The Process Church of The Final Judgment

Logo used by the original Process Church

The Process Church of the Final Judgment, commonly known as the Process Church, was a religious group established in London in 1966. Its founders were the British couple Mary Ann MacLean and Robert de Grimston and it spread across parts of the United Kingdom and United States during the latter 1960s and 1970s.

The Process Church was established by MacLean and Moor in London in 1966. The pair had met several years previously, when they were both members of the Church of Scientology. The duo were ejected from the Church in 1962 and married the following year. They started a Scientology splinter group called Compulsions Analysis, which gained new religious elements and developed into the Process Church. Its members initially lived in a commune in Mayfair before moving to Xtul in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. They later established a base of operations in the United States in New Orleans.[1] Prosecutors investigating the San Francisco murders committed by the Manson Family in 1969 suggested that there were links between Charles Manson and the Process Church. Although no proof of such a connection was ever provided, the allegations damaged the Church's reputation.

In April 1974, Robert de Grimston was removed by the Council of Masters as Teacher. They renounced The Unity, his exposition of the above-noted doctrines, and most of his other teachings. De Grimston attempted to restart the Process Church several times, but he could never replace his original following. Following de Grimston's removal, the group underwent a significant change in orientation and renamed itself the Foundation – Church of the Millennium. In 1978, the Foundation was renamed the Foundation Faith of the Millennium and in 1993 the Foundation Faith of God. The organization eventually became Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, UT, later renamed Best Friends Animal Society.[2]

Definition

Various commentators have described the Process Church as a religion,[3] and it has also been characterised as a new religious movement.[4] The anthropologist Jean La Fontaine noted that it was "difficult to decide whether it was a truly Satanist organization".[5] The sociologist of religion Massimo Introvigne included the work in his study of religious Satanism, although added that "its doctrine was not Satanism in the more classical sense of the term".[6] He distinguished it from other religious Satanic groups in that it did not have its origins in Anton LaVey's California-based Church of Satan,[7] and thus was "born on a different field from other contemporary satanic groups."[6]

History

Foundation: 1963–1966

The Process Church of the Final Judgement was the creation of Mary Ann Maclean (1931–2005) and Robert De Grimston Moore (b.1935).[8] Born in Shanghai, Moore had served in the British Household Cavalry from 1954 to 1958.[8] Maclean was British but had spent a year in the United States.[8] She later claimed that she had had a relationship with the boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, although Robinson's son later refuted this.[8] Back in England, from 1959 she worked as a high-end prostitute in London, servicing prominent figures in British business and politics.[8] Both Moore and Maclean independently involved themselves with the London branch of the Church of Scientology, and it was here that they met.[9] Maclean worked as an auditor for the Church, although neither became senior figures within the organisation.[8] In 1962, they were both declared "suppressive persons" and expelled from the Church.[8] In 1963, the couple married.[8]

Together they set up Compulsions Analysis, a group which utilised both the organisational methods of Scientology and the ideas of the psychologist Alfred Adler.[8] In establishing this company, they were financially assisted by a lawyer friend.[8] Moore distinguished the methods of Compulsions Analysis from Scientology in that it did not claim that its benefits were "infinite", stating that "we are not offering super powers, but a means that people can live on this side more effectively".[10] In 1966, the regular clients of Compulsions Analysis formed into a new group, The Process, which took on an increasingly religious character.[11] In March 1966, twenty-five members of the Process moved into a commune at 2 Balfour Place in Mayfair, an affluent area in the West End of London.[11] In May, the group decided that they would leave London and relocate to a more remote area.[11] On 23 June, around thirty Church members—accompanied by their six Alsatian dogs—moved to Nassau in the Bahamas.[11] From there, they spent the rest of the summer seeking a more permanent location.[11]

In September 1966, the group members moved to Mexico City. They obtained an old bus and began driving across the Yucatan Peninsula for a place to settle.[11] They found a location known as Xtul; its name meant "the end" in the Mayan language, and the group took this as a portent that they should settle there.[11] They set about establishing a community, although would only remain there for a month. They faced opposition from both locals and from the parents of several Church members, who enlisted anti-cult groups to try and recuperate their children through legal means.[12] It was while there that the group clarified its hierarchical structure, with the De Grimstons at the top, who were referred to as "the Omega", followed by those regarded as "masters", then "priests", then "prophets", and finally "messengers".[4][13] In late September, a tropical hurricane devastated their settlement, and while some of them elected to stay, the De Grimstons and most of their followers decided to leave.[11] The Yucatan experience remained an important part of the Process Church's own mythology.[11] After that point, there would be a crucial division within the group between those who had gone through the Xtul experience and those who did not.[4]

Establishing a presence in the United States

By November 1966, most of the Process members were back in London.[4] Between the end of that year and 1967, the Process began to operate as a church.[4] It became increasingly evangelical and focused on attracting new members.[14] It opened a library and an all-night coffee shop known as Satan's Cavern.[4] It also began issuing a magazine, at first titled The Common Market and later renamed The Process.[4] The Church's activities attracted the interest of a number of celebrities active in the realms of music and cinema, among them Marianne Faithfull.[4]

A detailed account of the history of and life within the Process Church as told by a participant-observer is contained in William S. Bainbridge's book Satan's Power. (He employed a pseudonym for the name of the group, referring to it as "The Power", and disguised the names of people to preserve their identities, a procedure used for sociological studies of living groups to ensure privacy.) Bainbridge's study was later described as "the main source of information" about the group by La Fontaine.[15]

In San Francisco

During its existence, the Process Church attracted much publicity.[5] In urban myth, the Process Church came to be associated with ritual murders, although no evidence of any such connection was ever forthcoming.[16] Rumours spread that a number of Alsatians had been sacrificed around San Francisco, with these actions sometimes being associated with the Process Church, which kept Alsatians as pets. Nothing was ever proved that substantiated any of these rumours.[17] Baddeley later related that the Process Church "has become legendary, both in the annals of hippie history and Satanic lore".[14]

Both the police and later journalists claimed a connection between the convicted murderer Charles Manson and the Process Church; the Church denied all such allegations.

Police investigating the Tate-LaBianca Murders which were carried out by members of the Manson Family suspected a possible connection between the Family's leader Charles Manson and the Process Church. When they asked Manson if he knew Moore, he responded: "You're looking at him. Moore and I are one and the same".[17] Two members of the Church subsequently visited the district attorney to stress that the group had nothing to do with Manson or his Family.[18] The Church then included a brief article on Manson in the 1971 Death issue of its magazine.[19] Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecutor of the Manson trial, later suggested in his book Helter Skelter that Manson may have borrowed philosophically from the Process Church.[18] Although no connection between the Process Church and Manson was ever substantiated, the group's reputation was nevertheless damaged by the association.[19] The number of donations received began to decline and Church members sometimes received abuse in public.[19]

In his 1972 book The Family, Ed Sanders alleged that Manson had been a member of the Process Church, as evidence citing the fact that Manson once lived in the same road as the Church's San Francisco location.[20] The Church took legal action against Sanders, whose allegation was subsequently retracted from future printings of The Family.[20] By the late 1970s—when the Church itself had disbanded—it was common for anti-Satanist literature to allege that Manson was a member of the group and that both were linked to blood sacrifices.[21] In his 1974 book America Bewitched, the journalist Daniel Logan cited the Process Church alongside Manson, the Church of Satan, and the British occultist Aleister Crowley.[22] The journalist Maury Terry—who would be described by Baddeley as "a sensationalist reporter with a nose for good scare stories"[14]—linked the Process Church to the Ordo Templi Orientis and claimed both as part of a grand Satanic conspiracy in his 1987 book The Ultimate Evil.[23]

Teachings and activities

In the initial phase of the group's beliefs, Moore and Maclean taught there was only one supreme divinity, God, and the focus of the group's activities was to transform those aspects of human nature which defied God.[13] Many of the group's therapeutic practices or "processes" (hence the name) and concepts were derived from Scientology, including the term "processing".[13] In these therapy sessions, the group utilised an electronic meter titled the "P-Scope", which was based on the Scientology E-meter.[24]

In 1967, Moore introduced the notion of four divinities to the group's beliefs.[13] Maclean and Moore were influenced by Jungian psychology, in particular Carl Jung's interpretation of the Christian Trinity.[7] Jung had argued the Trinity concealed a fourth element, hidden in the human subconscious, which was the Devil. He believed that omitting this fourth component of the "Quaternity" resulted in psychological unbalance.[7]

In his study of Satanism, Gareth Medway described the Process Church's beliefs as "a kind of neo-Gnostic theology".[17] The Process Church preached the existence of four gods, who were regarded not as literal entities but as inner realities existing within each human personality.[15] Accordingly, these deities were not worshipped.[15] The names of its deities were drawn from traditional Judeo-Christian religion.[15] They were known as Jehovah, Lucifer, Satan, and Christ, and were collectively referred to as the "Great Gods of the Universe".[11]

The Church stated that "Jehovah is strength. Lucifer is light. Satan is separation. Christ is unification".[25] Each member was instructed to follow the god, or gods, which were best suited to them.[25] Each individual was understood as a combination of two of these gods.[15] The Church taught that an individual's personality and relationships could be explained by reference to which gods they manifested.[15] Moore for instance described himself as a blend of Luciferian and Christian traits, while Maclean regarded herself as a combination of Jehovan and Satanic traits.[25] None of the deities were considered evil, but "basic patterns of human reality".[26] Moore taught the real "devil" was humanity or the "Grey Forces", which were understood as representing the compromise and conformity typical of the masses.[26]

As indicated by the group's name, The Process Church of The Final Judgment, the Church taught a form of millennialism.[13] According to Process eschatology, the four separate divinities would be unified in the endtimes.[13] The reconciliation of opposites was seen by Moore in Matthew 5:44, where Christ tells his followers to love their enemies.[26] Moore taught Christ's enemy was Satan, and the "reuniting of the Gods" was achieved through love.[26]

The communal life of the Church members was strictly regulated.[15] Among group members, sex and the use of drugs and alcohol were strictly rationed, with these practices being regarded as a distraction from spiritual work.[25] Unlike other Satanic groups active during the same period, the Process Church did not practice magic.[15] The Process Church strongly opposed vivisection.[16]

The Church held public rituals similar to Christian practices, such as baptisms, marriages and a weekly gathering titled the Sabbath Assembly.[13] Baptisms were performed at every elevation of status in the hierarchy of the Church.[13] The Processeans sang solemn hymns to the four deities during the assemblies.[26]

The group used a swastika-like symbol ("the P-Sign") as its insignia.[24] The symbol had four superimposed P letters, and was also seen as representing the trumpets of the four "Great Gods".[24] The group also used a second symbol, "the Sign of the Union", which featured the letter Alpha inside the letter Omega, representing the intercourse of male Lucifer with female Jehovah.[24]

Modern Process Church

Robert de Grimston's writings and the Writ of The Process Church have long outlived the original cult. His 'Brethren Information' (those speeches meant for members of the church at the time) are widely available online[27]

A detailed discussion of the modern Process Church appeared in Disinfo in July 2015.[28]

References

Notes

Sources

Baddeley, Gavin (2010). Lucifer Rising: Sin, Devil Worship & Rock n' Roll (third ed.). London: Plexus. ISBN 978-0-85965-455-5. 
Introvigne, Massimo (2016). Satanism: A Social History. Leiden and Boston: Brill. ISBN 978-9004288287. 
La Fontaine, Jean (1999). "Satanism and Satanic Mythology". In Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark (eds.). The Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic in Europe Volume 6: The Twentieth Century. London: Athlone. pp. 94–140. ISBN 0-485-89006-2. 
van Luijk, Ruben (2016). Children of Lucifer: The Origins of Modern Religious Satanism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-027510-5. 
Medway, Gareth J. (2001). Lure of the Sinister: The Unnatural History of Satanism. New York and London: New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-5645-4. 
Lewis, James L. (2001). Satanism Today: An Encyclopedia of Religion, Folklore, and Popular Culture. Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio. ISBN 978-1576072929. 
Bainbridge, William Sims (2017). Dynamic Secularization: Information Technology and the Tension Between Religion and Science. Springer. ISBN 978-3319565026. 
van Luijk, Ruben (2016). Children of Lucifer: The Origins of Modern Religious Satanism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-027510-5. 

Further reading

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