© Christopher Hoffman/Chicago Tribune/MCTPhilip Livingston, pictured in this 2007 photo, testified in a Kane County, Illinois case that he repeatedly performed a naked ritual claiming it helped cure everything from drug addictions to yeast infections.
In a small house overlooking a lake in Wauconda, Ill., a minister directed his female followers to go into a back room and take off their clothes.
In one-on-one sessions, he got naked, touched their bodies and told them to touch his.
He called them prayer sessions.
What allegedly happened in that room over a series of months would spur a criminal probe in one county, spark civil litigation in two others, and reopen the age-old debate on what's a cult.
Calling it "light therapy," the minister, Philip Livingston, testified in a Kane County case that he repeatedly performed the naked ritual - claiming it helped cure everything from drug addictions to yeast infections. He said it was done only with consenting adults who were members of his donor-funded Light of the World Ministries. But one participant testified that a teenage girl was involved too.
The case offers a window not only into the evolution of a fringe church, but also the struggles of authorities to know when such a group warrants their attention.
Livingston's supporters have maintained he's an earnest, albeit unconventional minister who has done no wrong. But a Kane County judge this summer ordered that three children be kept away from Livingston and his church. That was after police in Wauconda, where Livingston's church is now based, launched a criminal investigation.
Since then, a Cook County judge has ordered Livingston, his wife and his top assistant to stay away from the one-time follower whose allegations of child endangerment sparked the latest legal rounds.
Comment: Perhaps if the Toulouse police read this article they'd have a basis for understanding what constitutes 'cultic abuse'. There is no comparison between this predator's 'naked light therapy', designed to manipulate and control people seeking spiritual guidance, and our
Éiriú Eolas program, a scientifically-supported series of breathing and meditative techniques which relieves stress and
heals people from the actions of cultic abusers like Philip Livingston.
Comment: Perhaps if the Toulouse police read this article they'd have a basis for understanding what constitutes 'cultic abuse'. There is no comparison between this predator's 'naked light therapy', designed to manipulate and control people seeking spiritual guidance, and our Éiriú Eolas program, a scientifically-supported series of breathing and meditative techniques which relieves stress and heals people from the actions of cultic abusers like Philip Livingston.