How would you infiltrate a cult?

[cosmic4z]

While it's clearly a better investment of time and energy to focus on something more positive and constructive, let's say, for some reason (shits and giggles) you wanted to infiltrate a cult, with a view to being disruptive and ultimately dismantling it (eroding the credibility and influence of cult leader etc).

 

How would you go about doing that (in a manner that doesn't harm yourself of course)?

Edited April 2, 2019 by cosmic4z

[Fa Xin]

Do you think you’ve been infiltrated, cosmic? 

 

I recommend all cults have a lie detector test to avoid such scandals. Test them out before they join ... See if they’re true believers. 

 

 

Edited April 3, 2019 by Fa Xin

[silent thunder]

I've infiltrated dozens.  Here's my ingenious-foolproof method.

 

1) Lull the cult into a false sense of security by completely ignoring it in all aspects for a decade at least. (some for much longer)

2) Spend time and energy daily in the presence of people, places, animals and insects that I love and want to see thrive.

2a)  Cease spending energy on things I despise.

3) Have a beer and laugh with a friend once in a while, while ignoring the cult in question.

4) Spend entire days taking no action whatsoever, aside from the nominal functions of biology and the unconscious.

5) Remember that every cult and cult member is as close to the Dao as I am.

6) Mind my own buggering business.

7) Make and share food with folks I dearly love.

8) Walk in nature.

9) Remember that the earth delights in the feel of my bare feet and the winds long to play with my hair

10) Remember that we unwittingly plough the dust of stars, blown about us by the wind and drink the universe in a glass of rain.

 

Cheers!

[Nungali]

I infiltrated a cult once .   My then GF was a member so i wanted to check out what was going on.

 

You would NOT believe it !   Really wacky  ... and funny !   However I do recommend being 'armed on all points'  ( level : spiritually, emotionally, psychically, mentally, physically. ) .

 

The hilarity started at the door. It was a big weird old house and only the upstairs was used and they rented out the ground floor. There was only one door into the top floor , up a rickety stairway attached to the side of the building .

 

GF knocks on door , something like ;  rap rap rap  - rap rap -  rap -  rap rap .

 

other side :  rap -  rap -  rap rap rap .

 

GF;   rap rap rap .

 

Other side ;  " Quo Vadis ? "

 

GF;   (? - some Latin word )

 

other side ;  "Who is it ? "

 

GF:  'Anita'

 

Opens door  " Enter "

 

(    he could have just said  "Who is it ?" }

 

Then I walked in behind her and he " OH!   Who is this  ? "

 

A " My boyfriend."     I pushed past him and walked in     ... now get this - seriously, the guy had a ninja suit on and had tonfa stuck in his belt, a baton and some other stuff hanging off him.

 

Me (aside to GF)  "Whats with THAT ! ? "

 

"He is the guardian "        

 

Some time later a rival gang had some dispute with them and their leader came around with 2 heavies and trashed their temple. I asked about the guardian and their 'door security regime ' . GF said  "Oh, they just kicked the door in ' .

 

What about the armed Ninja 'guardian' .

 

"  He did a runner ! "

 

   

 

I guess you'll wanna know what the 'cult' was   ?

 

Spoiler

'The Hermetic Order of the Golden Phoenix ' .  Touted in the past as  THE  magical order in Australia  

 

Ooooo the goings on there .

 

I became known as the first person to be expelled before they even became a member     

 

"  To that end, I remember him pulling me aside and asking me if I'd like to one day lead the O.P.A. I at once felt honoured and horrified. What a massive responsibility! Later on it transpired that he'd made everyone else the same offer!  "

https://faeriemenace.livejournal.com/2589.html

 

Of course, my GF thought SHE was going to be the new leader  too  ... they all did     

 

Yeah , they did GD stuff, but Barry was a  power tripper, into controlling people,  and into other 'strange stuff'   ...  which is fine , dont get me wrong ... but not fine when he ties his personal kinks into supposedly 'initiation advancement ' .

 

  So of course it all backfired.

 

he had this 2nd in charge for a while,  a well known grotesque figure in the Sydney occult scene ; RL ( who was grossly overweight and liked to pose for photos in dominatrix outfit ... and other stuff .  Who was a crony of TH, who ran 'Dark Circle' magazine . TH was the one that kicked their door in and did a 'temple invasion' . They assumed  RL had stolen their magazine subs list and was using it to try and get the subs into their 'Order' .  Since he wouldnt fess up they frog marched him out the temple and down to Stanmore Park near the railway station, a very pubic area ... for some reason ... and tied him to a tree and started torturing him with slaps, Chinese burns and a lit cigarette ( which he probably loved ! )  , eventually a police car went past and  "Oh look, those 3 guys have another tied to a tree in a public park."

 

When they questioned them one lot said "he stole our members list', the other " They smashed up our occult temple !"

 

Police ;  "Occult Temple ?    Smashed it up you say, we better go have a look at it . "

 

So now the police, intruders and others are walking around the secret 'no entry' temple ... then someone gets the bright idea " hey, we better ring up the ' Imperator'  (he was doing a night shift at work)  ..... " Ummmm  ... Master .... the temple got smashed and the police are here  looking through everything ."

 

" WHAAAT ! ? "

 

  

 

what a fuckin circus !   and thats only part of the story ! Iwas there for such a short time and sooooo many crazy things happened !  It was also amusing the trips they tried to play on me .  I will give Barry some credit, after a short time he realised his tactics would not work on me. During a 'disciplinary talk' where he took me out of 'class' into his 'study'  (just like a headmaster )  and attempted to scare me with his 'magical authority' ,  I  and laughed in his face and said " What, you think that will intimidate me ?  I know you just want me to be gone so you can fuck my GF .  "   he laughed and said "Oh well, that didnt work ." - we got on better after that .   I walked back into the 'class room' and made myself look terrified         ...  he liked that .  Afetr that we developed a better 'understanding of each other '  . .  didnt stop me getting expelled though    

 

 

It just goes to show ....   cults can be fun !

 

The last I heard, the temple was being closed and sold . The police got into the habit of driving past and checking it out as part of their beat. One time they saw a strange guy hanging around in the street, he waved them down and  said "No need  for you to keep looking, here they are  ...."  and pulled two human big toes out of his pocket .

 

< shudder >

 

But that might be totally unrelated .

 

I last saw Barry many years back   at a market stall, selling some badly made , home made GD wands , crystals and other gee-gaws .. he looked like  an ancient half dead muumy ... picture of Dorian Grey .  I guess he died not long after that .

 

And THIS  was known as the premier occult group in Oz ... according to some   Things didnt actually improve on that level (except for a slightly earlier  GD group in Adelaide ) until around the 1990's

 

I found a good article on them ( leaving out all the suss stuff of course ! ) in this mag

 

https://www.solarancestor.com/uploads/4/8/0/0/48009501/australian_esoteric_issue_19.pdf

 

I think the 'female member'  spoken of in it was my GF  at the time .       There is stuff in their about the door password

and about how he was a 'hoarder ' t .  Really ?   MAN!   I went to his house once, hoarding is way to mild to explain it ; you could just squeeze into the kitchen, 1/3 open the fridge to get the milk out, just enough room at the sink to get a kettle under the tap - boxes where stacked to the ceiling, hanging half over the sink. The only place to sit to drink you cuppa was on his bed , surrounded by boxes up to the ceiling . The house had been jacked up  one floor and things stored under it  that spread out onto the yard and had tarps all around from the top floor angling down to cover the overspill .

 

I never seen anything like that before !  or since .

 

[bax44]

Walk into church? Lol sorry. Was too easy.

Edited April 4, 2019 by bax44

[Bindi]

On 03/04/2019 at 7:31 AM, cosmic4z said:

While it's clearly a better investment of time and energy to focus on something more positive and constructive, let's say, for some reason (shits and giggles) you wanted to infiltrate a cult, with a view to being disruptive and ultimately dismantling it (eroding the credibility and influence of cult leader etc).

 

How would you go about doing that (in a manner that doesn't harm yourself of course)?

 

What if it backfired and they convinced you that they had the truth, and you ended up joining the cult for real??? 

 

If they were any good at what they do and you weren't very sure of yourself they might manage to indoctrinate you. 

 

I'm watching an interesting series at the moment Scientology And The Aftermath. I walked into one of their centres when I was 18 or so, and they had me and my friend sit down and fill in a long questionnaire. Luckily we got bored and left it unfinished, and no one was in the room so we just walked out. If they had been doing their job properly they wouldn't have left us alone...

[Lakshmi]

Replying to the OP, I would consider the Chinese stratagem of using a beautiful woman to undermine them.

[Nungali]

6 hours ago, GSmaster said:

Tbh, if you want to infiltrate any cult.

 

1. A cult is being run for the sake of money, most cults draw money from their cultists. That means paying real cash, and sometimes even quiet alot to stay there.

 

2. A cult will have a lot of chores / tasks to do which could be very arduous and not fun at all, and they will weed out the most prominent fanatics out of the bunch.

 

3. A cult will have a leader, which you will have to bow / show unlimited respect, or you are kicked out of a cult next day.

 

4. Cults usually have strict hiearchy system and it may take years or even dozens of years to progress, some people are stuck forever at the bottom of food chain

 

Counting all together it is highly unlikely to infiltrate into any cult just for fun, unless you are a government agent and get payed $$$ for this job.

 

 

... ot you want to see what your girlfriend is getting up to     

[Nungali]

4 hours ago, Lakshmi said:

Replying to the OP, I would consider the Chinese stratagem of using a beautiful woman to undermine them.

 

 well ,  yeah    ...    ,  YES !  

 

Thats actually what I was up to  all  along     !      

 

 

   

 

Spoiler

Hmmm ...  that might have worked with a few groups I was more seriously involved with .     A new   young woman would show up  ( for some reason, a lot of those guys seemed to be having trouble relating to women )  and me and some 'old hands'  (and older women ) would snicker  ;  "How long will this take  ? "

 

Soon they would be ;   " if another of those guys asks me to  ' do Priestess'  with him !    "

 

  

 

- Ha! I am reminded of a funny scene related to that ;  one group I was in, we where all at a big conference - all adults , all 'over age' but we had to stay at this retreat centre that was either usually a youth camp or a Christian place or something, as the dormitories where sexually segregated , and supposed to stay that way . There was a lot of sneaking around at night   

 

One woman was being pretty forward with me , okay then.  Later I was 'playing footsie'   under the table with her  and  I had my hand on her thigh as we where sitting together, and she was giggling . Some of the 'seniors' where not impressed, a couple of them, and the  ' Chief ' talked to me later about it ;  " You are being a bit forward with .... "

 

Me ;  " Yeah !   She said that  to me too !   ."

 

" And what did you say to her about it ?"

 

" Well, I said ; "you started it, and if you dont like what I am doing, you are a big enough 'girl' now to tell me to fuck off ." Then she agreed and  laughed at me  . "

 

They looked to the 'Chief' for his 'judgement' on it and he ;

 

" God dammit ! Why cant I ever think up a line like that ? "

 

   

 

 

 

 

Edited April 4, 2019 by Nungali

[freeform]

2 hours ago, Nungali said:

A new   young woman would show up...

 

Great anecdotes!

I think you should be writing screenplays!

[kondensation]

By yourself you could end up wasting your time or worse. Don't think they're all just what they seem on the outside, if you're in bad luck it could just be a front for organized crime.

[Nungali]

12 hours ago, freeform said:

 

Great anecdotes!

I think you should be writing screenplays!

 

I did but the bastard American film producer ripped me off  ...  asked me to write it and just before  I was finished he pissed off back to USA - no money .   

 

So I won;t be doing that again !

[thelerner]

I'd play it as a troubled rich guy.. that way they come to you.  Be subtle but drop a few hints.  In conversations drop a vagary or two about past expensive gullibilities ie ex-scientologist..  Have a skeptical yet inquiring  mind.. its all about getting them to chase you.

 

Course you're dealing with potential nuts.  You don't want them knowing your address, email or phone #s.  Playing a game with them could be setting yourself up, not so much for danger (actually some are very dangerous) but for long term annoyances, so it might not be worth it.  You can't out crazy the crazies.  Instead it becomes contagious.

 

addon> I don't think logical arguments work against cults.  Focusing on how the logical extremes of there philosophy might become problematic.  Pretend being a super fan of a similar group that crashed and burned.  Bringing it up constantly, we are like them, we need to be even more like them, its too bad they went down in flames..  kind of talk.  

 

 

Edited April 7, 2019 by thelerner

[Forwards]

I'd develop my cooking skills,  then volunteer to prepare meals after i got through the front door and established some cred. 

 

It's hard to go back to normal meals after you've been having amazing ones haha

[thursday]

Cults aren't a joke, neither are some groups online. If something looks "not quite right", then it probably is and if you would ask me: trust your gut feeling and move on. Damage can be done before you're even a member.