Beyond Belief

Are humans fundamentally cultic? We are both seduced and frightened by cults. Cults are secretive, hierarchical, and arcane – this is often given in warning. But the same qualities trigger in us a deep desire for the mysterious, ritual, and magical.

We are told that cults are all around us but believe that we would be too rational to join one. We are prone to describe groups we disagree with as cults when their ideologies and politics are alien to our own. At the same time, we are unlikely to be critical of the groupthink dimension of our own beliefs and intuitions.

Under two per cent of the British population regularly attend a church, but the yearning for meaning and magic is universal. Where previously the emergence of a cult might have required a physical compound, today, one can start a cult in a Discord server or via YouTube. 

Cult leaders promise love, harmony, wholeness, wellness, and a “better you” – but the allure of connection is all too proximate to the possibility of brainwashing and submission. Beyond Belief will examine the cultic in its recognisable and hidden form.

Beyond Belief is organised with Nina Power. Karin Ferrari’s participation is supported by the Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport of the Republic of Austria.