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Directly Imposed
A striking example of directly imposed anorexia appears in the dietary restrictions of Church
Universal and Triumphant. Its leader (until 1996), Elizabeth Clare Prophet, claimed to
channel messages from the great ascended masters (such as Jesus and the Buddha).
Through these messages, Prophet gave her followers direct orders about what they should
eat, how they should eat, and even where they should sit while eating. She stressed that
she knew what was best for them and that ―disobedience‖ (her word) would have been
detrimental to their health and well-being. While members‘ participation in dietary
restrictions might suggest that I should view the group as one that doctrinally accepted the
control of food, I include Prophet in the direct imposition category because of her face-to-
face contact with those of her followers who lived with her or who saw her at events or
retreats.
Prophet‘s dietary restrictions on her members have obvious analogies to the restraint that
the anorexic has over her own body. She wrote, for example, in an internal publication
entitled Pearls of Wisdom that when one eats:
…you must hold them [food] in your right hand, placing once again your left
hand to your heart and calling forth the infinite blessing of Almighty God and
the charging of that substance with a concentrated light that is specific for
your healing (Prophet and Prophet, 1978: 169-170).
Anorexics also often have elaborate ritualized behaviours that accompany eating, such as
breaking their food into little pieces or eating in a specified time (Johnston, 1993: 78).
These behaviours give anorexics a sense of familiarity and routine over their eating habits.
Likewise, Prophet was so intent upon her quest for dominance that she even prescribed
eating-related actions.
In addition to ritualizing the consumption of food, Prophet determined seating
arrangements. These instructions were a direct attempt to dictate the dietary environment
of her followers. For example, Prophet wrote: ―Father and mother should sit opposite one
another at the table anchoring the ray of Alpha and Omega, and the children on either side.
Perfect God-control should be held by father and mother in the wholeness‖ (Prophet and
Prophet, 1978: 71). In less controlled environments, the family meal serves to maintain and
develop familial bonds of solidarity, and family members interact with each one another in
an informal and relaxed atmosphere (Levenstein, 1988:162). Prophet‘s infiltration of the
family meal, therefore, had direct implications for the weakening of group member familial
social bonds. She, however, explained her dietary restraints as necessary so that one
neither strained nor stressed one‘s body temple (Prophet and Prophet 1978: 75). It
appears, however, that the excuse of strain was just a way to exact persistent obedience
from followers.
Prophet outlined what her followers took into their bodies, as well as when and how they
ate. Like the anorexic who uses diet to control herself, Prophet used diet and eating rituals
to repress her followers. In fact, she threatened her followers that if they did not follow her
‗suggestions‘ about what to eat, then they may have been contributing to their own demise:
Watch then, the substance that you take into your body for the appetites of the physical
body and the appetites of death, and when you take in impure substance you violate the
code of the Holy Spirit and you shorten the days of your service. And therefore, let food that
is alive and let the juices of food that is alive be a part of your daily ritual in the Holy Spirit
(Prophet, 1978: 245).
Elizabeth Clare Prophet‘s personal diet varied considerably from the low calorie, bland food
of the members of Church Universal and Triumphant. Prophet had her own walk-in
refrigerator stocked with expensive delicacies such as exotic fruit, ice cream, and seafood

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(Paolini and Paolini, 2000: 73). The average member of the group subsisted on rice and
vegetables while expending a significant amount of energy working at church-run
businesses or on communal projects. Ironically, Prophet could afford her own delicacies,
but she forbade the same luxuries for her followers.
Prophet epitomizes the over-bearing ideological group leader likened to the anorexic. She
desired her followers‘ complete obedience so fervently that she used dietary restrictions in
an attempt to control her followers pervasively. In this case, as in other ideological groups,
Prophet‘s followers were her body and she was the anorectic who used dietary restrictions
to control it.
Rama Behera appears to be a striking example of another ideological leader who directly
imposes dietary measures and restrictions upon his followers. Behera leads a small Bible-
based congregation called the Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ in the town of Shawano,
Minnesota (Blum, 1982). In recent years, several members have left the group, and they
have reported very intense food restrictions as well as mass enforced binges.8 According to
former member Eugene Baugh, most group members fasted for the majority of the working
week. Baugh recounts the difficulty that he experienced during one particularly severe fast:
This [instruction from Behera] meant no food whatsoever during the term of
the fast. Initially fruit juices were allowed. Some of the brethren then took
to drinking large amounts of fruit juices. When Rama learned of this he
proscribed juices too. Being that we had no money to buy juice in the first
place we went without nourishment of any kind for three days. I would often
keel over and black out. This was ascribed to a demonic attack (Baugh,
2000: 41, emphasis added).
It is interesting to note that Baugh‘s physiological reaction, most likely brought on by
fasting and lack of adequate nutrition, was misattributed to a spiritual cause.
On weekends Behera held large feasts where he required every member to consume large
quantities of East Indian cuisine. Behera allegedly insisted that members consume every
morsel of food that he provided to them. After fasting all week, however, some members
were physically unable to eat the mass quantity of food that Behera forced upon them on
the weekends (Elina Lane, 2001: 3 Elliot Lane, 2001: 5). Former member Elina Lane
recounted her diet during her childhood in Behera‘s group:
Another deprivation I went through was food. Or rather lack of control of [food]. Rama
would make us fast all weekend, and then stuff us with more than we could handle in one
meal. We would work all day, then go to another meeting, and then work some more.
Finally Rama would feed us breakfast, lunch, and supper all at one meal. He would give us
these quart size bowls of soup to shove down our throats. At first, it was great. But soon
we became stuffed. Yet, we still had to keep eating whatever was left in our bowls. Not
only that, but we also had to finish off a loaf of bread along with that (Elina Lane, 2001: 3).
Reportedly, many group members vomited in reaction to consuming large quantities of food
in a short time, after which Behera reputedly forced them to eat their own vomit (Giese,
2001: 1). At first one may think that these ‗binge eating‘ events on weekends are analogous
to the activities of bulimics. Typically, however, bulimics purge themselves (Buckroyd,
1996: 20), while Behera‘s followers purged involuntarily. If, however, one were to conceive
of Behera‘s adherents as his ‗body‘ of followers, then the analogy with bulimia becomes
stronger.
On some occasions, Behera supposedly enforced a diet of bread and chili hot sauce, where
he required members to consume only bread and extremely hot chili sauce or chili sauce
and raw eggs (Giese, 2001: 2-3 Thorpe, 2001: 4). On others, Behera apparently obligated
members to eat huge quantities of food in one seating, sometimes feeding them large