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Rogue Messiahs: Tales of Self-Proclaimed Saviors
Rogue Messiahs Tales of SelfProclaimed Saviors Author:Colin Wilson Throughout history, Western culture has been bedeviled by false prophets, charlatans, and self-appointed messianic figures. Their appetites for destruction and depravity have led to broken lives and worse--mass suicide and even mass murder. Why does this occur again and again? — In Rogue Messiahs, Colin Wilson compellingly re... more »counts the stories and outrageous claims, acts, and abuses of 25 self-proclaimed messiahs who have arisen in the last 300 years. He uncovers the probable factors that turn earnest religious leaders, mystics, or well-intentioned cult leaders into violent, abusive, murderous, and paranoid rogue messiahs.
This gallery of spiritual fakers includes many familiar names and faces: David Koresh, leader of the Branch Davidians; Shoko Asahara, founder of the Aum Supreme Truth cult; Rev. Jim Jones, founder of the infamous Jonestown; Jeffrey Don Lundgren, Mormon con man and murderer; Ervil LeBaron and family, deranged cultists, prophets, and murderers; Rock Theriault, late twentieth-century French Canadian self-proclaimed messiah. Further, Wilson includes a study of others who achieved spiritual insight instead of destruction, and demonstrates that mayhem and benevolence are often two sides of the same coin.
These would-be messiahs, in Wilson's analysis, are all driven by a childish dream of absolute power. Almost always, they cross the line from inspiration to paranoia, and from teaching to killing--genuine aspiration mixed with self-deception, says Wilson. This is an incisive review of the motives and madness of cult leaders, spiritual con men, and would-be saviors.« less