Video

“I’m Starting a Religion” (MTV’s “True Life”, 2015)

This episode of MTV’s True Life series documents the efforts of two quirky 20-somethings – Seattle’s Unicole Unicron and Chicago’s Christopher Karl Allman – as they strive to establish their new religions (Unicultism and The People of Ieya, respectively). The documentary is listed as (S2015 E18) and originally screened in 2015, which should be plenty … Read more“I’m Starting a Religion” (MTV’s “True Life”, 2015)

“A religion you can dance to”: Deborah Kelly’s Creation project

Australian artist Deborah Kelly describes Creation, a “queer science fiction climate change religion” and an experiment in collaboratively creating religion as a work of art: CREATION is a new religion, manifesting in spectacle and intimacy. A faith, a gathering of intention and purpose with which to face an era when paid opinion trumps environmental evidence. … Read more“A religion you can dance to”: Deborah Kelly’s Creation project

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 Message from Vega” – Contact (1997)

In the film adaptation of scientist Carl Sagan’s 1985 science fiction novel Contact, radio astronomer Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster) makes first contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence from the Vega star system. This scene portrays the media and folk-religious response, as tens of thousands of people flock to the Very Large Array in the New Mexico desert; … Read more“The Message from Vega” – Contact (1997)