I recently had a group brought to my attention. This group, called "Architects of a New Dawn" is purportedly a social networking site founded by Carlos Santana which claims the mission statement of "creating a new global network, driven by extraordinary music and powerful media content. It is designed to engage people of all walks of life to work together to create positive change in the global community where love can replace fear and where peace can replace conflict."
Sounds like huggy hippy stuff right?
Well some warning bells go off.
To start with let's look at this article in Rolling Stone Magazine.
In it Santana says "I want the audience to be reminded that before they had all this stuff, this DNA and flesh and bones, they were made out of light."
Now one of his band members brushes this odd comment off, stating that Mr. Santana tends to "speak in metaphor" however the comment seems less metaphoric when you consider that the 62 year old guitarist says he plans to become a minister when he turns 67 and then says he is disaffected by the feelings of sexual guilt he thinks came from his Roman Catholic upbringing.
He never mentions what faith he intends to be a minister in... more on that later.
In this video Santana describes Architects of a new dawn in terms of faith and invites people to "create a new substance, a new reality, a new perception for this planet".
In this video he talks about a "sense of divine purpose" and states he plans to launch a 24 hour TV channel as the ultimate goal of Architects of a new dawn.
Within Architects of a new dawn you find an acceptance of several of the dumber and more dangerous new age beliefs, such as the belief that the world will end in 2012.
Finally, at this page, we see a huge countdown clock calling for all the "architects" to participate in a daily "global prayer for peace".
Ok, so there is the raw data. So the question becomes why do these things concern me, why do they make me say "this could be a potential cult"?
Well, let's look at the defining characteristics for a cult:
1) A cult is a religion.
With all the talk of new realities and divine purpose it certainly looks like Mr. "I want to be a minister in 5 years" Santana is trying to start a religion.
2) A cult has a charismatic leader.
Santana is unquestionably charismatic.
3) A cult may attempt to impose undue control over the daily activities of its' members.
Daily synchronized prayer clock. Doesn't matter where you are in the world or what else you are doing it's time to go pray for peace.
4) A cult may make undue monetary demands on its' members
Haven't seen evidence of that yet but I somehow doubt that record sales for Supernatural, Santana's last hit record (recorded before a California divorce) will be sufficient to start his peace and love TV network.
5) A cult may have a syncretic theology.
New age star-body stuff.
Christianity sans-sexual guilt.
"ZOMG teh world iz endingz on 2012" Terrence McKenna bad-trip bollocks.
Yeah, I think that is pretty syncretic.
Lots of cults preyed on hippies. Now the hippies are all older baby-boomers and have much more money than they did in the time of Chandra Mohan Jain, they are perfectly primed for a net-savvy, would-be cleric to come and take their money for his prostelytizing TV channel.
Is "Architects of a New Dawn" a cult? The jury is still out. But there is certainly cause for caution and concern.
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"I want the audience to be reminded that before they had all this stuff, this DNA and flesh and bones, they were made out of light."
ReplyDeleteThe light that Santana was referring to is the sun or stars in general. In cosmology all the elements that exist today were created from the stars through fusion. All the stars in the universe, including the Sun, are nuclear furnaces fueled by fusion. Through fusion, stars are responsible for forming all the naturally occurring elements heavier than hydrogen and helium.
Its funny he says that then goes on to say he believes in a higher faith. He contradicts himself all in the same interview.
Its widely accepted in cosmology that elements and eventually life were created through this process.
At the rate science and cosmology is progressing, religion will hopefully start to be questioned by more and more people. Just think we used to think the world was flat and you could fall off. Religion is just another idea followed by the uneducated and these cults are merely sheep being lead by a wolf.
Good blog, issues like this need more attention.