
The Sedona Cult of Bentinho Massaro - empath75
https://medium.com/@bescofield/tech-bro-guru-inside-the-sedona-cult-of-bentinho-massaro-a56314f830ef
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jondubois
I kind of hoped that we were moving towards an age of rationality and
reasoning where people will finally be able to think for themselves but it
seems that the opposite is happening.

Literally everything these days is a cult. Including companies (e.g. Apple),
and money itself (e.g. cryptocurrencies).

It makes me think that there must be some really powerful evolutionary
processes in place which make it so that irrational idolists have more
children and live longer than rational people.

~~~
AndrewKemendo
This is a big source of existential dread for me.

At one point about a decade ago, not long after college, I had this conviction
that over time with more available granular information about the world,
people would start to be more epistemic [1] about how they viewed the world.
In fact what I found though, was that more information seems to have led to
the opposite. That people's interpretation of the same information seems to
reinforce already held beliefs about the state of things rather than update
their beliefs.

Not sure where that leads the zeitgeist with ever increasing barrage and
availability of information, skewed or otherwise.

[1][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistemology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistemology)

~~~
rhizome
"Most people" don't care why they know what they know, they just know it. I
imagine it's a less stressful existence.

That said, every age, every transformation, has its dissidents.
Counterarguments for that are Utopia and "global unity" type sentiments, but
history tells us those aren't realistic goals. YMMV.

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bleezy
This is just a guy with a cult. It's similar to a startup/technology company
in only the most superficial ways. The guy who runs this cult plays ping pong
and wears sunglasses indoors? Oh what a scathing indictment of Silicon Valley
culture.

~~~
Apocryphon
The NYT seems to be finding several of these new New Age cults:

[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/04/technology/silicon-
valley...](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/04/technology/silicon-valley-
esalen-institute.html) (the Esalen Institute)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10906754](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10906754)
(the rationality cult related to Eliezer Yudkowsky and LessWrong)

~~~
groby_b
The NYT hardly "found" Esalen. The thing is around since the early 60s. And
has been home to people like Timothy Leary, Buckminster Fuller, B.F.Skinner,
Virginia Satir, Allen Ginsberg, Joan Baez...

It's a rather well-known home of counter culture. Silly Valley simply hopes
something rubs off on them. Because the realization is starting to set in that
you, after all, really cannot take your toys with you.

But really, "finding" is a pretty strong word for writing about one of the
major touch stones of 60s culture.

~~~
659087
> The NYT hardly "found" Esalen. The thing is around since the early 60s. And
> has been home to people like Timothy Leary, Buckminster Fuller, B.F.Skinner,
> Virginia Satir, Allen Ginsberg, Joan Baez...

> It's a rather well-known home of counter culture.

..which makes it both sad and amusing that it has become a place for a bunch
of Silicon Valley executives to go try to "find themselves" and look for
affirmation that their advertising and surveillance companies aren't
detrimental to society.

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smacktoward
This appears to be Massaro's response:
[http://www.bentinhomassaro.com/read/our-first-official-
respo...](http://www.bentinhomassaro.com/read/our-first-official-response-to-
the-cult-accusations)

It contains a sentence that may be the most perfect thing an "Instagram guru"
could ever write:

 _I have modeled many different jackets, teachings and examples within a short
period of time._

~~~
659087
I couldn't get through it. Rarely have I seen more words used to say
absolutely nothing while completely avoiding actually addressing anything in
the article supposedly being addressed.

"Love and Light,"

It looks like this guy might be getting his ideas from a certain show on Hulu.

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659087
I can't figure out whether to upvote this to expose this person, or downvote
it to avoid giving this person exposure.

It never ceases to amaze me just how many fools are out there just waiting to
fall for something like this. It's terrifying. Instagram douche meets cult
leader has got to be the worst personality combo I've ever seen in my life.

On another note, this stuff makes scientologists sound completely reasonable
and sane by comparison.

~~~
natoliniak
I agree. But despite the bizarre fact is that there is a real market for these
kind of "Gurus" to fill, but unless someone is forced to join or kept in the
cult by force then what's the problem? he chooses to lead and followers choose
to follow.

~~~
now_l93
They are forced to stay in the cult through coercion. Members join willingly,
and the cult slowly isolates them, encourages to shut out family and friends,
takes all their money and makes them financially helpless. By the time they
realize what's going on, they have no safe way to leave the cult. That leaves
the members vulnerable to all sorts of abuse. That's why joining a cult should
be seen as a problem, and not just as someone's preference.

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tanepiper
Quite a terrifying read, but not unexpected.

These types of cults pop up in America, and usually at least once in a
generation there is one that somehow captures peoples imaginations (People’s
Temple, Branch Davidians, Heaven's Gate, etc). I don't include Scientology in
this list - no matter how insidious that organisation is, it's never lead to a
mass suicide.

The people who follow these leaders are lost, usually from broken background -
some run away from home and fall in to it.

The leaders tend to be diagnosed (mostly after the fact though analysts) as
narcissists. Polyamory is usually a feature of their style, as well as mental
and physical abuse of their followers. They have no problem in "breaking"
people for their own sick fantasy.

~~~
gaius
_no matter how insidious that organisation is, it 's never lead to a mass
suicide._

Neither did the Davidians, to be fair

~~~
jstarfish
Standing up to the ATF in Waco was nothing short of a suicide mission; dozens
of people died as a result.

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QAPereo
_“My vision is to buy a large piece of land and start a new city with all of
you…As with everything I will succeed.”_

Run roh, bit of a flashing red warning sign with hints of Jonestown.

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jvagner
It's hard to get the appeal from these videos. He's... not a strong presence.

~~~
calbear81
Especially the early ones where he just seems to be making shit up on the fly
and taking really long pauses to think about a good answer. Then again, maybe
that makes him more relatable to the average person?

~~~
jvagner
The shit-eating grin must work for a particular kind of audience. It counter-
signals hard to me.

I know some real narcissists, and I think there's a moment before their
narcissism is confirm-able that their "power" has more currency than it will
later. I guess we can call it "charisma", but once it turns... it can feel
rancid. I guess for some people, that rancid-ness doesn't show up.

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659087
> "It means that we reach a level of maturity to where we as a collective are
> able to be contacted openly without us freaking out anymore, without it
> needing to be kept secret anymore, we have become > _are_ < own government.”

Apparently being god means you don't have to use the right words when
communicating.

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kiddico
Does anyone know what a "dharma battle" would consist of?

~~~
cr0sh
It's kinda like a rap battle, just with more incense and meditation.

/s

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strayamaaate
I’m still not 100% sure this is for real. It’s just so utterly insane.

~~~
659087
It does seem almost like he started off just trolling people, then decided to
run with it when he realized people were willing to pay and/or have sex with
him in exchange for that trolling.

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pmoriarty
I am surprised he is not running for President of the United States.

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nkrisc
Seems like the people who follow him are already predisposed to believe in
fanciful ideas like gods and other supernatural beings. Doesn't seem so hard
to fool people who already are willing to accept beliefs beyond evidence.

> I’ve watched him control the weather a lot of times. We’ll be at a party and
> I’ll be like ‘Bentinho these clouds are not good, it looks like rain. Within
> ten minutes they’re gone.

That's a laughably low standard of proof to accept for anything. Let me guess,
he can turn invisible too when there's no one looking.

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sunstone
Smells like Scientology redux. Meh.

