Speaker 1: From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
Speaker 1: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
Speaker 1: learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. Hello, welcome back to the show.
Speaker 1: My name is Matt, my name is Noel. They called
Speaker 1: me Ben. We're joined as always with our super producer
Speaker 1: Max Williams filling in today. Most importantly, you are you.
Speaker 1: You are here, and that makes this the stuff they
Speaker 1: don't want you to know. Today's episode is a doozy.
Speaker 1: We are diving back into the world of alleged cults,
Speaker 1: several of which you may have never heard of before. Now, folks,
Speaker 1: please be aware that this episode or series contains descriptions
Speaker 1: of violence, as well as serious emotional and physical abuse,
Speaker 1: sometimes against children. As a result, it may not be
Speaker 1: appropriate for all listeners, but we wanted to give you
Speaker 1: a heads up. Uh And additionally, our legal department probably
Speaker 1: wants us to say, in all but one of the
Speaker 1: cases we're discussing today, we're exploring allegations, not proven crimes.
Speaker 1: So with this in mind, we're also making space for
Speaker 1: responses to these allegations where appropriate. But before we get
Speaker 1: into any of that at all. We've got to respond
Speaker 1: to some allegations about us, folks, uh, Matt Noll. The
Speaker 1: rumor is that we don't just have a book, we
Speaker 1: have an audio book and we're allegedly going on tour.
Speaker 1: I thought you were gonna say we were a cult. Geez.
Speaker 1: We're cult of personality, all right, I suppose, and that
Speaker 1: we all have personalities and we hang out together and
Speaker 1: talk about spooky stuff. But we're gonna be doing that
Speaker 1: in person. Well, first of all, we're gonna be doing that,
Speaker 1: uh virtually and audio book form where you can listen
Speaker 1: to the entirety of our book stuff that it wants
Speaker 1: you to know, available soon anywhere audio books are found.
Speaker 1: That's right in the book releases on October eleven, and
Speaker 1: we're gonna be celebrating by going on the road. We're
Speaker 1: gonna be in Atlanta, Washington, d C. And Plainville, Massachusetts.
Speaker 1: Check out the site stuff you should read books dot
Speaker 1: com to learn more. And speaking of learning more, whenever
Speaker 1: we talk about organizations like this cultic groups, you'll see
Speaker 1: why we're calling that them that and a bit. Uh.
Speaker 1: We first have to talk about the C word. What
Speaker 1: is it about just the phrase cult? That makes makes
Speaker 1: the concept so inherently controversial. Uh, here are the facts.
Speaker 1: There's some tricky stuff about the C word, and the
Speaker 1: three of us have run into it extensively in the past.
Speaker 1: We have a little list of related episodes, uh that
Speaker 1: we like to keep track of in in our show notes,
Speaker 1: and uh in this for this episode, I just put
Speaker 1: there too many, too many other episodes to name. We
Speaker 1: have done a lot of work on cults, as has
Speaker 1: the International Cultic Studies Association, which attests that at least
Speaker 1: two million, five hundred thousand Americans have joined some of
Speaker 1: these cultic groups during the past thirty to forty years,
Speaker 1: which means that some people who joined groups during the
Speaker 1: nineteen sixties, seventies, and eighties went on to have children
Speaker 1: who were born or raised in these environments. UM. Highly
Speaker 1: controlling cultic environments. Yes, and if we want to define
Speaker 1: a cult, we can to an extent. Uh. Well, let's
Speaker 1: give let's let's give a quote here from that same organization.
Speaker 1: Occult is quote a religion or religious sect generally considered
Speaker 1: to be extremist or false, with its followers often living
Speaker 1: in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian,
Speaker 1: charismatic leader check check check. I do have to ask
Speaker 1: the notion of something being false seems very relative. You know,
Speaker 1: I mean one person. When we always say one person's
Speaker 1: cult is another person's religion. It's very difficult, now impossible
Speaker 1: to prove the validity of one's religion, of any sort
Speaker 1: of deity or the existence of any kind of you know,
Speaker 1: religious figure from the beyond. So that term definitely throws
Speaker 1: me a little bit. The extremist part is a little clearer,
Speaker 1: and the idea of this controlling authoritarian guidance typically under
Speaker 1: an individual or a small group of individuals that are
Speaker 1: kind of working together to exert control over their followers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is an interesting point. By false, let's uh, let's
Speaker 1: frame it this way. False doesn't necessarily refer to one's
Speaker 1: spiritual beliefs. And you know, our longstanding policy on stuff
Speaker 1: they don't want you to know is that your spiritual
Speaker 1: beliefs are your own. Uh. Instead, false here it seems
Speaker 1: to be referring to objectively disproven information. So for example,
Speaker 1: if you say I am starting, you know the n
Speaker 1: C O B New Church have been and our belief
Speaker 1: is that when your physical body dies, you are reincarnated
Speaker 1: as an item at the closest taco bell. That's fine,
Speaker 1: that's a spiritual belief. But if you were to say instead, um,
Speaker 1: the New Church of Been believes that books are hoaxes.
Speaker 1: They don't actually exist. Anytime you thought you saw a
Speaker 1: book or a library, you were wrong. You were misled.
Speaker 1: Wake up, sheeple, Like that is demonstrably false because everyone
Speaker 1: has seen a book, even if you don't like them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: those are just items from your local taco bell. But
Speaker 1: we also see, you know, shades of that within fundamental Christianity,
Speaker 1: for example, h who some who claim that evolution is false,
Speaker 1: evolution isn't real, or a certain scientifically proven things are hoaxes.
Speaker 1: So you know, it kind of the whole when when
Speaker 1: person's religion is another persons called, it still holds true.
Speaker 1: And there are these weird gray areas that we do
Speaker 1: have to dance around because it's a very interesting area.
Speaker 1: How are you going to disprove that Jesus came from
Speaker 1: Venus and landed on a specific hill in England? Right?
Speaker 1: And why are you going to ruin someone's day if
Speaker 1: they believe something that makes them happy. That's that's kind
Speaker 1: of the liminal space that I wrestle with personally. It
Speaker 1: is important to note, though, that many organizations that have
Speaker 1: been called cults find the term profoundly offensive. They feel
Speaker 1: being labeled a cult diminishes their legitimacy and it kind
Speaker 1: of attacks their beliefs. And that's, of course, you can
Speaker 1: see why people wouldn't want to be described as a cult,
Speaker 1: and for this reason you'll see some groups calling cults
Speaker 1: unorthodox religions instead. UM. But as well intentioned as that
Speaker 1: might be, I argue it still falls far short of
Speaker 1: the mark because there are groups that don't seem to
Speaker 1: have a thing in common with the stereotypical film and
Speaker 1: fiction idea of a cult. Fitness groups can be cultic,
Speaker 1: life coaching organizations can be cultic. MLM multi level marketing
Speaker 1: outfits can definitely be cultic. And with that in mind,
Speaker 1: it's best for us to center the definition of a
Speaker 1: cult on the tactics and practices used by a group
Speaker 1: rather than a specific set of beliefs. And what are
Speaker 1: we talking about here? We've mentioned this before, especially I
Speaker 1: think most recently maybe guys in one of our Listener
Speaker 1: Male episodes where you've talked about UM. Any particular group
Speaker 1: that operates in a certain way. Right, Uh, maybe it's
Speaker 1: not a religion at all. Maybe it's a juice company.
Speaker 1: It's a small cafe that specializes in juice or something
Speaker 1: like that. And additionally, maybe they don't even have some
Speaker 1: kind of official book or maybe three thousand books like
Speaker 1: one of the organizations we're going to talk about today.
Speaker 1: They just have some set of practices that make you,
Speaker 1: as an adherent or someone who wants to be a
Speaker 1: part of the group, go through all kinds of rigorous mental, emotional,
Speaker 1: physical things, tasks that are meant well, I say, I
Speaker 1: think we say, are meant to control you as a follower. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Check out our video from years ago that still holds
Speaker 1: up how to start a cult. It walks through the
Speaker 1: different steps that these organizations will use to control someone's body,
Speaker 1: more importantly, their mind bonus points. You will see me
Speaker 1: successfully get our pal Chuck Bryant to join join a cult. Uh.
Speaker 1: Probably should follow up with him on that. I think
Speaker 1: I left him hanging on the news last her. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's true. It's almost content agnostic, and that is not
Speaker 1: to diminish again, anybody's metaphysical or spiritual beliefs It's just
Speaker 1: to say that what matters to the definition of occult
Speaker 1: is again the tactics. You will have a leader who
Speaker 1: cannot be questioned. You'll have very strict dictates about what
Speaker 1: you do in your day to day life, what you
Speaker 1: can eat, how you can spend your time, what kind
Speaker 1: of job you can or can't have, when you can sleep,
Speaker 1: or in the amorous sense, who you can sleep with,
Speaker 1: who you can fool around with. You might be forced
Speaker 1: to not pursue romantic interest, or you might be forced
Speaker 1: into a marriage with someone you don't know. Uh. And
Speaker 1: then also your children will be controlled, often brutally in
Speaker 1: these sorts of environments. The big big thing restricting information.
Speaker 1: This is the key. This is how they keep you
Speaker 1: from uh asking too many questions about venus for instance.
Speaker 1: Uh and this that example is just stuck in my head.
Speaker 1: And then you know the big them versus us, insider
Speaker 1: versus outsider. Yeah, exactly, And that's the way they restrict
Speaker 1: your interactions with others, right be. And that's a part
Speaker 1: of restricting information that comes to you as a follower. Well,
Speaker 1: that includes even you know, your your own family and
Speaker 1: loved ones. The idea of separating you from them and
Speaker 1: their influence because they are a threat. They are a
Speaker 1: grounding influence that has the ability to pull you out
Speaker 1: of this new reality that is sort of taking precedent
Speaker 1: over what others might argue is you know reality. Um. So,
Speaker 1: the more they can do to separate you from those
Speaker 1: folks who might have influence to pull you out of this,
Speaker 1: the better and more successful they can be at recruiting
Speaker 1: you know, new members that are full adherents. Yeah, always
Speaker 1: be worried of any organization that treats all questions as
Speaker 1: though they are hostile interrogations. It's hate to ask stuff.
Speaker 1: It's actually it's a very good thing for humans to
Speaker 1: do in general. I mean, also, do cults get a
Speaker 1: bad name? Yeah, because you usually you don't. You usually
Speaker 1: hear about cultic organizations when they meet with Disaster, Heaven's Gate,
Speaker 1: the Manson Family, the flavor Aide, Massacre, Jonestown, But you
Speaker 1: don't hear about a lot of the groups of people
Speaker 1: who just got together because they share the same beliefs
Speaker 1: that maybe or share the same aspirations that maybe uh
Speaker 1: don't vibe with the mainstream society in which they live.
Speaker 1: They're not abusing their members. They may not even necessarily
Speaker 1: be proselytizing like going out and trying to convert. They
Speaker 1: may have no sinister intentions. They just maybe have some
Speaker 1: different holidays and some different opinions on what happens before
Speaker 1: you're born or after you die. As I like being
Speaker 1: a big fan of fish, they say so and maybe
Speaker 1: fishes the charismatic leader. They do good things, they're happy,
Speaker 1: and they don't even well. I've mentioned in the past
Speaker 1: two that I had some dabblings or encounters with the
Speaker 1: be High Faith, which is a group that has you know,
Speaker 1: if you look up behind Faith you'll see google instance
Speaker 1: saying is the behind Faith occult. And a lot of
Speaker 1: that stems from the fact the prophet behind a law
Speaker 1: is a relatively speaking, modern figure, um, you know, certainly
Speaker 1: not ancient like like the you know, mast heads of
Speaker 1: many other religions. And I found it just to be
Speaker 1: a very family oriented group of people who were very kind.
Speaker 1: I didn't feel like I was trying to be arm
Speaker 1: twisted into any kind of action or any kind of
Speaker 1: behavior or anything. Um. It was something that some friends
Speaker 1: of my my kid, um you know, invited us into
Speaker 1: and we went to a few of their meetings and
Speaker 1: it was lovely. Um. But that is a group that
Speaker 1: I think likely, in my opinion, unfairly gets that wrap. Yeah,
Speaker 1: big is it's easy to demonize or vilify those who
Speaker 1: have different beliefs tail as old as time, and of
Speaker 1: course the bi high faith is arguing for things that
Speaker 1: everyone can agree are generally a cool idea. Don't be
Speaker 1: a jerk to people. Try to make the world a
Speaker 1: better place, you know what I mean. Another another religious
Speaker 1: group that gets a lot of unfair bad press is
Speaker 1: the Sikh community and the Sikh community and I haven't met,
Speaker 1: of course every adherent to that faith, but everyone I
Speaker 1: have met have been universally awesome. So you can't. You can't.
Speaker 1: We have to be careful not to unduly judge people
Speaker 1: or to paint with a broad brush. But with that
Speaker 1: being said, with these important notes about how to think
Speaker 1: of organizations described as cults or cultic, we have to say,
Speaker 1: even with all those caveats, there are many, many, many
Speaker 1: more cults out there then you might have guessed. So
Speaker 1: I say we pause for a word from our sponsor.
Speaker 1: It's obviously scientology, and then dive in. Here's where it
Speaker 1: gets crazy. Uh, And we're not talking about that that
Speaker 1: c I a ad. You guys hear about that. There's
Speaker 1: a CIA recruitment ad that's been running on our show.
Speaker 1: You don't even have to be a Georgia Tech student
Speaker 1: anymore to get one of those or you know, M
Speaker 1: I T. They just send it to everybody careful. So
Speaker 1: so the cults, though, I guess you can say factions
Speaker 1: of the CIA functioned as a cult during at certain times. Right,
Speaker 1: cultic reasoning is what leads to wild stuff like MK ultra.
Speaker 1: But today, when we're talking about obscure cultic organizations, we're
Speaker 1: talking about organizations that have been described as such, often
Speaker 1: by form or followers or by outsiders. It is incredibly
Speaker 1: rare for a leader or active member of one of
Speaker 1: these organizations to say, hell, yeah, brother, we're a cult.
Speaker 1: Join on in, you know. And if there was someone
Speaker 1: who did that, I would probably hear their pitch, because
Speaker 1: I prize the honesty and advertising. I'd be like, okay, well,
Speaker 1: you know, uh. We wanted to make it clear that
Speaker 1: in all but one case of what we're discussing today,
Speaker 1: these are active organizations. You can visit their websites, we have,
Speaker 1: you can even in some cases request uh, literature or
Speaker 1: learn more. What we're saying, what we're describing now is
Speaker 1: in no way an endorsement of these organizations. Uh, nor
Speaker 1: is it us putting our opinion on this. We're just
Speaker 1: dealing with publicly available info. And uh, to my knowledge,
Speaker 1: none of the three of us have been active members,
Speaker 1: thank goodness of the organization. And we're about to describe.
Speaker 1: Why don't we start close to home. There's one in Atlanta, Georgia.
Speaker 1: It's a it's a political movement that's been described as
Speaker 1: a cult, the Black Hammer Party, which I I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to start off with tongue in cheeking
Speaker 1: this year, but I just can't not think of MC hammer.
Speaker 1: When I think of the idea of a Hammer party Hammer,
Speaker 1: I think of parachute pants and that sideways, you know,
Speaker 1: hammer dance move with the legs kind of boat out.
Speaker 1: That is not what this is. Um, we'll see. I
Speaker 1: think about the Black Panther Party for self defense, but
Speaker 1: like a play on it, right, like Huey Newton styled
Speaker 1: on thing where it's the Black Hammer instead, because that's
Speaker 1: more I don't know, you can hold it suggressive imagery,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, I was thinking of the the hammers
Speaker 1: those low level bosses throw in in Mario games. But
Speaker 1: I might just have a case of black hammers. Yeah, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I mean that's probably good. What's that black? Kind of
Speaker 1: like a seasoned steel, like cast cast eye, Aaron. I
Speaker 1: guess those old school hammers and sledge hammers might have
Speaker 1: been made of. Um. But let's let's let's do start
Speaker 1: right here. It are in our home turf of Atlanta.
Speaker 1: You likely may not have heard of, and I had not,
Speaker 1: and I live here. Of the Black Hammer Party. It
Speaker 1: is a relatively young group, formed only as recently as
Speaker 1: two thousand and nineteen. The Black Hammer Party a k a.
Speaker 1: The Black Hammer Organization started as a collective of people
Speaker 1: who were disgusted by the ongoing systematic institutional racism of
Speaker 1: the United States, the government, the police, all of these systems,
Speaker 1: and rightly so I think we all share that perspective
Speaker 1: to to some degree or another. Yeah, And the founders
Speaker 1: here described themselves as activists. Primarily, they are a collective
Speaker 1: of people who have backgrounds in what is called radical
Speaker 1: black separatist pro segregation organizing. So the idea is that, uh,
Speaker 1: to address the evils and the historical consequences of colonialism. Uh.
Speaker 1: We one must organize the working class. One must decolonize
Speaker 1: by making one's own community that does not suffer from
Speaker 1: the evils of racism. That is understandable, right, that's you
Speaker 1: don't need to believe in some god from Venus to say, yeah,
Speaker 1: let's get rid of bad stuff in society. After the
Speaker 1: murder of George Floyd and nationwide protest, the group experiences
Speaker 1: a significant rise in public profile and in active members. Uh.
Speaker 1: They also become uh known for social media. I don't
Speaker 1: want to call them stunts, but they become known for
Speaker 1: being quite adept at pulling the levers of social media,
Speaker 1: and they can go viral with things hashtag no COVID.
Speaker 1: They once protested outside of the c d C in
Speaker 1: support of Nicki Minaj because the Black Hammer Party was
Speaker 1: very much against COVID vaccination. And when Nicki Minaj also
Speaker 1: came out on Twitter saying she was skeptical about vaccinations
Speaker 1: because of what happened to her cousins, scrowed, um, then
Speaker 1: that's true, you can look it up. Then they wanted
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I just I'm telling our listeners that because
Speaker 1: it sounds so crazy, but it was these were crazy times.
Speaker 1: So they protest um in support of manage, and they
Speaker 1: get a lot of um attention for that. They're more
Speaker 1: front of mind to the average audience member, especially if
Speaker 1: you're here in Atlanta. And so their plan expands and
Speaker 1: they say, hey, we're still going to stage protest right
Speaker 1: and speak truth to power, but we're also going to
Speaker 1: make a place of our own. But did you know it,
Speaker 1: iss um and and uh, what are your thoughts around
Speaker 1: you know, the black community being in general somewhat more
Speaker 1: hesitant around these kind of government fast government rollouts of vaccines.
Speaker 1: It just seems like, you know, with the history of
Speaker 1: mistreatment of that community and you know, things like experimentation
Speaker 1: and all of that over the years, that makes sense
Speaker 1: that there might have been, you know, some trepidation within
Speaker 1: that community and hesitancy to just accept that this thing
Speaker 1: is okay. Well, I mean, yeah, we talked about it
Speaker 1: in uh what a Plug what we Create set Up.
Speaker 1: We talked about it in our book. The idea, like
Speaker 1: the these ideas don't come from nothing. You know, people
Speaker 1: remember the horrors of Tuskegee and mistreatment of people of
Speaker 1: color in the medical community is far reaching and well
Speaker 1: known and there are. You know, it's weird because we'll
Speaker 1: get into the leader of this movement in a moment,
Speaker 1: will introduce him. But it was surprising to some observers that, uh,
Speaker 1: this this founder of the Black Hammer Party announced that
Speaker 1: they were in league with the Proud Boys, who are
Speaker 1: more of a further right organization. So the ideology gets money.
Speaker 1: Maybe you could call it a case of strange bedfellows.
Speaker 1: But yes, there was a lot of hesitancy and there
Speaker 1: remains a lot of hesitancy around the vaccine or taking
Speaker 1: a vaccine, and it is because of mistrust of government entities,
Speaker 1: and it's also because of um it's also because to
Speaker 1: an outside observer, you're saying, hey, there's so many other
Speaker 1: diseases that have been around for so long and there
Speaker 1: is no vaccine for them. Right, how did this suddenly
Speaker 1: get fixed? Uh? That those are that I think the
Speaker 1: two pillars of vaccine hesitancy on Black Hammer was, you know,
Speaker 1: anti COVID vaccine. There were a lot of protest groups
Speaker 1: that were uh and they didn't agree on literally anything
Speaker 1: else except for that, uh and maybe and maybe the
Speaker 1: importance of firearms. But Black Hammer decides they're gonna go
Speaker 1: to the Rocky Mountains. They're gonna outside Denver. They're gonna
Speaker 1: build their own utopia, a compound with some specific ideological guidelines.
Speaker 1: They're gonna call it hammer City, by the way, which
Speaker 1: I think is a really cool name. Also sounds like
Speaker 1: a Mario level way. Hammer City and the Rocky Mountains.
Speaker 1: Let's go, I meant, is it near rock City? All right? Well,
Speaker 1: let's talk about how Black Hammer describes what hammer City
Speaker 1: would be on their own website. Here here, just a
Speaker 1: couple of things. Uh, the purpose of hammer City is
Speaker 1: to build this city and other cities for all people
Speaker 1: of color to be free. Sounds good. They want to
Speaker 1: return the land to indigenous people, sounds good. Those who
Speaker 1: moved to and live in hammer City would be offered jobs, housing, food,
Speaker 1: and healthcare. And Black Hammer also states that in hammer
Speaker 1: City there will be no discrimination of nationality, gender, age,
Speaker 1: or mental and physical differences astric there will be no cops,
Speaker 1: no rent, no coronavirus, and no white people. And that's
Speaker 1: the asterix. That's they said, uh, uh, none of that,
Speaker 1: but that's that's what a separatist movement that you know,
Speaker 1: that's one of the tenants of the separatist movement and
Speaker 1: there are you know, there's another group that I think
Speaker 1: can fairly be called occults, which might have to get
Speaker 1: into in another iteration, called the creativity movement. Is it
Speaker 1: like lego sounds like about it's so confusing it It
Speaker 1: is an atheistic religious, wide supremacist movement started in the seventies,
Speaker 1: and it's not super creative either. But their idea is
Speaker 1: that they will um, they will unite all the people
Speaker 1: they consider white through this atheistic religion. So we're throwing
Speaker 1: out the example of the Creativity Movement to show that
Speaker 1: there are other there are other movements with those kind
Speaker 1: of goals of separation, right according to what they see
Speaker 1: as their definition of race. And in the US at least,
Speaker 1: it is completely legal to find like minded colleagues, buy
Speaker 1: some land and live on it. Right, It's completely legal
Speaker 1: to do that, and there's nothing wrong with it. So
Speaker 1: there's you may not agree with their das right as
Speaker 1: espoused in Hammer City, but you don't have to visit
Speaker 1: and if they're not hurting you, AND's okay. Now, would
Speaker 1: they get sticky with local law enforcement? Sure, right, because
Speaker 1: local law enforcement would come on the scene if there
Speaker 1: was a crime or something like that. Uh, like the
Speaker 1: branch Davidians. They look how bad? You know? All right,
Speaker 1: would it be sticky if some group of white people
Speaker 1: does try to come in, Uh, you would probably use
Speaker 1: a private property defense at that point, right, unless you
Speaker 1: incorporated as a municipality. So you can see that there.
Speaker 1: You know, it's kind of a we're thinking big, we're
Speaker 1: being ambitious. We will figure out the details along the
Speaker 1: way because this is important to us. And one of
Speaker 1: the thought leaders of this group as a guy who
Speaker 1: was born Augustus c Romaine Jr. Also known as Ghazi Codeso. Uh.
Speaker 1: This person is a controversial figure. Two former members of
Speaker 1: the Black Hammers. Uh. You will see them saying that
Speaker 1: under his leadership, the group transformed and became kind of uh. Well,
Speaker 1: the phrase I are used most often was abusive, like
Speaker 1: a hotbed of abuse and toxicity. Toxicity is kind of
Speaker 1: a loosely defined term in today's parlance, but you know,
Speaker 1: stuff like holding people against their will, forcing people to
Speaker 1: do stuff they didn't want to do. Yeah, and this
Speaker 1: soon boiled over as the group encountered external criticism from
Speaker 1: other groups that you might, you know, on upon first glance, say,
Speaker 1: would seemingly be aligned to some degree For example, Kevin
Speaker 1: Rashid Johnson of the New African Black Panther Party UM.
Speaker 1: Johnson reportedly accused the Black Hammer of being a conspiracy UH,
Speaker 1: a secret right wing conspiracy, an operation meant to sow
Speaker 1: division amongst leftist movements. UM also the Whole Hammers. Anything
Speaker 1: didn't quite pan out. They did some fundraising, the group
Speaker 1: missed a deadline, which is usually a red flag, of
Speaker 1: May fourteen to sign the paperwork for the land. On
Speaker 1: May seventeenth, the San Miguel County police escorted the remaining
Speaker 1: members from off the property. They were not there legally
Speaker 1: because they had not done the deal. Yeah, and then
Speaker 1: things started heating up in Fayetteville, Georgia. This occurs in
Speaker 1: July of this year. July, law enforcement in Fayetteville get
Speaker 1: an anonymous phone call from this guy who says, I
Speaker 1: have been kidnapped. I'm being held against my will in
Speaker 1: the garage of this house. So the cops send a
Speaker 1: SWAT team to search the home. This leads to a standoff.
Speaker 1: Swat arrives, they surround the structure and they're asking questions
Speaker 1: be allowed. Speaker UM and the people who are inside
Speaker 1: are talking with law enforcement. They're about ten people inside.
Speaker 1: Law enforcement is telling them all to exit. It takes
Speaker 1: some hours of talking, but eventually nine people leave willingly,
Speaker 1: and Swat dispatches their robot, you know when they're creepy,
Speaker 1: creepy law enforcement robots to search the house, and this
Speaker 1: is where they find the tenth person, who is unfortunately dead,
Speaker 1: and they would deploy a device like this because of
Speaker 1: fears of their being explosives or booby traps. Correct correct, Yeah,
Speaker 1: And when they found that tenth person, they appear the
Speaker 1: deceased person appeared to have died from a self inflicted
Speaker 1: gunshot wound, and that's what's been report ordered by police. Um.
Speaker 1: There you will find people writing on the internet, some
Speaker 1: former members, some others who were just commenting on it
Speaker 1: that perhaps that was not the case, that it was
Speaker 1: not a self inflicted gunshot wound. But those are allegations well,
Speaker 1: and it fits the narrative you know of of at
Speaker 1: least they're perceived narrative that we are anti police brutality,
Speaker 1: that we are here to protest the corruption and law enforcement.
Speaker 1: So for this to be like a martyrdom kind of
Speaker 1: event makes sense to fit their larger story. Um, but
Speaker 1: it doesn't seem to check out. Well, there are two
Speaker 1: versions of it. There are two versions of it. One
Speaker 1: that I've read online was that someone within the home
Speaker 1: shot and killed that tenth person who was there. And
Speaker 1: the other version is that police officers swat team entered
Speaker 1: and killed that person. That's and that story is coming
Speaker 1: from Blackhammer and its members. That's what I mean. That's
Speaker 1: the It makes sense that would suit their their narrative,
Speaker 1: you know, for the mission statement of their group, um,
Speaker 1: and that it would potentially help rally support around them,
Speaker 1: um when they're kind of starting to get a bit
Speaker 1: of a bad look. Yeah, these incidents lead to Ghazi
Speaker 1: being arrested on a number of charges, and one of
Speaker 1: his one of his associates, a guy named Xavier H. Russian,
Speaker 1: is also arrested. That's r U S h I N.
Speaker 1: You'll see why we want to clarify in justice. Second, folks, uh,
Speaker 1: how it's important to note that neither of these individuals
Speaker 1: have been convicted of a crime at this point, so
Speaker 1: we want to make sure that we're clear about that
Speaker 1: these are charges not convictions. One last note. Something tells
Speaker 1: we may return to the story of the Black Hammers
Speaker 1: in the future. But one last note the story is
Speaker 1: still developing. This caught my interest. The FEDS maybe investigating
Speaker 1: Black Hammer, and they have been investigating Black Hammer, but
Speaker 1: the reasons for doing so might surprise you. In July
Speaker 1: of this year, July twenty nine, a few days after
Speaker 1: after that standoff, we mentioned the U s. D o J,
Speaker 1: the Department of Justice released information about alleged Russian influence
Speaker 1: on US political organizations. And depending on who you ask,
Speaker 1: you will find some people convinced that these allegations indicate
Speaker 1: the Black Hammer Party was receiving funding from Russian individual
Speaker 1: with connections to the Russian government. So straight out of
Speaker 1: the Dugan cookbook Foundations of Geopolitics. Well, also on on
Speaker 1: on just a cursory glance of the Black Hammer website. Uh,
Speaker 1: it is a hotbed of right wing political hate speech.
Speaker 1: I just want to also pretty archive semitic. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's an article, as the headline is. And this is
Speaker 1: not like reposted from some other site. This is written
Speaker 1: by someone who contributes to the site, presumably someone who's
Speaker 1: a member of the organization, an individual signing on as
Speaker 1: o JO. Marjorie Taylor Green is right and here's why. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, whatever your political leanings are. I think most
Speaker 1: of us that are somewhat moderate, uh can agree that
Speaker 1: Marjorie Taylor Green is a very toxic and nasty individual
Speaker 1: in terms of the you know, the things that she
Speaker 1: puts out there, the unfounded conspiracy theory that she helps,
Speaker 1: you know, proliferate, and you know, it's just using these
Speaker 1: buzz terms like it says earlier this month, while former
Speaker 1: President Trump was in New York City, he had his
Speaker 1: resort home at mar Logo rated by Sleepy Joe's fbi um.
Speaker 1: They go on to say, your decrepit Bernie Sanders. They
Speaker 1: go on to call Joe Biden peto Joe at some point.
Speaker 1: I mean, just a lot of it's a lot of
Speaker 1: this very charged right wing kind of four Channy type
Speaker 1: language on here. So that part, yeah, And also that's
Speaker 1: another point we talk about in the earlier video. And folks,
Speaker 1: this is a smart way to tell when an organization
Speaker 1: might be becoming a little cult tick. The use of
Speaker 1: specific nomenclature, right, the use of initialisms, the use of acronyms,
Speaker 1: the use of jargon that further brings you into the
Speaker 1: cognitive space and then further separates the them from the US.
Speaker 1: The ends from the outs, the nose from the no
Speaker 1: knots Uh. It's it's insidious. I always think about titles
Speaker 1: titles in an organization in that context, ben like as
Speaker 1: you're moving up the ranks or something, you attain these
Speaker 1: new titles. And if you don't know what that is,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of explaining to do. Sure, I'm always
Speaker 1: about it. Uh. This last thing that the takeaway from
Speaker 1: this article or this blog post, I guess, Uh, the
Speaker 1: FBI has come for Trump. Who's next? Uh? Is again
Speaker 1: that that up that other ing. That that's sewing distrust,
Speaker 1: you know, for the government and the idea that you know,
Speaker 1: and again the government deserves plenty of disc but this
Speaker 1: is very specific. Um. And then there's a picture of
Speaker 1: the FBI raid and the head that the subhead is
Speaker 1: or the little subtitle is the FBI rating the Mara
Speaker 1: Lago resort home of Trump in the darkness, like the
Speaker 1: greasy cowards. They are not exactly unbiased reporting. Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1: And you can check that website out. Uh. We it's
Speaker 1: an unfolding saga. As we said, there's more to the story.
Speaker 1: We may return in the future, but that's some pretty
Speaker 1: deep water already. This organization is not unique. Uh, and
Speaker 1: there are there's not really a shortage of former members
Speaker 1: who will tell you that there are dangerous things going
Speaker 1: on internally. Just before we move away from the Black
Speaker 1: Hammer Party, it should be noted that I believe it
Speaker 1: was Augustus, correct me if I'm wrong, there Ben who
Speaker 1: was charged with sexual assault of some variety. And there
Speaker 1: are other allegations of such things going on at the
Speaker 1: at the house, in other locations inside the Black Hammer Party. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and with some of the charges were related to sexual assault. Again,
Speaker 1: this is deep water. We're gonna pause for what. We're
Speaker 1: gonna pause on the Black Hammer Party from now and
Speaker 1: follow up in the future. Let's try something different, right,
Speaker 1: We're talking about painful, disturbing stuff, so what don't we
Speaker 1: talk about something happy but keep it scientific. That's where
Speaker 1: happy science comes here. I love that is that, like
Speaker 1: the creativity movement, it's way less well damn kind of
Speaker 1: get to make floam, to get to make go black
Speaker 1: and bounce around upon it in your swimming pool. We're
Speaker 1: gonna answer those questions and more right after this break.
Speaker 1: Get happy, Get science. We've returned. Okay that that last
Speaker 1: tagline wasn't my best. But as you can tell, I
Speaker 1: am enamored of the name Happy Science. If you haven't
Speaker 1: heard of Happy Science, perhaps you are more familiar with
Speaker 1: its original name, The Institute for Research and Human Happiness.
Speaker 1: Sounds like a dream job. Actually, that sounds really cool.
Speaker 1: Our our story starts with the founder of the i
Speaker 1: R h H or the founder of Happy Science, a
Speaker 1: guy who is known as Rio Hoo Okawa born Takahashi
Speaker 1: Nakagawa in and this guy has this really cool moment
Speaker 1: in his origin story. He is a prestige. He's got
Speaker 1: a job, a Wall Street job. He's a trader at
Speaker 1: this pretty prestigious firm and he even works in their
Speaker 1: Manhattan office for a year or so. And one day
Speaker 1: in the course of his career, on July, Mr Okawa
Speaker 1: has had enough. He quits. He quits a job that
Speaker 1: a lot of people would literally kill to have. Uh
Speaker 1: So he quits. He walks away from those earthly concerns
Speaker 1: because he needs to focus on this organization, this Happy Science.
Speaker 1: He needs to quote, bring happiness to humanity by spreading
Speaker 1: truth that sounds good. Tell the truth, make people happy.
Speaker 1: Those are two very positive things. It's it's similar similar
Speaker 1: to David Ike in a couple of ways. In the
Speaker 1: story he told us about you know, he had his
Speaker 1: own thing. He was doing this thing and he got
Speaker 1: inspired one one moment and then he had to tell
Speaker 1: the world. Yeah, no, you're right. I mean, it does
Speaker 1: sound innocuous the way we're describing it. But in this
Speaker 1: guy's case, this has been uh building for a while
Speaker 1: in the background, because he had kind of a second
Speaker 1: gig that was unrelated to his professional career. He was writing.
Speaker 1: He published several spiritual books wherein he claimed to I
Speaker 1: think the phrase would translate to channel messages or communications
Speaker 1: from historical and religious figures who have passed away, folks
Speaker 1: like Confucius or of course Jesus Christ, who is a
Speaker 1: person that many new spiritual leaders apparently have in depth
Speaker 1: conversations with. And you can see videos of him channeling
Speaker 1: political and religious figures, and I just have to say
Speaker 1: it's quite fun. I quite enjoyed watching some of those videos.
Speaker 1: I kind of like the vibe. I'm gonna be honest
Speaker 1: with you. Your mileage may vary, but I I enjoyed
Speaker 1: watching it, and I think I think the guy the
Speaker 1: vice journalists, we're gonna introduce. I think he enjoyed it too.
Speaker 1: So okay okahwa spoiler alert figures out why he, of
Speaker 1: all people is receiving these messages, these divine communications. It
Speaker 1: all goes down to El Cantareu, which is the real
Speaker 1: name of God, the highest God of Earth, the Lord
Speaker 1: of all gods. Uh. Followers of adherents of that happy
Speaker 1: science believe that this entity was born on Earth threety
Speaker 1: million years ago, and it's the same entity that gets
Speaker 1: worshiped at different times through different cultures and civilizations. And
Speaker 1: they're all naming the same thing. Whether they're talking Tough
Speaker 1: or Osiris or Odin or Hermes, they're all talking about
Speaker 1: El Contarre and Okawa, it turns out, is receiving these
Speaker 1: messages because he is this era's current incarnation of the
Speaker 1: action of real God. Yeah. Fun fact about the singer
Speaker 1: or elkantari Uh. He was once the ruler of Venus,
Speaker 1: former ruler of Venus. M m M yeah. Tweird that
Speaker 1: they emphasized former. I wonder if the word can't say
Speaker 1: it's singer, maybe it's tight like there's the the word
Speaker 1: cantor you know, it's like a sacred singer and um
Speaker 1: and Judaism, or like who sings for religious ceremonies during
Speaker 1: like high holy days and things like that. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: I mean the idea of the idea of the creator
Speaker 1: of everything being a singer or that being a human
Speaker 1: way to understand it. It's it's quite beautiful, you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's poetic. Um, you've got gotta check out. We're
Speaker 1: not proselytizing, to be clear. It's just if you are
Speaker 1: interested in these kind of things, you can find you
Speaker 1: can find videos and lectures online and you can also
Speaker 1: get some books. He is quite a prolific author. Be
Speaker 1: do be aware that many of those books are transcripts
Speaker 1: of lectures that he's made. Look okay, so they are
Speaker 1: all these This has happened so often that they're even
Speaker 1: jokes and bits of folklore about it, you know, like
Speaker 1: the like the three guys and the Insane Asylum who
Speaker 1: are each convinced their Jesus Christ and you put him
Speaker 1: in a room and you see if they eventually get along. Right,
Speaker 1: That's the thing. Uh, It's not unusual to be loved
Speaker 1: by anyone. I'm kidding. It's not unusual to see people
Speaker 1: who believe that they everybody wants to be special, right,
Speaker 1: everybody wants to be extraordinary, So it is not uncommon
Speaker 1: for people to believe that they have been um singled
Speaker 1: out for some divine purpose. And honestly, again, that's a
Speaker 1: personal belief. There's nothing wrong with it. You might find
Speaker 1: that other people don't agree that you are the main
Speaker 1: character of the universe because that might diminish their experience.
Speaker 1: That's fine. You can be a one person belief system.
Speaker 1: Millions of people over the years have claimed to commune
Speaker 1: with spiritual leaders from beyond the grave. And if you
Speaker 1: look at Happy Sciences basic spiritual belief system and structure,
Speaker 1: there's nothing immediately dangerous. It's like, try to love in
Speaker 1: a giving way, try to be honest, work actively to
Speaker 1: make the world more peaceful and more joyful. All the hits,
Speaker 1: you know, the good stuff. Uh. Until that is you
Speaker 1: get into their political arm, their political wing or branch,
Speaker 1: because unlike a lot of other spiritual movements, uh, they
Speaker 1: are heavy in politics. They do not care about separation
Speaker 1: of church and state, and the political wing of of
Speaker 1: the Happy Science organization is known as the Happiness Realization Party. Um.
Speaker 1: You don't really throw that word around unless you're talking
Speaker 1: about something politically motivated and organized, unless like Mario Party
Speaker 1: or you know, Pizza Party, which are one quickly great things. Uh.
Speaker 1: This is incredibly right wing in its ideology, um, and
Speaker 1: much less warm and fuzzy uh than the spiritual teachings
Speaker 1: might make you think it would be. Um. This organization
Speaker 1: supports the expansion of the Japanese military, erasure of proven
Speaker 1: World War two war crimes like the Nanjing massacre, and
Speaker 1: is really hot to try when it comes to getting
Speaker 1: the nukes amassing nuclear weapons. Oh. It hates hates uh
Speaker 1: China like the whole, the whole thing of China. It's
Speaker 1: not one of those things where you say, I know
Speaker 1: people don't control the government. I may disagree with the
Speaker 1: government of a country, but I recognize the people are
Speaker 1: human and decent and have the same wants and desires
Speaker 1: and fears. No, it's it's very um beat me just
Speaker 1: because I love this. Beep me Max. It's very Uh.
Speaker 1: They're very tupac in this. They're saying China and if
Speaker 1: you roll with them, Q two. That's basically and I'm
Speaker 1: not being too hyperbolic with the language either. No, there's
Speaker 1: some rough things you can find online. Statements and again
Speaker 1: there's so many videos. You can find it if you
Speaker 1: look for it. He doesn't he have the the the
Speaker 1: Leader Rio hoo. He has, or at least for a time,
Speaker 1: had the Guinness Book of World Records. I think he
Speaker 1: had a record for the most books published in one
Speaker 1: year and the number was fifty four. Wow. That's great.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that. That's cool. That's a cool fact
Speaker 1: to walk away with. Uh. Okay, yeah, but like you said,
Speaker 1: it's transcriptions of like just talking and then it's put
Speaker 1: into a book. And he's freestyling a lot in those videos,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It's like one thought leads
Speaker 1: to the next. I don't think he has his script often.
Speaker 1: But as of spring of uh and this number may
Speaker 1: have changed a little bit, there are at least twenty
Speaker 1: one local political officials in Japan who are members of
Speaker 1: the HRP, the Happiness Realization Party that we'll just described there.
Speaker 1: And this article that made me laugh is from a
Speaker 1: journalist named Scilla sat Gully over advice. Silla goes and
Speaker 1: visits uh Parisian branch of Happy Science and he says, Okay,
Speaker 1: give me the scoop. Tell me you know, I am
Speaker 1: all eyes and ears, I want to hear, I want
Speaker 1: to see, and you can tell that this is going
Speaker 1: to be a little bit of a snarky article. Uh
Speaker 1: an article uh through the title happy science is the
Speaker 1: Laziest cult Ever. Again, we didn't write that, no need
Speaker 1: to get the lawyers involved, No, no, no. So he
Speaker 1: goes and checks out this local branch right and the lectures,
Speaker 1: and unexpectedly, I would I would think and say that
Speaker 1: the lectures are about extraterrestrials in part they're also about
Speaker 1: this very specific viewpoint of reality and the afterlife and
Speaker 1: the connection between ween you know, Earth and this other
Speaker 1: realm that exists in nine dimensions. And you can even
Speaker 1: I I can't remember if if this author in particular
Speaker 1: found of the actual sketch like the diagram of Heaven
Speaker 1: when it's laid out in these tiered dimensions. Yes, I
Speaker 1: think there are some profits who only get to hang
Speaker 1: out in the eighth level. But then the ninth is
Speaker 1: like the V I P area. It's really really interesting stuff.
Speaker 1: And again there's nothing wrong with that. That's a belief
Speaker 1: that Mr Okawen his followers subscribe to. There's nothing wrong
Speaker 1: with having your own personal beliefs, but just like us. St.
Speaker 1: Gully notices a little bit of a discrepancy between this
Speaker 1: very huggy, lovey, inclusive language on the spiritual side of
Speaker 1: happy science and then the somewhat more militant geopolitical philosophy.
Speaker 1: I've had a hard time not laughing as we get
Speaker 1: closer to this because I love this excerpt. I love
Speaker 1: this quote. I feel like some someone else do the honors. Sure. Um.
Speaker 1: After the break, we were subjected to another tape, Rebirth
Speaker 1: of Your Hopes, a completely overt attack on China and
Speaker 1: North Korea, where Okawa characterized the two countries as quote
Speaker 1: responsible for the decay of Asia. Responsible for the decay
Speaker 1: of Asia. Okay Um. There was a part where he
Speaker 1: started screaming about the Chinese being quote dumb, lazy, and
Speaker 1: full of okay, no hyperbole there, uh, And another part
Speaker 1: where he claimed that the Japanese government was going to
Speaker 1: raise taxes because of Oh good Lord, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I just want to say, this is a quote. This
Speaker 1: man said this. This was reported by by St Cali
Speaker 1: was going to raise taxes because of the quote Chinese
Speaker 1: ng of their minds. Yeah, I don't know why that? Uh,
Speaker 1: that insult? Is that just string of insults, calling someone dumb, lazy,
Speaker 1: and YadA YadA. I don't know why that that tickles
Speaker 1: me so, but he is very serious. Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: I want to ask you guys about Chinese ing of
Speaker 1: the mind. Is that meant to? Is that like a
Speaker 1: statement about communism? Maybe it does seem to be referring
Speaker 1: to some sort of indoctrination. Uh, communism being the closest,
Speaker 1: lowest hanging fruit, I would argue, which is wild because
Speaker 1: in China's hyper capitalist authoritarian isn't you're right there? Who
Speaker 1: knows man that? I mean? We talked about him channeling
Speaker 1: stuff right in the in there's a similar Vice video
Speaker 1: where you can watch you can watch the founder in
Speaker 1: a like press conference like setting with some supposed reporters
Speaker 1: asking him questions while he's channeling the ghost of Margaret Thatcher,
Speaker 1: the spirit of Margaret Margaret Thatcher, and it is one
Speaker 1: of the most surreal things you can see. Uh. He
Speaker 1: it's it's kind of it's more like an affect, like
Speaker 1: a I'm I'm so possessed right now, That's what I
Speaker 1: That's what it reads to me. If if he was
Speaker 1: if he was an actor and playing a part, that's
Speaker 1: a little. It's a little much, but sorry, I don't
Speaker 1: want to make fun of him. It's just it. The
Speaker 1: guide does some in some very strange stuff on camera
Speaker 1: and then purposefully puts it out as uh messaging for
Speaker 1: his organization. The New York Times has written about him
Speaker 1: as well, fairly recently. Just a few years ago in
Speaker 1: journalists Sam Kestenbaum went into detail about how Happy Science
Speaker 1: was approaching COVID nineteen. Again, you see a lot of
Speaker 1: these organizations spending a lot of time on their own
Speaker 1: interpretations of the pandemic because it was a global event, right.
Speaker 1: So kest and Bomb says that the group was claiming
Speaker 1: they could cure infections of COVID nineteen through spiritual vaccines,
Speaker 1: the remote application of spiritual vaccines. So you pay insert
Speaker 1: fee here, and then you have a prayer directed at you,
Speaker 1: the ideas that that prayer will spiritually protect you from
Speaker 1: from contracting this physical ailment. So it's like a laying
Speaker 1: on of hands, almost like big tent revival kind of mentality.
Speaker 1: The idea that I could like inoculate you with a
Speaker 1: blessing you know, or or restore your ability to hear
Speaker 1: or walk or whatever by you know, touching you or
Speaker 1: or doing some sort of sending five base thank you.
Speaker 1: That's a much better way of putting a vibe base. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and this, you know, I think it's a worthy comparison
Speaker 1: because lest anybody in the st be too quick to judge,
Speaker 1: do remember that tent revivals and televangelists of plenty have
Speaker 1: have applied similar techniques or similar claims at least uh
Speaker 1: test and Bomb seems pretty skeptical just to be fair,
Speaker 1: and says that Happy Science is an enormous and powerful
Speaker 1: enterprise claiming millions of adherents, tens of thousands of missionary
Speaker 1: outposts across the world. It's secretive, it's hostile to the media,
Speaker 1: and it's structured around a tiered, paid a progress system
Speaker 1: of membership. They're sometimes called Tokyo's answer to Scientology, which
Speaker 1: is in comparison I haven't. I haven't thought of, but
Speaker 1: I imagine critics would. I would agree with that, right. Um, Still,
Speaker 1: it's it's definitely it checks all the boxes for a
Speaker 1: cultic organization. Yes, it does. Were you guys aware that
Speaker 1: there's a Happy Science branch in our fair city of Atlanta? No,
Speaker 1: but I'm not surprised there is it has four reviews
Speaker 1: on Google and it is temporarily closed, but there is
Speaker 1: a phone number associated with it, and you better believe
Speaker 1: I'm about to call it later. Let's just see what
Speaker 1: are their hours. Let's just roll up. It's temporarily closed,
Speaker 1: it says, yeah, all right, we'll find him. But it's
Speaker 1: on Piedmont. It's nice part of town. Actually. Uh so
Speaker 1: they're doing well really quickly. There's a there's a book
Speaker 1: by Nietzsche, uh called The Gay Science, um, and it's
Speaker 1: translated to the the Joyful Science, the joyous science, or
Speaker 1: the joyful Wisdom. Do you see any connection between the
Speaker 1: the the the work of Friedrich Nizicchi and uh and
Speaker 1: this or is it just kind of a parallel thinking coincidence.
Speaker 1: It may be parallel because it's a very powerful phrase.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, joyful science, happy science. Uh. But
Speaker 1: I I'm sure that sir Okawa has discussed Nietzsche or
Speaker 1: Nietzsche in thought at some point, just because he is
Speaker 1: so prolific. He's like, he reminds me of that guy
Speaker 1: we talked about earlier, ad non Altar with a Turkish
Speaker 1: sex cult and and attempted coup of Turkey. That guy
Speaker 1: was also very prolific, So I feel like at some
Speaker 1: point it wouldn't be surprising. Rather if at some point
Speaker 1: in Mr Okawa's writing or lectures we can find comments
Speaker 1: about Nietzsche and what was that the basis for his
Speaker 1: decision to name his movement this that I do not know,
Speaker 1: but it would be really interesting to find that out.
Speaker 1: And by the way, one note with Mr Okawa. Yes,
Speaker 1: always people with UM unorthodox or newer spiritual beliefs are
Speaker 1: gonna be vilified by the status quo in the mainstream.
Speaker 1: So he's got a lot of outside critics, but it
Speaker 1: might surprise you to know that one of his number
Speaker 1: one critics is another their Japanese cult. It's the one
Speaker 1: most Westerners think about when they think about Japanese cults,
Speaker 1: om Shinriko, which we covered in a previous episode. Uh,
Speaker 1: they had a very intense rivalry. I guess they're competing
Speaker 1: for followers maybe, or maybe it's just the thing where
Speaker 1: someone saying, no, I'm the main character, You're incorrect, I'm
Speaker 1: the real Jesus or what have you. Anyway, before they
Speaker 1: made that horrific attack on the Tokyo subway, UM also
Speaker 1: tried unsuccessfully to assassinate Mr Okawa uh Like, like you
Speaker 1: were saying that Happy Sciences around today. You can go
Speaker 1: visit their website for firsthand information. And while you may
Speaker 1: not have heard of this group, make a mistake, they're
Speaker 1: making some big waves around the world. This is gonna
Speaker 1: end up being a two parter for us. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: where it is gonna be two part We're gonna have
Speaker 1: to end very shortly here. I just want to point
Speaker 1: out another commonality that I'm seeing with this group in particular,
Speaker 1: and some of the ones we're gonna talk about the
Speaker 1: next episode, the deification of that leader. Like if you
Speaker 1: go to Happy Happy Sciences website, there are numerous videos
Speaker 1: and full books written about Okawa's uh like birth to
Speaker 1: the story of how he was so intelligent, he had
Speaker 1: an i Q of two hundred, he was twelve years old,
Speaker 1: but he you know, it's like he was twenty, and
Speaker 1: how he went to this prestigious university and then went
Speaker 1: to this other one, and it's just really you can
Speaker 1: watch these videos with this very emotional, moving, triumphant music
Speaker 1: over top of it, you know, and just talking about
Speaker 1: this this person. I think that's a commonality we see
Speaker 1: in a lot of cultic groups that put their leader
Speaker 1: in that space, right, who is now Jesus or God
Speaker 1: or the next coming or whatever. Yeah, and I I
Speaker 1: personally don't like deifying anybody, so I don't know if
Speaker 1: I'm in the demographic, but but yeah, you're right again.
Speaker 1: It is the tactics that define what we would consider cultic,
Speaker 1: not the content of what they're saying. And we have
Speaker 1: there's so much more that we want to dive into.
Speaker 1: Join us for part two, our episode on up and
Speaker 1: coming cults culture may have never heard of yet. We're
Speaker 1: going to go into some more strange territory. But whenever
Speaker 1: we talk about stuff like this, we feel morally bound
Speaker 1: to end our episode with a little bit of a
Speaker 1: p s A. This is just scratching the surface, is
Speaker 1: one thing. For sure. There are many, many, many organizations
Speaker 1: that might not call themselves cults, but sure do a
Speaker 1: lot of things that occult would do. And if you
Speaker 1: or anyone you know has been taken in by an
Speaker 1: organization that is emotionally or physically unsafe, please do not
Speaker 1: hesitate to reach out to any multiple resources online, over
Speaker 1: the phone. There are forms of plenty. They can provide
Speaker 1: free counseling and assistance. Um, it's worth it, and that's
Speaker 1: we're into today. What do you think do you have
Speaker 1: any experience with a cultic organization. I'm sure some of
Speaker 1: our fellow listeners do. People often told me that they
Speaker 1: didn't understand what they were in until they left and
Speaker 1: they looked back and they had that lightbulb moment and
Speaker 1: they said, that was a cult. I thought I was
Speaker 1: just selling popcorn on commission, but I was in a cult,
Speaker 1: no wonder. There was a giant golden idol of this
Speaker 1: El Kantari guy behind him at all times. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, we're putting levity on it. But yeah, these
Speaker 1: things can be serious. So we would love to hear
Speaker 1: your stories. We can't wait to read them, to listen
Speaker 1: to them, to experience them. Please do not try to
Speaker 1: convert us if you are a cult leader. Otherwise, we're
Speaker 1: easy to find online. That's right. You can find us
Speaker 1: on Twitter, on YouTube, and on Facebook, where we have
Speaker 1: a Facebook group. Here's where it gets crazy, joined that thing.
Speaker 1: We exist on these platforms under the handle conspiracy Stuff.
Speaker 1: On Instagram you'll find this a conspiracy Stuff show. Check
Speaker 1: out link to dot e slash std w y t
Speaker 1: K if you want to look at that's our link tree.
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