False
revival movement.
The false revival movement arguably originated (recently, at least) with Rodney
Howard-Browne, and most recently was seen with Todd
Bentley in Lakeland, Florida. Also (or parts thereof) known as Holy
Laughter Movement, Toronto Blessing or Toronto Movement, Pensacola Outpouring
and drunken revival movement. Matthew 24:24
says "For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great
signs and miracles to deceive even the elect - if that were possible."
And 1 John 4:1 says "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but
test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets
have gone out into the world." Matthew 7:15-23 is another strong warning:
“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s
clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize
them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise
every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree
cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that
does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their
fruit you will recognize them.
"Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father
who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we
not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many
miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away
from me, you evildoers!’ "
Falun Gong/Falun Dafa.New Age group involving meditation.
Founded by Li Hongzhi in China, where according
to this
NZ Herald article it has been banned since 1999. The group
came to world media attention in that year due to Chinese practitioners
being brutalised by the government, who called it dangerous and subversive.
Still small in New Zealand, but supposed to have up to 70 million practitioners
in China, making it (according to practitioners) larger than the Communist
Party, and hence the reason (practitioners claim) for the persecution.
Falun Gong has two main texts, Falun
Gong and Zhuan Falun.
Family Federation (for World Peace (and Unification)).
A front group for the dangerous Moonie mind
control cult. They pay for a show (Family Federation Report) on Auckland's
Triangle TV.
Family Party, The. A political party
formed for the 2008 general election from members of the disbanded Destiny
NZ (political party). Former leader of Destiny NZ Richard
Lewis is leader, and Paul Adams, a former United Future MP is deputy
leader. The party only got 0.35% of the nationwide vote and failed to
get any seats, and has been quiet (inactive?) since the election.
Family Systems Research Group.
Commonly abbreviated as FSRG. This is the name that the cult Gentle Wind
Project now operates under. See Gentle Wind Project
for more information.
FANZA.
Freezone Association of Australia & New Zealand. A breakaway group
from Scientology, which feels that "since
the death of the founder of the movement, the Church of Scientology has
strayed from the original philosophy and purpose of the group."
Believed to be very small in New Zealand, it is led by Leon (Leo) Swart,
who left Scientology in 1983. He writes:
Back in 1982/83 there was a worldwide schism in the Church
of Scientology. A new leadership (headed by David Miscavidge) forceably
took control of the C of S. Many people who did not like the direction
it was then taking broke away from the C of S and were promptly expelled
and declared to be "Suppressive Persons".
However, many of these still followed the tenets and practices
of Scientology very closely (in its original form) and organized themselves
into a loose world-wide fellowship generally called the "Freezone".
We continue to practice the applied religious philosophy
that is Scientology, disregarding the rantings of the "offical"
Church of Scientology.
In New Zealand the Freezone has its main advocate in myself
(living in Hamilton) and we have supporters all over the place.
Feldenkrais Method, The.
In effect a subset of Somatic Education, it
is marketed in New Zealand under such names as Move To Improve. Basic
idea seems to be that much body pain and physical restrictions (lack of
movement) aren't caused by old age but by learned habits and repetitive
poor use of the body. OK so far. However the Feldenkrais Method, like
many other alternative physical therapies, claims that by its application
all sorts of things can be fixed, stress reduced, etc. There is no credible
research evidence to substantiate such claims, and so is considered an
alternative treatment. Although it is included in a prominant NZ online
New Age resource listing, it is not believed to be particularly New
Age itself, but some of its practitioners do have strong links to
the New Age. C G Maher (School of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Health Sciences,
The University of Sydney, NSW, Australia) had this to say in Effective
Physical Treatment of Chronic Lower Back Pain (2004):
Physical treatments, such as acupuncture, backschool,
hydrotherapy, lumbar supports, magnets, TENS, traction, ultrasound, Pilates
therapy, Feldenkrais therapy, Alexander technique, and craniosacral therapy
are either of unknown value or ineffective and so should not be considered.
Felkin, (Dr) Robert William. Dr Robert
William Felkin founded Whare Ra.
Ferriss, Mike.
Mike Ferriss is the head PR person of the Scientology
cult in New Zealand, with the official title of "Secretary".
He has been a Scientologist for about 24 years and a Scientology employee
for about 19 years (as of 2005). We have reason to believe that in that
time Mr Ferriss has gained a good working knowledge of tresspass laws.
He claims to have completed at least some of the higher levels, including
OTIII. However, he also categorically denies knowing anything about Xenu.
OTIII clearly explains who Xenu is - see the Xenu
listing for a good summary. Because of this, the New Zealand Cult List
believes Mr Ferriss is lying about one of these claims (either about having
completed OTIII or not knowing about Xenu). In his ongoing attempts to
censor this information, Mike Ferriss has tried one of the standard $cientology
tactic$ - accusing the editor of hiding something. (Mr Ferriss is "damn
sure of it", too!)
It seems Mr Ferriss is either very paranoid or is just not very subtle
when using his 24 years of Scientology training. (Mind you, 24 years of
Scientology training could make anyone paranoid. People have allegedly
killed
themselves after far fewer years in Scientology. And, sadly, been
killed
by Scientology.) The question must be raised - why is Mike
Ferriss hiding his knowledge of Xenu? All the information has been public
for years. Is there any point to it apart from trying to get more money
out of the ignorant?
Mr Ferriss' current activities (October 2005) include trying to shut
down the satirical ScienTOMogy
site. Ironically, this activity has directly resulted in our own site
getting record numbers of visitors.
Ficino School.
A school for primary and intermediate aged children started in 1997 by
the New Age cult School
of Philosophy. It claims to provide a "spiritually based"
education and gives lip service to Christianity, but sadly the non-academic
teaching primarily comes from the Hindu-based teachings of the School
of Philosophy. According to their web site, "Sanscrit [sic]
is taught from an early age ... and [has] a rich culture behind it."
What that doesn't make clear is that the "rich culture" is the
School of Philosophy's Vedic (Hindu) scriptures, which are in Sanskrit.
The school's name comes from Renaissance translator and astrologer Marsilio
Ficino, although the Ficino School prefers to call him a philosopher.
The Danger rating is partly because of the deception regarding
their links and teachings, and partly because of the danger posed by the
School of Philosophy's teachings.
Foundation for Self Knowledge Inc.New Age, Hindu-based
group based in Hillsborough, Auckland. Runs lecture series, meditation
classes, spiritual camps. Main spokesperson/teacher is Ananya
Chaitanya.
Foundation of Spiritualist Mediums.Occult group in Auckland.
Freemasons.
Cult - of sorts. Also known as the Masonic Lodge, sometimes called the
Masons. Highly secretive male-only group (whose secrets are widely distributed
on the Internet). Christianity and Freemasonry are not compatible.
There are two main branches or denominations - the York Rite (which has
10 degrees, or levels) and the Scottish Rite (which has 33 degrees). Most
members never go beyond the first few levels (known as the Blue Lodge),
and may not even know there are so many levels. See the FreemasonryCloseup or Jubilee
Ministries for more information. Submissions for this listing are
now being accepted. Please see the Contact page.
Friends United Meeting.
Christian sect/denomination. A denomination of Evangelical
Friends - one of the three main Religious
Society of Friends (Quaker) branches - that claims about 50% of Quakers
worldwide, and is apparently one of the few Quaker denominations to belong
to the Word Council of Churches. (Strangely, the Conservative
Friends Quaker branch claims FUM has 80%-90% of all Quakers.) Unknown
if any members are in New Zealand, where most Quakers are in the Liberal
Friends branch. The statement by the Friends United Meeting includes
the beliefs in: true religion as a personal encounter with God, rather
than ritual and ceremony; individual worth before God; worship as an act
of seeking; the virtues of moral purity, integrity, honesty, simplicity
and humility; Christian love and goodness; concern for the suffering and
unfortunate; continuing revelation through the Holy Spirit.
Fuelmate.
Scam, only good for extracting money from the wallets of the gullible.
It's a competing product to Fuelstar.
Fuelstar.
Scam, only good for extracting money from the wallets of the gullible. Fuelstar
is a company run by Ian Cornelius that makes a tin-based "fuel combustion
catalyst" that will give a guaranteed 12% fuel saving. It does not work.
Even the best of their test reports only show that engines are more efficient
when maintained well, such as the test by the dodgy California Environment Engineering
(which has given apparently favourable results for many bogus fuel-saving products,
but tries to gloss over the vehicle maintenance done at the same time as the
device is installed). The only reason Fuelstar is not given a Danger
rating is because it probably won't do you any physical harm. Although
the various tin compounds likely produced by combustion are toxic the concentration
is probably too low to be detected or significant compared to all the other
toxic chemicals in vehicle exhaust anyway. A competing version available in
Australia and New Zealand is called Fuelmate.
There are a few general ways that you can easily tell that Fuelstar, Fuelmate
and other similar products are scams:
No scientific explanation - no reason is given (or exists) for how
it works.
Pseudoscience explanations - little or no genuine scientific support
for the apparently scientific claims that are made. Examples are dodgy
tests and scientific-sounding gobbledygook. (Note that pseudoscience gobbledygook
can be hard to recognise for those without a scientific background.)
Defies good science - there are often easy to find scientific reasons
why it doesn't work. For example:
Too little active ingredient consumed (for Fuelstar, tin is the
active ingredient) to have a chemically significant effect.
Defies common sense - there are often easy to find common sense reasons
why it won't work as well as claimed. For example:
Too good to be true - claims to work well or equally well on
any engine size or type, whether petrol, diesel, or LPG, in any application
(eg, large diesel truck or small petrol generator).
Not used by those who would gain the most if it were true - the
product claims benefits that industry would snap up if the benefits were
real. (No car manufacturer includes a tin catalyst in their vehicle fuel
lines.)
Excessive cost - retail cost completely disproportionate to the cost
of materials (in the case of Fuelstar there's perhaps $2.70 to $5.40 of tin
in them but they sell for hundreds of dollars).
Some of these points are investigated in this Fuelstar
Scam article.
Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International.
Their mission statement: "To reach men in all nations for Jesus
Christ. To call men back to God. To help believers to be baptized in the
Holy Spirit and to grow spiritually. To train and equip men to fulfill
the Great Commission. To provide an opportunity for Christian fellowship.
To bring greater unity among all people in the body of Christ."
Started in California in 1951 as Full Gospel Men's Voice. Apparently at
one point they publicly endorsed the false prophet William
Branham. Now operates in 132 countries. They have an international
website which may not work very well with some browsers.
Full Gospel Mission Fellowship.
Cult, now disbanded. Nicknamed God's Squad, based at Camp
David near Christchurch, finally wound up in 2002. They made a name
for themselves in the 1970s when it was discovered they were stockpiling
guns and ammunition. Led by Douglas Metcalf
(died in 1989) who members believed was Jesus Christ.
The false revival movement arguably originated (recently, at least) with Rodney
Howard-Browne, and most recently was seen with 
Scam, only good for extracting money from the wallets of the gullible.
It's a competing product to 
Their mission statement: "To reach men in all nations for Jesus
Christ. To call men back to God. To help believers to be baptized in the
Holy Spirit and to grow spiritually. To train and equip men to fulfill
the Great Commission. To provide an opportunity for Christian fellowship.
To bring greater unity among all people in the body of Christ."
Started in California in 1951 as Full Gospel Men's Voice. Apparently at
one point they publicly endorsed the false prophet 