Ryuho Okawa, the head of the Japanese religious organization “Happy Science” who claimed to be the reincarnation of an alien god named “El Cantare,” died this week, multiple Japanese news outlets confirmed.
The details surrounding Okawa’s death, including cause of death and date, remain a mystery. The Happy Science organization has not independently confirmed the news at press time. Japan’s newspaper of record Asahi Shinbun cited “sources close to the man” in its report on his death.
At the time of his reported death, Okawa’s Happy Science boasted thousands of followers in Japan and at least ten branches in America, including in New York, New Jersey, Hawaii, and Florida.
It established its own political party in Japan, the Happiness Realization Party, and frequently commented on and attempted to intervene in American politics. While the Happiness Realization Party has had only minimal electoral success in Japan, Happy Science is prominently represented in the Japanese Conservative Union, as its chairman, Jay Aeba, is reportedly a member.
Okawa was a prominent Japanese celebrity, difficult to miss in shimmering robes, golden brooches, and delivering addresses before ornate metallic backgrounds. His group often weighed in on current events and directed followers towards partisan stances. Most notoriously in recent memory, the group claimed to offer “spiritual” vaccines against Chinese coronavirus.
Okawa also published musical compositions for sale that the group claimed could “repel viruses, illnesses, and other negative spiritual vibrations.”
Okawa’s primary form of doing so was in the publication of books transcribing “interviews” with the “guardian spirits” of various high-profile American political figures, including the past two presidents, Joe Biden and Donald Trump. As of 2022, the Happy Science group claimed that Okawa had written upwards of 3,000 books, though many of them presented as raw transcripts of “interviews” with “guardian spirits,” rather than conventional prose. His last book, The Laws of Hell, is scheduled for release in May.
Okawa founded “Happy Science” in 1986, leaving behind a career in the finance industry. According to the group’s official page, Okawa is “the reincarnation of the highly revered Shakyamuni Buddha.” Buddha, in turn, was a manifestation of El Cantare.
“In the Old Testament, El Cantare is known as Elohim, and he also represents the ancient legend of ‘The Tree of Life.’ All religions originally come from one source – El Cantare, the being that designed this world with love,” Happy Science’s page explains. “A part of El Cantare resides within Master Okawa, and is guiding humanity to create a world of harmony and prosperity.”
The Happy Science group, widely considered a cult, was largely favorable to Trump, as Okawa’s guardian spirit interview allegedly revealed that Trump was the reincarnation of George Washington sent to earth to restore the supremacy of America on earth. Happy Science members marched on the streets of Tokyo against Biden’s inauguration in early 2021.
A second clip of more #StopTheSteaI protesters in this march. They are chanting anti CCP and anti media slogans in Japanese and English. pic.twitter.com/Qpz0O5eSas
— Jeffrey J. Hall 🇵🇺🇸 (@mrjeffu) January 6, 2021
In 2016, Okawa declared that the “guardian spirit” of Trump had told him that “he was the first president of the United States, George Washington. He said so. It means he will rebuild this America again.”
Okawa also claimed to have interviewed the guardian spirit of current President Joe Biden, who he described as “a great ordinary person” in the introduction to his book transcribing that alleged “interview.”
“Is there such a shortage of capable people there that they could only choose someone of the fifth dimension – the World of Goodness – as their president?,” Okawa lamented. “The strongest country in the world has set sail upon a mud boat for the next age. The fall of the nation is coming in the name of ‘strategic patience.'”
Okawa claimed that Biden’s “guardian spirit” had been a police officer in the “Old West” in a prior life. The guardian spirit allegedly berated Okawa and his assistant for having a poor work ethic during their “interview.” Happy Science portrayed Biden’s alleged guardian spirit as confused and tortured, repeatedly wishing Trump dead.
Okawa’s son, Hiroshi, condemned the Happy Science organization as a cult and revealed that he had defected after being groomed as Okawa’s successor in an interview last year. Speaking to the American outlet The World, Hiroshi Okawa claimed that his father did not believe any of his teachings and his “spiritual interviews,” which allegedly required him to go into a trance to meet with ghosts, were lucrative performance art. Hiroshi had formerly claimed his father made $45 million a year on running Happy Science. Hiroshi Okawa alleged that he was trained in how to perform the alleged exchanges.
Happy Science denounced Hiroshi and successfully sued him for libel last year after he published multiple videos denouncing the group on Youtube.
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