Members Virginia New Age Sect Killed in Bombay Terror Attack

compiled by Lewis Loflin

December 6, 2008 Bristol: The murders of Alan Scherr (58) and his daughter Naomi Scherr (13), members of a New Age religious sect in Nelson County, VA. has propelled this obscure group into the limelight.

The local press in my town gave this group free front page advertising in covering the Scherr murders at the hands of Muslim terrorists in India. (Their article never mentioned the identity of the killers.)

To quote the AP,

FABER, Va. (AP) -- The leader of Virginia meditation group that was in Mumbia, India, during the recent attacks says identifying the remains of two followers was one of the most challenging things he has ever had to do. Master Charles Cannon described the bloodshed and war zone-like hotel that was attacked to reporters Tuesday at the group's sanctuary in Virginia.

Cannon says he had to step over bodies and pools of blood to identify Alan Scherr, 58, and his 13-year-old daughter, Naomi. They were killed at the luxury Oberoi hotel nearly a week ago.

The Scherrs were among at least six Americans killed in the attacks. Cannon was leading about 25 followers on a spiritual pilgrimage to India. The 63-year-old is the founder of the Synchronicity Foundation...

But what is the Synchronicity Foundation these victims came from? The press won't answer the question, I will. They are a New Age cult.

Synchronicity is a term invented by New Age mystic Carl Jung (1875-1961). He was an associate of Sigmund Freud, another pseudo-science mystic that claimed "the unconscious mind as a reservoir of repressed sexual trauma that causes all neuroses." Jung broke away from Freud over this issue and founded his own school of "analytical psychology."

Jung believed in "astrology, spiritualism, telepathy, telekinesis, clairvoyance and ESP. In addition to believing in a number of occult and paranormal notions, Jung contributed two new ones: synchronicity and the collective unconscious." He was also accused of involvement in Nazism and believes in UFOs.

Synchronicity explains "meaningful coincidences...His notion of synchronicity is that there is an acausal principle that links events having a similar meaning by their coincidence in time rather than sequentially.

He claimed that there is a synchrony between the mind and the phenomenal world of perception." It's simply a rejection of reason. New Age mysticism is often a refuge for atheists that reject traditional notions of a transcendent God.

Another definition says, "Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events which are causally unrelated occurring together in a meaningful manner. In order to be synchronous, the events should be unlikely to occur together by random chance."

Collective Unconscious (later changed to the term to objective psyche) is somewhat defined as "a reservoir of the experiences of our species."

Freud did not distinguish between an "individual psychology" and a "collective psychology", Jung distinguished the collective unconscious from the personal subconscious particular to each human being.

It's a type of psychic pantheism. I can go on trying to give some rational meaning to this, it's what in ancient times was often called Gnosticism. But if one thinks this babble is nonsense, meet Master Charles Cannon.

To quote,

According to psychiatrist and author, Anthony Storr, Jung went through a period of mental illness during which he thought he was a prophet with "special insight." Jung referred to his "creative illness" (between 1913-1917) as a voluntary confrontation with the unconscious. His great "insight" was that he thought all his patients over 35 suffered from "loss of religion" and he had just the thing to fill up their empty, aimless, senseless lives: his own metaphysical system of archetypes and the collective unconscious.

Ref. http://skepdic.com/jung.html

Visions from the 'Divine Feminine'?

Going to one of his websites (www.blessedmotherapparition.com) Master Charles Cannon claims to be "a modern mystic" and is "the Spiritual Director of Synchronicity Foundation" and claims to have "had ongoing apparitional experiences of the Blessed Mother throughout his life and has been guided by Her." He claims other "prophetic sources have also confirmed what She had told him." He didn't name any of them.

It's in my opinion another collection of New Age garbage.

This "apparition" (the appearance of a ghostlike figure) of "The Divine Feminine, God as Mother" is right out of Gnosticism. Under Gnosticism God had a "feminine" hypostasis (a Greek term meaning inherent reality or substance) in a Trinity that included a masculine "side" which together with the feminine produced a Son or divine mediator between God and man. (Jesus)

This is the Holy Spirit of Christianity. Under Gnosticism, a pantheist belief system, all things emanated from the "One." Lacking on his website is a belief in an evil world of matter that Gnostics believe in.

He claims this "apparition" has appeared to him his whole life and "that Her public apparition would unfold after his sixtieth birthday." (He is now 63.) This takes place "within the Shrine of the Heart at Synchronicity Sanctuary." He claims, "This rare and miraculous apparition of the Blessed Mother is available for all to experience."

To quote right off his website,

As foretold, She has come into public apparitional manifestation at this time. Now, She appears for all to witness and experience. As rare as authentic apparition is, even more rare is one such as this that is available to all and everyone within a non-sectarian environment.

Is this something one can actually see or is this some type of psychotic experience? According to his other website (www.synchronicity.org) to quote why they created this,

The founders endeavored to create a contemporary, Western lifestyle for actualizing holistic experience in an acknowledgment of the failure of idealistic religion and philosophic models to do so.

They also acknowledged the schism between spiritual and scientific experience and endeavored to unify them. They intended to create a daily lifestyle that would actualize and validate The Holistic (Emphasizing the importance of the whole and the interdependence of its parts.)

Model of Reality with One Consciousness as the Source, as advanced by scholars and informed academia, and encapsulated in The Synchronicity Paradigm. Master Charles was chosen to fulfill the role of mentor in The Synchronicity Paradigm in recognition of:

His acknowledged state of actualized wholeness...he had validated the model in his own experience.

His life experience, which included a background in comparative religion and philosophy with specialization in holistic models of reality.

Could I get a list of those scholars? And,

The Holistic Model of Reality - a multi-dimensional model with One Consciousness as the Source.

Synchronicity Contemporary High-Tech Meditation and Holistic Lifestyle as the means of actualizing The Holistic Model of Reality in human experience.

In other words this whatever evolves totally around Master Charles. It's another replacement belief system for the disgruntled atheist. This thing was founded in 1983 as a not-for-profit, tax exempt 501(3), non-sectarian, spiritual, educational organization they claim.

His critics on the web claim he practices sex and mind control. I have no way to confirm this and have no comment on this.

Quotes from their website:

Mental Dimension: Within the mental dimension, negative polarity imbalance is marked by the dominance of undirected thinking over positive polarity stillness. Additionally, we find ourselves dwelling on the past or projecting into an illusory future.

Directing the mind with truthful affirmation is the primary means of emphasizing the non-dominant positive polarity, thus creating balance. The resultant balance is the basis of stillness and the ability to move beyond the mind into the subtle dimension marked by detached observation or witness consciousness.

Emotional Dimension: Within the emotional dimension, negative polarity imbalance is marked by the dominance of fear over the positive polarity, love. When we are imbalanced in this dimension, we are unable to experience ourselves or our relationships as supportive and loving and the joy of life is obstructed.

Flowing positive, love-based feeling is the primary means of emphasizing the non-dominant positive polarity, thus creating emotional dimensional balance.

Subtle Dimension: The subtle dimension is the first of the dimensions beyond the mind wherein the relative polarities begin to be experienced in a state of balance. With balance, there is detached observation or witness consciousness and awareness is more holistic rather than fragmented.

Thus, the experience of the subtle dimension is considered a hallmark in the meditator's journey and is also understood as the point at which true meditation (or stillness in duration), begins.

Total rubbish.

Islamists Murder Dozens in Bombay-Mumbai India

[ Challenge to Atheists 1 ] [ Challenge to Atheists 2 ]
[ Challenge to Atheists 3 ] [ Challenge to Atheists 4 ]
[ Challenge to Atheists 5 ]