Bert Potter
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| Born: | May 20, 1925 Christchurch, New Zealand) |
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| Occupation: | Founder, "Centerpoint" |
Bert Potter (born May 20, 1925 in Christchurch, New Zealand) is the founder and spiritual leader of Centrepoint, a small commune in Albany, New Zealand.
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[edit] Life before Centrepoint
Potter had been a successful small business owner. He attended a Dale Carnegie course which led him to an interest in psychology and to run similar courses often encompassing psychotherapy for clients in need of more personal advice. He attended the Esalen Institute in California for three months. Upon returning to New Zealand he gave up his business and decided to pursue a career in therapy. This led him to co-found the "Shoreline Human Awareness Trust", based first of all at Potter's home and then at a rented property near a motorway in Epsom. What Potter termed "encounter groups" met at his home for nine-day sessions which lasted 11 hours each day. These groups eventually evolved into the Centrepoint Community.
[edit] Centrepoint
[edit] History of Centrepoint
Centrepoint began as a small commune with a farmhouse on land that other members camped upon. Council planning officers, who had been previously consulted, assured members that council permission was more or less a given. Plumbing, sewerage and living accommodations all had to keep growing to meet the community’s needs and lack of funds due to members leaving paid employment meant that the group had to set up a pocket money system where each member was given a weekly allowance. All personal property became the community’s when anyone joined and often the greatest source of revenue was from new members' liquidated assets. As children began to be born a day care crèche was established on the land and older children attended the local school. Communal birth became the norm: all members were asked to attend and support the mother as she gave birth, though this was not mandatory.
People seeking this alternative lifestyle came and those finding it difficult left. Free expression, emotionally and sexually, was promoted. Communal counselling was a large part of Potter’s philosophy and many found themselves revealing hidden secrets. In 1978 the Takapuna City Council denied the Centrepoint community the right to live on the land, leading to the community's first legal battle. A conditional use of the land was approved but restricted residence to 60 members and the population was already 58, restricting further births and outside marriages unless people left the commune.
Centrepoint continued to grow far beyond the specified number set by the tribunal. During this time members started living in car crates on the land and the original farmhouse was raised to build a main lounge underneath. In 1979 a crèche was started with everyone taking turns looking after the young children. Population continued to grow, both due to births and marrying outside the commune. Over the next few years a craft pottery was built, and a large two storey wooden building to house a variety of cottage industry projects, and the community began to be known for its silk dying, millinery, and fashion design work. Eventually a purpose built therapy centre was built on the hill behind the farmhouse.
Some members worked outside Centrepoint and the money provided from their wages was used to pay the bills. In 1981 Centrepoint finally broke even financially and longhouses were built to house up to 25 people and children. These consisted of a long room where members slept side by side. A film made in 1980 by Television New Zealand called "Centrepoint: A Spiritual Growth Community" caused great controversy as some New Zealanders watching feared a cult was forming in their midst. Shortly after this a Centrepoint member committed suicide on the property, overdosing on valium and a curare derivative stolen from her workplace at Auckland Hospital. Following the trail of bad publicity, Potter organised speaking engagements and appointed a public relations officer to project a good image for the community.
In April 1981, Centrepoint applied to increase its allowed population to 300. Although they were confident, because of their status as a religious community, the application was refused, as the Council received many objections, including sworn testimony by an ex-member regarding the sexual practices within the community, including allegations of child sexual abuse. The council eventually ruled that it was not a religious organisation in terms of town planning law.
In October 1983 an amendment bill was passed through Parliament that raised enormously the penalties for breaches of council bylaws. Centrepoint became instantly liable for fines uo to $10,000 per day if it persisted in its violation of the limit of people legally allowed to live there. This forced the Centrepoint members to rent a factory in Glenfield, into which they moved to all stay together. Almost immediately, the owner of the property obtained an injunction to evict them from his property, effectively rendering the group homeless. The community settled over Christmas in Te Unga Waka Marae, Epsom, and moved from there to a former woolstore in Parnell and various temporary locations, before being obliged to move on by local authorities.
On June 19 1985, after a series of long legal battles, Centrepoint was granted the right to have 224 members live at a commune in Albany - with a special land-use designation ending the squabbles about whether the community should obey the laws relating to boarding houses or the laws relating to hospitals.
[edit] Centrepoint beliefs
Centrepoint was seen by its members as a spiritual community, with Potter as the guru. The predominant principle was to liberate people by challenging them to experience everyday issues in different ways. This led to the open sexual practices within the community, and "encounter groups" that were intended to allow members to open themselves to other members. This was done in intense weekend or seven-day sessions, often with little sleep. Centrepoint made minimal use of rituals.
Bert Potter claimed that he believed himself to be God, and that everyone else was also, by the same token, God. This is an established position in mystical tradition, though is completely at odds with conventional Christianity. However, to live in Centrepoint, residents generally had to live under Potter's rules and let go of their own powers of self-determination and choice. Potter's beliefs and practice were changeable, and shaped by what was current in the spiritual marketplace, often testing new forms of therapy at Centrepoint. Centrepoint ran a therapy centre in Auckland city centre, using more conventional techniques for its clients.
Potter was known to give his members unusual tasks to "free themselves emotionally"; one reported task given was to a woman who believed she was unattractive to the opposite sex, and so was told to sleep with every man in the Centrepoint community before Christmas Day. There is dispute as to whether this was merely a suggestion or whether Potter's position of authority in the community effectively made it an order.
Early opponents of Centrepoint pointed to the danger of people joining a community where their lives were controlled by a self-professed guru. Many rumors of free sexual favors and child abuse existed, and later criminal convictions seem to have validated these concerns. Potter has been quoted as arguing that children should have sexual experiences appropriate to their own level.
[edit] Centrepoint allegations and convictions
Potter was convicted on drug charges, for possession of LSD and Ecstasy, on April 25, 1990 and sentenced to three and a half years in jail.He had been seen as a strong opponent of drugs and this conviction shook public opinion of him. More serious allegations of his having had sex with minors within the commune followed, and presumably these shook public opinion of him more. The victims made their complaints in March 1990 following a meeting organized by one of the abused. In 1998, actress Sarah Smuts-Kennedy voluntarily spoke about being abused by Bert Potter. In 1991 Centerpoint was raided by police and six men and two women were arrested on charges of indecent assault and rape. Trials in the Auckland High Court concluded with seven members of Centrepoint convicted and facing prison terms:
- Bert Potter, aged 67, was charged and convicted of indecently assaulting five minors. His victims were as young as three years old. He was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison in November 1992.
- Keith McKenzie, aged 71, was charged and convicted of indecently assaulting a minor. He was fined $2,500 and later struck off the medical register, as he was a registered doctor at the time.
- David Mendelssohn, aged 48, was charged and convicted of indecently assaulting three minors. He was sentenced to four years in prison.
- Ulrich Schmid, aged 52, was charged and convicted of sexually assaulting two minors. He was sentenced to one year in prison after a retrial.
- Richard Parker, aged 45, was charged and convicted of attempting to rape a minor. He was sentenced to four years and five months in jail.
- Henry Stonex, 51, was found guilty of indecently assaulting a minor and sentenced to nine months jail.
- Kenneth Smith, 75, was charged and convicted of indecently assaulting two minors. He was sentenced to 200 hours community service and had to pay damages of NZ$1500 to each minor.
Bert Potter was released from jail on March 30, 1999. In an interview at the time he said that he did nothing wrong and still believed that sex was appropriate with minors at the start of puberty but would follow the terms of his parole to avoid further jail time. Under the terms of his parole he was to have no contact with a child under 16 years of age. He returned briefly to the commune.
[edit] Changes, the civil case, and dissolution of Centrepoint
Following the arrests and convictions of some members on sex and drug charges between 1991 and 1993, many members of the community became disillusioned, with many disavowing their previous support for Bert Potter. At its peak in 1989, Centrepoint Community had had around 270 residents, but large numbers left the community over the next few years, dwindling its population to around 80 by 1996. Divisions within the community arose on many issues, particularly around the role of Potter and around the practice of members being required to "donate" all their assets and contribute all their income. Many, if not most, of the community members were in favour of many reforms.
These matters were brought to a head by the filing of a civil action in the New Zealand High Court in 1996 by David Mendelssohn and Ulrich Schmid (who headed a small group which came to be known as the "Old Believers") against the trustees of the Trust, demanding that a return to an orthodoxy based on Potter's beliefs was necessary on "religious" grounds, arguing that this was stipulated in the original deed of this charitable trust. The case widened to allow representation of other parties; the Solicitor General of New Zealand (under its statutory role as "Protector of Charities" in New Zealand Law), representatives of group of ex-children of Centrepoint headed by Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, some ex-resident members of the Centrepoint Community led by a former leader Barri Leslie, and Potter himself. The case was complex and unresolved by court decision by 1999, when a settlement conference of all parties (now joined by a reform group known as the New Community Group) was held to break the impasse.
As a result of the settlement conference, several measures were implemented:
- The Public Trust (a New Zealand statutory body), by now the sole Trustee, put forward a "scheme" to substantially restructure the Trust - a new Trust Deed was created, removing all references to Bert Potter, religion and spirituality (essentially secularising the Trust), renaming it the NZ Communities Growth Trust, adding articles relating to environmental protection and support for intentional communities in general provided they met legal and moral criteria. Provision was made for ex-residents and former children to apply to the Trust for financial support under a "relief of poverty" provision.
- The "Old Believers" group and Potter were paid around NZ$49,500 for each person within their group (including their children) to leave the community and sever their connections with the Trust.
- The provisions of this Trustee's scheme were agreed to by the High Court in March, 2000.
- The Centrepoint Community was formally closed on 1 July 2000.
- The New Community Group, later incorporated as The New Community Society of NZ Inc. (NCSNZ), leased the site of the former Centrepoint Community at Albany, and began an entirely new eco-village development there - named "Anahata Community".
- As of November, 2006, Anahata Community was still functioning at the Albany site. Over the past five years it averaged between 30 and 50 members and residents. Encroaching urban sprawl from the Auckland metropolitan Area is surrounding the property, and the community's future is uncertain. Lease renegotiations will take place in the first half of 2007, which may clarify the situation.
[edit] External links
| Persondata | |
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| NAME | Potter, Bert |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | New Zealand cult leader |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 20, 1925 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Christchurch, New Zealand |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
