A Breakfast Club for New-Age Thinkers

How do you stay sane in a world careening toward chaos?

Hundreds of Southern Californians have found an antidote in jumping out of bed before dawn to spend 2 1/2 hours at their local weekly meeting of the Inside Edge--an organization that’s been described as “a watering hole for the soul,” “an on-going reunion of self-help junkies,” “the next evolutionary step in networking,” and “the New Age’s answer to the Kiwanis Club.”

Founded in October, 1985, by cookbook authors Paul and Diana von Welanetz, the organization has expanded from its original nucleus of 55 members, who met weekly at a Beverly Hills restaurant, to meetings in Irvine, Encino, San Diego and Manhattan Beach. Inside Edge practitioners now number 500 and the Von Welanetzes, who say their organization is “beyond networking” (“What we do here is heart networking . . . “), expect to open chapters next year in the Pasadena/Glendale area, San Juan Capistrano/San Clemente, Oxnard/Ventura/Santa Barbara and San Francisco.

Depending on locale, meetings are held on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday mornings at local restaurants or, in the case of the recently launched Manhattan Beach chapter, at the Manhattan Country Club.

A Shot of Optimism

Members typically gather by 6 a.m. for the shot of optimism they say comes from simply spending time with so many positive thinkers, and to hear motivational speakers such as “The Aquarian Conspiracy” author Marilyn Ferguson, noted cancer specialist Dr. Carl Simonton and others carrying an upbeat and frequently metaphysical message. Also lecturing in recent months have been Assemblyman John Vasconcellos (creator of California’s State Task Force on Self-Esteem and Personal and Social Responsibility), author Warren Farrell (“Why Men Are the Way They Are”) and media psychologist/author Barbara de Angelis (“How to Make Love All the Time”).

Live music is performed as participants and their guests enter the restaurant, and most members have breakfast. But more important, according to Inside Edge devotees, is the opportunity to visit with positive-thinking friends and to tap into a small but powerful support system. (Typical question from one member to another: “What are you doing to love yourself more this week?”) And there’s the opportunity to hug total strangers, as some meetings include a hug-a-thon in which participants move around the room, giving and receiving as many hugs as possible.

Susan Jeffers, author of “Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway,” considers her weekly visits to the Beverly Hills restaurant 385 North to be her weapon against the increasingly grim news of the day.

“This is a very negative world and this is an opportunity to be with very positive people who want to expand their vision . . . and create a better world,” the psychotherapist turned author says. “My husband and I say that Tuesday starts our week.”

When Jeffers joined the Santa Monica-based group two years ago as a founding member, she had recently moved to Los Angeles and decided to write a book. She noticed there were several successful authors in the organization and quickly created the first of many Inside Edge sub-groups: The Writer’s Edge. (Others include the Film Edge, the Business Edge, the Razor’s Edge (a men’s group), and the Curving Edge (a women’s group).)

“I was encouraged by people who had published books and, in fact, they gave me ideas I had never thought of,” Jeffers recalls. “When you’re in the presence of successful people it rubs off.”

(Her book, published earlier this year, is in its third printing and is scheduled for editions in Australia, England, Holland and Argentina.)

Jeffers, who has progressed from aspiring writer to successful author in less than two years time, echoes the sentiments of many Inside Edge regulars: “I realize I’m capable of doing in life so much more--just as a result of being with people who support your growing all the time. We consider it our extended family of choice.”

The Von Welanetzes, who together have authored such cookbooks as “With Love From Your Kitchen” and once hosted a cable television show on cooking and entertaining, like to point out that, although business successes often flow from interactions at their organization, that is not the group’s true purpose.

The two founded the non-political, nonsectarian organization in late 1985 after returning from a tour of the Soviet Union with other New Age “citizen diplomats” such as actor Dennis Weaver and his wife, Gerry (both on the organization’s board of advisers), (Hindu) Swami Satchidananda, futurist Patricia Sun (also on the board), and actor Mike Farrell. (Others on the board include Bill Galt, founder of the Good Earth restaurant chain, futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard and “One Minute Manager” author Ken Blanchard.)

“We were with all these New Age people who were sort of in the fast lane and they weren’t getting any tickets,” Paul von Welanetz remembers of his fellow travelers. “When we got home, we realized we wanted to be with people like this and support them.

“We want this to be a model business in the peace business,” Von Welanetz continues. “If people show up here with their business cards and hand them out, it just doesn’t work. We don’t encourage people to do business nor do we discourage it. But if people come here to sell tires or real estate, they don’t stay very long.”

Although the organization has grown rapidly, it is thus far only minimally profitable, say the Von Welanetzes.

The couple has had numerous offers regarding franchising the Inside Edge but has turned them down, fearing that entrepreneurial types might change the format. “It (the organization) really belongs to the membership,” says Von Welanetz. Adds Diana: “We’re the stewards of the feeling. We’re here to be sure there’s nothing off. You can’t franchise a feeling.”

AIDS Program

At a recent meeting of the Manhattan Beach chapter, open just three weeks, feeling was most evident as members listened to author/counselor Louise Hay tell of her work with AIDS patients.

About 70 members and guests watched a video of her work and many began to cry as the on-screen Hay assisted AIDS carriers to “release guilt and share and love themselves.” Tears were followed by a standing ovation.

Beverly Hills/Los Angeles chapter member Frances Heussenstam, a college professor turned psychotherapist turned painter, characterizes what happens in such meetings as “a genuine effort to help build a spiritual family.

“We’ve had sessions that are powerfully moving and we’ve also had some fairly ordinary presentations, “ says Heussenstam, who nevertheless finds the organization “a wonderful way for me to see some of my friends, make new friends and start out Tuesday mornings in an inspired and ecstatic state of consciousness.”

Wayne Dyer, the best-selling author of “Your Erroneous Zones” and other self-help books, was so impressed with the Inside Edge when he heard about it that he agreed to serve on its board of advisers even though he lives in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Not long ago he sent each of the group’s 500 members a copy of his latest book--just because he wanted it in the hands of what he considered influential people.

“The people who are involved with this organization are not lightweights by any means,” says Dyer.

‘Highly Visible People’

“They are highly public, highly visible people who believe in what they’re doing and make a major difference in the world. They’re part of what Marilyn Ferguson calls ‘the network of good guys’. . . . If you can get a collective of human beings who are on the side of order rather than disorder on the planet, you can bring some order to the planet and God knows we need it.”

Not that the Inside Edge is always in perfect order itself. The Von Welanetzes, who’ve been married for 24 years, admit there have been recurring problems and some disgruntled members.

Membership may stimulate success in some individuals but clearly not all. The couple says they occasionally hear complaints from members who blame the organization for their individual failures to reach stated goals.

“Every week there’s somebody complaining about something,” notes Von Welanetz, adding that a literal sore spot for some women is the tendency of a few male members to squeeze too forcefully or too suggestively in the hug process. As a result, guidelines on hugging etiquette are occasionally offered.

According to investment banker Larry Becker, an Inside Edge member for the last year and a half, problems are not swept under the rug in this group estimated to be about 90% professionals.

“When there is discontent by certain individuals they speak up. They may have an hour-and-a-half phone conversation with Paul and Diana about it,” he says.

Other Priorities

Becker’s noticed that some members leave because of other priorities in their lives and that others leave because of financial considerations. (Membership and monthly dues can run anywhere from $1,200 to about $1,600 a year, based on individual chapter fees and whether one joins as a regular or charter member.) But, Becker says, anyone who is eager to participate but can’t afford it can apply for discounts in return for assisting the Inside Edge staff.

One reason people do not leave the group, says member Jacob Blass, is being required to follow a certain philosophical teacher.

“It (the Inside Edge) is not connected at all to a spiritual teacher or a human potential organization where, if you don’t speak the language or espouse the philosophy, you’re not considered an insider,” says Blass, who is the executive director of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. “There are many New Age groups where if you’re not New Age the way they are you don’t count, but this isn’t one of them.”

A member for 16 months, Blass says the only problem he’s experienced concerns being involved in what feels to him like an extended family--and being asked to pay dues to belong to it.

Though he hasn’t an answer to the dilemma, Blass continues to pay dues and attend meetings, largely for the elation: “I always seem to have a greater sense of possibility when I leave there than I normally tend to.”

That sense of possibility is significant enough in the minds of some members that they’re convinced the Inside Edge will one day be looked upon as a pivotal influence on latter 20th-Century thinking.

“It will be looked at one day as important stuff. I feel like we’re making history,” enthuses Tom Sewell, a founding member who publishes Venice-based Main magazine.

“It’s wonderful to get up at 4 o’clock in the morning on a Tuesday and look forward to meeting all the people who are there, the great energy. . . . It’s like the word implies, it’s sort of an edge. It’s like the early bird gets the worm.”