Happy New Year Somethings, it’s Hatton!
What is your go to television type? Do you cuddle up with horror? Dive into police procedurals? Well, my wife and I, when they are available, will watch anything possible about cults… because watching people dedicate their time, money, and sometimes lives to a guy who says he’s figured it all out sounds like an interesting case study in ‘OMG WHAAAA’ which is a legitimate science. So here are a few of the recent ones we’ve picked up that you can dive into if you are looking for a 101 on how to make money and influence nations.
THE VOW & SEDUCED – First, let’s talk NXIVM. Both The Vow and Seduced are interesting looks into a multi-tier marketing wannabe cult that ends in a man having a legion of branded slaves he has blackmail over. Both of these two together give you a real bite into how people fell into it, what they were doing, and why they were doing it. From baiting influencers and selling them snake oil to building a labyrinth the followers can’t find their way out of.. it is the template of what a modern internet culture cult is going to look like.
THE CULT OF MOTHERGOD – If you think of cults as things that are either dangerous (NXIVM, Scientology, Cutco) or less-dangerous (Peloton users, Rennies) – The Cult of Mothergod sits on the side of less dangerous, but still strange. A bunch of hippies get together, smoke, and build a business around homeopathic garbage while worshipping a woman who babbles about her astral alien journeys and Robin Williams. It is a tale that gets weirder and weirder as it goes, as you watch a strange entitled woman slowly turn blue. I can’t recommend this higher.
BORN IN SYNANON – I was surprised to hear that there was a cult from the ‘era of cults and serial killers’ of the 70s and 80s that I had missed. Synanon started as a rehab facility and turned itself into a self-appointed city of people trying to make the world a better place. I mean, that was the original intention. No other doc that I’ve seen shows a collective of people who still believe in the ideals of what started and why it all fell down better than this story.
ESCAPING TWIN FLAMES – Lastly these bunch of assholes. Sometimes, when you are watching cult docs, you understand how people got there. Charisma, charm, and a better life are almost always the way. Twin Flames did it with dating… literally cultifying ‘Plenty of Fish’ and not caring one ounce as to what that may do to their impressionable clientele. Multi-tier marketing is back in this one, but now it is about training people how to love and how to connect with their soul mate, whether or not that person wants to be involved. The doc is good, but you will loathe the people involved.
So what cults are you involved in.. statistically one of you is. Sound off in all our places!
