About the ad read, or the documentary? Anxiety and frustration was something that I felt, as well, but I know the source of it is not Emma's delivery, but rather the occult nonsense itself. As for the cereal ad, it's mouth-watering stuff and I gotta have it - put it in me already. @@milksonic7490
I'm Australian. My former babysitter joined this cult. I looked into it years ago as a result. Dude is a manipulative sociopath who got a bit too obsessed with Dan Brown.
@lisasommerlad1337 He's also lazy. I have a Neuro Divergent special interest in ancient Hebrew and early Christian texts, and his claims were miles off what life in 1st century Isreal was actually like. I found it incredibly laughable at times. Dude should have at least done his homework. My former babysitter tried to get me to join, but it has "cult" written all over it. He's such a fucking arsehole to his followers.
I feel that might leave some issues to unpack later in therapy... hope you are doing okay. Maybe one day your old baby sitter will defect and leave the cult.
My dad told me 30 years ago that 'whatever happens to you in life, you asked the universe for it to happen'. I was around 5 and my first thought was about babies who don't understand language yet asking for cancer, so it always blows my mind when people go for this.
There is a GIANT logic gap I love to point out to people who believe that theory... who picks being a baby that is sold into sex trafficking and being abused in every other way as well? Who would pick a life plan that has the capability to do that to a baby? That person is a mixture of the worse parts of nature and nurture.
That’s part of why karma belief is a pink flag for me. Not everyone who believes in karma is vindictive & believe that it’s wrong to advocate for the poor because “they must have bad karma”, but enough of them do that I feel a bit wary of all of them.
@voilet-the-non-violet-vulpix Karma at its most fundamental is "if you treat people badly, then there is a _higher_ chance for them to retaliate and do something to you in return, and if you treat people nicely than they are _more likely_ to be nice back," and it annoys me when people try to stretch it to these spiritual extremes. No, there is no all-knowing deity or omniscient universal being keeping track of what humans do. Humans themselves are capable of doing that already. And there is no record system tallying all the (usually Christian centric) good and bad things every human has ever done floating somewhere in the void. Karma is literally just cause and effect applied to socialization. But because people so desperately want a divine god to hold their hand through life so they have absolutely no responsibility, they are quick to muddy the waters to try to manipulate and beat down others. Karma should not be a "belief" system, and being kind to others should not be done with the expectation of a nice, juicy God-supplied dog treat at the end of the day. Treating people badly, on the other hand, _does_ usually result in a broken nose somewhere down the line, but, again, that's simple cause and effect and repeatedly playing a game of chance.
I'm a statistical Australian. Getting mental health care is possible but you have to fight for it. So basically most people who have actual mental health problems don't get necessary care.
@@emanym at least in my experience, 10 isnt enough. i usually run out of sessions like halfway through the year. plus theyre often not free, just partially covered.
There’s actually a precedent of journalists going to investigate cults and ending up members, even times when the journalist went specifically to debunk/defame said cult. (Something to keep in mind for the people who think it could never happen to them because they’re just oh so smart)
@@Cheepchipsable I genuinely can’t tell if you’re trying to insult me or just give me more information…. So I guess if you were trying to insult me, I can at least be comforted in that it was poorly executed lol
My nutty ex-wife believed that illness was caused by your own "bad attitude", and not from other causes, like pathogens. She started to suspect she was wrong when she nearly died due to hypothyroidism triggering extreme and prolonged menstrual bleeding. Even after that near-death experience, she still believed that illness was "mostly" caused by your own attitude. So, when I would get sick, she'd become furious with me. Because, you know, that always helps....
I feel no small amount of residual shame and guilt about the 16 years I spent with her. The damage that marriage did to me was bad enough, but we procreated. The kids carry the scars as well. We've been divorced for 14 years, and still, nearly every day, the realization of just how screwed up the whole thing was becomes clearer and clearer.
@@patchvonbraun that sounds rough! It's impossible not to feel guilt over something like this, but it's important to remember that every bit of energy that you put into beating yourself up over your past is wasted, because no amount of self flaggelation will change what happened. All we can do afterwards is try to heal, to amend and to move on. Energy you spent on these things is spent well. The less you beat yourself up the more energy you will have left over for making a better future for you and your children. I wish you and your family well!
I was just thinking that wouldn't it be an easy test just to see how fluent he was in aramaic and basic hebrew? Weird how selective he is in the things he remembers and forgets. The things he seems to remember are all recorded in the bible, the things he seems to forget are the realities of daily life in Israel at the time that aren't recorded in the bible. It's a bit like he read one of those children's picture books on the life of jesus and just says: "Yup. That was me. Totally accurate".
@@EmoTheElephantmaybe it was just me being raised Catholic in the Southwest US, but we'd usually pray to his mother before trying to bother him. I'd assume that Catholic+ would mean you'd have to pray to their neighbor and they pass the message on. Also, much more flagellation. Which may actually have a bigger audience nowadays.
This documentary could have gotten pretty interesting with a deep edit and getting some experts involved. "I tried to do a documentary on a cult and got sucked in. I'll show you what happened, try to explain what was going through my mind, and discuss what happened with experts in cults and psychology." Now THAT would have been an interesting movie.
- my prayers don't work! - have you tried turning them off and on again? - I did, but no effect - open a ticket, but I'll look into it anyway - thank you big J, you are my saviour
I reminded of the (very wrong) idea here in the states that an undercover police officer has to answer truly when asked if they're a police officer. "Hey man are you a cult, you know you have to say if you're a cult!" "Nope, not at all." "Well that's good enough for me!"
One example of false memory I encountered was when a friend started telling me about an incident that had happened to her and I realised that this was a thing that had happened to me and I had told her about it. She'd managed to not only insert herself into it but forget that I had anything to do with it.
I actually had a weird memory of a snowman my dad built me as a kid, turns out my mum built it and i had no real memory of it but i had seen a picture of me and my dad stood next to it so i think my brain just invented the rest.
I had a friend who would rather often tell people things I told them, but tell them as her own. I learned about it after I told a friend about a scary hospital stay I just had and he told me that I was lying because it happened to her. I was able to get my medical bracelet and show my friend. She is in prison now and utterly insane.
this is something I do at times, obviously not on purpose, but I have a very unstable memory of my childhood (as in its vague and constantly shifts with big holes in it). I've been told stories by my siblings and later remembered them as if I was in them. I have even gotten to the point where I had this reoccurring dream about my childhood and I honestly can't tell you if it's just a dream or a memory. Thankfully I'm self aware of this amd if someone says "yea I don't think that was you" I believe it.
I went to uni with his older son that’s not in his cult. He says his dad is a manipulative narcissist and is always calling him making ridiculous doomsday predictions. Save for Tristan, no one in his family believes him.
Wow. So Thomas only interviewed the one family member who believes the cult leader? He didn't think, "Huh. I wonder what others who know him well and for a long time think." That man just ate up what was being fed to him.
I have also heard from someone who had a first-hand encounter with AJ that he is very much _not_ a nice person. Checks out, also why it would be so much better to hear from people _outside_ of his cult
Well now, there they are, the "one who escaped". This is wild man, I vaguely remember reading about Divine Truth on the net back in like the late 2000's I think, but never fell down this particular hole before.
@@sixstringedthing Well, I just discovered a new trigger phase! (Context: My mom tried to start a gentic cult, but she isn't chaming so as soon as her victums where adults it fail apart, and there was a runing "Joke" about the only one to escape my family was "The oldest boy" who was stillborn)
Besides the BITE model, I think the other way you can identify a cult is if the leader claims they are Jesus. By the way, this applies to the original Christianity started by the original Jesus.
Original Jesus never actually claimed to be the messiah, or devine, he just wanted to reform Judaism. The early church split into factions, and the faction run by the people that knew him when he was alive eventually became extinct (ebionites). It was the Paulist proto orthodox that won and eradicated all the others. We only have a few fragments left of the original Ebionite gospels. Most of what we know about the original Ebionites come from Paulist apologists. They hated the ebionites because they didn't think Jesus was some kind of deity.
Here in Brazil we have Inri Cristo, a man who for decades has claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus, has many followers, but is treated as a joke by much of the country. His followers make religious versions of famous songs.
As a chef from New York, I feel so seen! Seriously though, I spent most of my childhood being brought up in a very cultish offshoot of Christianity. Instead of AJ's twisted version of love or whatever, they focused on faith (ie, suspension of disbelief). I can't begin to tell you the damage that the belief that demons at war are literally all around us at all times can do to a developing mind. I remember waiting for God to heal my disability, watching my mother give most of her money to the church, and crying out for a miracle that would obviously never come, then being told our faith just wasn't strong enough. My earliest heartbreak came from God. To weaponize people's illnesses and weaknesses to control them... AJ is as vile as any other cult leader. This subject matter would've been hella triggering for me if not for Emma's wit and delightful hilarity. Sorry for rambling, this one hit close to home. 😔
I was not in as deep as you, but seemingly have the same experience. God didn't cure my eczema, didn't cure my food allergies. Heck He didn't even cure me when I was having anaphylaxis, the Epinephrine/Adrenaline did. Your post reminded me of some things from back then... Emma brings a delightful streak to a traumatic experience, allowing me to process them in a reasonably healthy and palatable way. It's quite lovely.
And my grandma's cult focused on devotion. Obey your elders, work yourself to the bone, honor the firstborn, visit the prophet every week... Upside: A great sense of civic duty. Downside: Religious fascism. My grandma also got someone killed through faith healer herbal medicine antics.
Ah, yes...the cancer in my left boob was totally about my feelings towards other women and not the 3 generations of having active BRAC genes ... i'm off to tell my oncologist! Thanks for all your hard work and the giggles that help smooth us through the harder issues. :)
Fun story about children and false memories: one of my grandfathers died when I was 9 of cancer. We weren't close, but I have a clear memory of seeing him looking out of the window of his hospital room. When I told my mother this as an adult, she told me that it was impossible (and to never mention this to my grandmother) because my grandmother refused to let the grandkids visit him in the hospital because she didn't want that to be our last memories of him. Jokes on her, I guess.
I'm an Aussie and we have had a few weird cults here. We're such an irreligious nation that it seems truly bizarre that they exist. One cult called The Family is the most famous, apparently Julian Assange was a member when he was a kid (well, his parents were members, he was dragged into it but he kept up with dying his hair even after the cult fell apart). We had the Ayum Shinrikyo Japanese cult here too (the ones who let off sarin gas in Tokyo). They acquired a huge farm in Western Australia and started illegally mining uranium in the hope to build a bomb (the cattle station just happened to be atop a uranium deposit). There was a weird event when a huge explosion went off, it was absolutely massive. The acoustic signature didn't match a nuclear device, but it was clearly coming from their farm. A biologist friend was working remotely and saw a huge mushroom cloud following an explosion. I believe that cult was kicked out of the country when they had to pay $20,000 worth of excess baggage fees which alerted the police to the huge amounts of ammonium chloride, sodium sulphate, and perchloric acid they were trying to bring into the country.
Oh, there's way, way, way more than just the bigger ones. A bunch are still ongoing too. Hell, one of the places I used to go to as a kid (my mum was really into spiritual stuff, and more than a few stores in smaller towns often had a little childrens section with books on like... unicorns and fairies, plush toys, ribbons on sticks like gymnasts use etc) ended up involved I think in the Hermes Far East Shining cult. That's the cult the ACCC kept on getting in legal trouble cause they were basically selling Demineralised Water (the stuff you put in your iron) for enormous mark ups. Orgone crystals and stuff too. I think the store my mum and I used to visit on holidays got bought out, and the cult sold their stuff there. A shame, my mum bought me a picture book there when I was very small and I still have and I'm over 30. Check out Let's Talk About Sects (made by fellow Aussie Sarah Steel). She's got way more info on cults going on here, particularly from victims' stories. Brisbane Christian Fellowship is a very yikes one. The Tribe too. Ideal Human Environment as well.
@@TheShadowChesireCat Oh wow, thanks for your response! Is that the cult which has a few weird shops? I remember hearing about one that has a shop in the Blue Mountains but because I'm in Perth, I'm not super up-to-date with NSW stuff. The Exclusive Brethren's biggest congregation is here in Perth. You used to see them a lot when I was young, but either their numbers have dwindled, or they left the suburbs of Perth.
Not to mention the cult of Scientology, I'm obsessed with this destructive cult. I was in the cult of Jehovah's witnesses and it's understandable how and why AJ went looney!
fellow oz here! found out there's one just down the road a couple months ago, lmao. won't say the name so i don't dox myself, but it's some hindi guy who claims to have been born with divine power and ascended as a child or something. they pray to pictures of his feet, it's really weird. was wild when i realised what the very quiet house down a very long unkempt dirt road was a secret cult trying to snatch up people getting lost trying to find the nearest hindu temple, lmao
I just noticed your comment and wasn't sure if you got your answer yet. 😊 As an Aussie the "C" word is not uncommon although it should not be used in very polite company......too much. Lol . The English use it like an American might use A-hole. So Emma knows us Aussies won't blush, while everyone else might be clutching their pearls. 😂😂😂 have a great day ❤ from Brisbane Australia 🇦🇺
My mother is a nurse and when she was in school, they had to do an internship in the psych ward. During hers, a woman came in one day, wearing a wedding dress. She told them that she was the bride of Jesus Christ, and she was on her way to marry him when he came in a vision to her and told her to go there instead. I always thought that it was weirdly comforting that her own hallucination tried to help her and protect her. I cannot imagine the damage a man like this could done to someone like this woman.
I believe him 100% I personally am the reincarnation of a dog that died choking on a potato in the year 1921 I'll give you a free elastic band and bendy pencil if you join my cult
Thomas' use of Comic Sans (or a font that very much looks like Comic Sans) for his "sadly they won't talk to me anymore" end cards really sums up the quality and professionalism of his "investigative journalism" quite nicely.
Thing is, Jesus DID return in Texas in the USA a few years ago. The first thing he did was go and hug a suffering immigrant. Sadly, two Republicans saw two men hugging and beat them to death with their bibles.
When I was little, I was the victim of CSA, and as a result I ended up having (even to this day) recurring PTSD flashbacks. Something that doesnt always get discussed is that flashbacks aren't always literal, and sometimes end up being figurative representations, all the more likely when you are young and don't really understand what happened. My parents and the church leaders who they brought me to told me that I was having visions of the future, and that the horrible things were the end times, and that it would happen in our lifetimes, etc... It was incredibly traumatizing on top of the trauma I had already been through, and honestly I feel incredibly lucky that I stopped believing in the nonsense that they were feeding to me, and also that I avoided getting snatched up by a cult leader at a formative age. I can't help but feel for those who were not so lucky.
@@Kogmar I very much doubt they ever will, but we'll see. I've been out of that environment since I turned 18 which was...let's just say it was not recently that I turned 18 haha. So I appreciate the reaching out, but it is something I've had a lot of time and therapy to deal with.
Wow this is actually helping me understand some things. My first memory of dissociation was during my csa experience. The church told me that was "The Holy Spirit protecting me". And somehow dissociation became my coping mechanism of choice....
OH! MY GOD! I hope you're healing from all that shit! What an awful thing to do to a person. ::sigh:: I don't even know what to say, and saying something like "I'm so sorry that happened to you," feels hollow and insulting.
I'm Strayn (Australian). I'm here too correct some information. For the love of god, there aren't 13 dimensions: there are 13 and 1/3 and the 1/3 is a quantum position that is cross associated to all other dimensions (don't forget to carry the trinity)
Physicist here. The topic of dimensions is extremely interesting whenever someone thinks they know what they're talking about when they clearly don't. Number of dimensions is more of a concept we use to analyze reality rather than a property of reality itself. We tend to think of our physical reality as three dimensions, in some cases some add time such as in General Relativity with spacetime or use the mathematical extension of 3D space for 4D space. But what a lot don't understand is that there is no "fourth dimension" as dimensions don't have any specific order to them in the same way that any of the three we're familiar with don't. Dimensions are more like the minimum number of directional measurements needed to represent some space for some mathematical or physical purpose. In vector spaces it's not uncommon to work with significantly more than 3 dimensions, but these dimensions don't mean a physical reality that leads to spatial dimensions we don't see. The Poincare group is 10 dimensions for example, 4 spatial plus time, 3 for rotations, and 3 for boosts in each of the 3 spatial directions, but this again isn't something that means there's realities out there we don't see, it's just a group of values that represent different measurements. It's unfortunately common for people to see "dimensions" and think some fictional reality based off of it; if more people learned what dimensions actually are, I think it would help to identify many cults that use it as some sort of buzzword.
When people talk about interdimensional stuff they typically arent referring to our methods of creating objects in 3D. They are talking about an "ethereal" force. They arent talking about construction site dimensions.
@@youtubedeletedmynamewhybother Nor was I only talking about construction site dimensions or spatial dimensions. There is no "ethereal" anything that would be called dimensions. That's part of what I was referring to when I said it's interesting when it's brought up because they clearly have no idea what they're talking about when they're referring to dimensions as some "ethereal force"
@@annaairahala9462 It is a metaphysical concept. That is what makes it "ethereal" and mysterious.... I find it amusing that you somehow take pride in others not knowing something that *Humanity Has Not Worked Out Yet* YOU don't know what 4D is and neither does anyone else brother xD
@@youtubedeletedmynamewhybother I think you missed everything I said in my initial comment lol Thanks for being a perfect example of the type of person I was referring to, someone saying "dimensions" without realizing what they're actually talking about. I suggest rereading my initial comment.
As an Australian, I can confirm you can go in to a mental facility for observation if you have a messiah complex (source: personally visited a mate with such delusions while in hospital). Edit: at least voluntarily, not sure about forcibly without present danger.
'nother Aussie. I'm not an expert on our healthcare, but it's entirely believable to me that someone who is cogent and not obviously endangering themselves with a delusion would be not be detained unwillingly, even if their delusion is obviously ridiculous. Mental Health services are largely opt in except in extreme cases; if you don't want to be admitted to caring facilites, and you aren't an obvious danger to yourself or others, they'll probably leave you to go on your own way.
I work at an Aussie emergency department and see a lot of mental health admissions (both voluntary and involuntary) yes you can be brought in for an involuntary mental health admission for messiah complex if you’re on a psychiatric treatment order and breach that order (eg not show up for treatment or stop taking your meds). Most of them are picked up from the side of the road after a good samaritan calls in worried about them, and honestly they’re the kindest people, thanking the team for caring for the community and blessing everyone they come across
Yep I totally have a false memory of meeting my great grandmother before she died. I have never locked down the real early memory my brain used as the structure for the false memory, but I know the story that my brain mixed together to come up with the false memory. My mom and grandmother would always tell me about meeting Mimi before she passed away; I was a newborn, she was on her deathbed; they brought me to her room in the hospital and she got to hold me. My grandmother always tossed in that Mimi cried she was so happy to meet me. Somehow I've built a memory of this event but placed it at about 2 or 3 years of age for me because I somehow recall meeting her and being afraid because of all the monitoring devices attached to her.
I'm surprised Emma never seem to entertain this possibility, but to me it seems pretty obvious that Thomas, the filmmaker, is already a follower of AJ. He might also be a bonafide documentary filmmaker, but this specific documentary of his is clearly a puff piece for his own group.
Yeah, the ending sounded like they kicked him out of the cult because the sycophantic documentary wasn't sycophantic enough. I wonder if being away from it has helped him realize the BS, or if he wants to try to grovel his way back in, or if he's out there falling for the next charismatic charlatan to cross his path.
I think more likely he was already drawn to the group and leader, wanted to give their side of things and included pretty much what the leader told him to. Then he experienced the backlash and withdrawal of approval that could come for any number of reasons, but essentially not showing enough blind faith. It seems that he at least had some second thoughts while making this film, which is reflected in the text at the end. But to what degree he still had questions in his own mind about the claims of the cult is unclear.
I had leukaemia when I was 17 and so I was put into the children's cancer ward. Hearing people say that they are responsible for their own illness or that their surroundings are responsible because they "don't love them enough" is just disgusting. Everybody there was so loved, I'm crying right now just thinking about everybody. One boy's whole family moved to a whole different country because there are specialist doctors for the type of cancer that he had at the hospital we were at. Nobody believing in the Law of Attraction comes from a place of love. It is either egotistical boot-strappy thinking or (in my experience more common) a genuine inability to accept that bad things happen and that disease is not fair. I understand and have sympathy for people who struggle with the latter, but the thing people need to understand is that blaming someone for their own illness is not loving. The loving thing is showing a sick person that they are more than a healthy or sick body and that you love them for them and not their health.
Literally had a friend tell me today that they weren't going to go to a licensed therapist anymore because they don't support their "visions of the dead"...😢 Mental health is a tricky thing, and these people need help but probably won't seek it.
My favorite part is he remembers being crucified but can't recall other memories out of fear. You can talk about being executed in one of the worst ways possible like it was yesterday but talking to a woman by a well is too much for you?
Australian here! It took me living with depression for almost 5 years before it was diagnosed because I learnt how to hide it. If he was a sociopath, lying is a very easy thing to do. No one would've known if he didn't let them, or until one of his cult members realises he was lying and calls him out on it.
If you watch The Bear you'll realize that "The chefs of New York are apex predators" is a truer statement than you think. Even the random string of words you came up with makes more sense than anything AJ says.
I remember hearing about this guy years ago, but had NO idea he was a JW. That makes so much more sense. I’m glad you’re bringing this nonsense to a wider audience!
There's certainly one thing that JW's and this guy have in common and it's whiteboards and conference centres. There's nothing I find less spiritually inspiring but I guess it takes all kinds.
I grew up in a cult and my read on this documentary is that Thomas has always been affiliated with the cult and is a secret member. These kinds of videos are not bad press for cults. The outrage that AJ expresses is a falsity. What this documentary does is allow AJ to show it to other members of the cult and new people being brought and say "see? This what the world thinks of us." Then use that verse about how the world will hate them because it first hated AJ. This is a great way to foster them vs us. The cult I was in did similar things but the documentaries were all set ups. No one ever did a documentary on them, it was just propaganda to make us feel unsafe outside of the demenses of the cult and untrustworthy of anyone not affiliated.
I would be very interested to hear _in depth_ interviews with former followers, describing how they got involved in this group and what it was about their minds that made them susceptible to accepting that obviously absurd claims of these people claiming to be Jesus and Mary Magdalene. This is probably where the productive work is to be done, figuring out how to identify what makes people susceptible to this garbage and then finding ways to prevent children from growing up into adults with that kind of psychological proclivity in the first place.
Nothing short of full and unquestioning devotion is required. These people also use "love bombing" to draw folks in who need that in their lives, then withdraw it, sometimes very harshly and critically when victims transgress in any way. It's incredibly damaging to vulnerable people, breaking their sense of self, making them question reality and accept abuse.
I’ve been blessed by the algorithm and you’ve been blessed with a new subscriber! It must be a blessing from the IT department of UA-cam where a disciple of AJ works
it's so frustrating portraying cult recruitment tactics and behaviours without the context of manipulation of vulnerable people and those already emotionally connected to the situation. it's so clear when you have knowledge of how cults are built from the ground up that Divine Truth is a cult; to have it presented almost positively is so disgusting. I'm less that half an hour in and I could already write an essay on the emotional abuse forced on the cult's followers. also: yes to sticking the nut on someone. underappreciated and underutilised phrase
Oh, a lovely Australian podcast that focuses on cults, primarly on victims telling their stories (with context of research and other stuff) talks about it so much. Let's Talk About Sects. The maker of the podcast, Sarah Steel, wrote a book on what she'd learned doing research, working with experts and broader social contexts. A lot of places are putting coercive control laws on the books for domestic violence, which also have the side benefit of helping the victims of high control groups (like cults).
G'day Emma our healthcare is pretty good thanks. The bar for being involuntarily admitted to psychiatric care is high. Any doctor hearing that AJ was having a six month panic attack or whatever would recommend he be admitted urgently but they can't send police to go get him on the description that he lays in bed all day shaking.
Fellow Aussie here, and I wonder where he was living at the time, too. In regional and country areas it's hard enough today to get good mental health services. If he was looking for services in the late 80s/early 90s, a local GP may be all he could access. Been learning a lot lately about just how many out there religious, creationist, and flat earthers we have. 😮
Based on a quick look through Wikipedia at the guy and the cult - He's originally from Loxton and now lives in rural Queensland (kinda obvious from the docco tbh). His nearest mental health facility would be Toowoomba. I'm SA based, but guessing QLD is pretty similar - flat out atm, but would be able to make room for an admission even if it meant somewhere else is the system. Family can request a mental health care check, but not many people know that. This is something that would have helped during the 6month bedridden period.
really? i thought it was more like, 'if red bull gives you wings, what would red bull mixed with coffee and a pile of pure sugar' energy. veering very close into the range of 'what is this thing called meth? i should give it a try' energy
Australian physicist here. First off, wow, what a fukn ride this was! Thanks for covering this, had no idea this was happening on the same continent as me. Also, sorry if someone else answered this stuff elsewhere below but I'll give it a go in as few words as possible. Second to answer your q's. Warning text wall! Dimensions and more than 4 of them: So there's 4 dimensions for our macro universe, 3 spatial and 1 temporal or x, y, and z and time. A bit of ground work: These aren't anything profound, they're just the required amount of info to uniquely specify a point in space, somewhere in the universe. Eg: you wanna meet someone for shopping and so you gotta specify which shop (the x and y position on the face of the earth) the floor in the shopping centre (the z position) and the time you want to meet them. Keep in mind a "new" or "separate" dimension simply means that changing the properties/values of one doesn't affect the others. eg: you can change your x position while keeping your y and z positions the same, by walking in a straight line and therefore x movement is its own dimension. This is also why they're at 90° to each other! SO the 11+ dimensions make it a bit tricky to explain. It's abstract, but for string theory they're often described as "coiled" dimensions within other dimensions. Analogous to an ant walking on a string, the ant can follow the string (which might represent the x dimension) but can also walk "around" the string itself to change it's position in other ways (i.e. the other string theory-only dimensions) while still being in the same x position, hence additional dimensions within the x dimension. This is where the other 7+ dimensions are in string theory BUT it isn't where god or spirits are hiding, especially since string theory isn't shaping up well currently (depending on who you ask). It's a math construct and doesn't really have a good analogy to the real world since we're stuck with 3 spatial dimensions. Keep in mind that the "4th dimension" you mention is just time but a 4th spatial dimension doesn't make physical sense, since it'd need to be at 90° to each of the x, y and z dimension to fit the requirements above and this isn't possible. Spoiler, sorry, there's no spirits hiding in extra dimensions. He's just using "dimension" in the sci-fi context. Third and re: dark matter. It isn't anything profound either. It's a case of: to explain the shapes and movement of galaxies using a modern understanding of gravity (which is otherwise REALLY good), there should be more mass than we can see. Like 50-90% more mass to explain the shapes and movements of said galaxies. We aren't sure what the extra mass is and we can't see anything there and so we just call it "dark matter". It could be multiple things like dust and gases too sparse to see OR it might be an exotic form of matter that doesn't interact with light (or any EM radiation) or something else. Dark energy is a bit weirder, but is based on the fact that the universe is expanding and accelerating and this CAN be directly observed via increasing red-shifted light from galaxies as the distances to them increases. This would require a force that overcomes gravity on very large scales. And there needs to be a LOT of it to explain what we see. This is where the ~25% dark matter and ~70% dark energy figure comes from. That's it and it's frustrating when ppl use the above as an explanation for their crazy. Fuck me I hope this explanation helped at least one person, haha.
An actual Aussie has described Australia as "a snake-infested spider hole" on the internet (which makes it true, obviously lol). Emma, I started watching your channel when you had around 3,500 subscribers - now look at the sub count! Love your varied content and your love of coffee. Please don't stop making your awesome videos any time soon!
As another "actual Aussie" I can confirm that "a snake-infested spider hole" is a fair description. Basic rule of survival down under: "Eight legs? Run. No legs? Run faster!"
and that description alone makes a valid argument to evac it all and eject it into the sun XD ..two of the most creepy crawly slithery things in a mental vision of cramped space , its the kind of thing if you found it in your backyard you dose the hole in gaz and light it up before its nightmare fuel finished breeding
@@Amoth_oth_ras_shashsomething like 97% of Australians hardly see the outback (ok the scariest Spiders are literally called Sydney funnel webs because they are from Sydney but they live in pretty deep holes in the ground and who does gardening nowadays???)
So many thoughts regarding this cult, but Emma telling her dinosaur buddy at 37:53 that they have a soul slays me. And their reaction! Like, "WHUUUUUT?"
In Australia, if you went to the doctor with this kind of thing, assuming your doctor isn't incompetent, you'd probably get a psychiatric referral. Whether you'd actually get to see a psychiatrist within 6 months and without paying for private coverage is another matter. The waiting lists for free psychs is extremely long. That said you could probably also go to the hospital and see one of theirs if it's this severe.
16 seconds in and i'm baffled someone can say "mathematically proven" and "13 _or so_" in the same sentence. this guy is for sure a good source of information!
I think the Fidget Pointer has great potential. Thanks for covering some of Australia's, um... "local colour". I'd have thought a former IT Guy could spice up his seminars with a projector and a thrown together PowerPoint rather than relying on a whiteboard, but I guess I don't truly know Aussie Jesus.
Aussie mental healthcare is pretty freaking great. Your GP can refer you to a psych which is all almost free at the point of delivery ($50 fee which some people can get back). The psych will evaluate you and see if you qualify for any NDIS assistance and then you can go from there. Issue is, the bulk billing psychs are normally busy and mainly focus on just identifying if someone needs NIDS or is faking for benefits; they are not going to be on the lookout for someone lying to avoid a diagnosis.
Brother what are you talking about. My doctor just referred me to an $800 session to get an ADHD diagnosis..... Health care in Australia is a fu cking joke and you actively have to fight against it to get anywhere.
Adult autism and adhd diagnosis aren't covered by Medicare. I just paid $700 for my adhd assessment. The availability of psychs that bulk bill is a joke. So is trying to get the NDIS if you have co morbid conditions. I eventually gave up on the ndis because I just turned 50 and qualify for Indigenous aged care services. It costs more, but trying to get the ndis was so fucking stressful (I have chronic pain, mobility issues and I'm going blind)
The issue is even the things that are covered by Medicare end up costing heaps now because no one bulk bills anymore. Not to mention the privatized hospital. Honestly if you get hurt or need help atm where i live, you may aswell be without healthcare in America. Unless you're rich you're on your own. @@angelawossname
@@youtubedeletedmynamewhybotherit's true that no one bulk bills but also worth mentioning that this is because the rates for bulk billing have fallen over the years. It's no longer particularly sustainable to run a bulk billing clinic and that sucks balls
Newish to channel. Liking the basis of most discussions and your view. I instantly drew a conclusion from beginning to end that this was only the facade of a documentary masking the true intention which was simply advertising and recruiting. I believe that the appearance of being initially skeptical was simply to hope that viewers would drop their guard and become more receptive, while slowly turning up the heat to a slow boil. I believe that narrator was definitely a card carriying member. I am sorry, I have not read any other comments so if redundant or a similar view has been addressed, my appologies. Keep up the good work Emma, I look forward to watching more of your content. Kudos.
I've been binging your content since I discovered your channel. I love your mix of informative, sarcasm, and snark. Keep the energy and keep producing such amazing content.
And has nothing to do with the Satanic Panic or the innocent people who were thrown in jail and had their lives ruined right? Don't fight atrocities with pseudoscience and cause more atrocities.
Holy mackerel, if I thought processing a late in life AuDHD diagnosis was complex, imagine how wild it must be to accept that you are the second coming of Jesus. Well, 3rd, 4th, 5th & so on since several seem to have arrived during our lifetime alone. Perhaps they should form a support group 🙃
Sending my thoughts and prayers to the fan running in the background. I hope it returns to being in harmony with love, at least until the end of the month when the weather cools down. Great video, Emma, thanks!
Man this video was so depressing bc of all the suffering this cult is putting people through ( I feel so bad for the father that lost his kid) and the fact that they person interviewing them is so obviously getting sucked in but I was thankfulluy shielded from this negative energy by you finishing the ad read with 'rumbly tummy' as the way you said it was delightful :D As an aside I hope this cult doesn't manage to grow anymore, there is enough evil in this world as is and as someone who also has a chronic illness the last thing we need is yet more people blaming us for our health and then trying to scam us with positive thinking "cures" 🤢
I’m an IT guy, sometimes I think I’m Jesus, I walk over to a broken PC I put my hands on it and it works again. Sometimes I just look at them and they start working. I raise computers from the dead all the time.
I had a tech teacher in college who told us on the first day that sometimes things wouldn't work, we'd call him over, and then they would work again. We were encouraged to just shrug and get on with it.
I don’t think you overreacted. The documentarian seemed unwilling to challenge anything said. The explanation for not being willing to perform miracles was absurd, but not challenged. I personally like that a cluster of these reincarnated individuals , coincidentally, live near each other. Keeps most of us safe from running into one close to home!
Great to have seen you in the Star Trek Fan Film Shorts. Your acting skills are pretty darned good. Episodes were - 'Chaos at the Neutral Zone', 'Broken Reality', and ''First Meeting'. Hope there are more to come.
Hey Emma. Maybe some of those spiders down under have a hallucination aspect to their venom. Here in the U.S.A., we have the biggest cult on the planet, we call them Trumpers. Coinky dinky, my Nana (grandma) had breast cancer and my Pop (grandpa) had skin cancer. Both won their battles. Side thought, you need a bigger coffee mug, and you have a picture of Captain Kirk!! Frikin awesome! Looking forward to your next post. Semper Fi from Wisconsin! 🖖
My siblings belong to the Trumper cult. No way to understand it. I just avoid the topic to keep the peace. They know I’m not one of them and fortunately our parents must have done something right.
It looks like a Captain Kirk action figure, sitting in his chair, with Uhura standing beside him. What I don't know is why the package is labelled "Barbie and Ken".
To be fair to us Aussies, nearly 40% of us at the last national census identified as following no religion. I've never heard of this group and I'm unaware of this documentary ever having been screened here in Australia, for if it was, that cult's beliefs would be roundly dismissed as complete nonsense by the vast majority of us and certainly everybody I know.
Not only that but most who do identify with a faith aren't regular attendees. That only makes up about 25% of Australians. Most people that identify with a faith might show up for religious holidays, if at all. Conservative religious people make up about 15% of Australians. We are pretty irreligious. It's been nearly a decade since I showed up at a synagogue. I still identify as Jewish (more strictly as a didgerijew, I have mixed ancestry) I think it's hard for us to understand the impact religion has on politics in other countries.
I read a very good book back in the 70's called Cults of Unreason, I can't remember the author. I hope you can get the chance to read some of it, it set my world view as a major foundation. It especially chronicles scientology and the fraud Hubbard, but there is a lot more Koo Koo for Coco Puffs cults examined, please look if you get a chance. My love to you Emma, you give this old geezer hope, I know you're busy but you've answered me positively before I hope one day we can converse personally.
Aussie healthcare is fairly cheap and easy to access but most GPs seem to be either jaded or underqualified (at least in my experience). In most cases the doc's that don't specialise in mental health need to be told by the patient specifically what to do (e.g. refer to psychologist/psychiatrist for assessment for X, Y or Z)
As someone who has sought medical treatment for schizophrenia in Australia, man had no chance of recieving any support just cause hes well spoken and can appear insightful Ps id bet money that the other aussie show Emma liked was tracey mcbean
As an Australian, I agree that it's quite hot, there are a lot of fires and spiders. But... hear me out. Some of those spiders are Peacock Spiders and they are no joke the most delightful little blighters.
I'm Australian and grew up as a Jehovah's Witness... we had a family called Miller that had about 8 sons and I'm 99% certain AJ is one of those boys..and I kinda wish I'd hung around to see what had happened in the congregation when THIS went down 😅 I'm gonna reach out to old friends n see if I can find out more.... 😏
I 👏 LOVE 👏 THIS 👏 VIDEO 👏 it always amazes me when I watch videos like this, how much crossover there is between cults and modern day christianity (because lets be honest they're just socially "acceptable" cults). I would love a video specifically on magical thinking and "faith" 😊
Honestly, there's so much here that was meant to be shocking, and should be, but looked to me like just another evangelical house church. Take away the Jesus schtick and add some "gifts of the spirit", and it's scarily familiar to me.
I just found this video randomly and I like your content, will be following! I just wanted to add for people who don't know, the reason he was saying people were just moving to live by him and saying that he waited until after he started his ministry to reveal himself as Jesus. both these things are things that happen to the biblical Jesus. just showcase how they incorporate these details. The small parts that "make sense" are a big way they convince believers
Aussie here.. We have medicare for all, which is usually great. But after a decade of conservative leadership the budget is bullshit. Medicare gives us 10 psych sessions a year. It definitely needs to be better
Australian here. Australia takes mental health pretty seriously depending on where you are in the country - some states have more resources than others. Where AJ is in QLD, I'd say mental health services are pretty mid compared to elsewhere. Regardless of that, I cant imagine any GP here not referring someone to get a mental health check if it seemed they needed one.
As an Australian I think this documentary is Aussie humour. :) :) ;) And as far as our health system goes, it's all free and easily accessible. This doco is NOT an example of Australians, some of us think! I love your stuff, I don't love the doco!
Actually, no, it’s not humor. Emma’s take on it is humor. There really is a cult in Australia led by a guy named AJ Miller who represents himself as Jesus.
When someone talks about whiteboard conspiracy nuts, Santos Bonacci comes to my mind. He's a flat earther (among other things) posing as a "spiritual guru" kind of person. When I see the flat earth debunkers talking about him, I just cannot understand how anyone would believe anything he says. I think AJ and Santos are in the same category of whiteboard conspiracy nuts. What a great video. Well done.
Side note Emma's plot about older person mentioning to the younger hotter person "you were my spouse in a past life" is literally a to an episode of American Dad. Stan gets tricked into thinking he's the reincarnation of some old Hollywood starlet but he's only half assing having the false memories since he himself is a narcissist so he's only interested in the parts about him being a famous comedian and is repulsed by her obvious attempts of using this to pray on and seduce him.
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"100% happiness guarantee"? Send in Marvin the paranoid android.
Why cant' you just speak calmly. This is anxiety inducing.
Grain free keto friendly soy free wheat free but naturally flavoured?
What the hell is in that stuff?
About the ad read, or the documentary? Anxiety and frustration was something that I felt, as well, but I know the source of it is not Emma's delivery, but rather the occult nonsense itself. As for the cereal ad, it's mouth-watering stuff and I gotta have it - put it in me already. @@milksonic7490
Magic spoon? Protein Pellets!
Every time I ask myself, “What would Jesus do?”, I remind myself that freaking out and flipping tables is a viable option.
There's also rubbing mud in people's eyes and bringing wine to a party.
Every time I see a barren fig tree, I curse it. This is quite frequent due to the weather conditions in the UK.
Viable option🏳️🌈👍🏳️🌈
Don't forget murdering first born sons and flooding the world.
Or throwing ketchup against the wall ala Trump.
I'm Australian. My former babysitter joined this cult. I looked into it years ago as a result. Dude is a manipulative sociopath who got a bit too obsessed with Dan Brown.
He gives me the creeps. Narcissist. Up himself. Not Jesus. Nothing like Him.
(You can tell i am Aussie, too, ay?) Sorry about your babysitter.
@lisasommerlad1337 He's also lazy. I have a Neuro Divergent special interest in ancient Hebrew and early Christian texts, and his claims were miles off what life in 1st century Isreal was actually like. I found it incredibly laughable at times. Dude should have at least done his homework. My former babysitter tried to get me to join, but it has "cult" written all over it. He's such a fucking arsehole to his followers.
I feel that might leave some issues to unpack later in therapy... hope you are doing okay. Maybe one day your old baby sitter will defect and leave the cult.
Australian here too. This guy is totally dodgy. Sorry about the baby sitter. That sux.
Dan Brown?
No... are you fucking with me right now?
Actually... yes, that makes total sense now that you mention it. Jesus Harold Christ man.
"The Law of Attraction" is a long-winded way of saying "blaming the victim"
My dad told me 30 years ago that 'whatever happens to you in life, you asked the universe for it to happen'.
I was around 5 and my first thought was about babies who don't understand language yet asking for cancer, so it always blows my mind when people go for this.
There is a GIANT logic gap I love to point out to people who believe that theory... who picks being a baby that is sold into sex trafficking and being abused in every other way as well? Who would pick a life plan that has the capability to do that to a baby? That person is a mixture of the worse parts of nature and nurture.
That’s part of why karma belief is a pink flag for me.
Not everyone who believes in karma is vindictive & believe that it’s wrong to advocate for the poor because “they must have bad karma”, but enough of them do that I feel a bit wary of all of them.
@voilet-the-non-violet-vulpix Karma at its most fundamental is "if you treat people badly, then there is a _higher_ chance for them to retaliate and do something to you in return, and if you treat people nicely than they are _more likely_ to be nice back," and it annoys me when people try to stretch it to these spiritual extremes.
No, there is no all-knowing deity or omniscient universal being keeping track of what humans do. Humans themselves are capable of doing that already. And there is no record system tallying all the (usually Christian centric) good and bad things every human has ever done floating somewhere in the void.
Karma is literally just cause and effect applied to socialization. But because people so desperately want a divine god to hold their hand through life so they have absolutely no responsibility, they are quick to muddy the waters to try to manipulate and beat down others. Karma should not be a "belief" system, and being kind to others should not be done with the expectation of a nice, juicy God-supplied dog treat at the end of the day. Treating people badly, on the other hand, _does_ usually result in a broken nose somewhere down the line, but, again, that's simple cause and effect and repeatedly playing a game of chance.
I'm a statistical Australian. Getting mental health care is possible but you have to fight for it. So basically most people who have actual mental health problems don't get necessary care.
But if you are a narc, ike fake jesus, here, no mental health help is required because narcs think they are perfect...but everyone else is wrong.
All the time 90% of the time
Most good mental healthcare is also usually expensive.
You can get ten free sessions with a psychologist per year if you get a mental health plan.
@@emanym at least in my experience, 10 isnt enough. i usually run out of sessions like halfway through the year. plus theyre often not free, just partially covered.
There’s actually a precedent of journalists going to investigate cults and ending up members, even times when the journalist went specifically to debunk/defame said cult. (Something to keep in mind for the people who think it could never happen to them because they’re just oh so smart)
It's called the Kopenhagen Effect.
@@jwwebnaut7045 Oo i didn’t know there was a term for it. Thanks for the info!
@@rayay248Not knowing there is a term for something is the "Descripto-Ignoramus Syndrome"
😁
@@Cheepchipsable I genuinely can’t tell if you’re trying to insult me or just give me more information…. So I guess if you were trying to insult me, I can at least be comforted in that it was poorly executed lol
@@rayay248Or it was just a joke. That's how I read it.
My nutty ex-wife believed that illness was caused by your own "bad attitude", and not from other causes, like pathogens. She started to suspect she was wrong when she nearly died due to hypothyroidism triggering extreme and prolonged menstrual bleeding. Even after that near-death experience, she still believed that illness was "mostly" caused by your own attitude. So, when I would get sick, she'd become furious with me. Because, you know, that always helps....
I went back to the beginning of your post to check, and, yep, "ex" it was. Congrats.
I feel no small amount of residual shame and guilt about the 16 years I spent with her. The damage that marriage did to me was bad enough, but we procreated. The kids carry the scars as well. We've been divorced for 14 years, and still, nearly every day, the realization of just how screwed up the whole thing was becomes clearer and clearer.
While the placebo effect can be quite powerful.... bacteria and viruses are as well 😂.
@@patchvonbraun that sounds rough!
It's impossible not to feel guilt over something like this, but it's important to remember that every bit of energy that you put into beating yourself up over your past is wasted, because no amount of self flaggelation will change what happened.
All we can do afterwards is try to heal, to amend and to move on. Energy you spent on these things is spent well. The less you beat yourself up the more energy you will have left over for making a better future for you and your children. I wish you and your family well!
Did she believe that children and babies were at fault for getting sick too? How about animals?
So relieved to hear Jesus returned with the option of 'more guilt.' Made me imagine asking him questions in Aramaic to see how he reacts.
He forgot that because of the fear and stress of course, how illogical you are! 😂
I was just thinking that wouldn't it be an easy test just to see how fluent he was in aramaic and basic hebrew? Weird how selective he is in the things he remembers and forgets. The things he seems to remember are all recorded in the bible, the things he seems to forget are the realities of daily life in Israel at the time that aren't recorded in the bible. It's a bit like he read one of those children's picture books on the life of jesus and just says: "Yup. That was me. Totally accurate".
"more guilt jesus" is like Catholicism+
or perhaps some kind of binding of isaac add on :P
@@EmoTheElephantmaybe it was just me being raised Catholic in the Southwest US, but we'd usually pray to his mother before trying to bother him. I'd assume that Catholic+ would mean you'd have to pray to their neighbor and they pass the message on. Also, much more flagellation. Which may actually have a bigger audience nowadays.
@@Lazarus_Gthanks Lazarus I was going to answer Emo but you covered it better than I , 😊
This documentary could have gotten pretty interesting with a deep edit and getting some experts involved. "I tried to do a documentary on a cult and got sucked in. I'll show you what happened, try to explain what was going through my mind, and discuss what happened with experts in cults and psychology." Now THAT would have been an interesting movie.
That would actually be a fascinating piece.
- my prayers don't work!
- have you tried turning them off and on again?
- I did, but no effect
- open a ticket, but I'll look into it anyway
- thank you big J, you are my saviour
OMG, underrated comment! 😂😂😂
First time he died, he took two days to do a reinstall but it didn't really work, so he took a couple of thousand years for a full rebuild.
File a Jira
Fix the prayer yourself and open a pull request
@@allie-ontheweb your app is not working, I want a refund
I reminded of the (very wrong) idea here in the states that an undercover police officer has to answer truly when asked if they're a police officer.
"Hey man are you a cult, you know you have to say if you're a cult!"
"Nope, not at all."
"Well that's good enough for me!"
One example of false memory I encountered was when a friend started telling me about an incident that had happened to her and I realised that this was a thing that had happened to me and I had told her about it. She'd managed to not only insert herself into it but forget that I had anything to do with it.
...what was the basic details of the incident of the incident if you don't mind me asking?
I actually had a weird memory of a snowman my dad built me as a kid, turns out my mum built it and i had no real memory of it but i had seen a picture of me and my dad stood next to it so i think my brain just invented the rest.
I had a friend who would rather often tell people things I told them, but tell them as her own. I learned about it after I told a friend about a scary hospital stay I just had and he told me that I was lying because it happened to her. I was able to get my medical bracelet and show my friend. She is in prison now and utterly insane.
@@ErthBeer I honestly don't remember anymore.
this is something I do at times, obviously not on purpose, but I have a very unstable memory of my childhood (as in its vague and constantly shifts with big holes in it). I've been told stories by my siblings and later remembered them as if I was in them. I have even gotten to the point where I had this reoccurring dream about my childhood and I honestly can't tell you if it's just a dream or a memory. Thankfully I'm self aware of this amd if someone says "yea I don't think that was you" I believe it.
I wonder if anyone has asked this guy why it took him 2000 years to return when he promised his disciples he'd return in their lifetimes.
I think he'd probably just file that under "everyone's gotten me and God all wrong"
"ackchully I totally meant the lifetime of their spirit energies"
I went to uni with his older son that’s not in his cult. He says his dad is a manipulative narcissist and is always calling him making ridiculous doomsday predictions. Save for Tristan, no one in his family believes him.
Wow. So Thomas only interviewed the one family member who believes the cult leader? He didn't think, "Huh. I wonder what others who know him well and for a long time think."
That man just ate up what was being fed to him.
How awful. He isn't just a scammer. His own kid.
I have also heard from someone who had a first-hand encounter with AJ that he is very much _not_ a nice person. Checks out, also why it would be so much better to hear from people _outside_ of his cult
Well now, there they are, the "one who escaped". This is wild man, I vaguely remember reading about Divine Truth on the net back in like the late 2000's I think, but never fell down this particular hole before.
@@sixstringedthing Well, I just discovered a new trigger phase! (Context: My mom tried to start a gentic cult, but she isn't chaming so as soon as her victums where adults it fail apart, and there was a runing "Joke" about the only one to escape my family was "The oldest boy" who was stillborn)
Besides the BITE model, I think the other way you can identify a cult is if the leader claims they are Jesus.
By the way, this applies to the original Christianity started by the original Jesus.
The OG Jesus? you mean Brian?
@@belgoblax1596 Brian: I'm not the Messiah!
Arthur: I say you are, Lord, and I should know, I've followed a few!
Original Jesus never actually claimed to be the messiah, or devine, he just wanted to reform Judaism. The early church split into factions, and the faction run by the people that knew him when he was alive eventually became extinct (ebionites). It was the Paulist proto orthodox that won and eradicated all the others. We only have a few fragments left of the original Ebionite gospels. Most of what we know about the original Ebionites come from Paulist apologists. They hated the ebionites because they didn't think Jesus was some kind of deity.
Here in Brazil we have Inri Cristo, a man who for decades has claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus, has many followers, but is treated as a joke by much of the country. His followers make religious versions of famous songs.
As a chef from New York, I feel so seen! Seriously though, I spent most of my childhood being brought up in a very cultish offshoot of Christianity. Instead of AJ's twisted version of love or whatever, they focused on faith (ie, suspension of disbelief). I can't begin to tell you the damage that the belief that demons at war are literally all around us at all times can do to a developing mind. I remember waiting for God to heal my disability, watching my mother give most of her money to the church, and crying out for a miracle that would obviously never come, then being told our faith just wasn't strong enough. My earliest heartbreak came from God. To weaponize people's illnesses and weaknesses to control them... AJ is as vile as any other cult leader. This subject matter would've been hella triggering for me if not for Emma's wit and delightful hilarity. Sorry for rambling, this one hit close to home. 😔
I'm sorry you went through that. You're not alone out there. 💚
As a Certified Long-Commenter, I appreciate your rambling mate. Hope life is better for you these days, such as it is. Best wishes to you.
Some religious beliefs are so harmful, its just pure child abuse to inflict them on children. Im so sorry you had to grow up in that madness.
I was not in as deep as you, but seemingly have the same experience. God didn't cure my eczema, didn't cure my food allergies. Heck He didn't even cure me when I was having anaphylaxis, the Epinephrine/Adrenaline did. Your post reminded me of some things from back then...
Emma brings a delightful streak to a traumatic experience, allowing me to process them in a reasonably healthy and palatable way. It's quite lovely.
And my grandma's cult focused on devotion. Obey your elders, work yourself to the bone, honor the firstborn, visit the prophet every week...
Upside: A great sense of civic duty.
Downside: Religious fascism.
My grandma also got someone killed through faith healer herbal medicine antics.
Ah, yes...the cancer in my left boob was totally about my feelings towards other women and not the 3 generations of having active BRAC genes ... i'm off to tell my oncologist!
Thanks for all your hard work and the giggles that help smooth us through the harder issues. :)
Naw, I totally get it; I was an IT guy until I realized I'm actually an IT woman. Good field for big revelations I guess 😂😂😂
Good, we need more women in STEM! 🤭
Relatable frfr
Some revelations are more fanatical than others (aka believing you’re JC for crying out loud lol). Keep on keepin’ on! 🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️
"I can say that because I'm English and they're Australian" is some of the best logic I've ever heard. Big fan.
Fun story about children and false memories: one of my grandfathers died when I was 9 of cancer. We weren't close, but I have a clear memory of seeing him looking out of the window of his hospital room. When I told my mother this as an adult, she told me that it was impossible (and to never mention this to my grandmother) because my grandmother refused to let the grandkids visit him in the hospital because she didn't want that to be our last memories of him. Jokes on her, I guess.
I'm an Aussie and we have had a few weird cults here. We're such an irreligious nation that it seems truly bizarre that they exist. One cult called The Family is the most famous, apparently Julian Assange was a member when he was a kid (well, his parents were members, he was dragged into it but he kept up with dying his hair even after the cult fell apart). We had the Ayum Shinrikyo Japanese cult here too (the ones who let off sarin gas in Tokyo). They acquired a huge farm in Western Australia and started illegally mining uranium in the hope to build a bomb (the cattle station just happened to be atop a uranium deposit). There was a weird event when a huge explosion went off, it was absolutely massive. The acoustic signature didn't match a nuclear device, but it was clearly coming from their farm. A biologist friend was working remotely and saw a huge mushroom cloud following an explosion. I believe that cult was kicked out of the country when they had to pay $20,000 worth of excess baggage fees which alerted the police to the huge amounts of ammonium chloride, sodium sulphate, and perchloric acid they were trying to bring into the country.
Oh, there's way, way, way more than just the bigger ones. A bunch are still ongoing too.
Hell, one of the places I used to go to as a kid (my mum was really into spiritual stuff, and more than a few stores in smaller towns often had a little childrens section with books on like... unicorns and fairies, plush toys, ribbons on sticks like gymnasts use etc) ended up involved I think in the Hermes Far East Shining cult. That's the cult the ACCC kept on getting in legal trouble cause they were basically selling Demineralised Water (the stuff you put in your iron) for enormous mark ups. Orgone crystals and stuff too. I think the store my mum and I used to visit on holidays got bought out, and the cult sold their stuff there. A shame, my mum bought me a picture book there when I was very small and I still have and I'm over 30.
Check out Let's Talk About Sects (made by fellow Aussie Sarah Steel). She's got way more info on cults going on here, particularly from victims' stories. Brisbane Christian Fellowship is a very yikes one. The Tribe too. Ideal Human Environment as well.
@@TheShadowChesireCat Oh wow, thanks for your response! Is that the cult which has a few weird shops? I remember hearing about one that has a shop in the Blue Mountains but because I'm in Perth, I'm not super up-to-date with NSW stuff. The Exclusive Brethren's biggest congregation is here in Perth. You used to see them a lot when I was young, but either their numbers have dwindled, or they left the suburbs of Perth.
Not to mention the cult of Scientology, I'm obsessed with this destructive cult. I was in the cult of Jehovah's witnesses and it's understandable how and why AJ went looney!
Frickin insane ! I wish someone would interview you on the Ahm / aren’t we all smart people looking to blow up the world cult .
fellow oz here! found out there's one just down the road a couple months ago, lmao. won't say the name so i don't dox myself, but it's some hindi guy who claims to have been born with divine power and ascended as a child or something. they pray to pictures of his feet, it's really weird. was wild when i realised what the very quiet house down a very long unkempt dirt road was a secret cult trying to snatch up people getting lost trying to find the nearest hindu temple, lmao
45:53 Emma: "What a c***. I'm allowed to say that because I'm English and he's Australian."
Me: *confusedly chuckling in American*
I just noticed your comment and wasn't sure if you got your answer yet. 😊 As an Aussie the "C" word is not uncommon although it should not be used in very polite company......too much. Lol . The English use it like an American might use A-hole. So Emma knows us Aussies won't blush, while everyone else might be clutching their pearls. 😂😂😂 have a great day ❤ from Brisbane Australia 🇦🇺
Yeah. The 'c word' is a daily driver for us brits...along with not having school shootings. Which one are you more offended by?
My mother is a nurse and when she was in school, they had to do an internship in the psych ward. During hers, a woman came in one day, wearing a wedding dress. She told them that she was the bride of Jesus Christ, and she was on her way to marry him when he came in a vision to her and told her to go there instead. I always thought that it was weirdly comforting that her own hallucination tried to help her and protect her. I cannot imagine the damage a man like this could done to someone like this woman.
I believe him 100%
I personally am the reincarnation of a dog that died choking on a potato in the year 1921
I'll give you a free elastic band and bendy pencil if you join my cult
why does the potato addition make me think you watch amberlynn reid.. lol
A bendy pencil? I’m interested!
@@katyj6058 Swear allegiance to the potato dog and you will receive the Bendy Pencil of good will
The dead dog chruch sounds better than most religions out there.
I'm the reincarnation of a lion.
Thomas' use of Comic Sans (or a font that very much looks like Comic Sans) for his "sadly they won't talk to me anymore" end cards really sums up the quality and professionalism of his "investigative journalism" quite nicely.
I'm pretty sure that's Tekton, released by Adobe in 1989. It's based on the hand lettering of an architect called Frank Ching.
@@Snoeflekz Thanks for the correction. :)
The Hello Kitty chopstick will live on in our memories
Goodbye Kitty
Thing is, Jesus DID return in Texas in the USA a few years ago. The first thing he did was go and hug a suffering immigrant. Sadly, two Republicans saw two men hugging and beat them to death with their bibles.
I heard that Jesus tried to feed the homeless in Texas, but he just kept getting called a dirty communist
I read this while drinking an Emma-sized cup of coffee. @katieheys3007, you now owe me a new computer monitor! :^)
That is so funny because its exactly what would happen.
And Jesus was from Mexico!
@@brian1204 No she British her name is Emma.
When I was little, I was the victim of CSA, and as a result I ended up having (even to this day) recurring PTSD flashbacks. Something that doesnt always get discussed is that flashbacks aren't always literal, and sometimes end up being figurative representations, all the more likely when you are young and don't really understand what happened. My parents and the church leaders who they brought me to told me that I was having visions of the future, and that the horrible things were the end times, and that it would happen in our lifetimes, etc...
It was incredibly traumatizing on top of the trauma I had already been through, and honestly I feel incredibly lucky that I stopped believing in the nonsense that they were feeding to me, and also that I avoided getting snatched up by a cult leader at a formative age. I can't help but feel for those who were not so lucky.
I really hope you are okay and that your parents get out of that shit if they havent already
Please stay safe and do not forget that you are loved
@@Kogmar I very much doubt they ever will, but we'll see. I've been out of that environment since I turned 18 which was...let's just say it was not recently that I turned 18 haha. So I appreciate the reaching out, but it is something I've had a lot of time and therapy to deal with.
Wow this is actually helping me understand some things. My first memory of dissociation was during my csa experience. The church told me that was "The Holy Spirit protecting me". And somehow dissociation became my coping mechanism of choice....
OH! MY GOD! I hope you're healing from all that shit! What an awful thing to do to a person.
::sigh:: I don't even know what to say, and saying something like "I'm so sorry that happened to you," feels hollow and insulting.
Wow that's horrific how could they do that to you!? I'm so glad you escaped and I hope you found some happiness and peace.
I'm Strayn (Australian). I'm here too correct some information. For the love of god, there aren't 13 dimensions: there are 13 and 1/3 and the 1/3 is a quantum position that is cross associated to all other dimensions (don't forget to carry the trinity)
Physicist here. The topic of dimensions is extremely interesting whenever someone thinks they know what they're talking about when they clearly don't.
Number of dimensions is more of a concept we use to analyze reality rather than a property of reality itself. We tend to think of our physical reality as three dimensions, in some cases some add time such as in General Relativity with spacetime or use the mathematical extension of 3D space for 4D space. But what a lot don't understand is that there is no "fourth dimension" as dimensions don't have any specific order to them in the same way that any of the three we're familiar with don't. Dimensions are more like the minimum number of directional measurements needed to represent some space for some mathematical or physical purpose.
In vector spaces it's not uncommon to work with significantly more than 3 dimensions, but these dimensions don't mean a physical reality that leads to spatial dimensions we don't see. The Poincare group is 10 dimensions for example, 4 spatial plus time, 3 for rotations, and 3 for boosts in each of the 3 spatial directions, but this again isn't something that means there's realities out there we don't see, it's just a group of values that represent different measurements. It's unfortunately common for people to see "dimensions" and think some fictional reality based off of it; if more people learned what dimensions actually are, I think it would help to identify many cults that use it as some sort of buzzword.
interesting stuff, thanks for sharing.
When people talk about interdimensional stuff they typically arent referring to our methods of creating objects in 3D. They are talking about an "ethereal" force. They arent talking about construction site dimensions.
@@youtubedeletedmynamewhybother Nor was I only talking about construction site dimensions or spatial dimensions. There is no "ethereal" anything that would be called dimensions.
That's part of what I was referring to when I said it's interesting when it's brought up because they clearly have no idea what they're talking about when they're referring to dimensions as some "ethereal force"
@@annaairahala9462 It is a metaphysical concept. That is what makes it "ethereal" and mysterious....
I find it amusing that you somehow take pride in others not knowing something that *Humanity Has Not Worked Out Yet*
YOU don't know what 4D is and neither does anyone else brother xD
@@youtubedeletedmynamewhybother I think you missed everything I said in my initial comment lol
Thanks for being a perfect example of the type of person I was referring to, someone saying "dimensions" without realizing what they're actually talking about. I suggest rereading my initial comment.
As an Australian, I can confirm you can go in to a mental facility for observation if you have a messiah complex (source: personally visited a mate with such delusions while in hospital).
Edit: at least voluntarily, not sure about forcibly without present danger.
'nother Aussie. I'm not an expert on our healthcare, but it's entirely believable to me that someone who is cogent and not obviously endangering themselves with a delusion would be not be detained unwillingly, even if their delusion is obviously ridiculous. Mental Health services are largely opt in except in extreme cases; if you don't want to be admitted to caring facilites, and you aren't an obvious danger to yourself or others, they'll probably leave you to go on your own way.
@@liampoulton-king7479 good point
I work at an Aussie emergency department and see a lot of mental health admissions (both voluntary and involuntary) yes you can be brought in for an involuntary mental health admission for messiah complex if you’re on a psychiatric treatment order and breach that order (eg not show up for treatment or stop taking your meds).
Most of them are picked up from the side of the road after a good samaritan calls in worried about them, and honestly they’re the kindest people, thanking the team for caring for the community and blessing everyone they come across
27:29 You can't really expect him to be forthcoming until he's finished his second and third coming 😂
[claps]
Yep I totally have a false memory of meeting my great grandmother before she died. I have never locked down the real early memory my brain used as the structure for the false memory, but I know the story that my brain mixed together to come up with the false memory. My mom and grandmother would always tell me about meeting Mimi before she passed away; I was a newborn, she was on her deathbed; they brought me to her room in the hospital and she got to hold me. My grandmother always tossed in that Mimi cried she was so happy to meet me. Somehow I've built a memory of this event but placed it at about 2 or 3 years of age for me because I somehow recall meeting her and being afraid because of all the monitoring devices attached to her.
I'm surprised Emma never seem to entertain this possibility, but to me it seems pretty obvious that Thomas, the filmmaker, is already a follower of AJ. He might also be a bonafide documentary filmmaker, but this specific documentary of his is clearly a puff piece for his own group.
Yeah, the ending sounded like they kicked him out of the cult because the sycophantic documentary wasn't sycophantic enough. I wonder if being away from it has helped him realize the BS, or if he wants to try to grovel his way back in, or if he's out there falling for the next charismatic charlatan to cross his path.
I think more likely he was already drawn to the group and leader, wanted to give their side of things and included pretty much what the leader told him to. Then he experienced the backlash and withdrawal of approval that could come for any number of reasons, but essentially not showing enough blind faith.
It seems that he at least had some second thoughts while making this film, which is reflected in the text at the end. But to what degree he still had questions in his own mind about the claims of the cult is unclear.
I had leukaemia when I was 17 and so I was put into the children's cancer ward. Hearing people say that they are responsible for their own illness or that their surroundings are responsible because they "don't love them enough" is just disgusting. Everybody there was so loved, I'm crying right now just thinking about everybody. One boy's whole family moved to a whole different country because there are specialist doctors for the type of cancer that he had at the hospital we were at.
Nobody believing in the Law of Attraction comes from a place of love. It is either egotistical boot-strappy thinking or (in my experience more common) a genuine inability to accept that bad things happen and that disease is not fair. I understand and have sympathy for people who struggle with the latter, but the thing people need to understand is that blaming someone for their own illness is not loving. The loving thing is showing a sick person that they are more than a healthy or sick body and that you love them for them and not their health.
Understandably, being stupid is not a criminal offence. However, taking advantage of the stupid, should be a prosecutable criminal offence.
I think it is. 🤔
That would really screw religion.
Taking advantage of the sick, vulnerable and downtrodden should be a capital offense.
"Because I'm English and he's Australian."
The maths checks out. - Signed, an Australian.
Literally had a friend tell me today that they weren't going to go to a licensed therapist anymore because they don't support their "visions of the dead"...😢 Mental health is a tricky thing, and these people need help but probably won't seek it.
Zombies, zombies EVERYWHERE
@@jwwebnaut7045 never a truer word spoken...
My favorite part is he remembers being crucified but can't recall other memories out of fear. You can talk about being executed in one of the worst ways possible like it was yesterday but talking to a woman by a well is too much for you?
"Oh no, it's going to become a fidget toy."
This is also me when I get my hands on collapsible... well... anything.
Australian here! It took me living with depression for almost 5 years before it was diagnosed because I learnt how to hide it. If he was a sociopath, lying is a very easy thing to do. No one would've known if he didn't let them, or until one of his cult members realises he was lying and calls him out on it.
If you watch The Bear you'll realize that "The chefs of New York are apex predators" is a truer statement than you think.
Even the random string of words you came up with makes more sense than anything AJ says.
Precisely what I was thinking lol
Excellent. I nearly skipped this one cos it's a bit long, but I delved in, and this is just effing pure Emmaness.
I remember hearing about this guy years ago, but had NO idea he was a JW. That makes so much more sense. I’m glad you’re bringing this nonsense to a wider audience!
There's certainly one thing that JW's and this guy have in common and it's whiteboards and conference centres. There's nothing I find less spiritually inspiring but I guess it takes all kinds.
I grew up in a cult and my read on this documentary is that Thomas has always been affiliated with the cult and is a secret member. These kinds of videos are not bad press for cults. The outrage that AJ expresses is a falsity. What this documentary does is allow AJ to show it to other members of the cult and new people being brought and say "see? This what the world thinks of us." Then use that verse about how the world will hate them because it first hated AJ. This is a great way to foster them vs us. The cult I was in did similar things but the documentaries were all set ups. No one ever did a documentary on them, it was just propaganda to make us feel unsafe outside of the demenses of the cult and untrustworthy of anyone not affiliated.
I can hear his mother {20th century mum] saying "he's not the messiah he's just a very naughty boy "
"The chefs of New York are apex predators." My new favorite phrase for discrediting anything. Thank you!
No! Wait! It's not necessarily false!
"He was an IT guy, then realised he was Jesus..."
As someone who works in IT, that sounds like quite a few of the people I work with.
All IT-guys have total control of all computers and the entire network of the company. It is a small step to start a cult.
I would be very interested to hear _in depth_ interviews with former followers, describing how they got involved in this group and what it was about their minds that made them susceptible to accepting that obviously absurd claims of these people claiming to be Jesus and Mary Magdalene. This is probably where the productive work is to be done, figuring out how to identify what makes people susceptible to this garbage and then finding ways to prevent children from growing up into adults with that kind of psychological proclivity in the first place.
Hi,
I have a group of them and concerned family members and friends on FB.
Obviously, "love" is just a code word for "obeying the cult leader."
Nothing short of full and unquestioning devotion is required.
These people also use "love bombing" to draw folks in who need that in their lives, then withdraw it, sometimes very harshly and critically when victims transgress in any way. It's incredibly damaging to vulnerable people, breaking their sense of self, making them question reality and accept abuse.
I’ve been blessed by the algorithm and you’ve been blessed with a new subscriber!
It must be a blessing from the IT department of UA-cam where a disciple of AJ works
it's so frustrating portraying cult recruitment tactics and behaviours without the context of manipulation of vulnerable people and those already emotionally connected to the situation. it's so clear when you have knowledge of how cults are built from the ground up that Divine Truth is a cult; to have it presented almost positively is so disgusting. I'm less that half an hour in and I could already write an essay on the emotional abuse forced on the cult's followers.
also: yes to sticking the nut on someone. underappreciated and underutilised phrase
Oh, a lovely Australian podcast that focuses on cults, primarly on victims telling their stories (with context of research and other stuff) talks about it so much. Let's Talk About Sects. The maker of the podcast, Sarah Steel, wrote a book on what she'd learned doing research, working with experts and broader social contexts.
A lot of places are putting coercive control laws on the books for domestic violence, which also have the side benefit of helping the victims of high control groups (like cults).
We call it headbutting in the States. I like yours better lol
G'day Emma our healthcare is pretty good thanks. The bar for being involuntarily admitted to psychiatric care is high. Any doctor hearing that AJ was having a six month panic attack or whatever would recommend he be admitted urgently but they can't send police to go get him on the description that he lays in bed all day shaking.
Fellow Aussie here, and I wonder where he was living at the time, too. In regional and country areas it's hard enough today to get good mental health services. If he was looking for services in the late 80s/early 90s, a local GP may be all he could access.
Been learning a lot lately about just how many out there religious, creationist, and flat earthers we have. 😮
Based on a quick look through Wikipedia at the guy and the cult - He's originally from Loxton and now lives in rural Queensland (kinda obvious from the docco tbh). His nearest mental health facility would be Toowoomba. I'm SA based, but guessing QLD is pretty similar - flat out atm, but would be able to make room for an admission even if it meant somewhere else is the system.
Family can request a mental health care check, but not many people know that. This is something that would have helped during the 6month bedridden period.
The alternative sermon on the mount. “ And god said have you tried turning it off and then on again!!”
🤣🤣🤣🤣
I was sold on your channel much earlier, but "silly little guy disease" made me go in and subscribe immediately. 😂
i fucking love Emma’s “excited little boy” energy
22:38 or silly little guy? ^^
really? i thought it was more like, 'if red bull gives you wings, what would red bull mixed with coffee and a pile of pure sugar' energy.
veering very close into the range of 'what is this thing called meth? i should give it a try' energy
I like Emma's "calling a cnut a cnut" energy.
It gives me life.
@@vforwombat9915
Emma on a mix of 175 mg Mandy and 10 mg 2C-B. Now that would be an interesting and happy energetic experience lol.
Australian physicist here. First off, wow, what a fukn ride this was! Thanks for covering this, had no idea this was happening on the same continent as me. Also, sorry if someone else answered this stuff elsewhere below but I'll give it a go in as few words as possible.
Second to answer your q's. Warning text wall!
Dimensions and more than 4 of them: So there's 4 dimensions for our macro universe, 3 spatial and 1 temporal or x, y, and z and time. A bit of ground work: These aren't anything profound, they're just the required amount of info to uniquely specify a point in space, somewhere in the universe. Eg: you wanna meet someone for shopping and so you gotta specify which shop (the x and y position on the face of the earth) the floor in the shopping centre (the z position) and the time you want to meet them. Keep in mind a "new" or "separate" dimension simply means that changing the properties/values of one doesn't affect the others. eg: you can change your x position while keeping your y and z positions the same, by walking in a straight line and therefore x movement is its own dimension. This is also why they're at 90° to each other! SO the 11+ dimensions make it a bit tricky to explain. It's abstract, but for string theory they're often described as "coiled" dimensions within other dimensions. Analogous to an ant walking on a string, the ant can follow the string (which might represent the x dimension) but can also walk "around" the string itself to change it's position in other ways (i.e. the other string theory-only dimensions) while still being in the same x position, hence additional dimensions within the x dimension. This is where the other 7+ dimensions are in string theory BUT it isn't where god or spirits are hiding, especially since string theory isn't shaping up well currently (depending on who you ask). It's a math construct and doesn't really have a good analogy to the real world since we're stuck with 3 spatial dimensions. Keep in mind that the "4th dimension" you mention is just time but a 4th spatial dimension doesn't make physical sense, since it'd need to be at 90° to each of the x, y and z dimension to fit the requirements above and this isn't possible. Spoiler, sorry, there's no spirits hiding in extra dimensions. He's just using "dimension" in the sci-fi context.
Third and re: dark matter. It isn't anything profound either. It's a case of: to explain the shapes and movement of galaxies using a modern understanding of gravity (which is otherwise REALLY good), there should be more mass than we can see. Like 50-90% more mass to explain the shapes and movements of said galaxies. We aren't sure what the extra mass is and we can't see anything there and so we just call it "dark matter". It could be multiple things like dust and gases too sparse to see OR it might be an exotic form of matter that doesn't interact with light (or any EM radiation) or something else. Dark energy is a bit weirder, but is based on the fact that the universe is expanding and accelerating and this CAN be directly observed via increasing red-shifted light from galaxies as the distances to them increases. This would require a force that overcomes gravity on very large scales. And there needs to be a LOT of it to explain what we see. This is where the ~25% dark matter and ~70% dark energy figure comes from.
That's it and it's frustrating when ppl use the above as an explanation for their crazy. Fuck me I hope this explanation helped at least one person, haha.
An actual Aussie has described Australia as "a snake-infested spider hole" on the internet (which makes it true, obviously lol). Emma, I started watching your channel when you had around 3,500 subscribers - now look at the sub count! Love your varied content and your love of coffee. Please don't stop making your awesome videos any time soon!
As another "actual Aussie" I can confirm that "a snake-infested spider hole" is a fair description.
Basic rule of survival down under: "Eight legs? Run. No legs? Run faster!"
and that description alone makes a valid argument to evac it all and eject it into the sun XD ..two of the most creepy crawly slithery things in a mental vision of cramped space , its the kind of thing if you found it in your backyard you dose the hole in gaz and light it up before its nightmare fuel finished breeding
Don't forget the drop bears and Yowies! 👀
@@Amoth_oth_ras_shashsomething like 97% of Australians hardly see the outback (ok the scariest Spiders are literally called Sydney funnel webs because they are from Sydney but they live in pretty deep holes in the ground and who does gardening nowadays???)
@@glenecollins australia.. people asked the nature cultures if nature so great where is its bio weapon black box lab ? quee australia right ? ;)
So many thoughts regarding this cult, but Emma telling her dinosaur buddy at 37:53 that they have a soul slays me. And their reaction! Like, "WHUUUUUT?"
Popping over to the 'cult checklist' is very telling. Great work editing this (better than the documentary).
In Australia, if you went to the doctor with this kind of thing, assuming your doctor isn't incompetent, you'd probably get a psychiatric referral. Whether you'd actually get to see a psychiatrist within 6 months and without paying for private coverage is another matter. The waiting lists for free psychs is extremely long.
That said you could probably also go to the hospital and see one of theirs if it's this severe.
The cork board series is becoming my favorite
16 seconds in and i'm baffled someone can say "mathematically proven" and "13 _or so_" in the same sentence. this guy is for sure a good source of information!
Had a bad day. This is what I need. Thank you Emma.
This was fascinating, I'd never heard of this group before. They sound genuinely worrying :(
I think the Fidget Pointer has great potential. Thanks for covering some of Australia's, um... "local colour".
I'd have thought a former IT Guy could spice up his seminars with a projector and a thrown together PowerPoint rather than relying on a whiteboard, but I guess I don't truly know Aussie Jesus.
Aussie mental healthcare is pretty freaking great. Your GP can refer you to a psych which is all almost free at the point of delivery ($50 fee which some people can get back). The psych will evaluate you and see if you qualify for any NDIS assistance and then you can go from there. Issue is, the bulk billing psychs are normally busy and mainly focus on just identifying if someone needs NIDS or is faking for benefits; they are not going to be on the lookout for someone lying to avoid a diagnosis.
Brother what are you talking about.
My doctor just referred me to an $800 session to get an ADHD diagnosis..... Health care in Australia is a fu cking joke and you actively have to fight against it to get anywhere.
Adult autism and adhd diagnosis aren't covered by Medicare. I just paid $700 for my adhd assessment. The availability of psychs that bulk bill is a joke. So is trying to get the NDIS if you have co morbid conditions. I eventually gave up on the ndis because I just turned 50 and qualify for Indigenous aged care services. It costs more, but trying to get the ndis was so fucking stressful (I have chronic pain, mobility issues and I'm going blind)
The issue is even the things that are covered by Medicare end up costing heaps now because no one bulk bills anymore.
Not to mention the privatized hospital.
Honestly if you get hurt or need help atm where i live, you may aswell be without healthcare in America. Unless you're rich you're on your own. @@angelawossname
@@youtubedeletedmynamewhybotherit's true that no one bulk bills but also worth mentioning that this is because the rates for bulk billing have fallen over the years. It's no longer particularly sustainable to run a bulk billing clinic and that sucks balls
Australian here. I've never heard of these people before. Let's go!
Newish to channel. Liking the basis of most discussions and your view. I instantly drew a conclusion from beginning to end that this was only the facade of a documentary masking the true intention which was simply advertising and recruiting. I believe that the appearance of being initially skeptical was simply to hope that viewers would drop their guard and become more receptive, while slowly turning up the heat to a slow boil. I believe that narrator was definitely a card carriying member. I am sorry, I have not read any other comments so if redundant or a similar view has been addressed, my appologies. Keep up the good work Emma, I look forward to watching more of your content. Kudos.
as proof of my idiocy, I did not watch the last 5 minutes before my comment. I agree totally.
I've been binging your content since I discovered your channel. I love your mix of informative, sarcasm, and snark. Keep the energy and keep producing such amazing content.
Hey, I'd really recommend not citing "false memory syndrome" because it was literally made up to silence cult and ritual abuse survivors.
And has nothing to do with the Satanic Panic or the innocent people who were thrown in jail and had their lives ruined right? Don't fight atrocities with pseudoscience and cause more atrocities.
Yeah, this^
Holy mackerel, if I thought processing a late in life AuDHD diagnosis was complex, imagine how wild it must be to accept that you are the second coming of Jesus. Well, 3rd, 4th, 5th & so on since several seem to have arrived during our lifetime alone. Perhaps they should form a support group 🙃
"Jesus Anonymous"
Sending my thoughts and prayers to the fan running in the background. I hope it returns to being in harmony with love, at least until the end of the month when the weather cools down. Great video, Emma, thanks!
Yeah, I listened to this guy for a few moments, and moaned, “Jesus Christ.” I suspect his parents did a lot of eye-rolling.
Man this video was so depressing bc of all the suffering this cult is putting people through ( I feel so bad for the father that lost his kid) and the fact that they person interviewing them is so obviously getting sucked in but I was thankfulluy shielded from this negative energy by you finishing the ad read with 'rumbly tummy' as the way you said it was delightful :D
As an aside I hope this cult doesn't manage to grow anymore, there is enough evil in this world as is and as someone who also has a chronic illness the last thing we need is yet more people blaming us for our health and then trying to scam us with positive thinking "cures" 🤢
I’m an IT guy, sometimes I think I’m Jesus, I walk over to a broken PC I put my hands on it and it works again. Sometimes I just look at them and they start working. I raise computers from the dead all the time.
I had a tech teacher in college who told us on the first day that sometimes things wouldn't work, we'd call him over, and then they would work again. We were encouraged to just shrug and get on with it.
I don’t think you overreacted. The documentarian seemed unwilling to challenge anything said. The explanation for not being willing to perform miracles was absurd, but not challenged. I personally like that a cluster of these reincarnated individuals , coincidentally, live near each other. Keeps most of us safe from running into one close to home!
Sound was fine, and I love these conspiracy-vision board episodes!
Great to have seen you in the Star Trek Fan Film Shorts. Your acting skills are pretty darned good. Episodes were - 'Chaos at the Neutral Zone', 'Broken Reality', and ''First Meeting'. Hope there are more to come.
Hey Emma. Maybe some of those spiders down under have a hallucination aspect to their venom. Here in the U.S.A., we have the biggest cult on the planet, we call them Trumpers. Coinky dinky, my Nana (grandma) had breast cancer and my Pop (grandpa) had skin cancer. Both won their battles. Side thought, you need a bigger coffee mug, and you have a picture of Captain Kirk!! Frikin awesome! Looking forward to your next post. Semper Fi from Wisconsin! 🖖
My siblings belong to the Trumper cult. No way to understand it. I just avoid the topic to keep the peace. They know I’m not one of them and fortunately our parents must have done something right.
It looks like a Captain Kirk action figure, sitting in his chair, with Uhura standing beside him. What I don't know is why the package is labelled "Barbie and Ken".
To be fair to us Aussies, nearly 40% of us at the last national census identified as following no religion. I've never heard of this group and I'm unaware of this documentary ever having been screened here in Australia, for if it was, that cult's beliefs would be roundly dismissed as complete nonsense by the vast majority of us and certainly everybody I know.
Not only that but most who do identify with a faith aren't regular attendees. That only makes up about 25% of Australians. Most people that identify with a faith might show up for religious holidays, if at all. Conservative religious people make up about 15% of Australians. We are pretty irreligious. It's been nearly a decade since I showed up at a synagogue. I still identify as Jewish (more strictly as a didgerijew, I have mixed ancestry) I think it's hard for us to understand the impact religion has on politics in other countries.
I read a very good book back in the 70's called Cults of Unreason, I can't remember the author. I hope you can get the chance to read some of it, it set my world view as a major foundation.
It especially chronicles scientology and the fraud Hubbard, but there is a lot more Koo Koo for Coco Puffs cults examined, please look if you get a chance.
My love to you Emma, you give this old geezer hope, I know you're busy but you've answered me positively before I hope one day we can converse personally.
It is by Christopher Richie Evans. I read it ages ago
Aussie healthcare is fairly cheap and easy to access but most GPs seem to be either jaded or underqualified (at least in my experience). In most cases the doc's that don't specialise in mental health need to be told by the patient specifically what to do (e.g. refer to psychologist/psychiatrist for assessment for X, Y or Z)
As someone who has sought medical treatment for schizophrenia in Australia, man had no chance of recieving any support just cause hes well spoken and can appear insightful
Ps id bet money that the other aussie show Emma liked was tracey mcbean
mathematician here. and I do believe i speak for all mathematicians when i say: we have no idea what he's on about
As an Australian, I agree that it's quite hot, there are a lot of fires and spiders. But... hear me out. Some of those spiders are Peacock Spiders and they are no joke the most delightful little blighters.
I'm so impressed with your content! There are so many crazy cults that I would have never heard of if it weren't for you! Keep up the excellent work!
I'm Australian and grew up as a Jehovah's Witness... we had a family called Miller that had about 8 sons and I'm 99% certain AJ is one of those boys..and I kinda wish I'd hung around to see what had happened in the congregation when THIS went down 😅 I'm gonna reach out to old friends n see if I can find out more.... 😏
First video of yours for me. Loved it! Laughing all the way through! You're great!!
I 👏 LOVE 👏 THIS 👏 VIDEO 👏 it always amazes me when I watch videos like this, how much crossover there is between cults and modern day christianity (because lets be honest they're just socially "acceptable" cults). I would love a video specifically on magical thinking and "faith" 😊
Honestly, there's so much here that was meant to be shocking, and should be, but looked to me like just another evangelical house church. Take away the Jesus schtick and add some "gifts of the spirit", and it's scarily familiar to me.
I just found this video randomly and I like your content, will be following!
I just wanted to add for people who don't know, the reason he was saying people were just moving to live by him and saying that he waited until after he started his ministry to reveal himself as Jesus. both these things are things that happen to the biblical Jesus. just showcase how they incorporate these details. The small parts that "make sense" are a big way they convince believers
AJ never lost a file to a power cut as an IT technician.
Why?
Jesus saves.
Jesus also backs up in three separate places. If it's not in three separate places it doesn't exist. lol
@@upstatelee18 the real holy trinity
Jesus autosaves.
Aussie here.. We have medicare for all, which is usually great. But after a decade of conservative leadership the budget is bullshit. Medicare gives us 10 psych sessions a year. It definitely needs to be better
Australian here. Australia takes mental health pretty seriously depending on where you are in the country - some states have more resources than others. Where AJ is in QLD, I'd say mental health services are pretty mid compared to elsewhere. Regardless of that, I cant imagine any GP here not referring someone to get a mental health check if it seemed they needed one.
Shouldn't he have said, "dinosaurs totally existed 'cause me dad made 'em" ?
As an Australian I think this documentary is Aussie humour. :) :) ;) And as far as our health system goes, it's all free and easily accessible. This doco is NOT an example of Australians, some of us think! I love your stuff, I don't love the doco!
Actually, no, it’s not humor. Emma’s take on it is humor. There really is a cult in Australia led by a guy named AJ Miller who represents himself as Jesus.
Think of the many non-gullible Marys, who each have the memory of a really weird date with a divine nerd!
When someone talks about whiteboard conspiracy nuts, Santos Bonacci comes to my mind. He's a flat earther (among other things) posing as a "spiritual guru" kind of person. When I see the flat earth debunkers talking about him, I just cannot understand how anyone would believe anything he says. I think AJ and Santos are in the same category of whiteboard conspiracy nuts.
What a great video. Well done.
Side note Emma's plot about older person mentioning to the younger hotter person "you were my spouse in a past life" is literally a to an episode of American Dad. Stan gets tricked into thinking he's the reincarnation of some old Hollywood starlet but he's only half assing having the false memories since he himself is a narcissist so he's only interested in the parts about him being a famous comedian and is repulsed by her obvious attempts of using this to pray on and seduce him.