Believers in this Growing Religion Think They Are Reincarnated Aliens

[phands]

Makes as much sense as xtianity or any of the other brain-rots.....

This religion boasts 800,000 worldwide followers, and they all believe they are ancient aliens who came to help advance humanity and have been reincarnated for generations ever since.
A lot of people have called the group a cult, but with the size they are now, they are starting to be officially classified as a religion by many academics. The religion is named Sunrise Valley, or Vale do Amanhecer in their native language, and they are headquartered in Brazil.
This group borrows from other dogmas and faiths, including Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, the Inca, and ancient Egyptian traditions. But that’s not the most unique part of their religion, according to National Geographic.

According to Sunrise Valley followers, extraterrestrial beings landed on Earth 32,000 years ago to advance human civilizations. The beings then returned to Earth through successive incarnations across various cultures and eras. Valley members, known as mediums, believe themselves to be the beings’ latest incarnation, the Jaguars.
Sunrise Valley was established by Neiva Chaves Zelaya, known as Aunt Neiva, in 1959. A widow with four children, she was working as a truck driver in Brasilia, then under construction to replace Rio de Janeiro as Brazil’s capital. There, she said, she began to experience psychic episodes, which she later believed to be visits by spirits from the extraterrestrial world.
Neiva said she was primarily guided by Pai Seta Branca, or “Father White Arrow,” a spirit emissary who is depicted in statues and drawings today as a native South American leader.
​

It’s a fascinating religion, complete with colorful outfits and an interesting origin story, but perhaps most interesting is how quickly it is growing. While Christianity loses its grip on the United States (and maybe the world), this faith system is one of the most quickly growing spiritual groups in Brazil.

Sunrise Valley is one of Brazil’s fastest-growing religious movements, claiming 800,000 followers and 600 affiliated temples globally, according to Kelly Hayes, associate professor of religious studies at Indiana University-Indianapolis.
Still, mainstream society and religious communities in Brazil often shun Sunrise Valley, categorizing them and other spiritualist groups as cults. Tension is especially rife between Valley members and the evangelicals who have built churches near the community, targeting members for conversion. “[The evangelicals] believe Valley members are under the influence of the devils,” Hayes says.
​

Even in this relatively remote area of Brazil, Christian evangelicals are there trying to convert the natives just because they consider their religion to be a cult. I don’t believe in either faith, but let’s be real and objective here. Are their beliefs really any stranger than believing in a burning bush through which God can speak? Are they crazier than believing God performs miracles and became His own son to sacrifice Himself to… Himself? Hardly.
If nothing else, Sunrise Valley provides some interesting stories and beautiful pictures. There’s value in that if not their irrational beliefs.

http://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/...-religion-think-they-are-reincarnated-aliens/

 

[Underseer]

Welcome the newest and fast-growing religion: Vale do Amanhecer

http://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/...-religion-think-they-are-reincarnated-aliens/



They believe that they are reincarnated aliens, and there are around 800,000 of them right now.

Religion teaches people to do a bad job of evaluating truth claims because that is the only way to get people to believe in their own truth claims, but that leaves followers vulnerable to other charlatans.

 

[phands]

I just posted the same article in another thread

 

[Sarpedon]

Wasn't that a plot point on Babylon 5?

 

[Lion IRC]

phands posts a thread about a religion that is growing

 

[Tom Sawyer]

/mod

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Well, the real question we need to ask ourselves is "How many of these people are actually reincarnated aliens?"

If you have a few hundred thousand reincarnated aliens running around Brazil for some reason and the rest are just bandwagon jumpers or dudes who signed on because there was some hot chicks they wanted to bang (because you're never going to get rid of all of that in any group), then this is fine. They're stranded on a strange planet in these weird bipedal bodies and it's nice to be able to get together in a club and figure this shit out and reminisce about the homeworld.

If not all that many of them are actually reincarnated aliens, then they're just one more weird group of motherfuckers.

 

[whollygoats]

I thought we were ALL 'reincarnated aliens'....Isn't that what Scientology teaches? Or, is it that we, the sentient life-form on the planet have been tainted by the n-grams of unreincarnated aliens?

I can't keep all this silly-assed shit straight.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

I thought we were ALL 'reincarnated aliens'....Isn't that what Scientology teaches? Or, is it that we, the sentient life-form on the planet have been tainted by the n-grams of unreincarnated aliens?

I can't keep all this silly-assed shit straight.

Your soul is an alien according to christianity. It was created by a magic alien that lives in who-the-fuck-knows-where. Your body isn't important, what's important is the alien. It's the alien that's going to be judged and all that and that's going to appear before the magic alien one day. This is all standard christian woo, I didn't invent it.

So don't be too hard on these other flakes and think they're any weirder than the majority christian flakes. Religious folk are like sneetches. Some have stars and some don't, but they're all the same. Don't be too hard on them, some actually need it.

 

[DrZoidberg]

Meh... idiots believing dumb shit. A lot of religion is as dumb as this. There's no news here. I have a friend who thinks vaccines cause autism.

 

[lpetrich]

I thought we were ALL 'reincarnated aliens'....Isn't that what Scientology teaches? Or, is it that we, the sentient life-form on the planet have been tainted by the n-grams of unreincarnated aliens?

Scientologists indeed believe that our souls had come from elsewhere in the Universe. In fact, my mother once knew a Scientologist who believed that some science-fiction movies were literal history that had happened to the movies' creators when they were reincarnated on some other planets.

 

[Jobar]

I wonder how many potential cults die a-borning; for lack of drive, speaking and writing talent, or charisma in the originating visionary/madman, or resistance from his neighbors or other faiths in his area, or some other cause. Lots and lots of True Believers out there, who would set themselves up as holy men and prophets if they could. I suppose it takes a lottery-winning amount of luck for the right combination of talent, opportunity, and craziness to come together and seed a completely new religion. Some sociologist or psychologist might find the subject worth dedicated study. (I wouldn't be surprised if one or more already have, and I just haven't heard of it.)

 

[whollygoats]

I wonder how many potential cults die a-borning; for lack of drive, speaking and writing talent, or charisma in the originating visionary/madman, or resistance from his neighbors or other faiths in his area, or some other cause. Lots and lots of True Believers out there, who would set themselves up as holy men and prophets if they could. I suppose it takes a lottery-winning amount of luck for the right combination of talent, opportunity, and craziness to come together and seed a completely new religion. Some sociologist or psychologist might find the subject worth dedicated study. (I wouldn't be surprised if one or more already have, and I just haven't heard of it.)

Well, I've always assumed that William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience was a step in that direction.

 

[ideologyhunter]

All because Fatty Arbuckle came back as Shirley MacLaine.

 

[lpetrich]

All because Fatty Arbuckle came back as Shirley MacLaine.

I don't get the connection.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

All because Fatty Arbuckle came back as Shirley MacLaine.

I don't get the connection.

If you give me $100,000, I’ll show you some secret documents which will make the connection clear.

 

[Jobar]

I wonder how many potential cults die a-borning; for lack of drive, speaking and writing talent, or charisma in the originating visionary/madman, or resistance from his neighbors or other faiths in his area, or some other cause. Lots and lots of True Believers out there, who would set themselves up as holy men and prophets if they could. I suppose it takes a lottery-winning amount of luck for the right combination of talent, opportunity, and craziness to come together and seed a completely new religion. Some sociologist or psychologist might find the subject worth dedicated study. (I wouldn't be surprised if one or more already have, and I just haven't heard of it.)

Well, I've always assumed that William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience was a step in that direction.

Indeed. It's been a great many years since I read James' classic work; but I feel sure that applying more modern methods of study and analysis to the questions involved would be fruitful. We need another scholar of Joseph Campbell's caliber.