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The highly controversial Lafayette Morehouse community formed in Lafayette, California in 1968. The members engage in experimental sexual research and believe in a life of hedonistic pleasure. Their members also teach classes on sex practices and techniques, and the group even used to offer college degrees in those areas, in case you were having trouble deciding what to major in!
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Purple. It's the color of amethyst, eggplant, grimace, and an alleged sex cult from Lafayette
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California. It's officially known as Lafayette Morehouse, and its members live in purple houses
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and travel around in purple limousines, while both taking and teaching courses on human intimacy
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It's certainly unusual, but is it really over the top or just misunderstood? Well
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Today, we're going to take a look inside Lafayette Morehouse, the so-called purple people sex cult
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Okay, time for a school that Prince would certainly approve of. The highly controversial Lafayette Morehouse community formed in Lafayette, California in 1968
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The members engage in experimental sexual research and believe in a life of hedonistic pleasure
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Their members also teach classes on sex practices and techniques, and the group even used to offer college degrees in those areas
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in case you were having trouble deciding what to major in. Yes, from 1977 to 1997, they operated Moore University
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a post-secondary school that offered BAs and MAs in humanities, as well as PhDs in sensuality and lifestyles
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The school was authorized by the state of California to give out these degrees
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but that changed in 1989, when the California Bureau for Private Post-Secondary and Vocational Education
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staged a crackdown on non-accredited schools. Wonder how their football team did
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But while spending your days both having sex and teaching classes about it sounds like a blast
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there is, of course, a darker side. While members maintain that Lafayette Morehouse
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is simply a community encouraging pleasurable living, others hold that the group uses intimidation tactics
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to keep members closed up behind purple doors. And there have been other troubling developments
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For example, the Free Love Commune faced public criticism in 1994 when authorities arrested its founder
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Dr. Victor Barranco, and his wife for possession of LSD, which lent credence to previous allegations
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that Dr. Barranco had coerced students into taking illegal drugs. So, the Purple People are not actually Purple
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nor do they call themselves the Purple People. In fact the group website deliberately eschews the nickname to avoid confusion with the Italian mass protest movement that does identify as the Purple People Molto confuso That being said much of what the Lafayette Morehouse members own including their homes
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and cars, is purple. Why? For one, the bold color is intended to help people who come to the 16-acre grounds understand
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that they are entering a unique space. And at least one member has claimed that purple was the favorite color of Dr. Barranco's first
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wife, Suzanne. While members of Lafayette Morehouse use ordinary methods of transportation, they also do a lot of their traveling via purple vehicles
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Their purple rides include golf carts, because they're an eco-friendly way to get around, and classic limousines, because members like to travel in large groups
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The limousine also allegedly lines up with their principles, as the founder believed that fixing up an old car communicated to the world that Lafayette Morehouse does not discard things that are old or difficult
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The limos also made it easy to have one person serve as designated driver while other passengers, to paraphrase Jimmy Buffett, get drunk and amorous
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Lafayette Morehouse does not fight crime, but it does fight harassment of itself
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The commune claims locals target their community because of its reputation, mostly taking the form of vandalizing the property
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This is why, Morehouse claims, they must employ security guards. Their website emphasizes that the guards serve to block members from tourists who unknowingly explore the property
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believing it to be a public space and possibly looking to get in on all that freaky sex stuff
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Critics have claimed that the guards are there to keep members inside as much as they keep outsiders from intruding
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But for now, it's just speculation. If you think sex is great, you should try an intimate encounter that lasts as long as a Godfather movie
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You may not be entirely sure that's healthy, or even possible, but the good people at Lafayette
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Morehouse sure are. In 1976, they put on a fairly risque public display that went on for three, count them
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three whole hours. The demonstration was open to the public, but took place on the fairly remote Northern
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California Morehouse property, and no known film of the event exists. It allegedly featured a woman named Diana and Lafayette Morehouse founder Dr. Barranco
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Diana allegedly confirmed the three runtime but noted it wasn nonstop There were arrests including of course a few cigarette breaks But Diana attributed the length of the experience to the special techniques she learned in the commune
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If you thought that would be the freakiest part of the show, well, according to Diana, when the demonstration ended
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audience members immediately started having relations of their own. Diana, as far as we can tell, is still a member of Lafayette Morehouse
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where she teaches courses on physical intimacy. We assume the three-hour thing is an elective
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Most residents of Lafayette Morehouse engage in coursework about sexuality, and what is taught in these classes often draws on the activities performed within the larger group
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which is probably not awkward at all. Within that larger group, some residents are celibate, some are monogamous
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some engage in casual relations, and some are in polyamorous relationships. Spicy
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Their website touts that sexual preference is a personal choice. For example, Dr. Barranco and his first wife, Suzanne, were reported to engage in numerous
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experimental relations with students because there's nothing like hands-on experience. Again, definitely not awkward at all
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One of the core beliefs at Lafayette Morehouse is that humans and their world are inherently perfect
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To them, a perfect person is not one who has only good traits, and a perfect life is not
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one that includes only good experiences, which is to say being perfect means being imperfect
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Got it? Former teacher Ray Vetterlein explained to Rolling Stone how this concept is applied to the group mentality, saying
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Out there, you don't feel like you can do what you want. But living here, where everybody thinks the same way as you
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that they're perfect just like they are, it works out. Essentially, it's like living in a commune full of David Lee Roths
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which does sound like fun. One unique aspect of Lafayette Morehouse's communal living is their decision-making system
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Under the one no vote, residents weigh in on any proposed action that impacts the whole group
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Each resident has a decisive no vote, which means they can veto any proposed changes and have that veto honored
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They do this because it prevents the weakest member from having their viewpoints ignored
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In a 2018 Maxim interview, one member explained that even a single no means a proposed action won't occur
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Additionally once a no has been voiced the issue is never reconsidered You would think that would make it hard to get anything done but that same member reported that only two negative votes have ever been cast in the history of Morehouse
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It seems amazing, but knowing that voting no will stop everyone else from getting what they want forever
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creates a considerable amount of pressure on members to just go along with the group
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You know, like in a cult. You're probably wondering why you've never heard
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of a purple people sex cult before. The answer is because newspapers hate getting sued
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In 1992, the San Francisco Chronicle began reporting on various issues surrounding Lafayette
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Morehouse, including the accusations of immoral crimes, drug use, and their unhygienic and
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dangerous premises. The article was prompted by complaints from neighbors regarding the state of the property
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The commune responded by suing the Chronicle for libel. They were not successful in that suit because they couldn't prove any of it wasn't true
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and all their appeals were rejected. But the message was clear to reporters
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Any negative coverage of Lafayette Morehouse would result in gridlocking retaliation. Lafayette Morehouse caused a ton of controversy between the 1970s and 90s
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but things have mostly been quiet since then. That's partially because in 2002, their high-profile profligate founder, Dr. Victor Branco
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moved on to the Great Limousine in the Sky. Lafayette Morehouse did prove to be influential for Nicole Dadone
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co-founder of the orgasmic meditation company OneTaste, which was shut down in 2018 after
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being investigated by the FBI for a number of crimes, including human trafficking and
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prostitution. Like Lafayette Morehouse, OneTaste was accused of cult-like behavior, and Dadeon was eventually indicted. The company was also the subject of the 2022 Netflix documentary
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Orgasm Inc., The Story of OneTaste. Just maybe wear a documentary fan shirt if you're
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Googling it in public. As for Lafayette Morehouse, their members continued to deny any allegations
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of manipulation or wrongdoing. In 2022, former member Marco Beneteau told a reporter from KQED
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News that characterizing the compound as a cult is complete nonsense. He argued the group shared
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none of the standard practices associated with cults, stating excommunication for leaving
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financial coercion, and demanding that people cut off relationships with their relatives
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None of that has ever been practiced at Morehouse. That being said, sex cults or not, the whole purple thing is just plain weird