Pana-Wave Bye-Bye

File under: Wackadoo Gurus

In more guru news from Japan, the leader of the Pana-Wave cult and Japan's guru of electromagnetic paranoia, Yuko Chino, is no more. These are the folks who camped out on a highway in Japan in 2003, shrouding everything in white to repel an imagined microwave attack:

In a peculiar twist, she began touting claims of being the target of a communist guerilla conspiracy to have her murdered through the use of electromagnetic wave weaponry. Chino then commissioned an intellectual vanguard from her spiritual following to research the negative effects of these electromagnetic waves. This group would come to be known as the Pana-Wave Laboratory and its objective would be to prolong Chino’s life through the scientific analysis of electromagnetic wave warfare.

There is no shortage of amazement when one considers how over 50 people could be convinced they were under attack by EMF-weapon wielding communist guerillas. Then again, you take 50 lonely and slightly nutty people looking for community, and one queen wackadoo to come up with exactly what to believe, and you might just end up with something like the Pana-Wavers.