The poster featured on page 3 of this section was designed several months later to announce free public meetings, some of the earliest being held by these newly proclaimed followers. Then, on August 24, 1975, using the names Bo and Peep, the two made their first appearance at a public meeting given at Cañada College, located in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. If our recollection is correct, the crowd was so large at the appointed time that the auditorium was filled to capacity twice - that is, for two back- to-back meetings. Then three weeks later, on September 14, 1975, Ti and Do (still using the names Bo and Peep) held a meeting in Waldport, Oregon. It was at this point that the press picked up on the story and the onslaught had begun. Their interest was largely stimulated by reports of individuals giving away both children and property to join the group. Although such actions were certainly not according to Ti and Do's instructions, nevertheless, bedlam had broken out by then. We had become a national media item. Their unrelenting spotlight glared upon us for over half a year. And by and large, almost every report either written or aired about us was either riddled with inaccuracies or outright lies, that is, with one noteworthy exception. On Sunday, February 29, 1976, the New York Times published the best researched article to date. As the cover story of The New York Times Magazine, free-lance writer James S. Phelan, who actually had a lenghty interview with Ti and Do, wrote a generally quite objective article (though certainly not the way we would have written it) despite the "journalistic tide" against his doing so.
Over 130 public meetings held throughout the U.S., as well as in Canada, continued until the Spring of 1976, when on April 21, Ti announced that "the 'Harvest' is closed." In late June of 1976, the students were called together in the Medicine Bow National Forest, Wyoming, to begin a "classroom" in earnest. Close to 100 followers showed up. The classroom reduced to about 40 to 50 pretty quickly. Over the period of time from then until the spring of 1992, we lost a few more students, some of whom have since returned, but no new students had entered the class. (Excerpts taken from '88 Update.)
The 17 Steps and Major Offenses are documents that were never intended for public release - that is, until now. Rather, they were "in-house" guidelines for appropriate Next Level behavior and conduct.