Rogue Messiahs: Tales of Self-Proclaimed Saviors

by 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 recounts 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 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 cultist, 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 the 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.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, History, Cults, Psychology, True Crime, Biography

304 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2000

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Colin Henry Wilson was born and raised in Leicester, England, U.K. He left school at 16, worked in factories and various occupations, and read in his spare time. When Wilson was 24, Gollancz published The Outsider (1956) which examines the role of the social 'outsider' in seminal works of various key literary and cultural figures. These include Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, Hermann Hesse, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, William James, T. E. Lawrence, Vaslav Nijinsky and Vincent Van Gogh and Wilson discusses his perception of Social alienation in their work. The book was a best seller and helped popularize existentialism in Britain. Critical praise though, was short-lived and Wilson was soon widely criticized.

Wilson's works after The Outsider focused on positive aspects of human psychology, such as peak experiences and the narrowness of consciousness. He admired the humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow and corresponded with him. Wilson wrote The War Against Sleep: The Philosophy of Gurdjieff on the life, work and philosophy of G. I. Gurdjieff and an accessible introduction to the Greek-Armenian mystic in 1980. He argues throughout his work that the existentialist focus on defeat or nausea is only a partial representation of reality and that there is no particular reason for accepting it. Wilson views normal, everyday consciousness buffeted by the moment, as "blinkered" and argues that it should not be accepted as showing us the truth about reality. This blinkering has some evolutionary advantages in that it stops us from being completely immersed in wonder, or in the huge stream of events, and hence unable to act. However, to live properly we need to access more than this everyday consciousness. Wilson believes that our peak experiences of joy and meaningfulness are as real as our experiences of angst and, since we are more fully alive at these moments, they are more real. These experiences can be cultivated through concentration, paying attention, relaxation and certain types of work.

Reviews

[A.O. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Colin Wilson may be a flawed thinker, deserving neither the reverence nor the revulsion he inspired in turn, but he is very good at introducing the reader to new authors and ideas. This book showed me some common aspects of messianic movements that I might have otherwise missed:

* Many would-be messiahs figures preach that the end of the world is close at hand. During the end of the world, only the figure and his followers will be saved.

* Messianic cult leaders often use their ministry to gain sexual access to many willing participants. Wilson discusses some of these men’s exploits in graphic detail, which is both disturbing and darkly hilarious.

* As messianic movements grow in power and influence, their leaders become more paranoid and grandiose. Prophecies of the end-times often grow more dramatic. The results are often tragic: Waco, the Tate-LaBianca murders, Jonestown, etc.

There’s a lot of bad behavior, and abuse of power, detailed in this book. If the recent movie sex abuse scandals have turned your stomach, I’d give this book a miss. However, if you want to get some insight into messianic cults throughout history, this book is a good starting point, if you take Wilson’s intellectual deficits into account.

Note: This review was originally published on aomonk.com.

[kingshearte · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's a whole lotta crazy in this book, and, to be honest, not all of it come from the "rogue messiahs" described. Wilson himself contributes some... questionable wisdom? theories? conclusions? I'm not even sure, but his whole last section goes into the conscious vs. the unconscious mind, and how there are two streams that are supposed to run parallel, and the problems of all his subjects arise from the streams crossing. Or something like that.

He also has some rather warped views of sex. For example, he declares that it is inherently unsatisfying, because we all have such high expectations of it that it can never live up to them. I'm not sure that's quite as universal a problem as he seems to think it is, and perhaps what's required is for him to adjust his own expectations...? That said, he later backs down a bit from this notion, and asserts that it only applies in more conquest-driven sexual encounters; not in the context of a stable, loving relationship. If you think that sounds a bit slut-shamy, how about this: "The truth is that, except in rare cases of nymphomania, a woman tends to see a man as a potential husband and breadwinner,* and she wants a mate who is stable, protective, and reliable, not a series of lovers." (9) He also goes on to refer to pretty much any woman who shows any sign of sexual aggression or even agency as a nymphomaniac. Plus, despite his differentiation between "conquest sex" and "relationship sex," so to speak, he still refers to pretty much any sexual encounter (including those involving cult leaders and very young teenagers) as "making love," which just makes me roll my eyes.

And then there are the transgender issues that come up. I know that many people still haven't sorted out all those ideas (or any of them — there are many nuances involved in gender identity), and this book was written 15 years ago, but his thoughts on Charlotte Bach, who I would describe as a transwoman, are pretty wonky. It's true that she herself had some weird theories about gender identity and what that means for each individual, but I'm not sure that applying those theories to her is the right approach, because I'm just not convinced that a person who spends decades as a woman, keeping her biological sex a complete secret from everyone (to the point of refusing to even see doctors, despite eventually being very sick) is really just a transvestite man with a pathological need to lie to everyone.

And finally, he makes this observation: "This was the age when humanity became increasingly obsessed by sex, and when sex crimes first began to appear. (Oddly, the sex crime, in our modern sense of the word, was relatively unusual until the last quarter of the nineteenth century.)" (192) Are you kidding me with this? Does he really need this concept explained to him? Good grief.

Moving at least a little away from sex and gender and all that fun stuff, Wilson presents a number of... let's call them non-mainstream notions, but doesn't really provide any legit backup. For example, he states that "In fact, the power of healing, known as thaumaturgy, is by no means uncommon." (21) He does later present some anecdotal examples, but at no point does he offer any reputable studies or research to back up this claim. It's not even that I flat-out don't believe it, but I'm sorry; a claim like that needs some backup. That one's probably the most outlandish, but he throws around plenty of psychological theory like it's fact without backing that up, either. Like this one, referring to Freud's assertions that all psychological problems are related to sex: "... this is an oversimplification. The origin of mental illness is a feeling of inadequacy in the face of the difficulties of living." (129) Oh, it is, is it? And that's not an oversimplification? Not to mention just plain wrong? Again, I say: good grief.

Buried in amongst all that, there is some interesting stuff. The parts about some of the more familiar cult leaders (Jim Jones, Charles Manson, David Koresh) provide some additional information, and there are stories about less well-known figures, who were also pretty interesting. But at the end of the day, if you want real in-depth insights into any of these figures, you'd probably be better off with a book devoted entirely to one figure. A book like this one might be a good place to start if for some reason you wanted to learn more about one cult figure, but didn't know which one you were interested in, but, in my opinion, a superficial overview like this needs to have a solid psychological foundation that draws a legitimate, realistic conclusion of some sort to be truly worthwhile. Meandering about, serving up an author's personal theories as fact in ways that don't even really tie everything neatly together, is just not the kind of fascinating insight I suppose I was probably hoping for when I put this book on The List.

* Oh yeah, he went there, too. And no, this book was not written in the 50s. It was published in 2000.

[Sora · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have so many problems with this book it’s not even funny, and most are about the author himself, Colin Wilson.

This is supposed to be a scientific book analyzing the psychology of cult leaders, but it’s not scientific at all; there is a complete lack of scientific sources or evidence throughout the book, making nothing in this book even begin to be credible. Instead of using sources, he just frequently mentions random books or authors he’s read, without even explaining their connection or citing them, because he just assumes everyone has read everything he has. His claims about psychology and human nature are just conjecture; he made them all up and uses no science or research to back them up, and they barely even connect cohesively. The book would have been better if it was objective, but he adds in too many of his own beliefs and opinions.

He also makes numerous stereotypical generalizations about both men and women without proving whether or not they have a basis in science. He frequently claims that all women are naturally submissive and domestic, and seek out a dominant and protective man, and claims the exact reverse for men, without citing any source or study that could prove this to be true (because it isn’t; everyone is different). He also exhibits homophobic and transphobic sentiments throughout the book, most strongly in the last two chapters. He talks about rape and other horrific crimes with a disgusting ignorance and causality, and describes unusual or violent sexual acts with an uncomfortable amount of detail. Wilson has an obsession with sex; everything in this book comes back to sexual perversity, even when talking about children and adolescents. Wilson even includes some of his own personal anecdotes about sex, and cites these as proof that all other men have the same experiences as him.

The ONLY reason I gave this book two stars instead of one is because the stories about the rogue messiahs themselves were interesting—despite Wilson’s bland, drawn-out, and unnecessarily confusing writing. He is not a good writer. The stories are told in a way that just makes them a drag to read, like trudging through a swamp. He uses a hundred words when only ten are necessary, which leads to that confusion I mentioned earlier. He almost never gets to the point, which is why his arguments feel so disjointed and incomprehensible. He also has a tendency to repeat himself over and over.

I checked out this book with the goal of learning about cult leaders, and I suppose I got what I came for—alongside a whole lot else that I didn’t. Honestly, though, it was kind of fascinating listening to some of Wilson’s ridiculously absurd ideas and theories.

[Ronald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book when it came out in 2000, and I have it on-hand now as I write this review.

The book has some things going for it. The subject matter I found fascinating--a study of self-proclaimed messiahs. Examples would be the Rev. Jim Jones, David Koresh, Shoko Asahara (founder of the Aum Supreme Truth cult), Sabbatai Zevi (a self proclaimed Messiah from the year 1666). Wilson also has a chapter entitled "The Psychiatrist as Messiah" with some discussion of Freud.

The second thing going for this book is its clean prose style.

I've read some of Colin Wilson's non fiction books, and generally speaking, Wilson doesn't provide new information; Wilson's goal is synthesis and analysis.

Wilson holds that what he calls "messiah psychology" has a far wider application than he had at first thought. And Wilson thinks that the behavior of these rogue messiahs could not solely be explained in terms of opportunism or self-deceit. These rogue messiahs have an overwhelming need to transform the reality presented to them by their senses.

I agree that there is cultism beyond religious cults. Some intellectuals, artists, even politicians, I submit, have a cult-like following. I believe an element of this--which Wilson seems to miss--is that these individuals present a worldview. I remember watching a documentary about the siege at Waco, and David Koresh was shown, presenting certain views and backing them up with passages from the Bible. The philosopher Martin Heidegger has his devotees, and so does L. Ron Hubbard. These disparate figures have something in common: they wrote a big book which presented a world view.

[Whoof]

Super interesting--although sometimes the author makes really weird unfounded claims about normative sexuality. Regardless there is something to the patterns he points out in the behaviors and psychologies of cult leaders

[Eugene Pustoshkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though the book lacks coherent logic in its structure (as many Colin Wilson’s secondary books), it provides an impressive overview of some of the famous “rogue messiahs” (people who created cults which ended in disaster). Wilson descibes a phenomenology of rogue messiahs, which involves a mixture of certain power states (which, when they emerge on the basis of the person’s sense of self-deficiency, lead to dysfunctional displays of power) with sexual energy and sex (as an ultimate fantasy of the unconscious, which has been misleading people with its promise of heightened being and satisfaction which actually never occurs in clinging to sex). Wilson’s description of power and sex abuse that happens in so many cults seems to be a fairly accurate description of their mechanics. The solution to our common existential condition that he offers is also plausible and requires a culture of consciousness intensification.

[Alice Rodriguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

We have one in office right now....

[Kathleen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rogue Messiahs: Tales of Self-Proclaimed Saviors looked pretty good on the shelf. It billed itself as an overview of (essentially) cult leaders, people who proclaimed themselves to be the one who knew the way. Leaders of cults of personality gone bad, mostly. There were multiple leaders I'd never heard of listed, as well as ones I knew a lot about and ones I knew just a few things about. So it looked interesting.

THE INTERESTING WAS A LIE. This book is really, really, really sketch, guys. I only got through the introduction and half the first chapter, it was so sketch. Wilson claims that all rogue messiahs are motivated by sex and power, and while his views on power are... interesting, I guess, but his views are SO CREEPY. So creepy! Apparently all sex, for everyone ever, is inherently unsatisfying because it can never live up to the illusion of sex in our heads. Then it gets weird and slut-shamey, talking about how women only want stable breadwinners except in "rare cases of nymphomania" (barf). I bailed when he said that all young boys are driven by sex and that society used to fix this by covering women up. Because women are all sexless and innocent and boys can't keep themselves from fantasizing about ladies if they see an ankle.

This was all in the first twenty pages, guys.

So, nope, fuck this book, I'm out. Do not recommend.

[Aras · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://electric-pages.livejournal.com...

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wilson is not Christian and doesn make some stamtent denying the divintity of Christ. However, other parts of the book are very interesting. An horrifying look at "false" messiahs!

[Adler]

a colleague lent me this book many years ago. I don't recall much to give a rate but I thought it was quite interesting the collection of different messiahs. Pretty crazy what some people have been through. Unbelievable, and unfortunate many believed in someone and got so harmed.

I just found a note I made when I read it with the chapters 2 and 8.
I thought to leave here the reference.