Vol. 8, No. 6, 1991

Articles on Cults and New Religions

Craig Branch

The Washington Times, Insight (Unification Church), World Monitor (Christian Science), are not the only quality conservative publications owned by the cults.

New Dimensions is a slick and staunchly conservative magazine which sports frequent syndicated articles by Cal Thomas, Phyllis Schlafly, Pat Buchanan, Jeane Kilpatrick, William Safire and William F. Buckley, Jr. It has also received the endorsement of Concerned Women of America.

There is another name whose articles also appear in every issue. That name is Roy Masters. Masters is the controversial leader of the new age meditation and mind control cult, the Foundation of Human Understanding (FHU). The by-line of each of Master's articles states that he is "an internationally recognized expert on stress management."

Masters operates his church of several thousand, many of whom moved with Masters, along with the magazine to Grants Pass, Oregon. He also maintains a syndicated radio program, How Your Mind Can Keep You Well which airs on a number of stations around the country.

Like the Baghwan Rajneesh, Masters has been the center of controversy with the law and with his neighbors. Salvation and successful living in the FHU is obtained through new age meditation, tuning in to the direction from your own "intuition" which he calls "Reality" consciousness, the "Light," and "Truth within" (Introduction to Meditation, FHU, 1981, p. 3).

Masters typical approach at his gatherings is to engage in hypnosis/meditation exercises with his followers who he jokingly calls "Roybots." He then performs "exorcisms" by touching people on the forehead with a wooden cross.

He normally castigates, insults, and ridicules his listeners in a domineering controlling manner. Masters says "I could get people to die for me any day. I've got more power over people than Adolph Hitler and Jim Jones combined, because I'm smarter. I know how to push people's buttons" (Los Angeles Times, 12/3/78).

Master's meditation exercises, reproduced on three cassette tapes and a book, are classic progressive relaxation techniques which are standard hypnosis/meditation induction methods. This state leaves a person highly suggestible, with difficulty in distinguishing between reality and fantasy.

In a l984 interview with US magazine, Masters said, "I am a man without sin... I bring out the evil alien force that controls people."

The public relations department of New Dimension claims that Masters sued US magazine and won but Watchman Fellowship has discovered that US was sold to Rolling Stone magazine and the lawsuit was negated (data sheet from the Cult Awareness Network).

The US article goes on to quote Masters, "I'd like to earn a reputation so I'm remembered in the same breath as Moses, Jesus, the Apostles, Buddha, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and John F. Kennedy" (US, 4/23/84, p. 41).

Besides having a different God, different Jesus, different gospel, and having a controlling, authoritative leader, the FHU also displays other cultic characteristics. A cult often uses deception and duplicity, with hidden agendas.

The public relations office of New Dimensions is communicating that the magazine has no connection with FHU, that the editor, Mark Masters, does not agree with his father, it is owned by Publishers Press, and that the only connection Roy Masters has is that he donated the seed money which is being paid back (telephone conversation with WLBF).

When checking on the validity of this information, it was discovered that Publishers Press had no phone number. Its average monthly 110,000 copies are actually published in a two-story house next to FHU's church building (Washington Post, 11/29/90, p. 9).

In addition, New Dimensions assumed its new name in 1986 from what was formerly the Iconoclast, the official publication of FHU.

New Dimensions itself was listed as "a monthly publication of the Foundation of Human Understanding" as late as the June 1988 issue.

Mark and David Masters have certainly been active members of FHU as they have been part of numerous lawsuits with the "church." The December 1990 issue has its mandatory legal notice buried in the back in fine print which lists FHU as the only major stockholder of New Dimensions.

The question remains for Christians whether or not they want to particpate with cult enterprises.

To pharaphase what Jesus prayed to the Father, we are not to be taken out of the world but are to be protected while in the world. We must be salt and light while involved in the arenas of life.

But as John Lofton of the Conservative Digest stated, "Masters is a false prophet and theological fraud" and was critical of Christians who embraced the magazine (Ibid).

Christians must decide if the end of getting out our conservative message justifies the means, furthering the influence and platform of a destructive cult.