10 Most Bizarre People Who Claimed To Be Jesus Reincarnate

4. Shoko Asahara

This maybe a little-known fact in the Western world, but in Japan a man claiming to be Jesus Christ reincarnate is currently on death row, awaiting execution for masterminding the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway. A total of 13 people died in the attack - although Shoko Asahara (A.K.A. Chizuo Matsumoto) was sentenced to death in 2002 for 27 murder counts from 13 separate indictments which the group supposedly carried out. Asahara was convicted of orchestrating the attack in order to "overthrow the government and install himself in the position of Emperor of Japan". The now 59-year-old founded the religious group Aum Shinrikyo in 1984, claiming to be Christ, the Lamb of God and Japan's only full-enlightened master. As well as stating that he would "take upon himself the sins of the world", Asahara predicted that a Third World War would bring about a nuclear Armageddon, as predicted in Revelation, and that humanity would end bar an elite few who joined his church. Alongside his group's terrorist atrocities, Asahara has gained notoriety for claiming, among others, that the Jews, the Freemasons, the Dutch, the British Royal family and rival Japanese religions were creating worldwide conspiracies. Not only has he written many books - including Beyond Life and Death, Mahayana Sutra and Initiation - but there is also an anime which depicts the lives of Aum members including Asahara.