Can you join a cult without knowing it? Is The Latitude a game, business or something else?

how do you join a cult without. knowing it well here's how it happened. to thousands of people in san francisco. just a few years ago. you're with a trusted friend maybe on a. hike or sitting in a bar or just hanging. out. then out of nowhere your friend asks can. you keep a secret. well of course you reply that you can. your friend then hands you a small black. sleeve about the size of a credit card. on one side of the sleeve embossed in. gold is a geometric pattern. on the other side the words absolute. discretion. inside is a security card printed with a.

website and a code. later that night you go to the site and. enter the code and the website responds. with. congratulations you've been invited to. the latitude. and what happens next changes you. forever. after entering your code you set up an. appointment to visit the san francisco. house. you're ordered to tell no one and come. alone you arrive at a nondescript. building and swipe your card through the. electronic lock. the door opens you're now in a narrow.

hallway painted matte black. from invisible speakers an ominous. pulsing sound is heard. on the walls are two red lights which. fade in and out in time with the sound. high above you in the room like every. room in the latitude. is a camera you are being watched at the. end of the hall is an ornate victorian. mantle of some kind. but where you'd expect to find a. fireplace is the entrance to a wooden. slide. and the slide curves down into the. darkness so there's no way to tell where. it leads. there's no sign or instructions and.

nothing nope. how do you know this doesn't lead to. something awful like sharks or snakes. or a k-pop concert you don't to go any. further inside the latitude. you must literally go down a rabbit hole. with no idea. what awaits you at the bottom. after a quick and gentle trip down the. slide you're deposited into a basement. room called the flux chamber. on one side of the room is a series of. doors on the other is a bright neon sign. that says.

and under that sign behind glass is a. ticket taker. but the glass is so heavily frosted that. you can't really see the person's face. you simply hear their voice you're given. a claim ticket and asked to turn over. all your personal belongings. your wallet purse phone keys everything. in your pockets. you're told this is for your own safety. i don't like where this is going. once you've complied with this request. you hear a door unlock. you enter and close the door behind you. it's dark. so dark that you have no idea if you're.

in a huge room or a closet. you can't see your hands in front of. your face and it's so quiet that it. almost feels like the air is being. sucked out of the room. and after a second or two you hear a. muffled click. as the door locks you in you now have no. choice. but to go forward into the black without. your wallet. without your phone without your eyes. in the black you feel your way around. everything floor to ceiling is covered. in thick carpet. and as you move forward the passageway. gets smaller and smaller closing in.

around you. you can no longer stand you have to. literally crawl. forward if you're claustrophobic or. afraid of the dark. panic is going to set in pretty quickly. now moving slowly on your hands and. knees. you hear music playing you keep moving. and see a hint of light. you reach the end of the passage and you. draw back a heavy black curtain. you're now in a small six-sided room. lined with books. all of which say the latitude and all. the pages are blank. a voice from somewhere tells you to.

place a book on a podium. and open it the lights go out and. suddenly the blank pages of the book you. chose begin to show you a story. this is called the fable the fable talks. about an ancient society that walled. itself. off from the rest of the world but 12. brave citizens dug a tunnel. under the wall in order to bring their. philosophy to other cultures. after the fable is told you see the. words absolute discretion. the lights come back on and you're. instructed by name. to move on so you enter another small.

door and continue. crawling through the dark again you. cruel yeah. who started this cult any doctor i don't. see how. you crawl to another secret room which. has a stack of business cards that say. do you have me in joint pain call. jeffrey rosenmd. latitude orthopedics. the next room you find looks like an old. office there's a couch. coffee table and a vintage phone the. phone has one button that blinks for.

your attention. you pick up the receiver you've been. selected out of many and we're chosen. for a reason. one of our members has great faith in. you in bright. you exit the room gather your belongings. walk back out to the street. now on the ground embedded into the. sidewalk itself. is the mysterious hex logo of the. latitude. now people walk by going about their day. completely unaware of the absolute. bizarre experiences going on inside. you yourself aren't quite sure what just.

happened then. your cell phone rings. the voice on the other end of the phone. tells you you've been chosen. for a special mission over the next few. hours a series of calls and texts. directs you around the city. on sort of an urban scavenger hunt at. one point. you're told to go to a local bar give. the bartender your card and say nothing. the bartender then slides you a heavy. brass coin. and on the coin it says absolute. discretion.

a few minutes later you get a text. sending you to another address. and when you arrive you see the hex logo. stamped in the cement. this is the place you get another text. with a door code. you try it it works you see the hex logo. on the stairwell. you walk up the stairs following the. clues that have now become familiar. when you reach your designated floor. it's just a row of offices. but one of the doors has a key card lock. and the door is labeled. den arcadia so you try your card. it works the room is covered in ornate.

psychedelic murals. and in the middle of the room are five. vintage arcade games. so you put in your coin and start. playing now at first the game plays. normally but after a minute or so. it glitches out and you see a mysterious. glowing figure. is quas the gatekeeper of the latitude. the quas gives you a secret word it then. instructs you to go home to your glowing. box. and enter the signal.

back home you enter the code on the. latitude website you're then shown a. video of professor walter kinley. the latitude for us has a double meaning. as you can see. on the one hand latitude means. geographic. breadth with. a sense of leeway the professor welcomes. you to the latitude society as a calm. peer. and he then gets on a boat and sails. away you then choose a society's secret. name called a moniker.

and you now have access to all the perks. of the latitude society. like what kind of picks well you can go. to their e-commerce store and buy. latitude merchandise like t-shirts key. chains and other swag. yeah there it is you can also attend. secret gatherings called. you can participate in other events. which are called jaunts but most. importantly. you can now invite others to join the. society. for about thirty dollars each you can. purchase those mysterious latitude. security cards. and as long as you use absolute. discretion.

you can buy as many cards as you like. this is a pretty complicated way to sell. merch. it is and this is one of the reasons for. the downfall of the latitude. at least this version of it to learn. what went wrong and what happened to the. latitude society. we have to pull back the curtain and. that leads us to the latitude's founder. and chief visionary. his name is jeff hall. you know like for some people heaven and. hell. is reality jeff hull is a silicon valley.

tycoon. slash artist he worked for his father's. financial firm and made a bundle when. they sold the business for half a. billion dollars. hull went on to create a company called. nonchalance which specializes in real. world. immersive storytelling things like. escape rooms or murder mysteries is this. type of entertainment. nonchalance uses the urban landscape as. a canvas. on which to paint these interactive. narratives another well-known. nonchalance experience was called the. jejune institute. its format was similar to the latitude. but maybe a little more.

sinister juju needs its own video but if. you're interested in things like this. i'll link you to a documentary in the. description. the tv show dispatches from elsewhere. starring jason siegel is based on the. jejune institute. so check that out if you want to learn. more about how these immersive. experiences work. so what was the intention of the. latitude society was it a game. yes was it a business yes. but was it a cult well. what are the things that like a cult. would do you know.

separate yourself from your friends well. absolute discretion might might be that. right. um ask for money oh like you know. they have like it was a gift shop. beforehand but now all of a sudden it's. like if you want to continue on. in the early days of the latitude. society the intent was to create. amazing immersive experiences to attract. corporate clients who wanted to. commission their own experiences. whether for entertainment team building. or marketing. jeff hull believed he could use the. latitude as proof of concept.

to raise funding and he needed to the. society cost about three thousand. dollars per day to. operate and hope put about two million. dollars of his own money in but after. three years the latitude couldn't. sustain itself. so hull introduced some controversial. policies. initially members could invite anyone. they wanted to for free. but eventually invitation cards cost 25. which was soon raised to 32 dollars per. card. members didn't like this then hull. announced that there would be a. membership fee of about 300.

per year this caused full-scale outrage. members argued that when they invited. someone to join they were giving them a. gift. and asking them to pay for their gift. was rude. so everyone just wanted all this for. free they did. angry well jeff hall kind of felt the. same way. the latitude society had over 3 000. members. but even if all of them paid their. membership dues paid for invitation. cards bought merchandise. you still fall way short of the hundred. thousand dollars per month the latitude.

needed to be self-sustaining so what did. that guy do. the only thing you do with a failing. startup he shut it down. but this was easier said than done jeff. hull and the latitude society were so. good at creating an experience so. immersive. that members couldn't distinguish it. from reality now whether intentional or. not. that's how cults are created i. totally underestimated the power that. the story can have upon certain people.

no matter what kind of life you lead. most of it falls into the mundane. day in day out you're going through the. motions so when someone invites you to. join a mysterious secret society. it's only natural to be intrigued and. this secrecy is attractive. people love to belong and if it's. something exclusive that creates. scarcity it makes you feel special. now i remember when the only way to join. gmail was if someone invited you. and when facebook launched you could. only join if you were a student. currently enrolled in college. you know we preach over and over about.

how labeling people is bad. but if we're honest we all have labels. that we've given to ourselves that we're. proud of. maybe it's our country our political. party our religion or our favorite. sports team. we want to be in a tribe during a. latitude gathering or. practice there's going to be crazy. rituals like. chanting dancing costumes all kinds of. things that would look silly to. outsiders. but latitude members fully committed to. their roles. these experiences were special to them.

they were important to the tribe. and the invitation system is genius. people want to be. promethean meaning they want to be the. holders of knowledge. who teach that knowledge to others so. think about an obscure band or tv show. that you discovered before anyone else. it made you feel cool to be early to be. first. the person who initiates you into the. latitude society. is called your ascendant and you are. their descendant. tribes have hierarchies and people like. rising in the ranks.

the more people you bring into the. society the more descendants you have. the higher you rise in the tribe genius. there's a specific model of identifying. cults developed by stephen hassan. and it's called the bite model of. control b-i-t-e. that's behavior information thought and. emotion. so let's see how the latitude shapes up. i was actually a little bit nervous that. i was going to be. kidnapped or that.

you know there was going to be some kind. of crazy pagan ritual. with some kind of sacrifice or something. like that i didn't really know what to. expect. at the top of the behavioral control. section of the bite model. is regulate an individual's physical. reality. latitude does this by design then. there's isolation from non-members. absolute discretion certainly covers. this then there's controlling what. clothes you wear. now look at this shot of the latitude's. elder council. notice everyone's wearing a latitude.

sash and on the sash are various pins. and insignia showing your rank in the. organization's hierarchy. even jeff hull himself is wearing what. looks to be a military uniform. now this is similar to what the leader. of psychology wears. did you just beat me he had to we had to. call it. the tom cruise thing the tom cruise. thing that's. psychology hey look if you say the s. word they're gonna come after us with. lawyers and video cameras. good point i and the byte model is.

information control. cults use deception latitude does this. information is not freely available to. outsiders spying is used. cult generated propaganda is created. also information is shared. unproportionally one ex-latitude member. complained that she had to give the. society. all kinds of personal information about. herself but when she asked how that. information was going to be used. and who had access to it she was told. she didn't need to know. now latitude checks all of these boxes t.

is thought control members are. encouraged to take on a new identity. so what's your moniker gallico welcome. sean cohen. techniques are used to alter mental. states members are required to take the. cult's doctrine as truth. meditating chanting praying and rituals. are used to instill a new map of reality. checks all the boxes all the boxes e. is emotional control this includes. making you feel like the cult can help. you reach your full potential. another thing cults do to manipulate.

emotion is shunning those that leave. in an excellent article in vice one. former member talks about how after she. left the society. her roommates stopped telling her where. they were going and they treated her as. suspicious. the latitude society checks a lot of. these boxes even. active members posted anonymously on. reddit asking others. is this a cult they were worried that. they like most cult members. joined by accident that's pretty scary. did the founder of the latitude society.

jeff hall set out to form a cult. well i don't think he did but whether. intentional or not. he seems to have an intuition for how to. manipulate people. now fortunately i don't think he tried. to do any harm nor did he try to enrich. himself. he could have taken advantage of his. members but he didn't so this leads to a. deeper and potentially dangerous. question. a religion is defined as a group of. people adhering to a specific set of. beliefs. a cult is defined as a group of people.

adhering to a specific set of beliefs. yeah that's the same definition it is. but religion is widely accepted cults. not so much. nobody can argue that religions have or. had cruel practices. and many people who leave cults felt. that while they were in them. their lives were better so what's the. difference between a cult and a religion. i don't have the answer do you. thank you so much for hanging out with. me today my name is aj that's hecklefish. this has been the y-files.

if you had fun or learned anything do me. a favor like comment subscribe share. all that stuff really helps out the. channel until next time be safe. be kind and know that you are. [Music]. [Applause]. [Music]. appreciated. [Music].

wow.