Prophets, gurus, and charisma

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Prophets, gurus, and charisma

• 29.9.2005

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Readings

• Bromley and Shupe The Leaders Gurus and
  Prophets, or Madmen and Charlatans? (in Bromley
  and Shupe 1981)
• Dawson Crises of Charismatic Authority and
  Violent Behavior in New Religious Movements (in
  Bromley and Melton 2002)

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James Jones

• Founder of Peoples Temple (Jonestown) in 1955
• Indiana gt California gt Guyana
• Referred to himself as
• Dad
• reincarnation of Karl Marx and Jesus Christ
• Background
• born of lowly origins in Indiana
• father belonged to the Ku Klux Klan
• Self-styled theology
• Pentecostalism with social idealism

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David Brandt Berg

• Founder of Children of God (The Family, The
  Family of Love) in 1968
• California gt the Third World / Europe
• Referred to himself as
• "Moses David," "Mo," "Father David," and "Dad
• A prophet
• Background
• third-generation evangelist
• started as a minister of Christian and Missionary
  Alliance
• Mo Letters The Laws of Moses / "Voice of God
  Himself"
• after Berg relocated to London

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Guru Maharaj Ji

• Leader of Divine Light Mission/ Elan Vital
• founded in the 1920s
• Elements of sikhism and Hinduism meditation
  techniques
• Southern India gt US
• Refers to himself as
• Perfect Master and Lord of the Universe
• Prem Pal Singh Rawat
• Background
• Son of the founder Shri Hans Maharaj Ji

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Prabhupada

• Founder International Society for Krishna
  Consciousness (ISKCON) Hare Krishna in 1966
• India gt US
• Refers to himself as
• His Divine Grace
• reincarnation of Krishna
• A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada
• Background
• met his guru Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati at
  the age 26

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Reverend Sun Myung Moon

• Founder of the Unification Church (Moonies) in
  1954
• Korea gt US
• Refers to himself as
• someone who has clarified the Truth
• Shining Sun and Moon
• Messiah
• Background
• parents Presbyterians
• gt Visions / revelations since 1935

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Lafayette Ronald Hubbard

• Founder of the Church of Scientology (1954)
• Referred to as
• L. Ron
• Background
• influenced by psychoanalysis, sciences (GWU),
  Eastern philosophies
• gt theory of human mind and mental problems
• Sacred text
• Dianetics The Modern Science of Mental Health
  (1950)

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Mary Baker Eddy

• Founder of The Church of Christ, Scientist
  Christian Science (1879)
• gt Christian-based system of healing
• Background
• various illnesses and personal tragedies
• cured while reading the Bilbe (on Jesuss
  healings)
• Sacred texts
• Bible
• Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
  (1875)

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Discussion topics

• Social scientific study of religious
  specialists
• On terminology
• prophet, guru
• Charisma and authority
• Weber, Worsley
• Challenges faced by religious leaders
• Maintaining authority
• Accusations against leaders

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Study of religious specialists

• Religious specialists
• shamans, gurus, priests, prophets, diviners,
  seers, mediums, witches, sorcerers, and magicians
  
• Focus of different disciplines
• Especially anthropology, sociology, psychology
• Main research questions in anthropology and
  sociology
• What is the distinction between different
  religious specialists?
• How to achieve and maintain authority?

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Prophet

• Religious usage
• a recipient of revelation from God
• a messenger
• Prophetic message Prophecy
• description, by paranormal means, of events not
  yet occurred
• a truth to be stated to the community at large
• Eg. Abraham, Jesus, Mohammad etc
• Non-religious usage
• Foreteller of future, oracle
• Eg. Nostradamus etc

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Prophet

• Max Weber
• Prophet vs priest
• Priest
• "renewer of religion"
• preaches "an older revelation"
• authority derived from service in a sacred
  tradition/institution
• Prophet
• "founder of religion"
• claims to bring completely new "deliverances
• authority derived from charisma, revelation

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Anthropology of religious specialists

• Raymond Firth
• inspirational functionaries
• Eg. Prophets
• communicate in a person-to-person manner
• I-thou relationship with deities or spirits.
• institutional functionaries
• Eg. Priests
• institution between the priest and the deity
• I-it relationship with the transhuman
• Victor Turner
• Shaman vs priest vs medium

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Guru

• Religious usage
• spiritual teachers or personal mentors in
  Hinduism
• "gu" darkness "ru" act of removal
  (Sanskrit)
• often used interchangeably with satguru (
  teacher of truth)
• Common usage
• Maker of philosophical or religious statements
• Independent of an established school of
  philosophy or religion
• Metaphorical usage
• an expert of legendary proportions (eg. in hacker
  culture)
• Negative connotations
• "New Age" self-proclaimed "gurus" in the 1960s
  and 1970s
• used Hindu terminology without particular reason

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Charisma

• Greek charis gift
• Common usage
• Certain personal qualities
• ability to influence people, magneticism,
  popularity, attractiveness, appeal
• Since the 1960s
• JFK and nationalist movements in Africa (Worsley)
• Religious usage
• certain Christian denominations
• belief in the spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit
  (prophecies)
• eg. Charismatic Movement in Catholicism

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Weber on charisma

• Personal quality
• a certain quality of an individual personality
  by virtue of which he is set apart from ordinary
  men and treated as endowed with supernatural,
  superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional
  powers or qualities.
• not accessible to the ordinary person, but
  regarded as of divine origin or as exemplary.
• Two types of charisma
• ascribed charisma
• inherent faculty ("primary charisma")
• achieved charisma
• Charisma of the office

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Weber on charisma

• Charisma and religious specialists
• Priest vs prophet
• Charisma and authority
• Three ideal types of authority (legitimate power)
• traditional authority
• rational-legal authority
• charismatic authority
• Routinization of charisma
• loss of authority
• charismatic gt traditional or rational-legal

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Worsley on charisma

• The Trumpet Shall Sound (1968)
• Charismatic leadership
• primarily relational
• only secondarily personal
• Charisma
• born of social interaction
• a relationship between leader and followers
• an attributed not ascribed quality
• a recognition of a group

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Worsley on charisma

• Charismatic leader
• a symbolizer, catalyst, and message-bearer
• embodies values in which the followers have an
  interest
• Has a relevant message
• strikes responsive chords in his audience (eg.
  Hitler)
• speaks to the unsatisfied wants in the hearers
• offers them some promise of eventual fulfillment
  (eg. cargo)
• presents concrete and visible ways of achievement

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Signs and proofs

• signs and proofs
• a sine qua non for a continuation of the movement
• millenarian movements
• if no successful actions in the short run
• eg. hazardous tasks (eg. serpent handling)
• Lack of signs and proofs
• problem for charismatic authority / movement

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Signs and proofs

• Short-term falsification
• no serious problem
• Festinger study of UFO cult in the US
• constant deferring of the arrival of the Martians
  
• Long-term falsification
• Easier in case of 'spongy' (vague, general)
  prophecies
• Difficult in case of precise/immediate/testable
  prophecies
• Y2K
• Branch Davidians
• 1959 Day of Judgement
• Jehovahs Witnesses
• 1914 Christ on Earth
• 1914, 1918, 1920, 1925, and 1941 - Armageddon

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Signs and proofs

• gt need to redefine/reshape the dogma
• removal of immediacy
• eg. prophesied state will only be realized in
  the after-life
• irrefutable by any test of pragmatic experience
• generalization
• common to all belief systems
• Cargo cults, millenarian movements, secular
  social philosophies
• secondary elaboration of belief
• cannot sustain indefinitely
• gt secularization
• gt NRMs

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Strategies of religious leaders

• Challenges facing religious leaders
• lack of signs and proofs
• routinization of charisma
• internal competition
• criticism from outside
• Various strategies
• to maintain the charisma / authority
• to maintain the unity of the group

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Strategies of religious leaders

• gt deviance amplification
• progressive intensification of the leader's power
• increased homogenization and dependence of the
  followers
• increased fears, anxiety, and paranoia
• violence
• gt mystification
• crucial element of charisma

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Strategies of religious leaders

• gt Claiming extraordinary qualities and deeds
• gt elevation to Godlike position
• visions, conversing with God
• combating Satan
• L. Ron Hubbard
• time travel and astral projection
• Sun Myung Moon
• special appeal with animals
• gt Overt deception
• Jim Jones
• bloody shirt with a bullet hole
• telepathic powers

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Strategies of religious leaders

• gt Cultivation of secrecy
• Eg. segregation of leader from the followers
• access to the leader is restricted to the
  especially loyal
• mass exposures carefully managed
• Ron Hubbard
• Sailed 20 years around the world with the Sea Org
• Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho)
• a vow of silence
• communicated using his eyes, actions, and
  thoughts alone
• David Berg
• moved to London
• Mo Letters

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Strategies of religious leaders

• gt sudden altering doctrines and policies
• to attract new members
• to keep followers off balance / attentive
• Ron Hubbard
• Dianetics gt Scientology
• shift in the highest accomplishment
• to be clear gt Operating Thetan
• Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche (founder of Vajradhatu)
• changes in paths to enlightenment
• early 1970s
• casual and Western style of practices
• mid-seventies
• austere, demanding, and traditional practices
• mid-1980s
• meditative philosophy and practice

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Strategies of religious leaders

• gt reaffirmation of the loyalty of followers
• more dramatic and overpowering rituals
• escalation of the demands
• Peoples Temple (Jonestown)
• White Nights
• preparations for revolutionary suicide
• gt demonization of enemies (real or imagined)
• diverting attention from the group's troubles
• External threat gt internal solidarity
• Especially world-rejecting NRMs

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Strategies of religious leaders

• gt Atomization of members
• physical separation of couples or friends
• regulation and suppression sexual attachments
• control over marriages
• Heaven's Gate
• strict celibacy
• masking of sexual differences
• everyone required to wear similar loose-fitting
  clothing
• castration (including leader Do)

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Strategies of religious leaders

• gt Change of physical location
• Usually to a more isolated spot
• Peoples Temple
• Indianapolis gt rural California gt jungle in
  Guyana
• Children of God
• Southern California gt Europe, South America, and
  the Far East
• The Solar Temple
• Switzerland / France gt Quebec
• The Church Universal and Triumphant
• California gt Montana
• The Rajneesh movement (Osho)
• densely populated Southern India gt rural Oregon

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Accusations against religious leaders

• Attacks of anti-cult movements
• mostly against the leaders
• Four main themes (Bromley and Shupe)
• wealth and greed / get-rich-quick schemes
• political ambitions (beyond the group) as real
  agenda
• satisfaction of lust for power (over group
  members)
• insincere / charlatans
• Testing the claims on 6 religious leaders
• David Berg, Prabhupada, L. Ron Hubbard, Guru
  Maharaj Ji, Jim Jones, Sun Myung Moon

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Accusations Wealth and greed as motives

• Difficult to generalize
• Entirely different lifestyles
• eg. Prabhupada vs Guru Maharaj Ji
• Most leaders
• selfish but not necessarily greedy
• rich beforehand
• the churches' immortality as their prime concern

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Accusations Political Ambitions

• does not apply to most leaders
• David Berg
• seclusion in Europe
• Prabhupada
• life of ascetic retreat until death
• L. Ron Hubbard Guru Maharaj Ji
• no political ambitions
• Jim Jones
• involved with a variety of civic projects in San
  Francisco
• against repression of blacks
• support of international socialism and rejection
  of the US
• actions largely defensive in nature

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Accusations Political Ambitions

• Sun Myung Moon
• greatest interest in politics
• anti-communist, pro-Nixon
• vision of worldwide theocracy
• the source of all mankind's problems
• refusal to live up to God-given responsibilities
• close working relationship between church and
  state
• The time will come, without my seeking it, when
  my words will almost serve as law. If I ask for a
  certain thing, it will be done. If I don't want
  something, it will not be done.
• "I will conquer and subjugate the world. I am
  your brain."

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Accusations Power and domination as motives

• Dictatorial power over church members
• brainwashing
• manipulation and abuse of members
• Guru Maharaj Ji
• So whatever extra you have got, give it to me.
  And the extra thing you have got is your mind.
  Give it to me. I am ready to receive it. Because
  your mind troubles you, give it to me. It won't
  trouble me! Just give it... So just try to be
  holy and try to be a good devotee, a perfect
  devotee of that Guru who is Himself perfect, who
  is really perfect!
• Moon
• "I am your brain"
• Communal vs larger movements

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Accusations Lack of sincerity

• Three tests
• 1) Background of the leader
• L. Ron Hubbard as an exception
• 2) Persecution, personal sacrifices in developing
  churches
• L. Ron Hubbard, David Berg not clear
• Jim Jones constant persecution
• Prabhupada, Guru Maharaj Ji - renounced their
  families
• Sun Myung Moon - imprisoned twice
• 3) The degree of exploiting the church for
  personal advantage
• sexual manipulation
• Sun Myung Moon