"Fake" religion as a business may have a fanciful sound, but there are
plenty of men, and women, too, in this day and age who have found it
to be an extremely practical, well-paying proposition. The readiness
with which a good share of the people are always anxious to receive
any new religion, or an old religion revamped in new fashion, makes
the road of the charlatan whose trade is the promulgation of a fake
religion one strewn with roses and money. Women are principally his
victims, although there are plenty of men with a penchant for adopting
strange religions, and from them the faker manages to reap a harvest
that makes the pay of the average minister look like the earnings of
an office boy. While the manner of securing money through the cloak of
a false new sect is generally so hidden that the votaries of the cult
are never aware of its existence until after their leader is exposed,
the main object is never lost sight of by the leader, and the main
object is always, "Get the money."
Out of the great mass of religions or NEW THOUGHT sects started each
year in this country, it is declared that but extremely few are
started with any idea other than that of separating a lot of people
from their money. Occasionally there is a man who sincerely believes
that he has discovered something new and precious in the way of a
religion, and establishes a cult with the motive only to help people
according to his own lights. But the mass of the new religions, sun
worshipers, psychists, Brahmins, Hindus, theosophists, mystics, etc.,
are promoted with the same object in view as that of the old negro
voodoo doctors--get the money.