The practice is feasibly justified by a theology,[3] popularized by the Unification movement but already present in previous Korean new religions, outlined as follows.
[4][5] However, according to Chryssides in 1991, no hard evidence (despite several testimonials)[6] suggests that p'ikareum was ever performed by Sun Myung Moon and his early Unification Church.
Chryssides also believe that p'ikareum in some accounts was confused with ritual nudity, practised in some ceremonies by Korean new religious movements, including some Moon had contacts with in his early years, to claim that members had achieved perfect purity.
[13] Hwang, who claimed to be the second coming of Jesus, led a schism from Wonsan Sinhaksan (원산신학산), a movement created by Baek Nam-Ju (백남주) and influenced by the ideas of Emanuel Swedenborg.
Apart from the continuing controversy about its alleged practice in the Unification Church, in 1957 Korean journalist Kim Gyeongrae published several articles and a book tracing the roots of p'ikareum to Kim Baek Moon and the Israel Monastery and claiming, offering some evidence, that it was practised by what was at that time the largest Christian new religious movement in Korea, the Olive Tree founded by Park Tae-Seon (1915–1990).