I have been waiting for this special time of year, when the Grove holds its annual meeting, to share with ATS what I know about the Bohemians. It is not all-inclusive, and sadly not as tantalizing as some would hope. Really, it’s mostly an account of rich guys getting their drink on. I will dispense with the history lesson and conspiracy review, and simply add what I know firsthand about the Grove.

To begin: I am not a member of the Bohemian Grove. I haven’t attended any grove functions. I was however, a contractor for the Bohemian Grove, with full access to the entire grove during much of the year. This gave me plenty of time to snoop around. I have been inside the Bohemian Club in San Francisco briefly as well. One of my coworkers was a member of the club (which is how we got the contract in the first place) and much of what I relate to you is from discussions with him. I grilled the guy about a ton of things relating to the Grove…even got his views on past scandals and conspiracies. This is the culmination of what I know to be true about the Bohemian Club.

How does one become a Bohemian?
It all starts with who you know.

In order to become a Bohemian, you must be recommended by an existing member. Once approved, your name sits on a waiting list for years (My friend waited about 10 years), some report are even longer. There are also some memberships offered to outsiders as well. Generally they are artists and singers and men who can contribute culturally to the Grove’s functions. For example, Jimmy Buffet & Clint Eastwood are Bohemians. Also regular members can pay reduced dues if they regularly participate in plays and other formal entertainment.

Finally when your time comes there is an initiation fee in the neighborhood of $10,000, and a monthly recurring fee (sorry I can’t remember this figure…something like $200 feels about right) until you die. Yes, this is nothing for the folks who frequent Bohemian Grove (Some golf club memberships can run 100K!) but it’s not the money that keeps out the riff-raff anyway.

So now you’re a Bohemian, right? Not really. You have yet to join a camp. New members are encouraged to “sleep around” for a year or two at the Grove. And yes, that is Grove speak! They stay with different camps, meeting the people and getting a feel for where they want to be. Once you choose a camp, that’s your camp for life.

Within the Bohemian Grove there are something like 119 different camps. Each camp has it’s own flavor and style, as well as fees. A blueblood old-money camp has private caterers & servants. These camps have cabins with all the amenities you could imagine. These camps cost thousands of dollars a year to be a member…if they’ll have you. On the other end of the spectrum, there are camps that bring tents and eat at the common mess area each meal. They might only cost you fifty or a hundred bucks each month (on top of your monthly general club dues).

Now you’re a Bohemian…What’s the point?

You are now a member of a very select and influential group that includes some of the men that run the world. This has some obvious perks. Being in a lifetime fraternity with heads of state and corporate players can have some very favorable consequences after the encampment for sure. But to many of these men, more than that, is the sense of inclusiveness and bonding that come with being a Bohemian. They revel in drinking and playing and sarcastic banter. They take pride in pissing freely in the woods. They treasure the time in the grove with their brothers as sacred, really. It’s an NC-17 lifetime Boy Scout club for men. No joke is too vulgar, no topic too taboo to make light of. It’s the one place these folks can truly let go and be “regular guys”.
Club members also have year round access to the Grove for vacations. Only during the annual meeting and spring jinx are the Men Only rules in force.

During the rest of the year you can bring family, friends and business guests to the Grove. The grove has its own private beach on the Russian River, actually on the opposite side of the river and away from any public access beaches. The grove has a skeet shooting range as well. There are miles of private hiking trails. And of course the redwoods. Who wouldn’t refuse an invitation to come stay in a private redwood grove?

What goes on during the grove encampment?

My source tells me it’s a whole lotta drinking and bull#ting. The motto “Weaving Spiders Come Not Here!” is relatively adhered to, at least among the circles he runs with. But there is one caveat: To us little people a rule meaning no business is to be conducted means exactly that. To the rich and powerful at the Grove, while no one sits down and hammers out a merger, casual shop talk is normal social interaction. People line things up for future business dealings constantly, and most likely without even thinking they are weaving at all.

The Grove provides a variety of entertainment beyond drinking. There are all-male plays produced which generally are lowbrow and vulgar to one extent or another (you are working with a drunk audience of men playing woodsman after all). There are lakeside talks from leaders in military, politics, and business, as well as more philosophical and esoteric talks. The grove hosts daily open topped bus tours of the grounds, there are hiking trails, a skeet range, and swimming of course.

I asked my source directly about prostitutes. While he couldn’t discredit accounts from the past (and even admitted they were probably true) in his experience at the grove he had not seen anything to make him believe that it was currently happening.

Cremation of Care

As to the cremation of care…If there is a deeper conspiracy to the grove and it’s CoC ceremony, the rank and file Bohemians aren’t privy to the secret. My friend’s attitude when asked about it was dismissive, that it was just a way to represent the idea of letting go of outside life for a while and enjoying the camp. He wasn’t defensive or secretive or worried about me asking. He obviously didn’t really care about it at all, it was nothing of interest to him. He said it’s just part of the experience, and everyone’s too drunk to really pay attention anyhow.

As for me, I saw the owl, and it’s not that impressive. The lake is tiny, a pond really. Not exactly some outdoor satanic Molok worshipping temple you’d expect. Not that you couldn’t worship an ancient pagan god there, but you’d think it would be a little more impressive if they were really trying to buddy up with the dark forces. I mean they definitely have got the resources to do it right…


[edit on 30-7-2010 by blamethegreys]

Dang it! I thought I was posting to general conspiracies. Mods do your thing please!

Blamethegreys:

"Is the BG encampment a hotbed of devil worship and sacrifice? No, it isn't"

"If something else nefarious is happening at this location, a small group would be responsible, and no one in the BG would be any wiser."

____________________________________________________

I dont understand how you can claim it is "not hotbed of devil worship and sacrifice" with such certianty.

And then go on to say "a small group would be responsible, and no one in the BG would be any wiser." right afterwords.

You yourself said you were never there during any events.


I appreciate the time and effort put into your OP, I have been looking forward to a new expose on the BG From a differant source than infowars. And was pleased to read about how an outside contracter percieved it.

I just think you went to great lengths to point out several times that it is an innocent mens retreat and then go on to say in another post that only a select few would know if anything nefarious was afoot.

Respectfully Yours,

~meathead

Well, I have to refer you to what I said here:
Nice find OP. Its a pity your thread got taken hostage by a few less than reasonable, or informed people.

As was said on page one, Arnold did marry into the Kennedy/Shriver clan, that alone gives him carte blanche into the elite clubs of the TPTB.

I suspect there are inner and outer activities at these functions. The inner taking place after the less involved have become sufficiently entertained.
I find it interesting that a meeting with Ken Lay initiated Arnolds rise to governing power and I suspect that his presence here carries foreshadowing of a future cabinet position in another administration or perhaps some other high profile position.

Things are on the move for November elections, and these folks that put this Bohemian Grove on year after year would not take the time to bring so many upper eschelon people together for so obtuse a thing as a party...Puh Leeze! No one aspect of this gathering is simply a cover for a more clandestine aspect.

I use this as an example pertaining to such camps that you mentioned..ie the former presidents camp. I appreciate very much the functions you described it is a great view into the workings, but seriously if you think you buddy is a good source for all the information pertaining to the Grove...then I believe you can gain the same information about the Vatican by talking to a regular sunday church goin catholic in Ohio.

I find the OP's post interesting and plausable. Thanks for taking the time to write it out; I enjoyed reading it.

As to the true nature of the club (or the OP's account) I haven't the faintest idea. Maybe they really do roast infants there in a secret bunker or whatever. Or maybe they don't. You can't prove a negative. Heck, maybe something awful is going on right now next door to you and you will never have any idea about it. That's life.

I think its plausable because many organizations and institutions that have cachet among old money or "quiet money" (high-net-worth individuals who aren't famous and may just live in their own little world, etc.) are rather spartan and not ostentatious or luxurious. Places like old East-coast yacht clubs, men's clubs in Manhattan, etc. are actually rather understated, maybe even run-down or extremely rustic.

A lot of people with wealth, power, and privilage like to escape from it all from time to time and "live rough," or at least pretend to. Marie Antoinette built a fake miniature "peasant's village" on the luxurious grounds of Versailles -- she even had artisans carve pretend worm-tracks into the beams of her little cottage so she could sit on a stool and pretend to be a country milk-maid. To the real peasants of the time, who were starving, it was obscene and outrageous. Others may be more sincere, as with mountain-climbers, adventurers and outdoor enthusiasts, etc. And of course put men and booze and woods together and I don't care whether they are rich or poor, its going to get crass in some way.

Ultimately I'm not informed enough to make any kind of judgement about Bohemian Grove, because I only know what I've read on the internet and everything differs from everything else...a little piece of the puzzle. By the way, Nixon once made some harsh comments about the Grove that would be considered deragatory by many and would violate the ATS T&C to post or link to. And who knows? maybe there really is an "inner core" or multiple sub-groups who are into awful stuff. The OP says there are 119 camops and they are all very different so if true it wouldn't surprise me if some are worse than others.

Originally posted by Shadowfoot
...but seriously if you think you buddy is a good source for all the information pertaining to the Grove...then I believe you can gain the same information about the Vatican by talking to a regular sunday church goin catholic in Ohio.

LOL well put. I suppose I came at this a bit naively, seeing as I have a friend on the inside. I guess I should have pointed out that my info didn't disprove any grand conspiracies about the grove!

Things are on the move for November elections, and these folks that put this Bohemian Grove on year after year would not take the time to bring so many upper eschelon people together for so obtuse a thing as a party...Puh Leeze! No one aspect of this gathering is simply a cover for a more clandestine aspect.

I wonder though...I think we sometimes give TPTB too much credit. They aren't Terminators. In the end they still are humans (I hope ) and even the uber powerful need to blow off steam sometime. If they can do some planning and brainstorming over beers at the campfire, all the better.

The thing about places for the elites like Bohemian Grove are that if you are not in the need to know, at the right level, or well enough connected you can't really make any kind of judgement as to what goes on there. We know the eiltes, TPTB, the NWO compartmentalize to the extent that it's obsessive compulsive.

On the other side of the wall from your cabin a major secret and illegal cartel deal could be going down and you'd never know. Over a seclude camp fire agreements for a new war could be fleshed out and you'd never know. In the woods women under mind control could be being abused and you'd never know. And Obama could be in a private jacuzzi somewhere buggering some poor kid whom stolen from his parents and disappeared into the government sponsored satanic child abuse rings. Point is, the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. and each year more and more of the less connected people are invited in to camoflage the real beasts from view.