Counterculture Crossover: Growing Up in the Love Family

By Rachel Israel

 

A lot of people want to change the world, but what can we learn from those who have tried?

Counterculture Crossover is a remarkable memoir that tells the story of Rachel’s childhood growing up in the Love Israel Family, the largest and best known communal group in Washington to emerge during the late 1960s and 1970s counterculture.

Rachel’s mother, Karen, a free-spirited idealist, wanted nothing to do with conventional, mainstream society, so she ‘dropped-out’ and lived off-the-grid, which led Rachel to a variety of places, including Alaska and Hawaii, and ended in her arrival at the door-step of the Love Family, where she spent the next eight years of her childhood.

The Love Family was an isolated, patriarchal, religious community that did not go by the rules or laws of modern society, where members sought to live the utopian dream, but ended up living without their rights, without autonomy.  

In her memoir, Rachel exposes the darkest secrets that have never been revealed about the community, including group marriage, polygamy, sacrament rituals, and animal sacrifice. What was it like to live in Army tents and yurts on the communal farm? Rachel answers that question as well as other controversial topics such as troubles the group had with cult deprogrammers kidnapping their members.

Culture Shock—Suddenly, without warning, the community fell apart, and as she comes of age, Rachel is forced to deal with life on the outside.