This work by Len Oakes titled, “Prophetic Charisma” – The Psychology of Revolutionary Religious Personalities (copyright ©1997 by Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, NY, ISBN 0-8156-2700-9) has captured my attention. This book may be the source of several posts as we work through the research and conclusions of Dr. Oakes. The following is a short biography that would have been current as of the date of publishing. As a note, with a little research, I did find an address and telephone number for Dr. Oakes in Australia; however, they have not been verified.
“Len Oakes is a senior consultant psychologist with the Cairnmiller Institute of Melbourne, Australia, and completed his doctoral dissertation on the psychology of charisma at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is a member of the Australian Psychology Society, the New Zealand Psychological Society, and the International Society for Hypnosis and has published articles on communal studies, the psychology of religion, and the counseling issues associated with new religious movements. He is the editor of the journal Psychotherapy in Australia.”
The foreword was written by Sarah Hamilton-Byrne. She wrote a book titled, “Unseen, Unheard, Unknown: My Life Inside the Family of Anne Hamilton-Byrne”. (link to more about the her book- http://www.leavingsiddhayoga.net/unseen.htm ) She explains the purpose and direction of Dr. Oakes’ work and applauds him for taking steps to explain some rather difficult questions. Since her explanation of the book is so precise, I will quote bits and pieces of the foreword with my comments interspersed, in order to set the direction of this series of posts. “In this unique contribution to our understanding of the social phenomenon of charismatic groups and those who lead them, Dr. Len Oakes explores the psychology of charisma and proposes his own theory of the five-stage life cycle of two types of prophets – the messianic and the charismatic – from their primitive narcissistic beginnings to their ultimately inevitable implosion or demise.” (page xi)
This one sentence activated my curiosity for more than one reason. After sixteen years of both indirect and directly under the teachings of Jane Whaley, this subject fascinates me. From my perspective, Jane Whaley is the leader of a “charismatic group” which is Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF). She definitely considers herself as a prophet. Well, for that matter, she has called herself an Apostle in years past. She still claims the work of an Apostle on her website in her testimony; using the word as a verb. So, will she fit in the groupings of a “messianic prophet” or “charismatic prophet”? We shall see as we learn more from this book and compare it to the insights gained over the years.
More from Ms. Hamilton-Byrne, “The central premise of Dr. Oakes’s thesis is that the core of the cult leader’s distinctiveness, and the basis of any subsequent psychopathology, is the narcissistic personality – characterized by grandiosity, manipulativeness, a need for control of others, and inner congruence, but also by paranormal empathy, confidence, memory, autonomy, detachment, and islands of social and personal insight. Hidden under these defenses is an empty core, a terror of weakness, and a secret sense of shame that leads to a compensatory grandiosity… Oakes has met and talked to numerous leaders who together exemplify all of these states. He also explores the psychology of apostates and proposes a life cycle of individual involvement in charismatic groups.” (page xi emphasis added) We have put forth the idea that Jane Whaley operates as a narcissist in previous posts. I stand by that assertion as my opinion after watching her and feeling the effects of the narcissism for so many years. This book should help me understand what I experienced and how it came about.
Let me just add that Dr. Oakes did he research for this book in New Zealand. That in itself is exciting in that he DID NOT interview Jane Whaley. In my eyes, as his work will reveal many common characteristics of leaders of groups like WOFF, it will bring home the fact that though many in Jane’s sphere of influence consider her “special” or “gifted”, she is in fact a display of many common traits of other leaders of groups in the category of WOFF — all over the world. Unless one purposes to learn about these groups, it is easy to see Jane as an anomaly, and as a woman leader of a charismatic group, she could be. In fact, later in the book he says this about women group leaders, “Despite my intention to study female charismatic leaders, they proved difficult to find; only four of the leaders in this study were women. Such figures do exist, as a perusal of Gordon Melton’s Encyclopedia of American Religions (Melton 1997) reveals; almost one-third of the minority religious groups of America were founded or cofounded by women, but at the time of this study they were few. This is consistent with other studies that found few female charismatics (Willner 1984; Zablocki 1980). Further, many of the female leaders mentioned by Melton were associated with very small or ephemeral groups.” (page 23) It may be rarer to see a woman in Jane’s role, but in fact the traits she exhibits are not so unique, as we will learn from this book by Dr. Oakes.
Back to material in the foreword, “Len Oakes talks as I do, a former insider. He lived inside a charismatic cult; he knew first hand the seduction of surrender to a guru. He has paid the personal price for that, but he has also had the wisdom and courage not only to achieve a personal understanding of the psychology of the experience by putting to use his academic strength and skills, but to develop a language to convey in an accessible way some of the conclusions and insights he has achieved by his study.” (page xi – xii) If I had any doubts before, they were gone with this statement. Admittedly, I am partial to books written by those who have been inside a controlling group or cult and are now out. Can you understand why?
“The intimate knowledge and experience of the workings of cults give his thesis and authority that goes beyond mere intellectual analysis. More important, it affords his work a dignity; by trying to make sense of a literally life-shattering and often intensely painful set of experiences, he converts the past into something productive and meaningful… something that affords and enhances his insight. Hence he achieves a victory consistent with that of those whose greatest revenge is to live well; he manages to turn the past into a source of strength instead of despair.” (page xii) With those inspiring words, who could not continue on reading and seek this source of strength and anticipate with excitement the turning of despair into a victory?
From here, we will look at a few excerpts from Chapter 1 – the Introduction, and then close and pick this subject up in a future post. “What all prophets have in common is their opposition to convention and their ability to inspire others. Hence, a key assumption of this study is that charismatic prophets really are, in important ways, different form ordinary people… Of course all behavior occurs in a social context, and this needs to be considered when attempting to explain conduct, but the aim here is to understand the personalities of the unusual beings in the context of their social environments.” (page 2) Yes, from my observation, Jane is “opposed to convention”. We are able to consider her departure from any form of tested organized religious structure or adherence to normal sound financial disclosures or practices. She also has exhibited the “ability to inspire others”. Not always has this “inspiration” been to constructive ends, but inspired they are. Many have been inspired to destroy their past to such a degree that all they have to cling to is the WOFF-present and the hopes for a WOFF-future. That prospect is so sad to me. We will attempt to understand Jane’s behaviors within her tight knit, social environment. Honestly, from the questions I am asked by outsiders, understanding the social environment of WOFF is a struggle for many. I hope as we go forward in this book, more understanding will come.
“For the purposes of this book a prophet is defined as one who (a) espouses a message of salvation that is opposed to conventional values, and (b) attracts a following of people who look to him (her) for guidance in their daily lives.” (page 2) As I have stated before, though I have read about other cult leaders, my personal knowledge is from my time inside WOFF and observing Jane Whaley. So, the main references I will make are from that experience. In my opinion, Jane meets both of these criteria. First, her message of salvation may contain certain “orthodox” doctrines or beliefs, there are many beliefs that ARE NOT orthodox and those exhibit opposition to “conventional values”. For sure, her faithful followers “look to her for guidance in their daily lives”. Who could EVER deny that? Now, we can continue on our comparison of my experience and the observations learned through the study by Dr. Len Oakes.
As a close to this post, we look at these statements by Oakes, “Prophets come in a stunning variety of forms. Some are extroverts, some are introverts. Some are humorous, some are humorless. Some are frankly disturbed, and others appear to be models of good mental health. Some are modest about their achievements, others are megalomaniacal.” (page 2) Okay, I had to look that one up – megalomaniacal. In a definition found here- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalomania . We find a two part definition to megalomania: First: A psychopathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of wealth, power, or omnipotence. Second: An obsession with grandiose or extravagant things or actions. For those that know Jane better than me, what say ye? From what I know, I say – yes. She qualifies as megalomaniacal. Many times, I have heard her blow her own horn- loudly. Of course, it was all under the guise of “giving God the glory”. And who can deny her taste for “extravagant things”.
“This diversity must be grasped in order to perceive the underlying similarities.” (page 2) I can see that and am willing to look for the similarities in order to help understand the answers to the questions. “Nevertheless, the study of revolutionary religious personalities has much to recommend it, especially for what it may teach us of the human heart and contemporary life.” (page 3) We close with that statement knowing that in future posts, we will review more particulars from this study of revolutionary religious personalities by comparing it to my experiences inside WOFF and under the teachings of Jane Whaley.
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(Please, take time to read the Terms of Use for this personal blog. As mentioned, the information about WOFF is from my memories and recollections as perfect as that may be or not be. ) Scripture references are Amplified Version unless otherwise noted. (Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation ) This is post number 276.