Sai Baba of Shirdi. He was a figure regarded - and worshipped - as a saint by some Hindus and Muslims. Born ~1835, died 15 October 1918. "Sai
Baba" translates
as "holy
father" (or "saintly old man"). He has a small following in New Zealand, Shri Shirdi Saibaba Sansthan. Sai Baba of Shirdi is not to be confused with Sathya
Sai Baba (1926-2011), a Hindu guru.
Sanitarium. Breakfast
cereal company founded and owned by the Seventh Day Adventist church.
Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA). Perhaps
best described as an urban legend, mostly arising from bad therapy leading
to Recovered Memory Syndrome. Please note that
many "victims" of SRA really are victims, but are victims of
bad therapy rather than the extreme ritual abuse they claim to now remember.
(Of course, there's another group of people who make such claims just
for the attention.) Also please note, we are not saying that satanic
rituals and practices do not take place. See the OccultCloseup for
more info. For more information on SRA see Apologetics
Index's SRA page.
Sathya Sai Baba. Hindu
guru and New Age leader. Born 23 November
1926, died 24 April 2011 - which is rather ironic considering that he
said "I am God" and millions of
his followers considered him a living god (NZ
Herald article). "Sai
Baba" translates
as "holy
father" (or "saintly old man"), a title he adopted after
he claimed to be a reincarnation of Sai Baba of Shirdi (1835-1918),
a figure regarded as a saint by some Hindus and Muslims.
Sathya Sai Spiritual
Education. Classes
for children run by Sathya Sai Service Organisation
NZ with the basic aim of teaching them they are God.
Scamwatch. A web site run by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, and highly recommended. "The aim of Scamwatch is to provide you with information you need to protect yourself from scams, so you can recognise a setup and avoid the hook and the inevitable sting of a scam."
School of Philosophy. Also
known in England and other countries as School of Economic Science, or
School of Philosophy and Economic Science. It is a New
Age cult with Vedic/Hindu teachings, such as reincarnation and meditation.
Gives lip-service to Christianity only in as much as it serves their
purposes. Arrived from London in 1961. Branches in Auckland, Hamilton,
Masterton and Wellington. Founded Ficino School in
1997 for primary and intermediate aged children. For more information
on their actual teachings - which have nothing to do with real philosophy
- read The School of Philosophy (Auckland) article.
School of the New Zealand Training Schools
for Prophets and Intercessors. See School
of the Prophets.
School
of the Prophets.
Cult, featuring bad doctrine, a charismatic authoritarian leader (since deceased) and mind control. Founded by Walter Simpson Ballantyne (deceased) in 1997, with branches reported in Auckland, Tauranga, Gisbourne, Wellington and Christchurch, as well as Australia and South Africa. Also known as New Zealand Training School for Prophets and Intercessors.
It appears that people leaving School of the Prophets are deemed to be lost, with no hope of salvation. The mind control technique thought stopping is used to protect members from the almost inevitable rejection
of their message by outsiders, while jargon and loaded
language is used to obfuscate true beliefs from outsiders (for example,
Mr Ballantyne states "the Gospel of the Kingdom" is not the same
as
"the Gospel"). The School of the Prophets is given
a Danger rating because of its bad theology, mind control, and reports
of marriage breakups in Tauranga, Gisborne, Australia and South Africa as a direct
result of the work of Walter Ballantyne and this group. This listing is under
review. Submissions for this listing are now being accepted. Please see the Contact page.
Similarly-named groups: The idea of a school for prophets (ignoring for
the moment the biblically-sound notion that prophecy is a gift of the Holy Spirit,
not something taught) apparently came to New Zealand from Australia (in recent times, at least), where a Brisbane
School of the Prophets was (at that time) led by Chris and Debbie Gaborit,
and from America before that. However, Walter Ballantyne does not acknowledge
this chain of descent, and claims originality of concept - the school was
supposedly revealed directly to him by God in a vision. (He needn't bother
trying to emphasise the originality of the idea, as the concept was raised
as early as 1860.) Functionally speaking the Tauranga-based School of the Prophets
is unrelated to the American and Australian groups of the same name.
Science of the Soul
Study Centre. A
group with a building in Mt Roskill, Auckland. They meet on Sunday
mornings at "normal church time" and are said to have lots
of pictures of an Indian guru on their walls, but they expect us to
believe their claims they aren't religious. Sure. It's actually very
religious; apparently a local branch of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB,
aka "Sant Mat"), which includes the teachings of Surat Shabd Yoga.
It is a New Age mix of typical Eastern beliefs
including meditation. RSSB is also the
umbrella organisation for the Science of the Soul Research Centre in
Delhi, India, another mystic group which publishes books teaching relativism and
that the world's religions are really the same. Freedom
of Mind calls RSSB "a super secret organization" and
lists Eckankar as being a spin off from
it. The Mt Roskill building used to be owned by the Exclusive
Brethren and required alterations to their car park due to a motorway
extension built nearby.
Scientology.
Full name Church of Scientology, this is a very dangerous cult group.
Extreme mind control
practices. Founder L Ron Hubbard (a pulp science
fiction writer). Head PR person/Secretary in New Zealand is Mike
Ferriss. Chairperson is Marion Moffat (who
is possibly married to Claude Moffat). Ian H Gillott
is another long-time member. Recently granted charity status by the New Zealand
Inland Revenue Department (on the basis that Scientology is a religion - even
though its religious writings bear a strange resemblance to cheap science fiction).
In December 2003 and January 2004 they attempted to suppress the information
in this listing by contacting the company which hosts this site. Their first
letter can be read under the listing for Marion Moffat.
(It should be noted that all the information on this site is completely legal.)
Scientology has rather a lot of detractors on the Internet - for example WhyAreTheyDead.net
and ExposingSatanism.org.
The online book The
Scandal of Scientology by Paulette Cooper makes for a good, well, actually
slightly sickening read. For more juicy information on Scientology have a look
at the Closeup on Scientology
or click the graphic below to visit Operation
Clambake. (It should be noted that linking to another web site is completely
legal.)
ScienTOMogy. ScienTOMogy
was a satirical web site detailing some of the crazy antics of renowned Scientologist Tom
Cruise. Thanks to the crazy antics of some not very Clear Minded
Scientologists who threatened to sue it for breach of copyright (or something),
the site made headlines around the word and grew from obscurity to widespread
fame - a great example of the Streisand
effect. Of course ScienTOMogy also quickly listed their crazy legal
threats too. (Well, what did they expect?) The link from ScienTOMogy
to the New Zealand Cult List also resulted in October 2005 being the
busiest month ever for our own site, with lots more people getting
to read the information we have about Scientology - all due to Scientology's
free advertising. The ScienTOMogy site no longer exists in the same format,
although the basic idea was continued under different management with
a slightly different domain name.
Scotland, John. Leader of the Drunken
Revival Movement, which is itself part of the False Revival Movement. His web site is headed "Blissful Spiritual Intoxication" - see the Drunken Revival Movement entry for a quote from Lee Grady regarding biblical injunctions for sobriety. Has visited New Zealand more than once (the latest in Feb 2011) and is shown near the beginning of Part
3 of Andrew Strom's Kundalini documentary. John Scotland is supported in New Zealand by Gaye Stradwick.
Seatoun School, Wellington - Board of
Trustees. The
board of trustees at this Wellington primary school banned a religious
group that met during their Wednesday lunch break. The Caution rating
is assigned here for suppression of religious freedom. From the New
Zealand Herald:
In a written opinion, Sir Geoffrey [Palmer] said the
ban breached the Bill of Rights Act's guarantee of freedom of religion.
The lunchtime "KidsKlub" meetings were not in school time,
were voluntary and were allowed under the Education Act.
FYI - Seatoun School also hit the headlines in 1989 when it announced
it was adding two more school years (to include intermediate age children),
a decision which resulted in significant controversy since it affected
other local primary schools and the local intermediate school. (Competition
in education?)
Seed of the Serpent. Fruitcake
material taught by William Branham. The William
Branham article at Apologetics Index includes a brief overview.
Seventh Day Adventist. Generally but
some branches Christian
denomination which believes strongly in Sabbath worship (Saturday) rather
than Sunday. That's fine in itself but some branches in New Zealand (believed
to be a minority of SDAs in this country) go overboard in this and proclaim
that only they are saved because other denominations do not do this -
a cultic claim. Founded by Ellen G White -
their Prophetess. It varies on a branch-by-branch basis, but any particular
branch that practices or teaches that Ellen G White's teachings are more
important than the Bible qualifies itself as a cult. Most New Zealand
branches do not hold strongly to that, whereas in other countries the
tendency is in the other direction. Publishing company Patriotic
Christian Distributors. Robert K Sanders has written a testimony
of how he left
the SDAs after 37 years.
Shiatsu massage. A type of alternative medicine involving various massage techniques based on acupuncture channels in the arms and legs. Practitioners make claims about the benefits that are not supported by scientific evidence. See Wikipedia's Shiatsu entry for more information, which says "There is no scientific evidence proving that shiatsu is effective at treating any disease."
Shri Shirdi Saibaba Sansthan. An Eastern group that follows the teachings of Shri Saibaba, otherwise known as Sai Baba of Shirdi. They say he preached religious tolerance, although Wikipedia points out "He was an opponent of religious orthodoxy – Christian, Hindu and Muslim" and "He criticized atheism" (which is also a religious worldview). As of early 2012 they are spending $5 million converting an Onehunga, Auckland warehouse into a temple and community hall.
Shunning. A mind
control mechanism. Involves shunning, or completely ignoring, former
members, even to the point of crossing the street to avoid them.
SkyBiz, SkyBiz 2000. Internet-based
con scheme, multi-level marketing scheme, possibly
illegal in New Zealand. Reportedly most effective at conning those aged
over 40 who do not own a computer... which is almost funny since the
scheme is to sell web sites. We haven't heard anything of it for the
last five years, but if it is still operating, stay clear of it.
Smith, Barry. and Barry R Smith 1933-2002, end-times
proclaimer, traveling preacher, now deceased. Author of the books Warning,
Second Warning, and Final Warning. While his gospel message was described as "solid" and the evangelism work he did (especially in the Solomon Islands) was excellent, the books are a different matter. He had an annoying tendency
in those books to not back up wild claims (of which he made many) with solid evidence; they should certainly be read with caution.
Soka Gakkai International New Zealand (SGINZ). A Buddhist group.
Solution. Youth
ministry of Destiny Church in Rotorua, New
Zealand.
Somatic Education. Posture
and movement exercises and techniques which are supposed to reverse or
reduce various effects of aging. One set of such exercises and techniques
is the Feldenkrais Method.
Soul Destiny. A New
Age/occult instructional group and probable cult led by Wayne
Morgan. Members are reported to typically stay in the group about
a year before most "figure it out and then get out". Several
aspects of the group sound very similar to the Gentle
Wind Project New Age cult/business cult/scam, in particular the
pseudo-scientific babble used to promote ideas, courses and products.
Products sold include colloidal silver.
Soul Dynamics is rated Danger because of its New Age and occult
teachings, its promotion of colloidal silver for ingestion, and for
alleged use of mind control techniques in leading the group.
Sozo. Also called Sozo Healing and Sozo Ministry. It is very similar to Theophostic Ministry but is mixed with teachings from the Toronto Movement. In other words, yet another repackaged Inner Healing, but with some big name backers like Bill Johnson, at whose church it was started. Sozo and the other practices from the Inner Healing Movement are strongly New Age. For more information see these pages:
Spiritism. According
to Elliot Miller "the practice of attempting communication with
departed human or extrahuman intelligences (usually nonphysical) through
the agency of a human medium, with the intent of receiving paranormal
information and/or having direct experience of metaphysical realities"
which is a complicated way of saying "they speak to dead people."
This is what King Saul did in the Bible in 1 Samuel 28, although
modern television spiritists (and "platform mediums") are better
described as con artists.
Spiritualism. Spiritualism
is a religion incompatible with Christianity, as it involves occult activities
forbidden in the Bible. Swedenborgianism is
a Spiritualist group present in New Zealand. See Wikipedia's Spiritualism article
for more information. Please see the Contact page.
Splendour of Truth, The. A Roman
Catholic bookshop, Milford, Auckland.
Stradwick, Jack and Gaye.
Jack
and Gaye Stradwick are the pastors of Auckland "church" Fusion and
as of June 2008 have recently returned from Lakeland, Florida. They support Todd
Bentley, Joshua and Janet Mills, Bill Johnson, John Scotland, Jason Westerfield, Extreme Prophetic, and
false prophet Bob Jones, and - as is typical for those in the False
Revival Movement - actively teach against discernment (one
of the gifts of the Holy Spirit). For example, Gaye Stradwick, regarding
false prophet Todd Bentley's false revival: "Please please
please - if there is nothing good in your heart to say about this wonderful
out-pouring of the Spirit of God, at least say nothing." The
possibility that Todd Bentley and his false
revival were not of God at all was sadly not an option for her. The
Stradwicks are assigned a Danger rating because
of their ongoing encouraging and teaching of unbiblical experiences and
practices including the endorsement of fallacious miracles, misquoting
of and misuse of the Bible,
connections with and support of false prophets, and spiritual danger
they pose in deceiving both the wider Christian church and their own
young and impressionable congregation. As of May 2012 this rating is unchanged.
Lee Grady, editor of Charisma magazine, in "LIFE AFTER LAKELAND:
Sorting Out the Confusion" writes about the false Lakeland revival led
by Todd Bentley (with emphasis added):
Why did so many people flock to Lakeland from around the world
to rally behind an evangelist who had serious credibility issues from the
beginning?
To put it bluntly, we're just plain gullible.
From the first week of the Lakeland revival, many discerning
Christians raised questions about Bentley's beliefs and practices. They felt
uneasy when he said he talked to an angel in his hotel room. They sensed something
amiss when he wore a T-shirt with a skeleton on it. They wondered why a man
of God would cover himself with tattoos. They were horrified when they heard
him describe how he tackled a man and knocked his tooth out during prayer.
But among those who jumped on the Lakeland bandwagon, discernment
was discouraged. They were expected to swallow and follow. The message
was clear: "This is God. Don't question." So before we could all
say, "Sheeka Boomba" (as Bentley often prayed from his pulpit), many
people went home, prayed for people and shoved them to the floor with reckless
abandon, Bentley-style.
I blame this lack of discernment, partly, on raw zeal for God.
We're spiritual hungry - which can be a good thing. But sometimes, hungry people
will eat anything.
Many of us would rather watch a noisy demonstration of miracles,
signs and wonders than have a quiet Bible study. Yet we are faced today with
the sad reality that our untempered zeal is a sign of immaturity. Our adolescent
craving for the wild and crazy makes us do stupid things. It's way past time
for us to grow up.
FWIW Lee Grady has apparently learned from the Todd Bentley saga. On 27 October
2009 he
wrote
about John Crowder, saying "Let's put the childish things behind
us. It's time for us to grow up and sober up." (More of his article
is quoted in the Drunken Revival Movement
listing.)
Sadly, since Todd Bentley's fall from grace the Stradwicks have continued
to support the false revival he started and the false miracles Todd Bentley
claimed to perform, continue to support other False
Revival Movement teachers and Extreme
Prophetic, and continue to encourage a lack of discernment.
Update May 2012: Gaye Stradwick has contacted us with a promising-sounding claim.
Over the past year, our focus at Fusion has shifted and is now totally on the finished work of the cross. [...] Could you please remove these references to us on your site as the information there is no longer applicable.
We had been aware she had been making a similar claim for at least a couple of months, and were encouraged by the prospect of this change. However, the NZ Cult List has been unable to verify any genuine change. We asked her for clarification about the information we list and Gaye's response made it clear that her change in focus would be better described as a change in emphasis. There is no change in belief evident. She still believes the things mentioned in this listing all grew out of genuine moves of God. Compare the Bible with Gaye Stradwick's teaching:
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.
- Ephesians 4:14.
Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22.
This [Todd Bentley] revival was 100% God ordained and birthed. The salvations, healings and miracles were real, [...] This is God’s revival. It will therefore continue, and spread around the world.
- Jack and Gaye Stradwick, Sep 2008.
But when a new season is here, you move with it, [...] To camp around an experience once the cloud has moved on is denial. [...] While we have shifted focus, it is obvious you are as stuck as ever in your role as the error police.
- Gaye Stradwick, Apr 2012.
As Christians we should not be camping around an experience; we should be camping around the truth. The Todd Bentley revival claimed at least 21 resurrections. Not one has been verified. We should test everything. People make mistakes, but acknowledging our mistakes is the first step of truly moving forward. Gaye Stradwick has not admitted that any of her very public and very enthusiastic endorsements of Todd Bentley were wrong. In public statements and in correspondence received from her it doesn't appear that Gaye Stradwick has learned anything.
Strom, Andrew. Andrew
Strom is an advocate for the "coming street revival"
He points out that the early church mostly ministered in the open-air
and met house to house, and believes that reaching the masses will happen
when the body of Christ moves in unity in the community. Andrew Strom
also teaches about "true revival" as opposed to "false
revival" and in May 2008 published a book on that topic. [Editor's note: I see that the first two reviews
posted were from people who have not read the book. One includes the
classic line "Books like this are published for the self-righteous
to enjoy judging what they don't understand." Could it equally
be said reviews like that are posted by the really self-righteous to
enjoy judging what they don't understand?] In the middle of
2008 Andrew posted
five videos on YouTube expressing his concern with the Lakeland Revival.
Part Three contains graphic examples which show the similarities between
false revival manifestations and occult Kundalini manifestations. The
videos made him the 7th most subscribed YouTube user in New Zealand for
July 2008 and the 19th most viewed. In mid-2010 he posted another documentary
- False spirits invade the church, part
1 and part
2 - which include graphic examples of the extreme behaviour (some
say demon possession) of the False Revival
Movement. Part
3 from October 2010 is said to be the most revealing yet, and is recommended watching.
Subritzky, Bill. Faith
healer and pentecostal leader. Gets a bit carried away sometimes, but
has done a great deal of good evangelism in New Zealand. His web site
is www.doveministries.com.
Subud.
Once a very secretive New Age cult, Subud is now
expanding and becoming more open, and no longer hides its teachings behind password-protected
web sites. (A cynic would say they've realised they don't need to - people will
fall for anything.) Subud was founded in the 1920s in Java, Indonesia by Muhammad
Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo (b. 1901, d. 1987), who is normally called Bapak ("Father")
by Subud members. There are a little over 200 members in NZ (as of mid 2007),
with about 90 in Christchurch, led by Hammond Peek,
and most of the rest in Auckland. There are perhaps 10,000 members worldwide.
The name Subud comes from the three words Susila ("the good character
of man in accordance with the will of God"), Budhi ("the force
of the inner self within man"), and Dharma ("surrender, trust
and sincerity towards God"), and is not related to Subuh ("dawn").
The founder expected members to pay 3-5% of their income to the cult (but they
can also have many supposed financial crises to respond to each year) and expected
members' enterprises (businesses) to pay 25%. These are not enforced - indeed,
most Subud members have not heard of those figures, perhaps indicating that
Subud's teaching that Subud has no teaching is working - the members
have never been taught what their founder said. (Hiding of origins is actually
a big problem in many cults, but most don't have self-contradiction
at their core.)
The founder's daughter took over leadership when her father died. From Indonesia
she picks names for many children and some adults, which helps reinforce group
identity (another sign Subud is a cult). This leader is considered to have all
the power of her father, who proclaimed himself to be a Christ-like/Muhammad-like
figure and was believed by some to be the second coming of Christ. [Can anyone
see anything wrong with that belief? Hint: He's now dead. - Editor.]
Central to Subud practice is the latihan - an occult
activity like transcendental meditation which according
to Dr Stephen Urlich, a Christchurch scientist who wrote an article published
in a journal of the American Psychological Association, involves “uninhibited
weeping, shouting, writhing, moaning and speaking in tongues” and that
“Laughing, jumping and dancing can occur”. Compare this with Kundalini. A Christian perspective
is that this activity involves channeling demons that masqerade as either angels
of light, the Holy Spirit, or even Christ himself to reveal supposed truth to
the Subud member. Nasty. Some Subud members call the latihan "getting opened"
which is appropriate for an activity that involves opening oneself to demonic
manipulation. Subud has been known to practice strong relationship control,
and in a 1964 study cited by Dr Urlich, 24 cases linked Subud to "schizophrenic
episodes requiring hospitalisation". This has been referred to as "Subud Syndrome" by a Subud supporting correspondent, who attempted to play it down by implying it was nothing special because "all religious experience can become traumatic for vulnerable people". This is not true of most religious experience and is strong evidence of cultic practice when it occurs.
Like many New Age groups and practices, Subud in
particular appears to primarily appeal to those for whom rational thought is
not a high priority, meaning that feelings are far more important to them than
clear logical thought is. (For example, one Subud member has emailed us claiming
black and white can be the same thing because they're both colours.) This combined
with the experiences of the Latihan means that it can be very hard to convince
a Subud member just how bad it is - they feel it is right, therefore
as far as they are concerned it is. Subud is here rated Danger for its
heavily New Age theology, its very occult
practices, its strongly self-contradictory
teachings, and its risk of psychological damage.
Success Life Institute. Run
by Destiny Church in Tauranga. Submissions
for this listing are now being accepted. Please see the Contact page.
Sullivan, David. Leading Feldenkrais
Method practitioner in New Zealand. (FYI listing.)
Sunny Day Homeschool. Homeschool run on principles from L Ron Hubbard and Scientology. Based in Papatoetoe, Auckland, and run by the same person who leads Applied Scholastics New Zealand. Rated Danger because quite simply Scientology screws people up for life; there is no way that children should be exposed to Scientology teachings.
Super Apostle. A
term used by Cultwatch and
others to refer to a Christian leader who sets themselves up as being
specially chosen or appointed by God to control a number of churches.
The New Apostolic Reformation is the ideal platform
for Super Apostles. Read Cultwatch's Super
Apostle article for more information, or their article How Pastors Get Rich for typical money-making techniques used.
Swart, Leon. Leon Swart, also known as Leo
Swart, heads FANZA in New Zealand.
Swedenborg, Emanuel. Founder of Swedenborg.
Lived 1688 - 1772.
Synergetic Medicine Ltd. Possible
scam. A company founded by Lonnian Lee based
on a combination of Chinese traditional medicine and western medicine.
Sells expensive products with creative names like "Alimentation
System (Spleen Energy)".
While Lonnian Lee is marketed as a doctor, it should be emphasised that
he has a PhD, not a medical degree, and it's in Asian Studies, not medicine
or physiology.
Breakfast
cereal company founded and owned by the 
Perhaps
best described as an urban legend, mostly arising from bad therapy leading
to 
Hindu
guru and 
A 
Also
known as the (former) 
Cult, featuring bad doctrine, a charismatic authoritarian leader (since deceased) and mind control. Founded by 
