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Rating: 
Summary: Neat narrative, messy topic.
Review: This author managed to neatly document the history of the messy world of a New Age or "millennialist" sect, a sect often called a "cult" in the media. Bradley Whitsel apparently began his primary research on Church Universal and Triumphant ten years ago, or several years after the group's charismatic leader, Elizabeth Prophet, predicted a strong possibility of a nuclear strike coming from the disappearing Soviet Russian theater. On command thousands of anxious CUT members descended into their hastily constructed survival shelters on March 15, 1990 only to emerge stunned into an essentially unchanged world the next morning. Whitsel concentrates on this interesting story as one that has been neglected by scholars and compares the sect with con-current if dissimilar apocalyptic movements like Aum Shinrikyo, Heaven's Gate and The People's Temple. Although I believe that the documentation is "neat" and that the author accomplished his goal, I find it unfortunate that his approach is imbedded with a clique of sociology of religion scholars who minimize former member narratives that detail the harm done. Whitsel and his peers have tended to lump "cult" critics into something they call the "anticult network" as if opposition to such groups lacked nuance and diversity. Whitsel does document in many instances why CUT's behavior would attract criticism, but he avoids placing the blame on group behavior. I noticed a few glaring omissions regarding CUT's formation---for example, Whitsel makes no mention of the Agni Yoga sect that the founders of CUT proclaimed as one of the two prior "dispensations" they came to fulfill, the other being the I AM Activity. Mark Prophet and Elizabeth Prophet's youngest daughter they claimed was the reincarnation of one of Agni Yoga's founders, Helena Roerich. This vital fact would have helped the author further explain CUT's fascination with and fear of Russia. ... In any case, I rate this book with 4 stars because it does better than any previous scholarly attempt to place the unwieldy history and decline of the CUT in context. I also thought the references and notes were well done and useful to any scholar or student of this group.
Rating:
Summary: Scholarly Yet Dry Examination of CUT
Review: Whitsel does an admirable job of describing much of the mindset and beliefs that comprised the teachings of the Church Universal and Triumphant in its infancy, meteoric rise to fame, to its current state of affairs today. This book appears to me to be an attempt at a balance between the flawed scholarly text of J. Gordon Melton and James Lewis's The Church Univeral and Triumphant in Scholarly Perspective (it has already been criticized by both scholars and layman alike) and the more sensationalistic, disgruntled ex-member stance taken in Four Hundred Years of Imaginary Friends: A Journey into the World of Adepts, Ascended Masters, and Their Messengers by Kenneth and Talita Paolini. Whitsel's text is somewhat of a dry, scholary read that does not entirely do justice to the CUT experience although it does convey some of the paranoia and group think that was characterisic of this religious group. I was a member for 8 years and a probationary staff member during the frentic "shelter cycle" described in much of the book. Although I long ago broke my ties with CUT and most of the esoteric and occult worldview it espoused, this text did make me reflect on much of the "Us vs. Them" mentality that permeated the organization. It is probably difficult for those that did not "live" these experiences to fully understand the power and infleunce Elizabeth Clare Prophet had over almost every aspect of their follower's lives (and still does to this day). This would include the constant fear of disaster and calamity on the physical level and fear of the "second death" or losing your 3-fold flame (your soul) on a spiritual level. The enemy was always a fallen angel, nephilim, soulles creation, entity, alien, etc... ad nauseam... waiting to take you off the chosen path. The paranoia of the "Us vs. Them" mindset was well explained in the book and I think that Whitsel correctly assesses the decline in this organization with the lack of a clear enemy (the break up of the Soviet Union) and its current attempt to be accepted by the more mainstream aspects of the New Age movement. One of the glamours that attracted me most to this organization in my teens almost two decades ago was the charismatic nature of Elizabeth Clare Prophet with her radical and controversial yet synergistic system of personal development. I still have to give Prophet her due for being the larger than life figure that she was (sort of a New Age-Guru-Goddess-Diva) yet also despise her for the way she treated people and manipulated everyone around her. Whitsel clearly states in the text and footnotes of his book that he does not believe in the "brainwashing" accounts of former members and largely dismisses most of the anti-cult movements claims. Personally, I also have a problem with the anti-cult movement and feel that people have the right to believe whatever they want to believe (or not believe) without interference yet it goes without saying that Prophet also ruined the lives of thousands of people whether intentionally or unintentionally. I packed up my bags and left to return to college but many other people were not as fortunate having invested their whole lives and fortunes in this group. Strangely, Whitsel seems to skim over almost all of the overtly negative aspects of ECP's antics. If you want more of the juicy details you will need to read Paolini's personal accounts in his book. Unfortunately, the Paolini book felt overly negative with sensationalistic overtones and as a person that had an "axe to grind" with every aspect of the church's teachings. Although I did not waste quite as many years in my life as the Paolinis did in CUT so I may not be completely a fair judge in this matter, 400 Years of Imaginary Friends went to the other extreme of Whitsel's account and demonized every aspect of CUT's teaching and the entire occult belief system (or any spiritual/metaphysical belief system for that matter). Hopefully, someone in the near future will be able to write an account that does not go to either extreme as found in the these books. Until then, if you did not actually live through and experience the phenomena that was CUT, you will probably need to read Paolini, Melton/Lewis, and Whitsel to get aspects that each of them lacks for the complete picture that was and is the Church Universal and Triumpant.
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