It’s possible to form a cult around French cheese, video game cheating, or string theory, if you really believe that the subject or idea has the potential for positive good in the world. It doesn’t need to be weird, or especially complicated, and in fact, it’s probably better if it’s relatively normal. Cults, while often religious in nature, do not need to be. Cult behavior involves a fervent devotion to a particular person, object, or idea. Groups can form around almost anything. You could form a canasta cult, or a World of Warcraft cult, if you want. Just make sure it’s positive, good, and harmless.
When we talk about cult movies, they’re often very specific, quirky, and present a unique worldview that speaks very deeply to a small group of people, but confuse most other people. Star Wars, Star Trek, and many kinds of sci-fi have immersive mythologies and deep universes that are possible to stay really engaged in, which is why we often say they have “cult-like” followings and longer Wikipedia pages than some presidents. The Kardashians? Not so much.
Often, cults are manipulative psychological enterprises organized by a single charismatic individual. They’re organized to seem as if the good of the group is the goal of the cult, when in actuality all activities are designed to benefit the leader of that cult. Jonestown, the Heaven’s Gate, and the Manson Family are perhaps all tragic examples of this. [1] X Research source
If you’re going to form the Cult of Star Trek, you need to know a lot more than what color Spock bleeds. You need to know which episode he first bleeds in, what the significance of that color is in the greater context of the color-schema in the series, and how that affects your interpretation of Star Trek’s utopian worldview. Get reading those fan blogs.
Cult leaders are typically charismatic and manipulative, but if you’re going to form yours collectively, it’s a good idea to pick someone who has the good of the group at heart. The person who wants to be the leader is the last person you should pick.
Focus especially on the issue of how you’ll use this to transform your lives for the better. The difference between a Star Trek Cult and a Star Trek Fan Club isn’t necessarily the fervency of your adoration for Star Trek, but how you use that fervency to change your life. It’s helpful to write up these documents, but probably leave the word “cult” off of things. You don’t want to give people the wrong idea.
If you’ve got a Star Trek Cult forming, it’s likely you won’t be doing anything much more significant at first than watching episodes, having in-depth conversations, and maybe re-enacting a scene or two, which it’s perfectly possible to do from someone’s living room. If you’re brave, you could try meeting in in public parks, or other places where you might attract some attention, but it might not be the kind of attention you want.
“All Things Fly In Space” might work for your Star Trek cult. Or maybe quotes from the show: “I was born in Iowa, I only work in outer space. " Make it memorable, and organic.
Again, you may experience hostility and a lot of resistance at first, so you should try to market the less extreme aspects of your ideas. The utopian fun of Star Trek? Good selling point. Your plans of building a galaxy class star-cruiser in a warehouse in Queens? Maybe save that for later.
Often, cults live together, communally. Consider moving into a place and giving it a name, something like, “The Enterprise. " This will allow everyone to grow and develop the common idea together.
Often, this is where cults get a little manipulative. Try to have healthy discussions and debates, just be good at presenting your ideas to the group. If other people think Star Wars has equally good merits, you need to be well-versed on the anarchy associated with a Star Wars influenced worldview. Preach it and believe it. [3] X Research source
Maybe you start writing all your congressmen to take the tenants of Star Trek more seriously, devoting resources and time to science and exploration, taking the equality of gender, race, species, and class more seriously, and even abandoning the ancient Earth concept of “greed. "
Keep a strong foot-hold rooted in the real world, and in your core beliefs, both. You need to make sure that groups like this don’t transform into something more ominous and more destructive. Are all your behaviors lined up with the original tenants of the organization? How can you reclaim those core ideas?
