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By Mark Chalifoux, Man Cave Daily

This Friday (May 4) is the official day for Star Wars fans to celebrate the franchise in all of its glory. The reasoning, much like everything associated with Star Wars in the past 15 years, is fairly contrived. It’s likely because of a translation error of a George Lucas interview on a German TV station (“May the Force be with you” was translated into “May 4 be with you”). Regardless, it gives nerds a chance to geek-out and walk around the office saying “May the Fourth be with you!” all day.

Star Wars Day has a different meaning to me, though, because I saw the dark side of fandom and obsession during a brief period in the last decade in which I was accidentally voted to the International Council of the Church of the Jedi. Or maybe it was the Jedi Church High Council. Either way, I was given a leadership position in a movement that was striving for international legitimacy.

I was always a Star Wars fan, first getting addicted to the franchise when they were rereleased in theaters in the mid-to-late 90s. Star Wars books were the first books I read as a kid that weren’t written by Matt Christopher. I even had a group of nerd-friends that helped me overtake a baseball card shop once a week for marathon sessions of the Star Wars version of Magic: The Gathering. My grandma never stopped getting me Star Wars stuff for Christmas, even long after I outgrew it (it was awesome as a kid, lame as a whiny high schooler, then awesome again as a college kid. My Luke Skywalker Lego pen was the highlight of my Philosophy 101 class).

I went through the same steps of grief every fan went through after George Lucas had his stroke and called it a prequel. That Star Wars love sat dormant in my soul for a few years. It was stirred somewhat five years ago when I got an email from an editor at a website I wrote for. Apparently, there was an ongoing movement to make the whole Jedi thing an officially recognized religion and it was gaining steam in New Zealand and in the U.K. Would I want to go through the process of becoming an official member of this Church to then become the website’s “religious” pundit?

How could I turn that down? I went through with the process, which consisted mainly of obtaining a certificate to become a “Jedi Master.” I saw that some people in the church took on a new name, so I wanted to become Master Pasvrai (French for “not true”) as a wink to the fact that my membership was on a lark. I also wanted to call myself Jedi Master P, for short. And as much as I was looking forward to becoming a religious pundit, I mainly wanted to be able to preside over marriages of drunk people at parties to freak them out the next day. Waking up and finding out that you married someone, even in the Jedi Church, has to make the Walk of Shame a little more interesting.

The assignment from the website sort of fizzled out and I did nothing with my newfound role. That should have been the end of it, but the Jedi Church was having elections to their international council a month later. There was so much infighting among the members that they all voted for the people they didn’t hate. And that’s how I became a part of the Jedi Church High Council. I wasn’t even aware they were holding elections until I won one of the slots.

The purpose of the High Council was to create some sort of uniform doctrine. Apparently, some chapters were forcing their members to wear robes while others were training their members in how to use a light saber (but since those aren’t real they probably trained with cardboard tubes).  This had to be settled to gain “legitimacy”, it was explained by someone who was trying to create a religion based off a popular kids movie.

What followed were a series of inane conversations on AOL’s Instant Messenger (remember that?) about what the Church would/wouldn’t allow. That was the first time I was exposed to fans so extreme in their devotion that they literally worshipped in accordance with a movie and lived their lives by its principles.  And it wasn’t just a few people, there were tens of thousands of people who were claiming Jedi as their official religion or joining the Church.

The high point of the council debates? When it was decided that The Force was not to be used for sexual pleasure. As if that was the one problem standing between this movement and legitimacy. Granted, one of the hallmarks of organized religion is making rules about what you can do in the bedroom, but being subjected to a debate this absurd was enough to make me regret getting my certificate in the first place.

We had no official stance of using force in the bedroom; you just couldn’t use The Force. So you could choke a lady (assuming she asked you to and you have a good safe word, like “Kung’urama’nuruodo”) but you just couldn’t Force Choke her, Vader-style.

That’s when I turned my back on the Jedi Church. I wanted to be able to enjoy the original movies for years to come without having to think about a world where people are interpreting scenes to find out how they should live their lives. For me, Star Wars Day is just a reminder that some people care so much they have opinions on people manipulating The Force to find their Dark Side in the bedroom.

Mark Chalifoux is a comedian and writer in NYC. He’s a regular contributor to ManCave Daily and you can catch him live May 5 at the Laughing Devil Comedy Club in NYC.

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By  Kenny Smith

As Lauri Lebo noted in her March 23, 2010 Religion Dispatch post, “although most Christians assume that the ideas and practices surrounding the Easter holiday are native to Christianity, Easter’s historical origins in fact lie in the pre-Christian, pagan religious worlds of Northern Europe. “The word ‘Easter,’”  Lebo explains, “is actually the name of an ancient, heathen goddess who represents fertility, springtime, and the dawn.”  Contemporary Pagans, Wiccans, Heathens, Druids, and other such communities working to re-create, preserve, and practice various pre-Christian traditions (whom I will group together here under the term “Neo-Pagan”) agree entirely! Popular websites such as Covenant of the Goddess, Witches Voice, and Witchology, discuss the ancient roots of the Easter holiday as grounded in Germanic goddess-figures alternately known as Eostre or Ostara.  Some have also begun to suggest that we “not forget the REAL reason for the season!,” and work to “Keep the Eostre in Easter.”

Now, we know that new and alternative movements, over time, typically grow more and more like the larger culture in which they live.  A good example of this process (which scholars refer to as “accommodation”), can be seen in the Unificationist Church (popularly known as the Moonies).  As Barbara Bradley Hagerty reported for NPR, with its membership “dwindling,” the Unificationist church has brought some of its teachings into greater alignment with the larger Western culture. For example, although marriages with the Unificationist community have been traditionally (and controversially) arranged by the movement’s founder, Rev. Sun Myung Moon, parents have now been granted the authority to arrange marriages for their own children. While past generations of converts were expected to sacrifice their careers and dedicate their lives to laboring on behalf of the church, personal achievement and financial success are now explicitly encouraged: “[t]oday, the church wants college valedictorians, not dropouts… [it] wants the second generation to fit into society — not fight it.”

This raises a very interesting question about the direction in which American Neo-Pagan traditions are headed. When we think about  Christian communities insisting that the Christmas holiday be configured in explicitly religious terms, rather than, a more secular holiday defined by bright and colorful lights, decorating a tree, giving gifts, the myth of Santa Claus, and spending celebratory time with fiends and family, images of a religious militancy seem as if they are not that far behind. Indeed, while I sometimes grow weary of Christmas shopping, I always dread the shrill religious voices demanding that I observe a Christmas defined along certain pre-approved, sectarian lines.

Are American Neo-Pagans taking on some of these characteristics in their gradual accommodation to the larger culture? Can we expect increasingly shrill Neo-Pagan voices demanding adherence to sectarian understandings of Eostre over and above all competing others?  I would argue that this is unlikely to be case, and that efforts to “keep the Eostre in Easter” differ significantly from those to “keep the Christ in Christmas.” This is so for at least two reasons.

Firstly, the positionality of Neo-Pagans within the broader culture differs radically from that of most Christians. While Christian communities often perceive themselves as a persecuted minority, as living in a time when all things Christian “are being discouraged and swept away,” this is a very difficult argument to sustain. As numerous sociological studies have shown, most Americans (72%) continue to self-identify as Christian, and most seats of political, economic, and social power are filled by those who see themselves as Christian. One suspects that, within some Christian communities, “being persecuted” has come to be mean “no longer enjoying an hegemonic presence” in American culture.  Neo-Pagans, however, occupy a very different position. While their numbers continue to grow at impressive rates, if grouped with all other “new movements,” they only represent approximately 1.2% of the adult population. (http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-03-09-american-religion-ARIS_N.htm) Consequently, they are much more likely to experience not only discrimination in various forms, but social invisibility.

Secondly, unlike most Christian communities, Neo-Pagan traditions are not at all evangelical. They do not assume a mandate to make their worldview everyone else’s worldview, and so they do not actively seek converts. To the contrary, many such groups rebuff those who seek to join them and require the completion of lengthy periods of study (a year and a day is not uncommon), tests of competency, initiations, and group consensus as to the appropriateness of applicants, prior to admittance. In such contexts, rates of attrition may run as high as 90%.  Neo-Pagan traditions, then, tend to regard their own teachings and practices as suitable only for a small number of persons with particular interests and temperaments.

Taken together, these differences suggest quite varied frames of reference for Christmas and Eostre purity concerns. Christians who seek to police the ways in which Christmas is conceptualized and lived are hoping to reestablish clear cultural control. For many, this is not simply a matter of preference, but a cosmological and eschatological necessity.

For Neo-Pagans, who are better understood as a religious species recently returned from the brink of extinction, and who practice a largely esoteric religious craft, Eostre purity concerns represent an act of resistance and a struggle to assert one’s cultural identity within a culture where such Neo-Pagan identities are often demonized or unrecognized.

Still, when we consider the sustained rates of growth with this community, the diffusion of its symbols into popular culture (e.g., in the Harry Potter novels and films), and the tendency towards accommodation over time, one wonders whether Neo-Pagan traditions might come to resemble more closely the dominant religion in ways that could shift Eostre purity concerns in a different direction. In my own research with Wiccans, more than a few have expressed concerns about precisely this issue. “I’m not sure I would be comfortable,” a Wiccan priestess remarked to me several years ago, “if Wicca became the dominant religion in our culture, the way Christianity is now. I’m not sure I would it would remain ‘Wicca’ anymore.”

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An intriguing excerpt from Gregory L. Reece’s upcoming book:  “Creatures of the Night: In Search of Ghosts, Vampires, Werewolves and Demons.” 

The sound began down deep in his chest, rose to a growl in his throat, and then forced its way between his lips as a snarl. The coarse silver hair on his neck bristled. His ears, covered with the same silver fur, twitched. There was a burst of air from his nostrils, a snort of warning and territorial claim. The muscles in his arm began to twitch. His head snapped quickly to the left, then to the right. Thrown back against my seat by a sudden change in direction and speed, I instinctively clutched at the door handle of the mini-van, my eyes darting between the oncoming traffic and the hairy form in the driver’s seat. His reactions to the traffic were quick and aggressive – canine reactions, lupine reactions. For just a moment I was terrorized, speeding down the highway with a werewolf at the wheel.

***

I had lunch with Wolf at a local “meat and three” restaurant.  Unlike Warren Zevon’s  London werewolf, we didn’t have beef chow mein or pina coladas (and Wolf’s unruly fur was far from “perfect”),  but instead ordered meat loaf, tomato pie, and iced tea. Throughout the meal Wolf was uncomfortable in his straight-backed chair which offered no place for his (invisible) tail. Other than that he seemed completely at ease in his own skin, more than happy to talk to me about his wolf-nature and the werewolf community of which he is a part. 

Werewolves, Wolf explained, are by their nature mostly solitary creatures, joining packs only occasionally for woodland gatherings known as Howls. Wolf is one of the elder weres in an annual gathering known as the Southeastern or SEHowl, billed as one of the largest and longest running Howls in the country. Mostly, however, the werewolf community is found online, in chatrooms like The Werewolf Café (werewolfcafe.com) and The Werelist (werelist.net).  Online, Wolf often plays the role of an expert, or at least as someone who has been around for a while, knows a lot of other werepeople, and is not afraid to state his mind and share his personal experiences. 

Wolf traces the origins of modern werewolves to the late twentieth century, when some people began realizing, as children, that there was something different about them. They lived life more intentionally, paid more attention to what was going on around them, were more empathic, and felt as though they did not quite fit in with the people around them. On the other hand, they identified very well with various nonhuman animals – often to the point of conceptualizing themselves as nonhuman. (thetheriantimeline.com)

These individuals should not be thought of dysfunctional misfits, however. According to wolf

On the average, they got along well with their families, they had friends, they succeeded in school, many worked for themselves, many worked for others, and they were happy and well adjusted. But they were unique, as far as they knew, and they kept their differences a secret.

Then, in the early 1990’s, with the birth of the internet, this diverse group of individuals began to find each other. An online group, alt.horror.werewolves, founded as a forum for fans of werewolf movies soon became a forum for the discussion of members’ personal lives and experiences.  As Wolf puts it, “The Weres had found each other.”

***

Though always careful to emphasize that his theories are his alone and that he does not speak for the therian community as a whole, Wolf does not hesitate in sharing his own personal understanding of the modern werewolf phenomenon. He believes, for example, that present-day therians are genetically linked to the European werewolf community of the middle ages and that population and environmental pressures may have resulted in the reawakening of this long-hidden hereditary strain.  

         Wolf writes,

Before the Werewolf Trials of the later Middle Ages when thousands of mentally ill or simply despised people were tortured to death by the Inquisition for being “werewolves”, there really were people known as “werewolves”. Far from being insane, they were respected in their communities. They even had a special position in the church – they were called the Dogs of God and Saint Peter’s Wolves.

Wolf finds evidence for the existence of these holy werewolves in some of the ancient legends themselves, but especially in the records of the Inquisition regarding the trial in 1692 of the Livonian werewolf Thiess as recorded by Carlo Ginzburg in his The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (1983). 

According to Ginzburg, the elder Thiess confessed freely to the charge of being a werewolf.  He also claimed that he once suffered a broken nose during a battle with a peasant named Skeistan, who happened to have been deceased at the time. Skeistan was a witch and had risen from his grave along with other witches to carry seed grain into hell in order to curse the community’s crops. Thiess, as a werewolf, had battled to stop this travesty, and had been hit in the face with a broomstick by the witch. Thiess also claimed that such battles took place three times each year, on the night of St. Lucia before Christmas, at Pentecost, and on the night of St. John. On these nights

The werewolves proceeded on foot, in the form of wolves, to a place ‘beyond the sea’: hell. There they battled the devil and witches, striking them with long iron rods, and pursuing them like dogs. Werewolves, Thiess exclaimed, ‘cannot tolerate the devil.’ (29)

When the judges demanded to know why Thiess and the others would transform themselves into dogs and journey to hell, he explained that they went in order to bring back from hell those things that had been taken there by the witches, livestock, grain and other agriculture fruits. To fail in their task would mean a lean year for the harvest and hunger for the people.

The judges in this account seemed quite shaken by this strange testimony. They apparently had great difficulty in understanding werewolves as being on the side of God and opposed to the devil. Thiess kept insisting however, that

werewolves were anything but the servants of the devil. The devil was their enemy to the point that they, just like dogs – because werewolves were indeed the hounds of God – pursued him, tracked him down, and scourged him with whips of iron. They did all of this for the sake of mankind: without their good work the devil would carry off the fruits of the earth and everyone would be deprived as consequence. (29)

Ginzburg argues that judges’ understanding of werewolves as servants of the devil notorious for destroying livestock was incompatible with what seems to be an older concept of werewolves as servants of God. Thiess, he argues, represents an older understanding of werewolves in which the dogs of God battle witches and devils in defense of a bountiful harvest. In addition to the evidence of Thiess’s advanced age, and the assumption that he acquired his beliefs about werewolves at an early age, Ginzburg also notes a mid-sixteenth century tale of a young man of Riga who fell to the ground during a banquet. One of the witnesses recognized the man as a werewolf. When he revived the young man related that he had left his body to battle a witch that had been flying around in the shape of a red-hot butterfly. 

This was an ancient belief, then. But . . . under pressure from the judges, the original positive qualities of the werewolves began gradually to fade away and become corrupted into the execrable image of the man-wolf, ravager of the livestock. (31-32)

Wolf VanZandt believes that the ancient dogs of God, the hounds of St. Peter, are once again on the move, called for what purpose he is not yet sure. Modern therians may be the new hounds of God, when their struggling consciousness finally comes to shake off the false histories that they have been taught. Hundreds of years of false consciousness must fade away for the werewolf to once again hear the call to battle with the forces of evil. All the horrible tales of old were told from confused or sinister motives, but the truth remains, hidden even in the ancient legends and tales. The wholly other within the werewolf breast is the presence of the divine.

 **********************

About the author:  Gregory L. Reece, Ph.D

Greg holds a Ph.D in Religious Studies from the Claremont Graduate University with a specialty in philosophy of religion and theology, an M.Div. from the Vanderbilt University Divinity School, a B.A. from Samford University, and an A.A. from Martin Methodist College.

His studies in philosophy of religion, particularly his work on irony and religious belief, have led Greg to explore religion from its more idiosyncratic border regions rather than from its more stable centre. In pursuit of an understanding of religion, he has attended an Elvis Impersonator contest in Las Vegas, celebrated the birth of the King of Rock and Roll in Memphis, attended UFO and Tesla Technology conventions, had his molecules rejuvenated via the alien technology of the Integratron, visited Roswell and Area 51, had a close encounter with the extraterrestrials known as the Tall Whites, explored an underground cavern rumored to lead to a subterranean civilization, hunted Bigfoot outside of Paris, Texas, attended a Satanic mass, interviewed vampires, been trained in the art of exorcism, and gone hiking with a werewolf.

Greg’s fancy degrees and weird adventures, while incredibly interesting, have not provided him with steady employment. For that he works as a technical writer and consultant, providing human resources support to municipal governments and colleges. He occasionally teaches courses in philosophy and religion at Birmingham, Alabama colleges.

Greg lives at Brookehouse, a big, old home in the Montevallo, Alabama historic district, along with his wife Kristen, his son Sam, and his daughter Olivia. In his spare time, and when he is not making plumbing repairs, he likes to build robot, spaceship, and ray-gun sculptures from junk he finds at the thrift store.

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By Kenny Smith 

In an intriguing piece written for the Sunday, June 27 New York Times, journalist David Segal traces out some of the early consequences of President Obama’s October 2009 announcement that federal law enforcement will no longer prosecute users and suppliers of medical marijuana, provided they are in compliance with state laws. In Colorado, where a November 2000 amendment to the state constitution legalized medical usage, the grass-roots response has been immediate and potent:   

hundreds of [marijuana] dispensaries popped up and a startling number of residents turned out to be in “severe pain,” the most popular of eight conditions that can be treated legally with the once-demonized weed. More than 80,000 people here now have medical marijuana certificates, which are essentially prescriptions, and for months new enrollees have signed up at a rate of roughly 1,000 a day…. [In] cities like Boulder, an affluent, whole-grain kind of college town… the number of [marijuana] dispensaries… is larger than the number of Starbucks and liquor stores combined.  

What should we make of such a state of affairs? Surely some of these 80,000 cases involve severe physical distress. But aren’t many simply a matter of Coloradoans wanting to get high, a lot? Of course, even if this is in fact the case, it does not rule out the possibility that there are important religious dimensions at play. Getting high a lot might well perform important religious work. 

As the great scholar of religion Huston Smith pointed out some four decades past, that consciousness-expanding substances become intimately bound up with the sacred should hardly surprise us. Psychoactive compounds, albeit in varied forms, are indigenous to nearly every geographic region in which human civilization has flourished. Accidental ingestion, he argued (not uncontroversially), may have given rise to humankind’s first religious visions, doctrines, and traditions! (Smith, “Do Drugs Have Religious Import?,” The Journal of Philosophy, 1964) Indeed, many indigenous peoples, such as the Native American Church, continue costly legal battles with federal and state governments in an effort to regain (or preserve) their right to make use of sacred substances such peyote and cannabis.  

But we need not look to indigenous traditions. A number of new religious movements have come to see the ritual use of cannabis products as central the religious quest. The Church of the Universe, founded in Ontario, Canada in the late 1960’s, teaches that marijuana provides a vital “calming influence,” helps to focus and “direct [one’s] thoughts without interference from negative forces,” allows for an experience of communion with the natural world, and overall “makes life worth living.” http://www.iamm.com/belief.htm Though this group is not specifically Christian, some who are have likewise produced interesting blends of biblical spirituality and cannabis use, yielding a religious path that emphasizes “getting high for Christ.” The Religion of Jesus Church, founded in Hawaii (also in the late 1960’s), holds that the sacred ingestion of cannabis, 

fosters the… personal experience in knowing and doing the will of God and serving the human brotherhood…. Through his indwelling spirit of truth and idealistic beauty, the Prince of Peace is able to be your personal spiritual life partner showing you the ideal way of living as you tread the pathway of spiritual growth…. Such is the religion of Jesus.  

More recently, in the 1990’s Reverend Roger Christie founded the THC Ministry: Hawaii Cannabis Ministry. In addition to helping congregants develop a biblically-grounded “Cannabis Spirituality,” this group also “helps to protect you from arrest, prosecution and/or conviction of ‘marijuana’ charges–wherever you live–starting as soon as you sign-up, become ordained and receive your ministry documents.” Membership is free. Applicants need only “be over 21 and sincere.” http://www.thc-ministry.org/  In the summer of 2010, Christie hopes to plant new Cannabis Christian Ministries across the U.S., beginning (of course) in Colorado Spring, Colorado.

Like all religious communities, these groups interpret their inherited religious resources in ways that reflect their most basic commitments, which in this case means the centrality of cannabis.  According to Christie, “what did Moses do after kneeling by the burning bush? He smoked it… Moses was healed by the burning bush,” which is said to be one of many biblical references to sacred weed.  As the scholar of Chinese religion, Jonathan Herman, has often remarked, “it does not matter so much what scripture says; what matters is how it is interpreted.” And our most important commitments typically constitute the lens through which we read scripture. This helps to explain why scriptures yield such varied interpretations, each of which seem self-evident to those who support them.

Setting aside for the moment admittedly unusual religious groups, could legalized cannabis come to function in ways comparable to other culturally sacred substances ritually consumed each day in the workaday world or with family and friends at dinner parties, picnics, baseball games, and holiday celebrations, such as Budweiser, Coca-Cola, Marlboro, MacDonalds, or Starbuck’s coffee? For at least some persons and communities, one suspects this is already the case, and that the economic dynamics of further legalization efforts will only serve to broaden the ways in which cannabis products manifest within the larger culture. As Segal explains,

Americans spend roughly $25 billion a year on marijuana… which gives some idea of the popularity of this drug. Eventually, we might be talking about a sizable sum of tax revenue from its sales as medicine, not to mention private investment and employment. A spokesman for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws says hedge fund investors and an assortment of financial service firms are starting to call around to sniff out opportunities.

Currently, thirteen other states (such as Rhode Island and New Jersey), as well as the District of Columbia, have already passed medicinal marijuana laws and are poised to initiate dispensary programs similar to that in Colorado. Given the longstanding connection between economics and the sacred within American cultural history, it is worth taking seriously the possibility that, with widespread economic success and increased availability on the horizon, cannabis may well become a sacred reality for a great many Americans, putting down roots alongside baseball, apple pie, Budweiser, Coca-Cola, Starbuck’s and (after a good case of the munchies) more apple pie.

See Religion Nerd article by Heather Abraham: Cannabis Cafes of Amsterdam

Sources

• David Segal’s article in NY Times:  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/business/27pot.html?ref=todayspaper
• Religion of Jesus Church: http://www.hialoha.com/konagold/church/sacrament.html
• http://www.gazette.com/articles/expand-100645-burning-hopes.html
• http://www.gazette.com/articles/expand-100645-burning-hopes.html

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By Kenny Smith  

Recent Star Wars artwork may well resonate with new religious movements that understand and live Star Wars mythology as spiritual truth. Thank you St.Vader? 

In a recent CNN interview, Bill Maher explains his own philosophy of “Apatheism,” which blends religious apathy and atheism: “I don’t know what happens when you die and I don’t care.”  In another instance of blending, the idea of UFOs as extraterrestrial spacecraft seems to have been explicitly combined with the new religious movement known as ECKANKAR (“The Light and Sound of God”).  

After vandalism to a local church implicated The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (or FSM, whose members are often known as Pastafarians), local FSM members raised $2,600 to repair the damage.  

Dudeists, that is, members of the Church of the Latter-Day Dude, a new religious movement based upon the 1990s Coen Brothers film, The Big Lebowski¸ are celebrating the 10^th annual Lebowski Fest this month.   Are you a Dudeist who wants to spread the good news?  Try out for the documentary film currently in the works.  

A number of commentators have reported that Mike Bickle, founder of the International House of Prayer (yes, IHOP), claimed that Oprah Winfrey is the Anti-Christ. Technically, though, Bickle said that Winfrey was one of the chief pastors of the “Harlot Babylon,” who was paving the way for the Anti-Christ by creating a world-wide religion characterized by tolerance, compassion, humanitarianism, and of course demon-worship. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pFcFldh8lo

 Some corporate leadership experts (and a new Harvard study) recommend that CEOs and supervisors embrace “New Age” management philosophies, emphasizing “letting go,” “imagination,” “smiling and appreciating employees,” and “long vacations.”

A new book by Christian Bible scholars decides it: the damned will not be eternally tortured, but simply annihilated once and for all. Plan accordingly.   Hundreds of Christians gathered at the Wild Goose festival in North Carolina to celebrate liberal, progressive, and (as they see it) intensely Christian values, e.g., social justice, tolerance, acceptance of different lifestyles, and the arts. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d97lwT5qCvQ

Also in North Carolina, still other Christians gathered to craft two-faced “Salvation Sally” dolls (the “before conversion” side is frowning, the “after conversion” side smiles happily) for poor and starving 3^rd world children.

The site at which Jesus of Nazareth is believed to have been baptized is now open daily to tourists and pilgrims, and may well be fully cleared of land mines.

Some conservative Christians worry about “what comes next” after Harry Potter, recreational demon possession?

In an effort to counter criticism regarding its investigation/harassment (you decide) of former Scientologist Marty Rathbun, Scientology “Squirrel Busters” (i.e., members devoted to debunking apostates publicly criticizing the church) argue that they are merely making a documentary film, and perhaps even a musical, starring (of course) former member Marty Rathbun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2z7OwsNxvc

A young Haitian man who was aided by a Scientology volunteer following the earthquakes in Haiti, is recognized by mayor of New York town. 

For a particularly joyous form of Orthodox Judaism, check out the Na Nachs, who drive their party-busses around city streets, offer pounding techno-music, ecstatic dance, drum-playing, and shofar-blowing, turning public spaces into spiritual party-spaces, all the while helping to bring about the arrival of the Messiah. 

A day in the life of a Pagan general-goods store serving Wiccans, Druids, secularists, and even Christians, that is, when they’ll come inside.

One North American Pagan writes about the challenges of “coming out of the broom closet.”

Still struggling financially? Try the “Money Voodoo Doll,” enchantments not included. 

American Hindus consider what they have in common with Pagan communities, religiously and socially, and the need of both communities to work together.

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In addition to our regular academic explorations, commentaries, and news articles, Religion Nerd also offers a forum for the “Religious Insider.”  Insider accounts offer RN readers an intimate opportunity to “hear” the voice of those within a particular tradition or practice. 

In this account, Dan Beckett reflects on his introduction to and continued practice of Firewalking– presenting us with a snapshot of his personal spiritual/religious journey utilizing an Americanized version of this unique and ancient practice. 

By Dan Beckett

When people first hear about firewalking they often think of strange, ancient rituals performed by people with weird costumes and painted faces who talk funny and lived a long time ago.  

While it’s true that firewalking has been practiced for centuries, even millennia, in many cultures around the world, what people often don’t realize is that firewalking is alive and well today in the United States, with more people practicing it each year than at possibly any other time in history!  Many have found it, as I have, to be a profoundly moving spiritual experience. I am a firewalker who first encountered the practice in a spiritual growth workshop hosted by Edwene Gaines in Valley Head, Alabama.  To date I’ve attended five firewalks, and want to share my experience and understanding of the practice to those who may be interested in learning more about it. 

What Exactly Is Firewalking?

Firewalking, simply put, is the practice of walking barefoot across a bed of hot coals. The bed is commonly between eight and 20 feet in length, depending on who is conducting the walk. The process starts with what could be described as a small bonfire of hardwood. The wood burns down for about three hours before the coals are raked into a bed and tamped down to make a solid walking surface. Participants walk across the bed, stepping finally into a pan of water or the spray of a hose to put out any embers that may be along for the ride beyond the end of the walk. Not all walks include water at the end, but the ones I have participated in, did.  There is significant ritual associated with preparing the site, building the fire, preparing the participants and doing the actual walking, but I want to focus here on the experience, not the ritual or the mechanics.  The rest you can see/experience for yourself if you ever choose to observe or participate in a firewalk. 

Firewalking has roots in many ancient cultures and most probably dates back to before recorded history. There is evidence of firewalking, during various historical eras, in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burma, China, Egypt, Fiji, Greece, Haiti, Hawaii, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tibet, Trinidad, and South Africa.  

The modern firewalking movement in the United States began to take hold in 1979 when a man named Tolly Burkan added the practice to the public seminars on human potential he had been presenting for several years. After firewalking himself, and finding no definitive published research on how it was possible or how it worked, Mr. Burkan began a lifelong journey to experience, teach and promote the practice in the US.  Presently, over three million people have walked on fire unharmed, and the practice is now found in some unlikely places: from spiritual growth seminars to corporate power retreats. 

What’s the Point?

The experience of firewalking is as individual as the person doing the walking. But, there are some common threads that run through people’s experience, and they are often rooted in a decidedly spiritual experience.  If you imagine people walking on hot coals repeating the phrase, “Oh, God, please help me!” you may not be far off the mark, as the experience can be intimidating for beginners. 

It takes courage to take that first step because you are doing something that most people will tell you is impossible — that is if they didn’t politely excuse themselves and run after you first broached the topic.  Although the experience varies greatly from person to person, I have found that a firm belief, that one can indeed walk on the hot coals and not be burned, is the core requirement for doing so.  In fact, firewalking instructors will tell you that if you don’t believe that you can do it, DON’T DO IT. You may well get what you believe you will get which could be burned feet, if that’s your focus. 

Stepping Through Fear

Taking that first step onto red hot coals is an exercise in facing fear if there ever was one, and this is, in fact, one of the primary goals of the practice.  Imagine what your world would be like if you approached challenges not as others told you they would be, but as you yourself decided and then discovered they would be.  

Now, properly run firewalking workshops are not casual affairs.  The instructors have been through rigorous training in, among other things, building a proper fire, carefully preparing the surface prior to anyone walking, and thoroughly educating the walkers for the event.  You definitely don’t want to simply toss down some coals and have at it. There are right ways and wrong ways to build what many instructors refer to as a “sacred fire.” 

Doing the Impossible

For many who have walked, there is immense satisfaction in having done something that the world tells you is impossible.  In fact, many firewalking instructors have the walkers write out on a card, “I walk on fire.  I can do anything I choose,” along with the date and your signature.  This acts as a powerful reminder of what has been accomplished, which is especially important in a world where some seem to want to discount their accomplishments.  Almost as if to say, “Well, if I did it, it can’t be that big a deal.”  It IS a big deal, and it’s important not to diminish the fact that you have done what others consider impossible.  Imagine what your life could be like if you regularly accomplished the impossible.  Redefining your sense of “impossible” is an incredibly powerful tool in the lifetime bag of tricks for any person. 

Belief is the Key

It has been my experience, and it is taught at many seminars, that belief is the key to a safe and successful firewalk. One of the main points of the exercise is to find, communicate with, and trust whatever higher power makes sense to you.  When you ask God if you can walk on the hot coals and not be burned, and you receive an affirmative answer, in whatever form that takes for you (and it varies wildly from person to person), you have tapped in to an immense power that can guide you in any and every way.  And it really doesn’t matter if you ask God, Allah, Yoda, your dead ancestors, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster.  What absolutely does matter is that you believe.  This concept is, of course, not specific to firewalking.  But, walking on hot coals will tend to focus your attention, I can guarantee that. And the focus on this “higher communication, ” if you will, is what many believe the practice is all about. 

My Personal Experience:  Lessons of Walks One to Five

I myself have walked on fire five times in the last 18 months, and each time has been a radically different experience. After walking once, I would have told you, “I get it, I got it, I did it, done,” but that would have been far from the truth, as I discovered in subsequent walks.

The first time I walked, it was such a wild idea that I had trouble concentrating on anything or sitting still.  Upon later reflection, I felt like I experienced the whole thing, as if my perception was limited to looking through a paper towel tube or some such.  I went through the pre-walk workshop, chanted the chant along with everyone, walked in a circle with the group around the coals as they were being raked into a bed, and pretty much inwardly freaked out the whole time.  I didn’t know how to get guidance from my higher power, as I had been instructed to do.  I had been told, however, that I would know what it felt like once I approached the fire.  Well, it didn’t seem to be working, and I was getting annoyed.  I realized I had been staring at the heels of the person walking in front of me for several minutes, chanting the chant, and wondering when the telegram was going to arrive informing me that my request had been granted: that I could indeed walk and not be burned.  A burning bush would have been nice, but all I saw was a burning bed of red-hot coals.  Finally, almost in disgust I took a deep breath, and for a change of scene, looked up at the surrounding trees.  At that moment, a strong breeze blew through a tall birch and I felt an overriding sense of joy in the simple beauty of it.  I realized that this was my sign, I stepped up, took the first step and walked across the coals. At least I think my feet were touching the ground!  The coals felt pretty hot, but I was not burned. I had done it!

The second time I was fairly cavalier about the whole thing.  I remember feeling that, because I had done this successfully before, I had it down.  I was ready to teach the class, in fact.  I was apparently that much of an expert after one experience!  I didn’t earnestly communicate with my higher power this time, though I may have made some token effort, I don’t recall.  When I walked out onto the coals, I distinctly felt a burn on the arch of my left foot.  As I stepped off and continued circling the coals with the group, I remember thinking, “Oh crap, I’ve done it now.  I burned my foot. What the hell? I thought I had this! What’s going on here?!?”  As I walked, and felt my foot hurt with each step, I had an insight: I would decide that I had not burned my foot.  At each step, as my foot told me I had burned it, I told it right back that it was fine; that it was not burned.  The feeling of being burned subsided pretty quickly over time, and the next morning there was no sign of any damage to my foot.  

I realized that my lesson for this walk was two-fold: first, don’t skip the asking-for-guidance part, and, second, that I could create my own reality no matter what my initial perceptions were.  It reminds me of that t-shirt from the Discovery Channel show, Mythbusters: “I reject your reality and substitute my own.” That’s what I did, and it worked.

The third time I attended a walk, I did not “forget” to consult my higher power, but found I was not guided to walk.  I was disappointed.  I asked myself what the meaning of it could be, though I respected what I had received and I did not walk.  I was annoyed because didn’t want to be “one of those people” who didn’t walk. (Maybe there was some pride involved? Hmm.) But, there was a powerful lesson in this as well, one that I did not grasp immediately. What became clear later that night was that it was an exercise in listening to and respecting what I received from my higher power.  The lesson for me that night had nothing to do with walking on hot coals.  It was about asking, listening and respecting my guidance.  I thought then that the universe does indeed work in mysterious ways.

My fourth walk was typical and successful, if there is such a thing. Having gone off the rails in a couple different ways on previous walks, I did it right this time.  Not much to report, just your typical walk across red hot coals without burning my feet. I had finally learned to ask, receive and then proceed to do the impossible. I could get used to this, I thought!

My fifth and most recent walk was epic.  There was a major thunderstorm headed our way, and we hoped that it would hold off long enough for us to complete the walk.  I decided not to participate if the rain were more than a drizzle—not because I minded getting wet—but because I didn’t have a change of clothing and the thought of  having dinner with my new friends, dripping wet made me pause.  When it came time to go out, it looked like the sky was about to let loose in a big way.  The wind was blowing furiously, lightning lit up the sky, and we could hear loud cracks of thunder in the near distance.  The weather event made the familiar environment seem otherworldly.

As we began our walk to the fire, I was surprised to find that it was not yet raining, the storm held off until all who desired to participate, finished their walk.  The rain softly began to fall just as our walk was complete, the lightning and thunder began to close in as we walked back to the meeting room.  Once inside, the heavens let loose with an honest to God—Alabama throw down like I hadn’t experienced in a long time.  The rain came down in buckets. I don’t know what the lesson was for me that night. Maybe that things would work out OK if I just stepped out in faith.  Maybe that disaster can be averted with right thinking.  Maybe that walking on hot coals is never better than minutes before an epic deluge.  I don’t know. I do know that I will never forget it.

And, anyway, who cares! After all, I walk on fire. I can do anything I choose. 

Further Reading

http://www.firewalking.com/

*****************************

Dan Beckett is a successful business owner, a firewalker, and teaches practical, spirit-centered abundance principles to everyday people from all walks of life.  He holds a Bachelor of General Studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and currently lives with his wife and three children outside Asheville, NC.

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By Joseph Rosenthal, Georgia State University 

“Man shall not live by bread alone,” responds Jesus defiantly in the Gospel of Matthew (4:4) to Satan’s entreaty to break his forty-day fast.  This phrase has been used variously by Christians throughout history as a tribute to the virtues of moderation and as a justification for some of the most extreme forms of asceticism.  Dietary practice is the second most popular domain of religiously motivated self-denial, surpassed only by matters of sex and human intimacy.  The diversity of rituals, laws, and red tape surrounding the consumption of food ranges from prohibitions of basic food types (e.g. shellfish, pork, alcohol, etc.) to extended periods of fasting.  The religious preoccupation with what goes into the body goes well beyond hatred of gluttony, sometimes verging on total caloric restriction. Although usually nothing more than a quirky inconvenience, at its extremes, religious dietary practice is virtually indistinguishable from an eating disorder, and at least as deadly. 

The history of religion abounds with stories of holy men and women claiming to have gone months or even years with little to no food or water.  The theological explanation for such dietary feats is always the same: spiritual nourishment meets all the metabolic needs of the non-eater.  In medieval Europe, voluntary starvation for god went by the name of anorexia mirabilis, or “miraculous loss of appetite,” an affliction—or charism, according to most pre-Renaissance clergy—that almost exclusively affected women.   

Women were particularly drawn to the fast-based lifestyle known as inedia, which often accompanied lifelong virginity, self-flagellation, and a host of other ascetic practices.  Angela of Foligno spurned almost everything but Holy Communion and the puss of the sick, which she described as rivaling the sweetness of the Eucharist.  When force-fed by clergy despairing for her health, Catherine of Siena would induce vomiting by pushing a branch or twig down her throat, in perhaps the earliest recorded case of bulimia.  In actuality, many of these “miraculous maids,” as they were sometimes known, starved themselves to death. 

Today, the Catholic practice of inedia is dead, but the spiritual pursuit of a calorie-free lifestyle persists in many parts of the world.  Claims made by religious people to the effect that they can survive without food are hardly unique to Christianity.  In fact, the majority of such claims come out of Eastern traditions.  In his 1946 book Autobiography of a Yogi, the Indian guru Paramahansa Yogananda describes a yogini by the name of Giri Bala who has allegedly lived without food or drink for over fifty years.  As the yogini explains, her prayers as a youth to tame an uncontrollable appetite were answered in the form of a guru, who taught her the “kria technique which frees the body from dependence on the gross food of mortals.” 

For years, highly publicized accounts of Indian monks and sadhus claiming to have survived without food and water for impossible stretches of time have regaled Western audiences.  In the last decade, images of bearded mystics in dusty robes, who starve yet are not consumed, have appeared frequently in newspapers.  In fact, fantastical stories of what Yogananda called “God’s hungerless touch” appear to be so commonplace in India that it would seem long-term foodless survival is something of a banality. 

Shri Hira Ratan Manek is a mechanical engineer from Calicut who claims not to have taken any food since June 18, 1995, save for the occasional glass of tea, coffee or buttermilk (for social purposes only, he insists).  Since 2002, the mutton-chopped yogi has been the subject of international headlines.  According to Manek, all humans can learn to live without food by deriving their energy directly from the sun through the act of solar gazing, a supposedly ancient Jainist practice he claims to have rediscovered, citing Lord Mahavir as his main inspiration.  HRM, as he is known to his followers, lectures around the world to worshipful audiences on the miracles of solar healing and the follies of Western medicine.  But HRM’s inediate (person who lives without food or water) feats pale in comparison to those attributed to Prahlad Jani, an 82-year-old Indian sadhu who denies having had any food or water since 1940.  As Jani explains, a religious experience at the age of 11 acquainted him with the Hindu goddess Amba, who sustains him by pouring heavenly nectar through a hole in his palate. 

Enchanted stories of hunger-less yogis streaming from the East have spawned a number of copycat cases abroad.  In Western countries, most but not all of the religiously-motivated individuals claiming to subsist on, or working towards the fulfillment of, a foodless diet call themselves Breatharians.  While there is no official Breatharian doctrine, most practitioners believe that humans, while equipped to digest food, can be sustained entirely by prana, which is harvested from the air by the act of breathing and from the sun by the act of sungazing (according to the Aryuveda, the main sources of prana are air and sunlight).  In Vedantic philosophy, prana refers to the life-sustaining, vital energy that suffuses all reality.  If anyone could be said to qualify as a figurehead or spokesperson of the Breatharian movement, it is either Wiley Brooks, founder of the Breatharian Institute of America, or Jasmuheen (formerly Ellen Greve), a self-styled Breatharian guru who has authored books such as Pranic Nourishment – Living on Light. 

Breatharianism is not explicitly a Hindu practice (most Hindus would probably prefer to distance themselves from the Breatharian community, if they are even aware that such a thing exists), nor is it associated with any particular religion.  Rather, it is an amalgam of Hindu philosophy, Yogic and Aryuvedic practice, and various New Age currents.  It has also caught the attention of certain quasi-religious dietary movements, most notably Raw Foodism. A popular practice among many raw foodists is “juice fasting,” wherein the only thing consumed for weeks or months is freshly pressed vegetable or fruit juice.  Some of the more diehard practitioners have tried to transition into a full-fledged Breatharian lifestyle, while others are content to join fellow dieters on periodic “fasting retreats.”  Even further along the spectrum of dietary extremism, Breatharianism holds an obvious appeal to the pro-Ana community, an online support network for individuals with eating disorders, where “support” means egging on and mutual encouragement.  Accounts of solar-powered yogis and the teachings of Jasmuheen serve as regular “thinspiration” on pro-Ana forums and other thinspo-themed websites. 

Not surprisingly, Breatharianism in America has had a number of muddy run-ins with the law.  Three deaths have been definitively linked to the starvation cult and to Jasmuheen’s publications in particular, but many more are suspected.  These cases have forced legal experts to grapple with the familiar question of where religious freedom trespasses onto public safety.   

In 1998, after reading Jasmuheen’s book, Lani Morris, a 53-year-old mother of nine, recruited Jim and Eugenia Pesnak to guide her through a 21-day Breatharian initiation program.  During the course of the program, her health deteriorated to the point that she lost the use of her limbs and began to cough black liquid, which the Pesnaks attributed to the effects of spiritual detoxification.  Morris died on July 1 of severe dehydration, kidney failure, and the effects of a stroke.  On November 19 1999, the Brisbane Supreme Court found the Pesnaks guilty of manslaughter.  Earlier that year, the semi-naked body of Breatharian enthusiast Verity Linn was found dead at a remote camp site in the Scottish Highlands.  Her only belongings consisted of a sleeping bag, a copy of Jasmuheen’s book Living With Light, and a diary detailing her descent into starvation. Jasmuheen has denied all responsibility for the deaths in connection with her writings, and expresses doubt that these victims indeed died of hunger.  As of this writing, she has not been officially charged with the deaths of any of her followers, though authorities have seized control of her website. 

While no less fervent in their claims, Western Breatharians have not achieved the same level of “popular legitimacy” enjoyed by Eastern inediate yogis.  And unlike Dr. Sudhir Shah and his team of investigators at Sterling Hospital in Ahmedabad, India, who have devoted thousands of government-funded man-hours attempting to validate such claims (for which they have incurred the censure of organizations like the James Randi Foundation and the Indian Rationalist Association), most American scientists won’t even give Breatharians the satisfaction of their time.  The fact that so many Indian physicians and scientists, including the Indian Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences (DIPAS), consider inediate claims a worthy subject of medical investigation constitutes a profound failure of their basic scientific and medical educations, and should be a point of national embarrassment.  As it turns out, there is such thing as starvation without hunger.  Breatharian mania at home and abroad is yet another bitter reminder that in the 21^st century, large swaths of the human population are positively starving for rationality, a kind of hunger that can’t be felt, that consumes without always killing its victims, and for which the only known treatment is a sound scientific education.

*********************************

Joseph Rosenthal is very near the completion of a B.A. in Religious Studies at Georgia State University, with a minor in Chemistry. His main areas of interest in Religious Studies are the historical and contemporary relationship between science and religion, the cognitive science and evolutionary psychology of religion, memetics, and the so-called New Atheism. He intends to pursue a Masters degree in Chemistry at Georgia State University, where he currently works in a research lab as a synthetic chemist.  

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By Kenny Smith 

In “The Good News of Star Visitors, Part I,” we looked at the loose, largely online spiritual community that has coalesced around the person and teachings of Dr. Richard Boylan, a former psychotherapist and university lecturer from Diamond Springs, California.  Last autumn (2010), Boylan predicted that “Dec. 31, 2010, 11:59 pm, EST… is the official Deadline for the U.S. Government to make a formal Official Public Acknowledgment that Star Visitor Contact and Communication has occurred.” To make certain that the American government would in fact go through with it, Boylan further explained,

Star Nations [a federation of highly advanced and spiritually enlightened extraterrestrial peoples] will begin a series of massive, dramatic, unmistakable set of displays-of-presence by large flotillas of starcraft presenting themselves low enough in the sky overhead as to be quite visible to people. These massive displays will be focused on the skies over the United States because the U.S. is the major one hold-out country to have not yet come clean with its people about UFO reality and Star Visitors contact.

Boylan understands human civilization as on the threshold of its most crucial transition yet, one in which the human world must shift from a basis of greed, domination, violence, and ecological self-destruction, to one of cooperation, peacefulness, and ecological health.  Because this shift is said to be absolutely necessary to avoid global catastrophe (e.g., earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, ecological, economic, and social collapse), but also thoroughly resisted by a plutocratic Cabal capable of influencing world events in key ways (e.g., by controlling much of the world’s wealth, orchestrating world wars, maintaining a UFO-cover-up, etc.), Star Nations have had to work along multiple lines simultaneously: “genetically upgrading” humankind in ways that awaken latent spiritual potentials; negotiating with national governments to disclose the Star Visitor reality; waiting patiently while an new version of humankind, Homo Alterios Spatialis, emerges. 

With the arrival of 2012 looming, which Boylan sees not as an end-time but as a point by which human civilization had better be well on its way toward positive transformation, Star Nations decided to nudge the American government more forcefully still.  Hence, the December 31, 2010 “deadline” and the predicted “massive display of presence.”

Outside observers, one suspects, would regard this prediction as obviously mistaken: there have been no “unmistakable displays-of-presence” involving fleets of starcraft. Boylan, however, perceives the situation otherwise. There are numerous UFO sightings each day the world over, he argues. Some of these are authentic Star Visitor craft doing what they can to wake up and shake up the status quo. Given the power of the Cabal (who apparently possess beam weaponry capable of shooting down Star Visitor craft, and also control the mainstream media and are thus able to manipulate public perceptions), Star Visitors dare not appear en masse. Still, they do at times appear to human beings, and YouTube videos of genuine Star Visitor visitations (see below), as well as Cabal imitators, are posted on Boylan’s website, as well as intuitive methods for discerning between the two.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq-n0TmWkG4

Such a state of affairs obviously invites comparisons (and contrasts) with the now infamous Family Radio president and preacher Harold Camping, currently fielding his third predicted date for the apocalypse/rapture/global destruction. His first, after many years of Bible study and complex mathematical calculations, was offered in 1992 and set the date for September 1994. When this did not come to pass, Camping recalculated, drawing from sections of the Bible he had not included previously, and set a new date, May 2011.

When this date came and went in a manner that seemed to everyone else as unremarkable, he reinterpreted his prediction: Jesus did return and judge the world on the predicted date, but it was an invisible return and a spiritual judgment, to be made good five months later on October 21, 2011, when finally the small remnant of true Christians (about 3% of humanity) will be swept up into heaven, and the remaining 97% of humankind destroyed.

Given the ramping up of apocalyptic expectations for the year 2012, a broader discussion of this particular kind of cultural production seems timely, most especially if it helps us to see the ordinariness of these grand “palaces of the imagination” that so stubbornly resist evidence to the contrary. Ultimately, I hope to show that, despite the fact that we tend to privilege whatever falls within the categories of “religion” or “spirituality,” and especially the dramatic, magical images and narratives associated with apocalyptic scenarios, these modes of thought share much with mundane forms of social production.

Boylan & Camping: A Brief Comparative Study

Boylan

Clearly, there are important differences separating Camping and Boylan. Camping self-identifies as a non-denominational evangelical whose sole guide is the Bible. Boylan strenuously rejects a “religious” identity of any sort, and presents an eclectic set of “spiritual” teachings and practices drawn from a plethora of religious cultures, variously Native American, Advaita Vedanta, Buddhist, Christian, Islamic, Jewish, among others. 

This is not to suggest that Camping does not work eclectically in a kind of religious bricolage, assembling diverse bits and pieces of his cultural background into a more or less coherent whole; he clearly does, blending, for instance, biblical prophecy, Predestinationist and Premillennial theology, and numerology. 

While Camping’s apocalypse is marked by the rapture of the few and the brutal destruction of the many, Boylan sees the vast majority of humankind as fundamentally good, not only “upgradable” but in the process of actually being “upgraded.” For Boylan, only those thoroughly committed to Cabal agendas of control and domination (probably less than 1% of humankind) are so unlikely to change as to be effectively doomed, and even these, as they are subject to continued reincarnation, will eventually get their cosmic act together, as it were. 

Lastly, whereas Camping has attained the status of a Christian radio mogul, whose Family Radio possess considerable assets and wealth, Boylan’s online community displays none of this, but rather operates on an exceedingly marginal, shoe-string budget.   

The similarities linking Camping and Boylan are likewise intriguing. Both offer dramatic, magical worldviews envisioning a new and improved human condition, whether in heaven (far from the screams of the damned) or upon a renewed earth and a galactic civilization. As such, both instantiate a stream of millennial thinking with a long history in American culture and by no means limited to institutional religion. Americans have been eager to export their styles of government, economics, science, technology, language, philosophy, medicine, entertainment, and social customs of all kinds, as well as religion, in an effort to lead the world into a new and better age.  

Camping

More personally, both Camping and Boylan are highly educated and experienced professionals, and their skill sets have helped to constitute their worldviews. Camping, a Berkeley-trained civil engineer, has spent decades studying the Bible and crunching the biblical numbers to arrive at his various predictions. As a psychotherapist, Boylan came to work with clients who demonstrated signs of Star Visitor contact, and later developed diagnostic tools (e.g., a questionnaire) for discerning the degree to which adults and their children have been upgraded by behind-the-scenes Star Visitor assistance.  

While popular culture tends to imagine participants in such movements as pathological, typically they are (like Camping and Boylan themselves) rather ordinary folk who happen to think they have some answers. This leads us to an important question: if we set aside the dramatic, magical ideas and imagery associated with apocalyptic thinking, is it really that different from more ordinary forms of social production? While this question deserves a good bit of thoughtful discussion, there are some compelling reasons to think that it is not.   

The Ordinariness of Irrefutability   

Most broadly, the worldviews of Camping and Boylan represent what the French philosopher Paul Veyne describes as “palaces of the imagination”: somewhat-integrated and somewhat-contradictory composites of the various and sundry ideas, images, stories, starting assumptions, knowledge-gathering practices, world-picture-fragments, moral convictions, conclusions, sentiments, and so forth, that we have come to rely upon in our thinking, feeling, acting in, and reacting to, “the world out there” (or whatever we imagine the larger context in which we exist to be).  

These palaces are not built in space,” Veyne tells us, “they are the only space available.” They do not correspond to the external world; nor are they necessarily helpful, though they do “have at least one value, all too rarely mentioned, which we bring up only when we do not know quite what the interest of something is: they are interesting. For they are complicated.

And because they are complicated, they offer numerous intellectual resources and possibilities for remaining immune to falsification. It is difficult to see what would disprove the starting assumptions of Camping or Boylan (e.g., that by properly decoding the Bible we can know God’s plan for the future; that Star Nations are working as best they can to upgrade humankind). But this hardly distinguishes such commitments from ordinary ways of thinking and speaking. 

This is perhaps most easily observed in other peoples’ commitments. Writing for the Religion Bulletin earlier this year, for instance, Jay Livingston claims that, when the evidence linking vaccines to instances of childhood autism was found to be fraudulent, adherents of the vaccine-autism theory became even more “determined to fight for its truth.” If we are not personally invested in a debate, such devotion may be easily perceived as perversely irrational.  

Somewhat closer to my own commitments, in 2008, virtually everyone believed that Barack Obama represented a significant change of direction from the policies of the Bush administration, so much so that progressives and independents turned out to vote for him in droves, while conservatives fretted that Obama was so far outside the American mainstream as to be beyond comprehension. Over the last two years, as Obama has affirmed and extended key Bush policies, the margin of difference between them has gown increasingly difficult to discern. Given my own commitment to the notion of progressive change embodied by Obama, it has been difficult to acknowledge such ideological continuities. 

Finally, and more intimately still, after several years of studying and writing academically about Wiccan and Neopagan traditions, I find they have shaped my thinking and experience of the world in some profound ways. In my morning walks at our home in the semi-rural suburbs of Atlanta, it seems to me that the trees I pass, the streams over which I walk, the sunlight and wind, are not unlike “spiritual presences, fields of energy, beings of a kind.” However vague and mysterious such terms may seem to others, this practice is quite satisfying to me, and thus I am not at all interested in examining evidence or arguments concerning it. In the end, when it comes to those foundational structures that have become intertwined with who and what we take ourselves to be, and that help us to walk through the world in a manner we find satisfying, we may all prefer our imaginative castles unassailable.

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“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen;
I wish you a happy day;
I’m come to show my garland,
because it’s the First of May.

A bunch of May I have brought you,
and at your door it stands;
it is but a spray, but it’s well spread about,
‘Tis the work of the Fays’ hands.

And now I’ve sung my little short song,
no longer can I stay;
Faeries bless you all, both great and small,
and grant you a very happy May.” (1)

By Lady Arsinoe

As they sing in Camelot, “Ah, that lusty month of May!”

Beltane is the time of year when Wiccans celebrate the union of the God and the Goddess within the metaphor of a wedding.  We celebrate the Masculine Activating Principle coming together with the Feminine Generating Principle, bonded together to bring forth life.  Plus, we are a fun-loving bunch, and what can be more fun than frolicking in the woods all night a’ conjuring summer in?

When boiled down to its basic components, Beltane is all about fertility and the blessings fertility brings.  The obvious fact is fertility is all about sex.  It’s difficult to bring about the next generation without it!  Plant sex drifts on the breeze and fills the gutters and clogs our noses.  Plant sex becomes the fruits and vegetables we eat as the summer progresses.  The birds and bunnies are at it, too.  Babies are being made everywhere, from baby grasses and leaves, to baby birds, bunnies, squirrels, and…you get the idea.  Lots of fun being had in the Plant and Animal Kingdoms!

We have a pair of crows who built their nest in a tree in our yard.  They have been busy preparing the way for their next generation.  Their nest is lovely, by crow standards.  Once they are finished building, they will fill the nest with a great treasure.The crows in our yard truly care for each other and their nestlings.  Otherwise, they would not spend so much time preparing the way, and expending all the energy to provide for them and each other.  I’ve watched them travel back and forth from the nest carrying twigs during construction, and when that task was complete, gather food for each other as they take turns sitting on their eggs.

As much as some spiritual traditions would like to deny it, life depends on sex.  And not just sex, but intimacy.  Sure, we can go out and bonk and have babies, but without intimacy, there is no caring.  It’s the intimacy and caring that creates the bonds that hold us together.  Richard Dawkins says that humans have the Selfish Gene.  I would politely disagree with him.  I think all life has an Altruistic Gene.

Beltane Maypole

As soon as a mother looks into the eyes of her baby, she is hooked.  Fathers, too, will kill or die to protect their offspring.  This is true for animals of all stripes, humans included.  Just as the crows care for each other and their young, humans care for each other and their offspring.  A lot of time, energy, and resources are necessary to bring the next generation up to self-sufficiency, as well as maintain a cohesive bond between communities.  Wouldn’t it be a lot easier to just take care of ourselves, and live a selfish life?  No saving for college educations, use that money for your own selfish enjoyment!  But that’s not the way most of us are, because that’s the Altruistic Gene at work.

Life wouldn’t be quite so wonderful, or spiritual, if we were selfish.  With joy, we watch our children grow and become their own beings.  And we, as parents, revel in their accomplishments, and partake in our own bit of immortality with the next generation. 

There is something to be said for rugged individualism, but without caring and intimacy, it’s worthless.  So, this Beltane season, revel in the joys of pleasure and intimacy and the bonds they create.  For without that bond, life just isn’t as fulfilling.  As the Goddess says, “All acts of love and joy are My rituals.”  This Beltane season, may we all be bound with the Lord and Lady and revel in joy.

(1)  English Carol sung door to door on May Day

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Lady Arsinoe’s Bio:

I was initiated into the Wiccan spiritual tradition as a First Degree in 1993.  Over the years, I continued my studies and increased my involvement.  In 2000, the members of OakSpring (www.HouseOfOakSpring.org) separated from Ravenwood to go our own way.  In 2006, I became the High Priestess of OakSpring, with my husband serving as High Priest.  OakSpring is large by Wiccan standards, and has been blessed to own and maintain our covenstead on 38 acres of woodland in the Metro-Atlanta area.

Like most Wiccans, my mundane life is similar to anyone else’s:  I go to work each day (for a large engineering firm), bear with traffic, and go home to relax with my family and pets.  Living a magical life isn’t always about the spells; it’s about living in a way that is harmonious with Nature, the Universe, and ourselves.  I do my best to live in accordance with Wiccan principles every day of my life.  I think that is the best way to show the world what Wicca is all about.

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Lady Arsinoe  

A lot of people think magic and witchcraft is for hippies, crazies, or those who have been kidnapped by aliens.  I would say to them, a lot of “normal” people are running around with some pretty cognitive dissonant ideas of their own (Birthers, for example.  Or any politician.  And Fundamentalists of every stripe).  The problem for these people is I have facts and science to back up my beliefs, not just wishful thinking.  Beliefs I am more than willing to change if contrary evidence and fact is provided.

I also realize that no matter how many facts, backed up by well-crafted studies, with irrefutable evidence presented, some people just will not let go of their preconceived notions.  A lot of the time, I get “Come on, how can you take that stuff seriously?  Magic is something out of trashy fantasy stories!  Nobody’s dumb enough to think it really works!”

Let’s break these statements into parts: 

1) Come on, how can you take that stuff seriously?  Easily. I am a scientist, in hard science disciplines (Geology, Physics, Mathematics). I firmly believe that if it can’t be stated in mathematics, it’s not science.  Just because a study seems ‘out there’, doesn’t mean it isn’t true.  Plate Tectonics was once considered fringe nuttiness because it didn’t conform to the paradigm of the time.  Now, however, the science has proved true and the once dubious hypothesis is now the working norm.

After Sir Isaac Newton developed his Mechanical Universe theories, the scientists of the day thought there was nothing else worth discovering.  They had the idea that they understood everything and all the good science had been done.   Then radiation was discovered.  And that darned Einstein came along and threw a monkey-wrench in the whole understanding of the universe!  The point is—preconceived notions get in the way of new discovery.  Entrenched science is continually challenged by those upstarts willing to think outside the box.

2) Magic is something out of trashy fantasy stories!  Sure it is.  So what?  Jules Verne wrote science fiction fantasy stories.  He predicted in the 1800s that man would travel to the moon.  Arthur C. Clarke wrote profusely on science fiction and fantasy.  He also came up with the idea that geostationary satellites would be ideal telecommunications relays.  At the time, people thought he was nuts.  Who would have thought 50, or even 20, years ago, that we would be able to be able to carry miniature computers in our hands and communicate via video with the other side of the planet?  Dick Tracy did.  And now we have smartphones.

One person’s “magic” is another’s “science”.  In the middle of the last century (wow, does that sound weird to you, too?), the US Government sponsored research at the Stanford Research Institute and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) into the applicability of psychic functioning.  Did you see the moving “Men Who Stare at Goats”?  Yep, that really happened.  But, unlike the movie (which was pretty awful, by the way), SRI and SAIC proved there really is something to psi power, but the government couldn’t figure a way to use it to spy on the Russians.  Ten different experiments were conducted, six of those methods had p-values of <0.5 (range 9.1×10^-8 to 0.046) and effect sizes of 0.123 to 0.550 (if you aren’t a math geek, go look up p-value and effect size for yourself).  What this means is that results these experiments were statistically significant and there was a measurable effect.  The same experiments were then conducted in different labs, but with very similar results.  That kind of consistence cannot be explained away by shoddy techniques or fraud.

3) Nobody’s dumb enough to think it really works!  The Society for Scientific Exploration is a professional organization of over 800 scientists and scholars who study unusual and unexplained phenomena.  Many of these individuals are involved in ”hard science” disciplines.  Many of their studies have shown that magical thinking isn’t crazy.  Many have also debunked magical theories.  That’s the point of science.  Testing hypotheses, learning what works and what doesn’t, and forming new hypotheses to test. 

J. B. S. Haldane once stated, ‘The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it’s stranger than we can imagine.”  Just because something is strange or outlandish doesn’t mean it can’t be true.

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Lady Arsinoe’s Bio:

I was initiated into the Wiccan spiritual tradition as a First Degree in 1993.  Over the years, I continued my studies and increased my involvement.  In 2000, the members of OakSpring (www.HouseOfOakSpring.org) separated from Ravenwood to go our own way.  In 2006, I became the High Priestess of OakSpring, with my husband serving as High Priest.  OakSpring is large by Wiccan standards, and has been blessed to own and maintain our covenstead on 38 acres of woodland in the Metro-Atlanta area.

Like most Wiccans, my mundane life is similar to anyone else’s:  I go to work each day (for a large engineering firm), bear with traffic, and go home to relax with my family and pets.  Living a magical life isn’t always about the spells; it’s about living in a way that is harmonious with Nature, the Universe, and ourselves.  I do my best to live in accordance with Wiccan principles every day of my life.  I think that is the best way to show the world what Wicca is all about.

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The tradition, I believe, is potentially an exciting case study for the development of Hinduism in America with ramifications for the new religious movement. Sitting poised in a synchretism of faith honoring Shaktism and contemporary Paganism, Sha’can, much like American Buddhism, is co-created from ancient roots in a new land.  Additionally, while Sha’can in my mind is not part of the Indo-Pagan movement (because it is an innovation of Shakta Hindu philosophy and the(a)ology rather than a tradition that offers space for Hindu deities and ritual within established or newly established Pagan pathways), others within the tradition do consider it a manifestation of the rise in popularity and awareness of Hindu deities increasingly incorporated into different varieties of Paganism. Either way, the tradition stands ready to welcome those seeking an expression for their devotion to and yearning for Goddess in and through the forms, symbols, tools and practices that She offers via-a-vis Hindu Shakta Tantra and its contemporary expressions.  Sha’can seeks to make the experience of worship and devotion relevant to these times at the same time that it drives for an honoring of those teachers and practitioners, past, present and future, who have grown and continue to grow Shakta Tantra in India and beyond.

Through the ancient traditions of Goddess worship still practiced today in Hindu South Asia and especially as made relevant for those without otherwise religious or cultural access to the Divine Female and Divine Feminine in ways that are empowering for actual women, the Sha’can tradition offers a glimpse through Kali worship and the practices of Shakta Tantra at possibilities for the Feminine and female that lie outside of limiting constructs. Certainly, patriarchy plays a role in religions everywhere, and religions of Goddess are no exception. Yet, within Hindu Shakta Tantra conjured in conjunction with ecofeminist spirituality, we are finding expanded notions of divinity and (r)evolutionary potentials for engagement in the world that promote healing and peace in response to patriarchy and its agendas. 

I should note that as I type, an image of Kali greets my gaze. I focus on Her black feet sporting golden anklets, with the residue of alta, a red plant-based, semi-permanent dye, decorating the outline of the soles and spaces in-between the toes. Join me in this gaze for a moment. From this perspective, we are internally bowed low. We are spiritually naked before Adya Maa, the Primordial Dark Goddess, and here, we may come just a bit closer to an understanding of who She is and what She offers. I argue that here, the Witch and the Tantrick meet to create, enliven and empower us all! 

[2] SHARANYA (www.sharanya.org) is a 501(c)(3) federally-recognized devi mandir (goddess temple) performing public puja (worship) and offering classes and spiritual services to community in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond in the Sha’can tradition.

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Bio: Chandra Alexandre is a householder and clergy, initiated in 1998 into the mysteries of the dark goddess in India—first on the dakshinacara path and then, five years later, on the non-dualistic path of vamacara tantra. She is founder and a spiritual leader of the SHARANYA community and Daughters of Kali dedicated to engaged spirituality for social justice and transformation through (r)evolutionary shakta tantra known as Sha’can. Chandra and community also run an online mystery school, Kali Vidya (www.KaliVidya.org). In addition to serving as adjunct faculty at the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology, Chandra is conjurer of The Aghori Bakery (forthcoming). She holds a PhD in Asian & Comparative Studies from CIIS, a Doctor of Ministry degree, and an MBA in sustainable management. She is a fund development officer during business hours for a public policy advocacy organization and at all hours, mother to Eve, born at home on December 12, 2009. Chandra can be reached at chandra@sharanya.org.  

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By Lady Arsinoe

Can you feel the change?  There is a fresh sparkle in the air.  The world is being reborn!  Life is returning!  Flowers are popping up everywhere.  Animals are nesting and preparing for the next generation.  You may even have a tickle in your tummy that you can’t really explain, that leaves you excited for the new day.  Everywhere, signs of rebirth and renewal can be found.  Trees are putting on new leaves.  Birds are singing.  Life is Good!

Axial tilt is the reason for the season.  Because the Earth has a tilted axis, we wobble through space.  In other words, if we envision a connecting line between the North and South poles projected into space, this line is inclined 23.5 degrees from the vertical.  As the Earth rotates around this axis (which also rotates and wobbles), the polestake turns facing the Sun.  When the North Pole tilts more directly toward the Sun, the Northern Hemisphere experiences warm weather.  Conversely, while the Northern Hemisphere is buying colored eggs and planting tulips, the Southern Hemisphere is bringing out the sweaters and beginning the harvest season of autumn. If there were no axial tilt, we would have no seasonal changes at all.  At the point that the Earth begins to rotate back toward the other extreme, the days and nights are of equal length, hence the term ‘equinox’ (‘equal night’).

The changing length of the days and nights caused early people to scratch their heads in curiosity and wonder—why? They embraced mythological accounts  to explain the things they saw in the natural world.  Winter always follows Summer, Spring always follows Winter, and the cycle repeats.  As a result, many spiritual traditions around the world celebrate Resurrection Deities.

These Deities suffer Death, journey through the Underworld or Land of the Dead (winter), and are resurrected to life (spring).  After the cold, bitter winter when the Earth seemed dead, the Springtime renewal is a perfect symbol for the return of life.  Of these Saviour Gods, the one that most readily springs to mind is Jesus, but there are many others.  Osiris was one of the original Resurrection Gods, who according to myth, was killed by His brother Set, His body thrown into the Nile.  Isis, Osiris’ devoted wife, sought out His body, and through Her magic, brought Osiris back to life.  Therefore, Osiris became associated with the annual flooding of the Nile which brought back life to the dry land.  So too, Osiris became associated with resurrection and renewal of the entire world.  As Osiris annually rose from the dead, so would those who were in union with Him.  I will leave the reader to discover other Resurrection Deities such as Krishna, Mithras, Tammuz, Dionysus, Odin, Persephone, and Inanna (yes, there are female Resurrection Deities).

So, how did colored eggs and bunnies become associated with Easter and spring?  In northern Europe, the Goddess Eostre returned each spring bringing new life and vitality to the world.  Attending her were putti, little fairy-like creatures, and hares.  Rabbits and hares are associated with fertility for obvious reasons (Ever heard the phrase “breeding like rabbits”?).  Eggs, likewise, are symbols of fertility and renewal of life.  So, it is only natural that these symbols became associated with a celebration of life, fertility, and renewal.  The word ‘Ostara’ can be traced to the old Germanic word for ‘east’.  In Roman times, the Celtic kingdom that would one day become Austria, Österreich was the name of the “Eastern borderlands.”Ostara, as the direction of the rising Sun, represents the dawn, Springtime, and the rebirth of the day.  Combining the Goddess Eostre, Springtime, bunnies, eggs, fertility, rebirth and resurrection, you get the Wiccan celebration of Ostara!

Wiccans, at this time of year, celebrate not only the renewal of the Earth and ourselves, but also the balance inherent in a time when the days and nights are of equal length, and movement from that pivotal point.  At Yule, the longest night of the year, the light is rekindled in the darkness, the Sun is reborn, and the days begin to lengthen.  At Ostara, the light overcomes the darkness, and the days become longer than the night.  Balanced against Yule is Midsummer, when the Sun is it its zenith.  Yet also are the seeds of Death sewn.  At the Autumnal Equinox in September, as the harvest celebrations begin, we realize the night has again overcome the day and that the time is drawing near to recoup and reflect inward.  The turn of the Wheel brings us back to Yule with the rebirth of the Sun.  It is a wonderful, powerful, ever renewing Cycle!

The cycling and renewal of life has become so much a part of the human psyche that we have built this idea into our spiritual understanding.  Hence, many spiritual traditions have a concept of reincarnation as part of their tenets, even early Christianity.  As is evident everywhere in Nature, the renewal of life comes from that which was seemingly dead.  The cold dead Earth puts forth new shoots.  An exploding star provides the materials for new ones.  So, too, the Soul is renewed after the death of the body.  Christianity believes the Soul lives on in the glory of Heaven; Hindus believe the Soul is reborn into this life in another body; Wiccans believe the Soul returns to the Mother for renewal to eventually return to this plane of existence.  For Wiccans, the existence of consciousness does not end with the death of the body. We, like stars, rejoin All That Is, and eventually return in another form.  As the Earth is reborn in Spring, so, too, shall we all be reborn.

*************************************************************************************************

Lady Arsinoe’s Bio:

I was initiated into the Wiccan spiritual tradition as a First Degree in 1993.  Over the years, I continued my studies and increased my involvement.  In 2000, the members of OakSpring (www.HouseOfOakSpring.org) separated from Ravenwood to go our own way.  In 2006, I became the High Priestess of OakSpring, with my husband serving as High Priest.  OakSpring is large by Wiccan standards, and has been blessed to own and maintain our covenstead on 38 acres of woodland in the Metro-Atlanta area.

Like most Wiccans, my mundane life is similar to anyone else’s:  I go to work each day (for a large engineering firm), bear with traffic, and go home to relax with my family and pets.  Living a magical life isn’t always about the spells; it’s about living in a way that is harmonious with Nature, the Universe, and ourselves.  I do my best to live in accordance with Wiccan principles every day of my life.  I think that is the best way to show the world what Wicca is all about.

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We, the artists of the Reggae community, hereby present this letter as a symbol of our dedication to the guiding principles of Reggae’s enduring foundation ONE LOVE. Throughout time, Reggae has been recognized as a healing remedy and an agent of positive social change. We will continue this proud and righteous tradition.   The Reggae Compassionate Act

By Hannah Spadafora

On November 27^th, 2010, protesters in Sacramento, CA gathered outside musical artist Capleton’s reggae-dancehall concert to oppose the violent gay-bashing ideas his lyrics promote.  This wasn’t the first protest against reggae artists calling for violent homophobic acts in their music.  Other reggae artists criticized and boycotted over the last decade for anti-homosexual lyrics include Beenie Man, Buju Banton, Sizzla, Elephant Man, T.O.K., Bounty Killa and Vybz Kartel.

A major leader in the campaign against the homophobia found in dancehall music (the reggae spinoff popular in United States and western Europe) is Stop Murder Music, who eventually initiated the “Reggae Compassionate Act”.  This contract requires artists who sign it to preclude all homophobic sentiment from their future music and to vow against further reproductions of prior songs which promoted intolerance or killing of gay individuals—thus ensuring that their music will no longer be subject to boycott.  The original problem that lingers past these artist’s vows of free-but-destructive-speech abstinence, however, is the defense originally used to justify the lyrics:  Homophobia is a cultural, even religious value.

Jamaica’s religious and musical cultures are closely tied in with Rasta, a way of life for many Jamaicans and, increasingly, those living abroad as well.  In recent years, Rasta has migrated to many countries who refer to it as Rastafarianism, even though most Rastas reject being an ‘ism’.  There are three main ‘mansions’, or sects, of Rasta:

• The Nyahbinghi – a very strict sect centered in Africa, includes Worship of a ‘Queen of Queens’, Nyabinghi, said to be a spirit-goddess known to inspire, transform and spiritually possess the practioner; in Rasta history Nyabinghi is said to have fostered a woman-led resistance against white occupation and oppression in Africa.
• The Bobo Ashanti – considered the most orthodox or traditional of Jamaica Rasta; includes a strict keeping of Jewish law, a consideration of Marcus Garvey as a prophet, and a central focus on black supremacy.
• The Twelve Tribes of Israel - the most widespread inclusive form of Rasta, less Afrocentric, and often associated with Bob Marley in Western culture; Considers H.I.M. to be chosen as divine representation (as were King Solomon and King David), but not a direct incarnation of I-Yesus Kristos (ie-Jesus Christ) who will manifest in the second coming as The Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah.”

Some larger, more inclusive themes of modern Rasta movements include:

• The rejection of corrupt modern society “Babylon,” and the urge towards a promised paradise in Africa, “Zion”
• “Reasoning” sessions where ganja (marijuana) is used to attain closeness with God through the communal bonding
• The avoidance of alcohol (idealistically), which is seen as white men’s poison and which dulls the senses to experiences of Jah (God).
• Vegetarian eating ethics
• The significance of the colors red, green, and gold (standing for blood, earth including ganja, and the sun)
• The icon of the lion is used as a symbol for Haile Selassie I (Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974 and, in Rasta belief, the returned Messiah figure who will lead a future golden age of peace, prosperity, and righteousness.
• The idea that each individual follower of Rasta has his/her own spiritual path to follow and a connection with Jah to establish.

As with any movement, however, there are culturally specific issues which need to be understood before exploring the more complex issues of connection.

In the 1920s, particular interpretations of Christian-Jewish scripture and a heavy load of historical oppression set the stage in Jamaica for the rise of this new religious movement (NRM).  At the center of Rasta is H.I.M., Haile Selassie I, the late ruler of Ethiopia who is understood in Rasta terms as being, at the very least, directly descended from Jesus.  He is a divine figure and considered by some factions of Rasta as having been the second coming of Jesus, incarnated to flesh.

The Rasta relationship with the Bible was also at the center of this new movement as Jamaican Rasta followers trace their roots back to the Falhashas, a branch of ‘Ethiopian Jews, still present in Ethiopia today, and the original caretakers of the Ark of the Covenant.  Descendants of the Falhashas were taken to Jamaica by Spanish Catholics who, after destroying the Arawak native population and repopulating it with a slave workforce, introduced the Bible to the Africans they had brought to Jamaica.  The grounding of the slaves in biblical stories helped construct the popular adage amongst Rasta followers that “A chapter a day keeps the devil away.” There is ample evidence that Rastafarians also owe a lot of their current Jamaican culture to the Spanish Catholics who settled Jamaica.

The European, Spanish Catholic and eventually Protestant English, interpretation of particular bible passages stayed within the Jamaican culture despite many other traditions and passages seen in an Afrocentric, rather than Eurocentric or Christian-Jewish perspective.  Today, some Jamaicans feel a strong preference to not hear the bible in their own language, Patois, but to hear it preached only in proper English.  Leslie Dennis, a writer for Jamaican Times, implies that it is disrespectful to God, arguing that the Patois translators “turn di good book into a Jamaican story.” This could be due to an internalization of the idea that the European culture actually holds some form of superior knowledge.  Alternatively, it may be simply a reaction common in human tales resulting from a mixture of cultures.  Could it be a cross-cultural phenomenon—that when we cannot find the power we want in our own language, we are captured in fear or awe of the exotic tongue?  This comment brings into light the question of whether it is a human quality to find the novel and the mysterious to have a magical quality—either that which can reveal religious truths and/or that which can effect metaphysical changes to reality.  Or, of course, there is the possibility (tongue in cheek) that proper British English is truly G-d’s language.

This brings me back to the relationship between music and culture.  Reggae is a genre of music that developed locally out of oppressive historical circumstance; often infused in the lyrics is Lyaric, a dialect created as a way to talk amongst the oppressed and to keep out the dominators.  Particularities of language emerged as Euro-centric concepts turned upside down and Jamaican concepts became shrouded in language only other group members (or those committed to research) could understand.  Incredibly, language can grab control of cultural sections of reality and preserve the worldviews which are threatened by others who do not speak the same.

Unfortunately, it seems to onlookers that this same language making practice, which established Reggae music as a voice of the oppressed, is also the practice which is allowing the Dancehall artists to incite oppressive and violent conditions/actions against homosexuals.  When people create language as a way of banning together against oppression, how do we explain that the language meant to oppress and shun still survives, even generations later?  And, this makes one wonder, will the original, generally non-homophobic Reggae music ever recover from the tainted image these Dancehall artists have constructed?  Will this constructed homophobic voice prevent Reggae from reaching its full originally intended potential, or will the gay community feel ever shunned from sharing in the power Reggae has given to oppressed groups the past civil-rights-century over?

Stop Murder Music can influence listeners to issue financial sanctions on the artists by boycotting their albums and petitioning their tours to be cancelled.  Artists can buckle under and sign the agreement in order to maintain their supply of financial reward (and thus, maintain their ability to spread at least some of their musical message into the world), but it’s a complex question to raise.  What can fix the real root of the problem—not just the more visible expressions of homosexual hatred in the lyrics of a song—but the invisible imprint connected to Jamaican religious culture?

In ending, let us reflect on these questions and the lyrics of Jah Cure’s, Love Is….

Love is call of me brother, love is call of me sister… Love is the answer for every question… Love is the key to open the door, when closed in your face…Love is much more to life than just words.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miurWT45wDs

Suggested reading:  From Babylon to Rastafari: Origin and History of the Rastafarian Movement; Douglas Mack

Hannah Spadafora has completed the requirements for a BA in Religious Studies with a minor of English at Georgia State University, and will have finished up with a second BA in Philosophy by her expected graduation date in Summer 2011. Her significant areas of interests include Religion and the Modern Day, Religion’s Role in Media, Pop Culture and Literature, and Theories and Methods of Religious Studies. She intends, over the next couple of years, to gain further publishing of both scholarly and literary works, and to enter into a Masters Program focused in the social sciences.

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By  Kenny Smith

In her Religion Nerd piece, Rise of the Jedi Religion, Heather Abraham introduced us to a new religious movement grounded in the mythic figure of the Jedi Knight, a central component of George Lucas’ famously popular Stars Wars saga. Jediism, she tells us, “is the fourth largest religion in the UK,” and is likewise “thriving in many other English speaking countries,” numbering in the tens of thousands in New Zealand, Canada, Australia, and the United States.

Dudeism Symbol

This is clearly a remarkable state of affairs, that a series of commercial films should serve as the foundation for a religious tradition that resonates with impressive numbers across a diverse landscape!  For observers of contemporary religion and culture, the return of the Jedi (this time in explicitly religious guise) leaves us with an intriguing puzzle.  Has the transition from a series of Hollywood blockbusters to a popular religious pathway rendered the figure of the Jedi (and perhaps other elements of the Star Wars universe) sacred?  That is, is the emergence of Jediism a matter of something secular being made into something sacred?  Or, was the image of the Jedi Knight able to serve as the basis for a religious movement precisely because it already functioned as sacred within the broader culture? This essay explores these questions by looking at a range of religious communities, both old and new, that seem to have borrowed from popular culture in important ways.

Take, for instance, the new religious movement known as Dudeism, or more formally, The Church of the Latter-Day Dude.  Based upon the teachings and example of the character Jeffrey Lebowski (played by Jeff Bridges) in the Coen Brothers’ 1998 classic film, The Big Lebowski, Dudeism teaches a largely passive, hedonistic approach to life emphasizing personal authenticity and the cultivation of pleasures that can be enjoyed without engaging in exhaustive levels of work, competition, and anxieties about the future.  As one Dudeist website explains:

Life is short and complicated and nobody knows what to do about it. So don’t do anything about it. Just take it easy, man. Stop worrying so much whether you’ll make it into the finals. Kick back with some friends and some oat soda and whether you roll strikes or gutters, do your best to be true to yourself and others–that is to say, abide.” (http://www.dudeism.com/whatisdudeism.html)

While Dudeists seem quite clear that their tradition is grounded in a fictional narrative, that fact has done little to undermine its attractiveness as a path of spiritual liberation from what is perceived as an overly complex and deeply troubled society.  As of 2009, this tradition claimed some 60,000 Dudeist ministers worldwide, an online newspaper, a range of texts and articles linking Dudeism to the great sages of world history (such as Lao-tzu, Heraclitus, Buddha, Jesus, and Jerry Garcia), and a soon-to-open Dudeist University.  Perhaps paradoxically, Dudeists seem to have worked rather diligently to present their tradition as an authentic spiritual path maximally relevant to our times.  While it is difficult to predict what the future will hold for this tradition, the philosophy, ethos, and good news of The Big Lebowski seem to offer a coherent, and fulfilling, religious worldview to significant numbers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYUD6vs0pg4

In the case of both Jediism and Dudeism, entirely new religious traditions have been created wholesale from the cloth of popular culture.  In other cases, key elements are borrowed from popular culture and grafted onto pre-existing religious traditions, resulting in equally innovative and to some degree “new” versions of these traditions, which their critics typically regard as humorous or horrifying.

One superb example are the Klingons for Christ.  Founded by Michael James Oetting from a desire to “share the Gospel with non-believers” and “to clear up any misconceptions about Christians or Christianity,” the Klingons for Christ hope to evangelize those “who take the time to dress, look, act, and even speak the language of the mythical aliens,” that is, those attending Star Trek conventions as Klingons.  This however is not a superficial sales-pitch in which evangelical Christianity is merely dressed up to appeal to Star Trek fans.  Oetting perceives real and important theological affinities connecting evangelical Christianity and the teachings of “Kahless,” an originary Klingon hero who, after slaying the first Klingon deities, established Klingon society according to a set of ruthless (though honorable, it is said) warrior codes, and departed the Klingon world to return (in messianic form) at some future point. “After a thorough examination of the Bible,” Oetting writes, any Klingon would see that “the message of [Jesus] is the same as that of [Kahless], it is all about honor, duty, and obedience.”

A growing community seems to find a Klingon/Christian synthesis compelling, as a range of websites that further develop Oetting’s theological insights attests.  The Klingons for Christ Jesus, for example, teaches that,

Klingons accept the teachings of Christ as part of a warrior tradition. Christ brings not peace, but a sword… [He] did not run from pain; he welcomed it…. He defeated his enemies…. Christianity is a warrior’s religion. It offers the Klingon enemies worth fighting: Sin, Death, Satan and his legions.  (http://clancmsf.tripod.com/KlingonsForChrist.html)

Such websites also offer a range of passages that are considered central to the biblical message, typically emphasizing war, violence, and the military domination of one’s perceived foes.  Some of these passages have even been transliterated into the Klingon language, though a complete effort to render the entire Bible in Klingon is yet to be achieved.

Interestingly, some mainstream Christian commentators have begun to make cognitive room for this highly imaginative version of their tradition.  In “Good News for the Klingon Race,” Glen F. Proechel notes that, while some may feel that such movements represent “a monumental waste of time,” for those who watch Star Trek “it will be reassuring to have God’s Word in a medium that speaks to them.” {Bible Collectors’ World, Oct./Dec. 1994, http://www.biblecollectors.org/articles/klingon_bible.htm}

Pagano

We need not look to religious movements inspired by science fiction to find evidence of borrowing from popular culture.  On June 27, 2009 Ken Pagano, pastor of New Bethel Church in Louisville, Kentucky, held an Open Carry Celebration “in which visitors and parishioners were invited to bring their firearms to church.” Pagano rejects what he considers “a maudlin, sentimental view of Jesus Christ… a limp-wristed preacher” who refuses to stand up for the right of individuals to protect themselves by use of lethal force if necessary.  Instead, Pagano teaches that Jesus is best understood as “a navy seal, a force recon marine, or a green beret.” Consequently, the right to bear (and use) firearms becomes, in Pagano’s view, a fundamental Christian value. (Joseph Laycock, Understanding the Open Carry Celebration, Sightings, July 9, 2009).

While it is perhaps easier to see what Oetting has borrowed from popular culture and sewn into his evangelical Christianity, I would argue that Pagano has also appropriated an enormously popular symbol from the broader culture.  In fact, Pagano has brought into his Christianity something that, for significant portions of Americans, was already and independently deeply sacred: guns.  As Emory scholar Gary Laderman points out, for many Americans (both now and in past generations) guns have been sacred “because they are intimately linked with the redemptive power to confront fundamental dangers that are perceived to be constantly present in American life, like individual crimes, which may require self-defense, or government tyranny, that may require revolutionary actions from armed citizens” (Sacred Matters: Celebrity Worship, Sexual Ecstasies, the Living Dead, and Other Signs of Religious Life in the United States, p. 133).  As with the Klingon movement, it is worth noting the ways in which Pagano’s theology and ethics develop in new ways when notions from the broader culture–be they Klingons or handguns–are incorporated.

Similar dynamics are evident in the teachings of Marc Driscoll, founder of Mars Hill church, a Seattle-based mega-church with nearly 7,600 members, that is currently “planting” hundreds of new churches nationwide.

Driscoll’s teachings include a return to a Predestinationist theology (i.e., the view, popular among early Protestants in the 16^th-19^th centuries, that God has determined from the very beginnings of time who will enter heaven and who will be damned forever to hell), but also elements expressly drawn from popular culture, such as the wildly popular film, Fight Club.  To be clear, unlike the characters in Fight Club, church members do not engage strangers in fist fights, nor do they live communally in abandoned houses, planting explosives in public buildings. What is taken from Fight Club, however, is an aggressive, “hyper-masculinized” sense of Christian identity.  From Driscoll’s perspective, the mainstream church “has transformed Jesus into ‘a Richard Simmons, hippie, queer Christ,’ a ‘neutered and limp-wristed popular Sky Fairy of pop culture that would never talk about sin or send anyone to hell.’” What is needed to correct this “feminization” of Christianity, he teaches, is precisely the kind of confrontational ethos exemplified in Fight Club.

Driscoll

A Fight Club-Christianity is, apparently, lived at Mars Hill in a variety of ways. Driscoll is known for his especially frank, adult-only sermons on topics such as “Biblical Oral Sex” and “Pleasing Your Spouse,” his tolerance for typically unorthodox behaviors such as swearing, smoking tobacco, and body piercings, as well as his highly authoritarian style of leadership.  In her article, Who Would Jesus Smack Down?, for instance, journalist Molly Worthen relates the following narrative:

In  2007, two elders protested a plan to reorganize the church that, according to critics, consolidated power in the hands of Driscoll and his closest aides. Driscoll told the congregation that he asked advice on how to handle stubborn subordinates from a ‘mixed martial artist and Ultimate Fighter, good guy’ who attends Mars Hill. ‘His answer was brilliant,’ Driscoll reported. ‘He said, ‘I break their nose.’

Again, this is not to suggest that pastor Driscoll physically batters church members who question his way of thinking.  Nor is it the case that Driscoll’s Christianity can be reduced in some simplistic way to nothing more than the influence of the Fight Club film, which is clearly only one of many different influences upon Driscoll’s religious teachings.  At the same time, that the Mars Hill community understands itself as a Christian reflection of the Fight Club universe suggests that, in incorporating this element of popular culture, this community’s sense of what it means to live a proper Christian life has shifted in significant ways, ways that incorporate the brusque, hyper-masculinized sense of identity, ethos, and behavior, so prevalent in the Fight Club film. Borrowing form popular culture always has consequences. 

Concluding Thoughts

Each of these examples can be seen as pointing back to the question with which we began.  Are these instances in which something secular has simply been made into something sacred, whether that be Jedi Knights, the Dude, Klingons, guns, or ethos of Fight Club?  Or is something more going on here?  Could it be the case that each of these cultural icons was already functioning as sacred within the broader culture and that this is precisely why they were either made into formal religions or appropriated by pre-existing religious communities?

I believe that the evidence points in the direction of the latter. While The Big Lebowski was relatively unsuccessful in terms of box-office returns and monetary gains, it quickly developed “cult” status within a dedicated subculture (see, for instance, The Big Lebowski Fest website).  Klingons, as part of Gene Roddenberry’s imaginary Star Trek universe, represent a paradigm example of a subculture demarked by distinctive styles of dress and behavior, and also its own language (see the Klingon Language Institute).  The sacred nature of guns in the American imagination, of course, needs little additional argument.  And even a casual on-line search for “Fight Clubs near you” will, in fact, turn up numerous sites for fight-clubbing.

If these cultural elements were already functioning as sacred prior to their being “made into” something explicitly religious, it becomes rather clear why they were appropriated in the first place.  It may well be that religious institutions need to take new elements from popular culture in order to remain relevant to changing historical conditions. Hence, new religions rather naturally emerge out of important cultural ideas and practices.  This is certainly what happened with reports of “flying saucers” that first emerged en mass in the late 1940’s; by the early 1950’s, explicitly religious movements offering spiritual teachings from space visitors were on the scene.  More subtly, pre-existing religious traditions take in and re-contextualize key elements from popular culture, and then quickly forget that this transition has occurred; Klingons, guns, and a Fight Club ethos become obviously Christian.

This, by the way, explains why we are not seeing “MacGyver for Christ,” or “Carry Your Broom to Church” celebrations.  I suspect it is precisely because these things do not already and independently function as sacred within the broader culture (though the broom might for some playful Wiccan communities!) that they are not attractive symbols to creative religious thinkers.  They do not seem like cultural resources that could, or should, be incorporated.

In any case, if my analysis is correct, we should expect to see continued and creative appropriations of sacred cultural resources across a wide range of religious traditions and communities. “Vampires for Christ,” anyone?

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By Kenny Smith 

In an earlier essay for Religion Nerd, The Arrival of Extraterrestrials on the American Religious Landscape, we noted that the idea of ETs has played a role in American religious cultures–from physical and telepathic contactees to fundamentalist preachers–since the mid-20^th century.  For the former, ETs are akin to elder brothers and sisters offering advice to a younger, less mature human civilization struggling with atomic weapons, existential anomie, and social and ecological decay; for the latter, they are demons the Bible has warned us about, hoping to lure the faithful away from God.

As we move further into the 21^st century, we asked, might it be the case that the ET motif is likely to be taken up by a wider range of religious/spiritual traditions? From a Black Hebrew/Israelite prophet awaiting the coming of “the angels of YAHWEH,” to a Catholic priest happy to baptize ETs “if they ask,” to a psychotherapist offering a questionnaire measuring the degree to which we have been genetically “upgraded” by Star Visitors, there are examples that suggest this might be the case. 

Of particular interest right now is Dr. Richard Boylan (the former psychotherapist and university lecturer from Diamond Springs, California, mentioned above), founder of the Star Kids/Star Seeds Project. Boylan has recently, and quite publicly, stated that open relations with Star Nations, a broad coalition of Star Visitor peoples (this name is said to be preferred over “ET”), is imminent. “Dec. 31, 2010, 11:59 pm, EST,” he writes, “is the official Deadline for the U.S. Government to make a formal Official Public Acknowledgment that Star Visitor Contact and Communication has occurred.”(1) To make certain that the U.S. government actually goes through with it,

Star Nations will begin a series of massive, dramatic, unmistakable set of displays-of-presence by large flotillas of starcraft presenting themselves low enough in the sky overhead as to be quite visible to people. These massive displays will be focused on the skies over the United States because the U.S. is the major one hold-out country to have not yet come clean with its people about UFO reality and Star Visitors contact. (1)

For anyone interested in alternative spiritual movements, this is a wonderful opportunity to watch as Boylan and his loosely-connected, and largely on-line spiritual community, adapt as these expectations unfold, however they happen to turn out.  

Some may be surprised by the admission that I don’t claim to know how Boylan’s predictions will turn out. Frankly, this is one feature of the academic discipline of “religious studies” I particularly admire: we bracket out our own views (as much as possible) in order get at the perspectives of those we study, whether Buddhists, Baptists, Wiccans or what-have-you. To get some sense of the importance of bracketing, consider the following example, which comes from recent American political/religious production.  

During the presidency of George W. Bush, some highly conservative Christians worried that Bush might in fact be the anti-Christ, and that his rise to power might signal that the draconian horrors of “the end times” were upon us. More, they often saw photographs such as that above, in which Bush and others close to him were said to be signaling their satanic allegiance by symbolically portraying the “horns” of the devil with their raised hand gestures, as evidence of this view. Of course, had we asked those in the picture what they intended, we would have learned that they were attending a Texas Longhorns football game, and that this hand gesture is a traditional sign of Longhorns fandom.(2)

In more recent years, similar portrayals of Barack Obama have been evident. A number of websites took statements in which Obama expressed sympathy for Islamic traditions as evidence the he might be the anti-Christ.(3) This past summer, a Missouri billboard equated Obama to despotic tyrants such as Adolph Hitler, among others. If we take these as accurate descriptions of the religious/political worldviews of Bush or Obama, we end up learning not about Bush or Obama, but about someone else’s opinions about Bush and Obama.

At the same time, a careful study of any movement begs for an interpretive effort. We may want to compare it to other religious or spiritual expressions, past or present, place it in the larger historical context in which it emerges, relate it to other cultural dynamics going on at the time, such as economics, politics, the lives of ordinary people, philosophy, the arts, entertainment, technology, and so forth. Indeed, there are many different interpretive windows through which we might view, and understand better still, the movements we study. Obviously, this second level of study (good description being the first) can come into conflict with how those we study see themselves – they may not, for instance, be friendly to the idea that their teachings play out key themes in American cultural history. My first goal, though, is to tell a version of Boylan’s story (the larger story into which his current expectations fit) that he would find at least reasonably accurate, and that might make his teachings intelligible to outsiders.

ETs as Star Visitors and Star Nations  

Boylan has spent considerable time and energy documenting what he understands the religious/spiritual orientation of most Star Visitors to be. He explains,  

The Star Visitor races who have commented on the concept of God… uniformly affirm that they, too accept the reality of what Earthlings call God. However, the God they affirm is not the anthropomorphic or patriarchal figure of many Earth religions, but more of a Supreme Source – a transcendent matrix of Consciousness, which underlies everything, and is that which gives essence and specificity to everything, which in turn is a partial manifestation of the Supreme Source. In more experiential terms, the Star Visitors have taken experiencers [those with have had first-hand contact with ETs] and shown them God. The experiencers typically described being in the presence of intense, overwhelmingly brilliant light from which emanates incredibly intense love, such that the experiencer feels lost in the infinite love.(4)

There is a good deal going on in this passage. Note, for instance, that for Boylan Star Visitors do not portray themselves as gods, but rather as having a relationship with God (or, more broadly the divine source) comparable in some ways to that of many human beings. Star Visitors, for example, are said to experience the divine as an overwhelmingly positive and embracing presence, something far greater than themselves.

At the same time, Star Visitor theology seems to differ significantly from much traditional Western religious thought. In fact, Star Visitors as they are presented here  blend two fundamentally different religious doctrines, theism and pantheism. Theism is a view common to many forms of Judaism, Islam and Christianity. This view emphasizes the transcendence of God, that is, God’s otherness, separation, or distance from the universe He created. From this perspective, God did not create the universe out of Himself, but rather “out of nothing” (ex nihilo) or out of some formless matter that was separate from Him. Thus, in strict theistic traditions, one does not correctly say “I am God,” but rather, “God might enter within me, if and when He so chooses.” In fact, in the history of the Western theistic traditions, those who have had experiences that lead them to declare, “I am God,” have frequently gotten themselves into terrible trouble with religious authorities.   

Pantheism is a very different sort of doctrine, which some scholars associate with nature-based religious cultures, and which has on occasion been articulated by some Jewish, Christian, and Islamic thinkers. This view, in essence, holds that God exists within all that is. Thus, the divine presence is found in all forms of physical matter (e.g., rocks, lakes, mountains, stars), human beings, animals, everywhere in the natural world, and most of within oneself. On this view, there is no place or thing that is not God, though there is little talk of God transcending or being more than the universe.

Star Visitor spirituality seems to put these two ideas together, holding that all things are ultimately formed out of the divine, but that this divine presence transcends even the entire physical universe. Philosophers of religion have called this pan-en-theism, and debated whether at least some human religious cultures, such as certain forms of Hinduism, might be panentheistic.

In any case, the psychological, social, and ethical implications of this view are noteworthy: while all things are made up of God, not all things are equally aware of this fact. Hence, some beings, and societies, typified by greater awareness and experience of the divine presence in and around them, are likewise characterized by greater degrees of compassion, altruism, and peacefulness; others, who may talk a lot about God but have little by way of consistent direct experience, are characterized by competition, greed, bigotry, coercion, fear, violence, warfare, and so forth. Contemporary human civilization, Boylan holds, is overwhelmingly defined by the latter, and Star Nations by the former. That is to say, Star Nations represent a more advanced, enlightened set of societies with not only vast intellectual and technological prowess, but access to greater levels of wisdom and care for all beings. As a rough analogy, one might recall the gentle, benevolent, but technologically advanced ET in the 1980s film, ET: The Extraterrestrial.

Star Nations are not, however, on Boylan’s telling, passive observers of the human drama. They have been intimately involved in the evolution of life on earth, and human beings especially. Long long ago, he teaches,

The Star Nations decided to accelerate evolution on Earth. They selected a promising Primate order representative to take reproductive material samples from, crossed it with some of their own DNA, and reinserted it in the primate mother, so that the resulting offspring would be more intelligent. After several iterations of effort, the Visitors around 275,000 years ago achieved a hybrid with a bit of their very high intelligence, a smattering of their highly-developed psychic abilities and spirituality, and sufficient dexterity and coordination to be capable of fashioning tools and intricate designs. In other words, they had achieved Homo Sapiens.(5)

In addition to shaping human biological evolution, Star Nations have worked to foster higher levels of spiritual development, and have done so by appearing among us as “The Avatars, major world religious leaders” such as Krishna, the Buddha and numerous Bodhisattvas, Zoroaster, Moses, Lao-Tzu, Jesus, Mohammed, Bahá’u'lláh, White Buffalo Calf Woman, Quetzalcoatl, among many others.(6)  In this way, Star Visitors hoped to upgrade us culturally as well as biologically.

More, this story continues, human civilization has thus far seen three ages, each of which ended in utter catastrophe. In each, human societies grew corrupt and abusive, devolved spiritually, and were ultimately swept away by global disasters (such as fires, earthquakes, flooding, etc.), though in each case a small remnant survived to inhabit a new world and to begin the task of rebuilding. We currently live at the end of the fourth age, one typified by widespread abuses of power not only with regard to each other but also the earth itself.

A fourth civilization-ending catastrophe is possible, but this time Star Visitor are upgrading human DNA once again, producing a new species, no longer Homo Sapiens, but “Homo Alterios Spatialis (Transformed Cosmic Human) and Homo Noeticus (Cosmic-Consciousness Human).” For this new and improved species, altruism, compassion, peaceful cooperation, keenly aware of the divine presence in all things, a significantly expanded intellect, and a vast range of psychic abilities (e.g., telepathy, telekinesis, energy healing, astral travel, invisibility, among many others.), come naturally.(7) Those upgraded as adults Boylan refers to as Star Seeds. Those born with upgrades are Star Kids. It is Star Kids especially that are said to represent the future of humanity, a new kind of human being capable of living peaceful, ecologically sustainable, humane lives.

Star Visitors are said to be actively engaged in (quietly) visiting and upgrading human beings not only in America, but across the globe, both genders, and all ages and cultures. Upgrades are available to any sincere human being, and Boylan offers a method of “outreach to Star Visitors,” by which anyone might gradually establish working relationships with them. He writes,

[G]o to a secluded quiet place, engage in serene, open meditation, then, after a bit of meditation, proceed to respectful humble telepathic outreach, sending a message of invitation to contact, expressing loving intentions and respect. Send as much from your heart as from your mind. There are, of course, no guarantees. But this process increases your chances. Also, be flexible. Their response might not be to fly overhead or to show up visibly on the ground. Be attuned to the possibility of invisible presence (sensed psychically), or to a very gentle whole-thought or visual mental impressions from them in your mind.(8)

Why are Star Visitors so careful and cautious, working “behind the scenes,” as it were, to quietly upgrade human DNA, often appearing as “invisible presences” who respond “telepathically”? This has to do with the political aspects of Boylan’s worldview. Human civilization, he believes, is fundamentally controlled by a shadowy (and quite dangerous) group known as the “Cabal,” whom Boylan describes as,

global-scale plutocratic manipulators who use their immense wealth, prestige and power to control governments and economies to perpetuate their stranglehold on global society. Among other evils this is the organization behind the UFO Cover-Up. This group is comprised of the most selfish, megalomaniacal, and sociopathic individuals… a kind of ‘parallel government’ to the official elected and appointed governments of the more developed countries.(9)

This political situation, he says, and the desire of Star Nations to guide the development of human civilization without “doing the work for us,” has lead to a more subtle and gradualist approach: rather than stepping in and imposing a certain kind of society upon human beings, Star Nations has chosen to gently nudge human evolution from within (literally), to the point where human beings no longer create the same kind of societies (e.g., those based on consumption, hierarchies of power, violence, and so forth). As the transition to Homo Alterios Spatialis becomes complete, earth culture will take its place within a much larger, and healthier, galactic civilization.

While all manner of objections and arguments may immediately come to mind – ones that parallel classical arguments in the philosophy of religion in interesting ways (e.g., Why did Star Nations not create us from the beginning Homo Alterios Spatialis and thus avoid centuries of violence and suffering?) – it is worth noting that, when viewed in light of his broader worldview, Boylan’s expectations for the remainder of 2010 do not seem unreasonable. In fact, if we start with his basic assumptions, the conclusion that Star Nations would eventually opt for full and open contact with humankind actually follows rather naturally from them, and his working relationship with them provides a means for discerning precisely when and how this would occur. The point here is that Boylan’s expectations for 2010 become reasonable or unreasonable depending upon the basic assumptions with which we begin.

Some might object that, if we actually used this approach, then all sorts of bizarre worldviews, even violent ones like those of Christian Militias and Islamic militants, would start to make sense to us; we would see the connection between their starting assumptions and conclusions and actions. From a religious studies perspective, though, this is precisely what we mean by “understanding the religious Other.” Importantly, this does not mean agreeing with that religious Other; instead, it means basing our beliefs, interactions, and critiques on a better understanding of them. The potential power of the improved understanding possible through this approach is evident in recent attempts by the U. S. military to employ anthropologists in an effort to better grasp and anticipate the linguistic and cultural worlds of those peoples (say, in Afghanistan) whose hearts and minds we hope to win.

As the remainder of 2010 unfolds, so too will our discussion of Boylan’s expectations. We’ll discuss some of his more specific predictions and interpretations of key events, and how they relate to different scholarly interpretive efforts. For instance, we’ll look at points of connection linking his expectations with those of other movements in American religious history who have also thought that human history would soon be interrupted by the arrival of profoundly spiritual realities (though not necessarily ETs), and what such movements suggest about the ways in which the human religious imagination works.   

Of course, if Star Visitors do arrive en masse, it will be a good time to be studying religion. Do they mark out sacred space, sacred time, myth, ritual? Do they have revivals, and if so, are we invited?

Sources:

1. http://www.drboylan.com/10.24.10overflights.html, http://www.drboylan.com/12.31.10DeadlinePublAcknw.html
2. http://www.texassports.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/hex-ralley.html
3. http://o.bamapost.com/
4. http://www.drboylan.com/svtheol.html
5. http://www.drboylan.com/revhxhomosap.html
6. http://www.drboylan.com/svtheol.html
7. http://www.drboylan.com/acctspech2.html, http://www.drboylan.com/acctcfrpt2.html
8. http://www.drboylan.com/outreach2sv.html
9. http://www.drboylan.com/cabal.html

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By Kenny Smith  

Recalling his first encounter with Jesus in Disneyland (2000), author David Lyon explains,           

The scene is Anaheim, California, home of Disneyland. Not unusually, 10,000 people are streaming through the turnstiles. Only today they are heading for a Harvest Day Crusade. In place of the regular attractions and rides, Christian artists perform at several stages throughout the park, and an evangelist… preaches a gospel message.  

At first glance, the blending of Evangelical Christianity and Disneyland may appear wildly contradictory. Evangelicals have frequently objected to the magical worldviews and practices so vividly brought to life in various Disney films, most recently in The Princess and the Frog.(1) Indeed, Disney theme parks represent “the epitome of post-modern culture – [an] artificial, simulated, virtual, fantasy world” in which every attraction is framed by shopping opportunities. When these two realities are “telescoped incongruously into one,” Lyon observes, “they clash.” Nevertheless, the fact that an Evangelical worldview and identity are strategically placed within the gates of the Disney theme park as an attraction for our consumption suggests that even highly conservative forms of religion, which often see themselves as building a wall between believers and pop culture, are in fact participating thoroughly in it. (1-2) 

More recently, the blending of religious and cultural resources within the American landscaped overflows the merging of Disney and Evangelism. The suspension of Ariana Iacono, a North Carolina high school student who wore a nose-piercing to school, for instance, brought to light the Church of Bodily Modification (COBM), to which she and her mother apparently belong.(2)  As the Washington Post reports,(3) within the COBM community, spiritual experience and growth are understood as occurring through bodily piercings, scarifications, and modifications, that is, changing the physical appearance of the body in subtle and sometimes even profound ways, ways that might seem quite disturbing to outsiders.(4) 

We should not be surprised to discover links between bodily modifications and spirituality. As students of anthropology well know, indigenous peoples the world over have for eons marked sacred encounters, as well as major life stages, in permanent (and often painful) etchings and piercings made upon the physical body. 

A link between body piercings and the holy is also evident within some contemporary Evangelical Christian communities. In a graphic manner reminiscent of Mel Gibson’s 2004 film, The Passion of the Christ, web-pages such as “Body Piercings Saved My Life” and “This Blood’s for You” address prospective converts with a sense of cosmic urgency, pointing out that, in his crucifixion, Jesus was extensively pierced for the sake of all humankind:

 The skin on His head was ripped by a crown of thorns; driven deep into His scalp again and again with a rod. His back was scarified by a whip fitted with pieces of metal and glass, tearing off chunks of skin and muscle-tissue with every stroke.  His hands and feet were punctured and pierced with long, iron nails pounded straight through His flesh into a heavy wooden cross.(5) 

From a profound sense of devotion, Evangelicals of this sort work to emulate Jesus (in a very minor and humble way, by heir own admission) by taking up their own piercings, scarifications, and tattoos. As one such thinker explains, 

I currently have a 2-gauge captive-ball earring and a 0-gauge tunnel in my left ear, a barbell through my tongue, a labret sticking though my soul patch, a tattoo on my left arm declaring Jesus is Lord…, a crown of thorns with bloody nails on my right forearm with the Greek for “Greater love has no one than this…” a portrait of Jesus on my right arm and the Hebrew Sh’ma on my right hand.(6) 

The Larger Picture 

While it is tempting to distinguish the “real and authentic” religions and spiritual pathways that just happened to engage in blending some cultural resources from those that are less so, such efforts typically reveal more about the person making the distinction than about the groups studied in this way. Instead, I suggest looking to the larger historical picture into which these instances of religious/cultural hybridity blending might fit, and that might assist us in making greater sense of them.   

As Lyon points out, we live in an increasingly post-modern society. If modernity was characterized by enduring meta-narratives, that is, large-scale stories, myths, and values that organized Western thought and action and gave largely unquestioned authority to social institutions like the church, science, national governments, and so forth, post-modernity has seen the steady erosion of over-arching worldviews and external sources of authority. In their place has arisen the profound conviction that moral and religious authority reside within the self, not outside of it. As the new Mr. Spock teaches in the newest incarnation of Star Trek films, “do what feels right.” 

This emphasis upon individual choice is amplified by advances in communications technologies, which bring previously foreign worlds of all sorts, real and imagined, as close as one’s computer screen. The result has been two-fold. Firstly, religious worlds have morphed even more clearly into competing commodities for sale in a marketplace of culture. The popular YouTube video, “What if Starbuck’s Marketed Like a Church? A Parable,”(7) for instance, might well be flipped on its head to ask, “What if religious institutions marketed like Starbuck’s?” One suspects that many already do. Secondly, a religious landscape that was already quite diverse has become fragmented into a sea of micro-religions, as we select and assemble our own identities and worldviews from the many existential options available, and in so doing bring together disparate cultural resources. 

Given this deliciously complicated state of affairs, it is not at all surprising that Newsweek’s religion editor, Lisa Miller, points to a widespread revival not so much of religion, but of religious studies as an academic discipline in which undergraduate and graduate students are mightily interested.(8)  Larger numbers of intelligent, thoughtful persons, it seems, want to understand the increasingly complex landscape in which they live, and find ways in which to forge livelihoods out of such knowledges and understandings.  

Sources:

1. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703580904574638143338424878.html
2. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20016730-10391704.html
3. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/roughsketch/2010/09/get_me_to_the_church_of_body_m.html
4.  http://uscobm.com/statement-of-faith/
5. http://www.thesanctuarium.com/body_piercing.htm
6. http://www.thesanctuarium.com/body_piercing.htm
7. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7_dZTrjw9I

   

8. http://education.newsweek.com/2010/09/12/religious-studies-thrive-in-troubled-times.html

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By Kenny Smith  

In November 2009, some thirty world-class scientists gathered in Rome to attend a week-long conference on astrobiology. The conference was sponsored by the Vatican Observatory and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. It’s goal: to assess the likelihood of extraterrestrial life, a possibility, attending scientists maintained, that seems increasingly likely in light of recent discoveries. As Carol Glatz, writing for the Catholic News Service, explains, 

Vatican Observatory

Until 1995, no one knew whether there were planets circling some of the billions of stars in the universe. Advancements in planet detection have since led scientists to discover more than 400 planets outside of the solar system and dozens more are found each year… [At the same time,] discoveries of life in very inhospitable conditions on Earth, such as rock-eating microbes living deep beneath the ocean floor, show that different life forms may exist on other worlds. (1) 

Consequently, Glatz notes, although the conference looked only at scientific evidence and hypotheses, it is “very important that the church is involved in this type of research looking at life in the cosmos.” 

Of course, Christian philosophers and theologians have been speculating about the possibility, and religious significance, of extraterrestrial life for many centuries, a tradition which continues into the present day. Writing for Beliefnet.com in an essay enticingly entitled, “Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial?,” Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno argues that, although it is commonly assumed that the discovery of extraterrestrial life would signal “the death of religion, most religious people don’t see it that way at all… God created the whole universe. There’s nothing that makes one place more special than another. Religious people have been able to think in these ‘cosmic’ terms all along, and happily speculated about ‘other worlds’ long before the science fiction crowd had adopted the concept.”(2) At the same time, he concedes, much like the encounter with non-Western religious cultures, we may find that extraterrestrials have very different experiences and understandings of the divine, resulting in spiritual teachings and traditions we might fail to recognize as religious at all. In the event of such contact, “we would clearly want to tell ETs what we have learned [about the nature of God]; we also want to listen to them, to hear what they have learned.” On this view, importantly, ETs may even have something to teach us about the spiritual life! 

Other Christian thinkers, however, are far less sanguine about the prospects of contact. The website, Hearken the Watchmen (.com), for instance, features an essay menacingly entitled, “Demons (Extraterrestrials) Tremble at the Name of Christ.” This essay argues that the notion of off-world intelligence cannot be understood without reference to the biblical idea of “fallen angels.”(3)  In at least some respects, such anti-ET theologizing represents a clear continuation of Pat Robertson’s religious efforts from the late 1990’s. In a famously controversial July 8, 1997 broadcast of his 700 Club, Robertson warned that if ETs do in fact exist, they are best understood as demonic beings working to lure us away from faith in Christ (e.g., through modern-day UFO sightings). As such, he concluded, those found to be in league with such beings (e.g., UFO researchers) deserve, under biblical law, execution by stoning! 

We need not, however, remain within the worldspace of speculative Christian theology to discern religious appropriations and re-contextualizations of the idea of ETs. Indeed, since the mid-20^th century, a number of religious movements have emerged for whom interaction with extraterrestrials is central to the modern-day spiritual quest.   

Kenneth Arnold

The widespread belief that unidentified flying objects (UFOs) are spaceships from more spiritually advanced civilizations located elsewhere in the galaxy is typically thought to have emerged in the wake of Kenneth Arnold’s reported sighting of nine large, metallic, crescent-shaped objects flying at very high speeds (some 1,600 mph) over the Cascade Mountain range in western Washington on June 24, 1947. Arnold, a civilian pilot from Boise, Idaho, was searching for a lost Marine C-46 transport plane when he spotted the UFOs. They flew, he said, “like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water.”(4) The national news media quickly picked up the story, and in the days, weeks, months, and even years that followed, thousands of new sightings were reported from across the country. Saucers and cigar-shaped ships were reported hovering in the skies, darting across suburban landscapes, and at times were said to swoop in low to the ground and cause automobiles to stall. Numerous private secular organizations were formed, and government investigations initiated, in an attempt to account for what appeared to be a widespread and disconcerting phenomena. Indeed, in 1948 an Air Force Pilot was killed in a plane crash while pursuing a reported UFO over Louisville. In 1952 a fleet of UFOs were said to have invaded U.S. airspace over Washington D.C.

Beginning in the early 1950s, the first “contactees” (i.e., persons claiming to have communicated with the occupants of the UFOs) began to speak publicly about their experiences, and the urgent messages they had for humanity. Around such persons distinct communities soon gathered, some of which became formal religious institutions. At one point 150 such groups existed, each dedicated to a different contactee and his/her received teachings. 

Some contactees reported face-to-face meetings with extraterrestrials. In the early 1950s, for instance, George Adamsky (1891-1965), a Polish immigrant who worked in a hamburger stand in southern California, claimed to have travelled by spaceship to some of the other inhabited planets in our own solar system with an extraterrestrial by the name of Orthon. The people of Orthon’s home planet, Adamsky reported, lived in peace and harmony, and were visiting Earth to warn human beings about the dangers of atomic weapons and energy. In the mid-1950s, Orfeo Angelucci (d. 1993) claimed to have spent several days aboard an extraterrestrial spacecraft where he was asked to bring back teachings of peace, love, and of an ancient kinship linking humans and extraterrestrials. 

This tradition of contactees claiming face-to-face, physical contact with benevolent extraterrestrials continues into the present day. Phillip Krapf, who worked as a reporter and then copy and managing editor at the Los Angeles Times for twenty-five years, earning Pulitzer Prize for his work covering the L.A. riots of 1992, reports many extended encounters with a highly advanced extraterrestrial people known as the Verdants. Apparently, Krapf was chosen by the Verdants to serve as an ambassador between human and Verdant civilizations. In the coming years, Krapf teaches, Earth will be ushered into a galactic federation, and it will be the job of ambassadors such as himself to ease this transition. (5)

Other contactees have claimed telepathic, rather than physical, contact with extraterrestrial visitors. George van Tassel (1910-1978), an aeronautical engineer, claimed to have conversed telepathically with “extraterrestrial beings who circled the earth in their UFOs on a mission to raise the planet’s ‘vibratory level’ and thus improve the human race.”(6) Van Tassel ultimately hoped to reconcile his experiences with the biblical text. In so doing, he came to believe that humankind was itself an extraterrestrial race that had been placed upon the earth in order to develop spiritually. Due, however, to the interference of a group of negative extraterrestrials in this process, an enlightened female space being named Mary came to earth and gave birth to Jesus of Nazareth, whose role was to assist humankind in their development. Along with a fleet of UFOs, van Tassel predicted, Jesus would return to earth in the 1950s to save humankind from the continued influence of the negative entities and the threat of atomic weapons. (7)

The tradition of telepathic contact has likewise continued into contemporary times. Through her many books, workshops, and seminars given around the world, Barbara Marciniak transmits teachings from an extraterrestrial civilization located in the constellation of seven stars we know as the Pleiades. As her website explains: 

The Pleiadians are a collective of multidimensional spirit beings from the Pleiades star system, and have been speaking through Barbara Marciniak since May of 1988. [They] are here to assist humanity with the process of spiritual transformation in the years leading up to December 2012. Their distinctive style blends wit and wisdom, common sense, and cosmic knowledge in teachings that encourage expansive thinking and personal empowerment, and which have been compared to native shamanism. (8) 

A growing number of religious innovators have claimed both telepathic and physical contact with spiritually advanced ETs. One particularly striking example is that of Prophet Yahweh, Seer of YAHWEH. In May 2005, Prophet was interviewed by a reporter from a local ABC-affiliate in Las Vegas, Nevada. Prophet, it seems, claimed to have received telepathically (e.g., in prayer and dreams) from YAHWEH, the creator-deity described in the Hebrew Bible, detailed instructions for summoning the angels of Yahweh (superhuman spiritual beings piloting UFOS) and also claimed to have summoned thousands of UFOs in this way over the past twenty-five years. Local reporter, Mike Delastruto, was dispatched to investigate Prophet’s claims, and the resulting interview is interesting to be sure. (9) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObD_ujS0t9E

While critics of UFO-based movements are often quick to attribute the blending of religion (or spirituality, if you like) and extraterrestrials to a lack of sanity, intelligence, or education, this claim is increasingly difficult to sustain. One strong example is the loose, largely on-line spiritual community that has formed around the person and teachings of Dr. Richard Boylan. A practicing psychotherapist and university lecturer for many years, Boylan teaches that a federation of ET cultures (whom he prefers to refer to as “Star Visitors” or “Star Nations”) is currently at work in numerous ways for the betterment of humankind. One of these is the subtle “upgrading” of the human genetic code (through entirely benign and non-invasive methods), which in turn will help to transform our troubled world into a much more evolved civilization. Applying his clinical skills to questions of ET upgrades, Boylan’s website offers a questionnaire intended to help ascertain whether, and to what degree, one has already been “upgraded,” (http://www.drboylan.com/starkididqstnr.html) and workshops held around the country for parents and children struggling with the emergence of psychic abilities said to result therefrom.

Some Concluding Thoughts  

It may well be the case that, at some future point, Earth will be visited by one or more ET civilizations. Within the wider scientific community, one finds varied opinions as to the likelihood of such a scenario. Isaac Asimov famously argued that, while the universe is indeed vast, it is also very old, and civilizations such as ours may not last especially long. Hence, while the universe may have given rise to many different civilizations capable of detecting one another, there is no reason to think that they overlap chronologically. Others insist that, even if they did, the distances between stars is far to wide to make journeys to other stars truly feasible. Of course, these arguments implicitly assume that ET civilizations would suffer from the same limitations as our currently does. If such assumptions prove false, and contact happens, scholars who study religion will surely have their hands full, and I would surely like to be one of them! 

We need not, however, await that day. The idea of ETs, whether conceptualized as the angels or demons of the Western theistic traditions, or as largely secularized and spiritualized elder brothers and sisters with sagely advice for our troubled world, have been here for quite some time. More, one wonders as to the ways in which this presence will expand and modulate in future years, taking the American religious landscape where no one has gone before.

Sources:

1. http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0905002.htm
2. http://www.beliefnet.com/News/Science-Religion/2000/08/Would-You-Baptize-An-Extraterrestrial.aspx?p=1
3. http://www.hearkenthewatchmen.com/article.asp?id=9
4. Robert Ellwood, “UFO Religious Movements,” in Timothy Miller, ed., America’s Alternative Religions (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995), p. 393.
5. Phillip Krapf, The Contact Has Begun: The True Story of a Journalist’s Encounter with Alien Beings (New York: Hay House, 1998); Phillip Krapf, The Challenge of Contact: A Mainstream Journalist’s Report on Interplanetary Diplomacy (New York: Origin house, 2002).
6. Brenda Denzler, “UFOs and Religion,” in Eugene V. Alexander, W. Michael Ashcraft, eds., Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America, Vol. II (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2006), p. 216.
7. Brenda Denzler, “UFOs and Religion,” in Eugene V. Alexander, W. Michael Ashcraft, eds., Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America, Vol. II (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2006), p. 216.
8. Barbara Marciniak’s website: http://www.pleiadians.com/#header. 
9. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1562039690219561839#docid=-80565937579011473
10. http://www.drboylan.com/starkididqstnr.html

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By Heather Abraham

Did you know that Jediism is the fourth largest religion in the UK?  That’s right, adherents to the Jedi religion followed Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism in the 2001 census ranking fourth with 0.79% of the population. The Jedi Knight is not only alive and well in the UK but is also thriving in many other English speaking countries including the United States.  According to the most recent census records, adherents to the Jedi religion number 400,000 in England, 53,000 in New Zealand, 55,000 in Canada and 70,000 in Australia.  In the United States, Jedi Churches have been founded in Maryland, Kentucky, New York, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, and Florida.  

Jedi adherents are coming out of their cosmic closets and proudly claiming their commitment to the Jedi way of life.  In April 2009 the BBC reported that the Strathclyde police force had no less than ten members of the Jedi religion.  During an interview with BBC, Chris Herbert, editor for the Jane’s Police Review remarked, “The Force appears to be strong in Strathclyde with their Jedi police officers and staff.  Far from living a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, some members of the noble Jedi order have now chosen Glasgow and its surrounding streets as their home.”     

Before continuing to explore this way cool new religious movement let’s briefly explore the meaning of the term new religious movement (NRM).  In New Religions A Guide, J. Gordon Melton argues, “the ‘new’ in new religions most often refers to the seeker rather than the religion itself.  That is to say, most new religions are presenting old religions in a new context and to a new audience.”   Thus, many new NRM’s are often a complex reimagining of a single or a blending of several existing religious traditions.  However, not all NRM’s arise from existing religious worldviews.  Some movements, like Scientology or Eckankar emerge independently and challenge the very manner in which we define religion.  For some, new religious movements can be construed as “challenging the older religious structures” and thus can be viewed “by many as destructive of the very fabric of society.”  It is important to understand that all religions begin as new religious movements.  Both Christianity and Islam, for example, began as radical new movements whose ideas threatened the existing religious worldview.  Now, let’s get back to the Jedi. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGQ_eZDcSu4

What is the Jedi Religion?  Jediism is a non-theistic new religious movement based on the philosophical teachings of the Jedi in George Lucas’ mega hit series, Star Wars.  According to the Temple of The Jedi Force, 

Jediism is a modern religion which was born as the result of the Star Wars mythology.  George Lucas, when he created the Star Wars saga, used various aspects of Taoism, Shintoism, Buddhism, Christianity, Mysticism, and many other religious universal truths as well as a combination of different martial arts and the code of chivalry, in order to create the Jedi and the philosophies behind the Force.  The Jedi are modern versions of the Shao Lin Monk, the European Knight, and the Samurai warrior all mixed together.  The Jedi path has become an inspiration and way of life for many people throughout the world who take on the mantle of the Jedi.  Even though Jediism is a new faith, it is just as real as the ancient faiths and philosophies that it came from….. 

Followers of the Jedi religion/philosophy follow the way of the Jedi and live by the Jedi Code.  Like all other religions, established or new, Jediism is complex and extremely diverse.  Having no central authority, each Jedi organization is independent and therefore has differing philosophical and theological beliefs.  For the most part, Jedi organizations are democratic in nature and majority vote is necessary to implement any changes in church structure or doctrine.  Although tremendously diverse, most Jedi organizations profess commitment to the following Jedi Creed.  

• Jedi are the guardians of civilization and justice.
• Jedi use their knowledge and talents to defend and protect.
• Jedi respect all life, in any form.
• Jedi serve others rather than serving themselves, for the greater good.
• Jedi seek to improve themselves through knowledge and training.   

Some Jedi churches embrace an ecumenical approach by promoting Jediism as a complimentary philosophical path that can co-exist with other religious belief systems.  Other churches encourage total commitment to the Jedi path and find other religious beliefs to run contrary to the Jedi way of life.  All Jedi organizations are devoted to and believe in the power of The Force.   According to the Oklahoma Temple of the Jedi, the Force is 

an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together.” The Force, in part, is the energy associated with life, and life is associated with the Force. Most Jedi adhere to the ideology that the Force has a Will of it’s own, and it guides those who would listen to it’s subtle whispers. The Force is primarily made up of the “light side” and the “dark side”. These are concerned with the moral compass of the Force in its various manifestations of Balance. The light side of the Force is the facet of the Force aligned with good, benevolence, compassion, and healing. The dark side of the Force is aligned with fear, hatred, aggression, and malevolence [...] These “sides” of the Force are tied directly to the eternal Balance of the Universe… “Without Darkness, there can be no Light”. By the same token, the “side” of the Force one chooses to follow depends on that individual’s true intent within their heart.  

Although many Jedi members devote much of their time for training in the Jedi arts they also recognize the importance of serving others.  The Maryland Jedi Order promotes public service as an important undertaking inherent in the Jedi path.  “Jedi are peacemakers, protectors, and respecters of life in the world/universe. We strive to serve rather than rule. Self and societal improvement are our cause.”  

New religious movements are constantly emerging, evolving, and contributing to the religious diversity in which we live.  It will be interesting to observe how this intriguing new religious movement develops and what contributions it makes to our understanding of the religious landscape.   I look forward to exploring different aspects of Jediism with you in the future. For more information on Jediism visit the sites below.  

Fun Find:  To discover your Jedi name check out the Jedi Name Generator at: http://www.xach.com/misc/jedi-name.php.  My Jedi name is Abrhe Dejea and my husband’s is Sagte Deist!

• The Oklahoma Temple of the Jedi:  http://jedipraxeum.forumwise.com/jedipraxeum-thread369.html
• BBC Article:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8003067.stm 
• Temple of the Force:  http://templeofthejediforce.org/
• Maryland Jedi Order:  http://www.marylandjedi.org/

This article first published on April 11, 2010

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By:  Kenny Smith  

While popular imagination tends to think of colonial America (e.g., 17^th and 18^th centuries) as a land in which universal religious freedom reigned, the early America religious landscape was in fact quite the opposite. “In all but the largest cities,” James Hudnut-Beumler, Dean of Vanderbilt University’s Divinity School, writes in his recent an quite excellent book, In Pursuit of the Almighty’s Dollar: A History of Money and American Protestantism (2007), “there was no choice in the matter of which church to attend. There [was] but one church for [each] settlement, [and] citizens were taxed to support the official faiths.”  In Massachusetts, this meant the Congregational church, in Virginia and other southern colonies, the Anglican church, and in Maryland, the Catholic church.  Frequently, citizens were legally required not only to support “state churches” financially, but to attend them regularly.  Religious dissenters (that is, those offering brands of Christianity at odds with the official churches), were subject to social, and sometimes even legal, censure, fines, and punishments.     

The state-church system ultimately failed in America; by 1830 or so, the last of the state-church monopolies (in Massachusetts) had been swept away, and over the ensuing two centuries the concept of “freedom of religious expression” has come to be understood in progressively broader terms, including not only different brands of Christianity (e.g., Mormonism, Christian Science, 7^th Day Adventist, New Thought) but religious traditions that look to other sources of inspiration beyond the biblical text (e.g., Scientology, Wicca, New Age).  Today, one may “be religious” in an enormous number of ways, and scholars have even begun to wonder whether the most staunch atheists are, in fundamental ways, likewise “religious.”     

Scholars who study American religion have also wondered why, exactly, American history played out in ways that have emphasized a philosophy of personal religious liberty.  Some point to theology, noting the individualism implicit in Protestant understandings of Christianity, which emphasizes an individual’s relationship with God, to some degree unmediated by religious institutions and authority figures.  Others look to geography, arguing that, as colonial Americans explored and “settled” an endlessly wide-open frontier (though one suspects native American peoples saw the matter somewhat differently), they were forced to think and live along more ruggedly individualistic lines.  Still others have insisted that, from its earlier years, the colonial American landscape was, as Jon Butler tells us, far more “complex and bumptious” than has been previously acknowledged, and thus the enshrining of religious freedom in constitutional principles was simply a pragmatic acknowledgment of this basic social reality.      

Butler, who teaches at Yale and is a giant in the field of American religion, overturns some widespread assumptions about the American religious past. The colonies certainly had their share of pious Puritans (New England), Anglicans (the southern states), Quakers (Pennsylvania), and Catholics (Maryland), as well as raucous “upstarts” like the Baptists (Rhode Island), Methodists, and Presbyterians (some of the “dissenters” frowned upon by state churches).  They also, however, had atheists and agnostics, and less philosophically inclined others who were simply indifferent to religion and more deeply invested in trying to carve out a livelihood for themselves and their families in the uncertain and often treacherous New World.     

Perhaps even more surprising, Butler argues, colonial America was filled with “magical” beliefs and practices.  These were entertained and practiced by people of every class, age, race, and gender, and included such things as: astrological lore and the casting of horoscopes; use of charms or enchantments in influencing people, animals, weather, and good fortune; conjuring of angels or spirits of the dead; banishment of evil spirits or forces; communication with animal “familiars”; foretelling the future through prophetic dreams, visions, and the reading of omens in the natural world; the use of amulets for healing or protection; the finding of lost items or persons.  As Catherine Albanese (another giant in this field, and who teaches at UC Santa Barbara), it is a “virtual certainty, given the geographical sources of immigration to New England, that cunning folk, witches and wizards were disembarking from English ships in Massachusetts Bay along with everyone else.”    

Albanese, in fact, traces four different waves of British immigration to the American colonies between 1629-1775, each of which brought distinctive magical beliefs and practices to different colonies.  The first of these was the English Puritan immigration to Massachusetts between 1629-1640.  These folk hailed from Suffolk, Essex and Cambridge counties in eastern England, a region known for its central role in English witch-hunting.  Thus, alongside Puritans, into colonial New England came “the rural and village metaphysics” of “cunning folk” who could see signs of the future in the present, manipulate the weather, discern the truth of hidden matters, heal illness, ease childbirth, and so forth.  The second wave, a Royalist gentry class from southern England (with large numbers of indentured servants in tow) came to Virginia between 1649-1675.  These possessed an “educated Hermetic inheritance,” one preoccupied with reading one’s personal fortune in the stars and in games of chance. With the third wave, hailing from the North Midlands regions of England and Wales and settling in the Delaware Valley from 1657-1725, “[f]olk magic came to Pennsylvania and West Jersey…even if the Quaker leadership discouraged it in favor of the doctrine of the inner light.” Here, witchcraft beliefs became common, as did “prophecy, divination, geomancy, chiromancy and astrology.” The fourth wave, from the north of Britain and Ireland, came to the Appalachian backcountry between 1718-1775. Among these peoples it was believed that “the signs that came to ordinary folk came from nature…in impersonal and unfailing ways and a source of wisdom, guidance, and, especially, warning in everyday life.” Of course, many of these practices were illegal up into modern times, and those who engaged in them would necessarily do so discreetly.  At the same time, they were often deeply interwoven with Christianity and the popular culture of the time, an issue which scholars are really just beginning to address.    

The latter half of the 20^th century has seen a number of attempts to revive these, and still older, magical pre-Christian traditions.  Typically these traditions go by names such as Wicca, Paganism, Druidism, Heathenism, often grouped together under the label Neo-Pagan. Taken together, they constitute one of the fastest growing religious communities in America over the past two decades, conservatively estimated as representing at least 1% of the American population. This places them in a virtual tie in numerical significance with a great many other groups, such as Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists, each of which represents somewhere between 1-2% of Americans (the largest groups are Protestants at 50%, Catholics at 25%, and those professing “no religion” at 15%).     

For many Neo-Pagan persons and communities, this past Saturday night saw the celebration of a major holiday, Beltane. The Neo-Pagan calendar is quite distinctive, varying from the dominant western calendar in a number of important ways.  For Neo-Pagans generally, the year does not come to a close in late December, but rather in the last days of October, when the agricultural cycle is winding down (after the harvest of fruits, grains, and animals).  The course of eight major holidays (Sabbats) that follow (about every six weeks or so) trace out not just seasons and the changes in weather, but the ways in which sunlight and darkness change in relation to one another as the year progresses.  Neo-Pagan calendars tend to be oriented around winter and summer solstices (the shortest and longest days of the year), and spring and autumn equinoxes (days in which light and dark are perfectly balanced). More, they are linked to the ways in which the Goddess and God (female and male aspects of divinity, or divinities), grow, mature, and develop, as the seasons pass. Beltane is a celebration of the coming of summer, a time at which the Goddess and God are young, filled with creative, loving, life-giving energy.  Beltane is considered a very powerful, indeed fertile, time.      

The Neo-Pagan “Wheel of the Year” is clearly a different way of experiencing time.  Interestingly, as religious minorities that choose (and often need) to remain quiet about their religious identities (staying “in the broom closet,” as it were) Neo-Pagans learn to live in two calendars simultaneously, that of the dominant culture, and that of the sacred.

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By:  Heather Abraham

In response to Kenny Smith’s article, Gold’s Gym and Scientology in an Age of Authenticity, a Religion Nerd reader inquired as to the “doctrines and beliefs” of Scientology.  In response, I have compiled this brief article introducing the basics of Scientology to ReligionNerd readers; welcome to Scientology 101.

Founded by L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986) in 1953, The Church of Scientology has continuously found itself embroiled in a sea of controversy both here in the United States and abroad.  Apart from its ufology connections, Scientology has no apparent religious antecedent and therefore has stood out, even among other new religious movements, as something unique and for some, worrisome.  Scientology’s foundations began in 1950 with the publication of Hubbard’s best selling self-help book Dianetics: Modern Science of Mental Health.  According to George Chryssides in New Religions: A Guide,

Dianetics offers an analysis of the human self, which Hubbard called the ‘thetan.’  The thetan is distinct from both the mind and the body, and is the true immortal Godlike self. The body consists of matter, energy, space and time, (MEST) all of which lack independent reality and depend on the thetan.

According to Hubbard’s teachings, the human mind consists of the analytical rational mind and the reactive irrational mind which responds to raw stimuli and stores traces of psychological and emotional trauma called engrams.  These engrams, the result of the countless traumatic events which accumulated over many lifetimes, are stored in the reactive mind and are the source of human anguish, sadness, depression, psychological disorders, anger, and a plethora of destructive human behaviors.  Simply put, engrams prevent humans from reaching their full potential.  In order to rid humans of engrams, Hubbard created a therapy system which allows pre-clear humans to bring engrams into awareness through the  process of auditing in which the pre-clear, over an extensive period of time and through many levels of auditing, rids his or herself of the engrams and eventually becomes clear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01lljemjh9o

Auditing sessions are performed by trained auditors, within the Church of Scientology.  Auditors attach an e-meter (electropsychometer) to the pre-clear subject and encourage the pre-clear to recall traumatic experiences. Throughout the process of recalling, the e-meter measures electrical charges in the body and locates areas of stored spiritual distress, thus assisting the pre-clear in releasing the stored engrams.

The ultimate objective of these auditing sessions is for the pre-clear to extinguish the reactive mind becoming clear and to eventually achieve the ninth level of an operating thetan (OT).  Although there is no charge for these auditing sessions, The Church of Scientology does request an obligatory ‘donation’ which increases as the subject moves from 1^st to 10^th levels of OT.  This process of successfully completing one level and moving to another is referred to in Scientology speak as the Bridge to Total Freedom.  Once a Scientologist reaches the higher OT levels he/she will begin to acquire almost super human abilities.  Those who reach OT level eight and above are considered to be the most brilliant and creative souls on earth.  In Scientology 8-8008, first published in 1952, L. Ron Hubbard describes the fully rehabilitated thetan’s extraordinary abilities.

A thetan who is completely rehabilitated and can do everything a thetan should do, such as move MEST[matter, energy, space, and time] and control others from a distance, or create his own universe… is able to create illusions perceivable by others at will, to handle MEST universe objects without mechanical means and to have and feel no need of bodies or even the MEST universe to keep himself and his friends interested in existence.

Because the teaching material can be dangerous to those who have not achieved appropriate OT levels, Scientology enforces close scrutiny of any who may come in contact with higher level resources.  Accordingly, the higher the OT level the more restricted the teaching material becomes to outsiders.  According to Chryssides,

The OT material is strictly confidential and, it is said, can cause mental or even physical harm if it is divulged to those who are unauthorized to receive it….From official Scientology literature, however, it seems likely that OT material relates to ‘body thetans’- the remains of thetans [souls] who lost their bodies many millions of years ago as a result of a gargantuan explosion.  These beings devoid of their bodies, continue to latch onto the bodies of others, and it is incumbent on those who progress through OT levels to help release them from this situation.

These body-thetans are said to have been ‘killed’ in a vast explosion instigated by the galactic tyrant Xenu many millions of years ago.  In New Religions: A Guide, Andreas Grunschloss classifies Scientology as a “non apocalyptic Ufology” movement based on the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard.  Religious ufology movements are religions that incorporate

a basic ancient astronauts myth and conceives of earthly human beings primarily as (extraterrestrial) ‘thetans’ who have to access their ‘bridge to freedom’-a belief about the soul that has strong similarities with typical ufological notions of ‘star seeds’ or ‘walk-ins’ who had been planted in this earthly garden for spiritual growth. According to Scientology’s secret mythology, a fierce intergalactic ruler named ‘Xenu’ carried the thetans [souls] to earth.

Hubbard referred to these “astronaut myths” as space operas; actual historical events involving extraterrestrial civilizations throughout the galaxy.  Interestingly, Scientology has recently instituted a vague stance on the role ufology plays within their tradition.   In a 2009 interview with Martin Bashir, Tommy Davis, Director of Scientology’s Celebrity Center International in Los Angeles, refused to either acknowledge or disavow the existence of the Xenu myth as part of Scientology’s advanced teachings.  Bashir, respectful throughout the interview, pushed Davis for an explanation—causing Davis to angrily walk off the stage in mid interview.  Although Hubbard’s writings on Xenu have been disseminated to the public via the internet and court records, an official Scientology position has not yet been offered.  A quick search for Xenu on http://www.scientology.org/ resulted in a “your search yielded no results” response.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUiUyVqOuJI

Although most people are familiar with the Church of Scientology through its association with Hollywood stars such as Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and Kirstie Alley, Scientology attracts a diverse group of adherents from the world over.  It is estimated that in the United States members of the Church of Scientology number between 50,000-100,00.  According to Scientology’s official website (www.scientology.org) their movement is rapidly expanding across the globe.

Since the establishment of the first Church of Scientology in 1954, the religion has grown to span the globe. Today, more than 8,500 Scientology Churches, Missions, related organizations and affiliated groups minister the religion to millions of parishioners in 165 countries. And those numbers are constantly growing. In fact, they are growing more now than at any time in the religion’s history.  Scientology’s rapid emergence within the world’s changing religious community has led many to ask what kind of religion it is, how it compares with other faiths and in what ways it is unique.  As the only major worldwide religious movement to emerge in the 20th century, Scientology generates immense public interest.

I look forward to following this unique and intriguing new religious movement with RN readers and I hope that this brief albeit complex narrative provides a foundation for future explorations in Scientology events and controversies to come.

• Official Scientology website:  http://www.scientology.org/
• Video of Tommy Davis -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUiUyVqOuJI

  

• Full Interview Martin Bashir and Tommy Davis (45 min) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLG3teVnszQ

  

• Auditing video from Scientology – http://www.youhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01lljemjh9o