
We’re back and we’re preparing for the end. Prophecy, in the form of our recording schedule, warned us that this day would come. Admittedly, our calculations did initially place the release date for this episode as a Saturday afternoon in late 1844. Prophecies are tricky things and arithmetic even more so. Still, this hasn’t dented our faith, and we are now ready to ascend. Or wrap up this series of episodes. One of the two. We’d better sort out this confusion before we do anything too irreversible…
Main Topic: Cults part 4
This is the conclusion of our discussion of real-world cults and how they might inspire Call of Cthulhu games. We wrap things up by looking at why people stay in cults, how they might break away, and what could happen to those who do.
Once again, the lockdown means we recorded this episode remotely. We hope that we’re getting the hang of making this sound all right. It’s far from the biggest problem current circumstances have presented, but it’s still a challenge.
Links
Things we mention in this episode include:
- Dawn Smith’s TED Talk about her experience in an evangelical cult
- Peoples Temple
- Heaven’s Gate
- Buddhafield
- NXIVM
- Trail of Cthulhu
- “The Dunwich Horror”
- The anti-vaccination movement
- Qanon
- Sunk cost
- Why facts don’t change people’s minds

- Carlos Castaneda
- Amy Wallace
- Shared psychosis
- William Miller
- Seventh-day Adventist Church
- The Great Disappointment
- Jonestown recording
- Harold Camping
- Jehovah’s Witnesses and the end of the world
- The Late, Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey
- Extinction Rebellion
- /r/collapse
- The Concerned Relatives
- Holy Hell (2016)
- Anti-Cult Movement
- Cult deprogrammers
- EST
- Exit counsellors

News
Audio Quality
Since we started recording remotely, we’ve struggled a bit with audio quality. Scott’s Blue Snowball microphone, in particular, has been malfunctioning in alarming ways. With the lockdown easing a little, we managed a brief socially distanced meeting in which we distributed the equipment we’d used when we recorded in person. As a result, you should hear a marked improvement as of this episode.

The Good Friends of Jacks-Con Elias
A few weeks ago, our wonderful listeners organised a virtual convention in our name! There were over 50 games run and around 120 players. Thank you very much to Orbital Axolotl for kicking the whole thing off and to TRNSHMN and IPwndMSCS on our Discord server for running it all so smoothly!

Scott on Expedition to the Grizzly Peaks
Scott recently recorded a substantial interview with Andy Goodman of the Expedition to the Grizzly Peaks podcast. The discussion covered Scott’s background in gaming and the various Call of Cthulhu projects he has worked on over the past 10 years or so. Do check out the other episodes, including actual plays of Masks of Nyarlathotep and “Blackwater Creek”.

More Lockdown Specials
We are still releasing fortnightly lockdown specials, discussing films, books and television you might find inspirational in your gaming lives. If you are backing us on Patreon, check your feed. Otherwise, backing us at any level will grant you instant access to the back catalogue.

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