|
24. Your CI website refers to the issue of cults and suspect organisations. Can you enlarge further?
Quite easily. The definition in terms of a cult is not always agreed upon, though suspicion can attach to organisations quite independently of that label. There are complexities such as the “theological versus sociological” issue of interpretation. The theological viewpoint tends to discriminate upon the basis of doctrine, while the sociological approach is committed to the analysis of behaviour. Yet attitudes differ even within sociological ranks. What follows is a non-theological engagement of “citizen sociology” with diverse aspects of the phenomenon at issue. I do not employ the word “cult” as a blanket description of anomalies, though the evocative term surely does have a relevance in some or many cases.
Some religious sects do no harm whatever, while others can become predatory or dangerous. The proliferation of alternative organisations since the 1960s has added to the problem denoted. These may or may not be malfunctioning. Over the years, suspicious patterns of outlook and behaviour have emerged in diverse groupings. Evasion of complaints is a feature which can sound the alert. Factors such as charity status or substantial economic backing can create a sense of false achievement. A basic issue is whether public education is best served by the emphases or doctrines promoted. Some organisations exhibit both positive and negative features, and attempt to gloss the contradictory elements. Symptoms of aberration can be mild, of increasing strength, or chronic. Tendencies to manipulation of belief, behaviour, and funding are all here implied, plus other factors less easy to elucidate in a few words.
Some suspect organisations accumulate vast fundings, literally in the millions and even billions of pounds or dollars. Naturally, people then become suspicious of what is occurring, especially if reports leak out of discrepancies in leadership decisions or behaviour. Converts and subscribers are too often confused or even psychologically damaged by the problems which can ensue, and victim support groups have confirmed the high risk of participation in such organisations
CONTENTS KEY
24.1 The Rajneesh Cult
A rather extreme example of things going wrong was the Rajneesh sect which transplanted from India to Oregon in 1981. Very briefly, Indian critics of this sect gave strong warnings, based upon the extreme patterns of behaviour that had developed amongst the membership. Some participants were physically hurt by extremist therapy. Yet many of the converts did not believe the cautions and criticisms, and other Western onlookers assumed that the critics were just being assertive and basically biased. This meant that Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his “therapeutic” community were elevated in new age literature as a perfectly legitimate source of spiritual benefits. They were perhaps slightly sensationalist, that was all. The glowing adverts continued, thus encouraging further recruits.
When Rajneesh built a city called Rajneeshpuram in Oregon, the signs of antisocial behaviour grew in friction with local residents. The therapeutic community stockpiled lethal weapons. Foul and aggressive speech was cultivated by the leading female spokesperson for the sect, who was known as Ma Anand Sheela (Sheela Silverman, a Swiss national). Another formerly harmless woman was persuaded to murder a doctor within the sect, and nearly succeeded. In 1985 Ma Shanti Bhadra (Catherine Jane Paul) jabbed a syringe loaded with adrenalin into the doctor’s buttock, just after smiling at him. The doctor survived after two weeks in hospital.
Opponents outside the sect had also been targeted. A dire campaign of food poisoning was undertaken in local restaurants which caused more than 700 people to contract salmonella. The police finally intervened, and some female devotees were jailed. Rajneesh was deported after claiming that he was innocent and that his women devotees were to blame for criminal actions. This occurred during 1985, a few years before his death in 1990. See Lewis F. Carter, Charisma and Control in Rajneeshpuram, 1990; see also the report on Catherine Jane Paul (Ma Shanti Bhadra) in R. Guilliatt, “It was a Time of Madness,” The Weekend Australian Magazine, June 17-18, 2006, pp. 22-28.
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in 1985
Catherine Jane Paul, alias Jane Stork, has testified that Rajneesh was far from being guiltless and that he himself “orchestrated many events in his detailed daily briefings” (art.cit., p. 27 col. 1). Stork was sent to jail while proclaiming her innocence; she denounced Rajneesh as a conman even while the guru was attacking her and other female devotees, placing all the blame upon them and thus clearing himself. Rajneesh had meanwhile amassed vast wealth that included ninety-three Rolls Royce automobiles.
We may believe the report of Stork that this guru played upon a psychological complex in Ma Anand Sheela (a colleague of Stork), thus making her procure women for him (ibid., p. 26 col.2). Rajneesh justified his insatiable demand for luxury cars with the excuse that this was a device to satirise consumerism. He also demanded a million dollar diamond-studded watch. He threatened to leave Rajneeshpuram if his demand for luxury items was not satisfied (ibid., p. 27 col. 1). He also regularly ingested the tranquillizer known as valium. Even Stork only learnt these things by overhearing conversations between Rajneesh and the favoured confidante Ma Anand Sheela, who subsequently bore the major brunt of his disapproval. Sheela and her colleagues were accused by outsiders of conducting the first bio-terrorist attack on American soil; they had their own secret laboratory with which to preserve salmonella bacteria they had acquired from a legitimate medical laboratory. (Shepherd, Some Philosophical Critiques and Appraisals, pp. 71ff.).
The indoctrinated Australian convert Ma Shanti Bhadra (Jane Stork) also consented in 1985 to be the killer of the US attorney Charles Turner, who had been appointed to investigate the commune at Rajneeshpuram. The militant Sheela also enlisted five other colleagues in this conspiracy on behalf of the new model city. The plan was to shoot Turner, but other events intervened. The murder did not occur, but the consequences of this episode lived on in law courts for two decades. Stork made a new life for herself in Germany, but the American authorities maintained the charge against her of conspiracy to murder an Oregon district attorney. The German government refused to extradite Stork, but when she voluntarily returned to Oregon in 2005 hoping to resolve the legal problem, American agents placed her under arrest. The other six conspirators against Turner had been jailed, but Stork escaped this fate by her lengthy apology. Turner himself wrote a letter of mercy to the court pleading for Stork to be spared jail. Jane Stork was given a lenient term of five years probation. See also Jim Parker, “Final Rajneeshi sentenced in murder plot,” January 30th 2006, at www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw-013005-new .
24.2 Aum Shinrikyo and the Japanese Sects
During the 1990s, extremist sects created more shocks. The Order of the Solar Temple claimed multiple victims in 1994-97, and the Aum Shinrikyo cult launched a lethal sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995. There were thousands of casualties in the Tokyo tragedy. Police investigations at the cult headquarters in Japan discovered dangerous stockpiles that included biological warfare agents such as anthrax and chemicals sufficient to produce sarin in a quantity estimated to kill four million people. A different kind of event occurred in California, where the Heaven’s Gate cult achieved a collective suicide amongst the membership in 1997. There were over forty suicides in what has been defined as a syncretistic new age Christian and UFO belief sect.
Some governments woke up to the dangers involved in the field of cults and reckless sects. New official reports appeared about the dangers of mind manipulation in suspect organisations. Germany, France, Belgium, and Spain created new legislation in response to parliamentary investigations. Britain lagged far behind. When terrorists destroyed the World Trade Centre at New York in 2001, there was a concerted outcry in America and Britain. Yet the issue of cult victims in less visible walks of life has so often been ignored by officialdom. The British government have failed to deal adequately with crime and cannabis regulation, and their response to other forms of public hazard has generally been feeble.
It is worth noting here that activities of the Aum Shinrikyo sect stunned even some hard analysts. This “new religious movement” was founded in 1984. Their arsenal and two laboratories of chemical weapons did not stop at the nerve gas sarin, but included advanced nerve agents such as VX and killer diseases such as anthrax and Q-fever. The Guardian reported that “followers were starved, doped with LSD and forced to undergo bizarre initiations; the cult’s enemies were murdered and incinerated in purpose-built microwave ovens.” The manic assault on the Tokyo subway in rush-hour was an attempt to fend off a police investigation (some say that the aim was to kill many policemen).
An earlier sarin attack by Aum Shinrikyo had occurred the year before in the city of Matsumoto, injuring a smaller total of about 200 victims. While some traumatised ex-devotees were reported to be recovering via a support group from years of physical and mental abuse, many young Japanese continued to become enthusiastic recruits to the dogma of this sect, which promised supernatural or “mystical” powers and salvation. See Andrew Marshall, “It gassed the Tokyo subway...,” The Guardian, July 15th 1999, available at www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,65651,00.html. See also David E. Kaplan and Andrew Marshall, The Cult at the End of the World (1996).
The inverted outlook of the Aum sect “became convinced that no one outside the cult had the right to exist because all others, unrelated as they were to the guru, remained hopelessly defiled.” Slogans adapted from Buddhism were used, along with so-called mystical experiences. “There was considerable violence even in the training procedures to which disciples could be subjected: protracted immersion in extremely hot or cold water, hanging by one’s feet for hours at a time, or solitary confinement for days in a tiny cell-like room that had no facilities and could become unbearably hot.” (Quotations from Robert Jay Lifton, Destroying the World to Save It: Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence, and the New Global Terrorism, 1999, pp. 26-7). Yogic exercises using rapid breathing were favoured for the purportedly mystical experiences that were offered as a lure. Those exercises produced oxygen deprivation to the brain, a factor providing visions of colours and lights, images, and a sense of mind leaving the body. However, it became easier for the recruits to be administered LSD to ensure dramatic experiences. All of these experiences were attributed to the unique spiritual power of the guru, Shoko Asahara, who led the sect. The LSD mock-spirituality was also very effective in making the recruits immune to the violence hallmarking their environment.
 |
Shoko Asahara
The Aum sect is said to have been worth about 1.5 billion dollars, but was made bankrupt after the gas attack. They had been involved in the manufacture of illegal drugs, and were in league with the Japanese mafia for the marketing of those substances. Extortion, theft, and murder are amongst the activities listed for Aum Shinrikyo. The leader Shoko Asahara was arrested, and the sect came under government surveillance in 2000. That year the now defensive sect changed name to Aleph. They deleted controversial Vajrayana Buddhist texts from their canon; those bizarre texts had been accused by officialdom of justifying murder. Aum doctrine has been differently defined, though some analysts have described it as an amalgam of Buddhist, Hindu Yogic, Taoist, and new age beliefs. Yet Buddhism was the primary doctrinal support. Several sectarians have been awarded death sentences for Aum crimes, including the cult founder Shoko Asahara.
Meanwhile, since the 1995 gas attack, the internet and other media have encouraged the situation in Japan where cults are flourishing. According to the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs, there are more than 182,000 religious corporations registered nationwide. It has even been asserted that one in five of the Japanese people are affiliates of these organisations, often small and tending to secrecy. Many misdemeanours are recorded on the files of the Japan Society for Cult Prevention and Recovery (JSCPR), founded in 1995, and which is based in Tokyo. See their website at www.jscpr.org/index_E.htm.
One of the JSCPR directors is a Professor of Sociology at Hokkaido University, and whose assessments have recently been reported on the media. Professor Sakurai Yoshihide is one of the opposite numbers to Shoko Asahara. He views the situation in terms of a social malaise that existed for many years but which was aggravated by the collapse of the Japanese economic advance in the early 1990s. It emerges that Japan has had a bigger cult problem than any other country. Not merely the younger generation, but also older people, have been responding to the message of small religious movements which promise enlightenment and freedom from suffering. That is currently a very popular message. Analysis of the operative causes can vary, though social change is the basic denominator. Professor Yoshihide says that the competitive capitalist society of new Japan has given rise to a sense of meaningless existence, in comparison to which the cult panaceas seem attractive to many subscribers.
Many of the Japanese sects are said to be harmless, though others have the reputation of being sexually exploitative. A looming problem is the rather unpredictable nature of the cult temperament, as in the recent instance where members of the female-dominated Kigenkai sect “allegedly kicked and punched another member until she died from shock.” This Shinto-related sect has accordingly gained bad publicity. The Kigenkai sect was founded in 1970 and is registered as an official religious organisation. Go to the item “Explosion of cults in Japan fails to heed deadly past,” Nov. 3rd 2007, available at http://www.religionnewsblog.com/19806/japan-cults. The elderly victim of the brutal assault in 2007 was Motoku Okuno, aged 63, whose case is memorable. There are various supplements including “Killing for the Cult,” Nov. 14th 2007, at www.religionnewsblog.com/19887/kigenkai-9. The victim had “her face caked in chalk by way of ritualistic humiliation.” Numerous female sectarians were arrested, and some were officially charged with injury leading to death.
24.3 Grof Ideology and the Findhorn Foundation
A diluted parallel to some Aum Shinrikyo activities are the Grof doctrines of LSD therapy and Holotropic Breathwork (see no. 12 above). Stanislav Grof has theorised LSD experience as a shamanistic spiritual path, and has overlooked the factor of hyperventilation being a cause of oxygen deprivation to the brain. Fantastic glosses have been applied in both movements to the drawbacks of LSD and rapid breathing. In Britain, the Scientific and Medical Network (SMN) have been promoting Grofian LSD ideology on their website for four years, with unmeasured consequences, leading to the conclusion of critical observers that the SMN should be certified as a dangerous influence. See further my home page at www.citizeninitiative.com/index.htm. The article by Christopher Bache glorifying “shamanistic” LSD is still visible on the SMN website in August 2008, David Lorimer and his colleagues having no scruple about complaints. One may regard new age science and medicine as a serious confusion and public hazard.
 |
Stanislav Grof
It is the rather evasive latitude of some alternative organisations which engenders suspicion. The Findhorn Foundation (in Scotland) commenced in 1962 and is associated with the SMN. The major figurehead is Eileen Caddy (1917-2006), reputed to be an agency for the God within. The Findhorn Foundation has benefited from charity status and UN endorsement as a CIFAL centre promoting ecology. Yet the Findhorn ecovillage project has been attended by flaws, certain of the personnel being closely associated with the suppression of dissident views and literature, and even with the continuing promotion of Grof’s Holotropic Breathwork.
These drawbacks are part of the additionally discrepant scenario of the Findhorn Foundation “workshop” commerce in alternative therapy and pop-mysticism. Critics view these extensive activities as a contradiction to any viable ecological programme. This matter has been documented in several entries at www.citizeninitiative.com. Critics do not here press identity as a cult, though in relation to dissidents, the policy of this organisation has exhibited markedly cult-like attitudes. The Findhorn Foundation can be described in terms of an erring community with very evasive tendencies and a commercial programme causing confusion and miseducation. See also no. 10 and no. 13 above.
24.4 Order of the Solar Temple and Aleister Crowley
Of a different nature were problems in the secret society known as Order of the Solar Temple, which commenced at Geneva in 1984. Over seventy people died in the suicide mania attested in Switzerland, France, and Canada in the mid-1990s. There was evidence that a number of the victims were drugged before being shot in the head. The curious beliefs that inspired these deaths are a cause for wonder. This sect subscribed to a new age myth about the medieval Knights Templar, who have long been a subject of fantasy. They reportedly drew upon sources like Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) and the Order of the Golden Dawn (a late nineteenth century occultist clique). The tragically influential Crowley was obsessed with initiatory and magical rituals that fed his pretensions. Yet even he did not believe in a flight to Sirius but was evidently anxious to stay alive, despite his setback addiction to heroin (see Shepherd, Pointed Observations, pp. 30-36, 133-138).
Aleister Crowley
The example set by Crowley has been lamented. This British occultist saturated himself over the years with an intake of many drugs that extended to heroin. His drug visions are totally unreliable. He believed himself to be a great “initiate,” and an adept in subjects like Yoga and Kabbalah (though Jewish academic experts in Kabbalah have dismissed his version). In reality, his lifestyle demonstrated an insatiable lust. Crowley’s speciality was sexual magic, a peculiar pursuit in which he indulged to an extreme extent with many partners. Women were better off avoiding this bisexual, as he had a habit of reducing his mistresses to a psychological mess. He boasted that he had tortured his wife, which is not difficult to believe, particularly in view of the fact that she went mad. Yet this “neopagan” became a popular icon of the new age debacle starting in the late 1960s.
24.5 Preachers and Evangelists
Several types of organisation in the West are currently in doubt. A number of extremist Christian sects are accompanied by more amorphous trends of evangelism, plus groupings less easy to describe in parcel terms.
The leader of an American fundamentalist sect favouring polygamy became one of the ten most wanted fugitives of the FBI. His father is said to have had at least seventy-five wives, and at the death of the parent, the junior added many of his father’s wives to his own harem, reputed to comprise at least seventy wives. Warren Jeffs was arrested near Las Vegas in 2006, despite his belief that he speaks for God. His sect is known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. This is sometimes described as a Mormon sect, though an alternative description is that of an offshoot from the Mormon Church. Jeffs gained about ten thousand followers, and taught that a man must have at least three wives to qualify for heaven. There were strong allegations of coerced marriages between under-age girls and older men. Jeffs was sentenced to a lengthy imprisonment , being convicted as an accomplice to rape. (FAIR news, Dec. 2006, pp. 10-11; Dec. 2007, p. 12).
Another controversial preacher has a following in more than thirty countries. Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda, associated with Miami, is reported to have banked millions of dollars in America and calls himself both Christ Reincarnate and the Antichrist according to The Times. This preacher teaches that there is no such thing as sin. Suspiciously, his second wife has divulged his serial philanderings, his heavy gambling, and his misuse of church donations. He came under federal investigation in 2007. (FAIR news, Issue 2, 2007, p.1).
The well known televangelist Jerry Falwell, who founded the Moral Majority, netted an income of about 45 million dollars per annum. A staff of 800 was said to keep track of the tax-free contributions from four million Americans on the Moral Majority mailing list. The Majority subsequently got into difficulties through “rivalry and misdeeds” and was disbanded at the close of the 1980s (ibid., p. 10).
More recently, there have been worries about the increasing wealth and conversion drive of Scientology, which has gained tax-free status as a religion in America. A Scientology leader is reported to have stated: “Our next step is eradicating psychiatry from this planet” (FAIR news, Issue 1, 2007, p. 4). The acute aversion to psychiatry originated with the American founder L. Ron Hubbard, who died in 1986. Psychiatrists are understandably in grievance at these insistences. Yet there are more widespread factors currently resisting Scientology. In February 2008 thousands of protesters demonstrated peacefully in front of Scientology centres throughout the world, and were in obvious disagreement at what they consider to be questionable policies of suppression and misinformation. The counter-movement calls itself Anonymous. There are said to have been reprisals involving accusations of “hate crimes.” (FAIR news, April 2008, p. 13).
24.6 The FECRIS Phenomenon
FECRIS is an industrious organisation widely regarded as the European equivalent of ICSA in America, and also having links with FAIR in Britain. The annual FECRIS conference of April 2008 was held at Pisa. The theme was “State Responsibility to Protect Citizens Against Destructive Cults.” Reports were contributed from convergent organisations in France and Italy. There was also news from the Belgian government about their Board of Enquiry into destructive sects, which has recently decided to take action against Scientology. There was also a report from Austria on the federal office established in 1998 to monitor the disturbing activities of cults. A member of the Swedish Parliament reported an initiative to establish a related centre in Sweden. A Polish representative described research into pathological behaviour in groups. There were yet other reports from different parts of the world. This FECRIS conference was arranged in association with the Italian organisation ARIS (Association for Information and Research on Sects). The event is considered to have been significant for coordinating insights into a variety of actions being undertaken across Europe. (Rod Marshall, “FECRIS Conference Report,” FAIR news, April 2008, p. 18).
24.7 The Problem Policy of INFORM
FAIR have recently published an unhappy letter received from the mother of “a disconnected daughter in Scientology.” The mother attended an INFORM seminar in Nov. 2006. The visitor wished to find out what was involved in the organisation known as INFORM, which is the information network in the UK that advises the British government on all matters relating to religious movements. The leader of this network is Emeritus Professor Eileen Barker, who introduced the well attended seminar. The unhappy mother now found her suspicions confirmed that INFORM exercised a benign attitude that “believed just about all religions.” The meaning here is one of an uncritical viewpoint extending latitude to the many organisations and sects which have been dubbed “new religions.”
However, the visitor at the INFORM seminar listened appreciatively to a lawyer from Belgium, namely Henri de Cordes, the President of the Centre for Information and Advice on Harmful Sectarian Organisations, located in Belgium. This distinguished visitor warned about sectarian activities, and also referred approvingly to a Belgian government enquiry into the illegal activities of cults. That enquiry had resulted in a new criminal law coming into process in 1998, a law including the power to confiscate illegal profit of dubious sects and the mandate to clamp down on the exploitation of ignorance or weakness affecting mental states of converts. The lawyer was heckled during and after his speech. One resisting member of the audience stood up and said that the Belgian law was terrible, and he hoped it would never happen in the UK. The unhappy mother reports that almost the whole audience applauded this strong objection, including committee members of INFORM. The correspondent ends by complaining that “the attitude of INFORM and many of those attending the seminar was disgraceful.” (FAIR news, Issue 2, 2007, p. 18).
Eileen Barker, Tom Sackville
There have been other complaints about the open-handed policy of INFORM, which critics depict as glossing the activities of dubious sects and organisations. A very different type of conference was held in London in Oct. 2006 under the auspices of FAIR, often described as the cult-monitoring and victim support organisation. At this function a prominent Russian anti-cult exponent expressed a pronounced criticism of INFORM, alleging that the latter body has pursued a distorted methodology in their analysis of cults, an approach which has exercised a seriously misleading effect upon academic attitudes and government policy. Indeed, Professor Alexander Dvorkin directly accused the director of INFORM, namely Professor Eileen Barker, who was present in the audience and who defended her position.
Dvorkin here attacked the attendant attitude that only the sociologists of religion know the truth about “New Religious Movements,” other parties being associated with vested interests and superficial alarmism. This very serious accusation implied that INFORM was supporting the partisan views of sectarians, and relegating the views of victims and critics to the status of mere secondary details, atrocity tales, and negative information. (FAIR news, Dec. 2006, pp. 1-2, 17).
This argument has socially urgent connotations, though it can be expressed with different accents. Some say that a firm response is long overdue to what has become an indulgent academic discussion (both in Britain and overseas) undertaken at the expense of the credulous public. Basic coverage of the Dvorkin-Barker controversy is afforded in the related webpage Sathya Sai Baba and Wikipedia [section eleven] at www.citizeninitiative.com. That contribution was primarily focusing upon tangible anomalies in a well known Indian religious sect said to have gained funding in terms of billions of dollars and known to have provoked criticisms of an unenviable nature from many former supporters (see no. 23 above).
24.8 FAIR and Social Psychology
The general arguments about “cults” and “new religious movements” are attended by rather static classifications. The scenario is one of different interpretations and different parties in collision. For instance, FAIR is strongly associated with The Hon. Tom Sackville, a former Conservative MP and Home Office Minister who has urged that a stronger attitude towards cult trends should be encouraged in official circles. In the 1990s Sackville worked to abolish government funding for INFORM, the basic reason being that Professor Barker was resistant to any classification of new religions as cults. The Sackville pleading was subsequently reversed, and INFORM was again sanctioned by officialdom. The protester was attacked by Scientology and related groupings who interpreted his approach as insular and distorting. Sackville became the new Chairman of FAIR in 2000. FAIR stands for Family Action Information and Resource, though the name is now changing to The Family Survival Trust. This British organisation “challenges practices, not beliefs,” and “supports relatives and friends affected by cults.”
The FAIR news bulletin is careful to state “that groups mentioned in this newsletter do not necessarily fulfil the criteria of ‘cult’.” Academic arguments about what comprises a cult are notorious for differences. FAIR has made a very useful point against the negligence of government departments, and has also served to spotlight other discrepancies (and continues to do so). Yet there is strong doubt that the current activities of FAIR (or The Family Survival Trust), in the face of bureaucratic inertia, are sufficient to redress the hindering situation. One subject of grievance is that the associated academic interest in such matters frequently occurs in isolation from public concerns, and is effectively non-existent from a public participant point of view. Do prestigious conferences achieve anything very tangible for the public victims when the general level of recital and debate is still one of very basic formulation and argument? The realistic answer is no (though the bold contribution of Professor Dvorkin has met with widespread applause).
FAIR converges with various perspectives on the concern about defining cults and dealing with socially injurious manifestations. One of those perspectives has recently stated that “there is simply no way that one discipline, whether it be sociology, social psychology, psychodynamic theory, or theology, can do justice to the enormous range of issues that are involved when we talk about cults.” (Stephen Parsons, “Cults and religious extremism: Some reflections,” FAIR news, Issue 2, 2007, pp. 4-5, and booklet rectifying an omission.)
“A criticism that is often heard in FAIR circles is that the British government listens only to a restricted number of sources and individuals in seeking to create policy in this area; any narrow process of consultation, i.e., one that depends on the resources of a single discipline, is bound to be flawed” (ibid.). The contributor here favours social psychology as a complement to sociology, especially that branch known as social identity theory, which is traced back to the 70s and the pioneering work of Henri Tajfel (1919-1982) and others. Parsons cites with approval the recent book of Peter Herriot, Religious Fundamentalism and Social Identity (2007). A basic theme favoured is that “each of us possesses, in addition to our individual personal identity, a variety of social identities which we acquire through membership of the groups to which we belong” (ibid.). A strong component of such identities is here stressed in terms of “our need to boost our self-esteem and individual significance.” Social identification with, e.g., kin groups, football teams, and churches are given basic denominators.
Fundamentalist groups are known to emphasise the contrast between the elite group and society at large, fearing liberal ideas or opposing doctrines identified with unbelievers. The fundamentalist/cultic group provides meaning and predictability facilitating a sense of control, eliminating uncertainties by strong convictions. Surrender to the group identity provides an emotional outlet and social need. The suggestion is made that the member of a cult can be viewed “as an individual whose life experience has not provided him/her with the self-esteem that is needed,” deriving from a deficit in emotional and social life. Yet this situation involves “the flimsy, often dishonest, answers provided by the group leaders who seek to exploit these needs” (ibid.).
24.9 From CAN to Alexander Dvorkin
Such explanations are certainly more measured than the extremist tendencies afflicting some of the anti-cult exponents. The activity known as “deprogramming” is associated with acts of coercion and the profits gained from “exit counselling.” These measures became widespread in America, and are attended by anecdotes such as the cult expert who tried to force a Roman Catholic convert back to her native Protestantism. The vogue for deprogramming unwelcome beliefs was supported by the Cult Awareness Network (CAN), founded in reaction to such disconcerting events as the Jonestown mass suicides in 1978. By the 1990s, CAN was monitoring about two hundred “mind control cults.” There were many convincing points made about those trends. Ominously, CAN was driven into bankruptcy by opposing organisations, and was controversially bought out in a bankruptcy court by Scientology in 1996. See the details at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_Awareness_Network. Elsewhere, the academic arguments continue. Whom do you believe? Who exactly are the ultimate authorities in this field? What is really happening?
Since CAN went into bankruptcy, there have been increasing numbers of ex-devotees and other discontented categories. The late 1990s internet expansion assisted the exposure of some undesirable tendencies. The exodus from the Sathya Sai Baba cult alone is sufficient evidence of a disturbing situation, but there are many other instances (if on a smaller scale). These disillusioned parties sometimes complain that academics take no effective interest in events of secession and distress. The academic arguments frequently fall short of such data, or else give fragmented references, instead tending to opt for routine emphases that are tidily tucked away in status journals far removed from the scenes of real life.
Alexander Dvorkin
The academic sector of commentary has become divided into three basic categories which have been dubbed as “cult apologists,” the “anti-cultists,” and the “reconciling” party. This scenario has even been called the academic “cult wars.” One of the anti-cultists is Professor Alexander Dvorkin, a visiting speaker at a recent FAIR conference and who has been active in Russia in connection with the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1997 he was the target of a lawsuit filed by Scientology and other new religious movements who objected to criticisms from the Russian Orthodox Church. That lawsuit in Moscow failed, and was also the focus for a difference of opinion between Dvorkin and Eileen Barker, who testified on behalf of the opposition against Dvorkin. Professor Dvorkin subsequently alleged that Professor Barker had been paid by the Moonies to give evidence, but the latter has denied receiving money from the Moonies or any other sect (this disagreement relates to a FAIR conference at London in Oct. 2006).
24.10 Eileen Barker , Margaret Singer, and Janja Lalich
Eileen Barker is an Emeritus Professor of Sociology associated with the London School of Economics. She founded INFORM in the late 1980s with the support of the British government and mainstream churches. INFORM stands for Information Network Focus on Religious Movements. In the case of Professor Barker, that basically means the “new religious movements” which are currently the subject of so much dispute. She has written many articles, and authored the well known book entitled New Religious Movements: A Practical Introduction (1990). She also contributed the influential book The Making of a Moonie: Choice or Brainwashing? (1984). In this controversial work she rejected the brainwashing theory as an explanation for conversion to the Unification Church commenced in Korea during the 1940s by Sun Myung Moon, believed to be the messiah. The intensive recruitment methods of that organisation had become notorious in America during the 1970s. The Reverend Moon now has the reputation of being a multi-billionaire with a strong influence in America.
Psychologist Margaret Thaler Singer (1921-2003) and sociologist Janja Lalich disputed Barker’s rejection of the brainwashing theory in their famous book Cults in Our Midst (1995). They accused her of being a “procult apologist.” The two American academics also strongly criticised Barker for accepting funding (relating to her book and conferences) from the Unification Church. Professor Barker defended her position by stating that the funding had been approved by her university and a government grants council, and furthermore saved taxpayer money. In a paper written that same year, Eileen Barker complained that “deprogrammers” charged tens of thousands of dollars for their services, and that witnesses such as Singer “have charged enormous fees for giving testimony about brainwashing in court cases.” This quote comes from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eileen_Barker.
l to r: Margaret Singer, Janja Lalich
Margaret Singer had been a Professor of Psychology in California for many years, and was a major proponent of the brainwashing theory. She is reported to have been harassed by cultists. Janja Lalich is a Professor of Sociology at California State University. See also Lalich, Captive Hearts, Captive Minds (1994; second edn, 2006, entitled Take Back Your life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships). See also Lalich, Crazy Therapies (1996). A more recent work of Professor Lalich is Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults (2004), which includes a focus on the Heaven’s Gate suicide sect.
Professor Lalich has described brainwashing as a misunderstood concept, and herself prefers the term “bounded choice.” She coined that phrase to describe the way in which a “true believer” is constrained by the choices available within the cult, choices which may seem extreme to outsiders but are understandable options within the cult environment. Lalich herself was formerly a member of a “radical political cult” known as the Democratic Workers Party. She has contested the view of some sociologists that freedom of religion is at stake in the issues under discussion. According to Professor Lalich, religion is the wrong description for the problems denoted.
It is possible to conclude that many sectarians and cultists choose their role as subscribers to group identity, though the element of “brainwashing” cannot be dismissed. For instance, Jane Stork opted to believe that Rajneesh was spiritually advanced, being influenced by the bizarre atmosphere of his environment. Certain aspects of her subsequent career entailed a strong form of indoctrination and hyper-suggestion in her close contact with both Rajneesh and Sheela Silverman. Stork does not appear to have been the most obvious candidate for murder attempts, formerly being a devout Roman Catholic schoolteacher. She said in retrospect that she transferred her piety to guru devotion, which degenerated into fanaticism. The Rajneesh sect was very wealthy during the 1980s. Rajneeshpuram was estranged from normal life, which was seen as an enemy. Sheela carried a gun, and Jane Stork participated in combat drill. In some respects at least, such ladies became more dangerous than a commando regiment.
24.11 From Jonestown to ICSA
Some critics say that Professor Barker’s views are too generalising to provide any adequate guard against unruly and molesting exceptions. Cf. Eileen Barker at www.fathom.com/feature/121938. Critics have been puzzled by her commentary here which refers to the tragedies of Peoples Temple, Waco, Solar Temple, Heaven’s Gate, and Aum Shinrikyo. She says that “what can be observed in most of these tragedies is a process which sociologists sometimes call ‘deviance amplification’ building up; the antagonists on each side behave rather badly, and that gives permission for the other side to behave more badly.”
In 1978, at Jonestown, the leader of the Peoples Temple made his congregation drink fatal poison after gunmen amongst them had killed a Congressman and other visitors; objectors within the congregation who resisted suicide were shot, strangled, or injected with cyanide. The Barker rationale does not seem to fit these details. Nor would it justify the delays in the lenient Japanese legal system lamented by the victims of Aum. Nor would that bland rationale explain anything much about the children sentenced to death by Sirius fantasies in the Solar Temple. Nobody molested the aggressors and fantasists. Sociological deviance amplification can merely amount to obscurantism or confusion.
The erratic argument of INFORM might be partly applicable to the Rajneesh sect, whom Christian fundamentalists did see as an enemy, though the manipulative Rajneesh is known to have deliberately baited the opposition for devious purposes that might easily fool some sociologists. Professor Barker relies heavily upon her interpretation of the Waco siege at Texas in 1993. She refers to the friction between the Adventists and the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (along with the FBI), the intervention of the authorities having been interpreted by David Koresh as a confirmation of the Book of Revelation. She does not mention that the Adventists had over 150 guns and 8,000 rounds of ammunition. Why did the Adventists need so many guns? There would have been no casualties if firearms had not been reported.
A commemorative volume is James A. Beckford and James T. Richardson, eds., Challenging Religion: Essays in Honour of Eileen Barker (2003). Yet some critics have generated the rather derisive description of Professor Barker as the “mother of cult apologists.” They have complained of how in media interviews, she says that the anti-cult movement is the problem. However, it is relevant to mention a statement of Tom Sackville made in an address dating to 2005: “I do not myself subscribe unconditionally to the belief, common among families of British cult victims, that Professor Barker is an apologist for cults and ‘on their side,’ though I do believe that through her consistent and somewhat puzzling refusal to express any usefully critical view of cults and other actions, she has always sailed a little close to those shores.” See www.fair-cult-concern.co.uk/yes_minister.html.
That comment comes from the International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA) Conference held in Madrid that year. ICSA is a major player in cult analysis, being the American equivalent to British FAIR and European FECRIS. The daunting editorial board of the ICSA periodical is over fifty strong, and includes Professor Barker. See www.icsahome.com.
24.12 New Religious Movements and Dick Anthony
Guidelines from Eileen Barker appear in the cult checklist of Wikipedia. One of those six guidelines is: “Adherents who become increasingly dependent on the movement for their view on reality.” See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_checklist. That could currently describe quite a large number of converts in both East and West. Professor Barker has concentrated upon “new religious movements” in Europe, a coverage which includes the “Moonies,” the majority of whom live in Korea and Japan. The Moonies or Unification Church are associated with a tangent from Christianity. The other Eastern sects and Indian guru cults are a very large and complex subject.
Very often a gullible disposition will fasten upon doctrines and personalities in a manner that will render the psychology prone to manipulation. This factor is so obvious that many writers have appropriated it in a wave of “anti-cult” books that have themselves become a commercial influence. There are varying degrees of ideological persuasion expressed in such works, varying from Christian to materialist. A favoured target is Indian gurus and related subjects; strangely enough, both materialists and Christians tend to converge in the basic trend of denunciation. The real criterion is whether they are accurate. The present writer recently investigated one of the better works in this category. Many of the chapters were quite informative, and the author really had made an effort to muster sources. Yet a few of the chapters were marred by simplistic reporting and facile interpretations, with little or no regard for more detailed sources available in academic libraries. Any reader aware of this failing might be inclined to doubt the style in some of the other chapters, which tends to be dismissive. Such total doubt would be a pity, as the contentions expressed are often convincing and employ relatively solid data.
Critics of “cult apologists” have defined this group as including Eileen Barker, David Bromley, James Richardson, J. Gordon Melton, and Dick Anthony. These “apologists” have not all said the same things, however. Dick Anthony has been described by one critic as a putative expert hired by cults to defend their interests. In 2003, cult analyst Rick Ross stated that Dick Anthony (who has a Ph.D.) had not worked within a university for more than twenty years and had an unconvincing track record in legal cases. According to Dr. Anthony’s own statement (reported by Ross), his fee for reviewing materials in his office was 350 dollars an hour, while his fee for work conducted outside his office was 3,500 dollars a day plus expenses. See the very critical article “Is Dick Anthony a full-time professional ‘cult apologist’?” at www.rickross.com/reference/apologist/apologist44.html.
Such activities and fees have caused wonderment in Britain. Dr. Anthony is known for declaring his allegiance to the “Meher Baba Lovers” of California, and has deferred to the Meher Baba Centre at Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. Some persons have mentioned him to me in view of the fact that I wrote a book on Meher Baba (1894-1969). I should here state that I have no connection with Dick Anthony, and have never been in contact with him. My non-sectarian and radically independent book Meher Baba, an Iranian Liberal (1988) was suppressed by the Myrtle Beach Centre, who took strong exception to the criticisms of prominent devotees in this movement of “Lovers.” No response could be elicited from the associated grouping known as Sufism Reoriented. There was an initial brief response from the California Meher Baba Centre, followed by total non-response after they learnt of the (unofficial) ban imposed by the Myrtle Beach elite. Some diligent readers have noticed that my sequel treatment of the subject carried some lengthy critical annotations (Investigating the Sai Baba Movement, 2005, Part 3, including note 463 relevant to Dr. Anthony).
Dr. Anthony was co-editor with Ken Wilber of Spiritual Choices (1987), a book which met with rather mixed responses. On the credit side, this work did give a timely warning of cult drawbacks such as the Adi Da phenomenon. Yet on the debit side, critics fastened upon the rather uneven format that included Dr. Anthony’s enthusiastic justification for the Meher Baba sect in America and the erratic commentary of Ram Dass (Richard Alpert) on his purportedly spiritual adventures (despite the latter’s commendable admission of having been a “phony holy”). The Anthony Typology did not gain universal assent, and it was felt elsewhere that there were looming discrepancies in the rather elaborate vocabulary devised for the presentation (Shepherd, Minds and Sociocultures Vol. One, 1995, pp. 114, 162, 197 note 270).
Dr. Anthony also contributed to a “pro-cult versus anticult” volume that became another focus for debate. See Benjamin Zablocki and Thomas Robbins, eds., Misunderstanding Cults: Searching for Objectivity in a Controversial Field (2001). Brainwashing is here a major issue. This work does also specify the need for scholarly objectivity when researching cults and emphasises the danger of partisan research. Cf. the review by James T. Richardson in Sociology of Religion (Winter 2003), who says that Dr. Anthony has “the longest and most substantial chapter in the volume,” and that the same contributor is “primarily responsible for having ‘brainwashing’ based testimony tossed out of many courts in the US and Europe.”
24.13 Contrasts: Paul Brunton and Meher Baba
l to r: Paul Brunton, Meher Baba
In defining the characteristics of religious and sectarian movements, plus related trends, there is the relevant proviso that close analysis of specifics is called for, rather than generalising criteria which can mislead. I do agree with that caution expressed by some sociologists, and will here briefly illustrate an instance of disparity. In Western countries, the journalist and “esoteric writer” Paul Brunton is often viewed as a superior source to an Asiatic he derided. Close inspection of this matter reveals some factors that are not in Brunton’s favour.
Though Meher Baba, Iranian Liberal was a critical work, it did observe certain courtesies incumbent upon describing a Zoroastrian subject who had been misrepresented in the popular “esoteric” media associated with the British journalist Paul Brunton (1898-1981). The latter gained the repute of being a spiritual authority, and produced a string of bestselling books. Brunton was patronised by the publishing house of Rider and began to describe himself as a Ph.D. in 1945.
Rider have since emblazoned Brunton’s doctoral status on commercial paperbacks such as A Search in Secret India, which first appeared in 1934. Secrets were a market lure in the 1930s, but evidently needed an academic imprimatur to sustain credibility. Yet Brunton’s Ph.D. credential is now strongly implied as a spurious invention having no ascertainable link with the university to which he once ascribed it under duress. The suggestion has been made that the commercial credential was related to Brunton’s fantasy about astral travels and his study of philosophy at the nebulous Astral University. See Jeffrey Masson, My Father’s Guru: A Journey through Spirituality and Disillusion (1993), pp. 86, 160ff., which exposes the Brunton myth.
Paul Brunton’s Secret India is an unreliable source for Meher Baba, and could not even provide an accurate description of the latter’s appearance, which is substantially misrepresented by an aspersion of deficient cranial capacity. Brunton met Meher Baba in 1930. Despite the close proximity, Brunton describes Meher Baba’s forehead in terms of: “It is so low as to appear less than average height, and it is so receding as to make me wonder” (Secret India, second edition 1970, p. 48). On the same page, Brunton asks pointedly: “Does a man’s forehead indicate his powers of thought?” In which case Meher Baba was just as thoughtful as Paul Brunton, if not more so. The abundant photographic and cinefilm testimony to cranial dimensions graphically disproves the powers of observation exercised by Paul Brunton.
Meher Baba did make some strong statements, claiming to be a God-man; in this respect it is easy to make criticisms. Yet in certain other respects, restraint is advisable. Meher Baba bathed lepers, personally tended and donated to the poor, and supported the cause of untouchables in the face of caste biases. In fact, caste taboos were outlawed at his Meherabad ashram during the 1920s. His affinity with untouchables extended to a private meeting with Dr. Bhimrao R. Ambedkar (the untouchable leader) in 1932. The lifestyle of Meher Baba was strictly disciplined, and he remained a silent celibate ascetic until his death. His relevant Irani Zoroastrian background receives no mention in the popular and cursory treatments favouring Brunton’s deceptive report. He was described by Brunton as a “Parsee messiah,” which is ethnically inaccurate.
The early years of Meher Baba reflect his ethnic mid-way stance between Islam and Hinduism, a feature commonly neglected. His later years were marked by a more devotional ambience associated with the Hindu temperament. To his credit, this Irani was the only “Indian guru” figure in the 1960s to make a pointed case against the use of LSD, a message that was resented by some sectors of the emerging new age trend in America. See further my web entry Meher Baba (2009).
The necessity to penetrate cult literature, cult apologetics, occultist commerce, and anticult extremisms is incumbent upon serious researchers. For instance, Indology (and Iranology) should not be sacrificed to the conspectus of mediocre journalism, astral travels, devotional sentiment, or extremist anticult reductionism of extensive data.
|
