9 P.M., July 1, 1977
"You Fight ... Against Spiritual Darkness"
(Ephesians 6:12)
Holy Cosmos' violet ray (3x)
Work thy power through me, I pray (3x)
Holy Cosmos' yellow ray (3x)
Touch and heal, and light my way (3x)
Holy Cosmos' celestial ray (3x)
Fill me with thy love today (3x)1
The chanting grew almost deafening. Brad, sitting with Beth, found himself automatically tapping his foot to the rhythm. Judd and Walter were sitting together, as were Hal and Liz, Bruce and Christy, Stan and Sandee. They had gone to the meeting two by two, each couple sitting at a distance from the others. As they looked around, each one prayed that Christ would protect them all from any power the spirits would try to exercise over them.
They were not surprised at some things they saw. We already knew about the large Buddha, centrally placed, just in front of where the altar rail used to stand. But we were all very curious about what else they would find. What, for example,
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would the cult's public meeting be like? Would it be so "Eastern" that the average American would have culture shock? Or would it be rather similar to the average Protestant church service?
Ralph was once again out of town, due to return the next morning. I felt convinced that God did not want me to go to that Summit meeting. I didn't know whether as Ralph's wife, Satan might especially attack me, or whether there was some other reason why God wanted me to stay away. I only knew I was not to go.
Becky, our second daughter, also knew she shouldn't go. For a long time she had not been well. Only two weeks earlier she had graduated, exhausted, from the California Institute of Technology, and consequently felt physically unprepared for a battle with spiritual forces.
Bob intended to go, but at the last minute decided to go home to change into a suit. He therefore missed the pairing off, two by two, which Prudence had advised for those who would attend. Just after the rest left, he returned wanting to go, but had no partner.
I was especially concerned that Bob should not go by himself. A few years earlier, while a student at Caltech, he had come into a deeper experience with Christ. But being scientifically trained, he tended at that point to be a bit skeptical about the reality of "principalities and powers in high places" that war against our spirits. The whole idea seemed somehow too superstitious, too medieval. "Oh well, there's no one to go with me," he told me. "What can happen, anyway? I'll be okay." And he went alone.
"As we entered," Christy wrote later, "there were two guys and a girl up front with a guitar, singing 'mantras' -- Eastern-sounding. They would start out slowly, and as the short phrases were repeated again and again, they gained momentum, until the words seemed firmly implanted in one's mind and the atmosphere became intoxicating. Everyone seemed to be effectively drawn into a mood of receptivity.
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There was a feeling of anticipation in the crowd.
Later on, to the amazement of our group, the choir sang a song about Jesus, one which could easily have been sung in any evangelical Sunday service except where key words about the atonement had been altered.
Then Elizabeth Claire Prophet rose and began to chant, instructing newcomers and visitors how to participate. It began low at first, and the words were distinct and clear. Over and over again the same phrases were repeated. Voices became louder, words more blurred, the chanting more rapid.
Bob, seated alone, felt the mesmerizing effect of the chanting and began to pray, quietly at first and then aloud. It flashed through his mind that the devil was using rhythm to work a spell on all these people, so that they could be deceived more easily, and he determined to break that rhythm. All around him people were shouting, louder and louder:
Ho-ly Cos-mos' violet ray
Work thy pow'r through me, I pray.
Bob started to pray louder and louder in non-rythmic pattern, using different words and thus totally out of beat with the rest of the audience. The lady beside him became quite agitated.
"No!" she said as she leaned toward him. "No! That's not the way! Here! Here are the words! Say them with us!"
Bob ignored her and continued praying.
"Listen!" she inisted more loudly. "You won't feel the vibrations if you don't do it right!"
Suddenly, the chanting was at an end and the audience was dismissed for a fifteen minute break before "the Mother" would give a "dictation" from Lanello, her dead husband, now an "ascended master."
Bob almost ran from the building, praising God for what he felt to be a deliverance from Satanic power.
Beth came back across the street and started repeating
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the chant. "Beth, how could you?" Brad asked in shock. "What did you memorize that for?!"
"I didn't mean to! I didn't chant. But those words and that rhythm just stick in your mind. I can see how people get sucked in, thinking it's innocent when it's really calling to something other than God. Never again will I think that chanting is just a simple religious game!"
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1. Because all chants used by the cult are copyrighted, this is not an actual quote, but is similar in sense and meter to several actually used.
