COMING SOON!

THE SUNWORSHIPPERS is a 6 part audio podcast that tells the wild story of Mazdaznan, an early 20th century sun-worshipping cult.

At its peak, Mazdaznan filled temples worldwide with thousands of followers. The movement popularized rudimentary versions of breathing and physical exercises you now see everywhere in yoga classes. It promoted the gospel of vegetarianism with a bestselling cookbook and monthly magazine. In the first decades of the 20th century, Mazdaznan left indelible impacts on the influential Bauhaus Art Movement in Germany; on workers groups and teachers unions in England; and on the emergent radical right in California. Carl Jung talked about Mazdaznan. Upton Sinclair wrote about it. And then it disappeared into thin air.

Its founder, the Reverend Dr. Otoman Zar Adusht Ha’nish—born Otto Hanish—did not invent any of these ideas. He was one of many early 20th century gurus at the center of a whirlwind of new notions emerging in the West: about health, breathing, physical exercise, alternative spiritualities, science, evolution, race, long life, and human perfectibility. 

He was also a highly effective flim-flam artist who targeted and manipulated wealthy followers—mainly industrial robber barons and their society wives desperate for meaning—with promises of health, eternal youth, eternal life, and erotic fulfilment. He promoted Eugenics, faced investigation from numerous state medical boards, was jailed for distributing immoral literature, became a target of Hearst’s newspapers, kidnapped the 11-year old heir to a construction fortune, and was always one step ahead of the sexual abuse charges.

Maya has been researching Mazdaznan for a decade. It’s an important story for right now—the story of how a movement can surge into worldwide notoriety—and then evaporate into thin air, almost entirely forgotten to historical memory. It’s also about the long-term impacts of con men and grifts, how they leave surprisingly powerful traces of themselves in unexpected places.

Some of Maya’s work on Mazdaznan takes the form of dance and film. It received a 2024 LAPP Research + Development Grant (for Parents and Caregivers). Early work was shown at the Summer 2024’s First Draft showing at HRLA, curated by Emily Barasch.