Aesthetic Realism is a cult

  Who they are, how they operate • Written by former members

Aesthetic Realism in the media

and help for journalists covering AR scandals

Interviews

I'm happy to do phone interviews: (512) 322-0638. 

 

References in the media to AR being a cult, or cultish

• Commentary Magazine: "It reminds me of those screwball buttons an odd New York psychiatric cult used to send out, protesting the New York Times’s refusal to acknowledge them, insisting on 'Aesthetic Realism’s Right to Be Known.'" (by Stephen Hunter, Pulitzer-Prize winning writer, July/August 2009; link)
  
• New York Blade: "Anti-Gay Cult Pulls Fast One: Aesthetic Realists wrest $4,000 in state funds for a program that allegedly teaches art to Brooklyn senior citizens. But the group has a history of 'converting' gays to heterosexuals." (by Bill Schoell, Apr. 25, 2008, link)
  
• New York Magazine: "The Aesthetic Realists: An oddball presence in SoHo for more than twenty years..." (by Tom Roston, Jan. 2, 1995, p. 27, link)
• Harper's Magazine: "'Fair' is a word favored by the Aesthetic Realists, a.k.a. the Embattled Disciples of Eli Siegel and, in some of their incarnations, the Moonies of Poetry." (April 1982, by Hugh Kenner; see excerpt)
• New York Magazine: "[Aesthetic Realism is a] cult of messianic nothingness that hangs out somewhere in the Village." (1976, excerpt)
  
• New York Times: "This is less a book than a collection of pietistic snippets by Believers." (review of AR's first gay cure book, Sept. 12, 1971)

Where else has Aesthetic Realism been covered in the media?

The media has covered the AR group many times, and the coverage is rarely favorable.

• A Brooklyn assemblyman's earmarks are political surrealism (Village Voice, 2008)
• Grant recipient alleged to be a cult (Albany Times Union, 2008)
• Assemblyman funds anti-gay group (Gay City News, 2008)
• Anti-Gay Cult Pulls a Fast One (The New York Blade, 2008)
  
• The controversial legacy of Eli Siegel (Jewish Times, 2003)
• Foes accuse teachers of 'cult' (New York Post, 1998)
• Activism: A Scene in Two Acts (New York Magazine, 1995)
  
• Contempt Causes Insanity: The guru of Aesthetic Realism (Harpers, 1982) (Referred to them as "the Moonies of poetry".)
• FYI Put those fears away, all citizens to be (The Globe and Mail, April 28, 1978, p. 8)
  
• New York Magazine (1976) (Called them "a cult of messianic nothingness".)
• Review of AR's book about its gay cure, The H Persuasion (New York Times, 1971)
     "This is less a book than a collection of pietistic snippets by Believers."

And blogs and online media:

• "Anti-gay cult" gets four grand from NY (Queerty, 2008)
  (also an interview with Allen Roskoff on AR's gay cure, 2008)

I also did a radio interview with

• OutQ on Sirius (2008)

 The one favorable treament I found:

• Eli Siegel's system lives (Baltimore Sun, 1982)

The book Wrestling with God and Men (PDF) by Rabbi Steven Greenberg referred to AR as "the once popular cult of Eli Siegel". (p. 293)

AR was referred to in Commentary magazine "It reminds me of those screwball buttons an odd New York psychiatric cult used to send out, protesting the New York Times’s refusal to acknowledge them, insisting on 'Aesthetic Realism’s Right to Be Known.'" (by Stephen Hunter, Pulitzer-Prize winning writer, July/August 2009; link)

The AR people like to point to the many favorable reviews of Siegel's poetry and literary work that exist, as though that legitimizes the cult. But they're different things. We have no truck with Siegel's philosophy (except the bit about homosexuality being a form of insanity). Our criticism is about the group that promotes his philosophy, not the philosophy itself.

 

What is all this, in a nutshell?

Aesthetic Realism is a philosophy about how to live your life. The primary teaching is that one should value the world and the people in it, and avoid having contempt for them, because "contempt causes insanity". AR also teaches that "beauty is the making one of opposites", in art, music, life, and everything else.

The philosophy itself isn't scandalous or crazy, but the way the Aesthetic Realists practice it is. They believe that it's the one true answer to universal peace and happiness (a hallmark of cults), which serves as a starting point for their extremism and other cult aspects, which I'm about to list.

AR also promoted its "cure" for homosexuality for decades, which is what the media usually focuses on, but AR's scandals run much deeper than that. Focusing on the gay cure misses the point that AR is a dangerous mind-control cult which strips people of their ability to think independently and tears families apart. That's a story that's rarely been told, but needs to be. AR's cult aspects include.

• Fanatical devotion to the founder or leader. They believe the founder, Eli Siegel, was the greatest person ever to live, period. They think his writings trump the Bible and Shakespeare.
• The ultimate purpose is to recruit new members. Whether it's writing guest editorials or doing public presentations about the beauty of architecture, you can be sure there will be lavish praise for AR and Eli Siegel. Everything they do is done with the hope of luring someone else in.
• Paranoid feeling of persecution. They believe there is a conspiracy in the media to avoid reporting about their one true answer to universal peace and happiness. For years they were buttons proclaiming "Victim of the Press", and stopped in the 90's after being embarrassed by an article in the New York Post which mentioned that.
• Control over members' lives, right down to whom they must marry. See a former member's story about the level of control over members ofd the group, especially the section "Controlling students' personal relationships".
• Cutting off ties with friends and family, if they aren't believers as well. This one is mentioned over and over by the various former members who have contributed their stories about their experiences for this site.
• The cult founder/leader killed himself. That's almost a cliché with cults, and this one is no exception.
• Hysterical reaction to criticism. The AR site Countering the Lies (ironically named) is chock full of screeching hysterics about their critics. Here's one of my favorite quotes there, written about me by AR member Marvin Mondlin: "So much for the stupid lying of Mali, Bluejay and the other liars.... Why is he doing this? Feeling himself to be a failure in his own life, and joining with others also seeking revenge for essentially the same reason--notably Adam Mali--'Michael Bluejay' seeks the triumph of making himself important by looking down upon others. He is attempting to assuage his feeling of unimportance by attacking the persons and philosophy he very well realizes best represent truth and beauty." I couldn't make up stuff this good!

 

Okay, so they're a little weird. Isn't that harmless?

No. If they merely had some unconventional beliefs, there would be no problem. But they do hurt people. The people involved lose their ability to think independently. They cut off ties with friends and family if those people aren't also believers. And former members have said that it's taken them years of therapy to get over their involvement with the group. Some of them attempted suicide after leaving the group. And there have been at least three suicides of people in the group that we know about.

 

Tell me about the gay cure

According to AR, homosexuality is a result of one's contempt for the world. Their answer? Study Aesthetic Realism, which will show you how to like the world, and therefore you won't be homosexual any more. Actually, a big part of the "cure" is expressing your undying allegiance to Aesthetic Realism and its founder, Eli Siegel. Here's a transcript of an AR therapy session in which AR people tried to cure an AR student of his gayness. What's interesting about this session is the amount of time the AR people spend chastising the student for not demonstrating enough "respect" and "gratitude" for AR and Eli Siegel.

The group actively promoted its "cure" in the 70's & 80's but abandoned it in the 90's, for two reasons. One, society was becoming more tolerant of homosexuality, and the idea of a gay cure just didn't fly as easily as it had in the past. And perhaps more significantly, the "cure" didn't really work, with most of the "cured" deciding they were really still gay after all and leaving the group. That was mighty embarrassing when the media came calling and asked about the status of their high-publicized success stories.

AR didn't just say it had a gay cure, it actively promoted it:

• They published two books on the subject, including the infamous The H Persuasion in 1971. That book chronicled the success stories about four men who had supposedly been cured of their gayness. But in point of fact, three of them decided they were really still gay and left the group, and the fourth one is dead.
• They made a film about it called We Have Changed.
• They took out big ads in major newspapers like the New York Times, trumpeting the gay cure. (See the top right of this page.)
• They held vigils in front of the New York Times building because the Times refused to report about the gay cure. (This was one of the things I'm embarrassed to say I participated in when I was still a member.)
• Perhaps most significantly, they held therapy sessions ("consultations") for people who wanted to stop being gay. Here's a transcript of one such therapy session. Some of the former counselors of the gay cure are still active with the group, such as Dale Laurin.

If you talk to the AR people now, they'll deny they had a gay cure. They're really clever with their words, so you have to know how to ask your questions, and how to interpret their answers. Here's a guide to their answers, and what they're leaving out.

Journalist's question	Aesthetic Realist's answer	What they're not telling you
So you show people how to change from homosexuality?	No, the Aesthetic Realism Foundation absolutely does not counsel people on how to not be gay.	This was our main business in the 70's and 80's, but we don't do it any more.
Did you claim to have a cure for homosexuality?	No, Aesthetic Realism never claimed to have a cure for homosexuality.	We simply never used the word "cure". We said we could show people how to change from homosexuality, but we cleverly never used the "cure" word.
What's your current position about this?	We stopped helping people change long ago. We're for "full civil rights for everyone".	The reason we abandoned the cure wasn't because we realized it was wrong, but because it wasn't working. We've never admitted we were wrong, and have certainly never apologized for our efforts to change gays. That is, we still hold the same opinions, we just don't make them public any more. Saying we believe in "full civil rights" is true and masks the fact that we continue to believe that homosexuality is a psychological disorder caused by contempt.
Can people change from homosexuality as a result of studying Aesthetic Realism?	Yes, it is a fact that people have changed as a result of studying AR.	In fact, the overwhelming majority of people who underwent the cure couldn't stay "changed" and decided they were really gay after all.

Whenever someone brings up the gay care, the AR people shriek, "That was in the past! That was a long time ago!" But what they're not admitting is that while they no longer offer their program for change, their opinions haven't changed at all. Here's what one of the AR teachers said on Wikipedia:

The Aesthetic Realism Foundation formally discontinued this single aspect of study because it was being sucked into the culture wars--with the far Right trying to use it to promote their bigoted agenda against homosexuality and the far Left furious at anything that even remotely suggested homosexuality was not biological. In such an atmosphere Aesthetic Realism's sensible, philosophic approach to the subject didn't stand a chance of being considered reasonably. (emphasis mine; source)

   

Who are you?

I'm Michael Bluejay, a former member. I was born into it, just like my mother was. (My maternal grandparents were members too.) I had at least one "lesson" with the cult leader when I was two years old. I also had "consultations" at the cult headquarters when I was 12. My family didn't completely end its involvement completely until I was a teenager. However, the majority of writing on this website is not my own, it's that of over a dozen other former members like me, as well as coverage in the mainstream media.

 

AR says you're not credible. How do you respond to that?

It's not just me saying this. This site contains the voices of sixteen different former members who all say pretty much the same thing. And noted cult experts like Steve Hassan and Arnold Markowitz also agree that Aesthetic Realism is a cult. Heck, people were calling AR a cult before I was born. The founder Eli Siegel referenced it in a lesson I had with him when I was two years old. And above you can see sources like the New York Times, Harper's, New York Magazine, etc. referring to AR as a cult.  So it's not just me [Michael Bluejay] saying this. Not by a longshot.

Another thing the AR people like to claim is that my family left the group when I was two years old, which is simply not true. Take a look at the pictures on this page, where I'm dutifully wearing my Aesthetic Realism button. How old do I look to you? (In those photos, I'm 12.) That same summer I had multiple "consultations" (therapy sessions) at AR's headquarters, participated in an AR vigil in front of the NY Times building, and attended other classes and presentations at AR's headquarters. Back in Texas, I attended the AR study group that my mother put together.

And if the AR people are so sure I'm wrong, why are they so afraid to debate me? I first invited them to debate years ago and since then I've had a standing offer to debate. But they won't even acknowledge it, much less accept. Here's a video where I confront Arnold Perey and ask him to debate (after he claimed on Wikipedia that I'm afraid to debate!). Perey wouldn't even acknowledge me.

At least one AR person told someone they won't debate me because I'm just some unimportant nobody who's not worth their time. If that's the case, why did they put together a 119-page website (!) whose primary purpose is to combat the things I'm saying? How much effort did that take?!

 

The AR people mount a fierce defense on Countering the Lies. How do you respond to that?

The devil is in the details. Like I said earlier, they cleverly say they never had a gay cure. In fact they did have a gay cure, but they never used the word "cure". So they deceive by omission. Nearly everything else on that site falls into the same category. I could write a book....

But fortunately I don't have to. After Countering the Lies went up, a former member sent me a veritable tome about their experience in the group, explaining along the way exactly what the AR people are cleverly leaving out of their answers on Countering the Lies.

How did Eli Siegel die?

Eli Siegel killed himself. He was 76 years old and unhappy with the results of his prostate surgery. The current AR people of course say that he was in "unbearable pain", though others who left dispute this. In any event, he took his own life with an intentional overdose of prescription drugs after careful consultation and planning with his students. Some of them attended. But no doctor attended, so it wasn't euthanasia.

We know all this because of two reasons: One, enough former members have come forward to tell this story and corroborate it. Second, the AR people typically have refused to say exactly how Siegel died, but have alluded to suicide saying things like "Eli Siegel died with dignity.... What death with dignity means to people today, thanks to the Hemlock Society and other Death with Dignity organizations, is that one has died by his own hand."

For the record, I respect anyone's desire to end their own life. What makes Siegel's case unique is that he had previously railed against suicide as a form of contempt. And when the man who says he has the one true answer to universal peace and happiness takes his own life, that does give you pause. And finally, a big part of the scandal is that Siegel is that the AR people won't even admit that Siegel killed himself. They say I'm a "liar" for saying he did. Meanwhile, they won't say exactly how he died. They say alternately that he "died with dignity" or that he "died of a broken heart" or that his death was "the result of an operation" -- the latter being another clever twisting of words. "The result" being that Siegel decided to take his life after being dissatisfied with the operation, not that the operation itself killed him.

 

Tell me about the $4,000 NY state grant in April 2008

NY Assemblyman Felix Ortiz awarded the AR Foundation $4,000 from the State budget, to support some art classes the group holds. I don't want to be hard on Ortiz, he likely had no idea what the AR people are all about. And they do indeed give art classes, though in reality those classes are an opportunity for recruitment. In fact, a former member describes clearly how he was sucked into the group one small step at a time, starting with art classes.

AR should operate on their own dime. Taxpayer money shouldn't be used to give a handout to a group which hurts people.

In any event, when Ortiz learned about the true background of the group, he apparently revoked their grant.

 

Questions to ask the Aesthetic Realists

When talking to AR people, you have to word your questions carefully and interpret their answers carefully if you want your questioning to be successful. If they can find a technicality that gives them an out to deceive you about something they'd rather not admit, they will. Since I'm familiar with their most frequent obfuscations, I can suggest some pointed questions to ask them.

Was Eli Siegel the greatest person ever to live? They believe this, and they'll probably readily admit to it. But that's pretty good proof about how fanatic they are in their beliefs.

Did the Aesthetic Realism Foundation offer consultations to help people change from homosexuality? If you word it this way you'll likely get the accurate answer -- yes. If you word it any other way then you'll probably get the wrong answer, "No".

Did Eli Siegel say that homosexuality was a form of selfishness? He did, in the 1971 book The H Persuasion.

Did Eli Siegel's life end after he intentionally took an overdose of prescription medications? This is the way you have to ask this question, leaving no room for error, though they will still probably deny it anyway. The spokesperson might say something like "I don't know, I wasn't there," which is an obvious way to avoid answering. But if they claim they don't know how he died because they weren't there, then the obvious followup is:

How can you say that Bluejay et al are lying when they say that Siegel killed himself, if you're telling me that you don't know how he died because you weren't there?

Aesthetic Realism glossary / groupspeak

Every cult has its own internal language, and AR is no exception. Here's a list of special AR terms and what they mean.

 

Excerpts of certain articles

Review of "Rich and Famous" play (New York Magazine, March 8, 1976, p. 77, by Alan Rich)

"As Bing, William Atherton gives the same sandpapered, uninflected reading that looked positively heroic in The Day of the Locust. Mr. Atherton, he wants it to be known, is an alumnus of Aesthetic Realism, that cult of messianic nothingness that hangs out somewhere in the Village. It figures."

"Contempt causes insanity: The guru of aesthetic realism" (Harpers, April 1982, by Hugh Kenner)

"When rumor got out that [this article] had been scheduled, someone rang Harper's to ask if it would be 'fair'..... 'Fair' is a word favored by the Aesthetic Realists, a.k.a. the Embattled Disciples of Eli Siegel and, in some of their incarnations, the Moonies of Poetry. They also favor impersonal constructions, world like "large" and "good," boiler plate like "having-to-do-with." What they push isn't poetry, though poetry is part of it; they push Aesthetic Realism, the banner of a way to psychic wholeness taught by Eli Siegel for forty years. They will testify that he changed their lives, and they cannot get over it. A few months ago some of them rushed a talk show on homosexuality and gave Phil Donahue a hard time. (Are you whole and serene if you stay obsessed with your deliverance? Donahue was too flustered to ask.) ... Thus the title, Self and World, of a posthumous prose 'Explanation of Aesthetic Realism,' from which we (and the press) can at last learn what the press has been Unfair to. Not that we're allowed to forget the intensity of discipleship that pickets, flaunts buttons, and testifies in chorus. At the book's threshold you bang your head on an introductory note by Martha Baird Siegel, who says Self and World is 'the greatest book ever to have been written. If you think I am saying greater than the Bible or Shakespeare--yes, I am.' After that, you'll not be blamed for walking warily. ... Sentence by sentence [Siegel] can be sweetly credible, and you'll not miss what he's overlooking till you come up for reflection. ... The introductory note laments what [Siegel's] isolation may have cost us: 'He thought, for example, if he had been able to work with doctors, he could have found the cause of cancer.' I'm afraid he did think that."

"FYI Put those fears away, all citizens-to-be" (Robin Green, The Globe and Mail, Toronto, Ont.: Apr 28, 1978. p.8)

"Pity the lot of the Aesthetic Realists, a New York-based group with fewer than 200 members who are mad at the New York Times because the Times, they claim, refuses to print a story that 123 homosexuals have changed (to heterosexuality) through Aesthetic Realism. In fact, the AR people are so mad they've been bombarding the Times' city desk with more than 65 calls a day demanding that the story be run. Not just that - they have also taken to holding vigils in front of publisher C. L. Punch Sulzberger's home and those of other top Times officials, and to staging little protests in the Times news room. It's really quite funny, in a sad sort of way, a friend at the Times tells us. They come in a couple of times a week - three sorry-looking guys flanked by two women. The guys wear signs around their necks saying something like 'I used to be a homosexual but Eli Segal (founder of the AR movement) saved me.' At least they had an identity when they were gay; now they look as if they've been put through the laundry. The Times, we understand, is holding to its rise-above-it-all stance and has no plans to publish the story."

The New York Times' review of AR's first gay cure book (Sept. 12, 1971)

"This is less a book than a collection of pietistic snippets by Believers. There is no reason to believe or disbelieve these ex-homosexuals who claim that Eli Siegel put them on the straight and narrow by showing that homosexuality was unaesthetic and therefore contemptuous of life. By the aesthetic realization that Beauty lies in Opposites, they were cured. Nor is there reason to believe that anyone reading this volume would be moved, intrigued, or piqued enough to try the cure." (This is actually the full text of the review, not an excerpt.)

Former members describe Aesthetic Realism

• The ULTIMATE statement by a former member. Wow. A former Aesthetic Realism member who was involved for over ten years and into the 1990's sent us this incredibly detailed account of what life inside AR is like. This puts to rest once and for all any lingering question about whether AR is a cult - it is. The AR people will not be able to "counter" this on their Countering the Lies website because this account is from one of their own, and because it's so exhaustively detailed.
• A tale of getting sucked in. Another former member shares his experiences. This story is unique because he describes exactly how he initially got drawn in, and how he then kept getting more and more involved.
• Aesthetic Realism ruined his marriage. "[It] introduced a level of stress in my marriage that had not previously existed....I consider my 'study' of Aesthetic Realism to be one of the factors that led to the eventual breakup of my marriage, to my eternal sorrow." This former member also wrote about AR on Steve Hassan's Freedom of Mind.
• On having all the answers. A former member explains how AR members think they have all the answers, and feel qualified to lecture others about how they should view personal tragedy.
• Kicked out for remaining gay. A former student describes how he was kicked out of AR because he couldn't change from homosexuality. Powerful stuff.
• "If I disappointed them, then I now consider that a badge of honor." A former member tells how AR try to change him from being gay, and convinced him not to spend Christmas with his family.
• "This is merely one example of the way people were controlled and humiliated if they stepped out of line...". The experiences shared with us by a member from 1974-80, now a Fortune 100 executive.
• "I want Ellen Reiss questioned!" A former member tells her story, and wonders why there hasn't been a class-action lawsuit against the foundation yet.
• They took his consultation tape. A former student describes how AR people kept his consultation tape with his most intimate thoughts on it, and told him he couldn't study any more unless he incorporated AR more radically into his life.
• "There isn't any question: Eli Siegel killed himself.". A former member who sought AR's "gay cure" describes how the group's leaders admitted that the founder took his own life.
• "I personally know at least half of the contributors to AR's Countering the Lies website and know them to either be fibbing or having a long-term memory problem.". A former member from 1971-80, confirms that AR students don't see their families, are discouraged from attending college, and shun other members. He also offers that he was mistaken when he was involved about thinking that AR had changed him from homosexuality.
• Michael Bluejay's description. This whole website is my statement about Aesthetic Realism. But in this article I describe my family's involvement in more detail.
• Members interviewed in Jewish Times. This lengthy article in Jewish Times quotes former students of Aesthetic Realism extensively.
• NY Post article. A series of articles in the NY Post quotes many former members who are now critical of the group.
• Aesthetic Realism debunked. A former student explains the cult aspects of AR. Posted on Steve Hassan's Freedom of Mind website.

This page last updated March 2010.