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

[Sammy Huntsman]

4 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

This gives us a good sense of what a cult is, but I need to point out that scholars don't agree on all points, and sometimes academic definitions differ from definitions outside academia.

Also, there are good cults, and bad cults, but since the 70's cults are viewed more negatively.

Tell me one good cult. Lol 

[Ceka Cianci]

5 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Personally, I think it is important to remember definitions #3 and #4.

 

I'm not a groupie of any kind or an idolater. I check them all off.

Myself, I don't put my faith or fate into the hands any groups or any one person. Not anymore anyways.

Groups to me feel like a box and most wanting you to think inside of their box.. political groups, religious groups, cliques, salons, gas station breakfast gatherings, ect.

Soon as someone starts to get to where I feel like they are trying to coax me into their direction or to their way of thinking or their group or side. I'm gonna start looking  real hard for myself to see what the catch is or I'm gonna start putting distance between me and them if I'm already onto them.

When people are motivated by something and all excited and wanting me to share in it with them, I just think it's best to see if they are looking through a clear window or stained glass.

A big red flag and give away for me is, one sidedness.

 

 

[Luna Bliss]

8 minutes ago, Sammy Huntsman said:

12 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

This gives us a good sense of what a cult is, but I need to point out that scholars don't agree on all points, and sometimes academic definitions differ from definitions outside academia.

Also, there are good cults, and bad cults, but since the 70's cults are viewed more negatively.

Tell me one good cult. Lol 

First I'd need to know what your definition of a cult is. So how do you define it?

[Love Zhaoying]

2 minutes ago, Ceka Cianci said:

33 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Personally, I think it is important to remember definitions #3 and #4.

 

I'm not a groupie of any kind or an idolater. I check them all off.

Myself, I don't put my faith or fate into the hands any groups or any one person. Not anymore anyways.

Groups to me feel like a box and most wanting you to think inside of their box.. political groups, religious groups, cliques, salons, gas station breakfast gatherings, ect.

Soon as someone starts to get to where I feel like they are trying to coax me into their direction or to their way of thinking or their group or side. I'm gonna start looking  real hard for myself to see what the catch is or I'm gonna start putting distance between me and them if I'm already onto them.

When people are motivated by something and all excited and wanting me to share in it with them, I just think it's best to see if they are looking through a clear window or stained glass.

A big red flag and give away for me is, one sidedness.

My point was, most people who follow some kind of "faith", "religion", etc. fall into #3 or #4 - it's not a "bad" usage of the word "cult".  (Unless I read the list wrong or too fast.)  Just my opinion.

[Ceka Cianci]

Just now, Love Zhaoying said:

My point was, most people who follow some kind of "faith", "religion", etc. fall into #3 or #4 - it's not a "bad" usage of the word "cult".  (Unless I read the list wrong or too fast.)  Just my opinion.

I agree, I was just adding in my own way that, I feel that same vibe in a lot of areas.

[Ayashe Ninetails]

5 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

My point was, most people who follow some kind of "faith", "religion", etc. fall into #3 or #4 - it's not a "bad" usage of the word "cult".  (Unless I read the list wrong or too fast.)  Just my opinion.

Mayyyybe it's just me, but I've never heard the term used positively. And rarely the actual groups themselves using "cult" as a description. Outside of an attempt to be edgy, anyway. Rahhh fear us - the Cult of Cthulhulululololololz. 🤣

 

[Love Zhaoying]

7 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

Mayyyybe it's just me, but I've never heard the term used positively. And rarely the actual groups themselves using "cult" as a description. Outside of an attempt to be edgy, anyway. Rahhh fear us - the Cult of Cthulhulululololololz. 🤣

 

It's not just you, it is how society usually means "cult".  Since that isn't the "only" (thereby not the only "real") meaning, I thought it is important to point it out.

[Drake1 Nightfire]

41 minutes ago, Sammy Huntsman said:

Tell me one good cult. Lol 

Rocky Horror Picture Show... 

[Luna Bliss]

Here's a good article about religion and cults:

"Knee-jerk reactions make for poor sociology, and delineating what, exactly, makes a cult (as opposed to a ‘proper’ religious movement) often comes down to judgment calls based on perceived legitimacy. Prod that perception of legitimacy, however, and you find value judgments based on age, tradition or ‘respectability’..."

https://aeon.co/essays/theres-no-sharp-distinction-between-cult-and-regular-religion

[Silent Mistwalker]

45 minutes ago, Sammy Huntsman said:

Tell me one good cult. Lol 

Blue Oyster Cult

Edited June 14, 2022 by Silent Mistwalker

[Paulsian]

or the wilderness girl cult 

 

[Luna Bliss]

@Ayashe Ninetails

Awhile back I discovered someone who thinks the 'digital nomads' phenomenon is a kind of cult.  It showed all these western men living in abysmal conditions in Asian countries, earning very little, but feeling they were part of some movement that demonstrated a better way of life.

Apparently the author showed the ones who didn't earn much to prove their point that becoming a digital nomad was somehow 'bad' and deserving of the cult label.

[Silent Mistwalker]

The four "greatest" cult leaders of the 50's and 60's were: Reverend Sun Myung Moon, Minister David Berg, Jim Jones, and Charles Manson.

Edited June 14, 2022 by Silent Mistwalker

[Luna Bliss]

39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult committed suicide. I really don't understand how they could follow the leader -- if I see anyone with eyes like this (obviously psychotic) posing as a leader I run like hell:

Edited June 14, 2022 by Luna Bliss

[Luna Bliss]

58 minutes ago, Ceka Cianci said:

Myself, I don't put my faith or fate into the hands any groups or any one person.

Not even this cult living in your neck of the woods?  🤣

[Ayashe Ninetails]

4 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

@Ayashe Ninetails

Awhile back I discovered someone who thinks the 'digital nomads' phenomenon is a kind of cult.  It showed all these western men living in abysmal conditions in Asian countries, earning very little, but feeling they were part of some movement that demonstrated a better way of life.

Apparently the author showed the ones who didn't earn much to prove their point that becoming a digital nomad was somehow 'bad' and deserving of the cult label.

Hmmm. That's a more creative use of the word I suppose. But I don't consider things like that cults. More like fads orrrr...what's the word. My brain isn't working today. Like the whole influencer culture thing. It can be quite toxic at times. Just look at travel bloggers who make hotel workers' lives a living hell lol.

But that I wouldn't use "cult" for. There's another word that I can't think of at the moment. Cults I typically associate with what Silent just mentioned. Or Doomsday cults. And yeah, Heaven's Gate for sure. Things like that.

[Luna Bliss]

1 minute ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

Hmmm. That's a more creative use of the word I suppose. But I don't consider things like that cults. More like fads orrrr...what's the word. My brain isn't working today. Like the whole influencer culture thing. It can be quite toxic at times. Just look at travel bloggers who make hotel workers' lives a living hell lol.

But that I wouldn't use "cult" for. There's another word that I can't think of at the moment. Cults I typically associate with what Silent just mentioned. Or Doomsday cults. And yeah, Heaven's Gate for sure. Things like that.

Yes, I'd say an organized way of living or a common philosophy can be one element of a cult, but does not define it entirely.

We need an element of coercion and a few other attributes to make it a cult (or a bad cult anyway).

[Paulsian]

This is semi interesting docu re: cults the history channel did. 

 

[Love Zhaoying]

I do recall a "cult" that had a lot of land in Tennessee (?) I think, there is a great preservation of their land and buildings.

Anyway, think "Puritans" in the 1890's-1920's. But more cool.

[Ayashe Ninetails]

4 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

Yes, I'd say an organized way of living or a common philosophy can be one element of a cult, but does not define it entirely.

We need an element of coercion and a few other attributes to make it a cult (or a bad cult anyway).

Yup. There's more, too. Recruitment, propaganda, and yeah coercion at times. Usually a central figure (not always) leading the thing. 

I'm blanking out - wasn't there one in fairly recent history that was getting ruthlessly trolled on Twitter? It was a Doomsday variety - the leader kept swearing a meteor would smack the Earth on a specific date or something wild like that. Anyway, I remember people hopping on Twitter the morning of the predicted calamity and joke-tweeting through it. It was amusing, naturally, but also quite scary, because many really DID believe that nonsense. Gah, I can't remember which one that was.

[Akane Nacht]

1 hour ago, Aethelwine said:

I think I might have missed a few pages browsing this on my phone, so I might have missed a reference to it. But there is the Cult of Ruth Eternal in Secondlife. 

It is not exactly secret, but the wiki has an outdated address for the Temple to Philip Linden,  so does require searching or special knowledge to find. 

There was also Our Lady of Perpetual Silence. I visited her shrine once but she was gone. Ascended into the great cloud server I suppose..

[Ceka Cianci]

1 hour ago, Luna Bliss said:

First I'd need to know what your definition of a cult is. So how do you define it?

My feeling is,when something gets manipulated for personal gain or control or power over others..

Like the bible has been used, itself..

I've had people, groups, even pastors manipulate me using the bible, before I finally broke away from church and started to dive into the books myself.. The more I study on my own the more I could separate myself and discover my own conversation with who I believed in as well as start to hold my own against people getting in my face about religion.

The whole burning in hell forever thing for instance. From my understanding is a crock and one of the biggest things that scares the crap out of people to get control over them.. I remember being so scare of that when I was younger.

Then right at the beginning of the books, I found something..

We only ate from the one tree, the tree of knowledge.

In order to burn forever, you would already have to have eternal life.. Because you are not allowed back into paradise unless you are purified, it's a fat chance of it happening.

For that burning forever to happen, we would have to enter paradise, eat from the tree of life, then become eternal, then burn forever.

We would have to have the second part of the formula..Because god can't just go, POOF! you're all set.. it doesn't work like that.

They even have a conversation before Kicking Adam and Eve out of the garden about it,showing that it takes the tree of life to become eternal.

Genesis 3:22

And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”

 

I could go on about how politics works the same way..If you ask me political groups and parties are the modern day religions Pulling the same crap..

I've studied my religions hard and when something looks like a duck,quacks like a duck,craps like a duck, it's a good chance it's a duck..

Religions power is fading in the world more and more as political power grows and grows..

I don't follow religions of any kind or believe in ghosts or mythical things anymore..

After falling out of belief of my religion that I put so much of myself into..Which I have to say, is a hell of a lot harder than it sounds, to do..

It's a fat chance that I'll let any group ever manipulate me in that way ever again..

 

So in my eyes and I'm using the bad version of the word, a cult to me has a very wide spectrum that reaches beyond just religion.

I try and seek the truth the best I can with what really interests me.. When someone tries to manipulate me. I'm only going to look into it if it interests me, but I'm still gonna seek the truth and not take their word for it..

 

OK I think I might have got side tracked again.. I'm not the best and keeping on track and doing long posts.. so sorry if I'm all over the board again ..hehehe

Still drinking mymorning tea.

 

 

 

Edited June 14, 2022 by Ceka Cianci

[Luna Bliss]

4 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

It was amusing, naturally, but also quite scary, because many really DID believe that nonsense.

It is scary to see people descend into what is basically a psychosis, and to do so quite easily.

One of my brothers got into this strange belief system that claimed a planet grew close to earth and aliens descended to mate with women on Earth. He would talk about it constantly...it became his whole life at a time when he didn't know where he was headed in life and so vulnerable to latching onto something. I'd try to distract him when he started in on this scary, looming situation of their coming back to Earth, by asking him about his job and such. But another brother wasn't so nice and told him to just shut up because nobody wanted to hear that cr*p.  lol

Finally, he grew out of it. But I shudder to think what might have happened had these other people into this 'philosophy' asked him to do something strange or commit suicide with them.

[Ayashe Ninetails]

5 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

It is scary to see people descend into what is basically a psychosis, and to do so quite easily.

One of my brothers got into this strange belief system that claimed a planet grew close to earth and aliens descended to mate with women on Earth. He would talk about it constantly...it became his whole life at a time when he didn't know where he was headed in life and so vulnerable to latching onto something. I'd try to distract him when he started in on this scary, looming situation of their coming back to Earth, by asking him about his job and such. But another brother wasn't so nice and told him to just shut up because nobody wanted to hear that cr*p.  lol

Finally, he grew out of it. But I shudder to think what might have happened had these other people into this 'philosophy' asked him to do something strange or commit suicide with them.

Yeah, it's wild. Not only that a person can be so susceptible to something like that, but that there are people who know exactly how to manipulate them. This is why I can't watch documentaries on this stuff, despite how much I'd love to. Am I fascinated by it? Yup. But yeesh, the more I learn, the less I wish I knew!

[Rowan Amore]

3 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I think that sounds about right. To any sect, any other sect may be "a cult", or just "another sect".  "A cult" may think  they are "just a sect".  (I have to take your specific definitions into account.)

It seems exactly like that.  Many religions under the 'Christian' banner and many I would consider cultish while other may not.