Podcasts and documentaries about contemporary spiritual frauds
September 3, 2020 8:44 PM Subscribe
I'm on a kick with podcasts about modern-day spiritual frauds like James Arthur Ray, Teal Swan, and a fake priest who calls himself Father Ryan. I'd love to listen to more or watch similar. I don't want Christian televangelists, any Scientology, or any multilevel marketing figures. Finally, I prefer contemporary ones, so please leave Madame Blavatsky et al in the past.
You might like the Behind the Bastards episodes about Jim Humble and the Genesis2 church, whose major claim to fame is promoting bleach as a cure-all for any disease. Here’s part one of the original two-part series. There’s also a follow-up episode from this past spring about Genesis2’s response to Trump’s bleach comments. These aren’t my favorite BtB episodes personally, but they’re the ones that best fit what you’re after.
Q-anon Anonymous recently had this episode featuring an interview with a scholar who infiltrated a newly forming church that’s heavily influenced by Q-anon.
Seconding Escaping NXIVM.
posted by ActionPopulated at 9:40 PM on September 3, 2020
Q-anon Anonymous recently had this episode featuring an interview with a scholar who infiltrated a newly forming church that’s heavily influenced by Q-anon.
Seconding Escaping NXIVM.
posted by ActionPopulated at 9:40 PM on September 3, 2020
I think Elizabeth Clare Prophet was the most interesting spiritual cult leader of the 80s and 90s, but she was pretty clearly not a fraud, although she was deluded.
Here is a ~50 min. podcast about her and her Church Universal and Triumphant, which judging from the first ten minutes, is somehow sensationalized yet stilted and wooden at the same time, as well as fundamentally contemptuous, but you might get something out of it if you're interested. What I found most fascinating from previous encounters with stories about her were her 'sermons', which were delivered in a chanting, machine like voice that kind of made my hair stand on end.
I don't doubt that she was truly inspired, though I believe her seizure disorder rather than a direct channel to the Saints of all religions was the ultimate source. I don't mean to mock her or hold her up to ridicule; I have a feeling there really was a there there somewhere, but I'm not sure it would be worth digging through the huge mass of material she left behind in order to find it.
posted by jamjam at 11:30 PM on September 3, 2020
Here is a ~50 min. podcast about her and her Church Universal and Triumphant, which judging from the first ten minutes, is somehow sensationalized yet stilted and wooden at the same time, as well as fundamentally contemptuous, but you might get something out of it if you're interested. What I found most fascinating from previous encounters with stories about her were her 'sermons', which were delivered in a chanting, machine like voice that kind of made my hair stand on end.
I don't doubt that she was truly inspired, though I believe her seizure disorder rather than a direct channel to the Saints of all religions was the ultimate source. I don't mean to mock her or hold her up to ridicule; I have a feeling there really was a there there somewhere, but I'm not sure it would be worth digging through the huge mass of material she left behind in order to find it.
posted by jamjam at 11:30 PM on September 3, 2020
The BBC podcast series End of Days tells the story of the Branch Davidians / Waco, Texas siege from the perspective of interviews with relatives of British people of Caribbean descent who evidently got caught up in it in relatively high numbers, considering that it was a U. S. religious sect.
posted by XMLicious at 12:24 AM on September 4, 2020
posted by XMLicious at 12:24 AM on September 4, 2020
The Source Family
i believe it's streaming on Netflix, Hulu, or Kanopy
posted by kokaku at 12:25 AM on September 4, 2020
i believe it's streaming on Netflix, Hulu, or Kanopy
posted by kokaku at 12:25 AM on September 4, 2020
The Vow on HBO.
posted by loveandhappiness at 3:30 AM on September 4, 2020
posted by loveandhappiness at 3:30 AM on September 4, 2020
Seconding Oh No Ross and Carrie. Zealot often fits your requirements. If the late 1990s counts as contemporary, Heavens Gate is interesting.
posted by eotvos at 9:13 AM on September 4, 2020
posted by eotvos at 9:13 AM on September 4, 2020
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You will find several episodes of interest in the archives of Oh No Ross & Carrie, including a recent series on Swan, an excellent interview with Shakuntali Siberia,
and an extensive series on Scientology.
You may be interested in the CBC podcast Escaping NXIVM.
posted by chrchr at 9:01 PM on September 3, 2020 [4 favorites]