CultNEWS101 Articles: 3/4/2026
Patrick Ryan
"It all began with “Cookie the Kookaburra.”
That’s the mascot that the Australian charity Rapid Relief Team (RRT) calls its “global ambassador.”
Canadian sexual abuse survivor Cheryl Bawtinheimer used the character in her “Get a Life” video podcast in a series critical of RRT. The Australian charity, which is tied to the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, has filed a copyright lawsuit against Bawtinheimer in U.S. federal court.
RRT claims Bawtinheimer, a resident of Red Deer, Alberta, used the mascot unlawfully and without permission.
Bawtinheimer says the lawsuit is an effort to silence her and other abuse survivors. “From where I stand, it has all the hallmarks of a SLAPP-style action,” she said."
"A longtime Maharishi leader who spent more than three decades in Iowa is dead.
Bevan Morris was a prominent figure in Maharishi’s worldwide Transcendental Meditation organization for more than 50 years, beginning his journey as a teacher in 1969 and later becoming the president of Maharishi International University in Fairfield.
Morris died on Thursday, Feb. 26, at the age of 76 in Fairfield. He spent the last few years living at the Transcendental Meditation headquarters in Holland.
Maharishi International University was founded in 1971 by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who also introduced transcendental meditation. Morris met Yogi four years prior, in 1967, in his native Australia, where he learned about the meditation technique, according to an undated tribute post from the university."
"In the new podcast former sect members reflect on end times, warnings of ‘astral larvae’ lurking in nightclubs and being in thrall to charismatic leaders – and the embarrassment and shame they feel now.
Dave Mullins can’t quite believe he devoted 10 years of his life to a lie.
Idealistic and open-minded, he was 19 when he saw an advertisement for a free workshop on out-of-body experiences in Sydney. There he met a captivating, charismatic teacher who was thought to be able to read minds.
As a leader in gnosticism, the man believed thoughts and feelings smothered true consciousness and, as such, were sinful. His followers were prohibited from taking drugs and drinking – nightclubs were full of “astral larvae” that poisoned spiritual development – or from reaching orgasm during sex.
Before long, Mullins was all in. Every waking moment he monitored his thoughts and urges, trying to destroy his sin. By night he meditated and, wearing a cloak, embarked on rituals and attempts at group astral projection. Lying together, 10 to 15 core followers would intentionally cycle in and out of sleep with the hope of entering higher dimensions and connecting with eternal beings.
When the “master” announced that a massive wave was going to destroy Sydney, the entire group moved to Melbourne. Later, followers laboured on a new meditation centre, only to be told, when the building was finished, that they had done a poor job – so the building would be used not as a community space but as a home for the master and his wife.
Mullins became accustomed to being racked by guilt and self-criticism, set against a backdrop of urgency: these were end times and this was their last shot at redemption. On occasions, he remembers feeling almost supernatural.
'I went through some pretty weird stuff,” Mullins, who went on to move to Canada with his wife and baby to establish the sect in Toronto, says from his home in Sydney. “Now that I’m saying it out loud, I’m like, ‘What is wrong with me? How did I believe that?’”"
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