Feb 7, 2025
The doomsday cult’s guide to taking over a country
CultNEWS101 Articles: 2/7/2025 (Zizians)
KRON4: Who are the 'Zizians'? Bay Area murder suspect linked to 'cult
KROG4: Who are the 'Zizians'? Recent deaths linked to Bay Area 'cult'
A spree of killings across the country, including one in Vallejo, have been linked to a radical online community called the "Zizians."
Not much is known about the Zizians, but a non-verified online webpage dedicated to preventing people from joining the group calls it "a peculiar online cult that operates in the Bay Area." An investigation by Open Vallejo found that people involved in the recent Vallejo killing and the shooting of a Border Patrol agent in Vermont are possibly connected to the group.
Who are the Zizians?
Open Vallejo reviewed police records, spoke to a person familiar with the group and reviewed years of Internet posts as part of its investigation into the group. It said the Zizians follow a self-described "vegan Sith" ideology.
According to SFist, the Zizians appear to be computer-savvy and well-educated, and many or all of them identify as transgender or nonbinary.
The group follows "Rationalism," an ideology described by Oxford as "the belief that all behaviour, opinions, etc. should be based on reason rather than on emotions or religious beliefs."
Jessica Taylor, a person familiar with the Zizians who was interviewed by Open Vallejo, told the publication that Zizians believe human decisions and their effects are mathematically quantifiable. Veganism and animal rights are a core part of the group's belief, Taylor said.
The Zizians follow a person that goes by "Ziz" and ran a blog that is now shut down. Open Vallejo said Ziz, whose legal name is Jack LaSota, previously lived at the Vallejo property where the recent murder happened.
LaSota was named by the San Francisco Chronicle as one of four people arrested for protesting a Berkeley nonprofit in Sonoma County in 2019. The protestors were allegedly wearing black robes and Guy Fawkes masks as they barricaded off an area where the nonprofit was holding an event.
" ... Transgender and BigenderAll four of the people arrested as part of Ziz's protest were transgender women (the fifth was let go without charges). This is far from coincidence as Ziz seems to go out of her way to target transgender people. In terms of cult indoctrination such folks are an excellent fit. They're often:
Financially vulnerable.
Newly out transgender people are especially likely to already be estranged from friends or family.
It is common for them to lack stable housing.
Many traditional social services (illegally) reject them for cultural or religious reasons (e.g., Christian homeless shelters).
Intolerant attitudes among the underclass hit twice: they can't rely on strangers for help and being transgender often makes them a target for violence; making them outcasts even among outcasts.
Already creating a new identity.
During transition people change their name. This creates an opportunity for Ziz to insert themselves into a recruits ongoing transition. By showing them their "double personhood" as they're abandoning an old identity it's possible to convince recruits to adopt a Zizian name (e.g., left hemisphere / right hemisphere) as their new social identity.
As the name implies transition is a time of transition; old patterns and habits tend to fall away. People who have spent years repressing important parts of themselves suddenly have the opportunity to completely
change their social presentation. This does not always mean someone wants to play the same role as before but a different gender. With the radical changes that can accompany transition come strong opportunities for radicalization.
All of these factors combine to make Ziz, themselves a transgender woman, more credible to recruits than she might otherwise be. A privileged cis person with close family and stable housing might reject boat housing out of hand: "I don't know, that sounds iffy to me". For someone facing mortal danger after their rude ejection into the underclass it's an easier pill to swallow: "It can't be worse than sleeping on the street right?"
Another important concept Ziz uses to manipulate people is the idea of being "bigender". Ziz claims that each hemisphere has a gender and that fairly often people have opposing gender identities between hemispheres. This provides a convenient basis for her to undermine the identity of people she's recruiting. If the target is cis, tell them their other half is trans, if the target is trans tell them their other half is cis. It's a similar disorienting trick to the idea of single and double good. If the target identifies as good tell them their other half is irredeemably evil, if they identify amorally insist that half of them is a saint. The pattern is to take aspects of folks identities that they're invested in and disrupt them by creating a domain of self which Ziz (and only Ziz) has knowledge about so the target is forced to trust their interpretation."
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Cult leader’s name on Little Rock public art outlasts tenure of city official who said it would be replaced
Brittany Nichols, former marketing manager for the Little Rock Parks and Recreation Department, has accepted a job with Metroplan.
This tidbit of news flew under our radar when the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette first published it last week, but we bring it up now as Nichols’ role at the department informs our ongoing, if sporadic, coverage of a strange quote attributed to a cult leader on a piece of public art in Little Rock.
The quote is attributed to a man named Andrew Cohen, and it is engraved on a basalt column that stands in Inspiration Plaza, the newest piece of public art installed in Riverfront Park in downtown Little Rock.
Learn more here about Cohen’s ... activities leading a cult called EnlightenNext, and read a statement from Nichols assuring us that Cohen’s name would be replaced with “Anonymous.”
A lot has changed since we pressed the department for comment on the bizarre quote in July. Donald Trump began his second presidential term. David Lynch is gone. Nichols works at Metroplan.
Andrew Cohen’s name, though, has been a rock-solid constant through a period of intense and rapid change.
Will it outlast the parks department’s next marketing manager? Time will tell.
When we last checked in with the parks department in December, staff were still looking for a contractor that could work on basalt and did not have a timeline for replacing Cohen’s name.
Little Rock Communications Director Aaron Sadler confirmed yesterday that the city’s plan is still to remove Cohen’s name and added that it had been covered “until such time as it can be removed.”
Because Inspiration Plaza is a short walk from the Arkansas Times’ office, we’ve periodically checked in on the status of the quote since our first story ran last summer. In December, after we asked the city when it planned to address the matter, we discovered Cohen’s name had been covered with a piece of tape. The tape disappeared shortly afterwards. Following our recent conversation with Sadler, the name was re-covered with tape.
Feb 6, 2025
Wounded by Faith: A True Story
CultNEWS101 Articles: 2/6/2025 (Two by Twos, The Truth, Scientology, CVLT, Zizians)
"New Zealand leavers of a secretive sect the FBI is investigating for historical child sexual abuse have formed the first support network for former members in this country.
They said recent publicity has helped lift the lid on the high-control religious group that has no official name or church buildings - weekly meetings are held in members' homes.
The group has many markers of a cult and is known to those who leave as the Two by Twos or The Truth.
Tristan Phipps grew up in the sect and left as a young adult more than a decade ago because he didn't believe in its teaching - including that people outside the group go to hell.
"Things just don't start to match up, you feel very lost and you get to a point where it sounds like a load of rubbish. It's very complex but also very simple at the same time."
It was a lonely time because so few people knew about the group or understood his experience.
He has helped establish the support network for leavers and says there are already 100 people connected online."
The Shrinking World of L Ron Hubbard
"Remastered from the best available source, this amazing show was produced by Charlie Nairn who tracked down Hubbard and approached him to do an interview. Hubbard agreed, not knowing what how aggressive Nairn could be. A true classic and a rare chance to see Hubbard when he was not in full control of his message."
Department of Justice: Four Members of Online Neo-Nazi Group that Exploited Minors Charged with Producing Child Sexual Abuse Material
"Two men were arrested today on charges of participating in a neo-Nazi child exploitation enterprise that groomed and then coerced minors to produce child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and images of self-harm. The group allegedly victimized at least 16 minors around the world, including two in Southern California.
Colin John Thomas Walker, 23, of Bridgeton, New Jersey, and Clint Jordan Lopaka Nahooikaika Borge, 41, of Pahoa, Hawaii, were arrested this morning pursuant to a grand jury indictment that charges them with one count of engaging in a child exploitation enterprise. They are expected to make their initial appearances in court later today in New Jersey and Hawaii.
The indictment also charges two other defendants who are already in custody: Rohan Sandeep Rane, 28, of Antibes, France, and Kaleb Christopher Merritt, 24, of Spring, Texas. The indictment returned by a grand jury on Jan. 17 and unsealed today, also charges Rane and Walker with one count of engaging in a child exploitation enterprise.
According to the indictment, from at least 2019 to 2022, Rane, Walker, Merritt, and Borge were members of CVLT (pronounced "cult"), an online group that espoused neo-Nazism, nihilism, and pedophilia as its core principles. Members of the international enterprise engaged in online child sexual exploitation offenses and trafficked CSAM. Rane, Walker, and Merritt acted as leaders and administrators in the CVLT enterprise, hosting and running CVLT online servers and controlling membership for the group.
CVLT members worked collectively to entice and coerce children to self-produce CSAM on a platform run by CVLT members where they groomed children for the eventual production of CSAM through various means of degradation, including exposing the victims to extremist and violent content. CVLT specifically targeted vulnerable victims, including ones suffering from mental health challenges or a history of sexual abuse.
Victims were encouraged to engage in increasingly dehumanizing acts, including cutting and eating their own hair, drinking their urine, punching themselves, calling themselves racial slurs, and using razor blades to carve CVLT members' names into their skin. CVLT members' coercion escalated to pressuring victims to kill themselves on a video livestream.
When victims hesitated, resisted, or threatened to tell parents or authorities, CVLT members would threaten to distribute already-obtained compromising photos and videos of the victims to their family and friends. For victims who stopped participating in the CSAM, CVLT would sometimes carry through on their threats.
Rane previously was charged with several child exploitation and related offenses in France and has been in French custody since 2022. Merritt is currently in Virginia state custody, serving a 50-year sentence for child sex abuse crimes committed in 2020 and 2021.
If convicted, the defendants would face a minimum penalty of 20 years in prison and a statutory maximum penalty of life in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Los Angeles Police Department, San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office, Henry County Sheriff's Office (Virginia), Iowa State University Police, Police Nationale (France), the National Crime Agency (United Kingdom), the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs, and EUROPOL are investigating this matter.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Catharine A. Richmond for the Central District of California and Trial Attorneys Justin Sher and James Donnelly of the National Security Division's Counterterrorism Section are prosecuting this case.
An indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law."
" ... It appears to be a small group, highly educated, computer savvy, at times geographically scattered, and a number of them if not all of them appear to identify as trans or nonbinary — with their deadnames potentially being publicized widely as law enforcement releases information about the cases, as these are still their legal names. If we can call them a cult at all, they aren't the type who all lived together on a compound for extended periods — though if they had a compound, it was a pair of box trucks parked for three years on Curtis Lind's property on Lemon Street in Vallejo, a cul de sac in an industrial part of town.
Neighbors had seen the individuals walking around outside with gas masks, and they'd been seen walking in the nude as well. Otherwise they would be clad in black, and they'd been nicknamed "The Cult."
It's since come to light that they are all vegan, highly intellectual, concerned with the rise of artificial intelligence, and they were linked to a creepy protest action in Solano County in 2019 outside a retreat hosted by the Berkeley-based Center for Applied Rationality (CFAR) — with whom they, or at least the group's purported leader, has some previous ties.
Lind was killed earlier this month at age 82, three months before he was set to testify in the trial of two people who had allegedly attacked him with knives and a samurai sword in November 2022, causing him to lose an eye."
News, Education, Intervention, Recovery
Intervention101.com to help families and friends understand and effectively respond to the complexity of a loved one's cult involvement.
CultRecovery101.com assists group members and their families make the sometimes difficult transition from coercion to renewed individual choice.
CultNEWS101.com news, links, resources about: cults, cultic groups, abusive relationships, movements, religions, political organizations, and related topics.
The selection of articles for CultNEWS101 does not mean that Patrick Ryan or Joseph Kelly agree with the content. We provide information from many points of view to promote dialogue.
Please forward articles that you think we should add to cultintervention@gmail.com.