Andrew Keegan.Photo:Steve Granitz/FilmMagic
Steve Granitz/FilmMagic
Andrew Keeganwas never a cult leader — rather a man in touch with his spiritual side in his early 20s.
On Sunday’s episode ofPod Meets World, the10 Things I Hate About Youstar, 45, addressed long standing rumors that a spirituality group he founded was really a “cult.” In 2014, Keegan made headlines afterVice published an articleclaiming that he had started his own religion.
When Keegan moved to Venice Beach, California in his early 20s, the actor revealed he “got immersed in the culture and the community,” which was heavily based in spirituality.
“There was this interesting group of hippie types, if you will, in Venice. I’m sure if you went on the west side, there’s definitely a lot of spirituality,” he explained. “I was connected with some folks and we had this opportunity. This old Hare Krishna Temple, it was sitting there empty and we were like, ‘Why don’t we get some people together and let’s open this place up?'”
After repurposing the old temple, the group, who called themselves “Full Circle,” went on to participate in various protests like Occupy Wall Street in order to “do some positive things for the community."
“Looking back, it was insane," the7th Heavenstar continued. “I was putting down tens of thousands of dollars, but we opened it up and spent three years and really did build an amazing friend group. We went through something really significant from 2014 to 2017.”
Andrew Keegan.Albert L. Ortega/Getty
Albert L. Ortega/Getty
The news of their group soon became “click-bait central” and rumors began to fly after a reporter from Vice visited Full Circle and released an article titled, “One of the Stars of ’10 Things I Hate About You’ Started a Religion.”
OnPod Meets World, Keegan confessed he could have benefited from “a little bit more media training at the time.”
“They just really created a very interesting, colorful story and put it together,” he said. “We really just got together and did a Sunday thing. We did almost 1,000 events in three years and it was actually really hard. It was really beneficial to a lot of people, I still hear about it now, where people are like, ‘That was such a great time.'”
Contrary to the stories, Keegan claimed that Full Circle was “the opposite of what you would imagine” and the group had “no doctrine” but was about “just getting people together.”
He noted that the group operated out ofThe Co-Creator’s Handbook, a self-help book that encourages readers to find greater purpose in the world.
“For all intents and purposes, it was a really cool community center for a bunch of people in Venice for a few years,” he said.
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
iHeartRadio’sPod Meets Worldcan be streamed wherever you get your podcasts.
source: people.com
