#ex Doomsday cult member

[only1lorrie]

[starboy14176]

hi ccan you tell me more about Subject A and Subject B. cause I looked through their tags on your blog and um. 👁️👁️👁️👁️ interested

Hai this ask got lost somehow but I FOUND IT so hello yes I’d love to talk about my special interest

So subject A and subject B are characters from the idkhow arg/concept albums, they are unwilling test subjects of an evil corporation called tellexx and basically tellexx uses them to invent time travel and then go through time performing propaganda music to brainwash people. There is VERY VERY LITTLE canonical information about the subjects as people but we do know that their real names are Dallon and Ryan (just like the band members) and we know that the white shadow (the ghost thing in the videos) was sent by tellexx to monitor them throughout time. We also know the subjects are being drugged using sugar pills but can presume the drugs aren’t affecting B as much as they are affecting A or B is not being given the same amount as A based on B’s general vibe in the videos. Also it seems B is the one who administers tests on A sometimes (ex. New invention and diatt) which is possibly real to why he’s being given less drugs? Thats all stuff from the first too albums though, uh gloom division gets more complicated. The subjects get separated, A gets moved to a new program called the gloom division and basically tellexx turns him into a personification the sin of pride ? And that’s like all we know. I have a lot of thoughts on gloom div but I’m gonna mostly stick to razz because my gloom div interpretations get kinda out there lol. Uhhh I think that’s all the canonical information we have about them?

So basically I made it my life’s mission to make up elaborate lore for them and I’ve written a ridiculous amount of fanfics about them. Also I have several OCs in the tellexx universe to fill out the cast a little more, and like the subjects are basically my OCs too at this point because their is little to no canonical charactieztion for them (aside from song lyrics which are vague at best). Ok so let’s talk about the subjects.

I stick the subjects around age 20 when they get kidnapped and then around 24 when they start actually successfully time traveling. Subject A was raised in a doomsday cult and had very abusive parents. He was super sheltered and rarely left the house. When he was 19-20 he decided to run away and tellexx found him after that. Subject B’s dad was abusive and he ended up getting kicked out when he was around 17, he was homeless for a while but he was living with a friend at the time of his kidnapping.

Subject A is autistic and gay, he’s also on the acearo spec and genderfluid but he doesn’t find that stuff out until after escaping tellexx. His special interests are stuffed animals, space, and cats (with a big emphasis on stuffed animals lol). He’s extremely clingy to anyone who shows him affection and I play around a lot with the idea that he age regresses on occasion as a trauma response. (But obviously neither he nor subject B have the language to know that that’s what’s happening)

Subject B is bi and also autistic, he is also on the acearo spec cuz I said so :3 his special interest is the ocean and sea creatures. He has anger issues and major major trust issues. Him and A are very codependent and they both have issues with separation anxiety. He has a history of being violent with tellexx employees and it takes a while for them to get him to cooperate but once he does he’s relatively easy to get to do what they want.

Anyways now to some of my OCs, rapid fire addition

Dr. Adalia (aka Dr. addy): the subjects main handler/tellexx issued therapist. Her job is to keep them compliant and basically gaslight them until they act like good little tellexx robots. She’s super fucking manipulative ‼️

Gloom: a clone of subject A (not the mannequin I made up gloom b4 the mannequin existed ok), he’s the replacement they give B after A has to go get turned into a demon or whatever. Gloom has been watching the subjects on security cameras for like a year to learn A’s mannerisms and stuff and over that span of time got parasocially obsessed with the subjects. He looks like Dallon from the what love music video and he’s very special to me.

Mr. Cain: glooms handler. He sucks we hate Mr. Cain >:[

Rose: breezy’s character from gloom division. Subject A was in love with her b4 he got got by tellexx (?) and now she’s involved with tellexx in some way and it’s breaking A’s brain. Yeah idk about her rlly yet

Dolly: A’s new handler during gloom div :3 she, well not actively participating in the tellexx torture stuff, is complicit in all of it well insisting it’s not her fault and she didn’t realize tellexx sucked so bad until she was too far in to quit. Her and A get into a super weird toxic sort of relationship :( it is hashtag bad

Ok so that’s my tellexx universe. I could probably go more in depth but that’s my attempt at giving a basic run down. 👍👍👍👍👍

[sciencelings-arts]

Part 3 of my botw aa au: Franziska, who, like her brother, is an ex-Yiga member, though it was much harder for her to get out. Even without her past in a doomsday cult she’s still intimidatingly terrifying. Good for her. 

Phoenix in the au

[spurgie-cousin]

I never thought I’d see the cult I grew up in on your page, but I’m so glad there are other people recognizing how awful the SDA (seventh day Adventist) church is. I was raised by a pastor and my whole family are still members. They refuse to believe that I no longer share their beliefs and constantly try to convince me to “give the church another chance.” they do not consider me a Christian because I’m no longer in their church. Growing up I didn’t know anyone who had ever managed to leave and to this day only one friend has left. There isn’t a strong ex-sda community that I know of and most resources are hard to find because they are buried by the church. The church as a whole is very doomsday esque and even as a kid growing up in the church I had so so much anxiety about it. There are a ton of rules which also contributes to the anxiety and the church culture is super judgmental and gossipy. I never understood why we had such different beliefs + practices from all the other churches and now I find it outrageous that I believed those things. I’m interested to see what else you come across and I am now going to see what ex-sda creators I can find (I don’t use TikTok) to relate to lol.

What's funny is I grew up in a town that had a ridiculous number of churches for its size, one of those being a fair-sized SDA church, but I don't remember ever meeting anyone from it. My church was the largest so it would organize multi-church events sometimes and there were only a few groups who never participated, SDA included (though to be fair I don't know if they just didn't want to, or if my church was discriminating lol).

So it feels crazy that I'm just now learning how cult-y they are. I think the church in my hometown was kind of an anomaly because their numbers are pretty small comparatively, something like 1.1 million in the US compared to ~90 million evangelicals, which is probably why they don't have a huge presence in the ex-Christian community.

The creator I posted is also the daughter of an Adventist pastor, it looks like she's only on tiktok right now (@songbirdsstory) but here are a few other places I've been reading ex-Adventist stories on platforms besides tiktok (also I will check out to Former Adventist podcast as well!):

Haystacks & Hell is a podcast and instagram account that collects ex-Adventist stories (that link takes you to their Instagram, their podcast info is in the link in their bio)

r/exAdventist which is a subreddit for ex-members of the church (if you're unfamiliar with reddit it's basically like a place for very specific online forums lol. people have conversations, tell stories, etc)

r/exChristian is another subreddit for ex-Christians as a while, but it has quite a few threads from ex-SDA that I've been reading. That link should take you to the list without having to search around.

and I do have a question but it's sensitive, so I understand if you're not comfortable answering: what was the generally accepted punishment for breaking the rules, like the health message etc? I know SongBirdSings from that video has said she suffered a lot of physical abuse, but she's also insinuated in other videos that that wasn't how it was for everyone. So I was just curious about what most people tolerated as acceptable reprimanding in the church.

[quirky-ex-cultist]

Growing up in a doomsday cult muddled much of my ability to be emotional about the tragic things happening in the world. Growing up with the belief that everyone who died unfairly would either be resurrected or they weren’t deserving of life anyways makes taking in horrible things a lot easier- it makes it simple to think about, and it sounds on the surface like everyone will receive justice.

But even if resurrected with the memories of the pain erased, those people still lived through injustice that a loving god wouldn’t have put them through. They also aren’t being resurrected yet, so they haven’t gotten their justice yet anyways. But that thought process brings so much comfort- this idea that the universe has a system to sort everything out in a way that is sensible to human comprehension. That isn’t how the world is, though- people suffer everywhere and being complacent with that fact is to close your eyes to reality before you.

I think this realization is what can cause many ex-doomsday cult members emotional distress and exhaustion, because once you realize the unfairness of the world there is no going back to ignorance.

[pigstepping]

That post i just reblogged by @/manlet-rights-activist got me thinking about a TMA AU, and I think I nailed down working canon-compliant entity connections for everything except The Dark.

Avatars

Dream

Avatar of the web (control, manipulation). Key victims include tubbo, eret, wilbur, and tommy (although tommy proved unusually resistant). Could also be read as avatar of the lonely (isolation) due to his clinical rejection of personal attachment and the tactics he used on tommy during exile.

Sam

Avatar of the buried (small spaces, being stuck) in his capacity as warden. Key victims include dream, tommy, techno, and ponk. Could also be read as avatar of the slaughter (senseless violence) due to cutting off Ponk's arm.

Philza

Ex-avatar of the vast (heights, infinity, insignificance) in the distant past, which was once symbolized by his wings and immortality. Both his cynicism towards material attachments and the high value he places on personal connections can be interpreted as avatar-related trauma. Broke free by devoting himself to Kristin, avatar of the end (death).

Karl

Avatar of the eye (being watched, destructive knowledge) via chronicling his time travel episodes. The closest analogy we have to the archivist role in TMA.

More under the cut:

Badboyhalo

Ex-avatar and victim of the corruption (filth, rot) in his capacity as ringleader of the egg cult, along with all the other members of the eggpire. The red banquet was an attempted ritual.

Wilbur

Ex-avatar of the desolation (pain, destruction, loss) during pogtopia, which resulted in the first destruction of L'manberg. Came about as a direct result of his victimization by previous desolation avatar, Schlatt, leading up to his exile.

Tubbo

Developing avatar of the extinction (catastrophic change) via his exploration of nuclear warfare. Direct result of being victimized by Dream/The Web so hard during his presidency.

Quackity

Developing avatar of the stranger (uncanniness, "not quite right") via his creation and performance of las nevadas.

Doomsday trio

Transient avatars of the extinction through the final destruction of L'manberg.

The butcher army

Transient avatars of the flesh (dehumanization, body horror) through hunting down techno for execution.

Other entity connections

Limbo

People who die and get trapped in limbo are being victimized by the buried, or arguably the end or the lonely depending on context.

Enderwalking

Ranboo is victimized by the spiral (unreality, lack of self-trust) via his memory gaps and the hallucinations he had during his visions, although so far there's no clear avatar for this.

Techno

Not actually an avatar, but he has a bad rep because people think he's an avatar of the slaughter. However, could be read as an avatar of the hunt (being chased, especially for sport) if you wanted to canonize MCM or bedwars winstreak lol

[wantedtourist]

So Ja Rule was raised Jehovah’s Witness huh. He can join my ex-Jehovah’s Witness / Jehovah’s Witness Survivors club. Ex-members include Michael Jackson and Prince. We out here. We’re spiritually and psychologically (if not also mentally and emotionally) traumatized by a doomsday cult upbringing, but we out here.

[mallowstep]

gonna take the bite model to tigerstar's cult thing bc he's not running a doomsday cult and this seems like a fun way to flesh this out.

cw: physical abuse, manipulation

i. behaviour control

1. regulation of physical reality

a) member associations: yeah he's got a good little compound running. corrupt the mind and all that.

b) clothes: more so for women, but looking Respectful is important.

c) food: for disfavoured individuals, access to food is limited.

d) sleep: sleep deprivation is a favoured punishment

e) financial dependence: encourages Campaign Donations and mutual funding of expenses

f) lack of free time: yeah. not much to say so much as there's Always Something to Be Done.

2. major time commitment

i mean they mostly all live in one place. there's. idk maybe...40 members? with 10-15 in the main house, the rest in a few guest houses.

3. need to ask permission for major decisions

yes

4. need to report thoughts, actions, feelings

yes

5. rewards and punishments

yes

6. individualism discouraged

yes but not openly. he encourages Discussion and Debate except people who disagree with him lose favour. you're supposed to just. support him in a slightly different way.

7. rigid rules and regulations

yeah. not gonna list them all here but. yeah.

8. need for dependence

yes

ii. information control

1. use of deception

a) holding back information: not a lot, except to mistyfoot and featherpaw

b) distorting information: usually by providing an alternate explanation

c) outright lying: yeah but mostly to featherpaw and mistyfoot

2. access to other information limited

going to sum this all up with: not Really. he's...basically he calls this like a political base of support. trying to weed out the Corruption of modern america. so they're. i mean yeah but not really.

3. compartmentalization of information

yes. he doesn't tell everyone this, but those closer to him are increasingly aware of his Master Plan.

also going forward i'm not doing an individual breakdown of the points sorry

4. spying on other members is encouraged

yeah. can't be absolved of sin if you don't pay your penance. good friends take care of each other. make sure they see judgement. tawnypaw in particular is encouraged to keep a close eye on featherpaw to make sure she is brought Back Into the Light.

not that tigerstar would ever say she has been, but

5. extensive use of propaganda

yeah they put out a lot of stuff to try to Spread the Word

6. unethical use of confession

mhm. like hell is your one punishment actually absolving you. and -- if you've messed up once, you're more likely to mess up again. better keep a close eye on you, make sure the correction was strong enough.

iii. thought control

1. need to accept group doctrine as truth

yes.

2. adopting loaded language

yeah and you've probably got an idea of what i think he uses based on how i write some of this.

3. only good and proper thoughts are encouraged

because bad thoughts lead to bad actions. you're on a day of fasting -- i hope you weren't looking at food. because that means you're thinking about eating, and that means you'll steal food. hm. better tack another day on, just to be safe.

4. thought stopping techniques

he's not terribly big on this one, but group prayer is utilized

5. no critical questions

huuuuuge one. tawnypaw just. stops ever asking questions. she's not doubting him. she's not. she has faith. she's on the right path. she is.

6. no alternate belief system

not really. he thinks that some christians are close enough to the truth to be brought into the light, but they're still wrong the way they are now. they can't have the right reason for acting, and that's barely better than doing the wrong action.

iv. emotional control

1. manipulate and narrow the range of feelings

not really...he encouraged girls/women to be Peaceful and Complacent and such, but it's not a major focus

2. every problem is an individual's fault

yep. big one. that's -- he blames basically everything he does to featherpaw on mistyfoot, and that pattern isn't exclusive to them

3. excessive use of guilt

sometimes. he might not focus on it, but it's more than normal.

ig if you count shame as guilt then yeah.

4. excessive use of fear

yeahhhhh big time.

5. extremes of emotional highs and lows

mhm

6. ritual and public confession of sins

every...idk.

he does a group circle thing and like. there's a chance for everyone to confess but he'll eventually pull someone in who he says has done something wrong.

7. irrational fears of leaving

yeah

[grigori77]

Movies of 2021 - My Pre-Summer Favourites (Part 1)

The Runners-up:

20.  THE MAURITANIAN – acclaimed filmmaker Kevin MacDonald (The Last King of Scotland, Touching the Void) presents his best film in years with this stirring, troubling dramatization of the harrowing fourteen-year detention at Guantanamo Bay of Mohamedou Ould Slahi (A Prophet’s Tahar Rahim in a deeply affecting turn) between 2002 and 2016.  Jodie Foster is also impressive as Nancy Hollander, the crusading attorney fighting for his release, as is Benedict Cumberbatch as Lt. Col. Stuart Couch, her opposing counsel, who comes to realise Slahi’s confinement has been built on a tissue of lies.

19.  RIDERS OF JUSTICE – Danish writer-director Anders Thomas Jensen (Men & Chicken) brings his biting sense of humour and anarchic style to bear in this excellent black comedy starring Mads Mikkelsen as Markus, an emotionally distant soldier called home after his wife is killed in a tragic train wreck.  As he attempts to reconnect with his troubled daughter (Andrea Heick Gadeberg), Markus becomes convinced by the theory of a trio of intellectually gifted outsiders who believe that the accident was in fact an elaborately staged assassination by the eponymous criminal biker gang.

18.  STOWAWAY – Netflix dropped another sneaky sci-fi hit on us in the form of this deceptively understated space thriller about three astronauts on a mission to Mars who discover they no longer have enough life-support resources left to survive their journey after finding a member of the launch crew accidentally trapped on their spaceship.  Writer-director Joe Penna is in comfortably familiar territory after acclaimed survival thriller Arctic, while the compact cast – Toni Collette, Daniel Dae Kim, Shamier Anderson (Wynonna Earp) and, in particular, Anna Kendrick – are all excellent.

17.  OUTSIDE THE WIRE – in the near future, civil war has broken out in the Ukraine and US forces fight to keep the peace with the aid of newly-minted robotic soldiers called GUMPs. Drone pilot Thomas Harp (Snowfall’s Damson Idris) is reassigned to the warzone as punishment for insubordination, finding himself teamed with Captain Leo (Anthony Mackie), an advanced hyper-intelligent android tasked with hunting down insurgents bent on unleashing nuclear holocaust on the West.  Mikael Håfström (director of 1408 and Escape Plan) ably delivers some impressively weighty action sequences, while asking interesting questions about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence.

16.  THE EMPTY MAN – I was a little late stumbling across this spectacularly twisted cosmic horror based on a graphic novel by Cullen Bunn (The Damned, The Sixth Gun) and Vanesa Del Ray, but it grabbed me in the first ten minutes and wouldn’t let go.  The ever-excellent James Badge Dale delivers one of the best performances of his career as James Lasombra, an ex-cop who gets mixed up with a nightmarish conspiracy involving a doomsday cult built around the terrifying eponymous otherworldly entity in an head-fucking horror gem that entirely deserves its growing cult status.

15.  SOUND OF METAL – had to wait until Amazon Prime released this in the UK last month, but this challenging and emotionally-charged drama was worth holding out, Riz Ahmed delivering his finest ever performance as Ruben Stone, a heavy metal drummer whose life is thrown into turmoil when he goes deaf.  Ready Player One’s Olivia Cooke also impresses as his girlfriend Lou, a massively talented singer whose own personal demons are set loose as Ruben’s condition drives a wedge between them, while writer-director Darius Marder (who co-penned overlooked masterpiece The Place Beyond the Pines) shows he’s definitely gonna be a talent to watch in the future.

14.  CHERRY – Tom Holland reteams with his regular MCU directors Joe and Anthony Russo for this harrowing but achingly beautiful adaptation of author Nico Walker’s sort-of-but-not-exactly semiautobiographical novel about a former US army medic who returns from the horrors of Iraq with crippling PTSD at the height of America’s opioid epidemic, forced to embark on a spree of bank robberies to feed his drug habit.  Holland has never been better, while the Russos prove they’re capable of delivering more than just bombastic superhero action and big effects.

13.  SHOPLIFTERS OF THE WORLD – writer-director Stephen Kijak may be known for making documentaries about musicians (Scott Walker: 30th Century Man, Stones in Exile), but he proves he’s got a flair for fiction too with this cannily subversive comedy drama about a Middle American town that goes a little crazy one night in the 80s when a teenage boy hijacks the local heavy metal radio station and makes them play wall-to-wall tacks from The Smiths following the band’s sudden breakup.  There’s escapist fun to be had from the irreverent quirkiness of the premise, and the youthful cast are all excellent, while Joe Manganiello delivers a brilliantly nuanced supporting turn as the besieged DJ.

12.  BILLIE EILISH: THE WORLD’S A LITTLE BLURRY – I’ll admit to being a bit late to the party when it comes to Billie Eilish – I’d heard snippets of her music (most notably Bad Guy and her admittedly impressive theme for the new Bond movie), but until I watched this deep dive into her life and career, following the creation and promotion of her debut album, I didn’t yet know what all the fuss was about.  Well I’m now thoroughly converted – not only is she an incredibly talented young musical artist but also a fascinating and intriguingly down-to-earth person too, and I look forward to following her career in the future.

11.  SHADOW IN THE CLOUD – Chloë Grace Moretz gets a role to really sink her teeth into as Maude Garrett, a take-no-shit WAAF flight officer on a classified mission aboard Allied bomber Fool’s Errand in the Pacific in 1943, in this enjoyably unconventional action horror from My Wedding & Other Secrets director Roseanna Liang.  The film is largely a one-woman show, with the cameras clinging stubbornly to Moretz while the genuinely terrifying story unfolds around her, and she invests Maude with a ferocious stubbornness and intensity that’s crafted one of the cinematic year’s most impressive action heroines.

[doomedandstoned]

Lowen Return with Stunning EP, ‘Unceasing Lamentations’

~By Reek of STOOM~

Art by Hervé Scott Flament

London-based Doomters LOWEN return with an incredible, stripped back-to-bare-bones release next month. "Unceasing Lamentations" consists of 3 evocative, alluring tracks based on ancient Middle Eastern texts and highlighting Nina Saeidi's incredible vocal talent.

First track, "The Exalted One Who Walketh" shimmers with the arid heat of the desert, vocals soaring, plaintive and mesmerising, like a melding of Ofra Haza and Diamanda Galas, backed throughout by Shem Lucas' soulful Oud-style playing. Indeed, the lone vocal combo stretches across all three tracks, bringing a sultry and beguiling presence as powerful and majestic as the heaviest Doom out there.

Lowen have encountered many issues over the last 12 months, and this EP has been cathartic, heartfelt and deeply reconnecting with their roots. A Triumph!

I spoke with both Nina and Shem and posed some questions about the last year and their new release, out June 4th.

The new EP is obviously an accumulation of recent trials and tribulations for the band. How have you coped with such an acrimonious split?

Shem: It was a difficult situation but the core of the band has always been Nina and myself. The music is about her background and Lowen is a vehicle to explore that and always has been. Anyone that is unable or unwilling to accept that simply does not have a place within the band. There are many wonderful musicians that have approached us eager to work with us and that has been very touching.

Nina: As Shem said, it was a very difficult and sad situation that shocked us to our cores when it happened. The extreme nature of having a racially motivated hate crime directed at me by our ex-drummer has in a way allowed us to view it as a clean break from which we can move on without looking back. Shem and I have felt so much more positive and driven now that we can plan and write completely new material together and look to a much brighter future.

The support from our friends and fans in the immediate aftermath was really touching and we are so excited to work with some insanely talented new musicians this summer!

LISTEN: Unceasing Lamentations by Lowen

I'm also assuming that lockdown has played a part in the stripped-back sound? To what extent has this process changed the way you look at and create Music now?

Shem: Unceasing Lamentations is a result of Nina being invited to perform on a Solo basis by the Brighton Doomsday collective as part of their efforts to raise funds to keep the Green Door Store venue in Brighton open in the face of the pandemic. We were so happy with the results that we decided to have Magnus Lindberg of Cult of Luna master the audio so that we could release it.

The songs don’t represent a new direction so much as a pivotal moment in time for the band, we’re still writing our next album to feature big distorted guitars, drums and bass, though I would say that it was wonderful to finally release something that was a lot more eastern in terms of musical composition. It’s a nice bridge between the first album and the resulting musical studies we have undertaken to bring our sound closer to what we both hear in our minds.

Nina: It was so freeing to be able to improvise and really embrace the more Iranian and Eastern aspects of our sound and influence. It’s something I’ve been pushing to do more since we released our first album and I am so excited that we will now be fully putting that into the second one. This EP is more of a captured moment where I expressed the anguish and longing that I was experiencing at the time.

Due to the improvisational aspect of the performance we went in with no plan at all. Apart from the lullaby what you hear are musical choices that were made in that very moment. It can magical to simply give up all control of a creative situation and see what the body spontaneously produces musically.

LISTEN: A Crypt in the Stars by Lowen

The lyrics were based on folk tales or Eastern myths. How did you come to choose them?

Nina: The lyrics for the first two songs are directly taken from cuneiform tablets. The Exalted One Who Walketh is an arrangement of transliterated lines taken from a Sumerian city destruction lamentation referred to as “e-lum didara”. Against Evil Done by the Serpent is a transliteration of Akkadian from a clay tablet that directed the tuning of an instrument through metaphoric comparisons between gods and each string.

I met with renown museo-archeologist Richard Dumbrill and talked with him for several hours on how the words may have been pronounced and sung in the context of ancient music and modern interpretation. Though we will never know how ancient music and language sounded, it is thought that some of it has been preserved in folk music of the areas in which it originated when it comes to the music of the Middle East.

The third song is an Iranian lullaby that embodies the sorrow of war and abandonment felt by many children during the Iran-Iraq war and is still sadly apt for many children in the Middle East today. The lullaby centres on a child who has experienced the trauma of war being comforted by a mother who promises that she will not abandon them as they tread dangerous ground even in their dreams.

I chose all these because I am deeply interested in the history of language and culture in the Middle East. It moves me that music and lyrics that are thousands of years old can be resurrected and performed once more in a context where the sorrows and joys of multiple cultures that were geographically close can be viewed millennia apart.

How is the new line-up going? Any major differences or effects on the dynamic?

Shem: Lowen has always revolved around Nina and myself, but Richard Stevenson (our live bass player) is still very much a part of the band. We have been approached by other musicians who would like to work with us and we are excited to move forward with an array of incredibly talented musicians.

Nina: Our dynamic is stronger than ever as Shem and I are able to write and move forward with much greater speed and productivity than before. We always wrote the music in the past, but now we feel that we are able to be a lot more free creatively.

We are so grateful that we have Richard Stevenson, our live bassist, with us for what will be a very exciting summer in terms of shows. He always brings amazing energy to the stage and has been a dedicated member and friend for years now.

Soon we will be able to reveal who we will have drumming for us live and we can’t wait.

You have always been vocal about political and social issues in the East. What are your hopes for the future?

Nina: My greatest hope will always be for peace. War and political savagery has felt never-ending in the Middle East, and much of it is because of interference and backing from non-Eastern countries that profit from terminal instability and conflict. For example, we’re currently seeing horrendous atrocities in the news with the state of Israel attacking and tearing apart even more innocent lives and I hope that those who are actively campaigning for ceasefire and recognition of what is truly happening in Gaza and Sheikh Jarrah succeed. I’d like to clarify that my criticism of the state of Israel is not tied in with Jewishness or the nature of Judaism, I think it’s important not to veer into anti-semitism and anti-muslim sentiment when noting political matters in Israel.

My personal hope is to be able to go and see my family, who live in other parts of the Middle East, without fear of arrest and execution. I would be overjoyed if women were able to sing in public again and for the LGBTQ+ community in Iran to live without fear of death and persecution.

Will you be planning a tour or appearances at any festivals in the coming year?

Shem: we’re very excited to begin performing live again, the performances prior to pandemic had begun to feature increasing intensity, so we can only imagine what a renewed and focussed line up will add to that, as well as the prospect of playing new material.

Nina: We have a few more shows to announce in what is already feeling like a packed few months of shows around the UK but I can’t say anything yet.

What was the last thing you had to kick to get working again?

Shem: there was nothing to kick per se, but the many many hours of study into eastern music, rhythm and maqam are certainly paying off and the music we are composing now is focussed and features many techniques and devices not widely seen within western music, there’s also a lot of double bass drum!

Nina: A few cobwebs and a couple of boxes in order to find my stage mic after so long.

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[some-jw-things]

So I’m not all that familiar with this religion, but after seeing it explained isn’t there some legal course you could take to try and get it dismantled? Or at the very least make it easier to escape for those who want to?

I don’t think having the Society legally dismantled would help anything. Jehovah’s Witnesses are already outright or functionally banned in like a half dozen countries. In countries with mandatory military service, they go straight to jail. In countries imposing a temporary draft, they go straight to jail. This really only makes things worse

The most famous ongoing case is the situation with Russia. Jehovah’s Witnesses are classified as extremist and under ban there. Imo from reading about it, it wasn’t actually about them being a doomsday cult. Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t vote and it sounds like Putin realized he had a population of thousands of people in his country where not a single one of them had voted for him. And the result of the ban has been the European Court of Human Rights going to bat in favor of JWs, all members of the Org going underground and into hiding, and some really shitty treatment of members.

That narrative has been used to further JWs’ persecution complex. If they’re being mistreated by “the world,” then that means they truly are God’s people and all the prophesies are right. It means everyone in the world is cruel and hateful. It means that only Jehovah’s Witnesses have love among themselves and you can only find happiness within the Org. A religious ban validates every single thing the Org tells its members and also actually fulfills several specific details of their doomsday prophecies. Also— being in hiding, only able to trust other cult members, unable to speak about the religion casually and hearing about pillars of your community be held by the state and tortured— is a really great way to make sure you don’t criticize the group you’re part of. Jehovah’s Witnesses already forbid members from listening to ex-members’ criticisms, and saying something negative about the Org is called apostasy— arguably the biggest sin they have. All serious sins are punished with disfellowshipping, aka shunning. I have to imagine that in that situation, most JWs are on way higher alert than normal to look out for apostates or potential false Witnesses

Religious bans hurt a lot of people, help no one, and make active members leaving a whole lot harder. Also in places like China where preaching/missionary work is banned.... they just find a way around it. They’re extremely careful and get visas to “teach English” and keep the fact that they are JWs secret

Legally, the only thing I want done about Jehovah’s Witnesses is governments actually fucking investigating their sex abuse database and also judges to stop letting kids be killed for their parents’ religion. A minor cannot freely consent to give up their life when every adult in their life (who they are dependent on) is pressuring them to, especially given that they wouldn’t have much of a life left if they refused. That’s not a free choice. Free acceptance of a blood transfusion isn’t safe and would be life-ruining, but refusal leads to immediate death. I know if I had been in that situation at 17, I would have chosen to die for my family’s sake, even though I no longer believed in the religion and desperately wanted out. Plus a ban on child marriage, which isn’t directly a JW issue, but it’s not disconnected either

Though on making it easier to leave: there was a bit of discussion like a few years ago about the idea of ex-cult safe houses. It wasn’t really a serious discussion, due to everyone participating being broke traumatized teenagers, but in an ideal world, I’d like to see that happen. It would be infinitely easier to leave a cult if you had somewhere to leave to.

Cults isolate their members. JWs forbid members from socializing with anyone not in the cult, with the only exception being for preaching. Most JWs are only close with other cult members and have no social safety net beyond that. There is no one who’s house you could crash at, even temporarily. Some have managed to get put in foster care, but with me, I didn’t even realize that was an option until I was over eighteen. That leaves homelessness or shelters as the only remaining options. When I first cut ties, I figured a homeless shelter would be a worse situation than the one I was already in, and I was uncomfortable with the idea of taking a spot at a battered women’s shelter. My situation isn’t exactly the sort of thing those places are meant for

But if there were even just a few ex-cult safe houses in like major hubs, then there would be somewhere to go to. I think there would be a real benefit in that for a lot of people.

There’s also been a few documentaries made about JWs in recent years, some of them focusing mainly on the sex abuse cover up. That’s great for awareness, but in an ideal world, more awareness would go with outreach. This is mainly a mental health reform thing, especially in schools, but there need to be other spaces that offer that too, esp children’s spaces. More JW kids are homeschooled than not. There should be ways to reach out for help, confidentially and for free

[aion-rsa]

The Devil You Know Review: Vice Docuseries Finds a New Kind of Cult

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

True believing Christian cults are frightening enough, but antichrist-Christian cults are confoundingly so. The Devil You Know, VICE Studios’ six-part documentary series moves into its second season with its eyes on the New Age Alien Agenda.Their first season introduced audiences to Pazuzu Algarad, a killer who worshipped Satan. The new installments blur demonic relationships even further.

Before QAnon infiltrated the collective unconscious of susceptible seekers, Sherry J. Shriner used Facebook and YouTube as a breeding ground to groom impressionable minds into followers of an anti-lizard cult. Most of the youngsters who got caught up in the movement never harbored any prejudice against lizards prior to their indoctrination. Some may have even envied their amphibian prowess. But once Shriner told them about the mind control and body-snatching, and how they wanted to bring about the rule of the Antichrist, they became radicalized.

Shriner called herself a “granny from Ohio.” The Poconos turned her into a cult leader, the “Messenger of the Most High God.” Most of her messages were interpretations of “The Book of Revelation.” Although she somehow mistakes the Emperor Nero for a devil-worshipping, shape-shifting reptile from outer space. She amassed her following over podcasts, which had a tight clique of eager warriors. She self-published the books Aliens on the Internet, Bible Codes Revealed: The Coming UFO Invasion, and Interview with the Devil: My Conversation with Lucifer. Archival audio of Shriner’s descriptions of the actual conversations with the devil are high points of the series.

The documentary series is a warning call about the lethal dangers of misguided belief. Much of the second season of The Devil You Know focuses on the murder of Steven Mineo and the suicide of Kelly Pingilley. They may, in fact, both be suicides, because the very opening of the series replays a 911 call with a horrified woman’s voice describing how she was forced by her boyfriend to shoot him in the head.

Rogers and Mineo were avid listeners of Shriner’s podcast. Rogers, an Army veteran with a medical discharge, tells police she killed Mineo because he wanted her to kill him due to stress of the cult. While there is a lot of talk about Mineo buying Sherry Shriner’s reptile-killing, evil repelling “orgone” pieces, it probably had more to do with Shriner accusing Rogers of being a lizard witch with a demon clone personality who wanted to eat Mineo’s face. It is very revealing how so many of the interviewees remember thinking the same thing about Rogers: She had the devil in her eyes.

The documentary presents a very deep dive into the cult, interviewing ex-cult members, police, and grieving friends and family. These are very effective in showing just how far an individual changes once they are under the power of a charismatic believer. For the most part, everyone keeps a straight face on camera. But a particular highpoint for this reviewer comes when one of the ex-cult members is talking about humans who turn into reptiles and an off- camera voice asks “you really believe that?”

Another highlight is the interview with Rogers, who is serving a 15- to 40-year jail term. The documentary is effectively ambiguous about who is responsible and where blame lies. We can see how the statements Rogers made right after the killing only come apart because the police are trying to fit her roundabout story into a square peg. But we also see she is psychologically incapable of giving a trustworthy account of the evening, her intent, or Mineo’s state of mind. We get the sense the police rushed to a predetermined conclusion long before the case turned into a ride at Disneyland.

Investigative journalist Tony Russo, and former YouTube Insider and AI Expert Guillaume Chaslot offer fairly astute analysis of Shriner’s radio show and other online programs. They are able to break down some of her beliefs. Shriner believed Satan disguised himself as Jesus and called in demonic, alien reptiles to take over the world. The documentarians are not judgmental, and don’t get into the flaws of her belief. If the alien underground has been around for thousands of years, why are they only making their moves now? It seems global domination would have easier to get done when there just the Adams and Eves of early man rather wait for there to be billions of people on the planet. But the demonic aliens are only getting started.

Chaslot is also helpful in explaining why people are becoming increasingly more likely to fall into the influence of self-proclaimed influencers. Algorithms radicalize people by design. It is the optimal strategy for YouTube. Flat Earth believers want to see flat Earth content on their flat screens, and live in the bubble of flat Earth belief. QAnoners can’t even be lured out of their rabbit holes with offers of pure uncut adrenochrome. There is a headstone on a grave which reads Sherry Shriner died Jan. 8, 2018. Probably from one of the many heart attacks she complained about on her radio show. The Devil You Know doesn’t dwell on it, because most of the people in Sherry’s circle believe it’s a hoax.

The only real difference between the leader of the on-line doomsday cult and any of the more mainstream religious hucksters is the alien factor. The Devil You Know succeeds in taking the alienation out of investigation. The people who are documented being pulled into the extremes of these beliefs are very much like the people who live next door. Friends and family of the players all remember how the person they knew used to be. Except Mineo, his friends remember him always being ready for something dangerously adventurous.

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The Devil You Know is informative, entertaining and suspenseful. It presents a mysterious set of circumstances but downplays the mystery of it. There are no dramatic narrations dripping with the gravitas of judgement. The investigators succeed in putting the puzzle pieces together without having to force anything to fit. In spite of the topic, the series is not a wild ride, but it is a satisfying probe of an elusive suspect. While the series itself reaches a conclusion, it is the opposite of closure. It is expansive.

The Devil You Know premieres Monday, March 29, at 10 p.m. on Vice.

The post The Devil You Know Review: Vice Docuseries Finds a New Kind of Cult appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2QCUdVb

[spurgie-cousin]

3 things: Jill being senior gold means her annual salary is about 22k. Also Gwen shambling Lara died in a plane crash earlier this year. Lastly, I am amazed at your wealth of knowledge. I hope your family members in the cult are otherwise ok, and that any interactions you have with them do not leave you feeling defeated. How do you learn all of this information?

1. Interesting, no wonder she can do vacations and home renos now...22k is nothing to sneeze at, esp in her/our area, that's more than some full-time minimum wage jobs. On one hand I fuckin hate mlms, on the other it's been pretty apparent that the Rods have been struggling money-wise for awhile now, so I'm happy for her kids at least that she's bringing in $$$ and hope it's sustainable.

2. I know isn't that bonkers??? I'm kinda waiting for this HBO doc to hint at maybe one of her disgruntled followers being responsible for the crash or something.......it's always sus to me when a plane just falls out of the sky like that esp when there's prestigious weirdos on board. Plus as far as disgruntled followers/ex-followers go, it seems like she has more than a few.

3. My brain is definitely not efficient enough to hold onto every fact I learn about cults lol but they're super interesting to me so that info stick a little better than some others. If you're looking to do some research on any of the cults in the Cult Ladies post or even others, I have a very long, running list of books and documentaries that I'd be more than happy to recommend!!

4. My cult-member relatives are doing well, and we have a really good relationship with them for the most part. The only thing that makes me nervous is that the Ramtha cult is most definitely a doomsday cult, and they are 100% hopping on the anti-Covid vaccination train for completely stupid reasons (the government is trying to initiate the apocalypse or some shit I can't even remember). Some of my family are not in the greatest of health so that is extremely worrisome, but fortunately they are also pretty secluded from a lot of society. It's kinda bizarre bc unlike a lot of cults, they generally have a lot of freedom of movement and association with outsiders, but when big things happen in the culture like elections or COVID they completely lose their shit and assume the world's getting ready to end.

Thanks for the multi-faceted ask lol I enjoyed it!

[fearsmagazine]

AT NIGHT COMES WOLVES - Review

DISTRIBUTOR: Gravitas Ventures

SYNOPSIS:  Leah is about to unknowingly change the world forever. After she finally leaves her emotionally manipulative husband, Leah befriends a drifter whom she quickly feels a deep connection with. The drifter introduces Leah to a prodigal chemist. Leah discovers her new friends are all that is left of a doomsday cult that disbanded years earlier. Together, the new trio is about to change the world, but before they can reveal their secrets, they have to tie up loose ends with Leah’s husband, their ex-leader.

REVIEW: TJ Marine’s film AT NIGHT COMES WOLVES there is a story about wolves that is the thread binding this tale of five characters together. The narrative is set in the past, present and future, and Leah’s decision to finally leave her abusive husband is the catalyst that sets things in motion. It seems that fate has brought Leah to an encounter with her husband’s former cult members. Paris introduces Leah to Davey, who has become a herbal alchemist on a quest for a legendary elixir. The film moves back in time to lay the foundation of the characters’ relationships, and to a future that foreshadows the consequences of Davey’s elixir. The director does an amazing job of editing it together so as not to be confusing, while creating intense suspense. As events come to a head, the present and future stories draw to a crescendo that delivers a horrific climax.

Debut feature filmmaker TJ Marine does a skillful job of laying out this non-linear narrative in a way that keeps the viewer guessing and engaged by the tension and drama. He makes a compelling tale of Leah’s journey to find herself in the maelstrom her life has become at the hands of her husband. Before we know anything about her husband’s background, Marine tastefully presents this mysterious, almost ‘Eyes Wide Shut,’ and complex controlled relationship. He pushes the boundaries as Leah makes choices to try and please her husband, as well as accepting some of the demands he makes in order for Leah to try to save her marriage. Leah’s encounter with characters from her husband’s dark past feels like a macabre journey into a supernatural wonderland. Looking for meaning in her life, Leah unquestionably accepts Davey’s guidance and potions. Leah is somewhat of a modern day Pandora as her quest unleashes a nightmare onto the world, fully realized in the future story line.

The complex narrative is held together by strong performances that engage the viewers emotions, empathy, and secure them in for the ride. Working with a low budget, you can feel Marine’s frugal spending on the effects and visuals to help sell his tale. There are some excellent transition shots, a compelling location, and a fantastic score by Keaton Landis that all add to an entertaining viewing experience.

With Earth Day falling on April 22nd, 2021, AT NIGHT COMES WOLVES is also a fun way to mark the occasion. The character of Davey uses plant based/organic elixirs and tinctures to build his ultimate potion and makes for a fun reminder of nature's powers to heal or do harm. Filmmaker TJ Marine clearly demonstrates his talents as a cinematic storyteller and is a name to keep an eye out for as he works on his next film.

CAST: Gabi Alves, Jacob Allen Weldy, Vladimir Noel, and Sarah Serio CREW: Director/Screenplay/Producer/Editor - TJ Marine; Cinematographer - Cooper Shine; Editor - Fargol Rose; Score - Keaton Landis; Special Makeup Effects Artist - Colleen Elizabeth Miller/ OFFICIAL: N.A. FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/AtNightComesWolves TWITTER: N.A. TRAILER: https://youtu.be/_hMAkTJ4Zl8 RELEASE DATE: Digital Platforms April 20th, 2021, including iTunes http://apple.co/3c4xKst.

**Until we can all head back into the theaters our “COVID Reel Value” will be similar to how you rate a film on digital platforms - 👍 (Like), 👌 (It’s just okay),  or 👎 (Dislike) Reviewed by Joseph B Mauceri

[immortalpramheda]

The 100 7x08 ‘Anaconda’

Clarke, Raven and Miller are still reeling from the news that Bellamy is dead. There’s no time to mourn because Anders brings the Shepherd in to see them. Clarke vaguely recognises him - Bill Cadogan, founder of the Second Dawn cult who owned the bunker that Wonkru spent six years in.

The key they keep referring to is the Flame. From only seeing a selected bunch of Octavia’s memories they believe Clarke still has it in her head. Gabriel gives her hints to play along and pretend it’s still in there.

Bill understands Trig because it was his daughter who created the language when she was a child. If the language is still around it means she must have survived to pass it on. And that transitions us into the prequel.

Pre-apocalypse Earth - right before the bombs hit. We meet Bill’s daughter, Callie, and her best friend, Lucy. They’ve just come back from protesting as part of an environmentalist group called ‘Tree Crew’. A news report says a protest against the Wallace Administration (presumably run by Dante’s father) went wrong when the riot police got violent - Callie got bruises and Lucy got a cut that required stitches.

Callie’s mother, Grace, and Bill are separated. Callie is now eighteen and has decided to drop out of MIT college and spend her time fighting for what is right. Her brother, Reese, is allied with their father and his doomsday cult.

Anaconda. The code word that means the missiles are in the air. Grace knows this isn’t a drill and they need to leave now. As Lucy isn’t a Level 12, she can’t come with them. Before Callie knows what’s happening, her mother knocks Lucy out and they head to the bunker in a helicopter as the bombs begin to hit.

Reese is leading people in and checking that they are actually Level 12. A young man named August desperately tries to get back up to his girlfriend, who isn’t a Level 12. Tristin, a young man also loyal to the cult, knocks him out.

Bill is working on the Anomaly Stone in his office. He stole it from underneath a temple in Machu Picchu and they call it the ‘space ball’. On the temple were seven symbols, and as it takes seven points to travel through space, he believes putting the correct code in will open up a portal to another world. But… nothing happens when he puts it in.

Only 92 percent of the Level 12’s Made it to the bunker in time meaning there is still room for more people. Callie wants to go and bring more people in but her father forbids it because they’re not Level 12.

She goes off anyway and finds August, who wants to get out too to get to his girlfriend. It turns out he’s a member of Tree Crew too.

Reese refuses to let anyone open the hatch. He’s trying so hard make his father proud that he’s willing to go along with these things that surely he knows are wrong. But he sticks by his father and doesn’t allow Callie to go out.

Two years later. They’re now allowed above ground with radiation suits on. Callie, Reese, Tristan and a few others are out on a mission. Just as they’re about to head back, they see a ship fall from the sky. BECCA!!! She lands and takes her mask off and says she’s here to help. Callie immediately recognises who she is.

They take her into the bunker. Tristan begins convulsing, he was exposed to radiation. Becca injects him with the nightblood serum to save him.

As they get close to Bill’s office, Becca begins hearing a high pitched sound and her nose starts bleeding. When the Stone is uncovered, she realises it’s coming from there. Harmonic mathematics, she describes it as. It tells her which symbols to press with the final one being infinity symbol. And then the bridge opens.

Becca won’t allow them to go through. They don’t know the science yet, for all they know they’ll die on the journey. She offers to give them all the blood treatment so they can all live above ground while she continues studying it, but Bill won’t allow it.

Callie gets along with Becca very well. She’s always idolised her since she was young. She asks about the scar on her neck and Becca tells her about ALIE 2.0 which she calls the ‘Flame’.

Becca discovers seven of the symbols on the Stone have no sounds. She tries pressing them and the space ball spins and then turns white and she’s sucked into it. When Bill walks in she returns and she’s frightened. She says she saw ‘Judgement Day’ and they’re not ready for that. She’s extremely traumatised by whatever she saw in there and wants to shut it down.

Bill locks Becca up because he doesn’t trust her to not to destroy what could be their salvation. Callie believes she was sent here to help them rebuild the Earth, not help them jump to another. But Bill with his god complex believes he’ll be the one to save them all, not her.

Reese has found Becca’s diary and knows about the Flame. Before she is to be executed, Callie visits her and informs her she’s given the nightblood, as August has named it, to all the kids in the bunker.

Becca refuses to give up the AI and allow Bill to get the code. ‘Goodbye for now’ in latin is the phrase to take the Flame out. The AI can only be merged with someone with the blood alteration and she wholeheartedly believes that in the right mind, it can save the world.

Becca is burned at the stake and Reese takes the Flame. Callie and her army of nightbloods confront him. She challenges her brother to a one on one duel. She has a gun and shoots him, grabs the Flame and injects him with nightblood.

Callie tells her mother they’re heading up to the ground and she helps slam the door of the airlock shut allowing her daughter and her army get to the ground.

Bill tosses his ex-wife, who doesn’t have the blood alteration, into the air lock. She’ll die of radiation soon enough. He orders Reese to find the Flame no matter what it takes.

As Callie leads her people, the first Grounders, to their new home, Bill leads his people, the Disciples, through the bridge where they end up on Bardo at some point. Callie is determined to keep the Flame safe. She is the first Flamekeeper.

Back in the present, Clarke lies and says his daughter is inside the key. But she’s not willing to just hand it over, he killed her best friend and she orders for her other friends to be brought in.

As requested, in come Octavia, Diyoza and Echo, who now look like Disciple soldiers. The final war is coming.

Soon enough they’ll find out she doesn’t have it in her head anymore so I don’t know how long she’ll be able to bluff her way along. And she only had it very briefly and didn’t retain that any of that knowledge as far as we know, but there is someone who is drawing memories that are not her own. Madi may actually be the key.

I really loved this episode! I’ve always loved the history and mythology of this world so this was everything I could have hoped for! And I always love seeing more Becca! Callie is a great lead character, and I really liked the other characters too. I don’t feel like it took away from the season at all, this is information we needed to know going into the final episodes anyway. I do hope it gets picked up for series because I’d love to see more!

[elis-last-braincell]

Lori Vallow: The Plot Thickens

Recently Vallow’s niece Melani Boudreaux Pawlowski has been accused of knowing where Vallow’s missing children are. This comes from her ex husband Brandon Bouderaux saying in court documents she knew where the children are. Bouderaux made this statement while him and his wife were in court fighting over the custody of their own four children.

He revealed this due to fear of his ex wife, saying she is involved in the same Doomsday cult as Vallow. Though he refuses to help with the investigation into Vallow’s children, aside from just saying his ex wife knows.

Pawlowski on the other hand has been interviewed three times and denies any connection to Vallow’s children. She also explained she is in no cult, but instead belongs to the Church of Latterday Saints. 

Pawlowski’s attorney’s claim Bouderaux just did this to gain custody, and since has fled with said children and missed court hearings.  Family believes they are in Utah, but no one can say for sure. 

So it's the part of the post where I say my opinions. But there really isn’t much to go on. This could just be a scorn man trying to screw over his ex wife, trying to make her seem unstable so he can get custody. Or Pawlowski could be a cult member trying to keep her sister's secret buried. 

While both her and Vallow are part of the same church it's hard to say if it's a cult. Any religion could become a cult if taken too literally. There will need to be more information revealed before I can pick a side.