I Am JESUS: People Who Claimed to Be Christ Reborn

You're listening to an Air Wave Media Podcast. Exactly how many people have claimed to be Jesus in their life? If the answer is more than one, it might surprise you, but no, that's actually completely real. Over the course of our research on various different historical subjects, we hear the channel have come across a number of different stories of people who have claimed to be the Messiah or the second coming of Christ. Now, some of them were a little bit more convincing than others, and some of them managed to fool hundreds of thousands of people into following a false prophet of their faith. So my friends, that is exactly what we're going to be talking about here today. Join us as we discuss the very real world of very fake Jesus' from just making others feel foolish to straight up kidnapping their children. No matter who these charlatans were, they definitely did impact the lives of a lot of their followers in many profound ways, especially when they managed to end them. To begin, we're going to be starting our story here today with that of Ernest Norman, a guy who was born the fifth of eight children in Logan, Utah in the year 1904. After moving to California when he was just 17, he would go and marry young and began to spend his free time learning about typical Christian things like clairvoyance. And palmistry, and fortune telling, you probably tell why this is not something that would be a standard accepted practice. He would then go and lead a spiritualist church for 15 years, and in 1954 he would meet Ruth Norman and immediately fall in love, which was a bit of a problem considering that he was already married, but you know, he would immediately divorce his wife in order to be with her. Go figure. He had met at a spiritualist convention and immediately made a connection at the very same event they met at a clairvoyant would tell Ernest that he had seen a vision of three bearded men that were following him around the entire convention floor carrying massive stacks of books. And so Ruth proving that she was, I guess, a real rider die type from the very beginning, within backup and support Ernest claims that, oh, these apparitions of these bearded men. They must be the prophets of Elijah Ezra and Enoch, they were carrying the books that Ernest was going to write throughout the course of his life because of course, I guess in gratefulness of this support, Ernest would soon marry Ruth becoming her fourth husband, which yes, yes, the most spiritually pure people that I guess you could probably imagine to start a cult. Yes, and simultaneously, I also did want to say that if you want to support my channel, considering how many topics on here have a tendency to get demonetized or punished by YouTube's algorithm, could less support me by checking out my very sweet merge featuring the new one that we have here glad, bond, which has a historically accurate gladiator body. Something that I apparently have in him actually trying to get rid of a little bit. And besides that, if you want to go on an adventure with me, you can do so by joining us on one of our group trips. Currently, we have a couple of spots that are available to China, as well as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania. So we have a Baltic Christmas trip, and then we have a Chinese Great Wall adventure. So we're, we're going to be having an absolute blast at the end of this year of 2026 going into 2027. All of that is linked down in the description below. So thank you. Now what kind of cult you may wonder? Well, Norman would claim that the people of planet Earth were being guided and watched over by a large fraternal brotherhood called unarius, which was formerly known as Shambhala or the white brotherhood of Earth, because of course it was, and that any human being could actually make contact with these higher beings, sometimes also called the space brothers, brothers or the brothers of light, because everyone was, I guess, somehow capable of using psychic abilities. Together, Ernest and Ruth Norman would go and publish several books about his renovations, and they would form unarius, an organization which later became known as the unarius academy of science to popularize his teachings, and the couple would discuss numerous different details about their alleged past lives and spiritual visits to other planets, forming mythology from these very unique accounts. Now the Normans and their students would then put together a series of testimonials of various past life reliving and spiritual healing that they claimed had occurred because of their tutelage under Ernest Norman. One such claim would include that Norman was on Earth in ancient Jerusalem as Jesus. And then soon after, you know, this comes out, Norman actually begins to make the claim himself while demanding to be called unarius moderator, or simply moderator. Like a discord managed to start a cult, and all of these were his kittens. With his role as moderator, Ernest would believe that he was able to communicate with both extraterrestrials as well as historical figures, and was able to channel messages from them to the rest of Earth. Along with Ernest claims of being the second coming of Christ, Ruth herself would actually claim to be the reincarnated soul of Mary of Bethany, a friend of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene. And she would state that she had actually lived about 50 different lives over the course of several million years, and recall being several rather well known figures and some other obscure people of Earth as well as beings from other planets and an archangel at one point. Now these tales even included stories of past lives in Atlantis and Lemuria. Unfortunately, when actually put under analysis, it was then discovered that the stories of Ernie and Ruth's past lives just so happened to kind of line up with the plot lines from movies and books that were a bit popular at that time. So they were inspired, I guess you could say. Of course, the second coming of Christ could not last forever, then I guess. And so after Ernest died in 1971, Ruth would succeed him as the group's leader and primary channeler. And while Ernest had claimed to be the reincarnation of several famous figures from the past, including Jesus, Ruth really carried on the tour when it came to visions, prophecies and clairvoyance, with a kind of boldness that her husband never showed. She subsequently began publishing accounts for experiences and revelations. What I mean by that is that in 1973, she would go and recount an experience in which she had spiritually married the Archangel Michael and he lavishly decorated a temple on another planet. This event was said to have culminated with her being crowned the queen of the Archangels, Eriel by the Archangel Raphael, and her students would subsequently refer to her as Eriel, an acronym of Universal, Radiant, Infinite, Eternal Light. And then after her spiritual marriage, she would go and increase her channeling of historical figures, including Plato, Tesla, and even John F. Kennedy, who at that point had really only been assassinated like a decade prior. So yeah, weird coincidence, I guess. In early 1974, she predicted that a space fleet of benevolent extraterrestrials, the space brothers, the ones that, you know, I guess were the precursors to everything they are on earth, they were going to land on earth later that year, which led to the unaryous academy to go and purchase a property to serve as the landing site. She predicted that a single flying saucer was going to bring extraterrestrials that were going to persuade humans of their teachings, after which 33 vessels would then arrive. These beings were going to restore the lost teachings of Atlantis to earth, and their revelations were going to free humanity from crime and disease, and pretty much every other thing that plagued humanity, ushering in an era of just pure learning. Now she believed that this information would be imparted by a thousand extraterrestrial scientists who would also bring advances in technology among which she specified crystal computers to earth. So yeah, as if you're probably wondering how this is going to go, Norman presumed that confederation leaders were going to take her on a world tour after their arrival. And so she bought herself a new wardrobe and preparation in addition, she also arranged a large banner to welcome them made arrangements for buses to the landing site and informed the national inquirer, which is an American tabloid of her expectations. After the extraterrestrials failed to appear, Norman said that the trauma that she had suffered in a past life, that is what actually caused her to make an inaccurate prediction rather than just admit that she was talking out her ass the entire time. And undaunted she would rent in a building for unariious meetings and would seek publicity for the movement, claiming that she had united earth with an interplanetary confederation. She would revise the space brothers expected landing date several times before finally settling on 2001. However, she would never actually reach the year 2001, but we're not quite there yet. She claimed that she was merely adopting extraterrestrial customs by doing this. But then custom, followers of Norman would hold her in an extremely high regard. They would occasionally even faint when it is that she touched them and sometimes they would weep when they were allowed to meet with her. They painted several portraits of her, one of which they believed had healing powers, and according to students, Norman would actually heal them in their dreams and sometimes reported seeing visions of her. Several times, group members would choose to forego cancer treatments, trusting that Norman was able to heal them. Because of course, if the healing was unsuccessful though, this meant that it wasn't her fault, it was actually because. of their own disloyalty to leadership and lack of faith, because again, of course, criticism of Norman was not something that was tolerated by the group, and her leadership style was something that you could probably characterize as being, um, benign authoritarian, I guess you could say. But yeah, as I said, her health was not going to last forever, and she wouldn't manage to make it to the 2001 prediction. It would decline severely over the course of the late 1980s, which would prompt her students to try and heal her with rituals of past life regression. Representatives of Yunarius would later state that prophecies had been misunderstood, and that these space brothers had not visited because humanity was not ready for them yet. Of course, despite predicting that she would live to see the extraterrestrials land, Norman would die in 1993. After failing to fulfill her most enduring prophecy, the group's numbers would window. Inarius would continue though to operate after her death and would form a board of directors. In fact, since the 2000s, leaders have concentrated on individual transformation, leading to a spiritual change in humankind, and I believe actually still exist to this day. Yeah, they they've lasted unlike our next guy here. The next individual that we're going to be talking about is a guy by the name of Arnold Potter, and I'm going to make so many jokes because of this. He was a devout Mormon whose early life actually follows the history of Mormonism very well, for anyone who has seen my videos or times where I talk about the historical accuracy of Mormon beliefs. I don't criticize a lot of things when it comes to religion, but the historiography of Mormonism is just genuinely hilarious to look at. Anyway, ejected from Navu Illinois, he was one of the first Mormon pioneers to move west and settle in the Great Salt Lake region. He was also an elder, personally ordained into the Melchizedek priesthood by Joseph Smith himself. In 1856, Potter was then called to serve as a missionary in Australia by Latter-day Saints leader Brigham Young, and on his journey to Australia, that is where everything changed, as Potter would undergo a metamorphosis that would turn him into a completely different person. Or I guess you could say from this make him recall that he was a completely different person. See, according to Potter, he was engulfed with the spirit of Jesus Christ, which caused him to undergo a purifying, quickening change, something that immediately transformed him into the Potter Christ, son of the living God. You're a Jesus, Harry. I'm sorry, I had to do that. It was just way too, it was too easy. It was, you guys, come on. That was way too easy. You have to admit that. Anyway, upon our young Wizard going and returning from Australia, he would found his very own church in California, which then moved to Independence, Missouri. He was a very eccentric man, always wearing long-flowing white or black robes. And in case you didn't know who he was, Potter Christ was kind enough to let you know by writing on his forehead with ink, Potter Christ, the living God, Morningstar. He wrote his own holy testament called the revelations of Potter Christ, which he claimed to have personally dictated into writing because of a visiting angel. He made many predictions as to the coming of the apocalypse from this, which he predicted was going to come in the late 1870s. He also went and created a new theology, which led him to be branded as a heretic by the LDS church because naturally, of course, he also made many predictions about the future. Besides the apocalypse, like that in 1871, there would be a second American civil war that would occur that was caused by political disturbances in Cuba, also that the Irish Finians would be successful in conquering Canada, that slavery was going to be reinstituted, and that President Grant was going to be the last elected president of the United States. So you know, normal things, I guess. In 1872, at the height of his movement, Potter Christ would announce that the time of his ascension wasn't hand. So that apocalypse, every single thing that he'd been predicting, that was happening right now. And here, here my friends, is where Potter Christ goes from becoming a semi-dangerous heretic to an absolute nutcase. He would lead his members to a local cliff where he announced that he was going to leap off that cliff and from doing this, he was going to ascend to heaven and that his disciples, they too would be able to ascend to heaven if they followed him. He then took a running start, he leaped right off the cliff, and then rather than ascending to heaven, he very quickly got an impromptu lesson on gravity and the laws of physics because he crashed right into the earth at terminal velocity hitting the ground with a violent smack. None of his disciples would follow him. It didn't work. His remains were collected and buried later that day. And his church would immediately disband. Yeah, the story of Potter Christ is probably one of the more brief but memorable things that we have in this whole episode. And really, it warns us of the dangers of falling for the lies of a charismatic idiot. Anyway, we have other charismatic idiots to talk about here next. Next up on this list is Francis Herman Pankovic who was born in San Francisco in 1911. Now this guy would change his name to Venta and he had a very turbulent life long before the founding of his own commune, which was a wild story that we're going to be getting to. This was an individual of Jewish Russian descent and he spent his teenage years drifting around Depression, America, picking up minor criminal charges for varying different crimes like burglary and Czech fraud. And once even for sending a threatening letter to President Roosevelt. So that that was a thing. After marrying a woman by the name of Lucille, he would have two sons and he worked a string of odd jobs, including Stin said Oakland shipyards in order to try and make things ends meet. And honestly, that is where things probably should have ended for him, but no otherwise we wouldn't have him here in this episode. See, in the 1940s, his life would take a very dramatic turn because after separating from his white Lucille and then moving to Salt Lake City, Venta began to develop a new spiritual identity, calling himself the earthly host of Christ everlasting. In April of 1948, he would state, and I quote, "I may as well say it, I am Christ." Which wow, yeah, just be as blunt as possible about it, I guess. This new identity that he would launch would go hand in hand with his name Krishna Venta, and he would claim to have been born on another planet, Neo Freides, 240,000 years ago. Now, if you're curious as to, okay, well, if he was claiming in this time to have been born on another planet, where is this planet? Well, that planet purportedly occupied the exact same orbit as Earth does currently. Think of it would also allege that it was humanity's first home. And as his cannon story goes, Neo Freides would move inexplicably closer to the Sun and thus as a result of that became like uninhabitable. And that according to him, a fleet of great rocket ships with each one being like a mile long carrying 35,000 people would then set off to colonize the dark planet that would become Earth. But naturally, their leader was the soul that would one day manifest as Krishna Venta, and that soul along the way would go in bestow elevations among, you know, varying different notable figures, such as Milchezidic of Salem, a Kupehalkan, Getsacadl, Massah, Abraham, Moses, Muhammad, the Buddha, the angels, Moroni and Gabriel, even Jesus Christ. Yeah, you can see where there's like this really weird mix of Mormonism as tech, Dune Day cult, and then just like vague Eastern Orientalism. If it sounds confusing, I don't blame you. The ideology makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. But all of this was detailed in Krishna Venta's history of humanity, which would detail a series of periodic near extinction level events that had distinctly Mormon overtones in all of it. It was really weird. In 1951, he would legally change his name to Krishna Venta in California. And in 1949, he and his followers would purchase a 20 acre plot in Box Canyon that was surrounded by the very serene but more isolated Santa Susanna mountains that were outside of Chatsworth, California. There they called this new commune the WKFL fountain of the world, the WKFL, standing for the wisdom, knowledge, faith and love fountain of the world. Now this rugged natural sanctuary is something that became their haven where they would build their community from scratch. In this, they would follow Venta's 11 tenets of spiritual growth, unity and love. And from that, they would just kind of exist for a while. If you're wondering what it is that I am talking about, and what exactly it is that they would do, the fountain ears as we were going to call them here, they gave up all of their personal possessions. They would grow out their hair. They would wear different colored robes to signify their roles, whether it was blue for nurses, brown for kitchen workers, green for students, etc. They believed in living simply and oftentimes would go barefoot as a sign of service humility. And their communal life was filled with very different rituals and practices that were inspired by both Christian ideals as well as Venta's own random beliefs that he would cobble together. But the fountain wasn't something that was isolated from its neighbors, right? It wasn't something that was, oh, this isolated cult that wouldn't want to do anything for the surrounding world. In fact, for the people that were around them, weirdly enough, they knew the fountain ears as being weird, but also very kind people who were also pretty brave. So hey, it's not like an evil crazy doomsday cult necessarily. But the thing is, under the surface, Venta's teachings would also hold a bit of a darker edge. Because like many cult leaders, he saw himself as a figure that had insight into an impending apocalypse. Because Venta believed that a race war and World War III was going to soon break out. And that is something that would plunge the world into chaos. And in his teachings, he told his followers that only his chosen 144,000 elect were willing to survive. And they would be saved by their commitment to his doctrine. Now, this core belief would attract many people, but also would isolate some followers who struggled with his increasingly dire predictions. And although he often preached that his community would someday escape to a desert refuge and avoid the coming destruction, his own behavior is actually something that was at odds with his visions and seems to have led to his own destruction in a very violent way. If you're curious as to what it is that I mean by that, well, ironically, Venta, who had preached simplicity and humility, would also frequently engage in huge gambling sprees, oftentimes funded by his followers and their donations. Yeah, he claimed that his ventures to Reno and Las Vegas were actually for the good of the commune because, you know, of course, they were leaving that he could win big to then support his community. However, as most gamblers find out, he frequently lost, which is a fact that bothered some followers who saw these trips as evidence that he was a massive hypocrite. In addition to his gambling habit, Venta also had other controversies. His first wife, Lucille, would continue to fight him in court over unpaid child support. In 1956, his refusal to pay said child support actually would lead to his arrest and that would briefly disrupt his leadership. But his followers, who were loyal to the end, would see his arrest as persecution and even would pick it outside the courthouse with signs that supported him. Because of course, you know, the cult leader who gammels in Vegas and doesn't pay child support is clearly the second coming of Christ. Absolutely. Yeah, why not? As you would probably expect, not everyone was happy with the situation and the growing frustration with Venta's lifestyle leadership would eventually boil over in 1958, when two former members of the fountain, Keter Kamenoff and Ralph Muller, who had once been devoted followers, would decide to take action. They had increasingly grown very bitter over time, accusing Venta of taking advantage of his followers for personal gain and making false promises. And so disillusioned, they approached the district attorney with accusations of sexual misconduct, embezzlement, unlicensed medical practices, and so much more. But when no legal action came from this, the two men decided that they were going to confront Venta themselves. So it was then that on the night of December 9th, they would return to the fountain with a truck that was packed with explosives. They were determined to end Venta's life in the entire community itself. Just before 2am, the men who had wrapped dynamite around Muller's body would go and approach Venta's building. Brother Martin, who was a new follower, had witnessed an argument between Venta, his aide, Carnal Jean-Shanaffelte, and a stranger. And minutes later, a massive explosion would erupt, ripping through the compound. This explosion is something they would end up killing 10 people, including Venta, Shanaffelte, Kamenoff, Muller, and several others, including a young girl as well as an infant. This blast would destroy the main building, leaving only rubble as well as a lone fireplace, while the nearby dormitories would also catch fire, which would force other members to evacuate. This was a catastrophic event, and Venta's son, the 11-year-old Sharva, was among the boys who managed to narrowly escape the boys dormitory next door. Sharva would recall later how the roof fell in on them, and everything began to burn, from the walls to their clothes. And miraculously, Sharva and the other boys would survive, as I said, and they quickly set to work, trying to prevent the flames from spreading. But really, this tragedy is something that would leave the entire fountain of the world shattered. There was no way for them to be able to come back and do anything. Well, at least not them. Venta's wife, Sister Ruth, she was going to continue to try. She would eventually move to Alaska, where she attempted to continue Venta's work with the remaining followers. And while some loyal members had stayed behind in Boxcane and trying to rebuild, most of them left, deeply disillusioned by the violent turn of events and the loss of their leader. For a time, Venta's widow and remaining followers would keep the commune going, even preserving some event as teachings, but the community never would actually fully recover. Interestingly enough, and this is a fun little detail about what is related here. I say fun. It's kind of a nasty little detail. It's a dark thing for anyone who's curious about this is potentially another full episode. In the late 1960s, Charles Manson, yes, the Helter Skelter guy, he visited the fountain's compound. Now Manson, who would later become infamous for his own cults and the Helter Skelter incident and trying to start a race war, he was influenced by Venta's teachings of race wars and apocalyptic visions. So Manson is actually a guy who borrowed elements from the fountain's doctrine, incorporated them into his own twisted philosophy. And eventually, he would lead his followers down a very violent path. But first, he tried to make an unsuccessful bid to become the new Jesus figure and leader of this commune. And they didn't want him. They actually rejected him. So after they rejected him, Manson would go and move his group to the nearby spawn movie ranch. And that's where he kind of went off on his own thing. I probably need to do that as a future episode later. Anyway, for those of you who are curious, the ruins of the fountain's compound actually remain standing abandoned in Box Canyon outside of Chatsworth, California to this very day. So yeah, that is a thing. Anyway, next person. Because yes, of course, there is more. Do you think that we were over now? No, we are absolutely not. Next individual that we're going to be talking about here is Alvaro Theos, who was born in Brazil in 1948 to parents that were Roman Catholics of German descent. The teachings of his parents, though, would not necessarily stick with them. Because in 1969, the age of just 21, it began a life as a self-professed prophet and astrologer. By 1979, Theos would even claim to be receiving a relevation from God himself during a religious fast in Santiago Chile. And he claimed that a powerful voice had spoke to him inside his head stating, "I am your father, the God of Abraham of Isaac of Jacob." And so after hearing that, I guess, he very clearly decided that a name change had to be in order. For these events, Theos would begin to go by the moniker of Inri Cristó, which for those of you who are unfamiliar with what that is referring to, this name is derived from the Latin acronym that was inscribed on the cross during Jesus' crucifixion, which I'm going to probably butcher the pronunciation of here because I don't practice Latin. Despite the fact that I was raised Catholic here myself, but Inri is Jesus Nazarenes Rex Liderum, which basically means Jesus the Nazarene King of the Jews. Cristó, his last name, would mean Christ. And that was it. It was that simple. Now this, of course, is a very strong claim for a guy to make. And you may be wondering, okay, just how many people could he actually get to follow him? Maybe like three or four, maybe a dozen or so. No, no, no, no, this guy not only did he manage to get, he has currently hundreds of followers around the world and his own church, the S O U S T, is an acronym for the Supreme Universal Order of a Holy Trinity, which is still active in Brazil today. He is still active in Brazil today. Inri actually lives with 12 of his disciples, three men and nine women in a compound that is surrounded by barbed wire and electric fence that is outside of Brasília, Brazil in a town that he has named New Jerusalem. Now, in case you're curious about what the actual state of this compound is because, you know, of course you are, and this is the way that cults typically end up operating. Most of Christos followers are women and many of them live in the church compound. They wear a rather unusual uniform, which is a blue robe with a rope tied around the waist and some of them have been following Christo for literally decades. He has given them all new names as well, starting with the letter A. The youngest, Alara, was brought to New Jerusalem by her parents as a child, and now 25 years later she is his personal assistant who was tasked with sorting out his clothes and turning on his iPad. His eldest follower is an 87 year old. In fact, you may be curious from all this is like when I said, "Oh, he's still around." Yeah, he is still around. Inri Christo himself is currently 78 years old at the time that I'm recording this video. In fact, who knows maybe another time this goes out, he'll be 79, but he's still alive. What is interesting to note here is that despite his claims of being the reincarnated Jesus, Christos beliefs are highly unconventional and very unorthodox. His views on subjects like capitalism, abortion, and even Christmas have gotten him in trouble more than once. He has been detained by police over 40 times, and he was expelled from countries like the United States, Britain, and Venezuela. Because, you know, it's always a good sign when your Messiah gets kicked out of multiple countries. He claims he has been celibate since his original renovation in 1979, and he channels his unused sexual energy to internal communication with God. He also claims that all who live in New Jerusalem are also celibate. Because, of course, they are. That's how humans function. Along with these rather interesting details, Inri is known to reminisce publicly about his earlier life 2000 years ago, because that's what you do when you're reincarnated, I guess. But a lot has changed since the days of the Gospels. He now loves technology and reinterpreting the final verses of the Bible in light of modern inventions, because they have to, of course, be included because it's part of the absolute truth. As an example, in Revelation's 1 verse 7, where Jesus is promised to be coming with the clouds, Theos takes this to mean that he is free to travel the world by airplane. Because, you know, through the clouds. The verse would continue that every eye will see the coming Messiah, which, of course, Inri then interprets as a mandate to spread his message on television, as well as the internet, because every eye will see it that way. In fact, technically speaking, you probably will look him up immediately after this, which means I have now actually contributed to his message. So I don't know how I feel about that here right now. He might even see this, which would be a really weird thing in the first place. Anyway, Christo's critics would be very quick to dismiss the Bible. him as mentally ill. Naturally, he denies this accusation, saying, and I quote, "I can be crazy, but not dumb." Madness is different from dementia. It is the mother of philosophers, prophets, and inventors." End quote. He would continue by saying, quote, "My mission is to prepare the elect, the survivors of the inevitable nuclear hectetum that will culminate the end of this chaotic world for the formation of the new earthly society, which will strive to fulfill the creator's will." End quote. Yes. So in case you didn't catch that, he is saying that he is trying to prepare the world for the coming nuclear apocalypse. He has also predicted the world would end in 2012, and when it didn't, he clarified that he meant 2012 would be the end of the world for all of those who die in 2012. Because yes, that's how prophecy works and life. Generally, it's just kind of funny what it is that we talk about this, but the most memorable thing about Inri Cristo is that it's not just his predictions, it's his use of social media, which is downright baffling. For those of you who are curious, he regularly preaches on YouTube and on Facebook Live, which he has over 330,000 followers. He is even on TikTok. His disciples go and edit the videos at the compound in New Jerusalem, and that is not actually the bizarre part though. During the 2010s, Inri Cristo's followers began to produce music videos that were parodies of popular songs on the radio and the internet, except the words were all changed to be about Inri Cristo. Really, the highlights of these videos would always end up being the confused and out of place look on Inri Cristo's face as young girls would dance around him singing modified covers of such gems as Britney Spears' toxic, Amy Winehouse's rehab, and see as unstoppable. But the absolute peak, the peak of bad pop music covers has got to be the cover that they did. A Rebecca Blacks Friday that Inri Cristo's followers made for him. It is somehow worse than the original song, which is an accomplishment in and of itself that I really didn't think it was possible. But yeah, until it is that he, unless it is that he somehow causes some kind of nuclear hellfire or does something else, interesting besides his actions on social media, he is still around, and that's probably better than the majority of people that we have seen here on this list. Our next fake Jesus though, that comes out of the ashes of the Soviet Union, something that probably didn't really expect to be talking about. Ornith Siberia, Sergei Torep would go and serve in the Red Army at the young age of 18. Then after a few years working in factories, he worked as a traffic cop before he lost that job in 1989 because Go figure, everything was crashing and burning for the Soviet Union over the course of the late 80s into the 90s. He then began to frequent a local Siberian UFO Spotters Club. Now to this day, Torep is obsessed with UFOs. He claims that in 1990 he was reborn as Viserion, which means he who gives new life. He also claimed that he was the second coming of Jesus Christ, which would make him Siberian Jesus. If you're curious at this point as to what it is that he believed about himself, his religious beliefs would combine elements of the Russian Orthodox Church, along with Buddhism, apoptolypticism, collectivism, and ecological values. This is a very interesting combo in and of itself. Torep would go and found the Church of the Last Testament in Fresner-Osk Siberia in 1991 just before the fall of the USSR, and he predicted the imminent end of the world with only his followers being saved. His followers would observe strict regulations, including veganism, smoking, drinking alcohol, swearing, and the use of money. And by that, I mean, I should say that, oh, they were supposed to be vegan, and everything else that I've described here they had to abstain from. Through these acts, the goal of his movement would be to unite all religions on earth. But it wasn't just a matter of uniting all religions on earth. It was uniting all of them behind him. And what I mean by that is that he started to do things to put himself front and center. This guy replaced celebrating Christmas by making his own birthday, January 14th, the actual new day of Christ's birth to his followers. He even made his own calendar, which scraps all recorded history so far, and starts with the day that he was born in 1961. He also claimed he could heal cancer, AIDS, and he could do all this. I just touching people. Now, what Viserion really had going for him, though, was his timing. Because beginning his public ministry right as his country collapsed, he was able to exploit the people's need for a savior of basically any kind. Against the background of economic collapse, the disintegration of the USSR, broken hopes and discredited values, the idea of a 30 year old Jesus with universal happiness and the remote tiger and the approaching end of the world. That is actually something they managed to find an audience. In his early sermons, he introduced revisions to the New Testament and told the true story of the first coming. But this means basically is the end of the world. And the trouble that he has here, this new savior, is that when he was predicting the end of the world, he set very specific dates like a lot of other prophetic madmen ended up doing. And when the end did not come, he would literally throw his hands in the air uttering the words, "I didn't promise you anything," and then predicted a new apocalypse. He would just keep the ball rolling as much as he possibly could. Over the course of the next two years, he would travel around half of Russia. The Soviet Republics and several European countries with money from donations, attracting a faithful flock of, you know, individuals that were distraught with the end of everything. And this would create a number of implausible rumors about him. He would change his mind at random and impose hard and fast rules on his followers at a moment's notice, which was rather confusing. One time, Viserion Schofur would drive around the villages where followers lived and he proclaimed from August 1st, "Sugar is poison." In September of 1994, prohibitions were imposed on vegetable oil, tea, semolina, and a number of different grains. Then it was the turn of leavened bread, exceptions were only made for pregnant women. By 1995, people could only "hawk" a food. The permitted diet would include potatoes, honey, grains, vegetables, mushrooms, and flatbreads. The Viserionites, as you could probably expect, would suffer, but they would endure. Now, this guy, as he is going around, he is preaching constantly, and all of the sermons were very long-winded and incoherent. He tried to instill the idea in people that they should cut themselves off from the outside world and sever ties with family and relatives. And the more stressed a person was, the more susceptible that he or she was, to Viserion's influence. All of this became intertwined with the established procedure of not seeking medical assistance and not permitting children to attend the village school. In August of 1999, he would go and give the sermon that he called "I want to show you how to love in a beautiful way." And there, he asserted that a man can have as many wives as he wants, for the sake of the submissiveness of women. From that moment, love triangles began to appear in the commune and men were allowed to change their wives. Some families could not bear the kind of psychological onslaught that this caused and they fell apart. Then, Viserion himself would part from his wife and he would take a new wife, who was 16 years old, that he had known since she was seven. And at the time, he was over 40, because of course, furthermore, the makeup of the Viserion ites would become significantly less homogenous with the passing years. Fewer and fewer followers believed in the end of the world and more simply liked living in a commune with its own rules and laws. In an ecological settlement where everyone is family, even those who were extremely skeptical of Viserion would stay on in the commune. As one would say, "He told us to shun money, but he himself would travel to Israel or to Taiwan for medical treatment." Why should Christ require medical treatment? Because yeah, no, actually why should Christ require medical treatment? Huh, up in strange, isn't it? It sounds funny, it really does, and yes, it absolutely was. But there also was a darker side to Sun City as Viserion's commune was called. It is all believed to have begun with the deaths through negligence of two infants in the families of cult followers. Where in the summer of 2018, investigators would be called on the Nizemsev family in order to conduct a house search after the death of their 10-month-old son. The Marmanova family was also investigated at the same time after their child had died of pneumonia. Subsequently, a report on the federal channel, RENTV, would also say the discovery of the body of an infant was the reason as to why the commune was being probed. From here, a whole string of investigations for varying different things would ensue. The commune would find itself under overt pressure as all lines of inquiry about any kind of topic were pursued. Whether it was psychological abuse, property fraud, ritual sex with minors, gulm births to illegal land use, the failing of stonepines, anything and everything was questioned. More than 300 followers, in fact, were questioned in the year since the first searches. Like these guys were under surveillance. Then in mid-September of 2020, teams of SFB special forces would arrive at the Frasneryos Katiga in helicopters and seal off Sun City. Korop, Redkin, and another organizer of the commune, Vladimir Videnikov, were placed under arrest on charges of running in a legal religious organization and possible physical harm to others as well as extortion. The public prosecutor's office would demand that the church of the last estimates of religious organization, which at this point had a membership of around 4,500 at the last count, should then be banned. On June 30th, 2025, he was finally convicted and sentenced to 12 years in prison for his crimes. This guy! is recent. It was last year at the time that I'm making this that all this went down. So yeah, this isn't just a matter of history. And so yeah, that I guess is the end of that. But wait, there's more. And no, I'm not talking about this specific case. We have other ones to cover. But before does it be do that, a very quick disclaimer. Before we discuss the next person who claimed to be the return of Jesus, the person we're going to be talking about here has a very well-known history of suing people who speak negatively of him online for slander. So with that being said, we'd like to say that all of the following information about a policy quibaloy that we are talking about here is alleged to have occurred. We are not saying these things happened with 100% certainty, but just relaying the allegations that have been heard. That's just the disclaimer. I'm going to go ahead and give now to start here then. A policy quibaloy, Filipino Jesus, or in the son of a Protestant minister, young Apollo actually didn't have an interest in following in his parents footsteps, because he wanted to be a nautical engineer and a pilot when he was a kid. But the allure of a scholarship offer that included free tuition, free meals, and a free room if you went to Bible college, ended up winning him over. And he studied theology at the United Penn Costal Bible Institute and would graduate in 1972 allegedly. Now, he preached for a few years in local churches and then decided that he was going to make his own denomination. In 1985, he would found the kingdom of Jesus Christ, name above every name church, and installed himself as leader and executive pastor. He started preaching in the slums of Agdal with 15 followers and right from the start, he began to claim that in fact, he was the appointed son of God, allegedly. In 2019, he would even go and make a video directly after an earthquake would occur, claiming that the earthquake only stopped because he had wielded to do so. He didn't predict the earthquake. He just took credit for stopping it. Now, eventually Apollo Q's operation would expand and he opened his own Bible college and even started his own TV station where those in need of hope could find his sermons airing 24 hours a day, seven days a week allegedly. Now, if this is something that sounds like the actions of an individual who would forever remain small and inconsequential, you're very wrong. You would think that, but you'd be very wrong. Quibbaloid is actually a fairly close associate of Rodrigo de Terté. In the 2016 elections, Quibbaloid and the members of the kingdom of Jesus Christ would endorse the presidential candidacy of Deval City Mayor, De Terté and his running mate, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, and Quibbaloid also lent his own private jet and helicopter to be used into Terté's presidential campaign. Quibbaloid would also serve as De Terté's spiritual advisor during his presidency. That's right. A guy who called himself the second coming of Christ, allegedly, served as the advisor spiritually of the president. Allegedly, host presidency De Terté would serve as the administrator of the assets of the pastor's church amidst Quibbaloid facing scrutiny from the Philippine government, which was a problem. Allegedly, and that, my friends, is just the simple stuff. We now have the crazier stuff. Quibbaloid and the kingdom of Jesus Christ had been sued by a woman for allegedly brainwashing and holding her 19 year old daughter who joined the church in 2004 against her will. The prosecutors of the Central District of California would indict Quibbaloid and top church administrators for conspiracy to conduct human and sex trafficking, money laundering, immigration fraud, and other charges on November 11th, 2021. The prosecutors would also allege that followers were coerced by Apollo and administrators into soliciting funds at long hours with little to no pay. The highest achieving full-time workers, this being workers that raised the most funds in the Philippines were nominated by church personnel to fundraise in North America. Apollo's administrators would falsify their visa applications, claiming that they're only traveling for church-related performances. And the administrators would also arrange sham marriages with other church followers that were already in the US in order for the FTW to be able to continue soliciting funds in the US. Just so much fraud allegedly upon arriving in the United States church administrators would confiscate the workers passports and then coerced them into soliciting and fundraising. Lead administrators would create nonprofit entities such as the Children's Joy Foundation USA as their platform to fund raise and full-time workers would then claim that any funds that were raised were also for helping impoverished children in the Philippines. But prosecutors would allege that in reality most of this money would end up being used to fund Quipaloi and their administrators lavish lifestyles. Allegedly. According to the indictment from 2002 to at least 2018, young girls and women were allegedly recruited to serve as pastoralists. Quipaloi. These pastoralists were selected under the guise of religious service, but were coerced into performing adult acts under the threat of eternal damnation. These victims, some as young as 12 years old, were at the heart of the Apollo quibaloy sex trafficking charges. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the Apollo quibaloy sex trafficking charge though is the so-called "naked duty." This being where young girls were allegedly forced to engage in adult activities with Quipaloi himself. These victims that were manipulated by church doctrine were subjected to routine exploitation. And the indictment would detail that these pastoralists were assigned to night duty on a rotational basis, effectively turning a spiritual community into a network of coerced sex acts. Prosecutors would also allege that church leaders told young victims that fulfilling the pastor's sexual desires was a direct order from God, which would further exploit their religious beliefs to maintain absolute control and authority. Allegedly. When I'm talking about this, a particularly bold display of misconduct cited alongside the Apollo quibaloy sex trafficking charge though, involves an incident where Quipaloi was caught, carrying over $335,000 in cash on a private jet in 2018. This incident is part of the broader accusations of bulk cash smuggling aimed at circumventing legal financial reporting requirements. He has done a lot. And then Senator and presidential candidate, Manipackiel, would cite charges of sexual abuse against Quipaloi as his reason for turning down an invitation for a presidential debate that was organized by the latter in February of 2022. This guy tried to involve himself in basically everything, political, social, whatever you have it. On December 10, 2022, the US Department of Treasury and the Department of State would impose sanctions on Quipaloi for gross human rights abuses and corruption. In June of 2023, his YouTube channel was banned. Apollo actually just made a rumble account instead when this happened. Then TikTok banned him and he got banned on Facebook and Instagram. And finally, on June 10, 2024, the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and around 100 police officers of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force would raid Quipaloi's properties to serve him in a rest warrant. They said that Mr. Quipaloi was hiding in an underground bunker based on the sound of heartbeat that were detected by surveillance equipment. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, would say that he trafficked girls and women from the Philippines to the US where they were forced to solicit money for a bogus charity. And before his apprehension, he was actually on the FBI's top 10 most wanted list. And that marks a new first for this channel, as we've never had FBI.gov as one of our sources for a story ever. Allegedly. Yeah, it is absolutely wild. And at the time that I am making this, unless something has magically changed here in that time, Apollo's Equipaloi is currently awaiting extra edition to the United States to face these charges. Allegedly. Yeah, I don't really know how it is that we would necessarily top that, but we have one more left on this list. We have one final false Messiah. And that individual is actually a woman. Now, really, it was hard to decide whether or not to have Apollo Q or our next entry be the last of today's episodes, simply because they're both so incredibly weird and evil, potentially, allegedly. But yeah, we had to finish this episode somehow. And this one actually starts in Australia for decades, starting in the 1960s, just outside of the bustling city of Melbourne, Australia, a group of people would operate in near total secrecy under the control of a woman who was believed or believed herself to be the reincarnation of Jesus. That woman was someone by the name of Anne Hamilton Bern, and the disturbing sect that she led was known as the family cult. Gorn as Evelyn Edwards in 1921, a young Anne's mother would die in asylum after being diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. Because her father had trouble holding down a job and was not to the task of being a single parent, Hamilton Bern would spend much of her childhood in and out of orphanages. After giving birth to a single child and losing her husband and a car accident later on, Hamilton Bern would begin to immerse herself in yoga. And at the time, yoga was still a very mysterious thing to much of the Western world, but to her, she was drawn into its connections with Eastern religion and would eventually begin teaching yoga to curious middle-class housewives in Melbourne. What followed was anything but a typical budding career as a yoga teacher. See, eventually she would meet an individual by the name of Dr. Rayner Johnson, a soon-to-be retired physicist, and everything would change for her. Johnson was captivated with her charm. And speaking of her, Johnson would write in his journal that she was, quote, "unquestionably the wisest, serenist, and most gracious and generous soul I have ever met." The two would experiment with LSD, and Johnson would introduce her to doctors, nurses, and lawyers who were also seeking new age wisdom and look to the charming yoga teacher for guidance. Under her leadership, the family would develop as a belief system that combined elements of Christianity and Eastern religions, anticipating an imminent apocalypse. Hamilton Bern would claim to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, attracting followers, including the aforementioned physicist, Rayner Johnson, who identified as a reincarnation of John the Baptist. By the 1970s, the cult had over 500 members and had accumulated significant financial resources, which Hamilton Burn would use for personal expenses, including plastic surgery. Because of course, Jesus needs that. Another member, Marion Villameck, would also contribute a great deal. The managed New Haven Hospital, a psychiatric hospital, which treated many of its patients with LSD. Now many of the hospital staff were members of the family, and it was used as a way to recruit potential new members as well. Hamilton Burn had her members under a spell, basically, and they gave her everything. Their money, their homes, even their children. By the early 1970s, the group had started to procure children. Some of these children were the offspring of the members of the family, but others were falsely adopted. Other children were taken from young mothers who were shamed from having babies at a wedlock. And because the cult was made of doctors, nurses, and attorneys, getting around any red tape associated with proper legal adoption, was significantly easier than otherwise would have been. Now, Marion Villameck would essentially sign a deal with the devil in blonde hair when she began to agree to supply and with the children of her mental patients who were highly medicated on opiates most of the time. Like, yes, they literally used a mental asylum to farm babies with absolutely no permission from the mothers. And you might be thinking, okay, we'll stack. It can't be that bad. How many children could this one woman illegally obtain? 28. She managed to steal 28 children from the arms of their mothers only to claim them as her own. All of them were told that Hamilton Bern was actually their biological mother. Their identities were changed and they were given false birth certificates. The children's last name were changed to Hamilton Bern and their hair was dyed blonde in an effort to convince them that they were all actually related. Life for these children in the cult was anything though but a happy and normal childhood. Designated aunties, this being adult women in the group would care for the children, grooming them to make them look as identical as possible. If a child stepped out of place, food would be withheld or even worse. Hamilton Bern would also lay into them with one of her stiletto heels. A Whitaker, who grew up in the family cult, would say that everything was fine as long as you obeyed, saying, quote, "She's not somebody you argue with." When she was away, she would call the aunties back at Utah and listen to them discipline the children through the phone. Which owed your God. Yeah. If the beatings weren't enough though, the children would regularly be given doses of "valium" to keep them docile until they turned 14. They also would be given large amounts of LSD and told by Anne Hamilton Bern that she was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. And then once the children would reach adolescence, they would undergo bizarre drug-fueled initiation ceremonies. They were given a dose of LSD and left in a room for a period of time, only receiving visits from Hamilton Bern or one of the cults' psychiatrists. It was all a part of the family's motto, unseen, unknown, unheard. However, that motto would come to an end very soon. In 1987, 14-year-old Sarah Moore was expelled from the group because of her rebellious behavior against Hamilton Bern. She eventually would go to the police and a raid was conducted on the group by law enforcement on August 14th. But children were taken into protective custody and Hamilton Bern would flee the country before eventually being arrested in 1993, on charges of fraud while she was hiding out in the cat's scales of New York. She served almost no jail time though and received no punishments for what she did to those children. And mothers, aside from having to pay a $5,000 fine for damages to a couple of the victims. But besides that, that was basically it. And so in the end, if you're looking for any kind of consolation or justice, you're not really going to get it. And Hamilton Bern would die in a nursing home in 2019, and that was going to be the end of her. If you want any kind of consolation or makes you feel any better, you should note that she did suffer horribly from dementia, eventually forgetting who she was. The fact that she'd ever been a cult leader or the terrible way that she'd mistreated children and dementia is not necessarily a fun way to go. It's really, it's a really unpleasant thing. She didn't remember that she was Jesus. So that's I guess some form of karma in the world. And that I guess about does it for this episode. We were going to include the story of the moonies cult as well as the infamous Jim Jones and the Jones down massacre. But this episode is already long enough as it is. So we're going to save that for a future episode. Let us know if you'd like to see those two groups covered because oh my god, there are so many other cults and things that we could talk about. And my wife on her channel, not Gabby B, has already done stuff on varying different cults if you want to check that out. Remember to check us out on Patreon here, my friends. Thank you all for watching and or listening. And I'll see you all here next time. Goodbye, everyone. Allegedly.