Heung Jin Moon (; October 23, 1966 – January 2, 1984), also referred to by members of the

Unification Church The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, widely known as the Unification Church, is a new religious movement, whose members are called Unificationists, or " Moonies". It was officially founded on 1 May 1954 under the name Holy Sp ...

as Heung Jin Nim or posthumously as Lord Heung Jin Nim (),"Theological Uproar in Unification Church: Rev. Moon Recognizes Zimbabwean as His Reincarnated Son" by Michael Isikoff, ''Washington Post'', March 30, 1988. was the second son of church founders Sun Myung Moon and

Hak Ja Han Hak Ja Han (Korean: 한학자, Hanja: 韓鶴子) (born January 6, 1943, lunar calendar which is February 10, 1943, Gregorian) is a Korean religious leader. Her late husband Sun Myung Moon was the founder of the Unification movement, also known ...

. At the age of 17 he died in a vehicle accident in New York State.Moon's Son, 17, Dies After a Car Accident
AP story, January 3, 1984. Accessed Saturday, August 19, 2006, from the New York Times Archives. Three months later his parents conducted a spiritual wedding ceremony between him and Julia Pak, daughter of church leader,

Bo Hi Pak Bo Hi Pak (August 18, 1930 – January 12, 2019 in Korea. Korean: 박보희/朴普熙) was a prominent member of the Unification Church. During the 1970s and 1980s, he was a major leader in the church movement, leading projects such as newspapers ...

. He is officially regarded by the Unification Church to be the "king of the spirits" in heaven (ranking higher than

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...

).James A. Beverley (2004), "Spirit Revelation and the Unification Church" in ''Controversial New Religions'', James R. Lewis & Jesper Aagaard Petersen, ed. Oxford University Press USA, p. 47-48. After Moon's death, some church members claimed that they were channelling messages from his spirit.Inside info on Cleophas
by church historian Michael Breen In 1988 a church member from

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...

, named Kundioni, claimed to be the incarnation of Moon. His acts of violence against church members were a source of controversy within the church. Moon is now believed by church members to be leading workshops in the spiritual world in which spirits of deceased persons are taught Unification Church teachings."From the Unification Church to the Unification Movement, 1994-1999: Five Years of Dramatic Changes"
by Massimo Introvigne, a condensed version of material in ''The Unification Church'', in the series "Studies in Contemporary Religion", Signature Books.

Death at age 17

On December 22, 1983, his car collided with a jackknifing tractor-trailer on an icy highway (State Route 9 in

Hyde Park, New York Hyde Park is a town in Dutchess County, New York, United States, bordering the Hudson River north of Poughkeepsie. Within the town are the hamlets of Hyde Park, East Park, Staatsburg, and Haviland. Hyde Park is known as the hometown of Fran ...

) and he died on January 2. Unification Church leader Chung Hwan Kwak stated: "A truck lost control as it approached the car Heung Jin Nim was driving. Heung Jin Nim swerved the car to prevent the two friends who were with him from taking the brunt of the impact, and instead took it on himself."

Spiritual marriage

Moon's death came before his planned arranged marriage to ballerina Julia Pak, daughter of Moon's interpreter,

. According to the tenets of Unificationism, only married couples may enter the highest level of heaven. His parents conducted a spiritual wedding ceremony three months later, February 20, 1984. Pak, who now uses the name Julia Moon, said: "I will never forget in my whole life and for eternity this great honor of being Heung Jin Nim's bride, which I do not deserve".

Significance attributed to Heung Jin Moon's death

The Unification Church teaches that Heung Jin Moon's death had cosmic significance, and that he is now in a position in heaven higher than Jesus. Sun Myung Moon explained that his son's death was a great victory as it saved his own life; that his assassination by leftist

terrorists Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

was foiled on the same day as the accident, "that his son's loss was a providential act allowed by God in order to protect un MyungMoon's calling", and that there was a

karmic Karma (; sa, कर्म}, ; pi, kamma, italic=yes) in Sanskrit means an action, work, or deed, and its effect or consequences. In Indian religions, the term more specifically refers to a principle of cause and effect, often descriptively ...

connection between the two events: A week later Sun Myung Moon taught that Heung Jin Moon "had a new mission and was free to travel between his spirit world and our physical world". He also "proclaimed that Heung Jin became a leader to Jesus in the spirit realm". Longtime president of the Korean Unification Church Young Whi Kim wrote: "They all refer to Heung Jin Nim as the new Christ. They also call him the Youth-King of Heaven. He is the King of Heaven in the spirit world. Jesus is working with him and always accompanies him. Jesus himself says that Heung Jin Nim is the new Christ. He is the center of the spirit world now. This means he is in a higher position than Jesus." Sun Myung Moon's right-hand man

announced that Heung Jin Moon's sacrifice "carries far greater importance than the crucifixion of Jesus Christ".

The "return" of the "spirit" of Heung Jin Moon

Posthumous, widespread channeling of Moon's spirit by Unification Church members

After Moon's death, Unification Church members around the world spoke to small groups of members, saying that the messages they were conveying were from Heung Jin Moon, being received by them spiritually (see

Channelling (mediumistic) Mediumship is the practice of purportedly mediating communication between familiar spirits or spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". There are different types of mediumship or spir ...

). Other members said they experienced

automatic writing Automatic writing, also called psychography, is a claimed psychic ability allowing a person to produce written words without consciously writing. Practitioners engage in automatic writing by holding a writing instrument and allowing alleged spir ...

from him, or other kinds of spiritual communications from him. According to one report: "Often it was unlikely people who channelled' him even people who were not that spiritual. There was a sister in Britain called Faith Jones who gave guidance from him. A Dutch brother called Gerrit van Dorsten, who had been on the New York City Tribune also did." Andrea Higashibaba, then state leader of the Unification Church of Tennessee, wrote a lengthy article in ''Today's World'' magazine detailing her encounters (in spirit) with Heung Jin Moon, leading up to a "liberation ceremony" for deceased civil rights leader

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

Soon many members around the world were "channeling Heung Jin Nim." Typically these messages were ones of love and support.

Black Heung Jin Nim

Black Heung Jin Nim (also known as "Second Self Heung Jin Nim" and Cleopas Kundioni) refers to the alleged embodiment of the spirit of Heung Jin Moon in the body of a

an member of the

named Kundioni. Kundioni's name was not known by most church members at the time, but he met with Sun Myung Moon and members of the "True Family", who apparently accepted the "Black Heung Jin Nim" as a temporary union of the spirit of Heung Jin Moon with the mind and body of Kundioni."Everyone in the household embraced him and called him eung Jin" Hong (1998) p. 152.Hong(1998) p. 151

Sun Myung Moon authorized the Black Heung Jin to travel the world, preaching and hearing the confessions of Unification Church members who had gone astray."

Kundioni came under criticism by both members and outsiders for his violence and harsh methods, including a beating that resulted in the hospitalization of church leader

. Church members do not believe that the severe violence was committed by the spirit of Heung Jin Moon.Black Heung Jin Nim
by Dan Fefferman, August 15, 2000. At a certain point after his world tour of Unification churches, Sun Myung Moon said that Kundioni was no longer channeling Heung Jin Moon, and sent him back to Africa.

Viewpoints on channeling

Several views of the phenomenon have emerged. Members generally believed that the channeling was legitimate at first, pointing to the endorsement by Sun Myung Moon. Some critics do not believe there ever was genuine channeling. Church members do not believe that the worst violence was committed by the spirit of Heung Jin Moon: In 1987, leaders of the Unification Church were told that Heung Jin Moon had returned to earth in the body of a Zimbabwean member. The African was accepted by Sun Myung MoonHong, Nansook. (1998). '' In the Shadow of the Moons: My Life in the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Family''. Little, Brown. () and church officials as Heung Jin Moon's continuous channel - a "twenty-four hour" a day "embodiment" - and became known as "the Black Heung Jin Nim." With Sun Myung Moon's approval he toured the world visiting Unification churches in a number of countries over several months, accompanied by church leaders and security guards. As channel for "Lord Heung Jin Nim" he was in a position of authority above that of all members, including top leaders apart from his parents Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han.Excerpts cited by Rick Ross, Hong, Nansook. (1998). ''In the Shadow of the Moons: My Life in the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Family''
Little, Brown. () Those members who confessed to certain sins received beatings; Damian Anderson (still a current Unification Church member) reports seeing him "knock people's heads together, hit them viciously with a baseball bat, smack them around the head, punch them, and handcuff them with golden handcuffs."
Damian Anderson, August 10, 2000 Sun Myung Moon's right-hand man

received a beating that was potentially life-threatening and required hospitalization. Anderson was particularly upset that top church officials and their assistants prevented people by force from leaving. Church members believed that because the medium was a "twenty-four hour" "embodiment" or "returning resurrection" of Heung Jin Moon's spirit, and that "the Zimbabwean's body was merely the instrument of Heung Jin Nim's spirit", these were really the actions of Heung Jin Moon; Larry Moffitt, a church media executive, wrote: :By January 1988, working at what one account described as "an incredible pace," Heung Jin Nim in his new form conducted four special three-day conferences in Africa, then successive conferences in Greece, Thailand, Columbia, Argentina, France, England, America and the Far East. ... Heung Jin Nim conducted three conferences in the U.S.: at the World Mission Center in Manhattan, at the Washington, D.C. church, and at a church workshop site in the San Francisco Bay Area. These were attended by approximately 800 members each. He also conducted a smaller session at the church's seminary at Barrytown, New York and several more private sessions. Most importantly, he met Rev. and Mrs. Moon and appeared to gain their sanction. According to one description, he "ran over to Father and practically jumped into his arms, saying 'Father! Father!' Then he embraced Mother tightly, crying, 'Mother! Mother!' " At the beginning of the New York conference, Hyo Jin Nim Moon, Heung Jin Nim's elder brother, spoke in tears, stating, "I have the most reason to be skeptical, but now I know it's my brother. Please receive him." These conferences and the accompanying worldwide tour consummated the Heung Jin Nim revival but also terminated it. By summer 1988, Rev. Moon directed Heung Jin Nim's embodiment to return to Africa, an order that he disobeyed. At this point, there was a consensus that Heung Jin Nim's spirit had left the embodiment and an evil spirit had taken over.Top echelon leader Takeru Kamiyama tells a very similar story of the encounter in ''Today's World'', January 1988, p. 28.

Heung Jin Moon's ongoing "work in the spirit world"

According to church teachings, Heung Jin Moon continues to do important work for the benefit of humanity, as leader of the spiritual realm. At large retreat seminars in Korea where for years thousands of Unificationists came from all over the world to rid themselves of evil spirits, Heung Jin Moon is said by the church to play an important role, as related by scholar of new religious movements Massimo Introvigne:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moon, Heung Jin 1966 births 1984 deaths South Korean Unificationists Mediumship Road incident deaths in New York (state)