Culty cults

Hulu’s “The Path” and the cult/religion/movement of Meyerism

The dramatic three-season Hulu series The Path follows the lives of Eddie and Sarah Lane (Aaron Paul and Michelle Monaghan), senior members of a new religious movement known as the Meyerists. Meyerism itself is a fascinating study in invented religion, combining elements of 1960s/’70s American countercultural spirituality with Peruvian shamanism, Scientology, Christian mysticism and Utopianism … Read moreHulu’s “The Path” and the cult/religion/movement of Meyerism

“The Advanced Bonewits Cult Danger Evaluation Frame” (1979)

Pioneering American neo-Druid Isaac Bonewits first published the ADCDEF in the second edition of his book Real Magic, in the midst of a widespread and sometimes justified moral panic about new/minority religions. As Bonewits commented, many years after its original publication: Minority groups, especially religious ones, are often accused of crimes by members of the … Read more“The Advanced Bonewits Cult Danger Evaluation Frame” (1979)

A Seraphite Shrine from “The Last of Us, Part 2”

The Last of Us, Part 2 is a brutal, epic video game experience, set in a post-apocalyptic America devastated by a fungal infection that transforms humans into monsters. Death runs rampant throughout the grueling game-play, both as inflicted by and upon many of the characters and in terms of motivating a seemingly endless cycle of vengeance. … Read moreA Seraphite Shrine from “The Last of Us, Part 2”

Cavesword: A Nontheistic Religion of Radical Death Acceptance in Gore Vidal’s “Messiah”

Gore Vidal’s 1954 dystopian satire Messiah is the story of a religious movement that forms around a charismatic undertaker named John Cave. Cave’s central message is, simply and profoundly, that people should not be afraid of death; not because they could look forward to an afterlife of eternal bliss in paradise, but rather because oblivion means an … Read moreCavesword: A Nontheistic Religion of Radical Death Acceptance in Gore Vidal’s “Messiah”