25 VOLUME 8 |ISSUE 3 |2017
Correspondents
,
Reports
the ringleaders took advantage of
his position as an elder to convince
hundreds of members to buy into the
scheme. Through Mutua Mas Vida,
members were also promised the
guarantee of health assistance that
would exclude blood transfusions.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints (Mormons) has opened
its first branch in Cuba, comprising
two small congregations in Havana
that together amount to about 100
members. At present, the Cuban
branch is assigned to Santo Domingo’s
Misión Santiago (Santiago Mission) as
of now, there is no full-time missionary
on the ground in Cuba.
In July, a judge in the state of
Chihuahua, Mexico issued a protective
order to an ethnic Raramuri woman,
a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses,
to allow her not to donate blood to
her 5-year-old daughter suffering
from leukemia. The donation would
take place only if and when all other
resources and alternative treatments
had been exhausted.
Groups of Asian Origin
Paraguay’s Ministry of Education has
approved the inclusion of guru Isha
Judd’s Educational Meditation training
system in San Juan Nepomuceno
schools in the Department of Caazapá,
to help students “find happiness
[and] peace, eradicate bullying, and
encourage empowerment and self-
esteem.” In addition, Isha has been
declared “An illustrious citizen of
Asunción,” the capital of the country.
Esoteric Groups
On March 6, 2017, the Juzgado de
Garantía Court (Court of Guarantee)
of Quilpué (Chile) sentenced seven
people accused of murdering a
baby in 2012 in what was called the
Colliguay Sect Case. The group was led
by Ramón Castillo (alias Antares de la
Luz), who committed suicide later in
Peru. The leader’s right-hand man and
the baby’s mother were sentence to
just 5 years of prison. According to the
judge, the accused followers had “full
freedom of choice,” and were “aware
they were doing wrong.” Thus, he threw
out the argument of the defending
lawyers who held that the followers
were under the influence of a “shared
mystical delirium.”
Since February, media in Spain
and Peru have been covering the
recruitment of a young Spaniard,
Patricia Aguilar, who disappeared in
January, shortly after her eighteenth
birthday (legal age). Her family found
out a while later that she had traveled
to Lima, Peru to join the gnostic
sectarian group led by Félix Steven
Manrique Gómez, or “Prince Gurdjieff.”
She had been recruited and seduced
by this person via Facebook since she
was 16. She states that she belongs
to the group of her own free will. The
Red Iberoamericana de Estudio de
las Sectas (RIES), or Iberio American
Network for the Study of Sects, has
published several documents in which
Manrique claims to be Christ’s twin
brother, the legitimate pope, heir to
the Spanish throne, and other delirious
assertions. Patricia’s family has found
out that the sect, which is small, is
composed of other young people
seduced by the guru.
In June, a Spanish digital page
published an article entitled “No sex,
no meat, no social life: these are the
Cathars of the XXI century,” which
covered a group calling itself The
Association for the Study of Cathar
Culture. The group, according to its
own home page, “studies, recovers
and promotes the universal values of
Catharism.” Threatened by the sect, the
group had to take down its warning on
the digital page, in which it described
several “psychological manipulation
techniques” employed by the group.
The founder, Russian Ioann Bereslavski,
portrays himself as John of the Holy
Grail with a Messianic connotation.
José Manuel Peña, a therapist working
with Mexico’s Child and Family Services
(DIF) in Jalapa, Veracruz, reports how
“young people seeking their identity
are drawn to urban tribes such as
Satanism and other such philosophies,
worshipping Satan and La Santa
Muerte (translated, Holy Death). While
I respect religion, I believe these
philosophies create resentment and
hatred.”
On July 6, 2017, 28 prisoners were
killed in the Acapulco, Mexico
penitentiary in what was portrayed as
a fight between prisoners. However,
other sources report that they were
executed during a Santa Muerte ritual.
One piece of evidence could be that
most of the bodies were found facing
an image of Santa Muerte and with
coins on top of them, as reported
by Guerrero State Governor, Héctor
Astudillo.
New Age and Pseudotherapies
Last March, a businessman in Cordoba,
Veracruz lodged a complaint with
Mexican tax authorities against a
“coercive coaching” group. According
to Héctor Mendoza, his ex-wife and
17-year-old son are being manipulated
by ”instructors” who make money
by playing on their emotions. In
the course of the past 2 years, this
enterprise has graduated 2,542
students, thus garnering 30 million
Mexican pesos.
The Argentina Physics Association has
filed a complaint with the Buenos Aires
Culture and Education Directorate
(CED) manifesting its concern
regarding the fact that the CED
sought the “assessment of an expert
in ‘mystical quantum’” to train teacher
trainers. The person in question is the
Indian guru Amit Goswami, whose cult
“distorts quantum physics, turning it
into a self-help manual.”
A resident of Las Palmas, Spain was
detained by the Spanish police
(Guardia Civil) for threatening public
health by receiving a package from
Peru that contained two jars with
a hallucinogenic substance made
from ayahuasca, a drink used by
indigenous Amazon tribes, and
whose use is spreading throughout
Western countries in rituals and
therapies seeking altered states of
consciousness. n
Correspondents
,
Reports
the ringleaders took advantage of
his position as an elder to convince
hundreds of members to buy into the
scheme. Through Mutua Mas Vida,
members were also promised the
guarantee of health assistance that
would exclude blood transfusions.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints (Mormons) has opened
its first branch in Cuba, comprising
two small congregations in Havana
that together amount to about 100
members. At present, the Cuban
branch is assigned to Santo Domingo’s
Misión Santiago (Santiago Mission) as
of now, there is no full-time missionary
on the ground in Cuba.
In July, a judge in the state of
Chihuahua, Mexico issued a protective
order to an ethnic Raramuri woman,
a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses,
to allow her not to donate blood to
her 5-year-old daughter suffering
from leukemia. The donation would
take place only if and when all other
resources and alternative treatments
had been exhausted.
Groups of Asian Origin
Paraguay’s Ministry of Education has
approved the inclusion of guru Isha
Judd’s Educational Meditation training
system in San Juan Nepomuceno
schools in the Department of Caazapá,
to help students “find happiness
[and] peace, eradicate bullying, and
encourage empowerment and self-
esteem.” In addition, Isha has been
declared “An illustrious citizen of
Asunción,” the capital of the country.
Esoteric Groups
On March 6, 2017, the Juzgado de
Garantía Court (Court of Guarantee)
of Quilpué (Chile) sentenced seven
people accused of murdering a
baby in 2012 in what was called the
Colliguay Sect Case. The group was led
by Ramón Castillo (alias Antares de la
Luz), who committed suicide later in
Peru. The leader’s right-hand man and
the baby’s mother were sentence to
just 5 years of prison. According to the
judge, the accused followers had “full
freedom of choice,” and were “aware
they were doing wrong.” Thus, he threw
out the argument of the defending
lawyers who held that the followers
were under the influence of a “shared
mystical delirium.”
Since February, media in Spain
and Peru have been covering the
recruitment of a young Spaniard,
Patricia Aguilar, who disappeared in
January, shortly after her eighteenth
birthday (legal age). Her family found
out a while later that she had traveled
to Lima, Peru to join the gnostic
sectarian group led by Félix Steven
Manrique Gómez, or “Prince Gurdjieff.”
She had been recruited and seduced
by this person via Facebook since she
was 16. She states that she belongs
to the group of her own free will. The
Red Iberoamericana de Estudio de
las Sectas (RIES), or Iberio American
Network for the Study of Sects, has
published several documents in which
Manrique claims to be Christ’s twin
brother, the legitimate pope, heir to
the Spanish throne, and other delirious
assertions. Patricia’s family has found
out that the sect, which is small, is
composed of other young people
seduced by the guru.
In June, a Spanish digital page
published an article entitled “No sex,
no meat, no social life: these are the
Cathars of the XXI century,” which
covered a group calling itself The
Association for the Study of Cathar
Culture. The group, according to its
own home page, “studies, recovers
and promotes the universal values of
Catharism.” Threatened by the sect, the
group had to take down its warning on
the digital page, in which it described
several “psychological manipulation
techniques” employed by the group.
The founder, Russian Ioann Bereslavski,
portrays himself as John of the Holy
Grail with a Messianic connotation.
José Manuel Peña, a therapist working
with Mexico’s Child and Family Services
(DIF) in Jalapa, Veracruz, reports how
“young people seeking their identity
are drawn to urban tribes such as
Satanism and other such philosophies,
worshipping Satan and La Santa
Muerte (translated, Holy Death). While
I respect religion, I believe these
philosophies create resentment and
hatred.”
On July 6, 2017, 28 prisoners were
killed in the Acapulco, Mexico
penitentiary in what was portrayed as
a fight between prisoners. However,
other sources report that they were
executed during a Santa Muerte ritual.
One piece of evidence could be that
most of the bodies were found facing
an image of Santa Muerte and with
coins on top of them, as reported
by Guerrero State Governor, Héctor
Astudillo.
New Age and Pseudotherapies
Last March, a businessman in Cordoba,
Veracruz lodged a complaint with
Mexican tax authorities against a
“coercive coaching” group. According
to Héctor Mendoza, his ex-wife and
17-year-old son are being manipulated
by ”instructors” who make money
by playing on their emotions. In
the course of the past 2 years, this
enterprise has graduated 2,542
students, thus garnering 30 million
Mexican pesos.
The Argentina Physics Association has
filed a complaint with the Buenos Aires
Culture and Education Directorate
(CED) manifesting its concern
regarding the fact that the CED
sought the “assessment of an expert
in ‘mystical quantum’” to train teacher
trainers. The person in question is the
Indian guru Amit Goswami, whose cult
“distorts quantum physics, turning it
into a self-help manual.”
A resident of Las Palmas, Spain was
detained by the Spanish police
(Guardia Civil) for threatening public
health by receiving a package from
Peru that contained two jars with
a hallucinogenic substance made
from ayahuasca, a drink used by
indigenous Amazon tribes, and
whose use is spreading throughout
Western countries in rituals and
therapies seeking altered states of
consciousness. n
