Latest / River City Mystery - Investigating mysteries in southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and western Kentucky / Heralds of the Ascendant

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Heralds of the Ascendant · River City Mystery - Investigating mysteries in southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and western Kentucky

• 0:01
  Speaker: You may or may not have heard
• 0:02
  Speaker: about this mysterious group in
• 0:03
  Speaker: southern Illinois.
• 0:05
  Speaker: A lot of people call it a cult.
• 0:07
  Speaker: Others know almost nothing about it.
• 0:10
  Speaker: And at the center of the group is its anonymous founder, known
• 0:13
  Speaker: only as the prophet.
• 0:15
  Speaker: I came across this group while doing research online for other
• 0:18
  Speaker: episodes for the podcast.
• 0:20
  Speaker: But the more I looked into it, the more elusive it seemed.
• 0:24
  Speaker: There were all kinds of rumors
• 0:25
  Speaker: and bits of information online,
• 0:27
  Speaker: and a lot of speculation, but
• 0:29
  Speaker: very little.
• 0:29
  Speaker: That gave me a real sense of who these people were.
• 0:32
  Speaker: I wanted to know if there really was a cult in Southern Illinois,
• 0:36
  Speaker: and if so, was it in some way a cause for concern?
• 0:40
  Speaker: So I took a chance and reached out to someone who claimed to be
• 0:43
  Speaker: a member of the group on Reddit.
• 0:45
  Speaker: I was looking for answers, but I never imagined that one message
• 0:48
  Speaker: would lead to a direct contact with the leader of the
• 0:51
  Speaker: mysterious group called Heralds of the Ascendant.
• 0:56
  Speaker: I'm Matt Deig, and in this episode of River City Mystery.
• 1:00
  Speaker: You'll hear my conversation with the group's anonymous leader
• 1:02
  Speaker: known as the prophet.
• 1:06
  Speaker: I see two horribly hideous looking little dog like
• 1:10
  Speaker: creatures in this house.
• 1:12
  Speaker: It was a disembodied voice.
• 1:13
  Speaker: It was like a little child trying to scare us.
• 1:16
  Speaker: I don't know what this was.
• 1:19
  Speaker: I I've I've heard everything you can think of.
• 1:23
  Speaker: This was nothing I'm ever accustomed to.
• 1:25
  Speaker: Ever.
• 1:26
  Speaker: It was terrifying because it was like our.
• 1:29
  Speaker: There were so many people to
• 1:30
  Speaker: where it was like, are we all
• 1:31
  Speaker: seeing this?
• 1:33
  Speaker: So everybody is scared.
• 1:34
  Speaker: The kids are crying.
• 1:35
  Speaker: The women don't.
• 1:36
  Speaker: You know June's about to lose it.
• 1:39
  Speaker: And what are they to do?
• 1:41
  Speaker: These things will not die.
• 1:46
  Speaker: Welcome back to another episode of River City Mystery.
• 1:48
  Speaker: Glad you're here.
• 1:50
  Speaker: I, uh, I didn't know which intro music to use.
• 1:53
  Speaker: My wife had suggested having an
• 1:55
  Speaker: intro that for my true crime
• 1:58
  Speaker: podcasts, and then another intro
• 2:00
  Speaker: for my paranormal related
• 2:02
  Speaker: podcasts.
• 2:03
  Speaker: This one doesn't really fall into either category, and I
• 2:05
  Speaker: wasn't going to make a whole intro for cult related things,
• 2:09
  Speaker: so the paranormal one will just have to do.
• 2:12
  Speaker: Um, this episode is a little different than my normal
• 2:14
  Speaker: episodes, but this is a topic I've been kind of researching on
• 2:17
  Speaker: my own for a while now, and I've really just wanted to dig in and
• 2:21
  Speaker: see what this was all about.
• 2:22
  Speaker: This, this group called heralds of the ascendant.
• 2:25
  Speaker: So it's not an endorsement of the group or I'm not encouraging
• 2:29
  Speaker: people to, to join cults or anything of that nature.
• 2:32
  Speaker: I'm just a curious person and wanted to know more about it.
• 2:35
  Speaker: And with that, I want to welcome the prophet to the show.
• 2:39
  Speaker: Thank you for joining me.
• 2:40
  Speaker: And, um, I've been wanting to learn more about your group for
• 2:43
  Speaker: a long time now, actually.
• 2:45
  Speaker: Oh, really?
• 2:46
  Speaker: Do tell.
• 2:46
  Speaker: I loved hearing people's experiences and learning about
• 2:49
  Speaker: us and stuff.
• 2:51
  Speaker: Well, I mean, I don't know much about you, except that, um, I as
• 2:55
  Speaker: part of my podcast, I'm always kind of doing research and
• 2:58
  Speaker: things of that nature as far as like groups in the area,
• 3:01
  Speaker: anything mysterious or unknown.
• 3:02
  Speaker: And I'd always come across like cults and cult discussions.
• 3:06
  Speaker: People were saying, oh, there's these strange people.
• 3:09
  Speaker: Not maybe not strange people, but people approaching me in
• 3:11
  Speaker: Walmart parking lots.
• 3:12
  Speaker: And I think there's a cult in southern Illinois.
• 3:14
  Speaker: And I would do research, but it wasn't.
• 3:16
  Speaker: There really was never anything
• 3:18
  Speaker: out there specifically about
• 3:20
  Speaker: your group and except for your
• 3:23
  Speaker: website.
• 3:24
  Speaker: And finally I found out the name
• 3:25
  Speaker: of your group was heralds of the
• 3:27
  Speaker: ascendant.
• 3:27
  Speaker: And but I really know nothing more other than that.
• 3:30
  Speaker: And there's these rumors of you're this cult in southern
• 3:32
  Speaker: Illinois and just a lot of the stuff on Reddit.
• 3:35
  Speaker: And I'm like, I like to do my own independent research and
• 3:38
  Speaker: hear from the source.
• 3:40
  Speaker: I don't want to just hear, you know, let's take what people are
• 3:42
  Speaker: saying on Reddit for, you know, this truth, right?
• 3:45
  Speaker: Which I appreciate so much because so many people just see
• 3:48
  Speaker: like, is this a cult?
• 3:49
  Speaker: And then that's, that's it.
• 3:50
  Speaker: That's the end of it.
• 3:51
  Speaker: Oh, I bet so.
• 3:52
  Speaker: And then and full disclosure, I reached out to you.
• 3:54
  Speaker: You didn't reach out to me, so I and I appreciate you accepting
• 3:58
  Speaker: the offer because, I mean, you didn't have to.
• 4:00
  Speaker: And it's a great opportunity because we need more press.
• 4:03
  Speaker: So it's it's a win win.
• 4:04
  Speaker: Absolutely.
• 4:05
  Speaker: And I really appreciate it as well.
• 4:07
  Speaker: I guess we'll just start off
• 4:08
  Speaker: with what exactly is heralds of
• 4:09
  Speaker: the ascendant.
• 4:10
  Speaker: So we are first and foremost, um a new faith.
• 4:15
  Speaker: We could also be considered like a pagan church, I suppose.
• 4:18
  Speaker: And we more than anything seek
• 4:21
  Speaker: to make the world a better
• 4:22
  Speaker: place.
• 4:23
  Speaker: Uh, almost every herald has
• 4:25
  Speaker: experienced some sort of toxic
• 4:27
  Speaker: faith practices, uh, in some
• 4:30
  Speaker: way.
• 4:30
  Speaker: And religious abuse and extremism is something that we
• 4:32
  Speaker: recognize as one of the largest sources of our world's problems,
• 4:36
  Speaker: especially here in America.
• 4:38
  Speaker: So we educate about ethical faith practices and providing a
• 4:43
  Speaker: space where people can engage in faith without being exploited or
• 4:46
  Speaker: extorted, abused, you know, all that fun stuff that comes with a
• 4:51
  Speaker: lot of modern churches.
• 4:52
  Speaker: Um, not all of them, of course.
• 4:55
  Speaker: Obligatory, not all of them.
• 4:56
  Speaker: But it as as many on the
• 4:58
  Speaker: internet say it was fucking one
• 5:00
  Speaker: is um.
• 5:02
  Speaker: Right, right.
• 5:03
  Speaker: Uh, our doctrine works towards
• 5:06
  Speaker: the purpose of like, making the
• 5:08
  Speaker: world a better place as far as
• 5:11
  Speaker: religion goes.
• 5:12
  Speaker: And in general, uh, we give
• 5:15
  Speaker: people, it helps people to get
• 5:18
  Speaker: out of more toxic groups in a
• 5:22
  Speaker: way.
• 5:22
  Speaker: Um, because a lot of, a lot of
• 5:25
  Speaker: the time when someone is in an
• 5:27
  Speaker: actual abusive cult environment,
• 5:30
  Speaker: one of the things that keeps
• 5:31
  Speaker: them from getting out is that
• 5:34
  Speaker: once they step out of the group,
• 5:36
  Speaker: all the magic in their world is
• 5:37
  Speaker: lost.
• 5:38
  Speaker: You know, there's no longer some big deity in the sky that loves
• 5:41
  Speaker: you so much.
• 5:42
  Speaker: It just all becomes mundane.
• 5:44
  Speaker: And that that is a huge barrier of exiting for a lot of people
• 5:47
  Speaker: who are in cults.
• 5:48
  Speaker: So we.
• 5:50
  Speaker: Our doctrine Encompasses almost every religion of every faith.
• 5:55
  Speaker: And in that way, we're able to not say so much of you were
• 5:59
  Speaker: stupid, and we're going to get you out of here.
• 6:02
  Speaker: Instead, we say you've been lied to and we're here to help.
• 6:05
  Speaker: So we're kind of like an anti-cult cult.
• 6:08
  Speaker: Like we have our own doctrine.
• 6:10
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 6:11
  Speaker: But at the same time, we help
• 6:13
  Speaker: people to get out of bad
• 6:16
  Speaker: religious groups and, uh, teach
• 6:19
  Speaker: about ethical faith practices
• 6:22
  Speaker: and how to live a healthy life,
• 6:24
  Speaker: including faith.
• 6:26
  Speaker: And, uh, we have like internal, um, I want to say fail safes for
• 6:32
  Speaker: because, you know, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
• 6:35
  Speaker: So we have a lot of checks and balances within the organization
• 6:39
  Speaker: as well, uh, to keep us from falling down the rabbit hole of
• 6:43
  Speaker: any kind of icky culty stuff.
• 6:46
  Speaker: And why do you think people think that you are a cult?
• 6:49
  Speaker: Like, why is that a A perception out there that you are.
• 6:53
  Speaker: Um, I think well, one is definitely because there are two
• 6:58
  Speaker: definitions of the word cult.
• 7:00
  Speaker: There's, of course, the
• 7:02
  Speaker: Jonestown type cult where it's,
• 7:04
  Speaker: um, you know, abusive and
• 7:06
  Speaker: exploitative and all that lovely
• 7:10
  Speaker: stuff, um, with lovely endings
• 7:12
  Speaker: there.
• 7:13
  Speaker: Absolutely.
• 7:14
  Speaker: And then there's the, I don't
• 7:16
  Speaker: want to say original meaning,
• 7:18
  Speaker: but the more classical meaning
• 7:19
  Speaker: of just any new religion, i.e.
• 7:22
  Speaker: like the cult of Dionysus, the
• 7:24
  Speaker: cult of Hera, the cult of
• 7:26
  Speaker: Astarte.
• 7:28
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 7:28
  Speaker: Um, it can just mean any new religion.
• 7:31
  Speaker: So in that form, we are indeed under that label.
• 7:36
  Speaker: Um, it's also probably because we, when we do public
• 7:41
  Speaker: appearances, we, uh, we like to get theatrical with it.
• 7:45
  Speaker: We like to dress up, we like to go full regalia and, um, it's,
• 7:50
  Speaker: it's, it's both because it helps people to, um, feel the magic of
• 7:58
  Speaker: what we're doing.
• 7:58
  Speaker: It helps people to express themselves in a radical way that
• 8:02
  Speaker: they may not have been able to before, which is very much a
• 8:06
  Speaker: part of what we do.
• 8:08
  Speaker: Um, but it's also because it, it gets people talking, it gets
• 8:11
  Speaker: eyes on us, you know, um, and in another way, we like, we, um, I
• 8:17
  Speaker: think we've co-opted a lot of like, I don't want to say
• 8:20
  Speaker: Catholic, but a lot of like cathedral type imagery.
• 8:24
  Speaker: Um, because a lot of our members
• 8:28
  Speaker: have religious trauma from the
• 8:30
  Speaker: Catholic Church or the Christian
• 8:31
  Speaker: church.
• 8:32
  Speaker: And for them, that can feel like
• 8:34
  Speaker: taking back what was lost in a
• 8:37
  Speaker: way.
• 8:37
  Speaker: What exactly is religious trauma
• 8:40
  Speaker: or what would be an example of
• 8:41
  Speaker: religious trauma.
• 8:42
  Speaker: Exactly.
• 8:43
  Speaker: Um, well, I'm not at liberty to
• 8:46
  Speaker: tell you any of my Harold
• 8:49
  Speaker: specific traumas, but I could
• 8:50
  Speaker: tell you one of mine if you
• 8:51
  Speaker: would like.
• 8:52
  Speaker: Well, sure.
• 8:53
  Speaker: So, um, one of my many religious
• 8:56
  Speaker: traumas, uh, when I was very,
• 8:59
  Speaker: very young.
• 8:59
  Speaker: I'm talking like maybe five, four or five six around there.
• 9:04
  Speaker: It's hazy when the executive.
• 9:06
  Speaker: The exact memory was, but, um, I, I went to church with some
• 9:11
  Speaker: neighborhood kids just because I wanted to hang out and eat
• 9:13
  Speaker: cookies with the other kids and have a good time.
• 9:15
  Speaker: I didn't mind that we were learning about Jesus because
• 9:17
  Speaker: what a fun story that was.
• 9:19
  Speaker: Um, one day when I went to this church, we, we keep in mind our
• 9:25
  Speaker: parents had no warning of this.
• 9:27
  Speaker: We had no warning of this.
• 9:28
  Speaker: We had no idea this was going to happen.
• 9:31
  Speaker: Okay.
• 9:32
  Speaker: Normally we would go into the building, we would run around in
• 9:36
  Speaker: the big amphitheater area for a little while, and then the
• 9:39
  Speaker: teacher would arrive, herd us into our little classroom.
• 9:42
  Speaker: We would have cookies and Kool-Aid and talk about Jesus.
• 9:46
  Speaker: Okay.
• 9:46
  Speaker: Or a Bible story or whatever.
• 9:48
  Speaker: This was not what happened that day.
• 9:50
  Speaker: This day we didn't get to play at all.
• 9:52
  Speaker: And they all seemed angry.
• 9:55
  Speaker: And they mushed us into this
• 9:57
  Speaker: room, and they put us all in
• 9:59
  Speaker: this little bitty room with this
• 10:01
  Speaker: guy who was dressed in what I
• 10:04
  Speaker: could only describe as like
• 10:05
  Speaker: rags.
• 10:07
  Speaker: Okay.
• 10:07
  Speaker: Um, he smelled he smelled terrible.
• 10:11
  Speaker: I remember that very vividly.
• 10:14
  Speaker: Um, normally we all sat in these
• 10:16
  Speaker: cute, comfy little pillow
• 10:17
  Speaker: chairs.
• 10:17
  Speaker: We weren't allowed to sit this time.
• 10:20
  Speaker: And over the course of like, I want to say two or three hours
• 10:23
  Speaker: while we were stuck in there with this man who I think we
• 10:27
  Speaker: were locked in there, like the teachers didn't even stay in
• 10:29
  Speaker: there with us.
• 10:30
  Speaker: It was just us and him.
• 10:32
  Speaker: Oh my God.
• 10:32
  Speaker: He told us all that we were going to die tomorrow, and he
• 10:36
  Speaker: wrote down the tomorrow's date on our hands.
• 10:40
  Speaker: Um, and being a little terrified little child, I was like, how
• 10:46
  Speaker: are we gonna die tomorrow?
• 10:48
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 10:48
  Speaker: And he said, exactly like Jesus did.
• 10:51
  Speaker: And then he proceeded to tell us all of the tortures and horrible
• 10:55
  Speaker: things that Jesus went through.
• 10:57
  Speaker: And of course, by the end of
• 10:59
  Speaker: this, we were all screaming and
• 11:00
  Speaker: crying and freaking out and
• 11:01
  Speaker: pounding on the walls, trying to
• 11:03
  Speaker: get out.
• 11:03
  Speaker: One of us, uh, one kid tried to tackle him.
• 11:06
  Speaker: You know, I think I bit him at one point.
• 11:09
  Speaker: Like, we were scared.
• 11:10
  Speaker: We believed him.
• 11:11
  Speaker: I think I got in huge trouble
• 11:13
  Speaker: for biting him, if I remember
• 11:14
  Speaker: correctly.
• 11:15
  Speaker: Um, but.
• 11:17
  Speaker: No, but at the end of it, at the end of it, he, like, took a wet
• 11:21
  Speaker: wipe and wiped the numbers off of our hands and told us that
• 11:24
  Speaker: Jesus had saved us.
• 11:26
  Speaker: Um, but we were all completely inconsolable by this point.
• 11:31
  Speaker: And I, as a little kid after
• 11:33
  Speaker: that, after I went home, I
• 11:34
  Speaker: didn't sleep for like three days
• 11:35
  Speaker: and three nights because I was
• 11:37
  Speaker: so mortified.
• 11:39
  Speaker: And I need you to know, like I, I researched this stuff.
• 11:43
  Speaker: This kind of thing is not as
• 11:45
  Speaker: uncommon as one would hope it
• 11:47
  Speaker: is.
• 11:48
  Speaker: This kind of thing is happening all over the world right now,
• 11:52
  Speaker: and it's terrifying.
• 11:55
  Speaker: And so this is the sort of teachings you're trying to
• 11:57
  Speaker: provide an alternative to is that we, we, we want to rescue
• 12:02
  Speaker: people from that and also to help them to heal from it.
• 12:05
  Speaker: Okay.
• 12:06
  Speaker: And you're known as in the heralds of the ascendant.
• 12:09
  Speaker: You're known as the prophet.
• 12:11
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 12:12
  Speaker: Are you the founder of the group?
• 12:14
  Speaker: Yes.
• 12:15
  Speaker: Okay.
• 12:15
  Speaker: How did you become the, I guess what is what is a prophet?
• 12:18
  Speaker: And then how did you become the prophet?
• 12:19
  Speaker: What's what's the story with with how that became to be.
• 12:23
  Speaker: So the prophet of the heralds is sort of like the title of
• 12:27
  Speaker: founder, but just for faith.
• 12:29
  Speaker: Uh, I was the first to put these truths together in this format,
• 12:34
  Speaker: in this order.
• 12:35
  Speaker: So this faith in a way, is my prophecy, my gospel.
• 12:40
  Speaker: Uh, in the material sense.
• 12:41
  Speaker: It's that simple.
• 12:42
  Speaker: It's in all honesty, I didn't even mean for it to become its
• 12:46
  Speaker: own faith at the beginning.
• 12:48
  Speaker: Uh, it all kind of just started as a big running theory, but
• 12:52
  Speaker: then I would start discussing it with friends and digging deeper.
• 12:55
  Speaker: And the hope and the wonderment and the like relief that I would
• 13:02
  Speaker: see in people's eyes as I told them my theories just told me
• 13:07
  Speaker: like, I've got a, I've got a, I've got to dig deeper.
• 13:11
  Speaker: I've got to find more because this is helping people.
• 13:14
  Speaker: Um, and this was before I was even professing it as a faith.
• 13:17
  Speaker: I was just discussing it because
• 13:18
  Speaker: it was always a hobby of mine to
• 13:20
  Speaker: look into like religion and
• 13:21
  Speaker: stuff.
• 13:22
  Speaker: Right.
• 13:22
  Speaker: Um, but I had a lady come up to me one day after we discussed it
• 13:26
  Speaker: at like a, this like high tea party thing that I'd gone to.
• 13:29
  Speaker: It was really cute.
• 13:31
  Speaker: And, uh, she had tears in her eyes and she was like, this
• 13:34
  Speaker: helped me so much.
• 13:35
  Speaker: And you gotta tell everybody about it.
• 13:38
  Speaker: And I was like, okay, maybe.
• 13:39
  Speaker: Maybe there's something here.
• 13:40
  Speaker: Maybe there's something here, right.
• 13:43
  Speaker: Um, on the spiritual side of things, I'm the prophet because
• 13:47
  Speaker: I have been in contact with what we call a watcher.
• 13:51
  Speaker: Um, these are like primordial
• 13:53
  Speaker: beings that were, uh, some of
• 13:56
  Speaker: the first conscious creatures to
• 13:58
  Speaker: wake up when our world was
• 13:59
  Speaker: forming.
• 14:00
  Speaker: Okay.
• 14:01
  Speaker: Um, this watcher has helped me
• 14:03
  Speaker: to put the pieces of our gospel
• 14:04
  Speaker: together and continues to teach
• 14:06
  Speaker: me this day sort of as like a
• 14:08
  Speaker: patron deity.
• 14:09
  Speaker: Other heralds are welcome to call out to this watcher if they
• 14:12
  Speaker: wish, and other followers of this watcher do exist and will
• 14:16
  Speaker: continue to exist long after me, uh, and are welcome to share
• 14:20
  Speaker: their input within our circle.
• 14:22
  Speaker: Uh, and then to the Herald
• 14:23
  Speaker: specifically, I'm the prophet
• 14:25
  Speaker: because I am a divine contact
• 14:27
  Speaker: with our watcher, specifically
• 14:29
  Speaker: one that said, if any deity
• 14:31
  Speaker: should ever retaliate against
• 14:33
  Speaker: us, that their divine
• 14:34
  Speaker: retribution or wrath should fall
• 14:37
  Speaker: on me alone, sparing my heralds
• 14:39
  Speaker: of fault.
• 14:41
  Speaker: This contract we made allowed for the creation of what we
• 14:44
  Speaker: called the Vale Fire, which is a seed of divinity that we've
• 14:48
  Speaker: planted directly within my heart, that hopefully with our
• 14:54
  Speaker: theories, with enough divine energy and belief and enough,
• 14:59
  Speaker: you know, the stuff that gives gods their power, at least what
• 15:02
  Speaker: we believe, uh, worship could one day bloom into a new God.
• 15:08
  Speaker: Uh. This ascension will likely
• 15:10
  Speaker: consume my soul like kindling to
• 15:13
  Speaker: a wildfire.
• 15:14
  Speaker: But that's okay.
• 15:15
  Speaker: Um. I will become the will of
• 15:17
  Speaker: this new deity and guide it to
• 15:19
  Speaker: make our world a better place
• 15:21
  Speaker: for everyone.
• 15:22
  Speaker: This new god is called the ascendant.
• 15:24
  Speaker: And as it started within humanity and will ascend to
• 15:28
  Speaker: divinity, um, it may take on a new name at that time.
• 15:31
  Speaker: Who knows?
• 15:32
  Speaker: Um, but it will be the first
• 15:34
  Speaker: deity intentionally created with
• 15:36
  Speaker: human hands.
• 15:38
  Speaker: Some heralds believe the ascendant is already awakening.
• 15:41
  Speaker: Some think of it as a distant
• 15:42
  Speaker: prospect, and others still speak
• 15:44
  Speaker: of the ascendant as if it has
• 15:46
  Speaker: already risen as a way to
• 15:47
  Speaker: manifest their desire and add
• 15:49
  Speaker: their belief to the veil fire in
• 15:50
  Speaker: everyday life.
• 15:52
  Speaker: Wow.
• 15:52
  Speaker: Okay.
• 15:53
  Speaker: There's a lot.
• 15:53
  Speaker: You got all that, honey?
• 15:54
  Speaker: I got it all.
• 15:55
  Speaker: I understand it perfectly, I understand.
• 15:57
  Speaker: That's everything I need.
• 15:59
  Speaker: Well, I mean, starting off with
• 16:00
  Speaker: the watcher, which I find that
• 16:01
  Speaker: fascinating.
• 16:02
  Speaker: Is there one watcher over each
• 16:04
  Speaker: group, or are there you kind of
• 16:08
  Speaker: reference that there could be
• 16:09
  Speaker: multiple watchers?
• 16:10
  Speaker: So each group has its own watcher.
• 16:12
  Speaker: Watchers are kind of like, I wouldn't say a god beside a god.
• 16:17
  Speaker: We just, we define them more as like divine custodians.
• 16:20
  Speaker: They're like the gardeners of the garden that is our universe.
• 16:25
  Speaker: Um, when watchers predate gods, they predate human life.
• 16:31
  Speaker: They predate like they are the
• 16:32
  Speaker: first conscious beings in our
• 16:35
  Speaker: universe.
• 16:36
  Speaker: And when human beings first evolved, we reached up into the
• 16:42
  Speaker: cosmos for meaning, you know, for purpose, for something.
• 16:46
  Speaker: And it was the watchers who sculpted this energy into the
• 16:50
  Speaker: deities that the early humans then would worship.
• 16:54
  Speaker: Does that make sense?
• 16:55
  Speaker: That does.
• 16:55
  Speaker: I think I think I'm following.
• 16:57
  Speaker: Um. All right.
• 16:58
  Speaker: And as far as profits, if any, what if someone else in the
• 17:01
  Speaker: group starts referring to themselves as a profit?
• 17:05
  Speaker: Is that allowed or is there only one profit allowed in each?
• 17:08
  Speaker: How does that work?
• 17:09
  Speaker: Is there a hierarchy of profits
• 17:11
  Speaker: or someone ascending to be or I
• 17:13
  Speaker: don't know, I don't know how
• 17:13
  Speaker: that works.
• 17:14
  Speaker: Is there only one profit in your group?
• 17:16
  Speaker: So I think there's only one me.
• 17:19
  Speaker: Uh, as far as like, I'm the only
• 17:21
  Speaker: one that has the veil fire in
• 17:23
  Speaker: their chest.
• 17:24
  Speaker: I'm the one that, uh, is sacrificing myself to become
• 17:27
  Speaker: this new deity.
• 17:28
  Speaker: It's not really so much of a sacrifice.
• 17:30
  Speaker: I'd say it's more of a risk that we are taking, that I'm taking.
• 17:34
  Speaker: Because if any.
• 17:36
  Speaker: Like, I'm sure you've read some Greek mythology.
• 17:39
  Speaker: It's not exactly the safest thing in the world to do to
• 17:43
  Speaker: challenge any deity.
• 17:45
  Speaker: Um, hubris.
• 17:47
  Speaker: You know, a big thing.
• 17:48
  Speaker: So if any divine retaliation or divine wrath should come towards
• 17:53
  Speaker: the heralds, it will only follow fall on me.
• 17:57
  Speaker: I'm the only one who will suffer for it.
• 17:59
  Speaker: So like, if someone wanted, like
• 18:01
  Speaker: we have several members who are
• 18:04
  Speaker: in contact with other deities,
• 18:06
  Speaker: because at the end of the day,
• 18:07
  Speaker: we are a pagan faith and
• 18:09
  Speaker: therefore we believe all deities
• 18:11
  Speaker: exist or have the potential to
• 18:12
  Speaker: exist.
• 18:13
  Speaker: Uh, and we have the option to choose who we wish to follow.
• 18:17
  Speaker: Um, there are other members that
• 18:20
  Speaker: could be considered prophets by
• 18:22
  Speaker: some, some sort of definition
• 18:25
  Speaker: because they're in contact with
• 18:27
  Speaker: the deity.
• 18:27
  Speaker: Sometimes.
• 18:28
  Speaker: For some people, that's all it takes to be a prophet.
• 18:30
  Speaker: But as far as the prophet of the heralds, That's me.
• 18:36
  Speaker: Because I've.
• 18:37
  Speaker: I'm the one who made the contract.
• 18:38
  Speaker: I'm the one who started it all.
• 18:40
  Speaker: I'm the one who blah, blah blah.
• 18:41
  Speaker: But do we deny that other people have divine power and the
• 18:45
  Speaker: ability to tap into the divine?
• 18:47
  Speaker: Absolutely not.
• 18:49
  Speaker: Okay, okay, so that makes sense.
• 18:51
  Speaker: And you're based in Southern Illinois, correct?
• 18:54
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 18:55
  Speaker: The we are global these days.
• 18:56
  Speaker: We have members all over the world, members all over.
• 18:59
  Speaker: I'm an idiot when it comes to your most everything other than
• 19:02
  Speaker: what's on your website.
• 19:02
  Speaker: You're good.
• 19:03
  Speaker: Don't worry.
• 19:04
  Speaker: You're, uh, a mystery as far as who you are.
• 19:07
  Speaker: You're not, like, publicly known as far as you haven't, like,
• 19:10
  Speaker: announced who you are.
• 19:11
  Speaker: Is there a reason that you don't want to be, um, your name out
• 19:15
  Speaker: there does that?
• 19:16
  Speaker: Yes.
• 19:17
  Speaker: I can only imagine.
• 19:18
  Speaker: But that's got to be difficult
• 19:19
  Speaker: to, to like grow while like
• 19:21
  Speaker: remaining like this mysterious
• 19:23
  Speaker: person who it's like, well, why
• 19:24
  Speaker: is that person not wanting to
• 19:25
  Speaker: name themselves?
• 19:26
  Speaker: I guess first of all, why are you not like public?
• 19:28
  Speaker: And also, does that cause problems with trying to like,
• 19:31
  Speaker: have people join your group?
• 19:33
  Speaker: Um, well, it doesn't have.
• 19:34
  Speaker: I don't think we've had problems with people wanting to join from
• 19:38
  Speaker: me being anonymous, because usually when we do in-person
• 19:42
  Speaker: events, I'm there and I'll be like, hey, I'm the prophet,
• 19:45
  Speaker: blah, blah, blah.
• 19:46
  Speaker: Um, I have a mask on in these situations.
• 19:49
  Speaker: I have a very fancy custom mask made for me.
• 19:51
  Speaker: Um, but, um, a lot of Harold's
• 19:56
  Speaker: know me outside of prophet and I
• 19:59
  Speaker: don't really like, once I know
• 20:00
  Speaker: someone and I trust someone as a
• 20:03
  Speaker: herald, then I'll, you know,
• 20:04
  Speaker: like I go to movies with my
• 20:05
  Speaker: Harold's all the time just as
• 20:07
  Speaker: me.
• 20:07
  Speaker: But, um, as far as staying anonymous goes, it has been, uh,
• 20:14
  Speaker: a great boon to me.
• 20:15
  Speaker: It's it's definitely been the right choice.
• 20:18
  Speaker: Um, I have a Harold's of the ascendant sticker on my car.
• 20:22
  Speaker: Okay.
• 20:22
  Speaker: And my tires have been slashed.
• 20:24
  Speaker: Oh, wow.
• 20:25
  Speaker: So it's not like it's a secret.
• 20:29
  Speaker: You know, I we get death threats on the website already, so I
• 20:34
  Speaker: don't need my name out there.
• 20:37
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 20:37
  Speaker: I mean, I was wondering if there
• 20:39
  Speaker: was a risk of I mean, because
• 20:40
  Speaker: obviously you wouldn't you don't
• 20:41
  Speaker: want to be harmed, but is there
• 20:43
  Speaker: animosity toward I mean, you
• 20:44
  Speaker: don't seem like a violent group
• 20:46
  Speaker: or like you're trying to build
• 20:47
  Speaker: some sort of town to go to war
• 20:49
  Speaker: with anyone?
• 20:50
  Speaker: I mean, you don't seem that way, but there's not much out there.
• 20:52
  Speaker: And all you see is, oh, they're a cult.
• 20:54
  Speaker: And then, like, there's no, I don't really see a lot.
• 20:56
  Speaker: So in a vacuum of information, people just kind of come to
• 20:59
  Speaker: their own conclusions.
• 21:00
  Speaker: That's why I wanted to talk to you.
• 21:01
  Speaker: And I appreciate you like doing this.
• 21:02
  Speaker: But you know, there's people with all kinds of different
• 21:05
  Speaker: views and you all have a view.
• 21:08
  Speaker: And that doesn't mean that you're a threat that, you know,
• 21:10
  Speaker: people need to take you out.
• 21:12
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 21:12
  Speaker: No, we've had Christians like come up to us at our booths that
• 21:15
  Speaker: we do at festivals and things and like scream at us and try to
• 21:19
  Speaker: convert us and make hand crosses at us, you name it.
• 21:22
  Speaker: We've had people like just from us walking by scream, Jesus
• 21:26
  Speaker: loves you, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 21:28
  Speaker: And my favorite response to that is, um, thanks.
• 21:31
  Speaker: We know, but we're better as friends.
• 21:34
  Speaker: It's like we're cool with Jesus.
• 21:35
  Speaker: We're just not a big fan of his book club, you know what I mean?
• 21:37
  Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
• 21:38
  Speaker: And is your are you wanting to have like a physical community?
• 21:42
  Speaker: Like, is there, is there a
• 21:44
  Speaker: physical church that people
• 21:45
  Speaker: like?
• 21:45
  Speaker: How do people, if someone were interested in coming and
• 21:48
  Speaker: becoming a part of this, how would they start like they do
• 21:50
  Speaker: you meet on certain days or how does that work in your group?
• 21:54
  Speaker: So currently our community is mostly online.
• 21:58
  Speaker: We do, uh, like booths at events and things sometimes.
• 22:03
  Speaker: Um, we are working towards, uh,
• 22:05
  Speaker: renting a venue for like more
• 22:08
  Speaker: regular just meeting meetings or
• 22:11
  Speaker: like services.
• 22:12
  Speaker: I've been thinking about
• 22:14
  Speaker: converting my backyard into
• 22:15
  Speaker: like, maybe like an outdoor kind
• 22:18
  Speaker: of pseudo like fancy lights and
• 22:20
  Speaker: paths and places to sit, you
• 22:22
  Speaker: know, uh, maybe like an outdoor,
• 22:25
  Speaker: I want to say pseudo church
• 22:27
  Speaker: temple thing.
• 22:28
  Speaker: Um, but that's my house.
• 22:31
  Speaker: So, you know, it's kind of a I don't know if I want to do that.
• 22:35
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 22:35
  Speaker: There's a risk of that.
• 22:38
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 22:38
  Speaker: So would we love to have our own
• 22:41
  Speaker: chapel, our own church,
• 22:42
  Speaker: whatever.
• 22:43
  Speaker: Absolutely.
• 22:44
  Speaker: Do we have the budget for that currently?
• 22:46
  Speaker: No. And so you you have
• 22:49
  Speaker: membership and they I suppose
• 22:51
  Speaker: people donate.
• 22:52
  Speaker: And there's like a, you have a whole organization like people,
• 22:55
  Speaker: financial people and like, how many people are in this group?
• 22:59
  Speaker: Or if you.
• 23:00
  Speaker: Is that even out there?
• 23:00
  Speaker: But I mean, are there lots of people.
• 23:02
  Speaker: Are we talking a small group?
• 23:04
  Speaker: I have no idea.
• 23:05
  Speaker: It's not as big as you're probably thinking.
• 23:07
  Speaker: I have no idea.
• 23:08
  Speaker: I don't know if it's five people or five hundred.
• 23:10
  Speaker: I really don't know.
• 23:11
  Speaker: Um, it's under a hundred, but it's over fifty.
• 23:14
  Speaker: Okay, so decent size.
• 23:15
  Speaker: Currently it's a decent.
• 23:16
  Speaker: Decent.
• 23:17
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 23:17
  Speaker: I mean, not huge, but yeah.
• 23:19
  Speaker: Have you had anyone who was a member and maybe they had a
• 23:24
  Speaker: disagreement on like, hey, I'm this isn't my thing.
• 23:27
  Speaker: And then was have people left and were there any hard feelings
• 23:31
  Speaker: or people ever like threatened or anything like that?
• 23:34
  Speaker: Is there any reason that people wouldn't leave and, and feel
• 23:36
  Speaker: like, you know, they shouldn't leave or can't leave the group?
• 23:40
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 23:41
  Speaker: Um, we have, we haven't had anyone like get mad or have any
• 23:46
  Speaker: animosity towards anyone.
• 23:48
  Speaker: Um, we haven't had any like
• 23:50
  Speaker: in-group fights, I want to say
• 23:52
  Speaker: yet because like, there's always
• 23:53
  Speaker: going to be drama where there's
• 23:54
  Speaker: people.
• 23:55
  Speaker: Sure.
• 23:55
  Speaker: Um, but overall we're a very, very loving community.
• 23:58
  Speaker: Um, we have had a couple people
• 24:00
  Speaker: leave because they wanted to
• 24:02
  Speaker: like pursue other, uh, spiritual
• 24:04
  Speaker: paths.
• 24:06
  Speaker: And we've even had a couple people that left to pursue other
• 24:09
  Speaker: things come back.
• 24:10
  Speaker: So, um, so they're welcome to do that when somebody wants to step
• 24:14
  Speaker: away, that's their choice.
• 24:15
  Speaker: That's their prerogative.
• 24:16
  Speaker: We love them through it.
• 24:18
  Speaker: You know, if they want to step
• 24:20
  Speaker: out, they're more than welcome
• 24:21
  Speaker: to.
• 24:21
  Speaker: They're still our friend.
• 24:22
  Speaker: You know, if they never want to
• 24:24
  Speaker: talk to us again there, that's
• 24:26
  Speaker: fine.
• 24:26
  Speaker: We'll see you if you ever want to come back.
• 24:28
  Speaker: If not, have a good life, you know.
• 24:29
  Speaker: Are there any is there anyone who maybe goes to a Christian
• 24:32
  Speaker: church and is a member here and there, kind of like half foot
• 24:35
  Speaker: and one and half foot in the other, and they're they're
• 24:37
  Speaker: somehow a member of both.
• 24:39
  Speaker: Or is it like all or none usually, uh, like, do you have
• 24:42
  Speaker: people you can be both.
• 24:43
  Speaker: Okay.
• 24:43
  Speaker: You can absolutely be both.
• 24:45
  Speaker: We don't specifically encourage
• 24:47
  Speaker: working with, uh, the Abrahamic
• 24:50
  Speaker: God specifically because a lot
• 24:52
  Speaker: of his scripture and a lot of
• 24:54
  Speaker: his stuff in the past has just
• 24:57
  Speaker: been crazy, awful, terrible,
• 24:59
  Speaker: horrible.
• 25:00
  Speaker: Um, and a lot of our members have trauma relating to that, to
• 25:04
  Speaker: those specific practices.
• 25:07
  Speaker: Um, but if somebody has a relationship with a deity and
• 25:11
  Speaker: that brings them peace, that's not my business.
• 25:15
  Speaker: That's, that's on them.
• 25:16
  Speaker: You know that if that helps them, then who am I to tell them
• 25:20
  Speaker: that they can't have that, you know, and so that doesn't
• 25:22
  Speaker: interfere with your belief system as far as how, how your
• 25:26
  Speaker: organization is set up that can those two things can coexist
• 25:29
  Speaker: without there being a problem.
• 25:32
  Speaker: Absolutely, absolutely.
• 25:33
  Speaker: It even says that on the website, actually in the FAQ and
• 25:37
  Speaker: at the beginning of our learn page, I think.
• 25:40
  Speaker: Speaking of, I noticed your
• 25:41
  Speaker: website has a core beliefs
• 25:43
  Speaker: section, which I. This caught my
• 25:44
  Speaker: eye.
• 25:44
  Speaker: I, um, it says many of our time believe that small seeds of
• 25:49
  Speaker: truth are scattered across the world, hidden in every religion
• 25:52
  Speaker: and every culture.
• 25:53
  Speaker: Our society is dedicated to finding these buried truths and
• 25:56
  Speaker: piecing together a vision of the paranormal and divine that is
• 25:59
  Speaker: untainted by human vanity and centuries of misinformation
• 26:03
  Speaker: penned by those in power.
• 26:05
  Speaker: I found that interesting.
• 26:06
  Speaker: And so what are some of the buried truths that you have
• 26:09
  Speaker: uncovered in your group that you know from these, you know, other
• 26:13
  Speaker: religions and cultures that you all have found?
• 26:16
  Speaker: Just try me.
• 26:17
  Speaker: I guess just, you know, what's one buried like just what's one,
• 26:21
  Speaker: I guess an example of just a buried truth that you've
• 26:23
  Speaker: discovered that, um, you know, you want to talk about.
• 26:28
  Speaker: All right.
• 26:28
  Speaker: Well, the problem is that so many of them lead into another,
• 26:31
  Speaker: which leads into another, which leads into another.
• 26:33
  Speaker: Okay.
• 26:34
  Speaker: Um, so many of our discoveries are information that can be
• 26:37
  Speaker: found and corroborated online.
• 26:40
  Speaker: Uh, so we can't really take credit for the discoveries made
• 26:43
  Speaker: by, say, archaeologists who found the information on stone
• 26:46
  Speaker: tablets and whatnot.
• 26:47
  Speaker: But the average American is often told exactly what to
• 26:50
  Speaker: believe and not to question it.
• 26:52
  Speaker: So researching the history
• 26:54
  Speaker: behind like, say, the Abrahamic
• 26:56
  Speaker: beliefs can often feel like
• 26:58
  Speaker: uncovering forbidden knowledge
• 26:59
  Speaker: for both us and for the
• 27:01
  Speaker: Christians that seek answers
• 27:02
  Speaker: from us.
• 27:04
  Speaker: But everyone deserves the truth.
• 27:07
  Speaker: So here's some truth, okay?
• 27:10
  Speaker: First, a god or deity did not create the universe.
• 27:14
  Speaker: Spiritual entities are part of
• 27:17
  Speaker: it and developed over time
• 27:19
  Speaker: alongside humanity into what we
• 27:21
  Speaker: heralds like to call the divine
• 27:23
  Speaker: ecosystem.
• 27:25
  Speaker: Much like nature, spiritual energies have cycles that energy
• 27:29
  Speaker: moves through like a rain cycle or a food web, thus forming what
• 27:33
  Speaker: we believe to be the other side of reincarnation, so to speak.
• 27:39
  Speaker: So most of our universe is
• 27:40
  Speaker: comprised of energy, and energy
• 27:42
  Speaker: cannot be created or destroyed,
• 27:44
  Speaker: only transformed.
• 27:46
  Speaker: So the water in your eyes, for example, could have been rain on
• 27:50
  Speaker: a dinosaur's back millennia ago before the first deities.
• 27:54
  Speaker: This was exactly how souls worked.
• 27:57
  Speaker: A being was born, carrying
• 27:58
  Speaker: enough of the energy of life to
• 28:00
  Speaker: sustain it.
• 28:00
  Speaker: And when it died, that energy would dissipate back into the
• 28:03
  Speaker: cosmos like drops of water in a vast ocean for millennia.
• 28:08
  Speaker: This was how our universe learned about itself.
• 28:10
  Speaker: Every creature and spirit.
• 28:12
  Speaker: Another cell in the enormous body of our world.
• 28:16
  Speaker: Once the universe had learned
• 28:17
  Speaker: enough creatures of both the
• 28:19
  Speaker: living and the spiritual sides
• 28:21
  Speaker: of our world started to develop
• 28:23
  Speaker: consciousness on our side of the
• 28:25
  Speaker: world.
• 28:25
  Speaker: It's unsure which consciousness first arrived.
• 28:29
  Speaker: Like were the dinosaurs capable of conscious thought?
• 28:32
  Speaker: We don't really know, do we?
• 28:34
  Speaker: But on the first spiritual beings, also known as Elohim to
• 28:38
  Speaker: awaken, were beings that we have taken to calling the watchers.
• 28:44
  Speaker: These beings beheld their world and ours with awe, and sought to
• 28:48
  Speaker: steward it without influencing its natural order.
• 28:52
  Speaker: The decision of just how much
• 28:53
  Speaker: intervention would be allowed
• 28:55
  Speaker: was the first schism between the
• 28:57
  Speaker: watchers.
• 28:58
  Speaker: Some wanted to allow our world
• 28:59
  Speaker: to grow completely naturally,
• 29:01
  Speaker: with no influence from them
• 29:02
  Speaker: whatsoever.
• 29:04
  Speaker: Others reasoned that they were
• 29:06
  Speaker: part of this world too, and
• 29:07
  Speaker: therefore they should act to
• 29:09
  Speaker: improve our world where they
• 29:10
  Speaker: can.
• 29:11
  Speaker: Eventually, a compromise was
• 29:13
  Speaker: made, and the watchers agreed to
• 29:14
  Speaker: only influence the physical side
• 29:16
  Speaker: of this world through the
• 29:18
  Speaker: energies that they could access
• 29:20
  Speaker: in the spiritual side, forming
• 29:22
  Speaker: the veil between our
• 29:23
  Speaker: perceptions.
• 29:24
  Speaker: Like, you know, Halloween time, they say the veil is thin.
• 29:27
  Speaker: That veil.
• 29:27
  Speaker: Okay.
• 29:28
  Speaker: Gotcha.
• 29:29
  Speaker: So when consciousness formed on earth, an intelligent beings
• 29:33
  Speaker: looked to the skies for answers.
• 29:35
  Speaker: The energy of their wonderment and worship attracted the
• 29:38
  Speaker: watchers who could sculpt this energy like a living clay.
• 29:42
  Speaker: From this they designed the
• 29:44
  Speaker: first deities, divine creatures,
• 29:46
  Speaker: who had derived their power from
• 29:48
  Speaker: the worship of their faithful
• 29:50
  Speaker: deities.
• 29:51
  Speaker: And gods, therefore, are just as
• 29:53
  Speaker: flawed as the beings who first
• 29:54
  Speaker: called out for them fallible
• 29:56
  Speaker: creatures that live and die just
• 29:58
  Speaker: like we do, but over a much
• 30:00
  Speaker: grander scale.
• 30:01
  Speaker: If a deity is unable to keep its people alive, it dies with them.
• 30:06
  Speaker: With no one to worship it, it will burn through its reserves
• 30:09
  Speaker: of power and eventually die, scattering like droplets in the
• 30:12
  Speaker: ocean of our universe, just like a mortal soul does.
• 30:16
  Speaker: All of its memories and
• 30:17
  Speaker: everything it learned becoming
• 30:18
  Speaker: nourishment to our universe
• 30:20
  Speaker: itself that will then one day
• 30:22
  Speaker: cycle back into more life when
• 30:25
  Speaker: living beings started becoming
• 30:27
  Speaker: more intelligent.
• 30:28
  Speaker: The first deities began to notice a reluctance of souls to
• 30:31
  Speaker: dissipate back into the universe, the ether, or whatever
• 30:35
  Speaker: you'd like to call it, a will to stay whole for longer,
• 30:38
  Speaker: foreclosure or on business, unfinished business, or just to
• 30:42
  Speaker: rest, whatever it may be.
• 30:44
  Speaker: Each had their own reasons.
• 30:46
  Speaker: So many deities began to create
• 30:48
  Speaker: places where these souls of
• 30:50
  Speaker: conscious beings could continue
• 30:51
  Speaker: to exist after death, to process
• 30:53
  Speaker: their lives, and then dissipate
• 30:55
  Speaker: back into the cycle when they
• 30:56
  Speaker: are ready.
• 30:58
  Speaker: Today we call these worlds afterlives.
• 31:01
  Speaker: Okay.
• 31:01
  Speaker: And which one you get is
• 31:02
  Speaker: completely dependent on which
• 31:04
  Speaker: deities you've been in contact
• 31:05
  Speaker: with.
• 31:06
  Speaker: So, for example, there could be
• 31:08
  Speaker: a hell somewhere out there,
• 31:10
  Speaker: though in the original texts it
• 31:11
  Speaker: was actually a neutral place
• 31:13
  Speaker: called Sheol.
• 31:14
  Speaker: But that's beside the point.
• 31:16
  Speaker: Either way, if it exists, the only souls in danger of
• 31:20
  Speaker: experiencing it are the ones who entrust themselves to the deity
• 31:23
  Speaker: responsible for it.
• 31:25
  Speaker: Okay, so for example, if you
• 31:26
  Speaker: want to reach Valhalla, you need
• 31:29
  Speaker: only devote yourself to Odin and
• 31:31
  Speaker: then meet his requirements to
• 31:32
  Speaker: get there.
• 31:33
  Speaker: He may just hear you.
• 31:35
  Speaker: If he still exists, souls can spend thousands of years or just
• 31:40
  Speaker: a little while in afterlives.
• 31:42
  Speaker: There, they continue to worship
• 31:43
  Speaker: their deity, and in return they
• 31:45
  Speaker: can live on in the sacred place
• 31:47
  Speaker: their gods have prepared for
• 31:48
  Speaker: them.
• 31:49
  Speaker: Most souls arrive believing that
• 31:51
  Speaker: they will stay forever, but
• 31:53
  Speaker: forever is just so long, and a
• 31:55
  Speaker: conscious soul will eventually
• 31:57
  Speaker: feel the need to move on, even
• 31:59
  Speaker: from Paradise.
• 32:00
  Speaker: When the time is right, deities eventually allow souls to
• 32:03
  Speaker: dissipate back into the vast ocean of the energies that make
• 32:06
  Speaker: up our world to become one with the divine and be whole.
• 32:10
  Speaker: To scatter across the universe and restart the cycle anew as
• 32:13
  Speaker: part of thousands of different new beings and new lives.
• 32:17
  Speaker: Oh, there's my bird.
• 32:18
  Speaker: And this wonderful cycle is how
• 32:20
  Speaker: our universe grows as a macro
• 32:22
  Speaker: organism and how it experiences
• 32:25
  Speaker: itself.
• 32:27
  Speaker: Wow.
• 32:29
  Speaker: Right.
• 32:29
  Speaker: That's kind of mind blowing.
• 32:31
  Speaker: Um. Yeah, that's.
• 32:32
  Speaker: Thank you.
• 32:33
  Speaker: Very well spoken.
• 32:34
  Speaker: Very well said.
• 32:35
  Speaker: Because you did.
• 32:35
  Speaker: You did a great job.
• 32:36
  Speaker: Thank you.
• 32:37
  Speaker: I wrote it down.
• 32:37
  Speaker: I wrote it down.
• 32:38
  Speaker: But you did a great job.
• 32:39
  Speaker: Well, I guess what would you say to the community?
• 32:42
  Speaker: What do you what would you like them to know about your group?
• 32:44
  Speaker: Are there any misconceptions you want to correct?
• 32:47
  Speaker: Or if you if you could talk to the community around you and
• 32:49
  Speaker: like, just give them a message, what would you like to say to
• 32:51
  Speaker: them for someone listening who may listen to my podcast for
• 32:55
  Speaker: paranormal stuff or true crime, and they're hearing this like,
• 32:57
  Speaker: oh, I've never heard of this, but what would you like them to
• 32:59
  Speaker: know about your group?
• 33:02
  Speaker: Um, I would like to say that we mean no harm.
• 33:06
  Speaker: Most first and foremost, we mean no harm.
• 33:09
  Speaker: We're not here to be forceful or Um, dogmatic or, uh, controlling
• 33:19
  Speaker: in any way.
• 33:20
  Speaker: We seek only to set people free
• 33:23
  Speaker: from things that have, uh,
• 33:26
  Speaker: weighed them down for far too
• 33:27
  Speaker: long.
• 33:27
  Speaker: And if you don't feel weighed
• 33:29
  Speaker: down by anything, then you,
• 33:32
  Speaker: you're good.
• 33:32
  Speaker: You know, you don't, right?
• 33:34
  Speaker: You don't need to.
• 33:36
  Speaker: You don't need to change anything if you don't want to.
• 33:38
  Speaker: That's all up to you.
• 33:40
  Speaker: If our you know, sometimes our
• 33:43
  Speaker: message and our stuff helps
• 33:45
  Speaker: people.
• 33:46
  Speaker: And that's what we're here to do.
• 33:47
  Speaker: We're here to make the world a better place and help people to
• 33:51
  Speaker: learn and grow and embrace the true, like, vibrant, beautiful
• 33:58
  Speaker: self that they always had the chance to be.
• 34:01
  Speaker: You know?
• 34:01
  Speaker: And if that's with our
• 34:03
  Speaker: organization, more power to
• 34:05
  Speaker: them.
• 34:05
  Speaker: If not, blessed be.
• 34:07
  Speaker: I hope you have a good day.
• 34:09
  Speaker: You know, it's not any sort of we're not like, hey, come here.
• 34:13
  Speaker: One of us, One of us, you know.
• 34:14
  Speaker: Right.
• 34:15
  Speaker: Though we do make that joke a lot because it's hilarious.
• 34:18
  Speaker: I think I would too.
• 34:20
  Speaker: We jokingly call it a cult as well.
• 34:22
  Speaker: Like we it's the, the, the humor
• 34:26
  Speaker: within the heralds is just top
• 34:29
  Speaker: notch.
• 34:29
  Speaker: We, we joke about everything.
• 34:32
  Speaker: I think that's the best way to
• 34:33
  Speaker: deal with a lot of, uh, with a
• 34:34
  Speaker: lot of stressful situations is
• 34:36
  Speaker: humor.
• 34:36
  Speaker: And that's, that's exactly, exactly.
• 34:38
  Speaker: It's hard to, to attack someone who's being funny.
• 34:41
  Speaker: A lot of times.
• 34:42
  Speaker: Absolutely, absolutely.
• 34:43
  Speaker: And we, we've actually leaned, leaned, leant.
• 34:47
  Speaker: We lean into it quite a bit.
• 34:48
  Speaker: Um, especially like, because we get attacked a lot.
• 34:51
  Speaker: I don't want to say attacked
• 34:52
  Speaker: like physically, but like
• 34:53
  Speaker: verbally, uh, verbally assaulted
• 34:56
  Speaker: by militant Christians quite a
• 34:58
  Speaker: bit.
• 34:59
  Speaker: And so we've, we've developed a strategy of, instead of engaging
• 35:03
  Speaker: with them and trying to debate them on theology and philosophy,
• 35:08
  Speaker: um, which we can, like, we have specific Bible verses and things
• 35:12
  Speaker: where we can be like, actually, this is what it says.
• 35:14
  Speaker: And you don't know what you're talking about.
• 35:16
  Speaker: Um, but even if you school them on their own theology, they'll
• 35:21
  Speaker: just keep talking.
• 35:22
  Speaker: They just the, the goal I find is not to have a conversation.
• 35:26
  Speaker: It's to exhaust you.
• 35:28
  Speaker: Um, so we've started doing silly jokes at them instead.
• 35:32
  Speaker: So if they're like, oh, we rebuke you in the name of the
• 35:35
  Speaker: Lord, we just go like, oh my God can beat up your God.
• 35:39
  Speaker: Like my dad can beat up your dad.
• 35:41
  Speaker: You know, we even have a shirt that has it on it.
• 35:43
  Speaker: I shit you not.
• 35:45
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 35:45
  Speaker: It's hard to come back from
• 35:46
  Speaker: because they're expecting some
• 35:47
  Speaker: sort of, you know, other
• 35:48
  Speaker: response.
• 35:49
  Speaker: And it's hard to come back when
• 35:50
  Speaker: somebody's being, you know,
• 35:51
  Speaker: honestly funny.
• 35:51
  Speaker: But I like that usually we're
• 35:54
  Speaker: very kind and very accepting and
• 35:56
  Speaker: forgoing and whatnot, but
• 35:57
  Speaker: sometimes you can just tell
• 35:58
  Speaker: someone's coming forth with bad
• 36:00
  Speaker: faith and we just don't accept
• 36:01
  Speaker: that.
• 36:01
  Speaker: It's like fighting with somebody in the YouTube comment section.
• 36:03
  Speaker: It's like you're just wasting your time because no one's
• 36:06
  Speaker: changing their mind, and you're just gonna have two idiots
• 36:08
  Speaker: yelling at each other and no one's no one.
• 36:10
  Speaker: It's just, it's just bad energy.
• 36:11
  Speaker: So sometimes humor is just the best way to, to deal with that.
• 36:16
  Speaker: And like I grew up as the only pagan kid in a Bible belt town,
• 36:20
  Speaker: you best believe I have seen the ugliest of the ugly as far as
• 36:25
  Speaker: Christians can be.
• 36:26
  Speaker: Like I I've got stories on stories on stories, on stories
• 36:31
  Speaker: of how awful.
• 36:32
  Speaker: Like there's so many Christians
• 36:34
  Speaker: that are so oh, we accept
• 36:36
  Speaker: everyone.
• 36:36
  Speaker: We love everybody.
• 36:37
  Speaker: But then the moment a non-Christian is in their midst,
• 36:40
  Speaker: they just turn.
• 36:41
  Speaker: You don't seem to be a threat to
• 36:42
  Speaker: the community or anything of
• 36:44
  Speaker: that nature.
• 36:44
  Speaker: You seem like you have no, no, no. In fact, we we're actively
• 36:49
  Speaker: looking at, um, doing things to help the community.
• 36:52
  Speaker: Like right now, we don't have a huge budget or anything, but we
• 36:56
  Speaker: help where we can, we donate to like food pantries.
• 36:58
  Speaker: We help people like on an individual basis.
• 37:02
  Speaker: Um, when there's big storms, I often, uh, because we live in
• 37:06
  Speaker: kind of a tornado alley type area when there's a big storm.
• 37:10
  Speaker: I let Harold shelter in my basement.
• 37:13
  Speaker: There's a Planned Parenthood nearby.
• 37:16
  Speaker: Um, not super nearby, but it's within about an hour drive.
• 37:20
  Speaker: And often militant Christians will show up there and be just
• 37:24
  Speaker: really rude to the people that are coming in and out, whether
• 37:26
  Speaker: or not they're there for any sort of like, abortion thing.
• 37:29
  Speaker: Um, we've been thinking of as a
• 37:31
  Speaker: group going, uh, and dressing
• 37:33
  Speaker: up, uh, because we always dress
• 37:35
  Speaker: up when we go out as a group and
• 37:37
  Speaker: just messing with those people,
• 37:38
  Speaker: just distracting them so that
• 37:40
  Speaker: the people who need their actual
• 37:42
  Speaker: health care can get what they
• 37:43
  Speaker: need done.
• 37:44
  Speaker: And we, we've, um, even just
• 37:46
  Speaker: this last event that we did, uh,
• 37:48
  Speaker: we were invited to some, um, no
• 37:52
  Speaker: kings rallies as a group, which
• 37:53
  Speaker: is really, really cool, really
• 37:55
  Speaker: exciting.
• 37:56
  Speaker: I don't know if we're going to go to that specifically because
• 37:58
  Speaker: I want to research, um, the people who are running it first
• 38:02
  Speaker: because I like to make sure everything's good all the way
• 38:06
  Speaker: down, you know?
• 38:07
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 38:08
  Speaker: So you all do you get involved politically then, and do you
• 38:12
  Speaker: accept people from all sides of the political spectrum, or do
• 38:15
  Speaker: you just generally have one type of belief system in your group,
• 38:19
  Speaker: or how does that work exactly?
• 38:20
  Speaker: In principle, we accept, um, pretty much everybody, but there
• 38:25
  Speaker: there's, there's limits to that.
• 38:27
  Speaker: Like, for example, if you see
• 38:29
  Speaker: that the president is in the
• 38:30
  Speaker: Epstein files and then still
• 38:31
  Speaker: voted for him, like maybe, maybe
• 38:34
  Speaker: I don't want to be your friend,
• 38:35
  Speaker: you know?
• 38:37
  Speaker: Okay.
• 38:37
  Speaker: Right, right.
• 38:38
  Speaker: And that's, that's something personal that we try not to
• 38:41
  Speaker: discuss too much because we don't want to turn anyone away.
• 38:45
  Speaker: But like, if, if you're saying, oh, like we should send more
• 38:49
  Speaker: money to Israel to blow up little children in Gaza, like
• 38:53
  Speaker: maybe, maybe you can leave like, like we just try to be
• 38:56
  Speaker: reasonable about it.
• 38:57
  Speaker: You know, most religions are against wars in general.
• 39:01
  Speaker: Well, I guess if the history of them.
• 39:03
  Speaker: That's not true, but you'd think
• 39:05
  Speaker: that they would want peace in
• 39:06
  Speaker: the world.
• 39:06
  Speaker: But it doesn't really pan out that way a lot of times.
• 39:09
  Speaker: That's actually something we
• 39:10
  Speaker: talk about too, which is really
• 39:11
  Speaker: interesting.
• 39:12
  Speaker: Um, because if you look back in old scripture, the God of
• 39:16
  Speaker: Christianity, the God of Islam and the God of Judaism are all
• 39:19
  Speaker: the same God.
• 39:20
  Speaker: So if you put those all together and think of it on like, okay,
• 39:25
  Speaker: how are all of these correct?
• 39:27
  Speaker: That would mean that one, God
• 39:29
  Speaker: took a bunch of different
• 39:30
  Speaker: prophets, told them all
• 39:32
  Speaker: conflicting information, and was
• 39:34
  Speaker: like, hey, you guys all need to
• 39:36
  Speaker: go kill each other in my name,
• 39:37
  Speaker: which killing someone in the
• 39:39
  Speaker: name of a god is literally human
• 39:42
  Speaker: sacrifice.
• 39:43
  Speaker: So it's like, it's like this
• 39:45
  Speaker: deity just ate a bunch of
• 39:46
  Speaker: people.
• 39:47
  Speaker: That's basically what
• 39:48
  Speaker: effectively happened, and it's
• 39:49
  Speaker: terrifying.
• 39:50
  Speaker: If someone were interested in your group and wanted to learn
• 39:53
  Speaker: more, where would you suggest that they reach out or you know,
• 39:56
  Speaker: what would they do?
• 39:57
  Speaker: Uh, the website, we have a, um, a join form and a contact form
• 40:01
  Speaker: on our website.
• 40:03
  Speaker: Um, we have a discord server that members get access to, as
• 40:08
  Speaker: long as they're over the age of eighteen, because we don't want
• 40:10
  Speaker: any minors in a discord server.
• 40:11
  Speaker: That's just the worst thing that you can do on the internet.
• 40:13
  Speaker: That's like immediate cancellation on the internet.
• 40:16
  Speaker: Um, so all of our eighteen plus members can go into our discord
• 40:20
  Speaker: where we talk and hang out and post silly memes and things.
• 40:24
  Speaker: Um, and a lot of in-person
• 40:26
  Speaker: heralds don't know this because
• 40:28
  Speaker: it's, it's kind of like a silly
• 40:30
  Speaker: fun thing.
• 40:31
  Speaker: Um, but I also do, uh, live streaming.
• 40:34
  Speaker: I have like a VTuber model, um, of the outfit that like of
• 40:39
  Speaker: myself in the outfit that I wear when I do in-person meetings.
• 40:43
  Speaker: And I do like little online
• 40:45
  Speaker: services and things, but it's,
• 40:47
  Speaker: it's a much more casual type
• 40:49
  Speaker: thing.
• 40:50
  Speaker: Um, a lot of the in-person
• 40:52
  Speaker: heralds and the online heralds
• 40:53
  Speaker: don't really, the two groups
• 40:55
  Speaker: don't overlap a lot, but there
• 40:57
  Speaker: is overlap.
• 40:58
  Speaker: I try not to push that as much
• 40:59
  Speaker: though, because it's, like I
• 41:01
  Speaker: said, it's very casual and
• 41:02
  Speaker: sometimes it's just me like
• 41:03
  Speaker: playing video games and goofing
• 41:05
  Speaker: off.
• 41:05
  Speaker: Like it's it's it's just to spend more time with each other.
• 41:08
  Speaker: Just you being you kind of a thing.
• 41:09
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 41:10
  Speaker: Necessarily the profit necessarily.
• 41:12
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 41:13
  Speaker: But like, on our last show that we did our last, I guess
• 41:16
  Speaker: episode, I did go over the website as a whole and answer
• 41:20
  Speaker: questions and things.
• 41:21
  Speaker: So. And like I said, I mean, this isn't like an endorsement
• 41:24
  Speaker: of your group or anything.
• 41:25
  Speaker: I'm just kind of, I'm just naturally a curious person.
• 41:28
  Speaker: And I was very curious.
• 41:29
  Speaker: And you've answered a lot of my
• 41:31
  Speaker: questions and I really
• 41:32
  Speaker: appreciate you taking your time
• 41:33
  Speaker: to, to talk to me today about
• 41:35
  Speaker: that.
• 41:35
  Speaker: No problem, no problem.
• 41:37
  Speaker: And that brings this episode to a close.
• 41:40
  Speaker: Thank you again for listening.
• 41:41
  Speaker: And until next time, take care.