Elizabeth Prophet, who has died aged 70, was head of the Summit Lighthouse and the Church Universal and Triumphant, a New Age religious cult which she enjoined to prepare for nuclear Armageddon.

The Telegraph - 23 Oct 2009

She took over the leadership in 1973 on the death of her husband, Mark Prophet, who had founded the Summit Lighthouse in 1958 to spread a message which combined elements of Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and Theosophy.

In 1975 she established the Church Universal and Triumphant, a formal religion with ceremonies and sacraments, extending the work of the Lighthouse. The teachings were derived from divine messages supposedly transmitted by the Ascended Masters, a pantheon of heavenly beings ranging from Buddha and Jesus Christ to the “head of the Cosmic Secret Service”. Worldwide membership was once estimated at between 30,000 and 50,000 people, who revered Elizabeth Prophet as a spiritual leader with a direct link to God.

Full story

…on the James Ray scandal.

Parts 1 to 9

Visitors come to ancient sacred homeland hoping for transformation

[...] The group forms a circle while holding hands and chants in rhythmic tones. Before they enter the Great Pyramid, they shake rattles over themselves in order, they say, to align their energies.

In complete darkness, they crouch to reach the pit of the pyramid where they comfort themselves with the meditations. Then, they climb their way up to the queen’s chamber, and finally reach the highest chamber, the king’s chamber.

Each participant takes turns lying in the empty sarcophagus of King Khufu, also known as Cheops, who reigned some 4,500 years ago. Tour groups are allowed to engage in activities like this during private time in the pyramids, when they’re not open to other tourists. The participants are also invited to do or say whatever comes to them in that moment. Some shout out words: “Powerful!” “Woman!” The group responds to the calls and repeats them with enthusiasm. The reverberating sound fills the dark room and leaves people shaking even after they’ve exited the pyramid.

By Dennis L. Cuddy, Ph.D.
March 23, 2009
NewsWithViews.com

In “One On One: Regulating the Pursuit of Self” (Jerusalem Post, February 4, 2009), Amitai Etzioni states: “There is no philosophy that better describes Obama’s position than Communitarianism,” which Etzioni defines as a term “that would speak for community and the common good.” (In his March 4, 1801 inaugural address, while referring to majority rule and minority rights, Thomas Jefferson was the first president to refer to the “common good.”) Interestingly, Etzioni in his The Essential Communitarian Reader (p. ix) said the term was coined in 1841 by John Goodwyn Barmby, who founded the Universal Communitarian Association (originally called the Communist Propaganda Society). In Dana Milbank’s “Needed: Catchword for Bush Ideology; ‘Communitarianism’ Finds Favor” (The Washington Post, February 1, 2001), Etzioni was quoted as saying George W. Bush’s Inaugural Address was “a Communitarian Text.”

As I’ve mentioned numerous times before, the Power Elite (PE) uses crises to move us toward its ultimate goal of a World Socialist Government. The current global economic crisis is devaluing currencies so that the people of the world will be forced to accept regional currencies and then a global currency, which is an important part of the PE’s plan. …

Full story

Constance Cumbey - February 15, 2009

In April, 1981, in one evening, I was to write these words which later were to become much maligned in certain Christian circles — ones I was to eventually learn had deeply compromised with New Age/Apostate interests such as Paul N. Temple and his Institute of Noetic Sciences as well as Rev. Moon and his Unification Church. They were to become part of a chapter in my 1983 released book, THE HIDDEN DANGERS OF THE RAINBOW. They were part of a chapter entitled “THE AGE OF AQUARIUS? OR THE AGE OF THE ANTICHRIST.” If you have my book which has been out of print since Huntington House went out of business in 2003, you will find this chapter from pages 36 to 43. These words were brought to mind by learning that today Mikhail Gorbachev, the former Russian Prime Minister and open devotee (per Wayne Peterson) of “Maitreya the Christ”, introduced a resolution into the European Parliament for a World Water Authority.

Full story

I found a curious item the other day. At DeceptionBytes, Mishel wrote a post titled ‘The Hidden Agenda of The Order of the Mustard Seed.’ The first two paragraphs of which, are:

Peter Grieg of the 24-7 Prayer Movement, an international, ecumenical movement laced with Gnostic, New-Age, and Contemplative spirituality, is reviving the 17th century Order of the Mustard Seed and encouraging members to take a lifelong vow of commitment. This commitment to the vows of the Order, are to be symbolized with a ring or tattoo. The Order of the Mustard seed, which was originally a secret order started by Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, is a long dormant Masonic Order. Greig says he was inspired to resurrect the order by the 18th century Moravian renewal and the life of Count Zinzendorf.  In fact, many of those in the Apostolic and Prophetic Movement, who embrace a world-view by which they believe themselves God’s Champions, bringing Heaven to Earth, have a rabid fascination with Zinzendorf and the Moravians.

Why, are so many of the ministries that seek to “take” the world for Christ, enraptured by the Moravians and why do the Moravians wield this kind of influence over this “New Breed” of Christian “emerging” in today’s post modern church era? In order to understand the horrific significance of the resurrection of this Order and the overall draw of Zinzendorf’s Moravians, it is first imperative to understand the history of this movement and how it fits together with today’s stringent social and political agenda.

The full name of the secret society was the Order of the Grain of Mustard Seed. I’m reading a book right now by Marsha Schuchard called Why Mrs Blake Cried: William Blake and the Erotic Imagination - a book-length expansion of her earlier scholarly article. There’s some rare info on Zinzendorf, Swedenborg, William Blake and the Masonic Sabbatean-Kabbalistic (antinomian) milieu of the 18th Century. The Mustard Seed secret society is mentioned a few times, too.

(more…)

Congregator.net - December 30, 2008

The Emergent Church is Communitarian. Associating everything with the New Age is misleading. It is equally misleading to limit the New Age to those aspiring to mysticism, spirituality, or higher consciousness. The New Age is everywhere around us. It is not a cult, it is mainstream society. According to Alice Bailey, the New Age agenda is being advanced by all segments of society, so when you think you have them located here, turn around and they are there too, wherever “there” is. Bailey identified two groups working together toward the objective, one spiritual and one material. She said: “The result of this dualism is the external chaos, the differentiation of the two group ideals into the many human experiments, and the resultant ranging of the entire human family under many banners, which testify to the various viewpoints in the many fields of thought - political, religious, economic, social, educational and philosophical.” - The Destiny of Nations: Spiritual Life in the New Age.

Full story

——-

Also see: Alice Bailey & Master Djwhal Khul: A Satanic Communion

Yona Metzger, the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, talks to SPIEGEL ONLINE about the Abraham as the father of all three monotheistic religions — Islam, Christianity and Judaism — and explains how that connection could be a starting point for a dialogue of peace between them.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Chief Rabbi, Jews refer to Abraham as “Our Father Abraham.” How difficult is it for you to accept the fact that Christians and Muslims also call Abraham their father?

Metzger: This is not difficult at all. It fits very well with the Jewish religion. A close look at the word “Abraham” reveals that it is constructed from the words “father of many nations.” So, if Muslims associate themselves with Abraham’s son Ismael, or Christians associate themselves with Abraham’s grandson Esau, or we associate ourselves with his other grandson Jacob, then three great monotheistic religions were born from him.

Full story

Elaine Woo - November 2, 2008

Marilyn Ferguson, the author of the 1980 bestseller “The Aquarian Conspiracy” and a galvanizing influence on participants in scores of alternative groups that coalesced as the New Age movement, died Oct. 19 at her home in Banning. She was 70.

The cause was believed to be a heart attack, said her son, Eric, of the adjacent Riverside County city of Beaumont.

In 1975, Ferguson turned an interest in human potential into an influential monthly newsletter, Brain/Mind Bulletin, which reported on new discoveries in neuroscience and psychology. That work led her to discern that a massive “cultural realignment” was occurring, a conspiracy in the root sense of disparate forces all breathing together to produce personal and social change.

“The Aquarian Conspiracy” was the era’s first comprehensive analysis of seemingly unconnected efforts — scientists investigating biofeedback, midwives running alternative birthing centers, politicians encouraging creative government, a Christian evangelist promoting meditation, an astronaut exploring altered states of consciousness — that were “breathing together” in their break from mainstream Western practices and beliefs in medicine, psychology, spirituality, politics and other fields.

Full story

Source

The public record shows this: First, within the minds of Barack and Michelle Obama resides the grandiose, even megalomaniacal notion that they have the power to make the world as-it-is into the world-as-it-should be. Second, the Obamas look to talk-show host, Oprah Winfrey, as their “global role model” to effect this change. Third, as the Obamas’ model for change, Oprah relentlessly promotes the grandiose New Age religion of her guru, Eckhart Tolle.

A closer look at these three narcissists and their widely-ignored interconnections is in order.

Berit Kjos - September 28, 2008

Obama: “I will ask for your service and your active citizenship when I am president of the United States … this will be a central cause of my presidency.”[1]

Obama: “People of all ages, stations, and skills will be asked to serve…. I will set a goal for all American middle and high school students to perform 50 hours of service a year, and for all college students to perform 100 hours of service a year….”[2]

Saul Alinsky (Obama’s Marxist mentor): “The disruption of the present organization is the first step toward community organization…. All change means disorganization of the old and organization of the new.”[3] Rules for Radicals (excerpts here)

Brave New World: “A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced because they love their servitude. To make them love it is the task assigned… to ministries of propaganda, newspaper editors and schoolteachers.”[4] Aldous Huxley

Full story

Juan Martinez - 9/22/2008

Traditionally, the New Age category has catered to aficionados of the esoteric and the occult. Today the genre gratifies a more mainstream consumer. Fading is the era of crystals and tarots. Nowadays, readers seek science-based titles that will help them become healthier and more spiritually aware. As New Age is continuing to expand into other categories, many titles that were once the provinces of health, psychology, self-help and spirituality (to name a few) have now assumed the New Age mantle. According to Jo Ann Deck, publisher of Celestial Arts and Crossing Press, the new New Age reader is “more practical and less interested in nebulous philosophical and spiritual exploration.” As a result, the genre reads more like Dr. Phil and Jack LaLanne than Carlos Castaneda and Ram Dass.

Llewellyn publisher Bill Krause cites current world events as the reason behind the drastic change in New Age literature. “Political, environmental and cultural changes are upon us in the form of elections, wars and even 2012 [see sidebar, p. 34]. The public is looking at a wide range of spiritual practices to find solace,” he says. “Things that were once looked upon as niche or fringe are now looked upon as interesting solutions worthy of exploration.” Llewellyn’s Soul Visioning: Clear the Past, Create Your Future by Susan Wisehart (Oct.) combines self-help principles with New Age philosophies to “connect you with your higher self to guide you into the ideal expression of your soul in your work, relationships, health, finances and spirituality.”

This shift in focus presents new challenges for publishers while simultaneously providing a new and more expansive market. Though Gina Clark, editor at Alight, agrees with Deck’s and Krause’s assertions about why New Age works have changed, she has an additional theory. “[Today] publishers of New Age titles are looking to do more than entertain,” she says. “They have a vested interest in improving quality of life.” Because traditional New Age books were geared more toward enjoyment and enlightenment than the new breed of didactic literature, Clark thinks the category’s biggest challenge is determining a proper definition for itself, “since [the category] can include everything from numerology to astrology to the beliefs and ritualistic practices of ancient cultures.”

Full story

The playlist for parts 1-8 are embedded below.

Also see the Zeitgeist Challenge.