Baha’i Faith
BAHA’I FAITH TIMELINE
1844 (May 22-23): The Bab’s declaration of mission to Mull a Husayn was made.
1850 (July 8/9): The Bab was executed.
1852 (August 15): The Babi remnant split into factions, one of which made an attempt on the life of Nasiri’d Din Shah.
1856-1863: Baha’u’llah gradually revivified the Babi community.
1863: Baha’u’llah was moved to Istanbul and then Edirne.
1866: Baha’u’llah made a formal announcement to be the promised one foretold by the Bab and referred for the first time to his followers as Baha’is. Most of the Babis became his followers.
1892 (May 29): Baha’u’llah died. He designated his eldest son ‘Abdu’l-Bah a as head of the Faith.
1894: Ibrahim Kheiralla began Baha’i teaching activity in Chicago. The first Americans converted to Baha’i.
1911-1913: ‘Abdu’l-Baha undertook two tours of Europe and one of North America.
1921 (November 28): `Abdu’l-Bah a died.
1922 (January): Shoghi Effendi was publicly named as Guardian and began the process of consolidating the system of Baha’i administration.
1934-1941: A campaign of official persecution against the Baha’is in Iran took place.
1937-1944: The first American Seven Year Plan marked the beginning of systematic Baha’i teaching campaigns. The Baha’i Faith was banned in Nazi Germany.
1938: There were mass arrests and exile of Baha’is in Soviet Asia.
1953-1963: The Ten Year ‘Global Crusade’ marked the beginning of a series of international teaching plans.
1957 (November 4): Shoghi Effendi died in London. The Hands of the Cause assumed leadership of the Baha’i world.
1963 (April 21-22): The Universal House of Justice was established in Haifa.
1963 (April 28-May 2): The first Baha’i world congress was held in London.
1970: All Baha’i institutions and activities were banned in Iraq. The Baha’i International Community gained consultative status with the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
1972: The Universal House of Justice adopted its Constitution.
1979: The Islamic revolution in Iran took place. Major persecution of Baha’is began. The House of the B a b was destroyed.
1983: The Baha’i Office of Social and Economic Development was established. The Baha’i Faith was officially banned in Iran.
FOUNDER/GROUP HISTORY
The Baha’i Faith developed out of the earlier Babi movement (Amanat 1989; MacEoin 2009; Smith 1987:5-56; Smith 2007:3-15). This movement centered on a young Iranian merchant, Sayyid ‘Al i-Muhammad Shirazi (1819-1850). He was initially widely regarded as claiming to be the Bab (Gate) to the messianic Hidden Imam of Shi’i Islam (May 1844), his followers thus coming to be called Babis. Later the Bab made explicit claim to be the Mahdi, the return of the Imam himself. However, even the claim to be the Bab was revolutionary in a Shi’i context, as in the presence of the Imam all other authorities (religious and secular) could only retain legitimacy by obedience to him.
From the beginning, Babi missionaries were opposed by high-ranking Shi’i clerics, and several violent incidents occurred. Meanwhile, the Bab sought to gain the support of the Persian king, Muhammad Shah, but was instead imprisoned by the powerful chief minister in a remote fortresses. In the confusion following the death of the Shah in September, 1848, an armed conflict broke out in one of the northern provinces between a large band of Babis and their religious opponents. The Babis fought what they saw as a defensive and sacrificial struggle against the forces of unbelief in an apocalyptic battle heralding the day of judgement. State intervention led to the extirpation of the Babi band, but two further conflicts between the Babis and their enemies convinced the vizier of the new shah to have the Bab executed in July, 1850 as a means of destroying the movement’s primary inspiration.
The surviving Babis continued their activities in secret and broke into several factions following various secondary leaders. One of these factions decided to assassinate the new shah as an act of revenge in August 1852. The attempt was badly bungled, and many Babis were rounded up and imprisoned or killed, including several prominent leaders who were not involved in the assassination plot. The Babi Movement seemed to have been destroyed.
That the movement survived was primarily the achievement of Mirza Husayn-‘Ali Nuri (1817-1892), eventually generally known by his title “Bahá’u’lláh” (The “Glory of God”) (Momen 2007 ; Smith 1987:57-66; Smith 2007:16-23). Although uninvolved in the plot against the Shah, he was thrown into prison and later exiled to what was then Ottoman Iraq. From there he began to correspond extensively with the scattered Babis in Iran. His writings conveyed his own sense of the divine presence and gave reassurance to the demoralized Babis. Less esoteric than the writings of the Bab, they often emphasized the importance of practical morality as well as the mystic path. Increasingly, the movement centered on him. This distressed his young half-brother, Mīrzā Yaḥyā
(1831/2-1912), “Subh-i Azal” (the “Morn of Eternity”), who explicitly claimed leadership of the Babis but led a secret existence separate from them.
The revival of the Babis attracted the attention of the Ottoman authorities, who moved Baha’u’llah and his immediate followers away from close proximity to the Iranian border to the city of Edirne in the Balkans (1863). Here, Baha’u’llah made explicit claim in 1866 to be the promised redeemer prophesied by the Bab. His followers soon came to include most of the remaining Babis in Iran, coming to call themselves Baha’is, while a small minority followed Subh-i Azal and became known as Azali Babis.
Further exile in 1868 saw Baha’u’llah transferred to the prison-city of Akka ( Acre) in what was then Ottoman Syria. He remained in or near Akka for the rest of his life, during which period the Baha’i Faith took shape as an organized religion. Baha’u’llah continued to write extensively, revealing his own code of divine law, outlining his vision for a united and just world, and sending a series of letters to some of the major world leaders proclaiming his mission. Meanwhile, Baha’i migrants and teachers established Baha’i groups in various parts of the Ottoman Empire, as well as in Egypt, Russian Turkestan, and British India and Burma. Effective organization ensured that the now multinational Baha’i groups remained in close contact with Baha’u’llah and that copies of his writings were widely distributed. There was also some printing of Baha’i literature in India (Cole 1998; Momen 2007; Smith 1987:66-99; Smith 2007:23-41).
Baha’u’llah appointed his eldest son, “Abbas” (1844-192), ‘Abdu’l-Baha (the “Servant of Baha”) to lead the Baha’is after his
death (Balyuzi; Smith 2007:43-54). ‘Abdu’l-Bah a was then almost fifty, well known to the Baha’is, and greatly respected as his father’s chief assistant. As a result, the appointment was readily accepted, despite opposition from his own half-brother, Muhammad-‘Ali (1853/4-1937), and a small band of supporters.
The almost thirty years of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s leadership was a crucial period of change for the Baha’i Faith, most dramatically with the growth of small Baha’i communities in North America and Europe. Although only a few thousand in number, the new Western Baha’is vividly demonstrated the international nature of the Faith and became an extremely active element in Baha’i publishing and teaching activities (Smith 1987:100-14; Smith 2004). ‘Abdu’l-Baha himself was able to visit the Western Baha’is in two lengthy tours in 1911-1913. Meanwhile, in Iran, despite worsening persecution, the Baha’is were able to impress an increasing number of “progressive” Iranians with the relevance of their ideas of social reform, as well as successfully establishing a number of Baha’i schools and furthering the emancipation of women within the community.
With no living sons of his own, ‘Abdu’l-Bah a was in turn succeeded by his eldest grandson, Shoghi Effendi Rabbani (1897-1957), who he appointed as the first in a projected line of “Guardians” of the Faith. Shoghi Effendi’s Guardianship lasted from January, 1922 until his death (Smith 1987:115-28; Smith 2007: 55-69). During his Guardianship, he consolidated a system of elected local and national Baha’i councils (“spiritual assemblies”) to administer the affairs of Baha’ism ; produced a number of significant English-language translations of the writings of Baha’u’llah and ‘Abdu’l-Baha; defined matters of Baha’i doctrine; and oversaw the extension of the buildings and gardens of the “Baha’i World Centre” in the Haifa-Akka area. He also directed a series of increasingly ambitious expansion plans to spread the Faith throughout the world.
Shoghi Effendi died suddenly in 1957. He had no children, and a body of twenty-seven senior Baha’is who he had recently
appointed as “Hands of the Cause” assumed temporary leadership of the Faith pending the election of the Universal House of Justice (an international council referred to in the Baha’i scriptures) in 1963. With successive changes in its elected membership, the Universal House of Justice has remained in charge of the Baha’i community since 1963 (Smith 1987:128-35; Smith 2007:68-77).
The most obvious characteristic of the modern Baha’i Faith is perhaps its internationalization, particularly since the 1950s. Baha’i communities have been established in virtually every country in the world; converts have come from a diverse array of cultural and religious backgrounds; the global following has been estimated to be around five million. Although the Iranian Baha’is, who themselves have been severely persecuted since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979, remain an important part of the global Baha’i community, the Baha’is can now rightfully claim to be a worldwide religion. There are particularly large memberships in India and parts of Africa and Latin America. Linked to this development is an increasing range of Baha’i literature addressing a great variety of religious and secular issues (Smith 1987:146-54, 157-95; 2007:78-96).
A second characteristic is the maintenance of the religion’s unity despite challenges to each of the leaders since Baha’u’llah from small and relatively transient, dissident groups. This is seen by Baha’is as evidence of the importance of their doctrine of a Covenant of succession. A third characteristic, evident in Iran since the late nineteenth century and elsewhere since the 1960s, has been the increasing importance of educational and other socio-economic development projects within the Baha’i faith.
DOCTRINES/BELIEFS
Authoritative Baha’i teachings are derived from the original writings of the successive leaders of the Baha’i religion, and in the case
of ‘Abdu’l-Baha , approved transcripts of his public talks. There is no Baha’i sacred or liturgical language. Arabic, Persian and English have a special status as the languages of the original writings of the Baha’i leaders, but access to and understanding of the texts is what is regarded as of primary importance. The result is that extensive translation programs of Baha’i scriptures and other literature have long been an important part of Baha’i endeavour (Smith 2007: 99-105).
The Baha’i Faith is strictly monotheistic. However, because God in essence is unknowable, all human conceptions of God are mere imaginations, which some individuals mistake for reality. Therefore, knowledge of God is primarily to be achieved by way of his messengers: the “Manifestations of God.”
According to the Baha’i view, these Manifestations of God represent the divine presence to humankind. They include Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, Zoroaster, Krishna and the Buddha, and for the present age, the Bab, and Baha’u’llah. Each has his own specific mission, but they all also share an “essential unity” that transcends the diversity of the world’s various religions. Each is authoritative and infallible. For Baha’is, the development of the Baha’i Faith forms part of a single overarching history of religion on this planet, a process of ” progressive revelation” that encompasses all of the major world religions. Each of the Manifestations of God has brought divine teachings appropriate to the needs of the people of their own particular time and place (Smith 2007:106-11, 124-32).
Of Baha’i descriptions of the nature of reality, the most striking perhaps is the view that evil has no objective reality other than in the evil deeds of human beings. There is no devil or satan, nor evil spirits nor demonic possession. Rather God’s creation is good. It is human rebellion against God that generates evil.
For Baha’is, human beings possess both a physical body and a non-material, rational soul. The soul is the essential inner reality of each human being. It comes into existence at the time of conception, and enters a new existence after death. All human beings can realize their inherent spiritual potential if they turn to God and seek to acquire spiritual qualities.
Individuals achieve different levels of spiritual development as a consequence of their choices. These levels are symbolically described in terms of “heaven” and “hell,” which in reality are states of soul rather than physical places. Thus, those who are close to God are in “heaven,” while those who are distant from him are in “hell,” a distinction that applies in both this life and the afterlife (Smith 2007:117-23).
For Baha’is, Baha’u’llah came to unite all the peoples of the world; bring together the followers of the world’s religions; and establish the future millennial age, which has been prophesied in all religions (Smith 2007:133-47). This ideal ultimately requires a spiritual transformation of humankind, but the Baha’is point to various pragmatical and proximate means to work towards this vision. These include:
1. The achievement of world peace in a united world, which includes such mechanisms as armament reductions, much of the work of the United Nations, and the promotion of tolerance and freedom from all religious and racial prejudices.
2. The establishment of social order and justice, which includes the promotion of good governance, the rule of law, and the protection of the poor and downtrodden at national and international levels.
3. The advancement of women. For Baha’is, men and women are equal in the sight of God, and the human race as a whole can only progress if both sexes have full opportunity to realize their potentials. The oppression of woman, wherever it occurs, prevents that progress.
4. Education. Both religious-moral and “secular” education are required for the individual and for society as a whole to advance. Universal access to education is seen as a fundamental right, with the education of girls, as potential mothers and hence their own children’s first educators, being of particular importance.
5. The role of religion. Solutions to the world’s problems depend on a combination of “spiritual” and “material” principles. Materialism and secularism are destructive social forces in the modern world, but religion itself should be shorn of fanaticism, bigotry and superstition.
RITUALS/PRACTICES
For Baha’is, spirituality and morality are linked together in the concept of the spiritual “path,” whereby the individual believer strives to develop spiritual-moral qualities (Smith 2007:151-56). Rather than provide a rigid code of behavior, the Baha’i teachings mostly state general principles, with the premise that individual Baha’is should use their own consciences and understanding to apply these principles in the particular contexts of their own lives.
Central to this path is that Baha’is should turn to God and find the divine light present in all human beings within themselves. Prayer and contemplation of the Baha’i scriptures are means to this end. Baha’is should also review their own actions, bringing themselves to account each day.
Relationships with other people are a crucial part of the spiritual path. Baha’is should strive to be loving to all human beings of whatever religion, race, or community; they should exercise such qualities as loyalty, compassion and selflessness, truthfulness and trustworthiness. They should completely avoid envy, malice, backbiting and all forms of dishonesty. Baha’is should be tolerant of others, particularly in matters of religion. Fanaticism and “unreasoning religious zeal” are condemned.
Being a Baha’i also involves following Baha’i law (Smith 2007:158-74). The main elements are:
1. Personal obligations towards God. These obligations include daily prayer and reading of Baha’i scripture; an annual nineteen day fast from sunrise to sunset for those who are fit and well; and payment of Huququ’llah (the “Right of God”), a form of voluntary tithe on increases in net assets for those who are sufficiently wealthy.
2. The sanctity of marriage and family life. A Baha’i marriage requires the consent of both the couple and their parents, with this latter permission being required so as to strengthen ties between family members. Baha’i marriage is monogamous. Child marriage is not allowed. Divorce is permitted, but strongly discouraged. Parents must ensure the education of their children. All forms of injustice and violence within the family are condemned.
3. Aspects of individual life. The sexual impulse can only be legitimately expressed in marriage. All forms of pre- and extra-marital sexual relationships are thus forbidden, as is the practice of homosexuality. Alcohol, opiates and other psychoactive drugs are also forbidden, unless prescribed by a physician. Tobacco smoking is discouraged but not forbidden. There is no required use of Baha’i symbols of identity.
4. Relationship to civil society and the state. Baha’is are required to follow the law of the countries in which they reside unless these laws require them to deny their faith or violate fundamental Baha’i principles. They must strictly avoid sedition and avoid any party-political involvement.
5. Sanctions. In general, observance of most Baha’i laws is regarded as a matter of individual conscience, and only extreme and public breaches of the law are normally sanctioned. Normally sanctions take the form of depriving the individual of the right to participate in Baha’i elections and contribute to the Baha’i funds. Only national spiritual assemblies can deprive an individual of his or her voting rights, and normally this is only a last resort.
One focus for Baha’i identity are the variety of activities organized by local Baha’i communities, including regular “Nineteen Day 
Feasts” during which members of the local Baha’i community come together to pray and consult on matters of concern. Another is the celebration of the Baha’i holy days commemorating events in the lives of the Bab, Baha’u’llah and `Abdu’l-Baha. Baha’is have their own calendar, consisting of nineteen months each of nineteen days (361 days), with four or five “intercalary days” to make a solar year. The new year is the ancient Iranian new year of Naw-Ruz, normally March 21 at the spring equinox. The first year of the calendar is 1844, the year of the Bab’s declaration; therefore, the Baha’i year 170, for example, began at Naw-Ruz 2013.
Various sites associated with the Bab, Baha’u’llah and ‘Abdu’l-Baha are considered holy by Baha’is, the most important being the various holy places at the Baha’i World Center in the Haifa-Akka area. Many Baha’is endeavour to make a pilgrimage to these sites at least once in their lifetimes. Some of these places are also open to the general public, the “Baha’i Gardens” in Haifa having become a major tourist destination. The Shrine of Baha’u’llah at Bahj’i is the Baha’i “qiblah” (the “point of adoration”) to which Baha’is throughout the world turn when the say their daily obligatory prayers. Important Baha’i sites in Iran are either inaccessible or have been destroyed by the authorities since the establishment of the Islamic Republic (Smith 2007:157-58, 187-97).
All Baha’is are encouraged to ” promote the Faith” and gain new adherents through the teaching and proclamation of the Baha’i teachings, but this should be non-disputatious and avoid heavy-handed proselytizing. Some Baha’is spend considerable periods of time as “travel teachers,” travelling from one place to another to teach their faith, while others “pioneer” to commence or support Baha’i activities in new locations. There are no full-time professional Baha’i promoters of the Faith.
There is a lot of Baha’i activity in support of its vision of social reconstruction. This includes the promotion of religious tolerance; the advancement of women; the development of education (there are a number of Baha’i schools and at least one college worldwide open to people of all religions); literacy training; and socio-economic development, with particular emphasis on sparking change at the grassroots level (Smith 2007:198-210).
ORGANIZATION/LEADERSHIP
The various local and national Baha’i communities are structured around the Baha’i Administrative Order under the overall 
guidance and direction of the Universal House of Justice (Smith 2007:175-86). There are two branches: a system of annually elected nine-member local and national spiritual assemblies, which organize and administer the collective lives of the Baha’is in their respective communities, and the various “institutions of the learned” (an International Teaching Centre in Haifa, and appointed individuals at continental and local levels), who are concerned with enthusing and advising the Baha’is.
The Baha’i writings frequently emphasize the need for the Baha’i administration to embody a specific “spirit of humility” and free consultation. This ideally involves all community members and is regarded as an essential means whereby individual voices can be heard and a variety of views examined dispassionately. There are also appeals procedures for those Baha’is who wish to question the decisions of their local and national spiritual assemblies.
Funding for Baha’i activities comes from both the Huququ’llah system (above) and the voluntary contribution of the Baha’is to various funds at local, national, continental and international levels. All contributions are a strictly personal matter, determined purely by the dictates of conscience. Only Baha’is are allowed to contribute to funds supporting the direct work of the Faith.
ISSUES/CHALLENGES
The Baha’i Faith is now a worldwide movement and the challenges which face Baha’i communities in one part of the world may be quite different from those in another. For the Baha’is in the Middle East the key issue is religious freedom. In Iran, the Baha’is have faced an ongoing campaign of persecution ever since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Despite being the largest religious minority in the country, they have faced waves of arrests of their leaders and particularly active members (around 200 of whom have been murdered or executed); the banning of all their activities; and the attempt to totally exclude them from all aspects of civic life (including education and the burial of their dead). Considerable difficulties have also been encountered by the Egyptian Baha’is, who have also been denied many civil rights.
By contrast, while the Baha’is in the West have often been able to gain considerable public attention and sympathy, their numbers have generally remained small, leading to anxieties in some circles about the failure to achieve a greater impact. A small number of Western Baha’is have also expressed discontent over Baha’i practices that they deem illiberal, notably the restriction of membership of the Universal House of Justice to men and the prohibition on homosexual activity, including homosexual marriage. Intellectual tensions have also surfaced about “academic” interpretations of the Faith.
It is very difficult to make any generalizations about the very diverse Baha’i communities of the Third World. In a number there are certainly practical challenges in consolidating a national Baha’i community with limited resources and in dealing with harsh social realities, including the displacement of refugees, poverty and crime.
REFERENCES
Amanat, Abbas. 1989. Resurrection and Renewal: The Making of the Babi Movement in Iran, 1844-1850. Ithica, NY: Cornell University Press.
Balyuzi, H. M. 1971.`Abdu’l-Baha: The Centre of the Covenant of Baha’u’llah. London: George Ronald.
Cole, Juan R. I. 1998. Modernity and the Millennium: The Genesis of the Baha’i Faith in the Nineteenth-Century Middle East. New York: Columbia University Press.
MacEoin, Denis. 2009. The Messiah of Shiraz: Studies in Early and Middle Babism. Leiden: Brill.
Momen, Moojan. 2007. Baha’u’llah: A Short Biography. Oxford: Oneworld.
Smith, Peter. 2007. An Introduction to the Baha’i Faith, Its History and Teachings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Smith, Peter. 2004. “The Baha’i Faith in the West: A Survey.” Pp. 3-60 in Baha’is in the West: Studies in the Babi and Baha’i Religions, vol 14, edited by Peter Smith. Los Angeles: Kalimat Press.
Smith, Peter. 1987. The Babi and Baha’i Religions: From Messianic Shi‘ism to a World Religion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Brookshaw, Dominic Parviz and Fazel, Seena B., eds. 2008. The Baha’is of Iran: Socio-Historical Studies. London: Routledge.
Momen, Moojan. 1996. The Baha’i Faith: A Short Introduction. Oxford: Oneworld.
Momen, Wendi and Moojan Momen. 2005. Understanding the Baha’i Faith. Edinburgh: Dunedin Academic Press.
Smith, Peter. 2000. A Concise Encyclopedia of the Baha’i. Oxford: Oneworld.
Warburg, Margit. 2006. Citizens of the World: A History and Sociology of the Baha’is in Globalization Perspective. Leiden: Brill.
Post Date:
6 May 2013
BAHA’I FAITH VIDEO CONNECTIONS
become a national movement, initially following the twentieth century dispersion of Gujaratis throughout India while also attracting many non-Gujaratis to its relatively modern, reformist, and communally active outlook. One of the most visible sectarian representations of the Swaminarayan tradition in the U.S. is Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (most commonly, BAPS).
and refurbished it as a mandir in 1988. Until the 1990s, sadhus were not allowed outside of India, but two regional sadhus took up residence adjacent to the new mandir in the early 1990s. As the number of BAPS devotees and their financial resources grew, devotees began to aspire to constructing a new mandir in the Atlanta area. For BAPS devotees, mandirs represent an important form of devotional expression and a means of promoting the survival of Swaminarayan Hinduism. With the support of their spiritual leader, Pramukh Swami Maharaj, the BAPS community began to plan for the construction of a carved stone mandir (shikharbaddh) (Kim 2010:367). As Kim observes, BAPS satsangis and leaders are continuously striving to improve their youth groups, publications, and methods of teaching Swaminarayan upasana for its transnational communities. Also, BAPS constantly seeks to improve the appeal and accessibility of its numerous programs and materials for both its followers and broader publics. The new temples have become a focal point for these developments” (Kim 2011:369). One expression of devotion and sacrifice by BAPS devotees is the rapid construction of new mandirs, which often takes place in two years or less and involves extensive volunteer labor.
month Pramukh Swami Maharaj performed a religious ritual (puja) to sanctify the land for the mandir construction. Pramukh Swami Maharaj returned to Atlanta in 2004 for a week’s visit, and the following year construction began. The temple was completed in less than two years, and in August 2007 the mandir was formally inaugurated.
Italian Carrara marble, 4,300 tons of Turkish limestone, and 3,500 tons of Indian pink sandstone. The stone was quarried in the three respective nations and then shipped to India where carved craftsmen sculpted it into 35,000 separate pieces that were then shipped to Atlanta. The stone pieces from which the mandir is constructed interlock and therefore require no screws, nails or other fasteners. Nearly 1,000 volunteers joined over 1,000 craftsmen, investing over 1,000,000 hours of labor, in assembling the mandir, a process that was completed in less than two years (Grundhauser n.d.). A two-ton keystone was placed in the ceiling of the mandir’s central dome. Once completed the mandir now contains six tall pinnacles, 86 decorative ceilings, 116 archways, and 340 columns (Grundhauser n.d.).
Shri Ghanshyam Maharaj
proposed by the Swaminarayan Satsang Mandir of Atlanta (Esterl 2011; “Gwinnett says no to Hindu Templ
written that despite being afflicted with an acute speech impediment during childhood, which isolated him socially, he was able to thrive academically at the College de Frere elementary school in Jaffa . At the age of fourteen, shortly following the Arab-Israeli War of 1967 (also known as the Six-Day War) he, his parents, and seven siblings emigrated to Canada, settling in Toronto. While attending the Georges Vanier High school just north of the city, Benny became involved in a religious group that planted the seeds of his evangelical career. Attending prayer meetings regularly, where he occasionally taught the Gospel. Hinn “surrendered his heart and life to Jesus Christ,” becoming a born-again Christian in February of 1972. His parents feared he was becoming a “fanatic,” particularly after he dropped out of high school the same year (“About” n.d.). Shortly thereafter, Hinn underwent two more transformative experiences; the first occurred when he claimed to have received a divine appeal to minister the Gospel. The second occurred in December of 1973 during a trip to Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania where he attended a healing service conducted by Kathryn Kuhlman. Hinn claims that while on the pilgrimage, he was assigned to assist an elderly woman crippled by arthritis who, before his eyes, lost “all pain in her legs and ‘untwist[ed]’, as he put it (Bloom 2003:3). Recalling this experience, Hinn acknowledges Kuhlman’s influence in driving him toward
faith healing. He would eventually author a book titled Kathryn Kuhlman: Her Spiritual Legacy and Its Impact on my Life, displaying an inspiration also apparent in his adoption of techniques used in her services, such as “her practice of ‘slaying in the Spirit’ and her use of ‘word of knowledge,’ both of which Hinn uses extensively.” Hinn has stated that Kuhlman has “appeared to him from beyond the grave to give him encouragement and ministerial direction,” although he never met her in person, and those familiar with the services of the two healers have noted a similarity in their manners of speaking, stage presence, and even choice of wardrobe (Peters 2009:1). Upon returning to Toronto with a crystallized mission, Hinn began preaching evangelical services on a local television program. The program’s success led him to expand his teaching to Orlando, Florida (“Do You Believe in Miracles” 2004).
renamed the World Outreach Center) to Clint Brown in 1999, the success of “This Is Your Day,” along with that of his book, Good Morning, Holy Spirit (1990), had projected Hinn to levels of recognition unprecedented in his career. On his increasingly frequent crusades, he would fill stadiums and auditoriums capable of holding thousands of believers and skeptics alike, sometimes multiple times a day.
thousands of people in the audience, shook his head and told Evander that there was nothing wrong with his heart” (“You are healed…” 2011). Shortly thereafter, Holyfield underwent an extensive series of tests at the Mayo Clinic, which determined that rather than having been born with a heart condition, the complications had arisen from improper medication following his last fight, but that it was nonetheless a miracle that he had survived and healed so quickly. Holyfield subsequently reimbursed Benny Hinn Ministries with a check for $265,000, and he has spoken out in support of Hinn on multiple occasions.
technique after founding the Orlando Christian Center in 1983. Prior to conducting healings, Hinn would dramatically recite scripture in a manner sources have compared to “tent revival meetings of the 19th century,” often also speaking in tongues. He later abandoned glossolalia when his services began to be televised (Bloom 2003:5).
quick synopsis of the condition for which they seek cure. Hinn responds with a prayer or short sermon-like comment. One of Hinn’s “catchers” then stands behind the person as Hinn touches the person’s forehead or holds his or her face between his thumb and forefinger. The person being healed usually falls to the stage floor, sometimes lying motionless and sometimes trembling. The person being healed may then get up and demonstrate some sign of their healing, such as jumping or running around the stage. Hinn conducts several dozen personal healings during each service. It is commonplace for members of the congregation to be slain in the spirit during the service.
the prayer itself. The user must identify for whom the prayer is being submitted and, from a dropdown box, choose the general nature of the prayer request. The box includes an alphabetized list of “needs” from alcohol and drug abuse, to various illnesses, to “the current world situation” (“Prayer Request” 2014). Located below is a box labeled “Prayer Details” where, using a maximum of 1,000 characters, the person submitting the prayer is able to elaborate upon the request. Upon submitting the prayer, the request is documented on a separate webpage, where it can be seen by any given member of a group of Benny Hinn Ministries’ affiliates titled the Mighty Warriors Prayer Army (MWPA).
Orlando, Florida, where he founded the Orlando Christian Center in 1983 and began to build his ministry (“Biography: Benny Hinn” n.d.). The church grew rapidly almost immediately and soon required multiple Sunday services to accommodate the growing number of worshipers. Hinn began undertaking Miracle Crusades in the latter half of the decade, holding healing services in large venues across the United States, and later internationally, attracting tens of millions annually (“Benny Hinn Author Profile” n.d.). Benny Hinn’s celebrity status expanded even further following the success of his television show, “This Is Your Day,” which began airing in 1990 on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. At its peak, Hinn’s Center in Florida attracted audiences of over 10,000. However, as his tours gained momentum, Hinn spent more and longer stretches of time traveling (Okello-Kampala 2007).
Ministries.” He moved his headquarters to Grapevine, Texas where he claimed God had told him to construct a World Healing Center in Irving. However, the center was never built, and Hinn and his wife subsequently moved to Southern California. There Hinn began hosting his television show “This Is Your Day” from the Ministries’ owned and operated studio, the World Media Center, in Aliso Viejo. Hinn’s thirty-minute program is broadcast on a number of different television networks, including Trinity Broadcasting Network, the Daystar Television Network, Grace TV, and The God Channel. It airs daily in two hundred countries. He reaches millions of followers each year through his television program, Miracle Crusades, online sources, numerous literary works, and the sale of recorded sermons and healing sessions. Hinn claims to have communicated God’s message to over a billion people during his thirty-year career.
his knowledge to come from the Holy Spirit itself. Conservative Christian critics assert that his teaching of the Gospel is flawed, particularly his acceptance of Word Faith doctrines. They contend that Word Faith adherents, such as Benny Hinn, do not preach the Gospel, but rather, they shape the teachings of the Bible to fit their specific purpose, selecting scripture “out of context and apply[ing] it to a personal interpretation which is claimed to have been given by direct revelation from God” (“Benny Hinn” n.d.). One of the most disputed teachings of Hinn and the Word Faith Movement involves the belief that that Jesus Christ died a spiritual as well as physical death in atonement for the sins of humanity and “descended to Hell where He was tortured” before becoming reborn (Peters 2009:2). Critics have rejected this claim, deeming it heretical and asserting that because God cannot simply cease to be, the spiritual death of Christ would prove that he is not God. Another such teaching is the Little gods Doctrine. Taken from Bible passages such as II Peter 1:4 and John 10:31-39, the “Little gods Doctrine” asserts that since God created humans in his exact likeness, believers are actually “little gods,” who, with faith, are incapable of suffering from illness or poverty (Gilley 1999). This Word Faith interpretation contradicts more traditional interpretations of numerous Bible passages, such as Psalms 50:1 and Romans 16:27. These passages state that there is only one God and humans being created in God’s image “means we as humans have the capacity through a saving relationship with Jesus Christ to know God,” the traditional interpretation of the verse. Further, the Little gods Doctrine is rejected because “not everyone who loved and served the Lord walked in perfect health” and that God does not intend his followers to “be physically healed in this life” (Peters 2009:3).
hosted by Bill O’Reilly, the investigation called into question the legitimacy of Hinn’s healings, following up with individuals who had supposedly been healed at one of Pastor Benny’s services. The report stated, for example, that a man who apparently had been miraculously cured of brain cancer on stage found that the tumor was still present after an examination by his doctor; a woman who believed she had been cured of lung cancer refused medical treatment and died two months after she attended a Benny Hinn healing service in Houston; and the doctor of a woman “cured” of deafness reported that she had never actually been deaf at all. Following the airing of this investigation on March 2, 1993, Hinn made a number of media appearances, including an interview on the 700 Club with Pat Robertson. In that interview he vowed to make changes in his ministry, acknowledging the mistakes he had made. In the same year, Ole Anthony of the Trinity Foundation traveled to Florida to interview Hinn. Hinn asserted that he would begin medically verifying all miracles prior to airing them on his program and that he would return to teaching the Gospel. However, shortly after the dust had settled, according to Ole Anthony, Hinn was “back to his old tricks” (Bloom 2003:8). A number of similar investigations were conducted by media programs, including a 2001 documentary aired on HBO titled “A Question of Miracles,” in which reporters followed up on 76 putative healings that occurred during a service in Portland, Oregon. Despite having claimed to possess medical verification for the healings, Hinn withheld the documentation. Several months later, Hinn produced only a list of five names. Upon conducting follow-up interviews with the crusade attendees and their medical examiners, the reporters found results similar to those of the Inside Edition investigation. Another such investigation was conducted by Dateline at a Las Vegas healing and again, the crew tried to contact the five individuals, whose names were provided by Hinn, who reportedly had been healed. Four refused to share their medical records and the fifth, a woman who had purportedly been healed of Lou Gehrig’s Disease at a Hinn crusade, had been misdiagnosed. Possibly the largest news media investigation of Benny Hinn Ministries was conducted in 2004 by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s The Fifth Estate. The documentary, “Do You Believe in Miracles,” used hidden cameras and interviews with former Benny Hinn Ministries’ employees and crusade audience members to assess Hinn’s healing claims, as well as to probe his financial practices. The documentary revealed, for example, a screening process by which audience members were carefully selected for appearance on stage. Those who were visibly handicapped physically, for example, were consistently turned away, presumably to avoid disconfirmation. Hinn has responded to allegations regarding his healing practices, stating that it is not he, but God, who heals the individuals; his crusades simply provide a channel through which those who are ill may become recipients of the Lord’s gift. Successful healing requires complete faith in God’s power and not on Hinn’s personal power.
crusades and tune into his daily television show in hopes of experiencing a miracle. “This Is Your Day” is now broadcast in 200 countries, and Hinn undertakes regular Miracle Crusades across the globe. In 2007, Hinn held the largest recorded healing service in history in Mumbai, India, with estimates ranging from five to seven million attendees over the course of the three day “Festival of Blessings” (“Benny Hinn: India Healing Crusade” n.d.). The Ministries receives an estimated $100-200 million in donations annually and contributes heavily to various crisis relief efforts, mission organizations, and schools and orphanages, claiming to “support…over 40,000 children each day” (“How Much Money Does Benny Hinn Make?” (“Salary & Net Worth” n.d.). Hinn also recouped some stature within the Evangelical community when he remarried his former wife in front of an audience of over 1,000 (Zaimov 2013b).
and Ann’s third son, Charles, was born, William was a horse collar maker and painter by trade. Five years later the family moved from Muscatine County, Iowa to Sedgwick County, Kansas, enabling William to join in the agricultural wheat boom of the area.
Tonganoxie , Kansas during his first year in the ministry. Her father was influential in teaching Parham about an evangelical view of hell that depicts the total annihilation of the wicked rather than the traditional doctrine of hell of being eternally separated from God.
healing, prophecy and various other topics mainly focused on teaching those who were previously involved in religious work. The Healing Home also offered a temporary orphanage that helped to find Christian homes for the orphan children. An ad hoc employment bureau focused on connecting Christian employees with Christian employers. There were fourteen rooms on the second floor that served as living quarters for the Parham family and for the ill and disabled residents. Resident fees ranged from four to seven dollars per week depending on ability to pay; however, there were other options if a person or family was too poor to pay the fees.
offered him the opportunity to rent an unfinished mansion in Topeka, often referred to as “Stone’s Folly,” which they had purchased from its previous owner, Erastus R. Stone. Parham agreed to rent the mansion from the Society. On October 15, 1900, he opened Bethel Bible College “with about three dozen persons, including “students” and their children in attendance. Most all of them were ministers or religious workers from Methodist, Baptist, Quaker and independent Holiness Churches and Missions and all were seeking a new experience of the Spirit for evangelistic work” (Anderson 1979:51).
That congregation began the process of having the building listed on the National Historic Register. Members have restored the chapel and regular worship services are being held on Sundays and Wednesdays under the name of Tree of Life Fellowship. There are plans to continue restoring the rest of the building to its original design. Healing rooms and a memorabilia room are expected to open as part of the continuing restoration.
Houston, which at the time was the largest city in Texas. In December, 1905, he opened a ten-week Bible school in a large house on the corner of Rusk and Brazos Streets.
yoginis has topped 20,000,000, up 4,000,000 since an earlier 2012 study. (YJ Editors 2017). [Image at right] According to this source, over eighty percent of practitioners are women; over sixty percent are between eighteen and forty-four. One third of practitioners have been practicing for three years or less. Yoga’s connection to the current exercise and fitness movement is reflected in the finding that health, conditioning, fitness, and stress relief were all mentioned as motivations by more than half of practitioners surveyed.
established the Yoga College of India in Beverly Hills the following year. In the early years, Choudhury appears to have been interested primarily in teaching Yoga (MacGregor 2002):
Rajashree Chakrabarti. (Image at right) Chakrabarti had won the National India Yoga Championship. The couple had a daughter, Laju, and a son, Anurag. Rajashree Choudhury is a yoga therapist and founded the U.S. Yoga Federation and the International Yoga Sports Federation. One of her goals has been to gain acceptance of Yoga as an Olympic event.
any yoga practice carried out in a heated environment. Proponents of Hot Yoga assert that the heat and resulting sweating are cleansing and loosen tight muscles. Proponents see the high energy/high exertion style of Hot Yoga as quintessentially American. As one yoga instructor put it: “On some level, we’ve Americanized yoga. People are living very frenetic lives, and our nervous systems are used to that…. it’s only logical that a nation of multitaskers would want to do a number of things at once: working out, sweating, balancing and stretching (Theiss 2013).
eighty four classical yoga poses and are always performed in the same order. [Image at right] When students walks into the studio with their towels and wash cloths in hand, they are immediately struck by a heat wave, as the studios are kept at temperatures ranging from 90 to 105 degrees Farenheit. Choudhury believes that this allows the muscles to heat up more quickly, which, in turn, will assist his students in their poses.
began teaching in the winter in Japan, he claimed that his studio was so cold that his muscles did not work right. However, when he heated the small room up, he found that his muscles were able to move more freely. Later, when he was teaching in Hawaii, much warmer outside than Tokyo, he found a similar result. The studio had been so air conditioned that his muscles simply did not move the way he wanted them to. So, in the middle of hot and sunny Hawaii, Bikram turned off the AC and turned on the heat. Further, “As an added benefit, the saunalike temperatures heightened their sense of euphoria and purification after workouts” (Martin 2011). This simple temperature change was a major part of the founding of Bikram Yoga.
ng students
Hills was located in the basement of a former bank building. By 2002, there were 500 Bikram Yoga studios. It is not entirely clear what produced the surge in the number of Bikram Yoga studios. Bikram himself has commented that “It was like this for years,” Choudhury says, drawing a flat line through the air. “Then in the last years it shot up, like this! Like a rocket!”Some factors. The American fascination with Asian spiritual teachers, the physical fitness fascination that swept America, the location in avant guarde California, and the celebrities that Bikram attracted all may have contributed.
competitor is Modo Yoga, founded by a former Bikram practitioner has revised a number of Bikram precepts and practices (Rubin 2013):
he began facing six lawsuits involving sexual harassment or rape charges, five initiated in 2013 and one in 2015 (Koul 2013; Sanchez 2013; Ford 2015). The women all tell very similar stories. They were originally approached by Bikram when attending his classes. He told them that he felt a special, cosmic connection to them. Some felt flattered, others tried to turn his attention back to his wife, but none of them was prepared for the escalation of attention they received. As time went on, all women reported that Choudhury became more demanding of their time and attentions, singling them out for meetings alone or for massages from them. Then, after he was alone with them, generally in his room at a hotel, they allege that he pressured them to have sex with him. All of the women report having rejected his advances, and their resistance met with different results. Some women reported being groped and pushed up against walls before being allowed to leave. Some women stated that they were physically restrained within the room and were raped.
through spiritual action” (Aetherius Society. 2006m; cf. Saliba 2000a, 2000b, 2001). Its goal is to restore, by the aid of the Cosmic Masters, the human race to a state of balance, which is threatened by selfishness and hedonism and by pollution, violence, and the depletion of the earth’s resources. Among its aims are “spiritual healing,” preparing “the way for the coming of the new Master,” and forming “a brotherhood based on the Teachings and Knowledge of the Cosmic Masters” (Aetherius Society 2006t). Its founder, George King, introduced the idea of the “Cosmic Concept,” the wisdom that provides a “new view of the universe” that reveals the true nature of the world in which we live. The Society’s view of the universe is evolutionary, but its evolution requires guidance by the Cosmic Masters, with whom its dedicated members cooperate (Aetherius Society 2006m).
You are to become the voice of Interplanetary Parliament.” “ A few days later he was visited by a world-renowned Yoga Master whom he knew to be alive and active in India at that time. This Master, in every way physical, entered and left through a locked door that he did not open. During the meeting, Dr. King was given a series of highly specialized exercises enabling him to bring about a state of consciousness necessary for the establishment of mental rapport with the Cosmic Masters who inhabit the higher planes of other planets” (Aetherius Society 2006b; cf. Melton 2009: 781). His mission had begun. During his lifetime, King cooperated with the Cosmic Masters (which include the Great White Brotherhood of Theosophy), among whom are some historical figures such as the Lord Buddha, Confucius, Jesus, and Count Saint-Germain (d. 1784), as well as extraterrestrials known as Master Aetherius, Goo-Ling, and Mars Sector 6. Members of the Society believe that George King was chosen by the Cosmic Masters to become the spiritual prophet or medium who transmits their messages to humankind. The command given to George King is central to the Aetherius Society, and its 50 th anniversary was commemorated throughout its centers and branches (Cosmic Voice 2004).
cf. Aetherius Society. 2006q) and The Nine Freedoms (King 1963; cf. Aetherius Society 2006r). Selections from these transmissions are sometimes played during the Sunday services. The Twelve Blessings were received on consecutive Sundays between July 27 and October 12, 1958. These teachings are believed to be sent by the Master Jesus who now resides on the planet Venus and appear to be an extension of the Beatitudes recorded in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Gospel of Matthew, ch. 5:3-10). They are part of the devotional practices of the Society’s members who recite selections of them during services held on Monday evenings. The Nine Freedoms were transmitted in 1961 by the Lord of Karma from Mars Sector Six. They detail the major steps one must take in the journey towards Cosmic Consciousness.
store “prayer energy” created by dynamic prayer, the recital of Tibetan mantras, and the use of mudras in order that the prayer energy may be sent out in a highly concentrated form to areas that are in need. This healing energy is controlled by cooperating Cosmic Masters who use a device called the Spiritual Energy Radiator to redirect the prayers.
ritual energy from the Cosmic Masters. These mountains are described as “spiritual energy batteries” that cannot be discharged or depleted and are, therefore, a continuous source of blessing to those who climb them. They are powerful psychic centers and the Aetherius Society organizes regular pilgrimages to them (Aetherius Society 2006i). King is credited with the success of the mission because he “ manipulated the karma of humanity through his physical effort of climbing the mountains and using his advanced abilities to achieve the elevated yogic trance-state that allowed the energy to flow through him” (Aetherius Society 2006o). According to Saint Goo-Ling, one of the Cosmic Masters, the most potent spiritual practice available to humans is to recite “The Twelve Blessings” on one of these sacred places during a Spiritual Push, also known as a “Magnetization Period” (Aetherius Society 2006h).
Carmel Center on the outskirts of Waco, Texas, the Branch Davidian Seventh-day Adventist movement had been in existence for 26 years. It had been founded by Ben Roden (1902-1978) in 1955, and, in 1981, the movement was led by his wife 
Koresh to a contest to see which of them could raise her from the dead. Koresh declined and reported the disinterment to the McLennan County Sheriff’s Department. The deputies declined to go to Mount Carmel without proof that a body had been removed from its grave, so Koresh and some of his men purchased weapons for protection and went to Mount Carmel to try to photograph the corpse without being detected by Roden. While they were there, Roden fired at them, and Koresh shot back. Sheriff’s deputies arrived to arrest Koresh and his men (Doyle with Wessinger and Wittmer 2012:65-66; Haldeman 2007:55-59).
large building by listening to Koresh’s Bible studies. By this time, the little houses had been torn down. Breault and other former Branch Davidians alleged to the Sheriff’s Department that the Branch Davidians were going to commit group suicide during Passover week, but nothing happened (Doyle with Wessinger and Wittmer 2012:71-72).
of a concrete vault located at the base of the central tower, where the young children and their mothers had taken shelter. The tank gassed that area from 11:31 to 11:55 a.m. (Hardy with Kimball 2001:275-76, 285). By 12:07 p.m. the first fire was visible in a second-floor window, and fire rapidly engulfed the building. Nine people escaped, suffering moderate to severe burns. Seventy-six Branch Davidians of all ages died.
times priests in the Jerusalem temple were believed to place a sacrificed lamb on an altar to burn to atone for the priest’s mistakes or sins. Lois Roden had added to the Daily observance the consumption of grape juice and an unleavened cracker, the Emblems representing Christ’s blood and body given for humanity (Interview with Clive Doyle, July 3, 2004; Martin 2009:22-23; Haldeman 2007:34, 88). This practice was discontinued after April 19, 1993.
adult life was quite secular in nature. He graduated from an agricultural school and worked in the automotive industry before becoming a manager in the National Electric Works. In the hagiographic account of his life, however, Swami Satchidananda is described as having been intensely spiritual from childhood: “Even as a young child, he spoke truths and displayed insights far beyond his years. His devotion to God was strong, and he looked at people of all castes and faiths with an equal eye, always recognizing the same light within every being” (Perringer n.d.) While working as the manager of a Hindu temple, Grounder met and married his wife, and the couple gave birth to two children. However, five years later his wife died suddenly. Following his wife’s death, Grounder renounced the world and began his spiritual career at age twenty eight.
chant “Hari Om.” His message to the assembled was to find peace within: “I still don’t understand how they are going to fight and then find peace. Therefore, let us not fight for peace, but let us find peace within ourselves first” (Satchidanda 1969). He touted Integral Yoga as a means to abandon drug use, stating that “The problem with drugs is that while they elevate you, they immediately drop you back down again” while Integral Yoga offered a “natural high (Katz 1992:377). Satchidanada subsequently attracted many wealthy and prestigious followers.
songs and accompanying hand gestures and dance that are performed in tune with the melodies of nine musical instruments. (See the Ritual section for more details.) This ritual would come to be performed at the Jiba, a site which Miki identified in 1875 in the premises of the Nakayama residence to mark the place of original human conception (TDPC 2014:107-18). In addition to making arrangements for the ritual, Miki began writing what would later come to be called the Ofudesaki (The Tip of the Writing Brush). Written from 1869 to 1882, the text contains a total of 1,711 verses in seventeen parts written in the waka style of poetry (TDPC 2014:119-23). Meanwhile, Miki began to mark herself out as the Shrine of God by wearing a red cloth (akaki) in 1874, and in the same year she began to bestow in various forms the truth of the Sazuke (the Divine Grant), which allowed her followers to conduct healing prayers for those suffering from illness (TDPC 2014:145-46). In 1881, Miki began the construction of the Kanrodai (the Stand for the Heavenly Dew), a hexagonal stand of thirteen stone blocks that demarcates the Jiba. A wooden model of the Kanrodai had been already made by Iburi Izō as early as in 1873 and was placed at the Jiba in 1875, the same year in which Miki identified the Jiba. The construction of the stone-made Kanrodai came to halt in 1882, however, when the police confiscated the stones from Miki’s house (TDPC 2014:221-32). From about 1880-1881, Miki began to tell her followers various stories containing her teachings, and the record of the stories as written by her followers are referred to as kōki (the Divine Record) (TDPC 2014:233-42).
formalized ritual is called the service (tsutome), which involves symbolic ritual dance and the tune of accompanying nine musical instruments that are performed along the songs based on the words in the Mikagura-uta. [Image at right] At the monthly service on the twenty-sixth of every month (which commemorates the dates of the founding of the teaching as well as the “physical withdrawal” of the foundress) and at other grand services, the Church Headquarters conducts a ritual known as the Kagura Service (kagura-zutome), the name of which derives from Shinto’s traditional theatrical dance known as kagura. In the Kagura Service, ten performers conduct the ritual dance with the Kanrodai as the center while wearing Kagura masks (kagura men) symbolizing the mythical figures described in the Truth of Origin. The service is intended to be a symbolic expression of the Joyous Life as well as the divine providence of God the Parent at the time of the creation of humankind. The Kagura Service is then followed by the Dance with Hand Movements (teodori), which is performed by three men and three women on the dais of the Main Sanctuary. The service is also conducted at a monthly service of local churches in a slightly different form, with six performers dancing to the tune of the same nine musical instruments without Kagura masks. In both cases, the performers portray and spiritually enact religious symbols through the use of their bodies in the Service. Aside from the monthly and grand services, there are also morning and evening services, which are conducted both at the Church Headquarters and at local churches throughout the year, with only the seated service (suwari-zutome) being performed with three of the nine musical instruments (TOD 2004:48-57, 2010:375-382; TOMD 1998:37-40).
someone who is afflicted with illnesses and disorders. The Sazuke involves recitation of the name of God and corresponding hand gestures, and the ritual performer strokes the afflicted part of the body of the person concerned. The Sazuke can only be administered by a Yoboku (an initiated member), who has received the truth of the Sazuke (sazuke no ri) from the Foundress through the Shinbashira after going through a systematized procedure of attending a lecture known as Besseki for a total of nine times. The Besseki lecture outlines basic tenets of Tenrikyō, including the Truth of Origin, the dusts of the mind, the body as a thing lent, thing borrowed, the Divine Model of the Foundress, the significance of the service and the Sazuke, and other topics. Through attending the series of lectures, which has the same content each time, the listener is expected to cultivate an orientation of the mind that desires the salvation of others for the rest of his or her life. Compared to the service, which is a collective ritual embodiment of the principle of God the Parent’s providence, the Sazuke is primarily an individual ritual performance that occurs between two persons. The efficacy of the healing ritual is believed to rely upon the sincerity of the one who administers the Sazuke and that of the one who receives it, thus corresponding to the doctrinal claim that the mind constitutes the fundamental basis of human experiences. Because of its nature as a healing ritual, the Sazuke is used by Tenrikyō missionaries to spread their religious teachings to non-followers (TOMD 1998:40-43; TOD 2004:58-59).
(seinenkai), the Women’s Association (fujinkai), the Student Association (gakuseikai), and the Children’s Association (shōnenkai). Further solidifying the centrality of the Jiba are educational and social welfare institutions built around the Church Headquarters, with a full lineup of facilities from kindergarten to university as well as, for instance, Tenri Yorozu-Sodansho Foundation’s Ikoi no Ie Hospital (TOMD 1998:100-27). [Image at right] Furthermore, the religious organization holds large anniversary events for the foundress on (and around) January 26 every ten years, with the latest one being the 130th anniversary as observed on January 26, 2016. This special event brings large numbers of people to the Jiba as an occasion to renew their commitment to follow the foundress’ teaching.
under Tenrikyo Church Headquarters (Tenrikyō kyōkai honbu). The organizational structure of Tenrikyō is mainly based on a centripetal principle centered on the religious authority of Tenrikyo Church Headquarters located at the Jiba. [Image at right] This principle involves two threads of organizational logic that are based on spiritual relationship and regional relationship, respectively. The first has to do with a parent-child relationship in which spiritual parents (ri no oya) are those who provide spiritual guidance to members who are, in terms of the religion, their children (ri no ko, “spiritual children”). In the organizational structure, this logic appears in the form of lineage (keitō). The Church Headquarters has about 240 directly supervised churches, the majority of which are known as grand churches (daikyōkai). These directly supervised churches each are connected with the Church Headquarters as their parent. The directly supervised churches in turn have their branch churches (bunkyōkai), thus comprising a chain of parent-child relationships in an institutional lineage structure. From a legal and financial point of view, a Tenrikyō church is an independent and autonomous social entity, but it is thus connected with other superior or subordinate churches in the wider spiritual hierarchy (Yamada 2012:325-28; cf. Morioka 1989:311-18). The second organizational logic concerns a network of churches in respective geographical regions. In Japan, each prefecture is defined as a diocese (kyōku) and is overseen by a Church Headquarters’ administrative office known as a diocese office (kyōmu shichō). In overseas countries, an equivalent function is undertaken by a mission headquarters (dendōchō), a mission center (shucchōsho), or a mission post (renrakusho), respectively, depending on the size of the church following in the country or region concerned. These regionally-based organizational units are intended to enhance the communication and interaction between followers belonging to different church lineages in a given geographical region. A Tenrikyō church is thus symbolically connected with the Church Headquarters in terms of the two interlacing organizational structures, with the spiritual relationship traditionally being the primary source of connection (Yamada 2012:325-28).
in the occult, and joined the Theosophical Society (Houston Lodge) in 1966. She also had an interest in channeling. She trained as a nurse, and first met Marshall Herff Applewhite in a hospital in Houston in 1972. The exact circumstances are disputed (Balch 1995:141).
Applewhite met Nettles, and the pair established a close friendship. Their relationship was spiritual rather than sexual, and they came to believe that their acquaintance was in fulfillment of biblical prophecy. In 1973, they proclaimed themselves as the Two Witnesses mentioned in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 11:1-2), and they hired a car to take their message to various U.S. and Canadian states. The couple’s failure to return the hired car, together with credit card fraud by Nettles, led to their arrest and subsequent prison sentences (Applewhite; in Chryssides 2011:19-20).
continued with its IT consultancy work, under the name of Higher Source. During the third week in March, 1997, the group requested that there should be no visitors. There had been reports about the arrival of Hale-Bopp comet, and Applewhite believed that there was a spacecraft behind it that contained a Representative of the Kingdom of Heaven.
They have eyes, ears, and a rudimentary nose, and have a voice box, although they do not need to use it since they can communicate telepathically. These Next Level members have “tagged” selected individuals with “deposit chips” or souls, in order to prepare them for the Next Level Above Human. These humans need to make progress towards “metamorphic completion” with the aid of the Next Level “Reps’” (representatives’) teachings. Some individuals decide “not to pursue,” thereby making themselves followers of Lucifer. Others may make insufficient progress, in which case they will be “put on ice” until the Next Level Reps re-visit the earth; they will then be given a new physical body.