Dark Phases In Human History

This write-up was motivated by a question from a postgraduate student: “Can you please tell us how the cult phenomenon originated?” Originally cults were secret protectionist movements meant to protect and shield their members from intolerant and tyrannical authorities and guard the ideas and knowledge which they possessed. Such serious-minded people did not want to be arrested and burnt alive, neither would they want to recant and disown their beliefs, knowledge and convictions. They believed that pearls are not meant for swine. They often remained silent.
Martin Luther (1458 -1548), a strong-minded Augustinian friar who became leader of the German Reformation, did not want to recant his beliefs and convictions. Those who shared secretly in his beliefs protected him from tyrannical authorities that sought to destroy him and what he believed in. Such groups, including some highly placed persons, who believe in his ideas and provided protection for him would have been called cult members today.
There were Freemasons who were regarded by fanatical masses as secret cultists, even though Freemasonry is devoted to lofty ideals of human up building. For some political reasons some of the Guilds went underground, believing that noble up building programmes must not be taken over by state authorities who are after power and wealth.
State Intelligence and secret services evolved from Alguazil of the Roman Catholic Inquisition. The Alguazil, like the Jesuits, were a secret military arm of the church. Those who controlled religion also had strong control on the state. Defenders of the church and state and what they stood for, would fish out and deal ruthlessly with “enemies” who sought to spread heretic and anti-establishment ideas. Such enemies of faith or state were not criminals but those who did not share in the established beliefs and doctrines of the church.
The Druids and Shamans of ancient and primitive religions possessed and applied some unusual powers which some political authorities sought to destroy. Currently in the West Indies there are Voodoo masters whose powers confound Western Science and technology ; neither would they let an intruder into their cult. Such secret powers arose in response to the dark era of slavery.
Judaism had two sects regarded as cult groups – the Essene and the Narazene. Their members were not taken seriously. When some authorities felt that these groups exhibited certain knowledge away from prevailing dogmas, they were hunted and persecuted and taken before the court or Sanhedrin. Some groups went underground and developed what was known as the Qbl or Kaballah.
From the Italian Mafia, to Badoo Nigeriana, cult system degenerated into criminal and fetish affairs with unwholesome motives. Money-bags, drug cartels, smugglers etc bonded into oath-taking gangster groups who sought to protect their activities and keep them secret. They would hunt and destroy intruders and enemies to ensure that their secrets remain secret.
Top military and political leaders, including religious giants, are not free from belonging to some Brotherhood, associations and exclusive clubs that they would frown to be called cults. What are exclusive and clandestine associations after? From shocking and weird practices, to ritual murder and use of human parts for unknown purposes, the cult phenomenon represents dark phrases in the history of various nations.
Originally, cult groups sought to delve into some mysteries of life and also to guard and protect themselves and the knowledge at their disposal from desecration. Some intruders dabbled into dark realms and absorbed what is really dangerous to them and others. In the dark realms of errors, illusions appear alluring and fascinating and such intruders get trapped and engulfed in such realms of the psychic world. They would hardly agree to be told the truth.
Without sounding alarmist, patrons of the psychic world get fascinated by vision, miracles, wonders and hallucination. Frankly, the way to understand the apparent mysteries of life is through a thorough knowledge of the laws working in creation, which are not difficult to know. Those who dabble into such sublime knowledge via the psychic world where errors appear sublime and curious would often experience what had kept humanity in darkness over the ages. Apart from being secret and protectionist groups, cults seek to follow a broad but wrong way to explore the issues of life. There are many trapped in the realm of illusion than we can imagine.
Dr. Amirize is a retired lecturer at the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt.

Bright Amirize