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Group begins operations in a private psychiatric hospital owned by Family member Marion Villimek. Patients are recruited in the hospital and many Family members and patients are administered LSD under orders of John Mackay and Howard Whitaker; two Family psychiatrists. Sometime around the late 1960's, an original Family member is given LSD, electroshock therapy (EST), and two lobotomies.
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Anne Hamilton-Byrne leads a religious and philosophical discussion group at Santiniketan in Melbourne, Australia. Notable to mention that this is the home of a parapsychologist named Raynor Johnson, who helps recruit people
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Group purchases adjourning land in what they call Santiniketan Park and builds the "Santiniketan Lodge." Many group members were middle-class professionals, who were recruited through Hamilton-Byrne's Hatha yoga classes
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Hamilton-Byrne acquires 14 infants and young children. Some are biological children of Family members, while others are illegally adopted via forged birth certificates and illegal adoptions handled by Family lawyers, doctors, and social workers. All children live in a pace called the Kai Lama property, are made to have the Hamilton-Byrne surname, and forced to look identical (dyed blond hair and matching clothes). None of the children are given access to the outside world.
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Every child was told that Hamilton-Byrne was their mother and knew of everyone else as heir aunt or uncle. Aside from no knowledge of the outside world, the children were given starvation diets and frequent unprovoked beatings. The children were given frequent doses of psychiatric drugs and, once reaching puberty, LSD doses in an "initiation process."
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An inquest is made to New Haven Hospital about a patient that may have died due to deep sleep therapy. No evidence was found to support the claim.
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Hamilton-Byrne forms a connection to the Siddha Yoga movement and brings some of the children to stay with Muktananda (Siddha Yoga leader) at his ashram at South Fallsburg, New York, United States The Family would get private audiences with Muktananda once a week. Muktananda once asks the children if they'd like to stay with him. Every child says yes and Hamilton-Byrne has them punished for "disloyallty"
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Meetings begin taking place in one of three places: Santiniketan Lodge, Crowther House (Olinda), or White Lodge (another property in the area). Police estimate that Hamilton-Byrne's fortune is around $50 mil.
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Hamilton-Byrne and her husband William flee Australia after the raid for 6 years. They are "hunted" by the US, UK, and Australia.
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Hamilton-Byrne creates trouble in the South Fallsburg ashram and some of Muktananda's devotees defect to The Family
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Former adoptee Sarah Hamilton-Byrne is expelled for arguing and rebellious behavior. She becomes a key figure in aiding the police and private investigators in shutting down The Family
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With the help of Sarah, a police raid occurs at Kai Lama and all children are taken out of Hamilton-Byrnes custody. Sarah later goes on to study medicine, discover the truth of her adoption, and find her birth mother.
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New haven hospital shuts down and ceases all operations The hospital later reopens as a nursing home with no connection to previous owners
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Hamilton-Byrne and her husband are arrested by the FBI in New York and brought to Australia to be tried in court. Both plead guilty and harsher sentences are dropped but both must pay a fine of $5,000 each. Whitaker's conspiracy charges are dropped but she is later arrested for falsely obtaining funds of around $23,000 between 1983 and 1987.
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In Hamilton-Byrne's only public appearance after conviction, she attends the funeral of her husband
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Hamilton-Byrne is sued twice. Once is by her granddaughter, Rebecca Cook-Hamilton, for psychological abuses by Hamilton-Byrne and her followers. The other is by former Family member, Cynthia Chan, for never getting the property she paid for.
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Sarah Hamilton-Byrne dies at 46
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A companion book on the sect is later published by Chris Johnston and Jones and published by Scribe.
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Anne Hamilton-Byrne dies at 97
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Rosie Jones later publishes a three episode mini series on the sect
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A documentary on the sect entitled The Family was released at the Melbourne International Film Festival produced by Anna Grieve and written, directed, and co-produced by Rosie Jones.
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The 2019 novel In the Clearing by J. P. Pomare is a fictionalised account heavily based on The Family. It was turned into a 2023 TV series, The Clearing