Weeks later, after having renamed his organization "Church of Atlantis"
(C.O.A.), Atmananda decided to distribute WOOF! The Voice of Southern
California to tens of thousands of San Diegans.
WOOF! provided work for Atmananda's devotees and helped bind
the fledgling group. We illustrated, laid out, distributed,
and laughed over each edition. We laughed, for instance,
at Atmananda's fabricated advertisement about an imaginary bank
(Issue #3; January, 1981): "Interloka Bank is pleased to announce
the opening of a new branch in Mark's room. We will be giving
away the first 500 customers as valuable gifts...We at Interloka
are dedicated to serving you totally, and are proud to take you
for all we can, whenever we can. We are the only authorized
distributors of the GOLDEN GWIDcard...Interloka Bank--We Own You..."
Perhaps it was the lack of sleep, the desire to believe in our
friend and mentor, or the need for comic relief that blinded
us to the grim foreshadowing of Atmananda's humor.
I laughed the hardest at Atmananda's ads and columns in which he
satirized televangelists, Indian gurus, the Moonies, and New Age healers
(see Appendix A). I felt justified in laughing at other spiritual groups,
partly because they seemed to merit it and partly because Atmananda
said that they needed to be laughed at.
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