28 ICSA TODAY
participate in one of the cult’s camps in Romania, and they had
been asked in advance for full-body photos and blood tests for
any sexually transmitted diseases.
Regarding the MISA cult, an extrajudicial agreement was
signed in September in Montevideo, requested by its Urugual
representative, Octav Fercheluc, whereby MISA dropped its suit
against two cult experts, Álvaro Farías and Miguel Pastorino,
who had publicly exposed the group’s activities MISA also
dropped the suit against the media that had published critical
information. The agreement was made without economic
consideration, and without the accused retracting their
published information, which was true.
A few days after this agreement was made public, the
Uruguayan weekly, Búsqueda, published the testimony of a
young woman who began yoga classes at the Universidad de
la República, given by Octav Fercheluc. Three years later, the
young woman had taken tantra and shakti yoga at the cult’s
headquarters (in Montevideo) she left her partner and was
invited to travel to Romania upon receiving the approval of
the world guru of MISA, Gregorian Bivolaru (currently on the
run). However, she was arrested by the police and so never
went. Finally, she was presented as a victim, and the case was
reopened.
Esoteric and New Age
From the 26th to the 31st of August, the Center for Olympic
Studies in Chinchilla de Montearagón, Albacete, Spain,
organized the First International Olympic Education Summit
with 140 athletes from 10 countries. According to information
from the Red Iberoamericana de Estudio de las Sectas (RIES),
the majority of speakers and trainers at this event were
members of Nueva Acrópolis. Since 2018, it has been a well-
known fact that there is a strange connection between this
esoteric cult and the Spanish Royal Olympic Academy, and even
between the cult and the Spanish Olympic Committee.
The Department of Health of the autonomous government of
Catalonia, Spain suspects there are several high schools with a
high number of unvaccinated children. These are centers that
follow the Waldorf teaching system and that doctrinally depend
on the Anthroposophical Society. According to Professor of
Epidemiology Antoni Trilla, “the UK Health Protection Agency
declared in 2013 that the Steiner Schools were ‘high risk,’ and
defined them as ‘non-vaccinated communities.’ According to
the agency, these schools create a direct risk for those children
who are studying within and for the surrounding community.”
In October, the Superior Criminal Court of Peru confirmed a
sentence of 20 years in jail for Felix Steven Manrique, a cult
leader who had kidnapped a young Spanish girl, Patricia
Aguilar, through Facebook when she was still a minor and
convinced her to join him once she turned 18. In Peru, he
subjected her, together with four young Peruvian girls, to sexual
and work exploitation. The sentence indicates that the victims
“ended up believing in a way of life where he manipulated
them at his whim, taking advantage of the vulnerable state
they were in.”
Shamanism
From the 11th to 18th of September, the town of Candeleda
in Avila, Spain celebrated the XI European Encounter of the
Santo Daime Church, a cult of Brazilian origin that affirms that
ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic substance, is a “sacrament,” and
with this argument has achieved legal status in Spain as a
religious organization.
In early October, the Prosecutor of Arica and the Chilean police
uncovered a hidden laboratory making synthesized DMT
(dimethyltryptamine) and ayahuasca. Their effects are high
powered and can lead a person from a normal state of being to
an altered state of consciousness in a matter of seconds, which
becomes frightening and disorientating. n
NEWS SUMMARIES
Megachurch pastor allegedly smuggled more than $100K
out of United States
“Controversial Filipino megachurch Pastor Apollo Quiboloy,
who was arrested by federal agents in Honolulu, Hawaii, last
year after weapons and $350,000 were found on his private
jet, has been accused of previously smuggling hundreds of
thousands of dollars out of the country. Quiboloy, who founded
the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Church, which he claims has
4 million tithing followers in the Philippines and 2 million
more in other countries including the United States, allegedly
smuggled money out of the country on two separate occasions
in 2013 and 2014, Hawaii News Now reported. Former church
member Kristina Angeles said she witnessed Quiboloy and
Felina Salinas, a manager for the Hawaii branch of the Kingdom
of Jesus Christ Church, order ‘church members [to conceal] U.S.
currency in black socks,’ during the noted time frame, Assistant
U.S. Attorney Michael Albanese wrote in court documents. ‘The
socks were packed in a suitcase which was transported to the
Philippines.’” (Christian Post, 09/13/19)
Benny Hinn renounces selling of God’s blessings
“Benny Hinn says he is done with the prosperity gospel. But
longtime observers are not ready to take his word on faith. Hinn
has been a leading proponent of prosperity gospel theology
since the 1980s, teaching that God rewards active faith with
health and wealth. But on September 2, during his 3-hour,
50-minute weekly broadcast, Hinn said he had changed. ‘I am
correcting my own theology and you need to all know it,’ the
televangelist told his studio audience and those watching
online. ‘The blessings of God are not for sale. And miracles are
not for sale. And prosperity is not for sale.’ Hinn said he now
believes such give-to-get theology is offensive to God. He
specifically repudiated the practice of asking for ‘seed money,’
where televangelists tell people that God will bless them if
they give a specific dollar amount. Hinn himself has done this
numerous times, promising God will give material blessings in
VOLUME 11 |ISSUE 1 |2020 2729
exchange for a gift of $1,000. On Monday, he said he wouldn’t
do it anymore. ‘I think giving has become such a gimmick,’ Hinn
said. ‘It’s making me sick to my stomach. And I’ve been sick for a
while too. I just couldn’t say it. And now the lid is off. I’ve had it.
You know why? I don’t want to get to heaven and be rebuked.’
Some of the Christians who have watched him closest, however,
viewed the apparent renunciation with skepticism. While they
want to be open to the possibility of true repentance, and say
God could have changed Hinn’s heart, they are waiting for some
evidence of his transformation.” (Christianity Today, 09/07/19)
Evidence that China is brainwashing Uighur children
“New evidence is emerging that the Chinese campaign to
exterminate the culture and traditions of Turkic Muslim
people, chiefly Uighurs, in the Xinjiang region also includes
a generation of children and young people. As their parents
are hauled off to concentration camps—euphemistically
called ‘vocational education’ by the Chinese authorities—the
children are being herded into special boarding schools
and orphanages. At these schools, the children can check in
but they cannot leave. The comprehensive effort to create a
separate brainwashing and imprisonment system for children
deepens the evidence that China is committing a cultural
genocide. Up to 1.5 million adults in Xinjiang have been forced
into the camps, where China is attempting to reeducate them
as part of the Han Chinese majority, wiping out their language,
traditions and culture, essentially assassinating their identity.
China at first denied this was going on, but in the past year or
so, incontrovertible evidence has accumulated that China is
trying to delete the mind-set of a whole people. That evidence
includes eyewitnesses and satellite photographs that identify
the new camps.” (The Washington Post, 07/13/19)
Five arrested, 19 rescued from Chinese cult led by female
“living Buddha” in central Taiwan
“Nineteen people were rescued from a Chinese cult, while its
leader and four other followers were arrested in late August, [in]
central Taiwan, after a young Taiwanese was allegedly tortured
to death by cult members in China. The religious cult, China
Baiyang Sigui Lingbao Holy Path (中華白陽四貴靈寶聖道
會), was founded in China by a 61-year-old woman claiming
to be a living Buddha. Surnamed Lin (林), she was busted in a
remote mountainous area of Nantou by Criminal Investigation
Bureau (CIB) officers, Taichung and Nantou police. The raid was
the culmination of several months of investigation begun by
the CIB earlier this year. This followed the suspicious death of
a young female member of the cult, after visiting the group’s
compound in China. In March, the 20-year-old Taiwanese
woman told her family she would be traveling to Nanning,
Guangxi Province, to study religious teachings. She died in
mysterious circumstances and her parents suspected she had
been tortured to death by cult members. Her parents reported
the case to the Taichung District Prosecutor’s Office, which in
turn notified the CIB and joined up with Taichung and Nantou
police to carry out an investigation. Police determined the
Holy Path cult was founded by Lin, who … had been recruiting
followers since 2009.” (Taiwan News, 09/25/19)
Extinction Rebellion dubbed cult, but supporters say radical
change needed
“...XR’s [Extinction Rebellion’s] actions have been applauded
by many environmentalists, who say the only way to make
governments, people and corporations sit up and take climate
action is to shock them into it. But the radical philosophy
underpinning the group, which includes wanting to set up
citizens’ assemblies that could overrule parliament, is drawing
increasing criticism from foes, who compare the group to a
millenarian sect. ‘The cultish nature of XR’s activities is a little
spooky,’ said Austin Williams, director of the Future Cities
Project, a group that focuses on urban planning and futurist
technological solutions. Sympathizers acknowledge that XR
hasn’t helped itself with some of the remarks made by its
leaders. Co-founder Gail Bradbrook said her realization that
humanity was on the brink of extinction came from taking
huge doses of psychedelic drugs, which ‘rewired’ her brain
and gave her the ‘codes of social change.’ ...XR has also seen
defections. Sherrie Yeomans, coordinator of XR blockades
in the English city of Bristol, left the group, saying, ‘I can no
longer surround myself with the toxic, manipulative Extinction
Rebellion cult.’ Johan Norberg, a Swedish author, historian and
XR critic, worries that the group is fueling anxiety while not
being practical about the possible solutions to global warming.
‘I guess it depends on your definition of cult,’ he said. ‘But I think
it is a growing, but very radical, sentiment that I fear plays a part
in giving people anxiety about their life choices, and also leads
us to thinking about these things in the wrong way,’ he told
VOA.” (VOA News, 08/07/19)
Inside the high-security compound in upstate New York
that’s home to a “cult” tyrannized by China
“About 100 people are said to be living in a 400-acre property
in upstate New York, in the shadow of the Shawangunk
Mountains. It’s meant to be a mecca for the estimated tens of
millions of Falun Gong followers, members of a religious and
political group persecuted in China, which calls the group a
‘cult.’ Inside Dragon Springs, according to sources who spoke
to NBC News, internet access is restricted, medicine is barely
used, and relationships are often arranged. David Ownby, a
history professor at the University of Montreal who studied
Falun Gong, also calls it a cult and says it exists because of
China’s efforts to keep traditional religions weak. For years,
nearby towns like Deer Park have been trying to rein in the
compound. But Falun Gong leaders want to expand it even
more. It wants to build a 920-seat music hall, a new parking
garage, a wastewater treatment plant, and turn a meditation
hall into a residence hall. If allowed, the compound would go
from housing 100 people to 500.” (Business Insider, 09/09/19)
participate in one of the cult’s camps in Romania, and they had
been asked in advance for full-body photos and blood tests for
any sexually transmitted diseases.
Regarding the MISA cult, an extrajudicial agreement was
signed in September in Montevideo, requested by its Urugual
representative, Octav Fercheluc, whereby MISA dropped its suit
against two cult experts, Álvaro Farías and Miguel Pastorino,
who had publicly exposed the group’s activities MISA also
dropped the suit against the media that had published critical
information. The agreement was made without economic
consideration, and without the accused retracting their
published information, which was true.
A few days after this agreement was made public, the
Uruguayan weekly, Búsqueda, published the testimony of a
young woman who began yoga classes at the Universidad de
la República, given by Octav Fercheluc. Three years later, the
young woman had taken tantra and shakti yoga at the cult’s
headquarters (in Montevideo) she left her partner and was
invited to travel to Romania upon receiving the approval of
the world guru of MISA, Gregorian Bivolaru (currently on the
run). However, she was arrested by the police and so never
went. Finally, she was presented as a victim, and the case was
reopened.
Esoteric and New Age
From the 26th to the 31st of August, the Center for Olympic
Studies in Chinchilla de Montearagón, Albacete, Spain,
organized the First International Olympic Education Summit
with 140 athletes from 10 countries. According to information
from the Red Iberoamericana de Estudio de las Sectas (RIES),
the majority of speakers and trainers at this event were
members of Nueva Acrópolis. Since 2018, it has been a well-
known fact that there is a strange connection between this
esoteric cult and the Spanish Royal Olympic Academy, and even
between the cult and the Spanish Olympic Committee.
The Department of Health of the autonomous government of
Catalonia, Spain suspects there are several high schools with a
high number of unvaccinated children. These are centers that
follow the Waldorf teaching system and that doctrinally depend
on the Anthroposophical Society. According to Professor of
Epidemiology Antoni Trilla, “the UK Health Protection Agency
declared in 2013 that the Steiner Schools were ‘high risk,’ and
defined them as ‘non-vaccinated communities.’ According to
the agency, these schools create a direct risk for those children
who are studying within and for the surrounding community.”
In October, the Superior Criminal Court of Peru confirmed a
sentence of 20 years in jail for Felix Steven Manrique, a cult
leader who had kidnapped a young Spanish girl, Patricia
Aguilar, through Facebook when she was still a minor and
convinced her to join him once she turned 18. In Peru, he
subjected her, together with four young Peruvian girls, to sexual
and work exploitation. The sentence indicates that the victims
“ended up believing in a way of life where he manipulated
them at his whim, taking advantage of the vulnerable state
they were in.”
Shamanism
From the 11th to 18th of September, the town of Candeleda
in Avila, Spain celebrated the XI European Encounter of the
Santo Daime Church, a cult of Brazilian origin that affirms that
ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic substance, is a “sacrament,” and
with this argument has achieved legal status in Spain as a
religious organization.
In early October, the Prosecutor of Arica and the Chilean police
uncovered a hidden laboratory making synthesized DMT
(dimethyltryptamine) and ayahuasca. Their effects are high
powered and can lead a person from a normal state of being to
an altered state of consciousness in a matter of seconds, which
becomes frightening and disorientating. n
NEWS SUMMARIES
Megachurch pastor allegedly smuggled more than $100K
out of United States
“Controversial Filipino megachurch Pastor Apollo Quiboloy,
who was arrested by federal agents in Honolulu, Hawaii, last
year after weapons and $350,000 were found on his private
jet, has been accused of previously smuggling hundreds of
thousands of dollars out of the country. Quiboloy, who founded
the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Church, which he claims has
4 million tithing followers in the Philippines and 2 million
more in other countries including the United States, allegedly
smuggled money out of the country on two separate occasions
in 2013 and 2014, Hawaii News Now reported. Former church
member Kristina Angeles said she witnessed Quiboloy and
Felina Salinas, a manager for the Hawaii branch of the Kingdom
of Jesus Christ Church, order ‘church members [to conceal] U.S.
currency in black socks,’ during the noted time frame, Assistant
U.S. Attorney Michael Albanese wrote in court documents. ‘The
socks were packed in a suitcase which was transported to the
Philippines.’” (Christian Post, 09/13/19)
Benny Hinn renounces selling of God’s blessings
“Benny Hinn says he is done with the prosperity gospel. But
longtime observers are not ready to take his word on faith. Hinn
has been a leading proponent of prosperity gospel theology
since the 1980s, teaching that God rewards active faith with
health and wealth. But on September 2, during his 3-hour,
50-minute weekly broadcast, Hinn said he had changed. ‘I am
correcting my own theology and you need to all know it,’ the
televangelist told his studio audience and those watching
online. ‘The blessings of God are not for sale. And miracles are
not for sale. And prosperity is not for sale.’ Hinn said he now
believes such give-to-get theology is offensive to God. He
specifically repudiated the practice of asking for ‘seed money,’
where televangelists tell people that God will bless them if
they give a specific dollar amount. Hinn himself has done this
numerous times, promising God will give material blessings in
VOLUME 11 |ISSUE 1 |2020 2729
exchange for a gift of $1,000. On Monday, he said he wouldn’t
do it anymore. ‘I think giving has become such a gimmick,’ Hinn
said. ‘It’s making me sick to my stomach. And I’ve been sick for a
while too. I just couldn’t say it. And now the lid is off. I’ve had it.
You know why? I don’t want to get to heaven and be rebuked.’
Some of the Christians who have watched him closest, however,
viewed the apparent renunciation with skepticism. While they
want to be open to the possibility of true repentance, and say
God could have changed Hinn’s heart, they are waiting for some
evidence of his transformation.” (Christianity Today, 09/07/19)
Evidence that China is brainwashing Uighur children
“New evidence is emerging that the Chinese campaign to
exterminate the culture and traditions of Turkic Muslim
people, chiefly Uighurs, in the Xinjiang region also includes
a generation of children and young people. As their parents
are hauled off to concentration camps—euphemistically
called ‘vocational education’ by the Chinese authorities—the
children are being herded into special boarding schools
and orphanages. At these schools, the children can check in
but they cannot leave. The comprehensive effort to create a
separate brainwashing and imprisonment system for children
deepens the evidence that China is committing a cultural
genocide. Up to 1.5 million adults in Xinjiang have been forced
into the camps, where China is attempting to reeducate them
as part of the Han Chinese majority, wiping out their language,
traditions and culture, essentially assassinating their identity.
China at first denied this was going on, but in the past year or
so, incontrovertible evidence has accumulated that China is
trying to delete the mind-set of a whole people. That evidence
includes eyewitnesses and satellite photographs that identify
the new camps.” (The Washington Post, 07/13/19)
Five arrested, 19 rescued from Chinese cult led by female
“living Buddha” in central Taiwan
“Nineteen people were rescued from a Chinese cult, while its
leader and four other followers were arrested in late August, [in]
central Taiwan, after a young Taiwanese was allegedly tortured
to death by cult members in China. The religious cult, China
Baiyang Sigui Lingbao Holy Path (中華白陽四貴靈寶聖道
會), was founded in China by a 61-year-old woman claiming
to be a living Buddha. Surnamed Lin (林), she was busted in a
remote mountainous area of Nantou by Criminal Investigation
Bureau (CIB) officers, Taichung and Nantou police. The raid was
the culmination of several months of investigation begun by
the CIB earlier this year. This followed the suspicious death of
a young female member of the cult, after visiting the group’s
compound in China. In March, the 20-year-old Taiwanese
woman told her family she would be traveling to Nanning,
Guangxi Province, to study religious teachings. She died in
mysterious circumstances and her parents suspected she had
been tortured to death by cult members. Her parents reported
the case to the Taichung District Prosecutor’s Office, which in
turn notified the CIB and joined up with Taichung and Nantou
police to carry out an investigation. Police determined the
Holy Path cult was founded by Lin, who … had been recruiting
followers since 2009.” (Taiwan News, 09/25/19)
Extinction Rebellion dubbed cult, but supporters say radical
change needed
“...XR’s [Extinction Rebellion’s] actions have been applauded
by many environmentalists, who say the only way to make
governments, people and corporations sit up and take climate
action is to shock them into it. But the radical philosophy
underpinning the group, which includes wanting to set up
citizens’ assemblies that could overrule parliament, is drawing
increasing criticism from foes, who compare the group to a
millenarian sect. ‘The cultish nature of XR’s activities is a little
spooky,’ said Austin Williams, director of the Future Cities
Project, a group that focuses on urban planning and futurist
technological solutions. Sympathizers acknowledge that XR
hasn’t helped itself with some of the remarks made by its
leaders. Co-founder Gail Bradbrook said her realization that
humanity was on the brink of extinction came from taking
huge doses of psychedelic drugs, which ‘rewired’ her brain
and gave her the ‘codes of social change.’ ...XR has also seen
defections. Sherrie Yeomans, coordinator of XR blockades
in the English city of Bristol, left the group, saying, ‘I can no
longer surround myself with the toxic, manipulative Extinction
Rebellion cult.’ Johan Norberg, a Swedish author, historian and
XR critic, worries that the group is fueling anxiety while not
being practical about the possible solutions to global warming.
‘I guess it depends on your definition of cult,’ he said. ‘But I think
it is a growing, but very radical, sentiment that I fear plays a part
in giving people anxiety about their life choices, and also leads
us to thinking about these things in the wrong way,’ he told
VOA.” (VOA News, 08/07/19)
Inside the high-security compound in upstate New York
that’s home to a “cult” tyrannized by China
“About 100 people are said to be living in a 400-acre property
in upstate New York, in the shadow of the Shawangunk
Mountains. It’s meant to be a mecca for the estimated tens of
millions of Falun Gong followers, members of a religious and
political group persecuted in China, which calls the group a
‘cult.’ Inside Dragon Springs, according to sources who spoke
to NBC News, internet access is restricted, medicine is barely
used, and relationships are often arranged. David Ownby, a
history professor at the University of Montreal who studied
Falun Gong, also calls it a cult and says it exists because of
China’s efforts to keep traditional religions weak. For years,
nearby towns like Deer Park have been trying to rein in the
compound. But Falun Gong leaders want to expand it even
more. It wants to build a 920-seat music hall, a new parking
garage, a wastewater treatment plant, and turn a meditation
hall into a residence hall. If allowed, the compound would go
from housing 100 people to 500.” (Business Insider, 09/09/19)
