❀ the cult of: ➥motivational speakers ➥life coaches ➥personal growth gurus ➥new-age charlatans ➥AWESOMENESS FEST

Big organized religions = "Ecclesiastical cults" officially in all of social science. So I guess maybe you're both right.

But 'cult' doesn't really mean anything like the popular definition in religious studies.

I think it's pretty obvious that cult on ilx just means, "shit that is weird."

sorry: "shit that is weird that involves groups of people"

trying to be technical + specific here

well yeah, I was being comically biased against all organized religion, whether it's millions or just five people and a guru. sorry, not religion, self-realization corporate strategy in the latter case, here

picture of a fez totally otm, though

awesomeness fest would be pretty awesome if they were all just unironically wearing fez

Namaste!!!

This positivity stuff needs to be a bit edgier, but that would require a level of darkness and cynicism. I am trying to think of how to make this gothier.

p sure the goth side of this is wiccan/pagan ppl

You are absolutely correct.

i could be wrong but p sure wiccan/pagans arent monetizing on the level these ppl are... maybe there's an opportunity here...

ren faires

nah ren faires are just like norms going to yoga class

maybe not on the same level but i think there's plenty of wiccan/pagan monetization going on. like who owns all those stores that sell giant pewter dragons holding crystal balls and like tarot cards you can buy featuring members of popular 80s band tears for fears as the tower the jester the prince the hot topic merchant etc

yeah def but thats at least like, a rad sculpture of a dragon you can put on a shelf and look at, which is 100% more valuable than mp3s of a guy telling you to unlock your mind

Vampire wannabes totally have a built-in pyramid scheme.

OTM xp

Yeah all the neopagans/earth-based spiritual people I've met tend to spend their money on like ritual stuff like ceremonial daggers and goblets. At least all the Pagan-centered new age stores I've been are heavy on what could be considered LARPer gear and very light on empty vagueness.

Can you tell me more AP?

Is it blood-based? Top sellers get the best blood?

xxxpost. definitely some commoditizing with the wiccan-pagan thing. my first girlfriend, her mom was a crystal therapist / astrologer with a backpage column in the local new age magazine. went to some new age fest out in PA with them and it was this conference of all sorts of bizarre businesses selling their shit... kirlian photography, crystals, indian feathers, etc. don't remember too much else, but it was pretty big.

at the end of it all everyone went out into a field, formed a huge circle, and we all held hands while a drum circle played in the center. some guy talked about how all our energies were connected and some bullcrap about mother earth. got bonus points from the mother for not laughing at everyone.

um it takes a vampire to make a vampire, I think that is the pyramid reference

LOL duh, my brain isn't all here right now.

blood kickbacks up the MLM ladder

which is 100% more valuable than mp3s of a guy telling you to unlock your mind

Ye of little faith (unless it's an iTunes mp3)

this seems like a good place to mention that we were touring the east coast earlier this year and we were stationed at a tiny Red Roof Inn or Holiday Inn Express or something - some unrenovated turnpike hotel, totally inconspicuous and unremarkable except for the brochures on a table just past the checkin and a sign saying WELCOME FREE YOUR MIND CONFERENCE. I practically lost my mind: we're accidentally checked into the place where this shit's going down? But it was, like, an ancillary local version of the big conference - just some people in sweaters with, like, airbrushed wolves hanging out and sorta meeting up to talk about shared conceptions of the universe.

still though the bios of the presenters in the brochure were some of the craziest weirdest shit I've ever read, and the conference's theme song will be in my head forever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stZBOhfJ294

WELCOME FREE YOUR MIND CONFERENCE. I practically lost my mind
WELCOME FREE YOUR MIND CONFERENCE. I practically lost my mind
WELCOME FREE YOUR MIND CONFERENCE. I practically lost my mind
WELCOME FREE YOUR MIND CONFERENCE. I practically lost my mind
WELCOME FREE YOUR MIND CONFERENCE. I practically lost my mind
WELCOME FREE YOUR MIND CONFERENCE. I practically lost my mind
WELCOME FREE YOUR MIND CONFERENCE. I practically lost my mind
WELCOME FREE YOUR MIND CONFERENCE. I practically lost my mind
WELCOME FREE YOUR MIND CONFERENCE. I practically lost my mind
WELCOME FREE YOUR MIND CONFERENCE. I practically lost my mind
WELCOME FREE YOUR MIND CONFERENCE. I practically lost my mind
WELCOME FREE YOUR MIND CONFERENCE. I practically lost my mind

an example of the speakers chosen at random, first dude on the list at the conference's website

Aaron McCollum was born in a small town in California. From the time he was 3 years old his life was anything but normal. He was first evaluated and accepted into Project Talent for the 3rd generation Super Soldier program.

As a child, he was subjected to various testing and experiments to prepare him for what was to come. At the age of 5, he underwent his first "Alter" split. This was done through various techniques of electro-shock, water boarding, psychotropic drugs and even dark rituals through the Catholic Church. His training was extensive, and involved things such as survival training, pain tolerance, weapons, hand-to-hand combat and much more.

At 16, he received his first assignment, in which he was to be brought into the military under the U.S. Coast Guard. From there, as in his childhood, he had most of his memory blocked due to all he was a part of. He was a Black Operations operative for many missions throughout the world. He was also stationed at, at least, two underground facilities that he remembers, one in California, and an Underwater facility off the West Coast of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean. This Caribbean facility is what he had been raised for. The base is referred to as PROSEA, short for Project Seagate. The base conducts many sub-projects, from interstellar travel, to Time Travel, to Human Hybrid generation.

http://www.freeyourmindconference.com/images/stories/fym/aaron-mccollum.jpg

hjnjdkl;shcfjklsdajfklsd;afjdkslsa;

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100108063233/uncyclopedia/images/archive/b/b5/20100108063328!Exploding-head.gif

dudes I know I was like WE LANDED AT THIS HOTEL RANDOMLY? I WIN. I FUCKING WIN

Pretty amazing.

what an incredible life that guy has lived

fuck, u guys:

As promised by Aaron McCollum in his previous interview, here is a follow-up to his personal journey, as he starts to remember his past and mind-control programming. As Aaron is on a journey of self-discovery, there are still areas of his life that he does not recall or understand. At the time of this interview, however, it is beginning to come to light that he himself may be a dolphin/human hybrid.

from here

the first three and a half minutes of this are really worth your time

http://youtu.be/x_S9sQ3mP4U

http://www.freeyourmindconference.com/images/stories/fym/andrew-basiago.jpg

ANDREW D. BASIAGO ShareThis

The team leader of Project Pegasus, Andrew D. Basiago is a lawyer, writer, and 21st century visionary.

Andy is an emerging figure in the Disclosure Movement, who is leading a campaign to lobby the United States government to disclose such controversial truths as the fact that Mars harbors life and that the United States has achieved "quantum access" to past and future events.

He has been identified as the first of two major planetary whistle blowers predicted by ALTA, the Web Bot project that analyzes the content of the World Wide Web to discern future trends.Andy's writings place him at the forefront of contemporary Mars research. His paper The Discovery of Life on Mars, published in 2008, was the first work to prove that Mars is an inhabited planet. After publishing his landmark paper, Andy founded the Mars Anomaly Research Society.

Andy is also one of America's time travel pioneers. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was a child participant in the secret US time-space program, Project Pegasus.

He was the first American child to teleport and took part in probes to past and future events utilizing different forms of time travel then being researched and developed by DARPA.

For ten years, Andy has investigated his experiences in Project Pegasus on a quest to prove them and communicate them to others.

Soon, he will publish a tell-all book that will describe his awe-inspiring and terrifying experiences in Project Pegasus and the true story of the emergence of time travel in the US defense community 40 years ago.

Andy was born on September 18, 1961 in Morristown, New Jersey, the youngest of five children, and grew up in Northern New Jersey and Southern California.

A past member of Mensa, the high IQ society, Andy holds five academic degrees, including a BA in History from UCLA and a Master of Philosophy from the University of Cambridge.

While an undergraduate at UCLA, he became a journalist and protégé of editor Norman Cousins of the Saturday Review, who once compared him to Robert Hutchins and nominated him to be the Editor of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Andy was inspired by a meeting with the futurist Buckminster Fuller in 1981 to pursue a career in environmental policy. After their meeting, Fuller wrote: "Andrew Basiago's integrity augurs well for humanity's continuance in the Universe."

He began his career writing articles about the urban environment for Los Angeles newspapers, national periodicals, and the Cousteau Society journal Calypso Log.

Andy studied environmental law at Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, and then went on to design nature-friendly urban plans for cities in California and study environmental law with Professor Malcolm Grant at Cambridge.

His papers about the theory and practice of urban sustainability have been published in international, peer-reviewed journals in Australia, Britain, and the United States, cited widely, and placed in the environmental policy collections of university libraries.

Andy was admitted to the Washington State Bar Association in 1996.

A lawyer in private practice, he specializes in personal injury law while representing and collaborating with writers and filmmakers in the development of books, TV shows, and feature films with planetary and interplanetary themes.

Andy is on a crusade as a lawyer and activist to have the US government disclose its time travel secrets.

He believes that lobbying the US government to disclose its teleportation capability, so that teleportation can be adopted globally as the new form of civilian transport, is the most important environmental cause of our time.

Andy has named his campaign "Project Pegasus" after the secret US time travel program that he served in during his childhood as one of America's first "chrononauts."

About the better world society that he envisions, Andy stated:

"Imagine a world in which one could jump through Grand Central Teleport in New York City, travel through a vortal tunnel in the time-space continuum, and emerge several seconds later at Union Teleport in Los Angeles. Such a world has been possible since 1968, when teleportation was first achieved by DARPA's Project Pegasus, only to be suppressed ever since as a military secret. When my quest, Project Pegasus, succeeds, such a world will emerge, and human beings linked by teleportation around the globe will proclaim that the time-space age has begun."

Andrew's website: www.ProjectPegasus.net

He was the first American child to teleport

I think we've crossed the rubicon from hucksters to lunatics (maybe we crossed it awhile ago?).

not a huge accomplishment, but still, a pretty big deal.

xp

gr80 if you make it thru the whole hour-plus of the closing panel discussion from the free your mind conference would you be so kind as to summarize the highlights

Farah Yurdozu is Turkey's first female UFO researcher – writer, and author of several best-selling books in her native land.

A friend on FB in response to that link from jon: "He got the words to that Killers song wrong."

of all of turkey's renowned ufo researchers, she was the first female. pretty big deal

like at this point we might as well just start gushing over Art Bell and pyramid-aliens, right?

also fuck that guy bc wtf i've never heard of DARPA. meanwhile Philadelphia Experiment in 1943 already proved invisibility AND teleportation were possible

ya it's true. but still, that was pretty good shit

You guys there is another huge wormhole I could disappear down wrt to this Aaron McCollumn, Yemen, Project Seagate, the Gulf of Aden, the combined Scandinavian military in the Artic Circle, etc.

what is "level 45"?

Project Pegasus???? Come on, you are literally getting this out of Marvel Comics.