Rogue messiahs : tales of self-proclaimed saviors

237 Pages·2000·1.12 MB·English

by  Wilson

Rogue Messiahs
Tales of Self-Proclaimed Saviors
Colin Wilson
HAMPTON ROADS
PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC
The Rogue Messiahs
Tales of Self-Proclaimed Messiahs
Copyright 2000
by Colin Wilson
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this work in any form
whatsoever, without permission in writing from the publisher, except for brief
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Cover design by Susan Shapiro Cover art by Anne L. Dunn and PhotoDisc
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Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 99-91473
ISBN 1-57174-175-5
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed on acid-free paper in the United States
This book was originally conceived as a collaboration with my two sons Damon
and Rowan. This finally proved impractical, but I am grateful for Damon for
helping me with research, particularly on David Koresh, Ervil LeBaron, and
Rock Theriault. He also suggested the title. I am grateful to Maurice Bassett and
Ted Browne for helpful comments, and to Howard Dossor for duplicating the
typescript. It was also Ted Browne who presented me with Savage Messiah, and
so introduced me to the case of Rock Theriault.
Thanks also to my wife Joy, who read the typescript and made some invaluable
suggestions.
Analytical Table of Contents
Introduction
One: Sex as Salvation
The final assault on Waco. The mass suicide of the Branch Davidians. Why do
normal people join such cults? Koresh as seducer of under-age girls. How Marc
Breault became a follower; his disillusionment. Koresh is found dead. Early life
of Vernon Howell. The dominant five percent. Sex and the adolescent. Seduction
of Lois Roden. Conflict with George Roden. Koresh takes over Mount Carmel.
The quarrel with Marc Breault. The end.
Two: The Millennium Cometh
Sabbatai Zevi, the Messiah of 1666. Excitement all over Europe. The news of
Zevi’s apostasy. The Jewish expectation of the Messiah. Zerubbabel of Judaea.
The Maccabees. Jesus of Nazareth. The Essenes. Jesus did not regard himself as
the Son of God. He foretells the end of the world within his lifetime. This fails to
happen. Simon Bar Kochbar. Moses of Crete. Christ of Gevaudon. Serene of
Shirin. Aldebert of Soissons. Eudo de Stella. Tanchelm of Antwerp. The
Christian Church as oppressor. The Brethren of the Free Spirit. Klaus Ludwig
and sexual liberation. Sabbatai Zevi, mystic and kabbalist. The massacre of
Polish Jews in 1648. Sabbatai’s eccentricities. He marries Sarah. Nathan
becomes his disciple. Nathan’s gifts as a publicity agent. Sabbatai’s triumphant
progress to Smyrna. Arrested in Constantinople. Is converted to Islam. His
supporters remain loyal. His maniacal outbursts. His death at the age of fifty.
Nathan and Sabbatai. Messiahs and disciples are involved in a symbiotic
relationship.
Three: The Psychology of Discipleship
The professor from America. Jim Jones and group marriage. My Six Years With
God. Jeannie and Al Mills become disciples of the People’s Temple. Jones’s
“miracles.” Jones’s increasing paranoia. He tries to take over the flock of Father
Divine. Beating the disciples. His promiscuity. “Do you want to have sex with
Father?” The size of his organ. The Beating Board. Bad publicity. Congressman
Ryan asks the federal authorities to intervene. The investigative team travels to
Jonestown. Jones orders their executions. Mass suicide of the cult. Jones’s
character and background. Colonel Olcott and thaumaturgy. Paul Brunton and
Secret India. Bernard Masson writes to Brunton. Jeffrey Masson and “my
father’s guru.” Masson’s spiritual experience. Brunton and UFOs. His disciples
are advised to move to South America. At Harvard, Masson realizes Brunton
“was simply a charlatan.” A fake miracle detected. Brunton’s death. “Wake up,
Bernard!” The disciple’s craving for spiritual evolution. William James on “the
will to believe.” James’s breakdown. The career of Madame Blavatsky. The
Tibetan Mahatmas. Isis Unveiled. Madame Blavatsky denounced. Returns to
London. W. B. Yeats joins the disciples. Yeats and wishful thinking. Shelley’s
old Jew. Yeats and magic. Fairies.
Four: The Messiah as Killer
Auguste Comte tries to overthrow religion. He founds his own religion. The case
of Jeffrey Lundgren. Early failure. He becomes a Mormon priest. He moves to
Kirtland. Joseph Smith and the Mormons. The Book of Mormon as a forgery.
Murder of Joseph Smith. Founding of Salt Lake City. Lundgren announces that
he has seen angels. He swindles the church. Increasing paranoia. He purchases
rifles. The Avery family. The Kirtland massacre. Living under canvas.
Intercession. The bodies are found. Lundgren sentenced to death. Why did
Lundgren commit murder?
Five: A Taste for Power
The LeBaron family. Dayer sees a ghost. Joel becomes the Prophet. Ervil’s
power mania. He is dismissed by Joel. Murder of Joel. Ervil walks free. Verlan
becomes Prophet. Firebombing of Molinos. More murders. Assassination of
Rulon Allred. Failure to kill Verlan. Ervil flees. His arrest and trial. His death in
prison. Arturo LeBaron becomes Prophet. Murder of Arturo. Heber conducts a
purge. The four o’clock murders. The killers arrested. Murder of Natasha. The
trial of the LeBarons.
Six: How to Transform Reality
Milton Rokeach and the Three Christs of Ypsilanti. “Kirk Allen” and the jet
propelled couch. The nymphomaniac governess. Allen on Mars. Lindner’s
“participation therapy.” Kirk Allen is cured. Alternative realities. The three
Christs. Right Idealed Dung. Madame Yeti. The experiment is abandoned.
Transformational systems.
Seven: The Psychiatrist as Messiah
Freud and Breuer. Anna O. Freud versus Jung. Freud’s power to destroy his
disciples. Jung’s childhood. “Man has a religious function.” Jung’s breakdown.
Jeffrey Masson becomes a psychoanalyst. The craving for an authority figure.
Masson is excommunicated. The case of Dora. Little Hans and the Wolf Man.
Eight: Strange Powers
Rudolf Steiner and the incredible rise of Anthroposophy. Steiner’s downfall.
Was Steiner a charlatan? The rise of Krishnamurti. Rom Landau on
Krishnamurti. Gurdjieff and the war against sleep. Ouspensky and his London
group. His disillusionment with the System. Edward Arthur Wilson—Brother
Twelve. Edward Irving and “speaking in tongues.” Wilson’s early days. His
vision in France. Success in London. The move to Canada. California.
Vancouver Island. Anti-Catholic propaganda. The Third Party. Myrtle
Baumgartner. Mary Connally. Sex on the Higher Spiritual Plane. The Disciples
rebel. The trial: Wilson’s “magical” powers. Madame Zee. The Sepulvedas. The
disciples rebel again. Brother Twelve absconds with the funds.
Nine: The Gospel of Free Love
Religious conversion. The Great Revival of 1832. Lucina Umphreville and
spiritual marriage. Conversion of John Humphrey Noyes. Noyes decides he is
free of sin. The girls of Brimfield try to kill shame. Mrs. Chapman becomes a
spiritual bride. “There is no reason why sexual intercourse should be restrained
by law.” Noyes and the Putney Association. Abram Smith seduces Mary Cragin.
Complex Marriage and the Oneida Community. The end of Complex Marriage.
William Miller and the Day of Judgement that failed to arrive.
Ten: The Sexual Watershed
Henry James Prince and the Abode of Love. Prince converts his vicar. Prince
announces he is the Messiah. The building of the Agapemone. Zoe Patterson
becomes the Bride of the Lamb. Her mysterious pregnancy. Death of Prince.
Smyth-Piggott takes over the Abode of Love. He takes Ruth Preece as the Bride
of the Lamb. He seduces Sister Grace and expels Ruth. He seduces Dora Bedow.
Downfall. The sexual watershed. Rock Theriault becomes a Seventh Day
Adventist. God’s blueprint for humanity. Theriault and the disciples move to
Ste-Marie. They flee to the wilderness. Theriault becomes Moses. He takes nine
wives. Psychiatric examination. Orders husband to cut off wife’s toe. Death of a
child. Theriault sentenced to jail. The new community in the wilderness. Sexual
abuse of children. Torture. Death of Solange. Amputation of an arm. The
community breaks up.
Eleven: The Mask of Power
W. B. Yeats and A Vision. The “Mask.” Yeats and Alastor. Aleister Crowley and
Shelley. Crowley discovers magic. The Golden Dawn. He marries Rose Kelly.
The Cairo Revelation. The Book of the Law. The deterioration of the Beast.
Calder-Marshall and Crowley. Resentment and superiority. Lacenaire. Bobby
Beausoleil. The Manson case.
Manson among the Flower Children. The Family. Murder of Hinman. Murder of
Sharon Tate and the LaBiancas. Yukio Mishima as messiah. Homosexuality and
sado-masochism. Confessions of a Mask. First failure. Right wing politics.
Criticism of the Emperor. The Shield Society. Attack on Eastern Army
Headquarters. Mishima’s suicide.
Twelve: The Second Stream
The strange case of Charlotte Bach. Charlotte’s theory of sex: all men wish to
become women and vice versa. Evolution as the result of sexual tension.
Displacement activities. My article in Time Out. Charlotte’s eight sexual types.
Not one Nobel Prize but two. Charlotte’s death—the truth comes out. How Carl
Hajdu became a transvestite. Charlotte’s criminality. The self-image. Machado’s
“Looking Glass.” David Berg and the Children of God. Sade. D. H. Lawrence
and promiscuity. Why sexual deviation is a closed circuit. Beethoven’s
notebooks. Kirk Allen and Mars. The miracle of hypnosis. H. G. Wells on the
evolutionary change. Man the amphibian. The Croquet Player. The Second
Stream. The Wright Brothers. Koestler’s “glacier experience.” Split brain
physiology: Stan and Ollie. My experience in the snow. Messiahs as part of a
evolutionary pattern. Conclusion.
Introduction
On March 20, 1995, soon after seven a.m., commuters on the Tokyo subway
began to experience a tickling in the throat and a soreness in the eyes and nose;
soon they smelled a stench like a mixture of mustard and burning rubber. Within
minutes, dozens of people were choking or falling to the ground.
It was happening all over the Tokyo underground system. No one had any
idea what was causing it. Fleets of ambulances ferried gasping or unconscious
passengers to hospitals—the figure finally reached 5,500. Many seemed to be
paralyzed, and a dozen would finally die. Yet it was not until mid-morning that a
military doctor made a cautious and incredible diagnosis: the victims were
suffering from poisoning by a nerve gas called sarin, once used by the Nazis in
their death camps.
The police had a strong suspicion about who was responsible: an immensely
wealthy religious cult known as Aum Shinrikyo, or Aum Supreme Truth, led by
a forty-year-old guru who called himself Shoko Asahara. During the past six
months police had received dozens of phone calls accusing the cult of fraud,
abduction, and brutality. Things had come to a head a month earlier, when a
sixty-eight-year-old lawyer named Kiyoshi Kariya had been kidnapped in broad
daylight, grabbed by four powerfully-built men, and bundled into the back of a
van. Kariya’s sister had been a cult member who had absconded, and Kariya had
received a threatening phone call, demanding to know where she was. After
Kariya’s disappearance, his son found a note that read: “If I disappear, I was
abducted by Aum Shinrikyo.” A police investigation began, but failed to find
either Kariya or his body.
Now Aum Shinrikyo was the chief suspect in the gas attack. In spite of his
protest (“We carry out our religious activities on the basis of Buddhist doctrine,
such as no killing”), police raided Asahara’s headquarters on the slopes of
Mount Fuji. Most of the cultists had left, taking crates of documents; but the
police found a huge stockpile of chemicals like sodium cyanide and peptone for
cultivating bacteria. But the cult insisted, through its spokesmen, that this was all
for legitimate peaceful purposes. On April 23, the cult’s chief scientist, Hideo
Murai, was murdered in front of a crowd of reporters and TV cameramen,
stabbed repeatedly in the stomach by a small-time crook named Hiroyuki Jo,
who then demanded, “Isn’t anyone going to arrest me?” Police quickly obliged.
But where was the guru? He had vanished without a trace. On May 5, two
months after the sarin attack, a bag left in the toilet of the Shinjuku station burst