Cult News

Have you ever been bothered by unwanted visitors at your door trying to sell you on their religion?

Probably the most familiar and persistent door-to-door proselytizers are “Jehovah’s Witnesses,” a sect seemingly historically obsessed with “doom and gloom.”

Witnesses have an apparent fascination some might observe fixation with “The End,” as demonstrated by their repeated efforts to determine its date.

But after a few failed predictions they have conveniently decided that the end date for the world is actually “fluid.”

Witnesses still have an array of nifty handouts though like their preeminent “Watchtower,” which has depicted the eventual disaster that will consume the earth in graphic and horrific detail.

Who will be destroyed?

Well it seems, anyone that disagrees with their dogma.

According to a survey taken by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life Jehovah’s Witnesses are the least tolerant and most closed minded religious group in the United States.

Witnesses ranked number one, with more than a 20 point lead over Mormons, as the religious group least likely to tolerate another point of view.

Only 16% of Witnesses responded positively when asked if it was possible that “many religions can lead to eternal life.”

Mormons came in second at 39 percent.

And only 18% of Witnesses could even imagine the possibility of any other way to interpret their teachings, other than the official explanation, as provided by their “Watchtower Bible and Tract Society.”

Mormons allowed for considerably more wiggle room, fully 43% responded that Mormon scriptures might be subject to interpretation.

This means that the most likely religious salesman to appear at your door, is the least likely to be tolerant of whatever religious beliefs you might express contrary to their own.

So the next time Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormon missionaries knock on your door, maybe you shouldn’t allow them to play too easily upon your sense of tolerance and fairness.

Just tell them you read the Pew survey and that they didn’t come off too well in these categories.

And here are couple of helpful hints about how to handle such unwanted proselytizing.

With Witnesses it’s always good to have a copy of the book “Crisis of Conscience” by Raymond Franz around.

Franz was once a member of the Witnesses’ revered “Governing Body,” which is its highest authority and his book divulges some embarrassing insider secrets about the process for determining dogma within the organization.

Turn down the corners on your favorite pages so that you can quickly find them to read to Witnesses wandering through your neighborhood. This is a virtual lock that they won’t linger long, at least not on your doorstep.

For Mormon missionaries keeping copies of letters nearby from the Smithsonian Institute and National Geographic Society for easy reference concerning the “Book of Mormon” is a safe bet.

Tell the LDS lads that you will be happy to hear them out, but only after they can substantiate with objectively verifiable historical evidence that the peoples mentioned within their scriptures actually ever existed.

Needless to say both Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons may label such a response “narrow mindedness” or even call it “religious persecution,” but then you can bring up the Pew survey again.

After all, who came in last on those issues?

Note: The groups that reflected the most tolerance by the largest majorities allowing for another religious point of view are Hindus 89%, Buddhists 86%, Mainline churches 83%, Jews 82%, Catholics 79% and Orthodox Christians 72%.

Yisrayl “Buffalo Bill” Hawkins, self-styled prophet and religious entrepreneur runs an operation called the “House of Yahweh” (HOY) near Abilene, Texas.

Recently featured in a segment on ABC 20/20 and interviewed on CNN Nancy Grace, Hawkins held forth on the fate of the world, predicting with alleged Godly authority that June 12th was the beginning of “The End.”

That’s right, yesterday was supposedly a day of reckoning when a “nuclear baby” would be born and explode somewhere in the Middle East ushering in the “End of Time.”

But Hawkins (see photo above), who has a long history of failed predictions, bombed again.

The would-be prophet’s last doomsday date was set for September 12, 2006.

According to the bible prophets are only allowed one mistake, after that it’s time for stoning.

So how is it that a loser like Hawkins still has a following, which rather than throwing rocks, showers him with praise and money?

Diehard HOY members seem determined to stay with this guy no matter what happens.

Last year CultNews (Rick Ross) hosted a special for the A&E Network titled “Mind Control,” which included a hidden camera conversation with one of HOY’s top leaders.

Hawkins’ lieutenant insisted that a failed prophecy doesn’t really make a difference, it’s the intent that matters.

That is, if Hawkins is faithfully delivering the message God told him everything is OK, even if God somehow later decides to change His mind and let the world last a little longer.

So if Hawkins is wrong it’s God’s fault?

Who said that political campaigns were the only camps with spin machines, it appears modern-day prophets need spin too.

It was at this point that CultNews wondered just a bit cynically if old “Buffalo Bill” was playing his people for money.

After all, HOY has made the purported “cult leader” a multi-millionaire.

Hawkins controls a religious empire, largely accumulated real estate holdings, worth millions of dollars.

In fact, the 73-year old who started HOY more than twenty years ago seems more like a salesman than a soothsayer.

HOY is a burgeoning business that includes publishing, DVD and CD production, a cable show, ticket sales for feasts and festivals and even a grocery store.

Hawkins is also a landlord collecting rents from many of his followers.

John the Baptist may have wandered the desert destitute, but Mr. Hawkins has learned how prophets can turn a profit.

Part of his prophetic pitch includes selling his compound as a safe haven that “Yahweh” (God) wants the faithful to migrate to before “The Last Days.” And so they come to become Hawkins’ tenants and virtually his captive consumers (see compound photo right).

Hawkins teaches that the outside world is contaminated, which includes its suspect food supply.

So the faithful buy HOY approved products at Buffalo Bill’s grocery store.

Did Jeremiah have a business plan?

It seems like everything at HOY has a price tag, not to mention frequent tithing.

That’s probably why Yisrayl Hawkins won’t be shedding his prophetic mantle any time soon.

After all, predicting the “The End” has worked out well for him.

The only fly in Hawkins’ proverbial anointing oil may be a few legal problems.

The HOY leader was busted for promoting bigamy and child labor violations.

His trial is set for September 15th, that’s if the world doesn’t end first.

New York Times editors and researchers have selected a fugitive sex offender as an official resource about polygamists.

Anton Hein, a former U.S. resident and registered sex offender with an outstanding warrant issued for his immediate arrest regarding a parole violation, runs a Web site called “Religion News Blog.”

Hein recently announced that his site “has been selected (see listings under “Warren Jeffs Navigator”) as a resource by researchers and editors of the New York Times (selection by NY Times has been pulled since this report appeared on-line).

Sure enough a hyper link at Hein’s blog takes visitors to a page about polygamists within the New York Times proclaiming his site at the top of its “list of resources about Warren Jeffs as selected by researchers and editors of The New York Times.”

Isn’t it just a bit ironic though that the man (see photo) supplying news about polygamists who allegedly have sexually abused minor girls plead guilty himself to the charge of a “lewd act upon a child” in 1994? Hein then served jail time, but was eventually released to serve probation.

However, after completing his jail sentence in the U.S. Hein soon left the country heading home for Holland.

Subsequently, California authorities issued a felony warrant (see Anton Willem Hein) in 1996, which remains outstanding for his immediate arrest without bail.

Hein has admitted that he will “never again be able to enter the USA.”

Didn’t the editors of the The New York Times and its researchers, research this information?

Not unlike some of the more notorious polygamists recently in the press, Hein sexually abused his niece, who was at the time 13-years-old.

Hein also claims he is religious and says he operates an “independent, personal ministry.”

However, CultNews could not find any official recognition of Hein as a “minister,” other than his name listed as one of the “various ministers” that have “sexually abused children” at Reformation.com.

Today Hein largely seems to target Americans through his for-profit Web site Apologetics Index, which is in English. Mr. Hein solicits gifts, which he prefers to call “donations.”

Again, much like the polygamists in Texas, Mr. Hein rails against what he perceives as the injustice of American law enforcement.

He says, “anyone who researches the U.S. justice system…knows the system’s shortcomings, and anyone who finds him or herself in a situation similar to mine will understand.”

Understand?

Hein is a registered sex offender in the State of California. His offense is described at that state’s official Web site as “lewd or lascivious acts with child under 14 years.”

But like some polygamists Mr. Hein refuses to acknowledge that he is a sex offender. Instead, he prefers to bash the country that he relies upon for an income.

Hein has devoted an entire subsection within his Web site to what he calls “America’s…human rights violations” and “faulty ‘justice’ system.”

Nevertheless he wants to sell advertising to Americans and collect ad revenue from American companies like Amazon.com and Google.

Kind of like the polygamists that have often damned the “system” outside of their communities, while collecting welfare and food stamps.

Can it be there is some sort of strange logic as to why the New York Times editors selected Anton Hein as a source for information about polygamists?

Does the New York Times feel that since Hein has so much in common with the polygamists he can provide a unique perspective?

Note: Since this report was filed the New York Times has apparently reconsidered recommending Anton Hein as a news source about polygamists. CultNews can’t find any links at the NY Times Web site to Hein. If any readers see something new pop up please let CultNews know.

For some time Oprah Winfrey has been drifting further and further out to the fringes of “New Age” philosophy, which is strewn with “self-help” claims. And her fans have faithfully followed the star without much meaningful critical thinking, somewhat like cult members enamored with a self-styled messianic leader.

Oprah’s ongoing spiritual odyssey last year included a revelation called “The Secret” (see YouTube clip), a DVD concocted by Rhonda Byrne, a former Australian television and film producer.

Ms. Byrne’s supposed spiritual breakthrough consisted of little more than a synthesis of existing “positive thinking” theories based largely upon what is called the “law of attraction,” essentially you get what you want if you wish hard enough for it.

Skeptic Magazine reporter Michael Shermer labeled Byrne’s bromides “incredibly materialistic and narcissistic…magical thinking…”

But there is a rather dark flip side to the “law of attraction” through its apparent indictment of those that somehow are blamed for attracting negative things.

John Norcross, a psychologist and professor at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania who researches self-help books stated within a news report, “So that would mean that if you’re poor, you have somehow earned it by your thinking, If you’ve been sexually abused, you’d be surprised to hear that someway, you’re responsible for that…Cancer victims. Sexual assault victims. Holocaust victims. They’re responsible? The book is riddled with these destructive falsehoods,” Norcross concluded.

Nevertheless many of Oprah’s rapt devotees were ready to believe whatever “secret” she had to share, after all, who better than a billionaire talk-show host to lead them into the “promised land.”

For decades Winfrey has cultivated a cult following. And millions of Oprah fans appear willing to do whatever Winfrey wants, whether it’s buy a book or a DVD.

But this year has Oprah Winfrey “jumped the shark“?

Now she is enrolling her TV following to receive enlightenment.

That’s right, USA Today reports that more than 700,000 Oprah fans have recently signed up for a 10-week Web seminar with their talk show sage and her latest guru Eckhart Tolle, author of A New Earth, yet another self-help book recommended by Oprah’s Book Club.

However, this guru’s bio is just a bit strange.

After a somewhat sketchy foray into academia and years of severe depression, Tolle (photo left) on his 29th birthday, found himself in the midst of suicidal despair. He has said, “I couldn’t live with myself any longer” and Tolle “felt drawn into a void.” It was at this juncture that his “mind-made self, with its heaviness, its problems, that lives between the unsatisfying past and fearful future, collapsed.”

Then suddenly “the next morning ” when Tolle woke up “everything was so peaceful” and he had “no explanation for this.”

Some might observe that the young Tolle snapped and had something like a nervous breakdown, but according to Oprah’s latest revelation, this is when her guru became “enlightened” (see Tolle interview)

To see how strange Tolle can be watch this YouTube clip.

Eckhart Tolle’s version of enlightenment includes a belief in what he calls “painbodies.”

Tolle’s painbodies appear similar to what Scientologists call “Body Thetans” (BTs), a pesky, negative and nasty thing that should be shed as soon as possible.

Oprah Winfrey apparently has bought into this “magical thinking.”

Has she been hanging out too much with Madonna and Tom Cruise?

But it just isn’t enough for Winfrey to simply embrace such beliefs herself, she wants to proselytize and convert her television audience.

Are we witnessing the beginning of the Oprah Winfrey cult?

Hundreds of thousands of diehard Oprah fans that not only adore the star, but are willing to embrace whatever belief system she preaches and praises through her television talk-show pulpit?

It seems like that old Oprah, which audiences often identified with, is slipping away and a new identity is emerging.

Oprah may be shedding the cocoon of simple celebrity stardom to evolve into and come forth as something else–a kind of tranformational guru and televangelist.

Stay tuned, but don’t “drink the kool-aid.”

Note: CultNews (Rick Ross) has been a guest on the “Oprah Winfrey Show” twice (1989, 1992). And the old Oprah coffee mug still sits up on the shelf.

A purported “cult” based near Albany, New York, seems to have moved from primarily targeting business executives to the potential recruitment of college students, attending singing events.

NXIVM, a corporation that sells workshops also known as “Executive Success Programs” (ESP), is linked to entertainment events for A capella college singing groups. One was staged during December and another event is planned for next month (April 4-6 in) in Albany.

There are reportedly 15,000 A capella singing groups at colleges across the country.

NXIVM/ESP devotees are called “Espians,” and they are led by failed multi-level marketing guru Keith Raniere (photo left), whose followers call him “Vanguard.”

It appears that college students, a traditional target for groups called “cults,” may have become the latest focus for NXIVM.

In a paid advertisement run by the Albany Times-Union made to look like a news report Raniere proclaimed, “The event [was] intended to get people out to support these college students and share in their joy for producing music.” He added that the audience would be “uplifted by the art and really experience an inspired closeness towards fellow humans.”

However, a suspicious and much older A capella group called “Simply Human,” which is not composed of college kids and reports that Keith Raniere is one of its “musical directors,” “hosted and created” the event, according to CASA (Contemporary A Capella Society).

A Capella Innovations,” the orgnaization behind the December event, which took place at a large and popular venue The Albany Egg, also seems to be linked to NXIVM. The orgnaization says its purpose is to “promote innovation, evolution and unity in the A Cappella community.”

Long-time NXIVM supporter Clare Bronfman, daughter of billionaire Seagrams heir Edgar Bronfman Sr., was the December event’s producer. And Ms. Bronfman’s brother, Edgar Bronfman Jr. head of Warner Music Group, flew in to judge participating college singing groups.

Interestingly, Edgar Bronfman Sr. once told Forbes Magazine that his daughter was involved in a “cult.”

The Forbes article titled “Cult of Personality” reported, “people see a darker and more manipulative side to Keith Raniere. Detractors say he runs a cult-like program aimed at breaking down his subjects psychologically, separating them from their families and inducting them into a bizarre world of messianic pretensions, idiosyncratic language and ritualistic practices.”

Popular acts were booked at the December Albany event deliberately designed to attract a young audience, such as the House Jacks, Denise Reis and The Fault Line. College a capella groups that reportedly performed included UMass Dynamics, MIT Resonance, Brandeis Voicemale, Binghamton Crosbys, RW Vocal Infusion, BU in AChord, UMass Doo Wop Shop, U Maine Bear Vocals, UVM Hit Pause, Clarkson Golden Knotes and Smith Vibes.ednnovations Conference

The young audience’s interest was probably also piqued by the featured attendance of TV actresses Kristin Kreuk and Allison Mack, from the Warner Brothers series Smallville, who acted as “Masters of Ceremonies.”

CultNews previously reported that Kristin Kreuk (photo right), who plays Lana Lang on Smallville, has been involved in NXIVM.

Apparently Ms. Kreuk’s involvement, which seemed to begin around June 2006, has continued unabated.

Clips of Kreuk hosting the event can be seen on YouTube, she is posed in front of a banner with a quote attributed to “Keith Raniere.”

If all Vanguard and his Espians want is to support the arts, that’s fine.

But if Raniere’s interest in singing is simply a ploy to lure college students into NXIVM, those invited or attending such entertainment events should beware.

See the following reports:

“A Forensic Psychiatrist Evaluates ESP”

“A Critical Analysis of Executive Success Programs Inc.”

“Robert Jay Lifton’s eight criteria of thought reform as applied to the Executive Success Programs”

Some NXIVM program participants have sought psychiatric treatment subsequent to attending the group’s intensives, one participant was hospitalized and another committed suicide.

Note: Tempermental A cappella enthusiasts often insist on various spellings and combinations regarding this phrase or musical term. 

“Twelve Tribes,” a notorious religious group, often called a “cult,” has apparently moved into a town in Colorado, Manitou Springs.

The group is ruled by a self-proclaimed “prophet”/dictator named Elbert Eugene Spriggs (see photo with wife left).

The sect has opened a café the “Maté Factor” and two group homes, which house 50 members.

But the local newspaper instead of reporting about the deeply troubled history of Twelve Tribes, provided what seemed like free advertising for the purported “cult.”

Amanda Lundgren writing for the Colorado Independent extolled the group’s “herbal-infusion tea made from the yerba maté plant,” and proclaimed herself a customer or “convert for life.”

However, the factor forgotten by the newswoman is the group’s sordid and well-documented history of child abuse, financial exploitation, family estrangement and lawbreaking.

Lundgren should have shared with her readers some of the decades of bad press that has followed Twelve Tribes wherever it goes including labor violations, illegal abductions and hate literature.

The Independent writer acknowledged that she had been told to “watch out” for the “cult,” but neglected to explain why anyone would be so worried if the group was really that benign.

Instead Lundgren dismissed such criticism as “‘cult’ catcalls” without any meaningful examination.

The reporter waxed poetic though about the group’s new “unofficial drink” sold at its Manitou Springs café.

But what about the official reports concerning its bad behavior?

Lundgren didn’t dig up much beyond a few cryptic comments made by the group’s spokesperson. He said that Manitou Springs is “a mini-Mecca” for the sect, where its tea sales would fuel “evangelism” to recruit “open minded” townspeople.

But before anyone in town “drinks the Kool-Aid,” or “Maté lattes,” maybe they should know just a few historical facts about the Twelve Tribes.

And though the 50 members of Twelve Tribes in Manitou Springs may live in cramped housing, its leader Spriggs lives in luxury like a multi-millionaire.Chased out of Chattanooga in the 1970s for its authoritarian and destructive ways, the Twelve Tribes eventually settled in Vermont, where it developed a reputation for child abuse.

The group is also notorious for its racist views and anti-Semitic literature.

Children have reportedly escaped from the sect through an “underground railroad” and subsequently have made public statements detailing the horrific physical abuse they were forced to endure.

Minor children of Twelve Tribes parents involved in custody disputes have been illegally abducted, but eventually found by law enforcement with group members in Florida and California.

Twelve Tribes has been fined for child labor violations.

All of this information is readily accessible to anyone with an Internet connection interested enough to do some research.

However, Ms. Lundgren is apparently either indifferent and/or too lazy to Google “Twelve Tribes.”

Not one of these historical facts managed to make it into the Colorado Independent article.

In the end the newspaper’s readers were poorly served and given a misleading impression that “cult” claims were somehow unfounded.

And Amanda Lundgren made sure that a Twelve Tribes couple speaking for the group got the last word (see photo right).

Lundgren wrote, “As for critics and those who consider the group a cult [the group spokesman]…shrugs them off.”

“They called Jesus a cult leader,” he said.

But the New Testament doesn’t say anything about Jesus beating up or abducting kids, disobeying civil authority and being banned for passing out hate literature.

Note: Apparently Amanda Lundgren isn’t the only lazy reporter at the Colorado Independent. J. Adrian Stanley, another writer for the same publication, in his article “Tribal Conflict” reports “Twelve Tribes, the Christianity-centered community best known locally for running Manitou’s Maté Factor café. Followers dress modestly, live communally and are given traditional names.” Nothing about the group’s horrible history in this piece. Another reporter seemingly too technically challenged to use Google. Or, could it be that the Independent sees itself as so dependent upon local advertising it’s not a real newspaper?

Has Barak Obama become a “cult” leader, with a following of brainwashed disciples?

This is the recent rhetoric coming from some political pundits shocked by the devotion of the presidential candidate’s supporters.

But the word “cult” has a much more specific and objective meaning, which should not be confused with Obama voters.

Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton published a paper in 1981 through Harvard University titled “Cult Formation.”

This well-known expert on “thought reform” (commonly called “brainwashing”) said, “Cults can be identified by three characteristics:

1. a charismatic leader who increasingly becomes an object of worship as the general principles that may have originally sustained the group lose their power;
2. a process I call coercive persuasion or thought reform;
3. economic, sexual, and other exploitation of group members by the leader and the ruling coterie.”

How does Barak Obama measure up as a cult leader given these three criteria?

Well he is charismatic, but when Obama talks about “change” he doesn’t mean that he should be worshiped as an absolute leader like Jim Jones. Instead, he subscribes to democratic principles and not authoritarian rule. He represents a choice through a democratic process.

Rather than coercive persuasion, Obama depends upon his rhetorical skills, advertising and propaganda. There is a distinction between these types of persuasion and thought reform, which depends largely upon control of the environment, information and deception.

Finally, Barak Obama cannot unilaterally exploit Americans like a cult leader through the use of unfettered power, but instead if elected is limited by the US Constitution, the checks and balances of other branches of government, a free press and continuing election cycles.

It might be said that Obama has a “cult following” of ardent fans that cheer him on like a rock star.

However, such fans didn’t make Elvis or Kurt Cobain “cult” leaders, but rather enduring cutural icons.

“Obamamania”?

It might be plausible to compare excited so-called “Obamaphiles” to “Trekkies,” but not to “brainwashed Moonies.”

Meanwhile, Noth Korea is a genuine political cult with its “Great Leader” Kim Jong II creating serious concerns around the world.

And there is also the fading personality-driven movement of Fidel Castro that in Cuba, which appears cult-like.

History is strewn with destructive personality-driven dictatorships including Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia and the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran.

But Barack Obama?

Most Americans can recall what a real cult leader is like, someone similar to Charles Manson, David Koresh or Marshall Applewhite.

So as the political rhetoric heats up and each party’s spin machine goes into high gear, perhaps it would be meaningful to remember the facts when using the word “cult.”

Yisrayel Hawkins, also known as “Buffalo Bill” Hawkins, self-styled “prophet,” polygamist and purported cult leader, has been busted for bigamy.

Hawkins is now being held by Texas authorities in jail pending bail set at $10 million dollars.

Subsequently, a child labor charge has also been filed against the incarcerated leader.

Hawkins created the so-called “House of Yahweh” (HOY) more than twenty years ago near Abilene, Texas, which he claimed would be the place of safety for humanity when judgment finally fell upon the earth.

However, as the faithful gathered around Abilene, it appeared that Hawkins used his prophecies to fleece his followers.

Many of the cult leader’s devotees lived in broken down trailers and paid Hawkins rent. They bought his teaching tapes, books, tithed generously and often either worked for free or were grossly underpaid.

And while HOY members suffered, some dying in poverty, Hawkins lived in luxury and maintained substantial real estate holdings.

Over the decades HOY has repeatedly been accused of child abuse, sexual exploitation of women and children, medical neglect, family estrangement and “brainwashing.”

CultNews (Rick Ross) hosted a television special late last year titled “Mind Control” for the A & E network that featured hidden camera footage of life inside the secretive HOY compound.

CultNews (Rick Ross) has also testified repeatedly as an expert witness over the years in custody cases regarding HOY, which resulted in the removal of several children from the group.

Last year authorities arrested one of Hawkins’ top followers, Yedidiyah Hawkins, who remains in jail accused of molesting a 14-year-old girl he was preparing to marry.

Many of Yisrayl Hawkins’ followers have changed their last name to Hawkins.

In 2006 Abilene police investigated the death of a 1-month-old boy whose death and burial had not been reported to authorities. The infants’ autopsy revealed that the cause of his death was malnourishment and traumatic asphyxiation.

No charges have been filed concerning the baby’s death.

Another Hawkins follower was convicted of bodily injury for helping perform surgery in 2005 on her neighbor’s 7-year-old daughter who later died. That woman later received probation.

HOY members have also been accused of breaking laws regarding food stamps.

On the network television special “Mind Control” one HOY member admitted that she was not only illegally in the United States on an expired visa living within the group’s compound, but also was working illegally for a dollar an hour at one of Hawkins’ businesses.

But despite this public disclosure authorities have not yet done anything concerning illegal adult workers within HOY.

It seems authorities in Texas have finally decided to crack down on Hawkins and his self-styled spiritual kingdom.

Yisrayl Hawkins has often predicted the end of the world, most recently he claimed in September of 2007 that the end of man’s governments would begin with nuclear war within 13 months.

This became yet another bogus forecast filed away by Hawkins with his other unfulfilled prophecies.

Ironically, it now seems that Hawkins the would-be prophet, couldn’t foresee his own end.

Update: A judge later reduced bail from $10 million to $100,000.00 on February 20th. Hawkins then made bail and was set free pending trial.

Mahesh Prasad Varma, better known as “Maharishi Mahesh Yogi,” was born near the Indian town of Jabalpur, into a scribe caste family. He died last night at the age of 91.

At times referred to as a “cult leader,” one BBC website called him a “Rasputinesque” figure.

The Indian guru promoted “Transcendental meditation,” known as TM to its fans and followers. This practice involves reciting a mantra over and over again to still the mind.

However, TM critics saw the technique as little more than self-hypnosis or trance induction.

Classes to learn TM don’t come cheap. The current list price is $2,500 for a five-day session.

Mahrishi launched his public career as the “Beatles guru.” In 1968 the British group journeyed to his Himalayan ashram to study.

But it wasn’t long before the popular band dumped their would-be teacher.

John Lennon felt that Maharishi’s claim to celibacy was a lie. Lennon said in interviews that the Beatles song “Sexy Sadie,” which includes the lyrics “Sexy Sadie, what have you done, you made a fool of everyone” was originally called “Maharishi.”

This year on January 11th the guru announced his retirement, but apparently he was already quite ill and died in less than a month.

Maharishi and his followers often made ridiculous claims regarding the power of TM, such as a mass meditation session of 7,000 followers somehow being linked to the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of the Cold War.

Maharishi’s mantra almost always included money.

The TM Web site states, “When the group cannot be maintained financially, new tensions arise in the world.” Such statements almost seem like spiritual blackmail.

Perhaps Maharishi will be most remembered for his shrewd business sense. He leaves behind the legacy of a multi-billion dollar spiritual empire.

Britain’s Daily Telegraph reported that TM has been marketed “with all the zeal of a multinational corporation — which is, effectively, what it became.”

In 1990 Maharishi moved to the Netherlands where he turned a historic former Catholic retreat into his home. The guru created considerable controversy when he attempted to demolish the landmark to suit his own taste.

One of Maharishi’s last fund raising pitches took place in 2002. The guru claimed he wanted to combat world terrorism and war through meditation.

The price tag this time was $1 billion dollars to train 40,000 TMers.

In the United States alone TM accumulated assets of about $300 million, including Maharishi University in Iowa.

Many of the guru’s remaining devotees live in Maharishi Vedic City, which is located a few miles from Fairfield, Iowa.

Maharishi may have been one of world’s most successful “cult leaders.”

That is, if measured by money, rather than mantras.

“Living Epistle Ministries” (LEM) of Port Jefferson Station, New York is run by Sheila Vitale, a self-taught evangelist, who is not affiliated with any established denomination.

A small group also follows Ms. Vitale (photo left) located in McGregor, Minnesota.

LEM appears to fit well within the criteria established by psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton in a paper published by Harvard University in 1981 titled “Cult Formation.”

Within his paper Lifton lists the following three most salient and defining features of a destructive cult:

1. a charismatic leader who increasingly becomes an object of worship as the general principles that may have originally sustained the group lose their power;
2. a process [he calls] coercive persuasion or thought reform;
3. economic, sexual, and other exploitation of group members by the leader and the ruling coterie.

LEM explains at its Web site within a subsection titled “Who We Are” that, “The Lord Jesus Christ asked Sheila Vitale, the Pastor, Teacher and Founder of Living Epistles Ministries, if she would teach his people.”

The LEM site further identifies Ms. Vitale as a “Prophet and a Teacher of Apostolic Doctrine.”

Ms. Vitale seems to fulfill the role of a “charismatic leader” as described by Lifton. She occupies a singular position of absolute authority over her followers through claims of direct revelation and without any meaningful organizational accountability.

Sheila Vitale’s teachings are not seriously questioned and/or challenged by her followers. Instead, they are referred to simply as “The Doctrine of Christ.”

Questioning Ms. Vitale therefore is essentially equated to questioning and/or opposing “Christ.”

The LEM McGregor group is led by Jesse Aldrich (photo right).

Sheila Vitalie describes on the LEM Web site what she calls “Unconscious Mind Control.”

This subsection of the LEM Web is titled “A Study In Unconscious Mind Control.” It is here that Ms. Vitale explains her methodology of what can be seen as coercive persuasion in some detail.

Essentially, LEM followers are taught that every thought, perception, emotion or feeling must be categorized and subsequently labeled as either the “Carnal Mind,” which is evil and negative, or the “Mind of Christ” that is good.

Those thoughts and feelings that coincide with and/or confirm Sheila Vitale’s teachings and instructions are apt to be labeled as the “Mind of Christ,” while those that do not are most often categorized as the “Carnal Mind.”

Ms. Vitale instructs her followers to “fight off the thoughts of the Carnal Mind, not only from within ourselves, but from others who are both physically and spiritually near to us.” She then explains that “a perfect man restrains his carnal mind” and also will “police [his]¦thoughts” to “fight off invading thoughts from any source¦”

This “mind control,” as described by Ms. Vitale, provides the framework for her to ultimately manipulate LEM followers. She can then easily designate whatever thoughts and feelings should be policed, fought and subsequently suppressed or purged.

Ms. Vitale also teaches that those outside LEM will attempt to “control” her followers. And she states at her Web site when someone attempts “to take control of a situation” it can be seen as “the sin of witchcraft.”

Another aspect of LEM “mind control” is characterized as “deliverance,” which includes Ms. Vitale’s followers invoking protection from perceived spiritual enemies and/or attacks.

In an email made available to CultNews that Sheila Vitale sent to Jesse Aldrich she specifically instructed him in a prayer, which he was to repeat “at least twice a day,” in order to “aggressively resist” attacks through what was called “spiritual warfare.”

In such exercises of what can be seen as a type of “guided imagery,” Ms. Vitale promotes a “we vs. they” mentality and stimulates unreasonable fears, which further solidifies her “mind control.”

Sheila Vitale also attempts to exploit her members financially through repeated tithing demands.

In an email Ms. Vitale sent to a follower last year shared with CultNews she stated, “I heard from the Lord. He said that the tithe is 10% of the amount that appears on your federal income tax as gross business income.’” She then warned, “not tithing properly could be the source of your business falling off this year.”

Sheila Vitale’s teachings have at times caused emotional damage and led to family estrangement.

Ms. Vitale also often interprets the dreams of her followers.

In one email she warned a follower that his wife was “carrying some kind of a dangerous burden.” Ms. Vitale then speculated that the woman had “picked up something spiritually unclean.”

Sheila Vitale then told the husband that his wife was “afraid of exposure¦because she knows that she has a spiritual problem.”

The solution suggested by Ms. Vitale is that the “demons” should be “cast out” and that the Minnesota man’s wife required “deliverance.”

Such warnings had a devastating effect upon the man’s relationship with his wife. She had questioned the teachings and behavior of the group, and for this apparent transgression she was at times negatively labeled in spiritually terms.

Aldrich also warned the woman’s husband in Minnesota about the “Jezebel spirit that tries to control the moving of Christ in a believer,” and that “the emotions of his carnal mind” were “fueled by Satan” and “witchcraft control.”

Jesse Aldrich also has characterized Christians and others outside the group as “dogmatic¦arrogant, prideful, controlling and domineering.”

But ironically Aldrich’s description actually seems to fit LEM, Sheila Vitale and her followers like a glove.