Cult that shuns food shaken by reports leader is eating

LIDIA WASOWICZ

UPI

April 5, 1983

LARKSPUR, Calif. -- Wiley Brooks, 47, says the secret to his strength, health and youthfulness is that he hasn't eaten in 19 years.

Brooks, who co-founded the Breatharian Institute in Marin County six months ago, has been traveling around the country preaching his message that 'all food is poison' -- at $10 per lecture, $100 per daylong seminar and $500 for a five-day 'intensive.'

He has won about 400 followers. But his group recently has been severely shaken by charges that Brooks ordered chicken pot pie and biscuits in a Vancouver hotel.

Another person reported seeing him leaving a 7-Eleven store with a bag of groceries.

Co-founder of the Breatharians, Lavelle Lefler, charges her partner with 'sneaking junk food into his room after everyone is asleep.'

Miss Lefler and 12 of 15 officers have quit the organization.

'I have taught yoga for 15 years and I have been to India, where people survive without eating, so I know the breatharian concept is true,' Miss Lefler said. 'When I first met Wiley I believed in him so much I gave him my own phone and office to serve as headquarters for the institute.'

About a month and a half later, she said, 'I saw him eat an INElette. I was so shocked, I didn't react. He thought he was safe and started eating around me all the time.

'The truth is he sneaks into 7-Elevens and fast food places and eats just like the rest of us -- except worse because he has to rely on places that are open late into the night.'

Brooks, who maintains he has consumed no food or liquids in 19 years -- except for several glasses of orange juice -- waves the charges aside and muddies up the issue with an accusation of his own against Miss Lefler.

'We were romantically involved. We broke up. Now, she's out for revenge. What she says is a bunch of garbage,' Brooks said.

'I go into 7-Elevens all the time, but only to buy magazines. I go to restaurants and to health food stores because my friends eat. No one can prove I've taken any food.'

Brooks claims the body's cells replace themselves every seven years, and the body is self-sufficient, obtaining from the air all the vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates and fats necessary for survival.

He shows off his black mop of hair and 6-foot-quarter-inch, 135-pound frame, noting he can lift heavier weights than when he was eating.

'When I was 28 years old, my hair was thinning and falling out. I was aging. When I fasted, I noticed renewed strength. When I went back to food, it was like a drug. Now, I'm strong, need very little sleep and am very healthy.'

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/04/05/Cult-that-shuns-food-shaken-by-reports-leader-is-eating/8778418366800/

The FBI is investigating a worldwide cult that runs...

UPI
August 27, 1982

LOS ALTOS HILLS, Calif. -- The FBI is investigating a worldwide cult that runs yoga and meditation courses throughout the country on suspicion it is a foreign-based terrorist organization involved in bombings and murders, it was reported.

The Ananda Marga Yoga Society, which operates medical clinics, nursery schools and feeding programs for the poor at many of its 38 U.S centers, including one in secluded Los Altos Hills, just 40 miles south of San Francisco, is suspected of leaving a trail of blood and tears around the world, the San Jose Mercury reported in a recent edition.

A Gestapo-like branch of the cult has attacked political enemies with bombs, knives and grenades both in the U.S. and overseas, the newspaper quoted law enforcement agencies as saying. Three bystanders were killed in one Australian incident.

The State Department has identified paramilitary training camps run by the Anada Marga in India, and the FBI is investigating reports that the group runs similar operations in the U.S., according to the report.

Cult members have stabbed victims in Los Angeles and Washington D.C., and firebombed a New York airline office, CIA and FBI documents show. Overseas, Ananda Marga has been tied to assassination attempts, hijackings and arson. Swedish police are seeking a cult member believed to have murdered a Boulder, Colo. man formerly associated with the group.

Ananda Marga denies taking part in any violence, and many of its members are oblivious to the allegations, the newspaper said.

But it said the cult's guru, Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, known to his followers as 'Baba,' or 'Father,' has spent seven years in an Indian jail on charges he murdered six disloyal priests.

The verdict was overturned in 1978 and he was released.

Meanwhile, seven cultists -- one in the U.S. -- had burned themselves to death in protest of his imprisonment.

The State Department, fearing Sarkar's presence might lead to more violence, has prohibited him from entering the United States, the newspaper reported.

To most of his followers, Sarkar is a 'god' and the teachings of Ananda Marga are 'a miracle.'

But Nawal Kishore, a former high-ranking monk, wrote in 1975 that Sarkar is 'a perverted megalomaniac' whose 'murder squads' tied disloyal members to trees and fatally stabbed them.

'It became a frequent practice for the Anandamurti (Sarkar) , sitting on a chair with a rod in his hand, to chastise errant (monks), all of them stripped naked,' Kishore wrote. 'He used to cane them one by one mercilessly ...,' the Mercury quoted Koshore as writing.

Homosexual activity and human skulls are part of the cult's foreign rituals, according to a CIA report, the newspaper said. One former member said his trainer in America carried two skulls in bowling bags.

'It is a fact that, under the guise of spiritual practices, Sarkar and his associates have been indulging in quite heinous crimes,' a CIA document was quoted.

Ananda Marga claims a worldwide following of 3 million members in 30 countries, with 20,000 disciples in the United States, but the State Department counters with its own estimates of only 400,000 members worldwide, with 5,000 of them in this country.

Cult critics say the Ananda Marga intentionally keeps a low profile in the U.S., running health food stores, daycare centers and yoga centers that double as training grounds for new members, in an effort to raise money and increase membership for overseas terrorist activities.

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/08/27/The-FBI-is-investigating-a-worldwide-cult-that-runs/9754399268800/

Moon Sect Support of Nixon Detailed

Moon Church's Support For Nixon Is Described

Charles R. Babcock

Washington Post 

November 10, 1977

Internal Unification Church documents provide new details on how the followers of South Korean evangelist Sun Myung Moon organized their elaborate campaign in late 1973 to defend President Nixon from impeachment.

The documents, included in executive session testimony just released by a House International Relations subcommittee, show that the church-sponsored National Prayer and Fast Committee was in close contact with the White House and such Nixon supporters as Rabbi Baruch Korff throughout its "Project Watergate."

The purpose of the campaign, according to a Dec. 29, 1973, memo, was to bring new life to the archangel, Nixon - hence to make him aware of our significance." The project was a top priority of Moon, it added, because "Master wants to give an address to a joint session of Congress."

The plan, therefore, was to impress the President, Congress and the media through the use of mass rallies, full-page ads in major newspapers and telegrams and letters to the editor.

Moon said that while visiting Korea in November, 1973, God spoke to him, telling him to "forgive" Nixon. The result was a campagin which included such "TV hints" as: "On camera, medium strong prayer looks good. Very strong prayer doesn't. It looks strange."

Later memos, in July, 1974, outline meetings planned with Bruce Herschensohn, a White House aide. Herschensohn said yesterday that he met several times with church leaders, but denied that he ever discussed strategy with them. "We were very sensitive to having someone say we were orchestrating anything," he said.

The Internal Revenue Service is known to be investigating whether such activity was political, rather than religious. Political action is prohibited for tax-exempt organizations such as the church or the associated groups involved in the pro-Nixon rallies.

The testimony also includes the first public release of several of Moon's sermons, which outline his goal of uniting the world through his fervent, anti-Communist religion.

In one such speech, in 1974, he told his followers how he had overcome early opposition by the Korean government, which was now "begging for our opinion and action.

The House Subcommittee on International Organizations, which released the testimony, has been investigating alleged ties between the church and Korean Central Intelligence Agency as part of a wider study of U.S. Korea relations.

The Washington Post reported last year that U.S. intelligence reports show that the KCIA asked a top Moon aide. Bo Hi Pak to stage the anti-impeachment rallies on Nixon's behalf.

Neil A. Salonen, president of the Unification Church in the United States, declined comment on the new testimony yesterday. But an aide repeated earlier church denials that its support for Nixon was political in nature, or that the church ever acted at the direction of the KCIA.

It is clear from the questioning of Dan Fefferman, head of the committee that organized the rallies, that the subcommittee is attempting to establish that the church-supported political objectives paralleled the interests of the South Korean government.

For instance, Rep. Donald M. Fraser (D-Minn.), chairman of the subcommittee, noted a 1975 Salonen statement which said, "When Father [Moon] came to the United States his primary purpose was to do things that make him influential in Korea." Thus, he added, the rallies were more important for their impact in Korea than in the United States.

"If it helped to bring the government and our church close together, then it was more important than anything else," Fraser quoted Salonen as saying.

The newly released testimony also shows that a rally sponsored by another Moon organization, the Freedom Leadership Foundation (FLF) was abruptly canceled in September, 1974. (The target of the rally was the Japanese government.) Fefferman said he didn't know why, but Donald L. Ranard, a former State Department official, said yesterday that he heard of the plan through intelligence channels and called the Korean embassy not FLF to protest.

Fefferman did say the group considered cutting off their fingers at the planned anti-Japan rally for dramatic effect, but opted instead for egg-throwing.

The subcommittee has recommended that Fefferman be cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to answer some of its questions.

Fefferman testified that he had some social contacts with Korean embassy officials and once arranged for Minister Kim Yung Hwan to meet Ed Feulner Republican Home staff aide, about a possible trip to Korea for congressional aides.

Kim at the time was the KCIA station chief at the embassy, Fefferman said he didn't know that.

Fefferman resisted attempts to ask about his group's dealing with Rabbi Korff. But an Aug. 4, 1974, memo by Salonen aide Judy Green implies there was some disagreement with the other pro-Nixon leader.

"Dan and I agreed that it was best for me to smooth things over with RK." Green wrote, "Maybe I could tell him beat me at chess, Dan suggests."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/11/10/moon-sect-support-of-nixon-detailed/08e25639-0846-4476-9cb7-f1bb5285f5c8/

New High From the Maharishi: Levitation From Meditation

Eugene L. Meyer

Washington Post

June 6, 1977

The Transcendental Meditation movement of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, which gained a measure of respectability and a host of government grants by scientifically documenting the effects of the technique, is now into levitation and disappearing.

The hard-core disciples of the Maharishi - who attracted nearly a million people to their classes on meditation over the past two years - are now speaking excitedly of "supernormal" powers like levitation (lifting one's body into the air), "dematerializing yourself," and even flying through the air "like Peter Pan."
The adherents are unveiling their new phase in press conferences and lectures around the country.

"The new wave is directed at mediators," said John Konhaus, dispatched by the Switzerland-based Maharishi to spread the word across America. "But the press and public should know also. If people are going to be flying and disappearing, this is going to be a breakthrough in human potential to say the least."

The breakthrough, for those who choose it, will require a new series of four to eight one-week "preparatory" courses, which will be given for the first time this summer at a cost of $250 a week with room and board. There is then an "advanced" course which will cost $375 a week under present plans.
At a press conference last week in Baltimore to publicize the new trend, adherents declined to demonstrate their newly acquired skills, such as levitating.

"We don't want to get into a circus, demonstration type environment," said David Sykes, a 28-year-old lawyer and TM teacher. The one exception, he suggested, would be "if a maximum of 10 people, but no more, donate a minimum of $1,000 to the program. Then we'd show them."
The new turn in the multimillion-dollar-a-year TM movement comes at a time when the number of new people learning the age-old technique in official TM classes has dropped dramatically from a monthly peak of more than 40,000 in this country less than two years ago to no more than about 10,000 today.

It also comes shortly after sharp tuition increases this March for all TM courses. "Movements don't run on nothing," Konhaus said.
The fees are used to support the movement's far-flung empire, which includes substantial real estate, a Los Angeles television station and Maharishi International University, formerly Parsons College, in Fairfield, Iowa.

Two years ago, TM teachers boasted of their classes' growth like competing salesmen, and movement literature made much of the ascending curve, each month seemingly breaking last month's record. No longer.

"The movement is at a low level of activity presently," said Allen Kreglow, in charge of TM finances for the Washington area. The television station went on the air last month, far behind schedule. The Washington office no longer has a teletype link to other facilities. "The money has not been there for that kind of activity," Kreglow said.

Konhaus, however, downplays the drop in new meditators, saying the movement is now after "quality" instead of "mass initiations."

The adherents of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the diminutive, robed Indian who introduced TM to this country 20 years ago, say the current publicity blitz is not meant to shore up lagging initiation rates or increase course fee income. Instead, they say, it is meant to emphasize that there are more profound benefits from TM than simple relaxation.

These benefits, bordering on the spiritual and mystical, were purposefully downplayed in the movement's marketing in the United States in favor of scientifically measurable results.

With Madison Avenue-style advertising scientific charts and endorsements from the likes of the Beach Boys, Joe Namath and other, more conservative figures, Tm took off. The movement began to receive federal and state grants to teach TM to prisoners and school children.

"The TM program has always had some kind of profundity to it," said Kreglow. "We haven't done an about-face and started actng crazy" with the new phase.
Scientists inside and outside the movements have said that during mediation - 20 minutes when a person sits with eyes closed mentally repeating a meaningless word or "mantra" - a person's oxygen intake decreases, metabolism slows and brain waves become more synchronous.

"I'll follow (the new phase) with interest," said Dr. Herbert Benson, a Harvard cardiologist invovled in the research and author of a best-seller, "The Relaxation Response." Benson, who split with the movement over its insistence that TM is the only way, said the new phase "is beyond the realm of my competence."
To deliver the new message to meditators and non-meditators in the United States. "Maharishi" has divided the country into 40 regions and assigned some 250 young men and women to the task.

These so-called "executive governors" were among 1,000 adherents who spent several months with him in Europe learning and, they say, experiencing "the field of all possibilities."

To hear about the movement's new phase, some 175 dedicated meditators came to American University the other week. But a press conference held in Baltimore Thursday drew only one reporter, despite 50 advance notices sent to the local media.

In separate interviews last week, several of Maharishi's disciples sounded the same themes and often used the same phrases in touting the new phase. Deadly serious, they talked about "bodily boundaries dissolving" and "hopping." These experiences, they said, came from new meditating formulars imparted to them by their leader.

David Ginsburg, 25, who dropped out of his father's Baltimore dental lab to be a fulltime TM teacher, said he had experienced a "refinement of (hearing) perception." What did he hear? "I heard bliss," he said, declining to give further details.

Sykes, the Baltimore lawyer, said that people had experienced varying "degrees of mastery" of the new skills. Flying, for example, came in three stages, he said, and most were still on the first - "hopping," or lifting off the ground a foot or two, going forward a few feet, then setting down again.

The other stages, he said, were "flotation" or hovering and, finally, "actual master of the sky, flying at will." "Like Peter Pan," interjected another TM teacher present at the three-story brick Baltimore center.

These new abilities, they all stressed, were merely "natural byproducts of inner growth" gained from the profound practice of meditation. Meditators practicing these skills, they said, would have a salutory effect on the remaining population.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1977/06/06/new-high-from-the-maharishi-levitation-from-meditation/b13e9b83-b0d3-45f7-8d4a-a6c84f5f6b73/

In Search Of Meaning, Ireland 1972

In Search Of Meaning, Ireland 1972

There has been a growth in popularity of religious groups like The Children of God and Divine Light Mission (DLM) who are meeting the needs of some young people looking to find meaning in their lives.

Dundalk born Tom McGuinness who goes by the biblical name of Zibiah claims to have found new meaning to his life as a member of the religious group ‘The Children of God’. Tom, along with other members of the group, are spreading the word of ‘The Children of God’ at St Stephen’s Green in Dublin.

The Children of God is 

"A religious sect which originated in California in 1968 and which has since spread throughout Europe."

The sect appeals mainly to young people who find themselves at odds with society. Each member is a missionary who believes that their work is to spread the word of God and to inform people that God loves them. Their message is The Bible, Jesus and joy largely through song and dance.

Another religious group seeking new devotees is the Divine Light Mission (DLM) which operates from the Dandelion Market in Dublin. Dubliner Joseph Burn was among the first to join the Divine Light Mission. The group was founded in 1960 by Guru Hans Ji Maharaj in northern India. Their message of inner peace is achieved through meditation.

(Guru Maharaj) has come onto this world to show man how to experience his true identity.

One member of the DLM first heard about it while living in London and knew she had found what she had been looking for. Another member says that Guru Maharaj has shown him how to experience his soul.

At a house in Santry, the Mahatma who is second in line to the Guru, teaches lessons in Satsang meditation and preaches the message of DLM. Dublin housewife Mrs O’Reilly is one of the many converts who has been convinced by his message.

I have complete peace of mind. I have an absolute understanding of my own religion. As a Catholic, I can go to mass now and understand what the gospels are about, and for the first time I can fully realise the presence of God.

Mrs O’Reilly says that DLM is not a religion but rather something to help you to understand your own religion.

Both The Children of God and Divine Light Mission forbid both alcohol and tobacco use amongst their followers.

No need for such drugs, they say, if you receive Jesus into your heart.

This episode of ‘Tangents’ was broadcast on 17 October 1972.

https://youtu.be/_tmRzhygBFY?si=DGr3uj2-M3wbY2Qr