Interestingly, few people who have a Messiah Complex seem to be Christians. Maybe it's because a) they have a healthy respect for Jesus and wouldn't
dream of being him; and b) because it's been hammered into them that they're inferior beings who are only saved from fire and brimstone by the grace
of God.
I've known a few people with a Messiah Complex (most of them guys) and they all came from the New Age community. IMO, the reason may be that a) a lot
of New Agers have no concept of reality and are completely immersed in some esoteric la-la land; b) by emphasizing ideas like Jesus as an "Ascended
Master," the concept of "Christ Consciousness" and "YOU are God," godhood seems a lot more attainable to New Agers than believers from orthodox
religions.
I personally have known a guy who refused to get a job because he was "doing God's work." He had a kind of "saintly" demeanor and would always
hang around in local bars and coffee houses and preach to everyone and anyone, whether they wanted to hear it or not. His favorite phrase was "The
heart is the key and the key is the heart," coming from some enormous revelation he ostensibly had out in the desert one day.
This guy had two ex-wives and one child that lived in the same, small town in Arizona, but he neither paid child support nor did he ever visit his
daughter... because he had to do "God's work." Since he didn't have money (no job = no money), he'd always find new, gullible women who'd be
raptured by his drivel and would take him under their wing and provide for him. At the same time, though, he was incredibly possessive and jealous,
and kept his "providers" like slaves. Of course that wouldn't go well for long, so he went through women like clean shirts.
The last I heard of this guy was that he was on his way to the Hopi to introduce himself as the "Great White Brother." If you don't know who that
is, it's basically the Hopi's version of a messiah, a savior who will come and right all the wrongs. And it wasn't even fraud or anything; this guy
truly believed that he was the Great White Brother.
Interestingly, a very good psychic/astrologer that I was friends with back then told me she had seen the "Messiah Complex" in his natal chart; she
said that he would never get rid of it and, by the makeup of his chart, was incapable of learning from his mistakes and would one day meet a very sad
end.
Another New Ager in Germany wrote a book about his visions of the White Buffalo Woman who, he believed, was contacting him through various
crystal-encrusted buffalo skulls he had obtained from a mineral dealer. He actually believed that he was a reincarnation of both Quetzalcoatl and the
Great White Brother (who he believed to be one and the same person), because he'd seen an old depiction of Quetzalcoatl that looked similar to
himself. (David Wilcock, anyone?)
He, who had never met a "real Indian" in his life, was planning to teach the Native American tribes in the US about spirituality and help them
regain their old wisdom. It was hilarious -- compared to what the traditional NAs know about spirituality, he was a worm, simply put. What a hubris,
what an audacity!
Anyway, I do believe, as RKallisti said, that each and every one of us has a slight version of this. I have to say that it's very easy specifically
for New Agers to fall in this trap because many of us perform all kinds of spiritual practices to "raise their vibration," and boy, does that work!
If you do such practices, you WILL at some point see things "ordinary people" can't see, hear things ordinary people can't hear, feel things
ordinary people can't feel, know things ordinary people can't know, and DO things ordinary people can't do. Let me tell from my own experience,
it's incredibly tough to feel so "special" and stay completely humble at the same time, if not impossible.
