"EthicalCults" - Reflections on Jamie Wheal's 'Recapture the Rapture'

I recently delved into Jamie Wheal's "Recapture the Rapture," a book that profoundly resonates with me, especially in my work with skill-based communities and the broader quest for meaning in today's world.

Wheal begins by painting a vivid picture of our evolutionary journey, reminding us of our relatively recent arrival in the grand timeline of life on Earth. He says, "If you took all of life on Earth and compressed it into one 24-hour day, an anatomically modern man shows up four seconds before midnight, and cave paintings one second before midnight. We've been playing at civilization for a fraction of a second." This perspective of our existence underlines the rapid pace of change and the overwhelming nature of advancements, from quantum computing to geopolitics, leading to a collective sense of grief and loss of stability.

As Wheal describes it, we are witnessing a collapse in traditional organized religion, or 'Meaning 1.0', and a simultaneous creaking in the foundations of modern liberalism, 'Meaning 2.0'. He points out that institutions like banks, Silicon Valley, and even news media, once pillars of trust and stability, are now viewed with skepticism and mistrust. This erosion of faith in our secular institutions has led many to the extremes of fundamentalism and nihilism.

The concept of Rapture Ideologies, as Wheal explains, becomes particularly relevant here. These ideologies are characterized by the belief that the world is fundamentally broken and an inflection point is imminent, leading to a division between the 'saved' and the rest. In my work, I see parallels in how people are seeking new narratives to make sense of the rapid changes and uncertainties that define our era.

Wheal's proposition of 'Meaning 3.0' offers a ray of hope. He envisions a new framework that goes beyond the dichotomy of religious salvation and secular inclusion. It's about creating liberating structures that allow people to experiment, innovate, and adapt their approaches to finding and restoring meaning.

In the final part of the book, Wheal discusses 'Ethical Cult Building', a concept that struck a chord with me. It's about creating communities that foster peak experiences and deep healing without falling into the pitfalls of dogmatism or cult-like behavior. This resonates with my efforts in building skill-based communities, where the focus is on collaboration, learning, and ethical growth.

Types of Cult:

Traditional Cult
    In the traditional cult, you subjugated yourself to the lineage. There might have been a priest or an adminitratoer of the sacred, but they were in a line of many before them and they were occupying a role. And you subjugated yourself to the generations of participants in membership and norms and values. 


Culty Cults:
    Then, late 19th century through today, you had a fracturing of the traditional religious world and you had many Eastern teachers ranging from Tibet to India to Vietnam coming to the United States, coming to Western Europe; and you had the rise of a lot of spiritual leaders who had broken with the lineages.
    And they said, "Now come to me, submit yourself." But this time it's not to a lineage, it's not buffered by generations and generations and elders and checks and balances and precedent. Now you're submitting yourself to me. "I'm the God-self." "I'm the guru.
    " And so that's when we ended up with the emergence of culty cults, individuals who had broken with their past, broken with tradition, and then said, "I'm the one." "I am fully enlightened." "I am God, man or woman." "I am all those things." So like in "Lord of the Rings," they grabbed the ring 'cause they were convinced they could do so much with it.
    And then they also weaponized access to peak states and healing, and so whether that was psychedelics or sexuality or, you know, boundary-eroding group encounter sessions or whatever it would be, they would erode those things. And then they would weaponize and use those techniques to extract allegiance, apologies, finances, whatever it would be, while people were undone in those very susceptible states.

Ethical Cults:
    And then we have this notion of 'ethical cults:' ethical community worship, ethical culture. And that's not submission of the self to anybody. Tually valorization of the self as a sovereign individual, and connecting to collective emergent intelligence.


Analogies
    So, if traditional cults was a little bit like taking your seat in the orchestra, and there's the conductor and there's the sheet music and there's the metronome and like play your part, right? And culty cults were a little bit more like a marching band, like there's the dude with the big hat up front and the baton and the whistle, like, follow that person.
    Then ethical cults are a lot more like playing jazz- which is call and response, listening, and a deep combination of agency. Like, "I can hit my notes and play my instrument and surrender," which is there's a thing we're looking for together, we'll know it when we find it, but we have to feel the force.
        

Within #TheInternetOfValue, Skill-based Communities == Ethical Cults

In essence, Wheal's book has not only broadened my understanding of our current meaning crisis but also reinforced my belief in the potential of community and ethical collaboration in navigating these complex times. As Wheal suggests, coming together with conviction and courage might be our best chance at braving the road ahead.

This is part 26 of the gratitude series as we gear up to the book launch.

For more insights and my journey in creating 'TheInternetofValue', Kindly check