#cults — Public Fediverse posts

L. Ron Hubbard & his imaginary "Xenu" the alien story is core to the ridiculous cult they've created.

The image below is what Trey Parker & Matt Stone had to put in their South Park episode to reiterate that they aren't kidding.

▶️ VIDEO: How South Park exposed the cult of Scientology
https://youtube.com/watch?v=4pttPmUvdz4&si=KjG10VY1lsCZSciJ
#cults #conman #SouthPark #fakereligion

L. Ron Hubbard & his imaginary "Xenu" the alien story is core to the ridiculous cult they've created.

The image below is what Trey Parker & Matt Stone had to put in their South Park episode to reiterate that they aren't kidding.

▶️ VIDEO: How South Park exposed the cult of Scientology
https://youtube.com/watch?v=4pttPmUvdz4&si=KjG10VY1lsCZSciJ
#cults #conman #SouthPark #fakereligion

L. Ron Hubbard & his imaginary "Xenu" the alien story is core to the ridiculous cult they've created.

The image below is what Trey Parker & Matt Stone had to put in their South Park episode to reiterate that they aren't kidding.

▶️ VIDEO: How South Park exposed the cult of Scientology
https://youtube.com/watch?v=4pttPmUvdz4&si=KjG10VY1lsCZSciJ
#cults #conman #SouthPark #fakereligion

L. Ron Hubbard & his imaginary "Xenu" the alien story is core to the ridiculous cult they've created.

The image below is what Trey Parker & Matt Stone had to put in their South Park episode to reiterate that they aren't kidding.

▶️ VIDEO: How South Park exposed the cult of Scientology
https://youtube.com/watch?v=4pttPmUvdz4&si=KjG10VY1lsCZSciJ
#cults #conman #SouthPark #fakereligion

L. Ron Hubbard & his imaginary "Xenu" the alien story is core to the ridiculous cult they've created.

The image below is what Trey Parker & Matt Stone had to put in their South Park episode to reiterate that they aren't kidding.

▶️ VIDEO: How South Park exposed the cult of Scientology
https://youtube.com/watch?v=4pttPmUvdz4&si=KjG10VY1lsCZSciJ
#cults #conman #SouthPark #fakereligion

[Edit*]An older but ever-relevant of ICSA Today with articles on recovering from sexual abuse in cults, how to communicate with loved ones inside cults, the spread of conspiracy theories in France, and multi-generational cult survivors.

https://library.internationalculticstudies.org/24n7ceh/

[The issue is from 2021, but they emailed around an article from it recently.]

#ReligiousTrauma #cult #cults #exmo #exmormon #exvie #exvangelical #ICSA

"AROPL is a religious sect that moved its headquarters to Crewe, in Cheshire, in 2021. It blends tenets of Islam with conspiracy theories about the Illuminati and aliens controlling US presidents. Followers wear black beanie hats and believe the sect’s leader can cure the sick and make the moon disappear."

It would be easier to list the cults which aren't a hotbed of Child Abuse and Human Trafficking

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/apr/29/crewe-police-raid-ahmadi-religion-peace-light

#Cults #Cheshire #AROPL

Check out my new (and extremely detailed) article where I explain what the heck “Spiralism” is and why this is both the newest and the oldest cult at the same time (and probably the most dangerous by far).

https://emmanuelgoldstein1984.substack.com/p/ai-is-indoctrinating-you-into-a-dangerous

#cults #AI #aipsychosis

Blog: I Went to a New Age Expo (Stranger in a Strange Land) – Why are There so Many Kids Here? And What’s with Reincarnation?

Welp, it’s that time of year again. The birds are chirping, the flowers are coming up, the dang mosquitos are back for no other reason than to spite us, and the weather is as indecisive as Taylor Swift where it can’t decide what it wants to be. In other words, its spring, and that means that my local New Age expo is back in town, which means y’all get to hear about the madness.

This expo is one of four this year, with two happening in spring, one happening in mid-summer, and the last in early fall. However, from what I’ve heard from the people who went in previous years, the one we went to was the biggest one of the year. That said, I wasn’t surprised about the sheer number of people who were there. The convention hall was super crowded, but one of the things I wasn’t expecting about the crowd was how many kids were there. The majority of the crowd was female, so it was only natural that there would be some moms, but I wasn’t expecting the moms to bring their kids, ages ranging from babies to pre-teens. I saw one little boy holding a crystal wand in each hand as he sat and meditated at a booth, for crying out loud.

I can’t tell what’s worse: kids running around at Sephora, or kids running around at the New Age Expo. At least Sephora doesn’t have several booths selling psilocybin.

But besides the absurd number of kids there, the main thing that my family’s conversations with people revolved around was reincarnation. Now, I’ll stick to the three most interesting conversations we had with the people there for the sake of brevity, but all three are weird.

The first person we talked to was a lady who identified as Roman Catholic and believed in various Masters of Wisdom, particularly that Jesus is the Master of Love and Buddha is the Master of Wisdom. Further, she believed in perennial wisdom, which is the belief that there was once an ultimate truth or religion that got turned into the various beliefs and religions held by everyone today. Thus, everyone is on their own path to the ultimate source of everything as they gradually figure out and accept that they have the divine spark within them and reach enlightenment over the course of thousands or millions of reincarnation cycles.

She also believed that since everyone gets reincarnated, they basically have infinite attempts to get it right. If the planet blows up in the meantime, that’s fine. You’ll get transferred to a different planet. And if you do get it right and become some sort of super enlightened spiritual master, you can get transferred to another planet to help other people reach their enlightenment. Doesn’t that sound fun?

Now, for those of you who have read the Bible, you might be slightly confused about who the heck Jesus is to this lady and how He fits into her belief system. After all, she was saying that he’s one of the various Masters you can follow while the Bible says that He’s your only shot to Heaven. Well, when I brought up John 14:6 when Jesus says, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” she said that Jesus is essentially the most enlightened person ever. He’s the gatekeeper to reaching God, so as the Master of Love, He’s the highest standard for everyone to follow to reach their divine spark.

Of course, that is not at all what Jesus meant in the Bible, but this is how she was interpreting it to fit with her worldview.

But that leaves the question of how Jesus reached such a high enlightenment status that He could claim to be God. According to her, it was through being unconditionally loving, thus reaching His full potential through the divine spark within, because God is love, whatever that’s defined as. It’s not like according to the Bible, while God is loving and merciful, He’s also just and must rain down His wrath on those who break His law or anything.

Overall, the path to the ultimate truth according to her was by being unconditionally loving and by following whatever truth fits you…which is entirely subjective and contradictory.

Another interesting conversation I had was with a member of what’s possibly the most obvious pseudo-Christian cult I’ve ever seen. This cult is called the Church of Shambhala Vajradhara Maitreya Sangha, and its leader is a dude who calls himself Buddha Maitreya and claims to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. As such, he believes that it’s his job to restore the Noosphere through Christ consciousness, amongst other things.

But what is the Noosphere? I’ll let him explain:

The Noosphere is the planetary sphere of mind or thinking layer of the planet Earth. To grasp the idea of the Noosphere, we must elevate our consciousness and open ourselves to the most general, elemental, and cosmic principles of life on Earth.

The Noosphere is the next stage in the evolution of human consciousness. As the mental sheathe of the planet, the Noosphere characterizes mind and consciousness as a unitary phenomenon. This means that the quality and nature of our individual and collective thoughts directly affects the Noosphere and creates the quality of our environment – the biosphere.

The historic process is changing dramatically before our eyes … Mankind taken as a whole is becoming a powerful geological force. Humanity’s mind and work face the problem of reconstructing the biosphere in the interests of freely thinking Mankind as a single entity. This new state of the world we are approaching without noticing it, it is the ‘Noosphere’.
‍
The return of Christ as the fulfillment of the Noosphere as well as the consummation of the universe. According to the Law of Time, the end of linear time begins the time of the Noosphere and the return of Christ Consciousness.

But when will the return of Christ be if this dude is claiming to be the reincarnation of Christ? According to the lady I was talking to, who was a nun for this cult, the first coming occurred when Jesus came in His original body. After He died and was resurrected, she then said that He went to India (where He also spent His early years between 12 and 30), married, and somewhere along the line, was reincarnated in various forms, which is the second coming.

If you’re confused, I am too.

I asked her how that lined up with what the Bible (which she claimed to have read) says about the return of Jesus and how everyone will see Him and every knee will bow. Her response, like with many of the other questions I asked her, was, “I’m just a student.”

Some of the other questions I asked her included:

1). “Do you believe the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are the actual teachings of Jesus during His first coming?”

2). “What evidence is there that Buddha Maitreya is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ?”

3). “If karma is real,” – (they believe in karma) – “then if a woman is raped, then does she deserve it for something bad that she did in a past life?”

4). “What defines good and bad, or your concept of ‘virtue’?”

5). “What happens after we die? Do I get reincarnated or do I get to break out of that cycle?”

6). “If we’re constantly being reincarnated, then what purpose is there in repenting and following this guy if I’m still, maybe, going to get reincarnated?”

The answers to questions 4-6 could be summed up as, “I don’t know,” as she kept telling me, “I’m just a student. It’s better to hear ‘Jesus’ speak.” The other three questions, however, she did try to answer. On the first one, she said that while Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were okay about Jesus’ ministry, but it’s better to hear from Buddha Maitreya himself. Additionally, her group mainly focuses on the “Lost Gospels.” The Lost Gospels are basically a theory that Jesus, in the 18 years that we know next to nothing about between His childhood and ministry, went to India, did some stuff there, and travelled back to Israel to His thing. Of course, there’s no solid historical evidence for this, but this is what they roll with.

On my second question, her response was that some anonymous pastor/theologian in South Africa said that Buddha Maitreya was Jesus after listening to him. And with the third question, she just brushed that off entirely as absurd.

I hope y’all can detect the issues with her apologetic for this cult. If it wasn’t saying “I don’t know” or deflecting, it’s based on completely unverifiable sources or unsupported theories. It got to a point where we were both getting frustrated, her with the questions, and me with the lack of answers. Finally, she directed me to Buddha Maitreya’s YouTube channel, and I may do a deep dive post on him and his cult eventually.

Finally, the last person I’ll mention here is a dude I’m just going to call Wyatt. Originally, we thought he was a Wiccan, but actually, he was closer to a Luciferian. There are different types of Luciferians out there, but in his case, he believed that we are gods who came from some source that we later called “God,” and that we need to realize that we’re God to eventually reach our full potential as god at some point. Thus, Wyatt believed that he’s a god and that he can help other people reach their god-ness.

As we continued to question this belief, though, Wyatt started getting visibly flustered to the point where his neck was so red and splotchy that I was wondering if he was having an allergic reaction to something. Thankfully, we were able to end the conversation when my dad informed Mom and I that he had finally located a family friend who was also doing evangelism there.

So, that was my experience with the New Agers this time around. It’s honestly a depressing look at how easily people are deceived as long as they can feel like they are in control.

Until next time,

M.J.

Blog: I Went to a New Age Expo (Stranger in a Strange Land) – Why are There so Many Kids Here? And What’s with Reincarnation?

Welp, it’s that time of year again. The birds are chirping, the flowers are coming up, the dang mosquitos are back for no other reason than to spite us, and the weather is as indecisive as Taylor Swift where it can’t decide what it wants to be. In other words, its spring, and that means that my local New Age expo is back in town, which means y’all get to hear about the madness.

This expo is one of four this year, with two happening in spring, one happening in mid-summer, and the last in early fall. However, from what I’ve heard from the people who went in previous years, the one we went to was the biggest one of the year. That said, I wasn’t surprised about the sheer number of people who were there. The convention hall was super crowded, but one of the things I wasn’t expecting about the crowd was how many kids were there. The majority of the crowd was female, so it was only natural that there would be some moms, but I wasn’t expecting the moms to bring their kids, ages ranging from babies to pre-teens. I saw one little boy holding a crystal wand in each hand as he sat and meditated at a booth, for crying out loud.

I can’t tell what’s worse: kids running around at Sephora, or kids running around at the New Age Expo. At least Sephora doesn’t have several booths selling psilocybin.

But besides the absurd number of kids there, the main thing that my family’s conversations with people revolved around was reincarnation. Now, I’ll stick to the three most interesting conversations we had with the people there for the sake of brevity, but all three are weird.

The first person we talked to was a lady who identified as Roman Catholic and believed in various Masters of Wisdom, particularly that Jesus is the Master of Love and Buddha is the Master of Wisdom. Further, she believed in perennial wisdom, which is the belief that there was once an ultimate truth or religion that got turned into the various beliefs and religions held by everyone today. Thus, everyone is on their own path to the ultimate source of everything as they gradually figure out and accept that they have the divine spark within them and reach enlightenment over the course of thousands or millions of reincarnation cycles.

She also believed that since everyone gets reincarnated, they basically have infinite attempts to get it right. If the planet blows up in the meantime, that’s fine. You’ll get transferred to a different planet. And if you do get it right and become some sort of super enlightened spiritual master, you can get transferred to another planet to help other people reach their enlightenment. Doesn’t that sound fun?

Now, for those of you who have read the Bible, you might be slightly confused about who the heck Jesus is to this lady and how He fits into her belief system. After all, she was saying that he’s one of the various Masters you can follow while the Bible says that He’s your only shot to Heaven. Well, when I brought up John 14:6 when Jesus says, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” she said that Jesus is essentially the most enlightened person ever. He’s the gatekeeper to reaching God, so as the Master of Love, He’s the highest standard for everyone to follow to reach their divine spark.

Of course, that is not at all what Jesus meant in the Bible, but this is how she was interpreting it to fit with her worldview.

But that leaves the question of how Jesus reached such a high enlightenment status that He could claim to be God. According to her, it was through being unconditionally loving, thus reaching His full potential through the divine spark within, because God is love, whatever that’s defined as. It’s not like according to the Bible, while God is loving and merciful, He’s also just and must rain down His wrath on those who break His law or anything.

Overall, the path to the ultimate truth according to her was by being unconditionally loving and by following whatever truth fits you…which is entirely subjective and contradictory.

Another interesting conversation I had was with a member of what’s possibly the most obvious pseudo-Christian cult I’ve ever seen. This cult is called the Church of Shambhala Vajradhara Maitreya Sangha, and its leader is a dude who calls himself Buddha Maitreya and claims to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. As such, he believes that it’s his job to restore the Noosphere through Christ consciousness, amongst other things.

But what is the Noosphere? I’ll let him explain:

The Noosphere is the planetary sphere of mind or thinking layer of the planet Earth. To grasp the idea of the Noosphere, we must elevate our consciousness and open ourselves to the most general, elemental, and cosmic principles of life on Earth.

The Noosphere is the next stage in the evolution of human consciousness. As the mental sheathe of the planet, the Noosphere characterizes mind and consciousness as a unitary phenomenon. This means that the quality and nature of our individual and collective thoughts directly affects the Noosphere and creates the quality of our environment – the biosphere.

The historic process is changing dramatically before our eyes … Mankind taken as a whole is becoming a powerful geological force. Humanity’s mind and work face the problem of reconstructing the biosphere in the interests of freely thinking Mankind as a single entity. This new state of the world we are approaching without noticing it, it is the ‘Noosphere’.
‍
The return of Christ as the fulfillment of the Noosphere as well as the consummation of the universe. According to the Law of Time, the end of linear time begins the time of the Noosphere and the return of Christ Consciousness.

But when will the return of Christ be if this dude is claiming to be the reincarnation of Christ? According to the lady I was talking to, who was a nun for this cult, the first coming occurred when Jesus came in His original body. After He died and was resurrected, she then said that He went to India (where He also spent His early years between 12 and 30), married, and somewhere along the line, was reincarnated in various forms, which is the second coming.

If you’re confused, I am too.

I asked her how that lined up with what the Bible (which she claimed to have read) says about the return of Jesus and how everyone will see Him and every knee will bow. Her response, like with many of the other questions I asked her, was, “I’m just a student.”

Some of the other questions I asked her included:

1). “Do you believe the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are the actual teachings of Jesus during His first coming?”

2). “What evidence is there that Buddha Maitreya is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ?”

3). “If karma is real,” – (they believe in karma) – “then if a woman is raped, then does she deserve it for something bad that she did in a past life?”

4). “What defines good and bad, or your concept of ‘virtue’?”

5). “What happens after we die? Do I get reincarnated or do I get to break out of that cycle?”

6). “If we’re constantly being reincarnated, then what purpose is there in repenting and following this guy if I’m still, maybe, going to get reincarnated?”

The answers to questions 4-6 could be summed up as, “I don’t know,” as she kept telling me, “I’m just a student. It’s better to hear ‘Jesus’ speak.” The other three questions, however, she did try to answer. On the first one, she said that while Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were okay about Jesus’ ministry, but it’s better to hear from Buddha Maitreya himself. Additionally, her group mainly focuses on the “Lost Gospels.” The Lost Gospels are basically a theory that Jesus, in the 18 years that we know next to nothing about between His childhood and ministry, went to India, did some stuff there, and travelled back to Israel to His thing. Of course, there’s no solid historical evidence for this, but this is what they roll with.

On my second question, her response was that some anonymous pastor/theologian in South Africa said that Buddha Maitreya was Jesus after listening to him. And with the third question, she just brushed that off entirely as absurd.

I hope y’all can detect the issues with her apologetic for this cult. If it wasn’t saying “I don’t know” or deflecting, it’s based on completely unverifiable sources or unsupported theories. It got to a point where we were both getting frustrated, her with the questions, and me with the lack of answers. Finally, she directed me to Buddha Maitreya’s YouTube channel, and I may do a deep dive post on him and his cult eventually.

Finally, the last person I’ll mention here is a dude I’m just going to call Wyatt. Originally, we thought he was a Wiccan, but actually, he was closer to a Luciferian. There are different types of Luciferians out there, but in his case, he believed that we are gods who came from some source that we later called “God,” and that we need to realize that we’re God to eventually reach our full potential as god at some point. Thus, Wyatt believed that he’s a god and that he can help other people reach their god-ness.

As we continued to question this belief, though, Wyatt started getting visibly flustered to the point where his neck was so red and splotchy that I was wondering if he was having an allergic reaction to something. Thankfully, we were able to end the conversation when my dad informed Mom and I that he had finally located a family friend who was also doing evangelism there.

So, that was my experience with the New Agers this time around. It’s honestly a depressing look at how easily people are deceived as long as they can feel like they are in control.

Until next time,

M.J.

Blog: I Went to a New Age Expo (Stranger in a Strange Land) – Why are There so Many Kids Here? And What’s with Reincarnation?

Welp, it’s that time of year again. The birds are chirping, the flowers are coming up, the dang mosquitos are back for no other reason than to spite us, and the weather is as indecisive as Taylor Swift where it can’t decide what it wants to be. In other words, its spring, and that means that my local New Age expo is back in town, which means y’all get to hear about the madness.

This expo is one of four this year, with two happening in spring, one happening in mid-summer, and the last in early fall. However, from what I’ve heard from the people who went in previous years, the one we went to was the biggest one of the year. That said, I wasn’t surprised about the sheer number of people who were there. The convention hall was super crowded, but one of the things I wasn’t expecting about the crowd was how many kids were there. The majority of the crowd was female, so it was only natural that there would be some moms, but I wasn’t expecting the moms to bring their kids, ages ranging from babies to pre-teens. I saw one little boy holding a crystal wand in each hand as he sat and meditated at a booth, for crying out loud.

I can’t tell what’s worse: kids running around at Sephora, or kids running around at the New Age Expo. At least Sephora doesn’t have several booths selling psilocybin.

But besides the absurd number of kids there, the main thing that my family’s conversations with people revolved around was reincarnation. Now, I’ll stick to the three most interesting conversations we had with the people there for the sake of brevity, but all three are weird.

The first person we talked to was a lady who identified as Roman Catholic and believed in various Masters of Wisdom, particularly that Jesus is the Master of Love and Buddha is the Master of Wisdom. Further, she believed in perennial wisdom, which is the belief that there was once an ultimate truth or religion that got turned into the various beliefs and religions held by everyone today. Thus, everyone is on their own path to the ultimate source of everything as they gradually figure out and accept that they have the divine spark within them and reach enlightenment over the course of thousands or millions of reincarnation cycles.

She also believed that since everyone gets reincarnated, they basically have infinite attempts to get it right. If the planet blows up in the meantime, that’s fine. You’ll get transferred to a different planet. And if you do get it right and become some sort of super enlightened spiritual master, you can get transferred to another planet to help other people reach their enlightenment. Doesn’t that sound fun?

Now, for those of you who have read the Bible, you might be slightly confused about who the heck Jesus is to this lady and how He fits into her belief system. After all, she was saying that he’s one of the various Masters you can follow while the Bible says that He’s your only shot to Heaven. Well, when I brought up John 14:6 when Jesus says, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” she said that Jesus is essentially the most enlightened person ever. He’s the gatekeeper to reaching God, so as the Master of Love, He’s the highest standard for everyone to follow to reach their divine spark.

Of course, that is not at all what Jesus meant in the Bible, but this is how she was interpreting it to fit with her worldview.

But that leaves the question of how Jesus reached such a high enlightenment status that He could claim to be God. According to her, it was through being unconditionally loving, thus reaching His full potential through the divine spark within, because God is love, whatever that’s defined as. It’s not like according to the Bible, while God is loving and merciful, He’s also just and must rain down His wrath on those who break His law or anything.

Overall, the path to the ultimate truth according to her was by being unconditionally loving and by following whatever truth fits you…which is entirely subjective and contradictory.

Another interesting conversation I had was with a member of what’s possibly the most obvious pseudo-Christian cult I’ve ever seen. This cult is called the Church of Shambhala Vajradhara Maitreya Sangha, and its leader is a dude who calls himself Buddha Maitreya and claims to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. As such, he believes that it’s his job to restore the Noosphere through Christ consciousness, amongst other things.

But what is the Noosphere? I’ll let him explain:

The Noosphere is the planetary sphere of mind or thinking layer of the planet Earth. To grasp the idea of the Noosphere, we must elevate our consciousness and open ourselves to the most general, elemental, and cosmic principles of life on Earth.

The Noosphere is the next stage in the evolution of human consciousness. As the mental sheathe of the planet, the Noosphere characterizes mind and consciousness as a unitary phenomenon. This means that the quality and nature of our individual and collective thoughts directly affects the Noosphere and creates the quality of our environment – the biosphere.

The historic process is changing dramatically before our eyes … Mankind taken as a whole is becoming a powerful geological force. Humanity’s mind and work face the problem of reconstructing the biosphere in the interests of freely thinking Mankind as a single entity. This new state of the world we are approaching without noticing it, it is the ‘Noosphere’.
‍
The return of Christ as the fulfillment of the Noosphere as well as the consummation of the universe. According to the Law of Time, the end of linear time begins the time of the Noosphere and the return of Christ Consciousness.

But when will the return of Christ be if this dude is claiming to be the reincarnation of Christ? According to the lady I was talking to, who was a nun for this cult, the first coming occurred when Jesus came in His original body. After He died and was resurrected, she then said that He went to India (where He also spent His early years between 12 and 30), married, and somewhere along the line, was reincarnated in various forms, which is the second coming.

If you’re confused, I am too.

I asked her how that lined up with what the Bible (which she claimed to have read) says about the return of Jesus and how everyone will see Him and every knee will bow. Her response, like with many of the other questions I asked her, was, “I’m just a student.”

Some of the other questions I asked her included:

1). “Do you believe the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are the actual teachings of Jesus during His first coming?”

2). “What evidence is there that Buddha Maitreya is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ?”

3). “If karma is real,” – (they believe in karma) – “then if a woman is raped, then does she deserve it for something bad that she did in a past life?”

4). “What defines good and bad, or your concept of ‘virtue’?”

5). “What happens after we die? Do I get reincarnated or do I get to break out of that cycle?”

6). “If we’re constantly being reincarnated, then what purpose is there in repenting and following this guy if I’m still, maybe, going to get reincarnated?”

The answers to questions 4-6 could be summed up as, “I don’t know,” as she kept telling me, “I’m just a student. It’s better to hear ‘Jesus’ speak.” The other three questions, however, she did try to answer. On the first one, she said that while Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were okay about Jesus’ ministry, but it’s better to hear from Buddha Maitreya himself. Additionally, her group mainly focuses on the “Lost Gospels.” The Lost Gospels are basically a theory that Jesus, in the 18 years that we know next to nothing about between His childhood and ministry, went to India, did some stuff there, and travelled back to Israel to His thing. Of course, there’s no solid historical evidence for this, but this is what they roll with.

On my second question, her response was that some anonymous pastor/theologian in South Africa said that Buddha Maitreya was Jesus after listening to him. And with the third question, she just brushed that off entirely as absurd.

I hope y’all can detect the issues with her apologetic for this cult. If it wasn’t saying “I don’t know” or deflecting, it’s based on completely unverifiable sources or unsupported theories. It got to a point where we were both getting frustrated, her with the questions, and me with the lack of answers. Finally, she directed me to Buddha Maitreya’s YouTube channel, and I may do a deep dive post on him and his cult eventually.

Finally, the last person I’ll mention here is a dude I’m just going to call Wyatt. Originally, we thought he was a Wiccan, but actually, he was closer to a Luciferian. There are different types of Luciferians out there, but in his case, he believed that we are gods who came from some source that we later called “God,” and that we need to realize that we’re God to eventually reach our full potential as god at some point. Thus, Wyatt believed that he’s a god and that he can help other people reach their god-ness.

As we continued to question this belief, though, Wyatt started getting visibly flustered to the point where his neck was so red and splotchy that I was wondering if he was having an allergic reaction to something. Thankfully, we were able to end the conversation when my dad informed Mom and I that he had finally located a family friend who was also doing evangelism there.

So, that was my experience with the New Agers this time around. It’s honestly a depressing look at how easily people are deceived as long as they can feel like they are in control.

Until next time,

M.J.

Blog: I Went to a New Age Expo (Stranger in a Strange Land) – Why are There so Many Kids Here? And What’s with Reincarnation?

Welp, it’s that time of year again. The birds are chirping, the flowers are coming up, the dang mosquitos are back for no other reason than to spite us, and the weather is as indecisive as Taylor Swift where it can’t decide what it wants to be. In other words, its spring, and that means that my local New Age expo is back in town, which means y’all get to hear about the madness.

This expo is one of four this year, with two happening in spring, one happening in mid-summer, and the last in early fall. However, from what I’ve heard from the people who went in previous years, the one we went to was the biggest one of the year. That said, I wasn’t surprised about the sheer number of people who were there. The convention hall was super crowded, but one of the things I wasn’t expecting about the crowd was how many kids were there. The majority of the crowd was female, so it was only natural that there would be some moms, but I wasn’t expecting the moms to bring their kids, ages ranging from babies to pre-teens. I saw one little boy holding a crystal wand in each hand as he sat and meditated at a booth, for crying out loud.

I can’t tell what’s worse: kids running around at Sephora, or kids running around at the New Age Expo. At least Sephora doesn’t have several booths selling psilocybin.

But besides the absurd number of kids there, the main thing that my family’s conversations with people revolved around was reincarnation. Now, I’ll stick to the three most interesting conversations we had with the people there for the sake of brevity, but all three are weird.

The first person we talked to was a lady who identified as Roman Catholic and believed in various Masters of Wisdom, particularly that Jesus is the Master of Love and Buddha is the Master of Wisdom. Further, she believed in perennial wisdom, which is the belief that there was once an ultimate truth or religion that got turned into the various beliefs and religions held by everyone today. Thus, everyone is on their own path to the ultimate source of everything as they gradually figure out and accept that they have the divine spark within them and reach enlightenment over the course of thousands or millions of reincarnation cycles.

She also believed that since everyone gets reincarnated, they basically have infinite attempts to get it right. If the planet blows up in the meantime, that’s fine. You’ll get transferred to a different planet. And if you do get it right and become some sort of super enlightened spiritual master, you can get transferred to another planet to help other people reach their enlightenment. Doesn’t that sound fun?

Now, for those of you who have read the Bible, you might be slightly confused about who the heck Jesus is to this lady and how He fits into her belief system. After all, she was saying that he’s one of the various Masters you can follow while the Bible says that He’s your only shot to Heaven. Well, when I brought up John 14:6 when Jesus says, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” she said that Jesus is essentially the most enlightened person ever. He’s the gatekeeper to reaching God, so as the Master of Love, He’s the highest standard for everyone to follow to reach their divine spark.

Of course, that is not at all what Jesus meant in the Bible, but this is how she was interpreting it to fit with her worldview.

But that leaves the question of how Jesus reached such a high enlightenment status that He could claim to be God. According to her, it was through being unconditionally loving, thus reaching His full potential through the divine spark within, because God is love, whatever that’s defined as. It’s not like according to the Bible, while God is loving and merciful, He’s also just and must rain down His wrath on those who break His law or anything.

Overall, the path to the ultimate truth according to her was by being unconditionally loving and by following whatever truth fits you…which is entirely subjective and contradictory.

Another interesting conversation I had was with a member of what’s possibly the most obvious pseudo-Christian cult I’ve ever seen. This cult is called the Church of Shambhala Vajradhara Maitreya Sangha, and its leader is a dude who calls himself Buddha Maitreya and claims to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. As such, he believes that it’s his job to restore the Noosphere through Christ consciousness, amongst other things.

But what is the Noosphere? I’ll let him explain:

The Noosphere is the planetary sphere of mind or thinking layer of the planet Earth. To grasp the idea of the Noosphere, we must elevate our consciousness and open ourselves to the most general, elemental, and cosmic principles of life on Earth.

The Noosphere is the next stage in the evolution of human consciousness. As the mental sheathe of the planet, the Noosphere characterizes mind and consciousness as a unitary phenomenon. This means that the quality and nature of our individual and collective thoughts directly affects the Noosphere and creates the quality of our environment – the biosphere.

The historic process is changing dramatically before our eyes … Mankind taken as a whole is becoming a powerful geological force. Humanity’s mind and work face the problem of reconstructing the biosphere in the interests of freely thinking Mankind as a single entity. This new state of the world we are approaching without noticing it, it is the ‘Noosphere’.
‍
The return of Christ as the fulfillment of the Noosphere as well as the consummation of the universe. According to the Law of Time, the end of linear time begins the time of the Noosphere and the return of Christ Consciousness.

But when will the return of Christ be if this dude is claiming to be the reincarnation of Christ? According to the lady I was talking to, who was a nun for this cult, the first coming occurred when Jesus came in His original body. After He died and was resurrected, she then said that He went to India (where He also spent His early years between 12 and 30), married, and somewhere along the line, was reincarnated in various forms, which is the second coming.

If you’re confused, I am too.

I asked her how that lined up with what the Bible (which she claimed to have read) says about the return of Jesus and how everyone will see Him and every knee will bow. Her response, like with many of the other questions I asked her, was, “I’m just a student.”

Some of the other questions I asked her included:

1). “Do you believe the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are the actual teachings of Jesus during His first coming?”

2). “What evidence is there that Buddha Maitreya is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ?”

3). “If karma is real,” – (they believe in karma) – “then if a woman is raped, then does she deserve it for something bad that she did in a past life?”

4). “What defines good and bad, or your concept of ‘virtue’?”

5). “What happens after we die? Do I get reincarnated or do I get to break out of that cycle?”

6). “If we’re constantly being reincarnated, then what purpose is there in repenting and following this guy if I’m still, maybe, going to get reincarnated?”

The answers to questions 4-6 could be summed up as, “I don’t know,” as she kept telling me, “I’m just a student. It’s better to hear ‘Jesus’ speak.” The other three questions, however, she did try to answer. On the first one, she said that while Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were okay about Jesus’ ministry, but it’s better to hear from Buddha Maitreya himself. Additionally, her group mainly focuses on the “Lost Gospels.” The Lost Gospels are basically a theory that Jesus, in the 18 years that we know next to nothing about between His childhood and ministry, went to India, did some stuff there, and travelled back to Israel to His thing. Of course, there’s no solid historical evidence for this, but this is what they roll with.

On my second question, her response was that some anonymous pastor/theologian in South Africa said that Buddha Maitreya was Jesus after listening to him. And with the third question, she just brushed that off entirely as absurd.

I hope y’all can detect the issues with her apologetic for this cult. If it wasn’t saying “I don’t know” or deflecting, it’s based on completely unverifiable sources or unsupported theories. It got to a point where we were both getting frustrated, her with the questions, and me with the lack of answers. Finally, she directed me to Buddha Maitreya’s YouTube channel, and I may do a deep dive post on him and his cult eventually.

Finally, the last person I’ll mention here is a dude I’m just going to call Wyatt. Originally, we thought he was a Wiccan, but actually, he was closer to a Luciferian. There are different types of Luciferians out there, but in his case, he believed that we are gods who came from some source that we later called “God,” and that we need to realize that we’re God to eventually reach our full potential as god at some point. Thus, Wyatt believed that he’s a god and that he can help other people reach their god-ness.

As we continued to question this belief, though, Wyatt started getting visibly flustered to the point where his neck was so red and splotchy that I was wondering if he was having an allergic reaction to something. Thankfully, we were able to end the conversation when my dad informed Mom and I that he had finally located a family friend who was also doing evangelism there.

So, that was my experience with the New Agers this time around. It’s honestly a depressing look at how easily people are deceived as long as they can feel like they are in control.

Until next time,

M.J.

Blog: I Went to a New Age Expo (Stranger in a Strange Land) – Why are There so Many Kids Here? And What’s with Reincarnation?

Welp, it’s that time of year again. The birds are chirping, the flowers are coming up, the dang mosquitos are back for no other reason than to spite us, and the weather is as indecisive as Taylor Swift where it can’t decide what it wants to be. In other words, its spring, and that means that my local New Age expo is back in town, which means y’all get to hear about the madness.

This expo is one of four this year, with two happening in spring, one happening in mid-summer, and the last in early fall. However, from what I’ve heard from the people who went in previous years, the one we went to was the biggest one of the year. That said, I wasn’t surprised about the sheer number of people who were there. The convention hall was super crowded, but one of the things I wasn’t expecting about the crowd was how many kids were there. The majority of the crowd was female, so it was only natural that there would be some moms, but I wasn’t expecting the moms to bring their kids, ages ranging from babies to pre-teens. I saw one little boy holding a crystal wand in each hand as he sat and meditated at a booth, for crying out loud.

I can’t tell what’s worse: kids running around at Sephora, or kids running around at the New Age Expo. At least Sephora doesn’t have several booths selling psilocybin.

But besides the absurd number of kids there, the main thing that my family’s conversations with people revolved around was reincarnation. Now, I’ll stick to the three most interesting conversations we had with the people there for the sake of brevity, but all three are weird.

The first person we talked to was a lady who identified as Roman Catholic and believed in various Masters of Wisdom, particularly that Jesus is the Master of Love and Buddha is the Master of Wisdom. Further, she believed in perennial wisdom, which is the belief that there was once an ultimate truth or religion that got turned into the various beliefs and religions held by everyone today. Thus, everyone is on their own path to the ultimate source of everything as they gradually figure out and accept that they have the divine spark within them and reach enlightenment over the course of thousands or millions of reincarnation cycles.

She also believed that since everyone gets reincarnated, they basically have infinite attempts to get it right. If the planet blows up in the meantime, that’s fine. You’ll get transferred to a different planet. And if you do get it right and become some sort of super enlightened spiritual master, you can get transferred to another planet to help other people reach their enlightenment. Doesn’t that sound fun?

Now, for those of you who have read the Bible, you might be slightly confused about who the heck Jesus is to this lady and how He fits into her belief system. After all, she was saying that he’s one of the various Masters you can follow while the Bible says that He’s your only shot to Heaven. Well, when I brought up John 14:6 when Jesus says, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” she said that Jesus is essentially the most enlightened person ever. He’s the gatekeeper to reaching God, so as the Master of Love, He’s the highest standard for everyone to follow to reach their divine spark.

Of course, that is not at all what Jesus meant in the Bible, but this is how she was interpreting it to fit with her worldview.

But that leaves the question of how Jesus reached such a high enlightenment status that He could claim to be God. According to her, it was through being unconditionally loving, thus reaching His full potential through the divine spark within, because God is love, whatever that’s defined as. It’s not like according to the Bible, while God is loving and merciful, He’s also just and must rain down His wrath on those who break His law or anything.

Overall, the path to the ultimate truth according to her was by being unconditionally loving and by following whatever truth fits you…which is entirely subjective and contradictory.

Another interesting conversation I had was with a member of what’s possibly the most obvious pseudo-Christian cult I’ve ever seen. This cult is called the Church of Shambhala Vajradhara Maitreya Sangha, and its leader is a dude who calls himself Buddha Maitreya and claims to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. As such, he believes that it’s his job to restore the Noosphere through Christ consciousness, amongst other things.

But what is the Noosphere? I’ll let him explain:

The Noosphere is the planetary sphere of mind or thinking layer of the planet Earth. To grasp the idea of the Noosphere, we must elevate our consciousness and open ourselves to the most general, elemental, and cosmic principles of life on Earth.

The Noosphere is the next stage in the evolution of human consciousness. As the mental sheathe of the planet, the Noosphere characterizes mind and consciousness as a unitary phenomenon. This means that the quality and nature of our individual and collective thoughts directly affects the Noosphere and creates the quality of our environment – the biosphere.

The historic process is changing dramatically before our eyes … Mankind taken as a whole is becoming a powerful geological force. Humanity’s mind and work face the problem of reconstructing the biosphere in the interests of freely thinking Mankind as a single entity. This new state of the world we are approaching without noticing it, it is the ‘Noosphere’.
‍
The return of Christ as the fulfillment of the Noosphere as well as the consummation of the universe. According to the Law of Time, the end of linear time begins the time of the Noosphere and the return of Christ Consciousness.

But when will the return of Christ be if this dude is claiming to be the reincarnation of Christ? According to the lady I was talking to, who was a nun for this cult, the first coming occurred when Jesus came in His original body. After He died and was resurrected, she then said that He went to India (where He also spent His early years between 12 and 30), married, and somewhere along the line, was reincarnated in various forms, which is the second coming.

If you’re confused, I am too.

I asked her how that lined up with what the Bible (which she claimed to have read) says about the return of Jesus and how everyone will see Him and every knee will bow. Her response, like with many of the other questions I asked her, was, “I’m just a student.”

Some of the other questions I asked her included:

1). “Do you believe the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are the actual teachings of Jesus during His first coming?”

2). “What evidence is there that Buddha Maitreya is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ?”

3). “If karma is real,” – (they believe in karma) – “then if a woman is raped, then does she deserve it for something bad that she did in a past life?”

4). “What defines good and bad, or your concept of ‘virtue’?”

5). “What happens after we die? Do I get reincarnated or do I get to break out of that cycle?”

6). “If we’re constantly being reincarnated, then what purpose is there in repenting and following this guy if I’m still, maybe, going to get reincarnated?”

The answers to questions 4-6 could be summed up as, “I don’t know,” as she kept telling me, “I’m just a student. It’s better to hear ‘Jesus’ speak.” The other three questions, however, she did try to answer. On the first one, she said that while Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were okay about Jesus’ ministry, but it’s better to hear from Buddha Maitreya himself. Additionally, her group mainly focuses on the “Lost Gospels.” The Lost Gospels are basically a theory that Jesus, in the 18 years that we know next to nothing about between His childhood and ministry, went to India, did some stuff there, and travelled back to Israel to His thing. Of course, there’s no solid historical evidence for this, but this is what they roll with.

On my second question, her response was that some anonymous pastor/theologian in South Africa said that Buddha Maitreya was Jesus after listening to him. And with the third question, she just brushed that off entirely as absurd.

I hope y’all can detect the issues with her apologetic for this cult. If it wasn’t saying “I don’t know” or deflecting, it’s based on completely unverifiable sources or unsupported theories. It got to a point where we were both getting frustrated, her with the questions, and me with the lack of answers. Finally, she directed me to Buddha Maitreya’s YouTube channel, and I may do a deep dive post on him and his cult eventually.

Finally, the last person I’ll mention here is a dude I’m just going to call Wyatt. Originally, we thought he was a Wiccan, but actually, he was closer to a Luciferian. There are different types of Luciferians out there, but in his case, he believed that we are gods who came from some source that we later called “God,” and that we need to realize that we’re God to eventually reach our full potential as god at some point. Thus, Wyatt believed that he’s a god and that he can help other people reach their god-ness.

As we continued to question this belief, though, Wyatt started getting visibly flustered to the point where his neck was so red and splotchy that I was wondering if he was having an allergic reaction to something. Thankfully, we were able to end the conversation when my dad informed Mom and I that he had finally located a family friend who was also doing evangelism there.

So, that was my experience with the New Agers this time around. It’s honestly a depressing look at how easily people are deceived as long as they can feel like they are in control.

Until next time,

M.J.

In the FLDS are the women's dresses color coded? I see some wearing red, others blue or green. Is it like Star Trek uniforms? If Emma is in red she works engineering or security? And if Abigail is in blue she works science or medical?

#flds #mormons #fundamentalism #religion #cults #skepticism

In the FLDS are the women's dresses color coded? I see some wearing red, others blue or green. Is it like Star Trek uniforms? If Emma is in red she works engineering or security? And if Abigail is in blue she works science or medical?

#flds #mormons #fundamentalism #religion #cults #skepticism

In the FLDS are the women's dresses color coded? I see some wearing red, others blue or green. Is it like Star Trek uniforms? If Emma is in red she works engineering or security? And if Abigail is in blue she works science or medical?

#flds #mormons #fundamentalism #religion #cults #skepticism

In the FLDS are the women's dresses color coded? I see some wearing red, others blue or green. Is it like Star Trek uniforms? If Emma is in red she works engineering or security? And if Abigail is in blue she works science or medical?

#flds #mormons #fundamentalism #religion #cults #skepticism

So rises the Book of Mormon, and an American sensation

https://piefed.social/c/historymemes/p/1991189/so-rises-the-book-of-mormon-and-an-american-sensation

So rises the Book of Mormon, and an American sensation

https://piefed.social/c/historymemes/p/1991189/so-rises-the-book-of-mormon-and-an-american-sensation

So rises the Book of Mormon, and an American sensation

https://piefed.social/c/historymemes/p/1991189/so-rises-the-book-of-mormon-and-an-american-sensation

So rises the Book of Mormon, and an American sensation

https://piefed.social/c/historymemes/p/1991189/so-rises-the-book-of-mormon-and-an-american-sensation

The ICSA has a journal article about how career counseling can help protect vulnerable kids from trafficking and cults.

Surprise! Poverty increases risk. Having a solid sense of identity helps prevent risk.

Abstract: 'Human trafficking is a rapidly expanding global criminal industry that frequently targets children and adolescents by preying on their vulnerabilities. This article presents research identifying seven categories of susceptibility in Generation Z, with a specific focus on how poverty and low personal achievement increase the risk of being trafficked. The authors propose that career counseling can serve as a vital preventive measure by building self-sufficiency, motivation, and a long-term “career self-concept” that helps youth reject the immediate gratification offered by predators.'

(Sorry, it's Substack.)

https://icsatoday.substack.com/p/could-career-counseling-help-protect

#ReligiousTrauma #cult #cults #exmo #exmormon #exvie #exvangelical

Me: dang, I should stretch more…oh here’s a yoga doc …*finishes Ep.1 of Twisted Yoga * 😳

#twistedyoga #documentary #cults #HumanTrafficking

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5baPn6SAQA

#US #USA #USPol #USPoli #USPolitics #America #Propaganda #Capitalism #Socialism #SocialDemocracy #LandOfTheFree #Freedom #Liberty #Education #Brainwashed #Colonialism #Healthcare #Childcare #ParentalLeave #ImperialOverstretch #CriticalThinking #Cults #MindControl #Gerrymandering #FPTP #TwoPartySystem #RankedChoice #RankedChoiceVoting #PledgeOfAllegiance #QuestionAuthority #ChristianNationalism #AmericanExceptionalism

I found a gif of the Reverend Jim Jones drinking out of a red Pizza Hut glass just like the ones I own.

#meme #memes #gif #jimjones #jonestown #cult #cults #pizzahut #90s #pizza #religion

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on #BBC6Music's #6MusicsIndieForever

Cults:
🎵 Always Forever

#Cults

https://skyforiawitchhousemusic.bandcamp.com/track/cults-always-forever-skyforia

https://open.spotify.com/track/2enPRFda84VE2wtI8c86Uf

Over the last couple of years, I watched some films with Hugh Jackman. Didn't know much about him.
However, I won't watch his films anymore.

What changed my mind?
A video by Rebecca Watson:
"Inside Hugh Jackman's Weird Cult"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Corqql0QGHE

Btw, I researched cults for quite a while (for two novel projects and because of personal interest) and I cannot stand anyone in a position of power who supports any type of cult.

#destructivecult #HughJackman #cults

Growing Pains: Woman cries about how hard it is to be #ExMAGA. The internet doesn’t take it well.

#ParkrosePermaculture

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QP7B8c5nP2o

#Cults #MAGAcult #ExCultmembers

"The Satanic Temple leader & cargo cult messiah"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ldw0xflMrAk

This video essay by researcher veritas et caritas has been edited and re-uploaded.

> The year is 2014, and Cevin Soling, also known by his pseudonym Malcolm Jarry, one of the leaders of The Satanic Temple in the US, is visiting the tiny Pacific island of Tanna, part of the nation of Vanuatu. According to Soling, “Apparently there was a prophecy I would come”. This video tells the strange story of how Cevin Soling arrived in Vanuatu, convinced that he was the messiah of a cargo cult.

#TheSatanicTemple #SatanicTemple #TST #Satanism #CevinSoling #cargoCults #Vanuatu #cults #videoEssay #VeritasEtCaritas

Marketing guy explains why #fear & #resentment drive ppl into the tru mp ma ga cult.

The cultists don’t care abt 🍊 or #GOP fixing / improving things.
They just want the ppl they perceived to have hurt them to suffer.
They compartmentalize morality from facts & harm.

If you correct them on facts, they receive that as you calling them stupid, so they hate you more to protect their own ego.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8QAwV7r/

#iran #immigration #Minneapolis #USAPolitics #cults #hate #psychology

#cults #space #elonmusk #transcendence

The “Satanic Panic” of the 1980s in the U.S. stemmed from unfounded fears of satanic ritual abuse, leading to widespread moral hysteria and wrongful convictions based on coerced testimonies. #cults #satanicpanic https://connectparanormal.net/2024/09/24/satanic-panic-of-the-80s-the-myth-of-cult-ritual-abuse/

Bluesky is An Ontological Space for Sadomasochism, Trolling, & Schadenfreude

So, during the initial exodus from Twitter after it became X following Elon Musk’s purchase, many people left but kept their accounts, purposefully to bully, surveil, antagonize, and troll others. People—including me—moved to Bluesky, Mastodon, or both, and used their Twitter accounts purely for harassment and similar behavior. Essentially, X became the place you went to act like a dumpster fire. Because most people within occult niches are highly toxic, I tend to not only block them but also block anyone they follow for reasons I’m about to explain.

I really only use that account to criticize occulture, post nudes, or share YouTube videos. Since I’m aware of fed posting, I avoid commenting on political topics or anarchist discourse on the Clearnet. Keep that in mind. If you scroll through my profile, you’ll see me poking fun at chaotes, posting nudes, gushing about or complaining about my husband, sharing dating horror story YouTube videos, or pet grooming videos. If you look at my likes, you’ll only see gay porn, mathematics papers, engineering papers, etc. There’s no mention of anything political, especially genocides.

There was a person I’d never interacted with who was part of a starter pack for occultists. I blocked them. Then I woke up this morning to find I was added to this list:

Chomsky Honks
Genocide apologist posting cringe from a Starbucks as it burns down around them

So, with all that in mind, these occultists I’ve never interacted with added me to a list. I am neither invested in Bluesky nor strongly connected to their network, primarily because I block almost everyone on it and don’t ever look at any feeds whatsoever, including the Home, followers, or Discover feeds. Therefore, the posts I do interact with are from pockets of people way outside my network. It’s kind of like driving to the bathhouse in Atlanta from a small town in Bubbafuck, Georgia, because everyone in your small town is garbage. Same idea, ontologically.

Honestly, I don’t care, because I’ve mostly moved back to Mastodon and blog more.

What they’ve done is implicitly a form of defamation, because they feel slighted and justified in defaming someone they don’t know, simply because a stranger they’ve never spoken to blocked them. I tend to do a basic block on anyone who blocks me, because if you’ve decided you don’t want to see me, there’s probably no good-faith reason for us to engage in the future. It’s likely there’s some malicious intent later on. As you can see with this, I was correct.

So, in order for them to know I blocked them, they had to continuously check who had blocked them, and they believe people who block them should be punished through bullying. Since the description of the list doesn’t fit me, they retaliated out of malice. The idea behind these cliques is pretty simple: they feel threatened by anyone who rejects their normative statements because it means they are being rejected, and they view any form of dissent as an existential threat. As a result, they believe people who reject them, set boundaries, or dissent from the consensus of their culture need to be punished, and the AT protocol provides convenient tools for brigading. Ironically, these people are anti-fascist yet have a very Christian-like evangelical way of viewing the world. The lack of insight is pretty funny.

I’m the child of cult leaders and members with Cluster B personalities, so I’m not clutching my pearls, especially since I’m already set up elsewhere outside of Bluesky. They do not have the means to impose significant consequences on me, so I find it amusing. I genuinely find it funny how they eat each other. I’m not calling anyone to action—I’m just enjoying the fire.

This person wasn’t aware of who I was. We never interacted, and being added to a list that defames me happened directly after I blocked them without any prior interaction. I saw their account from the firehose and wasn’t algorithmically presented with it, meaning we’re not even in the same clique. Now, if they had said something like “spams hashtags, trolls, makes alts,” that would make sense.

When you look at it for what it is, they wanted to defame, disparage, and brigade—punitive actions because they interpreted a boundary as hostile. This is projection, as they are weaponizing a mechanism to enforce boundaries. Do I care? No. I’m just pointing out how it turned its predecessor, X, into what it is now. It became a place for people to harass others, not a space for genuine, good-faith discussions, connections, or even debates. That is not my interpretation.

Well, to anyone who knows, you might ask: Did they block you because you have a particular reputation? No. I am a Web 1.0 mage, so the networks I’m known in have roots and associations in the old forums. The occulture people who have fixated on me for years go all the way back to Wizard Forums, the psionics forums, the unsolved mystery forums, etc., from the early 2000s. If you’re a circa 2016 social media influencer mage, you probably wouldn’t know me—primarily because the moment I see you, I’ll block you. There’s also a moderation block list just for me and my alts.

This behavior is typical of the culture on Bluesky, so much so that it’s a common complaint people now have—many no longer view block lists as legitimate moderation tools. People are being advised to be skeptical of lists with a large number of people.

Oh, I’m not playing the victim here. I don’t care, because I could easily get back at them. I’m infamously vindictive and petty. More importantly, it supports my point and vindicates me. I’m not signaling victimhood; rather, I’m pointing out a culture, albeit one I participate in. Tying this back to my initial point: part of what signaled the death of Twitter as a serious forum and its transformation into X was the bullying. A while ago, I did a phylogenetic memetic analysis that basically showed how the culture on Bluesky is highly derivative of image boards. But don’t you bully and troll people? Yes, yes, I do – on Bluesky, and the lack of moderation and culture enable it. That’s my point.

Bluesky is an accelerationist and reactionary platform that gives you the tools to surveil and harass people. The developers of Bluesky and the AT Protocol have explicitly said they are technological accelerationists and libertarians. I’m not virtue signaling here; rather, I am saying Bluesky is a reactionary platform, so its culture should be understood as performative, hostile, and adversarial—not cooperative or collaborative. Just like Twitter. You can’t do what I do on Bluesky on the fediverse, because the culture won’t allow it.

You saw this type of behavior on Tumblr, where the population carrying the memetics of that culture migrated to Twitter and now Bluesky. Essentially, Bluesky became a place where malice, bullying, and hostile behavior became so normalized that I’m not even upset about lists being weaponized like this. For example, I’m not posting this on Bluesky, and I, myself, have bullied people on Bluesky. But I behave myself on Mastodon. I am using myself as an example. The trolling is happening on Bluesky. The thoughtful posts are happening on Mastodon. The blog this will be posted on is federated, so this is being posted to the fediverse.

That’s what happened to Twitter. It started normalizing hostile, toxic behavior, so that people left the platform and only returned to Twitter for schadenfreude. I have my own WordPress fediverse instance. I am just on Bluesky for the schadenfreude.

Bluesky is An Ontological Space for Sadomasochism, Trolling, & Schadenfreude

So, during the initial exodus from Twitter after it became X following Elon Musk’s purchase, many people left but kept their accounts, purposefully to bully, surveil, antagonize, and troll others. People—including me—moved to Bluesky, Mastodon, or both, and used their Twitter accounts purely for harassment and similar behavior. Essentially, X became the place you went to act like a dumpster fire. Because most people within occult niches are highly toxic, I tend to not only block them but also block anyone they follow for reasons I’m about to explain.

I really only use that account to criticize occulture, post nudes, or share YouTube videos. Since I’m aware of fed posting, I avoid commenting on political topics or anarchist discourse on the Clearnet. Keep that in mind. If you scroll through my profile, you’ll see me poking fun at chaotes, posting nudes, gushing about or complaining about my husband, sharing dating horror story YouTube videos, or pet grooming videos. If you look at my likes, you’ll only see gay porn, mathematics papers, engineering papers, etc. There’s no mention of anything political, especially genocides.

There was a person I’d never interacted with who was part of a starter pack for occultists. I blocked them. Then I woke up this morning to find I was added to this list:

Chomsky Honks
Genocide apologist posting cringe from a Starbucks as it burns down around them

So, with all that in mind, these occultists I’ve never interacted with added me to a list. I am neither invested in Bluesky nor strongly connected to their network, primarily because I block almost everyone on it and don’t ever look at any feeds whatsoever, including the Home, followers, or Discover feeds. Therefore, the posts I do interact with are from pockets of people way outside my network. It’s kind of like driving to the bathhouse in Atlanta from a small town in Bubbafuck, Georgia, because everyone in your small town is garbage. Same idea, ontologically.

Honestly, I don’t care, because I’ve mostly moved back to Mastodon and blog more.

What they’ve done is implicitly a form of defamation, because they feel slighted and justified in defaming someone they don’t know, simply because a stranger they’ve never spoken to blocked them. I tend to do a basic block on anyone who blocks me, because if you’ve decided you don’t want to see me, there’s probably no good-faith reason for us to engage in the future. It’s likely there’s some malicious intent later on. As you can see with this, I was correct.

So, in order for them to know I blocked them, they had to continuously check who had blocked them, and they believe people who block them should be punished through bullying. Since the description of the list doesn’t fit me, they retaliated out of malice. The idea behind these cliques is pretty simple: they feel threatened by anyone who rejects their normative statements because it means they are being rejected, and they view any form of dissent as an existential threat. As a result, they believe people who reject them, set boundaries, or dissent from the consensus of their culture need to be punished, and the AT protocol provides convenient tools for brigading. Ironically, these people are anti-fascist yet have a very Christian-like evangelical way of viewing the world. The lack of insight is pretty funny.

I’m the child of cult leaders and members with Cluster B personalities, so I’m not clutching my pearls, especially since I’m already set up elsewhere outside of Bluesky. They do not have the means to impose significant consequences on me, so I find it amusing. I genuinely find it funny how they eat each other. I’m not calling anyone to action—I’m just enjoying the fire.

This person wasn’t aware of who I was. We never interacted, and being added to a list that defames me happened directly after I blocked them without any prior interaction. I saw their account from the firehose and wasn’t algorithmically presented with it, meaning we’re not even in the same clique. Now, if they had said something like “spams hashtags, trolls, makes alts,” that would make sense.

When you look at it for what it is, they wanted to defame, disparage, and brigade—punitive actions because they interpreted a boundary as hostile. This is projection, as they are weaponizing a mechanism to enforce boundaries. Do I care? No. I’m just pointing out how it turned its predecessor, X, into what it is now. It became a place for people to harass others, not a space for genuine, good-faith discussions, connections, or even debates. That is not my interpretation.

Well, to anyone who knows, you might ask: Did they block you because you have a particular reputation? No. I am a Web 1.0 mage, so the networks I’m known in have roots and associations in the old forums. The occulture people who have fixated on me for years go all the way back to Wizard Forums, the psionics forums, the unsolved mystery forums, etc., from the early 2000s. If you’re a circa 2016 social media influencer mage, you probably wouldn’t know me—primarily because the moment I see you, I’ll block you. There’s also a moderation block list just for me and my alts.

This behavior is typical of the culture on Bluesky, so much so that it’s a common complaint people now have—many no longer view block lists as legitimate moderation tools. People are being advised to be skeptical of lists with a large number of people.

Oh, I’m not playing the victim here. I don’t care, because I could easily get back at them. I’m infamously vindictive and petty. More importantly, it supports my point and vindicates me. I’m not signaling victimhood; rather, I’m pointing out a culture, albeit one I participate in. Tying this back to my initial point: part of what signaled the death of Twitter as a serious forum and its transformation into X was the bullying. A while ago, I did a phylogenetic memetic analysis that basically showed how the culture on Bluesky is highly derivative of image boards. But don’t you bully and troll people? Yes, yes, I do – on Bluesky, and the lack of moderation and culture enable it. That’s my point.

Bluesky is an accelerationist and reactionary platform that gives you the tools to surveil and harass people. The developers of Bluesky and the AT Protocol have explicitly said they are technological accelerationists and libertarians. I’m not virtue signaling here; rather, I am saying Bluesky is a reactionary platform, so its culture should be understood as performative, hostile, and adversarial—not cooperative or collaborative. Just like Twitter. You can’t do what I do on Bluesky on the fediverse, because the culture won’t allow it.

You saw this type of behavior on Tumblr, where the population carrying the memetics of that culture migrated to Twitter and now Bluesky. Essentially, Bluesky became a place where malice, bullying, and hostile behavior became so normalized that I’m not even upset about lists being weaponized like this. For example, I’m not posting this on Bluesky, and I, myself, have bullied people on Bluesky. But I behave myself on Mastodon. I am using myself as an example. The trolling is happening on Bluesky. The thoughtful posts are happening on Mastodon. The blog this will be posted on is federated, so this is being posted to the fediverse.

That’s what happened to Twitter. It started normalizing hostile, toxic behavior, so that people left the platform and only returned to Twitter for schadenfreude. I have my own WordPress fediverse instance. I am just on Bluesky for the schadenfreude.

The Battle for One of the Richest and Smallest Counties in Texas

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-southwest/the-battle-for-one-of-the-richest-and-smallest-counties-in-texas

Why Do #Cultures Adopt the #Religion of Their #Oppressors?

How long does a colonial religion take to feel like an ancestral truth? Chidume in Nigeria questions how his culture adopted #Christianity after its imposition by the sword. The hosts discuss shifting baseline syndrome and generational normalization.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkR3S2TmroU

#atheist #atheism #cults #religions #christian

And who is behind #ProtectGirlsSports ? Why a #ChristoFascist CULT in #WestbrookME!

Maine judge rules #CalvaryChapel is a “cult” and bans a mother from taking her daughter to church

By Dillon Burroughs

Excerpts: "During that hearing, the district court judge, a former president of the American Civil Liberties Union (#ACLU), concluded that Bickford’s daughter experienced '#PsychologicalHarm' through her attendance at #CalvaryChapelPortland, a Bible-teaching, non-denominational church.

"The court relied heavily on testimony from a self-described 'cult expert' who labeled the church’s teachings on spiritual warfare, fallen angels, and doctrinal certainty as 'cultic' and potentially harmful. On that basis, the court awarded the father final authority over whether the child may attend services or even read the Bible during when with her mother.

[...]

"The father’s lawyer argues that the church’s teachings might have contributed to the child’s anxiety and panic episodes and that the district court acted within its discretion to protect the child’s psychological welfare. The district court judge decided that images of demons, descriptions of eternal punishment, and lessons on spiritual warfare in the Church’s youth curriculum created an environment inappropriate for the child."

Full article:
https://www.standingforfreedom.com/2025/11/20/maine-judge-restricts-mothers-right-to-take-daughter-to-church/

#ChildAbuse #PsychologicalAbuse #Cults #MainePol

The ICSA has been working hard to better support former cult members and those who have loved ones stuck in cults. Here's their newsletter recapping their updated website and revamped services.

I've been an ICSA member for many years. It's a very small academic organization that also welcome lay people who have had life experiences with cults. They've been around (under various names) for many decades, originally the publishers of Cultic Studies Journal, which is now split across several publications under various names. I've spoken about Mormonism at their conferences and met people with all kinds of backgrounds.

Their resources include: an academic journal, a magazine for lay people, conferences, a directory of helping professionals, and a back catalogue of all their past publications.

I'm glad to see them becoming more active and increasing their outreach.

https://simplyk-bucket-production.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/deliveries/e5ba1449-3665-4252-89a0-685f20f0ab9c/emails/0940ddbb-73aa-49b9-b596-ab14da5b45c8.html

#cults #ReligiousTrauma #ICSA #exmo #exmormon #exvie #exvangelical

#NickiMinaj Calls Trump ‘Dashing’ in Surprise Appearance With #ErikaKirk and #Black @twitter Is Through

While #Minaj has slowly been aligning herself with #PresidentDonaldTrump and his #conservative allies for weeks now, no one could’ve predicted this.

https://www.theroot.com/nicki-minaj-calls-trump-dashing-in-surprise-appearance-2000080791

#stupidho #MAGA #cults

#Christian Content Is Just #Sadistic Now

#TaylorAlesia aka "The #Bible Chick" is warning ya'll not to anger her very loving #god

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44_mFrn_1lM

#atheism #atheist #cults #hate

Dreading the onslaught of microaggressions at your upcoming holiday family gathering?

Try Watisdatsupozedamine!™*

* Use as directed. Ask your doctor if Watsidatsupozedamine?™ is right for you.

#Thanksgiving #AbuseCulture #AskQuestions #deconditioning #cults

My last and most important tip:

This process will very, very quickly out people who are abusers and bullies at heart. Who love the hating part of being fash. They deep-down consider themselves superior, and wet their pantaloons over imagining the horrors that are happening and will continue to happen. You will have few, if any, values in common with such a person. And they cannot be changed.

My guess is (and some studies show) that about 1 in 10 people fall somewhere in this category. Asking questions is the best way to discover who they are.

And when they tell you who they are, listen.

Aside from your own scientific curiosity about what makes such people tick, there is absolutely no productive discussion that can come from continuing to speak with a person like this. You will only hurt yourself and whoever is in earshot.

So if you get to this point? Stop. Eat more stuffing and talk about sportsball.

🧵

#Thanksgiving #AbuseCulture
#AskQuestions
#deconditioning
#cults

Remember, you can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into. These are not academic debates among people who have agreed on certain epistemological rules. This is the realm of rhetoric and persuasion, an area we on the scientific left have neglected because it's "irrational," and thus ceded entire territories because we're not willing to be humble and meet people on their own turf. This is some western white colonizer shite that I'm in the process of unpacking myself.

You're not committing a logical fallacy by talking about feelings. We are feeling creatures.

You're not being unreasonable by trying to understand what feels to you an unreasonable position. You are connecting to another human for the purpose of communication.

You aren't winning points on a scoreboard! Congratulations! In the contest of being the most correct and in alignment with reality, you won years ago! Now stop waving your prize in front of everyone and learn to humanize – not just them, but yourself and every marginalized person you are trying to protect.

But neither is this process about excusing fash behavior or prioritizing fragile privileged feelings above the realities of those marginalized! You're not letting anyone off the hook. In fact, you're putting the person on the hook in a way that allows them to confront their own internal world.

🧵

#Thanksgiving #AbuseCulture
#AskQuestions
#deconditioning
#cults

Example Questions Part 3:

Could there be a good reason for that?

Do you know the context of why it was decided that way?

How does that work exactly? Walk me through it.

What would happen if....

How many [queer, PoC, those affected by a certain policy, etc] people do you know / have you talked to / have you heard out about this topic that affects them?

What do you really know about that worldview from the perspective of people who hold it?

Can you explain to me what you think that worldview is?

Can you explain to me the reasons people might believe that?

Why are you afraid of [n]?

Do you think [n] should be illegal?

What’s the difference between ____?

How do you reconcile [stated value] with [stated position that is apparently in conflict]?

Do you believe that everyone should have to earn or prove their right to exist? (If no, then explore how various practices and normal realities of this society require earning or proving a right to exist.)

Can all people be said to be free if some are not free?

Do you think your freedom should come at the cost of someone else's freedom?

Do you think your comfort should come at the cost of someone else's comfort?

Why do you think some people think that's racist?

Do you think that's fair?

Why do you think that's far?

What do you mean by that?

Can you expound?

What are your reasons for believing that?

What would you like to know about my worldview? (If they don't want to know anything, ask them, why not?)

🧵

#Thanksgiving #AbuseCulture
#AskQuestions
#deconditioning
#cults

Example Questions Part 2:

What is truth?

How do you know what is true?

Why do you trust [n] information source?

Why do you distrust opposing information sources?

[Questions that get at the root of trust are great at destabilizing trust in bad actors. P.S. It is morally ok to mistrust someone!]

Do you think your sources might be keeping information away from you that would change your mind?

Why do you need that to be true?

How would you know if you are wrong?

What would happen if you are wrong? How would that feel? How would you cope with that?

What evidence would convince you that your conclusions are incorrect?

What do you think might convince me of your position?

If you were being manipulated, how would you know?

What makes you different from people who are being manipulated? Why would you know and they wouldn’t?

How do you define "manipulation"? How does it work?

Do you feel like you've worked hard and did everything right and now you're not getting what you were promised?

Where is the line for deciding [n – who deserves a safety net, what the optimal rate of taxation is, punishment for a specific crime, who gets to immigrate, what someone's gender is, etc]?

Who should decide [n] and why?

...for who? (Safe for who? Good for who? Profitable for who? Efficient for who?)

Who benefits the most from that?

How do you benefit from this situation/policy/value/talking point?

What's in it for them?

Who do you think is incentivized to be behind [n]?

What does that rule incentivize?

What outcome would you like to see?

By what standards will you measure the outcome?

When [historical law passed or action taken] happened, what did you think the outcome would be? Did that come to pass?

🧵

#Thanksgiving #AbuseCulture
#AskQuestions
#deconditioning
#cults