/lit/ - Literature

>>18499722
Pure hylic cope.

>>18499722

>>18499722
If 4th is true, so is 2nd.

>>18499738
>Expecting intelligence from Atheists.

>>18499738
Yeah, but they are 2nd because they don't use that information to their advantage.

>>18499730
Religitards even live in denial when they see it black on white.

>>18499722
>5th panel gigaverse-chad
>God invented religion to control people

>>18499763
>Religitards

>>18499722
The third one is literally me

>>18499722
I'm unironically planning on starting a cult. Here's the list of books I've been reading:
http://cultresearch.org/recommended-reading/

>>18499977
more atheist cope, you're in the middle with the fedora

>>18499954
Tell us about your religion

>>18499993
> theists telling me I'm the one coping

xd

>>18500016
Difficult to explain because it leans heavily on my childhood experiences, but in a nutshell I believe everything is an infinite dream state

Where's the "knowingly taking up a new-age religion because it works as a cope" option? Jung was right

>>18500615
What kind of new age religion? I have never felt the need to take up a normal religion, but not a new age one either, since new age is just a syncretism of more ancient traditions.
If anything it might be true that religions act as literal soul traps, new age included
>Jung was right
About what?

>>18499991
>http://cultresearch.org/recommended-reading/
You know you need to be charismatic for that?

>>18500625
Neo-Hermeticism a-la the Kybalion, I don't really do the super-elaborate rituals of the Golden Dawn though.
>>18500625
>About what?
That religion has always acted as a tool to help people contextualise their place in the world and give meaning to their lives, including meaning to their suffering. Without it, in addition to all the other problems of life you have the problem of nihilism. The advantages of religion over the secular belief systems is that religious belief draws on the archetypal symbols that exist in the unconscious, which can give them far more emotional power than worldviews based on conscious rationalism.

>>18500678
>Neo-Hermeticism
Why not regular hermeticism?
Also, I don't know if taking religion as a glorified self-help tool is really that useful. At this point why not just go for barebones spiritual alchemy?

>>18499722
Reminder that when you invent an idea, your soul incurs the benefits and harms of that idea from your time until the end of time. You will share the burdens of all the evils committed in the name of your invented religion. Dare you take that risk?

>>18500642
From the research I've done charisma isn't as necessary as you'd think. Charisma can help during the recruitment stage of getting somebody to become a cult member, but there are other ways too. Instead of using charisma to hook them in you can trick them with magic tricks, or miracle products, or any number of things to think your group is in someway special.
Once that's done the real meat and bones of brainwashing is done using social pressure and by slowly introducing ways of thinking that are advantageous to you.
If you needed charisma to run a cult then Scientology would've died with Hubbard. The average Sea Org member who does recruiting has the charisma of a wet paper bag.

>>18500688
>Why not regular hermeticism?
Because the Corpus Hermeticum feels too dated, and is still connected to many of the Egyptian myths and their pantheon.
>At this point why not just go for barebones spiritual alchemy?
I might in the end, I'm still reading things.

>>18499730
This.

>>18500709
Which demographic are you planning on targeting?

>>18499735
heh

>>18500720
>the Corpus Hermeticum
Well there are other books on spiritual alchemy. Even Jung wrote one, didn't he?
>I might in the end
I agree with your general sentiment but I really don't trust new age and I think it goes farther than a mere contextualization tool. New age religions are clearly subversive; it's probably a better option to take what you need from traditions and leave it at that, instead of looking for truth in 20th century occult circles.

>>18500744
>New age religions are clearly subversive;
Oh yeah, a lot (probably most) of the stuff out there isn't worth bothering with. I have no problem with traditional stuff, when I set about trying to find spiritual beliefs my simple decision process was:
1. Don't pick any organised religion with a hierarchy that you'd have to recognise as part of the faith. I don't want to have to excuse the evils other people commit in the name of "my" religion or play the No True Scotsman mental gymnastics.
2. Nothing that's pay to play. Buying candles from a small store is one thing, signing up for "group workshops" or "retreats" is another.
3. No folk religions. Yeah, the nordic pagans are cool, I'm not nordic and I won't be no matter how much I might try praying to the allfather.
4. Tarot cards are pretty interesting brainstorming tools. No to belief systems that denounce "magic" or ritual if it's harmless.

That's basically it.

>>18500786
Are you attempting actual practices like astral projection and whatnot? Do you think such things are safe if you're going out on your own, so to speak?

>>18500727
Young adult, notably college kids and recent grads. Focusing on the ones already involved in new age stuff, paganism, Wicca, satanism, that sort of stuff.
I hope to start by infiltrating that general sphere with a front group, then slowly turning the nob up on the craziness until I'm powerful enough to have a harem of qt witch girls and a personal army of men who think they're werewolves.

>>18500786
What about Protestantism?

>>18500804
I'm trying to learn lucid dreaming (have a book on it from Dr. Stephen LaBerge of Stanford, so taking a more methodical approach to it, but I'm still shit).
I've done some small rituals more as a way to express gratitude towards the powers that be. I'm not really interested in pursuing any power or punishing anyone or the like, so ritual for me is more of a way to ritualise gratitude.
Never experimented with psychedelics, probably won't unless they get legalised and I can trust the dose and the trip sitter.

>>18500812
Depends on the denomination I guess. I've read parts of the bible, I think it's a good book and I think Christ is a very important figure to study. Haven't set foot in over a decade, don't plan to.

>>18500848
*set foot in a church

>>18500805
>and a personal army of men who think they're werewolves.
Start with the furry community then. Massive amount of lonely nerds who legit believe that already

>>18499722
Look into cults like Heaven’s gate and Jonestown.

>>18499871
>guy in photo is literally an atheist activist. kek

>>18500881
Honestly not a bad idea. There's a reason so much weird shit goes down on Discord, and that's because the people who inhabit it (furries, nerds, porn addicts) are isolated from normal society. If I add my own brand of crazy, but design it with a scientific mindset and in such a way that benefits me I could probably grab a decent chunk of the community

>>18500931
Ultimately it really depends on who you want to hang around with. If you want a successful "tight-knit spiritual community" you're going to be spending a lot of time with these people, at least make sure you find them tolerable if you don't want to get sick of the idea long before you start seeing the payoff.

>>18500931
What you are misunderstanding about human psychology is that people with little to no self-awareness frequently have perfectly fine awareness of other people. The gay retards of the furry community are going to identify you as a fake & gay poser with little difficulty.

>>18500848
>I'm still shit
How long have you been at it

>>18500938
Well that's what's front groups are for. Here's how I would go about doing it:
>I start a discord to attract furries, tell them they're actually wolves on the inside
>Exercise my authority, act like a spiritual guru
>Start looking at those who show qualities I like (vulnerable, committed, tolerable personality)
>Get them to join the real cult
>???
>Profit

>>18500955
Maybe. But that's the great thing about the internet, I can be multiple people. If one operation fails, I learn from my mistakes and start another.

>>18500966
Couple of months. I have a dream journal and my dream recall has gotten a lot better at least, so it's not a waste of time.

>>18499722
Contemporary saints from Mt. Athos or old-school theologians like Simeon the New Theologian.

>>18499722
you dont have any power you are not napoleon get a grip

>>18499722
Books on the third panel?

>>18499735
Subtle

>>18499722
Book of the Long Sun