Entrepreneur Thomas G. Hornauer has already reached a bizarre cult status with his esoteric channel Telemedial. Now the 62-year-old is going viral on TikTok as royal holiness “King Thomas – Majesty of German” with his “TAM Dances”.
What is behind “King Thomas”? Thomas G. Hornauer refers to himself as “His Royal Holiness” or simply “King Thomas”. The 62-year-old made his fortune with phone sex hotlines, which he operated through his company Telekontor.
In 2003, he took over the television station B.TV and offered spiritual life advice in the form of tarot card reading, “stargazers”, and pendulum readings under the name “Kanal Telemedial”. Viewers were supposed to pay an “energy compensation” for the energy gained by watching.
The channel’s program gained a kind of cult status with its bizarre content and outbursts in which Hornauer insulted his viewers. There are compilation videos on YouTube featuring the most entertaining scenes from Kanal Telemedial and Hornauer.
Hornauer developed the “Telemedial Life School” from the channel Telemedial, which aims to help people find themselves. In 2008, the entrepreneur proclaimed the United Holy German Kingdom, a spiritual institution of the religion he founded, Christ-Buddhism (via thomashornauer).
For a long time, it was quiet around Hornauer, who now lives in Thailand. But now, the 62-year-old is making a comeback on TikTok, particularly popular with young people.
“King Thomas” goes viral with bizarre dances
What is “King Thomas” doing on TikTok? Hornauer’s profile is at first glance a mix of spiritual performances by “King Thomas”, cooking videos, and the construction of his “pilgrimage site” Paradise Valley in Thailand. In between, there are repeated references to live streams.
In these live streams, the 62-year-old offers not only “audiences with the king” but also instructions for the TAM Dance. This stands for “Transcendental Active Meditation”: the dancing is supposed to connect, activate chakras, cleanse the body of toxins, and heal heart diseases.
Participants are mostly young people who appear as guests in the streams organized by Hornauer. In addition to numerous likes, viewers also donate via the controversial gift function.
With his performances, King Thomas is currently developing into an internet phenomenon: his TikTok channel has already gained 240,000 followers (as of March 3, 2023), and according to Hornauer, the streams reach several million likes. The greeting “Herz5” and other distinctive sayings of the 62-year-old are also becoming memes and have already been used by the official account of the discount retailer Aldi Süd.
Television host Philipp Walulis (funk) has already dealt with the phenomenon “King Thomas”. You can find the complete video here:
Just a harmless esoteric?
How are the reactions? Both in the comments under Walulis’s video and on Hornauer’s own TikTok channel, the reactions are mixed. Many seem amused by the bizarre performances and celebrate the return of the iconic Telemedial personality.
Others are concerned about the young audience that the 62-year-old addresses on TikTok. There were allegedly sect-like structures at his TV station: employees were reportedly intimidated and subjected to a kind of “brainwashing” (via taz).
Whether “King Thomas” is a harmless internet phenomenon that will be quickly replaced by the next trend remains to be seen.
The gift function, which allows viewers to express their appreciation in live streams on TikTok, is considered quite controversial. Critics claim it extracts money from fans’ pockets.
