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Religion, spirituality and belief are all endemic to the whole “being human or human like” deal, in one way or another, to some degree. However, some smaller groups of belief, religious or otherwise, manage to go sideways and really push the limit on healthy spiritual outlets. Some of us have personal experience with a more extreme, non traditional or unorthodox belief system. Or maybe you’re just like me and like spending time going “so they’re like legit believing that” a lot. For the purpose of the thread, let’s loosely define cult as “a new religious movement or other social group which is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular person, object, or goal,” which is yoinked from Wikipedia because I’m lazy. Sometimes I go by “coercion, charismatic leadership and compound” as a rough criteria. Personally, QAnon is loosely a cult, but Swifties are not. Christianity isn’t a cult, but there are absolutely Christian cults. I think it’s a “know it when you see it” situation for the most part, but there are definitely some that fall into a “cult and…” category. For instance, a new documentary on the Twin Flame Universe group was released on Netflix and wow, that’s a cult! And what a loving weird cult at that! “Stalking is ok”, reinventing the gender binary, and proof that you don’t really need charisma to be a charismatic leader, what a mix. What’s really fascinating/terrifying is that most of this cult formed mostly online, making its real world actions and events being all the more disturbing. Like running extensive intel on the enemies of your Facebook group is definitely a choice to make. Another group I learned about recently is Love Has Won, via the HBO documentary series, as well as a mention on QAnon Anonymous. Colloidal silver, Robin Williams and mummification, three things that I thought never would appear in a sentence together. So, were you in a cult? A thrill kill kult? Or did you grow up with friends who left a cult? Tell me about your experiences or thoughts. Or share a cult, I’m not grading you, here, check out Two by Twos, a new religious movement that has been around for over a century but rarely has printed materials for the public, no official headquarters and are pretty much home based.
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Nov 25, 2023 13:40
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I sometimes think I would be pretty good at being in a cult. But who has enough free time for that these days, am I right?
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Nov 25, 2023 13:45
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teen witch posted:Religion, spirituality and belief are all endemic to the whole “being human or human like” deal, in one way or another, to some degree. Lol, sure it is
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Nov 25, 2023 13:57
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https://www.xenosisacult.com/ I worked for a small business that is owned by a man that's high up in these ranks. It's a highly successful and well known business in Columbus. The owner and others pushed really hard to get to know me, find common interests- something I already don't like very much at all, lol. For instance, have you ever been asked, just casually, "So, tell me about your whole life story man!"? Weird. It seemed like everyone I worked with were part of the Xenos, now known as "Dwell" church, name changed for publicity reasons, yep. Even weirder, many current employees WERE part of the church, but had left for various reasons, but still all their friends and family remain. Myself and another ex employee did some digging and found the owner of this company had his house purchased for him by the leader of the church for a dollar. They are pumping millions into a free tech school for at risk youth. Sounds pretty inocuous right? Even good for the city and society right? Maybe. But what about pack these at risk youths into small living spaces by the dozen, require they go to "leadership groups" multiple times a week? Little bit weird. I've spoken with dozens of people that know people in the church or had been encouraged to join. Some of the consistent trends I've heard about include unsupervised parties and sleepovers at the church or members' homes, encouraging underage girls and boys to drink alcohol and smoke at said parties, and love bombing with gifts and poo poo. Very weird poo poo that I ultimately stopped working for the company over. There's a weird indescribable "happiness" that just bugged the absolute poo poo out of me, that everyone there had. Perhaps I'm just a miserable hermit, but it was definitely unique to that place.
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Nov 25, 2023 14:03
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I was just thinking yesterday about how I should join a thrill kill kult. Anyone know of any that operate in Minnesota?
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Nov 25, 2023 14:08
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I’m pretty sure there’d be tens of thousands of dead housewives if the LuLaRoe lady decided to pull a Jim Jones.
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Nov 25, 2023 14:28
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You go in thinking you'll get to see cthulhu but then you're just molested by some old guy
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Nov 25, 2023 14:39
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Smugworth posted:I was just thinking yesterday about how I should join a thrill kill kult. Anyone know of any that operate in Minnesota? I'm a member of a resurrection cult, we resurrect the people the thrill kill cults kill, I hope you understand if you go through with this I'll have to report you.
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Nov 25, 2023 14:41
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Smugworth posted:I was just thinking yesterday about how I should join a thrill kill kult. Anyone know of any that operate in Minnesota? If you’re Kooler Than Jesus you’re in
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Nov 25, 2023 15:15
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All Baptists should be hanged not sorry
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Nov 25, 2023 15:40
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Chief McHeath posted:All Baptists should be hanged not sorry Was raised baptist, can confirm that they are the worst.
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Nov 25, 2023 15:48
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So I just learned about Ramtha's School of Enlightenment and JZ Knight and boy howdywiki posted:In 2011, Knight stated (while at the RSE supposedly channeling Ramtha), "gently caress God’s chosen people! I think they have earned enough cash to have paid their way out of the goddamned gas chambers by now", and said that Mexican people "breed like rabbits" and are "poison," that all gay men used to be Catholic priests, and that organic farmers have bad hygiene. quote:She [Knight] later worked in the cable television industry, and due to her work moved to Tacoma, Washington, where, according to her autobiography, a psychic told her the "Enlightened One" would appear to her in the future. She says that Ramtha first appeared to her in her kitchen in 1977.
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Nov 25, 2023 16:14
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What was that one Japanese cult that I think used nanobots to attack a Tokyo subway?
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Nov 25, 2023 16:33
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teen witch posted:organic farmers have bad hygiene. 
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Nov 25, 2023 16:37
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I won't delve any further since we have a dedicated thread for it, but the MAGA cult is a hell of a thing. If you'd call it a cult. If not, I'm not sure how else to define it.
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Nov 25, 2023 16:39
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teen witch posted:So I just learned about Ramtha's School of Enlightenment and JZ Knight and boy howdy Ramtha might be one of my Irish uncles.
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Nov 25, 2023 16:45
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Outpost22 posted:What was that one Japanese cult that I think used nanobots to attack a Tokyo subway?  Ricin is terrifying redshirt posted:I won't delve any further since we have a dedicated thread for it, but the MAGA cult is a hell of a thing. If you'd call it a cult. If not, I'm not sure how else to define it. There is a LOT of overlap, MAGA poo poo is incredibly cult like, and that’s not being hyperbolic. It’s far more than a political movement at this point.
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Nov 25, 2023 17:06
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I really recommend the Last Podcast On the Left series on Aum. Or...any of their series on cults, really. Their series on the Children of God stuck with me on one assessment: cult leaders basically want to turn everyone else in the cult into clones of themselves, and just how David Berg literally corrupted everyone around him into being as disgustingly vile as himself (and making them think it was enlightened!) is both terrifying and sickening.
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Nov 25, 2023 17:21
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKwcFlM6kiU
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Nov 25, 2023 17:25
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I was in an MLM / business cult having me do door-to-door office supply sales to random businesses about a decade ago. It felt like a regular job until I had a family member say "this is clearly a pyramid scheme you idiot". Then a few years later I had a roommate try to join the same cult and I had to talk her out of it.
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Nov 25, 2023 17:30
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I almost gave Tony Robbins money to experience his "breakthrough" shows, but then I saw an episode of his TV show where he just mercilessly bullied a newly quadriplegic husband and his wife into thanking him for letting them on his private island. They were sobbing the entire time.
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Nov 25, 2023 17:45
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Chen Tao Kind of fascinating! Doomsday prophecy turned out to not be true and they sort of just disbanded. Also: quote:The group reportedly moved to Garland because the name sounded like "God Land". At the time the group had roughly 140–160 members. Members purchased more than 20 homes in an upper-middle-class south Garland neighborhood. Like their neighbors, these followers were white-collar professionals, some of whom were reportedly wealthy. "They dressed in white, wore cowboy hats and drove luxury cars," according to The Dallas Morning News.
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Nov 25, 2023 18:03
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GBS seems to have a high concentration of people who grew up in cult or cult-like christian conservative sects. This is especially apparent in any thread where right-wing politics are discussed because those threads are filled with personal anecdotes from goons who were tormented by their families.
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Nov 25, 2023 18:12
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Those 24/7 Fitness Planet gyms but spelled like GYMCVNT that've been popping up in vacant strip malls like mushrooms after the rain. P sure they're legit fitness cults that provide yearly memberships and tailored personal training to trick unsuspecting victims into GETTING SWOLE.
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Nov 25, 2023 18:13
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An old friend of mine made it their thing to infiltrate and dismantle cults. He actually did successfully break up a few. I might have to ask for some stories to share if I can get back in touch.
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Nov 25, 2023 18:14
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People who jog and their nipples bleed
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Nov 25, 2023 18:21
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Cornwind Evil posted:I really recommend the Last Podcast On the Left series on Aum. Or...any of their series on cults, really. I find the last podcast episodes about serial killers really boring and same-y, but the ones about cults have a lot more varied craziness to work with and are usually pretty good.
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Nov 25, 2023 18:26
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One of my uncles was a "missionary" in the Children of God cult, aka The Family International. He was married and had like 8 or 9 kids and they all spent something like 20 years traveling around the world doing...... I don't even want to know what but several of my cousins had to go to therapy for it.  I only found this out about 3 years ago. Growing up I was always told that my uncle and his family were globe-trotting (ostensibly) Christian missionaries but not what denomination they were part of, and then when I was 17 that uncle died and during the funeral proceedings my grandfather made an indirect comment about them being part of some kind of new age cult but nobody would tell me what specific cult. I think my cousins are all out of it now, but we're not sure about my aunt; last I heard she moved to Canada and has been out of contact ever since. I. M. Gei fucked around with this message at 21:04 on Nov 25, 2023 |
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Nov 25, 2023 21:01
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i knew a few lads under the pope’s spell growing up
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Nov 25, 2023 21:04
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Haverchuck posted:GBS seems to have a high concentration of people who grew up in cult or cult-like christian conservative sects. -Creepy founder -Demands money -Promises xenforo to the faithful. But not today, maybe tomorrow
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Nov 25, 2023 21:13
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Here's a horrifying fact I just learned. You know how FYAD just changed its forum title? Yeah..... turns out this is what the Children of God cult actually believes. Wikipedia posted:"Loving Jesus" is a term TFI members use to describe their intimate, sexual relationship with Jesus. TFI describes its "Loving Jesus" teaching as a radical form of bridal theology.[29] They believe the church of followers is Christ's bride, called to love and serve him with wifely fervor; however, this bridal theology is taken further, encouraging members to imagine Jesus is joining them during sexual intercourse and masturbation. Male members are cautioned to visualize themselves as women, in order to avoid a homosexual relationship with Jesus. Many TFI publications, and spirit messages claimed to be from Jesus himself, elaborate this intimate, sexual relation they believe Jesus desires and needs. TFI imagines itself as his special "bride" in graphic poetry, guided visualizations, artwork,[30] and songs.[31] Some TFI literature is not brought into conservative countries for fear it may be classified at customs as pornography.[32] The literature outlining this view of Jesus and his desire for a sexual relationship with believers was edited for younger teens,[33] then further edited for children.[34] I. M. Gei fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Nov 25, 2023 |
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Nov 25, 2023 21:18
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lol they made a cover from international https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKwcFlM6kiU&t=601s
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Nov 25, 2023 21:22
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America is the most dangerous and violent cult I ever nearly escaped.
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Nov 25, 2023 21:28
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Honestly, joining a cult sounds loving exhausting. Anybody know of any good ones that don't take a lot of commitment?
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Nov 25, 2023 22:02
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AKA Pseudonym posted:Honestly, joining a cult sounds loving exhausting. Anybody know of any good ones that don't take a lot of commitment? Become a Trekkie!
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Nov 25, 2023 22:04
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AKA Pseudonym posted:Honestly, joining a cult sounds loving exhausting. Anybody know of any good ones that don't take a lot of commitment? I think I'm ordained in the Church of the Latter-day Dude*; they're a fairly casual, low-pressure crowd ime *it was online, well over a decade ago, and I dunno how to look it up or if any record of it still exists. but considering the tenets of the faith, worrying about it feels like needless pedantry
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Nov 25, 2023 22:15
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Time_pants posted:America is the most dangerous and violent cult I ever nearly escaped. I did and it never loving leaves ya. AKA Pseudonym posted:Honestly, joining a cult sounds loving exhausting. Anybody know of any good ones that don't take a lot of commitment? Pal, you’re posting in one
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Nov 25, 2023 22:26
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I'll join any cult that will pay my bills
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Nov 25, 2023 22:37
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AKA Pseudonym posted:Honestly, joining a cult sounds loving exhausting. Anybody know of any good ones that don't take a lot of commitment? Technically any club or a hobby group can be a labeled a cult if you argue strongly enough. So don't wait and join an adult rec soccer/baseball league today.
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Nov 25, 2023 22:40
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I. M. Gei posted:Yeah..... turns out this is what the Children of God cult actually believes. And the worst part is, if that was where Berg had stopped...it would be 10x better than what else they did. Seriously, they need a new word for the type of poisonous deviant Berg was. He's like, the opposite of 'don't kinkshame'. He's someone who should have been kink-stomped repeatedly.
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Nov 26, 2023 02:13
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