Beware those who think they can build utopia

David Aaronovitch
The Times
April 11, 2018

The Rajneeshees, now starring in a remarkable Netflix series, showed the dangers of being self-absorbed and self-righteous.

Jane, an elegant woman in her early seventies with a gentle Antipodean accent, is describing how she once tried to commit murder. It was back in 1985 when she and her two children were living on a commune in the United States. The group she was in had got it into their heads that their guru's doctor was planning to help the master commit suicide. The idea was that the plot should be pre-empted by the doctor being injected with poison. "Someone said 'Who will do it?', when somebody spoke and said, 'I will do it'." Pause. "That was me. That was my voice." And so, feeling "like Joan of Arc", she sought the doctor out in a crowd of revellers and stabbed him in the buttocks. He survived.

Back then Jane was Shanti Bhadra, a sannyasin, or follower of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, a fiftysomething spiritual leader from India. More than 30 years later she was telling her story to the makers of the most remarkable documentary I've seen for some time, Wild Wild Country, which began to air on Netflix recently. It's an account of how thousands of the followers of the Bhagwan, a free-love, free-market guru, tried to establish a utopia in the state of Oregon, and ended up as accessories to attempted murder and bioterrorism.

The sannyasin were famous for wearing orange or red clothes and if you're over 45 you may have met some back in the day. My most illustrious columnist predecessor on this newspaper certainly did. In April 1980 the great Bernard Levin visited the Bhagwan's ashram in Poona (now Pune) in India.

It was like Sir Simon Rattle endorsing the Eurovision Song Contest. "They [the sannyasin] have shed their chains, and they demonstrated their freedom easily and unobtrusively," he wrote, eventually concluding, "I came away impressed, moved, fascinated, by my experience of this man (or God, or conduit, or reminder) and the people ('be ordinary and you will become extraordinary') around him."

The year after Levin's journey, the Bhagwan and his followers decamped for Oregon. Led by his secretary, a small, fiery woman called Ma Anand Sheela, they had bought the 60,000 acres plus of the Big Muddy Ranch, a livestock farm outside the tiny town of Antelope, whose population was then only 40. It was "the Promised Land", where the faithful would build a city of 10,000 people called Rajneeshpuram.

Taking advantage of state rules that allowed people to set up their own self-governing towns, hundreds of Orange builders, architects, engineers and would-be farmers arrived to build the new Shangri-La. The footage of their efforts is like the pictures of the building of the Soviet Union by Heroes of Socialist Labour.

With the Bhagwan being spiritual in his rooms, leadership came from Sheela — intelligent, charismatic, practical and driven. And with a populist's talent for identifying enemies and motivating friends.

But there was a problem. No one had consulted the locals. Cults were not popular; it was only a few years after the mass suicide at Jonestown. Bewildered at first, then scared, then angry, the Oregonians began to organise against the new city and to lobby state legislators to block its growth. So Sheela responded by buying much of Antelope. The Rajneeshees bought the café and the garage. Soon they had a majority on the town council. They renamed the town Rajneesh and changed Main Street to Bhagwan Street. They made love noisily at night. "My aunt," recalled one Antelopean, "was not pleased with that."

Now the sannyasin were in conflict with the administration of Wasco County, the area where Rajneeshpuram was located. Sheela doubled down. Guns were bought and worshippers trained to use them.

But unless the Orange people could win the vote to appoint new county commissioners, Sheela believed the new city was doomed. So she took action. First she had (and I am not joking) 6,000 homeless people, mostly men, bussed in from all over America, with an eye to getting them to vote in the next county elections. This supremely cynical act was depicted as a great kindness, but the newcomers (many of whom had significant mental problems) were given sedated beer to drink to keep them docile. And when the county refused to register these new voters, Sheela organised the eviction of many of these now useless men into surrounding towns and villages.

Through all this the sannyasin sang and danced and meditated and imagined their lives to be better than anyone else's. As they did when, in an apparent attempt to deter turnout, the leadership arranged for salmonella to be sprayed over food in restaurant buffets in the county, leaving more than 700 people sick. As they did when Sheela and Jane and others conspired to murder the hostile state attorney for Oregon, who luckily failed to turn up outside his office on the day he was supposed to die.

In the end the internal splits caused Sheela and her comrades to flee Rajneeshpuram by plane. At that point the Bhagwan came out of seclusion and denounced her. She had been Lady Macbeth and Livia rolled into one and had done all the bad things. Like communists in 1956 the sannyasin reacted with naive shock. One told cameras, "When you think that you know things, you feel safe, right? And I felt that I knew things. And now in this moment I know that I don't know them."

Are there some universal lessons here, in this declension from Levin's "extraordinary" people to the prison sentences that the Rajneeshpuram leaders ended up serving? One should be the dangers posed by those who are both self-absorbed and self-righteous, who imagine that they alone have the keys to the kingdom and that those who oppose them do so only out of moral weakness or failure. People who cannot see beyond their own goodness rarely manage genuine understanding of others.

And the other lesson may be that legal rights and moral rights are different. The Rajneeshees believed that the law gave them the right to start utopia in someone else's world. Any opposition, therefore, was illegitimate. But there is a big difference between what is legal and what is right.

Jane served some time in a German prison but was wanted in the United States. When her son was dying of a brain tumour in Australia she couldn't visit him for fear of extradition. She returned to Oregon in 2006 to face the US courts. Despite the fact that she had both conspired to murder and attempted murder, the judge sentenced her to time already served. "Sometimes," he said, "justice is stronger than mercy, but sometimes mercy overrules justice and we have such a case today". That judge had what the utopians didn't. Empathy.


www.thetimes.co.uk/article/beware-those-who-think-they-can-build-utopia-the-rajneeshees-wild-wild-country-netflix-pflbjhvdm

Two Montreal Religious Groups Can Now Legally Import Ayahuasca

Ayahuasca

Simon Coutu
VICE
April 12, 2018

This article first appeared on VICE Quebec.

With little fanfare, Health Canada granted exemptions last summer to two Montreal religious groups to allow them to import and serve ayahuasca to their members. The drug, originating from the Amazon, is otherwise banned in Canada since it contains dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and harmaline, two prohibited hallucinogens.

The eclectic Center of Sparkling Universal Light, also known as Céu do Montréal, and the Beneficient Spiritist Center União do Vegetal, have so far been very discreet about their exemption. Beyond an announcement on Céu do Montreal's website, the news has gone virtually unnoticed in Quebec.

"Our legal counsel warned us of the unintended negative consequences of participating in interviews that could jeopardize our continued exemption by Health Canada," said Céu do Montreal vice president Robert Ferguson in an email to VICE. "The freedom to practice our religion is still fragile in Canada, despite our new status."

Health Canada confirmed that it has exempted both groups under section 56 of the Controlled Drugs Act. "The Minister of Health may, on the conditions he considers necessary, exempt a person or a substance from the application of any provision of this Act or its regulations," said spokesperson André Gagnon.

The two-year exemptions, first granted in June 2017, are renewable. Health Canada refused to provide VICE with the quantities allowed, claiming the information is confidential. "These exemptions were for religious purposes only."

The Céu do Montreal and the Beneficient Spiritist Center União do Vegetal are religions originating in Brazil. The main sacrament at the heart of their practice is called Santo Daime and consists of consuming ayahuasca to meet the divine. "Health Canada recognizes that the use of Daime tea is an integral part of religious practices in some cultures," Gagnon said.

The mixture is mainly composed of two ingredients: the ayahuasca liana, which contains harmine and harmaline, and the chacruna, a bush whose leaves contain DMT. These plants are used to make a tea.

In Amazonia, Indigenous people have been consuming ayahuasca for hundreds of years, well before the arrival of Europeans. In the 1930s, in the state of Acre in Brazil, Raimondo Irineu Serra founded the syncretic religion Santo Daime, which incorporates elements of Christianity, South American shamanism and African animism, among others. Both groups in Montreal come from this tradition.

Ayahuasca is a drug with dangerous side effects, if consumed without supervision. "It may be incompatible with certain substances, including certain antidepressants," says Jean-Sébastien Fallu, a drug addiction specialist at the University of Montreal. "Some people with mental health issues...may also be at risk for toxic psychoses. This is not an experience to be taken lightly. It is a journey that can reactivate trauma. Hence the importance of being surrounded by experienced people."

Canadian followers of these religions have fought for more than 15 years to obtain an exemption from the Canadian federal government. Jeffrey Bronfman, a third-generation heir to one of Montreal's wealthiest families, was at the heart of the negotiations. Ironically, his great-uncle, Samuel Bronfman made his fortune in the 1920s with the Seagram liquor company, while alcohol was banned in the United States.

Jeffrey Bronfman discovered the Beneficient Spiritist Center União do Vegetal (UDV) during a trip to Brazil in the early 90s. Fascinated by his experience with ayahuasca, he learned Portuguese and then became a "mestre," a title given to the clergy of religion. He then founded the US branch of the UDV in 1994 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is also a director of the Montreal chapter.

In 1999, US federal authorities raided his church and seized more than 110 liters of ayahuasca. No one was arrested in connection with the seizure. In response to the raid, Jeffrey Bronfman sued Washington saying that the prohibition violates the freedom of religion of members of the UDV. The battle lasted for a decade.

In 2004, the US Supreme Court finally ruled in favor of the Bronfman UDV, which can now import the plants and distribute them in the United States. "The Court cannot conclude, based on the evidence presented by the parties, that the government has proved that ayahuasca poses a serious risk to the health of the members of the UDV who drink tea ceremonially" reads the judgment.

The exemption in Canada closely follows the protocols established under an agreement negotiated with the drug control authorities in the United States, Bronfman writes, in an email sent to VICE. Previously, Canadian members of the UDV had to cross the border to participate in religious services. "To obtain permission from the Canadian government for our tradition to be recognized stemmed from the need to care for our members so that they would not have to travel so far to practice our religion. "

In 2000, Canada Customs intercepted a number of plants destined for Ceù do Montreal and turned it over to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The president of the organization, Dr. Jessica Rochester, made an initial request for an exemption from Health Canada. On the group's website, she writes that the Conservative years in Canada, from 2006 to 2015, completely froze the process. Health Canada officially rejected her application in 2012. (Dr. Rochester refused all our requests for an interview.)

Rochester then called on her long-time friend, Jeffrey Bronfman, to help her obtain the necessary authorizations to legally import the drug into the country. "Personally, I have had close relationships with Jessica Rochester for over 15 years and I knew very well the difficulties she had had in the past in obtaining a license," wrote Bronfman. "As part of UDV and Céu do Montréal's shared need for regulatory accommodation for our religious practices, we decided to join our efforts, which were successful. "

Justin Trudeau's election in 2015, which promises to legalize cannabis and recognizes the harm reduction approach to drugs in general, opened new possibilities. Both religious groups reiterated their request for exemption to the Office of Controlled Substances. In June 2017, they learned that they can import and serve ayahuasca to all their followers.

Stephen Bronfman, director of funding for the Liberal Party of Canada, is a distant cousin of Jeffrey Bronfman. Jeffrey Bronfman told VICE his family connection had nothing to do with the decision.

"I have never been in contact with Stephen Bronfman about this, and I have no knowledge of his political position on this or any other issue," he said. "I also had no personal contact with a member of the Liberal Party in Canada, the Prime Minister or a member of his family on this matter. I [have] lived in the United States, without much contact in Canada, for almost 50 years. "

Jean-Sébastien Fallu looks favourably on this new openness on the part of the federal authorities. The professor is also the founder of GRIP Montreal, a group that has been fighting for two decades to obtain an exemption for the purpose of analyzing substances.

"Any move away from prohibition is good news," he said. "The more exemptions are granted, the more likely it is to facilitate our requests for the analysis of [these] substances."

https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/d35w5j/two-montreal-religious-groups-can-now-legally-import-ayahuasca

Life in a cult: Like an extreme version of domestic violence

MICHELE WEEKES AND TIM FISHER FOR LIFE MATTERS
ABC
April 12, 2018

From indoctrination and control, to god-like gurus and 'love bombing' — there's a powerful psychology behind why people join cults, and why they stay.

But what makes a cult? And are they, by definition, always 'bad'?

As someone who was once deeply involved in several, Mary Garden is uniquely qualified to comment.

Having discovered yoga at the age of 16, in the 1970s she left university and her life in New Zealand for India, spending seven years in various sects and cults.

For her, the dangers stemmed partly from naivety.

"You've got to realise there had been no exposés or warnings of these groups," she says.

"Tens of thousands of us Westerners went over to India in the footsteps of the Beatles.

"I think you can under-estimate the power, the feelings you can get with the mantras and the rituals. It was it very, very hypnotic."

Eventually, Ms Garden found herself pregnant to a yogi in the remote Himalayas.

"Many of us Westerners got pregnant. I got pregnant twice," she says.

Initially not allowed to see a doctor, Ms Garden managed to get away, and had a late-term abortion.

"I ran away quite often and but I would still be drawn back," she says.

"I was completely under [the guru's] spell. I mean, I thought he was this god-like figure.

"There's extreme pressure to believe everything he says and to be devoted. I'm very grateful I managed to get away."

Cult-like dynamics can exist in meditation, self-help groups

Tore Klevyer is a Wollongong-based counsellor who helps former cult members adjust and recover.

Having spent 11 years in Children of God, a Christian cult founded in the United States, he's highly qualified for the work.

"Many people think a cult is just a strange religion or strange set of belief systems, but the defining factors are more the abusive things," he says.

"Having rights and freedoms taken away from members, and then instilling in them an extremism, and a sense of black-and-white thinking."

As Mr Klevyer explains, a cult does not have to be religious.

"The dynamic of control and abuse can exist in meditation groups, or self-help groups," he says.

"What makes one person vulnerable may be a religious belief, and what may make another person vulnerable may be a desire for self-improvement."

It's often said that no one sets out to join a cult — and Mr Klevyer agrees.

If you or someone you know needs help, contact:Cult Information and Family Support IncLifeline on 13 11 14Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800

"People don't go down a list of known cults, choose one and think, 'This is the philosophy that best suits me'," he says.

"The key thing to remember is that they don't know what they're joining — this is where coercion comes into it.

"If people knew upfront what all the beliefs of the group were they would probably never join, but it's a slow process where the inside doctrine of a group is released over time."

After spending several years with different gurus in India, Ms Garden can attest to this approach.

"Most of us who go into these groups, especially with a charismatic leader, it's like we have this love affair," she says.

"We fall in love with them, and we are in the honeymoon phase for a long time."

And as she explains, if a guru becomes controlling or abusive, the behaviour can be rationalised away.

"It's very much like an extreme version of domestic violence," Ms Garden says.

"It means the guru can get away with doing anything abusive, and it's rationalised as his 'drama', or a game to wake us up. So everything that happens and what we go through is all our fault."

Control and 'love bombing'

Mr Klevyer says most cults share patterns of operation, including a controlling technique commonly known as "love bombing".

He describes this as a situation in which new members are made to feel at the centre of the group's universe.

"You've met this wonderful group of people who all want to be your best friend, and they all want to know everything about you," he says.

"A lot of love, a lot of hugs, a lot of affirmation and it just really feels like a type of paradise.

"It's like, 'Wow, I found this family that I never had'."

Mr Klevyer explains that in The Children of God, this "love" became increasingly conditional on a member's participation and their submission to belief systems that were released incrementally.

Losing your child to a cult
In one urgent phone call Gerry Wagemans' life changed forever.

"If at any point you question the beliefs they present, they sort of back off and justify it, saying 'Oh no no, we didn't really mean that, it's not that we believe he is the end-time prophet of God, he's just like a minister'," Mr Klevyer says.

Joining at 21 years old, Mr Klevyer gave the cult control of his finances, and was encouraged to write letters to parents to say he had a new family.

"It's one of my greatest regrets," he says.

"There's this process of cutting off your old life and embracing the new and that's affirmed as a badge of allegiance and a badge of courage.

"Your whole social life, your friends, your work, your vision for the future, everything that you are gets wrapped up in the group."

Life after escaping a cult

For both Mr Klevyer and Ms Garden, extricating themselves was a long process.

Having been a member for over a decade, by the time Mr Klevyer left Children of God, he had a family of his own; a wife and five children.

"There was a lot of pressure on the children, which impacted my wife," he says.

"They couldn't really play outside. Their lives were completely taken up in the group with homeschooling, and my wife saw a lot more of the lack of opportunities.

"But the real clincher was when I started, because of the pressure, to question some of the doctrines of the group … that just wasn't allowed.

"We were kicked out temporarily, first hoping we would repent and come back more submissive, and then when that didn't happen, we left and came back to Australia."

Once free of a cult, finding help can be a challenge too.

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Life Matters is your guide to a better life for you and those you love.

For many years, few mental health professionals had the training to adequately deal with former members.

"I was obviously suffering post-traumatic stress from being with that Himalayan Yogi who physically and mentally abused me quite severely," Ms Garden says.

"I remember ringing up Lifeline, saying 'I need help, I feel suicidal.'

"When I went in to talk to someone, at the end of the session she said 'Oh, it's so fascinating. What an interesting story'.

"I went to people over the years to try and get help and they just had no understanding at all."

As a counsellor now specialising in helping those who've lived in cults or suffered religious abuse, Mr Klevyer feels many counsellors may not attribute the damage they're seeing in a person's life to a cult.

"There are mental health professionals coming up to speed with this, but many of them do not want to touch it," he says.

"They don't see the full breadth of the damage that can be caused when people are institutionalised in this way."

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-12/life-in-a-cult-how-i-escaped/9641852?pfmredir=sm

GOVT GIVES NOD FOR KRIPALU UNIVERSITY

The Pioneer
April 10, 2018

Odisha would have another private university as the Jagadguru Kripalu Yoga Trust (JKYT) has been allowed to set up a Jagadguru Kripalu University in the State.

This would be eighteenth university in the State to be governed through the Department of Higher Education. And this would be the sixth private university.

However, there are several other universities governed by the Department of Health & Family Welfare and the Department of Skill Development & Technical Education.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has approved a proposal of the Department of Higher Education for allowing the JKYT to set up a university. The university would come up at Banara in Cuttack district, where the trust has been allotted 100 acres of land by the State Government.

In fact, way back in 2008, the JKYT had signed an MoU with the State Government to set up a Vedic university.

Five schools of higher learning in Yoga, Naturopathy, Philosophy, Religion and Comparative Religion and others would be opened under the university. A committee of experts advised the authorities that study and research on AYUSH could be the focus area, where the university has enough scope to do well.

While the JKYT had proposed to offer study in Nanotechnology, the expert committee, which looked into the proposal, felt, “This will not be a rational proposition.” Secondly, offering Engineering and Management studies does not seem appreciable as a large numbers of colleges are already offering these courses and many of them are in the process of getting closed down, pointed out the expert committee.

The committee pointed out that such professional courses stand on the strength of employability possibilities of the outgoing learners to be sustainable; and for the purpose, a high level of professionalism would be necessary. The committee advised the trust to go for those areas of study where they have the expertise and would attain academic excellence. The trust accepted the advice and brought changes in their proposal.

The new proposed university would have a centralised library and a computer laboratory.

With the in-principle approval of the Government, a Bill would be placed in the State Legislative Assembly for passing it and then making it an Act.

Notably, while six months ago, the Government approved an Asian School of Business Management (ASBM) University, it is still hanging in balance. The Bill for the purpose is yet to be finalised for presentation in the Assembly.

However, a proposal for an Asian Institute of Public Health (AIPH) University, which was approved by the Government at the same time as ASBM has got has gone ahead with the Assembly passing the Bill in time.

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/bhubaneswar/govt-gives-nod-for-kripalu-university.html

Wild Wild Country review – Netflix’s take on the cult that threatened American life

Chapman and Maclain Way’s absorbing six-parter covers the rise and fall of the notorious Rajneeshpuram community more extensively than any show before it.

Sam Wollaston
The Guardian
April 11, 2018

At the start of the first episode of Wild Wild Country (Netflix), John Silvertooth is remembering how it all began, back in 1981. John, now a smiley old dude with a moustache and dungarees, was the mayor of Antelope. Sounds like a big deal, but the population of Antelope, in Wasco County, Oregon, was about 40, most of whom had probably been mayor at some point.

Anyway, John was walking to the post office and he ran into a man – not an American, John could tell from the shoes – standing in the middle of the street. “They’re coming,” the man told John. And they did.

Who came? Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, from India. The great guru, spiritual teacher and mystic. Or the dangerous cult leader, master criminal and terrorist, depending on which side you were on. Or maybe simply a hippy with a long, wispy beard, a collection of dodgy outfits and a penchant for Rolls-Royces.

Along with Rajneesh came several thousand of his followers, including Ma Anand Sheela, his personal secretary, lieutenant and mastermind of most of what went on at Rajneeshpuram, which is what the land formerly known as the Big Muddy Ranch became.

What did go on? Ha – what didn’t go on, more like. It wasn’t just about a bunch of blissed-out, brainwashed hippies waving their arms in the air and shagging whomever they fancied, whenever and wherever, while their neighbours – the God-fearing folks of Antelope – cursed them and waved their stars and stripes from over the fence. There is more to this story than that.

You want fear and loathing, paranoia and megalomania? You got it, baby, big time. Plus attempted murder, biological warfare, an arms race, automatic weaponry, bombs, Learjets, the FBI, the National Guard, espionage, drugs, the biggest immigration fraud case in US history, wire-tapping, a sad subplot involving 6,000 homeless people, Hollywood glitz, Nike, the US constitution getting waved about by various people. Look hard and you might even see parallels with more recent events: electoral manipulation; a poison terror attack on a small town (people know whodunnit, but where is the evidence?). And don’t forgot the beaver in a blender.

It doesn’t matter how well you know the Rajneeshpuram story – you won’t have seen or heard it told as thoroughly as this. There are extensive interviews, most notably with Sheela, now out of jail (for attempted murder and assault) and living in Switzerland, where she works in a nursing home. I am not sure I would want any relative of mine going there. If this is anyone’s story, it is Sheela’s: obsession personified. Also interviewed: Antelope residents (including Silvertooth), followers of Rajneesh, attorneys for both sides, attorney generals, politicians and investigative journalists.

The interviews are interwoven with archive footage from inside and outside Rajneeshpuram and news coverage from the time – anchors with 80s hair unable to hide their excitement at the story of the sex cult that threatened the American way of life. Plus, when there is nothing else to go with visually, they opt for illustrations that look a bit like court drawings. Odd, but better than lame reconstructions.

It is beautifully constructed and balanced, since it alternates between the two camps. Yes, Rajneesh’s followers were dangerously obsessed, but they did build a functioning city very quickly in the middle of nowhere. The authorities who went after them don’t come over as angels, either: suspicious and self-righteous, they twisted the rules to get the Rajneeshees out.

You might think six one-hour-plus episodes is a lot. Not too much, though. In fact, I still had further questions. Wild Wild Country barely touches on what Rajneesh believed and taught: he wanted to raise the consciousness of humanity, for everyone to see who they really were … actually, I am not too fussed about that; the new agers can get a book about it. But I wanted to know about more about life at Rajneeshpuram, for the children, for example. And about the finances: how much did it cost to build the airport, buy the Learjets and all the Rollers? Also about some of the other characters, such as Puja, the nurse and poisoner-in-chief (and possibly beaver-blender).

Hey, it is still an exhaustive and utterly absorbing piece of work by brothers Maclain and Chapman Way. Scary for non-Netflix documentary makers, too. As Silvertooth and the other residents of Antelope did on seeing the hordes showing up in their funny shoes, they will look at the ambition, scale and budget of Wild Wild Country and shake their heads, wondering what the hell they can do.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/apr/11/wild-wild-country-review-netflixs-take-on-the-cult-that-threatened-american-life

Alleged sex cult recruiting hipsters in Brooklyn

Oli Coleman
Page Six
April 9, 2018

A branch of notorious “sex cult” Nxivm — which has been known to brand female “slaves” with its founder’s initials — is covertly recruiting within the arty Brooklyn crowd.

While the Albany-based sect had seemed to be imploding after its founder, Keith Raniere, was arrested in Mexico last month on sex-trafficking charges, it now appears to be searching for new blood. Last month, a number of notable Williamsburg artists and writers, who asked not to be named, were invited by friends to what was billed as a party promising “authentic conversation” among creatives and “light vegetarian fare.”

A flyer for the event at a private home in Williamsburg billed it as “an evening of meeting cool, like-minded artists and chatting about life, authenticity, and the awesome human potential,” also vaguely referring to an unexplained “human expression program.”

But, once at the party, guests were shocked to be pitched a $10,000 “curriculum” called “the Source,” a supposed “life-improvement” program for actors and artists. One partygoer said the bash had started off fine — there had been no sign of sex, slaves or scalding irons — but things turned weird when the opening wine-and-cheese reception turned into a presentation pitch for the Source. The pitch sent some giggling guests inching toward the door, while others seemed to take it seriously. Of the friend who invited her to the soiree, the partygoer added, “She’s a nice girl, but now I’m kind of mad at her for trying to induct me into her sex cult.”

Closer investigation revealed the organizer of the Brooklyn bash is a current or former member of Nxivm. There is a video of Raniere discussing its principles with a devotee, “Smallville” actress Allison Mack, who was said to have been with Raniere when he was arrested. The Source appears to feed into and raise funds for Nxivm.

A criminal complaint filed against Raniere details a “secret sect” whose all-female “slave” members were obliged to have sex with their “master” Raniere and were branded with his initials like cattle.

https://pagesix.com/2018/04/09/alleged-sex-cult-recruits-hipsters-in-brooklyn/

Neighbor speaks to CBS6 about NXIVM 'Party House'

JT Fetch
WRGB
April 9, 2018

HALFMOON, NY – CBS 6 spoke to a woman who lives just steps away from a home that was occupied by members of NXIVM for years.

“There always was a lot of activity, and I always felt this was kind of the headquarters,” the neighbor tells CBS 6. She did not want to show her face on camera.

Keith Raniere, the leader of NXIVM was arrested in Mexico last month. He’s been accused of branding female followers as part of an initiation ceremony has been charged with sex-trafficking.

The second floor of the hale drive home, referred to as “The Library” in court documents, featured a hot tub and a loft bed.

“They put in spiral staircases - it’s like a party house. No regular people would be able to live there,” the neighbor said.

The neighbor also told us there were several instances of raucous parties.

“It was very loud and it was till 12 o’clock, and I remember I knocked on the door and said can you please keep it down?!”

Keith Raniere is charged with sex trafficking and forced labor conspiracy for allegations, he remains in an Oklahoma City Federal lockup, but will eventually be brought to u-s district court in Brooklyn.

http://cbs6albany.com/news/local/neighbor-speaks-to-cbs6-about-nxivm-party-house

A forgotten cult under the spotlight

HELEN HERIMBI
IOL
APRIL 2018

Most people know Osho. You might have even come across an inspirational quote attributed to him. But how many know, and I mean really know, Bhagwan? Throughout the six binge-worthy episodes of Wild Wild Country, that question comes up a lot.

The season, which is available in its entirety on Netflix, looks at Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh aka Osho (in much later years) also simply known as Bhagwan and tells the story of his followers. If the people who are interviewed in diary sessions and the archived footage shown did not appear to be real, it would be easy to believe this entire thing was fiction. To put it mildly: there is a sinister air to the series.

So here’s the gist of it: in the 1980s, there was an Indian spiritual leader simply known as Bhagwan, who led his followers to a utopian land called Rajneeshpuran - in Oregon, America. The Rajneeshees, led by a polarising figure and Bhagwan’s righthand woman, Ma Anand Sheela - simply known as Sheela - buy land in the small town and have plans to govern themselves. But the conservative townspeople won’t have it.

Throughout the series, it seems if Bhagwan had a tagline for all of his sometimes bizarre moves, it would be: Bhagwan for the money. Sorry, I couldn't resist. Back to the series.

What ensues is a very intriguing, four-year-long, existence (and subsequent seemingly vanishing) of people whose stories include assassination attempts, poison plots and a well of WTF moments. The guru flees without telling the members of his cult that he's out. Sheela and those loyal to her also flee. And everyone almost gets away with it.

This movement was both baffling and inspiring. And it’s equally entertaining to know that most people I’ve spoken to about it didn’t even know such a time existed because that compels them to also go down the rabbit hole.

What? I can’t be the only one. Binge today!  

Wild Wild Country is on Netflix now.

https://www.iol.co.za/entertainment/tv/a-forgotten-cult-under-the-spotlight-14260621

F&M professor reflects on the 7 years she spent in the Church of Scientology

JON FERGUSON
Lancaster Online
April 8, 2018

Sands Hall, a professor at Franklin & Marshall College, has written a book about the years she spent as a member of the Church of Scientology.

Sands Hall says she had no agenda when she decided to write a memoir about the decade she spent entwined with the Church of Scientology.

The Franklin & Marshall College professor says she had no desire to bash the controversial organization, which has faced a barrage of criticism from former members in recent years.

Rather, Hall hoped her book, “Flunk. Start.: Reclaiming My Decade Lost in Scientology,” would help readers understand why someone like her would become a scientologist.

“It’s not a damning book,” Hall says. “It’s not an effort to besmirch the church or say it’s nothing but bad. What I wanted to do is take the reader with me into why an intelligent person from a very nice, loving family would find their way to and stay so long in what is essentially a cult.”

Hall, 65, who says she was a member of the church from 1982 to 1989 and then spent the next three years wondering if she should stay out or go back, will talk about her journey Tuesday night at the Midtown Scholar Bookstore in Harrisburg. Also, she will give a craft talk on writing Thursday afternoon at the Philadelphia Alumni Writers House on the F&M campus.

Hall, who is in her 10th year at F&M, splits her time between Lancaster and California, where she grew up. She has enjoyed a varied career that weighs heavily on the creative side of things.

She earned two Master of Fine Arts degrees from the University of Iowa, one in theater arts and the other in fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her professional career has included successful stints as an actor, musician and writer (Hall’s 2000 novel “Catching Heaven” was a 2001 Willa Award finalist for best contemporary fiction).

When she broke from the Church of Scientology, Hall says it was moving to Iowa that gave her the physical and emotional distance to completely break free of its pull.

Didn’t talk about it

For a long time, Hall says, she never spoke of her years as a scientologist.

“I was just so embarrassed,” she says. “I was so mortified that I had made, as I say, such an error during a really vital decade — the decade when you usually find the person you’re going to spend your life with, when you perhaps first begin to have children, and when you really establish your career.

“And I did none of those things. I was busy with the church.”

Like a lot of members of her generation, Hall says, she was searching for some kind of spiritual guidance that would give meaning to her life. The book, which was published just last month, also tells the story of her brother, who suffered a devastating brain injury in the late 1970s.

“If there were buried memories, it was around that,” she says of the injury to her brother, who died in 2011. “And definitely there were. It was traumatic in a way I did not understand at all at the time. Writing the book allowed me to examine how much I completely buried how much that affected me. I had no idea.”

Making sense

of things

Hall says scientology, which was founded by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard in the 1950s, offered her a way to make sense of the senseless tragedies that seemed to be dogging her life.

“The existential horrors when life delivers these blows was answered by the tremendous orderliness that ... scientology handed me, and I was grateful for that order,” she says. “The world makes sense; there’s formulas for things like happiness and communication. It was tremendously satisfying.”

She describes her early years in the church as “funky and sweet and pleasant,” but even early on she says she was bothered by the sense that something was being hidden from her.

Hall says things changed dramatically when Hubbard died and David Miscavige took over as leader of the Church of Scientology.

“I realized it was within a year of that that I finally left,” she says. “The shift was so profound and so palpable that I had to leave.”

Writing the book

Hall says she worked on the book for about five years (for a long time, its working title was “Pilgrimage”) and has eight or nine drafts of it stored in her computer.

She has not heard from anybody who is currently a member of the Church of Scientology, but expects that she will at some point.

She has, however, heard from ex-scientologists, some of whom have remarked on the “fairness” of the book. She says she heard from one reader who remarked that she didn’t want to keep reading it because Hall made scientology sound so interesting.

“Mostly,” Hall says, “we just read about the excesses and all the bad things and the icky things that they do, and how awful it is. But what is it that gets people there in the first place? What is so intriguing about it? And why might people stay?”

https://lancasteronline.com/features/entertainment/f-m-professor-reflects-on-the-years-she-spent-in/article_6e5cf638-39d8-11e8-8bcb-2bbbd4b9d9cf.html

SIDHA CORPORATION INTERNATIONAL LIMITED

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SIDHA CORPORATION INTERNATIONAL LIMITED

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Dissolved for non-compliance (s. 212) on 1984-08-10

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Canada Business Corporations Act - 1979-09-14

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KING STREET WEST
P.O.BOX 100
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Canada

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HARVEY STASESON 
3 PUTMAN AVE
OTTAWA ON K1M 1Y8
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DONALD FINLESS 
77 DAVISVILLE AVE APT 508
TORONTO ON M4S 1G4
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LAURIE SLUSER 
1328 REDPATH CRES
MONTREAL QC H3G 2K2
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HARRIS KAPLAN 
1328 REDPATH CRES
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BOX 6500 RR2
HUNTSVILLE ON P0A 1K0
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09-14 to 11-13

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Corporate History

Corporate Name History1979-09-14 to PresentSIDHA CORPORATION INTERNATIONAL LIMITED

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https://www.ic.gc.ca/app/scr/cc/CorporationsCanada/fdrlCrpDtls.html?corpId=42579

Zimbabwe 'Bans Prosperity Prophets' Broadcasts'

Peace FM
April 6, 2018

 Zimbabwe's state broadcaster has banned programmes by so-called "prosperity prophets", reports the private Daily News paper.

It quotes the head of radio at Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), Albert Chekayi, as saying he has temporarily suspended such broadcasts while he investigates listeners' complaints.

Prosperity prophets preach about the "prosperity gospel", which links wealth to Christianity.

They say the stronger one's faith and the more one gives to the church, the more wealth one will ultimately receive from God.

Such clerics have been critisised for making money out of poor people.

http://www.peacefmonline.com/pages/local/news/201804/348830.php

Review, Garst Women vs. Religion: The Case Against Faith and for Freedom

Lisa Kendall

Lisa Kendall grew up in the Move of God, leaving at 19 years of age. You can learn about her experience and perspective at Counter Cult Coalition on Facebook. She is writing a memoir about her crazy family and bizarre upbringing called No Place Like Home. 

Purchase on Amazon

Karen Garst has edited another excellent anthology of thoroughly researched essays. Garst’s first book, Women Beyond Belief, is a popular collection of autobiographical essays exploring the experiences of women who have left religion. 

This time, Garst explores the three principle Abrahamic religions, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity with the help of a diverse group of women raised on different continents, in different religions, and speaking different mother tongues. The variety of issues explored are expansive; psychological harm, shame over the female reproductive system, lack of autonomy, evolution, rejection of science, finding community outside religion, secular healers, and treating mental illness- to name a few. 

Garst fearlessly takes on the church’s long history of denying women. The essays in her book explore the extensive oppression of half of their members, keeping them from living as fully developed people. These determined women provide a lens through which we can better contemplate how our own brand of religion limited self-determination and hobbled personal development.  

Garst’s strong suit is analyzing complex systems with an eye to their historic, and even prehistoric roots. Extensive research coupled with thoughtful contemplation allow her to penetrate the tangle of religious leaders’ motivations and consequences for women. Her relatively positive experience in a Midwestern Lutheran church community allows her to penetrate concepts too often clouded by emotion. 

Garst has a knack for illuminating the busy intersection of adherence to dogma and freedom from religion. Her work serves as a guide for people, men and women, sorting out their relationship to the flavor of mythology they learned as children. For many, her work leads to insights that allow for healing and independence. 

Candace Gorham provides the first essay which opens with the stark biblical verse of Jeremiah 8:15, “We look for peace, but find no good, for a time of healing, but find terror instead.” Guilt, Shame, and Psychological Pain is a brilliant exploration of the suffering caused by blindly following one’s faith and church leaders entrusted to provide guidance on one’s path. 

The discussion of guilt and shame offers a path to emotional freedom while piercing the paper tiger that facilitates manipulation by too many religious traditions.

Gorham’s section on religion and mental health therapy reveals how indoctrination of mythology permeates one’s interaction even unintentionally. This essay could provide churches with a road map of how not to do harm to women and children, the most oppressed heteros in most churches. 

“Countless women have been compelled to continue life as usual with lovers, ministers, fathers, uncles, brothers, coworkers, and caregivers who have sexually violated them. 

I’ve collected dozens of stories from women who never revealed their experience specifically because the guilt they felt came from their beliefs about god’s expectations. What a powerful degree of shame and self-blame it must be to keep a victim of such a traumatic experience silent! It is a degree exponentially multiplied under the incalculable influence of religious misogyny and hegemony.”

With her turn at the pen, Valerie Tarico takes on more abstract ideas about ownership in her Owned: Slaves, Women, Children, and Livestock. Her penetrating analysis of biblical support for slavery and the subjugation of women explores the various forms of ownership inherent in the patriarchal structures laid out in the old testament-beyond the explicit approval of slavery.

“Throughout the...Bible, God does what he wants to the creatures he has created: blessing, deceiving, selectively favoring, infecting, healing, rescuing, pitting one against another, burning or drowning en masse...you name it. They belong to him, so normal moral constraints don’t apply. The fact that they have minds and preferences of their own—the fact that they can feel pain or love or can yearn for life—doesn’t really matter in the moral calculus. They are his; he can do what he wants.”

Tarico provides a fresh voice in the current discussion of the residual effects of ancient ownership on contemporary American culture;

“Women will be saved by going back to that role that God has chosen for them.Ladies, if the hair on the back of your neck stands up it is because you are fighting your role in the scripture.”  —Mark Driscoll, founder of Mars Hill nondenominational megachurch franchise (1970–)

Driscoll, a popular evangelical speaker and author..., likes to remind people that every book in the Bible was written by a man. He sees that as confirmation that God wants men in charge, communicating his will to the rest of us.”

We hear the bible’s echo in Tarico’s clear explanations of current customs in some corners of Evangelical networks;

“The echoes of chattel culture couldn’t be clearer: These girls explicitly pledge their reproductive tracts to their fathers who will then give them to a mutually-agreeable young man.”
“Fetal personhood laws are legal sleight of hand intended to ensure that the rights of actual persons don’t interfere with the hierarchy of God and man over woman and child.”

The beautifully written essays in her latest book are a must for those interested in how religion impacts individuals, families, and communities. The extensive documentation provides an excellent resource for those interested in world history- and even her story. 

One more case opened against St. Petersburg Church of Scientology

ST. PETERSBURG, April 6, 2018 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) - A criminal case on money laundering has been opened against one of the leaders of the Church of Scientology of St. Petersburg, the press service of the Federal Security Service’s (FSB) regional directorate has told RAPSI.

According to investigators, a group of people including one of the religious organization’s leaders laundered 17 million rubles ($294,000) out of 140 million rubles (about $2.5 million) received from illegal business activities.

In late March, searches were conducted at the premises of the Church of Scientology of St. Petersburg. The raids were directed to identifying more items and documents confirming the criminality of the religious organization leaders’ actions, the FSB press-service said.

Currently, the Church of Scientology of St. Petersburg leader Ivan Matsitsky and chief accountant of the religious group Sakhib Aliyev are in detention. The organization’s executive director Galina Shurinova, chief of the official matters department Anastasia Terentyeva and her assistance Constance Yesaulkova are under house arrest. They stand charged with illegal business, inciting hatred and enmity, violation of human dignity.

According to investigators, from 2013 to 2016, the organization received over 276 million rubles (about $5 million) for rendering its services. However, the Church of Scientology of St. Petersburg has not been incorporated under the law, an FSB representative said in court earlier.

Dianetics and Scientology are a set of religious and philosophical ideas and practices that were put forth by L. Ron Hubbard in the US in the early 1950s.

The scientific community never recognized it as science.

A resolution passed in 1996 by the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, classified the Church of Scientology as a destructive religious organization.

The Moscow Regional Court ruled in 2012 that some of Hubbard’s books be included on the Federal List of Extremist Literature and prohibited from distribution in Russia.

http://www.rapsinews.com/judicial_news/20180406/282422136.html

Blogger ordered to remove 'hate speech' against member of small religious order

Alexandra Back
Sydney Morning Herald
April 4, 2018

A NSW-based blogger has been ordered to take down material from his site that described a small and mysterious religious order as a "satanic paedophile cult". A Canberra tribunal found that the material was archetypal hate speech.

In January last year, David Bottrill complained to the ACT Human Rights Commission that he had been discriminated against because of his membership of the Ordo Templi Orientis.

He said blogger John Sunol operated a number of sites which had publicly vilified him on the basis of his religious conviction.

Mr Bottrill said the allegations made against him and the organisation were all untrue.

In the complaint, which was referred to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, Mr Bottrill said he wanted the pages removed and an apology. He later also asked for compensation.

In a decision published last month, the tribunal describes the blog posts as asserting that the Ordo Templi Orientis is a "satanic paedophile cult", and that they had a picture of Mr Bottrill next to that description.

"In addition, 'child rape' and 'boy murder' are words used to describe [Mr Bottrill] and adherents of the OTO," the tribunal said.

The tribunal found against the blogger and ordered he remove the posts and refrain from publishing similar content in the future.

Mr Bottrill did have the religious conviction he had described, the tribunal said, and Mr Sunol's blog content would "incite, among other responses, hatred and contempt towards [Mr Bottrill]".

"The acts ascribed to him and his religion were written in totally undisciplined language and with no attempt to provide any evidence that might warrant such claims. To use the vernacular, it is archetypal hate speech," tribunal Senior Member Bryan Meagher SC said.

"As Mr Sunol, himself, said, 'We all have our own rights to our beliefs and own religions, our own areas of theological belief. Mr Bottrill has his rights. I have my rights'."

At the hearing, Mr Bottrill said the Ordo Templi Orientis was about 100 years old and that it had been created out of a collection of Masonic rights in Europe.

"Since about 1912 it's been the main vehicle for promoting the religion of Thelema ... It's a religion based on revelations given to and then published by Aleister Crowley."

The tribunal heard there were probably about 100 members of the order in Australia at any one time.

The tribunal referred to an earlier decision in a separate matter involving Mr Bottrill in which a Professor Douglas Ezzy from the University of Tasmania described the order as a small religious movement modelled on Freemasonry.

Professor Ezzy, a member of the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group and the American Academy of Religion, said he thought it was "extremely unlikely" that child sacrifice, paedophilia and cannibalism were "systemic or organisationally organised aspect" of the order.

Mr Sunol told the tribunal he did not write the offending post and therefor should not be held responsible. He said he took it down as soon as he became aware of it. He said he could not apologise to Mr Bottrill because he was a pentecostal Christian.

He also said the site had about 2400 hits a day and told the tribunal he was bankrupt, agreeing that he was immune from orders for the payment of money.

Mr Sunol eventually took the content down after Mr Bottrill contacted him.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/act/blogger-ordered-to-remove-hate-speech-against-member-of-small-religious-order-20180316-h0xkch.html

Which religion has the most followers worldwide?

Jessica Lindsay
Metro UK
April 4, 2018

It’s easy to think we’re a secular society, until events like Easter, Eid, or Passover come along, and plenty of our friends and family are celebrating. In reality, the majority of the world abides by one religion or another, and although there are hundreds (perhaps thousands) of denominations, there are a few that are the most popular. Here are the ones that are followed by the most people worldwide.

1. Christianity
According to Pew Research Centre demographic analysis, Christianity is the largest religion in the world. In 2015, it was estimated that there were around 2.3 billion people who considered themselves Christian. This amounts to 31.2% of the world’s population. The research did find, however, that the religion is declining in Europe, noting that more Christians were dying than being born. Numbers were growing in North and Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

2. Islam
Globally, Muslims make up the second-largest religious group. Around 1.8 billion people – or 24% of the world’s population are Muslim. Islam is projected to be the fastest-growing religion worldwide, as births between 2010 and 2015 outnumbered deaths by 152 million. The study did note that while not all babies would stick with their birth religion, this is ‘overshadowed by the impact of differences in fertility and mortality.’

3. Unaffiliated
Although not a religion, 1.2 billion people worldwide didn’t identify as belonging to a religion. This includes people who would consider themselves to be secular, non-religious, atheist, or agnostic. Apparently, half of this group is theistic but not specifically religious. Humanists are also included in this category.

4. Hinduism
There are 500 million Hindus in the world. This is roughly 15% of the population. The highest concentration of Hinduism is in the Asia-Pacific region, with a small amount in America, North Africa, and the Middle East. It’s thought that the Hindu population will rise by about 27% between now and 2060. MORE: WORLD Couple moved baby's body around house for 18 months after it died

5. Other religious groups Buddhists make up 6.9% of the world, and folk religions (African traditional religions, Chinese folk religions, Native American religions and Australian aboriginal religions) account for 5.7%. 0.8% come under the category of ‘other religions’, which encompasses Baha’is, Jains, Sikhs, Taoists and many smaller faiths. Surprisingly Jewish people only make up 0.2%, or 100 million people in the world.

http://metro.co.uk/2018/04/04/religion-followers-worldwide-7440217/

Jehovah's Witness parents' legal win means child with cancer can skip blood transfusions

Ken Alltucker

The Republic | azcentral.com

April 4, 2018

The parents of a 14-year-old boy with bone cancer won a legal challenge against a Mesa hospital that attempted to override their religious objections to blood transfusions.

The Arizona Court of Appeals on Tuesday ruled that a lower court's emergency hotline used by hospitals to authorize medical treatment on behalf of patients is not allowed under state law.

The parents of a 14-year-old boy with bone cancer challenged Banner Cardon Children's use of a Maricopa County Superior Court emergency hotline to authorize blood transfusions on behalf of the child. The parents and boy are Jehovah's Witnesses and objected to blood transfusions on religious grounds.

While Banner Cardon's medical-treatment plan initially consisted of alternative therapies to fit the parents' religious views, hospital staff later determined that blood transfusions were medically necessary.

Hospital staff called the Maricopa County Superior Court hotline multiple times from October through December last year to seek authorization for the blood transfusions. The court granted three of five requests, according to court documents.

The parents filed a petition with the Arizona Court of Appeals seeking to halt the transfusions.

The parents, identified as Glenn and Sonia H., argued that the Superior Court hotline "lacked jurisdiction" for such emergency medical requests and also argued that hospital staffers did not justify the medical need for blood transfusions.

The lower court said that such emergency requests were "standard practice" nationwide and the hotline rotated among Superior Court judges who answered requests after hours.

In an opinion written by Judge Kenton D. Jones, the appellate court concluded that the question of whether the lower court had jurisdiction to OK emergency medical treatment was one "of significant statewide importance."

Jones noted that Arizona law allows a Juvenile Court that has jurisdiction over a child to order a parent or guardian to get medical treatment for a child. However, the appellate court did not find any such jurisdiction for a Superior Court emergency hotline.

"Our review of Arizona statutes and rules of procedure reveals no provision ... authorizing the superior court to maintain an emergency hotline for the purpose of ordering medical treatment for a non-consenting minor," Jones wrote.

Therefore, the lower court's order authorizing medical treatment on behalf of the boy is void, the appellate court said.

The parents filed the appellate-court action in November but did not request a stay of the lower court's order. The boy received blood transfusions on Dec. 1 and Dec. 5 before his parents relocated his care to a medical facility in Portland, Oregon.

Banner Health officials said the health-care provider has not yet decided whether to appeal the appellate court's decision.

Representatives of Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, which filed a legal brief on behalf of the parents, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

A Jehovah's Witnesses website said the religion considers blood transfusions a "religious issue rather than a medical one," citing multiple biblical passages.

Patients who develop certain types of cancer, such as leukemia, often require blood transfusions as a part of treatment.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/money/business/health/2018/04/04/heres-why-parents-filed-legal-case-prevent-their-child-cancer-getting-blood-transfusion/483577002/

Becoming Free, LLC – One Day Educational Conference

For former members of abusive religious groups and high-demand churches along with friends, family and others with interest.



When: April 21, Saturday, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm,
Cost: $25.00 per-person
Where: Hampton Inn and Suites, 7611 Shaffer Pkwy, Littleton, CO 80127

Continental breakfast/check-in and registration between 8:00 – 9:00 am.

Questions to be addressed:

• How does one define an abusive religious group or high-demand church? 
• Where does the responsibility rest for one’s involvement? 
• How do family and friends cope when loved ones join one of these groups? 
• Why and how do people exit these destructive groups or churches? 
• How can healing and recovery for all involved best occur? 
• What are supportive resources for increased understanding and recovery? 

Speakers:

David Clark, Thought reform consultant from Philadelphia, PA. Well known as an international interventionist on behalf of families of the religiously abused for 35+ yrs. He has written and presented widely on the topic of exit counseling.

Doug Feil, MS, LPC - Executive Director of Southwest Counseling Association, and a clinical therapist and licensed professional counselor he has a broad range of experience, extensively with all aspects of recovery from abuse and codependency.

Heidi Knapp, Certified life-coach, co-director of Becoming Free and provides support/recovery coaching for former members and families affected by religious abuse. She is currently pursuing a Colorado Addictions Counselor (CAC II).

Pat Knapp, M.A., A.B.D. – (Psychology), co-director of Becoming Free and provides support/recovery coaching for former members and families affected by religious abuse. His PhD dissertation will be on religious abuse and recovery.

Grace Adams & Poia Alpha are sisters and former members of the Branch Davidians (WACO) who lost relatives in the culminating fire. They are jointly writing a book on their journey through and recovery from the Branch Davidians. Grace has been on numerous TV specials concerning WACO. Poia has been a social worker and educator for the past 30 years. Both have passion to educate the public about cult awareness and what recovery from religious abuse may typically entail. Both Grace and Poia currently reside in New Zealand.

Pre-Register at: https://www.becomingfree.org/events

For additional biographic information or questions: Call Pat or Heidi Knapp 720-227-8695

email: BecomingFree.org@gmail.com

A decade later, Hildale reflects on the FLDS raid that became the nation’s largest child custody case

Ben Winslow
Fox13
April 1, 2018

HILDALE, Utah -- Elizabeth Rohbock stood to say "thank you."

"I'd like people to know is how grateful I am for what people did for us. The media, people I’ve never met," she said Saturday. "I’d like them to know, thank you. Thank you so much."

Rohbock lived through the 2008 raid on the Fundamentalist LDS Church's "Yearning For Zion" ranch. Responding to a phone call alleging abuse, Texas authorities raided the sprawling property just outside Eldorado, taking more than 400 children into protective custody.

The FLDS Church's temple at the Yearning for Zion ranch. (FOX 13 file image)

The phone call that sparked the raid was a hoax. Authorities at the time feared another Waco incident with the cloistered Utah-based polygamous church. They went in with armored vehicles and guns. Rohbock was mistaken for an underage girl (she said she was in her 30s) and was taken into custody.

"It was challenging and very difficult. Hard is the only way, really, to put it," she told FOX 13.

On Saturday, the 10-year anniversary of the raid, more than a hundred  people gathered at Hildale's Water Canyon High School for a program to recognize the massive event. Reporters who covered it shared their perspectives. So did attorneys who represented FLDS children in custody of Texas Child Protective Services.

Willie Jessop speaks to a crowd at an event recognizing the 10-year anniversary of the YFZ raid. (Photo by Ben Winslow, FOX 13 News)

The YFZ raid ballooned into the largest child custody case in U.S. history. Because every child needed a lawyer, hundreds of them were drafted from all over Texas. Susan Hays was appointed to represent a 2-year-old.

"They traumatized hundreds of children in a way that violated Texas law," Hays told FOX 13 of the raid. "It was inhumane."

After months of legal battles, Texas appellate courts ordered the children to be returned to their parents. The courts ruled that due process rights had been violated, and not every child was at risk for abuse.

But Texas law enforcement seized reams of papers, pictures and even recordings FLDS leader Warren Jeffs sexually assaulting children in the YFZ temple. They used it to convict Jeffs on child sex assault charges related to underage "marriages." He's now serving a life sentence in a Texas prison. Eleven other FLDS men were convicted and sentenced on lesser charges.

FLDS leader Warren Jeffs in a 2014 deposition from the Texas prison where he is serving a life sentence.

Willie Jessop, a former bodyguard of Jeffs who rushed to help FLDS members caught up in the raid, said the history of the raid is complicated. He bitterly disagrees with the state of Texas' approach in taking all of the children into CPS custody, splitting up families and then scattering the children all over the state. He argued it was because the FLDS was an unpopular religion.

"Where was the line crossed between religiously-motivated bigotry, and where is it where Warren Jeffs was violating little children?" he said.

When Jessop learned of Jeffs' crimes during the criminal trial, he left the church. On Saturday, he organized the event to express gratitude for those in Utah who helped FLDS families who were suffering, from news media who told their stories to attorneys who worked countless hours to argue for their rights.

"After 10 years, I would love the world to know how much we truly are grateful for what they did for us," Jessop said.

Mary Batchelor, a pro-polygamy advocate who helped organize donation drives of diapers and other necessities, told the crowd she did not condone abuses -- but also said this was a case of government overreach.

In the years since the raid, infants are now turning 10 and children are now young adults. Some barely remember the events, while their parents have it scarred into their memories.

The raid had ripple effects in both Texas and Utah. The FLDS Church has continued to fracture in the aftermath, under increasing edicts from Jeffs and court-pressure in a decade-long land battle with the state of Utah. More people have left the church but are staying in town, changing the dynamics of Hildale and neighboring Colorado City, Ariz.

Hays said it also opened up the FLDS Church itself somewhat.

"The silver lining is these children who were in a very closed community, at that time, met people from the outside who would be their advocates and help," she said.

http://fox13now.com/2018/03/31/a-decade-later-hildale-reflects-on-the-flds-raid-that-became-the-nations-largest-child-custody-case/amp/

Jehovah's Witness To Go On Trial In Russia On Extremism Charges

RFE/RL
April 02, 2018

Human Rights Watch (HRW) is calling on Russian authorities to drop the charges against a Jehovah’s Witness adherent who is set to go on trial this week, and to put an end to their "ruthless persecution" of the religious group.

On April 3, a criminal court in the central Russian city of Oryol is to begin the trial of Dennis Christensen, a 46-year old Danish citizen who has been in pretrial custody for more than 10 months.

If convicted on charges of "organizing activities of a religious organization that has been declared extremist," the accused faces up to 10 years in prison.

"Russian authorities are seeking to punish a Jehovah’s Witness for exercising his right to practice his religion," Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at HRW, said in a statement on April 2.

Christensen "did nothing wrong and should be freed," Denber added.

The Jehovah's Witness wasdetained on May 25 last yearduring a police raid on a worship service in Oryol.

HRW said he had given a sermon during the service and unlocked the building where the Jehovah’s Witnesses had gathered.

The New York-based human rights watchdog quoted Christensen's lawyer as saying that the charges against his client also stem from his participation in discussions about a religious publication and other actions.

Jehovah's Witnesses have long been viewed with suspicion in Russia for their positions on military service, voting, and government authority in general.

Freedom of religion is formally guaranteed in Russia but legislation sets out Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism as the country's four traditional religions, and smaller denominations frequently face discrimination.

In April 2017, the Supreme Court labeled the Jehovah's Witnesses an extremist organization, ordering the seizure of its property in Russia and effectively banning worshippers from the country.

Since then, there have been a growing number of reports of worshippers being targeted for harassment.

"The Russian authorities' ruthless persecution of Jehovah's Witness adherents has been picking up steam," Denber said. "Dropping the case against Christensen would be a good first step toward ending the raids and other criminal cases against people who are merely practicing their faith."

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-jehovahs-witness-trial-christensen-hrw/29139683.html

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Institute holds health camp

The Hitavada
April 1, 2018

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Institute organised a free health check-up camp on Saturday where a number of patients were treated with Ayurvedic treatment and medicine.

This camp is being held at three places from March 31 to April 14. Large number of people were treated for various diseases in the first camp on Saturday. First health camp was organised by Maharishi Health Centre located at Arera Colony, which started at 9 am. A number of people were present in the camp. The world’s famous Apothecary T Srinivasana Rao and Balendu Shekhar Dwivedi and their colleagues are treating patients in the camp.

In this health camp organised with special support of Brahmachari Girish, diabetes, blood pressure, migraine, obesity, mental illness, insomnia, joint pain, skin diseases, waist pain and other diseases, including acidity, liver, neck pain, abdominal disorders, are being treated. On the first day, many people took advantage of Ayurveda health check-up.

This Ayurveda consultation camp is being organised from 9 am to 12 pm at Maharishi Vedic Cultural Centre, near Sai Board and Arera Colony, Bhopal. Maharishi Institute Director, Communication and Public Relations V R Khare appealed to the people of city to avail the facilities given by the institute for the next two days.

Famous Apothecary T Srinivasana Rao and Apothecary Balendu Shekhar Dwivedi are treating patients in the camp. The counselling is being provided to patients with asthma. A diabetes patient Rasraj said that he has been suffering from this disease for last one year. When he came to know about the camp, he took the facility and now, he is fully satisfied with the consultation by the subject experts.

Forty-year-old Geeta Bhojwani, who was suffering from joint pain, took allopathic and homeopathic medicine, but could not get rid of the pain. Now she took Ayurvedic treatment and believes that she will be cured soon.

Comment:

Bela Bessenyei

These methods of healing are so outdated that they are considered as Terrorism in other countries. Why? Because it misleads the people about the reality and its functionality. Also people with serious problems they will be mistreated and even death can happen.
This method also makes sure that the people are living a altered, expanded reality. These can easily lead to very special mass diseases that takes many generations to heal.
This is a systematic terror to maintain the religious era, the religious control.

http://thehitavada.com/Encyc/2018/4/1/Maharishi-Mahesh-Yogi-Institute-holds-health-camp.aspx

All the Cult Related Documentaries, Films and TV Shows You Should Be Watching

Brooke Marine
W Magazine
April 1, 2018

Netflix

It’s safe to say that cults are having a bit of a moment in popular culture right now. That is thanks, in part, to the influx of miniseries, true crime documentaries and real life cult mysteries entering the cultural consciousness.

In 2016, there was Emma Cline’s debut novel, The Girls, a fictionalized account of the Manson Family, told from the perspective of the women in the cult. And now there’s even more of an influx of cult content, with the upcoming film The Haunting of Sharon Tate, in which Hilary Duff will play the actress and victim of murder at the hands of Charles Manson; Charlie Says, the Mary Harron directed film about the Manson family with Matt Smith in the title role; and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, the next highly anticipated Quentin Tarantino film, which takes place in 1969 Los Angeles and will feature Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, will be released exactly 50 years after the Manson Family murders. Even season two of the critically acclaimed and criminally underrated TBS series Search Party worked in a subplot wherein the accidental sleuth Portia (played by Meredith Hagner) acts in a play about the Tate-LaBianca murders.

The true crime trend on Netflix has now expanded to include documentaries about cults (not to be confused with documentaries with a cult following, which would be Making a Murderer or The Keepers). Once you’ve made your way through Wild Wild Country, the streaming giant’s six part docu-series about a community of followers in Oregon led by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in the 1980s, you’ll likely find yourself salivating for more tales that are stranger than fiction. And there are some great fictional narratives about cults (some of which are even inspired by the real deal) to watch as well that should be required viewing. Whether you are just beginning to dip your toes into the world of cults or find yourself to be a connoisseur of the subject, here is your syllabus of recommended content to consume.
Wild Wild Country

The Duplass Brothers executive produced this documentary about an alleged sex cult formed by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (later known as Osho), an Indian guru who owned multiple Rolls-Royces yet moved to a small town in Oregon in an attempt to create the most enlightened and free city in the world. Through archival footage, talking head interviews with members of the Rajneesh and former leader Ma Anand Sheela, directors Chapman and Maclain Way weave a fascinating web of some of the most twisted true stories to be given the Netflix treatment. Immigration fraud, orgies, attempted murder, the founder of Nike, bioterror—this documentary really does have it all. Citizens of Rajneeshpuram also only wore the color red, which admittedly makes the cult kind of accidentally stylish. One of the craziest parts of this story is that this community was constantly making national and local headlines in the 1980s, but seems to have been forgotten by the rest of the United States.
The Source Family

This documentary is a relatively tame one (compared to some of the other stories on this list). It follows the spiritual commune known as the Source Family and the psychedelic band Ya Ho Wha 13. Both were led by Father Yod (James Edward Baker), who is also the founder of the Source Restaurant, a health food restaurant on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. But before he founded the restaurant, he was convicted of murdering actress Jean Ingram’s husband in 1963, so Father Yod doesn’t get off scot free.
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief

Whether or not you define the Church of Scientology as a cult, this Emmy winning HBO documentary based on Lawrence Wright's book Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief will open your eyes to a whole host of issues surrounding Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and his Hollywood disciples, from John Travolta to Tom Cruise, and some lesser known ex-members of the Church and their stories of abuse. Of course, once you finish watching Going Clear, ex-member Leah Remini’s award-winning A&E series Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath is required viewing.
Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple

The Jonestown Massacre, or mass poison-assisted suicide, took place in 1978, just 3 years before Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh settled his community in Oregon, and in an early episode of Wild Wild Country, an interview with Oprah Winfrey shows the media maven asking the followers of Rajneeshpuram if they are concerned they have another Jonestown on their hands, an inquiry they adamantly reject. Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple is an award winning 2006 documentary that uncovers the truth behind the motives of cult leader-slash-reverend Jim Jones and his 900 followers known as The Peoples Temple in Guyana.
American Horror Story: Cult

In his seventh season of American Horror Story, Ryan Murphy tackled the 2016 Presidential Election and its aftermath along with clowns and cults. In other words, he did way too much. But the exploration of the groupthink and paranoia, and what constitutes a community of leaders and followers (plus a cameo from Lena Dunham as Valerie Solanas) makes this season worth watching.
Waco

Friday Night Lights and True Detective star Taylor Kitsch plays David Koresh in Waco, a miniseries based on the 1993 siege and massacre of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas. This fictionalized account outlines how the religious sect and the FBI engaged in a 51-day-long standoff between February 28 and April 19, 1993, until the FBI attacked the compound with tear gas, and culminated in a fire (some dispute this and believe members of the Branch Davidians started the fire themselves) which killed 76 people. Rory Culkin, Melissa Benoist, Michael Shannon and Julia Garner co-star in this six part series on the Paramount Network.
Martha Marcy May Marlene

Written and directed by Sean Durkin, this film follows a young woman’s attempt to re-enter society and rehabilitate herself after escaping from an abusive cult. Elizabeth Olsen plays Martha, an escapee of a cult in the Catskills, Sarah Paulson plays her older sister Lucy, and John Hawkes plays a cult leader. Christopher Abbott (Charlie from Girls) and Julia Garner co-star in this thriller.
The Master

Joaquin Phoenix joins Philip Seymour Hoffman’s religious group “The Cause,”, which drew many comparisons to the Church of Scientology in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2012 film. Also, another Friday Night Lights alum, Jesse Plemons aka Landry Clarke, is in this one so that should be motivation enough to give this a try if you haven’t seen it by now.
The Invitation

Why do people exercise their free will to join cults when there have been so many examples of why you probably shouldn’t join them? The Invitation gives a tragic, almost reasonable answer to that question, when a man and his girlfriend are invited to his ex-wife’s dinner party in the Hollywood Hills (side note: why are so many cult goings-on happening in the Hollywood Hills?), but once they arrive, everything and everyone seems a bit...off. Karyn Kusama’s The Invitation isn’t necessarily about a cult, per se, but it does showcase a fictional spiritual philosophy group called “The Invitation,” which offers a good example of how cult-ish communities can appeal to even the most levelheaded.

https://www.wmagazine.com/story/best-cult-documentaries-films-tv-to-watch

Obituary: Rev. Michael Rokos, Episcopal priest

​

The Rev. Michael George Rokos, a retired Episcopal priest who served in Baltimore parishes and led Czech organizations, died of cancer Aug. 30 at MedStar Union Memorial Hospital. The Mayfield resident was 71.

Michael Rokos ​served as ​The Cult Awareness Network (​CAN​)​ president from late 1989​ - October 1990​.

​"​CAN declared bankruptcy after a jury found that CAN conspired to violate the civil rights and religious liberties of Jason Scott, a Pentecostalist, who had been forcibly kidnapped and subjected to a failed deprogramming by Rick Ross, a CAN-referred deprogrammer and others."

​"​The court ordered CAN to pay a judgment of US$1 million. The large award was intended to deter similar conduct in the future; the court noted that the defendants were unable to appreciate the maliciousness of their conduct towards the deprogrammee, and portrayed themselves, throughout the entire process of litigation, as victims of the alleged agenda of the plaintiff's attorney, Church of Scientology attorney Kendrick Moxon.​"​

​"​In 1996, CAN went bankrupt and its assets were bought by a coalition of organizations and individuals, including Scientologists.​"​

​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_Awareness_Network​

Jacques Kelly
The Baltimore Sun
September 3, 2017

The Rev. Michael George Rokos, a retired Episcopal priest who served in Baltimore parishes and led Czech organizations, died of cancer Aug. 30 at MedStar Union Memorial Hospital. The Mayfield resident was 71.

Born in Chicago and raised in Mayfield, he was the son of George Rokos, an attorney, and his wife, Dorthea Wildeson, a homemaker. He was a 1964 graduate of Baltimore City College and earned a bachelor’s degree at the Johns Hopkins University. He was a 1972 graduate of Virginia Theological Seminary. As a child he was active in the Church of the Redeemer.

Bishop David K. Leighton ordained him to the priesthood in 1973. He was assigned to the Church of the Ascension in Silver Spring, St. Thomas in Garrison Forest, the Church of the Resurrection in Joppa, Grace Memorial Church in Darlington; and St. Margaret’s in Parkville, where he retired in 2014. He also served at Christ Church in Wilmington, Del.

“He had a dedication of the betterment of his parishioners,” said his husband, Gene-Michael Addis. “He had a deep understanding of the challenges of a modern day life.”

Rev. Rokos was also a strong advocate for and member in local national and international Czech organizations. He was a past president the Sokol Baltimore, the Bohemian National Cemetery in Armistead Gardens and American Friends of the Czech Republic.

“With the fall of Communism in what was then Czechoslovakia, he began an extensive search for long-lost relatives and for the original Rokos grist mill that was the forerunner to the Rokos Rye Bakery here in Baltimore,” said his husband. “Rokos Bread and Rokos ‘Only Genuine’ Rye Bread were registered with the National Patent Office in 1905 and 1915.” The family bakeries were once located throughout East Baltimore.

Mr. Addis said he celebrated his 70th birthday in Prague surrounded by 38 of the relatives he connected with over the years. The event was held at a restaurant on the Charles River.

Rev. Rokos joined the American Friends of the Czech Republic and was its past president and a board member.

His family members were among the earliest immigrants from Bohemia. His ancestors also included members of the Klečka family.

Bishop Eugene Sutton and the Revs. Tony Lewis and David Ware will preside at a funeral Mass at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Church of the Redeemer, 5603 N. Charles St.

Survivors include his husband, the general manager of the Lord Baltimore Hotel who has been his life partner for 35 years; a sister, Georganna Rokos of Cockeysville; and nieces and nephews.

jacques.kelly@baltsun.com

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/obituaries/bs-md-ob-michael-rokos-20170903-story.html