Dr. John W. Hopkins: Mentioned in lofty academic publications of sociological and historic natures

Dr. John W. Hopkins: Mentioned in lofty academic publications of sociological and historic natures

"Occult milieu" was a concept used to describe the atmosphere of Williams College by John Lofland, a sociologist who in 1966 published an account of a "cult", in his book titled "The Doomsday Cult: A Study of Conversion, Proselytization, and Maintenance of Faith" (Prentice Hall, 1966). In that treatise, Lofland partly traced the early history of the Unification Church in the Bay Area and his path of inquiry led directly to the grounds of Williams College and Dr. John W. Hopkins himself c. 1961.

By way of explanation, the Unification Church was nearly unknown to any but their followers at the time of Lofland's publication, and only beginning in the early '70s with their growing financial success and swelling membership did the organization gain wider public notoriety as Rev. Moon's church, the followers being popularly designated as Moonies. The concept of "Doomsday Cult" was popularized by Lofland, who had familiarity with the East Bay geography as a teaching assistant and pre-doctoral fellow at UC Berkeley in the early '60s. (Lofland eventually was recalled to teaching and served as Professor Emeritus at UC Davis).

Lofland chose to veil "Williams College" by the pseudonym "Amhurst College" in his work for reasons of his own. Although any scholar familiar with the history of Amherst College (in Massachusetts) would catch on to the association as Amherst College was founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College (also in Massachusetts), and would also be aware that those colleges though established on similar tenets since that cleavage separated further and developed rivalries one with the other. Additionally, Lofland disguised Cora Williams as "Cora Amhurst". Educated people of the Bay Area of the time familiar with the local lore of the John Hopkins Spring Estate would have easily seen through this slight literary fabrication. Through his use of pseudonym, I assume that Lofland actively chose to separate Williams College, Berkeley, from the Unification Church.

For others who have followed since, Lofland's "Amhurst College" pseudonym has been revealed by Michael L. Mickler in "A History Of The Unification Church In America, 1959–74 - Emergence of a National Movement" (Publisher HSA-UWC). In this work, Mickler utilizes Lofland's early phrase "Occult Milieu"* as an actual sub-heading title. I should also explain as Moon's church has since gone through another name change that HSA-UWC was the original name for what became known as the Unification Church, the acronymn means The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity.

This essentially is a side note to the activities of Williams College and Dr. John Hopkins, but as academic histories each of these scholarly works provide additional details now nearly lost to time.


* ("Although considerable research has been conducted on how people are recruited into cults, little or nothing is known about how they enter the occult milieu. However, persons may take up occult interests as a form of membership in a social network where such interests prevail. If so, then the occult can be characterized as a true subculture -- a distinctive set of cultural elements that flourish as the property of a distinctive social group. Or occult interests may reflect a much more superficial phenomenon. Participation in such interests could be more like being a member of a theater audience -- a transitory and relatively private amusement that is not supported by significant social relations. If the former is the case,then entry into the occult milieu is quite plausibly interpreted as a significant symptom of potential recruitment into a deviant religious group. If the latter, then consumption of occult teachings may be little more than a minor exercise in idiosyncratuc taste having little meaning for future religious actions." ("The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival, and Cult Formation", by Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge, University of California Press, 1986, p. 322)

In 1969, Dr. John W. Hopkins advised me that "Miss Kim" had come "from the Orient."

In 1969, Dr. John W. Hopkins advised me that "Miss Kim" had come "from the Orient."





Young Oon Kim joined a new church and accepted its divine principles after meeting Rev. Moon in a private residence in Seoul, Korea in 1954.


"Miss Kim was the first Unification Church missionary to America and she, more than anyone else, shaped the character of its earliest community. In this sense, a history of the Unification Church in America begins with her story. The story of the Unification Church and its beginnings in the San Francisco Bay Area is not that of a single missionary venturing thousands of miles from her home. It is rather the story of a community of believers* transplanting themselves from rural Oregon several hundreds of miles down the coast to the urban environment of the Bay Area. The nature of this community, its struggle to survive, and its attempt to spread its message is the content of this story.

(Visa Problems)
In March, 1961, the three month extension Miss Kim won in December was ready to expire again. By this time, though, she had met Dr. John W. Hopkins, President of Williams College in Berkeley. 25 He had arranged to have Miss Kim give several lectures in conjunction with the "School of Metaphysical Inquiry" there, and on hearing of her visa situation, wrote a letter to the Immigration Office explaining that Miss Kim was lecturing at his school and couldn't leave. In this way, the second crisis was averted, and Miss Kim's visa was extended until July 31, 1961.

Miss Kim was pressured by the same problem in July but solved it in a markedly different way; on the 10th, she was ordained at the Universal Church of the Master.

As she put it,
Dr. Hopkins had explained the advantages of ordination in forming a religious organization in America. I had never intended to be ordained, even though I had been offered the opportunity to become a Methodist minister in Korea and was fully qualified . . . I wanted to be, rather, a dedicated layman. It was now necessary, however, for our group to be legally recognized. 26

Dr. Hopkins knew the Archers, who were ministers in the Universal Church of the Master, and requested that Miss Kim be ordained. They, in turn, contacted Dr. Fitzgerald, President of the church. Out of respect for Dr. Hopkins, he agreed to consider Miss Kim. After prayer, the issue was resolved to the satisfaction of Rev. Archer, and Miss Kim was ordained. Her visa was thereby extended until the following March.

Because her stay in America involved the constant strain of securing temporary visas, Miss Kim decided in December, 1961 to investigate procuring a permanent visa. She consulted Drs. Hopkins and Fitzgerald in January and went to the Immigration Office with her lawyer to inquire what was necessary for a permanent visa application. Essentials included academic records, ordination papers, and the charter of the corporation for which she was ministering.

(Friends and Foes)
(The Occult Milieu)

Dr John W Hopkins. President of Williams College in Berkeley and himself an occult enthusiast, Dr. Hopkins offered Miss Kim not a dramatic prophecy but a chance to speak. The following announcement from his school's monthly flyer of March, 1961, well illustrates the openness of the occult milieu to new revelations:

Wednesday, March 15, at 8:00 p.m., a lecture by Young Oon Kim, B.A., B.Th., B.D., of Korea on: The Divine Principles. Miss Kim is a teacher of the New Age, giving principles from Divine revelation as taught and verified by her from a Master teacher (whom she will reveal in her lecture). She will give a history of her Master teacher and show his direct revelations pertaining to the end of this civilization or the last days of it and the ushering in its place of the New Age . . . Miss Kim shows further, as is explained also by her book, "The Divine Principles," how her teacher reveals the Divine schedule of Cosmic restoration including fallen mankind . . . The New Age will bring one world, one religion, one language, and other unities as well as perfect harmony of spirit and of body. 31

Spreading the Word
The next public talk attempted by the group was Miss Kim's March, 1961, speech at Williams College's School of Metaphysical Inquiry. Given wide notice in the school's March flyer, fifty-two people attended. As a result, it was arranged for Miss Kim to teach a regular class, and the school's April flyer announced her lectures.

Unfortunately, this effort repeated the pattern of the Lions Club. John Lofland reported:
Those interested had . . . apparently heard enough the first time. Not a single person appeared for Lee's [i.e., Kim's] first class, and the rest of them were canceled. 55

Among the most important friends of the Unification Church movement during this period in the Bay Area were the loose associations of those involved in what has been termed the occult milieu. Describing themselves, according to one account, as "students of metaphysics . . . seeking enlightenment in the higher spiritual realms," this subculture included a broad cross section of American people, though with a preponderance of middle-aged and older women. 29


For description of Williams College, see Lofland Doomsday Cult (Amhurst College), pg. 69

(Directly quoted from A History Of The Unification Church In America, 1959–74 - Emergence of a National Movement
By Michael L. Mickler
Chapter Two
To The Bay Area: 1960-63
The Community
(Visa Problems, Friends and Foes, The Occult Milieu, Spreading the Word)

From "The World Savers" to "Doomsday Cult"

Friends and Foes

A Ph.D. student in sociology at the University of California at Berkeley, John Lofland met Doris Walder at a UFO convention and after several preliminary contacts, decided to do his doctoral dissertation on the group. Having obtained permission from Miss Kim to move in, Lofland played a decisive, if puzzling and finally troublesome role in the community's development. As a participant observer from March, 1962, until January, 1963, when he was asked to leave, Lofland represented the movement's first encounter with a 'disinterested' academic investigator. The misunderstandings that accrued in this encounter were heated and difficult. Miss Kim asserted,

I rather naively thought that he would write a neutral history of our movement. But I saw more and more that he was not genuine and that his view was distorted. His sarcasm became more and more open and his derogatory conception of our work became more obvious. I told him finally, to move out and not come to our meetings. 46

(Quoted from A History Of The Unification Church In America,
1959-74 - Emergence of a National Movement, by Michael L Mickler, Chapter Two
To The Bay Area: 1960-63, Friends and Foes)

All I know of Lofland's tone is shown through his writings on Williams College and Dr. John Hopkins in the "Doomsday Cult":

Pg. 69 Late in February the group learned of Amhurst College, which had a "School of Metaphysical Inquiry."

page 70 Amhurst College was a local gathering place of the occult milieu. A few of the titles of lectures there will illustrate the milieu's concerns: Do You Have An Astral Body? ("the art of projection, viz., meditation, adoration and illumination"); Communication with Extraterrestrial Worlds and Intelligences

pg 71 (He [Hopkins] also got half of the one dollar per person "free will offering.") The school's mimeographed monthly flyer of March, 1961, carried the following announcement, embedded among topics such as those given above, but twice as long as any other.

(The 6-person Unification group was hard pressed financially in those early times, having newly migrated to a "sometimes hostile city environment". Additionally, they had to sustain themselves in their 7-room commune on Cole Street by some of the women taking on jobs as waitresses, while yet another member was helped into a better-paying job as a postman. Therefore, I sense some disapproval behind Lofland's detail about Dr. Hopkins retaining half of the "free will offering".

It is indeed interesting to note that Lofland's 588-page dissertation, submitted to and approved by the University of California at Berkeley's department of sociology in June, 1964, was originally entitled "The World Savers: A Field Study of Cult Processes". When an abbreviated version of the thesis was later published in book form in 1966, the title was changed to "Doomsday Cult".)