Infiltrating "Eastern Lightning": Mitch & Jordan's Debrief

Mitch Kuniko: Hey, how's it going, everybody? My name is Mitch Kuniko. I run channel Cult Audit here, and I'm with my buddy Jordan. Today, we're going to be talking about a Chinese cult—China's largest cult, "Eastern Lightning." I'm going to let Jordan introduce himself a bit, explain how we know each other, and talk about what we've been through.

Jordan: Even apart from this cult... yeah. Well, my name is Jordan. Mitch and I met through a prior cult that we were both a part of—a Korean one, not a Chinese one. We kind of wanted to go in the direction of exploring different kinds of cults. But the fascinating part is, throughout this little journey, as we're infiltrating this new Chinese cult, Eastern Lightning, we can see there are a lot of similarities between this cult and, frankly, probably the majority of cults out there. You know, with the tactics they use, how pushy they are, and how much pressure they put on you to become a dedicated member. They almost present you with some kind of ultimatum, such as the idea that you're literally juggling your salvation. It makes it really high-demand—it demands a lot of your money and a lot of your time. So I think you guys will all be pretty interested in seeing how the Eastern Lightning cult employs a lot of these cult tactics. And yeah, it's very wicked. I don't recommend this. I do not recommend you try this at home.

Mitch Kuniko: Do not try to infiltrate or join a cult. It's not fun, especially if you're not good at pushing back or standing up for yourself. No offense to people who can't do that, like people-pleasers, because these cults are going to push you: "You need to be here." They're going to guilt-trip you. And you mentioned something: you said your salvation is on the line in these cults. I'm assuming what you mean by that is that when you're in, they're always telling you, "You need to do this, or you'll go to hell." You have to do this to go to heaven. And if you don't do it, you're not saved. If you're not part of our group, you're not saved.

So regarding Eastern Lightning, I guess we can kind of really quickly get into it. I can explain a little. First off, after I left the World Mission Society Church of God—the South Korean cult me and Jordan were a part of—we decided to explore some of these other groups, especially East Asian cults, and see the similarities between them. Because in our cult, according to their propaganda videos, our founder hopped on a train and went to China to preach the gospel. My speculation is that he went there to start Eastern Lightning. We're just making this up, but honestly, you'll see why: the cults are very similar.

Eastern Lightning was founded in the early 1990s by Zhao Weishan. And he proclaimed Yang Xiangbin, a woman, to be the female Christ. This originated from the Shouter movement, or the Local Church movement, in China—I think it's either Watchman Nee or Witness Lee. Don't quote me on that; do your own research.

So the CCP government pointed at Eastern Lightning as a high-control religious group, a cult within China. So many of them fled, seeking asylum in different countries. One of those countries was the U.S., where Zhao Weishan, who's kind of leading the show, also escaped. And he also took Yang Xiangbin, the female Christ—the female Jesus, as they call her—with him. And they set up shop in Flushing, New York.

In 2014, there was a McDonald's incident where some Eastern Lightning or Church of Almighty God members actually killed a woman because she would not give them her phone number. And some of these people ended up being executed.

 Either way, what they're doing is very wrong. What this group has done is very evil.

And not only that, their doctrine is crazy. It's like a dumbed-down World Mission Society Church of God teaching. The World Mission Society Church of God is like Amazon, and this is like Alibaba or Wish. I mean, they're using the same stuff, but they're not even going into detail about it. And they eventually try to get you to believe this woman, Yang Xiangbin, is the Christ, and that the Bible is obsolete—but they'll use it at first. And then now you need to study The Word Appears in the Flesh, which is the book written by their female Christ, Yang Xiangbin. And then they say the CCP government is the "Great Red Dragon," and that all pastors—everybody in the world—are false. And they only have the truth.

So this is Eastern Lightning. I found out about this group and thought, you know what? I want to explore it and do a documentary on this group. So I was like, who's crazy? Who's wild? Who's a wild, wild west ex-member? And I was like, Jordan, Jordan, Jordan would be a good recruit. So I recruited him into my cult-infiltration cult. And I'll let Jordan kind of take off from here.

Jordan: Yeah, recalling some events here, it started with a phone call. Yeah, Mitch simply asked me if I wanted to help infiltrate a Chinese cult. It was pretty vague to me at the time. I didn't really know exactly what I was getting myself into, but at the same time I kind of did because I know how cults operate. So I'm like, you know what? I'll try it. I'll give it a whirl. But yeah, it was definitely an experience. Just being covert about it. And, you know, kind of putting on that "new member" mask when you're talking to them for the first time. And it almost felt a little nostalgic because you kind of envision yourself as one of the newer members in the old cult we used to be in. You would see how they would act. So you kind of know how to put on the act, the new member act.

So we were able to get our feet in the door. And getting in contact with some of their, I guess, teachers, Bible teachers, leaders, and such was pretty interesting because they wanted to talk to me on the phone. It was almost like an interview. You're asking all these questions; it was really like a whole screening process. They're kind of cautious about who they bring in.

What followed that was they send you some videos that you got to watch. Then they wanted to get your thoughts on them. After you watched the videos, they would call you and ask you questions; they'd kind of quiz you a little bit on the videos that they've sent. Not only that, they wanted you to join their classes that they hold via video messenger, like on the Facebook Messenger app or Instagram. But it wasn't like you had many options. It was like, "No, you've got to attend at this time." And like you better be there type of feeling. It was very demanding from the start.

So joining those was pretty interesting, and I noticed that during those virtual classes on Facebook Messenger, they were constantly asking you questions to make sure you were paying attention. To be honest, I was driving during a lot of these—I was driving back home from work—so I couldn't really engage in some of the activities that they wanted me to engage in on Facebook Messenger just to verify that I was paying attention. So I kind of had to keep telling them like, "Hey, I'm driving, you know, I'll turn on my mic and like, I'm driving. Sorry, I can't answer," or they would want me to answer via phone. So, but it was pretty interesting. That was pretty much the first part of it. Definitely an intriguing experience. Because you're seeing right through their mask. You're seeing right through their tactics. It's like you already know what to expect and you're getting what you expected, like when they try to coerce you or pressure you into joining these classes and how they kind of manipulate scripture. It was very predictable—very interesting, and kind of annoying because they were very pushy, but hey, it is what it is.

Mitch Kuniko: It is. I mean, I think we got some pretty good content out of it. It was very funny. I just remember telling him because we were open with them; we didn't lie because it's through Facebook Messenger so yes, they have our names. I told them I was a part of a Korean cult and I told them I had some friends that were also a part of the same Korean cult as me and they're looking for truth. So that's how I got Jordan in. And I think we had the initial phone call and I think I was there with you together and you played it well. But there were some funny times. I don't know if you remember, but do you remember? It's an eight-day course and they would always call after to make sure you were listening. Do you remember that one phone call when they called you and you didn't... yeah man, you know.

Jordan: Yeah dude, so yeah, I do remember this. I believe this was after a class, and I had to leave early for some reason, I was busy with something else, you know. But they had sent me videos to watch and they were going to ask me questions based off of those videos. And so I said I watched the videos, blah blah blah, you know, I didn't really... I either watched them and didn't pay attention much. But yeah, the point is, I didn't remember a lot of the content from the videos. So when they called me to quiz me, I was in big trouble. I was in big trouble because they were asking me questions.

Thankfully—I don't know, I can't remember exactly how it happened, Mitch—but did you just join the phone call? Like, because it was on our group chat, the phone call they put us in a group...

Mitch Kuniko: Because every single person who came in—George, and also Brother Patchy—there was always... because I was like your handler, in a sense, the person they were comfortable with. So they would have me join the phone call with you and they're asking you these questions and I'm like quickly texting. We're all on the phone, me, you, and them. And like you were like, "Um, yeah, let me think about that again." And you were like, "Sorry, I'm trying to remember, one second." And then I'm texting you, yeah, and then you just repeat pretty much verbatim like, "Um, it uh, yeah, that means you know the six thousand year redemption plan, there's the age of uh..." And then they were like, "Wow, yes, that is correct." They were so impressed. And then after that we were like on the phone like, "Dude, how did we pull that off?"

The reason we were so concerned about it is because they'll put you back. And I didn't want you guys to spend longer on that eight-day course, so I was just trying to help you get through that because it's every day. It's supposed to be every day. And if not, they will move you back. Yeah, no breaks.

Mitch Kuniko: What did you learn, Jordan?

Jordan: I learned a lot of nonsense.

Mitch Kuniko: Oh, yeah, yeah.

Jordan: Oh, for sure, for sure. So in these cults, you can see that many of them share the same emphasis that the end is near. You know, at the end of the day, these are doomsday cults. So you have this cult, the Eastern Lightning cult. They do teach a lot of fear-based things and use fear-based tactics. Like, for example, they're a China-based cult and they teach that the Chinese government is the Antichrist, right? Am I recalling that correctly?

Mitch Kuniko: Oh yeah, you're right, yeah, the Great Red Dragon of Revelation, exactly.

Jordan: And so it kind of enables people to not trust in government, and you know, maybe not trusting the law. And when they don't trust the law, they tend to do illegal things. And you know, it's something that cults do. They hold their law and their teachings in higher regard to the laws in which we are supposed to follow. So it reminds me of the previous cult that we've been in, you know how they would do some shady things and arrange marriages and do certain things for not the best reasons in terms of keeping the law as faithfully as we should as citizens of a country.

Not only that, but like I mentioned before, the doomsday part. God coming in the flesh. That's a big one. Coming on the cloud. Coming on the cloud. Same exact... they almost preached the same exact way, right? Coming on the cloud, God has to come on the cloud again, which means coming back in the flesh. Coming in secret, right? You know, just like Jesus Christ, three different new names, three different ages, the same new name in each age. It was like Ahn Sahng-hong, dude. It was like Ahn Sahng-hong. So you're learning through it, going through it again in the Eastern Lightning cult. It was like, yeah, I'm kind of familiar with a lot of this stuff, you know, I just played it off like I was learning something new. But yeah, it's very, very... ...

Mitch Kuniko: Very interesting. Like I said, I learned a bunch of nonsense. It really was. Yeah, and it was even worse, like it was structured even worse than the World Mission. I felt a lot more control in this cult than I even did the World Mission. And that's saying something. All right. 'Cause our cult was very controlling, very deceptive, very manipulative, but this one was like that on steroids.

And they would use a Bible at first in class, but then they would start introducing The Word Appears in the Flesh, which is the book from Yang Xiangbin. And the word that's engraved in my mind still, if I had to sum up Eastern Lightning, the word would be "sinful disposition." They loved the word "sinful disposition." I never really hear any Christians use the word "disposition" when it comes to sin, but they use it in every paragraph, almost every sentence, and it's just engraved in your brain. And I think they use this language for a reason, to eventually brainwash you, to make you always remember that you have a sinful disposition and you need that cleansed to be saved. And the only way to do that is by following their truth, their organization.

So yeah, very interesting. And then I just remember, what did you think, Jordan? Because I remember you guys were thinking about it as well at the time. I was like, "Hey guys, I want to go to New York." And New York is supposedly their headquarters and maybe we can go there for the documentary. What did you guys think when we decided to go there, I guess?

Jordan: Frankly, it was pretty ballsy. Like dude, that's a ballsy move, dude. And I commend you for doing it. Because I mean... Of course I wanted to go. I definitely wanted to go, but, of course...You know I had obligations I had to attend to back home, but seeing you guys go was pretty cool. Because knowing that their headquarters was in New York and weren't they saying that even their female deity, their Christ, was residing in New York as well?

Mitch Kuniko: Yeah, Yang Xiangbin and Zhao Weishan, the female Christ and the male leader. They sought asylum in Flushing, Queens, New York. When we went there, yes, it's a church. There's no church sign at all. There's no church address. You can't find it on Google. They had to give it to us specifically. No church sign. There's just a big red cross. You go there, and that experience—maybe I can get into it in another video—but it was weird. It was very dark. And all the cameras were on us. And they wanted us to stand here, then talk to them there. And they have the cameras on us. They were trying to get propaganda.

And then when we first get there, we're eating food. They have all this kitchen. They're all eating, but it's very dark. They have the lights off in there, but they're all cooking food and some Filipinos and a lot of Chinese members. And we're eating. The service was already supposed to have started two hours ago. So I'm like, "Well, what's going on?" Like you said this time, but why is it not happening? I think it was because they wanted to keep us there longer.

And then upstairs, they never showed us upstairs. Then these Chinese female sisters came downstairs. And they were in pajamas. And everyone's like, "Morning, good morning," and I'm like, it's like two in the afternoon here. And they all come down to eat and then go back up. And I was thinking, I think upstairs, you know how they run different countries in different time zones for these classes? I think that's what was going on. They run different classes in different time zones, so that's why they were waking up at that time to come down and eat. But I never saw them again, they were not at the service at all.

And it was so disorganized. The sound-system guy wasn't even there yet and they asked me if I could go upstairs and set up the sound system to get the mics and stuff working. And then the HDMI cables on their TVs weren't working. And just like in the classes, as you and I remember, they would have like Google Docs and then we would just straight up read from them. It was the same on the TV screen. And they did this weird dance while they were there. They tried to get us to stay as long as we could but we're like, "No, we have to go, we gotta go." That's so interesting, it was such a weird experience. But after that, I'm like, ain't nobody knows who Yang Xiangbin and Zhao Weishan are other than top people. Still, they weren't there. We don't know. There's speculation that she could have died during COVID, that's at least what we don't know. But, uh, very strange.

And then we come back and then I think we're all burnt out at this point, me, you, George, Patchy, and we were just like, "Dude, it's time. It's time."

Jordan: And I remember we were talking a little bit about going to maybe one of their house branches out here in California. I think we briefly touched on that but we're like, nah, it's probably not worth it. That cult wears you out so much.

Mitch Kuniko: They do, yeah, to such an extreme level. And it's practically all online, which is even sadder.

Jordan: It's that... you know what, controlling. I kind of went into it wanting to be someone who... I wanted to see how far they would push. I was acting as one of those newer members. I was acting more so as like a newer member who wasn't really trying to attend every single thing, so I wanted to see how far they would go to pressure me into joining some of these meetings and phone calls. And they went pretty far. You know, they're going from messaging me early in the morning, very early in the morning. What time have you gotten phone calls and text messages? 3 a.m., 4 a.m., 5 a.m., 6 a.m. I could keep going. It was crazy. But yeah, it definitely got to a point where it was like, man, these guys are wearing me out.

Mitch Kuniko: But it was fun, we all had our positions. So if people don't know, there were four of us in total. But we know how cults work when you recruit people, most people aren't faithful; not all of them stay. So we decided, okay, I started this, so I just have to go through it. Right, I'm "Brother Faithful." And then we have "Brother Semi-Faithful," which is George. And then we have "Brother Patchy," who's going to be there through the entire infiltration but he's just going to periodically join in and stuff. And then Jordan was the baby. We're like, Jordan's going to be... you're going to play the fruit that falls away. Yeah. And then we'd see how they reacted. Oh, they definitely react. Trying to get you to stay. Yeah. And I thought it was a pretty good study, honestly, like seeing how they reacted according to our different levels of faith. And it was pretty interesting. That was cool. Yeah, man. Well, it wasn't cool. It was just... it was interesting to see how they reacted to us.

Jordan: Yeah. A lot of it didn't surprise me either. I'm like, oh, yeah, that's just what cults do. You know, you've been through it before. You know, we've been through it before. You know, just this time we're not captured. We're not mentally captured. They're not going to get all my time. They're not going to get all my money, you know. So, yeah, that's the difference, you know. And you can only... I come out of it thinking about the people who are captured, the ones who go through those educations and they really want to do good. They really want to show their leaders, their Bible teachers that they're learning. You know, they want to show that they have good faith.

Mitch Kuniko: ...to be cleansed to enter the kingdom of heaven. And they use this language for a reason: to eventually brainwash you, to make you always remember that you have a "sinful disposition," and you need that cleansed.

Jordan: Exactly. And that ties right into the fear tactics. They make you feel like you're never good enough. You're constantly battling this "sinful disposition," and the only way to overcome it is through their specific teachings and their specific book. It’s a classic high-control mechanism. They isolate you from your old self by convincing you that your old self is fundamentally broken in a way that only they can fix.

Mitch Kuniko: Right. And speaking of isolation, let's talk about the "Great Red Dragon." That’s a huge part of their doctrine. They teach that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the Great Red Dragon from the Book of Revelation.

Jordan: Yeah, that was wild to hear.

Mitch Kuniko: It is wild. But here’s the kicker: they don't just stop at the CCP. They expand that definition. They teach that any government or authority that opposes them is part of the Great Red Dragon. So, in their eyes, the U.S. government, local law enforcement, even your own family if they try to stop you from believing—it’s all the Great Red Dragon. It creates this "us versus the world" mentality.

Jordan: It’s brilliant in a twisted way. If you believe the entire world is against you and is essentially "Satan," you have nowhere else to go but the cult. You can't trust the police, you can't trust your family, you can't trust the news. The only "truth" is inside that Facebook Messenger group chat.

Mitch Kuniko: Exactly. And that brings us to the "Three Stages of Work." This is another similarity to the World Mission Society Church of God (WMSCOG), but again, dumbed down. They believe in the Age of Law (Old Testament), the Age of Grace (Jesus), and now the Age of Kingdom.

Jordan: And that’s where Yang Xiangbin comes in.

Mitch Kuniko: Right. They believe God changes names and forms in every age. So, in the Age of Law, He was Jehovah. In the Age of Grace, He was Jesus. And now, in the Age of Kingdom, He has returned as "Almighty God"—which is Yang Xiangbin.

Jordan: It’s fascinating how they twist scripture to fit this narrative. They’ll take a verse out of context, and suddenly it’s "proof" that God is a Chinese woman living in New York.

Mitch Kuniko: (Laughs) It really is. And they use The Word Appears in the Flesh to back all of this up. They claim the Bible is outdated. They say, "The Bible is just a record of God's work in the past. It’s not the truth for today."

Jordan: That’s a huge red flag. If you can convince someone that their old holy book is obsolete, you can make them believe anything. You cut off their historical anchor, and then you replace it with your new book.

Mitch Kuniko: That’s exactly what they do. And the pressure to study is intense. Remember how they wanted you on those video calls constantly?

Jordan: Oh, absolutely. It’s not just "hey, come to church on Sunday." It’s a daily grind. You have to report your study hours. You have to memorize their doctrines. If you miss a session, they’re on you immediately. "Why weren't you there? Are you resisting God? Is your sinful disposition taking over?"

Mitch Kuniko: It’s guilt-tripping at its finest. And they use the "handler" system too. They assign you a "brother" or "sister" to watch over you.

Jordan: Yeah, I had a few of those. They act super nice, super caring, but you know it’s just surveillance. They’re reporting back to the leaders on how "spiritual" you are.

Mitch Kuniko: It’s a pyramid scheme of spirituality. And the financial aspect is there too, though maybe not as aggressive as some others we’ve seen. They ask for "offerings," but it’s framed as "sacrificing for the truth."

Jordan: "Sacrifice" is the keyword. You have to sacrifice your time, your money, your relationships, your logic.

Mitch Kuniko: So, looking back at the infiltration, what was the hardest part for you?

Jordan: Honestly? Keeping a straight face. Some of the stuff they were saying was so absurd, so blatantly contradictory to the Bible they claim to respect, that I just wanted to laugh. But I had to sit there and nod and say, "Wow, that’s so deep."

Mitch Kuniko: (Laughs) I saw you struggling a few times.

Jordan: It was tough! But it was worth it to expose this stuff. People need to know that these groups are out there. They’re not just harmless Bible study groups. They are predatory.

Mitch Kuniko: Agreed. And that’s why we do this. To show people the tactics. If you see a group that demands all your time, isolates you from family, claims the world is ending, and says their leader is God returned in the flesh... run.

Jordan: Run fast.

Mitch Kuniko: Run very fast.

Jordan: So, to wrap this up, Mitch, what’s the final verdict on Eastern Lightning?

Mitch Kuniko: The final verdict? It’s a dangerous, high-control cult. It uses fear, manipulation, and isolation to control its members. It’s destructive to families and individuals. And while they might present themselves as Christians, their doctrine is completely contrary to historical Christianity.

Jordan: Well said.

Mitch Kuniko: Thanks for doing this with me, Jordan. It was a wild ride.

Jordan: Anytime, Mitch. Let’s go find the next one.

Mitch Kuniko: (Laughs) Let’s hope we don’t have to wait long. Thanks for watching, everyone. Stay safe out there.

Jordan: Bye.

Source Link：https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqOB-D56i1g