James Edward Baker was born on July 4, 1922, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Although he claimed to have been awarded the Silver Star while serving in the Marine Corps during World War Two, the Corps does not carry James Edward Baker's name in its official listing of Silver Star recipients. Baker also claimed to have become an expert in Jujutsu. He moved to California to become a Hollywood stuntman and was influenced by the Nature Boys, a Los Angeles-based group of beats who lived a natural lifestyle, maintained vegetarian diets, and lived "according to Nature's Laws". Baker also studied philosophy, religion and esoteric spiritual teachings, even becoming a Vedantic monk for a time. He later became a follower of Yogi Bhajan, a Sikhspiritual leader and teacher of Kundalini Yoga. In 1969, Baker founded the Source Restaurant on Los Angeles's Sunset Strip. The restaurant served organicvegetarian food, with such celebrity regulars as John Lennon, Julie Christie and Marlon Brando. Jim Baker had two other successful restaurants on Sunset Strip: the Aware Inn and the Old World. Despite the claims that he had fourteen different wives, he had only one legal wife as James Baker, Robin Popper, to whom he was married in 1970. They had a daughter together, Tau, born August 14, 1974. Robin said that at the time he was "a dirty old man on a lust trip".
Music
Music was an integral part of the Source Family and many members were musicians. Father Yod formed an improvisational psychedelic rock band called Ya Ho Wha 13, with himself as lead singer. In 1973 the band began making limited pressings of their jam sessions, eventually releasing nine albums that were sold at the Source Restaurant for ten dollars each. The original recordings have become valuable to collectors of underground music. Celebrities such as Earth, Wind & Fire would buy Source records out of the back of the restaurant. Other family musicians formed various bands including "Spirit of 76", "Savage Sons of Yahowha", "Yodship" and "Breath".
Death
On December 26, 1974, the Source Family sold their restaurant and moved to Hawaii. On August 25, 1975, despite having no previous hang gliding experience, Yod decided that he would go hang gliding. Yod used a hang glider to leap off a cliff on the eastern shore of Oahu. He crash-landed on the beach suffering no external injuries, but was unable to move and died nine hours later. The Source Family refers to this day as “Black Monday.” After three days of vigil, Yod was cremated and his ashes put to rest at Lanikai Beach in Hawaii.
Legacy
In 2006, two Source Family members, Isis Aquarian and Electricity Aquarian, wrote the history of the religious group. A revised version of the book entitled The Source: The Untold Story of Father Yod, Ya Ho Wa 13 and The Source Family was released in 2007 by Process Media, and included a CD with live Ya Ho Wa 13 performances, radio interviews, and Family recordings. The Source Foundation was set up at www.yahowha.org and released lost family music through Drag City Records, Fathers Morning Meditation Tapes through Global Recording Artist, a comic book, and The Source Family in 2012, co-directed by Jodi Wille and Maria Demopoulous. Sean Ono Lennon credited the Source Family with inspiring the look and attitude portrayed in the video for his 2013 song "Animals". The experimental sound collage program Over the Edge, hosted by members of Negativland, presented a Source Family retrospective in the second half of the programon the night of June 30, 2017.
