The Process Church of The Final Judgement started its operations in the 60’s, an odd cult which has been viewed as Satanic and has created much speculation – including that the Manson Family took some of their philosophical ideas from the Process Church (as it is better known by non-Processeans). The church started with Robert De Grimstone and Mary Anne – they splintered from Scientology to found their own church.
They moved to Xtul in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, where Robert began to have contact with three entities: Jehovah, Lucifer and Satan, the Three Great Gods of the Universe. De Grimstone formulated Processean theology from these encounters (enhanced by psychedelic drugs, of course, as Timothy Willie affirmed in an interview).
What called my attention to them in the first place was the subversion of three Judeo-Christian archetypes, and no doubt that’s the reason they gained so much notoriety in their time. In this they created a genuine gnostic philosophy in the Process Church; the Three Great Gods represented universal forces, but also spiritual currents in the human soul – each person was ruled by one of this currents, be it Luciferian, Satanic or Jehovian – but what did this mean? Let’s take a look to each of the Great Gods:
Representations of the Great Gods and the Grey Forces from the Sex Issue:
Satan from the Sex Issue Jehovah from the Sex Issue
Grey Forces from the Sex Issue Lucifer from the Sex Issue
The goal of the Process Church was to wake up humanity before this Apocalypse came to pass, as to them the majority of humankind was deeply lost in what they called the Grey Forces – the forces of conformism and mediocrity. According to Process theology, the Grey Forces were the people too soft and lazy to choose one god as their path; too afraid to let them gorge in the darkness and mystery of Satan, too lazy to take the required discipline and will of Jehovah, too hypocritical to lose themselves in Lucifer’s passion and sensuality.
As I said before, their peculiar theology attracted all kind of attention to them. It is said Mick Jagger was part of the Process Church at some point, and rumors existed that Charles Manson borrowed some part of his ideas from them. The Process Church even sent representatives to see if Manson indeed took ideas from them, and from this encounter he contributed to one article to their famous magazine about Death.
Robert De Grimstone was expelled from the Process Church in 1974 and all his later attempts to recreate it were met with failure. The original church was transformed in something more orthodox Christian, and all references to Satan and Lucifer were erased from it. Today they’re an animal care organization – how did they come to this? It is unknown to me.
Obviously, the Process Church has created a huge fascination in culture, specially among artists, bands and people interested in the bizarre and the occult. Examples of these influence are:
