Awesome Or Off-Putting: Self Professed Messiahs
Awesome or Off-Putting is a weekly delve into cryptozoology, ufology, medical marvels, scientific wonders, secret societies, cults, ghosts, myths, strange facts or just plain weird, weird goings-on.
This week: Cults/Weird Goings-On
In recent years, say the past 60 or so, many a man has been proud to announce to the world that he is the new God on Earth. Jesus reincarnated, The Creator of heaven and hell, a Supreme being whose feet we should lick if he found us worthy… the name changes, but you get the picture. Today we're dishing out a quick look at three of these self proclaimed saviors, and no, this doesn't count as your weekly church meeting.
Jesus came to Earth claiming to be the Son of God. Throughout the generations since he left, he's influenced countless lives, and has become one of the most revered people to ever live. These next guys thought that sounded awesome, and they're trying their own hands at it.
The first man on the menu goes by Sai Baba, or Sri Sathya Sai Baba if you prefer the long version, or Swami Sai Baba if you prefer the mid-length version. In the 1940s he claimed he was a reincarnation of a previous Sai Baba and adapted his name. He has between 6 million and 100 million followers around the world, who follow his basic preaching of truth, peace, non-violence, love and right conduct.
There are claims of daily miracles in the form of materialisation of small objects (i.e. food, bracelets, religious powder, etc), which skeptics attribute to slight of hand. Some of his quotes are:
"I have come to light the lamp of love in your hearts, to see that it shines day by day with added lustre."
And:
"I have repeatedly declared that students are My property."
The next world saver is called Maitreya, and some believe him to be the fulfillment of religious prophecy across the board – Hindus call him Krishna, Muslims call him Imam Mahdi, Jews call him the Messiah and Christians call him Christ. He is said to prefer the title 'World Teacher.'
He's been noted as appearing out of thin air before masses to teach them. His culmination as far as we understand it will be a television broadcast in which he will speak to every nation simultaneously in one language, but all will hear in their own language. There are underground concerns that he may actually be the Anti-Christ – here only to jump start global destruction. Others claim he doesn't even exist.
In a semi-lengthy scour of the internet, no direct quotes from from Maitreya were found, implying that maybe he doesn't exist. All his teachings are filtered through an organisation called Share International, and even those seem to only testify to his greatness rather than dish any actual teachings. Some quotes from Share International are as follows:
"Maitreya is not a religious leader, but an educator in the broadest sense."
And:
"MAITREYA appears, 'out of the blue', to people everywhere – always in a form that inspires recognition. In this way he seeks to prepare us for his public emergence, and to communicate his teachings and priorities for a just world. His first such appearance was on 11 June 1988, in Nairobi, Kenya to 6,000 people who saw him as Jesus Christ."
The next salvation dealer is Michael Travesser, who believes that he is an incarnation of Michael the Archangel, who first manifested in the flesh as Jesus 2000 years ago. Travesser claims to be the manifestation of Christ's second coming, and has a following of just less than 80 people who actually call themselves a cult, and go by the name Strong City. They live in a park named for Travesser, right near a creek named for Travesser, in a state named for Mexico.
He was born Wayne Bent, and is an ex-Seventh Day Adventist who had to leave that church after his leaders wouldn't bend to his doctrine. A quote that had been posted on their website reads:
"He considered the Adventist church part of the daughters of Babylon, since they would not receive the Scriptures as written, but adjusted them to their own particular point of view, as other denominational churches had done. This constituted confusion, or Babylon, as it is written. The congregation of believers followed God's leading, with Wayne, and went into the wilderness of Travesser in 2000, where they now reside."
His followers believe he prophesied 9-11 on his blog on September 10th, 2001:
"You have gone far enough, and now I will show you who it is that rules in the heavens. You have built your Babylonish tower, but I will make the top to break off and its foundations to sink into the mire. You will see the stability of the sand you have built on. You will try everything to save it but it will not be saved."
If you'd like to read directly from his blogs and websites, forget it. It looks like they've all been taken down. He prophesied he'd do so one day, in preparation for the year of jubilee – just before the final smiting of our sweet planet. The group predicts the end of the world to be December 15, 2007.
We gave you three, but there are many more would-be most important persons on the planet. The rest you'll have to dig up on your own.
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[story by Shawn Lindseth]
