Cultic Studies Journal, Volume 17, 2000, Page 132
process is that time directly after death, or during a near death experience, when a soul has
a chance to see his life and prepare for whatever he needs to atone for in the next. The
technique for ―Holding the Vision‖ includes sitting in a circle with your soul ―group‖ and
focusing on the entire faces of each member until one can ―image,‖ as a group, the higher
vision. In the story, Maya, the narrator, Charlene, Curtis, Joel, and David Lone Eagle do this
while captives of the sinister experimenters. At a crucial time they manage to ―hold‖ a
―hologram‖ of the vision long enough to disrupt the function of the psychotronic device.
The Insighters receive magical help from ―white streaks‖ or ―movements of white light‖ at
significant times. A white light ―interferes‖ to stop a bullet aimed at Maya in one scene. At
the end, Wil explains, ―They're the angels ...They respond to our faith and vision and make
miracles. They seem to be a mystery even to those in the Afterlife ...I think we are to
understand the angels next.‖ (pp. 235-236)
In conclusion, The Tenth Insight is a well-organized complement to The Celestine Prophecy.
It is slightly better written but the stilted, humorless character development remains. The
book will sell well, if the five million sold copies of Celestine are any indication. Cyberspace
is popping with Celestine pages and dialogs all over the world. I found the Inca Games, a
―magical energy game‖ or four hour workshop ($44-$66, 66 maximum players) based on
the ―energy‖ of the Celestine Prophecy. One young man wrote, ―I read the book today and
feel it will affect my life in a profound and irreversible way ...I have a definite direction in
life that will eventually reveal itself to me.‖ Perhaps. Most of the comments I read were
from Insight enthusiasts who take the teachings seriously. They truly believe that the
powers expressed --the powers of magical healing, soul projection, aura sex, and
manipulating love and forgiveness as if they were quantities of divine light --are available
to all non-doubters. When will they learn?
Joe Szimhart
Cult Information Specialist and Consultant
Pottstown, PA
Peculiar Prophets: Biographical Dictionary of New Religions. James R.
Lewis. Paragon House, 2700 University Ave., West, St. Paul MN, 55114. 1999.
ISBN. 1-22778-768-9. Paperback, 400 pages, $19.95
This peculiar presentation of nearly 350 newer religious ―prophets‖ spans the last two
centuries or so. From Abdu‘l-Baha, a major figure of the Baha‘i Faith, to Oberon Zell, the
founder of the Church of All Worlds, James R. Lewis has managed to summarize a good
collection of the more interesting religious characters in recent history. Students of the new
religions will recognize names, such as L. Ron Hubbard, Rajneesh/Osho, Anton LaVey, Shrii
Shrii Anandamurti, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, J. Z. Knight, Peter Caddy, Louis Farrakhan, and
William Miller. Lewis includes many names you may not be familiar with: Louisa Teish,
Orange Scott, Francisco Olazabal, John Wroe, Gavin Frost, Dorothy Clutterbuck, and Asa
Alonzo Allen as samples.
Some of the many names missing that I believe are worthy of this collection are: Omraam
Mikhael Aivanhov, Torkom Saraydarian, E. J. Gold, Ramona Africa, Lee Carroll [Kryon], Tara
Singh, Helen Schucman [A Course in Miracles] and Dr. William S. Sadler [Urantia Book]. I
mention these not to fault the author, but to indicate to the reader that a more thorough
enterprise could easily have included a thousand or more names. A complete listing is not
the purpose of this ―dictionary.‖ The beginning student of the new religions will find this
volume to be a valuable primer on the colorful diversity of new sects. Critics of the more
controversial ―prophets‖ in this book will be dismayed by the paucity of evidence for why
there is a controversy. The prophets included in the book, and their devotees, should have
little to complain about. Lewis indicates in his forward that this is a work in progress. He

Cultic Studies Journal, Volume 17, 2000, Page 133
would like to hear from ―churches‖ included in the list that did not receive initial clarification
requests to correct any errors or addresses.
Joe Szimhart
Cult Information Specialist and Consultant
Pottstown, PA
Holy Smoke. Produced by Jane Chapman, directed by Jane Campion, written by
Anna Campion and Jane Campion, photography by Dion Beebe, music by Angelo
Badalamenti, distributed by Miramax Films. Released 1999-2000. Rated R for
nudity, sex, profanity and sexual violence. Running time: 1 hour, 54 minutes
It may have been two or three years ago since I first heard the buzz about research Jane
Campion conducted for a film about deprogramming a cult member. At the time I was still
deeply involved in that milieu as a professional exit counselor. After the film‘s initial release
in Europe, Australia, and selected cities in the USA at the end of 1999, reactions were
mixed. Some criticized Campion‘s quirky portrayal of a coercive deprogramming event as
―ridiculous.‖
One reviewer for Time Magazine saw the film as a dark but artsy, ―feminist parable‖
wrapped around a clash of wills. He appeared to like it. Some Australians I know did not
appreciate the apparently senseless mockery of an Aussie family. In one scene, a live sheep
passes for a coffee table. Heated reactions came, as one might expect, from counter-cult
people who have tried for decades to promote a legal, benign approach to intervention that
came to be called ―exit counseling.‖ However, Campion knew that some exit counselors,
sometimes lapsed into use of security guards and ―safe houses,‖ just as deprogrammers
had done in the past. So her deprogrammer is called an ―exit counselor,‖ and Holy Smoke
utilizes the more dramatic, coercive model of cult intervention.
Theaters in my area of Philadelphia did not show Holy Smoke until mid-February. Ironically,
as fate would have it, I flew to Australia at the end of January to help a family with an
intervention --my twelfth or thirteenth trip down under on such missions. There I found
time to see Holy Smoke on its home turf. I went with my cousin, who like me is in her early
fifties, and with her adult daughter. I wanted their opinion. At this date the film was not
doing well at the box office --relatively few theaters in Australia were carrying it, and the
impressive Crunulla Cinema Centre sold only 8 or 9 tickets to the show we attended.
Promotional posters, tongue-in-cheek, say: ―Sex captive in desert hideaway…young beauty
seduced by macho American twice her age.‖
The film portrays the dark passage to self-knowledge of a young Australian woman, Ruth,
impressively played by Kate Winslet. Her Sydney-based, dysfunctional family hears that
Ruth joined a guru‘s cult in India. They seek help from a local Jewish cult expert who directs
them to hire ―the best‖ in P. J. Waters (Harvey Keitel), an American ―exit counselor.‖ P.J.
gets ―10,000 dollars‖ to take the case.
The movie opens with a dramatic flow of travel scenes of Ruth in India with her girlfriend.
Campion captures some of colorful, people-rich New Delhi. A curious Indian man standing
behind Ruth on a crowded bus sneaks a hand to feel the foreigner‘s blonde hair. She is not
amused. Ruth appears to be a spacey, impressionable girl at this stage, curious about some
happy western girls dressed in saris. So we are not too surprised that she falls in love with a
holy man, Baba, after encountering his gaze at his ashram. Ruth is immediately smitten by
an electric experience illustrated by psychedelic imagery. Her friend, with her the whole
time, reacts with alarm, and she cannot persuade Ruth to leave the place. Back in Sydney,
the friend tells Ruth‘s family what happened and why Ruth will not come home.