Hello, Reddit,

I am seriously exploring a thought experiment to create a religion that could attract followers and generate significant wealth. This is not intended to be a scam, but rather an intellectual project focused on understanding how belief systems, charismatic leadership, and influence can be utilized to build a movement.

Here’s the plan:

The Structure: I’d like to craft a belief system, with the help of others, that can be appealing, persuasive, and ultimately profitable. The idea is to leverage psychological and social dynamics, including creating compelling religious texts and teachings, to build a following.

The Goal: The ultimate goal would be to explore the practical elements of how belief systems can create influence and wealth. This could include creating sacred texts, rituals, and community-building practices, and ultimately understanding how a religion could be monetized through donations, merchandise, or other means.

Role of AI: I believe AI could assist in the writing and refinement of our religious texts, helping to shape messages and ideas that resonate with followers. The goal would be to craft persuasive, masterfully-written materials that would appeal to a wide audience and I'm able to write most of the core texts.

I’m looking for:

Partners: People who would be willing to work together on creating the belief system, from writing texts to exploring how to sway potential followers I already have detailed concepts and some volumes of digital texts.

Experts/Advisors: Those who have knowledge of religious movements, psychology, sociology, or any related field that could contribute to building an effective, appealing belief system.

Marketing Strategies: Ideas on how such a religion could gain traction in the modern world and ultimately become profitable.

This is a serious project for those interested in exploring the dynamics of belief, leadership, and influence. I’m looking for people who are motivated by the challenge of creating something impactful and profitable, and who are willing to think outside the box about the intersection of religion and business.

If everything goes right we won't need to work again.

If you’re interested

I just finished watching Children of God: Lost and Found and wondered what happened to some of these kids that escaped and where they are today?

I have a friend that’s been missing for a while. Pretty much fell off of the face of the earth without telling his family or friends where he went. He does have a fb that is never active but the location changed to Raymond Washington. I still see his brother every once in a while, and got to thinking about him the other day and decided to do some research of where he might be which lead me to twelve tribes. Now I have reason to believe he might be there. I’ve been reading a lot about this cult and it is wild. I never knew it existed until I started looking for him.

So I guess I’m here asking for any information?? Advice?

I wanted to give my experience with "shamanic community" in Portland. My sister was involved with a "Shamanic Cohort" and doing something called "The Cycle Teachings" she took me in when I fled an extremely abusive relationship. I am a spiritual person and at first they were really welcoming they seemed to have a mystical aura about themselves and tried to seem really helpful and understanding. I did start questioning the messages the Godhead was saying she spoke a lot of ancestral trauma or healing trauma in general and they work on healing themselves via the ancestral bloodline and an entity they call "crazy woman" I definitely saw red flags.

I worked in the fashion industry and I quickly caught on to the fact the Godhead was selling something her attitude was similar to that of model scout industries. My sister and others appeared to do a lot of free labor for the woman and her extremely pricey retreat center. At the time I was suffering from PTSD and the smallest trigger would send into a full meltdown, in my mind I wasnt present but stuck somewhere in the past in a room with my ex screaming at me. My sister claimed I needed to do something called "The Shadow Transformation Protocol", I was forced into states of suicidal ideation claiming it's what I needed to do. The godhead also would do individual healings on my sister, when she played one for me the Godhead was saying a lot about me "She needs to think she's not so special and the human rules apply to her too" this was in reference to me struggling with self care in that state, in the same recording the Godhead instructioned my sister that when it comes to me, I no longer needed to be her friend or sister. After that "healing" my sister became hostile, violent and her abuse got worse to where I estranged from her now and I know the lady running this manipulated her away because I was questioning the Godhead's practices.

I looked up this woman ofcourse, she claims to work with indigenous knowledge but in fact has no proof of this, she is not connected to any local tribes, nor any kind of schooling. As far as I could tell she paid some man in Africa to dip her in their waters and name her a "Shaman"

Aside from that she claims to heal really complex traumas but has zero influence of psychology in her practice and I watched several members constantly spiraling into states of extreme emotional distress directly caused by the Godhead. She was also working with autistic individuals but again has no training in that area either. I watched my sister who I loved slip into a really scary and dangerous person capable of violence and extreme emotional harm, all with an attitude that she earned the right to now behave this way for years of study in this group.

Most her knowledge is really twisted indigenous knowledge and ways of life that have altered to fit her personal life. Judging from my sisters behavior which was really intense, I would say some form of psychological abuse is happening within her retreats.

So this my warning about spiritual cults and spiritual teachers who sell courses online. Beware, you do not always know what these people are like off of the screens

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS0tBlV_rac

Here is a youtube clip of an Indian Guru Muralidhara Swamiji. He has had a very large following over several decades. Do you think it's a "personality" cult?

SciFiTology's Tiny Dave recently launched major (ultimately pointless) TV ad/shit blitz.

The script for one ad reads:

"We know the questions.

We know the stereotypes.

We've heard it all.

But we also know

Who we are.

Mothers. Fathers. Doctors. Artists. Athletes. Chimney sweeps...

[EH?]

...united by a common purpose..."

Which is to:

1. BUILD A TIME MACHINE;

2. TRAVEL TO 19TH-CENTURY LONDON;

3. ENLIST DICK VAN DYKE, SOOTY, SWEEP & THAT INSUFFERABLE KID IN 'OLIVER!' TO 'CLEAR' EVERY CHIM-CHIMANEY, CHIM-CHIMANEY, CHIM-CHIM-CHEROO;

4. IMPLY DICK V. D. IS A SCIFITOLOGIST, WHO WILL RECRUIT JULIE POPPINS, WHO WILL SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE MARIA'S YODELLING HOSE-BEASTS BY GRASSING THEM UP TO THE GESTAPO...AND CHIMNEY SWEEPS WITH UNCONVINCING COCKNEY ACCENTS WILL DEFEAT THE NAZIS WITH BROOMS;

5. RETURN TO 2024 TO DECLARE THE WORLD'S CHIMNEYS 'CLEAR';

6. FILL TOM'S TURTLENECK WITH BEES.

Obvs.

I recently read Cultish by Amanda Montell, where she explores different types of cults like MLMs, pyramid schemes, spiritual groups, fitness movements, and more.

Do spiritual cults also incorporate MLM/pyramid scheme strategies?
Has anyone encountered non-spiritual cults, such as fitness or other industries?
How do they operate, and what kind of harm do they cause?

What, in your opinion, drives the widespread appeal of spiritual cults and the blind faith people place in them?

Does anyone know anything about a messianic "Jewish" group called Way Cool People, also known as Way Cool Angels? I once dated someone who was kidnapped by their mother and kept there for months in Mexico, where they were repeatedly sexually assaulted. When we were in a relationship, I tried to find out more information, but I cannot get a single word on anyone else experiencing abuse there, any cult-like behavior, but of course I believe my ex. With everything they said, there was no way they lied about it. But that ex and I are no longer on speaking terms. But I wanted to know if anyone else knew anything about the organization, and potentially put this post onto Reddit so that it will come up in search results and people will be skeptic about joining or donating to them.

There were some older posts in this group referencing the 2x2s also sometimes called the friends & workers, the truth or professing.

This group is pretty well confirmed as a cult, or a sect with strong cult characteristics. The FBI is actively prosecuting for rampant sexual and financial abuse.

Discussion on the group with Janja Lalich: https://youtu.be/Y4Y7NNnZSNU?si=pJER1QSgBopo8nyU

Discussion on the group with Steve Hassan: https://youtu.be/k9wLmUsWo4A?si=dHNXdH-_KpVqELXS

Reporting link: https://forms.fbi.gov/2x2

Hey. I apologize it's taken so long for me to get the next story out. So, because it's taken so long I wanted to make it up to everyone by sharing one of the most shocking stories that ever took place while I was with the Mother God cult known as the Love Has Won Cult.

I even created a video to talk about it in more detail. I didn't mean for it to turn into a 30-minute long story but I guess that's what it takes to tell it in detail. I will put the link at the bottom of the story.

As always, questions are welcome. Crude, hateful remarks are not. This story was a tough one for me and I wasn't sure if I'd ever share it. It was probably the hardest thing I ever went through with the team for a lot of reasons that I don't get into.

I can promise you this; you won't hear this story anywhere else....let's begin;

Years before this world-famous cult ended in tragedy—before its leader and my ex-lover became a mummified corpse wrapped in Christmas lights—I was deep in its inner circle. If you're aware of the group, you're aware that “Mother God” claimed to be guided by angels and quantum beings who spoke to her and guided her down her path. You see, I think most people have a voice (or voices) in their head that make remarks and comments on things as we think about and experience life. But to Amy/Mother God these weren't just her "inside voices" or her inner thoughts. Instead, she considered them to be angels and ascended beings like Kyron or St. Germain who were sent from Heaven to guide her along her path to awakening humanity and being Mother God.

Then, one day in our chatroom something really strange and unexpected happened. In the chat where we spent lots of our time speaking with followers about spirituality or helping each other through difficult situations, a group of 3-4 "beings" entered the chat simultaneously.

They had strangely cute names like Pinky, Funny, Greeny, Happy, and so on. And what was most interesting was that these 3-4 new chat members were beginning, continuing, and finishing each other's sentences in perfect unison which caught our attention very quickly. They were speaking in very interesting ways like children with ancient wisdom.

At first, it was captivating. Their presence began drawing tons of people into our chatroom over the course of just a few days. These “beings” claimed divine origins, claiming they were sent here to help guide our spiritual awakening and assist Mother God in her duties to lead this movement of awakening.

What was most fascinating, was when these "beings" assisted a distraught, frantic mother who had entered our chat. She claimed her and her family were in fear of losing their livelihood as her mother had passed away suddenly and hadn't ever told anyone where she left her will. Her and her husband were going to lose their house, their cars, and their children's lives were going to be destroyed because of this.
But these "beings" made an incredible show when they told her exactly where her dead mother had hidden the will. The 3 or 4 of them, speaking in their usual way of completing each other's thoughts had told her:
"Upstairs in her bedroom"
"move the carpet and look"
"under the floorboards. You will see"
"a loose board that you can remove"
"and there you will find a box with the will."

The chat member left chat immediately to drive to her mother's house. Every member of chat sat there waiting to see what would happen. Us in the room looked around at each other in disbelief as if this could not possibly be happening nor could it be true....could it?
But after about 20 minutes this lady returned in a state of absolute bliss, gleefully describing that she had found her mother's long lost will and everything was saved. She was so happy and grateful for the help from these beings we had titled "the Quantums."

It didn't take long for their influence to grow. As tales of this encounter brought hundreds more people to our chatroom every night to witness this incredible event. They even repeated this type of "impossible help" by giving aid to several other chat members over the course of the next few days. But as their influence grew, so did my doubts.

Mother God had gone into repeated meditation sessions where all of her guides such as Kyron, St. Germain, and her angels, had confirmed that these "quantum beings" were legit and real. She told us that her guides confirmed these new “quantum beings” were there to assist Mother God to guide humanity towards "the Great Awakening". These "beings" began taking a more active role in leading the team and telling Mother God exactly what to do on a daily basis. It wasn't long before they were running the show. Mother God was "all in" for whatever was needed of her.

They also guided her into "spiritual healing sessions" in a private makeshift room, alone with the team member who these "beings" had chosen as the spiritual healer of the group. Inside these late-night healing sessions, while Mother God was always plastered with alcohol, and the rest of the team slept, this team member would shake uncontrollably, pretending as if the consciousness of "Father God" was entering his body. He would then suddenly stop shaking and change his demeanor, smile and play the part, directing Mother God to allow him to perform whatever sexual acts he desired in order to "release" the negative energy from her body. She eventually told me that he said that the sexual acts were supposed to help her.

But long before this admission, I had spent weeks confronting Mother God about it after hearing the sounds of her moaning passing down the halls night after night while she was in these late-night "healing sessions" with the new team-healer the "quantum beings" had chosen. She denied the sexual encounters completely and would get defensive. She told me it was simply my jealousy and my ego that was making things up and that I had a lot of to work to do to overcome this imaginative ego of mine. She would get fierce and fiery, saying that I “needed to be a man and grow beyond it”. So, I spent weeks trying to dissolve my own intuition. Naturally, I failed and couldn’t get past it.

I eventually discovered the truth through a few different events that I outline in more depth inside the video I’ve attached below. She didn't want it to be true but there was no denying it. I even saved the chats with these "beings" and still have them saved, to this very day. I have several of them saved.

But essentially, the “quantums” were a HOAX. Plain and simple. An elaborate one. The chat members like the lady who was led to her dead mother’s will, they were all fake profiles made by this team member. The lengths he went to….just wow.

That same team member, posing as these “Quantum” beings, made himself the "spiritual healer" and it was he who was manipulating Mother God in the nightly healing sessions to have sex with her, as sickening as it is true. What's more was, Amy felt she has been raped. She didn’t want to make a fuss out of it. We discussed it a few times after it happened but she didn't mince her words. I wasn't going to challenge her on it but she was right, technically. If he was pretending to be someone and having sex with her under false pretenses then she was right. The level of manipulation was astonishing and angering. Hell, he manipulated everyone—including orchestrating those "impossible feats" as well as the disturbing late-night “healing” sessions and the weird “acting display” he put on for a vulnerable, drunken girl.

When I exposed him as a fraud, and Mother God's guides as frauds (Since they said these quantum beings were real), Mother God and Michael gave me an ultimatum in front of the entire team: stay silent or leave the group immediately.

No way. I chose the truth. I wasn’t going to be manipulated. I wasn’t a sellout.

And as the entire team stood there watching to see what I'd do, I walked over to the laptop and typed out the entire truth in the chatroom and firmly pressed "SEND."

What happened next changed everything—for the team, for Mother God, and myself.

That was the first time I saw her consciously decide to choose lies, deceit, and betrayal. And it was clear that she had begun choosing a path that was leading down a very dark road.

Video "The Quantums, A Cult's Shocking Web of Lies, Deception, and Abuse That Proved Mother God Was a Fraud"

Hello, all. I am looking for a term which describes the at-a-glance capability for a cult's leadership to confirm that a member is fully vested in the ideology, and has achieved a complete buy-in.

As a terrible analogy, imagine that you have a job where you are presented a stuffed turtle upon hiring. Company policy requires that you must pet this stuffed turtle every time you return to your half-height cubicle. The activity means nothing, and is itself harmless... but it visually conveys to leadership your current level of compliance within the organization.

The activity serves as a self-imposed litmus test by any individual. Petting one's turtle indicates that this person is likely compliant with other expectations of the org. Those who don't may require more follow-up to confirm compliance in other areas.

I look forward to hearing your responses. Thank you.

So long story short I got guilt tripped into sitting through 3 hours of how to metaphysically transform my life by an ex friend a few months ago. It was a strange diynamic where we were kind of in a flirting stage and she escalated the flirting over a weeklong period pretty hardcore, and then told me she didn’t actually have any interest the night before I sat through that intro bullshit. Looking back I definitely got the impression that she had some kind of quota to meet. Anyway im not sure why I’m posting but im curious if the Forum encourages people to pull that trick or if I‘m overthinking. Also they wanted 800 for their course and I definitely was not paying that. As far as I know she is deep into taking more advanced courses and attending them weekly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRBXf2N67b4

Touching on Jonestown, other cults by comparison, writing as practice, advice to young writers, doing other crafts and activities to complement the brain labor

My grandmother, JoAnn, married this POS many years ago now. She went from being not religious at all to becoming ‘born again’. Chet (and sometimes JoAnn) have a YouTube channel where they preach Christian faith. Except, (him especially) preaches ideals that fall under the umbrella of extremism. This man doesn’t miss a beat when it comes to verbally harassing and threatening young women who even come near a planned parenthood. In fact he used to handcuff himself to the front doors of such facilities since back in the ‘70’s. This man is NOT someone I would ever consider part of my ‘family’. He’s a disgraceful human being. However I didn’t learn until recently that he had such a large following of other extremists. How did I learn this? Well, apparently this man has been on FBI watch for many years now… all of his co-conspirators have been recently (2024) sentenced to federal prison for the same crimes. And in late September, he decided to turn himself in. He was sentenced to a minimum of 1 year in federal prison. His followers have been mourning the arrest of such a “hero” to the Christian community. They have even started donation campaigns to help him and my grandmother get through this time of “injustice”. This is when I realized that they had been leading a cult.

HOWEVER, I’ve been told by my father that Trump plans to pardon him after being sworn in, as well as contacting JoAnn personally inviting both of them to his inauguration ceremony in none other than good ole Mar-A-Largo. And they have been gloating about it since they got the invitation personally from our soon-to-be president.

Why is Chet so important? How does he have personal connections with DT? Why is he getting pardoned over all the other ‘criminals’ who have been falsely convicted? Why would a cult leader be able to get a second chance when he is very public and very transparent about his intentions and convictions?

I will never be in contact with the Gallagher’s ever again. I even changed my phone number so they have no way of contacting me. They might be “family” but I refuse to claim them as anything other than strangers. This man is manipulative, ruthless, and most importantly- dangerous.

Thoughts? Have you heard of this disgrace of a human?

The Individual who made this post is named Marcus V. He began using drugs and his violent actions lead to the death of Allen Feldman. Marcus is a person who has alot of rage because his parents starved him as a child. He has a history of revenge. In 2019 Marcus used drugs and started SWATTing Allen Feldman and Heather Giamboi. Allen is the most sweet loving kindhearted person, but Allen had heart failure.

Immediately after Marcus' SWATTing and campaign of spreading malicious lies (Marcus pretended to be multiple people, even switch roles and have the avatars talking to each other on social media). After the attacks, Allen fell out of his office chair onto the floor with a loud crash. He had pain in his chest and could not get up for 20 minutes. The pain would not go away for a week. After the attacks Allen was bleeding in the toilet. When this happened Allen's health took a turn for the worse. His health got much worse after the attacks. Allen died shortly after. It was due to malicious lies, hateful attacks and Swatting of Allen who a heart patient.

The statements that Macus makes about Allen Feldman and Heather Giamboi ( Marcus pretending to be multiple avatars, some of these avatars he makes them talk to each other) are malicious lies and entirely false. Allen and Heather never did any of the absurd things Marcus dreamed up and Allen is the most loving and kind hearted person ever.

okay so basically this person added me on roblox then asked for my discord, he goes by the name of trash764 and i remember reading something about 764 on here and i remember the name trash. anyways we were talking on discord and he randomly started showing me fansigns he had gotten from what looked like random egirls, there was a vid of a girl that wrote his name on the knife and started shoving it up her you know where.. there was also one of a girl that wrote his name on her face and it showed her sucking her dogs you know what. he also showed me just other ones with his name written on girls bodies or random cutsigns and also another one of his name written on a bloody pad stuck onto this girls face 😭 i honestly think he might be a larp but theres a high chance of him not being one. im really scared to block him because ive heard stories of 764 victims that have gotten swatted, doxxed or just other shit because they tried to break contact with 764 members and im super fucking paranoid about this and idk what to do. he already has my roblox, discord and ig. i dont know if i should block him or what and i asked him how he gets all these signs and he just said "girls hear my voice and do wha i tell them lol" (i copy and pasted that) but i doubt that. he has his tele linked to his socials and everything so im scared asf i dont know what to do about it and hes obv a pedo because i told him i was 15 and he said he was 20 and started calling me cute and stuff. and when he told me his age i said "old mann" and he said "i will kill you behave yourself, i like to hurt pretty things" like ok edgelord😭😭 but jokes aside i lit dont know wtf to do cuz i feel like hes the type of person to make new accounts or just find some way to contact me again and hes just being rly creepy. pls help lol

Hey folks, I’m at a loss. My sister has never left our home town in Canada, like even for travelling, and a couple years after high school went back to college for early childhood education. During covid she fell in with a weird anti-vax family values Montessori crowd, which is totally out of left field for her and honestly that was the point in which I threw in the towel. The friends she made at the daycare took up her life and encouraged her to break up with her long term partner, and she moved onto a commune affiliated with a local Buddhist cult, but has been socializing with the yellow deli folk. In a turn of events, she has now gone with them to Australia and is staying on the commune I believe in katoomba. It’s only been a couple weeks, she’s been spending lots of time at the cafe, I believe her to be working (or “volunteering”) there. She doesn’t know what she’s getting into, she isn’t the brightest on the lot, and has just been sucked in as she struggles to make friends. She is 26 but seems quite a bit younger and is on the autism spectrum. She takes everything at face value and I don’t think can quite grasp what’s going on around her. She had never shown an interest in religion at all and we were raised rather secular. Over the past couple years she’s been seriously distancing herself from all family, and any conversation with her is like talking to a drywall compound of “no negativity”. I live in another city and it’s been about 3 years since we’ve really spoken, but she’s in more frequent but shallow contact with our parents. She didn’t book a return flight. I don’t know what to do, and my folks are feeling really helpless, as engaging more will probably push her away further.

I don’t know if she is just on a tourist visa or if they’ve arranged a longer stay, and I’m not sure what legal or immigration recourse I can take, if she’s working at a business without a work permit would it be helpful to report?

Literally any advice welcome.

I live in a small town in Europe with less than 5k people and there is a whole place for them to meet. I remember getting approached by them in many spots and cities.

Do they survive through recruitment and brainwashing? There’s the common joke they harass people by knocking at doors but yet they are not a major religious cult.

my girlfriend found this cassette tape at a thrift store, i looked up and found their website, it talked about subliminal messaging but on this tape specifically all we can hear is the sound of water rushing, im finding no Wikipedia articles about this basically no information about this outside of their own website, please if you know anything help would be appreciated

this cult has become even more oppressive. They exercise a form of control that is truly astonishing—everything from issuing their own identification cards to tracking members with a point system.

Recently, the spiritual “leader” introduced a new rule claiming it is against the religion for any child under the age of 15 to use a mobile phone. While I understand the concern about children spending too much time on technology, how can they justify a new rule like this? Islam wasn’t even a concept when smartphones existed, so inventing a rule like this is absurd. This is just another example of the shirk (idolatry) that runs rampant in this community.

The group has also tried to ban cryptocurrency and Facebook for reasons that remain unclear. These restrictions serve to limit members’ access to information, preventing them from discovering the truth on their own. The community leader also mandates that no one can offer translations of the Quran (this cult is primarily South Asian, so few members speak Arabic). Instead, they are only allowed to recite the Quran in Arabic, despite the fact that most people don’t understand what they are saying. This rule seems completely nonsensical. What’s the point of spending hours reciting a holy book when you don’t even know the meaning of the words?

Even more troubling, the community has openly supported Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), with the spiritual leader insisting that even if it’s illegal in the country members live in, they must still practice it—and keep it quiet. FGM has no health benefits; in fact, it’s harmful to women. Moreover, there is nothing in the Quran about FGM, making it clear that this practice has no basis in Islam.

The group also runs a series of classes called “Sabaks,” which members must attend in levels to supposedly gain knowledge. However, it seems these lessons have taken a bizarre turn. One such class teaches that people are reincarnated over and over until they reach the final stage of becoming a Dawoodi Bohra, at which point they can go to heaven. This is completely un-Islamic. Islam does not believe in reincarnation, so why would they teach this?

In an attempt to isolate members further, the cult has even created its own language. This language is a mix of Arabic, Urdu, and Gujarati. As someone with Pakistani heritage, I learned English first and then this hybrid language, but because it is so unique, no other South Asians speak it. This has left me feeling disconnected from my own ethnic community, as I can’t speak fluent Urdu or Gujarati. To make matters more confusing, the language is written in Arabic script, not the traditional Urdu or Gujarati script. So, while I can read and write Arabic, I often have no idea what I’m reading. This is a deliberate attempt to prevent members from interacting with people outside the cult, ensuring they are isolated and controlled.

The spiritual leader has also stated multiple times that members should not associate with other Muslims, people of different races, or anyone of other religions. According to him, only Bohras will go to heaven. This divisive rhetoric is just another method of control, ensuring that members remain within the cult’s insular community.

Financially, the cult demands that members pay 12 different forms of payment to the leader. These payments push many people into debt, and some even end up committing suicide because they can’t afford to meet the financial demands. Meanwhile, the spiritual leader, who allegedly sympathizes with and bribes Modi, lives in luxury, owning multiple properties and driving Rolls-Royces. Tragically, people have even been trampled to death in crowds, desperate to catch a glimpse of him and receive his blessing.

Perhaps the most disturbing practice is the long lineups of both men and women waiting for hours to have a “meet and greet” with this leader, just so they can kiss his hands and feet. Yes, his feet. Thousands of people line up for hours, convinced that kissing his feet will bring them “barakah” (blessing). It is a deeply humiliating and degrading practice that reflects just how much control this leader has over his followers.