# Cults/New Religious Movements



## Kieran (May 28, 2018)

Hi gang,

Anyone here interested in cults? I find them fascinating, in particular how members of certain cults do mental gymnastics to justify the unjustifiable.

Anyone hear about the Lambeth Slavery case?https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambeth_slavery_case

One of the victims, an elderly Irish woman who was terribly mistreated still supports and campaigns to free Balakrishnan, the cult leader. Very typical Stockholm Syndrome and fascinating.

Am I the only one with this morbid interest?


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## Black Waltz (May 28, 2018)

I like to think the current social justice movement is a cult


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## Hell0 (May 28, 2018)

want to join my religion called "coolism"?
i talked to god and he told me that if we do sick tricks and eat pizza we go to the mothership
this is our god: 



 
contact me at: 69coolkid69@aol.com


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## Pablo Birmingham (May 28, 2018)

I always thought it was interesting that cult leaders are almost exclusively male and their most ardent followers (and the most likely to end up with Stockholm Syndrome) are almost exclusively female. That's some weird, preternatural, evolutionary biology happening there.



Hell0 said:


> want to join my religion called "coolism"?



When I sell off all my worldly possessions to join do you want me to write you a check or give it all to you in cash? How can I make this happen?


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## Ol' Slag (May 28, 2018)

Hell0 said:


> want to join my religion called "coolism"?
> i talked to god and he told me that if we do sick tricks and eat pizza we go to the mothership
> this is our god:
> View attachment 460617
> contact me at: 69coolkid69@aol.com



Do you expect Dindu dollars?


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## Sperglord Dante (May 28, 2018)

I find the bizarre half race supremacist/half religious cult approach many black movements have. Nation of Islam and its splinter groups are probably the most well know (Yakub! Big Head Scientists! White Devil!).

Black Israelis are fascinating too, I love the compilation videos of them shouting insane shit at random people. We have a thread on them here.



Pablo Birmingham said:


> I always thought it was interesting that cult leaders are almost exclusively male and their most ardent followers (and the most likely to end up with Stockholm Syndrome) are almost exclusively female. That's some weird, preternatural, evolutionary biology happening there.


It's not really surprising, most (if not all) mainstream religions are run by men and their most ardent supporters are women.


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## Rand /pol/ (May 28, 2018)

The Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints are definitely one of the prominent Cults, they still practice Polygamy and are divided into about a hundred different splinter groups. There leader Warren Jeffs is an alleged Pedo, and the city they're based out of, Colorado City is completely run by the group. There was a book "Under the banner of Heaven" written on them.


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## ForgedBlades (May 28, 2018)

Why aren't suicide cults much of a thing these days? It seems like the few surviving cults (Scientology, FLDS, etc) are all based on sex and/or money. 

We could use a good Jonestown to spice up the news cycle.


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## Nekromantik (May 28, 2018)

ForgedBlades said:


> Why aren't suicide cults much of a thing these days? It seems like the few surviving cults (Scientology, FLDS, etc) are all based on sex and/or money.
> 
> We could use a good Jonestown to spice up the news cycle.


They seemed to have died out with the coming of the millennium.


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## AnOminous (May 28, 2018)

Pablo Birmingham said:


> I always thought it was interesting that cult leaders are almost exclusively male and their most ardent followers (and the most likely to end up with Stockholm Syndrome) are almost exclusively female. That's some weird, preternatural, evolutionary biology happening there.



The whole sex abuse by male cult leaders, often including child sex abuse, is so common it's a cliche.

There have been a couple female cult leaders, like Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science.



ForgedBlades said:


> Why aren't suicide cults much of a thing these days?



They have a habit of killing themselves.


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## Hell0 (May 28, 2018)

Ol' Slag said:


> Do you expect Dindu dollars?





Pablo Birmingham said:


> When I sell off all my worldly possessions to join do you want me to write you a check or give it all to you in cash? How can I make this happen?



i accept chuck e cheese tokens and spider rings


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## Pablo Birmingham (May 28, 2018)

Sperglord Dante said:


> most (if not all) mainstream religions are run by men and their most ardent supporters are women.





AnOminous said:


> The whole sex abuse by male cult leaders, often including child sex abuse, is so common it's a cliche.



I meant ardent supporter as in Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and Ma Anand Sheela.



Spoiler: Weird cult shit...













Nekromantik said:


> They seemed to have died out with the coming of the millennium.



Nothing like a good calendar rollover to really clean house.


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## Okkervils (May 28, 2018)

Is Kiwi Farms a cult?



Spoiler




a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth. (:autism:?)
great devotion to a person(s), idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad.


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## hambeerlyingnreed (May 28, 2018)

It is one of my weird interests. I am on another forum that makes fun of fundies and the Quiverfull movement.


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## mate (May 29, 2018)

What do we think about the sex cult that apparently had an actress from Smallville (Not Kristin Kreuk, unfortunately) recruiting for them?

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/f...son-mack-went-actress-sex-cult-slaver-1112107

https://www.thedailybeast.com/horri...x-cult-recruiter-allison-mack-at-bail-hearing


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## Okkervils (May 29, 2018)

mate said:


> What do we think about the sex cult that apparently had an actress from Smallville (Not Kristin Kreuk, unfortunately) recruiting for them?
> 
> https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/f...son-mack-went-actress-sex-cult-slaver-1112107
> 
> https://www.thedailybeast.com/horri...x-cult-recruiter-allison-mack-at-bail-hearing



I don't know about it enough to comment on that incident specifically, but it seems like if you push aside the religious aspects (or whatever their focus is), the vast majority of cults are motivated by sex in the end.

The whole thing isn't very surprising to me.


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## mate (May 29, 2018)

I think, from what I've read, that it started out as a self-help/Hollywood networking thing. "We can make you famous and get rid of all your insecurities in one go" or some such bullshit.

You just have to fuck our leader.


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## AnOminous (May 29, 2018)

mate said:


> What do we think about the sex cult that apparently had an actress from Smallville (Not Kristin Kreuk, unfortunately) recruiting for them?
> 
> https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/f...son-mack-went-actress-sex-cult-slaver-1112107
> 
> https://www.thedailybeast.com/horri...x-cult-recruiter-allison-mack-at-bail-hearing



They aren't a religious cult.  They're entirely about money and sex, and sex, and sex.  And money.


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## Y2K Baby (May 29, 2018)

Hell0 said:


> want to join my religion called "coolism"?
> i talked to god and he told me that if we do sick tricks and eat pizza we go to the mothership
> this is our god:
> View attachment 460617
> contact me at: 69coolkid69@aol.com


If you rated this winner, I will snap your neck and force your relatives into sex-trafficking.


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## Rand /pol/ (May 29, 2018)

Sperglord Dante said:


> I find the bizarre half race supremacist/half religious cult approach many black movements have. Nation of Islam and its splinter groups are probably the most well know (Yakub! Big Head Scientists! White Devil!).
> 
> Black Israelis are fascinating too, I love the compilation videos of them shouting insane shit at random people. We have a thread on them here.
> 
> ...


Black Israelites don't seem that much like a cult, more like an Ethno Nationalist group based around religion, like Christian identity.


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## spiritofamermaid (May 29, 2018)

I'm interested in this as well. For me I'm more interested in the psych behind it, the various indoctrination steps, and what makes people follow them so blindly. I made a dumb post once about, with the internet, how people could get sucked in, because it didn't make any sense to me. And lo and behold I learned about the troon/sjw cult (or group with cult-like tendencies if you want to be technical about it) as well as a cult in Ohio that came out because of a boy whose mother wanted to put a cage-like thing on his junk and he asked r/legaladvice about it.

My favorites are of course the beloved Xenu, Family International because in their advertising for "Flirty Fishing" they had a mermaid (which I found hilarious once I got over being an idiot and getting angry), and destructive/doomsday cults in particular.


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## hambeerlyingnreed (May 29, 2018)

spiritofamermaid said:


> My favorites are of course the beloved Xenu



Anti Scientology videos are really interesting to me too. If you haven't checked him out, look up Angry Gay Pope. He is as ridicilous (in a good way) as his name sounds.


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## Education Lottery (May 29, 2018)

Pablo Birmingham said:


> I always thought it was interesting that cult leaders are almost exclusively male and their most ardent followers (and the most likely to end up with Stockholm Syndrome) are almost exclusively female. That's some weird, preternatural, evolutionary biology happening there.



There are female cult leaders (not supporters, leaders) who fly under the radar due to the fact a lot of them aren't driven towards sex nor do they use it as a control point. They usually do "can't date outside the circle" and stop there. For most people, this is a red flag, but it's hardly ever worded like that straightforwardly. It's usually more like "Wouldn't it make sense or be good if your loved one was a part of this?" or "They're not going to understand or will turn against you, so you need to work on them and show them how nice it can be." The women tend to be much more coaxing about this than male cult leaders, essentially guilt tripping followers into evangelizing their families.

They tend to focus on controlling resources as well as entire families as a unit instead of busting them up (not always, but often). Not even joking: they generally manifest more under MLMs, and you will find that a number of "by women, for women" MLMs have a note about God or at least something metaphysical in their manifesto.  It seems to be full circle: either female cult leaders will start out as a religion with a side of business, or a business with a touch of religion as the glue.

Sex abuse is much more common from male leaders (basically, leader wanting to fuck you should be seen as an honor); restricting food seems to be the thing with females (there are some notorious diet/weight-loss cults). Violence and murder are universal for both genders. Not that you won't hear about male leaders restricting food, but the women tend to execute it down to a system. I could ramble on and on.

The food thing is pretty big because many religions have fasting and dietary restrictions as a major point. Cults drive it right off a cliff. Combine that with a culture based around weight-loss vanity and you'll see some interesting, disturbing things occur. 

In case you can't tell, this is a fascinating topic for me.


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## hambeerlyingnreed (May 29, 2018)

@Discobiscuits I think that your analysis of food in relation to female cult leaders is spot on. There was a lady on Dr Phil earlier this month (May 22, for anyone wanting to watch it) hawking out "Jilly Juice" which is salt filled cabbage water she said could regenerate limbs.


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## Education Lottery (May 29, 2018)

hambeerlyingnreed said:


> @Discobiscuits I think that your analysis of food in relation to female cult leaders is spot on. There was a lady on Dr Phil earlier this month (May 22, for anyone wanting to watch it) hawking out "Jilly Juice" which is salt filled cabbage water she said could regenerate limbs.



I'd forgotten all about this lady! We have a thread on her here. I'm disturbed that she's gotten this prominent. Cabbage juice diet and cleanses aren't new, but look where you get when you mix it up with some charisma, spirituality, and them vs. us mentality.


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## Maiden-TieJuan (May 29, 2018)

hambeerlyingnreed said:


> @Discobiscuits I think that your analysis of food in relation to female cult leaders is spot on. There was a lady on Dr Phil earlier this month (May 22, for anyone wanting to watch it) hawking out "Jilly Juice" which is salt filled cabbage water she said could regenerate limbs.


I was going to mention Jillian Epperly.  She even has a thread here.  The whole "Feed a shit ton of salt to your kids because shitting out your brain stem is a GOOD thing " schitk is hilarious.  Being able to "cure" the gay and Transgenderism is another wild thing about her.


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## Kieran (May 29, 2018)

I've been researching a group in Britain (though they are aggressively expanding in America) called the New Kadampa Tradition. It turns out that they are a highly sectarian Buddhist group who hate the Dalai Lama.

I only found out about them from seeing a bunch of glassy eyed white people screaming at an 80 year old Tibetan refugee (the Dalai Lama!). They push this idea that he is the "worst dictator of modern times". Yep. Not Mao, Hitler or Stalin, but the Dalai Lama.

Here is a video of them looking nuts:
https://youtu.be/i82uz6QxPu0

Also I watched some of their YouTube videos. All the teachers speak in a creepy low and slow voice.

They also have an attack dog (like Scientology style) who anonymously bullies and threatens critics and former members.

People inside the cult, when they voice concerns like seeing one of the teachets act immoral, are told they have an impure mind. Immediately any criticism is quashed and the fault lies with the victim.

There are more intetesting cults, but these are particularly noteworthy because of their aggressive expansion, level of control over members and very obvious influence techniques.


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## Elwood P. Dowd (May 29, 2018)

Kieran said:


> Am I the only one with this morbid interest?



Unarians. FTW.  The group actually seem fairly benign and their members happy. Who am I to judge? No scandals I can see. Plus a classic Cadillac with a UFO on the roof.




 

Their Wikipedia entry. (But its boring.)

Their website. Their blog.

An article on stuff they don't seem to do much of any more. (Public access TV.)











Why you might be gay or a troon: (Its all cosmic energy!)



> *Oh, Sweet Mystery of Life
> 
> *
> 
> ...


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## Francis E. Dec Esc. (May 29, 2018)

My favorite are the Posadists, a splinter Trotskyite cult that literally worships atomic warfare and is probably the closest we'll ever see to a real-life Children of Atom.


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## Save the Loli (May 30, 2018)

I like the Universe People cult. It was founded by a Czech guy named Ivo Benda, and is also popular in Slovakia. I'll let this image sum things up.




According to these guys, the Saurians are trying to enslave us with RFID chips, and we need some help. Fortunately the great alien (or should that be Aryan?) commander Ashtar Sheran, with his assistants Ptaah and Jesus, want to help us out and will lead their fleet UFOs to help evacuate Earth.

They also like to spam their CDs and pamphlets everywhere, and this got one of the buildings of the Slovak Ministry of Defense evacuated. They're also monitered by the Czech government so they don't go all Heavens Gate to get Ashtar Sheran's fleet to hurry up.

There's an old thread here with lots more information on them.


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## snuffleupagus (Jun 8, 2018)

I was driving through South Carolina on I-95 when my Waze app rerouted me through the country to avoid a wreck. It was a really neat detour through small towns with crumbling downtown districts and swampy areas. 

As we were driving we passed this compound with a red and yellow/gold sign (I can’t remember what it said) that looked very Buddhist. There was a white guy in a cowboy hat sitting in a golf cart with a rifle in his hands sitting at the entrance to the compound. 

I did a google search of the words on the sign and the town we were in and found out we’d just passed Overcomer Ministry. 

It’s a Christian cult ruled by an 80-something year old dude who likes to fondle and molest teens and young women. Members are forced to turn over all of their possessions and income if they work off the compound. Those who are not employed are basically slaves. 

They enforce strict patriarchal gender rules, dress modestly, and don’t listen to music or watch tv. The preacher has a radio program to broadcast his messages of love and hate while he forces his flock to reside in crumbling trailers that are illegally wired for electricity. Plumbing is scarce on the compound. 

He’s been picked up by local authorities for multiple sexual charges and has even been accused of causing the death of a cult follower through medical neglect. So far it seems charges haven’t stuck. 

There’s another cult much closer to me than I’d like that was raided in the past year. I used to frequent one of their markets for my annual seafood bbq we throw. Turns out he was forcing children in the cult to work in the fish processing facilities and not allowing them to be properly schooled. 

A friend of mine owns a farm just down the road from them and said they were nice, but mostly standoffish. She hadn’t realized it was a cult, she honestly thought it was an intentional community or something.


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## Francis E. Dec Esc. (Jun 8, 2018)

snuffleupagus said:


> I was driving through South Carolina on I-95 when my Waze app rerouted me through the country to avoid a wreck. It was a really neat detour through small towns with crumbling downtown districts and swampy areas.
> 
> As we were driving we passed this compound with a red and yellow/gold sign (I can’t remember what it said) that looked very Buddhist. There was a white guy in a cowboy hat sitting in a golf cart with a rifle in his hands sitting at the entrance to the compound.
> 
> ...



Reminds me of the cult compound south of Dallas on I-45 in the town of Ferris. Here's a Google street view.


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## Scratch This Nut (Jun 10, 2018)

Extremely interested!  Been listening to this great podcast called, well, "Cults."  I always wondered how you can convince people to do these things. 

Also google "Ant Hill Kids."  Or don't. Please don't.


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## Rampage1986 (Jun 10, 2018)

Cults has indeed indoctrinate people very well. The Jim Jones aka the Jones town event is interesting cult event.


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## Tragi-Chan (Jun 11, 2018)

Scratch This Nut said:


> Also google "Ant Hill Kids."  Or don't. Please don't.


I’m bad at taking advice, so I did just Google that. Jesus. At least the guy in charge got what was coming to him in the end. I’d love to know how a person that deranged, sadistic and yet charismatic can exist. How does a mind like that happen?


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## Kieran (Jun 11, 2018)

So the cult I mentioned, the New Kadampa Tradition (probably has a presence in your town) are pushing a fake story that the Dalai Lama has terminal cancer. To add, these are Buddhists who hate the Dalai Lama lol



 



Spoiler: Story here



https://www.thequint.com/news/india/dalai-lama-terminally-ill-health-tibet-china-trump



If you look at IndyHack's Twitter you will see he is deranged but also extremely well hidden. 

This is Cult101.


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## Derp Potato (Jun 12, 2018)

Has anyone dealt with the International House of Prayer yet? Typical Midwestern cult that I dealt with while growing up. Still exists as far as I know.

They're well known for their literal 24/7 prayer room that they even broadcast. Can watch it on God TV. It's been taking place since 1999, according to Wikipedia.


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## NARPASSWORD (Jun 12, 2018)

Can we include Bronies?
After all, there's no real difference between them and any other cult.


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## DrJonesHat (Jun 20, 2018)

Derp Potato said:


> Has anyone dealt with the International House of Prayer yet? Typical Midwestern cult that I dealt with while growing up. Still exists as far as I know.
> 
> They're well known for their literal 24/7 prayer room that they even broadcast. Can watch it on God TV. It's been taking place since 1999, according to Wikipedia.


They got sued by International House of Pancakes over their acronym. I think they had to stop using the abbreviation, but I can't recall.

There's a UFO cult in my town, but calling it a cult is not really fair. No one is being forced to do anything they don't want to, and people come and go all the time. They're more like a commune with really good parties. I'm in a cult right now, but I'm running it, so it's not too bad. Would anyone like a sports car? I seem to have several I'm not using.


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## Corbin Dallas Multipass (Jun 21, 2018)

mate said:


> What do we think about the sex cult that apparently had an actress from Smallville (Not Kristin Kreuk, unfortunately) recruiting for them?
> 
> https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/f...son-mack-went-actress-sex-cult-slaver-1112107
> 
> https://www.thedailybeast.com/horri...x-cult-recruiter-allison-mack-at-bail-hearing



OK, get ready for a bit of a :powerlevel:.



Spoiler: Powerlevelling



I was involved with this group years ago.  In a very dark time in my life, my sister (she gets sucked into everything) talked me into attending a seminar for a group called "ESP" which stood for "Executive Success Program".  This was a five day intensive seminar, essentially running from like 9:00 am to 5:00 PM, although the group would often go out together for dinner after the seminars.

It was, at the time, basically an amalgamation of self help stuff, little tricks for helping concentration, with a big dose of unlicensed psychiatry.  The big thing (at least at the time) that set it apart was a therapy technique they used, essentially structured as a flow chart, intended to get to the root of a psychological issue. The underlying theory basically being that these issues are mainly caused by cognitive dissonance, and that once you dig down and get to the contradiction causing you the dissonance, the issue basically goes away.  It seemed like they approached problems logically, and there wasn't some sort of silly magic tricks involved.

I will say this seemed to work pretty well, I came out of it a better adjusted, happier person than when I entered, and I really do feel I cleared up some of my issues.  However people with bad PTSD could get triggered hard by this approach, so there was a bit of irresponsibility there, in my opinion.  I still contend that this technique (I forget what they called it) was and is a valuable tool, and hope that somehow it can be separated from the rest of this mess, although I doubt it will happen.

At the time, my opinion of the group was that they were charging an awfully high price for what they did, but that it seemed legitimate, if perhaps a bit dangerous for those with severe issues.

A couple of years later, I started having some issues with anxiety.  My sister was still involved with this group, and she talked me into signing up for a weekly meeting.

Well I did, and by that point it had changed quite a bit.  It had become much less interactive, and more about watching videos and sort of going along with the group think.  While they were still talking about logic and ethics, there really wasn't much in the way of intelligent discussion. Basically I feel the people running the meetings just weren't that bright overall.  So at this point my opinion of them was lower, but still, I felt that they were legitimate, although the warning signs that it was getting culty were beginning to show.

They had become pretty obsessed with structure and hierarchy, and would refer to people in the group by their "rank" rather than their name.  Keith Reneire, the leader, was the "Vangaurd". The lady who was initially his partner was the "Proctor".  There was a correct way to shake hands depending on the rank of the people doing the hand shaking, with the higher ranking person's hand on top.  They had also changed their name from ESP (What an awful name....) to Nxivm (Pronounced nexium, you know, the antacid? I don't know which name was worse)

I stuck around for a little while, but I was fairly disillusioned with them.  Whatever bottled lightning they had the first time seemed to be gone.  Plus they had a multi-level marketing approach to recruiting people (a huge red flag).  My sister was heavily involved in this, she used some duplicity to get my brother and father to sign up (My father signed up just to debunk it), where she initially claimed it was a free trial, but then they were on the hook for the entire price, and of course she got some % of that.

During this, I went with my sister to the group's headquarters in Albany NY.  It was rather like a college campus, very professional atmosphere, people hanging out together watching videos about brain plasticity and discussing it afterwards,  basically it seemed like a group of intellectuals interested in digging into logic and ethics.  But the push toward groupthink was strong. While people were friendly, you were obviously supposed to go along with the group opinion.  This was also when I found out lots of members of this group were buying big houses and basically creating dormitories for people in the group.  So... getting cultier....

During this trip I met Keith himself, the mighty "Vanguard".  He seemed like a fairly regular dude, for the most part, playing volleyball with the group.  He struck me as a bit of a narcissist, but he didn't seem to act like he was above everyone else. He didn't seem like much of a cult of personality to me.  However people would talk about him like he was the savior...

So: the man, the legend, the vanguard, Keith Reneire.  Like I said, from what I saw he presented himself as a pretty normal guy.  However, within the group, he was talked about like he was some kind of savior.  According to the people in the group, because he had eliminated so much of his cognitive dissonance, his brain was not tied in knots over anxiety, had less stress, therefore he didn't have to sleep much. Other people in the group would emulate this behavior, sleeping 3-4 hours, so now you've got people who are sleep deprived, but kind of by their own choice.  I'd hear about how he had such a high IQ they had to come up with special tests to test for it.  I'd hear about how he "proved" the solution to happiness mathematically (I honestly just laughed at the person who told me that).

So what I was seeing, from my own point of view, was that while this guy wasn't explicitly trying to, a cult was forming around him.  Now I don't know what went on with the higher ups, it's quite possible (probable even) that he was driving this narrative himself, purposely, but I never felt pressured to sleep less, to join the wierd dormitory housing, etc.  So to me, while it was really getting culty, I still didn't consider it a cult.

So after my second experience with the group, I had a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.  I appreciated the good that had come out of it for me, but was beginning to think that maybe I had just absorbed the good parts of it and   ignored the bad parts (I've never been one to just go along with things).  At this point I certainly wasn't going to recommend anyone join them, but I'd defend them against being called a cult. To me they were still way better than scientology.

Jump to the present.  Now I see this dude has somehow got a harem of sex slaves, who are being branded with his name, malnourished, and he's taken over their finances.  He's got people recruiting more sex slaves for him, trafficking people, etc...  All I can say is "WOW, I did NOT see this coming!".  Luckily my sister didn't seem to have been pulled into this dude's harem, even though she seemed to be the type he collected...



Sorry, huge powerlevel, but hopefully someone finds it interesting.


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## Tragi-Chan (Jun 22, 2018)

Corbin Dallas Multipass said:


> OK, get ready for a bit of a :powerlevel:.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


A lot of cults have some good to begin with. A lot of former Scientologists say they found auditing helpful if nothing else. The People’s Temple started out as a Christian sect that preached racial equality. It’s one of the ways intelligent people get lured in.


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## Guardian G.I. (Jun 23, 2018)

I can write a lot about cults - they were very big in the 1990s and still can be found if you look carefully.

The collapse of the USSR severely affected many people, especially in Russia. Many people lost their life savings by currency wipeouts, many were displaced by war and nationalist strife. The economy completely collapsed, and scientists and people of other formerly respected professions had to sell Chinese garb in makeshift marketplaces just to survive. Such a situation was obviously a perfect breeding ground for doomsday cults and other sects. Instead of stereotypical sex cults from America, they were often get-rich-quick schemes for their creators, who swindled desperate people out of their money using brainwashing. Such organizations are typically labelled with the term "totalitarian sect" (тоталитарная секта) in Russian.
There were a lot of such cults back in the day - too many to list in one post. Foreign fanatical movements like Jehovah's Witnesses, various Evangelical cults from the USA, Moonies and even Aum Shinrikyo also rushed into the newly independent countries to spread their propaganda. I actually used to have a shitload of JW paraphernalia and even a single Chick tract ("This Was Your Life!", translated into Russian).

Actual examples of cult brainwashing from the 1990s:










EDIT:


Save the Loli said:


> I like the Universe People cult. It was founded by a Czech guy named Ivo Benda, and is also popular in Slovakia. I'll let this image sum things up.
> 
> According to these guys, the Saurians are trying to enslave us with RFID chips, and we need some help. Fortunately the great alien (or should that be Aryan?) commander Ashtar Sheran, with his assistants Ptaah and Jesus, want to help us out and will lead their fleet UFOs to help evacuate Earth.
> 
> ...


These guys used to be an obscure meme on old Russian imageboards in mid-late 2000s. They tried spamming their bullshit on the Russian Internet in very, very broken Russian, immediately attracting ridicule.


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## Francis E. Dec Esc. (Jun 24, 2018)

Russia also had the Gadget from Rescue Rangers cult:


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## Corbin Dallas Multipass (Jun 24, 2018)

Tragi-Chan said:


> A lot of cults have some good to begin with. A lot of former Scientologists say they found auditing helpful if nothing else. The People’s Temple started out as a Christian sect that preached racial equality. It’s one of the ways intelligent people get lured in.


I have heard about some scientology stuff that's actually not bad, it's mostly recycled self help stuff, the thing is those little tricks really do work.  The other thing is, just talking to someone about what's going on and having them act like they want to help is more than a lot of people have, so it's easy to see why people get sucked in to various stuff.  I find the whole e-meter thing beyond ridiculous, but we've all got our blind spots.


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## NARPASSWORD (Jun 24, 2018)

Francis E. Dec Esc. said:


> Russia also had the Gadget from Rescue Rangers cult:
> 
> 
> View attachment 480671
> ...


Damn, you beat me to it.
It's like a whole army of Ray Jones.


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## snuffleupagus (Jun 25, 2018)

So I’ll power level a bit here since I was raised in an Apostolic Pentecostal Church that has been on a few cult watch groups. They aren’t considered an actual cult but do have cultish behaviors and are labeled as potential for concern. 

The Church seemed pretty standard, run of the mill, contemporary non-denominational Christian until you started to dig into their theology and beliefs.  

The Apostle was the Church preacher/leader who had been chosen/ordained by god to interpret his message and word for church members. What the Apostle said was law. He believed in a very strict Old Testament family structure, but women didn’t have to stay at home. They could definitely work and tithe into the Church coffers, but women who chose the highest calling (motherhood) were upheld and honored more than working mothers. There were a lot of sermons extolling the virtue of full quivers and encouragement to have children to build up gods army, but there were only a handful of mega families. Most families had 2-3 kids, with our 4-kid family holding full quiver honor. The more kids, the more status in the Church. 



Spoiler: No Dating



The Apostle taught that dating was wrong and a godly courtship was the only way to a successful marriage. He even wrote a book and last I’d checked you could find it on amazon (How to Find a Mate if You Aren’t Going to Date). They believed that there should be NO physical contact and that even looking at someone of the opposite sex  hike lead to sinful thoughts. Once the sinful thoughts happened, it was just as bad as if you’d engaged in the physical act of sex. It was nuts. 

To find a mate, god would reveal to you through prayer the person he intended for you. You were to pray on it and read the Bible for a bit of time before going to your parents to reveal who god had chosen for you. Then your parents would pray and read some scripture themselves and then reach out to the person god told you to marry. While this is all going on, god is working his will on your future mate and his family so the two sets of parents should meet halfway as they come to discuss the betrothal. After a short betrothal, where you are never alone or allowed physical contact you get married and start having orgasmic Christian sex.



I could go on for days about this cultish Church. It was bad and I mark those years of my life as very dark. I think the Apostle cherry picked the most damaging and spiritually abusive beliefs he could find and promoted them as the only way to be a Christian. Think the Duggar beliefs but we got to dress cool and normal. It took about ten years of therapy to overcome the programming they put us through and I still have some pretty disordered thinking and am a raging atheist. If anyone wants to ask questions I’ll be happy to answer honestly.


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## The Man From G.R.I.D.S. (Sep 7, 2018)

@snuffleupagus A lot of modern Protestent beliefs (the Rapture, courtship != dating, unconditional election/grace) have no historical/scriptural basis.

"The thought of sin is as bad as the phydical sin" is IMO an admonishment against rumination... the guilt tripping is the exact opposite direction from where you should be encouraged to go. It leads to all-or-nothing thinking, which spirals downward.

Christianity is best when authority is earned by example (making a non-dysfunctional marriage and family) and via IQ tests (mastery of Latin or Greek). You rarely find dysfunction or rapid decline within one or two generations (pastors kids strung out on dope is so common it's a meme) in churches led by such people, especially if they are an organic, locally-rooted community.

If you look at what people did hundreds of years ago, it looks like dating, albeit of the sally-is-kissing-johnny elementary school type. Though in those days both kids didnt need 15+ years of school to work at starbucks and could afford kids.


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## ASU (Sep 9, 2018)

The people who go on about crystalline DNA and saying they operate on the 5th and 7th dimensions are interesting. The Pleiadian people are fun. I kind of miss old school Hare Krishnas. There are still some around but they are more like Hipster Krishnas. Did you know you can buy voodoo potions, powders, etc on Amazon.com?


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## Deadinsidechu (Aug 3, 2021)

Are there forums like kiwi that document cults? Reddit sucks.


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## Pope Negro Joe the XIIIth (Aug 3, 2021)

There's xfamily.org for the CoG cult, but it's a wiki. Great site though.


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