Vol. 6, No. 9, 1989

Cosmerism

John Whaley

In the June, 1989 issue of News-Advertiser, a new paper published in Mt. Dora, Florida, a city located 25 miles north of Orlando, the following advertisement appeared on page 5: "YOU MAY BE ONE AND NOT EVEN KNOW IT! What? A Cosmerite!"

The advertisement further states that "Cosmerism is a Christian - Buddhistic theosophy embracing all faiths of all men as far as they live up to the four main principles and tests of Cosmerism: Love, Empathy, Compassion, and the activation of good and non-violent knowledge (Ibid).

The advertisement invited the reader to write either the News-Advertiser or The International Cosmeric Foundation in Orlando and stated that the individual would receive "...a warm response from a sheoti (teacher) of a religion more than 10,000 years old, which embodies positive thought and love and the marvelous guidance from the teachings of Yeshua ben Youssef (the Aramaic name of Jesus, son of Joseph) and Sidhartha Gautama the Sakya (the Great Buddha)."

In response to the advertisement, The Cosmeric Foundation was contacted and within a few weeks, a letter dated July 28, 1989 was received from William Seaparke, alias Sheoti Samuel, regarding the inquiry. In this letter, the basic tenets of Cosmerism were explained. According to the letter, Cosmerism "is a religion or theosophy which promotes the belief of the individual in himself..." (p. 1). It is based on the belief that the word, "Cosmer", means "God", but God by any name.

On page two, the letter states that "The god of Islam, the god of Christianity, the god of any religion -- all are the same god..." The letter further states that "God is in everything and is everything, and you also are God." Besides that, "Cosmerism teaches that if one recognizes the truth that God, which is the Lord Cosmer, is everything, he also recognizes that spirituality or God Consciousness is the basis of the understanding of life," (p. 1).

Cosmerism is led by an individual called the Shen Terra or good spirit of the Earth and is elected by the membership. The present Shen Terra is James Carling, alias Shen Terra Joseph Too, a rock musician in Sarasota, Florida. Their teachings are based on a number of sacred books with the main one being the Book of Cosmer.

For those who have studied the New Age, it is quite obvious that Cosmerism is no different than other New Age groups, philosophically. The only difference is in the name. As with all New Age groups, the basis of Cosmerism is the belief that all that is, is one (monism) and the belief that all is god (pantheism) which leads to the logical conclusion that man himself is god!! Unfortunately, these bizarre teachings are quite popular today and many people are getting involved in the New Age movement.

However, this shouldn't surprise God's people for in II Timothy 4:3-4, Paul told Timothy that "The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."