Rotelle is a community that is like no other in the area or even in the country. The founder of this small community started it as a religious cult founded on the teachings of reincarnation, karma, and science fiction. Essentially a hippie commune with a science fiction flare. Families sold their homes and gave everything to the community and the leader of the cult including their spouses.
The leader, Kramer wrote a book in the 1960s following a religious method and raised several prophecies and predictions. He was not as charismatic as you would think to have had brainwashed as many people as he did. He had people thinking the US government would collapse in 1976 and the world was going to end the year 2000 and he was to be the one to save them all. There were several prophecies in between that never came to be true and were later removed from the leaders writing in updated versions. He was a smart man and an excellent persuader which made it easier to gather people and form a religious cult.
Another cult leader of the same religious teachings fled west with his followers. This other group posted these same teachings on a video and the leader and his followers committed mass suicide in hopes of being lifted into a spaceship.
Kramer was merely a reincarnated Egyptian pharaoh. At least, that is what he told his followers. He to believed and taught his people that beginning 2000 they would be saved by flying into the air with a spaceship or massive hot air balloon. A few years after beginning this cult community Kramer began to have sexual relationships with many of the women. A group of people would have orgies and swap partners. Some of the men in town found out and ran Kramer out.
Kramer left and started another community over a thousand miles away, but continued to visit Rotelle monthly to give leadership advice. This group and others like it are New Age deceivers taking advantage of the gullibility of those seeking spiritual enlightenment and not knowing where to look.
The people of this community were duped some know it others are more understanding and try to keep the cult going. The ones that were aware of being duped left the group and community long ago. Others are still a part of it today and were there from the very beginning. Some members live in other cities while many are still in Rotelle.
The leader eventually died of cancer after being released from prison for fraud and theft. The teachings of this religious cult are still prevalent today in places like California, Texas, Illinois, and Pennsylvania.
Sam and Frank were a young and naive newly married couple they moved to Rotelle, not knowing its history. They only knew that they fall in love with the house. It was in the price range they could afford and it was huge. The real estate agent knew exactly what she was doing. She saw a young couple and made sure she did anything she could to sell a house that had been on the market forever. Hoping the couple wouldn’t do research on this community she made sure to mention only the good and none of the bad. Showing the couple an inground community pool and jacuzzi. The beautiful grounds with fruit trees on every property. So much dislike the city life they were used to. Blinded by the price and beautiful amenities they quickly bought their home.
The community center is a large central building in the town. There is a mailroom, where residents pick up their mail. The mail room is as you would see in an office a cubby hole for each resident and no lock boxes. Anyone that enters the building can enter this office and potentially access their neighbors mail. When a new person moves to the community the real estate agent would put a slip of paper in each mailbox and “welcome” the new neighbor. Frank and Sam’s said something along the lines of a young couple that traveled out of town to work and had a dog, cat, and turtle. Often there would be little post-it notes on the couple’s mail. The old lady that looked like she belonged in the exorcist sorted the community mail and judges the community members mail. On tobacco coupons, she writes: “smoking is disgusting, you should quit”. On anything showing skin, Maxim magazine or Victoria Secret coupons for example she would write: “Vanity is a sin”
After a few days of living there, neighbors would randomly knock on the door. The first was a 5-year-old little girl with a dirty face and bare feet. She asked if she could visit with her new neighbors animals. Apparently this is a normal occurrence. The couple declined and refused the girl. The girl was persistent and came over to Sam and Frank’s frequently. Many neighbors had told the couple this happens to everyone in Rotelle. The girl is persistent and does this to every house.
The next “neighbor” was a little old lady asking if she could give Sam information on the plants and herbs in her garden. The little lady asked her if she wanted help in the garden and proceeded to tell her she what she charged hourly. The little old cult woman has the look of the old man from poltergeist II very creepy. Sam refused the old ladies advice or help and quickly rid her from her front porch.
The real estate agent lived in the community and asked the couple if they would like to visit the community center for the weekly potluck dinner. The couple finally agreed and joined their neighbors for dinner. This was after two straight years of persistent banter anytime they ran into a community member they were invited to groups and dinners. There were frequent telephone calls. The community had a four digit way to reach any house with a landline like an office or a hotel. The communication is all provided by the Rotelle itself. All communication going in and out go through the community. There is no cell phone service.
The couple joined the dinner and spoke with the neighbors. They were adamant Sam and Frank join their groups and weekly dinners. Prior to dinner, the group held hands and prayed to the sun. The couple thought this was odd, they were questioned about their backgrounds and religious beliefs during dinner. They were questioned and the neighbors looked like they were analyzing and judging the couple the entire time. The young couple quickly escaped as soon as they were finished eating to return home.
A few months had passed and Sam was pregnant with her first child. The women in the Rotelle Community asked her if she was going to have her child naturally at home. Sam was perfectly happy with going to the local hospital 45 minutes away with modern medicine and drugs. They asked if they could come and pray for her and her child. Closer to the end of her pregnancy the women begged Sam to let them cook for her after she delivered the child. Time went by and the couple ignored the pleas. They had their first daughter and became quickly pregnant with their next child.
As soon as Sam began to show an elderly woman an original member of the Rotelle Group (Poltergeist lady) came to the couple’s home. She asked Sam if she was Catholic and asked if she was aware that a wild birth control grew all around the community. The crazy lady went on to say that the Catholics breed too much. The woman explained that when the former leader would sleep with all of the townswomen they would use this as birth control so their husbands wouldn’t find out. Sam thanked the woman and slammed the door in her face.
At least once a week some of the children in the neighborhood would wonder shoeless and complain of being hungry and the family would feed the children. These children were similar to the children of the corn. The kids have blank stares and can barely talk at times.
Years have passed and the couple now had three children they knew some of the people in the community but made it a point not to get too close. Although Frank made friends with one neighbor, he was an overly religious man, semi-normal, but totally corrupt. Sam never made any real friends in the community but was friendly enough to the other moms.
The couple’s youngest child was only one. Sam was going to school at night and Frank worked during the day. One night Sam went to school and Frank was talking to his neighbor on the side of the couple’s home. The older girls got off the school bus and walked home. They didn’t see their dad on the side of the house talking to the neighbor he had gotten friendly with. The two girls wandered into a neighbors yard that had a pond they would frequently play near.
The neighbor asked the two girls where their parents were and the girls said that their mom was at school. The older couple assumed no one was home and that they left the kids alone including the baby. The woman grabbed her glass of wine and barged into the couple’s home. She left her wine glass on the kitchen counter and took the baby from her crib and left the house while the two girls followed.
Meanwhile, Frank had just finished talking to the neighbor and entered the house. When Frank walked in the house the first thing he noticed when he looked upstairs was the babies bedroom door was open. He ran up stairs and searched rapidly for his baby. When he noticed she was gone, he couldn’t even think of where she could be. She wasn’t tall enough to open her bedroom door. He began running around the neighborhood when an old man pulled his car next to the frantic father.
“Frank, are you looking for the kids?” He was shocked. He stood dumbfounded for a minute and shook his head.
The old man said, “My wife has the kids at our house, we were just keeping them there until you got home.”
Frank ran over to the old couples house and snatched his baby from the drunk old lady arms. He stormed off without saying a word with his three girls. Later on in the evening, Sam came home from school and Frank explained the evenings events. Sam was furious to find out that an inebriated woman essentially broke into their home and took the baby from her crib. The young mom was calmed down for the night and decided it wasn’t a good idea to go to the old couple’s home and cause a scene.
The following morning the young mom couldn’t help herself. She walked her girls to the bus. Armed with the youngest baby in the stroller she stalked over to the old woman’s home. Sam banged on the door, shortly after a smirking shriveled up old lady opens the door. Sam let this woman have it, she was not smirking for long. She asked the woman what made her think she had any right to walk into her house. She asked why she chose to steal her infant from her crib. Sam did not intend on the old woman answering and screamed at her and stormed off infuriated.
The couple tried to make amends invited the family over for dinner, tried to play up to them politically. They gave them information on The Tea Party and asked them to support the political movement. The couple threw the literature away and ignored the old couple. As much as they wanted to press charges on them they knew they had to live fairly close to these people.
Many of the neighbors from the original group live in the town today. Some have switched partners. For instance, one couple lives next to their ex-wife and they all knew each other in the 70s they were all in Rotelle during the famous wife swap era. It still seems to be going on with select neighbors, they give someone’s spouse a “massage” and they “heal” each other. These people are anything but attractive and they have a laundry list of secrets.
Rotelle has its own board of directors that oversee everything in the community. They have a water plant, a community center, community grounds, and roads. Just like every government, without funding. Rotelle is completely reliant on the residents to pay a high premium for their water and infrastructure bill, these go along with the association fees. It is not like the 70s-90s where the Rotelle Group owned your property and received all of your income. They do overcharge the consumers. The water can not be consumed, it is not suitable for cooking or drinking. The community expects neighbors to donate time and work within the community for free while charging you for the service.
There is as much corruption going on in the little community government as there is in any other government in the country. The difference is many of these people that were previously duped are having the same issues once again. A few of the founding members are current board members and continue to follow the religion, teachings, and use the money to their leisure. Including hiring their own to do anything contractual within the community.
Rotelle was once sought to be a community of 200,000 intellectual people that would be lifted by the aliens away while the outsiders died a miserable death and civilization as we know it would end. The followers of this apparent brotherhood had a chapter of its faith that went off the deep end and committed mass suicide, luckily for them, their leader was found to be a con artist sooner rather than later. Today, there are people walking amongst us that believe in this distorted outrageous religion, keep that in mind this community still exists near many major cities. Because this community has such a past it is a frequent stop of teenage kids looking for a thrill ride, ghost hunters, and conspiracy theorists.
Disclaimer: This is based on a true story. The names have been changed to protect the people and the community involved.
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