The entrepreneur Thomas G. Hornauer already achieved bizarre cult status with his esoteric broadcaster Kanal Telemedial. Now the 62-year-old is going viral on TikTok with his “TAM Dances” as Royal Holiness “King Thomas – Majesty of German”.
What is King Thomas? Thomas G. Hornauer describes himself as “His Royal Holiness” or “King Thomas” for short. The 62-year-old made his fortune with telephone sex hotlines, which he operated through his company Telekontor.
In 2003 he took over the television station B.TV and offered callers spiritual life counseling in the form of card readers, “star seers” and pendulums under the name “Kanal Telemedial”. Viewers should pay an “Energy Offset” for the energy gained by watching.
The station’s program developed a kind of cult status with its bizarre content and freaks in which Hornauer insulted his viewers. There are compilations of the most entertaining scenes from the Telemedial and Hornauer channels on YouTube.
From the Telemedial channel, Hornauer developed the “Telemediale Lebensschule”, which is intended to help people find themselves. In 2008, the entrepreneur proclaimed the United Holy German Kingdom, a spiritual institution of the religion of Christian Buddhism he founded (via thomashornauer).
Hornauer, who now lives in Thailand, was quiet for a long time. But now the 62-year-old is celebrating his comeback on the TikTok app, which is particularly popular with young people.
“King Thomas” goes viral with whimsical dances
What is “Kig Thomas” doing on TikTok? At first glance, Hornauer’s profile is a mixture of spiritual performances by “King Thomas”, cooking videos and the development of his “place of pilgrimage” Paradise Valley in Thailand. In between there are always references to live streams.
In these live streams, the 62-year-old offers instructions on the TAM dance in addition to “Audiences with the King”. This stands for “Transcendental Active Meditation”: The dancing should connect, activate chakras, rid the body of toxins and have a healing effect on heart diseases.
Participants are mostly young people who appear as guests in the streams organized by Hornauer. In addition to numerous likes, viewers also leave donations in the form of the controversial gift function.
With his appearances, King Thomas is currently developing into an internet phenomenon: his TikTok channel already has 240,000 followers (as of March 3, 2023), according to Hornauer, the streams reach several million likes. The salutation “Herz5” and other striking sayings of the 62-year-old are also developing into a meme and have already been used by the official account of the discounter Aldi Süd.
The TV presenter Philipp Walulis (funk) has already dealt with the phenomenon “King Thomas”. You can find the full video here:
Just a harmless esoteric?
How are the reactions? The reactions were mixed both in the comments under Walulis’ video and on Hornauer’s own TikTok channel. Many seem amused by the bizarre performances and celebrate the return of the iconic telemedia personality.
Others are concerned about the young target group that the 62-year-old addresses on TikTok. Sect-like structures are said to have already prevailed at his TV station: employees are said to have been intimidated and subjected to a kind of “brainwashing” (via taz).
It remains to be seen whether “King Thomas” is a harmless Internet phenomenon that will be replaced by the next trend just as quickly as it emerged.
The gift function, which viewers should use to express their appreciation in live streams on TikTok, is considered quite controversial. Critics claim that this is where the fans get their money’s worth.
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