Cult's "Messiah" Struggles With False Doomsday Prophesy

“The Wild Hunt of Odin”, by P N Arbo, 1872

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.
R.E.M.

What's a "Messiah" to do when his doomsday prediction has come and gone? Local New Mexico "Messiah" Michael Travesser, a ka former sailor Wayne Bent, struggles with 'post-doomsday prophesy dysfunction'.

Michael "Messiah" Travesser

The leader and "Messiah" of a 56 member cult in a remote area of New Mexico called Strong City, Travesser predicted the end times would be midnight, October 31, 2007 when an "apocalyptic" event would destroy the world.

According to Travesser it was God who gave him the Doomsday date.

Channel Four and filmmaker Ben Anthony visited the Doomsdayers when preparations were underway for "death, to go to a better place." Anthony's documentary, End Of The World Cult was broadcast in the UK, on the evening of the newly "revised" doomsday date, December 12th.

Anthony asked Travesser if he and and his group were going to do the "Jim Jones" method or perhaps "Heaven's Gating"? Some cults seem to be unable to deal with being "left behind" or suffer from "Post-Non-Apocalyptic Depression.

Jim Jones and The People's Temple

On November 18, 1978, in Guyana, it was reported that Congressman Leo J. Ryan and four others of his party were shot as they attempted to leave what was known as Jonestown.

Named after the "Reverend" Jim Jones and his 1100 disciples, the "People's Temple" became known as a place of mass murder and suicide as 913 members wound up dead.

A tape-recording of the mass-suicide reveals that there was little dissent about the decision to die. One or two women who felt that the children should be able to live protested, but they were soon reassured by reminders of the alternative undignified death at the hand of the enemy and the shouted support of the group. The poison-laced drink was brought to the hall and dispensed. The babies and small children, over two hundred of them, were first, with the poison poured into their mouths with syringes. As parents watched their children die, they too swallowed the fatal potion. The moments before the final decision to die brought resistance from a few, but armed guards who surrounded the room shot many of them. Of the estimated 1100 people believed to have been present at “Jonestown” at the time, 913 died, including Jim Jones; the rest somehow escaped into the jungle. It is not certain whether Jones shot himself or was shot by an unknown person. [3]

Heaven's Gate

Heaven's Gate is a destructive, doomsday cult centered in California. 21 women and 18 men voluntarily committed suicide in three groups on three successive days starting on 1997-MAR-23. Most were in their 40's; the rest covered an age range of 26 to 72. 1 Two months later, two additional members, Charles Humphrey and Wayne Cooke attempted suicide in a hotel room a few miles from the Rancho Santa Fe mansion; Cooke succeeded. Humphrey tried again in the Arizona desert during 1998-FEB and was successful. [4]

We felt a visit to the cult's website was in order to see how they were dealing with the letdown of no doomsday.

From Michael the "Messiah," part of post he put up December 26, 2007.

It Is Finished!
Posted by Michael Travesser at 1:34 PM | (17) Comments

I am writing to the family to give an overall view of the events of our last twenty one years together as a church family. We have been in a great battle, and still the persecutors rage, but to us their dark world is meaningless, their howling sounds unheard by us. All of this time together we have watched the powers of heaven battle with the dark world below, and it is clear to us now what the issues are in the spiritual realm. [2]

We're not quite sure who the "persecutors" are that Michael refers to. Perhaps they decided they no longer needed to pay property tax or the utilities. It makes a better story if your cult is somehow "persecuted", the old "us" against the wicked rest of the world.

After reading a bit more of Michael the "Messiah's" post on the "It is Finished" thread, we've come to this conclusion:

What to say about a group of people who have made the decision to live in perpetual fear of this life?

It's their life. They have the right to live (0r not) as they please. And if they owe us any money, please pay before the door hits you on the butt on your way out.

By LBG
Image [ images.google.com]
Source - 1 - Channel 4
Source - 2- Strong City
Source - 3 - Crime Library
Source - 4- Religious Tolerance.org



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