by Texe Marrs
Already known as a charismatic man who was a hero to his students, John-Roger began to teach in the homes of friends around Southern California. People seemed to be astounded by his practical advice and spiritual wisdom. Soon he was able to found his “church,” the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness (MSIA). By the mid-1970s, thousands of people were reading the monthly newsletter of MSIA for which John-Roger charged a yearly fee. They had also begun to listen to audio tapes of John-Roger chanting the “sacred names of God.” Some became eligible to become Ministers of Light in the “Melchizedek Priesthood.” MSIA was legally incorporated as a church and its ministers began to perform regular ministerial duties such as baptisms and marriages. John-Roger proclaimed that his followers were spreading the Light, a positive energy which Christians, he said, know as the Holy Spirit. John-Roger called himself the Mystical Traveler and soon began to be widely recognized for his wealth and health teachings.
In 1974 John-Roger and MSIA moved into a sumptuous mansion in Los Angeles which he dubbed “The Purple Rose Ashram of the New Age,” or PRANA It is now referred to as the Prana Theological Seminary and College of Philosophy. Teachings of Prana include the dispelling of negative energies and the absorption of the “Mystical Traveler Consciousness.” Soon, John-Roger became a national phenomenon and MSIA Light Centers were set up in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Chicago, and even in Paris and London. Moreover, John-Roger established a subsidiary group, Insight Transformational Seminars, to conduct training sessions for some of America’s top corporations. Some 50,000 people have gone through these seminars, it is reported.
Mother Theresa, Bishop Tutu, and more...
John-Roger has been acclaimed by some of America’s most well-known celebrities, politicians, and religious clergy. Beginning in 1983, John-Roger’s cult foundation began its sponsorship of an annual event called the “International Integrity Awards.” Each year John-Roger personally presents the award, and dignitaries have come from all over the world eager to receive it. Among the recipients are Catholic Missionary Mother Theresa, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, polio researcher Dr. Jonas Salk, and singer Stevie Wonder. In 1986 Poland’s Solidarity leader Lech Welesa attempted to leave Poland to accept one of John-Roger’s Integrity awards. When he was prevented from doing so by Poland’s communist government, John-Roger’s group received worldwide news coverage. At the awards gala, the popular guru John-Roger presents the award winners with leaded-crystal pyramids and checks for $10,000. The celebrity-laden, black tie audience of 1,000 has included actor John Forsythe, Beach Boy Carl Wilson, actresses Teri Garr, Ellen Burstyn and Oscar nominee Sally Kirkland, and consumer advocate Ralph Nader.
Charges of Homosexuality and Brainwashing
More recently, John-Roger ran into some difficulty when disillusioned former cult members went to the news media to protest that John-Roger is not quite the man he appears to be. Some said that he has conducted a campaign of hate and has even encouraged vandalism against those who have left the cult.
The Los Angeles Times decided to investigate and eventually ran a series of exposé articles about John-Roger and the cult. A revealing article by People magazine followed. In these articles John-Roger was accused of abusing his spiritual authority by brainwashing his followers, seducing young male staffers, and intimidating dissenters. Some dissidents said that John-Roger used hidden listening devices at the organization’s Santa Monica headquarters to support his claim of having mind-reading powers. One man, Victor Toso, said that he had been victimized by John-Roger and persuaded to engage in a homosexual relationship. According to Toso, John-Roger uses sex to seal young men into “the Brotherhood.” Ex-followers also claim that John-Roger had declared that people who question him had placed themselves under a devil-like spirit power and its field of negativity, known as “the red monk.”
In answer to these charges, John-Roger recently conducted a meeting of supporters in which he read passages from the Bible warning them that they would have to give account on the Day of Judgment for every evil word they have spoken.
Though the allegations and charges against John-Roger rocked the Southern California area in 1988 and vastly damaged his credibility, reportedly his organization continues, though the glory days possibly are over.
Chapter 57: THE MYSTERY SCHOOL
The Mystery School, in Pomona, New York, asks its applicants for a year’s commitment, during which time the individual will be instructed on the ancient mysteries as they were taught by the pagans in Greece, Turkey, Afghanistan, Ireland, Egypt, France, Scandinavia, and so forth. This is the promise of the brochures published by Jean Houston, the School’s founder. Houston was formerly the president of the American Association of Humanistic Psychology, and she is a very popular speaker at New Age conferences throughout the United States. A few years ago she began the Mystery School. Its activities involve classic mythology, Eastern and Oriental religious teachings, and especially the mythologies of the goddess. For example, Houston states that, “Studying and enacting the transformation of a war goddess, Athena... can give us clues about transforming ourselves and the people who can help green the world.”
According to Houston, as of 1989 some 1,200 people from all over the U.S. and the earth have attended the Mystery School course. Houston claims that the Mystery School will enable participants to know “the Source of All Being.” In reality, this New Age program will simply divert and keep people away from the only true God there is, Jesus Christ. For those people who are truly interested in the ultimate destination of those who become involved in what has been called “the Ancient Mysteries,” all one needs to do is turn to Revelation 17 of their Holy Bible. There they will discover that the last days church of Satan is pictured as a Mystery Woman, the goddess, whose destiny is most pathetic.
Chapter 58: NATIVE AMERICAN INDIAN CULTS AND RELIGIONS
The Native American Indian tribes of North America developed religions which were strikingly similar to those of other pagan civilizations around the world. The sight of the Indian Medicine Man dressed with buffalo skins and horns and doing a dance around some totem pole or fire is not a figment of somebody’s imagination. That was actually a ritual by many Native American Indian tribes. Today among New Agers, one of the hottest fads is the revival of the spiritualistic system of the Indians.
The Native American Indian religion is a growth industry. New Age groups are proliferating. For example, there is the Bear Tribe Medicine Society, led by founder Sun Bear, its medicine chief. There is the Earth Circle, and the XAT Medicine Society which advertises its goal as the “teaching of the old ways for a New Age.” There is also a group known as the White Buffalo Society, which made the news recently when a woman died after she was buried alive in a “soul cleansing” initiation ceremony.
The Native American Indian worshippers have had their religious practices endorsed by Joseph Campbell, bestselling author of The Power of Myth, who stated that “We have today to learn to get back into accord with the wisdom of nature and realize again our brotherhood with the animals and with the water and with the sea.” Rituals and practices of these cults and groups include Vision Quest, a cultural rite of passage and ceremony in which people spend several days of “earth awareness exercises” so that they can “open their ears and eyes and hearts to Mother Earth.” This instruction includes fasting and seeking of guidance of spirits at some sacred mountain or in some other nature setting. Some Native American groups smoke peyote or marijuana to achieve altered states of consciousness. Most also use the sweat lodge for the same purpose, and they dance the Circle Dance, also to gain a higher state of consciousness. Mandalas, talismans and meditation-centering devices are frequently used, medicine wheels are consulted, systems of earth astrology are promoted, environmentalism is pushed, and the smoking of the pipe around the circle is common.
The Great Spirit and The Force Are One
The Native American Indian theology of the “Great
Spirit,” the all-in-all, fits in quite nicely with the New Age doctrine of an impersonal force as God. Indeed, the Indian medicine men and spiritual leaders preach tolerance and the brotherhood of all creeds and religions, believing that there is only one Ultimate Reality.
The Native American Indian cults and religions rarely include mention of Jesus Christ in their rituals and ceremonies. Yet, there has been a movement among some to “walk the sacred circle with Jesus Christ.” Incredibly, Cardinal Frances Arinze, a Vatican official who is head of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, spoke to more than 2,000 Native American Catholics gathered at Northern Dakota State University on August 2-6, 1989, and told the assemblage that, “The Creator has always walked with the American Indian people and their ancestors.” Cardinal Arinze urged the Indians to claim their heritage and then he issued this heretical statement: “Christ is found in the traditional sacred ways of Native Americans.”
While it is true of course that Jesus Christ can fulfill the needs of people of all cultures, including Native American Indians, the Catholic Cardinal is totally incorrect in his strange belief that Christ is found in the “traditional sacred ways of American Indians.” The traditional sacred ways of Native Americans are undeniably occultic, and the occult world and Jesus are poles apart.
It should not be assumed that the membership of the Native American Indian cults and religions is only Indian. In fact, the vast majority of those who participate in these cult groups are non-Indian Americans, people who are looking for the newest fad in the New Age and think they have found what they are looking for among the witch doctors and medicine men of the Navajo, Cherokee, Choctaw, Sioux, and other peoples. It should also be understood that there are many Native Americans who are believers in Jesus Christ and are solid Christians. These Christians are distressed and saddened by the revival of the cult groups and the New Age occultic influences which are sweeping their communities and reservations.
Chapter 59: NEW AGE BIBLE AND PHILOSOPHY CENTER
Corinne Reline, who recently passed away, was one of the most brilliant writers of the New Age Movement. Her cardinal work is a set of seven bible commentaries on the New Testament and the Old Testament which are entitled New Age Bible Interpretation. These commentaries, which analyze and reinterpret the Holy Bible from an esoteric and occultic viewpoint, were first published in the 1930s and have been popular in New Age and occult circles now for more than half a century. They continue to be sold through the New Age Bible and Philosophy Center in Santa Monica, California. The works of Corinne’s husband, Theodore Heline, are also offered by this New Age publishing group.
The books of Corinne Heline give us an indication of how broad and far-ranging were her occultic and esoteric interests. Among Corinne Heline’s published works are the following books: Mystery of the Christos; Tarot and the Bible; Mythology and the Bible; Mystic Masonry and the Bible; Occult Anatomy and the Bible; Sacred Science of Numbers; Supreme Initiations of the Blessed Virgin; Color and Music in the New Age; Esoteric Music of Richard Wagner; and Mysteries of the Holy Grail. In all of these works and especially in her New Age Bible Interpretation, Corinne Heline enthusiastically endorsed all the various New Age philosophies, including most of the doctrines of Helena Blavatsky’s Theosophy group. For example, Heline endorsed Blavatsky’s view that man has been spiritually evolving into divinity and that there are seven spiritual races, culminated by the Ayran and the Aquarian.
An interesting feature of Heline’s works is her veneration of Mary, Mother of Jesus. Calling her the Blessed Lady, Heline believed that Mary was herself divine. In her New Age Bible Interpretation, volume VI, she wrote:
Mary accompanied the Master on journeyings through towns and villages of the Holy Land. By her divinely awakened powers she, following in her Lord’s footsteps, also ministered unto the sorrowing and healed the sick... Mary was at this time exquisitely beautiful in appearance—tall and youthfully slender, her long flowing hair forming a bright sheen about her head. Her delicate oval face was illumined by lustrous eyes, through which the powers of her radiant spirit shown like the perpetual light of some heavenly altar flame... The processes of time were stilled within her. Her physical body no longer knew the forces of age and disintegration...
Since Corinne Heline, like almost all leaders and authorities in the New Age Movement, believed in communication with the spirit world, it is very likely that her description of Mary was received by her in messages from demonic spirits.
Chapter 60: NEW AGE CHURCHES
Recently in The Baptist Standard, the most widely distributed Baptist publication in the state of Texas, a top official of the Southern Baptist Convention suggested that Baptist churches did not have to worry about losing members to New Age Churches since, “There are no New Age churches.” Ironically, the very week that this particular issue of The Baptist Standard was published, the Houston Chronicle carried a feature story on New Age churches in that city!
There are indeed New Age churches established across America and even the world, and some of these churches are growing astronomically. Their names sometimes have a mystical, esoteric flavor, but often the New Age churches adopt Christian-sounding names. Among the New Age churches you will find the Church of Amron, Church of Today, Creative Learning Center, Church of the White Eagle Lodge, Healing Light Center, Unity By the Sea, Union Temple of Isis, Collegians International Church, Church of Conscious Harmony, New Lighted Way, Church of the Aquarian Age, the Liberal Catholic Church, and Light of Christ Community Church.
Some of the New Age churches have memberships ranging in the thousands and their numbers are multiplied by the use of local radio and television media. The teachings and spiritual practices, as well as the training of the pastors, ministers, and clergymen of these churches; vary greatly. But it can be said that all embrace the essential New Age doctrines (see pages 47 through 48 of this book).
For example, the Centre Church of Spiritual Quest, in Jacksonville, Florida, has as its logo a pyramid and the cross linked together. A recent newsletter of this church publicizes such special events as a meeting to be conducted by “A wonderful extraterrestrial named Terone, who is seven-feet tall and comes from the planet Altar, in the Galaxy Sirius.” The Church newsletter also announces past life regression classes, channeling of the spirit Rama, and Reiki healing classes to assist people to attune themselves to “the Universal Life Energy Force.”
Meanwhile, in Corpus Christi, Texas, federal judge Philip Schraub is pastor of the Chapel of Spiritual Light, a church whose congregation communes with what Schraub called, “The Higher Spiritual Plane.” Schraub notes that in his courtroom, it is his job to set bond and pass sentence on drug traffickers and other criminals. He suggests that these are souls “from the lower astral planes”—caught in some unfortunate incarnation in which they are paying back their karmic debts. At the Chapel of Spiritual Light, “Pastor” Schraub teaches about the Great White Brotherhood and assures his parishioners that there is no such thing as “hell, fire, and brimstone.”
Jewish New Age Synagogues
Not all New Age churches stress their so-called “Christian” ties. There is also a movement in the Jewish community to establish New Age-oriented synagogues. One such Jewish synagogue is the Makom Ohr Shalom in Woodland Hills, California. This synagogue is led by Rabbi Ted Falcon, Ph.D, who bills himself as “a practicing psychotherapist and storyteller who designs metaphors and meditations for personal evolution.” In L.A. Resources newspaper (Winter issue 1989-90), the Makom Ohr Shalom synagogue advertised that Rabbi Falcon “is well-known for his classes on the Kabbalah (an ancient form of mystical occultism) and mysticism, psychology, and spirituality.”
Many of the Jewish New Age synagogues express belief in and worship the Mother Goddess as well as the Father God. They call her the “Goddess of the Sabbat.” Such beliefs remind us of the heretical practices engaged in by Ahab and Jezebel in the Bible. Ahab and Jezebel also worshipped the Mother Goddess, whom they
believed to be the consort of Baal. Today the New Age synagogues are bringing back this same unholy worship which brought God’s wrath down on the people of Israel so many times in the past.
Chapter 61: THE NEW AGE SCHOOL
The New Age School is an organization in the state of Iowa which was started by New Age activists. Their goal is to bring people from what they call the “Heartland of America” (Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Nebraska, and the Dakotas) together to share a common vision. In other words: the New Age vision. Their symbol is the six-pointed star inside a circle, the star being made up of two triangles combined together. Inside is yet another triangle in the shape of a pyramid. The New Age School offers a variety of courses and also brings New Agers together for periodic celebrations. Among the topics recently offered by the New Age School: “Reincarnation—the Great Reality;” “The Healing Force;” “The Healing Power of Sound and Color;” “Dreams, Visions, Personal Myths;” “Psychic Explorations;” and “Navigating Inner Space and the Heaven Worlds.”
Principal teachers of the New Age School include Dr. Marilyn Rossner, Catholic priest John Rossner, and Nan Porter. In addition, New Age authors are brought in from outside the Midwest. A recent outside teacher was Joseph Chilton Pearce, author of The Magical Child.
Chapter 62: OMEGA INSTITUTE
The Omega Institute is formally called the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies. In its facilities at Rhinebeck, New York, amidst a scenic locale near the Hudson River, Omega operates one of the largest and most well-known training centers for the New Age Movement. Its board of directors includes such New Age notables as Tom Jackson and Ram Dass, and the Omega Institute manages to bring in world-class New Age speakers to conduct seminars and workshops.
