Sun Myung Moon, the founder of the Unification Church, has declared himself as the Messiah and Lord of the Second Advent. He claims he has come as the Messiah at the end of the world as the Bible prophesied. He saves fallen satanic people by removing the original sin from them through The Blessing of Marriage ceremony. The Blessing of Marriage ceremony of the Unification Church is directly derivative from the pigarum or yongch'e ceremony of Korean messianic groups from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. A pigarum ceremony means 'change of blood lineage' and a yongch'e ceremony means 'receiving a new spiritual body'. A male spiritual leader united sexually with his female disciples and a female spiritual leader had ritual sex with her male followers. The Unification Church practiced the pigarum or yongch'e ceremony from the 1940s until 1962 when The Holy Wine Ceremony and The Three Day Ceremony replaced this original sexual ritual. Both of these ceremonies are integral parts of The Blessing of Marriage.

Life inside the Osho International Ashram in Pune, India. Remember Bhagwan Rajneesh, the infamous guru with sixteen Rolls Royces, who set up camp in Oregon, USA? Although he died many years ago, his cockeyed philosophies live on at his "International Meditation Resort" in India. Read about a much different ashram experience than you read about in Eat, Pray, Love (by Elizabeth Gilbert).

Churches in North America are bigger than ever, but their slow rate of growth cannot keep up with population increases. Existing churches simply cannot add enough new believers! The good news is that by multiplying--steadily and strategically planting new churches that, in turn, plant new churches--the global Church creates more of what Ralph Moore calls harvest points. In How to Multiply Your Church, Pastor Moore shows church leaders and pastors why multiplication is the key to growing God's global kingdom in their communities, and he offers them proven methods for implementing multiplication in their existing churches. Countless leaders have found an indispensable resource in starting a new church because of Pastor Moore's vast firsthand experience and practical wisdom. How to Multiply Your Church is the next leap forward for those who long to see God's kingdom increase.

Ken Wilber is the "long-sought Einstein of consciousness research," having been generously regarded as such since the late 1970s. Ken Wilber is "a genius of our times." Ken Wilber is "the world's most intriguing and foremost philosopher." Ken Wilber's celebrated ideas have influenced Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Jeb Bush, Deepak Chopra, Tony Robbins, and a host of other luminaries, spiritual and otherwise. Writer Michael Crichton, leadership guru Warren Bennis, playwright Eve Ensler (The Vagina Monologues), alternative-therapist Larry Dossey, the Wachowski Brothers (directors of The Matrix), and a handful of rock stars have all lent their voices in support of the "integral" community. Yet Ken Wilber, his seemingly valid theories of consciousness, and the increasingly unquestioning community of "second-tier" spiritual aspirants surrounding him and participating in his Integral University, are not what they appear to be. "NORMAN EINSTEIN": THE DIS-INTEGRATION OF KEN WILBER will show you why the community around Wilber is being increasingly called a "cult," even by former members who have seen it first-hand.

Written for Christians who have been manipulated in a church, group or home fellowship setting, Pigs in the Pulpit provides a "road map out" for victims. It shows, step-by-step, how people can get hooked into a fraudulent and deceptive system, the impact of controlling leadership, and how the abused follower of Jesus Christ can find peace and recovery.

"Armed with wit, insight, and truly astonishing research, Geoffrey Falk utterly demolishes the notion of the enlightened guru who can lead devotees to nirvana. This entertaining and yet deadly serious book should be read by everyone pursuing or thinking of pursuing the path of guru devotion." --John Horgan, author of "Rational Mysticism" "Stripping the Gurus is superb--one of the best books of its kind I have ever read. The research is meticulous, the writing engaging, and the overall thesis: devastatingly true. A stellar book." --Dr. David C. Lane, California State University Ramakrishna was a homoerotic pedophile. His chief disciple, Vivekananda, visited brothels in India. Krishnamurti carried on an affair for over twenty years with the wife of a good friend. Chogyam Trungpa drank himself into an early grave. One of Adi Da's nine "wives" was a former Playboy centerfold. Bhagwan Rajneesh sniffed laughing gas to get high. Andrew Cohen, guru and publisher of "What Is Enlightenment?" magazine, by his own reported admission sometimes feels "like a god." These are typical of the "wizened sages" to whom otherwise-sensible people give their devotion and unquestioning obedience, surrendering their independence, willpower, and life's savings in the hope of realizing for themselves the same "enlightenment" as they ascribe to the "perfect, God-realized" master. Why? Is it for being emotionally vulnerable and "brainwashed," as the "anti-cultists" assert? Or for being "willingly psychologically seduced," as the apologists unsympathetically counter, confident that they themselves are "too smart" to ever fall into the same trap? Or have devotees simply walked, with naively open hearts and thirsty souls, into inherent dynamics of power and obedience which have showed themselves in classic psychological studies from Milgram to Zimbardo, and to which each one of us is susceptible every day of our lives? Like the proud "Rude Boy" Cohen allegedly said, with a laugh, in response to the nervous breakdown of one of his devoted followers: "It could happen to any one of you." Don't let it happen to you. Don't get suckered in. Be prepared. Be informed. Find out what reportedly goes on behind the scenes in even the best of our world's spiritual communities. You can start by reading this book.

Slavery Of Faith...the quietly kept story of a young woman's escape through the jungles of Jonestown, Guyana the morning of the massacre November 18, 1978 and her struggles to live in the aftermath.

November 18, 2008 marks 30 years since the Jonestown, Guyana Massacre/Suicides and the death of its founder, the Reverend Jim Jones.

Escaping Jonestown, Guyana the morning of November 18,1978 with nine others, Leslie Wagner-Wilson then twenty one years old, trekked thirty seven miles through the jungle with a 40-pound care package strapped to her back with a sheet, her son, later to be known as the youngest survivor of Jonestown. That evening, she would be told that Jonestown was gone along with her plan to escape and return with her father, Richard Wagner who was a part of the Concerned Relatives to free the rest of her family. Amongst the carnage would be her husband, mother, brother, sister, niece, nephew, sister in law, brother in law and the friends she had grown up and loved since 13.

Slavery of Faith reveals the life of a thirteen year old coming of age in the heart of People's Temple Disciples of Christ Church where the pastor Jim Jones, exhorted his followers to consider him divine and to call him "Father" while he touted his extra-marital affairs from the pulpit. The world of Jim Jones was one of inverted ideals, isolation and alienation. However, what began as a church that appealed to peoples inner spirit to help others, was turned into a living hell. Yet it was a place she would go, half a continent away, to be with her 2 year old son, who'd been taken to Jonestown by Jim Jones as he made his exodus to Guyana. It shares the horrors of Jonestown - the labor punishment squads, suicide drills, sleep deprivation, drugging, and humiliations. It also takes the reader through the escape that she says was revealed to her in the spirit.

Thirty years since Jonestown, Slavery of Faith also chronicles her return to the U.S. under a veil of secrecy in fear of the "death squads," her fight to maintain her faith in her most darkest hours; suffering survivors guilt, drug addiction, a family suicide, and finally redemption. It shares her journey through psychological and spiritual jungles to reach a place of remembrance-- to "live their love and not their deaths." Faith has allowed her the resiliency to as she states "tuck and roll" and discover that through pain, tragedy and joy, her life has found divine order.

This is the book Ellen G. White has been accused of copying. H.L. Hastings' "The Great Controversy between God and Man" was published in January, 1858, and was reviewed by James White just months before he published his wife's own version of "The Great Controversy." Included is Ellen White's original 1858 version - much different than the oft-revised edition promoted today. Both books in this one volume By comparing these two Great Controversies of 1858, you can determine for yourself the extent of E.G. White's inspiration from visions, and inspiration from one of the most popular Second Advent Movement writers of her time - Horace L. Hastings.

Description

Elisabeth's book is written to help those caught up in obsessive spiritual sects and guru movements. Recounting the extraordinary events of a long life filled with great joys and harrowing griefs, Elisabeth generously traces her soul journey of awakening for the benefit and inspiration of others.
After describing her almost idyllic childhood, she covers the circumstances that led to marriage and - despite her best intentions towards her family - to permanent separation from husband and children, and virtual incarceration and domination within a religious cult.
She relates how a virtually unknown James Bond figure snatched her away, and how they set up a new and happy life together before further vicissitude struck.
Animating the whole is the spirit of her endearing personality and indomitable perseverance; a truly inspiring book.

About the Author

Elisabeth Fraser had a lengthy career as a sales manager, editor and author for Jarrold Publishing. She is author of An Illustrated History of Scotland (1997) and has edited a number of other titles.
Elisabeth has been interested in spirituality for most of her life, and is now very involved in the Tibetan Buddhist field helping to promote talks and lectures from eminent Tibetan lamas and doctors in liaison with the monastery at Samye Ling.
She is based in Edinburgh.

There are over 600 New Religious Movements (NRMs) in Great Britain alone, and more than 2000 in the United States. A Reader in New Religious Movements provides an introduction to the main teachings of a selection of these organizations, focusing on those that are well established in the West. The contemporary and in some cases controversial NRMs covered include the Unification Church, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, the Family, Osho, Soka Gakkai International and the Western Buddhist Order.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Mrs. E.G. White, the prophetess, leader, and chief founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, claimed to be divinely inspired by God the same as were the prophets of the Bible. Every line she wrote, whether in articles, letters, testimonies, or books, she claimed was dictated to her by the Holy Ghost, and hence must be infallible. These claims are subject to fair investigation. Her people accept and defend these claims strongly. Her writings are read in their churches, taught in their schools, and preached by their ministers the same as the Holy Scriptures. Their church stands or falls with her claims. From reading the church's books about her, one would never know that she ever made a mistake, plagiarized, practiced deception, or wrote alleged inspired writings which had to be suppressed. The public has a right to know the other side of the life of Mrs. White.

Were most cults and new religions simply passing fads of the late-twentieth century, or are some of them still growing today? What new sects have emerged, and what dangers do they present? How should Christians respond? Bible teacher and apologetics expert Ron Rhodes has cataloged 40 groups in this concise and easy-to-use handbook. Readers will appreciate Ron's thorough research and his reader-friendly style. His brief examination of each group includes a short history of the sect or new religion an explanation of the group's major doctrines the Christian apologetic response This informative guide includes a list of "Apologetic Power Points," which provides readers with a fast-paced summary of the foundational truths of biblical Christianity.

A further installment into the author's own experiences and investigations into various individual secret societies, their affiliations, their occult practices, their pseudo-religious and political activities. Going back to Patriarchal times, he attempts to trace, step by step, the worship of the ancient serpent, the Creative Principle, the God of all initiates, from the early cabiri, through paganism to the pseudo-Christianity of the Gnostics and Cabalists, these latter largely emanating under the influence of the Hellenised Jews of Alexandria.

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

"A snake handler convicted of the attempted murder of his wife by means of serpent bite is serving ninety-nine years in prison. The reader is gradually pulled into an increasingly complex story as Thomas Burton allows the many individuals involved in this event to tell their stories. Readers are less likely to find themselves concerned with what "really" happened than with larger issues they too will become involved in. this is more than a story about the headline 'preacher tries to murder wife - with rattlesnakes " it is a story of individuals struggling with their faith and their fate under the steady gaze of their God." --Ralph W. Hood Jr., winner of the American Psychological Association's William James Award in the psychology of religion
In this comprehensive, multilayered set of narratives, the story of Glenn Summerford's fall from grace is told by its participants, through interviews, court documents, and other primary sources. Free of either prejudice against or romanticizing about the snake-handling Holiness religion, this book presents an absorbing story of a fascinating group of people, while allowing the reader to draw his or her own conclusions about Summerford's guilt or innocence. The Serpent and the Spirit is a startling commentary on truth and its representation, religion and its expression, humanity and its flaws.
Thomas Burton is professor emeritus of English at East Tennessee State University. He is the winner of the Appalachian Consortium Laurel Leaves Award.

Are Masonry and Christianity truly compatible? Using their concise question-and-answer style, noted researchers John Ankerberg and John Weldon look at the basics of the issue, examining Masons' claims and terminology and asking such critical questions as-- Is Freemasonry a religion? What do Masons teach about Jesus Christ? What do Masonic symbols represent? Is the God of the Bible also the God of the Masonic Lodge?

Easy to follow and practical, this thought-provoking resource will help readers understand one of North America's most widespread organizations--and the beliefs of people belonging to it--in light of the clear teaching of the Bible.

Firewalker is Shan's courageous story of her first hand experience with cult indoctrination. This book illustrates - in captivating detail - the horrors of growing up in a cruel environment of mind control and physical isolation. It is Shan's compelling account of falling victim to the cult mentality, and finding the inner strength to break free.

Respected authors John Ankerberg and John Weldon use their unique question-and-answer style to look candidly at Mormon teachings that are clearly incompatible with orthodox Christianity. Readers discover answers to questions such as- Was God ever a man? Were Jesus and Lucifer brothers? Are we saved by what we do? Does Mormonism include occult practices? Clarifying the terms Mormons use as well as their views on the Bible, the authors reveal the huge chasm between what Mormons and Christians believe. Fast Facts(R) on Mormonism is a clear, well-written guide that will help readers comprehend one of the world's fastest-growing belief systems in light of the clear teaching of the Bible. Perfect for individual study and group discussions.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

The author believes that all modern English books on the devil and his works are the same; they tell the same tales, are not illustrated and give the same cases of witchcraft. In this book, he has localized his facts and has provided 47 illustrations. Ashton gives a succinct account of demonology and witchcraft in England and America by using authorities not usually given and by a thorough research of ancient cases, using original sources. This volume brings to light many cases never before published. An appendix contains a list of books consulted in this work.