Talisman

 

A pseudo-scholarly paper written by a Bahai, attacking "marginals and apostates", once again confirming my suspicions that Bahai might be a cult. Note the dread of the Internet! 

Marginality and apostasy in the Bahai community

The Bahai cult

 

Are the Bahai really this stupid? Masked atheist avenger Logicked (who actually lives in Alberta) takes on a strongly fideist Bahai believer. Cult warning on this one!

Rainbow Warrior

 

This is supposedly an authentic Native American prophecy, revealed in 1986 by Lee Brown at the Continental Indigenous Council in Alaska. It was recently reposted at a YouTube channel of a New Age-conspiracy-libertarian bent. 

Some quick research on the web reveals that the prophecy is fake, or at the very least not American Indian. Nor does it reveal anything about "our own time" (presumably the early 21st century). The prophecy is supposedly very ancient and was revealed for the first time during the 1960´s, but since nobody seems to have heard about it before 1986, its predictions about a manned mission to the Moon and similar things, can´t be checked. Its future predictions are about a coming thermonuclear war. It´s at least implied that it could take place during the 1990´s. Of course, World War III was on everybody´s mind during the Cold War II of the 1980´s. Why doesn´t the prophecy say anything about COVID, climate change, the Ukraine crisis or Donald Trump? Instead, it mentions the Iran-Iraq War which was in the news at the time the message was given...

I don´t know who Lee Brown is. On old web forums from circa 2005 he is described as a Cherokee resident in Washington State or British Columbia. His prophecy is usually described as Hopi (a completely different Native people), but is also included on obscure websites about Cherokee prophecies. It is obviously nothing of the sort, since it contains near-explicit references to the Bahai faith. The Bahai, a peculiar religious group originally from Iran, have evangelized heavily at American Indian reservations. One of their websites confirms that Brown is a convert. The Bahai have an apocalyptic perspective and have apparently used the "Rainbow Warrior legend" in their missionary outreach to Natives. This "legend" (from the 1950´s) states that the four main races will be reunited in North America at the end of days. It was originally used or even invented by Christian missionaries. Mormons have also used it. 

In Lee Brown´s version, the White race are "the people of the North" and "the people of Baha" (sic) who will bring their "fire" to the American Indians. (In some versions of Brown´s speech, all references to Bahai have been excised.) There are also hidden references to Theosophy (or perhaps Max Heindel´s form of Rosicrucianism) in the "prophecy". I´m refering to the claim about different "cycles": spirit, mineral, plant, animal, human. That, and Atlantis!

I´m not terribly interested in this kind of spirituality, but since the clip came up in my feed (not sure why), I decided to deconstruct it for your benefit... 

Orthodox Covenant-Breakers

The Orthodox Bahai Faith is apparently a small split from the “official” Bahai faith. The only difference seems to be that the splitters had a different idea about who should have succeeded Bahai leader Shoghi Effendi after his passing away in 1957. The official branch never appointed another “Guardian of the Faith”, instead creating a collective leadership centered on the Universal House of Justice. The small Orthodox split-off argues that their leader Mason Remey is the new Guardian for reasons so esoterically administrative that they are of interest only to inveterate NRM-watchers. If you are such, this material might be for you. Or maybe not really, since most of it is standard Bahai fare, including the inevitable excerpts from the writings of Abdul-Baha and Effendi. In my book, groups which claim exclusive access to God, regard their “administrative order” (read: petty apparat) to be divinely ordained, and shun “covenant-breakers” are cults, which in this case probably includes both the Apostate Officials and the Orthodox Heretics…

Children of the Bab

Bahai is a new religion, which emerged in Iran during the 19th century and went global during the 20th. This book, "Introduction to the Bahai Faith", written by a Bahai scholar, is a good but uncritical introduction to the faith.

Bahai considers the so-called Babi faith to be its immediate predecessor, but it's obvious even from this account that the Babis were very different from the later Bahais. Named after their leader's religious pseudonym (Bab or “The Gate”), the Babis were an ecstatic, mystical and millenarian movement still within the orbit of heterodox Shia Islam and Sufism. After a violent struggle, the Bab's followers were suppressed by the Persian authorities and the Bab himself executed (this event took place in 1850). The movement was then reorganized by Bahaullah (1817-1892), who claimed to be the Bab's legitimate successor. Bahaullah was also an accomplished mystic, even to the point of seeing the Divine in the form of a female apparition. However, his message was really very different from that of the Bab and also from traditional Islam, renouncing millenarian violence and calling for a liberal new world order. Bahaullah and his successor Abdul-Baha (1844-1921) spent most of their lives in Ottoman exile. Abdul-Baha in turn was succeeded by Shoghi Effendi (1897-1957), titled the “Guardian of the Faith”. After his death, no new Guardian was appointed, the Bahai faith instead being governed by a collective leadership body known as the Universal House of Justice (UHJ). Until the 1950's, 90% of all Bahais were Iranians, while today, India is the strongest bastion of the Bahai faith. The cover of this book shows an Indian temple. The faith has a presence all over the world, with the exception of North Korea and the Vatican City. Since the time of Bahaullah, its international headquarters (including a mausoleum housing the Bab's earthly remains) are in Haifa, now on Israeli territory.

Bahai still has certain Shia Muslim traits, including the idea that Muhammad's true successors were the Shia Imams, beginning with Muhammd's cousin and son-in-law Ali, and that Bahai succession should ideally be within Bahaullah's family (since most of his family apostasized, however, this is no longer possible). Bahaullah claimed to be the spiritual return of the martyred Imam Husayn. Bahai also acknowledges the past greatness of Islam and Muslim civilization. Bahai blends these traits with a political (or perhaps quasi-political) program of a decidedly modernist, liberal and “progressive” bent. Thus, Bahai supports the United Nations, calls for a world federation, universal disarmament, Western-style democracy, racial equality, gender equality and even an international auxiliary language (many Bahais supported Esperanto and Zamenhof's daughter even converted to the new religion). It looks *very* strange to read a liberal peace program which claims to be literal divine revelation from a Persian mystic!

The more religious tenets of the message strike me as contradictory in some ways. Thus, angels and good disembodied souls are said to exist, but not demons. Evil humans turn into evil spirits at death, but have no influence upon the living. There is no reincarnation, yet Hinduism and Buddhism are recognized as prophetic religions, Buddha and Krishna even said to be Manifestations of God. The virgin birth of Jesus and his sacrificial death are affirmed, but not his casting out of demons nor his resurrection, which is said to be purely symbolic. Dead men apparently don't rise, but how can they be born of a virgin? Overall, there is a tendency to do away with, or play down, the miraculous side of religion.

While Peter Smith doesn't discuss his religion from a sociological or historical-critical angle, I think it could be used as a telling case study of the “routinization of charisma”. The Bab and Bahaullah were charismatic mystics, while Abdul-Baha did more to institutionalize the faith, introducing the concept of “Covenant-breakers” (everyone who questions Abdul-Baha). Under Shoghi Effendi and the UHJ, the bureaucratic side of the organization seems to have been emphasized to ridiculous lengths, the Administrative Order in effect being seen as divinely inspired. Historically-critically, it's intriguing to note that most Babis accepted Bahaullah as the true successor of the Bab, despite their messages being so obviously dissimilar. Here, we can make parallels to how Paul, who never met Jesus in the flesh, nevertheless managed to reform the Jesus Movement, dragging Peter and Jacob with him as he went. Yet, Peter and Jacob presumably *had* met Jesus in the flesh! It's also interesting to note that a small group around one Azal, who upheld the original message of the Bab, was declared heretical by Bahaullah (the real heretic). On many interpretations, a similar fate befell the Jewish-Christians in the early Church…

There are two other issues not dealt with thoroughly in this book. First, I wonder about the political dimensions of the Bahai faith, since Bahaullah seems to have had good contacts with Czarist Russia, Ashkhabad being a Bahai stronghold until the October Revolution. Russia was an enemy of both Persia and the Ottoman Empire. Abdul-Baha enjoyed good relations with the British, who took over Palestine after World War I. Second, the similarities between Bahai and certain forms of liberal Protestantism are striking, including systematic missionary activity (often directed at “Native” peoples), the liberal-globalist program, and the “Biblical” language, Bahaullah apparently being well-versed in the Bible (something very unusual for Muslims, both then and now). I'm not saying the book is “bad” for leaving this out – it's an introduction, after all – but I sense that perhaps these issues can be somewhat contentious…

In the end, I nevertheless give this material four stars.

The Book of Hearsay: What Bahais really believe

For quite some time, I regarded Bahai as a liberal, universalist, near-secularist and tolerant faith. Nothing for me (I was a woke atheist at the time), but they seemed harmless. Years later, I realized that Bahai was weird and cultic. David Piff's voluminous compilation “Unofficial Bahai Lore” confirms this impression. This is somewhat ironic, since Piff is a Bahai himself! The picture emerging from this book is that of a bizarre apocalyptic cult, intolerant of competing religions, paranoid about “Covenant-breakers” (critics who left the movement), with a membership steeped in rank superstition. The ethos of the movement seems to be a strange blend of early 20th century Protestantism and heterodox Shia Islam. While the lore collected by the author is said to be unofficial, I did get the distinct impression that many Bahais do believe in it.

Particularly appalling is the strong emphasis on shunning “Covenant-breakers”, who are said to be intrinsically evil. Indeed, in a religion that doesn't believe in the Devil or evil spirits, the Covenant-breakers are a de facto substitute. Their unattended graves radiate a dark energy, and only weeds and cacti grow there. Living Covenant-breakers emit a strong, nauseating odor, and so do books written by them (i.e. books criticizing the official Bahai faith). Books and letters from apostates emit a strongly negative aura, and so do rooms or houses in which apostates have lived, or their portraits. It's strong enough to make true believers ill! Interestingly (and typically for a cult), Bahais believe that educated people with a broad knowledge of the Bahai faith are *more likely* to become Covenant-breakers than the simple believers (probably a true observation – it takes a lot of sancta simplicitas to be a true believer). A particularly popular story tells of a Bahai waitress who refused to serve a group of apostates, and immediately left the restaurant (and her job) when her employer insisted that she does so. Covenant-breakers and other critics of the Bahai faith are said to be punished by God in various ways, sometimes by having accidents, fall ill or simply drop dead. It should be noted that Bahais are officially forbidden to socialize with Covenant-breakers, even if they are close family.

Divine retribution isn't limited to apostates and heretics, however. The Jews were punished by thousands of years of suffering for crucifying Jesus and persecuting Muhammad. If this piece of lore expresses a commonly held position within the group, it's extremely ironic, since the Bahai faith is headquartered in Israel! The Shia Muslims will suffer even more than the Jews ever have, as punishment for having persecuted the Bahai faith in Iran. Nor will the Sunnis be spared God's whip, since Israel (sic) will take over all Arab territory between the Nile and the Euphrates. The Catholic Church will supposedly start persecuting Bahais in the future, but be cowed into submission by the Bahai leaders, who know the true location of Christ's tomb – and the fact that Christ's remains are still in it! The Church will stop the persecutions, fearing that the Bahais will otherwise reveal the truth. Homosexuality isn't popular either – one piece of lore claims that AIDS is a divine retribution for this “sin”. Much lore deals with the Calamity, the Bahai apocalypse, which will destroy all coastal cities in the United States, and make large portions of the world uninhabitable. Billions of people will perish, and only converts to Bahai will survive. The Calamity has periodically been taken very seriously by Bahais, in the manner of apocalyptic cults or survivalists.

There is also a large body of Bahai lore associated with the faith's missionary activity. The most comic statement is that Greenland will warm up and become green and lush as a result of Inuit conversion to Bahai! The Bahai are aware of the rising sea levels this will cause all over the world, and some therefore connect the Greenland stories to the Calamity. There is a lot of speculation which nation will be first in officially embracing Bahai as its state religion. Ireland, Guyana and Belize are some of the contenders, while others point to Tuvalu. There are also a lot of rumors about which celebrity or high-ranking politician is “really” Bahai or at least friendly to the faith. The list includes luminaries such as Pope John XXIII, Mikhail Gorbachev, Barbara Bush, and Tom Selleck (despite starring in a film which in passing attacks the Bahai faith). More weirdly, some Iranian Bahais believed that Ayatollah Khomeini, of all people, wasn't really hostile to their faith, and tried to protect them. The Bahais are intensely jealous of the successes of the Mormon Church, and some lore therefore states that Mormons will be the first to convert to Bahai en masse, at which point Salt Lake City will become mostly Bahai.

Despite its liberal-modernist message, the Bahai faith is strikingly archaic on many points. The faith's leadership body, the Universal House of Justice, is all-male. Bahais need the consent of their parents to get married. Polygamy and various forms of hudud punishment will be allowed in the future, when Western Bahais are ready for it. In secret, the Bahai prophet and founder Bahaullah is regarded as God, in a way similar to how heterodox “Ghulat” sects of Shia Islam regard Imam Ali. Bahaullah's successors Abdul-Baha and Shoghi Effendi are (also in secret) regarded as prophets, while officially they have a somewhat lower status. A large portion of lore deals with the supernatural powers of Bahaullah and Abdul-Baha.

“Unofficial Bahai Lore” may be of interest only to cult-watchers (or NRM-watchers, if you like), but if you belong to that category, I think it deserves five stars. Let's be careful out there…

A cult passes by

Bahai is a “New Religious Movement” which emerged in the Middle East during the 19th century. It's centered on the divine messages revealed by Bahaullah (1817-1892), who had originally been a follower of “the Bab” (1819-1850), a martyred religious reformer in Iran. Bahaullah, who spent long years in Ottoman exile and virtual imprisonment, was succeeded as Bahai leader by his son, Abdul-Baha (1844-1921), whose pronouncements are de facto also regarded as divine revelation by the faithful. Today, Bahai has branches all over the world, including many Western nations, due to diligent missionary activity. Most books on the Bahai faith seem to be written by Bahais, which give them an obviously pro-Bahai slant (or not so obviously, if you're unaware of the author's affiliation or think a Bahai can be objective about his chosen religion).

This book, "The Bahai Faith: Its History and Teachings" is something of an exception. William McElwee Miller (1892-1993) was a Christian missionary in Iran who encountered many Bahais and became increasingly skeptical towards them (even apart from not believing in their religion) over time. I think he wrote three books attacking Bahai, this being the second (and most well known) one. The book is intensely loathed by Bahais, since it advances a counter-narrative to their official historiography. After the death of the Bab, his followers split, the majority going with Bahaullah, while a minority supported his half-brother Subh-i-Azal. I think it's obvious that Bahaullah changed the Bab's original religion, from a heterodox and Iran-centered form of Shia Islam to an (at least outwardly) universalist-liberal-modernist world religion. Above all, he claimed that the Bab had only been a precursor to himself. Subh-i-Azal and his followers are sharply condemned by the Bahais, to the point of being seen as almost evil incarnate, and so are later “Covenant-breakers”, suggesting that Bahai might not be as liberal as claimed. McElwee Miller has decided to tell the story from the viewpoint of the Azalis and other Covenant-breakers, including Mirza Muhammad Ali and Ibrahim George Kheiralla. Unsurprisingly, it's not a pretty story. Since both sides probably practiced their fair share of protective dissimulation (hardly surprising, given circumstances in the Ottoman Empire at the time), the full truth might never be known – or maybe it actually is the story told in this book! For the record, I only read about half of it, since the number of free pages available on the web is limited.

Several things stand out. One is that the Bab's original message, as recorded in his scripture Bayan, was…well, strange! His obsession with the esoteric significance of the number 19 is particularly noteworthy. Another is the militant millenarianism, which led to open warfare between Babis and Iranian royal troops. Both the Bab and Bahaullah de facto claimed divine or quasi-divine status. Not only were they imams or major prophets, they were (at least in secret) seen as direct manifestations of God himself. It's not entirely obvious whether they were incarnations á la Jesus or some kind of Gnostic redeemers with illusory bodies á la Ali in Alawite theology. Abdul-Baha, while not being divine sensu stricto, nevertheless claimed infallibility and was hence part of God's manifestation by extension. Protective dissimulation (taqiyya) was widely practiced by Bahais, many passing as Shia or Sunni Muslims to avoid persecution. While not “wrong”, this obviously raises question about whether the public writings of this group can really be trusted. In the West, Bahai attracted Unitarians, Universalists and other ultra-liberal Christians, while the Iranian membership seems to have been much closer to Islam as traditionally practiced (including polygamy, etc).

Bahai seems to have been to a large extent a family affair. Bahaullah and Subh-i-Azal were brothers, Abdul-Baha was Bahaullah's son, and so was his main factional opponent within the movement, Mirza Muhammad Ali. Indeed, it seems that Abdul-Baha eventually excommunicated most of his family! Nor was the movement particularly peaceful. According to McElwee Miller, at least 20 Azalis were murdered by Bahais during the factional struggle, while Bahaullah tried to poison Subh-i-Azal. Already before the Azali-Bahai split, dissident “prophets” who claimed new revelations had been disposed of the hard way. The Bahais, for their part, claim that it was Subh-i-Azal who tried to poison Bahaullah, and that the schismatic groups acted as informers for the Ottoman authorities. At least in the first part of the book, the author strongly implies some kind of political conundrums, but he never elaborates. The Bahaullah faction seems to have had good relations with the British and the Russians (the two colonial powers trying to dominate Iran), while the Azalis supported the nationalist Constitutional Revolution.

I used to think that the Bahai faith was a remarkably tolerant and liberal one, but the more I read about this group (including in pro-Bahai books), the more it seems that we're dealing with just another absurd cult having one message for the general public, and quite another one internally. Like all cults, Bahai has to change its history to make it conform to whatever is revised standard orthodoxy at the moment. Bahais charge that the documents used by McElwee Miller (which are older than Bahai official histories) are later Azali forgeries, and that the Bahai hagiographies are the real “primary sources”. Nice try, brothers.

He Whom God Shall Make Manifest

The Bab (Ali Muhammad Shirazi) was a religious reformer in 19th century Persia or Iran, executed by orders of the imperial government in 1850. The appellation “Bab” means “gate” and is a reference to the Hidden Imam, the Messiah figure of Twelver Shiism, the form of Islam dominant in Iran. His followers, known as Babis, staged several rebellions against the Iranian rulers. After the death of the Bab, his follower Bahaullah claimed to be his legitimate successor and transformed Babism into a new religion known as Bahai, which still exists. Due to extensive missionary activity, Bahai now has branches all over the world. A small faction of traditionalists founded by Subh-i-Azal claims to uphold the original Babi message. Both groups are still illegal in Iran, their native land.

The Bab's voluminous writings have never been translated to English in their entirety, and many have been lost. The Bab's main scripture, his “Quran” so to speak, is known as the Persian Bayan and exists in a 4-volume French translation. This volume, “Selections from the Writings of the Bab”, is published by the Bahai Universal House of Justice. I think it's safe to assume that the selections are pro-Bahai in orientation. The English language is that of the King James Bible, and there are also obvious similarities with the Quran (or perhaps with English renderings of the same!). Like in the Quran, it's not always obvious who is speaking and who is being addressed. The most peculiar writings have been excluded, such as the speculations on the esoteric significance on the number 19. The laws for a future Babi state has also been excluded from this compilation, presumably because Bahai regard them as abrogated by Bahaullah.

The Bab makes far reaching claims on his behalf. He is a prophet on the same level as Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad. The Bayan supersedes the Quran. He is also the Qaim and the Mahdi, two titles associated with the Hidden Imam of Twelver Shia Islam. Surprisingly often, he paints himself as divine. Some heterodox Shia groups (such as the Alawites) believe that Imam Ali was divine, in the sense of being a direct manifestation of Allah, rather than a mere man (or a man at all). The Bab's pronouncements are probably to be taken in the same vain. More sensationally, the Bab also talks about a mysterious character called He Whom God Shall Make Manifest. He is said to be even greater than the Bab. At his appearance, even the Bayan will be superseded by new revelations. The Bahais believe that Bahaullah was He Whom God Shall Make Manifest, and that the Bab's prophecies were fulfilled in him and by him.

Another important theme in the translated excerpts is the notion that the Day of Resurrection is allegorical. The appearance of a new prophet and new scripture is “the resurrection”, those who follow him are said to be “in paradise”, while those who reject him are in “the fire”. Revelation is progressive and apparently never-ending. There will therefore be new revelations after He Whom God Shall Make Manifest. Personally, I was mostly struck by the sectarian and Shiite traits in the Bab's message, quite unlike the liberal modernism and universalism of the later Bahai faith (but then, this liberalism is probably mostly for outward show anyway). The Bab's writings contain constant threats of eternal damnation and hellfire (allegorical or not) against those who refuse to accept the new revelation. Even the Bab's own supporters risk judgment if they fail to recognize He Whom God Shall Make Manifest. Occasionally, it sounds as if the Bab himself is this character, but perhaps that simply means he is emphasizing the oneness of all Manifestations of God? The overall context of the message is clearly Shia Muslim.

Interesting if you want to know the real background to the friendly neighborhood cult near you, but probably not for the general reader.

Yes, it's a cult

“The Historical Dictionary of the Bahai Faith” is a somewhat problematic mini-encyclopedia of Bahai, a new religious movement originating in Persia (Iran) during the 19th century. Bahai is at bottom a modernist form of Shia Islam, recast as a non-Islamic religion. However, you are unlikely to learn this from this book, since it's written by true believers in the faith. While this isn't necessarily “wrong”, it does give a curious impression – imagine a historical dictionary of Communism written by Communists, or of the Jehovah's Witnesses written by JWs working for the Brooklyn Watchtower.

The dictionary contains relatively little information on the so-called Central Figures of the Bahai faith (Bab, Bahaullah and Abdul-Baha) and their successor, the Guardian Shoghi Effendi. The editors also admit that many “Oriental heroes” of Bahai have been excluded, giving the dictionary a somewhat Western slant. Most of the entries seem to be about Bahai missionaries and leadership figures. Thus, we learn that Kamil Abbas-Rida from Iraq worked as a missionary on the Seychelles and that he was imprisoned by the Iraqi Baath regime from 1973 to 1980. Agnes Baldwin Alexander from Hawaii was a prominent world-wide missionary, preached the faith to the Chinese leader Sun Yat-sen and supported Esperanto. Holmfridur Arnadottír was the first and only Bahai on Iceland during her lifetime. And so on!

The dictionary also contains short entries on Bahai religious concepts such as the Abha Kingdom, the Bahai view of the resurrection, or the holy day known as the Ascension of Abdul-Baha. More disturbingly, we learn that Bahais are strictly forbidden to socialize with defectors from their faith. These are known as Covenant Breakers, are said to have ego issues and are to be consistently shunned, lest their spiritual infestations affect the faithful. In plain English: Bahai is a cult. Which I suspected already before picking up this little volume!

I don't think you can really learn that much about the Bahai faith itself from this book, but I suppose it might be a good reference for people who for whatever reason decide to become Bahai-watchers…

Religion in the making

Steven M. Greer is an ufologist, UFO contactee and conspiracy theorist. He heads two somewhat controversial UFO-related groups, CSETI and the Disclosure Project. In this book, "Hidden Truth, Forbidden Knowledge", Greer comes clean about his religious convictions. Almost clean.

Greer has a long background in "metaphysics" and alternative religion. He was a member of TM for a period, attending their private university, and claims to have developed various paranormal powers: levitation, supernatural healing, the ability to diagnose a patient at a glance, and precognition. Later, Greer joined Bahai and implies that he still supports this particular religious group. (Bahai is a modernist split from Shia Islam, still banned in its native land of Iran. Its international headquarters is situated on Mount Carmel in Israel.)

Above all, however, Greer emphasizes his spiritual independence from all sects and creeds. As a teenager, the future ufologist had a Near-Death Experience which taught him everything he needed to learn about spirituality and transcendence. During the course of the NDE, Greer merged with the Divine. He also encountered two beings of light, which he believes were the Twin Avatars of our age. Who these avatars might have been is never explained, but since Greer claims to be a follower of Bahai, a fair guess would be Bab and Baha'ullah (respectively the putative founder and the real founder of Bahai). According to Greer, the Second Coming of "Christ" took place invisibly in the mid-19th century (which also points to Bab and Baha'ullah). A new cosmic dispensation of 500,000 years of peace and prosperity awaits us!

Unfortunately, the forces of evil have banded together to stop the coming transformation. This conspiracy has as its main goal to stop disclosure of the truth concerning UFOs. The aliens are peaceful, spiritually enlightened beings who want to share their advanced technology with man, including the secret of free energy. A shadow faction of the U.S. establishment knows the truth, but has successfully managed to classify all positive information about the aliens. The conspirators have also retro-engineered UFOs, and are using the new technology for their own nefarious ends. All "alien abductions" are really carried out by very human conspirators, connected to the military and intelligence organs. The purpose is to discredit the real aliens. The ultimate goal of the conspiracy is to fake an alien attack on our planet, thereby getting the ultimate argument to create a One World Government. (Greer's politics sound vaguely libertarian.) In his other books, Greer describes the conspiracy as a network working within the U.S. administration, but also having contacts with private corporations. In this book, the author reveals who is *really* behind the conspiracy. It turns out to be a distinctly religious affair, dominated by Christian fundamentalists, Satanists and Mormons!

Greer's message contains numerous contradictions. In a manner reminiscent of other UFO contactees, Greer cannot make up his mind whether the aliens are spiritual or physical. He seems to regard them as astral beings, but if so, why do they need physical spaceships? If the aliens are fundamentally astral, and their technology somehow astral-material, how can their craft be retro-engineered by purely material human scientists? If sectors of the U.S. military have access to super-high tech from outer space, why don't they use it to take over the world? Why haven't we seen these fantastic retro-engineered UFOs in action in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc? If the aliens are so powerful, how is it even possible for puny human conspirators to retrieve their crashed UFOs? And why do they crash in the first place?

The most annoying parts of "Hidden Truth, Forbidden Knowledge" are Greer's Adamski-esque tall tales about constant meetings with the rich, famous and powerful. Greer claims to have close contacts with senators, generals, CIA directors, top UN officials, etc. etc. For some strange reason, the conspirators haven't been able to kill him or even discredit him! At one point, Greer called the White House, warning them about an impending plot to kill George Bush Sr. Instead of being arrested on the spot, the president's security team supposedly took the precognitive abilities of Dr. Greer seriously, and acted accordingly. Note that the anti-conspiracy author wanted to save Bush, usually considered to be one of the top conspirators by conspiracy theorists! Greer's conspiracism has the odd trait that it doesn't include the highest political, military and intelligence officers. Rather, he claims that these people have been conned by the actual conspiracy. Of course, this makes it possible for Greer to invite high-ranking Washington people to the hearings of the Disclosure Project, claim to be on a first-name basis with everyone from the CIA director to "Prince S.A." (presumably Prince Charles), etc.

To be perfectly honest, I get the impression that Steven Greer suffers from some kind of inferiority complex. He has a tough guy image, talks about his rough childhood, and constantly describes himself as an "emergency doctor from North Carolina" who knows the powerful people in the federal capital (i.e. despite being just a lowly health care worker from fly-over country). And yes, he claims to have almost the same supernatural powers as Jesus Christ! I don't doubt that Greer knows *some* (formerly) high-ranking persons, such as Lord Hill-Norton, who happens to believe in UFOs. However, most of the meetings with the rich and famous described in this book are unbelievable. I think Greer made them up to impress his followers...and bolster his own self-esteem.

But sure, that's just a guess. I suppose it's possible that the CIA is interested in what Greer has to say. That, however, only raises the obvious follow up question: Why? I don't think the Agency is connected to the Twin Avatars of our age...

"Hidden Truth, Forbidden Knowledge" is a revealing book, showing that the CSETI is really a religion in the making. However, the book is so badly edited, and difficult to take absolutely seriously, that I only give it two stars.

Bahai comes to America

“Star of the West” is an old Bahai magazine published in the United States. Most issues have sections in both English and Persian, and the magazine is sometimes regarded as international. (The Bahai faith originated in Persia.) It also has considerable importance for the Bahais themselves, since their supreme spiritual leader at the time, Abdul-Baha, occasionally wrote articles for inclusion. His speeches during an extended visit to the United States were faithfully reproduced by the magazine staff and included, as well. To outsiders, “Star of the West” is probably of less interest, since it simply repeats the main tenets of the Bahai faith, which can be found elsewhere.

Bahai sounds very modern and “liberal”, calling for peace, global harmony, equalization of wealth, abolition of slavery, equality between the sexes, and even an international auxiliary language. The “feminist” message is especially pronounced, with Abdul-Baha expressing strong support for the suffragettes, even saying that in nature, the female animals are often stronger or better than the males! (In general, Abdul-Baha emphasizes the differences between humans and animals, however.) An article on Bahai in Canada claims that many members of the Socialist Party and the labour unions had gathered to hear the message of the new faith. It's also interesting to note, that Abdul-Baha addressed a meeting of the Theosophical Society during his visit to the United States. Another address was given to Esperantists.

Bahai claims that all monotheist prophets (a category which includes Jesus) were genuine, but their revelations have been superseded in the present age by the Bahai revelation, given to the 19th century Persian religious reformers Bab and Baha'u'llah. Abdul-Baha was the son and successor of Baha'u'llah. While the message of this new religion sounds enlightened enough, there is also an authoritarian streak. Abdul-Baha is said to be “The Center of the Covenant”, chosen by Baha'u'llah and therefore by God himself, and all Bahais owe him unquestioning loyalty and allegiance. Modern critics claim that the Bahais are really a cult, or have strong tendencies in that direction.

This volume contains issues of “Star in the West” from 1912 and 1914. It's also available on the web.

A personal disappointment

“Star of the West” was a Bahai magazine published in the United States. This volume contains issues from 1920-1922. They show that the Bahai faith, despite its modernist-liberal message, is at bottom no different from other traditional monotheist religions based around unquestioning obedience to the one true prophet. After a while, the magazine gets downright annoying to read, with constant paens to Baha'u'llah (the main Bahai prophet) and his son and successor Abdul-Baha (who died in November 1921). The “third Bahai convention” in the United States seems to have consisted almost entirely of the faithful listening to accolades of this kind. Abdul-Baha's “Tablets” (messages) have the status of divine revelation. Yet, the revelations are often prosaic, as when several of them mention “Star of the West”!

Abdul-Baha claimed to have supernatural contact with the decesead Baha'u'llah, who presumably transmitted God's messages to him. He also claimed to be the Center of the Covenant, the sole authoritative interpreter of the Bahai scriptures, infallible, and the object of unquestioning obedience. The bad guys are the “Covenant-breakers”, and Abdul-Baha's condemnations are couched in pretty strong language, as in this telegram: “Haifa Wilhelmite. He who sits with leper catches leprosy. He who is with Christ shuns Pharisees and abhors Judas Iscariots. Certainly shun violators. Inform Goodall True and Parsons telegraphically. Signed Abbas Abha. Greetings.” (My Persian is a bit rusty, but doesn't Abbas Abha actually mean Son of God? Quite the title!)

If all this sounds familiar, it should. Bahai is a split from Shia Islam, and it seems that it has taken over the notion of infallible imams who perfectly mirror God (and each other). There is also an apocalyptic strain, with Abdul-Baha kindly informing his flock that they have misunderstood a certain prophecy from the Book of Daniel. Apparently, God's kingdom on Earth won't be established in 1917, but in 1947! At least, it will begin to be established at that time, whatever that means. (In 1947, the Cold War “officially” started. Perhaps Truman was the hidden imam?)

For a long time, I assumed that the Bahais were somewhat different from the established religions, but it seems they are just as dogmatic, impossible and cultic as everyone else… ;-(