Who is Be Scofield?

Two pictures of Be Scofield

The following text is an excerpt reproduced from an article by Rosita Šorytė (Member of the European Federation for Freedom of Belief), originally published in The Journal of CESNUR, Volume 9, Issue 5, September–October 2025. You can read the original article here.

In July 2025, many members of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light (AROPL) became aware of an organized anti-cult movement when several British media outlets, starting with The Guardian (McClenaghan and Pegg 2025), launched attacks against them. The campaign employed typical arguments used to criticize groups labeled as “cults.” The origin of these attacks can be traced back to a slanderous article written by Be Scofield on her blog, GuruMag (Scofield 2025). [...]

Be Scofield (on the right) before she became a "cult hunter"

Be Scofield, whose legal name may still be Robert James Scofield is a 45-year-old American transgender individual and a self-proclaimed “cult hunter.” In April 2025, she published the article that sparked the British campaign against the AROPL. Following her 2018 release of a comprehensive anti-cult exposé targeting Dutch spiritual teacher Bentinho Massaro (Scofield 2018), Scofield’s critics, including her victims and their supporters, have responded to her articles by pointing out her disregard for facts and use of inaccurate quotes and references (see Vera 2018a, 2018b). While some have commented lightheartedly about her belief in astrology—an unusual trait for someone in the anti-cult movement—no one has taken the time to analyze her ideology and motivations thoroughly. A significant reason for this oversight is the tendency to rely solely on online sources. Scofield provides much more detailed information about herself in printed materials that she does not share online.

She reports that her journey as a “cult hunter” began in 2017 in Asheville, North Carolina. She was having lunch and felt overwhelmed by despair and suicidal thoughts. She was broke, traumatized by past experiences of abuse, and had experienced a “soul death.” Additionally, as a transgender person, she struggled with dysphoria and faced medical barriers that prevented her from continuing the estrogen therapy necessary to align her physical appearance with her perceived female identity (Scofield 2022, 10). While she was seriously considering whether it was not better “not to be here [in this world] anymore,” a mysterious woman appeared who persuaded her not “to leave before you’ve completed your soul’s purpose” (Scofield 2022, 3). In retrospect, she realized the woman might have been an angel or a benevolent extraterrestrial.

A journey begins where the same patterns recur. First, Scofield receives unique information from five different sources:

1. Astrology. An astrologer, in particular, advises her on the location she should visit every year on her birthday, where she awaits further revelations.

2. Higher Dimensional Messages. She receives “downloads” from a higher dimension, provided by both human psychics and angelic messengers who appear and disappear.

3. Tarot Cards. The tarot cards she uses for divination offer additional insights.

4. Akashic Records. She connects with a psychic who can access the Akashic Records, which are believed to be an archive of all past, present, and future events. Madame Helena Blavatsky (1831–1891), one of the co-founders of the Theosophical Society, popularized this concept.

5. Extraterrestrial Contacts. Gradually, she becomes aware that extraterrestrials from a “mothership” also watch her and provide information (Scofield 2022, 320, 474).

I do not consider supernatural experiences and revelations a subject of ridicule—although Scofield does when they occur in groups she disapproves of. Only, information coming from these sources should be qualified for what it is. Scofield sometimes seems surprised that law enforcement does not accept her mystical experiences as evidence. I believe that individuals who experience psychotic episodes, whether due to gender dysphoria or other reasons, deserve help and compassion. However, it becomes problematic when they assert that their experiences uniquely qualify them to identify “brainwashing” or psychosis-inducing techniques within spiritual movements. Suffering from a heart condition does not make one a cardiologist. Should they testify in court, the mental stability of these individuals could become an issue. However, this does not seem to concern the media that utilize them as “cult experts.”

When her mystical sources guide her to a specific location, Scofield realizes it is the site of a spiritual community or a place where she can gain insights about a religious group. This revelation is not entirely surprising, given that thousands of such movements exist. Additionally, her astrologer directs Scofield to well-known hubs of spiritual activity, including Sedona, Arizona; Hawaii; Orcas Island; and Crestone, Colorado. When she arrives in a new location, Scofield receives messages about a cosmic battle between light and darkness and realizes that a dark, “Luciferian” cult is operating in the area. Her mission is to eliminate this cult.

Be Scofield and his friends at the YMCA

However, there is an additional issue with Scofield’s “downloads” from the spiritual realm; they consistently have a dark nature. Although she claims to be a “level two certified” Reiki master (Scofield 2022, 347; the details of her certification remain unclear), dark presences manifest when she administers Reiki to others. Most Reiki masters would interpret this as a sign that something is wrong. Furthermore, very few spiritual teachers would support the notion that angels and other beings of light would command someone to seek out and destroy spiritual groups they oppose.

Scofield receives assistance from sources that are equally mysterious but non-mystical. After her first article, against Bentinho Massaro, "an email changed everything… someone wrote saying they wanted to support me in reporting on cults. They offered to give me a fixed income of several thousand dollars per month" (Scofield 2022, 70). This situation lasted only a few months, but she later received similar assistance. The identities of these generous supporters were not specified, nor was it clear for what exactly they funded her. It is possible that this was related to the fact that, at one point, Scofield felt compelled to criticize scholars of new religious movements. She labeled Eileen Barker as the “mother of all cult apologists,” referred to Gordon Melton as a “pioneering cult apologist scholar,” described Susan Palmer as having “a disturbing fascination with dangerous cults,” and also targeted Rebecca Moore, Catherine Wessinger, and Massimo Introvigne (Scofield 2023). This occurred years before any of these scholars had criticized her or were even aware of her existence.

Be Scofield taking a selfie

One notable example of Scofield’s controversial actions is her 2019 attack against Aaravindha Himadra, the spiritual name of Janis Briedis, a teacher and lecturer residing on Orcas Island, Washington. She accused him of being responsible for the murder of Carla Shaffer (1953–2006), a Baháʼí woman and psychiatric patient, whose body was found in a pond on Orcas Island in 2006 (Scofield 2019).

Carla had previously been hospitalized due to multiple knife injuries. A police investigation determined that these injuries were self-inflicted; however, Carla maintained that a supernatural being had attacked her. Her death was ruled either an accident or possibly a suicide.

A small group of citizens from Orcas Island, including Carla’s ex-husband and former lover, attempted unsuccessfully to convince the authorities that foul play was involved in the woman’s death. They speculated about the involvement of unspecified Satanic cults and pointed to a group called the “Children of Light,” whose existence the police could not verify. This group was not the “former name” of Aaravindha’s organization, as Scofield (2022, 162) has claimed. By 2018, the case had nearly faded from memory until someone asked Be Scofield to travel to Orcas Island and “reveal the truth” about Aaravindha. Scofield alleged that Carla had been a member of Aaravindha’s “cult” and was killed because she wanted to leave it.

Followers of Aaravindha hired a detective agency to investigate and compile a report on Orcas Island (Sirius Investigations 2020). They ascertained that Carla had attended parties and gatherings at Aaravindha’s home, but this was before any “group” was officially formed. Although she remained friendly with the spiritual master’s followers, she was not interested in moving from her Baháʼí faith to a different spiritual path. Following the publication of her article, the detectives revealed that Scofield had falsified statements from persons she interviewed. One of those individuals, David Lutz, who had been a close associate of Aaravindha, was so disturbed by her misrepresentation that he went to a police station to file an affidavit. In this affidavit, he stated that he had informed Scofield that Carla was “not” a member of any group led by Aaravindha and that she had mental health issues. However, Scofield’s article suggested the opposite.

This is yet another example of Scofield’s dishonest journalism. However, the detectives hired by Aaravindha’s friends overlooked—or at least downplayed—a crucial point. Scofield disregarded the opinions of law enforcement, the medical doctors in Bellingham, Washington, who treated Carla, and even her relatives, including her brother, a doctor himself. Instead, she relied on what she believed to be more trustworthy sources, such as sudden feelings of demonic presences on Orcas Island and possibly another angelic “visitation” (Scofield 2022, 140).

A profile picture of Be Scofield

Two additional features characterize Scofield’s activities as a New Age anti-cultist. First, she exhibits the same megalomaniac delusions that she attributes to “cult” leaders. She consistently portrays the groups she critiques as large, powerful, and a threat to the entire planet. For instance, she labels AROPL as “the largest doomsday cult in the world” (Scofield 2025). Similarly, she describes Agama Yoga, a small, Thailand-based offshoot of the larger Romanian yoga group MISA, as nothing less than “a central spiritual point of subjugation and domination of women on the planet. I reduced it to a pile of ashes. It was another victory for the light” (Scofield 2022, 121). However, the last time I checked, Agama Yoga was still active, along with other movements she claims to have destroyed.

Scofield asserts that her article played a significant role in driving the movement known as Love Has Won to near extinction. This group later gained media attention when devotees were discovered keeping the mummified body of their deceased female co-leader at their headquarters. She suggests that her reporting inspired several successful TV shows about Love Has Won; however, she was neither quoted nor credited in any of them.

Second, without contradicting the first comment, Scofield’s articles can be considered a form of hate speech that may incite violence. Thus, it is not inaccurate to say that they have consequences. She skillfully promotes her work on various websites and social media platforms under different pseudonyms, creating the illusion of a larger movement when, in reality, it is a one-woman operation. Scofield specifically targets the towns where spiritual communities thrive, generating a sense of fear among residents. She takes pride in stating that her article forced Bentinho Massaro to leave Sedona. This occurred due to the extensive promotion of her exposé, which resulted in death threats against Massaro and harassment of his followers (Vera 2018b). As she dryly reports, “just eight days after I published,” one of Massaro’s followers committed suicide (Scofield 2022, 64).

She credits herself and her article on Love Has Won for what happened to members of the group in Kauai, Hawaii: "The cult’s brand new car and rental home windows were smashed. Videos showed rocks being pelted at the residence. Large bonfires were used on the beach to try and smoke out the cult. Locals patrolled the area on horseback." (Scofield 2022, 367).

In the end, Love Has Won had to leave Hawaii. Whatever one may think of the movement, what Scofield was taking credit for amounted to physical violence against people who had not been convicted of any crime.

Scofield’s “success” in generating violence against spiritual groups can be attributed, as she acknowledges, to her choice of targeting relatively small movements that had not been studied by scholars (at least before she turned her attention to AROPL). This lack of scholarly attention meant no alternative narratives were available to counter her claims. She admits that she was aware that attacking spiritual groups could provoke legal and public relations responses, but she “hoped [that] by avoiding reporting on Scientology I could avoid it” (Scofield 2022, 200).

Scofield believes she is justified in her actions because she sees them as part of “something much bigger” (Scofield 2022, 436). She argues that “cults” create “dark portals” through which demons invade our planet. Scofield feels it is her calling to close these portals (Scofield 2022, 318).

Healing an old conflict between two groups of extraterrestrials is essential for benefiting humanity. According to Scofield, she is uniquely capable of “healing the ancient ET rift” because she has a “direct line” to the aliens (Scofield 2022, 474). These “highly advanced spiritual teachers and masters” support her and the planet during this critical time in planetary evolution. They provide Scofield with otherwise inaccessible information and guide her in dismantling “cults” (Scofield 2022, 475).