To review something as complex as the beliefs and practices of Sons Ahman/Aumen Israel (SAI) and to put it into an historical and theological context that is meaningful for those not acquainted with this sect requires that we stand back in time and examine the forces that influenced the evolution and eventual schimatisation of the early New Testament Church during its its first three centuries. Because SAI is a synthesis of different theological systems it is necessary to discern its core beliefs, understand how they were constructed and where they were derived from. We have seen that SAI is an outgrowth of Mormonism but even that is really too simple, for in truth Mormonism constitutes but one strand of SAI thought. If we are to understand SAI (and utlimately Mormonism) we must backtrack some 19 centuries and look at the controversies affecting the early apostolic and sub-apostolic Church.

It is my thesis that SAI us basically another mutation of Gnosticism, something the founder, Gilbert Clark (aka Davied Israel), would probably not dispute. But "Gnosticism" in itself is a pretty vague sort of term that covers a wide range of ideas. By derivation ( gnosis = knowledge) it implies the pursuit of esoteric truth: thus common people knew the ordinary facts of religion but the wise, the gnostics would have claimed, had much private information that lifted them out of the ranks of the vulgar. This esoteric knowledge claimed to be scientific and cosmological as well as theological and for this reason we can perhaps understand why Harnack saw in it an "acute Hellenisation of Christianity". But in point of fact it was strongly dualist, combining a physical with a moral dualism, and its type of thought was far more Oriental than Greek. As a kind of theosophy it has affected most of the religions into the midst of which Christianity was born. It is therefore customary to trace Gnostic infulence in many of the various types of heretical thought that arose around the cradle of the Christian faith. In the view of many, Gnosticsm was an effort to find a substitute for that apocalyptic hope of an immediate return of Christ which was not felt to be illusiory, a thought shared by SAI who do not believe that Christ will physically return (Part 2, §1.3). It was also an attempt to explain on rational grounds how men came from God and return to him without cataclysm, a thought once again reflected in the SAI belief in evolution and multiple reincarnation.

The point common to orthodox Christianity and Gnosticism was thus belief in a redemption through Christ. But the Gnostics thought the ordinary facts of the life of Christ as taught in the Church were only the vulgar conceptions that concealed the truth. Their own and SAI's dualism precluded any belief that God could really become man. In fact that was the real difficulty -- granted both a spiritual and a material universe, how could the one be the source of the other? Not by direct contact, that was evident; for the one, according to the Gnostics, was altogether good while the other was altogether evil. Therefore between God, who is absolute spirit, and man, who is of the earth earthy, there must be a number of of gradations in being, becoming less spiritual and more material as the steps descend from the higher to the lower level. This concept was picked up by Joseph Smith during his kabbalistic studies under Alexander Neibaur [60] which teaches such a system of emmanations from the spiritual ( kether) to the material ( malkuth) and has found its way into the Utah Doctrine & Covenants from his private teachings:

"It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance {absence of gnosis}. There is no such thing as immaterial matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes. We cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that all is matter" (LDS D&C131:6-8, 17 May 1843).

This is, as you will see, a late Nauvoo teaching (1843) by which time Smith's Kabbalism and Gnosticism, finding their nadir in the King Follet sermon just before his death, was firmly a part of the Mormon esoteric tradition. These ideas were, however, only in a nascent form in their rather unique combination with other Mormon ideas and it took Gilbert Clark to continue in Smith's path and show just where the American prophet was leading his followers.

Like some theosophists of the present day, people with such views found no great difficulty in remaining within the Church. After all, they were denying no Christian teaching, only giving it a more "scientific" explanation. But in reality they had little in common with the Church of their day. Their aim was intellectual enlightenment (cp. D&C 131:6) rather than moral life; their desire freedom from the bondage of matter rather than the corruption of sin; their system a philosophy rather than a religion. Ultimately they realised the incompatibility of their teaching with that of the Church, and began to form sects of their own.

In looking at these early Gnostics two choices face us: either they were great Christian intellectuals born before their time, the only ones to encourage scientific research among a class of people by whom the wisdom of this world was too little valued, or as mere dreamers following not the exact methods of scientific enquiry but the vague speculations of a pseudo-scientific curiosity. And in the end we must judge both Mormonism and and SAI in the same way though in the case of the former -- and specifically modern post-Joseph Smith Mormonism - we are dealing with a curious syncretic hybrid of orthodox Christianity and Gnosticism, each of the different factions of Mormonism representing different mixes with the fundamentalism Mormons emphasising the Gnostic and the RLDS (Reorganized Latter Day Saints) emphasising the orthodox. And apart from both of these we have SAI and its forerunner, the Church of the New Covenant in Christ (also known as the Patriarchal Church of Christ and Evangelical Church of Christ run by John Bryant), both openly Gnostic but with SAI the most gnostic of all.

THE THREE SCHOOLS OF GNOSTICISM

I. Syrian Gnosticism

We may distinguish three main types of Gnosticsm. The earliest appeared in Syria, where according to tradition the whole business began in Samaria with the teaching of Simon Magus (Ac.8:9). From the Acts of the Apostles we know that this Simon was worshipped as being himself "the great Power of God" (v.10), which appears to imply a kind of rival Samarian incarnation to that of the Judean Christ. From other sources we learn that Simon taught that this Power had caused the creation of the world through the instrumentality of angels and archangels, they have first been brought into existence by means of his Thought (Ennoia). Once having felt their strength they refused Ennoia the right to return to heaven, and she had perforce to remain on earth imprisoned in successive female forms. Formerly she had been Helen of Troy (a reminiscence of Selene, the moon goddess), and now she was a woman of dubious reputation in Tyre, To deliver her the Power had appeared in Simon, who taught his followers that the way to freedom for all lay in a plentiful use of the magical arts and a lordly disregard for the moral law. In many ways Gilbert Clarke may, in the Gnsotic tradition, be seen to be claiming a similar rôle.

This kind of teaching was handed down with embellishments through Menander, a fellow-countryman and follower of Simon. Another instrument in the transmission may have been the Cerinthus was had the encounter in the baths with the apostle John. From him we get the Gnostic teaching as to the creation combined with the Ebionite doctrine of Christ. The complete emergence of Christian Gnosticism may be dated from Saturnius, who taught at Antioch in the time of Trajan. The world, according to him, was made by seven angels, of whom Yahweh ("Jehovah"), the God of the Jews, was one. It contains, however, a spark of life from the Father (whom Clarke identifies as "Aumen" in his system, as do the Mormons indirectly with their "Ahman"). The Saviour, who had no human birth or body, came down to assist the good, who possess this spark, against the evil, who are assisted by the demons. Salvation is by asceticism, marriage and the union of the sexes being the work of Satan.

This teaching had a local success in Syria. It was carried further by the Ophites or Serpent-worshippers (cp. the New Age/Hindu concept of the kundalini). They taught that the inferior creator-spirit, the Demiurge or Ialdabaoth, as they called him, had given himself out to be the greatest of all spirits and was so incensed when the first created man gave thanks to the Father instead of himself that he planned to beguile him through Eve and so bring about his undoing. From such a fate the Serpent rescued the primal man by introducing Eve to the knowledge ( gnosis) of good and evil. With this benificent serpent [61] the Saviour-spirit, descending upon the human Jesus, identified himself in the conversation with Nicodemus: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so much the Son of Man be lifted up" (Jn.3:14). The serpent is therefore worthy of all veneration.

It is easy to see that what we have here is an example of the resurgence of that belief in a primeval world-monster which appears in one form or another in nearly every creation story and dragon myth. The extreme reduction to absurdity of this type of thought is to be found in the sect of the Cainites, who acting on the happy suggestion succeeded in turning the whole of the Old Testament upside down by representing Cain and all the worst characters as the best. Even Judas Iscariot did a great work, since by betraying Jesus he hastened the redemption of the world, the same logic and thought that lies behind the Mormon idea that the Fall was, ultimately, something positive (2 Nephi LDS 2:25/RLDS 1:115). Beyond this no further progress could be made on these lines.

II. Valentinian Gnosticism

The second great centre of Gnostic teaching was Alexandria (Egypt), where the mixture was more predeominantly Platonic than elsewhere. Here the first name to demand attention is that of Basildes, who taught in the time of Hadrian; but it is not easy to say how much in his system belongs to him and how much to his disciples. De Faye thinks that Basilides was really a moralist, dependent both upon Plato and upon the Stoics, though with his own original doctrine of providence, surmising that the Christian confessors of his day were expiating offences committed in a former existence. Below Him are the 365 heavens (cp. SAI's different daily liturgies), which have emanated from Him and of which we only see the lowest and last (cp. the kabbalistic malkuth). That is the home of the creating angels of whom Yahweh ("Jehovah"), the God of the Jews is chief. The long descent from non-existence to the material world, from the abstract to the concrete, has not been completed without hindrance. Confusion has entered in, and the present task is to restore harmony. With this object in view the gospel, identifed with the Nous, came down from the Supreme, passing through all the heavens, and rested upon Jesus, the son of Mary. Jesus, thus inspired, was taken without suffering from the earth, for at the crucifixion it was really Simon the Cyrenian who died, a thought later borrowed by some Muslim writers.There was a practical corollary to this teaching. If Jesus did not suffer, there was no reason for His followers to do so either, and Christian confessors had no need to go to the extreme length of martyrdom.

Carpocrates also was an Alexandrian. He too believed in a Supreme and in a number of creating angels. It was these angels who had spoilt everything. The original plan of the Supreme had been a complete communism, but the angels had introduced the Law with all its invidious distinctions between good and evil, and mine and thine. The wise ignored these differences, as do the Aumenites at SAI in whose society marriage has been re-defined apart from the Law: thus a wife no longer belongs to her husband but to the SAI "christ" and all the other community members in the SAI hieracrchy. All souls had a previous existence and were subject to many transmigrations (cp. SAI belief in multiple reincarnations) until they had run through the whole gamut of possible wickedness. Their business then was to practice the communism of the original plan, and to have everything, even their women, in common, a doctrine which was emerging in Nauvoo with Smith's multiple marriages (polygyny and polyandry combined) - and which Clarke brought to maturity in SAI). So not only would they deliver themselves from the bondage of matter, but in so doing they have shown us a moral obliquity as bad as that of the Cainites.

The greatest of all the Gnostics, and the self-confessed personal hero of Gilbert Clark, was Valentinius. He also was an Alexandrian, but he taught in Rome during the reign of Antonius Pius, that is to say somewhere about the time of the writing of the Shepherd of Herman. Valentinius was the poet of Gnosticism, using his "endless genealogies of angels" as personifications of their divine attributes. Paul strictly warns against this practice [62]. The Pleroma or Fulness of the Godhead was made up of 30 aeons (cp. Part II, §1.2.c). These were conceived as syzgies or pairs, male and female, the system employed by SAI. The first pair were the Abyss and Silence (represented in SAI by Gilbert Clarke - "Abba Davied" - and his wife/consort "Aima Isis"), the second Intellect and Truth. The latter began the Word and Life, and they in their turn produced Man and the Church, thus completing the first Ogdad (Part II, §21.1). By such steps we come down at last to Will and Wisdom. The latter two of these includes philosophy, but it also manifests itsellf as an irregular passion to comprehend the Highest, which in SAI uniquely involves sexual communism between the several pairs or syzgies in the SAI heirarchy of 30 (15 men and 15 women) as an earthly allegory of what happens in the heavens - this is easily denied by the cult who are usually asked if sexual communism is practiced generally, to which Clarke can truthfully answer "no" (Part II, §21.37) when in truth it is practiced by the hierarchy that probably includes most of the contemporary members (OM, 1 Jared 1:9) [63] [64].

This passion produces a formless abortion, Achamoth, which is the usual Gnostic discordant element [65]. Hence of Sophia's sorrows and passions come the "Ideas" which result in the material universe. To restore the lost harmony the system harks back to the second pair, who produce two fresh aeons, Christ and the Holy Spirit [66]. Similarly, the disorder in Wisdom is restored by both very salutary remedies for mistakes in philosophy. Out of the freshly established concord of the whole Pleroma comes the 33rd and last aeon, Jesus. By him Achamoth gives birth to three classes of men, the carnal (non-Christians), the psychic (ordinary Christians), and the spiritual (Valentinians). The first of these classes is incapable of redemption and the last does not need it. The Redeemer comes for the benefit of the ordinary Christian alone; those who succeed in following him will be saved, the rest together with the merely carnal will be burnt [67]. The Valentinians, being spiritual, will be saved whatever happens, and no sins or infirmities of the flesh can affect their salvation [68].

Valentinius had many followers in Rome, particularly Heracleon and Ptolemaeus. The former is known for his commentary on the Fourth Gospel, a favourite of SAI (Part II, §1.13; 21:23), which was largely allegorical in its method of interpretation, but brought Valentinianism nearer to orthodox Christianity in its doctrine of redemption. Gilbert Clark teaches that Christ is our Saviour, not in cancelling sin through vicarious atonement but in breaking the cycle of reincarnation through obedience to the SAI program. Buddha taught the same idea, claiming that meditation and aesceticism would likewise end the wheel of rebirth. Eastern meditation figures prominently in the SAI system, including (as would be expected), Tantric Yoga, which is a form of oriental sexual exercise practiced by the SAI hierarchy in their collective "meditations".

Ptolemaeus wrote one of the few Gnostic works that have come down to us in a complete form, the Letter to Flora, called by Renan the chef d'oevre of Gnostic literature and held in great respect by SAI (see Part 2, §21.12). It is a study of the Mosaic Law, which the author thinks due not only to Moses and the ancients, but also to the Demiurge, and in which nevertheless he discovers the whole system of Valentinius. The last of this school of Gnostics was Bardesanes, who carried the tenets of Valentinius to Edessa about the year 170.

Summary of Syrian and Valentinian Gnostic Thought

The common aim of the Syrian and Valentinian gnostic teachers seems to have been threefold: (1) To attain to a superior science ( gnosis) of the invisible world; (2) To accomlish a return to God which should not only be individual but cosmic; and (3) To assert the freedom of the soul

in denying the power of the flesh.

In order to achieve this threefold aim they elaborated the intricate systems outlined above. Behind these it is possible to discern some general ideas: (a) God in His essential nature is abstract and unknowable [69]; (b) He is not the same as the Creator-God of the Old Testament; (c) Between Him and creation there is an evolution through various grades of being; (d) Somewhere in this long process corruption has crept in, and the material world is the result of this corruption; (e) There can therefore be no real contact between divinity and matter; (f) Nevertheless there is something in humanity capable of redemption; (g) This redemption is through Jesus Christ; (h) The way of it lies through escape from the flesh, which may be accomplished alternatively by rigid asceticism or by gross licentiousness [70].

To contemporaries such a system might appeal because it offered a Christianity freed from the Jewish scriptures with their wars, barbarities, and animal sacrifices. It also made terms with the new thought of the day, combining a respect for philosophy with the fashionable religiosity. In trying to estimate the true position of the Gnostics we must also remember their constant resort to occult magical arts by which they believed themselves able to control the actions of the inferior divinities. Nor must we lose sight of the regular escape from criticism by appeal to an alleged esoteric secret tradition which was supposed to have been handed down among the initiates of their several schools. Using a slight twist of this concept, Joseph Smith and Gilbert Clark have claimed reception of this same tradition through divine revelation whilst gathering it for "restoration" to its pristine purity in a supposedly "corrupt" form from Free Masonry, Kabbalism, the Occult, and the mystery religions of the Gnostics, Egyptians, Essenes, Hindus and others.

The Gnostics were responsible for the production of a copious literature, some of which was discovered in the late 20th century in Coptic. Pistis Sophia and the Books of Jeu are two of the most important authorities, and many of our apocryphal gospels are of gnostic origin, while the Hermetic literature is valuable evidence for pre-Christian Gnosticism. But what they relied on was the tradition to which they laid exclusive claim much as the Mormons and Aumenites do today. In answer to this the Church set up a threefold defence: (1) It began to fix a canon of scripture; (2) It emphasised the importance of the bishops as the guarantors of tradition (after all, who was more likely to be in possession of an apostle's authoritative teaching than the man who had succeded to his see?); and (3) It condensed fundamental Christian doctrine into a creed that could be easily memorised by all - the Apostles' Creed . This threefold defence of canon, episcopate, and creed [71] seems to have been sufficient to preserve the orthodox doctrine from degenerating into a mere pseudo-science and forms the basis of (non-Gnostic) Christian doctrine everywhere. It may be said to be the litmus test of the authentic apostolic faith.

What was the ultimate fate of the Gnostics is not quite clear. Apparently they lingered on in diminished numbers until they found an even more strongly expressed dualism with Christian affinities in the sect of the Manichees and mingled their own fortunes with theirs. It is probable that the type of feeling they represent has always continued to lead a precarious and underground existence in the Church. And from time to time, as in the case of the Albigenses, it has risen to the surface and brought trouble in its train.

III. The Marcionite Gnostics

We shall now consider the third class of Gnostic the early representatives of which, as hinted above, did not form separate sects or leave the Church but formed confraternities within her pale. The first to organise a distinct body was one who is not, strictly speaking, a Gnostic at all but is generally reckoned as one because he borrowed some simple notions from them. This was Marcion, whom Polycarp dignified by the title "first-born of Satan". His career is interesting. He was born at Sinope on the shores of the Black Sea and was the son of a bishop of that town. He himself followed the sea and made a fortune as a ship-master. He came to Rome in 140 and won favourable regard there on account of his munificence. He was also a keen student of theology. Abandoning metaphysics and cosmology, he confined himself to the more practical matters of ethics and exegesis. However, he was a man of only one leading idea. To him the key to all mysteries was to be found in the Pauline antithesis between grace and works. Indeed he wrote a book with the title Antitheses, the object of which was to expose the incompatibility of the Law and the Gospel. There are, he said, two Gods: the one is the God of the New Testament and is supreme, the other is the God of the Old Testament and is inferior. A strict literalism thus replaces the allegorising of true Gnosticism and results in a fine, if short-sighted, distinction between love and justice. Jesus is the agent of the good God; He is therefore not the Messiah but comes to destroy the work of the Old Testament Demiurge (but cp. Mt.5:17-20) . Marcion's conception of His person was frankly docetic: Christ was simply a manifestation of the true God without any actual birth or death. The way to apprehend His spirituality was to free the body from the desires of the flesh by a most rigid asceticism, including even the repudiation of marriage.

Marcion was not content, like other Gnostics, to propagate this teaching among more or less secret followers. The openness of his efforts to capture ordinary Christians led to a breach with the Church of Rome, which very properly returned the large sum of money he had given it. Thereupon the Marcionites resolved themselves into a separate sect, which speedily spread throughout the Empire, the more speedily in that its extreme asceticism was not demanded of catechumens (new converts). The Christian sacraments were retained with a difference, the married being excluded from baptism and water taking the place of wine in the Eucharist [72]. The Marcionite scriptures were few and select. The whole of the Old Testament was rejected with a good part of the New. The Gospel of Luke without the initial stories was regarded as the Gospel, and the Pauline epistles without the Pastorals completed the canon [73]. "Criticising with a penknife", Tertullian called it. Obviously Marcion knew of no canon of scripture recognised by the Church, and it was probably his efforts in that direction that turned the mind of the Church to the formation of a canon of her own. For the SAI view of the New Testament, see Part 2 §21.23.

The importance of Marcion may be judged from the fact that he was attacked by most of the Fathers, including Justin, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Hippolytus and Epiphenius. His difficulties were peculiarly modern. His antithesis between love and justice is still to be found today in a popular sentiment that proclaims the inability of God and of the good man to punish [74]. The reconciliation between the New Testament and the Old, which the early Church tried to establish by an abundant use of allegory, has only been accomplished in our time by scientific and historical criticism that has taught us to see in the long education of the chosen people a gradual prepartion for the fuller revelation in Christ.

Marcion's greatest disciple was Apelles, the author of the Syllogisms. He was bolder than his master and entirely rationalistic. He was a monotheist of the strongest type, regarding, like Gilbert Clark, the Demiurge as nothing more than an angel (Clark, by contrast, is an unrepentant polytheist). He recapitulated in himself the history of much later thought by beginning to doubt the efficacy of pure reason and finally becoming quite mystical. Towards the end of his life he gave utterance to a sentiment with which the cynical may well be glad to consider the end of these strange vagiaries: "One thought not to dispute; each ought to cling to his belief; those will be saved who believe in the Crucified, provided their works have been good." Sadly this commendable sentiment is not shared shared by Gilbert Clark but would perhaps find a concordant note amongst many contemporary Restorationists.

The Shocking Truth of SAI's Dark Secrets

Like the Hindus, Buddhists and Gnostics SAI has adopted a world view view which is basically hostile to physical matter. The redemption of the world is not on their itinery, the whole purpose of the elect being to gather to their communities (presently only numbering one) and abandon the system of the world [75]. They are to be neither in the world nor of it.

In common with the beliefs of Mormonism, Catholicsm, the Jehovah's Witnesses, and numerous occult orders, SAI claims to be the ultime repository of truth and the possessor of the full, restored secret esoteric tradition: "We understand that since the beginning of time there have existed two main levels of truth in almost every faith, an outer watered down version for the masses which does little more than keep their lower passions in check, and an inner esoteric level for the elect where the true truth (sic) is taught and where the meatier mysteries of godliness are experienced [76]. SAI believes it has the mission to recreate the Garden of Eden upon the earth again [77] and that this will be achieved through "the art of meditation, and to contemplate, pray, and seek after the divine spirit {within oneself}....thru (sic) periodic immersions {baptisms}...in {a} sealing ceremony...and other mystical rites...thu equal sharing of possessions {including wives and husbands}...and thr (sic) developing an intimate relationship with one another...{by which means} fallen man can be redeemed from his alienation from God and brought back into the presence of the Elohim {Gods}, and that such unity with the heavens is achieved in the flesh when one enters a state of spiritual ecstasy, enlightennment, and divine love..." [78]

Redemption in the SAI system is not through faith in Yah'shua/Jesus of Nasareth but through rituals [79], meditation, and sexual communism in which they believe they are imitating the divine union of the Gnostic gods above. Through mystical tantric sex with the devotee the "divine seed" is passed on by "Abba Davied" or through "Aima Isis" or by one of the other patriarchs or matriatrchs in the hierarchy, in various combinations [80]. Like Sun Myung Moon of the Moonie (Unification Church) cult the basic problem is with sex which must be solved through divine sex. As the Moonies believe that the Fall was caused by Satan having sex with Eve, so too does SAI; and as Moon believes Yah'shua/Jesus failed to fulfill His mission to establish a perfect family giving birth to perfect children (the crucifixion destroying the divine plan), so too Clark believes his devotees must so perfect themselves and receive the divine seed from Clark (obtained from Mary Magdalene who received it from Christ) or his consort through sex so as to give birth to children "perfect in their generation", a concept he originally borrowed from John W. Bryant of the Evangelical Church of Christ. Sung Myung Moon as the "Lord of the Second Advent" (Christ/Messiah) has been accused of "purifying" young Korean girls through sex in his early days. Clark believes, moreover, that Christ and His bride Mary Magdalene practiced communal sex with the apostles and their wives, a belief likewise borrowed from Bryant [81]. Like Moon, Clark has recycled women, breaking up families, in order to find the "perfect one" to mirror Mary Magdalene in SAI (Moon divorced his first wife because she was not "perfect" enough and married a younger one - cp. Herbert W. Armstrong of the Wordwide Church of God who did the same).

Redemption in the SAI system is therefore essentually through "holy sex" [82] with multiple partners, as it is in so many modern and ancient cults, coupled with eastern meditation, yoga, and magic occult ritual. And as we saw in Part II this also involves the reception of "revelation" using New Age-type channelling through the SAI heads, "Abba Davied" and "Aima Isis". All of them reject the Old and New Testament code of morality and marriage laws which permits only monogamy and polygyny and which strictly forbids all kinds of witchcraft and magic. As we have seen one branch of the Valentinian Gnostics believed in promiscuity, a line SAI closely follows in a more sophisticated way. In the same way that Joseph Smith refused to recognise marriage vows outside his own priesthood system, thereby justifying him in taking plural wives of those already married outside his Church, of which he was the divine procurator, so too Clark has little or no regard for the marriages of those which do not fall within his occultic priesthood authority. He has to his dubious credit a long list of broken marriage trophies.

We shall not here occupy ourselves with a more detailed theological and practical exposition of SAI which would not only occupy a whole book but which is constantly mutating, like its Gnostic forebearers, in order to conceal its true practices from the outside world and from those lulled into a false sense of security by its outward, public projection. For SAI also has an outer exoteric facade as a "monastry" for celibates and monogamists by which it presents itself in its literature and on its web page - there is no mention whatsoever of its sexual practices or core beliefs which are only "revealed" to its members once their trust has been won. Typically if a couple visit their "monastry" they will try to convert both but if one resists they will not hestiate to convert the other - usually the wife - and persude her to leave her husband. Using alcohol (to loosen inhibitions), sorcery, ritual repetition of sexually-stimulating words and concepts [83], seduction and other techniques, it is not untypical for a wife to be sexually induced into the community and in the process demonised, alienating her husband and breaking up another marriage, often leaving fatherless children.Bit by the bit the neophyte is induced into progressively more degrading rituals until he is so conditioned by SAI's spirit that it becomes wholly natural to him.

My family is one of the victims of this shameless man which is one reason why I have written this exposé. Much more could be written not only about the topics I have discussed but about the exploitation and negligence of the children of this "monastry" in the Arizona desert. Unsupervised by adults during the long daily temple sessions, meditation periods, and the like, small ones were free to wander around and do as they please, and watch violent and pornographic X-rated movies in the carvans of the older teenagers who were themselves unmonitored. At one time there were members who were practicing New Agers including one woman who admitted to worshipping the "Dark Mother" and took part in "Harmonic Convergences" [84].

The whole story of SAI may never be told, and indeed this essay touches only the surface. But there is a pattern that unfolds which resembles all cults - for as Yahweh's sexual laws are overturned so this in turn leads to greater and greater depravity, however much "control" the cult leaders may believe they have over the situation. Sexual promiscuity is but one step away from murder itself.

Gilbert Clark and his SAI cult believe, as we have seen, that the Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith, Jr., was the forerunner of their beliefs and practices. They believe that Joseph Smith first started polygyny and then introduced polyandry, and that his legal wife, Emma, was strongly opposed to what he was doing. The historical evidence bears this out. One Mormon tradition, believed by Clark, is that Joseph Smith offered Emma poison so that she would stop disrupting his polyamoric activities which she was so violently opposed to. In a letter to me Clark expressed his belief that it would have been right for Emma to commit suicide in order to save the Mormon Church [85]. If this is the case it is not unreasonable to assume that should someone join SAI who was opposed to their multiple marriage system that the leader of the the cult might offer poison/suicide in order to rid it of a "disruptive element". In an extreme situation, where the very existence of SAI was being threatened by some disruptive element, murder is not an impossibility, given the sentiments expressed in this letter. I do not say that it would ever come to this but that the seed of such a possibility is already planted in the cult's attitudes. The mass-suicide of the Jim Jones cult in Guyana is an example of how the head of a demon-inspired cultic leader can be turned [86].

Other things trouble me also. The cult does not register all its births, though hopefully for less sinister reasons than satanists who use such unregistered babies for ritual murder. But it does leave such children as "non-persons" in the eyes of the state and the world.

He also does not seem to concerned the source of his experiences so long as it is what he belives to be the truth: "...if it is the devil speaking, then he, at least...is making sense and telling the truth" [87].

Clark's exegesis of scripture follows no known accepted methodology but is entirely subjective. For example, in the well-known "two sticks" prophecy that looks forward to the future reunification of the northern tribe of Israel with the southern tribe of Judah (Ezek.37:16ff) which Mormons 'interpret' to mean the joining together of the Book of Mormon ('Stick of Joseph') and the Bible ('Stick of Judah') in the LDS Church, Clark believes refers to the joining together of the neo-Masonic temple endowment of the Utah LDS Church ('Stick of Ephraim') with the Hebrew Kaballah ('Stick of Judah') by and in SAI [88]. Both interpretations entirely fail to take into account the clear context of this prophecy which is the reunifiction of the nation of Israel (v.22) and are typical of the cultic manipulation of scripture.

We have also seen that all the core doctrines of of SAI are not innovations of SAI's founders, Gilbert Clark, Hava Pratt and Bob Cummins, but borrowed from John W. Bryant's "Evangelical Church of Christ" and then greatly modified to suit their particular needs - ordination to the highest priesthood by sexual intercourse (Bryant claimed to have had sex with one of the three Nephite apostle's wives just as Clark claimed to have had sex with Mary Magdalene, thus giving him a "higher" authority), the use of alcohol in the ordinances to lower inhibition, cermonies in the nude, multiple sex between men and women, as well as that tolerated between men and men, and women and women, and so on. Whilst at SAI I read Bryant's "Black Ordinance Book" and was shocked by its contents which contained much ritual sexual magic (see Part 1). Pratt, Clark and Cummins were eventually excommunicated from the Bryant Church for practicing their own "unauthorised" sexual communism. Clark virtually admitted such in a letter to me [89].

What a sharp contrast the biblical Gospel of Yah'shua haMashiach/Jesus Christ is, so scornfully dismissed as a later Roman corruption on a much "lower level" of light by Clark! It is a Gospel so simple that the most uneducated peasant may comprehend it and joyfully partake in the fellowship of the redeemed. It speaks of only one God, Yahweh-Elohim, not of countless angel deities and unredeemed Demiurges with their complex genealogies and mythical goings-on. It speaks of one Saviour, Yahshua/Jesus, who is God Incarnate, from whom salvation and literal physical resurrection may be appropriated by a simple faith in His Name. It speaks of nuclear families with only one form of marriage (a man with one or more wives), of involvement in society but separation from its evil deeds. It speaks of openness with Yah'shua/Jesus warning those who practice secret occult arts and who do things hidden away:

• "Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God " (Jn.3:20-21, NIV).

For Clark, the Christian Gospel is far too easy. How may one be saved? He has the answer:

• "...if one prays on [ones] knees till they swell like James the Lord's brother, gives his life to teachings like Paul [!], meditates on God like Saint John of the Cross [a Catholic mystic], searches his soul like Sidhartha Guatama [Buddha], pursues spontaneous enlightenment constantly like the Zen Avatars, marries hundreds of women like Joseph Smith, and on and on, then one might have a chance..." [90].

How many people, then, would have even a basic hope of salvation? Almost none. It is easy to see why billions of evolutionary years are needed in the SAI system for a basic salvation. It is no wonder he despises Paul who said:

• "But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone" (Titus 3:4-8, NIV).

Clark has no idea what the Christian Gospel is at all. He does not understand that salvation is a free gift that cannot be earned [91]. He has no time for the needy and the suffering, or the common man on the street with his many problems, because like his Hindu forebears he believes that is their karma which they must work off over many millions of lifetimes. He has time only for the super-elect who have reached or are aproaching his level of godhood and divinity, or for those women who will yield their bodies to him for pleasure as once they did for Joseph Smith. He has no time for the New Testament evangel but rather testifies: "My head & heart are filled with visions of the firstborn family [the apostles] & their intimate unions one with another during and after the days of Christ. I was blessed to translate, about 7 years ago, the Secret Book of John spoken of in D&C 93:6, which is, for the most part, a diary of the intimate marriage unions in the firstborn family. I have never showed it to a soul lest they misunderstand its message" [92]. He teaches that after Christ left this earth that John the Apostle took over Mary Magdalene as his polyandrous wife and claims to have watched them in intimate sexual union for hours on end whilst in vision [93]. Moreover, he does not care about the moral character of a person but will embrace him so long as he can get further gnosis (knowledge) from him [94]. He is not interested in the suffering Christ of Isaiah and the New Testament but in the "laughing Savior" of the Gnostics [95]. And he stoops to mockery [96]. In his last letter to me he admits that his spiritual technique for perfecting souls is to "crush... and ground [them] to powder in the mill stones of heaven" [97] and that all the techniques, practices and doctrines which he practices aren't actually necessary [98]. He ends with a prophecy which we can easily measure twelve years on:

• "You will yet see many importanrt and wonderful truths flow out of Sons Ahman Israel, though you may choose to reject them" [99].

In this essay we have examined the ever mutating 'truths' and contradictions of this man, seen how people have come and gone, the remains of shattered marriages, and how the cult has stagnated in terms of holding its members. We have seen it expelled from an association for concealing and lying about its sexual practices. But he is right about one thing: I most certainly have rejected these "wonderful truths" and there - and there alone - I will concede that he is a prophet.

SAI theology is one of the most complex and involved systems that I have ever come across, embracing many schools of thought simultaneously, and there can be no doubt that Clark possesses tremendous knowledge which one cannot fail to be impressed by. One is at first simply overwhelmed by the shere scope of his knowledge to the extent that it seems "impossible" to question such a sage as he. And yet when you do invest time and effort to try and piece together his theological puzzle it soon becomes evident that the pieces do not fit together. Worse, there are major internal and historical contradictions. The theology is not ultimately amenable to critical study because Clark claims as his final authority his own experience and the experience of others - he is, in a word, an existentialist [100] for whom everything is personal and relative. As one probes the theological constructs of the author one is met by complex layers of changing meaning, smokescreens consisting of incomprehensible terminology to deflect penetrating questions, until one realises that the foundation of the whole system is liquid - worse, it is a gaseous potpourri of swirling coloured gasses that impress the eye by their beauty but which is, in the final analysis, spiritually useless to anyone seeking concrete answers to life's most pressing questions. Clark is the devious occultist par excellence, vague when it suits him and structuring his answers like the prophetic hexameter poet interpreting the incomprehensible babbling of the priestess at the Delphic Oracle in ancient Greece when she uttered, under the influence of strong narcotics, riddles which could be interpreted almost any way the hearer wanted. In terms of dealing with man's real need - to be quit of sin and to enter into a personal relationship with God - I would say that Clarks' system is worse than useless - it is actually a prison of the worst kind - a maze of hundreds of theological tunnels that lead nowhere except into the cult leader's own mental fantasy world and bed out in the middle of desert cut off from the real world.

And yet I concede a debt to the man inspite of the pain and destruction he caused my family - he has forced me to dig deep into my faith, into the Word of God, and into history and linguistics. It is through contact with such men that we can better appreciate the truth that we have received even though sometimes, for the sake of our loved ones, they are best avoided like the vipers that they are.

Conclusion

We have seen how Clark has employed various forms of double-speak to conceal his gnostic secrets and his fertility cult, and his attempt to gain credibility and recognition by becoming associated with an Essene Church that eschews his more radical ideas. We have seen the victims of his libido and religious fantasies - smashed families, many of them probably destroyed for ever. And he even admitted to me that there is a risk of those following his religious path going mad [101]. How many more cultic victims must the world be subjected to - the mentally disturbed throw-offs, from the Jehovah's Witness religion and the Christian Scientists [102] to the Ulf Eckman evangelical cult, and the suicides of Mormons desperate because they can't meet up to the standards of perfection required of their Church? What has happened to his devotees, past and present? Does he even care about them? What of his belief in spilling his own blood in certain rituals - is this normal let alone "Christian"? [103]

I have waited for over twelve years before writing this exposé to be sure that my wife, whom Clark tried to make his 'Aima [Mother] Alesha' [104], was finally out of SAI's physical clutches in order to protect her as best I could. It has been a painful experience digging back into the past and revealing the sordid escapade that is Sons Ahman/Aumen Israel but I feel I owe it to all those earnestly seeking to find God and especially those drawn by the lure of an esoteric monastry. There is much more I could tell for I have but touched upon what I consider to be the cult's core teachings and practices. Though the wounds of that terrible experience have mostly healed I can never forget the anguish at seeing my wife ravished by this gnostic Don Juan and pressured to prostitute herself for the supposed healing of homosexuals and others. As far as I know she bravely resisted. For two years I wept bitter tears for my children until the Lord heard my prayers and enabled me to rescue them in what was a miraculous series of events [105]. They are free today and living normal lives in the real world - it is now my prayer that my wife can be free too, and all the other victims of Gilbert Clark, aka "Davied Israel", and eventually come home. I pray for all the families shattered by this man, that they may one day be restored in God's grace, and I pray for Clark too, and those still with him, that the demons that drive them may be cast out and that they may come to know of the true God, and of His Christ, and of the simplicity of His love and truth.

• "For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a licence for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord" (Jude 1:4, NIV).

  "And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast" (1 Pet.5:10, NIV).

---

Footnotes

[60] A Berlin-educated German Jew from Prussia, and well acquainted with the Kabbalah, joined the Mormon Church in 1841 and taught Joseph Smith the Zohar. Return

[61] cp. Book of Mormon, LDS 2 Ne.2:25; RLDS 1:115 Return

[62] “As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer: nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God's work - which is by faith (1 Tim.1:3-4, NIV). These gnosticising tendences were recognised, and warned against, very early on in the New Testament Church. Little wonder that Clark despises Paul. Return

[63] “The wedding feast of the Bridegroom is the pure union of all the members of His Kingdom..The union of the Priesthood in Heaven and the people on the earth being an orgiastic (physical as well as spiritual) experience and happening - Zion is truly a people who are one heart, one mind, one flesh people” (Hava Pratt, letter to Jess Groesbeck, May 14, 1986, p.3). Quoting the Mormon Doctrine & Covenants, she goes on to explain that it is these sexual practices that are “unlawful to utter” [i.e. to discuss in public] (D&C LDS 76:114-118, RLDS 76:8). Throughout the letter she makes it clear that these practices are to be found in “Patri-Matriarchal Marriage”, the SAI term for mixed marriage. Return

[64] “Yes, ordinances here at SAI are physical - sexual - temporal - outward - but so are baptism and the sacrament...Why do you find it so difficult to believe that “Light” can be transmitted by sexual intercourse?...Isn’t God love? Isn’t intercourse the most focused intimate form of expressing that love?” (Bob Cummins, concubine-‘husband’ of Hava Pratt, in a letter to the author, December 30, 1988, pp. 4,6). Return

[65] cp. The Sacred Scrolls of Sons Ahman Israel, Volume 1, Oracles of Mohonri {OM} 1 Mohonri 1:28, Original Version, First Edition - here "Yahweh", the SAI Demiurge, is described as creating both "good" and "bad" seed - the "enemy" {Satan} also creates "bad" seed - v.31 implying that Yahweh and Satan are somehow "one". Return

[66] Jesus and Mary Magdalene in the SAI system. Return

[67] cp. OM 1 Mohonri 1:36. Return

[68] Not dissimilar from the Baptist teaching of "once saved, always saved, doctrine. No matter how far a Christian may fall into sin, the Baptists teach, they will be saved. Return

[69] Called by Clark “Aumen” (or “Ahman”), the kabbalists’ Ain Soph Aur - see Part 2, §21.1. Return

[70] Rigid asceticsm is the “public image” of SAI with their Beni-Ami Monastry but their inner teachings and doctrines are the gross licentiousness of “patr-matriarchal marriage”, or sexual communism. In early SAI may “levels” of mixed marriage were in fact practiced, and not just within the “hierarchy” and may possibly still be practiced today. “Delbert [Ammaron] and Patti [Delbert’s legal wife], Ted [a member of the hierarchy], and all are now in a full united order [economically, sexually, etc.]” (Hava Pratt, letter to the author, April 23, 1988, p.1). “Ted is working in Las Vegas, I think I told you that he, Delbert, Patti, Faith [Clark’s legal wife] have all entered into a deeper united order Covenant” (Hava Pratt, letter to the author, March 1, 1988, p.2). Return

[71] “1. We believe in Yahweh-God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. 2. We believe in Yah’shua haMashiach/Jesus Christ, His Only Begotten Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Ruach haKodesh/Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day He rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. We believe in the Ruach haKodesh/Holy Spirit, 10. the universal Body of Christ, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen” (NCCG version of the Apostles’ Creed). Return

[72] After the death of Joseph Smith the Utah Mormon Church, like Marcion, abolished wine and substituted water in their sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. The Reorganized (RLDS) Church retained the original practice as taught in the Doctrine & Covenants (D&C LDS 20:75, RLDS 17:22; LDS 89:6, RLDS 89:1). However, whereas the Utah Mormon Church substituted water for unfermented wine (grape juice), Clark went in the opposite direction and instituted strong alcoholic wine, imitating his predecessor John Bryant who used brandy. Return

[73] Precisely imitated by SAI. However, instead of discarding everything but the Gospel of Luke and most of the Pauline works, Clark discarded everything except the Johannine writings and Hebrews. The Utah Mormons discarded only the Song of Solomon in the Old Testament, but both they and the RLDS use a KJV Bible substantially modified by Joseph Smith (LDS Joseph Smith Translation, RLDS Inspired Version) that accords better with Latter Day Saint beliefs. Return

[74] This view bedevils large segments of the contemporary Christian charismatic movement. Many of its churches will not touch the Old Testament and at least one uses only Acts. Return

[75] Understandings of Sons Ahman Israel, #5, in The Sacred Scrolls of Sons Ahman Israel, Volume 1, p.157. Return

[76] Understandings, ibid., #15, p.158. Return

[77] Understandings, ibid., #20 Return

[78] Understandings, ibid., #12, 13, 20, 21, pp.158-9 - explanations added in parentheses. Return

[79] “...almost the entire day can be filled with ordinances, endowments and rites...” (Gilbert Clark, letter to the author, October 15, 1987). The detriment to the mental, emotional and social needs of the children at SAI is quite evident in this scenario. Return

[80] One of the more bizzare doctrines and practices of Clark is the belief that two men may jointly fertilise a woman and that this is necessary to make “perfect children”. “If some woman had some unique gene pattern known only to the Lord, which result in a new generation of prophets, seers and prophetesses, if she were to conceive through uniting with two different fathers, at two different times, whose offspring would marry at some future time to produce this new generation....I would not reject the idea because it went against my preconceived idea of marriage, or purity...” (Gilbert Clark, letter to the author, September 24, 1986). “I do not believe this gene oneness can come about without the direct intermingling of physical seed...nor do I feel it is wise to mix seed with a common partner in marriage [concubine on a lower order] unless the Neshamah Spirit is present. For without its unifying influence the mixture of 2 male seeds in a women [sic] cause chaos and spiritual degeneracy off the offspring. With the Neshamah Spirit however, the opposit [sic] is true, and true conception after a divine pattern can take place” (Gilbert Clark, letter to the author, ibid.). He had no explanation when I confronted him with the genetic impossibility of two sperms fertilising the same egg, let alone from two different fathers. Return

[81] “If in the Ch[urch] of 1st Born there are a dozen family units bound together, each headed by a patriarch with several women bound to him and one another....if they desire physical union, such is possible thru a complicated series of special [sexual] ordinances...” (Gilbert Clark, letter to the author, undated, received 15 October 1987). Return

[82] Sexual relations are not limited just between heterosexuals in his multiple-marriage practices. Though homosexual activity is not encouraged it is not prevented either, especially between bisexuals: “...bisexual individuals...purely herosexual souls, as they come closer together [sexually] and develop deep spiritual bonds, often go thru phases when they question just how far they can go in developing relations with the same sex...this is...not encouraged or allowed to get out of hand” (Gilbert Clark, letter to the author, September 24, 1986). Though homosexuality and bisexuality are never taught, only the former is openly condemned. “If any type of ‘strange marriages’ are to occur [at SAI], then they should only occur by direct command of the Lord [i.e. through a revelation received through Gilbert Clark] within the confines of the [SAI] temple [in practice, it occured anywhere]...Letting people believe there may be some unorthodox sexual practices in a high order betwixt here and godhood is an effective ‘scare tactic’ that psychologically prepares people to begin to think in a new and different way [Clark’s way]” (Gilbert Clark, letter to the author, ibid.). Return

[83] To get the members sex-centred, such rituals as the following are used in their ordinances: “Turn your minds to YHWH [Yahweh], let His Holy Spirit fill you so that you can feel truely [sic], and repeat FUCK with me three times. All: FUCK, FUCK, FUCK...raising both hands high above the head, and while lowering the hands repeating the word, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK,;FUCK, FUCK, FUCK; FUCK, FUCK, FUCK...All arise. You will please remove all your clothing and be seated again...” (Extract from the SAI Enochian Priesthood Temple Endowment Ceremony - I was not supposed to have seen this ceremony which I “borrowed” in order to photocopy before mailing it back to Clark. The cult is understandably very sensitive about its secret rituals falling into the hands of the outside world and has since issued a denial that this ceremony has anything to with them - ref. Gilbert Clark, letter to the author, June 18, 1988). Return

[84] Mary Lindsey Baddley. This lady was heavily involved in the New Age and was claimed by Clark to be a bisexual. Return

[85] “The death of Emma [Smith], had she chosen to take her own life, might have spared much turmoil and destruction that occurred in the inner family [Joseph Smith’s secret polygamous wives]. Eliza Snow [one of Smith’s secret wives] lost her unborn baby for example by being knocked down the stairs by Emma’s broom. Look also at the harm done against the testimony of plural marriage by Emma after Joseph’s death [she was instrumental in the formation of the RLDS Church which rejected polygamy]. All these things help me appreciate how Joseph might have felt it best to offer Emma poison, as a better alternative to the destruction of the restoration thru her public denouncing of Joseph as an adulterer” (Gilbert Clark, letter to the author, February 22, 1988). Return

[86] Interestingly Jim Jones’s cult was registered as part of the New Age Movement (NAM) until the mass suicide took place. Thereafter the NAM denied all past affiliation and tried to align Jones with evangelical Christianity. Such switches are not an uncommon part of the policy occultic conspiracy to discredit Christianity. The story of the Salem witch hunt of early pioneer America has entered the maintream of US tradition as an example of Christian bigotry and murder. The truth, however, is that the 23 victims were Christians and those condemning them were New England witches disguised as Christians. See, Marion Starkey, The Devil in Massachussetts, Anchor Books, Doubleday & Co., Garden City, NY, 1949. Return

[87] Gilbert Clark, undated letter to the author, received on May 9, 1986, p.10, in response to my suggestion that the Oracles of Mohonri might have been dictated to him by the devil. Compare with John 8:44 where Yah’shua/Jesus says: “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (NIV). Return

[88] Gilbert Clark, undated letter to the author, postmarked May 9, 1987, p.3. Return

[89] “...they saw [their Church] as a tightknit group of people united economically, emotionally, and physically [sexually]. Women as well as men had many marriage partners, their few ordinances were conducted in the nude, ect [sic] ... [they were] persecut[ed] for being a ‘fertility cult’...” (Gilbert Clark, letter to the author, undated, ca. December 1984). “About seven years ago, when I was twenty three years old...I came across some likemided souls who I later learned were associated with John Bryant’s group. Associated with them for a year...” (Ibid., March 17, 1986). “As for John Bryant I feel he is correct...as a forerunner in attempting to live a patriarchal lifestyle [multiple marriage]...I know that he, as well as...the LeBaron Church of the Firstborn [a fundamentalist Mormon Church] established in 1955...have been instrumental...for a true Church of the Firstborn [SAI] to flourish later and independent of them...” (Ibid., undated, ca. May 1986). Return

[90] Gilbert Clark, undated letter to the author, postmarked March 17, 1986. Return

[91] e.g. John 16:23-24; Ephesians 4:6-8; James1:17 Return

[92] Gilbert Clark, undated letter to the author, received in December 1987, p.13. Return

[93] Gilbert Clark, undated letter to the author, received October 22, 1987. Return

[94] “I believe Joseph Smith did some very questionable things, things that have tainted Mormonism to this day. But like Brigham Young once said: I don’t care if he is an adulterer, murderer, etc. if he can but shew me more light and truth about God...I accept truth from wherever it comes, even from the devil himself” (Gilbert Clark, letter to the author, February 9, 1986, pp.11-12). Presumably this is the same reason Clark goes to the work of notorious satanist and sexual pervert, Aleister Crowley (who called himself “the Beast” and is believed to have murdered several persons), for “more light and truth”. Return

[95] Gilbert Clark, letter to the author, dated May 12, 1988, p.1. Return

[96] In response to a revelation which I had received from the Lord, he wrote: “I will agree [the revelation] comes from the Lord, but I would prefer to define him in this instance as L(ev’s) O(wn) R(idiculous) D(desires)” (Letter to the author, dated May 28, 1988, p.5). Return

[97] Gilbert Clark, undated letter to the author, postmarked June 18, 1988, p.1. Return

[98] “I don’t think it matters a wit to our Heavenly Parents whether we drink wine or not, eat animal flesh or not, live the sabbath or not...” (Ibid.). Return

[99] Ibid., p.3. Return

[100] This philosophy teaches that truth is derived ultimately from our experience, religious or secular, and not from God’s personal revelation to mankind in the form of the Bible. Thus the truth is not to be derived from divine truth-statements recorded in Scripture (e.g. the Shema, which says there is only one God, the fact that nobody has access to the Father except through Christ, salvation is by faith, etc.) but from personal feelings, circumstances and happenings. Thus there isn’t ultimately a general all-embracing ‘truth’ but each person’s individual ‘truth’. Return

[101] “The greatest danger is said to lie at the entrance of the sixth heaven, where the angel Domiel stands guarde [sic]. It is much more likely that one will loose [sic] one’s sanity, than die with the kiss of death. But both are likely possibilities for those that use the names of God to enter the heavens” (Gilbert Clark, letter to the author, February 21, 1987). Return

[102] “The writings of Mary Baker Eddy of Chicago [Key to Science and Health] I definitely feel good about...” (Gilbert Clark, letter to the author, postmarked March 17, 1986, p.7). Return

[103] “You may think it strange, but it has been my habit to end up scratching, cutting, or otherwise causing a little of my own blood to be shed during my mountain ascentions [sic] [this is part of an SAI meditative ritual in which the devotee “climbs into heaven” along the kabbalistic paths and can sometimes be physically quite dangerous]” (Gilbet Clark, letter to the author, February 21, 1987). Return

[104] Named after a pagan Egyptian fire goddess. Return

[105] I knew that the chances of a father getting custody of his children from their mother was nigh impossible and when the court proceedings began the case went very badly for me, not aided by the fact that the judge was a woman. My attorney advised me that the case was virtually lost. I went into prayer and asked the Lord to reveal His mighty hand and was told by him to petition the judge for a hearing. She reluctantly agreed that I should be allowed to speak. Standing in the witness box I was met by a cold and hostile stare. But as I began to speak the Holy Spirit fell upon me and I spoke as the Lord directed. I saw with my own eyes the Spirit fall upon the judge - one moment hostile, the next warm and sympathetic. Even now I do not recall what I said but the judge was moved. After 45 minutes of court time I was awareded custody in a case that was expected to last many days or weeks and be guaranteed to bankrupt me. My attorney could not believe her ears. Yahweh-Elohim, the Lord God of Israel, had saved my children from the clutches of Clark’s unredeemed Demiurge. Return

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