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Former members of the Insouciant Assembly

⚠ This article contains content subject to the terms of the 2025 settlement. See Insoucianism legal disputes.

Several former members of the Insouciant Assembly have spoken publicly about their experiences, providing the principal source of critical testimony about the movement's internal practices, including the Higher Workings, the alleged Far Circle, and reported Threshold Transmissions.

Notable former members

Rachel Moreno

A former practitioner from Portland, Oregon who was involved in the movement from approximately 2020 to 2023. Moreno has given interviews to The Guardian and the Portland Mercury in which she described the progressive narrowing of her social world under the influence of the tradition's teachings on relational discernment. She described losing most of her non-Insouciant friendships during her time in the movement. In 2024 she filed a civil suit against Insouciant Assembly LLC seeking return of approximately $14,000 in donations (see legal disputes).[40]

Marcus Hale

Identified as one of the original seven members of the Bristol study group convened in 2003. Hale reportedly left the movement in approximately 2018, following Leitner's death. He has provided accounts of Leitner's attributed perceptual abilities and of the early development of what would become the Higher Workings. He has described his departure as motivated by concerns about the direction of the tradition under Sister Aureline's leadership.[HW4]

David Chen

A former practitioner who completed the Settling and left the movement in 2022. Chen has provided the most detailed publicly available account of advanced practices and the "Threshold Node" teachings, as well as describing incidents of apparent clairvoyance attributed to his Steward. He described the community as "genuinely warm and supportive at the beginning" but stated that "the expectations ratchet up so gradually you don't notice until you're in deep."[HW8]

Naomi Vale

A former Steward associated with the Sedona Learning House, active in the movement from approximately 2022 to 2024. Vale publicly identified herself in 2025 and described attending two invitation-only Far Circle retreats in New Mexico, where she said participants attempted contact through the alleged Threshold Node with non-human intelligences. She later stated that she was interviewed by the FBI in connection with the reported investigation into the Far Circle and that the matter was subsequently dropped without explanation.[FM1]