Vennie Kocsis grew up in Sam Fife’s Move of God (SMOG) cult.
“SMOG: because that’s what I left there with. A broken body. A shattered mind and spirit, and a brain full of smog so thick, there was no critical thinking left.”
— Vennie Kocsis
Read Vennie’s memoir:
Below is a collection of photos, media, and documents related to the founders of The Move of God, also known as The Move, The Body or The Walk. The group remains active as of 2026, with a global presence and established business activity in Delta Junction, Alaska.
W H I T E S T O N E
In this 2012 Newsletter from one of the compounds in Alaska, Whitestone Farms, Sam Fife is referenced, showing the connection to his teachings still exist.
2012 Whitestone Newsletter Gives Nod To Sam Fife:
Whitestone Founder, Bill Grier, CA Arrest, 1974
Performing Exorcisms on Children
S M O G
Sam Fife’s Move of God
Sam Fife Featured in Charleston Daily, 1975 Article: “Harsh Sect”
“I’ve seen a woman slap a five-month-old-baby for crying while lying on the floor during a service at 10 at night with people around it shouting and singing.” A child, Fife says, has “the same kind of nature the demons have. The demons can’t make him be any worse than he is” because he was “rebellious against God from the day he was born,” he says in a tape-recorded sermon.”
Brother Sam Prepares His Flock For the End Times
The Move of God in the New York Times 1979
Sam Fife History
Sam Fife Sermons
Sam Fife and his Elders taught a doctrine centered on blood sacrifice and rooted in demonology. Sermons often stretched for hours. Below are a few examples that illustrate some of The Move’s more abusive teachings.
The Origin Of the Latter Rain
The Divine Order For Raising Children
*trigger warning* This sermon contains disturbing instructions on the beating of infants and children.
Melchisedec Order
Melchizedek is a king and priest who appears in the Book of Genesis. His name means “King of Righteousness,” reflecting both royal and priestly roles. He is the first figure identified as a kohen (priest) in the Hebrew Bible. Below is Fife’s interpretation of the Melchizedek Order.
Study On the Blood
“What I hope to uncover in this study, is the real purpose God demanded blood.”
— Sam Fife
One Corporate Man aka One World Government/Order
Evangelism
Lot, the Judgment and the Little Snake Bites
God’s School Of Divine Government
Woman’s Place
Demonology
Sam Fife placed strong emphasis on demonology. He taught that children were born with demonic influence and viewed exorcism as a remedy for many issues, including physical illness, which resulted in death. Below are some of the beliefs he promoted.
The Origin and Source Of Demons
Nature and Dwelling Place Of Demons
Demonology Study Of All Four Books
Six Areas Of Demon Work
The Jane Tapes
Jane Miller was a woman subjected to an exorcism performed by Sam Fife. A recording of the event was distributed across the group’s compounds and made required listening for both adults and children. Below is the full audio, followed by Jane Miller’s unpublished autobiography.
After listening to the Jane Tapes, review the documents that follow, which provide further context to her story. While Sam Fife publicly denounced psychologists and medical professionals as “tools of Satan,” prohibiting medical care in favor of faith healing, he reportedly maintained private connections within the psychological community.
Whether The Move intersected with broader psychological experimentation such as MK Ultra, remains an open question, but due to its methods, it warrants scrutiny.
Legion: The Jane Story
From the book’s forward:
“My background was unusual, and ironic in view of what would happen in this case. To the patients, I was a doctor in a white coat, a shrink who knew about the mind. But I really was a clergyman, trained as a hospital chaplain, in an experimental psychiatric training program.”
— David M. Reed, Ph.D, 7/14/1996
Legion
Jane Miller’s unpublished autobiography
In this 1965 publication from the Louisiana Psychiatric Board, the same doctors mentioned in the forward in Legion: The Jane Story, have an extensive article written about their work together.
Sam Fife’s Thesis On Jane Miller’s Deliverance
SMOG Terminology
Survivor Letter Written To the SMOG Ministry
Buddy Cobb, Sam Fife’s Successor and Private Pilot
Sam Fife’s successor, Buddy Cobb, took over the cult in 1980 and was the go-to person until his death. In 2017, Buddy Cobb was filmed by his granddaughter. She asked him more than once about the child abuse to which he stated that nothing happens that is not the will of god and children need to know evil to know good and to know what evil looks like.
The Move in the News
John Hinson, Father Ministery, and the rape of Charlene Hill
The Miami News Dade Report, Monday, October 11, 1971
Belated Visit To a Man Who LIves His Beliefs
The following are newspaper articles covering the trial of John Hinson (also reported as Henson) and the kidnapping and abuse of Charlene Hill, which took place at one of the SMOG cult compounds in Sapa, Mississippi. During the trial, Charlene’s children remained at the compound with her husband, and she was not permitted to take them when she left. It has been alleged that her children were used as leverage to pressure her return and to drop the charges. Whether she withdrew the kidnapping and rape allegations out of desperation to reunite with her children is a question readers can consider based on the record.
Playground Daily News, Saturday June 11, 1977
Trial “Prosecutes Religious Beliefs’ In Woman’s Commune Kidnapping Case
Tampa Bay Times, Friday, June 3, 1977
Commune Leader Convicted of Kidnapping, Gets 10 Years
The Palm Beach Post, Friday, June 3, 1977
Commune Leader Freed On Kidnap Appeal
Irving Daily News, Sunday, October 12, 1975
Victim of Religious Sect Rejoins Children
The Town Talk, Saturday, August 6, 1977
Cults Proving Divisive Religious Issue
The Tampa Times, Saturday, June 4, 1977
Congressmen Accuse Cults of Brainwashing
Akron Beacon Journal, Saturday, May 5, 1979
Rev. Sam Fife Will Be Remembered Here – Page 1
Rev. Sam Fife Will Be Remembered Here – Page 2
El Paso Times, Friday, June 3, 1977
Cult Leader Gets 10 Years For Kidnapping
Clarion Ledger, Thursday, June 2, 1977
Clarion Ledger, Thursday, June 3, 1977
John Hinson’s Legal Appeal to the Supreme Court of the State of Mississippi
Doug McClain
Doug McClain Sr. is the son of Muriel and Don McClain who were ministry and cult founders of the Move, alongside Sam Fife and Buddy Cobb. Read Vennie’s memoir, Cult Child to learn more.
Doug McClain Sr., along with George Harris, procured the land for Living Word Ministry as well as helped arrange the procurement of the land for Whitestone Farms.
Court Cases
Paolini vs Douglas McClain, 7/17/2006
Bramante vs. McClain Sr., 1/16/2007
United States vs. McClain, 7/2010
Campbell vs. McClain, 9/30/2010
Office of U.S. Attorney, California, Press Release, 3/15/2012
Securities and Exchange Commission vs. McClain, et al, 4/24/2014
SERUM is a dynamic podcasts that tells the story of the blood serum that resulted in U.S. Exchange Commission vs Doug McClain.
CLICK TO STREAM ALL 9 EPISODES FREE
Listen to the Podcast Trailer
Thank you for taking the time to review this complex organization, which remains established and active in Delta Junction, Alaska. Researchers have identified multiple compounds and communal residences still operating globally. Despite numerous reports of abuse from individuals who were children within the group, there has been no visible action from the U.S. Department of Justice or the Federal Bureau of Investigation, no known investigations, oversight, or welfare checks by the state of Alaska, and little to no media coverage.
For those living within these environments, particularly vulnerable individuals and children, the conditions described raise serious concerns about isolation and lack of intervention. The absence of broader public and institutional attention remains a critical and unresolved issue, particularly in Delta Junction, Alaska.
Vennie Kocsis 
All of man’s religions are cults. With just a little common sense this is easy to see.
Christianity is the worst, using a false Sabbath on a pagan calendar that is an edict from the emperor Constantine. Judaism would begin the use of false Sabbaths when they pinned their Sabbath to the Roman calendar during the Roman conquest of Jerusalem. The Roman calendar didn’t exist before the year 46 BC, when it was created by a pagan Roman emperor. Daniel 2 lists the old Roman empire as the fourth beast power. Can you say “mark of the beast”?
False names and pagan titles for our Father and his set apart spirit. The letter J didn’t exist until the latter part of the 16th century.
Pagan holidays to replace the commanded feats and festivals of Leviticus 23.
Christians use forbidden graven images and icons to adorn themselves and their property with the cross of tammuz and the fish god dagon of the Phoenicians.
Everything the religions of man does, is intended to cause the believer to break the first four commandments.
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I’ve been reading the works of The Stoics, who existed linearly to the proposed life of Jesus. There were many followers of Stoicism, and I was never exposed to this part of history. It’s interesting to me that Christianity grew as it did, vs. Stoicism whose principles are based in basic self love and nurturing. Stoicism has no gods to follow. It seems even in those times, humans did not have the ability to believe in their own abilities, gifts and worth. They needed gods to follow, ritual to perform and holy books. For me, it is a marker of where humanity was at on a conscious evolvement scale. Finally, now, 2, 021 years later, humans are finally waking up. It has been a very long sleep.
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This is what happens when pride in spiritual knowledge usurps the Spirit of truth. Unteachability sets in leading to unaccountability and then to uncorrectable self-protective error under the persuasion of counterfeit religious spirits. Much of the original words may remain true on the surface, but the spirit underlying their projection becomes false, creating the cult mentality leading to religious and even physical abuse. It can happen to anyone. No church is immune to this trap. That is what you see in the Cobb video above. I had some fringe exposure to this group in the 80s and 90s. I visited the Bowens Mills compound, had some affiliation with the Truro, Nova Scotia home group, and attended a couple of the conventions in Salem, New Hampshire. But this is what I saw all along. Once it got to the point where people were bowing down to worship Jesus in one another at Bowens Mills, there was no question about what spirit was really driving this “move,” . .
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It’s an extremely layered cult, still quite active. Did you ever go to Alaska to the Dry Creek or Whitestone compounds?
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My family grew up in this cult in Alaska and are out now – my father’s parents and their 7 kids. None of them talk about it really at all, except the two youngest who do not remember much (they were little kids when they left). They wouldn’t even tell me the name, just that it was on the google homepage if i googled cults in america. I’ve pieced this part together myself based on the teachings/ what I witnessed in my great grandmother’s church and the locations they have lived in. (Fitzgerald GA, Ware MA, Alaska etc). I am really curious to know more about the farms/ see pictures, maybe find out if anyone knew my family and all of that. I am not close with any of my older uncles who would have actually grown up on the farm, nor would they talk about if asked.
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Hi Dmack! So glad to hear from you. I grew up at Ware, MA and also the Delta Junction, AK compound. The abuse was extremely bad, and maybe that’s why it’s difficult to talk about. Who is your family? I may know them. 🌻
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I just found your page while doing some research on an article I’m writing about The Move, a cult that I lived in for a time as a child. I was quite young, probably seven, but I still have some vivid memories, and not good ones. My sister is deaf as a result of the beliefs of this cult and that has been hard for our family to deal with. I just downloaded your book from Amazon and I’m interested to see if your experience was anything like mine. I was at the Graham River Farm, which our family moved to from California in the 70s. I don’t know how long we lived there, but I think we left after my little sister almost died from spinal meningitis. They didn’t believe in doctors, but my father panicked and took her to the emergency room and saved her life. I’m slowly piecing together things from my past as I write my own autobiography. I would love to connect.
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First, I’m very sorry that you too suffered at the hands of the Move. Kudos for writing it out. If you message me through the Subscribe/Contact tab it will send me an email and I can email you back. I’m looking forward to speaking with you. 💫
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