Self-deification
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Self-deification is the belief that oneself is a deity or the striving for personal apotheosis.
The term autotheism can be used in the same sense (first attested in 1619)[2], but it should be noted that the term has a unrelated meaning as a technical term in Christology. Suitheism is a hybrid neologism coined by American occultists David Michael Cunningham and Traeonna A. R. Wagener with the same meaning[1]
Self-deification can either involve the expectation to be worshipped by other people, as in the case of divine kingship in imperial cults, or it can be the mystical notion of identity of the soul or the self with God (Unio Mystica, Advaita).
Modern instances of purported self-deification include:
- Father Divine (d. 1965)
- Juanita García Peraza (d. 1970)
- Lou de Palingboer (d. 1968)
- Yahweh ben Yahweh (d. 2007)
living:
- Jehovah Wanyonyi (b. c. 1924)
- Sathya Sai Baba (b. c. 1927)
- Mitsuo Matayoshi (b. 1944)
- Mother Meera (b. 1960)
- Vissarion (b. 1961)
- Grigory Grabovoy (b. 1963)