World Famous Cults and Fanatics Read online

  WORLD FAMOUS

  CULTS AND FANATICS

  Constable & Robinson Ltd

  3 The Lanchesters

  162 Fulham Palace Road

  London W6 9ER

  This edition published by Magpie Books, an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd 2004

  First published by Magpie Books 1992

  Copyright © Constable & Robinson Ltd 1992

  Illustrations courtesy of Mary Evans Picture Library

  All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library.

  ISBN 978-1-84529-030-6

  eISBN 978-1-78033-330-4

  1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

  B paperback

  Printed and bound in the EU

  Contents

  Chapter one: Miracles Sometimes Happen

  The Day of Judgement according to William Miller

  The Crucifixion of Margaret Peter

  The Death of Joanna Southcott

  The Flying Monk

  The Miracles of Saint-Médard

  A Miraculous Cure

  Search for a Missing Boy

  Rasputin, the “Holy Sinner”

  Chapter two: Waiting for the Warrior-King

  Was Jesus a Messiah?

  Simon Bar Kochba

  Moses of Crete

  The Christ of Gevaudon

  Eudo de Stella

  Tanchelm

  Rebellion, Mysticism and Sex

  The Wife Who Lost Her Ring

  Sex with a Stranger

  Sabbatai Zevi

  Chapter three: Tales of Bloodshed

  The Assassins

  The Thugs

  The Khlysty and the Skoptzy

  Chapter four: More Massacres

  The Black Death and the Flagellants

  The Great Protest

  Muntzer the Messiah

  The Massacre of the Anabaptists

  Chapter five: Messiahs in the Land of Opportunity

  The Poisonous Prophet

  The Mormons

  The Oneida Community

  Henry James Prince

  Chapter six: Manic Messiahs and Twentieth-Century Cults

  Franz Creffield, or Joshua the Second

  The Downfall of Aimée Semple McPherson

  Krishna Venta

  Brother Twelve

  The Ku Klux Klan

  Charles Manson

  Richard Ramirez

  The Matamoros Murders

  Chapter seven: The New Death Cults

  David Koresh and the Branch Davidians

  Shoko Asahara and the Aum Shinrikyo

  Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda

  Chapter One

  Miracles Sometimes Happen

  There is no way in which we can dismiss the idea that certain people can perform “miracles”. And if that is true, then we cannot dismiss all “messiahs” as fakes. Perhaps they are people who sense that human beings possess extraordinary powers, and realize that the best way to develop them is to try to live the “religious life”, and to persuade as many of their fellow creatures as possible to do the same thing. There are even cases where the powers of such people seem to live on after their death, as in the odd case of the Deacon of Paris.

  Saint Joseph of Copertino and the Deacon of Paris demonstrate that miracles can happen. What seems stranger still is that the “miracle worker” need not be a genuine saint. Grigory Rasputin, the man who has been described as the “evil messiah” of pre-revolutionary Russia, was a bewildering mixture of saint and sinner.

  The Day of Judgement According to William Miller

  On 22 October 1843, crowds of men and women gathered on a hilltop in Massachusetts, led by their prophet William Miller. In the previous year, Miller, a farmer and an ardent student of the Book of Daniel, had arrived at the conclusion that the end of the world was at hand, and that Christ was about to return to earth. One man tied a pair of turkey wings to his shoulders and climbed a tree to be ready for his ascent into heaven; unfortunately, he fell down and broke his arm. Other disciples carried umbrellas to aid the flight. One woman had tied herself to her trunk so that it would accompany her as she sailed upward.

  A Millerite chart of the visions and prophecies of Daniel

  One Millerite met the writer Ralph Waldo Emerson walking with his friend Theodore Parker, and asked them if they did not realize the world was about to end. “That doesn’t affect me,” said Parker, “I live in Boston.”

  When midnight passed with no sign of Armageddon, the disciples ruefully went home. One farmer had given his farm to his son – who was a non-believer, and who now declined to give it back. Most of the others had sold all they had. In this moment of depression, Miller suddenly had an inspiration: his calculations had been based on the Christian year, and no doubt he should have used the Jewish year. That would make the date of Armageddon the following 22 March. On that date, his followers once more gathered for the last Trumpet. Still nothing happened. One man wrote sadly: “Still in the cold world! No deliverance – the Lord did not come.”

  Miller’s 50,000 followers soon dwindled to a small band of “true believers”. Miller himself was not among them; he admitted sorrowfully that he had made his mistake through pride and fanaticism. Another follower made an even more penetrating comment, which might be regarded as the epitaph of any number of “messiahs”: “We were deluded by mere human influence, which we mistook for the Spirit of God.” Miller died five years later, a deeply chastened man, who recognized that he had been wasting his time in his biblical calculations. Few other messiahs have possessed his honesty.

  In fact, very few had his opportunity, for a large proportion of them have died ignominiously. In 1172, an unnamed prophet from the Yemen was dragged in front of the Caliph, who demanded proof that he was a messenger from God. “That is easy,” replied the prophet. “Cut off my head and I shall return to life.” “That would indeed be a sign,” said the Caliph, “and if you can do as you say, I will become your follower.” Whereupon he signalled to his headsman. The head of the prophet rolled on the floor, and – predictably – the messiah failed to keep his promise.

  William Miller, leader of the “Millerites”

  The word messiah means “anointed” in Hebrew, and refers to the Jewish belief that King David will one day return and lead his people to victory. (Christ means the same thing in Greek.) The prophet Isaiah announced triumphantly that “unto us a child is born”, and that the Messiah would take the “government upon his shoulders”. Isaiah was writing roughly around 700 BC, after the Assyrians had conquered Israel and led its people (including the mythical “lost tribes”) into exile. Ever since then, certain men have become possessed of the conviction that they are the promised Messiah, and ordered their disciples to follow them to victory and kingship. None has so far succeeded.

  In the first millennium, it was widely believed that the year AD 1000 would mark the end of the world. It failed to materialize, but there was plenty of war and bloodshed – the Crusades, for example – to encourage the believers to feel that the end was nigh. The roll-call of those who – like William Miller – have announced the end of the world is impressive, as we shall see in this book.

  Women have also been among these prophets of the new Millennium, and a few have shown even greater fanaticism than their male counterparts. Perhaps the most gruesome example is the German prophetes
s Margaret Peter.

  ***

  At the Kofuku temple in Nara, Japan, a resentful priest named Kurodo decided to play an embarrassing trick on his fellow priests. At the side of a pond near the temple, Kurodo set up a placard that read: “On 3 March, a dragon shall ascend from this pond.” The effect was just what he had expected. News of the placard spread far and wide, and people talked of nothing but dragons. On 3 March the pond was surrounded by thousands of people from all the neighbouring provinces. The day was sunny and peaceful. By noon nothing had happened, and the priests were beginning to feel worried. If no dragon appeared, they would lose face. Suddenly, a cloud drifted across the sky. A wind sprang up. The day became darker, and a storm broke. Rain fell in torrents and lightning flashed. Before Kurodo’s startled eyes, a smoky shape like an enormous black dragon rose out of the pond and up into the clouds. This story may or may not be true. It was written by the great Japanese author Akutagawa, who probably based it on a tradition of the Kofuku temple.

  ***

  The Crucifixion of Margaret Peter

  In the week after Easter 1823, a horrible ceremony took place in a house in Wildisbuch, on the German-Swiss border. A twenty-nine-year-old woman named Margaret Peter, who was regarded as a holy woman by her disciples, announced that she had decided that she had to be crucified if Satan was to be defeated. Her sister Elizabeth immediately begged to be allowed to take her place. To demonstrate her sincerity, she picked up a mallet and struck herself on the head with it. Margaret then shouted: “It has been revealed to me that Elizabeth shall sacrifice herself,” and she hit her sister on the head with a hammer. Then the remaining ten people in the room – including Margaret’s other brothers and sisters – proceeded to beat Elizabeth with crowbars, hammers and wedges. “Don’t worry,” Margaret shouted, “I will raise her from the dead.” One tremendous blow finally shattered Elizabeth’s skull.

  “Now I must die,” Margaret told them. “You must crucify me.” Following her sister’s example, she picked up a hammer and hit herself on the head, then ordered the others to make a cross out of loose floorboards. When it was ready, she sent her sister Susanna downstairs to fetch nails. When Susanna returned, Margaret was lying on the floor on the cross. “Nail me to it,” she ordered. “Don’t be afraid. I will rise in three days.” Two followers obediently nailed her elbows to the cross. The sight of the blood made them hesitate, and one was sick. Margaret encouraged them. “I feel no pain. Go on. Drive a nail through my heart.” They drove nails through both her breasts, and a girl called Ursula tried to drive a knife through her heart. It bent against one of her ribs. Her brother Conrad, unable to stand the sight any longer, picked up a hammer and smashed in her skull.

  The ten remaining disciples then went to eat their midday meal. They were exhausted but had no doubt that Margaret and Elizabeth would be among them again in three days’ time. The deaths had taken place on Saturday; that meant Margaret and Elizabeth were due to arise on Tuesday.

  But as the disciples sat around the battered corpses on Tuesday morning, no sign of life answered their prayers. Meanwhile, the local pastor, who had heard about the “sacrifice” from another disciple, called in the police. (He had known about the deaths for two days, but felt he had to give Margaret time to make good her promise.) The disciples were arrested, and taken to prison. They were tried in Zurich that December, and were all sentenced to varying prison terms.

  The Death of Joanna Southcott

  Sometimes, the prophet – or prophetess – loses faith at the last moment, but even when that happens, the disciples remain immune to doubt. When the English prophetess Joanna Southcott lay on her deathbed in 1814, she suddenly announced to her dismayed followers that her life’s work now appeared a delusion. Although Joanna was a virgin, she had been convinced that she was about to give birth to the “child” foretold by Isaiah. And when one of her followers reminded her that she was carrying the Messiah (called Shiloh) in her womb, Joanna’s tears suddenly changed to smiles.

  After her death a few days later, her followers kept her body warm for three days as she had instructed them – then summoned a small army of medical men to remove the Christ child from her womb. The smell of putrefying flesh filled the room as the surgeon made the first incision, and some of the disciples hastily lit pipes to cover the smell. But when the womb was opened there was obviously no baby there.

  “Damn me”, said a doctor, “if the child is not gone.” These words filled the disciples with new hope. Obviously, he meant that the child had been there, but had now been transferred to heaven. And even today, there are a small number of followers of Joanna Southcott – they call themselves the Panacea Society – who believe that when her mysterious box is opened – a box supposed to contain her secret writings – all sin and wickedness in the world will suddenly disappear.

  It is tempting to dismiss all these prophets and would-be saints as frauds or madmen. But that would undoubtedly be a mistake. Consider, for example, the strange case of Joseph of Copertino.

  ***

  Does a place of worship have more intense thought fields than ordinary buildings? Can this explain the incredible case of the doll with human hair that keeps on growing?

  The story comes from northern Japan and started in 1938. In that year Eikichi Suzuki took a ceramic doll to the temple in the village of Monji-Saiwai Cho for safekeeping. It had been a treasured possession of his beloved sister Kiku, who had died nineteen years before at the age of three. Suzuki kept it carefully in a box with the ashes of his dead sister.

  Suzuki went off to World War II and didn’t return for the doll until 1947. When he opened the box in the presence of the priest, they discovered that the doll’s hair had grown down to its shoulders. A skin specialist from the Hokkaido University medical faculty said it was human hair.

  The doll was placed on the altar, and its hair continued to grow. It is still growing, and is now almost waist length. The temple has become a place of pilgrimage for worshippers who believe the doll is a spiritual link with Buddha.

  The priest of Monji-Saiwai Cho thinks that the little girl’s soul somehow continues to live through the doll she loved so much.

  ***

  The Flying Monk

  Giuseppe Desa was born in Apulia, Italy, in 1603, a strange, sickly boy who became kriown as “Open Mouth” because his mouth usually hung open; one commentator rermarks that “he was not far from what today we should call a state of feeblemindedness”; a bishop described him as idiota (although the word meant innocent rather than idiotic). He was subject to “ecstasies” and, even as a teenager, given to ascetic self-torments that undermined his health. At the age of seventeen he was accepted into the Capuchin order, but dismissed eight months later because of total inability to concentrate. Not long after, the order of Conventuals near Copertino accepted him as a stable boy, and at twenty-two he became a Franciscan priest. He continued to starve and flagellate himself, acquiring a reputation for holiness. Then one day, in the midst of his prayers after mass, he floated off the ground and landed on the altar in a state of ecstasy. He was unburned by candle flames, and flew back to his previous place.

  Sent to see the Pope, he was again seized by such rapture that he rose in the air. His flying fits seem to have been always associated with the state that the Hindus called samadhi, ecstasy. His levitations ceased for two years when a hostile superior went out of his way to humiliate and persecute him; but after a holiday in Rome as the guest of the superior of the order, and an enthusiastic reception by the people of Assisi, he regained his good spirits and sailed fifteen yards to embrace the image of the Virgin on the altar.

  He seems to have been a curious but simple case; floating in the air when in a state of delight seems to have been his sole accomplishment. The ecstasy did not have to be religious; on one occasion, when shepherds were playing their pipes in church on Christmas Eve, he began to dance for sheer joy, then flew on to the high altar, without knocking over any of the burning candles.
Oddly enough, Saint Joseph could control his flights. On one occasion, when he had flown past lamps and ornaments that blocked the way to the altar, his superior called him back, and he flew hack to the place he had vacated. When a fellow monk remarked on the beauty of the sky, he shrieked and flew to the top of a nearby tree. He was also able to lift heavy weights; one story tells of how he raised a wooden cross that ten workmen were strugghng to place in position, and flew with it to the hole that had been prepared for it. He was also able to make others float; he cured a demented nobleman by seizing his hair and flying into the air with him, remaining there a quarter of an hour, according to his biographer; on another occasion, he seized a local priest by the hand, and after dancing around with him, they both flew, hand in hand. When on his deathbed, at the age of sixty, the doctor in attendance observed, as he cauterized a septic leg, that Father Joseph was floating in the air six inches above the chair. He died saying that he could hear the sounds and smell the scents of paradise.

  What are we to make of such phenomena? It would be convenient if we could dismiss the whole thing as a pack of lies or as mass hysteria or hypnosis. We can certainly dismiss ninety-five per cent of the miracles attributed to the saints in this way without a twinge of conscience. (A typical example: St Dunstan of Glastonbury is reported to have changed the position of the church by pushing it.) But the evidence of Brother Desa’s power of flight cannot automatically be dismissed; it is overwhelming. His feats were witnessed by kings, dukes and philosophers (or at least one philosopher – Leibnitz). When his canonization was suggested, the Church started an investigation into his flights, and hundreds of depositions were taken. He became a saint a hundred and four years after his death.

  ***

  Flying saucer cults exist all around the world. Most hold the view put forward in Erich von Däniken’s book The Chariots of the Gods?: that the human concept of “God” was created when we were visited by alien beings at some stage in our pre-history.