The Brotherhood of the Indigo Cape

"The Brotherhood and Sisterhood of the Indigo Cape"

It was Fall 1965 and I was 17 years old. I wanted to drop out of high school. After all, I had been working part time at various jobs since I was 10 years old which was pretty normal for a boy my age. I had started dating a girl from Alaska with blue eyes and Blonde hair when President Kennedy was assassinated because "I didn't want to die a virgin" but I still was a virgin at 17 because I came from a religious family. At 16 I started to date a 21 year old girl from my church and my parents somehow approved this because they wanted to encourage me to "marry" a girl from our church so I might be encouraged to stay a church member.

So, by 17 High School seemed pretty ridiculous to me. That summer of 1965 the 21 year old girl and I had broken up and I had started dating an 18 year old girl who was going to start one of the California State University Campuses in Los Angeles. So, basically I thought I was already grown up and High School seemed pretty ridiculous and juvenile at the time. So, I just wanted to drop out of high school and get a job and date my college girlfriend that I intended to eventually marry.

But that was not to be:

My parents had other plans which probably worked out better in the long run in many ways.

They said to me: "Hey. Your friend Victor in Santa Fe has asked you to join him at the "I AM" School there". There aren't any other Senior boys there and it snows there and you could ski and then you would get your high school diploma. The only problem is they won't let you take your car there because you would have to live in the Residence Dorm there.

I began to think more about this because I wouldn't have to work and I loved to ski since I was 15 and there would be snow there and Santa Fe, New Mexico I had been to and it was a very wild place where the Rockies and deserts met at 7100 feet so I finally agreed mostly because I wouldn't have to work, I would get a break from my parents always being on my case, and I would get to hang out with my friend Victor who had a VW Bug and besides I had never lived in the snow before where it was cold. I had mostly Grown up in San Diego and Glendale where it is eternal summer or spring compared to the rest of the country. AND I would be able to get out of the smog which would be wonderful and away from all the people which drove me mad in Southern California then.

So, I agreed to go. My parents put me on the El Capitan Train for Santa Fe in Pasadena there. My College bound Girlfriend cried that day and kissed me goodbye. This likely was the biggest problem for me saying good bye to my girlfriend of only 2 or 3 months at that point.

However, in balance it seemed at the time like the right thing to do in my young life on balance.

As a result my then college bound girlfriend and I never married and another girlfriend I met at the "I AM" school sort of came between us in some ways even though we were friends for life and her brother also from church was my oldest friend from Sunday School since I was 6 years old and her brother and I stayed good friends until his passing in 2006.

So, I got on the El Capitan Train with a glass viewing area high up in a section of the train. I met a Soldier my age who had been to the Viet Nam War and spoke with him. It was like talking to a young man who had already died in some ways or like talking to a robot. He appeared to be human but everything young and beautiful in him had been stripped from him like someone who had been raped or something like that. I realized from that experience that I didn't want to fight in Viet Nam ever if that was possible in those moments of talking with this soldier when I was 17. It was like talking to a polite but emotionally wounded but respectful biological robot.

I got off the train wearing Flashy "Los Angeles" Clothes which put off the lady who ran the residence dorm who was picking me up from the airport. I guess she thought I was a rich spoiled kid who was a surfer from Los Angeles and decided to see if she could control me enough to allow me to stay in the residence dorm there. She had had to send many other boys and girls home because they were just too wild and uncontrollable in the past. Also, she was no lightweight because she and her husband met in a German Concentration Camp in Belgium and had to watch many people they knew die there during World War II. I knew in meeting her that she was not someone to be trifled with.

So, I put on my most profound "Los Angeles" Charm offensive to win her over to my side because I wanted to stay there in the beautiful mountain valley that Santa Fe Was. After all, I wasn't going to have to work 40 hours a week there like I would if I had stayed in Los Angeles and had gotten a job instead.

So, since I"m a very intelligent and well mannered person by nature I became eligible to become a member of the "Brotherhood of the Indigo Cape" which is a mystery school thing sort of like becoming a Knight in the modern Day of America based upon chivalry and Being a good Christian and becoming a fine young gentleman who helps children physically and spiritually survive in any way you can along the way.

It is sort of like being Demolay in the Masons or becoming a Shriner where they start hospitals for Children, like that. In other words you do whatever you can for the children you see or meet in your life. You pray for them, you protect them from harm or injury whenever you can in any way that you can and you lead them to becoming good Gentleman and Ladies who will be an asset to America and to the world.

During our High School Graduation I wore my Indigo Cape as I gave my senior Speech there in Santa Fe, New Mexico. My Speech (remember this is a Religious school) was called "The Power of the Silence" because I was always very interested in the ancient Mystery Schools where monks meditate in Caves in silence for years like Milarepa, the Tibetan Saint and Saint Francis, the Christian Saint.

So, to me, what happened in the Silence was the most powerful of all of being Close with God.

So, the next year because there were riots in Chicago in 1966 I believe so the "I AM" Conclave in Shasta Springs was cancelled, so in summer of 1967 I escorted Mrs. Ballard (who was head of the "I AM" church or the Saint Germain Foundation then, in front of about 1000 people attending the conclave wearing my Indigo Cape that I had earned as an "I AM" School High School Graduate then in Santa Fe, New Mexico in May 1966.

Two nights ago now I was visiting with another member of then Brotherhood of the Indigo Cape who is also a graduate of the "I AM" school in Santa Fe then who is about 4 years older than I and I said to a younger woman talking to us both because she was standing up, "I'm a gentleman because I graduated from the "I AM" School in Santa Fe, Let me get you a chair."

She smiled and let me get her a chair to sit in.

Chivalry is not dead.