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But in May, the property gained a new and very peculiar occupant. Hollywood actor Andrew Keegan—best known for his role in the 90s film 10 Things I Hate About You—leased the building to start his own new age temple and spiritual movement called Full Circle. The church now has a growing body of followers, some of whom have dedicated their lives to his mission.

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They described their movement as "advanced spiritualism" or "the highest spiritualism founded on universal knowledge." When I pressed them about what exactly that meant, Third Eye said something about cosmic energy and ayahuasca....

I met Keegan and his girlfriend, Leah. She hugged me, while Keegan gave me a complicated brother-man series of handshake maneuvers before drawing me into an embrace.

Venice Beach's burner community was out in full force for the evening, wearing their desert-inspired Lord of the Rings costumes. Everyone came to see new age musician Nahko Bear, but he couldn't make it. Instead, some local artists were asked to take the stage and sing songs about cutting up their credit cards and using mantras to pay their bills.

This was only one of the many events Keegan threw that week—from concerts and political gatherings for new age self-help gurus (viz. Marianne Williamson's bid for congress), to sit-ins and workshops on the latest colon cleanse.

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CB Top Commenter ·

Got to say, this cult is full of particularly good looking people.

Reply · · 314 · August 14, 2014 at 4:31pm

AB Top Commenter

One suspects that is a prerequisite.

Reply · · 193 · August 15, 2014 at 4:33am

WY You noticed that, too?

EF Top Commenter ·
The real people are usually kept offstage. Also known as the help.

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A recent piece in New York magazine remarked upon how many beautiful young women frequent Full Circle, as well as Keegan's "still very nice" physique, made famous 20 years ago in teen magazines like Tiger Beat.

Rick Swinger, who lives next door to Full Circle, complains about late-night noise and drinking.

"He's an actor who likes to party. And he found a way to hide inside the church," Swinger said of Keegan.

But raucousness wouldn't necessarily disqualify Full Circle as a religious movement, said Varun Soni, dean of religious life at USC.

"Celebration has always been a part of religion," he said, pointing to harvest and fertility festivals of the ancient past. "In this day and age it's a record party. A thousand years ago, it was a passion play."

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Working from such a prime location to "keep Venice weird" means trying to keep up with escalating rents. A new owner bought the church building at auction in August for $4,462,500. Shortly after, Full Circle's rent ballooned by 50%.

"It almost took us out," Keegan said. He has been spending his own money to help pay bills.

Paul, who joined Full Circle three months ago, said he was trying to professionalize the group's business practices so that it could stay in operation.



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Participants already pay for classes and events they attend at the church. Full Circle may soon add a membership program. A gallery will open in April. The group sells T-shirts and elixirs and rents out its space. It is toying with the idea of offering wellness services — "sound and light healing, those kinds of things," Keegan said.

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Full Circle is desperate to secure funds that will cover rent and operations at the 111-year-old building, which houses their spiritually focused programming and is currently on the market for $6.5 million. They also hope to eventually purchase the property.

The Rose Temple’s exterior is cloaked in a colorful mural depicting an otherworldly scene and peering eyeballs that declare, “We Are All One.” Inside, the temple plays host to emotional freedom technology workshops (which the group describes as “a simple yet profound tool to rewire your brain, heal your emotional body and step into your greatest potential”), guided meditation, yoga and live music.

“We put our heart into it. There’s no argument, no ulterior motive. It’s purely love for a space and for a community. Maybe it’s too good for people, though, and it’s too much,” Keegan recently told Page Six over coconut waters inside the temple.

At a three-and-a-half-hour “prayerformance” event earlier this month, a crowd of shoeless guests sat atop rugs and on the temple’s shiny hardwood floors. A sun-kissed couple dressed in white, gauzy clothing swayed back and forth as singer Larisa Gosla crooned “I wish you love” and the pair’s dog lazed at their feet.

Keegan later revealed that Gosla played music during the 70-plus-hour delivery of his daughter, Aiya Rose, whom he and girlfriend Arista Illona welcomed to the world in March.

To the left of the stage, a woman flailed her thin frame, twisting and turning to the sound of Gosla’s voice as she excitedly painted a canvas, every brushstroke a burst of energy.

With the group needing to raise $111,000 by Nov. 11 and with only $27,011 raised at press time, Keegan’s luck could change thanks to a Netflix series.

The second season of “Flaked,” a sitcom starring Will Arnett as a troubled self-help guru living in Venice, will feature a storyline inspired by Keegan and Full Circle and has been filming at the Rose Temple, Page Six has exclusively learned.

“Gentrification … has been a plot line throughout ‘Flaked’ and does mirror much of Full Circle’s story,” a source close to production said.

While the show will shine a spotlight on the changes happening within the beach community and Full Circle will be compensated for the use of the Rose Temple, the former “7th Heaven” actor and the organization’s executive director Jason Dilts have launched #GiveHeart, a crowdfunding campaign.

“Any time that you have celebrity, there’s a perception that there’s an unlimited amount of resources, and that doesn’t match with reality,” Dilts explained. “Andrew’s funded a lot of this project, and he now has a family, so this project needs to fund itself.”

An $11 donation rewards supporters with two rose quartz heart bracelets that “will be placed on [Full Circle’s altar during] our Sunday meditation.” Full Circle writes that the crystal heart bracelets will be infused with “the love of our community” prior to being delivered. At press time, nine bracelets had been claimed.

“One of the first experiences that I had [at the Rose Temple] was with a rose quartz heart crystal that was a gift from someone and it was one of the first moments that I had here in the sanctuary,” Keegan said. “The significance, of course, is the frequency of love that is within the rose quartz crystal. Really with the world and the way that it’s going with all of the things bringing people back to that kind of a moment. Having them take recognition too that being the real core and essence of life is love.”

He continued, “I think that without that, you know, we would just be a bunch of inanimate objects floating around the universe. I believe in more than that theory that we’re just insignificant. I think we’re significant because of that kind of experience.”

“And we’re also on Rose Avenue,” Dilts chimed in.

A $50 donation bestows upon donors an autographed poster from Keegan’s “own collection” with a personalized message. Zero out of 33 have been claimed.

On Full Circle’s website, Keegan is described as “passionately [seeking] to inspire and empower the community to co-create a better world.” But an August 2014 Vice profile of Keegan and the organization’s then-eight-person “inner circle” seemed to say otherwise, hinting at cult-like practices and describing the actor as having “the ultimate say on all things.”

“I’ve had to struggle with that for a long time,” he said of the piece. “It’s really hard because it’s like [Vice was] saying something that’s totally not here, and I get it. You’re going to make a lot of money off of this, but you’re really hurting us.”

Despite his critics, Keegan insists the organization is about far more than just crystals.

He recalls that one of the first events Full Circle held was a waterwheel ceremony with an “indigenous elder.”

“All these little things are recognized. It’s like, ‘Wow, we really are in the same movement.’ It’s beyond important now. It’s getting to presidential involvement. Things that have never happened before. This group and gathering that happened and [protests that are] happening in North Dakota [have] been happening since the 1800s,” Keegan explained.

Dilts agreed, “Our activism isn’t going through traditional channels. If you’re an activist, you’re not necessarily going to a political party. You want to find something that’s a little more authentic and not inside a traditional system, so we’ve seen a lot of that energy kind of coalesces around the circle because everybody here in some way is an activist.”

During the recent “prayerformance” event — which was advertised as “high vibe music, cacao, community, dancing, song and circle” for a $20 to $35 sliding-scale admission — it was clear Keegan knows most everyone involved, opting for hugs over handshakes.

After Gosla exited the stage to make way for the cacao ceremony, a man assured attendees there were “no psychedelics” in the cacao concoction, made from the plant from which chocolate and cocoa are derived. Commonly associated with shamanic prayer, cacao has been known to create feelings of euphoria and release negative energy after ingestion.

During the ceremony, a woman offered a blessing in which she invoked “all the elders and ancestors … and indigenous beings” who grew and prepared the cacao. Soon after, another woman sang in Spanish of the benefits of cacao, as those participating in the ceremony took turns sipping the elixir from mugs. The scent of chocolate wafted past the plants hanging from the temple’s exposed beams, the starry-eyed millennials, the photographs that lined the walls.

Dilts described Full Circle as “a new take on the idea of an intentional community,” but the ceremony made a point to acknowledge those who came before. These included the Krishnas, who, according to Keegan, had “long been evicted” from the Temple, and others who gathered to worship at the Rose Temple over the past century.

“We’ve tended to think of intentional communities as going to the farm and all living together and that’s not what we do here. We’re in an urban setting, and we all go to our own homes, but we come together in this community to be a part of something,” Dilts said.

Keegan appeared to take in his colleague’s answer with a smirk.

“We’re just a bunch of crazy kids doing our thing,” he said.

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[jezebel.com]

Andrew Keegan's Cult Is Going Broke, But You Can Buy Crystals to Help

Bobby Finger

Even the funniest, most shocking celebrity stories—the ones that hit you like a wrecking ball when first reported—can quickly fade from your memory like a disappointing pop single after a week or two. You gasp. You laugh. You forget. Former teen icon Andrew Keegan’s “spiritual community” in Venice, CA is one of those stories, and when I read Page Six’s Friday update about its current financial trouble

[pagesix.com]

I thought, “Oh right! Andrew Keegan leads a cult!”

Andrew Keegan, Cult Leader: 'Today, I'm Here to Activate High Vibes'
This week's issue of New York Magazine includes an interview with former teen heartthrob…
Read more

[jezebel.com]

Full Circle, the cult in question, is reportedly “desperate to secure funds that will cover rent and operations” related to the 111-year-old building they’ve occupied since 2014. They need to raise $111,000 in the next six weeks, but have only collected $27,022.

[www.generosity.com]

Want to help? You’ll be rewarded if you do! Or perhaps punished, depending on how you feel about jewelry that’s been “infused” with “love.”

Writes Page Six:

[pagesix.com]

An $11 donation rewards supporters with two rose quartz heart bracelets that “will be placed on [Full Circle’s altar during] our Sunday meditation.” Full Circle writes that the crystal heart bracelets will be infused with “the love of our community” prior to being delivered. At press time, nine bracelets had been claimed.

Not convinced? Allow Keegan himself to explain why rose quartz bracelets are definitely worth the money.

“The significance, of course, is the frequency of love that is within the rose quartz crystal. Really with the world and the way that it’s going with all of the things bringing people back to that kind of a moment. Having them take recognition too that being the real core and essence of life is love.”
Now that I’ve convinced you to throw thousands of dollars at the star of 10 Things I Hate About You for crystals that capture the frequency of love, might I suggest you spend a little extra dough on more...personal merch?

A $50 donation bestows upon donors an autographed poster from Keegan’s “own collection” with a personalized message.

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spiralingside
VIRTUAL BRIT
9/30/16 2:56pm
I mean, I almost would pay that just for the sheer entertainment value. My old boss’s wife was super into reiki and crystals and shit, so I’ve mastered the “look interested so you can see how deep the crazy runs” head nod.

I’d, of course, have to marathon 10 Things just to see how many references I could fit in, though. Might as well have as much fun as you can.

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Bobby Finger
9/30/16 3:02pm
I don’t understand how these cults can’t manage their finances, while other cults (megachurches) seem to be able to command millions and pay no taxes (religious tax exemption).

IDK. I know that they’d have to do it via donations, but if they have enough young people coming to co-create, they could create some kind of gig for tithing and using abundance gospel ideas to get more cash. And from there, perhaps downsize from a big centre to a room at the local library for their meditations.
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some obscure reference
Zeetal
9/30/16 3:39pm
They’re really, really into that building, for reasons I apparently just don’t vibrate at the right frequency to understand.

Venice used to be one of the cheapest, scuzziest neighborhoods in L.A. Now it’s one of the most expensive, and climbing. It’s been going on for a while, but Airbnb has made the area unaffordable to most mere mortals. (It’s illegal to make a residential building into a de facto hotel without paying for a hotel license, but that’s never stopped anyone.) As a neighborhood that’s always prided itself on its funky character, Venice is having a full-on identity crisis.

I live in Los Angeles and have a lot of friends who consider themselves creative, so I get a lot of invites to Full Circle events. As far as I can tell, they events are free or “donations welcome.” They don’t exactly have a belief system beyond creating a community based on love (I probably have the wording wrong), but they’ve attracted enough members with money that they should be able to raise enough to stay put for now.
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DrugstoreGlasses
some obscure reference
9/30/16 5:52pm
I miss when Venice was scuzzy.
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Zeetal
some obscure reference
9/30/16 8:27pm
Yeah. Look. The churches do the same thing. Like “all of our events are free!” But then they use the good old gospel of tithing — how tithing is really important in terms of God’s law and what not, and how it helps the church do good things and what not — and the abundance gospel — give us $10, and God will reward your life with all kinds of abundance. . . you’ll get a pony! or $10million! or that house you want! Or Jesus will teach you how to manage your finances so that your $10 becomes $100! And your $100 because $1000!

Seriously, I think i’ve watched too much televangelism for fun. I should most definitely go into guru-business