The Happy Science is a controversial new religious and spiritual movement, founded in Japan in 1986 by Ryuho Okawa, which has been characterized as a cult. Its aim is “to bring happiness to humanity by spreading the Truth”. They worship a deity named El Cantare, and they believe that the being was first born on Earth 330 million years ago. Over time, El Cantare has taken forms of Odin, Hermes, Buddha and his latest incarnation is, well, Ryuho Okawa.
Ryuho Okawa was a former trader at Wall Street and claims to channel the spirits of characters, dead and alive, like Freddie Mercury, Steve Jobs and Barack Obama. His religion today has millions of followers in 100+ countries, and had a revenue estimated to be over $45 million last year.
Over the years, they have been subject to criticism by many. They have released promotional videos that claim North Korea and the People’s Republic of China are plotting to invade and colonize Japan after first subduing it through nuclear warfare. Okawa’s son, Hiroshi Okawa, has left the religion, commenting, “I believe what my father does is complete nonsense”.
The pandemic has been the perfect channel for the religion to release its apocalyptic themes, with many of its texts filled with UFO’s, lost continents and demonic warfares. Recently though, they have claimed that they can cure the coronavirus. According to them, the virus was a bioweapon released by China, and then, in a strange tale of events, was unleashed by a UFO to punish the communists.
They have started offering “Spiritual Vaccines” for a fee, and the faithful will be blessed with a ritual prayer to ward off and cure the disease. They are also offering coronavirus themed CDs and DVDs of Mr. Okawa’s voice, which has powers to boost immunity. According to several Japanese ads, the prices of these range from $100 to $400.
Initially, even when everything was under a lockdown, they had kept their temples open. However, as cases began to shoot up, they closed their temples, and will now offer the vaccines remotely.
The world is a weird place indeed.
Image credits: New York Times
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