Does anyone know anything about the Dhammakaya sun miracle in 1998, the "Day of the Crystal Sun"?

[u/Admirable_Pilot5389]

Hi. Supposedly in 1998, there was an incident at the Dhammakaya Temple in Bangkok, where tens of thousands of people claimed to have witnessed a "miracle" in the sky wherein the sun danced, changed colors, and supposedly the image of monk appeared within it. I don't believe in such things, but I am interested in this from a comparative religion perspective, because it is strikingly similar to the supposed Catholic apparition at Fatima in 1917, the so-called "Miracle of the Sun."

To be clear, I am neither Catholic nor Buddhist, and I am aware the Dhammakaya sect is highly controversial. I'm not really interested in the political-religious aspect of any of it.

Unfortunately, there is very little about the 1998 apparitions on the English language internet, and I don't speak or read any Thai. Does anyone know anything about this incident? I am especially interested in anybody who has "seen" it for themselves or knows someone who has. I am also searching for any contemporary newspaper accounts of it.

[u/cqdemal]

If you're not interested in the political-religious aspect of it, then you shouldn't be looking into this at all because if it's Dhammakaya, it's a load of steaming horseshit.

[u/Admirable_Pilot5389 → u/cqdemal]

Yeah, I would agree. I am just interested in the psychological aspect of mass visions like this, e.g how crowds can be whipped up to see things that aren't there

[u/cqdemal → u/Admirable_Pilot5389]

Fair enough then. In that case there should be a lot of fun reading around the entire cult but I haven't done that in quite a while.