Sian

Life is better than death, I believe, if only because it is less boring, and because it has fresh peaches in it. - Alice Walker

Quote of the Day/Week/Millenium:

I would rather have a nod from an American, than a snuff-box from an emperor. ~Lord Byron

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.

About me

User: SianNorah
Name: Sian
I paint, write, and dance. Also cook vegetarian food.

  • Contact me
  • My profile
  • Linkme

  • RSS 2.0
  • ATOM 0.3
  • Powered by Mo'time

Counter

visited *loading* times

« No, not exagerating.  |  Home  |  My day »
Friday, 14 October 2005
Tangent

I have a minor in religion.  Really.  I do.  The usual response to that statement is either, "Oh, what church do you belong to?" or "You want to be a minister/nun/highpriestessofallthats(un)holy?"  And, I did take my fair share of Judeo-Christian history courses.  But the majority of my research focused on cults.  And I don't mean the warm, fuzzy kind of cult where you declare the PepsiGuy to be the Great Harbinger of All Good and Evil and then spend a lot of time giggling with your friends.  I mean the kind of cult that people disappear in.  The kind of cult with major legal defense resources. 

More than that, I had (or have, depending on your point of view) my own special subset of cults.  I watched quasi-fraternal, and thelemic cults.  Chances are that if you're not in one, you haven't heard of Thelema, but it's a central point of a lot of the scarier groups, and some of the not quite as scary groups.

I'm a cult watcher.  Recreational.  What can I say?  It beats the crap out of Days of Our Lives.

I have reached a point where I can predict the behaviors of "my" cults.

The point where I can recognize the signs when one of "my" cults has been being naughty.

It's an utterly worthless skill.  And, quite possibly, one of the most depressing hobbies in the history of hobbying.  There really is a lot to be said for going out horse riding, or crochet. 


posted by: SianNorah at 15:37 | link | comments (1)


Comments:
#1  14 October 2005 - 19:40
 
Heh ... we have something in common. I also have a minor in religious studies (to go along with 2 useless majors). I never studied cults, though. We had a professor at UVa who was a real expert on cults, though. Had some kind of role in the whole Jim Jones thing, IIRC. I'll see if I can dig up his name. Oh ... and I worked on a crisis hotline in Charlottesville, VA ... every once in a while, we'd hear about cult activity.
Contact me View user's mediablog Jheka
Comments:

Archives

today
October 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005