By "Dr. Benway" <benway@interzone.edu>
Date: Fri, 03 May 1996
So P-Kitty shows up after a six month hiatus and whines "Alt.slack
is full of crap! Alt.slack isn't entertaining me!" And NENSLO,
with the irrefutable logic of a man with three brains, whines
"You alt.slack readers don't know what Bulldada is!"
This Psychiana Movement stuff is Real Bulldada. This guy put
ads in the newspapers and promised people that they could
talk to God and God would make them wealthy. He means that
you could send away for a mail-order course and be just like
Moses up on the mountain. So stop complaining (whining...)!
Here's an odd new-age religion that I hadn't heard off. It seems to date
back to the 1930's and 40's. It originated in Moscow, Idaho and the
author of this collection of web pages claims it was the first "media
religion". There's an interesting gif/jpeg of a "I talked with God"
advertisement: http://www.fsr.com/people/jblack/Psychiana/P1stAdLg.html
More that just Theosophy, this is or was a mail-order religion complete
with a money-back guarantee!
http://www.fsr.com/people/jblack/Psychiana/
Psychiana: the Media Religion
"Here on borrowed money, began the world's first twentieth
century assembly line, producing a usable religious technique,
which swept the country, antagonized ministers and
changed the lives of thousands."
Marcus Bach
Frank Robinson used the latest in media technology to
teach a very unorthodox philosophy which was on the
crossroads of new science, psychology and spiritual thinking.
Quotes
"It is quite evident that after 2000 years of Christianity,
the world is no better off than it would have been
without it. The same thing applies to every other
system of religion which has God removed from the greatest
creation God ever made, and has him "seated on a
throne in heaven."
". . .the inability of Christianity to reveal any
factual knowledge about God, which knowledge could be put to
experimental use and prove the actual existence of God."
"A religion which seeks only to save the souls of
its followers is not worth the name . . . And all the while
our churches stand idly by (World War II), telling us
that if we believe their preachments and theory of God,
we can't stop this war but we can 'save our soul' after we die."
"We have been 'faithed' to death."
"Not long ago, a Methodist Conference passed a resolution
damning every Methodist who reads any of my books, studies with me,
or has anything to do with the Psychiana Movement. Instead of trying
to show me wherein I am wrong, these good Methodists attempted to
stop their adherents from reading what I write - rather a hard thing
to do, for the best way to have someone read a certain book is to tell him not to."
Frank felt the following oft spoken religious message
missed the point: "If you believe what we teach, you shall be saved and
if you don't believe what we teach, or if you have never heard
of our religion, you shall be damned" Frank replied,
"I can't see any justice in this philosophy, though.
Somehow or other, it just does not ring true. It's too
mandatory - too dictatorial. It is exactly the type of
religion one of the world's dictators might draw up."
". . . the feelings of many may be hurt by the contents
of this book. There are, however, deeper things in life
than feelings, and if the hurt to your feelings awakens you
to the fact that the realities of life and of God are
more important than your feelings, we shall be happy to have hurt them."
"They all (the church) claim to have and know the truth of God,
but none of them seem able to demonstrate the fact."
". . . I know, and I know positively that there is in
existence a God of a spiritual power that the present day
systems of religion know absolutely nothing about. I know that
to be a fact and I also know just a little tiny
bit about the way this God-Law operates."
"Wise, wise men who wrote the Constitution of the United States!
Wise beyond their time. Religion and government forever separate. Indeed
wise, considering the condition of religion in this land today. And our
leaders continue to be wise just so long as they continue to keep
religion (as we have it today) forever separate from government. If this
is not done, what happened in Russia may happen here. For somehow or other, these
religions seem to be more interested in political power and influence than
they are in the god they are supposed to be worshipping. At any rate,
we find all of them trying to accumulate political power. Until
religion can prove what it is, it has no right to political or any other
sort of power. To date, religion has not proven itself."
"A Godless church means a Godless world. And we have both today.
So please don't blame me if I write and work day and night to save the
world from the church, and the church from itself."
"Every so often we run into someone who claims that there cannot
be any true revelation of divine inspiration or Power outside the Christian
Bible and the story of Jesus. These profess to believe in the immaculate
conception, virgin-birth, vicarious atonement, crucifixion and resurrection
of Jesus, not as a man but as a God. With them we do not quarrel. We respect their
religious beliefs, provided they are honestly held. We suggest that the
same respect and honesty be attributed to the author and his religious ideas.
That is something which those who claim 'orthodoxy' are never willing to do."
Original file name: PSYCHIAN
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