The Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness (or MSIA, sometimes pronounced "messiah") is a 501(c)(3) non-profit religious corporation, incorporated in California on June 25, 1971. Before incorporation, the group was founded in California in 1968 by John-Roger (formerly Roger Delano Hinkins). The church has about 5,000 active students, mainly in the United States, as well as in 32 countries around the world. MSIA is alleged by some sources to be a religious cult.
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MSIA teaches a meditation technique known as Spiritual Exercises. Spiritual Exercises (or SEs) are an active meditation technique based on chanting specific sacred Sanskrit words internally, in a similar fashion to the Transcendental Meditation (TM) techniques. MSIA also offers its students a twelve-year study support subscription called Soul Awareness Discourses. Discourses are a program designed to educate students on the teachings of MSIA and assist readers stay focused on their spiritual practices. Both the tones and discourses are held sacred to each student.
The Founder John-Roger (formerly Hinkins) and John Morton are considered to be the leaders of the group and are both referred to as the "Traveler".
Often called a 'church without walls' by its members, MSIA is a religion per se, that provides a set of tools and techniques to teach Soul transcendence. Soul Transcendence, as defined by MSIA, is the process of becoming aware of yourself as a soul and as one with God. The MSIA teachings draw primarily on the ministry of Jesus Christ ("The Christ Consciousness is the spiritual line of energy undergirding MSIA")[1]; they also include elements of Buddhism, Taoism, Judaism, and the Sant Mat/Radhasoami tradition.[2]
Roger Delano Hinkins was born on September 24, 1934 to a Mormon family in Rains, Utah. Hinkins was raised in Utah and received a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from the University of Utah in 1958 before moving to San Francisco to work as an insurance claims adjuster before getting a job teaching English at Rosemead High School in a suburb of Los Angeles.
According to Hinkins' official web site, he first attended the University of Utah, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology in 1958 and a Secondary Teaching Credential in 1960; he later performed post-graduate work at the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Southern California and California State University, Los Angeles.[3] Hinkins also holds a California Secondary Life Teaching Credential, and a Doctorate of Spiritual Science from the Peace Theological Seminary & College of Philosophy,[3] an unaccredited institution which Hinkins founded in 1977.
In the early 1960s Hinkins took a correspondence course with the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis and occasionally attended the Agasha Temple of Wisdom. Eckankar asserts that Hinkins also joined their group in 1967 and was given a second initiation by its founder Paul Twitchell in 1968 but this is disputed.[4]
In late 1963 Hinkins underwent a kidney stone surgery, which led to a nine-day coma and reputed near-death experience. Shortly after this, Hinkins visited two trance-channelers and claimed to have encountered a higher consciousness named 'John within himself', and began referring to himself as John-Roger.[5]
In 1971 Hinkins formally organized MSIA, a new religious movement based in California, United States.[5]
MSIA has been criticized by a variety of people over the years, but David C. Lane and Peter McWilliams provide the most substantive body of criticism, both of which focus on the role of founder John-Roger. The gist of Lane's criticism of Hinkins is that he uses spiritual teachings taken from Paul Twitchell's Eckankar, who in turn took them from Radha Soami Satsang Beas, with which Lane is actively involved. [6]
Ex-MSIA Minister Peter McWilliams wrote Life 102: What to Do When Your Guru Sues You,, which was critical of Hinkins. McWilliams also dismisses MSIA as little more than a personality cult. In his book McWilliams asserts that Hinkins suffers from narcissistic personality disorder, possibly due to his 1963 coma.
McWilliams chronicles his extended relationship with Hinkins, accusing him of various misrepresentations and improprieties. However, McWilliams later agreed to abandon the copyright to MSIA to settle libel litigation over the contents of the book, and later asked that the book be removed from circulation in a notarized letter [2], stating "the content of the book is no longer one with which I would like to have my name associated".[3].
In his book The Missionary Position author Christopher Hitchens criticizes both Mother Teresa and John-Roger for a staged photo shoot where the two posed together in a studio with a blank backdrop.[7] A blurred backdrop of Calcutta's poor was added later. Hitchens questions the ethics of such a shoot, as well as Mother Teresa for accepting US$10,000 as part of an "Integrity Award" from MSIA, which he describes as having been "exposed in print as corrupt and fanatical".
MSIA has frequently been accused of being a Cult of Personality. Whether or not MSIA should be labeled a cult is a matter of dispute. Both the movement and its founder have been through alleged scandals (published in People Magazine and the Los Angeles Times among other publications) suggesting financial improprieties as well as sexual misconduct by Hinkins.[8] MSIA gained widespread attention during the senatorial campaign of Michael Huffington, whose wife, Arianna Huffington, denied that she was a member of MSIA. [1]
Some researchers of new religions object to the pejorative term "cult" because all religions go through internal and external disputes. These conflicts are often stereotyped in the press and by others as evidence of cult practices.
On the topic of MSIA's potential to cause harm to its members or the world, James R. Lewis further asserts:
when compared with other movements stigmatized as destructive cults, MSIA is one of the most innocuous groups I have ever studied .. MSIA specifically states that ... anything ... relating to a person's physical life ... is up to each person to decide for himself/herself. In fact, as with joining any mainstream denomination, almost nothing changes in one's lifestyle when one becomes involved in this church ... Given the lack of outward requirements, I have a difficult time imagining how the organization would go about operationalizing "destructiveness" even if the group's leadership decided it wanted MSIA to start acting like a destructive cult – it would be like the Elks Club trying to transform itself into a destructive cult.[9]
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