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.
