Unarius Academy of Science



The Unarius Academy of Science is a New Age religious movement. Its headquarters are conveniently located behind the Salvation Army thrift store in downtown El Cajon, California. It is some wacky cocktail of theosophist ideas, New Age philosophy, ufology, and Star Trek. The one thing that the Academy does not, in fact, teach is science.

In the beginning
The movement got its start in 1956, when a man named Ernest L. Norman published a series of books detailing his clairvoyant trips to the planets Venus and Mars. After proclaiming that Chinese people were descendants of the Martians, Norman (1904-71) — aka, "Raphael", "Archangel Raphael" and/or "The Moderator" — and his wife Ruth (1900-93) — aka, "Uriel" or "Archangel Uriel" — began focusing on their budding cult. After Ernest died, Ruth started appearing in videos wearing outfits that even Louis XIV would consider decadent. They also purchased some land in southern California, where they believe that aliens (or "space brothers") will come and invite Earth into some mystical federation and solve all our problems.

Schism
According to Wikipedia, Unarius had a schism after Norman's death. There are the hardliners who only accept what he taught in life, and those who accept "revelations" that occurred afterwards. So even tiny cults can have their Catholic vs. Protestant and Sunni vs. Shia divisions.

Possible meaning of "Unarius"
The opening credits of their video The Arrival shows that "Unarius" may be an acronym for UNiversal ARticulate Interdimensional Understanding of Science. Whether they came up with that at the beginning of their little group or later on is anybody's guess.

It could be worse
Even if the Unarius Academy is a bit out there, they are still better than some alternatives. They don't sue at the drop of a hat, they aren't going to kill themselves to hitch a ride on a comet, they won't clone humans, and they certainly won't have a shoot out with the government. In short, they just add to America's religious diversity; we should all be thankful (to God, the gods, the Dharma, the "space brothers" etc.) for the First Amendment.