Tess Kehoe's blog

This week, we’re going back to the theme of more aggressive cults, I hope you enjoy reading.

Aum Shinrikyo, which translates to supreme truth, was started in Japan in the 1980’s by a man of the name Shoko Asahara. Asahara was an interesting man, he lost part of his sight as a child battling an illness. He claimed to be both Christ and the first “enlightened one” and started Aum on the principles of Hindu and Buddhist beliefs with a little bit of the Catholic bible sprinkled in. Aum appealed to people because the belief system promised to bring more happiness and alleviate stress. Asahara gave a lot of talks at local universities, thus Aum gained traction among the young, highly driven, and highly stressed people. The group received official recognition as a religious organization in 1989. At Aum’s peak, there were over 10,000 members in Japan and thousands others across the world, but mainly in Russia.  

The members of this cult paid large amounts of money for very strange things in return. Someone once paid what translates to around $8,100 to drink the leader’s blood as part of a “blood initiation”. The group emphasized not having attachments to material objects, but viewed rituals involving Asahara’s hair, bathwater, and blood to be as a way of getting more enlightened.  

The group slowly became more aggressive as they progressed to be more of a doomsday cult. The Aum were involved in kidnappings and other violent acts because they believed a third world war would induce and only the people in their group would survive. The group really gained traction with their very violent biological attack. In 1995, the Aum people left five bags filled with sarin, a liquid never agent created by the Nazis, on the world’s busiest underground train system. The bags leaked and the fumes stung passengers eyes, in a matter of seconds innocent people were on the ground choking and vomiting, leaving some people blind and paralyzed. At the end of the day, this was the worst domestic terrorist attack Japan had ever seen, 13 people died that day and at least 5,800 others seriously injured. In total, there were five attacks on three different train lines. Asahara was found hiding at an Aum compound on Mount. Fuji and was sentenced to death in 2004, ultimately dying in prison last july.  

Sources:

BBC News. “Aum Shinrikyo: The Japanese cult behind the Tokyo Sarin attack.” BBC News, 6 July 2018, www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35975069.

Nix, Elizabeth. “5 20th Century Cult Leaders.” History, 10 Dec. 2013, www.history.com/news/5-20th-century-cult-leaders.

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Raëlism is a french cult founded in 1974 by Claude Vorilhon, known as Rael, at the age of 27 after he encountered a UFO on his way to work in December of 1973. This event changed the course of the then race-car journalist’s life. Raelians believe extraterrestrial scientists, the Elohim, genetically engineered the human race and have been guiding us ever since. They use Jesus and the Buddha as evidence of extraterrestrial representatives taking the form as religious figures. The goal of Raëlism is to teach the world to be a more peaceful place. Once the world is peaceful, the extraterrestrial beings can come stay at one of the many Raëlism embassies developed around the world.   

The group has what they call an Elohim Embassy, “That embassy would become the Third Temple as predicted in the ancient scriptures. According to specifications provided by the Elohim, it must be built in a neutral location that has been granted rights of extraterritoriality and guaranteed neutral air space. Providing such an embassy and obtaining the necessary guarantees for the rights of its occupants will prove that humanity is ready for an official meeting with its creators.” (Message from the Designers) This passage was found under the Embassy section on the Raëlism website, explaining their plans and intentions for the second coming of the Elohim. Below this passage were two more paragraphs stating they have asked other countries if they would like to host their own Embassy. Reportedly a few inclined that they might be interested and plans are in the works.  

Raëlism denies the belief of an afterlife, as they claim humans were created 25,000 years ago by a life form that was likely created by a previous life form and this cycle will continue, humans will create the next life form. While they do not believe in an afterlife, they are proponents of cloning. The group actively attempts to pursue the science of cloning, even claiming that the extraterrestrial scientists have cloned remarkable figures already. They are also advocates of free love, Rael himself claims to have started his sex life early on, discovering masturbating at the age of 9 and then losing his virginity to a much older woman at the age of 14. In their mission they believe the Elohim wanted humans to enjoy life to the fullest, therefore many Raelians are in non-conventional sexual relationships including polygamy and chastity.  

The only controversy surrounding this group that I could find was false reports of cloning. In 2012 the group had claimed to have successfully cloned a young girl but denied any request of outside scientists to investigate and confirm. The group denies these requests on grounds of maintaining the girl’s privacy, but rather it makes the situation appear false. I found this group to be interesting because of their non-traditional beliefs and their lack of violence and personal greed from the leader is different than most of the cults talked about in this blog. I found an interview of Rael with Bill Maher and Rael is very friendly, open, and a little bit funny. There is another interview of Rael on a French talk show that is more comedy centered if you are interested in that as well. There are currently roughly 100,000 members of Raëlism.

Sources:

Beyer, Catherine. “Introduction to the Raelian Religious Movement.” Thought Co., 12 Mar. 2019, www.thoughtco.com/raelian-movement-95694.

Message from the Designers. Rael.org. www.rael.org/home.  

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This week’s cult is unlike any other, and honestly kind of a smart scam.  Ho No Hana Sanpogyo, a modern, japanese for-profit cult led by multimillionaire Hogen Fukunaga, claims to perform a palm reading but on the soles of people’s feet to then diagnose them with severe illnesses or death sentences. The people are then encouraged to go to extensive training sessions to overcome their “diagnosed” issue. Keep in mind, the people who are conducting said foot readings are not qualified medical professionals in any way and have no idea what they’re talking about. They take advantage of the desperate people who come into sessions looking for answers and end up leaving paying obscene amounts of money on sessions, ornaments, scrolls, and books. There are numerous accounts of people who failed to attend all of Fukunaga’s sessions and are guilt tripped, told that their illness or their child’s illness is their fault because they refused to listen to Fukunaga.

Hogen Fukunaga claims to be the reincarnation of both Jesus and Buddha. In reality, he is a businessman, making upwards of 20,000 pounds a month, which he claims to have been dictated by to him by heaven. In 1987 the group gained official recognition as a religious corporation. New members were initiated into grueling conditions, forced to stay up for days and run around the streets yelling things that roughly translate to “I am living a happy and healthy life!” and “Fantastic!”. After training, the new members were led into private rooms where people who worked for Fukanaga would intimidate them into giving more money to the cult.   

FUJINOMIYA, JAPAN – JANUARY 06: (CHINA OUT, SOUTH KOREA OUT) ‘Ho no Hana’ cult leader Hogen Fukunaga speaks during a press conference at the headquarters on January 6, 2000 in Fujinomiya, Shizuoka, Japan. (Photo by The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images)

Japanese authorities had been on Fukunaga’s tail since 1997 because he failed to report income taxes. They uncovered more fraud throughout his books, including revealing the illness scams as the people who were diagnosed were perfectly healthy. Fukunaga attempted to build up his clout by fabricating interactions and relationships with well known figures and celebrities. He met with Pope John Paul II as a plus one with his friend who actually got invited and gave a ring to the Pope while he had a matching ones, and the two took a picture. Fukunaga relayed this as the Pope gave him the ring and posted the picture, claiming it was initiated by the Pope as a sign to get closer to world peace. This was completely false and the Japanese Catholic Bishop’s office launched a protest against Ho No Hana Sanpogyo. In 1999 the cult was raided on claims of three women who filed a lawsuit against Fukunaga because of fraud. In the three years following, over 1000 more people filed similar claims, ultimately seeking 5.4 billion yen. 

Sources:

“Ho No Hana Sanpogyo – News Archive and Research Resources on Japan’s Foot Cult.” Apologetics Index, 2000, www.apologeticsindex.org/h10.html.

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Robert “R. Kelly” the well-known R&B singer, is currently fire for allegations of sex with underage girls and leading a “cult”. He has been previously tried on 21 accounts of child pornography and after a six year trial was acquitted on all accounts. In 1994 as a 27 year old he married R&B princess Aaliyah who was then 15 but lied on the marriage certificate to be 18. Looking back at Kelly’s musical work, it is easy to say the signs were there, he produced and wrote the majority of Aaliyah’s album Age Ain’t Nothin But a Number.  

For the past two decades Kelly has been using his clout as a prominent musical artist to “mentor” young aspiring artists, particularly teenage girls. Initially, the girls meet Kelly with their parents and then the relationship develops more. Many of the parents have stated that they were aware of his previous allegations but because he was never convicted, they did not believe it to be anything more than gossip. One mom said, “In the back of our minds, we were thinking [my daughter] could be around him if I was with her,” (DeRogatis). While the parents may have been there for the first few meetings, Kelly has a way of connecting with the girls and meeting with them behind their parents backs. He uses charisma to charm everyone and promised to make something of the girl’s singing potential. Kelly slowly gained the trust of their parents and then moved the girls into rental mansions outside of Atlanta and a recording studio with a “guest house”. From there, he controlled every aspect of their lives. 

He reportedly gave each of the girls a new phone and told them they can only call him and need permission to contact anyone else. Kelly changed their appearances, forcing them to lose weight, cut and color their hair,  and wear different clothes among other things. Kelly went so far as to tell the girls when they can and cannot use the bathroom. Some of the girls and even his ex wife have accounted on his jealousy and that he has a pattern of getting physically violent at even the slightest thing like the milk in his cereal being too cold. Apparently Kelly makes the girls in his houses wear ill-fitting tracksuits around other men so they cannot show of their figures, and forces them to face the wall in rooms with men to hide their faces. Yet somehow these girls are genuinely convinced that they are in love with R.Kelly and he loves them back. R. Kelly may have thrown out some bangers like Remix to Ignition but he has a disgusting history with women that cannot be ignored.

Sources:

Tsioulcas, Anastasia, and Colin Dwyer. “The Allegations Against R. Kelly: An Abridged History.” NPR, 11 Jan. 2019, www.npr.org/2019/01/11/683936629/r-kelly allegations-an- abridged-history.   

DeRogatis, Jim. “Parents Told Police Their Daughter Is Being Held Against Her Will In R. Kelly’s “Cult”.” Buzzfeed, 17 July 2017, www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jimderogatis/parents-told-police-r-kelly-is-keeping-women-in-a-cult.

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The Westboro Baptist Church is one of the most well-known and despised “christian” groups in America. If you have not heard of them, they are notorious for preaching hate, primarily against gay people. The people of the WBC believe that Christ died for their sins, congruent with many christian and catholic sects, but they take this to the extreme when trying to gain salvation to save themselves. Because they think most people go to hell, they have to do what they can to live a “perfect” life to get into heaven. The WBC instills in the minds of their members to get in people’s faces and show them the truth. While God is love, the WBC rarely uses the word or includes it on their posters for outreach. Somewhere in the Bible it is accounted that truth= love, the WBC takes this literally as show people tough love by telling them the truth about everything they are doing wrong in life. It appears as though Fred Phelps Sr., the founder of WBC cherry picked sections from the Bible to fit his narrative.

I have always found it interesting these groups that have teachings rooted in love and acceptance of others, yet they preach the exact opposite. There are many groups with this contradiction, primarily what comes to mind is Christians who ostracize those who are gay, get abortions, and even divorced. If everything my Catholic high school theology classes taught me was true, about God being love and creating everyone in the image of himself, pure and good, then God does not make mistakes. I’m not a particularly religious person, but I enjoy playing devil’s advocate. The first thing my theology teacher freshman year taught us was to not take anything in the Bible as literal, rather to digest and interpret with historical context to make the teachings fit your life. Phelps on the other hand, took passages from the Bible literally and in turn curated a message of hate, pinning people against each other and creating “others”. What I don’t understand is how these “theologians” think that is what God meant. If God is real, I would like to think that this being would have wanted all of us to live together in harmony, accepting what we cannot change about people and loving them for their differences.   You can check out the official website of the WBC at http://www.godhatesfags.com/  

Sources:

Gray, Hillel. “They’re Still Here: The Curious Evolution of Westboro Baptist Church.” https://religionnews.com/2018/07/17/theyre-still-here-the-curious-evolution-of-westboro-baptist-church/, 17 July 2018, religionnews.com/2018/07/17/theyre-still-here-the-curious-evolution-of-westboro-baptist-church/.

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Heaven’s Gate was a group in the 1970’s led by Marshall Applewhite in a suburb of San Diego, California. Applewhite went by the name of Do (pronounced dough) and led the people alongside Bonnie Lu Nettles who went by Ti until she died in 1985. In 1975 the pair convinced a group of 20 adults from Oregon to move to Colorado to leave behind their families and material possessions. Life in the cult was very regimented, what they watched and read was censored and approved by Do. The preachings of this cult were that the human body is just a container and the Earth is just a garden to grow souls. The people were told if they abandoned their bodies, they would finally be released and get to an alien spacecraft behind the Hale-Bopp comet through suicide. After the spaceship never came and Ti died, membership of the group fell significantly.

Do pictured above

The cult resurfaced in the early 90’s when Do began recruiting more members. With the discovery of the Hale-Bopp comet in 1995, came a resurgence of the previous belief that suicide was the best way to save their souls. In the fall of 1996, Do rented a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, a suburb of San Diego, explaining to the owner that his group was a Christian sect. In March 1997, Hale-Bopp was at its closest point to Earth when the group commenced their mass suicide. Inside the mansion, 39 members drank a mixture of phenobarbital and vodka. A distant member entered the house to find all of the members laying on beds in their usual attire, black shirts and pants with black nikes, with dark purple cloths covering their faces. The house had many bunk beds to accommodate the various inhabitants, but Do of course was found alone in the master bedroom.   

The setting for this mass suicide was an interesting selection. Why would Do want to be in an affluent neighborhood to die rather than on their own compound, similar to other cults who have committed mirror acts. Do’s believers genuinely believed that he was the second coming of Jesus and would set them free. There are still some members today, who continue to believe and preach what Do taught. “Our 22 years of classroom here on planet Earth is finally coming to conclusion — “graduation” from the Human Evolutionary Level. We are happily prepared to leave “this world” and go with Ti’s crew.” This quote is found directly from their website, I would encourage you to check it out, their site is very colorful and has an interesting aesthetic.

Sources:

History.com Editors. “Heaven’s Gate cult members found dead.” History, A&E Television Networks, 9 Feb. 2010, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/heavens-gate-cult-members-found-dead.

NN, producer. “CNN: Heaven’s Gate suicides remembered.” CNN, CNN, 25 Mar. 2011. youtube.com, uploaded by CNN, www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzWpfq103q4.

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