Blow, Gabriel, Blow (or, The Eyes of Flatley Are Upon You)

Back in this blog's early daze, when I was still mostly trying to be funny, before the darker side of Scamworld (and later, the real-life dystopian novel that is Trumpistan) began weighing down these pages, I used to snark a lot about a variety of New-Wage/McSpirituality/alt-health kooks. One such was a character who calls himself Gabriel of Urantia (formerly Gabriel of Sedona).

Gabriel, born Tony Delevin in Pittsburgh, PA, runs a multi-generational cult community in southern Arizona, where he teaches folks about their cosmic origins and the end of the world and whatnot. In addition to being a cult spiritual leader he is a "musician." I had a bit of fun with him years ago, the predictable result of which was that I got blowback from some of his supporters.

In particular, an April 2007 post got the Gabe-heads' feathers ruffled. One guy, who claimed to be a cousin of Gabriel's, was annoyed by my calling his cuz a scammer, as well as by my general "sarcasm." Another person was intensely annoyed by my elegant critique of Gabriel's vocal talents; I had described the holy man's voice as sounding like Neil Young might sound if Young were completely unable to carry a tune and had been kicked in the balls and then run over by a Mack truck. I don't know why anyone would be offended by that, particularly since I'd compared Gabe to the great Neil Young. Some folks are entirely too sensitive, if you ask me.

I hadn't thought about ol' Gabe in years, but yesterday I got a notification from a Facebook friend of mine, investigative journalist/author/filmmaker Joseph L. "Lenny" Flatley. Naturally, this sparked my interest, as I've been following Flatley's work off and on for years, and cited him on this blog a few years ago. In May of 2012, drawing in part upon info from another pal of mine, Jason "Salty Droid" Jones, Flatley wrote an excellent piece for The Verge about Scamworld. A few months later he posted a followup article in which, among other matters, he discussed at length a super-scam called Miracles Coaching, perpetrated by one of this Whirled's favorite snargets, Joe "Mr. Fire" Vitale.

And yesterday Lenny invited me to a new Facebook page of his called The So-Called Prophet from Pittsburgh.

The So-Called Prophet from Pittsburgh is Gabriel of Urantia, a self-proclaimed holy man who currently presides over a spiritual community (some call it a cult) in the desert of Southern Arizona. In a fenced-in compound, three generations of the Global Community Communications Alliance soak in Gabriel's teachings as they wait for the end of the world. Join investigative journalist Joseph L. Flatley as he travels around the country, speaking to Gabriel's ex-followers, cult experts, and people who knew him before he was a so-called prophet. You'll learn why people join a group like this, why they stay as long as they do, and the challenges they face when they decide to leave. And you’ll hear some groovy music in the process.
Podcast. New episodes released on Tuesdays in January and February 2020.

I'm looking forward to catching up on the adventures of Gabriel and his extended family of cosmic minions (cosminions?); in Flatley's able hands it should be quite a journey. Here's a link to a short teaser video, which ends with a cliffhanger: Gabe reveals that he has been misrepresented by the corporate media. Wow, didn't see that coming.

And here's the link that will lead you to the podcasts that have been released so far. They're also available on:
iTunes / Stitcher / Google Play / Spotify / PodBean / Castbox / TuneIn

Happy listening.