The story of Pana-Wave

[cdev]

Curious if anybody here has ever heard of "Panawave Laboratory" or more commonly, just "Pana Wave" a Japanese fringe group, probably best known for their predictions of impending cataclysm, attempts to save a wayward seal, and especially,  their media circus around their EMF phobia and a procession of white colored vans which became a news item in Japan in the 1990s. Then they faded from view. This is the story I am reminded of when ever I hear the phrase "tinfoil hats"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pana_Wave

The same world that seems to consistently create one "hype wave" story after another is the world that created Pana Wave. Is it really that surprising?

A similar story with a very scary ending was the story of Aum Shinrikyo, the Japanese cult best known for manufacturing sarin and unleashing it on Japanese subway riders. A really good book on the phenomena is "Destroying the World to Save it" by cult expert Robert Jay Lifton who has also written a number of other very good books on other cults.

Its hard to describe their story in just a few words, its a book I found to be very interesting and quite scary. A good example of what can happen when people lose their moral compass.

They were trying to obtain a nuclear bomb and were attempting to buy a mine to obtain nuclear materials, in Australia.

Its unclear how far they got with these efforts.

Here we have two similar doomsday cults, one largely harmless, the other, terrifying.

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"They first attracted attention in March 2003, when they attempted (and failed) to capture Tama-chan, an Arctic seal which had become a national celebrity in Japan since showing up in Tama River in Tokyo the previous year. The group believed that the seal had been led astray by electromagnetic waves, and claimed that doomsday would somehow be averted if the seal was returned to Arctic waters. They had even built two swimming pools, lined in white, in a compound in Yamanashi Prefecture in which to hold the seal until it could be transferred to the Arctic.

The group made national headlines in April when the convoy was ordered by police to move on from a road in Gifu Prefecture and refused, resulting in a stand-off which was reported in the national media. Pana-Wave alleged that a close encounter with an undiscovered 10th planet, predicted for 15 May that year, would cause the Earth's poles to flip over and lead to catastrophic earthquakes and tsunamis which would destroy most of humankind, and that they were looking for a safe location to ride out the catastrophe. TV images showed members dressed completely in white, complete with white hoods, surgical masks and white boots. Their vehicles were decorated with swirl patterns which they believed neutralised the invisible waves, and even the steering wheel was covered in white plaster. Nearby trees, bushes and crash barriers were also covered in white fabric. TV crews were first shunned by members who feared that TV cameras were emitting harmful waves, but were later allowed closer as long as they covered themselves and their equipment in white material. "


The group's activities remind me a bit of cargo-cultism, which is also something that I find kind of interesting.

This is the abstract of a (paywalled?) paper I wasn't able to download about them. It may just be my browser cookie and security settings, however

"This paper documents the rise and fall of a Japanese new religious movement known as the Pana-Wave Laboratory. Founded in 1977 by Chino Yūko, the Pana-Wave Laboratory was an eclectic form of spiritualism that adopted doctrines from the several religious traditions, as well as a host of pseudo-scientific conjectures about physics, environmental warfare and space exploration.

Led by the aging Chino, a reclusive woman that rarely left the confines of her Toyota van, the Pana-Wave Laboratory established a compound for its religious and scientific practices atop Gotaishi Mountains in central Japan. Believing to have the ability to channel celestial figures and a special knowledge of a communist conspiracy to have her assassinated through electromagnetic weaponry, Chino depended entirely upon the assistance of some forty members of the Pana-Wave Laboratory for her survival.

Through their view of the scientific process, Pana-Wave Laboratory members adopted images of themselves as “scientists,” taking on actual roles that contributed to their appearance and occupations as laboratory researchers.  Members constructed of a full-fledged laboratory, complete with instruments and data recording devices to manage their research agenda.  They then began to fashion white laboratory coats, engage in “scientific debates,” and profess their findings in their own “peer-reviewed journal.” In a dramaturgical sense, these Pana-Wave Laboratory members used the principles of scientific reasoning and props from a host of laboratory settings to create and re-create their images, while fortifying the legitimacy of the religious claims.

Using a combination of Ulrich Beck’s “Risk Society” thesis, this paper explores one group’s experiment with creating a science and the consequences of doing so in the full purview of the Japanese media. Ultimately, I demonstrate the pervasive consequences of a religious community bound up in fear of human-manufactured risk, as well as the response of its members in averting their own demise."

[ebastler]

Hmm, I do have some hobbies which can't claim to pursue any productive interest. But studying a cult which was pointless from the beginning, and has apparently faded away 15 years ago, even before the guru/founder died in 2006? I'm afraid I don't share your fascination...

[GreyWoolfe]

Hmm, I do have some hobbies which can't claim to pursue any productive interest.

Funny you say that.  Mrs GreyWoolfe says that about my ham radio hobby.

[cdev]

PanaWave isn't a good example of a cult at all. They are totally harmless and the reasons they are interesting to me are basically sociological.

Hmm, I do have some hobbies which can't claim to pursue any productive interest. But studying a cult which was pointless from the beginning, and has apparently faded away 15 years ago, even before the guru/founder died in 2006? I'm afraid I don't share your fascination...

Cults manipulate people. Not just like manipulative people do.

The more we understand what they do and how they do it the more resistant we are to falling for it.

[calexanian]

I thought this was the history of the PanaVise!

[cdev]

The Pana-Wave story is actually kind of entertaining. I've always thought so, anyway.

[TerraHertz]

It is interesting, because it's another example of a serious societal problem. Which is that education fails to convey an understanding of the difference between scientific thought/process, and the belief-based memetic mind-poisons of cult-like structures. Including religions, economic-social schemes like Marxist-Leftist theory, social media fads, and everything else involving more peer-opinion-osmosis than rational thought.  Capitalism and fiat based, fractional-reserve central banking are similar things too by the way.

The fading of rationality and verifiable knowledge compared to 'group acceptance of bullshit' is the greatest long term hazard our technological civilization faces. You simply can't maintain a complex industrial society, when the majority of people are acting like bizarre cult members, and can't tell truth from fiction. Also, once you can get someone to accept provably false beliefs about practical matters (like that there exactly two gene-based genders), it won't take much more to get them to accept completely insane, immoral and murderous views too. This is how senseless wars, pogroms and genocides happen.