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History is full of supposed Messiahs and Saviors who founded religious movements and/or identified themselves as saviors (e.g. Joseph Smith and Raël). (By contrast, some messiahs were only venerated posthumously, possibly obscuring their actual wishes and intentions.)

Haile Selassie is a possibly unique example of an involuntary living messiah. Rastafarians considered his ascension to the Ethiopian throne to fulfill predictions of Marcus Garvey and the Book of Daniel. Selassie treated his unorthodox adherents respectfully, meeting them when he visited Jamaica in 1966 and allowing some to move to Ethiopia. He arranged to send an Ethiopian Orthodox mission to Jamaica and had no direct involvement in the Rastafarian movement.

Did anyone else happen to find themselves identified as a messiah for thousands of believers during their lifetime? Of course, a similar story was the premise of the comedy film "Life of Brian". Let's exclude quasi-religious subjection in the form of the divine right of kings or celebrity worship syndrome.

Or was Haile Selassie the world's only involuntary messiah?

H.I.M.

Aaron Brick
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    I instantly thought of Life Of Brian too... – jwenting Nov 18 '19 at 07:09
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    While maybe not truly a messiah, where do your question stand on the Dalai Lama reincarnations? Is this applicable as Tibetan Buddhists acknowledge that you cannot will yourself to incarnate as the reincarnated DL? – Flater Nov 18 '19 at 13:30
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    "Let's exclude quasi-religious subjection in the form of the divine right of kings or celebrity worship syndrome" I think this is overly restrictive. How do you expect an unwilling messiah to spawn a religion, if not by either pre-existing authority (right of kings) or popular support (celebrity)? The involuntary nature of the messiah inherently suggests that others attribute messiah-ness to this person, thus inherently making them a celebrity. – Flater Nov 18 '19 at 13:32
  • @Flater I think you're party right, in that there is a line that gets crossed somewhere where it's no longer quite so "quasi". Unfortunately everyone will see a different line. – Spencer Nov 18 '19 at 14:08
  • @Spencer: I agree and I'm afraid this otherwise interesting question is going to be damned either way because of it. Without the restriction it's a subjective argument of what separates a messiah from a celebrity (inherently leading to a discussion of what a religion is), with the full restriction it makes the question unanswerable, and with a more balanced restriction it turns into an argument on where to strike that balance. – Flater Nov 18 '19 at 14:27
  • @Flater I agree that fame is involved, but CWS is a mental disorder afflicting individuals and not religious in nature. – Aaron Brick Nov 18 '19 at 18:41
  • @AaronBrick But that doesn't exclude that CWS in a large group of people spawns what will become a genuine religion. Satirical as it may be, Life of Brian is not that impossible either. – Flater Nov 18 '19 at 22:12
  • @jwenting Yes. Mandatory xkcd, er, Monty Python: I'm not the messiah! – Peter - Reinstate Monica Nov 19 '19 at 06:23
  • @Flater Maybe, but this is pretty hypothetical. I haven't seen any examples of CWS among a large group, nor of a religious style of CWS. – Aaron Brick Nov 19 '19 at 06:29
  • @Peter-ReinstateMonica you're just a very naughty boy! – jwenting Nov 19 '19 at 06:33
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    @LangLangC: however controversial IMO you should undelete your answer. – Denis de Bernardy Nov 19 '19 at 19:35
  • Not by 'thousands of believers' but there is a tribe in Vanautu who worships Prince Philip. – rajesh Nov 20 '19 at 03:53

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Jiddu Krishnamurti was believed to be a sort of messiah (the 'World Teacher') by the Theosophists. In the 1920s he disavowed this idea and dissolved the organisation that had been established to support it.

Dave Gremlin
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Another movement with an involuntary divinity - not exactly a Messiah - is Prince Philip Movement. Some people in a village in Vanuatu seem to believe that the Duke of Edinburgh is a divine being.

Pere
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  • My first impression on reading this answer was..."Wasn't that where they had the cargo cult?" (...reads link...). "Ha!" – T.E.D. Nov 20 '19 at 22:08
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You are asking about people who were regarded literally as "the Messiah", not as a "saviour" or "divinity", right? Then we need to mention the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Schneerson, whose followers regarded him as the Messiah, a claim which he rejected. An involuntary Messiah.

fdb
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