‘The Cult of NatureBoy’ Part II Documentary Commentary

In the second installment of the The Cult of NatureBoy docuseries, the flames grow higher. More details about Eligio Bishop's relationship with women come to the surface.

His vicious treatment of these women along with other men in the cult highlight the physically abusive cult.

All of Bishop’s attitudes towards structure and “incentive training” that he used to demean and demoralize mostly women came to a head when his “wife” became pregnant. Velvet aka EJ experienced terrifying attention during her term as a mother-to-be. When the baby came into this world, the treatment seemed to worsen.

Before the birth, Bishop had to admit her to a modernized hospital in the region of Costa Rica. This is telling. Only his wife could go to a technologically advanced place of medicine while others had to subsist on the fruits and vegetables of the wild. Bishop never really points out in the documentary why this occurred.

Bishop continued to rain down insults and corporal punishment to EJ as well as others.

As she explained, the videos for the social media sites had been edited and the parts left out? They contained profanity laced tirades and further tortuous moments of standing in the corner for hours in the blazing Costa Rican heat.

He ordered lobster and shrimp while the others had to eat rice and beans. He lived a lavish existence while the other cult members groveled under his vicious fist.

But this all begs the question…could there be a good cult? Maybe it wouldn’t be a cult, necessarily. Maybe it could be a movement. What Bishop concocted was anything but paradise. He actually made a living hell out of these peoples’ lives.

So in a cult, you have the leader and you follow his every word or else receive harsh treatment. In a movement, you have the ability to leave when you want. That’s it. At the first notion that you are being maltreated, you “hit the bricks.”

But in a cult, one’s mind is trained on the charismatic leader. The one, usually a man, offers “wisdom” and “knowledge” despite being an overpowering source of torment for all others involved.

What makes Bishop’s story bunk though, and why proper philosophical movements are prized is because the idea of past trauma is dealt with in a medically proficient manner. Bishop claimed to have been chastised and forced to wash with Ajax because of his skin color. Not true. The rest of his family was as dark as he is.

A proper philosophy would not court people to be mindslaves, to be directed at the whim of some two-bit wannabe dictator. No. A cult, though, thrives on hive mind. The leader expects everyone to walk in lockstep in order for control to take hold.

To solidify this horrific activity of denying others their individual rights and sell the cult as a fairytale is textbook. Nobody comes to a cult looking for maltreatment or death (See Jim Jones in Guyana).

Everyone in a proper philosophy shows that they’re only willing to be rational, industrious, and self-interested. No other way would be permissible to a thinking brain.

The documentary goes on to show how people like EJ and Tru had to survive even when Bishop went on his little hissy fits. Was that the goal? Did he want to draw these folks in so that he could chastise them?

The docuseries is slowly drawing out details in a specific pace, not backtracking or letting too much information to be discussed to save for later episodes. The power of it lies in excellent cinematography and editing. The testimonials are the best as they exemplify the words of those who actually had been there.