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Cybele
Marble statuette of the Cybele from Nicaea in Bithynia (Istanbul Archaeology Museum), wearing the polos on her head (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Cybele was a Mother Goddess with local manifestations in Asia Minor, Greece and Rome. Some scholars believe that she originated in Anatolia around 6000 BCE. She appears in literature and sculpture from about the 5th century BCE onward. She presides over the gods, humans and beasts.
The lion was her sacred symbol. In statues, reliefs and coins she’s often depicted seated on a throne with a lion on either side.
Sir William Smith in his Smaller Classical Dictionary says
The Corybantes were her enthusiastic priests, who with drums, cymbals, horns, and in full armour, performed their orgiastic dances. In Rome the Galli were her priests.¹
In Rome she was introduced as an official state religious figure and hence closely regulated and officiated by upper class priests.
Today, some people are drawn to her cult and, perhaps, numinous power – or what they believe is her numinous power. So her worship continues in the 21st century among New Age and neoPagan religious groups.²
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¹ Sir William Smith, Smaller Classical Dictionary [revised by E. H. Blakeny and JohnWarrington], New York: Dutton, 1958.
² See http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/cybele
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Sri Chinmoy
Princess Diana meeting with Sri Chinmoy, Kensington Palace, May 21st 1997 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Sri Chinmoy (1931-2007) was an Indian guru from W. Bengal. He was popular in the West and based in NYC until his death.
Credible in the eyes of some, listed as a cult leader by the French National Assembly Commission for Cult Investigation, Chinmoy ran a restaurant chain where devotees clothed themselves in traditional Indian attire.
Chinmoy used to write books about reincarnation and the meaning of life, as well as compose meditation music and lift weights. Not too long before his death he declared that his devotees were not allowed to marry nor have children.
To this kedarvideo adds:
That his disciples should remain single was part of his philosophy during all his teachings and not only before his passing. And this is common among all serious spiritual and religious paths and is also being practiced by most of the world’s monks and nuns. To read more on Sri Chinmoy’s life you can also check his website http://www.srichinmoy.org. » See in context
Kedarvideo’s claim is debatable. Just because someone is single does not necessarily make them “serious” (i.e. deep and close to God). And to ban marriage seems to imply that married people cannot be deep or close to God. In the eyes of most major religions this stance is both impractical and discriminatory.
When interested in Sri Chinmoy after studying in India, I attended a meeting for possible recruits. At that meeting a person who was related to a disciple called out that the disciple in question was ignoring his/her spouse and family at the expense of driving long hours to be with other Chinmoy disciples in NYC. This was my first exposure to the kind of tensions that can arise when a person embraces a new religious path that family members are not sympathetic to.
Related articles
- “I Am not the Body; I Am the Soul” – Breaking Limits with Sri Chinmoy (1earthnow.wordpress.com)
- Sleepless 500km run for charity (stuff.co.nz)
- How We Judge Others Is How We Judge Ourselves (tinybuddha.com)
Mind Abuse
John Lennon bronze sculpture with his current removable glasses via Wikipedia
Mind Abuse is a fairly recent term relating to a wide variety of phenomena where a person or institution psychologically manipulates a victim or victims into accepting beliefs and performing actions that a third party or parties, representing the moral majority, deems unhealthy and destructive to the victims’ true character and, perhaps, his or her greater society.
Standard examples would be so-called cults and suicidal spiritual movements.
However, some like John Lennon and Elton John make the case that all organized religion exemplifies mind abuse by deflecting pressing concerns about this world to another world (Lennon), or by encouraging hateful discrimination (John).
Organized religion could also be seen as a kind of mind abuse if upper level officials in a religious hierarchy had knowledge of unsavory practices within that hierarchy but withheld that knowledge from tithing believers and lower ranking clergy (who, in this scenario, would invest their lives in a lie or partial lie).
The idea of “mind abuse” is potentially useful for bona fide victims but also problematic in some cases. For instance, what if the status quo sees something as “abusive” when, in fact, it’s liberating for a believer? Clearly, some kind of social value judgment is involved here. Whether or not this value judgment is always correct is occasionally open to debate.
Search Think Free » Alien Possession Theory
Related Articles
- John Lennon: Overpopulation is a Myth (cherylcline.wordpress.com)
- “Nowhere Boy”: John Lennon, before the Beatles (salon.com)
- Tom Dean: Happy Birthday! John Lennon (grantlawrence.blogspot.com)
- The John Lennon Cheat Sheet (bettyconfidential.com)
- Last ever snap of Lennon revealed (thesun.co.uk)
- John Lennon Remembered (cbsnews.com)
- Sir Elton John’s mother sells his memorabilia for £28k (telegraph.co.uk)
- What would John Lennon be doing on his 70th birthday? (telegraph.co.uk)
- Nowhere Boy: Lennon and McCartney Before the Beatles (time.com)
- John Lennon, Unwitting Prophet? (catholicexchange.com)
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Zeus
Zeus The son of the Titan Cronus and Titaness Rhea, Zeus is the chief of the second generation Greek gods, usually arrayed with thunderbolts and an eagle.
By the time of Homer he came to be the most powerful deity in the Greek pantheon, his main role role being the overseer of cosmic justice. As such, he protects property, receives prayers and sacrifices, and punishes transgressors.
Because he was so big, he ironically had a relative few polis festivals (i.e. city festivals) in his honor. Polis festivals were generally reserved for lesser deities presiding over a particular city, such as Athena or Apollo.
Zeus had numerous offspring with several different goddesses, the most famous being Aphrodite.
He apparently had amorous relations with his young male cup-bearer, Ganymedes.
The mythologer Robert Graves says
The Zeus-Ganymedes myth gained immense popularity in Greece and Rome because it afforded religious justification for grown man’s passionate love for a boy.
The Greek Myths, Combined edition, London: Penguin, 1992, p. 117.
According to NeoPlatonist thought, Zeus isn’t at the top of the all-time divinity charts. Instead, the NeoPlatonists lowered his status from his previous rank of King.
Zeus’ Roman equivalent is Jupiter.
» Aesculapius, Aliens and Extraterrestrials (ETs), Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Athena, Castor and Pollux, Demeter, Dionysus, Dyaus, Fates, God, Hera, Hercules, Hermes, Hesiod, Jupiter, Muses, Odin, Olympians, Orphic Mysteries, Persephone, Poseidon, Romeo and Juliet, Shapeshifter, Titans, Tyche
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Adamski, George
Adamski, George (1891–1965) Polish-born American well-known among UFO researchers and enthusiasts, alike, for his writings about alleged encounters with extraterrestrials.
In his book written with Desmond Leslie, Flying Saucers Have Landed (1953), Adamski claims that beautiful, benevolent beings invited him aboard their spaceship.
Adamski says the ship’s pilot was telepathically connected to the propulsion system. By controlling thought waves interfaced with advanced technology, the aliens allegedly tapped into elemental harmonic rhythms of the universe.
This, according to Adamski, enabled their penetration and actual travel through space-time. Adamski’s diagram of the circular transportation system is likened to the Hopi medicine wheel.
Adamski also says, however, that the minds of human beings are currently far too chaotic and undisciplined to meaningfully (and safely) harness such a technology, a sentiment which recalls Arthur Koestler‘s notion that, by virtue of its apparently random evolution from primitive to complex, the human brain is intrinsically conflicted.
Critics of Adamski are many. Most feel that his accounts fall into the category of hoax, as the following aptly illustrates.
One aspect of the UFO story does seem to be deeply involved in hoax. This is the so-called contactee cult. Many people now located over much of the world claim to have had direct contact with the flying-saucer people. (Adamski and Leslie, 1958; UFO International).
Perhaps the contactee is informed by mental telepathy that he should report promptly to a certain lonely spot in the desert. Upon obeying, he is met by a flying saucer whose occupants are, as a rule, beautifully humanoid and who frequently take him into their confidence by allowing him to photograph themselves and their craft, inviting him in for a look at the control panels, and perhaps taking him for a quick spin, sometimes to Mars or Venus but best of all to the mysterious planet on the other side of the sun, unobservable from mother earth.
Everything about these stories seems to cry hoax. The proof is typically a series of photographs (which could easily be fraudulent) and copious quantities of pseudoscience. Someone who had really contacted visitors from another world should surely be able to do better than that. Why should visitors from another world bother with such obscure representatives of the human race, anyway? Their message is always that man must cease his wars or be destroyed, but why should such an important message be given to someone who is bound to be considered a liar when he delivers it?
Frank B. Salisbury, “The Scientist and the UFO” in BioScience, Vol. 17, No. 1, (Jan., 1967: 15-24, p. 19).
» Alien Possession Theory (APT)
Image Source:
- “UFO Incident” by Flidais Earie at http://www.flickr.com/photos/flidais/431988892 Creative Commons License
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Adherents of all Religions
Adherents of all Religions It is difficult to get accurate figures for the number of adherents in each world religion.
Religion being a very personal issue, often central to one’s self-image, it’s conceivable that many people don’t wish to report their true beliefs to a proverbial Big Brother and thus will check “other” or “personal” on a government census.
Other people may live in tribal societies and are never directly asked what they believe–it is merely assumed that each individual adheres to the general beliefs of his of her group. A good example of this would be the Santals of India and Bangladesh, who according to a 1991 census are about 4.2 million strong. Among this significant population, the religious beliefs of only 23,645 individuals are officially recorded.
Another issue is the problem of defining religion (versus, for instance, a cult, a collective delusion, a myth or a pastime) and trying to assess who, if anyone, has the authority to define it.
On the issue of New Religious Movements (NRM) Eileen Barker says:
When social scientists have been pressed in a court of law to say whether a particular NRM is “really” a religion, they have not always insisted as clearly as they might that science cannot give the definition of a real religion. It is only when the court provides a definition, or we use the form “if by religion you mean. . ,” that we can say whether, according to that definition, the movement is “really” religious.
Eileen Barker, “The Scientific Study of Religion? You Must Be Joking!” in Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 34, No. 3, (Sep., 1995: 287-310, p. 306).
Having noted the above, the following figures should be taken cum grano salis.
2000 CE, in millions:
| Christians | 2,020 | |
| Muslims | 1,200 | |
| Hindus | 860 | |
| Buddhists | 360 | |
| Jews | 20 | |
| Sikhs | 24 | |
| Shinto | 95 | |
| Bahai’is | 8 | |
| Jains | 4 | |
| Parsees | 0.219 | |
| Tribal Religions | 100 | |
| New Religions | 138 | |
| Total world population | 6,260 |
Source: D.B. Barrett, ed., World Christian Encyclopedia (1982) in G. Parrinder, A Concise Encyclopedia of Christianity (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 1998, p. 9).
On the World Wide Web:
- Adherents.com (an excellent site providing the reservations mentioned above are kept in mind)
Image Source:
- “Canada World Religion Day Stamp” originally uploaded by Kianoosh Raika at http://www.flickr.com/photos/djkianoosh/474556286/, Creative Commons License
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Adi Da (aka Free-John, Da 1939- )
Adi Da (aka Free-John, Da 1939- ) Originally Franklin Jones, Adi Da is an American guru born in Jamaica, New York. He has also gone under the names of Da Free-John, Bubba Free-John and Heartmaster Da.
Adi Da claims to have reached enlightenment at age three years. In their Dictionary of Cults, Sects, Religions and the Occult, Mather and Nichols note that this achievement did not last. In his college days Adi Da explored different forms of hedonism, to include LSD and open sex.
To this criticism Adi Da replies that his activities were an essential stage within his path of discovery.
Adi Da also says he is an incarnation of the Brahman. Like many New Age enthusiasts, he denigrates organized forms of Christianity. And like most Hindus and devotees of Hinduism, Adi Da counters the Christian claim that Jesus is the only son of God.
For Adi Da Jesus is one of many avatars or “incarnations,” not unlike that which Adi Da, himself, claims to be.
But Adi Da is not just critical of organized Christianity. He, in fact, contests all organized religions, claiming the truth of the spiritual quest may be found in one’s own heart.
To realize this apparent truth, veils of selfishness and ignorance must be recognized and dispelled.
Ironically, his California group gatherings and North American tours exhibit many of the characteristics of organized religion, with Adi Da at the center.
Listed in several cult and manipulation internet indexes, Adi Da has founded the Free Communion Church/Dawn Horse Fellowship and Laughing Man Institute.
While claiming to be beyond any particular system, he studied under and has theological affinities with several Hindu gurus, the most salient affinity being the belief in reincarnation. It has also been suggested that he possesses psi abilities and can read the thoughts of his disciples, an alleged ability known as siddhis in Hindu and Buddhist belief systems.
Some call Adi Da a religious genius, others a profound theologian and yet others suggest he’s the head of a “dysfunctional organization” for sincere but sorely misguided seekers (Source » http://www.adidaarchives.org ).
On the World Wide Web:
- http://www.adidam.org/ (Official web site)
- http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/misc/adida.cfm/ (Mixed opinion)
- http://guruphiliac.blogspot.com/2005/06/big-adi-daddi.html (Negative opinion)
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Ancestor Cults
Ancestor Cults [ancestor, from Latin antecessor, from ante, before + cedere, to go]
Various traditions around the world venerate and pray to deceased ancestors.
These so-called ‘cults’ believe that familial spirits come to aid in daily life by bestowing spiritual power, protection, wisdom and even practical guidance through individuals acting as mediums.
With roots in Africa, China, Korea, Taiwan, and Japan, ancestor veneration especially appears in folk religions. Ritual is often present.
In Africa ancestors are said to protect living relatives from witches and voodoo curses.
In Asia ancestor veneration is found in varying degrees of importance in Confucianism, Taoism, Shinto and Buddhism.
In China, the graves of ancestors are meticulously kept, despite former Marxist and Communist attempts to squelch out other spiritual practices.
In North American Native religions, the ongoing presence of the dead is taken to be equally as important as the ongoing presence of the living.
Western culture tends to view this as odd and some religious groups deplore it as Satanic, probably because of their focus on the trappings and trends of everyday life.
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