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faiths, cults, and. sects or
teerlca; from atheism to Een
Ir)dply a> Bobbs-Merrlll T1960]
6 1974

NOR SEP 1 -^

FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS


OF AMERICA ',

From Atheism to Zen


Also BY RICHARD R. MATHISON

THE ETERNAL SEARCH:


The Story of Man and His Drugs
Faiths

From Atheism to Zen

by

RICHARD R. MATHISON

THE BOBBS-MERRILL. COMPANY, INC.


A SUBSIDIARY Of HOWARD W. SAMS * CO., INC.
Publishers INDIANAPOLIS NEW YORK
COPYRIGHT 1960 BY RICHARD R. MATHISON

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

First Edition

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 60-13589


To ME LI N D A
CONTENTS
P ART i tults and the Cultists

1 Their Importance, Scope and Meaning Today 11


2 The Cults of Antiquity / 23
3 The True Believer and Why 33
4 Union with the Absolute 40

PART II Established Cults of Today

5 Cults Which Have Become Denominations 47


6 50
Spiritism
7 Swedenborgians 54
57
8 Seventh-Day Adventists
9 Jehovah's Witnesses 61
10 Christian Science 65
1 1 69
Unity .

12 New 72
Thought .

1 3 The Mormons 77

PART III Cultism in America

14 The American Tradition 85


95
15 King James I

16 Baha'i 104
17 Dr. Robinson and Psychiana 107
8 The Rosicrucians 11 1
1

19 The Atheists 116

PART IV California: Mecca for Cultists

20 California? 125
Why
21 William 136
Money
22 Madame 142
Blavatsky
23 Annie Besant, Katherine Tingley and Krishnamurti 148
24 Sister Aimee 16
25 The Mighty I Am 176
26 Vedanta: "The Perennial Philosophy" 184
27 The Self-Realization Fellowship 1 88
28 Mankind United V .
196
29 Joe Jeffers 203
30 Krishna Venta 212

PART V Racial Cultism

31 Negro Cults 223


32 Voodoo 226
33 Father Divine 235
34 Sweet Daddy Grace 240
35 Other Negro Cults 244
36 Islam 251

PART VI Cults of Sex and Violence

37 The Satanic Mass 263


38 The Sex Cults 273
39 Crowleyanity 277
40 Edvaard Admusson and the Living Flame 293
41 Franz Creffield Naked Reformer
: 30 1
42 Ben Purnell and the House of David 306
43 John Briggs; Southwest Messiah 317

PART VII Fads, Fancies and Cultic Attachments

44 The Street Preachers 327


45 Holy City 334
46 Penitentites 338
47 Flying Saucers
341
48 Moral Re-Armament 345
49 Gerald L. K. Smith 350
50 Vegetable, Sun and Health Worship 354
51 Yoga 361
52 Zen and the Beatniks 364
53 Quo Vadis? 369
Index 371
PART I

Cults and the


Cultists
Chapter
l

THEIR IMPORTANCE,
SCOPE AND MEANING TODAY

THE world may end


before the year is out.
But if recent predictions by assorted Sunday-morning tele-
vision fundamentalists, Kentucky hill country hard-shell Bap-
tists and experts on the geomystic secrets of the Great Pyramid

are false, certain other doings of a less cataclysmic nature can


be foreseen with reasonable accuracy.
still

Here in the United States, for example, about three dozen


people will announce during the coming year that they are
Christ returned, and dolefully predict that Armageddon is near.
Several select gatherings of devotees of demonic lore and
black magic will, with the aid of some exotic herbs and trance-
inducing drugs, conjure up a parade of slimy denizens from
hell.
^
^ ^
3 Several pitchmen, using a Hollywood mail drop, will try to
start various mail-order religions, promising the secret mysteries
of ancient Persia or India unveiled, then go broke.
Anumber of women recent refugees from Unity or Science
of Mind will announce that they have found the true meaning
of Christianity in the Bool; of Revelation.
4, Aflying-saucerfaddist )n Southern California will tell
of his
recent trip to Venus and of meeting Saints Matthew, Mark,
Luke and JohnriB^
11
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
V)
"*'
A previously thwarted and frustrated maiden lady a tourist

in San Francisco perhaps will give herself during an exhilarat-


to a half dozen young men. In
ing and sanctified cultic sex orgy
later remorse she will recant and create a scandal in North
Beach.
Mnsouth Chicago, several recent arrivals from the West In-
dies, working as street laborers, will die
of a voodoo hex in-

spired by debtors in their


home villages.
^A half-dozen hypochondriacs in panic will announce that
they will live forever.
^Numerous old ladies in Sioux City, San Diego and else-
where will report conversations with God.
^Hitler will pop up in a seance in Indianapolis,
v? A
nervous group of adventurers in new ideas will try to avoid
first nude church service.
staring at one another during the
^ City editors will be profaned by assorted vegetarians, pan-

theists, seers and theopoliticians who have the


total answer to

mankind's ills but can't gain an audience with the cynical news-
papermen.
These happenings, more or less accurate, are bound to come
about. If they reach the public, they will amuse
and bemuse it

for a day.
But there will be more.
^Widows of oil company executives will achieve a state of
sit in saris in the lotus position.
super-consciousness as they
An angry atheist will commit suicide, despondent over man-
kind's refusal to be savedby doctrine of godlessnessrun-
his

countable scores of shouting faithful in canvas cathedrals will


the Absolute
experience the heady ioy of being united with
during religious ecstas*A young Indian in the Southwest, now
readying himself for the ordeal, will be crucified
after being

flayed with cactus whip^ Hundreds of the hopelessly ill it will

be announced will be cured by the touch of a hand. But no


corns or other less romantic maladies will be remedied.**
4
x
*
These are the etritists, in the main credulous and kindly folk,

12
IMPORTANCE, SCOPE AND MEANING TODAY
who are the objects of scorn, ridicule and sometimes fear
from more staid neighbors.
*-
Estimates vary today. Just how many millions of people
find spiritual refreshment within the borderline cults and fringe
sects seems to vary depending on the statistician who compiles
the figures.
v^The National Council of Churches has announced that two
thirds of the people in the
United States about 104 million in
268 recognized religious bodies follow some creed or faith
with reasonable persistence. Of these a fraction, an estimated
six to seven million, belong to the cults and sects which include
a wide variety of beliefs but have in common a recognizable
deviation from "normal" Protestantism or Catholicism. Some
fundamentalists are assured the world will end any day and
have a phrase in the Old Testament to prove it. Others are
willing to test the solidity of their faith against the bite of a
rattlesnakefStill others seek by ecstatic excitement the immedi-
ate,transforming religious experience which will give them a
glimpse of True Reality.
Reaching past the Pentecostals and those who hold in com-
mon a fundamental belief in the literal translation of Scripture,
are other mysterious and esoteric groups which blossom usually
for a time, then fade with the death of a prophet or perhaps
some quaint scandal.
So, the word itself, "cult," remains a slur, a derogatory term
in theology as the new
has always been. Yet, by definition,
"true" religion cannot be described to everyone's satisfaction.
The theologian Allport perhaps came closest with his definition
of maturity. It involves, he says, an extension of interest beyond
self, objectivity in regard to self, a coherent philosophy of life.
From such a credo of personal characteristics only "sound re-
ligion" can develop, some say. Added to this, others include a
reference to the durability of historic faith as opposed to cultish
innovations.
H> A cult itself has been variously described as "great devotion

13
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
to some person, idea or thing, especially such devotion viewed
as an intellectual fad," or, simply, as "a group of admirers."
Still another more pedantic definition claims a cult is ""that
that has deviated from
group, secular or religious or both,
what our American society considers normative forms of re-
ligion, economics or politics and
has substituted a new and
often unique view of the individual, his world and how this
5

world may be obtained/


x*Such cultic fringe groups have always been a factor in the
development of major religions. They have served an important
function in the history of religion. Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick
1

maintains, in fact, that "the hope of the world' lies in such


minorities.
We remarks on the matter of what is
find, too, irreverent
"true" religion. George Bernard Shaw observed wisely that
"there is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions
of it." Walt Whitman noted that in religious fervor "there is
a touch of animal heat." Oscar Wilde, in "The Critic and the
Artist," said that "truth in matters of religion is simply the
opinion that has survived" and added that "religions die when
they are proved to be true. Science gives a record of dead re-
ligions."Joseph Conrad, looking at religious splinter move-
ments, observed that "God is for men and religion for women."
Such punditry, however clever, fails to differentiate clearly
between "true" and "false"
religion^,
y*A cult generally differs from a sect or a denomination only
in numbers and power. For, until belief solidifies and wor-

shipers grow, all religions are cults. As


Christianity and its
"false prophet," Jesus, was once a heresy to the priests of
Judaism which in turn was probably a splinter group of Zoro-
astrianism so the prophet of today, the lone heretic, is a vil-

lain, laughed at and scorned.


Yet the cults offer unique succor to the unique mind and
spirit. Hindu mystics, flying-saucer fanciers with
a religious
message, silent meditation circles pondering the wonders of
14
IMPORTANCE, SCOPE AND MEANING TODAY
lost Atlantis, even organized "study circles" of atheists re-
ligiously devoting their time to disproving God, thrive and
flourish. Lone, derelict prophets stand on street corners shout-

ing their quaint creeds to a disinterested, hell-doomed world.


Seers tell gasping matrons of the secrets of health offered by
Tarot cards.
While cults differ, all have a common bond. Fqr they appeal
to those who
are discontented and unwilling to-#u back, self-
assured in the faith of their fathers. They answer the call of
seekerswho are restless and hungry for the flash of insight
beyond mundane world without mystery, a nugget
the of for-
gotten lore which will bring them quickly to the feet of a "true"
godhead. Some, of course, are only after riches, thrills, happi-
ness, success and wisdom. But others want more. They are
blood brothers to those other yearning millions who have gone
before and, dissatisfied with Isis, Zoroaster and Luther, forged
new pathways into the jungle of the human spirit.
Some cultists find their religious experience. Some have
bright revelations of a greater reality. Some gain happiness and
wealth.
So the restless quest goes on, leaving in its wake theological
debate, social upheaval and strange political cleavages. Relent-
lessly ebbing and flowing, these new creeds change the ways of
man as theyblossom briefly.
This volume is about some of these strange and colorful

prophets and their followers who dream the heretic's dream. It


is also about others than the prophets, fools and idealists. For

there are the charlatans torturing old writings to use on the


gullible and unfortunate; inventing weird and wonderful con-
cepts to lure the lonely, twisting Christianity in their avarice for
power, riches or fame.
Opportunists, bunco artists, racketeers, confidence men and
glib psychotics are also riding today's religious ground swell,
leaving chaos and tragedy in their wake.
For America's "religious revival" is in full bloom. An esti-

15
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
mated eighty new churches and synagogues are being built each
week. Billy Graham's evangelistic rallies draw larger crowds
than most major football games, and Norman Vincent Peale's
in thousands of
philosophy is the foundation for daily life
homes. Religious books and recordings are best-sellers and

"piety along the Potomac" is a recognized factor in national


oolitical life.
Criminals, meanwhile, have discovered that there is big
money in religion and cult movements. What's more, they are
actually protected by law while they organize these rackets. For
of Article
they operate, strangely enough, under the protection
I of the Bill of Rights, which states: "Congress shall make no
law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof. ..."
"To rob in God's name is the lowest crime possible," explains
otie minister, "but how can we rid ourselves of these vultures
without injuring the cause of religion itself?"
His quandary is summed up in a classic legal decision. In
1940, two boys, aged sixteen and eighteen, were arrested in
Connecticut for soliciting funds while preaching door to door.
They refused to buy a local permit, claiming that they were or-
dained ministers. After a series of appeals, the United States
Supreme Court ruled on the case in a unanimous decision, de-
ciding in favor of the youths. The decision read; "The people
of this nation have ordained in the light of history that in spite
of the probability of excesses and abuses, their liberties are, in
the long view, essential to enlightened opinion and right con-
duct on the part of the citizens of a democracy." It went on to
what may seem hokum and downright thievery to
stress that
one person can be religion and charity to the next.
This legal ruling has set the course. And the vultures have
moved in, using it as an "Open Sesame!" to deal in hope,
reverence and escape from daily humdrum and fear.
Typical of one of the stunts to lure the gullible is an adver-
tisement which appeared recently:

16
IMPORTANCE, SCOPE AND MEANING TODAY
"BIG NEWS! GUARANTEED 48-HOUR BLESSING! GOD WILL
EASE ALL ACHES AND PAINS OF LIFE! YOU CAN END YOUR PROB-
LEMS NOW! BE THEY LOVE, MONEY OR SICKNESS! ENCLOSE
SELF-ADDRESSED, STAMPED ENVELOPE AND A FIVE DOLLAR
DONATION, AND I WILL SEND YOU A GUARANTEED BLESS-
ING!"
The racketeers know, meanwhile, that they are striking at
the very heart of Protestantism, the evangelistic effort. As many
clerics explain it: Suppose the man has a message and can

bring people to God. Is it right to limit his effectiveness because


he doesn't have the proper education or belong to a recognized
sect? Who has the right to sit in judgment?
There are many advantages to a criminal who chooses to
move into religion.
A man can become a "Reverend Doctor" by being "or-
dained" by a diploma mill or, if he wishes to save a few dollars,

simply by starting his own church or cult by printing some


letterheads.
This, automatically, opens the doors. Now he can start steal-
ing from the public, from the government and from private
business.
He can, as a minister, get half-fare on trains and planes. He
can collect fees for baptisms, marriages and funerals. He can
get discounts from stores in many communities and use the
prestige of the cleric's garb as he sees fit in daily affairs.
But that is just the beginning.
If he prospers, he can start a "non-profit" corporation for
his cult or church. To most people this catchy phrase means
a sort of benevolent fellowship controlled by authorities. Ac-
tually the laws vary from state to state. In many cases, the in-
corporators need simply to collect the loot. When the corpora-
tion is dissolved, they fall heir to the donations gathered for
various worthy causes. That these complications represent con-
stant headaches to the government is indicated by the fact that
in California, a state which is a focal point of religious rack-

17
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

eteering but which has strict laws for non-profit corporations,


the Internal Revenue forces have one man whose sole job is to

keep tab of religious groups.


The would-be cleric or cultist is really limited only by his

skill and imagination.


He can buy radio or television time and solicit funds, offering

nothing in return and needing no permit.


He can invest in tax-free real estate, automobiles, boats and
furniture for his "church," making private deals for kickbacks
and padded bills,
He can convince his followers to make out their wills to his

cult or non-profit foundation.


income tax authorities he has
If he keeps straight with the
little to fear.
The mechanics of becoming such a minister were illustrated

during one of the perennial hearings in California last year.


Authorities flushed out one "Dr." B. J. Fitzgerald, president
of the "Universal Church of the Master" in Oakland, California.
He had been selling hundreds of certificates ordaining people
as ministers in his church. To become an ordinary minister a
person paid $18.50 for the certificate, which was an impressive
vellum scroll with wax seal. It announced that the bearer could
perform marriages, baptize and officiate at funerals. For the
carriage trade there was a fancier package which cost $30.20.
It allowed the holder to practice faith healing and to charter

and start his own church. The big buy, however, for $49.50,
made the purchaser a bishop and carried the further induce-
ment that, as a bishop, he need not report collections to anyone
and could declare that all revenue garnered was tax free.
One housewife an undercover agent for the state testified
that she bought the $30.20 certificate and was sent a booklet of
instructions in faith-healing, and her scroll.
But this, as the hearing developed, was gross extravagance.

18
IMPORTANCE, SCOPE AND MEANING TODAY
One investigator bought the same rights for $2 in Los Angeles.
A witness in this hearing suggested the method tried in Mis-
sissippi, where lawmakers hoped to stop the religious debacle
with a bill which made it a retroactive misdemeanor for the
bearer of a doctor of theology degree not to have signed it him-
self. Their logic: The hundreds of such degrees signed with a

simple "X" would no longer be valid and the illiterate doctors


of theology who possessed them would be out of business.
Another favorite money-making scheme of racketeering
clerics and cultists is to offer personal counseling services at a
fee to the flock.
One notable operator who held some six ecclesiastical "de-
grees," as well as degrees in psychology, naturopathy and a
Ph.D., was a specialist in such paid advice.
His consulting technique came to light during a colorful
divorce hearing. A
parishioner had come to him for advice
about his wife's drinking habits. The cleric had pondered the
problem through a series of twenty-dollar sessions, then come
up with a simple solution.
u
Tell ya what ya do," he advised the quivering-lipped hus-
band. "Stop by a bar on the way home from work tomorrow!
Get yourself loaded drunker than your wife has ever been!
That'll show her!"
"But I don't like
liquor," whined the husband.
"Drink it anyway!" roared the minister.
The husband did and went home and beat his wife.
As the investigation developed, it was found that this would-
be spiritual advisor had ordered mothers to beat their children,
created a long series of domestic crises and caused several
divorces.
These religious freebooters have the advantage of not being
restricted by formal creed, dogma or belief. To build a cult they
can devise tricks to "sell" religion like canned beans. Stunts in
spiritualism, reincarnation, faith healing and miracles are all

19
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
fairgame. One operator has achieved something of a coup with
a "meditation group." He sells tracts for contemplation to his
gullible parishioners at a dollar a copy, and rents a hall each
Sunday where With proper lighting, some rented
his flock meet.
bronze statues and a few coy words about his "world-encom-
passing, non-denominational" theology, he allows them to
brood on his tracts for an hour, takes up a collection and sends
them out for another week. For this simple effort, he nets a
modest but steady $300 a week.
Many religious bunco men use twists on age-old rackets.
Typical was a bold operator who gambled $1500 in fresh one-
dollar bills, assured that the average American churchgoer was
honest and kind. Using church membership lists, he mailed out
the dollar bills along with a picture of a starving child and some
tearful literature. "It takes only this dollar to feed this child for
a week," the plea went. "Return it with a dollar of your own to

help us." The sympathetic


recipient felt guilty if he didn't return
the mailed dollar. Usually he enclosed a dollar of his own.
When the promoter was finally nabbed by Ohio authorities they
said that he had pyramided the trick into $450,000.
One of the oldest bunco games has been dusted off during
the religious revival. Checking newspaper obituary lists for
church members, promoters mail Bibles to the deceased along
with a bill for $25. "Enclosed is the Bible you ordered with
your name stamped in gold on the cover," the covering letter
explains. The relatives always pay up and the racketeer makes
a $20 profit.
The famed "switch game" of the bunco trade has been given
new direction by religion operators. One woman who headed
a small cult told a follower that he had talents to become "a
great faith healer." But she explained that he would have to rid
himself of all material possessions. "Sell everything you have
and bring the money to me," she instructed.
He did. She took the pile of bills, wrapped them into a pack-

20
IMPORTANCE, SCOPE AND MEANING TODAY

age and sealed She ordered him to go throw the bundle into
it.

the ocean, then return. He boarded an excursion boat and


started for Catalina Island to perform his grim task. But, as he

explained in court later, his curiosity got the better of him. Be-
fore tossing the bundle overboard he unwrapped it and peeked,
It contained a neat pile of currency-size paper.
Two con men were Midwest for soliciting
picked up in the
donations for a youth organization. One wore the turned collar
and suit of a Protestant minister, and the other, a priest's robes.
All had gone well and they had been making about $100 a day
until the Protestant minister, flushed with a minor victory, got
drunk.
The devices to raise money with fake charities are beyond
recording. Suffice it to say that one New York State legislative
committee estimated that in 1956 the state's citizens had given
away $22 million to crooked religious and charity promoters.
One nabbed operator in New York, who worked the tele-
phone list pitch, proudly demonstrated to police the fact that
people never really listen to what the con artist tells them. He
stood on a street corner and collected $ 1 5 in a half hour "to
aid the widow of the Unknown Soldier,"

Legitimate denominations and sincere clergymen cannot


and will not compete with the show biz trickery which is ramp-
ant today. They won't try to draw helpless unfortunates with
"WHAT CHRIST TOLD ME ABOUT CANCER!"
alluring ads such as:
U
I AND FOUND THE PROPHET!" Or
VISITED A FLYING SAUCER
"JESUS WILL RETURN IN 1959 (100% BIBLICAL PROOF GUAR-
ANTEED!)"
They will not conduct free raffles for Bibles or offer framed
as one "min-
pictures of Christ as door prizes. They won't
ister" did give such premiums for church attendance (with
the resultant collections) as a hand-painted twelve-piece din-
ner setting of dishes bearing the portrait of Jesus and the eleven
Apostles Judas being conspicuous by his absence.

21
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
Such contemporary aberrations are but passing moments,
however, in the timeless parade of the cultists.
Those eager to lure the gullible remain a fixture in all faiths
and all times. But many more are dedicated idealists, intent
only on perfecting their own uniquely devised views of God and
universe and saving man.
It allbegan when the world was green when, perhaps,
some forgotten ruler announced that the sun was God, and one
heretic walked away quietly, assured that God was the moon.

22
Chapter

THE CULTS OF ANTIQUITY

WHAT was schism and cult in the dim yester-


year is often vague. For they ebbed and flowed in and out of
orthodoxy much as they do today.
To the peoples in the green valleys of the Tigris and Euphra-
tes, the world was inhabited by demons and
other evil super-
naturals as well as kindly spirits. Spirits were everywhere to be
soothed and placated with charms, promises, sacrifice and
prayer. Good spirits and bad, they
were constantly at their
task. And the people the Sumerians who had settled in the
lower Euphrates 5000 years before Christ, the dark-skinned
Akkadians, the Elamites (ancestors of the Persians), the star-
all sought aid with
gazing Babylonians and the Assyrians
magical devices.
The eye and black magic and soothsayers were every-
evil
where. Men feared the magician and his wondrous knowledge
even as they do today. Chaldean priests discovered the stars
and a beneficent God and a schism with devil worship came.
God and the forces of good, they held, could win over evil.
Heresies thrived, despite the already hoary dream of all men
thinkingof in the same way. Today, as then, the ecumen-
gods
ical lives on. But, as always, there are ever those who
hope
23
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

question each belief and draw their own interpretation, leading


a movement from the status quo.
In Mesopotamia, the mighty El-Temen-An-Ki, to be known
later as the Tower of Babel, reached toward the heavens. This

magical monument, erected in seven stages, each dedicated to


a special planet by the astrologer-builders, arose. When com-
pleted it reached to three hundred feet!
There were many of these mortar and stone talismans. King
Nebuchadnezzar, who ruled from 605-562 B.C., wrote of re-
storing these ancient towers. But already theology had moved
on and it was considered evil to turn back to this pagan mem-
ory. Hence, the legend of Genesis tells of the confusion of
u
tongues brought about by Elohim in order to stop the sinful"
construction.
Zoroaster was to emerge and purify the ancient belief in the
powers of the hosts of good and evil spirits who ruled in a split
universe. He spoke of the idea of one god, leaving his heritage

to Judaism and Christianity. There were angels and demons, of


course. But there was more: a new kingdom, the coming of a
savior, the belief in a resurrection, a general judgment and a
future life.

Magic continued to thrive as these new heresies came. The


ancient Hebrews fought sorcery. Yet^ some rulers emphasized
it. We
are told that Manasseh, thirteenth king of Judah, en-
couraged sacrilegious divination; and even the mighty Solomon
broke with God's word and started worshiping the wanton
Elohim in his old age. (The Scriptures leave unanswered
whether he later retreated from this flurry with cult ism.)
There were wild splinter groups within the structure of
Egypt's theology. The famed cult of Isis was to emerge and
spread through Europe and western Asia, eventually to merge
with Christianity. Isis was a mothej^Jmage, gentle and kind,
fostering all that was born and grew. She lived on in the Chris-
tian world both in the Madonna and in certain occult doctrines

24
THE CULTS OF ANTIQUITY

of magicians. At the time of the French Revolution, Robes-

pierre dedicated a mammoth statue of a woman, Isis, whose


generative powers were now dubbed "Reason" nurturer of
progress.
In ancient Greece, the Cult of the D'ead thrived. The de-
ceased were conjured up just as at today's spiritualist's seance.
At Psychomanteia and Psychopompeia, oracles, called "psycha-
gogues," after fasting and strange rites, spoke in the deep night
to the dead. One told King Periander that his wife spoke of

being cold and naked in the next plane. He called a public feast
and despite the outrage of orthodox believers ordered the
Corinthian women to throw their garments into a burning pit
so that his dead wife would receive them. The deceased wife
soon replied that she was warm and comfortable.
Plato roundly denounced such goings-on, even though other
sophisticates welcomed these events. As today, they were meat
for intellectual speculation by those bored and jaded by dull

worldly doings.
Plato was antagonistic to extra-terrestrial faddism through-
out his life, even if he did believe the results. In Laws he states
his views: "He who seems to be such a man as injures others

by magic knots and enchantments, be he a prophet or a diviner,


let him die."
Gnosticism was to rise and, today, still lingers with us in
scores of groups and is continually reappearing in new form. It
was based on the widely held belief that revelation of the Di-
vine was not the prerogative of any nation; it was to be found
in all civilizations, and every faith held a germ of truth which
culminated in Christ. The Gnostics thrived and, toward the end
of the third century, a group was to emerge with a concept
called Manichaeism. It was to try to resolve Zoroaster and
Christ, much as various sects and cults today try to resolve the
Hindu and Christian concepts. The Gnostics were to continue
to claim a special knowledge of Christ and wisdom unique to

25
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
initiates. The cult developed into a vastly complicated system
of beliefs. But there remained St. Paul's warning that the cult
u 1

was one of vain discourses and newly coined appellations/


Valentinus, a Gnostic leader, was to lure followers with his
sacrament of celestial marriage which the pious could witness
in a bridal chamber. This mystical eroticism, too, would appear

again and again in new guises. Basilides, the most celebrated of


the Gnostic leaders, flourished about 125 A.D., and innumer-
able splinter groups tying into astrology and other magical con-
cepts were to come as new Gnostic cults.
Magicians were always under attack, as they are today. But
astrologers were welcomed in court as they are in today's salon.
Chaldean magi were banished from Rome as early as 139 B.C.,
but they always returned. The early Christian rulers began the
persecution of cultists where the pagans left off. Within the new
faith, the Neo-Platonists were to develop, who specialized in
calling down good spirits by a system known as "theurgy" and
eventually were to merge once again into Christianity.
Practical Romans controlled magic and magicians by taxing
it as a
legalized cult. Julian the Apostate was attracted to a
new cult and started worshiping the planets. The sun was the
First Cause, the Supreme Principle. Today this sun worship
continues to emerge under new guises.
By the fourth century Christianity had overcome the pagan
cults and the magic rites in the cities. But the cults continued
to smolder and old beliefs did not die quickly. These urban
"Christians for convenience" were wary about forsaking the
rites of placating demons on the assumption that Christ's mes-

sage was true. Libanius (314-391 A.D.), the Greek rhetor-


ician, was aware of this. He wrote; "If they tell you that they
are newly converted, be sure that their sudden conversion is

only simulation. They remain what they are. They show, when
in the company of true Christians, their new religious feelings.
They seem to swell the numbers of worshipers of Christ with

26
THE CULTS OF ANTIQUITY

whom they pray. ... No doubt they do pray with words


different, however, from those befitting the place. They are like
the tyrants in a tragedy; being no tyrants at all, yet wearing the
mask."
The rustic was even slower. In the remote villages, pagan
(from the Latin word pagus: rustic) beliefs went on as a curi-
ous mixture. Concepts of Christianity with which the rural folk
were propagandized were taken and modified into the old
pagan ideas. Today, as we shall see, this admixture of magic
and Christianity goes on in small sects of the South and in such
informal mass movements as voodoo.
The Emperor Valens was outraged by cult magic. At one
time he ordered all philosophers who had knowledge of it put
to death. Indeed, he ordered all people whose name began with
" the
"Theod put to death. But Theodosius (346-395 A.D.),
successor of Valens, who was killed by the Goths, took new
measures. He banned incense burning, adorning of trees and
fires to the gods practices which today are
back as
lighting
part of Christian ritual.
Alchemy in the Middle Ages was to develop into a new cult-
ism. The were with neurotic symbolism
rife the
allegories
effects of putrefaction, the concern with various erotic prac-
tices, the use of offal and offensive materials
in experiments,

concern with and emphasis on the symbol of the hermaphro-


dite. Gnosticism was to become related to this search for gold.
church
Alchemy gave an emphasis to women which displeased
leaders, who dwelt on St. Paul's outspoken views that man "is
in the image of God and reflects His glory; while woman is the
to
reflection of man's glory/' Such backing gave firm support
of and alchemic interest in
church leaders attacking the cult Isis

the lowly female.


Its relative
Magic and witchcraft remained a major concern.
can be seen in that the penalty was death. Eating
importance
human flesh, at the same time, called for a fine of two hundred

27
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

gold pennies. Charlemagne's code was brief imprisonment and


a "season of repentance" for cannibalism.
The Arab world was not free from schisms. Indeed, the
Prophet Mohammed was the victim of a cult sorcerer who
knotted a rope and stuck pins in a wax doll, and tried to rob
him of his virility. Luckily, Allah revealed the plot, it is ex-
plained, and Mohammed was saved when the image and cord
were destroyed.
One was burned at the stake
Astrologers led religious cults.
in Florence when he deduced from Christ's horoscope that he
had been predestined for death on the cross.
As the Church grew in power, papal pressures were put to
bear on cults. In 1060, Pope Gregory VII had recommended
moderation. Papal edicts became more strict. There was a
clash between the Church and the cult of Luciferians, who

worshiped Evil. By the fourteenth century there was an all-out


drive to destroy all cults in Christiandom.
Yet, within the Church itself, cultists emerged. The Fran-
ciscan friar, Roger Bacon, dabbling with magic and astrology,

gathered a following with the belief that all Holy Writ was
based on the movement of the stars.

The worship was a constant thing, reaching back


of the devil
into pagan times. As economics and society changed, so did
man's concept of the devil. Some held he was everywhere, as
was God. Others claimed the devil could be recognized by the
fact that he had no buttocks but wore a second head on the
back of his lap.
There were scores of unholy images, changing reflections of
the demons of all history. Witches, who became uneasy at Sab-
bath time, flourished and could be recognized because they
rubbed pomade on flying sticks hence, they started using
brooms, authorities said, which were blackened anyway, to
escape detection.
Under pressures of Church and lords, peasants took refuge

28
THE CULTS OF ANTIQUITY
in theirodd dreams. Their old gods driven underground by
the Christian God of the rich and powerful were gnomes.
Like the serfs, they were stunted, brown and kindly, ready to
lead the peasants in revolt against the overlords. This myth of
the serfs was to be modified and used centuries later
11
by "Man-
kind United in California.
Transformation was every peasant's dream, as we can recog-
nize in the fairy stories of Cinderella and others. The old Druid-
ess of pagan times, living in a forest temple and performing
human sacrifice while devotees brought her food, became the
old witch who lived in the forest house of candy and ate chil-
dren.
The happy orgies and sexual rites of harvest time again
and again to reappear in cultic efforts which the Church said
were evil and showed carnal lust, found continuation in witch-
craft cults. For at the witches' sabbath the same joys of the
old pagan harvest festival could go on,
We must remember that even in the Middle Ages Chris-
tianity was still a new religion while the ancient deep stream of
these peasant customs was everywhere. And, not to be forgot-
ten, was other ancient lore seeping from other areas as it
does today to form new cults.
The old cabala of the Jews attracted many Christians. It
dealt with a bewildering array of magic squares, anagrams and
weird mathematics. Robert Fludd (1574-1637) was to try to
form a by reconciling the ten spheres of Aristotle with the
cult
ten Sefirots of the cabala. Still others were to devise meta-
physical systems from the cabala. It was the basis of cults which
held that only the elect could know God and the Universe and
that the ancient writings had hidden meaning, clothed in sub-
lime revelations. The trained believer could solve these riddles
and find the hidden meanings through methods handed down
through the ages.
Divination was to find its way into religious groups. Man's

29 .
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

destiny could be told by metoposcopy


and divination of moles,
A cult of palm-reading emerged, based on a line from Scrip-
ture, "He seals up the hand of man, that every man may know
bt

his work" (Job 37:7), and a line from Proverbs 3:16, Long
"
left are riches and honor.
life is given in her right hand, in her
The ancient Egyptian belief that a rod placed in a temple could

predict the future by falling toward the appropriate painting


on
the temple wall, found meaning in the Tarot game which told

man's future. The Tarot followers denounced the idea that


calculations and abstractions as practiced by the astrologers
could give a clue to world order. Yet they idealized their own

concepts and tried by intuition and insight to show its


meaning to God. The Church constantly fought these inroads
and the cults which emerged from them.
After the Reformation there was a wild flurry of secret so-
cieties, cultistic in nature. There were the brothers of the
Golden Cross, the Cross-bearing Evangelistic Militia of Lune-
berg and the Hermetics who identified God with the Philos-

opher's Stone.
The Classical Idealwas to be the roots for modern spiritual-
ism. Jansenism came into France about 1620, founded by the
Bishop of Ypres, who wrote that men could not purely love
God because of sinful influences. Starting out as a mild theo-
logical debate on the matter of heavenly grace it led to a half-
century of argument on free will between Jesuits and Jansenists.
It was still only a theological debate, however, until a Jansenist

died and some strange events near his tomb were publicized.
Hordes started arriving to be cured. It was to be the beginning
of today's modern television faith healer. Voltaire, writing of
the epoch, remarks: "There is apparently little advantage in

believingwhat Jansen believed, namely, that God demands the


impossible of man. This is neither consoling nor philosophical.
The secret pleasure, however, of belonging to any party, the

30
THE CULTS OF ANTIQUITY

hatred of the Jesuits, the wish to excel, the general spiritual


unrest, all these lead quickly to the formation of a sect." Jan-
senism flourished until 1787.
In the eighteenth century, vampires were to emerge by the
scores. The dead knew hunger, as the ancient mortuary magic
of Egypt had taught. Graves were opened throughout eastern
Europe and wondrous reports of still fresh corpses circulated.
Bodies were burned, beheaded, stakes driven through hearts.
Always they were filled with fresh blood, tales held. Cults
emerged as the fanaticism reached epidemic proportions.

Cagliostro founded still another cult of occultism where,


during seances, one could hear a young girl having a mystical
union with an angel. Later, he was to found the Egyptian Lodge
of Freemasonry.
The notorious Count of Saint-Germain, who admitted to
having lived 2000 years because of a liquid which prolonged
human life, appeared. Frederick the Great referred to him as
"theman who cannot die." He would casually refer to chats
with the Queen of Sheba and gossip of Babylonian courts. He
spoke and wrote Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Arabic, Chinese,
French, German, English, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. He
told people secrets of their family and had a fabulous knowl-

edge of European history. In addition to such mundane chores


as playing music, paintingand removing flaws from diamonds,
he could become invisible, fall into and
a self -induced trance
make gold. And he had the elixir of life. His followers founded

lodges everywhere and wrought miracle cures. He was to drop


from sight and not reappear until a few years ago on a western
mountainside with his strange elixir which he gave to the
founder of the Mighty I Am.
The cultists and seers came on. Alliette, the Cabalist, gave
lessons to her flock in France. Madamoiselle Lenormand's par-
lor was filled each Sunday, while church leaders howled at her

31
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
cult of fortunetelling. D'Olivet tried to revive Pythagoras' re-

ligion and created a flurry until he was found dead at the foot
of the altar he had built to his gods.
A former artillery officer with Napoleon's army, Wronkie,
gathered followers with his theories of the secrets of the cabala;
and Charles Fourier tried to start a social reform by semi-
magical means. With her tales of visions, Madame d'Eldir be-
came the pet of wealthy Frenchmen in 1814; and a vicar at
Notre Dame, William Oegger, gathered a flock of true believers
after he told of meeting Judas Iscariot in England. The former
deacon of St. Sulpicius in Paris, bored with historic theology,
revived occult doctrines and tried with his flock to fuse science
and religion. The Baron Guldenstubbe received the illustrious
dead and told his followers of his conversations with Plato and
Caesar and of their views on current affairs.
"Nothing can be denied as long as it is not disproved," was
the battle cry down through the resounding centuries.
Cultures came and went. But man's desire to believe in the
strange and miraculous remained constant. All sought escape
from the traps of uniformity and routine.
The and oppressive prospect that the world might
cheerless

just go on running with the same rigidity and determination as


it always had in tlie past annoyed each new
generation. Even
the cautious and skeptical at times rebelled against the dull
casual chain of action, reaction and action again which pre-
cluded the supernatural and all the joys of gifts of chance and
riches.
And so today. One need only stand and reveal his new
it is

and startling vision or meeting and the yearning lonely gather.


The ancient writings of the past, revelations never heard before,
a mixing of conflicting theologies they all lure, all promise.

32
Chapter

THE TRUE BELIEVER AND WHY

IN A.D, 640, when the Saracens captured Alex-


andria, seat of ancient culture, Greek scholars pleaded with
them not to burn the scrolls of the great library. Their reply, as
recorded by Gibbon in his Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire remains a classic in theological logic. "If the writings
support the Koran, they are superfluous," ruled the warrior
tribesmen. "If they oppose it, they are pernicious; burn them."
A certain prophetess in northern New York State used a
similar device in 1820 after announcing to her followers that
she could walk on water.
Thousands of the faithful gathered the next morning at a

nearby lake to witness the miracle.


When the cult leader, arrived, she turned to the crowd. "Are

you all entirely persuaded that I can walk on water?" she


demanded.
They agreed with one voice that they were.
"In that case," she replied, "there is no need for me to do so."
The devoted believers went home edified and somehow as-
sured that they had been part of a heavenly phenomenon.
While scores of reasons are given for finding satisfaction in

their unusual beliefs, all cultists have certain characteristics in

common. The typical cultist has usually deserted his hereditary

33
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
faith for "something better." He is nearly always resentful of,
or even hostile to, other more orthodox religions. And he is
spiritual or worldly
which the cult
eager to taste the power
leader offers.
The journeyman cultist is often well versed in the shortcom-
of Protestant and Catholic theology. He will point them
ings
out with kind indulgence, mild contempt or actual hatred. Most

cults offer a fervent supernaturalism and "otherworldliness"


which has but departed from the great denominations. Quite
all

naturally, the cultist has braved the contempt of conventional

friends and relatives for his new beliefs and will not easily ad-
mit he has erred. A cult leader knows that the more incredible

the beliefs he can promulgate, the more assured he is of build-

ing a solid core of devotees who will


defend themselves against
the outsideworld of cynics and actually become more malle-
able because of their persecution.
Most new cults take a pessimistic viewpoint and scorn stand-
ard social, legal for bettering mankind.
and economic ideas
Most accept the adventist or charismatic concept that the world
is doomed soon and they as the elect of God are the only

ones assured of salvation. Hence, the typical cultist is articulate,


shows a certain patronizing superiority, and is often a violent
evangelist. Cultic beliefs are frequently
born of a neglected
desire to stress a particular approach.
scriptural "truth" or the
Many cultists can page through a Bible to marked paragraphs

and build an elaborate defense of their ideas from such au-


thority. From this comes one theologian's
conclusion that ""cults
are the unpaid bills of the church."
Cults offer basic appeals. They are often a refuge for the
poor. Unfortunates can turn away
from the world and from a
cult draw hope that some cosmic mechanism will in the

near future place them above the rich and powerful. The im-
mediate destruction of the world or the second coming are par-
ticularly attractive prospects.

34
THE TRUE BELIEVER AND WHY
Paradoxically, new cults, which scorn orthodox Protestant-
ism, often draw strength from the traditional Puritan morality.
Austerity, humility and denial are counted as virtues. Most
cultsemphasize the need to leave not only conventional "vices"
but also those luxuries enjoyed by the elite, worldly sinner.
The potential cultist is emotionally hungry and usually can-
not afford expensive recreations. While conventional churches
tend to discourage emotional display and escape, most cults
deliberately plan devices to stir excitement and excessive zeal.
Many, indeed, contend that the quality of excited reaction by
the worshiper constitutes his religiosity and faith.
Cults, too, offer an answer to the craving for objectivity.
Protestantism calls for belief in the final authority of personal
experience. Catholicism is based on faith and acceptance of
the authority of the Church. Many people are incapable of
these. They mustreally participate physically, not just spirit-
They also want to have their say in formulat-
ually, in the rites.
ing theological concepts. Simple argument over the trivia of
theology is usually encouraged by cult leaders. Blind accept-
ance of historic beliefs based on authority has no part in most
cultic efforts.
Cult leaders, paradoxically, too, usually appeal to conserv-
atism. They stress the ancient and the commonplace in theology
and practice, denouncing "modernism" and science. David
Starr Jordan defined this process as "sciosophy" or "systematic

ignorance." It calls for the ancient Gnostic concept of finding


"secret" meaning in the Scripture. The favorite hunting grounds
are the books of Daniel and Revelation.
Therefore, the answer to why cults attract can be found not
with what they represent, but with the cultist himself. Whatever
their doctrines, cults appeal to a certain personality structure.

They offer a proclivity for united action, an opportunity to

fight or even die for the Cause and, of course, varieties


of answers to frustation. -

35
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
The old saw that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel
findsmeaning in cultic activity. Eric Hoffer in his study on mass
movements, The True Believer, says: "The less justified a man
isin claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he
is

to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race, or
his holy cause. A man is likely to mind his business when it is

worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own
meaningless affairs by minding other people's business/'
The man who has the least difficulty deceiving himself is, of
course, the most vulnerable to deception by others. There are
"good" and "bad" But conversion to any usually depends
cults.

upon the incubation and fixation of frustrations.


Most cults, too, offer change and reform. Thoreau, remark-
ails a man so that he does
ing on this, once noted: "If anything
not perform his functions, if he has a pain in his bowels ... he
forthwith sets about reforming the world."
Naturally there is more than just discontent in the cultisfs
desire for change. usually a yearning for power, a wish
There is

to become an elect in this world or the next. The successful


cult leader must kindle this desire. He must show that he offers
a for one to rid himself of his unwanted self and be reborn.
way
some form of renunciation achieve
Obviously he must offer to

this rebirth and attract those who feel their lives are spoiled be-

repair. It is one reason why cults often offer an actual


yond
migration to some promised land. The result is not only a
and
physical rebirth of the individual but
also unification

strengthening of the cultic effort.


Thefirst cultists in a new movement are usually misfits, out-

casts, the inordinately selfish, the bored, worried "sinners,"


ambitious failures and those in the toils of some obsession. It
follows that most are poor.
But the successful cult leader knows that not all poor are
frustrated. His strongest appeal is not to the abject poor who
have never known better times but to the "new" poor with
36
THE TRUE BELIEVER AND WHY

memories of power, comfort or even wealth. The cult leader


who can promise a revival of these conditions in some form
spiritual, material or in the next world obviously offers an
attractive lure.
Still other potential cultists find freedom not only a bore but
a burden. They seek discipline and need to be lost in a move-
ment of some kind if they are to realize contentment. They
crave "spiritual brotherhood" and fear liberty more than per-
secution. In a cult they can achieve a mass goal which would be

beyond the capabilities of a single individual.


A successful cult leader recognizes that all old ties must be

uprooted. The structure of today's orthodox Christianity, for


example, tends to de-emphasize Jesus' remarks when He
must be destroyed by those who would
stressed that family ties
follow Him. (Indeed, St. Bernard actually broke up so many
homes and left so many abandoned wives during his evangelistic
forays that women are said to have hid sons and husbands from
him.) Early Christianity, recognizing as it did the needs of up-
rooted people, blossomed and grew in the cities where it was
offered the greatest raw material in new migrants, disintegrated
armies and frustrated "new" poor. Such people were promised
a new freedom, fellowship and a common cause, all of which
they had lost as individuals. Such "temporary misfits" remain
excellent potential cult members today. If they join before find-

ing new roots, they often become dependent upon the cult. This
is why both recently retired spinsters and new widows are .prime

candidates, numerically important in all cults. Here they find


for more
joint action free from "sin" when they lack funds
worldly pleasure-seeking.
Let us construct our own foundations for a cult. We know
the psychological needs of those who will join a new religious
movement. What are to be our pronouncements to insure

growth?
To begin, we need a set of taboos. These will draw the cult

37
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

together. Orthodox fundamentalism will appeal as a common


denominator in the beginning. There should be strong emphasis
on sin, picturing the individual as vile, corrupt and helpless.
In our new movement, however, this individual can confess,
repent and be reborn. The alternative? Only the sordid out-
side world and damnation.
There is need now for united action and self-sacrifice. We
will convince the cultist that he must separate himself from his
own being and become part of the whole. Unless he does this,
we he has no chance for salvation. And, to do this we
explain,
must endow him with an imaginary self he can see in the glori-
ous future. He must therefore be taught to scorn the present
and to place all his hopes on things to come. To accomplish
this we must offer some doctrine which will serve as a "screen"

between his real self and his imaginary self.

we have built well, there is by now a congregation of hope-


If

ful, frustrated individuals without a fixed goal.


At this point the canny cult leader will break with dull funda-
mentalism and offer a new creed the "screen" which is radi-
cal or even bizarre. He will relate the Scriptures to the tenets
of astrology, unearth and re-interpret ancient writings or begin
to emphasize some small portion of the Bible, the Koran, or the

Upanishads above all other injunctions. With this will come a

sloughing off of some of the less credulous followers. But those


who remain will form a solid nucleus for further growth.
If fortunate, the leader will have gained sufficient momentum
for the next traditional step, raising funds for the forming of a
communal enterprise. Once accomplished,
the commune will
take the followers away from all the preoccupations and dis-
tractions of outside civilization, will put them directly under
the control of the cult leader and his beliefs and if these pre-

free the cult from the haz-


cepts run afoul of standard mores
ards of mob violence or legal action.
Now assured that the outside world is mean and foul, that

38
THE TRUE BELIEVER AND WHY

the present is a vale of tears, the cult member looks ahead only
to the glorious future. Within the commune are pride, sorrows,
confessions in
joys and self-sacrifice. There are testimonies,
some form, a leader to direct brotherhood in the common
Cause, and active participation in the work to accomplish the
promised end.
Meanwhile, the doctrines must appeal to the "heart" rather
than the "mind." Pascal stated this general rule when he said:
u
An effective religion must be contrary to nature, to common
sense and to pleasure." A creed which calls for intellect alone
and, hence, can be understood, soon loses its power. It must
be

vague, even wild, in its must also be a key to all of


assertion. It

the world's problems. It must be broad enough in scope that it


can meet any situation. Hence, a set of doctrines in a cult move-
ment should ideally offer the foundation by which every daily
and sig-
happening and bit of trivia can find interpretation
nificance.
Now the cult is in full blossom. The doctrines have become
the axis of the cultist's world. Reason plays no part in progress.
forward.
Fear, hope and other emotions will carry the cult effort
The cultist will have an ardent dedication as well as a need
which only the deep assurances of the cult can satisfy. An indi-
vidual existence will seem both bleak and sinful.
If the cultist's "world" which we have now created
is taken

once again
away from him he is in trouble. For he will become
a lonely and homeless hitchhiker on the highway of eternity,
which
thumbing a ride on the first new cultic vehicle passes by.

39
Chapter

UNION WITH THE ABSOLUTE

IF SUCH generalizations about the nature of the


cultic personality sound pessimistic, we must not question the
He is usually striving, be it through talk-
sincerity of the cultist.
ing in tongues or Raja Yoga meditation, to achieve some form
of that religious experience which has been heralded by saints
and sages down through the centuries. In its higher form, this
is a non-verbal ecstasy. Those who "feeP it are forever set

apart from the world and other men. William James in his
classic Varieties of Religious Experience explains this over-

coming of the Absolute: 'Those who meet in the glory of the


Godhead are separated from other men as man is from a plant."
Few people are fortunate enough to reach this Divine ec-
stasy. Yet unconsciously usually all religious people strive
for it. once experienced, seemingly cannot really be
Its glory,

communicated to other men. The writings of saints, sages and


yogis who have reached into the Absolute remains puzzling to
the religious commoner and, it seems, particularly to admin-
istrative clerics and worldly bishops. Suso, writing of the su-
preme religious ecstasy, expresses it thus: "Here the spirit dies,
and yet is alive in all the marvels of the Godhead . , . and is

lost in the stillness of the glorious, dazzling obscurity and of the

40
UNION WITH THE ABSOLUTE

naked, simple unity. It is this marvelous where that the highest


bliss is to be found." Such vague explanations are found

throughout mystic literature. And all the writers have the


curious quality of not being able to express what is to be said.
They are often bewildering. James lists some of these descrip-
tions of the otherworldly state of the Absolute, quoting such

self-contradictory terms as "dazzling obscurity," "whispering


silence," and "teeming desert."
Such states of bliss seem to be achieved in a variety of ways.
Some few find their union with the Absolute in rare mystic
flashes of sudden insight. Hindu yogis seem to reach it after

years of meditation. Yet, once gained, they often are able to


live in this blissful realm for months and even years as com-
pared with the momentary flashes which seem usual for West-
erners. Medieval Christian mystics sometimes gained it through
devout prayer and masochistic subjugation of the flesh in the
lonely desert. All such states, too, are not the same. Yet, all are
certainly a distinct break from the ordinary "reality." Hence,
they show that there are other kinds of consciousness and, ipso
facto, other orders of "truth."
Psychiatrists report that patients under LSD or others of the
new mind-body drugs often ramble on with explanations which
smack of mystic expression and the state of ecstasy which
others have achieved only after years of meditation, devotion or

prayer. Typical is the 'comment of a young


man. "It all fits,
now," he said under the effect of LSD. "I am part of everything
and everything is part of me ... I can't describe it ... The
grass, hills, sky and ground is in me
and I'm in it and we are
together .
Everything in the universe has fallen into place.
. .

I know everything now and see it all but it doesn't matter.


I need nothing here. I'm not afraid. It's just peace . . .
being
part of everything. I know who and what and when and why I

am just part of it all.


." . .

Just whether such psychic (or spiritual) adventures are ac-

41
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

tually the same as the traditional mystic experience is con-


jecture. But these anesthetic revelations quite obviously do
take people to a different state of consciousness. Today, there
are a vast array of drugs which will achieve this goal. They in-

clude,, mescalin, various esoteric mushrooms and new syn-


thetics.

Throughout history, sacred literature has been filled with


discussions of the states past our own dull reality. Vedanta, for

example, holds that super-consciousness may be reached spor-


adically without past discipline. But, Vedanta adds, it is "im-
pure" in this state, Buddhists use the word "samadhr to de-
scribe the
higher states of contemplation a state which
excludes desire, but not judgment. It is intellectual; therefore
it is its lowest form. In the next stage of the intellectual
in

aspect, a satisfied state of "unity" exists, as just described by


the man under LSD. Above this, switching to the Hindu scale
of things, where worldly satisfaction departs and there
is a state
is and memory. Next highest comes a state where
indifference

memory, self-consciousness and indifference are perfected. In


the highest stages of "super-consciousness" nothing exists.
Here, the meditator may move into the state where there are
neither ideas nor absence of ideas. Still above this is the state
where the meditator reaches "both the end of ideas and percep-
:ion." This, Hindus say, is the final stage earthly man can hope
:o achieve before Nirvana, or heaven.
Such lofty ecstasy and mystic insight is, of course, rare. Most
;ultistsseldom pass a mild transitory state of communal bliss,
a sense of Presence or the exciting fervor of talking in tongues.
Yet, they often use the same devices as the most advanced

nystic: Cultic activity seems to center about temperance, non-


Dampering of the body generally, various techniques to adjust
:he sexual drive or subjugate it and in psychopathic situa-
;ions actual mortification of the flesh.
In addition to the religious experience and the mystic ec-

42
UNION WITH THE ABSOLUTE

stasy there is still another reason for cultic foment. One pundit
stated it with a question: "If there were no death, would there
be a God?"
Death and the fear of it is a composite. It is inescapable
and the final realism of all the dreads of life. It is, as Freud
pointed out, a kind of pattern which must be completed and
which touches every living being. It is the transition from a hu-
u
man personality to a thing." With cultists of any time it seems
to be of more outward concern and interest than with most
of mankind.
Quite obviously, all men must adjust to this destruction of
themselves in some way. In the Psalms of David we find a clear
explanation of how most people in their subconscious face this
ultimate reality. "A thousand shall fall on thy right hand and
ten thousand at thy left, but it shall not come nigh thee."
Clearly, modern man expects death death for everyone else
except himself.
This is a
change from the Middle Ages. Then death was ac-
cepted and expected by every man. Life then was really a tem-
porary vale of tears before one's "real life" began. Today, this

hoary concept permeates the theology of a civilization which


really no longer accepts it by its acts or ethics consciously or
subconsciously but pays it continued lip service.
Until the twelfth century most Christians believed the world
was to end soon. As today's cultists set the deadline at 2000, it
once seemed certain that 1000 A.D. was the mathematical
finale. Before that St. Paul and St, Matthew, too, expected im-

minent destruction of the world, and the preachments of Chris-


tians in the catacombs expanded on the uselessness of tawdry

worldly strife and on the close day of the world's destruction.


This belief nay, hope! that the world is doomed soon is
a constant specter in scores of cultic movements today. Some
thirty major modern sects have held the view. The Millerites in
1840, probing the subtleties of the Book of Revelation and the

43
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
Book of Daniel, set 1848 as the deadline. Thousands sold
May
everything, donned and climbed to hilltops, awaiting in
sheets
the dark the midnight when Gabriel would blow his horn. They
returned, unhappily, that memorable night to try to sort out
again their hurried business transactions and the recent havoc
of earthly affairs embittered because escape had been denied.
Today, Jehovah's Witnesses still await momentarily the climax

which will set them above lesser men.


While looking forward to joyous mass destruction with
Heaven as a promise is one device to escape death, another is
a morbid, intense fear which leads to what psychiatrists define
as "reaction formation." Death, again, becomes a praised es-

cape, a way out. Primitive Irish, facing chaos and early death,
reacted with what we know today as the "wake," a time of re-
joicing and feasting for the individual who was gone an as-
suaging of the harrowing life they led.
Eskimos, too, reacted with such a social device. Life was
bitter, each member of the village had set chores to keep the

group alive. So death was traditionally a joyous release built


upon rituals to limit the fear of death.
The cuitist of today is often seeking some cheerful explana-
tion for his impending doom. Some find it in mystic assurances
that they will become part of the All in All. Others, such as
Father Divine's faithful, expect to reach a worldly perfection
here and now so that they will live forever on this earth.

44
PART II

Established Cults

of Today
Chapter

CULTS WHICH HAVE BECOME


DENOMINATIONS

A CULT begins with a nucleus of an idea per-


haps an interpretation of a line from the Book of Revelation
or only a feeling of guilt by a desperate neurotic in 1800 who
finds expression by announcing that he has experienced a divine
call. He may declare that driving wagons and riding horses are
heinous sins in the eyes of God. Poor and embittered people,
unable to afford wagons or horses and hating those who do,
agree. They gather around the new prophet. Paradoxically,
they immediately devise ceremonies to express their beliefs
rituals which to cynical wagon-owners appear to be simply sub-
stitutes for the Sunday afternoon wagon ride the cultists cannot
afford.
Yet these people are simple, devout and hard-working. Their
cult grows, perhaps amending itself according to the frustra-
tions of new members, adding rites which offer release and

excitement, creating imaginative and colorful addenda to con-


ventional religious concepts.
Virtue, as the old saw goes, is its own reward. Industrious,
thrifty and cautious, the first generation dies and leaves its

47
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
inheritance of savings and theology to the next. But, by now,
the needs of the members and the world about them have
1

changed. They are no longer concerned with their fathers


desire to recover primitive Christianity. They question the stark
fundamentalism of "that old-time religion," the literal transla-
tion of the Bible, the ignoring of the world and its economics
and sociology. The preoccupation of the first generation with
frontier simplicity and standards and "back to the old days"
worship is gone. The sons and daughters are leading easier and
more social lives. The world has changed. And they are part

of it.

One day a leader stands. "It is time we built a monument


appropriate to the worship of God," he announces. Others nod.
Committees are formed, funds raised, mortgages arranged. A
massive church, symbol of the power financial and ethereal
ofGod is erected. Then comes the next step. Quaint ideas don't
go with mortgage banking. The old taboo on wagons has al-
ready been modified. The founders were against wagons, rea-
soned today's leaders, and so are we. But horseless carriages
are all right! Certain members are now affluent, others middle
class,a few poor. Cleavages, social and economic, appear.
Perhaps the few disenchanted who can't afford horseless car-
riages at this point split away in anger to form a new splinter
group, denouncing the leaders of the old group as corrupt
modernists.
The original cult now an established sect shrugs and goes
on. The early fascination with the idea which was the founda-
tion of the organization has been replaced by a voluntary as-
sociation of people of similar background. Now the denomina-
tion begins to emerge, a natural social group with traditions,
social and economic interests, and common causes, similar to
a nation. It grows and prospers. New churches are built. The
appeal to exclusiveness under a specialized, radical viewpoint
slowly fades away and is replaced with an emphasis on the uni-

48
CULTS WHICH HAVE BECOME DENOMINATIONS
versalism of the gospel. Members mix freely with other sects
and denominations which their fathers or grandfathers had
scorned as sinful. "I don't happen to believe what Harry does
about a lot of things. But he's the best golfing partner in the
world," explains the third-generation member. "And, besides,
he can throw some busin6ss my way. ..."
The denomination, made up of educated, intelligent, middle-
class people, is and powerful now. Its early history has
rich
been expurgated, its more radical and uncomfortable beliefs
swept quietly under the rug. It has found its place under God's
sun.

Nearly, that is! If it just weren't for that pesky minister in


Pennsylvania who, dusting off the founders' forgotten views on
horses, has been preaching that the church must come out
boldly against the evils of air flight. He claims that he's found
a passage in the Book of Revelation which shows jet planes
mean the coming destruction of the world. He wants members
to return to basic, simple Christian ideas before it's too late.
He's threatening, even now, to take his followers out of the
foldand start a true church.
This pattern of malcontents, idealists and opportunists

emerges again and again in all faiths and all times. Today in
America there are various denominations of cultic origin. Since
the eighteenth century they've gone their separate ways, break-

ing with the mainstream of Protestantism. Ignored in the begin-


ning, they are now major movements. Their objectives vary.
Unitarianism is a reaction against conservative Protestantism
from the left, while Jehovah's Witnesses, the fastest growing
United States faith today, follows the Catholic tradition of
authoritarianism.
Colorful and varied in concepts, their doctrines range from
man's oldest concepts to quaint modern innovations. Many can
be traced back to one of the oldest illusions in existence
spiritism.

49
Chapter

SPIRITISM

SPIRITISM or spiritualism, as it is popularly


called has through history had periods when it reached almost
epidemic proportions, only to fade into obscurity for decades
before emerging again.
Probably, it
beginnings when man first looked at
found its

the dead body of a loved one. For its promise is eternal and

simple: the power to contact those who have died. It holds a


constant and strong emotional lure for the lonely, the curious,
the intellectual adventurer.

Today, spiritism can be classed as a denomination. There


are eighteen distinct spiritualist bodies in the United States with
five hundred churches and an estimated 150,000 ardent fol-
lowers. There are confessions of faith, rites and the firm con-
viction that a sort of psychic umbilical cord binds man to God.
Jesus Christ was a spiritualist, they hold, and point to His com-
ment to Mary after the Resurrection: 'Touch me not, for I am
not yet ascended to my Father."
Other Scriptural passages are also interpreted from such a
spiritist viewpoint. All men have psychic powers to varying

degrees, spiritists explain. But the easiest method to make con-


tact is through a trained medium. A vast array of other subtle

50
SPIRITISM

doctrines can be found in various groups. Time is approached


with a mystical explanation. There is ordinary time by the stars.
But there is also psychological time a minute in pain is dif-
ferent from a minute asleep. Too, there is time which expands
and contracts this is the "right time." As time is elastic, the
dead are not dead. They are simply as the Old Testament
states in a condition of "I am," not "I was" or "I will be."

Space, too, has three aspects and applies to spiritist belief.


Seven circles or spheres surround the earth, still other spir-
itist leaders explain, and man can penetrate them.

As often happens after a war, the Civil War was followed by


an upsurge in spiritism which, for a time, seemed ready to over-
whelm all other beliefs, or be included in them. There were
stunts in levitation, accordions playing without human hands,
luminous writing, ouija boards in thousands of homes, strange
rappings, seances. Mediums quoted with skill from the Bible
to confirm their holy mission. They warned against touching
the eerie ectoplasm.
Celebrities flocked to the exciting meetings. James Fenimore

Cooper, William Cullen Bryant, Daniel Webster, Harriet


Beecher Stowe, Horace Greeley all dabbled with the mys-
terious cultic tricks in their time. Abe Lincoln, fans main-
tained, was an ardent believer and conducted meetings in the
White House to discover the fate of the nation. Supposedly, he
became interested about 1862, as did his wife. Spiritualists
told him to go ahead with the issue of Emancipation, according
tosome spiritualist authorities. One of Lincoln's visits to the
Potomac front, a spiritualist wrote, was the result of a seance
when a medium announced the spirit world felt the war was
being conducted badly there. Also, Lincoln wrote a friend
that

"the animal fluids flowing in my body will change their course


with the new moon." A favorite medium reportedly also told
him two days before his assassination that she saw him "emerg-

ing in a pool of blood."


51
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
facet of American life for
Spiritism touched nearly every
some twenty years after the Civil War. One medium announced
that according to her contact there was disease in the hereafter.
She created a storm of newspaper controversy. A
drama critic
claimed he had contacted Shakespeare, who 'fessed up that Ed-
ward DeVere, the seventeenth Earl of Oxford, had collaborated
with him on his plays. Andrew Jackson published a maze of
lore which he said was dictated by automatic writing. The fam-
iliar psychic phrases "tuning in, contact, getting the vibra-
tions, intimacy with the cosmos, tapping the psychic stream"
all were of polite dinner table chitchat in the best
subjects
homes.
War and dead loved ones were undoubtedly the stimuli
the
which set the pattern for this wild revival of primitive animism
which, in cruder, earlier form, gave souls to trees, rocks and
animals. Even though the Old Testament had forbidden the
practice, it was accepted by thousands of God-fearing Chris-
tians.
The torch which had fired the conflagration of this refined
form of ancestor worship was a curious incident which hap-
pened in 1847 in a small cottage in Hydesville, New
York.
John D. Fox and his wife heard strange sounds one night
and traced them to the room of their daughters, Margaret, fif-
teen, and Katie, twelve. They listened during the days that
followed as the girls blandly explained that one tap meant,
"No," two taps meant "Doubtful" and three, "Yes/' Soon, the
replies from the other world
were heard in every room and
wherever the girls went. Later, when they moved on to Ro-
chester the taps went along.
It was inevitable tht such goings-on would create a furor.

Soon the Fox were famous throughout the United States.


girls

They spoke meetings and went on a stage tour. Even


at public
when investigators claimed the raps were made by "deliberate

snapping of toe joints" the furor did not die.

52
SPIRITISM

In October 1888, Margaret Fox was converted to Cathol-


icism. Soon afterward she published an autobiographical ex-
pose. She had, indeed, been snapping her toes. But before she
died she denied this admission once again and claimed that she
and her sister had really been in touch with the spirit world.
The interest in spiritism declined slowly. Mediums still flour-
ished, and the British Psychic Research Society, Houdini and
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle continued to make headlines with their

pronouncements pro and con.


Today, spiritism continues to simmer on the fire of Ameri-
can cultism. The Fox girls' cottage is a shrine for the devout.
Thousands continue to wonder at the contacts with the world
beyond.
But, before the Fox girls, a spiritist had emerged whose ideas
were to establish a movement which remains today a respected
small denomination, unconnected with standard spiritualist
groups the Swedenborgians.

53
Chapter

SWEDENBORGIANS

EMANUEL SWEDEN BORG at the age of fifty-five


was one of the most distinguished figures in Sweden. Born in
Stockholm in 1688, he had mastered the early eighteenth-cen-
tury mathematics, anatomy and science and obtained a Ph.D.
at the age of twenty-one. In 1 7 6 he was made assessor for the
1

Swedish board of mines and, at the siege of Frederikshall two


years later, he became a hero by inventing machines to carry
boats overland. He was ennobled a year later by Queen Ulrika
Eleonora and took a seat in the House of Peers.
For the next twenty years he wrote some sixty books and
documents on philosophical and scientific subjects and traveled
through Europe.
Then, one memorable day in 1743, he had his first vision.
As he was to describe it later, he received the power to live in
two worlds at the same time. To the horror of fashionable
friendsand fellow scientists he resigned from government work,
gave up science and announced that he intended to devote the
rest of his life to religious psychic research.
If Swedenborg had been versatile in writing on worldly
science, he was doubly prolific in this new esoteric field. He was
to pen twenty-nine volumes in Latin dealing with his adven-

54
SWEDENBORGIANS
tures and misadventures in the spirit world, as well as present
his ownpeculiar version of the Scriptures. He told of conversa-
tions with St. Paul, Luther, infidels, angels, popes and Moslems.
He rejected the doctrine of justification by faith alone as his
father, a Lutheran bishop^ had done before him, He discounted
the Trinity and claimed to have witnessed the Last Judgment
which, he wrote, actually took place in 1757.
His writings were filled with symbolism. Stones represented
truth, cities meant religious systems, snakes were evil and
houses indicated intelligence.
Man awakened in the spirit world right after death, he ex-
plained, and continued to live much as on earth. Eventually,
however, each person goes to a realm where he seems most at
home. These realms include heaven, hell and a spirit area, sim-
ilar tothe traditional Purgatory. Marriage, he wrote, continues
in the spirit world with some re-shuffling of partners. (Sweden-

borg himself was a bachelor.)


The prophet brought to bear his scientific training on his
amazing theology. He described in detail the flora and fauna
of heaven as well as the appearance of the inhabitants from
Mercury, Jupiter, Mars and the moon.
Commuting as he was between earth and the spirit world,
he encountered certain problems. He gave up attending the
state Lutheran Church, he explained, because during the ser-
mon the spirits kept interrupting the pastor and correcting him.
And Swedenborg could hear His reputation as a psychic
it all.

and seer was well established locally before his death in 1772.
For example, neighbors were amazed when he reported in de-
tail a fire in Stockholm, three hundred miles from where he was

at the time. He also told friends of secret happenings and made

astounding predictions.
Despite his interest in spiritual matters, Swedenborg did not
form a sect or cult. In fact, his work created little attention in
his lifetime. A London printer and some Anglican clerics were

55
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
to arouse interest in 1783, eleven years after the prophet's
death. The "New Church" started in London
in 1787. It grew

rapidly and by 1792 the American branch was established


first

in Baltimore. There were minor cleavages and in 1890 a sec-

ond, smaller body was formed. Today, there are only some
12,000 Swedenborgians in the world, of which some 6000 are
on the Atlantic seaboard.
No one was aware that the Day of Judgment had come years
before, except Swedenborg. Restless thousands were still look-
ing forward to the event. Further, they wanted a part in it. A
few decades after his death, a new movement stressing the
perennial promise of the Second Coming was once again to
sweep England and the United States the Adventists.

56
Chapter

SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS

ABOUT 1800 the favorite hunting ground of


Christian nonconformists the Book of Revelation was be-
ing plumbed for new interpretations with lively fervor. Most
Protestant denominations were envisioning anew the "last
days" and "end of an age." By 1820 some thousand Anglican
priests and religious radicals were banded together and an-
nouncing that the "Second Advent" was due not at some hazy
future date but at any moment.
In the United States a small-time Baptist preacher-farmer,
William Miller, led the new "adventist" movement. This vocal
veteran of the War of 1 8 1 2, after studying the Books of Revela-
tion and Daniel (particularly Daniel 8:13-14), decided the
British heretics were right. What was more, he started preach-

ing in 1831 that he knew the exact time between March 21,
1843, and March 21, 1844.
Hundreds gathered to hear the lively prophet Miller, and his
followers, the Millerites, gathered new disciples with threats
of the coming Day of Judgment. Solid Methodist and Baptist

clergymen fumed as their members hurriedly deserted to join


the exciting new sect and prepare for the Second Coming.
March 21, 1843, came. The year passed. Millerites an-

57
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
nounced to the bewildered converts that there had been a
minor error in calculation. The true date was set at October 22,
1844, they explained. Now thousands prepared again for the
end of the world. They sold farms and homes, stitched gowns in
preparation for meeting their Savior and being taken into
Heaven.
On the night of October 22, some 50,000 faithful gathered
in their homemade gowns on hilltops, looking into the starlit
skies. The night passed. Dawn came. Embittered, impoverished
from goods and lands before the great
selling their earthly
event, they trudged away, denouncing Miller as a fraud and
faker, trying to rebuild their disordered lives. A year later the
unhappy prophet died.
Still a few faithful would not give up. They reopened their

Bibles and started digging for new meaning in the significant

passages. It was obvious to these First Adventists as they were


then called that October 22, 1844, was the right date. What,

then, was wrong?


One member came up with the answer. The date was correct.
But man, in his egotistical, sinful pride, had insisted upon inter-

preting the date in terms of an earthly event. What had really


happened: On October 22, Christ had cleansed his heavenly
sanctuary. Since then. He had been deciding who would merit
immortality. The dead Miller was forthwith vindicated by the
group and it was decided that no specific date for the Second

Coming would be set in the future.


Now an articulate and strong woman took over the move-
ment. Ellen White, who with her husband James, and Joseph
Bates, had been a leader in the pre-1844 Millerites, claimed
supernatural powers. The prophetess dictated some twenty
books and three thousand articles in the years to come many
of them while in a trance. For seventy years she was to guide
the young sect's destiny and, before her death in 1915, she was

formally recognized by her followers as "inspired."

58
SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS
The
sect grew, adopting its present name in 1860. Today it
is a respected and powerful denomination. Its rules, many
reaching back to the rustic fundamentalism of a century ago,
are stanch.
No Adventist drinks, smokes, plays cards, dances, attends
movies or the theatre, wears costly or immodest clothing or
jewelry, or holds any lodge membership. Using coffee, tea or
pepper is discouraged and good Adventists are vegetarians. The
Sabbath is observed from sundown Friday to sundown Satur-
day. Adventists attend church most of Saturday morning and
refrain from all buying, selling or unnecessary labor. Food is

prepared the day before the Sabbath as in Orthodox Jewish


households.
Health reform has been a major concern since a revelation
came to the prophetess in 1863. Today, considering size, the

Seventh-Day Adventist Church, with about 300,000 members,


has more schools and colleges and educational enterprises than
any other denomination in the country. Members also give
more money per member than in any other denomination. Ad-
ventists operate more than five hundred schools including
346 high schools, 15 liberal arts colleges, 31 nursing schools,
73 religious academies, a graduate seminary and a 15-million-
dollar medical school at Los Angeles and Loma Linda,
California.
Adventists stress missionary activity. World-wide member-
ship is over a million with 25,000 paid missionaries working
in 185 missions and medical stations abroad. (Adventist in-
stitutions graduate 90 physicians and 450 nurses annually.)

They are quasi-pacifists. They do not seek exemption from


military service, but call themselves "conscientious co-opera-
tors" rather than conscientious objectors. They object only to

bearing arms. About 12,000 Adventists served as medical


corpsmen during World War II.

They claim that the soul sleeps unconscious after death and

59
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
that the wicked will not suffer for their sins after death, for
there no literal conscious suffering in hell. No one can be
is

assured of salvation now, but after one believes, he is placed


on probation. No one's salvation will be absolutely certain and
settled until after the judgment has taken place. As for the
Second Coming? It is approaching. But no one can set an exact
date.
Adventism grew well. Yet, as always, disillusioned members
were to split off with ideas of their own, following the ancient
pattern of such movements. One of these was Charles Taze
Russell, the son of a Pennsylvania haberdasher who was most
willing to accept the Seventh-Day Adventist idea that there was
no agony in hell. But he didn't feel it was emphasized enough.
In 872 he began preaching his own doctrine of comfort that
1

there was no such thing as everlasting punishment. From this


break was to emerge what is today the fastest growing denom-
ination in the United States Jehovah's Witnesses.

60
Chapter

JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES

RUSSELL'S ardent preaching stirred the lonely


and forgotten. He stumped the country, preaching eight hours
a day, building his own system of Bible interpretation. The
cult's publication, The Watchtower, started in 1879, was the
prime means of communicating the doctrines. The cult grew,
despite scandals and despite attacks from more staid denomina-
tions. Yet, it was still a small and obscure movement when Rus-
selldied in 1916.
His successor was an iron- willed Missouri lawyer, hawk-eyed
Joseph F. Rutherford. The new leader, who preferred writing
to oratory, brought to the movement a sense of legal organiza-
tion. He announced the watchword of the cult: "Millions now
living shall never die." And the slogan: "Advertise, advertise,
advertise the King and the Kingdom." He also put a stop to the
variety of names used to describe the group, including Russell-
ites, International Bible Students, Millennial Dawnists, Ruther-

fordites,Watchtower Bible and Tract People. From his Brook-


lyn headquarters he announced in 1931 that the new and
proper name was "Jehovah's Witnesses."
The Witnesses bring with them many of the concepts of the
Adventists. Man lives in a latter day and the final battle be-

61
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

tween Christ and Satan is due any time. They rejected such
common Christian concepts as original sin, Christ's resurrec-

tion, the Trinity and immortality. They contend that immor-


tality comes as a "reward for faithfulness." It does not come
automatically to a human at birth.
After Rutherford's death, the sect's hierarchy of 402 men
.selected thirty-six-year-old Nathan Knorr as
leader in 1942.

He is
president today.
Only a fraction of today's Jehovah's Witnesses can hope
to

reach heaven, for doctrine holds that the limit is 1 44,000. These
select members of the "bride's class" join in the annual spring
observance of the Lord's Supper in local Kingdom Halls. They
will attain heaven and reign with Christ. The wicked will be
annihilated. The
righteous will live on earth forever. Other re-

ligious bodies, Catholic and Protestant, are tools of Satan.


If the Jehovah's Witness looks forward to his day of glory,

it is not easily come by on this earth. A convert must prove


himself before membership. He must take courses in speech,

the Bible, missionary techniques. He must learn to


ring door-
bells, distribute the various tracts of the denomination
from
street corners and, once he is admitted, spend sixty hours a
month working at the tasks of the church.
Too, there are taboos he must rigidly'observe. He cannot be
a salesman or shopkeeper. There are no collections or tithing
in the Halls but members, although encouraged to
Kingdom
live and eat decently, are asked to turn over all surplus income
to the church. A
member in good standing must not drink,
smoke, see movies, dance, hold public office, vote in any elec-

tion, salutethe flag or enter military service.


All governments must be recognized as instruments of the
Devil and, at one time, marriage and having children was dis-
couraged although this self -destructive edict has been relaxed.

Younger members are discouraged from attending college, and

62
JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES

no member must have a blood transfusion or allow his children


to have one.
The list of taboos goes on. Major ones include business,
Christmas trees, civic enterprises, Communism, doctrines of
health, evolution, lodges, Mother's Day, Sunday schools, the
UN, the YMCA,Wall Street, women's rights and zoos.
Headquarters for the movement is a ten-story apartment
building in Brooklyn where some 475 members lead a com-
munal life. A
Brooklyn printing plant produces the millions of
tracts, books, pamphlets and brochures which are spread

throughout the world by members. There are other printing


plants in fifteen countries. The Watchtower alone has a three
million circulation and is published in forty-five languages.
The local unit is the Kingdom Hall. There are 16,000 such
halls in the world today, under some 1000 circuit organiza-
tions. More than 700,000 people in 158 nations are members.

Services are held each Thursday and Sunday evening. Here

hymn singing is discouraged and discussion is the prime ritual.


Some two hundred "Pioneers" are trained each year to work
as missionaries in West Germany, England, Canada, Africa
and the Philippines. This corps elite is also taking over many
of the full-time minister's duties.

Today, Jehovah's Witnesses is the most persecuted denom-


ination in the United States. The firm stand and wide range of
beliefs in opposition to the status quo has brought about many
significant law cases on freedom of religion. Witnesses have
been stoned, imprisoned, fined, sent to concentration camps,
tarred and feathered. Some 2000 all declaring themselves as

ministers were sent to prison as draft dodgers during World


War II.There have been dozens of lawsuits involving their re-
fusal to salute the flag or allow blood transfusions for dying
children. They have been abused for their open attack on all
other faiths, and for peddling tracts and books without licenses.

63
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

All this persecution has worn well. For the more the group
has been attacked, the more it has appealed to the downtrodden
and uneducated. And, perhaps, the sternly conventional have
a lesson to learn from the unyielding courage of this persecuted

minority. During the Korean War, the products of easy Protes-


tantism, of our military schools and our better colleges cracked
by the score under the stress and blandishments of Communist
brainwashing. A Pentagon study of the problem brought forth
a red-faced conclusion: Those few Jehovah's Witnesses who
ended up as prisoners of war, even though they scorned the
flag, the United States government and the military, withstood
man the scientific, psychological efforts to convert them to
to a
Communism better than a number of patriotic West Pointers.

64
Chapter

10

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

MORE THAN a decade before Charles Taze Rus-


sell took to the stump with Second Coming,
his doctrine of the
an accident on the streets of Lynn, Massachusetts, had set in
motion a series of events which was to culminate in another of
America's few major "native" denominations.
On a stormy Thursday in February 1866, a prim, frail
widow, on leaving a ladies' aid meeting, slipped on the ice and
fell. She was carried to a nearby house in a critical condition.

Three days later the patient, Mary Baker Eddy, was well
enough to ask for a Bible. She turned to the passage which tells

of Christ healing a man with palsy. She'd read it before. But


now it had a strange effect. She prayed, closed the Bible, arose
from the bed, dressed and walked into the parlor to tell startled
friends that she was well. This experience was the beginning of
the Church of Christ, Scientist.
Mary Baker, born on a New England farm in 1821, the
child of a stern, no-nonsense father, had always been interested
in religion, particularly in its metaphysical aspects. Until the
accident her had been a searching, unhappy one. Now she
life

set about to find the meaning of this wondrous event, searching


the Bible for metaphysical laws governing healing. Her first

65
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

writing effort, "The Fall of Lynn," outlined her accident and


cure. Then, in her tiny attic room in Lynn, she started writing
a book. It was to beconle the classic volume of her movement,
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, published in
1875. Four years later, twenty-six people gathered with her to
organize the first church, "designed to commemorate the word
and works of our Master, which should re-instate primitive
Christianity and its lost element of healing." In 1892 this was
formed as "The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ,
Scientist," in Boston.

By then, the prophetess had accumulated an array of out-


raged critics, including Mark Twain.
The system itself teaches that God is "Divine Principal Su-
preme Incorporeal Being, Mind, Spirit, Soul, Life, Truth,
Love." Sickness, hunger, fear and other problems are mistaken
notions of mortal mind and do not exist. Since God is "All in
All," everything else lacks reality or substance.
Such ideas had appeal. Many people had observed that vari-
ous ailments seemed "mental" and that the power of mind over
matter or soul over body was great. Mrs. Eddy's system was
not traditional faith healing, for she held that one should not
direct the mind to a power outside the sick person, but rather
direct the mind
to the mind itself.
Her concepts were akin to ancient Gnosticism. She held that
salvation could come only through knowledge and that sick-
ness, sin and disease would disappear in proportion to one's

understanding that God is All. Like Gnosticism, also, she indi-


cated that matter was opposed by God.
Critics denounced her doctrines as spiritualism and faith

healing. Yet, her teachings about health can be understood


only in the context of her whole basic theology.
She explained that God is "Infinite Good," that all "reality"
is
necessarily good because God created it, that what man
knows as evil could not have come from God and is therefore

66
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

unreal. Sickness comes only when man's "erring human belief"


lets it seem True "spiritual understanding" destroys the
real.

"illusion" of sickness. Such healings are not "miracles." They


are simply the divine laws available to all men.
This healing which comes with spiritual truth affects all of
human life personal and business problems, social inequali-
ties, tensions and "moral confusion," Mrs. Eddy's word for
what others call sin. This denial of sin as it is traditionally
known to Christians is a prime deviation. While the denom-
ination recognizes Jesus as the Son of God, it holds that Christ
came to save men not from their sins but from their miscon-
ceptions.
Today there are no ordained ministers, only "practitioners,"
some 7000 in the United States, licensed by the Mother Church
in Boston after examination.
All local churches are branches of this "Mother Church"
which eliminates the common hazard of heretical splinter
movements and Sunday services are conducted by elected
"readers" in the congregation. Healing testimonial meetings
are held Wednesday evenings, also, and most churches sponsor

reading rooms.
Mary Baker Eddy was constantly attacked by critics during
her first days, and today retribution against anyone who com-
ments adversely against the Mother Church is a common oc-
currence. Foes accused her of everything from "Yankee witch-
craft" to her own brand -of spiritualism. She was attacked on a

personal level, too, because she had been married three times
and because her denomination prospered. Medical interests
were also outspoken in their condemnation.
Yet, the cult thrived. It became a vast denomination. Today,
no exact estimate can be made of membership because the
Church has a taboo against such statistics. There are, however,
more than 3,100 branches in the United States alone.
Its greatest growth has been in urban areas, with women of

67
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
middle age seemingly forming about seventy-five per cent of
the membership. Members tend to be better educated and
wealthier than the general population and certainly more so
than most cultic groups.
There are certain paradoxes which confuse the observer. For
example, Christian Science is not opposed to dentistry, glasses,
bone-setting, obstetrics or other such mechanical medical aids.
Yet it opposes fluoridation, compulsory vaccination, x-rays.
No marriages, which Mrs. Eddy termed "realized lust," are
performed in the churches. Members are asked to overcome
their "depraved appetite" for alcohol, tobacco, coffee and tea.
There is no baptism, and the Church rejects the Trinity, a per-
sonal God, the devil, atonement, the Resurrection, heaven and
hell.

Christian Science has enormous appeal for those who have


faced the personal frustration of needing medical help and not
finding it and for those seeking emotional security. The violent
criticism of yesteryear has all but disappeared. And Mary
Baker Eddy, who grew rich and powerful in an atmosphere of
Mesmerism, of Dwight Moody's wild evangelism, of home-
opathy and blood-letting, before she died at eighty-nine in
1910, is today a respectable figure in the annals of American
religions.

68
Chapter

11

UNITY

MARY BAKER EDDY would, like any prophetess,


have preferred her concepts to remain pure. But, alas, there
were heretics as always.
Charles Fillmore was a cripple. He had contracted a disease
which affected his hip, had curvature of the spine and was deaf
in one ear. When his wife Myrtle contracted tuberculosis, the

couple moved to Texas and, later, to Arizona. Here he made a


fortune in real estate, only to lose it all a few years later.
The future was gloomy when, by coincidence, the Fillmores
heard a lecture on metaphysics. They were soon typical Chris-
tian Science converts, absorbed in Mrs. Eddy's refreshing

preachments.
But the Fillmores soon found that they had ideas of their
own and the authoritarian nature of the Eddy movement
rubbed them. They found their own group, dubbing it Unity,
By 1889 it was a thriving enterprise. They used the mails as
their pulpit and unlike Mrs. Eddy's practitioners charged
nothing. Their cause was different in a number of respects. Un-
like Christian Science they claimed that sickness and death
were real, but added that both could be overcome by mind.
Chief doctrines included the views that God is a "Principle,"

69
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
that the Trinity means "The Father is the Principle" and that
the Son is the Principle "revealed in a creative plan." The Holy

Spirit operates on an executive level, carrying out creative


plans. Jesus, they explained,
was not "the Christ." He was
God's thoughts of man.
The surge of theosophy about this time was to leave its
mark on Unity too. For the reincarnationist concepts of the
Hindus were to find roots here. here on earth, the
Heaven is

Fillmores explained, and one achieves heaven through a series


of earthly incarnations. When one reaches "Christ perfection"

through righteousness, he never die but live on in his final


will

body. In the interim periods of death, one goes


into a tempo-
or spiritual ego, and
rary laying down of the body and the soul,
enters into a sleep until the next reincarnation. There was a
strange doctrine of sin. Men and women are "senseless things,"
Fillmore wrote. Sex robs the body of "essential fluids" and
brings death. Only when man overcomes his weakness for sen-
sation and conserves his life substance can he hope to achieve
his final body.
From their mail-order citadel near Kansas City, the Fill-
mores a massive following. Members had to go into daily
built
silence and meditate on suggested tracts which contained such
luring key words as poise, health, affluence, prosperity and
harmony. The stress was on health, happiness and wealth.

Gradually the doctrine was streamlined. More than a mil-


lion copies a year of tracts, pamphlets and the children's maga-
zineWee Wisdom were mailed out each year.
When Charles and Myrtle Fillmore died, Unity's leadership
was taken over by their son. An around-the-clock prayer serv-
ice was started with rotating prayer crews handling some 10,-
000 requests a week.
Unity stresses that its "practical Christianity" requires no
one to leave his regular church, that anyone can take part in
the movement "until we all come to Unity." It advocates vege-

70
UNITY

tarianism, limiting sex and keeping "good thoughts." Today,


the Unity operation near Kansas City includes an administra-
tion building, printing plant, amphitheatre, a
Unity Inn (with
a vegetarian menu) And some seven hundred full-time workers
.

can enjoy the picnic grounds, golf course, twenty-two-acre arti-


ficial lake, swimming pool, and attend the
training school. Min-
isters take a four-month course
along with the ubiquitous cor-
respondence courses, and converts are baptized with rose
petals.
The denomination denies its earlier kinship with Christian

Science, as do Mrs. Eddy'sfollowers. Both, too, deny their


common roots in theexperiments of Dr. Mesmer a century ago.
Unity took on by osmosis the ideas of the theosophists and of
Mrs. Eddy, and added touches of its own. Meanwhile, another
great health-mindedness movement was on the march New
Thought.

71
Chapter

12

NEW THOUGHT

THE WOMAN was, at sixty, a childless widow


living on a small pension in a cheap rooming house. She was
ailing, despondent and "just sitting around waiting to die."
Today, two years later, the cheerful and joyous lady "feels
like a girl again" and hasn't had a sick day in months. She's
involved with a "study circle" and has taken a pleasant part-
time job. "It's as if my life has started over," she says.
The near-miracle which touched our heroine came about
after she happened upon one of the modern sects which can be
vaguely identified as "New Thought" or "Applied Christianity."
Like more than twenty million other Americans who have
drifted away from traditional, formal Christianity to become

part of cults, the movement which can best be described as a


"point of view," she is sure that this here and now is the best

of all possible worlds.


New Thought ranges from simple interest in the advice of
Norman Vincent Peale and his "positive thinking" to subtle
touches of ancient Hindu beliefs. It goes under a variety of
names and includes study groups, churches, mail-order sects
and weekly lectures in abandoned movie houses.
Old-time evangelists, wise in the ways of the sawdust trail,

72
NEW THOUGHT
refer to all this as "the health, wealth and success game."
Branches of the movement do, however, have certain common
characteristics, best summed up in the simple idea: "keep a
happy thought." The New Thought sects all proclaim the im-
mediate availability of God, and hold that there is a conscious,
simple and practical way to apply spiritual thought to all
human problems. They hold that it is inevitable that good will
come to every human soul and that through the stream of con-
sciousness each human personality will survive forever. There
is also common belief in the constant, external
expansion of the
individual life in this
do-it-yourself metaphysical movement.
Traditionalists quarrel with many of New Thought's prom-
ises. Preoccupation with one's self as the ultimate value is

evil,they say. sentimental and egotistical. It is cloying


It is

romanticism under the guise of intellectualism and piety. Yet,


even as skeptics bemoan these facts, the parade of new con-
vertsmarches on.
It is a peculiarly American idea, this "positive thinking."
Some say such an optimistic theology could thrive only in a
land where economic, social and cultural advancement is so
easilycome by for all.
The recognized founder is Ralph Waldo Emerson, but the
writings of that other sturdy New Englander, Thoreau, are also
a major factor.
Emerson, who fell under the influence of Hindu and Far
Eastern thought, reflected it in his positive idealism. This fitted

hand-in-glove with the growing dissatisfaction with the angry


Protestant theology of his time which held that man could
reallydo little toward his own salvation. Pioneers of the move-
ment began to stress ideas which have emerged again and again
in theology that God made the human mind to be used; that
man in himself is divine.
Followers of the school added ideas of their own. The
"awakening" does not come when man identifies himself with

73
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

Deity, they explained, but when he recognizes


his complete

unity with the Whole. Every man is a center of "God-con-


sciousness."
New Thought, also known as "The Boston Craze" by 1880,
was a weird mishmash of Buddha, Confucius, Emerson, Soc-
rates and assorted poets, "Thought for the day," borrowed lib-
erally from and reflecting the sugary
sentiments of the Farmer's
Almanac of the time, peppered the dogma, and mawkish odes
by gentlewomen salted it.

prefer to believe Emerson was


followers the actual
Today
founder of all this. But they admit that a flamboyant charlatan
also had his minute hand in New Thought beginnings. He was
Phineas P. of Portland, Maine, a clockmaker of little
Quimby
education, born in 1802. Quimby started dabbling in hyp-
notism about 1837. Soon he was diagnosing ailments along
with a partner, Lucius Burkmar, who specialized in prescribing
drugs under "hypnosis." Quimby, it appears, began to question
some of Burkmar's medicines, particularly since they were
uniformly costly and his partner happened to be a drug sales-
man. Quimby although he knew no medicine began to pre-
scribe cheaper remedies. He noticed that patients seemed to

get well just as rapidly from his medicines as from


the others.
Then he began to wonder: Was the healing really due to the
remedies or was it simply in the mind?
He tried then by suggestion. He charged noth-
to heal simply

ing, kept no accounts. But he did tabulate notes on his experi-


ments which were later published as the "Quimby Manu-
scripts." In these, he seems to
have felt that he had discovered
the way Jesus healed.
His followers claimed that Mary Baker Eddy picked freely
from Quimby 's ideas. (Today a controversy still rages over
whether she or the Portland clockmaker was the philosophical
leader. )

Quimby died in 1866, but his ideas did not. A clergyman,

74
NEW THOUGHT
Warren F. Evans, continued to try to heal by the Quimby
method. And a Julius Dresser, who had gone to California after
being healed by Quimby, returned to New England in 1 882 and
promoted the Quimby dogma, engaging in violent controversy
with Christian Scientists over the hypnotist's influence on Mrs.
Eddy.
then, Quimby 's fans were claiming
By that his doctrines
were much more than a treatment method. Indeed, they made
up a whole philosophy of positive idealism. Followers started
to apply the Quimby concepts to traditional Christianity.
Within a few decades the movement had spread to England and
Europe and, by 1916, followers gathered to write a "Declara-
tion of Purpose." It stated the mission of New Thought: "To
teach the infinitude of the Supreme One, the Divinity of Man
and through the creative power of con-
his infinite possibilities
structive thinking and obedience to the voice of the Indwelling
Presence which is our Source of Inspiration, Power, Health and
Prosperity."
Today, New Thought is metaphysical, though in a strictly
"philosophical sense," leaders say, distinct from orthodox
Christianity in that does not believe in the Trinity. Also, un-
it

like Christian Science, it does not deny the reality of the ma-
terial world. Rather, it declares, "the physical world is Mind
in Form."
God is good, and evil is "a term used to imply the opposite
of good." It is "not a thing in itself but an absence of what is

felt tobe good or pleasing, as darkness is an absence of light,


or death an absence of life. What might seem evil to one man
might seem good to another." New Thought leaders are usually
vague about an afterlife, although some believe in reincarna-
tion. To others the crisis of death is not just "fully clear." The
heaven and hell of eternal reward or punishment is rejected by
all.

The Bible, particularly the New Testament, is used con-

75
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

stantly. And, in general, exclusive membership is not de-


manded. Members may continue in traditional churches.
Healing is a major consideration. They do not deny pain,
which they say is real but can be "overcome."
Certainly, the movement in its various manifestations has
attracted the neurotic and frustrated. It has been scorned by
intellectualsand attacked for its egocentric interest. Yet it bur-
geons by the year. William James, looking at its emergence in
America, perhaps best summed it up when he said that "to-
gether with Christian Science, it constitutes a spiritual move-
ment as significant for our day as the Reformation was for its

time."

76
Chapter

13

THE MORMONS

IT WAS the warm fall day of September 21,


1823, when man anxiously made his way through the
a young
fallen elm leaves as he climbed a wooded hill near Palmyra,
New York. Joseph Smith, who made a habit of seeking buried
treasure around thelittle farm hamlet with "peep stones," was

on no such ordinary mission. For on that memorable day the


youth was to found one of America's greatest cultic denomina-
tions.

Smith, an introverted, slim youth with a prominent nose,


already had a local reputation as an oracle. Since the age of
fourteen, it was commonly known, he had been visited by
angels with special "messages."
On this day, the Angel Moroni appeared to him. The heav-
enly visitor told the lad that the present church was corrupt and
in error. Joseph had been selected as a prophet, the angel ex-
plained, to reveal the true path.
The young man started digging at a spot which the angel
pointed out. He uncovered a box which contained golden plates
with strange scribblings.
These hieroglyphics, later identified as "Reformed Egyp-
tian," were, of course, incomprehensible. Two other angels

77
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
Smith with
appeared then, Urim and Thummim, and presented
a pair of magic spectacles.
He could understand the writing now. But, alas, young
Smith could not write. He called on friends to help. They came
to the historic spot and while Smith hidden from sight behind
a blanket which masked the plates translated, they took notes
of what was to become the fabulous document The Book of
Mormon. It told the history of the original inhabitants of North
America.
North and South America had been peopled by Jews from
600 B.C. to A.D. 421, the Smith revelation explained. Two
nations, the Lamanites and Nephites, emerged. (Cotton
Mather, Roger Smith and William Penn had likewise specu-
lated whether the Indians were not the lost tribes of Israel

legend.) Christ had appeared among the Nephites and


selected
twelve apostles and set up a Church. Then the vicious Lama-
nites had attacked and destroyed the noble Nephites in what
was to be New York State. Moroni, the angel who had appeared
to Smith and who in earthly life had been the son of the dead

Nephite general, Mormon, had buried the plates, which told


also of the Jaredites, a group that came to America after the
confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel.
When Smith finished his translation, he gave the magic spec-
tacles as well as the plates back to the angels. Thus began the

saga of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.


Local worthies naturally scorned the twenty-two-year-old
youth's amazing news. There was even talk of a retired minister
who had toyed with writing a romance of the history of the
Indians in biblical terms. He had left the manuscript at a
nearby print shop owned by a Mr. Rigdon, a disenchanted
Campbellite. Some claimed that Smith and Rigdon had entered
into a conspiracy to hoodwink the town. (Formal boards of in-

quiry of the Mormon Church have since established to their


satisfaction that this slur on Smith is untrue. )

78
THE MORMONS

Despite skeptics, a hard core of true believers gathered


around the young New York seer. On April 6, 1830, the first
church was formed in Fayette, New York, by Smith and five
others "exactly 1800 years, to the day, after the resurrection of
Christ." From that moment, the new church was to begin a

magnificent and horrible trek which, finally, was to end in Salt


Lake City, Utah.
Smith, soon after the formation of the church, had another
revelation.He told his tiny group that they were to move on to
Kirkland, Ohio. They packed and left. There they built a tiny
temple. But natives did not like odd strangers. Smith and his
followers moved on to Independence, Missouri. Quite ob-
viously, the cultists outraged the respectable traditionalists.
Persecution began. There were incidents stonings, shooting
of livestock, the burning of haystacks. By 1834, Smith and his
"Saints" were ordered to move out of the county. They wan-
dered on to Clay County, Missouri. Here they had three years
of peace.Then the militia was ordered to rid the area of them.
Smith and the other leaders were taken prisoners. They were
condemned to be shot for "treason" for their heresies. But the
men assigned to conduct the execution refused to follow orders.
The Mormons were allowed to move on to Nauvoo, Illinois.

Here in theswampland they bought beside the Mississippi,


the Saints were happy. They built a beautiful temple, laid out
streets and built homes. Smith's private army, the Nauvoo

Legion, protected them. Yet, the 20,000 Gentiles in Nauvoo


were outraged. They envied the Mormon prosperity. There
were rumors of polygamy. They feared the cultists' political
power. Smith himself, in fact, had already announced his can-
didacy for president of the United States, and his followers had
smashed the presses of an anti-Smith newspaper. Tensions in-
creased. A mob gathered. Smith fled across the river. But he
decided to return to his flock. Now things were at a crisis.
Finally, the governor of Illinois promised Smith protection if
79
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

he would agree to go to Chicago and face such trumped-up


and
charges as immorality, counterfeiting, sheltering criminals,
treason. Smith agreed. He was placed in jail with his brother,
to await the trip.
But now the mob's blood lust was up. Two hundred Gentiles

stormed the building. Joseph Smith, Prophet, Seer, Revelator,


Mayor and Lieutenant General of the Nauvoo Legion
died that

day at thirty-nine, shot by the mob which


moves down through
the corridors of time ridding the world of those who think and
act outside the code.
The odyssey of the Mormons could have ended there. Yet,
a new leader was to emerge. He was Brigham Young, an extro-
verted, forceful leader who, according to Mormon lore,
had
been named for the task during one of Smith's revelations in

1836.
And now? The persecuted, valiant band of Saints waited.

They prayed. Where was peace? Then Young had a vision. He


saw a mountain in the Far West. This, he announced, was to
be their home.
preparation and great trek began. The westering
The bat-

talions of Conestoga wagons moved out across the plains.


Months of struggle and tortured advance followed the line of
wagons toward the setting sun. Then, on July 24, 1847, Young
and his followers halted. They gazed down upon the Salt Lake
Valley. "It is enough," said Young. "This is the place. Drive
on."
Even here in their distant refuge persecution was not to end.

There were bloody days still. Mormons and immigrants from


Missouri headed for California continued to clash. Then Presi-
dent Buchanan ordered the Army to Utah. The Mormons
were outraged, since they considered the promised land an in-
dependent democracy. But there was nothing to do. They sur-
rendered. With courtesy Young turned over the territorial seal

80
THE MORMONS

and received the new governor appointed by the President.


Meanwhile, the issue which separated the Mormons from the
rest of Christianity continued to simmer. Polygamy! It had
been rumored before. Now, in Utah, the Mormons had become
outspoken. Certainly they took numerous wives, as God had
decreed. And they had for years. Easterners were outraged as
newspapers published lurid stories of lechery under the guise of
religion. It was not until 1896 that Mormon leaders met and
pondered the stake. Should polygamy be set aside as a tenet
of the faith? The prize: admission to the Republic as a state.

They agreed that polygamy should end. Utah became the

forty-fifth state.

Today, the Utah branch of the Church of Latter-day Saints


ispowerful, immensely rich and accepted. Its members, once
scorned and attacked, are among national leaders in politics
and There have, of course, been splinter groups. In
business.
addition to the main group with headquarters in Utah with
2000 congregations and 900,000 members, the Reorganized
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, started by fol-

lowers who rejected Young's leadership and followed Smith's


brother to Missouri, have headquarters at Independence, Mis-
souri, and reject polygamy. They have six hundred churches
and 115,000 members. The Church of Christ (Temple) has

headquarters in Bloomington, Illinois, with 2000 followers.


The Cutlerites, who base their beliefs on the revelations of

Alpheus Cutler, survive also, as do a few Strangites, of which


we shall read later. Followers of a critic of Young's polygamy
make up still another tiny group.
There are a number of obscure doctrines in the Utah branch
today. One current sore point generally played down in mis-
is the anti-Negro bias. Doctrine claims that
sionary work
Negroes are the descendants of Ham. Young, in a talk with
Horace Greeley, stated the general view decades ago: "We
81
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

consider slavery a divine institution and not to be abolished


until the curse pronounced on Ham should have been removed
from his descendants."
The sons of the pioneers have prospered in Utah. The
Church owns huge cor-
hotels, newspapers, grain elevators,

porations, real estateand land by the tens of thousands of acres.


All this is controlled by an elaborate system of leadership in-
cluding a President, Prophet, Seer, Trustee in Trust, First and
Second Counselor and Twelve Apostles. There are 149 wards
in today's stakes of Zion. All but a few of the Church's per-
sonnel serve without pay.
Large families are encouraged, birth control condemned.
Divorces are rare. Tithing, at least ten per cent of one's income
for good Mormons, is demanded. This makes possible an ex-

pansive missionary program as well as more than a hundred


warehouses for food and clothing for those in need. Mormons
skip two meals on the first Sunday of each month and give the
funds to the church.
Mormon involvement above even Catholicism, a way of
is,

life. and economic security. Young


It offers social, religious

people grow up, live, marry and die within the programs and
rituals of the Church, and are content to know nothing else.
It is, as we shall see, one of the few cultic efforts which has

found roots and grown and fulfilled the dream of its founders.
The pious, industrious and zealous followers have only a
few faults today. One of them is
a furious contempt for crackpot
heretics who emerge with wild talk about visions and the like.

82
PART III

Cultism in
America
Chapter

14

THE AMERICAN TRADITION

A FEW years ago, a lank, brown, seventy-one-


year-old cultist proclaimed himself the first and official "Doc-
tor of Diet" and started to hike with jaunty strides across the

country on U. S. Highway 1 wearing a loincloth and smart, two-


toned oxfords. At every village and town he paused, loosened
the bobby pins from his long gray hair, wrapped and tied it
around a truck bumper and pulled the vehicle a few hundred
feet with his healthy scalp until a delighted crowd gathered.
Then he preached his special doctrine of how to achieve heaven
through vegetables, took up a donation for more greenery to
sustain his gait,and pranced on.
It brought many a laugh and some good newspaper stories.
It was in the American tradition. The wandering mystic and

the quaint and harmless creed is always with us. ,-


Eastern seaboard rustics of more than a century ago had
chuckled over the quaint antics of the Shakers (not to be con-
fused with the Quakers), so named for their violent expression
of faith. One Jane Wardly had founded the group in the mid-
eighteenth century in England, basing her creed on a vision in
which had been revealed that the "Christ power" had come
it

"through her" as it had through Jesus. She announced in no


85
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
uncertain terms that sex was the root of all evil; anyone who
hellfire. She
fornicated, or thought of it, was doomed to eternal
soon attracted a number of followers who, viewing the jaded
views. But the doc-
ways of the aristocrats, held similar stanch
trine had a flaw. Strict celibacy was hardly a way to create new
members. Much as the ecstatic, quivering dances soothed the
cultists' libido, no children emerged. And, if one did, the offend-

ing couple was quickly excommunicated.


seventy-four million people who worship
The more than in

today's 250,000 established churches in the United States pay


small heed to such contemporary radical goings-on if they

know of them at all. Most seldom note the scores of religious


ads for small groups in the classified section or weekly church
for thousands of
page of the metropolitan newspapers-. Yet,
Americans, these obscure creeds offer hope and haven. And
they thrive.
There is the "Order of the Cross," which came to the United
States from England before World War II. It was founded by
one J. Todd Ferrier, a former Congregational minister, who
claimed he was a "channel" through which a new revelation
had come. He said he had "recovered" wisdom he had accumu-
lated in past lives. The blending of Congregationalism and
ancient Indian reincarnation concepts was attractive. Followers
listened as he developed his doctrine, claiming that although
some of Jesus' sayings were lost, they had been revealed to
him. Someof the words of Paul and others were really the ex-

pressions of Jesus, he explained. Three of Jesus' beliefs had


been removed from the writings of the Apostles, he added.
Further, Jesus believed in reincarnation, had warned against
the unjust taking of animal life and had ordered true Christians
to refuse to join in wars. Today's followers remain absolute
pacifists, anti-vivisectionists and vegetarians.
The East was to mingle with the West, too, in the Ahma-
diyat sect, a splinter group of Islam which originated in India

86
THE AMERICAN TRADITION

Today, some five hundred followers in the


in the last century.
United States maintain that Jesus whom they recognize as
equal with Mohammed did not on the
die cross. He
"swooned," but later was released from the tomb by friends and
went to India where he preached for forty years. His tomb, they
claim, is at Kashmir.
In 1 93 1 a quaint group emerged in Brooklyn and blossomed

briefly. It was the Purgatorial Society, founded by the imag-


inative Lucy Barrow who after a rather incoherent revelation
announced that she was ready, in fact ordered, to run world
affairs as God had instructed. Her heavenly orders were specific.

She decreed that the Royal Family was to move immediately to


Canada in order to make room in Buckingham Palace for the

returning Christ. And John the Baptist, who was


be born to

again soon, had asked for a sponsoring committee of two United


States Senators. She advised the Pope that he was to move forth-
with into the White House and order a world conclave of
churches. Mrs. Barrow and her husband, she went on, were to
collect all themoney in the world immediately and turn it over
to the Jews. By then, she said, money would be unimportant
anyway. For Mrs. Barrow was to become President of the
United States, her husband was to take over as Speaker of the
House of Representatives and a reluctant rabbi from Kansas
City was to be installed as Vice President. Her dogma, outlined
in a tract titled "Warning Information!" failed to stir apathetic

politicians and clerics.

Fully as colorful a prophet had given


an equally amazing
revelation to the world in 1903. He wasone Cyrus R. Teed,
founder of The Church Triumphant, a communistic society in
Lee County, Florida. (Today a few of his followers still live
in Estero, Florida.)
Teed seems to have gathered his basic lore at the World
Parliament of Religion at the Chicago World's Fair a few years
before. His preachments were sprinkled through with Hindu

87
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

He that
concepts. taught a system of reincarnation, claiming
man could achieve final, eternal life only through a series of re-

births in various forms of life. But what were really conven-


tional cultic ideas were only part of Teed's teachings. Both the
state and all other churches were degenerate and were to be re-

placed by a "new heaven and


new earth," he explained.
who preferred to be called "Koresh" (Hebrew for
Cyrus,
but also
"Cyrus"), astounded not only conservative theologians
radical scientists with his ideas. For he maintained that Coper-
nican was completely wrong. It had been revealed
astronomy
to him in 1870, he said, that the universe was a "cellular cos-
mology/' The earth was round, true enough. But the "surface"
as we know was conclave. It was not a solid sphere with
it

It was a hollow ball, 8000 miles in


people living on the outside.
diameter, with people living on the inside! The horizon really
bent up, he explained, and the sun, moon and stars were all in-
side the earth. The direct route to China was straight up in the

air, he said, and what most people "assumed"


were planets were
seven mercury discs idly floating inside the world. Re-
really
flectionsfrom these discs make up what we know as stars. Still,
the future could be predicted by reading these reflections by
ordinary astrological means.
Teed organized a "geodetic" staff at Estero, who soon proved
his theories to be true. This also explained other things. The
earth was, hence, like a cell, Teed went on and in the cult's pub-
lication, "The Flaming Sword," he wrote that "thousands of

people living will pass out without the ordinary corrupti-


now
ble, dissolvable body for the time is at hand when there shall

be no more death."
Of course, with such revolutionary concepts, Teed was
bound to have enemies. There were whispers that the three
women who rode with him in his fine auto were really all con-
cubines, and one critic even claimed he was a "braggart, fanatic

88
THE AMERICAN TRADITION

and utterly corrupt man who ended as a rank imposter." If


some of Teed's predictions failed to come about, he did live up
to his last pronouncement. He said that he would rise from the
tomb. And he did. His body was swept from its grave by a tidal
wave during a hurricane, and followers had to recover it and
it.
re-bury
Today, a vast array of cults continues to thrive. There is the
Brotherhood of the White Temple, led by a prophet in Denver
who claims he can transport his spirit to Tibet for consultation
with Adepts there. Under the title of Shambulla Ashrama, Inc.,

the cult a few years ago tried to build a retreat, to be known as


"The Valley of -Survival," before the "coming holocaust."
Pontiff Harold Davis Emerson in New York watches over
the Mayan Temple, which seeks to re-establish the faith of the
ancient Mayans. He holds that the Indian was the original race
of man, since the Hebrew word for Adam can be translated
"red earth." He claims, too, to be the direct descendant of the
lasthigh priest of the Mayans.
James Bernard Shaffer leads still another mystical group
known as the "Royal Fraternity of Master Metaphysicians."
The order maintains a retreat, "Peace Haven, the House of the
New Commandment," on Long Island.
In Los Angeles, the "Temple of Spiritual Logic" thrives,
with its leader going into a state of "receptivity" during which

he heals. The Builders of Adytum (the Greek word for "tem-


ple") founded in 1943 by the late Dr. Paul Foster Case, a one-
time piano player in a silent-movie house, claims to have the
secret loreand practices of the hermetic alchemists, and knowl-
edge of the "mystery schools" of which Jesus Christ, followers
say, was a member. The cult uses the Tarot cards of centuries
ago as "spiritual pschyoanalysis." The widow of the founder,
who leads the cult today, explains that when a student concen-
trates on these cards (which she says were invented in Fez about

89
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
1200 A.D.) "their subconscious selves come to the surface just
as in psychoanalysis." She teaches, also alchemy and astrologi-
cal symbolism to some 1200 students on five continents.
Still another group in Los Angeles claims special knowledge.
The trueGarden of Eden was on Mu, which existed between
75,000 and 25,000 years ago, before it was inundated by the
Pacific Ocean. The church for this organization was started in
1946 when "the spiritual vibrations were favorable," says the
leader, the Reverend Howard John Zitko; and Los Angeles
was selected as headquarters because "it will be the birthplace
of a new race of mankind." Zitko became aware of the lost con-
tinents of Atlantis and Mu, he explains, through a previous in-
carnation. "I was born with the memory of them," he says.
Mu, older than Atlantis, had a population of several million
who came from the planet Venus. The inhabitants were blue-
skinned, he adds. When a volcanic upheaval destroyed Mu,
some inhabitants escaped to Atlantis and others to Asia. The
Atlantians were red-skinned, he goes on, and were ancestors of
the American Indian. Atlantis had airships, atomic energy,
autos and television. Zitko knows, he says, because he was a
"television personality" on Atlantis in a past life. When man
has achieved perfection (in the manner of Jesus Christ) a divine
,

order will be established on earth and man will be able to return


to Venus. But, before that, in about seven centuries, America
willbecome a lost continent, Zitko explains. On Venus, the peo-
ple are awaiting us. They have sent their flying saucers to visit
us. When we reach their level of morality they will welcome us
back.
The Anthroposophical Society, related to theosophy, flour-
ishes, too, inLos Angeles. They teach that man's development
can only be understood in light of a spiritually guided evolu-
tion and that he must "free himself from the chains of egoism"
to reach higher levels of cognition.
Still another group, the Chris tadelphians, founded during

90
THE AMERICAN TRADITION
the Civil War by Dr. John Thomas, thrives. First known as the
Brothers of Christ, this cult claims it alone has a true transla-
tion of the Scriptures. Followers reject the Trinity, believe in a
literal devil and in pre-millennialism and refuse to take part in
elections or hold civic office.
Another small sect, the Church of God, the Seventh Day,
observes Saturday as the Sabbath, abstains from pork and rec-
ognizes Jerusalem as the official headquarters. The Church of
Light, founded in Los Angeles, has 210 lessons which teach
"the religion of the stars." England offered still another unique
sect to the United States in 1916; the Liberal Catholic Church
of America. It claims to be neither Roman Catholic nor Prot-
estant and tracesorder of apostolic succession back to the
its

twelve Apostles. Once known as the Old Catholic Church in


Great Britain, it took on theosophic manifestations after a the-
osophist, Charles W. Leadbeater, was made bishop of Australia.
Today it does not require its followers to believe in any specific
creed or interpretation of the Scriptures, stresses reincarnation
and holds that no images of the dead Christ should be allowed
in its churches.
But the historic devil is not forgotten. Robert L. Duncan
heads the Apostolic Brotherhood in Los Angeles. He is an ad-
vocate of demonology, explaining that "the reality of Satan as a
being with intelligence, deceptive ways, authority and
spirit

power is absolutely proven in the word of God." Satan rules


over a vast number of highly organized demon spirits, also.

They inhabit the atmosphere all around us, watch our faces,
hear every word we say, know and
everything we have said
done since we were born.
"Who they are and whence they come no one knows, but the
Scriptures prove that demons are intelligent beings who recog-
nize Jesus Christ as the Son of God," Duncan says. "They have
power of speech. They use intelligent language. They have
sensibilities of fear, they have need of rest. They have strength.

91
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
There are all kinds
to convulse a person.
They have the power
of Spirits Jealousy, Hate, Lying and many others! These
demonic spirits are projecting their evil power to the world of
men and their affairs. Vast multitudes are becoming demon
possessed!"
in high places com-
Duncan says that this explains why men
mit suicide. These spirits also sometimes identify themselves
as a human being or say they are from outer space. Doc-
living
and are having hallucina-
tors psychiatrists tell patients they
tions, Duncan says. They try to explain these demon spirits in
medical should recognize them for what they
phraseology. They
are.
Duncan claims to have held extended conversation with evil
reach persons through any vibration even on
spirits. Demons
a telephone dial tone, Duncan explains. He claims to have
cured at least thirteen persons who were "infected by demons."
In Los Angeles there are other demonical analysts who will
analyze a particular demon infesting a person
and sell the
patient the magic formula to rid himself
of the demon.
The Dukhobors, who migrated to Canada from Russia about
1900, also make periodic headlines. After settling in Saskatche-

wan, they created a 1902 when 1600 of them marched


crisis in

without shoes, in some cases naked, to a village to meet the re-


turned Lord. A few years ago they again paraded nude down a
Canadian street. Police solved this recent dilemma simply.
They flung itching powder on the naked cultists. Today, Dukho-
bors remain vegetarians (some are so considerate of animals
that they pull plows themselves rather than subject horses to
the work) are communistic and have a long history of Messiahs
,

who have emerged.


Cultism attracts the intellectual, too. One such quasi-reli-
gious movement is Humanism. While it cannot be called a reli-
gion in the formal sense, its announced mission is belief in man's

92
THE AMERICAN TRADITION

moral obligation to use his intellectual and moral endowments


in such a way that man everywhere "can develop to his fullest

capacity." Humanists claim man is not "doomed by original


sin," from which he can be saved "only by the grace of God."
The Humanist does not believe in reward or punishment for his
earthly actions in a life hereafter. He must make the most of life

here and now as he "lives only once." Such intellectuals as Julian


Huxley are ardent Humanists. "We believe that the battle
against superstition and the anthropomorphic God-concept has
long been won," explains one spokesman. "The Humanists'
faith is a faith in man." Hence, it attracts the extreme left of

theology, those who hold that there is nothing discernibly divine


beyond man.
Often confused, too, isthe Ethical Culture philosophy which
contends that, as philosopher Felix Adler explains it, "the eth-
ical end is the sovereign supreme end of life to which all ends
must be subordinated." Ethical Culture claims moral law is
aboriginal and claims it is harmful to teach that one's moral be-
lief is a derivative of some religious belief. Adler explains: "If

morality rests on extraneous props, it will fall to the ground


when the props crumble, as they were sure to do, and as more
and more, they have done."
Too, there is Truth Realization (a Church of All Religions)
which tries to blend Christian concepts with ancient Hindu
theories of creation. Still another, The Aquarius School of the
Masters in Santa Ysabel, California, has twenty-one lessons on
The Sacred Wisdom of the Ancients, which offers revelations
from the Akashic Records. Dr. Merle Parker tells how these
lessons teach mysteries of crossing the "Time Barrier which

permits seeing both the past and the future." The lessons allow
one to learn how to "review your experiences on earth centuries
ago" and "removes all fear of so-called 'death' by showing you
proof of Eternal Existence."

93
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
In these, and scores of obscure groups like them, the search
for the godhead goes on.

Unimportant? Perhaps. Yet, they have left their mark on


history. Take that magnificent little red-bearded heretic who
a little more than a century ago was the only white "king"
America has ever known.

94
Chapter

15

KING JAMES I

ONE
bright morning in May 1851, a strange
sight greeted fishermen near the Beaver Islands on the main
steamship route between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan.
As a steamer with flags flying made its way toward the main
island a crowd stood on the shore cheering wildly. On the deck
of the boat was a gnome-like figure in a flowing red robe with
a cotton collar spread over his shoulders in crude imitation of
the ceremonial vestments of a Catholic cardinal.
little man with the massive head, ruddy complexion and
The
long red hair and beard waved merrily, bobbing his towering
forehead to the cries of excitement. His penetrating, blue eyes
in deep sockets, however, were studying other things: the prog-
ress in building along the shore of Paradise Bay since he had

left; how had progressed in his fifteen-by-


the spring planting
six-mile kingdom; what was doing on the eleven tiny islands
which surrounded the main island; the condition of his home,
King's Cottage, which was the major building of St. James, as
the settlement was known.
It was fitting that a monarch should survey his lands after a

crusade. And he was a king. And it had been a crusade.


Our compact hero was James Strang one-time school-
95
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

teacher, newspaper editor and lawyer who had just returned


from a successful foray against the infidels, in this case the

United government. His followers, the Strangles,


States
claimed to be the only true successor to Joseph Smith by divine
revelation, and their mentor, King James I the only white
man ever to be crowned king in the United States was the
man who had been given that revelation.
Not long before, Strang had been charged by the government
with such assorted crimes as treason, counterfeiting, robbing
the mails and trespassing on United States lands. Further, he
was at open warfare with land speculators, whiskey traders and
lumbermen at Mackinac, the boom town some fifty miles to the
east.
Lesser men would have cut and run. Not Strang. He had
to Detroit to defend himself. Now, after acquitting him-
gone
self with brilliance in court, showing the general boobery of
lawyers and launching a spectacular defense
at-
government
tack against his foes, he had been freed by the jury to return to
his flock.
James Strang, the man who ruled his kingdom with the hyp-
notic assurance of a Svengali and whose followers believed he
could foretell the future, had bested the amassed powers of the
to be
government of the United States. But his kingdom was
destroyed by a pair of women's bloomers.
This impressive cult leader had been born in Auburn, New
York, March 21,1813. The boy was sickly, and as a result had
less than a year's formal education. Scorned by other youth be-

cause of his massive, misshapen head, he'd taken to daydream-


his hero, Thomas
ing and reading. Napoleon had become
Paine's "Age of Reason" his Bible, and Rosseau's Utopian con-
cepts his creed. Quite obviously, such an idealist was born for
more than mundane, middle-class existence. And Strang knew
it was but a matter of waiting.

By twenty-one, he spoke of himself as "The Cool Philoso-

96
KING JAMES I

pher," and awed his companions with his speculations as they

gnawed their "terbaccer" twist. At twenty-three he was married.


For the biblical seven lean years, Strang tried schoolteaching,

being a postmaster, editor and backwoods lawyer. But his forte


was arguing. As he won debate after debate he saw that his
future lay in the spoken word. He was witty, magnetic, deva-
stating in rebuttal. And he had a maniacal lust for power and
recognition.
Yet civilization ignored him. So at thirty, he headed for
Wisconsin Territory, where his wife's brother served in the
legions of Mormon prophet Joseph Smith.
In Burlington, he became fascinated with the tale of the
golden plates and with the founder's history. For, like himself,
Smith was uneducated, from rural New York State and by his
divine prophecy had become one of the powers of the United
States.

Strang went on to Nauvoo, the Mormon capitol, to meet the


leader.
Here on the Illinois banks of the Mississippi was a meeting
from which came seeds of destiny.
The canny Smith listened to the articulate Strang and knew
that here was a man he could use to build his empire. What he
didn't appreciate was Strang's own talent at using others, in-

cluding prophets.
Within a week after being baptized, Strang was named an
elder. He returned to Wisconsin with the duty of finding a

cheaper and better home for the Mormon headquarters. What


was more, trouble was stirring. A year before, Smith had been
visited by his angel and told of the need for plural marriages.
Smith acted with alacrity but kept the news from all but a few
elders. Yet, word had gone around in Nauvoo and outraged
"Gentiles" were furious.
Strang's quest was never accomplished. On June 27, a mob,
faces blackened with soot, murdered Smith.

97
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
As soon as the news reached him, Strang stepped forward.
He had been months, but now he announced
in the sect only five
that he was to inherit the Smith mantle.
Others questioned him. He was ready. A
Divine Messenger
"accompanied by a numerous heavenly train" had appeared at
the very moment Smith had been murdered, Strang said, and
anointed him with oil and told him of his mission. He had been
strolling in a Wisconsin field at the time, he added. Associates
were startled, as it had taken twelve days for news of the mur-
der to reach them and Strang had kept his secret of the heav-
enly meeting until the news came by earthly means. But Strang
produced 507 words that the heavenly host had addressed to
him, then moved on to claim his place in Nauvoo.
Strang had been an apt pupil of the group's history. It was es-
tablished that only Smith in touch with the heavens could
name his successor. Strang showed skeptics a letter, dated eight
days before Smith's death and purportedly written by the dead
founder, which named his successor and told him to "gather
the people" and start a new stake in Wisconsin. The city, the
"Garden of Peace," was to be named Vorhee.
Brigham Young and the twelve Mormon apostles listened
to Strang's story, then rejected it.
They said, further, that he
was a gross imposter and They ordered him
his letter a forgery.

"given over to the buffeting of Satan," and expelled him.


Strang, power at last in reach, was not so easily put down.
He took to the stump and yelled with fury. Soon his oratory had
its effect.
William, brother of Joseph Smith, and two of the
apostles who had rejected him a few days before, joined him.
By summer, the village of Vorhee was growing on the banks
of the White River. With rare invective, Strang was denouncing

Young's followers as heretics. "In the name of God and the


Lord Jesus Christ," he wrote, "may their bones rot in the living
tomb of their flesh; may their flesh generate from their own cor-
ruption a loathsome life for others; may their blood swarm with

98
KING JAMES I

a leprous life of moatlike


gaslike corruption generating chilling
agues and burning fevers. May peace and home be names for-
gotten to them, and the beauty they betrayed in infamy, may it
be to their eyes a crawling mass of putridity and that may be a
its auburn tresses of the
battening corruption; post humid
growth of temples of crawling worms; its fragrant breath the
blast of putrefication. With desires insatiate make their
grati-
fication turn to burning bitterness and
growing shame."
It was not the sort of positive talk of which Norman Vincent
Peale would have approved, yet confused Mormons who read
such tracts sometimes packed quietly at night and started for
Vorhee.
But there were other
weapons to establish his position. On
September 13, 1845, Strang ordered his disciples to follow him
with picks and spades. He led them to a hill overlooking the
river.
At a place beneath a great oak he stopped. "Dig here," he
ordered.
As work started, he explained: An angel had appeared to
him and told him
that "gold plates of the ancient records which
are sealed up" were buried here. Three feet down, the excited

diggers found a square flat rock. It covered a clay container.


Inside, were indeed! the ancient records, brass plates cov-
ered with strange markings.
They were exhibited in Vorhee for five days, then Strang
took them into seclusion. As he explained it when he appeared
again two days later, an angel had given him magic spectacles
just as an angel had Smith and he translated the plates.
They were, true enough, nothing more or less than the sacred
book kept in the Ark of the Covenant which had been lost
since the days of Babylon! More important, they named Strang
as the rightful successor to Smith. As news of the discovery

spread, more of Young's followers deserted.


Now that the cult was solidified, Strang was ready to pur-
99
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
sue the age-old pattern of the cult leader isolation and dic-

tatorship.
He organized a secret society, "The Halcyon Order of the
Illuminati," and named himself as "Imperial Primate." Below
him were "Chevaliers, Earls, Marshals and Cardinals."
On New Year's Day, 1847, he invited 130 of the devoted to
a banquet. was a ludicrous sight. But, with Strang's hypnotic
It

oration, no one laughed. With pomp and ceremony the crude


country bumkins were anointed as knights, and they, kneeling,
took an oath to defend Strang as "Actual Sovereign Lord and
King on Earth."
Now the newspapers heard of the strange goings-on at Vor-
hee. A tract,
"Strangism Exposed to'the World," shocked Chi-
cagoans. "Infamous Society," announced headlines. Gentile
neighbors began to mutter darkly of evil doings. Strang recalled
the fate of Smith and at the same time an island he had
seen while on a boat trip.
An angel visited Strang soon after. He and his followers
were to go government-owned island, the angel said.
to this

Strang called his group together and told of the visitation.


It was obviously, a heavenly gift. For the island was covered

with timber, had rich soil and an excellent harbor. Further, it


was fine for raising cattle, wheat and corn.
The Strangles begantheir migration in the spring of 1849.
A sawmill was constructed, a road into the interior started, a
schooner built.
His new neighbors started grumbling. Whiskey sales to the
local Indians were down as he demanded they give up demon
rum if they wanted work. Strang was printing his own money.
He wouldn't buy goods from the corrupt officials. Locals tried
newcomers with rifle fire.
to terrorize the
But the faithful appeared, armed with knives and guns, and
work went on.
Other internal problems struck. More deserters from the

100
KING JAMES I

Young group arrived, but each had several wives. Earlier,


Strang had denounced such fun as "the unfruitful work of dark-
ness, born of hell and begotten of the Devil."
Now, he wasn't so sure. There was one high-bosomed
eighteen-year-old maiden, for instance Still, some of his
. . .

old followers frowned on multiple marriage.


Luckily, the stocky thirty-six-year-old cult leader didn't have
to solve the thorny crisis. For another angel appeared. This

heavenly messenger delivered eighteen additional plates to


Strang, the plates of Labin, which made clear that the Almighty
was all in favor of a man having several wives. Further, the
plates decreed, Strang was to set the pace with a test run im-

mediately.
Within a few months, Strang was touring the East with
"Charlie," a "male secretary," who was amazingly full chested.
In Baltimore an outspoken matron accused the red-bearded
prophet of having a disguised wench in tow.
The massive head nodded politely as the charge was made.
"If you are so sure, madam," he said with a sly grin, "I'm
sure you'll be ready to accept Charlie as a bed partner tonight!"
On his return with his concubine, Strang broke the news of
the plates to his followers. He said he'd been on a divine honey-
moon to test the truth of it all before telling them. He added,
further, that the plates had announced that he should be pro-
claimed King, fitting ceremony included.
In a scarlet robe with a crimson cord and a crown made of
metal with clusters of glass stars, Strang was properly crowned.
The prime minister, a former actor, wore tights and doublet and
a tin sword graced his left hip. Some four hundred subjects
bowed low as the coronation rites were completed.
Now he announced more about the new plates. Girls were
ready for intercourse at fourteen; boys at sixteen. Marriage
was recommended, but betrothal was enough for reasonable
bed play.
101
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
Some thought this was morality which was
immoral. Yet it

causing Strang the trouble. Angry Mackinac wanted


traders in

Strang and his evil ilk who had stopped the Indians from
buying whiskey on the Beaver Islands out of the way. Strang
decided to plead his case at a higher tribunal. He went to the
Michigan legislature and argued his right to live as he saw fit.
More violence, incidents and political intrigues began to de-
velop each month. Strang, as escape, took another wife, then
still another, a seventeen-year-old, to amuse himself in the

growing tension.
His wives' most ardent efforts could not ease his worries. He
became a nervous martinet and started issuing more angry
edicts.
He decided that his boyhood hero, Rousseau, should be
given more thought, and started calling for naturalness. He
ordered the women not to wear any "form of dress which
pinches or compresses the body or limbs." Further, he said,
therewould be no more hoop skirts, bell-crowned hats or puffed
sleeves.
Then he made the fateful error of attacking every woman's

right to be distinct and individual. All women members would


wear a short skirt which came above the knees and pantaloons
similar to those recently introduced by Amelia Bloomer, he de-
creed.
Two ladies refused. He had their husbands flogged "forty

times, save one."


As the victims' backs healed, they talked. On June 19, 1856,
the king was taking his ease by strolling along the shore of his

personal harbor. Things were, at least, looking better. All of


his four wives were pregnant. The foe hadn't caused trouble
in several weeks. Other girls were growing up.
Six shots came from a nearby boat. The two flogging victims
rowed away from the crumpled, thick figure in the red robe.
As news of the shooting panicked the colony, some of the
102
KING JAMES I

cultists took off for the mainland. Soon a drunken mob of Gen-
tiles with torches were bound for Mackinac.
Lake boats arrived to evacuate the 2500 cultists before the
mob arrived.
The leader lay paralyzed and dying. He watched as the
looters and invaders burned his colony and destroyed all that
had once been his mighty kingdom.
He hung on until there was nothing left. Then, on July 8,
1856, his work destroyed, his followers gone, his finish com-
plete, he died.
It was six years to the day since he had been crowned King

James I. Oddly enough, there is no record of any last words.

103
Chapter

16

BAHA'I

A STRANGELY incongruous building stands on


the windy shores of Lake Michigan at Wilmette, Illinois. It is an
exotic nine-sided temple with a lacy dome and nine symbolic
white doorways denoting the great religions of man in-

scribed with such quotations as "The best beloved of all things


in My sight is Justice," have made death a messenger of
and "I

joy to thee; wherefore dost thou grieve?"


This is the American citadel of Baha'i, a religion of noble
aspiration. Without clergy, collections or ritual, its followers
wait, puzzling over why mankind cannot see the obvious truth.
For the estimated 3000 members in the United States, who find
no need for intimate and personal religious experience, their
cult is the answer. Does it not teach the oneness of man, the
truth of all religions, equality, universal peace? Does it not be-

lieve in the good and true and beautiful? Then why? Why only
3000 faithful?

"Oh, ye people of the world! the religion of God is for the


sake of love and union; make it not the cause of enmity and con-
flict! By my word shall the diverse sects of the world attain unto

the light of real union!" In these words, a follower of a Persian

sage BahaVllah ("The Glory of God") first gave his message

104
BAHA'I

n America to the World Congress of Religions at the Colum-


bian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.
The history of Baha'i began May 23, 1844, when Mirza
Vlohammed Ali, a young reformer, arrived at Shiraz, Persia,
ie soon announced to local religious leaders of the world that
hey had forgotten their common origin. Moses, Jesus and
Vlohammed were equal prophets, mirroring God's glory, mes-
;engers bearing the imprint of the Great Creator, he said. For
iisheresies he was soon jailed and sentenced to death by ortho-
lox Moslem leaders. The day
of execution was set for July 8,
1850, at Tabriz. As the story goes, he was dragged to a gateway
ind tied to a cross piece. Thousands watched as 750 Armenian
joldiers with rifles fired at the dangling figure of the prophet.
When the smoke cleared, the Bab, as he was known, stood un-
lurt. The bullets had severed the ropes and set him free!

Spectators cried in amazement, "Miracle! Miracle!" The Bab


:hen faded away and disappeared.
The guards returned to the cell and found him sitting there,
talking with his disciples. He explained that they had inter-
rupted his conversation before. "I have finished my conversa-
tion. Now you may fulfill your intention," he said.
Once
again, he was led to the gateway, where a new firing
squad waited. Again the rifles spoke; the smoke cleared and
the body of the Bab hung, a mutilated mass of flesh and shat-
tered bones. Immediately, a massive black whirlwind swept
the city.
His followers and disciples continued their church. Known
as"Babis," they were subject to imprisonment and death: Ten
thousand were killed between 1850 and 1860. Yet the martyr
had spoken of a "Promised One" come. Then, in a lonely
to

garden, a disciple of nineteen years spoke. He was Mirza Husayn


Ali, the son of a wealthy Persian, who had abandoned the
world to teach the doctrine of "The oneness of all mankind."
From that day on he talked to the disciples and followers.

105
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
"Ye are the fruits of one tree and the leaves of one branch.
Yield ye one with another with utmost love and harmony. So
powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole
earth!"
He and his followers were soon imprisoned again; first in
Constantinople, finally in Akka. Then in 1870 he was freed,
but to live as a prisoner in a comfortable apartment within the
prison Here he died in
city. 1892.
Other were to follow. In 1912, Abdu'l Baha, son
disciples
of BahaVllah, arrived in the United States with servants, sec-
retaries and devotees. He was sixty-four, a man with sorrowful

eyes, a snow-white beard and long hair. He spoke no English.


But in pure, classical Persian he greeted those who thronged
about him in New York. He went on to make a triumphal tour
of churches, synagogues and temples. He spoke at universities
and before vast audiences. Clerics paused in computing their
church budgets and professors stopped writing their academic
papers to listen and agree.
He was to die in 1921 But important world figures were to
.

become absorbed in the concepts of Baha'i. Queen Marie of


Romania and Woodrow Wilson's daughter were to become
followers. Tolstoy was to write that it presented "the highest
and purest form of religious teaching." Luther Burbank re-
marked: "The religion of peace is the religion we need and . . .

in this Baha'i is more truly the religion of peace than any other."

Today the world headquarters is in Haifa, Israel, and in more


than 250 countries the message of Baha'i is preached.
Before his death Baha'u'llah, had boldly declared himself
as none other than the very Spirit of Truth referred to at the
Last Supper, thus fulfilling the prophecy of Christ in the nine-
teenth century. He left two hundred books and tablets. And
there was a miracle which thousands witnessed.

Why then? Why, ask the kindly and intelligent followers of


Baha'i, only we few?

106
Chapter

17

DR. ROBINSON AND PSYCHIANA

ANY office boy on the Madison Avenue of1929


even before surveys would have known the advertisement
could not get results.
In the upper left-hand corner was a gray picture of a non-
descript man. In large black letters across the top ran the spec-
tacular message, "I talked with God." The long paragraph be-
low began with the news that, "You, too, can talk with God ..."
With this blatant, even sacrilegious, announcement, a tall,
talkative Westerner began one of the most unique religions the
world has ever seen. It was mail-order cultism. The leader, Dr.
Frank B. Robinson, remained throughout a mysterious, ob-
scure prophet like the wizard of Oz, unseen by his thousands
of devoted faithful.
Yet, he was a phantom to his followers, his lessons (sold in
if

series of twelve, twenty or seventy-five) brought amazing re-


sults. The testimonies of the subscribers read like old-time

patent medicine ads:


"Before I started Psychiana, I was sickly and suffering from
stomach cramps. Today, I weigh 200 and have a job in a steel
mill . . ."

Or, "I was despondent and pimply and thought everyone

107
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
hated me until I started taking your lessons. Now I am the most
popular girl in town ..."
So the happy confessions came, 1300 letters a day when
Psychiana was at its zenith. Meanwhile, hundreds of ads in
cheap detective and adventure magazines, in science fiction
and astrology publications, brought more of the frustrated
and lonely to the correspondence-school cult, lured by the now
famous boast, "I talked with God!" More than one million
people subscribed during the nearly two decades that Psychiana
thrived.
"Doc" Robinson, a drugstore clerk, began his unique effort
in 1929 in the little university town of Moscow, Idaho. As he
explained it all later, the idea for his first advertisement was the
natural culmination of a life of despair and failure until he
talked with God.
Robinson was born in 1886 and grew up in Canada. He had
held a variety of jobs and attended a Bible training school. But,
he recalled, rum had ruined his life. He tried once to save him-
self by playing a bass drum in the Salvation Army. Then, one

Sunday morning in Hollywood, he said he had the unique re-


ligious experience which was to change his life. He had gone to
church and found it nearly deserted that morning. Returning
to his cheap room, he had brooded, despondent that so few

people found meaning in religion. Then, suddenly, God spoke


up in the hotel room and began answering Robinson's ques-
tions, telling him how he could achieve wealth and peace.
"I lay perfectly still, not a move, just completely resting in
the great spirit, God," Robinson explained. "Then God opened
the veil which is supposed to separate us mortals from God and
though God and I are very close today I shall never forget

that day. The future opened up like a rose. I cannot describe

it
by any wordsin any language; they are spiritual moments and

they are spiritually discerned. A


great, infinite peace stole over
me. I was overwhelmingly happy. There, in those few seconds,
for that is all there were, I suppose, I saw the victory ahead. I

108
DR. ROBINSON AND PSYCHIANA
saw the road I was to travel. I saw the home we now live in ...
It was undescribable. Let me just try to describe it by saying

the spirit of the Infinite God spoke to me. All I could do was lie
there and shout, 'Glory to God! Glory to God in the highest!'
And I did shout. The tears rolled down my cheeks, for God had
at last revealed himself to me, and had done it through methods

entirely removed from any theological organization on the face


of the earth."
From that moment, Robinson knew he was a chosen prophet
of God.
His 1200-word ads explained what had happened since.
They told of his now owning an office building and a fine home
with a pipe organ. There was a Cadillac limousine for his wife
and a Ford V-8 for his son, he added, and "a lot of life insur-
ance." There was even a money-back guarantee for mail-order
cultists who didn't get rich, too. All he wanted now, he went on,
was enough money to "pay expenses and grow."
He did grow. His economy buy of the twenty-dollar begin-
ner's series made him rich. He became the biggest employer in
the college town, with more than two hundred people handling
the vast mailing.
Tales of healing, financial success and a bright, new outlook
came from delighted cultists with each new day (including
many prisoners in the United States who could receive the
courses free while they were in jail). Those who were dis-
satisfied could have their money "cheerfully refunded."
What were his wondrous lessons? They were essentially
an adaptation of the old "Boston Craze" or New Thought
movement. All had the common element of awakening in a
pupil his own potential through the power of suggestion. They
instructed the student with specific methods on how to better
his life through introspective analysis. They kept him with a
sense of expectancy and hope.
In 1939, Dr. Robinson called on Westbrook Pegler, whc
had been lambasting him. "I am not interested in saving souls,
109
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
he told the columnist. "I want to raise the mental and spiritual
sights of the people. And if I didn't copyright my stuff I would
have every faker in the country using it because I have got a
religious philosophy that is a stemwinder! There is no legal way
to stop a faker.With a guy like that, all you can do is let them
alone and they'll blow up," Dr. Robinson explained.
Psychiana didn't blow up. A steady flow of inspirational mes-
sages poured from the little town. Dr. Robinson wrote a tract
titled"Blood on the Tail of a Pig." He told of seeing a pig with a
bleeding tail on a truck. He stopped the driver and asked what
had happened. The driver explained that the pig had been in-
jured during loading. Robinson explained that he had just sat
down and wept for the pig. Later, he said, he passed the truck
again. The pig's tail had been miraculously healed.
There were other wonders for the students of Psychiana. The
"Doc" admitted in 1943 that he was an Adept, like the mythical
heroes of theosophy. He told how he'd met in Egypt another
Adept, who was one thousand years old.
He talked with God more than once. Near Portland, Oregon,
he'd had a flat tire, he told amazed students. He just talked
with God, he said, and then drove on after the tire had been re-
paired by a miracle. Then, again, a fish bowl was tipped over
in his home. Dr. Robinson explained that he simply ordered
the fish tojump back into the bowl. "The fish could do nothing
else than obey me, for God is in this house tonight. God is in
me," he noted at the time.
By the late 1940's, the garish ads disappeared from the mag-
azines. "Doc" Robinson, the drugstore clerk who'd chatted
with God one memorable morning, owned most of the town
by the time he died. And across the world more than a million
followers had been changed by his simple idea of "thinking

right."
Since, there have been scores of attempts to found other mail-
order cults. But none has ever touched the heartstrings and
pursestrings of the people like Psychiana. It was, just as its

founder said, a real stemwinder.

110
Chapter

18

THE ROSICRUCIANS

"MAY the roses bloom upon your cross!"


The elderly man deep in a checker game on the boardwalk at
Long Beach, California, is a retired druggist from Sioux City.
He pauses and looks up at his greeter.
He rises, "And on yours, also," he replies.
The two are Rosicrucians, an old occult order of Christianity.
One is an elder, the other an aspiring soul.

Christian Rosencreuz, who


reputedly founded the order in
the sixteenth century, had as his motive throwing the occult
knowledge of the time upon the Christian religion. Today, it is a
sphere of thought which enters into every human activity
of as-
members. Like all established cults, it can today explain
piring
the panorama of history and all human events in terms of Rosi-
crucianism. can also find within its system the means to ab-
It

sorb all philosophies and theologies and put them in a per-


spective, relating to Rosicrucian doctrine.
The involved concepts are related to medieval allegory, sym-
bolism and magic. Basic doctrine holds that one is born into
the world with certain tendencies. These can develop into vices,
but, put to the test, they can become virtues.

Each human ego goes through many reincarnations. One


comes into the world innocent, the evil purged away. Here, the
111
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
Rosicrucians break with the Christian concept of original sin,
the ancient Eastern concept of Karma (which calls for man to
return again and again to earth, the victim of his previous sins
which must be corrected) and the theosophical premise.
There are seven worlds, Rosicrucians say, which make up
the universe. Each ofthese mystical worlds is divided into
seven subdivisions. Here, in the physical worlds, we have solids,
gases and liquids as well as four ethers of varying intensities.
In the highest realm is the universal spirit. It finds meaning
in such physical factors we can see as mineral, plant, animal

and man. All these are varying stages of development. There is


still another world made up of chemical ether, life ether, light

ether and reflecting ether. This is the mythical world. The

magic figure of seven rules all things. In the desire world like
all other worlds there are seven subdivisions, called "regions."
The concepts of Rosicrucianism reach back into unrecorded
history, devotees will explain. Plato was an initiate and ex-
pressed, in writing, the doctrine that "the world soul is
crucified."
Rosicrucian doctrine also reaches into a misty occultism
which explains that the cross is symbolic of the "life currents"
which vitalize plant, animal and man. The cross represents
man's past evolution, present state and future aspirations, they
explain. Hence, it should not be interpreted as a symbol for
suffering and "shame" the conventional Christian standards.
The Rosicrucian symbol is the cross and star against a gar-
land of roses at the center. It once stood alone, without roses,
they'll explain. This was in early Atlantis. Even before, in the
Lemiirian epic, when man had only dense, vital and desirable
bodies, the upper limb of the cross was lacking. Man's constitu-
tion then was symbolized by "Ta," because it lacked mind and
was animal alone. There was, in a dim, forgotten era, the hyper-
borean time when the cross was a single shaft and man lacked
even the desire body.

112
THE ROSICRUCIANS

Ahead, they explain, is the time as the old man's formal


greeting indicated when "roses will bloom on the cross."
But this is in the unpredictable future.
Today, when man dies, the "higher vehicles" leave the dense
body, even though they remain connected by a "silver cord."
One cord is connected to the heart. It breaks when the pan-
orama of past life in the "vital" body has been reviewed. Then
comes actual death. The "dense body" then loses weight. For
the soul has now departed.
There are three heavens. Man can find the first through
suffering. In the second, "clad in the sheath of mind," is the
Great Silence, followed by the wonder of awakening. Here, in
this realm, Rosicrucians explain, one can hear the "music of
the spheres." Here, one can do "many-sided" work. It is prep-
aration for the next world. But, before the time of reincarna-
tion comes, there is the realm of thought, the third heaven.
Rebirths come and They begin with the dense body.
go.
When the human being seven, the vital body is formed and
is

at fourteen years of age the desire body. The mind comes at


twenty-one.
And so man struggles up. Except, that is, for the dismal

standers-by, the cynics. These stragglers, who become new-


comers with what the Christians call conversion and salvation,
must start from the beginning. They have been in damnation,
a state of inertia, for forgotten centuries.
Jesus, in the Rosicrucian scheme of things, was the highest
initiate of the Sun Period. His mission on earth was to aid those
lost in the struggle of matter.

Buddha, too, had this mission.

But, above them "the Father," the highest initiate from


is

the time of the Saturn Period.


The flow of life moves on, ever upward. Ordinary human
beings of the time of Christ are now archangels. From the time
of Jehovah, the holy spirit, who was the highest initiate of the

113
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
Moon Period,ordinary human beings have now become angels.
The fabulous lore of today's Rosicrucians reaches back to
the alchemistand physician, Paracelsus, who had predicted in
the mid-1500's that the world was soon to be reformed. Intel-
lectuals would take over, he explained. The magi waited. From
where would come the action which would lead to the world's
sages being united in common cause? Secret societies were
formed to discuss such things as the meaning of the Reforma-
tion, the transmutation of metals, the significance of the comet
of 1572.
Then, in 1614, a mysterious tract appeared, "The Reforma-
tion of the World." Apollo was the anonymous spokesman. To-

day it is questioned whether this document was an original


Rosicrucian product; but it did contain remarks which held
that it was time man realized his own capacities, time that he
understood nature's secrets. One
learned scholar, Christian
Rosencreuz, it went on, had more than a century
traveled
before in the mysterious East and learned certain exotic secrets.
He had talked to many profound sages. He was, it explained,
now an illuminated father of the Most Laudable Order of the
Rosy Cross. Unhappily, the world was not ready for the mystic
change, however. He had discovered the secret of the philoso-
pher's stone and could produce gold and jewels. But he did
not. He had lived a quiet scholar's life in Germany.
He had given his wisdom to three disciples before dying, in
1484 at the age of 106.
Although the site of his tomb was secret, the tract said, one
"
disciple had found an engraved message above its door: After
120 years I will appear."
The tract created a furorand was translated into many
languages. Everyone wanted to live to 106 and return again.

All wanted to learn the secret lore. All wanted to make gold.
A second pamphlet was published by the anonymous Brothers
of the secret cult. It was a warning not to hope for too much.
It went on to attack the Pope, Islam, philosophy. It boasted,

114
THE ROSICRUCIANS

however, that with the present knowledge the Brothers pos-


sessed, all other knowledge of the world could be destroyed
without harm. The end of the world was near, it went on. There
were secret messengers among men, and new stars had ap-
peared. The Church would soon disappear. Riches meant noth-
ing, for the Brothers had wealth beyond all needs.
It created wild controversy. Everyone wished to
join. But
none knew where the mysterious Brothers were. Stories went
about that they wore sapphire rings, had limitless wealth and
flew through the air.
Then the Rosicrucians finally emerged. They proved to be
rather dismal followers of the mystic chemist, Paracelsus, and
allied with Martin Luther. One apologist, a Lutheran pastor,
Valentine Andreae, explained that the Brothers' mission was
simply to collect men of good will for reform.
It was disillusioning to those who had expected limitless
riches. Some decided
the impoverished pastor was not only the
author of the hopeful document but the founder of the order.
Soon, the lore attracting the alchemic philosophers was thick
with already archaic heremetic allegory, including the famed
"Chemical Wedding," and dull revelations about the seven
stages of alchemic procedure and the dead Rosencreuz' dream
in alchemy symbols But no riches.
. . .

It became true magic soon, mixed with astrology. Yet it

survived. And the time came when the modified Rosicrucian


thesis, that man was soon to solve all earthly problems through
science, and the emerging advocates of "common sense" were
to meet in the late seventeenth century.

Today's Rosicrucian doctrines are basically a distillation of

this alchemic mysticism.

complicated and involved symbolism leaves most frus-


Its

trated and lonely people bemused. But, for retired druggists


such as our checker-playing disciple from Sioux City it has
a certain lure. It not only acquaints a fellow with the earlier
aspects of the drug trade, it's a possible road to
heaven!

115
Chapter

19

THE ATHEISTS

As USUAL, on Saturday at precisely eight P.M.,


members of the local chapter for the American
the fifty-three
Association for the Advancement of Atheism gather at the
home of a member. Unlike most cult meetings there is a certain
chill formality. Conversation among the grim participants
swirls about the past week's happenings and interpretation of
them in terms of the organization's stanch and dogmatic creed,
the unyielding and absolute disbelief in God. The cliches and
bromides of their cult of irreligion are voiced once again like
benedictions. As with all cultists, the dogma has become the
focal point of their existence.
The host calls for order. Notebooks are opened and pencils
poised. He
introduces the guest speaker, a bald, thin man who,

tight-lipped and nervous, glares aggressively at the gathering


of theological anarchists. Then he begins to speak in a rapid,
embittered voice:
"All history sacred and secular testifies to the futility of
belief in gods as a deterrent from what we call wrongdoing.
"Belief in one
God, or a million gods, never has prevented
a human being from doing anything he really wanted to do.
As the late Alfred E. Smith used to say, 'Let's look at the
record.'

116
THE ATHEISTS
"For so-called Sacred History, we shall take the Bible (King
James Version), the paper idol of Christianity's millions. In the
third chapter of the Book of Genesis, we are told that Adam
and Eve were told to eat of the fruit of every tree except the
tree of knowledge, with death threatened as the penalty for dis-
obedience. Adam KNEW of God from personal conversation
with him, but proceeded to eat of the forbidden fruit. Belief in,
even personal contact with God, did not keep Cain from mur-
dering his brother, Abel, and arguing about it with God after-

wards.
"In Chapter 6, verses 1 and 2,we are told that the sons of
God saw that the daughters of men were fair, and took unto
themselves wives of flesh and blood. I can't say that I blame

them and blood she-angels on earth to the


for preferring flesh
sexless, cold and unfeeling angels in heaven. It must be quite

wearying to eternally pat God on the back, and repeat that


there is but one God, and he is it. In the same chapter, we are
informed that God found that he had lost money on the first
pair he had created, and found it expedient to drown his mis-
takes. Even the most rabid Fundamentalist I call them Fun-

nymentalists will not say that only eight people of that day
believed in, and worshiped the Ruler of the Universe. Methu-
selah was well acquainted with Adam, and must have passed his
information on to Lamech, the father of Noah. Since the ani-
mals had done nothing to merit their destruction, it is hard to
conceive a reason for God's action, except on the supposition
that the sin of one was the sin of all.
"When the late Adolf Hitler exterminated the inhabitants
of Lidice he was execrated by the civilized world, simply be-
cause he failed to differentiate between the guilty and the in-
nocent. Can man be more just than God?
"In Chapter 12 we see one of God's favorites (Abraham)
acting a little distrustful of God's promises.
'. Therefore it
. .

shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, and they

117
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
shall say, This is his wife: they will kill me, but they will save

thee alive. Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister, that it may be
well with me for thy sake, and my soul shall live because of
thee (Gen. 12:8-18) ... He was willing to do anything, no
matter how infamous, if only he could save his own God-fearing
"
life.'

And so on, throughout the Old Testament. Then he adduces


the lessons of history.
"The secular history of Christianity properly begins with
Constantine, and his establishment of Christianity as the state
Roman Empire. Constantine was not an Atheist,
religion of the
but a converted pagan. From belief in many gods to the ac-
ceptance of one God was but a short step for one of his towering
ambition. After committing various atrocities which the pagan
leaders assured him were beyond forgiveness by the pagan gods,
he turned to the Christian bishops, who assured him that he
could sin on credit that between his last sin and his last

breath, he could receive forgiveness by reciting certain abra-


cadabra dreamed up by the priests. The sorry history of the
Christian world is a sad commentary on the efficacy of the sav-

ing grace of belief in the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus


Christ. The persecution of, and virtual annihilation of the Wal-

denses, Albigenses, Hussites, and other believers in the Chris-


tian religion constitutes irrefutable evidence that belief inone
God, or a million gods, never has prevented anyone from doing
anything he wanted to do.
"Those cunning and ruthless leaders of the Church were so
filled with the love of God that they were willing to wipe out

the whole human race to prove it. Tomas de Torquemada was


not an Atheist, but loved God so much that he rejoiced in the
torture and murder of all who dissented from his interpretation
of what God wanted. The Duke of Alba was another of God's

angels of light. The atrocities he committed in the name of God


branded him as a monster with the heart of a hyena, and the

118
THE ATHEISTS
conscience of a crocodile. Cesare Borgia was not an Atheist,
but a good believer in God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Virgin.
It is said of him that before giving his victims a dagger in the
back or an aqua fortis highball he went to confession and re-
ceived holy communion. To say that those days were rough
and ready is to admit that the 'Glad tidings of great Joy' did
very little to the conscience of the master spirits of the time.
"Are things any different today? The many warring creeds
are like so many signboards, each pointing in a different direc-
tion each claiming to be the one repository of the true will
of the true God all united on only one tenet of the many in-

fantiledogmas that there is a God. What that God is like, is


an enigma within a mystery. Many ambitious racketeers, with
a yen for power over their fellowmen called medicine men,
shamans, oracles, priests, high pontiffs, ministers, have en-
joyed a field holiday, exploiting the trust and credulity of their
weaker-minded fellowmen. Some of them sincerely believed
the things taught them by preceding pious racketeers, but the
vast majority prove by their actions that they give only lip
service to the dogmas they pretend to believe. They are only

unthinking and unreflecting products of their environment.


"Independent thinking is frowned upon by the master minds
who abrogate unto themselves the right to dictate the thinking
of the masses. Thatis why it is so hard to get the inner thoughts

of those who rise above the common herd, and are not born
master They shrink from courting social ostracism,
spirits.

especially when their means of livelihood is at stake.


"A minister was desirous of giving his son a lesson about the
wise providence of the Almighty. He called attention to a crane

wading in a pond. 'See,' he said, 'how God provides the crane


with long legs, so he can stand above the water, and watch for
the fish. See how God has given him a long bill, that dips into
the water without making a ripple. That is the way God pro-
vides for his creatures.' At that moment, the crane made a quick

119
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
thrust into the water, and brought up a wriggling fish. 'I can see
God's providence so far as the crane is concerned,' said the
boy. 'But isn't it a tough on the fish?'
little

"That is the weakness in the argument that there


is in the

immensity of space a being that gives a hoot about what is going


on on this earth. Everywhere, we see life feeding on life the
stronger dominating the weak the ruthless and strong feeding

upon the meek and helpless every mouth a slaughterhouse


every leaf and flower a battlefield man, the highest form of
organic life, being food for the lowest form; bacteria, microbes,
and worms every step of his long, tortuous climb from bru-
tality to made through rivers of blood.
brotherhood
"Most never have read the other side of the religion
scientists

case. They go to school, and through college, without ever

hearing of the works of Thomas Paine, Charles Bradlaugh,


Ernst Haeckel, Ludwig Buchner, Count Volney, Win wood
Reade, William Lecky, Charles E. Remsberg, M. M. Mangas-
sarin, Robert G. Ingersoll, and other debunkers of religious
superstition. The mind-conditioners, to which I have referred,
see to it that those names are not included in the school cur-
riculum of this country.
"We talk about censorship in Russia, but never think about
our own iron curtain on real information. No widely circulated
newspaper dares print anything derogatory on the pretensions
of religion. The management must look towards the cash regis-
terbefore printing anything that runs counter to the wishes of
the mind-conditioners. The most infantile drivel of the Pope
or Billy Graham is given headlines in the daily papers, but un-
favorable comments are consigned to the willow morgue. A
few years past, the Pope informed the world that the Virgin
Mary had gone to heaven without shedding her earthly body.
This is contrary to the teaching of the New Testament, and
certainly contrary to the tenets of common sense and logic, but
Protestant ministers, afraid to provoke a controversy from

120
THE ATHEISTS
which the laity might glean a modicum of truth, let the state-
ment go unchallenged, or the newspapers dared not offend the
Hierarchy.
"That conspiracy of silence is worse than any direct censor-
ship such as is exercised by the Russian leaders. It lulls the
uninformed into a state of unresisting acquiescence, and the

faculty for logical thinking is atrophied. God being but an idea


a theory to account for the existence of material phenomena
like all theories, must change with advanced knowledge.
"Weare truly witnessing the death of the gods. With the

growth of education and enlightenment, the supernatural must


inevitably retreat into the dark corners not yet explored by the
inquiring mind of man. As he takes advantage of the forces
of nature, he finds that disease, poverty, wars, droughts, and

many from which he has suffered in the past, are not the
ills

manifestations of anger on the part of a malignant deity, but of


his own ignorance and superstition. As he has learned, from
bitter experience, the conditions of well-being, he has found
that if the hungry are to be fed, the diseased relieved, ignorance

banished, wars eliminated, shelter provided, man must do it.


"As we travel back over the stream of history, we see the
headstones that mark the graves of countless gods manufac-
tured by man, to live their little day long when compared to
the life of individuals and nations, but short indeed when com-
pared to the life of the earth. Isis no longer wanders along the
banks of the Nile, looking for dead Osiris. Memnon still sits
on his stone throne overlooking Egypt's brooding sands, but
his song is no longer heard and
in the morning's breeze. Astarte
Ishtar no longer fix their stony gaze on the Babylonian youth
who danced naked to the passion that was in their blood. The
sacrificial fires of Moloch have died down, and the countless
thousands of infants that once fed his insatiable maw 'go glim-
mering through the things that were.' Fenris no longer howls in
the streets of Asgaard, and Loki has been chained by the forces

121
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
of progress and enlightenment. Odin no longer marshals his

warring hosts Valhalla is as deserted as last year's bird nest


the Valkyries, with no warriors to minister unto, have faded
into oblivion's shoreless sea. Thor hurls his hammer across the
skies no more, and his lightning that once terrified man has
been harnessed to turn the wheels of industry, light cities that
stretch like sidereal dust across a mighty continent, give wings
to radio, and to bring the products of man's genius into our

living rooms as television pictures. The gods of Olympus have


faded into the mists of antiquity. Pluto has fled from the dark-
ness of the underworld. Cerberus no longer guards the gates of
Hades. Charon crosses the shadowy Styx no more, and the
Elysian Fields have changed to burning sands. Jehovah no
longer thunders from Mt. Sinai.
"Sleep on, dead gods, in your eternal home. You were cre-
ated by men, and like your creators have passed away. Man has
invented the words, 'Immortal life,' 'Imperishable glory,' 'Un-
dying fame,' but they are meaningless sounds the ephemera
of a day that lingers but a moment in the endless sweep of
eternity. To those who take seriously the attenuated God of to-
""
day, please remember that This too shall pass away.'
The speaker has finished. The notebooks are closed. The
ritual has been completed. There is neither joy nor laughter as
the grim cultists sip tea and discuss the virtues of the lecture.
Next Saturday night they will meet again. Another speaker
will give a lecture much like the one tonight. Meanwhile, the

unhappy rebels will study the Scriptures to justify their empty


creed. It is, after all, a Holy Cause even if each of them is
alone in eternity.

122
PART IV

California:
Mecca for Cultists
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
But is because its winters are mild, thus luring the pale
this

people of thought to its sunny days, within which man can give
himself over to meditation without being compelled to inter-
rupt himself in this or that interesting occupation to put on his
overcoat or keep the fire going."
A variety of other pundits have had oversimplifications to
explain the phenomena. Julia M. Sloane, a visitor, wrote in
1925 that the city was "full of people with queer quirks. I

haven't had a hairdresser who


wasn't occult or psychic or some-
thing." Bruce Bliven added: "Here is the world's prize collec-

tion of cranks, semi-cranks, placid creatures whose bovine ex-

pression shows that each of them is studying, without much


hope of success, to be a high-grade moron, an angry or ecstatic
exponent of food fads, sun-bathing, ancient Greek costumes,
diaphragm breathing and the imminent second coming of
Christ."
Others explain California cultism on the basis of the folk
belief that new religious movements always arise in desert
areas.

Visiting Easterners are prone to blame the condition of the


never-never land of fruits and nuts as due to radiations from
earthquake faults, too much sun or just "the climate." West-
brook Pegler summed up the general feeling of the rest of the
United States on the matter a few years ago: "It is hereby ear-
nestly proposed that the U.S.A. would be much better off if
that big, sprawling, incoherent, shapeless, slobbering idiot in
the family of American communities, the City of Los Angeles,
could be declared incompetent and placed in charge of a guard-
ian like any individual mental defective."

Sociologists take a kindlier view. True, they say, a mobile


and new culture such as Southern California tends to attract
the unstable, the fanatic and the plain dilly. But, the simple law
of supply and demand is what really accounts for it all. The

ever-increasing flow of migrants comes seeking thrills, a new


126
WHY CALIFORNIA?

chance, health, or a better climate where they can dabble away


their remaining years. "They come out here to die," grumbles
one native who yearns for New England stability, "and then
damnit! don't!"
Rootless, bored, lo'nely, they find that tract houses have re-
placed the touted citrus groves and that listless tourists like
themselves, not movie stars, stand at the corner of Hollywood
and Vine. And so they wait out their declining years poised
nervously on the brink of an unknown eternity. They take up
bowling on the green, checkers and old-age pension plans or
in somecases seek out strange altars.
they want to start looking, there are
If thrills aplenty for the
price of a streetcar ride.
There are weekly lectures on such alluring topics as how to
cure alcoholism by yoga-breathing, how to attract cosmic rays
to win a rich mate, how to tap the secret powers of the mind
and stay young forever. One can attend seances to chat with
late Aunt Minnie, Alexander the Great and Thomas Edison.
There are reincarnation mediums to tell you what you were in
past lives and what you will be in the future. ("This person is
a very old soul and will be wealthy next time!")
One can get advice from "theo-medical psychologists" on
problems of child care, credit financing and fear of the A-bomb.
There are courses in Hindu memory techniques, how to develop
extrasensory perception and become a crackerjack salesman,
how to be guided in sex relations by the "astral spheres," advice
for learning peace of mind through the secret mysteries of
Tibet. There are faith healers who, for a reasonable "offering,"
will rid one of bursitis, athlete's foot and tic; and even authori-
ties on Zen and yoga who can help you improve your golf
score.
In addition to these borderline operators there are the large
organizations with fortunes in real estate, mushroomburger res-
taurants, hotels, retreats and resorts and their own printing

127
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

plants, publications and mailing lists.


An
estimated million

people belong to these huge cults. They are, indeed, big


business.
Local legislation even encourages the spawning of new cults.
Under California law, any group or individual may set up a
includ-
religious organization, provide for self-authentication
ing ceremonies and ordinations, be incorporated and set out to
for
propagate itself by a simple process. All that is required is

three people to sign articles of incorporation and pay a fifteen-

dollar filing fee.


The climate of dynamic growth, too, makes people respon-
sive topromotional impact. In this situation, many cults gain
rather than lose by being bizarre. In addition to this, there is
a tremendous religious vacuum. Despite frantic efforts by major
denominations to serve the entire population, the fluid growth
has been fantastically fast. Emotional needs for security, per-
sonal meaning and companionship often are lacking in estab-
lished, overcrowded churches.
One Los Angeles psychiatrist explains: "Depending upon
the religious cults and their basic principles, they meet certain
individual needs. These needs are established early in child-
hood in relationship to paternal experiences. If these needs
we call them infantile neuroses persist unconsciously in the
adult mind, then that person is tense enough to seek expression
to gratify these needs through one of the various cults."
Past psychiatric, social and economic explanations are the
historical concepts. Dr. William M. Sweet says that "history is

replete with instances of corruption of religion among migrat-


ing people." idea
Certainly, this gains credence when one looks
at the branches of old, established faiths in the area.
There is a constant and bitter wrangle going on between
East and the clerics of the West.
ecclesiastics in the established
Church boards, congregations and ministers themselves in Cal-
ifornia are always devising new methods of breaking with the

128
WHY CALIFORNIA?

established and historical. This schism ranges from Anglicans


in swank new subdivisions who decide quaint ceramic chalices
would go better with the new contemporary church they've
just built, to shouting Southern Baptist preachers who awed
by the glitter of the bright culture they find in Southern Cali-
fornia desert the tenets of hill country fundamentalism for the

glib optimism and reassurances of positive thinking.


Geography offers still another clue. Los Angeles' cultic aber-
rations are accidental products of its location, contends Dr.
Lee R. Steiner. In a study of quacks and fakers, she observes
that whendifficulties beset the quack "he usually flees to Los

Angeles." The remittance man, the criminal and the disheart-


ened have fled West since the beginning of our country, it is
noted elsewhere. And Los Angeles is the last stop. Each one of
these social mutants is a cultural carrier.
Thestereotype of the California cultist is the gag cartoon
figure of a bearded, robed fanatic given to shouting remon-
strances and waving a sign warning of the world's end. Such
types exist. But the typical cultist is more likely to be a dull-

eyed, lonely and frustrated pensioner. He lives simply in a back


room, has few friends outside the cult movement, contributes
every cent above his simple needs toward his Cause. His
"leader" has given him a concrete goal and a set of reassuring,
packaged, pre-frozen and ready-to-go techniques to achieve
that objective. It seldom is what he really wants. But it's better
than the former dismal, gnawing emptiness.
In the past, these goals have fluctuated with social and eco-
nomic During the Depression, cults usually offered
pressures.
something material which was just over the hill for the faithful.
With the threat of war in the late thirties, cults took on Fascist
overtones. The logic was simple. An ardent cultist cannot serve
two masters. And the faithful who were caught in the toils of
patriotism, war-bond buying and the excitement of battle were
lost to the Cause. Quite understandably, many cult leaders

129
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
saw the war fever as a natural foe and fought desperately to

keep their followers isolated from the turmoil.


Today's pressures have changed the general cult preach-
ments once again. Boom times have diminished the appeal of
1

material reward. The trend today is toward "peace of mind/

happiness and other intangibles. There's much talk of the "non-


denominational," and "non-secular," as cult leaders try to
draw from established denominations with the hopeful lure
that the cultist can remain in good standing with his traditional

church.
Emphasis is heavy on "the underlying truth to be found in
the study of all religions and faiths/' One old-time professional
cultist,looking back wistfully to his heyday when amazing
revelations were the vogue, views this latest trend with alarm.

"They're so open-minded these days that their brains fall out,"


he grumbles.
Study groups are commonplace. These movements deal in
mind-control, tapping the unknown psychic powers, thinking
right. Others borrow heavily on the lore of antiquity and spice
the potpourri with sugary philosophy, extracts from the Bible
or Koran or Vedic scriptures,
membership, these movements range from 100,000 down
In
to circles of a half dozen who are attracted by some unique

theory. Most are not sects which have splintered off from some
established faith. They are original in theology and philosophy.
Asurvey made last year in ten communities in the Los An-
geles area showed the summation of these scattered groups is
amazing. It was found that ten per cent of the population (in
each community) by their own admission belonged to a group
which could formally be classified as a cult.
In the vast lexicon of beliefs, these cults have ranged from
the sublime to the ridiculous.The world headquarters of the
American Association for the Advancement of Atheism had its
beginnings here. So did the Agabag Occult Church where the

130
WHY CALIFORNIA?

woman pastor affected violet-dyed hair and green eyelids. The


Great White Brotherhood flourished for a time, and its yellow-
robed faithful celebrated the full moon in May with a secret
ritual. A Dr. Horton led a health movement dedicated to the

concept that California was a particularly healthy place to live


because "so many flowers find it possible to grow in this vicin-
ity." He maintained that these flowers, wild or cultivated, gave
off "certain chemicals which beneficially affect the human
body."
The Lost Generation of the Twenties found succor, too, with
the Maz-Daz-Lan, founded by Ottoman Bar-Azusht Ra-Nish
(real name: Otto Ranisch) and chanted with him: "I am All
in One individually and One in All collectively; I am present

individually and omnipotent collectively; I am potent indi-


vidually and omnipotent collectively. I am Maz-Daz-Lan and
recognize the eternal designs of Humata, Huata, Hu-Varashta,
A-Shem Vo-Hu, A-Shem Vo-Hu."
The Nothing Impossible group was thriving then, too, and
the Ancient Mystic Order of Melchizedek, the Temple of the
Jeweled Cross and the Crusade for the New Civilization were
all booming.
Today there are new names. The Agasha Temple of Wisdom,
Inc., which was founded twenty-five years ago by Dr. Richard
Zenor also known as the Reverend Agasha is growing.
Other world spirits speak through his vocal cords, including
Agasha, the Egyptian priest who lived 7000 years ago. He is
known to his five hundred students, some of whom have been
with him twenty years, as "the instrument." At his Spanish-
styled stucco building, Dr. Zenor goes into a psychic medium-
ship state at his weekly "trance lecture" (admission: one dol-
lar) and establishes his link with another world. A
slim, dark
man he first became aware of his psychic powers
in his forties,
when he was four in Terre Haute, Indiana. By the time he was
twelve, voices began coming through his vocal cords. "There

131
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
are no rules, no degrees, no diplomas," one of his followers
explains. "Life is a school and we are always learning."
One-man cults sometimes emerge. A Navy veteran named
Addison Broan launched one a few years ago. This thirty-year-
old cultist wrapped himself in a sheet, changed his name to
John Believer and staged a hunger strike before a Los Angeles
newspaper building. It was the opening effort in his campaign
to become the first president of the earth in a taxless society.
He called his religion, "Believerism" or "Balanced Life." His
political party, allied to the theology,
he dubbed the "World
Is Somebody."
Security Party" with the slogan, "Everybody
Soon after, he started out on a round-the-world tour which is
to end 1965 when the "united professions of the world
in will
he's
congregate to elect the first world government." Recently,
become affiliatedwith various theologians of flying-saucer per-
suasion who are busily associating Biblical happenings with the

flying-saucer sightings.
stout
Superet Light is still another cult established by small,
Dr. Josephine De Croix Trust. She preaches the "Atomic Re-

ligion." In her native Warsaw, when


she was a young woman,
she began to see clouds of colored vapor surrounding people.
Such a discovery could lead to only one place Los Angeles.
Startingas a minor prophetess lecturing to people about the
"aura" or vapory atmosphere surrounding everyone, she
one day discovered "superet light." This, she explains, is found
in the Bible in the references to the pure, white light which
shone from Jesus. At the time, a voice spoke to her: "This is
a new name, Superet, which is the Everlasting Fire in God's
Sacred Purple Heart."
She had to tell the world. In fact, Jesus told her to warn
those who didn't get the message: "Those who will not accept
this truth have black atoms and their vapors are clouding their

minds and feelings of heart so they could not be used for light

132
WHY CALIFORNIA?

or to become lovers for God, only sex lovers for their body's
lust."
Mother Trust has flourished. Some two hundred attend her
Holy Superet Light Church in Los Angeles and she claims
75,000 membership. Her followers try to eliminate "black
atoms" from their auras. This is accomplished at Tuesday night
"aura classes" where students learn to make their own aura
charts, how to earn the Superet Star and how to develop the

all-important Light Atom.


Dr. Edwin John Dingle is the founder of the Institute of
Mentalphysics which started in 1 927 and, also, the Science of
Mentalphysics and the International Church of Holy Trinity.
Some ten thousand take his six-month study course and more
than one thousand attend his classes in Los Angeles. His teach-
ings combine the religions of the Far East and Christianity with
yoga exercises and prayers. A brochure explains his goal as "a
practical, Western-understood, philosophical, inspirational and
spiritual teaching, declared to be the Greatest Teaching Acces-
sible to Man, and the Great World Peace Movement of Tomor-
row available only through the Institute of Mentalphysics."
The elderly Dingle, born in England, author and a member of
the Royal Geographical Society, toured China on foot and
visited Tibetan monasteries where he witnessed the strange abili-
ties of the monks. Today, his City of Mentalphysics, a settle-

ment in the desert, is building rapidly.


Dr. Edmond Bordeau Szekely founded the First Christians'
(Essene) Church in 1930 with centers in Los Angeles and
Southern California to apply the teachings of the Essenes of
Syria and Palestine, and the Theraputae or Healers of Lake
Mareotis in Egypt. He also established the twenty-acre Essene
School of Life in Tecate, Mexico, four miles south of the Cali-
fornia border, where "biochemical grape cure" car caravans
head every summer. In recent years, the Tecate school has been

133
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

emphasized more as a health resort (presumably to capitalize


on the diet-health-happy trend) and renamed "Rancho la
Puerta." Professor Szekely, however, continues to preach the
Essene principles in literature, books and classes.
Then, there are the Interplanetary study groups which par-
ticipate in an annual Space Craft Convention at
Giant Rock
Airport in the desert. The number of these groups is undeter-
mined since they are not organized and meet in different homes.
They listen to taped or transcribed "messages" from outer space
which are passed around from one group to another.
There are also the mail-order cultists who promise anything
and everything health, wealth, wisdom, and tremendous per-
sonal power NOW and peace in the Hereafter. One such group,
which has no name but is known only by a symbol (circle with
a dot in the center) and has a Los Angeles post office box num-
ber, offers its adherents a world-wide employment service,
juices, herbs, health foods, residence in planned "garden cities,"
inner peace and world harmony.
There are scores of lesser operations. At the Church of
Modern Philosophy, Dr. William King preaches reincarnation
and the ubiquity of God. "Do You Dare to Be Different?" his
ads ask. The Sunship Assembly, too, preaches reincarnation
and soul-mating in an abandoned movie house. The leader
plays an electric guitar and sings such hymns as "I Am the
Spout from Which Glory Comes Out." There is the Akashic
Science group which plumbs the mysteries of the Akashic Rec-
ords and discusses lost Atlantis. There's the Temple of Spiritual
Logic where it is explained that all seances must be held in
bright light. There are groups who study the Tarot cards and
small clusters of people who pursue
the once-burgeoning Dia-
netic movement. The names go on: The Coptic Fellowship of

America, the Institute of Thought Control, the Rose Chapel


Psychic Center, the Soul Science Center, the Temple of Soul-
Truth and the University of Totology.

134
WHY CALIFORNIA?

Not to be excluded are the "witch doctors" and black magic


cults about forty in number in Los Angeles which thrive,
holding secret meetings. The Thelemites, Crowley's old cult
(see Chapter 39), go on with weird rituals, sex symbols and
strange potions. The "New Era Experiment" deals in white

magic to offset the black magic which is ruining the world.


So, the parade of theosophists, New Thought students, ma-
gicians, Indian seers, mystics and food faddists, marches on
beneath the palm trees of Southern California.
It would all be puzzling to the padres who first trekked
through this semi-desert land bringing the story of Mother
Church to the savages as puzzling, no doubt, as their message
was to the Indians.

Perhaps it is
fitting that California's first cultist was a howling
heretic whose singular dream was to banish Catholicism from
the earth forever.

135
Chapter

21

WILLIAM MONEY

ONE bright day in 1840 a bandy-legged little


man with chin whiskers rode into the pueblo of Nuestra Senora
La Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula. With him was a
handsome Mexican wife leading on foot a train of pack
animals with household goods.
The Indians and settlers, who watched the entourage pass
down the dusty street near the Plaza, little knew that they were
witnessing an historic event in Los Angeles.
For irascible William Money was the forerunner of several
hundred cult leaders and prophets who were to descend on the
land of sunshine in the years to follow, giving the city its fame
or infamy for crackpotism unequaled in history.
Some of the curious locals gnawing their twist and hitching
their trousers sidled
up to the newcomer, as was the custom,
and began to question him politely.
"Name's Money you say it 'Mow-nay'," the diminutive,
red-faced Scot replied with pompous dignity. "We jest come
from Sonora. Aim to settle."
His trade? "I heal the sick, preach the gospel of the Reformed
New Testament Church and take myself part-time chores," he
announced.

136
WILLIAM MONEY
His first tasks in his new home were the chores. The City
Council hired him to repair the Plaza Church, focal center of
life in the pueblo. Records show he was paid $126 for the

work.
But menial labor was not for a famous healer and preacher.
Money was soon bragging of his knowledge of medicine, theol-
ogy, astrology, history and economics. Also, he was vociferous
in condemning all doctors in town and being cruelly outspoken
in criticizing the doctrines and beliefs of the powerful Catholic

padres his employers.


Soon he was the butt of ridicule and jokes by local worthies,
but it only made him more pretentious and pompous. And a
few of the poor and ignorant were attracted by his fanatical
attacks on the established faith. What was more, humble Mexi-
cans started coming to him for medical advice. When a small-
pox epidemic struck, he was busy day and night tending his
patients.
These peons defended him, as they could, in his constant
wrangles with doctors, politicians and priests and, when he an-
nounced the founding of the Reformed Testament Church,
twelve poor Mexicans joined his congregation.
There is slight record of Money's roots. He was born in Glas-
gow of a gardener father and serving-maid mother. At twelve,
he was apprenticed to a paper manufacturer and came to New
York five years later. Here he apparently listened to anti-
Catholic sentiment, and perhaps worked for some religious re-
former where he picked up the terminology which was to dress
up his eccentric views.
He went on to Mexico City. There he tried to launch his
"primitive" church, without success. He moved on to
the village
of Pitaquitos in Sonora and tempted the local clergy into a

theological debate. As a result, he was invited to leave town


with tar and feathers.
The little Scot's concepts were not so organized and refined

137
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
as those of generations of cultists to come. But he did have
color. He announced, for example, that he would be able to
rise from the grave. He made this bold boast in many of the
cantinas when heavy with At last some drunken cronies
tequila.
picked up the "Bishop" and took him to the graveyard
to put

him to the test. They had him in a coffin and were shoveling on
the dirt before he finally howled, "For the love of God, let me
out!"
In 1847, American forces were attacking Los Angeles. With
a few possessions and livestock Money and his wife fled in panic
toward the Mexican border. They ran directly into a force of
United States dragoons.
His threats of God's vengeance went unheeded. Money and
his wife returned to Los Angeles. The Money ire was up, how-
ever, and, since he could not strike down the United States

Army with a miracle, he did the next best thing. He wrote an


angry letter to the editor of the local newspaper, the Los An-
geles Star.
In it, he described by General Kearney's forces:
his seizure
"These troops arrived at my camp at midnight and in the most
violent manner took my family prisoners and seized all my prop-

erty of 45 gentle traveling horses, saddles and pack saddles, etc.,


with instruments necessary for my occupation as a naturalist
(one of his many vocations) besides my clothing, provisions
and other sundry articles, likewise a large manuscript of about
six reams of paper containing 1000 drawings, maps, etc., of the
inland and coast of California, most of them executed by my-
self and the rest obtained from the Missionaries for services.
"These manuscripts and maps had never been in print. My
whole 26 years of labor was in one hour totally destroyed by
the Indians in the employ of the American commander."
Without further ado, Money set out to obtain damages from
the American government at a time when other Californians
were cringing in fear of the hated gringos. He started filing affi-

138
WILLIAM MONEY
davits including one which he claimed to be from John Fre-
mont attesting the value of his losses at a minimum of a quar-
ter of a million dollars. He was never paid.

Money continued to preach his strange doctrines to his small


flock. Hismood of the Sunday morn dictated what they would
be. But he regularly denounced the Roman Catholic Church
and the "mad dog" views of the kindly padres who employed
him for odd jobs during weekdays. He explained from the pulpit
also that he was a man of unusual and curious talents from
birth. "I was born with four gawd-dammed teeth and the like-
ness of the rainbow in me eye!" he told startled worshipers
during one stormy sermon. He often dwelt on wild economic
theories or his "heaven inspired" ideas on medicine which were
a mixture of herb lore, witchcraft and old wives' tales. Again,
he announced that his church was a successful blend of the
hated Roman Catholicism, the sterner reaches of Presbyterian-
ism and the best of the Greek philosophers. He admitted to
having treated 5000 patients during his career and "only four
of the bastards died!"
But his pulpit messages each Sunday were not enough for
the Money irascibility. He was the Los Angeles Star's prize
letter-to-the-editor writer. Each morning brought a new vicious
missile of invective about something. When his voluminous
letters were published by the amused editor they were always
followed with elaborate disclaimers or sarcastic editorial com-
ment.
The editorwas probably trying to give locals a laugh and
pick up some cash for job-printing when he published the
cultist's manuscript titled: "Reform of the New Testament

Church, by Wm. Money, Deacon and Defender of the Faith of


Jesus Christ." It was a twenty-two-page book printed in parallel
columns in Spanish and English and was the first book published
in Los Angeles. It was lively reading and attacked all organized

Christianity. Money was soon being denounced by ministers

139
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
and priests alike. He retaliated with a bitter personal attack on a

Catholic prelate and a town patriarch and their religions in

general.
In the panic which followed, the Star announced it was
finished with printing remarks by "Bishop" Money.

By then he had divorced his wife for infidelity, recounting


the incident which brought about the action in lavish detail
from the pulpit, while wearing a long, frayed frock coat, miner's
boots, bright red flannel shirt and swinging a five-foot
staff.

The Star's refusal to deal with him started him on a new

He founded his own Spanish publication, El Clamor


quest.
Publico, and sold subscriptions at $5 a year. He published only
the first issueand made off with the loot.
Next came a weird map, "Wm. Money's Discovery of the
Ocean." He managed to insert it into the official record of the

community, where it still survives in bureaucratic glory.


It

showed a dissection of the world, which, Money maintained,


was shaped like a great fish. The water of the oceans is sucked
in by the North Pole, heated in fires in the center where there
is also a subterranean sea, then spurted out at the South Pole.

It loses its heat and drifts off in two currents tabbed the "Kuro"

and "Siwo" and pours back to the North Pole to repeat the

process.
The eccentric finally saved enough money to build a
little

house in San Gabriel. It was a marvelous six-sided affair


guarded by octagonal edifices of wood and adobe and deco-
rated with inscriptions in Greek, Latin and Hebrew.was It

known as the "Moneyan Institute" or "Money's Castle."


Inside were the fantastic results of Money's lifetime of col-
There were stacks of manuscripts on religion, medicine,
lecting.
geography and maps galore. There were ore samples, dried rep-
tiles,bird skeletons, tools of his trades as a carpenter, brick-
layer and general handyman. A
noted California historian,
Hubert Howe Bancroft, once called on him in search for pioneer

140
WILLIAM MONEY

reminiscences. The cranky old man motioned to a huge pile of


ponderous handwritten tomes. "You can have them for a thou-
sand dollars," he announced. Bancroft recalls in his memoirs
that he declined the offer withamusement.
A few devout followers still came to see the old prophet
who seemed to shrink smaller with the years and get angrier
to risk the now legendary Money fury over anything and

everything and ask advice.


Now and then, a patient stopped by for one of Money's
weird herb remedies.
But the bent, frail and tired old man
preferred spending his
days cultivating a great stand of tulips before the decaying man-
sion. Then in a final spurt he turned out one map showing
San Francisco, a town he despised, toppling into the sea. No
one would publish it. He put a curse on Los Angeles forever
which may have taken!
One day in 1880 a patient stopped by the strange house in
San Gabriel for a remedy for itch. He found the angry prophet
iii a dim chamber with the shutters closed.

The little eccentric was dead. Above his head hung an image
of the Blessed Virgin a gift he'd acquired from his much-
maligned benefactors, the padres, for his odd jobs. At his
feet

hung an articulated skeleton. Near his small hand worn with


nearly a century of beating the pulpit and bartop
was a
frayed volume of writings of the Greek philosophers.
The authorities said he'd been dead for several days. They
assumed that the candles which burned in ornate candelabra at
each corner of the couch where the tiny body rested had been
re-placed and lit during those days by
some unknown admirer.
There was no other logical explanation.

141
Chapter

22

MADAME BLAVATSKY

WHILE eccentric William Money was cursing


Los Angeles pulpit, events were going on across the ocean
in his
which would ultimately have a major effect on California
cultism.
Helena Petrovna Hahn Blavatsky, the woman who was to
found the strange cult of theosophy, was born in Southern
Russia, July 30, 1831. She came from a distinguished czarist
family of military men. Yet, her childhood was far from dis-
ciplined. She spent much time in a feudal-castle atmosphere at
Saratov with a doting grandmother. Here, it isclaimed, she was
subject to visions and hallucinations and would go into a hys-
teria at the least incident. Reckless, self-willed and erratic, she

finally married General Nikifor Blavatsky. She later claimed


he was seventy-five years of age at the time, although he was
aliveand hearty forty-five years after the marriage.
She soon deserted him. She appears to have had brief ro-
mances with a revolutionist and an unknown Englishman while
wandering the gambling places and spas of Europe and the
Middle East.
Many of her statements are contradictory. She claimed to
have made a fortune selling ostrich feathers; to have penetrated

142
MADAME BLAVATSKY
the Sudan and, while there, translated Darwin's writings into
Russian.
Later, with another reporter, she substituted India for Africa
as the locale and added a trip to Tibet.
In 1858, she was converted to spiritualism in Paris. Shortly

after, she went back to Russia to exhibit the new fad, spirit-

rapping. She continued to wander until, in 1873, she arrived by


steerage in New York.
She had once been an aristocratic, even beautiful, figure. At
forty-two, she was slovenly and enormously fat. She swore con-
stantly and gorged herself. More important, she was hopelessly
poor. But she was not stupid. Further, she had a wild, uncon-
ventional manner which, of course, attracted the faddist. There
was an engaging frankness and large mystic blue eyes.
also
In the summer of 1874, the Eastern seaboard was astir with
talk of strange spiritualist doings. The Madame visited one

fan,Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, who had written of spiritualist


work in the New York Graphic. She convinced him that she
was a medium under the control of one John King.
Unhappily, a spiritualist scandal broke in Philadelphia about
then. But the clever lady was ready. She announced that she
was in touch with certain Egyptian masters, "The Brothers of
Luxor," and started a society. It was spiritualism, but with a
new twist, and by the fall of 1875 the society which even-
tually was to become the Theosophical Society was formed
with sixteen members. Olcott was president, the Madame, cor-
responding secretary, and their mission was the study of .the
occult and comparative religion and, of course, promotion of
the brotherhood of man.
Two years later the Madame published her classic two-
volume work on occultism, Isis Unveiled, bitterly attacking
spiritualism. A branch had been founded in London by now.
But the New York headquarters was not thriving.
After a brief marriage, the Madame decided to try India,

143
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
seat of mystic wonders. She and Olcott arrived in Bombay in
1879 and sought out an Indian mystic, Dayananda Saraswati.
Within days they were denouncing the Hindu as a humbug and
he was calling them frauds.
The Madame started writing travel articles for income but
soon had gathered some adherents to her cause of theosophy.
She established a group in Ceylon and settled at the world head-
quarters at Adyar, a suburb of Madras, in a bungalow with an
occult room and shrine.
In the occult room she began receiving messages from two
Tibetan Mahatmas by astral telegraph. One such message from
these wondrous figures proved to be a spiritualist lecture given
in America some time before. This scandal led to mass resigna-
tions from the London branch. In 1884, the Madame and
Olcott hurried to Europe to try to stop the exodus. But now
another foe, the Madame's secretary in India, saw her chance
to strike. She circulated stories of wholesale frauds by the
Madame. The harassed lady and her partner hurried back to
India to stop the havoc. An investigator for the British Society
of Psychic Research came too. His study verified the secretary's

charges. The Madame resigned and sailed for Europe.


It would havefinished lesser persons. When the Madame ar-
rived in Naples she was impoverished, sick and completely dis-
credited. But she settled in Germany and set to work writing
what was to be her most important work, The Secret Doctrine,
published in 1888. It stated all the basic concepts of theosophy.
As for the past, she said she was a martyr being persecuted.
With this theme, she once again started gathering followers.
Soon she had more than ever before. She was back in London
again now with her newly organized Blavatsky Lodge and later
established the Esoteric Section of the Theosophical Society
with herself in control.
She was suffering from diseases which would have killed a
dozen women, physicians said, but she continued to rule, write

144
MADAME BLAVATSKY
and edit. Before her death in 1891, she was once again the
recognized head of a great religious movement. Although an
eccentric without doubt, she like many cult leaders before
and since advocated the highest ideals. With only a basic
knowledge of Oriental philosophy, she was able to appeal to
the childish love of magic and mystery. Like any fanatical cult
leader, she was able to hypnotize herself and believe whatever
she wanted to believe, and in the doing make the mob believe.
She was admired and venerated almost to the stage of idolatry
at the time of her death, despite the years of vicious attack and
scandal.
The accumulation of theosophic lore (based on the mys-
terious Mahatmas who had, as Adepts, reached a state of spir-
itual development where the body had become the controllable

instrument of the intelligence) was, basically, spiritualism and


reincarnation combined. One went through a succession of
lives according to the law of Karma as first introduced in the
Upanishads which is, summed up, the origin of all Indian
thought.
Theosophy claims a special insight into the divine nature and
its workings. This is achieved, the Madame explains, both by
the operation of some higher faculty of revelation and special
illumination. Theosophy remains unique in this assurance of
divine essence of which it has sure insight. It draws, too, from
the cabala and the alchemist Paracelsus. There is deeper spec-

ulation, such as the writings of Jacob Boehme. But it all comes

from the simple basic thesis: "A man is born into a world he
has made."
To theosophists Heaven is a state of mental bliss, and hell
does not Theosophists favor both celibacy and vegetari-
exist.

anism, although they do not demand it. Christ is, like Buddha,
Confucius and Pythagoras, simply a great teacher.
Christian theologians scorn it as pantheistic that God is

All and All is God: "A spark of divinity encased in matter."

145
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
The average theosophical "monad" goes through some eight
hundred incarnations and when a man dies he goes to devachan
where he rests until the urge arises in him to return to earth
again in a new body to work out his Karma. Potentially, every
man is a Christ and all will, someday, be a Christ.
Theosophists claim their cult is
inclusively a science, re-
ligion and philosophy. The proper history of man began
eighteen million years ago. Theosophists have published maps
showing the world aswas 800,000 years ago and 11,500
it

years ago. The Pyramids are not 4000 years old, as is


ignorantly supposed by "O.P.'s" (ordinary persons), but are
structures of a race which perished 1 1,500 years ago when the
sea, which covered what is now the Sahara, was pushed east-
ward and flooded Egypt. Ten countries were laid waste and
sixty-four million inhabitants died at that time.
All this lore has come from the Masters or Mahatmas, who
dwell in the snowy Himalayas of Tibet. This Great White
Lodge, Occult Hierarchy, Brotherhood of Teachers, Adepts or
other titles which are used, is made up of finished souls, the
final products of human evolution. They are "as far above or-

dinary mankind as man is above the insects of the field." They


are ready at any time to be absorbed into the impersonal world-
soul, but linger on to send "floods of blessings over the whole
world." They contact ordinary human beings in a state when
their astral body is dwelling in the astral world, as in sleep or
a trance. (Here we see the kinship with spiritualism. While the
Masters contact man in a trance state, so do mediums contact
other spirits. The distinction is that in spiritualism, the medium
gets in contact with the spirit world, while, in theosophy, man
himself leaves the physical body and the astral plane.)
visits

Theosophists naturally receive instructions from the Mas-


ters and, hence, have the best chance of advancing rapidly to

become part of the Great Brotherhood of Teachers. Here, we


there is one
find, Supreme Teacher, who, as world-teacher,
146
MADAME BLAVATSKY
decides when the world is ready for a new revelation. Advanced
souls will be chosen to give it. Hence, the soul takes control of
the body, and speaks through it.
The Madame had survived torrents of abuse and vilification
during her career. Her strange insights have horrified some,
amused others, attracted still more.
But the storm of controversy over theosophy was not to die
with her. For two followers of the Russian mystic were to
bring
her views to California and lock in deadly theological combat.

147
Chapter

23

ANNIE BESANT, KATHERINE


TINGLEY AND KRISHNAMURTI

ANNIE BESANT was a recognizable type of the


over-mobilized woman common to the era. A firm-chinned Celt
born in 1847, she had been raised by a widowed mother, at-
tended college in Devonshire and absorbed the restless stirrings
of female emancipation. Soon she was involved with church
mission work and married a curate. She had a son and daughter
in prompt order and became absorbed with political agitation
and new social ideas.
The illness of her daughter brought her up short in her task
of remaking the world under the banner of the Church of Eng-
land. With the child's death, she found the conventional plati-
tudes of organized religion inadequate for her grief. She rushed
headlong into spiritualism, a plaything of the faddish by this
time. Her conventional husband and she soon drifted apart as
a She started a busy schedule of seances, meetings with
result.
the Fabian society to discuss the Utopian world to come, and
agitation for a variety of social causes. Her fervor, brilliance
and devotion soon made her a well-known lecturer, writer and
genteel radical. George Bernard Shaw, who was part of the

148
BESANT, TINGLEY, KRISHNAMURTI

group, wrote of her as "the greatest orator in England, if not


in Europe." Certainly the vocal lady firebrand was the most
controversial.She was the constant butt of ridicule in London's
gentleman's clubs and the conservative press.
For lesser women just reforming one world, keeping in touch
with the other through seances and bringing about a new
economic order would have been satisfactory. Not Annie. She
found in Madame Blavatsky's concepts yet another new ideo-
logical pinnacle to scale. Too, she'd been on enough lecture
tours to know what would fascinate bored ladies. She leaped
head first into the invigorating waters of theosophy. Within a
few years she was preaching to thousands of"New Women" on
the subtlewonders of theosophy, touring the British Empire
and America and making regular visits to India.
With the death of Madame Blavatsky in 1891, she loudly
proclaimed her succession to the presidency, despite the howls
of other theosophists. As proof, she displayed a green ring
which had belonged to Madame Blavatsky. She claimed it had
been given to her as an amulet of succession by the founder.
Now the theosophy movement was in full blossom. At
Benares, the world center was flourishing. Another group of
theosophists was pursuing the subtle wisdom of the ancients.
Almost as a gesture Annie founded the college of theosophy in
India which was later to grow into the University of Benares.
Rich patrons sent her money. Her writings and lectures brought
more. Another group of theosophists under William Q. Judge,
who like Annie claimed to be the true inheritor of Blavatsky's
work, flourished in America. But Annie led the British faction
and a few American groups. And a strong group of theosophists
in Holland were loyal to the Besant ideas. Her power grew.

Then about 1900 she discovered she had a new force in


theosophy to reckon with for control. For the soft-spoken Mr.
Judge died and Katherine Tingley, a staid New England gentle-
woman who had started out as a spiritualist in New York and

149
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
drifted into theosophy, inherited the crown of the Judge fac-
America.
tion in
She promptly claimed queenship and announced she was the
"Purple Mother" prophesied in theosophical writings. As
founder of the Point Loma Theosophical Community in San
Diego, she was to prove as indomitable as Annie and twice as
articulate.
The Community soon attracted scores of wealthy theoso-

phists. Starting with forty acres, she acquired 330 acres. Here,
on the tip of the most southwesterly point of the United States,
a citadel to escape the sadness and turmoil of the world began
to take shape.
The first building was a home for a caretaker. Next came a
sanitarium. Katherine was everywhere; overseeing construc-
tion; luring new members with tours; directing planting of the
firs and eucalyptus which was to make The Homestead, as it
was known, "the garden spot of all the world in physical beauty,
intelligence and spiritual wealth."
There were some forty buildings of "New Egyptian archi-
tecture*' including The Homestead with its ninety rooms and

its dome of opalescent green glass. There was the


Aryan
Temple, with its amethyst Egyptian gateway and a uniformed
bugler to stand at the main gate and sound the news of arriv-
ing guests. Hundreds flocked to see this new wonder of the
West. And many stayed to find haven in the rich lore of theos-
ophy, with Tingley refinements, which offered a life of brother-
hood and peace.
Katherine's requirements were few. Members of the flock
needed only to turn over all their possessions to the Community
and leave the turmoil behind. They, of course, did the chores
Katherine decreed. She took ironic delight in these assignments.
A former army colonel was made "Guardian of the Gate" and
learned to play the bugle. Industrialists were made potato-

ISO
BESANT, TINGLEY, KRISHNAMURTI

peelers, and former bankers were set to counting bulbs as


gardeners. After all, such humiliation was good for what ailed
them.
A few disgruntled
disciples left. But most stayed, debating
poetry, attending the lavish productions of Aeschylus' Eumen-
ides and Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream in the
Greek theatre which seated 2500 people and lured the social
set of all Southern California. There was, also, a lyceum in
the sense of Aristotle's lyceum where debate and discussion
flourished when
the day's chores were done. Sporting goods
manufacturer A. G. Spaulding built a home. Eastern business-
men settled. Diplomats called to pay homage. There were three
hundred residents of twenty-five nationalities. And Katherine
ruled as a despot over the now five-hundred-acre kingdom. The
School of Antiquity, the Theosophical University, the Raja
Yoga College and the Iris Temple of Art, Music and Drama
came into being. Students in flowing Greek robes listened to
lectures in this atmosphere which Mrs. Tingley described as
"like ozone, like poppy-scented champagne."
Mrs. Tingley herself led a quiet life in her own residence.
Her sleeping companion was her dog Spot, which she an-
nounced was the reincarnation of her favorite of her former
three husbands. She claimed 10,000 followers by now and
strode the date palms in a flowing purple gown, preach-
among
ing her creed of "spiritual, intellectual and ethical regeneration
of mankind." She started a system of education for the moppets
which was probably a forerunner of today's progressive educa-
tion. Its purpose, as she explained, was to teach "rather so that

we involve the child's character, rather than to overtax the


child's mind; to bring out, rather than to bring to, the faculties
of the child."
And this theme peppered her every pronouncement: "The
greatest part is within, not outside."

151
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
In Los Angeles, General Harrison Gray Otis, publisher of
the Times, prime organ of boosterism, fumed at the goings-on.
After all, his vision of California had nothing to do with crack-
pot cults.
Summed up, it was rather a picture which was to be sold to
America: orange blossoms against a backdrop of snowy moun-
tain peaks on a summer day. The reputation of The Homestead

displeased him and thwarted this vision. In a series of published


stories, the Times grumbled of children at Point Loma, who
were being starved so that they would appear "ethereal," of
cultists who at night "pranced about in their nightrobes, hold-

ing torches" and of "gross immoralities which are practiced by


these disciples of spookism."
Meanwhile Annie made regular raids into Tingley's home
stamping ground. She established a foothold at Krotana, a
temple founded in Hollywood by a retired Virginia lawyer,
Albert Powell Warrington.
She would gather the faithful, roundly lambast Katherine
Tingley and her doings, and be gone again before the Point
Loma set could muster forces for a rebuttal.
Annie was everywhere at once, it seemed. She would pop up
in France, then Holland, then Britain. In India she quietly

adopted two Hindu boys.


Her installation in Hollywood grew between her visits. There
was an occult temple, vegetarian cafeteria, metaphysical li-
brary. Colonists at Krotana announced that unlike the Ting-

'ey group they had "a conciously sanctified look."


And they were as busy as the San Diego group. They inves-
igated "the subtler fields of physics, chemistry, the new science
rfpsychology and psychic phenomena." One disciple invented
jtereometry, based on a three-dimensional, geometric alphabet,
To show how it worked and solved the world's problems, he
Duilt a structure of more than
three tons, using a million pieces
)f redwood. Both Dr. Robert Millikan and Albert Einstein

152
BESANT, TINGLEY, KRISHNAMURTI
visited it and tried to unravel its significance but gave up in

despair.
Meanwhile, the cult of New Thought, using some of theos-
ophy's tenets, was blossoming. It had started as "The Boston
Craze" but had moved West accumulating lore on vegetarian-
ism, faith healing and mysticism as it burgeoned with new dis-
ciples. It was by now a tense and bitter battleground as prophet
denounced prophet in the fight for a flock. In the staid Presby-
terian and Methodist churches the pastors could only plead
with parishioners not to be swept into the maelstrom of theolog-
ical chaos. But their sermons were pretty dull fare
against the
thrills and adventures in the unknown offered
by the cultists.
Crisis was inevitable. The battle lines were drawn. Katherine

Tingley explained that she had not selected Point Loma for her
Utopian colony by accident. Indeed, the famed General John
C. Fremont had told her of it, she said, and when he had de-
scribed it she knew that this was the place, "The Golden Land
of the West," which she had seen visions of as a child in her
dreams. Sure enough, when she first saw it, she told rapt listen-
ers, it was the exact place she had dreamed of years before.
Now ominous sounds began to emanate from Europe. Annie
spoke of California as a "remarkable land," the likes of which
were uncomparable in the rest of the world. When a German
newspaper sneered at the fulsome praise, the Times, with a

finger to the theosophical wind, gave the German kidding a


prominent play.
Los Angeles worthies may have pondered why the leading
newspaper would commit the local heresy of defaming the
Golden State. But the newspaper sensed in Annie's announce-
ment of California's glories a plan of some sort. And any plan
by cultists was bad news. The sick and retired were arriving by
the proverbial droves. Industry, a booming real estate market,
and trade were building rapidly. It was 1913 and the Kaiser
was running loose. A war might be coming. With its end would
153
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
come still a new herd of settlers. Anything which might give

Southern California added infamy as "the land of fruits and


nuts" was to be discouraged with a vengeance.
With the turmoil of war, the doings of the theosophists were
forgotten for a time.
At the end of World War I, Annie started her own. It opened
with a series of slashing attacks against the Tingley faction
followed by more ominous praise of the wonders of California.
She had visited California first in 1891, she said, and had
noticed only three of a "new type" at that time. Now, after
recent visits she was sure more were emerging! California was
to be the world center of a new superman of the Aryan type!
What distinguished them, these people of the new super race
being born in California? Annie explained: "They recognize
the auras of people, hear notes in the scale others cannot hear
and grasp knowledge without the rational process." Some, she
added, also had the "physical eye of clairvoyance." She backed
up her announcement with the news that the Smithsonian In-
stitute already had records of all this a fact which newsmen
could not garner from records at the Institute. In appearance,
she told crowds in London and Amsterdam, these supermen
had "luminous eyes, not unlike the Greeks in appearance and
a lessening sense of personal property." She quoted one child
as saying: "Why talk so much? We can see without talking!"
At Point Loma, Katherine Tingley read the foreign dispatches
and pursed her lips.
Katherine's apprehensions were well founded. For now An-
nie unloosened her bombshell.
She had as her adopted child, one of the Indian boys, none
other than a World Master! While the explanation of this Being
was vague to begin with, he was, it appeared, a reincarnation
of Christ. His name was Krishnamurti, a handsome youth with
mystic power.
Annie explained to her followers how she had discovered all

154
BESANT, TINGLEY, KRISHNAMURTI

this.She had met the World Teacher in the Himalayas during


one of her sojourns in India. She had "left her physical being
consciously," she told gaping listeners and, in a yoga vision,
was taken to the snowy peaks where the World Master told her
that Krishna as the youth was fondly called was, in fact, his
reincarnation. The World Master, she explained, was sort of
vague. "Although his consciousness embodies itself partially in

human form of the new type, he does not cease to exercise all
the functions of the World Master." He was, she said, like a
series of other World Masters who had come to the world from
time to time. Christ, she added, had lived in the body of one of
his disciples, just as the Gnostics had explained centuries ago.
If the explanation was a bit murky, the facts were clear.
Annie, had called on
after receiving the inspirational message,
Krishnamurti's father, Hindu civil servant,
a who had agreed to
allow Annie to adopt Krishna and his brother. No sooner was
this done, she said, than the father had discovered that the boys,
according to Hindu caste system, were automatically outcasts
and had sued for their return. But her guardianship was con-
firmed and she'd fled to England. As a child, she went on,
Krishna had written the document At the Feet of the Master,
which obviously had been dictated to him by the Master in
the Himalayas, as no youth could pen so complicated a theolog-
ical work.
And now the jigsaw puzzle fell in place rapidly as Krishna
started speaking before theosophy groups. Annie announced

coyly in Holland: "It is possible the great electric tension of


California has been favorable to the development of the new
type." She told of a meeting in Holland when Krishna was sud-
denly transformed as he spoke and talked with a new voice and
a "different" expression on his face. Obvious proof, said Annie's
followers, that Krishnamurti was speaking the words of the
World Master. Further, he was obviously a "new type" like
his soul mates in distant California.

155
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

twentieth-century messiah appeared in Paris. He


The de-

nounced the popular idea that he was here to save the world
as "rubbish." He was twenty-nine by now, with coal black hair,

startlingly black eyes. He wore somber British gentlemen's garb,


hopes of newspapermen, and was worse
still
contrary to the
and merry. Matrons in Paris nonetheless crushed
shy, witty
him at every public meeting and hailed him as the new messiah.
He denied this vehemently. "I am an advanced soul," he ex-
existence
plained in a precise British accent, "purified by long
on other planes. I am just an ordinary young man. Fond of
tennis and that sort of thing. .". .

Annie Besant, as rapidly as the young Indian issued these


self-effacing statements, followed with metaphysical explana-
tions of his importance to world religion.
In 1926 Krishnamurti arrived in New York. Flash powder
was popping as reporters queried the young man.
What did he think of the United States? "It is like a group of
children," he said, "standing on the third floor of a one hundred-
story building, viewing things from their lowly height
and seek-
ing new windows to look out on that floor,
while ignoring the
summons to higher planes and broader views," He talked in
similar parables throughout the meetings with the press.
Meanwhile Annie had her say: "The senses are keener in
California than elsewhere in the world," she noted. "The psy-
chic type will soon emerge there." She described them again as
"slightly Greek in appearance, with strong chin, closely-shut
mouth and well-developed forehead."
Annie was old by now. But her back was still stiff, her mind
alert and her will hardened even more with the years.
She predicted that chaos was ahead. Science was working,
she said, on "agencies which will destroy the city of London
within five hours."
In Chicago the flashing-eyed young man was met by a mob
throwing garlands of roses. He explained to them that he was
156
BESANT, TINGLEY, KRISHNAMURTI

simply the "mouthpiece of God." He went on to tell the theoso-

phists that his personality kept changing and that Christ had
told Annie he would be a "vehicle," with the Great Master using
his voice. "Ido not wish to be thought eccentric," he said, how-
ever. "I can no more explain the tenanting of my body by the
Great Teacher than an artist can explain what he feels or the
poet the inward ecstasy of purpose it is like a dream. ..."
He addressed the Chicago advertising club of the American
Legion, an obvious bit of wry humor by his booking agent. But
he captivated the boys with his wit and charm. When a local
booster asked what he thought of the city he told them that "the
streets arealmost as bad as New York." The meeting ended
with the boys singing "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow."
Annie was at the same time telling Chicago ladies that the
young prophet did not use alcohol, tobacco, or meat, and was
a declared celibate. Of
course, she spoke again of the superior
race being bred in California.
The 10,000 avowed American followers of the Order of the
Star, Annie's group, with 100,000 members in the world, were
at every way station during the great tour. The old lady spoke
with awe of Krishna's mission. He was, she said, "the spirit of
the Great Teacher which had touched Jesus, Prince Siddhartha
of India and Thoth of Egypt and Zoroaster of Persia ." . .

Annie, by then, had announced herself as the president of


the International Theosophical Society. While the young Indian
tried desperately at each conference to disavow his importance,
Annie continued to issue announcements that he was the chosen
of the World Teacher, "a highly refined human organism and
his spiritis the same as the animated Christ. Five times in the

history of mankind this spirit has been intimately revealed to


the Aryan race. The last time was when Christ lived among the
Jews in Palestine. Since then the Christ-spirit has lived in se-
clusion in the Himalayas." Krishnamurti was the vehicle to

pass the World Teacher's message on to man, she kept saying.

157
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
{Catherine Tingley was fighting back. In New York, shortly
after Krishnamurti had passed through, she called a press con-
ference. Her subject was her old foe, Annie. "Krishnamurti is
a fine chap who has been hypnotized by Mrs. Annie Besant,"
she announced, "and is really an unwilling follower." She was
as Annie. As
seventy-four by now, but still as ready for a fight
head of the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society,
the true inheritors of the Blavatsky concept, she told reporters
that "Krishnamurti is conscious of feeling he is not up to the
mark Mrs. Besant has set for him and would like to be excused."
As for Annie,she dismissed her as a plain crank "commercializ-
the mouthpiece of
ing theosophy by utilizing Krishnamurti as
God."
Annie didn't dignify the Tingley barbs with a reply. With
Krishnamurti in tow she was getting lavish space in public
prints singing the glories of California, the super
race and the

significance of Krishnamurti. Reincarnation, she said, was the


only rational theory of human immortality in that it solved the
riddles of life, cleared away the idea of injustice and gave to

everyone repeated opportunities for perfection. She told some


three thousand awed clubwomen in Los Angeles that as a per-
son became purer and purer with each life, he spent more and
more time in heaven between lives and, eventually, just didn't
come back at all.

On January 23, 1927, Annie unleashed her big news. Since


the super race was ready and the World Master was here she
was going to set up a new Utopian colony in Ojai, California,
to start all mankind on a new path. All theosophists all true

theosophists could rejoice. She announced plans for "The


Happy Valley Foundation" and $200,000 for
issued a call for
the Utopia which would arise on the 465 acres. There would be

temples, an art center, places of worship and meditation,


a
theatre bigger than the shabby affair on Point Loma and special

playgrounds for the super race to frolic at Greek games. For


158
BESANT, TTNGLEY, KRISHNAMURTI

novices interested in the new world haven, she briefly sketched


in a series of lectures the impersonality of Deity, the law of
moral justice or Karma, <and the facts of reincarnation.
Not she but Krishnamurti had chosen Ojai as the holy site,
she said.
The group would be known as the Order of the Star of the
East, she went on, the first of four great centers spotted strate-
gically throughout the world to unite all mankind.
Perhaps it was well that at this high and heady moment, the
heyday of theosophy was past. The great dream did not die

overnight. Rather, it fizzled away with declining audiences.


Both Annie Besant and Katherine Tingley were soon, in their
own terms, to move into a new reincarnation. The Besant group
still thrives in Ojai although the grandiose dream of a great

center never materialized. The Homestead fell into bankruptcy


and Tingley's followers moved to a site near Pasadena where
they go on today. And Krishnamurti, the boy who was the re-
luctant idol of thousands, finally announced that the ladies
should no longer pay him respect and reverence. Today he
keeps a quiet cottage in Ojai and visits India where he meditates
alone on the great mysteries of man.
With the two colorful old ladies gone, the battle which had
raged for decades simmered to polite scorn. But as the last days
of theosophic fury passed in California, a new star was to
emerge. She was unique among cultists in that she operated as
a cult leader, although she was not. But for desperately poor
and desperately ambitious "Sister Aimee," easy tabs were of no
concern. She knew she was unique unto herself.

159
Chapter

24

SISTER AIMEE

"COME! Come! Come!" She stood in a white

flowing gown before the loving thousands, her strangely mag-


netic face catching all the light in the vast auditorium. Slowly
she pulled a red rose from the massive bouquet cradled in her
arms and threw it to a follower. Then another . . .

Sister Aimee was a latter-day prophet who operated with


a brass band and a choir of four hundred beautiful girls. There
was no one Aimee, ever, old-time riders of the saw-
like Sister
dust say today. Oh, Billy Sunday could stir 'em up, and
trail

Dwight L. Moody was a spellbinder. But did they ever stage


the act with the ugly devil being chased across the stage with
a pitchfork? Did they ever dress up like George Washington
and re-enact Valley Forge? Did they ever parade through the
streets in an admiral's uniform followed by hundreds of singing
ladies in sailor suits and a brass band? Had they ever staged
the story of Sodom and Gomorrah with a cast of hundreds?
No indeed, there was no one like Sister Aimee.
When Aimee Semple McPherson rolled into Los Angeles in
December 1918, in a battered Oldsmobile open touring car
piled high with parcels and tracts, and containing, besides her-
self, her two small children, her mother, Minnie Kennedy, and a

160
SISTER AIMEE

Pentecostal sister, she had already served an apprenticeship as


a roving evangelist along the Atlantic coast from Florida to
Maine. She knew her business.
Born on a farm near Ingersol, Ontario, in 1890, she had
been rudimentarily educated in local schools. At seventeen she
was converted by a wandering Pentecostal preacher, Robert
Semple. She soon married him. Her mother, who had Salvation
Army sympathies, never looked on the extreme Pentecostals,
the Holy Rollers of the time, with much favor. She did nothing
to help her daughter's marriage to Semple.

Shortly after, Semple, a boilermaker by trade and preacher


by avocation, decided that the Lord had called him to convert
the heathen in China. On a pittance collected
from Holy Roller
brothers and sisters, the
young couple sailed for
Hong Kong.
In Hong Kong, after only a few months, Semple died, leaving
Aimee with a baby, Roberta Semple, born a month after her
father's death, and not a friend or nickel closer than Canada.

Beating her way home with the help of a little money cabled
by her mother, she moped around New York, helping in mis-
sions and Pentecostal churches, on the verge of starvation often.
She finally married a wholesale grocery clerk by the name of
Harold S. McPherson. This marriage was hopeless from the
start: Aimee vaguely wanted to preach, to get up before an
audience and shine, to live dramatically as she had with hell's-
fire-and-thunder preacher Semple. McPherson simply wanted
a quiet, inconspicious home. A son, Rolf Kennedy McPherson,
was born. Aimee left soon after and went home to her parents
in Canada.
Re-entering the Pentecostal fold, she was invited to hold a
revival in a nearby little town, Mount Forest, Ontario. Within
aweek she had the town on fire with religious fervor. Her appeal
was bucolic and hearty. She was vigorous and bristling with
energy, a born platform genius.
Little by little, with no teacher except day-to-day experience,

. 161
^FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

she mastered her business. She bought a cheap gospel tent (the
firstone a swindle, ragged, moth-eaten, mildewed, but she
grinned and made it do) and set out on a footloose career as
a wandering evangelist, without church connections except a
loose association with the least inhibited forms of Pentecostal-
ism. For two years, around New England in summer and in the
south in winter, she wandered.
The Pentecostals based their beliefs on four tenets, all of
which Aimee embraced and never discarded. These are the
baptism by fire and speaking in strange tongues (Acts 2:1-13),
divine healing through prayer, the imminent second coming of
Christ, and spiritual and physical redemption through Christ's
crucifixion and scourging ("By His stripes we are healed") .

The "speaking in strange tongues as the Spirit gives utter-


ance" is the major identifying mark of all Pentecostals. This
isconsidered the evidence of divine blessing, of "the indwelling
of the Holy Spirit." The gibberish that the "saint" babbles while
under the power of the Holy Ghost is considered a divine revela-
tion, to which the initiates can provide an "interpretation" in

plain language. Their habit of swooning and falling into ec-


stasies when "under the power" gave them the contemptuous

epithet "Holy Rollers."


Aimee practiced the most extreme form of Holy Rollerism,
frequently recounting how she "lay in the straw and shouted" at
rural camp meetings, and describing -in the most precise detail
conversions under her preaching when the redeemed sinner
raved and had visions of glory, pounded the floor with his heels,
writhed, stammered and otherwise let go. Quite naturally, she

was never accepted by some more rigid branches of funda-


mentalists because she contravened the injunction of
literal

St. Paul that "women should remain quiet in the churches."


Late in 1918, after her young daughter Roberta had nearly
died during the epidemic of Spanish influenza, Aimee decided
to head for California and a milder climate. Her mother, who

162
SISTER AIMEE

had joined her after a period of skepticism and was acting as


a steadying influence and a highly efficient business manager,
went along. They drove west because they didn't have the rail-
road fare. Aimee picked up expenses by stopping overnight to

preach in Pentecostal assemblies along the way.


She hit Los Angeles just before Christmas, 1918. Her only
contacts there were a group of dispirited Pentecostals meeting
in an upstairs room. Within one week Aimee had aroused this
nucleus from their lethargy and started her first revival in the
West. Three weeks later she filled Philharmonic Auditorium,
the largest hall then in the city, on three successive Sunday
afternoons. She had hit her stage, and by then was accomplished
in her specialty pulpit exhortation and the handling of large
crowds.
Her progress during the next four years was meteoric. She
blossomed as a front-rank evangelist, pushed the declining

Billy Sunday out of first place in the size of the crowds she drew
and the furor created by her healing practices, and began to
draw general attention in the West mainly. However, some of
her most sensational revivals during this period were in Wash-
ington, Baltimore, Montreal, Chicago, St. Louis, Dallas, San
Francisco and Denver. She held only one tent revival in Los
Angeles, and by 1923, when she opened Angelus Temple, she
really was known in the Los Angeles area. In Denver or
little

St. Louis she was a name to conjure with. At the close of her

first revival in Denver, when she was packing the Municipal

Auditorium with audiences of 16,000, two and three times a


day, the mayor proclaimed an hour of prayer and people knelt
in the street and in the downtown stores while church bells

rang and factory whistles blew for prayer with Sister Aimee for
the sick and sinning.
In 1922 she visited Australia for a revival, and arrived amid
organized hostility from churches and press. Within three weeks
she had completed her schedule and departed with kind testi-

163
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
monials from scores of her bitterest critics. In courage and in
cheerful willingness to face opposition of any sort, she was
amazing.
Meanwhile she and her mother had been shopping for a

place to erect a tabernacle of their own as a home base, to


which Aimee could return periodically from her swings around
the evangelistic circuit. They decided on Los Angeles, and by
chance stumbled on the plot in Echo Park which exactly suited
their requirements. Without any formal backing, they set out
to build a fireproof hall that would seat at least 5,000. It was to
be of concrete and steel, with all the necessary equipment.
Aimee raised the money bit by bit at her greatest revivals in
other cities. The building arose as the installments of money
came in.Minnie Kennedy (called Mother Kennedy and, later,
Ma Kennedy in the fold) was a shrewd business manager. She
stretched their meager funds, while Aimee developed a phe-
nomenal capacity for taking up collections in large sums. On
New Year's Day, 1923, she opened the Temple, and really
made her bow to the Los Angeles public.
In order to keep the vast hall filled and the contributions
coming in, Aimee developed her inherent powers of showman-
ship. As a publicity-getter she was admittedly a genius: every
stunt she thought up was exactly the sort of thing the press loved
to print. She staged virtual vaudeville shows on her preaching

platform. She developed "illustrated sermons," in which stu-


dents from her Bible School (erected in 1925 at a cost of $300,-
000) acted out in pantomime the Bible story she was using for
sermon text, while she narrated and pointed the moral. These
"illustrations" showed an extraordinary dramatic and staging

gift. She lavished money on perfecting them. She put a scenic


artist permanently on her payroll, and imported costumes from

all over the world, while the electrical equipment footlights,


borders, spotlights, etc. was the best obtainable. As extreme
fundamentalists are forbidden the theatre and movies as lures

164
SISTER AIMEE

of Satan, Aimee gave them theatricals under the guise of re-


ligion. They flocked in their tens of thousands. In this, of course,
she was simply harking back to the morality plays staged for
the illiterate crowds of the Middle Ages. But her dramatic flak
and expertness in staging her spectacles impressed even the

professionals of nearby Hollywood.


By 1925 Aimee was tired and restless: For three years she
had barely ventured outside Los Angeles and the burden of the
Temple with its enormous responsibilities was getting her down.
In January 1926 she took a trip abroad her first respite from
work and visited the Holy Land as well as Paris, Monte Carlo
and other unsanctified tourist sights. In May she returned, and
on May 18, 1926, she went for a swim at Ocean Park, on the
western edge of Los Angeles. She was not seen to come out of
the water.
The resultant turmoil put Aimee on the front pages of every
newspaper in the United States and Canada, and also made her
name familiar in Australia and Great Britain.
For six weeks a frantic search for some clue to her fate was
carried on. Misleading information kept popping up all over
the nation. Cynics suspected a vast publicity plot. Minnie Ken-

nedy believed her daughter had drowned. So did the police,


after an exhaustive investigation. But rumors circulated that
she had really disappeared with a radio technician who had
been operating her private radio station, KFSG (the third
broadcasting station to go on the air in Los Angeles), one
Kenneth Ormiston. He had disappeared shortly after Aimee
sailed abroad the previous January.
Then, on June 23, at one o'clock in the morning, Aimee
across
staggered into the Mexican village of Agua Prieta, just
the border from Douglas, Arizona. She gasped out a lurid tale

of having been kidnaped and held for ransom of half a million


dollars. That morning, she said, she had finally escaped from
her abductors and had wandered across the desert, in the first

165
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
heat, without water or proper clothing or shelter from the sun,
for eleven hours. She was put to bed in a Douglas hospital.
Then the real excitement began. It was established that she was
not sunburned, her clothing showed no signs of perspiration or
tears from cactus, her brand new kid slippers were barely
scuffed, and she had not even asked for a drink of water when
she collapsed in the front yard of the Mexican saloon keeper.
Aimee's story was under suspicion from the first. But, she
swore every word was true.
She returned to Los Angeles in triumph and was carried off
the train in a flower-festooned chair, while 100,000 persons
lined the route of the cavalcade to her temple.

Legal authorities were busy. The more they investigated, the


less credibleher story became. But she stuck to it and over the
radio lashed back at her critics, accusing successively "the
dance hall crowd," dope peddlers, white slavers, jealous rival
preachers, the newspapers and the Roman Catholic Church of
being in a plot to discredit her and wreck the Temple. Her fol-
lowers stuck by her. Minnie Kennedy didn't know what to be-
lieve,but in order to save the Temple (the property by then was
estimated to be worth a million and a half dollars) and keep the
machine going, she backed her daughter publicly to the hilt.
They were invited to testify before the grand jury and did so.
The jurors declined to believe the kidnaping story, but issued
no indictments. Then, under pressure from outraged rival
churches mainly, the district attorney formally accused the
two women of "conspiracy to obstruct justice" and "corrupting

public morals," the essential basis of his charges being the rev-
elations unearthed at Carmel, California, where evidence indi-
cated that Aimee and Ormiston had spent the first ten days of
her disappearance in a seaside honeymoon cottage.
In the longest preliminary hearing in the history of the state,
Aimee and her mother were held for trial. That was early in
November, 1926. Meanwhile, the entire case had become so
166
SISTER AIMEE

muddled and public confusion and partisanship so heated that


the district attorney despaired of getting a conviction. Under
pressure from sources favorable to Aimee including many
leading business interests of the city, who deplored the oppro-
brium being heaped on the city by the fantastically ridiculous
case the case was abruptly dismissed.
The "kidnaping" made Aimee a world figure. For the next
decade she was never long out of the news, becoming one of the
most publicized figures of the entire era. She traveled widely.
Her church grew and prospered. Her skill and fame as a re-
vivalist increased.
She incorporated her own church as the Church of the Four-
square Gospel and entered the ranks of recognized sects. Her
theology was of the haziest. In no respect does her church differ
vitally from the other Pentecostals, except in the equality it

accords to women ministers. The phrase "Foursquare Gospel"


she hit on during a revival in Oakland during the early twenties,
before she opened Angelus Temple. But it was not a doctrine so
much as a pulpit slogan and trademark. Only belatedly, and
under the pressure of events, did she separate herself into a
formal church; for years after the Temple was operating she
declared she was simply an evangelist, "working for the good
of all churches." The fact, however, that from the start Minnie
Kennedy enrolled regular members (tithing) of the Temple,
and that most of these members were apostates from other
churches, riled the Los Angeles evangelical clergy. In her own
city, Aimee was not ministerially popular. Her success in filling
enormous Angelus Temple, seating 5400, week after week and
year after year, also was rankling to less accomplished pul-
piteers.
One
result of the 1926 fracas was to remove Sister Aimee,
in theminds of press and pulpit, from the category of a wholly
respectable evangelist. She was a freak, a sideshow, an amazing
and endlessly diverting woman with no sense of propriety and
167
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
the gall of a rhinoceros. Stories about her circulated like the
Ford jokes of that era, countless in number, most of them im-
puting to her some ridiculous action or some turpitude of
greater or less horrendousness. She was accused in gossip of
almost every sin except, surprisingly, being a drunkard. She
was supposed to be a drug addict, she was said to be money-
mad, she was brassy and vulgar, she was said to have sweet-
hearts in a dozen cities, the Temple was said to be a hotbed of
Lesbianism and assorted erotic specialties. All those stories,
with one or two exceptions, were mere imagination, but they
were believed because they sounded like Aimee, or like the
popular conception of her. Already she had become a legend.
In fact, she was enormously hard-working, was vulgar but
healthily vulgar, speaking the language of the mass, thinking in
terms of a dramatic comic strip (hence her invincible appeal
for the mass, the people who make up the bulk of newspaper
readers and radio listeners) she was sincere in her beliefs; she
;

was frank and humorous; on the platform she was unfailing in


effectiveness; and in private was a befuddled, imposed-on, mud-
dle-headed woman striving for something she was never to
achieve freedom from responsibility and a normal emotional
life. This she could never achieve because of the conflicting
strain in her nature, equally profound,which drove her to seek
the spotlight, to dramatize and overdramatize herself, the hun-

ger for applause, the thrill of projecting her personality and


swaying vast crowds.
All during her heyday the testimony of witnesses, hostile
and friendly, is the same: On the platform she was, in her
specialized field, matchless and unique, a superlative actress,
but more than any actress she was also an inspired, endlessly
resourceful preacher and organizer. In private life she was

charming, pliant, easily led astray by plausible arguments, and


bedeviled by ill health and frustrations that she could neither
comprehend nor overcome.
168
SISTER AIMEE

Her church grew steadily in spite of Homeric battles with


her relatives and defections by disgruntled members. In 1927
she quarreled with her mother. They parted with hate and for
years maintained a running fire of opposition and counter-
charges. In 1936 she broke with her daughter Roberta, whom
she had trained from childhood to become her successor. The
estrangement lasted until Aimee's death. Only her son Rolf
remained faithfully subservient to his mother.
There were a number of schisms in the church, some of
which led to grand jury investigations and continual threats of
official retribution. Nothing ever came of these ructions. In
every case Aimee was able to confuse the issue or so beat down
her accusers that the investigations were abandoned. In Los
Angeles, because of her property ownership and her command
of the loyalty of tens of thousands of voters, she was a power,

politically and financially. This she had not planned. But when
it arrived she loved it and openly reveled in the importance it
gave her.
During the thirties she became famous as "the world's most

glamorous evangelist." She was supposed to have had her face


lifted, and her Paris gowns became a topic for newspaper notice
on both sides of the ocean. In this she was naively frank (she
loved fine clothes, after the years of her extreme poverty and
dowdiness) and also shrewdly theatrical: she was in the posi-
tion constantly of a stage star, a glamour girl, and she had to
dress the part or disappoint her audiences. But her acquired
smartness in dress, her well-appointed homes, in which luxury
was frankly flauntedas a sign of her worldly success, were an

object of scornful criticism by those disagreeing with her


politics or theology.
In 1931 she married a third time, David Hutton, Jr., a
Hollywood baritone. The marriage was stormy and ended in
divorce after several years.
After the ousting of Minnie Kennedy from financial control

169
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
of the Temple, Aimee succumbed to the fast talk of a succes-
sion of slick salesmen with quick-riches propositions and in-
volved herself in costly fiascoes. This was because of her in-
herent and incurable gullibility in worldly affairs. On the
platform she was never gullible, but in private she was a wretch-
edly poor judge of character or ability, and because of her
personality tortured by inner conflicts and frustrations, and
seeking new avenues of expression that would stamp her a
"success." She was inveigled into promoting a summer camp
meeting at Lake Tahoe, a resort in the San Bernardino Moun-
tains, acemetery in the San Fernando Valley, into real estate
promotions, lot-selling on commission. She invariably wound
up holding the bag for enormous sums in claims from outraged
investors, many of them Temple followers. She seemed in-

capable of learning. She installed a succession of Temple busi-


ness managers. But the finances went from bad to worse. To
meet the continual deficits, she was compelled to become even
more raucous and demanding in taking up collections. It was
the only way she understood to get money.

By 1937, the Temple was mortgaged, there were huge out-


standing debts, Aimee was tottering on the brink of insanity
(some of her associates wanted to have her declared incom-
petent legally), and her career in the courts had become almost
as legendary as her evangelistic history. Within a few years she
was sued forty-five times. She sued only once for libel against
a magazine which in an article inferred that she paid imposters
Temple healing meetings. Her attorney said
to fake cures at the
this suit was settled out of court with a substantial
payment to
Aimee. The constant rumor that healings were faked was never
proved or substantiated.
During the depth of the Depression, she endeared herself to
the city by her welfare work. The Temple commissary, which
was a department of welfare equipped to dispatch food, cloth-
ing, rent money, whatever was needed in answer to any call of

170
SISTER AIMEE

distress on a twenty-four-hour basis, anywhere in Los An-


geles County ("Help first and investigate afterward" was her
declared policy) was expanded to care for the throngs of un-
employed, at a time when there was no local relief and the
federal relief machine had not yet been created. For a while
she maintained two soup kitchens that fed five thousand persons
a day, the tickets being distributed through the police and fire
departments. When the PTA ran out of funds and was com-
pelled to discontinue hot lunches for needy school pupils,
Aimee stepped in and fed all that were sent to her without
question. In this work she was eminently sincere: in fact, in
order to organize it she turned down
(with her newly acquired
husband Hutton) stage and film offers aggregating more than
$500,000 in one week. (One of the offers was from Morris
Gest, to appear in a revival of The Miracle.)
The films had beenafter Aimee since 1926, but the Will

Hays office said "no." In 1929, just at the advent of talking


pictures, Aimee formed her own film company, to star in
feature-length films based on her own life. But she never made
a film. The consequences included claims and suits that ran for
years and sought more than half a million dollars, and recur-
rent illnesses several of which brought her to the point of
death as a result of excessive dieting to slim down to movie-
star size.
In 927 she appeared as principal witness against her daugh-
1

ter Roberta, who was suing Aimee's attorney for slander, and
won her case. About then, Aimee providentially acquired a
new business manager, the Reverend Giles N. Knight, who had
the force and skill to stop her public shenanigans and confine
her to preaching and organizing the widening branches of her
church. Publicity about her virtually ceased. Reporters were
denied access to her. Meanwhile her health became increas-
ingly uncertain, although she continued the grueling work of,
administering her church under a crushing schedule. Finally

171
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
she was able to burn the mortgages in a public spectacle wit-
nessed by tens of thousands standing in Echo Park. Aimee
climbed on the dome of the Temple and one by one burned the
mortgage notes, reading off the amount of each one over a
while girls in
loudspeaker before casting it into an urn of fire,
white robes with huge angel wings attached tripped across the
dome in an allegory depicting "The Triumph of Faith over
Gold." The church, from then on, was never in debt again.
Aimee's financial practices were frowned on by churches
of Angelus Temple
generally, because of the corporate set-up
and later of the Foursquare Gospel Church. In effect Aimee
owned everything outright.The holding corporation (the Echo
Park Evangelistic Association) which owned and controlled

everything was composed of three persons: during the early


years Aimee (president), Minnie Kennedy (vice president),
and a stenographer or other figurehead (secretary). After Min-
nie's expulsion, Aimee employees as fellow offi-
installed hired

power in her hands; and for


cers, always retaining the voting
a while Roberta and Rolf were the second and third officers.
Aimee always held the voting power in the family corporation,
which owned and controlled the entire church, all properties in
and out of Los Angeles and all church funds. This was chal-
lenged by recalcitrant groups in the church several times in
law suits, but every time Aimee won. There was never a church
board with anything beyond advisory powers, and the church
the
property was never vested in a board of trustees elected by
church: the officers and directors were also the trustees. Under
this arrangement, no financial accounting was ever made to the

members of public and the real financial history of Aimee's take


and spending was never known. It was estimated that during
her career she collected many millions of dollars, most of which,
obviously, was poured back into the enrichment and expansion
of her church, which was her own true and lasting interest in
life.

172
SISTER AIMEE

Under Aimee's and under the by-laws of her church,


will
she wasempowered to name her
successor and president of the
church and pastor of Angelus Temple: Rolf McPherson was
so named, and automatically inherited the same financial
powers held by his mother. Unless he has voluntarily surren-
dered these and there is no public record of any such signing
away of the direct control and nominal ownership of millions
in property and income he is today, like his mother, in posses-
sion and control of everything.
In 1 944 Aimee went to Oakland to lead a revival and dedi-
cate a new branch church. Her health had been precarious. But
she was in fighting trim. She announced her arrival in Oakland
by leading a parade through the downtown district in a horse
and buggy. Her vim and showmanship were as brilliant as ever.
She preached in Oakland Auditorium to some 10,000 jamming
the hall, went back to her hotel, and the next morning was
found unconscious from an overdose of sleeping powders. She
died an hour or so later. Rumors of suicide immediately cir-
culated. An elaborate inquest was held and the official verdict
was accidental death, the pathologist making the tests on the
vitalorgans testifying that a common effect of the drug in
question (Seconal) was first of all to depress or numb the
memory, so that a person easily could take several capsules,
forgetting that he had already taken a sufficient dose. This
seems to be the likely truth. No supporting evidence of suicide
was ever produced.
Her funeral at Angelus Temple was an orgy of emotionalism.
Followers wept, fainted, shouted, implored the Lord to send
her back. She was buried in an ornate tomb she had bought for
herself in Forest Lawn Memorial Park during the Depression
at a bargain price. Rolf succeeded as head of the church, and
his wife was immediately installed as vice-president of the Echo
Park Evangelistic Association, thus keeping the central voting
power firmly in the family.

173
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
The antics of Aimee's followers made her a cult in her own
time. Those who attacked her and those who praised her said
everything possible on every side of the question; but on one
point everybody was united; it was inconceivable, every ob-
server said, that her church could exist without her. She was

obviously a cult and her church merely a shell or stage setting.


It would fall to pieces when her vitalizing presence was re-

moved.
Aimee consistently contended and preached that hers was
not a cult, that she was an evangelist and pastor heading a
church like other churches, a branch of the Christian evangel-
ical faith that had its own vitality and was not dependent on

her once it had been firmly established. In the end, she was
proved correct. After her death her church did not disintegrate,
although no leader with glamour or strong personality was forth-
coming. (Rolf is pleasant and unassuming, entirely colorless.)
At her death the church holdings were reported at roughly four
Year by year they increased, with a steady
million dollars.

growth in membership, until in 1958 they were reported at


more than $21,000,000, not including the property in Los
Angeles. The plant at Echo Park has been greatly expanded
since Aimee's death, a youth center, gymnasium, dormitories
for Bible College students and a rest home for missionaries

being added. The Los Angeles property is valued at a million


and a half or two million dollars alone. The church operates
with outward smoothness, is respected in the church commu-
nity. All the hoopla of Aimee's time is gone.
The music specialties are kept up on a reduced scale and
the Bible School functions actively with several hundred en-
rolled students. Mission stations abroad, in many lands, num-
ber 800; churches in the United States and Canada, 720; grad-
uates of the L.I.F.E. Bible Training College (Lighthouse of
International Foursquare Evangelism) total 5300; the church

membership, including Angelus Temple is 122,907, according

174
SISTER AIMEE

to the president's annual report at the close of 1958. The


Temple has its own AM and FM broadcasting station, and
services are held in Angelus Temple every day in the year.
There is a bookstore and other subsidiary activities.
Whether by policy or by sheer lassitude for Aimee wore
out everybody who ever came in contact with her almost super-
human energy and smiling egotism no cult has been permitted
to grow around Aimee's memory.
There are no memorial services at her tomb. She is spoken
of around the Temple in no tone of awe or reverence, but as
an inspired, hearty, lovable woman. The younger generation at
the Temple knows little about her. Her autobiography, filled
with excesses and fantastic versions of such events as the 1926
"kidnaping," is still on sale at the bookstore. But her real, in-
timate story will never be told.

175
Chapter

25

THE MIGHTY I AM

WITH Guy Ballard's abilities as a salesman he


would have made a million dollars if he'd gone into an ordinary
business. As it was, he became a cult leader. And instead, au-
he made three million.
thorities claimed,
While Aimee and her plump-bottomed ladies in sailor uni-
forms pranced behind their brass band on Los Angeles streets,
Ballard was building one of the most bizarre cults ever to
emerge in the cult center of the world.
Its name was the Mighty I Am and it had something for
everyone. Thrills, chills, mysteries, anonymous foes, super-
natural allies, fabulous riches just ahead all were gambits in

the amazing doctrine the ex-paperhanger compounded for his


followers.
Ballard and his wife Edna, a professional medium, arrived
from Chicago in a hurry. Later it was claimed he'd skipped out
on an oil promotion investigation in the Windy City. Looking
about the sunny climes, it didn't take the sharp-faced Ballard
long to see his future.
As he explained it all later to his followers, he was wandering
through the forests near Mt. Shasta in central California when
suddenly a mysterious figure appeared.

176
THE MIGHTY I AM
It was none other than the legendary Count of St. Germain,
the man who in the eighteenth century was reported to be an
immortal.
The visitor offered the startled Ballard
a cup of "pure elec-
tronic essence" and a wafer of "concentrated energy."
Ballard explained that he was immediately "surrounded by
a White Flame which formed a circle about fifty feet in diam-
eter."
As he told it all in the cult's textbook, Unveiled Mysteries,
which sold for $2.50 to all members, he had just been ready to
have a drink of spring water at the time.
St. Germain had interrupted.
"My brother, if you will hand
me your cup I will give you a much more refreshing drink than
water," he had said. It was a creamy liquid, Ballard recalled,
and "much to my astonishment, while the taste was delicious,
the electrical vivifying effect on my mind and body made me
gasp with surprise."
Minutes later, he related, he and the mystic figure were tak-
ing a soaring trip through the stratosphere. They flew around
the world visiting "the buried cities of the Amazon, France,

Egypt, Karnak, Luxor, the Inca cities, the Royal Tetons, Yel-
lowstone National Park." Everywhere, he said, they saw jewels,
precious diamonds of great size and the fabled treasures of all

history.
After the trip, St. Germain told Ballard that he was now
living with ninety-eight Ascended Masters on Mt. Teton but
had, during the past, inhabited the bodies of Francis Bacon, the
prophet Samuel and "Uncle Sam." (In years to follow, St. Ger-
main was to send signed Christmas cards to the most generous
members of the cult.)
Ballard bought some pastel suits, colored shoes and "electric
violet" drapes and started preaching on the momentous meet-
ing. Before the fun ended he was to claim 350,000 followers
including 15,000 in Los Angeles, enroll more than seven hun-
177
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
dred in his "Walk of Life" school and weave a doctrine such as
the world had never heard before.

Actually, his claim was already established in folklore in the


Mt. Shasta area. Locals told of seeing flying boats and meet-
ing strange forces. Siskiyou County yarns said that Lemurians
dwelt on the high peak. They were refugees from the lost
continent of Muwho had left their alabaster city centuries be-
fore when the continent sank. These immortals had been seen
by scores of people, legend said. The man was always ancient,
tall and erect, with long white hair and beard and clothes of

biblical days white robe and sandals. He moved with dignity


and grace and disappeared when he saw fit. Ballard's people
were later to make regular pilgrimages to the area searching
for St. Germain and other Adepts. (The local newspaper, the
Dunsuirr News, wryly complained that these hordes of Lemur-
ian seekers were scaring them all away. ) There were old local
stories, too, of Lemurians arising from nowhere to guide pros-

pecters to water, to help lost pioneers through mountain passes


and to aid Indians in the battle against the Spanish. All this
gave the Ballard story credence to his followers.
Soon more cultists began to attend sessions to listen to Bal-
lard and his wife Edna. The elaborate structure of the cult took
shape.
Ballard explained that he was a reincarnation of George
Washington, Edna was Joan of Arc and the woman's son,
Lafayette. There were tubes of violet light, talk of walls of blue
flame and mysterious visits from the Adepts.
Ballard bought radio time with the "love gifts" and still more
followers were attracted. Sex, he announced, was taboo. It

tended to divert "divine energy." Edna explained that I Am


was the "individual God Presence" in all living persons, usu-
ally called the Mighty I Am Presence.
Ballard setup branches. In Detroit he arrived with his en-
tourage in four new autos, bought air time and took a special

178
THE MIGHTY I AM
suite in the best hotel.He spoke at conferences called the
"Sacred Three Times Three." He never prayed to gods but,
rather, ordered them about like flunkies in the grand tradition
of the black magicians.
He moved on to Cleveland. Here he told a cheering one
thousand in 1939 that he had received important documents
about enemy subs which outlined plans to destroy the United
States. The Ascended Masters had also just destroyed a flight
of Jap planes over China, he added. As the awed flock filed out
into the foyer after the talk, they were greeted by hawkers
dressed in violet robes. Here was lore to please the fanciful. One
booklet, written by St. Germain himself, told how he really
wrote the works of Shakespeare. For $2.50 one could buy a
picture of Jesus and a tall Master from Venus posed happily on
the slope of a California mountain. Jesus had come down in
1935 to sit for the painting, Ballard explained blandly. There
were phonograph records and bound books for $5 each. There
were detailed instructions ordering the faithful to shun onions
and garlic because they offended the Ascended Masters. They
were ordered to avoid the color red because it gave off evil
vibrations. There was an explanation of K-17, the Adept who
was described as a "gaseous God Force." He had with him,
Ballard wrote, the Legions of Light to aid him.
Guy by then wore only white suits, the symbol of light,
graced by pink tie, the symbol of love. He had an easy stance
a
and a choice touch at invective for the Mighty I Am
enemies.
In Chicago, the authorities gave him difficulties. Ballard, an-
gered, shouted to his flock that he was putting down a curse on
all Chicagoans. And he did! He sent down the "cows and pigs

and lambs who have been deprived of life in your stockyards


to haunt you." As he yelled each new threat his followers would

cry in unison: "Annihilate! Annihilate! Annihilate!"


A typical meeting was an exciting event. The Ballards
Guy in his white suit, and Edna wearing a flowing pink even-

179
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

ing gown with a diamond wreath in her


blonde hair, a white
ostrich feather and pink cape would sit quietly on a stage
decorated with artificial palms and greenery as the faithful
filed in. Germain hung behind them. On
A huge portrait of St.
a screen on the backdrop behind them a movie camera would
a fluid violet light studded
play a moody film clip which showed
with diamonds bursting and receding. Above the elaborate
thrones of the couple hung a mammoth banner. Here angelic
all the
figuresfloated, changing as another projector flashed
colors of the rainbow.
The meeting would begin with decrees to the Ascended
Masters. One did not pray, but ordered. "Mighty Cosmic Light,
come and do your perfect work, now!" Ballard would
forth
demand. He would repeat this three times, then the faithful
would sing "The Violet Flame," set to the tune of "Adeste
Fideles." A thousand excited voices would cry the words from
the yellow hymn books:
"O Mighty I Am is thy own sacred name,
Blaze up through and round me thy pure violet flame.
Cause thee to feel thy love fire pour through me.
I Am thy full perfection!
I Am thy full perfection!
I Am thy full perfection!
Release from thee!"

Sometimes, if the lights were right, Edna would go into a

trance-like state and dictate messages from Naga, the Goddess


of Love, or Arcturus, the God of Liberty.
There was a strict rule against wearing a hat at such meetings.
For with the hat on, the Cosmic Light could only penetrate to
the chin, Ballard explained. And, to get the full benefit, the hat
must be off. Below the chin, he explained, the rest of the body
was carnal, and the Light would have none of it.
Then Ballard would talk. He would stud his message with
180
THE MIGHTY I AM
references to diamonds, emeralds and glittering gold. He would
tell entranced followers of the lake of
gold beneath the earth
which Germain had shown him. It was waiting for them
St.

at the right moment. He would call on the Cosmic Light to


eliminate strike agitators and abolish all debt. He would tell of
making himself invisible. "My pet cat came into the room and
didn't purr or rub against my legs because he didn't see me,"
he explained.
He would call for all illness to leave the audience's bodies,
that all pocketbooks be filled, that the glory of eternal youth
touch the faithful. The followers, seven-eighths of them elderly
women, would twitter anxiously.
As he finished each message, the would surge to their
faithful
feet and beat their breasts or applaud with a strange flat clap-
ping near their chests.
Ballard would bow. "Sit, my precious ones," he would order.
Next would come the "blasting."
Waving his arms, Ballard would shout: "Everyone who op-
poses the Light, silence them forever!"
"Annihilate!" would cry the flock.
"Anyone who stands against me, I shall blast his carcass to
pieces!"
"Annihilate!"
Ballard would go on. "Do not let yourselves accept that the
thing you wish is absent, precious ones. You can as easily have
$10,000 in your pocket as ten cents." The faithful would strug-
and fill their purses.
gle wistfully to "think right"
Those who were worthy would reappear again on the plat-
form with the Ballards after death, he would go on. The lake
of gold would be tapped as soon as the hated Roosevelt, who
had made tapping it illegal, was gone, Ballard would promise.
The theology, with new twists, would pour out. Members
who concentrated could ascend bodily after death to the Mighty
IAm. There was talk of reincarnation. Ballard would tell, once
181
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

again, of how Jesus came to pose for twenty-one days for the
painting that could be purchased in the lobby. He
would ex-
plain that blood was red because of impurities,
and would "be
like gold" if clean.
Asthe audience gasped, he would show magic lantern slides
of the "gaseous belt" in the atmosphere sketches which looked
He would tell of new wonders
suspiciously like weather maps.
now in the current issue of the group's magazine, The Voice, on
sale in the lobby too. His enemies weremany, he would explain
bitterly. Right now, he was being sued by infidels who claimed
his great tome Unveiled Mysteries was really a rewrite of a book,
Dweller on Two Planets, written fifty years before. But he was
safe! For he was protected by a bullet-proof Wall of Light and
had and blue flames and "thought octaves" to use as
his violet
out a new painting. It
protection. Now Ballard would bring
would be a Siamese twin, a double man known to ancient meta-
of more blast-
physicians. The meeting would end on high key
a

ing and threats.


Ballard took a hand in the war threat. He had word that
German submarines were off the Panama Canal. He gathered
his flock to "concentrate their energy" and in a series of howl-

ing blasts they tried to sink the subs. K-17 reported


that the

Mighty I Am group had, indeed, done it and saved the Canal


from destruction.
Mrs. Ballard had her say on the war threat too. "The cosmic
hour has struck!" she announced. Mothers could save their
sons by wrapping them in the Invisible Wall of Light. If enough
would do this, it would stop the war, she said.
Then tragedy came. On January 2, 1940, Edna
walked on
the stage to announce, without obvious sorrow, that the leader
at sixty was dead. His spirit, she explained, had ascended
at dawn Mt. Teton and was resting there.
to
Crisis came. For the blasting was without success against the
many enemies.

182
THE MIGHTY I AM
Edna, her son and twenty-two others were indicted on six-
teen counts of mail fraud.
Suits began to come. Two followers entered into a suicide
pact which failed. They told police that the Army was Roose-
velt's personal army and the true army was the Minute Men of

St. Germain. The four canary-colored limousines were seized.

Internal revenue probed rumors that three million dollars had


been collected by the group. A suit was filed charging the Min-
ute Men with injuring people by ejecting them from a meeting
because they wouldn't remove their hats. A rash of similar suits
came. A former follower had sued for the $6,755 she claimed
she had given Ballard to buy the "lake of gold." It was claimed
that he had twice been indicted in Chicago for his "lake of gold"
sales pitch.
The trials went on. The old excitement declined. Edna was
convicted, fined $8,000 and placed on one year's probation
after being given a suspended jail sentence. But after a series of

appeals the case went to the Supreme Court. In 1946 it was


thrown out because women had been excluded from the jury.
By 1951, she had only three hundred followers. Today a St.
Germain Reading Room in Los Angeles still survives where
Edna and a few of her followers gather. And in Santa Fe, New
Mexico, and Chicago, still other gatherings of Mighty I Am
faithful meet.

183
Chapter

26

VEDANTA: "THE PERENNIAL


PHILOSOPHY"

PERHAPS the restrictive Victorian morality ac-


counted for the popular interest in exotic theologies during the
final decades of the last century. Certainly they were an escape

where genteel folk could plumb wondrous secrets and still be


respectable. Ouija boards graced the best parlors and seances
were Saturday night fun. Theosophy brought with it a tide of
interest in Eastern thought and scores of Hindu seers and

mystics took advantage of it.


They toured the country lecturing, teaching the lotus posi-
.
tion and telling of weird and wonderful meetings with Adepts
on snowy peaks in Tibet. It was lively lore as compared with
Methodist choir practice. While Roman Catholic priests warned
the faithful of the sin of dabbling in spiritualism, stern Pres-

byterian clerics spoke from the pulpit about the golden calf
and newspaper editorials grumbled about the "rag heads" from
India who were encouraging Mesmerism and other evils.
The brilliant Swami Vivekananda arrived in Chicago in
1893 to attend the World's Fair Parliament of Religions. His

184
VEDANTA: "THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY"

lectures on the Vedas, the body of ancient Aryan scriptures


which deals with the idea that truth is universal, created nearly
as much of a furor as the sloe-eyed belly dancer, Little Egypt.

Quoting the Vedas, he contended that "as the different


streams, having their sources in different places, all mingle
their waters in the sea, O
Lord, the different paths which men
take through different tendencies, various though they appear,
crooked or straight, all lead to Thee."
This was heresy to people whose major theological con-
cerns were total immersion and papal infallibility, and de-
nouncements roared from a hundred pulpits. But, as always,
the heady temptation was too much; people crowded into the
lecture halls to hear the Eastern teacher elaborate on the one-
ness of all religions.

By 1897, he was back in India and had founded the Rama-


krishna Math and Mission, a religious order based on the teach-
ings of Sri Ramakrishna, a famed holy man who had died in
1886. Vivekananda and other monastic disciples believed him
to have been a divine incarnation. They held that man in his
true nature is divine and that there is a central reality which can
be approached from many directions. The study of this com-
mon denominator was the order's concern. It held, too, that
Hinduism was a misnomer for the ancient Persian idea. Ve-
danta, as the study was called, was really a philosophy with a
religious base. And the true object of human life was to unfold
and manifest the divinity of man and the universality of truth.
Within a few years, monks of the order had arrived in the
United States and established centers associated with the head-
quarters at Belur Math near Calcutta and the more than one
hundred other centers in the Far East. At some, members led a
purely contemplative life. Monks at others dealt with social
work and teaching.
A center was started in Hollywood in 1934 in a shingled

185
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

bungalow called Vivekananda Home. Within a few years a


small temple of Indian design was erected nearby.
Vedanta's appeal was to the intellectual. It remained con-
servative, withdrawn from the promotional fury, seemingly
unconcerned with growth. Membership dues were optional and
sach center was in charge of a swami.
It ignored social service in the Western world, holding that

"here the suffering is from spiritual rather than physical malnu-


trition." Too, there was no effort at conversion which was in-

compatible with the ideas of Vedanta.


With only three hundred members, it remains a tiny eddy in
the mainstream of Los Angeles cultism. Yet it grows steadily.
There is a monastery in Trabuco Canyon near Laguna Beach.
A church has been built in Santa Barbara with a convent.
Renunciants at the Ramakrishna Monastery, opened in
1949, seek "illuminated wisdom of God." They renounce the
world for "complete possessionless and detachment." When
they show the required qualities of self-effacement, thoughtful-
ness,cogency and devotion, they can become monks.
They lead a simple life on the 29 1 -acre establishment, arising
at 5:30 A.M., meditating, working and praying throughout the
in a small
day. They gather for vesper services each evening
burns before a pic-
chapel where a single perfumed joss stick
ture of the founder of the order. A saffron-robed swami gives
the benediction: "Peace, peace, peace . . ."

Vedanta remains contemplative and calm. Author Aldous


Huxley, who had been interested in the movement for many
years, says of it: ". . .
happily there is the Highest Common
Factor of the Perennial Philosophy, which has al-
all religions,

ways and everywhere been the metaphysical system of prophets,


saints and sages. It is perfectly possible for people
to remain
good Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and Moslems and yet to
unite in full agreement on the basic doctrines of the Perennial

Philosophy."
186
VEDANTA: "THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY"

Vedanta remains unique among Southern California relig-


ious efforts in that has seemingly tried to avoid growth. Not
it

so a very similar movement. For the Self-Realization Fellow-

ship was to find fulfillment in Southern California and become a


major cultic landmark.

187
Chapter

27

THE SELF-REALIZATION
FELLOWSHIP

IF the followers of Paramhansa Yogananda


needed proof that their Master was an exceptional soul, it came
with his death. He had passed into eternity after a heart attack
on March 7, 1952, while attending a banquet in Los Angeles.
Now, on May 1 1, they heard the amazing news. Morticians
at Forest Lawn Memorial Park said they had kept the body of
the Indian mystic for twenty days and during all that time it
had shown no signs of decay.
Asthe mortuary director explained it in an official letter
later: "The absence of any visual signs of decay in the dead body
of Paramhansa Yogananda offers the most extraordinary case
in our experience. . No physical disintegration was visible in
. .

this state of perfect


the body even twenty days after death . . .

preservation of a body is, so far as we know from mortuary an-

nals, an unparalleled one. ." . .

the mortuary arts lacked lore on such matters, religionists


If

did not. The phenomenal state of immutability had been noted


before. The body of St. John of the Cross, who died in 1591,
was exhumed in 1859 and found to be in a state of incorrupti-

188
THE SELF-REALIZATION FELLOWSHIP

bility. The body of St. Theresa, which lies in a church in Alba,

Spain, remained intransmutable for four centuries. Hindu writ-


ings tell of master yogas who reached such a state of physical
control and spiritual ascendency that they were able to leave
their bodies at will. Why not then the beloved Master and world
teacher?
Thesmiling and witty Hindu with the luminous eyes and
long, wavy hair first arrived in the United States in 1920 to
attend the International Congress of Religious Liberals in Bos-
ton. He had already founded his yoga movement in India by
then and now he stayed in the Western world to lecture and
form small study groups until in 1925 he settled in the City of
Psychopathic Angels.
He had been born in Gorakhpur, India, the son of a wealthy
railroad executive. After graduating from college, he decided

upon a spiritual life and went on to study under the famed guru,
SriYukteswar, and to join the monastic Swami Order in 1914.
Here he absorbed the wisdom of the ancients. In Los Angeles,
he announced that he was founding the world headquarters
of the Self -Realization Fellowship and that his mission was "to
lead people to God by expounding the truths of original yoga
and original Christianity and to show the underlying unity of all

religions."
He bought a once fashionable hotel atop Mt. Washington.
It had sixty rooms, landscaped grounds and tennis courts. Soon,
attracted by the now-famed Yogananda wit, charm and urban-

ity, local curiosity seekers began


to attend study sessions and
lectures.

They found more than the usual superficial "mysteries." The


movement had actually started in India in 1 85 1 It taught Kriya
.

Yoga, a system which "sensory tumult," hence per-


stilled the

mitted a student to achieve an ever-increasing identity with


"cosmic consciousness." As with all yoga, it is based on a sci-
entific union of concentration, meditation and exercise. The

189
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
Self a Reflection of God, exponents explain can consciously
realize the experience of blissful union with the Omnipresent

.Spirit by such meditation.


The Fellowship also recommended vegetarianism for achiev-
forces by direction of will and
ing good health by "utilizing life
and storing the life current and
assisting nature by generating
distributing it to all body tissues."
Indian mystics in flowing robes and with wondrous tales were
no oddities in Los Angeles in 1925. The theosophy stir had
crude opportunists to
brought scores of them, ranging from
famed holy men. There were lecturers who told of strange men
two hundred years old who lived in caves in the Himalayas in
states of heavenly bliss. Others told of ways to project one's

spirit toother planets, of the Electronic Principle of thinking,


of the music of the astral spheres. One yogi disenchanted his
followers with his lectures on an ancient Hindu method of per-

fecting complete memory control


when he kept losing his way
to the lecture hall.
than
Yogananda's initial appeal was his personality rather
his doctrine. But as he continued to tour and speak he formed
a hard core of devout followers.
His metaphysical approaches were jarring to folks nutured
on Calvin and Wesley. "All scriptures declare man to be not
a corruptible, but a living soul," he would explain. "The ancient
yoga teaching, through a specific technique termed Kriya
the
Sanskrit root of Kriya is kri, to do, to act, to react reveals a
is a method
way prove the scriptural truth. Specifically, Kriya
to
of connecting the life-force with cosmic energy; this can be
achieved only when bodily function is quiescent." He would
go on to explain how a sleeping man performs a yoga rite
and
how, with practice, the Westerner could develop the age-old
yoga techniques.
He taught reincarnation too. "Man's essential nature is Spirit;

he receives in sleep and also in death certain revivifying re-

190
THE SELF-REALIZATION FELLOWSHIP
minders of his incorporeity. Just as electricity does not die
when it is withdrawn from a light bulb, so man's life energy is

not annihilated when it retires from its temporary 'bulb' of


flesh at death.
one recognizes the divine law of cause and effect, the con-
"If

cept of reincarnation becomes an inescapable conclusion.


"Certain biblical passages reveal that the law of reincarna-
tion was understood and accepted in ancient times. For in-

stance, in Revelation 3 : 1 2 we
'Him that overcometh will
read :

I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no


more out.'

"Many yogis are known to have retained their self -conscious-


ness without interruption by the dramatic transition to and
"
from 'life' and 'death,' he would explain. "If man be solely
a body, its loss places the final period to identity. But if prophets
down the millenniums spoke truth, man is essentially of in-

corporeal nature. The persistent core of human egoity is only


temporary with sense perception.
allied
"Reincarnation cycles are a more logical explanation for
the different states of evolution in which man is found than is
the usual concept, which assumes that something conscious-
ness of egoity came out of nothing. Instead, is it not reason-
able to suppose that the Supreme Being gives his children an
infinite number of opportunities to reach that state of perfec-
tion: 'A pillar in the temple of God,' wherein they are ready
my
and capable of returning to their Home of Infinity?"
He talked, death as "not a blotting out of existence, a
too, of
final escape from life; nor is death the door to immortality. He
who has fled the joy of his immortal Self in earthly pleasures
will not recapture it amidst the gossamer charms of another
world. There he merely accumulates finer perceptions and more
sensitive responses to the beautiful and the good, which are
one."
The soft-spoken Hindu would look out over the tense faces
191
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
of the Anglo-Saxons. "It is on the anvil of this gross earth," he
would announce, "that struggling man must hammer out the

imperishable gold of spiritual identity."


Other curious and strange things came from the lips of the
man. One day he came from his afternoon's meditation with
news for his followers. He had news
just received the intuitive
that his old guru, Sri Yukteswar, would soon "be released from
earthly duties."
He left for India for a final visit with his teacher. As predicted,
the master yogi died shortly after.
The organization was by now a thriving one. For Yogananda
had indeed found a heavenly angel in 1932, a "typical hard-
headed American businessman."
He was James J. Lynn, a millionaire insurance executive and
industrialist from Kansas City.
Their meeting seemingly had been arranged by destiny.
Yogananda was speaking at the Kansas City Athenaeum one
wintery night when Lynn, driving by, decided to stop on im-
pulse. Writing of the event years later, he said that at the time
he was "one of those who thought of the Hindus as snake
charmers."
Yet, Lynn was strangely drawn, he recalled. He sat en-
tranced, listening to the sublime wisdom of the ancients. He
returned again the next night, and the next.
Yogananda walked up to him after the third lecture and an-
nounced to the puzzled businessman, "You have come!"
The meeting was what amounted to a religious experience.
Recalling it, Lynn said later: "My life at that time was business.
But my soul was sick and my body decaying and my mind was
disturbed. I was so nervous I couldn't sit still. After I had met

Yogananda and been with him a little while, I became aware


that I was sitting very still. I was motionless. I didn't seem to be
breathing. A deep white light appeared, seeming to fill the en-
tire room. I became part of that wondrous light." Later the two

192
THE SELF-REALIZATION FELLOWSHIP

fast friends were to decide that they'd been "disciple and guru"
in previous lives.
The farm boy from Louisiana with the Horatio Alger busi-
ness career behind him now set out to become a millionaire of

mysticism. He was an apt scholar. Yogananda explained: "Some


people say that Western man That is not true. I
can't meditate.
initiatedLynn met
shortly after I first him, and since then I
have never seen him when he was not inwardly communing
with God."
After his conversion, however, Lynn did not become a re-
cluse and don saffron robes. He continued to direct his empire.
His cronies and golf pals listened with bewilderment as he
talked of this new all-consuming interest. One associate ex-

plained that "his ideas were suggestive of a return to the sim-


plicity of Christianity in earlier times when people worshiped
in the forests."
And indeed that was where Lynn did worship. At dawn each
morning he would wander through his private park on his 1 20-
acre Kansas City estate. Neighbors were scandalized by the idea
of a solid local businessman being attracted by such "crackpot
nonsense."
Yet Lynn found what he sought. He wrote: "The teachings
offer something that does not depend on blind belief. In these

teachings one knows because he experiences."


He spent more time visiting at the Los Angeles headquarters,
and when Yogananda died at the age of sixty there was only one
logical candidate for succession: Lynn. "Physically, he was
perfectly attuned to yoga practice. Mentally, he was a genius.
Spiritually, he was far in advance of any of the other disciples
of the Master. He was the great American yogi," a follower ex-

plains today.
He had already helped the organization become secure finan-

cially. Now, he added, in addition to more ethereal


as leader,

qualities, a sound business touch which the gentle Yogananda

193
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
had lacked. In 1953 he gave the Fellowship a million dollars.
He had retired by then to a simple home in the California desert
where he spent the days meditating in seclusion. In 1955 he
died leaving another million dollars to the Fellowship as well
as securities which would assure revenue for years ahead.

Today's president is Sister Dayamata, a trim,


attractive

woman in her late forties. Raised a Mormon in Salt Lake City


Faye Wright, she joined the movement in 1930
as after she

was cured of a persistent skin ailment after hearing a Yogananda


lecture.
The Fellowship today claims an estimated 200,000 members
in the United States. A half hundred renunciants live atop Mt.
Washington. The print shop turns out a steady stream of lessons.
The Master's two books, Autobiography of a Yogi and Whispers
from Eternity are best-sellers year after year. There's a new

building for men renunciants, known as monks, called the


Rajasi Janakanada Ashram, Lynn's Indian
name.
Near the edge of the Pacific is the Lake Shrine, a park an
acre in size. Here tourists can view a life-sized statue of Christ,
a Golden Lotus archway and a quaint windmill and houseboat
which are actually residential quarters for the monks. There's
the Court of Religion, five concrete monoliths to which are
affixed the Cross of Christianity, a Star of David, a "Wheel of
Law" for Buddhism, a Star and Crescent for Islam and the
Sanskrit character "Aum" for the Infinite for Hinduism.

There's a Gandhi World Peace Memorial containing a portion


of the ashes of Gandhi's body. There's an artificial island
which serves as a bird refuge and also a sunken garden which
isgraced by a seated Buddha, a large ceramic blue elephant
and a limestone bust of the Madonna and Child.
The Fellowship also has the only authentic American "de-
scendant" of the Bo tree, the tree under which Buddha re-

putedly spent his years of meditation. The original tree in Gaya,


Nepal, was fully grown at the time of Buddha's birth in the sixth
194
THE SELF-REALIZATION FELLOWSHIP

century, B.C. Only shoots of the tree now survive. In the third

legend holds that King Asoka of India sent his


century, B.C.,
daughter to Ceylon to obtain cuttings from the roots of the
Bodhi, "The Tree of Enlightenment." This was planted in cen-
tral Ceylon and has grown for 2300 years.
There's also a retreat near San Diego for renunciants which
boasts a restaurant specializing in mushroomburgers, and an-
other restaurant in Hollywood which offers curry dishes.
The Fellowship continues its founder's original mission of
showing the unity of all faiths.
Two years ago it sponsored the visit to America of His Holi-
ness Sri Jagadguru Shankaracharya, the spiritual leader of mil-
lions of Hindus. It was the first time in the thousand-year his-

tory of the monastic order which he heads that a leader had


visited the West. He lectured at universities and colleges and
led a panel discussion with the historian Arnold Toynbee.
He showed, too, that Yogananda's vision of blending Eastern
mysticism with Western materialism was possible. For when
his native slippers wore out during the busy trip, His Holiness

stopped by a haberdashery. During his last days in the United


States, he sported jaunty red socks (without shoes), the proper
color for renunciants of high rank.
When he assumed the lotus position to talk of the deep
wonders of the Vedic scriptures, one could not help but note
the significant message stamped on one sock toe:
"Satisfaction Guaranteed or Money Refunded."

195
Chapter

28

MANKIND UNITED

WHILE strange beings roamed the high peaks


of California, others aided men from deep within the earth.
Arthur Bell, a prophet who looked like a matinee idol and
rolled out his vowels with the splendid eloquence of an old-time

Shakespearean actor, was to make contact with these subter-


ranean creatures near the end of the Depression. As Bell told
the story, in1875 an anonymous group of human beings had
contacted a race of little men with metallic heads who lived in
the center of the earth. This super race had told the humans
how to eradicate war and poverty. The knowledge had been
passed on by secret means to Bell. Now he was ready to
launch his attack against certain "hidden rulers" in mankind
who held back the promise of a world Utopia.
In 1934, he started Mankind United with headquarters in
Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Several thousand impoverished and elderly victims of the
Depression attended Bell's first mass rally, which had been pro-
moted for weeks before with garish ads and radio plugs.
They were told of the joyous prospects just ahead. Mankind
United, Bell explained, had been started to save the world. For
the past sixty years, he said, an "International Research Bureau"

196
MANKIND UNITED
had been perfecting "inventions" to prevent war and promote
productivity.
To set the vast change in motion, however, the organization
first needed two million dedicated members. When this
hap-
pened, Bell said, each member would be provided with a $25,-
000 home, have a four-day work week with a four-hour day
and all of mankind would be assured of a permanent income.
"Get friends, join now!" he ordered. "Prosperity is yours
now!"
In the weeks which followed, hundreds of the hopeful
poor started contributing their scarce dollars toward Bell's
vision and the new day in the future when world Utopia
would arrive. Bell, meanwhile, had scoured the history of every
Utopian commune and selected elements from each to dress up
his flaming speeches about the great future ahead. Within a

year, he claimed 250,000 followers throughout the world.


It was a propitious time. The slow wheels of economic re-

covery had only started to turn. The most frustrated, insecure


and desperate were still suffering. Bell appealed to their
disappointment in the status quo. Too, as with most cult move-
ments, there was the usual element of mystery. Certain tech-
niques and secret knowledge would create an "elect" group who
would rule the world. All those who had caused the Depression
and mankind's suffering would get their comeuppance. All
cultists would be tomorrow's elite.
As the cult grew, Bell looked out over the tired faces of his
flock and added new touches. No one would earn less than
$3000 a year, he said, and pensions of $250 a month would be
given to all those who worked 1 1,000 hours or reached the age
of sixty. Those fine homes, he added, would all have a radio, a
television set, "unlimited motion pictures" and one of Mankind
United's special inventions, an "automatic voice-tape corre-
spondence machine."
The elderly sat entranced as he rolled out the promises. The

197
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
homes would have special news and telephone recording equip-
ment, automatic air-conditioning and "outside fruit trees." Sur-
rounding each area of fine homes would be hot houses, vege-
table gardens, athletic courts, swimming pools, fountains and
shrubbery. And, for hot summer days, each home was to have
a rock grotto with a waterfall where the old folks could pause
of an afternoon to think the deep, long thoughts of the sunset

years.
The picture was all very nice, said some of the followers, but
who was going to do all the yard work?
Bureau had located "ten mil-
Bell replied that his Research
lion gardeners in China, Japan and certain countries in Europe"
who were waiting and anxious to come to America and spend
gardening for Mankind United.
their lives
Within a few years, some 14,000 Californians all but a

few, elderly immigrants from the Midwest were devoted fol-


lowers of the silver-voiced cultist. Unlike most prophets, he
sidestepped associate his mysteries with religion.
all efforts to

It was a cult of "mankind." Followers were asked to go to their

own churches and bring new members, those who also wanted
to hurry the day of world Utopia.
As membership grew, Bell began to organize a maze of affili-
ated organizations. The Universal Service Corporation, the In-
ternational Institute of Universal Research and the Interna-
Legion of Vigilantes came into being. Dimes and dollars
tional
came in each mail to help build these organizations toward the
magic day when two million members would automatically
bring eternal peace and plenty.
Bell told his flock of inventions his secret research teams had
perfected. There was a ray machine so powerful that if its

beam was released it would "knock the eyeballs out of people


thousands of miles away." There was a rain machine which
would make possible power plants which could "destroy a mil-
lion people in a single blast."

198
MANKIND UNITED
Authorities began to investigate as disenchanted members
started pleading to get their money back. Bell was called be-
fore a state legislative committee. The debonair cult leader was

ready with new revelations. He told the committee that he could


go into a trance and be whisked anywhere in the world. "Once I
went to sleep in San Francisco and woke up aboard a British
merchant vessel in the middle of the Atlantic," he explained.
Such public pronouncements by Bell did not scandalize his
followers. The wily leader knew what he was about. The cult
was now more than seven years old. The dilettantes and curious
had deserted. Remaining was a hard core of the most frustrated
and faithful. Too, the peculiar law unique to all cult movements
was fast at work: the more money, time and effort a cultist de-
votes to his Cause, the less concerned he is with the tenets and
beliefs of the Cause. Bell's followers, by now, were so immersed
in their dream and its fulfillment that he could have announced
he was the Devil Incarnate and they'd have accepted it blandly.
His appeal, shaped by trial and error, was by now similar to
the Mighty I Am. He stressed the gifts of "energy" and "power"
to his elderly followers who had lost or never had had either.

He talked constantly of material wealth, luxury and a life of


ease. There was a goal, the magic day when unknown enemies
were eliminated by magic formulas and special knowledge,
and the new dawn would then arrive. Both cults dwelt on
strange, unseen forces at work and "hidden" rulers
who stood
in the way of success. Both had their special threats of violence.
Bell was talented in keeping alive the feeling of persecution
and revolt. "The middle classes of people, who have always
constituted the backbone of every nation," he would telt his
followers, "have been held in bondage throughout the centuries,
primarily because of the fact that they have been penny-wise
and pound-foolish in devoting their full time to performing the
world's work, and in taking so little time for ascertaining the
reasons for their ceaseless bondage."

199
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
Whenever there was a decline in interest, Bell would make
new promises. At one time he assured all new members that
they'd receive $30,000 within ten years. At other meetings he
also outlined plans for free education, free training in the new
universal language Mankind United's "inventors" were con-
it was
triving and free world travel to use the language once
learned.
Crisis came for the handsome entrepreneur with the begin-
nings of World War II when he was classified 1-A in the draft.
Bell took to the platform in a wild fury. President Roosevelt
was an international banker, he said, and a "fathead" to boot.
He explained that the hidden rulers sat around a table in Lon-
don planning tricks, so Germany would lose one day and
Britain the next.
When asked the name of his employer on his draft papers he
wrote "God." He advised his followers to give him their money
rather than buy war bonds.
Now the government struck out, claiming Bell owed $267,-
198 in back taxes. He was found guilty and in April 1943 was
charged again, along with fifteen of his bureau managers, with
conspiracy to violate the wartime espionage statutes. Witnesses
told of his drinking a toast on the day of Pearl Harbor.
Slow decay began to set in. An elderly woman filed suit ask-
ing for the return of $6500 she said she'd given Bell. He had
promised her a four-hour-a-day job, she said, and also a ride in
his secret airplane.Now he had told her that the plane was cruis-
ing in the stratosphere, she sobbed, and that she would starve if
she insisted on wanting her money back when Mankind United
took over the world for a thirty-day "re-evaluation and educa-
tion" program in the near future. When
the disenchanted lady
said she'd heard such threats before, he replied that he now had
a machine which could "stop all the electricity in the world."
Others came with tales. For years they'd been paying two
dollars weekly dues and a series of special twenty-dollar as-

200
MANKIND UNITED
sessments to hasten the day of prosperity. They'd also been
promised special attachments for their radios, they said, which
would warn them when their D-Day was to come and "the mys-
terious forces ofMankind United were to be put into motion."
But the money had been collected and spent. In February
1 944 an
investigation showed that Bell's wife had bought more
than one million dollars' worth of property in Los Angeles alone.
It was claimed, too, that some three million dollars had been

collected during the past decade.


The mass exodus began as embittered cultists filed actions
for return of their money. By now Bell was on trial for sedition.
He was convicted. A few months later while Bell appealed
the case the state deprived Bell of management of his
"church" and announced that commercial assets were valued at
$3,600,000.
No one had really known until now where the torrent of
money had gone. Bookkeepers tried to unravel the cleverly
contrived snarl of vast financial holdings. There were dairies,
hotels, sawmills, resident lots and resorts. There was even a fish
hatchery, bought for the day when every cultist would have his
own trout stream.
Within a few months the vocal Bell was in jail for contempt
of court. Bankruptcy proceedings started.
A few of the faithful still clung to their dream of an economic
Judgment Day. At the cult's "theological seminary" in San
Francisco a few old and disabled "students" could not believe
the Leader had fallen. When bankruptcy officials arrived, they
barred the doors. It was all "a wild goose story," they gasped.
Police had to break down the doors to lead away the whimper-
ing old people who had given Bell their savings.
Bell's lawyers, meanwhile, had claimed illegal search and
seizure on the sedition charge. But he lost this action in May
1947. Later the sedition charge was to be reversed when a
United States circuit court ruled that women had been elimi-

201
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
nated from the jury and, hence, it was not truly representative
of the community.
In August 1949 the cult was officially dissolved.
Mankind United was a unique experiment in cultism. While
itdwelt on the theme of the supernatural, it avoided challeng-
ing established theology. It had elements of Fabian socialism,
technocracy, and the idealistic attempts at philosophical com-
munes. The little men with the metal heads, who had passed
on their secret knowledge, must have been most disappointed.
And so were the cultists even the ones who eventualy got their
television sets on easy payment plans.

202
Chapter

29

JOE JEFFERS

IT was a warm summer night in 1938. The bil-

lowy ladies in flowered frocks sat fanning themselves with


pamphlets and palm fans on the hard pews of the Kingdom
Temple in Los Angeles, discussing their mutual martyrdom to
the thermometer.
The lights went on, spotlighting the pulpit, and a hush fell.

The ladies stirred anxiously.


Then the minister stepped out with raised arms. He was a
grinning little gargoyle of a man dressed in a powder blue suit
and blue suede shoes.
"Peace!" he cried in a soft Southern accent.
"Peace!" echoed the faithful.
The one-time Baptist preacher-turned-actor, and now an
evangelist, stood smiling wistfully at his flock as ushers passed
the plates.
Quickly the love offering was tabulated. JeSers had a hurried
conference with his associates, then walked grimly to the pulpit.
"Now I'm gettin' out of here," he shouted angrily. "I told
you before Ineeded more money for expenses and radio time.
I ain't preachin' until I get six hundred dollars tonight!"
The little preacher stomped out amidst the audible sobbing
of his flock.

203
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
A hurried conference was held by his parishioners. They
didn't have enough money. But they agreed to sign pledges and
get together within the next twenty-four hours.
it

An associate reported to Jeffers, who stood in the back alley


pouting. He agreed to return and emerged again on the stage
amidst the grateful sighs of the ladies.

Such stormy and flamboyant methods by the Reverend Joe,


who was idolized and revered with all the ardor of teen-age
girls by the predominantly middle-aged and elderly women
who gathered about him, were expected.
He graced those who were generous with soft and meaning-
ful glances, special blessings and a smile.
But his sermons! They soothed and comforted like the sweet
voice of Frank Sinatra. They played delicately on the heart-
strings and forgotten hopes and dreams. Every woman was,
for those few brief moments of ecstasy, a movie queen, a beauti-
ful princess.
Before his carefully stacked and carelessly handled tem-
ple of cards came tumbling down, he was to collect an esti-
mated two million dollars, be the protagonist in one of the most
flamboyant court cases in a city where flamboyant court cases
are commonplace, and finally be repudiated and scorned
by the flock he had once controlled.
His background remains dim. He was once a Baptist min-
ister in Texas, some say. In court hearings it emerged that he

had studied acting at a cheap Hollywood drama school. There


were vague references in his sermons to times spent in New
York, Chicago and southern towns.
He was scarcely literate, yet knew the hidden power of words
and their emphasis better than any professor of speech. He
could deftly modify his theology to meet the needs of the mo-
ment like a skilled tactician at the Council of Trent. Starting
out with fire-and-brimstone fundamentalism he orbited to wild-
eyed touches of theosophy and on to the stars and astrology. But

204
JOE JEFFERS

through it all his faithful were with him. Alternately sophisti-

cated and boyish, kind and angry, he was their hero, their lover,
their guide.
Jeffers' great crisis came in the spring of 1939. Rumors had

reached the authorities that he was with increasing frequency


preaching and expounding Nazism. Meanwhile the more staid
denominations were outraged at the stories of Jeffers' methods
of fund-raising, his heretical preaching, his techniques of lur-
ing the gullible and lonely.
Two were ordered to check Jeffers' doings.
investigators
They uncovered not what they expected, but certainly some-
thing more exciting.
Suddenly his flock read that their beloved spiritual leader
had been picked up for staging erotic parties in his apartment!
There was rage, then sorrow. Jeffers himself took the matter
blandly. He was, he explained before the case reached court,
simply a victim of Hollywood powers. He had preached "that
the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic people are a continuation of the race
"
called in the Bible 'the chosen people.' Hence the Jews were
after him.
At the initial hearing, Jeffers arrived with his wife. He was
followed by a retinue of the faithful waving American flags
and singing hymns. He and his wife were charged with "immoral
acts" before witnesses, including one of the district attorney's
investigators. The cleric answered with a privacy fight and
pleaded "Not guilty." His attorney set out to pick a shock-proof
jury.
The began, Jeffers claiming a frame-up for criticizing
trial

the "Hollywood Jews." Outside the courtroom on the first day


the followers sang "Onward, Christian Soldiers" and waved
flags as the little prophet and his wife entered.
The witnesses were a beauty operator and the investigator.
The story unraveled: after a few drinks Jeffers and his wife per-
formed this immoral act in front of the couple. What was more,

205
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
there were recordings to hear the goings-on! The investigator
on the stand shyly admitted he was "just a schoolboy" about
what he'd seen that fateful eve.

By then hundreds were jamming the halls of the courthouse,


clawing for a peek or to hear a bit of the juicy testimony.
The investigator told how he'd won the friendship of the
Jeffers couple aftermoving into the apartment. Mrs. Jeffers, a
lithe beauty, wore red satin pajamas around the building, he
explained, and he'd started talking with her.
The night of the party there had been champagne. Then, he
said, he'd been shown indecent photos and had said he didn't
know about such things. "Maybe you need a teacher," giggled
Mrs. Jeffers. Joe had agreed.
As the lurid testimony went on, Joe and his wife sat clasping
hands. Jeffers would sometimes pause to read a passage from
his nearby Bible.
Then Jeffers' wife suddenly confessed that she'd once en-

gaged in intimacies with another man in her husband's presence


and he had taken part in a sexual act with three women while
she looked on. This confession was soon repudiated, however,
and Jeffers and his wife told how they'd been drugged by a
powder the investigator had given them. She had gone to the
bedroom to rest, she said, and suddenly there was a mob of
people. That was all she remembered.
"I have preached against the Communist Jews who are trying

war," Jeffers explained. "I am being framed."


to get us into
In the days that followed, witnesses told of Jeffers' apart-
ment being a place where whiskey and champagne bottles were
plentiful. Records were played of the intimate conversations
held there. As the last of the testimony came in, some two
hundred of Jeffers followers chanted hymns. The jury filed out.
Jeffers was faced with one to fifteen years in prison. After
eleven hours the jury announced that Jeffers was not guilty.

206
JOE JEFFERS

The crowd sang "Onward, Christian Soldiers" again and Jeffers


stood triumphant on the steps before his flock.
"God bless all the Jews," he shouted.
"Amen!" cried the faithful.
"God bless the Catholics," he shouted.
"Amen!" cried the faithful.
"God bless everyone," he said, waving the Bible.

"Everyone! Amen!" cried the ladies.


A woman fell to the pavement and rolled hysterically, yelling,
"Messiah! Messiah!"
The could have ruined lesser ministers. But the follow-
trial

ing day, Jeffers preached to overflow crowds.


"I'm going to expose the facts behind the countless thousands
of casting victims in Hollywood," he yelled, "the victims of the
motion picture business." He went on to accuse an official at
the studios of rigging the "frame-up."
He said that the "Communist papers of Hollywood" were
after him. In the months that followed, his congregation grew.
He went in and out of the courts each week on various matters.
There was the problem of state income tax. "Routine," he
of a "cosmic faith
shrugged. He appeared to sing the glories
healer" who was on trial and claimed 100,000 followers by
now including radio listeners throughout the world, Almost
as an he told his flock one day that he could predict the
aside,
future. A trial in which Jeffers was accused of having a "Pan-
dora's box" of Nazi spy secrets erupted and died. Then in July
1943 his wife filed suit for divorce. She said his income was
$1500 a month. Almost an afterthought, she said community
as
of gas, $3000 worth of
property included five hundred gallons
groceries and thirteen tires. The
OPA authorities moved in on
the constantly besieged little prophet.
Jeffers arrived at the divorce hearing. He slept on the base-

ment floor of the temple, he said wistfully as his flock, pack-

207
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

ing the courtroom, sobbed. He was without worldly goods.


Where was the money he had collected over the years? Did
he have any stock?
"Two or three million, all laid away in the Kingdom," he
said.
The Kingdom, he added, was on the planet Orion. He
wouldn't leave the state until things were straightened out, he
said, except that he was after all "a child of Yahweh, the Crea-
tor, who directs my daily moves."
Almost immediately he was hit by a previous wife for non-
payment of alimony. The Great Spirit had directed him not to
pay her, he told the Judge.
By now the tangle of suits were like a legal swamp. A couple
accused him of talking them into selling their house for $3800
and giving him the money to build a New Jerusalem. But mean-
while he had disappeared in an auto belonging to his wife, Joy.
He was picked up and sent to prison for violating the Dyer Act.
Now he was through, for sure, his critics said.
But they did not reckon with the wily little preacher. He came
out and a few years later had gathered the faithful about him
once again. The Temple was gone. But there were chicken
coops. And in 1 947 Jeff ers started preaching in them.
Then suddenly, as if Jeffers had made a trip to his secret
fortune on his planet Orion, he announced plans to buy a
mansion.
It was on five acres, had cost one million to build, had thirty-

two rooms and included an indoor swimming pool, acres of


terraced gardens, tapestries, hand-painted wallpaper and im-
ported paneling.
"It will do," Jeffers said grandly, "as temporary headquar-
ters." He went onto outline plans to utilize the gardens as a

"co-operative truck garden" while neighbors in Los Angeles'


Laurel Canyon fumed.
He also planned, he said, to build a mysterious laboratory

208
JOE JEFFERS
and a large observatory on the grounds. "Our belief is related
to the stars in a biblical connection," he told reporters. "We
believe the stars foretell future events. Orion is of particular
interest to us that's where I keep the Yahweh fortune and
it the constellation Taurus, which
is is the headquarters of
Yahweh, the Creator."
In new pastel flannel suits, Jeffers lolled about his new re-
treat with his flock of chirping ladies and week
spoke each to
thousands in a downtown auditorium.
But he was just beginning. He announced plans for an atom-
bomb refuge in the desert near Palm Springs. Los Angeles, he
said, would be bombed within two years and the British Isles

completely sunk within five. The haven would be known as the


Garden of Paradise, he said, and just for fun he'd invented
a bee comb. "It saves the bees the time of making their own so
they'll produce more honey for us," he explained.
By now the neighbors were howling about zoning laws and
demanding that Jeffers and his lady followers be moved.
accustomed to law suits, merely shrugged. He told
Jeffers,
his followers thathe expected such persecution. "I am the re-
incarnation of Noah," he announced, "that poor little old coun-
try preacher who warn the people about the flood."
tried to
A-bombs weren't was going to hit the West Coast, he
all that
told one columnist. He fingered a radio dial significantly and
hinted that, through the instrument, he got news of the future.
"A major upheaval is going to wipe out the West Coast," he
said ominously. "I have a way of keeping ahead of the times."
His annoying ex-wife was back again for her alimony. In
court Jeffers showed the $1.53 he had in his pocket. "The rest
of the money is on Orion, capital of the universe," he told the

judge. The zoning authorities moved in. They searched the


mansion after reports of wild parties. Jeffers wasn't there, fol-
lowers said. He was visiting Orion.
He came to court a few days later to answer the charges. Had
209
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
he really been on Orion? "Not this time. I was in hospitals visit-
his congregation stood in the
ing the sick," he replied. Again
corridors chanting hymns. As he left he raised an arm. "Yah-
weh, peace to you," he shouted. His followers cheered.
But the authorities had a trick. He was picked up for viola-
tion of parole. served only fifteen months of the four-
He had
started for prison.
year sentence for the old charge. Again he
But before he did he warned his flock by reading from Isaiah:
"Get into the caves and the rocks," he intoned. "Hide in the
holes in the ground away from the terror of the eternal."
His interest in his atomic bomb haven was well founded. By
the next day the suits were being filed. One disenchanted fol-
lower wanted the $10,000 back he claimed he'd given Jeffers
for eternal care. "I worked as a gardener for fifty-eight weeks
and then Joe kicked me out," he whined.
As changed garb to dull denim and hung his powder
Jeffers
blue suit in moth balls, the widows and faithful started the hue
and cry for their money back. One elderly lady had given him
$10,000, she said. Another had donated $20,000, she said,
which Joe told her he'd stored on the star Orion. Where was

the $5000, asked another, for the A-bomb haven he had prom-
ised to build just for her? A plumber wanted $5000 for the
repairs at the mansion.
The Temple followers still remaining filed bankruptcy,
claiming a debt total of $100,000. More suits deluged in
against the onetime prophet.
Joe started to serve his sentence. But the old mansion was
no sooner vacant than a new buyer moved in. She was a bosomy
woman who wore green eyeshadow and had bright-green dyed
hair. An eccentric, perhaps, sighed neighbors, but at least we're
rid of those cultists.
A few days later she called in reporters. "I am the Green
Virgin," she announced. "And I have come to save mankind!"
But still Jeffers was not through.
210
JOE JEFFERS
He moved on to Arizona after being released from federal
prison in Florida.
Today, his "Kingdom of Yahweh" is still alive in Phoenix.

And, again, the Reverend Joe is storming the citadel of con-

servative beliefs. He is exposing "the lie of the virgin birth." He


has found "secret documents" to verify the Old Testament name
for God, "Yahweh." He has found, too, the secret of ancient

healing miracles. Jesus, he is sure, had a wife. Christ was born


some fifty years before the recorded time. Christ did not die
on the Cross but went to live in the Orient, and Jeffers says "we
know where his body is."

Jeffers is also in touch these days with Masters on the planet


Orion who reveal things to come through a beautiful girl me-
dium. He can predict the next president, when food prices will
go higher, about earthquakes and tell the truth behind the flying
saucers. Too, he has a book for sale for just two dollars titled
How to Prophesy, Predict and Speak, which tells others the
meaning of dreams, how meat-eating affects spirit work and
other mysteries. He recently announced that Stalin is still run-
ning Kremlin policy from "over there." Friday has become his
followers' Sabbath.
Little Joe Jeffers' beliefs vary. But on one matter he is
may
firm. "Yahweh has told us that the Messiah did not teach the
sexless, moronic, eunuch ideas," he writes. "Some religious
leaders and laymen have been so unsuccessful in their own love
life, they try to retire into some of these sexless cults, that are

twice as bad as the night clubs, the dance halls and the motion
pictures."

211
Chapter

30

KRISHNA VENTA

KRISHNA VENTA lived, and died, in the grand


tradition of leading California cultists. He was a figure of para-
dox, contradiction and mystery.
The be-robed and barefooted messiah arrived by airplane in
Los Angeles in 1949. With him was his wife Ruth, wearing
clothes of the style of biblical days. He
carried a huge press
book and showed waiting reporters clippings from his tri-
umphant tour through Europe. As he stood on the steps of the
airplane, he looked down on the assembled newsmen and ex-
plained simply "I may as well say it. I am 'Christ!" But there
was an ignoble touch to that first entrance which took away
from the glory and excitement. The skunk at the lawn party
was a small girl who had been with the new Christ and wife on
the airplane. While he tried to explain the importance of his
mission to the world, she kept pointing at his bare feet and com-
menting, "Mama says he has athlete's foot!"
However, Krishna Venta did tell the world a number of im-
portant things that spring day.
"In Rome ten thousand people met me. I had a police escort.
Mothers held their babies in the crowd waiting for my bless-
ing!" Had he had an audience with the Pope? "No, the Pope

212
KRISHNA VENTA
was too busy to see me," he said curtly. But he did go on to
mention that this was not his first trip to the Eternal City. About
600 A.D. he had been the honored guest of Pope Leona, he
said, hinting that papal manners had declined in the last 1400
years.
The reporters began to bait him. How
had he obtained a
birth certificate for a passport if he were that old?

"Well, now, I'll tell you," he drawled. "I used a passport


issued in the name of Frank Pencovic. He was a boy who dis-

appeared in San Francisco at the age of three."


Did the government know this? "What do I care? I'm a
citizen of the world," he replied. On that memorable day, re-

porters also told him that Caltech technicians said that there
was a possibility of an earthquake. Did he have any views on
this? He leered knowingly. "You don't have to be a prophet to
know that," he said.
As he walked away that day, the little girlpointed an accus-
ing finger at him and said, "Mama says to be careful of him.
He's got a bad case of athlete's foot!"
In the months to come, Krishna Venta made a series of head-
lines. He claimed 145,000 followers at this time. Within a few

months after his arrival he was in jail for nonsupport of two


minor children by his first wife. But, a few months later, in
July 1 949, motorists were startled to see Krishna and his crew
of barefoot cultists, wearing robes and long hair and beards, di-

recting traffic after a plane wreck at the Box Canyon border.


The cult itself had found this isolated area north of Los An-
geles and built a few rude shelters. It was named the Fountain
of the World. The only requisite for joining was to live by the
Ten Commandments and learn Krishna Venta's teachings. The
followers went through a three-month probationary period,
then signed an article of intention giving all earthly goods to
the communal group. Krishna, meanwhile, was everywhere. He
returned from a junket to Chicago muttering that press agents

213
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
were too damned expensive there and saying the Chicagoans
were "cool" to him.
The first annual convention of the Fountain of the World
group was held March 29, 1953. Members celebrated Easter,
Christmas and the New Year in one three-day service and also
initiated members into the Aaronic priesthood. Meanwhile the
cultists themselves had become figures in many a scene of

tragedy in California. They fought fires. When Bakersfield was


devastated by earthquake, Krishna Venta and his group ap-
peared to help. Again, when floods struck nearby Ventura, his
group arrived and helped the sufferers.
From where did this bearded leader emerge? No one is quite
sure. He was forty-seven, records show, and his real name was
Francis Pencovic (aliases Frank Jensen, Frank Christopher,
Frank Hiendswatzer), part-time boilermaker in San Francisco.
He had had a number of arrests at various times. He had been
picked up in 1941 for writing threatening letters to President
Roosevelt, but was later released. He was sentenced to nine
months in Santa Paula in 1942 for issuing fictitious checks,
placed on three years' probation and later sent to the state
mental hospital at Stockton for observation. There were also a
variety of other charges ranging from nonsupport of children,
panhandling and begging to the theft of food.
He outraged some of the more conservative clergymen of
Southern California when he re-enacted, for the public, the
Crucifixion. In the drama he carried a huge cross made by
two followers from a discarded telephone pole to the top of
a high peak near the cult headquarters. Here he was tied to the
cross as dawn broke, and with a crown of thorns tied to his
head he uttered the words of Christ on the cross. In 1954 he
and his followers popped up at the Army-McCarthy hearings
in Washington, D.C.
He was a prime attraction when he and his five "apostles"
214
KRISHNA VENTA

arrived in the crowded hearing rooms. He told reporters he


was bitterly opposed to McCarthy. "The three Joes have been
causing all the trouble," he lamented.
"What Venta scratched
three Joes," asked reporters. Krishna
his head. "Why, Joe McCarthy and Joe Stalin," he said.
"And who else?" asked reporters. He paused, meditating for
a moment.
"Why, Tojo!" he said triumphantly.
That same year he was again in the news when several dis-
illusioned followers complained that he had taken $2900 of the
communal money. He had appeared in Las Vegas at about this
time and, wearing his robes and smoking fine cigars, had been
a heavy loser at the crap tables. On January 8, 1956, he went
to jail in Oakland on a child support charge and his followers

picketed the jail. They carried huge signs which proclaimed,


"Penalized for lifelong dedication to God." He was soon out,
but back again in a few months on the same old charge of child
support. No sooner had his attorneys temporarily solved this
problem than he was sued for $4300 in back rent for the Box
Canyon property. He resolved this, only to be hauled into court
again in Ventura and ordered to pay $50 a month each
for the

support of his two sons by the former marriage. He appealed


and it was ruled that he did not have to increase his support of
$20 each month, as the judge had ordered. (An interesting dis-
sent was filed by one judge at the time of the appeal, which
could set a precedent on communal cult operations. Said the
judge: "Any father can enter a religious cult where property is
owned communally and escape payment for support of chil-
dren.")
By fall of that year Venta was ready to look for greener pas-
tures. He announced plans to move to the Kenai Peninsula in
Alaska with 140 followers. homestead claims and
Cultists filed

made a theological change by announcing that they would wear


215
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
shoes in the twenty-degree-below-zero winters they could ex-
pect in this area but would go without shoes in the Alaskan
summers.
Their simple creed was clear for all to understand. It stated
simply that one should love one's fellow man and do good
works. His devoted followers, eccentric as they were in appear-
ance, were soon greatly respected for their efforts during calam-
ities in Southern California. They seemed to be everywhere:

walking about in brush fires in their bare feet; aiding victims of

the various crises which struck in mountain, desert and sub-


urban areas.
In theBox Canyon headquarters, a hierarchy had been set
up. The Master wore robes of yellow. Green was for the stu-
dents, blue indicated that the cultists could administer medi-
cine, brown was for the kitchen help, gray for those willing to
take responsibility. The men and boys never shaved. By now
Krishna Venta had announced his acceptance of belief in re-
incarnation. Cultists were told that their belief was a "do-it-
yourself theology. They must search for divine guidance alone,
even though the Master would help as he could.
He explained that he had no age: "Since time started I have
been with the world. Since the beginning." While he claimed
thousands of followers, there were only thirty-five people living
in the isolated area in 1956. Amid mammoth boulders and oak

trees, a clutter of small houses had been built. Behind the area
was a huge cliff. The colonists raised goats and poultry, al-
though they seldom ate meat. The branch in Alaska was thriv-
ing by now. There were 120 cultists hard at work and they
were known as "The Barefoot People."
Here, as in California, they were noted for their good works
and respected, odd as they were, by other settlers in the isolated
area.
Then at 2 A.M. on the morning of December 7, 1958, tragedy
struck in California. A mighty explosion ripped the main build-
216
KRISHNA VENTA

ing of the tiny colony and fires rent the area. The force of the
explosion was so terrific that buildings in the entire colony were
demolished. As the smoke cleared, was found that the beloved
it

leader and anumber of the cultists were gone. For an hour no


one could quite make out what had happened. Then, slowly,
information began to collect.
Yet when the entire story was in, the Master was shrouded
in even more mystery than ever before.
The explosion had ripped ten human bodies including
Krishna into disconnected bits of flesh. And the district at-
torney in Los Angeles announced that, two days before, two
former cultists, Peter Kamenoff, forty-two, and Ralph Muller,
thirty-three, had appeared to claim that Venta systematically
had had illicit sex relations with female cultists, including girls
under the legal age of consent. They further charged that he
had tried to sanctify some of these affairs with legal marriage
ceremonies. They said, too, that he practiced medicine without
a license, allowing sick cult members to die from lack of medi-
cal attention. As
police pieced the story together, on the night
of the blast, these two disaffected cultists had gone to meet
Venta and taken with them twenty high-potency sticks of dyna-
made into a crude time bomb.
mite in a case
They had tried to intimidate Venta into a public confession
of the malpractices of which they accused him. When he

haughtily refused, they set off the charge, tearing themselves


and their enemy to bits, killing seven innocent people, and in-
juring others who had been sleeping in the totally demolished
brick building.
This, were true, would have been weird enough, but no
if it

stranger than some other mystical cult doings. The trouble was,
many of Venta's followers denied the whole affair. There was
even talk that Venta had not died in the blast but was still alive.
Identification of the dead was based mainly on dental records.
Some said that he had left his bridgework near his bed and fled

217
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
before the blast took place. There was also the charge that $ 1 0,-
000 belonging to the organization vanished at the time of the
blast and nobody seems to know what happened to it. The two
murderers had told the district attorney that whenever they had
gone to fight forest fires, Krishna had picked one of his sister
disciples to sleep with him in an auto. Venta had a simple, non-
religious explanation for this behavior, they added. He said he
was cold-blooded and therefore needed someone to keep him
warm. Meanwhile Mother Ruth, his wife, came to his defense
when she claimed that sixty cult members were ready to swear
with her that he was "a misunderstood man of high moral
value." Then one of Venta's six children, an eleven-year-old

boy, insisted that he had seen the Master in the nearby hills,
badly injured, after the blast. The boy was quickly shushed by
Mother Ruth before he could give any of the details of this
encounter, or vision, as the case may be.
In the days following, the remaining colonists knelt in the
charred ruins to pray. His wife told investigators that Krishna
himself had predicted eighteen years ago that he would be cre-
mated in 1958. "Do not use the word dead," she cautioned. "He
is the Christ and we do not believe in death." She went on to

say that Krishna's "original body" was probably in Meta Verde


Valley, at the foot of Mount Everest. She was tearless as she
told all this.
Mother Ruth became president of the seven acting apostles
as the cultists started rebuilding. He would return in two years
and unite cell by cell, she said. Meanwhile the group would
carry on. Without tears or sorrow, they buried the charred body
which they claimed was Krishna Venta.
The day after the
bombing, the daily thought for the day
was tacked on the bulletin board of the decimated area. It read
"You are a two-fold being, one material, and the other spiritual.
Which one do you wish to serve? For in serving two masters
your house becomes divided."

218
KRISHNA VENTA

And so, today, the cultists await their beloved Krishna, man
of mystery. Charlatan or prophet, he had left behind a group
of devoted and sincere followers, this tall, Christ-like figure
who had, at one time, handed out dollar bills on Broadway
marked "Money is the root of all evil." Who had been thrown

out of the lobby of the Claridge Hotel in London. Who liked


fine luggage and cigars. Who claimed to have no navel, and to
have visited the world 163,000 years ago.
In front of the gutted ruins where tragedy struck, there stands
a sign: "Love One Another Serve One Another." Some thirty-
five cultists live by their motto: "To be positive, creative, con-
structive in all we think and do." They believe that love is the

strongest force on earth and greet strangers with "We love


you." Each day a team of six women canvasses for donations
door to door. Twice a day cultists hold "concentration" periods.
During this session they recall the rules: "Forget the outside
world . . Become familiar with the inside workings of one's
.

self . . . Become unified with one another spiritually, mentally


and physically Forget self, forget selfish desires
. . . Create . . .

a desire within one's self toward higher spiritual equality . . .

Obtain wisdom, search for truth, keep an open mind Search . . .

for understanding in all things . Face problems


. . without
thought of escape . . . Become absorbed in love of all things,
seen and unseen, and so fulfill the laws of God . . . Become
teachers, not of the world, but in the World Fountain, that all
men who come out of the world shall find comfort in our midst."
Sometimes their prayers in the remote canyon are drowned
out when a nearby rocket-testing installation sends missiles
roaring in tests. At such times they all stand quietly, pa-
tiently waiting for this intrusion from the outside world to end,
then start softly chanting once again, "Love one another love
one another . . ."

219
PART V

Racial Cultism
Chapter

31

NEGRO CULTS

IT is A numbed and hungry young


1748.
Senegalese warrior liesmanacled in rusty irons in the dark hold
of the rolling four-master. All around him are other black cap-
tives sold into slavery by tribal leaders or captured by Arab
raiders. There is an overpowering stench of waste and death.
He knows only puzzlement, pain and fear. Ahead? Nothing
that he can comprehend. Dimly he recalls the witch doctor and
his charms in the distant native village. He thinks of the great

god "Vodu," of the initiation rites into snake worship he ex-


perienced as a child. But there is no help from incantation or
"gris-gris" here. He is lost with his companions in the swelling
seas of the chill Atlantic.
The West Indies slave ships which began to raid the African

Slave Coast after 1724 brought back with them not only car-
culture and
goes of human energy for the fields but a primitive
a magic faith.
They brought, too, a gnawing frustration which, more than
two hundred years later, survives.
Voodoo in the West Indies was to serve as the base which
was to blend with Roman Catholicism and, later, Protestant

concepts. This curious theological alchemy


was eventually to

223
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
meet once again with various ethnic movements and give dis-
tinct flavor to Negro cultism.

Negro cults today are viewed with amusement or indulgent


curiosity by outsiders. Generally these observers consider a

Negro cult as simply the result of a clever black "prophet"


hoodwinking a tiny segment of the American Negro population.
It is more. These cults are an expression of the growing

restlessness of a people in search of social identity. Too, Negro


cults are a revolution against formal Christianity an alien
faith which many Negro cultists feel was forced upon their
forefathers. A Negro cult is, above all, a fresh creation a
break from imitating "white" religion.
The first slaves knew nothing of Christianity. And slave-
holders discouraged any efforts to indoctrinate them. After all
they were really only beasts of burden and hardly subject to
Christ's injunctions.
But a people without hope must, and will, find it. The
Negroes did. It was to be their own concept of Christianity
which placed, quite naturally, a heavy emphasis on the world
to come rather than on the vale of tears of this earth. With the

coming of the Methodists and Baptists, the slaves were to find


an expressive Christianity which was their own. They wor-
shiped apart and gave the Christian faith touches of their own
frustrations and problems.

Today, still another "church" is rising among the Negro


people of all denominations. For they are sloughing off the
old emphasis on the beautiful world to come. They are showing
a growing militancy toward the problems of here and now.

They are meeting head on the procrastinations of the whites.


But such advance within the framework of staid denomina-
tions is not enough for some. Negro cults offer quicker action
and more specific answers to the Negro's overpowering prob-
lem, racial discrimination. This quest takes some curious forms.
Father Divine's Peace Mission meets it by emphasizing the

224
NEGRO CULTS
lack of race consciousness. Elizah Mohammed and his Muslims
preach what isbasically the white supremacists' viewpoint.
They are racists who consider themselves superior to whites,
fear "mongrelization," want separate facilities in America
where they can live alone and achieve their destiny. "If I get a
million followers," says the diminutive spellbinder Elizah, 'Til
go to Washington and say, 'Give me eight states right now for
the Negroes!' And they'd have to do it!" Still other Negro cults
preach that only consecrated Negro followers are elite and
above all other men or that sanctification through fulfillment
with the holy spirit will set them apart in heaven. For still other
baffled Negro followers, prophets offer common cultic prizes
of escape from the white-dominated tawdry world, into a black

Utopian colony.
All Negro something which the "mixed" church
cults offer
cannot offer. In an atmosphere free from tension and apology,
they can experiment with their own ideas, finding crude an-
swers in political and social expressions.
They can savor the Pentecostal ecstasy under their own
unique terms. They can inhibit sex or encourage free love under
sanctified conditions.
It all started long ago this quaint blending of primitive
snake worship and magic rite, of Roman Catholic dogma and
Reformation doctrine. Although little survives today, its roots
were in the dank jungles of Africa. And the first God was Vodu,
a vengeful, all-powerful ruler.

225
Chapter

32

VOODOO

THE VOODOO beliefs of the "prime blacks,"


who were imported from the West Indies by the thousands late
in the eighteenth century, caused mild amusement among the

sophisticated and worldly Creole landowners of Louisiana.


Their charms and incantations, residue from the imported
African snake worship, were observed and discussed by the
whites much same manner as they discussed dog tricks
in the
or steeple-chasing. The slaves' orgies and superstitions bothered
no one as long as they didn't interfere with work or property.
Only when some voodoo rite on a plantation seemed to threaten
income was it ruthlessly and immediately crushed.
The old god Vodu was known by many names and all cere-
monies and beliefs became part of that name. Some called the
maze of lore "hoodoo." Still other names were voudou, vaudau,
voudoux and voudeaux. The charms themselves, "gris-gris,"
were worn openly in the fields. There were, of course, tales of
hexes and curses, but these were dismissed with chuckles by
the whites.
Voodoo was initially only a fragmentary problem if, in-

deed, it was a problem at all. But with the coming of the Santo

226
VOODOO

Domingo Negroes to New Orleans, starting in 1803, voodoo


became organized. For these Negroes had retained their be-
When they were sold in the environs of New Orleans
liefs intact.

they continued to communicate with one another, something


^

the previous Negroes on isolated plantations in the back coun-

try had been uninterested in or were unable to do.


Owners at first listened with wry chuckles to stories of their
slaves sneaking out at night to take part in voodoo rites. But it

appears that there was also concern. One old report tells of
police breaking up a voodoo session in an abandoned brickyard
in New Orleans. After that the rites seem to have been held at
isolated spots along the shores of nearby Lake Ponchartrain.
No specific records exist as to the exact pattern of these rites.

Probably there were many deviations.


They were matriarchal in nature, it seems certain. In the
original rite the priestess arrived with the object of adornment,
a python, in an ornate box. Before the awed worshipers, she
held it up and then allowed it to lick her cheek. Traditionally,
this gesture officially gave her "power." She was an oracle for
the rest of the ceremony.
She took her place now before a fire beside her king. The
drums began to beat. Next came a sacrifice of some sort, fol-
lowed by sipping the slaughtered animaPs blood from a bowl.
The queen now passed her "power" on to the worshipers by
a chain of handclasps while the king held aloft and shook the
snake-box, which was decorated with rattles or bells. A huge
kettle hung above the fire now received the offerings of the
cultists as each danced by and dropped in a live toad, cats,
snails, chickens and always a snake.
The priestess would begin to chant. "He is coming!" she
would cry. "He is coming!" Now the Zombie or god, represented
by a near-naked young man, would come leaping from the
darkness.

227
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
He would cavort before the fire in a red loincloth, carrying
in his hands a coffin about two feet long. "Le Grande Zombie!"
the faithful would shout in ecstasy as he placed the small coffin
before the queen and whirled about until he dropped with ex-
haustion. Now the cultists would begin the dance anew about
the fire. Each would pause to sip from the witches' brew in the
of tafia, a cane sugar
boiling pot and to take great swallows
alcoholic drink. Pigeons and chickens would appear from bas-
kets to be torn apart alive between the teeth of excited dancers.
There were other special rites. Sometimes a young initiate
would be welcomed. He would stand in a chalked circle, hold-
ing various voodoo talismans such as
waxen images and magic
feathers attached to human bones. The king would chant while
the excited followers repeated magic words in African dialect.
Suddenly the neophyte would begin to twitch, meaning that
he was getting the "power." It was an evil omen if in his hysteria
he ranged past the chalked magic circle. After the twitching
and jerking, he would go into a wild, whirling dance, leaping
into the air and finally collapsing. He was then aroused and

given the voodoo oath by the king.


To this primitive carryover from distant Africa many refine-

ments were added, the hard world of the slave and his frustra-

tions being absorbed into the ancient lore,


As might be expected, neurotic whites were also attracted
to this world of voodoo, either with the hope that they'd find
magic charms or by the lurid and exciting sex orgy which con-
cluded each session. One authority estimates that by 1830 one
third of the New Orleans voodoos were white people. He tells
of one case where a white man traced his missing daughter to
a meeting at Algiers, a spot across the Mississippi River from
New Orleans. He found her cavorting nude with a half-hundred
naked Negroes and later, in her room, discovered a kettle of
dried voodoo serpents and frogs. She was after the "power" to
attract a man she loved, she explained.

228
VOODOO
The great day of the voodoos was St. John's Eve, reaching
back into the forgotten times when sun worshipers rolled blaz-
ing wheels down hills to signify the descent of the sun.
As with all cults, women predominated, making up an esti-
mated seventy-five per cent of the cultists. The queen was the
leader, the king usually her "man" of the moment. Christianity
particularly Roman
Catholicism, the predominant faith of
New Orleans, was absorbed into the vast and complicated lore.
Out of it all came a curious admixture of magic, theology,
simple merchandising of charms, medical prescriptions, social
doctrine and, of course, colorful and flamboyant leaders.
Doctor John, a massive "free" Negro in New Orleans, was
one of the most important of these about 1810. He owned
slaves and claimed to be a Senegalese prince. His face was cov-
ered with witchcraft scarifications in an elaborate design
made by cutting the skin and rubbing mud into the wound
which he claimed had been done by the king, his father, in his
African village as was the traditional tribal custom. He had
been captured by the Spanish, taken to Cuba and eventually
freed by his owner, he said. He had returned briefly to Africa
and then come back to America where he became a cotton
pusher on the New Orleans docks. He claimed here that he had
the "power" and soon was a leader among the workers.
Local fame soon brought voodoo fans to Doctor John and he
began to sell advice and charms. He bought land and built a
cottage and boasted of having fifteen wives and fifty children.
The house itself was filled with snakes, toads and jars of gris-
gris. Here he told fortunes, placed and took off curses and "put
down" hexes for a fee. He claimed to have aphrodisiacs for
aging swains and love potions for lonely spinsters. He advised
rich planters on how to correct wayward sons and seemed to
know everything about the rich and powerful. Undoubtedly
like other voodoo leaders to follow he had under his com-
mand or hire servants in the leading homes.

229
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
He was rich by now. But his money was a problem. He feared
banks and couldn't read or write. He not only invested foolishly
but as his various children grew up they'd disappear one by one
with some of the fortune he had hidden in his cottage. At eighty,
it is claimed, he set out to learn to read and write. He hired a

young Negro who taught him to sign his name. One day he
over to his tutor
signed a paper. Later he found that he'd signed
the home and all he owned.
Before the old scar-faced giant died, however, he left a major
mark on American voodoo. For he brought Catholicism into
the African magic religion. He read the future before a statue
of the Virgin Mary which graced his parlor and alternately
toyed with his crucifix or dried toads as he felt the problem

required.
Even while he attracted scores of voodoos to his home, an-
other leader was thriving.
This fabulous figure in American voodoo was the legendary
Marie Laveau, who reigned as a queen in New Orleans from
about 1830 on. She remains even today a subject of debate in
the city. Old newspaper reports blandly tell of her death in 1 88 1
and voodoos for eighty years.
state that she ruled over the

Legend is that Lafayette kissed her forehead when he visited


New Orleans. Still another tale goes that she was alive and
thriving until after World War I. Like the famed Count of St.
Germain, there was talk that this witch woman had lived for-
ever.

Many of these weird tales were probably true. For there


seems to have been several Marie Laveaus artfully blended
with each other after cautious planning. Seemingly, the first
Marie attempted to establish a voodoo cult led by a supposedly
immortal woman the name being passed from mother to
daughter.
The first Marie Laveau is described as a tall woman of regal
features with piercing black eyes and a reddish hue to her dark

230
VOODOO
skin. She was a free woman of color, married to a free quadroon
carpenter named Paris, and a daily visitor to the Roman Catho-
lic Church in New Orleans. But about 1824 her husband died.
Known now as the Widow Paris, it seems that Marie became a
hairdresser for fashionable Creole ladies. Undoubtedly, as she
stood behind the gentlewomen at the mirror listening to gush-
ing stories of love affairs and gossip among the rich and well-
born, she collected stories of intrigue and scandal which later
would help her establish her voodoo dynasty.
Meanwhile at Marie's simple cottage a man named Chris-
tophe Duminy de Glapion, a quadroon from Santo Domingo,
moved in and Marie was to bear him fifteen children before
his death.
There were many such queens in the city, but none like
Marie. She had a business head and a ruthless sense of destiny.
Her little cult of voodoo had all the mystic props: black cats,
snakes, blood-drinking and an orgy of sex at the conclusion of
the rites. But she picked up where Doctor John had left off. She
added holy water, sacred statues, incense. And she organized
like a Chicago gangster. She eliminated rival queens method-

ically by threat and some said gris-gris, which brought


death. She was reportedly not above simpler methods, simply

beating up rival queens on the street until they promised to flee


the city.
rites at the nearby lake shore grew. Marie en-
Her strange
couraged not only the believers in voodoo to attend but the poli-
ticians, newspaper reporters and even police as well. She

charged fees to watch the fun and, for those rich whites who
would pay more, there were "secret" ceremonies with beautiful
Negro girls.
The legends about Marie Laveau grew and she encouraged
them. She was constantly charged with various crimes but
shrugged them off and defeated the few that reached court. At
her cottage on St. Ann Street she sold gris-gris, hexes and curses

231
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
and told fortunes as Doctor John had done before. She had a
network of household servant spies, no doubt, for she knew
family secrets and had a strange business insight which added
to the tales of her wondrous abilities. She soon had politicians
and business leaders coming to her and paying to learn what
steps they should take for success. By 1850
she was absolute
ruler of the Negroes of New Orleans.
Her rites at the lake were more colorful than any conducted
before. There was the snake in the box, the whirl-
sacrifice, the

ing Zombies, the drinking of blood and the crude alcohol, tafia.
There was the screams of ecstasy and the spasms of jerking.
Visitors usually departed, or paid an added fee to watch the
mass sex orgy which terminated her ceremony.
At other Laveau rites closed to the public the old ways of
Voodoo went on, to keep the traditionalists among her fol-
lowers happy. Live fowl were torn apart by blood-smeared
mouths and gris-gris and snakes presented to the queen, and
ancient oaths taken after wild initiation ceremonies.
There was still strange woman who sup-
another facet to this

posedly consorted with the Devil and crocodiles and could kill
with a look. She seems to have visited the local jails and hos-
tending unfortunates. During a yellow fever
pitals regularly,
epidemic in the 1850's she deserted her voodoo followers and
business completely and spent weeks nursing the sick.
By 1875, Marie was still thriving. She appeared now and

again to reign over an orgy. She welcomed visitors who came


to buy her gris-gris or learn their fate. Yet there was a curious

change. One day Marie would seem strangely young, the next
day old. In the fantastic eddy of years of legends, myths and
tales there was seemingly casual acceptance of this in New Or-
leans. Today, it appears that the transition was made over the

years. What was the young Marie and the old Marie became
the same slowly. Just when the daughter inherited the voodoo
crown from the mother no one knows. The new Marie looked

232
VOODOO
much like her mother bit lighter. She wore mas-
perhaps a
sive gold earrings, many rings and diamond clasps and heavy
bracelets. Like her mother, who had always found beautiful

Negro girls for powerful white men, young Marie built her
fame as a procuress for a new generation. She continued to
sell gris-gris and such good luck charms as small bags con-

taining goofer dust (dirt from a graveyard), red pepper and


bits of bone. There were lodestones for gamblers, charms to
avoid fights, to woo lovers, conjure balls to make enemies move
away and black wax effigies to bring death. (Marie Laveau's
magic amulets remain today the accepted formulas for voodoo
charms.)
Today Harlem, New Orleans, Chicago and other cities,
in

gris-gris still be purchased. Tales still circulate in New


can
Orleans of supposed voodoo orgies held on St. John's Eve.
Most poor Negro neighborhoods in large American cities have
a "hoodoo" woman or a "conjure" man.
One can still buy in voodoo drugstores such magic condi-
ments as Mad Oil, Love Oil, Controlling Powder, Peace
Powder, Easy Life Powder, Get-Together Drops, Mexican
Luck Water.
An estimated 500,000 people still cling to voodoo beliefs or
use gris-gris. One major supplier of voodoo charms is a taxi-
dermist in San Francisco, Roy A. Heist, whose unusual business
was thrust upon him. When newspapers published stories of his
specialty of stuffing big game hunters' trophies, strangers
started calling at his shop. They wanted a few parings of a
water buffalo hoof, a bit of lion mane. It was soon a profitable

sideline and Heist arranged contacts throughout the world to


supply the needs of the voodoo fanciers. Among the oddities
he's supplied are: two pounds of hippopotamus meat, black
cat bones, white rooster eyes, boa constrictor meat, bat's blood,

elephant hair, zebra mane, Lapis Lingua stones, snake oil,


crocodile teeth, coffin oil, wildcat meat and wild boar's tusk.

233
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
"What they do with the stuff, I don't know," he says. "I just
supply it. If they buy bat blood and want to paint their noses

red or the back fence, it's allright with me."


Not all voodoo fans are Negroes. "I was talking to the head
of a big corporation who buys stuff regularly from me," he
says. "It's helped him put over a lot of big deals, he says. I don't
know, myself ..."
He charges "all I can get" for these strange items, but guar-
antees authenticity. Only once has he failed to fill an order. A
customer wanted a quart of wild buffalo's milk.
"Who," he asks, "would milk a wild buffalo for any price?"
So voodoo the primitive heritage of the African jungle
lives on in the cold, gray cities of America today. But its force
as a once-powerful cult has disappeared into the maze of folk-
lore and magic. Meanwhile, some descendants of the slaves
have turned to new cultic movements, blending Christianity
with the hoary images of omnipotent witch doctors. One of the
most powerful of these strange leaders to emerge as a major
power was a smiling, firm-handed cultist Father Divine.

234
Chapter

33

FATHER DIVINE

"HE'S so sweet!"
"Ain't he cute!"
God a squat, bullet-headed Negro makes his way through
the cheering angels, smiling broadly, flashing gold teeth.
"Communion time, communion time, angels!" he shouts as
the faithful wave handkerchiefs and applaud and the band
beats out a lively tune.
Father Divine moves rapidly toward the head table of his
Heaven a large banquet room. His large body seems strangely
disproportionate with his short legs and arms. There is a shrewd
and humorous twinkle to his eyes as he begins the ritual of bless-
communion food.
ing the
The men in Sunday best and women in flowered frocks take
their places at the long tables separated from one another. God

begins to touch each dish, each serving spoon,


each serving
fork. The "communion" food, borne by an army of the faithful
comes pouring out. It includes ham, roast beef, lamb, roast
chicken, sliced white meat of chicken, fish, white rice, mashed
the cob, green beans, cab-
potatoes, macaroni, beets, corn on
cole slaw, bologna,
bage, string beans, cauliflower, carrots,
tongue, corn bread, white bread, whole
wheat bread, pumper-

235
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

nickel, raisin and rye breads, rolls, crackers, pineapple salad,


sliced tomatoes and lettuce, platters of celery, pickles and rel-
ishes, jellies, various cakes, iced tea, iced coffee, chocolate,
lemonade, cheese, fruit, fruit cup, nuts, jello with whipped
cream and ice cream.

God, delicately helping himself to small portions, glances


over his children and nibbles an olive.
The phenomonen of Father Divine's Peace Mission move-
ment, which claims an estimated 300,000 followers today,
all

began in 1932 when an obscure Negro preacher was hauled


into court in Sayville on Long Island. White residents had com-
plained that his tiny mission was a noisy
nuisance.
to
The judge casually sentenced the helpless black preacher
a year in Suffolk County jail and fined him $500. Three days
later the judge suddenly died.
It was all his few followers needed to verify what their

spiritual leader, Father Divine,


had been telling them. He was
indeed God.
Today Father Divine won't talk about his past. He always
was and always will be, and that's all. He denies that he is really
George Baker, born on an island off the coast of South Car-
olina. Baker, who served time on a Georgia chain gang, for-

mally began his preaching career in Baltimore under the name


of Major J. Divine. During the Depression he moved on to
New York and started a mission.
From there, the racist effort burgeoned throughout the land,
preaching Father Divine's doctrine of breaking down all bar-
riers of race and color.
No one knows exactly how many followers belong to the
cult. The reason that it Jacks any formal organization, based
is

on the leader's theological concepts. Since he is God, quite log-


icallyno one in the cult can make decisions. For they would be
imperfectly human. Hence there are no officers. For Father
Divine is all things and everywhere. An action by a follower in

236
FATHER DIVINE
Detroit is not his own, but inspired by the spiritual order from
God. This primitive mysticism would, of course, be too much
of a strain on an ordinary human. Father Divine handles it
all casually with a staff of secretaries. He visits the scores of
Peace Missions throughout the land, criticizing and instructing.
Routine work he delegates as he sees fit. But God remains the
arbiter on all matters he chooses to honor with attention.

During his heyday before World War II, this resulted in


some curious problems. Branches of his main Heaven were
popping up everywhere. When news of a new mission would
reach God's assistants, they would sometimes annoy God with
the news. He would simply nod his head wisely and reply: "I
know!" As for the numbers of followers, it never seemed to con-
cern God. He visits his farms and missions seemingly aware of
the strength of each. There's apparently no need for member-
ship rolls even though members must go through a trial and
testing period before joining.
There are two types of members. Some simply follow God's
edicts and practice his beliefs and lead regular lives in the
world. Others, the angels, who are known as Brothers and Sis-
ters, have disposed of all possessions as God has decreed and
renounced earthly struggle and hungers. They live as Father
Divine orders, doing the job he decides upon and questioning
nothing. They are his angels, and he cares for them.
Father Divine discourages the reading of the Bible. After all,
he is the Bible. The latest word, therefore, is to be found in the

cult's weekly publication, The New Day. Here are always God's

latest edicts and speeches. Here are the criticisms and the pro-
nouncements. In theological discussion, followers always refer
to the paper and keep back issues on file.
"
As the cult abhors racial references, the description "w
is used to designate a white person and a Negro is referred to
ironically as a "so-and-so." The titles of God's latest speeches
may be a headline writer's horror, but they adequately explain

237
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

the subject: "Whatever I do and whatever I am allowing to be


done endorsable is for the benefit of all of you."

The simple belief that Father Divine is God would seem to


mean a simple theology. Yet a humanoid God poses some sticky
questions.Father Divine, as God, will never die. Heaven is
here on earth. There are no more prophets of God, because he
is here, now, in the next room. God is weary
with these old
them. God has come as a
prophets, too, and has repudiated
lowest echelon of hu-
Negro to the Negro because he is in the
mans. Baptism is taboo. For God is available to everyone. "The

abundance of fullness," rather than just bread and wine, is


proper for communion.
No must refer to Father Divine in terms of the
true believer
dates. It shrinks
passage of time. No one must remember past
the spirit and takes one's mind off God. The true believer is the

reincarnation of God and the ideas of God, He will, like Father


Divine, never die. Death is the final weakness man must
over-

come.
As in Christian Science, illness is suspect. It shows a lack of
spiritual understanding and faith in Father Divine. To get well,
the follower must repeat "Thank you, Father" until he is healed.
Evil must be avoided and overcome. Lust for the opposite
sex is evil. A
woman follower who conceives a child can have
but she
given birth "evangelically," meaning by spiritual union,
is suspected of violating the spiritual code until Father Divine

decides.

Hill-country fundamentalism sets the tone of taboos. fol- A


lower must not drink, smoke, dance, use obscene words, or re-
fuse to pay his debts. avoid racial prejudice and any
He must
kind of hate, greed, selfishness or bigotry. He must not play the
numbers or gamble. He should enter some business to help the
cause.
The Heavens which emerged in the black ghettos of northern
and western cities a quarter century ago have slowly disap-
238
FATHER DIVINE

peared. God may be ageless, but he is slowing down. "Peace"


laundries, grocery stores and filling stations can still be found,
but Father Divine's days of power are past. The wild contro-
versies which swirled about his head when he bought a country
estate near the home of Franklin D. Roosevelt and took a white
bride in "spiritual marriage" are now all but forgotten.
But God still has his devoted followers, and they live by his
stern injunctions. Amarried couple are automatically sep-
arated when they enter the cult, and become brother and sister.
Those with children must remain together, however, to rear the
child properly. Talking in tongues is permissible but discour-
aged.
The meetings and communions go on. The faithful gather
by the hundreds. They sing joyously and clap to the beat. Then
an air of expectancy and tension comes.
In the back of the vast hall there are happy shouts. The bald,
smiling Father Divine appears, moving hurriedly through the
excited angels.
He goes into the communion room and those selected to eat
with him that day follow while several hundred others remain
dutifully outside.
They sing and clap as he sanctifies the food which is brought
before him.
"He's so sweet!" shouts a huge woman in an orange formal.
"He's a dear!" replies a neighbor.
God smiles and nods. He is content in his heaven.

239
Chapter

34

SWEET DADDY GRACE

IT WAS New Year's night, I960, at the House


of Prayer for All People in Los Angeles.
An old Negro wearing a swallow-tailed purple cutaway with
golden cuffs, white piping, epaulets and brass buttons called
for the ministers of the church to step forward. He put his hand
with five-inch gilded fingernails in each of theirs.
Sweet Daddy Grace, seventy-seven, who favored chartreuse
and black vests, slowly shook his tired head with its iron-gray
curls. "Dear ones," he said, "I am going home to see Mama
and Papa. I want you to promise me that you will always preach
this gospel and tell nothing but the truth." Then the old man
stood and sang his own death chant to his stunned and weeping
followers. It began: "Good-by, tell the stars and moon I'm

coming home. . ."


.

A few days later he died.


As with most Negro cult leaders, Bishop Charles Grace,
which was an assumed nam&, preferred to keep his past a secret.
His real name seems to have been Marcelino Graca, He was
born on the Cape Verde Islands off French West Africa, one
of twelve children, and migrated to New Bedford, Massachu-
setts, as a youth. For a time, it seems, he worked as a railroad
cook but by 1921 he had founded his first House of Prayer.

240
SWEET DADDY GRACE

Daddy Grace, the "boy friend of the world," and his church
grew. And
so did the legends about him. It was said he had a

green mustache, that he owned a fleet of Cadillacs, gold-fitted,


painted red, white and blue (he actually had only two). He
claimed five million followers and five hundred Houses of
Prayer, and records showed he owned, among other things, a
soap factory, a coffee plantation, an insurance company, the
tallest apartment building in the world, hotels, fabulous man-
sions and castles. In the basement of his $300,000 red, white
and blue church in Charlotte, North Carolina, he sold his Grace
cold cream and ran a cafeteria offering Grace coffee, Grace
eggs.
He owned, too, John D. Rockefeller's old home in Mont-
clair, New Jersey. In 1938 he acquired Father Divine's main
"heaven" in New York City. He bought in 1957 an eighty-five-
room mansion in Los Angeles And, of course,
for $450,000.
he was the proprietor of the firm which produced the tons of
Daddy Grace's toothpaste, "transcontinental" tea and coffee,
pomade, face powder, hair straightener, cold water soap, tal-
cum powder, shoe polish, lemon cream, cold cream, pine soap,
vanishing cream, castile soap and Daddy Grace's Scrumptious
Cookies. He owned a home-buying association and a burying
society, not to mention the formulas for the famed miracle soap
which cleaned the body, healed sickness and reduced fat, de-
pending upon the need of the buyer. It cured tuberculosis, too,
if rubbed on the chest.

But that wasn't There was a steady flow of money from


all.

the sale of emblems, badges, buttons, banners and elaborate


uniforms with swords, batons and walking sticks for the faith-
ful.

What wondrous doctrine did Sweet Daddy have to offer to


collect this fortune, estimated at the time of his death at twenty-
five million?
It was simple: A true believer could meet with the Holy

241
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

through "gifts." In practice,


his rites brightened dulled
Spirit
lives, became a focal point of hope for the frustrated and emo-

tionally-starved and offered excitement


and thrills for everyone.

Daddy Grace churches were generally simple, barnlike


structures, usually in isolated areas where the noise of the serv-
ices wouldn't disturb neighbors.
Here primitive emotions find release. First come the singing,

music and hand-clapping. The tempo and volume grow. Now


a woman begins to sway, her eyes closed. Then another. One
begins to mutter in a strange tongue.
Another raises her arms
and cries, "Daddy, you feel so good!" Hand-clapping starts and
more shouts are heard. "Sweet Daddy!" "Come to Daddy!"
"Oh, Daddy!"
There is a frenzy now. Several women start to shake and one
the floor quivering,
falls to phlegm gathering on her
lips. Others

break into contortions as the noise and excitement increases.


"Oh, Daddy!" "Come, come Daddy!" they cry.
In another corner a half dozen men sway rhythmically, their

faces uplifted, eyes closed. One drops to the floor in a trance


unnoticed by the others. He begins to twitch and jerk.
The climax is near. A wild dance begins with more hand-
clapping and shouts. It ends with the congregation laughing
and exhausted. A
minister moves through the sweating crowd
and reaches to a still-kneeling woman. She is led to the front
and robed in white. He
has been watching her, the minister
announces, and knows that she has been touched by the
"power."
Now the testimonies begin. A man tells of being cured of

indigestion and asthma. Another had consumption until he


used the miracle soap. The ushers begin again and again the
numerous collections which mark each service.
"Please swell my total," begs one. "Put more in my pan,"
says another. As they compete with one another, the testimonies
end, and the minister speaks.

242
SWEET DADDY GRACE
The minister always told of Daddy Grace. He told how
Daddy was "God's Great Man." He explained that Daddy
Grace had given God a vacation. "If you sin against God,
Grace can save you; if you sin against Grace, God can't save
you," he explained.
He read from the Scriptures lines which mentioned the word
"grace."
Then came the peddlers with the creams and lotions, the
cult'smagazine, the miracle soap.
The meeting was over. And the faithful had given their all,

both spiritual and material, to Daddy Grace. After his death


the federal government moved in, claiming his estate owed
$5,966,000 in back taxes for 1945 through 1956. It filed liens
against all his non-church property.
The "boy friend of the world" and his empire were finished.

243
Chapter

35

OTHER NEGRO CULTS

IF Daddy Grace and Father Divine became the


major successes of the Negro cult world, there were others who
also found places among lonely and frustrated millions of
American Negroes.
A tall, sharp-featured woman of mixed Indian and Negro
blood founded the Mt. Sinai Church in Philadelphia in 1924.
Bishop Ina Robinson, who grew up in Georgia and was con-
verted to church work at the age of seventeen, knew of the need
of the downtrodden to feel exclusive. Her church, which has
many branches today, stressed two unusual aspects. Only those
people whom the "elders" of the church deemed worthy could
join. And the elders themselves were often women. The qualifi-
cation for membership was the "sign," or talking in tongues
which indicated one had been touched by the Holy Spirit.
Bishop Ina, as supreme head, carried total authority which,
she explained, came directly from God.
The group shows many of the characteristics of the Pente-
costal movement among the whites. There are classes in Bible
lore and
spiritual wisdom. Sins that work against the process
of sanctification which all followers seek, include fornication,
"impure conversation," "back-biting," and "visiting Coney
Island." It is also a sin to straighten the hair, swear, participate

244
OTHER NEGRO CULTS
in athletics, polish the fingernails,
chew gum or go to movies.
Divorce is taboo and marriage must be within the group.
Women must "dress holy," meaning plain dresses with long
skirts and white cotton
stockings. All men wear black neckties.
A typical service includes testimony of spirit possession and
communal singing. Elders lay heavy stress on the evils of adul-
tery and "looking at another with a lustful eye." There's a
communion service with grape juice and soda crackers and a
symbolic foot- washing most services. The church im-
rite at

poses a rigid system of and no collection is taken.


tithes
It is a rigorous way to heaven for the select and sanctified
members of the Mt. Sinai Holy Church of America, but worth
it. For, come the
year 2000, the millennium will arrive and the
followers will live in eternal glory.
While the torments of denial give exclusiveness to Bishop
Ina's group, the "Church of God and Saints of Christ," known
also as the "Black Jews" and "Black Hebrews," finds unique
distinction inlampooning and attacking wicked Christianity.
This quaint communistic cult was founded by F. S. Cherry,
a one-time laborer who, as he tells it, was many years ago "far
away from my native land" when God appeared in a vision and
touched him and appointed him a world prophet.
Cherry was an angry prophet when he established his church
in Philadelphia. And poor and uneducated Negroes found
warm assurances in his bitter denunciations of people with edu-
cation. Attacking and mimicking manners and speech
their
from his pulpit, he stood in a flowing academic gown with yel-
low-striped sleeves, gestured angrily with one arm which bore
a mammoth gold bracelet and a huge ring, and clutched a mas-
sive staff in the other hand.
He howled that clergymen black and white alike were
wild beasts, vultures and just plain damned fools.
Gesturing to the Yiddish and Hebrew Bibles which graced
his pulpit, he would explain that everything he was saying came

245
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
volumes. The
by holy instruction and could all be found in the
Talmud, he went on, was the final source of reference on all
matters. And, unlike most Negro cults, he roundly denounced
visions and
spirit possession,talking in tongues, testimony of
dreams and any excessive emotional display by his followers.
Such goings-on were Christian hokum, he would say, and unfit
conduct for "true Jews."
And here was the base of his doctrine: that the Negro was
the true Jew mentioned in the Bible and the present "so-called
Jew" was an interloper and fraud.
"Jesus Christ was a black man," Prophet Cherry explained.
"And I'm offering fifteen hundred dollars cash to anyone who
can produce an authentic likeness of Jesus Christ and show
I'm wrong."
He then would wave a picture of Christ from his pulpit.
"Who the hell is this?" he'd demand. "Nobody knows! They
say it's Jesus! That's a damned lie! Jesus was
black!"
The quaint concepts come pouring out of the angry prophet.

Black people are the original inhabitants of God, who is


earth.

black, too, made the world six thousand years ago and every
two thousand years there's a "great dispensation." Four thou-
sand years ago there was the Flood and 2000 years ago Christ
came. In a few years Christ will return and the millennium will
arrive,
The black man sprang from Jacob and his fate of slavery

and eventual deliverance is all told in the Bible. When the


black Jews take over the "high places" of the world, things will
straighten out. The gentiles have taken from the
blacks their

land, money and names.


Prophet Cherry's utterances go on and on. April, not Janu-
ary, is the first month of the year. There are three
heavens: one
on earth, one in the trees, one in the skies. Saturday, not Sun-
day, is the true Sabbath. The Lord expects his followers to
drink intoxicating liquor regularly but not to get drunk. All

246
OTHER NEGRO CULTS
"fun" is manufactured in the heart where the breath "catches"

itand brings it out and it eventually "blows out" to God. The


Black Jew must not eat meat, must not have his photo hanging
on the wall and, when he bathes, he must first cleanse the upper
part of the body before getting into the bathtub as the lower
extremities "defile" the water. Fornication, adultery and back-

biting are taboo.


The Black Jews do not observe Christmas or Easter, but the
Passover is a sacred time. Men in brightly hued uniforms line

the wall of the house of worship. The faithful arrive, men wear-

ing black skullcaps and women blue and white capes with red
and blue straw hats fringed with tassels. A
bass drum beats as
the followers take their places.
The prophet appears, sprinkling the temple with perfumed
water and washing his hands. Now he begins the attack. He de-
nounces the Pope. He vilifies the "so-called Jews" for denying
Jesus. People who eat pork are damned for all eternity, he
shouts. He
holds up the picture of Jesus and sneers at it while
denouncing the "dumb dog" preachers who claim it's authentic.
The Black Jews listen raptly. For just ahead is heaven, a
heaven where they will take their rightful place in the scheme
of things.
Even while Prophet Cherry cavorted behind the pulpit in
Philadelphia, a different sort of flamboyant Negro mystic was
being given instruction by St. Benedict while he lounged on a
couch in San Francisco.
King Narcise who
favors for his earthly mission a costume
of gold tunic, black pants, flowing crimson robe and velvet
headdress, touched off with two-inch fingernails and a score of
diamond rings on his two hands founded his church in Oak-
land, California, in 1945.
His motto simplicity itself. "It's nice to be nice," he says
is

repeatedly, explaining that this was St. Benedict's message


to

him during the vision.

247
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
massive local audi-
his "coronation," held in the
During
torium, the "King" covered himself with jewelry. "The beauty

inspires me," he explained.


The King lives in a twenty-one-room mansion in neighbor-
tennis courts and
ing Piedmont, which includes a rose garden,
a barber shop. He affects a large ring which his followers kneel

and kiss when he walks by. Often, he steps out on a balcony to


bless the faithful when they gather on the tennis court. "My fol-

lowers enjoy seeing their King have all these comforts," he ex-
plains. "I use this display
of worldliness to attract attention,

just as Jesus did when he rode a jackass."


There are three levels of membership in the "Nice to be Nice"
cult. First, there are the members, who must have three months

of training to qualify. Next come the "ministers" and, finally,


the "consecrated ministers." All followers must pray three times
a day, fast on Fridays and avoid alcohol, tobacco and gambling.
They must either attend church daily or conduct a service in
the "prayer corner" in their homes.
The "Bible Christ" is the son of God, the King explains, and
everyone has a divine spirit. There is belief in the intercession

of saints, spirit communication and "respect for everyone."


"Holy Ones" are in touch with the spirit world. "I believe I was
chosen for my task because of my many years of devotion as
a choir leader," King Narcise tells his followers. "I am not the

reincarnation of Christ, but I have the Christ spirit within me."


At services there is a grand display of marching and songs,
followed by healing testimonials, prayer and the offering.
The King a succinct man. When he leaves his mansion to
is

visit his and climbs into one of his fine, black chauffeur-
flock
driven limousines, one cannot fail to note the decal message on
the door. "Thank God!" it reads.
While such Christian cult movements burgeon, there were
also those who sought distant fields of theology to attract a
following. One such cultic effort was the Moorish Science

248
OTHER NEGRO CULTS

Temple of America founded in 1913 by Timothy Drew, who


came from North Carolina. Naming himself Drew Ali, he pro-
duced the Holy Koran, not to be confused with the Moham-
medan Koran, for his Moorish Holy Temple of Science. Salva-
tion for the Negro rests in the discovery of his national origin,
he preached. Negroes must call themselves Asiatics, he claimed,
and, more specifically, Moors or Moorish- Americans.
Drew established his first temple in Newark, New Jersey.
Gradually other temples appeared. He promised complete
emancipation for blacks and declared all members were Mos-
lems under the divine laws of the Holy Koran of Mecca. Hun-
dreds of poor Chicago Negroes, where his cult grew rapidly,
soon carried membership cards.
Members were taught that a sign, a star with a crescent
moon, had been seen in the heavens and bespoke the arrival
of "The Day of the Asiatics."
Members wore fezzes and were instructed
to treat white peo-

ple with "open contempt." Finally police pressure forced


Prophet Drew Ali to stop ordering followers to insult "Euro-
peans" on the streets in Chicago.
Then some of Drew Ali's opportunistic associates tried to
take over the cult to sell medicinal herbs, magical charms and
potions, and He denounced these "money-
"secret" literature.

changers," and in the struggle for control a member of the cult


was killed in the chaos. The authorities moved in and Drew Ali,
even though he was not in Chicago at the time, was sent- to
prison to await trial for the death of the victim. But the trial
never took place. Drew Ali died a few weeks later, some claimed
from the effects of the third degree.
The cult split into numerous sects. Some leaders claimed to
follow the dead, noble Drew Ali. Others claimed
spirit of the
they were the reincarnation of noble Drew Ali.
One such reincarnated prophet gathered many of the faith-
ful, placing a leader in each branch temple as a "Grand Sheik."

249
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
He ordered each member to attach "el" or "bey" to his name.
The sixty-four page Holy Koran written by the original Drew
Ali became the sacred text. This "reincarnated" Drew Ali is a
tall slender, dark Negro. His beliefs include the idea that one
?

must have a nationality before he can have a God. There are


no Negroes, only Asiatics. Christianity is for the Europeans,
Islam is for the Asiatics. The sacred song is "Moslems, That
Old-Time Religion." Friday is the Sabbath. Christmas is ob-
served January 5, the date Ali was reincarnated. Members
must pray three times daily, at sunrise, noon and sunset, facing
the East. The greetings are "Peace" and "Islam," with the right
hand upraised, palm out. Radicalism is forbidden. Marriage is
monogomous. Bodies must be kept clean by bathing. The red
fez must be worn at all times. Meat and eggs are forbidden. Fish
and vegetables may be eaten. Movies, European games and
dancing are forbidden, as are shaving, cosmetics, straightening
the hair, use of intoxicants and smoking.
Yet the Moorish Temple remains an obscure and nearly
forgotten movement as compared to one of the splinter groups
which emerged from Drew Ali's first cult. With increasing fre-
quency, a new and fearful "Moslem" cult is finding a place in
court records and newspaper stories. It goes simply by the name
of "Moslems" and its sly prophet is called Elizah Mohammed.

250
Chapter

36

ISLAM

ONE day in May 1959, Judge Gerald C. Kep-


ple of the Los Angeles Municipal Court stepped from his
chambers to be confronted by one of the most bizarre sights of
his long career on the bench.
Seated on the oak benches of the courtroom were row after
row of young colored women of ebony hue. All wore white
scarves over their heads, all stared grimly into the distance, their
hate-filled eyes fixed on the wall behind Hizzoner.
Judge Kepple cleared his throat, nervously adjusted his robe,
and took his placeon the bench. Again he looked up inquir-
ingly. Past the scores of erect and motionless women seated
with military precision, he saw more unusual visitors. Ranged
along the rear wall were a half hundred young Negro men, also
of uniform black skin. Each wore a dark suit and black tie and
stood as what one attorney described later at something "be-
tween attention and parade rest in the Army." Like the women,
they seemed oblivious to the judge, the jury or the other peo-
ple in the courtroom. They only stared into the distance.
The judge called the clerk to the bench. "What is this?" he
demanded.
The clerk shrugged. "They came filing in here without a

251
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

sound," he whispered, "and took their places in military forma-


tion."
The judge glanced at the twelve jurors all white women
who were staring at the strange audience. Then he looked back
at the visitors. There was no contempt of court here. Only a
grim and heavy silence, more frightening than a mob scene.
"Well proceed," he said tersely.
The case at affair. Six young Negro men
hand was a routine
were charged with disturbing the peace and interfering with an
officer when he had tried to serve an eviction notice for a Negro
landlord.
In the strangely quiet courtroom, the story unfolded. The
puzzled lawyers presented their cases. The clock ticked. Wit-
nesses came and went. As noon approached, the judge called a
clerk and sent out for box lunches for the jury rather than ad-

journ for them to go to lunch. Finally the pleas were in and


the jury filed out. The more than a hundred black figures sat or
stood motionless, seemingly unaware of what was being said.
The jury returned and the foreman stood up nervously, glanc-
ing at the silent audience. "We find the defendant guilty," she
announced.
As if itwere a signal barked by a marine sergeant, the Negro
women stood and faced the courtroom aisle. As the gaping
jury stared, the white-scarved women filed out with military
precision, followed by the men in black ties. They moved
silently down
the long corridor and out of the courthouse, a
hushed procession of grim young men and women with impas-
sive faces.
This silent picketing was but one of the growing number of
unusual incidents attributed to one of the most frightening, odd
groups to emerge in America since the beginnings of the Ku
Klux Klan. The Moslems, as they call themselves, are devoted
to the proposition that they are members of a super race destined
to rule the world; their announced mission is to "take over"

252
ISLAM
from the "devils" the white men. More than 70,000 are now
dedicated fanatics and police intelligence reports estimate that
the movement is growing at the rate of several hundred new
members each week. It's an ill-kept secret that
police in many
metropolitan are dusting off old manuals on handling
cities

riots, and giving fresh courses in the subject to new recruits.


The "religious" movement has also terrorized many Negro
leaders into an awkward and uneasy silence, forced other
Negroes to move or close their businesses, and silenced the
leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People.
Just how deeply it has cut into the mainstream of American
Negro life in metropolitan cities no one really knows. But some
clue can be found in a recent statement by Los Angeles Police
Chief William Parker, who says intelligence reports indicate
that followers of the movement burgeoned from 360 to 3200
in his city in just five months.
Like the statistics, the doctrines and concepts of this secret
cult are obscure. There's a weird mishmash of Hitlerian racist
ideas mixed with a few tenets of the Moslem faith, the principal
one being the injunction from the Koran, "an eye for an eye, a
tooth for a tooth," and a curious commandment of "nonviolent"
violence. The cult's prime targets are Jews and, after that, all
whites. Membership requires a fanatic's devotion, rigid disci-

pline and complete dedication to the cause, including the free


donation of one's income and savings.
The leader of this awesome and frightening sect is a wizened,
sixty-three-year-old who goes under the title of Prophet Elizah
Mohammed. According to his speeches, this little rabble-rouser
received 'divine authority for his mission more than a quarter
century ago in Detroit. As he explains it, he came across one
Fard Mohammed, who revealed himself to be "Allah on earth."
This incarnation forthwith appointed Elizah Poole, as he was
known then, to be his messenger on earth and revealed to
253
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
him the unique doctrines which guide the movement's destinies

today.
Poole, an unemployed poolroom sharper at the time, dropped
his "slave name," took the title of Mohammed and began to

preach his hate doctrine in the slums of Detroit. By 1934, he'd


gathered enough followers to keep him in red beans and rice
but ran into trouble when he was arrested for contributing to
the delinquency of a minor. He was given six months' probation.
But his disenchanted followers chased him out of town.
He landed in Chicago, where he donned his turban again
and started looking for a new flock. From a back room on
Indiana Street he eventually established a "temple." He drew
followers from the poorest, most frustrated and bitter of urban

Negroes. While his basic preachment was that the white devils
were the cause ofall earthly woe, he soon began to refine his

"theology." The Jew, he announced was the ancient enemy


of the Moslem and must be eliminated first. His followers
must avoid drugs, tobacco, alcohol and pork and pray five
times a day toward the sunrise. Women had to attend meetings
with white scarfs over their head and men must wear black
ties. A woman, he announced, could not be allowed alone in

a room with a man who was not her husband, and she must
not wear lipstick.
His racist ideas took shape. The white man, he explained,
was transitory; he had been on the earth only six thousand
years, and "isn't going to be here much longer." The original
Oriental was black-skinned and would be black again some day
when the balance was returned and the original black people
ruled the world. Only the ebony black Negro was "pure."
At this point about 1939 the Islams, as they were called,
were viewed with jeering contempt by most Negroes. They
made up only one of the scores of tiny cults which flourish
briefly among the poor and disenfranchised. What was more,
it
required a discipline and dedication which was no lure to

254
ISLAM
most Negroes, might be toward the whites. But
bitter as they
the nucleus of the wild cult continued to meet and listen as
the fanatical little leader denounced the Bible as "the slave-
master doctrine" and promised pie~in-the-sky, when "the satis-
fied black man" would take over. Authorities who knew of it

at allshrugged, and the colored community jeered. Elizah


took up his collections and waited.
World War II brought a crisis for the prophet. The FBI
started closing down the cults which advocated Nazi ideas, sedi-
tion or other concepts which interfered with the war effort. It
didn't take them long to get to Elizah. For he had denounced
the draft and warned his flock not to sign up. It was a plot by
the international Jews and white slave masters, he shouted, and
the thing to do was avoid the draft by one trick or another, stay
home, make money and give it to the cause.
The tiny cult leader practiced what he preached. When the
time came for him to appear before the draft board he disap-
peared. The agents finally tracked him to his mother's home
and, after a search, pulled the squirming, cursing prophet out
from the folds of a rolled carpet. He was hustled off to jail.
By war's end he was ready to start again. He formed a new
"temple" in Chicago. His old followers gathered again. The
new population of Southern Negroes working in the war in-
dustries of the North was ripe picking. Lonesome, frustrated
and bewildered, they found in the Islamics excitement and a
cause. Unobserved by police, the burgeoning cult began to take
on new importance. The pre-war chuckles and sneers about the
Islams were replaced by fearsome silence in the cheap tener
ment houses and gin mills of South Chicago. "They're worse
than seven kinds of turtle meat!" the rumor went. "If you laugh
at them, they put you down!" They traded among themselves
and kept to themselves. They were militantly law-abiding and
silent. But there were other stories. Tales of blood oaths. But

there was nothing to verify these stories. "I'd feel better if one

255
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
of them would just get drunk or get in a fight or something,"

grumbled a Chicago cop.


The more than 100,000 true Moslems in the United States
were outraged when they heard of this heresy of their faith.
One Moslem leader issued a statement: "They have taken a few
to confuse the entire issue.
quotes from the Koran and sought
Islam means 'peace be with you,' and that's a long way from
what these people teach."
in other
Therantings of Elizah were attracting attention
leaders met to ponder the situation. His wild
quarters. Negro
cult was a serious threat to hard-won victories. He had an-
nounced himself a bitter foe of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People, claiming it was "Jew-con-
trolled." Yet, to fight it and publicize it would give fodder to all
the hate merchants of the white-supremacy groups. Negro
leaders could only sit back and wait, hoping that Elizah and
his followers would somehow disappear. But the Moslems con-
tinued to increase by the proverbial leaps and bounds.
exactly sure how powerful the secret sect
No one is has be-
come. Elizah claims 200,000 followers and says a million more
Negroes are under the influence and control of his organization.
And he sees a bright future ahead. One spokesman explains:
"We tap an almost inexhaustible supply of ill will ill will
which has been created for us by you devils."
Elizah continues to preach his curious brand of "nonviolent"
violence. Typical was a recent speech in New York's St. Nicho-
las Arena. "I am here to teach you how to be free," he cried
to thousands of his ebony-hued flock. "Free of the white man's

yoke! Every white man knows his time is up. We will unite all
the darker people of the earth. Then we will be masters of the
United States and we are going to treat the white men the way
they should be treated!"
Even as he peppers his speeches with references to the joyous

day of reckoning ahead, he cautions that "anyone who cuts the


256
ISLAM
"
throat of a white man will be 'set down,' a fate apparently

equal to death or worse.


Until the day comes, he asks his followers to "keep clean,"
pray five times each day toward the sunrise, and be patient. In
a typical nonviolent parable, he says: "We must divide the path
of the writhing white serpent within our midst and dismember
him coil by coil." In the scores of temples spread across the

nation, such edicts are read at weekly meetings. Followers, who


drop their surnames and take the designation "X" (since the
surname a "slave name" given to their forebears by the white
is

masters), are not allowed to talk of the sect's beliefs or mem-


bership.
Yet, there are "sympathizers" who will explain the pattern
ahead.
One of these, fingering his black explains:
tie, "One day
the sun is going to stop over Los Angeles and the bombs are
going to fall. You are going to vanish into thin air. I don't hate

you personally. But all white men are beasts. The Jews are the
worst and they'll be the first. They are the prime beasts who
must be destroyed because they can't live in peace or let anyone
live in peace. The Jew is the buzzard that gobbles up everything
and leaves nothing."
He continues: "I don't guess you know how much the Mos-
lems hate the Jews. They are going to keep prodding you until
one of you the Russians or gentiles drop the bomb. And the
Moslems will be waiting!"
Elizah is less specific in his writings. "The white race is a
pale-skinned, blue eyed race of devils and are now in their last
of the white
days of judgment in America. America is the first

race to be judged because of her evils done to the so-called


Negroes (a name, Elizah explains, that the white man gave to
true Africans) who are 'the true lost and found people' of
Allah."
As the movement grows, the prophet prospers. He lives in

257
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
a luxurious eighteen-room home in Chicago. He owns a restau-
store and cafe
rant, butcher shop, grocery store, department
and demands that his followers trade only among themselves.
he cautions.
"Stay away from sweethearting with those devils,"
"The Negro deceived by the race of devils." To train leaders
is

for his temples he also runs a "university" in Chicago and an-


other in Detroit.
In Harlem, "Malcolm X," once Malcolm Little, is the leader.
And in Los Angeles, a twenty-four-year-old known as "Henry
X," who is a graduate of the "university," controls six temples
in California.
There is also an elite corps known as the "Fruits of Islam."
These are burly young men who receive special training in judo
and function as a strong-arm squad. At weekly meetings in the
to frisk arrivals for
temples they are stationed near the door
weapons and bar nonmembers.
Slowly the ties between the Moslems and various happenings
are being discovered. One "sympathizer" boasts: "You should
have seen the Moslems in action in Harlem when cops brought
Jackie Robinson down to help settle a riot. Man, they run him
right out of town!"
In New York was the incident of a process-server who
there
entered the apartment of a Moslem when he was not present.
"When they found out he was alone with a brother's wife, you
should have seen what happened to him!" says another "sym-
pathizer." Supreme Captain Raymond Sharieff, Elizah's son-

in-law, today heads the "Fruits of Islam" who handle such


matters.
But as the Moslems grow in power, there is something even
more subtle happening. Negro leaders who speak out against
the cult find themselves ensnarled in various troubles. Negro
politicians find that they go along with Elizah's ideas, they
if

gain sudden support. Newspapers in colored communities


which publish his rantings in a sympathetic manner gain hun-

258
ISLAM
dreds of new Those who praise Ralph Bunche
subscribers.
whom the Moslems and call the "George Washington of
detest
Israel" are "put down." Certain shops prosper and others are
forced to close down.
In the Negro communities the somber, black-tied young man
who says little, just looks and listens, is more feared than any-
one. "Man, you should see their eyes when they watch you,"
says one frightened non-Moslem. "They're playing for keeps.
They believe in a super race. And they're it!"

But Elizah's weird even more insidious implications.


cult has

Unseen, the followers preach their doctrines and set back the
long, tedious, hard-won victories over prejudice and hate.
One colored matron expresses it this way: "I've started hear-
ing a word recently that I haven't heard in years. When a white
man or woman
approaches, someone will say 'Ofay!' This is a
word that I hadn't heard since I was a little girl in the South.
It means 'foe' in Pig Latin!"

259
PART VI
Cults of Sex
And Violence
Chapter

37

THE SATANIC MASS

THE popular idea persists that with the coming


of Christ's message there was a clean break with pagan beliefs
among converts. Actually, it was to take many centuries before
the ancient heathen ideaswere to disappear. Many of them
were even to be modified and absorbed into the structure of
Christian theology itself.

Quite naturally, the first major cultic aberration was the


continued emphasis on these pagan beliefs among converted
Christians. They recognized evil forces and foul gods who med-
dled continually in daily affairs, and they appeased them. Devil-
worship went side by side with Christian ritual.
The Black Mass was the final ceremonial outlet about the
sixth century as far as we know for such fears and interests. A
variety of mystery cults emerged. All heeded concepts of primi-
tive dualism and ancient Jewish mythology. Too, the distant
images were kept alive in varied satanic rites. Worshiping a
phallic symbol seems to twentieth century man only ribald non-
sense. But, to earlier man wanting to express his respect to the
universal creative activity which he saw all about him, it was an
obvious and simple symbol.
Too, there were female genital symbols expressing the gen-
263
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
erativewonders of nature. The priests of Baal entered their tem-
ples naked and the women exposed themselves
before phallic-
adorned images. In the Book of Kings, Solomon is denounced

because of his adoration of a female devil. The Satan of the


Middle Ages, a figure sometimes with female organs with a
goat's horns, the hoofs of Pan andwas a historic recogni-
tail,

tion of Dionysos, the divine of the Greeks who presided over


the Orphic mysteries.
No single document describes Black Mass at
in detail the

first hand. As participation in was


such always the deepest
rites

of secrets, the evidence is fragmentary, made up of confessions


of neurotics, hearsay tales and small clues, all of which must
be pieced into the jigsaw puzzle of satanic worship.
One must also understand the workings of the Medieval
mind. The Devil was no mythical "force" or "condition" of
mind. He was very real in the theological system, a personality
who roamed the earth with great numbers of lieutenants and
aides in human guise. He and his companions could be en-
countered at any time. Hence, we find a leading scholar of the
sixteenth century, Guazzo, debating with other intellectuals
the vital question of whether Satan and his host of demons
could fertilize "human" woman. His case histories tell of an
a
Italian girl who was persuaded by her lover to attend a Black
Mass where she gave herself to the goat as a pledge of loyalty
to Satan, She delivered a monster. (It was finally decided,

however, that demons could not impregnate humans.)


Legalists were also studying the problem of satanic influence.
The Inquisitors have been flayed by partisans on one side and
then whitewashed by partisans on the other. Actually the truth
of their activities lies between. The Inquisition was a stage in
the evolution of legal concepts which had been developing in
Europe for centuries. Trial by inquisition was a traditional
European procedure. (And, for that matter, remains one to-
day.) It is harsh and arbitrary by modern standards. But, it is

264
THE SATANIC MASS
well to remember, it was modeled upon an even harsher legal
code.
Torture was part of the process. Justice, as we know it, was
but one consideration. For example, the accused's confessor
functioned somewhat like an attorney today. He advised the
accused that if he was innocent but found guilty -he was to
regard himself as a martyr in the eyes of heaven. If he confessed
under the usual torture, he could withdraw his confession before
the judge. But the judge could decide which version was true.
There were sadists among the Inquisitors. But most were
reputable and honest men for their time and place in history.
They believed simply in what was known as "the Queen of
Proofs," meaning that a confession of the suspected person was
of prime importance. If it was made on the torture rack, it was

equally valid. Many confessions were so detailed as to give


them credence.
In 1477 one woman told of attending a witches' Sabbat
where the Devil was in the shape of a "dark man." The congre-
gation, she said, danced backward, renounced God and kissed
the foot of the Devil. He then changed into a black dog during
the dancing which followed and the worshipers kissed the hind-
quarters, she went on.
During the Black Masses the celebrant, often a priest, sprin-
kled waste on a host. Worshipers usually renounced faith, bap-
tism and the Eucharist, it seems. They acknowledged Lucifer
and worshiped him with "contrary" rites and ceremony.
Today the Mass of the Catholic Church of the West is stan-
dardized. This was not always true. In the Medieval church,
for example, no uniform ceremony existed. So in the travesties
and corruptions of the Christian rite called the Black Mass,
there were, of course, many different patterns too. Black Masses
reflected profound variations of theological, sociological and

psychological attitudes. In Europe between the sixth and


twelfth centuries, laws and ordinances were constantly being

265
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
but the punishment
made against worship of idols and devils,
was a mild penance only. As late as the thirteenth century, a

priest wasbrought before an ecclesiatical court for leading his


before the phallic image of a
parishioners in a fertility dance
records show. In
pagan god. He was only severely reprimanded,
the peasant world the old gods were still prevalent everywhere.
Perhaps the priest explained that he
was simply following an
old peasant custom a rite all his congregation and their fore-
fathers had enjoyed for untold centuries and an understand-
ing bishop agreed.
For years paganism and Christianity, therefore, existed
rather uneasily side by side. Dancing in the churchyard was a
of the Sabbat
pagan rite. And the Black Mass was but part
even though demonologists fail to differentiate between the two.

The Sabbat was linked to the old pagan rites and witchcraft,
while the Black Mass was simply a perverted Christian rite.

At a held in
typical twelfth-century Sabbat, traditionally
"flat country," there were a choir, phallic symbols and a large
wooden image of Satan. The body was human, the head, hands
and feet goatlike, and it was stained black. It carried a small
with an
burning torch between the goat horns and was adorned
erect phallus, an inherited symbol from the Dionysian mys-
teries. The Sabbat began with a ceremonial entrance of sor-
cerers and witches. Paradoxically, the chief witch, called "An-
cient One," was usually a young girl. She began the ceremony
with the traditional kiss on the hindquarters of the image or, in
some cases, the phallus. She then offered herself to the god by
fondling the sex symbol with traditional gestures.
Next came the banquet. The two sexes attending were exactly
paired. While wine, beer or cider were given to the congrega-
supposedly mixed trance-inducing herbs with the
tion, officiants
alcohol. After the banquet, the Sabbat dance began. Dancers
turned back to back with hands clasped and heads turned so
that the partners could see each other. They then started whirl-

266
THE SATANIC MASS

ing. The result of this dance was supposed to be an ecstatic


condition in which the bodies of the participants were to "be-
come one."
Now came the climax the Mass. The "Ancient One" be-
came the altar, lying naked upon it. A
man officiated as the
"devil." He recited a creed, acknowledging Satan as Lord and

describing him significantly as "chief of the serfs." Theoretically


a mutilation, and torture by a slow fire, of the altar-priestess
was to follow. This was, perhaps, performed symbolically. Next,
wheat and fruits, and in some cases, animals, were offered on
the human altar. (Here is evidenced the direct connection
with ancient fertility rites and also the analogy with the Mass.)
Now, a toad was handed to the officiant and its head cut off to
symbolize the breaking of the host over the chalice by the priest.
Beginning about midnight, the Sabbat lasted until the morn-
ing star appeared. When formal ceremonies came to an end,
the dancing and drinking continued. The rite ended with a
curse instead of a blessing.
Such goings-on seem hideous or at best ludicrous today.
But there is combined orgy, revelry,
evidence that the event
theology and burlesque wasn't taken too seriously by Euro-
pean rustics of the time. Despite admonitions of hellfire by
city authorities, it seems to have thrived. Wasn't it, after all, a
pleasant blending of fertility rites of the past, the harvest festi-

vals, and the Christianity of the overlords?


It was more. was protest. The reference to the Devil as
It

"king of the serfs" shows this. For the Church, allied with the
nobility, was to a downtrodden peasant a part of that nobility.
His gods were the old allies gnomes and demons, brown and
stunted and bitter like himself, driven underground. There they
thrived, giving aid to their own kind, the poor, impoverished
rustic.As for the looming Christian God was He not the God
of the oppressors?
Also, the social and revolutionary meaning of the Sabbat

267
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
was only part of it. For the man of the Middle Ages knew noth-
or logic. He knew only that
ing of nineteenth-century rationalism
there were Good and Bad, that the whole earth was in conflict.
Itwas well to worship the good God and ask for aid. But what
was wrong with placating the evil gods at the same time?
to find meaning in
Slowly the peasants' ancient rites were
urban fads and fancies. With this blessing came a different
Black Mass and black magic, fused for evil intent.
The Queen of Poisoners, Catherine de Medici, who owned
such magic talismans as the skin of a child, human blood and
"sacred in a philtre of "crystallized gold" mixed by
ram" blood
her astrologer, Regnier, is said to have ordered a magic black
The sacramental elements were a mixture of black and
office.

white hosts. The chalice was filled with human blood. She
son. It was magic and
bought the rite to save the life of her ill
an example of aristocratic Satanism.
By the late sixteenth century, the Sabbat was underground,
the Reformers were chasing witches with a vengeance unknown
to the Medieval Papists. De Raemond in his volume, Antichrist,
tells of a Sabbat in 1597. The evil deity was a black goat. The
official, a dressed as a priest and followed by two women
man
attendants, approached the animal and, after the trio had ad-
ministered the traditional kiss to the hindquarters, the man
dropped money in a silver tray before the beast.
A new initiate, was now presented. After placing a
a girl,

lock of her hair before the goat, she led it to a thicket where,
in theory at least, she fornicated with the evil deity.
Now the communion began. Slices of black turnip were

passed out and the holy water was a mixture of feces and men-
strual blood. The black turnip is more than impious horseplay
even now; it signifies the times of peasant famine when turnips
had to be substituted for bread.
Still another form of the Black Mass was already developing.

The savage attack on witchcraft by the Calvinists had driven

268
THE SATANIC MASS
the black art underground. The lusty, earthy and irreverent

doings of the peasants had been one thing. But tales of the won-
drous tricks of the hidden witches gave them a new fascination
and reputation they'd never had in earlier days. Opportunists
began to hire renegade priests to say Black Masses, to hex
enemies by magic, or win supernatural favors.
A variety of impious rites were soon blossoming, each claim-
ing to have more evil power than the last. A mystery cult, the
Bogomils, children of the Satanael, was charged with slaugh-
tering children and practicing perverse sexual rites. Their the-
ology claimed that the Father had two sons. The elder expelled
from heaven, came to earth and seduced Eve, who gave birth
to the human race. Hence, mankind was the sperm of hell. The
cultistsused water instead of wine, and figs instead of bread,
and purposely spilled the eucharist cup while muttering blas-
phemous prayers.
In seventeenth-century France, another form of Black Mass
cult emerged and created a major scandal. The idol was a two-
faced Satan, a mother goddess named Astaroth. The cult's rites
were performed in isolated buildings near Paris. Its appeal was
to the jaded aristocracy,who paid to participate.
This new
concern, a female devil, was a natural result of the
social upheaval of France at the time. Sexual laxity was chic
and chastity derided.
An interesting character of the time, Madame Guyon, was to
emerge as a force with her doctrine of Quietism. She held that
one need only remain passive and divine power would "sat-
urate" a pious lady. She told of a vision in which she was trans-
ported to a room where Jesus Christ pointed out two beds to
her. One, he explained, was for his mother and the other for his
wife. The Bishop of Meaux, outraged, tried without success to
still the prophet of the fashionable drawing rooms. She went on
to claim semi-divine powers and claim that she was the woman
prophesied in the mystic Book of Revelation. Above all, how-

269
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

ever, she stresses that spiritwas everything and the body noth-
was of no concern
ing. Therefore, what one did with the body
to either heaven or hell.

Her theories fitted neatly with the sexual chaos going on,
the role of a she-devil in a Black Mass
became a
and playing
fashionable pastime. A vast lexicon of unholy images were

flourishing by now. They included Baal, with the heads of a


and cat who ruled of devils; Forras,
toad, man sixty-six legions
Marchocias, marquis of
who helped magicians find treasures;
with wings and snake's tail; Behemoth, and Nuer.
hell, griffin's
a viper in her
Astaroth herself looked like an evil angel, held
fangs and rode a dragon.
She knew the past, present and future
and could tell you of how all people fell and were precipitated
arts and claimed to
into hell. She was, of course, a patron of the
have fallen into hell voluntarily.
all
The rites of Astaroth at that time surpassed previous
Satanic Masses for vile impiety. A celebrated criminal case of

1667 bared some of the doings.


A famed practitioner of magic and one-time fortune-
black
teller, La Voisin, or Catherine Deshayes,
had started her activi-
ties about 1660 when she rented a large
house on the outskirts
of Paris.Soon her goings-on were the talk of the best salons. A
came and went.
steady stream of midwives and apothecaries
There were laboratories in the house for the manufacture of poi-
sons. The woman had a standing order it was claimed with
fat to be used in the making of candles
grave-robbers for human
for her diabolic rites. More important, children kept disappear-

ing.
Rumors were that for a large fee an aristocratic lady could
of having her
buy a Black Mass at the house and be assured
wish fulfilled.

The dark rites were performed in a large pavillion on the


grounds, its walls hung with black drapes. An existing chroni-
cle tells of one masked, aristocratic woman coming as a La
270
THE SATANIC MASS
Voisan She first paid a large fee, then disrobed and was
client.

given large black candles made from human fat to hold in each
hand. She was led to the altar and laid naked upon it. The cele-
brant of the ritual, a man, now appeared.
Praying to the pine cones, associated with early Attic cult
rites, he now stepped between the woman's legs and placed a
chalice filled with human blood on her body, then kissed the
body. Next he took the host and inserted it into the woman's

vagina, committed the sexual act, removed the host and the
rites proceeded. It was later claimed that this particular client

of 1 667 was the mistress of the King and had paid for the rite to
insure her continued role and to secure victory over her rival, a
duchess.
The climax to the came when police traced a
house of evil

kidnaped child to the establishment. The proprietress freely


admitted using murdered children's blood in the chalice for the
ceremonies and claimed, in fact, that she had disposed of 2000
bodies in the furnace below the house. Further, she'd grown
rich on the foolish aristocrats.
This criminal Black Mass, known as the Giborg Mass, served
a purpose, hideous as it was. For the exposed commercial ex-
ploitation ripped the last evil, fearful dignity from the hoary
ceremony. Now, it was to be used only for obvious commercial
purposes. Magical dark masses were openly said to find the
hiding place of lost gold. Alchemic lore was added and Black
Masses were said to "the might of Mars and Mercury and all the
planets." Yet this too soon passed.
The final stage was farce. For amazing fees the Paris under-
world lured gullible tourists to cellars where sex shows, ad-
vertised under the title of a Black Mass, were performed nightly.
Cults and clubs keep emerging, trying to revive the
still

archaic symbolism. Actually, all deal with a simple commercial


premise: that there is always a percentage of the public
who
will be attracted to the concept of evil parading under the guise

271
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
of its opposite and to a rationalized excuse for free sexual aban-
donment.
Even more important factor, however, ended the reign of
a
the Black Mass and its meaning. It came with the whole philo-
sophical shift away from ancient dualism. Dramatists brought
the Devil on stage as a sort of bungling oaf, and authors made
him the sly protaganist of their stories. A
profound distrust of
the existence of the Devil followed. Then came the question of
whether evil itself existed in this best of all possible worlds.

Perhaps was an illusion and good the only reality! Theoso-


evil

phists were to win thousands of followers with the idea a few


decades later.

Satanism goes on and so does the Black Mass. The leading


exponent, Aleister Crowley, of whom we shall read later, was
to shock and amuse for a time with his revival of Satanic
Gnosticism.
But it is no longer public mischief, after centuries of influ-

encing human events. It has fallen from its high state of disgrace.

272
Chapter

38

THE SEX CULTS

THERE is an extensive psychological literature


devoted to the relationship of the sexual drive and theology.
But no one put it more succinctly than an Arkansas camp meet-
ing preacher who demanded rough-hewn planks on sawhorses
rather than chairs for his audience. "They rubs against folk's
personals," he explained, "and it keeps them amused during
my message."
Since antiquity, priest and prophet have reluctantly been
forced to recognize this relationship and somehow subjugate
it. During Egypt's glory, the established socio-theological struc-
ture did not allow for wanton sexual behavior. The problem
was solved by a yearly rite. Adorned women, perfumed with
myrrh, and eyes painted with kohl, would arrive by boat at a
prearranged spot along the Nile one day each spring. While
the eager men waited, the women would fumigate their genitals
in the hallowed smoke of a fire of sacred herbs and were then

ready for the holy revelry. A wild orgy would follow, properly
sanctioned by the gods, and the satisfied and renewed wor-
shipers would return to their homes for another year
of routine

living.

273
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

Greeks too who had no social reason for such rationaliza-


tions were to find among their maze of gods those who fav-
ored nay, demanded sexual licence. The famed goddess of
cavorted in orgy.
love, Aphrodite, smiled while worshipers
Initiates were
mysteries of Eleusis were
The venerated secrets.

secret rites. Modern occultists


regenerated and freed in the
have read between the lines of Plutarch's writings to give us
there was a fleshly cer-
vague interpretations. But it was evident
followed by a
emony with the drinking of aphrodisiac potions,
sacred pantomime including the rape of Kore climaxed
? by the
initiate has not learn, but
marriage of Pluto and Kore. "The
to

to experience," wrote Aristotle. In India ancient writings


also

deal with theological sex.


The notorious Roman revelry began as pagan ritual, finally

degenerated into open wantonness. During the Middle Ages,


witches confessed regularly to sexual e$counters with the Devil
and, later, a conventional phrase of confessed witches
was to
admit to having committed sodomy with the Evil One, "despite
his freezing coldness." Priests could hardly disavow and ignore

these sexual frustrations and had to relate them, somehow, to

the godheads or demons.

Today, most theologians are aware of the hazards. They


know, for example, that the public confessional where one is
allowed free exhibitionistic opportunity to confess sins real or

fancied often leads to excitements which end in some form


of free love. Historically, perfectionist groups usually decline
into some form of sanctified debauchery or "spiritual" mating.
Most communistic religious attempts have reverted also to some
form of orgiastic excess although, paradoxically, they usually
come into existence to escape the obnoxious society of the time,
whatever it might be.
Sexual problems are the first faced by a cult of commune per-
suasion. The reason is simple. Cultists look forward to a life-

274
THE SEX CULTS

time of isolated, sheer bliss. But with ordinary family ties put

aside in their new clan of "spiritual brothers," some method


must be devised to avoid rampant sexual activity. And so a
Frankenstein monster is usually reared to meet the odd situ-

ation. Celibacy, separate communities of men, women and chil-


dren within the commune, abstinence and various free-love
devices are invented. In other cases what is known in psychiat-
ric terms as the "father symbol" the cult leader rations out
sexual satisfaction as he sees fit. All these have been conven-
tional answers to the quandary.

problem head on, even if it was


Plato in his Republic met the
conveniently theory. The family was to be abolished and a com-
mune of women started. The state would supervise the breed-
ing of children and they would be brought up ignorant of their
parentage and in equality. Mother Ann Lee, an unfortunate
woman who founded the Shakers after losing four children in

infancy, offered her followers still another answer. Christianity,


she said, was "a war on lust" and demanded complete celi-
bacy. Today, the cult because of the restrictions has deteri-
orated to a few members.
Saint-Simon led still another kind of Utopian colony in France
based on belief in complete equality. After his death in 1825,
two followers, Bazard and Enfantin, took it over. Soon the
socio-economic colony was involved in quasi-religious practices.
A queen was enthroned, excesses and vagaries appeared, and
free lovewas taught and practiced.
Celibacy was the rule in another American commune, the
Ephrata colony founded by Johann Conrad Beissel in Pennsyl-
vania in 1733. Perfection was the goal here and even the door-
ways in the buildings were and Freud would have loved it!
"the straight
symbolically narrow to remind followers that
and narrow is the way that leads to eternal life." Still another
nearby colony was the Zionitic Brotherhood which had magical
275
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
initiations and rites to render the cultists "as pure in body and
morals as Adam was before the fall."

While sexual involvement is a side effect which must be


solved by some legalistic means in most cultic movements, some
groups have made it the focal point of their bizarre concepts.
Of these, none equaled the fantastic Aleister Crowley for
sordid and repulsive goings-on.

276
Chapter

39

CROWLEYANITY

"O woe unto me, my God, woe unto me;


for all the joy of my days lies
dishonored as the spangle-veil'd
Virgin of night torn and trampled
by the sun-lashed stallions of Dawn.
Yet in the frenzy of their coupling
do I tremble forth the pearly dew
of ecstatic light ..."

From Cultist Aleister Crowley's


Black Mass prayer, "The Twelvefold
Humiliation of God."

ON December 1, 1947, the wasted figure of a


man lay dying in a
cheap boardinghouse in Hastings, England.
At seventy-two, Aleister Crowley, brilliant scholar, mountain
climber, magician and priest of the Black Mass, was near the
end and in agonizing pain.
"More morphine! More!" he bellowed.
The doctor attending him quietly refused. "You're at your

limit," he explained. "You've been taking dangerous doses.


No more."
The old master of irreligion, "The Wickedest Man in the
277
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

World," howled with rage. "I order it! The pain will kill me if
you don't! Give it to me or you will die within twenty-four
hours! I swear it by the Great Spirit Taphtatharath!"
The physician refused and Crowley died within a few hours.
Observers say it was sheer coincidence that the hexed doctor
also died eighteen hours later.
The incident was the crowning climax to the career of one
of the most extraordinary characters of contemporary cultism.
It was also a final testimony to the effects of unyielding funda-

mentalism on neurotics.
Crowley 's followers contended that he was a genius. Critics
called him at various times, a devil, fool, madman and the
world's greatest scoundrel. They were all right.

Crowley was born the son of a wealthy brewer in Leaming-


ton, England, October 12, 1875. His father had retired before
the birth and both parents were fanatical followers of a sect
known as Plymouth Brothers which had a creed vaguely similar
to today's Jehovah's Witnesses.
The showed the marks of genius early. He was read-
child

ing by four and, by the age of ten, was musing over obscure
Greek and Latin tracts and writing hymns as recreation.
He showed, too, at an early age, the paradoxical psycho-
pathology which was to mark his life. He delighted in ripping
apart small animals and birds, he was to recall later. But sadistic
traits were not all. Playmates later remembered his pleas dur-

ing games to "be mean to me, please! Be cruel oh! please


be cruel!"
When youth under his
his father died, his uncle took the

theological control. This relative was to remain throughout


Crowley's life a symbol of vicious, unyielding and brutal re-

spectability. In his later writings, Crowley always likened God,


Christ and all Christians to this stern figure of Victorian re-

spectability.

278
CROWLEYANITY
He soon rebelled, and his slashing wit which was also to

mark his later career became evident.

During one family gathering in the parlor, his uncle turned


smugly to the boy.
"Do you know who the two bad kings are, Aleister?" he
asked.
"No, uncle!"
The prim uncle leered at the assembled guests. "Smo-king
and drin-king," he replied, amid the merriment.
Aleister looked about. "But there's a third one, Uncle/' he

replied.
"Oh? And who is he?" asked the uncle.
Aleister told him. The shocked party broke up while the
uncle strapped the boy.
By the time he was twelve, Aleister was indoctrinated with
a driving hate for all things "decent" and religious.
About then, he discovered his role in life. It came when
he was called to the headmaster's office when an epidemic of

homosexuality broke out. Although Crowley in later life was


to seek both men and women as bed partners, he appears to
have been innocent of the charge at the time. Indeed, he didn't
even know why he was being questioned. He pleaded ignorance,
was severely beaten by the headmaster and sent home.
His mother was outraged at the youth. "You are the Great
Beast prophesied in Revelation!" she cried.
The bewildered youth went to hisroom and looked up the
text in the ever-present Bible. He read: "And I beheld another
beast .and he spake as a dragon
. .
and he doeth great won-
. . .

ders . and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means
. .

of those miracles which he has power to do ... and his number


was six hundred three score and six." It went on to tell of the
Beast placing his mark on followers and of a Scarlet Woman
who was the Beast's whore.

279
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

The boy had found his niche! So, he was the Beast 666! He
started signing notes as "The Beast" or just "666."
was at
Later Crowley was to write that his first feat of magic
the age of eight when he put a curse on a schoolteacher and the

man died soon after. Whenever he first became enchanted with


black magic and devil worship, it was to be his life. Satan was
expelled from heaven, he decided, because he wanted to enjoy
life. He had rebelled against the stodgy rules of God a fellow

who, looked just like Uncle and was on man-


incidentally,
kind's side. He wanted them to be able to ride on such instru-
ments of evil as steamboats, which the Plymouth Brethren ab-
he de-
horred, to dance, to laugh, to play. Quite reasonably,
cided, the way to get even with his uncle, his mother
and all
was to ask Satan for
people of Victorian respectability, help.
Soon he was seeking out as friends all rebels of society. He
wrote odes to murderers, devised vile epithets about Queen
Victoria and as he wrote later seduced a housemaid on his
mother's' bed, leaving it stained to shock her. Too, he read
everything he could find on magic and methods
to conjure up

demons.
At twenty-one, he inherited $200,000 from his father's estate

while at Cambridge. By then a brilliant classical scholar, inter-


collegiate chess champion and excellent mountain climber, he
was also tortured by his wild sex drives. "It was a blind, horri-
ble ache for relief," he wrote. He visited prostitutes, seduced
barmaids and shop girls almost daily. He used them briefly,
then despised them. He penneda collection of pornographic

poems, "White Stains," and dedicated them to his uncle.


He
fell in love with a female impersonator, another student at Cam-

bridge, and wrote odes to the other youth's genitals.


He studied
the ancient Cabala's magic rites and became involved in a

plot to re-establish the Spanish monarchy.


It was about then that he heard of a magic group, the Order

of the Golden Dawn, meeting in London. It included William

280
CROWLEYANITY
Butler Yeats and the mystic writer, Arthur Machen. Soon, he
was part of the group and had quit school.
Crowley quickly found he knew more about magic than any
of the participants/ The Order's doctrine was a mishmash of the-
osophy, the mystery religions of Greece and Rome, the Cab-
ala, the Hermetic Mysteries, Rosier ucian lore and the Egyp-
tian Book of the Dead. Aleister had all but memorized them.
But he shocked the head of the group a martinet who
affected a kilt and dagger and claimed to be the son of a High-
land chief by demanding to see the results of magic rites. Like
most magicians, they weren't interested in actually see-
skilled

ing demons. It was satisfying enough to feel that one knew hor-
rible secrets ordinary men did not possess. For wasn't it true?
they ordered demons about and forced them to their will
while religionists only begged favors of their gods. It didn't
matter that one did not see the demons.
Soon Aleister had set up housekeeping in a lavish apartment
with another disenchanted youth in the group, and they were on
their own. They redecorated two rooms into "temples" with

altars, a human
skeleton, black drapes and magic signs on the
floor.They stocked up on such drugs as opium, cocaine and
morphine. They drank constantly and sniffed chloroform.
Aleister both used the friend, Allen Bennett, in bed and also
ordered up a steady stream of whores. One night, finally, after
drugging themselves and burning henbane and other narcotic
herbs in urns, they conjured up the demons within their magic
circle. Crowley wrote of it gleefully. "And the fun began!
Round and round tramped the devils, an endless procession;
3 1 6 of them we counted, described, named and put down in a
book. was the most awesome and ghastly experience I had
It

ever known."
Shortly after, Bennett left for Asia to become a Buddhist
monk.
The Beast, meanwhile, departed for Scotland and bought an

281
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

old castle near Loch Ness for $100,000. Soon he had things
humming. He took the title of Laird of Boleskinne and set up
a "temple room" with a magic circle. He started seeing visions,
with the aid of Indian
including witnessing the Crucifixion,
cocaine. Locals were
snakeroot, ergot and the usual opium and
and and running away.
the servants started drinking
aghast,
Back at the Order of the Golden Dawn, trouble was develop-

ing. The leader wasn't


able to contact the Secret Chiefs, the
same mystic leaders in the snowy Himalayas who instructed the
theosophists. All he could stir up
was Isis, the goddess of ancient
He set up the fabled Rites of Isis, but the magicians were
Egypt.
edicts. Crowley departed for
disappointed with its mundane
London and took over. But decay set in. By 1900 the Order
fell apart.

Crowley Mexico, a land he found enchanting. His


left for

masochistic urge emerged in this kindly atmosphere. It took


the form of seeking out diseased prostitutes who for a fee
u
would force" him to vulgar acts. It including eating waste.
"The dung of worthless women I desire!" he wrote.
Here, too, he ran into a fellow mountain climber who roundly
denounced him for his magic rites and depravity. Crowley was
stimulated by this. He switched his masochistic orgy to humbly
following the friend on a mountain-climbing expedition.
From
Mexico he went on to San Francisco, denouncing American
culture in the press, and then on to Hawaii, Japan and Hong
Kong.
Here he met Bennett again and, shocked at the depravity of
the Buddhist monks, whom he had always considered far su-
perior to Christians, he took Bennett with him for
another bout
of homosexuality. They lived briefly in a house until Crowley
started hunting water buffalo and Bennett, believing in reincar-
nation, left in a rage.
Crowley wandered on to India where he disguised himself as
a Hindu and entered a temple to sacrifice a goat. He then joined

282
CROWLEYANITY

up in a climbing expedition of K-2, the second highest peak in


the Himalayas. From there he wandered back to Paris and
settled down to Left Bank life.
He was soon a 'shocker for shockless Bohemians. Somerset
Maugham, describing him about 1 902 in a novel, The Magician,
wrote that he was a man well over six feet with small ears, a
neck like a bullock and heavy, moist lips. His eyes were the
most curious thing about him, Maugham noted. They were
large and singularly embarrassing, the author explained. While
most people's eyes converge when they look at someone, Crow-
ley had acquired, for effect, a habit of making his eyes remain
parallel. This gave the impression that he was looking straight
through one.
Crowley's magic efforts went on. Once he appeared in a
favorite cafe wearing a peaked hat and robe. With a wand he
wandered about muttering incantations. The startled habitues
said nothing to him about the incident. But later he brought it

up. "I made myself invisible the other night," he announced


triumphantly. "I was in this very cafe!" When he was told that
he'd been seen, he was outraged. "Why didn't anyone tell me?"
he demanded.
The conventional world of the Left Bank soon palled. Crow-
ley moved on to Scotland again. The servants shuddered as he
started summoning up new ghosts, including one two-hundred-

year-old who started rolling his own head up and down the
corridors.

Drugs, drink and debauchery had not weakened the bull-like


Crowley. He soon married a local belle named Rose who fan-
cied herself one of the new "emancipated women." But she
didn't know Aleister. He took her to Cairo on a honeymoon
and, for a treat, allowed her to spend the night with him in the
bat-filled King's Chamber of the Great Pyramid. While Crow-
ley went through magic rites in the eerie blackness and
claimed he summoned up a white light the bride fought off the

283
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
bats. He led her on to Ceylon for a hunting trip and then, when
she became pregnant, for a triumphant entry into Cairo again.
The couple arrived dressed in turbans, silk robes and coats of
as Prince Chioa Kahn, a
gold. Crowley announced himself
Persian noble. While his wife rested in an apartment, Crowley
dabbled such street tricks as licking red-hot swords, eating
in
his cheek. He set up
scorpions and running a dagger through
a temple in his apartment and soon decided that his wife was a
psychic contact with the old Egyptian gods. She wasn't sure.
She thought she was a bat.
Here Crowley formulated the doctrine which was to be the
basis for his cult, Crowleyanity. It smacked of the edicts of the

old Order of the Golden Dawn, attacked middle-class stuffiness


and Christianity, contained some lofty pornographic verse and
hymns in free verse, and quoted some demons who talked
in

King James idiom. It also stated the basic law of the cult: "Do
what thou be the whole of the Law." This rule, which
wilt shall
he'd plucked from an old satire by Rabelais on monastic life,
was to remain Crowley's favorite.
God, he said, was simply a "figure in Jewish mythology."
But another figure in Jewish mythology, Satan, was real enough.
The Crowleys soon departed for a walking tour through
China. Crowley out of his head most of the time with malaria
and opium deserted his wife and child in an isolated village
and went on to Shanghai. Rose somehow made it back to Ran-
goon. Crowley started back for Europe via America, acquiring
a few passing mistresses out of the scores he had during his life,
paused briefly in New York sporting a monocle to de-
nounce American culture again, and moved on to England,
where Rose, whom he had hoped he'd left forever, awaited him.
Crowley was by now busy launching his new religion. And
he had discovered a new' attraction, sex-magic, which he later
admitted stealing from the ancient text, the Panchatattva. Such
an idea quickly attracted a variety of jaded folk seeking new

284
CROWLEYANITY
thrills. But it was not common vulgar lust, he explained. It was

a dignified ceremony. Based on the 350 possible positions of


sexual intercourse, it ruled that only certain positions could be
used at certain times, depending upon astrology and the posi-
tion of the stars. Also,one sex act would kill enemies, another
bring riches and the like. The cultists gathered nightly to prac-
tice the sex-magic, and Beast 666 denounced and excommuni-
cated as a heretic any woman who would not do as he ordered.
Once Rose objected to one of Crowley's more sickening orders
to in the group. The furious
perform certain acts with others
Crowley hung her by her heels, naked, in the temple to watch
him perform sex-magic with a more devout disciple.
Crowley was now for the first time in need of money. In-
heritances which had come from father and relatives were gone.
His casual trips over the world were no longer possible. He set
out to make money. His first venture was to rent a hall in Paris
and announced the "Rites of Eleusis," based on the Eleusian
mysteries of ancient Greece. Admission was twenty dollars per
person. It was to be a smash opening night. He had shown a
promoter's flair for advertising the sex-magic ceremonies which
had outraged even the blase Greeks of centuries before. But
Crowley had to face the eternal problem of promoters of porno-
graphic "art." To lure the hated middle-class fools who could
afford twenty dollars, the rites had and flamboyant.
to be lurid
But if they were too much would move in.
so, the police

Opening night, the audience was greeted by masked ushers


with swords and escorted to cushions. There was a priest in a
red robe, a red altar, tom-toms, incense and a darkened room.
Crowley had arranged for the show to be spicy enough. Women
went into convulsions and tore off their clothes. Men fainted.
One reporter chronicled that when the room was plunged into
darkness at one period, someone grabbed him and started kiss-
ing him. He was quite pleased, he added, until he
found his ad-
mirer had a mustache. The police moved in after a few perform-
285
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
ances. Crowley keep going by taming down the show.
tried to
But the gate and the
fell off doors closed.
Next he organized a pseudo-burlesque show, 'The Ragged
aban-
Ragtime Girls." It went broke in Russia and Crowley
doned chorus line to the Muscovites.
his
Members of his flock gave him a few francs. But he was
a young poet with money who
desperate. Then he ran into
wanted to learn magic. Crowley took both the money and the
poet to Egypt. He shaved young man's head, leaving only
the
two and led the youth about on
tufts of hair to resemble horns,

all fours with a chain around his neck. He told the awed natives
that he had captured a djinn or evil spirit. "The superstitious
Arabs were greatly impressed by this sight/' he wrote.
By 1914 war had come. Crowley deserted Rose and departed
for the United States with a lady violinist. He soon deserted her,
however, and announced that he was an Irishman. At the foot
of the Statue of Liberty he gave a wild speech calling for Irish
freedom, then settled in Greenwich Village as a German propa-
gandist. There were mistresses and homosexuals aplenty to
please the Great Beast here. He named
the girls after animals
The Dog, The Camel, etc. and offered casual lovers special
thrills. He would hire hunchbacks, dwarfs and others with de-

formities to disrobe in front of him and his lover while they lay
in bed naked. Then the couple would fondle the deformities.
Crowley took a realistic view of these acts. "Women's love for

me is little more than their passion for the bizarre," he wrote.


Meanwhile he made enough to survive by penning attacks
on England and praising the Kaiser.
Here, he met the woman who was to stay with and equal
him about this time. She was Leah Faesi, a slim, nervous girl
with high cheekbones, full lips and a Roman nose. He decided
that Leah was, indeed, the Scarlet Woman mentioned in Reve-
lation who was to be the Great Beast's "mother of harlots and
the abominations of the earth." He heated a dagger and burned

286
CROWLEYANITY
a cross with three concentric circles on her breast for the Mark
of the Beast. She was
delighted.
When the United States entered the war authorities moved
inand stopped his pro-German writings. Crowley out to find
set

some new source of money. He tried starting a magical society,


"The Order of the Silver Star." It failed. He lectured on yoga
and Oriental philosophy. But he was always broke.
Finally, for some reason, friends backed him in the purchase
of a boat. He happily painted it red, decorated it with his slogans
and started up the Hudson. They found him a week later sitting

in a loincloth in the Padmasana a country cross-


position at
roads, demanding tribute of eggs, corn and milk from startled
farmers.
He tried desperately to get his cult of Crowleyanity going.
But later he was to admit that Americans just wouldn't take
him seriously.
His contempt for American culture and morality kept him
from being a successful charlatan even when he found a chance.
Once he found a matron who was willing to pay him $2000 to

learn yoga. But at the first encounter, a fashionable dinner party


she gave for him, his bitter sense of humor and hate of respect-
ability overtook his need for money.
Hecasually dropped his pants before the startled guests in
the living room and defecated on the rug.
"As know, my excreta is sacred like the Grand Lama of
you
Tibet," he announced, bowing to his hostess. "See that it is

properly revered!"
Again, he started raising money for a shrine to house a sacred
relic. Collections were going well until someone asked at a

meeting what the relic was.


"When I die, I intend to have my penis mummified and set

he announced grandly. "That is the relic!"


in solid gold,"
Somepeople urged him to go to Southern California,
where
cultism was appreciated. But he balked. The competition with

287
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

theosophists, Hindu mystics and Utopia promoters was too


rough. Yet he did pick up one idea
from the American cultists.
It was clear, he saw, that the successful cultist founded
a colony.

This the leader was free of police control and had his
way,
followers under his thumb. Other influences and distractions
would not disturb them. Also, one could acquire cheap land
and sell it back to followers at a respectable profit as well as
demand that they turn in all tawdry, earthly possessions
namely money before admission.
freedom and
Crowley decided Sicily offered the remoteness,
Back in England,
cheap land he sought, and he left for Europe.
he was outraged to find the British still annoyed by his pro-
German writings of some time before. It was all a joke, he ex-
contribute to his cult center. He
plained. Yet, no one would
picked up a new mistress to add to his Scarlet Woman and soon
had them both pregnant and fighting.
Just when he'd decided he couldn't raise the funds for his

colony, two aunts died in succession and he came into $15,000.


Without further ado, he went to Sicily, bought a deserted farm-
house and founded "Thelema," named after the monastery in
the Rabelais satire which had given him his slogan.
He painted the main room of the "temple" a bright red and
decorated the walls with murals of men and animals having
sexual intercourse with women in some of the more flamboyant
prescribed 350 positions. There was an altar with a niche con-
taining the "Cakes of Light" made from meal, honey, men-
strualblood and wine to use as the eucharist in the Black
Mass. There was a throne for Beast 666 and the Scarlet Woman,
and various bells, swords and torture instruments for sacrifices.
There were saucers of drugs set about and plenty of brandy
for the kiddies who needed it.
Crowley acquired a small Negro
boy, also, whom he used some of his sex-magic
as a partner for

rites, as well as the two women. Crowley, with new funds, was

288
CROWLEYANITY

constantly using cocaine, opium, morphine and marijuana. But


he was able somehow to quit when he pleased.
One
writer visited the temple and described the Black Mass.

Crowley would appear in red and black robes, chant and with
a dagger slice his chest with some symbols. Then he'd conse-
crate one of the Cakes of Light to Satan and put it against his
chest to soak up the blood. He would then baptize a rooster as
St. Peter while the Scarlet Woman lurched about the room do-

ing a dance which was to insult the Virgin Mary. She would
then demand the head of "St. Peter" and the rooster would be
beheaded by The Beast and its blood poured on the Cakes,
which the worshipers then ate. In another ceremony a goat was
brought in and its throat was cut so that the blood would pour
over the naked body of Leah. Others were less delicate and re-
fined. Narcotic herbs such as Jimson weed, henbane, foxglove,

squaw cabbage and others burned in urns about the room dur-
ing the rites. Meanwhile, jaded sophisticates (who thought they
had seen everything) came to pause briefly, then moved on.
What they saw was, indeed, enough to send anyone away:
Crowley doing dances with a razor-sharp sword; Leah wander-
ing through the village naked and drugged; Crowley's various
children, drunk and doped, torturing stray dogs and cats; crazed
rites all night with mass sex-magic.

So, the income wasn't what Crowley had expected. He went


back to England to find more devoted followers. For the visit
he dressed as a Highland chief, his mouth painted with lipstick
in a cupid's bow.
He found one
couple and brought them back after seducing
the husband. The wife finally departed angrily for England and
told in the London tabloids what was going on. An outraged
howl went up from all England and the Sicilian authorities
acted. They closed down the temple.

Crowley wandered about now, seeking new money. He wrote


289
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
to destroy
Trotsky offering to launch a worldwide campaign
Christianity. Leah went to work as a prostitute. He tried to

shock and amaze. But by now, in 1924, the public just laughed
at his antics. And Crowley, was worn and tired. Luckily
at fifty,

he came across a wealthy American widow and made her his


mistress. They moved to Tunis and, by the time
he left her, he
and other rich women
had enough money to move about find

to keep him going. But it was getting more difficult.

He went back to England and offered to lecture at Oxford


for a reasonable fee on Gilles de Rais, a fifteenth-century gentle-
man in France who hired to kidnap small boys. Crow-
people
ley's hero would violate these youngsters, then decapitate
first

them and hang their heads on pikes in the living room, where
cosmetics and displayed
they would be regularly painted with
to friends who were asked by de Rais to select the prettiest head.

Oxford authorities demurred and the students paraded in pro-


test at this attack on freedom of speech by reactionary
edu-
cators.
The Great Beast next marketing a perfume to lure the
tried

opposite sex, an Elixir of Life


made from Crowley's own
sacred dung and an aphrodisiac Kubla Khan #2 cocktail
made of gin, Spanish fly, laudanum and other ingredients.
Next, he tried to sue for libel to raise funds. But, in the case
that followed, the defense recounted one of Crowley's rites in
which he had crucified a frog. The disgusted judge threw the
case out of court.
Crowley tried other ideas. He started a restaurant serving

exotic dishes. But the public, aware of his penchant for dung,
stayed away. He tried to run an advice-to-the-lovelorn column,
and then wrote the Rosicrucians, accusing them of stealing
some of his magic formulas.
He turned out lurid books, pamphlets and hymnals. But none
were commercial successes if they were allowed to be printed
at all He had published dozens of volumes of poetry and even

290
CROWLEYANITY
sneaked some of the less vulgar verses into anthologies. Indeed,
his book of ritual, The Equinox, was published in the United
States and won the questionable distinction of being denounced

by Supreme Court Justice Francis Murphy as "the most las-


civious and libidinous book ever published in the United
States."
A
study of Crowley's unpublished writings show that the
notorious Beast was an apt disciple of the Satanic Gnostics.
Ludicrous and repulsive as his dogma was, it reflected accu-

rately ancient satanic doctrines, as his cabalistic shorthand


notes show today. It was based upon the belief in the conflict of
opposites, the doctrine that evil was necessary if one hoped to
achieve final illumination. The materials used in his Neo-Gnos-
ticMass physiological substances from male and female
had specific meaning in the ancient lore. The natural and obvi-
ous reaction to Crowley is to condemn him for what seems to
be obscenity for obscenity's sake. But this is oversimplification.
Crowley was within the Gnostic tradition when he made offer-
ings to evil powers with the hope of communicating with them.
His "bread and wine" represented the material creative prin-
ciple. His ceremonies were phantom survivors from a time when
theological and moral questions were directed from quite a dif-
ferent mental outlook. Today, our concepts of dualism in the-

ology bear no relationship to what Crowley maintained was


"truth." Yet, his reaching back to archaic superstitions did have
the element of historical accuracy, repulsive as they might have
been.
A small trickle of money came to Crowley from followers in
the United States until the beginning of World War II. After
that, he was forced to move boarding house.
to Hastings to the
Here a regular stream of the curious and enchanted came to see
him, the boy who had been given such a strict religious up-
bringing.
He was through. His reputation as "The Wickedest Man in

291
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
theWorld" and his theatrical stunts looked pretty tawdry next
to Hitlerand Buchenwald. When he talked of desecrating sa-
cred objects with vile substances people were more likely to
chuckle than gasp.
Yet he had one last moment of glory if he had been alive
to know.
After his death his followers took his body to be cremated.
But before they did, there was a brief ceremony. His "Hymn to
Pan," one of his most sacrilegious and vulgar works was read.
It began:

"Oh Man! My man!


Come careening out of the night to me, to me.
Come with Apollo in bridal dress ." . .

The action, from there, becomes unprintable. It served its

purpose. From pulpits throughout Britain, the clergy arose to


denounce corruption of the death rite: The same
this vile men
who believed in that vicious, strict, Christian God, the one who
looked just like little Aleister Crowley's uncle.

292
Chapter

40

EDVAARD ADMUSSON AND


THE LIVING FLAME

IF THERE was a certain psychopathic sincerity


in the wild excesses ofCrowley, there was a bunco man's brav-
ado in the crass doings of Edvaard Admusson, a former United
States Navy sailor who was hoodwinking fashionable psychic
circles in London at about the same time. For quaint nonsense
his cult, the Living Flame, remains unequaled.
The record of Admusson shows that he was ar-
first official

rested in Waukegan, Illinois, in June 1913, for running a bogus


fortunetelling enterprise in a tea shop. He was a handsome
blond giant, a type which Hitler was later to describe as the
idealNordic superman. In his first brush with the law, Admus-
son had been charged' by two angry husbands with clipping
their wives. He was freed when the ladies refused to testify

against him.But Chicago newspapers dubbed him the^ "Wau-


kegan Warlock" at the time and poked fun at his touted psychic
abilities.

A few years later, the glib con man made the police blotters
in New Orleans. He had swindled, from a rich widow, $10,000
which she had been more than willing to give him. Her two

293
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

sons, however, had Admusson arrested and their mother com-


mitted to a mental hospital. Admusson spent eleven months in
jail and when free joined
the Navy.
aboard a ship
By World War he was a petty officer sta-
I,

tioned with the allied fleet at Alexandria, Egypt. After a minor


injury, he was transferred ashore to a desk job. Here he was to
find the golden gimmick with which to build his strange career.
It came when he ran across one of the strange band
of dilet-

tantes deciphering the mystical lore of the Great Pyramid. This


of the learned
fellow, an Englishman, showed Admusson a few
volumes which trace the history of the world by the architecture

of the massive monument. Bertrand Russell in his "Unpopular


remarks: "It is a
Essays" speaks of these pundits of stone and
the history
singular fact that the Great Pyramid always predicts
of the world accurately up to the date of the publication of the
book in question, but after this date it becomes less reliable.
Generally, the author expects, very soon, wars in Egypt,
fol-

lowed by Armageddon and the coming of the Antichrist, but


as Antichrist
by this time so many people have been recognized
that the reader is reluctantly driven to skepticism."
Admusson was not interested in such pedantic refinements,
however. He saw in the study of the mathematics of the Great
Pyramid something which far surpassed tea leaves as a way to

separate wealthy matrons from their money.


Soon he was visiting temples and museums and flattering
naive scholars with his probing questions. He accumulated
notes on the Sphinx, after reading Plutarch's explanation that
the statue was the symbol of secret occult wisdom, and his tales
of men such as Solon, Thales, Pythagoras and Exdoxus, who
had been given magical powers after visiting the strange monu-
ment. He read the ancient Book of the Dead and the story of
Osiris, divine brother and husband of Isis, who had been born

to save mankind. He acquainted himself with mortuary magic


and the various old gods of the underworld. He read, too, of the
294
EDVAARD ADMUSSON AND THE LIVING FLAME
cult of Isis, the great goddess, whose tears swelled the waters of
the Nile and who dwells on the star Sirius.
J. G. Frazer in his classic, The Golden Bough, tells how this

cult of Isis was to find its place in Christianity after it spread


through Europe and western Asia and how many of her attri-
butes were borrowed for the Holy Virgin. "Indeed," he wrote,
"her stately ritual with its shaven and tonsured priests, its ma-
tins and its vespers, its tinkling music, its baptism and aspersions
of holy water, its solemn processions, the jeweled images of the
mother of god, presented many points of similarity to the pomp
and ceremony of Catholicism." Admusson discovered, too, that
Isis had survived in the Christian West, not only in the cult of

the Madonna, but as a symbol of magicians, as an occult al-

legory. Here, he mused, was a goddess worthy of bringing gasps


from many a woman's club, this "High Priestess of the Living
Flame."
A few months after the end of the War, the handsome blond
giant arrived in London. He wore a tailcoat, striped trousers
and a fez. A massive gold watch-chain hung from his pearl-gray
vest and carried a score of gold charms depicting the various

gods of the pharaohs.


Here, in the occult capital of the world, he announced to the
various necromancers, telepathists, occultists and spiritualists
that he was none other than Osiris Reborn, "the King of Life."
In London competition was brisk even for monarchs of the
universe. Theosophists, Crowleyites, Rosicrucians, Indian mys-
tics and even a few Anglican prelates were trying to build fol-

io wings.
Admusson's cult of Isis seemed doomed until, by happen-
stance, he heard of the ailing Lady Sabrina Blaykelocke, who at
her country home at Hampshire was suffering from a variety
of undiagnosed afflictions.
After dusting off his fez and polishing his charms, Admusson
called on the lady's husband, Lord Eustace. A
wealthy faddist

295
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
who raised prize swine, he was director of the "Neo-Theopneu-
stic League," an organization which had as its mission the study
of "the mysterious power which the divine spirit exercises in
making men recognize and communicate the Absolute Truth."
Lord Eustace a few years before had also financed a fruitless
or, more exactly, fungiless expedition to find hypnotic mush-
rooms.
Osiris Reborn stated his case quickly. He was versed in the
secret medical lore of the pharaohs, he explained. Since conven-
tional remedies had failed, he was ready to cure Lady Sabrina.
His remedies, consisting of incantations to Egyptian gods,
bedside
mysterious gestures, burnt offerings to Isis and a certain
manner, quickly had the lady up and about again. Fascinated
by his wife's speedy recovery, Lord Eustace turned over the
facilities of the Neo-Theopneustic League to the handsome
charmer. The cult of the Living Flame was soon a lively enter-
prise. There were tracts, booklets and
doctrines. Members
searched ancient writings for hidden messages and talked of
someday riding bareback on sacred Apis, the great white bull.
Admusson now contributed another ritual. Those who would
find the secrets of the ancients must exist on a special diet of
yogurt and sacred parched barley. Admusson himself, as Osiris
Reborn, would do the parching and take only a reasonable
profit when he sold it to followers.
He toured England, Holland and France with his message,
lecturing in tights of gold cloth and with oiled skin while Lord
Eustace and the Lady, garbed in flamboyant robes covered with
mystic symbols, sat on thrones behind him. A phonograph
played lute music during intermission, and strange incense
burned.
By February 1920, Admusson had two hundred devoted fol-
lowers and was ready for his next move.
The world was soon to be wiped out by "the sword of Set,"
the terrible destroyer, he announced. Only one place would be
296
EDVAARD ADMUSSON AND THE LIVING FLAME
saved. This was a small island on the other side of the glob
Admusson had in mind
the Isle of San Marcos, across tl
Gulf of Baja California from Guaymas. He had seen it in 191
when serving aboard a destroyer and had never forgotten i
beauty. It was uninhabited and used only by mainland ranche
from the nearby town of San Ignacio as grazing ground
Further, there was a magnificent volcano.
The Living Flamists had to leave for it immediately, he sai<
because there wasn't much time.
The first contingent prepared. Its leaders, in addition 1

Osiris Reborn and Lord and Lady Blaykelocke, included


chemist and authority on cosmic mysteries, Alfred Bayer;
plump, thirty- two-year-old schoolteacher from Holland, Ma
griet Wramstael, a maiden lady who also owned interest in
cheese factory; a white Russian, Casimir Kranikov, recent]
escaped from the Bolsheviks, who pawned his jewels to take h
family.
In the group arrived. Admusson immediate!
March 1920
befriended the padre at the tiny fishing village of San Ignaci
by donating a painting and a five-year supply of votive candle
to the church. He told the puzzled natives that the Living Flan
ists wanted to build a bathing resort on the nearby island, i
lease was arranged.
Osiris Reborn had definite ideas for his commune. It woul
follow the architectural style of ancient Egypt. Someday, h
told his followers, there would be limestone pyramids an
marble temples. But for the time being the quarters would ha\
to be built of the local building material, adobe and thatch.
If the group had envisioned romantic Egyptian architectun

ithadn't reckoned with the peon workmen hired to build th


quarters. For the small commune emerged self -evidently as
plainMexican fishing village, despite Osiris Reborn's drawing
and angry instructions.
Even Admusson's "temple" on the crest of the island sun
297
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

mit failed to take on anything but an Aztec appearance. It was


forty feet square and built around
a patio. A massive couch in
the center was suspended on four poles carved to signify Egyp-
tian deities. Perfumed oils burned in pots beneath each pole.
Here Osiris Reborn lounged in his gold tights and directed the
work.
By late July, the commune was bustling with a heavy sched-
ule of ritesand ceremonies. Lady Sabrina, as "Keeper of the
Flame," was put in charge of parching the barley
and making
the yogurt. Lord Eustace, who had bought a white bull from a

local rancher, was training the beast to be god-like. A Miss


Pruvac, one-time secretary for the League in London, ran the
commissary.
Itwas now time to tell the remaining faithful in Europe that
the refuge was prepared. Admusson sent cables: "Embark. We
await you."
On August 9, 1 920, 1 80 cultists left Marseilles. They reached

Guaymas aboard a small Panamanian steamer and were


brought on by fishing boats. As they came ashore Osiris Reborn,
standing on a gilded pedestal, gave a benediction
and added the
blessings of Ammon, promising them health, happiness and
love.
Admusson's promised health and happiness and love was
more than an idle boast. The simple life, plain food and sun-
shine made everyone feel excellent. A sort of Egypto-Yoga de-
vised by Reborn strengthened flabby muscles. There was
Osiris
semi-nudism. And the healthful labor was explained by the
Keeper of the Flame as "a penalty of the earthbound. Only
through toil may ye earn the consecrated barley by which ye
shall be made immortal."
There were also lively communal gatherings by moonlight
which kept things hopping. Yet these sacred and ancient rites
somehow failed to impress the local peons. They reported to
the padre that wild sex orgies were taking place on the island.

298
EDVAARD ADMUSSON AND THE LIVING FLAME
He made several trips there, but found nothing to confirm the
tales.

There were, of course, conflicts. Kranikov and Lord Eustace


quarreled, and the White Russian departed for Paris. This inci-
dent was to give the cult a world-wide notoriety. The impover-
ished Kranikov called upon the editor of Paris Match and con-
vinced him that the story of the commune would make lively
reading. It did. Titled "The Sun Cult of the Ancients," it
created a minor sensation. It told of the joys of a simple life, the
wondrous virtues in parched barley, the spiritual delights of
meditation and above all how rampant free love really was
the only way of life.

Soon new cultists arrived, eager to have a go at the barley


and Egypto-Yoga not to mention the free love.
Lord Eustace, despite his fumbling failure to train the sacred
bull so that garlanded priestesses could ride it, contributed his

bit, too. He died in 1922 during a visit to London and left the

Living Flamists $300,000 in his will.


In Mexico, news of the cult attracted still others. Political

refugees and freethinkers at odds with President Elias Calles


and his government started arriving.
Admusson promised them immunity if they would
political
just turn over all their earthly possessions. But when police
came and pointed out that the island was part of Mexico, Osiris
Reborn cheerfully turned the refugees over to be taken back
and shot.
In 1928, Adumsson suddenly had to reverse his tactics. Pres-
ident Alvero Obregon and his government gained control in
Mexico and Admusson's treachery to the radicals was reviewed.
Admusson decided it was an opportune time for a recruiting
trip to the United States. He helped himself to the funds
and
told the Living Flamists he'd be back soon.
In New York, he started his campaign for new cultists with
typical furor. He hired a beautiful, statuesque Ziegfield girl to

299
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
dance to an Egyptian tom-tom, then unpacked his gold tights
and started lecturing.
He also went shopping for a yacht.
About then, the stock market crash made yachts a proverbial
drug on the market and Admusson and his lovely new High
Priestess were soon sailing back to Mexico aboard a sleek white
boat renamed the Sphinx.
The triumphant return to the island was slightly marred by
the cultists' reaction to the red-headed chorus girl. For a High
Priestess she seemed amazingly untutored in
Egyptology, they
complained, even if she did apparently have other special
training.
Tensions grew. People wanted their money back. The attrac-
tions ofEgyptian lore and love were wearing thin. Admusson
had probably anticipated as much when he bought the yacht.
Over the years, he had been swapping his followers' contribu-
tions for Mexican gold and hiding it. Now he quietly loaded it

aboard the yacht.


One morning the cultists awakened to find Admusson, the
High Priestessand the yacht gone. Within a few weeks, the dis-
enchanted followers of Osiris Reborn packed and moved on.
But peons still talk about this strange colony of three decades
ago. There's even a superstition along this stretch of barren,
isolated coast of Baja California that, on the
nights of the full
moon, virgins must be hidden. For, the simple fishermen will
tell you, sounds of tom-toms can be heard from the dark island

and figures gather there and lock together in sensual abandon-


ment. A virgin who hears those tom-toms or sees the ghosts will
be ruined for marriage.
As for Osiris Reborn, he was never apprehended. In 1939,
the body of an American businessman named Edward Adkins
was found in a Zurich, Switzerland, hotel room. Papers showed
he had sometimes used the name of Edvaard Admusson. And
the room contained some priceless art
objects from ancient
Egypt.

300
Chapter

41

FRANZ CREFFIELD:
NAKED REFORMER

IN 1903, migrant fire-and-brimstone preachers


were no oddities in the quiet farm town of Corvallis, Oregon.
They rode in through the pines and pastureland in buckboards
or wagons, paused a few days to exhort the rustics to give up
their wicked ways, took up a collection, and moved on.
But the preacher Franz Creffield was different. He was in his
late thirties, tall and gaunt with a bright red beard which hung
to his chest. He still spoke with the guttural accent of his home-
land, northern Germany.
Most nomadic parsons were vaguely attached to some de-
nomination. Not Franz. He was preaching through divine direc-
tion, he said, and was founder of a new denomination, the
Church of the Bride of the New Prophet. What was more, he'd
been given a name by revelation. He was to be called Joshua
the Second,
The lanky giant was a spellbinder, no question. There was
the look of an eagle in his eye when he took to shouting and
calling down the angels. And he didn't move on. Soon he was
preaching every evening at some household meeting.
The men didn't particularly take to his threats and promises
301
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
which seemed to them like a hundred fundamentalist preach-
ments they'd heard before. But the ladies! They came away
from those prayer gatherings with a new flush on the cheeks.
About then Joshua the Second started having revelations.
in his thick
"Worshiping at night is wrong/' he announced
Teutonic accent. "It is the time of darkness and evil." He went
on to explain that, henceforth, services would be held "in the
afternoon, when God gives up the pure sunshine and the sweet,
good air."

The menfolk thought that was just fine. They'd be working.


Joshua the Second started meeting homes with the
at various

ladies each afternoon.

By then, his revelations were taking some curious twists. He


told the ladies, for example, that to be truly saved they'd have
to forget the vanities and pomps of the wicked world. And
clothes, he howled, were "the most sinful vanity of all."
The day he stepped intothe parlor prayer meeting naked, the
ladies gasped and blushed. But they'd all been secretly expect-
ing it.

A few meetings devout matron, eager to show her


later a

piety, stripped down


with Joshua. Then another. Then one
warm afternoon the red-bearded nude preacher stood before
his of naked parishioners and told them that he'd had a
bevy
new revelation just the night before: He was to seek out a
woman to be the mother of a new, great prophet!
seemed a natural development. Certainly, they all agreed,
It

the Church of the Bride of the New Prophet wasn't an ordinary


run-of-the-mill gathering. When he unctuously asked for volun-
teers to remain with him after services for "private conversa-
tion," it seemed an almost sacred task.
There were rumors by now that some strange things were go-
ing on at Joshua the Second's prayer sessions. But the ladies
indignantly denied such gossip.
Still, the prophet saw trouble and scandal ahead. The founder

302
FRANZ CREFFIELD: NAKED REFORMER
of thenew church announced that it was time to find a haven
away from the wicked, evil world. He selected by revelation
Tiger Island on the Willamette River, a few miles from
Corvallis.
With hammers and saws, the ladies went to work building a
camp on the island, a refuge where the faithful could worship
as God intended. By snowfall, it was half completed and prayer

meetings started in the parlors again for the winter. But sud-
denly a photograph appeared in Corvallis. It had been taken
the summer before at Tiger Island. It showed the red-bearded
giant and his ladies at work at the island. And all of them were
stark naked!
It was the biggest scandal ever to hit the town. More than a

dozen husbands signed to have their wives committed to in-


sane asylums. Eight fathers sent their daughters to corrective
schools.Angry swains broke off their engagements.
On the night of January 4, 1904, they started looking for
Joshua the Second. They found him at the home of a reputable
townsman where he'd been boarding. The mob grabbed the
squirming prophet, ignoring his dire threats of eternal damna-
tion for this sacrilege, and stripped him to his favorite condition.
On the edge of town they gave him a coating of tar and feathers
as protection against the chill wind and told him never to
return.
The next day they were stunned to hear that Joshua the Sec-
ond was back in town. What was more, he announced his en-
gagement to Maud Hunt, the daughter of the man who'd given
him sanctuary. They were married a few days later.
Joshua the Second stayed indoors until the furor died down.
After a few months, he was seen about now and then.
More trouble came. Refusing to neglect his holy mission,
Joshua the Second had gone to Portland to visit one of the
cultists when her husband was on a trip. The man returned un-
expectedly to find the naked prophet and lady in "private con-

303
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
versation." Joshua made his getaway, but the husband swore
out a warrant for his arrest. When the news reached Corvallis,
Joshua's bride filed for divorce and her father posted a $400
reward for the capture of his erring son-in-law.
A few weeks later a boy fishing spotted a lank creature, naked
and with a flowing red beard, scurrying through the forest.
Joshua the Second was captured and sentenced to two years
in the state penitentiary.
Released after fifteen months, he went to San Francisco.
Here he wrote his former wife Maud, who had moved to Seattle.
Would she re-marry him? She agreed. Soon Joshua was with
Maud again, living with her relatives, a Seattle couple.
Joshua immediately set to converting them to his Church of

the Bride of the New Prophet, He was now ready, he said, to


lead his followers to a place where they could all escape forever
the sins of the wicked world.
The couple sold their home and gave Joshua the money. On
April 17, 1906, they stood at the railroad station bidding the
prophet fond farewell as he set out on his sacred mission to find
the promised land.
He explained that he must hurry. The world was soon to be
destroyed, city by city, he said. He'd had a new revelation only
last night.

If thecouple had any doubts as to the wisdom of giving all


they owned to Joshua, it was dispelled the next morning. For

they picked up the newspaper to discover that San Francisco


had been destroyed by earthquake and fire! Maud quickly noti-
fied the one-time female cultists in Corvallis of her husband's

great prediction.
Joshua, too, was making capital with his prophecy. He
quickly acquired some land near Walport, Oregon, and sent
out a call to his erstwhile flock in Corvallis. "Come at once,"he
announced, "if you would be saved. Corvallis will soon perish
like San Francisco."

304
FRANZ CREFFIELD: NAKED REFORMER
There was panic in Corvallis. Wives deserted their husbands
and mothers left their children as the holy exodus began. Irate
husbands met to plot revenge.
One of the townsmen was selected as the community's assas-
sin. He arrived at Walport and was told that the prophet was at

a dock getting ready to ferry a newly arrived group of women


to his haven. The would-be revenger rushed to the landing just
as the boat pulled away. Aiming his pistol at the prophet on the

deck, he pulled the trigger. It was a misfire. The ladies all


agreed: God had protected Joshua by a miracle!
Joshua wasn't so sure. He announced that he and Maud were
departing immediately for Seattle, on a holy mission.
The Corvallis men, however, were going to rid themselves
of Joshua once and for all. Another man George Mitchell,
whose sister Joshua had "wronged" earlier was dispatched to
Washington to track down the home-wrecker.
The emissary found Joshua and Maud on a Seattle street
corner on May 7. Quietly he stepped up to them, placed a
behind the prophet's
pistol left ear and pulled the trigger.
Joshua fell dead.
Maud looked down at the body. "He is immortal," she told
police. "He will rise again!"
Mitchell was arrested, tried and acquitted.
But Joshua's way with the ladies was not to end with the
grave.
He may have wronged the sister by ordinary farm town stand-
ards, but she had been a "divine instrument," the ladies agreed.
The wronged sister met Mitchell at the railroad platform
when he was released. As she kissed her brother, she put a pistol
behind and pulled the trigger.
his left ear
Joshua the Second the prophet with the flowing red beard,
who had only tried to show the ladies the naked truth of religion
had been revenged. Meanwhile another prophet with a flow-
ing red beard was thriving in the Midwest.

305
Chapter

42

BEN PURNELL AND THE


HOUSE OF DAVID

GALLOPING baseball players with two-foot


beards, roller-coasters filled with rollicking tourists and the de-
flowering of demure maidens were all part of the kaleidoscopic
history of one of America's most outlandish cultic enterprises.
Before the fun was over, the doings of the Israelite House of
David were to result in the most sensational scandal in the his-
tory ofAmerican cults.
The excitement actually started back in 1620 in England
when a woman, who was short of funds but long on imagina-
tion, announced she was the first of Seven Messengers sent by
God Joanna Southcott outlined the world's
to save the world.
future: With the arrival of the Seventh Messenger, all who be-
lieved in him would be assured of
everlasting life. The rest of
humanity would die.
She had reached this conclusion, she said, by interpreting
some passages from the Book of Revelation, even then the fa-
vorite hunting ground for such theological deviants.
If Joanna had left well enough alone she'd have been all

306
BEN PURNELL AND THE HOUSE OF DAVID

right. During the next twenty years she collected a fortune and
gained 100,000 followers.
Then she announced that she was going to bring forth the
Second Messenger by immaculate conception. She went into a
trance and died trying.
Now the schisms which were to mark the cult's history began.
A half-dozen people announced themselves as the Second Mes-
senger by divine revelation and denounced each other as here-
tics. A progression of a sort followed, with Richard Brothers,

George Turner, William Shaw, John Wroe and James Zerell


all of England each being proclaimed a successive Mes-
senger.
By the mid-1800's, the Fifth Messenger, John Wroe, had
added some colorful refinements. He had outlawed shaving and
hair-cutting because, according to Scripture, "man is the head
of the woman." And, as Wroe saw it, since Scripture also said
that it was a shame for the head of a woman to be uncovered,

itwas obvious a man should let his hair grow.


Such minor eccentricities could have been ignored by stolid
Britishers. But Wroe added still another rite, reaching back into
ancient tribal ceremonies and the feudal "right of kings." Wroe
called it the "cleansing of the blood." In less romantic terms it

simply meant that he had first choice of all virgins in the cult
and after he'd dallied with them to his satisfaction they were
formally for marriage.
fit

It took a time for word of this to get around and, in the mean-

time, the Sixth Messenger published an 800-page book of


previous Messengers' sermons called The Flying Roll, which
became the bible of the cult. Soon after, the Flying Rollers, as
they were known by then, were chased out of England after a
series of incidents and mob violence, relating to the "blood-
cleansing" rite.

Some went to Australia, others to Canada and the United


States. By 1890, the largest group was in Detroit under the

307
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

spiritual leadership of one Michael Mills, who had meanwhile


proclaimed himself the final Seventh Messenger. His eighty fol-
lowers turned over their wages to "Prince Mike," gave him their
daughters for the "cleansing of the blood" ritual
and generally
acted as abject slaves awaiting the day in the near future when
the world would come to an end.
Prince Mike didn't know by 1894 he had a heretic and
that
rebel in his tidy arrangement. The scoundrel was a handsome
thirty-four-year-old newcomer with a red-gold beard,
Ben Pur-
nell, who'd been quietly studying the cult's history and was by
now not only convinced that the present leader was not the true
awaited Seventh Messenger but that he, Ben Purnell, was. When
heavenly verification of this allegation failed to arrive, Ben de-
cided that perhaps some heaven-inspired court intrigue would
be the answer.
He found a solution to his quandary in Prince Mike's wife, a
jealous woman. He coyly pointed out to her that Joanna South-
cott had certainly said nothing about deflowering young girls.

And, he asked, why weren't women given equal rights in a re-


ligion founded by a woman?
While Mrs. Mills was fuming over this question, Ben per-
suaded Prince Mike to institute a new ritual: The Leader an-
nounced that all wives were to be rotated among the men.
Mrs. Mills went storming to the law, sued for divorce, and
openly named all of her husband's various mistresses. A
lynch
mob was forming in Detroit when police hustled the confused
Prince Mike into hiding at Ann Arbor.
A sensational court trial on morals charges followed. A
num-
ber of girls took the stand to tell of the "cleansing of the blood"
ceremony. One said she'd run around the Prince's living room
months trying to evade the ritual and finally from plain
for three
exhaustion settled back on the couch to get the chore over with.
Others gave similar lurid details. Parents of the young heretics
testified, however, that the Prince was a fine fellow and that
their daughters were lying.

308
BEN PURNELL AND THE HOUSE OF DAVID
After minutes' deliberation, the jury brought in a verdict
five
of guilty and the Prince went to prison for five years, where he
was to die.
Purnell, however, knew that he wasn't the new leader yet.
There was still a sticky problem. Since Prince Mike had pro-
claimed himself the final Messenger, Ben could hardly become
an eighth!
The showdown came at a prayer meeting in a rooming house
parlor in the spring of 1 895. As the bearded men and the women
in long dresses prayed for the release of their persecuted Mes-

senger, the young man with the shining red-gold beard suddenly
collapsed.
As frightened companions watched, he began to shake, and
trickles of saliva appeared on his lips. His eyes were glazed as
he spoke to the awed group.
"I am the Seventh Angelic Messenger," he said. "I am the
true Messenger. Fire and brimstone await those who doubt
me!"
The cultists gasped at such heretical raving. He continued to
shout: Anyone who doubted him would suffer eternal hellfire!
.But Eliza Courts, the ambitious queen of Prince Mike's
harem, was not about to lose her new power. She stood up and
denounced Ben as a fraud, opportunitist and impostor. She had
been ordered to rule the cult until Prince Mike was released,
she said.
By the time the stormy argument ended that night, Ben had
frightened a few members into joining him. But he was forth-
with banished from the organization.
However, Benjamin Franklin Purnell was not to be so easily
thwarted in his dream. Born in the mountains of Kentucky, he,
at the age of twenty, had started wandering the Midwest with
and baby daughter, making and selling brooms. During
his wife
thisnomadic period, before discovering in 1882 the Israelite
House of David in Detroit, he'd seen the advantages of being a
holy man. Claiming to be a wandering preacher, he'd been
309
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
minutes' talking, some-
given free food and shelter for a few
With of his own, he theo-
thing Ben enjoyed anyway. a flock

rized, he could get rich.


of the House of David
expelled pretender to the throne
The
hurriedly loaded a pushcart with the cult's tracts,
trimmed his
hair and beard in imitation of Jesus (after studying some paint-
white and vest and publicly pro-
ings), garbed himself in a
suit

claimed himself the Messiah and the younger brother of Christ.


Several years later, he wandered into the town of Fostoria,
Ohio. Here he found a small splinter group of the House of
David, some of them with money. important, they were
More
ready to recognize him as the true Seventh Messenger.
Within a few days, he went into a trance. He announced that
Fostoria was the chosen refuge of the lost tribes of Israel. His
delighted new followers built him a home
and church.
Things went well until February, 1903, when calamity
struck. Ben's sixteen-year-old daughter, Hedy, had been put to
work in a local fireworks factory. A fire broke out and, within
minutes, the building went up with a blast.
A
deputy arrived at Ben's home when he was conducting
a
to tell him the sad news. Hedy's charred body
prayer meeting
had been found among others in the devastation.
Ben looked prayer group and recognized his theolog-
at his
ical dilemma immediately. After all, how could the Seventh

Messenger who had promised them everlasting life allow his


own daughter to die?
have no daughter," he bluntly replied.
"I
The deputy shook his head sadly. "The body is that of your
daughter," he repeated softly.
The bearded prophet turned to his followers. "She doubted
me." he explained. "She harbored a scorpion in her breast. This
is her punishment."
The deputy coughed and looked at the silent cultists. "Mis-
ter, if the folks in town reckon on lynching you after I tell them

310
BEN PURNELL AND THE HOUSE OF DAVID
about to be stopping them," he drawled slowly.
that, I ain't
In the weeks that followed, rocks were thrown through the
windows of the church and Ben's home. Tensions increased.
Finally the authorities called on Purnell. If he didn't get out of
town and fast they couldn't be responsible for his safety,
they said.
Ben Purnell had no intention of losing his hard-won glory
and new life. He recalled that his group had been corresponding
and visiting with some two hundred Flying Rollers in Benton
Harbor, Michigan, who seemed ready to accept him as the true
Seventh Messenger.
Now Ben had another divine revelation. The lost tribe of
Israel was to migrate immediately to Benton Harbor, he de-
creed. Selling their homes and farms, the cultists moved to their
new spiritual home within a few weeks.
Here they were to find their destiny, although hardly the one
their Messiah had promised. But during the next twenty-three

years, Ben the self-proclaimed Seventh Messenger, the Mes-


siah, the younger brother of Jesus Christ and leader of the Lost
Tribe was to amass an estimated ten-million-dollar fortune,
establish a kingdom in the heart of America with a rotating
harem of beautiful girls, and found one of the largest religious
communes in world history. With his personal "commonwealth
fund," he was to own farms, industries, buildings (each with a
biblical name), a town of nine hundred residents, an amuse-
ment park and a baseball team.
While the theology he inherited was typically Adventist with
the aforementioned unique touches, he was to add dogma prov-

ing that airships, automobiles, phonographs, telephones, radios


and motion pictures had all been predicted in the Bible as signs
of the end of the world. In one of his tracts, "Where Did Cain
Get His Wife?" Purnell was to promulgate the concept that the
serpent in the Genesis story was not really a snake but a special
creation by God, a black man and a preacher, who committed

311
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

adultery with Eve. Cain was born of this sin,


he explained, and
found his wife among the black and evil people who multiplied
from the original creation. Adam's he said, was having
sin,

sexual relations with Eve after she'd been seduced by the black
preacher.
of
Ben was an uneducated genius with an instinctive grasp
cultic psychology. Soon after he arrived at Benton Harbor, he
held a ceremony during which he was crowned himself King
Benjamin, King of the House of David. His position assured,
he told his followers to sell all property immediately and turn
their money overto him.
He bought land several miles from town and put the Flying
Rollers to work. Soon there were five buildings. Four were sim-

ple shacks. The fifth, the Diamond House, was an elaborate


mansion for Ben and his wife.

Some of hisnew-found followers naturally questioned why


their hard-earned money should be used for such luxury for the
leader. But untutored Ben knew in his bones the traditional
cult-leader rules. With a cold squint he'd study the critic a
moment. "Everything I do is to test you," he'd announce. "To
test your fitness to enter the Kingdom!"
If such threats didn't keep the cultists in line, one of Ben's

sermons was sure to send them running for cover.


His prose portraits of what awaited sinners would send shiv-
ers down an atheist's spine. When Ben got going you could

actually smell lakes of burning brimstone and ache


from the
agonies of the seven great plagues. Followers even claimed they
had really heard the desperate shrieks of terrorized sinners in
the bottomless pit of Hell when Ben spoke.
After such a tirade, he would pause.
"Do you believe?" he would shout, pointing at a quivering
woman.
"Yea, Lord," she'd moan.
"Are you ready?" he'd yell angrily at another.

312
BEN PURNELL AND THE HOUSE OF DAVID .

"Waiting for the golden day," she'd reply.


"Will you throw off earthly possessions forever!"
"All earthly possessions!" came the answer.
There would be groans of ecstasy as Ben would now tell of
what was ahead for the faithful. The Golden City with its foun-
dations of shining diamonds. The great Twelve Gates of Pearl,
even now swinging open as the millennium approached. Eternal
life, glory and of course King Ben helping God manage
things.
The excitement would grow as Ben began to babble strange
and meaningless words, his eyes rolling toward heaven. His
long arms would make twisting gestures and his leonine head
would finally drop exhausted to his chest as the latest revelation
came thundering from above.
Even with such meetings to keep the believers in line, the
outside world and its tawdry pleasures kept pressing in. But the
wily leader understood the cultists' insecurities and frustrations.
He knew that, to keep them faithful, he must make them suffer.
He did. He quartered them in the simplest buildings, moving
them each month so they'd have no feeling of ownership or
property. He made them abstain from liquor and tobacco, of
course, and then ruled out meat-eating. They were allowed to
wear only the cheapest clothes. Finally he outlawed kissing. All
these steps he justified by interpretations from the much-

maligned Book of Revelation. When he tired of the "cleansing


of blood" rites with one group he would perform mass mar-

riages. At one time, he married twenty-four girls to young men


in a mass ceremony. He ordered, too, detailed "life confessions"
from every member. If one wasn't colorful enough, he'd call the
cultist to his mansion and rage about his lying and heresy. Many

cultists actually started inventing lurid sins to keep Ben happy.


Meanwhile Ben lived in regal splendor flaunting his comforts
and luxuries before the downtrodden followers. This contrast,
he knew too, was just what his serf -like flock needed to feel se-

313
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
cure. Even that wasn't the final step, however. Ben didn't want
to see the cultists forming emotional ties except with their
leader. He began a policy of divorcing and re-marrying couples,
shuffling them around and climaxed it all by for-
in confusion,

bidding sexual intercourse except when he deemed fit.


The more Ben confused, tortured and frustrated his subjects,
the more assured they were that he was indeed the Seventh

Messenger testing their wills for the glory just ahead.


Daughters ready for marriage were brought to him, clad in
silk robes for their initiation rites. The wages earned outside the

colony were all turned over to Ben.


The commune treasury increased rapidly. Ben decided to

put the money to work. He bought some land near Lake Michi-

gan and his subjects started construction of an amusement park,


complete with roller coaster.
Why an amusement park? Ben knew. Not only would his
bearded followers, acting as employees, be a colorful attrac-
tion, but for them to see people having fun and be denied it
themselves would make them more dependent on his will.
It was a booming success. Crowds came by excursion boat

across the lake from Chicago. He was soon selling 200,000


tickets a season and the unsmiling, hard-working cultists gave
him theirwages as well as the profits.
One unexpected problem emerged; there was the matter of
the Sabbath. Since Sunday was the biggest day of profit, Ben
could hardly close down for services. He had a divine revelation
and was told that, since the milennium was just ahead with
eternal rest earth days no longer interested the Lord.
With profits from the park, Ben secretly bought common
stock in the streetcar systems in Benton Harbor and the neigh-
boring town of St. Joseph. When he was ready, he told his fol-
lowers to apply for jobs as motormen. They were refused. But
only temporarily. Ben made a call on the boards of directors,
told them of his investments, and soon the streetcars were being

314
BEN PURNELL AND THE HOUSE OF DAVID
run by bearded cultists. Ben again happily collected both the
profits and their wages.
Entertaining and handling crowds was, self-evidently, not
only a good way to keep his followers in line, decided Ben, but
a way to get rich, besides.
His next venture was a baseball team. Starting out on the
local circuit, the bearded players were soon in the semi-pro

league and then on a nationwide tour.


With waving and beards, the team was part-athletic,
hair

part-vaudeville and the money rolled in. Even when Ben was

exposed for hiring professional ballplayers wearing wigs and


false beards it didn't hurt the gate.
The prophet now built a lavish summer home on an island
in Lake Michigan and relaxed.
Like Prince Mike before him, King Ben had faced a series of
morals charges. But they didn't concern him particularly. In
1910, he had nearly been in court when a morals warrant was
issued. He had fled to Canada. By 1914, he was in trouble again
with a Mose Clark, the husband of a former cultist, who charged
Ben with seducing his wife. Ben hit for Canada again. In 1919
a former cultist, Isabel Pritchard, tried to bring Ben to justice

charging him with a morals offense against her two daughters.


In rebuttal Ben mustered all the women in the colony to sign
a paper testifying to his purity.
Then 1922 brought a real crisis. Mr. and Mrs. John W. Han-
sel, of Nashville, Tennessee, filed charges against Ben. They
wanted back the money they'd given him as well as payment for
the nine years of labor they and their children had turned in

as members of the cult.


Ben shrugged it off. But Esther Hansel was an angry and em-
bittered ex-cultist. She forced authorities to issue a standing
warrant for Ben's arrest. Police raided the colony regularly. But
Ben couldn't be found.
Then she took her tales to the Detroit Free Press, which pub-

315
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
lished a series of exposes in 1923 and called for the Michigan
attorney general to act.
Yet, no one could act. Because no one could find
Ben. For
four years the search went on. Some said he was in Canada,
others claimed it was Australia.
Then on November 16, 1926, a girl, Bessie Daniels, walked
into a police station.
He'd been liv-
King Ben had never left the colony, she said.
ing in secret, underground rooms
below his mansion.
A raiding party found the King in a secret chamber, appro-
priately enough in bed. Several
of his current harem in night-

clothes were with him.


He had wasted away to one hundred pounds from tuber-
culosis. His once-glowing beard was gray and tattered. At sixty-
five, his heyday was past.
The looting of his domain started with the long trial. He sat
listlessly as the nine
hundred followers fought over the cult's
wife of fifty
property and the cash in his personal vault. His
years took the stand to say she'd never
been supported by him.
Angry followers hired lawyers to get their money back.
The Hansel couple was awarded $26,188.18 as damages
and recompense for the $5000 they'd given King Ben and for
their years of labor. Others moved in for their share.
A doctor told the judge that King Ben had but a little time to
live. He was allowed to return home with the promise that he

would not associate with the young women of the cult.

He died on December 16, 1927. A few of the faithful could


not believe it. They said he would rise again in four days. A
state law requiring a body be embalmed within two days
to

was ignored while anxious followers sat around the ornate cof-

fin for ninety-six hours, praying and watching the wasted, thin

face of the brother of Christ.


He did not arise. He was tired very, very tired.

316
Chapter

43

JOHN BRIGGS:
SOUTHWEST MESSIAH

DOWN the corridor of the centuries every man


has dreamed of his own Utopia, such as Ben Purnell's wondrous
institution.
In the Republic Plato put his ideal society thousands of years
Thomas More (who invented the term "utopia,"
in the future.

meaning literally "no place"), Francis Bacon, Samuel Butler


(whose ideal "Erehwon" was "nowhere" spelled backward),
Edward Bellamy, William Morris and H. G. Wells all created
literary Utopias, reactionary or revolutionary, which mirrored
their ideals. Most of these dreams have been radical, seeking to
rebuild the foundation of society and attempting to tear man out
of his web of circumstance.
During the nineteenth century such Utopian socialists as
Saint-Simon, Fourier, Proudhon and Robert Owen constructed
new societies on paper. Marx and Engels, discarding such
thinkers as sentimentalists, announced their own "scientific"
Utopias.
Meanwhile, Utopian colonies did exist in the United States.
At New Harmony, Indiana, a commune was attempted. And, at

317
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

Oneida, New York, another emerged, which was to end


in

havoc. But its vision was to linger on in the mind of a youth


who, by reviving the ancient lore of numerology and combining
it with the age-old Utopian dream, was to build
his own color-

ful commune a sex cult based on the figure nine!


He was John Briggs, a crafty, thirty-year-old
bank clerk
whose cultic odyssey began on a snowy day in Chicago, Jan-
uary 17, 1920. On that day when local police were being
coached on methods of enforcing the newfangled law of Pro-
cash drawer
hibition Briggs quietly took $97,000 from the
of Chicago's Northside Trust Company and strolled out into

the blizzard.
Lesser men might havefrittered away the fortune on wine,

Briggs. He had his dream, and


women and race horses. Not he
had made careful plans. Ahead was an ideal community, dic-

tated by the magic figure "9," where promiscuity was to be

equated with divinity and sexual satisfaction


was to be offered
to all under the guise of piety.
the only son of a
Briggs had been born in Greece in 1889,
British father in the import business. When he was ten, his

parents were killed in a boat accident and


the boy was adopted
by a rich Greek widow.
He led a lonely life, home and found his only
was tutored at

companionship with the household servants. From one


of these,

a member of a sect of Mysore Province in southern India, he


first heard of the joy of polyandry. In his fantasies, the youth
pictured the lovely houri who was trained
so deftly in the art of

love by her many husbands.


Itwas a curious sexual dream. But the boy was at the impres-
sionable moment when his glands were bubbling with activity.
The image thrived.
When he moved to New York City with his foster
thirteen,
mother. Here he read of the notorious Oneida Community in
upstate New York. John Humphrey Noyes, who had founded
318
JOHN BRIGGS: SOUTHWEST MESSIAH
the commune, had instituted polyandry and the practice had
thrived until the leader finally fled to Canada in 1879. The

youth noted, too, that Noyes had collected some $600,000


from commune members. Polyandry was not only fun, he
mused, but it paid well!
At seventeen, Briggs's life of insulated luxury ended with an
abrupt shock. His foster mother died, and the youth found she'd
left him only $5000.

By 1918 he was working as a bank clerk in Chicago. He was


a handsome, quiet young man who was reputedly a serious stu-
dent of theology and a devoted churchgoer. Unknown to his
employers, however, he'd been the leader of a "study circle" in
his apartment. Here young couples sipped plum brandy and
searched the Scriptures for secret messages.
This esoteric quest for Gnostic wonders ended one evening
when, after a few warming cups of brandy, Briggs arose to

speak to the group.


He had, he explained, the night before experienced a vision
and God had spoken to him directly.
The occult students stirred anxiously. What secrets had God
divulged?
Briggs paused, then pulled a copy of the Apocrypha from a
shelf and placed it on the table before him. The students knew
what it was. They'd already searched these fourteen books of
the Old Testament in the Vulgate that were taken from the

Septuagint. That the books had been excluded by biblical au-


thorities from the Authorized Version and were considered spu-
rious and filled with "hidden secrets" only added to their fas-
cination.

Briggs now spoke of God's words. "He told me to seek the


answer life in the Apocrypha," he explained. "He said to seek
to
in Esdras the manner in which men shall be to women. Here,
God said, is where we shall understand life."

Now the wily Briggs paused. "He told me, too," he went on,

319
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
"that after we have found the secret, I am to lead you to the life
which we will find hidden here."
He opened the volume to 1 Esdras and read a marked pas-
that women have do-
sage to the hushed group. "Ye must know
minion over you: do ye not labor and toil and give and bring
all to the women?" He turned now to another passage and read
on: "Great is truth, and mighty above all things."
Here was the secret, Briggs said. And God had clinched it

with the final passage, which he read now: "Unto you is para-
dise opened."
God had
given Briggs the ultimate truth. It
was nothing more
than a matter of interpretation from now on. Briggs saw to that
quickly. As the study group pondered the divine revelation in
the weeks that followed, Briggs guided the talk to one conclu-
sion: Women were to have many husbands!
Within a few months, Briggs took the next obvious step. A
wife of one of the devoted members remained at the Briggs
test the practical appli-
apartment with the leader to put to the
cation of polyandry. another. With an obvious display of
Then
unselfish piety, they gave testimony that having several men
as bed partners rather than just one was indeed an unequaled

religious experience. The legal husbands puzzled and mildly


annoyed at the leader's having dallied with their wives none-
theless returned to hear the distaff revelations.

Soon, the tempo of the meetings stepped up to a lively pace.


The sanctimonious ladies found having three or more husbands
to entertain with God's orders to make it respectable a

pleasant chore. And the husbands, while not anxious at first


to

share their legal wives with spiritual brethren, found that being
selected as a proxy husband by another lady for a night was,
somehow, often adequate recompense.
Briggs, meanwhile, knew that the round robin sexual activity
under the guise of divine revelation would probably go unap-
preciated by police. His answer was the traditional one of
the

320
JOHN BRIGGS: SOUTHWEST MESSIAH
cult leader: isolation of his flock. Further, he'd already put
down the roots with his reference from Esdras. He was ready
for the next move. He must lead them to, and open, the "para-
dise," he said.

Early in 1919 he announced that it was time they all found


a place where they could live as God intended. There were one
hundred couples by now in the group. Briggs outlined his plan
to them.
Each woman would have nine husbands, he explained. And,
as a selfless acthe and nine Councilors to be known as De-
vouts would each take nine wives. These martyrs, he ex-
plained, were to be living testimony of the evils of one man and
one woman living together. By their very selfless excess, he said,
the rest of thecommune would have a constant reminder of the
tawdry world they were leaving behind.
Almost as an aside, he announced that each member was to
contribute a thousand dollars toward the new Utopia. Briggs,
meanwhile, stole the fortune from the bank and went into hid-
ing.
It was six when an amazingly large number of
weeks later
touristsbegan by train at Grand Canyon.
to arrive
With suitcases and bundles they made their way on foot
through the icy wilderness to Sentinel Rock Creek. Here Briggs
and his nine assistants awaited them. They moved on and set-
tled in isolatedCoconino County, Arizona, just west of the
Navajo Indian Reservation.
Briggs told the eager followers that now he would, hence-
forth, be known as John Humfry, the Leader. He pointed out
that the new name contained the mystic nine letters. He didn't
add that was derived from the name John Humphrey Noyes,
it

founder of the ill-fated Oneida community.


The new cult settlement grew rapidly. There was $199,000
from the members and the Leader's own $97,000.
Navajos were hired, and homes to meet the needs of a poly-
321
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
androus society were built of adobe. The houses were identical.
Each consisted of a large main room with a
forty-foot passage
running off There were eight cubicles emerging from this
it.

hallway. The main room was for the wife and her husband for
the night. The woman's eight extra husbands lived in the cubi-
cles and took their turns in order. The homes of the Devouts
were the same, only eight wives lived in the cubicles.
The Leader's home was distinctive. The main room was a
semicircle and the row of cubicles curled off from it, making
the house a mammoth figure "9."
With the houses up, it was time for the sacred marriages. The
Leader called the faithful together. For the occasion he was
wearing a black velvet cape with the figure 9 in white sewn on
the back.
He explained the ritual. The women would
line up on one

side, the men on would select his nine


the other. He, as Leader,
wives first, followed by the Devouts. He went through the line,
picking out his ladies. The Devouts took their turns.
Now there were ten women left. Quite naturally, they were
the most unattractive residue. The Leader explained, however,
that they would be known as the Princesses. They were now
allowed to go down the ranks of men, each selecting nine hus-
bands.
With a wave of his hand, Briggs named the gathering all
husband and wife, or vice versa, and the ceremony was com-

pleted.
The was to last seven months. Then the flaws
sexual Utopia
of the imbalance became evident. The Princesses found that the
casual lovemaking back in Chicago had been interesting. But

having a new husband who had been pacing his cubicle for
eight days as an eager bed partner each night was tiring.
The Devouts, too, found that tending to a harem night after
night was a wearing chore, not a delight. They took to sitting in

322
JOHN BRIGGS: SOUTHWEST MESSIAH
the desert and watching the sun with growing apprehension as
it sank below the western hills.

Quite logically, the next step brought havoc. A husband of


one of the Princesses sneaked into the cubicle of a lonesome
wife of one of the exhausted Devouts. Soon things were as lively
as back in Chicago and the nightly traffic grew increasing

heavy.
The final crisis came when a disgruntled Devout, Jonas
Streete, set out for Fort Defiance, 175 miles away. He was going
to report the irreligious goings-on to authorities, he told com-
panions.
The Leader went on a rampage when he heard of the De-
vouf s treachery. But it was too late. Panicked cult members
packed and took off in all directions.
Streete, meanwhile, reached the town. But he met only

apathy. The only legal authority he could find was a public


health officer, whom he told of the scandalous cult activity. The
official was not easily shocked. He chuckled as the outraged
Devout told his yarn, and said that it was only vaguely a public
health problem.
Some few days later, bored deputies set out to investigate.
They found the strange buildings deserted.
Today, scattered across the United States are seventy-year-
old couples who listen with mild amusement to talk of the wild
ways of New York's "Lost Generation" just after World War I.
Because they know better stories of their generation, stories of
flaming youth in the desert. Only they prefer not to discuss
them.

323
PART VII
Fads, Fancies and
Cultic Attachments
Chapter

44

THE STREET PREACHERS

BESIDES organized cults there are the faddists


with introvertive creeds so specialized that they are, in effect,
one-man sects. Some offer unusual interpretations of Scripture

relating to the alimentary canal, or publicly pray for the day


Old Nick will show himself so they can best him at Indian
wrestling. They sing, dance and recite all to save the world.
In downtown Los Angeles the street preachers and wander-
ing singers of sacred songs begin to arrive before dawn each
Sunday. They unload from buses and streetcars and emerge
from cheap rented rooms. Across America, in New York, Chi-
cago, Detroit, New Orleans, it is happening too.
Some wear outlandish costumes. A colored preacher arrives
in a top hat and a cutaway coat. He is somber and carries a mas-
sive Bible under his arm. A little woman in white shoes, flowing

gown, gloves and hat gets off a bus. She carries a worn violin
case and makes birdlike gestures as she hurries along to her
favorite street corner. Later in the day she will open her case. It
contains no violin, but bundles of tracts and her luncheon of
nuts and fresh fruit.
An old man with a massive gray beard comes ponderously
down the street. He is dressed in shabby cowboy clothes and

327
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
moves slowly under the load of silver ornaments which adorn
vest and jacket. He will sing gospel songs and strum his guitar to
find
attract a crowd. When he preach, listeners will
starts to

that he knows where "them Ay-rabs" stand guard over Moses'

temple in the desert and will listen to his plea for a new crusade.
re-
By late morning, several hundred pensioners, laborers,
and are listening to the street
tired couples giggling teenagers
preachers.
There is a standard technique to draw a crowd. The would-
be-
be minister starts talking on some deserted street corner or
fore an isolated bench in the park. Soon the passers-by congre-
But if the sermon is not lively enough they
move on to
gate.
more lurid and amusing fare. Revolutionary ideas, wild ges-
to lure and hold sinners.
tures, rampant emotion are all devices
One woman has collected a score of listeners. The ubiqui-
tous guitar hangs from her neck. She wears a flowing, ancient
dress and talks in a lively staccato with waving gestures, punctu-
"Praise the Lord! Praise His
ating nearly every sentence with
Name!" She passing strollers.
calls to the "Fear
not, flock, little

fear not, for, yea, verily, I am here to tend thee!" As one pauses
to listen, it is discovered that this is no ordinary Christian but
a prophet sent
by God. She has talked with Christ personally.
She knows Mary and, she says sadly, was indeed once a fellow
worker with Mary Magdalen.
A bully, also in cowboy clothes, comes up. He is a journey-
man heckler known to all the street preachers.

"Why ain't you home washing the dishes?" he shouts, looking


to the flock for amused supporters.
The woman ignores him, babbling on, stepping up the pace
of her sermon until it becomes a jumble of confused words.
"You can't play that git fiddle, you're phoney," he taunts.
She talks on.
"She's just a damned-fool old woman," he shouts to the

crowd.

328
THE STREET PREACHERS

The woman turns to her mocker. "And you ain't no real cow-
boy, neither," she shouts back, pointing at his feet. "A real cow-
boy would have on boots, not muddy work shoes!"
The crowd cheers and the heckler slinks away like the Devil
in a Medieval morality play.
"The Devil's always with us Praise God! Always here!
Praise the Lord Wearing hoofs or dirty work shoes, he's
after us! Praise God! ..." She is off again with new enthusiasm.
Behind her a small man stands with Bible in hand. He has
large ears, peeling with sunburn. As she rambles on, he keeps
nodding wisely. Old-timers know him, too. He's a "parasite"
preacher, they'll tell you, bone lazy.
If the woman falters, he'll step in and start preaching, steal-

ing her congregation.


A crowd gathers beneath a tree. Theological terms flow.
"Anybody can drink all he wants," announces a gruff man.
"Jesus turned water into wine, didn't He?" The argument waxes
hot as a thin woman in a housedress attacks the boozer.
A middle-aged man heavy knit sweater with a large "H"
in a
on it pushes his way to the center of the debate. It is a hot day
and beads of sweat drop from his red face.
"Who says there is a God who's worrying about drinking?"
he interrupts.
He meets a united front of the faithful. But he is an old-timer,
too, and they know him.
"You and that sweater," sneers the woman. "You keep wear-
ing that sweater so's we'll think you went to Harvard and know
what you're talking about. But it don't stand for Harvard. It
stands for Hooey!"
The assembled true believers guffaw and the atheist, de-
feated, moves on seeking weaker timber to fell with the axe of
cold logic.
By late afternoon some two dozen street preachers and musi-
cians are shouting out their creeds. Some have gathered

329
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

crowds, others cry their message to the sinful void. A tall old
man with a leonine mane of white hair and the face of a patri-
arch looms above a group, making dramatic gestures. We hear
him uttering disjointed pious phrases in Latin.
"Nuts! The whole town's filled with nuts!" exclaims a tourist
in amazement.
Back Sunday theologians 'are discussing
at the bench, the
Genesis and what "a day really means" in the Old Testament.
One angry theologian strikes at another, but the fight is over

quickly and an argument starts on Christ's views of violence.


All around is the battle for souls and the babble of the search-

ing voices. A man, weary from his day of devil-wrestling, shouts


hoarsely: "Rebuke the vain! The world is sick of lies! Lies for
power and for authority! But spiritual lies are worst of all!
Liars! Liars!" And he launches into an attack on all organized

religion.
"You stink!" shouts a squat, shapeless woman in a shawl.
A young Negro girl waves her Bible. "It is impossible to
please God without Christ," she announces to no one.
But the atheist moves in. He has removed his sweater. "In
other words, to deal with God you got to get a lawyer," he
sneers. "I'm no criminal. I don't need no lawyer."
The girl points at him with the fury of an avenging angel.
"You are worse than a criminal," she warns. "You better get a
lawyer. Or you'll end being up shit creek! A sinner needs a
lawyer. Jesus is a tremendous lawyer! He's the Great Mouth-
piece!"
A thin, pale young man stands alone. He wears a blue serge
suit and a strange which has an imitation of a clerical col-
shirt
lar. He opens the Bible. In a soft voice he says, "We shall now

take up the Second Commandment." And, he stands preach-


ing to the passing autos, a beatific smile on his face.
Now that dusk is coming, another woman moves about with
her tracts and a petition to sign for salvation.

330
THE STREET PREACHERS
"Don't sign nothing," a workingman cautions his wife. "It
may be communistic."
With darkening shadows, a trio arrives, two boys and a girl.
They all wear red, white and blue ties. The girl in the man's
uniform strums her banjo. They begin to sing, their voices stri-
dent in thesoft, gathering night:
"Lift up! Lift up! Lift up, up, up your hearts to Jesus!"
But even as dusk closes in on this Sunday evening, the lights
go on in blighted areas across the city.
For the "store-front churches," a bare cut above street

preaching in the hierarchy of churchdom, are awakening for


Sabbath "vesper" services.
In small unrented shops, walkup flats and vacant stores,
these forgotten havens of hope lead their brief careers of glory
each week. There is only poverty here. Not the official, recog-
nized, budgeted poverty which needs charity; only low income,
ignorance, despair. Here is no place for a bustling, up-and-com-

ing minister to get ahead. This is no place for the large denomi-
nations with their ever-increasing needs for the helpless else-

where. This is a hunting ground for the opportunist, the glory-


seekers and those who still believe in the all-too-clear, em-
barrasingly simple precepts of Jesus.
The minister's doctrines here are much the same: uninhibited
worship (excitement); unsystematic theology (new ideas);
free bodily movement (sex); and speaking in tongues (mys-
tery). The minister is usually uneducated, eager, developing
his ideas and beliefs as time and circumstance allow.
Too, something for everyone. Almost every member
there's
has a title or Leaders wear sashes, badges or even uni-
office.

forms. The most modest talent here is both used and admired.
There is also almost inevitably faith healing and a sure answer
to the chaotic social world.
One major influence among store-front church leaders claims
millions of followers in his 24,000 "branches" throughout the

331
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
world. He is Bishop Homer Tomilson of the Church of God.
The Bishop has had himself proclaimed and crowned "King
of the World" in various South American, European and Afri-
can cities. In I960, he has announced, he will be a candidate
for the presidency of the United States.
The Bishop, a smiling, rotund man with a heavily scarred
nose, visits his followers in pink silk royal robes and a gold
crown. He takes with him a portable collapsible aluminum
throne which carries the title: "King of All Nations of Men."
Hepublishes, too, a newspaper from the World Head-
quarters in Queens, New York.
"I carry the world on my shoulders," he explains, blowing

up a plastic, inflatable globe. "I have picked Fulton, Missouri,


as the place where I shall end the Cold War."
He concedes that he "melted the Iron Curtain" so that Nixon
could visit Russia.
"Jesus preached his greatest sermon to Nicodemus," he ex-

plains. "I will depend upon miracles of peace to elect me! If one
man, Hitler, could declare war, one man, even so humble as I,

can sum up in himself the power to declare peace."


The idol of the Bishop's youth was William Jennings Bryan.
His father started the first Church of God in Tampa, Florida, in
1908. His followers, he says, do not dance, smoke, drink, swear
or go to theatres.
"
His professional "kinging," he explains, is because, 'king'
means in its original sense 'guide.' It remains to be seen if I am
king!"
"I am sixty-seven, never took medicine, never had a doctor."
He claims also to have lectured at twenty-two divinity schools,
including Yale, Harvard and Union Theological Seminary.
His presidential political platform includes taxes based on
ten per cent tithing; "Peace Colleges to Replace War Colleges";
education by the Bible; elimination of divorce, elimination of
liquor and gambling; the rich help the poor voluntarily; and,

332
THE STREET PREACHERS
"New Revelations of Righteousness to be Classified Yearly."
Bishop Tomilson, a Pentecostal despite his cultic character-
istics, isn't just sure how many
votes he can muster for presi-
dent. About thirty million, he figures. But in the store-front
churches, most of them followers of the Latter Rain Movement
(characterized by the speaking in tongues), all the members
will vote for him, he says.
Who else, after all, will help them?

333
Chapter

45

HOLY CITY

UP until a few years ago, motorists who traveled


the highway between San Jose and Santa Cruz near San Fran-
cisco met a strange spectacle. Just after they rounded a curve,

they sighted some strange figures: a row of ten-foot Santa


Clauses. A spring nearby bore the sign: "This Water for Sick
People Only."
Just ahead was a small community, Holy City, California
a few dismal shacks and many signboards. According to its
founder, "Father" W. E. Riker, this was "the seat of all reli-

gions, all governments, all sciences."


Two long buildings contained the post office, restaurant,
grocery store, print shop. A
cornice announced: "Father Riker
Says and Demands That the United States Government Take
Over All Banking Business." Just below it a smaller sign an-
nounced: "Free Insurance Scientific Regularition Unem-
ployment and All Disabled People's Business."
The signs were everywhere. One proclaimed, "Holy City is

the Comforter, the New Jerusalem." Others: "If you are con-
templating marriage, suicide or crime see us first!" And, "Dis-
pel the idea that you are different from God or the other fellow

334
HOLY CITY
when sifted down." And "$1000 reward if you can find a flaw
in the new Holy City system of government and prove it will not
work."
There was also an information booth, always empty, which
carried the enticing promise: "All Mysteries Answered."
There were penny peepshows which showed in crude cartoons
"The Fall of Man" and "Man's Temptations of the Flesh and
the Devil." Beneath a classic figure of a pensive woman hung
the strange sign: "The Bible Was Not Made for Women, nor
forGod."
There was pamphlets on "White Man's
literature galore:

Supremacy," "The Final Achievement That Pleases Every-


body" and "Perfect Government Explained."
It was a one-man town of two hundred people then. And

Father Riker was that man. He was the ruler and the philoso-
pher. Today he's old and ailing. But during his day of glory, he
rode in a fine auto, he'll tell you, just as he pleased.
"I'm a self-made man," he says. "Holy City? I saw it in my
dreams, a city among the mountains, and I traveled and looked
and waited for it until I found this place." He talks proudly of
thelittle booths, now fallen, which cost a penny to look into.

The titles were alluring: "Temptations" and "The Legs of


Queen Elizabeth."
"It makes people who aren't intellectual ask questions," he

explains.
He was a showman once, he says proudly, and still knows
the tricks. "I was a teacher, too. But I'm not a bookish man.
Haven't read more than three books in my whole life. If I be-
lieved I could find what I was looking for in a book I'd go
straight to it. But books can't do that for me."
He had hoped come to his city. He can't
for thousands to
understand it. "Nothing but damned ignorant tourists and their
cameras," he says, shaking his head.
He even practiced faith healing once. Just for members of the
335
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

sect. His pamphlet questions and answers by himself ex-


it all:
plained
Q. When was this fine philosophy established?
A. In 1908, prior to the Haley Comet.
Q. What is this ANYWAY, a religion?
A. From the old accepted interpretation of religion, it could
not be so-called, as it is not based upon mere belief and
superstition.
Q. Are any of your people married?
A. They are all married to Wisdom.
Q. Do you actually BELIEVE in overcoming the grave?
A. There is a law of GRAVITATION, and there is a law of
LEVITATION. There is light and darkness, wealth and
poverty, heat and cold, health and sickness, positive and
negative. (Read "Levitation and Perfection," 25 cents.)
Riker is a woman-hater. He is also married. His wife, Mother
Lucille, wrote other questions and answers in poetry. One such
book was titled: "Why is it that so many intelligent people
ask so many damned foolish questions?" Another posed the
question: "If the devil is bad and hated by everybody, why not
alllove him to make him good?"
The old man sighs. didn't Holy City come off? Why,
Why
with philosophy and fancy attractions?
all this fine

He can't understand it. He looks sadly at the empty spot


where the line of Santa Clauses once stood. "There was a
grand idea," he says hopelessly. "Santa Claus is generous with
gifts. We are generous with ideas. There was an idea written on

every one of our wise old Santas. You'd think people would
have got that and wanted to join up."
During the war, Riker was seized by the FBI on six counts
of sedition. He had run for governor of California twice on his

"perfect government" platform. But he'd been telling visiting


soldiers not to fight and selling pamphlets advocating peace
with the Axis. Except Japan, that is. For all colored races of

336
HOLY CITY
mankind were destined to serve the white under Riker's plan.
Holy City has changed hands now. The signs and booths and
theological peepshows and Queen Elizabeth's legs are gone.
Fires have destroyed many of the wonders, and curio-seekers
have carried off others. "Sacrilege," grumbles the old man, now
in a rest home. "Stealing all those religious relics like them
Santa Clauses."

337
Chapter

46

PENITENTITES

IN the isolated hills of New Mexico near the


Rio Grande dusk comes quickly in April. The Indians, bundled
in blanket coats and sheepskin jackets, have already been pray-

ing for hours.


It is Good Friday eve. Fasting and self-inflicted torture have
been going on since Ash Wednesday in the lonely, forgotten
village. Now, tonight, comes the culmination of the yearly rite.
One young man in the village will be crucified.
These are the Penitentites, a secret cult of fanatics who be-
lieve torture and pain is the only way to show one's true devo-
tion to Christ. Their belief in pious agony is not new. It has fas-
cinated and repelled all Christiandom for centuries.

During the Middle Ages in Europe, it emerged as a psychic


plague as thousands roamed the countryside flaying themselves
until they died. Again, flagellation emerged in the guise of
Christian devotion in the thirteenth century when the cult of

"Disciplinati di Jesu Cristo" developed within the Church, call-


ing for the bloody sacrifice of an honored follower on the cross
each Good Friday. And, back in the dim corridors of history,
the legends of human sacrifice found meaning in Old Testament
tales.

338
PENITENTITES
In the twentieth century, the horror which has run through
the warp and woof of the tapestry of Christianity meets with
the birthright of the Aztec sacrificial altar and become one.
For many days the young men who are candidates for the
sacred role of today's Cristo have been vying for the honor.
With stinging whips made of cacti, they have scarred their
backs and legs with criss-crossed slices. They have prayed and
fasted.

Now, a flute sounds at the moradas, or chapel. And the time


for the enactment, reputedly brought with the conquistadores
and descended from the Third Order of St. Francis, is here
again.
They pray, then move through the darkening night
silently
from the chapel to El
Campo Santo, the burial ground. Torches
are lit. Elders stand in judgment as the young men exhibit their
accumulated scars of the past weeks, bespeaking piety. Now
new lashings begin, until the candidates lie exhausted. The
mayor steps forward with a white cloth and a mask. He moves
to one prone figure and covers it with the cloth and mask. Here
is this year's Cristo!
The
torch-bearing participants form a thin line and the beat-
ing with razor-sharp yucca whips on bared backs begins anew.
The Cristo is stripped to a loincloth, and a crown of cactus
thorns is jammed on his bleeding head. He lifts the heavy

cross. The processional moves out into the darkness. A soft


chant begins, interrupted only by the crack of whips.
Behind Christ come three other bent and toiling figures bear-
ing crosses, representing Peter, John and Pilate. The bleeding
Cristo moves forward slowly as torturers flail him. The torches
can now be seen fading into the distance, ascending to the secret
site deep in the Sangre del Cristo Mountains. All night the wor-

shipers and grisly actors of the sacred roles toil up through the
freezing darkness.
Dawn is icy and cold. They are at the site. The cultists

339
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

gather. The exhausted sacred actors struggle to the mound.


The crosses rise. Pilate, Peter and John are tied with leather
thongs to their racks of pain. Salt is rubbed in Cristo's wounds
as he is laid on his cross. Now, the hammer sounds. Nails are
driven into the Cristo's hands and feet. The cross is hoisted. It
falls into the hole with a jar. Cristo moans.
The wait begins. Only one lone above the chant.
figure cries
It is the mother of this year's Cristo. She stands below the cross

weeping, emulating Mary. Even though she is proud to be


the mother of this year's Chosen One, she must show sorrow.
Now El Capitan a stolid-faced elder who was Cristo him-
selfmany years before steps forward. He pierces the left side
of the unconscious figure with a spear. The blood runs.
Cristo has hung now about an hour. He has not cried out. He
is He is alive. Until death, he will walk as an honored
lowered.
man among the Indians of the Rio Grande, assured of being a
tribal leader and a hero.
No one knows how many participants join in this ritual each
year or how many have hung in pain or died. In 1935, au-
thorities outlawed the use of nails. But the time-honored real-
istic crucifixiongoes on. The stronghold of the custom is in
still

the San Luis Valley of Southern Colorado, the rugged Sangre


de Cristo range of northern New Mexico, with less fanatical
cults in the area of Albuquerque. Cult membership is secret, the
total cults unknown. Punishment for divulging the secrets of
the rite is burial alive.
The Pope has condemned the custom, and priestly messen-
gers have been sent again and again to plead with the Indians
suspected of being Penitentites.
They listen silently. An
elder steps forward. He has heard
of such rites, he will say, but knows of no one participating in
them. He crosses himself piously with a gnarled, brown hand
which bears a large scar in the palm.

340
Chapter

47

FLYING SAUCERS

HE is a dignified man with a cheap brown suit,


rimless glasses and a serious, intent face.

"Thog told me that we earthlings must stop atomic tests,"


explains the speaker, who claims to have recently been a pas-
senger on a flying saucer. "He came from the planet Hugog far
out in the galaxy of Dubnok. The secret of the atom, he says,
was known to the ancients a billion light years ago. It is the key
to the secret of the universeand must not be tampered with."
The man who has recently chatted with distant spacemen look-
ing much like us, goes on: "Thog told me that his people have
planted prophets here before. All of the Bible is filled with ref-
erences to the visits of the space people. Jesus was sent from
space to lead us. And so was Buddha and others. They are with
us now, watching ..."
His listeners stir and nod as he recites verses and lines from
the Bible which are obvious clues to the obvious truth: Flying
saucers and their builders have been watching and visiting
earth for centuries.
As Dr. Carl Jung has pointed out in Flying Saucers: A Mod-
ern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies, compensatory images
projected by the frightened are not new to mankind. UFOs

341
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
for centuries
(unidentified flying objects) have been reported
in times of public stress. There has been a quasi-religious be-
lief in UFOs by many cultural groups in different ages. They
There are picturiza-
appear in paintings and other art objects.
tions identical with or symbolically comparable to the vast

variety of "saucers" for centuries.


All this, saucer fans main-
tain is quite true: It only validates that the saucer visitors have
been calling upon us since Adam.
These sky-objects have countless analogies in legend, myth-
ology and those archetypal figures
which in Jung's master
of the fundamental
theory represent "nonverbal projections
aspects of instinct into the conscious
mind." He believes that
UFOs are mainly the result of instinct acting in people in com-
pensatory fashion.
trying to allay fear and recover
The saucer fancier is a sense
of wholeness by projecting images into the sky. He likes to

think of superior or godlike powers come to rescue man from


himself or to punish and cleanse man of his folly. We can see a

marked similarity between the saucer fan and those funda-


mentalists who yearn for the millennium or second coming
and predict it with regularity.
Jung points out, too, that the super-calm, super-rational,
super-oriented person the reliable physicist, pilot or engineer
is by the very nature of his intellectually narrowed aware-

ness most prone to this form of hysteria.


The very nature of the formal inquiry into saucer sightings
is an aid to true believers. To them, it only verifies a monu-
mental plot by government to keep the news from the public.
Yet, within the limits of time and money to study sightings, it
seems well established that every sighting can be explained by
some known factor, psychological, optical or sheer fraud. It
is
quite sensible to assume life on other planets is superior to
our own. Yet, the evidence is overwhelming that no one has
come to visit us yet.

Still, saucer devotees are people of dogmatic faith who are

342
FLYING SAUCERS

determined to believe. It is in some ways comparable to the


continual reports of the visions of the Virgin Mary which have
boomed in the last century since the Pope's declaration of her
elevation. Today, Roman Catholic Church authorities must lay
constant "miracles" such as a recent incident in Brooklyn when
tens of thousands gathered and saw the image of the Virgin in
a park. Even when a photographer showed with a picture that
the vision was nothing more than a hole in the shrubbery
vaguely shaped like a woman, the sighters would not discount
their personal visions and denounced the photographer as an
antichrist and heretic.

Today, saucer fanciers have reached the cult stage. The


Amalgamated Flying Saucer Clubs of America's official publi-
cation reflects this religiosity with its name, Thy Kingdom
Come, and identifies itself as a religious organization. Mem-
bers wear a three-color lapel button stating "Flying Saucers
Are Real," and stamps to affix to letters and walls are another
lure. "The Space People with their advanced knowledge are
wise so must those contactees to whom this knowledge is im-

parted, become wiser," explains the publication.


At a convention in Los Angeles in the summer of 1959 some
two thousand saucer fans gathered to hear the talks by "con-
tactees." There were tape recordings of messages from outer

space. The religious flavor of the clubs represented is obvious


by their names Celestial Vehicle Investigation Committee,
Christ Brotherhood, Inc., Cosmic Circle of Friendship, First
Christian Spiritualist Church, Fellowship of Golden Illumi-
nation, Ministry of Universal Wisdom, Pacific Lemurian So-
ciety, Sanctuary of Thought. In England the Atlantean Society
is at work and the Cosmic Brotherhood Association of Japan
is also busy. Publications devoted to the cause include such
titles as Cosmic Voice, Love with Understanding, The Uni-
versal Key.
Atthe Los Angeles meeting contactee Dana Howard told of
his flight to Venus, and Wilbur Miller was the "channel" for

343
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
such space people as Monka of Mars, Mentar of Venus, Crae-
ton of Jupiter, and Gregorno of an unknown planet. There was
a watercolorist who exhibited paintings of space people.
How are contacts made with the Space People? Mind-to-
mind in many instances the phenomenon common to theoso-
phists in reaching the Adepts of the Himalayas. There are eso-
tericmessages received by phone and radio, also.
One speaker told delegates of flying beneath the northern ice
pack in a spaceship from Saturn in 1957. He announced that
Russian subs were mapping the floor to build underwater mis-
sile bases and said that the Saturians have promised to take him

to visit the Great Pyramid at Giza to see a spaceship buried


there thousands of years ago. Another had flown in outer space
350 times with people from Jupiter and Pluto. Others have
made mind-to-mind-contact with Etherians on another plane
of existence. Some said they were told that saucers were merely
the advance guard of the Lord's host en route to Armageddon.
Others dwelt on the ancient mysteries of Tibet.
A typical message from outer space, notifying a contactee
that man cannot land on the moon, explains, "This decision is
finalized only by the actions of man. If terrestrial man doth turn
from his present materialistic worship of ungodlike powers, to
the gentleness but exactitude of the Laws Which Are God,
then he will be welcomed not only upon his nearest Moon but
upon every inhabited World of the Galaxy."
Saucerites believe that the continent of Lemuria fell into
atomic dust and Atlantis emerged later. They favor, too, dis-
pensing with money and using a system dictated by
all the
Space People known as "Prior Choice Economics."
The doctrine which will establish the flying-saucer phe-
nomenon as a cult is taking shape. In study circles, the true
believers are searching the Bible for those references which, by
their interpretation, will establish their cult as the only true ap-

proach to God.
344
Chapter

48

MORAL RE -ARMAMENT

MORAL Re-Armament is based on so simple a


concept that any sophisticated freshman can demolish it with a
flick of a textbook. Its followers believe that man be an ani-
may
mal; but he is an animal with the divine power of choice.
also
MRA asserts that "Absolute Honesty, Purity, Unselfishness
and Love" are attainable here on earth. MRA
says that any
Liverpool dockworker can achieve them if he but wills to do so.
The may scoff. But the fact is that the dockworker,
intellectual

being unschooled in science and philosophy, has no inhibitions


about accepting a theory that strikes his fancy. So he quits beat-
ing his wife, getting drunk and fighting at the pub, lying to his
boss and cheating at darts and ends up as an exemplary char-
acter.
This particular brand of twentieth-century evangelism is
without the dogma and doctrine which distinguish formalized
groups. As such it holds more mass appeal and recruits fol-
lowers from all groups without theological conflict.
It is difficult for anyone not closely associated with to MRA
understand the group's view that it is not an organization in the
usual sense. Rather it is people any or all held together by
one bond, an idea. This idea is so basic that there is no conflict

345
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
wth any creed or religion. With such a loose yet unchanging
standard it is difficult for MRA to explain it interms of com-
parison.
Since its early beginnings in 1921, MRA has shown its full

share of human frailties and foibles. It has faced criticisms.


And, notwithstanding its deep conviction in absolute virtues,
it has illustrated more than once that living up to its own rules

is no easy matter.

Dr. Frank Buchman, a Lutheran clergyman, first had the


idea which has become the basis for MRA. At the time he was

attending Oxford. Strolling the walks one day and pondering


the sins of the world he asked himself: "How can one man

change the world?" The answer, he explained later, came di-


rectly from God: "First, one man changes, then two, then four,
then eight. Then a million!"
With this overwhelming idea in mind the obscure preacher
from Pennsburg, Pennsylvania, set out on his lifelong work. He
had a background which helped him well in his task. Born of
Pennsylvania Dutch stock and educated at Allentown's (Penn-
sylvania) Muhlenberg College, Buchman had been ordained
a minister in 1 902. He started his career by doing welfare work
at a Lutheran hospice for boys in a suburb of Philadelphia.
Later he became secretary of the YMCA
at Penn State from
1909 to 1915.
Buchman went work with burning zeal. Too much,
to his
some observers declared. His bland announcement that God
had told him "the way" must indeed have shocked the more
sedate minds of Oxford. But slowly a group formed around him.

They called themselves the "First Century Christian Fellow-

ship." Yet, since it operated from the hallowed environs of Ox-


ford, it became known as the Oxford Group. Many a Briton
who recalled the real Oxford movement of the eighteenth cen-
tury, under the guidance of John Henry (later Cardinal) New-
346
MORAL RE-ARMAMENT
man, John Keble and Edward Pusey, was outraged to see this
American upstart usurping the old name.
The group that collected around Buchman included upper-
crust British, athletes, students and local
village folk. The Ox-
ford Group organized house parties where tea, tennis and the-
ology were dosed out in pleasing proportion. No formalized
creed or doctrine was needed. The idea of "Absolute Honesty,
Purity, Unselfishness and Love" was the basis. Critics claimed
that Buchmanites at parties held mass public confessionals at
which each elaborated on his sins. This caused observers to say
that there was something strangely sinister and un-British in
such exhibitionist goings-on.
During the days which preceded World War II a few mem-
bers received unfavorable publicity for their kindly view
(widely held in England) about Hitlerism. Indeed many felt
that in 1936 Buchman himself put his foot in his mouth in the

grand manner. In an interview with a New York World-Tele-


gram correspondent he emoted: "I thank heaven for a man like
Adolf Hitler, who built a front line of defense against the anti-
Christ of Communism . . .
Through such a man God could
control a nation overnight and solve every last bewildering

problem."
This outstanding example of unrealism, political naivete and
wishful thinking was later lifted out of context. Buchman was
branded as pro-Nazi. The accusation was not fully dispelled
end of World War II.
until the
In 1938 the group took the present name, MRA. Aims re-
mained as unspecific as before. The simple explanation: "You
don't pay anything, you don't join anything, the idea is that you
begin living MRA standards." But if the rules were vague, the
astute showmanship never lacked punch. Groups of MRA
fol-

lowers picked out strategic communities, arrived en masse to


stage MRA plays, hand out literature and arrange banquets.

347
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

MRA, after the war, started out to apply its standards of


right to specific of the world at large.
ills

And it did not miss the obvious fact that big names
names
attracted more attention than enthusiastic youths. Ministers
of state, politicians and educators took part in activities. What
would seem to the sophisticated "corny," attracted flocks of
people. Such devices as amateur musical shows, plays propa-
gandizing "God-control," combining Swiss yodelers, Joan of
Arc and Abe Lincoln, attracted crowds.
MRA then had roots in England, Canada and the United
States; but its strength gradually was felt through Europe and
Asia.

Harry Truinan, when chairman of the Senate War Investi-


gating Committee during World War II, said: "There is not a
single bottleneck in industrial output which could not be broken
in a matter of weeks if this MRA crowd were given the green

light, full speed ahead."


MRA cannot clearly be identified as a denomination. It is

by definition cultic in nature, preoccupied with a simple


concept of morality to the exclusion of all others. It is, like other
groups in this section, a fifth column of true believers, infiltrat-
ing formal churches with its credo. Today, an member MRA
can be a Presbyterian or a Methodist and still a disciple of the
Cause.
There is no place for subtle philosophy in the lively doings of
the Moral Re-Armament. It's all testimony and action.
Tireless Dr. Buchman, who heads the movement from Swit-
zerland today, sees that the evangelistic spirit never falters. Sim-
ple conversion is a major step in the transformation. The con-
vert is asked to confess his sins openly, although the testimony
of lurid sex experiences which brought criticism at the begin-

ning is now discouraged. He then surrenders his will to God


and severs all old alliances with sin and evil. He must make
restitution for past wrongs and "cultivate the guidance of the

348
MORAL RE-ARMAMENT
Holy Spirit." Members must spend at least fifteen minutes each
day in meditation, known as the "Quiet Time." During this
pause they write down the promptings of the Holy Spirit and
note their inspirations and the replies they receive.
MR A has grown in prestige over the decades. It has attracted
rich and powerful patrons, seemingly always a target for MRA
promotional has been active in effecting settlements
efforts. It

in labor-management disputes, sometimes sending in "conver-


sion" teams to convince workers and union leaders of the evils
of their demands.
It's difficult most learned theologian,
for anyone, even the
to quarrel with Dr. Buchman. His aims are so pure and simple
and fine.
Not so the leader of another cultic effort which, like MRA,
does not demand complete allegiance. For Gerald L. K. Smith
and his rabid followers make up one of the most despised
groups in America today.

349
Chapter

49

GERALD L. K. SMITH

LIKE A tired and shaggy lion, the Reverend


Gerald L. K. Smith, one-time Baptist minister, stands behind
the podium.
"Now get this! Now hear this!" he shouts. He pulls a rumpled
U
paper from his pocket. I got the secret stuff right here! Want
to know who's behind all the nigger-lovers in the Supreme
Court? I'll tell you! Eisenhower! But that's not his name! Eisen-
stein. E-I-S-E-N-S-T-E-I-N! Get that! A Jew, just like Rosen-
feldt! Igot the proof right here ."
. .

Desperately he tries to build the fever-pitch that he created


in his heyday before World War II. But he is
old and tired. And
so are his followers. They gaunt
sit, and bleak, clapping apa-
thetically like trained seals, waiting for their mentor to tell
them, once again, that their failure in life is no fault of theirs.
The old story peels out: the Jew movie actors; u Old Dirty
Foot"; Albert Einstein who made the A-bombs; the "Good
Jews"; those who have turned against their faith and their
people.
Scorned by the press ("Jew storekeepers own all the news-
papers"), ignored by all but a few rabid followers, Smith

350
GERALD L. K. SMITH

preaches his racist doctrines, sells his booklets and collects his
"love offerings" awaiting the day when the world will be made
anew for the pure, white Protestant blood of the Midwest.
It's not like the old days. In the early 1930's Smith was pastor

of a wealthy church in Shreveport, Louisiana. But the fascinat-

ing rantings of Huey P. Long were too much. Smith joined up.
He learned his trade as a rabble-rouser well. When Long was
shot and killed, Smith announced his heavenly so-called re-
ligious mission: to save "good, old, go-to-meeting, Bible-read-
ing, children-having, God-fearing, ice-cream-making common
people" from the enemy within.
For a time Smith joined with the pro-Fascist spellbinder
Father Gerald Coughlin. But soon he was launched on his own
with his movement, the "Committee of One Million." Soon, at
his headquarters in strife-ridden Detroit his take was $1500 a
week. And he was in the news almost daily. When he issued
statements criticizing the Chicago arrest of a cohort, an un-
frocked Catholic priest, for disorderly conduct,
he was sen-
tenced to contempt of court. He announced grandly: "My ap-
peal will be as important as the Dred Scott decision."
Smith was, indeed, riding high. "I promised my mother never
to a speech without mentioning the name of Christ," he
make
would shout. "We only put our faith in Christ above America
First."
And was the name of the new group, America First. Its
this

mission in To rid America of "the un-Christian inter-


1944:
nationalists" who said Smith were trying "to put over the
greatest confidence game in history."
The platform of America
First was isolationist. It called for building "a hoop of military
steel around America"; a farm program based on Genesis
41 46-57; "food before whiskey"; to investigate lend-lease and
:

to save the British Empire";


stop giving "the poor man's taxes
to give American money to "our servicemen before milk for
Hottentots." It went on. Smith called for opposition to any re-

351
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
laxation of immigration laws and protective tariffs and urged
"saving the American farmer."
Smith was flaying in all directions by now. He was regularly
attacking Franklin D. Roosevelt, Wallace,
Wendell Willkie,
Felix Frankfurter, Harry Hopkins and "that Jew, Walter Lip-
shitz WinchelL" He contended Wallace should be made a milk-
man in China, Willkie sent to Moscow, and all Roosevelts
thrown out of office.
"It's getting to be if you love Christ and love America, you've

got to prove you're not a traitor," howled


Smith. By now he was

claiming three million followers. Most were past middle age and
as Smith told of
unsophisticated. They applauded nervously
arguments with the great and near great and what he'd told the

quasi-religious rabble-rouser who had


rascals. The borrowed
from the methods of the Ku Klux Klan, Anti-saloon League and
other groups who'd ignored party lines, was powerful. He
claimed 120,000 "cells," each with a recording secretary and
leader.
And he had easy remedies ready for the world's ills. For
hatred, he said, the answer was simple. "If we'd herd all the
Reds and Communists into concentration camps, outlaw about
two-thirds of the movies and turn to Christian statesmanship,
the problem would be solved well, 95 per cent of it."
But, alas, Smith's power dwindled and his religio-political
cult declined. He was blackballed by newspapers and radio, his

inflammatory advertising refused.


Today Smith still holds about one meeting a month in Los
Angeles. Some eight to twelve hundred followers, most of them
pensioners from the Midwest, attend.
His main power is his huge mailing list. No one knows the
exact number of names but he bragged to a confederate of
having three million names ten years ago. His publication, The
Cross and the Flag, pitches constantly for funds to support his
endeavor, the Christian Nationalist Crusade.

352
GERALD L. K. SMITH

Last year he listed total income for the cause at about $ 170,-
000 with the House Clerk in Washington, D.C., as required by
the Corrupt Practices Act. He also named, as required by law,
about two hundred contributors who had given more than one
hundred dollars during the year. Most were from the West and
their total donations were $36,000. He preaches against segre-

gation, "mongrelization," Eisenhower and "Zionist" doctrine.


Recently he published a new edition of the discredited as fake
Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which claim a century-old,
worldwide plot by Jews to take over the world.
For practical purposes, Smith's followers make up neither a
political party nor religious cult. Rather, they are a blend of
both, fifth columnists who carry the Smith thesis to their own
churches, spreading the lore of the anti-Christians who are
taking over the United States. They are, as Smith predicted
years ago, good, old, go-to-meeting folk, happy to know that
others are responsible for their failures, not themselves. Yet,
while they attack the straw man of Zionism, still another cultic
aberration carries its lore to the world. All would be well, these
faddists explain, if people would just stop eating meat.

353
Chapter

50

VEGETABLE, SUN AND


HEALTH WORSHIP

WHILE grubby Christian Nationalists slyly whis-


per secrets of the quasi-religious crusade and infilter funda-
mentalist churches with their racist theories, the ego-centered
faddists of food, sun and health hand out wondrous recipes in
other cult movements. Vegetarianism is allied directly with a
vast array of religious beliefs. In peace-of-mind and self-help
sects, fruit-and-vegetable faddists are always obvious. Some

propagandize for special diets. Some emote on the immorality


of eating "the dead carcasses of animals." Still others declaim

amazing psychological and philosophical facts based on a vege-


table diet, asserting that meat-eating makes one capricious and
aggressive, while spinach or pomegranates create a calm and
philosophical outlook. Ethicists quote Leonardo da Vinci, who
reportedly said that man would someday look upon killing ani-
mals as they now look upon killing men. Others equate them-
selves with George Bernard Shaw, attributing his wit, wisdom
and longevity to his vegetarian habits. Others fight for prohibi-
tive legislation and public funds. The meat
shortage during

354
VEGETABLE, SUN AND HEALTH WORSHIP
World War II caused a joyous field day for such diet cultists.
Shortly after the war, the International Vegetarian Union even
petitioned for membership in UNESCO, asserting that meat-
eating made man and caused wars.
belligerent
Contemporary on food is so vast as to defy
cultic folklore

description. Stout pensioners who thrived on roast pork and


mashed potatoes and gravy go to Southern California to retire,
attend a few lectures and learn the horror of their old
ways.
Under the mystic sun, they sip elderberry tea, bake coarse-
ground bread, buy unsprayed fruit and study tracts on the
glories of organic fertilizer. They are soon devouring pounds of
soy spaghetti, gallons of papaya juice and instant whey, and
snacking on non-sugar candy, bile tablets and Hindu energy
pills.

Quite naturally, they propagandize their newly discovered


answer to all man's ills and the traditional separation of mind-
body-soul disappears. Food becomes the way to heaven, eternal
youth and riches, and they join other faddists with the same
enthusiasm. Cults sometimes follow. William Kullgren founded
one such vegetarian cult which thrived briefly. He claimed that
Los Angeles was to be destroyed by
"celestial force" and put
his true believers on a
raw kelp preparing for the judg-
diet of
ment day. Others, usually of yoga persuasion, stressed the need
for "lower body purification" through quaint diets.
All this did not happen in Southern California overnight.
And it remains a factor in today's economy.
The first tide of health seekers started arriving in great hordes
between 1870 and 1900. These misplaced, disenfranchised and
elderly people were to have a major effect. For the health seeker,
caught by the myths of health, was to start the population boom
which goes on today. Pioneers and fortune seekers who re-
turned to the East after the Gold Rush told of the climate, often
elaborating with fanciful tales.
By 1 869, one Charles Loin Brace announced that the Anglo-

355
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
Saxon population in Southern California would eventually be-
come a "Moorish type" due to the climate and fruit diet. An-
other pundit claimed that the atmosphere would result in "a
Race of Singers" and the area would be "the land of song for
the Western Hemisphere." Still other authorities on tubercu-
losis, anxious to found sanitariums, sounded like quacks claim-
ing miraculous cures in their exposition of the Southern Calif-
ornia climate.
sun, of course, played a major part. At one time
The health

seekers kept "sunshine chronicles" as a fad. Others collected

information on the cool nights, charting humidity reports to


Still more pub-
prove that Southern California is never damp.
lished tracts which claimed that the atmosphere aided nervous
disorders. Of course the hullabaloo attracted thousands in the

East, every faddist and fanatic who was seeking that miracle
which would change his life. Tales were publicized of Indians
who lived to be 140 years old. Resorts flourished and advertised
in the Eastern newspapers health testimonials of their regular
visitors. Santa Barbara and San Diego and Los Angeles were
alltouted as leading centers of health seekers.
to the lure, fresh food containing strange and fasci-
To add
nating "mineral contents" was cheap and available for the
health seeker, the ads promised.
Outdoor camps for those suffering from respiratory ailments
blossomed. Each week invalids arrived in Pasadena by the
dozens, filling hotels and guest homes. Bicycling was publicized
as a prescription for consumption. There was talk about ozone,

electricity and other elements in the air. By 1870, Los Angeles


citizens were complaining about the scores of indolent invalids.
The city just could not provide housing or livelihood. It was
by now the capital of the sanitarium belt. Streets were filled with
the listless ailing who had expected a miracle. They wandered
about discouraged and impoverished. In fancy hotels other aged
invalids sat, waiting for youth to return. Newspapers were filled

356
VEGETABLE, SUN AND HEALTH WORSHIP
with patent medicine ads. Drugs and nostrums were the main
topics of conversation.
The local bigwigs were worried. Los Angeles existed only on
climate, Eastern financial circles believed. It had no solid base
of growth for real estate or other investments. Yet the sickly
tide came on, followed by undertakers and embalmers who set

up shop and waited patiently until the immigrant victims of the


promoters dropped off. Next, the back-to-nature movement de-
veloped. Dr. J. H. Kellogg's Battle Creek Institute burgeoned
and led to a surge of vegetarianism. Hundreds lived outdoors
on fruits and vegetables and the Seventh-day Adventist move-
ment grew wildly with health faddists.
Native Indian herbs, such as yerba scenta, were acclaimed.
Another remedy, made from local roots, was the California
Positive and Negative Electric Cough and Consumption Cure,

popular around 1887.


About 1900, the health food business switched from me-
dicinal compounds to miracle cereals, stressing the need for a

healthy alimentary canal. The first vegetarian restaurant was


opened in Los Angeles.
The funeral trade boomed. A British tourist, Horace A.
Bachell, spoke of this in 1900: "In Southern California, fu-
nerals are like the Irish wake, a source of entertainment to the

many who attend them. If the deceased happens to have been


in his lifetime amember of any order, his funeral becomes a
public function, parade. You march to the burial ground clad
a
in the uniform of your order; a band furnishes appropriate
music."
Quite obviously, prophets and cult leaders of the time who
hoped to build an organization had to consider disease as a
prime interest of potential followers. Some devised elaborate
and fantastic schemes and diets. Others, seeking the disen-
chanted, simply disavowed the body as important.
Entire communities by now were dependent upon the health

357
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
business for survival. A new health prophet could bring swarms
one town, creating havoc in another.
of eager invalids into
The medicine of Southern California was primitive still and
not keeping pace with the turmoil. This was a lure for quacks
and charlatans. They made the most of it. In Santa Barbara in
1883 a particular lady, "Queen of Magnetism," won a group of
health cultist followers. She offered electropathic and allopathic
treatments "for all diseases no matter what name or nature with
was also a clairvoyant and
never-failing success." She spirit-

ualist.

In Pasadena a colorful medical cultist, "The Boy Phenome-


non," appeared after "many European triumphs," in November
1894, and claimed to be able to cure all ailments by animal
magnetism. Rheumatics, who were considered ideal subjects
for cure by animal magnetism, flocked to the youth, Miracle
cures were reported. Then the youth was exposed as a quack.
In San Francisco about the same time, a gypsy fortuneteller
cure: a
outraged vegetarians when she offered a tuberculosis
steady diet of dog meat.
Christian Science burgeoned in Southern California and to-
day remains a leading denomination in the area because of its
early beginnings in the health migration. (Indeed, Mary
Baker
of the tide so that
Eddy reorganized the church to take care
there would be two committees in California rather than the
one as in other states.)

Opportunists were also discovering mineral waters in South-


ern California. They said the waters had strange qualities and
brought miraculous cures of heart trouble, cancer and other
ailments. Such spas were natural hunting grounds for cultists.
They often formed their original theologies in the atmosphere
of the sulphur baths. Emphasis was placed, too, on the unusual
honey and unique fruits and their marvelous medicinal quali-
Real estate operators published testimonies of invalids who
ties.

had taken to rural ways and found a new life and health. Citrus
358
VEGETABLE, SUN AND HEALTH WORSHIP

growing, some said, was a sure cure for lung trouble. The
"fumes" from the were an absolute remedy.
fruit

Then, suddenly, Southern California found that it didn't


want the sick. It was no longer dependent on semi-invalids for
growth. Communities became chill toward the horde of invalids
and discouraged them settling. There were scare stories of tu-
berculosis epidemics. Local laws were passed discriminating

against impoverished invalids or oldsters with small incomes.


Arizona took over. A
boom came to the little-populated areas
as local boosters started to shout of the wondrous glories which
Southern California had claimed a decade before. Diet kicked
off the excitement there. Vegetarian societies debated angrily
with fruitarians. Others advocated the electric light, the sun,
mud massage and sweat baths.
But Southern California was not through. One Los Angeles
promoter started a sanitarium specializing in "scientific vital
breathing/' In Anaheim the "Societas Fraterna," a health col-
ony organized by an Englishman, George P. Hinde, set up a
religious doctrine which included a dogma forbidding the eat-
ing of meat, eggs, dairy products and bread. Only raw fruits

and vegetables could be devoured by the faithful.


In San Bernardino in the 1850's a Latter-day Saint coloniz-
ing group sent by Brigham Young had settled. They found a
spring which they explained was, because of a nearby natural
formation, "the Lord's mighty arrowhead to punish the
wicked." This was Arrowhead Springs where, it was claimed,
Indians had brought their sick from miles around for 'cures.
Quite naturally it was to be boosted as a leading spa.

living, too, took strange forms. It worked hand


Outdoor in

glove with promoters who wished to start a sanitarium but


lacked funds. So they advocated a continuous outdoor life and
sleeping in rude, chilly shelters, known as "recovery in the
wilds."

By 1904 there were tent communities throughout Southern

359
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

California, living in secluded canyons. One writer of the times


noted: "They are the camps of the Arabs of the Southwest a
forlorn, homeless and almost hopeless multitude of wanderers
chasing a phantom health."
Near Indio one of the first desert communities bloomed when
a St. Louis industrialist, Nelson Olsen, founded a community
of 140 acres which was a health camp of thirty tents and two

large mess halls. There were cows to supply milk, and chickens,
and the price was to be only three to four dollars a week. It
lasted a few months, then disappeared.
Others came and went. Health as a leading Southern Cali-
fornia industry began to disappear about a half century ago.
Yet the health faddist is still much a part of the scene. The
sun-worshiper, fruitarian or vegetarian continues to preach his
quaint doctrine. Within the various cultic efforts, he is sure to
emerge, striving to make his dietary doctrine a part of the
dogma. But he is likely to face a rival these days. For another
exotic remedy for ill health has bloomed in the last few decades

yoga.

360
Chapter

51

YOGA

THE DARK, lean young man


with the crewcut
looks more an Ivy League school
like a basketball player for
than a yogi. He stands erect in his orange robe before the audi-
ence, some thirty middle-aged couples, college girls and bo
hemians. "May all beings in the Universe be happy. Peace,
peace, peace," he intones.
Now he beings to speak. The students, attending the lecture
to find peace of mind and health through yoga exercise, take
out their notebooks.
"Yoga means a spiritual ascent of the individual into a state
of exalted and ecstatic experience of God-consciousness and
a supreme state of union with the Divine," he explains. "This is
what it means to millions of Hindus. But, here in the Western
world it has come to be known as a series of exercises, of
breathing techniques, of cleansing processes and psycho-phys-
ical meditation methods.
"We speak today of Hatha yoga. There are eighty-four
shall
basic postures, but twenty of these will suit the American for
average health. There are five breathing techniques. These will,
practiced well, purify the blood, clean out the body toxins, help
mental function and memory. They will tone up respiration and
circulation, make the spine elastic and the body supple. They
361
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
are a massage to the internal viscera. They energize the sym-
not interfere with heart ac-
pathetic nervous system. They will

tion or slow down other bodily processes. Only the skilled yogi

can do this, with certain objectives in mind. And now we shall

begin . . ."

The health seekers joke and laugh nervously as they remove


their shoes and sit on the floor.
The yogi claps his hands. "The first position we shall take is
the famed one, the lotus," he announces as the exercises start.
The Westerner conceives of a yogi as an oddball mystic who
sits in this lotus position contemplating the eternal
when he is
not charming snakes.
Actually, there are various forms of yoga, specialized
branches of one over-all system. Hatha yoga which the young
man is teaching stresses control of the body. Karma yoga
teaches performance of all work done with the thought of being
God's instrument. Jnana yoga, the path of wisdom, emphasizes
the application of wisdom to achieve spiritual liberation.
Bhatka yoga is the way of "all surrendering devotion." And
Raja, or royal, yoga, so named because it com-
finally, there is
phases of yoga. It deals with specific tech-
prises the best of all

niques to overcome physical and mental restlessness.


Today, the American faddist usually seeks out Hatha yoga
to achieve the physical and emotional well-being he desires,
There are literally hundreds of postures
under this system.
Some accelerate the efficiency of the brain and nervous system,
teachers explain, still others seek methods of body-control.
Through meditation and concentration, Hatha yoga teaches,
too, the need for calmness of mind and bodily "stillness."
Many of the postures or "asanas," as they are called, are
named after animals, because of the resemblance to animal pos-
tures and because animals, a yogi will explain, instinctively

obey health laws. A cat for instance stretches its muscles be-
fore demanding activity from them.

362
YOGA

Yogi instructors also claim that there must be a transition


period between relaxation and activity. Specific exercises in-
clude such names as the fish posture, the half -spinal twist, duck
pose and hundreds of others.
The much-publicized lotus position is a key posture devised
centuries ago for a specific purpose: simply to keep the medi-
tator from falling over during periods of deep concentration.
In effect, the feet are locked and the spine kept erect to allow
'life force" to flow from the head to the nerve endings.
Today, no one in Western medicine is quite sure whether
the mystic medical lore of yoga really helps one or not. It has
not as yet been subjected to the refinements of the modern
scientificmethod, under controlled conditions. "It's better than
no exercise at all just what it will do for memory and the like
1

is anyone's guess,'
shrugs one physician.
Yet yoga has attracted thousands of American practitioners
who claim wondrous results. Celebrities such as Marilyn Mon-
roe, Greta Garbo, Ruth St. Denis, Leopold Stokowsky, Gary

Cooper and Yehudi Menuhin claim they've found physical well-


being from yogic postures. Instructors advertise their wares to-
day alongside ads for steambaths and muscle factories. It's a
contemporary fad, this ancient lore which was developed by the
Hindus between 5000 and 7000 B.C.
As the young yogi finishes his instructions, he speaks again
u "
to his new pupils. Yoga in Sankrit means 'union,' he explains.
"It transcends religion and is valid for anyone who believes in
God. Its practice is an attempt to purify the souL Next week we
1

shall discuss this/


Meanwhile a blood brother to the mystic exercise makes its
own inroads into the American culture. Zen Buddhism, created
during the T'ang dynasty in China and modified to the culture
of Japan centuries ago, lures thousands of other Americans
seeking an escape from convention and tawdry materialism.

363
Chapter

52

ZEN AND THE BEATNIKS

"MAN, you dig Zen? How square can squares


get? Quit getting gassed on the Congregationalists!"
From Greenwich Village to San Francisco's North Beach,
Zen is the coolest and the most with 1960 bohemia. It's above
all in beat Zen form an excuse and explanation for im-
morality.
By its nature Zen is impossible to define and can hardly be

explained. It is not a theology, adherents maintain. It's a philos-


ophy of immediacy. It is about now. Man lives in two concepts
of time. One dimension
the past, present and future. The
is

other is an eternity of now, the precise moment and living in-


stant. While now is forever slipping away into history, the tem-

poral shift leaves untouched the pure, idealistic state of now


which replaces it.

Zen says, in effect, that reality is timeless. Conventional time


past, present and future is an illusion. And when one ac-
cepts this standard illusion of time he is trapped, living in a
false world which is not the true world of now.
Zen asks one perform no present act because of past
that

pressures however subtle or future reward however allur-


ing. We cannot hope to find improvement by such past com-

364
ZEN AND THE BEATNIKS

parisons, it explains. Man will only find his integrity if he can


react with an instinctive act to now. Zen is, hence,
revolutionary,
holding that enlightenment comes with clarification and simpli-
fication, the wiping out of old values of time and experience and

depending upon only the supreme experience, now. One state


of consciousness and the next cannot be measured
by hours or
miles, a Zen master tries to say in a koan, or "eye-opener," the
standard device of Zen, using one of the 1700 traditional ques-
tions to highlight it. A
snap of the finger can be a lesson for a
Zen student by a master, indicating that this very moment is
the immediate experience of reality, past time and embracing
all dimensions.

Zen is
brusque in its teachings, aimed at the roots of incon-
demands action of a curious sort. This can only be
sistency. It
achieved when it is simple, natural and totally correct. It finds
truth through shrinking away from error, not discovering a

way to truth.
Such heady concepts find their ideal in a perfect Zen person-
ality. Such a person is serene, untouched by the chaos and il-
lusion about him. He is understanding, even humorous. Yet
there is an untouched dynamic tranquility. He is in a constant
state of poise without pretense. He does not sacrifice work of
the hands for meditation nor theoretical dreams for practical
pleasures.He seeks the full experience and the universal pur-
pose.He knows how to experience activity in a mystical sense
and recognize it in others. A properly lived now also- assures
him of a proper future. Now is the "Time of all becoming."
Such a mystic philosophy, oddly enough, bears a kinship to
primitive Christianity. Like the ardent fundamentalist awaiting
the second coming which will bring heaven to earth, the Zen
ideal is to achieve a Nirvanic state and a saintly condition on
this earth.

Zen has little to do with Beat Zen. Here there generally a


is

confusion between the existentialist "anything goes" and the

365
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
social "anything goes," just as there is a perversion of the Zen
now which becomes with beats, "Let's live it up tonight."
The typical beat Zen has only fluttered about the compli-
cated concept. He is versed really only in a cliche common to
other beats who have touched on the hoary Oriental philosophy,
which was first popularized in the United States in 956 during
1

the publicity given the 2500 years of Buddhism but which


actually started as a cult in New York in 1 902.
It appeals because it does not preach, moralize or threaten.
It is an escape from the crude and narrow interpretations of
what was "Christian" in the childhood of most beats. It is

naturalistic, scorning Christian supernaturalism, miracles, for


7

the adoration of shriveled legs as "relics.' Too, the journeyman


Zen is a joyous and humorous bum, a sage who is ready to talk
on one's own level without lofty platitudes or quaint detach-
ments.
There is, also, the usual mystic experience, called satori, a

legendary state when one realizes one's own "original insepara-


bility" with the universe. Zens who have experienced
mys- this

tic state, however, become in theory more worldly and inter-


ested in its doings, not less, as do the enlightened yogis and

Christian saints.
It also scorns comparisons. There are no "good" and "bad"
or pieces of sand. Like Raja yoga, Zen recognizes
stars, diseases
that the deeper one goes into himself through meditation, the
more one finds that he is "it," not "he." But if he does not medi-
tate, he is "it," also, Zen says.
Zen teaches that one need not justify himself, as opposed to
the Christian world. He just is.

And here the beat finds comfortable meaning.


For he can scorn usually along with a mass of sympathizers
which should ruin the illusion that he is being unconventional
the conventional "American way of life" with its struggle and
useless, materialistic values.

366
ZEN AND THE BEATNIKS
This simple thesis has infinite involvements. For it can ex-
plain away disinterest, striving. Yet,
lassitude, if a Zen of
bohemia is to be credible, he must be cautious. For to revolt
too ardently smacks only of conventional reaction to other ob-
serving Zens. He must stay listless. But much as a beat Zen will
use marijuana and claim he's reached the mystic state of safari,
he will usually react to convention by showing his hate or fear
of it. In this way the Zen cultist in a bohemia of today loses his
Zen identity as clearly as if he had never left the choir loft of the
Presbyterian Church.
While Americans go through the Zen fad, Zen is declining
in its homeland, Japan, where it grew for eight hundred years.
Some five million followers there still claim it, a belief which
has had a major cultural effect on everything from flower ar-
ranging to war decisions. Yet, few care any longer about Zen's
mystical implications. It is conventional, old, worn and, hence,
no longer attracts the ardent seeker. The koan, which goes back
to the twelfth century, when it was devised to test the students'

understanding of the Zen spirit and shake his mind from con-
ventional thinking, leaves most professed Zen followers in
Japan uninterested today. And, of course, one can never
achieve satori the nonrational, clear and intuitive understand-

ing of reality until he understands the exercises of koan.


The correct reply to a koan does not come easily. How does
one reply, for example, to such queries by Zen masters as :

(After clapping two hands) "Tell me the sound of one


hand."
A man hangs by his teeth to a branch over a cliff and a
master asks: "What is Zen?" What does he reply?
"'Before your mother and father were born, what was your

original nature?"
The accepted answers to such questions, when they come,
are supposed to reflect one's entire life.
Zen is a paradox within a paradox, a mystical doctrine which
367
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA

laughs at all doctrines and dogma and becomes a doctrine and


dogma in the doing. The routine business of living is the answer
itself to all mystic questions, Zen says. Perhaps it is expressed
best in a Zen poem:

"We eat, excrete, sleep and get up;


This is our world.
All we have to do after that
Is to die."

368
Chapter

53

QUO VADIS?

WHAT lies ahead for cultism? The answer rests

in what lies ahead for all religion. Man


perhaps cross the
will
barrier of outer space in time to come. When he does he may
find other living beings with theologies and strange godheads
of their own. From this meeting will come conflicts and recon-
ciliations. Inevitably, if this happens, the world shall know cults

that are inconceivable today.


All religion will change too. It is a living thing, we are told,

and cannot stand still. The cult of Christianity itself met its
first great need at its For Judaism, which had met
birth site.
with success the attack of Greek thought and Roman power,
could not offer an answer to a growing human desire a uni-
versal spirit for the widening world. Christ's message filled that
vacuum. His alien doctrine of gentleness and love, too, met the
strength of mighty Rome. Within a few years this new
belief

was to be the arbiter of thought and hope as the legions of


mighty Rome faded into the horizon of history.
Since then, Christianity has grown and branched like a
mighty oak, with each questing twig drawing nourishment from
the deep roots embedded in human hope.
Cultism will continue to flourish, a constant reminder to self-

369
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
satisfied traditionalists that they are not perfect. For these tiny
outgrowths will be living critiques to the claim that the church
has the answer for all men of all times.

Historically, the church has met such infidels with scorn and
even hate, refusing to look to itself to explain the reason for
this tiny revolution. For the thousands who demand answers
and hope and come circling around the traditional Church with
unpleasant questions, the theologian slams the door. "There
will always be a lunatic fringe," seems to grumble the tradi-
tionalist. "There's nothing to be done about it." And so the dis-

enchanted wanderer moves on, finding his answer in some cultic


deviation.
The answers to what makes a cultist, as we have seen, are
subtleand sublime. Yet the challenge is very real. For some men
must make God in their own image. Others must find assur-
ances in the rusty concepts of primitive dualism. Still others
need to hark back to anti-intellectual, pessimistic fundamen-
talism.
The ultimate solution is, of course, in understanding man's
mind, "the beyond which is within us."
Cults in themselves are not evil creations. Rather, they are
hopeful signs, pointing to man's constant search for identity.
They are the unpaid bills of the Church.

370
INDEX
Angclus Temple, 163, 165-168, 170, 172-
175
Aaron ic Pnesthood, 214 Anglicans, 55, 57, 148, 295
Abel, 7
1 1
Animism, 52
A-bomb, 127, 21W-2IO, 350 Ann Arbor, Mich., 308
Abraham, 17 1
Anthroposophical Society, 90
Absolute, 40-41 Antichrist^ 268
Acts,Book of, 162 Anti-Saloon League, 352
Adam, 89, 117, 275, M2, 342 Anti-vivesectiomsts, 86
Adepts, 145-146, 178-179, 184, 344 Aphrodite, 274
"Adestc Fideles/' 180 Apis, 296
Adkins, I-dwaid, 300 Apocrypha, 319
l
Adler, Felix, >3 Apostles, 21, 86
Admusson, F.dvaard, 293-300 Apostolic Brotherhood, 91
Adventism, 57-60, 31 1
Applied Christianity, 72
Adventists, 56-61 Aquarius School of the Masters, 93
Adyar, 144 Arabs, 28, 268, 328
Aeschylus, 151 Arcturus, God of Liberty, 180
Africa, 63, 143, 225, 228-229 Aristotle, 29, 151, 274
Agabag Occult Church, 130 Arizona, 69, 211, 359
Agasha, 131 Ark of the Covenant, 99
Agasha, Reverend,.stv/enor, Di. Richard Arkansas, 273
Agasha Temple of Wisdom, Inc., 131 Armageddon, 11, 294, 344
"Age of Reason," 96 Army- McCarthy Hearings, 214
Agua Prieta, 165 Aryan Scriptures, 185
Ahmadiyat Sect, 86 Aryan Temple, 501

Akashie Records, 93, 134 asanas* 362


Akashic Science Gioup, 134 Ascended Masters, 117, 179-180
Akka, 106 Asgaard, 121
Akkadians, 23 Ash Wednesday, 338
Alaska, 215-216 Asia, 24, 90
Alba, 189 Asiatics, 249-250
Alba, Duke of, 118 Asoka, King, 195
Albigenses, 18 1
Assyrians, 23
Albuquerque, N, M., 340 Astaroth, 269-270
Alchemy, 27 Astarte, 121
Alcoholism, 127 Astrologers, 28
Alexander the Great, 127 Astrology, 28, 38, 115, 204
Alexandria, Fgypt, 33, 294 At the Feet of the Matter, 155
Algiers, La,, 228 Atheists, 116-122, 330
Allah, 28, 253, 257 Atomic Religion, 132
Allentown, Pa., 346 Atlantean Society, 343
Alliette, the Cabalist, 31 Atlanthins, 90
Allport, Gordon W., 13 Atlantic Ocean, 161, 199
Amalgamated Flying Saucer Clubs, 343 Atlantis, 15, 90, 1 12, 134, 344
Ama/on River, 177 Attic Cult Rites, 271
America First, 351 Auburn, N. Y., 96
American Association for the Advance- flww, 194
ment of Atheism, 116, 130 Australia, 91, 163, 165, 307, 316
American Legion, 157 Authoritarianism, 49
Ammon, 298 Autobiography of a Yogi, 194
Amsterdam, 154 A /.tecs, 339
Anaheim, Calif., 359
Ancient Mystic Order of Melchi/edeL B
131 Baal, 264, 270
Ancient One, 266-267 Bab, the, 105
Andreac, Valentine, 115 Babism, 105

371
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
Babylonia, 31 Bombay, 144
Babylonians, 23 Book of Mormon, The, 78
Bachell,Horace A 357 ,
Book of the Dead, 294
Bacon, Francis, 177, 317 Borgia, Cesare, 119
Bacon, Roger, 28 Boston, 66-67, 189
Baha Abdu'l, 106 Boston Craze, 74, 109, 153
Baha'i, 104-106 Box Canyon, 213, 215-216
Baha'u'llah, 104, 106 "Boy Phenomenon, The," 358
Baker, George, see Father Divine Brace, Charles Loin, 355
Bakersfield, Calif., 214 Bradlaugh, Charles, 119
Ballard, Edna, 176-183 Briggs, John, 317-323
British Psychic Research Society, 53, 144
Ballard, Guy, 176-183
Baltimore, 56, 101, 163, 236 Broan, Addison, 132
Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 140-141 Brooklyn, N. Y., 61, 63, 87, 343
Baptism, 238, 265
Brotherhood of Teachers, 146
Baptists, 57, 224, 350
Brotherhood of the White Temple, 89
Barefoot People, 216 Brothers, Richard, 306
Barrow, Lucy, 87 Brothers of Christ, 91
Basilides, 26
Brothers of the Golden Cross, 30
Brothers of Luxor, 143
Bates, Joseph, 58
Battle Creek Institute, 357 Bryan, William Jennings, 332
Bayer, Alfred, 297 Bryant, William Cullen, 51
Bazard, Armand, 275 Buchanan, President James, 80
"Beast 666," 280, 285, 288 Buchenwald, 292
Beatniks, 364-368 Buchman, Dr. Frank, 346-349
Beat Zen, 265 Buchmanites, 347
Beaver Islands, 95, 102 Buchner, Ludwig, 120
Behemoth, 270 Buckingham Palace, 87
Beissel, Johann Conrad, 275 Buddha, 74, 113, 145, 194, 341
Believerism, or Balanced Life, 132 Buddhism, 194, 366
Bell, Arthur, 196-202 Buddhists, 42, 186, 281-282
Bellamy, Edward, 317 Builders of Adytum, 89
Belur Math, 185 Bunche, Ralph, 259
Benares, India, 149 Burbank, Luther, 106
Benares, University of, 149 Burkmar, Lucius, 74
Benedict, St., 247 Burlington, Iowa, 97
Bennett, Allen, 281-282 Butler, Samuel, 317
Benton Harbor, Mich., 311-312, 314
Bernard, St., 37
Besant, Annie, 148-160
Bhatka Yoga, 362 Cabala, 29, 31-32, 145, 280-281
Bible, 38, 48, 51, 58, 61-62, 65, 75, 96, Caesar, 32
117, 130, 132, 164, 206, 237, 244, 246, Cagliostro, 31
279, 311, 327, 330, 332, 341, 344 Cain, 117, 311-312
Bill of Rights, 16 Cairo, Egypt, 283-284
Birth Control, 82 Calcutta, India, 185
Bla'ck Jews, 245-247 California, 11, 18, 29, 75, 80, 125-135,
Black Magic, 135, 268, 280 138, 142, 147, 153-157, 159, 162, 176,
Black Mass, 263-272, 277, 288-289 179, 194, 196, 198, 214, 216, 258, 336
Blavatsky, General Nikifor, 142 California Institute of Technology (Cal-
Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna Hahn, 142- tech), 213
147, 149, 158 California Positive and Negative Electric
Blavatsky Lodge, 144 Cough and Consumption Cure, 357
Blaykelocke, Lady Sabrina, 295-298 Calles, President Elias, 299
Blaykelocke, Lord Eustace, 295-299 Calvin, John, 190
Bliven, Bruce, 126 Calvinists, 268
"Blood on the Tail of a Pig," 1 10 Cambridge University, 280
Bloomer, Amelia, 102 Campbellites, 78
Bloomington, 111., 81 Canada, 63, 87, 92, 108, 165, 174, 307,
BodhiTree, 194 315-316, 319, 348
Boehme, Jacob, 145 cantinas > 138
Bogomils, 269 Cape Verde Islands, 240
Boleskinne, Laird of, 282 Carmel, Calif., 166
Bolsheviks, 297 Case, Dr. Paul Foster, 89

372
INDEX
Catacombs, 43 Clark, Mose, 315
Catalina Island, 21 Classical Ideal, 30
Catholicism, 13, 35, 53, 62, 82, 135, 139, Clay County, Mo., 79
166, 184, 207, 223, 229-230, 295, 343 Cleveland, Ohio, 179
Celestial Vehicle Investigation Commit- Coconino County, Ariz., 321
tee, 343 Cold War, 332
Celibacy, 275 Colorado, 340
Cerberus, 122 Columbian Exposition, 105
Ceylon, 144, 195, 284 Comet of 1572, 114
Chaldea, 23, 26 Committee of One Million, 351
Charlemagne, 28 Communism, 63, 64, 347
Charlotte, N. C, 241 Communists, 63, 64, 347, 352
Charon, 122 Conestoga Wagons, 80
"Chemical Wedding," 115 Coney Island, 244
Cherry, F, S., 245-247 Confucius, 74, 145
Chicago, 12, 80, 105, 156-157, 163, 176, Congregationalism, 86
179, 183-184, 204, 213, 231, 233, 249, Congregationalists, 364
254-256, 258, 293, 314, 318-319, 322- Connecticut, 16
323, 327, 351 conquistador es 339
y

Chicago World's Fair, 87 Conrad, Joseph, 14


China, 88, 133, 161, 179, 198,284,352,363 Constantino, 118
Christ Brotherhood, Inc., 343 Constantinople, 106
Chnstadelphians, 90 Cooper, Gary, 363
Christian Concept of Original Sin, 1 12 Cooper, James Fenimore, 51
Christian Evangelical Faith, 174 Copermcan Astronomy, 88
Christian Nationalist Crusade, 352 Coptic Fellowship of America, 134
Christian Nationalists, 354 Corrupt Practices Act, 353
Christian Ritual, 263, 265 Corvallis, Ore., 301, 303-305
Christian Science, 65-69, 71, 75-76, 238, Cosmic Brotherhood Association, 343
358 Cosmic Circle of Friendship, 343
Christian Scientists, 65-69, 71, 75-76, 238, Cosmic Light, 180-181
358 Cosmic Voice^ 343
Christian Theology, 263 Coughlm, "Father" Gerald, 351
Christian West, 295 Council of Trent, 204
Christendom, 28, 338 Courts, Eliza, 309
U, 14-15,
Christianity, 24, 26-27, 29, 37, Craeton of Jupiter, 344
48,66,70,72,75,81, 111, 117-118, 133, Creffield, Franz, 301-305
139, 193-194, 224, 229, 234, 245,
189, Creoles, 226
250, 266-267, 275, 284, 290, 295, 339, "Critic and the Artist, The," 14
365, 369 Cross and the Flag, The, 352
Christmas, 214, 247, 250 Cross-bearing Evangelistic Militia of
Church of All Religions, see Truth Reali- Luneberg, 30
zation Crowley, Aleister, 135, 272, 276-293
Church of the Bride of the New Prophet, Crowley, Rose, 283-286
301-302, 304 Crowleyanity, 277-292
Church of Christ, Scientist, 65-69 Crowleyites, 295
Church of Christ (Temple), 81 Crucifixion, 214, 282
Church of England, 55, 57, 148, 295 Crusade for the New Civilization, 131
Church of the Four-square Gospel, 167, Cuba, 229
172 Cult of the Dead, 25
Church of God, 332 Cult of the Madonna, 295
Church of God and Saints of Christ, 245 Cutler, Alpheus, 81
Church of God, the Seventh Day, 91 Cutlerites, 81
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, 77, 78-82 D
Church of Light, 91
Church of Modern Philosophy, 134 Dallas, Tex., 163
Church Triumphant, 87 Daniel, Book of, 35, 44, 57
Cinderella, 29 Daniels, Bessie, 315
City of Mentalphysics, 133 Darwin, Charles, 143
City of Psychopathic Angels, 189 Day of Judgment, 56-57
CivilWar, 51-52, 91 Dayamata, Sister, 194
Clamor Puhlico, /, 140 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire\ 33
Claridge Hotel, London, 219 Demonology, 91

373
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
Denver, Colo., 89, 163 Emancipation, 51
Depression, 129, 170, 196-197, 236 Emerson, "Pontiff" Harold Davis, 89
De Raemond, 268 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 73-74
Deshayes, Catherine, 270-271 Enfantm, Bartelemy-Prosper, 275
Detroit, 96, 178, 253-254, 258, 307-309, Engels, Friedrich, 317
327, 351 England, 32, 56, 63, 75, 85-86, 91, 133,
Detroit Free Press, 3 1 5 149 155, 284, 286, 289-290, 296, 306-
devachan, 146 307, 343, 347-348
De Vere, Edward, 52 Ephrata Colonv, 275
Devil, 62, 91, 101, 199, 232, 264-265, 267, Equinox* The, 29 1

272, 274, 329, 336 Erehwon, 317


Devil-worship, 263, 280 Esdras, Book of, 319-321
Devonshire, England, 148 Eskimos, 44
Devouts, 321-323 Esoteric Section of the Theosophucal So-
Dianetic Movement, 134 cietv, 144
Dingle, Dr. Edwin John, 133 Essene Principles, 134
Dionysian Mysteries, 266 Essene School of Life, 133
Dionysos, 264 Essenes, 133
Disciplmati di Jesu Cnsto, 338 Estero, Fla., 87-88
Divine, Father, 44, 234-239, 244 Eternal City, 213
Douglas, Ariz 165
,
Ethenans, 344
Douglas Hospital, 166 Ethical Culture Philosophy, 93
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, 53 Eucharist, 265
Dred Scott Decision, 351 Eumenidef;, 151
Dresser, Julius, 75 Euphrates River, 23
Drew, All, see Drew, Timothy Europe, 24, 54, 75, 142, 144, 149, 153,
Drew, Timothy, 249-250 212, 264, 284, 290, 338
Druids, 29 Evangelism, 345
Dubnok, 341 Evangelists, 72
Dukhobors, 92 Evans, Warren F 75 ,

Duncan, Robert L., 91-92 Eve, 117, 269, 312


Dunsuirr News, 178 Evil One, 274
Dweller on Two Planets, 182 Exdoxus, 294
Dyer Act, 208 Existentialists, 365
Extrasensory Perception, 127

Easter, 214, 247


Eastern Thought, 184 Fabian Socialism, 202
Echo Park, 164, 172, 174 Fabian Society, 148
Echo Park Evangelistic Association, 172- Faddists, 327, 357
173 Faesi, Leah, 286, 289
Ectoplasm, 51 "Fall of Lynn, The," 66
Eddy, Mary Baker, 65-69, 71, 74-75, 358 Far East, 133, 185
Edison, Thomas A., 127 Far Eastern Thought, 72-73
Egypt, 24, 31, 110, 117, 121, 133, 146, 157, Fard, Mohammed, 253
177, 273, 282, 286, 294, 297, 300 Farmer's Almanac, 74
Egyptian Architecture, 297 Father Divine's Peace Mission, 224, 236-
Egyptian Book of the Dead, 281 237
Egyptian Gods, 284, 296 Fayette, N. Y. 79f

Egyptology, 300 FBI, 336


Egypto-Yoga, 298-299 Fellowship of Golden Illumination, 343
Einstein, Albert, 152, 350 Fends, 121
Eisenhower, President Dwight D , 350, Ferner, J. Todd, 86
353 Fillmore, Charles, 69-70
Elamites, 23 Fillmore, Myrtle, 69-70
Elders of Zion, 353 First Adventists, 58
Eldir, Madame d', 32 First Century Christian Fellowship, 346
Electronic Principle of Thinking, 190 First Christian Spiritualist Church, 343
Eleusian Mysteries, 285 First Christians' (Essene) Church, 133
Elizabeth, Queen, 335, 337 Fitzgerald, "Dr." B. J., 18
Elohim, 24 Flagellation, 338
EI-Temen-An-Ki, 24 "Flaming Sword, The," 88
Elysian Fields, 122 Flood, the, 246

374
INDEX
Florence, Ital>, 28 Golden Calf, 184
Florida, 161/211 Golden State, 153
Fludd, Robert, 29 Good Friday, 338
Flying Roll, The, 307 Goofer Dust, 233
Flying Rollers, 307, 311-312 Gorakhpur, 189
Flying Saucers, 211, 341-344 Goths, 27
Flying Saucers' A Modern Myth of Things Graca, Marcel no, see Grace,
i
Daddy
Seen in the Skies, 341 Grace, Daddy, 240-244
Food Faddists, 135 Graham, Billy, 16, 120
Forest lawn Memorial Park, 173, 188 Grand Canyon, 321
Forras, 270 Great Beast, 279, 281, 286, 289-290
Fort Den' a nee, 323 Great Britain, 91, 152, 165, 200, 292
Fosdick, Di. Harry Emerson, 14 Great Pyramid, 11, 283, 294, 344
Fosloria, Ohio, 310 Great White Brotherhood, 131
Fountain of the World, 213-214 Great White Lodge, 146
Fourier, Charles, 32, 317 Greece, 25, 281, 318
Fox, John D., 52 Greek Thought, 369
Fox, Katie, 52-53 Greeks, 154, 274, 285
Fox, Margaret, 52-53 Greeley, Horace, 51, 81
France, 30-31, 152, 177, 269, 275, 290, 296 Green Virgin, 210
Francis, Third Order of St., 339 Greenwich Village, 286, 364
Frankenstein, 275 Gregorno, 344
Frankfurter, Felix, 352 Gregory VII, Pope, 28
Frazer, J. G., 295 Gris-gris, 223, 226, 229, 231-233
Frederick the Great, 31 Guazzo, 264
Ftederickshall, 54 Guaymas, 297-298
Freemasonry, Fgvptian Lodge of, 31 Guldenstubbe, Baron, 32
Fremont, John C., 139, 153 Gulf of Baja California, 297
French Revolution, 25 Kuril, 189, 192
French West Africa, 240 Guyon, Madame, 269
Freud, Sigmund, 43
Fruitarians, 359 H
Fruits of Islam, 258
Fulton, Mo., 332 Hades, 122
Fundamentalism, 38, 48, 129, 164, 204, Haeckel, Ernst, 120
278, 302, 354, 370 Haifa, Israel, 106
Fundamentalists, II, 13 117, 162, 342, Halcyon Order of the IHuminati, 100
365 Haley's Comet, 336
Ham, 81
Hampshire, England, 295
Hansel, Mr. and Mrs. John W., 315-316
Gandhi, Mohandas K., 194 Happy Valley Foundation, 158
Gandhi Woild Peace Memorial, 194 Hard-shell Baptists, 1 1

Garho, Greta, 263 Harlem, 233, 258


Garden of Hden, 90 Harvard University, 329
Garden of Peace, 98 Hastings, England, 277, 291
Gaya, 194 Hatha Yoga, 361-362
Genesis, Book of, 24, 117-118, 311, 330, Hawaii, 282
351 Hays, Will, 171
Georgia, 236, 244 Heaven of Father Divine, 235, 237-238,
Germans, 182 241
Germany, 114, 144, 200, 301 Hebrews, 24
Gcst, Morris, 171 Heist, Roy A., 233
Giant Rock Airport, 134 "Henry X," 258
Gibbon, Hdward, 33 Herb lore, 139
Giborg Mass, 271 Hermetic Alchemists, 89
Gi/a. 344 Hermetic Mysteries, 281
Glapion, Christophe Duminy de, 231 Hcrmetics, 30
Glasgow, 137 Hill Country Fundamentalism, 238
Gnomes, 29 Himalayas, 146, 155, 157, 190, 283, 344
Gnosticism, 25, 27, 66 Hinde, George P., 359
Gnostics, 25-26, 155 Hindu Caste System, 155
Gold Rush, 355 Hindu Memory Techniques, 127
Gohhm Bough, The, 295 Hindu Seers and Mystics, 184, 288

375
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
Hindu Thought, 72-73 Internal Revenue, Department of, 1 8
Hinduism, 185, 194 International Bible Students, 61
Hindus, 42, 70, 72-73, 87, 93, 144, 186, International Church of Holy Trinity, 133
189, 191-192, 195, 282, 361 Internation Congress of Religious Lib-
Hitler, Adolf, 12, 117, 292-293, 332, 347 erals, 189
Hitlerian Racist Ideas, 253 International Institute of Universal Re-
Hitlerism, 347 search, 198
Hoffer, Eric, 36 International Legion of Vigilantes, 198
Holland, 149, 152, 155, 296-297 International Theosophical Society, 157
Hollywood, 11, 108, 127, 152, 185, 195, International Vegetarian Union, 356
204-205, 207 Interplanetary Study Groups, 134
Holy City, Calif., 334-335, 337 Iris Temple of Art, Music and Drama, 151
Holy Ghost, 162 Iron Curtain, 120, 332
Holy Koran, 249-250 Isaiah, 210
Holy Land, 165 Ishtar, 121
Holy Rollerism, 162 Isis, 15, 24-25, 27, 121, 282, 294-295
Holy Rollers, 161-162 Isis Unveiled , 143
Holy Spirit, 70, 162, 349 Islam, 86, 114, 194
Holy Superet Light Church, 133 "Islam," 250-259
Holy Writ, 28 Isleof San Marcos, 297
Homeopathy, 68 Isolationism, 351
Homestead, 150, 152, 159 Israel, 78, 259
Homosexuality, 279, 282, 286 Israelite House of David, see House of
Hong Kong, 161,282 David
Hopkins, Harry, 352
Horton, Dr., 131
Hottentots, 351
Houdini, 53 Jackson, Andrew, 52
House of David, 306-316 Jacob, 246
House of Prayer for All People, 240-241 "James I, King," 95-103
How to Prophecy, Predict and Speak, 21 1 James, St., 95
Howard, Dana, 343 James, William, 40-41, 76
Humanism, 92-93 Jansen, Cornells, 30
Humfry, John, see Briggs, John Jansenism, 30-31
Hunt, Maud, 303-305 Jansenists, 30
Huron, Lake, 95 Japan, 198, 282, 336, 343, 363
Husayn All, Mirza, 105 Japanese, 179
Hussites, 118 Jaredites, 78
Hutton, David, Jr., 169, 171 Jeffers, Joe, 203-211
Huxley, Aldous, 186 Jeffers, Mrs. Joe, 206, 208
Huxley, Julian, 93 Jehovah's Witnesses, 44, 49, 60-64, 278
Hydesville, N. Y M 52 Jerusalem, 91
"Hymn to Pan," 292 Jesuits, 30-31
Hypnotism, 74 Jesus Christ, 11, 14, 21, 23, 25-26, 28, 37,
50, 58, 62, 65, 67, 70, 74, 78-79, 85-87,
I 89-91, 98, 105-106, 113, 118-119, 126,
Idealism, 73 132, 139, 145-146, 154-155, 157, 162,
Illinois, 79, 97 179, 182, 194, 211-212, 214, 218, 246-
Incas, 177 248, 263, 269, 278, 310-311, 316, 328-
Independence, Mo., 79, 81 332, 338-339, 341, 351-352, 369
India, 11, 86-87, 143-144, 149, 152, 155, Jewish mythology, 263, 284
157, 159, 185, 189, 192, 195, 274, 282, Jews, 29, 78, 87, 157, 205, 207, 246, 253-
318 254, 256-257, 350, 353
Indian mystics, 190, 295 Jnana Yoga, 362
Indian seers, 135 Joan of Arc, 178, 348
Indianapolis, Ind., 12 Job, Book of, 30
Indians, American, 78, 89-90, 100, 102, John, Doctor, 229, 231, 232
135-136, 138, 178, 338, 340, 356 John, St., 11, 87,339-340
Indio, Calif., 360 John Believer, see Broan, Addison
Ingersol, Ont., 161 John of the Cross, St., 188
Ingersoll, Robert G., 120 Jordan, David Starr, 35
Inquisition, 264-265 Joshua the Second, 301-305
Institute of Mentalphysics, 133 Judah, 24
Institute of Thought Control, 134 Judaism, 14, 24, 369

376
INDEX
Judas, 21, 32 Latter Rain Movement, 333
Judge, William 0., 149 Laurel Canyon, 208
Judgment Day, 201 Laveau, Marie, 230-233
Judo, 258 Laws, 25
Julian the Apostate, 26 Leadbeater, Charles W., 91
Jung, Dr. Carl, 341-342 Leamington, England, 278
Jupiter, 55, 344 Lecky, William, 120
Lee, Mother Ann, 275
K Lee County, Fla., 87
Left Bank, 283
K-2, 283 Legions of Light, 179
K-17, 179, 182 Lemuna, 344
Kamenoft, Peter, 217 Lemunan Epic, 1 12
Kansas City, 70-71, 87, 192-193 Lemurians, 178
Kansas City Athenaeum, 192 Lenormand, Mademoiselle, 31
Karma, concept of, 112 Leona, Pope, 213
Karma, law of, 145-146, 159 Lesbianism, 168
Karma Yoga, 362 Libanius, 26
Karnak, 177 Liberal Catholic Church of America, 91
Kashmir, India, 87 Lidice, 117
Kearney, General, 138 Lighthouse of International Four-square
Kcble, John, 347 Evangelism, 174
Kellogg, Dr. J. H., 357 Lincoln, Abraham, 51, 348
Kenai Peninsula, 215 Little Egypt, 185
Kennedy, Minnie, 160, 164-167, 169, 172 Little, Malcolm, 258
Kentucky, 11, 309 Liverpool, 345
Kepple, Judge Gerald O, 251 Living Flame, 293-300
King, John, 143 Loch Ness, 282
King, Dr. William, 134 Logic, 268
King James Bible, 117 Loki, 121
Kingdom Hall, 62-63 Loma Linda, Calif., 59
Kingdom Temple, 203, 208, 210 London, 55, 143-144, 154, 156, 219, 280,
"Kingdom of Yahweh," 208, 21 1 282, 289, 293, 295, 298-299
King's Chamber, 283 Long, Huey P., 351
King's Cottage, 95 Long Beach, Calif., 1 1 1
Kings, Book of, 264 Long Island, 89
Kirkland, Ohio, 79 Lord's Supper, 62, 106
Knight, Reverend Giles N., 171 Los Angeles, 19, 59, 89-92, 125-126, 128-
Knorr, Nathan, 62 130, 132-133, 135-136, 138-139, 141-
koan, 365, 367 142, 152-153, 158, 163, 164-167, 169,
Koran, 33, 38, 130, 253, 256 172, 174, 176-177, 183, 186, 188-190,
Kore, 274 193, 196, 203, 208-209, 212-213, 217,
Korean War, 64 240-241, 253, 257-258, 327, 343, 352,
koresh, 88 355-357, 359
Kranikov, Casimir, 297, 299 Los Angeles County, 171
Kremlin, 21 1 Los Angeles Municipal Court, 251
kri, 190 Los Angeles Star, 138-140
Krishnamurti, 148-160 Los Angeles Times, 125, 152-153
Kriya, 190 "Lost Generation" of the Twenties, 131,
Kriya Yoga, 189 323
Krotana, 152 Lost Tribes of Israel, 310-311
Ku Klux Klan, 251, 352 Lotus position, 195, 263
Kullgren, William, 355 Louisiana, 193, 226
Love with Understanding, 343
LSD, 41-42
Lucifer, 265
Lafayette, Marquis de, 178, 230 Luciferians, 28
Laguna Beach, Calif,, 186 Luke, St., 1 1

Lake Shrine, 194 Luther, Martin, 15, 55, 115


Lamanites, 78 Lutheran Church, 55
Lamech, 117 Lutherans, 346
Las Vegas, 215 Luxor, 177
Last Judgment, 55 Lynn, James J., 192-193
Latter-day Saints, 359 Lynn, Mass., 65-66

377
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
M Michigan, 316
Michigan, Lake, 95, 104, 314-315
Machen, Arthur, 28 1 Michigan Legislature, 102
Mackinac, 96, 102-103 Middle Ages, 27, 29, 43, 65, 264, 274, 338
1

Madison Avenue, 107 Middle East, 142


Madonna, Isis and, 24 Midsummer Night* s Dream, A, 151
Madonna and Child, 194 Midwest, 21, 305, 309, 351
Madras, India, 144 Mighty I Am, 31, 176-183, 199
Magic, 27, 111, 145, 225 Mighty I Am Presence, 178
Magician, The, 283 Millennial Dawmsts, 61

Magicians, 135 Millennium, 342


Mahatmas, 145 Miller, Wilbur, 343
Maine, 161 Miller, William, 57-58
"Malcolm X," see Little, Malcolm Millentes, 43, 57-58
Manasseh, 24 Millikan, Dr Robert, 152
Mangassarin, M.M., 120 Mills, Michael, 308-309
Manichaeism, 25 Mills, Mis. Michael, 308
Mankind United, 29, 196-202 Ministry of Universal Wisdom, 343
Marchocias, 270 Minute Men of Saint-Germain, 183
Marie of Roumania, Queen, 106 Miracle, The, 171
Mark, St., 11 Mississippi, 19, 79, 97
Mars, 55 Mississippi River, 228
Marseilles, 298 Missouri, 61, 80-81
Marx, Karl, 317 Mitchell, George, 305
Mary Magdelen, 328 Mohammed, 28, 87, 105
Mass of the Roman Catholic Church, 265 Mohammed, Elizah, 225, 250, 253-259
Master from Venus, 179 Mohammed Ah, see Bab, the
Masters, see Mahatmas Mohammedan Koran, 249
Mather, Cotton, 78 Moloch, 121
Matthew, St., 11, 43 Money, William, 136-142
Maugham, Somerset, 283 Moneyan Institute, 140
Mayan Temple, 89 Money's Castle, 140
Mayans, 89 "Mongrelization," 353
Maz-Daz-Lan, 131 Monka of Mars, 344
McCarthy, Senator Joseph, 214-215 Monroe, Marilyn, 363
McGroaty, Steven, 125 Montclair, N. J., 241
McPherson, Aimee Semple, 159-176 Monte Carlo, 165
McPherson, Harold, 161 Montreal, 163
McPherson, Rolf Kennedy, 161, 169, 172- Moody, Dwight L., 68, 160
174 Moon Period, 1 14
Meaux, Bishop of, 269 Moorish-Americans, 249
Mecca, 249 Moorish Science Temple of America, 248-
Medici, Catherine de, 268 250
Medieval allegory, 1 1 1 moradas, 339
Medieval Church, 265 Moral Re-Aimament, 345-349
Medievalmorality, 329 Morality Plays, 165
MedievalPapists, 268 More, Thomas, 317
Mediums, 50-53, 146 Mormon Church, 77-82
Memnon, 121 Mormons, 77-82, 97, 99
Mentar of Venus, 344 Moroni, 77-78
Menuhin, Yehudi, 363 Morris, William, 317
Mercury, 55, 271 Moscow, 352
Mescalin, 42 Moscow, Idaho, 108
Mesmer, Friednch Anton, 71 Moses, 105, 328
Mesmerism, 68, 184 Moslem Faith, 253-254, 256
Mesopotamia, 24 Moslems, 55, 105, 186
Meta Verde Valley, 218 "Moslems," 250-259
Metaphysics, 69 "Moslems, That Old-TIme Religion," 250
Methodists, 57, 153, 184, 224, 348 Most Laudable Order of the Holy Cross
Methuselah, 117 114
Mexican Border, 138 Mother Church, The First Church of
Mexicans, 137 Christ, Scientist, 66-68
Mexico, 282, 299-300 Mount Forest, Ont., 161
Mexico City, 137 Mt. Everest, 218

378
INDEX
Mt. Shasta, 176, 178 North Carolina, 249
Mt. Sinai, 122 North Pole, 140
Mt. Sinai Holy Church of America, 244- Northwest Trust Company of Chicago.
245 318
Mt. Teton, 177, 182 Nothing Impossible Group, 131
Mt. Washington, 189, 194 Notre Dame, 32
Mu, 90, 178 Noyes, John Humphrey, 318
Muhlcnhcig College, 346 Nucr, 270
Mullcr, Ralph, 217 Nucstra Senora La Rema de Los Angeles
Municipal Auditorium (Denvet), 163 de Poiciuncula, 136
Muiphy, Fiancis, 291 Numerology, 318
Muscovites, 286
Muslims, 225 O
Mysore Province, 318
Mysteries of Lleusis, 274 Oakland, Calif, 18, 167, 173, 215, 247
Mystics, ^5
1 Oakland (Cal.) Auditorium, 173
Mystics, Medieval Christian, 4] Obregon, President Alvero, 299
Occult Hierarchy, 146
N Ocean Park, 165
Odin, 122
Naga, Goddess of I
ove, 180 Oeggcr, William, 32
Naples, 144 Ohio, 20
Napoleon, 32 Ojai, Calif., 158-159
Narcisse, King, 247-248 Olcott, Colonel Henry Steel, 143-144
Nashville, Term 315
, Old Catholic Church, 91
National Association for the Advance- Old Nick, 327
ment of Colored People, 253, 256 Old Testament, 13, 51-52, 118, 211, 319,
National Council of Churches, 13 330, 338
Nauvoo, II!., 79, 97-98 Olivet, Pierre-Joseph d', 32
Nauvpo Legion, 79 Olson, Nelson, 360
Navajo Indian Reservation, 321 Olympus, 122
Navajos, 321 Oneida, N. Y., 318, 321
Nazism, 205, 207 "Onward, Christian Soldiers," 205, 207
Nebuchadne//ar, 24 OPA, 207
Negro cults, 223-259 Order of the Cross, 86
Neo-Gnostie Mass, 291 Order of the Golden Dawn, 280, 282, 284
Neo-Platonists, 26 Order of the Silvei Star, 287
Neo-Theopneustic League, 296 Order of the Star, 157
Nepal, 194 Order of the Stai of the East, 159
Nephrites, 78 Orient, 21 1

New Bedford, Mass., 240 Oiiental Philosophy, 145, 287


New /></), The, 237 Orrmston, Kenneth, 165-166
New Lngland, 65, 75, 127, 162 Orion, 208-211
New Lra I-'xpenment, 135 Orphic mysteries, 264
New Harmony, Ind., 317 Orthodox Jews, 59
New Jerusalem, 208, 334 Osiris, 121, 294
New Mexico, 338, 340 Osiris Reboin, 295-300
New Orleans, 227-233, 293, 327 Otis, General Harrison Gray, 152
New Testament, 75, 120 Ottoman Bar-Azusht Ra-Nish, 131
New Thought, 71-76, 109, 135, 153 Ouija boards, 51, 184
New York, 21, 89, 97, 106, 137, 143, 149, Outer Space, 343, 369
156-158, 161, 204, 241, 256, 258, 284, Owen, Robett, 317
318, 323, 327, 366 Oxford, 17th Earl of, 52
New York GV<//>///<*, 143 Oxford Group, 346-347
New York State, 21, 33, 78-79, 318 Oxford Movement, 346
New York World-Telegram, 347 Oxford University, 290, 346
Newark, N. J., 249
Newman, John Henry, Cardinal, 346
Nice to Be Nice Cult, 248
Nicodemus, 332 Pacific Lemunan Society, 343
Nile, !2U 273, 295 Pacific Ocean, 90, 194
Nirvana, 42, 365 Pacifists, 86
Nixon, Richard, 332 Padmasana position, 287
Noah, 117, 209 Paganism, 266

379
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
paguSy 27 Portland, Me., 74
Paine, Thomas, 96, 120 Portland, Ore., 110, 303
Palestine, 133, 157 Positive Thinking, 72-73
Palm Springs, 209 Potomac, 16, 51

Palmyra, N. Y., 77 Practitioners (Christian Science), 67


Pan, 264 Pre-Millenniahsm, 91
Panama Canal, 182 Presbyterianism, 139
Panchatatton, 284 Presbyterians, 153, 184, 348, 367
Paracelsus, Philippus, 114-115, 145 Primitive Dualism, 370
Paradise Bay, 95 Primitive Irish, 44
Paris, 32, 143, 156, 165, 169,269-271,285, "Prince Mike," see Mills, Michael
299 Prior Choice Economics, 344
Paris, Widow, see Laveau, Marie Pritchard, Isabel, 315
Paris Match, 299 Prohibition, 318
Parker, Dr. Merle, 93 Protestantism, 13, 17, 35, 49, 64, 223
Parker, Chief William, 253 Protestants, 57, 62, 350
Pasadena, 159, 356, 358 Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph, 317
Pascal, Blaise, 38 Proverbs, 30
Passover, 247 Pruvac, Miss, 298
Paul, St., 26-27, 43, 55, 86, 162
Psalms of David, 43
Peace Haven, the House of the New Com- Psychiana, 107-110
mandment, 89 Psychomanteia, 25
Peace-of-Mind Cults, 354 Psychopompeia, 25
Peale, Norman Vincent, 16, 72, 99 PTA, 171
Pearl Harbor, 200 Purgatorial Society, 87
Pegler, Westbrook, 109, 126 Purgatory, 55
Pencovic, Frank, 213 Puritanism, 35
Penitentites, 338-340 Purnell, Ben, 306-317
Penn, William, 78 Purnell, Hedy, 310
Pennsburg, Pa., 346 Pusey, Edward, 347
Pennsylvania, 60, 275 Pyramids, 146
Pennsylvania Dutch, 346 Pythagoras, 32, 145, 294
Pennsylvania State University, 346
Pentagon, 64
Pentecostal ecstacy, 225 Quakers, 85
Pentecostal Movement, 244 Queen of Magnetism, 358
Pentecostalism, 162 Queens, N. Y., 332
Pentecostals, 13, 161-163, 333 Quiet Time, 349
Perennial Philosophy, 184-187 Quietism, 269
Periander, 25 Quimby, Phineas P., 74-75
Persia, 13, 23, 157 Quimby Manuscripts, 74
Persians, 23
Peter, St., 289, 339-340 R
Philadelphia, 143, 244-245, 247, 346
Philharmonic Auditorium, 163 Rabelais, Francois, 284, 288
Philippines, 63 Rais, Gilles de, 290
Philosopher's Stone, 30 Raja Yoga, 40, 362, 366
Phoenix, Ariz, 211 Raja Yoga College, 151
Piedmont, Calif., 248 Rajasi Janakanada Ashram, 194
Pilate, 339-340 Ramakrishna Math and Mission, 1 85
Pitaquitos, 137 Ramakrishna Monastery, 186
Plates of Labin, 101 Rancho la Puerta, 134
Plato, 25, 32, 112,275, 317 Rangoon, 284
Plaza Church, 137 Ranisch, Otto, 131
Plutarch, 274, 294 Rationalism, 268
Pluto, 122, 274, 344 Reade, Win wood, 120
Plymouth Brothers, 278, 280 Readers (Christian Science), 67
Point Loma Theosophical Community, "Reform of the New Testament Church,"
150, 152-154, 158 139
Polyandry, 318-320 Reformation, 30, 76, 114, 225
Polygamy, 79, 81 "Reformation of the World, The,** 114
Pontchartrain, Lake, 227 Reformed New Testament Church, 136
Poole, Elizah, see Mohammed, Elizah Regnier (astrologer), 268
Pope, His Holiness the, 212, 247, 340, 343 Reincarnation, 145, 158, 190-191, 216,282

380
INDEX
Reincarnation mediums, 127 San Jose, Calif., 334
Remsberg, Charles E., 120 San Luis Valley, 340
Reorgani/cd Church of Jesus Christ of Sanctuary of Thought, 343
Latter-dav Saints, 81 Sangre del Cristo, 339-340
Republic, 275, 317 Sanskrit, 363
Revelation, Book of, 11, 35, 43, 47, 49, Santa Barbara, 186, 356, 358
57, 191, 269, 279,286, 306, 313 Santa Claus, 334, 336-337. See also Holy
Rigdon, Mr., 78 City, Calif.
Riker, "Father" W. E., 334-337 Santa Cruz, Calif., 334
Rio Grande, 338, 340 Santo Domingo, 226-227
Rites of Isis, 282 Santa Fe, N. M., 183
Robespierre, 25 Santa Paula, 214
Robinson, Ina, 244-245 Santa Ysabel, Calif., 93
Robinson, Dr. Frank B., 107-110 Saracens, 33
Robinson, Jackie, 258 Saras wati, Dayananda, 144
Rochester, N. Y., 52 Saratov, 142
Rockefeller, John D., 241 Saskatchewan, 92
Rome, 26, 212, 281, 369 Satan, 62, 91, 98, 165, 264, 266, 269, 284
Roman Empire, 118 Satanael, 269
Romans, 26, 274 Satanic Gnosticism, 272, 291
Roosevelt, Franklin D., 181, 183, 200, Satanic Masses, 270
214, 239, 352 Satanism, 268, 272
Rose Chapel Psychic Center, 134 satori, 366-367
Roscncreuz, Christian, 111, 114 Saturians, 344
Rosicrucian lore, 281 Saturn, 344
Rosicrucianism, 111-115, 290 Saturn Period, 113
Rosicrucians, 111-115, 295 Sayville, L. I., 236
Rousseau, Jean-jacques, 96, 102 Scarlet Woman, 279, 286, 288-289. See
Royal Family (British), 87 also Faesi, Leah
Royal Fraternity of Master Metaphysi- School of Antiquity, 151
cians, 89 Science and Health with Key to the Scrip-
Royal Geographical Society, 133 tures, 66
Royal Tctons, 177 Science of Mind, 1 1

Russell, Bertrand, 294 Scotland, 281, 283


Russell, Charles Taze, 60-61, 65 Scriptures, 24, 38, 55, 91, 122, 243, 327
Russellites, 61 Seances, 51, 148, 184
Russia, 92, 120, 142-143, 286, 332 Seattle, Wash., 304
Ruth, Mother, 212, 218 Second Coming of Christ, 56-58, 60, 65,
Rutherford, Joseph F., 61-62 162, 365
Rutherfordites, 61 Secret Doctrine, The, 144
Sefirots, 29
Segregation, 353
Self-Help Cults, 354
Sabbat, 266-268 Self- Realization Fellowship, 187-195
Sacred Three Times Three, 179 Semple, Robert, 161
Sacred Wisdom of the Ancients, 93 Semple, Roberta, 161-162, 169, 171-172
Sahara, 146 Senate War Investigating Committee, 348
Saint-Germain, Count of, 31, 177-181, Sentinel Rock Creek, 321
230 Septuagint, 319
Saint-Germain Reading Room, 83 1 Serfs, 29
Saint-Simon, 275, 317 Seven Messengers, 306
Salt Lake City, 79, 194 Sevcnth-dav Adventists, 56-60, 357
Salt Lake Valley, 80 Sex cults, 273-323
Salvation Army, 108, 161 Shaffer, James Bernard, 89
samadhi) 42 Shakers, 85, 275
Samuel, 177 Shakespeare, William, 52, 151, 179
San Bernardino, 259 Shambulla Ashrama, Inc., 89
San Bernardino Mountains, 170 Shanghai, 284
San Diego, 12, 150, 152, 195, 356 Shankaracharya, Sri Jagadguru, 195
San Fernando Valley, 170 Shariff, Raymond, 258
San Francisco, 12, 141, 163, 196, 199, 201, Shaw, George Bernard, 14, 148, 354
213-214, 233, 247, 282, 304, 334, 358 Shaw, William, 307
San Gabriel, 140-141 Sheba, Queen of, 31
San Ignacio, 297 Shiraz, Persia, 105

381
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
Shreveport, La., 351 Street Preachers, 327-333
Sicily, 288 Streete, Jonas, 323
Siddhartha, Prince, 157 Styx, 122
Sinatra, Frank, 204 Sudan, 143
Sioux City, Iowa, 12, 111, 115 Suffolk County, N Y., 236
Sinus, 295 Sulpicius, St., 32
Siskiyou County, 178 Sumcnans, 23
Slave Coast, 223 "Sun Cult of the Ancients, The," 299
Slaves, 226-227 Sun Period, 131

Sloane, Julia M., 126 Sundav, Billy, 160, 163


Smith, Alfred ., 116 Sunship Assembly, 134
Smith, Gerald L K 349-353 , Superct Light, 132
Smith, Joseph, 77-80, 96-100 Supernaturahsm, 34
Smith, Roger, 78 Superstition, see Voodoo
Smith, William, 98 Suso, Heinnch, 40
Smithsonian Institute, 154 Svengali, 96
Snake Worship, 223, 225 Swami Order, 189
Societas Fraterna, 359 Sweden, 54
Socrates, 74 Swedenborg, Emanuel, 54-56
Sodom and Gomorrah, 160 Swedenborgians, 53-56
Solomon, 24, 264 Swedish Board of Mines, 54
Solon, 294 Sweet, Dr William 128M ,

Sonora, Calif, 136-137 Switzerland, 348


Soul Science Center, 134 Sword of Set, 296
South America, 78 Symbolism, 111, 115
South Carolina, 236 Syria, 133
South Pole, 140 Szekely, Dr Edmond Bordeau, 133-134
Southcott, Joanna, 306, 308
Southern Baptists, 129
Southern California, 125-126, 129, 133,
135, 151, 154, 187, 214, 216, 287, 355-
360
Space Craft Convention, 134 Ta, 112
Space People, 343-344 Tabriz, 105
Spain, 189 Tafia, 228, 232
Spanish, 178, 229 Tahoe, Lake, 170
Spanish influenza, 162 Talmud, 246
Spanish Monarchy, 280 Tampa, Fla., 332
Spaulding, A. G., 151 T'ang Dynasty, 363
Sphmx, 294 Taphtatharath, 278
Sphinx, 300 Tarot Cards, 15, 30, 89, 134
Spiritism, 49-53 Taurus, 209
Spiritists, 49-53 Tecate, Mexico, 133
Spiritualism, 50-53, 66-67, 143, 145-146, Technocracy, 202
148, 184 Teed, Cyrus R., 87-89
Spiritualists, 49-53 Temple of the Jeweled Cross, 131
St. Ann Street, 23 1
Temple of Soul-Truth, 134
St Denis, Ruth, 363 Temple of Spiritual Logic, 89, 134
St. John's Eve, 229, 233 Ten Commandments, 213
St. Joseph, Mich., 314 Terre Haute, Ind , 131
St. Louis, Mo., 163, 360 Texas, 69
St. Nicholas Arena, 256 Thales, 294
Stalin, 211, 215 Thelema, 288
Star of David, 194 Thelemites, 135
Statue of Liberty, 286 Theodosius, 27
Steiner, Dr Lee R., 129 "Theo-medical psychologists," 127
Stereometry, 152 Theosophical Society, 143, 158
Stockholm, 54-55 Theosophical University, 151
Stockton, Calif, 214 Theosophists, 142-147, 149-150, 154, 157,
Stokowski, Leopold, 363 272, 282, 288, 295, 344
Stowe, Harnct Beecher, 51 Theosophy, 90, 110, 135, 142-147, 149,
Strang, James, 95-103 153, 155, 158-159, 184, 190, 204
"Strangism Exposed to the World," 100 Theraputae or Healers of Lake Mareotis,
Strangites, 81, 96-103 133

382
INDEX
Theresa, St., 189
Theurgy, 26
Thog, 341
Thomas, Dr. John, 91 Valens, Emperor, 27
Valentinus, 26
Thor, 122
Thoreau, Henry, 36, 73 Valhalla, 122
Thoth, 157 Valkyries, 122
Thummim, 78 Valley Forge, 160
Thy Kingdom Come, 343 Valley of Survival, 89
Vampires, 31
Tibet, 89, 143, 146, 184, 344 40
Varieties of Religious Experience,
Tibetan Mahatmas, 144
Tibetan monasteries, 133 Vedanta, 42, 184-187
Tiger Island, 303
Vedas, 185
Vedic Scriptures, 130
Tigris, 23
Vegetable, Sun and Health Worship, 354-
Tingley, Katherme, 148-159
360
Tithing, 82
Tojo, 215 Vegetarian societies, 359
Tomilson, "Bishop" Homer, 332-333 Vegetarianism, 190, 354
Vegetarians, 86, 190, 354
Torquemada, Tomas de, 118
Torture, 265
Venta, Krishna, 212-219
Tower of Babel, 24, 78 Ventura, Calif., 214-215
Venus, 11, 90, 343
Toynbee, Arnold, 195
Trabuco Canyon, 186 Victoria, Queen, 280
Victorian morality, 184
Traditionalists, 73, 370
Victorian respectability, 278, 280
Trinity, 55, 62, 68, 70, 75, 91
Vinci, Leonardo da, 354
Trotsky, Leon, 290 "Violet Flame, The," 180
True Believer, The, 36
Truman, President Harry S., 348 Virgin Mary, 50, 119-120, 141, 230, 289,
295, 328, 340, 343
Trust, Dr. Josephine De Croix, 132-133
Truth Realization, 93 Virginia, 152
Tunis, 290 Vivekananda, Swami, 184-185
Vivekananda Home, 186
Turner, George, 307
Twain, Mark, 66 Vodu, 223, 225-226
"Twelvefold Humiliation of God, The," Voice, The, 182
277 Voisin, La, see Deshayes, Catherine
Volney, Count, 120
Voltaire, 30
U Voodoo, 12, 27, 223, 226-234
Vorhee, 98-100
Vulgate, 319
UFOs, 341-342
Ulrika Eleanora, Queen, 54
UN, 63 W
UNESCO, 355
Union Theological Seminary, 332 Wakes, 44
Unitarianism, 49 Waldenses, 1 8 1

United States Army, 138, 183 Walk of Life School, 178


United States Dragoons, 138 Wall of Light, 182
United States Navy, 293-294 Wall Street, 63
United States Supreme Court, 16, 183, Wallace, Henry, 352
350 Walport, Ore., 304-305
Unity, II, 69-71 War of 1812, 57
Universal Brotherhood, 158 Wardly, Jane, 85
Universal Church of the Master, 18 "Warning Information," 87
Universal Key, The, 343 Warrington, Albert Powell, 152
Universal Service Corporation, 198 Warsaw, 132
University of Totology, 134 Washington, D. C., 163, 214, 225, 353
"Unpopular Essays," 294 Washington, George, 160, 178, 259
Unveiled Mysteries, 177, 182 Washington State, 305
Upanishads, 38, 145 Watchtower, The, 305
Urim, 78 Watchtower Bible and Tract People, 61
Utah, 80-82 Waukegan, 111., 293
Utopia, 148, 158, 196-197 317 Webster, Daniel, 51
Utopian concepts, 96 Wee Wisdom, 70
Utopian Socialists, 317 Wells, H. G., 317

383
FAITHS, CULTS AND SECTS OF AMERICA
Wesley, John, 190 Wright, Faye, 194
West Germany, 63 Wroe, John, 307
West Indies, 12, 223,226 Wronkie, 32
Wheel of Law, 194
"Where Did Cam Get His Wife?" 31 1

Whispers from Eternity, 194


White, Ellen, 58 Yahweh, 208-210
White, James, 58 Yale University, 332
White River, 98 Yeats, William Butler, 280-281
"White Stains," 280 Yellowstone National Park, 177
Whitman, Walt, 14 Yiddish and Hebiew Bibles, 245
Wilde, Oscar, 14 YMCA, 63, 346
Willkie, Wendell, 352 Yoga, 127, 189-191, 287, 355, 360-363
Willamette River, 303 Yoga-breathmg, 127
Wilmette, III., 104 Yoha exercises, 133
Wilson, Woodrow, 106 Yogananda, Paramhansa, 188-195
Winchell, Walter, 352 Yogi, 41, 360-363
Wisconsin Territory, 97-98 Young, Bngham, 80, 98-99, 101, 359
Witchdoctors, 135, 223 Yukteswar, Sri, 189, 192
Witchcraft, 27, 139, 266, 268 Ypres, Bishop of, 30
Witches, 28, 266, 268, 274
Witches' Sabbat, 265
Wizard of Oz, 107
World Congress of Religions, 105 Zen, 127, 363-369
World Headquarters of Church of God, Zenor, Dr. Richard, 131
332 Zerell, James, 307
World Masters, 155 Zion, 82
World Parliament of Religion, 87 Zionism, 353
World Security Party, 132 Zionitic Brotherhood, 275
World War I, 154, 230, 294, 323 Zitko, Reverend Howard John, 90
World War II, 59, 63, 86, 200, 237, 291, Zombie, 227, 232
347.348, 350, 355 Zoroaster, 15, 24-25, 157
World's Fair Parliament of Religions, 184 Zoroastrianism, 14
Wramstael, Margriet, 297 Zurich, 300

384
5m
1 30 384 il

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