New Religious Movements

"Men, cry not over our fate, but rather cry for your own. Ours is more enviable than yours. To you who are receptive to this last message, may our Love and our Peace accompany you during the terrible tests of the Apocalypse that await you. Know that from where we will be, we will always hold our arms open to receive those who are worthy of joining us"

"Death does not exist and is pure illusion. May we through the inner life find ourselves again and again."

"I knew all these people they found in Switzerland—and each one of them, to my knowledge, was perfectly capable of decorporealizing at will. But some of [them] were worried they might not make it all the way to Sirius—that they might lose their way and wake up back in their bodies. So, an obvious way to prevent that was to destroy the bodies so they would not come back!"

"I was the leader, anyone could be the leader. You know the planets? Some are close to the sun, Mercury is the closest, and some are further out... And yet each planet has their fixed course, and it was like that with us. Everyone has a role to play, we are all important."

"Le rite s'accomplit pour la dernière fois. Les chevaliers de l'Ordre, conduits par le délire de leurs maîtres, guidés par la voix de leurs prophètes, s'acheminent vers leur apocalypse personnelle."

"For two days and nights before the blast, the grownups had pursued a remarkable will to die. Over and over they fiddled with three tanks of propane that were hooked to an electric burner and a timing device. As many as four times, they swallowed sedatives, then arranged themselves in a cross around a queen-size bed, only to rise in bleary frustration when the detonator fizzled. Finally, they blew themselves to kingdom come. For them that would be the star Sirius, in the constellation Canis Major, nine light-years from Quebec. According to the doctrines of the Solar Temple, they will reign there forever, weightless and serene."

"What made UFO literature less tolerated in China was the government’s decision to crack down on in 1999. Since Falun Gong also includes UFO themes among its beliefs and literature, any other groups mentioning contacts with the aliens [became deemed] suspicious. In the 21st century, discussing theoretically the possibility of extraterrestrial life was still permitted, but literature and groups who claimed that “contactees” were in touch with the aliens were much less tolerated and often labeled as xie jiao (“heterodox teachings,” sometimes translated as “evil cults”). …The new popularity of UFO theories and messages among young Chinese is part of their attempt to find answers to their questions, which they feel the [Chinese] Communist Party is not delivering. Some of these answers may appear to many as strange or even ridiculous. However, in democratic countries, stories about the UFOs are freely discussed, and those who tell them do not risk [being sent] to jail."

"Grand Master Hun Yuan was a rare figure: a religious innovator whose teachings on Feng Shui, I Ching, and ancestor veneration were matched by a painter’s sensibility and a scholar’s appetite for dialogue. His canvases, infused with spiritual intention, were not simply works of art but living embodiments of his cosmology. His leadership of Weixin Shengjiao was never insular; he saw religion as a bridge, not a boundary. This vision led him to organize conferences that welcomed international scholars from fields far beyond his own tradition, creating spaces where ideas could circulate freely and respectfully."

"Guiguzi became of interest to me when I started studying one of Taiwan’s new religions, Weixin Shengjiao (唯心聖教), on which I have written and lectured extensively. It is a central tenet of Weixin Shengjiao that the legitimate successor of the mythical Three Chinese Ancestors was Guiguzi, identified with the Bodhisattva Wang Chan Lao Zu, and that he appeared to the founder of the movement, Grand Master Hun Yuan, mysteriously united with him, and gave to him several books of revelations."

"There is a debate within the Anthroposophical movement about whether any Anthroposophists ever were card-carrying Nazis... On the whole, we should take the charitable view of Steiner: he was a child of his time, race theories were in the air, esp. after the scientific breakthrough of Darwinism, and he did not make it worse than it was. This, of course, is still no reason to keep on parroting the 19th-century prophet Steiner well into the 21st century, as our Anthroposophist friends tend to do... Steiner's Anthroposophy comes away away less convincingly than Theosophy from the allegation of at least some common grounds with the Nazi movement. Yet, in the really decisive respects, it should be absolved."

"The above discussion shows why the Pope regards the New Age Movement with hostility. He regards it as an old enemy. If it derives from old Gnosticism... then it is easy to understand this hostility. The Movement is subversive of Christianity – its ideas, its externality, its exclusiveness, its authoritarianism.... All this shows that the Movement has a great responsibility to shoulder and a great role to play - an old role in a new context. To play it adequately and honourably, it has to become more conscious of its inspiration, its underlying ideas and philosophy; it has to become aware of its lost Pagan ancestry, its Eastern links and its common spiritual heritage."

"Precisely, the New Epoch will shine with a new realization of the Teaching of Christ. Enlightened spiritual teachers (and there are such already) will return to the true covenants of Christ, to the covenants of the first Fathers of the Church, and to the works of the great beacon light of Christianity, Origen, who laid the foundation for the whole philosophy of Christianity."

"In conclusion, I want to remind you about the absolute inevitability of the New Era. The fiery energies are in their greatest tension attracted toward Earth, and if not accepted, realized and assimilated they will cause terrific earthquakes and other cosmic perturbations, and also revolutions, wars and new epidemics. We are now at the very entrance of a New Era, a New Race, and therefore our time may be compared with the times of Atlantis, the existence of which becomes more and more evident to our science. Watch out for all unusual and destructive signs in all spheres of life, and many things will be clearer to you. You will see where are the sparks of the New Era, the era of spiritual knowledge and great cooperation of peoples under the sign of culture. Realization of the coming of this great time should multiply the strength of every sensitive person and should direct him toward joyous, constructive work for the General Good under the Banner, which we shall call the Banner of Peace and Culture."

"In the structure of the New Epoch, the main factor of the national welfare will be the education and upbringing of people... From very childhood, respect for knowledge should be taught. In schools, this true and only propeller of evolution should be pointed out through concrete historical examples."

"The book of new discoveries and the light of daring is open before humanity, and you have already heard about the approach of the New Era. Every epoch has its Call, and the calling foundation of the New Era will be the power of thought. That is why we call you to understand the great significance of creative thought, and the first step in this direction will be the opening of consciousness, freedom from all prejudices and from all tendentiousness and forced concepts."

"Although I am unacquainted with astrological lore, I was drawn to the symbolic power of the pervasive dream in our popular culture: that after a dark, violent age, the Piscean, we are entering a millennium of love and light—in the words of the popular song, "The Age of Aquarius," the time of "the mind's true liberation." Whether or not it was written in the stars, a different age seems to be upon us; and Aquarius, the waterbearer in the ancient zodiac, symbolizing flow and the quenching of an ancient thirst, is an appropriate symbol."

"Not tyranny but true cooperation is necessary. Broadest cooperation is inscribed upon the Banner of the New Era. The main quality of a leader is to be able to assemble co-workers of the most diverse natures and unify them in the same striving. Is not our unification achieved by our devotion to the Teacher? Thus, let us remember that the Teacher directs our advancement by magnanimous cooperation, not by force. Wise concessions in small details to the consciousness not fully grown may not give completely satisfactory results, but at least it will not breed a ruinous atmosphere of irritability and disagreement."

"The Banner of Peace and the Unity of Women in the name of the New Era of Culture are two of the gigantic historical tasks. Please try to realize how serious is the world situation, and apply all your abilities in order to introduce these salutary ideas. Every step of yours should be thoroughly weighed, and should be in conformity with your great tasks. But never listen to the advice of grey conventionality! All delays will bring even worse wreckage. Uphold the Banner of Culture and the pure affirmations you have received. "Sow widely; it is not right to spill the precious seeds only in your own garden.” The most important is not to be afraid of any hostile condemnations because all our offerings for the General Good have not in them a trace of destruction or selfishness! Insist on your rights in the name of the offerings you bring to your own country!"

"The New Epoch... will bring the renaissance of woman. The Epoch of Maitreya is the Epoch of the Mother of the World. It is remarkable to observe the rapid rise of the women of India. There one can see women occupying the posts of ministers and other responsible positions. Many women of India are excellent speakers. The Indians readily elect women, because they have faith in the common sense of their wives. But, of course, there are also opponents of the liberation of woman."

"The New Epoch is marked by the sign of Aquarius, and its ruler is Uranus... the affirmation of the power of the rays of Uranus always coincides with new trends in the whole life of our planet. It is also significant that the co-ruler with Uranus is Saturn, this symbol of the dark forces. Thus, all great epochs were marked by these two opposites, this struggle of the forces of Light with the forces of darkness. The tension of one side correspondingly intensifies the opposite side."

"A separate issue is the return of ancient gnostic ideas under the guise of the so-called New Age. We cannot delude ourselves that this will lead toward a renewal of religion. It is only a new way of practicing gnosticism-that attitude of the spirit that, in the name of a profound knowledge of God, results in distorting His Word and replacing it with purely human words. Gnosticism never completely abandoned the realm of Christianity. Instead, it has always existed side by side with Christianity, sometimes taking the shape of a philosophical movement, but more often assuming the characteristics of a religion or para-religion in distinct, if not declared, conflict with all that is essentially Christian."

"Many religions speak of the End of Days. It refers not to the end of the world, but rather the end of our current age – Pisces, which began at the time of Christ’s birth, spanned two thousand years, and waned with the passing of the millennium. Now that we’ve passed into the Age of Aquarius, the End of Days has arrived."

"Energies emanating from...Aquarius...will (through the effect of its potent force) stimulate... men into a new coherency, into a brotherhood of humanity which will ignore all racial and national differences and will carry the life of men forward into synthesis and unity. This means a tide of unifying life of such power that one cannot now vision it, but which—in a thousand years—will have welded all mankind into a perfect brotherhood. Its emotional effect will be to purify... men so that the material world ceases to hold such potent allure, and may in its later stages bring about a state of exaggeration as potent in the line of sentiency as that which we have undergone in the line of materiality! The final stages of all signs produce over-development of the factor on which they most potently work. At present the effect of this sign is constructive among the pioneers of the race..."

"The Ninth Insight explains how human culture will change in the next millennium as a result of conscious evolution. It describes a significantly different way of life... we humans will voluntarily decrease our population... we will intentionally let the forests go uncut so that they can mature and build energy... humans will typically live among five hundred year old trees and carefully tended gardens, yet within easy travel distance of an urban area of incredible technological wizardry... Our needs will be completely met without the exchange of any currency, yet also without any overindulgence or laziness... The Ninth depicts a human world where everyone has slowed down and become more alert... Think how it would be for two people meeting for the first time. Each will first observe the other's energy field... They will vibrate at a new level and will thereafter touch others in a way not possible before their meeting... The real reason we spent five centuries creating material supports for human life was to set the stage for something else, a way of life that returns the mystery to existence... That is what the information now returning from the scientific method indicates: mankind is on this planet to consciously evolve. And as we learn to evolve and pursue our particular path... the overall culture will transform in a very predictable way."

"The ancient symbol for the sign Aquarius (into which our Sun is now entering) is that of the Water-carrier, the man with a pitcher of water. This passing of the Sun into the sign Aquarius is an astronomical fact... not an astrological prognostication. The great spiritual achievement and evolutionary event of that age will be the communion and human relationships established among all peoples, enabling men everywhere to sit down together... and share the bread and wine (symbols of nourishment). Preparations for that shared feast (symbolically speaking) are on their way, and those preparations are being made by the masses of men themselves, as they fight and struggle and legislate for the economic sustenance of their nations, and as the theme of food occupies the attention of legislators everywhere. This sharing, beginning on the physical plane, will prove equally true of all human relations and this will be the great gift of the Aquarian Age to humanity."

"The New Era can be built only by means of culture. Therefore, culture will be proclaimed as the one defense against disintegration. Nowadays one should strive only in this direction. Our Command is to miss no opportunity of reminding people about culture. Though We be regarded as fanatics on the subject, people will nevertheless harken and become accustomed to it. Thus We introduce brain patterns."

"The generation which will come into active thought expression at the end of this century... will inaugurate the framework, structure and fabric of the New Age [of Aquarius], which will start with certain premises, which today are the dream of the more exalted dreamers, and which will develop the civilisation of the Aquarian Age. This coming age will be as predominantly the age of group interplay, group idealism, and group consciousness, as the Piscean Age has been one of personality unfoldment and emphasis, personality focus, and personality consciousness. Selfishness, as we now understand it, will gradually disappear, for the will of the individual will voluntarily be blended into the group will."

"Astronomically, we are not yet functioning fully within the influence of Aquarius; we are only just emerging from the Piscean influence, and the full impact of the energies which Aquarius will set loose has not yet been felt. Nevertheless, each year carries us closer to the centre of power, the major effect of which will be to induce recognition of man's essential unity, of the processes of sharing and of cooperation."

"The stronger the thunder, the more powerful the lightning. All reiterate—the New Age arrives in storm and lightning. For the lightning there are needed positive and negative energies. If Maya does not furnish the negative evidence, how then can flash forth the sword-blade of positive reality?"

"All have heard about the coming of the New Era. Can the new arrive in inaction? It is better to welcome a new blind puppy than an aged parrot that repeats old things. Examine the stream of the Teachings of life that have been given to humanity. Each, without affecting the preceding, opens new gates to knowledge. The enduring realities of life are fundamental to each given Teaching. Therefore they should be studied not for learning, but for application to life. Only in this way can you create the current of energy."

"We are passing through the transition period between the old age and the new, and the true mission of Christ, so deeply and frequently obscured by theological implications and disputations, embodies in itself the coming revelation. The development of humanity guarantees the recognition of Christ and His work and its participation, consciously, in the kingdom of God. (Forward)"

"It would be of value here to remember that the condition of humanity at this time is not the result of simply one factor, but of several — all of them being active simultaneously, because this period marks the close of one age and the inauguration of the new. This is a transition period between the passing out of the Piscean Age, with its emphasis upon authority and belief, and the coming in of the Aquarian Age, with its emphasis upon individual understanding and direct knowledge."

"Be assured that the manifestation of the New Era will penetrate even the simplest of souls. The best ones will carry the burden of controversies and battles. The lesser ones can be given the simpler ways. Let them keep their calm when the flames and explosions begin to rage. Remember the symbolic event shown to you when, before the onset of a catastrophe, attempts were made to lead the people out of their halls of pleasure. Not only did the people refuse to leave, but new crowds tried to enter."

"People are rightfully asking, “How will the significance of thought be different in the New Era? Since the importance of thought is being affirmed so persistently, does it mean that thought is being given a special role in the regeneration of life?” This is perfectly reasonable. During the Black Age, Kali Yuga, thought has revolved around man, and magnetism has only extended over small distances, while in the New Era thought means Space! That is why we must not think personally but spatially."

"Tenrikyo is a unique faith which is neither theistic nor pantheistic. The Kami (Deity) of Tenrikyo, “Tenri-Ō-no-Mikoto,” is, to speak exactly, umgreifend and all the universe lives in His bosom. The Kami of Tenrikyo may be perceived as a crossing of pantheism plus determination of space, and theism plus determination of time. A pantheistic god is immanent, while a theistic god transcendent. But an umgreifend god is both immanent and transcendent. A pantheistic god is rational, while a theistic god irrational. An umgreifend god, is, however, transrational."

"Far the biggest of these modern religious movements which already boasts of a history of more than one hundred years and which covers all the Japanese isles with thousands of temples, is the Tenrikyō 天理教: the Religion of Heavenly Wisdom (or Divine Reason), founded in 1838."

"Among these heretical bodies, perhaps the most prosperous and assertive is the Tenri Kyōkwai, that is say [sic], "The Church of the Heavenly Reason." Viewed from one side, it appears to represent in an intense form a reaction from the allegorizing tendency of modern Shintō scholars; but as will appear later on, it has by no means successfully resisted the influence of modern civilization. The story of the growth of this sect possesses much interest, not merely from the light it sheds upon the religious condition of the mass of the Japanese people, but also because of certain psychological phenomena which have been associated with it and which have exerted in the past and, indeed still exert, a powerful influence upon the religious life of Japan."

"Question of native faith it's such a incinerated hearth. And now, by this stick of etnography, I carving this burning carbide from under this ash and reviving. [...] Native faith is carving from this our folk culture, from this our slavic soul that all factors, which are causing that we are Slavs, that this faith was able to sprout in us."

"Vic: Reverend Otis, this is a aboriginal con man from Australia. Nigga just got out the mental institution, think he's Jesus."

"Be still in the presence of the LORD, and wait patiently for him to act. Don't worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes."

"Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive?"

"I saw the prosperity of the wicked."

"Central to the prosperity gospel was the idea of tithing, or giving money to the church, ideally one's “first fruits” — or initial earnings. This money, many prosperity gospel preachers promised, was an investment. By showing faith, parishioners could have a “hundredfold” return on their investment, a reference to a verse in the Gospel of Mark about those who suffer for Christ receiving a hundredfold what they have lost. Thus could Ken Copeland write in his Laws of Prosperity, "Do you want a hundredfold return on your money? Give and let God multiply it back to you. No bank in the world offers this kind of return! Praise the Lord!” In this mentality, tithing is a financially responsible thing to do. It’s a show of faith and a shrewd investment alike, a wager on the idea that God acts in the here and now to reward those with both faith and a sufficiently developed work ethic."

"Throughout the twentieth century, proponents of this particularly American blend of theology envisaged God as a kind of banker, dispensing money to the deserving, with Jesus as a model business executive. Both of these characterizations were, at times, literal: In 1936, New Thought mystic and founder of the Unity Church Charles Fillmore rewrote Psalm 23 to read, “The Lord is my banker/my credit is good”; in 1925, advertising executive Bruce Bowler wrote The Man Nobody Knows to argue that Jesus was the first great capitalist. The literal money quote reads, “Some day ... someone will write a book about Jesus. Every businessman will read it and send it to his partners and his salesmen. For it will tell the story of the founder of modern business.”"

"The prosperity gospel tended to ebb and flow in accordance with wider cultural trends — it flourished in the postwar boom of the 1950s, and then again (unsurprisingly) in the no less ostentatious ‘80s, when big hair and big money alike were in. Yet despite the catastrophic fall of some of the most prominent proponents of the gospel — Jim Bakker, for example, spent years in prison for fraud — the movement has persisted well into the present day. Perhaps no less unsurprisingly, two of its major proponents — Paula White and Wayne T. Jackson — were among the six faith leaders invited to pray with Donald Trump at his inauguration."

"They spend their days in prosperity, And suddenly they go down to Sheol."

"The shrewd, calculating commercialism which tries all human relations by pecuniary standards, the acquisitiveness which cannot rest while there are competitors to be conquered or profits to be won, the love of social power and hunger for economic gain—these irrepressible appetites had evoked from time immemorial the warnings and denunciations of saints and sages. Plunged in the cleansing waters of later Puritanism, the qualities which less enlightened ages had denounced as social vices emerged as economic virtues. They emerged as moral virtues as well. For the world exists not to be enjoyed, but to be conquered. Only its conqueror deserves the name of Christian. For such a philosophy, the question, "What shall it profit a man?" carries no sting. In winning the world, he wins the salvation of his own soul as well."

"There’s a branch of Christianity that promises a direct path to the good life. It is called by many names, but most often it is nicknamed the “prosperity gospel” for its bold central claim that God will give you your heart’s desires: money in the bank, a healthy body, a thriving family, and boundless happiness. This was not the faith I grew up with on the prairies of Manitoba, Canada, surrounded by communities of Mennonites. I learned at my Anabaptist Bible camp about a poor carpenter from Galilee who taught that a good life was a simple one."

"Rev. Otis: He gave you all his love, gave you all his divine grace, gave you all his salvation. And he deserves all your money."

"To countless generations of religious thinkers, the fundamental maxim of Christian social ethics had seemed to be expressed in the words of St. Paul to Timothy: "Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content. For the love of money is the root of all evil." Now, while, as always, the world battered at the gate, a new standard was raised within the citadel by its own defenders. The garrison had discovered that the invading host of economic appetites was, not an enemy, but an ally. Not sufficiency to the needs of daily life, but limit less increase and expansion, became the goal of the Christian's efforts."