The unification church, as they call themselves is considered to be a cult. The leader, Reverend Moon, claims to be the new messiah.
I spent a month with them up in the hills of Northern California back in the seventies. Daily seminars and group discussions and sing-alongs. During the group discussions, a circle of recruits sitting on the ground with a group leader, we were expected to talk about what inspired us that day. If you wanted to test the anger of the group leader, you could maybe say that nothing inspired you. The whole idea was to be inspired...in a group. A subtle chipping away of your individuality.
Even during lunch...and this drove me nuts...you were supposed to break off a piece of your sandwich and give it to someone else in the circle....and someone would give you a piece of theirs. Again, a subtle chipping away of your individuality. I just wanted to eat....not play with my food.
Anyhow, there's lots more....but in the end, when they think they've got you, you move into a special priveledged group and find yourself in this room where you are told to sit with your eyes closed..as they tell you a story about Moon meeting Jesus in the wilderness...and Jesus telling how he didn't finish his work because we murdered him...and that it is up to Moon to finish where JC left off. Very touching. The girls in the front row wept. This is where it all comes to a climax...in this room. You either believe or you don't. And if you don't, you'd better fake it, or you are now suspect. An outcast.
The weather was real nice up in those hills...and there was a *girl with a flower in her hair....and ravens floating in the blue afternoon sky above.