My story about a cult is based on a television show I watched called “Riverdale”. In this show, there is a cult called “The Farm”, where people are tricked into believing in unity as strength and brotherhood and sisterhood.
All the members typically are forced into going through healing trials which in reality, are sinister and evil hypnosis treatments. In these treatments, trauma filled people are placed under the idea that their trauma is speaking to them, therefore treating them. For example, say you have lost a loved one, could be a parent or a sibling. They would essentially dig up that person’s grave and place them into a room, or get someone who resembles that person, but due to your hypnosis combined with your trauma, you would believe it to be them. It’s what you want to believe. You would be awarded with sessions where you speak to them if you were obedient but also have those sessions revoked if you were seen as disobedient.
But everyone is so happy and content that they are willing to comply, and don’t realize the manipulation they are under.
The leaders of the cult would make the cultists undergo procedures, claiming to purge them of their agonies and traumas, but in reality they were harvesting their organs and selling them for a profit. This leads them to put on a supportive front, leading them to recruit more people with visible traumas under the claim that they can be healed by joining and later, moving to places where they can expand once their work is done.
One of the main characters of this story, Betty, a strong minded and educated woman, avoids being enlisted in this cult due to her not so easily persuaded traits, though she had many traumas herself. First her mom joined and encouraged her to join too, but seeing the way her man drastically changed, she instantly second guessed it. She then proceeds to go undercover, trusting her intuition and joining the cult, letting them believe she finally gave in. She then uncovered all the twisted secrets of the cult, realizing she was right all along.
One thought on “Conversation 4: Cults”
I find it very interesting since I also saw the series “Riverdale”, but I had not seen it since that moment and definitely because of how bad that cult was, I learned that there are cults like this that are only created to take advantage of people.