Pearls of Wisdom

Vol. 33 No. 39 - Beloved Hilarion - October 7, 1990

 

A Vision of Wholeness for the New Age
III
Preach the Gospel of Salvation in Every Nation!
I Am in the Zeal of My Apostleship
in the Defense of My Saviour!

 

 Thou who art the beloved of the Light, I AM come again in the full mantle and empowerment of my Lord!  I move across this continent to contact the hearts of those whom Jesus has called! [16-second applause]

As the Saviour has called us one and all to preach that Word, so I AM come. As the Saviour of us all has called John the Beloved to preach the gospel of [Christ] Love through you, beloved, so I am called of him in this hour to bring through you the great gospel of Christ Truth.

Lo, I AM the witness of that Truth!  I AM the witness here below and at inner levels. I AM the witness of the Ascended Master Jesus Christ. I AM the witness, for he has taken me with others into his retreat over the Holy Land and at Arabia. I have been there and learned of him. And this was my desert sojourn in meditation with him, <1> taken up as I was in my finer bodies and trained directly heart to heart.

I bring that empowerment, beloved, for my heart has been kissed by my Saviour. And I am bonded to him and I would assist you in the bonding of your souls to your Holy Christ Self through Jesus Christ.

And I offer you my heart. I offer you my mantle. I offer you the staff of the Lord this day if you will but place yourself on that path of being tutored and God-taught, that you may indeed know the scriptures and impart them by the Holy Spirit. And [I desire you to] know the Word and Work of God and to know the meaning of and to use those teachings brought together under the office of the Messenger. [Thus] fully and finally shall this seed of Christ in every nation hear spoken and taught in their [own] language that which is the true mystery of God as that mystery was broken and shared by our Lord Jesus Christ.

O beloved, the fervor of my being is that I myself have been unleashed by the Lord God as never before!  And I am determined that ere this cycle of this decade pass, this teaching (but a portion of which you have heard this evening <2>) shall reach every Lightbearer on this planet!

My beloved, will you help me?

[“Yes!” (38-second standing ovation)]

My beloved, it is this gospel of salvation that must be preached in every nation before the end shall come <3>–the end of opportunity for souls of Light to be bonded to their Lord. Therefore understand that many have thought that it is the orthodox Christian message that had to be preached in every nation, but I tell you, it is the true mysteries of Jesus Christ that must be preached.

And therefore we see and we decree for that new heaven and new earth and the resurrection and the life of this Church Universal and Triumphant. And we send you, but we cannot send you without the full understanding and comprehension of what you must deliver. And that is why we announce to you at this conference the Summit University Extension Course whereby you will learn, focus by focus, line by line, the teachings that do come forth based on that [volume] A Dweller on Two Planets by Phylos the Thibetan.

This is a necessary book to this age. It is directed to the children of Atlantis and the old souls who have come back from that continent. They must know their 25,800-year history from then until now. They must know our Saviour as the Great One who did impart the Law unto that people and did impart the very flame that burned and continued to burn until it had to be withdrawn, <4> for the people did forsake their God and they did go after the fallen angels and the Nephilim as they do this day!

And this must be stopped!  And it can be stopped by the action of that Cosmic Christ illumination which true Divine Love shall deliver through the beloved John and that true [Cosmic] Christ illumination which shall be delivered as the Truth is spoken.

O the Truth is powerful!  And when you take up this calling of Truth, beloved, you will have as your champion, without fail, the beloved Pallas Athena, who steps forth from among the Lords of Karma this night and stands before you with that mighty shield and sword, as she is determined to pierce the lie of the fallen ones about this activity, this Messenger and the Teachings of the Ascended Masters.

Beloved, enough is enough!  And we of heaven are determined to work through you. Only prepare yourselves to receive that stone which has been known as the philosophers’ stone, which is indeed that white cube of the heart that each one of you must have if you would truly impart by the Holy Spirit those elements of Truth and of Love that are the needful, the needful elements of the moment to the individual. By word, beloved, by example, you will impart the Body and Blood of Christ, truly the body of the Teaching and the blood of the sacred mysteries, as our Messenger has written. <5>

O beloved, this Truth shall go marching on!  It must go marching on!  And therefore the angels of the Lord who keep the way of the Tree of Life and the Unfed Flame in this retreat and at this altar have pledged to stay and to come again and again, even as the legions of the God Star, Sirius, have so pledged.

You now also have the tremendous boon from the level of Elohim, <6> earned by your giving of your hearts in your sacred labors. Blessed ones, we shall send more labors, we shall send more teachings, and we shall see that more books are written!  And we ask you to protect the Messenger, to protect the time and space of the Messenger, for writing pages does take time and space and the cycles of the hours.

Therefore, in protecting the Messenger protect yourselves. Attempt to find the sufficiency of God in your own heart, in the Ascended Masters and in the Teachings. Attempt to have a go at problem solving, beloved.

Nevertheless, do not hesitate to call when you truly have need. But also make the call daily for the binding of the dweller-on-the-threshold of yourself and that carnal mind that is enmity with Christ. <7>  Make the call daily, beloved one, that you might find yourself in the bliss and harmony of God, working the works that must be done, being a team player, being a part of this Community. And know that every single one of you throughout this planetary body who is affiliated with this organization has made possible the writing and the publishing of this book! <8>

You are important, beloved!  And I say this to you with all the love and the fervor of my heart and that of untold thousands of saints robed in white who wish that they could also speak to you this night. And therefore they shall speak to you, for they are journeying to the Retreat of the Divine Mother, where you may also go in your [etheric] bodies this night and hear them speak to you of their trials and tribulations, their overcoming and their washing of their garments in the mighty Blood of the Lamb. <9>

Yes, their minds and souls and hearts were washed clean by the violet flame, by the flame of Cosmic Christ illumination. And they did bow before the Christ in Lord Buddha, and they did bow before the Buddha in the Lord Jesus Christ. And they now know the universality of the God Presence in each one and they are absolutely determined to stand with you side by side.

One of these saints who stand before the throne of God will be assigned to each of you who desires to be a part of the apostles come again. You may have walking and talking with you one of these saints, beloved. Some of them are Ascended Masters and some are at the highest levels of the etheric octave just prior to their ascension. And some of them wait at the altar of God for the hour and moment of your own Victory, for it is written that these shall not ascend until you also ascend.

They have chosen not to leave you alone but to tarry in the Matter universe. And therefore they too cry out, “How long, O Lord?” <10>  And we have answered them, we who are the ascended hosts, and we have cried out and said, “No longer!” [28-second standing ovation]

Now, my beloved, we counsel you not to engage in polemics with those who would establish by argument the mysteries of God and the true divine doctrine. Argument has never established the foundation of the teaching of God, but only the heart attuned to the heart of Christ.

Nevertheless, you will see abundant example in the scriptures of Jesus receiving the accusation, the argumentation of the scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees and those who would tempt him, even the careful arguments of Satan himself. Therefore you must understand that though you do not go forth to establish the true teachings of Jesus Christ by argument, you must not shirk the responsibility to speak the truth in the face of those who challenge not only your word but also your authority to speak that word.

Therefore, first and foremost, when you are asked, “By what authority do you speak?”  you must always say, “I speak by the authority of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, of whom I bear witness this day before you.”

Then, beloved, you must be able to deal with every question, every argument and every denial of the truth by that [specific] means that will [both] silence the accuser of the brethren and satisfy the child of God, the son or daughter who stands by listening, waiting to be convinced by you, who already knows in his or her heart that the truth that you bring and the love that you bring are true but who desires to know what is the explanation that does clarify that inner communion of the soul’s heart with her God.

So you see, beloved, it is necessary to have all of the tools. And some of you are long on bliss and short on study. Now is the time to nail down the points of the Law. And you must begin by knowing the New Testament and reading it in both the King James Version and the Jerusalem Bible. Then you will begin to really have a grasp of all of the hooks upon which those who have incomplete knowledge hang their arguments.

It was the same with myself, beloved. I had to deal with the arguments based on the Old Testament, for I did preach to the Jews. And therefore, they would set forth their law and their principles and I would truly have to give them the understanding of the true grace of Jesus Christ, also pointing out that he did come and did fulfill all of the law and the prophets. <11>  Thus, when you are most familiar with the New Testament you will do well to study the law and the prophets.

And I tell you, beloved, you must have just as intricate a knowledge of the Teachings of the Ascended Masters as you do of the Old and New Testaments. It is essential. And therefore, let the courses and the study begin!  Let it be across the land. May you take those courses and understand that this [knowledge] is something that you must be able to carry with you.

As you know, I was well educated in [my] embodiment [as Paul]. I sat at the feet of those who had the great wisdom of our time. <12>  This stood me in good stead, beloved, because I was continually speaking with the representatives of the Jews and of Rome, and I must have that education and that ability whereby I might truly speak out of the authority of their own background.

But all these things, beloved, were only tools. For I came in the love of Jesus, in the empowerment of Jesus. And I came as a little child. I came and I loved and I adored. And he gave my heart that mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. He restored me to Life.

Remember the sin of my life, beloved. [Remember that] I did stand by as a representative of the Jews, consenting to the stoning and the death of Saint Stephen. <13>  You will understand how Jesus so loved me that he appeared to me on the road to Damascus, and by my karma my sight was blinded. <14>  And therefore I must have the development of the inner sight. I must go within and I must become sensitive to my own Inner Christ, whom I had also silenced in aiding the cause of the persecution of Christians.

Think, then, beloved, how I was called and how the zeal I had spent in the wrong direction was repolarized. The zeal of the Lord was upon me and I could not stop preaching that mighty Word. And the miracles took place, beloved, and I was found in the great joy of being the apostle.

And apostle, beloved, is messenger.  The word means the same.  You see standing before you also an apostle of Jesus Christ, who since those days has carried in her heart these sacred teachings and whose heart is bursting with the fire of God to deliver them to every man, woman and child on this planet.

O beloved ones, to reach the millions is our cause!  Therefore, do apply to me, for I AM the Chohan of the Fifth Ray and therefore I have somewhat to give you [as you apply] the science of precipitation on that ray. And I will help you and I will assist you.

But we cannot do the work that only you can do, and that is to bring in the new souls of Light–to go after them, to love them, to pray for them, to use all the calls that you have to cut them free!  For they are pulled in many directions by relatives, by family, by spouses, by those who will not let them leave organized religion to go out into the desert as John the Baptist did, as I did as Hilarion, my final incarnation. For I, beloved, had to be in embodiment again after [my life as] the apostle Paul [in order] to balance fully my karma for the persecution of Christians.

And therefore God gave me great gifts, gifts of healing [and command over the forces of Nature]. And multitudes were healed, so much so that I had to escape from them and hide from them, for they did not cease to pursue me all the days of my life. And then the devils would also pursue me through the insane. <15>

And thus, Hilarion came to be known as a healer. And that great gift to me, beloved, came by the grace of the Lord and Saviour; it was the gift of the Holy Spirit, at once a reward for my service as the apostle Paul, at once a dispensation whereby in healing the many I could atone for that which was done through me in my blindness.

Do you see, beloved, that it does not matter what you have been or what you have done?  There is the saving grace, there is casting yourself upon the Lord and asking to be received again, asking to have the empowerment to become a son of God, to receive a greater increment of the threefold flame or even to have it reignited again if you have lost it (and some have lost it) and to be reconnected to your Holy Christ Self. Do you see that that is the great grace that God has promised by your acceptance, by your belief, by your taking of the name [Jesus Christ] and accepting that Beloved One as the Lord and Saviour? <16>

Then, beloved, you will be prepared for that reigniting and for that reconnection, which is given according to the path that you have been taught. And that gift is given when it is known by Jesus that it will be secure and that it will be secured by you and sealed and that you will have the strength to hold on to it and not lose it again and not be so out of alignment in your four lower bodies that you no sooner receive again the connection [to your Holy Christ Self] than you lose it by fits of anger or depression or sudden behavior that is out of keeping with God-harmony. I speak of the extremes, beloved.

And therefore you see that the path of the Ascended Masters must be taught and demonstrated so that those who are not stable emotionally, those who have severe disturbances in the psyche may be brought to a consonance of oneness with the Christ that they might once again be entrusted with this great gift. For, beloved, it cannot be offered again and again. To lose it at all has caused many much suffering and wandering in outer darkness. And therefore to regain it is like being [once again] with your twin flame in the Great Central Sun in the beginning and being given the original gift of God-Identity. One must not count on more than a second chance.

Therefore, the preparation [of the soul to receive her Lord] is so important!  And you who have already gone to great extents to prepare yourselves must now see how you can, as brother and sister on the Path, help in the preparation of others. And diet is all-important, beloved, for much of what is wrong with people that puts them so far out “in left field,” as you say, [apart] from their God-centeredness, is those chemicals and toxins they take in through the mouth through all manner of substances that they imbibe. This must be stopped, beloved. The mouth has become the opening for the very poisoning of the mind and the very putting askew of the soul herself.

Thus, beloved, we speak, then, of drugs and alcohol and nicotine and all manner of harmful substances. [The partaking of] these things has caused souls to lose the threefold flame because [as a result] they get into a place of such extremes of the emotions and of words and of deeds [that they open themselves up to the dark forces].

Violence, then, is the enemy of the soul on the Path; and yet violence comes through substances that enter the body one way or another, even through the environment, and distort the ability of the mind to function through the brain.

This is the great tragedy that we see occurring [in the lives of] many children of the Light and souls of Light. This is the cause of Mother Mary’s lamentation, the cause of her sorrow and her tears, <17> that those of Light who have been taken aside by false doctrine and dogma are now in those places where they have been overcome by rock music and by all manner of [chemical] manipulation.

It need not have been, beloved, for in this century the great Chart of the I AM Presence [and] the great teaching of the violet flame have been available already now for sixty years. Do you see, beloved, that if those who had been in their pulpits, those who had been in their synagogues and in their temples had taken that violet flame–that mighty gift of Saint Germain and Jesus Christ, that mighty gift, beloved–all these things that have assailed the souls of Light would not have been?  Had the churches taken in the understanding of the Ascended Masters and the Archangels [and the practice of intercessory prayer appealing to the heavenly hosts]–why, beloved, this is scarcely any different than the [Catholic] concept of [calling upon] the saints–[the world would be ready for the decade of the 1990s]!

We look for interpreters of the Word. We look for those of the Holy Spirit who do have the gift of translating to others of another mind-set, another cast, what is the teaching of the Ascended Masters that is parallel with their own convictions.

Make no mistake about it, beloved, the fallen ones in Church and State, especially in religion, do not want this Teaching proliferated. They do not want you taking one single individual [by the hand to] the path of [Christ] illumination and away from the blindness of the blind leaders of the blind.

Therefore you have been given your judgment calls, your calls to be made on the dweller-on-the-threshold. All of these [decrees] must be done [in the name of the Cosmic Virgin]. There must be a placing in chains and a binding by the hosts of the Lord of that untransmuted self, that not-self, that unconscious self that rages and lashes out against the living Christ wherever it is found.

You, then, will have to deal with the reality that to preach this message is truly to be a soldier of the cross, to be the crossbearer and to be one with Archangel Michael, and to know that you must defeat in God’s name, in the name Jesus Christ and the entire Spirit of the Great White Brotherhood all those forces of Evil, all of those fallen ones who are determined by the logic of the carnal mind to hold souls [of Light] bound until the era of opportunity is past and the cycles change.

They believe they have this decade to destroy the souls of Light on this planet. And they believe that if they can destroy them and [if they] have but this decade to do it, the cycle of opportunity [for those souls] will be through; and even though they themselves will go to the Final Judgment, they will [take satisfaction (they think) in] having accomplished the destruction of the seed of the Woman.

Blessed ones, we have come to tell you that we are determined with you to prove them wrong! [22-second standing ovation]

There is much that they do not know about the mercy of God or the grace of the Son. But one thing is certain, beloved, no matter what the imperilment of a soul of God, if that soul by free will chooses not to enter in to the God-estate, not to receive her inheritance of that Christ-potential, the Law states that there is nothing we can do. We cannot act against free will. We cannot force a soul to receive salvation. We cannot drag a soul to the altar of God.

And therefore, it is [the fallen ones who practice] indoctrination. Those who do deprogrammings are themselves brainwashers. They are the ones who program souls to lose faith in God and Guru and a path and a teaching. By the time [these souls have been through lengthy sessions with] the deprogrammers, they are disillusioned with all religion and they decide to go apart from any. [And more often than not, they go out from these sessions possessed by the deprogrammer’s demons of anger against the Word incarnate in the Messenger and the chelas of the Ascended Masters.]

This is the true goal of the deprogrammer, beloved. [It is he who desires to occupy and control the mind of the one he claims has been brainwashed. <18>]  Beware of [this intent] and defend [yourselves, your Messenger and your Church] with your calls [at the altar of God] and with your [public] statements and with your publishing of the facts to counter the lies that are being told in secret. They will not proclaim them in the open, for they know that they will be refuted. And yet souls have been taken out of the way [by the lies and distortions of so-called deprogrammers].

You must realize that they are fully engaged in the war against you and against us who are behind you. You, then, must fully engage yourselves and not assume that all will automatically come out right in the end and everyone will live happily ever after. <19>

Mother Mary has been saying since 1917 that souls can and will be lost unless you pray for them and go after them. These souls have had 25,800 years to elect to receive their Saviour but they have lost the way because they have not been correctly taught the Teaching and they have not been nurtured and shepherded and assisted each step of the way; and somehow [they have] wound up instead under the influence and the absolute control of fallen angels whom they have made their gods. This is the plight of planet earth and we must deal with it else forever regret that we did not act when we could have acted.

Therefore, my Lord has sent me to you, and I send you to study and to know the Word. For did I not tell Timothy, “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”? <20>  This is the work of the disciples and the students [who serve with and] under the apostles.

Now let those of leadership throughout this Community organize such courses of study. And let all know that the Messenger has taught for many years, and there are many teachings that [have been given by both Messengers that] are not being reviewed or taught. It is time that you allow the Messenger to go on to write more books and to do those things that no one else can do in this hour. You are qualified and able to take the teachings already delivered and to teach them to those who come [to sit at the feet of the Ascended Masters and their own God Presence]. You are qualified to teach the scriptures. You must do so.

Blessed ones, do not put it all upon this heart, for [the Messenger’s body is a physical body, subject to the same laws and limits as your own]. And though you may need her, I will tell you that the Great White Brotherhood needs her as never before to complete this message and to go before you with that mantle to defy the fallen ones.

Therefore take to yourselves those things that you rightly ought to do [for yourselves], that are both your dharma and your karma. And let the Messenger continue to deliver to you those breakthroughs of teaching and of dispensation such as have come forth in this book, [and] such as have come forth in the dictation of Cyclopea <21> and the many dictations that have covered almost the entire adult life of this Messenger.

So, beloved, this is the course [that I set before you this day]. And I tell you, though the fallen ones may count upon a decade, you should not. Time is of the essence and many things hang in the balance, and the prophecies are true.

There is one hope for mitigation. It is the conversion of millions. We have not given up. Have you?  [“No!”]  Therefore we shall see what fiery hearts of Love can do!

I tell you, beloved, you have advanced mightily by the initiations you have come through in recent years. You are expressing more of your Real Self today than you were a month or a year or ten years ago. And you know it and the Messenger knows it, for all have grown [in grace and some are wiser for their mistakes]. Therefore, because it is so, because you have made greater gain than you have lost, I am speaking to you this night; and were it not so, I would not have been sent. It is because you have the ability to accomplish the task that I am here.

I, Hilarion, take up residence in this Community, beloved, and I will not leave you. For I am in the zeal of my apostleship in the defense of my Saviour! [25-second standing ovation]

May you contemplate this night how he has saved you.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, in the name of the Divine Mother, it is done, it is finished, it is sealed!  Onward, Christian soldiers! [23-second standing ovation]

 


This dictation by Hilarion was delivered by the Messenger of the Great White Brotherhood Elizabeth Clare Prophet at the conclusion of the October 7, 1990 Sunday evening service during the six-day conference A Vision of Wholeness for the New Age held at the Royal Teton Ranch, Park County, Montana. [N.B. Bracketed material denotes words unspoken yet implicit in the dictation, added by the Messenger under Hilarion’s direction for clarity in the written word.]  Throughout these notes PoW is the abbreviation for Pearls of Wisdom.

1. The Ascended Master Hilarion was embodied as the apostle Paul. For a period following his conversion to Christ, Paul retreated into the Arabian desert. In Galatians 1:16-18, Paul records:  “I conferred not with flesh and blood. Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia and returned again unto Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem...” Commentators have often speculated as to what Paul did during his sojourn in the desert.  O. F. Blackwelder, in his exposition on Galatians in The Interpreter’s Bible, writes:  “What Paul did there and how long he stayed, no man really knows. He did not tell even Luke, his biographer and intimate friend; or if he did, Luke regarded [it] as a personal matter which did not belong in the record of the public ministry which is described in the book of Acts.”

2. Prior to Hilarion’s dictation, the Messenger read excerpts from her new book, The Astrology of the Four Horsemen:  How You Can Heal Yourself and Planet Earth, pp. 3-19, 52-61, 477-85, 494-98. Topics included:  astrology as the prophecy of karma, karma in the Bible, the path of personal Christhood, the Chart of Your Divine Self, the mystery of the Lord’s Body and the Law of the One. Pocketbook, 640 pp., $5.95 (add $1.25 for postage).

3. Matt. 24:14; Mark 13:10.

4. See Phylos the Thibetan, A Dweller on Two Planets, pp. 131-33, 400-404 in paperback (Harper and Row, 1974); or pp. 136-38, 417-21 in hardbound (Borden Publishing Co., 1952), available through Summit University Press, $15.95 (add $1.50 for postage).

5. See Elizabeth Clare Prophet, The Astrology of the Four Horsemen, pp. 479-85, 496.

6. See pp. 479-80, 481.

7. Rom. 8:7.

8. The Astrology of the Four Horsemen.  See note 2 above.

9. Rev. 7:9-17.

10. Rev. 6:9-11.

11. Matt. 5:17.

12. Paul was born the son of a Pharisee and raised in strict observance of the traditions of Judaism, beginning his studies of the Old Testament scriptures as a young boy. As Paul tells us in Acts 22:3, he was later educated “at the feet of Gamaliel,” one of the most learned and esteemed rabbis of the day, and was “taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers.”  He excelled in his studies above his contemporaries, becoming, in his own words “exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers” (Gal. 1:14). John D. Davis notes in his Dictionary of the Bible that under Gamaliel, Paul was trained “not only in the teaching of the Old Testament, but in the subtleties of rabbinical interpretation....The future apostle grew up an ardent Pharisee, trained in the religious and intellectual ideas of his people, and from his personal qualities, his course of education, and probably his family connections [was] prepared to take a high position among his countrymen.”

13. Acts 7:54-60; 8:1-3; 22:20.

14. Acts 9:1-9.

15. See Mark L. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet, “Hilarion (The Apostle Paul):  Gifts of Healing,” in Lords of the Seven Rays:  Mirror of Consciousness, Book One, pp. 204-6.

16. John 1:12, 13; 3:14-18, 36; 11:25, 26; 20:31. See also The Astrology of the Four Horsemen, pp. 494-96.

17. Hundreds of statues of Mother Mary throughout the world and in several U.S. cities have been seen and photographed shedding tears. The phenomenon has been witnessed particularly with the two statues known as the Pilgrim Madonna, which travel from nation to nation and bear the likeness of Our Lady of Fátima. Observers have noted a correlation between world events and the weeping of the statues. See also 1988 PoW, Book I, pp. 140, 220, 311, 313, 319; Book II, pp. 587, 643.

18. In a memorandum opinion filed April 13, 1990, in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, Judge D. Lowell Jensen ruled to exclude the testimony of Dr. Margaret Thaler Singer and Dr. Richard Ofshe on “thought reform” (brainwashing) from the criminal trial of Stephen Fishman (United States v. Fishman).  Fishman, a member of the Church of Scientology, was charged with 11 counts of mail fraud involving false claims against companies involved in class-action lawsuits. Defense lawyers held that Fishman was not guilty by reason of insanity. They planned to use the testimony of Singer, a clinical psychologist who has testified in numerous civil trials against religious sects, and Ofshe, a social psychologist, to show that thought-control techniques were used on Fishman by the Church of Scientology, contributing to his unbalanced mental state and causing him to be unable to distinguish right from wrong. The prosecution and the Church of Scientology maintained that Fishman was responsible for his own actions. In his 24-page opinion, Judge Jenson rejected Singer and Ofshe’s contention that an individual’s free will can be overborne by persuasion techniques in the absence of physical force. He wrote:  “There is no consensus or general acceptance within [the American Psychological Association and the American Sociological Association] regarding the thought reform theories of Dr. Singer and Dr. Ofshe. The proffered testimony in this case has been challenged by the scientific community on grounds of both scientific merit and methodological rigor.”  Legal authorities believe that this ruling has set a substantial precedent that could significantly restrict the use of expert testimony on mind control in future trials.

19. Cult Awareness Network (CAN), formerly Citizens Freedom Foundation, is a national nonprofit organization headquartered in Chicago which is actively engaged in a war against what it calls “destructive cults.”  CAN Executive Director Cynthia Kisser says the organization deals with more than 2,000 religious groups. CAN has targeted Church Universal and Triumphant as well as the Unification Church and the Church of Scientology as major destructive cults. Although CAN claims that its major goal is to educate the public, proponents of religious freedom have charged that the organization serves as an underground network for brutal kidnappings and deprogrammings. John Nordquist, a former deprogrammer, claims his training was sponsored by CAN and that CAN is deceptive. He says, “You have to maintain that the Cult Awareness Network doesn’t condone deprogramming even though it’s being run right out of their national office....We forged documents. We did anything to try to convince the guy we were deprogramming that he was wrong. The end justified the means.”  CAN’s twelfth annual national conference–“Cults:  Perpetrators and Victims”–was held in Lincolnshire, Illinois, November 1-4, 1990, and attended by approximately 400 people. Conference speakers included Dr. Margaret T. Singer and exit counselor Steve Hassan, author of Combatting Cult Mind Control, who have both vociferously attacked Church Universal and Triumphant. Scheduled events included a “mock cult trial.”

20. II Tim. 2:15.

21. See note 6.