Are you interested in angels, demons, ghosts, spirits, and monsters? Are you curious about their origins, influence, and how to protect against the anomaly? If so, then welcome to Southern Demonology, the podcast that explores all of this and more.
And for today's show, we are going to be talking about the concept of would you say spiritual psychosis, buddy?
Kind of around that religious psychosis is what most people refer to it as.
I know religious psychosis is not like a clinical term. I think the clinical term for it is psychosis. So just want to clarify that's that distinct definition or the difference. So we're kind of using it as a popular term because that's just what it's being referred to to discuss some of the topics. Well, not topics, to discuss some of the items we want to touch on today. With regards to well, we'll stick to spiritual psychosis or religious psychosis.
The reason we want to talk about this, buddy, is because recently, within the past month or so, there was a trend going around all over social media in which a shit ton of people believed the rapture was gonna happen for the umpteenth time.
It uh started with a preacher from South Africa who claimed that he had visions, the rapture happening September 23rd, and a lot of people like normally there's a small little groundswell of individuals who would sit there and claim, yeah, this is the end, this is the end, even though there's clearly um a Bible verse that says no man shall know the the date and time, but anyway, ignoring that, Christianity has a long history of supporting this, even going back.
I think the most famous example is of the church dividians from the 1800s who claimed that the apocalypse was about to happen, and then of course it didn't, and they kept shoving it off, and now it's just a regularly accepted Protestant denomination. But I mean, Christianity is uh not just Christianity, Judaism started off this in Second Temple Judaism with the belief that the apocalypse was nigh, and this then infected Christianity, and we've been under this delusion for 2,000 plus years now. It's nothing new, but uh this one seemed to be gathering even more steam than usual.
There were tons of people that were selling their house, selling their car, selling their possessions. One woman was claiming that her kids were speaking Hebrew all of a sudden, uh just craziness and the fallout that a lot of these individuals suffered once, of course, the 23rd came and went, and nothing happened like it was going to do, because the rapture doesn't exist. It was epic and sad in proportions.
I agree. I struggle to understand how some folks can get to a certain point where they actually think they're just going to be magically teleported. The Bible verse you were referring to was it Matthew 7:15, where they say, Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wool.
No, though I was talking about another one, but that is equally as valid. That's definitely pointing to these individuals that think that they can know the date and time, but like we can discuss more about the rapture because I know that's going to be an interesting topic as well.
Yeah, the concept that whole concept, I I just struggle to understand how someone gets to the point where they will sell all their belongings and then the day comes and it's like, okay, I sold my house, I sold my car, I pulled my kids out of school. What I I always I always wonder what that feeling that that looks like the aftermath. Do you feel like a complete fucking jackass? And you have to kind of scrape some part of your life back. It's uh I I don't understand what the appeal is.
I I don't either, but you get all of these weird things, and it's it's hard to for rational individuals with an ounce of self-analytical ability to conceptualize, but we all fall prey to it in one way or the other, and I like to think of it like this. I mean, I am not a psychologist, we should probably get Mr. Bert in on this conversation at some point, who I've had on my show twice now, and he's just phenomenal, and he is a psychiatrist. But the way I like to think of it is this we are all metaphysical beings with only one viewpoint our own.
And unless you subscribe to the theory that you're going to judge yourself as harshly as you're going to judge others, then you're willing to give yourself the benefit of the doubt, and maybe even you know make excuses for what you have done. But it goes beyond that. It's how we acquire knowledge and information, where it's all layers one upon the other. And the deeper that foundation goes and that belief goes, the more everything else on top of it reinforces it.
Heidegger would refer to this as historicity, as if your design, your being there, the part of your being that can psychoanalyze itself is constantly being thrust forward. And that's how you're evaluating everything and every new piece of information that comes into your life. And if you encounter something which meshes with those deep foundational issues or core concepts that you hold, then your being will latch onto them and it becomes a new biblical truth to you.
And this is why you know people can easily fall into cults or they can participate in political or religious psychosis because it echoes to those foundational concepts in which they have embedded within themselves, and admitting to something higher up on that level is wrong is almost akin to going deep down below and invalidating so much of your experience, your opinions, and your knowledge that it becomes unfathomable to do so.
So I got a question for you, JJ, and maybe this would help the listeners kind of maybe un understand further of like maybe you could go into what the rapture is, where it potentially started from, and maybe we can pull back a little bit and explain that for some folks that may only have the exposure to those morons on social media that you know, like I sold my house, I can't wait till tomorrow. And if tomorrow comes, but I'll I'll stop being a dick and go ahead.
It's a lot of fun to be a dick in this kind of situation. I I I am right there with you on that one.
But no, it's because you know, it's because I genuinely give a shit. Like it's really shitty to see people in bad situations because they get bad advice or they believe in something, and then it's like the complete opposite. And you know, the number one thing for people to do in that type of situation is be like, ha ha, dumbass. I told you so.
Oh, yeah, you get a good laugh in, but right, right.
Of course, delight in other people's misery, or only only the Germans would have a word for that, like Robin Williams say that the Germans have a word for everything.
Oh, it's um the ability for them to name rare psychological events is amazing, and I I envy them for that. Yeah, the rapture. It all started with an idiot named Derby or Darby in the 1800s, and he misread a biblical quote, and I believe it was an Acts, and he came up with this entirely new concept. This that has not existed before the 1800s, and yet so many evangelicals have been brainwashed into believing horrible Christian theology just based upon this man's work. That I am thoroughly convinced that he has a very special place and a very warm spot for all of eternity if that happens.
But anyway, that that this is my own vehemence aside. But yeah, it's this idea that you are going to be lifted up bodily into heaven. If you go back to the Hebrew Bible, there's only one person that, at least according to scripture, did not die, and that was Enoch. And all it says is that and he walked with God. Now, Second Temple Judaism, a lot of pseudopigraphal works interpret that to being that he was lifted up either in spirit or in body, and then served at the right hand of God, in part as judgment or as liaison to the watchers, the fallen angels.
However, nothing else has ever supported this particular kind of idea until Darby came along and came up with this radical concept. You cannot minimize how popular this concept is amongst evangelicals, to the point where there have been numerous products that have been created in order to help free people from certain situations, such as I'm stuck in a house. How am I going to be lifted up into heaven? Oh, there is a there's a company that will install a special trapdoor that will allow you to pass through it if that event ever occurs, and so you're free to bodily ascend into heaven.
It's amazing how folks can take or misinterpret something and it just morphs into this trend.
And I I will once again reaffirm my stance on this. I don't think it's controversial except to evangelicals, but this idea that anybody can pick up a Bible and correctly interpret it is horribly, horribly wrong. It takes knowing the sits and leavens, the situation at hand that occurred at the time of the writings, it takes a knowledge of the languages that are involved. If you're uh simply trying to pick up the King James Version, which is in itself its own special kind of special interpretation of what the original text says, then goodness help you. That's all I gotta say.
No, we're all entitled to our own perspective, so I will not disagree with you.
I've got 30 years of um, actually more than that, if you include my time in various Protestant churches. But I've got quite a few I was trying to be nice, I'm I'm not going to be nice about this. If you want to write me, you want to express your opinion. I am more than happy to have the conversation with you, but it would take a lot to convince me of this. And I come from a place, I don't think I've ever shared this. I come from a place in the south in which there are legends of old timers who couldn't read a word, and suddenly they were able to pick up a Bible and read it without a problem.
A lot of people use these kinds of folk tales to justify not only you know just reading the Bible and knowing what it says exactly, but also allowing six-year-olds to get up and preach the word of God. These things are dangerous, and I don't care who you are, they are simply too dangerous to allow to occur or that belief to keep propagating. You need properly educated religious leaders in order to lead a community down the right path. But I will get off my soapbox because I know I've said that before.
No, that's fair, and that's how you get into situations where you got people bringing in rattlesnakes and passing them around at church. I ever tell you I I I worked with someone that actually went to somewhere like that against their will. Like they were a kid. And they basically said, like, yeah, like my mom like forced us to go to this church, and they were passing rattlesnakes around. They were like, Thankfully, I didn't hold one.
Thank God, because there are numerous deaths every single year, not just from holding the snakes, but also drinking their poison, and it's just absolutely insane. And that kind of stuff originated in you know, East Tennessee and the Appalachians. So that's right in that's right up your alley, dude. Not in my backyard, but right adjacent to it. So, you know, I'm I mean, right, having faith is a wonderful thing.
I'm not trying to minimize that by any stretch of the imagination, but doing things that are antithetical to having a life or preserving your life, I think that falls squarely within the bounds of religious psychosis.
I agree. And on that religious spiritual psychosis, do you recall? I think it was a year ago, it might have been a year ago or a year or two, there was going to be some sort of eclipse, and there was this influencer on Instagram and TikTok that was going nuts, basically saying this is gonna bring about the apocalypse, yada yada yada, all these all these posts, and ended up killing her her spouse and tossing her kids out of like a moving vehicle, and then she ended up dying after crashing her vehicle.
Yep.
And that's something that like I I always just me being who I am, I like to find you'll you'll love this term, the RCA, the root cause. Yeah, yeah. Any tech people listening to this, or you work in tech, you you you'll understand. Trying to find the root cause analysis for something, like what is the catalyst? Like, what started this to get someone to that point where they just vehemently believe all of this shit they're consuming.
Well, I mean, you could point to the same thing for what 2012, when supposedly the Mayan calendar ended.
Oh, right.
Tons of people were sitting there claiming that yes, this was prophesized to be the end of the world, and there's even that horrible Hollywood movie that explored that particular concept. It's funny.
Yeah, I remember that movie. It was so shit. Oh god, oh god.
I remember what I was doing that day. I was just keeping track of time just to see. Like, I was one of those people that was like, You people are fucking nuts, there's nothing going to happen.
But it still makes you worry. I mean, it's still like uh it's like what if they're right, what if they're right clock in the back of your head, and you go, huh? Especially something that old, there has to be some kind of significance, but there wasn't, of course. Anyway, we're straight, but yeah, what makes someone believe that? I have no idea. I mean, that's honestly a frame of mind that I cannot possibly hope to, nor would I want to hope to emulate or adopt. Because right, I mean, especially to the point where you're willing to sacrifice your family, that goes beyond.
I mean, that just speaks to deep psychological harm. I don't know if that's a hatred for self, it's a hatred for life, but there is definitely something going on beyond just pure psychoses.
Agreed. Was there anything additional you wanted to attack on about you know the rapture or anything like that? Because what I wanted to move on to, JJ, is maybe talking about a couple of instances where that shit gets taken very far, like we just mentioned with that influencer, because there's numerous situations where folks get involved in these cults and they end up committing mass suicide, and it's just it's just the same thing.
Yeah, I mean, you've got uh Jim Jones, of course. Yep, uh, you have the branch dividians from Waco, Texas, who stood off in a gunfight with uh federal government over their wacky things.
Was that in the nineties?
Yeah, that was in the nineties.
I was too young to remember that incident, and I think the uh the other one was Heaven's Gate, which we'll get into. Why don't you just talk about what you recall about that that uh incident with uh The branch Dividians.
Yeah, that I think it happened when I was in high school. And luckily, I was involved in extemporaneous speaking, and which requires you to keep abreast of the news, uh, and newspapers and magazines in order to have sources to quote during your speeches, and the speeches could be about anything, who knows what it could be. Um, so we always lugged around tons of magazines and articles in order to memorize the quote as much as you can within a seven-minute speech. But yeah, that that took a lot of people by surprise.
There was a cult leader who had some very weird conceptions about marriage and life and uh the boundaries of the government and how people should be able to live their own lives in their communes, and they hold up in Reiko, Texas, in a compound.
And when there is a lot of allegations that were coming out against this founder of him being married to numerous women and having numerous children, that's when they decided that things were going a little bit too far, and they had a massive showdown with the government in order to keep them out, and it lasted for weeks, and it took a long time uh in order to bring down. I think they finally killed him, um, the leader of it. But yeah, it was it was a national news sensation.
Yeah, I just do I do recall like bits and pieces of it, but the other one that you mentioned, which I just just baffles me, is with the Jim Jones and his people's temple cult that he ends up forming in the 1950s. Oh, yes, and you know what's interesting about uh the rise of Jim Jones, like before he founded the cult, he was fairly open-minded as a kid. He always went to church, he actually didn't because I I think like his dad was like a a huge racist, and Jim Jones was the complete opposite.
He he was like super welcoming, he was open and everything, and then he gets to a point in his developmental years where he starts to gather these followers, he forms his own like people's temple, he's welcoming of everybody, and he starts to present himself as a messianic figure where he combines Christi Christianity and socialist ideals. What's really interesting is that he had like not I don't want to say a direct hand, but he had like people like within government kind of vouch for him in California, like Harvey Milk and and others, which I had no idea that that was the case.
I thought this dude was like just nuts, he gathered a bunch of people because of his charisma, took him down to Guyana, and they just all you know took themselves out because they were nuts.
But there was so much more at play with this guy, which oh yeah, and his followers were absolute well, uh except for the very end, but his followers were fanatical because they believed in this brand new, you know, heaven on earth kind of promise that he uh advocated for. They moved to an entirely different country, uh, was trying to set up a life. There wasn't so many racial divisions that were there. Everyone was welcomed, and on the surface, it seemed like a great thing until everything shit hit the fan. Have you ever seen the documentary about Jonestown?
I think I did, I think it was on Netflix, right?
I believe so. Yeah, yeah.
I watched it when it first came out.
I I did too, and some of the images and the stories that they told, they will haunt your dreams. I mean, to how the Kool-Aid was being uh if you're not familiar, at the very end when everything was falling around uh the commune, Jones ordered a certain set of followers that to prepare the special drink which would take them all out, and it was the Kool-Aid. And of course, if everyone's familiar with the phrase, you know, drinking the Kool-Aid, so the reference to that.
But and uh most people uh sat there and drank it, uh or was forced to drink it if they chickened out, uh, to the point where children were being fed to this by their parents before they in turn took it themselves.
Yeah, I read that um even babies they would take like syringes with cyanide and the Kool-Aid and they would like squirt it in their mouth. Yep. And it was just absolutely disgusting. You know what's crazy is that they relocate to Guyana, and Guyana in the 70s, it's not one of those like developed, greatly developed country. Because my like like I said, I'm half Indian, but like my father's grandparents moved from India to Guyana. Oh, really? So they would have been, yeah, my dad would have been in Guyana when this happened.
Holy shit.
Yeah, because I think they like came to the states like probably in like the early 80s, but this happened in I think what year did this happen? I think it was in 78 or 79 or something like that. Because I know a congressman went down there to figure out what the hell was going on, because they heard rumors, you know, that you know they were abusing people, there was sexual abuse, there's was probably pedophilia going on, physical abuse, emotional abuse, which is a common theme with these cults. They all start out in a place like, oh, let's go build this community.
Then the cult leader gets this big ass head of air and starts doing the most heinous shit possible.
That's exactly what happened with the people's temple, and then you have almost like YouTube creators that suddenly get a million followers and they start messaging underage girls, and then it comes to light, and they have to apologize. It's just crazy.
Yeah, really quick side note there was this one YouTuber that I used to watch, like in the early days of YouTube. He was a heavier set guy. I don't want to say the name of his handle because I don't want to give him any publicity, but you know, he was he was humble, like his content was fucking hilarious. Then he like became popular and just started doing all this heinous shit.
And there's like someone did like an investigative documentary on him, and he like blew all his money on high-class escorts, and it's just it's fucking insane what people do when they get a little sliver of power, and it's it's freaking fascinating.
Power corrupts, and uh yeah, it's constantly proved over and over and over again.
Yeah, even dude, even you and I are not immune for in that shit from that shit, you know.
I I am the ultimate gopher boy, I have no power whatsoever.
Yeah. But you see how we behave in video games, we're playing like a multiplayer game.
Oh, yeah, that's true.
Yeah, you you turn the ultimate dick.
Me, I am I am always so nice and humble in the you like to play games that are akin to.
Abuse. This motherfucker has me and our other friend playing Elden Ring Night Rain, which is the co-op version of Elden Ring. I have never been so psychologically abused by a game in my life.
That's half the fun for me. Just it isn't you from software version.
You're you are exactly what we're describing here today. You are in a cult of abusive video games. See, that's the cult talking. That's the cult talking.
Oh, yeah, it's it's amazing how many different areas of your life in which your catch yourself just doesn't matter what facts are presented to you, you just cannot get over your belief system in a particular thing. And it takes a lot of self-analyzation in order to snap you out of it. I think that's why you know Maslow's pyramid of needs, you know, the the most basic is you know food, air, and then it begins to to climb up shelter, warmth, etc., until you reach the very pinnacle, which is self-actualization or the ability to look at yourself honestly and evaluate your world through that lens.
And Maslow said that maybe one half of one percent ever reach that stage. And when I was growing up, I'm like, it can't be true. There has to be more, but the more I look around, especially the more I go around on social media, it's hard to uh to argue that particular statistic, and especially when you're dealing with the exact subject matter that we are now.
There are some people that just they believe what they believe, the world is black and white, and there should never be a touch of gray, and then you have those that I think are like us, in which the entire world is just a shade of gray, gray, yeah.
Except when it comes to sports, because I was born and raised a Yankees fan. I'm born and raised in the Bronx. I don't care how good how good Boston is, they'll always fucking suck. I don't care if they sweep us the entire season and they win the World Series, they fucking suck, and that's the form of it.
I was a Boston, I was a Boston fan back in the Roger Clemens days of pitching, so they can do no wrong.
Kiss my ass. Roger Clemens had a better career with the Yankees, but anyway.
Then again, I don't I don't care about sports one way or the other. At least at least I don't like soccer, I'll put it that way.
Kiss my ass. People literally riot over football.
I know, and I feel so sad for that.
Yeah, yeah, that's that's another thing to you could have a deep dive on on how uh uh football supporters like go fucking nuts. But I think we've diverted long enough. But back to uh Jim Jones, what's crazy about him is this dude had so much fucking power and a head full of air that when Leo Ryan went down there to kind of do investigations and talk to people and stuff, on his way out, Jones had him ambushed and fucking killed. A US representative had his like armed guards kill him and his entourage.
And shortly after that, we we all cut already kind of discussed the murder suicide situation with the whole Kool-Aid, and that led to over 900 people dying that day. And Jones ends up killing himself after that. But I I think this situation is kind of like a collect all of like what we've been talking about so far, and then you go into operating like kind of around like it's amazing how these cults like kind of all operated around the same time period. In the 70s, you have the Heaven's Gate, which was started in the 70s, the Heaven's Gate when they got founded.
Oh no, not when they got founded, but when shit hit the fan.
That would oh no, no, no, shit hit the fan in the 90s for them. But I'm saying, like, with Heaven's Gate in general, they started out in the 70s as well with uh Marshall. What was his face? Apple something, Apple White. I think it was Apple, some I don't remember.
Yes, I I see his face in my head, but that's about it.
Yeah, those like creepy eyes.
Anytime you watch that video, oh my god, it's like a demented keyboard elf.
Yeah, that is a good point. Yeah, so their whole concept is that him and uh Bonnie Nettles, which I I assume is his wife, they combined UFO lore and Christian apocalyptic idea. Apparently, the cult used to watch reruns of Star Trek, which makes me feel uncomfortable because I've I I like Star Trek.
I I don't just like Star Trek, I love Star Trek.
Which one DS9, Voyager, Next Generation, or the original?
Um, I like most of them. I the original, of course, I grew up watching it, but I really love TNG, really love DS9, they're just phenomenal.
Voyager, I would say, is an acquired taste.
I like Voyager as well.
I did not like Enterprise One, no, it was anything after Voyager was just complete ass.
Yeah, um, Discovery's not bad. Strange New World is pretty good. Below Dex actually was really, really funny. I enjoyed that a good bit.
I don't think I ever watched that one, but the others I did, and I wasn't too fond of you. You remind me from Voyager, you're gonna hate me.
If you say Neelix, I'm gonna come because of the screen and beat you.
Yeah, Neelix.
You're on my shit list now officially. I want you to know that we gotta play helldivers just so I can shoot you in the head a few times.
Oh, that's when I'm gonna start calling you. I'm gonna change your your contact on my phone to Neelix.
It's better than one girl. We were at a uh I was meeting a couple of friends of a friend, and she came in and she what's the fat guy from the office that's bald.
Oh my god, oh I know who you're talking about. I Kevin, I think it's Kevin.
Yeah, she was like, Oh my god, it's the spitting image of Kevin.
Oh, that's fucked up.
I wanted a I I I do not advocating for violence, especially against women. That's a the biggest no-no that you could ever commit. I was sorely tempted, and she just continued for the rest of the evening to the point where I just left early. I'm like, no, fuck this shit. I ain't being called that in front of my face.
Oh, that sucks, dude.
I'm sorry, it wasn't Purdy, I'll put it that way.
All right, so that's enough about the Star Trek talk and all that other fun stuff. We kind of went down a few different rabbit holes today, but can't help but we want to do. Yep. But back to Heaven's Gates. So some of their core beliefs is that they believed that the earth was going to be recycled and that only those who transcended their human form would survive. And they believe that the only way they could be uh meet salvation was shedding their earthly bodies and joining extraterrestrial beings on a spaceship.
And what's interesting about these folks is that they practice extreme discipline, they practice celibacy, communal living, uniform dress, and giving a personal identity to the point where they abandoned their previous names and they gave themselves new names. And what's interesting about this dude is that these people are not stupid that joined that cult. No, these were highly skilled individuals. You know how they got their money? No, they were developers just like yourself, they were making websites and developing code during the dot. Yep, that's how they were making their money.
Well, I do know that there was a really well done documentary on them that was put out by NPR a couple of years ago that would I didn't get to catch all of it, but it the part that I did it was really, really interesting.
Yeah, interesting set of people, and I think one of their former members are still around. I think they had a few people that were designated as staying behind to get more people to join. And the one gentleman that left a cult was because he couldn't control, like he said that he couldn't control his like human urges.
Yeah, the main thing that they are remembered for now is wearing the same white tennis shoes and blue jumpsuits, and of course, at the time there was a major comet that was passing by Earth. That was all the talk in the media, and they believed that was a spaceship that had come to save them, and they committed mass suicide in order to transcend into the comet and become one with their alien overlords.
Yep, the hail bop comet. Yep, so that was back in the March of 1997. So the the hail bop comet was on its way to pass by, and this group saw it as a sign that that alien spacecraft they were talking about finally arrived, and it was gonna take them, you know, they were gonna transcend this, they were gonna shed their earthly physical form and transcend into the next level, the next set line of existence.
You know what's amazing is you know, we as humans have always been fascinated by heavenly bodies, and it's depicted in paintings and everything else, but that's still true even to this day, even with the wealth of scientific information and scientific equipment that we have. We are so many idiotic stories persist about Amuamua being an alien spacecraft, or the newest one, which is three eye atlas, which is yes, you know, our third confirmed interstellar visitor. People are claiming that it's aliens, oh my god.
Yeah, I watched one idiotic video of a moron who had doctored up photos and claimed that yeah, we this is images captured from some telescope, which no telescope could ever get that clear of a resolution ever. If you just use your brain for three seconds, you would know that, but it had gotten so many thousands of likes and comments, and it just makes me sad for humanity. I swear to god.
Yeah, and I just don't understand why. Well, I do understand because in the world of social media, you have to hype shit up, you gotta get your views, you gotta get your clicks, because that's how you get paid. So I can understand that's why people do that shit. But with this type of situation, unfortunately, they They all committed suicide, 39 members, including the leader Applewhite. So they committed mass suicide in Rancho Santa Fe, California. For that, like you said, they wore the matching outfits, the Nike shoes, and they left basically a video explaining why they did what they did.
And what's really interesting about these folks is that how calm and planned it was. Oh, yeah. There was no like you're forced to do this. Like people literally left the cult. They were like, I can't do it. I'm like, okay, bye. You're gonna be here now. You're gonna be stuck. Yeah. So they did what they did back in 97. And what's interesting is that they still have loyalists around, and their website is still up today, still maintained, which is just it's just baffling to me.
Well, I mean, you get all kinds of strange beliefs out there. I mean, hell, we've got Scientology, which isn't that far off from the ideas of Heaven's Gate. And it's just it's just sad.
You said it, not me. Come for him.
The scary part is that Scientologists have an entire arm of men in black that will sit there and trace you down and try to hunt down your family, and it's just some scary ass shit.
If you ever watch any of the documentaries on it, I think there was one on Netflix about by uh what's her face. She was in the show The King of Queens, Leah Leah Remini.
Oh, the main actress in it? Yes, yes, yeah.
Yeah, she did a whole uh documentary about her time uh within Scientology, and then South Park did an episode about it, which is brilliant. South Park just goes after everybody. I'm surprised they haven't done a rapture episode yet.
I'm surprised too, but their Mormon episode is just Chef's Kiss. I mean and the Broadway play which was spun off from it was Chef's Kiss as well.
I've never watched the play, I want to.
I've only I haven't seen all of it. I've seen like bits and pieces of it, and yeah, I've been wanting to watch all of it and just haven't had a chance to.
But yeah, man, those uh the reason I wanted to bring up and talk about those two well, we talked about three specific cults, is kind of these three highlight the danger of this type of psychosis that people can get lost in and do irrational things, like believing that you're going to disappear on the 23rd of September and essentially get carried up to heaven. So you sell everything and you get rid of all your personal possessions only to find out the next day that that never fucking happened. And I know for some this will be a controversial episode, but I don't think it is.
I honestly don't I you know I think that some of the underpinnings that we started it off with may be more controversial than the topic itself, but it needs to be discussed because we're getting to the point where whether it's religious or not, psychosis is becoming more and more prevalent in our daily lives, whether it's religious psychosis, uh and I think it's true even for political psychosis, and that is springing up more and more now, where now individuals can live solely within echo chambers online and have their these beliefs, erroneous as they are, constantly reinforced and validated, and that can drive people into deeper and deeper radicalization, uh, to the point where you know our mass shootings are up so horribly much, it's a very scary prospect, and especially given how people have at least the illusion of anonymity, and they feel like, oh, I can't be held for my to account for my actions, and they think that they can get away with anything, or that the little bit of power that they have affords them a shield against any repercussions, and it's just gonna keep getting this well, is gonna keep getting deeper and deeper, and you know, this is nothing new.
We've had this with heretical beliefs ever since the idea of religion has ever been floated around just within the Christian circles. You've got radical ideas such as Gnosticism, uh Mandanism, uh, etc., that just kept screaming forth until they were put down or deemed too inappropriate. But now that we have thousands upon thousands of echo chambers, and we even have news media that creates entirely separate realities from what one may judge as a more objective truth that people are going to continue to spy all down, and that's a it's a very scary prospect.
Yeah, that makes sense. And the one example I could think of that I immediately think of, it's there's that meme out there. Well, it's kind of like a used as a meme where they're like, if you say I like pancakes, someone will comment back saying, so what you're saying is is that you hate waffles type of type of shit. Yep, yeah. So yeah, but from the religious perspective, what I wanted to your favorite term circle back to something you said earlier, and I promise this is this will be the last thing we cover because we've been here for a little bit.
I want to be respectful of your time, but actually, since you're my friend, I'm not going to be, so I'm just gonna take as much time as I want.
You respectful?
You mentioned when we were talking about people reading scripture and interpreting scripture, and that you need someone that's educated on scripture to essentially uh spread that among the community. I don't I think differently, I'm more of the type of person that whether rightly or wrongly, I personally think I don't need to go somewhere for someone to tell me how to interpret and how to do certain things. I don't know if it's because I'm a stubborn asshole or because I look at people as people, and it's like, I like why should you you you get what I mean?
I do, but I will say that you as a Catholic have been handed down a rational set of interpretations because the priests that you have heard homilies from were very well educated in the topic. I grew up in all manner of Protestant churches, and I have heard everything from open racism to heretical views to God only knows what else being openly spouted, and people believed in this shit. I have seen more I there are more uneducated preachers in the south than you could ever hope to shake a stick at. And some of the beliefs in which they are instilling into their flock is scary.
That is the point that I am making. Not that you need to have something dictated to you on high, but you need to have an educated perspective, whether that's given from a priest, whether it's done through valid academic sources, that can at least point to the correct historical setting that you the meaning can become, uh, if not perfectly clear, a lot less vague, or it can be divorced from what we think of now uh and put more into a historical context. That's what I'm saying. Not that you have to have a priest dictate to you, oh, you have to believe it this way.
The point is to steer away from heretical views that the uneducated can unknowingly spout and mislead people that they should be doing a much greater service to.
No, I think you make some good points there, uh, about you know someone understanding and being educated on the matter, I guess interpreting it correctly and not leading people astray. So completely valid points.
That's my main point because I was also raised by a grandma who on her near her deathbed when brother Buddy came out to evangelize about her. Uh what to her, she said, I can find God faster than the tobacco field than I could ever find him in your church.
So grandma did not play.
No, she did not. Pokemee Green did not play with any of that shit.
But yeah, man, I think like my perspective comes from I guess being exposed to other places aside from the Catholic Church, where it's like, why are you telling me this stuff and you're asking for money, but you live in the richest part of town in a million-dollar home, and you drive a fucking like Rolls-Royce. Like, where is the fucking disconnect?
Yeah, and I I think that's the point. It's the it's something that Emmanuel Kant said, Sapway adue, have the courage to use your own intelligence, don't just blindly believe it doesn't matter who's telling you something, you have to be able to evaluate it and have a solid frame of reference for doing so. I mean, hell, we live in a time when there are rabid believers in a flat earth. What the shit? That's another kind of psychosis, but it could just be pure idioticy. I don't know, but it's just it's patently ridiculous.
The amount of just bullshit that can spring up online from unverified and uneducated idiots trying to make a buck is staggering, and you have to be able to evaluate that in a sane and calm fashion.
Use your bloody heads, like that one video that I sent you of someone saying, like, well, if the moon reflects light off the sun, why isn't it daytime at night?
Oh my god, yeah, I hate people. That's my final statement. I hate people.
Yeah, this world is uh an interesting place. I'll I'll put it that way. Accurate. Yeah, so buddy, thanks for coming on today's episode. There were some points where it was, you know, emotionally charged on your part, but rightly so, because you have had direct exposure to certain things we discussed today.
But yes, remember at the end of the day, I am always right. Yeah, I guess I think that's the takeaway that we can that we can have, right?
Oh don't you have some damn debugging to do? Get out of here.
I finished my debugging, I have a green pipeline.
Yeah, until tomorrow you gotta call it your fucking code stops working.
Oh no, my my code is rock solid. I've never had a bug ever in my life. I am just that other project says otherwise. Joe mama, no, but all right, man.
Uh thank you for coming on the show, JJ. I know it's been a while since you've been on, and we've done a joint release, so I appreciate it.
Honestly, it's been I haven't had an episode in Southern Demonology in a few months just because I have been just this side of being completely burned out, and I needed a break. And this is kind of my first four-way being back in the saddle, and it has been fantastic. So I greatly appreciate it.
Yeah, get more episodes into the pipeline. That's the only pipeline you need to worry about right now. Your Southern Demonology pipeline. Get some shit recorded, all right.
Paycheck would say otherwise, but I agree with it.
Well, if you could turn Southern Demonology into your paycheck, uh you know, that'd be I I would trust me, I would love that, but I won't hold my breath. But all right, bud, where can the listeners find you if they want to yell at you about anything you said today?
Uh, that would be southerndemonology.com, which has all of our links and a contact form, and it goes straight to me. So if you do have if you want to bring up thoughtful rebuttals in a kind way, then contact me. Uh more than happy to hear whatever you gotta say. Uh, I don't have um too big of bridges to think that I can ignore any message that comes to me. So uh always more than happy to hear from anyone that bothers to listen to the sound of my voice because that uh that's some dedication right there.
Oh, by the way, listeners, if if you do reach out to JJ, he loves Taylor Swift. So send him Taylor Swift YouTube links.
I am the biggest Swifty in the world. Oh my god. I and oh, and listeners, if you're the biggest secret that Chris ever has is that he has the worst taste in music, he doesn't like Taylor Swift, uh, to my knowledge, but he oh my god, the amount of boy bands and white women music that he listens to is unguff eighties music, asshole.
No, don't hate.
Oh don't hate 80s music. I don't like the kind of stuff that you like.
Don't hate on Madonna, okay? Madonna shit back then was legit.
I grew up in the age of music videos, and no, it was never this shit. Yes, it is it was okay, but it wasn't great.
No, you get a couple of drinks in you and it's like the best thing you ever fucking heard. So accurate.
But all right, folks, if you want to reach out to me and be a guest on the show or share some paranormal stories or some other topics you would like us to cover, maybe about some other cults or some true crime, just shoot us an email at twroadpodcast at gmail.com. If JJ ever finishes the website for us, we'll have all of our links and socials on there. So get on that, buddy. But I hope you enjoyed today's episode. I appreciate it. All right, listeners. I hope you enjoyed today's episode.
I know it was probably a little bit controversial for some, but you know, we always have good fun with this stuff. Thank you.
And I think it's extremely important to explore regardless of how controversial it may be. Thank you for listening to Southern Demonology. Find us online at Southern Demonology.com, which offers links to all of our social media and episodes. Southern Demonology is solely owned, produced, and edited by myself. And the intro and outro music are composed by me as well. If you have a moment, please rate, like, and share this podcast, as it is the best way to help support my work. As always, I am JJ, and it has been a pleasure to speak to you today.