The Reluctant Messiah

Open has spoken to The Messiah. But we never quoted him as The One. We described him as an author. He is one.

Open has spoken to The Messiah. But we never quoted him as The One. We just mentioned him by his name, Raj Patel. And described him as an author. He is one.  But just as Patel’s new book on market-society, The Value of Nothing hit the stands, an obscure religious cult based in Britain has hailed him as the living embodiment of Maitreya, Christ or ‘the world teacher’. Why? His profile matched the prophecies made by the leader of the group: that Maitreya would be about 40, would have travelled from India and be dark-skinned. The clinching clue? He would stutter. And Patel did falter during a talk show. The cult’s website announced: “Maitreya steps forward into the open world of television”. Believers flooded Patel’s inbox. When he publicly denied being Maitreya, the cult muttered: “Maitreya will neither confirm nor deny.” Some followers even flew to San Francisco to see The One. Open is reliving a brief brush with The Messiah, before logging onto Amazon to browse The Value of Nothing.

Raj PatelThe MessiahThe One