[b:54f0e69d23]Reinventing the South Pacific by Ron Hall [/b:54f0e69d23]
Published December 2003
The story began late in 2002, when the resort was approached by an
organization in northern California that purportedly specialized in
organizing painting vacations. It wanted to rent the whole resort for an
entire year. An advance party arrived, and Samoan television cameras
turned up to film the artists at work, but it soon became clear that painting
was not their primary activity.
The true nature of the group began to emerge only when one member, Duane
Reed, broke away and spilled the beans to a local newspaper. He identified
the leader of the group as an apparently wealthy German woman named
Gabrielle, who claims she is divine, and, according to Reed, is "the highest
source of God on the planet...an immortal being from Atlantis and Lemuria
who has the capabilities of building pyramids and turning people into God."
The discovery of a verbose Web site dedicated to the theology of the Maha
Devi Ascension Movement made it abundantly clear that the innocent little
resort of Sinalei had, in effect, been hijacked by a religious cult of the most
outrageous pretension.
Sadly for the owners of the resort, it was not until January that the cult's
last stragglers left, by which time most of the resort's regular clientele had
disappeared. The Sinalei finally resumed normal operations this September.
[
www.concierge.com]
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[b:54f0e69d23]Group rumoured to be a cult leaves Samoa[/b:54f0e69d23]
Posted at 20:22 on 14 January, 2003 UTC
A group living at a resort in Samoa, and which became embroiled in
controversy after claims it was a religious cult, is reported to have left the
country.
The group was supposed to have leased the Sinalei resort for 12 months but
the Samoa Observer says it had gone after six months.
The owner of the hotel, Folasaitu Joe Annandale, has declined to give an
explanation for the group's early departure.
The group had gone to the resort seeking an "atmosphere ideal for
creativity" but a group member who left early claimed in a newspaper
interview last month that their practices were questionable.
Duane Reed said they were part of a cult called the Maha Devi Ascension
Movement.
The claims had been denied by the group, the resort management and the
Samoa Government.
The Government revealed that an Interpol check cleared the group's
identity and showed they were artists as claimed.