Aesthetic Realism in the media
and help for journalists covering AR
scandals
Interviews
I'm happy to do phone interviews, but I do
ask that you read the relevant sections on this page
before calling. I spent quite a bit of time putting
it together for your benefit, so please do me the
courtesy of getting some background before we talk. My
phone number is 512-322-0638.
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.
And blogs and online media:
I also did a radio interview with
The one favorable treament I found:
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)
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, since they operate as a
mind-control cult.
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 of their answers.
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Reporter's question
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Aesthetic Realist's answer
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What they're not telling you
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So you show people how to change from
homosexuality?
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No, the Aesthetic Realism Foundation absolutely
does not counsel people on how to not be gay.
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This was our main business in the 70's and 80's,
but we don't do it any more.
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Did you claim to have a cure for
homosexuality?
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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.
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What's your current position about this?
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We stopped helping people change long ago. We're
for "full civil rights for everyone".
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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.
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Can people change from homosexuality as a result
of studying Aesthetic Realism?
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Yes, it is a fact that people have changed as a
result of studying AR.
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In fact, the overwhelming majority of people who
underwent the cure couldn't stay "changed" and
decided they were really gay after all.
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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
reports from 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. 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 their own internal language,
and AR is no exception. Here's a
list of special AR terms and what they mean.
Excerpts of certain articles
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.)
"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."
(back to the list of
articles)
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.
- "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
September 2009.
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Aesthetic Realism at a
Glance |
|
Name |
The
Aesthetic Realism Foundation |
|
Founded |
1941 |
|
Founder |
Eli Siegel, poet and art/literary critic.
Committed suicide in 1978 |
|
Purpose |
To teach Siegel's philosophy of aesthetic
realism. |
|
Philosophy
|
The key to all social ills is for people to learn to like the world. Having contempt for the world leads to unhappiness and even insanity. (The slogan of their newsletter is "Contempt causes insanity".) Homosexuality is seen as a form of insanity caused by not liking the world sufficiently.
Also teaches that "beauty is the making one of
opposites". |
|
Location |
New York City (SoHo) |
|
Membership
|
About 103 (35 teachers, 41 training to be teachers, and 27 regular students). Has failed to grow appreciably even after 70 years of
existence, and is currently shrinking.
Members call themselves "students". Advanced
members who teach others are called
"consultants". |
|
Method of study |
Public seminars/lectures at their headquarters
(in lower Manhattan), group classes, and
individual consultations (three consultants
vs. one student). |
|
Cult aspects
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- Fanatical devotion to their
leader/founder
- Belief that they have the one true answer to
universal happiness
- Ultimate purpose is to recruit new
members
- Feeling that they are being persecuted
- Wild, paranoid reactions to criticism
- Non-communication (or at least very limited communication) with those who have left
the group
- Odd, specialized language.
More about cult aspects...
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