Jim Baker

American musician and spiritual leader of the Source Family.
Born on 4 July 1922 in Cincinnati, Ohio (USA)
Died on 25 August 1975 in Oahu, Hawaii.

James aka Jim Baker, better known as Father Yod, was an ex-marine World War 2 veteran and wannabe Hollywood stuntman when he fell in with a group called the Nature Boys, who maintained a vegetarian diet and lived according to Nature's laws. He studied Vedantic theology and became a follower of Yogi Bajan, a teacher of Kundalini Yoga who had followed a number of other spiritual teachers from India to Los Angeles in the late sixties. Baker became disenchanted with Bajan when the Yogi declared that he was not god. Baker took the title himself, changing his name to Father Yod.

In 1969 Baker founded the Source Restaurant on the Sunset Strip in the Laurel Canyon section of Los Angeles. It became both a profitable health food restaurant and recruitment center for his growing cult of lost and wayward youths - the Source Family. The commune espoused a philosophy that included kindness to animals, raw vegetarian diet, cotton clothing, and sex sans orgasm. Over 100 "family members" lived in a 3-bedroom house in Nichols Canyon, where sleeping arrangements involved a beehive-like complex of cubbyholes. During this period the group would record long psychedelic jams and press records to be sold at the restaurant.

In 1974, a newborn in the group developed a staphylococcus infection. Upon their arrival at UCLA Medical Center, doctors immediately notified police of suspected child endangerment. Baker felt this was an appropriate time to relocate the entire family to Kauai, Hawaii, which happened on 1974-12-26. But his term there was short and ended in misfortune. One of the group was participating in a hang-gliding contest on the island of Oahu and Baker wanted to try it out too. His first and last flight on the morning of August 25th, 1975 ended with him breaking his back after crashing onto a rocky beach on the eastern shore. Followers carried Baker back to the house but prayer and meditation still found him dead later that day. They kept his body for three and a half days chanting Yod He Vau He. After the vigil over his body, Baker was cremated. His disciples scattered within two years after his passing but have stayed in touch and are still working together to share his teachings.