Lafayette Morehouse
Californian intentional community
Lafayette Morehouse is an intentional community conceived in 1968 in Lafayette, California. The lifestyle it practices is often referred to as "Morehouse". The groups was founded by Victor Baranco and his first wife Suzanne Baranco, and is now led by his widow Cynthia Baranco, Morehouse has existed for over 50 years, one of few such communities still in existence from the 1960s.
The group positions itself as "researchers" studying the nature of pleasurable group living. They believe that group living best fits the nature of humans and can lead to the most enjoyable life. The group formerly operated More University, an unaccredited institution that taught courses on the group's philosophy. The group continues to offer paid courses.
Philosophy
The cornerstone of the "More philosophy" is the concept of perfection – the belief that people and situations are right the way they are and that perfection includes the potential for change. This includes the viewpoint that individuals are totally responsible for their lives, including thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
The term "More" is used in the sense that "if the world is good, then more can only mean better." Residents consider themselves to be "responsible hedonists" – with the idea that the best possible life includes concern for the welfare of others and that apparent pleasure at the expense of others is not pleasure.
“Lafayette Morehouse” enters the record as californian intentional community. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Lafayette, Morehouse and Californian can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q14683010. Authority coordinates are 37.920, -122.094. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1968.
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This entry incorporates text from “Lafayette Morehouse” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.