I Escaped a Cult - Monastic Academy for the Preservation of Life on Earth Review

[Consilience]

I don't have the time (or energy) to read through all of these replies, currently responding to an all out attack from MAPLE on my channel and the aftermath for those most impacted from the assault. 

I would greatly appreciate the community doesn't turn this thread into a debate about whether Actualized.org is a cult. Even if it has cult like characteristics and is defined as a cult by certain standards, the level of nervous system hijacking and injury, the elements of energetic rape and domination of mind, body, and reality present at MAPLE is in a league of its own compared to Actualized.org.

Having been apart of both communities throughout my spiritual journey, comparing the two as both being cults like trying to compare tee ball with the major leagues. And until you've stepped in front of a cult leader like Soryu for an extended period of time, you don't know what you're talking about. 

The only caveat I will say is that I'm not super present on the forum these days so perhaps the cult dynamics of Actualized.org have gotten worse recently, but I would be utterly shocked if Actualized.org even had the potential to turn into anything remotely like MAPLE.

Please start another thread about Actualized.org being a cult if you'd like. It could be an important discussion. But in this thread, this dialogue distracts from an on-going present moment cult situation I am actively having to navigate. 

Edited June 10 by Consilience

[zurew]

I will leave this here and I will stop derailing your thread.

This speaks for itself and everyone can judge things for themselves.

This is exactly and explicitly how much actualized.org is about doing the work and not about Leo being the judge and an authority:

On 2026. 06. 10. at 4:11 PM, Leo Gura said:

No. I am speaking about a higher realization.

I am not going to negotiate on the word GOD.

I will know when you know GOD.

 

Also take a look at how non-responsive Leo's answer was to Carl's question and how Leo exactly engaged in the dynamic that Carl was predicting based on Leo's manipulative and weasely tactics. 

On 2026. 06. 09. at 4:34 PM, Carl-Richard said:

Without using mind control on me (i.e. answer plainly without redirecting, without accusing me of not understanding or being purportedly disrespectful for having a different opinion), what is mind control?

On 2026. 06. 10. at 1:44 PM, Leo Gura said:

I am not going to engage with people who call Actualized.org a cult. If you feel that way, leave. It's that simple. But I am not going to explain myself to you because you clearly have no understanding of what I am doing.

To call me a cult leader is the most disrespectful thing you can say to me! Get that through your head. When you say that to me, I will not even speak with you. You are dead to me when you say that.

To call me a cult leader is like walking into your local university classroom and calling the professor a pedophile. The only people who would do that are those who have no idea what they are doing.

On 2026. 06. 10. at 1:18 PM, Leo Gura said:

Carl-Richard: Walks into a math classroom at Harvard. "Hey! Isn't this a cult?"

Professor: "Umm... No. This is a math class on Differential Calculus."

Carl-Richard: "Looks awfully similar to a cult in here. Look at this mind control you're doing here."

Professor: "We are learning advanced math."

Carl-Richard: "Isn't this homework you're giving your cult members mind control? Explain to me without using mind control how this is not mind control."

Professor: "Get the fuck out of my classroom!!!"

Carl-Richard: "AH! So you're a cult leader after all! I knew it!"

 

Edited June 11 by zurew

[Consilience]

@zurew Alright fair, point taken. This is quite similar with the hierarchy of "wisdom" from MAPLE. Seems like the main difference is the degree of power consolidation accumulated on the basis of the authority. So at MAPLE, as you were rewarded with the admission of "wisdom" by the head teacher, and moved up the chain of command, you were simultaneously rewarded in the sense that you had more decision making power of the day to day unfolding of the community, but more and more deeply extracted from in terms of personal autonomy and sovereignty. Those closest in leadership all speak, talk, and act based on very consistent psychological scripts provided by Soryu. It's literally like watching a mind virus just say the same things over and over, almost no creativity, originality, or authenticity. Which yeah, a lot of the God language around here seems to fall into a similar camp, hopefully without the extraction of life energy component.  

[Osaid]

10 hours ago, Thought Art said:

my brother Billow. 

Ball knowledge

[Human Mint]

@Consilience Gotcha, good luck. The cult discussion is hot these days.

[Mellowmarsh]

Groupthink is the engine behind cultish behaviour. And that’s okay because you can’t stop thinking.

 

There’s no escape, because even when you think you’ve escaped you’re still tricked by the very thought that you’ve escaped, and there’s nowhere to escape to or from.

Edited June 11 by Mellowmarsh

[Carl-Richard]

Just to be clear before we move the current discussion to this thread per OP's request (link), the point was not to show Actualized.org is a cult. It was to ask what a cult is. Actualized.org was being invoked when trying to figure out what mind control is. Because if you aren't able to distinguish Actualized.org leader's communications from mind control and you don't want to call Actualized.org a cult, that's trouble for your definition of cult involving mind control. Especially when you don't even want to define mind control like Leo is doing. And I believe my most recent points on that were not challenged so you can take me up on that in the other thread.

Me personally, I'm fine with calling Actualized.org a cult regardless of the mind control concept (which I believe to be ill-defined) and I don't believe cults need to be particularly destructive, abusive or exploitative to be called a cult. Actualized.org could be heaven on Earth and I would probably still call it a cult given its type of beliefs and practices (being deviant in nature compared to the surrounding society and religious in nature). And if Leo displays some behaviors that could be defined as mind control, it might only be a minor problem relative to other cults, particularly given the format (not being a live in-person thing). But don't be surprised and don't take it so hard when other people want to call you a cult.

Cults like MAPLE, Bentinho Massaro's community, Heaven's Gate, explicitly called themselves a cult and they were fine with it (they didn't see it as a negative thing). Maybe you could too. And maybe there are aspects of a cult that can make you feel hurt or destabilized even when the "mind control" is relatively minor (e.g., merely taking on highly deviant beliefs and experiencing alienation from society, friends, family, is not a joke, neither for them or yourself; you can feel like you don't belong and you can come off as threathening or hard to relate to or you might leave them all together; alienating yourself from your friends and family is highly threatening both for them and you). Maybe it would be smart to recognize that, as a community that prides itself on epistemic rigor and self-awareness.

Edited June 11 by Carl-Richard

[Carl-Richard]

On 10.6.2026 at 4:22 PM, Consilience said:

The only caveat I will say is that I'm not super present on the forum these days so perhaps the cult dynamics of Actualized.org have gotten worse recently, but I would be utterly shocked if Actualized.org even had the potential to turn into anything remotely like MAPLE.

Last post: did this sit well with you? Probably not, because you left shortly after (immediately after, rather; because you did not post after that):

 

On 14.10.2022 at 6:45 AM, Leo Gura said:

@Consilience You are so goddamn stupid.

NONE OF THAT IS GOD!

P.S. Your time here is running thin. Wise up soon or I'm kicking you out.

 

And yes, you did miss the 2023 era, what you were subjected to was only the beginning. Those who did not leave (or were not banned, unlike e.g. [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8]), those who stayed, developed strong coping mechanisms for enduring and justifying such behavior, which continues to this day in a more integrated and socially normalized form which makes it more pernicious in its own way. My Leo thread was a way to demonstrate this and also to inquire whether this is something they think is ok.

Edited June 11 by Carl-Richard

[zurew]

@Consilience Look what ive found:

Your video was shared on reddit along with a link to this thread, and one of the MAPLE organizers/members appears to have offered a short and vague "response" to your arguments.

https://www.reddit.com/r/sorceryofthespectacle/comments/1t1t0op/comment/ojo6fpt/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

https://www.reddit.com/r/sorceryofthespectacle/comments/1rnm6om/system_lost_credibility_join_our_cult/

 

This is also an interesting justification from him/her Lol - You have to join bro, otherwise you dont understand   https://www.reddit.com/r/sorceryofthespectacle/comments/1t1t0op/comment/ojjswjl/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Edited June 15 by zurew

[Carl-Richard]

Quote

exactly, any alternative to the system will have "abuse experiences" because from the perspective of the system, any alternative is abuse

Oh god, leave the fucking place.

[zurew]

What a weird and strange piece to write:

https://tales.monasticacademy.org/tales/she-is-still-a-community-member/

The idea that the writer there thinks that they look good there even given their description of the events is insane to me.

Also btw:

https://tales.monasticacademy.org/tales/mad-when-they-fail/

 

Edited June 15 by zurew

[integral]

My blessed individuals. I have traveled far to be with you in this land to present de with a superior opinion. .✨

The way you differentiate a cult from a not-cult is by identifying its core values.

You have to separate two layers: the extrinsic values that are superficially present, the stuff it advertises, the label, from the intrinsic values that are actually operating, which are usually unconscious to the cult itself and to its members. Once you label those correctly, you get a clear picture of what the thing actually is, and whether it's a cult.

---

Most of this thread is trying to figure out what a cult is by looking at the symptoms.

Leo's unfalsifiable epistemology is a symptom of the core values of the organization. That doesn't mean it's a cult.

 

And the end of the day we got to ask what makes a value high or low? 

The domain is axiology. But that domain is pretty Limited, and Leo has his high consciousness axiology. "truth as the highest value" and so on.

Edited June 15 by integral

[Carl-Richard]

@zurew "Actually, people writing a 'defamation piece' is a good thing". 😭

That's some slimy ass narrative control ("mind control"?) right there.

[zurew]

2 minutes ago, integral said:

My blessed individuals. I have traveled far to be with you in this land to present de with a superior opinion. .✨

The way you differentiate a cult from a not-cult is by identifying its core values.

You have to separate two layers: the extrinsic values that are superficially present, the stuff it advertises, the label, from the intrinsic values that are actually operating, which are usually unconscious to the cult itself and to its members. Once you label those correctly, you get a clear picture of what the thing actually is, and whether it's a cult.

---

Most of this thread is trying to figure out what a cult is by looking at the symptoms.

Leo's unfalsifiable epistemology is a symptom of the core values of the organization. That doesn't mean it's a cult.

 

And the end of the day we got to ask what makes a value high or low? 

The domain is axiology.

This is unresponsive to a good chunk of my things ,but if you want to engage or if you just want to share your opinion in greater detail about Leo and actualized.org then come to the other thread so that we dont derail @Consilience's MAPLE targeted thread.

[Carl-Richard]

@integral Get off the cocAIne.

[integral]

6 minutes ago, Carl-Richard said:

@integral Get off the cocAIne.

[zurew]

On 2026. 06. 15. at 4:13 PM, Carl-Richard said:

@zurew "Actually, people writing a 'defamation piece' is a good thing". 😭

That's some slimy ass narrative control ("mind control"?) right there.

One level of psychosis above this is would be to say (building on that insane premise that you described there) that the whole thing was a deliberate and elaborate play (the whole thing was fabricated by MAPLE )  to consciously filter people out .

Like  - if it was so useful for them, then why not create a bunch of defamation articles? 😭

 

But in any case, I dont think they need to write anything, because there are already plenty of defamatory pieces written about them. (havent read/listened to most of them)

Quote

https://medium.com/@monasticacademyresident/my-experience-inside-soryu-foralls-ai-centered-monastic-academy-769deefe6e34

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/zbQapwn2hGNozcGsD/why-i-define-my-experience-at-the-monastic-academy-as-sexual

https://jampelsungwa26.substack.com/p/emerging-making-sense-of-soryu-forall

 

 

https://medium.com/@alice.xyl/response-to-accusations-of-harm-3ffe94e5c4cb

This one is from a defense piece (very interesting how they infer all of their ethics from the Buddha [as if the Buddha would have wanted to provide exhaustive guides on how to handle sexual accusations and others] and its also interesting how they approach the problem around critique validity - given their approach, practically every criticism can be dismissed)

 

The TL;DR defense is that all the accusation are invalid and the reason why is because the accusors must be attached to their feelings (she gives a personal example where that applies), and they must have been not tough enough  to  properly handle the practices.  

-----

 

Needles to point out here that none of this explains the specificity of the accusations and it also doesnt explain the fact why there are certain accusers who had been there for close to or sometimes  for more than a decade (if they just simply couldnt handle the practices properly). Also doesnt explain why there arent similar type of accusations given with a similar frequency towards other monasteries (where the practices are comparatively hard). 

The handwaving of emotions is also a red-flag. Yes, emotions can cloud judgment, but the implication that strong emotions automatically invalidate someone's assessment of things is interesting. If the content of the allegations are subtantively accurate, then strong emotional reactions are exactly what you would expect from the victims.

Quote

This community is not abusive. Anyone who has an actual relationship with us — not one with an idea of us mediated by other ideas — can see that. Some people who attack us even know this because they still privately go to Forall for support on matters such as their practice, romantic relationships, and jobs. That’s another story.

Why would a dishonest accuser want to go back to the leader and maintain a relationship with him and with the community?

I think that fact is more expected under the abusive, manipulative leader hypothesis (where he tries to bring back the victim and where he tries to mitigate defamation damage  by showcasing to the community that the victim still has some kind of dependent relationship on him).

Its also interesting to notice that the vast majority of the allegations are made by people who had been there and not by people who have never been there. So defenses like "you dont understand the community" and the "you dont understand the practice" doesnt have much strength (like we are talking about 1st hand accounts and not about someone telling a story about what happened with a different person).

 

Edited June 16 by zurew