PART 4 NEW AGE MOVEMENT

CULTS THE CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY

"At first there was only the odor: A putrid smell, like rotting garbage.  In the tree-lined East Dallas neighborhood of Lake Highlands, it had taken five weeks for anyone even to notice.  Then, in the days after Thanksgiving 1989, the scent began to ooze out of David and Glenda Goodman's one-story house, unable to contain the terrible secret any longer."106  This is the beginning of a story about a brilliant Yale Ph.D., and his wife, the daughter of a North Dallas physician who killed themselves by putting a .22 caliber pistol to their heads by what they considered to be the direct spoken instructions of God, but in actuality was a 52 year old Dallas guru named Terri Lee Hoffman, founder of Conscious Development of Body, Mind, and Soul, and to whom they had already given more than $110,000.  David and Glenda had begun a New Age search for enlightenment and had discovered that they were originally Adam and Eve in one of their past lives, and had, in fact. lived 800,000 lifetimes, and were no longer David and Glenda, but rather, the Roman god Jupiter and the goddess Venus.

In this second part we will devote our attention to the examination of the various cult groups that are linked with the New Age Movement.  While these groups may not associate directly with each other, or even hold all things in common with one another, they are nonetheless networked together by their common New Age teachings, practices and philosophies.

Before examining these specific New Age cults, the author would like to make it perfectly clear that he is in no way trying to destroy or ridicule any one person but, rather, is simply attempting to show the difference between the New Age cults and Christianity, New Age doctrines and the doctrines that are found within the Bible.

This author is fully aware of the many ways in which some of these groups, as well as individuals associated with them have made good, humanitarian contributions to society in many areas such as science, space, math, health, medicine and morality.  These should not be overlooked or cast aside as being without value regardless of the differences that exist.  In fact, they should be highly commended and recognized.