Cult News

Yesterday five more children were pulled away by court order from a church called a “cult” in Jefferson, Ohio led by Charles Keyes, a man many see as an “evil” influence over his followers.

The horrific abuse reported about this small Ohio congregation has led to more than 20 children being removed, by fleeing parents, child protective services and now five more have been rescued by a judge in Virginia reported the Virginian-Pilot.

Katie Lane, a caseworker for the Ashtabula County Children Services Board specifically assigned to handle cases concerning the Keyes church told the court this week, “I don’t believe any children should be there.”

After hearing sworn testimony about the gross abuses within the group the Judge was shocked.

“Evil is the only word that comes to my mind,” he told an open courtroom from the bench.

Keyes essentially inherited the church called the “Apostolic Faith Church” from his father Oree Keyes, a man who held the title of Bishop amongst a small denomination of Pentecostal black churches in several states. But since taking over his father’s church Charles Keyes has been thrown out of that denomination and banned from its meetings.

Whoever once said, “there’s no business like show business” probably didn’t know about the “cult” business, with only a few devoted followers you can accumulate millions of dollars quite quickly (not to mention tax-exempt status).

Witness the financial success of former psychologist Peter Bowes and his sidekick Clare Watts, now known as the dynamic duo “Father Peter” and “Mother Clare.”

The pair, both formerly members of a purported California “cult” called the “Holy Order of Mans,” started up their very own religious organization the “Order of Christ Sophia” (OCS) also known as the “Centers of Light,” which has been called a “cult.”

Essentially OCS is a copy of the Mans group with one big difference, instead of Earl Blighton (deceased); a former electrician responsible for training and ordaining Bowes, it’s Bowes and Watts that run this group.

And Blighton’s “spiritual” progeny have apparently put together a similar scheme not much different from the now defunct Mans order, which accumulates assets and cash largely through group housing, labor, tithes and offerings.

OCS opens “houses” for its members who pay rent to the order and tithes. The group, which has been called a “cult,” has successfully set up such housing in Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New Haven, Seattle and Oakland.

Bowes and Watts have their own personal houses. Bowes keeps a private place in Oakland next to the “Order House” there and Watts has her digs near Seattle.

With less than 200 active members OCS has already accumulated millions of dollars in assets at a breathtaking pace.

Last year OCS bought a historical house in Milwaukee for $909,000 and this year they topped that by purchasing a retreat in Colorado for more than a million.

“Mother Clare” reportedly raised approximately $1,225,000 from her “parishioners” for the down payment.

Avatar Financial Group helped her out by providing transitional financing to the tune of $1,725,000.

The company reports, “The retreat and conference center sleeps 60 and seats 100+. There is a beautifully appointed 7-year old lodge and bunkhouse on 30 acres of inspiring Colorado landscape. The property is in excellent condition and both the Lodge and Bunkhouse are fully equipped to continue to be a turn-key event and retreat center.”

Wow! And to think that only a few short years ago before going full-time as a “Master Teacher” at OCS Peter Bowes surrendered his license as a clinical psychologist in Wisconsin, effectively ending that career choice after complaints were filed against him by former clients.

It just goes to show that there’s no business like “cult” business.

With less than 200 followers paying rent, doing remodeling work on OCS properties shelling out tithes, offerings and seminar fees Bowes and his associate Watts have built a spiritual empire worth millions.

The pair jets around the country ministering to their minions, though they manage to find some downtime to relax in Italy.

What a life!

However, for the families of many current OCS members the supposed “spiritual” teachings of this duo appear to be devastating.

Parents say they have been cut off from the children.

According to one estranged mother Bowes and Watts “use deception, mind control, hypnosis, all kinds of devious tactics to get you to follow them blindly.”

Whatever the pair practices though one thing is for sure, it has proven to be quite profitable.

Douglas Macarthur once observed, “old soldiers never die,” but perhaps the general might have also included old “cult leaders.”

Terri Hoffman now known as Terri Lilya Keanely, a notorious “spiritualist” who made headlines in the early 1990s, is still plying her trade even though she is pushing seventy.

Ms. Hoffman/Keanely became notorious because she allegedly committed “murder through mind control.”

No less than ten of the Dallas guru’s associates met with untimely deaths while under her influence.

Hoffman launched her career during the disco days of the 1970s and eventually founded a company called “Conscious Development of Body, Mind and Soul Inc.” in Dallas, Texas.

Terri’s devoted disciples wrote her big checks, one couple alone gave Hoffman more than a hundred thousand dollars.

However, the spiritualist eventually declared bankruptcy after a series of lawsuits and an ongoing criminal investigation supposedly exhausted her resources.

In 1993 Hoffman seemed to hit bottom when she was convicted on ten counts of bankruptcy fraud.

Never mind.

Flash forward to today and Terri Lilya Keanely has reinvented herself and is now a “visionary cloud artist” with a spiffy little Web site selling “angel photographs” featuring “a view into God’s kingdom, normally not seen by physical eyes.”

In her new bio, which not surprisingly neglects to mention Hoffman’s past woes, Terri touts herself as a “self-taught” jewelry, floral and clothing “designer,” not to mention an inspirational writer, speaker, consultant, counselor and seminar leader.

The Web site states, “Terri has had a series of classes for over 30 years…[teaching] methods…to grow and develop in consciousness.”

Hmmm, doesn’t this sound suspiciously like her old company “Conscious Development of Body, Mind and Soul Inc.” that went belly up more than a decade ago?

Terri also wants her Web site visitors to know that “a great deal of her work has been within the area of healing which encompasses many levels of energy.”

Is Hoffman/Keanely referring to the “healing” she performed on her ten dead former associates left in the wake of her previous failed business?

The guru’s latest technique for healing is “called Multi-Body Release therapy, which…involves removal of ‘stuck’ energies from the body.”

Does Ms. Hoffman/Keanely mean the removal of the soul from the body, which many believe, occurs upon death? This could relate to her claimed “view into God’s kingdom,” a place some of her past students have moved on to.

Maybe Terri is talking about simply separating people from some green “energies” they are “stuck” to, more often simply called money.

Hoffman/Keanely says she is also offering “financial (planning) workshops.”

Well there it is, old “cult” leaders never die and Terri Hoffman is a diehard.

Note: An old crony of Ms. Hoffman/Keanely and a fellow “healer” also appears to be something of a diehard in her devotion to the old guru. Ariana Mariah Geoffrey Stahlka who is doing “energy work” around Chicago names Keanely within the “Philosophy/Approach” of an interview as her source of learning and attributes the “healing technique developed by Terri” as a basis “for work on others.”

Update: Apparently Ms. Stahlka is not quite so devoted to her old friend and mentor Hoffman/Keanely. Since this article first appeared she has had deleted any reference to “Terri” from the previously cited interview. However, to see the reference to “Terri Lilya Keanely” as it appeared originally through the Internet archive Way Back Machine click here.

Stahlda said, “My answers started flooding in when I began to learn and apply the techniques Terri Lilya Keanely offers through A Balanced Path to Mastery and Enlightenment. I had a great deal of inner healing to do, and my desire for Spiritual Evolution and growth is ever growing. Application of these techniques, including meditation, has brought me closer to myself, closer to God and inspired me to help bring these possibilities to others. I have been teaching meditation and energy techniques and practicing Krashada, an energy healing technique developed by Terri for work on others for 15 years.”

An elderly man claims that the Legionaries of Christ, also known as Regnum Christi, “exerted undue influence” and “pressured” him to surrender both his home and large amounts of cash.

In a letter first published by CultNews John T. Walsh Jr. explains, “the fraudulent and unlawful practices utilized by the Legion of Christ in soliciting donations.”

In 2003 Mr. Walsh was 78 and recently widowed when he was influenced by Legionaries of Christ seminarians and a “fundraiser” to make large donations to the organization.

The widower says he was “pressured” and eventually “quitclaimed [his] home to the Legion.”

Walsh also describes a process of isolation that prevented him from seeking financial advice from family and friends. He was instead “represented by counsel hand-picked by the Legion.”

The 80-year-old also claims that the Legionaries made misrepresentations about his property taxes.

“I will, in the very near future, no longer have the means to support myself,” he says.

Controversy is nothing new for the Legionaries of Christ whose founder Father Marcial Maciel Degollado has been repeatedly charged with sexual abuse.

Just this month the Vatican officially announced its decision to reopen an investigation of the powerful Mexican priest’s conduct reported New York’s Journal News.

John T. Walsh Jr. has sent his letter regarding charges against the Legionaries for financial misconduct to every Catholic bishop in the United States.

Meanwhile one bishop last month has already barred the group from his diocese.

Before Christmas Archbishop Harry J. Flynn of St. Paul-Minneapolis told his flock that the Legionaries of Christ are “not to be active in any way in the archdiocese” reported Catholic News Service.

Bishop Fynn’s concern seems reasonable given John Walsh’s stated experience.

Mr. Walsh who was once secure and independent now faces financial uncertainty at the end of his life.

What the widower was led to believe was an act of faithful charity, can now be seen as the byproduct of “undue influence” by a specious organization engaged in questionable fund-raising practices.

The Legionaries of Christ has 600 priests and 2,500 seminarians worldwide. There are 75 priests from the group within the United States and its US headquarters is in Orange, Connecticut.

Today the Albany Times-Union reported about the last gasp of NXIVM’s injunction dreams to purge criticism of the group from the Internet.

Self-proclaimed “Prefect” nurse Nancy Salzman, top disciple of so-called “Vanguard” NXIVM creator Keith Raniere, released a prepared statement to the press.

“We’re obviously disappointed with the court’s decision, which we believe is a blow to the sanctity of copyright protection. We believe there are fundamental property rights issues at stake, and we intend to continue to pursue vigorously all possible causes of action against the defendants.”

“A blow to the sanctity of copyright protection”?

That’s not what the Second Circuit Court of Appeals said in Manhattan when it ruled.

“Defendants writings are undoubtedly transformative secondary uses intended as a form of criticism. All the alleged harm arises from the biting criticism of this fair use, not from a usurpation of the market by…defendants.’ Accordingly, we affirm the denial of the preliminary injunction on the copyright infringement claim because plaintiffs are not likely to succeed on the merits,” the court decision stated.

Interestingly, the court ruling also included a substantial smash against NXIVM’s effort to essentially gag its students through a confidentiality agreement. The court said that “even a finding of bad faith [i.e. violation of that agreement] by defendants would not automatically preclude that their use was fair use.”

And as the Albany Times-Union reported today NXIVM’s appeal to overturn that definitive ruling at the Supreme Court was answered with silence, allowing the previous court ruling to stand as definitive.

NXIVM’s “Prefect” says she will now “pursue vigorously all possible causes of action.”

But what cause is left in NXIVM’s crusade against public criticism?

A motion for summary judgement to dismiss the entire NXIVM lawsuit is now pending before the same Albany federal court that first rejected its injunction request.

The judge in Albany may find himself in agreement with his Manhattan judicial colleagues, who found that the controversial organization’s “causes of action” were “without merit.”

A rather interesting group called “The Gentle Wind Project” (GWP) of Maine is being investigated by a nonprofit agency in California.

The Special Investigative Agency (SIA) announced at its website today that it has been asked to investigate the 20-year-old New England group, which provides “healing cards” to the public for rather hefty suggested donations.

SIA stated that they were “contacted by nearly four dozen people from across the United States and the United Kingdom reporting that…the ‘Gentle Wind Project’…bilked many out of thousands of dollars.”

John and Mary “Moe” Miller founded GWP. The Miller group manufactures so-called “instruments” in the form of cards and pucks, which they claim have healing powers.

SIA reported that these claims “are not supported by any scientific evidence.”

Dr. Robert S. Baratz, President of the National Council Against Health Fraud told the San Diego Union Tribune late last year, “They find people who are desperate and ingratiate themselves to these people and then take advantage of them down the road.”

SIA reports, “Experts we have talked to state there would be no value whatsoever in these instruments.”

Whatever result users subjectively feel can be ascribed to a sense of “emotional well being, but that would have nothing to do with the instrument itself.” SIA stated.

The suggested donations for GWP “instruments” can range from “$450.00 to $7,600.00.”

According to GWP their instruments are based upon “high-frequency temporal shifting, matrixed with millions of pre-defined etheric modifications operating in a vertically and horizontally oriented polarization.”

Dr. Baratz called this “gobbledygook…high sounding phrases that mean nothing.”

But the Millers say that they manufacture their instruments based upon knowledge they have received through “telepathic impressions in the form of engineering blueprints” from “a place outside this Earth and its astral system.”

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have not evaluated GWP’s instruments.

GWP claims that 3 million people around the world have used its instruments and that there are 12,000 “instrument keepers” in the United States, hundreds reside in California.

SIA says that its preliminary investigation “reveals that there are serious financial improprieties within the ‘nonprofit’ organization of the Gentle Wind Project.”

“It is our opinion that the Gentle Wind Project has made and is currently making a lot of money to support the extravagant lifestyle of their board of directors. All of this—at the cost of unsuspecting victims,” And SIA reports that it is now “putting a case together to submit to the US Attorney’s Office for review.”

Note: GWP has sued former members and various websites, including the Ross Institute (RI), for either linking to and/or posting comments made by former members. RI and myself are defendants in this action for linking to critical comments about GWP and also for giving GWP a “Flaming Website” award after the group attacked me personally on its website.

The Albany Times-Union picked up the story about the tragic death of Kristin Snyder in a featured article today.

Snyder was an active participant in the controversial group NXIVM, which Forbes Magazine called a “Cult of Personality.”

“I do, indeed, feel that her involvement in ESP was a first-cause factor in her death. I do not believe that Kris wanted to kill herself. She cried out for help for almost a week, but was totally ignored,” her father told the upstate New York newspaper.

NXIVM leaders Keith Raniere and Nancy Salzman did not respond to repeated requests for an interview from the Albany Times-Union.

NXIVM attorney and supporter Arlen Olsen claimed he knew nothing about Snyder and refused to comment.

It was disclosed that Nancy Salzman, called “Prefect” by her NXIVM students, personally led Kristin Snyder’s first 16-day-intensive in Anchorage.

The 35-year-old self-employed environmental consultant would never complete her second “intensive” in Alaska and disappeared one year ago this coming week. She is presumed dead.

But Snyder paid NXIVM in full, $14,000.00 for her two courses reported the Albany Times-Union.

Kristin’s domestic partner Heidi Clifford also paid NXIVM $11,500.00 for her courses.

The couple spent $25,500.00 on NXIVM in a matter of months and accumulated $16,000.00 of indebtedness.

Clifford sought a partial refund for her partner’s never completed “intensive.”

NXIVM refused to return any money despite the tragedy.

Clifford subsequently found it necessary to sell the couple’s truck.

Meanwhile NXIVM told Forbes Magazine it earned millions that same year. And in 2003 it formed NXIVM Properties LLC, which purchased at least three properties near Albany, including one home for $175,000.00.

Two towns, Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah seem to be little more than fiefdoms within the domain of a polygamist sect called the “Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints” (FLDS).

FLDS is essentially like a totalitarian state ruled over by the Jeffs family. And in recent years the royal succession has passed from one Jeffs to another, who is apparently now involved in consolidating his kingdom.

Rulon Jeffs ruled over thousands of FLDS followers for decades, but he died in 2002, bequeathing the throne of his multi-million dollar domain to his son Warren Jeffs.

“King Warren” is now engaged in something of a purge, ejecting those of his subjects that he deems disloyal.

One such subject asked to “hit the road” was Dan Barlow, the former mayor of Colorado City reports the Salt Lake City Tribune.

Barlow promptly resigned as mayor after being essentially excommunicated by Jeffs, which should disabuse anyone of the notion that Colorado City was ever anything less than a theocracy, ultimately responsible to religious and not civil authority.

Many residents are fleeing the little FLDS fiefdom as a result of the internal power struggle and as usual they will rely upon the social service safety net provided by nonbelievers reports the Salt Lake City Tribune.

The sexual abuse and exploitation of minors as “child brides” within has been “dirty little secret” of Arizona and Utah.

But something that’s not so secret is that this thinly veiled theocracy is largely supported with taxpayer money. This is done through federal and state funding of schools, municipal improvements and social welfare programs.

In the current polygamist power struggle each faction claims its leader is the true “prophet” hearing from heaven and the other is only a false pretender reports the Desert News.

But regardless of who is supposedly hearing from whom, why should taxpayers keep picking up the tab for these polygamists?

John Gray wants everyone to know he can legally call himself “doctor.”

The relationship guru’s lawyer faxed CultNews a letter that says, “Dr. Gray received his Ph.D. from Columbia Pacific University (‘CPU’) in 1982. The school, though unaccredited, was then, and continued to be for the next 15 years, a State California –approved university.”

Of course within the lawyer’s carefully parsed language he doesn’t mention that in 1997 the California Attorney General closed CPU down and called it a “diploma mill” that issued “worthless” degrees.

This means that though Gray’s “Ph.D.” is essentially “worthless” and/or useless according to accreditation authorities such as World Education Services (WES) and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation it is permissible for him to call himself “doctor.”

But no accredited institution of higher learning would take such a Ph.D. seriously, nor does it allow Gray to become a state licensed mental health or marriage and family-counseling professional, which he is not.

Many professionals like to reminisce about their college days at “Ivy League” schools like Harvard, Yale and Princeton, but it’s doubtful that Mr. Gray will ever hold forth about his glory days at old CPU, an institution that featured so-called “long-distance learning.”

CultNews previously reported that Gray’s personal assistant Rosalinda Lynch stated that he attended “Maharishi University of Management in Iowa” (MUM), even though that school said he never attended.

Gray’s attorney wants everyone to know, “Ms. Lynch made a statement…apparently confusing MUM with MERU [Maharishi Research University of Switzerland]…she had not reviewed the matter with Dr. Gray in advance.”

Ms. Lynch seems willing to take responsibility for her mistakes.

But what about her boss?

In an effort to explain away John Gray’s professional membership in the American Counseling Association (ACA), which requires at least an accredited Masters degree, his lawyer offers that Gray “fulfills the requirements of a regular member.”

However, Gray is not a “regular member” of the ACA.

What’s next, will Ms. Lynch take responsibility for mistakes on Gray’s ACA application?

Mr. Gray’s attorney tacitly admits that Gray’s only college degrees, other than an honorary doctorate, come from unaccredited schools.

Nevertheless John Gray can technically and legally use the title of “Dr.”

However, other than a prefix to satisfy his ego, it doesn’t seem to be worth much of anything. And the people who buy books by “Dr. Gray” should know that.

Key people at the employment firm Taylor Hodson are long-time followers of a notorious “cult leader” named Sharon Gans.

Gans runs something called “the work,” a school that charges its students substantial monthly fees, which has afforded the former actress/”cult leader” a lavish lifestyle.

Company President Minerva Taylor, Vice President Janice Crosby, Director of Temp. Services Suzanne Griffin and Senior Account Executive Cyntia May are all long-time Gans students.

Some say Gans herself may be a “silent partner” at Taylor Hodson.

The notorious “cult leader” fled San Francisco in the 1970s amidst allegations of abuse. But she eventually made her new home Manhattan.

Gans primary residence is now within a luxury New York apartment building that includes celebrity residents such as Oscar-winning actress Marisa Tomei and fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi. Tomei is reportedly her next door neighbor.

In March of 2002 Gans and her group found themselves in the media spotlight.

Rosie O’Donnell went on the warpath after discovering that an Oscar-nominated documentary she donated her voiceover for was connected to a “homophobic cult” that also had historically excluded blacks.

The “cult” being scrutinized was none other than the Gans group.

The talk show host came out swinging when Gans was exposed as a “Gay basher.” O’Donnell urged Oscar voters to ban the documentary, which subsequently lost.

However, all the bad press did not deter the loyalty of Gans fans over at Taylor Hodson, who remained ever faithful to their controversial leader.

Some former members of “the work” say that getting work through Taylor Hodson might include at least some exposure to the teachings of Sharon Gans.

Gans has historically encouraged her followers to develop recruitment opportunities within their daily lives. And this type of subtle proselytizing has at times proven effective.

Is it possible that some of the executives over at Taylor Hodson do at least a little proselytizing part-time? And are some of the professionals recruited by the company perhaps recruited into just a little more than they signed up for?