Cult News

By Bronte Baxter

What do stuffed dolls have to do with enlightenment?

Lots, if you’re into the cult of Amma, known also as Ammachi, Mata Amritanandamayi and “the hugging saint”

Amma’s devotees talk to dolls made in her image that are sold on Amma retreats. They tell the doll their problems, seek its comfort, and listen in their minds for its advice.

Amma calls the devotees her children, and clucks syllables like baby talk into their ears in her trademark ritual of lining people up, watching them kneel before her and then embracing them.

Amma tells them she is their mother and that she hears their prayers.

She says she’d no more charge them for her darshan (i.e. being in her presence) than a mother would charge an infant for breast milk.

Yet insiders have estimated Amma takes in more than three million dollars in a 7-week tour, through donations and sales of items like her toothbrush, fragments of a garment she has sat on, Amma dolls, Amma posters and books by devotees extolling her divinity.

Devotees believe Amma is a living incarnation of the being they consider the supreme God: Kali in Hindu religion, who is depicted in Indian art wearing a necklace of bloody human skulls and a girdle of severed arms, but who devotees see as a loving maternal figure.

Amma events consist of child-like lectures on Hindu doctrines, Amma blessing water which devotees then drink, hymn singing, worship ceremonies and of course her trademark hugs.

At some events, Amma wears a two-foot-high sparkling crown.

Amma marries people on stage, gives babies their first taste of solid food, tells couples to break up or to stay together and ordains some of the faithful to abandon their family and live as monks in her ashram.

Amma teaches that love is all we need, and it is her divine love that will save us.

In Seattle a couple of months ago Amma predicted a nuclear war and that no child younger than 5 will live to adulthood after the year 2012. After spreading fear and despair through such prophecies, she then announced that only meditation and self-effacing acts of charity can possibly mitigate this sentence for humanity.

“Meditation” means mantra/obeisance meditation to the divine mother. Self-effacing charity seems to essentially mean donations to her organization and service to her cause.

At public sessions, devotees chant hymns to Amma that grow in volume and frenetic intensity, gesticulating in unison with their arms in the shape of an arc, from their midsection up and out towards Amma, who sits on a dais in front of them. The words of their chant is “Aum Parashaktyai Namah,” which translates to “I bow down/ pay homage to the Supreme Mother of the Universe.” The arm gesture is body language for surrendering one’s soul to Kali in the form Amma, her supposed living embodiment.

I am one of the moderators at the Ex-Amma Forum, a place where people who’ve left the Amma organization come together to help each other heal from their ordeal. The group is open to ex-followers, questioning devotees, concerned family and friends of devotees and people simply seeking more information about Amma.

I became involved with the forum after I watched a close friend of mine grow farther and farther away from the person he once was, as he sank deeper into Amma’s hypnotic embrace.

On the forum there are read hundreds of first-person accounts of what many people have experienced with Amma, the side of her that no one seems to talk about.

Allegations have surfaced through email from Amma’s former joint-secretary claiming she cooks the books, that the money she gathers for charity doesn’t go to the charities she claims.

Some former monks talk about the unexplained wealth of Amma’s family. And also about how her charity hospitals won’t take the very poor because the poor don’t have money enough for treatment.

There are accounts of “suicides” and unexplained deaths amongst ashram devotees. It appears that so many dead bodies have turned up in the waters outside the ashram that The Indian Express, New Delhi’s daily newspaper, printed an account of local citizens demanding a police investigation.

Some accounts tell of organ selling and beatings.

There is a video of Amma performing a puja (worship ceremony) to a portrait of Sai Baba, the guru who purportedly gives penis massages to his favorite disciples.

A letter from one former Amma monk alleges that he was told by an Indian holy man not to share what he knows about Amma if he values his safety.

Amma’s website sells pujas performed on behalf of the paying devotee for $30 to $250.

There is also an explanation of what happens in Kali puja, which is performed “on Amma’s birthstar” as follows:

“The puja is offered to a lamp representing the Goddess¦ The puja starts with a worship of the Guru¦ The central aspect of the puja is the symbolic offering of the five elements of creation to God. Our body is composed from these five elements¦ The puja symbolizes the surrender of the devotee to God¦ Each element is represented by a material symbol, such as flowers, or fire¦ These are offered at the foot of the lighted lamp. The desire of the devotee to offer his or her surrender is effected by these symbolic offerings (emphasis added). During the entire puja the temple resonates with the continuous chanting of the holy names of Kali.”

Amma’s PR is impeccable.

She presents as “the hugging saint,” a portrait of sweetness and universal love, and the media promotes this image of her it seems without serious questioning.

There has never been an investigation into her movement, reports of dead bodies near the ashram, where all the money goes and/or what is really happening within the Amma hospitals and orphanages in India.

Amma’s Web site says, that In July, 2005, the United Nations awarded Amma with “Special U.N. Consultative Status.” She is reportedly one of 25 core leaders in the United Nations Parliament of World Religions. Amma’s Web site contains over a dozen pages extolling the humanitarian work of the U.N. One page compares the U.N.’s “Millennium Goals” with Amma’s goals, which are word-for-word identical (Click here to view both documents).

The ashram is among 30 Indian NGO’s to receive formal U.N. affiliation, according to Amma’s Web site. “This will provide opportunities for joint collaboration” between the U.N. and her organization, it goes on to state.

Amma’s Web site extols the U.N. for its advances toward global government as follows:

“The United Nations has been in the forefront of tackling problems as they take on an international dimension, providing the legal framework for regulating the use of the oceans, protecting the environment, regulating migrant labor, curbing drug trafficking and combating terrorism, to mention a few. This work continues today, with the United Nations providing input into the trend towards a greater centrality of international law in governing interaction across a wide spectrum of issues” (emphasis added).

What does all this mean?

Is Amma a would-be globalist, working with the U.N. to bring about its agenda?

What makes Amma both so successful and so sinister is the loving image she hides behind.

Why single out Amma among the dozens of gurus?

Because she is so popular, and so unquestioned.

Amma’s movement claims that the “saint” has hugged over 26-million people “ people who often return as devotees, worshipping her godhood and donating to her coffers.

But Amma’s brand of religion often appears more like returning to infancy.

She makes babies of grown men and women, giving them dolls to play with and telling them she is their new mother.

Amma talks about “the God within each of us,” but her actions teach something quite different.

By allowing people to pray to her, kneel before her and worship her as a God Incarnate Amma isn’t really encouraging people to recognize their own power and God within them, but rather God within her.

Amma’s disciples seem to draw their power from hugs, dolls, mantra obeisance and a kind of group euphoria through repeated retreats, rather than from the core of their own being.

They are apparently conditioned to believe that their inner self is less than the glorious entity before them.

Amma devotees are told, in fact, that their unique, individual personhood is nothing but a self-serving “ego” “ flawed, proud and devious, something to be destroyed before they can be truely happy.

Amma and other gurus often call such a change in consciousness “attaining enlightenment” or “liberation,” a state of “ego death,” where one functions less and less as an independent individual. 

But every time they bow down to Amma and “the gods” who work through her, the guru’s devotees shut the door tightly on the divinity within themselves.

It’s time for the public to know the other side of Amma and see through the fairy tales.

Note: Read more of Bronte Baxter’s reflections at her blog “Splinter in the Mind.“

Copyright © Bronte Baxter 2008

CultNews will consider any submitted article for possible publication. Email your submission to info@culteducation.com

The old adage “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts” may be useful to Tsunami survivors receiving attention from some specious sects and groups called “cults.”

Just like in the movie Troy something sinister and/or self-serving can be concealed in a “gift horse,” and it’s probably not Brad Pitt.

In recent days a growing array of controversial religious organizations, gurus and self-styled healers have launched efforts for Tsunami relief, but who are they really focused upon helping?

Do their programs reflect a genuine desire to assist the victims of the most horrific catastrophe of the 21st Century, or are they just there to play the disaster for publicity and possibly some new recruits?

South African Scientologists are using church branches as drop-off points for clothes and other goods targeted for relief reports IOL.

And Scientologists flying in from all over.

Scientology has sent volunteers from Australia to identify bodies reported the AAP.

English Scientologists and even a voluteer from Utah funded by an anonymous businessman are being flown in to somehow help reports Surrey On Line and the and the Salt Lake Tribune.

Scientology volunteers are known for their bright yellow jackets emblazoned with “Scientology Volunteer Ministers” worn when doing their charitable chores.

Scientology says that over 200 “volunteer ministers” are helping in tsunami-hit countries.

In a strange twist Scientology has trained Tibetan monks to help tsunami survivors through so-called “touch assists,” which seems to be Scientology’s version of the popular Pentecostal practice known as “laying on of hands” for healing. Scientology volunteers and the Buddhist monks using their method will touch survivors to help heal their trauma reports the AFP.

Another controversial group concerned about the trauma of tsunami survivors is the “Gentle Wind Project.” This organization is sending its so-called “trauma cards” to Sumatra, which supposedly have “the ability to forgive and [help users] move forward in life” according to one testimonial featured on the group’s Web site. But critics have dismissed the cards as “quackery” and a doctor warned that groups pushing such products often find “people who are desperate…and then take advantage of them.”

Madonna’s much-hyped “Kabbalah Centre” is shipping 10,000 bottles of its touted “Kabbalah Water,” which the pop diva seems to believe has spiritual properties reported MSNBC.

Wouldn’t regular bottled tap water be just as effective and much cheaper? But then that couldn’t afford a photo op with glitzy “Kabbalah Centre” labeling would it?

And then there is the so-called “Art of Living” organization led by a former associate of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi “Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.” He has dispatched his disciples to teach tsunami victims “yoga” and “meditation.”

Hey Sri Sri how about funding some conventional classrooms for children rather than pushing your “yoga”?

Another pitch comes from Guru Sri Chinmoy of New York. His followers are collecting for something called “The Oneness-Heart-Tears and Smiles” organization and say they are now “engaged in an urgent global effort to bring desperately needed relief to the survivors.”

But Chinmoy, who has been embroiled in sex scandals and called a “sleazy swami,” doesn’t seem to fit the “world harmony leader” title claimed at the group’s fund-raising Web site.

“Mata” the hugging mama guru has reportedly laid down some hard cash reported one news service.

But will she want a photo op hugging her check like “Summa Ching Hai” when she dropped some dough on the Red Cross for September 11th victims?

Meanwhile hate preacher Fred Phelps from Kansas wants everyone to know that he is “thankful” God killed Swedish citizens through this particular disaster, something about their collective sexual sins reported Raw Print.

Is that Fred smiling over there for the cameras with his “God Hates Fags” sign?

Who will land next with the next wave of volunteers?

Maybe some Falun Gongers will show up to teach exercise classes and pass out flyers, or will it be Sai baba the guru philanthropist and alleged pedophile?

Nothing new about such activities by specious groups after a disaster except the size and depth of this terrible tragedy.

Scientology volunteers were seen at Ground Zero not long after the Twin Towers collapsed. And John Travolta seemed anxious for his photo-op when he visited the site.

Then Tom Cruise launched the Scientology-linked “Downtown Medical,” located in lower Manhattan, which provided the so-called “purification rundown” for the detoxification of FDNY firemen and others that worked at Ground Zero.

People are the most vulnerable to undue influence and recruitment efforts by groups called “cults” when experiencing a personal crisis, loss and/or going through a difficult transition. When people are isolated from family, friends, their community and familiar support systems they are likely to be weakened and more susceptible.

Sound like Tsunami victims?

Meanwhile mainstream religious and relief organizations and government agencies are focused upon providing practical help to the massive numbers of survivors such as potable not magical water, medical care and the restoration of basic services through the rebuilding of infrastructure.

CNN reports that this is the largest humanitarian effort in recorded history.

Let’s hope that that these practical efforts reach the tsunami victims before any so-called “cults” exploit their vulnerabilities or use them as backdrops for some photo-op.

Chinmoy Kumar Ghose, called “Sri Chinmoy” by his devoted followers, has made something of a career through publicity stunts. His favorite appears to be phony power lifting that he uses to attract attention and feed his seemingly insatiable ego.

The latest newspaper to be sucked in by the guru’s antics is the New York Times.

In a long piece today titled “They’re Not Heavy; They’re His People,” NY Times reporter Cory Kilgannon gave the guru enough space to make him blush, perhaps for the sake of humor.

However, though the NY Times correctly reported that the guru’s group has been called a “brainwashing cult,” it gave much more attention to his self-serving public relations ploy than the people he hurt.

Readers were regaled with a long list of celebrities that Chinmoy has lifted in the past, which reportedly includes Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Muhammad Ali, Jesse Jackson, Eddie Murphy, Susan Sarandon, Roberta Flack, Yoko Ono, Sting, Richard Gere, Sid Caeser, 20 assorted Nobel laureates, sumo wrestlers and a headhunter from Borneo.

Actor Jeff Goldblum was the latest celeb slated for the 70-something guru to hold up for a photo op.

It all sounds like fodder for a good laugh. That is, unless you know the details of sexual abuse allegations that have spun around “Sleazy Sri” as reported by the New York Post.

Nothing was mentioned in the NY Times article about this.

According to former Chinmoy devotees the guru is not only posing as a celibate, he’s also is a bit kinky.

Chinmoy apparently likes to watch but not always weightlifting events.

He also reportedly has paid for at least one of his female follower/sex partners to have an abortion.

This is hardly the stuff of humor.

Much has been reported recently about the supposed growing relationship between the controversial Nation of Islam (NOI), which has been called a “cult” and Michael Jackson.

The former King of Pop, one-time Jehovah’s Witness and ex-husband of devout Scientologist Lisa Marie Presley, has now supposedly embraced Louis Farrakhan’s version of Islam reported the New York Post.

Since this story broke there have been further claims, counterclaims and repeated denials in news stories around the world, speculating about the pop icon’s religious status.

Leonard Muhammad, NOI chief of staff, was present during the exclusive Jackson CBS 60 Minutes interview with Ben Bradley taped on Christmas Day reported Fox News.

And there seems to be something of a power struggle between long-time loyalists within Neverland and NOI operatives for influence over the middle aged, self-styled Peter Pan reported Associated Press.

NOI has repeatedly denied it has any professional or business relationship with Jackson, though his attorney now refuses to deny the singer has ties to the sect.

Lawyer Mark Geragos has flip-flopped back and forth, first denying and now refusing to deny claims that the controversial group has growing influence over his client.

Some sources say NOI is “brainwashing” Jackson reports The Daily Telegraph.

But who is using whom?

Despite his attempt to feign child-like innocence Michael Jackson is an adroit self-serving spin-doctor, known for generating sensational stories to garner attention. He also collects high profile and/or celebrity friends that later become his convenient apologists.

Is the singer really mad for the Black Muslim sect, or is this just another ploy staged to politically position him for pre-trial publicity?

No doubt Louis Farrakhan is enjoying all the news coverage and may even want some of Jackson’s cash, which is reportedly still substantial despite his spendthrift ways and bad business decisions.

Farrakhan has forged some unlikely, but seemingly lucrative friendships lately, including Rev. Moon of the Unification Church as CultNews reported not long ago.

But is there a hidden agenda for the former King of Pop beyond his coming trial?

Maybe this pragmatic Pan is looking for long-term protection?

Jackson is admittedly using Farrakhan and his faithful currently for security. But if he is convicted and sentenced to hard time NOI has a formidable presence in the American prison system. And they can continue to provide protection behind the walls of whatever California correctional facility houses the fallen star.

Not bad for an end game, NOI may figuratively if not literally cover Jackson’s ass as his “rear guard.”

CultNews reported last month that there was little chance a “brainwashing” defense would work to acquit “D.C. sniper” Lee Malvo.

A jury found Malvo guilty of murder after 13 hours of deliberation yesterday reported CNN.

Now the teenager faces the sentencing phase of his judicial journey.

The sister of one victim called the verdict a “Christmas present,” others who lost loved ones to the so-called “D.C. sniper’s” bullets expressed emotions ranging from joy to relief reported the Baltimore Sun.

But will 18-year-old Lee Malvo be sentenced to death?

“When you catch someone with blood on his hands, don’t waste our time. Get a rope,” said the mother of one of the boy’s victims.

“I want him to get life in prison where he can receive counseling…God says to forgive,” offered the husband of another one of the teenager’s fatal targets.

Many believe Malvo became the puppet of his mentor John Muhammad. A man who witnesses described as a powerful influence over the boy, with a history of dominating and controlling those around him.

Was the control Muhammad held over Malvo cult-like “brainwashing” in its depth and intensity? Experts varied in their opinions, but in the end there seems to be little doubt that the older man was the impetus behind the murder spree.

But regardless of what malevolent influence convinced Malvo to pull the trigger, he did do it. And though God may forgive him, the jury did not offer absolution.

Will the issue of undue influence ameliorate his final punishment?

Malvo’s mentor Muhammad has already been condemned to death. The teenager’s lawyers now hope that the testimony concerning the older man’s control over his protégé will mitigate the boy’s sentencing.

However, Malvo may instead follow in the footsteps of Manson Family members, who despite being “brainwashed” by their leader Charles Manson, were sentenced to death for the grizzly murders they committed.

Only the temporary cessation of the death penalty in California saved them from execution.

If Malvo is sentenced to death he will be youngest prisoner on death row in the US reported the Times Dispatch.

“Statistically, a failed insanity defense usually results in a death sentence,” one defense attorney told Associated Press.

However, that same lawyer speculated that because of the jury’s relatively lengthy deliberation Malvo might receive a life sentence.

But the “D.C. snipers” executed ten people in their murder spree without mercy.

History may repeat itself, and like the followers of Charles Manson, the follower of John Muhammad may receive the ultimate punishment.

Lee Boyd Malvo, the teenager known as the D.C. sniper is now on trial for murder.

At 17 he and his mentor/father figure John Muhammad went on a killing spree that left ten dead in its wake and terrified a nation.

Now 18 Malvo is literally fighting for his own life in a Virginia courtroom. His attorney’s hope that an “insanity” defense based upon a “brainwashing” claim will explain the boy killer’s behavior and somehow ameliorate the outcome of the trial.

John Allen Muhammad the man that allegedly “brainwashed” Malvo has already been convicted and is almost certain to receive the death penalty. If his surrogate son and accomplice is found guilty, it is likely that he will receive the same sentence.

Opinions in the press vary, but some are calling the “insanity defense” in this case “crazy” reports Slate.

And the Washington Post points out those witnesses, who observed Muhammad and Malvo together, differ in their assessment of the relationship.

Some see Muhammad as a controlling and dominant figure that molded the boy into a “killing machine.”

Others say the two appeared more like friends, without readily seen evidence of a dominant/submissive relationship.

Malvo’s taped confession is chilling. The teenager admits, “I intended to kill them all.” And when asked if he personally pulled the trigger in the shootings the boy answers, “In all of them” reports Associated Press.

With such testimony, not to mention the physical evidence piled up by the prosecution, Malvo really has no other meaningful option than to plead insanity.

But was the boy “brainwashed” by John Muhammad or is this some clever lawyer’s contrived defense?

The “brainwashing” defense did not work for Patty Hearst, who was kidnapped by a political cult in the 1970s.

Hearst an heir to a newspaper fortune was coerced into becoming the pawn of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), but was nevertheless ultimately convicted of bank robbery and sentenced to prison.

President Jimmy Carter later commuted her sentence and Bill Clinton pardoned Hearst before leaving the White House.

Public awareness regarding “brainwashing” has evolved considerably since the Manson murders in 1969 and Patty Hearst’s conviction during 1976.

The Jonestown mass suicide/murder of 1978, which claimed the lives of almost 1,000 followers of cult leader Jim Jones in the jungles of South America, shocked the public and created an acute awareness of the power of coercive persuasion.

The image of parents giving their children cyanide was certainly compelling proof of the power of Jim Jones’ brainwashing.

After Jonestown Americans suddenly seemed to see the destructive cults that existed throughout the country and began to more readily recognize their methods of gaining undue influence. In repeated news stories cult “brainwashing” was discussed during the 1980s and 1990s.

Then came Waco in 1993, the second longest standoff in US history, between the cult known as the Branch Davidians and federal law enforcement. The end would once again be tragedy, when David Koresh and his followers chose death for themselves and their children.

In a succession of similar tragedies one cult after another would demonstrate the effectiveness of its own brand of brainwashing.

1994 the Solar Temple suicide in Switzerland.

1995 — the Aum gas attack of Tokyo subways that killed 12.

1997 — 39 members of “Heaven’s Gate” commit suicide near San Diego.

2000 — the horrific mass murder/suicide of the doomsday group known as the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments in Uganda, which may have claimed more lives than Jonestown.

9-11-2001 — the senseless murder of 3,000 people in the World Trade Center attack, once again perpetrated by the seemingly “brainwashed” followers of a madman, Osama bin Laden.

Self-proclaimed “prophet” Brian Mitchell was able to brainwash Elizabeth Smart from a dutiful family member into his seemingly willing follower in approximately 60 days. Smart subsequently denied her identity to police and did not attempt to escape the lunatic that abducted her at knifepoint.

Muhammad apparently controlled Malvo’s associations, environment and dominated his thinking in a nomadic lifestyle similar to the one Mitchell constructed around Elizabeth Smart.

How have madmen from Manson to Mitchell persuaded normal people to act insane?

The process of thought reform, commonly called “brainwashing” has probably been used in various forms throughout human history. Its mechanics have been explained in detail by psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton in his seminal book Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism.

Lifton, who once taught at Harvard Medical School, identified the features of “brainwashing” through eight specific criteria; Milieu Control, Mystical Manipulation, the Demand for Purity, the Cult of Confession, the Sacred Science, Loading the Language, Doctrine over Person and the Dispensing of Existence (see Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism).

Essentially what Lifton observed is that if an environment displays at least six of these characteristics simultaneously, it doesn’t matter what you call it, it is thought reform or “brainwashing.”

But can this work when only two people are involved?

The phenomenon of an abused spouse, often caught within what has been called a “cultic relationship,” also displays many of the same features described by Lifton. Experts have frequently labeled this the “battered woman’s syndrome.”

Was Malvo caught within the web of a “cultic relationship”?

Based upon some of the accounts that have surfaced from his family and witnesses he may have been.

But unlike Patty Hearst, who was eventually pardoned for her brainwashed behavior, Malvo’s deeds under the influence of his leader have included murder.

Perhaps the teenager was a victim of John Muhammad, but what about the victims of their rampage?

Ten people died as a direct result of Malvo’s “insanity,” and even though Muhammad may have been the master-planner of this killing spree, his puppet still pulled the trigger.

Society seems willing to forgive the misdeeds of “brainwashing” victims, but such forgiveness is far less likely if they have committed violent crimes.

The followers of Charles Manson murdered for him. Manson was later convicted like Muhammad, through a prosecution largely based upon undue influence. However, his followers were also convicted and sentenced to death.

Later the death sentences of the Manson Family were changed to life in prison. But despite their impassioned pleas that they were essentially “brainwashed,” Manson’s former followers such as Susan Atkins and Leslie Van Houten have repeatedly been denied parole.

As the Virginia jury weighs its verdict they are more likely to consider those caught within the sniper’s sights than the boy captured within the web of a madman’s undue influence.

Malvo’s only hope may come after his conviction, when his alleged “insanity” might mitigate sentencing.

At that point the claim of “brainwashing” might provide the basis for a sentence of life in prison, rather than the death penalty.

Evidence of increasing ties between Nation of Islam (NOI) leader Minister Lois Farrakhan and Rev. Moon of the Unification Church can be seen in an issue of the NOI Final Call newsletter this month.

Final Call contributor Mother Tynnetta Muhammad writes about her “series of articles with the Reverend and Mrs. Sun Myung Moon and the leadership of the Unification Church, and [her] recent visit to Korea and Mongolia.”

In her published contribution this month Mother Muhammad acknowledges “those individuals who have worked silently in the background to establish another [Korean] link to the Nation of Islam as manufacturers of products designed for the Exodus Program.”

The “Exodus Program” seems to be a Moon-inspired business venture and new funding source for Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam.

Mother Muhammad’s series of articles lauding the Unification Church and Rev. Moon can be seen on-line at the Final Call archive.

It looks like Moon has become a meaningful source of cash for Farrakhan.

“Tama-chan the “little seal with a lousy sense of direction” became a TV star in Japan. A whole series titled “The World According to Tama-chan,” chronicled the life of this ocean orphan lost in the Tama River.

The adorable mammal became a “national sweetheart” as his exploits were watched in a series of episodes on Japanese national television. He even had a fan club, reports Daily Yomiuri.

But by Episode 4, Tama-chan had some trouble from strange new fans that wanted to “rescue” him. And that “fan club” is now known as the “cult” called Pana Wave.

“Cult leader” Yuko Chino and her devoted cohorts tried to kidnap little Tama-chan. Later she would claim that the seal’s “rescue” would somehow “save humanity.”

But perhaps all Chino really had in mind was moving into the limelight generated by darling seal, rather than rescuing either Tama-chan or the human race.

Eventually the media dug a little too deep and made Chino unhappy. She then had her followers chase them off with a bulldozer.

So is Yuko Chino a dangerous doomsday cult leader, or a manipulative media hound?

Maybe she is both rolled up into one odd combination?

It wasn’t that long ago that another “cult” known as the “Raelians” burst into prime time, claiming they had produced the “first human clone.”

However, all they really ever produced was an orchestrated media blitz.

Perhaps then Chino’s fascination with Tama-chan is telling. It does seem to mirror a Raelian-like publicity stunt.

Raelian leader Claude Vorilhon (“Rael”) seems to feed his voracious ego on such self-indulgent fare. Is Chino cut from the same cloth? They are both “cult leaders,” do they have more in common?

Everything has now seemingly come around full circle. Yuko Chino and Pana Wave are now the stars of their very own media series, seen through daily news coverage.

If the cult leader craved attention, she has certainly fulfilled her dream.

But it may turn out that the odd woman in the white van, will once again not like her close up.

Long-time “cult apologist” James Lewis has produced another book defending destructive cults.

But a review dismissed his work as “inflammatory” with “generalizations, and simplistic explanations,” reports YellowBrix.com.

For example, Lewis claims that those who criticize cults are “applying the cult stereotype to every religious group that strikes one as strange or different.”

Cult apologists he says are actually “defenders of the rights of minority religions.”

Following what seems to have become a Lewis standard regarding research, much of the material within the book “has been vetted by the groups themselves,” reports the reviewer.

An interesting example of Lewis acting as one of the “defenders of the rights of minority religions” took place in 1995.

The apologist flew to Japan as one of the “defenders” of the now infamous cult Aum. He claimed that the group was a victim of “persecution.”

Lewis was accompanied by two other well known “defenders of…minority religions,” Gordon Melton and James Fisher. And the trio’s travel expenses were paid for completely by the cult.

After spending only days in Japan Lewis quickly concluded that Aum could not have produced the poison gas used in the Tokyo subway attack, which sent thousands to hospitals and killed 12.

He came to this startling conclusion by examining material provided to him by Aum leaders. No doubt that material “had been vetted” first by Aum.

This essentially typifies the quality of “scholarship” and/or “research,” which has become a Lewis standard.

Needless to say the apologist’s conclusions regarding Aum have been proven totally false.

Overwhelming evidence has substantiated without question, that not only did Aum produce the poison gas used for the subway attack, the cult was also working on an array of other weapons of mass destruction.

Numerous criminal convictions of Aum members have since taken place.

Lewis, rather than representing objective scholarship, seems to be more of an academic cult collaborator, who produces opinions largely subject to a sponsor’s approval.

He has also worked closely with the Church of Scientology, which has recommended him as a “religious resource.”

Long-time “cult apologist” James Lewis has produced another book defending destructive cults.

But a review dismissed his work as “inflammatory” with “generalizations, and simplistic explanations,” reports YellowBrix.com.

For example, Lewis claims that those who criticize cults are “applying the cult stereotype to every religious group that strikes one as strange or different.”

Cult apologists he says are actually “defenders of the rights of minority religions.”

Following what seems to have become a Lewis standard regarding research, much of the material within the book “has been vetted by the groups themselves,” reports the reviewer.

An interesting example of Lewis acting as one of the “defenders of the rights of minority religions” took place in 1995.

The apologist flew to Japan as one of the “defenders” of the now infamous cult Aum. He claimed that the group was a victims of “persecution.”

Lewis was accompanied by two other well known “defenders of…minority religions,” Gordon Melton and James Fisher. And the trio’s travel expenses were paid for completely by the cult.

After spending only days in Japan Lewis quickly concluded that Aum could not have produced the poison gas used in the Tokyo subway attack, which sent thousands to hospitals and killed 12.

He came to this startling conclusion by examining material provided to him by Aum leaders. No doubt that material “had been vetted” first by Aum.

This essentially typifies the quality of “scholarship” and/or “research,” which has become a Lewis standard.

Needless to say the apologist’s conclusions regarding Aum have been proven totally false.

Overwhelming evidence has substantiated without question, that not only did Aum produce the poison gas used for the subway attack, the cult was also working on an array of other weapons of mass destruction.

Numerous criminal convictions of Aum members have since taken place.

Lewis, rather than representing objective scholarship, seems to be more of an academic cult collaborator, who produces opinions largely subject to a sponsor’s approval.

He has also worked closely with the Church of Scientology, which has recommended him as a “religious resource.”