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Erowid Character Vaults

Marcia Moore

May 22, 1928 - January 14, 1979

Summary

Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Marcia Sheldon Moore was the daughter of Robert L. Moore, who founded the Sheraton Hotel chain. Over the course of her life she married four times. With her first husband and their three children, she spent time India studying Hinduism. With her third husband, Mark Douglas, she co-authored several New Age books. Along with lecturing to promote her books, Moore worked as a yoga teacher and astrological counselor. She eventually developed her own approach to reincarnation therapy, which she called "hypersentience". She promoted this therapy through the Ananta Foundation in Ojai, California, and via the quarterly Hypersentience Bulletin that she began publishing in 1975.

Moore's initial ketamine experience took place in April of 1976. About a year later, she met the man who became her fourth husband, an anesthesiologist named Howard "Sunny" Alltounian. Together they wrote the book Journeys into the Bright World, which chronicled their experimentations with ketamine. Moore coined the term "samadhi therapy" for the new blissful drug-induced self-exploration that she and Alltounian began working with and providing to others. Less than three years after her first ketamine experience--and following her increasing and problematic use of the drug, which she ended up hiding from Alltounian--Moore passed away in what was likely the first known behavioral fatality associated with ketamine. However, there are some conflicting accounts related to her disappearance and death; Alltounian and at least one of her children have stated that they believe Moore committed suicide.


(https://erowid.org)




Marcia Moore (May 22, 1928 – January 14, 1979) was an American writer, astrologer and yoga teacher brought to national attention in 1965 through Jess Stearn's book Yoga, Youth, and Reincarnation. She was an advocate and researcher of the dissociative properties of the drug ketamine. Moore disappeared in 1979, and although her remains were found in 1981, the cause and circumstances of her death are still unknown.

Biography

Early life

Moore was born Marcia (pronounced mar-SEE-uh) Sheldon Moore, in Cambridge, Massachusetts on May 22, 1928, the only daughter of Robert L. Moore, founder of the Sheraton Hotel chain, and Eleanor Turner Moore, who was an artist, illustrator and esotericist. She had three brothers: writer Robert (Robin) Moore, John S. Moore, and William K. Moore. Robin Moore wrote The Green Berets (1965) and The French Connection (1969) among other books.

Drug proponent

A published astrologer, she last married anesthesiologist Howard Alltounian and together they lived a reclusive life experimenting with ketamine. She became a proponent of the drug ketamine in her 1978 book, Journeys Into The Bright World, written with her husband. The book promoted the existential richness of the ketamine-induced dissociative experience, and the possibilities for using this drug in conjunction with Jungian psychotherapy.

Disappearance and death

In the winter of 1979, at age 50, Moore disappeared. Her remains were found two years later in the woods near her Washington home. It has been hypothesized that on a winter night in the forest, Moore had injected all the ketamine available to her, became unconscious, and died of hypothermia. Her lower jaw was identified via dental records. Ann Rule has stated that Moore's skull had been found with a hole in it; one of her friends suspected it was a bullet hole, but investigators believed it may have happened due to the skull's exposure to the elements over two years. This information was not immediately published by investigators at the time of the discovery. The cause of her death remains unresolved.


(https://en.wikipedia.org)




Incident: Marcia Moore. 1979. Washington State, USA. #
Jansen K. "Ketamine: Dreams and Realities". MAPS. 2001.

    "Moore disappeared from her house on January 14, 1979. Her husband spent a year searching for her, including journeys to Hong Kong and Thailand, places to which she had traveled in the past. Her skeleton was found in early spring, 1981, in the place where she had frozen to death. She had made a journey at night into the dark world of the forest, a potent Jungian symbol, curled up in a tree, and then injected herself repeatedly with all of the ketamine she had been able to find. That night the pond froze over, the moon rose, and the Fire Lady was killed by the ice.

    'Marcia became addicted to ketamine and committed suicide. The drug is dangerous and its use should not be encouraged... I told her that it was a seductress, not a Goddess.' -- Howard Alltounian, M.D. (Moore's husband), Interviewed by Karl Jansen (April 1998)

    The evidence is more suggestive of accidental death than suicide, and bears similar hallmarks to a death from exposure in a person intoxicated with alcohol. There was nothing to indicate that she was depressed or that her conscious intent was to die, and she did not leave a note. Nevertheless, there may have been powerful subconscious elements that sought to go through the door for the last time, and never return."


(https://erowid.org)

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Fine, Probation to 3 in Drug Case

Federal judge fixes penalty for processing mescaline

  Three persons convicted of manufacturing mescaline, a hallucinogenic drug, were placed on three years probation yesterday and fined $250 each by Judge John W. Oliver in US district court here.
  Found guilty by a jury last December 9 were Gene Lawrence Clifford, 36, and his wife Mrs. Christine Ann Clifford, 24.


(The Kansas City Times Kansas City Missouri 23 May 1970 Sat Page 16)

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Big Drug Raid In County

Five men were arrested and more than $125,000 worth of drugs and marijuana confiscated last night in a combined sweep by federal, state ad county narcotics agents through Sonoma County. Sheriff Don Striepeke said this morning at least 1,000 pounds of marijuana were found in a residence south of Forestville and an unknown quantity of liquid methadrene (speed) was confiscated at a Rio Nido house. Booked at county jail on federal and state charges were J. Kenneth Carson, 52, and Gary Bernard Carson, 37. both of 5035 Gravenstein Highway North, Forestville: Bruce Alex Aitcheson, 25, and William James Harmon. 30, both of Manhattan Beach, and John Rene Rodigou, 24, San Anselmo.

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About two hours later, the officers arrested Rodigou at his house on Memory Lane in Rio, Nido, where they allegedly found a laboratory and equipment for manufacturing drugs, as well as an undetermined amount of liquid methadrene. Striepeke said Rodigou has been known to be a major supplier of methadrene in Sonoma County and the Bay Area for the past few years. He said the suspect was arrested some two years ago in connection with a laboratory operation in Fort Bragg.


(The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, California),  23 May 1973, Wed,  Main Edition,  Page 1 and 6)



*Flashback: The Aylwyn LSD lab incident*

On Mr. Champie's recommendation, Mr. Neill said that he had used a shotgun during the course of the conspiracy to force another of those arrested, John Rodigou, to perform acts ,to further the conspiracy. Mr. Aylwyn, according to Mr. Neill, had directed Mr. Rodigou in his duties and had threatened him with his life and caused him to fear for the safety of his relatives. Mr. Rodigou, who had entered a guilty plea to the charge of manufacturing LSD, was committed to the California Rehabilitation Facility at Corona as a narcotics addict. He had testified during the trial that he was the "chemist" of the group and actually ran the laboratory.


(The Press Democrat Santa Rosa California 02 Sep 1971 Thu Main Edition Page 27)




  It was not until the prosecution's final witness, Mr. Rodigou, that there was testimony to a batch of LSD he said he made on June 11.
  It looks like the prosecution had to justify what it had started." said Mr. O'Brien.
  Mr. Aylwyn's counsel. Thomas Boyle, spoke for an hour and referred to the June 11 LSD as "fictitious."
  He said that the two key witnesses should be viewed with caution.
  "It appears that they could have been the whole operation—Mr. Wiggins bought the chemicals and Mr. Rodigou did the cooking (manufacturing)" said Mr. Boyle.



(The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, California),  24 Mar 1971, Wed,  Other Editions,  Page 2)

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Charles Hall, a chemist employed by the State Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, testified that he found LSD within the MacPherson Street house. Appellants produced rebuttal witnesses who testified that no LSD was present in the flasks, but their analyses had been made some months later and there was expert testimony that LSD may degrade to a point where it is no longer identifiable. The conflict was resolved by the jury. Thus, count three of the indictment, possession of lysergic acid, in violation of section 11910 of the Health and Safety Code, must be sustained. As to count one, a conspiracy to commit the crime of manufacturing LSD, in violation of section 182 of the Penal Code, there was the testimony of Rodigou and Wiggins, who had become witnesses for the state, to sustain the charge of unlawful confederacy. The two overt acts alleged are the bringing into Mendocino County of chemical components to be used for the manufacture of LSD, and bringing into the county of laboratory equipment for that purpose. The witnessing of these overt acts having been testified to by independent percipient witnesses, very little, if any, expert testimony was required in order to sustain the conspiracy count. Appellants themselves did not testify. [31 Cal. App. 3d 841]


(http://law.justia.com)

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