PSN ID
by Cult-like behavior (read, religion) is
one of humankind’s oldest preoccupations. Whether centered on God, gods,
aliens, or energy forces, people have always been willing to believe
and subsequently sacrifice for what they believe in. Here are a few of
the strangest yet on record:
1. Heaven’s Gate
A monastical, secretive society,
dedicated to the belief that the Planet Earth was on the verge of
recycling itself, and therefore it was important to evacuate it as soon
as possible. Based on leader Marshall Applewhite’s near death
experience, and his attending nurse’s instability, the cult began
searching for ways to disconnect from or to leave Earth, including
“hating this world, even our flesh body”, selling all worldly
possessions, castration of males, and most famously, leaving on a
spaceship trailing comet Halle-Bop. Well known (and criticized) among
UFO groups, Heaven’s Gate was propelled to infamy in 1997, when thirty
nine members committed mass suicide, in attempt to jump on a spaceship
that Applewhite alleged was following the comet. Apparently, the UFO
would pick up the kamikaze souls, and take them to another level of
existence. To prepare, the group allegedly first completed a citrus
cleanse of the impurities in the body, and then ingested a cocktail of
applesauce or pudding, phenobarbital, and a vodka chaser, then tied
plastic bags around their heads to induce asphyxiation. The thirty nine
were found on March 26, 1997, in matching black sweatsuits, brand new
matching Nikes (in case they were running a little late?), with five
dollars in quarters and a purple armband reading “Heaven’s Gate Away
Team.”
LINK
2. Mormonism
It’s almost impossible to leave the
state of Utah without seeing one of the enormous temples, or to turn on
the television on Sunday mornings without being offered a Bible from the
Church of Latter Day Saints, Masquerading under a guise of only mild
delusion, the reality of this religion is a little less beneficent.
Focused on a God who came from another planet, and now lives in heaven
with his goddess wife, continuously birthing all souls, the first of
which was Jesus and the second the devil, Mormonism began in the 1820
with founder Joseph Smith Jr.’s writing of the Book of Mormon. Ignoring
the evolution of Christian doctrine, Mormonism retreats back to
primitive Christian beliefs, considering other factions as corrupted
from the real ‘truth”. Jesus and Satan are spirit brothers, who both
proposed a plan for saving humanity. Jesus won out, but was unable to
completely cleanse all sins, so it is still necessary to prove yourself
to get into heaven, Each member of the church is given a special piece
of underwear, a “garment” that he or she must wear at all times,
representing the “religious conviction” of the wearer. The church
leaders are considered as receiving direct communication from God (which
comes in handy when LDS philosophy becomes outmoded, such as the
outlawing of polygamy in the late 19th century and the admission of
African American members in 1978). All people carry a memory of
everything they have ever done in their bodies, and this will be used by
God to judge which level of heaven they will enter. Each male member
may eventually, through “good” behavior, such as tithing, not drinking
coffee or alcohol, not eating a lot of chicken, and having a bunch of
babies, become a god himself. Women are allowed the dubious honor of
bearing their husband’s spirit children forever.
LINK
3. Breatharianism
lthough general medicine, common sense,
etc. would generally place people who don’t eat within the confines of
the eating disorder anorexia nervosa, Breatharians are led to depriving
themselves of food by “spirituality”. Led by Jasmuheen (aka Ellen
Greve), a housewife with a refrigerator loaded to the gills (for her
husband, of course), and Wiley Brooks, a man who could lift ten times
his body weight in 1980 (shown on the TV show “That’s Incredible!”), the
Breatharians believe that a person can “live on light”–eating nothing
but air, and allowing the divine to feed them, using chi, prana, or
energy from sunlight, depending on the extent of immersion in New Age
mumbo jumbo the individual Breatharian is. Eventually, your body turns
into your “light body” in a miraculous ascension to a divine
plain–Jasmuheen claims to have stretched her DNA from a mere 2 strands
to a whopping 12 to absorb more hydrogen–although she refused to undergo
genetic testing to prove this miraculous development. Breatharians
quickly go on to clarify that they eat because they want to, not because
they have to. Of course! This explains Jasmuheen’s full fridge, and the
1983 sighting of Wiley Brooks exiting a gas station with a Slurpee, hot
dog, and Twinkies (because his environment is so full of junk, he also
must fill himself with junk–this also from the guy who thinks Diet Coke
is “liquid light”). Jasmuheen, in a 60 Minutes interview in 1999,
stated, of the practice: “I don’t advocate it–in fact I’ve spent three
years traveling the world telling people that it’s completely
unnecessary.” Jasmuheen’s beliefs were put to the test, and she
attempted to prove her beliefs to the world. She was put in a hotel
room, under guard, for four days, at the end of which she was extremely
dehydrated, and headed towards kidney failure. Yet, these travels have
racked up, as she goes on to claim, about a hundred million supporters,
and over 6000 active participants in her own personal plan. The 60
Minutes interview goes on to quote Dr. David Millikins, who put the
point quite bluntly: “If people believe it, then they’re going to die”.
Unfortunately, this is too true, with at least three documented deaths
reported thus far.
LINK
4. Dionysian Mysteries
Who would have thought that a cult could
arise out of a group of women waking up and thinking : “I was so wasted
last night…what happened?” The cults of Dionysus, cloaked in mystery
due to their secretive nature, and mostly comprised of women members,
did just that. Attaching the god of wine to their drunken escapades, the
Ancient Greeks formed an astonishingly bizarre set of ritualistic,
orgiastic practices to hide their burgeoning alcoholism. Essentially,
these Dionysians would drink themself into a stupor (“trance” or “spirit
possession”) and proceed to really get wild, engaging in group sex and
role playing. They also were initial proponents of metempsychosis, the
transmigration of souls from body to body, during their group sessions.
The bestial possession of their bodies by the spirit of Dionysus
supposedly caused their wanton behaviors. Comprised of secret and public
rites, the Dionysians made a religion out of their debauchery
(literally–the word derives from the Roman name for Dionysus, Bacchus).
A.E. Waite, in the New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, writes of the
alleged rituals of the cult:
“Whatsoever may have remained to represent the original intent of the
rites, regarded as Rites of Initiation, the externalities and practice
of the Festivals were orgies of wine and sex: there was every kind of
drunkenness and every aberration of sex, the one leading up to the
other. Over all reigned the Phallus, which – in its symbolism a rebours –
represented post ejaculation the death-state of Bacchus, the god of
pleasure, and his resurrection when it was in forma errecta. Of such was
the sorrow and of such the joy of these Mysteries.”
LINK
Source: http://www.paranormalhaze.com/4-strange-cults/#78
one of humankind’s oldest preoccupations. Whether centered on God, gods,
aliens, or energy forces, people have always been willing to believe
and subsequently sacrifice for what they believe in. Here are a few of
the strangest yet on record:
1. Heaven’s Gate
A monastical, secretive society,
dedicated to the belief that the Planet Earth was on the verge of
recycling itself, and therefore it was important to evacuate it as soon
as possible. Based on leader Marshall Applewhite’s near death
experience, and his attending nurse’s instability, the cult began
searching for ways to disconnect from or to leave Earth, including
“hating this world, even our flesh body”, selling all worldly
possessions, castration of males, and most famously, leaving on a
spaceship trailing comet Halle-Bop. Well known (and criticized) among
UFO groups, Heaven’s Gate was propelled to infamy in 1997, when thirty
nine members committed mass suicide, in attempt to jump on a spaceship
that Applewhite alleged was following the comet. Apparently, the UFO
would pick up the kamikaze souls, and take them to another level of
existence. To prepare, the group allegedly first completed a citrus
cleanse of the impurities in the body, and then ingested a cocktail of
applesauce or pudding, phenobarbital, and a vodka chaser, then tied
plastic bags around their heads to induce asphyxiation. The thirty nine
were found on March 26, 1997, in matching black sweatsuits, brand new
matching Nikes (in case they were running a little late?), with five
dollars in quarters and a purple armband reading “Heaven’s Gate Away
Team.”
LINK
2. Mormonism
It’s almost impossible to leave the
state of Utah without seeing one of the enormous temples, or to turn on
the television on Sunday mornings without being offered a Bible from the
Church of Latter Day Saints, Masquerading under a guise of only mild
delusion, the reality of this religion is a little less beneficent.
Focused on a God who came from another planet, and now lives in heaven
with his goddess wife, continuously birthing all souls, the first of
which was Jesus and the second the devil, Mormonism began in the 1820
with founder Joseph Smith Jr.’s writing of the Book of Mormon. Ignoring
the evolution of Christian doctrine, Mormonism retreats back to
primitive Christian beliefs, considering other factions as corrupted
from the real ‘truth”. Jesus and Satan are spirit brothers, who both
proposed a plan for saving humanity. Jesus won out, but was unable to
completely cleanse all sins, so it is still necessary to prove yourself
to get into heaven, Each member of the church is given a special piece
of underwear, a “garment” that he or she must wear at all times,
representing the “religious conviction” of the wearer. The church
leaders are considered as receiving direct communication from God (which
comes in handy when LDS philosophy becomes outmoded, such as the
outlawing of polygamy in the late 19th century and the admission of
African American members in 1978). All people carry a memory of
everything they have ever done in their bodies, and this will be used by
God to judge which level of heaven they will enter. Each male member
may eventually, through “good” behavior, such as tithing, not drinking
coffee or alcohol, not eating a lot of chicken, and having a bunch of
babies, become a god himself. Women are allowed the dubious honor of
bearing their husband’s spirit children forever.
LINK
3. Breatharianism
lthough general medicine, common sense,
etc. would generally place people who don’t eat within the confines of
the eating disorder anorexia nervosa, Breatharians are led to depriving
themselves of food by “spirituality”. Led by Jasmuheen (aka Ellen
Greve), a housewife with a refrigerator loaded to the gills (for her
husband, of course), and Wiley Brooks, a man who could lift ten times
his body weight in 1980 (shown on the TV show “That’s Incredible!”), the
Breatharians believe that a person can “live on light”–eating nothing
but air, and allowing the divine to feed them, using chi, prana, or
energy from sunlight, depending on the extent of immersion in New Age
mumbo jumbo the individual Breatharian is. Eventually, your body turns
into your “light body” in a miraculous ascension to a divine
plain–Jasmuheen claims to have stretched her DNA from a mere 2 strands
to a whopping 12 to absorb more hydrogen–although she refused to undergo
genetic testing to prove this miraculous development. Breatharians
quickly go on to clarify that they eat because they want to, not because
they have to. Of course! This explains Jasmuheen’s full fridge, and the
1983 sighting of Wiley Brooks exiting a gas station with a Slurpee, hot
dog, and Twinkies (because his environment is so full of junk, he also
must fill himself with junk–this also from the guy who thinks Diet Coke
is “liquid light”). Jasmuheen, in a 60 Minutes interview in 1999,
stated, of the practice: “I don’t advocate it–in fact I’ve spent three
years traveling the world telling people that it’s completely
unnecessary.” Jasmuheen’s beliefs were put to the test, and she
attempted to prove her beliefs to the world. She was put in a hotel
room, under guard, for four days, at the end of which she was extremely
dehydrated, and headed towards kidney failure. Yet, these travels have
racked up, as she goes on to claim, about a hundred million supporters,
and over 6000 active participants in her own personal plan. The 60
Minutes interview goes on to quote Dr. David Millikins, who put the
point quite bluntly: “If people believe it, then they’re going to die”.
Unfortunately, this is too true, with at least three documented deaths
reported thus far.
LINK
4. Dionysian Mysteries
Who would have thought that a cult could
arise out of a group of women waking up and thinking : “I was so wasted
last night…what happened?” The cults of Dionysus, cloaked in mystery
due to their secretive nature, and mostly comprised of women members,
did just that. Attaching the god of wine to their drunken escapades, the
Ancient Greeks formed an astonishingly bizarre set of ritualistic,
orgiastic practices to hide their burgeoning alcoholism. Essentially,
these Dionysians would drink themself into a stupor (“trance” or “spirit
possession”) and proceed to really get wild, engaging in group sex and
role playing. They also were initial proponents of metempsychosis, the
transmigration of souls from body to body, during their group sessions.
The bestial possession of their bodies by the spirit of Dionysus
supposedly caused their wanton behaviors. Comprised of secret and public
rites, the Dionysians made a religion out of their debauchery
(literally–the word derives from the Roman name for Dionysus, Bacchus).
A.E. Waite, in the New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, writes of the
alleged rituals of the cult:
“Whatsoever may have remained to represent the original intent of the
rites, regarded as Rites of Initiation, the externalities and practice
of the Festivals were orgies of wine and sex: there was every kind of
drunkenness and every aberration of sex, the one leading up to the
other. Over all reigned the Phallus, which – in its symbolism a rebours –
represented post ejaculation the death-state of Bacchus, the god of
pleasure, and his resurrection when it was in forma errecta. Of such was
the sorrow and of such the joy of these Mysteries.”
LINK
Source: http://www.paranormalhaze.com/4-strange-cults/#78
That is very sad and those people who have followed I hope they had lived a somewhat fullfilling life, because that is a tragic way to end ones' self.
If I had to choose, I'd choose this one. lool. Any excuse to drink? Dude got drunk and proclaimed the feeling as a religion, so it's ok guys! wait, I didn't read the entire thing..lol orgies of wine and sex? oh weerrd?? J/K J/K lmao Interesting...
