Review; Holy Hell

Unfiltered reaction

I listened to an episode of one of my favorite podcasts, Sinisterhood, about the the Bhuddafield Cult. Their reference material was a documentary titled Holy Hell. I had never heard of the Bhuddafield, and I am very intrigued by cults so I thought I would give it a try. The documentary starts off disorienting and confusing with a seagull, and weird people seemingly meditating. The images introduction of Will Allen, is gentle and you might get the impression that you are about to watch the story of a Catholic coming to terms with his sexuality through getting his film degree. I am a little confused because I mostly understand thats not what this is about, its an interesting choice of opening.

There is audio over clips filmed by Will Allen that are almost exclusively touching. The touching really makes me uncomfortable. Why do cults touch so much? I have never wanted to be in a group of people where my face is caressed, and we are all hugging in a puddle. Hard pass on the spiritual cleansing at the literal hands of others. There are many reasons I would never be a full blown cult member, an irrational discomfort with labels, adhd that makes me have poor censorship, distrust of overly nice people, I think #1 at would be the touching. They are just physically rubbing their hands on each others faces, down their bodies, like its a spiritual experience. No. No thank you at all.

Next part that baffles me is the leader. You are watching all these people explain what drew them in, and then they say they were doing this with the help of their leader. And when I see this man, I swear he is leading a meditation in a polo shirt. He looks like Emilio Estevez in The Breakfast Club. Only a little older. The touching becomes next level in a clip where Michele is rubbing his finger into this woman's eye and they describe it as something similar to LSD.

So now all the clips in the forest and rivers and lakes are being given context. They all want this thing called the knowing. They want to see, feel, taste, understand god. They are all having a spiritual experience in the woods with the touching. As Michele speaks they all laugh, really awkwardly. Too much, when I don't even think he is joking with them. Whatever he is doing to them is not good. This is not good at all. The laughing continues, and gets louder, for no reason.

Of course we round into the part about sex. Because all cults have wierd sex stuff… All members were supposed to abstain from sex. They really graze this abstinence part, and then lead into the fact that Michele was a hypnotherapist, and would do trauma regression therapy with everyone. So I guess we are bookmarking that and talking about “cleansing”.

Just as a side note. This man is almost never in a shirt, and he walks around in a speedo a lot. If someone took me to this great group where everyone touched you, and the leader walked around in a speedo, I would not be drawn in. Just when I was sweeping the Tiger King vibes from my mind. There is Michele in a music video.

He was an actor, a hypnotherapist, AND a behavior therapist. The hypnotherapist part is what triggers people, but the certification as a behavior therapist is also somewhat of a red flag for me, especially in the 80’s and 90’s. Michele whose real name is Jaime, was now going by Andreas. Because the man who was not leading a cult was worried about the cult awareness network. So worried he abandoned his followers, and moved from California to Austin. There is another Tiger King parallel in which they talk about him forcing them to kill rats, to protect birds, and building an aviary while also

Finally they come back around. He had been coercing young men into sexual relationships. He would use hypnosis, and therapeutic techniques to get men to have sex with him. They would pay him for therapy. A man in the group sent an email informing all the members of what had been happening to him. The curtain being pulled back that he was a predator, broke the control he had over the members of the cult. But alas he flew away to Hawaii and found new people to exploit. The End.

My 2 cents

The parting thoughts I have on this documentary are that there are some striking parallels between the Bhuddafield cult and NXIVM. Keith Raniere, and Michele/Andreas/Reyji were both mysterious characters that basically fabricated their backstory, and had a specific fixation on a sport. The Bhuddfield members all danced because Michele was a ballet dancer in his early life. The group would put on ballets that only they would see. Keith Reniere, was known to love Volleyball and made his members play until late in the evening. The other thing that is glaring for me is the sexual abuse. The difference? Kieth Raneire is in prison. Reyji is not, he is in Hawaii probably still sexually assaulting men who believed that they are going to see a therapist. We need to talk about the impacts of sexual abuse on men. This man used his position of power to coerce and manipulate men into sexual relationships, and probably still does, but is not charged with any crimes. Also in prison Joe Exotic.

The accounts of the men in this documentary, are no less painful than accounts of women. I dont know if its toxic masculinity, or homophobia, or mysogyny. What if we stop framing sexual violence as being perpetrated on helpless victims and refocus it where the lens always belonged, on the perpetrator. This man should be in prison.