The Guardian has published a full length feature story on a New Age guru named Benhinho Massaro. Massaro has had massive success via his online videos.
Persons affected by Moo videos may find this interesting reading. Here is an example:
Persons affected by Moo videos may find this interesting reading. Here is an example:
Quote
Lukas Jansen (a pseudonym) stumbled upon Bentinho’s YouTube videos when he was 25, living at his parents’ house recovering from a period of heavy drinking, obsessive gaming and panic attacks. He had already explored the writings of other self-help gurus, like Eckhart Tolle and Adyashanti, but he found Bentinho more immediately relatable.
In particular, Jansen was drawn to Bentinho’s message of self-empowerment, the idea that suffering could disappear through force of positive imagination alone. “He told us that we are all the best and have infinite potential, and at those moments, I felt like I was in a bubble. I felt super happy, super energetic. I felt on top of the world,” Jansen said. “Like a child can go into his imagination and forget the whole world, that’s pretty much what I did when I watched the videos. I could distance myself from this suffering Lukas with a very mediocre life.”
But the moment Jansen stopped engaging, the high would wear off and he’d once again be faced with the reality that he was a man in his 20s living with his parents, rarely leaving his room due to crippling anxiety. To avoid the comedown, Jansen retreated further into Bentinho’s teachings, sometimes watching up to 10 hours a day.
Having waded my way through Bentinho’s content, this level of dedication was perplexing. But Jansen explained that what really held him was this sense of manufactured intimacy that Bentinho cultivated. In some videos, Bentinho would spend minutes simply gazing into the camera, smiling, occasionally whispering “I love you.” Jansen felt seen. He would respond beneath Bentinho posts with comments like, “You’re amazing. You’re the most beautiful spiritual teacher ever I’ve ever seen.”
I spoke to several other Bentinho followers, a diverse demographic, who described a similar feeling. In moments of extreme vulnerability – after being fired, during a divorce, coming off prescription drugs – they had gone online looking for spiritual solace, and were guided by the invisible hand of YouTube’s recommendation algorithms to Bentinho. He told them that all they needed to improve their lives was to believe that their lives were good, and in front of the screen, with his unceasing affirmation, they could momentarily believe it was so.
Though they never met Bentinho, these followers were the silent engine behind his spiritual movement. They shared his content, commented on every one of his posts, and were often responsible for moderating his Facebook page. They were repaid with new spiritual content from the guru. But the joy they derived from the videos was hallucinatory, dissociative, fleeting. When they looked away from the screen, they were once again faced with the reality of their lives. So they went back online.
One woman told me that Bentinho’s teachings gave her a dopamine rush: “It made me feel manically better. It was definitely like a drug.” Another said that the videos allowed her to disconnect from her emotions. “It’s all about pretending you are in a life in which you really aren’t,” she said.
Quoted from:
[culteducation.com]
My journey into the dark, hypnotic world of a millennial guru
Bentinho Massaro offers to guide his followers towards communion with a higher life force. ‘Spiritual influencers’ are flourishing online. Their model is built on recruiting eager followers – but what happens when they attract vulnerable people?
The Guardian/January 9, 2020
by Oscar Schwartz