Destructive cults during the Pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic has reached many people today. And often, being in a hopeless situation, stress, with thoughts of an unknown near future, people are increasingly vulnerable to falling into destructive currents.
Let's remember at least the 90-ies in our country, when the financial and spiritual crisis of people led them directly into the hands of scammers, various sects, dubious organizations in which people sought protection, support, and sometimes just comfort and faith, but everything turned out - for them the opposite. For example, the pseudo-Christian organization "White Brotherhood", operating in the Aktobe region, spread its ideas of "the near end of the world", provided free Bible study lessons, offered to renounce the mortal world and fully devote themselves to the service of God in this organization, under the guise of faith in Christ, the organization gathered thousands of people around the world. People who left their families and gave their apartments, money, and other property to the White brotherhood sang like mad hosannas of "Mother Mary Devi Christ", as they called Marina Tsvigun, the founder of the organization, and were ready to do whatever she ordered.
On November 10, 1993, members of the "White brotherhood" staged a wild battle in the center of Kiev, tried to seize the Church of St. Sophia and were going to burn themselves in the name of the triumph of the new faith. In the same year, the organization was finally closed by law enforcement forces, and the court sentenced the founders to several years in prison.
Today, in the days of quarantine, vulnerability, pliability, apathy, uncritical thinking, conditions that people most often encounter, and in some cases, just an attempt to use " self-isolation "in good intentions for personal, spiritual growth, mastering new techniques or practices in various areas, already in the Internet space can lead people to scammers and so-called"rescuers of the world".
One of the Russian researchers of religious sectarianism, Professor Alexander Dvorkin, recently pointed out in his article: "Since the beginning of the pandemic, sects have stepped up their recruitment activities. People fall into sects when they experience stress, lose confidence in the future, and fear for themselves and the health of their loved ones. Sects flock to the smell of trouble and despair, like vultures to the smell of blood. This is done in order to get people involved. Sectarian activity has increased significantly, everyone is trying to impose their own product in order to involve them in their organization." "For example, the Fraudster Grigory Grabovoi, who once "resurrected" dead children in Beslan for money, after serving time, moved to Serbia and from there broadcasts to the whole world via Internet networks. He claimed to have invented a digital formula that would prevent COVID-19 from getting infected if repeated."
Or according to other information sources, " The administration of medical products of Australia issued fines of 98 thousand dollars to the Australian branch of the self-proclaimed "Church of health and healing Genesis II" MSS Australia for advertising a bleaching agent under the guise of a miracle cure for coronavirus, according to the regulator's website.
The "Miracle mineral Supplement" (MMS), which advertises "Church", as the regulator notes, contains a high concentration of sodium chlorite, a chemical that is used as a bleach. The authorities added that there is no "clinically proven, scientifically proven evidence that MMS can cure or mitigate the symptoms of diseases." The use of such drugs can cause serious harm to health and lead to nausea,diarrhea and severe dehydration, which "in some cases can lead to hospitalization," the experts added.
In Kazakhstan, as you know, during self-isolation, fraudsters have repeatedly tried to lure money, posing as Bank employees, under the guise of volunteers, free online courses. Our citizens were also recruited through virtual invitations to pseudo-Christian organizations and commercial cults. Representatives of destructive religious movements, trying to intimidate people with the End of the World, healing people at a distance, offer all sorts of protective amulets, talismans, individual "saving prayers", material and spiritual assistance. All this, a person who is not aware, takes for salvation, and tries to grasp any thread to feel safe.
Also, various types of training, which are mostly for commercial purposes, are readily offered in the Internet space today. Coaches who have an education in one direction, for example, in Economics or technology, can also offer their help in medicine, education, or psychology, which does not meet the requirements and can be dangerous for a person's life. At the same time, even in the religious direction, some theologian coaches, in addition to religion, speak out about their treatment methods for coronavirus that have not passed any clinical trials. Whether it is possible to say that "a good theologian is a good doctor" is very rare.
Also in our country, one organization that has a connection with the "occult, totalitarian religious network created in 1989 in the city of Novosibirsk, Russia. Shambala Ashram» Its other names are "Path to happiness", "geisha School", "school of organizers", "Russian tantric school". Russian law enforcement agencies define this sect as the most dangerous one that existed on the territory of the Russian Federation.
The leader of the sect, Konstantin Rudnev, was convicted under three articles of the criminal code of the Russian Federation: for creating an illegal religious Association, sexual violence and illegal sale of narcotic drugs on a particularly large scale. Since this organization was closed in Russia, as religious experts write in the Internet space, Rudnev's followers relocated to Kazakhstan. As it turned out, the dangerous sect takes its roots in Almaty, Nur-Sultan, Kokshetau and other cities under the guise of women's training, hiding under different names, of which the most famous is the Academy of women's wisdom "Alma/ALMA", may also have other names. Just look at the YouTube channel Alma 18+ and listen to the ad of coach Tamara RA "How to become perfect" to notice a mixture of religion, psychology, occultism, so that the use of suggestion techniques, sexual videos, rituals, amulets very similar to the practices in the "Shambhala Ashram"immediately catches your eye.
And for those whose minds can immediately expose the truth of the organization's teachings, we created special videos on topics that claim that the organization is not a sect, apparently for justification. After all, as they say in the common people: "on the thief and the hat burns", and in psychology, a person who feels guilty, to hide it, will justify himself in advance and prove that he is not a thief or a sectarian. Of course, you will not see any objective conclusions about the teachings of this organization on the website and on the YouTube channel. Only positive advertising and reviews to create a positive image. And thus, the organization, judging by subscribers, is growing and not far left to the victims, although the first Kazakh victims have already appeared, they are described in detail in "MK in Kazakhstan", in the article Aksinya Titova "in Kazakhstan recruit adherents of a forbidden sect" (https://mk-kz.kz/incident/2019/10/09/v-kazakhstane-verbuyut-adeptov-zapreshhennoi-sekty.html).
It remains to be noted that in any complex, non-standard situation, a person should be able to think critically and with a variety of opinions in different directions, still be guided by the instructions of specialized specialists, and not only chase those dubious individuals who have succeeded in financial matters, in their own direction, or try to present themselves as such and advertise it to the whole world.
Voronovich Olga, theologian