In
the Church Universal and Triumphant, fallen angels lurk, as do
multitudes of dark forces that communicate with extraterrestrials by the
thousands.
Genetic engineering creates slave creatures, including some that are half man and half insect and want to invade this planet.
And to all this we must add a strong dose of apocalyptic paranoia.
Plus the astrology looks grim and the combined weight of human sin (spanning 25,800 years) is weighing on us right now.
Celestial
beings known as Ascended Masters have explained all this, sometimes in
cryptic terms, sometimes in unmistakable language.
Is it any wonder that his followers built air raid shelters?
Such
is the teaching of the Church Universal and Triumphant, or at least the
part of it that put this organization in international headlines when
its members flocked to Montana in 1989 and 1990 to be near its bomb
shelters, and when the church's vice president conspired to illegally
purchase weapons powerful enough for federal agents to later use as bait
to catch Irish Republican Army terrorists.
(Cid's
observation: the teaching of that church is a jumble of fantasies with a
pseudo-esotericism that is full of errors and lies.)
The opinion of the new leader
The
new president of this church, the Belgian Gilbert Cleirbaut, affirms
that the doctrine has not changed, and that what was true ten years ago
remains true today.
But
he no longer wants to talk about bomb shelters, weapons and surviving
the apocalypse because that is no longer the goal of the Church, he
says.
He
says he understands why the church is often called a cult. In his home
country, the Church Universal and Triumphant is on a list of religions
disapproved by the government, but he wants the church to come off that
list because being on it only exposes people to religious persecution, he said.
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“I hated being considered a cult,” he said, “being a cult is something
that makes me shudder, and I could understand why people were afraid of
us, but at the same time I didn’t understand why we were different.”
(They accuse that organization of being a sect because that organization behaves like a sect, it's that simple.)
In
addition to what former church spokeswoman Erin Prophet once called
"the weird part," the church also says it offers what most religions
offer: a path to peace, happiness, enlightenment and knowledge of God.
But
it does so through a mix that many outsiders find difficult to follow:
reincarnation, Gnosticism, Buddhism, astrology, Christianity and the
concept of "ascension."
That
notion holds that if you live enough lives and achieve the right
spiritual attainment, you can eventually "balance the karma" you've
accumulated in past lives and ascend to a separate, blissful plane of
existence.
And
there's more: a proper diet, elementals that control earth, wind, fire
and water, a conservative policy, and chanting fast-paced chants that
can last for hours, sometimes alone and sometimes in a group.
Decreeing
is often called "the science of the spoken word," and as church members
have been taught, one can balance one's personal karma and world karma
by practicing this method extensively.
(That is false, decreeing does not balance karma, what balances karma are compensatory actions.)
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“This whole mix is too complicated for most people,” Cleirbaut said.
And spiritual leader Elizabeth Claire Prophet's numerous books can be overwhelming.
"
I find it difficult to read them," Cleirbaut said.
He is currently trying to "reinvent" and "reenergize" the church.
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“Reputation is important,” he says, “and it does the church no good to
dwell on the past. Talking about these things is constantly going back
to that bad reputation we had, and that’s why I don’t want to go back to
the shelters. OK, we have them. Let’s keep them. But let’s move
forward.”
He added that he wants:
-
"Position the church in a way that there is less focus on guns, and
more on the good things that we do, where we are a benefit to society
rather than creating problems for society."
Elizabeth
Clare Prophet, who compares herself to the biblical prophets of the Old
Testament, had told people to prepare for nuclear war, earthquakes,
economic collapse, which she predicted would probably happen in March or
April 1990, but then nothing happened.
-
"It was a real awakening," said Cleirbaut. "It was a change of
mentality, from survival to the complacent mentality that had prevailed
until then."
He estimated that the church lost 30 percent of its members as a result of that prophecy not being fulfilled.
And to get the church going again, he wants to present the teachings in a simpler format, rather than a thick book.
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"Read three pages of the teachings and spend five to ten pages explaining how to apply them," Cleirbaut said.
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"We teach a lot, but we've never organized our material in a coherent
way," added Murray Steinman, now a vice president of the church. "What
we do is first, second, third, twentieth."
Cleirbaut likes to use a supermarket analogy and said he wants a bigger store.
-
"We're expanding the aisles," he said. "The products are the same.
We're still selling the same kind of teachings. But what we want to do
is make it more attractive."
-
"The packaging will change but not the content," he said. "Also, the
environment in which we attract people to come to the organization has
to change."
Part of those changes have to do with the same things that led people to apply the “cult” label to that church.
Long working hours were mandatory, often at the expense of family and personal life.
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“That’s no longer the case,” Cleirbaut said, “Gone are the dietary
restrictions, the limits on how often you can have sex with your spouse,
the incredibly long hours for little or no pay, all the strange
questions people had to answer to become a member, the vow of secrecy
members had to sign, the intense attention to Elizabeth Clare Prophet’s
every word.”
That kind of rigid control over members led to mind control, critics of the church said.
-
“The church has created a culture,” Cleirbaut said, “where members
eagerly await the next word from Elizabeth Prophet, but her health
issues have made her no longer available.” — “Yet all of our members are
constantly waiting for what the next dictation is, and then the next,
etc.,” he added.
Now
Cleirbaut wants people to focus on the dictates that have already been
delivered and how to interpret them for their daily lives.
Cleirbaut said his job is to save the church.
-
''I firmly believe that we can go down the drain if nobody dares to
say, 'Come on, let's do it,' '' he said. ''My training over the years
has been pretty unique. It was almost like I was prepared for this kind
of situation. This is going to be the hardest job I've ever had. I said,
'Let's go for it.'''
The opinion of the children of Prophet
Elizabeth
Prophet's two oldest children (Sean and Erin), former members of the
church's board of directors but now departing, question the notion of
mind control and Mr. Cleirbaut's new direction for the church.
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"I don't believe in victims," Sean Prophet said. "It was a symbiotic relationship. They wanted to be told what to do."
Her mother offered that to them and she received their loyalty and obedience.
-
“Tyranny and abuse could only happen with the consent of the people,”
she continued. “I blame many of the people who revealed their identity
to her. It affected her as much as it affected them. People are doing
themselves a disservice by not thinking things through and questioning
what is being said.”
He
cited a song by the rock group Rush, a song called "Superconductor"
that talks about an illusion of personality that tells of a pop star
consumed by his own image.
-
"I'm not saying it's totally applicable, but there is an element of
truth in it," he said. "If everyone around you tells you something for
30 years, you're going to believe it. Even if you started it yourself."
Both
he and Erin said church leaders must embrace the “refuge cycle” if they
want to survive. They say their mother put too much emphasis on the
apocalypse at the expense of the church and its followers.
-
"There have been tremendous mistakes made," Sean Prophet said. "What
I'm saying is, you have to call a spade a spade. If she made a mistake,
let them say so. They owe it to everyone who ever contributed a cent."
-
"The idea of cataclysm has been part of the church's thinking from
the beginning," Erin Prophet said. "They can't really just turn around
and say that's not what we're looking for anymore. The idea that there's
a potential for war or cataclysm is a very important part of the
church's theology."
Erin
Prophet said she sees a different problem facing the church. Her mother
and father created the church and her mother oversaw its vast expansion
in the 1970s and 1980s. The church has always centered on Messenger
Elizabeth Prophet, the spokesperson for cosmic wisdom. But now her
health is not good and like all mortals, she will one day die.
Cleirbaut said he wants the church to be ready for that within three years.
Erin Prophet said she may have missed the point.
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"The question," he says, "is whether the Church can survive if the role of its Messenger is downplayed."
Cleirbaut says that will happen.
-
"Our teachings are a gold mine," he said. "Unfortunately, we still do
not practice them as they have been given to us. We still have a long
way to go."
(Note:
To prepare this text I based myself on the article written by Scott
McMillion and published in the Montana newspaper The Bozeman Daily Chronicle, on March 18, 1998.)
OBSERVATION
As
a student of esotericism with more than forty years of research and
experience, I can assure you that the doctrine of this church is
garbage.
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