The "Superhuman" Cult Leader

refiners fire

Most cults have a tendency to venerate the founder of the cult as a person with supranormal powers.

To illustrate.Take an example such as Stanley Kubrick, Stanley is venerated as a genius Film maker, but he is venerated for only that one thing. Clark Gable might be venerated, but only for acting.

Whereas, say, L Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology is venerated as a Scientific genius, a genius of human psychology, a master sailer, a great explorer ( one of the greatest of all time) ,a great artist, a genius musician and a master photographer. The church of Scientology publishes a whole series of books venerating his greatness (indeed, his GENIUS) in many fields.These books are called the "Ron" series. The great man, Ron, might be a great man, but we are on a first name basis with him.

I was rather flabbergasted , while researching Adventism, to discover the degree to Which Ellen G White is held in esteem. The fact is, Ellen G, never uttered a false word, every utterance ever made is a divine revelation. Not only that, But a reading of older material will reveal that she displayed SUPERHUMAN powers while giving her revelations. J N Loughboroughs book " The Great Second Advent Movement" (published in 1905) is especially revealing in this regard. Accounts are given of Ellen G holding heavy Bibles out at arms length for hours at a time while she read from them, Ellen speaking without breathing (tested by holding a mirror to her mouth to see if it fogged) , Ellen holding a Bible out above her head where she couldnt see it and reading it verbatim while others (stood on step ladders) followed her reading to see if she made mistakes, and Ellen telling people that they would die for their blasphemy in disputing her and those people promptly dying.

Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, is venerated as an almost Christlike figure. A man of peace and tranquility,a man who was never in error, while the reality of Joe, the brawling, war making, empire building, megalomaniac is totally different. His history is totally whitewashed.

I could go on and on. I went to an Orion star system energy channeling group a few years back where the woman who ran the group was a direct Mind Reader. She could read peoples thoughts. Im sure this was done by the usual slippery means, though whether it went as far as say, Jim Jones, sending people out breaking into new recruits houses, rummaging thru their personal belongings, looking for usefull information he could use to "mind read" the new recruits, I cant say. Maybe she was just good at reading body language and voice inflections. A lot of them are.

But The Jehovahs Witnesses, it seems to me, can scarcely be accused in this regard. They might have published, a time or two, that Russell had a "high forehead" , true. But that is not so much really is it. In this cultic manifestation, The Venerated Leader, the witnesses are the least of the least.

just a thought.

Edited by - refiners fire on 3 September 2002 0:24:9

minimus

good post, refiner.

Amazing

I suppose Russell being the man that God exclusively used to restore truth in these last days is a most humble role. ... He was venerated while he was alive. Subsequent to his death, the Society (Rutherford)actually turned on him, accusing Bible Students (JWs) of creature worship. While Russell may not have the most veneration for a cult leader ... he got a good share, and the history about him is also whitewashed. Good post. Thanks.

refiners fire

Here is What another one, Simon Peter Fuller says about himself...

Book: "Rising out of Chaos, The New Heaven and The New Earth" (1994)

page 25- " A prediction had been made that I would play a role in South African affairs, which seemed utterly implausible at the time, but less so as time passed! I first went to Namibia, just before it was given independence from South Africa, and was touring the Kalahari desert at the time that a celebrated rock formation called 'the finger of God' inexplicably collapsed."....

Of course, there can be no doubt it is Fullers presence that causes these events to occur.

page 26- " Simultaneously with the gathering, and no doubt as a sign that our efforts were appreciated, a huge pod of dolphins accompanied by two whales surfaced and played in the bay beneath where we stood. This most unusual and heart warming cetacean display was front page news in the Cape Town press next day".

page 27- " What I did notice was that storms raged whenever the Christ energy was invoked at our meetings, The most dramatic of these occured in Melbourne on February 7th, 1989, when, just before my first presentation there, a violent storm broke over the city".

I was there for that storm, Noone in Melbourne will forget it. So thats why it happened, Because Simon Peter Fuller was in town.

This guy goes on and on actually, evcery time he prays publicly, storms followed by TRIPLE rainbows occur. He goes to Poland and Triggers the Solidarity strike by his very presence in the country. But of course, it is God himself who sends him to these places so that he can act as a "focus" for the unleashing of energies of reform in due season.

refiners fire

Heres another one.

In 1992 A girl called "Solara" was pretty big. She had to act as the Anchor for an event called the "11:11'

This was a shifting of energy, planetwide, preparatory to Earths entry into 4th dimension.The Anchoring had to occur at 11:11am on the 11th of November 1992 . Solara travelled Worldwide trying to recruit a "critical mass" of 144,000 people worldwide who would, all at the exact same moment, engage in specific bodily movements to anchor the 11:11 transmutation. Heres what happened (just a couple of things listed) while she was in New Zealand. Page 51 of her book "11:11"

"Shortly thereafter, a miracle occured. My workshop was scheduled for the Tauhara Centre, a beautiful light centre on lake Taupo in the middle of the North Island. What happened was, one night, all the clocks at the Tauhara centre stopped at 11:11. Then the folks there knew that something special was up and started signing up for the workshop which ended up having 120 people !"

wow! A sign!!

page 52- " A funny thing, on our way to the sound we passed almost thirty buses going in the opposite direction. When we arrived at Milford sounds ONLY hotel, without a RESERVATION, we discovered the hotle was virtually deserted for the night. " (emphasis hers)

Amazing, God emptied the hotel because Solara and her followers had to "anchor" a vortex in the middle of Milford Sound the next morning at dawn.

Sam Beli

Fred Franz was venerated by many during much of the last century. He was considered the "oracle" of the WTS while Knorr was considered the administrative master mind during the same time frame.

Many considered F. Franz a genius. One circuit overseers wife told me that if Fred F met you once, even briefly in an elevator at Brooklyn Bethel, he would call you by name the next time he saw you even if it was some time later. From this simple claim/observation she (and I think her husband shared the opinion) leaped to the conclusion that he was being used by God to lead "his people in these last days."

Only well after F. Franzs 1975 prediction did not come true did JWs become silent about his "genius."

Satanus

Thanks for sharing that research, refiner. However, i think the wt org still fits into the same mould. Here is why.

The wt has written a new page for the superhuman leader comic book. It has done that by creating a composite superhuman leader, whose makeup can change as members die, dogmas change, legal corps morph or divide. It's a new type of amorphous leader. The anonymity gives the leadeship more power. It also gives it a lower profile for those taking pot shots at it. Only skilled spiritual snipers (apostates) are able to penetrate the wt cammoflauge. It's a bit like schwartzineggar's second robot movie, terminator2.

SS

refiners fire

interesting thought Sam.

Ive never forgotten when, I think it was Knorr, came out to an International assembly in Melbourne, Australia was the end of the earth back then and we were most fortunate and thought we were the centre of the JW world for a brief few days. , Anyway, for the public address he gave he wore a most striking suit. it was blue but appeared to have threads of reflective material running thru it. The talk was given in the dark (which I know sounds odd, but im certain occurred) and there were lights on him which made the suit flash and sparkle like blue fire. I remember being mesmerized by the spectacle of his appearance and how I kept thinking of the Shekinah light in the old testament. Contrived deliberately? A coincidence? False memory on my part?

SS.

My intent was to say that the Watchtower doesnt venerate its founder, Russell, as a superhuman to the degree that other cults do. But then, to a degree it did while he was alive. Now hes whitewashed like Joe Smith and has nothing to say to the church he founded. So, I guess the dubs do fit the mould. Actually all of the examples listed above are different from each other in some ways, and the same as each other in others. The dubs corporate focus is not in keeping with any kind of personal veneration, even of the leadership. Truly, it is a faceless collective. The dubs collective (corporate) leadership is just another slight variation on the same old story. Agree?

Edited by - refiners fire on 3 September 2002 0:21:5

Pistoff

I believe that the society's approach is more dangerous, as it has the appearance of being reasonable. We are told that they are all human, that the society is NOT a prophet.
Then, we will read that we are NOT to question them; that this is a "spirit directed organization". I submit that there is an internal continual conflict in all our minds that allows us to believe both at the same time; that they aren't infallible, but what they say IS until we are notified otherwise by new light; that the organization is imperfect, but not being able to think of or speak of specific imperfections.
This policy is much more destructive, because it prevents the more direct conflict with reality that a Joseph Smith or Ellen G might generate.
That is my experience anyway; I know how long it took me to realize *consciously* that I was being had.

Satanus

I suppose the individual gb members don't get as much veneration as white, hubbard etc did.

SS

The "Superhuman" Cult Leader

Share this