Daniel Goldberg was born and raised in the neighborhood and knows Park Slope, Brooklyn inside out. He’s a practicing meditator and proud veteran of many spiritual and self-help communities, having visited Insight Meditation Society, Ganas, Cosm, Maharishi University, and Omega Institute. When he and Ittai Orr set about inventing the fictional world of Manifest Refuge, they both wanted to create a wryly humorous vision that would poke fun at some of the excesses of such “intentional communities”. But as darkly satirical and absurd as that vision is, it’s also imbued with a great deal of compassion for the characters. The Master Cleanse is, at its core, a story about a guy and a girl trying to define the limits of their feelings for one another. Where does deep, profound friendship overlap with love? Daniel and Ittai felt that the perversely idealistic world of Manifest Refuge was the perfect place to examine such questions in a funny and provocative way.