Do Religious Cults and "Secret Societies" Exist in SL?

[HSHPrincessofCarlisne]

Hello everyone,

So, I was having a discussion with my friends and this subject among many others was brought up; while it didn't end up with a "conclusive" answer, it had me curious;

Do cults exist in SL?

I'm not merely referring to social cliques, religious groups and communities and groups considered "cult-like" in the most informal senses. I've read through forum posts dealing with these matters without touching on this particular subject specifically, so I wanted to address it here. Obviously religious and spiritual groups and communities exist in SL and there can be disagreements and "incompatibilities" between them.

I mean groups and communities that seek to indoctrinate or "brainwash" its members in its own dogmatic teachings, to the point of fanaticism, extreme fervor and zealotry. Personality cults that may have its followers venerate and revere a leader and their teachings. Are there groups and communities in SL that claim to be offshoots or representatives of real-world cults?  How about conspiracy theory groups? Are all of these within the TOS?

There have been some things in SL before that some may consider "extreme"; white supremacist groups and fetish communities involving death and torture. (not to equate the two in magnitude)

Have people started their own unique "religions" in SL, with hierarchies, doctrines and followers? Even if it's just for roleplay, or a "joke religion". What happens to religious groups and communities that start to no longer fit the open and accepting paradigm that you tend to see in SL's diverse spiritual community? If they become too "extreme" is there a crackdown? 

Are there "secret societies" in SL? Dogmatic, closed communities with membership requirements, initiation rituals, symbols, uniforms and "esoteric" practices? 

Edited June 11, 2022 by LottaSinclair

[bigmoe Whitfield]

I do know there is a sect of the FLDS that uses SL to communicate with their other "families"   few of the barlows and jessops use it.

[Pixie Kobichenko]

I posted years ago about this guy in the UK who had made up this entire misogynistic society based on Gor called the Kaotians  & had managed to entice a few women & one young man to be with him in the real world.  There was a documentary about this guy.  It was pretty big, this pretend secret organization of sex slavers that were “always watching” etc.  Reminded me an awful lot of a true crime case or two where women had been kidnapped & brainwashed into staying out of fear of threat to their family by “the company.”  

[Persephone Emerald]

I doubt SL is an ideal medium for brainwashing and controlling people. It's too easy for people to just click that little x in the upper right hand corner.

 

 

[cunomar]

I suppose you could email them and ask 😉

 

[bigmoe Whitfield]

40 minutes ago, Persephone Emerald said:

I doubt SL is an ideal medium for brainwashing and controlling people. It's too easy for people to just click that little x in the upper right hand corner.

 

 

the flds I know that use it, use a modified viewer,  they are stuck to one mainland sim,  they have zero groups, no friends list, and a few other things revoked,  one being the person running their session is the only person that can close their viewer.   this is a group of about 30 ladies, I worked with most of them at one time in utah. 

[Harper Held]

Are there lonely, vulnerable people in SL?

Yes? Then there are political and religious cults in SL too preying on them and recruiting.

On a kinda related note: I've seen religious groups in SL that claimed to be 100% serious which made me raise an eyebrow since they were being run by people who'd spent years setting up religious themed bdsm groups. Butttttt

Getting back to the original question; yes, I'm sure there's cults in SL. I haven't run into them but I haven't been trying to, either.

 

[Arduenn Schwartzman]

 

4 hours ago, LottaSinclair said:

Are there "secret societies" in SL?

No, there aren't.

Better not ask too many questions.

[ArgontheDevil Ormega]

Be cool if there were.  I would start one worshipping me.

[Love Zhaoying]

If we told you, then they wouldn't be very secret..next you'll ask if you can join!

 

[Theresa Tennyson]

4 hours ago, LottaSinclair said:

I mean groups and communities that seek to indoctrinate or "brainwash" its members in its own dogmatic teachings, to the point of fanaticism, extreme fervor and zealotry.
 

Y'all can worship me because my mystic powers are telling me what a couple of our forum posters are going to post in this thread regarding that before they've even seen it.

[Love Zhaoying]

Are we counting the "Feted Inner Circle"? I've always wanted to be a part of that. You know, to feel important and superior.

[Love Zhaoying]

5 hours ago, LottaSinclair said:

 

I mean groups and communities that seek to indoctrinate or "brainwash" its members in its own dogmatic teachings, to the point of fanaticism, extreme fervor and zealotry.

This is everything: all religions, all societies, all governments. I bet you mean some form of "cultism" that is "extreme" relative to everything we're indoctrinated into on a daily basis.

[Conifer Dada]

3 hours ago, Persephone Emerald said:

I doubt SL is an ideal medium for brainwashing and controlling people. . . .

 

 

Except in the case of SL fashion trends 😁

The original question also asked about "secret societies" in SL.  If there are any, then we probably wouldn't know about them!    

Edited June 11, 2022 by Conifer Dada

[HSHPrincessofCarlisne]

Thank you everyone for your replies;

Wow, this has been interesting for sure. I suppose what I'm really wondering if there are groups quite overtly seen as cults, especially religious cults by the "mainstream" of SL, with all the stereotypes and hallmarks attached to them; you can look up the defining characteristics and hallmarks of cults and see if they apply. I'm interested in knowing how they are received by their wider community in SL, if they're open and appear to do everything by the rules, if they sit in a legal grey area or if they're driven underground. I'm sure blackmail and guilt-tripping is a thing in SL.

What I meant by secret societies is not so much exclusively a literal "secret" society where it's strictly kept away from the eyes of the uninitiated so nobody knows about them; but in the sense of closed communities with membership requirements, initiation rituals, symbols, uniforms and certain practices which may be considered esoteric.

Does this kind of thing exist as themed roleplay in SL? Are there people who treat these (I assume) small and relatively esoteric groups and communities, their values and dogma seriously? People who find some higher purpose in following a small, relatively unknown cause?

Can I just one day literally decide to start my own "religion" based on certain principles and beliefs, recruit followers in SL and have them worship me as a leader, supreme being or something like that? Or a totally made up fictional being with no substantial history? What are the rules? Obviously being prejudiced against certain people or groups is a no-no, nor can you scam people financially. That would be an interesting social experiment, to say the least. 

Edited June 11, 2022 by LottaSinclair

[Dragon Mommy]

Like others have said, where there are vulnerable people, there will be those who try to take advantage of them.

That doesn't necessarily mean an organized cult though. I can think of terribly abusive roleplay or social groups I've seen in SL that use tactics that cults do to keep members. (Isolation, financial abuse, gaslighting, etc) I think it's very possible groups that fit more of the cult definition than that could exsist. 

but who knows maybe cults like Love Has Won and Westboro have secret SL meeting locations. 🤔 I would genuinely hope not though.

[Akane Nacht]

25 minutes ago, LottaSinclair said:

Can I just one day literally decide to start my own "religion" based on certain principles and beliefs, recruit followers in SL and have them worship me as a leader, supreme being or something like that? Or a totally made up fictional being with no substantial history? What are the rules?

Ever played Agatha Knife? 😁

Agatha Knife on Steam (steampowered.com)

[Rat Luv]

7 hours ago, LottaSinclair said:

Are there "secret societies" in SL? Dogmatic, closed communities with membership requirements, initiation rituals, symbols, uniforms and "esoteric" practices? 

Yes!

That's all 🤫

✴️

[Orwar]

   Cults, generally, don't like calling themselves 'cults'. So I don't anticipate people would respond 'Yes, I'm in a secret cult!'. It's then also not secret any longer, anyway!

   It also depends a bit on how you define a cult. Are there vegan communities in SL? Probably. Well, there you have it - cults. Maybe? Maybe not. I know of communities for people who are into Wicca, but I haven't seen or heard of any which immediately brought the Manson family to mind. Are there venues designed to cater to various religious afflictions? Yes, there is no shortage of churches and chapels for different flavours of Christians, or Buddhist or Shinto temples or meditation gardens; though I've yet to run into any people in such places (but then I don't usually seek them out). Are there imams out there who use SL to reach out to a global congregation? Not that I know of, personally, but there appears to be no shortage of such on other social media platforms. 

   There aren't really any 'rules' for creating your own cult. All you need to do is to convince a couple of people that you are worth worshipping, whilst not telling any outsiders - secret culthood achieved!

[HSHPrincessofCarlisne]

2 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:

This is everything: all religions, all societies, all governments. I bet you mean some form of "cultism" that is "extreme" relative to everything we're indoctrinated into on a daily basis.

Yes, precisely.

35 minutes ago, Orwar said:

   Cults, generally, don't like calling themselves 'cults'. So I don't anticipate people would respond 'Yes, I'm in a secret cult!'. It's then also not secret any longer, anyway!

   It also depends a bit on how you define a cult. Are there vegan communities in SL? Probably. Well, there you have it - cults. Maybe? Maybe not. I know of communities for people who are into Wicca, but I haven't seen or heard of any which immediately brought the Manson family to mind. Are there venues designed to cater to various religious afflictions? Yes, there is no shortage of churches and chapels for different flavours of Christians, or Buddhist or Shinto temples or meditation gardens; though I've yet to run into any people in such places (but then I don't usually seek them out). Are there imams out there who use SL to reach out to a global congregation? Not that I know of, personally, but there appears to be no shortage of such on other social media platforms. 

   There aren't really any 'rules' for creating your own cult. All you need to do is to convince a couple of people that you are worth worshipping, whilst not telling any outsiders - secret culthood achieved!

Yes, that's why I'm asking if there are any groups or communities here in SL which are considered or widely perceived (to any relative degree) to be cults by the wider community. Yes, cults have certain characteristics and hallmarks of what makes them largely considered, as close to unequivocally, cults. I'm not just talking about merely passionate individuals and the communities they belong to, nor merely religious traditions or practices that some people in the wider "mainstream" community may not be too familiar with, such as certain forms of paganism, witchcraft or satanism.

With the last point there, I'm referring mostly to the Terms of Service and the Community Standards and what is permissible in that regard. Naturally, offensive groups such as Nazi groups and white supremacist groups (which could be considered "cultic") have been cracked down on and have virtually gone the way of the dodo here in SL. I was wondering if there are any "cults" here in SL as discussed above which have drawn that same unwanted attention, due to extreme zealotry and questionable practices and all the negative characteristics we ascribe to cults, while not necessarily being overtly discriminatory or prejudiced.

 

Edited June 11, 2022 by LottaSinclair

[Extrude Ragu]

1 hour ago, LottaSinclair said:

closed communities with membership requirements, initiation rituals, symbols, uniforms and certain practices which may be considered esoteric.

I mean by this standard aren't you basically describing every community and/or job ever as a cult?

Like.. membership requirements to me is just another way of saying community standards.. A community without standards by definition is not a community, the definition of the word is a group of people with some unifying shared common interest(s)

Closed communities.. Well actually this is the same point - an 'open' community isn't a community at all, a community that includes everybody is not a community at all

Initiation rituals, symbolism, you're basically describing pomp and ceremony... something most people engage in, most people celebrate the things they care about, go out of their way to make people feel accepted and let others know that they are accepted. This occurs even at peoples jobs

Uniforms is just a physical manifestation of expression of shared values. Most jobs have uniforms, most schools have uniforms except bar maybe some countries

Esoteric meaning understood by only a small group, well again you mean like skilled work or perhaps people with hobbies, most people have interests they like to focus on that only a smaller group of people know as deeply about as them..

By this standard there are an uncountable number of 'cults' everywhere

[cunomar]

SL is a cult .

I've not been on it long enough to enter the cult myself yet but it seems those who have are brainwashed to believe everything is your own fault and nothing negative exists in SL .

Edited June 11, 2022 by cunomar

[niko89bg]

Of course there aren't any secret societies or cults in SL. Come on

[Sid Nagy]

4 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Are we counting the "Feted Inner Circle"? I've always wanted to be a part of that. You know, to feel important and superior.

Just a few more days. And you will be able to join the FIC group.
The name of the group might be announced at the SL 19th birthday.
It's more or less secret work title is somewhat pronounced as ploos.

It's secret sign will become the L$.

Edited June 11, 2022 by Sid Nagy

[Ayashe Ninetails]

6 hours ago, Persephone Emerald said:

I doubt SL is an ideal medium for brainwashing and controlling people. It's too easy for people to just click that little x in the upper right hand corner.

You could say that about any website or chat app, really, and yeeet...