Harbinger Community

Harbinger Community was an intentional community located at Harbin Hot Springs in Harbin Springs, Lake County, California, about north of the San Francisco Bay Area. The Harbin Hot Springs facilities provided a common living, working and learning center for the commune. Harbinger was also the home for the functions and activities of Frontiers of Science Fellowship. Both of these entities were founded, in 1967, by Donald James Hamrick, born December 13, 1935, a physicist, architect, and artist.
Harbinger operated as a commune from 1967 to 1969. In more recent years, the same facility has operated as Harbin Hot Springs, a non-profit hot spring retreat and workshop center.
Beginnings
Obtaining and maintaining Harbinger was possible through Hamrick's contribution of funds from the sale of his company, the Syndyne Corporation. As well, there were monthly financial contributions from the National Council of Churches, lecture circuit donations, donations from participants and visitors, donations raised during musical benefits, and personal contributions from musicians performing there.
Located four miles (6 km) from a major road, situated amongst of forest, meadows and rolling hills, Harbinger had originally been constructed as a resort.
With two and three-story apartment dwellings, numerous single houses, interspersed with roads, there was plenty of living space. The facilities included a large dining hall, attached kitchen, an outdoor, roofed shop, a large barn, a large fruit orchard, large vegetable and herb gardens, a covered fish (carp) pond, several large meeting and class rooms, a separate meditation facility, a scientific research and development laboratory, an extensive library, a number of administrative / office and publishing facilities, a large outdoor parking lot and automobile repair shop, as well as 5 spring-fed therapeutic pools.
Earth moving equipment was required, for site development and the digging of drainage ditches.
With access to an on-site airplane landing strip, Frontiers of Science Fellowship purchased a Cessna Twin 310J airplane, for Hamrick, and another Harbinger director, both pilots, to fly to and from lecture halls, on almost a daily basis.
Harbingerites
Participants in Harbinger's and Frontiers of Science Fellowship's activities referred to themselves as Harbingerites. Most Harbingerites lived on site, but there were those who maintained employment elsewhere and visited on their days off.
A core group of 120 to 140 people were housed and fed, for the duration of the commune's existence.
Approximately 15 of the full-time participants were children and toddlers, who were cared for by multiple adults. When children were ready, schooling was provided onsite, by accredited teachers.
In addition to teaching skills for childhood education, work skills and academic studies among Harbingerites, were highly varied and complementary. These skills and knowledge bases were in the areas of: physics, environmental studies, biology, chemistry, language, psychology, sociology; architecture, engineering, planning, design, metallurgy, scientific research and development; philosophy, meditation, deep relaxation, counseling; writing and publishing, public speaking; heavy equipment operation, machining, mining; art, art history, clothing design, tailoring; 'hippydom'; health care: medicine - psychiatry, dentistry, nursing, massage therapy; music, musical group management; administrative / business / office management.
Participants, if they so chose, were welcome to bring and contribute their office and kitchen equipment, home furnishings, clothing, prior skills, new skills, time and efforts. With most or all resources being shared resources, the facilities were well equipped with hand tools, garden implements, washers, dryers, a sewing and material cutting room, one large clothing closet, first aid services, and even a dental chair and dental equipment.
A team was required for the repair and maintenance of 27 shared vehicles. Teams were also needed for coordinated efforts such as crop planning, planting, maintenance, harvesting; purchasing, storing and preparing of food from stores; preparing and exchanging supplies / products with other nearby communes; developing and maintaining the property.
Outreach
Wanting to help people "turn on, tune in, drop out", Hamrick flew, with the second pilot, to provide lectures across university and college campuses, at conference hotels and in people's homes, in the south-western United States.
Hamrick was also intent on helping youth displace the use of street drugs, with the development of meditation skills.
Psychology Today magazine sent a journalist to spend a number of days at Harbinger. Immediately upon arriving, he was handed a baby to temporarily care for. He wrote an article about the Life Style Research being conducted there.
Local Self Reliance
In its attempts to be locally self reliant, Harbinger sold publications, audio recorded lectures and hard-copy transcriptions, and traded fresh produce for other necessary supplies. In participation with other communes of the day, there was ongoing research in the areas of whole systems "Life Essentials Technologies" and metallurgical / mining research projects.
Daily Life
Food
There were numerous vegetable and herb gardens on the grounds, and fresh food was harvested all year round. A number of participants were committed to eating a Macrobiotic diet, which tended to be a dominant philosophy at the commune. While there were staff dedicated to supplying food on a daily basis, anyone could prepare food for themselves, and for others, if they wished.
Olompali Ranch, on which was located the Burdell Mansion, was located in nearby Marin County. Funded by its founder, Don McCoy, the 22-room mansion housed a few dozen people. Olompali supplied Harbinger with fresh baked bread; Harbinger reciprocated with fresh garden produce.
Synapse Board
There was no formal power structure dictating chores or work assignments to others. It was common practice to ask newcomers and visitors to relax and to listen to audio recordings and read transcribed lectures, rather than immediately engage in work details. The Synapse Board was dedicated to communication amongst participants, and coordination of activities. The Board operated 24 hours a day, and anyone could go in to detail an issue or a project that needed to be worked on. Anyone willing and able to take responsibility would sign up.
Rules
By choice, the commune operated under the guideline that "God" owned everything at the center. Beyond this, there were only two rules, or governing principles:
* No hassles
* Clean up your own mess
In addition, there were no formal rules for when any of these guidelines and principles were broken,
Visitors
As word of the commune spread, people began arriving from around the country. Troubled youth, street folk, run-aways and discouraged adults could find a place of refuge, a place for assistance. They could make a contribution, in the forms of work and study, if they stayed for any length of time and chose to do so. People who had served time in prison, could gain life essential skills.
Representatives or directors of other communes, such as Stephen Gaskin, later the founder of The Farm, visited frequently, to share ideas and ideologies. There were massage classes and water massage classes, and training classes in the different modalities for Harbingerites and visitors alike. People who simply came for the therapeutic benefits of the natural springs were also welcome.
Visiting family and friends sometimes chose to move in. Some people attending outside lectures, began following Hamrick from one lecture event, to the next lecture event, and then often came to Harbinger as well. People, at least as far away as Canada, listening to audio recorded lectures, or radio programs, such as those broadcast through Pacifica Radio began to visit.
IBM representatives, journalists for newspapers and magazines came to meet and have discussions with staff, often staying for day. Delegates from the National Council of Churches (NCC) came for observation, discussion and to study meditation, once staying as long as a week.
Pomo people had originally inhabited surrounding land and often came to visit. Tibetan Buddhist monks also came and some played gongs. A Zen monk and artist was the keeper of the grounds before Harbingerites arrived. Invited to stay on, he became a major contributor. His father, also a Zen monk, who spent 6 months each year in a Japanese monastery, lived the other 6 months at Harbinger.
As bus named "Simply Wonderful" was eventually purchased to escort visitors off the site at the end of each day.
Way Houses were also set up at alternative locations, where visitors would find a welcome to stay and learn. Way Houses were equipped with study materials, transcriptions, and audio recordings of classes and lectures.
Local authorities had issues with more than one family living in a facility and not being able to refer to Harbinger as a public facility. Health and building inspectors found numerous reasons to visit and offer suggestions.
Functions and Activities
Frontiers of Science Fellowship (F.O.S.F.)
The Frontiers of Science Fellowship offices were originally located on Redwood Highway, in San Rafael, California. As soon as the site became available, the fellowship relocated to Harbinger.
The following functions and activities were undertaken by Frontiers of Science Fellowship, either on site or off site:
* the creating of Harbinger University
* Lecture Circuit throughout the south-western USA
* formal Classes on site
* Audio Recordings and Transcriptions
* scientific and social Research and Development
* Life Style Research
* Musical Events: Celestial Synapse
* Massage Therapy and Training
* Water Massage Therapy and Training
* other forms of Health Care, Therapy and Training
* Meditation Therapy and Training
* Hypnosis
* Group Actions
* Way Houses
* The Synapse (Room and Board)
* Publishing: Changes, magazine; Harbinger, newsletter; The Love Letter Heaven Sent, newsletter.
The Beginning of the End
By 1969, Harbinger and Frontiers of Science Fellowship seemed to be faring well. The formation of Harbinger University was well under way. Newsletters and magazines were both well established. However, the use of drugs by some was an issue. One teacher had left the community and Hamrick said that he too would leave if people did not stop their use.
The Celestial Synapse was hosted by Frontiers of Science Fellowship, on February 19, 1969. A conference was scheduled to begin on February 20, 1969, at the Harbinger Community. Over 400 people gathered at the site. While the musical event went very well, tragedy during the conference's opening event caused Hamrick and his family to leave the facility, never to return.
February, 1969 was not a good month for northern California communes: Olompali's 22-room mansion burned to the ground only 18 days earlier, on February 2.
Hamrick and family stayed with Pam and Henry Rasmussen, in San Francisco. However, traumatized by a sequence of events that occurred, Hamrick and his wife could not reconcile their marriage. They separated, with his wife keeping the children and remarrying shortly thereafter.
Harbinger Two
By early spring, of 1969, a handful of original members of Harbinger accompanied Hamrick, to live in Nova Scotia. They lived in tents for many months, dining on fresh caught lobster. Numerous lecture sessions were held (most, or all of which, were audio recorded and preserved).
In the fall of 1969, Hamrick met Dr. Eleanor Hamilton a Canadian professor and author, in Nova Scotia, Canada. He stayed in Hamilton's home for some weeks, reading her sizeable collection of unpublished manuscripts written by Dr. Wilhelm Reich.
Hamrick rented a property owned by Hamilton, containing a 29-room facility. However, the same people who facilitated the collapse of the original Harbinger, arrived, uninvited, intent on moving in. With their insistence about their right to use drugs, Hamilton relinquished the property, ending Harbinger Two (Harbinger East) before it began.

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