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Ancient memories are magically contained in one member of the Committee of Elders. He or
she is the Receiver (of memories) whose primary function is to advise the Committee to
avoid policies that might return the Community to that ancient, painful era. After his
singular Assignment, Jonas meets his mentor, now the Giver, who begins a magical process
that could take years of daily sessions to transfer vivid, realistic experiences into Jonas‘s
memory bank. Each time the old Giver releases a memory, he is released of one more
pleasure or pain that he carried for the Community. Jonas begins to feel love, death,
sunshine, cold, and all other sensations in hundreds of scenes for the first time. For
example, he absorbs death as a soldier on a battlefield and he enjoys sailing on an ocean.
Jonas also has access to thousands of old books and records no one else in the Community,
not even the Elders, can examine.
The story reaches its dramatic peak when Jonas decides to save a tiny child now listed for
release. He and the Giver both decide it is time to change the Community by releasing the
memories back to all its citizens. This can only be done when a Receiver no longer exists or
escapes to Elsewhere. Jonas chooses escape. He steals his father‘s bicycle with the child
carrier on it and peddles past the river, past similar Communities, and into the wilderness
where he crosses a mountain to Elsewhere. The story ends before we know the actual fate
of the Community, but we do know that one brave young man has saved a child and is now
entering an uncertain life in a more natural human setting.
In the tradition of futuristic novels like Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four, Lowry
illustrates the hidden dangers and destructive elements of a totalistic society. Former
members of our modern cults will easily identify with Jonas, the young hero who recovers
his authentic soul from the superficially happy world of the Community.
Joseph Szimhart
Cult Information Specialist and Consultant
Pottstown, PA
Index of Watchtower Errors, David A. Reed (Ed.). Baker Book House, 1990.
This book records the prophetic errors of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (WT) in
detail. The reason these prophetic errors are significant is that it establishes that by its own
standards, the WT (Jehovah‘s Witness) organization is illegitimate.
Index points out that the WT has claimed to be God‘s sole mouthpiece on earth today, This
is what they said: ―Is not the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society the one and only channel
which the Lord has used in dispensing his truth continually?‖(1) They also professed, ―Who
will be Jehovah‘s prophet? Who will be the modern Jeremiah? The plain facts show God has
been pleased to use Jehovah‘s Witnesses.(2)‖ This claim of organizational exclusivity should
be a warning signal to the wary that the WT is a cult.
But is this criticism fair? Aren‘t even genuine prophets allowed to make mistakes? The
answer for the WT must be no, for two reasons. Reed and his collaborators, Steve Huntoon
and John Cornell point out that the WT invites such a critical examination: ―Of course, it is
easy to say that this group acts as a ‗prophet‘ of God. It is another thing to prove it. The
only way that this can be done is to review the record.‖ Index does just that.(3)
The second reason that the WT‘s prophetic failures are important has to do with their
reliance upon biblical authority. According to the WT, the Bible is completely true (although
they have their own, altered version of it). In the Bible it says that anyone who claims to
speak as a prophet of Almighty God must be completely accurate in the area if predictive
prophesy. If he is not, he has established himself as a false prophet. The WT‘s New World
Translation quotes God as saying, ―In case you should say in your heart, ‗How shall we
know the word that Jehovah has not spoken?‘ When the prophet speaks in the name of

Cultic Studies Journal, Volume 17, 2000, Page 141
Jehovah and the word does not occur or come true, that is the word that Jehovah did not
speak‖ (Deuteronomy 18:21-22). This is the classic definition of a false prophet.
Therefore, the WT has, by its own standards disqualified itself as a faith that deserves a
hearing. But in addition to establishing that the WT is a false prophet, Reed et al., show that
the WT is guilty of other spiritual abuses, such as:
 Thought reform (―Avoid independent thinking … questioning the counsel that is provided
by God‘s visible organization.‖(4)
 Strict organizational control (―…we must not only recognize Jehovah God as our Father
but his organization as our Mother.‖(5)
 Shunning former members, even when they are in the same household (―We should not
see how close we can get to relatives who are disfellowshipped from Jehovah‘s
organization, but we should ‗quit mixing company‘ with them.‖(6).
Index indicates that these are reasons to be concerned about family and friends who may
be involved with the WT religion. It simply confirms what is evident to most of us outside
the WT: It is an abusive religious cult.
Index can be used as a tool to assist in the process of educating Witnesses about the cultic
nature of the WT. However, great care must be exercised in its use with the Witnesses,
because they are taught that opposition will come from outsiders, particularly from those
who are close to the Witness herself.
(1) WT 4/1/19, 6414
(2) WT 1/15/59, 40-41
(3) WT 4/1/72, 197
(4) WT 1/15/83, 22
(5) WT 5/1/57, 274
(6) WT 7/15/63, 444
Everett Shropshire, Director
Watchman Fellowship of California
New Age Almanac. J. Gordon Melton. Visible Ink Press, 1999, $16.95.
The New Age Almanac could more aptly be named the New Age Encyclopedia. Gordon
Melton, who has become a chronicler of religious movements of the 20th century, attempts
to do the same for the so-called New Age movement. The book was originally published in
1991 following the Reagan-era, a decade that saw tremendous focus on materialism in our
country. The New Age movement probably reached its peak in the 1980‘s as a backlash to
the ―greed is good‖ theme of that decade. As such the book must be viewed in that context
because there have been tremendous changes in cults, sects, and new age groups in the
last nine years.
The first part of the book contains extensive biographical data on early mediums of the
occult/spiritualism movement of the Victorian era. From the ―spiritual intermediaries‖ of the
late 1800‘s came separate sects with self-proclaimed leaders who asserted that they had
become the ―chosen ones‖ to receive special communications from the ―masters‖ of these
―spirit worlds.‖ All kinds of strife ensued as each proclaimed some special connection to
these ―spiritual gods‖ and their omnipotent messages for the ―cosmic plan of humankind.‖
In the forefront of that movement were such teachers as: Alice Bailey, Guy Warren Ballard,
Annie Besant, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Robert Crosbie and Rudolph Steiner. Each
developed his/her own following in this new spiritualism with varying degrees of success.
The historical and biographical information in Chapter 1 is very interesting, but it might
have been more interesting if Melton had examined how the notions of the ―Great White