post
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