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

[Krystina Ferraris]

With a diverse population like SL I would be surprised not to see cult-like orgs cropping up. I am sure Herbalife tried SL as a recruiting platform at some point too 🥤😆 it makes sense. As others pointed out where there are vulnerable individuals there will be those who prey on them. Anything can be a cult really it just depends on one’s perspective.

 

[Silent Mistwalker]

6 hours ago, bigmoe Whitfield said:

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. 

Oh. So, none of them ever log in because they're all chatting on Discord. 

You sure it was FLDS and not Gor? 🤔

[Silent Mistwalker]

38 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

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

Are you yetting or yeeting?

[Silent Mistwalker]

38 minutes ago, Krystina Ferraris said:

With a diverse population like SL I would be surprised not to see cult-like orgs cropping up. I am sure Herbalife tried SL as a recruiting platform at some point too 🥤😆 it makes sense. As others pointed out where there are vulnerable individuals there will be those who prey on them. Anything can be a cult really it just depends on one’s perspective.

 

You would be correct.

http://herbalifejanet.blogspot.com/2012/01/second-life-vs-real-life.html

[Rowan Amore]

[Ayashe Ninetails]

6 minutes ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

Are you yetting or yeeting?

LOL. Yetting. 

[Silent Mistwalker]

5 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

 

[Coffee Pancake]

2 hours ago, Extrude Ragu said:

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

 

The OP's description of a cult is broad enough that any and all sub cultures could be counted as cults from the outside.

 

[Love Zhaoying]

Plenty of pagans and wiccans around..

[Nalates Urriah]

4 hours ago, LottaSinclair said:

...

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. 

There are closed communities. There are a variety of them. Some anyone can join for a fee. Others are by invite only. Some RP groups are invite only. Some groups that think of their selves a philosophy clubs are invite only.

Seriously!?!  Of course. I found early on in my SL life that many in the RP communities were very dramatic and emotional. Some of the most hateful, raging chat exchanges happen in RP groups in OOC chats. Those levels of intense chat require true-believers. Plus, the RL propaganda people are subjected to comes with them into SL. Starting about September you can watch the political rhetoric escalate in SL. While 20 to 30% of RL people are extreme in SL it seems higher and online people tend to vent more hate. They all seem to take it seriously.

SL is setup to let people start their own groups. So yes.

The Lab is in San Francisco and thus the Lindens seem inundated in Progressive/Woke thinking and have adopted many of the Marxist's ideas. Since people can leave and that has a cash flow impact the Marxism has to be tempered resulting in a strange mix of Marxist (social side) and Free Market (money side) policies.

The TOS only limits you on hate, social violence, harassment, and abuse. So a JW door-to-door ministry group is likely to be considered harassment and shut down. While Antifa and BLM were often RL violent they have support in SL and I am not aware of any action by the Lab to exude them from SL. My point is the Lab seems to have a PC slant when enforcing TOS. So what you can create group-wise in respect to TOS has a PC consideration. Within those constraints you can go as Hale-Bopp as you want and there will likely be a range of people join in for their reasons.

@LottaSinclair What kind of religion would you start in SL?

[Love Zhaoying]

18 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

 

The OP's description of a cult is broad enough that any and all sub cultures could be counted as cults from the outside.

 

I was thinking, new people will find all these "cultish" by one of the normal usages of the word: 

- Mesh (the peer pressure to use Mesh bodies, etc.)

- Beauty culture

- Consumerism 

- Furries

- Bloodlines

- Gor

- Roleplay communities

- Sex "culture"

etc.

Edited June 11, 2022 by Love Zhaoying
Added 2

[Ayashe Ninetails]

Oh boy. But anyway, moving on...

 

11 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I was thinking, new people will find all these "cultish" by one of the normal usages of the word: 

- Mesh (the peer pressure to use Mesh bodies, etc.)

- Beauty culture

- Consumerism 

- Furries

- Bloodlines

- Gor

- Roleplay communities

- Sex "culture"

etc.

Loooove. I don't think that's what the OP meant. I think they meant something more along the lines of...Heaven's Gate, or sumfin'.

[Love Zhaoying]

5 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

Loooove. I don't think that's what the OP meant. I think they meant something more along the lines of...Heaven's Gate, or sumfin'.

Well, that's a pretty "negative" and "extreme" example of a "cult". Anything that scary would be either "hidden" from most of us due to its nature or, so well known that it's literally in the news. Just my opinion.

[Ayashe Ninetails]

16 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Well, that's a pretty "negative" and "extreme" example of a "cult". Anything that scary would be either "hidden" from most of us due to its nature or, so well known that it's literally in the news. Just my opinion.

Of course, but from how I read the first post, I think that's what the OP was asking. She's free to correct me if I'm wrong, of course! Maybe she didn't mean something quite to that extreme, but the word "cult" doesn't exactly call up happy, healthy, cheerful imagery for me, so that's how I interpreted it.😂 

"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." - my first thought? Jim Jones. Second thought - Charles Manson. Etc.

As to whether or not that exists in SL, I doubt anyone outside of those communities would know, and people within probably won't be too willing to give up info about that openly. The groups most likely won't be public, that's for dang sure!

Edited June 11, 2022 by Ayashe Ninetails
Added quote

[Love Zhaoying]

4 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

but the word "cult" doesn't exactly call up happy, healthy, cheerful imagery for me

Example: "Up With People"! 
Yes, "cult" usually has a negative connotation. 
There may be cults in SL like the OP is asking about, but those "cults" also may be mostly "role play" with not much serious consequences in people's "real lives" except for addiction to Second Life.

[Ayashe Ninetails]

1 minute ago, Love Zhaoying said:

There may be cults in SL like the OP is asking about, but those "cults" also may be mostly "role play" with not much serious consequences in people's "real lives" except for addiction to Second Life.

Yup! That's true, too. And we'll never know. Maybe there are RP ones. Maybe there are real ones. Unless someone's willing to talk about it, we're all in the dark on that. Which is fiiiiiiine by meeeeee, thaaaaanks!

Ah damn, I just noticed my forum avie now makes me look kinda sus. 🤣

[Madelaine McMasters]

They absolutely exist!

I might still be the High Priestess of one, though I was not a member of it.

To paraphrase Groucho, I refuse to join any club that would have me as a leader.

[Love Zhaoying]

11 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

Ah damn, I just noticed my forum avie now makes me look kinda sus. 🤣

The "unusual suspects"!

[Silent Mistwalker]

26 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

my first thought? Jim Jones. Second thought - Charles Manson. Etc.

1. Manson
2. Jones
3. David Koresh

Odd how I think of those in chorological order.

Edited June 11, 2022 by Silent Mistwalker

[Rowan Amore]

7 hours ago, Theresa Tennyson said:

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.

Yep, you called it.

[Love Zhaoying]

If the "bad cultism" were a big part of SL, I'd think that would be bad press for LL and possibly hinder growth and health of SL. So hopefully if it's here, it's a tiny proportion of the communities.

[Sprout Evergarden]

8 hours ago, bigmoe Whitfield said:

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. 

if only there were a simple way to handle something like that.

 

Edited June 11, 2022 by Vanessa Amethyst

[Rowan Amore]

46 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

Oh boy. But anyway, moving on...

You read my mind.  Stop that!  🤣

[Silent Mistwalker]

2 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

Yep, you called it.

You rang?

[Love Zhaoying]

5 minutes ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

1. Manson
2. Jones
3. David Koresh

Odd how I think of those in chorological order.

Where do we draw the line?

Can I add David Duke?

How about D.T.?