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General Doomsday
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October 10, 2011 |
There are many cults whose members believe the world will someday come to and end. Most religions, after all, also fall into that category. Some cults go one step farther and try to help bring about the end themselves.
In Japan, Shoko Asahara, an admirer of Adolph Hitler, believed that the world was going to come to an en during his lifetime. Partially blind from birth, he had attended a school for the blind. Failing to gain admission to a university, he became an acupuncturist, opening up a folk medicine shop in 1980.
A true ecumenist, he studied Buddhism and Hinduism in the Himalayas and use insights gleaned from the book of Revelation in the Christian Bible and the writings of 16th century mystic Nostradamus to attract some twenty-thousand followers worldwide. The word Aum is the Japanese version of the famous Hindu mantra Om, chanted by priests in meditation. Shinri kyo means "supreme truth." The cult that form around Asahara became known as Aum Shinrikyo.
Asahara claimed to have conversed with people from the year 2006. They had survived world war 3 he said, and they told him that the causes for that war were rooted in materialism exemplified by the United States. Aum Shinrikyo emphasized traditional Japanese values as opposed to the corrupting Western influences. As in most cults, an us-against-them feeling prevaded the group. They stockpiled biological and chempical weapons in preparation for the battle of Armageddon. Unfortunately, as reported by the New York Times, they also used them.
Cult members staged at least nine attacks in Japan, with targets including the Diet (the national legislature), the Imperial Palace, the U.S. base at Yokosuka, and various individuals whi had opposed Asahara. The most infamous incident was the March 20, 1995 release of Sarin nerve gas in the Tokyo subway system, killing twelve people.
Nearly two hundred members of the group have been brought to trial, with many conviced of serious crimes, including murder. Several, including Asahara, were sentenced to death. |
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