The occult creeps into all kinds of places and quasi-masonic rituals serve as a gateway to professional development and comradery for developing adolescents; in more sinister associations, there are subtly insinuated political ideologies as well. The camp experience described in the following report points to more troubling associations, and ones which are indeed potentially sinful and spiritually and emotionally dangerous. The various rituals planned by the camp staff employ emotionalism and a quasi-spiritual milieu through which girls and boys become attuned to teamwork and belonging to a corporate body. They are certainly not as solemn as the rites of passage associated with other fraternal organizations like the Masons, but they do tend in that direction and what is most disturbing is the levels of extreme emotionalism and irrational attachment the girls have to their groups and the camp itself.
It was interesting that a woman who'd attended Communist children's camp in Wisconsin. It's an interesting parallel because you get the impression that while it's not very certain that the elite girls and boys at Lake of the Woods camps are doing much more than reinforcing a corporate mentality, reinforced by an almost menacing amount of emotionalism, the Wisconsin Communist's experience was a positive one, filled with "educational" dramatizations contrived to give the children a sense of what a fascist society or situation involving political oppression might be like. It was also interesting that the woman describing her Communist camp experience described her mother's opinion of "brownies" as being "little fascists".
You can listen to the portion describing the girl's apparently harmless use of occult tools and quasi-masonic rituals here at 39:20. It's part of a radio show on National Public Radio called, "This American Life" which describes camp experiences for girls and boys in separate camps who hail from affluent, presumably affluent families. The experience can cost up to 8,000 dollars for eight weeks. That's $1,000 a week.
One of the strange rituals associated with the camp ethos, is that the girls are awakened in the middle of the night to go to color days, where the team captain will be selected. There's a lot of anticipation prior so the girls "harmlessly" engage the use of a Ouija board to find out who the "color captain" will be. There are two teams in the girl's camp which are blue and white. Interestingly, the boys teams are divided into red and black. These teams are embossed with a certain quasi spiritual significance, which inspires the girls to a tent revival frenzy of emotionalism. Given the market appeal of Harry Potter, you could imagine the girls and boys of the camp, perhaps, conjuring up those associations in their imaginations as they play in the confines of the camp regime.
Some of the girls stay up late into the night waiting for the event, others are awakened out of a sound sleep. The girls are then ushered around a camp fire, where a dramatization by the camp staff appear in togas embodying summoned spirit entities who talk about the color teams and their ethoi, whereupon the girls take a vow of silence which lasts for the next three days.
At this time the spirits select which of the girls will be captains for each of the teams. The hysteria that ensues is interesting as the girls who weren't chosen weep, snivel and cry as silently as possible, enveloped by their vow of silence, while the girls who were chosen, and their friends, are full of hushed elation.
Still holding the vow of silence, it's only the team captains who are permitted to talk for three days. Then when the "vow" is lifted, all of the girls spend the rest of their time screaming in the various planned collective and individual activities.
These ecstasies conjure up images of Montanist heretics, Orphic revelers and other
Pre-Christian or heathen rites dedicated to some deity craving blood sacrifice. It may have been intentional that the NPR story meant to make the association with Hitler Youth more obvious, whose own emotionalism, comradery, strange religious rites and esprit de corp are familiar to many.
The camp's website contains absolutely no religious references. Camp participants and their parents can be sure that there will be no religious element to the camp experience. It would be assumed that after playing with their Ouija boards and being brainwashed by the camp staff, that a Catholic girl or boy could attend Mass nearby on Sunday morning.
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