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

yikes.

also lol of course the dude who made WHAT THE BLEEP DO WE KNOW got roped in.

i clicked on this very clickbaity story, and then boom there it was, 11th paragraph

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-mysterious-death-of-a-tantric-sex-guru

“Like Mindvalley’s A-Fest” is a good punchline. I’m sorry about that lady though.

julia allison has been getting into all this stuff, if any of you remember her

as a journalist, thought leader, or follower?

as a selfie-taker mostly

so i guess """"journalist""""

i once blabbed to n!t@$h4 t!ku at a party for half an hour about mindvalley and awesomeness fest and begged her to investigate and write something.

Malaysian friend of mine who had been mostly smoking pot in the USA in the decade-plus since he came here for college moved back to Malaysia and was INSTANTLY sucked into this world. Within a month of being back there he was all sharp suit and haircut, "personal branding", an "entrepreneur" without a business or product, the whole nine yards.

Thing is, though, it kinda seems like it's working for him? He looks genuinely happy, even if he does post rah-rah MLM bullshit on Facebook ten times a day. I hate to think about how much money is being leeched from him by whatever organization has their hooks in him (dude seems to be at "seminars" every other week), but he really seems to be doing better emotionally than when his life consisted of pot, minimum wage, and GTA5.

Another NXIVM story.

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/is-nxivm-a-cult-what-we-know-w512261

via dayo:

http://voicecult.org/

https://medium.com/@bescofield/tech-bro-guru-inside-the-sedona-cult-of-bentinho-massaro-a56314f830ef

I can read things like that and they seem incredibly troubling but it's hard to tell the number of people who are really invested as opposed to ones who attend more lightweight life coaching junk and meditation sessions? I hope it's mostly that, but the idea of that many people being into some young narcissist screaming at them about him being the godhead is almost too much

this article makes me feel like humanity really has to be at peak up-our-own-asses

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/15/improving-ourselves-to-death

In December, with the end of their project approaching, Spicer reflects that he has spent the year focussing on himself to the exclusion of everything, and everyone, else in his life. His wife is due to give birth to their second child in a few days; their relationship is not at its best. And yet, he writes, “I could not think of another year I spent more of my time doing things that were not me at all.” He doesn’t feel like a better version of himself. He doesn’t even feel like himself. He has been like a man possessed: “If it wasn’t me, who was it then?”

yes, I meant to link that article the other day. enjoyed it a lot, though I would have welcomed an even more scorched-earth approach

I had to lol because I thought that was about Sean Spicer for a minute

Me too!!!

this guy, whom I used to work with, still spams me:

http://akeynotespeaker.com

http://www.worldofbuzz.com/heres-need-know-viral-milo-sugar-controversy/

i'm .. not sure i want to click on that url

it's not about *that* milo

it is from a site that wants you to turn on notifications, which, sigh

in short:

NYT posted this article about shady food product labeling in malaysia:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/23/health/obesity-malaysia-nestle.html

which prompted our boy to post this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n84kruNsYxc

which has apparently gone viral in Malaysia and resulted in consumer rights groups holding press conferences etc

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5612379/Smallville-actress-Allison-Mack-takes-control-branding-cult-Nxivm.html

More NXIVM shit

https://www.thedailybeast.com/smallville-actress-allison-mack-arrested-by-fbi-in-connection-with-nxivm-cult

https://i.imgur.com/wkCwl6F.png

It's true, I never looked at it that way, but you're so right -- snif! -- my host's database server IS down. I think it's been down ever since I married Robert, and I just didn't want to admit it.

i've always had trouble establishing connections

.@EmWatson I'm a fellow actress like yourself & involved in an amazing women's movement I think you'd dig. I'd love to chat if you're open.

— Allison Mack (@allisonmack) January 24, 2016

@iamrashidajones As a fellow actress I love your work, and what you have to say. Maybe we can connect sometime?

— Allison Mack (@allisonmack) May 25, 2014

most accomplished post-smallville career by some distance

did not realize that one of the smallville EPs was brian robbins, the ex-HEAD OF THE CLASS GUY who worked closely with his former co-star (and recently deposed from nickelodeon producer) dan schneider

also annette o'toole was in smallville! her LAW & ORDER ep with her husband (michael mckean) is one of the best

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0629340/

Ugggggh, those tweets are so triggering. It took me way too long (I mean, not that long but still way too long) to realize a friend of mine was trying to recruit me for some crazy cult shit she was (and presumably still is) a part of. It's so violating to realize that someone's seeming interest in and regard for you really has nothing at all to do with you.

i'm sorry! that's horrible.

I search online every so often for a friend who got involved in the LaRouche org/cult when she went to college but after the mid-00s, nada.

A friend of mine who took a red pill recently and has become a “successful” alt-right leaning meme cartoonist tried to recruit me into a pyramid scheme cult once.

i should've bumped this thread a few years ago for superstar machine, who apparently have never been mentioned

am i misremembering? i thought superstar machine and nxivm were the same thing? or had the same people?

holy shit are they

the REALLY dark connection is that (and i need to run down the details again) nxivm was connected to a really sketchy 'media criticism' organization called Knife of Aristotle, which as rebranded itself as The Knife Media. it purports to be a 'de-spin' analysis site that... just puts percentages on everything, without explanation, telling you how slanted and leftist the msm is

xp honestly i don't know!

superstar machine seems pretty distinct to me from what i can tell unless they share members https://jezebel.com/inside-superstar-machine-which-ex-members-say-is-a-cul-1775494367

several of my coworkers at organic avenue were so totally seduced by superstar machine that they're still in it, eight years later

ok whew. i think maybe some of the early bloggy coverage of nxivm mentioned them together. or my memory is crap!

I swear we talked about superstar machine but on a different thread

ah, here:
hey gawker dudes. what the fuck is wrong with you?

Superstar Machine is a helluva band name tbh

I swear we talked about superstar machine but on a different thread

― mh, Tuesday, April 24, 2018 11:03 AM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i was thinking this too! thank you for find it, search was NOT helpful

er finding*

you gotta put the search term in quotes, man!

apparently we also talked about it on the princess superstar thread

lol

i've been real bad at using the internet today

haha Brad don't apologize on every thread you bump today about being bad at internet :D

"He's not bad at internet, he's BRAD at internet"

https://i.giphy.com/media/111ebonMs90YLu/200.gif