Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2003, Page 84
small fraction of its peak membership while retaining significant properties. CUT continues
to rationalize Elizabeth Prophet‘s dementia as a metaphor of ―forgetfulness‖ as it struggles
to sustain the interest of current members and to attract new support during a ―second life
cycle.‖
Despite my criticisms, I recommend this book by Bradley Whitsel as a must read for anyone
interested in the nature and history of Church Universal and Triumphant.
*The Festinger, et al study in When Prophecy Fails assigned aliases to the group characters, but my
research indicates that that the group was a ―space brother‖ cult featuring Dorothy Martin (aka Sister
Thedra, died 1992). Martin was a medium (not unlike Elizabeth Clare Prophet) who channeled
Sananda and other Ascended Masters (she called them Space Brothers) who commandeered a space
ship that was to materialize and save the group from a predicted catastrophic flood during 1956.
Martin left ―Lakeland‖ (Chicago) soon after the negative publicity and failure to recruit any new
members caused the group to disperse. Martin, who used several aliases, first resettled in Arizona
where she briefly studied with the then very new Scientology movement, and she continued her
idiosyncratic Sananda cult activities in Arizona and Mt. Shasta, CA till her death.
Joseph P. Szimhart
Fuerstein, Georg. Holy Madness: the shock tactics and radical teachings of
crazy-wise adepts, holy fools, and rascal gurus The Mystery of Light: The
life and teaching of Omraam Mikhaёl Aïvanhov
Holy Madness. Arkana: Penguin Books USA Inc., 375 Hudson St., New York, NY
10014, 1992 [1991 edition by Paragon House], 296 pages, ISBN 0-14-019.370-7
(pbk.).
Mystery of Light. Integral Publishing, P.O. Box 1030, Lower Lake, CA 95457, 1998,
246 pages, ISBN 0-941255-51-4 (pbk.)
This review of Holy Madness has lingered in my mind for ten years after I first read the
1992 Arkana edition by Georg Feuerstein, Ph.D.. My interest renewed recently when a client
asked me about an obscure, Bulgarian spiritual teacher, Omraam Mikhaёl Aïvanhov (1900-
1984). In my research I discovered that Feuerstein wrote a promotional biography about
Aïvanhov published in 1998 by a company founded by the author. Feuerstein is an
internationally known researcher and promoter of Yoga as well as an historian of religion
with thirty books to his credit. He runs his Yoga Research and Education Center recently
relocated to the Mt. Lassen area of Northern California (http://www.yrec.org). His
interest in gurus goes further than merely academic—he indicates a youthful pattern of
serious seeking for a teacher in his own right. His connection with Aïvanhov stems from his
chance encounter with a book he read by the deceased Bulgarian in 1989 and liked very
much. As a result of Feuerstein‘s quest for more books he met one of Aïvanhov‘s disciples,
Therese Boni, who helped guide the biography, The Mystery of Light, and became his
―spiritual friend.‖
During 1984 Aïvanhov was on a speaking tour around the USA. Feuerstein had heard
nothing of him at that time, but had he known, he says, ―I would gladly have journeyed
from my home in Northern California to see him.‖ (Mystery, xv). In 1984 I had heard
nothing of Aïvanhov either, but I had seen posters in Santa Fe, New Mexico, my home at
the time, advertising his lecture tour. Santa Fe then, as it has been for a century, was a
Mecca for artists as well as for a polyglot of spiritual seekers, traveling gurus, and New Age
groups. When I arrived there in 1975 fresh out of art school, I became one of Santa Fe‘s
seekers, looking especially into the Theosophy schools that had influenced many pioneer
modern artists. Subsequently I read works from the Philosophical Research Society, the
Agni Yoga Society, the ―I AM‖ Activity, the Rosicrucians, the Summit Lighthouse and other

Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2003, Page 85
schools that claimed to represent the teachings of the arcane White Brotherhood. After
some years of hopeful if problematic involvement, I became a critic of the entire
Theosophical cult of Masters by 1981. Meeting the living Aïvanhov, a ―living master‖ from
that same system (one that he named Fraternité Blanche Universelle (FBU) after his
master‘s group, Byalo Bratstvo (Bulgarian), a.k.a. the Universal White Brotherhood,
impressed me quite differently than it might have Feuerstein. I was curious about
Aïvanhov‘s view and that he established L‘École Divine around 1948 as belonging to his FBU
(Mystery, 45).*
Feuerstein wrote Holy Madness around eight years before his publication of The Mystery of
Light. In the former effort he critically explores a host of cult leaders, crazy-wise adepts and
gurus while examining the whys and wherefores of their influence. His knowledge of this
fringe world is impressive—few religious scholars have bothered to take the recent rascal
guru movements seriously, as they represent a kind of carnival sideshow in the history of
religions. Due to my odd profession as a deprogrammer and cult specialist that spans over
two decades, I have observed this sideshow as much out of career necessity as personal
curiosity. I was very familiar with nearly every one of the main characters in his discussion,
among them Gurdjieff, Da Love Ananda, Aleister Crowley, Bhagwan Rajneesh/Osho, and
Chögyam Trungpa, but I was not familiar with Lee Lozowick. Feuerstein mentions dozens of
other characters from eastern and western traditions, and he has a facility to support his
arguments, quoting from the likes of K. Wilber, E. Underhill, E. Vaughn, W.B. Yeats, R.C.
Zaehner, Plato, and St. Paul. His text examines issues of cultism and brainwashing, but
questions the accuracy of certain anti-cult groups that see only harm in the tactics of rascal
gurus.
Holy Madness is written in three parts: In ―The Phenomenon‖ the author introduces the
reader to these teachers with enough description to give the novice at least some idea of
the crazy territory. In this book Feuerstein does not hold back when reporting on the abuse
of sex, drugs, and power by these adepts. His references are many and solid. In ―Part Two:
The Context‖ he takes us into more difficult territory as he looks into the spiritual practices
with chapter headings that include: ―The Guru: The License to Kill‖, ―Discipleship: Spiritual
Cloning or Brainwashing?‖ and ―God, Enlightenment, and Ego-Death.‖ In Part Three he
examines ―The Significance‖ and enters into a more personal reflection in which he gropes
quite eloquently for meaning in all this mess. Feuerstein states on page 188: ―Few of the
groups or cults that have sprung up since the 1960s, which purport to break away from the
mediocrity of mainstream religion and culture, are truly the alternative altars they claim to
be. In most cases, it is a matter of old wine in new, sometimes quite weirdly shaped
bottles.‖ Perhaps he meant wineskins, but his intent is nevertheless well taken.
Feuerstein is interested in the phenomena of ―real self-transformation‖ as represented both
by the western (Jewish/Christian/Muslim) mystical traditions and, what appears to be his
personal leaning, the enlightenment process that pervades Buddhism, and more so the
Sanatana Dharma of the Hindu-Vedic tradition. He is, after all, a teacher and researcher of
Yoga. He represents a few of these odd teachers in a positive light, among them Meher
Baba, Ramana Maharshi, Sri Aurobindo, and Aïvanhov. The latter he quotes once:
―Everyone has his own path, his mission, and even if you take your Master as a model, you
must always develop in a way that suits your own nature‖ (Holy Madness, 144). Feuerstein
very much wants the reader to grasp that despite the wicked behavior of some of these
crazy-wise gurus, they are onto something—they are after all ―wise.‖ If nothing else,
teachers like Da Love Ananda and Gurdjieff (who are pathological in their abusive teaching
methods both from his description and their history) still serve a valuable function,
according to the author. ―Crazy-wise adepts and eccentric masters in this book.…still serve a
useful societal function: to act as mirrors of the ―insanity‖ of consensus reality and as
beacons of that larger Reality [sic] that we habitually tend to exclude from our lives‖ (Holy