Doreal, Maurice (d. 1963)

Maurice Doreal was the name adopted by Claude Doggins as head of the Brotherhood of the White Temple, an occult fraternity headquartered in Sedalia, Colorado. Doreal was born in Sulfur Springs, Oklahoma. As a youth he became interested in Tarzan, which quickly broadened into a general interest in fantasy and science fiction literature, and by 1950 his library included some 5,000 titles. His interests also expanded to the occult. He served in World War I, after which, he claimed, he spent eight years in Tibet. He also claimed to have visited the occult center in the middle of Mt. Shasta in northern California.

Doreal founded the Brotherhood of the White Temple in 1930, and spent much of his life writing the brotherhood lessons and a series of pamphlets, called the Little Temple Library, on a wide variety of occult-related topics from Atlantis to UFOs. He claimed to have gained his knowledge from his contact with the Great White Lodge of Masters, those who have passed beyond their earthly experience and now seek to guide humanity in its evolution.

Doreal began work on new headquarters for the brotherhood in Sedalia in 1946, during the height of anxieties over possible atomic war. The location, a valley enclosed by 1,500-foot mountain walls, was believed to be a protected site. Headquarters moved in 1951. Two years later Doreal predicted that the biblical Battle of Armageddon would begin very soon, and residents stored foods against the coming hard times.

Doreal died in 1963, and the brotherhood has continued to the present using his many writings as their authoritative literature.

Sources:

Kossy, Donna. Kooks: A Guide to the Outer Limits of Human Belief. Portland, Ore.: Feral House, 1994.