Lonnie Frisbee - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Frisbee was raised in a single-parent home and was exposed to "sketchy, dangerous characters" as a child. Frisbee's brother claimed Frisbee was raped at the age of eight and documentarian David di Sabatino postulated that an incident of that nature "fragments your identity." His father ran off with another woman and his mother tracked down and married the jilted husband. He showed great interest in the arts and cooking. He won awards for his paintings and even appeared as a featured dancer on Shebang. He exhibited a "bohemian" streak and regularly ran away from home. As a teen he became part of the drug culture, as part of a spiritual quest, and at fifteen he entered Laguna Beach's gay underground scene with a friend. His "spotty" high school education left him barely able to read and write. At 18 he joined thousands of other flower children and hippies for the Summer of Love in San Francisco in 1967. He described himself as a "nudist-vegetarian-hippie".

Frisbee's unofficial evangelism career began as a part of a soul-searching LSD acid-trip as part of a regular "turn on, tune in, drop out" session of getting high. He would often read the Bible while tripping. On one pilgrimage with friends to Tahquitz Canyon outside Palm Springs instead of looking for meaning again in mysticism and the occult Frisbee started reading the Gospel of John to the group and eventually led the group to Tahquitz Falls and baptized them. A later acid-trip in the same area produced "a vision of a vast sea of people crying out to the Lord for salvation, with Frisbee in front preaching the gospel." His "grand vision of spreading Christianity to the masses" alienated his family and friends. Frisbee left for San Francisco where he had won a fellowship to the San Francisco Art Academy. He soon met members of Haight-Ashbury's Living Room mission. At the time, he talked about UFOs and practiced hypnotism and spoke about dabbling in occult and mysticism. When Christian missionaries first met him, they said he was talking about "Jesus and flying saucers". Frisbee converted to Christianity, and joined the first street Christian community, The Living Room, a storefront coffeehouse commune of four couples in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco started in 1967. He quit the art academy and moved to Novato, California to set up a commune and later reconnected with his former girlfriend Connie whom he then married. The community was soon dubbed The House of Acts after the community of early Christians in the Acts of the Apostles. Frisbee designed a sign to put outside the house, but was informed that if he gave it an official name, it would no longer be considered a mere guest house and would be subject to renovations. The community took the sign down to avoid the financial obligation. Frisbee continued painting detailed oils including of missions.