How did Mt Shasta become the Woo Capital of the World?

In My Humble Opinion
21

I lived and worked in Mt. Shasta for a few years, and in that time, we saw many retail storefronts open and close. We had an ongoing joke that any time a restaurant or gas station went out of business, a new crystal shop would take its place. We just figured they were fronts for the local religious cult, the St. Germains — they’re a secretive group that owns big properties in the area, including an oft-trespassed waterfall that local kids like to visit. That religious group is partially responsible for keeping the myth of Lemuria alive.

That crystal shop trend, at least, seems to have changed somewhat after Covid, with gentrification causing more upscale restaurants, juice bars, etc. to take over what used to be run-down, hole-in-the-wall places.

It’s an interesting place to live, a mix of rich retirees (often from the Bay Area) and impoverished locals. There are very few major local employers, mostly the Forest Service, the hospital, and (previously) a mid-sized solar company that is no longer headquartered there. It’s a pretty stark difference in lived experience between the out-of-towners who move there for the beauty and outdoor recreation, the spiritual pilgrims who visit from time to time, and the locals who grew up there. It is not an easy place to grow up, with heavy drug use, poverty, and not a lot of opportunities.

Still, I don’t think the spiritual “vortex” of Mt. Shasta is going to cease appealing to spiritual types anytime soon. The local headwater park is always full of barefooted schoolbus hippies sipping magical water (it is delicious, granted). The Rainbow Family gathers there from time to time. Panther Meadows, halfway up the mountain, often has stone spirals and drum circles.

There’s a few good documentaries on the region and its mythos… I’ll try to find some, but to start, here’s one from a YouTuber I really respect (Peter Santenello): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE5qVpw7ktI

All in all, it is a pretty magical place (even to this atheist/agnostic). The mountain’s topographical prominence (not its absolute elevation, but how much taller it is compared to the surrounding area) is the third-highest in the lower 48 (after Rainier and Whitney), making it quite the dramatic vista. Combine that with all the local myths, relatively pristine surroundings, sparse populations, and you do have the setup for quite a legendary place to live. It was one of my favorite places to have lived… quality of life there is superb, as long as you have gainful employment. It’s a very different story if you’re working in the service or tourist industries, though.

22

Jerusalem Syndrome turns tourists into religious pilgrims, suddenly seized by the impulse to wear bedsheets and drift around the Old City in a euphoric state. Similar reactions afflict visitors to India.

Carlos Castaneda may or may not have visited Sonora Mexico, and Bruce Chatwin definitely visited Australia’s Northern Territories. Both emerged from their experiences with spiritual tones of dubious distinction

23

I can attest to the fact that as early as 1974, Mt. Shasta had a reputation as being some kind of mysterious vortex, because I wrote a short story in an English class my sophomore year of high school that referred to it in passing, along with the Bermuda Triangle, as places where strange things outside ordinary physical reality could happen.

I remember the plot very well - it was a science fiction story in which a young boy becomes entranced with a gyroscope, and develops the ability to escape to another dimension because his youthful brain can learn about other dimensions from analyzing its motion. He uses it to escape from an evil child psychiatrist who wants to analyze him.

Yeah, I know … not a terribly original plot. I wasn’t consciously plagiarizing, but in retrospect I was likely quite influenced by both the book Good Times, Bad Times by James Kirkwood and the short story “And Mimsy were the Borogoves” by Lewis Padgett. I was a big fan of both in my early high school years.

24

I’ve stayed in Mt. Shasta a couple of times on my way to parts north. While it did have more than its share of “new age”-related shops, what most caught my attention was the hippie (transient?) community that had sort of taken over Headwaters Spring (Mount Shasta City Park).

25

Frederick Spencer Oliver wrote a novel “A Dweller on Two Planets” in 1894. In it, a coven of Lemuria mystics have a home on Mount Shasta.

Edgar Lucien Larkin, a local kook, claimed in the 1920s to have spied a whole Lemuria village on the mountain. His claims were later plagiarized and expanded by Edward Lanser in the Los Angeles Sunday Times, who claimed to have seen a city on the mountain.

All of this is from “Lost Continents “ by L Sprague DeCamp.

26

There is a gift shop, and IIRC “druids’ are allowed to do ceremonies there a few times a year.

27

Haven’t been there in years, but Cassadaga Florida is/was known as the psychic capital of the world.

28

There’s also oddball groups like The Aetherius Society who have named 19 holy mountains scattered around the world, including one near me in NH. They get some woo practitioners around them, and maybe it clicks in certain places.

29

I would be tempted to believe a whole bunch of these woo places in the US are there because the Indigenous peoples started it.

It was a sacred site or burial site.

Not saying that it’s wrong or somehow bad, just they were here first.

I bet it’s that way allover the world with their own Indigenous populations. Places way older than the US. It’s just so very far back in history the original meaning has changed or lost.

30

Every local chamber of commerce is actively looking for something that will make their town special and make their area a destination for tourists. Most have to resort to making something up, which is basically the same way woo is created.

31

Yeah, my first thought on reading this was ‘Glastonbury’ - a small town in the South West of England, not a billion miles from Stonehenge - that whole region is a bit woo-ey with tales of King Arthur, but Glastonbury has a ruined monastery and weird church tower on what looks like a man made mound, and it just begs for mystical happenings. So town is full shakra crystal shops and tie-die clothing.

Random shop. They all look like this:

32

In some cases, but not Sedona or Area 51 or Roswell, or the totally fake “Skinwalker ranch” which is really Sherman ranch. But Mt Shasta and Devils Tower do have native American significance.

33

Because ancient druids were really into Taoism and Confucianism.

34

I wouldn’t call “Skinwalker Ranch” any thing but a CTers wet dream.

Not a tourist destination any town would really want. If they do, well phooey on them. That’s just wrong.

Area 51, not exactly for tourists. In fact they actively want you to stay away. Hence the fence and warning signs.

Not saying people don’t go to looky loo-ing. Ridiculous.

35

Does Buddhism count as woo? In 1970, Shasta Abbey was set up and is still going a strong.

36

Not to be confused with Skywalker Ranch…

37

And there have been test flights of strange and unusual American aircraft there.

38

Undoubtedly the PTB don’t want civilians seeing them. For, Idk, security concerns or safety, maybe?

Not sure about everyone else. But I ain’t packing the pick-a-nick baskets for that daytrip.

39

I’m not the spiritual type, but that is an amazing place — gorgeous grounds, sincere practitioners, and dedicated teachers. They are apparently a British variant of Zen Buddhism, with an emphasis on open-eyed meditation.

Whereas the “I AMers” (the St. Germain folks) are famously secretive and mostly keep to themselves, the Shasta Abbey is quite the opposite and welcome everyone to the practice, even if they’re just exploring.

I did a three-day silent meditation retreat there (no talking, no phones, just silent meditation and contemplation for 72 hours). It was a donation-based program that any first-timer can sign up for, and they provide you free room and board and several meditation rituals a day (sitting, standing, walking, working — like chopping firewood or cleaning the bathrooms — etc.). One of the hardest things I’ve ever done… it gave me a lot more respect for the practice of mindfulness and the tolerance of physical discomfort. But all the accompanying mysticism (Buddhist scripture and holy figures) turned me off.

To their credit, though, they were quite benevolent and magnanimous throughout, and never tried to “convert” me during or after the retreat. Never hounded me afterward, either.

My ex was a lay practitioner there for many years while she lived in town, under her self-developed hybrid of Buddhist-Christian-agnostic-hippie-musical-just-be-good belief system, the kind that was so common there. Nobody really cared about labels or rigidity (well, maybe outside the St. Germain temple) and were mostly just trying to find their own ways through a complicated world, often having fallen through the cracks of postindustrial materialist capitalism.

Anyway, as far as spiritual explorations go, Mt. Shasta is quite lucky to have that place. Their retreats are still open, and there is no fee for any of them: Retreats – Shasta Abbey Buddhist Monastery

40

I’ve been forced to spend too much time in deserts to really like it. But Sedona is the most beautiful place I’ve been to.