BELZEBUUB TROLLED USING THE “CULT” STIGMA
Just some of the people who attended The Gnostic Movement, and who have shared their positive experiences.
Despite the popularity and praise for Belzebuub’s courses, one of the 90,000 participants who took the courses — who had never met Belzebuub and who had attended just two of the free introductory courses offered by The Gnostic Movement — went on an obsessive trolling campaign that lasted for three years. This person has acknowledged psychological issues, and posted 196 comments in a forum thread in just one year alone. Often this individual would post huge rants in rapid succession, replying to themselves. They anonymously posted reams of outlandishly defamatory claims which became increasingly exaggerated and absurd. These intolerant and irrational attacks against Belzebuub and The Gnostic Movement were made under a pseudonym on the forums of an anti-cult website.
This person also made videos, created their own blog, and posted on social media, even going as far as to admit they routinely ripped down The Gnostic Movement’s posters. In one comment they stated “I would love to know what I can do… other than ripping down their posters wherever I can” and in another that they wished they could conjure demonic entities to send at Mark.
The unscientific and bigoted anti-cult movement — whose past is littered with the types of criminal activity they often illegitimately accuse spiritual groups of perpetrating — was used by a minute percentile (0.01%) of The Gnostic Movement’s former attendees to whip up grossly defamatory lies about Belzebuub and The Gnostic Movement. What Belzebuub and The Gnostic Movement experienced is just one of many examples of how anti-cult ideology is being used to radicalize individuals against harmless groups. These individuals — who often have a history of mental health issues — are being used to suppress many alternative forms of thought and opinion, even those with histories that span thousands of years.
You can read a detailed rebuttal of the false claims made against Belzebuub and The Gnostic Movement here and here.
The loaded and bigoted term “cult” is being used to stop people’s search for truth, and attack anyone who has any kind of apparently “non-mainstream” point of view. However, the ideologies attacked include those found in ancient Egypt, Buddhism, Hinduism, ancient Christian Gnosticism, Paganism, and Native American spirituality etc. Innocent people are lied about by those who hide behind anonymity so they can avoid the consequences of their actions, which in many cases are against the law.
— Lara, Belzebuub’s wife
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE ANTI-CULT MOVEMENT AND ITS SUPPRESSION OF ALTERNATIVE THOUGHT AND BELIEF
Below you’ll find more information and a collection of articles examining different aspects of the anti-cult movement, how the word “cult” has been used to stigmatize innocent people, and how the anti-cult movement has stifled and suppressed freedom of alternative thought and belief.
For almost five decades the counter-cult and anti-cult movements, with the support of the mainstream media, have been working to stifle and undermine society’s legitimate right to freedom of thought and belief. While the actions of the anti-cult movement are often positioned as a societal necessity behind a mask of moral righteousness, in reality this moral façade has been used to justify a history of anti-cult persecution, bigotry, violent force and other terrible crimes upon innocent groups and individuals, reminiscient of the witch hunts and inquisitions of old.
However, while suppression of alternative spirituality in the past was often accomplished through physical violence, in this day and age it has become largely psychological, backed by years of fear-inducing and scientifically unsupported anti-cult propaganda regurgitated by the mainstream media.
This propaganda and the stigma that has been created throughout society by illegitimately portraying alternative spiritual groups as criminal or harmful effectively causes individuals to self-censor their spiritual interests, or to limit them to mainstream commercialized forms spirituality which uphold the status quo.
The following articles explain the background, development and consequences of the anti-cult movement including:
- The events that triggered initial media interest in “deviant” spiritual groups and how a minority of alternative spiritual groups that are harmful (less than 1% of all alternative spiritual groups scholars believe are in existence) are consistently reinforced as the epitome of alternative spirituality in the public eye
- How the “cult” schematic and stigma was created and propagated
- How an illegitimate cult criteria has been used to classify “harmful” spiritual groups, including an analysis and refutation of each point in the criteria explaining how it could be used to classify almost any group in existence (including sporting clubs) as “cults”
- The mass media bias against alternative spirituality and how negative framing techniques are used by the media to demonize spiritual groups
- How fear and social engineering techniques are used to turn people away from spirituality
- How the stigma of the word “cult” completely destroys the fundamental human right to freedom of belief
- What effect the rapid development of the internet and online technologies have had on the ability of negative people to attack others anonymously online; and
- The extent that suppression of alternative spirituality can reach, with an analysis of aspects of the anti-cult movement in China where it predominates the religious landscape.
The links below provide more information about each of these topics:
How Fear is Used to Turn You Against Spirituality
Spiritual Freedom in the West: Are We Drifting Into a Culture of Suppression?
Exposing Manipulative Media Techniques That Restrict Spiritual Freedom
How the “Free Press” Targets Spiritual Minorities Through Mass Media Cult Scares
How the Jonestown Massacre was the 9/11 of the War on Alternative Spirituality
- A curated collection of Belzebuub’s media interviews are available on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Player.FM. ↩