Hands of the Cause of God Letters

…we were faced with problems of inconceivable magnitude. How to assume the reins of authority, with no document to support us, other than the general theological statements about the Hands? [emphasis added] Amatu'l-Baha' Ruhiyyih Khanum on the authority of the Hands to lead the Baha'i Faith. "Ministry of the Custodians"

One day I asked [Hand of the Cause of God] Dr Muhajir who were the monarchs of the futur[e] Bahá'u'lláh spoke about. After a pause, he looked at me and said the Hands of the Cause are the monarchs

(posted on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Amatul-Bah%C3%A1-Ruhiyyih-Khan%C3%BAm/145429302175114, April 28, 2011, accessed 7/28/2011 )

Communications written by the Hands of the Cause of God

Letter from the Hands of the Western Hemisphere May 31, 1960:

Negative reinforcement of those that view things differently calling them "emotionally unbalanced friends", much like the dispersions cast at Dr. Jensen where authority has the ability to negatively encode emotions against people based on other than doctrinal arguments, part of the process of out-group identity re--enforcement. On one hand religious authorities must build themselves up as "Monarchs" while tearing down dissident voices or the weaker group, this is probably universalisable in the sense that any dominant leadership can then attack weaker "voices in the wilderness", this too is a aspect of anthropological "maximization", which we all see also in our strategies of veneration ("mana") in spiritual terms, maximizing those experiences that maximize our emotional depth, but in this case it is extrinsic where institutions maximize their authority through emotional manipulation:

The below passage admits the International Baha'i Council was appointed, if you can make the argument that President equals successor in case of death of the Guardian, then you have an admitted appointment of the next Guardian by admission of this letter. However, that is the crux, the Hands deny that President = Successor. Their argument is that the UHJ becomes elected and the IBC dissolves since it was appointed. It's interesting because again if the President does = Successor, then the only member that is not elected is the President since the Guardian according to the ordained (mahtum) directions in the Will and Testament of `Abdu'l-Baha is the Executive (head, ra'is) for life, and not an elected office, therefore the appointment as President if it is true that President = Successor, is a valid appointment of Guardianship, but we all know that all they [Hands] say is that President does not = Successor. Of course this all occurred before any arguments about Mason Remey being an adopted son, a real son by adoption, ever came to light so it must have seemed, and must still seem, so absurd and incomprehensible that a non-relative of Baha'u'llah could be making a claim to Guardianship, when I have not been able to find any of the letters where `Abdu'l-Baha speaks of this published at-large in the Persian Star of the West editions. Remey sealed his archives which he placed at universities in 1940 until 1995. A Baha'i Faith diary was published in 1983 showing the father son relationship between `Abdu'l-Baha and Mason Remey, I cannot say with any conviction that anyone outside the immediate family of `Abdu'l-Baha had knowledge of this. And any documentation of it would not have been really known to many unless they had back copies of Star of the West from 1918-20. Mason's own evidence was sealed in an archive until 1995 and he never even put forward the argument, but must have been aware of it since he immediately adopted a son, Joseph Pepe, and gave him a medallion indicating that that person would be the next Guardian according to what Mason Remey told Dr. Leland Jensen. Even if the Hands accepted that Remey was indeed eligible to be the next Guardian because he was an Aghsan by adoption would they still argue against such a possibility of Remey actually being the next appointed Guardian in case something happened to Shoghi Effendi Rabbani, whom had knowledge of this relationship as the translator of `Abdu'l-Baha's letters to Mason Remey and was responsible for giving Mason Remey his inheritance the envelope with the locks of Baha'u'llah's hair and blood which written by Shoghi Effendi stated in March of 1922:

"Of all the remnants of Baha'u'llah's all-sacred Person, the most hallowed, the most precious, confidently delivered into the hands of my brother and co-worker in the Cause of God, Mr. Remey."

"Coagulated drops of Baha'u'llah's All-Sacred Blood and Ringlets of His Most Blessed Locks presented as my most precious possession to 'Abdu'l-Baha's 'dear son' Mr. Charles Mason Remey as a token of my Baha'i affection and brotherly love. Shoghi"

Dr. Jensen really broke this all down into 2 criteria which are restated here as questions:

• 1. was there an appointment of Mason Remey as the successor?

  2. was Mason Remey an Aghsan by adoption?

Depending on how you answer those questions really defines your beliefs about the Guardianship.

The Hands wrote regarding the appointed nature of the International Baha'i Council in 1960: